RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 66 GÖRAN AIJMER earth.30 We are told that in Yingshan there were jiao offerings on the graves in the eighth moon. It is said explicitly by the chronicler to be similar to the practice of Qingming. This Yingshan custom began on the day of the new moon and continued for the next few days. It is said that one 'escorted the departing'.31 On the first day, and continuing through the first half of that moon, people of Tongshan burnt paper (money?) sheets on the burial grounds.32 Unfortunately, we know very little about traditional funeral customs in the Dongting area and the surrounding region. The few notes I have found tell us that in Taoyuan, in the Yuan River valley, people practised an excess of slaughtering at mourning.33 In Baling, it was the custom to have music, food, and Buddhist monks to perform.34 From Zhongxiang, we read that at an instance of death, there was drumming and singing mixed with lamentations.35 I will assume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that double burial did not exist in this area of Hubei and Hunan. Further, I will assume that the graves were, in the general Chinese fashion, marked by small brick or chunam structures.36 A later traveller through Hunan reports that graves in the Xiang River valley were cone-shaped and whitewashed. There seems also to have been some concentration of graves into 'yards'.38 I will assume that the body of a dead person was placed in a wooden coffin and interred in a dugout grave, probably covered by a tumulus, on or at which, as mentioned, was erected some sort of structure to mark it. The grave was a permanent one, and it was only for very particular reasons of fengshui* geomancy39 the body might be exhumed. The graves were ritual foci for members of continuous social groups, membership in which was determined by agnatic ascent and descent. Sometimes such kinship groups seem to have formed lineages. In our present attempt at understanding the essential features of the semantics of the grave, we are helped by some local terms, names of customs, and other phrases. We have already met the expressions 'to hang money on the mountain' and 'to suspend on the mountain'. From such instances, it seems permissible to say that they represent some conceptual link between graves and mountains. How is this? Graves look perhaps like small mountains or hills—but I think there is more to the grave-mountain association ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 80 GÖRAN AIJMER 8 D. H. Perkins, Agricultural Development in China 1368-1968. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969, p. 47. 9 Göran Aijmer, 'A Structural Approach to Chinese Ancestor Worship'. Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde 124, pp. 91-98, 1968, and The Dragon Boat Festival on the Hupeh-Hunan Plain, Central China. A Study in the Ceremonialism of the Transplantation of Rice. Statens Etnografiska Museum, Monograph Series, No. 9. Stockholm, 1964. 10 Several terms are used: *, **, *, ; it is hard to tell whether they signify different types of graves. 11 GJTSJC VI:1259, ##† 1b. 12 TRAŁ. Records of Changde Prefecture. Auth. A, 1813. Juan 13:4a. Wuling is the capital of this prefecture. 13 ****, juan 3:8a, quoting older edition. 14 # Records of Yuanjiang County. 1807-1819. Juan 18:2b. Juan 18:2b. 益陽縣 154, juan 2:9b, 16 CM, juan 11:2b. 17 ***. Records of Anxiang County. Eds. ## et al., 1748, no pagination. 風俗考 18 GJTSJC VI:1130, £## 1b. 19 GJTSJC VI:1142, ## 3a. 20 GJTSJC VI:1120, #2b. 21 GJTSJC VI:1120, ‡ 4b. 風俗考 BB 22 GJTSJC VI:1116, + 4b. 23 GJTSJC VI:1223, 2a. 24 A#. Records of Wuling County, Auths, $ et al., 1862-63. Juan 7:4b. 25 GJTSJC VI:1142 ### 2a. 26 GJTSJC VI:1120 * 2a. 27 eums, juan 11:12b, quoting 'old record' — presumably an earlier edition of the gazetteer. 28 Sometimes there is also an autumnal she ri, but the present case certainly refers to a spring offering. 29 GJTSJC VI:1120 $ 2b. 風俗考 30 GJTSJC VI:1120 ## 4b. 31 GJTSJC VI:1166 ## 4b. 32 GJTSJC VI:1120 33 GJTSJC VI:1259 34 GJTSJC VI:1223 #‡ 6b. # 2ab. # 1b, 2a. 風俗考 35 GJTSJC VI:1142 ## 1b. 36 For a general survey of the architectural features of Chinese tombs, see Magdalene von Dewall, 'Grab und Totenbrauch in China.' Tribus, no. 25, November 1976, pp. 31-81. 