Emperor-intellectual-civilians:myths Of Dujiangyan Temple And Their Historical Metaphors

With the special intelligence of water division and water conservancy technology,Dujiangyan irrigation project,which is located in the Lidui Park in the west of Dujiangyan city,nourishes Chengdu Plain for thousands of years.A Dujiangyan conservancy culture forms on the project.The deities and rituals of the temples in Dujiangyan are structural metaphors of the culture.The deities are key figures in the myth of water governance,corresponding to rulers,intellectuals and local people in the conservancy society.However,the water-governing gods and plots in different historical stages are slightly different,because of the game of power between the Central and local in history.There is a balance mechanism for regulating relations between the Central and local though.Through the analysis of myth,this paper reveals a fact that the interaction of traditional social groups has an influence on the formation and development of the deities and the temple location in Dujianyan.This paper is an historical anthropological ethnography about the interaction of the rulers,intellectuals and people in Dujiangyan conservancy society before the Republic China.In the first part,this research analysis the basic structure of Dujiangyan myth system,then discuss the key characters in the ancient Shu myth and the effect on the myth produced by Qin empire's invasion into West Shu area;In the second part,this research describes the process of how intellectuals with special religious identity enter into water myth structure,focusing on analysis about history background and the producing of god Erlang belief.This part also gives a discussion about the status and role in Dujiangyan myth structure;In the third part,this study describes the stereotyping history of Dujiangyan myth,how intellectuals use Confucian ethics to reconcile myth structure,as well as the impact of immigration on the myth of Dujiangyan in the Qing dynasty.In summary,with the investigation of the basic structure and its variants of the gods with related myths in Dujiangyan temples and the discussion about the essence of the traditional Chinese hydraulic society——balance,no-despotism,this paper provides a discussion on traditional Chinese society's power structure and the responsibility and role of the intellectuals.It is a case study with local characteristics.