Please answer those from Anyang and tell us about the origin of today’s Anyang Bridge Meeting?

As for the origin of the Anyangqiao Temple Fair, the "Beiguan District Chronicles of Anyang City" has the following record: "The Guandi Temple was built in the Hongwu Year of the Ming Dynasty." According to the oral tradition of the villagers of Anyangqiao Village, "The temple was built "The meeting will begin soon", then the Anyang Bridge Temple Fair originated during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. The prosperity of the Anyang Bridge Temple Fair is closely related to the economic prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. Especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the development of the commodity economy and the rise of water transportation in the Anyang Bridge area created the prosperity of commerce in the Anyang Bridge area. And in the development process of the Anyang Bridge Temple Fair, the center (temple) around which the temple fair revolves is also changing. It turns out that there is a Dawang Temple at the south end of Anyang Bridge. Every year on the 16th day of the first lunar month, people gather here from all over to burn incense and kowtow, accompanied by some small vendors selling children and performing sideshows. Villagers in Anyangqiao Village said that the temple fair on the 16th day of the first lunar month in Anyangqiao Village evolved from kowtowing to worship gods. From this, it can be seen that the Anyangqiao Temple Fair was originally a temple fair established to worship the "Great King". As mentioned before, there are only three temples in Anyangqiao Village. There is the Dawang Temple with a stone archway at the south end, the Nanding Laoye Temple to the north of the bridge, and the Emperor Temple to the southeast of the bridge. The three temples are distributed in a triangle, and each temple has incense. exuberant. Anyang Bridge was the only channel connecting the north and south official roads (imperial roads) during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and was an important transportation artery between the north and the south. Going east from Anyang Bridge, ships can enter the Wei River. After turning to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, they can go north to Tianjin, an important town in the north. The development of the commodity economy in the middle and late Ming Dynasty led to the development of water transportation on the Anyang River, and Anyang Bridge became an important water transportation artery. A waterproof warehouse was built on the east bank of Anyang Bridge to facilitate the docking of ships. A large amount of daily necessities such as grain, oil, coal, and wood were stored in the warehouse. Every day, iron-wheeled carts, wheelbarrows, and porters carrying goods shuttle back and forth between Anyang Bridge and various markets in the city. Anyangqiao (Village) Street has grocery stores, grain shops, noodle shops, guest shops, barber shops, taverns, and small vendors carrying daily necessities. The Anyangqiao area once became a commodity distribution center with a prosperous economy and numerous merchants. In order to ensure safe sailing and prosperous business, boatmen and merchants in the Anyang Bridge area organized a kowtow temple fair on the 16th day of the first lunar month. It seems that the Anyang Bridge Temple Fair did not arise to adapt to commodity trade, but to meet the needs of faith. The temple fair at that time was located in front of the Dawang Temple and on the road west of the stone archway of the Dawang Temple. The area of ??the temple fair was not large.

In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the Anyang Bridge Temple Fair was moved to the Guandi Temple on the northeast bank of Anyang Bridge. At that time, Guandi was worshiped as the God of Wealth. In order to protect the prosperity of their businesses, merchants and wealthy people raised funds to build the largest theater in Anyang in front of the Guandi Temple. Every year, there were two temple fairs on the 16th day of the first lunar month and the 23rd day of the fifth lunar month. Villagers invite theater troupes to sing in the theater, while ordinary people watch the opera on the river slopes.

During the Republic of China, the Anyang Bridge Temple Fair had already reached considerable scale. According to the "Continuation of Anyang County Chronicle" in 1933, "Saihui, referred to as Hui, the venue is almost everywhere in the four towns of Chengguan. The meeting dates are approximately on the eighth, ninth, sixteenth, twenty-eighth... and other days of the first lunar month. At that time, people will go to the meeting. Various goods are gathered at a certain place for sale. The assembly with various farm tools, clothing, jewelry, mules, and horses is called the mule and horse assembly; the assembly with large beams, purlins, rafters, columns, and all wood is called wood planting A meeting was held where men and women gathered at the temple to burn incense and pray. The goods sold were only incense foils and food, as well as other commodities. "After the liberation, the stage in front of the Guandi Temple was demolished, and the Anyangqiao Village Committee opened it again. A new stage was built on the Nanding Laoye Temple in the north of the village. The Anyang Bridge Temple Fair moved to the vicinity of Nanding Laoye Temple. Singing and opera for a day at the temple fair. The east side of Nanding Laoye Temple is the livestock and farm tools trading market, and the west side is the daily miscellaneous trading and snack market. Temple fairs are getting bigger and bigger. During the temple fairs on the 16th day of the first lunar month, folk art performances are held in various streets and villages to celebrate and wish for prosperity and good harvests in the coming year.