Goujian is an ancient name, but it is actually a tug-of-war movement, which began in Chu State. Chu was a vassal state in the south during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Chu people are a branch of Huaxia people who moved south. They first rose in Xichuan, where fresh water and fresh water meet in the Hanjiang River Basin. In its heyday, the largest jurisdictions were Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places.
Chu is located in the north and south of the great river, with criss-crossing waterways. In addition to the army, there are also powerful naval sailors who invented a weapon called "refusing hook", which is specially used for water combat. When the enemy retreated, the sergeant refused to hook the enemy ship with a hook and pulled it back hard, making it impossible to escape.
Later, the refusal to hook spread from the army to the people, and was imitated by fishermen in water towns, becoming a folk sports and entertainment activity and evolving into a hook-pulling competition.
According to legend, in the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to attack the State of Wu, the State of Chu used the hook movement to enhance people's physique. It is mainly based on a hemp rope, and its two ends are divided into many small ropes. In the competition, a big flag is the boundary. At the command, the two sides pulled the rope hard, and the drums sounded with the music. The two sides cheered and shouted, which was very lively.
In ancient tug-of-war, drums were also played to show courage. Tang Xuanzong watched the tug-of-war many times, with a loud voice, which shocked Chinese and foreign audiences. Before the Tang Dynasty, the rope used for tug-of-war was bamboo cable, while in the Tang Dynasty, people used wood and hemp. Trojan horses are generally 150 meters long, with hundreds of small ropes tied at both ends, hanging in front of them, divided into two friends and hooked together. It is called "tug-of-war" to set up a flag as the boundary, to drum and shout and to pull each other.
Tug of war originated from the war between the two sides, and later soldiers in the army also used it as a game. Not only soldiers do this, but also prime ministers and generals like this sport, and even ladies-in-waiting often team up to tug of war. Tug-of-war game has developed into an unprecedented popular activity from the royal family to the nobility and then to the ordinary people.
Shooting willow is an ancient game to practice archery. This is also a fashionable and elegant activity. Tie a wisp of red silk on a slender swaying willow branch, which is the target of being shot. Most of them are young people, riding horses and holding bows. A hundred paces away, they shot down the wicker with a special arrow with a forked front end. Pegasus caught the wicker before it landed. It is a sport to test the true kung fu of riding and shooting.
There are also some scholars and students who often hang a gourd carved with stork pigeons on a willow tree and shoot it with a bow and arrow or a slingshot a hundred paces away. The well-shot hit the gourd, and the stork dove flew out in fear. The victory or defeat was determined by the flying height of the stork pigeon.
Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, the spring was bright and the spring rain was falling, and the survival rate of planted seedlings was high and the growth was fast. Therefore, China has the habit of planting trees in Qingming since ancient times. Some people even call Tomb-Sweeping Day Arbor Day, and the custom of planting trees has been handed down.
Cold food and Qingming, a traditional festival in our country, not only have the sadness of being cautious and pursuing the future, but also combine the atmosphere of joy and enjoying spring. In addition to special festivals, China also has the custom of eating Tomb-Sweeping Day.
"Candy" is what people usually call caramel, and it is a necessary food for the ancient cold food festival. Since ancient times, many literati vividly described the grand occasion of the ancestors' cold food festival with the help of poems, such as "no cold food overseas, no cold food in spring", "no cold food in the city", "Xiao Sheng blows warm and sells cold weather" and "porridge and fragrant white apricot flowers".
From many cold food poems that mention "Huan", we can easily see that ancient ancestors had to eat this kind of food at the Cold Food Festival. If there is no such food as "Naan" in the Cold Food Festival, people think that this festival is incomplete.
In ancient times, there was also an allusion to food "Huan". It is said that later generations could not find the word "charm" in the Six Classics, so they questioned the poem "No charm in spring". Someone has studied this problem.
After searching, people found that there was a kind of food called "Chu Ci" in the Warring States Period, and "Chu Ci" was what people called "Huan".
According to ancient documents, cold food is cold food, which is called "food treasure" or "ice-circling" in Songs of the South. It is made of glutinous rice flour and fried flour, which can be stored and used as a meal replacement when cold food is prohibited. In fact, what the ancients called "Huan" refers to the sugar boiled with malt and grain buds. A traditional food in China, Tongstuffing sugar, is made from barley malt and millet after saccharification.
Stuffed candy is a health food for ancient people in winter, and it is the main food for entertaining relatives and friends and offering sacrifices to gods during the Spring Festival to the Cold Food Festival. Tracing back to the source, stuffing candy is actually a home-cooked food in ancient cold food festival.
Until later, the northern part of Shanxi has been following the habit of using candy, which is the primary product of sesame candy, a famous product in Shanxi. Sesame candy is very sweet and sticky after eating, so there is a folk proverb in China, "Twenty-three, eat a plate."
Traditional Chinese medicine also believes that caramel has the effects of tonifying the middle energizer, invigorating the spleen and regulating the stomach, moistening the lungs and relieving cough, which can be described as the homology of medicine and food. It is said that the ancients used cold food bottles to treat diseases such as arrows in eyes, which also shows that "bottles" were also used as medicine in ancient times.
During the period of Tomb-Sweeping Day, people didn't make a fire, but only ate cold food, and the business of caramel stalls in many cities was very prosperous.
In China, there is also the custom of eating barley porridge. China ancient records, cold food is "three days without fire, barley porridge". In addition, there is a kind of food "cooler", which is resistant to storage, suitable for cold food, crisp and refreshing, and can be called the food of the Cold Food Festival.