Religious Belief Act And Temple Operation Logic

Under the religious background of the confluence of Confucianism,Buddhism,and Taoism in China,temples are the center of integrating different religious ideas and acts.At present,the research on the operation of temples mainly discusses from the perspectives of institutional regulation and religious elites,which weakens the religious act of the faith subjects,and does not pay attention to the internal organization and management structure of the temples.Therefore,the discussion on the factors and mechanisms affecting the operations and development of temples has yet to be further carried out.Based on the review and analysis of relevant researches on religious belief practice and Religious Market theory,this study mainly uses the analytical framework of religious market theory to place temple operations in the structure of "religious supplyreligious products-religious demand",and uses the field survey data of two temples in X County,G Province.The demand side(religious practitioners or pilgrims),supply side(temple staff),and religious products(spiritual power,“Ling”)are systematically investigated to analyze the acts of religious believers and their influence and mechanism on the operation and development of temples.Firstly,through the horizontal and vertical comparison of the development process of the two temples,including the basic situation of the main worshippers and the arrangement of staff,this stud sorts out the similarities and differences between the two,and analyzes the belief groups,that is,the potential of the temples.The service objects are divided into three categories: devout believer,moderate believers and ordinary pilgrims.Among them,ordinary pilgrims account for the largest proportion in the whole pilgrim group,and the devout believers have the highest degree of religious belief,but there is the possibility of mutual transformation among the three.By analyzing the interaction between the temple and the pilgrims,this study found that pilgrims need two kinds of spiritual power(“Lingli”): special spiritual power and universal spiritual power.From the demand side,although the size of spiritual power and the function of the gods are the primary considerations when pilgrims choose temples,due to different pilgrims have different perceptions and interpretations of the two spiritual powers,there are group differences in the mode of choosing temples when praying for the two spiritual powers.When praying for special spiritual power,the willingness of devout believers to choose temples is closely related to the temple’s worship of gods,that is,spiritual power,while other pilgrims also are affected by the relationship between geography and pilgrims.When praying for universal spiritual power,the willingness of the devout believers is more likely to be directly affected by the staff in the temple,that is,the relationship,which will have an indirect impact on the other pilgrims.In addition,the keeper of the incense and activity cost that have a direct effect on the willingness of the ordinary pilgrims to choose a temple.From the supply side,there are great differences between the two temples in the main worship of gods and Buddha,the arrangement of personnel,personal character and reputation,and the management organization structure.These differences ultimately lead to the differences in incense income between the two temples in the interaction of pilgrims.The results show that the dual-line management structure of the temple is more likely to meet the needs of the believers to visit the temple than the single-line structure,thus making the temple incense situation more prosperous.In short,the gods and staff in the temple can also be said to be the spiritual power felt by the pilgrims and the relationship with the staff in the temple.They play an important role when the pilgrims choose the temple,and therefore they are also two important factors affecting the incense situation of the temple.It can be seen that in the place of religious activities in the temple,from the provider of religious services-temples,to the consumers of religious servicespilgrims,in addition to god and man,there are multiple relationship chains between people,instead of a simple dichotomy,supply side-consumer side.Finally,based on the above findings,this study discusses the applicability and development space of the Religious Market theory in the context of Chinese local religious acts.