A Geographic Research On The Popular Religion In Sichuan Area During Qing Dynasty

The popular religion is received commonly and universally by various social strata during historical period.It is quasi-religious belief,with belief in deities as the core,which is different from institutional religion and folk religion.The popular religion is an important factor of local culture in a certain region,reveals some important features of regional culture,which provides an important perspective of regional culture.Sichuan was one of the most profound changed and the most complex provinces in Qing Dynasty,with years of war and natural disasters the original in Sichuan has almost die or gone in early Qing Dynasty.After the immigrant movement of" Huguang Tian Sichuan"(Large-scale immigration from Hunan Province,Hubei Province and Guangzhou Province),Sichuan became an immigration province,the local culture in new Sichuan was reconstructed.And popular religion had played a very important role in the social integration of immigrants and the formation process of new local culture.Therefore,with folk religion as a starting point,we can discuss the construction and transformation of popular religions in Qing dynasty from the perspective of environmental mechanism and interactive relationship between Man and Nature,and analyses the temporal and spatial distribution of Sichuan region culture which was brought by the transformation of popular religion.This has significance in understanding of Sichuan society in Qing Dynasty and of today's Sichuan culture.This paper consists of introduction,text(four chapters),conclusion and postscript.The contents of each part are as follows:The introduction is mainly about the theoretical and practical significance of this paper,the definition and explanation of basic concepts,such as "popular religion",the time-space scope of this paper,as well as review and summary of relative academic research,theoretical perspective and research methods of this paper.The first chapter is mainly about change and geographic distribution of natural worship in Sichuan in Qing Dynasty.Nature worship concludes worship of nature,natural phenomena and natural objects which can be felt by direct sensory.The objects of natural worship in Sichuan include heaven and earth,sun,moon,stars,and other celestial bodies,rain and lightning phenomena,as well as the land,sea,mountains,rivers and other natural objects,and all kinds of plants and animals.While in Qing Dynasty the objects of natural worship changed from pure natural object to the object of personality,the personality of natural gods became the main form of nature worship.Belief in deities was displayed by the form of temples and secular.Nature worship in Sichuan during Qing Dynasty was not the main form of popular religion.The gods such as Water God,Land God closely related to the agricultural production were very active.Fire,Water,the King and other natural worship were more prevalent in the agricultural area,while in West Sichuan plain area,as the birthplace of civilization,ancient worship such as Wenchang,Kuixing worship were more common.Various gods worship in the form of festival temple fair was full of entertainment and breath of life.The second chapter is mainly about change and geographical distribution of Belief in Ghost in Sichuan in Qing dynasty.Belief in Ghost includes Divinity belief such as the Creator God,the Patron Saint of God,Popular God,God of trade,and all spirit belief,as well as various folk witchcraft.In Qing Dynasty,The Creator Gods such as the San Juan,Cangjie and Cancong's still had a certain influence and were worshiped by people in Sichuan area;the protection god such as the City God and the Land of God in rural areas were extremely active.The god protecting family and personal such as the Land of God,the Kitchen God,Door-god,XiShen(the God of luck),Zigu God,God of Plague and the Altar of God were worshiped especially.With the development of the handicraft industry,the belief of silkworm God,Yaowang(the God of Medicine),the god of wealth,and Liu Meng were extremely prosperous..The deities rendered by official religion such as Wenchang,Guanyin,Zhenwu,the eight immortals,the God of Sanpo,and the God of Sanguan were welcomed after folk baptism and secularization.With special geographical environment and climate conditions the worship of ghost was still prominent in the Bashu area,the original state of witchcraft sorcery culture was still relatively well preserved,witchcraft still played a very important role in people's life.However,the negative effects of witchcraft became more prominent.The third chapter is mainly about the content and distribution of People Worship in Sichuan area in Qing Dynasty.People Worship weakened much compared to Ming Dynasty.The alienation and fuzzy people god worship was the main form of People Worship.In Qing Dynasty,the gods system of people worship in Sichuan was constructed through the game of official and folk.The Construction of official belief system were achieved mainly through means of establishment and improvement of the Confucian Temple and Strengthening the typical model such as Guan Yu.While Guan Yu,Zhang Fei,Zhu Geliang and other people worship in the three kingdoms,local-God worship and other people(God)worship were promoted by official,scholar and folk.In terms of geographical distribution,Guan Yu,Zhu Geliang and other figures worship were more prevalent in Western Sichuan,military officer worship such as Zhang Fei were more prevalent in Northeast Sichuan.People worship in southern Sichuan was more ancient and unique,and local-God worship was prevalent.In Qing Dynasty,Sichuan people worship characteristics were distinctive.Pure people worship was not dominant,people worship mainly concerned people in Ming Dynasty.The situation of Many gods enshrined and worship was very common,secular and utilitarian orientation of people worship was very clear,contrast between official people worship and miscellaneous people worship were more distinct.The fourth chapter is mainly about temporal and spatial differences and characteristics of popular religion in Sichuan in Qing Dynasty.The popular religion main body and its living space were Greatly changed after the Immigrant movement of "Huguang Tian Sichuan"(Large-scale immigration from Hunan Province Hubei Province and Guangzhou Province)in Qing Dynasty.On the diachronic aspects,the popular religion in Sichuan in Qing Dynasty began with the immigrant society formation,and became fixed and unchaneable in Sichuan society stable stage,namely in the late Qing Dynasty.In the process of formation and development of the popular religion,the content and form of indigenous popular religion was the foundation and an important part of the popular religion system in of Sichuan during Qing Dynasty.On the regional differences,the popular religion in Sichuan in Qing Dynasty can be divided into three parts,the Western Sichuan popular religion area,the Northeast Sichuan popular religion area,and the southern Sichuan popular religion area.For the differences in natural environment and humanities environment,popular religion in each region showed distinct differences In Qing Dynasty,popular religion in Sichuan has distinct characteristics.Personification,pragmatic,secularization,commercialization of gods worship was very obvious.The source of Gods mainly came from local deities,while fully inclusive and equitable.The system of beliefs was local as well as open.In conclusion,the popular religion main body is not the key factor to determine the content of popular religion system,the reconstruction of main body can't fundamentally influence the natural heritage of popular religion.Geographical and social nature,humanistic environment are the dominant factors and the basis of the development and changes of popular religion.Environment influenced the construction and transformation of popular religion more than any other external force.Therefore,study on popular religion was significant,from the perspective of interaction between Human and nature.The last part is the complementary part,which discusses the relationship between popular religion and social integration in Sichuan in Qing Dynasty.The popular religion played an important role in the formation of new "Sichuan people" and the process of social integration in Sichuan.As religious centers,temles and provincials were also the center of social integration.Gods carefully chosen in provincials expressed the determination of immigrants trying to incorporate the new home.After the Jiaqing Period and Daoguang Period in Qing Dynasty,the Gods worshiped in temples and provincials diverse.The situation of worship together,attach to worship,boundary worship expressed the pursuit of secular utilitarian of the immigrants and the original,the identity of new home,and the obedience and dependence of official worship.For complete social integration and the formation of new "Sichuan People",the content and system of popular religion in Sichuan had been reconstructed.The new system of popular religion still relied on social nature,humanities environment in Sichuan,based on the original popular religions and its system,just added more new content,and reflected obvious inclusive and open.