Temple Fair

Ⅹ-84Folk CustomsDangyang, HubeiBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The historical starting point of the Dangyang Guanling Temple Fair lies in what followed Guan Yu's death. Dangyang, also called Maicheng, is the place where Guan Yu was killed and buried in the Three Kingdoms period; with the grave present, sacrifice had a fixed point of reference. The record "the local people sacrifice at the tomb as a yearly custom" in the Jiaqing-era Jingmen Zhili Zhou Zhi: Dangyang Tombs shows that the earliest sacrifices were initiated spontaneously by the villagers, with no official pomp and no set ritual procedure, each family simply laying out a few offerings before the tomb according to its own devotion. By the pattern recorded in volume 25 of the Yongzheng-era Huguang Tongzhi of the Qing dynasty, the Emperor Guan Temple had established a shrine at the site of the tomb, with officials offering sacrifice at the proper seasons; popular tomb sacrifice was thereby incorporated into the sequence of official sacrifices, and the object, timing and administration of the sacrifice all became clear. This shift was crucial: it raised the sacrifice at Guanling from a village custom to a fixed item of local government affairs, and only then could the temple fair gather people on a larger scale. The Guanling Temple Fair was revived in 1991 and has been held every year since; the ritual procedure of the grand sacrifice was arranged by senior artistes according to the old rules, and the fair has again become the most concentrated folk occasion of the year in Dangyang city.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Dangyang Guanling Temple Fair is a traditional folk-custom cultural space held regularly at Guanling Temple in Dangyang City, Hubei Province, with the worship of Guan Yu as its main content. Dangyang, also called Maicheng, is the place where Guan Yu, the general of Shu in the Three Kingdoms period, was killed and buried. In sacrifice to Guan Yu, "the local people sacrifice at the tomb, taking it as a yearly custom" (Jiaqing-era Jingmen Zhili Zhou Zhi: Dangyang Tombs). Volume 25 of the Yongzheng-era Huguang Tongzhi of the Qing dynasty records that the Emperor Guan Temple "established a shrine at the site of the tomb, with the officials offering sacrifice at the proper seasons." The fair is held in spring or autumn each year. The main activities include sacrifices to Lord Guan, performance of the Guan-themed drama "Dangyang Sha Gushi" (The Dangyang Killing), folk entertainment, vow-making and vow-repaying, and the fair market. Large numbers of believers from surrounding counties and cities, other provinces and overseas flock here at the time, reflecting the positive role of this folk activity in strengthening the cultural identity of community members.

The three kneeling and nine prostrations

The chief worshipper kneels three times and prostrates nine, then offers the grand sacrifice in three stages, the most solemn part of the rite.

The three grand offerings

The three graded offerings follow the ancient sacrificial rules with attendants chanting praise, an order that may not be reversed.

The chief celebrant reading the text

The chief celebrant reads the sacrificial text aloud, restating Guan Yu's loyalty and righteousness in the temple hall.

The story opera of Guan Yu's death at Maicheng

The festival's opera tells of Guan Yu's fall at Maicheng in local vocal style, a living record of belief meeting regional theatre.

Vows, redemption and the fair market

Beyond the rite are vows and thanks, open-air entertainments and a market where pilgrims turn from prayer to shopping.

Presided over by a direct descendant

As a sixty-second-generation descendant Guan Zhangxun presided over the grand rite, recording the procedures and passing them to his own pupils.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The local character of the Guanling Temple Fair was shaped jointly by belief in Guan Yu in the Jingchu region and by Three Gorges transport. Dangyang is the place where Guan Yu met his end; people from the surrounding Yichang, Jingzhou and Xiangyang, and even from eastern Sichuan and northern Hunan, mostly come by river and overland routes, and the Guan-themed drama "Dangyang Sha Gushi" (The Dangyang Killing) serves as a fulcrum for transmitting the local repertoire, bringing narrative, vocal styles and physical gestures into the fair together. The composition of the believers itself crosses administrative boundaries: descendants of Guan Yu and traveling merchants from surrounding counties and cities, other provinces and even overseas flock here at the time, and the Guan Zhangxun line, descendants in the direct line of Guan Yu's sixty-second-generation eldest grandson, presides over the sacrifices, giving the ceremony a clan significance that ordinary village sacrifices lack. The fair market spreads along Guanling Avenue, with paper offerings, firecrackers and local products all on sale, connecting the religious sacrifice to everyday trade.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Guan Zhangxun (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in January 1941, native of Dangyang City, Hubei Province. Direct-line eldest grandson of the sixty-second generation of Guan Yu. From childhood he followed his father in attending the Guanling Temple Fair and taking part in the worship of his ancestor Lord Guan; immersed in this environment, he holds deep memories of the scenes of the fair. He is thoroughly familiar with the rules and procedures of the Guanling Temple Fair, and has a particularly comprehensive grasp of the etiquette of the sacrificial activities. Since the Guanling Temple Fair was revived in 1991, he has presided over the grand ceremony of sacrifice to Lord Guan every year. The ritual includes: the chief sacrificer performing three kneelings and nine kowtows, and the first, second and third offerings (chuxian, yaxian and sanxian) in the tailao (great beast offering) rite; the officiating official reading the sacrificial text, praising the virtues of Lord Guan and extolling loyalty, righteousness, justice and benevolence. While presiding over the ceremonies, he has also organized and recorded the ritual procedures of the Guanling Temple Fair, passing them on by word and example to more than twenty disciples. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Temple Fair (Dangyang Guanling Temple Fair).

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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