Putang Bridge Cishan Temple Fair

Historical origins

The "Folk Customs" page of the district government records that temple fairs for Lord Cishan were widespread in Nanjing from the Ming dynasty onwards, and that the fair at Putang Bridge in Lishui is the most representative of them. The page says the fair has been "passed down to the present for close to 550 years".

A second dating exists for the same subject. A report in the Nanjing Daily of 13 May 2026 states that the Putang Bridge Cishan Temple Fair has "a history of more than 600 years". Both are set out here and neither is asserted on its own: the district government page gives close to 550 years, the media report more than 600, a difference of about half a century, and no third source in this library reconciles them.

Form and content

The district government's "Folk Customs" page records that the twenty-sixth day of the third lunar month is, by tradition, the birthday of Lord Cishan; that the fair usually runs for three days, opening on the twenty-fifth day and having the twenty-sixth as its main day; and that households along the route set out incense tables.

The wording "by tradition" is the page's own, and this entry does not present the date of the birthday as a matter of record.

Transmission and safeguarding

According to the report in the Nanjing Daily of 13 May 2026, the temple fair was entered in the provincial list of intangible cultural heritage in 2009. That is the media's wording; the formal project name and batch follow the gazette published by Jiangsu province. The sources used here do not give the batch number, so the batch is recorded by year only and the number remains to be verified. The guardian unit of the fair has not been verified and is recorded as still to be verified.

The district government's "Folk Customs" page lists the Putang Bridge Cishan Temple Fair under the heading of provincial-level intangible cultural heritage, which corroborates the provincial status given above.

Uncertainties

First, the two datings of the fair — close to 550 years on the district government page and more than 600 years in the media report — cannot be reconciled by any third source in this library, and this entry chooses neither.

Second, the entry into the provincial list in 2009 is the media's wording, the batch number has not been verified, and the formal list follows the documents published by Jiangsu province.

Third, the guardian unit of the fair has not been verified.

Fourth, the detailed procedure of the fair, including the welcoming of the deity, the procession, the incense associations, the villages that take part and the arrangement of the incense tables, has no source in this library and remains to be added.

Fifth, the sources used here do not give the starting and ending points of the procession route or the location of the Cishan temple, and both remain to be added.