After thousands of years of development, Shanwei has transformed from a small fishing village into an important port city
Jinyang.com reporter Wang Manqi
Mazu, the belief in the sea god in the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong in my country, has been passed down for thousands of years and has become the “Goddess of Peace at Sea” that connects the emotional bonds of Chinese and overseas Chinese. In 2009, the “Mazu Faith and Customs” nominated by China was successfully declared as an intangible cultural heritage of human beings in the world, becoming China’s first world heritage of faith and customs; in the same year, the “Fengshan Mazu Temple Fair” declared by Shanwei was also listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage. For a hundred years, Feng Zu Temple has been an important force in spreading Mazu culture, and has also witnessed the transformation of a small fishing village into a port city in the changing world.
From Fujian to Guangdong
The legend of Mazu originates from the legendary story of Lin Mo, a fisherman on Meizhou Island, Putian, Fujian during the Northern Song Dynasty: Lin Mo rescues the poor and often rescues the dead fishermen and navigators in the angry sea. In 987 AD, she unfortunately died while rescuing the ships killed in Meizhou Baykou at the age of 28. People praised her merits and believed that Lin Mo had “been ascended to heaven”, so they set up a temple to worship her and respectfully called her “Mazu”. From the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Mazu was conferred 36 times by emperors of all dynasties, and eventually became the “sea god” and “Holy Mother of the Queen” admired by the people.
The faith of Mazu was first introduced to Shanwei. It is located in Jiazi, a coastal town in the southeast of Shanwei. There is a Tianhou Temple, which was built in the fifth year of Qiandao in the Southern Song Dynasty (1169 AD). It has been standing for 850 years. Today, in Shanwei (known as Haifeng County in ancient times), most of the residents and ancestors under their jurisdiction moved from southern Fujian from the Ming Dynasty, and mainly made a living by fishing. Fishermen worshipped the Mazu’s throne under the mast of the fishing boat, thus bringing the Mazu faith to the eastern coast of Guangdong.
At the late Ming Dynasty, as more and more ships and fishermen settled around Shanwei Fishing Port, believers built a simple bamboo shed temple on the shore of Pinqing Lake and the southern foot of Fengshan Mountain, introducing the spirit incense of Mazu in Meizhou, which is the source of Fengshan Ancestral Temple. According to historical records, during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, the Tianhou Temple was built in Longshan, Dade, Changsha and other places under the jurisdiction of Haifeng. At this initial stage when Mazu’s faith settled in Shanwei, the historical and cultural characteristics of “before the people and then the temples gather people” were presented.
Prosper by the sea
How can the Mazu culture in Shanwei be spread through the carrier of Fengshan Ancestral Temple? This starts with the prosperity of Shanwei Port. clearIn the early years of Qianlong, the number of fishing boats gathered in Shanwei Port increased day by day, and both fishing and commerce had developed greatly. The simple temples under Fengshan were originally unable to meet the needs of more and more admirers among the people. Therefore, in the sixth year of Qianlong (1741 AD), the “First Affairs of the Preparation of the Fengshan Ancestral Temple” was formed by the wise men of the people, wealthy businessmen, fishermen (boss), representatives of major clans, and representatives of fishermen. After more than a year of construction, it was successfully completed the following year, and the Cinema temple with three-in-one and two-campus layout in Chaoshan architectural style was built, with the main building area of 840 square meters.
More than 180 years after the Fengshan Ancestral Temple was built, by the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Shanwei Port entered its second golden period of development. He Xiafeng, the former head of the Cultural Relics Section of the Fengshan Zumiao Tourism Zone Management Office, and Luo Zhai, a retired cadre who served as the first stationmaster of Fengshan Cultural Station, has been studying Shanwei Mazu Cultural Work for a long time. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Babaylan found that in 1903, Haifeng County Shanwei Bu opened foreign trade, and successively opened passenger and freight shipping on routes such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Shantou, and the trade was prosperous; in 1909, International International Corporation built a lighthouse on the Zhelang Peninsula, attracting many foreign port fishing boats to gather in Shanwei fishing grounds, and also boosted Shanwei Port’s The development of shipbuilding, fishery supporting handicrafts, commerce and catering industries; Sun Yat-sen’s “State of the Founding Strategy Two” also describes the grand occasion of Shanwei Fishing Port: “Because Shanwei Port has a very good bay and a good fishing ground, there are no less than one or two thousand towed boats from Hong Kong, Macao, western Guangdong, Fujian and other places in the past year…” In order to adapt to the development of fishery, Shanwei’s coastal town has been expanded three times, and a large number of arcades imitating European styles were built along the street, from the 20th century to CinemaIn the 1930s, Shanwei was known as the “Golden Shanwei” and “Little Hong Kong”.
