| Synthesizing the plenty of historic literature, the existing research achievement and the data from the field survey, this thesis roundly analyzes the forming and the developing of the belief of Mazu, and all kinds of factors which promotes the development, with the one-thousand-year history (from the Song dynasty to now) as the longitude, and the geographical space (from Meizhou, Fujian to the whole country even the world) as the woof. In this thesis, the author brings forward two modes of the distribution of the belief of Mazu—the diffusing from the center and the leaping expansion, analyzes the characteristics of the interaction between this two modes, and induces the three powers which promote the development of the belief of Mazu—the cultural power of the spontaneous spreading, the folk flowing crowd and the government. And then, the author deeply analyses the characteristics, system and interrelation of this three powers, demonstrates the functions by statistics, and construes three main cultural and economic factors—the ocean, commerce and dialect. In contrast to the other folk belief, the author figures that the development and diffusion of the belief of Mazu have the special opportunity, condition and surrounding which is the combination of the oceanic figure, the politic and economic environment in the given historic period and the given regional human surroundings. The cooperate effects, including the execrable operation surroundings of Fujian merchants on the sea, the thick religious consciousness and the ocean-opening consciousness, the need to the spirit's support, the geographical characteristics and the special demands of the government to the safety on the sea in the special historic conditions, make the goddess—Mazu talent showing itself from the parochial gods, and famous all over the nation even the world. The research shows that it is possible and valuable to study on the special cultural history crossing the subjects, from the historic-geographical angle.
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