The History of China - #11 - Special: Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Episode Date: January 30, 2014

This Episode, we take a time-out from the historical flow to take advantage of the upcoming Chinese New Year festivities. We explore the history, legends, customs, and meaning behind this ancient and storied period of celebration. Happy Year of the Yang Wood Horse! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. History isn't black and white, yet too often it's presented as such. Grey History, The French Revolution is a long-form history podcast dedicated to exploring the ambiguities and nuances of the past. From a revolution of hope and liberty to the infamous Reign of terror. You can't understand the modern world without understanding the French Revolution. So search for the History of China. Episode 10, Gong Xi Fa Cai Last time, we finished out the Western Zhou period with the Rebellion of Shen, the Sacking

of Feng Hao, the Execution of King You, and the Shattering of Royal Authority. While this is a very exciting period in Chinese history, and I'm very much looking forward to delving into the Spring and Autumn period, since we're coming up on the end of January, at least at the time of this recording, I find myself with the opportunity to step away from the linear narrative ever so briefly and engage in an exploration of the reason for the season, by which of course I mean the Chinese New Year. For more than 20% of the world's population, the Lunar New Year is undoubtedly the most important holiday event of the year.

It marks a time of family reunions, parties, feasts, gifts, fireworks, dances, and the largest annual migration ever in human history. It is a period of happiness, plenty, and celebration, and it all came from the mortal fear of an ancient and deadly beast. But before we launch into that telling, a look into the oldest traces of this holiday in the historical record. The word for year in Chinese is nian. The character is found on Shang Dynasty oracle bone pieces.

Initially, however, it did not mean year, at least in the modern sense, but was instead the pictogram for ripened grain, and meant it was the time to harvest. Since there is but one major time per year to harvest that grain, it's unsurprising that over time the overtly agricultural meaning of nian was transferred to the more general concept of a year itself. It is fortunate that we find ourselves just a few episodes out of the Shang Dynasty and smack dab in the middle of the Zhou, because it is within these two periods that the root of the Chinese New Year took hold. The emperors of these dynasties,

though they all wielded political and military authority to one degree or another, were first and foremost the spiritual and ritualistic leaders of their people. It was the kings of Shang and Zhou, the chosen sons of heaven itself, who were best and most capable of offering the appropriate sacrifices to the gods and spirits, and reading their omens and portents in turn. In a settled agrarian society such as the Hua Xia, the absolute most important information that could be asked of heaven was of crops, conditions, and the harvest of that year.

Knowing what to plant, when to plant it, and what to prepare to protect that crop against was the difference between plenty and famine, life and death. Thus, it was the job of the emperors to monitor the seasons and signs from heaven and perform the correct rituals to ensure a bountiful harvest in the coming year. The two most important dates the emperor could keep track of were the winter solstice and the beginning of planting season. This latter date would become known as the beginning of the agrarian calendar throughout china letting the populace know that the worst of winter had subsided and that the time to plant anew was swiftly approaching taboos, and customs sprang up around the holiday over time. This legendary explanation of these customs brings us back to the horrible man-eating beast that inspired terror throughout the land,

the monstrous Nian. And yes, that's the same Nian both spoken and written as the word for year. The Nian resembled nothing so much as a ferocious horned lion with the body of a massive bull depending on the telling it either lived deep in a cave or at the bottom of the sea but on the eve of the new year when the moon sat lightless in the sky and darkness was at its most total the beast would rise from the depths and go on an annual rampage. Its insatiable appetite for flesh led it to consume anything and anyone it came across, and entire villages lived in terror of its yearly wrath. As the dreaded night approached, most villages would hurriedly gather what belongings they could, and herd any cattle they had into the mountains to wait out the vile monster's berserker-killing spree. At their doorsteps, they would leave offerings for the beast, sweet rice cakes, and any food they could spare, so that the Nian might consume those and leave the rest of the village alone.

In the absolute dark and silence of their mountain enclaves, they would listen in terror to the unearthly howling of the beast far below, as it prowled the benighted countryside, consuming all before it. Only when the sun once again broke on the horizon would the Nian's reign of terror cease and the people clamber back down to their villages to survey its destruction. This yearly flight would at long last come to an end in the village of Taohua, or Peach Blossom. As the residents of the town made their final panicked preparations to leave their village on the eve of the new year, a beggar appeared at the outskirts of town. He was doubled over and clearly ancient beyond counting. his long beard shimmered with a silvery sheen and beneath the endless wrinkles and folds that criss-crossed his face his panic as they were the villagers of peach blossom ignored the transient and continued their boarding of windows locking of doors and driving cattle towards the foot-hills everyone that is save for an elderly woman who lived at the edge of the traveler, she offered him food and rest, before advising him to join them on their flight from the imminent arrival of the Nian.

