Traditional Temple Fairs

The traditional Han Chinese temple fair evolved from the ancient system of clan temples and social outskirts. Once active in a wide area of China, it is a real living folklore, and many scholars call it "the Chinese people's own carnival".

The ancient Chinese temple fair, people will think of "temple", that is, the temple is the temple of the Taoist temple. As the name suggests, temple fairs were gatherings near temples for worship, entertainment and shopping.

The temple fair is also known as the "temple market". It is a Han folk religion and custom of the year. Is also one of China's market trade forms, its formation and development and the religious activities of the temple, the temple's festivals or the date of the provisions of the temple, more than in the temple and its vicinity, so the name. Popular in the vast areas of the country. In ancient times, "the middle of the day for the market", market trade. To the North and South Dynasties, the rulers believe in Buddhism, the great building of temples, bodhisattva birthdays, such as the Buddha's enlightenment event was born, vendors for the supply of visitors to the believers, the goods gathered, so into the temple market. Northern Song Dynasty Kaifeng Daxiangguo Temple Temple Fair is very famous, the female lyricist Li Qingzhao had with her husband Zhao Mingcheng together to the temple. Beijing in the Ming Dynasty to the west (Xidan West) City God Temple is the largest, not only food, clothing and goods with everything, and there are rare and exotic treasures, even foreign merchants also come to buy and sell. The Qing dynasty for the Guang'anmen in the temple of the newspaper will be replaced. Yongzheng time, east and west pailou near the Longfu Temple, west of the four pailou near the Guoguo Temple, and the formation of two temple fair. Other temples will also be more, operated by various characteristics, some regular monthly market, some only one or two times a year, the length of time and size, varying, there are purely commercial activities. There are sitting merchants, traders and itinerant hawkers in the city, set up stalls must pay rent to the temple, the daytime market, not night business. Corresponding to the sale, there are cultural and entertainment performances. In ancient times, there are common speech, change the text, speak, etc., modern single string, comic, qin, drums, quick books, magic, acrobatics, etc., a lot of literature, the formation of music and art, are related to the temple fair. Its activities until the end of the forties. After the eighties, it is often reopened as a traditional folk cultural activity. Tang Han Yu's poem "The Lady of Huashan" reads: "The Buddha's scriptures are preached in the east and west of the street, and the bells and snails are played and the palace extended. Widely publicized sins are coerced, and the audience is apathetic to the duckweed." Song Qian Yi, "New Book of Southern China," E: "Chang'an theater is mostly set in Ci'en (temple), the smallest one is in Qinglong, and the second one is in Jianfu and Yongshou." Song Li Qingzhao, "Jinshi Lu after the preface": "Yu Jianzhong Xin has been, began to return to Zhao ...... Every new year's visit to tell out, the quality of clothing to take half a thousand dollars, step into the Xiangguo Temple, the city inscription fruit back, relative show play chewing." Qing Pan Rong ah, "the Imperial Beijing years and years of victory": "As for the door of the temple market, the first day of the East Yue Temple, the North Medicine King Temple, every three is Xuanwumen outside the land temple, every four is six outside the Flower Market, seven, eight is the West Side of the Great Longshan Guoguo Temple, nine, ten by the East Side of the Great Longfu Temple, are furnished with a lot of. Life daily needs, as well as gold, jewelry and stone, cloth and satin, leather, crowns and belts, antiques, fine and coarse all ready." Xu Chongfan, "Chengdu Qingyang Palace Flower Festival": "Hundreds of shopping malls, colorful and prosperous. The name of the festival is worthy of being called 'Flower Fair', and it will make your eyes blossom."

Shanghai Rhetoric Publishing House 1980 edition of the Dictionary explains: "Temple fair is also called 'temple market'. One of the forms of Chinese bazaars. It already existed in the Tang Dynasty. Held on temple festivals or specified dates. Generally located in or near the temple, so called 'temple fair'. The Beiping Customs and Traditions - Bazaar, cited in Myohyangru Congxue: 'At Longfu Temple in the capital, on the ninth day of each month, a collection of goods is held, which is known as the Temple Fair.' This form of bazaar inherited from history is still utilized in some areas after liberation, and has a certain role in exchanging urban and rural materials and meeting people's needs."

Early temple fair is only a grand ritual activities, with the development of the economy and the need for people's exchanges, the temple fair will be in the maintenance of ritual activities at the same time, and gradually integrated into the bazaar trading activities. At this time, the temple fair is also named "temple market", an important form of Chinese market. With the needs of the people, and in the temple fair to increase entertainment activities. So the New Year's temple fair has become an indispensable content of the New Year. But the specific content of the temple fair in various regions is slightly different, each with its own characteristics.

Wei-Jin and North-South Dynasties, the rise of Buddhism and Taoism, the increasingly frequent exchange of goods, temples for commercial activities provide business opportunities, the temple fair began. Temple fairs arose from ritual activities, developed to entertain the public, and flourished for the exchange of goods.

