Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsGuangzhoushihuangpu, GuangdongBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The temple fair's main activities include the sea-sacrifice ceremony, the "Five Sons Paying Court to the King" activity, the Flower Festival (Huazhao), the Zhangqiu Poetry Gathering, and Lingnan folk performance activities.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Boluo Fair (Boluo Dan) is a traditional folk belief in which the God of the Southern Sea is sacrificed to at regular intervals at the Temple of the God of the Southern Sea in Huangpu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong. The Temple of the God of the Southern Sea was built in the 14th year of the Kaihuang era of the Sui dynasty (594); it stands by the Boluo River, and the temple has tall boluo trees, hence its popular name, the Boluo Temple. The God of the Southern Sea received imperial titles in successive dynasties; in the second year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty (1724) he was granted the title of Zhaoming Dragon King of the Southern Sea. Those coming and going stop before the temple to worship and pray for blessing. Juan 8, "Treatise on Rites and Music" (Liyue Zhi), of the Guangdong Tongzhi (Guangdong Gazetteer) records that "at the Temple of the God of the Southern Sea, sacrifice is offered every year on a ren day in the middle month of spring and autumn" — this was the official sacrifice. Among the people, the 13th day of the second lunar month is taken as the birthday of the God of the Southern Sea; each year the fair opens on the 11th of the second month, on a grand scale, and is called the "Birthday of the God of the Southern Sea", also known as the "Boluo Fair" (Boluo Dan). People from nearby, as well as faithful from Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asian Chinese communities, flock to it.

The birthday of the South Sea God

The peak day: incense and offerings at dawn, the image carried in procession at noon, with shops along the route closing and setting out altars.

The sea sacrifice at the river mouth

The sacrifice is performed at the river itself, where paper boats are launched so the deity may arrive and depart by water.

Five princes paying homage

A full-day play in which five princes pay homage, each guild staging its own episode to show its devotion before the god.

Poetry gathering at Zhangqiu

A poetry gathering has local writers compose at the riverbank during the festival, with selected verses posted on the temple gate.

Official and popular sacrifice side by side

Official sacrifice on the ren days of the middle months and the popular rite from the eleventh to the thirteenth share altar and drum pavilion.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The belief network of the Boluo Fair spreads down the Pearl River from the Temple of the God of the Southern Sea as its apex: the villages around Huangpu take the 13th of the second month as the god's natal day, with the various guilds, the silk-weaving industry, and boatmen groups each having their own apportioned share of offerings; Hong Kong, Macau, and Nanyang merchants treat the Boluo Temple as the last checkpoint before a long voyage, and ships mostly enshrine small spirit-seats requested from the temple. The square before the temple is where official and popular sacrifice interlace: the official sacrifice is performed by the authorities on a ren day in the middle month of spring and autumn as prescribed, while the popular sacrifice opens two days earlier, the two sets of rites sharing the incense table and drum pavilion before the hall; thus the same space holds both the solemnity of official rites and the clamor of the marketplace. The Boluo Fair organizations (boluohui) in the village communities are responsible for carrying the images on village circuits and staging plays to welcome the god, their members mostly rotating able-bodied men, borrowing hands in busy seasons and helping with farm work in slack ones — the old mutual-aid practice of city village communities.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Boluo Fair is one of the few temple fairs in the Guangzhou region that can still fully demonstrate maritime sacrifice; the sea offering, village circuits, image-carrying, and play-staging have all been handed down by the old rules, and the temple's inscribed tablets and wood-carved components have been protected along with the fair. In recent years Huangpu District, drawing on the strength of the Guangzhou Maritime Museum and the cultural heritage protection center, has combined fair activities with maritime-history exhibition and youth education, shifting the function of the traditional rites from rewarding the gods to explanation. The makeup of the faithful has also expanded from local residents to Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asian Chinese guests; during the fair multiple languages are heard side by side, and Cantonese opera and lion dance remain the leading roles. The key to survival lies in three things having successors: the temple's property rights, daily management, and festival organization; once the rotation of able-bodied men breaks down, the full complement of image-carriers and village-circuit performers cannot be mustered.

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 (Guangzhoushihuangpu, Guangdong) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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