Rain Festival honors gods and dragons of water
By Zhang Qian |
June 20, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
We're stuck in a bit of a heat wave, so today would be a good day to pray for rain to break the heat. After all, today is the Rain Festival.
If it rains on the festival known as Yu Jie, that's a good sign for weather during the rest of the year. In an agrarian society, rain was all important, and it still is.
The festival falls on the 13th day of the fifth month on the traditional Chinese lunar calendar.
There's an old Chinese saying that "drought never lasts longer than the 13th day of the fifth month." It was said that if there's no rain but plenty of sun on this day, a drought year would follow and agriculture would suffer.
Rain-invoking rituals were common in ancient times. Ceremonies were held in the temples of water gods and others who could influence the weather. Rituals, chanting and burning incense were all common.
One of the rain deities was originally a mortal, General Guan Yu who served under the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) and was the epitome of loyalty and righteousness. Watching from above, the other gods elevated him to a deity as the god of martial arts, the god of wealth and the god of rain. There are quite a few deities with the same powers.
Rain during the Rain Festival is often accompanied by thunder, which is said to be the sound of Guan sharpening his broadsword. Water is needed in the sharpening process.
One legend goes that Guan was named the god of sun, but the Dragon King, who also governs water and rain, was envious. Guan asked the Dragon King to let rain fall once a year for his sword-sharpening, on the 13th day of the fifth lunar month. The Dragon King refused.
Guan knew that the Dragon King always dried his scales in the sun on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, and said that he would refuse to let the sun shine on that day if the Dragon King refused to let the rain fall for his sword-sharpening.
A bargain was struck. Rain usually arrived for Guan's sword sharpening day, and sun usually shone when the Dragon King dried his scales.
If rain doesn't fall in time, people remind Guan. In Shandong Province people used to carry statues of Guan around and pray for rain. They wear hats woven of willow and hold a willow branch. If it still doesn't rain, they leave the statue in the hot son for days, then shower it with water and pray some more.
Xie Xu, a beloved poet and statesman in the late Song Dynasty (960-1279), is another deity who can help bring rain, it is said. After the king rejected his military advice and exiled him, Xie threw himself into a river and drowned in despair when he learned that the kingdom had fallen to enemies. People paddled out to save him, throwing rice in the river so fish would spare the body, which was said to float and flow against the current.
Another story goes that Xie's spirit commanded the river waves to help Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), defeat the Yuan army. He was worshipped as a god of rivers.
Worship of Xie as a river god first appeared in the canal region in Shandong Province, and spread around the nation.
He was known as Jinlong Si Dawang, or the Golden Dragon King. It is said that the Golden Dragon King is a small golden snake with the character "wang" (í?) or "king" on its head. To pray for his help, people used to put a small snake in a container covered with yellow paper and place it in the Golden Dragon King's Temple. Then came prayers, incense and rituals. Afterward, it sometimes rained.
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