The role of Kongming Lanterns in ancient times

The origin of the Kongming Lantern

The Kongming Lantern is also called a sky lantern. It is said that it was invented by Zhuge Kongming (also known as Zhuge Liang) during the Three Kingdoms period. At that time, Zhuge Kongming was besieged by Sima Yi in Yangping and was unable to send troops out of the city to ask for help. Kong Ming accurately calculated the direction of the wind, made a floating paper lantern, and attached a message for help. He was indeed out of danger, so later generations called this kind of lantern Kongming Lantern. Another theory is that the shape of this lantern is like the hat worn by Zhuge Kongming, hence its name.

Video of flying Kongming lanterns: /player/outer_player.swf?auto=1&vid=12413205&uid=1371185877

Modern people often release Kongming lanterns to pray for blessings. Men, women, old and young wrote their wishes with their own hands, symbolizing a successful harvest and happiness every year.

About the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, ancestors introduced it from Hui'an, Anxi and other counties in Fujian Province to Taiwan's Taipei County, Pingxi Township, and Shifenliao areas, which are the upper reaches of the Keelung River. According to the oral accounts of elders in the Shifenliao area, there were bandits in the Shifen area in the early Qing Dynasty. Since it is located in a mountainous area, the villagers fled to the mountains. After the bandits left, those who stayed in the village cast fire at night. Sky lanterns serve as signals to inform villagers who have taken refuge on the mountain that they can go down the mountain and go home. They also use this method to report to the villagers that they are safe. Since the day when we evacuated from the mountains and returned home, it was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which was the Lantern Festival. From then on, every year, villagers in Shishi area celebrated the Lantern Festival with the ceremony of releasing sky lanterns, and exchanged greetings with villagers in neighboring villages. Peace. Therefore, villagers in Shifen area also call sky lanterns "prayer lanterns" or "peace lanterns".

Structure of the Kongming Lantern

The structure of the Kongming Lantern can be divided into two parts: the main body and the bracket. The main body is mostly made of bamboo grates, and the second part is made of tissue paper or paper to form a lampshade. The bottom bracket is It is composed of grates cut from bamboo. Kongming lanterns can be large or small, round or rectangular. The general Kongming lantern is made of bamboo pieces framed into a barrel shape, and the outside is densely surrounded by thin white paper with the opening facing downwards.

When you want to light a lantern and take off into the air, tie a piece of coarse cloth or gold paper soaked in kerosene or peanut oil to the middle of the bottom bracket. Light the oil before flying. The fire in the lamp will burn for a while and produce hot air. The Kongming Lantern It will expand, and the entire lantern will slowly fly into the sky after you let go. If the weather is good, the Kongming Lantern will automatically descend after the kerosene at the bottom is burned out.

Make your own Kongming Lantern

Tools and materials: A. Copy paper B. Paper knife C. Scissors D. Needle-nose pliers E. Cotton thread F. Industrial alcohol G. 502 glue H. Wire I. Cotton J. Bamboo strip;

Note: Kongming lanterns must be released in windless weather and in an open space, otherwise not only will they not be able to fly into the sky, but they may also cause fires. When flying, it requires the cooperation of 2-3 people, and it is strongly recommended to be accompanied by an adult. In addition, a line can be tied to the bottom of the sky lantern, so that it can be released repeatedly and control the take-off height and range to avoid causing fire.

Steps

A. Use a paper knife to cut the bamboo strips to a thickness of less than 3 mm. Then, bend the bamboo strips into a circle and fix it with cotton thread or 502 glue. Bamboo is elastic and the bamboo ring may not be round. You can bake it over low heat to fix the bamboo ring into a round shape.

B. Use needle-nose pliers to remove the insulation layer on the outside of the waste wire to get thin copper wire. However, the copper wire should not be too thin, otherwise it will burn easily. You can use 3 copper wires to twist together to avoid this problem.

