"Belief Relations" And Formation Of The Folk Elite

The folk beliefs in Northern Shaanxi have a common feature, namely in this area "almost every village have a temple, each temple has its own religious festival, and laymen runs the temple, but not religious clerics". Then, how these "laymen" (secular clergies) manage the temple and construct their authorities as the president of temple association? Taking Black Dragon temple (deity of the temple is Black Dragon King) in Yulin city as the research object, this paper analyzed the facts of how the folk belief elites generate their authorities in the belief relations.Different from the Chinese five major religions (Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, Catholicism, and Protestantism) that their faiths lay on gods, the belief of Black Dragon King is geography-centric folk belief that the faith lies on a temple (a space object). And its faith-based groups are organized according to the geographical locations of their villages around the temple. In this paper, the Black Dragon temple’s association consists of the nine villages in southern Zhenchuan Town. The presidents of the temple association (Wang’s father and son, Senior Wang and Junior Wang) don’t have the skills on religious rites. They are only the selected managers of the temple association because the temple belongs to the nine villages. So, their actions need to be consistent with the values and interests accepted by the faith group.However, the value and interest of the group in history is not set in stone. After the reform and open policy, along with the development of local economy, the Black Dragon king’s incense gradually becomes more vigorous, the old "group values and interests" transferred from the limited nine village’s ceremonies and activities into a wide range relationship of local people and local power. Based on the perspective of the change, this paper adopts Bourdieu’s rationalism method in three aspects:the Black Dragon temple’s legalization progress, the belief elite’s authority in practice, the expression of the authority in temple festival. After discussing the progress of how the Wang’s father and son run the temple and construct their authorities, this paper concludes that "the folk belief elites construct their authorities in three levels of the belief relations".The first level of the belief relations refer to the relations between "the folk belief and other faiths". At this level, the legalization of the temple is the precondition of the folk belief elite’s authority. The legalization of the Black Dragon temple is reflected in two aspects:legitimate religious activities and legitimate religious venue. In the aspect of legitimate religious venue, the Black Dragon temple was legalized by applying for the Repository of Cultural Relics in 1984. And in the aspect of legitimate religious activities, senior Wang and other members in local villages cooperated with the mayor of the Zhenchuan town, and made the temple ceremony legally celebrated in the name of "Commodity Fair" in 1985. However, both "the Repository of Cultural Relics" and "Commodity Fair" are not namely religious. Until 1996, through affiliating with Taoism the temple became the venue for religious activities, the Black Dragon temple finished its "religious" legalization.The second level of the belief relations refer to the relations between "the faith-based organizations and local powers". At this level, the formation of the folk belief elite’s authority is based on the values and interests of the faith group. In the earlier 1980s, the faith group’s interests only focused on re-constructing temple and holding ceremonies. As the temple donations grow continuously, how to allocate the incomes from the incense becomes the most important issue of the faith group’s interests. To solve this problem, Wang’ father and son distribute strategically some income to local school construction and local social welfare. By offering money back to the local village, faith group’s interests were protected, and Wang’s father and son also rewarded the trust from local villagers.The third level of the belief relations refers to the relations between "the folk belief and its believers". In the second level the folk belief elites consider more on faith group and their own interests, but in the third level what they consider is the public welfare which beyond the interests of local groups. In this level, the presidents of the temple do not face definite objects, but generalized "believers" and "society". To solve this problem, Wang’s father and son tried to build a magnificent temple and hold hot ceremonies. While temple became more spectacular and ceremonies became hotter, the Black Dragon King was praised in believers’ thoughts, and Wang’s father and son rewarded a great reputation on their management skills.In conclusion, in the changing society the authority formation of the folk belief elites is not confined to isolated temples, villages, and separate faith groups, but with gradual extension of faith relations the authority needs to adhere to the practicing of maintaining relationships at the three levels.Therefore, this authority study is not a mere typological analysis, or just focus on the folk features of folk belief elites. It tries to break the shackles of the religious system and function research, and connect the formation of folk belief elites’ authorities with the construction of belief relations.