At this, the ancient beggar simply smiled and kindly asked her if he might be able to stay in her house for the night. If she allowed him that, he went on, he would drive the beast off and teach the village how to do the same. Obviously, this boast came as quite a shock to the old woman of Peach Blossom. The Nian had terrorized the countryside for years beyond counting, and nothing could deter it. Any who stood against it, and there had been many, were never seen again, having been devoured whole by the monster.

Regardless of his strategy, and no matter how unusual his manner or appearance, the woman wasn't about to wait around and watch him throw his life away. She packed up her belongings and prepared to depart as the sun grew lower in the sky, once again urging the wanderer to come with them. But when he once more smilingly refused, she relented and allowed him to use her home for the night before departing into the increasing twilight for the safety of the mountains. Now left alone in the utter silence of the abandoned village, the wanderer began to prepare his borrowed residence for the impending confrontation with the beast as the shadows grew longer and twilight approached.

It was just after midnight, in the moonless dark of the village, that the twisted howls of the Nien tore through the stillness of the village. In short order, the beast itself burst forth from the treeline and into the village to search for prey. What awaited it at the edge of the village was not the darkened, empty structures to which it was accustomed, but a single house brightly lit by candles in each window and paper lanterns hanging from the façade. On each door were pasted sheets of red paper covered in symbols. Enraged at the sight, it let loose its terrible howl of fury and charged forth to devour whomever was inside but no sooner had it approached the dazzlingly lit house than it was deafened and stunned by hundreds and thousands of explosions bursting around it startled and now disoriented by the cacophony of light and sound assaulting it, the beast was halted dead in its tracks before the door of this strange, hateful place.

At this, the door was flung open, and the ancient traveler, no longer doubled over feebly, but standing confident and boldly, strode forth from the blinding interior of the house. He was dressed head to toe in red silks and carried with him a red lantern. He boomed out a laugh at the beast

and threw yet more explosive fireworks at its feet. Blinded, deafened, and confronted by the color it feared most of all, the Nian retreated from the man, shaking in fear, and left the village entirely. At dawn the next morning, the residents of Peach Blossom descended from their mountain hideaway and made their way back to the village, fully expecting it to be in shambles from the beast's destructive spree. But to their surprise, the village had been untouched by the Nian, though they had clearly heard its howls the

night before. Untouched, that is, except for one particular house on the edge of the village, that of the elderly woman. In each of its windows sat the melted stumps of candles, with a few still flickering away in the chill morning air. Scattered around the property by the hundreds were the spent casings of firecrackers, surrounded by the unmistakable smell of gunpowder. On each door was pasted a diamond of red paper emblazoned with protective wards, and hanging all about the house were red paper lanterns similarly marked. But no one remained inside. Whoever had so marked the house had driven off the Nian demon and then vanished into the night. Understanding what had happened, the old woman

who had lent her house to the wanderer told the townsfolk of the strange visitor, his odd demeanor, and his promise to rid them of their curse. They were convinced that this so-called beggar must in fact have been a heavenly being in disguise, sent to offer the people salvation from their yearly plight. To celebrate their triumph over the Nian, the people of Peach Blossom donned their newest and best clothes before setting out for their families to tell them of this miraculous method of driving off the beast.

They had been passed over by the Nian, which in time would come to be another word for the New Year's celebration, Guonian. One of the most widely known aspects of the Chinese New Year is its system of dating. The traditional or agrarian, calendar of China differs significantly from the Western Gregorian calendar in several regards. The Gregorian calendar, I'm sure you know, is a solar calendar. Years are determined according to the relative positions of the sun and earth. That stands in stark contrast to the several lunar calendars around the world, of which probably the most widespread is the Islamic calendar.

This kind, of course, is determined completely by the position of the moon, and thus Muslim holidays such as Ramadan and Eid al-Adha move each year relative to the solar calendar. The Chinese calendar, however, is lunisolar, meaning, no surprise, that it utilizes both the moon and the sun to determine the year. As such, Chinese holidays, like the Lunar New Year, are less fixed than Western holidays such as Christmas, but far more fixed than their Islamic counterparts. Chinese New Year always falls between Januaryuary twenty first and february twentieth so don't worry there will never be a summer spring festival As such, ancient Chinese writings are not dated numerically, but through a combination of the reigning king's name and one of the 60 combinations of the stems and branches system. The stems and branches system has been mentioned in passing much earlier in the series, but it's worth expanding on that for better understanding. As both aspects are cycles, it can be useful to think of them

