THREE TYPES OF CHINESE NATURE DEITIES--STONE, TREE, AND LAND

INDEX
Abstract and Acknowledgements
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Textual References to Divine Stones and Trees
Chapter Three: The Land God in Chinese Popular Religion
Chapter Four: Festival Dates of the Three Deities
Chapter Five: The Deification of Stones and Trees
Chapter Six: Nominal Adoption and the Three Deities
Chapter Seven: Lottery Gambling and the Three Deities
Chapter Eight: The Links among the Stone, Tree, and Land Deities
Chapter Nine: Conclusion
Bibliography

Lancaster University

THREE TYPES OF CHINESE NATURE DEITIES--STONE, TREE, AND LAND
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Jerome YuChien
LANCASTER, U.K.
JANUARY 1997
Supervised by: Prof. S. McFarlane
Examiners
Prof. Stephan Feuchtwang
Prof. David Smith

Abstract and Acknowledgements

THREE TYPES OF CHINESE DEITIES--STONE,TREE,AND LAND

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES,LANCASTER UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

BY

Jerome YuChien

LANCASTER,U.K.

JANUARY 1997

This thesis deals with certain aspects of the Chinese popular religion of Taiwan; specifically , the cult of the Land God represented by stone(Chio Tho-ti-kong) and/or tree (Chhiu Tho-ti-kong) and the enormously complex relationships between this deity and both the Stone God (Chio-thau-kong) and the Tree God (Tua-chhiu-kong). The results of the study indicate that scared trees and stones worshipped as gods can be distinguished from the Land God which is represented by trees or stones. The distinction between the Land God and stone/tree gods can also be applied to the study of legends, traits, functions, images, deification stories, the dates for annual festivals etc.

This thesis also demonstrate that common people only partly accept the authority of the standardised written accounts fostered by elites and/or 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, "keepers" 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.

This thesis consists of two parts: text and illustrations. The text, including notes, bibliography and character list, comprises 300 pages. All the 112 illustrations attached are colour photos I took in my field sites. The study will serve readers in the fields of Taiwanese culture, Chinese popular religion, history of religion, and anthropology.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to many people for help in carrying this thesis to completion. First, Iwant to express my sincere gratitude to those whom I interviewed druing my fieldwork. I also want to thank my supervisor Dr. Stewart McFarlane, especially for his patience and advice. In addition, I hereby acknowledge the generous financial support of the National Youth Commission of the Executive Yuan in 1992-3, and that of the Academia Sinicaa in 1993-4. Special thanks are also due to both Dr. L. S. Davis and J. A. Laidlaw for their reading of draught chapters and for providing invaluable criticism. Next, Mr. Andrew.T. Clarke also deserves thanks for correcting many mistakes in my use of English.

Many academics and staff in the Institute of Ethnology ( e.g. Prof. Zhuang Yingzhang, Prof. Xu Jiaming, Prof. Lin Meirong, and Prof. Pan Yinghai) of Academia Sinica, Taiwan and Department of Religious Studies ( e.g. Ms. Janice Parkes, Dr. Roderick Main, and Prof. John Clayton), Lancaster University, England have helped me in mumerous ways -- to all of whom I am thankful.

I am indebted to Ms. Susan Lucas for her kindness when I studied in England. Finally, for both financial help and general support, I am deeply grateful to my family.

Chapter One: Introduction

Field Methodology:

This study is based primarily on field research conducted in Taiwan. In the summer of 1991, I returned to Taiwan from England to visit my parents, and did the preliminary fieldwork in northern Taiwan where my family lived. Even though the work lasted only two months, I took many pictures, wrote a field report and took all of these materials to Britain to show my supervisor. He found it was worthy of study and advised me to devote a year's library work to this subject to prepare the intensive fieldwork.

The intensive fieldwork was carried out between 1992 and 1994 in the widest range of villages and towns on the island -- chosen at random -- that I was able to visit, given the time and resources at my disposal. Usually, when I first arrived at a site, I would talk informally with people to get them to "open up" and to encourage them to express themselves in their own terms, and at their own pace. If possible, I would start a semi- structured interview in which I used a written list of questions and topics that I had arranged in a particular order. I used neither structured questionnaires nor tape-recorders in order not to exercise excessive control over people or even get them nervous.

I conducted interviews with the shrine staffs and with many of the believers in the neighbourhoods; and got to know them more as I established friendly relations with them. Since I did not assume that I had an automatic right to carry out the investigations, the research was a reciprocal one. Every time I went to a shrine, I prepared to offer something (e.g. the photos I took and the results of my research) to thank the people I interviewed. (note.1)Because I am a native Taiwanese, I did not find it difficult to explain my presence or the nature of my investigations to the people concerned.

In the first half of 1996 I visited the field sites again to do supplementary fieldwork, that is, to ask the questions that I missed in intensive fieldwork, and to make sure of those things I was uncertain of when writing the thesis draught. (note.2)

The first scholar who did research of the worship of stone and tree in Taiwan and its relation with the "She" Cult is Ling Shun-sheng. (note.3)He started his study on Chinese classics and Occidental works of this subject in 1955. In total, he produced five monographs (1958; 1959a; 1959b; 1964; 1967) on this subject and received many compliments from scholars concerned with the subject (cf. Mabuchi 1970:349; Pearson 1970:317).(note.4) In November 1963, Ling Shun-sheng received a letter from his daughter Ling Manli from Oregon, USA, in which were enclosed two colour photos of a dolmen. He was surprised and sent her a letter immediately, inquiring about the origin of these two pictures. In her reply, she said: "The two pictures were given to me by a missionary by the name of Rev. Robert P. McKinnen. He said the two pictures were among the photos of local scenes taken by a photo studio at Taizhong (Tai-chung) County of Taiwan for one of his friends, but he does not know himself the exact location of the dolmen." Later, the dolmen in these two pictures was found located in Taizhong City through some field search by Ling Shun- sheng and his colleagues (Ling Shun-sheng 1967:136). He claimed that over 80 dolmens were discovered by him and, in his estimation, there should be approximately several thousand dolmens existing on this 30,000 sq-kilometre island of Taiwan (Ling Shun-sheng 1967:134). Since he was well versed in Chinese classics, his study on them is trustworthy and thus I will apply them in my investigation in the following chapters.

Unfortunately, his interpretation of the divine stones and trees has left much to be desired. He found a number of divine stones and trees in both east and west Taiwan. He claimed that these natural objects worshipped by aboriginal tribes (both Plain and Mountain Aboriginals) were dolmen and menhir-like and signified the genital organ of both sexes. He then maintained that these traits revealed that they were not only merely similar but also virtually identical with Chinese "She" Cult (esp. Ling Shun-sheng 1958:56f; 1959a:178; 1964:41).

There are at least two objections which can be raised against Ling Shun-sheng's interpretation of these natural objects. First of all, the worship of genital, menhir, and dolmen-like stones is a universal phenomenon (Hartland 1917b; Graesser 1972; Edsman 1987; Mohen 1989), many peoples in the world, including Taiwan Aboriginals and Han-Chinese, practice such worship, the evidence he presents does not prove that they are virtually the same as the Chinese "She" Cult.(note.5) Second and most vitally, as I will explain in the following sections, neither Plain nor Mountain Aboriginals had any contact with China until the coming of Chinese in the seventeenth century. This contact remained very limited (certainly not sufficient to account for major cultural phenomena); and even until the beginning of the twentieth century, within the overall frame of East Asia culture history, Taiwan Aboriginals had relatively little contact with the Han-Chinese population. In fact, Taiwan Aboriginals were outside the cultural and religious orbit of China (Herz 1986:19; Copper 1990:17). Therefore, a different interpretation from that of Ling Shun-sheng is needed.(note.6)

Affected by these considerations, I decided to do a fresh round of field research and find the sites of divine stones and trees by myself. Since I was born in Yilan County (located in the northeast Taiwan) and is currently a consultant of religious policy of the County Government, I am sure that I have visited all the stone and tree deities in this county. Moreover, the study of Lin Mei-rong (1987:53-81) on the worship of the Land God of her hometown (Chhau-tun Town of Nantou County, central Taiwan) includes a preliminary report on all divine stones and trees of the town. Therefore, I am sure that I have included all divine trees and stones of these two areas in this thesis. Additionally, both the gazetteer of Lam-tau County written by Liu Zhiwan (1961) and an article on the tree worship of Taiwan written by Yuan Chang-rue (1993) were helpful for my field work.

I limited myself and did field research only on the stones which were not hewn or inscribed with any characters such as Shi Gandang or stone lions and others, although they were also regarded as divine. I believe that the divine stones and trees I researched belong to a single category. Moreover, I exclude the stones and trees which are not worshipped by the public. (note.7)In total, I researched 61 stone and 39 tree shrines in Taiwan (see also Appendix). I would not affirm that I have visited all the divine stones and trees of the single category, but I am certain that those I have researched are typical for the purpose of my study.

Objectives:

In preparing the thesis, I have had two objectives. Most obviously, the thesis is a description of a feature of Chinese religion, that is, the worship of three natural objects -- land, stone, and tree. Although scholarly works dealing with community religious organisations, calendrical festivals, and family rites have become a great concern over the past thirty years, the discussion of the worship of natural objects has been almost neglected in the anthropological and sociological literature (cf. Yang 1961:353; Feng 1970:21; Allan 1979:5). However, I believe that the study of the three deities is also important in a number of ways that are easily missed if we limit our consideration to colourful festivals and household rites which are easier to field research (cf. Jordan & Overmyer 1986:8; Lin Mei-rong 1991.).

The second objective in studying these three deities arises from the fact that believers in them are relatively low on the social scale and have little political power. For this reason their beliefs are often misunderstood. Once, I had lunch with a friend in the Academia Sinica. He asked what subject I was studying for my Ph.D. thesis. I answered: "The worship of stones and trees." He immediately replied: "People even worship stones and trees! Do they worship chamber pots?" Moreover, it is often heard in Taiwan within intellectual circles that many religions in Taiwan are superstitious: "The veneration of cultural heroes seems reasonable because of their virtues. However, the worship of stones and trees is extremely superstitious since they cannot even speak!"

The religious beliefs of common people does not have official spokespersons or theologians to explain and defend their beliefs and practices. One of my reasons for writing this thesis is to demonstrate the seriousness of these religious beliefs and practices and to correct the misunderstanding of the religious beliefs that is common, even in Taiwan itself.

In order to achieve these two objectives, in the rest of this chapter, I give a geographical and historical introduction and a general view of Chinese popular religion of Taiwan, the island where I did my fieldwork. In Chapter Two, I review the textual data relating to Chinese worship of natural objects, especially divine stones and trees. Chapter Three portrays the images, functions, and traits of the Land God in order to offer a setting for the following chapters. In Chapter Four, by using the data collected from my fieldwork, I examine how the divine stones and trees are identified with the dates for annual birthday festivals and why some of them do not have any birthdays attached. Chapter Five discusses the religious custom of nominal adoption, the most traditional and distinctive role that the deities play in popular religion. In Chapter Six, I illustrate that some natural objects are themselves regarded as deities or as possessed by certain supernatural beings while others are not. Chapter Seven analyzes why in some places the divine stones and trees get involved in the "Everybody Happy Lottery" while in some places they do not. It is also argued that the prevalence of the Lottery, together with the transformation of roles of these deities, can be read, to a certain degree, as a resistance against or even a subversion of the contemporary social order in Taiwan. In Chapter Eight, by applying the theories of paleographic and historical studies, I demonstrate that aspects of modern stone and tree worship are closely connected with the "She" Cult but are not inevitably surviving examples of it. In the final chapter, I conclude that sacred trees and stones worshipped as the Stone and Tree Gods can be distinguished from the Land God that is represented by a tree or stone. The distinction between the Land God and the Stone and Tree Gods can also be applied to the study of legends, traits, functions, images, deification stories, the dates for birthday festivals etc. Moreover, I reiterate that common people have their own mechanism to sustain their religious culture and have their own authorities to follow.

Geography and Ethnicity:

Taiwan is an offshore island in the western Pacific and 100 miles southeast of the Chinese mainland. The island, which is approximately 245 miles long and 85 miles across at its widest point, has one of the highest population densities in the world - - about 1285 persons per square mile in a 14,000 square mile area. Over half the island is mountainous with few inhabitants; the other half, to the west, is fertile with more than 3,000 people per square mile (cf. Wu Lien-chin 1987:111; Copper 1990:1).

Some geologists say Taiwan was originally part of the Asia mainland. Others argue that its volcanic soil and the fact that it is part of the long chain of islands extending from the Alaskan Aleutans indicate that the island's origins are similar to those of Japan, the Philippines, and other islands off the eastern Asia coast. This evidence suggests either a more distant time connection - or none at all - to the Asia mainland. Recent geological studies reinforce the latter view, suggesting that Taiwan rose from the sea rather recently - a million years ago (Copper 1990:2).

Taiwan has abundant rainfall year-round; the mean annual precipitation is 102 inches. Generally the east coast receives more rain than the west, and the mountains more than the lowlands. One odd feature about Taiwan's rain patterns is that the dry season at one end of the island coincides with the rainy season at the other. In the north the heaviest rainfall is between October and March; in the south the rainy season occurs between April and September (Copper 1990:4). The plentiful rain supplies water for irrigation of agriculture in rainy seasons and for streams lakes and reservoirs when needed in dry times. Besides, much of Taiwan's soil is either volcanic or partly volcanic and thus is fairly fertile despite centuries of farming.

Although the Daoyi (Island Savages) in the Shangshu (the Book of History), the Dongdi of the Han Dynasty, the Yizhou of the Three Kingdoms, and the Liuqiu of the Sui Dynasty, are generally believed by historians to refer to Taiwan, it is now known that there were no Han Chinese people settled on the island (Chen Chi-lu 1972:119). But knowledge of the island probably existed already a long time before at such early times. Fishermen or merchants, driven from the China coastal waters by storms, told tales of a beautiful island far off in the ocean (Proksch 1984:13). Until the collapse of the Ming Dynasty in 1662, rulers of mainland China had by and large ignored Taiwan. The island was seen by Chinese as part of the Ryukyu chain, and, in the dynastic records of the sixth century Sui dynasty, was referred to as "Tai Liuqiu" or "Great Ryukyu" (although, later it was also known as "lesser Ryukyu") (Long 1991:4). In 605 one official was dispatched by the Emperor Yangdi of Sui Dynasty to investigate reports that in clear weather a smoky haze could be seen across the Taiwan strait (Long 1991:4f).

Copper, a historian of Taiwan, states that "in 1517 Portuguese vessels en route to Japan sighted Taiwan and named it "Ilha Formosa" (1990:18). But Proksch, another historian, maintains that the Portuguese sailors named the island "Ilha Formosa" in 1590 and the name "Formosa" was since introduced to the Western world (1984:13). However, the exact date is not vital, because the Portuguese did not lay claim to the island, nor did they try to colonise it. Besides, the name "Ilha Formosa" only means "beautiful island" in Portuguese language and the sailors could have dubbed many islands "Ilha Formosa", when they saw beautiful islands on their voyages.

Ironically, even though the island was only 100 miles away from the Chinese world, it was not until the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644) that its exact location was known by them and the name Taiwan used by Han Chinese (Baity 1975:16; Copper 1990:18). Like Copper (1990:1), many historians do not know the origin of the name "Taiwan" which literally means "terraced bay". However, benefiting from his long-term field study in Taiwan, Schipper (1977:771) considered that:

The name Taiwan is derived from Tayuan, an early name of a little island not far from the coast of Formosa on which the Dutch built their first and most important stronghold. Named An-p'ing after the victory of Koxinga in 1662, the former island is now a suburb of Tainan City, as the water strip separating the two has long since silted up.

Taiwan is densely populated by approximately 22 million people and is occupied by two main ethnic groups, namely, about 2 percent of the indigenous group and 98 percent of Han-Chinese group (cf. Lamley 1977; Gates 1981; Herz 1986; Chiu 1987; Chuang Ying-chang 1988; Pan Ing-hai 1989; Copper 1990; Long 1991). According to some records, before the Dutch arrived in Taiwan in 1624, a few Han-Chinese had already lived in various aborigine villages in the area around present-day Tainan and traded in rice and salt. Some of them married indigenous women but were not stable residents (i.e. none of them were farmers) of the aboriginal community (Chen Chi-lu 1972:121; Allan 1979:2; Chuang Ying-chang 1987:181).

The Han-Chinese are not themselves homogeneous in any sense. In the past few millennia, the Han-Chinese have assimilated different heterogeneous elements to become the greater Han- Chinese people. Further developing after the Han Dynasty, the Han-Chinese have extended their sphere to cover almost the whole area of China (Chen Chi-lu 1972:119).

In Taiwan today, the Han-Chinese can be divided into three groups (Mandarin speaking Chinese, Hollo speaking Chinese, and Hakka speaking Chinese) according to the difference of language each group speaks (cf. Lamley 1981:283).(note.8) The Mandarin speaking Chinese are those who migrated into Taiwan after World War II and their Taiwan-born offspring. This group comprises 13% of the population in Taiwan. Because most of them are people in public service and soldiers who were forced to leave China by Chinese Communists and who took refuge on the island in 1949, many still identify themselves as Chinese and not Taiwanese. (note.9)

Hakka (literally, "Guests") speaking people include 13% of the whole of the population in Taiwan. Some scholars point out that the Hakka people originated in the area called "Zhongyuan" (the area south of the Yellow River, north of the Yangtze River, west of the Huai River and east of the Han River) and migrated in a southerly direction (Copper 1990; Long 1991:14). A total of five major southward migrations were interspersed with numerous smaller moves. The fifth-century invasion of China by northern tribes instigated the first major migration. During the reigns of Kangxi (1662-1722), Qianlong (1736-1795) and Jiaqing (1796-1820) in the Qing Dynasty the fourth major Hakka movement, from Guangdong to Taiwan, occurred. One reason for this last migratory move was population pressure in Guangdong Province. A second reason was the Manchu invasion of China. The Hakka People resisted the Manchu Government but were defeated. As a result, only with the reign of the second Qing Emperor Kangxi were they allowed to hold jobs in the civil service. They could not own land. These tough conditions left many Hakka people with no choice but to migrate to the Pescadores, then on to southern Taiwan (Long 1991:14). The reasons for migration to Taiwan changed after the Qing Government brought Taiwan under Chinese rule, when many migrated to Taiwan because of better economic opportunities (cf. Chuang Ying-chang 1988:169f).

The culture and customs of the Hakka People, who are probably the earliest Han-Chinese to emigrate to Taiwan (Long 1991:14), were unique. Because the Hakka were long persecuted and isolated in China, they developed a strong self-identity, a quality they have retained in Taiwan. Although they are all classified as Han-Chinese, the social customs and mores of the Hakka still differ from those of either Hollo speaking people or the Mandarin speaking Chinese. In Chapter Seven, I attribute one of the reasons that most of the Hakka people do not get involved in the "Everybody Happy Lottery", the most prevalent illicit gambling, to their cultural difference. However, they consider themselves Taiwanese because they, like their forebears, were born in Taiwan (cf. Copper 1990:37).

The principal ethnic group in Taiwan is Hollo speaking Chinese who include approximately 72% of the population.(note.10) During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), they came from Fujian Province, directly across the Taiwan Strait, and migrated to Taiwan. The fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644 brought a major wave of migration from Fujian Province to Taiwan, pushing some of the Hakkas inland while inhabiting most of the western plain (Copper 1990:8). Nowadays, though still officially less powerful than the Mandarin speaking Chinese, Hollo speaking Chinese dominate many sectors of the business community. They also control the farming sectors of the economy, as well as the local politics in most of the country (Copper 1990:9). Consequently, they also call themselves Taiwanese.

Therefore, in the thesis the term "Taiwanese" is used to designate persons of Han Chinese ethnicity whose forebears settled the land prior to the end of World War II and who identified themselves as "Taiwanese".

Historical Development of Taiwan:

Because Mandarin has been the only official language in Taiwan since Mandarin speaking Chinese took refuge on the island after World War II, most people have been raised and educated speaking more than one language, Taiwan's population may be said to be bilingual or trilingual. Owing to ethnic differences and historical changes, the religions of Taiwan can best be described in terms of their historical development, which can be divided into seven major periods: (1) the pre Dutch period, before 1622, (2) the period of Dutch and Spanish rule, 1622-1661, (3) the period of Koxinga, (4) Manchu rule, 1661-1895, (5) the period of Japanese rule, 1895-1945, (6) the post-war period (cf. Chiu 1987:252).

