Text | Yang Ziqiang
Before and after the Qingming Festival, in the south of the Yangtze River, mixed peanut trees, willows spit green, the fragrance of flowers is pervasive, a group of warblers fly wildly, under the sun, in the smoked wind, even the air is glutinous and sweet. At this time of year, on the bank of Liansidang in Wangjiangjing Town, Jiaxing, a large number of fishermen from the Taihu Lake basin will come here by boat to stage a huge water temple fair, called the "Jiangnan Net Boat Festival".
From the web
Lotus Sidang, in fact, is "even four swings" - to Taojia Dang, Wenquan Dang, temple front swing, bridge north swing four swings connected to the name, "Jing southeast has seven giant dips connected genus, the common name 'even three even four swings" ("Wenchuan Chronicles"). The water area of Liansidang is more than 4,000 acres, surrounded by green fields and flat domains, flowing water, smoke trees far village, fishing boats sing late, become a good scene by themselves, the water network here is dense, the boat is the most commonly used production and living tools, the villagers go out by boat, fishermen fish by boat, businessmen do business by boat, and even singing, acting, juggling are carried out on the boat, "waterway Jingban" has been quite famous in the area of Hangjia Lake.
The boats in which fishermen beg for a living on the water are called "wire net boats" or "net boats". Qing Gu Lu's "Tongqiao Yiyi Lu" "City Swing" article said: "Every time you go out to operate a small boat, you use silk nets to intercept the current and fish, commonly known as "wire net boats". This kind of fishing boat is thin and long, shaped like willow leaves, the bow and stern are less than a foot wide, and the ends are slightly upturned, and those who "come and go in the water" are called "net boat people".
People on the net boat make a living by fishing, they are busy with their own on weekdays, only when they arrive at the net boat meeting, Lian Sidang gathers thousands of net boats at once, the lake is crowded with dense layers, and there is only one one-way waterway left on the huge lake, which is extremely spectacular. Fishermen gather here just to worship at the Liu Wang Temple here.
From the web
Liu Wang Temple is not a Buddhist temple, nor is it a Taoist temple, it enshrines a "Liu Meng general" who drove locusts to death in the Yuan Dynasty.
Who is the prototype of General Liu Meng, there have always been different theories, and there are six well-known ones: Liu Qi, Liu Rui, Liu Zai, Liu Ju, Liu Chengzhong, and Liu Zhang. For example, Zhu Kun of the Qing Dynasty said in his "Lingquan Notes", "In the fourth year of Jingding in the Southern Song Dynasty (1263), Liu Qi was named the Marquis of Yangwei, the god of Tiancao Meng, and the edict to eliminate locusts", saying that the prototype of Liu Meng's general was Liu Qi, a famous anti-gold general, and the "Gusu Zhi" cloud of Ming Wanghua: "The fierce general is famous and rui, and he is the brother of Qi." ”
Ming Wanli's "Jiading County Chronicles" "Miscellaneous Records" recorded: "Song Liu Meng will ······ temple Worship the Song general Liu Rui, that is, the younger brother of Qi. Liu Rui is Liu Qi's younger brother, who held Wenzhou in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty, and committed suicide by taking medicine after the Jin soldiers broke the city. However, there is no record of the Liu brothers exterminating locusts in historical records, which may be that the people have transformed the heroes who resisted foreign aggression into the protectors of the people's livelihood.
Another example is the Qing Dynasty Wang Shiyu's "Ju Yi Lu" volume Dai: "The old saying is that there are no locusts south of the river, and there have been them in recent times. Vulgar worship Liu Mantang slaughtered as the locust god, Liu is the Jintan people, there is a special shrine, to worship it, the locust is not a disaster. It is commonly called "reckless general", which is very unusual. It is based on the Song Dynasty official Liu Rate (the word Pingguo, the number Mantang Sick) as the prototype of Liu Meng's general. Liu Zai was a Jinshi in the first year of Shaoxi in the Southern Song Dynasty (1190), successively served as a magistrate in the prefecture and county, and had many virtues, but there was no record of exterminating locusts, and it was the people who sacrificed to commemorate the Qing officials.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, there was a saying that Liu Meng would be Liu Chengzhong: "Wu people worship Liu Meng, and Yun is Liu Shunchang's younger brother." The folk ritual called Liu a native of Qinglong Town, because of his stepmother, he drowned in the tide, so he wore his hair without a crown. ([Ming] Song Nancheng, "Nine Collections: Chronicles of the Journey").
