Perspectives To Folk Belief In The Wei, Jin, Northern And Southern Dynasties By Analyzing Guopu's Lifetime And His Works

As an indispensable part of Chinese culture, folk belief is a non-religious social custom of religious nature, popular among the ordinary and closely related to their daily life. As Wu Bing'an, the folk cultural scholar, pointed out,"from the ancient to today, there have always been various phenomenon with religious color, crisscrossed in folk economic and social life"."They are conventions of folk thoughts constantly transformed and inherited from the primitive beliefs of primitive human thinking, which are embraced by the ordinary and even become a crucial element governing the ordinary's material and spirit life."Along the lengthy social development, folk belief, as a traditional force, has rendered to Chinese society an influence to be reckoned with. Therefore, observing and studying folk beliefs has consequently become a significant academic topic which involves combing the origin and development of folk beliefs, reflecting on the actual changes and current situation of folk beliefs during the development of modern society, and etc.The Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties are a crucial period in the development of Chinese folk beliefs. As an important Chinese cultural historical figure during that time, Guo Pu, a representative scholar which should be taken seriously when that period of time is studied, has a rich and fruitful inheritance and development of folk culture. His works are a repository of ample contents and materials on folk beliefs. With his legendary life experience, he has even been shaped as a mysterious"half-fairy, half human"figure through hundreds of years. He has a profound and remarkable knowledge,"knowing the Five Elements, astronomy, divination and fortunetelling, being able at avoiding disasters and transferring curses, having magical abilities in all ways, and even Jing, Fang and Guan Lu cannot exceed him."For quite a long time, he has been regarded as an expert in the Book of Changes and a master of geomantic omen. He has also played a significant role in the development of Chinese folk beliefs. Through Guo Pu and his works, this paper would try to rearrange the great development of Chinese folk beliefs in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and to probe into the interrelationship between the rough and struggling historical environment of wars and chaos, and folk beliefs, so as to reveal the cultural wealth of folk beliefs during that time.