*6.3. The Main Sai*

The main *sai*, which usually lasts the whole day in a small-*sai* year, was reduced to a half-day event scheduled for the morning of the fourth day of the fourth month (10 May), with the purpose of bringing down the cost and achieving maximum concentration (Du 2016).

The main *sai* began very early in the morning with a ritual called 'Golden Rooster Announces the Dawn' (*Jinji baoxiao* 金雞報曉). At daybreak, a massive crowd of people assembled in the temple to listen to the Chief Master of Ceremonials reciting 'the Writ of Announcing the Dawn' (*Baoxiao wen* 報曉文), 'the Writ of Waking Up' (*Cuiqin wen* 催寢文), 'the Writ of Washing Up' (*Guanshu wen* 盥漱文) and 'the Writ of Offering Incense'. While he was reciting the writs outside in front of the Incense Pavilion, it was understood that Bixia yuanjun was washing up and dressing in her sleeping hall with the assistance of her maidservants (Figure 53).

The goddess was then carried out to receive offerings of cups, together with the Jade Emperor, who had already been carried over from his own temple. Following the ritual of offering cups, the Chief Community Head invited the other ritual leaders to walk up and kneel down before the Jade Emperor. All people present stood in awe listening to him reciting 'the Writ of Obeying Orders' (*Tingming wen* 聽命文).

Next came 'Offering Sacrifices to the Sun' (*ji taiyang* 祭太陽) and 'Offering Sacrifices to the Moon (*ji taiyin* 祭太陰), which started with the solemn performance by the Entertainers of 'Bells and Drums Sound Simultaneously' (*Zhonggu qiming* 鐘鼓齊鳴). To the bell and drum music, the Chief Community Head turned to the east and knelt down together with the other leaders of the *sai* festival, reciting loudly 'the Eulogy to the Sun' (*Song taiyang* 頌 太陽). After reciting the text, he took a cup of wine from a Wine Master, lifted it up and poured the wine in the direction of east as an offering to the sun, accompanied by *dizi* 笛 子 flute music. This was done three times altogether. Then, he turned around to the west, facing the direction where the moon rises, reciting 'the Eulogy to the Moon' (*Song taiyin* 頌 太陰) and offering three cups of wine to the moon as he had done to the sun.

Embedded between the first and second cup was the performance of a group skit called *Eight Immortals Celebrates the Birthday* (*Baxian qingshou* 八仙慶壽), which began with the Leader of Entertainers reciting 'the Writ of Inviting the Star of Longevity' (*Qingshou wen* 請壽文) and ended with him reciting 'the Writ of Seeing off the Star of Longevity' (*Songshou wen* 送壽文). This was a short and simple masked performance in which the Eight Immortals were lined up to offer rhyming verse birthday wishes to the Star of Longevity (Figure 54).

**Figure 53.** Bixia Yuanjun Flanked by Maidservants in Sleeping Hall.

The offering of the second cup was followed by another group skit called *Dancing Jianzhai* (*Tiao Jianzhai* 跳監齋). This muted masked performance featured Jianzhai 監齋 (Warden of Vegetarian Food), the god of the kitchen in Buddhist and Daoist temples and monasteries. The actor who played Jianzhai wore a mask with three heads and a costume with six arms. Accompanied by a group of masked minor deities, Jianzhai jumped and danced while holding a melee weapon in each hand. His exaggerated jumping dance and funny-looking costume and makeup aroused grea<sup>t</sup> interest from ritual participants and spectators (Figure 55).

**Figure 54.** A Scene from *Eight Immortals Celebrate the Birthday*.

**Figure 55.** A Scene from *Dancing Jianzhai*.

Presented after the third cup was *A Monkey Extracted from Its Shell* (*Yuanhou tuoke* 猿猴 脫 殼), which is listed in the 1574 ritual manual as a group skit under the title of *Yuanhou tuojia* 猿猴 脫 甲49, to be enacted after the fifth cup in the mansion of 'Rooftop Represented by the Lunar Swallow' (Wei yueyan 危 月 燕) (Du 2011b, p. 256). However, in the *Jisi wenfan*, a ritual text copied by hand during the reign period of Daoguang 道 光 (1820–1850), this play is designated for performance after the fifth cup in the mansion of 'Horn Represented by the Wood Dragon' (Han et al. 1991a, p. 35).<sup>50</sup> This was a farcical mime featuring one actor performing silently through miming a monkey grooming, walking, running, drinking, eating, climbing, turning, stretching, bending, swinging and jumping until tiring himself out and lying down on a fine piece of brown felt. Then came along two carriers of food plates (*tingzi*), who poured through a mesh sieve a bag of flour on the head, body and limbs of the actor who impersonated the monkey before carrying him away, thus leaving the contours of a monkey on the felt. They then picked up the felt carefully from the ground and hung it beside the Incense Pavilion. In Shangdang, this play is frequently performed as a *nuo*-exorcism rite during a funeral service, and the felt bearing the shape of the monkey will be hung in a mourning hall as a talisman or fetish to ward off evil spirits (Du 2016).
