Chapter 256: Han Cheng, the fanatic of couplets

Chapter 256: Han Cheng, the fanatic of coupletsUnder the canopy of sunlight, Han Cheng was utterly unaware of the subtle changes due to his gaze. If he had known, it was uncertain whether he would still have the courage and interest to reminisce about the past while facing the women of the tribe.

Fortunately, despite feeling somewhat moved by the words of the female tribeswoman, Star, Xiao Mei, and Xiao Li were hesitant to take action for the time being.

Thus, Han Cheng, the great Divine Child, who remained oblivious to these matters, was able to arrange the preparations for the upcoming New Year with a relatively relaxed and nostalgic mood, preparing for a celebration they had never experienced before.

In anticipation, time always seems to drag on slowly, causing impatience. Amidst the eager anticipation of the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe, the footsteps of the New Year were finally drawing near.

On the twenty-fourth, houses were cleaned.

On the twenty-fifth, tofu was ground.

On the twenty-sixth, meat was cut.

On the twenty-seventh, a chicken was slaughtered.

On the twenty-eighth, paintings were pasted.

And so on

In the cold season, as the New Year approached, the Green Sparrow Tribe became increasingly lively and expectant. Although the days seemed normal on the surface, everyone could feel the difference in the air.

The feast on the twenty-third seemed much more sumptuous compared to previous nights. Following the meal, discussions about the New Year began to unfold, progressing step by step, like a bow being slowly drawn back, ready to unleash its energy.

On the twenty-fourth, under the orders of the Divine Child, the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe began to take action.

They cleaned and wiped household utensils, and tidied up the courtyard.

The large cauldrons used for boiling soup in the Green Sparrow Tribe never stopped, constantly providing hot water for the people to clean things.

Once the rooms, courtyards, and utensils were cleaned, it was time to clean themselves.

Even Han Cheng's bathing frequency decreased with no bathhouse available and the weather turning colder.

However, unlike before, everyone, even those reluctant to bathe, had to bathe today. This was an order from the Divine Child, delivered very sternly.

The reason was that the new year symbolized a fresh start, and the dirt of the previous year shouldn't be carried over.

The atmosphere was filled with steam in a relatively small, humid area separated by wooden planks and animal hides.

In the large cauldron, after happily blowing a string of bubbles underwater, Han Cheng began to scrub away the dirt from his body and washed his long hair with his hands.

Once he lifted his head out of the hot water, he immediately felt the chill. Even though a small fire burned beneath the cauldron, reminiscent of boiling soup, it couldn't completely ward off the cold air.

They needed to find a way to build a dedicated bathing area. Bathing in such conditions was highly uncomfortable, explaining why the tribe disliked it when the weather turned cold.

As Han Cheng pondered this, he continued to scrub his body and hair.

With no soap or washcloths available, they could only use their hands to scrub.

Han Cheng could endure all of this, but what he couldn't stand the most was washing his hair with just water.

After washing with water, he always felt that his hair and scalp were still greasy, enough to drive a person crazy.

Han Cheng didn't expect to have shampoo or soap, but if there were a bag of laundry detergent in front of him, he would gratefully rub it into his hair. Even if his hair became dry and almost impossible to comb afterward, he would still accept it with pleasure.

However, even laundry detergent was a luxury; they could only use wood ash.

After cleaning his body, Han Cheng grabbed a handful of wood ash from the nearby jar and rubbed it into his hair.

Although using wood ash to wash hair is not very easy to clean completely, it could alleviate the greasy feeling to some extent.

Soap!

For a long time, every time Han Cheng bathed and washed his hair, he would chant these words several times.

After the journey following the beginning of spring, the most important thing was to confirm his thoughts and, secondly, to try to find some valuable things that the Green Sparrow Tribe didn't have but could benefit from. Soap was one of them.

After the twenty-fourth, the entire Green Sparrow Tribe felt rejuvenated.

Since the Green Sparrow Tribe didn't cultivate soybeans, they couldn't grind them into tofu on the twenty-fifth.

Han Cheng felt quite regretful about not being able to have this precious food, which was considered a delicacy during times of poverty.

Forget about Mapo tofu; having stinky tofu or skin fried and cut into shreds, which could be used for soup or stir-fry, was enough to make Han Cheng nostalgic.

Without tofu to grind, the women of the Green Sparrow Tribe were busy making new clothes, striving to ensure everyone had a new outfit before the New Year.

Meanwhile, the men were preparing firewood and drums to drive away the Nian beast.

As each day passed, the atmosphere thickened, and time stubbornly marched on. It was now the twenty-eighth.

After several days of clear weather, the sky became overcast again.

Han Cheng exhaled visible breath and brought over Mu Tou and Lame who had already made two-sided drums from wood in their spare time. He instructed them to cut several pieces of wood about one meter long and five to six centimeters in diameter.

Then, using a stone knife and wooden stick, they split these pieces of wood in half from the middle.

Lame followed his instructions, and the rest stood by, unwilling to leave, wanting to see what the Divine Child was preparing to do.

Han Cheng took a piece of tile and calculated the spacing. Then, on some yellow-brown wooden boards, he drew faint lines at the calculated intervals.