In the second year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1724), the Qing court in the name of the government, Liu Chengzhong was named the god of driving locusts, included in the national rituals, and the Yongzheng Emperor also issued an edict to Shanxi, Jiangnan, Shandong, Henan to establish the temple of General Liu Meng, in this way, Liu Chengzhong as the prototype of General Liu Meng, gradually replaced Liu Qi, Liu Rui and Liu Zai.
Liu Chengzhong is not seen in the official history, it should be a legendary figure, he became the locust god "Liu Mengjun", from a Jiaxing man named Li Weijun.
Li Weijun was the governor of Zhili during the Yongzheng period. In the forty-ninth year of Kangxi (1710), a locust plague occurred in northern Jibei. "Flying locusts cover the wilderness", Li Weijun prayed to General Liu Meng according to the custom of Jiaxing, and as a result, the locust plague was really controlled, and Li Weijun built a temple for Liu Chengzhong in the Gyeonggi area. In the 58th year of Kangxi, locust plagues occurred in Cangzhou, Jinghai and other places, and Li Weijun, who was then a direct subordinate guard, prayed to General Liu Meng, "One seeks to fly east to the sea, the second is to fly day and night, to be bound by me, and the third is to destroy the locusts."
Sure enough, a few days later, "the night (locusts) were captured in seven dry and three hundred pockets, and the rest did not hurt a single thing in the field." It is a locust that does not harm it." In the second year, Li Weijun asked General Liu Meng to séance, wanting to ask about his future, but God refused. But General Liu Meng told him a piece of his life experience.
According to the text copied on the wooden tablet by the county magistrate in volume 31 of Qianlong's "Wei County Chronicles" of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Meng will describe himself as follows:
I am a native of Wuchuan in the Yuan period, and my father was a famous general when Emperor Shun, and he once lived in Xijiang. The prestige is great, and the sound is spread far and wide. Only be loyal to the monarch and love the people, and never forget the state affairs. The family discipline is also based on filial piety and loyalty. I will obey my father's orders, and I will act with the intention of helping the needy. All the travels, do not follow the discipline. Later, I was given the position of conductor, and I also faced the right side of the river. It is also worth the thieves of Huainan to swarm, and people are devastated. Ordered my overseers to exterminate them.
I was twenty years old at the time, and I was occasionally handsome, but I was afraid that I would not be competent, and I would lose the favor of the country and worry about my parents. I know that the destiny of heaven is there, and through Huaishang, the group of thieves heard the letter and understood it. Anti-Zhoukai returns, Jianghuai Road, and barren fields. Because of the suspension of the boat, the public opinion of the people of Li is suffering. After the clouds plundered, it was worth the locusts for the disaster, the seedlings were haggard, and the people were struggling to make a living. When I heard it, I sat in the boat in a daze, and I didn't do anything. If you want to make a position, you should do it non-duty. And witnessing a tragic wound cannot be saved. When the locusts covered the wilderness, they looked at them and said, "How can I chase them with you?"
I immediately led the crowd to move forward, and Wei also violated it. However, the people of the West will eventually be in short supply, unable to help the poor, unable to save the disaster, and Wu is on the people for the people! Later, when he heard about the court, he was awarded the post of general of Meng;
So Li Weijun wrote a "General Temple Inscription" to record this incident, and finally said: "The general is loyal to him, his father is honest, and he is disciplined." This should be the earliest and most complete biography of Liu Chengzhong, from which the legends about Liu Chengzhong have been derived.
Li Weijun will "Liu Meng" Liu Chengzhong's deeds to the imperial court, Yongzheng Emperor may be in order to establish his image of diligent government and love the people, Liu Meng will be greatly respected, in Changchun Yuan took the lead in building a temple to worship. In this way, all parts of the country, especially the Jiangnan area, immediately followed closely and built temples for General Liu Meng.
