Yingdaqi
01 · Historical Records
It originated in the tea-god beliefs and the tea-market temple fairs of the Yushan area during the Southern Song dynasty, and has a history of more than 800 years to the present. It is now mainly distributed in Shanghu, Yushan, Jianshan, Jiuhe, and other townships in the northeastern part of Pan'an County, Zhejiang.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Greeting the Great Banner, also known as 'Greeting the Dragon-and-Tiger Great Banner,' is a traditional sports and recreational activity centered mainly on the ancient Yushan tea market in Zhejiang, integrating competition, entertainment, religious folk custom, and art. Greeting the Great Banner is held annually on the sixteenth day of the tenth lunar month; its procedures are rigorous, comprising five main stages: worshipping the banner, assembling the banner, erecting the banner, parading the banner, and lowering the banner. First comes the worshipping of the banner: banner teams from each village, carrying the banner head and offerings, go to the Yushan Tea Market Temple to pay homage to the tea god. Next comes the assembling of the banner: each team divides the work of assembling the banner pole, banner face, and banner head, tying on the supporting bamboo and fastening the banner ropes in preparation for erection. The erecting and parading of the banner that follow are the core stages of the activity. When erecting the banner, team members work in coordination, using crowbars, banner forks, supporting bamboo, and banner ropes to raise the banner, which weighs nearly two tons, within five minutes. Once the banner is erected, the members holding the supporting bamboo and banner ropes form a fan-shaped array around the pole as center, securing it in place. When parading the banner, one person directs, more than twenty team members lift the pole into the air, and the remaining members control the pole as it moves slowly, carrying it around the arena in the 'greeting the banner' circuit. The final stage is the lowering of the banner: the banner returns to its starting point, and everyone slowly lays it flat. The entire process requires 80 to 100 strong men working in coordination. The banner is made with exquisite craftsmanship: its face is nearly 600 square meters and painted with dragon and tiger designs, and its pole is more than 30 meters high. The participating villages compete with one another using such criteria as pole height, banner face size, standard of painting, and skill in parading and erecting; the winner is the one that is tallest, largest, most refined, and most ingenious. Banner teams are usually formed on a village basis, and the number of participants on each team varies, from several dozen to more than a hundred. Greeting the Great Banner has deep roots in the local tea culture, temple fair culture, and aesthetic culture; it reflects the diversity and unique character of local culture, and through rituals such as worshipping and parading the banner it expresses ideas of gratitude and the culture of loyalty and filial piety, serving as a living carrier of local history and culture. Its typical characteristic is competitiveness: it not only strengthens the body but also displays a unique artistic appeal, helping to carry forward the national spirit of ceaseless self-improvement, perseverance, clan solidarity, neighborliness, and unity in cooperation.
Sacrificing to the banner
The first stage: each village's banner team carries the banner head and offerings to the Yushan tea-shed temple to worship the tea deity.
Assembling the banner
Teams assemble pole, cloth and head, lash the lifting bamboo and tie the ropes in preparation for raising.
Raising the banner
The core stage: using levers, forks, lifting bamboo and ropes, the team raises a banner weighing nearly two tonnes within five minutes and anchors it in an umbrella formation.
Parading the banner
One man directs while twenty-odd bearers lift the pole and the rest steer it slowly around the ground.
Laying the banner down
Back at the starting point the banner is lowered flat by the combined effort of eighty to a hundred men.
The banner's dimensions
The cloth of nearly 600 square metres is painted with dragon and tiger, the pole over thirty metres tall, and villages compete on scale, painting and raising skill.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Greeting the Great Banner, also known as 'Greeting the Dragon-and-Tiger Great Banner,' is mainly distributed in the townships of Shanghu, Yushan, Jianshan, and Jiuhe in the northeastern part of Pan'an County, Zhejiang Province; the Pan'an County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center is the protection unit. It takes the ancient Yushan tea market in Zhejiang as its main performance venue, originated in the tea-god beliefs and tea-market temple fairs of the Yushan area during the Southern Song dynasty, and has a history of more than 800 years to the present; it is held annually on the sixteenth day of the tenth lunar month. The participating villages compete using such criteria as pole height, banner face size, standard of painting, and skill in parading and erecting, with the tallest, largest, most refined, and most ingenious declared the winner; banner teams are usually formed on a village basis, and the number of participants on each team varies, from several dozen to more than a hundred.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Greeting the Great Banner is passed down mainly through group transmission and oral instruction. Its team members are the direct inheritors of the project; together with the personnel engaged in the percussion and wind music and the painting stages, they form the transmitting community.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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