A vacant lot on the north side of the Niangniang Temple in Hangzhou’s Banshan Mountains, once used as a temporary parking lot for tourists, has been entered by engineering teams and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023. In the future, it will be transformed into Lixia Intangible Cultural Heritage Square, focusing on the intangible cultural heritage elements of the Banshan jurisdiction.
As a cultural symbol, the Banshan Niangniang Temple was built in the Southern Song Dynasty, passing through thousands of years of history and witnessing the feelings of home and country. Folk activities and intangible cultural heritage such as temple fairs, half-mountain mud cats derived from the respect for the Ni clan of Banshan Niang are more firmly rooted here and influence more and more people.
Across thousands of years, nourish the feelings of home and country
Banshan, located in the northeast of Hangzhou City, is called Gaoting Mountain. Nowadays, people are used to calling it “Banshan”, which is directly related to the “Banshan Niangniang Temple” halfway up the southwest side of Gaoting Mountain.
The story of the Banshan Niangniang Temple has different versions of it. For example, the literati Yu Dafu wrote in his travelogue “Gaoting Mountain”, “They also said that the half-mountain Niangniang was conferred by the king of Xiaokang.” The golden man chased Xiaokang Wang to the halfway waist of this mountain, and the Xiaokang king had nowhere to hide, but fortunately, this lady blinded the eyes of the chasing golden man. ”
In addition to the stories that Yu Dafu heard when he was visiting the mid-levels, there are also folk legends that the Ni clan of the half-mountain niang Ni was bitten to death by a poisonous snake and killed by a golden soldier. Although there are many versions of the story that have been passed down to this day, the spirit of this Ni girl who sacrificed her life for the country during the Jianyan period of the Southern Song Dynasty has always been the spiritual core of the story.
Now, when it comes to mid-level Niangniang, what should we talk about? “Patriotism and family and country feelings.” Ni Airen gave his answer.
The 74-year-old Ni Airen is the 64th grandson of the Niang Niang Clan of Banshan and the honorary president of the Gaoting Cultural Research Association, and has witnessed the changes and development of the Niangniang Temple in the Middle Mountains in recent decades.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Banshan Niangniang Temple was damaged and rebuilt several times, and the incense was continued. In 1943, when the temple was blown up by the Japanese army invading China, Ni’s descendants built a simple grass hut on the original site to enshrine the clay sculpture of Banshan Niangniang. The temple of Niangniang that can be seen today was initiated by Ni Airen’s father, Ni Hongxiao, in 1990 and rebuilt with the support and sponsorship of people from all walks of life, closer to the original site than the foot of the mountain.
In his opinion, behind the half-mountain Niang Ni clan, you can see the group portraits of the characters of the Southern Song Dynasty, they are either famous generals who resisted Jin, or important ministers in the dynasty, or names that are not recorded in the history books. Persevering in their faith and giving everything for their country in difficult times are the symbols engraved on them.
Keep walking, carry forward folk culture
Along with the story of the Ni clan in the mid-mountain mother, there is also a series of folk activities.
According to legend, Ni was intelligent since childhood, raised cats and protected silkworms, prospered silkworm flowers, and had a healthy family. After his death, colorful divine cats often appeared in the temple of Niangniang in the Banshan Mountains, and the ancestors of the Ni family used the soil of the Banshan Mountains and the well water dug by themselves to hand-pinch out mud cats and put them on the tablets in the temple. After paying homage to the mother-in-law of the mid-mountain mother, the silkworm farmers from Hangjia Lake will invite the half-mountain mud cats home and put them on silkworm plaques or silkworm shelves, hoping to eliminate disasters and dispel evil spirits.
Today, this ancient “net celebrity cat” is a provincial intangible cultural heritage of Zhejiang Province. After continuous design improvement, while reflecting cultural characteristics, the half-mountain mud cat is also more and more catered to contemporary aesthetics, and is accepted and loved by more and more young people.
If we want to talk about the most lively time of Niangniang Temple, we have to mention that the temple fairs that began to appear since the Southern Song Dynasty have been popular for nearly 900 years.
“Banshan Niangniang has always had a great influence in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.” Ni Airen remembers that before 1958, because of the poor land routes, the people who came to worship still took the waterway, and every time in the eighth mulberry festival in early February, the third silkworm flower festival in early March and the first mother’s birthday in early May, the Shangtang River was full of boats, and a market was set up by the river, and the scene was no different from the New Year.
A group of “atypical” tourists in previous years impressed Ni Airen.
“Five buses drove all the way from Shijiazhuang to Hangzhou. Suddenly so many guests came, we didn’t have time to prepare the meal, and finally found the Hangzhou Steel Canteen to help, and only then solved the problem of eating. “It turned out that the people who went out from the mid-levels to work and do business brought the story of the half-mountain Niangniang to the local area, and these guests from the north were moved by the story of the mother-in-law, so they specially came to the mid-level to pay their respects.
In order to better promote the folk culture of the Banshan jurisdiction, Hangzhou Banshan Street took the repair work of the Banshan Niangniang Temple as the entrance and began to build the Lixia Intangible Cultural Heritage Square. After completion, the square will be used as a centralized venue for a series of folk activities such as sending spring to welcome summer and running mountains in the mid-level jurisdiction. At the same time, a Mid-Levels History and Culture Exhibition Center will be built around the square to display all intangible cultural heritage items in the jurisdiction.
The yellow sand raised by the half-level Niangniang slowly landed with the passage of time, and generations of half-mountain people walked non-stop, and the yellow sand of the past has become a solid foundation for the development of the mid-level today, and will also witness a better future in the mid-level.
(Responsible editors: Ai Yutao, Wang Liwei)
Share for more people to see