Jerome Yuchien's Ph.D Thesis
Chapter Nine: Conclusion (part III)
Most of the divine stones or trees belonging to the third type are also anthropomorphised and historicised. For example, The Autumn Maple of Lam-kang District (#T33; see figure 100) is identified with the God Lyu Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortal Ones (Baxian).(note.5) Moreover, the stone Granny of Ho-peng Award (#S16; see figure 16), the Grandfather of the Ancient Temple of An-lam District (#S40; see figure 42), the stone Granny of Chhim-khen Rural-town (#S45; see figure 48), the First Divine Patriarch of Chiang-chiu District of Chiam-teng Hamlet (#S49; see figure 52), and the General Chu of Sai-kang Rural-town (#T29; see figure 95), since they are identified as higher-ranking deities, are of course anthropomorphised and historicised. In addition, the natural objects which are treated as "the stone Good Brothers" (#S22, #S24, #S26, #S57) are also anthropomorphised, since the term "Good Brothers" means those who died by violence or without descendants and without virtuous deeds for the society.
Nonetheless, there are some deities of this type which, because they are not deified with moral deeds and are thus lower- ranking, are connected with gambling. They are only slightly influenced by anthropomorphism but are not historicised or standardised.
As we have discussed before, Watson says that the local elites, in order to gentrify themselves, have tried to cooperate with state authorities in the standardisation of cults such as that of the Heavenly Empress (Mazu) and so on. The elevation of the Heavenly Empress and her cult are paralleled by the gradual rise of state authority over China's southern coastal region (Watson 1985:294). The deities approved and elevated by state authority and local elites were those who were apotheosised because of their ethics or morality before or after death. Therefore, in order to have their deities elevated, those who took more than a casual interest in popular temple affairs made efforts to anthropomorphise and historicise their deities. The anthropomorphisation, historicisation, and standardisation of the Land God and higher-ranking deities provide good examples.
Even though the imperial system was terminated in 1912 and the Nationalist Government does not openly approve any cults, the situation has not changed much. The religious attitudes of the present government are reflected in the textbooks of the national compulsory education. According to the viewpoint of the textbooks, the "true" religions are those that uphold the social order, public opinion, morality and law. They all stress avoiding evil and doing good (Meyer 1987:47). Moreover, Taiwanese local leaders, defined here as traditional upper middle class such as politicians, entrepreneurs, and others are still zealous to spend money and time on local cults as a way of gaining status without imperial sponsorship.
Consequently, those deities who are not popular enough do not interest local leaders. These deities are, thus, much freer from the standardised interpretation than the Land God. People may, according to their own conceptions, provide the deities with different and new interpretations, and therefore endow them with different images, legends, functions, and dates of birthday festival. Being much freer from the standardised interpretation, these stone and tree deities can be interpreted more flexibly. Under the impact of the rapid social changes in these decades, they are interpreted as the guardian of gambling.
IV. the Mechanism and Authorities of Common People:
Based on the studies in the previous chapters, we observe that the state, local literate elites, and written accounts served as the mechanism to standardise the local religious culture in imperial times. The influence of the standardisation has been in effect even until now. However, from the studies of the deities who are not popular enough to attract local leaders' attention, we discover that, besides the mechanism dominated by elites, common people have their own mechanism to sustain their religious culture.
For example, the education in modern schools ignores the significance of turtle and crane recorded in classical Chinese mythology, but, temple and family education instructed by senior relatives serves as the mechanism to reproduce their significance. Senior relatives are the instructors from whom children can learn religious knowledge such as the proper way to carry out rituals, the legends of cultural heroes, and the bureaucratic ranking of deities. The religious knowledge in all aspects defines the turtle and crane as sacred symbols consisting of intrinsic mystery. As a result, the conception of the two mythical animals' cultural significance is shaped.
From the analysis of the birthday festival dates of the divine stones and trees, we also notice that common people have their own mechanism to identify the dates. Two birthday festival dates for the Land God are standardised in the Almanac, but common people accept only one date (the second day of the second month) and ignore the other date (the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month). The acceptance of yet another date (either the second day or the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month) shows the influence of the autumn rite of the "She", which was also a state fostered cult, but different from the second date standardised in the Almanac.
Moreover, without the standardised account, common people can still identify the dates by numerous ways, by the instructions of shamans, of religious specialists and others. Even without these specialists, they can identify the dates with the same birthdays of some goddesses who are also guardians of children; they can believe they are following the traditional dates of the birthdays of the Stone and Tree Gods; they can use the temple inauguration dates as birthday festival dates; or they can decide which dates are convenient for them to hold festivals.
From the study of the religious custom of the nominal adoption of unhealthy children, we can observe that common people have their own mechanism to choose deities. Higher-ranking deities who are elevated by the state authority and believed to have great power are suitable for being nominal parents. However, besides these powerful deities, common people also prefer their children to be nominally adopted by the Stone and Tree Gods who, although with little hierarchical power, can serve children with their intrinsic appearance physical strength which is more direct and concrete than the Higher-ranking ones.
From the analysis of Chinese wealth gods, we also find that common people have their own choice. There are various deities who serve as wealth gods. Guan'gong, for instance, is believed to be mighty in bringing wealth. But those who worship him should commit to the spirit of justice and loyalty after prosperity arrives. The Land God is also venerated as a wealth god, since prosperity and wealth depend on the quality of the crops and on the peace of the community. However, besides worshipping these two standardised deities, common people sometimes choose to worship the Good Brothers, the Stone and Tree Gods, the Third Prince, and the Crazy Monk for wealth, because these are not bound by the officially approved morality.
Therefore, we find that there are various authorities in the mechanism of the common people's decision making process. The religious specialist such as the shaman or fortune-teller, for example, is one of these authorities. S/he can instruct people what date the birthday festival should be; can declare if a child is "fundamentally weak" or not; can recommend what kind of nominal adoption one should engage in; can decide what natural objects should be deified; and can predict the winning numbers of the Lottery. The senior relative is also an authority. S/he is the instructor of popular religious culture and carrier of local tradition. S/he can judge if a child is "fundamentally weak" or not and recommend a nominal adoption. S/he can decide a local shrine should be initiated or not. S/he can even become a nominal parent. Moreover, intuition is an authority. It can decide whether an ordinary stone or tree is divine or not. It can give hints of winning numbers. Besides, local traditions, miracles, the divination instruments depicted in Chapter Seven are also held by common people as their authorities.
In sum, the previous chapters of this thesis demonstrate that common people only partly accept the authority of the standardised written accounts fostered by elites and local leaders, and take it as only one of their authorities. Besides it, they have their own mechanism to sustain their religious culture and have their own authorities to follow. The investigation of this mechanism and/or authorities can be easily overlooked if we limit our studies to the religious cultures dominated by the elites. Furthermore, the mechanism fostered by the state and elites seemed to serve as a carrier of messages such as civilization, order, and loyalty to the state, that is, "keeper" of social values. On the contrary, the authorities preferred by common people can serve as "challengers" to those who are privileged and who set social values (see also Chapter Three and Chapter Seven).
