Changdian Temple Fair
01 · Historical Records
The Changdian Temple Fair of Xuanwu District, Beijing, began in the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, flourished in the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, and reached its height in the Qianlong reign. In the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918), after being rectified by the municipal authorities, it was formally established that the temple fair market would be held annually from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, centered on Changdian and Haiwangcun Park, becoming the only officially run Spring Festival temple fair in the old capital. Around 1945, the Changdian Temple Fair was reduced almost to "broken lamps and a ruined temple". After the liberation of 1949, the temple fair was held every year from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, from Heping Gate to the Hufang Bridge intersection. In 1960, it was interrupted for a time because of natural disasters. In 1963, the municipal government reopened the Changdian Temple Fair, causing a sensation throughout the city. The Changdian Temple Fair has a history of more than four hundred years, evolving from sacrificial rites into a temple market, then into a book market, and gradually into a Spring Festival folk activity of visiting Changdian that combined culture and commerce; it has been praised as "elegance and popular taste in balance, commerce and entertainment blended together". In 2001, the first spring of the new century, the Changdian Temple Fair reappeared before the people of Beijing with a new look, profound cultural content, and refined cultural taste after an absence of 37 years from the capital, becoming at once a landmark temple fair of Beijing and ensuring the continued transmission of this long-standing cultural activity.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Later, because of road construction and the "Cultural Revolution", the Changdian Temple Fair was suspended. Historically, the Changdian Temple Fair extended from Heping Gate in the north to Liangjiayuan in the south, from Nanliu and Beiliu Alleys in the west to Yanshousi Street in the east, with Xinhua Street, Haiwangcun, the Fire God Temple, and the Lüzu Shrine as its core area, and with the "East Gate of Changdian" — the eastern street of Liulichang — as its main street. As the Changdian Temple Fair was closest to the city center, it was a place that men and women, old and young, from all strata of the capital flocked to at the Lunar New Year. The Changdian Ji, written during the Guangxu reign, says: "At ordinary times it is empty and deserted, with few traces of people; but when the first month comes, all the men and women of the city pour out like clouds and flowers, in carts and on foot, in an endless stream on the road." With its long history, grand scale, open form, and especially its distinctive Beijing-style cultural character, the Changdian Temple Fair stands alone in the capital; it has now become a window and platform for displaying Beijing-style folk culture and Xuannan culture, and a great stage gathering the finest works of folk culture and art from all regions, with deep cultural foundations and broad social significance. It is deeply loved by the people of Beijing and has attracted the active participation of many traditional folk projects and outstanding folk artists, and the social and economic benefits it generates are growing day by day.
Bookstall route at the East Gate
The East Gate street by the glazed-tile factory drew scholars to compare editions, paintings and writing gear, and booksellers sold from the same crowds.
The first-to-fifteenth-day fair schedule
The fair opens on the first day of the first lunar month and closes on the fifteenth, running unbroken as the capital's great Spring Festival market.
Market and incense before the Fire God temple
Temple frontage along the Fire God shrine doubled as market frontage, where trade and incense-taking went on side by side.
The fair as a window on Xuan Nan culture
Its open, plaza-like format let folk arts from many regions and skilled performers appear together, presenting Beijing and Xuan Nan culture once a year.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Changdian Temple Fair is not a gathering within the walls of a temple, but a long street market strung together along the shopfronts of Xuannan (southern Beijing). Its northern end reaches Heping Gate, and it stretches south to Liangjiayuan; to the west it adjoins Nanliu and Beiliu Alleys, and to the east it extends to Yanshousi Street. Xinhua Street and Haiwangcun lie in the heart of the street, while the Fire God Temple and the Lüzu Shrine flank it on either side, joining the religious space of burning incense and praying for blessings to the commercial space of bargaining and buying along the same stretch of road. The place popularly called the "East Gate of Changdian" is the entrance to the eastern street of Liulichang — both the way out for the bookshops and scholars and the threshold with the densest flow of people. When the municipal authorities defined the fair's boundaries in the seventh year of the Republic of China, they centered it on Changdian and Haiwangcun Park precisely because this area had mature streets and rows of shopfronts that could accommodate stalls and crowds for more than ten consecutive days.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
What makes the Changdian Temple Fair valuable is that it stacks burning incense and praying for a good year, market shopping, browsing and hunting for books, and the enjoyment of spectacle onto the same timeline: at the start of the year one enters Changdian and first bows before the temple, then strolls along the street looking at the stalls; scholars compare editions and paintings around the East Gate of Changdian, and finally return to the entertainment stalls to watch a show of variety acts. This pattern matches exactly the eight characters "elegance and popular taste in balance, commerce and entertainment blended together" — it is neither a pure temple sacrifice nor a purely commercial market. Over more than four hundred years it changed from sacrificial rites into a temple market, and from a temple market into a Spring Festival activity combining culture and commerce; its form has kept changing, yet the shared habit of visiting Changdian has never been broken. Reopened in 2001 after an absence of thirty-seven years, the Changdian Temple Fair has been run as a window for displaying Xuannan culture, with fine works of folk art and outstanding artists from all regions taking the stage on this ground, and the fair's social and economic benefits growing together.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。