He then took a piece of charcoal and began to write on these spaces.

Everybody watched from the side, puzzled about the Divine Child's intentions.

The children who had gathered around, with their heads tilted, watched for a while and then, following Han Cheng's writing, slowly recited, "With each passing year, life is extended; with the arrival of spring, blessings fill the building."

After reciting it, they scratched their heads in confusion.

Their confusion stemmed from three points: First, within the Green Sparrow Tribe, besides the shaman, he was the best at understanding written words, yet he couldn't fully comprehend what the shaman had written this time.

He recognized all the characters, but when they were put together, he didn't know what they meant.

Second, the writing style differed from what the Divine Child usually taught; he was accustomed to writing horizontally from left to right. Why did the Divine Child write from top to bottom this time?

Third, he didn't understand the purpose of the Divine Child's creation.

"In the new year, let's welcome the surplus blessings; the festival is named Eternal Spring."

"As the sound of the drumskin bids farewell to the old year, let's replace the old symbols with new peaches."

With doubts, the children slowly read out what Han Cheng had written.

Han Cheng recalled the few couplets he remembered and wrote them down stroke by stroke.

The earliest known couplet is "In the new year, let's welcome the surplus blessings; the festival is named Eternal Spring," said to have been penned by Meng Chang, the last ruler of the Later Shu dynasty, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period after the end of the Tang dynasty.

Regarding Meng Chang, not many people know about him, but one of his consorts is quite famous. She is the Lady Huarui, for whom Meng Chang planted hibiscus flowers all over the capital.

After the fall of the state, when faced with Zhao's questioning about the country's ruin, she wrote a poem:

"The king's banner hangs atop the city walls,

But in the deep palace, how could I have known?

Fourteen thousand men all laid down their arms,

Yet not a single one was a man."

Meng Chang shares many similarities in experience and character with Li Yu, the Southern Tang monarch who wrote: "When Will the Spring Flowers and Autumn Moon End?" However, Meng Chang's poetry is not as well-known as Li Yu's, and this couplet is the most widely circulated one.

It is said that when he wrote this couplet, Zhao had already split his forces and sent Wang Quan'an and Cao Bin to attack Later Shu. In the same year that he wrote this couplet, Later Shu was defeated, and both he and Lady Huarui became captives.

But what's even more intriguing is that that same year, the highest-ranking official sent by the Great Song to handle affairs in Later Shu was named Lu Yuqing. Not long before that, Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao's father, had designated his birthday as the Long Spring Festival

"You'll find out soon."

Han Cheng smiled and said to the curious stone that couldn't hold back its questions.

Then, he asked Lame to bring a rope and a stone knife and carved some grooves near the ends of the wooden couplets to tie them with ropes.

After doing all this, he instructed Shi Tou, Lame, and the others gathered around to carry the wooden couplets outside carefully, warning them not to smudge the characters on top.

After all, they were written with charcoal, not ink, and it was easy to smear if one wasn't careful.

A few small wooden stakes were hammered into the pillars on either side of the gate, and the pair of couplets, which were much larger than the other three, were hung on both sides of the gate by Han Cheng.

It was the pair of couplets that he had ingeniously changed the firecrackers to drums.

The unexpected move by the Divine Child quickly attracted many people from the Green Sparrow Tribe to come and see.

People pointed at the couplets and speculated about the Divine Child's intentions.

Some said it was to scare away the Nian beast, some said it was a charm, and some said it was to communicate with the heavenly gods

Han Cheng listened to the crowd's discussions without saying a word. He just stepped back four or five meters, smiled, and carefully examined the unique and somewhat crude couplets, satisfied.

His only regrets were that the characters were a bit ugly and that the wooden boards were not dyed red.

Another regret was that there was no way to get a door god. Otherwise, whether it was the red-faced Guan Yu, the black-faced Zhang Fei, or Qin Shubao holding a golden club and Yu Chigong holding a whip, if they were painted and pasted on the door, they would add a lot of splendor to the Green Sparrow Tribe's first New Year.

Han Cheng wanted to paint a few, but then he thought about his rather unimpressive abstract painting skills and gave up the idea. Otherwise, if the door gods of the Green Sparrow Tribe appeared, not only would they be able to ward off ghosts, but people would also avoid them like the plague just thinking about it was scary.

The other three doors were also each hung with couplets.

Not feeling satisfied yet, Han Cheng wrote two more pairs and hung them at the cave entrance and the deer pen gate.

He also made a short wooden sign with the words "Prosperity in the Trough" and hung it on the long trough where the deer often ate grass.

Looking at the many fawns the Deer Lord and his harem had produced over the past year, Han Cheng felt that this sign was most suitable for this location.

Even the rabbit pen, chicken pen, the place where the Green Sparrow Tribe often cooked, and the shaman's bed where he slept were not spared by the creative and unstoppable Divine Child. They were each hung with signs like "Prosperity of Livestock" and "Beware of Fire."

Even the newly made single-wooden canoes of the Green Sparrow Tribe, which had not yet been tested, were hung with signs saying "Travel a Thousand Miles During the Day, Eight Hundred Miles at Night," which could be quite crazy.

Although such single-wooden canoes couldn't even travel a hundred miles a day