A Study Of The Status Quo Of Religion In Rural Area

Belonging to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin,Southwest Anhui is precisely located at the junction of Anhui,Jiangxi and Hubei,and has a rich religious and cultural resources since ancient times,furthermore in modern times,here also emerged a number of influential cultural figures.For that reason,it could be expressed that truly there be full of talents in the area between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River,and really there be the most in Southwest Anhui.Certainly,the most famous Buddhist and Taoist masters,and other most famous cultural features,they are being praised and honored over and over by numerous books and writings.While,this paper is to depict some ordinary people's religious stories of an ordinary village in the region since Reform and Opening-up,to analyze the motives and causes of their beliefs,and the basic elements that affect their faith,furthermore with attempts to appreciate the elementary religious landscape of this region,by combining observations of the local population composition,of the socio-cultural traditions,such as religious customs and habits,and modernization's influence.The first chapter of this paper introduces studies of Chinese religious phenomena and related research at home and abroad,as well as something of this article's writing,including the reasons for its topic,ideas and other general introduction.The second chapter is a general introduction to the whole Southwest Anhui and Wangjiang County,including historical,economic,cultural and other related aspects,focusing on some basic characteristics of this region,such as homogeneity of population composition,sharing the Gan dialect in common and culturally having been influenced by the Confucian tradition,having enjoyed Buddhism for a long time to,and so on.The third chapter is a basic introduction to Village C,the research object,including the historical origin of the village,social group composition,careers,daily life and so on.The fourth chapter focuses on villagers' religious beliefs since Reform and Opening-up,including institutional religions,and some folk beliefs,etc.The fifth chapter is about the analysis of villagers religious beliefs and their religious behaviors,the various impact factors of villagers religious beliefs in several perspectives.The last part is the conclusion and expectations.This paper 's elementary conclusions are that,Confucian tradition and rational concept derived from modernization compose together cultural fundamental environment of the rural religious ecology in Southwest Anhui,and religions'development in this region are restricted by these fundamental concepts of local society.Religions such as Buddhism,Taoism and Christianity have adapted to the local social and cultural environment,and each of them has provided the local villagers with different special spiritual satisfaction,such as abundant imagination of the other world,community identity,etc.The choice of religions for villagers is no more confined to a hope of agnostic effectiveness,but for a secure psychological solace that religions give.As time and tide goes ahead,the rural religions of Southwest Anhui encounter inevitable changes,and the most important is to cherish traditional values,to respect people's choice,to permit religions to function positively.