"The spring equinox wheat gets up, and a moment is worth a thousand gold." The spring equinox is an important festival of farming, and people are busy at this time by transplanting flowers and trees and grafting fruit trees. The spring equinox is also a season of grass and wild vegetables, and people collect spring vegetables in the suburbs as seasonal diets to supplement the body and mind and pray for health.
In Anren County, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, every year around the spring equinox, many people, merchants, and local people from all over the country and even abroad gather in this ancient small county town to worship the gods and farmers, pray for gufeng, and also trade in commodities such as medicinal materials, grain seeds, and agricultural tools. Known locally as the "Catch-up Branch", it has been passed down for thousands of years.
In 2016, the "Twenty-Four Solar Terms – A System of Temporal Knowledge and Its Practice formed by Chinese by observing the annual movement of the Sun" was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The expanded list of the heritage project includes the "Anren Rush Branch".
Anren, what kind of spring equinox story does this ancient county town in Shonan have?
What is a "catch-up branch"?
Anren County is located in the northernmost part of Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, east of Chaling, Yanling, south of Zixing, Yongxing, west of Leiyang, Hengnan, north of Hengdong, You County, known as "eight counties through the Qu", with a total area of 1478 square kilometers, a population of about 430,000.
Scenery of Anren County Anren County People's Government Official Website Map
The "points" of the Anren Rush Branch, that is, the spring equinox. The vernal equinox is one of the earliest established solar terms in ancient China, dating back to before the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Shu Yao Dian once recorded that the four solar terms of "Riyong", "Short Day", "Mid-Day", and "Midnight", which represent "two points (spring equinox, autumn equinox), two solstice (summer solstice, winter solstice)".
On this day, the sun is positioned at 0 degrees longitude in the ecliptic, directly at the equator, and the day and night are equally divided. From this day on, the sun shines longer and longer in the northern hemisphere until the autumnal equinox.
In addition, it is recorded in the "Explanation of the Seventy-two Waiting Collections of the Moon Order" that "the half of the month of February is half of the ninety days, so it is called the division", which means that the spring is a total of 90 days, and the spring equinox is 45 days after the spring, which is half the length of the spring.
Tang Zhiqiang, secretary general of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Protection and Inheritance Alliance and director of the Agricultural History Research Department of the China Agricultural Museum, told the surging news that the ancients often used the spring equinox day as the standard day for correcting weights and measures, in order to emphasize that personnel should conform to the fairness of the heavenly way. Using the natural laws of natural weather to discipline human order is an ancient Chinese tradition and a special natural social ethic.
In the past, people used the vernal equinox day as the standard day for correcting weights and measures. In the rural areas of the mainland, the traditional weights and measures of wooden rulers, wooden buckets, and wooden pole scales are called "three treasures of family heirlooms" by farmers. Visual China figure
The "she" of the branch refers to the "Spring Society, the Day of the Society", that is, the day of worship to the god of the land (the "society" we often say "Jiangshan Sheji" also means the same). And to use a catch-up word, it means that people, regardless of men, women, age, and noble status, will put aside the things around them on this day and come from all over to participate in the activities.
"Every year after the establishment of spring, the fifth day is "Spring Society Day", almost around the spring equinox. In fact, in ancient times, there were Spring Society Days and Autumn Society Days all over the country, and activities similar to rushing to the branch would be held to express their belief in the gods of the land (she gods, field gods), and pray for smooth wind and rain, abundant grain, prosperity of people, and peace of the country. Tang Zhiqiang said.
Anren County Shennong Hall Vision Zhou Wanhong Figure
In the hometown of Emperor Yan, he worshiped Shennong
The earliest written record of the "An Ren Chao Branch" can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Locals believe that the ancestor of the Chinese nation, Yandi Shennong, lived on the land of Anren County, and the place where Yandi Shennong returned to his roots was at the junction of today's Yanling County and Anren County, so many local legends of Shennong were circulated.
Anren County has always been based on the traditional farming economy, mainly growing rice, rapeseed, beans, corn and other food crops. Therefore, in the customs of the Anren Branch, the sacrifice of Shennong is also an indispensable content.
On the day of the spring equinox, the festival is mainly divided into two parts, the first is to start farming in the fields. At the scene of the ceremony, the villagers of the seven miles and eight townships blew their whistles, beat gongs and drums, danced long dragons, led the cattle, and came to the rice fields. Then, led by local officials or old farmers, dressed in cloaks and holding a plough rake, they ploughed the first ridge of this spring's rice field.
Lead the cattle and go down to the field to start farming. Zhou Wanhong Figure
"Villagers will come spontaneously to pray for good wind and rain and abundant grain, and the opening ceremony also heralds the official start of agricultural production activities this year." Zhou Wanhong, director of the Anren County Cultural Center, told The Paper.
Next, the people will go to the Shennong Hall in the county to worship the gods of the shrine to pray for the valley. According to Zhou Wanhong, the sacrifice is usually presided over by the more prestigious people in the county, and the process is more cumbersome, after the drumming tee, the three rings of gold and the sound of cannon music, the people will offer cattle, sheep, pigs "three animals", "five grains" and seasonal fruits, herbs and so on. After the ceremony was completed, people consciously took turns to pray in front of the statue of Shennong.
