Cantonese Custom: Offerings to White Tiger and Da Siu Yan

The Jingzhe (驚蟄) custom of making offerings to the White Tiger (Zae Baak Fu 祭白虎) and Da Siu Yan (打小人) or beating petty little people was introduced from Canton (now Guangdong) to Singapore in the 1950s/60s.

In those days, it was mostly observed by the Cantonese only. This unique Cantonese custom is now practised by other Chinese dialect groups as well.

This year’s Jingzhe will be on Monday, 5 March 2012.

The ancient Chinese had divided the year into 24 Solar Terms. These solar terms have meaningful titles to reflect the change of weather, climate and natural phenomena.

Jingzhe or “Awakening of Insects” is the Third Solar Term, and usually falls on March 5, 6 or 7 of each year. The Jingzhe signifies the awakening of hibernating insects and animals.

On Jingzhe in the ancient days, the Chinese will burn incense and Chinese mugwort to drive away these awakened insects or animals from their homes. Over time, this practice evolved into da siu yan or beating petty little people to get rid of bad luck and unpleasant people.

Literally translated, the Cantonese term “siu yan” (小人) is “little people”. It generally refers to those who are trouble-makers, rumour-mongers, gossipers, and busybodies. The people who cause us trouble or harms are all classified under “little people”. “Siu yan” may also symbolize misfortune, trouble, bad luck or difficulties.

Jingzhe is also the day of the White Tiger opening its mouth (白虎开口日). There is the traditional belief that the White Tiger will be looking for prey on Jingzhe, as well as opening its mouth to bite people. Devotees respectfully addressed the White Tiger as “Tiger Master” (虎爷).

The Tiger Master is considered to be an inauspicious deity of arguments or conflicts arising from malicious gossips. According to belief, anyone who offended it will have “little people” creating problems for him or her throughout the year. As a preemptive measure, the Chinese will make offerings to the White Tiger on Jingzhe.

The Jingzhe ritual, therefore, entails Zae Baak Fu and Da Siu Yan.

The Zae Baak Fu ritual requires the use of a paper tiger. It is usually yellow with black stripes and has two protruding sharp teeth.

A piece of raw pork smeared with pig’s blood is placed in the paper tiger’s mouth, symbolically feeding the tiger. When it is full, it will not hurt people.

Next, a piece of fatty meat (or pork lard) will be used to wipe the mouth of the paper tiger. By so doing, it is said that the White Tiger’s mouth is so oily that it “cannot open its mouth to gossip”.

Fresh eggs and tofu beancurd are often part of the offerings too. Traditionally, it should be duck eggs but chicken eggs are used nowadays because the former item is not easily available.

[Note: Many Taoist temples have the Tiger Master stone statues. If above ritual is conducted at such a temple, the “feeding of the tiger” will be performed on a stone tiger instead of the paper tiger.]

Although da siu yan can be done any time, beating petty little people is most popular on Jingzhe as “little people” are likened to the insects or animals that give trouble upon their awakening from hibernation.

The ritual is usually performed at a cross-road, under a bridge, road-side, street corner, or near a hill as evil spirits are believed to linger in dark places.

Beating petty little people can be just cursing generally or curse someone, specifically. Some people reckon that cursing generally is more effective as it covers whoever is trying to harm you, including those you are not aware of.

There are many ‘professional beaters’ at your service, especially in Hong Kong and Macau. They are usually old ladies and known as “bai shen po” (拜神婆), meaning old ladies who are paid to pray for others.

Items required for the ritual are as follows:

· Two candles and three joss sticks, as well as some fruits

· A piece of brick

· An old, worn-out shoe

· Five-devil paper containing the ‘male little people’ or ‘female little people’

· A set of good-luck charms, such as ‘da bai jie’ (大白解), ‘noble man charm’ (贵人符), mock money, gold and silver paper bullions (金银衣纸 ), and so forth.

[The ‘da bai jie’ symbolizes the dissolution of all grudges and enmities. The ‘noble man charm’ is for invoking the aid of ‘gui ren’ (贵人) who can help us in our working or personal life, in our career, or in our troubles, etc. The mock money, gold and silver paper bullions represent wealth and treasures.]

· A piece of raw, fatty pork

· A paper tiger

· A pair of jiaobei (筊杯) or moon blocks

· Some green beans and rice grains

The bai shen po will need the name and date of birth of the person who wants to da siu yan (not necessarily the customer himself/herself as he/she might be requesting the service on behalf of somebody).

