Peking University, Nov. 14, 2018: On November 10, 2018, the 184th lecture of “Peking University Guozijian Lecture Series” jointly organized by PKU’s Beijing Development Institute and the education committee of Dongcheng District of Beijing was held at Dongcheng Community College. Professor Han Maoli from PKU College of Urban and Environmental Sciences gave a special lecture on the topic of “Paradise for civilians: temple fairs and commercial activities in old Beijing”.
Lecture scene
Professor Han comprehensively introduced the commercial activities in ancient Beijing. Since the Yuan Dynasty when the Grand Canal first reached Beijing, a prosperous market had taken shape along the area from the canal quay to the Puddle of Accumulated Water. Lots of goods including silk, jewelry, and food, were traded around this area. There were also two business districts in the inner city of Beijing, Dongshi and Xishi, serving people’s necessities of everyday life. In the Ming Dynasty, Beijing became the capital of the nation. Due to the city wall’s southerly movement, the business districts also moved to the south. Consequently, the area around the Puddle of Accumulated Water lost its status as the most prosperous business district and was substituted by Chaoqianshi, the place where officials waited for going to court. After the Battle of Shanhai Pass in 1644, the Qing government immigrated most of the Han people from the inner city to the outer city for security consideration, bringing another transformation of the city’s business center. The area around today’s Qianmen became the new cynosure of business activities and now we can still find traces of many Time-Honored Brands in Qianmen. During the late Qing Dynasty, Qianmen’s status as the business center had been further strengthened by the establishment of Beijing’s first railway station near the area. Later in the period of the Republic of China, Wangfujing and other new business centers sprung up and most of them remained until this day.
Furthermore, Han introduced the temple fairs. Originating from religious sacrifices, temple fairs provides people with considerable business opportunities. In the beginning, the trade only included tea and food; later, people at temple fairs began to sell all kinds of goods. Han Maoli introduced five major temple fairs in Beijing: Longfu Temple Fair, National Temple Fair, White Pagoda Temple Fair, Earth Temple Fair, and Flower City Fire Temple Fair. Different temple fairs originated at different times, with some faded and others remaining. Temple fairs usually locate in the blank areas between different business centers with scattered distribution, making it convenient for people from different parts of the city to reach the fairs at different times of the day. The time people spend in reaching the temple fairs also reflected the local people’s wealth level and living conditions. Apart from the five major fairs, there are also various small temple fairs, including Changdian Temple Fair, the predecessor of the Liulichang Cultural Street. However, with the fast development of online shopping, temple fairs are fading from people’s daily lives. Even though some of the temple fairs remained, they possess a meaning much different from that of their original forms: temple fairs are becoming the reminiscence of the old Beijing.
The next lecture will be held on November 24, 2018. Detailed information is accessible on the official WeChat account of the Imperial College Lessons and the website of PKU’s Beijing Development Institute.
Written by: Qiu Tianjie
Edited by: Zhou Yijing
