On September 22, more than 500 students from Yanling No. 1 Middle School rehearsed the chorus “Ode to Emperor Yan”, in preparation for the Emperor Yan Memorial Ceremony 2021.

Yanling County recently has taken its local advantages to focus on “telling the stories, singing the songs, popularizing the culture, and promoting the spirit of Emperor Yan”, to inherit and carry forward excellent traditional Chinese culture. It has promoted the culture of Emperor Yan at schools via integrating resources, refining the essence, developing courses, compiling textbooks, expanding study areas, and carrying out activities.

The Mausoleum of Emperor Yan is the sacred place for the ancestor of the Chinese nation, Yandi-also known as Shennong or “the Divine Farmer”. It is located in Luyuanbei, 19 kilometers west of Yanling County, Zhuzhou City. It is now a national key cultural relics protection unit, a national patriotism education demonstration base, a national patriotism education base for returned overseas Chinese, and a national 5A-level tourist attraction. The Emperor Yan Memorial Ceremony 2021 has been included into the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list in China, and is reputed as one of “the world’s top ten most influential cultural events on seeking out roots”.

The county government, highlighting the Yandi culture, has built a group of pilot demonstration schools, established the “Yandi Culture Promoted at Schools” Leadership Group and the Yandi Culture at School Research Office, and hired a group of experts who are familiar with the Yandi culture, to guide the Yandi culture promotion at school and build the Yandi cultural attractions, cultural walls, and promotional windows. It has carried out moral education activities with the theme of “Yandi, Yanling, and Yandi Culture”; compiled school-based textbooks; and, declared the project of “Practical Research on Inheriting Yandi Culture in the Moral Education Process of Elementary and Secondary Schools in the New Era”.

According to the person in charge of the Yanling County Education Bureau, the Emperor Yan-related activities at school has enriched students’ after-school cultural life, enhanced their recognition of traditional cultural values, and inspired both teachers and students’ sense of national pride and patriotism.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn