The history of civilization of more than 2,000 years has left a lot of inexhaustible and colorful folk customs, which are reflected in all aspects of social life. They include food, housing, architecture, trade, language, seasonal festivals, marriage, ancestor worship, etiquette, entertainment, etc.
The history of this civilization has left a lot of endless and colorful folklore.
Guangzhou, a famous city in Southern Guangdong with rich folk customs. It is a place where the essence of Chinese and foreign cultures are blended, forming a unique Lingnan culture. Lingnan School of Painting, Lingnan Architecture, Lingnan Gardens, Lingnan Bonsai, Cantonese Music, Cantonese Opera, Cantonese Cuisine, Cantonese Language, as well as the cityscape, living customs, etc., all reflect the style of Lingnan culture.
Overview of Culture and Arts in Guangzhou
Cantonese Opera
Cantonese opera is one of the most popular local operas in China. It is rooted in Guangdong, and is also popular in some parts of Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as in Southeast Asia and Chinese settlements, with a history of more than 300 years.
Guangdong Cantonese Opera is a fusion of a variety of foreign operatic voices and local local theater and folk rap art. At the same time, Cantonese Opera has successively absorbed local rap arts such as Nanyin, Yue Acura, Dragon Boat Song, Wooden Fish Song, as well as Guangdong popular ditties and dirges into the opera, forming today's Cantonese Opera with clappers, Erhuang as the main local singing and ditties as the supplement, rich and colorful singing system with local characteristics.
Lingnan School of Painting
The Lingnan School of Painting refers to a school of painting led by Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng, and Chen Shuren that emerged around the time of the 1911 Revolution. Influenced by the ideas of the democratic revolution, they advocated the renewal of national painting, opposed the imitation of the old ways in the late Qing Dynasty, and advocated "eclecticism between Chinese and foreign countries, and fusion of the ancient and the modern". Because they are all Guangdong people, so it is called Lingnan School of Painting.
Lingnan School of Painting is one of the outstanding cultures of the motherland that is characterized by Lingnan culture, and its works have a strong sense of life, both work and writing, color and ink. Lingnan School of Painting has made important contributions to the development of Chinese painting, and is a revolutionary school of traditional Chinese painting, which, together with Cantonese Opera and Guangdong music, is known as the "Lingnan Three Shows".
Cantonese music
Cantonese music is a variety of instrumental music produced in the Guangzhou dialect area, which originated in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta at the beginning of this century, and enjoys a good reputation and a large number of listeners at home and abroad. It is based on Guangdong folk tunes and certain Cantonese opera music and paiko songs, absorbing the nutrients from ancient China, especially the folk music of the Jiangnan region, and perfecting and developing the local folk music after nearly 300 years of incubation.
Cantonese Embroidery
Cantonese Embroidery, also known as Canton Embroidery, one of the famous embroideries in China, is an embroidery produced in Guangdong. It is said to have been founded in the ethnic minorities, and was characterized in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty.
Inside the country
The National Palace has the largest collection. It is known for its full layout, lush patterns, warm scenes, rich colors, strong contrast, big red and green. Its most important feature is the layout of full, often with few gaps, even if there are gaps, but also with landscapes, meadows, roots and other supplements, appear lively and compact; Guangdong embroidery is another unique phenomenon, that is, most of the embroidery for men, and other areas of the embroidery are women, different, in the embroidery of the large pieces, embroidery is often hand-held long needles standing embroidery.
Cantonese embroidery with a variety of threads, in addition to silk threads, velvet threads, but also with peacock hair performance as a line, or with the horse's tail wrapped around the velvet as a line. The needlework is very rich, and factors such as the rise and fall of the needle and thread, the weight of the force, the direction of the silk thread, the sparseness of the arrangement, and the curling pattern of the silk knots are all used to strengthen the expressive power of the images.
Guangzhou color
Guangzhou
Color is the abbreviation of Guangzhou color porcelain, also known as the Guangzhou gold-colored porcelain, it is painted on a variety of white porcelain vessels and fired into a strong oriental characteristics of the handicrafts, most of the use of our country's brocade pattern, known for the vivid and brilliant colors, is China's glazed porcelain is a unique variety.
