Folk Custom Characteristics of Tang Palace in Fengxian County

Sugar artificial in Fengxian county is a kind of sugar carving art with high-quality sugar as raw material and injection with mold. It is an important carrier of the traditional funeral ceremony and embodies the traditional filial piety of Confucianism.

In the long-term development process, Fengxian Tangren Palace has formed a unique personality style with distinctive local characteristics. Widely used in some rural areas at the junction of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui with Fengxian as the center.

Gong, a sugar man in Fengxian County, is simple and beautiful, vivid, white and moist as jade, crystal clear and bright, carefully depicted with different traditional edible pigments, pure and gorgeous, with natural interest and elegance in simplicity. It is a masterpiece of ancient Chinese art in China.

Tang Palace has a wide range of themes and rich contents, involving social life, folk stories, myths and legends and many other aspects, with a strong religious color. Modeling includes: immortals, buddhas, gods, animals, fruits, ancient buildings and sacrificial utensils. The main works are: Shoutao, Pomegranate, Shouxing, Empress Dowager, Tianguan, Eight Immortals, Panlongzhu, Pagoda, Archway, Zodiac, Rooster, Carp, Pig's Head and Lion. These works can be divided into 32 sets, 24 sets and 6 large pieces. According to the distance between relatives and friends, it is used in funeral and sacrificial activities.

Sugar tribute in Fengxian county is closely related to funeral and sacrifice customs. One of the important contents is mourning (commonly known as "burning paper"). The traditional funeral activities in Fengxian follow the ancient system, and the procedures are complicated and very particular, mainly including: paper funeral, funeral, obituary, funeral, quotation, funeral and burial. What is directly related to Tang Rengong is funeral (sacrificial activities before burial). That is, a mourning shed was set up in front of the deceased, and the front was separated by straw foil (the two sides were attached with elegiac couplets, and the horizontal couplet was the word "when important". ), set the spiritual position right in front. Relatives and friends who came to pay homage were ready to mourn and drink. Generally, human sacrifices are three offerings (commonly known as three fresh offerings: pig's head, carp and rooster) or sugar offerings and vegetable offerings, and four sacrificial lanterns: a plate of firecrackers, two knives of toilet paper, two candles and a set of sugar lanterns (i.e. 12 small sugar tribute), and they bow down before the spirit. When there are many people, one person worships twenty-four or eighteen before the main sacrifice, and others kneel behind to accompany the sacrifice.

Because its raw material is edible sugar, it is edible. In the traditional etiquette of the Han nationality, there is a link of "grabbing tribute", which means that after these sacrifices are used up, the children are scrambling to eat.