A Research On Birthday Festival In Tang Dynasty And Song Dynasty

The research of the festival custom is always a hot issue in the academic circles. However, the professors and masters usually pay attention to traditional festival in this aspect. For example New Year's day, Shangyuan Jie, Zhonghe Jie, Sheri, Hanshi Jie, Qingming Jie, Shangsi Jie, Dragon Boat Festival, Qixi Jie, Zhongyuan Jie, Mid-Autumn, Chongyang Jie and New Year's Eve etc. What a special festival they neglect is birthday. Birthday is different from traditional festival, which is celebrated together by all the people. Contrary, birthday is a special festival for one person who could invite friends and relatives to celebrate.The most distinctive phenomenon is the emergence of Dan Jie which is the emperors' birthday. The emperors believe the seigniorage come from God, so they also think themselves be inviolable. This is the reason why they establish the birthday as festival and expand to other person with the form of the law. Their acts influence greatly their minister and common people. This let the birthday become a kind of etiquette and custom and be very widely accepted in Tang dynasty and Song dynasty.The subject of this text which be divided into five parts is the birthday etiquette and custom in Tang dynasty and Song dynasty. The prolegomena review the birthday custom in the period before Tang dynasty. Chapter 1 carries on a simple summary of the research circumstance in Tang dynasty and Song dynasty. Chapter 2 and chapter 3 is the generation and development of birthday etiquette and custom in Tang dynasty and Song dynasty and the period between them. Because the emperors' birthday is different from other people. So the Dan Jie is a special and important circumstance in the birthday custom. The two chapers start from the emperor Tangxuanzong establish the Dan Jie, then introduce the experience of other Dan Jie in Tang dynasty and song dynasty with detailed treatise. At the same time, there are also reasons for emergency of the birthday etiquette and custom in this chapter. The birthday of the miniters and common people is also important and significant, but scholars pay little attention in this aspect. Chapter 4 is made up with a few special birthday phenomenon in Tang dynasty and Song dynasty, including setting animals free in birthday and giving birthday beatitude with poesy and the special activity of minority's Dan Jie and quota of people to be minister in and giving name to temple in Dan Jie and the special festival correlative with Taoism, which is complementarity for the former three chapers. Chaper 5 emphasize in the evaluation about the special phenomenon.