Dayu ceremony

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Dayu Festival

Applicant: Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province

Item No.: 487

Project No.: Ⅹ - 39

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Administration Office of Dayu Mausoleum scenic spot in Shaoxing (Shaoxing Dayu mausoleum Cultural Relics Protection Office)

A brief introduction to Dayu ceremony:

Applicant: Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province

Dayu mausoleum is located in Kuaiji mountain, Southeast of Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. "Yu died of illness and was buried in Kuaiji," according to the biography of yuejuewei According to the research of "Xia Shang Zhou dating project", Yu was buried in 2062 BC in Kuaiji in the 10th year of his reign, more than 4000 years ago.

Dayu mausoleum is the National Center of Yu worship. For more than four thousand years, Dayu mausoleum has always been a place of worship for thousands of years, where jade and silk are connected, and the temples of the Qing Dynasty are magnificent. In the past dynasties, Yu was worshipped and the ancient rites were made in Youlong, which had a great influence. Since about 2059 BC, Dayu son xiawangqi began to worship Dayu mausoleum in Kuaiji. The sacrifice ceremony for Dayu initiated by xiawangqi is the embryonic form of the national sacrifice of the Chinese nation. In 210 BC, the first emperor of Qin "went to Kuaiji to worship Dayu". Since ancient times, the emperor sent envoys, and the emperor Mu Li came to Kuaiji to offer sacrifices to Yu. In Ming Dynasty, sending envoys to sacrifice became a system. In the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi and Qianlong came to Shaoxing to worship Yu. During the period of the Republic of China, it was changed into a special festival, which was held on September 19 every year. On April 20, 1995, the people's Government of Zhejiang Province and the people's Government of Shaoxing City jointly held the "ceremony of public sacrifice to the great Yu mausoleum in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, 1995", which inherited the tradition of respecting and worshiping Yu in the past four thousand years of the Chinese nation, and opened a new sacrificial code of worship to Yu in the new China. Public sacrifice was held every five years, while local people's sacrifice and descendants' family sacrifice were held once a year.

Dayu is a great ancestor of the Chinese nation in China. Dayu's outstanding contribution has a profound influence on the evolution and development of Chinese history. The successive sacrificial ceremonies in the mausoleum Temple of great Yu for thousands of years is a clear proof of the learning of great Yu's virtue and carrying forward the spirit of great Yu. It is an important measure to carry forward the national spirit and plays an irreplaceable role in the cohesion of the Chinese nation. The system and etiquette of Dayu mausoleum ceremony, including sacrificial offerings, sacrificial utensils, sacrificial music, sacrificial dance and sacrificial writings, are as bright as the Han Dynasty, which contains a wealth of information of national traditional culture.

Strengthening the protection of Dayu ceremony has important historical value, humanistic value and academic value for inheriting Chinese traditional culture with a long history.