C. Use tissue paper to cut into pieces of paper with the specifications as shown in the picture. Glue one side of the first piece of paper to one side of the second piece, and then glue the third and fourth pieces together. .... Glue them on in the same way until it forms a ball with two ends open and a diameter of about 60 cm. Cut another round piece of tissue paper and paste the top round hole. After drying, Inflate the balloon, find a thin and narrow bamboo strip, bend it into a bamboo ring the same size as the hole below, cross two mutually perpendicular thin wires in the bamboo ring, and fasten it to the bamboo ring, and then tie the bamboo ring Glue it firmly to the edge of the paper in the hole below. The pasted balloon cannot leak.

D. Tie the copper wire to both ends of the bamboo circle, and then glue the finished lampshade to the bamboo circle. Tie cotton to the copper wire, soak it in alcohol, light it and let it fly. The Kongming Lantern cannot be too small, otherwise it will be difficult to rise into the sky.

Let it fly

Choose a clear and windless night. One person holds the left and right sides of the bottom of the lamp, and the other person soaks the absorbent cotton with alcohol and lights it until his hands feel that the Kongming Lantern is rising. That is to say, slowly let go of your hands, and the Kongming Lantern will slowly fly up, reaching a height of about 1000m.

Recommendations for lift-off procedures:

The production method of the Kongming Lantern is simple, but the lift-off process is greatly affected by the site and weather. When the wind is strong, it is easy to blow the lamp body sideways and burn the lamp body. When it rains, the lamp body is easy to get wet and cannot be released, so it is best to use it when there is no wind.

1. Open the lamp body first, and tie control wires around the sides and bottom.

2. Fill the fuel.

3. After ignition, press the air inlet as low as possible to reduce the loss of hot gas, but it should not be too low to avoid insufficient oxygen and flameout. At the same time, the surrounding control lines must be straightened.

4. After heating until the hot gas temperature in the lamp body is sufficient, slowly loosen the surrounding control wires to maintain the stable rise of the lamp body, and the control wire at the bottom must control the speed and height of the lamp body's rise.

5. After the sphere is lifted into the air, its height and direction can be controlled online, or it can be allowed to float freely. At this point, the sphere is lifted into the air.

Conditions for taking off the Kongming Lantern

The reason why the Kongming Lantern can fly is because the burning of fuel causes the temperature of the surrounding air to increase, and the density decreases and rises, thereby expelling the original air in the Kongming Lantern and causing its own gravity to change. It is small, and the buoyancy of the air lifts it up.

It can be seen from the floating and sinking conditions that only if:

F Float>G total = G hot air + G lamp

That is: G lamp

is present. From this, it can be seen that its own weight (including the gravity of the outer tank fuel) must be very light to take off. How light is it?

G light

G light <(ρ air - ρ hot air) gV discharge,

p>

m lamp<(ρ air-ρ hot air) V row, (1)

The density of air can be obtained from the ideal gas equation of state.

Substituting (2) into (1) we get

Substituting (2) into (1) we get

We can see whether it can take off. It is determined by the lamp quality, air temperature, hot air temperature and Kongming Lantern volume.

The specific data are estimated as follows:

Suppose the temperature of the day: T air = 300K (27℃); atmospheric pressure: 1 standard atmosphere, p = 1.01325×105Pa; volume of the Kongming Lantern: V volume =V row=0.2m×0.25m×0.4m=2×10-2m3; heated air temperature: T hot air=500K (227℃); ρ air=0.029kg/mol. Substitute into (3) to get:

Under the above conditions, when the total mass of the Kongming Lantern is 9.44g, the temperature of the hot air rises to 227°C.

Assume that the mass of the Kongming Lantern is reduced to m lantern = 4g = 4×10-3kg under the above conditions. By deforming equation (3) and substituting the data, we get:

That is, the hot air temperature As long as the temperature rises to 88℃, the Kongming Lantern can rise.

Still based on the above conditions, if the mass of the Kongming Lantern

that is, m lantern ≥ 23.56g, it will not be able to fly no matter how high the temperature of the hot air rises.

From the above analysis, it can be seen that for the Kongming Lantern to take off, its mass cannot exceed a certain value, and the smaller the mass, the lower the temperature of the hot air required, and the easier it is to take off.