The temple was flourishing in a prosperous era. As a fishing practitioner and the “guardian saint” of the port, the grand highlight of the Mazu Fengshan Ancestral Temple was put on the agenda. At the beginning of the 11th month of the lunar calendar in 193, a magnificent Fengshan ancestral temple with carved dragons, painted phoenixes and magnificent Fengshan ancestral temple was repaired. The lively sacrifices and folk celebrations lasted for more than half a month.
From the 1960s to the early 1970s, Fengshan Ancestral Temple was once occupied as a school. Until after the reform and opening up, Mazu culture was reaffirmed, respected and promoted. In 1991, the Shanwei Urban District People’s Government approved the Fengshan Ancestral Temple as Babaylan County (district) level cultural relics protection unit was established in the same year. In the same year, the Fengshan Ancestral Temple Cultural Relics Management Cinema and the Fengshan Ancestral Temple Construction Council. In December 1994, the first phase of the Fengshan Ancestral Temple project was successfully completed, basically retaining the first time of re-light in 1934. The original appearance of Cinema has been newly expanded. The second large Mazu stone statue of “Holy Mother of the Queen” in the country is erected on the top of Fengshan Mountain (the other is the Mazu statue of Meizhou Island). It is 16.83 meters high and weighs more than 1,000 tons. It is carved from 468 granite stones. The Mazu Cultural Square at the foot of Fengshan Mountain covers an area of 60,000 square meters and is currently the largest square named after Mazu.
To this day, Shanwei Fengshan Ancestral Temple has become an important activity center for Mazu culture in Hailufeng area and even in eastern Guangdong. Fengshan Ancestral Temple Tourism Zone has become a national 4A-level scenic spot, receiving nearly one million tourists at home and abroad every year.
Fengshan Zu Temple receives nearly one million tourists at home and abroad every year. Reporter Wang Manqi Photo by Reporter
Cultural bond
Since the Qing Dynasty, Mazu worship has evolved from a regional folk belief to a world-wide respect, especially in Chinese. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Babaylan‘s universal distribution, and almost all ports living by Chinese people in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, etc., have the existence of the Tianhou Harem.
It is worth mentioning that Mazu worship culture has always been a cultural link connecting the emotions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. For Taiwanese people, Mazu represents the “root” and is a generation. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Komiks expresses his attachment to his hometown. Mazu culture has also been linked to the friendship between local sages and overseas Chinese at home and abroad. Chen Bijiang, president of Shanwei Mazu Cultural Association, said that there are currently more than 1.3 million compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Mazu is the common spiritual sustenance of many local sages. From 2005 to the present, Shanwei has successfully held many Mazu Cultural Tourism Festivals and economic and trade activities with Fengshan Zumiao Tourism Zone as a carrier. According to reports, at the China Mazu Cultural Tourism Festival held this year, dozens of calligraphers and painters from Beijing, Taiwan and other places wrote together with local artists in Shanwei together., carry out artistic cooperation of “soul harmony and cross-strait harmony”. In recent years, Shanwei City has advocated Mazu culture to unite people’s hearts and gather overseas Chinese through regular cultural exchanges and cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, making Fengshan Ancestral Temple gradually become a spiritual home and cultural paradise for Chinese at home and abroad.
Interview
The essence of Mazu culture is consistent with traditional culture
Zhou Jinyan, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of the China Mazu Cultural Exchange Association
Yangcheng Evening News: What is the historical positioning of Mazu culture in Chinese traditional culture?
