Author(s)

ShangQing Peng

Affiliation(s)

Shantou University, Shantou 515063, Guangdong, China.

Corresponding Author

ShangQing Peng

ABSTRACT

This paper will use the Hei Long Temple in Northern Shaanxi and the Xuan Tian Ancient Temple in Eastern Guangdong as comparative cases. By analyzing the administrative legalization path of Hei Long Temple from a folk temple to an artifact repository, and its transformation from a Taoist temple into a tourist attraction, as well as interpreting the phenomenon of Xuan Tian Ancient Temple and the Buddhist Jingxin Hermitage actively integrating into the Huang clan to gain social legitimacy, it aims to explore the issue of faith relationship construction in folk beliefs. It seeks to supplement the binary discussion on institutional and diffusion, state and locality in religious social studies, revealing two pathways for the generation of faith relationships in local belief practices: upward legalization and downward legitimacy. 

KEYWORDS

Folk belief; Faith relationship; Legalization; Legitimacy

CITE THIS PAPER

ShangQing Peng. Two paths of the generation of faith relationship: case study on northern Shaanxi and Chaoshan. Journal of Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy. 2025, 2(1): 17-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.61784/jrep3006.

REFERENCES

[1] Li Xiangping. Interpretation of Legitimacy and Sacredness: Core Propositions of Chinese Religious Sociology and Their Forty-Year Evolution. Hebei Academic Journal, 2019, 6.

[2] Zhan Han. How is De-Boundary Sacredness Possible: Construction Models of Sacred Space from the Perspective of Heaven and Humanity. The Religious Cultures in the World, 2024, 2.

[3] Yang C K. Religion in Chinese Society: A Study of Contemporary Social Function of Religion and some of their Historical Factors. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1961.

[4] Li Huawei. On the North China Model of Folk Belief Research: The Achievements, Advantages and Prospects of the North China School of Folklore in the Research of Folk Belief. Journal of Hubei Institute for Nationalities (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2018, 1.

[5] Emile Durkheim. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Free Press, 1995.

[6] Max Weber. Sociology of Religion. Beacon Press, 1993.

[7] Peter L. Berger. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Open Road Media, 2011.

[8] Philip A. Kuhn. Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768. Harvard University Press, 1992.

[9] Zhenchuan Gazetteer Editorial Committee of Yulin City. Zhenchuan Gazetteer. Hangmei Map Printing Company. 2000.

[10] Li Xiangping, Wu Xiaoyong. The One Point Model of Christianity in Contemporary China: The Social and Public Perspective of Religion, Journal of Shanghai University(Social Sciences Edition), 2008, 5.

[11] Hengshan County Loess Culture Research Association. Hengshan Religious Temples. Xi’an Coal Aviation Information Industry Company, 2008.

[12] Lin Junchong. The Temples of Chaoshan. Guangdong Higher Education Press, 1998.

[13] Peng Shangqing. The Social Meaning of Folk Belief and the Constriction of Its Sacred Relationship: a Study of the Belief Relationship Based on Xiadi Ancient Village in the Eastern Guangdong. Social Science and Management, 2025, 2.

[14] Zhang Qizhen. (Guangxu) Chaozhou County Annals, Chengwen Publishing House. 1966.

[15] Huang Ting. China and the Ocean: A Brief History of Chaoshan. Sanlian Bookstore, 2017.

[16] Zheng Qunhui. When Did Buddhism First Spread to Chaoshan? Journal of Hanshan Normal University, 2011, 2.

[17] Mou Zhongjian, Zhang Jian. A General History of Chinese Religion (Part I). Social Sciences Academic Press. 2000.