amaotonovel Chapter 275 That bastard messed with us, we'll mess with him back.
Chapter 275 That bastard messed with us, we'll mess with him back.
Magistrate Yang began to miss Ningyang County.
He arrived in the capital on the morning of the first day, had a family dinner at Chang Yuchun's house in the afternoon, went to the Ministry of Personnel to report for duty in the afternoon, went to the Department of Performance Evaluation to report on his duties in the morning of the second day, and did not return "home" until it was almost lunchtime in the afternoon.
Then, before Magistrate Yang could finish his meal, that damned eunuch Chen Zhong came to his door again, urging him to finish his meal quickly so he could visit Old Master Liu Jizu.
Then, Magistrate Yang met the so-called "family friends" and, under the guidance of that dead eunuch Chen Zhong, respectfully asked Old Master Liu Jizu to serve as his marriage negotiation envoy.
The problem is that these are just appetizers before the main course.
The real feast is yet to come in the next few days.
On the first day, before dawn, Magistrate Yang carried the wild goose and other gifts that Chen Zhong and his men had prepared in advance to Liu Jizu's house, asking Liu Jizu to help deliver them to the palace. This step was the "Nacai" in the Zhou Dynasty wedding system, which was the groom's formal proposal of marriage.
During this process, Magistrate Yang had to wait outside the palace until Liu Jizu came out, then host a banquet for Liu Jizu and escort him home.
The next day, before dawn, Magistrate Yang brought a birth chart with his name, birth order, and other information written on it beforehand to Liu Jizu's house, inviting Liu Jizu to the palace again. This step was the legendary "asking the name," also known as "changing the birth chart."
The process was similar to the first day. Magistrate Yang had to wait until Liu Jizu came out of the palace before they went to the Imperial Observatory together to ask them to help match their birth dates. This step was the legendary "Naji" (a form of auspicious marriage).
In other words, although the two steps of exchanging birth charts and the auspicious date selection were simplified into one step, in reality only the time was simplified, the process was not simplified at all. In fact, Magistrate Yang had to go back and catch a few more geese to ask Liu Jizu to go to the palace to announce the good news, saying how well Magistrate Yang's birth charts were matched with those of Princess Jin and Princess Yu, and that they were a perfect match.
On the third day, Magistrate Yang was to bring gifts such as "Albizia julibrissin, auspicious grain, donkey-hide gelatin, calamus, red reeds, double stones, cotton, longevity thread, and dried lacquer" to Liu Jizu's house early in the morning, asking Liu Jizu to deliver the betrothal gifts to the palace.
This step is the legendary betrothal ceremony, which in later generations means sending betrothal gifts, such as acacia flowers, auspicious grains, and donkey-hide gelatin, to the woman's family, symbolizing blessings for the eternal love between husband and wife.
On the fourth day, Magistrate Yang, who had not been able to sleep in until he naturally woke up for a long time, had to get up early again. He went to Liu Jizu's house, first to pay his respects to Liu Jizu, and then asked Liu Jizu to go to the palace to ask for the wedding date.
This step involved agreeing on the specific date for the marriage. Emperor Zhu and Empress Ma finally agreed to the date, which was the fifteenth day of the first month of the third year of the Hongwu reign.
This only covers the pre-marital portion.
Items such as the wedding procession, the wedding ceremony (which is not part of the Zhou dynasty wedding), the handwashing ceremony, the sitting opposite each other, the sharing of food and wine, and the offering of leftover food and clothing also need to be discussed and finalized in the next few days.
Then there are the post-wedding rituals, including the wife meeting her parents-in-law, the wife giving gifts to her parents-in-law, and the parents-in-law feasting the wife, and all sorts of other messy rituals.
