Temple Fair
01 · Historical Records
Some of the large temple fairs had already reached considerable scale in the Tang dynasty and have been passed down without interruption ever since, exerting a wide influence. In China's Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, as well as the Taiwan region, the traditional temple fairs commonly observed by devotees were all introduced from the mainland and remain inseparably tied to their origins. The Jin Shrine (Jinci) lies in the southwestern suburbs of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. The Hall of the Holy Mother within the shrine was built in the ninth year of the Taiping Xingguo era of the Northern Song (984) to enshrine Yijiang, wife of King Wu of Zhou, daughter of Jiang Ziya, and mother of Shu Yu. This gradually developed into the traditional Jin Shrine temple fair, called in ancient times the "Saishen Hui" (Fair for Competing Deities), which flourished from the Ming and Qing dynasties onward and continues to the present.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Temple fairs, also known as "temple markets", are a type of folk-belief activity held at regular intervals at temples and in their vicinity, popular throughout the country. Every temple fair has its own prescribed session dates, most of which fall on a traditional lunar festival or on a religious or folk-belief commemorative day. Temple fairs are characterized by concentration, mass participation, and fixity. During a fair, all manner of folk activities and commercial exchanges can be fully displayed in public, and the activities are rich and colorful; processions for welcoming the gods are also one form of temple fair. After the Holy Mother was granted an honorific title in the second year of the Hongwu era of the Ming (1369), a grand ceremony of worshipping her on the second day of the seventh lunar month took shape. The Jin Shrine Saishen Fair begins on the first day of the seventh lunar month, with plays performed at the Shuijing Terrace to reward the deity. The second day of the seventh month is the main day of the birthday worship of the Holy Mother; officials from the county, township, and village communities, local gentry, and community heads fast and bathe before coming to the Jin Shrine to offer sacrifices respectfully. First an incense table and offerings are laid out in the Offering Hall in front of the Hall of the Holy Mother; then incense is burned and the bell rung, the county magistrate respectfully reads the sacrificial prayer, and the rites are performed as prescribed. From the main day onward, plays are performed at the Shuijing Terrace for five days, while the Saishen Fair is held throughout the county, with the activities gradually building to a climax.
The stage opens before the offering
The festival opens with a night of opera at the Water Mirror Stage a day before the offering, gathering the crowd before the rite begins.
Fasting the day before
Official and village leaders fast and purify themselves before travelling to the shrine on the saint’s birthday, the standing of the rite depending on their presence.
Offerings in the hall and the magistrate's reading
Offerings are laid out in the hall before the shrine, incense and bells sound, and the magistrate reads the declaration, tying a folk rite into official ritual form.
Five days of opera
Five consecutive days of opera after the ritual day, alongside rites in every village of the county, make the theatre the region’s central gathering place.
A granted title fixes the day
A title granted to the saint in 1369 supplied the ritual date with its authority, and the feast on the second of the seventh month has been kept ever since.
The old name of the fair
Known as a contest before the god and unbroken since the Ming and Qing, the fair keeps worship as its premise and theatre as its substance.
The woman honoured in the saint's hall
The hall built in 984 honours a woman bound by marriage and blood to three lineages, making the rite a gathering of kin as much as an honour to one woman.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Jin Shrine temple fair relies on the Jin Shrine, located in the southwestern suburbs of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province; the Hall of the Holy Mother in the shrine was built in the ninth year of the Taiping Xingguo era of the Northern Song (984), and it enshrines Yijiang, wife of King Wu of Zhou, daughter of Jiang Ziya, and mother of Shu Yu. This person's lineage connects three families at once, so worshipping her is in effect a way of drawing the bonds of those three surnames together; the fairground and the place of worship are likewise not separated, and the bustle of the Saishen competition is spread out right in front of the hall that houses her. In the second year of the Hongwu era of the Ming (1369), the court granted the Holy Mother an honorific title, after which the second day of the seventh lunar month became a fixed annual occasion for worshipping her, and the main day of the fair was thereby set. The full specifications show a two-tiered articulation of officials and commoners: on the official side, county, township, and village officials, local gentry, and community heads fast and bathe in advance and come to the shrine to offer sacrifices respectfully; the popular counterpart is the plays at the Shuijing Terrace and the Saishen competitions throughout the county. The community head is the key figure between the two ends — one end tied to the officials' rites performed as prescribed, the other to the actual levies of the village community; if the community head does not appear, both sides fall through. The plays begin on the first day of the seventh month and run for five consecutive days at the Shuijing Terrace; on the main day, an incense table and offerings are laid out in the Offering Hall, incense is burned and the bell rung, the county magistrate respectfully reads the sacrificial prayer, and once the rites are done the plays begin, the excitement growing day by day until it pushes the activities to their climax.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In overseas Chinese communities, many temple fairs brought from the homeland thrive with burning incense, transmitting the cultural lineage of the Chinese nation in a special way. The Jin Shrine temple fair has a long history; it vividly embodies the ancient local customs of Taiyuan and has important value for ethnological and historical research.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hu Wenxiang 04-1974
- Guan Zhangxun 04-1975
- Cheng Zhongxin 05-3018
- Wang Defeng
- Luo Binggen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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