Jinyun: The Millennium Inheritance of Huangdi Culture in South China

Wang Zhengfei (Secretary of the CPC Jinyun County Committee)

Jinyun is the only county named after Xuanyuan Huangdi in China. It is also the Huangdi Sacrifice Center in South China and the Huangdi Cultural Radiation Center, Research Center and Exhibition Center in South China. It has a history of more than 1600 years since the Eastern Jin Dynasty began to offer sacrifices to Huangdi. Three times in history, that “The Central Plains civilization moved to the southern part of China on a large scale” brought the northern culture to the south of the Yangtze River, accumulating layer by layer, forming the southern Huangdi culture.

In 696 AD, Wu Zetian ordered to establish a new county in the Jinyun Mountain and name it after the Huang Di’s title: Jinyun.Later, Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, named Jinyun Mountain as Xiandu Mountain and Jinyuntang as the Temple of Huangdi. From then on, the pattern of “Beiling South Temple” began to take shape. In 1998, Jinyun rebuilt the temple of the Huangdi and resumed the ceremony. In 2004, Xi Jinping, then secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, visited Xiandu, visited the shrine of Huangdi, and spoke highly of Huangdi culture. In 2021, the Huangdi Festival in Xiandu was changed to be hosted by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. Together with Huangling in Shanxi and Xinzheng in Henan, a national Xuanyuan Huangdi Festival pattern of “three places sharing sacrifices and equivalent levels” was formally formed. In 2022, the Huangdi culture was first written into the report of the 15th Party Congress of Zhejiang Province.

The culture of the Huangdi has infiltrated into literature, art, architecture, folk customs and other aspects. In history, more than 400 poets, including Xie Lingyun, left more than 1,000 poems in Jinyun, which became an indispensable part of the cultural belt of Zhejiang Shilu. In the trend of the times, Jinyun people also inherited the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of Huangdi, and had the courage to forge ahead, turning many “impossible” into “possible”. In the new era, Jinyun actively promotes the creative transformation and innovative development of Huangdi culture.