Lantern Festival

Ⅹ-71Folk CustomsNanchangshiwanli, JiangxiBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The board lanterns widely worshipped in the countryside recorded in the Nanchang County Gazetteer were only a rustic custom with no special name of their own; the name of Lord Guan was attached to them by association, giving rise to an interpretation of repaying a discerning patron with a loyal heart, and the descendants of the Cao family simply took the story from the novel of Guan Yu letting Cao Cao go at Huarong Road to establish the name. The lantern thus gained a layer of loyalty and righteousness, and the dragon body a body of gratitude; the lantern of a whole village also changed from a seasonal object into a family's sacrifice. The old gazetteer recorded only the method of making them, not their name; this naming was precisely something added later by local memory itself.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Shangban Lord Guan lantern custom is a traditional folk activity in which 'bench dragons' are used to celebrate the Lantern Festival, current in Shangban Village, Luoting Town, Wanli District, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province. The 'bench dragon', also called the 'board lantern', is made by fixing lanterns onto wooden boards that are joined one to another, forming a line of lights like a long dragon. The Guangxu-era Nanchang County Gazetteer of the Qing dynasty records: 'The countryside widely worships board lanterns. In its construction, a dragon head and dragon tail are set, with boards run through them and several lantern cages placed on each board, each section following the one before; a long one uses several dozen boards joined into a single lantern.' The descendants of the Cao family, associating it with the story in Romance of the Three Kingdoms of Guan Yu letting Cao Cao go at Huarong Road, made board lanterns in gratitude and named them 'Lord Guan Lanterns', also called 'Lord Guan Dragons'. Every year at the Lantern Festival, the Cao family makes bench dragons with funds contributed by each household; the workmanship is fine and the shapes distinctive — the lantern head is shaped like the character 'feng' (abundance), and on each board three multi-faceted lanterns with lantern tails are inserted. Each 'bridge' (bench section) is the responsibility of its own household, while the dragon head and dragon tail are the responsibility of the village. When the lanterns are brought out, the dragon head and dragon tail are held up by village elders or prestigious villagers, with sturdy young men guarding the lanterns in front, behind and on both sides; the performers are numerous, accompanied by drums and music, and the scene is lively. The 'Lord Guan Dragon' goes in turn to each household in the village to pay New Year calls and pray for blessings, adding a joyful and harmonious atmosphere to the community's celebration of the festival.

Building the bench dragon

Lanterns fixed to planks joined one to another form a fire dragon, tens of planks long.

Household shares and bench division

Each family builds and pays for its own bench while the village supplies head and tail.

Setting out the dragon

Elders hold the head and tail while young men guard the flanks, all to drum and gong.

Door-to-door new-year calls

The dragon visits each household in turn, passing the door with blessings and firecrackers.

The name from Lord Guan

The plain bench lamp took Lord Guan's name after a tale of releasing a rival at Huarong.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Locals call a single bench a 'bridge' (qiao); the more bridges, the longer the dragon body.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The bench dragon processes by going out from each household: each bridge-household supplies its own section, and the dragon head and tail are publicly provided by the village, with the division of labor containing the village's greater principle. Each household gives money, labor and lanterns, and when the lanterns come out elders are again invited to hold the head and young men to guard the lantern, so this lantern ties both clan members and villagers together in one. This custom is still the liveliest sight of the first month in Shangban, Luoting, but in recent years many of the village's young people have gone out to work elsewhere; long benches can only be assembled by pooling households, the hands that make lanterns are growing fewer, and the custom is on the verge of being unsustainable. As for the skill itself, the board lantern is merely the old method of fixing lanterns on wood; the difficulty lies not in the craft but in the people: in a village, households willing to claim a bridge year after year must continue for three generations before there can be that once-a-year long dragon.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Lantern Festival (Nanchangshiwanli, Jiangxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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