The Research On The Folk Belief In Sichuan Region In Song Dynasty

Belief is the reflection of cultural core value.As a cultural phenomenon,the folk belief is distinct from the mainstream social consciousness and cultural situation.It is widely prevalent in the people and refers to the category which is based on nature worship,hero worship and ancestor worship without systemic doctrine and organization.In theory,folk belief is different from the mainstream of belief systems represented as Confucian and also different from the Buddhism and Taoism.However,the folk belief is influenced by mainstream of belief systems in the form of expression.Therefore,the difference between the folk belief and the mainstream belief is based on the belief's universalism and regional natual and the two are not diametrically opposite.The folk beliefl is the important perspective in observing the folk tradition and deep culture of a social, because of its regional and folk nature.Song dynasty is an important period in Chinese history, which is known as the beginning of China's pre-modern society and plays an important role in ancient China.The economic prosperity and well-developed popular culture as well as the political environment make the folk belief culture in this period more distinguishing than the generation before.This paper will explore the folk beliefs' distribution law in Sichuan region and the characteristics of the development throughout song dynasty on the basis of the analysis of the specific content of folk beliefs and will summarize the characteristics and the elements which promote the formation of the folk belief in Sichuan region in Song Dynasty.There are four sections in the paper.In the first section,the author first gives a conception of folk belief,and then gives the reasons why she chooses this topic as her research field,and the basic ideas as well as the resources quoted in the paper.There is also a brief introduction about the situation of relevant research previous.Section two is about the contents of folk belief at Song Dynasty in Sichuan region and the categories of them:firstly,nature worship including the god of heaven and earth,the mountain god, water god and so on;Secondly,divine worship which is represented by the Chenghuang,and Dragon worship including the Sally Ghost,spiritual material,industry such as God and the Witch; Thirdly,people gods worship whose gods change comes from people including the legendary people of God,sages people of God,when the people towards Gods,gods and other civilians. There are three categories of eleven sub-worships in all.The characteristics of all sorts of worships were analyzed on the basis of the classification stated above.In the third section,on the basis of the classification and the arrangement of historical data,the author draws a conclusion that except the regional features,folk believes have their own distribution law in Sichuan region at song dynasty.For example,the area of Chengdufu is popular with people gods worship and the main worship in the area Tongchuanfu is nature worship.The development of all kinds of folk belief in the area of Lizhou is more balanced and divine worship is the dominant worship in the area of Kuizhou.All the temples which gain from the king are listed and the characteristics of their development as well as the reasons are summed up.Section four is about the characteristics of the folk belief's content and the distribution and the development at song dynasty,as well as the causes which promote the appearance of the characteristics.The characteristics include the belief in many gods,the personification of the gods and obvious regional features and so on.In the fifth section,the characaters of folk belief is concluded by analyzing the content and the distribution and the development in Sichuan region in Song Dynasty.This paper tries to complement the Values framework of the Song Dynasty by the research of folk belief with the aim of exploring the differences of folk believes in this area at the Song Dynasty and its influence factors and highlighting the cultural significance of the folk belief which can not be ignored by placing it in the larger framework of time and social history.