Taoist Tradition, Gentry Culture and Local Societies: The Cult of Zou Gong at Sibao in Western Fujian Province since the Song and the Ming Dynasties

Abstract

邹公是汀州四保地区最重要的地方神,至迟元明以来就为当地村落所崇奉,并被当地邹氏视为始祖。文献资料多认定邹公是南宋状元邹应龙,实际这一说法在明代后期邹氏地方精英开始有意识进行收族活动后才出现,与汀州流传的一系列斗法传说有关。这些传说透露出邹公不是状元,而是位神通广大的法师。邹公从法师到状元的身份转换过程,不应简单归结为士大夫文化取代地方文化的过程,而应视为道教、士大夫与地方社会几种文化传统相互合成的结果。Zou Gong, the most important local deity at Sibao, Tingzhou Prefecture, was worshipped by local villagers at least from the Yuan and the Ming dynasties on. The Zou lineages in the area regarded Zou Gong as their common ancestor. Existing literature usually identifies Zou Gong as Zou Yinglong, a zhuang yuan (scholar who came top the imperial civil service examination) in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, such identification appeared only in the late Ming period when local elites of several Zou clans consciously tried to unite and consolidate their lineages. Before that, Zou Gong was a mighty ritual master in a series of magic contest stories popular at Tingzhou, rather than a zhuang yuan. The change of his identity from ritual master to zhuang yuan was a result of convergence of Taoist tradition, gentry culture and other local cultural traditions, which may be called "cultural hybridization", rather than a simple process by which local culture gave way to gentry culture