Author Archives: Xingyu Chen

Duanwu Festival

This friend of mine heard I was finding people to collect folklore and decided to help. He came up with several origins of traditional Chinese festivals. For this particular festival, he said he learned it from his middle school teacher when they were studying a poem the protagonist wrote in literature class. 

Story:

”

During the Spring and Autumn Period in China history, there is a patriotic poet called Qu Yuan from the Country of Chu.  In 229 BC., Country Qin invaded eight cities of Chu, but then invited King of Chu to Qin to make a peace treaty. Believing this is King of Qin’s scheme, Qu Yuan tried to reason with King of Chu, but only irritated the king and got himself exiled. King of Chu accepted the offer and did went to Qin, but as soon as he got there he was held in captive. King of Chu was full of regret and worry, and died three years later in Qin. After he died, Qin continued to invade Chu, and finally seize the capital. During Qu Yuan’s exile, he heard of the death of the King and the news that the capital was seized, he realized his country no long exists. Depressed, he drowned himself in the river. The day he committed suicide later became the day of Duanwu.

After Qu Yuan’s death, the used-to-be citizen of Chu were touched and full of grief. They went to the river to mourn over Qu Yuan. Fishermen rowed the boat on the river over and over again hoping to find his body but all failed. Someone then threw the rice rolls and other food into the river, hoping these food was enough for the fish in the river so they would not hurt Qu Yuan’s body. Everyone else followed him and began to threw food in the river. Every year of this day people continued to do that in memory of Qu Yuan, and these activity gradually became the Duanwu Festival’s traditions today —  eating the special rice roll Zongzi and rowing Dragon boat.

”

Thoughts:

Duanwu Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. It does not mean much for me, except that this is the day we would eat a special and delicious food meant for this day only, called Zongzi (made of sticky rice and various other ingredients of your choice, served in a plant’s leaf). I kinda know this festival is originally held in memory of Qu Yuan but never know why. This is educational.

Monster Nian and Sui

This friend of mine heard I was finding people to collect folklore and decided to help. He came up with several origins of traditional Chinese festivals. For this particular festival, he said he read it somewhere in the book.

Story:

”

Huang: So, Nian was a monster that would visit villages to villages on the first day of the year. This brutal animal would kill and eat people in the villages, even those little kids. Every year, people would fled to the bamboo forest to hide from Nian. One year, Nian was so hungry that he followed the trial and found the bamboo forest, but for some reasons, as soon as he saw the bamboo he ran off. People realized he was afraid of the bamboo, so the next year they became bold and test the theory. The next year, Nian came to a village, but he was first terrified by a red clothing hanging in front of one house and fled; He went to the other village, but soon was scared off by the cracking sounds of burning bamboo. People confirmed that these were what Nian was afraid of, and ever since, on the New Year, people would dress in red, hang the red scrolls on their house, and set firecrackers to scare off Nian. Every time they succeeded, they would visit their family and friends to say congrats, and have a big meal in celebration. As the time goes on, Nian stopped coming out of fear, but these activities remained for precautions and became traditions for New Year.

Huang: Also, do you know where does the tradition of giving kids red pocket money [called Ya Sui Qian in Chinese, meaning “Repress Sui Money”] come from? There was a monster called Sui that would come to little kids’ dream and feed on their scare. Sounds a lot like the Monster Inc, right? Anyway, kids that met Sui would have a fever and become dumb. So parents would put some money in a red envelope and place it under their children’s pillow to exorcise Sui [Red color is believed to have the ability of repress evil spirit in China, so do the bronze coins in ancient times]. As time passes, this also became a New Year tradition.

”

Thoughts:

The name Nian and Sui both mean “year” in Chinese. This folklore explained pretty well that where the traditions of the Chinese New Year came from. I would say Nian’s story is not as often told as some of the other traditional folklore but still, now I could recall some uses of Nian in modern days. For one, I remembered Coca Cola or Pepsi in China once used Nian element in their TV ad during the Chinese New Year. On the other hand, this is the first time I heard of Sui’s story.

Chinese folk dance

This friend of mine [Noted as W] is a dance enthusiast, and she provided a clip of her performance of Chinese dance. 

The interview:

Me: So, what are the significant features of Chinese dance?

