Jerome Yuchien's Ph.D Thesis
Chapter Five: The Deification of Stones and Tree (part I)
I. Introduction:
The worship of stones and trees is a world-wide phenomenon. However, interpretation is made difficult by the fact that many sacred stones and trees come to us from religions and cultures for which there is little or no literary data. Under such circumstances, it is understandable that researchers on religions have applied many different theories to such worship, speaking of ancestor cults, nature worship, fetishism, non-iconic (non- figurative) cults, animism, and dynamism (cf. Edsman 1987:50).
From the secular point of view, a sacred stone/tree remains a stone/tree; apparently, nothing distinguishes it from all other stones/trees. Nevertheless, if the stones/trees are the dwelling places of the souls of ancestors (India, Indonesia), were once the scene of a theophany (as the bethel that served Jacob for a bed), have been consecrated by a sacrifice or an oath, are impregnated with a magical or religious power by virtue of its symbolic shape or its origin, represent or imitate something divine, or came from somewhere in sacred time, they become sacred (cf. Eliade 1958:216; 1989:4).
The initial formation of Chinese popular cults is not a subject of great interest or discussion among scholars (DeGlopper 1974:55). When describing the origin of deification, they only tautologically say that these deities are apotheosised because of increasing recognition of their efficacy (e.g. Feng 1970:20; Harrell 1974:204; Baity 1977:76; Tsai Wen-hui 1979:28).(note.1) Nonetheless, some scholars do delineate the reasons certain cults have started. They are deities favoured by a particular household on its domestic altar; the inspirer of a spirit medium; the ghosts or their guardian in a shrine to the forgotten dead; an off-shoot of a famous temple in the original home of a new settler; the guardian of a trade which has started in the area; the chosen deity of a local defence association; inspiration of a spirit-writing association or a dream etc. (Overmyer 1987:281; Feuchtwang 1992:62).
However, the deification of stones and trees is somewhat different from and more complicated than the general delineation above. Based on my field interviews, I shall illustrate that some of these natural objects are themselves regarded as deities and others as possessed by certain supernatural beings. Then, I argue that since the forms of "hierophanies" vary from one culture to another, the term is too general to thoroughly explain why Chinese, for instance, prefer worshipping stones with forms such as the crane, turtle or humankind. I shall assert that in order to understand why some forms are treated as containing intrinsic mystery, while others are not, it is vital to understand the significance of them in their own culture. Finally, I suggest that the deification legends derived from my field work are not only able to help us understand the initial formation of Chinese popular cults, but also help us study the world-wide phenomenon of stone/tree worship.
II. How the Stone Deities were Deified:
1, Performing miracles:
There are several reasons that make people deify stones and trees in Chinese society. Performing miracles by these objects is one. Among the 61 sacred stones I have studied, 11 were deified because they originally performed miracles. I will introduce these deities as follows:(note.2)
In Uan-lim Town, a stone is venerated and named "the Stone Buddha (#S5; see figure 5)". A legend says that more than a hundred years ago, a boy drowned in the canal called Pak-po Chun (literally, the Eight-stronghold Canal). The souls of the child appeared at the area at night. In order to oppress the souls, the local inhabitants set a cylindrical stone at the site and started to worship it. The stone glittered at night after it was deified. Therefore the villagers built a shrine for the stone and named it "the Stone Buddha". Thus, the origin of the Stone Buddha seems a "Shi Gandang", the Evil-warding Stone depicted in Chapter Two. Another legend goes that the stone was set by the landlord of this area by the end of eighteenth century to be the protector of his lands. But there is at least one other version, told to me by some local people over a game of chess in the temple precinct. About two hundred years ago (the Khen-liong Era (1785-1798 CE.), the village was extremely unpropitious (bo-peng-an). One night the Stone God revealed himself to a villager in dream and said that if the village wanted be become harmonious again, he should dig 100 cm beside a tree (now the Tree God ?n-lim Town (#T1); see figure 66) and would find the Stone God.(note.3) Therefore the man assembled some fellow villagers to do so and found the stone. Surprisingly, the stone sometimes glittered at night since it was unearthed. Therefore, they regarded the stone as the protecting god of the village and built a temple to worship it.