Guangzhou colored porcelain began in the Ming Dynasty, Guangzhou three-color, to the Qing Dynasty development of five-color, and in the Qianlong period gradually formed a unique artistic style, so far has a history of more than 300 years. During the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, in order to European countries processing painted porcelain, white porcelain from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, shipped to Guangzhou, imitation of Western painting and coloring, and then sold to foreign businessmen. Guangzhou thirteen businessmen have set up specializing in the export of Canton color porcelain and foreign banks.
Lingnan bonsai
Lingnan bonsai one of the five major schools of Chinese bonsai art. The scope of the Pearl River Delta and Guangxi's south-central region, and Guangzhou has the most representative
Expression. Bonsai began in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the formation of a unique style is in the People's Republic of China after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Lingnan bonsai is characterized by: on the material, tree embryos such as JiuLiXiang, fujian tea, water cross branch, park, elm, into the ground gold, etc., more from the mountains and fields. Unique modeling, cut off the stem and store branches in order to seek the shape of the natural, the proportion between the branch and the stem is appropriate; and good at pruning, pay attention to pots, as well as the title to the meaning.
Lingnan bonsai originates from nature, but higher than nature, is an organic combination of natural beauty and artificial beauty. Lingnan people, especially the Guangzhou people, love bonsai, bonsai has become part of people's lives, every family rooftop, balcony are planted bonsai, in order to beautify the environment, spice up the life, not only can Shu eyes, Yee mind, enhance health, but also can cultivate sentiment, bring fun.
Lingnan Guqin
Lingnan Guqin, as late as in the Han Dynasty, has gradually developed, there are many famous qin people through the ages, writing a lot of qin books, creating and preserving a lot of famous guqin musical instruments and sheet music.
The founder of the Lingnan school of qin was Huang Jingxing, a native of Xinhui, Guangdong, during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the more influential qin people are: Yun Zhigao, He Luoshu, He Yaokun, Yang Xiquan, etc.; collection of qin, there are "heavenly chevron", "pine snow", "Zhenyu", "Narcissus" and other famous qin; qin spectrum and qin thesis, Yun Zhigao's "Polygon Hall qin spectrum", Huang Jingxing's "Wuxue Shanfang qin spectrum", He Binxiang's "qin science repertoire".
Cantonese Opera
Cantonese opera is the most popular opera in the Guangzhou dialect area. Cantonese opera is the most popular opera in Guangzhou dialect area, with a history of about 150 years. It was originally a tune of Cantonese opera, and later formed into an independent genre. Strong in musicality, it emphasizes the art of listening, and pays close attention to the work of singing, not reading the table. Its singing style belongs to the plate cavity of the Pihuang system, with clappers, erhuang, pai ziqi, Xiaoqu, and ballads constituting the whole of it, and it is divided into three main throat cavities, namely, Pinghuo, Zihuo, and Dahuo. Cantonese opera is popular in a wide range of areas, with Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao as its main base of activity. Cantonese opera is sung in all parts of the world where Cantonese overseas Chinese live.
Zengcheng Elemi Carving
Since ancient times, Guangzhou Zengcheng area has been rich in the production of black olive, which has a large nucleus but a small kernel, suitable for carving, thus giving birth to Guangzhou Elemi Carving, an exquisite folk handicraft. The history of its development can be traced back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the representative figures are Chen Zuzhang, a Guangzhou court craftsman during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, and Zhan Gusheng, a folk craftsman from Xintang, Zengcheng, in the fourth year of the Xianfeng era (1854) of the Qing Dynasty.
Guangzhou olive carving craft adheres to the style characteristics of Lingnan culture, beautiful, elegant, smooth lines, static and dynamic combination, delicate and subtle, its overall artistic characteristics can be summarized as: fine carving, the form of small and exquisite, and its techniques in relief, round carving, hollow carving is mainly.
Guangzhou Gray Sculpture
Guangzhou Gray Sculpture is mainly distributed in Guangzhou
urban area as well as Zengcheng and Conghua, and it is a traditional architectural decoration craft in Guangzhou. According to the Guangzhou City Record, the Zengcheng Zhenguo Temple, which was built in the third year of Qingyuan (1197) of the Southern Song Dynasty, has a gray sculpture, the gray sculpture of the dragon boat ridge. Guangzhou gray molding in the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially ancestral halls, temples, nunneries, temples and mansions with the most.
