Tianzi Festival
Tianzi Festival: The grandest and oldest festival in Zhangjiajie is none other than the 'Tianzi Festival' held on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. On this day, sturdy young men from every village, each with bow slung and knife at waist, wearing straw sandals and leg wraps, dressed like martial arts warriors; women and children adorned with flowers, brightly dressed. Led by their village elders, they gathered in great numbers at Tian...
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Tianzi Festival
The most solemn and ancient festival in Zhangjiajie is none other than the "Tianzi Festival" held on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.
On this day, the strong young men of each village, each with bow slung and knife at waist, wearing straw sandals and leg wrappings, dressed like martial champions; women and children adorned themselves with flowers and ornaments, brightly dressed. Led by the headmen of their villages, they gathered in mighty procession at the Tianzi Temple for the "festival gathering." According to custom, the temple keeper first announced the start of the sacrificial rites, then ox-horn trumpets were blown and ox-hide drums beaten. Then a wizard wearing ritual robes and holding a ritual knife ascended the altar, dancing and chanting. All participants knelt facing the statue of King Xiang, bowing in worship. Next, the wizard burned pre-cut paper figures, paper horses, or paper bundles as an offering to heaven, called "recruiting soldiers in the netherworld," said to recruit soldiers and buy horses for King Xiang, who died unreconciled. Finally came entertainment and trade: there were opera performances, dragon lanterns, lion dances, mountain songs, and Zhanggu dances. Hides, rock honey, medicinal herbs, salt, patterned belts, coarse cloth... all could be traded on this occasion. The "Tianzi Festival" generally lasted one day and one night, though some lasted two days and two nights. Whenever villagers had disputes with outsiders, or when clan members violated clan rules or offended moral order, the temple keepers of the "Tianzi Festival" would mediate, which was called "Tianzi trial."
So how did this "Tianzi Festival" come to be established?
It is said that after King Xiang was defeated at Luoma Valley, he retreated to Shentang Bay and maneuvered against the government troops, but finally, with food and water exhausted, he had no choice but to leap from the cliff to his death. The day he died happened to be the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. After King Xiang's martyrdom, over the forty-five li of Yuanjiajie, grievance filled the sky, the sun and moon were dim, and grass and trees would not grow; in Shentang Bay, all day long mules neighed and horses whinnied, and the sound of killing never ceased. When the emperor received the memorial, he realized that the native barbarians were not to be trifled with, so he enfeoffed King Xiang as a netherworld Son of Heaven for one dynasty and authorized the building of a Tianzi Temple at Yuanjiajie. Thus, when one temple was built, it lit up fifteen li; when a second was built, it lit up another fifteen li; only after the third was built did the clouds at Zhangjiajie disperse, the sun and moon shine again, the grass and trees bloom and bear seed, and the five grains grow and ripen. Even so, King Xiang's descendants were still often subjected to harassment and persecution by the imperial court.
During the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor undertook large-scale construction, building the Shimiao imperial mausoleum, and issued an edict to requisition large timber (fragrant nanmu) from the Tusi of Hunan and Hubei. In the twentieth year of Jiajing (1541), the imperial ancestral temple was destroyed by fire, and the need for large timber became extremely urgent. For a time, harvesting and transporting temple timber became the overriding central task of this period, and large timber became the main tribute of the Tujia Tusi at this time. It is said that in this
year, the emperor issued an edict to the Maogang Tusi to requisition Zhangjiajie fragrant nanmu. The Yongding Guard commander ordered a sheba named Xiang Shier Gong to take charge of felling and escorting the timber, with the deadline to be punished as defiance of the imperial edict if missed. Zhangjiajie certainly had plenty of fragrant nanmu, but to select them one by one from deep mountains and valleys, ensuring no scars or knots, straight as an arrow shaft, and uniform in size, was no simple task. Moreover, the timber was green, and it took thirty or forty men just to lift one log, so the date for delivering the trees to the emperor was delayed. The emperor had long harbored a grudge against the Xiang clan and, having found no pretext, now handed down a sentence, throwing Xiang Shier Gong into death row. He also ordered Xiang Shier Gong's son, Xiang Dalei, to atone for his father's crime by continuing to supervise the transport of nanmu.
