Huishan Temple

Huishan Temple

Huishan Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Huishan Temple

Historically, the origins of the Huishan Temple Fair are unclear, but there are written records dating back to the Yuan Dynasty. It gradually flourished from the mid-Ming to the mid-Qing Dynasty and reached its peak from the late 19th century to the 1930s (before the War of Resistance). The temple fair was held alongside deity welcoming processions and “festival fairs” (temple markets), making it very bustling and lively. Major events included the “March Incense Tide” (incense festival), the Dongyue Temple Fair centered around Zhang Zhongcheng Temple on the 28th of March, and the July 25th Zhang Xun Deity Birthday Temple Fair (Lantern Festival). According to Sha Luxu’s “Postscript to the Huishan Incense Festival Painting”: “In the old days, from the 14th to the 18th of the third lunar month, incense processions from the four rural areas of Wuxi would customarily come to Huishan to offer incense. The purpose of the incense processions was to worship and pray for favorable weather and peace for the nation and its people. Each procession varied in size and had no fixed formation. They were led by those carrying gongs and incense burners, while worshippers wore cloth bags over their chests, kowtowed every step of the way, chanted scriptures, and sang praises, guided by the sound of wooden fish. There were also performances such as flying forks, sword dances, spear and staff tricks, carried stages and wheeled carts, as well as stilt-walking, boat-rowing dances, and little devil dances—countless forms of entertainment. It was a joyous occasion for participants and drew crowds of onlookers, reaching the height of its splendor.”

Among the folk deities in Wuxi, the highest-ranking was the God of the Eastern Peak, Huang Feihu. His temple was located at the southwestern foot of Xishan Mountain (a ginkgo tree in front of the temple still stands today). Therefore, in the old days, on the 28th of March each year, eight major temples in Wuxi city—including the Cishan Guanghui Palace (commonly known as Zhang Dadi Temple), Nanshui Xian Temple, Yansheng Hall, Fucheng Huangmiao, Xishui Xian Temple, Yanshou Si Hall, and the Wuxi-Jinkui Twin Counties Temple—would all organize grand processions carrying divine statues, gathering from various locations to Zhang Zhongcheng Temple near the Yue Temple. This temple was specifically responsible for receiving them, after which they would all proceed together to celebrate the birthday of Huang Feihu.

The people of Wuxi referred to the eight processions from the city temples as the “Old Eight Xie.” Since Zhang Zhongcheng Temple did not send out a procession, it was colloquially called the “Great Lord Who Doesn’t Go Out.” Because all eight temples hoped to arrive at Huishan first and claim the honor, they would start moving the night before. On the day of the return journey, they would parade under lanterns at night, making the processions especially spectacular in the evening. A poem by Qing Dynasty’s Yang Lianfu reads: “The departure notice is sent out the night before, boats line up early on both canals. Lion dancers have already passed Longtoukou, while the rear troops still thread through Wulijie.” And further: “One lantern becomes two when viewed this way, Baoshan Bridge offers the best sight. A hundred troupes of dragons and fish vie for reflections, stars from the heavens fall into a silver plate.” The annotation after the poem states: “The bridge is located on Hui Shan River Canal.”

By the late Qing Dynasty and during the Republican era, each of the eight temples had different guilds as their financial backers, which led them to organize their processions even more elaborately in an effort to outshine one another. As a result, the Dongyue Temple Fair at Huishan reached unprecedented levels of grandeur. Its influence was so great that after the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway opened, special trains were even arranged to bring tourists from other places to attend the fair in Huishan, drawing massive crowds and keeping the city alive all night long. As for the July 25th Zhang Xun Deity Birthday Temple Fair, Yang Lianfu also wrote a poem to document the event: “Protector of the regions along the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, truly relied upon; for thousands of years we worship the great magistrate. Every household beats drums for the divine melodies, a month of lamps brings disaster relief and blessings.” The annotation after the poem states: “Suiyang Temple (i.e., Zhang Zhongcheng Temple) is in Huishan. On the 25th of July, the deity’s birthday is celebrated. The whole county pays homage, with lanterns hung in every home, lasting a full month.”