Pingxiang land god belief

China has long been an agricultural society, and people worship the land very much. For thousands of years, the land god has been widely worshipped among the people in our country, and its influence has never stopped. Scholars agree that the belief in it stems from the land worship concept of ancient ancestors. As the god system with the smallest official position, Land Lord should be the most primitive, universal, widely distributed, most widely believed and most dynamic folk god, which has an important construction and influence on the formation, deduction and development of folk culture system. His origin can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty BC. With the development and evolution of history, the belief in land gods has gradually penetrated into the people, with richer content and increasingly complex forms. The land god has become a grass-roots god who keeps one side safe and manages the other. Wherever people live in concentrated communities, there is a belief in the land god, which has become the spiritual sustenance of the nation. Pingxiang, as a border town, inherited the land public belief of the southern nationalities and showed its own characteristics in the long-term development.

The evolution of the land god

The source of the belief in the land god. The worship of the circulating land god is based on the worship of nature at first. With the development of society, the continuous strengthening of feudal rule, the development and influence of Buddhism, Taoism and other religions, the abstract land god has also faded correspondingly, and the status of the land god worshipped by nature has greatly declined, and it has been replaced by a personalized folk god with various social functions.

Land God is the product of the worship consciousness of gods in ancient agricultural society, and it is also an important thought in Chinese folk beliefs. Its influence is extensive, covering both urban and rural areas. It can be said that people everywhere respect the land. Due to the different geographical and ecological conditions of vast expanse, different nationalities and regions, the folk belief in land gods naturally has strong local characteristics.

It is really unknown when the folk belief of the land god originated. However, judging from the story of Jiang claiming to be the land god recorded in the fifth volume of Sou Ji Shen, Japanese scholar Wa Dezhong thinks that his belief in the land god originated in the first half of the third century. Around the 5th century, the belief in land gods gradually prevailed. After the 7th century, land temples were built all over China. After the 14th century, praying to the land god has become a routine. In the early Ming dynasty, it was stipulated that the land god did not call himself a title, but only called a place "land", which was commonly known as "land father" among the people. /kloc-sacrifice sake to roosters at the age of 0/8.

The development of the belief in the land god. Pingxiang's folk beliefs, like other southern regions (mainly the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River), generally worship the land god. There are related activities every spring. For example, on February 2nd, there will be a land conference. Representatives of all ethnic groups should attend the meeting, slaughter animals, sprinkle wine and burn incense in Zhang Le to worship the god of the valley, which is called "Spring Blessing". Most of these gatherings have fixed places-land temples or land temples. There are many land temples in Pingxiang, Guangxi. There are 289 natural towns in Pingxiang, and almost every village has a land temple, so there are at least 300 large and small land temples in Pingxiang. Ordinary land temples are made of clay or stone, and white-haired old people are wearing robes and black hats, just like the image of local farmers, waiting to make a living. It is understood that during the Republic of China, the wind of setting up temples rose, and some small and medium-sized villages with relatively weak economic strength also adopted the method of raising funds and apportioning, and built new temples one after another. In addition to the fixed ancestral temple, Pingxiang still retains a relatively primitive way of offering sacrifices, that is, simply building small statues in the wild fields for offering sacrifices. This kind of sacrifice ceremony is simple and the tribute is not rich. Most of them bring tributes and burn incense for people, which is a very worship ceremony. It is not difficult to see that since the Republic of China, the land god has been very popular in Pingxiang area and has become the most influential and deepest god system in rural grassroots.

The land god believes in its social function.

The belief of the land god has been deeply rooted in people's hearts. Although the traditional culture has experienced a lot of destruction, in today's highly developed science and technology, people's understanding of themselves and reality is more and more rational. However, the tradition has not disappeared, but people have given new connotations to faith in the new era background. However, the social function of the belief in land gods lies in that it can keep pace with the times and constantly meet the basic psychological needs of the people. People's utilitarian character in religious consciousness is very prominent, and they will only believe in those gods that have an impact on people's daily lives. Land is the foundation of people's food and clothing, so it is the basic duty of the land god to take charge of the honor and disgrace for one year, and the responsibility of protecting the environment and protecting the people will be strengthened in the future. In addition, the desire for a stable life is the common desire of ordinary people, and the land god with this position will naturally be believed. Having many children and grandchildren is also the psychology of ordinary people, and the land god also has the function of giving children. It is a very important link in the funeral ceremony for ordinary people who are desperate, and the land god undertakes this important task. In many places in Pingxiang, people go to the land god to mourn after death, so that the land god can send their souls. Of course, the duties of the land god are by no means limited to these, but judging from the above-mentioned basic social responsibilities undertaken by the land god, they all show the characteristics of close contact with people's lives and close to people's psychological needs. Since the work of the land god meets the basic psychological needs of ordinary people, it is natural to be worshipped from generation to generation. The function of entertaining and uniting the neighborhood. Collective entertainment is not only an adjustment of individual efforts, but more importantly, it promotes the affinity between families in the village, thus consolidating the cohesion of the whole village, because the village community worshipped by people is also a special form of gathering local and clan forces.

