Mazu, also known as Tianhou (Heavenly Mother), was a real woman who was born in 96O in Fujian's Meizhou Bay, near present-day Meizhou Island. At an early age she began to exhibit a religious disposition, and was thus given secret teachings by a Taoist priest. Using her magical powers, she often helped those in distress, in particular sailors and fishermen, and when she died she became known as the Goddess of the Sea.

Mazu's main temple is located on Meizhou Island, where temple fairs are held in her honour every year. However, throughout China there are many other Mazu temples and Mazu temple fairs, the oldest such fair being held on Changdao Island in Shandong Province. The city of Tianjin, also on the coast, has its own Mazu Temple (called Tianhou Temple), and was once the location of the largest and grandest Mazu Temple Fair in all the land.

1. The History of Tianjin's Imperial Fair

After Emperor Kublai Khan (r. l27l-l294) of the Yuan Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, the population of the city grew and it became necessary to import great quantities of grain from southern China. The cheapest way to transport the grain was by sea or by canal, but the Grand Canal had been silted up and had fallen into disuse during the Song Dynasty. The sea thus became the only transportation route, and as Tianjin was both on the coast and near the capital, it soon became a crucial port and transportation hub.

And yet the sea was full of dangers such as typhoons, billows and reefs. In order to avoid shipwrecks, people built larger ships and improved seafaring techniques, while at the same time seeking divine protection from the gods. Mazu, of course, was a natural choice, and before long Mazu temples were being built at ports, near wharfs and in fishing villages. As Tianjin was the largest port in the north, the city's Mazu Temple was the largest, and so were the temple fairs.

In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi (r. l662-l722) made a tour to Tianjin and planned a visit to the Mazu Temple. The local officials saw this as a good opportunity to please the emperor, and spent a great amount of silver to stage a variety of spectacular shows. As a result, they received high praise from the emperor, and afterwards the temple fair in Tianjin became known as the Imperial Fair.

On a later occasion, Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) stopped at Sanchakou Port in Tianjin on his way to tour the area south of theYangtse River, and happened to see the temple fair. He too greatly enjoyed the entertainment, and his lavish praise brought yet greaterfame to Tianjin's Tianhou Temple.

The two most important days for Mazu worship - and therefore for holding temple fairs - are her birthday (the 23rd day of the third lunar month) and the day of her ascension to Heaven (the ninth day of the ninth lunar month). Of the two, her birthday is the occasion of the grandest celebration, thus Tianjin's Imperial Fair was at its most spectacular on that date every year.

Festivities would last for several days, during which a statue of Mazu was carried solemnly on a parade about the city. The parade was accompanied by various folk performers, and when the entourage arrived at a specially prepared stage or received a calling card from an important person, it would immediately halt and the actors and actresses would perform a show on the spot. On that day Tianjin's Mazu Temple was filled with the deafening sounds of gongs and drums, mixed with the shouts and applauses of the spectators watching the various folk shows, which lasted from dawn till dusk.

2. Remarkable Paintings Keep Tradition Alive

After l911, with the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the social turmoil that followed for many years after, the Imperial Fair in Tianjin fell into oblivion, and only scant written records remain of the event.

Fortunately, however, Beijing's Chinese History Museum has a remarkable set of Qing-dynasty paintings which portray scenes from the Imperial Fair held in Tianjin's Mazu Temple a century ago. Included are 100 pictures of performances and spectacles put on during the fair, accompanied by detailed explanations. These vivid portraits contain a total of some l0,000 human figures and are an invaluable source of information for modern-day researchers.

At that time, there were many so-called "Incense Societies" in Tianjin - locally organized groups of volunteer folk artists. Some were named after the profession of the members, such as "the Divine Joy Society of Fishermen", while others were named after the location, as in "the Stilt Society of the Hedong Great Temple".

In Tianjin, by the late Qing Dynasty there were about 100 such societies. On the occasion of an ImperiaI Fair, folk artists would flock to the Mazu Temple from all directions, occupy a plot of land and then put on their best shows. Apart from this type of stationary show,

There was another type dubbed "the Walking Fair", in which participants performed as they toured the area on foot. Walking Fairs were subdivided into Civil Fairs and Military Fairs.

The Military Fairs featured acrobatic tricks and daring feats of skill, thus were a greatly popular form of entertainment. Acts included Flying Pennants Atop Poles, the Lion Dance, the Pole-Climbing Event, Walking on Stilts, the Canopy Parade, the Pagoda and Tripod Parade, the Flower Show, the Lantern and Fan Show, the Lantern Parade, the Yangko Dance and many more. The pictures show clearly each colourful performance, along with the costumes worn back then and the various props and objects used.

Although the historical scrolls offer vivid images of the Imperial Fair, they cannot compare with seeing the real thing. Therefore, in recent years the area at Sanchakou Port, where Emperor Qianlong once watched the fair from his boat, was designated an area of historical and cultural importance, and at its centre is Mazu Temple. The long-neglected Imperial Fair has been revived, and every year, on Mazu's birthday and the day of her ascension to Heaven, the temple comes alive with the pomp and pageantry of this colourful event.