37 Harry A. Franck: Roving through Southern China. New York & London: The Century Co., 1925, p. 64. 38 On Tongshan, see GJTSJC VI:1120, A#‡ 6b, and on Wuling, GJTSJC VI:1255, 1, 7ab. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA 81 39 See Maurice Freedman: Geomancy. Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for 1968. London 1.15. 40 Aijmer, A Structural Approach...p. 95, 41 GJTSJC VI:1223 *** 126. 42 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology No. 33. London: Athlone Press, 1966. 1* For instance, Lewis Hodous provides an account in his Folkways in China, London: Arthur Probstain, 1929, p. 92. Hodous draws mainly on his long Fujian experience. 44 Aijmer, A Structural Approach p.96. 45 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, p. 77f. 46 GJTSJC VI:1193, &$ 26. 47 GJTSJC II:51, 6a. A Similar arrangement occurred in Youxian, GJTSJC II:51, 19b. 48 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, pp. 78f. 49 There were probably several kinds of paper money in use. The yellow kind referred to above was in all likelihood the 'gold variety. As our sources do not carry information in detail on this subject we must leave such further implications aside. 50 I have notes from Gongan (GJTSJC VI:1193, * 36), Hanzhou (VI:1130, 風俗长 Ib), Zhongxiang (VI:1142: #6# 1b, 2b), Jingshan (VI:1142, & 3a) Chongyang (VI:1120 † 4a, 5a), and Tongshan (VI:1120, Afb† 6a). 51 I have found notes from Baling (GJTSJC VI: 1223, K## 2b, ennt juan 11:6a), Wuchang (GJTSJC VI:1120, ✩ 26), Chongyang (VI:1120, £#* 46), Tongshan (VI:1120, ### 6b) and Yingshan (VI:1166, BB‡ 4b). 52 Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society. pp. 140f. 53 Other names for this festival used in the region are Yulan dahui, 王蘭大會 Yulan penhui 盂蘭盆會,and Duwang dahui 度亡大會 All are Buddhist terms. 54 I have, at present, no information from the Dongting area on the handling of paper money at funerals, for instance. 55 GJTSJC VI:1223, # 2b. 56 GJTSJC VI:1193, £&$ 26. 57 GJTSJC VI:1142, R&* 3a. 58 GJTSJC VI:1193, # 2a. 59 GJTSJC VI:1259, 6 2a. 60 GJTSJC VI:1130, &‡ 2a. 61 GJTSJC VI:1120, K✩‡ 4b. 62 GJTSJC VI:1166, ### 46. 63 GJTSJC VI:1142, ‡ 4a. 64 GJTSJC VI:1142, &* 2ab. 65 mm, juan 2:96. 66 GJTSJC VI:1193, R 2a. 67 GJTSJC VI:1259, ✩ lb; 1142, * 2a. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 82 68 GJTSJC II:51, 19b. GÖRAN AUMER 69 GJTSJC VI:1259, RG 2a. 70 GJTSJC VI:1193, 風俗考 26; 1130, 風俗考 2a; 1142, 風俗考 38; 1120, 風俗考 5a; 1166, 風俗考 5a. 71 GJTSJC VI: 1259, + 2ab. For two interesting discussions on foodstuffs as part of offering rituals, and in terms of cooked and raw food, see Emily M. Ahern, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973, pp. 167-170, and Arthur P. Wolf: Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors, pp. 131-182 in Arthur P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1974. 72 Chroniclers report this custom from Hanzhou (GJTSJC VI:1130, 1b), Jingshan (VI:1142, 3a), Zhongxiang (VI:1142, 6b), Chongyang (VI:1120, 4a), and Yingshan (VI:1166, 3b, 4a). 73 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4a. 74 A local tradition from Daye (GJTSJC VI: ... 17a) tells of a persecuted jiao dragon that turned itself into an ox island in a river; this was henceforth called Bull Island. A similar transmutation is mentioned in a legend referring to the Yuan River; see E. T. C. Werner, A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology, Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh Ltd. 1932, p. 116f. 75 In Tongshan, there was an idea of a pair of Earth Gods, She Gong and She Mu. I have no other evidence for ideas of a female counterpart in the Dongting area; GJTSJC VI:1120, 6b. 76 GJTSJC VI:1193, 2a. This may be compared to the use of a mixture of rice and red beans, sometimes contained in a pot, on other ritual occasions; see Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, p. 76. 77 GJTSJC VI:1259, 1b. 78 GJTSJC VI:1142, 2a. 79 GJTSJC VI:1259, 1b. 80 #Ma juan 3: 8a. 風俗考 81 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4b. 82 GJTSJC VI:1142, 4b. 83 GJTSJC VI:1120, 3a. ## 4b. 84 GJTSJC VI:1166, 4b. 風俗考 85 GJTSJC VI:1193, 2a. 