Although the island is only 100 miles away from China, Han- Chinese were not original inhabitants. Prior to the seventeenth century, Taiwan was sparsely occupied by a few tribes of aborigines who are considered to be of Indonesian or Malayan origin and who migrated from Indochina and the Philippines in prehistoric times, even though we still cannot be sure whether they were the first settlers or not (cf. Diamond 1969:2; Proksch 1984:13; Chuang Ying-chang 1987:183; Wu Lien-chin 1987:111; Copper 1990:7-12). It has been hypothesised that during Neolithic times (c. 3000-2000 BCE.), Oceanic Negroids brought in horticulture from Southeast Asia, followed by Mongoloids with millet from northern China, and Indochinese with Bronze age culture. About 300 BCE a Megalithic and Iron Age culture was introduced by peoples from the Philippines to this nearby island (Chiu 1987:252). However, pottery excavated in northern Taiwan shows a marked resemblance to that of mainland China, leading others to maintain that the first settlers came from China as early as one thousand years before the Christian era (Proksch 1984:13).(note.11)

The descendants of these ethnic groups are now restricted mainly to the infertile regions and are known collectively as the indigenous peoples. They are traditionally divided into two groups, the Mountainous Tribes and the Plain Tribes. The Mountainous Tribes are Taiyal, Saisiat, Banun, Tsou, Rukai, Paiwan, Puyuma, Ami, and Yami. The Plain Tribes are Siraya, Bazay, Gavalan, and Kitagalan etc. Certain distinguished Western ethnologists have argued that some indigenous tribes were "Lonkius", the descendants of a people who had fled the cold north and settled in the Kurile archipelago to the north of Japan, through Japan and the Ryukyu chain, and south as far as Formosa (cf. Long 1991:3).

For some Chinese ethnologists, however, the "Lonkius" are a mainland Chinese people. They are said to have reached Taiwan as early as 1700 BCE, as a shortage of agricultural land under the Shang Dynasty led primitive tribesmen eastward from present-day Guizhou Province, in south-western central China, and finally sent them across the straits in the search of new land to farm. In support of this theory, historians have pointed to a Taiyal tribal myth that the tribe is the result of a union between a princess and a dog. In southern China, the Miao people, an aboriginal group in Guizhou were said also to worship the image of a dog as the founder of their tribe (Long 1991:3). Even if this tenuous link is taken as evidence for a historical connection, I must say, this does not alter the view that Taiwan's early historical ties to China were not close: The Miao people are not Chinese, nor did they speak a Chinese language at the time of a possible migration to Taiwan. However, a possible Miao connection does link Taiwan to China more closely geographically (Copper 1990:17).

The other tribes of early inhabitants are of less controversial ancestry. Their languages and customs have much in common with those of early Malay and Filipino peoples, and they are of Malayo-Polynesian ethnic stock and reached Taiwan by way of the Philippines. It seems that for some centuries, the Malays and the Lonkius coexisted at different extremities of the island in mutual ignorance of the other's presence (Long 1991:3f). Then in the seventh century after Christ, the Malays moved northwards, gradually extending their settlements over much of the island, and forcing the Taiyals into the foothills of the northern end of the central highlands.

In spite of this, little is known about the indigenous tribes prior to a few centuries ago because they did not keep written records. Nevertheless, it has been established that the aboriginal population was evenly distributed throughout the island and that they made their livelihood by fishing, hunting, and some shifting agriculture. Land was owned in common; the political and social systems were tribal (Copper 1990:17).

The indigenous tribes have a very rich collection of myths, legends, and genealogies. Myths of creation, the origin of man, celestial phenomena, gods and spirits, culture heroes, and sacred animals are popular among all the tribes. Many myths have etiological motifs identifying the sacred origins of cultural events and ritual actions (Chiu 1987:252).

Besides these myths, fairly extensive legends and genealogies of tribal history and geography have been preserved. Rites of passage are common to all tribes and are normally observed by all members of the society. Communal rites of opening up the land, sowing and planting, weeding and purification, picking the first crop, harvest, and thanksgiving are observed by all the tribes. Rites of animal hunting and head-hunting are conducted on special occasions. During the rituals, myths are recited and mythic events are reenacted to strengthen the people's sense of identity and harmony with their environment (Baity 1975:27; Chiu 1987:252). Some archaeological results prove that they worshipped stones which symbolised genitalia. All in all these peoples were very much outside the cultural and religious orbit of central China (Herz 1986:19). They were able to maintain their own traditional culture and religion intact until the arrival of the Dutch, Spaniards, and Chinese in the seventeenth century.

Dutch Colony:

In 1622, led by Kornelis Peyersoon, the Dutch came to the Pescadores (small islands situated between Taiwan and China) but were driven away in 1624. However, the Chinese Ming Government allowed them to stay in Taiwan. Thus the Dutch built Fort Orange, later called Fort Zeelandia, at Tayouan (now Anping District) and Fort Providentia at Saccam (now Tainan) on the southwestern coast of Taiwan and became the temporary rulers of the island (Chen Chi-lu 1972:120). The mercantilistic Dutch traders ruled by the Dutch East India Company encouraged Chinese immigration into Taiwan to work as labourers and to produce sugar for export and rice for local consumption (Wu Lien-chin 1987:111). As it was recorded in the Batavia Diary (April 2, 1631), the Dutch East India Company even sent her own ships to transport Chinese labourers to Taiwan (Chen Chi-lu 1972:121). Due to this type of encouragement, the Chinese population in Taiwan increased constantly. They had already exceeded several tens of thousands by the middle of the seventeenth century (Chen Chi-lu 1972:122).(note.12)

As the Chinese population increased, they began to form their own communities and practise the traditional Chinese religions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism as well as the Chinese popular religion (Chiu 1987:253). In the meantime, the Plain Tribes, who lived on the western coastal plains, were conciliatory to the Dutch and to their Christian missions. Many of them accepted Christianity (i.e. the Dutch Reformed Church), and others were influenced by Chinese religions. The chief Plain Tribes nearby were the Siraya (Sydeyan), although it seems that as many as five distinct linguistic groups were ministered to as a few fragments of the devotional works prepared by the Dutch missionaries in the languages still remain today (Herz 1986:19).

On April 31, 1661, a Ming Dynasty loyalist resisting the Qing Dynasty, Admiral Zheng Chenggong - known as Koxinga in Western languages - led the main body of his forces from Jinmen (Quemoy) to Taiwan. On Feb. 1, 1662, Fort Zeelandia was surrendered to him. This brought the Dutch colony and its missionary work to an end (Herz 1986:27). Thus, as no native ministers had been trained, the Siraya Christian Church was left without pastoral oversight for more than two centuries. Indeed, it all but ceased to exist, though a romanised catechism in the Siraya language remains (Herz 1986:27). Eventually, most Plain peoples came to adopt Chinese habits of speech, dress, religion, and social custom following Koxinga's conquest of the island (Herz 1986:20). (note.13)

The most distinctive survival of Sirayan religious practice is the worship known generically as the Worship of A-lip. This is a cult of sacred jars, today usually of Chinese manufacture, among the Siraya, a cult related to certain others in Borneo and the Philippines (Herz 1986:19f). Among the highly sinicised descendants of the Siraya, the jar cult is still followed by non- Christians today. An account tells us that in preparation for the imposing and the lifting of the "Xiang" (i.e. a spirit), a human head was to be taken to please the gods. Under pressure from the Qing Government to cease head-hunting, the Siraya substituted the skulls of wild boar and deer.

Moreover, some scholars argue that the jars are of genital symbolism. Their argument is based on the unique altar of the A- lip temple at Beitouyany. No skulls are hung at this altar; rather the vases are joined on the raised altar by cylindrically shaped stones which they readily interpret as phallic in contrast to the pregnant jars (Shepherd 1984:39).

To the east and south, respectively, of the Siraya are the Paiwan and Rukai Mountain Aborigines. Among these groups jars have a great deal of religious significance (Shepherd 1984:38). The jars played a similarly prominent role among the traditional Siraya which our sources fail to describe (Shepherd 1984:39).

Koxinga Dynasty:

Koxinga, son of a Japanese mother and a Chinese pirate father (Proksch 1984:14), made a last-ditch stand in south China against the invading Manchu armies. He retreated to the Pescadores and Taiwan where he laid siege to the Dutch forts. He expelled the Dutch and changed the name of the island to Taiwan and made Tainan the capital. Soon massive Chinese migrations to Taiwan from the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong began, although the Chinese emigration to Taiwan had started before that time.

Koxinga laid the foundations for the establishment of Chinese society in Taiwan. After his arrival in Taiwan, the Chinese population increased very rapidly. His soldier-farmer policy along with the adequate system designed by the Dutch, on which all subsequent Chinese administration was based, established the principal foundations of Chinese success in opening up new territory, and the immigrants gradually spread out over the flat area which was most suitable for intensive farming. As their towns and cities grew in number, they also built many shrines, temples, and monasteries to house the gods they brought with them from mainland China. Often the temples became the centres of Chinese communities (cf. Chuang Ying-chang 1987:182). Besides, the pioneering farmers built shrines of the Land God to protect their agriculture and against demons and aborigines.

But the Koxinga family controlled Taiwan for only 22 years (1661-1683). Just one short year after Koxinga drove the Dutch from Taiwan he fell ill and died. The Qing Government made repeated attempts to crush the rebels, and the Dynasty which he had established ended when his grandson surrendered the island to the Qing Government in 1683. From that time on China obtained dominion over Taiwan (Proksch 1984:14f).

Qing Dynasty:

As part of China, Taiwan began to attract not only peasants and fishermen, but all classes of Chinese including scholars who came seeking a less restrictive intellectual atmosphere (Proksch 1984:15). Little by little, they displaced indigenous tribes from the lowlands, and pushed them further into the mountains. Steady emigration from China raised the population of Taiwan from a few thousand in 1600 to more than two million by 1895 (Wu Lien-chin 1987:112) and Chinese popular religion, which will be our main concern in the following chapters, for the first time became the dominant religion in the island.

Taiwan was still a marginal part of China, so the development of the island was not a high priority for the government. The new government's control of Taiwan produced few improvements (Copper 1990:75). For example, though in 1884 Peking reorganised its political administration in Taiwan, appointing Liu Mingchuan, a very capable official, as governor, and two years later made Taiwan a province, as late as 1871, when some Japanese castaways were killed by tribesmen in Taiwan, China's government felt justified in disclaiming authority over all but Taiwan's western seaboard (Long 1991:14). After China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, China ceded Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan in perpetuity as a prize under the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Japanese Colony:

Taiwan's modern economic development began in the early part of this century, soon after it became a Japanese colony. The Japanese colonial government, intending to make Taiwan a stepping stone in its advance toward Southeast Asia, promoted Japanese education and industries in Taiwan. Besides this, the Japanese introduced Shinto religion and Japanese Buddhism into Taiwan, and the indigenous tribes and Taiwanese natives were forced to take part in Shinto worship. 63 grand shrines and 116 local shrines were built by the government all over the island (cf. Chiu 1987:254). Meanwhile, the leaders of traditional Chinese religions suffered oppression, and many temples were closed by the government.

Japanese control over the island came to an abrupt end at the conclusion of the Second World War. The Japanese colonial government surrendered Taiwan, and with American support China again took possession in 1945. Thus Shinto Religion also ended on the island. However, the influences of Japanese Buddhism are still visible in Taiwan.

Nationalist Government and its Religious Attitudes:

In 1949, when the Chinese Communists defeated the Nationalist armies on the mainland and assumed control of China, the Nationalist Government soon established its capital in Taipei and a new wave of nearly two million immigrants arrived in Taiwan with the Government. Because they hailed from various parts of China, they were generally known as mainlanders, or "Waishengren" ("outside province people").(note.14) Although being immigrants and a minority, they hold the majority of positions in the top ranks of the national government, in the education and academic systems, and in the military (Copper 1990:9).

In the meantime, because of the Chinese Communist Government's hostility to religion, many religious leaders were among those who took refuge in Taiwan. These included Kong Decheng, a descendant of Confucius; Ven. Yinshun, an eminent Buddhist abbot; the Thirty-seventh Heavenly Master of Taoism; Lama Kangyurwa Hutukhtu, the nineteenth reincarnation of the Living Buddha of Kangyur monastery; and Archbishop Joseph Kuo and Cardinal Tian of the Roman Catholic Church. Altogether about twenty thousand Muslims and innumerable Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Taoists, and Confucians came to Taiwan, turning this island into a rich showcase of world religions (Chiu 1987:254).

A statistical report of Taiwan (Grichting 1971; qtd. in Wu Lien-chin 1987:105f) shows that between 40.8 and 46.2 % of the total population identifies itself as Buddhist. Between 35.9 and 41.3 % identifies itself as belonging to Chinese popular religion. Between 8.3 and 11.5 % claims no religious affiliation. 2.5 and 4.1 % identifies itself as Protestant, and 1.9 and 3.3 % as Catholic. Around 1 % of the total population identifies itself as Taoist,(note.15) and around 1 % as Confucian.

The religious attitudes of the Nationalist Government can be seen in textbooks used during the nine-year national compulsory education. These textbooks are standardised for the whole country by the Ministry of Education and must be used by all schools in Taiwan, even private ones, such as Catholic and Buddhist schools. The contents of the textbooks obviously represent the official viewpoint and also play the most powerful role in the education system. The nine-year textbooks have been properly analyzed in an article by Jeffrey Meyer (1987:45-50). In the following I only summarise this paper to show what the religious attitudes have been taught in/by them.

To the viewpoint of the textbooks, the "true" religions are those that support the social order, public opinion, morality and law, and there are therefore viewed as valuable (Meyer 1987:46). "The teachings of religion all stress avoiding evil and doing good, cherishing universal love. Pious believers generally speaking rarely offend against social order" says one of the textbooks (Meyer 1987:47).

In the textbooks, the Confucian tradition, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity are presented as positive religious traditions. The Taoist and Buddhist contributions to Neo-Confucianism are acknowledged, as is the latter's interest in the method of cultivating the inner mind of the individual.

The textbooks suggest that some religions do preserve important values, especially in upholding morality and public order (Meyer 1987:50). However, many religious practices such as Taoism alchemy and elaborate Baibai (i.e. traditional Chinese popular religious festival) are wasteful and superstitious, and ought to be discarded. Yet the teachings of true religions all stress avoiding evil, doing good, and cherishing universal love. One who follows the principle of these teachings will thus find they are good for one's personal interior life. On the contrary, with its institutional structure and vast canon, the religious Taoism would seem to qualify as a true religion, but because of some of its practices and since it does not have a clear-cut moral code, the textbooks consider it "superstitious" (Meyer 1987:47-8).

There is obviously no sense of the human being as homo religiosus in the textbooks. There is no sense of the transcendent element in the various expressions of religion presented, so it can be said that the understanding of religion conveyed by the textbooks is certainly rationalised and secularised. The textbooks do not think this infringes on the religious rights of Buddhists, Christians, etc., nor that it conflicts with the principle of separation of religion and state (Meyer 1987:47).

In brief, the overall impression of religion which the textbooks give would be something like this: religion is a part of the history of China and other great world cultures. The real religion is clearly one of the great traditions institutionalised, possessing a corpus of sacred writings and a clear moral code. Thus it is the foundation for all moral training in the school system, and on occasion they allude to a basic unity of these great religions, although this point is not made definitely clear (Meyer 1987:46).

As a result, most of the educated and even some researchers on religions have considered the popular religious traditions (or even religious practice in general) as a "social problem" and "superstition" in need of "improvement" or even "abandonment", echoing official concerns about the rationalization and institutionalization of religious practice (cf. Cohen 1987:293; Jordan 1994:137).

Popular Religion in Taiwan:

As far as Chinese popular religion in Taiwan is concerned, most believers often have little notion of what religion they practise. They merely say that they are "worshipping (baibai)" or "worshipping the deities (baishen)". If asked the name of their religion, people sometimes give an easy (and high-status) answer and identify the religion as "Buddhism" or "Taoism", even though the temple where they worship may not have any Buddhist statue in it and they may not know any Taoist deities (cf. Harrell 1977:56; Proksch 1984:19).

Actually, one of the characteristics of Chinese popular religion is its de-emphasis of the religious boundaries between various faiths, that is "syncretism". Popular deities come from a wide variety of sources. Some deities are found in Taoism or Buddhism, some are historical personalities, while still others are even the heroes of classical pseudo-historical fiction (Tsai Wen-hui 1979:26; Cohen 1987:289). Thus, the religion comprises elements from ancestor worship and the cult of the dead, from nature worship, local cults, popular Taoism, popular Buddhism, and Confucianism.

There is no single sacred text or set of documents that contains all the basic beliefs, doctrines, and values. These basic ideas must be sought instead in many different places and forms: in sacred books, votive art, rites, temple murals, family worship, myths, exemplar tales, popular theatre, puppet shows, fiction (Feuchtwang 1974b:124; Cohen 1987:289), comic books, and television series in Taiwan today (cf. Sangren 1993:8).(note.16)

When scholars describe the religion in English, it is named "popular religion" (e.g. Smith (1899) 1969; DeGlopper 1974; Feuchtwang 1977; Cohen 1987:289), "peasant religion" (e.g. Granet (1922) 1975), "diffused religion" (e.g. Yang 1961), "folk religion" (e.g. Berkowits et al. 1969; Grichting 1971; Jordan 1972; Harrell 1977), "Chinese religion" (e.g. Freedman 1974), "local religion" (e.g. Sangren 1988) or even "local cults" (e.g. Katz 1992). In brief, there is no consensus for the naming of the religion among scholars (cf. Wu Lien-chin 1987:104).

In fact, since Robert Redfield (1956; qtd. in Sangren 1984:1) introduced the terms "great tradition and little tradition", debate over their formulation and utility has constituted an important arena for competing conceptualizations of society and culture, especially in South and Southeast Asia (Bell 1989). Today, many scholars would probably agree that dichotomies such as great tradition/little tradition(s), urban/rural, and elite/folk greatly oversimplify complex historical spatial patterns of cultural interaction (Bell 1989).

In order to avoid these dichotomies, Katz (1992) uses the term "local cults" to represent the religion he researches, which excludes organised religions like Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam. This also excludes systematicised religions such as sectarianism and Confucianism. Similarly, Sangren (1988) uses the term "local religion" to mean the institutions of local territorial-cult ritual. In short, the terminological choices directly reflect the various viewpoints on this religion (cf. Bell 1989:41).

However, I try not to use the term "local cults" or "local religion" because even though the specifics of ritual and particular spirits chosen as objects of worship or propitiation may vary widely from locality to locality within the Chinese world, people share, at least, some general religious ideas. For example, A.P. Wolf's description of the tripartite division of the supernatural into gods, ghosts, and ancestors seems nearly universally applicable (cf. Sangren 1984:6). Generally speaking, people believe that three types of beings inhabit the supernatural world. Deities are those in a supernatural bureaucracy headed by the Jade Emperor. Ancestors are the spirits of each household's own agnatic forbears and their wives. Ghosts are those who died by violence or without descendants and without virtuous deeds to their credit (Wolf 1974). Human beings burn incense and present offerings and spirit money: to beseech deities for help and protection, sustain their ancestors in the next existence, and propitiate potentially malicious ghosts (Harrell 1977:56).

In this thesis, I shall use the term "popular religion" to indicate the religion on which I did my field research.(note.17) It is a religion in which both local leaders and common people participate, no matter whether they believe the deities or not. Local leaders (difang touren) are traditional upper middle class such as politicians, entrepreneurs, and others. They usually act as temple building initiators, organisers, or founders. In this thesis, they play important roles in soliciting to sponsor deities' festivals, in narrating temple history, and in promulgating the Almanac etc.

Local leaders are usually well educated by Chinese ruling ideologies associated with Confucianism. Therefore, they are more rationalised and secularised, if not agnostical and sceptical (Creel 1935; Watson 1985; Meyer 1987:49).(note.18) However, common people need local leaders to sponsor and manage temple affairs such as birthday festival, temple construction, or pilgrimage. These leaders are zealous to spend money and time on these affairs as a way of gaining status. Therefore, they serve as channels to let the ruling ideologies reach downward and let common people's culture penetrate upward (cf. Bell 1989:49-50).

Common people are those who often have a limited notion about whom they are worshipping (cf. Jordan 1985:103). However, they come to offer incense and clean the environment of the temple regularly. They also donate money to the temple, even though in small amount. Common people partly accept the authority of local leaders, but have their own authorities to follow. We will see these authorities in the following chapters.(note.19)

The Constitution of the People's Republic of China permits the practice of "religions" such as Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, while the Chinese popular religion is regarded as "feudal" and as "superstition." Therefore, until the 1980s, when there was some limited relaxation of government suppression, it was not practised publicly, and most of the local temples were converted into public buildings such as government offices, museums, or schools. Thus, the present-tense descriptions of the popular religion in this thesis refer to China Mainland before 1949 and also to some extent since the 1980s, and to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the overseas areas up to present times and, thus, I will use the field data collected from other Chinese areas by other scholars for reference of the studies of the divine stones and trees in Taiwan.

