The Sociological Landscape Behind The Sengqie Belief

Sengqie was a prominent monk in T'ang Dynasty. He was born in the Western Region and won great popularity in Sizhou, Jiangsu province. He attracted the attention of the Emperor T'ang Zhongzong and was bestowed by him during the course of the construction of Puguang King Temple. In the S'ung Dynasty, the whole society generally considered him as the incarnation of Guanyin. And in the apocrypha preserved in Dunhuang, he professed himself as Maitreya, who would came to the secular world to rescue the people.This thesis contains four parts. The first part is about why to choose the subject and the results of the scholars in this academic area. The second part is the biography of Sengqie and the relative documents, and the definition of "popular religion". The third part is about the difference between the Sengqie Belief and the traditional Buddhism, the impact of the society on Sengqie Belief and furthermore, the secularization of Buddhism. The forth part discussed the reason and course of Sengqie's transformation from a local deity to a national deity, the standardization of Sengqie, the conflict between local deities and the government's standardization, and the understanding of Sengqie across different region and social class.