Qirenyoutian Legend
01 · Historical Records
The content of the legend is closely bound up with local folk activities and its influence is profound—for example the “Third Grandmother” temple fair on the fifteenth day of the third lunar month, which draws great numbers of worshippers from far and near. The Qirenyoutian legend has a history of more than two thousand years and is transmitted mainly socially; though it waxed and waned in different periods it was never interrupted and has been current down to the present, and it has also become material for folk drum-ballad singers and Henan zhuizi artists, while some schools popularize it as fine traditional culture. From the Warring States to the Tang its spiritual content was mainly anxiety about nature and the living environment; from the Tang to the Qing its cultural content broadened into a patriotic concern for affairs of state and the fate of the nation. The Qirenyoutian legend encompasses such historical facts as primitive tribal warfare and the evolution, extinction and succession of the state of Qi, reflects the forebears' understanding of the cosmos, their comprehension of the living environment and social conditions and their expectation of harmony between man and nature, and contains the awareness of benefiting the people and blessing later ages and of concern for country and people—an embodiment of the Chinese national spirit.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qirenyoutian legend is one of our country's folk legends of long history, a legend connected with the stories of the Qi tribe and the state of Qi, recorded in such ancient books as the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Huainanzi and the Liezi, and current mainly throughout Qi county of Kaifeng, Henan, and the surrounding counties and cities. The Qirenyoutian legend is composed of three literary forms—the mythical legend, the historical legend and the fable legend—and includes related legends of local features, natural landforms, celestial phenomena, historical-cultural remains, folk-cultural activities and place names, in six categories and more than sixty pieces, of which twenty-four legends are representative. The war between Gonggong and Zhurong, Nüwa mending the sky, the legend of Gaogao mountain, the legends of the Qi people, Qiren and Qiren, Duke Wu's eastward move and the legend of Duke Huan marrying off his daughter together make up the complete content of the Qirenyoutian legend. Its content is complete and its episodes vivid. The rich cultural remains corroborate the legends and have kept them widely current through several thousand years. The historical remains related to the legend are mainly temples and sites, current in twenty townships including Zhulin, Peicundian and Chengguan. The Qirenyoutian legend is one of the survivals of the “Nüwa mending the sky” mythical legend of the Central Plains and began to circulate in the Warring States period. Later it evolved into the ideas of preparing for danger in times of safety and taking precautions, with a forward-looking thought of foresight and prevention.
The War between Gonggong and Zhurong
The primitive tribal-war legend contained within the Qirenyoutian legend.
Nüwa Mends the Sky
The Qirenyoutian legend is regarded as one of the survivals of the Nüwa-mends-the-sky myth of the Central Plains.
Duke Wu's Eastward Move and Duke Huan Marrying Off His Daughter
Historical legends connected with the evolution of the state of Qi.
The “Third Grandmother” Temple Fair on the 15th of the Third Month
The temple fair of the Third Grandmother, to which worshippers come from far and near on the fifteenth day of the third lunar month each year.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The legend is known to every woman and child in the locality and handed down generation after generation with wide influence; it admonishes the people to prepare for danger in times of safety, take precautions and ponder adversity, and has very strong practical significance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today, beside the historical-cultural remains, at the village heads and markets and in folk-cultural activities, there are bearers who tell the legend.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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