Popular Temples:

In Taiwan, a deity may be housed and worshipped at a family altar. However, there is often an impetus for the construction of a temple to house the deity both for the convenience of the public and as an indication that the deity truly belongs to the community and not to some private family (Baity 1975:284f). A temple is a deity's "home" and "office" and therefore is often called a "palace" ("gong" or "miao"); it can range in size from a tiny roadside shrine to an enormous complex of buildings covering several acres. When the temple develops, several deities will be housed together and these are freely accessible to the general public for worship, prayer, festival, and requesting favours of the gods (Wu Lien-chin 1987:122).

In almost every part of Taiwan, local temples stand out from their drab surroundings in bursts of polychromatic splendour. In villages, the largest and most impressive buildings are often temples (Wu Lien-chin 1987:121). If a community has no public temple, outsiders might think it is because the community is too poor or there was no person of sufficient intelligence in the village to take the initial steps (cf. Smith (1899) 1969:137). But a temple is more than a home for a deity. It is often the centre of community affairs both sacred and secular where people meet and rest while their children play in the courtyard. The courtyard, flat and spacious, is used to dry rice during the harvest season. The temple is also a repository of the community's values: the elaborate decor in the temple is used to teach proper moral and social values to the young. Consequently, a temple is a symbol of its community. It is the centre of community activity and its symbol of unity (Cohen 1987:292); and it is a demonstration of common beliefs and common interests (Yang 1961:96; Diamond 1969:84; Wu Lien-chin 1987:132).

However, most of the temples for the divine stones and trees are too humble to be community centres. Some of them are even difficult for people to find. No matter how humble the physical structure of the shrine is, it nevertheless serves as a place where common people talking and doing something religious will not be explained as superstitious. For this reason, all the divine stones and trees that I selected for field research are those that are located in shrines or temples.(note.20)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(note.1)

I am grateful to my supervisor Dr. Stewart McFarlane for advising me to do so.

(note.2)

For much of the Mandarin Chinese terminology, the author has chosen to use the Pinyin romanization system, because it is clearest and most convenient for me and is becoming more and more widely used by scholars. However, I have kept the Yale or Wade- Giles systems in the quotations cited from other scholars' works.

For romanizing Hollo words and names I follow the system outlined in Nicholas C. Bodman, Spoken Amoy Hokkien (Kuala Lumpur: 1955).

(note.3)

Ling Shun-sheng is the founder of the Institute of Ethnology of Academia Sinica and a late professor of National Taiwan University. In August, 1955, when Academia Sinica set up a preparatory office for the initiation of the Institute of Ethnology, he was appointed as its head to oversee advancement of research. In April, 1965, the Institute of Ethnology was formally founded, with Ling Shun-sheng as its first director. In the same year, he was appointed by the National Council on Science Development as National Research Professor. In July, 1978, Ling passed away. In August, 1985, when the Institute relocated to its new building on the campus of Academia Sinica, it was named "The Ling Shun-sheng Hall" in memory of the founder who was a pioneer Chinese ethnologist.

(note.4)

The five monographs were written in Chinese with English abridgement. Therefore, most quotations cited in the following chapters are translated by me.

(note.5)

I shall develop the argument in the following chapters.

(note.6)

There is a stone, according to my field interview, which is currently worshipped by Han-Chinese as the Stone God (e.g. #S50, see Chapter Five for details) is originally venerated by Taiwan Aboriginals. However, it was not worshipped as "She".

(note.7)

For example, an upright stone of about 50 cm in height (see figure 107) is worshipped on a family altar beside the Tree God of Lam- huin Ward (#T37) and regarded as the Stone God. Since the worship is not open to the public, I exclude the stone from the current field research.

(note.8)

Different languages as used here means that they are mutually unintelligible.

(note.9)

However, although Mandarin speaking Chinese have accents from their provincial dialects, many of their Taiwan-born offspring have been localised and speak Hollo Language.

(note.10)

Hollo is a language spoken in Southern Fujian Province, China.

(note.11)

Here, we should note that at the moment Taiwan's early history has become a political issue. Both R.O.C. (Republic of China) and P.R.C. (People's Republic of China) governments claiming to represent China today maintain that the first settlers came from China and therefore see the island as an inalienable part of Chinese sovereign territory (Long 1991:2f), and disagree with Taiwan independence from China.

(note.12)

In the early seventeenth century the Spanish also settled in Tamsui at the extreme northern tip of the island. While the Europeans appeared to get along peacefully enough with the Chinese settlers, they did not get on well with each other. In 1642 the Dutch succeeded in driving the Spanish from their northern stronghold and began to strengthen their grip on the entire island through the Dutch East India Company (Proksch 1984:15).

(note.13)

In contrast, the tribes that inhabited Taiwan's mountain fastnesses remained beyond central government control until pacified by the Japanese in the early twentieth century (Shepherd 1984:2).

(note.14)

Because most of them still think they will go back to Mainland China and are unwilling to put down new roots in Taiwan, in this thesis I shall call them Mainlanders.

(note.15)

Taoism, owing to its esoteric nature, is identified only with its priests (Wu Lien-chin 1987:107).

(note.16)

This is to say, to a great extent the basic ideas coincide with beliefs and values that pervade Chinese culture as a whole (Cohen 1987:289).

(note.17)

I am aware that my using of the term "popular religion", in this thesis seems to divide Chinese culture neatly into great/little or elite/popular traditions (cf. Sangren 1988:674). However, there is less consensus on what new term ought to replace it. Besides, as we shall see in the following chapters, the religious concern and interpretation of the worshippers of the stone and tree deities can be distinguished from officials and elites. Therefore, I shall apply the term to emphasise this difference.

(note.18)

The report of Stephan Feuchtwang (1992:85) from his field site gives us a good example of local learders' religious attitude. Feuchtwang describes that one of pharmacists on Mountainstreet (i.e. the pseudonym of his field site in Taiwan) told Feuchtwang that he did not make offerings on the day of the greatest of all procession festivals in Mountainstreet, the one which is organised every five years for the visit of a figure of Mazu from one of the Mazu pilgrimage. The festival was a commemoration of the first visit when an image of her was brought to a nearby hamlet to rid its crops off pestilence. The pharmacist said that it was nonsense to believe the goddess could keep the land clear of pestilence. But he organised a feast on the festival, as did every other household because otherwise people would think he was strange or miserly (Feuchtwang 1992:85).

(note.19)

The term "popular religion" is also to distinguish the religion from the "official religion" which was the system of officially sanctioned sacrifices administered by the imperial government. This "official religion" relates complexly to Confucian philosophy, sharing some underlying premises and values with it, but is more theistic in content and practice than "popular religion" (cf. Sangren 1988:674).

(note.20)

The Grandfather of the Ancient Temple of An-lam District (#S40; see figure 42) is an exception. It is located in a family altar instead of a shrine or temple. However, because the worship is open to the public, I did not rule it out from my field research.

Chapter Two: Textual References to Divine Stones and Trees

Chapter Two: Textual References to Divine Stones and Trees

I. Introduction:

In the earliest written records, Chinese people, like many other peoples in the world, are represented as already practising the worship of natural objects (cf. Hartland 1917b; Bonsall 1934:22; Edsman 1987:49). Early Chinese writers tell us that Fuxi, a mytho-historical ruler, was the first emperor to organise sacrifices to, and worship of certain natural features. In this he was followed by the Yellow Emperor, also a mytho-historical emperor, who first established the worship of the sun, the moon, and the five planets (Giles 1905:8). The Shijing (the Book of Odes) refers this sacrifice as far back as the period of the mytho-historical emperor Shun, and there is ample evidence that in the days of Confucius it was offered in all the feudal states into which the kingdom was then divided, not only on regular occasions, but also in times of flood, drought, pestilence, or illness of the ruler.

The worship of natural objects was, so far as we can learn from records, at first purely local, such as the hills, streams and so on as the most conspicuous natural features of the land in which Chinese lived (e.g. Berkovits and others 1969:76; Burkhardt 1958c:56f; Allan 1979:3). There is an ancient rite called the "Wang" ("to Look Forwards"), and the very name of this sacrifice suggests that it was offered in the neighbourhood of the particular hill or stream which was the object of worship (Bonsall 1934:22; Granet 1975:73). For example, the river Fen was an object of worship in the Wang sacrifice (Bonsall 1934:27). An essential element of this worship was the belief in an intimate connection between human conduct and natural phenomena. The Shijing insists that when bad government prevails, not only is man thrown into confusion, but the elements themselves are disturbed, and the beasts and vegetation depart from their proper course (Bonsall 1934:24).

Later on, some of these natural features were objectified in the ancient altar, which in time came to be thought of as the guardian deity of the place (Day 1974:61-62), while some worships of natural features became the occasion for big festivals, for instance the worship of the moon. By the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, in 219 BCE, the festival had developed into one of many colourful activities, and took a strong hold in the religious activities of a majority of the population in Chinese society (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:95-7). From the Tang Dynasty (713-905 CE.) onwards, it has been a universal custom for the Chinese family to gather all its members from far and wide once each year, and worship the moon together.

In the present chapter, I am not able to give a complete account of Chinese worship of natural objects. Instead, I shall employ some textual data to give a general portrait of divine stones and trees - which are directly relevant to this thesis.

II. Textual References to Divine Stones:

There are some textual references relating to divine stones.(note.1) One of the most frequently mentioned is the anecdote about the spiritual bond between the eccentric artist Mifu (1051-1107) and his Shixiong, "the Elder Brother Stone" (cf. Hay 1985:33-5; Wang Jing 1992:178). When this eccentric artist encountered a big stone, he regarded it as divine, bowed down with respect and called it "the Elder Brother Stone". In addition to the anecdote, rain-making stones, evil-warding stones, fertility stones, and Geomancy stones are well-recorded in texts.

1, Rain-making Stones:

Before the invention of modern irrigation systems, China was plagued with unpredictable rains and frequent droughts, and consequently the Chinese people have always felt a great concern for the provision of the most important natural source of water - rain in due season. However, this concern for timely rains has not been passive. On the contrary, it has manifested itself in numerous rainmaking "methods" intended to insure a sufficiency of water. These methods covered a full range of procedures from benign prayers through violent coercion of the rain deities (Cohen 1978:244).(note.2) For instance, there are legends about stones with rain-making capability. The first example of this comes from a text Jingzhouji written by Sheng Hongzhi during the fifth century. In Hengshan (County) of Hebei Province,

... there is a solitary mountain standing high and precipitous. On its north-east side there is a stone cave. If one takes a candle and goes in about one hundred paces there will be two big stones standing about ten feet apart. The common name for one is the Yang Stone, and for the other the Yin Stone. When there is calamity from drought or flood, one whips the Yang stone and then it rains, or one whips the Yin Stone and the sky clears (Cohen 1978:250).

In this instance, the underlying conception seems to be that one whips the stone that is overactive in its function. In other words, since Yang produces heat and dryness, when it produces too much it must forcibly be caused to reduce its energy and allow the Yin, which produces cold and wetness, to function, and vice versa (Cohen 1978:250).

A similar method texted also in Jingzhouji produced mixed results. The text says that if one takes a torch into a stone cave and goes in about one hundred paces, there will be two big stones, both standing erect in the cave about ten feet apart. They are commonly called the Yin and Yang Stones. The Yin Stone is always moist and Yang Stone is always parched. Whenever floods or drought are beyond control, the local people dress in fine costumes and ornaments, and go into the cave. If there is drought they whip the Yin Stone, and in due time it rains. If there is excessive rain then they whip the Yang Stone, and immediately the sky clears. According to the tradition that has been handed down, this is always efficacious (Cohen 1978:250-51). However, in this procedure, there were sometimes unpleasant consequences for the supplicant, because the one who wields the whip does not live long afterwards. Consequently, people loathe this custom and do not perform it (Cohen 1978:250-51).

In this second report one whips the stone to activate its energy, whereas in the first report the overactive stone was scourged. The associations of the Yinyang Stones with rain and drought, respectively, are conventional and were also emphasised in Dong Zhongshu's essays on making and stopping rain (Cohen 1978:251).

So far, it is clear that the notion of "whipping the rain- making stones to produce rain", similar to that of medical treatment and geomancy, is based on the principle of the Yinyang balance.(note.3) At least since the late Zhou Period (fourth century BCE.), Chinese have believed that there are two opposing but interrelated active energies in the world (cf. Paper 1990:27).

Chinese characters for Yin and Yang signify the shadowy and sunny sides respectively of the same mountain, which indicates the idea of two sides of the same existence, very similar to the Western saying: "two sides of the same coin." Yang represents sunshine, light, warm, positivity, masculinity, and associated with odd numbers (I shall translate the word "Yang" "positive energy" hereinafter). The Yin state is cloudy, dark, cold, negative, feminine, the earthy, and associated with even numbers (I shall translate the word "Yin" "negative energy" hereinafter) (cf. De Groot 1976:929). This conception implies that all things must have two sides, two aspects, two genders, or two energies. If the two interrelated active energies are balanced, the weather will be good.

2, Evil-warding Stones:

The custom of using stones to ward off evil spirits has existed for more than a thousand years. Among them, the most frequently found are "Shi Gandang", so called by modern people because these words are inscribed upon them. According to Werner (1977:427), the use of these stones is mentioned as occurring in the Tang Dynasty, about 770 BCE, in the reign of the Emperor Taizong (763-80 CE.), and also in the reign-period 1041-9 CE. of the Emperor Renzong (1023-64 CE.) of the Song Dynasty. Nowadays, we can find these stones even in Japan, Korea and many other Asian countries. Usually, they are placed in front of the main gate of a house or at the entrance of a street, or else at places subject to evil influences (cf. Wang Jing 1992:71).

In present-day Taiwan, I discovered many stones of this type bearing the inscription "Shi Gandang" or "Taishan Shi Gandang". I also found that the top of some of these stones are carved with a character "Fo" ("Buddha") or an image of a tiger's head whose forehead bears the character "Wang" (i.e. King). The term "Taishan" means Mt. Tai, the Sacred Mountain of the East which is located in Shandong Province. According to historical records, those who were named after "Shi" ("Stone") were numerous in Shandong. In later dynasties, people also adopted the character for surnames. The term "Gandang" literally means "daring to undertake formidable tasks" or "invincible in the face of enemies". Thus, "Shi Gandang" means "Stone that dares to undertake formidable tasks in the face of enemies" (cf. Werner 1977:427; Wang Jing 1992:71).

Chinese people believe that Mt. Tai is itself a deity or "Buddha", a powerful deity as well. Therefore, the inscription on these stones of "Shi Gandang", "Taishan", "Fo" ("Buddha") and/or an image of a tiger's head on these stones is a reinforcement of their power.(note.4)

3, Fertility Stones:

Chinese divine stones are commonly connected with fertilizing capability. The most typical of them is the story of the Stone Monkey in the well-known book entitled "The Travel to the West (Xiyouji)". The story says that a giant stone had existed since the creation of the world. It had been magically impregnated by the pure essences of Heaven and the fine scents of Earth, the vigor of sunshine and the grace of moonlight. One day the stone split open, gave birth to a stone egg, and developed into a stone monkey, complete with every organ and limb (Wu Ch'eng-en, trans. by Waley 1965:11).

In addition to the Stone Monkey, we know that the ancient Chinese hero "Houji", as well as "Qi", was said to be born of a stone (Granet 1975:92). Moreover, it is said that in the southeastern bank of the Horse Lake, a stone in the east gave birth to a little pebble; the stone in the west was pregnant with a pebble. People asked for their offspring and got their wishes fulfilled. They were thus named the birth-giving stones (cf. Wang Jing 1992:77).

Wang Jing (1992:77) also quotes two more legends relating to the birth-giving stones. The first is that Gaolin's mother once made an ablution in a river.

... She came across a stone of shiny colours and smooth texture, and brought it back with her. That night she dreamed of a man dressed as an immortal addressing her, "The stone is the sperm of the floating stone chime. If you treasure it dearly you will surely give birth to a son." Awakened from the dream in a shock, she sweated all over her body. In a short while, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son ...

The second legend states that in Sichuan Province there are two stones, separated by a river.

[They] faced each other like man and wife. According to ancient legends, the stone in the east prayed for a child from the stone in the west, and returned with one. Therefore people who did not have offspring used to go there to pray. Their prayers were answered efficaciously (Wang Jing 1992:77-78)

Besides, in the famous book "Dongmingji", we find a noteworthy record that a country named Tiaoji offered a Horse- liver Stone as a tribute to the Court of China. It could be mixed up with the nine-winding cinnabar. Those who brushed their grey hair with this stone could change it black again (qtd. in Wang Jing 1992:75). This stone, though not a birth-giving stone, is able to change grey hair, a sign of aging and decline, to black hair, the symbol of youth and energy, and can therefore be counted as a life-giving stone.

In his masterpiece (1958a; 1958b; 1958c), Burkhardt also notes that some divine stone in Hong Kong Island and the New Territories are fertility stones. These stones receive their tribute from engaged couples whose duty it is to ensure the perpetuation of the clan.

4, Geomancy Stones:

One of Graham's contributions (1961:114-15) to this subject is his finding regarding "Fengshui Shi" or "Geomancy Stones" near the Yangtze River, Southwest China. He reports that the stones regarded as the Geomancy Stone were numerous in this area and they are very often stones that are prominent in the landscape and strange and striking in appearance. Such stones are believed to affect for good "fengshui or "geomancy" of the family, city, or region concerned, they must not be cut or injured, for that would spoil the "geomancy" and bring calamities instead of good fortune to those involved.

For example, somewhere on the north shore of the Yangtze River (Graham 1961:114f), there is a strange-looking rock that for decades has been the Geomancy Stone of an important family. A large, round, pointed rock that resembles the upright piece of wood to which boatmen attach their oars is the Geomancy Stone of the nearby village. Across the Yangtze River from Anbian City, is a large rock on which many boats have been wrecked every year, with much loss of life and property. It could easily be broken to pieces and removed at the time of low water, but the people are afraid to do so. It is the Geomancy Stone of Anbian, and if it should be injured or destroyed, much harm would ensue to the people of Anbian. (note.5)

III. Textual References to Divine Trees:

The belief in sacred trees is also wide-spread in the Chinese world. There are many stories in Chinese texts regarding trees that have performed miracles or cured people's illness. There are records even relating that trees cried aloud with pain when they were cut down (Morgan 1942:110). There is a textual record that certain trees in Zhejiang got official recognition as deities (Eberhard 1970:23, 256). In the historical book Taiping Guangji (XXV, 315. 41a; tenth century), it is said that there existed a tree in Jiangxi Province which received girls, sheep, and pigs as sacrifices (Eberhard 1970:23, 256).

Moreover, according to the records of certain field researchers, divine trees are still venerated in various sequestered corners of Chinese society such as Hong Kong (Burkhardt 1958a:122; 1958b:151), Zhejiang Province, the south of Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province (Eberhard 1970:21-3), Sichuan Province (Graham 1936:61).(note.6) In the following paragraphs, I shall introduce four types of divine trees: geomancy trees, miracle trees, the tree Land God, and temple trees of the Land God. (note.7)

1, Geomancy Trees:

There are a great many geomancy trees in West China as described by Graham (1961:113-14). The geomancy tree may be a banyan, a cypress, a pine, or some other kind of a tree, but it is always a large and/or old tree. He reports that near the sacred cave called "Jinsha Dong" ("the Golden-sand Cave"), there is the geomancy tree of a powerful local family. Near a monastery on Mt. Emei is another great pine tree that is the geomancy tree of a city. In the rear of another monastery on Mt. Emei, inside the temple and growing up through the roof is a great pine tree that is the geomancy tree of Emei County and is also worshipped as a god (cf. Frese & Gray 1987:27).

Chinese people love Nature. The natural objects such as mountain, water, tree, and stone are synonymous with Nature. They are main foci of Chinese poetry and painting. A place consisting of these natural objects is generally regarded as a good geomancy place. Mountains shelter and protect the geomancy place. In places where mountains do not exist, big stones and trees may serve the same function of mountains. Geomancy trees in their places (e.g. family, city, or region, etc.), together with the geomancy stones described above, must not be cut or injured, for that would spoil the "geomancy". I think the reason is explainable according to Chinese cosmological ideas, especially of "the Five Elements (Wuxing)", that is, a stone or tree should be located at a certain point of a place which is regarded as a micro-cosmos, in order to induce a harmonious environment (cf. Feuchtwang 1974a; Wright 1977).

2, Miracle Trees:

Trees that are venerated are usually large and/or elderly. However, ordinary trees can also be regarded as gods if they perform miracles. For example, in the 1920's in Ding County of Hebei Province, there was the tale of a sick man who was told in a dream that he should make a drink from the bark of a certain old tree at the edge of a village. He did this and got well. The story spread; others strickened with sickness did the same, and many got well. Soon the tree became a busy shrine, bedecked with many banners presented by grateful worshippers to exalt the magical power of the tree god (Gamble 1954:412; cf. Yang 1961:353).

