The Rise of Northern Chinese Regional Temple Cults: A Case Study of the Worship of King Tang

One of the cults that arose in the tenth century CE is that for King Tang, the mythological founder of the Shang dynasty. Although several places claimed to have his grave, the new cult did not stem from his grave or any other place that can be reliably associated with the Shang dynasty. Instead his cult was based on a pilgrimage to a pond or lake in the hills of southeastern Shanxi which never ran dry, but most likely did not belong to the historical territory of the Shang. His cult is one of a number of highly prominent northern Chinese cults that are all situated around more or less inexhaustible sources of water. The rise of such cults with a strong local social organization seems to be a substantially new phenomenon of the late tenth century and after. In this article I try to put these and other claims on a more secure footing. First I look briefly at the contemporary observations of the prominent bureaucrat Yuan Haowen 元好問 (1190-1257) on the local cults of his time and his region of provenance, as well as at another prominent northern Chinese cult, that for Lord Guan or Guan Yu. Then I try to specify claims about the timing of the rise of the cult for King Tang more precisely in terms of chronological and geographical distribution.

關鍵字

social organization ； King Tang ； Shang dynasty ； rain prayers ； worship at ponds and springs

並列摘要

在公元十世紀時興起的信仰之一就是神話中商朝開國的君主－湯王。儘管許多地方都宣稱是他的陵寢所在地，這個新興的信仰並非源自他的墳墓或是任何可以驗證與商朝有關的地點。相反的，湯王的信仰建立在以山西東南山丘地上的一泓永不枯竭的池泉為目的地的進香活動，這泉水的地點也很可能從來不曾屬於商朝的領土。湯王的信仰是在中國北方許多著名的信仰之一，它們的所在地都距離源源不絕的水資源不遠。這類擁有強大社會組織的信仰似乎基本上是十世紀晚期及之後的新現象。在本文中，我試圖將這些及其他說法予以核實。首先，我很快檢視同時代的重要官員元好問（1190-1257）對他的家鄉的民間信仰、以及另一個重要的華北信仰－關帝（關羽）－的觀察。接着我嘗試從年代早晚順序及地理分布上具體指出湯王信仰興起的時間。