Study On Shandong Temple Fairs Of Ming&Qing Period

Temple fairs are an important element of civil society, and temple fairs culture isan important part of traditional culture. In recent years, temple fairs have become a hotstudy topic for national historical and folklore circles. From the origin of temple fair,duration, scale, organization and management, functions, and the relationship betweentemple fairs activities and local politics, economics and culture, and so on, to conduct acomprehensive analysis of Shandong temple fairs, but so far I have not seen sucharticles. For reasons mentioned above, I choose this topic. The analysis of Shandongtemple fairs activities of Ming&Qing period can contribute us to understand the ruraleconomic development, to understand how the state power to permeate and expand tocivil society, and also help us understand accumulation of the profound traditionalChinese culture in the social structure. Thereby to make better use of the economic andtourism cultural functions of temple fairs, to serve the economic and culturaldevelopment of Shandong.It is divided into five parts: the preamble outlines academic research results onShandong temple fairs, and analyses its shortcomings. In the context of existingresearch results, I make the origin and the definition of temple fairs definite. In myopinion, the temple fair of the pre-Qin period was grand political activities held inancestral temple, it is different from later generations temple fairs which mean ralliesheld in the vicinity of the temple. But they also have close links, the rural system of theancestral temple in this period was the origin of later generations temple fairs. On theconcept of the temple fair, I agreed to the views of scholar Xiaotian, that is, templefairs are the assembly used temple as its backing, held in specific dates, and to worshipthe deities, trade goods and entertainment.And to add: the first activity of temple fair is to worship the gods , from theofficial figures to the civilian population of the entire country to participate in activities,so it provided opportunities for rich merchants and traders involved. Of course, it was along time after temple fair took shape, also it must take economic development andprosperity as a precondition.The first part introduces the divine worship of Shandong, and analyses thegeographical characteristics of divine faith. The gods generally believed in Shandonginclude Dongyuedadi, Bixiayuanjun, Chenghuang god, Guandi, the God of medicine,the dragon king, eight wax God, Liumeng general and land God. These gods areessentially asylum God, their home ——Cimiao are supportive Cimiao, which is thebest footnote for Chinese pragmatic character. Shandong divine faith has geographicalcharacteristics: the faith in Jiaodong coastal areas is based to sea spirit, centralmountain areas is to mountain worship, the west part of Shandong is to profess canalwater god.The second part arranges the distribution and duration of Shandong temple fairs,and analyses its causes. Shandong temple fairs of Ming&Qing period were relativelyless in city, and more in the village, where temple fairs serviced in the rural areaprominently, even to be regarded a"sanother form of Shandong rural markets". Viewedfrom the scope of radiation, Ming&Qing period Shandong did not only have nationallarge temple fairs such as Taishan mountain Dongyue temple fair, Bixiayuanjun templefair, Jinan god of medicine temple fair, Qufu Linmen temple fair, but also have a largenumber of large temple fairs which affected several provinces or counties. In addition,there were some small temple fairs limited in the counties or in the villages. The reasonfor the difference is that the economic development, the temple locations and thedeities throughout were different. The duration of Shandong temple fairs was based onprinciple that not miss the farming season, and mostle held in God Festival, so theduration was concentrated in March, April, September and October. The short durationwas only one day, but the long ones were around one month, mostly for a period ofthree to five days.The third part discusses the activities, people participated in temple fairs and theorganization and management of Shandong temple fairs in detail. Shandong templefairs of Ming&Qing period consisted of religious worship, cultural entertainment andmerchandise trade, etc. The participation was so wide, from the official figures to thecivilian population, including those always been despised by high levels, such asbusinessmen, farmers and juggling artists, particularly Chinese traditional women hadthe courage to break the barriers of traditional Confucianism and to participate in thetemple fairs, and it was anti-normative. Female participation in temple fair enrichedtheir leisure life, and developed a unique female culture.Part IV analyses the role, functions and negative impact of Shandong temple fairs.Shandong temple fairs promoted the economic goods exchanges throughout urban andrural and economic development, politically strengthened national management andcontrol of locality, culturally promoted the propagation of civil arts and the expansionof religion worship. Its tremendous function and active role is worthy of recognition,of course, because of the crowd mixed in temple fairs, inevitably impacted localsecurity, and contributed to bad habits such as the massing wealth.The innovation is: the integrated use of theory and methods of history, folklore,religion, sociology, psychology and so forth, to analyse Shandong temple fairs ofMing&Qing period.