in terms of interlocking wheels. The first wheel is composed of the five heavenly stems, wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These five are each halved into their female, or yin and male yang aspects each year moves the wheel one half tick so the stems change once every two years but each year represents a different aspect of that element earthly branches, which will likely sound very familiar to those of you who have ever eaten at a Chinese restaurant. Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. If you've been jotting this down, or you just have a good head for math, you may be shaking your head at me right now and saying something like, 60 combinations? I can do 5 times 2 times 12, and that's obviously 120. Yes, good catch. However, since the 12 zodiac signs are divisible by 2, any sign can only occur as yin or yang. Hence, dragon is always yang, while snake is always yin, etc. And so there are only 60 possible combinations, even though there are 120 parts.

So though it's often shortened to the year of the animal, in fact, each year is recorded as the year of the yin water snake, as in 2013, and the upcoming year of the yang wood horse, this 2014. The current cycle began in 1984 as the yang wood rat, and will complete in 2043 with the year of the Yin Water Pig. In all human history, there are few stories like that of ancient Egypt. On the banks of the Nile, these people created one of the most enduring and significant cultures. Their tale comes to life in the History of Egypt podcast. Every week, we explore the tales of this amazing culture, from the legendary days of creation and the gods,

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Come, visit Ancient Egypt and experience a legendary culture. As with any holiday, celebrations as they're practiced today are an amalgam of rituals, ceremonies, and customs that have been tacked on over long periods of time, originating from different places and slowly melting together into a culture-wide mishmash of celebration. As mentioned, the religious ceremony of beseeching the gods to grant a plentiful harvest in the coming year is dated as far back as the Shang Dynasty, though of course it may have extended back significantly further in time since we have no earlier records. This ritual seems to have acquired some elements of what we'd think of today as a holiday,

like widespread recognition and celebration with cultural practices, during the later Shang and into the Zhou periods. One thing is for certain, however, and that is that fireworks as heavily associated with the festival as they are were definitely not a part of the ceremony initially indeed it is impossible for them to have been it can be speculated that the fascination and spiritual significance of the sound of popping and cracking can be traced back to the signature sound of the oracle bones when being cracked with fire. Eventually, a type of bamboo that would loudly crack and explode when burned would be used by the masses during the festival, but it was not until the Song dynasty of the 9th century CE that the Chinese would invent that peculiar mix of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter that we know as gunpowder, giving rise to the firecracker. Immediately noticeable to anyone who visits China during the Lunar New Year

is how different typical Chinese fireworks are from those frequently sold in the West. Whereas Western fireworks tend to focus more on beautiful, luminescent displays, the Chinese versions, at least those used by individuals, focus far more on noise than visual flair, though the latter has become much more popular in recent years. Probably the most popular and widespread are the long chains of firecrackers, what I grew up calling black cats, although mortars are also very popular. Again, though, regardless of kind, the focus is more often than not on providing the largest possible noise than any other factor. The deafening blasts at all hours of the night have not traditionally been for aesthetic reasons. Instead, their use, as detailed in the story of the Nian Monster, is for the practical purpose of driving off evil spirits and thoughts,

along with any unchained dogs and possibly small children. Fireworks are, of course, very dangerous, so in spite of their central placement as a part of the Chinese New Year, many countries have banned their possession and use by the general public. In mainland China, for instance, most urban areas banned the displays all through the 1990s and into the early 2000s. But as of 2008, most cities, and virtually all rural areas, lifted their restrictions over the holiday to allow for the practice. This was likely not so much about respecting cultural traditions than it was having a law on the books that was proving unenforceable was embarrassing to the police. In Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia, on the other hand, private use of fireworks is still entirely banned, and again with rather lackluster results. Illegal fireworks are fairly

easy to smuggle in from neighboring countries like Thailand, and the practice continues in spite of the laws against it. In the United States, the Chinese New Year is celebrated in many urban areas with significant ethnically Chinese populations. Of particular note is New York City, which lifted its own fireworks restrictions for the holiday in 2007, and San Francisco, which boasts the largest annual Chinese New Year parade outside of China itself. So what goes on during this festival? Well, in the days leading up to the festivities, homes are thoroughly cleaned, both in preparation for family visits and to make them ready to receive the new year's good fortune. But on the new year's day itself, all dustpans and brooms are put away to prevent any of that new luck from being swept

