Anguo pharmaceutical market

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Anguo pharmaceutical City

Applicant: Anguo City, Hebei Province

Item No.: 508

Project No.: Ⅹ - 60

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Hebei Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Anguo City, Hebei Province

Protected by: Anguo Cultural Center

Introduction to Anguo pharmaceutical market

Applicant: Anguo City, Hebei Province

Anguo city is under the jurisdiction of Baoding City, 100 kilometers south of Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital. The medicine King Temple of Anguo was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty to worship PI Tong, one of the 28 generals of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Since the Xianchun period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Anguo medicine market has a history of more than 700 years. Temple Fair has the saying of "spring five and autumn seven", that is, Spring Temple five months, autumn temple seven months. The official date of the Spring Temple is April 28 of the lunar calendar. It is said that this day is the birthday of the king of medicine, so it becomes the most prosperous day of the Spring Temple. The winter temple takes the 15th day of October of the lunar calendar as the official date. It is said that this day is the day for the sacrifice of the king of medicine, and the grand occasion is the same as that of the Spring Temple.

Yaowang city has its unique worship etiquette. There are many forms, such as acting, offering sacrifices, offering tripods, tree umbrellas, shaping gold bodies, hanging plaques, offering robes, donating land, and labor. The ceremony is divided into three worships, nine kowtows and four kowtows. In addition, it provides pasta and three sacrifices. There are also various recreational activities.

With the increasing popularity of Yaowang temple fair and the expanding scale of herbal medicine trade, in the middle of Qing Dynasty, the "Thirteen gangs" and "five conferences" formed by pharmaceutical merchants from all over the country. At the same time, the "Anke hall" was established to entertain merchants and manage the market. Since then, Anguo has become the largest herbal medicine exchange center in northern China, known as the "medicine capital" and "the first pharmaceutical market in the world". From the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Republic of China, temple fairs were held by the "Thirteen gangs" in turn. Every year, they were sacrificed in the temple on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar new year.

The Yaowang temple was rebuilt in 1985 with donations from the medical circles and the general public. The traditional temple fair cultural activities are developing day by day. Anguo pharmaceutical market is not only a folk culture with regional and industrial characteristics, but also plays a positive role in promoting the development of pharmaceutical industry and social progress.

Chinese PinYin : An Guo Yao Shi