Interdependence And Coexistence Of Local History And Culture

Temple culture is one part of traditional Chinese culture. As a precious legacy oflocal culture, it not only inherits and is closely linked to national religion culture, butalso enjoys its own unique features. The exquisite architecture, carving and sculpturearts of the temples is both the expression of theological culture and the concentrationand essence of traditional national culture. Where there is a temple, there is a templefair. Temple fairs have become the derived product of temple culture.Jinzhou is a well-known ancient town with a history of more than2000years,which dates back to the Han Dynasty named Tashi County. Jinzhou had a reputation asthe important town of East Liaoning, with its crucial geographical position, high citywalls, neatly designed streets. Through a general introduction of its historical evolutionover more than2000years, especially a stressed textual research to the temple cultureof Jinzhou, there is obvious interdependence and coexistence between history andculture of Jinzhou’s temples. The numerous temples in Jinzhou not only present uswith the traces left by religious believes but also provide us a view of the influenceresulted from the change of time. Such movements as the rise and fall theConfucianism, the rise of Daoism, the introduction of Buddhism and economic andpolitical changes following dynastic changes have reflections in the temples in the pastor the temples in existence today. On the same time, temple culture has become animportant part of Jinzhou’s history and culture. The textual research on temple cultureprovides us with another angle to have a deep insight into Jinzhou itself and thehistorical developments and have a clear understating of Jinzhou’s culture, andappreciate and understand the essence and significance of local culture.Chinese temple culture enjoys a long history and is expressed in the templesdistributed everywhere throughout the whole nation. It not only conveys specific regional cultural information, but also reflects the moral conception, spiritual pursuitand living stereotype of local population. Temple culture, in fact, embraces a sort ofworship, respect of the ordinary people. From that point of view, temple culture is theoutcome of human’s spiritual and material civilization developing into a certain stage.As a cultural phenomenon, temples are not only the carrier of history, politics andculture, but also a cultural landscape of social and economic life. As modern civilizedpeople, we are obliged to visit temples, look back on history, respect religion and belief,and get to know how culture and history coexist through interdependence and howthey build on each other through inheriting.