This article was first published in Integrity Outlook, No. 5, 2021, original title: "Guild Hall: The Complex Polyhedron of Ancient Hometown Clubs"
There is an ancient town of Luodai in longquanyi district of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the history of this town is said to be traced back to Wanjing Street in the Han Dynasty, and renamed Wanfu Street during the Three Kingdoms Shu Han Dynasty. The business card of Luodai Ancient Town in today's area is "the first hakka town in Western Shu" and "the famous Hakka town and the town of the guild hall". When visitors enter Luodai Ancient Town, it is easy to be attracted by the guild halls that gather various regional characteristics here, such as the Huguang Guild Hall (Yuwang Palace), the Guangdong Guild Hall (Nanhua Palace), the Jiangxi Guild Hall (Wanshou Palace) and the Chuanbei Guild Hall, which are known as the "Four Great Halls".
So, what exactly do these guild halls do? Why are there some aliases? This has to start with the origin of the guild hall.
The earliest guild halls appeared during the Reign of Emperor Ming Dynasty. According to the "Chronicle of Wuhu County" of the Republic of China, at that time, there was a Wuhu man yu Mo, the chief of the Ministry of Works in Beijing, who bought land to build a hostel outside the front gate of the Beijing Division, and when he resigned and returned to The Village, he gave this property to his fellow township Jingguan Jinjian as a Wuhu Guild Hall, that is, a place for The people of Wuhu Township to gather.
Coincidentally, other records also mention that during the Yongle years, jin zongshun, an official, built the Fuliang Guild Hall outside the Zhengyang Gate in Beijing, and Wang Zhongming and others built the Guangdong Guild Hall. However, at this time, the type of guild hall was still relatively simple, that is, a place where the township officials exchanged feelings and drew closer to each other.
With the strengthening of regional political concepts, the number of guild halls began to increase, not only the beijing division set up guild halls throughout the country, but also the provincial cities also began to set up guild halls throughout the province. At the same time, the functions of the guild hall also began to diversify, not only as a place for the activities of fellow villagers, but also to serve the fellow villagers who came to the imperial examination, and some also distinguished between the guild hall used by officials and the test hall used by the scholars.
In addition, fellow merchants have also begun to invest in the above-mentioned guild halls, or establish special merchant guild halls, and the merchant halls will also be subdivided into industry halls according to the industry. In general, the Southern Guild Hall pays more attention to the imperial examination, while the Northern Guild Hall pays more attention to business.
The large-scale immigration activities in the Ming and Qing dynasties also brought about an increase in guild halls, which is more typical of the "Lake Filling Sichuan" activity in the early Qing Dynasty. After the wars in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the population of Sichuan was sharply reduced, and the society fell into paralysis. In the early Kangxi dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the population of Huguang Province (roughly equivalent to the jurisdiction of present-day Hubei and Hunan Provinces) began to enrich Sichuan Province, and in fact there were immigrants from Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Shaanxi and other provinces, of which Luodai Ancient Town was such an ancient town with the Hakka as the main body. A large number of immigrant halls were born from this, and according to scholars, there are as many as 1414 in Sichuan Province.
In the setting of the guild hall, a very important point is to worship the gods. Sacrifice seems more like a superstitious act today, but it is actually an important means of maintaining the community in traditional society, so the sacrifice of gods is an indispensable condition for the existence of the guild.
The earliest worshippers of the guild hall are all local gods, such as The Jiangxi sacrifice Xu Zhenjun Xu Xun, the Fujian sacrifice of the Queen of Heaven, the Shanxi sacrifice of Guan Sheng the Great, and the Guangdong sacrifice of the Six Ancestors Huineng. However, later sacrifices also became complicated, such as many places are dedicated to Emperor Guan and Tianfei, and shanxi guild halls will also sacrifice other gods such as the god of wealth in addition to emperor Guan.
The Huguang Guild Hall in Luodai Ancient Town, also known as the Yu King's Palace, is related to its sacrifice to King Dayu. Dayu was the founding emperor of the Xia Dynasty four thousand years ago, and the Shang Shu and the Records of History record his exploits in controlling water. It is said that during the terribly flooded during the Emperor Shun period, Dayu led the people to preside over the water control, and during his work, he did not enter the house three times, and finally the flood was finally calmed.
In later generations, there is a legend that Dayu was the god of water. In the land of Huguang, there are many rivers and lakes, and there are rivers passing through, often flooding, so huguang people have the most sacrifices to Dayu, which is the origin of the Sacrifice of Dayu in Huguang Guild Hall.
