Folk Beliefs and Customs

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

01 · Historical Records

Linshui Temple in Gutian County, Fujian Province, is dedicated chiefly to Chen Jinggu, a goddess of Taoism. Worshipping Chen Jinggu and performing the rites of inviting incense and receiving fire are currently the most influential folk belief activities not only in Fujian Province but throughout the Jiangnan region, and their influence even extends to Southeast Asia and to Chinese communities around the world. The Chen Jinggu customs began in the Song dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing periods; the incense fire has been transmitted without interruption ever since. According to the Gutian County Gazetteer compiled in the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, Chen Jinggu was born in the Tang dynasty. Legend has it that she was a native of Xiadu, Cangshan, Fuzhou. At the age of twenty-four, she underwent the rite of deliverance to pray for rain and gave up her young life in order to relieve the drought and save the common people. After death she was revered as the protective goddess of children and women, and an old wooden house near the Xu Zhenjun Temple in Xiachi, Cangshan, is also regarded by local people as Chen Jinggu's ancestral house and is worshipped as such. There are more than four hundred branch temples of Linshui Temple in Taiwan, and over the past twenty years or so, pilgrims from Taiwan to the ancestral Linshui Temple in Gutian have numbered more than four hundred thousand person-visits.

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. The Chen Jinggu customs extend their influence to the provinces and regions of Fujian, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, and Anhui, as well as to Chinese communities around the world. The faithful number more than eighty million, more than four thousand branch temples of Linshui have appeared, and the result is a distinctive folk cultural phenomenon. The rites of inviting incense and receiving fire are performed throughout the year, but the observances in the first lunar month, the month of Chen Jinggu's birthday, are the most solemn. At that time, the faithful from various places form "Madam Societies" and travel to Linshui Temple in Gutian to celebrate her birthday, inviting incense and receiving fire from the ancestral temple to carry home for the jiao offering rites of prayer to the gods. This reflects the widespread wish among the people to pray for blessings and seek peace. Using the rites of inviting incense and receiving fire as a medium, Taiwan compatriots, in ceremonies of shared belief where people share one ancestor and the gods share one bond, have deepened their emotional exchange with mainland compatriots and their identification with the national culture.

Departure point at the ancestral cottage

The ancestral cottage in the lower crossing district serves as the meeting point, where pilgrims gather before travelling to Gutian.

The joint altar of the two deities

Small urban shrines seat both deities side by side, address them together and share one set of offerings, lamps and duty rosters.

Distributing ash on the return journey

Each household receives a bag of ash which is sprinkled at the hearth and bedside to guard the family's health through the year.

Joint thanksgiving rites of the wards

Neighbouring shrines pool funds and duties to hold one joint rite, taking turns at the altar in order of the ward.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In the course of these rites, the Taoist liturgical rites of the various schools, folk music, opera and dance, traditional martial arts, and folk performing arts from different places are all given full display. Within the city of Fuzhou, the Chen Jinggu customs radiate outward from Xiadu in Cangshan as their starting point: around the site of the ancestral house a fixed market for incense and candles has formed, and before and after the first month of the lunar year the people set out in groups from here to worship at Gutian, bringing back the incense fire of the ancestral temple on their return to the small temples of every ward and lane in the city. In the arrangement of divine seats, the city's temples mostly place Chen Jinggu side by side with Xu Zhenjun, the order of principal worship depending on the wards and households. The offerings consist mainly of rice cakes, fried peanuts, and seasonal fruits, and their preparation and distribution are largely undertaken by women. What women ask of Chen Jinggu is mostly related to childbirth and child-rearing, while male worshippers mostly pray for the peace of the household and the smooth conduct of their livelihood. When the incense is distributed, each household is given a small bag of incense ash, which is inserted above the kitchen stove or beside the bed upon the return. The branch temples of the various wards in the city also jointly perform jiao offering rites, gathering the prayers for the safety of women, children, and the sick into a single collective petition to the ancestral temple.

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.

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 (Fuzhoushicangshan, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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