A Study On Folk-faith Of Central Shandong Area In Ming And Qing Dynasties

The middle sections of central Shandong area are mountains of Tai, Lu and Yi. And the boundaries of the north, east, south and west are: Xiaoqing River and north Shandong plain, Wei and Shu River and east Shandong hilly countryside, mountains of Ni and Meng, Dongping and four other Lakes and west Shandong plain. It generally includes Zibo, Jinan, Weifang, Tai'an, and Linyi. In ancient time, this area was one of the places of origin of human beings. This district, historically, was the boundary of Qi and Lu in the spring and autumn period, and was the watershed of Qi culture and Lu culture as well; geographically, it was the confluence of coastal culture and inland culture of Shandong. Therefore, it has both historic and realistic meanings for concentrating on this place.Folk-faith, which involves history, folklore, sociology, and anthropology, is a complicated subject. Here, the definition of folk-faith is: faith of supernatural beings and ancestors which are closely related with people's productions and lives, and worship of nature and occult thingsThere are two parts of this thesis. The first part, which focuses on"comprehensive", outlines a survey of folk-faith of this area. And that is based on a number of local historical materials.Chapter one is about faith of nature gods which includes gods of the sky, the earth, the moon, stars, wind, mountains, stones, animals, plants, and so on. Through studying local historical materials, every god is analyzed all-roundly and exactly, and a general condition of faith of the district is made.Chapter two is about faith of gods of personality which includes immortals, ancient monarchs, and other personification worships. Worship of immortals is characterized by its local culture of mountains and sea. Worship of ancient monarchs has a long history and worship of gods of personification is related to people's daily lives, both of them have local characters. However, many of these gods in this chapter could have been written into solitary articles, if were expanded. Chapter three is about faith of ancestors and spirits.The last part of the thesis which focuses on"concentrated"is about several specialized cases. And the purpose of this part is to made accurate analysis of folk-faith in central Shandong area.Chapter one is about water worship of central Shandong area in Ming and Qing dynasties. In the field about water worship, there are many nature gods and personification gods, and it is accompanied with folk witchcraft and orthodox religions. In the activities of praying for rain, people are enthusiastic and utilitarian. They could pray for different gods, and could even punish the Dragon King if he does not rain. So if people'lives are threatened, their instincts could be reflected from folk-faith.Meanwhile, because this faith cares of the common people's lives, it involves political ethics. Local governors attach much importance to"praying for rain"; they would sway from"morality"to"utility". In fact, they want to achieve"morality"from"utility".Chapter two is about faith of mountains in central Shandong area. Considering of the particularity and non-region character, mount Tai is not involved in this paper, and it focuses mainly on mount Yi. Many of the mountains in central Shandong area were ever praised by emperors in history, so they are characterized by social rank and politics. For a long time, faith of mountains here has been personified, and the faith is beyond of mere mountains, Bixiayuanjun is an example. Because there are many mountains, immortals like Anqisheng and Baitugong emerges. Furthermore, mountains have cohesion for gods, exchanges between culture of mountains and gods embodies the combination of humanism and geography.Chapter three is about the people's faith of Yanwenjiang. Yangwenjiang, namely the filial wife, represents the filial piety culture of central Shandong. This chapter answers how the faith of Yanwenjiang was formed. In fact, it was formed because of traditional morality--filial piety. Considering from this standard, government and the people approved and praised highly of it, and"the great tradition"and"the small tradition"interlocked with each other. At the same time, Yanwenjiang also was considered as the water god. So this is a successful example of how morality combines with utility.Chapter four is about the faith of Pangboling. Materials about this faith are very limited, for it is ancient and complicated. It was not only related with Dongyi culture and old Qi, but also alternated from mountain god and community god to morality god. So there are many different editions about Pangboling. Some words in the county annals of Linqu in the years of Guangxu can be an evidence of it. Therefore, the local governors were ever ambiguous about the problem. Nevertheless, because of the image of"loyal official"and benevolence, Pangboling eventually was put to a national position. From this event, we could see how the folk-faith changed and how the great and small tradition adjusted and combined.In the end, it is the conclusion which expounds the characters of folk-faith of this area.Firstly, it is a god system which is ancient, stable, traditional, dispersive and composite. Secondly, it reflects the decline of nature god and the rise of personification god.Thirdly, there are complex god systems under monotonous god functions.Fourthly, it has orthodox and standard view of value.The characters of folk-faith of central Shandong area are closely linked with four points: people's traditional way of life and production, national power's influence, traditional thought and Qi-Lu culture, and the geography environment.