Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsTongxin, NingxiaBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Lianhua Mountain architectural complex was first built in the Tang dynasty, and has a long history and a far-reaching reputation. It was once interrupted for a time, but was restored in 1983. At this time, devout men and women making pilgrimage to the mountain come in swarms, washing their faces and rinsing their mouths with used holy water, in the hope of averting disaster, prolonging life, and receiving timely rain.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Lianhua Mountain (Lotus Mountain) is located at Zheyaogou Village, Zhangjiayuan Township, in the southeast of Tongxin County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, about 90 kilometers from the county seat and at an elevation of about 1,800 meters. It faces Luo Mountain to the north, while to the south it is surrounded by clustering peaks, range upon range, its form steep and towering. Because the religious architectural complex is spread over the main peak in a scattered yet relatively concentrated pattern, from afar it resembles a lotus in full bloom, hence the name "Lianhua Mountain" (Lotus Mountain). According to historical records, the Qingmiao Water Festival was flourishing at that time, with as many as 100,000 pilgrims. The Tongxin Lianhua Mountain Qingmiao Water Festival opens on the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month each year, with the main festival lasting three days. It is a mountain-pilgrimage ceremony that integrates religion and folk custom, intended to pray for blessings and rain and to dispel illness and disaster. The activity takes water as its central theme: it arose because of water and gathers for the sake of water, and it carries a strong religious coloring. Participants in the temple fair come from all social strata, with the common people as the main body. In the form of attending the temple fair, they express their heartfelt wishes for blessings, rain, peace, and auspiciousness by burning incense and worshipping the deities, reflecting the expectation of timely rain among the people of this arid mountain region and their longing for a better life. The main procedures of the Tongxin Lianhua Mountain Qingmiao Water Festival are fetching water, passing the pass (guoguan), and offering water. On the thirteenth day of the fourth lunar month, a place of great auspiciousness is determined by calculation according to the Eight Trigrams of the Zhouyi (Book of Changes); a water cellar is selected and sealed, and the whole ceremonial activity thereby begins. On the morning of the fourteenth, the seal is broken at the selected water cellar and the "water head" (the first water) is taken. On the morning of the fifteenth, the main festival begins, and the ceremonial procession fetches water and passes the pass in sequence. After passing the pass, the ceremonial procession continues forward, entering the courtyard through the mountain gate and proceeding to the entrance of the Hall of the Thunder Patriarch (Leizu Dian) for the water-offering ceremony. At that point, all those present recite the water-offering verses aloud, and two of them scoop the water from the wooden bucket into the offering dish and present it respectfully to the Thunder Patriarch (Leizu). Afterwards, water is offered in turn before each divine hall and Buddhist shrine. When the offering is completed, the water remaining in the bucket is sprinkled in front of the main hall. On the morning of the sixteenth day of the fourth month, the water-fetching ceremony is performed once more, and water is offered separately to the Sanxiao Buddha, Patriarch Wuliang, and Guanyin Bodhisattva, with jiao-offering rites (dajiao) and scripture chanting held as well. When the sacrifice is finished, the water festival is declared at an end, a process called "cancelling the registration" (xiaohao).

Choosing and sealing the water vat

A vat is chosen as auspicious from the eight trigrams, sealed with new clay and red cloth, and watched until the dawn unsealing.

Breaking the seal at daybreak

At daybreak the seal is broken and the first ladle, the water head, is drawn for offering before the rest is carried away.

The procession passing the gate

Bearing the filled buckets through the mountain gate in careful steps to the tune of the water-carrying melody.

The water-offering chant

Before the hall of the Thunder Ancestor water is ladled into offering dishes while the group chants, and the remainder is splashed before the hall.

Offerings to the several halls and closing

On the sixteenth water is offered to the several deities, the rite is performed and the festival closed, and the year begins again.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Lianhua Mountain water festival gathers people by way of the mountain: the pilgrims of the Zheyaogou Village area are divided among several dozen association heads (huishou), each of whom selects a water cellar and, on an auspicious day calculated from the trigrams of the Zhouyi, carries water up the mountain, the teams entering the mountain in succession from mid-April onward. Fetching water requires passing the pass: when the ceremonial procession crosses the mountain gate, the water buckets must be carried with quick, short steps, neither stopping nor looking back — the difficulty of the pass lies not in physical strength but in observing the rules, for if the bucket shakes and the water spills, one has failed the pass. Pilgrims to the mountain come mostly from nearly twenty counties in Ningxia, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia, arriving in teams from each village and fort, with parties of dozens or even a hundred traveling together. Guest lodges and a horse-sheltering shed have been built before the mountain gate, providing rest for travelers' legs and stabling for their animals; this is also a relay point among the forts, connecting the post road and the salt ponds below the mountain, and the salt caravans of former times still recognize this water route into the mountain.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Tongxin Lianhua Mountain Qingmiao Water Festival combines the cultural characteristics of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, integrating folk religion, cultural entertainment, commerce, and human landscapes, and provides precious material for the study of the pluralistic culture of the Tongxin region. The water festival attracts believers from nearly twenty counties in Ningxia, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia, who burn incense and pray for blessings; it preserves rich folk culture, is a carrier of various traditional art forms and folk customs, and has social and cultural value that cannot be underestimated. Zhang Qingming (according to the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in April 1949, a native of Tongxin County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. From childhood he was fond of music, and taught himself the flute, erhu, yangqin, banhu, and accordion. From 1985 to 1989 he participated in the Lianhua Mountain Qingmiao Water Festival, studying its rites and regulations under Zhao Shiping. In 1996 he restored the ancient water-fetching procedures, and also compiled the guansha water-fetching verses, the water-offering hymns, and related content into three hand-copied manuscripts written with a brush. He enriched the performance of the Daoist music "Sanrangrang," adding five pieces including "The Water-Carrying Tune" (Danshui Qu), and introduced instruments such as the erhu, yangqin, and suona, thereby expanding the musical content of the water festival. He is a representative inheritor of the folk belief project Qingmiao Water Festival at Lianhua Mountain, Tongxin, of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Since 1989 he has taught the rites and music of the Qingmiao Water Festival on Lianhua Mountain every year, and has presided over the ceremonies and played music for decades.

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

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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