This custom has a history of more than 2000 years in China. The Story of Jingchu Times once recorded that on the first day of the first month, when the rooster crowed for the first time, everyone got up and set off firecrackers in their own yard to drive away the evil spirits of plague.
There was no gunpowder or paper at that time, so people burned bamboo to make it burst and make a sound to drive away the plague. Although this is only superstition, it reflects the ancient people's good wishes for Antai.
Firecrackers in the Tang Dynasty, also known as "blasting poles", burn a long bamboo pole piece by piece and make a continuous blasting sound. Nanchang poet Lai Hu's poem "Early Spring": "The new calendar is only half open, and the pavilion is still bursting. I wrote the scene of burning bamboo poles during the Spring Festival.
Later, after constant chemical experiments, alchemists found that saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal together could cause combustion and explosion, so they invented gunpowder. Some people put gunpowder in a bamboo tube to detonate, and the sound was louder, which fundamentally changed the ancient custom of burning bamboo. By the Northern Song Dynasty, there had been fireworks wrapped in paper, and there was a distinction between single ring and double ring. It was renamed "artillery warfare" and later "firecrackers".
Firecrackers, also known as "firecrackers", "firecrackers" and "firecrackers", are a specialty of China, which originated very early. If we trace the origin of firecrackers, we will understand the original intention of the ancients to set off firecrackers and its evolution history.
According to Nerve, in ancient times, people camped through deep mountains and lit bonfires at night, one for cooking and keeping warm, and the other for preventing wild animals from invading. However, there is an animal in the mountains, which is not afraid of people or fire, and often steals food while people are unprepared. In order to deal with this animal, people thought of setting off firecrackers in the fire and using the crackling sound of bamboo to drive it away. The animal mentioned here is called "sister-in-law". The ancients said that it can make people cold and hot, and it is ghosts that make people get cold and hot, scaring away mountains, that is, driving away evil spirits and making people lucky and safe.
In the early Tang Dynasty, plagues were everywhere. A man named Li Yi put saltpeter in a bamboo tube and lit it to make it make a louder sound and smoke. As a result, the miasma in Shan Lan was dispelled and the epidemic was stopped. This is the earliest prototype of firecrackers. Later, when gunpowder appeared, people filled bamboo tubes with saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal and burned them, resulting in an "explosion war." In the Song Dynasty, people began to make "guns" (that is, firecrackers) with paper tubes and hemp sticks wrapped in gunpowder. Regarding the evolution of firecrackers, Excellent Popular Arrangement records: "Ancient firecrackers. They are all popular with real bamboo, so Tang poetry is also called explosive pole. Later people roll paper for it. It's called firecrackers.
With the passage of time, firecrackers are more and more widely used, and there are more and more varieties and colors. Liuyang, Hunan is a famous hometown of fireworks in China, and Foshan and Dongyao in Guangdong, Yichun and Pingxiang in Jiangxi, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang are also famous fireworks producing areas. The firecrackers produced in Liuyang not only sell well in China, but also are exported to other countries and regions in the world.
Setting off firecrackers has become an entertainment activity with national characteristics. People not only set off firecrackers to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year in the Spring Festival, but also set off firecrackers to celebrate major festivals and happy events, such as Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, marriage, building houses and opening businesses.
Origin history:
Gunpowder is one of the four great inventions in China, which was discovered by an alchemist in ancient China in the process of refining Dan medicine for a long time. In 808 A.D., The Secret Recipe of Taishang Laojun Elixir written by Qing Xuzi, an alchemist in the Tang Dynasty, is the earliest written record of gunpowder in the world. After more than 1000 years, except for weapons, gunpowder was almost only used as firecrackers. Setting off firecrackers has become a traditional custom in China. In addition to setting off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year holidays, firecrackers should be set off for both festive and sad events, as long as they are major events.
The birthplace of fireworks and firecrackers in China is said to be Shangli in Jiangxi, Liling in Hunan and Liuyang in Hunan. These three places have a long history of 1300 years. At first, people set off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. Later, setting off fireworks gradually became an entertainment activity, which was very popular in ancient times. On holidays, both dignitaries and ordinary people like to set off firecrackers and fireworks to add festive atmosphere. Wang Anshi, a famous writer and politician in the Song Dynasty, once described the scene of setting off firecrackers in the New Year in his poem "January Day": "The firecrackers are one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su. Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old ones. " In the Qing Dynasty, Pan Rongbi also recorded the firecrackers on New Year's Eve in "Ji Sheng at the Age of Emperor Jingdi": "Meet at midnight on New Year's Eve, and compete outside the Baoju Gate and the Yuhe River. And firecrackers, such as waves and snow, spread all over the ruling and opposition parties and stayed up all night. " From here, we can see the grand occasion of setting off fireworks in the old Spring Festival. It can be said that in the development of 1300 years, setting off fireworks has not only become a custom, but also a culture, which has continued to this day, and went abroad and spread all over the world with the exchange of Chinese and western cultures in the Middle Ages.
Founder of fireworks:
When on earth were firecrackers invented? To the greatest extent, it remains an unsolved mystery. There is a saying in the Chronicle of China Industry published during the Republic of China: "The manufacture of firecrackers in Hunan Province began in the Tang Dynasty, developed in the late Song Dynasty and originated in Liuyang." Accordingly, Liuyang people, who are rich in fireworks and firecrackers, think that Li Yi, a fellow villager, first invented firecrackers.
