Taihaofuxi Memorial Ceremony
01 · Historical Records
In the Daye era (605–617) of the Sui dynasty, Xinle was already known as the "sacred homeland of Emperor Xi." After 1985, the Fuxi Temple festival was revived, with the sacrificial day set on the 18th day of the third lunar month, the legendary birthday of Fuxi.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Xinle Fuxi Festival is the sacrificial ceremony for Fuxi, the cultural ancestor of the Chinese people, held at the Fuxi Temple in Xinle City, Hebei Province. Historical records show that Xinle was once the dwelling place of Fuxi: the "Yetai" recorded in the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) and the "Yitai" recorded in the Weishu (Book of Wei) are the "Fuxi Terrace," also called the "Xi Terrace." Volume 3 of the Ming Yitongzhi (Comprehensive Gazetteer of the Ming) states: "The Xi Terrace is in Xinle County; there is a stone inscription, but the characters are worn away and illegible." In the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty, the terrace town fell into ruin, leaving behind its site; the old Fuxi Temple on the terrace was preserved and, after several destructions and repairs, remained the center of Fuxi sacrifice in Xinle. Through the ages the festival has taken three forms: imperial sacrifice, official sacrifice, and popular sacrifice. Local people from all circles and the general public take part enthusiastically, and Chinese people and ethnic Chinese from around the world, as well as foreign friends, come to attend the grand ceremony; the scale is large and the rites solemn. The project is of great significance for carrying on the fine traditions of the Chinese nation and strengthening the sense of Chinese national identity.
The eighteenth of the third month
The festival falls on the eighteenth of the third lunar month, the supposed birthday of Fuxi, drawing residents and visitors alike to the old terrace.
Imperial, official and folk sacrifice
Imperial, official and folk sacrifices form a gradient, letting one local altar accept both court protocol and village feeling.
The weathered tablet at Xitai
The Ming gazetteer notes a tablet at Xitai whose characters have worn away; an unread stone remains the clearest proof of the site.
The old name Xihuang Shengli
The place was already called the Holy Seat of Fuxi under the Sui; the name came before the temple, a common northern sequence.
The platforms named in old histories
The platforms in the Shiji and the Wei Shu were both read as one and the same Xitai, two texts converging on one site.
The protected terrace today
The terrace survives as a provincial protected site, the ancient platform of sacrifice lying within the same walled ground as the temple.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Fuxi sacrifice in Xinle has always centered on the site of the Xi Terrace; in the Daye era of the Sui dynasty the place already bore the title "sacred homeland of Emperor Xi," and when the terrace town fell into ruin in the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty, the Fuxi Temple nevertheless remained on the site; after several destructions and repairs, this has always been the center of Fuxi sacrifice in Xinle. The festival has three forms — imperial sacrifice, official sacrifice, and popular sacrifice — with the sacrificial day set on the 18th day of the third lunar month, the legendary birthday of Fuxi. After 1985 the festival was revived; local people from all circles and the general public take part enthusiastically, and Chinese people and ethnic Chinese from around the world, as well as foreign friends, come to attend the grand ceremony. The sacrificial day, set on the 18th of the third lunar month, falls exactly in the gap before spring plowing begins; at that time farmers need not lay down their tools to travel far — going to burn incense and returning to the fields can be done in a single trip. This fit between the festival date and the agricultural calendar is the practical reason it could be held every year in the hinterland of Hebei. Local people from all circles and the general public take part enthusiastically, and Chinese people and ethnic Chinese from around the world, as well as foreign friends, come to attend the grand ceremony; the scale is large and the rites solemn. Those who come from different places all perform the same set of kowtowing rites, and the motley colors of the crowd contrast sharply with the uniformity of the ceremony. The coexistence of imperial, official, and popular sacrifice gives the Xi Terrace site both the formality left behind by the imperial court and the liveliness assembled by the local people themselves; that the sacrifice continued unbroken even as the stele wore away shows precisely that the survival of a center of sacrifice does not rest on that illegible stone.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Taihaofuxi Memorial Ceremony · Taihaofuxi Memorial Ceremony.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The "Xi Terrace" site still survives and is today a cultural relics protection unit of Hebei Province.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Tingjie 05-2986
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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