| This paper attempts to have an investigation of the ecological environment of Poyang Lake region in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the construction of the folk beliefs system on the basis of a full grasp of academic frontier information and detailed historical data by applying the theories and methods of related disciplines, such as history, religion, cultural anthropology, sociology of religion. As for the folk beliefs, the most representative folk gods in Poyang Lake area will be selected as the key research object, namely the worship of loyal subjects, Xu Zhenjun, General Yuan, Zhou Dianxian and some other folk deities. The research methods of the combination of the microscopic and macroscopic, case and integral, dynamic and static will be dressed. Along with careful research of major topics, the development choroids, basic characteristics of the folk beliefs, and the changes of folk beliefs in Poyang Lake during Ming and Qing Dynasty will be gradually outlined.Poyang Lake has a long history, with the incomparable unique ecological environment and ecological resources in the country. The ecological environment in Poyang Lake during Ming and Qing Dynasty was influenced by many kinds of interactional factors of the social system, natural disasters and people’s demand of spiritual beliefs, where the District People’s spiritual world appeared diversified and secularized, so as the folk belief gods, hence forming naturally a relatively distinct folk supernatural belief structure, which mainly reflected in the worship of loyal subjects, Taoist deities, water god, town god, Guan Yu, the Buddism goodness---uanyin, as well as the worship of land, mountains and rivers, lightning and storms, and ancient agricultural gods.The worship of thirty-six loyal subjects and the popularity of those temples in Poyang Lake are still growing prosperity over600years, especially in the two counties:Poyang andYugan. The faith in loyal subjects is particularly outstanding. Loyal temples were personally arranged to constructed by the king of Ming Dynasty---Zhu Yuanzhang for the sacrificed heroic loyal subjects. And the provisions of national sacrifices should be carried out regularly, with the purpose of"comforting the sacrifices’hearts and inspiring the livings’courage", along with stabilizing the whole country. In the Jiajing period, loyal belief and worship had been deeply rooted in the people’s hearts in the Lake District. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty formed, the Ming Dynasty loyalists were still paid highly attention and respected by the Qing government. The deeds of extolling the provisions of sacrifices and repairing the loyal temples were aimed at upholding the virtue and loyalty, advocating the spirit of loyalty, to educate the people to actively become the loyal subjects and dutiful sons. Thereafter, loyal faith was gradually transferred from the national ceremony of the former Ming Dynasty to the folk belief officially recognized by the Qing Dynasty, thus the loyal faith spread around the Lake District. Due to social and economic development in Poyang Lake areas and the folk people’s spiritual pursuit, loyal faith was gradually evolved the Lake God or say the water god who supervised the Poyang Lake and protected its fishermen and businessmen passing by.Xu Xun was the founder of "Jing Ming" Daoism, and the worship of Xu Zhenjun in Ming and Qing Dynasties had developed to a new climax. In the Ming Dynasty because of the Royal encomium and worship, worship of Xu Zhenjun spread through the whole country and was more exuberant in the Qing Dynasty, constantly conferred rewards and sacrifices by the imperial court. In the Poyang Lake area worship of Xu Zhenjun was very extensive and folk sacrifice commonplace. There are many reasons for this phenomenon, of which two are major:one is that Xu Zhenjun had once done great favor for rural town people, enjoying reputation among the people; the other is that Xu Zhenjun was loyal to the imperial court, which the imperial courts over generations tended to educate their subjects of his virtue, hence prompting Xu Zhenjun’s identity to rise from the local god to national ritual folk god and become a national folk deitie. During the period of Ming and Qing Dynasties, in Poyang Lake area Xu Zhenjun was the "host of happiness", and at the same time gradually transformed into "the God of rain","Water God","Lake God", who could drop rain, except flood, protect the inhabitants’operation on the lake and safe passage. The social functions of Xu Zhenjun adoration mainly represented in the following aspects:educating people to be loyal and dutiful; comforting people suffering disasters; promoting local economic development; strengthening environmental protection.The worship of water god in Poyang Lake area included both that of natural water god and of water god harnessing water. General Yuan is the most typical personified god, whose prototype the sea turtle of Poyang Lake. The king of Ming Dynasty sealed the sea turtle as General Yuan, afterwards River Stabilizing King. General Yuan’s temple, namely the Master Shrine, located in Mountain Zuoli. The main reasons for the prevalence of Master Shrine worship can be analyzed in three points:firstly, the legend that the General Yuan had saved the life of the King of Ming Dynasty---Zhu Yuanzhang covered this worship a mystical veil; secondly, the temple was sited where the waters was sinister, so that fishermen, boaters, business travelers and gentries prayed for peace to satisfy their spiritual needs; thirdly, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, imperial court sealed the water god several times, and local authorities repaired the temple repeatedly, and held grand sacrifice rituals, with recording the annual spring and autumn memorial service that had relatively fixed rituals.In a word, because of the spread of legend tale, folk people’s spiritual needs and the intervention of state power, General Yuan’s identity changed from one of Poyang Lake’s animal spirits to the chief god of waters in Poyang Lake area. Fear and adoration of Water God in local society had become a certain common taboo, which played an important role in environmental protection from the ecological perspective, like the protection of water environment, prevention of pollution, protection of aquatic animals and plants, maintaining ecological balance, etc.In Poyang Lake during Ming and Qing Dynasty there were many folk gods, many of which presented Daoism, the most representative ones being worship of city town, Emperor Guansheng and Zhou Dianxian. These folk worship gods combined with Taoism, mostly up to Taoist gods, particularly the worship of Zhou Dianxian reflecting the "gods and Daoism inextricable" coexistence communion interaction. The atmosphere of folk worship of Buddhism in Poyang Lake was thick, and many folk deity worship and Buddhist connected closely. In the process of the Buddhism developed into the folk life, folk beliefs took on the color of Buddhism, wherein Sky Follower Lady Bodhisattva in the Jiujiang palace, King Li Buddha in Lotus Temple of Duchang County and so on, evolved from folk deities into Buddhist ones, and was inducted into Buddhism system, which fully reflected the amalgamation relationship of local folk belief and Buddhism.This paper systematically studies the folk belief in Poyang Lake area during Ming and Qing Dynasty, and macroscopically holds its development as well as the basic characteristics, filling in the weakness of the relative research. Besides, the paper tries to frame the study mode of folk belief in Jiangxi waters area, and also put forward some new ideas on the researches in worship of loyal subjects, Xu Zhenjun, water god and so on.In this paper, the research methods abide by the principles of positivism, mainly applying the approaches of empirical analysis, comparative analysis, case analysis, statistical method, and graphology, managing to achieve "four combinations":textual research and field investigation, the macroscopic and the microcosmic, the integral and the case, the dynamic and the static study, etc, together with multidimensional perspectives to study folk beliefs in Poyang Lake area and analyze their unique spiritual worlds. |
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