"Gods" And The Ming And Qing Dynasties Folk Beliefs

Fengshen Yanyi is one of the major vernacular Chinese novels,and had profoundly influenced the ancient society.The supernatural beings and legends could be considered as a reflection of the popular religion in Ming and Qing Dynasty.This essay attempt to define and distinguish those immortals,thus we can make some discussion about the general condition of the folk religion.This paper uses both the ancient novels and the historical literatures,especially the religion texts and local records, and makes an investigation about the gods such as the thunder god,the god of plague,the god of variola,and the Three Sovereigns.The preface:Make a brief description for the purpose and significance of this study, and then describes the research status of the novel.Part Ⅰ:Make an analysis about the religion of thunder god,and discuss the difference between novels and the Taoism documents.Part Ⅱ:Mainly study the source and course of the god of plague and the god of variola,while comparing the difference between them, especially their position in folk religion.Part Ⅲ:Make a research about the religion of the Three Sovereigns,mainly about their development from Yuan to Qing Dynasty, and discuss the relationship between yao wang and the Three Sovereigns.In short, this article interpret the gods in Fengshen Yanyi, and make an understanding about the popular religious in Ming and Qing Dynasty.