Award: Third Prize
Place: Wangjiangjing town, Xiuzhou district, Jiaxing city,
Zhejiang Province,
China
Nationality: Han
There is a temple at the bank of the
Suzhou
and Hangzhou Grand Canal in Wangjiangjing town, Xiuzhou district, Jiaxing city,
Zhejiang
Province, which is on the borders of
Jiangsu Province,
Zhejiang
Province,
Shanghai, and
Anhui
Province.
The temple is built to memorize Liu Chengzhong, who came from Wuchuan (
Guangdong
Province now) in Yuan Dynasty. When Liu
Chengzhong was working as the local officer, plague of locusts became rampancy
causing no harvest at all, therefore Liu with common people killed the locusts and
he was reputed General Valor Liu. People built a temple to sacrifice, and
Emperor Tongzhi awarded a tablet withˇ± Blessing Godˇ± on it to the temple. From
then on, it was called
Liuwang
Temple.
On Tomb-sweeping
Day, lunar August 14th and New Year Eve every year, owners of the cargo boats, fishermen, and other people from the four
provinces come as thick as hail to
Liuwang
Temple to commemorate
General Valor Liu and to wish everything goes well in the next year as well as
a grand harvest. It becomes a custom through long time usage and also it is a
special folklore on the
Suzhou
and Hangzhou Grand Canal.