Li Yi, a native of Dayao, Liuyang in the early Tang Dynasty, was revered as the ancestor of fireworks by later generations.
Tang's "Mo Ji" records that "Li Miao is in the middle, and the neighboring clock is admired by the mountain people. She lives in a fire with bamboo in the courtyard, and the ghost follows her with fright, and at dawn, she quietly attaches herself. " According to legend, Li Yi is a hunter. He studied the use of gunpowder from the alchemist and drug king Sun Simiao at that time.
"Sun Simiao, the drug king, once lived in seclusion in Liuyang, leaving behind many legends and relics such as Sun Yinshan, Yaojing and Yaoqiao." Li Xingu, an expert on fireworks display in Liuyang, introduced some folklore. According to legend, Sun Simiao was living in seclusion in Sun Yinshan Mountain, Liuyang, washing medicine and alchemy in a medicine washing well. Li Yi went to ask for help. Sun Simiao gave him a pack of gunpowder and told him to put it in a small bamboo tube, which would explode and make a loud noise when it was lit. After Li Yi returned home, she did the experiment according to Sun Simiao's method. The earliest firecrackers in history were born.
But firecrackers made of bamboo tubes are loud, but dangerous and easy to hurt people. Li Yi hopes to improve it. He thought hard and through constant experiments, he finally succeeded in wrapping gunpowder with paper tubes-two ends were sealed with mud and one end was plugged with a fuse. In this way, really practical firecrackers are produced.
Li Yi used the loud noise of firecrackers and the smell of sulfur to dispel miasma and scare away ghosts, and was honored as the "ancestor of firecrackers" by later generations. Today, many firecracker workshops in Liuyang, Liling and Pingxiang, the three major firecracker centers in China, still enshrine Li Yi's memorial tablet. On Grandpa's birthday or other important festivals, people will light candles and incense to worship Grandpa.
It is about 8 kilometers away from the HSBC community in Dayao Town, Liuyang City, and there is a small mountain village called Nihu in Dongfeng Street. "I heard from the older generation that Li Qian's descendants used to live in this village and later moved away from here." A local villager surnamed Li said, "Many stories about Li Yi come from here."
Today, Dayao Town has already been connected to the cement road and has been built into the largest distribution center for fireworks raw materials in China. People built Liwan Park and Liwan Square here, and carved Liwan sculpture to commemorate the brilliant achievements of this ancestor of fireworks.
Firecracker center:
Li Yi, a native of Dayao, Liuyang, Tang Dynasty, is said to be the ancestor of fireworks. But firecrackers and fireworks became an industry, but it was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Liuyang City, Hunan Province is fortunate to be the birthplace of firecrackers industry.
Relevant historical documents can be used as evidence. According to Liuyang County Records, Liuyang became the "Hunan Firecracker Manufacturing Center" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. During the reign of Xianfeng Tongzhi, "Liuyang Firecracker Village was widely distributed at all important ports in the province, and customers from Guangdong, Shandong, Shanxi and other places came to Hunan for trafficking." At that time, there was a saying in Liuyang called "Ten Families and Nine Explosions". There are more than 654.38+million people engaged in the production of firecrackers in the east, south and west towns, and there are more than 300 workshops in Chengguan Town with more than 2,500 workers.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the reputation of Liuyang firecrackers spread far and wide, and the industry was also extended to neighboring counties. Later, firecrackers produced in these neighboring areas, such as those in Liling, Pingxiang and other places in Jiangxi, were also shipped to Liuyang, where they were labeled as "Liuyang firecrackers". "So, the world only knows Liuyang firecrackers."
In the early years of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty, Liuyang firecrackers began to be exported, re-exported from Shanghai or Hong Kong and Macao, and exported to Nanyang. By 19 1 1, the export volume has increased to 48,000 tons, valued at 922,000 silver, and more than 300,000 people in the county are engaged in firecrackers production.
At the subsequent World Expo in Chicago, USA from 65438 to 0933, Liuyang Fireworks participated in the Expo as a handicraft and won a medal. Fireworks and firecrackers in Liuyang are known to more people.
Folk fireworks:
In ancient China, people believed that fire could dispel ominous signs; Spark is a harbinger of happiness; Sound can frighten ghosts and dispel qi; Smoke makes the yang rise. Fireworks and firecrackers produce sound, fire, smoke, light and other effects when they are set off, and naturally combine with people's ideas, thus becoming people's ideal holiday supplies. Fireworks and firecrackers should be set off in various festivals in our country to express auspicious and festive joy and pray for peace and well-being. For example, during the Spring Festival, New Year's Day, Lantern Festival, National Day, welcoming the God of Wealth (on the fifth day of the first month), festivals of all ethnic groups, weddings, opening, housewarming, having children, Gaotang's birthday, making meritorious deeds, apologizing, and major national celebrations, the ancient court held major events, celebrations, received foreign guests, and held important ceremonies to set off fireworks and firecrackers. Setting off firecrackers, including New Year's Eve and watching TV, has become a folk custom in China, and setting off fireworks is the focus of the three major folk customs.