There is a legend that once during a war the enemy wanted to slaughter the people of a city, but would be willing to spare whoever was three feet above the ground. So people all climbed the trees and thus were saved. They regarded it as a miracle performed by the trees. Thereupon, the trees got temples and sacrifices (Eberhard 1970:255-56).

Feng (1970:20-21) also mentions a similar legend that at one time under a dynasty, a city was supposed to be destroyed, and the only favour that the highest official was able to obtain was that everything located three feet or more above ground might be saved. Thereupon, the entire populace climbed up trees, so as not to die. For this reason, the trees were later considered to be gods who saved their lives. Temples were built in their honour and sacrifices made.

3, Tree Land God:

Some sacred trees are specifically considered as the Land God himself. Eberhard (1970:21-22) noticed that an enormous camphor tree with a built-in niche containing incense cones and an earthenware dish for sacrifices is worshipped as the Land God. Burkhardt (1958a:70) also mentions that in the New Territories, almost every village has a sacred tree marked with honourific inscriptions which are worshipped as the Land God. some more

4, Temple Tree of the Land God:

Many scholars state that the altars of the Land God are usually built in front of or beside a huge tree (e.g. Proksch 1984:118; Overmyer 1987:260). These trees, though not worshipped, are regarded as divine. For instance, according to the field work of Chamberlayne (1966:170) in the North of Hebei Province, many shrines for the Land God have only the simple form of a small altar with a tree and a bell. The bell is of course a religious instrument and the tree is, I think, the temple tree of the Land God.

There is a story relating to this type of tree in the Chinese classical book "Zhuangzi". I quote the story as follows:

A wandering carpenter, called Stone, saw on his travels a gigantic old oak tree standing in a field near an earth- altar. The carpenter said to his apprentice, who was admiring the oak: This is a useless tree. If you wanted to make a ship, it would soon rot; if you wanted to make tools, they would break. You can't do anything useful with this tree, and that's why it has become so old." But in an inn, that same evening, when the carpenter went to sleep, the old oak tree appeared to him in his dream and said: "Why do you compare me to your cultivated trees such as white-thorn, pear, orange, and apple trees, and all the others that bear fruit, people attack and violate them. Their branches are broken, their twigs are torn. Their own gifts bring harm to them, and they cannot live out their natural span. That is what happens everywhere, and that is why I have long since tried to become completely useless. You poor mortal! Imagine if I had been useful in any way, would I have reached this size? Furthermore, you and I are both creatures, and how can one creature set himself so high as to judge another creature? You useless mortal man, what do you know about useless trees?" The carpenter woke up and meditated upon his dream, and later, when his apprentice asked him why just this one tree served to protect the earth-altar, he answered, "Keep your mouth shut! Let's hear no more about it! The tree grew here on purpose because anywhere else people would have ill-treated it. If it were not the tree of the earth-altar, it might have been chopped down" (Franz 1990:163).

IV. Conclusion:

From the above textual references we can see that stones which were regarded as divine are usually large (e.g. the Elder Brother Stone of the eccentric artist Mifu; the Rain-making Stones in the south of Hengshan County or in Dong Zhungshu's essays; the stone giving birth to the Stone Monkey) or strange in appearance (e.g. the stone that made Gaolin's mother pregnant; the Horse-liver Stone as a tribute to the Court of China; the stones regarded as the Geomancy Stone). Moreover, divine stones are usually regarded as having rain-making, evil-warding, fertilizing, and good-geomancy-bringing capability.

After careful enquiries for a number of years (in 1924 and 1925, and again in 1935) in Sichuan Province, Graham (1936:59-61; 1961:114) found that large and aged trees such as cedar, banyan, cypress, pine, and other varieties sometimes are worshipped as divinities. Allan (1979:5) maintains that trees are considered as divine because of their unusually long life and immense appearance. The research of Burkhardt (1958b:119) in Hong Kong also asserts that the trees elaborately decorated and worshipped as gods are usually trees with long life. Moreover, after field study in the southern parts of China, Eberhard finds that trees that are worshipped are generally large trees (1970:21-22). Additionally, these trees were normally venerated as geomancy trees, miracle trees, the Land God, and temple tree of the Land God etc.

In Chapter Three and onwards, the data which I collected from the field research in 1992-1994 will be applied to this study to see why and how the divine stones and trees are worshipped in present-day Taiwan.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(note.1)

The most well-recorded and important type of divine stones in Chinese texts is "She" stones and the stone Land God. I shall discuss them in the following chapters.

(note.2)

In imperial times, when drought struck part of a province, the governor usually appealed to local deities to bring rain as it was believed that the timely production of rain was a part of the duty of the local gods. If in vain, he, acting as representative of the Emperor, who himself was the "Son of Heaven," could order them to see to their duty, treating them with as little ceremony as he would treat one of his county magistrates. Gods who failed in their duties could be tried and condemned to a public beating (cf. Eberhard 1970:257; Wolf 1974:144).

(note.3)

If someone is sick, Chinese think he is in a Yinyang imbalance. To correct this, treatment often involves tonification (i.e. stimulating the lack) or suppression (i.e. reducing the excess) and restoring a balance (Frese & Gray 1987:27; Yeh Kaofang 1987:21).

(note.4)

Since these stones were usually hewn or inscribed with characters, I excluded them from the current field research.

(note.5)

People have always been ambivalent about the Geomancy Stones, and the belief has been changed since 1929. Graham describes that formerly the streets of Yibin were very narrow, and in them were several large stones believed to be the Geomancy Stone. These stones made it more difficult for people to pass up and down, especially when carrying loads or sedan chairs. No one dared to chip them down so that they would not obstruct traffic - that would certainly cause calamities among the people of the city. In 1929 the Yibin City had a mayor who widened and paved the streets, and had stone masons chip away the stones. The act lessened people's fear of, and respect for, the Geomancy Stone.

(note.6)

There are also some tree legends in Taiwan. Among them, the legend of the divine tree of the Sun Moon Lake is the most famous. According to a story recorded in a gazetteer of Zhanghua (Chang- hua) County of Taiwan (cf. Yuan Chang-rue 1993:8), an Autumn Maple tree grew up overnight on the side of the Sun Moon Lake. The root of the tree stuck 20 m deep in the lake, and the trunk towered 30 m into the sky, where the tree leaves extended a coverage of 20 metres square. The local tribal people considered it as a divine tree.

As soon as the tree had grown big, a child was born by a woman who was made pregnant by the Autumn Maple Tree in her dream. The child was named Guzong, and in time, grew into a man of strong stature and was chosen as the chief of the Tribe. The gazetteer states that in 1726, the Qing Government sent a troop to suppress Guzong who killed and robbed the people of neighbouring areas. In order to facilitate the suppression, the leader of the troop decided that the divine Autumn Maple Tree be cut down. Guzong, the tribal chief, and his two sons were thereupon caught and executed (Yuan Chang-rue 1993:8-9).

However, according to the folk version of the story, the troop was unsuccessful in their first attempt of suppression. Soon, the leader of the troop was advised that Guzong, was actually the incarnation of the divine Autumn Maple Tree which must be uprooted to destroy his mystical power. By piercing the back of the tree all over and by applying dog blood to it, the divine tree was felled. It was at that very moment that Guzong drowned himself in the Lake (Yuan Chang-rue 1993:9).

(note.7)

By the same token, the most well-recorded and important type of divine trees in Chinese texts is "She" trees and the tree Land God. I shall discuss them in the following chapters.

Chapter Three: the Land God in Chinese Popular Religion

I. Introduction:

Divine stones and trees are most often worshipped in Taiwan as the Land God. The Land God (Tho.-tt-kong or Tudi Gong) is the most renowned deity in Chinese popular religion. He can be seen almost in every family and village, along roads, on the banks of canals, etc (cf. Chamberlayne 1966:167; Brim 1974; Werner 1977:528).(note.1) For instance, older residents of Tainan City claim that in former times every neighbourhood had its own Land God, and evidence gathered by Kristofer Schipper appears to bear them out (Schipper 1975; cf. Wolf 1974:134). John C. Ferguson says that: "the most persistent type of religious worship in China is that offered to the spirits of the Earth" (qtd. in Day 1974:59).(note.2) In Yilan County, there are 67 kinds of deities venerated in 545 temples (and shrines) registered themselves in the county goverment. Among these temples, 168 are dedicated to the Land God. There are, I guess, more than two hundred Land God shrines which are not registered. Therefore, it is evident that he is the most popular deity in Yilan, and, possibly, in Taiwan.

The God is conceived of as in charge of a specific geographically defined jurisdiction. But even though the locality he controls is small,(note.3) he has a specific place in Chinese popular religion and is universally worshipped throughout Chinese societies. Thus arose the proverb, "The Land God is worshipped at the both sides of the field (Chhan-tau Chhan-bue Tho.-ti-kong)," attesting to the profusion of small shrines dotted amongst the fields and rice paddies.

Although not as powerful as the Heavenly Emperor or the Royal Lords, the deity is in charge of many things. Every house has its own Land God as guardian of the family.(note.4) Businessmen worship him for wealth and to guard their riches. Farmers worship him for agricultural fertility and harvests. Those who are in mountain areas adore him, because he is regarded as a god of mountains (Suan-sin).

Moreover, the graves of the properly buried and remembered each have their own tutelary deity. Although the deity is also said to be a kind of Land God, he is formally known, according to the title inscribed on the stone tablet beside every grave, as "Houtu" or "the Earth Governor" (Feuchtwang 1992:95; see figure 112).(note.5) When every year offerings are placed at the graves of ancestors, the Earth Governor receives side offerings accompanied by gold spirit-money (Feuchtwang 1992:49).

II. Names and Images of the God:

According to Yang (1961:97), the Cult of the Land God was introduced in the first century BCE. Schipper (1977:662-64) maintains that the indroduction derives from the politico- religious mass movement of that time. This mass movement tried to realise the ideal society of the past in a new world order based on the principle of Great Equality (Taiping).

The official name of the Land God is "Hok-tek cheng-sin" ("Fude Zhengshen"), which is translated as "Orthodox Spirit of Good Merit" by Schipper (1977:660).(note.6) However, he is colloquially called "Pak-kung" by Hakka people (Suenari 1985:36) and "Tho.-tt-kong" by Hollo people in Taiwan. That the Land God is referred to as "kong" might mean therefore that his image is always depicted as an old man. Many Chinese male deities are often referred to by this title.

There is no consensus among foreign scholars for the translation of the term Tho.-ti-kong (Tudi Gong). It is translated as "the earth god" (e.g. Ahern 1973:6; Fried 1974:131; Maspero 1981:3; Suenari 1985:36), "the Earth God" (e.g. Diamond 1969:99; Brim 1974:98; Wei & Coutanceau 1976:28; Werner 1977:413f), "the Earth Gods" (e.g. Berkovits and others 1969:77), "the local earth gods" (e.g. Baity 1975:58), "the local god" (e.g. Smith (1899) 1969:138; Bredon & Mitrophanom 1927:456), "the Place Gods" (e.g. Sangren 1987:61). "the God of the locality" (e.g. Burkhardt 1958b:151), "the Locality God" (e.g. Wolf 1974:134; Feuchtwang 1992:47) "the gods of the Locality" (e.g. Maspero 1981:110), "the Tutelary Deity" (e.g. Baity 1975:273), "land gods" (e.g. Hsiao Kung-chuan 1960:275f). Moreover, Ling Shun-sheng translates it as "the local deities" (1967:133), "the god of earth" (1967:133) and "local divinities" (1967:136) to indicate the same deity in an article. Chamberlayne translates it as "the earth-god" (1966:167), the local gods (1966:166), "the local earth gods" (1966:164) and "the god of the soil (1966:167) to indicate the same deity in a article also. Some scholars even reserve the Hollo term "Tho.-ti-kong" to describe the god (e.g. Ahern 1973:7; Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974:81; Harrell 1981:131). These English translations are all valid, and indeed, they reflect different understandings of this deity.

In Taiwan, "Tho.-ti-kong" is sometimes thought of as a single being for all localities, and sometimes as a class of beings each of which rules over a particular piece of land. However, the most important function of the God is to be in charge of a piece of land or sometimes related to the land as a whole. Therefore, I shall translated the term "Tho.-ti-kong" as "the Land God" and it will be capitalised hereinafter.(note.7)

The Land God can be worshipped with a stone or tree representing him and without any image or deity statue. However, if being worshipped with an image, he is usually depicted in pictures and in statues as a mild-faced, kind elder with a long white beard (e.g. Wei & Coutanceau 1976:28f; Proksch 1984:39; Sangren 1987:124),(note.8) wearing a round cap and the costume of local elder (Weller 1987:39).(note.9) Moreover, He is sometimes portrayed as holding a long walking stick in the right hand and nothing in his left hand, some with a long walking stick in the right hand and a golden ingot (guan-po) in left hand, some with a jade sceptre (Ju-i) in the right hand and a golden ingot in his left hand.(note.10)

I asked some respondents if there is any preference among these diverse images. They told me that it depends on the area the believers inhabit and the cult to which they adhere. For example, if the God is worshipped as the Earth Governor (Houtu; see figure 112), a statue with a long walking stick is preferred as they believe that without a stick to help him walking, the old God would be reluctant to patrol. But if the Land God is identified with a guardian of business or a god of wealth, a statue with a golden ingot and a jade sceptre is favoured because both objects in Chinese culture symbolise wealth (Schipper 1977:660).

Schipper also identifies the round cap that the God wears as "Yuanwai Mao" of wealthy country elders with no official rank but great influence.(note.11) The portrayal is typical to the traditional local leaders whose virtue and experience have earned them the respect of all (1977:660-64). We might say that because respect for the aged is an important value in Chinese social ideology, in order to pay respect to the Land God much beloved by adherents, they moulded him as a kind, old local elder with a round cap.

However, there are some divergences. For example, some statues of the Land God wear the official hat and official robe. I was told in some field sites that as long as an official who was born in this locality governed the Land God, the statue of the Land God of the locality is permitted to wear official clothes.

The God also appears riding on the back of a tiger (cf. Wei & Coutanceau 1976:28f). I was told that only the Land God who governs the mountain areas is depicted as tiger-riding. In addition, at the ritual of the universal salvation (pudu), the God is constructed with bamboo and paper as brightly coloured, human-sized images with fearsome faces standing directly in front of the temple that hosts the ritual (Weller 1987:18).

Once the specific function of the Land God is decided, people go to a deity statue sculpture workshop. They explain to the sculptor what image they prefer. The sculptor, then, mold a statue according to a image book. The image book consists of the statue images of most popular deities.

III. Distinctive Traits of the God:

There are some traits that distinguish the Land God from other Chinese deities. The most important of these is that he is territorially bound.

1, Territorially Bound:

There are some Chinese sayings such as "the God at the East end of the village is helpless at the West" (Burkhardt 1958a:155) or "if the God of the Soil of the east mountain goes to the west mountain, he will not be efficacious", so that "the T'u-ti at the east end is powerless at the west end" (Chamberlayne 1966:171). Nonetheless, the saying that "The Land God is worshipped at both sides of the field (Chhan-thau Chhan-bue Tho.-ti-kong)", on the one hand, portrays the popularity of the God, but on the other hand, it illustrates the fact that the God of one part of a locality has no control over the rest of that locality.(note.12) Actually, the Land God is conceived of as in charge of a specific geographically defined jurisdiction, within which his duties are usually compared by informants to those of a "local policeman" or "local junior official" (cf. Jordan 1994:153).(note.13)

Because of the territorial boundedness of the God, usually he is worshipped only by those people belonging to his district and not by outsiders. Whoever moves to a new district must accept the duties of the cult there, and whoever leaves a district is likewise relieved of any and all cult responsibilities.

2, Office instead of Person:

It is of interest that the term "Land God" or "Fude Zhengshen" is a title of office and not the honourific title of a single specific person. Usually, even though worshippers do not care much about the distinction, for the ritual specialists and people who take more than a casual interest in temple affairs, the divine titles of deities can be commonly divided into two types, personal titles and titles of office. The divine title such as "Fuyou Dijun" ("the Trusted and Helpful Imperial Lord") for the god Lyu Dongbin, "Kaizhang Shengwang" ("First Divine Patriarch of Zhangzhou Prefecture") for the god Chen Yuanguang, "Zhongtan Yuanshuai" ("Guardian of the Central Altar") for the deity Li Nozha, are all titles for specific persons. They are usually thought of as particular deified persons with saintly qualities, the emphasis being on the deity's moral character and good works (cf. Wolf 1974:140f).

On the other hand, there are titles of office, the most notable of which are "Tian'gong", "Chenghuang" and "Fude Zhengshen". These titles are explicitly compared with the imperial bureaucracy and often treated as administrative positions that can be occupied by different people. Any person may be elected to an office after his death. There are many legends telling of changes made in who should be deified as the Land God, or the City God. The previous one was either promoted or demoted and a new person took over (cf. Werner 1977:528; Cohen 1987:291). Partly due to this specific trait, there are so many different legends delineating the origins of the Land God (Baity 1975:245). I shall narrate these legends in the following sections of this chapter and in the next chapters.

3, Usually Worshipped at Home:

In Taiwan, people usually worship the Land God, among other gods, in their family altar everyday instead of going to temple. On the first and fifteenth days of every lunar month (that is, at the new moon and the full moon) (Sangren 1987:62; Weller 1987:30), he is especially venerated with incense and sometimes several kinds of sacrifices. However, businesses usually stay open on the first and fifteenth to take advantage of the twice-a- month activity, so businessmen such as stall-holders, traders, shop-keepers etc. because they worship the Land God as a wealth god, conduct these rituals instead on the second and sixteenth day of the each lunar month and also have feasts given by employers for their workers (Weller 1987:55).

Almost every locality has its own Land God temple. However, due to the distance or other factors, many people only go to the God's temple twice-monthly or for his birthday festival annually, and worship the God at the family altar everyday (cf. Harrell 1981:133; Feuchtwang 1992:40).

Every traditional Taiwanese family has an altar to carry out some important aspects of religious activities such as the worship of the Land God. The altar stands in the main hall or living room of the family, opposite the principal door. The family altar is usually called the "red table" (cf. Jordan 1985:93).(note.14)

The worship of the Land God at home is usually carried out by the seniors in the family. Since the seniors are prominent in the lives of young children, the example and instruction they provide are major influences on the children's later religious attitudes. The seniors tell religious stories, show children how to practise rituals. Secular education in modern schools often derides popular religion as "superstition," but many of the basic religious conceptions of the young are shaped by the activities of the family (cf. Cohen 1987:293).

4, Unique Location of His Temple:

The location of a temple of the Land God is very important for local people. Usually, it is situated on the edge of the locality (Jordan 1994:153) and should face the upper reach of the biggest stream in order to "guard (the locality) at the end of the stream" ("pe chui-buei") while other deities do not have such a function. Sometimes a dispute might arise over the locality or direction of the Land God temple should face. If this is the case, the God is supposed to decide the site and orientation of its own temple (Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974:83).

IV. Main Functions of the God:

The Land God is multi-functioned in Chinese popular religion. However, the main task of the Land God is to look after the piece of land he governs. He is indispensable to everything concerning the land. For example, the belief is that it might be dangerous to break the earth, since it contains "energies" which are hard to deal with (Cohen 1987:290). Therefore, when the first breaking of earth on a new site takes place for construction or destruction of a house, a temple, a grave, a bridge, or the like, an important person is to be invited to host the ceremony of "Ground-breaking" ("Pho-tho").(note.15) This is marked by the presentation of offerings on the ground to the Land God who governs this piece of land. Only after the host has asked the permission of the God, the piece of land can be broken (Day 1974:67; Wolf 1974:134; Feuchtwang 1992:94).

He is of considerable importance in farming villages, since he is in charge of the land and prosperity; the quality of the crops depends on him.(note.16) No Chinese peasant is supposed to plough his lands until the Land God is worshipped. In traditional China, farmers place small piles of seed in the places where they hope that later great heaps of grain will stand. Various types of grain and cereals are deposited as the centre of successive circles to grant a plenteous harvest in the present year. In Taiwan, the Land God is also the patron deity of farmers. A legend states that the Land God was the agricultural official under Emperor Yao. People worship him because he first taught agricultural skills. Also, a legend describes that the Land God was Mr. Go., a retired official who taught agricultural skills to farmers. Therefore farmers asked the City God to apotheosise him "Hok-tek Cheng-sin". However, the custom that placing small piles of seed by farmers is different from China. In Taiwan, farmers usually place small piles of rice seed in front of or in the hand of Emperor Shennong, a legendary hero who is said to be the inventor of the plough and the first Chinese agriculturist (cf. Werner 1977:415).(note.17)

In addition to asking the God for a good harvest, farmers may ask him to do various things. In Nantou County, pioneering farmers of the area built temples of the Land God for warding off hostile aborigines (Liu Zhiwan 1961:117). The banana farmers built temples for the God to get rid of wild swine (Liu Zhiwan 1961:117). After they settled down in this area, they started to ask the God for improving health and curing diseases (Liu Zhiwan 1961:118).

