Jerome Yuchien's Ph.D Thesis
Chapter Seven: Lottery Gambling and The Three Deities (part I)
I. Introduction:
In Chapters Six, I explained that the Stone and Tree Gods are traditionally considered as the guardians of children. We also found that some of the stones and trees which have been newly deified in these three decades, unlike these with older traditions, do not serve as the nominal parents of unhealthy children. Instead, they are treated as the patron deities of gambling. Moreover, since the rapid social changes in these decades, more and more deities, which were the patron deities of children, have been transforming into the patron deities of gambling.
The influences of the rapid social changes on religions of Taiwan have been studied by scholars (e.g. Katz 1992:214; Jordan 1994:138), although their conclusions are various. However, the most important influences on the transformation of roles of the divine stones and trees are, first of all, general changes in government policy, and second, the prevalence of an illicit lottery gambling called "Everybody Happy" (Dajiale, I shall call it "the Lottery" hereinafter) in 1980s. (note.1)
To understand these changes, I first introduce the coming of the Nationalist Government to Taiwan in 1949. It installed some of its two million followers in the majority of positions in the education system, in the top ranks of the national government and in the military and, therefore, caused rapid social change on the island. I select two important policies launched by the new Government which I believe have had the greatest effect on the deities under this study. They are: 1, Land Reform; and 2, the improved medical system.
Next, I depict the divination instruments used by the Bettors to predict the winning numbers of the Lottery. Then I portray the patron deities of the Lottery such as the Good Brothers, Jigong, the Third Prince and the Stone/Tree God. The results of my studies of the divination instruments and the patron deities for the Lottery reveal that the Bettors have an anti-authoritarian tendency. Furthermore, I analyze why in some places the deities get involved in the Lottery while in some places they do not. I conclude that the prevalence of the Lottery, together with the transformation of roles of the deities, can be read, to a certain degree, as a resistance against or even subversion of the contemporary situation of Taiwan.
II. New Dynasty and New Policies:
In 1949, when the Chinese Communists defeated the Nationalist armies on the mainland and assumed control of China, the Nationalist Government soon established its capital in Taipei and a new wave of nearly two million immigrants arrived in Taiwan with the Government. The immigration of the Nationalist Government and its followers installed a series of new policies once they took firm control of Taiwan. I shall here introduce two important policies which I believe have had the greatest effect on the transformation of the three deities I studied.
The first important policy by the new Government engendering the transformation is the Land Reform, with rent reduction, the distribution of public lands, and the land-to-the-tiller policies being its main components. The traditional landlords, mostly Taiwanese, were compelled to sell land. Hence the Land Reform programme both directly and indirectly eliminated the landowner class and the landlord-tenant relationship as part of the social system, thus eradicating the feudal social structure in rural Taiwan. These policies produced a number of salient social changes (cf. Copper 1990:42f).
As a result of these reforms, the pace of urbanization in Taiwan has been among the most rapid in the world in the last three decades. Actually, few areas of the world have changed as much as Taiwan in these years. Its transition from an agricultural colony of a militant Japanese Empire to a modern industrial state with more than thrice its war-time population has affected all aspects of life in Taiwan, producing ever new manifestations of what Chinese civilization is like. So extreme have these changes been as to inspire recent books with titles that speak of a Taiwan "Revolution" or even "Miracle" (cf. Jordan 1994:137).
In 1920 only four percent of the people lived in cities with a population of more than a hundred thousand. By the early 1970s and into the 1980s, Taiwan urbanised even faster. Its population was two-thirds urban. Today three-fourths of Taiwan's population is defined either as urban or suburban, although process has slightly slowed in recent years (cf. Copper 1990:43).
The sudden urbanisation had a considerable effect on society. For instance, the family system changed dramatically. Family ties and the authority of family heads decreased in importance. Young men and women sought further independence from parents. Relationships between men and women changed, as did the practice of filial piety. The birthrate dropped. Rural society became much more transient. These change also fostered greater job specialisation and broader opportunities, engendered social equality and reduced social and class barriers, and vastly increased cultural opportunities. We can see the roads are so crammed with vehicles that they can hardly move. Video game halls and prostitutes seem to be an established way of life.
Further on the negative side, it caused social alienation, raised crime rates, weakened the family, and created many new social problems (Copper 1990:43). For example, younger people of the rural areas have to seek jobs in the cities. The income of those who are still actively engaged in agriculture is generally supplemented by nonagricultural wage earnings such as wage labouring, cottage industry knitting, tea processing etc. in nearby factories, or by the younger generation working in the cities (Harrell 1981:127).
The second important policy that influences the religious transformation is the improved medical system. Indeed, the improvement of the medical system has had a drastic effect upon the worship of these deities. For one thing, public and private hospitals have grown up throughout Taiwan, making health care more widely available. In addition, the licensing standards for physicians, both modern-style and traditional, have constantly risen over the past forty years, much increasing the reliability of medical service. Taiwan has also benefited from the general improvement in world medical knowledge over this period, and that too has made medicine more reliable (Jordan 1994:147-48). As a result, the population is physically healthier than it was a half-century ago, and children have less urgent need for the nominal adoption than previously.
III. Transformation of the Three Deities:
In his study of the Royal Lords, Katz (1992:214) finds that, even though under the impacts of social change and the improved medical system, the Royal Lords remain popular because they have broadened their functions so that they do more than cure disease.(note.2) Indeed, under the pressures of rapid social change, popular religion remains popular. Many ruined temples were rebuilt, and ceremonial parades and pilgrimages became very prevalent (Chiu 1987:254; Katz 1992:214; Jordan 1994:139). Sangren (1987:92) argues that the popularity serves as a symbol of Taiwanese identity based on the shared historical and cultural experiences which differentiates them from the mainlanders who immigrated to the island after the Second World War.(note.3)
According to Hill Gates (1982 unpub., qtd. in Weller 1985:59), the revival has been funded primarily by a Taiwanese traditional middle class. She argues that these people spend money on religion as a way of gaining status and investing in the local community. This argument is similar to that of James Watson (1985:293-323) which I summarised in Chapter Four. The difference between Watson's observation and the revival of Taiwan's popular religion is that the latter, taking place after the demise of the imperial central power, is not supported by the state.
Moreover, these deities under study here are not "approved" and thus do not interest the local leaders who wish to "gentrify" themselves, nor were any sectarian institutions formed to foster these deities. Can, then, the worship of these deities survive under the pressure of the rapid social changes? The answer is positive. Even though the traditional roles that these deities were serving as the guardians of children have been gradually neglected due to the improvement of the medical system, they have been partially transformed into the patron deities of gambling. According to my field research, 28 stone deities are obviously involved in the Lottery gambling.(note.4) Besides, 19 tree deities are clearly connected with the Lottery. (note.5)
The organisation of lottery gambling was a means by which the Japanese colonial government (1895-1945 CE.) raised funds in Taiwan. The Nationalist Government also held lotteries for 37 years until the ban in 1988 and had raised about NT 29.3 billion for its coffers (Ta Yu-shan 1993:1). The lottery issued by the Nationalist Government was encouraged by officials and scholars who claimed that it could provide extra revenues which the government has been unable to generate through raising taxes and could help promote welfare and offer employment opportunities for the handicapped (Ta Yu-shan 1993:1).
