Remaking Tradition:an Ethnographic Study On The Memorial Ceremony For Confucius In The Jianshui Confucius Temple

The Jianshui Confucius Temple in Yunnan Province is the second largest Confucius Temple in China,and its memorial ceremony for Confucius have been held by official according to certain specifications since the Ming and Qing dynasties in Jianshui,which is a important cultural town in the southwest.Until now,in addition to the spring and autumn memorial ceremony for Confucius at Jianshui Confucius Temple,and the Jianshui Zaojun Temple still holds Kongzihui every October,and local families will also worship Confucius during the ritual.The above represents the traditional memorial ceremony for Confucius has been interpreted by Jianshui Dongjing culture for a long time,and exists in Jianshui’s folk cultural system,which gradually formed a small local tradition of memorial ceremony for Confucius.The Jianshui Confucius Temple Tourism Investment Company employs members of Dongjing Association from Zaojun Temple to inherit memorial ceremony for Confucius,and has conducted the three Confucian rites and the pre-examination praying for graduates in the past 10 years around the formation of memorial ceremony for Confucius,these activities reproduce the tradition of Jianshui memorial ceremony for Confucius and form a new tradition of local education.Through fieldwork and the application of anthropological ritual research theory,this paper explores how the tradition of Jianshui memorial ceremony for Confucius has been recreated through the presentation and analysis of the ritual process of the Jianshui memorial ceremony for Confucius.By analyzing history of memorial ceremony for Confucius in Jianshui,this paper records and describes the Kongzihui from Zaojun Temple,"repaying the Buddha’s kindness in heaven and earth" Ceremony On the Emperor Sutra,Dingji memorial ceremony for Confucius in Jianshui Confucius Temple,The First Writing Ceremony,The Ceremony of being a child,The Coming-of-age Ceremony and the pre-examination blessing for graduates,to explore the changes in the ritual form,the changes in the people in the ritual,and the changes in the function of the ritual,and takes a comprehensive view of the revival of the Jianshui Confucius Temple ritual and how the tradition of Jianshui memorial ceremony for Confucius has been recreated.Compared with memorial ceremony for Confucius of other Confucius Temple,memorial ceremony for Confucius with localized characteristics of Jianshui can be understood as small traditions.This paper believes that the memorial ceremony for Confucius of Jianshui is not purely constructed,but the revival of traditional ceremonies from the folk back to the official stage.And with memorial ceremony for Confucius of Jianshui Confucius Temple as the core,it gradually becomes a new local tradition in Jianshui,this re-creation of the tradition of memorial ceremony for Confucius increases and enriches the functions of the ritual,and also has an impact on the identity,gender structure and social structure of the ritual performers.Regardless of whether the appearance of the tradition of memorial ceremony for Confucius rooted in the religious system on the official stage is interrupted or not,the behaviors of sacrificing to Confucius have always been active and preserved in the daily life of Jianshui people,and the memorial ceremony for Confucius continues in the behaviors of Jianshui people.