2, In Charge of Wandering Souls:

Harrell (1974:196) describes that there is a small shrine in a village in the southern Taipei basin that houses bones dug up when a road into the area was being constructed. After it was built, a temple of the Land God was also built a short distance down the road. He remarks that it is so because visitors to the area would see god (i.e. the Land God) before they saw the wandering souls which are supposed housed in the small shrine. He adds that similar constructions can be found by roadsides and in cemeteries throughout Taiwan. Correspondingly, Ahern (1981:405) also records that there is a slaughter house in a village, where buffalo and horses are frequently slaughtered. People in the community were so fearful of the dangerous souls of the slaughtered animals - it was said that one could hear their screams at night - that the owner of the factory built a special temple of the Land God on the premises to control them.

These two field workers, however, offer no explanation for the choice of the Land God, as opposed to some other deity, in these cases. In fact, according to Chinese popular religion, one of the main tasks of the Land God is to be in charge of souls. Chamberlayne (1966:177) records that when the first signs of approaching death appear, the ceremony of "summoning back the soul" of the dying one takes place. Usually the family and friends will go to the shrine of the Land God of the locality, where they light incense-sticks and candles before the God whilst they call out, "Come back, So and So". Then other members of the party will reply, "He has returned". This may occur a large number of times. The Land God is here invoked to help in calling back the soul of the dying person.

When the death has taken place, then the Land God has to be informed. As soon as night sets in, the members of the family light up lanterns, and, weeping, proceed to inform the God. On arrival, they inform him that a member of the family has departed this life. They beg the God to show kindness towards him, stating that during his earthly life he was weak and infirm and toiled hard along the pathway of life. After a display of firecrackers and the offering of incense, everyone returns home. On the second day, the family return - dressed as before in white, with sackcloth bands around their hair - to receive back the soul, which they believe has been hospitably cared for in the temple of the Land God (cf. Chamberlayne 1966:177).

In Taiwan, the souls of the deceased are believed to be wandering about in the underworld. The Land God, then, comes to lead the souls there (Sangren 1987:138). When they wash their hands with the water offered by the God, they will notice their hands are beginning to rot and realise that they are dead (Feuchtwang 1974b:120).

From the role that the Land God plays in the following two rituals recorded by Ahern (1973:221-5) in a small village in northern Taiwan we can also understand the Land God is in charge of souls. The first one is his performance in an episode of a rite known as "the Rite of Merit" (Cho-kong-tek). Most people in the village studied by Ahern insisted that although their ancestors might commit some wrong or other, none of them would suffer miserable reincarnation since "the Rite of Merit" performed on the eve of the funeral would cancel out all misdemeanors.(note.18) The performance requires the services of a ritual specialist and several assistants. It was said that because the road to the underworld is beset by dangerous monsters and unknown obstacles, the deceased might succumb to some fatal disaster long before arriving unless he or she receives the help of the rite.

When all was arranged, a musician played a jaunty tune on a stringed instrument while an assistant hobbled in, dressed like an old man. With his white beard, staff, and bent frame, he was immediately recognised by everyone as the Land God. At first, the God simply wandered around the audience, making jokes and delighting the children, but eventually, the priest, who acted as the descendants' emissary, told him that someone needs help crossing the bridge into the underworld; at this the cloth stretched between the two tables became the centre of attention as a representation of the bridge. The Land God began to circle the bridge, followed by a line of the deceased's direct descendants. As they circle, the Land God talked about how difficult it was to cross the bridge without the help of a god because of the terrible monsters and demons waiting below to snatch up anyone who took a wrong step (Ahern 1973:223).

The descendants, knowing that the God must be paid for such an invaluable service, dropped coins into a bowl under the table every time they completed a circle. The Land God led them on and on, until the amount of money collected satisfied him. He often urged them to make more donations by exclaiming that the prices of food and medicine had gone up recently, and that a person needed more money to live on today.

Occasionally, the priest interrupted to plead that there was enough money in the pot and to ask that the Land God consent to lead the deceased across. Finally, the God agreed, collected his money, and hobbled off stage. Then after the descendants slowly walk the length of the cloth bridge and ensured the dead had been safely guided across the dangerous outskirts of the underworld and had been given ample funds to provide himself with food and protection while he was there, the performance was completed.

The second ritual referred to as "looking around the underworld" (Kuan-lt-im) is also performed with the help of an appropriate ritual specialist (Ahern 1973:228-231). Through the ritual, people were able to descend into the underworld in hopes of catching a glimpse of a deceased relative or of finding an explanation of misfortune in the underworld. When the specialist who possessed the necessary knowledge of incantation came to the village, he put a client in trance and begin to shake. Finally, he said quietly, in a low voice, "There's no road." When the client repeated that he could not find the road, the specialist decided that the problem must be the Land God who led the way wanting money. Accordingly, he began to burn paper money for the Land God on the floor in front of the entranced client. Only when satisfied amount of money offered, would the God lead the way.

Thus, we can now understand the choice of a Land God temple in the ethnographic cases reported by Harrell and Ahern, and cited above. The Land God is able to keep dangerous souls at distance from the community or field where people inhabit (Berkovits and others 1969:76; Wolf 1974:134) and thus serves as the boundary marker between mankind and the ghosts (e.g. see figures 110 & 111).

3, Symbol of Community:

One important function of the Land God in Taiwan is that he or his temple is a symbol of community. Only after a temple to him is installed is a sense of community established. The field reports written by many scholars appear to bear this out. Ahern (1973:27f), in her field site, was often told by a local leader that the Land God Temple of the settlement is "for everyone who lives here. We all live in the same place and worship at the same earth-god temple."(note.19) Harrell (1981:131) observes that all the villagers of a settlement, and no outsiders, participate in its yearly festival at a temple of the Land God. The organisation of religious rituals thus supports geography and formal administration in defining the settlement as a discrete community, separate from its neighbouring communities.

If a household moves to the territory, it then participates in the festival of the Land God in its new neighbourhood rather than that in its old one (Sangren 1987:93). The festival of the Mazu Goddess Temple of Songshan, the biggest festival of the area, each of the 13 administrative units which are territorially defined for the big festival is based on its own Land God temple. When an administrative unit is split up generally a new temple is built for the new unit (cf. Baity 1975:273).

From my field interview, I was told that originally the dwellers of Khe-te hamlet had to go to worship the Land God at another village where they are from. About 20 years ago, when the dwellers of the hamlet became numerous, they could not tolerate not having their own Land God temple to guard their own hamlet, so they worked to built the temple.(note.20) Similarly, Suenari (1985:37f) reports that a shrine of the Land God, one of the oldest in the area where he did research, had many worshippers from a newly established market street in spite of its location in the paddy field. But the number of worshippers decreased to a few after a new shrine of the Land God was built on the market street since the residents of the street came to worship their own new shrine on the street.

The field work of Wang Shih-ch'ing (1974:80-82) in the Shulin area of Taipei County can also indicate that Taiwanese regard the Land God temple as a symbol of a community. From the time of its earliest settlement, the history of the Shulin area has been one of amalgamation, of people of diverse origins uniting to create organisations that overcome their differences. The first example is the establishment of the Land God Temple in Tandi District. Tandi was a district of ethnic strife between residents with diverse origins. However, after many difficulties, the residents there started considering themselves a community and decided to establish a temple for the Land God in 1765. They contributed money to buy a piece of paddy land that was given over to the support of the temple and annual worship of the Land God to demonstrate that they were all members of a community.

A second example is the settlement of Lan lineage. Despite the fact that Lan lineage resided in Sanjiaopu District, they did not participate in the festival of the Land God there. Instead, because they considered themselves as an independent social unit from the District, they set up their own Land God Temple.

A third example about the establishment of the Land God Temple in Pengcuo District is noteworthy. Despite its early settlement and its importance as the site of a rent-collection station, Pengcuo was the last district to establish a Land God Temple among its surroundings. Of the eight districts into which the Shulin area was partitioned during the Qing Dynasty, Pengcuo District had the deepest ethnic divisions. Its settlers included Hakka people from Guangdong Province as well as Hollo people from both Zhangzhou Prefecture and Quanzhou Prefecture. Hollo people from Zhangzhou Prefecture and Quanzhou Prefecture of this district fought each other many times; having gained an advantage, they declared a truce in 1861, at which time they blamed their troubles on their Hakka neighbours and drove them out of the area. To affirm the truce, and perhaps also to celebrate their victory over the Hakka, they jointly built a temple of the Land God and purchased a piece of paddy land, donating its earnings to the temple as an endowment (Wang Shih- ch'ing 1974:81).

In fact, the worship of a common god can provide an unusual, if not unique, possibility for the residents to interact in occasions such as reciprocal exchanges of helping hands and gifts in rituals of life crisis, owning the common property and sharing the decision making process. It acts as a cohesive force to transcend the threat of the narrowly compartmentalised interests of the family as well as the clan, immigrant groups, or ethnic loyalties among the same community (cf. Ahern 1973:71; Wang Shih- ch'ing 1974:80-82; Baity 1975:238; Suenari 1985:29; Overmyer 1987:281) to the state of "following the custom of the neighbourhood".(note.21)

It is remarkable that since the Land God is not an ancestor who is always venerated by a family or a lineage, nor is he a particular god such as the Three Mountain Kings (Sam-san Kok-ong or Sanshan Guowang) who was usually worshipped by an ethnic people, through creating and maintaining of the temple of the Land God, all residents of the same settlement expect to cooperate.(note.22) This might be one of the reasons that Taiwanese people like to choose the Land God to be their community god. (note.23)

4, Patron Deity of Wealth:

In some areas of China, the Land God is worshipped with two figures. On the left hand side, there is the figure of a boy - called Tongnan (the Boy) or Jintong (the Golden Boy). On the right hand side, there is the figure of a girl - called Tongnyu (the Girl) or Yu'nyu (the Jade Girl). These two children are believed to be very auspicious in bringing wealth and precious gifts, especially fertility, to the village (Chamberlayne 1966:173). Sometimes, the wife of the Land God is also associated with a patron deity of wealth (Day 1974:65).

In Taiwan, the Land God is held to be a god of wealth. There is a widespread legend narrating that the God was originally a "Shoucainu", a "slave who zealously guarded the money of his wealthy master" (Schipper 1977:661). Another legend states that the name of the Land God was Tongxiao who lived on the earth one hundred years ago. During his mortal life, he gave his wealth to the poor and engaged in many charitable works, but his property never decreased. Therefore it was said that his possessions were bequeathed to him from the heavens, and were an inexhaustible supply (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:31f), as would be suitable for a god of wealth.

In fact, it is unlikely that a shop is without the statue of the deity. Many people told Schipper that "there would be nobody to guard the money," when he asked friends in Tainan why a street without the Land God might be subject to ridicule (1977:772).(note.24)

5, Recorder and Reporter:

The God is also believed to keep records of all that goes on of the locality and report the same regularly to the City God, his superior. While customs vary, usually the announcement of births and deaths and other important events in the village is made at the temple of the Land God (Hodous 1929:62). Wolf (1974:134) also notes that most people in the Sanxia area reported vital events to the God (Burkhardt 1958a:154f; 1958b:151; Maspero 1981:111).

V. Guardian of Community:

From the above descriptions, especially of the five major functions of the Land God, it is not surprising that Taiwanese regard him as the guardian of community. Actually, each community considered independent from others has its own altar of the Land God. Schipper (1977:770) notes that the Land God played an important role as the first cult established by new settlers' communities to protect them against demons and aborigines alike when the island was being colonised. There is a widespread legend that in ancient times a courageous county official drove out ghosts from one locality after another with such vigor that they dared not return, he was deified as the Land God (Schipper 1977:660f) to guard the community. A legend collected by Baity (1975:245) has a similar notion. It says that the head monk of Zhonghe Temple of Taipei was a venerable old man of 94 at the time that his study was undertaken. He had a wife a few years his junior, as well as a son. Some of his parishioners were heard to say that after he died, he might hopefully become the Land God of his parish, meaning that his spirit might guard the area from evil.

During my field work, I heard an interesting story. It is that about five years ago, a young man came from neighbouring county to the site of the stone Land God of San-tiau Hill (#S23) to build a sheet-metal shelter for the God. The act surprised the neighbours of the God. He explained that: "My father came to tell me in a dream that he was a good man when he lived in the world. When he died, he was deified and was appointed to become the Land God of this area to guard it". "But unfortunately," he continued: "he told me that because the temple has no big tree to shade, he was very hot here. Therefore he asked me to build the shelter here for shade (see figure 24)." (note.25)

In Xinzhu City, I found a deity statue of the Land God whose face looks different from Han Chinese people. I was told by a deity statue sculptor that it is "the aboriginal Land God" ("Huan-a Tho.-ti"). He told me that before the Chinese came, the area was inhabited by an aboriginal tribe. In memory of the aboriginal landowners of the area, Chinese worship them as the Land God of this area and hope that "the aboriginal Land God" will guard the community.

From the role that the Land God plays in the rite "Nocturnal Detecting" and the procession the goddess Mazu in a town we can also observe that the Land God is considered as the guardian of the community.

The rite "Nocturnal Detecting" ("Am-hong") is a religious procession for the purpose of expelling malign influences from an area. The most well-known of these rites is held in a historical town in central Taiwan. I summarise a rite described by DeGlopper (1974:47f) below:

After dark a procession of perhaps fifteen deities in sedan chairs passes along every street and alley in the town all night in near silence and near total darkness. Householders, usually in their night clothes, stand in their doorways with incense sticks and worship as the deities pass. The participants are mostly young men in their regular clothes and are not expected to go into trance.(note.26) There is an intense but somewhat hurried and furtive atmosphere about the whole event. The rite is rather spooky. There are no bands, no floats, no costumed troupes of performers one sees in processions in Taiwan. Most importantly, the rite is led by the Land God together with the City God.

On the day of a festival of the goddess Mazu of a town in north Taiwan where Sangren (1987:99) conducted his field research, the statues of the goddess accompanied by many gods, are carried in procession through the temple's domain. Before the procession, which begins about nine o'clock in the morning, many households not scheduled to sacrifice pigs bring less elaborate offerings to the tables in front of their homes. At the head of the procession is the Land God, followed by the god Kaizhang Shengwang (First Divine Patriarch of Zhangzhou Prefecture), and then the temple's own statue of the goddess, and finally, three visiting goddess statues.

Some scholars even observe that in traditional Chinese world, any offence against the moral law of a community is considered an offence against the Land God who guards it (Bredon & Mitrophanom 1927:455f; Burkhardt 1958a:154f).

VI. The Earth Governor and the Land God:

Probably because Chinese believe that souls dwell in somewhere under the land, in Taiwan and generally in southeastern China, the grave site is guarded by the Earth Governor ("Hio- tho." or "Houtu") who is also regarded as a kind of Land God. When represented by a stone tablet by the side of the grave, the name is read as Houtu, and when represented by an image, it is depicted exactly the same as the Land God (cf. Hodous 1929:59; Diamond 1969:99; Schipper 1977:770; Paper 1990:31) and of course male.(note.27) When people visit the graves, they also worship the Earth Governor. One day, Ahern (1973:166) was told by a family that it could not find the site of one of its ancestors' grave. After looking in vain for hours, the family burned prodigious amounts of spirit money for the Land God, asking him to help in the search. This verified that the Land God is occasionally identified with the Earth Governor.

However, the myth of the Earth Governor is slightly different from the Land God that guards hamlet, street, or ward territory (Feuchtwang 1974b:121). For instance, a legend says that a man, only three days after marrying, was called to do military service and was killed on duty at the Great Wall of China. His soul visited his wife in a dream, begging her to come and find his bones to bury them properly. But when she came to the Great Wall, there were so many bones that she did not know how to identify her husband's. An old man with a white beard, the Land God, advised her that if she cut her finger and let blood drop from it the bones at which it would stop dripping would be those of her husband.(note.28) In this way she found and collected her husband's bones together in her skirts and carried them home weeping. She wept so profusely on to the bones that they began to come to life again. But the Land God considered it unjust that her husband should be singled out from the other soldiers to be brought back to life. When the wife had to go and find food to eat he offered to guard the reviving bones for her. On her return she found that they had lost their life again. She was very angry, and that is why there is a stone represented the Land God beside every grave; "to keep the dead dead" (Feuchtwang 1992:95).

A similar legend tells the story of a heroine Meng Jiangnyu, who, having lost her father, longed in vain for a husband. As the First Emperor of Qin Dynasty was then building the Great Wall, he called up all young men. Wan Xiliang did not want to go and hid away from his home. On the fifth day of the fifth month (Dragon Boat Festival) he was in the garden of Meng Jiangnyu's house. When she came out of the house, the lad hid in a tree above a pond. Meng Jiangnyu proceeded to bathe in the pond, whereupon she saw the image of the boy reflected in the water. She told him that, having seen her nude, he had to marry her. A wedding feast was held, but the old man who ran the general store was not invited. He reported Wan Xiliang to the authorities. The young man died while doing forced labour at the Great Wall, and his corpse was incorporated into the structure. Meng Jiangnyu went to look for her husband. Her tears made the wall collapse and many skeletons were uncovered. An old man told her that the bones that would absorb her blood were those of her husband. She thus found the skeleton and as her tears fell upon them flesh grew anew on the bones. The old man told her that if she put the body in a bag, it would be easier to carry. She did so and it became a skeleton once again. Out of spite, Meng Jiangnyu transformed the old man into the guardian of her husband's grave (Schipper 1977:661f), the Earth Governor to keep the body of Wan Xiliang.(note.29)

VII. Conclusion:

We have found that the belief of divine stones and trees recorded in textual data as the Land God, which has a very ancient basis as we saw in the last chapter, is also well preserved in modern Chinese society. The present chapter helps us understand the God better. We have identified several different traits and functions of the Land God. These traits communicate themselves in some degree to others (e.g. there is a common feature that he is depicted as a local elder devoted to his community) and are linked in a semantic chain: a local elder who is loyal to his locality transferred to a guardian of family, of community, of agriculture, of mountain, of grave, of business place, and thus wealth.(note.30) This fact clarifies why many Chinese elders devoted to their communities are thought as being deified as the Land God and that the term "the Land God" is a title of office and not the honourific title of a single specific person; why he is venerated at the family altar everyday; that he is worshipped only by those people belonging to the specific locality and not by outsiders; that he is territorially bound; that his temple is situated on the edge of the locality and should face the upper reach of the stream to guard the locality. (note.31)

However, no matter how the roles of the Land God are transferred and how these roles are semantically chained, he is, in Chinese popular religion, rather a "keeper" than a "challenger" of society. We see that being a locality god, he keeps hostile aborigines, wild swine, dangerous souls and others at distance from his locality. Being a community symbol, he transcends residents with diverse origins, making them homogeneous and keeping the heterogeneous people outside. In structuralist parlance, he is to "keep outsiders outside". Being a wealth god, he is the keeper of the shop's prosperity. Being a grave god, he is the boundary marker between mankind and the ghosts, namely, to "keep the dead dead".

In addition, I believe the fact that the common feature that the God is always depicted as an local elder who is loyal to the piece of land he governs is hardly accidental or insignificant. I attribute this to the result of the standardisation of the Land God and will examine my hypothesis in the following chapters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(note.1)

Yang (1961:98) holds that the cult was particularly well developed in south China.

(note.2)

I think the term "spirits of the Earth" refers to "Tudi Gong".

(note.3)

Chinese cosmology and the structure of imperial bureaucracy often correspond. Wolf (1974:131-82) argues that just as lower-level bureaucrats govern small administrative districts and higher-level officials control larger ones, so lesser gods reign over small local systems while more exalted gods rule the larger religion (see also Sangren 1983:5).

(note.4)

Not only the ground underneath the house, but the home itself, the walls and kitchen have their respective Land God. There are the protective Lanqian Tudi of the domestic stable; the Niu Tudi and Zhu Tudi protectors of the cows and pigs; the Gou Tudi of the drain-ditch; the Men Tudi and Buji Tudi of the cotton and the looms, respectively; as well as those very common Qiao Shen Tudi of the bridges and Shan Shen Tudi or mountain spirits beneath the graves. Moreover, for the convenience of the worshippers, entitled "Zhong Tu" or the "United Land Gods" a means by which all piece of land governed by the Land God may be appeased at the same time (Day 1974:67).

(note.5)

I follow Karlgren's interpretation (1930:11) and translate the Mandarin term "Houtu" as "the Earth Governor".

(note.6)

Schipper (1977:663) points out that the term "fute" or "good merit" appears to be of Buddhist origin, in connection with a kind of hostel operated by monks in Central Asia.

