The seventh of the seventh
For the seventh of the seventh the prefectural gazetteer records a single line: “at the wine tables longans are much used, which is called tying the star.” On the same day Chaoshan also holds the coming-of-age rite called leaving the garden.
1. What the gazetteer records
On the seventh night the wine tables much use longans, which is called tying the star.
From Gujin tushu jicheng, Chaozhou prefecture section, quoting the prefectural gazetteer (customs chapter of the Qianlong Chaozhou fuzhi). Punctuation added here.
2. Old record and present practice
“Tying the star” means offering longans on the seventh night, for the two senses of forming a tie and setting fruit. The practice is no longer general in Chaoshan; longans in season are still common, but few people use the ritual name.
The rite of leaving the garden is not in the gazetteer — it is absent from the customs chapter of the Qianlong gazetteer, which means either that it was not yet a prefecture-wide institution at the time or that the compilers did not collect it. The point matters: the date at which leaving the garden became custom cannot be pushed back from the gazetteer’s silence into “it has always been so”.
3. Differences between counties
The gazetteer covers the prefectural city and its neighbourhood only. The dates, offerings and rites of the seven counties differ, and have to be checked county by county against local gazetteers and field records before being added here. The gazetteer records no further than this.
4. Calendar anchor
The solar terms, lunar phases and lunar dates referred to in this section can be checked on the corresponding pages at Kuang Chujia’s research site on historical astronomy and calendars. That the timing of a custom is never cut loose from the calendar is a standing rule on this site.
Sources
Gujin tushu jicheng, Chaozhou prefecture section, quoting the prefectural gazetteer; the Qianlong Chaozhou fuzhi (compiled by Zhou Shuoxun, completed in the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong), customs chapter. Accessed 18 October 2026.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026