Qianjuntai Village is located in the west of Mentougou Datai Street, which was once an important post station on the ancient road of business travel in western Beijing. There is an ancient ritual in the village that has lasted for more than 400 years, the Jingxi Ancient Banner Society, which began in the second year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1574), and still retains the ancient procedures and customs, which can be called the samples and living fossils of the Chinese New Year in the suburbs of Beijing. In 2014, the "Qianjuntai Zhuang Banner Society" was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage, and its value lies in the fact that a sample of the Chinese New Year is preserved for the current generation.
There must be a sense of ritual in the year, and there must be taboo pleasures
The ancient flag meeting is the remains of the ancient temple fair in western Beijing, which is a folk village community sacrifice with the main content of inviting the gods, sending the gods, sacrificing the gods, and entertaining the gods, which began in the late Ming Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, such temple fairs were very common in the suburbs of Beijing and were a common form of folk entertainment, and were generally held regularly in wealthy villages and towns.
Liu Tong, a Ming scholar, recorded in the "Imperial Scenery and Things": "From April 1st to 18th, the city is inclined to the Maju Bridge, the banner music is the most prosperous, and Bixia Yuanjun is also born. The original name of the banner meeting of Qianjuntai and Zhuanghu villages was "Heavenly and Human Auspicious Meeting", which means that the gods and goddesses in the sky celebrate the festival with people, and the people and gods celebrate together, which not only retains the scene of worshiping the gods in ancient times, but also has entertainment activities such as Yangge, juggling, concerts, etc., and is solemn and solemn when inviting the gods, and is festive and lively when walking the meeting. In the Qing Dynasty, the "Heavenly and Human Auspicious Meeting" usually lasted for three days, and the process was: on the 14th night of the first month, the gods were invited; on the 15th day of the first month, Qianjuntai was the main village, and the banner team of the Hakka village households visited Qianjuntai; on the 16th day of the first month, the main village households, and the Qianjun Taiwan flag team went to the village; on the 16th night of the first month, the gods returned to the heavenly realm, and this was the official end.
Jingxi Kohata Society丨Image source network
On the morning of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, we came to Zhuanghu Village, although the main event will not start until noon, but at this time the entrance of the village has been full of cars, and people from all walks of life gather in the big courtyard at the entrance of Zhuanghu Village, and there are huge, colorful flags on the wall. The opposite hill was crowded with tourists who had come to attend the meeting, and people chose the best position, set up long guns and short cannons, and kept shooting.
Sun Yuhui, the head of Zhuanghu Village, is in his sixties, and he is directing the young people to hang flags, with a solemn and serious expression. He told us that the ceremony began the night before, and the first part is commonly known as "please make a big table", that is, the names of the gods and goddesses are written on a yellow table paper, packed in a box, and everyone burns incense to worship in front of the box. After this ceremony, the gods from all walks of life were invited to the village. Although the ceremony of "please watch the big table" is not lively, it is the beginning of the "auspicious meeting of heaven and man", and it is the ancient sacrificial relic. In Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs", "The auspicious day is good, and Mu will enjoy the emperor; Fu long sword and jade, loud and loud", describes the ritual of inviting the gods.
There are two flags in Qianjuntai Village: one is the Guandi flag and the other is the Zhenwu flag. Each banner represents an immortal who has descended. The banner frame is two zhang high, made of stout bamboo, with pine branches inserted at the top, and five umbrellas below, that is, five umbrella covers made of red, green, white, yellow, and pink silk cloth, and the flag in the middle is one zhang and five zhang long, and the names of the gods and gods are embroidered with piles of embroidery. Although the process has been greatly simplified, but the production cost of each banner is still about 5,000 yuan, in the past in the era of planned economy, the whole village will gather the cloth ticket in their hands, in order to make a flag.
The walkers had a lot of fun
Zhuanghu to Qianjuntai is separated by a mile, passing through a small mountain depression in the middle, and the walk will start at half past two in the afternoon. Walking in front is a square flag, the fairy on the red face, red beard, right hand holding a steel whip, left hand is a fire ring, foot on the hot wheel, the villagers say that this is the Lingguan Lord Wang Marshal, the general Taoist temple in the front of the Lingguan Palace, for this one. It can be seen that the order of the flag-walking procession is very particular, it simulates the layout of the ancient Taoist temple, the more you walk in front, the smaller the official position, and the further back the more great the god. The gods and goddesses in the banner team are closely related to the local beliefs and people's lives. Jingxi has been a coal-producing area since ancient times, and the kiln god flag is a local feature, not to mention the horse prince and the dragon prince. Bixia Yuanjun's Tianxian Banner is the most admired side, and the accompanying flag has a Niangniang Luan Driver. Bixia Yuanjun is the most beloved female mountain god in northern China, especially in North China, and is the main god of Jinding Miaofeng Mountain.