When a specific person is targeted, the name, sex, and marital status of the person to be beaten are needed. Date and time of birth are not required. However, a photo or some belongings of the person in question would be of great help.

The ritual will start with the bai shen po making fruit offerings to the Goddess of Mercy. After praying with the three joss sticks, she will put the paper figure (representing the little people) on the brick and uses an old shoe to beat on it while chanting canticles. (Note: Traditionally, a wooden clog should be used for the bashing.)

After about 10 minutes of such beating, the piece of raw, fatty pork will be used to wipe the paper effigy a few times, symbolizing the mouth of the “little people” being blocked by the fatty meat and will not be able to gossip anymore.

The paper figure will then be placed near the mouth of the paper tiger, signifying the “little people” being bitten in the tiger’s mouth and hence unable to do any more harm. These two items will be burned together with the Five-devil paper.

After some chanting, the good-luck charms will also be burned.

The bai shen po will then scatter the green beans and rice grains in different directions to represent the dispersing of her customer’s “petty little people”.

The final step involves the tossing of jiaobei to confirm whether the “little people” has or have been eliminated. The divination procedure has to be repeated until a positive ‘yes’ reply is obtained.

The whole ceremony will end with the customer thanking the Goddess of Mercy.

(Note: There might be some individual variations among the ritual ceremonies in different countries. For example: cutting off the paper tiger’s head with a brass sword instead of burning it; or, putting the paper effigy onto a small paper-folded boat and burned together.)

Each ritual lasts about 30 minutes. The charges will vary with different countries. In Hong Kong, it will cost HK$50. Those who want to perform the ritual themselves can buy the materials at about HK$10 per set from incense shops.

There are many versions of lyrics for da siu yan. The most common one used in rituals is as follows:

Beat you, petty person, beat your head. . . . Beat your head so that you can hardly breathe. . . . Beat you, petty person, beat your feet. . . . Beat your feet so that you can hardly walk . . . .

(打你個小人頭，等你有氣冇定抖。打你隻小人腳，等你有腳唔識走)

For those who can read Chinese and are familiar with the Cantonese dialect, here are some more chants which can be quite amusing, as long as you do not take them seriously.

Hong Kong

The Goose Neck Bridge in Wan Chai (灣仔鵝頸橋), and the Lovers’ Rock in Bowen Road (香港寶雲道姻緣石) are hot spots for conducting Da Siu Yan ritual.

In addition, Hung Shing Temple in Wan Chai (灣仔洪聖廟), Yau Ma Tei Yung Shu Tau (九龍油麻地榕樹頭), Kwong Fuk Temple in Sheung Wan (上環廣福義祠), and many Taoist temples have Da Siu Yan services.

The Daxing Street (大兴街), Avenida do Coronel Mesquita (美副将), Taishan Barbosa (台山巴坡沙), and Areia Preta Sixth Street (黑沙环第六街) Shi Gan Dang tablets are the places where da siu yan ‘professional beaters’ congregate.

Da Siu Yan services are available at Waterloo Street, in the surroundings of Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple.

The Rochor Da Bai Gong Temple (梧槽大伯公庙) is a hot spot for devotees.

Another favourite place is the Mun San Fook Tuck Chee (万山福德祠), located at the junction of Geylang Lorong 17 and Sims Drive. They have the White Tiger deity for worshipping but do not encourage beating petty little people. Worshippers have to do it themselves if they want to da siu yan.

There are many Taoist temples providing da siu yan services in the different states of Malaysia.

Da siu yan can also be carried out at any time of the year. Suitable dates for this activity are the “Chu” days (除日) and the Chinese lunar 6^th day, 16^th day, and 26^th day of each month.

Da Siu Yan can be considered the Chinese way to anger management. It helps to release anger and stress. The ritual also provides psychological comfort that bad luck and misfortune have been gotten rid of after the elimination of “little people” from our lives.

This traditional Cantonese practice of exorcising undesirable people from our lives seems to be gaining wide popularity among the younger generations in Hong Kong.

The “Beat the Petty Person Ritual” has been listed in the inventory of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in Hong Kong, under the domain of Social practices, rituals and festive events.

Under the ICH inventory domain of Performing Arts, there is a Baak Fu (White Tiger) Ritual listed. This ritual is different from the Zae Baak Fu ritual described above, although it bears the same name.

Interested in joining HubPages? If so, please click here.