Spring Festival
01 · Historical Records
The title "Spring Official" derives from an ancient office in charge of farming; in later ages it evolved into folk performers who dressed the part and encouraged agriculture through sung and spoken performance. The artists would go from village to village, handing out charts of the solar terms and reciting auspicious phrases, combining reminders of the farming season with festival blessings in a single act. From the Qing dynasty through the Republican era, the Spring Official verses of the Liupan Mountain area were mostly sung at temple fairs, market gatherings, and New Year shehuo performances, with the artists traveling between the fortified settlements on the strength of a good voice and a hand-copied songbook. After a period of silence in the early years of the People's Republic of China, the tradition gradually revived in the late twentieth century in the counties of Xiji, Longde, Pengyang, and Yuanzhou; in the past decade or so the counties have compiled the songbooks and established dedicated folk-culture societies, so that transmission has shifted from individual oral teaching to organized collection.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Spring Official Blessings custom of the Liupan Mountain area is a Spring Festival custom found in the Liupan Mountain region of Ningxia, in which a "Spring Official" uses "Spring Official verses" to send blessings to the people. The "Spring Official" was an official post of the Zhou dynasty, in charge of farming affairs. In later ages, folk singing-and-speaking artists who dressed as Spring Officials appeared, going from house to house in the countryside to perform, presenting the people with charts of the twenty-four solar terms and auspicious blessings in "spring-delivering" activities, giving rise to a custom of "the Spring Official delivering spring" that encouraged farming and prayed for blessings. With the changes of the times, the practice of Spring Officials reciting and performing Spring Official verses within shehuo performances during the Spring Festival has spread widely among the people. Spring Official verses are an oral tradition by which Spring Officials report the coming of spring to the people and offer auspicious blessings. Spring Official verses are inseparable from shehuo and are also a major characteristic of shehuo in the Liupan Mountain area. Staging shehuo and performing as Spring Officials during the Spring Festival are influential folk activities with a deep popular base in the Liupan Mountain area.
The spring officer and his rhymes
A performer dressed as the ancient farming officer carries a calendar sheet and sings four seven-character lines in the local dialect.
Spring chanting inside the shehuo parade
The chanting is embedded in shehuo processions, keeping pace with yangge and land boats while reciting the solar terms and wishes for a good harvest.
Handing out the calendar
The performer greets the household, posts the red paper listing the twenty-four solar terms, and is rewarded with food or money.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Spring Official Blessings custom of the Liupan Mountain area is mainly distributed across the Liupan Mountain area of Guyuan City, Ningxia, and is widely found in townships of Xiji County, Longde County, Pengyang County, and Yuanzhou District; the Spring Official verses of Xiji County are the most distinctive and have the widest circulation and influence. The Liupan Mountain area in southern Ningxia, including Guyuan City (Yuanzhou District, Xiji County, Longde County, Pengyang County, and Jingyuan County) and the area of Haiyuan County, Zhongwei City, lies in the central and western Loess Plateau and the transition zone between it and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Guyuan City was known in ancient times as Dayuan, Gaoping, Xiaoguan, and Yuanzhou; as an important transport hub of the ancient Silk Road, it was long influenced by Central Plains culture and nomadic culture, developing a distinctive regional character and accumulating a profound cultural heritage. The Spring Official verses of the Liupan Mountain area cover rich subject matter; their form resembles the qijue (seven-character quatrain), usually four lines of seven characters each, delivered in the local dialect. The recitations are rhymed and easy to understand, with a strong rural flavor, and commonly employ rhetorical devices such as metaphor, personification, and exaggeration; the content is humorous and has a distinctive folk-art style, while also carrying educational content on etiquette and morality.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, Guyuan City has intensified the transmission and protection of Spring Official verses, compiling and publishing the Haiyuan Spring Official Verses and the Xiji Spring Official Verses, formulating protection and development plans, and establishing the "Xiji Spring Official Verses Folk Culture Society," rescuing, excavating, and compiling a large number of old Spring Official verses, all of which has played a positive role in the transmission of this heritage project. The transmission of Spring Official verses is characterized by being regional, popular, organizational, and social in nature; on festive days of holidays and celebrations it can send people auspicious blessings, and it has certain literary value, value for publicity and education, and value for popularizing knowledge of farming.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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