away. Decorations are hung throughout houses, most often consisting of red paper with golden lettering, featuring auspicious phrases and couplets. The new year requires new clothes as well, and new haircuts, though any haircuts should be completed before the holiday begins. This is because, since the word for fortune, fa cai, contains the character for hair, fa, to cut one's hair in the new year is thought to be cutting off one's luck as well. In the homes of practicing Buddhists and Taoists, household altars and statues are cleaned and the offerings from the previous year cleared away and burned in the week leading up to the holiday. Taoists in particular will also send their gods to heaven by burning paper effigies the god tsao-chun of the kitchen is an especially popular god to send Jade Emperor in heaven of their good and bad deeds,

which will be weighed by the Celestial Monarch and then have blessings or punishments bestowed on them. Even deities, however, don't seem to be above a little petty bribery. Families will frequently make offerings of sweets and candies to the deities they are about to send, so that they might, oh, forget some of their transgressions when making the annual report to heaven. Traditionally, the holiday can last as many as 15 days, though in practice its public observance varies by region. One day in Indonesia and the Philippines,

two days in Malaysia and Singapore, two and a half days in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and as many as seven days in mainland China. Notably, the PRC only officially designates the first three days as a public holiday, but it is a near universal custom for businesses to declare the Saturday before and the Sunday after as working days to extend the holiday to a de facto seven. The first day of the new year, Guonian, welcomes the spirits to earth with fireworks, beginning, no surprise, at midnight. Fortuitous spirits are attracted by the cacophony, while evil spirits, such as the Nianian are driven away by it. It is on this first day that the central and most important event of Chinese New Year occurs,

the Nian Ye Fan, or reunion dinner. Its closest comparison in the West would probably be Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, although admittedly that's a pretty distant comparison. Chinese family members will travel from far and wide, across the country, or even around the world, to be present at this yearly reunion, typically in the family's laojia, or hometown. This journey is the central reason behind the largest mass migration in history each year. In 2013, over the 40-day New Year travel season, more than 3.42 billion trips were undertaken within China. Of them, 3.11 billion were long-distance bus trips, along with 240 million train journeys, 42.5 million voyages by ship, and 38.07 million plane trips. And having just completed one of these 240 million train journeys, and having almost lost my backpack

and computer in the melee, I can readily attest to the craziness of this time of year. Once they get through the sea of people all trying to make it home, the reunion dinner itself typically features fish as a central component, either actually or at least thematically. The thematic aspect lies in the fact that the Chinese word for fish, yu, is homophonic for the word for surplus. In northern China, dumplings, jiaozi in Mandarin and gaojiao in Cantonese, are very popular, since they look very similar to ancient gold and silver ingots. In the east and south, a kind of sticky rice cake called nian gao is also important. Once again demonstrating the Chinese propensity for homophonic wordplay,

the word nian gao literally means sticky cake, but sounds like year and tall. So eating nian gao is thought to make one better each year. Texturally, on the other hand, it's more than a little like eating especially sticky candle wax, and Taoist households will often make offerings of Nian Gao to the kitchen god so that it will stick in his mouth and prevent him from telling the Jade Emperor their bad deeds of that year. Apart from the food, another major staple of Guonyin celebrations are red envelopes, called hongbao in Mandarin andi si in Cantonese. Red envelopes almost always contain money, though for small children, that can be replaced with chocolate coins. They can contain anywhere from a few dollars up to several hundred.

Bills are brand new, or at least as close as possible, since as with clothes, old bills cannot confer new luck. Typically, hongbao are given from the older married members of the family to young and unmarried members. Doors and archways are affixed with fu, which are red diamond-shaped papers emblazoned with golden blessings. Outside of Canton, they are hung upside down, and once again, wordplay is the culprit. In Mandarin, the word for upside down, dao, is the same as the word for arrive. Thus, hanging a blessing upside down will ensure that they arrive at your door.

The Cantonese custom, on the other hand, much more directly mirrors the Western custom of hanging horseshoes, since in Cantonese, dao also means to pour, hanging the blessing upside down would be pouring the luck away. In all this, the color red has come up again and again, and this is no accident. Red is the most auspicious color for Chinese, symbolizing joy, virtue, truth, and sincerity. In traditional Chinese opera tradition, for instance, a character's face painted red means a sacred person, saint,

or great emperor. Finally, a pair of very popular customs are the dragon dance and the lion dance. Troops of performers take on the aspects and costumes of the beasts and dance to very loud drums and cymbals. Their ornate, aggressive, and highly acrobatic performances are intended to, what else, scare off malevolent spirits. I'll be posting videos of these dances, along with a host of other New Year's info, in this episode's companion post at thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com. So what are this holiday season's greetings? There are several, in fact, and most of them are couplets of four characters. First and most straightforward is Xinyin Kuaila,

which is literally Happy New Year. If you find yourself in a Cantonese community, you'll hear it said as 三輪快樂. This greeting is shared between the Lunar New Year and the Solar New Year on December 31st. And so 過年快樂 or 過年好 are another way to convey the same message. 恭喜發財 is probably the most frequently heard and famous greeting. The Cantonese phrase is 更黑发财. It is so frequently heard in both Mandarin and Cantonese that many mistakenly assume it is synonymous with Happy New Year. But no, instead, it loosely translates to Congratulations and Be Prosperous.

