Popular Religion And The Urban Society Of Wuxi Since The Qing Dynasty

Rural temples’ submitting revenue to their corresponding Chenghuang Temple or Dongyue Temple in towns was a common phenomenon of popular religion throughout the countryside of Jiangnan. in Wuxi since the Qing Dynasty, sacrificing activities centering on the Dongyue Temple showed distinctive characteristics of urbanization. On the twenty-eighth day of the third lunar month, when the birthday of the Emperor Dongyue came, gods from eight major temples around the city would march to the Dongyue Temple to show their congratulation. Under such circumstances, Zhangxun, the god worshipped in the nearby Zhangzhongcheng Temple, was responsible for the reception. The eight temples were the Zhangyuan’ an Temple, the Nanshuixian Temple, the Fuchenghuang Temple, the Yanshengdian Temple, the Wuxi Chenghuang Temple, the Xishuixian Temple, the Yanshousi Temple and the Jinkui Chenghuang Temple. Adding the Dongyue Temple and the Zhangyuanan temple, all these temples were called the Ten-Temple during the old time in Wuxi.The Ten-Temple system initially formed in the early Qing Dynasty. There were two kinds of sacrificing activities in this system. One was the so-called Xiejiuhui, in which the nine gods inferior to the Emperor Dongyue visited each other on their birthdays. The other was the nine gods’ having an audience with the Emperor Dongyue or the Jade Emperor on the birthdays of the latter two. The name Ten-Temple originated from Shaoshimiaoxiang, a traditional custom of Jiangnan, and became the specific name for the ten temples mentioned above during the post-Taiping rebellion period. After the 1911 revolution, the Jinkui Chenghuang Temple and the Jade Emperor’ temple were destroyed. It was a hard time for the Ten-Temple system. Despite the short-lived revival in the 1930s, this system declined again because of the Sino-Japanese War and the following Civil War. It finally died out when the PRC was founded.The Ten-Temple system represented a special urban identity in Wuxi since the Qing Dynasty. The corresponding unban area included not only the lands within the city wall, but also the urbanized districts outside. Landscape and Transportation condition decided the direction of urbanization and the specialization of each community while the Ten-Temple system tensed the collective conscience of the residents by repeated rituals. This made proper preparation for the reform of the city’s administrative system.The mode of Ten-Temple’s operation changed during different periods. Before the Taiping Rebellion, it was kind of informal. After the Taiping Rebellion, the system got steady financial support from the city’s grain merchants and each temple established its own board of directors. Though the nine temples inferior to the Dongyue Temple functioned as community temples, they also had a influence in the whole city. It was the distinctive characteristic of urban social organization that decided how this religious system worked. In such social environment, merchants could enhance their reputation by supporting public affairs like popular religion, but they could hardly fight against the government.Besides the Ten-Temple, temples in the urban area of Wuxi could be divided into three groups:the ones related to communities, the functional ones and the ones related to different industries. This showed various patterns of organization in the city. Compared to the gods worshipped in the countryside, the ones worshipped in the city of Wuxi usually appeared later. This could be attributed to the evolution of the popular religious culture in Jiangnan.