(note.7)

The term "Tudi Gong" is most frequently translated as "the Earth God". However, the shortcoming of the translation is that it might lead people to mistake "Tudi Gong" for the counterpart of "Dimu", "the Earth Mother" (see also Chapter Six).

(note.8)

Ahern (1973:67) reports that a couple who often hiked in the mountains near a small town in Taipei County claimed that an old man with a long, white beard had emerged out of a torrential rainstorm and had led them to safety in the temple of the Land God, thereafter immediately disappearing. They identified the mysterious man as the manifestation of the Land God.

(note.9)

Burkhardt (1958c:15), notes that in Hong Kong the Land God wears a red waistcoat and blue official robes.

(note.10)

Schipper (1977:660) also says that the image of the God in a historical Taiwan city is always seated, since in the urban area he does not need to walk a lot.

(note.11)

Schipper (1977:660) says that the Land God wears a "dragon robe". However, I have not found any depiction like this, it seems unlikely, which is not surprising because only an emperor could wear this.

(note.12)

Interestingly, since modernization, the Land God seems to be less territorially bound. In Taipei though he is still district guardian to an extent, today one finds its statues carried in pilgrimage all over the island when the people associated with such a Land God temple decide to organise a pilgrimage (Jordan 1994:153).

(note.13)

Therefore, such a territorially bound deity is regarded unsuitable for adopting children since he is powerless outside of the small territory. We shall discuss the topic in Chapter Six.

(note.14)

The red table is divided into two zones. One of these, the area at the left, where the ancestral tablets are placed, is devoted to ancestral worship. All the rest of the altar is devoted to the worship of gods. Worship is private in these cases. Normally only family members worship at the altar and are unable to name the deities whose pictures are placed over the altar table. They identify them simply as deities (Shenming) (cf. Diamond 1969:100).

In front of it is a lower table, square on top, and cubical in general appearance. This is called a "table of the eight immortals". It can be used to hold sacrificial food during sacrifices. The red table, on the other hand, is a far more sacred object, on which one does not carry out activities other than worship and does not normally store goods, and which one does not readily move about the room. When sacrifices take place outdoors for some reason, neighbors will sometimes carry their eight immortals tables outside to make temporary altars there (cf. Jordan 1985:93).

(note.15)

In some cases, several important people will host the ceremony together. Above all, these people should be very auspicious, to bring fortune for the ceremony.

(note.16)

Therefore, he is less important in fishing villages. Diamond (1969:99) reports that there is no specific shrine for him such as are found in agricultural communities.

(note.17)

The worship of Emperor Shennong is widespread in Taiwan. For instance, in Yilan County, there are six temples dedicated to him, one was initiated by government in 1812 and the others sponsored by common people. We shall discuss the topic in Chapter Eight.

(note.18)

The ritual is intended specifically to benefit the person who has just died, though ancestors who died earlier and have not yet received a rite like this may also benefit (Ahern 1973:222).

(note.19)

The term "earth-god" is Ahern's translation of "Tho.-ti-kong" which I translate as "the Land God".

(note.20)

The temple is located beside the Stone God Khe-te Hamlet (#S34; see figure 36).

(note.21)

This is a Taiwanese saying (cf. Baity 1975:275f).

(note.22)

The cooperation may sometimes give way to conflict. Please see Ahern (1973:71) for the discussion of the topic.

(note.23)

In Taiwan, many gods are associated with particular ethnic groups and are believed to act as patrons of their constituencies in the celestial bureaucracy. "Kai-chiang seng-ong" is a patron of Taiwan's Zhangzhou people. Gods with clear ethnic connections were usually found in communities dominated by a single ethnic faction but not now (cf. Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974:89; Sangren 1987:73).

(note.24)

The god is sometimes thought as a god connected with gambling. On inquiring why a statue of the Land God in Weihaiwei was accompanied by two female images, R.F. Johnston (1910: 374; qtd. in Wolf 1974:145) was informed that "the lady on his left (the place of honour) was his wife and the lady on his right his concubine." Two explanations were offered as to why the Land God of this particular place had been allowed to increase his household in this manner: one was that he had won the lady by gambling for her, the other was that the Land God of this place had appeared to one of the villagers in a dream and begged him to provide him with a concubine as he had grown tired of his wife.

The Land God of a corner in Peking City was reported that at a gambling match with the Land God of another Ward, he staked and lost his wife. It is also reported in Hong Kong that fortuitous contact with a Bo Gong (the name of the Land God of in Hakka) might lead to remarkable blessings. One villager tells the story of a man who saw a Bo Gong and then won first prize at the horse races (Berkovits and others 1969:76). See also Chapter Seven of this thesis.

(note.25)

Normally, when a new temple is built, a tree is planted beside it. I shall study the custom in Chapter Eight.

(note.26)

DeGlopper (1974:47) observed that those who showed signs of possession were immediately replaced and left behind by the rest of their group.

(note.27)

Houtu originally always meant a male god (Fitzgerald 1961:36). The change of sex from a male to a female deity, Houtu Nainai, is thought to have been made in the early part of the Ming Dynasty. It is quite natural that Land, representing Yin (negative energy) and the productiveness of nature impregnated by the life-giving sunlight and rain from Heaven, or Yang (positive energy), should be worshipped as the Goddess-Mother. This shift took place quite late, however (Day 1974:59).

(note.28)

Another version of this story has it that the bones which would absorb her tears of mourning would be her husband's (Feuchtwang 1992:95).

(note.29)

Ahern (1973:203), when inquiring why the Taiwanese must open the graves of their ancestors six or seven years after death to "pick up the bones" (khio-gut) and arrange them in a ceramic pot, was told by one old man a similar legend that a long time ago an emperor wanted to build a great wall around his kingdom. To provide a labour force, he conscripted thousands of young men. Conditions were so terrible for the workers that many men died and were buried under or within the wall. When one young worker had not returned home for some time, his wife set out to find him. When she learned that he was dead, she cried until the entire wall fell down. Then in order to find her husband's bones, she bit off her finger tip and let the blood flow onto the ground. Whenever the blood hit one of her husband's bones, that bone came up and joined together with the others until the skeleton was complete. People told her to carry the skeleton in her arms so that her tears would fall on it, making veins of blood on the bones, and resulting perhaps in a return to life. Just then, the wife of the Land God offered different advice. She said it would be better if the woman were to carry the skeleton on her back. But as soon as the wife did this, for she readily accepted the advice of a goddess, the skeleton fell apart. The wife of the Land God gave this bad advice because she was feeling evil-hearted and thought that there were enough people in the world already. After the bones fell apart, the woman put them in a pot and buried them, marking the place with a stone. Thereafter, people continued doing this. Today, our picking up of the bones is equivalent to the wife's using her bleeding finger to find her husband's bones. We pick up the bones in order to let the dead live again.

(note.30)

The term and notion "semantic chain" is created by Duara 1988:778- 795) to explain the historical development of the myths and symbols of Guandi (Guan'gong). However, when I use the term in this thesis, I do not necessarily mean the traits and functions of the Land God have developed historically, since they are not derived from a definable original text (cf. Katz 1990:217).

(note.31)

Moreover, in the next chapter we will find that different versions of legends portraying the God also have common features and these versions can be linked by a semantic chain.

Chapter Four: Festival Dates of the Three Deities

I. Introduction:

There is, in Chinese popular religion, no organisation of theologians to debate the details of religious questions, nor is there any apologetics to defend its dogma (Jordan 1985:63; Cohen 1987:290). Elaborate codification of beliefs is not of great importance for the common believers. Therefore, even though there are many inconsistencies in religious belief, in practice they are of little consequence. What is vital is that rites are carried out sincerely, at the proper time and in the proper manner.

The proper time to hold a ceremony to worship deities can be distinguished according to two types of rites; one is occasional rites and another type regular rites. On occasional rites, the local deities are invoked with offerings in difficult cases of childbirth, in times of pestilence, drought and other calamities; or at the time of graduation, promotion or making big money etc.

Regular rites can be subdivided into life-cycle rites and calendrical rites. The former are associated with life-cycle events such as the ceremonies held at a birth, on a girl or boy's sixteenth birthday, upon marriage, and at death. Special rites are held in the local temple and/or household altar for these occasions. The latter are based upon the Chinese lunar calendar for the rituals of formal religious festivals: the Lunar New Year festival, the Grave Sweeping day (on this day, ancestors are remembered by visits to their graves), Dragon Festival, Ghost Month, the annual birthday festivals of deities, the Moon Festival etc. (cf. Wu Lien-chin 1987:115). The dates of these calendrical rites are clearly recorded in the Almanac circulated in Chinese societies.

Actually, the annual birthday festival (shengri jidian) is a suitable time to approach a deity (cf. Wang Mingming 1995:56). It is the time to clean the environment of the temple thoroughly, to decorate inside and outside, to refurbish the altar elaborately, and to give the deity's statue new clothes or a new headdress (cf. Yang 1961:98; Cohen 1987:292f). The deity's images in the offspring temples are carried back to the parent temple during the festival and temporarily installed on the altar to join the festival. It is also a good occasion for community celebration and feasting. The inhabitants of the temple neighbourhood, through the solicitation of local leaders, are urged to sponsor operatic performances and the birthday parade of the deity. Families invite guests (e.g. friends and relatives from other areas) to attend operatic performances and the deity parade, and most importantly, a banquet feast. Through the festival the community maintained among themselves a sense of belonging (Granet 1975:50).

I have checked many different editions of the Almanac, the dates of annual birthday festivals for the Stone and Tree Gods were not ever written in them. Under such circumstances, how do the believers of these deities identify the date to hold the birthday festival? It is the main purpose of this chapter to study how the deities are identified with the dates of birthday festivals and why some of them do not have any birthdays attached. Then, I argue that under the pressure of anthropomorphism, people make every effort to anthropomorphise these deities in order to stress that they were originally deified human beings. Finally, I assert that since the Land God has long been standardised, those natural objects which are identified with the Land God have similar legends and unified dates for birthday festival. Because the other stones and trees are not standardised, their legends, the dates of birthday and the form of images vary.

II. How Their Birthdays Are Identified:

First of all, let us fathom how the dates of birthday festivals of these natural objects are identified. I delineate seven methods by which people identify the dates.

1, they identify the dates with those of the Land God:

In Taiwan, people may worship the Land God on their family altar everyday. Nevertheless, most Taiwanese, especially Hollo people, believe that both the second day of the second lunar month and the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month are the birthdays of the Land God (Tho-ti-kong Sen) and hold a festival on both days for him (Sangren 1987:62; Feuchtwang 1992:92). Thus, the sites of most stones and trees representing the Land God hold birthday festivals on the second day of the second lunar month and/or on the fifteenth or sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month. (note.1)

There are some exceptions. Both the birthday festivals of the tree Land God of In-suan Street (#T11; see figure 76) and the tree Land God of the East Gate of Bi-liong Town (#T12; see figure 77), a Hakka-speaking village, are held on the second day of the second month and the second day of the eighth month. It is slightly unusual to hold festivals on these days in Hollo communities. However, according to certain field reports from China, those of Hubei (Chamberlayne 1966:179) and Jiangxi Province are on the same day as those of Hakka in Taiwan (Hsiao Kung-chuan 1960:38).(note.2)

2, the dates are decided in the course of negotiations with deities themselves through the mediation of religious specialists:

The main festival of the Literate and Militant Emperor of Po.-ho Village (#S38; see figure 40) is celebrated on the sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month. At first I guessed that the reason for the date of the annual festival might be a result of the generally scheduled date near the 15th of the eighth month, one of the important dates for the birthday of both the Stone/Tree God and the Land God. However, I was wrong. This stone god was first found by the villagers about 60 years ago, but regarded as an evil spirit and kept at a distance. In 1984, the villagers started to venerate it at the command of a shaman (jitong). Moreover, in trance, the shaman also told villagers that the birthday of this god is on the sixteenth day of the eighth month. From then on, people hold festivals on that date.

The case of the main festival of the Emperor of Six Areas of Tan-suan Rural-town (#S10) is similar. Even though this cult was initiated around the 1870s, the date of the birthday was not fixed until as late as the 1900s when the current temple was inaugurated. When the building was completed, the god made an announcement through a shaman that his official title was "the Emperor of Six Areas" ("Liok-kah Then-te") and his birthday was on the ninth day of the sixth lunar month.

The main festival of the Tree God of Lam-huin Ward (#T37) is held on the twenty-eighth day of the seventh lunar month. I was told that about 100 years ago a tiny shrine was built under the tree for the worship of the Land God. But when it collapsed about 20 years ago, the local inhabitants built a new temple for the Land God on a spacious place nearby and left the tree alone. About five years ago, a religious specialist (xiansheng) told the villagers that the tree had been possessed by an immortal; therefore they started to worship it as the Tree God.

Moreover, because the local inhabitants celebrate a five- day-long birthday festival for a god named Huat-chu Kong enshrined in a hall in front of the Tree from the twenty-third day to twenty-seventh of the seventh lunar month, after the recognition of the Tree God, they decided to celebrate his festival with an opera show on the twenty-eighth day of the seventh lunar month.

The birthday festival of the Tree God of Cheng-bik Ward (#T32; see figure 98) was also decided by the Tree God itself through a religious specialist. About fifteen years ago, a respected vegetarian advised the local inhabitants of the Ward that the tree had become godly and should be worshipped. Gradually, the local inhabitants found the tree was really divine, because he blessed the village very much. However, since the religious specialist did not tell them what god the tree was, people sometimes regarded it as the Tree God and sometimes as the Land God of this area. Therefore, they hold two birthday celebrations for the tree, one on the second day of the second month for the Land God and one the tenth day of the ninth lunar month for the Tree God. I asked them why the Tree God's festival was on the ninth month? They answered that: "Nobody knows the birthday of the Tree God, we just use the memorial date of the temple inauguration for the birthday festival of the Tree God and the temple inauguration day was decided by the God."

3, they identify the dates with the same birthdays of some goddesses who are also guardians of children:

According to my field work, some festivals of the Stone and Tree God are celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, on the fifteenth day of eighth lunar month, or at the end of each year.(note.3) Of course, there are many other religious dimensions to each of these dates. However, these specific dates are coincident with the festival dates of some Chinese goddesses who are also the guardians of children.

The fifteenth day of the first month was called Sion-goan or Goan-siao and is known in the English world as "the Lantern Festival". This day is also called "the Small New Year" (Xiao Guonian). For several days beforehand, lanterns are sold everywhere on the streets; then on the fourteenth day, lantern booths are set up in the temples, colourful lanterns are hung up and narcissus flowers arrayed for public viewing. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the streets are always crowded with people carrying lanterns while dragon and lion dances are performed, and musical troupes go from place to place adding to the extraordinary activity of the evening (see also, Wei & Coutanceau 1976:10).(note.4)

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also the birthday of the Bed Goddess (Chhng-bo Sen). At dusk, every family prepares sacrifices and worships gods, especially the Bed Goddess - a goddess who is said to watch over children - by giving offerings of glutinous rice mixed with hemp oil, wine and chicken; then paper money (on which there is a woodblock cut of clothes) is burned in order to give thanks to the Bed Goddess for protecting children (cf. Wei & Coutanceau 1976:68).

Also, in some places in China, the bed is believed to be protected by a pair of divinities, the Lord of the Bed, Chuangkong, and the Lady of the Bed, Chuangmu, to whom offerings are presented on the day of the Lantern Festival or on the last day of the year (Maspero 1981:118). Nonetheless, in some areas of Taiwan, the birthday of the Bed Goddess is also celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Moreover, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also considered the birthday of the Near Water Goddess (Lim-sui Hu- jin). The cult is one of the three biggest cults in Fujian Province. She is one of the water deities that predate Han Chinese settlement of the southern China (Watson 1985:298f), and the cult of the Near Water Goddess has fascinated people in the Prefecture of Fuzhou since the fourteenth century. The cult goes back to the Tang Dynasty. The base temple was constructed in 792 CE. in Gutian, at a place called "Linshui" (i.e. "Near Water"). According to certain sources, the Lady was born in 766 CE., which corresponds to the dates of the temple.(note.5) The story has been re-told in the numerous accounts between then and the twentieth century. Throughout the various accounts, the Near Water Goddess is referred to by many different names and official titles. Although the legend changes, there are certain constant features. For example, she always keeps the surname "Chen", but her personal name changes; later records tend to identify her as Jinggu (the pacifying maiden) or variations of this form. Other common details are the Song Dynasty bestowal of the title of Linshui Furen (literally, the Near Water Lady) and Shunyi (literally, in accord with virtue) and the location of her base temple in the vicinity of the town of Gutian.

The cult spread in the 18th century throughout southern China and Taiwan and is still very active. Many legends in these areas say that the Near Water Goddess once fought against a white serpent and tamed the demon. However, she died after having aborted her pregnancy when she performed a ritual for the rain to come and save the people from drought. Probably because of her tragic and heroic death, she has been revered as a divine protectress of women and children since.(note.6)

According to the Chinese Almanac, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the birthday of "the Seven Star Goddess" (Chhit-niu-ma). The main task of the Goddess is to look after children, and there is a common belief that all children under the age of sixteen come under her protection. Once a baby has reached, or sometimes almost reached, its first birthday, its parents take it to a temple to worship the Seven Star Goddess in order to engage her protection. During worship, ancient coins, silver medallions, or lock medallions are hung on red ribbons and placed around the neck of the child as an amulet. If she is the child's protectress, at dusk of the seventh day of the seventh month of every year, offerings of soft cakes (a type of steamed dumpling with a hole pressed in the centre), are made at doorways to worship the Goddess. Upon reaching adulthood (age sixteen) the child must go to a temple on the birthday of the Seven Star Goddess and thank the Goddess for her protection over the last sixteen years by offering noodles, a rite called "taking off the amulet" (see also, Wei & Coutanceau 1976:66f). Besides, a rite called "Leaving the House of the Seven Star Goddess" is to be performed in addition to the "taking off the amulet" (see also, Wei & Coutanceau 1976:66f).

The fifteenth day of the eighth month is known by the English world as the "Moon Festival" and called "Tiong-chhiu-cheh (literally, the Mid-Autumn Festival)" by Taiwanese.(note.7) In addition, the Moon Festival, which always occurs on a full moon, is also set aside as the birthday of the Moon Goddess. As on many other festival days, everyone must worship their ancestors and the Land God on this occasion.

It is now the beginning of autumn, a season in Taiwan of clear skies and mild weather after the hot, damp summer. This festival is usually blessed with blue skies and clement temperatures; so when night falls, a luminous, full moon shines in the star-filled sky - a wonderful sight after the prolonged haziness of summer. As a tribute to the Moon Goddess, families set up incense altars in their gardens, and on these small, round altars are set out a pair of red candles, four types of fruit, moon-cakes and lighted incense to worship the Moon Goddess (Pai geh-niu) (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:93).

In Taiwan, I do not find the Moon Goddess as a popular protectress of children. However, the report from Fuzhou by Hodous (1929:179f) illustrates that in some places of China, the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is also the date to worship the "mother", a goddess who protects children and the Seven Star Goddess.

So far, it is clear that the birthday festival of the Bed Goddess can be on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month or at the end of each year. The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is also considered to be the birthday of the Near Water Goddess. The birthday festival of the Seven Star Goddess can be held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month or on the fifteenth day of eighth lunar month. Moreover, the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is also the festival of the "mother goddess". The main task of all these goddesses is to protect children. Therefore it is my hypothesis that the reason the devotees of these stones and trees hold festivals on the same days as these protective goddesses is that both of these two groups of deities share the same function, that is, to be guardian of children.

4, they believe they are following the traditional dates of Stone and Tree Gods:

The birthday festival of the Stone God of Ka-ho Ward (#S36; see figure 38) is celebrated on the 19th of the first month. I asked why celebrations for the Stone God are held on this day, and they replied: "because the day is the 'genuine day (Chian- jit)' of the birthday of the Stone God." I think that the date for the birthday of the Stone God is really traditional and thus "genuine", since more than thirty years ago, the informants at the same locale told Liu Zhiwan (1961:162) that: "the Stone God's birthday is on the eighteenth or nineteenth day of the first lunar month."

Nevertheless, the neighbours of the Temple of the Stone God of Sia-thau Rural-town (#S6; see figure 6) said to me that the birthday of the Stone God (of Sia-thau) is on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh lunar month, even though they did not know why it was on that specific date. However, I think the reason it is on the twenty-fourth of the eleventh month is that they follow the traditional day for Chinese to worship certain natural objects such as the Stone God and the Tree God, on the Winter Solstice which falls on or around the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh lunar month (Burkhardt 1958c:161; Eberhard 1970:21).