In the mid-1800s, in front the big rock where the temple "Hiap-ho Bio" (literally, the Temple of Harmony and Peace) is presently located, there was a small plain where some cowherds often played and fed their oxen. Every time they came, they were impressed by a rock with marvelous size and colour different from its milieu under the hill. One day they decided to worship the rock with incense deliberately taken from each family. As they worshipped, a boy fell into a trance. They suddenly realised that the boy was possessed by the spirit of the rock. From that time on, the rock was deified as "the Stone General (#S8; see figures 8 & 9)" and has nominally adopted many children.
In Pat-po Village a stone is worshipped in a grand temple and named the Stone Divine Grandfather (Chio Seng Kong, #S9; see figure 10). I interviewed some local people, and they all told me that more than a hundred and fifty years ago, a stone of about 100 cm in height was found by a farmer in his rice field. He thought the stone would disturb his farming work and decided to remove it. As a result, he pushed the rock into a pond beside his field. But next day when he came to his field he found that the rock had come back automatically to his rice field again. He tried three times, but the rock came back to the field again and again. The farmer soon realised the rock was divine, so he and the local inhabitants began to enshrine it (see also, Yuan Chang- rue 1987:129).
In Tin-an Temple, the village temple for the God Sam-san Kok-ong (or the Kings of Three Mountains), we can find a stone god called "the Emperor of Six Areas" ("Liok-kah Then-te", #S10). Around the 1870s, a cowherd named Li a-chau, and his playmates witnessed an unusual small stone, with the form of a normal deity statue, shining in the grass. They believed that the stone was divine and began to worship it with incense. One day the landlord found that the cowherds worshipped a stone on his land. He was annoyed and destroyed the humble altar. As soon as he did it, his abdomen ached terribly and he fell down on the ground. When his wife realised it was because of her husband's rude act, she promised that if the god forgive him, they would donate the land to build a temple for the stone. Of course her husband recovered after the prayer. As a result, villagers came to worship it too and venerated it as the Emperor of Six Areas.
On the hall of the family altar of Mr. Phuan Hong-guan, a Chinese pharmacist, two stones are worshipped as (Ko Bio Kong, see figure 42). The pharmacist told me that in 1984 he was selected by "the Granny" to be an official for her annual celebration on the twenty third day of the third lunar month. According to the tradition, as an official of that kind, he must go to the old site of the goddess's temple to offer incense. After the rite he sincerely put the incense on the earth. On the earth he found two stones that he believed were the stones left by the original temple of the goddess and brought them home in memory of his honorable office. When he got home, he found he could not light incense to worship on the family altar. He felt strange and asked the goddess what the matter was. The goddess, through throwing moon blocks, told him that the two stones were divine and should be enshrined. Therefore he set them on the altar and worship them and named the two natural stones "the Ancient Temple God".
The Stone God of P?hun Ward (#S44; see figures 46 & 47) is located in a mountainside tea plantation and beside the small path leading to Taipei city centre. About 100 years ago, again and again when the tea farmers of the area shouldered their tea for sale in Taipei City, they saw, from a distance, a large dog on the rock. But when they came close to the rock, the dog disappeared. They felt strange and regarded it as a miracle performed by the rock. Therefore they started to worship it to ask for prosperity in the tea business. The rock was very divine and responsive to their wishes. As a result, they built the temple to worship the rock.
Under a big temple named "Tin-an Kiong" (literally, the Palace of Harmony) dedicated to the Royal Lords in Pak-tau District, there is a stone (#S47; see figure 50) for the worship of the Stone God. Because of the marginal location, even many of its neighbours do not realise that there is a cult of the Stone God here. An elderly man living in front of the temple told me that more than a hundred years ago, cowherds of the area liked to get together around the big stone. One day, in the seventh lunar month, they thought it might be fun to worship the stone of unusual size. When they brought incense and some offerings for the stone, a boy was suddenly possessed. The elders of the village regarded the possession a divine manifestation of the stone and started the cult.
In the Bak-sa District of Taipei City, a big stone is worshipped as the Stone God. I was told that because when a gale blows, the stone can be dramatically moved by the gale. The local people believed that the phenomenon is a divine manifestation of the stone and thus deified it as the Wind-moving Stone (#S48; see figure 51).
