Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsChengmai, HainanBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The content of Junpo activities was born of the old story of Lady Xian assisting her husband Feng Bao, the governor of Gaoliang, in his southern campaigns. Since the Tang dynasty, more than 100 temples to Lady Xian were successively built across the island; just over 60 survive today. Most temple doors face in the direction of Haikou, and temple sites are mostly chosen on slopes at village entrances or road junctions. In the Ming dynasty, the officials and people of Ding'an elevated the consciousness of borrowing the god's power to pacify the state into a conviction; inheriting the gathering format of Central Plains temple fairs and using divine power to manifest their own strength, they gradually formed Junpo activities centered on deity worship, dispatching the troops, parading the troops, and displaying divine might. The name "Junpo Festival" arose with this: the word "po" (slope) marks the site of a military garrison — in old place names across northern Qiong, "po" mostly denotes where a camp stood; remembering the po means remembering where troops were stationed.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

In northern Qiong, Hainan — especially in Chengmai County, Hainan Province — the folk activity worshipping Lady Xian is called the "Junpo Festival"; the people also call it "Nao Junpo", "Fa Junpo", "Chi Junpo", and so on. It is a regional culture jointly believed in and identified with by the Han, Li, and other ethnic peoples of Hainan. Each year from the first lunar month through the end of the fifth lunar month, villages throughout Chengmai hold Nao Junpo activities at their own fixed times, following a set of rituals and procedures handed down over a long period. The Junpo Festival is a folk-belief activity held at fixed times each year in Chengmai: from the first lunar month through the end of the fifth lunar month, villages throughout Chengmai hold Nao Junpo at their own fixed times, following a set of rituals and procedures handed down over a long period. Each year during the Junpo Festival, the believers first elect the organizing personnel (gongtou); then a deity-worship ceremony is held: the idol is bathed and purified, its golden body repainted, a ceremony of summoning the god and inspecting the body is performed, and the eyes are opened in a consecration rite. Activities such as "crossing the sea of fire" and "climbing the mountain of swords" take place; next comes the descent of the spirit-medium (the idol's mouthpiece), and after the god's presence has descended, the "spear-piercing" rite is carried out. The idol is carried to each household to purify it (clearing away filth and pollution). During the procession carrying the deity (kanggong), each village organizes yangge (rice-sprout song) troupes and lion-dance troupes, performs "mustering the troops" and "parading the deity", and imitates the spectacular troop-dispatch procedures and ceremonies Lady Xian once led; processions hold up sabers and spears in a military review. For several days on end, men and women, old and young, turn out in festive dress, and famous opera troupes from nearby are specially invited to add to the occasion. The "Patron Ancestor" (gongzu) goes to offer New Year greetings to every household in the village; each family lights incense and candles to welcome the Patron Ancestor into the home to receive his New Year call. In Chengmai, the Junpo Festival plays a role in integrating regional culture, ethnic cultures, and various religious beliefs. Among the folk-art forms and important historical symbolic information associated with it — local folk tales, sculpture, opera, music, dance, architecture, and folk activities — huagui (woodcarving) and Qiong opera have become national-level protected projects; cultural forms that developed out of the custom, such as bayin music, the zhongpan (cup-tray) dance, and zhangban houses, continue to circulate today; and large numbers of richly varied temple buildings are scattered across the county. The Chengmai Junpo upholds the spirit that "the rite lies in the guest, not in the food": during Junpo, whether one knows them or not, anyone who has crossed the threshold is a guest. The Junpo Festival has also given rise to many famous local specialties of Chengmai and Hainan — white-cut chicken, roast suckling pig, pickled rice noodles, assorted vegetables, and the like — along with distinctive cooking and brewing techniques. The Junpo Festival can promote the transport industry and stimulate domestic demand; cross-regional visits among villages create opportunities for young men and women to meet; cultural and sports activities regulate the people's body and mind; and craft techniques such as idol carving are passed on.

Bathing the image and renewing its gold

Leading up to the festival, elected organisers wash the image and repaint it in gold, the old leaf mixed into the new.

Invocation, opening the eyes and the fire and blade rites

The temple official invokes the spirit, opens the eyes, and volunteers cross a bed of fire and climb a ladder of blades.

Spirit-medium, transfixing and cleansing

A medium speaks for the deity, the image transfixed is carried for cleansing, and every household is visited in a fixed order without skipping any.

The procession with rice-songs and lion teams

Rice-song groups and lion teams lead the procession, which imitates the deity's old muster and marches on for several days.

The deity's door-to-door new year visit

The deity is carried to every door in the village for new year greetings, each household lighting incense to welcome him.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Because the "Patron Deity" (gong) believed in during the Junpo Festival is communal in nature, the festival also frames harmonious interpersonal relations and a homestead ecology among the people of Chengmai, strengthening their sense of community identity and contributing to the prosperity of the local economy.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

One rule of the Chengmai Junpo most reveals its character: the rite lies in the guest, not in the food. To cross the threshold is to be a guest, regardless of kinship — believers who have come from far away eat at the same tables as children from the neighboring village and watch the same "mustering the troops"; the boundaries between people are temporarily flattened by the festival season. The huagui woodcarving and Qiong opera preserved in the temples have become national-level protected projects; cultural forms that developed out of the custom, such as bayin music, the zhongpan dance, and zhangban houses, continue to circulate today; and large numbers of richly varied temple buildings are scattered across the county. The wood for huagui carving is taken locally, and the carving craft is passed down from generation to generation; Qiong opera troupes are mostly succeeded by brothers and sons, and the rules of staging plays are orally transmitted backstage. This folk-belief custom simultaneously sustains several crafts and a trade in foot-power: once the slope season arrives, porters and carts from beyond the mountains haul goods and passengers trip after trip, and the small paths that once did not connect villages are trodden into main roads; young men and women gain more chances to meet, and vocal melodies and drumbeats travel along the bustling traffic to neighboring counties.

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 (Chengmai, Hainan) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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