On the sixth day of February, the helmsman of the Dragon Guardian Association held a ceremony for Zhao Yunze to succeed the leader.Qin Mo'er accompanied Zhao Yunze and completed the ceremonies of the ceremony under the organization of Yan Mo.To the surprise of the helmsman of the Dragon Protector Society, after Zhao Yunze officially took over as the leader of the Society, the first order he issued was that the Dragon Protector Society maintained the status quo, and Qin Mo'er still presided over everything in the Dragon Protector Society.And he will soon leave Chang'an City to carry out the new task assigned by the Tang Emperor.After listening to Zhao Yunze's explanation, everyone was relieved.After Mu Qingfeng heard Zhao Yunze personally say that he was leaving Chang'an City, he was more sure of his plan in his heart.On February 12, the Tang Dynasty monarchs held a ceremony to sacrifice agriculture in the royal field in the north of Chang'an City.Note: borrowed field, also written as "耤田".The so-called borrowed land is the land that the emperor kept privately for cultivation.The earliest records of historical materials were in the Zhou Dynasty.Zhou Li commented: "The king of the ancients is the son of heaven, rich from all over the world, and he will privately borrow land, and there are three meanings to cover it."
One is to Fengzong Temple to pay his filial piety; Second, it is said that the people are diligent in training, and diligence is not scarce; The three sons and grandsons of Wen know the difficulties of the crops. ”The meaning of this passage in Zhou Lizhong is that although the Son of Heaven is rich from all over the world, he should also buy his own land and cultivate it.The significance of this is threefold.The first is to enshrine the output of cultivation in the temple to express filial piety to the ancestors; the second is that the Son of Heaven uses personal ploughing to train the people to be diligent in farming; The third is to educate children and grandchildren to experience the hard work of farming, so as to be diligent and thrifty and love the people.The borrowed land of the Son of Heaven has been a thousand acres since the Zhou Dynasty.According to the Book of Rites and Sacrifices: "In the past, the Son of Heaven borrowed a thousand acres" Of course, the emperor and the people of the imperial family could not all cultivate the land of a thousand acres.In some dynasties, the yamen in charge of Si Nong managed the emperor's borrowed land on his behalf; In some dynasties, the eunuchs in the palace took care of the borrowed fields; In other dynasties, they directly rented the land to the people for planting.By the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Son of Heaven had changed from a thousand acres to one acre and three points of land, which was purely symbolic.In modern times, "one acre and three points of land" is used to represent one's own territory or sphere of influence, which comes from this.In the Tang Dynasty, the borrowed field was in the north of the city, also because the imperial palace was in the northernmost part of Chang'an City.This made it easier for the emperor to go to the fields and plough them personally.The agricultural festival was attended by all adult men of the imperial family and civil and military officials in Beijing.The yamen of the imperial court also only left the personnel on duty.Twenty miles away from the north of the city is Li Shimin's thousand acres of borrowed land.Coincidentally, Li Shimin's borrowed field is next to the 400 acres of Yongye land newly granted by Zhao Yunze.The 400 acres of Yongye land newly granted by Zhao Yunze have also been leased to the villagers of Zhaojiazhuang.In the field, there were also houses built for the emperor to rest while farming.These houses are not luxuriously built at all, and from the outside, they look like slightly larger farm yards.This is probably also to educate the emperor about the bittersweet memory.The Emperor's farm was built in the easternmost middle of the field.On the opposite side of the farmyard, in the middle of the western part of the borrowed field, there is a borrowing field altar.It is very tall and round as a whole, with a total of three steps, and each step has five steps.Take the meaning of the right time, the right place and the right people, and the abundant harvest of grains.In the middle of the field altar, there is a rectangular temple of six gods.The six shrines are covered with blue tiles, surrounded by red walls on three sides in the northwest and south, and open