Taiwan Religious Culture Map

The Song Jiang Battle Array festival is held annually over the course of several days. The main events of the festival are the joint performances of arts and military troupes, the Masterpiece Banquet, and the Luohanmen Buddha Welcoming event. In 2005, festival organizers began inviting troupes from high schools, vocational high schools, and colleges to take part in the Song Jiang Battle Array competition, which soon became a tourist attraction. This prompted a wave of interest amongst the younger generation in the Song Jiang Battle Array. Today, the festival and competition have evolved into Taiwan’s biggest folk arts performance troupe event. Neimen’s Zizhu Temple, Shunxian Temple, and Nanhai Zizhu Temple take turns hosting the annual event.

The joint performance event of the arts and military troupes is the highlight of the Song Jiang Battle Array festival. The event kicks off with a welcoming ceremony on the first day. This is followed by alternating performances of the military and arts troupes, and creative battle arrays. The military troupes include the Song Jiang Battle Array, the Song Jiang Lion Array and the Dragon Array, while the arts troupes include the Taiping Singing Array, the Drum Dance Array, the Gong and Drum Array, the Peach Blossom Ferry Array, the Folk Music Array, and the Cow Plowing Array. The arrays are formed by local residents. The Folk Music Array is characteristic of the Neimen region, and its performance includes both singing and condensed versions of Chinese operas. It emphasizes the preservation of the customs of traditional agricultural societies and the sounds of three hundred years of folk arts performance troupes.

The traditional formations of the Song Jiang Battle Array are purported to have been inspired by the outlaw troops led by Song Jiang as described in the classic novel Water Margin. There is no set number of troupe members, and males and females are both welcome. Typically, the array is made up of thirty-six or seventy-two members. These numbers are based on the Thirty-six Heavenly Spirits and the Seventy-two Earthly Fiends who make up the 108 Stars of Destiny in Water Margin, which in turn are based on the Taoist concept that each of these stars represents a god. Some arrays, however, number over a hundred members. Arrays with the names of auspicious creatures such as the Golden Lion or White Crane arrays were introduced later on. These groups are collectively known as the Three Song Jiang Arrays. The original battle formation was based on the yin-yang symbol, but over the years eighteen other formations have been developed. These include the Dragon Array Opening the Four City Gates, the Swimming Snake, Reverent Leaping, the Hatchet, the River Snail, the Double Set, the Chain Set, the Centipede, City Walls, Battering Down City Walls, Breaching City Walls, the Five Flowers, the Four Plum Blossoms, the Eight Trigram, the Wasp Making a Nest, and the Wasp Leaving the Nest. The most formidable of these eighteen formations is the famous Eight Trigram formation.

Kaohsiung’s Neimen District has a tradition of outdoor banquets, and many residents work as banquet chefs. These feasts were traditionally held to celebrate events such as the birthdays of deities, weddings or funerals, with Neimen’s banquet chefs providing the food. The Song Jiang Battle Array festival sponsors the Masterpiece Banquet as a way of showcasing this unique local culinary tradition. The banquet also helps to promote the reputation of Neimen’s banquet chefs.

Luohanmen is the former name of Neimen District. The Luohanmen Buddha Welcoming pilgrimage procession was first held over two hundred years ago. The route of the pilgrimage is different every year, as there are three temples that take turns hosting the event. The pilgrimage starts out at that year’s host temple, and is normally completed within four to five days. Worshippers can walk anywhere from three to forty kilometers a day as they follow the palanquin of Guanyin while she makes the rounds of her inspection tour. There are also around ten troupes that accompany the deity statue to offer protection, and roadside performances are a common sight. Businesses and residents also set up incense burner tables along the route of the pilgrimage and offer free food and water.