Zheng Tuyou: Why does China's urban god culture take root overseas?
China News Service, Shanghai, March 29 Title: Zheng Tuyou: Why does China's urban god culture take root overseas?
Author Li Peng Fan Zhonghua
"Chenghuang" is one of the most common indigenous folk beliefs in Chinese religious culture, from metropolises to county seats, and even some townships, the city god temples are evenly distributed in a network, and the number of sacrifice activities and participants is large. At the same time, the image of the city god is often very local, usually a locally revered parent official or a local hero. Amazingly, in Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia and other places, there is also a large number of city god temples, and even have an important influence in the lives of locals.
What is the vitality of Chenghuang culture? How did the highly endemic belief in China's urban gods take root and bear fruit overseas? What kind of "root" value does this traditional folk belief have for Chinese people at home and abroad?
Zheng Tuyou, professor of the Department of Chinese and Chinese Literature of Fudan University, vice chairman of the Chinese Folk Writers Association, and vice president of the Chinese Folklore Society, pointed out in an exclusive interview with the China News Agency "East and West Questions" a few days ago that the Chenghuang culture is an important spiritual link that creates a connection between overseas Chinese and between overseas Chinese and the Chinese homeland, and integrates it into overseas local areas with its inclusiveness, and is a bridge for spreading Chinese civilization and traditional values.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: When did China's city god culture originate? Why do they have deep folk roots?
Zheng Tuyou: "City God" is the product of imagining the two figurative objects of "City Wall" and "Moat". In terms of its origins, I think it can be traced back to the Neolithic age, which dates back to 7000 to 8000 years ago, because around many Neolithic settlement sites, a trench was found to defend against the invasion of enemies and wild animals. It follows from this that the trenches around the Neolithic settlements may have coexisted with stone (mud) walls to protect the safety of those who inhabit them. Governed by primitive animistic conceptions, the ancestors deified it and paid regular worship to express their gratitude for their protection.
Therefore, it can be said that the prototype of the city god should be the protector of the primitive village. At present, the "village god" in some villages in China is its remain. When the city developed to a certain scale, the simple defensive building was replaced by a tall city wall, the ditch also became a moat, and the "village god" was upgraded to the "city god" that protected the city's residents.
In the evolution of the City God, its function has always been that of a local protector. In the Han Dynasty, the concept of upright people becoming city gods after death appeared, and in the Tang Dynasty, city god gods evolved into local officials in the underworld, and city god temples began to appear sporadically throughout the country. The Ming Dynasty was a turning point in the development of the city god belief, and Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict in the first year of Hongwu that all cities organized above the county level should build city god temples, and then extended down to some economically developed towns, and built a city god belief system that was completely consistent with the administrative level. This concept of serving the country with folk beliefs and "yin and yang co-governance" contributed to the great development of chenghuang culture, and this model continued into the Qing Dynasty.
The City God Temple in Shanghai's Huangpu District, photographed in 2018. Photo by Wang Gang of China News Service
Chenghuang culture has a great influence on the development of ancient Chinese cities, with the Chenghuang Temple as the center, the Chenghuang faith gathered the people, so that the city quickly formed and prospered. Chenghuang culture is also a unique folk belief with the city as the main body.
China News Service: Among the many folk beliefs in the world, what is the particularity of the Chenghuang faith?
Zheng Tuyou: The characteristics of chenghuang culture, one is that as mentioned earlier, it is the interaction between the official and the people and prospers, which is based on the common desire of both officials and people to maintain urban security and pursue the tranquility and happiness of life, and its essence is unified, thus forming a joint force.
The second is that "City God" is a general term, and all localities will focus on a specific image, usually the first local governor or prefect, or those who have made great contributions to the local area, or famous national heroes in history, or people who are upright and kind, etc., which essentially reflects the hero worship of the people and the gratitude to these people.
On March 3, 2018, the City God Blessing Cultural Activity originating from the ancient City God Temple Festival was held at the Metropolitan City God Temple in Guangzhou. China News Service reporter Chen Jimin photographed
Third, the layout of the City God Temple is based on the ancient administrative structure, reflecting the concept of mutual coordination and common governance of "yin and yang" in Chinese culture. For example, the City God Temple will have a big abacus hanging on the mountain gate, which is intended to be "people are not as good as heavenly calculations", and discipline people not to do immoral things; the couplets in the City God Temple are all the themes of persuading people to be good; at the same time, local officials must first worship the City God god at the beginning of their term of office, which is also a constraint and deterrence to the future behavior of local officials... From this, the City God Temple can be regarded as the moral indoctrination field of the city.
In December 2020, in Qionghai, Hainan, people held a fire-tempering seat celebration in front of the City God Temple. Photo by Meng Zhongde, China News Service
Therefore, it can be said that the locality and universality of the City God are one, first of all, the spirit and values of integrity, loyalty, and doing things for the people embodied by different City God gods in different places are basically the same; in addition, the functions of the City God in punishing evil and promoting good, protecting the city and protecting the people, eliminating disasters and disasters, and supervising the officials and regents are the same.
In addition, it is worth noting that the formation of the Chenghuang culture was hardly influenced by foreign religions, and it was a relatively pure indigenous belief.
