Master Shen will soon welcome his first festival after going up the mountain.
The eighth day of April is the Caterpillar Marriage Festival.
The complex bloodline of the Chuanqing people can be seen from their traditional festivals.
They not only celebrated the "Wedding Caterpillar Festival" with the Tujia and other ethnic groups, the "Dragon Boat Festival" with the Zhongjia and other ethnic groups, and the "Double Ninth Festival" with the Han people. (Note: The Zhongjia are the predecessors of the Zhuang and Buyi ethnic groups. Chuanqing people call rice dumplings Zhongba, which is probably inherited from the Zhong family.)
It would be even more interesting if we further study the beliefs of the Chuanqing people.
The Wuxian God believed by the Chuanqing people belongs to the folk gods in the south of the Yangtze River during the Tang and Song Dynasties. The names have been different in the past dynasties. It was not until the time of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty that the emperor officially canonized it and named it "Wuxian Gong".
How could a god from the Jiangnan region travel to the southwest region to accept worship?
At the same time, the Wuxian God believed in by the Chuanqing people is different from the original deity in Jiangnan. It also absorbed the belief of Erlang God in Sichuan and incorporated the custom of releasing the Wumang advocated by Zhu Yuanzhang.
It is very likely that some of the ancestors of the Chuanqing people came from Jiangnan, some from Sichuan, and some were officers and soldiers in the early Ming Dynasty.
In addition, although Chuanqing people do not believe in Buddhism, they still have a popular proverb about Marrying a Caterpillar Festival: "The Buddha was born on April 8th, and the caterpillar is married today. If you marry in the mountains, you will never return home!" - Later, Taoism was also Pull it in, write this proverb on a yellow paper talisman, cross it and paste it on the door to repel insects.
The "Wedding Caterpillar Festival" is similar to the "Tiancang Festival" of the Han people, which is mainly to pray for a good harvest.
The temperature in Guizhou is already low, and Chuanqing people live in the mountains, so spring plowing is much later than in other areas. Around the eighth day of April, it is the real busy season of spring. Drive away the caterpillars not to bite the seedlings, and pray for food this year. Good harvest.
In Qingzhai, on the eighth day of April, every family puts on new clothes and takes out their treasured corns to cook "flower rice" - boiling water with yellow flowers and filtering it to dye the rice golden yellow.
In the evening, all residents of the village gathered in Shaiba. The wizard wore a mask, chanted incantations, and led everyone to dance Nuo dances, praying to the five gods to bless the harvest this year.
"This is an obscene sacrifice, and it is indeed a transformation of barbarians!"
Mr. Shen sat on the edge of the sun dam and shook his head repeatedly as he watched the villagers dancing Nuo dance. In spite of his disdain, he couldn't help but take a sip of sweet wine and said intoxicated aftertaste: "It's not worthwhile to worship obscene people, but the wine made by the young people The sweet wine is so delicious!”
Wang Yuan came over, sat on the ground to drink with Shen Fucong, and said with a smile: "Sir, why don't we go dancing together?"
"It's enough for drinking," Master Shen took another sip of fried pine nuts and praised, "Although there are no dried fruits and candied fruit to go with the wine, the fried pine nuts have a unique flavor."
In the early years of Zhengde, peanuts had not yet been introduced into China, and the drinking habits of the Ming Dynasty people followed those of the Song Dynasty. Either dried fruits or candied fruits were used to drink wine. If it had been a few decades later, Master Shen would definitely have used peanuts to make things happen. .
Wang Yuan said: "I have discussed with the leader of Fang Village that the money for buying pens, inks, paper, inkstones and books will be shared among the five of us."
"Five families?" Master Shen didn't understand.
"Yes, five families. Wang family, Fang family, Yuan family, Liu family, and He family," Wang Yuan pointed to the wizard dancing beside the bonfire and explained, "The He family has always been in charge of sacrifices and is also the doctor in the village. Mr. He wants to send his two grandchildren to study and is willing to bear all daily expenses."
Master Shen didn't care about this: "Okay, we're not short of those two anyway."
Wang Yuan said: "Master Fang asked me to ask, how much does it cost to buy those things?"
Master Shen had a headache and said, "I don't know the prices in Guizhou either."
Wang Yuan asked: "What about the prices in Jiangnan?"
Master Shen calculated: "Elementary school reading materials and the Four Books and Five Classics, due to their widespread printing, are the cheapest type of engravings. In the south of the Yangtze River, about five or six chickens can be exchanged for a set of official engravings of the Four Books and Annotations. If it is One or two chickens can be exchanged for a set of privately engraved bad copies. Of course, this was the price in the early years of Hongzhi, and I don’t know much about it now.”
Damn, chicken can still be used as a currency unit?
"If calculated in terms of copper coins, how much money can buy a set of "Collected Annotations of the Four Books"?" Wang Yuan continued to ask.
Master Shen shook his head repeatedly: "How can we tell clearly about copper coins? We can only use silver to price them."
After Wang Yuan's in-depth questioning and Mr. Shen's detailed explanation, he realized that the monetary system of the Ming Dynasty was extremely chaotic.
