Temple Fair
01 · Historical Records
It is distributed mainly in Harqin Left Wing Mongolian Autonomous County, Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, and its influence radiates to the surrounding areas.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Tiancheng Temple Fair arose from the sacrifice marking the birthday of Sun Simiao, the King of Medicine, and has developed into a large-scale folk activity integrating folk music, dance, fine arts, athletics and acrobatics. The Tiancheng Temple Fair of Kazuo was founded in the early Qing dynasty. Historically, the fair was held around the twenty-eighth day of the fourth lunar month, when a grand sacrificial procession of the King of Medicine was held; the occasion was majestic, signal guns sounded, and the whole town turned out. After more than two hundred years of development and change, the Tiancheng Temple Fair gradually shifted from being held from the twenty-seventh to the twenty-ninth day of the fourth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month each year, and its form also evolved into a comprehensive folk activity. The earliest form of the Kazuo Tiancheng Temple Fair was a procession carrying the statue of Sun Simiao, the King of Medicine; as it developed, the content and forms of the fair were continually enriched, evolving into folk athletic performances. This large-scale folk athletic activity blends the characteristics of the cultures of the various ethnic groups, expressing the love of life and the hopes for health and peace of the people of the Liaoxi region. The outstanding feature of the Tiancheng Temple Fair is its large-scale athletic performance; the core content is the Ten Processions (shidaohui), namely the Luanyu Procession (imperial-carriage procession), the Shaoyin Procession (also called the Xiaoyao, or "carefree", procession), central streamers (zhongfan), iron forks (macha), flower cymbals (huabo), stilts (gaoqiao), spinning-carriage swings, waist drums (kuagu), lifted pavilions (taige), and the Heroes' Procession (Yingxiong Hui). These encompass traditional cultural expressions such as folk dance, music, martial arts and acrobatics. Each of the Ten Processions has its own character, the performance is highly demanding, and they are highly interesting and worth watching, with a strong popular base in the Liaoxi region. The Ten Processions can be displayed together or performed separately — "gathered, they are a single fire; scattered, they are a sky full of stars" — and some of the athletic events carry great challenge and difficulty, with strong artistic appeal, and are deeply loved by the local people. The skills and routines of the Ten Processions were mostly brought here from the Central Plains, and in the long course of evolution they continually merged with the bold and unconstrained athletic style and artistic taste of the Mongolian and northern peoples of Liaoxi, which is how they came to have their distinctive character today.
The procession carrying the medicine king's image
The fair began as a procession carrying the image of Sun Simiao, watched by crowds to the sound of ceremonial crackers.
The medicine king's outing around the twenty-eighth
Held around the twenty-eighth of the fourth month with a grand outing of the deity, the fair later moved to the fifteenth of the first.
The ten divisions of the fair
Ten divisions — palanquin, music, banner poles, tridents, tripods, stilts, swings, drums, towers and martial display — cover dance, music and acrobatics.
A fire when gathered, stars when scattered
Each division performs both in the main ground and on its own, so spectators meet a different number at every turn of the road.
Competitive skill and spectatorship
The divisions vary in character, some — the banner pole and the swinging tripods — combining real difficulty with wide local appeal.
Central plain skills in Liao-western style
Imported from the central plain and reshaped by Mongolian and northern styles, the arts now look distinctly Liao-western.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The local character of the Tiancheng Temple Fair grew out of the multi-ethnic terrain of Liaoxi. Harqin Left Wing Mongolian Autonomous County is the center of the fair; the skills and routines of the Ten Processions were mostly brought here from the Central Plains and, in the long course of evolution, absorbed the bold and unconstrained athletic style and artistic taste of the Mongolian and northern peoples, so that the same set of items developed here a look markedly different from that of the Central Plains. The fair's influence crosses county boundaries and spreads through the Liaoxi region; the people of Chaoyang City and the surrounding areas come to worship and watch the fair according to its temple schedule. In terms of belief, the local people originally recognized Sun Simiao as the King of Medicine, but what they revered was his power to avert disaster and bring blessing: warding off plague and praying for abundant harvests and peace in all four seasons became the most practical aspirations of the region. The composition of the believers also grew more complex with the interwoven herding-and-farming way of life: the festival calendar of Han farming households and the schedule of herding households are placed side by side in the same fair, and anyone can find their place at the viewing stands of the Ten Processions.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Tiancheng Temple Fair originated in the traditional belief in Sun Simiao, the King of Medicine, but its theme and connotations gradually evolved into prayers to stay far from plague and to have abundant harvests and peace in all four seasons, powerfully fusing humanity and nature, present reality and history. It carries the historical and cultural memory of the region's people, reflects the trajectory of fusion between Central Plains culture and local culture, and has important historical, cultural and aesthetic value.
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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