发自内心深处的声音

The Qingming Festival (Traditional Chinese: 清明節; Simplified Chinese: 清明节; pinyin: qīng míng jié), or Ching Ming Festival used in Hong Kong, literally Clear and Bright Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice, usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar (see Chinese calendar). Astronomically, it is also a solar term (See Qingming). Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime (踏青 Tàqīng, “treading on the greenery”), and also to tend to the graves of departed ones. It is an official public holiday in the Republic of China, as well as in Hong Kong and Macau though not in mainland China.

My family during Qing Ming at my Grandfather’s tomb (I guess its 2 years back)

  

My family during Qing Ming at my Grandfather’s tomb (I guess its 2 years back)

The holiday is also known by a number of other names in the English language:

• All Souls Day (not to be confused with the Roman Catholic holiday, All Souls Day, of the same name)
• Clear Brightness Festival
• Festival for Tending Graves
• Grave Sweeping Day
• Memorial Day
• Tomb Sweeping Day

Tomb Sweeping Day is the most common English translation and is used in several English language newspapers published in the Republic of China.

For the Chinese, it is a day to remember and honour one’s ancestors. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food and libation to the ancestors. The rites are very important to most Chinese and especially farmers.

At my Grandmother’s tomb (I guess its 2 years back)

At my Grandmother’s tomb (I guess its 2 years back)

The April Fifth Movement and the Tiananmen Incident were major events involving Qing Ming Jie that took place in the history of the People’s Republic of China. When Premier Zhou Enlai died in 1976, thousands visited him during the festival to pay respect. In the Republic of China, April 4th coincides with the passing of Chiang Kai-shek and the date is designated as a national holiday.

On a note, the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asian nations such as Singapore and Malaysia also practice this custom. However the practice is in decline in these regions.

Qingming Festival was created by Duke Wen of Jin during the spring and autumn period when he accidentally killed his personal friend and advisor Jie Zhitui (介之推) and his mother in a fire blaze in the hope of making him return to Duke Wen.

The famous Qingming scroll by Zhang Zeduan is an ancient Chinese painting which portrays the scene of Kaifeng city, the capital of Song Dynasty during Qingming period.

Qingming was frequently mentioned in Chinese literature. Among these, the most famous one is probably Du Mu’s poem (simply titled “Qingming”):

Traditional Chinese / Simplified Chinese / pinyin

清明時節雨紛紛 / 清明时节雨纷纷 / qīng míng shí jié yǔ fēn fēn

路上行人欲斷魂 / 路上行人欲断魂 / lù shàng xíng rén yù duàn hún

借問酒家何處有 / 借问酒家何处有 / jiè wèn jiǔ jiā hé chù yǒu

牧童遙指杏花村 / 牧童遥指杏花村 / mù tóng yáo zhǐ xìng huā cūn

English translation

A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day;

The mourner’s heart is going to break on his way.

Where can a wineshop are found to drown his sad hours?

A cowherd points to a cot ‘mid apricot flowers.

In the Vietnamese epic poem The Tale of Kieu, Qingming is also mentioned as the occasion where the protagonist Kieu meets a ghost. The lines describing the sceneries during this festival remain some of the most well-known lines in

Vietnamese literature:

Ngày xuân con én đưa thoi

Thiều quang chín chục đã ngoài sáu mươi

Cỏ non xanh tận chân trời

Cành lê trắng điểm một vài bông hoa

Thanh Minh trong tiết tháng ba

Lễ là Tảo mộ, hội là Đạp thanh

Gần xa nô nức yến oanh

Chị em sắm sửa bộ hành chơi xuân

English translation

Swift swallows and spring days were shuttling by

Of ninety radiant ones three score had fled.

Young grass spread all its green to heaven’s rim;

Some blossoms marked pear branches with white dots.

Now came the Feast of Light in the third month

With graveyard rites and junkets on the green.

As merry pilgrims flocked from near and far,

The sisters and their brother went for a stroll.

Cold Food Festival

Legend has it that Chong’er, Prince of Jin, had to endured many hardships while he made his travels around the Warring Kingdoms. Once, in order to help the Prince who is tormented by hunger, Jie Zhi Tui cut off the flesh from his thigh and offered it to the prince for sustenance.

Later on when Chong’er became King of Jin, he ordered a search for Jie Zhi Tui who had gone into hiding in the remote mountains with his mother. Despite the effort the search failed. Chong ordered the mountains to be burned down (!) in order to force Jie out of hiding. Unfortunately the fire ended up killing Jie and his mother.

Filled with remorse, Chong ordered that each year during these three days the setting of fire is forbidden – all food was to be consumed cold. Therefore the Festival is thus named (In Jie Xiu City of the Shan Xi Province locals still remember this tradition clearly. But even for them the tradition of eating cold food is no longer actually practiced.)

In reality, the true source of the Cold Food Festival started from the ancient tradition of setting fire by rubbing wood pieces together and the tradition of lighting new fires. Due to the change of seasons and the change in the type of wood available, the ancient practice is to change the type of fire-starter-wood used from season to season. Fire is lighted anew upon the start of each season. Before the new fire is officially started no one is allowed to light a fire. This was an important event during that time. The traditionally practiced activities during the Cold Food Festival includes the visitation of ancestral tombs, cock-fighting, playing on swings, beating the blankets (to freshen them), and tug-of-war, etc. The practice of visitation of ancestral tombs is especially ancient.

For China the Spring Ancestral Worship used to be practiced during the time of the Cold Food Festival. It was later moved to coincide with the Qingming Festival. However in Korea, the tradition of practicing Spring Ancestral Worship during the Cold Food Festival still remains.

 

Zhang Zeduan’s most famous painting is Qingming Shanghe Tu (清明上河圖 qīng míng shàng hé tú) also known as “Along the River During Ching Ming Festival” although this translation is disputed. It is a very wide (around 30 feet) hand scroll which depicts a city. The translation of its title is disputed; as the word “Qingming” can refer to either the Qingming Festival or to peace and order, two translations have been proposed by scholars: Going Upriver on the Qingming Festival or Peace Reigns Over the River.

 

 清明上河圖

Traditionally, three things have been believed about the painting:

• The city depicted is Kaifeng.
• It was painted before the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty in 1127.
• It depicts the Qingming Festival.

More recent scholarship challenges all three of those assertions:

• The city depicted is an idealized non-existent city.
• It was painted after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty in 1127.
• It depicts a scene in early fall.

The Qingming Scroll is historically notable as one of the few paintings from the former imperial collection that is still in the possession of Mainland China; it was a particular favourite of emperor Puyi, who took it with him to Manchukuo and thus kept the Southern Song Dynasty original out of the collection of the National Palace Museum which was subsequently moved to Taiwan. The National Palace Museum in Taiwan collects other versions painted by artists of subsequent dynasties [1]. Now held at the Forbidden City, the Southern Song original is closely guarded by Chinese authorities and only exhibited for brief periods every few years.

 

 

[1] Valerie Hansen, “The Mystery of the Qingming Scroll and Its Subject: The Case Against Kaifeng,” Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies 26 (1996), 183-200.