Nongliershisijieqi
01 · Historical Records
The two words 'fen she' in Anren Ganfenshe refer precisely to the spring equinox (chunfen) and the she day. Anren lies in the northern part of Chenzhou City and borders Yanling County; legend has it that the Flame Emperor Shennong invented farm tools in this region, opened fields and taught plowing, and was the first to taste the hundred herbs, and the custom of sacrificing to Shennong on the spring equinox and she day arose from this. The Tongzhi-era Anren County Gazetteer, Volume 4, 'Local Customs: Seasonal Sequence', records that the god of the she was worshipped to pray for grain and that on this day rain was welcome, a single sentence that points to the event's connection with the farming calendar. The spring equinox is also one of the twenty-four solar terms, and the farming proverb says 'at the spring equinox the wheat rises; one moment is worth a thousand pieces of gold', so the date and the farm work are closely matched. The same gazetteer, Volume 4, 'Customs: Sacrificial Rites', further records that sacrifices were divided among the four seasons and were all performed in ancestral halls and shrines, with the whole clan worshipping together, so the village community became the traditional center of activity. The framework of Ganfenshe was built on this basis: the county seat had the Shennong Hall for worship, while the village communities still performed clan-wide sacrifices in their ancestral halls, and the worshipping of the god, performances, market-going, and the taking of medicine were all packed into the three days around the spring equinox, extending over half a month.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Anren Ganfenshe is a traditional folk activity of worshipping the gods and praying for grain, held regularly by the people of Anren County, Hunan Province, on the spring equinox and she day each lunar year. Anren County lies in the northern part of Chenzhou City and borders Yanling County. Legend has it that the Flame Emperor Shennong invented farm tools in this region, opened fields and taught plowing, was the first to taste the hundred herbs, and brought benefit to the people, and so Anren came to have the custom of sacrificing to Shennong on the spring equinox and she day. The spring equinox is one of the twenty-four solar terms, and the farming proverb says 'at the spring equinox the wheat rises; one moment is worth a thousand pieces of gold.' In Anren Ganfenshe, 'fen' means the spring equinox and 'she' means the spring she, that is, the she day. During the spring equinox and the she day, sacrificing to Shennong, praying for abundant grain, and holding medicine markets are a folk tradition handed down from generation to generation in Anren. The Tongzhi-era Anren County Gazetteer, Volume 4, 'Local Customs: Seasonal Sequence', records: 'The god of the she is worshipped to pray for grain; on this day rain is welcome.' The activities of Anren Ganfenshe are concentrated in the three days around the spring equinox and continue for half a month. The main contents are as follows. First, worshipping the god and praying for grain. This is held in the Shennong Hall in the county seat on the day of the she. Second, gatherings and performances. The common people gather to exchange agricultural experience and ways of preserving health. Folk artists sing she operas, and the people perform stilt walking, yugu drum storytelling, variety acts, land-boat dancing, cloth glove-shadow plays, and dragon and lion dances; in the evening river lanterns are released, and the scene is as lively as the Spring Festival. Third, market trading. On Nanmen Islet in the county seat, farm tools, articles of daily use, and Chinese medicinal herbs are traded, forming the largest market fair in southern Hunan. Fourth, taking medicine and beginning plowing. The people prepare medicinal dishes according to local folk prescriptions, take the medicine, and then go down to the fields to begin plowing. Ganfenshe is a festival folk activity that the elders of Anren developed through long years of farming production and life and in which the whole county takes part spontaneously; it has broad popular and folk-inheritance characteristics, bears the marks of folk belief, farming, and medicinal civilization, is strongly colored by the market and rich in local culture, and is long in duration, wide in influence, and large in scale. The Tongzhi-era Anren County Gazetteer, Volume 4, 'Customs: Sacrificial Rites', records: 'Sacrifices are divided among the four seasons, and all are performed in ancestral halls and shrines, with the whole clan worshipping together.' The village community is the traditional center of activity. Every year people and traders from Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Guizhou, Zhejiang, Hebei, and Henan, as well as from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, come to worship Shennong and visit the fairs. Ganfenshe became a custom through the sacrifice to Shennong, and it takes the timing of the spring equinox as its vehicle; it expresses the people's respect for the laws of nature and their longing for and pursuit of a better life, and it has positive practical significance for promoting social harmony and strengthening popular cohesion.
Offering to Shennong for a good harvest
On the communal day the county temple offers rites to the god of agriculture.
The community opera
Performances include stilt-walking, shadow puppetry and lion dance as lively as at new year.
Lanterns on the river at night
Lanterns are floated at night, carrying the prayers downstream.
The market at Nanmenzhou
Tools, goods and medicinal herbs are traded at what becomes the largest fair in southern Hunan.
Taking herbal food and opening the fields
A herbal dish is eaten before the first furrow is opened.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Anren Ganfenshe takes the county seat as its axis and the village communities as its surface. The activities are concentrated in the three days around the spring equinox and continue for half a month; on the day of the she, the gods are worshipped and grain prayed for in the Shennong Hall in the county seat, while on Nanmen Islet the largest market fair in the southern Hunan region takes shape, with farm tools, everyday implements, and Chinese medicinal herbs all traded in the same market. People and traders from Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Guizhou, Zhejiang, Hebei, and Henan, as well as from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, all come to worship Shennong and visit the fairs, on a scale far exceeding the local rural markets. Outside the county seat, each village is collectively inherited by its own villagers; who presides over the sacrifice and who runs the stoves are chosen according to old precedent, and the village community remains the center of the activity. In recent years this whole body of content has been preserved collectively by the village communities; the timing, scale, and market coloring of the activities remain, though the main body of participants is shifting from farmers visiting the fair to merchants coming to trade and city dwellers coming to watch.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The project is collectively inherited by the villagers. Anren Ganfenshe keeps alive the tradition of worshipping the gods and praying for grain at the spring equinox; it is a living fossil of the folk custom of the spring equinox, it carries the history of the development and transmission of farming and medicinal civilization, and it has considerable research value for history, folklore, and folk medicine.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Xingya 05-3004
- Wu Haishen 05-3005
- Feng Wanming 05-3006
- Feng Wu
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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