Xiangjianfeng
01 · Lineage & Regional School
He loved folk art from childhood, and at fifteen or sixteen, led by his father Xiang Baolai, he joined the Spring Festival shehuo activity of carrying ice. Within the regional tradition and school record of Zhonghe Festival in Yongji, Shanxi: Carrying ice on the back is a form of local folk shehuo (festive street procession), chiefly expressing the martial spirit of "fearing neither heaven nor earth." The name "Zhonghe Festival" is said to have originated in the fifth year of the Zhenyuan reign of the Tang dynasty (789). Legend has it that during the Xianfeng reign of the Qing dynasty, when the peasant rebel army led by Hong Xiuquan marched north to attack Pujin Ford, the Qing general Xia Xin forcibly demolished civilian houses, intending to set fire to the timber as a defense when the Taiping army attacked the city.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1947, a native of Yongji City, Shanxi Province. After starting work he remained devoted to beibing liangbiao, the custom of carrying ice with the torso bared, and beginning by mobilising members of his family, relatives and friends to take part, he gradually expanded the ice-carrying team step by step. Through further study of documentary sources he gained a deeper understanding of the history, culture and social value of beibing liangbiao. Every year during the Lantern Festival he not only performs but also uses his spare time to coach newcomers, and he teaches the ice-carrying custom and its techniques at venues such as cultural centres, art centres and training institutes, cultivating a large number of enthusiasts of folk shehuo activities. Within the documented technical tradition of Zhonghe Festival in Yongji, Shanxi: The second day of the second lunar month was the ancient "Zhonghe Festival," also called the "Spring Dragon Festival" or the "Green Dragon Festival." At that time, Emperor Dezong (Li Kuo) issued an edict abolishing the festival of the last day of the first month and establishing the Zhonghe Festival in its place. The custom of carrying ice on one's back is one of the activities of the Zhonghe Festival; it circulates in Changwang Village, Yongji City, Shanxi, and is a folk activity performed in ceremonial procession formations. Because of its distinctive performance form and long history of transmission, it is deeply loved by the local people. Xiang Fulu, a rebel army officer and a native of Changwang Village, proposed cutting ice from the Yellow River and carrying blocks of ice on their backs to put out the fire and breach the city; the plan succeeded. After Xiang Fulu retired from the army and returned to farming, he organized the villagers in cutting and carrying ice to reenact the scene of that time; the custom has been passed down from the Xianfeng era to the present. The main performance movements of carrying ice on the back include entering the river, breaking ice, crawling forward, and "invulnerability to swords and spears," fully expressing and promoting the fearless spirit of those who came before. This custom rewrote a military emergency into an annual exercise of the whole village: the ice-cutting and city-breaking of that year took only one night, but moving that ice-cutting daring onto the ice surface of the Yellow River has required the entire settlement to sustain it for many days at a time. The Changwang Village troupe has no full-time performers; its ranks expand and contract with the slack and busy seasons of farm work, with performances most frequent around the Lantern Festival, and the days when the ice is thinnest are precisely when the skill shows best. Though the spectators know there is water beneath their feet, the crowd does not retreat; teams after teams step across the ice surface, turning biting cold into festivity. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Entering the river for ice blocks": The performance opens with ice blocks cut from the Yellow River, raised onto the bank and readied; the men must keep moving at once against the cold. "Crawling to break the ice": The men crawl prone and shatter the thin ice with chest, elbows and knees, forcing a path and reenacting the assault of the past. "The invulnerable column": Bare to the waist and braced against sticks and spears, the column advances to the drums, displaying the fearless bearing of the ancestors. "Performing around the Lantern Festival": The main performances fall around the Lantern Festival, when the ice is still firm and the village is at leisure, and last several days running.
Entering the river for ice blocks
The performance opens with ice blocks cut from the Yellow River, raised onto the bank and readied; the men must keep moving at once against the cold.
Crawling to break the ice
The men crawl prone and shatter the thin ice with chest, elbows and knees, forcing a path and reenacting the assault of the past.
The invulnerable column
Bare to the waist and braced against sticks and spears, the column advances to the drums, displaying the fearless bearing of the ancestors.
Performing around the Lantern Festival
The main performances fall around the Lantern Festival, when the ice is still firm and the village is at leisure, and last several days running.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
A national representative bearer of Zhonghe Festival (Yongji Beibing), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The name "Zhonghe Festival" is said to have originated in the fifth year of the Zhenyuan reign of the Tang dynasty (789). Legend has it that during the Xianfeng reign of the Qing dynasty, when the peasant rebel army led by Hong Xiuquan marched north to attack Pujin Ford, the Qing general Xia Xin forcibly demolished civilian houses, intending to set fire to the timber as a defense when the Taiping army attacked the city.
05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage
National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xiangjianfeng | Yongji, Shanxi | 05-3055 | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。