Changbaishancaican Customs
01 · Historical Records
According to the Taiping Imperial Reader (Taiping Yulan), people were already digging ginseng in the Changbai Mountain region as early as the mid-3rd century AD.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the long process of searching for and gathering mountain ginseng, the laborers of the Changbai Mountain region formed a distinctive body of customs covering special terminology, rules of conduct, moral standards, ginseng-digging techniques, operational taboos, wilderness survival skills, and special tools and implements, which has been passed down by oral instruction and personal demonstration among ginseng gatherers to this day. The work of "fangshan" (entering the mountains) carries its own rules. Before entering the mountain, the ginseng gatherer must perform the rite of announcing to the mountain, burning incense and bowing, reciting the mountain rules aloud, and asking the mountain gods and the generations of past mountain-goers to bear witness, declaring that only ginseng will be taken and no other living creature harmed; on the trail one may not trample vegetation at will, may not make loud noise, and may not chase or strike animals encountered. These constraints are not polite words put on for outsiders but a rule of non-interference on the mountain ground: who has taken from this spot, which slope need not be searched again — the lore is all held in the minds of the old "batou" (mountain leaders), and a newcomer must be taken on two trips by an elder before being allowed to go up alone. Identifying mountain ginseng relies on the eye judging form, color, plot, and leaf shape, reading the sprout to judge the root, and using a deer whistle and mountain shouts to fix one's position; lifting the root requires a special small pickaxe and bamboo skewers, the soil must be peeled away layer by layer, the root must not break, and it must be taken out with all its fibers intact, then wrapped in pine needles and moss and packed. Once digging is finished, the mountain ground must be marked and the pit sealed; by old rule a stone is pressed over the pit as a sign, and the site will not be dug again in the coming year. The whole body of rules and craft is passed down by oral instruction and demonstration; whose family transmitted which mountain trip, how to judge and how to dig — outsiders cannot know it all.
The announcement rite before entering the mountain
Before setting out, incense is burned and an oath made to take ginseng only and harm nothing else.
Reading a sprout to find the root
The shape, colour and lean of the sprout tell whether a root lies beneath, more reliably than eyesight alone.
The deer whistle and the call that fixes one's bearings
Whistles and shouted calls carry between valleys, a way of fixing bearings that wears the voice thin.
Lifting the root and keeping every rootlet
Soil is peeled away layer by layer and every rootlet kept; the root is wrapped in pine needles and moss.
Marking the pit for next time
The pit is filled and a stone laid on top, promising that this ground has given all it will.
The old rule of following the master
A novice must walk two mountains behind an old hand before going alone; few now are willing to lead.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
People of the Changbai Mountain region call entering the deep forests in search of wild mountain ginseng "fangshan" (releasing into the mountains); the fangshan custom circulates in the Changbai Mountain area around Fusong County, Jilin Province. The folk beliefs, moral norms, environmental awareness, value judgments, and traditional skills within the Changbai Mountain ginseng-gathering custom greatly influence the local people's state of mind and philosophy of life, and have been elevated into a distinctive ginseng culture, enriching and perfecting the traditional culture of the Chinese nation and displaying distinct local characteristics.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, most experienced fangshan batou (mountain leaders) are advanced in years and rarely take apprentices into the mountains, and some have passed away one after another; people who systematically master the fangshan techniques are no longer many. The Changbai Mountain ginseng-gathering custom, followed for a thousand years, now faces a crisis of transmission, is on the verge of extinction, and urgently needs to be rescued. Zhao Binglin (from the official archives of the associated representative inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in October 1960, from Fusong County, Jilin Province. He knows the Changbai Mountain ginseng-gathering custom inside out and has mastered its various rules and taboos. Decades of fangshan experience enable him to tell, merely by observing the mountain ground, whether ginseng is present there. Since the 1990s he has established a 15-hectare fangshan ginseng-gathering base so that more young people can learn and experience the skills and customs of fangshan. He also emphasizes theoretical research on the ginseng-gathering custom, and has compiled and published four books: An Illustrated Guide to Chinese Ginseng, Rare and Wonderful Wild Mountain Ginseng, Treasures of the Changbai Mountains, and Applications of Wild Mountain Ginseng. He is a representative inheritor of the Changbai Mountain ginseng-gathering custom, a project of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. He emphasizes passing on ginseng-gathering techniques and customs to his disciples in practice, and has trained several dozen apprentices including Zhao Yu, all of whom have comprehensively mastered the essentials of fangshan ginseng gathering and the customs that must be followed. The contemporary state of the fangshan custom: the problem lies not in the craft but in the people. Most veteran batou are advanced in age, few apprentices can be trained, and still fewer can go into the mountains; the skill of reading the mountain cannot be learned from books — it must be worn in trip after trip on the slopes. Once transmission is broken, the first thing to disappear is not the technique of digging ginseng but the reverence owed to people, to the mountain, and to the seasons — and that is the most essential part of this trade.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhao Binglin 05-3040
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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。