Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsLonghai, FujianBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

The folk customs of Baosheng Dadi (the Great Emperor Who Protects Life) encompass sacrificial rites, incense-pilgrimage visits, the seeking of medicinal lots, and procession tours, and their origins can be traced back to the mid-Northern Song period. In the late Ming dynasty and throughout the Qing dynasty, belief in Baosheng Dadi crossed the sea to Taiwan together with settlers and land reclaimers. Baosheng Dadi, surnamed Wu and named Ben, was a native of Baijiao Township, Tong'an County, during the Northern Song period. In the seventeenth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty (1419), the imperial court conferred upon Wu Ben the title "Gracious Lord, Censor of the Golden Gate of the Vast Heaven, Perfected Lord of Compassionate Healing and Numinous Wonders, Boundless Longevity, Baosheng Dadi (Great Emperor Who Protects Life)." Ciji Temple stands on Qishan at the foot of Dongming Ridge in Qingjiao Village, Haicang District, Xiamen City, Fujian Province. On the north bank of the Jiulong River, more than one hundred thousand pilgrims from home and abroad come each year to worship at the Qingjiao Ciji Temple, the ancestral temple of Baosheng Dadi; for this reason the temple has become the world center of Baosheng-Ciji culture.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Folk customs (xinsu), also called "popular beliefs" (suxin), are a conventionally formed traditional idea that takes shape over the long course of people's productive and everyday lives. Under the governance of such an idea, the populace develops psychological and behavioral identification with a given folk phenomenon. At present, sacrifices to Baosheng Dadi in both mainland China and Taiwan follow the ancient regulations. Combined with local folk traditions, they have formed a set of sacrificial ceremonial rites bearing the regional character of Fujian and Taiwan, which exert wide influence at home and abroad. He was a master of the medical arts who relieved the common people with superb methods of treatment. The populace privately conferred upon him the posthumous title "Perfected One of Numinous Healing" (Yiling Zhenren), and after his death he received further laudatory canonizations from successive dynasties. Among the people, Baosheng Dadi is also known as "Wu Zhenren" (Wu the Perfected) or "Dadao Gong" (Grand Lord of the Great Way). Baijiao Ciji Temple is located in Baijiao Village, Jiaomei Town, Longhai City, Fujian Province. The sacrificial ceremony for the birthday of Wu Zhenren held at Baijiao Ciji Temple is a traditional rite observed jointly by the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Participants are mainly from Longhai, and the observance extends to the populace on both sides of the Strait as well as to overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. The fifteenth day of the third lunar month is the birthday of Wu Zhenren. As is customary, the people hold the birthday sacrificial ceremony for Wu Zhenren, a rite that had already taken shape in the Song dynasty. The sacrificial ceremony consists of several stages. First the bell is struck nine times and the drum beaten three rounds; then firecrackers are set off, incense is distributed among those taking part in the rite, and the incense-offering ceremony is performed. Next, flowers, tea, fruit, sacrificial animals, and paper offerings of wealth are presented to Wu Zhenren; those present perform the rite of three kneelings and nine prostrations before Wu Zhenren and the assembled honored deities; the memorial text is read reverently; the offerings of wealth are burned reverently; and finally the assembly watches the burning of the offerings. A procession tour around the sacred precinct follows. The parade files out with the treading of fire, led by the temple banner of Baijiao Ciji Temple, a formation of spirit-boys, the "silence and stillness" placards, the divine statue, and ceremonial parasols, accompanied by a full band. Folk literary and artistic activities are also held during the festival: Zhangzhou puppet theater, Nanyin (southern music), and Xiang opera from Taiwan all give performances.

Division of incense and its cost

Each neighbourhood association levies a share for incense, oil and altar cloth, records it by household, and receives blessed incense from the temple.

The incense rite and the layout of the altar

The altar follows the old arrangement with the censer in the centre, five kinds of offerings in order and the address and burning papers set aside.

Zhangzhou puppetry and Taiwanese opera on one stage

Puppet plays, Taiwanese opera and nanyin alternate without precedence, mixing storytelling styles that the mostly non-literate villagers readily follow.

Umbrella and image in their fixed order

The order never varies: banner, boys and tablets, ceremonial umbrella over the image, music at the rear; the umbrella sets the pace.

The day of the deity's birthday

From dawn the incense begins, the procession runs at noon, the image is returned at dusk and the festival closes when the theatre empties.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Baosheng Dadi customs of the Baijiao area are layered with two tiers of sacrificial networks. Inside the temple, full-time attendants organize the great birthday sacrifice; in the streets and lanes, incense associations are formed on the basis of shops and incense-and-candle stores, and these offer incense in batches before the festival, with the incense money and lamp oil apportioned to each recorded in a ledger for the street. Zhangzhou emigrants carried this incense fire across the Taiwan Strait, and after settling there they mostly called it Wu Zhenjun or Dadao Gong, while the temple plaques retained the two characters Ciji, which became a lineage marker recognizable across the sea. The performances during the festival observe no hierarchy of importance: Zhangzhou puppet theater, Nanyin, and Taiwan's Xiang opera share the same stage, each singing in its local accent, turning a celebration of the gods into an occasion where local dialects meet. In the villages and towns through which the procession passes, every household sets out a table to await it; the distance between people and gods is thereby narrowed to a single incense table. The incense sticks brought back are inserted above the kitchen stove, watching over the smoke and fire of the household.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The deities worshipped in traditional folk belief are an important source from which folk customs arise, while praying for blessings and avoiding harm is the inner reason why such customs are transmitted without interruption. The collection of the various expressive forms of folk culture constitutes the cultural space of folk customs. The Baosheng Dadi customs encompass a series of contents including the folk culture of Fujian and Taiwan, the history of Fujian and Taiwan, folk medicine, folk art, and folk religious belief, and they possess research value in sociology, religious studies, folklore, and the local history and culture of Fujian and Taiwan.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

Wu Jishan 05-3019
Xu Shunwei 05-3020
Huang Guanghui 05-3021
Chen Jikun 05-3022
Sinapinchu 05-3023
Liu Shimei 05-3024
Zhang Qingming 05-3025
Zheng Quanguang 05-3026
Ye Da 05-3027
Li Yaohui
Luo Shengzong

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Folk Beliefs and Customs (Longhai, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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。