The characteristics of Guangzhou gray sculpture are distinctive and colorful, mainly red and green. On the selection of materials, gray molding artists to suit the local conditions, the use of lime materials suitable for the hot and humid climate of Guangzhou - acid-resistant, alkali-resistant, but also temperature-resistant. In terms of production process, Guangzhou gray sculpture must be made at the site of the sculpture building at room temperature, without firing. During the production process, according to the actual needs, artists will be in the scene or between each group of patterns, cleverly left decorative ventilation holes, so as to mitigate the violent impact of typhoons on the ridge decoration. In terms of inheritance, it takes about 10 years to learn the art of gray molding before you can become a master, i.e., independent construction.
Guangzhou wood carving
Guangzhou wood carving has a history of more than 2,000 years. According to "Guangzhou Han Tomb" records, it appeared as a handicraft, starting from the warrior figurines and horseback riding figurines unearthed in the Western Han Dynasty's early Han Dynasty's tomb at Mapenggang, Sanyuanli, Guangzhou. During the Tang Dynasty, due to the developed foreign trade, the precious wood from Southeast Asian countries was imported through Guangzhou, which stimulated the rise of wood carving industry in Guangzhou.
The Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangzhou wood carving as architectural decoration more attention, its unique artistic style has been formed, the technology has been perfected. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, due to the further development of foreign trade, influenced by foreign cultures, absorbing the Western style of furniture modeling structure, decorative patterns, formed the local characteristics of Guangzhou wood carving.
Guangzhou Brick Carving
Guangzhou brick carving is mainly distributed in Panyu District. As early as in the early Han Dynasty, the prototype of brick carvings had already appeared in the Imperial Court of the ancient Nan Yue King's Palace (now Zhongshan Si Road in Guangzhou)? -- Han bricks engraved with floral patterns. Guangzhou brick carving to the Ming Dynasty has been widely used, forming a unique style of Lingnan water town folk architecture. Influence, straight to all over Southeast Asia. The Qing Dynasty was appreciated by the court.
In the late Qing Dynasty, with the flourishing of modern architecture, brick art was gradually replaced by modern sculpture decoration. To the early Republic of China, the use of brick decoration has been relatively rare. At present, Shawan brick carving artists are also very few, only He Shiliang one is still in the pursuit of persistence.
Guangzhou Jade Carving
Guangzhou has a long history of jade carving craftsmanship, and the Neolithic human ruins found at Feiguoling in Guangzhou already had a complete jade ring and a remnant of a jade ring each, which is more than 4,000 years old. During the Han Dynasty, Guangzhou's government-run jade craft workshops were directly under the charge of the Shaofu or work officials, producing according to the emperor's favorites or the needs of the court. During the Tang and Song dynasties, jade crafts were mainly used for sacrificial artifacts, court decoration, and playthings and treasures to wear. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the jade carving industry became more and more prosperous. In the early Qing Dynasty, after the abolition of the "craftsman's register" management system, skilled craftsmen from all over the world were concentrated in Guangzhou, where folk jade production flourished, and guilds were organized to formulate strict rules of the trade and a system of apprenticeships.
Cantonese Storytelling
"Storytelling" means telling books and stories. Cantonese storytelling is a form of language art in which artists recreate and tell novels or folktales in the Guangzhou dialect. This folkloric technique originates from the ancient art of rapping; formally speaking, it is a direct successor to the commentary and reviewing of books since the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and combines it with the Cantonese dialect to produce it. It is said that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Jingting (1587-1679), a master storyteller from Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, served as a guest of Zuo Liangyu, a general who fought against the Qing Dynasty, and introduced the art of storytelling to Guangdong when he accompanied the army on its southern expedition.
Shawan Piu Sai
Shawan Piu Sai is a traditional art activity that has been passed down in the folklore of Guangzhou for more than 100 years. It is said that during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, wandering artistes from different parts of Guangdong dressed up as opera characters and styled themselves in performances called Sai Sheng (赛声) or Sai Sai (彩色). "Colorful". Later on, it developed into "Horse Color" which was dressed up on horses, "Water Color" which was dressed up on water, and "Piao Color" which was dressed up in a parade carried by many people on a tray. Shawan Piu Sai to "board" as a unit, each board played by 2-3 children, a board a story, mostly based on myths, historical stories as the theme. Structurally, it consists of three parts: one is the color cabinet, i.e., a small stage for activities; the second is the color stalk, i.e., a steel branch for support; the third is the actor who plays the "color"; the one who sits underneath is called the "screen" and is usually played by a 10-12 year old actor, and the one who is in the air is called the "floating" and is usually played by a 10-12 year old actor, and the one who is in the air is called the "floating". The first one is called "Piao", which is usually played by children aged 3 years old and above.
