Domain

Explanation

What Qing … what Ming … thought they are Chinese dynasties?

• It is true that the Ming dynasty 明朝 and Qing dynasty 清朝 do exist
• In fact, they are the last two dynasties of the ancient Chinese civilisation, arisen from the Huang Ho 黃河流域
• I particularly admire Zhen He 鄭和 of Ming dynasty
• After the fall of Ming dynasty & the rise of Qing dynasty,
• There was a popular slogan for uprising against the governing Manchu empire: 反清復明
• Of course, everyone knows the Qing dynasty marks the end of the ancient Chinese civilisation
• With such humiliations as the opium war 鴉片戰, hundred-year-weakness 百年懦弱, Asian sick-man 東亞病夫, rebellions 民間起義, unequal treatises 不平等條約, etc.
• The last emperor 末代皇帝 was tragically fated to be the perfect fall-guy & scapegoat for humiliations of all ages, crushed by the trio of personal ambition, Chinese woes and foreign Western powers

What's Qing Ming festival, then?

• There are two aspects to the Qing Ming Festival 清明節:

1. Agricultural solar division 清明節氣: one of 24 divisions, belonging to the period of (4-6) April annually, where the general weather in China has been described as clear 清 & bright 明
2. Ancestral memorial period 追思紀念: due to the Chinese emphasis on filial piety 孝道 with roots in Confucianism 儒家道德, people travel back to their ancestral grounds 墳地, graves 墳墓 or ash urns 骨灰甕 for offerings, prayers, maintenance of places of burial & also, as a communal event in remembrance of ancestral deeds

• In modern times & especially in urban societies like Singapore,
• The focus of Qing Ming Festival is on the ancestral memorial period
• The burial grounds in Singapore are evolving through the ages:

1. Prior to independence (<1965): almost all people are buried with wooden coffins in earth graves 塵歸塵, 土歸土
2. Post-independence (1965-1980): government encourage people to cremate 火化 their deceased ancestors & place their ash urns in places of worship 骨灰安置所
3. Modern times (1980-): statutory regulation to impose hefty stamp fees on burial grounds & those choosing to bury their ancestors; exhume graves 挖掘墳墓 to make way for new developments (many in Toa Payoh, Choa Chu Kang, Serangoon); build more places of worship to collect the increasing ash urns (with ever-higher booking fees for empty slots that are favourably located)

• For Muslims 回教同胞 (not 同志 in Singapore) & Chinese Muslim (they are most famous as they are allowed to have more than one legitimate wife), the Islam religion stipulates that all deceased Muslims must be buried & not cremated

Origin

This coming Saturday, April the 5th, is the festival of Qing Ming

It continues to rain on Qing Ming day,

And there are not many pedestrains on the roads.

From which wine store that I can obtain some good wine?

The little shepherd boy points me to Xinghua Village

Qing Ming Festival was the day when the livings went to their ancestors'

graves to pray and sweep the graves clean. Qing Ming occured every year

105 days after winter solstice (¥V¦Ü). This is the story of the origin of Qing Ming.

During the Spring and Autumn Period (¬K¬î®É¥N 722BC to 481BC), in 676BC, Ji

Gui Zhu (®V¸Þ½Ñ) became the 19th ruler of the State of Jin (®Ê°ê). Ji Gui Zhu ruled Jin until 651BC. One of Ji Gui Zhu's favourite concubines, Li (Æz) had manipulated Ji Gui Zhu into having his most capable three sons sent out to serve as governors in three different places in the State. The three sons were Zhong Er (­«¦Õ), Shen Sheng (¥Ó¥Í) and Yi Wu (¦i§^). Eventually Zhong Er went into exile, Shen Sheng was murdered by concubine Li and Yi Wu became the 20th ruler of Jin. Yi Wu ruled Jin from 650BC to 638BC.

Zhong Er had been in exiled for 19 years. Many of his followers went with him travelling from State to State. They suffered a great deal while wandering from place to place. Zhong Er was 43-year-old when he went into exile. Finally, in

636BC, when he was 62 years old he became the 22nd ruler of the State of Jin.

Zhong Er's official title was Jin Wen Gong (®Ê¤å¤½) and he ruled Jin until 628BC.

In appreciation to their loyalty and in helping him to become the ruler, Zhong Er rewarded his followers by appointing them into high official positions in his administration. However, Zhong Er forgot to reward to one of his most helpful followers by the name of Jie Zi Tui (¤¶¤l±À). Zhong Er proclaimed that if any one

of his followers had been missed out in receiving a reward, he should write to him.

Jie Zhang (¸Ñ±i), a neighbour of Jie Zi Tui told him to write to Zhong Er. Jie Zi Tui was a humble man and he did not write to Zhong Er and his old mother agreed

with him too for not writing to Zhong Er. Instead, Jie Zi Tui and his mother went to

live in a mountain nearby. The mountain was called Mian Shan (ºø¤s).

Seeing that Jie Zi Tui did not write to Zhong Er, Jie Zhang went to see Zhong Er and told him about Jie Zi Tui. After hearing from Jie Zhang, Zhong Er rushed to

the place where Jie Zi Tui lived, but he was no where to be found. Zhong Er went to inquire from the farmers who were tilling the fields nearby. One of them told Zhong Er that several days ago he saw a man carrying an old lady on his back passing

by. They stopped at the foot of the mountain to fetch some water to drink. After that they walked up to the mountain. Knowing that Jie Zi Tui had taken his mother up to the mountain Zhong Er sent soldiers to comb the mountain, and after several days they could not find him. Jie Zhang suggested to Zhong Er to conduct a control burning to the mountain to flush him out. Zhong Er ordered the soldiers to spread out over three sides of the mountain and light fires, however, the fire had burnt out of control for three days. There were no signs of mother and son being seen, but fire and smoke covering the whole mountain. After the fire had extinguished and the sky was clear (Qing ²M) and bright (Ming ©ú), Zhong Er sent out soldiers to

look for the mother and son, but they were no where to be found. However, the soldiers found their skeletons huddling together under an old willow tree. Looking

at the skeletons Zhong Er was so sad that tears welling up in his eyes.

Zhong Er buried them at the foot of the mountain and changed the name of the mountain from Mian Shan (ºø¤s) to Jie Shan (¤¶¤s). Zhong Er built a temple there

to commemorate them and allocated some farm land and let the income from the farm land to sustain the temple. People of later generations named the area Mian Shang county (ºø¤W¿¤) and the place, where Jie Zi Tui and his mother were buried, Jie Xiu (¤¶¥ð) which meant the resting place of Jie Zi Tui.

The day that the soldiers lit the fire to burn the mountain was 105 days after the winter solstice or the beginning of the winter season. In order to commemorate

Jie Zi Tui, Zhong Er told those people in charge of the temple to go to Jie Zi Tui's grave to pray and stick a willow branch on his grave on that "clear and bright

Qing Ming ²M©ú " day. The significant of sticking a willow branch on his grave

was supposed to recall Jie Zi Tui's soul. On that day, in order to commemorate

Jie Zi Tui, people followed the temple keepers to stick a willow branch in front of their houses and went to their ancestors graves to pray. Generations later this tradition spread far and wide and eventually all over the country. Now it is all over the world wherever they are Chinese. People still called this day "clear and bright

²M©ú" or Qing Ming 清明.