Hainan Kongming Lantern

Hainan Kongming Lantern is also called a literary lantern or a sky lantern. It is made of white knotted square paper and is produced by the thermal expansion of air based on the principle of a hot air balloon. It is thermally launched, and the fuel it carries can lift into the air and float for about an hour. It looks like a UFO at first, and after it reaches a certain height, it looks like a star.

According to legend, it spread to Hainan from the mainland, and has evolved into a very distinctive local folk custom. On every happy day or grand festival, people light up lanterns to express their best wishes. Before lighting the lanterns, people have to write their wishes on the lanterns, and they will rise up to the sky together with the sky lanterns to pray that their wishes will come true.

In villages in Wenchang, Wanning, and Danzhou, there is still a folk custom of setting up Kongming lanterns and setting off sky lanterns. Since the word "sky lantern" in the Wenchang accent is homophonic to the word "tidding", the boy's family spontaneously formed a "sending gift" with various lanterns with auspicious words written on them, such as male lanterns, human lanterns, first-brand lanterns, flower basket lanterns, carp lanterns, and rare ancient lanterns. The procession of "lanterns", beating gongs and drums, marched around the village to the temple in the village, conveying the meaning of "prosperous people and prosperous family". When putting out sky lanterns, pour oil on the rags, with the mouth of the bucket facing down. After lighting the oil cloth, the entire paper bucket will be filled with hot air. Every sky lantern will rise like a hot air balloon, bringing your blessings and wishes with you. , floating in the night sky.

Hakka Kongming Lanterns

Hakka customs include flying "Kongming Lanterns" to pray for blessings before and after the Lantern Festival, praying to God to bless you with happiness and prosperity in the coming year.

There are large and small Kongming lanterns, with the large one being more than 2 meters in diameter. It is framed with bamboo strips, mounted with flexible bamboo and linen paper, and brushed with tung oil. On the horizontal frame at the bottom of the lantern, a ball of cloth soaked in soybean oil was tied with wire. When flying the Kongming Lantern, first light the cloth ball, and the air inside the lantern will expand and become lighter due to heat. Once you let go, the Kongming Lantern will slowly float up, like a bright light shining in the early spring night sky.

About the inventor

Zhuge Liang lived and died (181-234). He was an outstanding statesman, military strategist, strategist, essayist, and diplomat during the Three Kingdoms period. The courtesy name is Kongming and the nickname is Wolong. Zhuge Liang was born in an official's family in Langxieyangdu (now Yinan County, Shandong) in the fourth year of Emperor Guanghe of the Han Dynasty (181). The Zhuge family is a prominent family in Langxie, and their ancestor Zhuge Feng once served as Sili Xiaowei (chief of the garrison of the capital) during the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Western Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang's father, Zhuge Gui, whose courtesy name was Jungong, served as the magistrate of Taishan County in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang's mother Zhang died of illness when he was 3 years old. Zhuge Liang lost his father when he was 8 years old. Together with his younger brother Zhuge Jun, they followed their uncle Zhuge Xuan, who was appointed as the prefect of Yuzhang by Yuan Shu, to Yuzhang. The Eastern Han Dynasty court sent Zhu Hao to replace Zhuge Xuan, so Zhuge Xuan went to join his old friend Liu Biao, the pastor of Jingzhou.

In the second year of Jian'an (197), Zhuge Xuan died of illness.

Zhuge Liang and his siblings lost their livelihood, so they moved to Nanyang (① Wolonggang, Nanyang, Henan; ① Longzhong, twenty miles west of Xiangyang, Hubei (now Xiangfan, Hubei)) to live in seclusion in the countryside and farm to make a living. In the fourth year of Jian'an (199), 19-year-old Zhuge Liang and his friends Xu Shu and others studied under Mr. Shuijing Sima Hui.

Later, in order to eliminate the historical disputes left by Zhuge Liang's seclusion, Gu Jiaheng, a native of Xiangyang, Hubei Province who served as the prefect of Nanyang, Henan Province in the Qing Dynasty, wrote: "The merit lies in the court, and there is no distinction between the first and the last; the name is high. In the sky, there is no need to distinguish between Xiangyang and Nanyang.

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