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Sweet n' Sour Day - Qing Ming tomb-sweeping day
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Sweet n' Sour Day
Today, all across China, people are remembering the dead. And me, I'm going to fly a kite. It may sound irreverent but flying kites, having picnics and planting trees are all part of commemorating Qing Ming.
Qing Ming means 'clear and bright', and falls on the 5th April each year, usually a time of warmer weather. The day before Qing Ming is called Hanshi, meaning 'cold food'. Somewhat appropriately, yesterday there was no power for all the day in most of the residential part of the old town. I didn't get electricity back on til after 9pm. The experience was a mix of frustration and tranquility. I wasn't able to cook any food or make any hot drinks, and had to go elsewhere to get my meals - baba bread from the temple restaurant and ginger tea from a friend's cafe. In my neighbourhood, it was pleasantly peaceful, as no one could use power tools on building sites, and no one could crank up crackly music blaring over loudspeakers.
As I ate some bananas in brown bread raisin rolls, I pondered the story behind Hanshi, I story I'd come across recently. During the 7th century BC, Jin state monarch Duke Xiao, had a problem. When he died, his eldest son Shen Sheng was to inherit the throne, but Duke Xiao instead wanted his favourite concubine Li Jo to succeed him. The Duke had Shen Sheng murdered, and he tried to get rid of his second son Chong'er, but Chong'er found out about the plan and fled. Another version of this story maintains that the combucine wanted power, and so told the Duke that his second son planned a rebellion.
For 19 years Chong'er and his entourage wandered homeless, enduring great hardship and starvation. So close to death was Chong'er that his most faithful follower Jie Zitui once cut a slice of muscle from his own leg and served it to his master.
Finally, Chong'er managed to take the throne (the Duke and his combucine had died) and the new Duke rewarded his officials who had stayed with him during those years in exile. But he forgot about Jie Zitui's sacrifice - and Jie Zitui went away heartbroken.
When Chong'er finally remembered Jie Zitui's deed which saved his life, Chong'er sought him out, apologised and begged him to return to the royal court. But Jie Zitui turned his back and headed into the mountains where no one could find him.
Someone told Chong'er the best way to get him off the mountain so they could talk was to set fire to the mountain. The fire raged for three days - and Jie Zitui was found leaning against a tree, carrying his mother. But both were dead.
Chong'er was saddened by this tragedy. He ordered a temple be built in memory of the loyal Jie Zitui, and that no fires be lit on the anniversary of his death.
About 300 years ago the practice of eating cold food was replaced by Qing Ming, a day when sacrifices are offered to ancestors. China is big on ancestor worship, and in the past these eleborate activities were what today would be termed 'time-hungry' and 'requiring substantial investment of financial resources'. In 723 AD Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty reduced formal respects to ancestors to just one day - Qing Ming. Around this time people often put willow branches on their gates as a symbol of vitality, and also remembering the story of Chong'er and his loyal Jie Zitui. And some people don't cook either on the day before Qing Ming, or the day itself.
So, on this day, people visit their ancestors' graves. They tidy up the tomb site, remove weeds, sweep away leaves, light some incense and kowtow to the tombs. Then, they have a picnic. And probably leave a mess behind.
In a practice the Chinese government would like to see less of, there is still quite a showy cult of the dead evident in China. As well as offering paper money for the Other World, relatives are now offering more elaborate paper items to their ancestors. You can buy gold bars, cellphones, laptops, helicopters, passports, and even villas with mitresses to the deceased. While most Chinese are content with offering some bland food to their ancestors, some are forking out for fake miniture mah jong sets and swimming pools, in the hope that if their ancestors are happy, they will provide for the necessities of life on earth for their descendents - cash, children, Chinese A shares.
In this Internet age, it is also now possible to cyber-grieve, with families setting up memorial websites with photos. This is quite a environmentally-friendly proactice. And cheap too. I read one report from central China that the price per square metre for a grave site is TWICE the price per square metre of a house sit.
For many Westerners a graveyard would not be the place for a picnic, but Chinese people have no problem is mixing the other-world and the earthly. Around here, families like to light a fire and enjoy some food, soaking up the spring sun and the new greenery. The dryness around Yunnan - we don't get a rainy season til June - means it is tinder dry around Lijiang, so there is a fire ban.
Up the valley, below the Jade Snow Dragon mountain range, fires have been lit by members of a village who are unhappy with their relative poverty. A local told me everytime there is an important Chinese Communist Party gathering in Beijing, the minority villagers light fires along the Jade Snow Dragon Mountain range to show their dissatisfaction with Beijing.
The gentle winds which fan the fires also provide good air for my kite-flying today. Christianity has its famous carpenter who lived 2000 years ago, and China also has a legendary carpenter who lived around that time. Lu Ban is said to have invented the first kites, called Mu Yuan - wooden sparrow hawk - and later improved with the invention of paper to become Zhi Yuan - paper sparrow hawk. In ancient China large kites big enough to carry a person were used for military surveilance. And in the Tang Dynasty people attached thin bamboo strips so the flying kite would produce low-pitching twanging sounds. Last century people would fly their kites as high as possible, then let go of the string, so the kite would carry away any bad luck and illness.
So far today I haven't seen any kites. And I have heard that people put lights inside kites and fly them at night. Now that will be something to look for.
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| 15. | Sweet n' Sour Day - Qing Ming tomb-sweeping day - Lijiang, China Apr 05, 2007 |
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