The Interactive Research Of Yan King's Legends And Belief Customs In The Southeast Of Shanxi Province

The farming industry has highly developed in the southeast of Shanxi Provice since ancient times. The popularity of a large number of legends related with the Yan King, and the relics of Shen Nong City, Shen Nong Wells, Grain Valley, and many grain Temples formed a large circle of Yan King's legends and faith. This dissertation regards Yan King's legends and belief customs in the southeast of Shanxi Province as research object, through the local legends and the faith, attempting to explore the interaction between them.The dissertation is composed of three parts:introduction, main body and conclusion. The main body comprises three chapters: Chapter One, by comparing the ancient text with the modern text, the thesis exposes the types of Yan King's legends. the diffrence between them can help explore the differences between the legends in historical records and oral legends, and interperte the plot lelments and the profound meaning of Yan King's legends. Chapter Two, based on the materials of field research, it firstly shows the concrete experssion of Yan King's faith in the local people's lives of the southeast of Shanxi Province, and then arranges the historical developments of Yan King's faith in order to point out the fact that the reduction in the number of the Yan King's temples does not represent the weakening of faith. Chapter Three, through analysizing the oral legends of Yan King, it indicates that Yan King's legends are the cornerstone of Yan King's faith, and the teansformation is from oral narration to behaviors, from surface words to deep folk psychology; However, Yan King's faith can decide the content and direction evolution of the legends. The interaction between them has saved a group memory of the people in Southeast of Shanxi Province.The introduction comprises the research object, the literature review, the purpose and significance of the research, resources of materials, research design and methodology. Based on the study of main body, the conclusion summaries the findings of the research, and points out that the Yan King's legends and faith are an integral part of people's cultural lives in the southeast of Shanxi Province. It preserved the history of the people in a unique way. It is beneficial to improve the agglomeration of the whole Chinese culture as well as the transmission of the people's historical memory in Shanxi Province.