A Dawn of Superstition and Symbolism

In the pre-dawn darkness of New Year’s Day during China’s Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE), a middle-aged man performed peculiar rituals that would baffle modern observers. Before first light, he buried a dough snake, cooked beans, and a hard-boiled egg while chanting incantations. This seemingly bizarre act held profound meaning – by symbolically burying items that could never decompose or hatch (a dough snake can’t crawl, cooked beans can’t sprout, boiled eggs can’t hatch), he enacted a magical guarantee that his family would remain free from illness throughout the coming year.

This ritual reflects the Song Dynasty’s unique blend of folk religion, Daoist traditions, and agricultural superstitions that transformed the Lunar New Year into a tapestry of symbolic acts. The buried offerings represented a sympathetic magic where preventing the impossible (the “revival” of buried items) would prevent the undesirable (illness).

The Household’s Magical Armory

As daylight approached, the man’s home protection rituals intensified. He adorned his doors and windows with willow branches – believed in Daoist tradition to ward off evil spirits, explaining why Daoist priests used willow branches in exorcisms. More remarkably, he crafted peach wood wedges inscribed with the names “Shen Shu” and “Yu Lu,” mythical demon-quelling brothers from Chinese folklore, hammering them into the ground flanking his doorway.

These peach wood talismans, known as “peach charms” (taofu), were commonly mistaken by later scholars as spring couplets. Contemporary records like the Northern Song text “Miscellaneous Records of the Year’s Seasons” clarify their true nature: “Nowadays people make peach charms about an inch wide and seven or eight inches long, split down the middle, with ‘Shen Shu’ written on the left and ‘Yu Lu’ on the right, nailed to the ground on either side of the door on New Year’s morning.”

The poet Su Dongpo’s fable “The Peach Charm and Mugwort Man Quarrel” further confirms their placement: when a mugwort effigy (hung for the Dragon Boat Festival) mocks the peach charm for being “half-buried in earth,” their argument reveals the peach charms’ subterranean position.

The Art of New Year Decor

With protective measures in place, the household turned to decoration. The couple pasted door gods (traditionally fierce generals like Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong) and spring couplets. Unlike modern times when these are paper-based, Song Dynasty couplets came in both paper and peach wood varieties. The wooden versions were polished peach boards with carved or written characters, replaced annually.

A distinctive Song custom was the “Heavenly Decree Plaque” (tianxing tie’er) bearing the standardized four-character phrase “Shun Tian Xing Hua” (“Follow Heaven’s Will in Conducting Transformation”). This inscription, mounted on the lintel, expressed both reverence toward cosmic forces and a commitment to virtuous conduct – a plea for heavenly protection throughout the year.

Door god imagery evolved during the Song. After Emperor Xiaozong rehabilitated the wronged general Yue Fei’s reputation, Yue became a popular door god. Another variant featured Zhong Kui, the demon-quelling scholar who committed suicide after failing imperial examinations, often depicted with his sister Zhong Hua – a ghost-devouring deity who terrified evil spirits.

Beyond protective deities, some chose auspicious symbols like the “Wealth Door’s Dull Donkey” (a chubby donkey carrying firewood, punning on “wealth”) or “Looking-Back Deer Horse” (a deer symbolizing official position). These reflected Song merchants’ growing influence and aspirations for prosperity and status.

The Ghostly Spectacle of New Year’s Eve

The boundary between New Year celebrations and supernatural beliefs blurred dramatically in Song cities. On New Year’s morning, families rushed to post door gods before encountering “poor ghosts” – actually beggars wearing grotesque masks who extorted money. The “poor ghost” tradition (called “night fox hunting”) saw organized groups of beggars dressed as Zhong Kui or other supernatural figures demanding payment – a practice tolerated only on this day as their departure symbolically rid the household of misfortune.