Nowadays, temple fair has become an essential folklore during the Spring Festival, many local temple fairs, different from the past in the temple tradition, changed to parks and squares and other open places, mainly for cultural, trade and entertainment activities, religious activities have been very few

[Edit Paragraph]Origin of the temple fair

The temple fair on the traditional wedding temple fair is a traditional form of festivals in China, reflecting the psychology and habits of the people. Its origins can be traced all the way back to the ancient social sacrifices.

The Zhou Dynasty, the king for the group of surnames to establish a society, called Taisha, since the establishment of the society, called the king of the society. The vassal for the people to set up a society, known as the state society, since the establishment of the society, known as the Hou society. The twenty-five families of the people for the Li, Li each set up a society, known as the people's society or Li society. And the god of the community is the god of the land, for the people of the community's spiritual pillar, the people pray to the god of the community for good weather, we have to carry out social sacrifices.

Social rituals should have dance music. Zhouli - Chunguan ":" if the music six changes, the sky god are descending, can get and ritual carry on; if the music eight changes, the ground show (with the god, land god) are out, can get and ritual carry on; if the music nine changes, the ghosts and people can get and ritual carry on." It can be seen that since ancient times, dance and music have always been missing when offering sacrifices to the gods. This is undoubtedly a profound influence on the later generations of temple fairs on the activities of sacrificing to the gods, entertaining the gods and even entertaining people. Therefore, the social festival is the main source of the emergence of Chinese temple fairs.

Secondly, because of the temple fair's role in gathering people, the temple fair is also known as the "temple market". Legend has it that in the time of the Yellow Emperor, "the market was in the middle of the day". Zuo Zhuan - Xi Gong 33 years" records: "Zheng merchants string high will be the city in the week." Some people speculate that there was already a "temple market" during the Spring and Autumn period, at least during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the temple and the market have been linked. Although the relationship between the temple and the market at this time is not close, its hair toughened merit is not controversial.

Buddhism began to spread to China during the Eastern Han Dynasty. At the same time, this period of Taoism also gradually formed. They competed fiercely with each other for survival, and in the Northern and Southern Dynasties they each gained a firm foothold. In the Tang and Song dynasties, they reached their heyday, with a wide range of religious activities. Such as Christmas celebrations, jiaojiao fasting, water and land dojo and so on. The focus of competition between Buddhism and Taoism, one is the construction of temples and Taoist temples. The second is to fight for believers, recruiting the masses. For this reason, in their religious ceremonies are added to the entertainment content of the crowd,

such as dance, theater, tour and so on. In this way, not only good men and women tend to rush, happy, and many ordinary people are also willing to follow the fun. In order to strive for the masses, Buddhism and Taoism often use the way out of the temple to expand their influence. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Buddhism was prevalent in the "line like" activities is so.

Originally belonged to the folk beliefs of the newspaper race pay God activities, have been combined with the Buddha and the Taoist gods. Its activities are also gradually transferred from the countryside to the Buddhist temples and Taoist temples. In the Buddha, Taoist two religions held a variety of festivals and celebrations, the folk community, the organization also took the initiative to go to the rally. In this way, temples and Taoist temples gradually became places for mass gatherings based on religious activities.

And these religious activities are gradually secularized, that is to say, more by the folk of the masses to negotiate organized. This change has not only greatly increased the attractiveness and liveliness of these events themselves, but has also led to a corresponding increase in the flavor of commerce in these events as the mass and recreational nature of these events has been strengthened. With the full assistance of the religious community and all sectors of society, the temple fair activities have been further developed.

While the temple fair in this period, whether from its number or scale, in the country has formed a spectacular situation, but the content of the temple fair activities, is still favored by the gods of the race, and in the folk business trade is relatively weak. The temple fair really stereotypes, perfect is in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to modern times.

Chinese temple fairs were born from the ancient serious clan and temple rituals and social sacrifices and folk beliefs. Han, Tang, Song period, adding Buddhism, Taoism, religious beliefs and forms of entertainment, especially after the Ming and Qing Dynasties to further improve the development, highlighting the function of trade and commerce, so as to become an important part of people's economic life, spiritual life and cultural life

Evolutionary development

Shanghai during the Qing Dynasty temple fair vendors folk temple fair is a special form of society, the earliest form of the temple fair is a grand The earliest form of temple fair is a grand ritual activity, which is the product of people's worship of gods and spirits, and the pleasure of body and mind. With the development of society, especially the development of the economy, the temple fair and market trading into one, and become a comprehensive social activities of people to worship the gods, exchange of feelings and trade.

In the long ancient society, the temple fair and reverence for God is one. Until the Shang and Zhou periods, temple fairs were an unconscious activity.