5, the date is mixed up with that of the Land God:

At first, I guessed that the reason the believers of the Tree God of Tun-ho Ward (#T14; see figure 79) just hold celebrations for the Tree God on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is that it is on the same day as some goddesses who are the protectresses of children. But I was given an account that about 250 years ago, a group of kin crossed the Taiwan Straits from Fujian Province to Tun-ho Ward of Chhau-tun Town. When they settled down, they used three stones to build a shrine for a statue of the Land God under the banyan tree. Later on, the stones and the statue were covered by the trunk and became invisible; people began to call the tree "the Tree God," and not the Land God. However, they still hold birthday celebrations for the Tree God of Tun-ho Ward (#T14; see figure 79) on the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month, the date for the birthday festival of the Land God of the area whose statue is now in the trunk of the tree.

Moreover, the reason the birthday festival of the Tree God of Chheng-bek Ward (#T32; see figure 98) is celebrated on the second day of the second lunar month is that the Tree God is mixed up with the Land God. Therefore, it is probable that the birthday festivals of the Stone God of Tiong-guan Ward (#S19; see figure 19) and the Stone God of Sion-lim Ward (#S33; see figure 35) are on the second day of the second lunar month, and the birthday of the Stone God of Su-Lim District (#S50; see figures 53 & 54) is celebrated on the sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month all because they are mixed up with the Land God.

6, they identify the date with that of some specific deities other than the Land God, the Stone God, and the Tree God:

Some festivals are held on some specific days for some stone/tree deities because they are identified with some specific deities other than the Land God. For instance, Mr. Phuan Hong- guan and his fellow believers celebrate the birthday of the Grandfather of the Ancient Temple of An-lam District (#S40; see figure 42) on the twenty-third day of the third lunar month. Asked why this day, they answered: "Because the Ancient Temple God is a part of the ancient Temple of the goddess Ma-cho., it is also a part of the goddess Ma-cho.. We hold the celebration for him on the twenty-third day of the third lunar month, the same day as the birthday of the goddess Ma-cho.."(note.8) The stone Granny of Chhim-khen Rural-town (#S45; see figure 48) is also the same. I questioned the custodian on what day they hold birthday festivals for the goddess. He answered that: "the stone goddess is the goddess Ma-cho., certainly, her birthday is on the twenty- third day of the third lunar month."

The believers hold celebrations for the phallic stone identified with the First Divine Patriarch of Chiang-chiu District of Chiam-teng Hamlet (#S49; see figure 52) on the sixteenth day of the second lunar month. They say that because: "the (phallic) stone is "Kai-chiang seng-ong (the First Divine Patriarch of Chiang-chiu District of Chiam-teng)" and the two (testes) stones are his bodyguards, we hold festivals for the god on the sixteenth day of the second lunar month, the standard birthday of the god "Kai-chiang seng-ong".

The main festival of the stone Turtle (#S56; see figure 61) located beside Ken-ki Road, the main road leading to Yilan County from Taipei, is celebrated on the seventh day of the sixth lunar month. The temple custodian told me that this is because a Chinese story book mentions that there was a stone turtle god and that the birthday of this stone turtle in the story was on the seventh day of the sixth month. The adherents of the stone Turtle (#S56; see figure 61) follow the idea and celebrate the birthday of the god on the specific day.

The Autumn Maple God of Lam-kang District (#T33; see figure 99) is even more interesting. Neither the custodian nor the neighbours of the temple knows why they hold the main festival for him on the eighteenth day of the fifth lunar month. However, because the statue of the patron deity is moulded and dressed like "Sian-gong", the most popular and influential deity in this mountain area, I think that they might more or less have identified the Autumn Maple God with the influential god "Sian- gong" and follow the tradition to hold the festival the eighteenth day of the fifth lunar month, the same day as the birthday of the god "Sian-gong". According to the Almanac published and circulated by Muzha Xian'gongmiao, the most popular and influential temple of Xian'gong cult in Taiwan, and to a hagiography cited by Katz (1993), Xian'gong was born on the fourteenth day of the fourth lunar month. The eighteenth day of the fifth lunar month is, according to the Almanac, the memorial day of deification (chengxian jinianri) of Xian'gong. However, people in Lam-kang District do not distinguish these two different dates and think the eighteenth day of the fifth lunar month is the birthday of Xian'gong.

In front of a big goddess temple in Sai-kang Rural-town, a tree is venerated as General Chu (#T29; see figure 95), the associate and guardian of the goddess. I was told that because the location of the tree is so close to the goddess temple, it must be General Chu who closely guards the goddess. Therefore the birthday festival of the tree god is held on the eleventh day of the sixth lunar month, the standard birthday of General Chu.

7, they schedule the date of the same deity's festival date:

As above-mentioned, it is important in the popular religion that rites are carried out at the proper time; therefore, it is important that the birthday festivals are celebrated on the "genuine day". Nonetheless, in the observances, friends and relatives from neighbouring communities are invited to enjoy with deities the entertainment associated with the festival such as opera or puppet performance and to feast on the sacrifices, after the gods have consumed the essence of the offerings. If all temples of the same deity hold birthdays on the "genuine day (Chian-jit)' of the birthday of the God", people would have had fewer opportunities to entertain and to exchange feasts (cf, Sangren 1987:96). Additionally, if the birthday festivals of the same deity of the adjacent hamlets are held on the same day, then it would be more expensive to get food for the festival and to hire an opera troupe. Therefore, informants agree that, socially and economically, it is better that festivals should be scheduled on different dates in neighbouring parishes. However, some scheduling conflicts are unavoidable, since people feel that the birthday celebration ought to be held as near as possible to the "genuine day" (Lin Mei-rong 1987:69; Sangren 1987:97).

Having this idea in mind, we can understand why the birthday festival of the stone Land God of Tong-an Street (#S42; see figure 44) is held on the thirteenth of the eighth lunar month and the festival of the stone Land God of Tua-kham Village (#S51; see figure 55) is celebrated on the eighteenth of the eighth lunar month. It is because they are scheduled on different dates but near the fifteenth of the eighth month to avoid the "genuine day".

In spite of this, I was told by the devotees of the stone Land God of Tong-an Street (#S42; see figure 44) that though they hold celebrations on the scheduled date and not on the "genuine day" (the fifteenth of the eighth month), it is even better to celebrate before the "genuine day". Therefore they chose the thirteenth of the eighth month to hold celebrations, the date as near as possible to the "genuine day" and appreciated by the God.

III. Why Some Deities Have no Birthday:

However, devotees of some places do not hold festivals for their deities. Among the 61 stone deities I studied, believers in 25 stone deities do not organise any birthday festival for their deities. Among the 39 tree deities studied, the believers of 16 tree deities do not hold any birthday festival for their deities. Why do these deities have no birthday? I attribute this fact to four reasons:

1, because they are newly deified:

I do not mean that all newly deified deities have no birthday celebration. However, the examples I cite below are really such cases. According to the local inhabitants of Ho-peng Ward, the Stone God (#S15; see figure 15) and the stone Granny (#S16; see figure 16) of the Ward have been adorned with red ribbons for only the last ten years or so and have been worshipped only by lottery gamblers. So, no day is fixed for the festival in honour of these two deities.

The stone and the tree venerated in front of Khe-te Land God Temple are also newly deified. I was told that the stone was found only about 10 years ago by a farmer cultivating his rice field. About five years ago, some gamblers from outside the village came to deify it as the Stone God (#S34; see figure 36) and apotheosised the temple tree of the Land God as the Tree God (#T21; see figure 87). So far, there is no festival day for these two gods.

In addition, people hold no festival for the Tree God of Kim-bin Ward (#T6; see figure 71), the Tree God of To.-sian Ward (#T15; see figure 80), and the Tree God of Sin-hong Ward (#T17; see figure 82).

2, because they have negative energy:

The name "Good Brothers" is a euphemism in Chinese popular religion for the ghosts. People usually collect the remains of unidentified and unworshipped dead found in the area and set a stone to represent them. The unidentified dead, like the living, need a place to live, food to eat, clothing to wear and money to spend. The well-being of the dead depends upon the living who worship them at some specific time such as the Ghost Month. The stone Good Brothers of Bah-tau Hamlet (#S22; see figure 23), the stone Good Brothers of E-kham-te Hamlet (#S26; see figure 28) and the Stone God of Tham-te Ward (#S57; see figure 62) are all for the worship of the "Good Brothers" and thus have no specific festival for them.

Besides, the Tree God of So.-o Urban-town (#T10; see figure 75) is located behind a martyr's shrine named "Chio-pai Kong (literally, the Stone Tablet God)", the Tree God of Chhau-lia Lane (#T25; see figure 91) is located beside a small Tai-chiong- ia (the enshrined posthumous bones, a kind of responsive deity) temple, and the Tree God of Lam-kian West Road (#T34; see figure 101) is worshipped along with some posthumous bones. Since they are so spooky, people would rather keep them at a distance, and do not like to hold birthday festival for these deities.

3, because they are associate deities of other patron deities who adopt children:

Here I must make it clear that I do not mean that all Stone and/or Tree Deities worshipped as the associate deity beside the patron deity do not have birthday festivals. I only mean that because of this reason, many Stone and/or Tree Deities do not have their own festival. For example, the fact that the Stone Grandfather of Ka-seng Ward (#S3; see figure 3) does not have a festival is probably because he is only the associate deity of the Stone Goddess of Ka-seng Ward (#S2; see figure 2), the patron deity of the Temple. People think that it is good enough to hold a festival for the patron deity and ignore the associate deity.(note.9)

4, because they are too marginal to pay attention to:

The Deities represented by stones and/or trees are usually only well-known within their own local area. However, some stone and tree deities are even so obscure that only a few adherents know their existence. Hence, it goes without saying that they do not have annual festivals. For instance, the location of the Divine Stone of Giong-tek Boulevard (#S41; see figure 43) is often covered by grass and many of the neighbours are not aware of his existence. A local inhabitant told me that most believers who initiated the cult have moved out of the area, nowadays only a few people came to worship it and certainly do not hold birthday festivals for him.

The case of the Stone God of Pak-tau District (#S47; see figure 50) is similar. He is located under a big temple named "Tin-an Kiong" dedicated to the Royal Lords (in Taiwanese, Ong- ia). Therefore, it is difficult to realise that there is a cult of the Stone God under the big temple. Due to the marginal location, he attracts only a few believers and consequently does not have an annual festival.

One more example is the situation of the Tree God of Lo-chui Village (#T24; see figure 90). His existence is known only by a few people living nearby and is sometimes worshipped by them with incense sticks. Actually these incense sticks under the tree are the only visible evidence that the Autumn Maple tree is deified. Thus, it is unlikely that people would celebrate birthday festivals for him. Besides these, there are many more deities which are too marginal to attract enough believers to hold annual festivals for them.(note.10)

In brief, these four factors - that they are too junior, too marginal, too subordinate, and too spooky to gain enough devotees - all illustrate that these natural objects are minor and marginal. (note.11)

IV. Anthropomorphism of the Land God:

Why, then, do the believers make every effort to identify these divine stones and trees with a birthday? Beside it is a suitable time to hold a annual festival, I attribute the main reason to the pressure of anthropomorphism. From ancient times, since Ancestor Worship dominated Chinese religion, many natural features (e.g. rivers, mountains, rain, wind, stars), animals (e.g. lions, centipedes, the 12 creatures of astrology), artificial objects (e.g. doors, stoves, walls, moats) have been more or less anthropomorphised in Chinese world and have been identified with former kings, the heroes of past legend or deified ancestors of the first settlers (Bonsall 1934:28; Fitzgerald 1961:37; Waley 1971:43; Wright 1977:39; Overmyer 1987:258). Since then, most deities are typically depicted in anthropomorphic form. (note.12)

For instance, "Heaven" is often anthropomorphised as the Heavenly Emperor or the Jade Emperor (Cohen 1987:290). Similarly, the Stove God is depicted in human form, an anthropomorphic image of him is printed on paper and kept above the kitchen stove. He is sometimes said to be the Jade Emperor's nephew (Sangren 1987:162). Moreover, the bed is anthropomorphised as a couple of deities pictured sitting side by side, in official costume, with their tablets of rank in their hands (Maspero 1981:118).

In order to demonstrate that these deities are deified human beings, they are even offered the necessities of mundane life (cf. Dudbridge 1990:627f). For instance, the City God, which was originally not a human deity, is worshipped in temples which include living quarters for his family as well as the hall in which they conduct their public business. Behind the main hall of the City God temple in Shanghai City is a room for the god's father and mother and an apartment occupied by his wife and four daughters (Ayscough 1924:147; qtd. in Wolf 1974:145). Similar equipment dedicated to the City God can also be found in the Yilan City.(note.13)

As far as the Land God is concerned, if being worshipped with an image, he is usually depicted in pictures and in statues as a mild-faced, kind elders with a long white beard.(note.14) In Taiwan he is often worshipped with his wife, the Land Goddess. In China, he was sometimes even venerated with a concubine (Burkhardt 1958a:155; Chamberlayne 1966:170). In such cases, the deity statue of his wife should be set on the left hand side of the God where she may have a seat of honour and the statue of his concubine was smaller and was placed on the right hand side. Fried (1974:131) even found in a small shrine of south-east China that the God was worshipped along with a son.

Moreover, there are many legends portraying the Land God anthropomorphically.(note.15) Some of them are recorded in the popular story books and some are passed on orally. In the following section I shall select some well-translated legends at random for the discussion of this topic.(note.16)

A legend widespread in Taiwan states that the Land God was originally a tax-collector by the name of Tiun hok-tek, who lived during the Zhou Dynasty. Even though in an unpopular post, he was extremely fair to the people, and both understood and sympathised with their difficulties. During his life he performed many deeds of kindness and charity. However, after his death, his post was succeeded by a man who taxed the people indiscriminately and unreasonably. Therefore, the people thought back to the administration of the good official Tiun Hok-tek, and so as to be able to perpetuate his memory forever, they built a temple and worshipped him as the god Hok-tek Cheng-sin (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:29) (For simplicity, I shall call the legend "Legend I" hereinafter).

A similar legend also sees the Land God as originally a kind tax collector of the Zhou Dynasty. Since he wanted everyone to be equally rich, he refused to take money from the poor. But his wife protested that if all people were rich, who would they hire to carry their daughter's wedding palanquin. Faced with this argument, he acquiesced. When he died his post was succeeded by an avaricious man, who squeezed every copper out of the peasants. Compared to him, he seemed like a god, so they began to worship him and a cult grew (Proksch 1984:38) (I shall call the legend "Legend II" hereinafter).

Another legend asserts that the name of the Land God is Tiun Beng-tek, who was a servant in an important official's menage of the Zhou Dynasty. His master, at the time, worked in a place far from home, and was missed very much by his youngest daughter. One day the young girl asked the servant to accompany her to visit her father. The servant carried her on his back to go to her father's faraway post. But on the way they encountered a fierce snow-storm during which the servant wrapped the little girl up warmly in the clothes off his own back; as a result, he froze to death. After his demise, the words "The God Hok-tek of Lam-Thian- mng" appeared in the sky. The master, because of his vast gratitude to the saviour of his young daughter, built a temple to him and worshipped him as a god (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:29f). The other version of this legend referred to by Schipper (1977:661) maintains that from that time on he was deified as the Land God and as the Earth Governor (I shall call the legend "Legend III" hereinafter).

A fourth legend tells that, during his mortal life, the Land God was a faithful servant. One year, when there was great havoc caused by bandits in the neighbourhood, though an old man, he carried his master on his back to safety. At that time it was winter and bitterly cold, so he took off his clothes and gave them to his master to wear. He himself froze to death and as a result, the Jade Emperor (Giok-hong-sion-te) rewarded him by appointing him the Land God (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:29) (I shall call the legend "Legend IV" hereinafter).

A fifth legend says that the Land God was an elder who kept a general store. One day he found an egg which looked like a duck egg, and took home but which, when it hatched, produced a snake. The elder kept it and reared it. Unfortunately, whenever he was absent, the snake ate the chickens and the ducks of other people. Thereupon he turned the snake loose. But it grew and attacked people and cattle. The emperor heard of it and ordered the snake to be subdued. As no one else answered the emperor's call, the elder took the order himself and killed the snake. He was canonised as the Land God (Schipper 1977:661) (I shall call the legend "Legend V" hereinafter).

A sixth legend says that he was a candy merchant who lived a long time ago. One day he bought himself a tiny snake, took it home and cared for it. But the snake grew larger day by day, and its appetite grew with it, so that the candy left over from each day's business became insufficient to rear it. In the end, the candy merchant took his by now full-grown pet and released it in the mountains. As it happened, later on there were reports of a large snake which lived in the mountains, and which often came out of hiding to harm any person unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. Upon hearing this, the emperor ordered the snake be eradicated; but no one dared risk his life to carry out this imperial decree. The candy merchant, however, thought that because he had reared the snake, he would be able to approach and kill it without coming to any harm in the process - assuming, of course, that it was his erstwhile pet. Thereupon he sought an imperial audience, and asked that, if he should succeed in killing the snake, the emperor would cede the throne to him. The emperor gave his promise, whereupon the merchant made his preparations, and went out to the mountains and killed the snake. As previously agreed upon, he then became emperor. However, this was a position to which he was totally unsuited, and eventually he asked the former emperor to reoccupy his own throne, and make him a prince instead. Therefore, the real emperor gave his authority over all matters concerning the land in his realm, and after the former candy merchant's death, he was worshipped as a god (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:31) (I shall call the legend "Legend VI" hereinafter).

A seventh legend asserts that the Land God lived on the earth more than a hundred years ago, and was named Tongxiao. He was extremely fat, and at the time of his death had a head of silvery-white hair, and a magnificent beard - an appearance perpetuated in the statues of the Land God. During his mortal life, the Land God made a living by farming and fishing. Despite the fact that he gave to the poor and engaged in charitable works, his property never decreased; so it is said that his possessions were bequeathed to him from the heavens, and were an inexhaustible supply (I shall call the legend "Legend VII" hereinafter).(note.17)

From these legends, we vividly see, the Land God is not merely depicted in anthropomorphical forms such as appearance and behaviours, they even articulate his name, birthplace, life time, occupation, and his deeds leading to deification. We observe that Legend I describes that he was a tax-collector by the name of Tiun hok-tek, who lived during the Zhou dynasty and was extremely fair to the people. As a result, he was apotheosised as the god Hok-tek Chen-sin. In Legend II, he was said to be a kind tax- collector of the Zhou Dynasty. Since he wanted everyone to be equally rich, he refused to take money from the poor. He began to be worshipped after his death. Legend III says that his name was Tiun Beng-tek, who was a servant in an important official's menage of the Zhou Dynasty. He froze to death by wrapping the girl of his master up warmly in the clothes off his own back in a fierce snow-storm. Finally, he was worshipped as a god by his master out of gratitude. Legend IV narrates that the Land God was from a place called Thian-lam and was a faithful servant. He himself froze to death by taking off his clothes for his master to wear in a cold winter. As a result, the Jade Emperor rewarded him by appointing him as the Land God. Legend V relates that he was an elder who kept a general store. He took the order of the emperor and killed a harmful snake and was canonised as the Land God. Legend VI says that he was a candy merchant who lived a long time ago. He went out to the mountains and killed a dangerous snake and was worshipped as a god. Legend VII says that the Land God lived on the earth one hundred years ago and was named Tong Siau. He made a living by farming and fishing. He gave his possessions to the poor and engaged in charitable works and finally was regarded as a god.

V. Anthropomorphism of the Stone/Tree God:

Not only the Land God has been anthropomorphised, the other natural objects have also undergone this process. The stones and trees which have been identified with specific deities such as the Granny, the First Divine Patriarch of Chiang-chiu District, General Chu etc. of course have their own "biographies" and thus do not need to be anthropomorphised. However, the believers of some venerated natural objects such as the Stone God and the Tree God still endeavor to anthropomorphise their deities. For instance, both the devotees of the Stone God of Lai-o. District (#S43; see figure 45) and the Stone General of Tan-khe Rural-town (#S8; see figures 8 & 9) have proclaimed that their deities are "the Grandfather of Yellow Stone" ("Ui Jio Kong"), the mysterious teacher of a historical hero Zhang Liang.(note.18)

The adherents of the Tree God of Lam-kang District (#T33; see figures 99 & 100) attempt to identify the God with Xian'gong . They moulded and dressed the deity statue similar to Xian'gong and hold the birthday festival of the tree on the eighteenth day of the fifth lunar month, the same day with the birthday of the god Xian'gong. (note.19)

In these cases, we can see, by identifying with historical figures, the natural objects got their names, life time, deeds and so forth. Moreover, we also realise that some deities are represented by temple images with human form, and so are anthropomorphicised. For example, in front of the stone representing the Stone God of Kim-eng Ward (#S7; see figure 7) is located a statue of a red faced, white eyebrowed, white bearded old man with a double-edged sword in his hand. The believers told me that the image was engraved according to the manifestation of the God in dream. The statue of the Stone Divine Grandfather of Pat-po Village (#S9; see figure 10) is a old long-bearded red- faced general, riding a white horse with a big sabre in his hands. The image of the Stone God of Su-Lim District (#S50; see figures 53 & 54) is engraved like a literati general.