Panyu Water Color
Panyu Water Color is a kind of water performance activity using rafts as a carrier and drama or folklore stories as the main content, which is mainly circulated in Panyu
Shiqiao Town and Shawan Town in Panyu District. In ancient times, Qu Dajun's "New Words of Guangdong" recorded the story of Dazhou Dragon Boat's water performance; Qing Dynasty's Tan Zui's "Chu Ting Taizhu Records" recorded in more detail about the performance of Shiqiao Phoenix Boat; Qing Dynasty Tongzhi version of "Panyu County Records" wrote about the situation of the Phoenix Boat, "the back of the boat is colorful boats, decorated with the water color, all with a child molester to play the story. " This is the earliest document with the word "water color" in it.
Panyu water color is a parade on the water, mainly water performance, reflecting the local characteristics of the Lingnan water town. Its characters are fixed on the wooden rows, standing on the waves and floating with the waves, as if they were real. Its performance is similar to that of Vietnamese water puppet art. Panyu water color art combines various arts such as drama, painting, acrobatics and modeling, and this modeling art has a high aesthetic value.
Cantonese Furniture
Cantonese furniture craftsmanship is a representative of Guangzhou's traditional folk craftsmanship. Its history can be traced back to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the late Ming court has been the emergence of Cantonese furniture. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the luxurious modeling of Cantonese furniture satisfied the rulers' pursuit of wealth and became the main source of furniture for the Qing court. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou-style furniture was influenced by European Baroque and Rococo artistic styles, and reached its heyday in terms of modeling and decoration. The war in the late Republic of China made the Guangzhou-style furniture industry depressed and declined, and after the victory in the war, the furniture industry gradually recovered.
China's oldest brand-"Chen Liji" Pharmaceutical
Chen Liji was founded in 1600 by Chen Tiquan and Li Shengzuo, and has a history of more than 400 years. From the early days of its founding until the end of the Qing Dynasty, it was in the state of a small-scale front store and a back factory. However, the pharmaceutical tradition of "fire and civil and military hand, drug discernment gentleman and minister to help the world" has been passed on. 1900 British and French invasion, the old store in Guangzhou was destroyed by artillery fire, temporarily relocated to Foshan, after the war subsided, resumed the factory in Guangzhou. After the war subsided, the factory was resumed in Guangzhou. Later, branches were opened in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Macao, and the scale of the factory was continuously enlarged. After the liberation, through the "public-private partnership", the formation of "Guangzhou Chen Li Ji Joint Pharmaceutical Factory". 1998, the expansion of the new factory was completed in Guangzhou City, Haizhu District.
Pan GaoShou Pharmaceutical
As an outstanding representative of Lingnan medical culture, Pan GaoShou is mainly characterized by tradition and bold innovation. Pangaoshou created the unique production process of Pei Pa Koa Loquat Dew. At the same time, Pangaoshou, listed as a "Chinese Old Brand", is also a representative of Lingnan business culture, and is currently known as the most prominent century-old store in the Lingnan region to protect intellectual property rights.
Overview of Guangzhou Folk Customs
Flower Market
Flower Market Guangzhou has the custom of visiting the flower market in the Spring Festival. It was gradually developed from the ancient flower market and night flower market. Guangzhou's annual flower market was formed in the 19th century
Qing Xianfeng, Tongzhi years. At that time, there were two flower markets, one in front of the Clan Office (at the junction of Zhongshan Road and Beijing Road today), and the other in Shibafu. The New Year's Eve Flower Market, also known as the Spring Flower Market, was held during the last three days of the lunar year. During these three days, the flower market is open to the public from early morning to midnight, culminating on the night of New Year's Eve and ending at 2:00 a.m. on the morning of the first day of the first month. During the flower market, Education Road, Duo Bao Road, West Binjiang Road, Dongchuan Road, Fangcun Luju Road and Liwan Road area, long streets such as brocade, hundreds of flowers, visitors such as tides, shoulder to shoulder, cheering jokes, lively and extraordinary. The market generally sells branch head, pot head and loose flowers of three types. Branch head to peach blossoms, plum blossoms, hanging bell flowers mostly; pot head of a wide range of names, such as kumquat, four seasons orange, big red orange, cinnabar orange, golden egg fruit, daiyai fruit, camellia, orchids, peonies, roses, hanxiao, daffodils, peonies, begonias, etc.; loose flowers are chrysanthemums, cockscomb, sword flower, silver willow, etc.?
