Temple Fair

Ⅹ-84Folk CustomsYongkang, ZhejiangBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

At the summit stand the Guangci Temple, first built in the fourth year of the Dazhong reign of the Tang dynasty (850), and the Lord Hu Shrine, built in later times to commemorate Hu Ze of the Song dynasty. Hu Ze (963–1039) was a famous official of the Northern Song; between the Xuanhe and Baoyou reigns of the Song, successive emperors conferred ever-greater posthumous titles on him, so that Hu Ze rose from minister to marquis and from marquis to duke. The Fangyan Temple Fair begins with the two shrines at the summit: the Guangci Temple was built in the fourth year of the Dazhong reign of the Tang dynasty, and the Lord Hu Shrine was established in memory of Hu Ze, the famous Northern Song official. During his lifetime Hu Ze had a reputation for governing well and benefiting the places he served, so the people revered him as the Great Lord Hu; successive generations conferred titles on him from minister to marquis to duke, and the belief rose from private worship by villagers to an orthodox sacrificial rite with official titles — this step is the institutional foundation on which the temple fair could endure. The form of the temple fair took shape over time: it was at first limited to celebrating the birthdays of the shrines, and later expanded into an autumn market lasting more than fifty days, known for its two climaxes. The addition of the Arhat troupes was especially crucial: mountain villagers incorporated the Arhat boxing and martial-arts acrobatics practiced in their villages into the procession welcoming the deity's cases, so the temple fair grew from pure worship into a general exhibition of folk skills; by the late Qing and early Republican period, as many as four to five hundred Arhat teams took part in welcoming the cases, belonging to seventy-two folk Lord Hu associations, each with its own transmitted names and techniques, forming a comparable system of village organization.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Fangyan Temple Fair is a cultural space for folk activities held at the Lord Hu Shrine in Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province. Fangyan is located in the east of Yongkang and is a national-level tourist scenic area. Because he "served one term of office and brought benefit to one locality," the common people revere him as the "Great Lord Hu" and built the Lord Hu Temple to offer sacrifices to him. The temple fair runs each year from the beginning of the eighth lunar month to the Double Ninth Festival in the ninth lunar month, lasting more than fifty days, with two climaxes around the thirteenth day of the eighth month and around the Double Ninth Festival in the ninth month. The core content of the temple fair's activities is "welcoming the cases" (ying'an), that is, the ritual activity of "welcoming the Arhats and worshipping Lord Hu": the seat of the Lord Hu deity (commonly called the "Lord Hu case") is paraded in procession, escorted by ceremonial guards and insignia. Arhat troupes composed of dozens or even a hundred young and middle-aged men (commonly called "welcoming the Arhats") follow behind, performing martial arts and acrobatics. There are also song-and-dance troupes, which either follow behind the Arhat troupes or perform on their own; the folk dance "Eighteen Butterflies" and the lion dance "Nine Lions" are traditional programs known far and wide. As many as four to five hundred Arhat teams take part in the temple fair, belonging to seventy-two folk "Lord Hu associations"; during the fair they compete in splendor at the summit of Fangyan and in villages along the route, making for a lively spectacle.

The welcoming of the palanquin

At its heart is the welcoming of the god's seat, escorted by an arhat team performing martial arts and acrobatics in its wake.

The route of the Hu Gong palanquin

The palanquin travels with full regalia while each team sets tables along the road, the mountain path turning into an arena.

Martial display by the arhat teams

Teams of dozens or a hundred strong young men carry the boxing and weapons skills of their villages into the procession.

Eighteen butterflies and nine lions

The eighteen-butterfly dance and the nine-lion figure are the fair's celebrated numbers, performed by village song-and-dance troupes.

The two peaks of the fifty-day term

The fair runs more than fifty days from early August to Chongyang, peaking around the thirteenth and again at the festival.

The seventy-two Hu Gong associations

Four or five hundred arhat teams belong to seventy-two local associations, each with its own leaders and routines.

The art of swirling the flower tripods

Spinning the flowered tripods between blades and cords is the fair's riskiest art, testing a performer's accuracy of many years' training.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The local layers of the Fangyan Temple Fair are very clear: taking the Lord Hu Shrine at the summit as the destination, each village sets up its own fair troupe and Arhat team, and along the route they compete in splendor, forming scenes of teams converging on the shrine. The Arhat boxing tradition of Yongkang's local villages is the technical foundation of the procession welcoming the deity's cases, while programs such as the "Eighteen Butterflies" dance and the "Nine Lions" lion dance mostly come from local song-and-dance troupes. The composition of devotees is not limited to Yongkang County alone; villagers from surrounding areas come in groups according to their relationships with the Lord Hu associations, and the fair's vendors, boxing masters, and floral-fair troupes link Yongkang with the Dongyang, Yiwu, and Jinhua area, giving this temple fair both the rugged air of a mountain district and the lively bustle of the central Zhejiang trade route.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Cheng Zhongxin (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in May 1958, from Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province. He was born into a peasant family, in a village with a long-standing Arhat boxing tradition. He has participated in presiding over the sacrificial ceremonies of the Lord Hu temple fair and was well received. He took on three apprentices in 1990 and founded a martial-arts school in 1997, training more than a hundred students. He is a representative inheritor of the Temple Fair (Fangyan Temple Fair), a project of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. He has won awards in martial-arts competitions many times. Beginning in 2014, he taught the consummate skill of the flower cymbals (tiaohuabo) to more than forty students and led them to participate in various performance activities, winning awards many times.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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