The official currency is the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, but these are nothing more than waste paper and they stopped printing as early as the Xuande period. Moreover, one of the reasons why the printing of treasure banknotes stopped was that the printing cost was higher than the circulation value.
However, the suspension of printing remains the suspension of printing. It will always be the official currency, and its legal status will always be higher than that of silver and copper coins.
Until the Chongzhen period, Ming Dynasty banknotes were still in use, mainly for rewards and tax collection.
When foreign countries paid tribute, the emperor had to give rewards in return. There were many kinds of rewards, but they must have the shadow of treasure notes. Sometimes hundreds of thousands of them were awarded at a time. There were actually several small countries that brought back Ming Dynasty treasure notes and regarded them as High-end currency circulation, such as Ryukyu Kingdom.
There is also the imperial examination. Every new scholar will receive a stack of treasure notes as a reward. You can't buy this thing, you can only take it home and press it on the bottom of the box. It makes you feel uncomfortable wiping your butt.
As for tax collection, that’s the worst part!
The big bosses of the imperial court often had fits of convulsions, and suddenly ordered that a certain type of tax could only be paid with treasure money.
Pay your sister’s taxes!
The Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes have been stopped printing for a long time. Where can I find taxable treasure banknotes for a while?
As a result, a business was born: Tunchao House.
These people hoard treasure banknotes at the price of buying toilet paper, and then sell them to taxable people at the official price, making huge profits of thousands of times. They even sell banknotes to the court, because the court does not print banknotes, so where can they find treasure banknotes? Rewards to vassal states and Jinshi?
Wang Yuan was dumbfounded when he heard this, and he exclaimed that it was strange.
For a country's official legal tender, the cost of printing money actually exceeds the circulation value.
That's paper money! It's printed with hemp.
That's all. When the imperial court uses the currency it issues, it still has to buy it back from the private sector at a high price, allowing money collectors to rip it off?
Damn it, how much intrigue is there, how much collusion is there, you can understand it if you think about it with your heels.
Then, Master Shen talked about the situation of copper coins, which completely refreshed Wang Yuan's understanding of currency.
Copper coins minted in Zhili are generally only circulated in the Zhili area. Each province has its own copper coins, and their values vary. In many cases, it is difficult for merchants to convert them.
Even copper coins minted in the same area have different values.
Take the gold-backed coins of Nanzhili as an example. Due to their exquisite casting and rich materials, they are more popular than other local copper coins. Therefore, one penny of gold-backed coins is often worth two, three, or even five cents of other copper coins. Articles, ten articles!
Let's put it this way, a farmer from the mountainous area of Southern Zhili carries agricultural and sideline products to Nanjing City for sale. The copper coin value alone can knock him out. It would be strange not to be tricked to death.
This does not include fake money. Copper-clad iron and copper-clad lead fake money are everywhere. Sometimes experts who specialize in currency appraisal will make mistakes. There are also people who take advantage of scraping copper, that is, scraping off the edge of the copper coin and leaving the remaining parts. The copper coins dropped instantly depreciated in value.
Seriously speaking, it is more reassuring to receive ancient coins, because people will not privately mint "Kaiyuan Tongbao", "Qingli Tongbao" and the like.
Well, copper coins from the Tang and Song Dynasties were still used in the Ming Dynasty, and they were still very hard currency.
"The world outside is so complicated!" Wang Yuan couldn't help but sigh.
In a poor place like Guizhou, there are not so many twists and turns.
The villagers go down the mountain to do business, and the main form is barter. Not to mention silver, even copper coins are rarely used, and there is no case of receiving fake money.
Master Shen smiled and said: "Speaking of coins, I remember an interesting anecdote. A few years ago, I was having a banquet with my benefactor, and a Yunnan Jinshi said that they still use seashells there."
"Shell?" Wang Yuan felt that the lower limit of his knowledge would be completely refreshed today.
In fact, not to mention the Ming Dynasty, even in the Qing Dynasty, Yunnan still used shells as currency.
According to historical records, in the 27th year of Jiajing reign in the Ming Dynasty, a military household named Dong Yiyan in Yunnan sold his house to a military household named Zhong Dayong for twenty-four taels of silver. However, he was afraid that the silver would be adulterated, so he decided to use shells instead. The transaction was converted into two thousand one hundred and sixty shells.
Can you imagine that shells are more valuable than silver?
Wang Yuan became even more curious about the Ming Dynasty and quickly asked for other common knowledge about life.
Master Shen recalled his wonderful first half of life and said with emotion: "When it comes to Jiangnan scenery, the most unforgettable thing is shark's fin. It tastes very delicious and can nourish the spirit and nourish the spirit. It is really a good nourishing food!"
Holy shit, shark fins existed in the Ming Dynasty?
They are both from the Ming Dynasty, so the difference between Jiangnan and Guizhou is huge.
One has become popular with shark fins, and the other has become popular among primitive tribes. They simply belong to two different worlds.
Wang Yuan's spiritual world, which had been silent for many years, suddenly became active. He was unwilling to stay in Guizhou and couldn't wait to go out and see!
(The heroine’s character was added by Lao Wang, just reveal it in advance.)