Chunshe

The tradition & historical record

Chunshe (春社), or Spring Community Day, is a traditional folk festival originating from China. During the Shang dynasty and the Western Zhou, it was a carnival where lovers could date. Gradually, it became a sacrifice ritual to appease/in honour of Tudishen (God of the Soil and the Ground). People usually celebrate this festival on the fifth Wu Day (according to the sexagenary cycle) after Lichun, which is near Chunfen. According to folklore, the date could be February 2, February 8, February 12 or February 15 based on the lunar calendar. The record of Chunshe can be traced as far back as on oracle bones. With a history of more than 2000 years, it is one of China's oldest festivals. Chunshe remained a significant traditional festival in China before the Yuan dynasty. Nowadays, though part of China (including mainland and Taiwan) still keeps the custom of worshiping Tudigong on February 2 (lunar calendar), the new celebration, now called Tudidan (the birthday of Tudigong), is not exactly the same as the traditional one. The Longtaitou Festival (meaning dragon raising its head), which is celebrated by the northern region of China, also retains some customs of Chunshe. ¹

In ancient China, "She", according to the Shuowen Jiezi, refers to the deity of the land. In ancient times, the main way of food acquisition in China changed from fishing, hunting and animal husbandry to agriculture. Therefore, people came to realize the importance of the land and began to worship it. The land was personalized and then the idea of "deity of the land" came into existence. The rulers, as well as the people at that period, began to offer sacrifices to the deity. The descriptions of the ceremony could be found in oracle bone scripts. Gradually, these customs of sacrifice developed into what people later called Chunshe. It is fair to say that Chunshe can be dated back to the time when the "deity of the land" was created, namely the late patriarchal clan society. In general, the purposes of Chunshe include: ¹

pray for a good harvest pray for good weather pray for good luck entertain the deity and the people pray for a good marriage and for having children pray for victory A considerable amount of scholars reckon that in addition to the deity of the land, people also offer sacrifice to the deity of five grains. In the early Qin dynasty, celebrations of Chunshe could last for a relatively long time as all sacrifices made to the land in spring can be called Chunshe. At that time, the celebrations included two major types. One type was the sacrifices to the land and ancestors:42 while the other one, Chunxi (spring carnival), was more entertaining as people can have orgies. Before the Warring States period, "Shela" was the only related festival.:414 Once, after the recovery of a disease, King Zhaoxiang of Qin ordered to kill the cow and offer it as a sacrifice. However, he was dissuaded by Gongsun Yan as the time for Shela was yet to come. ¹

Chunshe can be divided into different types according to its hosts. There are Da’ she (the one hosted by the King for the nation), Guoshe (hosted by feudatories for the people), Hou’ she (the feudatories’ own celebration) and Zhi'she (hosted by officials in groups). The sacrifices presided over by the rulers are often referred to as official Chunshe with all resources funded by the government. Since the early period of Qin, the official Chunshe did not see many changes in terms of ritual, process and function. However, in different dynasties where there are different political systems and various names for the administrative unit, the name of Chunshe also changed accordingly. During the spring and autumn periods and the Warring States period, great changes took place in the social and political structure. The types of Chunshe were no longer determined by the rank of the host but by regions. Zhi'she gradually evolved into "Li'she" (the folk Chunshe). Li'she was usually observed by the local government official and the cost was shared by the people themselves. This form of activity greatly boosted public enthusiasm to participate in social affairs, strengthened the social function of the folk Chunshe, and finally settled it as a festival. The official sacrifice has to follow a full set of etiquette including burying the sacrificial offering, dropping blood on the ground and using a human sacrifice. During the spring and autumn period, there were mainly two ways of offering sacrifices during Li'she. One was to offer to gods the quarry hunted together by 25 families. The second was to offer sacrifices together. After the sacrifice, all participants gathered together, eating and drinking to their heart's content. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Chunshe”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Chunshe is Chinese folk festival, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²