Research On Transformation Of Mount Tai Gods And The Geographical Pilgrimage In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Mountain Tai faith is the religion faith of God of Mount Tai (later known as Dongyue God folkly) and Bixiayuanjun. Mountain Tai faith derived from ancient mountain worship. During the pre-Qin, Qin and Han dynasties, with the driving force of emperor Qin Yingzheng and emperor Liu Che's Fengshan event, Mountain Tai faith had a further development. During the Wei, Jin, Nan, Bei dynasties, God of Mountain Tai transformed from abstract to personification, which further consolidated its faith foundation. During the Tang and Song dynasties, God of Mountain Tai was included in the list of gods of state sacrifice. Mount Tai palace emerged. The folk" Dongyue Temple Fair"and" Incense Society" emerged and became mature. From Jin, Yuan to Ming and Qing dynasties, Dongyue Temples were set all around. Compared with the God of Mountain Tai, Bixiayuanjun was a junior god. Despite its image had emerged in Taoism books and poetries in the Han and Tang dynasties, its faith formed finally until early Song dynasty; Temples began to appear, but it was still under the status of God of Mount Tai. Then with the driving force of Taoism and the national identity, it began to expand and reached to its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Its status was impressively above God of Mount Tai, especially in folk.In the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the establishment of Taishan temples in our country, the spreading of Mount Tai culture everywhere and Bixiayuanjun faith deeply rooted among people, Mountain Tai faith reached its peak. In that case, everyone began to go to Mountain Tai, to worship the God of Mount Tai and become faithful pilgrims of Mountain Tai. The number of them was substantial. They were widely distributed and had a great impact. They were an important group during Mount Tai cultural studies. They went to Mount Tai from all quarters and ascended at Mount Tai. They opened the roads to Mount Tai in all directions. Their deep understanding of the faith gave a great push to the further spreading of it. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Bixiayuanjun temples and Dongyue temples were established one after another around our country, which was the result of the interaction at all levels.This paper aims to study the development of the two important gods in Mount Tai, the status change of both and reasons for the change in the Ming and Qing dynasties, to study the geographical distribution of pilgrims and pilgrimage route from the perspective of historical geography; to research the composition of pilgrims, the distribution of Dongyue temple and Bixiayuanjun temple and to explain why it happened in the Ming and Qing dynasties.