Badachu Legend
01 · Historical Records
From the Sui and Tang to the Ming and Qing, several dozen Buddhist temples were built in this area, forming the famous temple-and-garden district of western Beijing.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Badachu legends are the beautiful legends of life and of the people, events and things of the Badachu area, handed down by word of mouth for a thousand years among the villagers near Badachu (including Sipingtai) in the Shijingshan district of Beijing. Badachu is part of the ancient road of western Beijing and an important route by which people entered the city of Beijing from the west. People coming and going from north and south passed through here, bringing diverse cultures and also raising the fame and influence of the Badachu legends. They have a long history; judging from the extant literature they can be traced back at least to the Sui and Tang (such as the legend of Master Lu and the greater and lesser green dragons). With the development of history new episodes and new texts were added. Their content includes imperial legends (such as Shunzhi Leaving Home and the legend of the Empress Dowager Cixi Watching Fish at the Golden Fish Pool), legends of folk deities and monks (such as Lord Guan Splits the Mountain to Lead Water), legends of animals and plants (such as the legend of the Black Dragon Sporting in the Water and the legend of the Golden Foal of Sizhao Valley) and place-name legends (such as the legend of the Bench Gully and the legend of the Imperial Son-in-Law's Grave). To this day the people of the Badachu area still tell the legends over tea and meals, and not a few can tell more than ten. These legends are still handed down by word of mouth among the residents of Badachu, showing their vitality in the new era. Because the locality has many Buddhist temples and the tombs of famous people and the authorities took part in many related sacrificial activities, the Badachu legends are closely bound up with Buddhist culture and tomb culture, showing the character of a combination of folk culture and official culture, and have relatively high historical, literary and social value.
The Legend of Master Lu and the Greater and Lesser Green Dragons
An early Badachu legend traceable to the Sui and Tang period.
Shunzhi Leaving Home and Cixi Watching Fish at the Golden Fish Pool
The imperial legends among the Badachu legends.
The Legends of Bodhisattva Lü, the Precious Pearl Cave and the Ghost King Bodhisattva
Legends linking local features with Buddhist culture.
Place-Name Legends of the Bench Gully and the Imperial Son-in-Law's Grave, and Guide Narration
The place-name legends and the narration by the transmitting collective of park guides and researchers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The area of distribution of these legends lies roughly around the Lesser Western Hills (Cuiwei, Hutou and Qinglong hills) of the Taihang range, including Badachu, Liuniangfu, Chenjiagou and Bandenggou, and extends to other districts of Beijing, with a certain circulation in other provinces and cities as well. Among them the more distinctive are the legends linking local features with Buddhist culture, such as the legend of Bodhisattva Lü and the legends of the Precious Pearl Cave and the Ghost King Bodhisattva. For a thousand years these legends have been transmitted mainly by the local people and the monks. The Badachu legends concentrate the local residents' love of and identification with their home district and strengthen the ties and communication among the people.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
They have an extremely strong interest in and a high sense of identification with the Badachu legends and play a very important part in the whole course of their circulation, becoming the most important source from which visitors and researchers hear the legends. In the 1960s and 1970s the residents of the Badachu area, Yang Ruyou, Fu Jingxin, Meng Chuiren and others, spent years together with the returned-to-lay-life monks Jihou, Miaoheng and Changyue and the caretakers of the villas, telling a great many legends over tea and meals; by the 1980s and 1990s some people began deliberately to investigate and record the living legends and to sort and classify them. After Badachu Park was established, the park's managers, researchers and guides also formed a transmitting collective. They properly protected the “Old Stele Record of Zhenhai Temple” and the Buddha-Veneration Stele, which have material corroboration for the legends, collected and sorted the Badachu legends and told them to visitors, and sorted and published such materials as A Compilation of Badachu Legends and The Badachu Guide Book, with more than a million people a year hearing the legendary explanations.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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