洪俆

2016年11月30日，世界认识中国的又一个重要标志——二十四节气，被联合国教科文组织列入人类非物质文化遗產代表作名录。

二十四节气本是中国人通过观察太阳周年运动而形成的时间知识体系及其实践，申报时有五省十个地点作为节气民俗的展示代表，浙江省占其四，衢州市柯城区九华乡妙源村为第一个——九华立春祭。

美丽的山村

句芒驻地，神韵九华。

妙源村在九华山梧桐峰下，环村山景清秀，山涧清流，人家错落，画意盎然，村外则有丘地、田畴、池塘，是一个农耕生活的美丽去处。

妙源村建村悠久，文化底蕴深厚。村中有一座梧桐祖殿，供奉着全国罕见的春神句芒，并开展民间祭祀活动。这活动称为“九华立春祭”，于2011年入选国家级非物质文化遗产代表作名录，随之成立了中国第一个相关节气的研究中心。2017年，农历丁酉立春日，这里又一次迎来了海内外民俗学者和广大游人。

“天时开首季，东风解冻；年际跨一分，大地回春。”

民俗学者、九华立春祭传承人汪筱联陪同笔者一行进入梧桐祖殿。

梧桐祖殿有前殿、正殿和两配殿。跨过正门门槛即前殿，设为大戏台，戏台特意低置一些，人们要躬身穿行，以示尊重春神、敬畏自然。戏台以木刻十字花纹为主，间有人物禽兽、树石、风景。正殿供春神句芒，额“芒神灵祐”，两侧祀春神所属风、雨、雷、电四神像和衢州当地民间保护神尉、蔡、杨、茅四灵公像。主梁绘春神驾驭的两条飞龙，斗拱、雀替、托脚等多雕花，细碎繁缛，台口梁雕梅雀图、云水纹，配戏曲刀马人物故事。

“东风带雨逐西风，大地阳和暖气生。万物苏萌山水醒，农家岁首又谋耕。”立春祭祀这天也就是祈福日，由村民自发组织。

柯城区文广新局局长吴玉珍说，九华立春祭是民俗信仰，在表达顺应季节规律、掌握自然常识、完善农业生产、实践美好生活等内涵，传播人与自然相适应的关系及其朴素的思想、哲学等方面，有其独特的意义，不仅增强了人们对自然生态、对优秀民俗的敬畏，更重要的是使中华民族的农耕文明、乡愁记忆、家国情怀得以弘扬。

九华乡乡长周小玲对此特别有感触：九华乡不算富裕，但因为有九华立春祭的联系，这一带十里八村的，民风淳朴、民生和谐。妙源村主要由龚氏、苏氏、付氏构成，三姓都保存着族谱，有许多优秀的文化在传承。

妙源村村支书、九华立春祭传承人、梧桐祖殿执事龚元龙特地从家里拿来了他们的家谱，小心翼翼地翻页给笔者看，里面有立春祭的记录。

优美的神话

梧桐祖殿前有条妙源溪，溪的弯环处有一汪水潭，当地百姓称“不肯去潭”。传说，春神本来住在梧桐峰，一次因同雨神发生矛盾，雨神发大水把春神冲到这水潭里，冲了三天也冲不走。村里的人们想，春神既然喜欢这个地方，就修建庙宇供奉起来。据碑记，梧桐祖殿建于清代，重新于1933年。

乡长周小玲说，2001年暮春，汪筱联在乡里参加省旅游资源普查工作，有一天为躲避急雨，进了妙源村梧桐祖殿，从而揭开一段蒙尘已久的传说。

汪筱联回忆说，当时的祖殿被村里木材加工厂和碾米厂使用。躲雨时，他发现正门上有一块石额，隐约显露出“梧桐祖殿”几个字样。好奇之下，他同村民聊上。村民说，这里原来供奉梧桐老佛，后来神像焚毁，移为他用，当时村里的老人怕殿宇也被毁，就用泥土封住石额，没了庙宇的痕迹。作为地方文史研究学者，汪筱联十分惊喜于这一发现。之后，他通过一次次调查，考证出这座隐藏多年的梧桐祖殿的所有符号，都指向过去村民口耳相传的传说。

据《礼记》《吕氏春秋》《山海经》等古籍记载，神话中的春神是辅佐伏羲的大臣，死后成为东方之神、草木之神和生命之神。当地传说，春神又是“赐寿”的生命之神。九华乡一带的山岭旧多梧桐树，山民便用梧桐树根雕了个春神供起来，称之为“梧桐老佛”。因山庙太小，后又建起“梧桐祖殿”。

汪筱联介绍说：“句芒其实是远古时期东夷部族的祖先神。衢州地区在上古时期属于东夷族的姑蔑国，立春祭祀活动不但充满了丰富的农耕文化色彩，而且留下了远古东夷文化的痕迹。这很可能是全国唯一保存着的春神庙，一定要珍惜善待这份宝贵的文化遗产。”汪筱联历时三年，挖掘出这一宝贵民俗。

中国延续了数千年的农耕社会，文化大都建立其上。节气到了春天，各地官府一般都有“班春劝农”的典制，比如《康熙衢州府志·典礼考》记载，每年立春前一日，各官穿朝服，迎接春牛芒神至府县门外。立春正日清晨，官府陈设香烛、酒果，排班拜赞。而各地民间往往有鞭春牛的习俗，但九华立春祭的内容要丰富得多，这显然和春神神话在当地的流传、承续有关。

