The Research Of Sacrificing Circle With Niuwang Belief In The Fenhe River Basin Of Linfen City In Shanxi Province

The Niuwang(??)belief and fete ceremony,in the Fenhe River basin of Linfen City in Shanxi Province,have a long history.It has been more than 700 years since the temple was established in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty.Before 1283,The Niuwang belief that spans more than 50 villages on both sides of the Fenhe River,took the Niuwang Temple in Beiyang village as the center of the eastern river,and jointly raised funds to hold the Niuwang Temple Fair.Thus,the Sacrificing Circle were formed preliminary.After 1283,due to some conflicts within the Sacrificing Circle,the similar Niuwang Temple was reconstructed severally in Wei Village and Jing Village.So the original Sacrificing Circle is split into three independent parts.In 1930 s,Because of internal contradictions and external factors,such as warfare,era,and politics,three Sacrificing Circle were broken and disappeared one by one.After the policy of reform and opening-up being carried out,Wei village as the leader to recovery the Niuwang Temple Fair.Then,in 2000,Beiyang Village also recovery the Niuwang Temple Fair.Nowadays,Taken the opportunity of same Niuwang belief and fete ceremony,both Village people communicate closely and connecte with each other through the village committee for seeKing common development,and have been formed a special Sacrificing Circle with distinctive characteristics in new times.With the development of the times,the three Sacrificing Circle have through inherited,broken down,revived,and recovered.Through this process,the folk village organization which taKing the Sacrificing Circle as the main body to sustaining the Niuwang belief and fete ceremony,and coordinating relations between village and village,and Officials' impacts under the political ideology.In early 21 st century,with the policy of Protecting intangible cultural heritage being carried out,Wei village and Beiyang village are positively declaring intangible cultural heritage,in order to gain legitimacy of Niuwang belief,they construct it as cultivation culture and culture of the community sacrifice.At the same time,in order to get its legitimacy,the local people induced a series of national symbols into the Niuwang Temple Fair and sacrificial ritual,and the local government as the representative for the officialconstantly explored deeper the faith and cultural value behind the Niuwang Temple Fair for promoting the development of the local economic and cultural,It was obvious that the official and the folk have been reached a agreement to work together to contruct this local traditional culture,and to realize its transformation and revival in the modern era.Finally forming the new Sacrificing Circle which representative of the Wei village and Beiyang village to jointly develop the economy across the Fenhe River.This paper mainly adopts the methods of fieldwork,literature research,and oral history research,these methods are used to study the historical changes and modern circumstances of the Niuwang belief and Sacrificing Circle in the Fenhe River basin of Linfen City.This study expects to reflect the relationship between Niuwang belief in sacrificial rituals and the daily life of the people from a dual perspective of diachronic and synchronic,in order to deepen our understanding for the role of folk beliefs in the daily life and the relationship between villages.Importantly,This study can provide a living case about folk beliefs how to revive themselves by national and local policies,especially how to obtain their legitimacy in the“intangible cultural heritage” context.