The old emperor who got up early was a little excited and even a little proud. An unusual Spring Festival celebration designed by him has arrived.
In a few hours, a once-in-a-lifetime Zen ceremony will be staged in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. At that time, under the eyes of all officials, he will hand over Emperor Baoxi, who represents the throne, to the new generation of the Qing Empire-Emperor Jiaqing. And he became the only emperor in the Qing Dynasty.
Traditionally, emperors usually get up in Yin Shi (about 5 am). Except New Year's Day. This day is the beginning of a year. As the king of a country, the emperor has a series of ceremonies to welcome spring. The earliest ceremony was "Writing on New Year's Day".
Although it has entered the Jiaqing era, the ceremony of giving and receiving the Zen position has not yet been held. Yan's identity is still the crown prince, and the elderly Qianlong is willing to continue to assume the responsibility of being an emperor.
New Year's Day began in Yongzheng period, and 60 years after Qianlong succeeded to the throne, this ceremony never stopped. The "New Year's Day Pen Meeting" is usually held in a small room next to the emperor's bedroom in Dongnuange, hall of mental cultivation. Gan Long, who likes calligraphy, once hung a plaque on the wall with the imperial book "Bright Window" on it, so it was called "Open Pen and Bright Window".
Palace eunuchs have long been ready to "write". In addition to ink and ink inkstone, there is also a gold cup full of jewels-"Jin Ou Gu Yong" cup, which is filled with Tu Su wine. In addition, there is still a new issue of the constitution book that still exudes ink fragrance. An eunuch in the palace stood respectfully, holding a white jade candle in his hand to illuminate the emperor.
Usually, the emperor silently prayed to God before writing, and then summarized the contents of the prayer into auspicious words and wrote them on paper. Gan Long picked up an evergreen marker and dipped it in Zhu Mo. On the paper covered with golden red, he wrote "61 New Year's Day, it is appropriate to enter the Spring Festival", and then dipped his pen in black ink around the word Zhu, and wrote "Sanyang Qitai Vientiane Renewal" and "Harmony, Prosperity and Auspiciousness" respectively. Gan Long writes quickly, and he has memorized these auspicious words. Since the twenty-sixth year of Qianlong, I have repeatedly written these words on New Year's Day every year. Now the veteran is shaking and the words are not as good as before.
After putting down the pen, the old emperor symbolically drank the golden cup of wine and browsed Qin's new constitutional book this year. This ceremony symbolizes that the emperor has served the whole world and saved the years.
One detail is worth noting: although it was the first year of Jiaqing, the year number in the constitutional book read by Qianlong was "Sixty-one years of Qianlong". This is different from the new constitutional book promulgated in the world, named "the first year of Jiaqing". Last September, Qianlong proclaimed Yan as the Crown Prince, and next year will be the first year of Jiaqing, which will be announced to the world. At that time, the crown prince Yan led the philosophers and other ministers to plead that the constitution should still be used for the New Year. However, Gan Longen was as heavy as a mountain and agreed to his request. Every year, he prepares hundreds of books on the year of Qianlong and presents them to the imperial court and the ministers close to the command. Gan Long read one of the 100 constitutional books specially approved.
After the opening ceremony, as usual, Gan Long wrote a poem "Writing on New Year's Day". This tradition has been adhered to since the ninth year of Ganlong. Write a poem on New Year's Day this year, and Qianlong uses the rhyme of a poem written last year. The poem reads: "I remember staying in Jude yesterday, and it was your father who dared to save his strength." Just listen to it for a while and say a few words to you. "A group of people who are tired of politics and think about interests return to the humility of coming and going.
At the same time, in Yuqing Palace, the crown prince's bedroom, the crown prince of Yan, who has not yet ascended the throne, also created a "New Year's Day pen" with the same content. According to Jiaqing, sixty years after Qianlong announced him as the Crown Prince, he was called to hall of mental cultivation to teach the ceremony of "opening the window to write" on New Year's Day. So Jiaqing completely copied his father's words. The only and most important difference is that instead of writing "Sixty-one years of Qianlong", the year of Jiaqing was written impressively. There is only one "Golden Ou Gu Yong" cup, which should be placed in the old emperor's hall of mental cultivation, and Yuqing Palace's Tu Su wine can be placed in any other cup. But I don't know whether the title of the year in The Poet Immortal is "Qianlong" or "Jiaqing". What is certain, however, is that on New Year's Day this year, Jiaqing did not write a new poem "Writing on the First Day of the New Year".
As the "witness" of the annual Spring Festival welcoming ceremony of the Qing emperor, the original "opening a letter" written by the emperor on New Year's Day over the years is kept in the First Historical Archives of China. As a precious historical relic, Wen Yan, pen and ink and the "Jin Ou Gu Yong" cup for writing are kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing. (Hu Zhongliang)
Gan Long New Year's Day