Yunnan Dali Bai People Worship The Educational Function Studies

This dissertation adopts a perspective of structural-functionalism, analyzes synchronically and diachronically the Benzhu worship as "the local knowledge" of the Bai people in Dali, Yunnan Province and discusses how Benzhu worship constructs and continues this local knowledge, and thereby reveals the corresponding educational function and the social significance.The Bai mostly live in the Dali Bai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. Dali stretches from the southeast reaches of Qingzang Plateau, namely the Henduan Mountain, to the overlap of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The stereo-climate engenders the variety of propagation and the plurality of ethnic culture, and therefore Dali has been one of the most two important traffic roads in the Southwest Region in China, and also the intersection of the Ancient Tea-Horse Road and the Ancient Shu-Hindu Road. Ever since human beings resided in this area, Dali turned into a major routeway of ethnic migration, and was thereafter called "the crossroad of Asia." After Qing Shi Huang controlled Yunnan, the central dynasty manipulated and managed Dali region continuously till the end of imperialism. Now, modernization proves to be the keynote of this nationality. Various cultures, e.g. the Confucian culture, the Taoist culture, the Chinese Buddhist culture that represent the Central Plains culture, and cultures of other origins, e.g. Qing Zhang culture of the northwest powerful nomad, Hinayana Buddhism of the south and many other alien cultures, all entered Dali region, which makes it a site of diverse nationalities and full of sharp multi-cultural collision. In such a complex natural and cultural space, it is of primary importance for the Bai to learn to adapt to the nature, to realize the identification of the whole ethnic group, and to view alien cultures, which are the most crucial issues that affect the survival and development of the Bai. What is more, it seems even sterner that the Bai have not yet created their own writing system, the result of which causes huge obstacles to the preservation of the ethnic experience, the transmission of the ethnic culture, and the identification of the ethnic group. The Bai, however, must build a mechanism to resolve all the above-mentioned issues. In the end, they accept tolerantly various alien values, and meanwhile preserve their individual traits; based on the alien cultures they expand and develop their own culture. Dali region, as a result, forms a "syncretic while disparate" pattern of multi-cultural existence. But what kind of mechanism does the Bai build to reflect this tolerant attitude, especially in the vast rural society? This is an issue both of history and of reality. Hence, all the answers could only be found in the historical skeleton via field work.This study takes the Benzhu worship, a kind of local religion typical of the Bai people in Dali as the study subject, for the Benzhu worship is virtually the longest and the most influential local religion among various cultural heritages of the Bai people in Dali. The Benzhu worship is still deeply rooted in the Bai rural society. It is therefore possible to find answers for the afore-mentioned questions on a fuller scale when the Benzhu worship is taken as the study subject. This study thereupon collects by field work more than 40 Benzhu worships in Dali, Binchuan, Eryuan, Jianchuan and Heqing ect., with a special interest in the Li Mi Benzhu in Dali General Cave, the Central Emperor Benzhu of Qingdong Holy City, and the Grand Dark Deity Benzhu of Jianchuan Baitan Hieron. Through field work and historical analysis, we arrive at the following conclusions:1. The Benzhu worship has a very powerful function to integrate different cultures, or to construct "the local knowledge." The first refers to the integration of different ethnic relations, i.e. to integrate families and kindredship through rituals like marriage, ancestor worship and grave sweeping, to integrate villagers' relations through the Benzhu parade and the Firebrand festival, to integrate inter-village relations through sacrifice circle and celebration circle, and to strengthen ethnic identification and integrate other cultural forms through "the Circling of the Three Spirits." The second refers to the integration of the alien cultures, i.e. to integrate the Confucian culture through sacrifice criteria, ethics and advocating agriculture, to integrate Buddhist culture through the localization of deities, "the syncretism of witchery and mystery," and sacrifice organization, and to integrate Taoist culture through title transplant, ceremonial forms and lection reference. Through ritual sacrifice, mythic legends, daily life, manual labor, singing and dancing, annual celebration, the integrated systematic moral and behavioral norms, as well as the local knowledge like the knowledge of production, skills, and art, accomplish educational functions including ethnic identification, culture continuation, social member training, and adaptive and reformative abilities enhancement among ethnic members.2. The Benzhu worship is actually an idea, and its essence is the society. Apparently, people worship the deities, but in fact what mankind worships is their own society. The different ceremonies thereinto is only a means, by which social groups termly reconfirm themselves to make different groups achieve new consolidation in terms of interest, tradition and action. The vitality of the Benzhu worship lies not in its heavenly revelation, but in its reflection of social nuclear values. In addition, the Benzhu worship is by no means an external force. Through conceptions (faiths) and demeanors (ceremonies), it influences subtly, continues generation by generation, and internalizes such values to transform these external, socialized and compelling appeals into people's spontaneous conscious pursuits. On the surface, the relation between man and the Benzhu is that man requests the Benzhu and the latter blesses the former. On a deeper level, it is however, man creates and reforms the Benzhu, so the attributes of the latter change along with the change of social environment. The communication between man and deity is no more than courtesy calls for reciprocity, which includes that man dedicates the Benzhu offerings, and the latter protects and blesses the former. The purpose of the offerings is to make up the great gap between the Benzhu and man, or to conciliate contradictions, which in nature does not exist between man and the Benzhu but between man and other relations, and the Benzhu plays the role of medium to conciliate contradictions. 3. The Benzhu worship implicates cultural strategies handling the "syncretic while disparate" social pattern, whose central notion is to promote ideas like "considering others" and "acknowledging outside values". And these strategies result from the projection of the survival wisdom wrought in the mingling between the Bai society and the outside world onto the Benzhu worship. The Bai society puts it into practice in their own ceremonial system to educate the ethnic members. As the foremost significance of the educational function of the Benzhu worship is to help the ethnic members receive "adjustment", the ethnic members will learn how to deal with the relationship between man and nature, one culture and another, man and man, as well as man and his inner being.4. Owing to an overwhelming cultural integration function, the Benzhu worship has formed a very effective mechanism in the evolution of several thousand years, which enables the Benzhu worship and the Bai society to move on in face of the conflicts with other alien cultures. The experience of the evolution of the Benzhu worship provides our modern society with valuable illuminations, that is, it is crucial for an ethnic group to maintain its traits and, while communicating with other cultures, it should build a healthy and sustainable cultural integration mechanism.There are many research fruits both at home and abroad respectively drawn from the Bai Benzhu worship and the Bai education studies, but rather few attempts have ever studied the cultural integration function and education function as well as the Bai society from the angle of the Benzhu worship. The creativity and innovation of my project lies in this new attempt.