Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsAnxi, FujianBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Master Qingshui (the Master of the Clear Spring) had the dharma name "Puzu" and the secular name "Chen Rongzu" (also written Chen Zhaoying, 1047-1101); he was an eminent monk of Anxi, Quanzhou, Fujian, in the Northern Song, who cultivated the Way at Qingshui Yan in Anxi and is honored as Master Qingshui.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Qingshui Patriarch belief is a traditional folk belief that originated at Qingshui Yan in Anxi County, Fujian, venerating Master Qingshui. Juan 3 of the Qing Qianlong-era Fujian Tongzhi (Fujian Gazetteer) records of Qingshui Yan in Anxi: "The Song monk Puzu established a site for practice; rice issued from a crevice in the rock, and when the work was finished the rice ceased. The villagers worshipped him, and prayers for rain were always answered. This belief is widely spread across the Chinese regions of Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, as well as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar. Every Spring Festival, the spring-welcoming territorial procession (raojing) is the belief's main activity. The procession circuits for three days, with rites of offering flowers, offering tea, and inviting the "Three Loyalists' Fire" (a ceremony at the Three Loyalists Temple worshipping Zhang Xun, Xu Yuan, and Yue Fei), and Master Qingshui is welcomed down the mountain with offerings of tea.

The three-day circumambulation at spring's beginning

For three days at spring festival the image tours from temple to temple, receiving flowers, tea and broth at every village altar along the way.

Inviting fire from the Three Loyal Ones

The procession first worships at the temple of three loyal generals and carries their fire to the spring, then invites the deity down the mountain.

Welcoming the deity down with tea

The deity is invited downhill by the offering of tea, carried step by step from temple to temple without the vessel being spilled.

The protector of the tea district

Tea makers honour the founder as protector of the crop, offering a cup before firing each new batch and keeping the custom of three cups of tea for guests.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Qingshui Patriarch belief takes Qingshui Yan in Anxi as its ancestral seat, spreading layer by layer to Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan: in the Penglai Town area of the ancestral seat, the rock monastery is the center from which the procession route is set, with temples along the way joining as incense-welcoming teams; villagers of the various townships of Anxi form their own village-based groups to pilgrimage to the rock, numbering up to several hundred, carrying sedan chairs and sounding gongs along the old tea-mountain road. As the belief spread with the tea trade, merchants dealing in tea mostly enshrine the Patriarch's spirit-seat in the back hall of their shops, and before the tea-making season begins they first ask after fortune from the Patriarch; offering tea to guests thus became a preliminary rite of hospitality and trade. Anxi people who emigrated abroad also carried the Patriarch's incense to Southeast Asian countries, where diaspora associations named after the Patriarch are common, joining reverence for the ancestor with mutual aid among the trade. The old stories of rice issuing from the rock crevice and of prayers for rain always being answered are told and retold; tellers mostly set aside the miracles themselves and instead emphasize the bond of affinity between the mountain's founder and the local community. The belief and the tea industry are intertwined, and this shows in the harvest as well: before making spring tea, Anxi families go first to Qingshui Yan to ask about the weather, and if the tea season brings days of continuous rain they climb the mountain again to pray for clearing skies; after the autumn tea they offer the new crop, and the tea loads laid before the temple need not be lavish — a single load of newly roasted autumn maojiang (tip tea) is enough; pilgrims ask for a bowl to drink, and the temple gives a packet in return. Those who watch the mountain, those who watch the tea, and those who beg for tea are thus all in one place; what passes between master and apprentice is not only the scriptures but the heat of the roast.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

"After the Master passed away, the people were grateful and revered him as a buddha; the incense burned ever more brightly, and the people of Anxi regard him as their county's most important protective deity, while the tea industry reveres him as the protective deity of Anxi Tieguanyin. This project is of great significance for carrying forward Chinese civilization, strengthening the cohesion of the Chinese nation, and promoting the reunification of the motherland, and also has value for research in religious studies, folklore, and history.

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 (Anxi, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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