荆楚歲時記 Seasons in Jing and Chu. Auth. Tsung Lin 86, juan 13:4a. 87 GJTSJC VI:1130, 1b. 風俗考 88 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4b. 89 GJTSJC VI:1120, 2b. 90 Aijmer, A Structural Approach... p. 95. 91 GJTSJC VI:1142, 1b, 2b. 92 荊楚歲時記 7b. 風俗考 16, 2b. M16 93 GJTSJC VI:1142, 2a. 94 loc. cit. 95 GJTSJC VI:1166, 5b. Records of the ... Ed: MELAR‡ n.d. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 40 Dean. Kenneth “Revival of Religious Practices in Fujian: a Case Study in Pas. Julian F. (ed.) The Turning of the Tide: Religion in China Today (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society & Oxford Univ. Press, 1989), 72. 4 Mr. Pang Cheng-chuen (Peng Zheng-chuen), interviewed by author, Fanling, Dec. 30. 1990. P Dean. 54. A student of the University of Hong Kong told me on Feb. 3, 1991 that he saw, by chance, a Jiao festival in 1990. He could not recall the exact date and location. However, he was very sure, from the celebrating flower boards, that it was a Jiao festival. K Ibid., 776. Liu Zhi-wan, Taibeishi Songshan qi an jian jiao jidian, Institute of Ethnology Academia Sinica Monograph, no. 14, (Taipei: The Institute, 1967). Besides Liu, the research team from the Academia Sinica included Song Lung-fei and Xu Jia-ming. Song's paper concentrated on aspects of folk architecture and decoration while Xu focused on the economic and social aspects. See Song Lung-fei "Song-shan jian jiao jiao tan jianzhu di zhuan shi Yi shu" Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 25 (1968): 157-217; Xu Jia-ming: "Songshan jian jiao yu shequ" Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 25 (1968): 109-153. 4 Li Zian-zhang. "Daojiao jiaoyi di kaizhan yu xiandai di jiao” Sinological Researches 5 (1968): 261. Ibid., p. 201. Saso, Michael R., Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal (Washington: Washington State Univ. Press, 1972), 34. Law, Joan & B.E. Ward, Chinese Festivals (Hong Kong: South China Morning Post, 1982), 83. Okada, Yuzuru, Kiso Shakai (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1949). See Brim, John A. “Village Alliance Temples in Hong Kong" in Wolf. A.P. (ed.) Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1974), 93–103; and Suenari, Michio "Sonbyo to sonkyo: Taiwan Hakka shuraku no jirei kara” [Village temple and village boundary: a case study of the Hakka communities in Taiwan] Bunka Jinna Gaku [Cultural Anthropology] (1985) 2:255-260. 15 Ueno, Hiroko, "Taiwan nanbo no osho to sonraku: Tainanken hito saishiken no sonraku aida kankei" (Wang Jiao and villages in southern Taiwan: worshipping area and village relationship] Bunka Jinriú Gaku 5 (1988): 64-82. + Taylor, W.A. "The Spirit Festival" Bulletin of the Cheung Chau Bun Festival 1980 (Cheung Chau: n.p., 1980), 39-41. (reprinted from Wide World Magazine, Dec. 1953). The annual Cheung Chau Jiao festival is better known to westerners as the Bun festival because of the three tall "bun mountains" erected at the ritual area. The festival is the most studied Jiao festival in Hong Kong probably due to the fact that (1) the island is comparatively easy to get to, (2) it is celebrated every year and (3) it is widely publicized by the Hong Kong Tourist Information Bureau. Besides Tanaka's accounts (see note 36), see also Jonathan Chamberlain and Ian Lambot's photographic account. The Bun Festival of Cheung Chau (Hong Kong Studio Publications, 1990). דן I owe my interest in the Jiao festival to Prof. Ward who first introduced me to Jiao festivals in 1980. She then suggested that I participate in the Jiao festival in Kau Lau Wan. K Law & Ward, 83-84. Hayes, James W., The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes (Hong ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 35 Faure, David W. 1990. The Rice Trade in Hong Kong Before the Second World War. In Between East and West Aspects of Social and Political Development 216-25. Edited by Elizabeth Sinn. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong. Fok, Kai-cheong. 1988. Wanqing qijian Xianggang dui neidi jingji fazhan zhi yingxiang (The influences of Hong Kong on the economic development of mainland during the late Qing period). In Xueshu Yanjiu 1988/2 70-4. 