The Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo
Abstract
This article deals with the discourse about the temples of popular gods (廟) in the local histories of Fujian, rather than actual religious belief or practice. The intention is to make clear the place of these gods in intellectual discourse. Intellectuals distinguished between what they called orthodox temples (正祠) and heterodox (“excessive” or “profligate”) tem-ples (淫祠). A list of these temples is produced in the first chapter which shows what kind and how many temples were recorded in the local histories. Some of these gods are introduced in the second chapter. They are the Wall-and-Moat God (城隍神), the Emperor Guan (関帝), the God of Mt. Tai (泰山神), the Empress of Heaven (天后), the True Warrior (真武神), Elder Li (李長者) and Consort Qian (銭妃), the Nine Hermits of Hes (何氏九仙), the Great Emeror who protects life (保生大帝), the Legions of Hell (陰兵), and the Dragon Gods (龍神). The last chapter analyzes how the local histories discriminated between the characters of the gods. Each local history had its own yardstick to categorize the temples, but they shared a common system of categorization. Neo-Confucianism influenced the discou-rse of the local histories, and made a world of temples recognized as orth-odox ones
