Poetry in rhyme of seven rhymes and nine steps

Text and picture/Haixu

Qilu, rhyme ninety-nine steps

Text/Haixu

The night rain disappears in the morning and the sky and the earth are wide ,

Birds singing and flowers singing happily.

The light on the detour through the forest is still broken,

The broad field takes the stage to show off its glory.

The fruits of Cornus officinale are crispy when soaked in frost,

The willow silk in the damp and shaded courtyard is cold.

Happy to see the ninety-nine trees turning green,

The bamboos are swaying in the wind and smiling.

Buyyun Tang·Du Fu's "Nine Days in Lantian Cui's Village"

Tang Dynasty·Du Fu's "Nine Days in Lantian Cui's Village" Original Jade

Old age is sad Qiu Qiang is self-forgiving,

You will be happy today when you are happy.

She is too shy to blow her short hair back,

Xiaoqian is the crown prince of others.

The blue water falls far away from thousands of streams,

The Jade Mountain is high and its two peaks are cold.

Next year we will know who is healthy.

Take a closer look at the dogwood seeds when you are drunk.

Let’s look at the ancient step rhyme poems:

Step rhyme Du Fu’s “Nine Days at Lantian Cui’s Manor”

Dai Heng, Qing Dynasty

The green bamboos and yellow flowers are wide in the wild,

Everyone pursues their joy by the fence and the stream.

The green beard shouted wildly for wine,

The jade tree was drunk in the wind.

The forest is covered with frost and the leaves are bright in autumn.

The red peaks are high and cold.

The ethereal tower in the sky is thousands of feet high.

Climb up and take a look at it with a smile.

On May 20, 2006, the Double Ninth Festival was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists by the State Council. The "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly" revised and passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 2012 stipulates that the ninth day of the ninth lunar month every year is the Senior Citizen's Day.

Historical evolution of the Double Ninth Festival: (excerpted from Baidu)

(1)

The Double Ninth Festival originally originated from the worship of celestial phenomena, started in ancient times, and became popular in the Western Han Dynasty. It flourished after the Tang Dynasty. According to historical data and textual research, in ancient times, there were activities to hold harvest festivals to worship heaven and ancestors in the autumn season; the ancients held sacrifices to the emperor of heaven and ancestors in September when crops were harvested, to thank the emperor of heaven and ancestors for their kindness. This is the Double Ninth Festival as an autumn harvest festival. The original form that existed for sacrificial activities.

(2)

Double Ninth Festival

Alias ??

Old People’s Day, Double Ninth Festival, Climbing Festival, Ancestor Worship Festival, Double Ninth Festival Festival, Sun-Autumn Festival, Respect for the Aged Festival, Double Ninth Festival, etc.

(3)

The origin of the name "Double Ninth Festival" is derived from the "Yang Yao" in the ancient book "The Book of Changes" It’s nine”. In the "Book of Changes", "six" is defined as the yin number, and "nine" is defined as the yang number, which is also the "extreme number", referring to the height of the sky as "nine levels". "Nine" is Lao Yang, which is the number of the positive pole. The two positive pole numbers are combined together, and the nine and nine are unified, and the one yuan begins, and everything is renewed. Therefore, the ancients believed that the Double Ninth Festival was an auspicious day worth celebrating. In ancient times, there was a custom of drinking and feasting to pray for longevity. On the ninth day of September, both the sun and the moon coincide with the ninth day, which means that "the two nines overlap", so it is called "Double Nine". At the same time, the two yang numbers are combined together, so it is called "Double Ninth Festival".

(4)

The Double Ninth Festival, New Year’s Eve, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, July Half, etc. are all traditional Chinese ancestor worship festivals. Ancestor worship is a part of the major festivals. Big theme. Ancient China was a farming society and agricultural civilization was a form of civilization that attached great importance to the experience of its ancestors. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has had the concept of etiquette and customs of respecting ancestors and being careful about the future. It has the custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors during festivals to show filial piety and not forgetting the roots.

(5)

In ancient times, people had the custom of climbing on the Double Ninth Festival, so the Double Ninth Festival is also called the "Climbing Festival".

The custom of climbing during the Double Ninth Festival originates from the climate characteristics at this time and the ancients' worship of mountains. Climbing "Ci Qing" is also derived from the solar terms in nature. Climbing "Ci Qing" on the Double Ninth Festival corresponds to the ancients' "outing" in spring in March. There are no unified regulations on where to climb. The places you visit are generally divided into climbing mountains, climbing buildings, or climbing platforms.

According to the laws of the movement of the sun, the earth, the moon, the Double Ninth Festival is a climate where "clean air rises and turbid air sinks". The higher the terrain, the more clear air gathers. Therefore, "Climb high and enjoy the clear air during the Double Ninth Festival". Important folk custom matters that people are competing for.

(6)

Respect for the Aged Day

In modern times, the ninth day of September has been given a new meaning as Respect for the Aged Day. Because "Nine" is the largest number among numbers, and "Nine" is a homophone for "long and long", so "Nine on Nine" and "Nine on Nine" contain the metaphor of longevity, longevity and nobility. In folk customs, because "nine" is the largest number among numbers, and "jiujiu" has the same pronunciation as "jiujiu", it has the meaning of eternity, long life, health and longevity.