More spectacular were imperial exorcism processions on New Year’s Eve. As recorded in “Dream Pool Essays,” palace guards and musicians transformed into a supernatural parade:

“On New Year’s Eve in the palace, the great exorcism ritual was performed… wearing masks and embroidered costumes, holding golden spears, silver halberds, painted wooden swords, five-colored dragon-phoenix banners… dressed as generals, judges, Zhong Kui, the Six Ding and Six Jia spirit soldiers, demon envoys, kitchen gods, earth gods, door spirits… with drums and pipes driving out evil through the Donghua Gate to ‘bury the hauntings’ at Dragon Pond Bend.”

This vibrant spectacle, combining theater, religion, and civic ritual, turned Song capitals into what might resemble modern Halloween celebrations – a reminder of how ancient Chinese festivals often merged entertainment with spiritual meaning.

Children’s Growth Magic and Agricultural Omens

The Song Dynasty’s New Year included peculiar rituals for children’s development. Parents believing their child grew too slowly would drag the child by their feet near the toilet at dawn on New Year’s Day (thought to stimulate growth). Conversely, lightly tapping a rapidly growing child’s head with a wooden shovel supposedly slowed growth.

To “sell” stupidity or stuttering, a child would shout “I sell my dullness to you!” when someone responded to their New Year’s greeting. While likely performed in jest, these practices reveal how the New Year served as a symbolic reset for personal challenges.

Agricultural divination flourished. Families examined their oxen’s posture on New Year’s Day – all standing predicted abundance, all lying foretold poor harvests, while mixed postures suggested an average year. Weather during the first week carried prophetic weight too, with each day’s conditions predicting that month’s agricultural outlook.

The Lost Culinary Traditions

Modern Chinese associate New Year with dumplings (north) or tangyuan (south), but Song celebrants ate botuo – originally a Central Asian pulled noodle that evolved into a general term for noodles in broth. The poet Lu You recorded this in his verse: “At midnight after ancestral sacrifices, we share botuo.”

Festive tables featured:
1. Five-Spice Platter: With leeks, rapeseed, coriander, garlic, and wild onions – believed to prevent illness
2. “Hundred Affairs Auspicious”: A wordplay arrangement of persimmons, tangerines, and cypress branches representing good fortune
3. “Probing the Cocoon”: Dumplings containing slips predicting the eater’s future official rank – a precursor to modern coin-stuffed dumplings

The Seven Days of Creation

Following a tradition dating to the Han Dynasty, the Song assigned each of New Year’s first seven days to a creature’s “birthday”:
1. Day 1: Chicken
2. Day 2: Dog
3. Day 3: Pig
4. Day 4: Sheep
5. Day 5: Ox
6. Day 6: Horse
7. Day 7: Human

The weather on each day supposedly affected that creature’s fortunes. Southern Song scholar Hong Mai noted the eighth day (grain day) held special importance for agricultural predictions.

The Ritual of “Expelling Poverty”

The sixth day featured “sending away poverty” rituals varying by region. In Tang times, people made willow carriages and straw boats to “transport” poverty away. Northern Song Kaifeng residents simplified this by placing seven pancakes over refuse and discarding it in the street – an early example of how urban living modified traditional customs.

Tang scholar Han Yu’s satirical “Dismissing Poverty” essay reveals deeper meanings – his personified Poverty argues that staying poor maintains moral integrity, reflecting Confucian ideals about virtuous poverty versus corrupt wealth.

The Legacy of Song New Year Traditions

The Song Dynasty’s New Year practices represent a fascinating intersection of:
– Ancient agricultural superstitions adapting to urban life
– Daoist and folk religious elements merging with domestic rituals
– The commercialization of traditions (like door god prints)
– Confucian values expressed through symbolic acts

While many customs like peach charms and dough snake burials have vanished, others evolved into modern practices. The “probe the cocoon” game anticipates fortune cookies, while door gods transformed into New Year prints. The Song period’s creative synthesis of tradition and innovation established patterns that would influence Chinese festival culture for centuries, making their New Year celebrations a vibrant chapter in China’s cultural history.