China News Service: When the Chenghuang faith spread overseas and took root with the Chinese who went to sea, how was its "locality" reflected?
Zheng Tuyou: With the footsteps of the Chinese, the "locality" is mainly reflected in two aspects: First, the Chinese will bring the local city god of their hometown to overseas for worship through the "incense sharing" ceremony to pray for the protection of the gods in their hometown. The so-called "incense sharing" is to bring some incense ashes from the incense burner to the overseas to re-mold the gods and build temples, which has become an emotional connection between the Chinese and their hometown.
For example, at the temple fair held at the Anxi Chenghuang Temple in Fujian Province, overseas Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia return to China one month in advance every year to prepare for the worship, and thousands of pig heads can be enshrined at a time. The reason why it is so solemn is precisely because they believe that it is particularly important to recognize the ancestors and return to the ancestors after "dividing the incense".
More importantly, after the Chenghuang faith was brought overseas by the Chinese, it had more obvious spiritual bonding functions, and the Chenghuang Temple became the connecting bond and spiritual pillar of the Chinese in a certain area, and through activities such as temple fairs, they were more closely connected with each other.
On July 20, 2021, the "2021 China-Southeast Asia Taoist City God Culture Series Activities" opened in the City God Temple in Yiwu, Zhejiang. The Singapore Taoist Association, the Malaysian Taoist Federation, the Indonesian Three Religions Temple Federation, the Thai Taoist Federation and the Philippine Chinese Taoist Association participated in the meeting via video link. Photo by Li Hanxue, a reporter from China News Service
Why is Chenghuang culture widely spread overseas? First of all, because the function of "protection" of the City God is exactly what those Chinese who have crossed the ocean and want to gain a foothold in a strange place are particularly valued. In addition, in Chinese culture, "kinship" is the most important factor in the cohesion of people's hearts, followed by "geography", but overseas, often people from all over the world live in large and complex groups, and it is difficult to form a larger and stable mutual aid group based on kinship and geographical relations alone, so it is very important to have common local beliefs.
China News Service: At present, many Chinese people have long taken root overseas and integrated into the local area, has the significance of folk beliefs such as chenghuang culture evolved?
Zheng Tuyou: At present, folk beliefs have two levels of significance for overseas Chinese. First, folk beliefs are an important link between overseas Chinese and the Chinese nation, such as the City God Faith, Mazu Faith, etc. Every year, many overseas Chinese return to China to worship the main temple. In recent years, our country has also made a lot of efforts in this regard, such as the Guandi Temple in Yuncheng, Shanxi, which attracts overseas Chinese of guandi faith to worship through activities every year.
Second, after the Chinese people go to sea and take root in foreign lands, they will focus on the Chinese, have an impact on the larger local social circle, and attract people from other ethnic groups to join. In fact, faith is about values, and folk beliefs, while spreading, will slowly have an impact on other ethnic groups.
This is what we call "people-to-people bonds." Compared with the collision of macro ideologies, this exchange based on faith and identity, which is formed in people-to-people exchanges, will become a channel for understanding and dialogue between different civilizations and cultures.
In fact, chenghuang culture is extremely inclusive, and overseas, chenghuang beliefs and local beliefs are also constantly merging, and in addition to the main gods and major rituals, some new content has emerged, so that it can be accepted by more locals.
On February 24, 2019, People from the Taoist community in Guangzhou used palanquins to carry the "City God Master" out of the Capital City God Temple. On that day, the City God Blessing Cultural Activity originating from the ancient City God Temple Festival was held at the Guangzhou Capital City God Temple. China News Service reporter Chen Jimin photographed
China News Service: Will traditional Chinese folk beliefs gradually decline among the second or even third generation of overseas Chinese?
Zheng Tuyou: In fact, traditional folk beliefs are more prosperous and popular among young Chinese overseas than among young people at home. This is quite due to the fact that for more than a hundred years, Chinese mainland adhering to the educational concept of breaking superstition and following modern science has led to intergenerational faults in traditional beliefs, and the traditional beliefs of going to sea have been preserved and inherited among the local Chinese and passed on from generation to generation. Every year, many young people return from overseas to worship the gods of the city and other groups.
In the past two or three decades, China has advocated the importance and protection of traditional culture, especially the development of intangible cultural heritage protection, and has done a lot of research and correct name for folk beliefs and cultures, which has also evoked the revival of folk beliefs in recent years. However, looking at the current folk belief and cultural activities Chinese mainland, the phenomenon of homogenization is more serious, and different faith cultures have not yet highlighted their own characteristics, which also needs to be considered and improved. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Courtesy of respondents
Zheng Tuyou, male, born in April 1962, doctor of literature and art, is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Chinese of Fudan University. He is also the vice chairman of the Chinese Folk Writers Association, the vice president of the Chinese Folklore Society, a member of the Expert Database for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the vice chairman of the Shanghai Folk Writers Association, and the vice president of the Shanghai Yanhuang Cultural Research Association. Since the 1980s, Zheng Tuyou has been engaged in the research of folk beliefs, folk literature and intangible cultural heritage protection for a long time.