The Spring Festival Customs of Hankou in Zhuzhi Lyrics

By Sha Yue

The Spring Festival Customs of Hankou in Zhuzhi Lyrics

By Sha Yue

Folk customs are the best embodiment of the daily living wisdom of local residents. Spring Festival is a good occasion in which local customs bring themselves into full display.During the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic era, Hankou was a splendid stage in which the local customs as family reunion banquets,appreciating traditional operas in Yiyuan and Laopu Theatre, seeing movies in public parks, enjoying the street performance of lotus gathering boats, playing mahjong with friends, having western meals,cleaning themselve up in a bath house etc., were displayed in a row, which inspired some amateur Zhuzhi poets.

Wen Chaobo, a Zhuzhi poet, once described “Visiting your neighbor’s home at Spring Festival time, a cup of warm tea is served as a welcome sign.For it takes time to make the wine hot,the glutinous rice buns are offered to the guests a lot.” What he recorded was how local people in Hankou served the guests at Spring Festival time. When a guest entered your house, a cup of tea is served firstly,then a gathering dinner party is held;Normally the first dish is the glutinous rice bun, also called glutinous rice cake, which was inviting and also had the function of beautifying oneself according to local custom. However,it could not be overeaten for it could easily make one full up. If so, you had no chance of eating more delicious dishes on the table.

民俗，是一方百姓的生存智慧。新年，又是地方民俗表现最充分的时候。清末民初时期，每到春节，汉口犹如民俗展示的大舞台，团年宴，怡园看戏，老圃看戏，公园影院观影，沿街看采莲船，搓麻将，吃西餐，泡澡堂等民俗竞相上演，也成为一些民间竹枝词爱好者灵感的来源。

一位叫文超伯的诗人写道：“拜了张家又李家，进门就是一杯茶。怕因酒热须时刻，敬客先呈糯米粑。”他记录的是汉口接待拜年客人的习俗。先进茶，再开宴；开宴第一道菜肴是“糯米粑”，所谓“糯米粑”，就是糍粑。此物美颜养眼，不过只能少吃，因为糍粑下肚，就会骤然产生饱感。宴席上有再好的菜肴，也只能做看客了。

这位文超伯，目光锐利，尤其擅长观察。如写道上问年的寒暄，他写道：“道途不辨是何人，此礼由来认得真。非比寻常轻点首，相逢总要一躬身。”年关中，道上相遇，都要互致大礼，要“躬身”行礼问年。瞧，汉口人的文明素养早已有之，是有文学作品作证的。

“惟有儿童喜过年，腰中压岁几多钱。买来鬼脸相群戏，或舞刀枪或舞鞭。”汉口的小孩子，自小生活在一个时代变革前沿，他们自小就可以在自然山水中群相游戏，这一点，在道光年间的叶调元的竹枝词中也可以频频看到生动而温暖的记载。

文伯超更感兴趣的是，孩子们的压岁钱如何处理？汉口的孩子很幸福，可以自己做主的。你看，可以去买自己喜欢“鬼脸”，还可以买刀枪买竹鞭，玩打仗游戏。不像现在，好多家庭的小孩，压岁钱的红包一到手，就秒塞到了父母口袋里。估计，汉口的孩子是特别希望这个习俗能够被父母们传承下来的。

等拜年人一进门，就要敬上一杯茶。那么拜年的人如何进门呢？民国初年，民间诗人罗懋其写道：“盈盈三五当街立，寻得门牌说笑前。拔下玉钗轻叩启，一声爆竹贺新年。”

这首诗里的习俗，现在早就没有影了。请看这一群群的拜年客，是如何做的。先要认门牌，而后由女客上前，“拔下玉钗”，还要轻轻地“叩”门，让主家欢心适意地开门，来迎接一群群笑脸客。门开了，拜年客的男人们就会点燃一挂鞭炮，给主家带来年的喜庆和祝福。

Wen Chaobo was apt at the observation. For example, when asked how to greet each other in the street at Spring Festival time,he wrote, “Meeting the strangers in the street one after another, it is better to say hello to each other;Normally you greet someone just by nodding, but at Spring Festival time you’d better acquaint by bowing.”At Spring Festival time, locals in Hankou made a salution to each other with a polite bow to send the best new year’s wishes when coming across acquaintances. It is evident that Hankou residents are polite and courteous for ages, which can be found in some literature and classic works.