Zhou Jinyan: The essence of Mazu culture is consistent with the core ideas and concepts of China’s excellent traditional culture, Chinese traditional virtues, and Chinese humanistic spirit. The Mazu culture characteristics of “peace, harmony, and tolerance” are the embodiment of the core ideas of “Komiks” in “peace, harmony, and great love” in “the social customs of respecting virtue, doing good, and great love” are consistent with the social custom of respecting virtue and goodness and the ideological concept of benefiting the people. The educational ideas of exhorting goodness in Mazu culture, the customs and customs of praying for peace and prosperity in the country and society, and the customs and habits of “Funnybookish.com/”>Cinema, as well as many Mazu literary and artistic works that have been passed down to this day are all manifestations of the Chinese humanistic spirit. In 2016, “Komiks plays the positive role of folk cultures such as Mazu culture” was written into the national “13th Five-Year Plan”, which fully demonstrates that Mazu culture has become an important part of the country’s Komiks‘s strategic resources, and also emphasizes the particularity of Mazu culture as Chinese folk culture.
Yangcheng Evening News: What are the characteristics of Guangdong Mazu culture inheritance and communication?
Zhou Jinyan: Guangdong is connected to Fujian’s mountains and rivers, and is one of the earliest influences to spread Mazu’s beliefs outward. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, the development of the maritime economic development, commercial communications and commercial routes in the southeast coast, the formation of Fujian immigration and marine activities have all become key factors for the introduction of Mazu’s beliefs into Guangdong. Maritime businessmen are an important communication group of Guangdong’s Mazu faith. Guangdong people are good at merchants and the navigation industry is also very developed.The red-headed ships entering large and small ports such as Chaoshan are loaded with cargo from Taiwan, Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Tianjin in the north, and reach Guangdong in the south, Hong Kong, Macao, Leizhou, Hainan, and directly to Southeast Asia. Therefore, before boarding the boat, merchants and fishermen always go to the Ma Palace to enter incense and make wishes. When they return safely, they kneel down to pay their respects to Ma Palace to fulfill their wishes. They worship Mazu’s piety as much as those of Fujian people. Overall, Guangdong Mazu Cultural Transmission is a layout of “points”, “lines” and “surfaces” spread along the coastal zone.
Yangcheng Evening News: How to continue to write good articles on Mazu culture in the context of national cultural confidence and cultural revitalization in the new era?
Zhou Jinyan: Highlighting the service of world peace in the new era and playing an active role in promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. This is the new mission of Mazu culture in the new era. Regionally, we should focus on the Maritime Silk Road to radiate and expand the dissemination of Mazu culture in neighboring countries and regions; in terms of population, we should focus on overseas Chinese, especially chambers of commerce in all parts of the world, to promote and drive the dissemination and development of Mazu culture in the country where we are located; in terms of carriers, we should focus on assisting the “Belt and Road” initiative to expand and promote the dissemination and development of Mazu culture to the world.
In the context of the new era, promoting Mazu culture can also promote the integration and development of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, promoting the mutual understanding of the people through the local relationship between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and using the local culture between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to enhance Mazu culture, and treat it as the common nostalgia of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Extension
Fengshan Temple Fair displays folk culture
Every year, the Fengshan Ancestral Temple in Shanwei holds a number of large-scale folk cultural activities, including the “Grandpa Qing Parade” on the Lantern Festival of the first lunar month, the Mazu God’s Birth Festival on the 23rd lunar month, and the Ullamyan Festival on the 15th lunar month (Zhongyuan Festival), etc.
The birthday of the Mazu is the most important temple fair of Fengshan Ancestral Temple. On that day, the big drama Babaylan was connected to the stage, and the local regular script operas, Western Qin opera, Baizi opera, Chaozhou opera, Cantonese opera and other operas took turns to the stage. In recent years, even the Huangmei Opera in Anhui and Henan Opera in Henan have been invited to participate. Local opera troupes will be honored to perform at the Fengshan Ancestral Temple stage, as an excellent opportunity to showcase the troupe’s level and the talent and style of the actors.
In addition to displaying the colorful folk culture and arts in Shanwei, Fengshan Mazu Temple Fair also has various local food and snacks, which are dazzling; the traditional relic program of competing for color cannons is loved by the public and attracted thousands ofPeople from all over the world came to bid for the cannon head. The scene was tense and vivid and spectacular. Getting the color cannon means that the year will be safe, prosperous, and good luck will be with you.
This issue is co-organized by Shanwei Municipal CPPCC