The sacrifice activities of the Shennong Hall Zhou Wanhong figure
The oldest acacia medicine market
Another important activity during the branch was the trade in Chinese herbal medicines. There is an old saying even in Anren - "Medicine is not as good as Anren, medicine is not good enough for Anren, medicine is not good for Anren, and Langzhong is not famous for not being anren."
Why did Anren County become a trade center for Chinese herbal medicines?
"Anren County is located in a hilly area, with many mountains, a warm and humid climate, and abundant rainfall, which provides good living conditions for the growth of Chinese herbal medicines, coupled with the cultivation of the people, there are more than 900 kinds of herbs in the territory, known as the 'Southern Medicine Capital'." Tang Zhiqiang introduced.
Of course, there is also a historical origin behind this. Legend has it that in ancient times, Yandi Shennong led 8 retinues to the territory of Anren to make a fortune, revitalize agriculture, educate the people, and created the "Day and Middle City" to trade farming utensils and Chinese herbal medicines, which was the earliest "Spring Equinox Medicine Market".
Later, the tradition was passed down from generation to generation. Every year around the spring equinox, Anren County always gathers thousands of merchants and department stores are popular. Merchants from all over the country gathered in Anren to participate in the rush branch and trade in Chinese herbal medicines, forming a cultural landscape with unique local characteristics that is unique in the country. Shennong was revered by posterity as the "Medicine King", and during the period of the branch, it was also known as the "Spring Equinox Medicine King Festival".
In addition to trading medicinal herbs, people also sold surplus agricultural and sideline products through the ruins in exchange for agricultural utensils and goods that they could not produce.
AnRen's Aphrodispring Medicine Market Zhou Wanhong Picture
It is reported that during the 2020 branch, Anren County traded more than 900 varieties of medicinal materials, with a trading volume of more than 500 tons, and the transaction volume exceeded 20 million yuan, attracting more than 200,000 pharmaceutical merchants and tourists from more than 20 provinces (urban areas) such as Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi.
Chinese herbal medicine is so abundant, of course, there is a delicious medicinal food dish. According to the Chronicle of Anren County, when the spring equinox arrives, every household in Anren boils herbal soup to nourish the body, a custom that has a history of more than 1,200 years. One of the most famous is the herbal stewed pork knuckle.
"Boiling herbs to stew pork feet is very exquisite, generally put more than a dozen kinds of herbs, such as bone increase wind, bone search wind, full of mountain incense, nine sections of orchid, chicken blood vine, yellow flower poured water lotus, hanging horse and so on." In addition to these, black beans, sorghum rice and eggs are also added. Almost every household will do it. Zhou Wanhong said.
It is said that the herbal stew of pork feet has the effect of strengthening the blood, strengthening the bones and dispelling the cold, and during the spring equinox, the Anren people drink a bowl before going to the field, and they are not afraid of cold water irrigation when ploughing the field.
Herbal stewed pork knuckle charm Anren figure
Today, after becoming an intangible cultural heritage
In May 2014, in order to ensure the survival and intergenerational inheritance of the "24 solar terms", under the direct leadership of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center as the coordinating unit and the China Agricultural Museum as the lead unit, in coordination with relevant communities and groups, the "24 Solar Terms Protection Working Group" was established.
The Anren County Cultural Center, where Zhou Wanhong is located, is the local intangible cultural heritage protection center, and its duty is to carry out relevant investigations, inheritance and publicity activities on the characteristic folk life of Anren County, so that the tradition can survive.
Folklore performances during the local catch-up branch. Zhou Wanhong Figure
"In terms of cultural inheritance, we have repaired and protected historical sites such as the Shennong Hall, and also built a stage, and every year during the branch, folk performances such as flower drum plays, shadow puppet plays, dragon and lion dances and so on are held."
"We have also opened a rice field park that integrates ecological agriculture, science education, sightseeing, tourism, leisure and entertainment, which is not only a place for the annual opening ceremony, but also established a 24-year-old solar terms transmission base, where many cultural activities will be held." Zhou Wanhong introduced.
Rice Field Park, Mr. Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice", wrote the name of the garden for the rice field park. Anren Online Picture
In 2021, Anren County, Hunan Province, a field full of rape flowers in a rice field park. Visual China figure
And every year in the spring of March, also coincided with the letter period of rape flowers, the folk believe that the spring equinox festival is the birthday of the flower god, so since 2009, Anren County will also hold the rape flower festival during the rush to the branch, combining tourism with the festival, nearly 200,000 acres of rape flowers competing to open, becoming another highlight of the local area.
"In the past, the branch held for about a week, but now combined with the rape flower festival, it can last for more than 20 days from the beginning of March. Not only locals, residents of other provinces, but even overseas Chinese came to participate. The activity venue extends from the old county seat to more than 30 surrounding areas. From the official to the private sector, the content is richer than ever. Zhou Wanhong said.