Folk custom of building a house: Building a house has always been regarded as a major event among the people. From the initial groundbreaking to the final completion, there are various ceremonies and activities. When you decide to build a house, start preparing materials, pull stones, transport sediment, and tie the handles, your relatives and friends will definitely come to help. This is called "helping neighbors". The first thing to do when building a house is to choose the site and locate the orientation. When choosing a house base, Mr. Geography or Mr. Yin and Yang are usually invited to see the geomantic omen. Most of the Neolithic house sites found in China have shown the concept of orientation, and most of them have formed the form of sitting north facing south, which has become the fixed basic orientation of China buildings in later generations. When the emperor ascended the throne, he was called "the emperor in the south". Seeing geomantic omen is a systematic belief activity formed later. It must have an original source, and this source is divination. Dulong people, who are in slash-and-burn stage, hold a ceremony of "divination and location" before building a house. The owner holds a few grains in his hand and puts them on the hot slate on the fireplace, and the grains are heated and fried. If they don't jump to the ground, they can build a house here. At the latest, the Han people have recorded the geography books about Xiang Zhai in the documents of the Han Dynasty. As for the activities of Yin and Yang warlocks, it should be earlier. In the five-line category of Hanshu Yiwenzhi, Xu Shen noted: "It is as good as heaven, and it is authentic." Later generations regard it as the ancestor of Feng Shui books. The original book has long been lost, and its content is unknown. There are 2 volumes of "Terrain of Palace House" in the form and method of Hanshu, which are also lost, but it can be confirmed as a book discussing the geography of Yangzhai. In the Sui Dynasty, there were books such as Topography, Good and Bad Stories about Houses and Pictures of Houses, which were not handed down. After the Song Dynasty, the thought of geomantic omen developed greatly, and there were more and more such books. Up to 252 volumes of 88 kinds of books were collected in Xiang Zhai Xiang Tomb of Qing History, Yi Wen Zhi. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, yin and yang terrain prevailed in rural areas when building houses, because Feng Shui was related to the fate of the family and future generations. After looking at the place, please ask the bricklayer to measure and "start the foundation" on the auspicious day, that is, break the ground. When the foundation is opened, firecrackers will be set off, and the owner will also give a reward to the "ruler". At the same time, carpenters were invited to make door and window frames and cut them into house frames (beams and rafters). After laying the foundation and installing the door frame, and building the wall and installing the window frame, all of them have been pasted with red papers in advance, such as "Anmen Dajie" and "Anchuang Dajie", and some of them have also pasted couplets on the door frame. Commonly used antithetical couplets include "Tai Gong passed away today, and he said that it is good to have a safe door today", "Tai Gong passed away today, and it is auspicious to have an open door today", "It is auspicious to have an open door today" and "It is auspicious to have an open door when opening an account". The foundation stone laying is a universal ceremony, which is preserved as a symbolic ceremony even in contemporary cities. The initial foundation was to make sacrifices with people. In the Longshan cultural site in the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin, the tombs of babies were found under houses, walls and columns. This custom still has a lot of reservations in Shang Dynasty. During the excavation of Yin Ruins, it was found that when building a palace, people or animals should be sacrificed from the foundation laying to the final completion of Anmen. Later generations generally used livestock instead. There are still reservations in modern customs. When the caves in northern Shaanxi are completed, there is a ceremony of closing the dragon's mouth (the last stone is built in the center of the cave), and the hearts of three small animals (rabbits, chickens and pheasants) are embedded in the holes of the dragon's stone. When building a house, the most important thing is to "put the beam on". Usually, the date and specific time of the upper beam is told to the "owner" (owner) in advance by the bricklayer. Regarding the choice of time, it varies from place to place. Generally, it is chosen at "noon" or "sunrise and maoshi". It is located on the island of Long Island, and it is auspicious when the tide rises. After the time of beam erection is confirmed, the owner will tell his relatives and friends all over the place. On the day of beam erection, relatives and friends will take gifts to attend the beam erection ceremony, which is called "He Fang", and some people take red cloth as a gift to congratulate them, which is called "Hanging Red". When putting on the beam, first stick horizontal batch and vertical connection on the beam and purlin. Commonly used horizontal and vertical couplets include: good luck shines high, good luck shines on the beam, good luck in an 'ao, good luck in prince and the showgirl, golden beam in spring, and golden phoenix is full of red and bright. In the middle of the purlin, two pairs of red chopsticks are tied horizontally. On the top pair, there are three copper coins in horizontal rows. From the center of the two pairs of chopsticks, a red rope hangs down. On the red rope, five copper coins in vertical rows are tied first to form a money string, and then a red cloth with a square foot is tied under the money string. A copper coin is sewn on each corner at the lower end of the red cloth. The copper used to make money is better with the words "Taiping" and "Kangxi" cast. The ridge purlin was hung with firecrackers in advance. Chopsticks, money-making, red rope and red cloth constitute a whole set of decorations, which is homophonic "quick (chopsticks) to get rich quickly", and its folk significance lies in praying for luck; Chopsticks, ropes and cloth are all red, plus firecrackers, which also means to exorcise evil spirits. On the day of Liang Shang, it was still dark, so the owner put four "magic insects" (also painted Xiaoyan with dough sculptures) on the four "horseheads" of the room frame. When the auspicious time arrives, the owner first asks someone to set off firecrackers around the house frame. At the same time, all the carpenters and masons and those who came to help began to pull the beams on the shelves and nail the rafters together, leaving only the ridge purlin not nailed. At this time, the owner placed a pair of dough-sculpted tigers in the niche between the two walls, and then carried a square table in the center of the middle. A pair of red candles were lit on the table, and fish, meat, dishes and ten big cakes were placed as offerings, with incense burners in the middle and three columns of high incense. After the owner bowed down, he removed the altar and worshipped Ji 'ao again. After these ceremonies were completed, the carpenter and the bricklayer, the two masters of the ruler, went to the house while reading happy songs. On the roof, the carpenter is in the east and the bricklayer is in the west. Red ropes are hung from the room, and the ridge purlin is hung by the owner himself. After the ridge purlin leaves the ground, the firecrackers wrapped in advance are lit, and the ridge purlin rises to the roof in the festive firecrackers. After installing the purlin, the two masters put down the red rope again, the carpenter pulled the bucket (dialect, "lifting with rope or pole"), and the bricklayer pulled the wine. Wine should be red wine, and bucket should be willow bucket. The bucket is filled with eight knives of cereal grass (using hay cutter's rice straw as the straw festival, eight knives of * * *), eight red dates, six copper coins, eight chestnuts, eight pieces of sugar, eight pieces of dough, eight pieces of cakes, and in addition, it is made into small cakes in the shapes of tigers, dragons, phoenixes, flowers, bergamot, peaches and butterflies. Put two giant worms made of flour on the mouth of the bucket and tie them with red cloth. When the two monsters were pulled up to the roof, one belonged to the carpenter and the other to the bricklayer. After the wine and bucket were pulled out of the roof, the bricklayer opened the bottle and sprinkled it along the ridge purlin. The carpenter opened the red cloth that sealed the bucket and sprinkled the cake while singing a happy song. The people who had already waited below rushed to grab the cake, which was a lively scene. This is the climax of the ceremony of honoring Liang, and the happy songs are also sung with great enthusiasm. At noon that day, the owners, relatives and friends, craftsmen and helpers gathered under the new house to celebrate and get drunk.