A Study Of The Nvwa Religion Ceremony Of Houcun Village Zhaocheng Town In Shanxi Province

Nvwa is one of the most ancient gods in Chinese folk beliefs,who is the excellent leader of matriarchal clan society,and she was called the Chinese ancestor.The tale about her has been best-known until now,such as saving the world,making human beings and setting the rules about marriage and so on.There are many activities to celebrate Nvwa in the folk,which had a huge impact in Chinese culture history,social history and folk beliefs.The Nvwa Ling became national emperor in Song dynasty(937A.D),who has the same status with Yellow Emperor in Shanxi and Yan Emperor in Hunan.Nvwa Ling is still preserved in Hongtong county,which located in Shanxi Province,Houcun village Zhaocheng town.In this paper,the author through the observation,interview,literature analysis,summary and others methods of ethnology,makes a survy about the Nvwa religion and ritual to summarize the function and find the meanings and values of ritual about Nvwa.This article is divided into five parts.The first part is to narrate the background,significance,proposes,methods and the predecessors' research achievements about this study.The second part through the historical documents and researching to introduce the geographical environment and historical culture about Zhaocheng town and Houcun village.The third part is based on the field survey about the Houcun village and historical documents to analyze the origin of Nvwa and three rituals,which include celebrating the Nvwa' birthday,the goddess patching the sky and holding ceremony in usual.The fourth part to summary the ritual function and cultural connotation of Nvwa,through the process ritual.The five parts the summary of full thesis,and the thought about author and the existing problems of this article.