Nongliershisijieqi
01 · Historical Records
In the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, the Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival further absorbed the commemoration of Lady Wa, the heroine of the ethnic group, praising her heroic deeds in leading troops against the Japanese pirates, imparting knowledge of the people's history, and promoting the national spirit of defending the homeland and seeking peace. In the Qing dynasty, the Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival entered its height: not only did the common people offer sacrifices, but the prefect also often put on official robes and led the people in worship, and the exchange of goods became increasingly prosperous. Before the festival, the elders began busily preparing articles so that they could set up stalls and sell them during the Frost's Descent Festival.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival is a seasonal folk activity of the Zhuang people, mainly current in Tiandeng, Daxin, Debao, Jingxi, and Napo counties in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and particularly typical of Tiandeng County. The Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival is held within the nine days following the lunar Frost's Descent, and tens of thousands of people take part each year. The Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival rests on the rice-growing culture of the Zhuang people; it was originally a form by which they repaid nature and celebrated the harvest, expressing their hope for abundant crops. Later, merchants from various places also came to sell their goods, and some even traveled long distances from Vietnam. In addition there are antiphonal mountain songs (passing on history through song, making friends through song, and conveying feeling through song), theatrical performances, and visiting relatives and friends. After the reform and opening up, the Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival was gradually revived; besides the traditional elements of repaying nature and commemorating the ethnic heroes, activities praying for longevity, as well as basketball and tug-of-war competitions, were added. The Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival is a vivid presentation of the Zhuang rice-growing cultural tradition and a vehicle for ethnic memory and cultural identity; it contains the historical memory of the Zhuang people and their outstanding wisdom and creativity in adapting to the natural environment, and it plays a positive role in meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the Zhuang people, strengthening their cultural confidence, and advancing the social development of the Zhuang areas.
The nine-day feast after the Frost's Descent
Rites occupy the nine days following the Frost's Descent, overlapping with harvest and market days as villages take turns presiding.
The officials' ritual prostration
Magistrates in official robes lead the prostration, joining bureaucratic ritual form with the villagers' offerings.
Preparing goods before the feast
Stalls line the road during the feast, drawing merchants from other prefectures and buyers from across the frontier.
Antiphonal mountain songs
Singing relays history, friendship and affection, giving the young a gathering place of their own.
Telling of Lady Wa's resistance
Since the Jiajing reign the feast also recounts Lady Wa's fight against the pirates, joining worship with history teaching.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Seen from the pattern of transmission, the Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival is most typical of Tiandeng County, while Daxin, Debao, Jingxi, and Napo each receive the same seasonal festival through their own rural markets, mountain songs, and stages: the markets usually open several days before the festival, and the border county of Napo often deals with Vietnamese merchants as well. During the festival period each village manages its own affairs; the people, goods, and scale of the display are decided by the village's resources and its able people, producing a loose pattern of transmission in which many villages respond on the same day and a single village runs several items at once. Those who can sing mount the antiphonal stage, those willing to perform put up a grass stage, and sacrifice and entertainment are not separated into host and guest.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi · Nongliershisijieqi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Frost's Descent Festival combines the repayment of the farm year, the commemoration of the ethnic heroes, and the exchange of goods within the same period, so that sacrifice, the rural market, opera, and ball games transform into one another, and it has become one of the few cross-village activities on such a scale in the Zhuang areas in the course of a year. In recent years the Tiandeng County cultural center has generally taken the lead, agreeing with the responsible persons of each village before the festival on the operas, the market, and the mountain-song fair; the newly added events such as basketball and tug-of-war take place alongside the antiphonal mountain songs, and the elders' memory of the rites and the young people's participation in the competitions proceed without conflict.
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)
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。