Research On The Mazu Belief In Zhedong Area

The rise and fall of the Gods faith, on one hand, depends on the human agency.And on the other hand, it is also restricted by the social order.Inspired by this theory,the thesis analyses Mazu belief in Zhedong Areas from two different aspects. First,it investigates people as the subject of the belief, including the effect of the spreadand development of Mazu religion. Second, it investigates the areas where peoplelive, including the interaction among natural factor, country politics, state economyand culture in certain areas.Through the two themes, basing on the comprehensiveanalysis of previous studies in historical materials, first, this paper studies in thespread and development of historical process of Mazu religion in Zhedong Areas.Second, it inducts and analyses three forces that promote the process of the spreadand development of historical process of Mazu religion, namely the geographicalbackground, the flow of people, government forces, and the features of their own. Third, it makes statistics in the east MaZuMiao quantity and distribution andanalyses of the distribution of all kinds of factors. Fourth, it inspects the influence ofMaza Religion in Zhedong Area. Taking Best empress in Xiangshan for example,this thesis discusses the changes of Mazu and provides the ideas of Mazu culturalheritage of the inheritance and development in the future.The main conclusions are as follows:First, it is believed that the development and spread of Mazu religion changeswith the development of Mazu religion itself. And it also has the general charactersof Fujian Mazu religion.Secondly, the quantity and space distribution of Mazu religion is influenced bythe Special natural geographical environment, the politics, economy, social custom,population composition, regional accessibility, modes of production and life ofpeople and many other factorsThirdly, the spread of Mazu religion do not changes the multivariate spirit ofbelief systems pattern in Zhedong Area. Like other Gods, the primary reason of itsexistence of Mazu belief is people’s spiritual needs. The needs do not have a necessary connection with Mazu belief. Because otherbeliefs will appear no matter there is no Mazu belief or not. So Mazu belief can onlyfit into Zhedong Area. This promotes the new appearance of Mazu belief and makessure its further development.Fourth，though Mazu belief does not take the lead in Zhedong area, it doespermeate in the production and life of Zhedong fishermen.