The Guangdong Guild Hall in Luodai Ancient Town, also known as Nanhua Palace, is related to its worship of the Six Ancestors of Buddhism. Huineng was born in Xinzhou, Guangdong (present-day Xinxing County) in the twelfth year of Emperor Taizong's reign, and later absorbed the traditional Confucianism on the basis of Mahayana Buddhism, rejected "gradual enlightenment" and advocated "epiphany", becoming a famous reformer in the history of Buddhism.
Because the Nanhua Temple in Yuling, Shaoguan, Guangdong is the ancestral court of Huineng, the Guangdong people also call the guild hall dedicated to Huineng "Nanhua Palace", which is the origin of the Huguang Guild Hall to worship Huineng. Because Zhuangzi was also enshrined as the Taoist "Nanhua Zhenren" in the Tang Dynasty, some Nanhua Palaces also worshipped Zhuangzi.
The Jiangxi Guild Hall in Luodai Ancient Town, also known as wanshou palace, is related to its sacrifice to the Taoist real person Xu Xun. Xu Xun was born in Nanchang in the second year of the Reign of Emperor Wu, and Emperor Taikang of the Jin Dynasty was conscripted into the jingyang county of Sichuan in the first year of the reign of Emperor Taikang of the Jin Dynasty, and used secret recipes to cure the plague of the people. After returning to his hometown, he saw that Nanchang was seriously flooded, and he stepped forward to treat the water for the people, and it is said that he was taught Taoism by the gods, slaying dragons and locking up water demons.
In addition, Xu Xun also preached that practicing loyalty and filial piety could become immortals, which was undoubtedly officially advocated, so he was named "Divine Gong Miaoji Zhenjun" in the Song Dynasty, and the Taoist temple that worshipped him was also changed to "Palace", which is the origin of the Jiangxi Guild Hall sacrifice Xu Xun.
Outside of Sichuan Province, there are many Sichuan guild halls called the main palace of Sichuan, which is related to its worship of the Lord of Sichuan. The lord of the river is the god Erlang in folklore, but it is disputed who he is.
Earlier theories are that Li Bing, the county sheriff of Shu County, Qin, built Dujiangyan to control water in Guanxian (present-day Dujiangyan City), so after his death, he was revered as the god of irrigation, and later it is said that Li Bing's second son was the god erlang; later, it is said that during the Sui Dynasty, Jiazhou Taishou Zhao Yu was the god of Erlang, and then absorbed the legend of the erlang god in the immortal belief.
In short, the image and belief of the Erlang god are very complicated, but the core theme is to preside over the control of water, which is the origin of the Sichuan Guild Hall to worship the Lord of Sichuan.
Mr. Wang Rigen believes that "the guild hall is a social organization that takes the family as the facsimile but transcends the family, which marks the further improvement of China's traditional social management system. "The basic functions of the guild hall are four kinds: worship of gods, harmony, righteous deeds, and conventions.
Although many clans have a side of gang formation and party unity, from a broader social point of view, they play a transitional role from the family to the state, not only providing care and help for the compatriots living in other places, so that the wanderers no longer have the loneliness of "being alone in a foreign land"; at the same time, they are disciplined and restrained, and they assume certain social management functions.
bibliography:
Wang Rigen: The History of the Guild Hall, Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2015.
Wang Xuemei and Peng Ruomu: Sichuan Guild Hall, Chengdu: Bashu Book Society, 2009.
The author, Lin Wu Gongzi, a writer of literature and history, knows that 130,000 fans answered the Lord, focusing on the history of the pre-Qin, Qin, and Han dynasties, mythological monsters. Published monographs such as "Pre-Qin Ancient Guozhi", "Wu Yue Chunqiu of pre-Qin Ancient Guozhi", "Complete Painting Collection of Mountains and Sea Classics", "Phantom: Ancient Chinese Deities and Spirits Zhizhi Illustrated Book", "Chinese Classics Complete Annotated Full Translation Series Liexian Biography", "Chinese War History You Must Love to Read: Spring and Autumn", "Comics ancient Chinese Emperors and Pre-Qin And Han Volumes", "Early China in Cultural Relics", etc., the articles are scattered in more than 30 kinds of newspaper media and portals such as learning a strong country, "National Humanistic History", "Beijing Evening News", and The Paper, and publish audio courses The Pre-Qin Code in Cultural Relics: Learn History Like a Detective" Thanks for reading, welcome to pay attention!
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