One day in early autumn, the wind was very strong. The old farmer is harvesting wheat in the field. Suddenly, the wind blew away his hat. The old farmer is very agile. He grabbed the rope tied to his hat and tried to pull it back.
But the wind was so strong that the hat was blown into the air. It happened that the rope on the old farmer's hat was very long, and the hat floated in the air like a leaf.
The old farmer tried again, and the hat returned to his hand. He thought it was funny, so the old farmer deliberately threw his hat into the sky. He pulled the rope on the hat to prevent it from being blown away by the wind, but the hat could still float in the air with the help of the wind.
After playing for a while, the old farmer put away his hat. When he got home, he told his family about it and deliberately threw a hat to show it. His family also thought it was amazing and told the villagers about it.
Later, the villagers circulated stories about putting hats everywhere. Gradually, the story spread all over the streets of Zhao Yan, and people began to play the game of wearing hats.
Before long, people put on their hats and felt that they were still heavy and could not float in the air for long. So someone improved the game. They changed their hats into kraft paper, and then gradually evolved into flying kites.
Flying kites is a popular traditional sport in ancient China. It is popular all over China and has a long history of more than two thousand years. Also known as "the earliest human aircraft."
Kite originated in ancient China, and it has long been concluded. But there are two other legends about its origin in ancient China besides hats: one is the theory of leaves; Second, said the sailboat.
It is said that these leaves come from the south of China. It is said that ancient people worshipped the phenomenon of "leaves flying all over the sky", so people tied the leaves with hemp to play, and later it gradually evolved into an activity of flying kites.
Navigation theory also comes from the water towns in the south of China. It is said that ancient southerners used wooden boats for more than 2000 years. Later, there was a sailboat, and the sail was a tool with the help of wind. In ancient times, people set kites for flying and playing according to the principle of sails, and later it gradually evolved into a recreational activity of flying kites.
In ancient China, there were many legends about kites. Kites are also called "paper kites", "wind kites", "paper kites" or "kites". Kite is called "kite" in ancient times, and it is also called "kite" in northern China. This is an ancient traditional folk handicraft.
There are abundant kite historical materials in China ancient books. In fact, the earliest kites in China were made of wood. It is said that the earliest kites were made by Mo Zhai, a famous philosopher in the Spring and Autumn Period.
According to "everything is done, foreign storage theory" records:
Mo Zhai lives in Lushan Mountain, and the birch tree is a kite. I flew for three years and lost it in one day.
This means that Mozi spent three years studying kites. Finally, he made a wooden bird out of wood, but it broke after only flying for one Tian Mu bird. This "wooden bird" made by Mozi is the earliest recorded kite in China.
This "wooden bird" made by Mozi has a peculiar shape and has the function of "flying". It can be inferred that the kite in China has a history of more than 2,000 years.
Later, Mozi passed on his kite-making career to his students' open class, also called Lu Ban, who was a famous carpenter in China. Luban is very clever. According to the ideal and design of his teacher Mo Zhai, he began to make kites out of bamboo. Lu Ban split the bamboo and planed it smoothly. He also roasted it with fire, bent it and made it look like a magpie, called a "wooden sparrow."
The wooden magpie flew in the air for three days, much better than the wooden bird in Mo Zhai. Because this kind of wooden magpie can fly with the help of the wind, Lu Ban took it as a method of investigation. He used wooden magpies to spy on the military situation of Song State. This is the origin of Lu Ban's "being a wooden magpie and meeting Song Cheng".
After the kite came out, it was quickly used by people to convey information. Later, due to the emergence of the paper industry, kites were made of paper paste, which was quickly introduced to the people and became a toy for ancient entertainment. However, kites are used repeatedly in the military.
Later, in Gao Cheng's book Wu Ji Yuan in the Song Dynasty, it was recorded that Han Xin, one of the three outstanding men in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, used kites in combat. It describes that the overlord of Chu was trapped, and Han Xin made a kite for Sean to ride and flew to the sky to sing Chu songs, which disintegrated the morale of Chu camp.
This also shows that during the struggle between Chu and Han, when Han Xin, a general of the Han Dynasty, attacked the Chu army led by Xiang Yu, he used kites to detect the actual situation of the Chu army.
In the famous Battle of Gaixia, the Chu army of Xiang Yu was besieged by Liu Bang and the Han army of Han Xin. Han Xin also sent people to make kites with cowhide and bamboo flutes on them. These kites make a sound in the wind, as if many people were playing flutes together. With the sound of the flute, the Han army sang Chu folk songs in succession, which directly dispersed the morale of the Chu army.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun, a famous inventor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, invented papermaking before making kites out of paper, which was slowly called "paper kites".