For the belief in the land god, the first thing that attracts people's belief is that its basic duties can meet the most basic psychological needs of ordinary people: bumper harvest every year, stable life, full house of children and grandchildren, disaster relief and blessing. Secondly, it plays the role of entertainment, unity of neighbors and social education.

Pingxiang is located in the southern part of the motherland, facing Southeast Asia and backed by the southwest of China. Pingxiang has been a border town in China since ancient times and is known as the "southern gate" of the motherland. With a total area of 650 square kilometers, the city governs four towns, namely, Shangshi, Youyi and Pingxiang, and is inhabited by Zhuang, Han, Yao, Miao, Jing, Dong, Dai, Shui, Mulao, Tujia, She, Buyi, Man, Maonan, Yi, Hui and Li. 10. The local distribution of land gods is very dense. Almost every administrative village or neighborhood Committee has a land god. Every land god has different archetypes and immortal stories. The land god in Pingxiang area, like the land god believed by the people in the south, has a wide range of responsibilities and dominates the harvest of crops. It is the most basic duty of the land god to dominate the harvest of crops, and it is also the inherent performance of the land god as a natural god at first. In the past, the feudal thought that men were superior to women was serious, and only men could participate in the "social day". The landlords in Pingxiang are all male, unlike Jiangsu and Zhejiang in modern times. Folk customs call the land god "land god" or "land god and land woman". Most land lords appear as "white-haired men in cocoon robes and hats", while land women are more cosmetic buns. An example of their seating relationship in the temple is that on the left is the land Lord, on the right is the land woman, and on the left is regarded as the upper seat. This also vividly reflects the real life of men in feudal society in this area. Nowadays, with the increase of migrant workers, and most of them are men, the ceremony is no longer limited to men, only family members can attend.

The ceremony was originally a memorial ceremony to kill pigs and chickens, but with the development of the years, it has been simplified to buy things for sacrifice. Village heads and other organizations collect money and rice from house to house and are responsible for the birthday celebration of landlords. In the 1950s and 1960s, we went to the Earth Temple to burn incense on the first day and May of every month. Otherwise, the land Lord will be dissatisfied and it will be difficult to have a good year. Now, only when there are weddings, funerals or festivals at home do we go to the land Lord. Moreover, we don't go back to burn incense on holidays, except for coming back from the grave on March 3, and we have to go to the grave to worship. Other festivals are particularly casual. But still maintained, the earth god is still the most beloved god.

According to the local people, in the land temple, besides the usual land god, there is also an important place where all kinds of small gods live. In the folk custom of Zhuang nationality, there is a saying that sending the kitchen god on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month means sending the kitchen god and the land god together to the land temple on New Year's Eve. Therefore, after the Lunar New Year's Eve, people will not burn incense on the kitchen god's incense table and take it back at the Lantern Festival. This also shows that people think that immortals are also a good wish to have a group garden. This is in line with the belief of other nationalities that after the death of their loved ones, the soul lives in the land temple and is temporarily taken over by the land god, so they respect the land god more.

Among the numerous folk beliefs, Land Lord is the only one that can accommodate the public, regardless of regional barriers, nationalities, Taoism and Confucianism, and the aborigines in southern Fujian, Hakka, other provinces and mountainous areas. Land Lord is a universal belief. It is the oldest and most widely circulated. Although from agricultural society to industrial society, technological progress has promoted social progress, and the appearance of cities and villages and people's social life are changing, the belief of the land Lord remains in people's hearts, expressing people's love for nature and gratitude to mother earth. The land Lord will always protect our homeland (author Zeng Xingde)