The Study Of Folk Faith In Southeast ShanXi

The unique environment and profound culture stemming from a long history of Southeast Shanxi gave birth to many regional folk gods.Then,with the development of society,faiths to those gods culminated in Tang and Song Dynasties,which was a big blow to the development of the Buddhism and Taoism in that area.During Jin and Yuan Dynasties,this area witnessed the emergence of a series of faiths and culture communities featuring both openness and closeness,where folk faiths,under the joint force of nature,society and faithful followers,blessed their controlling parts of the Southeast Shanxi.Meanwhile,within this faith and culture communities,people believes are limited to a narrowed range.As a result,the those regional folk gods share similar roles.Folk faiths in Southeast Shanxi are not only rich in quantity,their styles,seen from the perspective of the process of their emergence,are various.Generally speaking,there are gods from legends and mythologies,represented by Erxianshen,Sanzongshen;there are gods of deified heroes in history,represented by Cuifujunshen and Lingzeshen;and there are wise-monarch-like gods who are represented by Chengtang.Faiths to and loves for these gods suggest that people here were inclined to include those etherial legendary people,heroes with history records or wise monarchs into their daily life and have control on them,thus integrating these exemplary characters into their routine life and productive activities.Since the emergence of all kinds of faiths,the masses have never stopped worshiping folk gods.Local people pooled their human resources,money and other resources to build grand and luxurious sites specially for their idols.Apart from this,people also scheduled some days for sacrificial activities which were gradually recognized by the Imperial court and ascended to formal activities of state-level.Southeast Shanxi is home to a number of temples in China,ranking the first domestically.The material vehicles— buildings and tablet inscriptions— vividly recorded the evolution of those faiths to gods,while the sacrificial activities and local social systems affiliated to temples which have run from ancient times to nowadays are like a bridge,linking the earthly world to sacred spirits.