The Daoist epigraphs of the Northern Wei dynasty: A study of the Guanzhong district's religious culture and ritualistic activities with full transcribed texts of its Daoist epigraphs

This dissertation, basing its investigation on the materials of existing early Daoist steles, especially those revealed in epigraphy, focuses its discourse on the Daoist activities and belief culture of the Northern Wei places.;The investigation is based on early Daoist epigraphic materials about the regional distribution of existing Northern Wei Daoist steles, the content of inscribed patrons/donators and votive prayers. It focuses on two areas: (1) The Daoist epigraphs not only preserved information about the identity of the patrons/donators, the activities of stele donation and the purposes of votive praying, but also recorded part of the related Daoist ritual activities. Together with the stele images which displayed the content of part of the ritual activities, they reveal evidences of the relationship between Daoist institution and lay society. Under the cultural influence of the then popular Daoist practice of altar worship, the lay Daoists organized worshipping activities with steles set up and sponsored by religious communities with different composition. Through stele donation, together with retreats and liturgies, the lay Daoists formed a new kind of rites culture. The main purpose of stele donation is to ask for gods' blessings through setting up steles and practicing altar worship to accumulate religious merits. (2) The practice of name inscription on steles reveals that the Daoist communities of the Northern Wei inherited the organization format of traditional communities (e.g. precinct) as well as the religious observance and retreat official system of the Celestial-Master Daoism. The epigraphs of the "Duo-religion" steles testify that Daoism, as the mainstream belief culture of the local people of the Northern Wei, did not condemn, but instead did accept and influence Buddhism, and make the latter part of its system.;Finally, I want to point out that woman participation in the stele donation activities of the Northern Wei reveals the custom of "wife as household maintainer" as well as the relatively high family and social status of woman in northern China.