The Research Of The Localization About Folk Beliefs In Coastal Areas

When referring to the culture in coastal areas, people will first associate itwith the fishing tradition, and then the closely related Mazu belief which isregarded as the spiritual symbol by the people there. As it is known to all, Mazuis an important object of belief in coastal areas, but in fact, beyond the Mazubelief, there is another belief ignored by people, which is called the MonkeyKing belief. Until now, it hasn’t been recognized as the belief in coastal areas.Via the research of the Monkey King belief, we will get to know the overallfeatures of the folk belief in the coastal areas over a broader view. It plays suchan important role.With the investigation of the region in Wenzhou, I found that more peoplebelieve in Mazu in coastal areas, while less in inland areas. For example, thereare Monkey King Temples in Lingxi, the town where this research is done. Whatis more, the state of Monkey King belief is better than that of Mazu belief there.Lingxi’s Monkey King belief in the temples has certain relationship with that inFujian province, and it has gone through the process of localization step by step.But recent years, after fishermen living near the sea successively moving totowns inland, such as Lingxi, there appears a phenomenon that people buildMazu Temples in new residences.This paper takes the example of the Monkey King Temples in Lingxi, townin Cangnan county of Wenzhou city, Zhejiang province. Via the research of thelocal culture of the Monkey King belief, I analyze the facts that this kind ofbelief is affected by the belief in Fujian province, and then discuss thelocalization phenomenon of the Monkey King belief in Lingxi. By means of thiskind of research, we can probably change our narrow view about folk belief incoastal areas and it will provide us with the perspective to understand thepluralistic culture in coastal areas.This paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is introduction. Iwill summarize the existing results which are highly related to my paper. I willresearch them through three aspects---Apes worship, the Monkey King beliefand the localization of folk belief. The second chapter is about the situation ofthe investigative place. It includes the generalization of Lingxi and the MonkeyKing Temples. The third chapter describes the origin and change of the MonkeyKing belief in Lingxi. It has showed the changes of Monkey King belief theseyears. For example, Monkey King was related to the rain God in the past, whileit now represents many Gods. And it is said that the places of worship in therepublication period are also changed. They were small temples devoting toMonkey in the past, and they gradually become the middle temples which arededicated to multiple Gods. The fourth chapter is about Monkey King belief’slocalization mechanisms. Compared with the Shunchang in Fujian province which is considered as the birth place of Monkey King belief and the Lingxitown, I will analyze the origin and development of the Monkey King belief inLingxi town by three aspects. First, according to the survey of Monkey Kingtemples and belief in Yunlu villiage，comparing with the two places’ stories ofMonkey King, I will explain the localization clues of the Monkey King belief inLingxi. Second, by the adjustment phenomenon of Monkey worship time, I willreveal the local belief mechanism which is founded by the situation of busyseason and weather. Third, on the basis of the process about the changes ofMonkey King temple in Lingxi, I will analyze its temple space of localization.The last is the fifth chapter, which is the conclusion of this paper. The title is“the belief of Monkey King and the diversity of coastal cultures”. Comparedwith the belief of Mazu, I will interpret the belief of coastal folk and thediversity status of its cultural.Through my study and analysis, I can draw the following conclusions. First,in Lingxi town, the Monkey King belief has experienced the process oflocalization by the influence of Fujian province. The process is reflected in threeaspects, such as the localization clues of legend story, the changes of faithmechanism and the expand of temple space. Second, the coastal culture is aculture system of diversity. Besides the Mazu belief which is related to theculture of ocean and fishery, we can’t ignore the Monkey King belief in inlandareas that has the relationship with farming culture.