After the Han Dynasty, temple fairs shifted to diversification. The main nature of the temple fair in the Han Dynasty changed because of the introduction of Buddhist culture. From then on, Buddhist culture came to the land of China like a torrential flood. Accompanied by the spread of Buddhist teachings, Buddhist temples were scattered everywhere. The Buddhist temples were scattered in the famous mountains, giant towns, and small towns in the Central Plains. Many famous temples such as the Luoyang White Horse Temple, Kaifeng Xiangguo Temple, Dengfeng Shaolin Temple, Linru Wind Cave Temple, Zhenping Bodhi Temple, Stone Buddha Temple and Wagong Temple, Xinyang Lingyin Temple, Guangshan Jingshui Temple, Anyang Gaoge Temple, Jiyuan Pangu Temple, Huixian Baiyun Temple, RuNan XiaoNanHai, YongCheng ChongFa Temple, XuChang civilization Temple, XiangCheng GaoQiu Temple, etc., such as the rain springs up, forests of Central Plains, and left a lot of magic legend. Thus, Chongfo temple fair came into being, Linlin. The Central Plains in the vast group of temple fairs, Buddhism and Taoism or separate, or mutual penetration, so that the temple culture is richer.

The Tang and Song eras were characterized by high economic development, with the Central Plains leading the nation and maintaining a central position. Taoist culture flourished more rapidly through the advocacy of the emperors. Taoist culture is a powerful culture on the culture, temples, platforms, shrines, palaces, view, nunneries and other Taoist buildings in the Central Plains region is very dense distribution. For example, Dengfeng Zhongyue Temple, Luoyang Guanlin Temple, Tongbai Huaidu Temple, Jiyuan Jidu Temple, Tangyin Wenwang Temple, Luoyang Zhougong Temple, Neixiang Wenmiao Temple, Zhunyang Renzu Temple, Xihua Nuwa Temple, Shangqiu Xiongnu Terrace, Luyi Taiqingguan and Laojun Terrace, Junxian Bixia Palace, Jiyuan Wangwushan Fenxian Guan and Yangtai Palace, etc., and all over the world, there are Dragon King Temples, Heavenly Masters Temples, Ancestors Temples, Nyongniang Temples, Fire Temples, Land Temples, City God Temples, Guanwang Temples, and Mountain God Temples, River God Temple, Yu Wang Temple, Holy Mother Temple, Erlang God Temple, Taishan Temple, Bug King Temple, and countless others. These temples laid the foundation for the development of temple fairs in the future. Especially in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Central Plains once had a great economic and cultural prosperity, with Kaifeng, Tokyo, as the center of the town's rapid economic development, the temple fair also rose.

The Ming Dynasty was an important turning point in the prosperity of the temple fair group in the Central Plains region. Rapid economic development, so that in Luoyang, Liyang (Joon County), Chenzhou (Huaiyang) and other large-scale towns, large-scale construction, building temples became possible. The prosperity of handicrafts in the Ming Dynasty stimulated the development of productive forces, as well as economic and cultural development, and the emergence of the sprout of capitalism, temple fairs in this context than in any previous period of time are more dense.

The temple fairs of the Ming Dynasty had an important feature, that is, the "guilds" or "guild halls", "public office", which made the temple fairs more orderly. Temple fair more orderly. The Central Plains appeared many "Shan-Shaanxi Association", they worship Guan Yu, set up shrines and temples, especially the construction of theaters and other places of worship, so that the impact of the temple fair and the role of further expansion.

The relationship between temple fair groups and myths and legends is extremely close. Primitive myths mainly reflect the life of clan societies in the Central Plains, including the origins of heaven and earth, the birth of mankind, cultural development and totem worship. The Xihua Nuwa City Temple Fair, the Junyang Taihao Mausoleum Temple Fair, the Shangqiu Xiongnuotai Temple Fair, and the Tongbai Pangu Temple Fair are places where primitive myths are centrally circulated, and they can almost constitute the history of the development of early human society.

[Edit Paragraph]Customs of Temple Fairs

Exorcism Ceremony of Yonghegong Temple Fair◆Sacrifice Ceremony

The customs of temple fairs are closely related to the religious activities of Buddhist monasteries and Taoist temples, which often require the holding of rituals for sacrifices to the gods. For example, the activity of "performing statues". "Row like" is the statue of God and Buddha mounted on a colorful car, in the city and countryside tour of a religious ceremony, so also known as "line city", "tour of the city" and so on. Northern Wei Xiaowen Emperor Taihe nine years (485 AD) after moving the capital to Luoyang, the Buddha, every year Shakyamuni birthday will be held on the Buddha traveling Assembly. The day before the Buddha traveled, Luoyang City, all the temples will be sent to the statue of Buddha Jingming Temple. More often than not, there are more than a thousand statues of Buddha. Traveling in the procession to avoid the evil lion as the leader, the treasure cover banner and so on followed by music and drama, all kinds of juggling, lively and extraordinary. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the temple fair to welcome the gods, most of the patrol is this period of the activities of the line and the development of the statue. And gradually extended to Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Xixia all over. Yuan, after the Ming Dynasty, the wind of the line like the decline, rarely seen in the record.