Temple Fair (Yaowang mountain temple fair)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Temple Fair (Yaowang mountain temple fair)

Applicant: Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province

Item No.: 991

Project No.: Ⅹ - 84

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Shaanxi Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province

Protection unit: yaowangshan administration

Temple Fair (yaowangshan Temple Fair)

Applicant: Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province

Temple fair, also known as "Temple market", is a kind of folk belief activities held regularly in and around temples, which is popular all over the country. Some large temple fairs had a considerable scale in the Tang Dynasty, and they are still handed down and have a wide influence. All kinds of temple fairs have their own time, most of them are a traditional Lunar Festival or a religious and folk belief day. Temple Fair has the characteristics of concentration, group and fixation. During the temple fair, all kinds of folk activities and technical trade activities can be fully displayed in public, and the activities are rich and colorful. The God greeting competition is also a form of temple fair. In Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, traditional temple fairs, which are popular among believers, are all introduced from the mainland and have a close relationship with the mother. In the overseas Chinese residential areas, many temple fairs brought from the motherland are full of incense, inheriting the cultural blood of the Chinese nation in a special way.

The five peaks of Yaowang mountain are distributed like fingers, and they were called "Wutai Mountain" in ancient times. Because Sun Simiao, a great pharmacist of Sui and Tang Dynasties, who was honored as "Yaowang", once retired here, he was renamed "Yaowang mountain". It is located 1.5km to the east of Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province. It is located in the juncture of Guanzhong Plain and Weibei plateau. It has typical landform features of hills and valleys in the north, with towering ancient cypresses, magnificent temples, numerous steles and beautiful scenery. It is listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Yaowangshan temple fair was produced in memory of Sun Simiao. In the Northern Song Dynasty, commemorative activities were held in the Jingming palace of Nan'an. The central Taoist temple for sacrifice in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty began to move to the North cave. According to the Shifan tablet in 1654, when Yaowang mountain held a temple fair, "the men and women of the Qin Dynasty were no longer far and near, and the sound of people and horses bustling through the night was endless for more than a month. That is to say, the vassal kings and scholar bureaucrats of Qin and Jin Dynasties paid homage to MI instead of visiting. From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the period of yaowangshan temple fair was changed to ten days, that is, from the second day of the second lunar month to the sixth day of the lunar month to the end of the eleventh day.

During the temple fair, the bells and chimes are ringing together, the drum music is noisy, and there are performances such as "roadside lights", lions, dragon lanterns, fireworks, and "Tianming opera". Tens of thousands of people gather from all directions, and the atmosphere is very lively. At the climax of the temple fair, it is even more crowded.

Yaowang mountain temple will carry forward the medical ethics of Sun Simiao, the king of medicine, and promote the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese medicine culture. It has the research value of folklore, sociology and Shaanxi local culture.

Chinese PinYin : Miao Hui Yao Wang Shan Miao Hui