**3. Temples and Shrines in Jiacun**

I had read a lot about Shangdang *saishe* but had not had an opportunity to conduct observations there until early May 2016, when I was invited to give a seminar talk on ritual origins of Chinese theatre at Changzhi University as a Guest Professor—an honorary title bestowed on me by Professor Ru Wenming 茹 文 明, President of Changzhi University. After the seminar, I carried out the long-awaited fieldwork along with Professors Che Wenming 車 文 明, Yao Chunmin 姚春 敏, Wang Luwei 王 潞 偉 and several other colleagues from Shanxi Normal University, where I serve as a Distinguished Overseas Professor of Chinese Drama and Theatre. Our fieldwork on Jiacun *shehuo* was very fruitful thanks to the arrangemen<sup>t</sup> of the Changzhi University's Research Institute of Shangdang *Saishe* Culture. In Jiacun, we visited temples and shrines, observed the famous Double-Fourth Temple Festival and also interviewed worship community heads and elders, and ritual specialists and organisers. These people are all farmer villagers rather than professional ritualists who are engaged in ritual performance as their main paid occupation.

Jiacun village covers a land area of 5267 *mu* 畝 (approx. 352 hectares), which is largely a flat plain suitable for farming except for two small hills, the Phoenix Hill (Fenghuangshan 鳳 凰 山) and the Shadowless Mound (Wuyinggang 無影 崗), which are located on its western and southern borders, respectively. Jiacun has a population of 2870 in 785 registered households (*hu* 戶) and is divided into eleven village groups as of 2016. The villagers are all Han Chinese. Dominant among the fifty-five family names in Jiacun are Wang 王, Cao 曹, Zhang 張, Song 宋, Niu 牛, Li 李 and Cui 崔. These six big families account for more than 60% of the total households in the village and enjoy a preponderant influence in village affairs and temple festivals.

Jiacun is one of the thirteen villages in the local governmen<sup>t</sup> area of Zhaidian 翟 店 township. To the northwest of Jiacun are Heyi 河移, Beishe 北舍 and Nanshe 南 舍, to the west Chongdao 崇 道, to the southwest Xiaotiangong, Dongtiangong 東 天 貢, Xitiangong 西 天 貢, Nantiangong 南 天 貢 and Guocun 郭 村, to the south Kangcheng 羌 城5 and Zhaishang 寨 上, and to the southeast Zhaidian. All of them, with the exception of the northwesternmost Heyi and the southwesternmost Nantiangong and Guocun, are members of the

aforementioned Eight Big Village Worship Associations. Each member village has its own village temple festivals to celebrate and has also a shared responsibility with other member villages for organising and holding the Festival of the Eight Big Worship Associations— namely, the Festival on the Mound of the Emperor of Locusts (*Huanghuanggang sai* 蝗 皇 崗 賽) (Du 2011a, pp. 242–43).

Jiacun is an ancient village noted for its deep-rooted temple culture. 'There first came the Palace of the Morning Clouds (Bixia gong 碧 霞 宮), then Lucheng county,' as a popular local saying goes. Jiacun alone has three big local community worship associations (*dashe* 大 社)—namely, the Front Community (*qianshe* 前 社), the Middle Community (*zhongshe* 中 社) and the Rear Community (*houshe* 後 社)—which are further divided into eight small communities (*xiaoshe* 小 社). The three big communities are each headed by a Community Head (*sheshou* 社首) who has overall responsibility for managing and maintaining temples and shrines in his domain and collaborating with the other worship communities in organising village temple festivals. To each temple or shrine is allocated approximately one hundred *mu* (equiv. 6.67 hectare) of community-owned agricultural land (*sheitan* 社 田) to cover the costs of routine operation and maintenance and village festivals.

The village boasts seventeen temples and shrines: the Palace of the Morning Clouds (Bixia gong), the Temple of the Jade Emperor (Yuhuang miao 玉 皇 廟) 6 (Figure 1),<sup>7</sup> the Palace of the Three Primordials (Sanyuan gong 三 元 宮) (Figure 2),<sup>8</sup> the Pavilion of Guanyin (Guanyin ge 觀 音 閣), the Hall of the Three Great Bodhisattvas (Sandashi tang 三 大 士 堂),<sup>9</sup> the Temple of Emperor Guan (Guandi miao 關 帝 廟) (Figures 3 and 4), the Temple of the Patriarch (Zushi miao 祖 師 廟), also called the Temple of the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu miao 真武廟) (Figures 5 and 6), the Hall of White Robe (Baiyi tang 白 衣 堂),<sup>10</sup> the Hall of the Cui Family (Cuijia tang 崔 家 堂),<sup>11</sup> the Shrine of the Earth God (Tudi miao 土地 廟), the Pavilion of the God of Literature and Culture (Wenchang ge 文 昌 閣), the Hall of the Buddha (Fodian 佛 殿), the Shrine of Patriarch Lü (Lüzu an 呂 祖 庵) and the Shrine of the Bald-Headed Grandma (Tunainai miao 禿奶奶 廟) (Figure 7),<sup>12</sup> in addition to three small shrines to the Five Paths (Wudao miao 五 道 廟).<sup>13</sup>