As for the determination of the name "Kite", it should be attributed to Ye Li, the minister of Yin Di, the Emperor of the Later Han Dynasty in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. He used to put paper kites in the palace as a game to please Han. Ye Li installed a bamboo flute on the kite's head. Kites fly into the sky, and the wind blows into bamboo flutes, making a zither-like sound, hence the name "Kite".
About this story, the original words in the history books are:
Ye Li made a paper kite in the palace, led the kite to ride the wind for a play, and then made a flute with bamboo at the head of the kite to make the wind enter the bamboo, making a sound similar to that of A Zheng, hence the name kite.
Therefore, in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, kites were roughly divided into two types, one was called "paper kite", which could not make sound; A kite with a bamboo flute that can make sound is called a kite.
Later, Wu Ji Yuan and Xin Tang Shu recorded anecdotes about using kites to ask for help. In 549, during the Southern Dynasties, the enemy besieged Xiao Yan in Liang Wudi in Jianye City, the capital of Liang State. At this time, the city wall was attacked on all sides, and the city was isolated from the outside world.
So, someone gave Xiao Yan a plan to make a "paper crow" and tie a letter of help to it.
Xiao Yan thought it was a good idea, so he asked the soldiers to make a "paper crow", and then he released it outside the Taiji Hall, taking advantage of the northwest wind and asking for help.
But unfortunately, this "paper crow" was discovered by the enemy and thought it was "witchcraft", so it was shot down with a bow and arrow. This is the beginning of kites being used to transmit military information.
More bizarre kite rumors can be found in the original manuscript of White Rock Reef. In 559, Yuan Shao, the grandson of Xie, was imprisoned in a dungeon during the Northern Qi Dynasty. Yuan Shao's cousin made a kite for Yuan Shao, and both of them flew away from the Golden Wind Tower on the kite. These legends reflect the whimsy of ancient China people about flying kites.
Yuan Zhen, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem about kites, which read:
There are birds and groups of paper kites, which are led by boys because of the false wind.
I am more and more confused when I get to the ground. The world is full of feathers.
The wind blows the rope and breaks the juvenile line, and the remaining potential is still in the sky.
Once you return to the ground, you will be pitied if you fall into deep mud.
Also, Jiao Jiao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, described this in his poem Kite:
The quiet string rings blue at night, and the palace merchants believe in the wind.
Vaguely like a song, you can hear it, but you can't tune it with the wind.
These poems all show that flying kites was very popular in Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, the kite-making technology was more perfect and varied, and the attached bamboo flute was more melodious.
In fact, it is impossible to verify the true origin of kites now. Most people think that the ancients invented kites mainly to remember their deceased relatives and friends, so people usually pin their sympathy on kites when they are in Tomb-Sweeping Day, hoping to convey them to their deceased relatives and friends through kites.
Therefore, flying kites, as one of the customs in ancient Tomb-Sweeping Day, has been circulating for a long time. According to research, in ancient China, kite-flying activities could last until Tomb-Sweeping Day after the Lantern Festival, so Tomb-Sweeping Day was also called "Kite Festival" in ancient times.
Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, flying kites was an outdoor activity with witchcraft significance, aiming at letting people put down their bad luck. When the kite flies high, people deliberately cut the lead, and then let the kite fly far away. It is said that it can take away people's bad luck, troubles, depression, worries and diseases.
During the Qingming Festival, the sky is high and the clouds are light, the wind is sunny, and plants sprout, which is a good time to fly kites. So on this day, the ancients wrote all their troubles on paper, and then people tied the paper in a kite to make it fly, so that the paper full of troubles would never come back with the kite.
Therefore, flying kites is not only a cultural and recreational activity, but also an amulet for ancient people to ward off evil spirits in festivals. Of course, with the passage of time, flying kites has already washed away the old witchcraft color, and the ancients just used it to express their good wishes.
This also shows that flying kites has become a popular recreational activity in ancient China. People flying kites outdoors greatly relax the tense and serious atmosphere on weekdays and adjust the busy pace of life.
However, flying a kite, an amulet, was not liked by everyone in ancient times. Kite flying has become an elegant entertainment because of its exquisite workmanship and high price. In fact, in ancient times, due to low productivity, people were unable to resist diseases and various natural disasters, so they prayed for good luck. This psychological performance is reflected in the custom of flying kites.
In ancient times, people thought that flying kites could put down bad luck and bring good luck to themselves. Because flying a kite is unlucky, no matter how delicate and beautiful the kite is, the ancients have to cut the string and let it fly away. In this way, the ancients achieved the goal of eliminating disasters and solving problems through laws.