美好的传承

九华立春祭的内容丰富多样，其中祭春神是主要仪式，十分考究：放鞭炮，敲锣鼓，奏乐曲；敬献祭品、花篮；主祭宣读《迎春接福文》；陪祭导唱《祭春喝彩谣》；敬香；祭拜，行鞠躬礼。其他包括鸣炮迎春、悬挂灯笼（二十四节气灯）；敬土地、鞭春牛；接春、巡春（抬春神巡游）；尝春、踏春、探春、享春；演戏酬神等。整个立春祭传达着人们期盼风调雨顺、五谷丰登的愿望。

汪筱联说，每年立春祭活动，村民们都会邀朋请友参加。可喜的是，许多外地年轻人也赶来参加，感悟民俗传统的魅力，接受民间文化的熏陶。

现在，各地的民俗学者常来梧桐祖殿考察、调研，他们说：“我们的祖先将二十四节气这一太阳历和阴历相结合，形成完整的时间制度，将劳动和生活紧密结合，证明了中华民族是尊重科学的民族，是智慧的民族。”他们对这座春神庙和原生态的民俗文化形态活动，给予了很高的评价。

为保存民间传统文化，柯城区和九华乡在复原立春祭的习俗中做了大量的工作。2005年，沉寂了40年的梧桐祖殿恢复祭春，“梧桐老佛”春神句芒重现世间。2017年2月3日，农历立春，中国民俗学会中国立春文化研究中心暨首届立春文化传承保护研讨会在衢州市柯城区召开。

汪筱聯现在是九华立春祭的传承人，他说：“九华立春祭具有鲜明的节气性、突出的传奇性、浓郁的地方性和悠久的历史性，体现了人类既敬畏自然又敢于改造自然，既热爱劳动又注意休闲，既勤劳致富又节俭积德，倡导人与自然的和谐相处。”

局长吴玉珍说：民俗就是人们回望历史的路标；立春祭是一个文化符号，真实、鲜活而又顽强，承载着对美好未来的憧憬。

“我们有责任保护好、传承好、弘扬好人类非物质文化遗产代表作名录中的这一遗产，把它变为一种文化自觉、文化自信。”临别时，汪筱联指着妙源溪的不竭流水对笔者说。

November 30， 2016 saw the 24 Solar Terms of China were added to the World Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Though the tradition， which was formed thousands years ago in China， is no longer very important in various ways as China is taking strides toward modernization， the lifestyle shaped by the tradition still goes on. Some solar terms across China are still observed in important ways. Zhejiang accounted for four of the ten places chosen to represent the tradition in the application for the heritage list. Miaoyuan， a village in Jiuhua Township of Quzhou in southwestern Zhejiang is one of the four places in Zhejiang chosen to represent the local celebration of the Beginning of Spring. The tradition is well preserved in the village.

Nestled at the foot of Wutong Peak of Jiuhua Mountains， the scenic village is home to what is locally known as Wutong Ancestral Temple where Ju Mang， the God of Spring， is worshipped. Such a temple is very special， if not unique， in China. The spring sacrifice is officially known as the Sacrifice Ceremony at the Beginning of Spring in Jiuhua Mountain. In 2011， the ceremony was inscribed as a national intangible cultural heritage. A research center for studies of the solar terms came into being shortly after the listing.

I visited the temple on the Beginning of Spring day which fell on February 3 this year. The ceremony attracted a lot of visitors， including folklore scholars at home and abroad.

Wang Xiaolian， a folklore scholar and accredited master of the intangible cultural heritage， took me around. The temple is composed a front hall， a grand hall， and two side halls. The front hall is actually a theater stage ornately decorated with sculpted images of figures， animals， birds， stones， trees， and landscape. The grand hall is where the God of Spring is worshiped. The statue of the god sits in the center， flanked on two sides by the gods of wind， rain， thunder and lightning， and four patron saints of Quzhou. The wood structure of the hall is ornately decorated with sculpted images too. Unlike the images on the theater stage， the images in this hall tell stories and legends and the background patterns are more ornate.

Wang stumbled onto the temple one spring day in 2001 when he was doing a field study organized by the provincial survey of tourism resources in the neighborhood of the village. In order to get himself out of a sudden downpour， he ran into the temple. Back then， the temple housed a timber yard and a rice mill of the village. The half hidden words on a plaque attracted his attention. He talked with local residents. The village temple used to house a statue of a god known as Buddha Wutong to local villagers. After the statue was vandalized in the 1960s， villagers coated the plaque with soil as a measure to prevent the temple from further destruction.

The unexpected encounter with such a temple was exciting. Wang did researches on classical documents and visited the village again and again. Villagers accounts coincided with ancient accounts seen in classics. The god worshipped at the temple turned out to be the God of Spring in ancient Chinese legends. It was locally known as Buddha Wutong largely because the statue was made of the tree locally known as Wutong （phoenix tree）. At first， it was just a tiny temple. It was later expanded. Wang Xiaolian gave me a short lecture on the God of Spring. Ju Mang was the god worshiped by Dongyi tribes living in the east in remote ages. Back then， Gumie Kingdom flourished where the present-day Quzhou is. The sacrificial ceremony on the Beginning of Spring day not only indicates the long-lasting agricultural roots of the region but also maintains the culture of Dongyi tribes in very ancient times. He emphasized that the Spring God temple at the village is very probably the only one of its kind in China.

The temple was first constructed in the Qing Dynasty （1644-1911） and rebuilt in 1933 according to a stone stele in the temple compound. After Wang Xiaolians conclusion that it is a temple for the God of Spring， the local government kicked off a restoration project. The sacrifice ceremony was resumed in 2005.

The ceremony I witnessed was very well organized. During the long procedure， a eulogy was read， music was played， firecrackers were set off， sacrifices and flowers were presented， incenses were lit， and lanterns were uplifted into high places. After the ceremony at the temple， villagers also staged a parade through the village.