Lianhuo
01 · Historical Records
Pan'an fire walking (Lianhuo) originates in the fire worship of high antiquity. After the Northern Song dynasty, Hu Ze, an honest and incorruptible official of Yongkang, was enshrined in a temple by the local people, who called him Lord Hu (Hu Gong Dadi). The Chen Family Genealogy of Shenze Village (1896) records that the village was founded in the Jiading era of the Song dynasty and has a history of more than seven hundred years to date. After the Song dynasty, the fire walking of the Shenze area had already become combined with belief in Lord Hu, and it continued through the Ming and Qing dynasties.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The fire-walking custom is a folk activity held by some villages and towns in the mountainous area of southwestern Pan'an around the Double Ninth Festival or Lord Hu's birthday each year, with the main aims of dispelling disasters and epidemics and praying for auspiciousness; it is distributed mainly in the townships of Shenze, Shuangfeng, Renchuan, and Panfeng in southwestern Pan'an County, Zhejiang Province; its style is primitive and simple, integrating folk belief, dance, music, sports, and games. Judging from the time at which fire walking is held on the Double Ninth Festival in some villages and towns, its history is long, embodying the yin-yang concept of taking fire as "yang" and using yang to drive away yin. Legend has it that the "Xing Hugong" (invoking Lord Hu) temple fair at Fangyan in Yongkang already featured "fire walking" performances, while the area of today's Shenze Township in Pan'an formerly belonged to Yongkang. According to the elders of Shenze Village in Pan'an, fire walking in the village has been passed down from generation to generation, and the custom of fire walking has existed since the village was founded. Pan'an fire walking mostly organizes fire-walking teams by village; each year around the Double Ninth Festival or Lord Hu's birthday, they are held on open-air squares at night. Bare-chested and barefoot, the fire walkers cross and dance on the charcoal fire according to the prescribed patterns, while the people cheer enthusiastically and jointly pray for auspiciousness. Fire-walking rituals vary from place to place, but can be roughly divided into five stages: preparing the site and materials, burning the fire, opening the water-and-fire gate, treading the fire, and thanking the fire. Among these, in the preparation stage people must choose open, level earthen ground, set the fire altar and the four directional positions, and prepare charcoal and fire-walking tools; "burning the fire" means igniting the charcoal in the fire altar and using iron rakes and palm-leaf fans to fan the charcoal into a blaze, while the fire-walking members bathe and cleanse themselves; in the "opening the water-and-fire gate" stage, drums and music sound, the incense officer leads the way, and the shaman leads the fire-walking members to the four directional positions of the fire altar to perform the "opening the water-and-fire gate" ritual; treading the fire is the climax — during it drums and music resound together, the shaman leads, and the fire walkers, holding steel forks (or knives), shuttle across the fire altar in the order of entering from the north and exiting from the south and entering from the west and exiting from the east, shouting and dancing, completing three sessions of fire walking (each session one quarter of an hour); in the "thanking the fire" stage, the fire walkers thank the gods and pray for blessings, for favorable weather locally and for the well-being of the people. The villagers are steeped in these group belief-custom activities and take part consciously under the guidance of their elders. Because of this consciousness of popular participation, fire-walking activities also help to deepen neighborly affection and strengthen unity and friendship.
Choosing ground and laying out materials
The rite begins by choosing a flat open ground, fixing the fire altar to the four directions and setting out charcoal, rakes and banana-leaf fans.
Firing the charcoal
Charcoal is lit in the altar and fanned with rakes and leaf fans; only once the fire is high do the participants bathe and purify themselves.
Opening the gate of fire
With drums sounding, the incense-bearer leads and the master takes the team round the four directions of the altar to open the gate of fire.
Three rounds of walking the fire
At the climax the team, guided by the master, carries steel forks through the coals from north to south and west to east, three rounds of about a quarter hour each.
Giving thanks at the fire
After the three rounds the participants give thanks for rain, harvest and peace; the night of fire then ends and fieldwork resumes as usual.
Six village fire teams
Six villages have formed fire teams of over three hundred people in all, and the whole village watches elders lead each pass at the fire ground.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the local fire-walking custom was generally held on the Double Ninth Festival, the 13th of the eighth lunar month, and the 15th of the eighth lunar month. Fire walking organizes teams by village; the Shenze, Shuangfeng, Renchuan, and Panfeng areas each set up their own teams, each with its own fire site. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, local fire walking was mostly held on the Double Ninth Festival and on the 13th and 15th of the eighth lunar month; today it has mostly moved to open-air squares after nightfall, and with more people coming, out-of-town spectators often outnumber the villagers themselves. Shenze formerly belonged to Yongkang, and its fire walking is linked to the lingering traditions of the Xing Hugong temple fair at Fangyan; the days around Lord Hu's birthday have become a date the whole village must attend.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As a traditional folk activity, the fire-walking custom has a long history, rich content, and strong popular participation; locally it has always existed in the form of group transmission, and its knowledge and skills are passed on mainly through oral, experience-based inheritance. At present, six fire-walking teams totaling more than 300 people have been formed in Shenze, Damin, Dongkeng, Dalingtou, Dalu, and Fangshan villages in Pan'an. Pan'an fire walking expresses the people's ideal of praying for favorable weather and peace for the country and the people, is an act of gratitude for Lord Hu's honest governance and love of the people, and is also a vehicle for the people's physical fitness and collective entertainment, embedding the values of indomitable spirit, bravery and fearlessness, and striving enterprise of the villagers.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
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。