Yanzao, dragging the god
The twenty-first and twenty-second of the first month, at Shangshe in Yanzao, Yanhong, Chenghai, Shantou: the image is bound to the palanquin with straw rope, the guards strip to the waist and smear themselves with bean oil, and the draggers pull together to bring god and men down off it. Locally it is called yi lao ye, handling the god about. The saying is that the Yanzao god owes a dragging. The afternoon of the twenty-first is the civil procession, the deep night of the twenty-first and the afternoon of the twenty-second the martial one: the first solemn, the second the height of the whole affair. Provincial heritage item.
1. Two days, four parts — do not see only one
The afternoon of the twenty-first is the civil procession: gongs and drums, banners, the image seated upright on its palanquin going round the village, villagers lining the way with incense. The deep night of the twenty-first turns martial: in 2024 it began after eleven at night, firecrackers and fireworks going off together, the palanquin teams of five companies charging into the crowd and carrying on past two in the morning. There is another session on the afternoon of the twenty-second, which the reports call the peak of the atmosphere.
Watch only the few minutes of dragging and half a day of civil procession is missed; watch only the twenty-second and you will not know a round was already fought on the night before.
| Year | Lunar date | Gregorian |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 21st and 22nd of the 1st month | 26 February, Friday; 27 February, Saturday |
| 2028 | 21st and 22nd of the 1st month | 15 February, Tuesday; 16 February, Wednesday |
| 2029 | 21st and 22nd of the 1st month | 5 March, Monday; 6 March, Tuesday |
| 2030 | 21st and 22nd of the 1st month | 23 February, Saturday; 24 February, Sunday |
| 2031 | 21st and 22nd of the 1st month | 12 February, Wednesday; 13 February, Thursday |
The Gregorian column is a calendar conversion and does not mean it will be held that way. Another way of writing the date gives the twentieth and twenty-first of the first month; the twenty-first and twenty-second is followed here, because the reports from the ground in 2024, 2025 and 2026 all fall on those two days.
2. Five companies, five gods
Shangshe’s seven neighbourhood groups are not divided by surname but formed into five companies, each carrying one palanquin. On the palanquins are Wen Tianxiang, Lei Wanchun, Nan Jiyun, Ma Yan and Mazu — these five are Yanzao’s gods.
Each company has three groups of people: those guarding the palanquin, those carrying it, several dozen of them, and those on the outside holding back the crowd and shielding the palanquin. The three make a moving ring; inside the ring is the contest, outside it the tide of people.
3. How the dragging is done: the rules are finer than the spectacle
The guards first fast and purify themselves, then strip to shorts, smear bean oil over their bodies against slipping, and tie the image to the palanquin with straw rope. The draggers rush in, take hold of waist and legs, and pull the men off the palanquin.
Three rules: bare hands only, no implements; crossing the line ends it; once a man is down there is no more physical contest. An outsider who wants to try gets helped up on villagers’ shoulders and over people’s heads, contests one to one, and a fall loses; the winner stands on the palanquin until the file carries it past the line.
So it looks like a brawl and is in fact a wrestling match with referees: an announcer keeps the rhythm over a loudspeaker, police and stewards are posted at points, and when someone falls the people round him hold the others off. There is an unwritten rule too — grudges picked up in the gods’ ground are dropped once you leave it.
Dragging it over is not the end. A day is afterwards chosen to fish the image out of the water, regild it and carry it back to the temple, every year.
4. Where it comes from: two versions
The version most often told is set in the Qianlong reign: a fisherman brought up a strange piece of wood, threw it away and got it back again and again, prayed, and his catch was plentiful; one year he drew the lot at the procession that obliged him to give a feast, was too poor to hold it, dragged the image down to the beach at night and abandoned it, and left for the South Seas — and that year the village had a good harvest and he made his fortune abroad. Hence: the more it is dragged, the more it flourishes.
The other version keeps closer to the ground: Yanzao sits between hills and sea, and the farmers wanted the god pulled up the hill while the seafarers wanted him dragged down to the water; the two sides fought, and the dragging came out of the fight.
Both are oral, and both are given. What is certain is that the place adjoins the old port of Zhanglin and was in the old days a wharf and a trading point, and that the village elders explain the dragging as making a show of strength and drilling men so that pirates would not come.
Getting there: the nearest station is Shantou, for Shangshe in Yanzao, Yanhong, Chenghai; the night of the twenty-first disperses after midnight, so a bed or a car is needed. In festival time village roads often run one way or are closed at short notice, and a navigation estimate excludes parking and the walk in; a night session often ends after nine, and the way back should be checked against the year’s timetable rather than reasoned from past experience.
5. Where to stand
Two layers: how past reporting describes it, and where this site suggests standing.
As past reporting describes it. The gods’ ground has lines and stewards keeping them, and crossing one ends it; an announcer and police keep order inside; the participants are mostly the village’s own young men. The reports give no uniform figure for how far spectators should stand.
An editorial note. Watch from the outer ring only: do not join in, do not lend a hand, do not reach for the image; keep your feet planted and do not stand between the crowd and the palanquin teams; do not take children inside. These are suggestions made here from standing at such sessions, not the rules of the organisers or the police.
6. The name and the listing
Yanzao is a district made up of Shangshe, Zhongshe, Gangtou and Shangcuo, and the main ground is at Shangshe. Dragging the god is also called yi lao ye locally, yi in Teochew meaning to handle roughly, to work over.
The lists: provincial. The year and batch of the announcement could not be checked against an original document, so they are left out; for the hierarchy, follow the heritage lists.
7. Sources
| Source | Body | Date | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| “In pictures: the hot-blooded Yanzao dragging in Chenghai” | Nanfang Plus | 3 March 2024 | the twenty-first and twenty-second as the chosen days; the image bound with straw rope; the bean oil; the lines and the order kept; grudges dropped outside; the image fished out and regilded afterwards |
| “Photo gallery: the most hot-blooded custom in Chenghai, Shantou” | Yangcheng Evening News | 1 March 2024 | the start after eleven at night on the twenty-first; the five companies and five gods; the three groups; the running past two in the morning; the further session on the twenty-second afternoon |
| “Observing eastern Guangdong: Yanzao dragging and the passing on of custom” | a Toutiao article (reprinted from Nanfang) | 2024 | the Qianlong fisherman legend; the farmers-and-seafarers explanation; the proximity of the old Zhanglin port |
All three can be opened. The year and batch of the provincial listing were not found in an original, and so are not filled in.
8. What comes next
In lunar order: before it, Nansha, walking the lanterns on the night of the nineteenth; after it, the Jieyang City God temple fair on the twenty-third. Also in Shantou are the Guanshan pig contest on the seventeenth and eighteenth and Zhanglin, the fire god goes out on the fourteenth of the second month.
Elsewhere on the site: ying lao ye: its form and the village days, the heritage lists, Shantou routes.
Back to the Chaoshan procession calendar for all twenty-three sessions.
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Last revised: 4 November 2026