Huyiyang Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Huyiyang legend arose in the area of Liuting in Jimo at the turn of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Hu Yiyang (1639–1718) earned his living as a village schoolmaster, teaching pupils and studying the Book of Changes; because his forecasts repeatedly came true the villagers regarded him as a man of unusual gifts, and after his death his neighbours deified his words and deeds and passed them on by word of mouth, so that the legends spread across the Jiaodong peninsula and by the middle of the Qing had formed a relatively settled body of legend.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Hu Yiyang, whose formal names were Liangtong and Xiangying and whose courtesy name was Yiyang, was born at Liuting village of Renhua township, Jimo county, Laizhou prefecture, in the last years of the Ming—today the Dongliuting community of Liuting subdistrict, Chengyang district, Qingdao, Shandong. He remained a commoner all his life, studied the Book of Changes with great care and worked as a village schoolmaster, leaving a good many writings. The Huyiyang legend has endured to the present and its basic content may be summarized under nine heads: first, helping the poor and relieving the distressed; second, improving local produce for the good of the people; third, upholding the right and driving out evil while urging people towards goodness; fourth, manifesting his power to succour the world and turn danger into safety; fifth, punishing evil and rewarding good and upholding justice; sixth, teaching tirelessly and educating people; seventh, being born with unusual endowments and enjoying Heaven's protection; eighth, being resourceful and good at judgement; ninth, being prescient and foreseeing things as if divinely. The Huyiyang legend springs from the heartfelt veneration of the humble classes for Hu Yiyang, and his final transformation into a local tutelary deity was the result of a long process of elaboration and evolution from “man” to “god”. The thinking and choices of the humble classes played a decisive part in the development of the Huyiyang legend. Over more than three hundred years the legend has been passed down generation after generation, forming a distinctive folk culture.
Legends of Helping the Poor and Succouring the World
One of the nine categories of Huyiyang legend, that of relieving the poor and saving people.
Legends of Improving Produce for the People's Good
Legends recounting how Hu Yiyang improved local produce for the good of the district.
Legends of His Prescience
Legends showing Hu Yiyang's mastery of the Book of Changes and his many accurate forecasts of the way of Heaven and human affairs.
The Liuqiang Play Hu Yiyang Goes to School
One of the plays written and performed by Hu Xiaohua combining the Huyiyang legend with the art of Liuqiang.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Huyiyang legend has its core area of circulation in the Liuting district of Chengyang, Qingdao, and radiates outward to Jimo, Laoshan and the rest of the Jiaodong peninsula. Its transmission shows a pattern in which the Hu clan's vertical family transmission is interwoven with horizontal social spread across the Jiaodong region, while such local xiqu as Liuqiang and temple-fair sacrifices have provided it with new venues, enabling the legend to endure in the dialect areas of Qingdao, Yantai and Weifang.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Because he studied the Book of Changes in the light of astronomy, geography and the myriad things of the world, and his deductions about the way of Heaven and human affairs often proved accurate, he was regarded by the people in his lifetime as a “living immortal”, and many marvellous legends grew up around him, collectively called the Huyiyang legend. Since its formation the legend's lineage of transmission has been clear, and among its many bearers the more representative include Hu Yingli and others, giving it the character of a fusion of the Hu clan's vertical transmission (a “line”) with regional spread (a “surface”). They transmit it by sorting, collecting and printing legendary materials, telling the legends and compiling and publishing related books. The Huyiyang legend has a long history and deep cultural deposits, obliquely reflecting the particular humanistic spirit, aesthetic tastes, value orientations and folk customs of the Jiaodong peninsula, and embodying such positive spirits as patriotism and care for the people, harmony among neighbours, rallying the people's hearts, promoting good and suppressing evil, fearing no hardship and striving to advance. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Hu Xiaohua, male, Han, born February 1961, a native of Qingdao, Shandong, a teller of the Huyiyang legend. In adulthood he has continually collected and sorted materials on the legend and published such research results as The Legends of Hu Yiyang. Building on the research of his predecessors he divided the legends into five categories—fourteen items on local features, six on animals and plants, three on folk custom, fifty-two myths and twenty-nine on daily life—and recorded the differing episodes of the various versions. He has combined the Huyiyang legend with such local operas as Liuqiang, writing and performing the Liuqiang plays Hu Ying Searches for His Father and Hu Yiyang Goes to School. He persists in carrying out “the Huyiyang legend in the classroom” and tells the legend energetically. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Huyiyang legend.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hu Xiaohua 05-2026
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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