1989. Xianggang huaren zai jindaishi shang dui Zhongguo de gongxian shixi (A preliminary study on the contributions of Hong Kong Chinese to China in modern history). In Huaren Yanjiu | 81-8. 1990a. Lectures on Hong Kong History Hong Kong's Role in Modern Chinese History. Hong Kong: Commercial Press. 1990b. Private Chinese Business Letters and the Study of Hong Kong Industry: A Preliminary Report. In Collected Essays on Various Historical Materials for Hong Kong Studies. Edited by Hong Kong Museum of History. Hong Kong: Urban Council. 1992. Xianggang yu Jindai Zhongguo (Hong Kong and modern China). Hong Kong: Commercial Press. 1993. Nineteenth Century Hong Kong: China's Gateway to the Western World of Business - themes and sources. Unpublished paper presented at the 34th International Congress on Asian and North African Studies. Hong Kong. Gaw, Kenneth. 1988. Superior Servants: the Legendary Cantonese Amahs of the Far East. Singapore and New York: Oxford University Press. Godley, Michael R. 1981. The Treaty Port Connection: An Essay. In Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 12/1 248-59. Hamashita, Takeshi. 1991. Higashi Ajiashi ni okeru Honkon no ichi (The role of Hong Kong in East Asian history). In Sōbun 320 1-8. Hamilton, Gary Glen. 1991. Edited Business Networks and Economic Development in East and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong: University Press. Hao, Yen-p'ing. 1969. Cheng Kuan-ying: The Comprador as Reformer. In Journal of Asian Studies 29/1 15-22. 1970a. The Comprador in Nineteenth-Century China: Bridge Between East and West. Cambridge and Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1970b. A New Class in China's Treaty Ports: The Rise of the Comprador-Merchants. In Business History Review 44/4 446-59. 1970c. Maiban shangren wanqing tongshang kouan yi xinxing jieceng (Comprador-merchants: "new class" in late Qing treaty ports). In Gugong Wenxian 2/1 35-44. 1977. Zhongguo jindai yanhai shangye de buwenling-sheng (Commercial uncertainties along modern China's Coast). In Shihuo Yuekan 7/8-9 1-11. 1979. Commercial Capitalism along the China Coast during the Late Qing Period. In Proceedings of the Conference on Modern Chinese Economic History 303-27. Edited by Chi-ming Hou and Trong-shian Yu. Taiber: Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica. 1982a. Entrepreneurship and the West in East Asian Economic and Business History. In Business History Review 56/2 149-67. 1982b. The Compradors. In Maggie Keswick (edited) 85-102. 1986. The Commercial Revolution in Nineteenth-Century China: The Rise of Sino-Western Mercantile Capitalism. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hayes, James. 1979. The Nam Pak Hong Commercial Association of Hong Kong. In Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 19/2 16-26. 1984. Collecting Business Papers of Chinese Enterprises in Hong Kong. In Research Materials for Hong Kong Studies 47-55. Edited by Alan Birch. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong. He, Wenxiang. 1989. Xianggang Jiezushi (History of Hong Kong's big families). Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 28 sparse evidence we have from local chronicles. In Gong'an Magistracy (in Jingzhou Prefecture) people hoped for rain on the She day as this was a good omen. In the same vein we find a note from Tongshan Magistracy (in Wuchang Prefecture) to the effect that if it rained on the She Day, it was said: 'She Weng yu rain of the Worthy She'. A rustic proverb had it that 'She Gong Mr. She'--and 'She Mu Lady She'--'do not drink old water'. The metaphor here was that the fresh water of the spring rains was drunk by the earth. It is interesting to note that the proverb insists on a female counterpart to the She. In Yingshan Magistracy there were si offerings to the She; these were spoken of as qi gu 'prayer for grain'. Similar offerings, but this time described as jiao libations, occurred here in Yingshan on the third day of the third moon, later on in the spring. On the She Day we encounter offerings taking place in Zhongxiang Magistracy, the capital in Anlu Prefecture, and here we get some more detail concerning the rustic population. The chronicler describes how the celebration engaged wu and xi male and female