Nuwa Memorial Ceremony
01 · Historical Records
Shexian County lies in the southwest of Hebei Province, at the junction of the three provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan; ten kilometers west of the county town, on the ancient Central Emperor Mountain, stands the Wahuang Palace, covering an area of 550 mu. Its principal buildings include the Chaoyuan Palace, the Tingcan Palace, the Guangsheng Palace, and the Wahuang Palace itself; it is divided into an upper and a lower group, connected between them by the Eighteen Bends mountain path. The worship activities center on praising the merits of Nüwa, the ancestress of humankind: molding clay to create people, smelting stones to mend the sky, severing the legs of the great turtle, setting up the four poles, controlling the flood, instituting marriage, and making the sheng and huang reed instruments. The main contents include popular sacrifice, public sacrifice, and pilgrimage worship.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Legend has it that the 18th day of the third lunar month is Nüwa's birthday; therefore, from the first to the eighteenth day of the third lunar month each year, people from the four provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan come to worship Nüwa, giving rise to the far-reaching Wahuang Palace temple fair, which has a history of more than a thousand years. The legend of Nüwa and the folk phenomena associated with it — marriage and matchmaking, childbirth, rites of passage, and seasonal festivals — constitute a remarkable phenomenon of popular culture. Many village and place names in Shexian County are related to Nüwa culture; for example, Tanyin Village is associated with Nüwa's making of reed pipes, and Mopan Village with Nüwa's creation of human beings.
The birthday of Nüwa
The eighteenth of the third lunar month, said to be Nüwa's birthday, draws the year's largest crowd to the temple.
The eighteen days of pilgrimage
For eighteen days from the first of the third month, pilgrims from four provinces climb to Nüwa Palace, turning one offering into daily practice.
The two palace groups above the eighteen bends
The temple of five hundred and fifty mu is split into an upper and a lower group linked by a climb of eighteen bends, so effort is part of the rite.
Village names from the goddess's crafts
Village names recording the goddess's making of pipes and of people fix two myths to the map of southern Hebei.
The palanquins for fetching and farewelling
The inheritor designed palanquins for fetching and farewell the goddess and revised the drums, keeping old rules in step with new timing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Worship in Shexian centers on the Wahuang Palace on the ancient Central Emperor Mountain; the Chaoyuan Palace, the Tingcan Palace, the Guangsheng Palace, and the Wahuang Palace are divided into an upper and a lower group, connected between them by the Eighteen Bends mountain path; people from the four provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan climb from the first to the eighteenth day of the third lunar month, step by step to the top. Traces of Nüwa are also preserved in the village names: Tanyin Village takes its name from the making of reed pipes, and Mopan Village from the creation of human beings; in this way a mythological figure has been embedded in the local place-name system, and one cannot travel from village to village without encountering her. On the basis of inheriting the traditional rules of sacrifice, Zhang Nailin studied and drew on other sacrificial music and drum patterns for modification, and designed props such as the bridal sedan chairs used to invite and send off the gods, passing on his skills to three apprentices.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Nuwa Memorial Ceremony.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Protecting and promoting Nüwa culture is of great importance for transmitting Chinese civilization, enhancing ethnic fusion, strengthening national cohesion, and inspiring people's entrepreneurial spirit; it also has research value for mythology, folklore studies, sociology, folk literature and art studies, and religious studies. Today the Nüwa Festival is increasingly in decline: the props, musical instruments, and ritual procedures of the popular sacrifice are known in detail by only a few elderly people, and elements such as life-cycle customs are steadily fading, so that urgent rescue and protection are needed. Zhang Nailin (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in March 1929, a native of Shexian County, Hebei Province. He is a representative inheritor of the Nüwa Festival, a project of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. On the basis of inheriting the traditional rules of sacrifice, he studied and drew on other sacrificial music and drum patterns, modifying the Nüwa sacrificial music so that it better suited the festival activities; he also designed props such as the bridal sedan chairs used to invite and send off the gods, and passed on his skills to three apprentices.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Nailin 05-2987
- Wang Shigui 05-2988
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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