Jerome Yuchien's Ph.D Thesis
Chapter Eight: The Links among the Stone, Tree, and Land Deities (part IV)
It thus becomes clear that the Earth "She" was made by making level and sweeping clean a piece of ground and by raising a pile of earth above the ground. The Stone "She" may imply either the "She" altar or the tablet that was made of stone. The Tree "She" was represented either by a tree specially planted or by a natural-grown tree which could be a pine, chestnut, catalpa, or cypress tree etc. The Forest "She" was represented by a natural-grown forest such as a mulberry forest.
4, Menhirs and Dolmens:
As mentioned above, many "She" were made of stones. Ling Shun-sheng (1964:40) hypothesises that these stones were menhirs. The following texts cited by him from certain historical records can also bear this out:
The Songshi Liji (960-1279 CE.): "The object of 'She' is made of a five 'chi' long and two 'chi' wide, bell-shaped stone. The upper half is a bit hewed and the lower half is buried (into the ground)" (my translation; Ling Shun-sheng 1959b:20).(note.11)
The Yuanshi Liji (1271-1368 CE.): "The object of 'She' is made of a five 'chi' long and two 'chi' wide, white stone. ... The upper half of it is hewed into bell-shaped and the lower half is buried into the ground" (my translation; Ling Shun-sheng 1959b:20).
The Ming Liji (1368-1644): "The object of 'She' is made of a five 'chi' long and two 'chi' wide stone. The upper half of it is pointed and the lower half is (buried) in the ground" (my translation; Ling Shun-sheng 1959b:20).
In volume four of the Zhuluo Xianzhi is written:(note.12) "The object of 'She' is set at the centre of the altar and made of a stone pillar of two 'chi' five 'cun' in length and one 'chi' and one 'cun' in width. The upper half of it is pointed and bell-shaped and the lower half is buried into the ground" (my translation; Ling Shun-sheng 1959b:20).(note.13)
Additionally, Ling Shun-sheng suspects that many of the ancient stone-made "She" altars were just dolmens (1967:133). In fact, dolmen is not absent in the Chinese world. It is called "Shipeng" (Stone Shed) in China. In addition to the Shandong and Liaodong Peninsula, there were also dolmens in He'nan Province in North China in accordance with documented records. For example, the Shipeng Shan (the Stone-shed Mountain) of Yong Yang, Sanshi Shan (the Three-rock Mountain) recorded in the Hanshu, and the Xiezishi (the Writing Stone) at Xinyang were all dolmens (cf. Ling Shun-sheng 1964:40; 1967:133).
IV. Dialogue Between Historical Studies and Field Data:
In China, the Land God was commonly called by many names, such as She, Tudi, Sheshen, Tushen, Tudi Shen, Tudi Pusa, Tudi Laoye, Shegong, Tudi Gonggong, and so on (Werner 1977:414). What is noteworthy is that, according to these names, he seemed to be identified with "She". "She" was originally the theistic symbol of the feudal state and in charge of feudal fertility. The Land God, introduced in the first century BCE., was also in charge of fertility of land. Therefore, from the functional viewpoints (Yang 1961:97), the identification is quite natural.
Furthermore, in Taiwan, some people identify the Land God with the person who first taught agricultural skills, that is, Shennong. Therefore, instead of placing small piles of seed in front of the Land God, farmers put rice seeds in the hand of Shennong. People in Yilan county think that the birthday of Shennong is on the twenty sixth day of the fourth month. The date is also recorded in the Chinese Almanac circulated in this county.(note.14) But there are two exceptions. One Shennong temple celebrates the deity's birthday on the second day of the second month and the other temple on the thirteenth day of the second month. The devotees of these two temples told me that it is because Shennong is similar to the Land God. In brief, sometimes Shennong, "She", and the Land God are functionally mixed up.
However, according to my intensive research in Yilan County, the administration regions of the imperial cults of Shennong and "She" (or Sheji) were larger and separate from the cult of the Land God. Lamley (1977), based on certain historical data, reports that one of the first things the Mandarin bureaucrats did when Yilan was officially incorporated into the imperial government was sponsoring the construction of three new temples. The images of the Heavenly Empress (the Granny), the God of War (Guangong), and Guanyin (the Goddess of Mercy) were brought from the China mainland and installed in Yilan. The officials in charge saw temple construction as an integral part of the government's mission to "civilize" the Taiwanese frontier.
However, according to the temple stele of the Shennong Temple, the officially sponsored Shennong Temple was also built by in 1812 in Yilan, as soon as the Qing Government appointed its officials to the county. The temple was also called "Shejitan (Sheji Altar)", because Sheji was enshrined in the temple as well. There are six Shennong temples in Yilan County; only this one was the official temple and only this one enshrines Sheji.
In imperial times, the officials came to make sacrifice to Shennong and Sheji only in this temple and not in the other five Shennong temples. But since 1912, when the imperial system was terminated, the official temples of the Heavenly Empress, the God of War, the Goddess of Mercy, and Shennong Sheji were all turned into sites of popular worship.
So far, by using the results of the historical studies described above, it is possible to answer some of the questions left by my field work. First of all, in the beginning of this chapter, I mentioned that the Land God of some localities is represented by a stone and/or tree and he is sometimes mixed up with the Stone God and the Tree God. Based on the historical studies above, we realise that the "She" could be constructed with a stone or tree. It is natural that the Land God, usually identical with the "She", is represented by or considered as residing in a stone or tree. Consequently, the Land God is sometimes mixed up with the Tree God and the Stone God nowadays.(note.15)
Secondly, in the field work, I found that many of the divine stones and trees are worshipped in the open air; that is, these three deities are different from other Chinese gods who are housed in temples.(note.16) Only some tiny altars or shrines are built to protect their incense pots and statues from rain.(note.17)
Actually, the fact that many divine stones and trees are worshipped in the open air has been noticed by numerous field workers (e.g. Burkhardt 1958a:123; Smith (1899) 1969:146; Chamberlayne 1966:167; Berkovits and others 1969:77; Yuan Chang- rue 1993:10). At first, I assumed it was because the natural objects were too big to be housed in temples. However, this is only partly true. We see that, for example, though the grand temples of the Stone Divine Grandfather of Pat-po Village (#S9) and the Stone General of Tan-khe Rural-town (#S8; see figure 8) are big enough to house their divine stones, the stones are still left in the open air.