To save his father, Xiang Dalei rushed about everywhere and invited two hundred Xiang brothers to fell timber day and night. They first took advantage of the severe winter, sprinkling water on the slopes to freeze them, and slid the nanmu down into Jinbian Stream. Then they bored holes in the ends of the logs, strung them into rafts with branches, and floated them down the Suoxi, into the Lishui, and on into Dongting Lake. But after the rafts reached Dongting Lake, the wind was strong and the waves high, the rafts were smashed apart, and all the nanmu drifted away. Xiang Dalei counted on his fingers and calculated that the emperor's appointed date was near. If the deadline was missed again, they would surely be punished by the extermination of their whole family. Xiang Dalei and his brothers were frantic with anxiety. Some could not help wailing bitterly at Dongting Lake, some cursed the emperor for his tyranny, and some complained about their ancestor King Xiang: you should not have left a root of disaster for your descendants! Xiang Dalei tried every means to salvage the timber, but all was in vain. Seeing that all hope was lost, they could only wait for the emperor's verdict. Xiang Dalei knelt down toward the west with a thud, tears streaming down his face, and said: "Grandfather Son of Heaven, Grandfather Son of Heaven, open your eyes and look at the suffering your descendants endure! If you can bless the scattered nanmu to gather together again, I will surely revere you forever and sacrifice to you every year on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month..."
As soon as Xiang Dalei finished speaking, Dongting Lake indeed became calm, and the nanmu that had drifted in all directions gathered one by one, and slowly strung themselves into rafts. Xiang Dalei was overjoyed and quickly ordered his brothers to leap onto the rafts, punt swiftly with their poles, and continue the journey.
The day the fragrant nanmu arrived in the capital was exactly the deadline set by the emperor. The Xiang clan finally escaped disaster, and each one from the bottom of his heart gave thanks to the spirit of King Xiang in heaven.
The day Xiang Dalei returned to Zhangjiajie was also the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. He did not fail his earlier vow. He organized the Xiang clan and went to the Tianzi Temple to sacrifice to King Xiang. Thereafter, they offered sacrifice once every year on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. They called this sacrificial activity the "Tianzi Festival."
(Collected by Xifang Shuo)
[Appendix] Historical sources on the Tusi tribute of large timber to the imperial court
The matter of the Tusi paying tribute of nanmu to the imperial court is not fabricated. According to the Yongshun County Gazetteer: "In the tenth year [of Emperor Xiaozong], Shilin (surnamed Peng, pacification commissioner of Yongshun and other places) presented large timber and personally supervised its transport to the capital.... In the thirteenth year, he again presented large timber." "In the thirteenth year of Zhengde, Peng Mingfu was granted the rank of regular official of the third grade for his merit in presenting large timber..." "In the forty-second year of Jiajing, for the merit of presenting large timber, Mingfu was again rewarded and promoted to du zhihui shi... In the forty-fourth year, he again presented large timber, and Mingfu was granted... second-rank uniform."
The Ming History, "Biography of the Huguang Tusi," also contains the same records: "In the tenth year of Zhengde of Emperor Wuzong, Xuanwei Peng Shilin presented large timber thirty times and personally supervised its transport to the capital. What his son Mingfu presented was likewise numerous. In the thirteenth year, Shilin presented four hundred and seventy pieces of large timber." "In the tenth year of Yongle, Peng Zhong, son of Peng Yuan, xuanwei of Yongshun, led six hundred and sixty-seven upper officials and banner chiefs to the capital to pay tribute." Among these, besides xibu cloth, bronze drums, and tea sprouts, there was also large timber. According to the Qin Clan Genealogy, the Qin Tusi of Maogang paid tribute of large timber to the imperial court almost every generation, and many Tusi were promoted in office for "merit in delivering large timber," and were granted imperial surname branches for the Qin clan, known in history as the "Qin imperial branches."
The Dayong County Gazetteer records: "Qin Liangzuo, son of Qin Hao, inherited his father's post.... During the Yongle period, Liangzuo and Zhu Yueyao presented large timber (fragrant nanmu) and, for their merit in assisting construction, were promoted to the third rank and enfeoffed as General Zhaoyong."