Huanghelou Legend
01 · Historical Records
Its origin goes back to the Three Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The earliest written record is the Southern Dynasties Zu Chongzhi's Shuyi Ji, but this book is lost.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
It has a long origin and a deep deposit and is rich and varied. At that time wars were frequent, politics dark and life painful, providing fertile soil for the prevalence of Buddhism and Daoism. People hoped to escape the suffering of reality, shifting their hope from this life to the next and from the earth to heaven, dreaming of transcending the dust and becoming immortals, and so the story of the immortal riding a crane came into being. The earliest text now to be seen is preserved in Xiao Zixian's Book of the Southern Qi, and afterwards four official histories and some important classics and romances record it. Its basic pieces include Zi'an Drives the Crane, Fei Yi Ascends to Heaven, The Immortal Plays the Flute and The Orange Peel Paints a Crane, several dozen in all. The distinctive geographical environment, the vivid folk legends and the exquisite poems, lyrics, prose and couplets have made the Yellow Crane Tower a famous tower through the ages, and the Yellow Crane Tower legend is the soul of this famous historical tower and the foundation on which it depends for survival and development. The legend is ancient, and it is also alive. Its themes of the unity of heaven and man, of little greed and few desires and of punishing evil and praising good, its plebeian narrative method, its pictures of gods, men and living beings living in harmony, its plot development full of twists and its often unexpected endings not only fit the aesthetic psychology of the Chinese common people but also win recognition throughout the world. The legend inspired the creative inspiration of such poets and great men of successive ages as Cui Hao, Li Bai, Su Dongpo, Yue Fei and Mao Zedong, gave birth to countless pearls of poetry and prose and greatly advanced the development of Chinese romantic literature and Daoist literature. It also influenced such sister arts as painting, including New Year pictures, architecture, drama, narrative-singing and music, and even penetrated the linguistic sphere.
Zi'an Drives the Crane
One of the basic pieces of the Yellow Crane Tower legend.
Fei Yi Ascends to Heaven
One of the basic pieces of the Yellow Crane Tower legend.
The Orange Peel Paints a Crane
One of the basic pieces of the Yellow Crane Tower legend.
The Immortal Plays the Flute
One of the basic pieces of the Yellow Crane Tower legend.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yellow Crane Tower legend is made up of legends whose place of occurrence is the Yellow Crane Tower on Snake hill in Wuchang, Wuhan, Hubei, or which are connected with it. It falls roughly into three kinds: immortal romances, anecdotes of famous men and historical stories.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Yellow Crane Tower legend is made up of legends whose place of occurrence is the Yellow Crane Tower on Snake hill in Wuchang, Wuhan, Hubei, or which are connected with it; it falls roughly into the three kinds of immortal romances, anecdotes of famous men and historical stories. It is the soul of this famous historical tower and the foundation on which the Yellow Crane Tower depends for survival and development, transmitted without break for a thousand years.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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