Temple Fair

Ⅹ-84Folk CustomsChangsha, HunanBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added Item

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.

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. The Huogong Palace is located on the north side of Pozi Street in the old city of Changsha, Hunan Province; its Fire God Temple chiefly enshrines Zhurong, the God of Fire. According to the Hunan Tongzhi (Gazetteer of Hunan), in the late Ming and early Qing more than one hundred fire god temples were built in the prefectures, subprefectures, and counties of Hunan. The worship of the God of Fire is an important element of the Huogong Palace temple fair; historically, in the middle months of spring and autumn there were two sacrifices, the official sacrifice and the popular sacrifice. After the sacrificial rites, grand Xiang opera is performed for three days, and Mulian Rescues His Mother is the serial repertoire work that must be staged. During the fair, folk arts activities such as community opera, variety shows (zashua), and Changsha tanci ballad singing are rich and varied, almost too much to take in. The flavored snacks of the Huogong Palace temple fair have distinctive qualities and are famous far and near, becoming one of the fair's highlights.

Official and folk sacrifices

Twice a year the middle months of spring and autumn see official and folk sacrifices to god of fire Zhu Rong performed one after another.

The multi-day Hunan opera on Mulian saving his mother

After the sacrifice a three-day run of Hunan opera follows, the multi-day play on Mulian rescuing his mother being compulsory.

Street opera, acrobatics and Changsha tanci

Street opera, acrobatics and Changsha tanci fill the day from morning into night as audiences crowd the lanes.

The Pozi street food market

Speciality snacks cluster beside the fire-god shrine, the fair's liveliest draw and the reason pilgrims linger in Pozi street.

The fire museum and the fair's revival

From 2001 the district rebuilt the memorial archway, restored the temples and founded a fire museum, hosting more than sixty fairs to revive the tradition.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The layout of the fair around Pozi Street in Changsha centers on the Huogong Palace; besides the God of Fire, the God of Wealth Temple and the Guanyin Temple stand alongside, forming a belief combination with complementary divine functions. The sacrifices come in two sets, official and popular: the former is presided over by local officials, while the latter is organized by merchants and citizens themselves; the two follow one another on the same day, preserving both the official ritual order and the popular reward of the gods. The performances that follow the god-rewarding rites are distinctly local in flavor: serial Xiang opera, variety shows, and Changsha tanci ballad singing take the stage in turn, and most of the audience comes from the neighborhood residents and merchants of the Pozi Street area. The merging of the fair with the snack stalls makes the Huogong Palace a venue shared by the old city's commerce and belief.

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. With historical change, the many fire god temples have long since vanished; only the Fire God Temple of the Huogong Palace in Changsha survives to this day, having become an important site for the transmission of the folk custom of worshipping the God of Fire. Today, a time-honored restaurant brand named Huogong Palace carries on the culinary culture of the Huogong Palace temple fair and occupies a very important position in the local and even the national restaurant industry. Since 2001, the relevant departments of the Changsha municipal government have invested more than 35 million yuan to restore the Huogong Palace to its original appearance, rebuilding the ancient memorial archway, the Fire God Temple, the God of Wealth Temple, and the Guanyin Temple, and newly constructing a fire culture museum; they have also held more than sixty fire god temple fairs of various kinds, attended by more than one million person-times, laying a good foundation for the transmission and development of the Huogong Palace Fire God Temple fair.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Temple Fair (Changsha, Hunan) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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