An Investigation Of Traditional Temple Fairs And Demotic Beiefs,Taking Dongye,Huaiyin And Dajian'an In Wutai As The Center From Qing Dynasties To The Republic Of China

The essence of the temple fairs lies in the folk beliefs,it takes the temple as the carrier and the core of which lies in the worship of the gods.It can be either a large-scale group faith activity or a village or a family belief activity.Dongye,Huaiyin and Dajian'an are all located in the southwest of Wutai county.It shapes on both sides of the Hutuo river with a similar geographical location and rough triangular.Due to low altitude,high temperature and rapid evaporation,it is very dry all the year.Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties,there have been a great number of talented people in the region.A unique feature of a local environment always give special characteristics to its inhabitants and the three ground demotic beliefs have the similarity,which forms a relatively stable sacrifice circle and belief circle in the region.The distinctive feature of the temple fairs is the broadness of the participants.According to the different roles of the people in the temple fairs,a group of believers consist of mainly of rural elites,grassroots,monks and nuns,street traders and juggling entertainers formed in the region.Grassroots people are the main body of all faiths.Demotic beliefs are mainly carried by the village temples,which are mainly Buddhist and secular temples,and the family temples,which are represented by Xu's hall and Zhao's ancestral hall.However,according to the range of the belief groups,the types of the belief objects and the function of the belief,the social influence of the village temple belief are far greater than that of the home temple belief,and it is the core of people's belief.Affected by the influence of Wutai Mountain's Buddhist cultural field,the subjects of popular belief are mainly Buddhist and secular gods,and the Taoist god is less and the main body is wenchang(Kuixing).The ritual is the external expression of beliefs,and the demotic beliefs are often presented through a series of rituals,the rituals are also inseparable from the external objects such as offering sand sacrificial vessels.The belief rituals displayed in different belief forms are also different.The ritual strengthens the sense of presence and sacredness of popular belief and it is an important part of the people's belief in life.This article takes the temple fairs of Dongye,Dajian'an and Huaiyin in Wutai County as the entry point,combining the literature,inscriptions and oral materials,analyzingthe people's belief forms,objects,rituals and belief groups in three places to study the status and characteristics of people's faith in the region.The study of the people's beliefs in the Dongye,Dajian'an and Huaiyin from the Qing Dynasties to the Republic of China is a reappearance of the local traditional culture.In addition,explored the relationship between the temple fairs and popular beliefs,it is helpful to further perspective the reality of rural social life and provide some experience for the construction of new socialist countryside in the new period.