As for the fact that Magistrate Yang's household registration only lists him as an individual, with neither an uncle nor an aunt... Emperor Zhu waved his hand and said that it didn't matter if there were no uncles or aunts. Since Old Master Liu Jizu could serve as the marriage envoy, he could naturally serve as a temporary uncle. As for the aunt, he would ask Lady Lan to temporarily fill the role. In any case, he couldn't wrong his daughter. His daughter had to have the same procedures as other families.
In short, Emperor Zhu never gave up on his idea of tormenting Magistrate Yang, while Magistrate Yang looked forward to the Lantern Festival every day so that he could get married and return to Ningyang County. He didn't want to stay in Nanjing for even a day longer.
Unfortunately, the official from the Ministry of Rites dealt Magistrate Yang another heavy blow—even after the wedding on the fifteenth of the first lunar month, Magistrate Yang would have to stay for three more days because he had to accompany Princess Jin and Princess Yu on their homecoming, which meant going to the palace to pay respects to Emperor Zhu and Empress Ma.
Of course, Magistrate Yang was not idle, and neither was Emperor Zhu.
In reality, Emperor Zhu suffered more than Magistrate Yang.
Because Emperor Zhu and Empress Ma officially adopted Jin'er and Yu'er as their goddaughters and bestowed upon them the names Zhu Meijin and Zhu Meiyu, and their names were officially recorded in the Imperial Clan Court's register, Jin'er and Yujin's marriages had to be conducted according to the proper princess rites.
For example, regarding the process of setting a date, on the day of the date setting, Emperor Zhu had to first go to the Jinshen Hall to put on his leather cap and robe, and then go to the Fengtian Hall to wait for Liu Jizu to come and set the date. After the date was agreed upon, Emperor Zhu would return to the Jinshen Hall to change out of his leather cap and robe, and Liu Jizu would leave the palace to find Magistrate Yang.
In other words, just for the process of setting a date, Emperor Zhu had to change his clothes twice.
After the date of the wedding, there was still the issue of bestowing titles upon Princess Jin and Princess Yu.
After all, Princess Jin and Princess Yu were just default titles. Once Emperor Zhu and Empress Ma bestowed names upon Jin'er and Yu'er, these two titles were no longer suitable for daily use and a proper title was required.
Generally speaking, a title can be chosen from a place name, or two characters with auspicious meanings.
After the title was determined, the next step was the ceremony for the imperial consort to receive the imperial edict. On the day of the ceremony, Emperor Zhu would bestow upon Magistrate Yang the imperial consort court robes and ceremonial regalia, including a silver chair, footstool, silver horse stool, silver water basin, silver water jar, umbrella, mace, tooth stick, and saddle cage.
This is a necessary procedure and has nothing to do with whether Magistrate Yang marries or betroths a princess.
Next came the princess's investiture ceremony before the wedding procession. According to the rules set by Zhu Chongba, the princess's investiture ceremony was held two days before her marriage.
According to the procedure, Zhu Yuanzhang, wearing a leather cap and Empress Ma, wearing a pheasant-embroidered robe, ascended the throne in the Qianqing Palace. The golden edict of investiture for the princess was given to the investiture envoy. The princess, wearing a nine-phoenix crown and a pheasant-embroidered robe, waited in the Huagai Hall.
The female envoy knelt to receive the golden edict of investiture, and then carried the edict to the Hall of Literary Glory. After receiving the edict, the princess returned to the Palace of Heavenly Purity to express her gratitude, and performed eight bows before Emperor Zhu and Empress Ma respectively.
In short, Magistrate Yang's job was not easy, and neither was Emperor Zhu's.
Sometimes even Empress Ma couldn't understand whether Zhu Chongba had some serious illness.
Just to torment her son-in-law, she ended up exhausting herself. Was it really worth it?
"value!"
Emperor Zhu gave his answer without hesitation: "That bastard is tormenting us, so we'll torment him back. As long as we don't say anything, no one will know that we're tired too. But that bastard is always lazy, so he'll definitely be the first to complain about being tired! As long as he's the first to complain about being tired, I'll feel much better!"