Research On Lung Mo Worship From Cultural Geographic Perspective In Lingnan Regions

The water Goddess Lung Mo is quite flourishing in the Lingnan region. The characteristic culture of water Goddess is gestated from the geography location between mountian and sea. Besides, the torrid weather in south China is the important factor. Duiring Qin dynasty, Lung Mo worship came into being in Yuecheng where was circled with three rivers. It came form the consuetude of the ancient Yue People's "Duan Fa Wen Shen" dragon worship merged with their ancestor worship. Lung Mo Goddess was conferred titles for many times after Han dynasty. Moreover, Lung Mo worship spread to Jiangxi province duiring Tang dynasty. The sacred center of Lung Mo worship initially formed in Song and Yuan dynasty. The worship centers, such as Yuecheng, Renhua, Wuzhou, Fenyi, already had a certain scale. In Ming and Qing dynasty, Lung Mo temples scattered around West River basin. When the worship centers gained fixed development, Lung Mo worship had spread to Sichuan province. In a word, Lung Mo worship's regional distribution took on a unique geographical pattern.Lung Mo worship flourishes together with much water of natural environment in the Lingnan region; much more fire in the south; and Lung Mo can put down fire. Further more, the govemman's promotion, the swift development of distinctly Guangdong economy in Ming and Qing provide political and economic condition for the flourishing of Lung Mo worship.Compared with Lung Mo, other water Goddesses in the south, such as Dragon king, Tianfei, Zhenwu, God of Nanhai and Fubo, showed their different geographical characteristics: Lung Mo is the Goddess who protects West River basin; Dragon king controls over Pearl River Delta(PRD) and Hainan Island; Tianfei comes from Fujian. Tianfei worship spreads all over Fuk Lo Cultural District. People who live in Chaoshan plain, Leizhou peninsula and Hainan Island adore Tianfei; Foshan is a focus of Zhenwu worship. In addition, Zhenwu temples spread all over Guangdong and Guangxi; God of Nanhai bless persons around Nanhai, especially people in Pearl River Delta(PRD); Fubo worship might mainly distributes round Leizhou and Lianzhou.This article aims to analyze the geographical characteristics and the dominating reason of Lung Mo culturl from the geographical point of history. At the same time, it will reveal the characteristics by comparing with other water Goddess.