After that, "General Liu Meng" was continuously sealed: "Baokang" was added in the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), "Puyou" was added in the first year of Tongzhi (1862), "Xianying" was added in the seventh year of Tongzhi, "Linghui" was added in the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), "Xiangji" was added in the fifth year of Guangxu, "Yihua" was added in the seventh year of Guangxu, and "Lingfu" was added in the twelfth year of Guangxu. Liu Mengwei's statement about Liu Chengzhong has gradually been fixed and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Naturally, for ordinary people, it doesn't matter who the prototype of General Liu Meng is, the important thing is that they pray for good weather and good harvest, good harvest in agriculture and fishery, and wish their families good health and peace in all seasons.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Liu Meng will be sacrificed four times a year, namely the opening of the seal (the twentieth day of the first month), the Qingming temple fair (before and after the Qingming Festival), the birthday of King Liu (August 13), and the seal (December 20), especially the Qingming festival is the most prosperous.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the sacrifice of Liu Meng in February and March of the lunar calendar every year will be called "net boat meeting", and the "Wenchuan Chronicles" of the Xuantong period said: "On the day of the opening of the seal and the birthday day, the fishing boats of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are salty, tens of thousands, performing music and sacrificing animals, taking the year as an example, to the turn of February and March, the collection of boats is particularly many, and it is called the net boat meeting. ”
During the net boat meeting, fishermen from Jiaxing, Huzhou, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Ningbo in Zhejiang, Jiangyin, Wuxi, Suzhou, Changzhou and Yixing in Jiangsu, Songjiang, Jinshan, Qingpu and Chongming in Shanghai, Wuhu in Anhui and other places rowed net boats and gathered in Liansidang to pay homage to General Liu Meng.
In the twelfth year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1886), Shanghai's "Dianshizhai Pictorial" published a picture of the "Boat Club" with a text: "Jiaxing Beixiang Liansi Dang Puyou Heavenly King Liu Meng will be the temple as the owner of the net boat gang incense, and it is also the worship of the queen of heaven who is still the seafarer." The flow of the pan family and the house, burn incense and make wishes on weekdays, and come and go like a shuttle, so the temple is full of spring smoke. August 13 is the birthday of King Liu, those who go to the meeting from near and far, there are no less than four or five dry ships of the flat boat, from Wang Jiangjing Changhongqiao to the temple in front of the Shiyu Li in the row of moorings such as scales, on the day, the gods board the boat, go on the cruise, return to the palace in the afternoon, commonly known as the net boat will be cloud,
During the Republic of China, the net boat festival was still the largest and only water temple fair in the south of the Yangtze River, and the number of participants was beyond imagination. For example, according to the "Jiashan Civil Rights Daily" at that time, the 37th Finance of the Republic of China cost 500 billion yuan. He also said that in the 36th year of the Republic of China, "as many as 183,000 pigs' heads were presented to the throne", "there were about 800 large ships with high masts, 24 steamers, three other Hankou ships, one ship from Qingdao and one from Hong Kong, and the rest of the small net boats and civilian ships were even more unknown."
According to the "Declaration" report, at the net boat meeting in April of the 23rd year of the Republic of China, the team of the Yingshen Race arrived at the Changhong Bridge, and the audience was crowded.
The net boat meeting generally lasts for three days, and its content is roughly divided into three parts: sacrificial ceremonies, community meetings, and fierce generals. Among them, the best way to reflect the characteristics of water folk customs is the meeting of various civil associations, which has undoubtedly become a carnival of ordinary people.
Various folk associations held high signs, spontaneously performed treasure scrolls, divine songs, dragon dances, lion dances, lotus xiang, flower baskets, lake boats, stilts, Qingyin class, sedan chair, waist drum, drama, stepping on the white boat, piercing meat and other original folk arts, among which the most thrilling is the meat and incense.
The performer pierces an iron hook into the flesh of his arm, under which a kilogram of incense burner or gong hangs. Generally, a performance team consists of 12 people: 10 people carry the incense burner, one for each person, and two people carry a large gong, each of them carries one side, and strikes it as they walk. The iron hook dug deep into the flesh, but not a drop of blood came out. The piety and courage of the fisherman were revealed in the meat and incense, and the audience was deeply mysterious and shocked.
From the web
Since 2009, this original pure folk "water temple fair" has gradually transformed into a large-scale folk customs activity led by the government, known as the "China Jiangnan Net Boat Club", which is currently the only water temple fair in China, showing a vivid canal folk scroll, and was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2011.
[From Jiaxing Literary and Historical Memory.Jiaxing Volume]
--to be continued