What are the folk customs of Wuzhen, an ancient town in Jiangnan in China

Wuzhen is an ancient and beautiful water town with a history of more than a thousand years since the Tang Dynasty. The ancient town is listed as a famous historical and cultural town and tourist town in Zhejiang Province due to its unique tourism resources. It is a key tourism development town in Tongxiang City. After verification and review by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, it has been included in the preliminary list of world cultural heritage. As a famous historical and cultural town, Wuzhen not only has many ancient houses and historic sites, but also has colorful folk customs. Therefore, when we travel to Wuzhen, Wuzhen's folk customs and culture are indispensable.

Wuzhen has been prosperous since ancient times, with simple folk customs. At its peak,"four gatherings of merchants and wealth were produced in one county. There were towers and palaces, Zhou Busen columns, and bridges, and the atmosphere of the prefecture." The unique folk customs such as Chuhui, Jiwu Road, stove murals, and wine customs, the original water town style and the cultural heritage accumulated over the past thousand years, make Wuzhen one of the most unique and outstanding ancient towns in the south of the Yangtze River.

The custom of "going out of meetings" is quite popular in Tongxiang and Wuzhen areas. Various "meetings" are held on four o'clock and eight festivals of the year: the first month lantern festival, the March temple fair, the April "green crop fair", the May "plague marshal's meeting", the July "city god meeting", the "Zhou Cang meeting", the general manager meeting, etc. It is diverse and has many names. Among the many "fairs", apart from temple fairs, the "City God Fair" is the most noisy. In addition to superstitious activities to welcome gods and disguise ghosts, Wuzhen's City God Association also has "exhibition" and "local opera" programs in various neighborhoods.

On the day of the meeting, people used a 16-person sedan chair to carry out the wooden statue of the City God wearing a divine robe and covered with colored powder in the City God Temple. They first went to an ownerless deserted tomb beach in Xizha to make sacrifices, and then went to the streets to travel around. The entire team out of the meeting was led by a "ghost guard chief", followed by the advance team who sounded gongs to clear the way, and wooden signs saying "Silence" and "Evasion" were played in front of the sedan chair.

Behind the sedan chair are various neighborhood programs such as "holding the court" and "local opera". Those families who had made a wish to the City God asked a child to dress up as a "prisoner" to follow behind the team. Such a team of nearly a hundred people walking along the street, coupled with the crowds watching on both sides of the street, was really crowded and crowded, unprecedented. The entire team will have to swim in Sizha, Wuzhen for a week. Because the streets at the four gates are all long, it often takes two days to travel around. On the first day, you will go to Xizha and Beizha first; on the second day, you will go to Nanzha and Dongzha.

In the past, merchants in Wuzhen had the custom of connecting the fifth road (also known as connecting the road) on the evening of the fourth day of the first month of the lunar calendar every year. The so-called Five Paths refers to the Five Paths Walking God, which later became the God of Wealth of the Five Paths. According to the records of "Qing Jialu" published during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty: "The fifth day of the first month is Lutou's birthday. Golden gongs and firecrackers, and sacrifices are all displayed. To be the first to become a good market, we must get up early to welcome him, which is called connecting Lutou." In the old days, after the Spring Festival holiday, merchants usually accepted the fifth god of wealth on the evening of the fourth day, and opened the market for business on the fifth day, in order to make money well. Mao Dun once wrote in the novel "Lin's Shop":"On the evening of the fourth day of the lunar new year, Mr. Lin reluctantly borrowed three yuan to hold a banquet and invite the lovers in the shop to have the usual five-way wine, and discuss how to open the market tomorrow."

Preparations for the fifth road pick-up ceremony start at around 3 p.m. and end at 9 or 10 p.m. First, set up the table. Most stores use two Eight Immortals tables to splice together. Those who pay attention to it use three Eight Immortals tables plus one and a half tables, commonly known as three and a half tables. Then offer the offerings. From the outside to the inside, the offerings for each table are different: the fruits at the first table include Guangju, Fuju, sugarcane, etc., which indicates that there is a broad financial path and a sweet life. For the second table of cakes, rice cakes and square cakes are generally used. The rice cakes are decorated with holly and cypress branches, implying high rise and evergreen. Three tables: One complete pig's head is placed with two pig feet pressed under its head and outwards. It is commonly known as a cross-legged pig's head, representing the whole pig.

