Yan Emperor's ceremony

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Yandi Festival

Applicant: Baoji City, Shaanxi Province

Project No.: 481

Project No.: Ⅹ - 33

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Shaanxi Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Baoji City, Shaanxi Province

Protected by: cultural center of Weibin District, Baoji City

Brief introduction to Yan Emperor's ceremony:

Applicant: Baoji City, Shaanxi Province

Emperor Yan is the great ancestor of the Chinese nation. Baoji is the hometown of Emperor Yan and the birthplace of Jiang Yan culture. Folk legend has it that the sacrificial activities of Emperor Yan in Baoji can be traced back to the period of Emperor Huang. About 5000 years ago, Emperor Yan died in Tiantai Mountain of Baoji because he tasted the flame of "heartbroken grass" by mistake. When the yellow emperor heard the news, he rushed from Jishui, a tributary of the Weihe River, to Tiantai Mountain to hold a memorial ceremony. At present, there is also the site of shaoxiangtai in Tiantai Mountain, which is said to be the place where the Yellow Emperor offered sacrifices to Yan Emperor. In the third year of the reign of emperor linggong of Qin Dynasty (422 BC), the people of Qin established shangxiatian temple in Wushan to offer sacrifices to Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang respectively, which set a precedent for the official sacrifice of Emperor Yan in China. In the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, called himself "the son of the Red Emperor" and set up a temple to offer sacrifices to Emperor Yan. This kind of sacrifice custom lasted until the period of Emperor Wu. In 1765, the Shennong temple was rebuilt, and it was rebuilt twice around 1931 and before the founding of new China. In addition to this temple, there is also a Shennong temple on Shenwu Road, Jintai District, also known as "Xiannong Temple" and "xiannongtan". In Qianlong's reign, Baoji County annals, which was rebuilt, recorded: "the date of the Ministry's promulgation was three days in the early period. The chief priests all wore court clothes and gathered at the altar. " Since the 1980s, the folk activities of offering sacrifices to Emperor Yan have also quietly sprung up.

Baoji Yandi Festival is an intuitive expression of the virtue of respecting ancestors of the Chinese nation, and also an important way to enhance national cohesion and cultural identity.