(7)

Sunbathing in Autumn

The Double Ninth Festival is the best time to enjoy autumn. There are still some mountainous villages in southern China that retain the characteristics of "baking in autumn". Going to the countryside to appreciate folk customs and watch the autumn sun has become a fashion in rural tourism. "Autumn sunbathing" is a typical agricultural custom with strong regional characteristics. Villagers living in mountainous areas such as Hunan, Guangxi, Anhui, and Jiangxi, due to the complex terrain and very little flat land in the village, have to use the front and back of the house and the roof of their own window sill to dry or hang their crops. Over time, it has evolved into a traditional agricultural custom. .

This special lifestyle and scene of villagers drying crops has gradually become a creative material for painters and photographers, and has created the poetic name "autumn sun".

(8)

Ancestor Worship

The Double Ninth Festival is one of the four traditional ancestor worship festivals in China. Ancient people have a tradition of worshiping ancestors and praying for blessings. The traditional custom of worshiping ancestors on the Double Ninth Festival is still popular in the Lingnan area. People hold ancestor worship activities on the Double Ninth Festival every year. Whether it is ancestor worship activities or climbing high to gaze into the distance, its most fundamental role is to enhance people's sense of cultural identity and strengthen the cohesion of family and society. In traditional customs, Qingming Festival is the "Spring Festival" and Double Ninth Festival is the "Autumn Festival". The traditional custom of climbing high to worship ancestors during the Double Ninth Festival continues to this day.

(9)

Appreciating chrysanthemums

On Double Ninth Festival, there has always been a custom of appreciating chrysanthemums, so it was also called the Chrysanthemum Festival in ancient times. The custom of appreciating chrysanthemums originated from chrysanthemum culture. Chrysanthemum is a natural flower. Because its flowers are colorful and bloom proudly against the frost, a chrysanthemum culture of appreciating chrysanthemums has been formed. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties in the Three Kingdoms, it has become fashionable to gather for drinking, appreciating chrysanthemums and composing poems on the Double Ninth Festival. In ancient Chinese customs, chrysanthemums symbolize longevity. Chrysanthemum is the flower of longevity and is praised by literati as a symbol of perseverance in the frost.

The ancients often regarded Double Ninth Festival and Shangsi (or Qingming) as the corresponding Spring and Autumn Festivals. If Shangsi is a festival for people to go out for a swim after spending a long winter, then the Double Ninth Festival is about a ritual autumn outing when the autumn cold arrives and people are about to live in seclusion. Therefore, among the people, there is the Qingming Festival "outing" and the Double Ninth Festival "civilization". "Green" custom.

(10)

Drinking chrysanthemum wine

Drinking chrysanthemum wine: Due to the unique character of chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum has become a symbol of vitality. Chrysanthemums contain nutritional ingredients. In "Baopuzi" written by Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty, there is a record that people in Nanyang Mountain drank the water from the sweet valley full of chrysanthemums and prolonged their life. Drinking chrysanthemum wine during the Double Ninth Festival is a traditional custom in China. Chrysanthemum wine was regarded as an "auspicious wine" that must be drunk during the Double Ninth Festival in ancient times to ward off disasters and pray for blessings. Chrysanthemum wine is medicinal wine with a slightly bitter taste. After drinking it, it can make people's eyesight clear and it also has the auspicious meaning of dispelling disasters and praying for blessings.

Chrysanthemum wine has been around since the Han Dynasty. Later, there were still stories of giving chrysanthemums to celebrate birthdays and picking chrysanthemums to make wine. For example, Emperor Wen of Wei Dynasty Cao Pi once gave chrysanthemums to Zhong Yao on Double Ninth Day (to wish him longevity). Emperor Wen of Liang Dynasty's "Chrysanthemum Chapter" has "Call each other and pick chrysanthemum beads in a basket" The phrase "the dew in the morning touches the coward with wetness" is an example of picking chrysanthemums to make wine. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, chrysanthemum wine was still popular. It was still recorded in Gao Lian's "Eight Notes of Zunsheng" in the Ming Dynasty. It was a popular fitness drink.

(11)

Peer the dogwood

In ancient times, the custom of planting dogwood was still popular, so it is also called the Dogwood Festival. In the old days, Han folk festival customs were popular in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River Basin and other places.

Cornus officinalis is a fruit that can be used as traditional Chinese medicine. The ancients believed that on the Double Ninth Festival, climbing mountains and planting dogwood can repel insects, dampness and wind evil. So they wore the dogwood on their arms, ground it up and put it in a sachet, and some stuck it on their heads. Most of them are worn by women and children, and in some places men also wear them.

Cornus officinalis is used as medicine and can be used to make wine to nourish the body and cure diseases. Planting dogwood and hairpin chrysanthemums has been very common in the Tang Dynasty. Cornus officinalis has a strong fragrance and has the functions of improving eyesight, refreshing the brain, dispelling fire, repelling insects, removing dampness, and driving away wind evil. It can also eliminate accumulated food and treat cold and heat.