to the east.In the hall stands the full-body statues of the six great gods of Fengbo, Yushi, Lingxing, Xiannong, She, and Ji.Note: By Tiantan, Tang Ruizong changed its name to "Xiannongtan", and all subsequent dynasties continued to use this title.Today's agricultural ceremony, in addition to the emperor led the civil and military officials to sacrifice, there are also farmers and elders invited from the suburbs of Chang'an to participate.The people near Chang'an City can also go to the field to watch the ceremony.Thousands of acres of borrowed fields, with the altar of borrowing fields as the center, forming a dense two-circle pile of people.The outermost part is naturally the ordinary people who come here to watch the ceremony.The soldiers who were on guard were stationed five hundred paces from the altar.Around the field altar, there were sergeants on guard.Under the field altar, there are civil and military officials and peasant elders led by Li Shimin.At the end of the day, the agricultural ceremony officially began.Sikong Pei Lin presided over the agricultural ceremony.In Pei Lian's singing, Li Shimin offered three sacrifices to the statue of the six gods, and personally recited the sacrifice.The officials, the elderly, and the people who came to watch the ceremony bowed and bowed to the statues of the six gods under the leadership of Li Shimin.After the ceremony, it was Li Shimin's pro-ploughing ceremony.The plot of land for Li Shimin to plough has already been demarcated.A few days before the ceremony, the officials of Sinong Temple had already led people to water the land in advance, and cleared the stones and wild grass in the field.What Li Shimin had to do was to personally support the plow and sow the grain.A large bullock with red flowers hanging from its horns and wearing multicolored silk was placed on a plough that was also tied with red flowers.Two old peasants, about fifty or sixty years old, led the big bullock on one side.Li Shimin had already changed out of his crown dress at this time and put on a bright yellow dress with short clothes and long pants.On the head, the head was also removed, and only a bun was pulled and wrapped in a yellow scarf.On his feet, he wore a pair of straw sandals.If it weren't for the bright yellow color of his clothes and headscarf, Li Shimin at this time, just looking at his dress, would be no different from a peasant.Li Shimin was holding a plow in one hand and a leather whip on his right shoulder, ready to go.The nine-year-old crown prince Li Chengqian was also brought by Li Shimin today to assist in farming.Li Chengqian was also dressed in labor clothes at this time, and he held a small leather whip in his hand and followed behind the cow's buttocks."
In the first year of Zhenguan, the year value, the mid-spring day, the emperor personally cultivated.With Pei Lian's singing, Li Shimin took off the leather whip from his shoulder with his right hand and threw it forward, and the leather whip sounded a crisp whip above the cow's buttocks.Yo, Comrade Lao Li is quite like that, I'm afraid I can't do it.Zhao Yunze, who was in the group of officials, praised Li Shimin in his heart."
Driving" Li Shimin shouted, and the two old men led the big bulf forward.Li Chengqian also waved the small leather whip in his hand and gently whipped the cow's buttocks.Ploughing by himself, the emperor wants to sow five grains, and each seed is sown back and forth three times.Li Shimin seemed to be very good at ploughing, and he only used one hand to hold the plow.The bullock was marching steadily, and the plough in Li Shimin's palm was not deep or shallow, and at the same time the seeds were sown in the ground.Seeing this, Zhao Yunze frowned.Comrade Lao Li actually did not first turn the land deep and then sow the seeds, but directly sowed the seeds into the ground.Could it be that the agricultural production in the early Tang Dynasty was all like this, and then look at the big bully, it didn't tie its nose, and it was like a mule with a bridle on the plow.No wonder there is someone in charge of the cow, and every time the two old men pull the cow's head, it seems to be very laborious.In later generations, the cow pierced its nose, and it hurt when it pulled its nose slightly, which was very easy to control.It is not necessary for someone to lead the ox to plough the land, and an experienced farmer can control the oxen with a plow in one hand and a long rein in the other.It seems that there is still a lot of room for improvement in Datang's agricultural planting technology: