ABSTRACT
Ritual practice varied considerably before 1949 in Beijing, with distinct elite and popular traditions. Fieldwork on the Hebei plain incidentally allows us to witness how some of the rituals of imperial Beijing and Tianjin would have been performed, since in urban areas such rituals have become rare. Reading some accounts of Hebei temple fairs, one might suppose that there was no 'Daoist liturgical framework' there at all. But Daoist and Buddhist folk ritual has survived in this area mainly among amateur ritual associations. Some calendrical observances do not revolve around a temple, like releasing the River Lanterns, observed in the 7th moon by many associations around the area of the Baiyangdian Lake. For calendrical rituals other village-wide names were also used, such as Tea Tent Association or Great Tent Association. These transmissions occurred at various stages since the Ming dynasty, with a naturally greater proportion relating to transmissions since the late imperial period.
