Yandiling Memorial Ceremony
01 · Historical Records
According to historical records, sacrificing to the Yan Emperor had already become a custom from the Han dynasty onward. The Yan Emperor is a great figure whom the descendants of Yan and Huang have deeply revered and sacrificed to through successive dynasties. According to historical records, grand sacrificial ceremonies were held 'once every three years' as early as the Song dynasty, no fewer than fifteen times in the Ming dynasty, and as many as thirty-eight times in the Qing dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor is located at the foot of Yanling Mountain, fifteen kilometers southwest of Yanling County, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. Legend has it that in ancient times Shennong the Yan Emperor, ancestor of the Chinese nation, toured the south, tasting herbs and gathering medicines to cure the people, and unfortunately died after mistakenly tasting a poisonous plant; he was buried here. The 'Sacrificial Ceremony at the Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor' of Yanling County has a long cultural history; the sacrificial forms include text sacrifice, object sacrifice, fire sacrifice, music sacrifice, and dragon sacrifice. The ceremony is divided into official sacrifice and popular sacrifice. Popular sacrifice has continued year after year, and official public sacrifice and announcement sacrifice have likewise continued from ancient times to the present. In its long historical course, the 'Sacrificial Ceremony at the Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor' has become a comprehensive cultural carrier covering music, dance, literature, and other fields. At the sacred-flame platform of the sacrifice site, nine dragons are arranged in a radial pattern around the sacred fire stone, breathing flame from their mouths to ignite the Yan Emperor's sacred fire at the top of the stone, in commemoration of Shennong the Yan Emperor's spreading of the use of fire. The 'human dragon', performed entirely without props, embodies the Chinese conception that the Chinese are both descendants of the dragon and transmitters of the dragon. On the square of the Sacred Dragon Hall, five dragons of yellow, azure, black, white, and red perform according to the positions of the Five Elements, embodying rich connotations of traditional culture. Since reform and opening up, as the influence of the Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor among Chinese communities has continually strengthened, taking part in the 'Sacrificial Ceremony at the Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor' has become an important way for descendants of Yan and Huang to seek national identity, hope for national unification, and express patriotic feeling. The formation of Yan Emperor culture went through a process of kinship identity, political identity, and cultural identity; this identity remains today a firm spiritual bond for maintaining national unity and national unification and opposing separatism. Under the nurture and influence of Yan Emperor culture, the excellent traditional historical virtues that have taken shape — unity, independence, love of peace, unceasing self-improvement, dedication, and reform and innovation — continue to exert a profound influence on the Chinese people today.
Five modes of sacrifice
The rite is offered in five modes, textual, material, fire, musical and dragon, each with its own wording, offerings and performers.
Nine dragons at the fire altar
Nine dragons radiate from the sacred fire stone and breathe flame onto it, the dragon forms converging on the fire of the Yan Emperor.
The human dragon without props
One performance builds a dragon from human bodies alone, making the line of the dragon and the line of its transmitters the same thing.
Five colours in five positions
Yellow, blue, black, white and red dragons take positions assigned by the five phases, colour and order encoding a cosmology.
A rite never intermitted
While official sacrifices keep a calendar, private worship goes on through the year without set dates, forming the base that carries the rite.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The ceremony at Yanling centers on Yanling Mountain fifteen kilometers southwest of the county seat; the mausoleum temple at the mountain's foot and the sacrificial square halfway up the mountain are joined into a single incense-offering route ascending from below. Those who come to sacrifice do not merely linger at the mausoleum but also climb the mountain path step by step. The sacrifices divide into official and popular lines: official public sacrifice and announcement sacrifice are held periodically according to ancient regulations, while popular sacrifice continues unbroken, with sporadic incense-burners on ordinary days. The regularity of official sacrifice and the density of popular sacrifice together sustain the daily order of this altar.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yandi Memorial Ceremony · Yandi Memorial Ceremony.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, more than one hundred thousand overseas Chinese and Chinese nationals abroad have come each year to offer sacrifices at the Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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