Customs of Tea Drinking in Guangzhou
Customs of Tea Drinking in Guangzhou
Customs of Tea Drinking in Guangzhou are centered on the morning tea, and the combination of tea drinking and tea snacks with the characteristics of Guangzhou, which include a series of tea rituals and customs, folk customs and folk culture.
In East Han Dynasty, there are already written records of Guangzhou people honoring guests with tea. During the Qing Dynasty, various teahouses appeared, especially in the thirteen lines of the thirteen rows of the prosperous export trade due to the need for social interaction and business negotiations, and a number of teahouses such as Sanyuanlou and Taotaojiu, which assumed a variety of functions such as catering, communication, recreation and entertainment, and as a carrier of the tea drinking custom, it has become an important folk custom and way of life of the people of Guangzhou.
Lettuce Club
Lettuce Club is popular in Guangzhou, Nanhai, Shunde area, originated in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty,
decline in the early liberation period, has a history of more than 300 years. Lettuce will eat lettuce, initially to "meet the angry". Guangzhou Prefecture Records, "spring day ...... eat lettuce, spring cake, to welcome the angry." Many people will also buy "full of baskets" of young green lettuce home, "to take its vitality" (see the 1884 creation of the "point stone Zhai Pictorial"). Later, lettuce fairs became associated with the belief in the Goddess of Mercy, and "developed in the pragmatic and mercantile social atmosphere of the Pearl River Delta, with an obvious utilitarian coloring "4 (in the words of Mr. Ye Chunsheng, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University). The purpose of lettuce fairs became to seek wealth and children. The date of the meeting was set on the 26th day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar, near the temple of Guanyin. In addition to watching the opera and listening to the music, it was a pilgrimage to Guanyin, touching the snails to seek a son, and eating the lettuce buns was an indispensable activity.
Pangu King's Birthday
Pangu King is the myth of the man who opened up the sky and earth. Legend has it that he was born in the chaos of heaven and earth, then heaven and earth opened up, the sky was one zhang high, the earth was one zhang thick, and he grew one zhang long, and so for 18,000 years, the sky became extremely high, and the earth extremely low. All the sun, the moon, the stars, the wind and clouds, the mountains, the rivers, the fields
the earth, the grass, the trees, the gold and the stones, were all transformed by the parts of his body after his death. In order to commemorate him, the descendants chose a feng shui site, built a large construction, invited skilled craftsmen, painted buildings and carved beams, and built the Pangu King Temple.
Bangu Wang Temple has been unceasingly incense, known far and wide. Whenever the 12th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, Pangu King birthday, Nanhai, Panyu, Shunde, Guangzhou, Qingyuan, Sanshui and other people, groups of people, beating drums and dancing lions, came to celebrate, the scene is very lively. Pilgrims along the mountain path behind the Pangu King Temple, the temple built on the hillside behind the Mid-levels Pavilion. The west side of the huge stone is protruding, called the Qiankun stone, commonly known as Pangu Wang lying stone. Qiankun stone height of about 4 meters, plane more than thirty square meters, there is a crack in the middle, the crack is more than thirty centimeters wide, more than ten deep. Neighboring a few wrong stacked boulders, the bottom of the stone year-round springs, the name of the Longkou Spring, people call this spring for the "holy water". All pilgrims who go to the mountain to worship, all take the water home, in order to pray to drive away evil spirits and disasters, the family peace.
Polo Festival
Polo Festival began in the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1370), and has a history of more than six hundred years until today. Every year, the 11th, 12th and 13th of the second month of the lunar calendar is the time of Polo Festival. February 13 is the main festival. In these days, all around the South Sea God Temple, including the water, land and neighboring villages are heated up.
Dancing with Fire Dogs
It is said that at the beginning of the establishment of the village of Ma Che in Shitan Township, in order to pray for peace and to eliminate disasters, every family would tie up a draft of the man, inserted with incense, and placed in front of the door to smoke, in order to pray for the elimination of calamities and ward off evil spirits. Since then, some people also use sweet potato vine, or "fire gravy" vine, hemp rope, etc. simulation of dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, inserted with incense, dancing in the village, blessing auspicious. The festival is held in September every year and has been passed down to this day. The folk nursery rhyme says: "The fire dog comes to the door, adding blessings and wealth." The formation of a unique fire color parade activities.