Faith?Ceremony And Local Society

This paper explores the folk beliefs'process and characteristics in the process of heritage and development in Xiangxi Miao region,in order to understand the traditional cognition which hidden behind the behavior about the relationship between individual and nature,individual and society,man to man;reveal the internal standard and external form of the local society running;reflect the guide and influence of national great tradition to local little traditional.By using the research methods of historiography,Anthropology and Sociology,adopting the integral research respective and the size traditional analysis model,and combining a large number of the local knowledge based on the historical memory.The ancesters of the Miao people used Miao as their nomen,because they were engaging in rice farming,they had been called San Miao,Jingchu people,Wuling people,Panhu people,red Miao,uncivilized Miao and so on in the history books during different periods.With the migration of Xiangxi Miao's ancestors from north to south,from east to west,their domicile has changed from Shore of Yellow Sea to the Yangtze-Huaihe river basin to Wuling Mountain area.Xiangxi Miao people showed the nationality shape of pluralistic integration,with Tai Hao,Jiu Li,and San Miao as the main body,and blending many indigenous people such as Mao people,Chu people,Qianzhong people,Wuxi people and so on.Since Xiangxi Miao's ancestors moved into Wuling Mountain area at the end of the Warring States,they separated from great tradition,developed independently based on the pre Qin Chinese culture,and was then formed a inland frontier called Xiangxi Miao region in a relatively closed environment.In the realm of region,it has revolved around Laer Mountain,north to Yongshun and Baojing in Hunan Province,south to Tongren in Guizhou Province,east to Yuanling in Hunan Province,west to Xiushan in Sichuan Province.In the realm of culture,it has used the eastern Hmong,and dressed in red,and their folk belief stayed in the primitive stage of religion.In the realm of economy,it has formed the local economic system,which is composed of the basic market,middle market,and central market.The folk belief of Xiangxi Miao region that is a part of daily life of Xiangxi Miao people,has achieved intergenerational inheritanceis,by interacting with the surrounding people.The folk belief of Xiangxi Miao region is one of the representative of local little tradition,it contains the original ancient wisdom,accumulates the essence of traditional culture,and inherites traditional patriarchal culture in the pre-Qin.It based on Animism,focuses on the worship of nature and ancestor,and still stays in the transition stage from the primitive religion to classical religion.The sacrificial ceremony contains the people's primitive cognitive style about the relationship between heaven,man and earth,practices the working rules for family,clan,village and regions,these rules formed because of the relation of blood and geography.In general,the folk belief of Xiangxi Miao region maintains the local social operation in original way,from the aspects of the three relations----individual and nature,individual and society,and man to man.The Feudal dynasty unification has always upheld the theory of "play one barbarian state against another",and has managed Xiangxi Miao region with the adopted system of Jimi and Tusi,but Xiangxi has always been externalized.It was not until during the early and middle Qing dynasty the traditional pattern of Xiangxi Miao region was broken by the state using the military force that social class and power structure changed.The imperial court cultivated a new management who replaced the dominant position of local traditional authority groups in Xiangxi Miao region,by bringing a change in morals and moves.These two new and traditional groups constantly are adjusted and integrated,jointly guide the local transition from traditional to modern.It was changed that the social environment in which Xiangxi Miao's folk beliefs inheriting and developing.Xiangxi Miao region has been integrated into the national great tradition,the Miao national identity is growing,and local community has began to agree with national identity,the folk belief became the main communication channel.The folk belief took care of the national mainstream ideology,completed its evolvement and development in the local community,and also exerted an imperceptible influence on people's national consciousness in the integration process with national religious thought.In the realm of deity system,the folk belief canonized the social forces encouraged by the feudal dynasty,which led to the extension and delamination of the deity system.In the realm of belief space,the folk belief constructed the sacred space in the secular field through ceremonial performance,which not only agreed with the need of the unified dynasty administrate local community,but also conformed to the basic ethics maintaining social order,and reflected the characteristic of Taoism outside and Confucianism inside.Xiangxi Miao's folk beliefs inheritance and development was on the basis of the intergenerational inheritance,increasing the characteristics of ethnic fusion.At the same time,it has practiced the national ruling order and specifications,and guide local society orderly operation according to the national rule,from the traditional to modern.