The Belief Of Pentad Of Plague And The Society Of Fuzhou City In The Late Qing Dynasty

Based on documents and field research, with the belief of Pentad of Plague and the social changes of Fuzhou city in the late Qing Dynasty as the research object, it is discussed and researched that how the legend of Wudi in Fuzhou has developed, how the temples are distributed, and how the folk festival Ying Shen Sai Hui started and developed in this paper. By studying local government’s attitude towards the belief of Pentad of Plague during that period, from the perspective of folk beliefs, this paper made a research on the control the authority laid on the local society in the late Qing Dynasty.Plague is the the inevitable result of the spread of plague and people’s extreme fear. Five Emperors of Fuzhou, the Pentad of Plague in Fuzhou is resulted from Taoist re-imagining by local residents, which embodies a strong geographical and cultural feature. The paper discussed some issues related to the belief of Pentad of Plague, such as the positive interactive relationship between the authority and the local folks, which is a more focused one, how the belief changed and developed in response to the social changes in the late Qing Dynasty. It is believed in this paper that the social changes of Fuzhou city in the late Qing Dynasty promote the development of belief of Pentad of Plague, and on the other hand, the belief is also a good reflection of the relationship between the central government and local government, and that between the government and the local residents. At the same time, the social changes and the authority’s control on the local things can be seen from the belief in some ways.