**Figure 1.** Main Hall of Jade Emperor Temple.

**Figure 2.** Three Primordials: Tianguan flanked by Diguan (right) and Shuiguan (left).

**Figure 3.** Statue and Spirit Tablet of Lord Guan Enshrined in the Sacrificial Hall of Emperor Guan Temple.

**Figure 4.** A Section of the Mural Depicting Lord Guan Crossing Five Passes and Decapitating Six Generals (*Guo wugan zhan liujiang* 過五關斬六將) on the Northern Wall of the Sacrificial Hall of Emperor Guan Temple.

**Figure 5.** Statue of the Patriarch.

**Figure 6.** Patriarch Temple Viewed from Outside.

**Figure 7.** Shrine of the Bald-Headed Grandma.

The most prominent of them is Bixia gong, which occupies a central position—spatially and spiritually—in Jiacun (Figure 8).

These temples and shrines may be classified into four groups according to their religious origin or orientation, as shown below in Table 1:



Overwhelmingly dominant among them are Daoist temples and shrines, which vastly outnumber temples and shrines of any other religion and account for 65% of the total number of temples and shrines in Jiacun. It must be pointed out, however, that the above classification is far from black and white, as the boundary drawn between them is not always as clear-cut as is thought. This is because one can almost always find elements of one religion in temples or shrines of the other religion. A good example of this is the Cuijia tang, which is a sanctuary for ancestor worship as well as for Buddhist worship, as indicated by its alternative name Gu fotang or the Ancient Hall of the Buddha. As such, the distinction between them is more often than not a matter of degree rather than a matter of kind in a broad socioreligious context.

**Figure 8.** Bixia Temple Viewed from Outside.

This is particularly true of the borderline between Daoism and Chinese popular religion, for they share common origins or sources in many of their respective beliefs and practices. Since emerging as an organised form of religion from an integration of various folk beliefs, the Huang-Lao 老 thought and Lao-Zhuang 老莊 philosophy at the end of the second century AD, Daoism has never given up attempting to assimilate or synthesise local traditions and cults of local deities. A case in point is the Bixia gong dedicated to Bixia yuanjun or the Primordial Sovereign of the Morning Clouds, a goddess who, with her origin in the cult of Taishan 泰山 or Mount Tai, is widely worshipped in Daoism and folk religion in northern China as the Heavenly Immortal and Holy Mother (Tianxian shengmu 天仙聖母) charged with childbirth and childcare (Li 2018, p. 62)—a point to which we will return later in more detail. There are others in a similar vein. Take for example the Lüzu an, a shrine dedicated to Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓, the best-known of the Eight Immortals (*baxian* 八仙) in Chinese mythology and folk religion, who is also credited as a founder of Daoist Internal Alchemy (*neidan* 丹) and venerated as a patriarch of the Way of Completed Perfection (Quanzhen dao 全真道), one of the two major schools of Daoism along with the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tiansh dao 天師道).<sup>15</sup> The same may be said of the Tudi miao, a small shrine dedicated to the Earth God (Tudi 土地). Also called the Lord of the Soil and the Orthodox Deity of Fortunes and Virtues (Fude zhengshen 福正神), among others, the Earth God was originally a local tutelary deity and was later incorporated into the Daoist pantheon of a bewildering myriad of gods, spirits and immortals (Chavannes 1910, pp. 437–525). This is also the case with Imperial Lord Wenchang (Wenchang dijun 文昌帝 君), the God of Culture and Literature in Daoism, whose cult originated from a local deity of Zitong 梓潼, a hilly county in northern Sichuan (Kleeman 1998), hence alternatively called Imperial Lord Zitong (Zitong dijun 梓潼帝君).

While a temple or shrine is generally named after the god or goddess to whom it is dedicated in China, it is not at all uncommon to find shrines or spirit tablets (*paiwei* 牌位) in its altars set up for the worship of other gods and goddesses. A case in point is the Zushi miao, a temple dedicated to the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu 真武), also known as the Dark Warrior (Xuanwu 玄武) in Daoist mythology.<sup>16</sup> Interestingly, the Zhenwu miao is flanked by two small shrines: one on its western side dedicated to the God of Five Grains (Wugu 五穀) and the God of Wealth (Caishen 財神) and the other on its eastern side to Zhang Ban 張班 and Lu Ban 魯班 (See Figure 6).<sup>17</sup>