sorcerers-who appeared with drums and singing, thus welcoming the shen spirits. With 'arms joined' they were stamping on the ground, all this being a ge jie ji 'an offering of rhythmic singing'. Everyone drank She wine and shared She meat. The wine was supposed to cure deafness. Sacrificial meats (sheng) and sweet wine (li) are also mentioned from Wuling Magistracy, the capital of Changde Prefecture. From Jiangling Magistracy, the capital of Jingzhou Prefecture, we get a description of She fan 'She food' -which was a mixture of pork and mutton put inside a pumpkin. The magistracy of Suiyang is said to have been a place where four neighbourhoods combined to ji offer to ben jing She shen 'the local She spirit'. People shared out delicacies 6 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1193: 風俗考 3b. 7 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1120: 風俗考 6ab. 8 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1166: 風俗考 4a. 9 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1166: 風俗考 4ab. 10 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1142: 風俗考 2a. 11 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1259: 風俗考 1b. 12 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1193: 風俗考 2a. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 33 could also be a day for worshipping at the graves—a spring practice spread over several possible days. There is likely to have been a link of association between the She and the dead—in a way similar to what can still be discerned in some southern parts of China today. The offerings on this day were sometimes made in a grand style with cavalcades and officiants engaging the spirits. It was an occasion for feasting, drinking and games. 31 There was another festivity in the second lunar month of the year which was called Hua Zhao or 'Flower Dawn,' which occurred on the full moon day, the fifteenth of the moon. The festival is mentioned in chronicles from Tongshan, Baling,32 Yingshan,33 Zhongxiang,34 and Gong'an.35 If the sky was clear on this day in Baling, then the cotton plants would have a good harvest.36 In Gong'an there were similarly good prospects for cotton if there was a clear full moon on this night.37 The Flower Dawn as a social event is not extensively described, but we learn that in Zhongxiang there were outdoor activities in the open country outside the town, and so there were presumably also picnics. It is said that gentry and commoners ta qing—‘trod on the greenness’—and they dou bai cao ‘gathered one hundred grasses.’ Ta qing is a name for a spring outing, and the designation for this festive picnic is in the wider Chinese world associated with various dates, like the eighth day of the first moon, the second day of the second moon and the third day of the third moon. It is also generally held to be among the customs of Qing Ming in early April, even signifying grave visits. In this present corpus of ethnography we find mention of ‘treading on the greenness’ at the Flower Dawn. Dou bai cao was a game in which people armed themselves with stalks of grass. From each of a pair of stalks was pressed a drop of liquid and the two drops were 31 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1223:風俗考2a. 32 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1166:風俗考4a. 33 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1142:風俗考2a. 34 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1193:風俗考3b. 35 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1223:風俗考2a. 36 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1193:風俗考3b. 37 古今圖書集成,1888.VI,1120:風俗考6ab. