MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Double Third Festival

Cups float down the winding stream at the Orchid Pavilion

Introduction

An ancient spring festival of purification by the water, outings and feasts

The Shangsi festival was first held on the si day early in the third lunar month and was fixed on the third day of the third month after the Wei and Jin. It grew from the pre-Qin custom of washing away misfortune by the water in spring; the Hou Hanshu records that in the Han officials and commoners bathed in east-flowing streams on this day in a 'great cleansing'. Later came floating wine cups on winding streams, spring outings and feasts, the most famous being the gathering of Wang Xizhi and his friends at the Orchid Pavilion in 353. From the Song onward it faded in the Central Plains, some customs passing into Qingming and Cold Food, but it remains vigorous as the 'Third of the Third Month' of the Zhuang, She, Li and other peoples.

Timeline

Han dynasty to present
200 BCE · OriginThe name Shangsi first appears in early Han texts; the Hou Hanshu records that in the Han officials and commoners all bathed in east-flowing streams to wash away impurity, an early reliable record of the festival.300 · EvolutionAfter the Wei and Jin the date was fixed on the third day of the third month instead of the si day, and feasting and spring outings came to outweigh purification.353 · EvolutionOn the third day of the third month of 353, Wang Xizhi, Xie An and others, forty-one in all, held the purification rite at the Orchid Pavilion in Kuaiji with cups floating on a winding stream; Wang wrote the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Poems.2014 · ImpactAfter the Song the festival declined in the Central Plains but lived on as the Third of the Third Month among southern peoples; from 2014 Guangxi made it a regional public holiday.
  1. 200 BCEOriginThe name Shangsi first appears in early Han texts; the Hou Hanshu records that in the Han officials and commoners all bathed in east-flowing streams to wash away impurity, an early reliable record of the festival.Literature › Book of the Later Han
  2. 300EvolutionAfter the Wei and Jin the date was fixed on the third day of the third month instead of the si day, and feasting and spring outings came to outweigh purification.
  3. 353EvolutionOn the third day of the third month of 353, Wang Xizhi, Xie An and others, forty-one in all, held the purification rite at the Orchid Pavilion in Kuaiji with cups floating on a winding stream; Wang wrote the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Poems.History › Wang Xizhi Writes the Lanting PrefaceLiterature › Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering
  4. 2014ImpactAfter the Song the festival declined in the Central Plains but lived on as the Third of the Third Month among southern peoples; from 2014 Guangxi made it a regional public holiday.