Wangchuanhui
01 · Historical Records
Legend identifies him with Liu Chengzong, the Yuan-dynasty general who exterminated locusts.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Wangchuan Fair is a water-based temple fair of fishermen, popular in Minzhu Village, Wangjiangjing Town, Xiuzhou District, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. Three sessions of the fair are held each year: at Qingming, Mid-Autumn Festival, and New Year's Eve. The principal deity worshipped at the fair is called "General Liu Meng" (Liu Mengjiang). For over a hundred years, Wangchuan Fair has evolved locally into a festival for fishermen and boat people. Attendees carry high the banners of their associations; besides worshipping the deity, the fair also serves the important cultural functions of acknowledging ancestral lineage and keeping in touch with kin. Liansidang Lake in Minzhu Village lies on the southern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and all who attend Wangchuan Fair are connected with the canal's water system. The fishermen and boat people who toil year-round on the canal's waters mostly belong to some form of social organization such as family clans and folk associations, yet at ordinary times they rarely have chances to meet and exchange news; it is solely through the three Wangchuan fairs each year that they keep their ties. During the fair, fishermen and boat people from all over spontaneously perform such primordial folk arts as baojuan (precious scrolls), divine songs, dragon dances, lion dances, lianxiang bamboo dances, flower-basket dances, lake-boat dances, stilt walking, great banner flags, qingyin musical troupes, sedan-chair carrying, waist drums, folk opera, tabai-boat performances, and skewered-flesh incense offerings; the festivities last about a week, drawing enormous, bustling crowds. In the course of modernization, Wangchuan Fair faces all sorts of predicaments. Water is the backbone of Wangchuan Fair: the fairground is set on the waters of Liansidang Lake, and the main sacrifice is offered to General Liu Meng — said to be Liu Chengzong, a Yuan-dynasty general who exterminated locusts. The locust-deity belief was once widespread everywhere, but has now mostly declined, surviving here alone in living form. Attendees raise the banners of their associations high, and after the sacrifices there is also the aspect of acknowledging ancestral lineage and keeping in touch. Around the week of the fair, fishermen and boat people from everywhere spontaneously perform baojuan, divine songs, dragon dances, lion dances, lianxiang, flower-basket dances, lake-boat dances, stilt walking, great banner flags, qingyin troupes, sedan-chair carrying, waist drums, folk opera, tabai boats, and skewered-flesh incense offerings — primordial arts all; three times a year, it is on these three sessions that the hearts of people scattered across the waters are regathered.
Three fairs a year
Held at Qingming, Mid-Autumn and New Year's Eve, the three fairs combine worship, clan reunion and the business of staying in touch.
Worship of General Liu
The patron is General Liu the locust-slayer, said to be an officer of the Yuan, honoured in a local temple; the belief has elsewhere largely faded.
Treading the white boat
Boats form up and move to the beat, carrying the rituals of a land procession onto the water.
Lotan boat, flower basket and lake boat
Performed with bamboo poles and boat-borne props, their rhythm follows the water rather than a stage.
Stilts and the great banner
Stilt walkers line the decks and the great banner rises; when it moves, the boats on the lake gather towards it.
Treasure scrolls, god-songs and the qingyin troupe
Sung and recited epics fill the programme while the qingyin band supplies instrumental music, and the meat offerings are carried house to house.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
When the time comes, tens of thousands of fishermen and boat people from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area sail their boats to the fair; the boats gathering on the surface of the lake number no fewer than several thousand — a magnificent sight. Locally there is the Liu Wang Temple, dedicated primarily to General Liu Meng. Those who attend Wangchuan Fair are drawn from the Grand Canal's water system: Liansidang in Minzhu Village lies on the southern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and tens of thousands of fishermen and boat people from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region arrive in droves, with boats gathering on the lake's surface numbering no fewer than several thousand. In popular accounts, each clan association and family has its own gate, keeping to its own course at ordinary times with little chance to meet; the three sessions of Wangchuan Fair each year are the only occasions when all gather together. With overland transport gradually replacing waterways, those coming to the fair now travel by vehicle and horse; and when waterway traffic control coincides with the fair, boats can hardly enter the lake — so the water-based character of the fair is squeezed from both ends.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Historically, the "locust-deity belief" formed by Chinese farmers to ward off locust plagues was extremely widespread and of long duration; today it has largely declined, and the Jiaxing Wangchuan Fair can be called a "living fossil" for the study of the history of insect disasters in antiquity, of extremely high historical value. On the one hand, overland transport is gradually replacing waterways, and farmers and townspeople coming to the fair often go by vehicle, which sits ill with the original meaning of Wangchuan Fair; on the other hand, out of consideration for water safety, waterway traffic-control authorities often impose traffic control during the fair, causing the character of Wangchuan Fair to undergo transmutation. Necessary measures are urgently needed to strengthen its protection.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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