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 34 brought into contact. The stalk which in this way drew up the drop of the other was declared the winning party. Perhaps this was an élitist thing to do and we have no description from the central lake land to improve our knowledge. At least the name suggests games in the open under festive conditions. Another designation used for this day was, in Tongshan, pu die hui 'the meeting of the fluttering butterflies.'38 撲蝶會 A note from Yingshan claims that Hua Zhao was a day when young women got their ears pierced. It was also a day when girls who had reached the age of twelve, thirteen or more, started allowing their hair to grow long. In the same place, this day of Flower Dawn was also an occasion for sending presents to a (future?) bride's home, and to arrange- or confirm-betrothals (na bian). Alternatively, it was a day for wen ming or 'to ask names.' This was a preliminary ceremony leading to a likely engagement to be married, generally implying a comparison of the two candidates in terms of the combinations of celestial signs going with their respective birthdays. The Flower Dawn was generally regarded as an auspicious day for this.39 We can see that this festival was marked by femininity-girls were coming of age, passing into womanhood by starting using jewellery and letting their hair grow long. Female reproduction is also stressed in the arrangements for coming marriages. Also, full moon days were generally associated with femininity. Turning to Zhongxiang we find that the full moon day of the second lunary was an occasion for the flying of paper kites (feng yuan) and this custom implied some games-but we are not informed as to the rules of these. There is the possibility that these competitions were in terms of appearance and beauty.40 The flying of paper kites in southern China was not only a children's pastime, but was done in a ceremonial way in certain seasons and on specific days. In Fujian Province, around the city of Fuzhou it was an activity associated with the autumnal Chong Yang festival on the ninth day of the ninth moon. In a different context I have suggested 38 古今圖書集成.1888.VI,1166:風俗考4a. 39 古今圖書集成.1888.VI,1142:風俗考2a. 40 Hodous 1974: 190-92; Bredon & Mitrophanow 1927: 430-35. 41 Aijmer 1991. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 35 in brief that kite flying may have been an iconic expression for the reaching of Heaven. People strove on that day for affinity with what was celestial by climbing hills and mountains. The upwards direction was a characteristic feature of this festival associated with the male cosmic principle of yang. So here in Zhongxiang people were also devoted kite flyers, but on the fifteenth day of the second lunary, a day followed by a full moon night, which like all full moons had female implications. Furthermore, it was a day associated with betrothals, awakening of flowers and also the re-appearance of butterflies. Perhaps it is in this 'awakening' aspect of spring that we might find a clue to the flying of kites at Flower Dawn. In the second moon two categories of beings woke up after hibernating all through the winter—insects and dragons. We are on loose ground here. In Tongshan the solar day and period of ‘Arousal from Hibernation' was a time for forecasting the seasonal weather. Jing Zhi is, however, not only a name for the solar period corresponding to the fifth to the twentieth of March, and often also for the first day of that duration; it is at times used as a name for the second day of the second moon. That particular day is sometimes and in some places also known as 'the dragon raises his head'.43 This designation does not occur in our present corpus ethnography, nor have we found any explicit references to dragons in the material. Even so, it could be that the notion of risin-striving upwards—referring to flowers and insects, and perhaps also dragons, was alive in this area. At least in the magistracy of Zhongxiang the idea was dramatized in the rising kites. This is nothing more than a suggestion. of The second moon in the year was one inspired by spring and the release of vernal generative forces. There were two festive celebrations at this time which were both connected with the theme of growth and remuneration, and there were many concerns about the coming agricultural season. It was a time for the plowing of the fallow fields and the sowing of rice in the seedbeds was soon to follow. It was also a period when farmers wished for rain and there was customary divination, both about weather and coming crops, the latter of course dependant on the former. The two festivals which have been described 42 Bredon & Mitrophanow 1927: 176; Tun 1987: 25. 43 Bodde 1975: 56. 252; see also ch’ü 1972: 31. ================================================================================