雲嘉濱海鄉鎮迎客王信仰之研究

The Study of Rituals for Welcoming Royal Lords as Guests along the Coast of Yunlin and Chiayi County

林伯奇(Lin,Po-Chi)

指導教授 ： 林美容

國立臺北大學/人文學院/民俗藝術研究所/碩士(2010年)

摘要

中 文 摘 要
嘉義地區是台灣開發相當早的地方，斯時先民渡海來台，篳路藍縷以闢草萊。先祖遠從福建、廣東兩地，冒險渡過黑水溝，辛苦的來台灣開墾，找尋有水的土地種植作物，在當地落地生根。隨著先祖的開發，其親戚、後代子孫便聚集在一起，慢慢形成宗親團體或聚落。先民渡海來台時身上往往會帶著家鄉的神明，以保平安，在聚落形成之後，眾人也會將帶來的神祇，興建廟來奉祀，作為精神上的依託，因為由廟所發展的一些原鄉祭祀活動，便會在新的地方重新延續。
嘉義縣濱海的鄉鎮一共有兩個，分別是東石鄉與布袋鎮，這兩個鄉鎮都是台灣開發史上相當重要的港口，東石港於明鄭時期就已開港，因大部分的移民都來自泉州府晉江縣的東石，所以居民就將其地名命名為「東石」，曾為當時對大陸的重要通商口岸。
藉由對嘉義海線村落的全面普查中，發現出當地居民的信仰層次性，在聚落慶典中，村民會到哪一座廟請王爺；到哪一座廟迎媽祖，來村中看戲，接受居民的奉祀，當地將這些外地請回來的神祇稱為「客神」，因而產生在地神、客神與客王三種不同位階神明間的親屬關係。
嘉義地區是王爺信仰最活躍的地區，這個地區有一種獨特的民間信仰儀式稱為「迎客王」或是「請代巡」，請客王的儀式在雲嘉海線地區相當的多，往往都會配合神明聖誕、普渡、謝平安…等幾種情形下來請客王，他們會從海上或溪邊恭請客王上岸，至村廟中接受奉祀，一段時間後，有的地方會做一艘王船將其送走，稱為「送客王」。

關鍵詞：嘉義、東石、布袋、媽祖、王爺、客王、客神、族群關係

關鍵字

嘉 ； 東石 ； 布袋 ； 媽祖 ； 王爺 ； 客王 ； 客神 ； 族群關係

並列摘要

The Study of Rituals for Welcoming Royal Lords as Guests along the Coast of Yunlin and Chiayi County

Abstract

In the past, the people in the southeast coast of China had a custom to call for Taoist priests to perform ceremonies in order to expel plagues and to pray for the safety of the neighbor. They set colorful ships to float on the sea as the symbolic way to dispose of filthiness, so that the people living around the southwest coast of Taiwan used to find lots of ship wrecks. Out of the respect for these unexpected finds, Taiwanese people enshrined remains of the wreck, and the act as such developed into a special custom in Taiwan.

Wangye, the deity who expelled plagues and guarded the ship to float to Taiwan, was enshrined as well and gradually becomes one form of local deity in Taiwan. For centuries of time, its image has transformed from the original plague-expeller to the deity of multiple functions; Taiwanese people worship Wangye for the need in the navigation and medicine and finally even designated Wangye as the local patron saint.

Nowadays, the welcome ceremony for Wangye remains an important custom in southern Taiwan, which attracts many researchers’ interest in investigating and introducing the plague-expelling services and relevant religious ceremonies. From today’s viewpoint, the extant research focuses predominantly on the religious parts of Wangye worship but largely leaves out the questions as to how the worship of the ships retains the memories for the past and how the memories thrive on and serve as a rallying point to gather people in the annual Wangye worship in the modern time. The questions deserve some worthwhile thinking.

This study of Wangye worship bases along the coast of Yulin and Chiayi where the worship of deities has the long history back to the time when the immigrant ancestor firstly arrived here. Centuries ago, immigrant ancestors travelled from Fujian and Kunangtung and landed Taiwan to find the fertile land and also many ensuing difficulties in living. Anyhow, they settled down here, reproduced their offspring, set up their clans or tribes, and built their temples to worship deities they brought all the way from their mainland homeland, and so continued their ways of living onto a new land.

The cult and worship of Wangye has a long history and as yet has been vigorously alive along the coast of Yulin and Chiayi where there develop a special religion ceremony called ‘welcoming guests’ or ‘inviting delegate inspector’. Many ceremonies like this are held annually in this area on the occasion of deities’ birthday with a view to celebrate or to pray for the local peace. To welcome the deity, people would gather on shore or estuary to meet the deity and then escort it to the village for sacrificial rites. After a certain span of time, people would build a ship for the deity and see the ship off with a ceremonious ritual. Through the survey of religious activities like this along the Yulin and Chiayi coast, this study discovers worshipers’ different senses of worshiping. That is, there are worship of local deity, worship of guest deity and worship of guest Wangye, which symbolically signifies different ranks or clans as to indicating the local, visitor, and guest.

The cult of Wangye and the immigration history of the tribe are interrelated. With the exodus of population from the coast of Yulin and Chiayi to some other new places, the cult of Wangye spreads to other places of the island. This study draws both cases from the prototype of Wangye worship in the immigrant society and from people’s collective memories for the worship to shed light on a new way of understanding contemporary Wangye worship and possible new interpretations.

Key Words: Yulin, Chiayi, Wangye, Visitor, Guest, Clan Relationship

並列關鍵字

Yulin ； Chiayi ； Wangye ； Visitor ； Guest ； Clan ； Clan Relationship

參考文獻

蔡相煇 ：《台灣的王爺與媽祖》－台北市：台原出版社，1996。

【期刊論文~日文部分】

莊英章 ：〈台灣鄉村的建醮儀式~一個漁村的例子〉，《民族學研究所集刊》29：

康 豹 ：〈屏東東港的迎王祭典－台灣的瘟神與王爺信仰之分析〉，《民族學研究所

1973。