Now, there are many other couplets that are used throughout the season and are frequently found on banners, red envelopes, and decorations. But I will not be getting into them in this podcast. So the second day of the new year is called kai nian, which means the opening or beginning of the year. On this day, married daughters traditionally visit their birth parents, as through much of Chinese history, once a woman was married, she would rarely have the opportunity to see her own family.

During the imperial period, beggars would go from house to house carrying a sign or poster of the god of wealth, Caishen. To each family, they would call out, which means the god of wealth, Cai Shen. To each family, they would call out, Cai Shen Dao, which means the god of wealth has arrived. The families, in turn, would reward this messenger of the good news with lucky money.

The third day of the celebration is Chi Kou, meaning literally Red Mouth. This is in reference to the Red Mouth of the god of blazing wrath, This is usually a day to stay at home, as it is considered unlucky to have guests or to go visiting. Especially in rural China, on this day, people will give paper offerings to fires to appease the angry god.

Additionally, it is also a good day to visit the temple of the god of wealth and to have one's fortune told. On the fourth day, in those countries and regions which only recognize the first three days, companies will typically hold a spring dinner to kick off the return to business as usual. The fifth day marks the god of wealth's birthday, and people, especially in northern China, will eat dumplings to commemorate the occasion, again since dumplings resemble the boat-shaped gold and silver ingots of old. The seventh day is known as Renri, or the common person's birthday. On this day, everyone grows a year older, and as such, is why, when asked, most chinese people will answer that they are a year older than they are by the gregorian calendar

between the eighth and tenth days people mark the birth of the heavenly jade emperor this heralds in places where it has not already occurred a return to business as usual. The 13th day is dedicated to the great general Guan Yu. Most organizations will offer up prayers to the great general, since he won over 100 battles in his life, and that is the goal of all businesses. On this day, many people will eat a strict vegetarian diet to clean out their stomachs of the indulgences of the prior two weeks. Finally, the 15th day marks an end to the festivities with Yuan Xiao Jie, the lantern festival. It is marked by serving soup dumplings, or tang yuan. Candles are frequently lit and placed outside homes to guide the spirits back home to heaven until the next year.

Lighted lanterns inscribed with riddles are set out and children are invited to try and solve them. So this episode has been very focused on the familial and social aspects of the holiday season. But for the sake of balance, let's just finish out with a little controversy. Though the Gregorian calendar was introduced to China in 1582 by Jesuit missionaries, it did not really catch on for the average Zhou until 1912, when the imperial system was overthrown once and for all. Its successor state, the Republic of China, led by Sun Zhongshan, better known in the West as Sun Yat-sen,

and his protege, Jiang Jie-she, again known in the West as Chiang Kai-shek, officially recognized the 365-day calendar as a part of their sweeping reform platform to modernize the nation, and January 1st as the official start of the New Year. Later, under Chairman Mao Zedong and his Communist Party, the Lunar New Year festivities were among many traditional celebrations that were outright banned in the attempt to sever China from its imperial past and forge ahead into a new and modern nation-state. As we'll cover in detail later, calling Mao's policies mixed in their outcome is putting it mildly. They were outright disastrous.

In fact, though it was never really expunged from society, it wasn't until 1996, the year before Hong Kong was officially returned to mainland control after 155 years of British rule, that the Beijing government officially re-recognized the holiday on a national level, and allotted the population its week to visit their family and celebrate. And so, with that, we conclude our exploration of one of China's oldest and inarguably most important holidays. Thank you for allowing me to deviate from our usual linear history into this little informational eddy. Next week, we'll pick up the trail of the shattered Zhou Dynasty, now kings in name only,

and their former imperial vassals, now powers in their own right, spiraling inevitably toward outright civil war. This is the Spring and Autumn Period. But for now, thank you for listening. Gong Xi Fa Cai, and happy year of the Yang Wood Horse. You don't have to be living an ocean away to dread the idea of going to the post office. The lines, the jostling, it's a real bother. Thankfully, there's Stamps.com to save you the hassle. By using Stamps.com, you can easily print your own approved and exact US postage right from your home computer and printer, to be mailed anywhere in the world, even China.

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