The old people of Zhuanghu Village told us that before the liberation, religious activities were very prosperous near Miaofeng Mountain in western Beijing, and all the villages near it went directly to Miaofeng Mountain. Zhuanghu and Qianjuntai are far away from Miaofeng Mountain, so the village made its own flags, invited the gods to the village, and then matched them with folk programs such as car clubs, Yangge, martial arts, etc., which may be the origin of the Jingxi Banner Society. The fairy flags in the western part of the city are different from the middle flags played by the overpass in the past, and it weighs more than 100 catties on each side, which is twice as large as the middle flag of the overpass, so when traveling in the mountains, one person in the middle holds it, and two ropes are dragged in front and back to maintain balance. Although the distance of the meeting was not long, there were still a few episodes in the middle, and the mountain wind was relatively strong that day, and the gods were blown to the ground, and a few times they simply shot directly to the ground.
The team of Zhuanghu Village arrived at Qianjuntai Village at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and Liu Guili, the head of the village, came to the entrance of the village with the flags and flags of the main village and the flower meeting to meet them first. The team gathered in the empty field at the entrance of Qianjuntai Village, and after the two sides met, they performed the ceremonies of "unpacking the box and setting up the flag", "meeting the various departments of the gods and Buddhas", and "playing music for the Buddha". Then the heads of the two villages jointly raised the big flag in their hands and waved it, announcing the meeting, with three drums and three links, a trumpet blowing, and three gongs. After this ceremony, it is time for the main event, and it is also the most lively starting part, people carry various flags and flags through Qianjuntai Village, and every narrow alley has to be walked to. There is a table in front of each house, on which there is tea, cigarettes, sweets, and snacks, and everyone can take them at will. At the same time, more than 10 stalls such as Yangge, wind class, auspicious class, and drum are interspersed in the middle, which is a martial arts meeting, mainly for performances, and there are more than 300 people in the whole queue, and the alley is crowded.
The highlight of the Jingxi Ancient Banner Society, a thousand-year-old music
Since the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Keisai Kohata Society has continued for 17 generations, and in modern times, except for the Anti-Japanese War and a few interruptions in the late 1960s, it has not been greatly affected. The most precious part of the festival is the preserved Kohata music, some of which are more than 1,000 years old and are endangered and precious living fossils of folk music. There are 30 songs in existence, of which 11 are street songs played on the way to the meeting, and 19 songs are played during sacrifices and prayers to the gods. "King Qin Hangs a Jade Belt" is a percussion music played by the Tang Dynasty army when they go on an expedition; "Liu Gong's Banquet" reflects the scene of Confucius's travel around the Six Kingdoms, when Liu Gong held a banquet to entertain him; "Weeping Yan Hui" is Confucius's music in memory of his disciple Yan Hui, and these repertoire were already ancient music in the Ming Dynasty.
Image source network
Now these scores are posted on the wall of the brigade headquarters, but these simple Chinese characters are not incomprehensible to the layman, and they use the ancient gong ruler notation. Liu Bingshan, a musician from Qianjuntai Village, told us that these scores have been passed down orally from our ancestors, and some of them have been passed down for more than 500 years. The Chinese characters in the music score: 合, 四, 一, 上, ruler, 工, fan, 六, 五, B, are musical scales, which can correspond to the current staves, dou and cang, and are percussion cymbals, cymbals, gongs and drums. Although the ruler notation that has been handed down has musical scales, there is no rhythm and plate eye. From 1981 to 1983, during the Lantern Festival, the Mentougou District Cultural Center sent people to collect wind for three consecutive years, and recorded 17 audio tapes of Guhata Music for preservation, and at the same time took a large number of photographs. It is said that the flags at that time retained the most primitive program and appearance, and the festive and solemn coexisted, and most of the artists who participated in the performance were born in the former Qing Dynasty, and the instruments used were also more than 100 years old. In the 1980s of the last century, there was a large population in the mountainous area of Mentougou, and the area around Qianjuntai was a coal-producing area since ancient times, and the living conditions on the mine were good.
In the past few years, every Lantern Festival, the villagers outside have returned to the old village to participate in the meeting with great interest, and the old neighbors who have not seen each other for a long time are also very cordial, holding hands and walking around, recalling the past decades ago. The villagers said, "You can not go home during the Spring Festival, but you must come back these two days to play the flag." ”
Author: ✎ Li Chen
[Article source: "Beijing Chronicle" April issue]