Local Religion in North China in the Twentieth Century Handbook of Oriental Studies Handbuch der Orientalistik SECTION FOUR China Edited by Stephen F. Teiser Martin Kern Timothy Brook VOLUME 22 Local Religion in North China in the Twentieth Century Th e Structure and Organization of Community Rituals and Beliefs By Daniel L. Overmyer LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 Cover illustration: Hebei, Tangxian, Qingxushan, Worship of Dizang Boddhisatva. Photo by Dan Overmyer (April 2001). Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Overmyer, Daniel L., 1935– Local religion in North China in the twentieth century : the structure and organization of community rituals and beliefs / by Daniel L. Overmyer. p. cm. — (Handbook of oriental studies = Handbuch der Orientalistik. Section 4, China ; v. 22) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17592-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. China—Religion—20th century. I. Title. II. Series. BL1803.O83 2009 200.951—dc22 2009028998 ISSN 0169-9520 ISBN 978 90 04 17592 1 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands With gratitude to Wang Ch’iu-kuei CONTENTS Foreword .............................................................................................. ix Preface .................................................................................................. xiii Introduction: Th emes and Contexts ................................................ 1 I. Rain Rituals ................................................................................ 18 II. History and Government ......................................................... 32 III. Leadership and Organization .................................................. 53 IV. Temple Festivals ........................................................................ 93 V. Gods and Temples ..................................................................... 123 VI. Beliefs and Values ...................................................................... 149 VII. Concluding and Comparative Comments ............................ 175 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 188 Glossary of Chinese Terms and Names .......................................... 197 Index ..................................................................................................... 217 FOREWORD Th is book, which marks another major milestone in Daniel L. Over- myer’s distinguished career, provides a detailed, colorful and, at times, even moving description of Chinese religious life. One of the most important realms of public activity in late imperial and modern China prior to 1949, not to mention Chinese communities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas today, has centered on local cults and festivals. In recent years, an ever-increasing number of scholars have explored the ways in which religious beliefs, rituals, and dramatic performances both refl ect yet also shape the development of communal society. eirTh research has shift ed from top-down analyses of the state’s impact on local communities, to the study of the interaction between so-called ‘elite culture’ and ‘popular culture,’ to detailed ethnographic or micro- historical case studies of the workings of local society, the roles of local elites, and the complex reverberation of power between state and society.1 Th e study of Chinese religions at the communal level has been trans- formed as well, with scholars using interdisciplinary methodologies to conduct in-depth investigations. Th e past two decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in such research, led by scholars such as Adam Chau, Kenneth Dean, Prasenjit Duara, David Faure, Vincent Goossaert, Hamashima Atsutoshi 濱島敦俊, Robert Hymes, David Johnson, John Lagerwey, Susan Naquin, Kristofer Schipper, Michael Szonyi, Barend ter Haar, James Watson, Robert Weller, Yang Yanjie 楊彥杰, Yü Chün- fang 于君方, Zheng Zhenman 鄭振滿, etc. Two long-term collaborative research projects in particular have marked the progress being made in our understanding of Chinese communal religious traditions. Th e fi rst is the Minsu quyi congshu 民俗曲藝叢書 (85 volumes, edited by Wang Ch’iu-kuei 王秋桂; the second is the Kejia chuantong shehui congshu 客家傳統社會叢書 (30 volumes, edited by John Lagerwey and his colleagues in China).2 1 For an overview of these issues, see Catherine Bell (1989), “Religion and Chinese Culture: Toward an Assessment of ‘Popular Religion’”. History of Religions 29(1): 35−57. 2 The importance of these projects is clearly attested to by the publication of Ethnography in China Today: A Critical Assessment of Methods and Results, edited by Daniel L. Overmyer with the assistance of Chao Shin-yi 趙昕毅. Taipei: Yuanliu x foreword Overmyer has been a pioneer in this fi eld, and one of its leaders as well. While scholars had long been interested in the doctrinal aspects of Buddhism and Daoism, the study of communal religious traditions per se began to take shape during the 1960s and 1970s. One of the fi rst breakthroughs began with Overmyer’s work on sectarian religious tra- ditions like the so-called White Lotus Teachings (Bailian jiao 白蓮教), which marked a paradigm shift from the realm of political history to that of social history.3 By the 1980s, Overmyer was devoting his eff orts to collecting and studying the texts that such groups had produced, particularly so-called ‘precious volumes’ (baojuan 寶卷).4 Another important accomplishment is the book entitled Th e Flying Phoenix, published as the result of a cooperative research project involving Overmyer and David K. Jordan.5 Th ese two scholars used an interdis- ciplinary approach to study Taiwanese sectarian groups that practice spirit-writing, not only providing a detailed history of their develop- ment and introducing important morality books (shanshu 善書), but also breaking new ground by delineating the internal dynamics of such groups, especially confl icts and schisms, and shift ing the emphasis from leaders to average worshipers. Th rough the years, Overmyer has never lost sight of the need to undertake thorough investigations of the religious traditions of the Chinese people in both the past and the present day. For example, in the Introduction to a special issue of Th e China Quarterly entitled “Religion in China Today” (Volume 174, June 2003), and which was also published in book form, he pointed out that, “Religious beliefs and rituals are an important and growing reality in modern Chinese society, Publishing Company, 2002. A newer series has resulted from my participation in a three-year research project organized by John Lagerwey; see the Zhejiang chuantong shehui congshu 浙江傳統社會叢書. 3 Daniel L. Overmyer (1976) Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late Tradi- tional China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. See also Susan Naquin (1976) Millenarian Uprising in China: Th e Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813. New Haven: Yale University Press. 4 Daniel L. Overmyer (1999) Precious Volumes: An Introduction to Chinese Sectar- ian Scriptures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 5 David K. Jordan and Daniel L. Overmyer (1986) Th e Flying Phoenix. Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism in Taiwan. Princeton: Princeton University Press. foreword xi which cannot be fully understood without taking them into account”.6 Most recently, he has worked with colleagues in north China to edit a new series, the four-volume Huabei nongcun minjian wenhua yanjiu congshu 華北農村民間文化研究叢書, some data from which is also contained in the present volume. Th e present book focuses on Chinese communal religious traditions in the northern provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, and Shanxi, particularly as they are documented for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Th is contrasts markedly with previous studies of religion and local society, which have treated China’s southern and southeastern regions. Th e book’s most noteworthy features include lengthy annotated translations of primary sources, new data revealing the importance of religious specialists in communal life, and accounts demonstrating the key roles played by women, both as practitioners (worshipers and pilgrims, especially for deities and rituals associated with fertility) and leaders (association heads for various Mother cults). Another striking discovery concerns the transformation of sectarian groups into community-based traditions and deifi ed sect founders into popular gods, which shows how Overmyer’s research has come full circle since its commencement over three decades ago.7 Most importantly, this book challenges conventional wisdom about Chinese religions, especially C. K. Yang’s dichotomy between ‘insti- tutional’ and ‘diff used’ religious traditions, which Overmyer correctly observes is based on Western