A Study On Jiao Rituals In Yongjing Temple

Jiao-festival is a primitive and mysterious cultural phenomenon of faith,in which the priest presides over a village,and the villagers collect donations and organize themselves to entertain the gods at the temple of the square gods in each village and hold rituals.The scope of the ritual is mainly distributed in the area of Yongjing Chuan Plateau.The unique natural environment and the long history and culture of Yongjing catalyze and intermingle with each other,providing a breeding ground for the birth and development of the Jiao-festival culture.The Venerable Master’s Jiao-festival is divided into public temples,village temples and family temples according to the scope of regional beliefs.Temples are the carriers of the rituals,and the spatial structure and time settings of each temple are sacred,and the temporal and spatial settings of the Jiao-festival rituals held in temples form a ritual cycle with the annual production cycle of agriculture,which is rhythmic.The priests are the main body of the Jiao ceremony,the "messengers" of communication between the gods and the people.The priest acquires his skills mainly through the succession of teachers and apprentices.By organizing ceremonies such as the opening of the temple statues,the installation of the dirty,the invocation of the dead and ancestors,they participate in the daily life of the people and become the "lucky star" in the hearts of the people.Jiao is a ceremony to thank the gods for the gift of food and the blessings of animals and people throughout the year.In the process of the Jiao ceremony,the preliminary preparation process includes the organization of the head of the pagoda and the recruitment of ministers to raise funds,invite the masters,prepare materials,and set up the shrine.The specific ritual process consists of four stages: inviting the gods,welcoming them,entertaining them,and sending them off.To invite the gods,the priests invite the gods to come to the mortal world by opening the paper and transmitting the gods,raising the streamers,running the horses to the altar,sweeping the temple hall,saying the gods’ birthday at night,and chanting the transmission and other rituals to purify the ritual space and pave the "cloud road" for the gods to come to the mortal world.To welcome the gods,the priests beat drums and recite the divine transmission to welcome all the gods.To entertain the gods,in order to thank the gods,the priests hold three sacrificial rituals,mount a sacrifice to the gods,and line up a big altar to repay the gods’ kindness,and sing and dance to please the gods and fulfill their wishes.At the end of the ceremony,the villagers offer incense on the altar,light candles,and set off firecrackers to send off the gods and again ask them to continue to protect them in the coming year.The ritual of Jiao-festival is a cultural phenomenon of faith constructed by the process of communication between people and gods with the help of various elements such as movements,costumes and offerings,which are integrated with people’s specific production and living environment,forming a symbolic cultural system with spatial symbols,physical symbols,color symbols and directional symbols.People use association and analogy to deify,personify and act out these symbols,which are conducive to expressing the demands in secular life.These symbolic symbols imply symbolic logic,including natural,religious,and ethical views.The functional attributes and cultural significance of the Jiao ceremony reflect the primitive nature of the modern field,the secondary nature of cultural change,and the utilitarian nature of continuous transmission,and it plays a regulatory,edifying,cohesive,entertaining,and aesthetic role in village life.Finally,the prevalence of the Jiao ceremony is related to the vernacular nature of the ceremony,the essential attributes and needs of people,the ambiguity of identity,and the orientation of policy.This paper consists of an introduction,six chapters of the main text,references,and other appendices,totaling more than 80,000 words.