Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsMaoming, GuangdongBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Lady Xian, of the Li people, was born into a family of leaders of Nanyue; she lived through the Liang, Chen, and Sui dynasties and was active in the Lingnan region, where she worked to promote the fusion and harmony of the Han and Yue peoples and to safeguard local peace, making outstanding contributions to national unity and development. The Lady Xian belief originates in later generations' worship of her; every year her birthday is celebrated with god-procession rites. Successive dynasties, especially the Ming and Qing, regarded Lady Xian as a hero and sage, and the spring and autumn sacrifices and the birthday sacrifice were never interrupted. From the Sui dynasty onward, the people honored her as the "Holy Mother of Lingnan" and worshipped her; this later gradually evolved into a widespread mythical belief, with Lady Xian becoming a protective goddess, a goddess of harmony, and a goddess of child-giving in the hearts of the common people.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Lady Xian belief is mainly distributed in the counties and cities of Gaozhou, Dianbai, Huazhou, Maonan, and Magang in Maoming City, Guangdong Province — the land of the ancient Gaoliang Commandery. From the Book of Sui to the stele records of the Jiajing era of the Ming dynasty, there are records that "officials set up shrines and sacrificed to her". The Kangxi-era Maoming County Gazetteer of the Qing records: "The 24th day of the eleventh month is Lady Xian's birthday; on the day itself and for several days before and after, plays are performed and sacrifices offered, in every city, town, and village that has a temple." It can be seen that it was very prevalent at the time. Besides the strictly regulated official sacrifices of successive dynasties, the custom as transmitted to the present is mainly embodied in the temple-fair sacrifices at the numerous Lady Xian temples, of which the sacrifice held in Gaozhou is relatively grand and solemn. The procedures and rites of the sacrifice include changing the statue's clothes, setting out offerings, the temple keeper's offering of sacrifice, chanting the sacrificial prayer, burning the sacrificial prayer, and setting off firecrackers and bowing in salute. These are followed by lantern parades, lion and dragon dances, floating colors, bayin (eight-instrument) music, martial arts, Cantonese opera, puppet shows, and other performances, with more than ten thousand spectators and a truly spectacular scene. In addition, this belief is integrated into the various everyday prayer activities of the people. For example, on the first and fifteenth days of every lunar month, people invariably go to the Lady Xian temples to burn incense and candles in worship, and women take turns reciting the "Classic of Lady Xian"; those who wish to divine auspiciousness, taboos, fortune, and misfortune often go to the temples to cast the beijiao blocks and seek divination; when a baby reaches one month old, its parents carry it to the temple to report the birth, signifying that the child becomes a descendant of Lady Xian and receives her protection; couples who do not get along also go there to pray for the resolution of their conflicts.

The festival calendar of the birthday

From the birthday itself and the days around it, theatre, procession and lantern nights run in every village that has a temple.

Robing, offering, reading and burning the text

The central rite: robing the image, laying out offerings, the lector's invocation, the burning of the text, then firecrackers and kowtow.

Lanterns, lions, dragons and floats

Lantern processions, lion and dragon dances, floats, martial arts and opera draw thousands into the temple square after the rite.

Chanting the Xiantai scripture in turns

On the first and fifteenth of each month women gather to burn incense and chant the Xiantai scripture, each knowing only part of the text.

Casting for guidance and reporting a birth

Cast lots for guidance, bring a month-old infant to the temple to be acknowledged, and come to ask for the end of family quarrels.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The many oral legends passed down locally for generations, such as "Lady Xian's Martial Contest with King Da Xie" and "The Clever Judgment of the Plow Ox", embody the people's enduring remembrance of and reverence for Lady Xian. Lady Xian temples are extremely widely distributed across western Guangdong; the counties and cities of Gaozhou, Dianbai, Huazhou, Maonan, and Magang each have their own temples, of which the sacrifice held in Gaozhou is the most grand and solemn. The temple fairs of the various temples differ in scale: the large ones stage plays for several days running, hold processions, and set up lantern displays; the small ones hold only the three offerings and five sacrifices on the proper day of the birthday and at the spring and autumn sacrifices. The temple keepers and chief sacrificers mostly come from the local lineages, with the rotation system and the temple property's income and expenditure recorded together in the temple registers; when the people seek advice on auspices and taboos in daily life, they do not enter the great hall but go to the side chamber to cast the beijiao blocks, the temple keeper throwing the blocks to determine fortune or misfortune. The oral legends of the two places also circulate in the temples, with stories such as "Lady Xian's Martial Contest with King Da Xie" and "The Clever Judgment of the Plow Ox" providing the source texts for storytelling at the temple fairs.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Lady Xian belief has been transmitted for a thousand years, manifesting Lady Xian's spirit of pursuing national harmony, social stability, and unity among the people, and it has practical significance for promoting national unity and cultural identity. Today, the Lady Xian belief has far-reaching influence not only in central and western Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan, but also remains vitally influential among overseas Chinese in Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia.

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 (Maoming, Guangdong) · 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。