For example, “Only children are fond of the Spring Festival in anticipation, for their pocket money can be used for celebration; Wearing ghost masks to amuse each other, or playing a game of sword and whip to frighten one another.” This Zhuzhi poem best described how the kids in Hankou played during Daoguang period in Qing Dynasty, either played in the era of transformation or in the harmonious nature.

What interested Wen Chaobo more was how the children dealt with their lucky money. In fact, children living in Hankou were particularly fortunate, because they were able to use their lucky money on their own.They could buy ghost masks that they longed for; they could also buy swords and whips to play the game of soldiers. Unlike us now in many families, once given lucky money,they have to hand in to their parents.

Presumably, children in Hankou heartily hope their parents will stick to the tradition.

A cup of tea should be served to those who visit your family to send new year’s greetings. Then, how did they enter a house? Luo Maoqi, a folk poet, wrote, “People on the street in dribs and drabs standing, chatting with pleasure the door number finding; taking off jade hairpin to knock the door softly, suddenly a sound of firecrackers marks the new year’s coming loudly.”

The customs revealed in this poem have already disappeared. However we could still find how the locals practised it at Spring Festival time. To start with, locating the door number,then female guests walked forward,taking off the jade hairpin to knock the door gently, then, the host opened the door and welcomed the smiling guests. With the door open, malevisitors would set off firecrackers,indicating to bring happiness and blessings to the family.

This poem was written in a rather warm tone, creating an atmosphere of scenes of animation that could be nearly heard. At the beginning of the poem, the poet penned a reduplicated word “Yingying” which meant “limpid and graceful manners” in a dictionary.It also had connatations of glorious appearance, decent behaviors,delightful expressions and happy moods. Imagine yourself standing in the street accompanied by a group of female beauties on the street looking around in such graceful nanners. How delightful it is!

In 1992, Luo Maoqi also described how lottery ticket buyers celebrated the spring festival. “Hundreds of businesses were closed for the Spring Festival, while lottery ticket company operated all alone. It is quite natural to aspire power and wealth, yet it in turn undermine the social customs and buyers’ health.” The lottery ticket company could never close the door with so crazy lottery buyers. It was said that only lottery ticket company opened up during the Spring Festival.And their business were booming. In the period of the Republic of China,playing the lottery became one of spectacular customs of Hankou urban life.

（Excerpted from the Author’s Blog）

这首诗写得格外温馨的，除了一个个听得见声音的动画般的场景以外，还有一个氛围。作者开头用了“盈盈”这个叠词。词典中解释：“盈盈，形容清澈。”可以引申为充盈，用以形容美好的仪态，快乐的神情，美好的情绪。你想想，当街一群群拜年客，都是这样“盈盈”地左右顾盼，年间的当街，是多么令人神往啊！

1922年，罗懋其还注意到另一群人的过年状态。“新年百业皆停歇，奖券公司独照常。自是人争贪万利，岂知民俗自兹伤。”是一群争先恐后疯狂玩彩票的人。有了这样一群痴迷彩票的拥趸，奖券公司怎么能关门呢？据说，每进年关，只有彩票公司开门乐岁，异常热闹。民国时期，汉口年俗还有这个玩彩票的洋洋大观哦。

（摘自作者博客）

Note

Zhuzhi Lyric is one form of China’s folk songs. In Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty, a group of poets represented by Ye Diaoyuan composed plenty of Zhuzhi Lyrics to describe Hankou’s local urban life, which were popular at that time, earning Hankou Zhuzhi Lyric a good reputation and finally listed itself in the ranks of one of four major Chinese Zhuzhi Lyric genres. At the beginning of the Republic of China, many poets as Luo Han carried on the tradition of Zhuzhi Lyric composition. Hence, their works are witnesses to the rare cultural

legacy and social development for later generations.

注

竹枝词是中国的一种民歌形式。清道光年间，以叶调元为代表的一批文人创作了大量描写汉口社会及市井日常生活的竹枝词，在民间广为传播，使得汉口竹枝词一举扬名，跻身中华四大竹枝词之列。民国初期，罗汉等将汉口竹枝词的创作进一步发扬光大。前人的创作为后世留下了珍贵的文化遗产及鲜活的社会发展研究史料。

竹枝词中的民国汉口年俗

文|沙月