On both sides are whole chicken and whole fish. A rooster with chicken whiskers and a carp with fish whiskers symbolize revitalization. There is also a piece of crispy meat, a sauce hoof, a bowl of small claws, a bowl of pork intestines, and two bowls of chicken blood. The small claws are called Yuanbao soup (because the small claws bend like Yuanbao when cooked). This stomach means that money is constant all year round, and chicken blood means that there is "blood wealth". In addition to dishes, this table also needs to place wine cups, plates and chopsticks. On the last half of the table, there are five rice, noodles and five vegetables each. In addition, a bowl of "Lutou Rice" tossed high above is specially served. A scallion is inserted on the rice, and a "Millennium Red" is vertically inserted in the scallion tube, indicating excitement and red every year.

The names and decorations of the dishes on the table are all for good taste. The sequence of tables is arranged according to folk eating habits: fruits first, cakes second, wine and vegetables, rice later, and tea finally. There are three and a half tables of offerings. Generally, two and a half tables are placed first. The wine and vegetables on the third table must be served until the fifth god of wealth receives them before they can be served.

The so-called five routes must be picked up by the owner. After the offerings on the table were properly arranged, the shop owner took incense sticks and went to the God of Wealth Hall in five directions: east, west, south, north and middle to pick up the guests (in the old days, there was a God of Wealth Hall in Wuzhen, east, west, north and south, and in the Zhongshi Cultivation Temple, which served the God of Wealth). Every time I pick up the God of Wealth, I have to put a string of hundreds of bells in front of the door. When the five gods of wealth are connected, they will place a horse curtain of the fifth god of wealth on the wall behind the altar table. Then the offerings were placed at the third table, and candles were lit at the first table to light incense. After all the decoration was completed, the owner's family and the shop staff prayed to the fifth god of wealth in turn. After obeying, the horse banner was taken outside the door to be cremated, indicating that the five gods of wealth were sent off, and the ceremony was over. In the old days, this custom was widely spread in large and small market towns in northern Zhejiang. It stopped after liberation until after the public-private partnership of the store.

Stove murals refer to the decorative pattern paintings painted on the walls of the farmhouse kitchen. It combines the characteristics of the firewood stove structure in rural areas of the south of the Yangtze River and is drawn with simple and smooth brushwork by those who are good at painting among the stove makers. Kitchen murals are very common in rural areas of Wuzhen. In the past, whenever a new stove was built, stove murals would appear. Kitchen murals are not only ordinary folk phenomena, but also a folk art that the people like to see.

It is unclear when the stove murals originated. They mainly originated from the folk tradition of worshiping the stove god. The firewood stove traditionally used in rural areas consists of a stove and a stove wall. Two or three iron pots are usually placed on the stove top, and patterns are painted on the stove wall. There is a shrine above the stove head, with wooden tablets (or paper horses) for the stove lord. Farmers in Wuzhen have always attached great importance to cooking stoves. Some farmers also use small rice cans to store rice and tea into the stove, or bury a few copper coins when cooking stoves to pray for the health of the whole family. It was precisely out of the needs of life and various wishes for a better life that the stove builders began to paint various auspicious patterns on the walls of the stove head, which gave rise to the stove murals.

There is also a saying among the people: Because the Kitchen God lives on the stove, these patterns accompanying the Kitchen God naturally symbolize good fortune, show wealth, express yearning, and contain prayers. If anyone simply brushes the stove with a layer of lime slurry, people will scornfully call it a "tofu stove".

Wuzhenzao murals have a variety of expression techniques and rich and colorful themes. They are an artistic style that puts everything they love, does what they want, repeatedly lays out, and superimposes them. They highlight the basic artistic characteristics and aesthetic tendencies of great popularity and elegance. It is a treasure in folk art.