W: For staters, you’re wearing those traditional clothes. There are some featuring movements I could share with you though. The primary movements are mostly jumping, leaping, turning, and flipping. I think flipping is the most distinct movement among the all, where you need to do some tumbling movements, or circling your torso around your waist, something like that. The turnings are also important. There is a rule that whatever direction you intend to move at, you should go to the opposite first. For example, if you’re going to move your hand to the left, you should go right first for a little bit to give the audience a false impression, like what I did in the video at 00:06. This rule applies to almost every Chinese dance. I couldn’t really describe it, other than how it’s performed and those technical movements, it’s also imbedded in the feels and spirit of the performers.

Thoughts:

The dance my friend performed turns out to be a dance re-choreographed from the original a folk dance. However, it would still be regarded as a traditional Chinese dance. There are countless folk dances in China, what characterized them into the genre of Chinese dance are those movements and the aura the dance brought out, but not the dance itself.

Proverb on keeping a normal heart

Here is a proverb my friend provided on keeping a normal heart. She says this is something her mom always says to her, whenever she’s upset over something, to remind her to have a normal heart.

Proverb:

The followings are Original script, Phonetic script, Transliteration, and Full translation in order.

塞          翁          失      马，          焉          知     非     福。

Sai       weng      shi     ma,           yan         zhi     fei    fu.

Sai       man      lost     horse,      how     know    not    blessing.

Even though Mr. Sai lost his horse, it might actually be a blessing for him.

 

Thoughts:

This proverb is referencing a story of Mr. Sai:

One day, Mr. Sai’s horse ran away. Since he was not particularly wealthy, the horse was indeed a big loss. However, Mr. Sai laughed and said, “How do you know, it might actually be a good thing!”

Months later, the horse came back, along with a pony. It seemed like while Mr. Sai’s horse was gone, she gave birth to the pony. Everyone came and say congrats to Mr. Sai, but Mr. Sai said, “How do you know it’s not a bad thing?”

Days later, Mr. Sai’s little boy tried to ride the pony and failed, broke his leg and became lame. Everyone felt sorry for Mr. Sai, but once again he said, “How do you know it’s not a bad thing?”

Years had passed and the war began. The Emperor ordered each household should send a man to the war, but since Mr. Sai was extremely old and his son couldn’t even walk properly, they were excluded from the draught.

 

It’s interesting that many of the proverbs in China are actually referencing a story (historically true or not) that supposedly everyone should know. Hidden in the proverbs, it’s the culture that’s being past down.

The nine-tailed fox Daji

My mom shared this fox story, easily the most famous fox legend in China. There were books and shows based on this legend. There was a TV show based on this played by her favorite actor when I was young, and that’s how she collected the details of this fox story. We interviewed in Chinese so the following is only rough translation of what she shared.

Story:

”

Daji of Su was taken by King Zhou when he invaded Su’s land and was brought back to the Capital. On the way back, she was possessed by the nine-tail fox [none-tail fox is believed to be the most powerful fox spirit in China or even East Asian culture].  Daji (now the fox) seduced King Zhou and had him became extremely obsessed with her. Zhou started to stick with Daji instead of dealing affairs of his own country. To please her, Zhou built a zoo of rare animals, constructed “pool of wine” and “forest of meat”, as well as all the other extravagant constructions by exploiting his people.

Daji also enjoyed to come up with various ideas of torture, and Zhou was more than happy to fulfill her desire. She invented the torture of Paolao – tying people to a heated metal cylinder and burn them to death, and the torture of Chaipen – throwing people in a pit full on poisonous snakes. Moreover, Daji once asked Zhou to cut off a farmer’s feet and open up a pregnant woman’s belly only to satisfy her curiosity. She even had Zhou to take out his uncle Bigan’s heart because Bigan disapproved Daji’s influence over Zhou. Finally, the revolution began. King Zhou and Shang Dynasty were overthrown, and Daji was executed with gods’ help [which is a whole other story].

”

Thoughts:

The most interesting part of this fox story is that, everything in the story is actually true. In Chinese history there really is a king named Zhou and this king did have a wife Daji. He was so lost in her beauty that he listened to everything she said and do everything she wanted to please her. He stopped dealing state affairs and became extremely brutal. This eventually led to revolution and a new Dynasty.

 

For another version of this legend, see:

Chew, Katherine Liang. Tales of the teahouse retold: investiture of the gods. New York: Writers Club Press, 2002. Print.