The Investigation And Study On ChengTang Faith In Yangcheng County Of Shanxi Province

Farming occupies a significant part in traditional China. Since it has been constantly beset by drought in Loess Plateau, people there are desirous of rain particularly. Praying for the rain when suffering drought is a great event in their daily life. The moving legend,"prayer for the rain in mulberry forest" of Emperor Cheng Tang, not only initiates the thousands of years’ tradition of praying for rain, but also deeply engraves the image of Emperor Tang of considering the suffering of civilians in people’s hearts. That’s why the emperor is admired by the later generations. The civilians place their desire for rain and spiritual comfort on such a sanctified Emperor. During the following dynasties, people, up to the emperors down to the civilians, all build temples for him, conduct sacrifice rituals, and hand down the ancient tradition of dance for the rain from one generation to another.This article takes the Cheng Tang (the Emperor of Shang Dynasty in ancient China) Faith as study object. Basing on the field work and combining literature, it elaborates detailedly on evolution of legends in the history, the distribution of sacred space and the ritual of dance for the rain for the sake of analyzing people’s utilitarian psychology for Emperor Tang. The first chapter of this article is Introduction which has four parts, including the purpose of choosing this topic, the relative study information home and abroad, study methods and relative definitions. The follow three chapters are the main parts. Thesecond chapter mainly discourses formation factors of Cheng TangFaith on geography, climate and humanity from special geographicalenvironment of Cheng Tang Faith circle in Yang Cheng County. Thenext chapter gives an all-around introduction about the Faith from thelegend of Cheng Tang, the distribution of Cheng Tang Temple, theritual of dance for the rain and temple fair, and also analyses thereasons people approve it. The evolution of the ritual of dance for therain and the development of temple fair are also discussed. The fourthchapter conducts vertical comparison on Cheng Tang Faith fromfieldwork material to analyze its new changes at the present stage,such as the development of tourist area of Cheng Tang culture, thenew adaption of legend and so on Additionally, this chapter alsobriefly discusses the attitude change to Cheng Tang Faith of differentgroups through the interview with official, civilians and folk elites.And the last chapter is conclusion.