Temple Fair
01 · Historical Records
The Nanyue Temple Fair originates in ancestor worship, mountain-god worship, the yin-yang and five-phase theory, and stellar astrology. It took shape no later than the Southern Song dynasty, reached its peak in the Ming and Qing, declined in the mid-twentieth century, and has flourished again since the 1990s. It is held at the Nanyue Grand Temple, the Zhurong Hall, the Tianfu Temple, and the surrounding monasteries, temples and market towns on Mount Heng in Nanyue District, Hengyang City, Hunan Province.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Nanyue Temple Fair is a folk activity held on Mount Heng, the place where Zhurong, the God of Fire and mountain god of Mount Heng, was enfeoffed. Its main carriers are the Spring Festival fair, the "Rushing the Eighth Month" fair and the Tianfu Temple fair, and its main contents are rewarding the gods and giving thanks, expelling evil and eliminating disaster, praying for blessing and longevity, and the revelry of community-fire performances. The Nanyue Temple Fair consists of the Spring Festival fair, the "Rushing the Eighth Month" fair and the Tianfu Temple fair. The Spring Festival fair is held from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to the Lantern Festival of the following year. It is a New Year prayer activity organized by the people of Nanyue in gratitude for the protection of the Chu ancestors and of Zhurong, the Sacred Emperor of Nanyue, and includes giving out porridge on the Laba festival, racing for the first incense on New Year's Eve, lamp transmission and offering, fire-lamp street parades, dragon and lion dances, stilt walking and acrobatics, Buddhist dharma assemblies and Daoist jiao offering rituals. The "Rushing the Eighth Month" fair runs from the seventh to the ninth lunar month, when believers of all ethnic groups in the south who have the custom of worshipping the God of Fire come to Nanyue to offer incense, giving thanks for the protection of their ancestors and praying for long life for their parents; it reaches its climax on the first day of the eighth lunar month. The pilgrims mainly burn processional incense (xingxiang) and worship incense (baixiang). The Tianfu Temple fair is a folk activity held by the local people from the tenth to the seventeenth day of the fifth lunar month to drive away plague and ward off evil. It reaches its climax on the seventeenth day, the birthday of the Great Emperor of the Heavenly Talisman, and includes Daoist jiao offering rituals, "raised stories" (taigushi) pageantry, parades of the civil and martial judges, hanging mugwort and wearing incense pouches. The transmitting communities of the Spring Festival fair and the Tianfu Temple fair are the residents of Nanyue, together with the folk organizations in the various monasteries and temples that maintain order at the fairs, organize the rituals and take part in the cultural activities. The Nanyue Temple Fair takes diverse forms, with components including incense songs, road-clearing processions, carrying the gods, dharma assemblies, acrobatics and games, and is a comprehensive gathering of folk arts. The Nanyue Temple Fair spans a long period, is large in scale and has numerous participants; it has influence in Hunan and the neighboring provinces of Hubei and Jiangxi, and indeed throughout the country, and it is also an important component of Chu culture. The Nanyue Temple Fair plays an important role in enhancing the people's sense of belonging.
Laba porridge
The spring fair opens on the eighth of the twelfth month with porridge, feeding pilgrims before drawing them in.
Racing for the first incense
On New Year's Eve pilgrims rush for the first incense, firecrackers and crowds surging at the hall doors.
Lantern passing and the fire-lamp parade
Passing the lamp from hand to hand and parrying it through the streets stretch the festival's most luminous night.
Pilgrims of the eighth-month fair
The July-to-September fair peaks on the first of the eighth month, when fire-worshipping pilgrims arrive in numbers.
The Tianfu fair and the story-towers
Running from the tenth to the seventeenth of the fifth month, the Tianfu fair peaks on the deity's birthday with Daoist rites and parade towers.
The civil and martial judges' parade
The parade of civil and martial judges walks the streets, making plague-banishing intentions into visible spectacle.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Nanyue Temple Fair rests on a contiguous set of temples and market towns: the Nanyue Grand Temple, the Zhurong Hall, the Tianfu Temple and the surrounding monasteries and temples together form the spatial base of the three fairs. The pilgrims of the "Rushing the Eighth Month" branch come mainly from around Mount Heng; people from Shaoyang, Yiyang, Loudi, Huaihua and Changsha come to offer incense, weaving the bonds of southern and central Hunan onto a single mountain. During "Rushing the Eighth Month", believers of all ethnic groups in the south who have the custom of worshipping the God of Fire come together to offer incense at Nanyue. The pilgrims mainly burn processional incense and worship incense, and ranks of fire and incense are the mark by which the pilgrims of this region acknowledge their patron deity. The pilgrims' wishes are also simple: beyond giving thanks for the protection of their ancestors, they place special weight on praying for long life for their parents. The pattern of spring sacrifice and autumn requital is held by the Spring Festival fair and the Tianfu Temple fair respectively, covering the folk beliefs of the spring and autumn seasons, so that there is a fair to attend in every season of the year.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair · Temple Fair.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Nanyue Temple Fair is a project of group-based transmission. Among them, the transmitting community of the "Rushing the Eighth Month" fair consists mainly of residents around Mount Heng (such as Shaoyang, Yiyang, Loudi, Huaihua and Changsha). The Nanyue Temple Fair is rich in connotations: it has folk beliefs of spring sacrifice and autumn requital and of praying for blessing and longevity, as well as religious activities for driving away plague and disease. It embodies the coexistence and fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism on Mount Heng, reflects the pluralism of beliefs and the cultural inclusiveness of the Xiang-Chu region, and expresses the cosmological view of the unity of heaven and humanity. It carries people's beautiful wishes for national peace and public safety, and embodies the core values of civilization, harmony, integrity and friendship. The temple market that grew up around the Nanyue Temple Fair has become one of the means by which the surrounding people make their living, and plays a major role in protecting traditional villages, promoting the integration of culture and tourism, and accelerating rural revitalization.
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)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。