So, what did the ancients do from nightfall to 9 p.m.?

If you are a bureaucrat, aristocrat or wealthy businessman, you may hold a banquet at home, drink, chat and play games, recite poetry and enjoy singing and dancing. The most famous night banquet in ancient times is undoubtedly the night banquet of Han Xizai, the Minister of War in the Southern Tang Dynasty. The scene is also recorded in the famous painting "Han Xizai's Night Banquet"

"Picture".

If they are civilians, they may be working, such as women spinning. However, this situation is not common and mainly occurs when the construction period is tight, because weaving at night requires lighting candles or oil lamps, which is not a lot of consumption for civilians.

More often than not, families or relatives and friends gather together to chat by moonlight. The content of the chat is all-encompassing. The more serious one is "telling the past", which is when the elders explain the stories of the past to the children and pass on the past.

Some life experiences. Peers often gossip, even tell dirty jokes, and all kinds of vulgar jokes.

But no matter whether they were bureaucrats, nobles, wealthy businessmen or civilians, before the Song Dynasty, it was impossible to sneak out and wander around at night, eat late night snacks, and sing K-pop like today. It was not that the ancient nights were unsafe, but that there were strict rules before the Song Dynasty.

The curfew system prohibits people from going out at night.

Violating the curfew system will have serious consequences. Once you are caught, you will be interrogated strictly by the authorities to investigate whether you have any evil intentions. Even if it is proven that you violated the curfew system with the simple purpose of yearning for a free nightlife, you will still be punished.

Subject to severe punishment. Taking the Tang Dynasty as an example, those who violated the curfew system were whipped twenty times.

Starting from the Song Dynasty, the curfew system was completely abolished, and the nightlife of the ancients began to enrich.

Every night, people can go to restaurants and teahouses to enjoy music and dance, listen to storytelling, have dinner with friends in restaurants, and have fun at the fireworks place. If you are not very wealthy, you can go to a roadside stall for a meal

For late night snacks (roadside stalls in the Song Dynasty were very cheap, you could buy a snack for more than ten yuan), you can watch the performances of street performers. If you don’t even have this little money, it doesn’t matter, you can also just go shopping on the street.

Go shopping and see the excitement.

You should know that the night markets in big cities in the Song Dynasty were very prosperous. Take Kaifeng as an example, it was the world's leading city that never sleeps at that time. According to "Tokyo Menghualu", "The front door of every hotel in the capital is decorated with colorful buildings...

…Lamps are shining brightly toward the evening, shining up and down.” When walking on the streets of Kaifeng at night, you don’t have to worry about not being able to see the road in the dark, because there are bright lights everywhere.

It's a pity that such a rich and colorful nightlife can only be enjoyed by urban residents. The peasant residents in the Song Dynasty were no different from those in the dynasties before the Song Dynasty. This is not because the abolition of the curfew system in the Song Dynasty was limited to cities, but because the peasants' economy was underdeveloped and they could not find anything for a long time.

Going to a store or going out at night is no fun, it's better to just stay at home and talk nonsense.

What is even more regrettable is that the colorful nightlife in the cities of the Song Dynasty came to an abrupt end with the demise of the Song Dynasty. The curfew system began to be restored in the Yuan Dynasty. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, a strict curfew system was implemented. The Qing Dynasty followed suit, and people on the streets at night

It fell into a dead silence again.

According to historical records, the penalties for violating the curfew system in the Ming and Qing dynasties were very severe. "The evening drum is sounded at three o'clock at the first watch to prohibit travel; the morning bell is sounded at three o'clock at the fifth watch before the ban is opened."

Those who walk on the street shall be whipped with forty lashes; those who violate the night curfew after the first watch and shortly before the fifth watch is lifted shall be whipped with thirty lashes.”

In addition to the need to consolidate autocratic rule, the Ming Dynasty implemented a strict curfew system for another important reason, which was to prevent thieves from doing evil at night. However, its effect seemed to be insignificant.

According to "Matteo Ricci's Notes on China" written by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci, "Every city has thousands of watchmen patrolling the streets at night, beating gongs at prescribed intervals, and the streets are gated and locked.

Despite this, it often happens that houses are robbed by burglars, perhaps because the watchman is a thief himself or is in partnership with a thief."

But even so, the Ming and Qing dynasties still unswervingly implemented the curfew system. In fact, the occurrence of such chaos may have strengthened their determination to implement the curfew system. Because after they understood these chaos, they inevitably believed that,

There is so much chaos at night when the curfew is enforced, so what if the curfew is abolished?

It was not until the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911 and the establishment of the Republic of China that the curfew system was completely abolished, and people's nightlife quickly began to enrich.

…

Eating is the most important thing in a person's life. In China, eating is not only to maintain people's most basic life activities, but also a unique culture formed by the Chinese people over a long period of time.

In particular, treating guests to dinner is closely related to interpersonal relationships to a certain extent. So in ancient times, would it be possible for courtiers to invite the emperor to dinner?

The answer is of course yes. The emperor is also Chinese, so of course he may be treated.

But it should be noted that not all emperors of any dynasty would go to the homes of their ministers for meals, and not all emperors were so approachable.

Taking the Qing Dynasty as the boundary, dynasties before the Qing Dynasty will have records of emperors being entertained by their ministers. In the Qing Dynasty, because the emperor had many eating rules and needed to deliberately keep in shape, the number of times the emperor of the Qing Dynasty was entertained by his ministers was relatively limited.

In ancient times, it was very common for an emperor to hold a big banquet because he was happy or because his ministers had merit. After all, he was the head of a country, so it was easy to invite his ministers to dinner.

For example, in the Han Dynasty, owls were considered unfilial animals, and the ancients attached great importance to filial piety, so owls were also called unlucky animals.

When faced with ominous things, eating them not only serves as a warning, but is also a good thing in people's minds.

So every Dragon Boat Festival, the emperor of the Han Dynasty would reward his ministers with an owl dinner. Although it seems unbearable to us modern people and it is a dark dish, the ministers could not disobey the order and could only cry.

Eat.

Although the emperor can invite ministers to dinner, he can do whatever he wants, but if the minister invites the emperor to dinner, he must be careful. Not only must he serve the emperor well in terms of taste and etiquette, but he must also put away his little thoughts, otherwise he may accidentally

Wives were separated, families were broken up and people died.

"Shishuo Xinyu" finally records the incident of Wang Ji showing off his wealth and being killed.

Sima Zhao's daughter Princess Changshan is a very beautiful girl, but unfortunately she has been blind since childhood.

When Sima Zhao was in power, in order for his daughter to have a good home and to avoid the hardships of life, he married her to a second-generation official, Wang Ji.

Wang Ji was not only an ordinary second-generation official, but also a truly rich second-generation. His family was a wealthy family that existed during the Three Kingdoms period, and became even more wealthy after the Jin Dynasty.
Chapter completed!