Legend of Five Rams

1.Legend of Five Rams

Nominating Unit: City of Guangzhou

Guangzhou, capital city of ancient Lingnan District and the starting point of China’s Marine Silk Route, boasts a history of more than two thousand years. The Legend of Five Rams is very popular in Guangzhou and its surrounding areas.

According to History of Guangzhou written by Gu Wei in the Jin Period, “On the beams of the sitting halls in Guangzhou, there are paintings of five rams representing five types of grain. It is said that Gao Gu, the then Grand Councilor in the State of Chu, brings five rams carrying grains to Chuting(a name formally referred to as Guangzhou). Hence the paintings become symbols of auspiciousness. Guangzhou belongs to the State of Chu during the Warring States Period”. This story with a history of more than 1500 years serves as the origin of the Legend of Five Rams and is recorded in ancient folks’oral literature. With the passage of time, the legend, which passed on from one generation to another, is enriched continuously. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Scholar Qu Dajun records in Guangdong Province Neo-Analects lots of accounts about Lingnan mythologies and fairy tales. Among them under the entry of “Five Stone Rams” in Stone Annals of Vol.5, a story is vividly told, “More than 2,000 years ago, Guangzhou was a barren land where people, despite their hard work, still suffered from famine. One day five immortals in fi ve-colored garments riding rams in five different colors arrived in Guangzhou. The rams hold ears of rice in their mouths. The immortals give the ears to the locals and bless the land to be a forever prosperous place. After that, they leave and the five rams together turn into a stone.”(https://www.daowen.com)

The legendary tale of five immortals on five rams carrying five kinds of grain to Guangzhou is a household story. It has become the symbol of Guangzhou’s age-old history, and therefore is respected by the locals. In ancient times there are proper names related to rams such as Ram Stone, City of Rams and City of Grain to refer to Guangzhou. In the city, there are also spots in memory of the story, including Door of Five Immortals, Post-house of Five Rams and Divine Rams Street, etc. Other buildings like Temple of Five Immortals and Bridge of Five Immortals are set up, from which more tales are derived. Furthermore, arts such as painting, sculpture, dance, drama and plays are created to endorse the theme. All these bring into being a cultural system centering on five rams’ tale with strong repercussions. Historical records have it that among the dozens of music and dance introduced to Korea in the Song Dynasty, the Five Rams’ Dance originates from the Legend.

The Legend of Five Rams is so valuable to culturology that it is even crowned as “a Pre-history History” by historians. It helps preserve memories of ancient Lingnan’s crop cultivation culture in an imaginary form and proves itself indispensable to the study of aerial farming evolution history in Lingnan area.

Sadly, over the past twenty years, great changes brought by modernization and urbanization, with foreign and pop cultures in particular, have taken root in people’s mindsets that their passion and love for appreciating and inheriting the legendary tale are diminishing day and day. This legend is in such great danger that immediate measures for protection need to be taken to stop the situation from becoming worse.