VI. Standardisation and the Land God:

So far, we observe that the dates of the birthday festivals of almost all stones and trees representing the Land God hold birthday festivals on the second day of the second lunar month, on the second day of the eighth month and/or on the fifteenth day or sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Moreover, on closer examination of the different legends that portray the Land God, we find a common feature: an elderly local man devoted to his community. I attribute the reason the dates of birthday festivals are so unified and the different legends have so much in common to the result of the standardisation of the Land God.

In his article "Standardising the Gods: The Promotion of Tianhou (Empress of Heaven) Along the South China Coast, 960- 1960", dealing with the promotion of "approved" deities by the local elites and state authorities (Watson 1985:293-323), Watson says that the local elites, defined here as literate men with interests in land and commerce, were eager to cooperate with state authorities in the standardisation of cults. Assisting in the construction of an approved temple was one of the many ways that an educated gentleman could "gentrify" himself and his home community. The essay is particularly interesting because the Heavenly Empress was originally a minor deity that emerged on the coast of Fujian Province during the tenth century. For a number of reasons, the state found it expedient to adopt her as a symbol of coastal pacification in the twelfth century and, by virtue of imperial sponsorship and the endeavours of the local elites, she consequently became the leading goddess in South China. Not surprisingly, 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 strategy of the imperial state authorities and the literate local elites to standardise the "approved" deities was that, when they found a deity expedient, the state first conferred on him/her an honorific title. Then the deity and his/her temple would be listed by the elites in the gazetteer and official documents that circulated at the national level to confirm the recognition and to ensure that religious cults conformed to nationally accepted models. As a result, the literate local elites who related more easily to these written accounts would think they had succeeded in their efforts to introduce a standard form of religion.

Watson noticed that since the elite written accounts reached downward and local oral tales penetrated upward (cf. Bell 1989:49-50), the state both led the masses and responded to popular pressure; it both promoted and co-opted deities (Watson 1985:323). In order to allow sufficient flexibility for people at all levels of society to claim the deity (e.g. the Heavenly Empress) as their own, the state and elites only imposed a "basic structure" of the cult (Watson 1985:297; cf. Bell 1989:49-50). Therefore, there are many lengthy versions of myth of the Heavenly Empress. Some of these are preserved in written records that have been standardised over the centuries. Others are passed on and transformed orally. The goddess, then, means different things to different people, depending on their position in the hierarchy of power. To the boat people, for instance, she promised mastery of the seas and protection from storms; to the landed elite she symbolized territorial control and social stability; to the late imperial authorities she represented the "civilizing" effects of approved culture (Watson 1985:294).

The myths in the standardised written records tend to ignore the fact that the woman who was to become the Heavenly Empress lived to be 27 and did not marry, deviating from the norm of her era and place. These records minimized the discrepancies of local colour and emphasize more universal (or national) values (cf. Bell 1989:49-50) and served as a medium to carry all the right messages that literate decision makers wished to convey about their communities: civilization, order, and loyalty to the state (Watson 1985:323). On the contrary, many of the oral versions contained strong hints that she had a special relationship with spinsters and other unmarried women. In some accounts, for instance, she refused to marry and became notable as a seer or medium (Watson 1985:297).

Although Watson's theory deals with the process of standardisation of the Goddess "Heavenly Empress" the imperial times, I believe that it is applicable to the case of the Land God who has been standardised in the Chinese Almanac (Chamberlayne 1966:179) and indirectly linked to the state cult for a long time (Duara 1988:786).

Among the 61 divine stones and 39 trees I have studied, none of them was sponsored or built by the imperial or Republican government. But the fact is that almost all stones and trees representing the Land God have unified dates for his birthday festivals and similar legends. Has the God, like the case of the Heavenly Empress, been standardised? If the answer is positive, what is the "standardised written accounts" and who are the elites?

In the past, the promulgation of the Almanac was the privilege of the imperial government. Nowadays in Taiwan there are many different editions of the Almanac sponsored and circulated by local gentries, politicians, entrepreneurs, members of temple administration committees, and others, that is, local leaders. I asked some publishing companies how they edited these editions of the Almanac. They answered me that these were not edited by themselves but by some prestigious "religious specialists (Xiansheng)". Therefore, I interviewed these "specialists" how they did so. Some just told me that they would rather not tell me since they promised those who taught them how to edit the Almanac to keep esoteric.

However, some enthusiastic specialists did tell me how the different ones were edited. One told me that he just compiled different editions of the Almanac, which were passed down from his teacher, into the current one. One told me that he edited the current one based on a classic Almanac passed down from his teacher and he added some new information to it. One told me that he consulted with some editions of the Almanac circulated in Taiwan and edited them to become the new one. I asked them on what principle did they base their dicision when they added new deities' birthday festival dates into the new editions of the Almanac. They all answered me that because the Almanac was updated for the general public and the publications were sponsored by local leaders (difang touren), they added new dates only of deities who were very popular (e.g. the Royal Lords) in Taiwan.

If we apply Watson's theory to the analysis of the Land God's birthday festivals dates, we find that, although the Land God was not an imperial cult, it has been more or less standardised like that of the goddess Heavenly Empress. Additionally, the mechanism of standardisation is also similar. We find that the "standardised written accounts" of the birthday festival dates is the Chinese Almanac. The "elites" who standardise the dates of the Land God are the religious specialists who edit the different editions of the Almanac and the local leaders who promulgate them. However, because local leaders are sponsors, they are "decision makers". Since the Land God has been widespread for thousands years, the different editions of the Almanac would not ignore his existence, no matter how newly they are edited. That is, the popularity of his cult keeps his status stable in the Almanac.

On examination of the different legends that portray the Land God, we find that they are also standardised to some extent. According to the theory of Watson, the homogenised myths in the standardised written records tend to ignore things deviating from the social norm and to emphasize more universal values. These standardised myths served as a medium to carry all the right messages that the elites wished to convey about their communities. This theory helps to illustrate why the different legends that portray the Land God consist of a common feature: an loyal, elderly man. The common feature is the so-called "basic structure" in Watson's terms. It also helps to explain why the legends and functions of the God described in the last chapter always depicted him as a "keeper" rather than a "challenger" of community. In brief, the Cult of the Land God is, to some extent, standardised and serves as a carrier of messages that the state and local elites wished to convey. Nevertheless, we notice that some of the legends narrated both in the last and this chapters consist of some miraculous deeds of the Land God; I hypothesise that it is because they are orally propagated at local levels.(note.20)

Moreover, if we learn from the experience of Watson's analysis of state and elites' strategies to control local cultures, we realise that the process of anthropomorphisation could not have occurred without state intervention. By anthropomorphising these divine animals and natural objects, they can be arranged in a bureaucratic structure under the emperor. As a result, they can be promoted or demoted according to ethics or morality, that is, conformed to nationally accepted models.

VII. Variety of Local Cultures:

However, as mentioned above, the birthday festival dates of the Land God standardised in the Almanac are both on the second day of the second month and the sixteenth day of the twelfth month. But in Taiwan and in some places of China, Hollo people celebrate the birthday festivals of the Land God on the second day of the second lunar month and the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Similarly, Hakka people hold the God's festivals on the second day of the second month and the second day of the eighth month. Namely, people follow only one date (the second day of the second month) and ignore the other date (the sixteenth day of the twelfth month) standardised in the Almanac.

I asked an informant why it is so? He answered that a god can only have one birthday and thus only an annual birthday festival. The second day of the second month is the birthday of the Land God and the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is not his birthday, but is "the memorial day of his deification (chengxian jinianri)".

According to the report of Schipper (1977:772), some people in Tainan believe that the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is the birthday of the wife of the Land God. The celebration on this day is for his wife, not for the Land God himself. Chamberlayne (1966:181), based on his field work in China, reports that people think that the birthday of the Land God's wife is on the fifteenth day of the fourth month. In addition, he argues (1966:179) that the official Almanac has standardized one date for the Land God's birthday, that is, the second day of the second month. The reason that in some places the God has one more birthday is because this one is according to their ancient local custom.

Although Chamberlayne does not point out what the "ancient custom" is, I assume that it is the "She" Cult. As I shall recount in Chapter Eight, the Land God was in some places identified with the "She" and called "Sheshen", "Shegong", or "She". In imperial times, there were two state ceremonies for the "She", the one in spring being the first ploughing rite, and the other one in autumn being the harvest rite (Hodous 1929:60; Ling Shun-sheng 1958:49). According to Hodous' observance (1929:179- 80) in Fuzhou, the harvest festival was celebrated from the eleventh to the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month. Therefore, it is clear that when people hold birthday festivals of the Land God on the eighth month, it is the influence of the autumn rite of the "She", not the standardised date in the Almanac. (note.21)

Nevertheless, unlike the Land God, the Stone and the Tree Gods are not standardised. As mentioned, I have checked many different editions of the Chinese Almanac for dates of their annual birthday festivals, but none of them are written in them. The reason might be that these two gods are not popular enough to attract the attention of those who sponsor and edit the Almanac.

If the "written accounts" and the elites that standardise the cults of these two deities are absent, how can common people identify the festival dates of their deities? From the previous sections, we observe that, without the mechanism of standardisation, 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 (e.g. #T32); or they can decide which dates are convenient for them to hold festivals (e.g. #T37). Since there are numerous ways, the dates for birthday festivals vary widely. Nonetheless, by carefully analysing these dates, we find that the "birthday festival dates (shengri jidian)" are not necessarily on birthday dates. Strictly speaking, they are only "festival dates (jidianri)". In short, on closer examination of the festival dates of these divine stones and trees, we realise that the study of the common people's mechanism to identify the festival dates is beyond Watson's standardisation theory that is applicable to the religious cultures dominated by the elites.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(note.1)

They are: the stone Land God of Sin-hong Ward (#S29; see figure 31), the stone Land God of Phek-chiu Ward (#S32; see figure 34), the stone Land God of Tua-un Village (#S13; see figure 13), the stone Land God of Gien-kiu-in Road (#S54; see figure 59), the stone Land God of Chhau-o. Hamlet (#S61; see figure 65) and the stone Land God of Pei-go Village (#S12; see figure 12).

(note.2)

Still, the birthday festival of the stone Land God of Chui-bue-a Hamlet (#S30; see figure 32) is held at the end of the year. This date is not unusual in Taiwan (Suenari 1985:37), especially for some tiny shrines which do not hold elaborate festivals.

(note.3)

They are: the Grandfather of Yellow Stone of Lai-o. District (#S43; see figure 45), the Stone Buddha of Uan-lim Town (#S5; see figure 5), the Stone God of Hi-ti Rural-town (#S37; see figure 39), the Stone God of Kim-eng Ward (#S7; see figure 7), the Stone Divine Grandfather of Pat-po Village (#S9; see figure 10), the Stone God of Jin-ho Village (#S11; see figure 11), the Stone God of Kang-khau Ward (#S14; see figure 14), the Stone General of Tan-khe Rural-town (#S8; see figures 8 & 9), the stone Land God of Pei-go Village (#S12; see figure 12), the Stone God of Pat-li Rural-town (#S52; see figures 56 & 57), the Stone God of Chhau-o. Hamlet (#S58; see figure 63), the Stone God of Tang-si Town (#S59), the Stone God of Hong-guan City (#S60; see figure 64), the Stone Goddess of Pak-biau Ward (#BL1), the Stone Goddess of Ka-seng Ward (#S2; see figure 2), the Stone God of Gien-kiu-in Road (#S55; see figure 60), the Banyan Grandfather of Ka-lo Ward (#T13; see figure 78), the Tree God of Cho.-su Lane (#T22; see figure 88), the Tree God of Uan-chip Road (#T23; see figure 89), the Tree God of Chap-ji Field (#T28; see figure 94), the Tree God of Kang-khau Ward (#T8; see figure 73), the Tree God of Thau-hun Village (#T4; see figure 69), the Tree God of Siong-tek Village (#T5; see figure 70), the Tree God of Tiong- san Ward (#T9; see figure 74), and the Tree King of Tai-li Rural- town (#T39; see figure 105).

(note.4)

On the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, the activity called "Lang Tho-ti-kong (literally, playing with the Land God)" begin. This is to place an deity statue of the Land God inside a sedan chair, then have it carried by strong men to the doors of business concerns, where they sway the sedan chair to and fro. The businessmen must set off firecrackers in welcome and thanks, because by coming to their place of business the Land God will bring them his protection (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:11f).

(note.5)

However, according to other legendary sources, she was born in 904, which is a way to associate her "living" with the history of the Ming Dynasty, to which the cult has close connections (Baptandier-Berthier 1993:3).

(note.6)

For details of the Goddess, see Baptandier-Berthier (1993) and Lo (1993).

(note.7)

As I have discussed above, many believers also regard the date as the birthday of the Land God.

(note.8)

For unity's sake, I shall follow McFarlane (1984:84) and translate the name of the goddess Ma-cho. into "the Granny" hereinafter.

(note.9)

Moreover, because the Stone God of Tek-san Town (#S17; see figure 17) is an associate god in the Temple of the Land God of Tik-san Town, the Stone God of Ka-lo Ward (#S18; see figure 18) is the associate god of the Banyan Grandfather of Ka-lo Ward (#T13; see figure 78), the Stone God of Tho.-sian Ward (#S20; see figure 20) is the associate god of the Land God of Ang-hia-chhu, the Stone God of Sin-hong Ward (#S27; see figure 29) is an associate god of the Land God of Tua-khut, the White Crane Immortal of Chhim-khen Rural- town (#S46; see figure 48) is an associate god of the stone Granny of Chhim-khen Rural-town (#S45; see figure 48), the Tree God of Uan-lim Town (#T1; see figure 66) is an associate god of the Stone Buddha of Uan-lim Town (#S5; see figure 5), the Pine King of Chong- ui Rural-town (#T2; see figure 67) is an associate god in front of the Temple of the First Divine Patriarch of Chiang-chiu District, the Banyan God of Sion-lim Ward (#T18; see figure 83) is an associate deity of the Stone God of Sion-lim Ward (#S33; see figure 35), the Tree God of Chhau-o. Hamlet (#T38; see figure 104) is an associate god of the Stone God of Chhau-o. Hamlet (#S58; see figure 63), the Tree God of Gue-bai Hamlet (#T20; see figure 86) is an associate god of Liong-tek Temple, people do not hold annual festivals for these deities.

(note.10)

They are: the Stone God of Tho.-sian Ward (#S20; see figure 20), the stone Land God of Chhen-the Lane (#S21; see figures 21 & 22), the stone Land God of San-tiau Hill (#S23; see figure 25), the stone Good Brothers of San-tiau Hill (#S24; see figure 26), the stone Land God of E-kham-te Hamlet (#S25; see figure 27), the stone Land God of E-huan Field (#S28; see figure 30), the stone Land God of Ai-liau Hamlet (#S31; see figure 33), the Stone God of Ka-hin Ward (#S35; see figure 37), the stone Land God of Chhien-kah Ward (#S39; see figure 41), the stone Land God of Tiang-ken Village (#S53; see figure 58), the Stone God of Tham-te Ward (#S57; see figure 62), the Beech Grandfather of Pak-si Ward (#T16; see figure 81), the tree Land God of Pak-li Rural-town (#T35; see figure 102), the Elderly Tree of Pak-li Rural-town (#T36; see figure 103).

(note.11)

However, due to the lack of historical records, so far I am not able to figure out the reason why there is no festival for the Tree God of Po-san Ward (#T31; see figure 97). Moreover, I have not figured out why the birthday festival of the Stone Goddess of Lek- biau Ward (#S4; see figure 4), the Tree God and Goddess of Kui-sin Village (#T7; see figure 72), and the Banyan Tree Goddess of Thong- liang Village (#T27; see figure 93) are celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the same date of the Dragon Boat Festival. I also do not understand why the birthday festival of the Tree God of Peng-ho Ward (#T3; see figure 68) is held on the 20th of the first month. Moreover, I do not know why the birthday festivals of the Divine Tree of Pen-teng Ward (#T19; see figure 84) is celebrated on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth lunar month; the Stone God of Pe-hun Ward (#S44; see figures 46 & 47) is celebrated on the ninth day of the eighth lunar month; the Tree God of Ho-peng Ward (#T26; see figure 92) is celebrated on the twenty- third day of the eighth lunar month; the Wind-moving Stone of Bak- sa District (#S48; see figure 51) is celebrated on the eighteenth day of the tenth lunar month; the Tree King of Sai-kang Rural-town (#T30; see figure 96) is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month. All these questions need further studies.

(note.12)

I say "more or less anthropomorphised" because they may also appear as non-human images.

(note.13)

Beside these, anthropomorphism is entailed in all prayers, divinations, sacrifice and others. For details, please see Chapter Seven.

(note.14)

For the God's images in picture or statues, please see last chapter for details.

(note.15)

Maspero (1981:6) asserts that the Land God was barely personalised and even permanent gods had no legend. However, the results of my field research differ from him.

(note.16)

As I shall analyse step by step in the rest of this thesis, these legends do not only serve for the studies of the anthropomorphism and standardisation of the God, but also for the historicisation of him.

(note.17)

A variant of the preceding legend says that because he gave away all his possessions during his life, Tong Siau died a pauper (Wei & Coutanceau 1976:31f).

(note.18)

The ancestors of Zhang Liang, the marquis of Liu, were men of the Han State. His father, Zhang Ping, was prime minister to King Li. Twenty years after Zhang Ping's death Qin State destroyed the Han State. Because of his youth, Zhang Liang never had an opportunity to serve as a minister of Han State. When the State was destroyed, Zhang Liang was left with a retinue of three hundred male servants.

Zhang Liang was once strolling idly along an embankment when an old man wearing a coarse gown appeared. Reaching the place where Zhang Liang was, he deliberately dropped his shoe down the embankment and, turning to Zhang Liang, said, "Fetch me my shoe, young man!"

Zhang Liang, completely taken aback, was about to hit him, but because the man was old he swallowed his resentment and climbed down and got the shoe, "Put it on for me!" ordered the old man, and Zhang Liang, since he had already gone to the trouble of fetching it, knelt respectfully and prepared to put on the shoe. The old man held out his foot and, when the shoe was on, laughed and went on his way. Zhang Liang, more startled than ever, stood looking after him. When the old man had gone some distance, he turned and came back. "You could be taught, young man," he said. "Meet me here at dawn five days from now!" Zhang Liang, thinking this all every strange, knelt and replied, "I will do as you say."

At dawn five days later he went to the place, but found the man already there. "When you have an appointment with an old man, how is it that you come late?" he asked angrily. "Go away, and meet me at dawn five days from now, only come earlier!" Five days later Chang Liang got up at the crow of cock and went to the place, but once more the old man had gotten there before him. "Why are you late again?" the old man asked in anger. "Go away, and five days from now come earlier!"

Five days later Zhang Liang went to the place before half the night was through. After a while the old man came along. "This is the way it should be!" he said. Then, producing a book, he said, "If you read this you may become the teacher of Kings. Ten years from now your fortune will rise. Thirteen years from now you will see me again. A yellow stone at the foot of Mount Kucheng in northern Qi -- that will be I." Without another word he left and Zhang Liang never saw him again.

When dawn came Zhang Liang examined the book which the old man had given him and found it to be The Grand Duke's Art of War. He set great store by it and was to be found constantly poring over it.

Zhang Liang, of course, became a well-known hero in Chinese history. As a result, his teacher, the Yellow Stone, became famous as well (Watson 1961:135).

(note.19)

The name of Xian'gong is Lyu Dongbin and the title of him is Fuyu Dijun (the Trusted and Helpful Imperial Lord) (Thompson 1988:76). However, he is simply called Xianzhu (the Immortal Patriarch) or Xian'gong (the Immortal Grandfather) in Taiwan. Xian'gong is one of the Eight Immortal Ones, but probably because of his descending via the writing stick called the "fabulous phoenix" (luan) to communicate with believers (cf. Thompson 1988:76) and via dream divination, he is the only one of the group who enjoys religious popularity in Taiwan, especially in South Taipei area (Feuchtwang 1992:193).

(note.20)

For the study of the different attitudes toward miracles between the elites and common people, please see Chapter Five.

(note.21)

However, the "She" was also a state standardised cult. I shall discuss it in detail in Chapter Eight.

Chapter Five: The Deification of Stones and Tree

I. Introduction:

The worship of stones and trees is a world-wide phenomenon. However, interpretation is made difficult by the fact that many sacred stones and trees come to us from religions and cultures for which there is little or no literary data. Under such circumstances, it is understandable that researchers on religions have applied many different theories to such worship, speaking of ancestor cults, nature worship, fetishism, non-iconic (non- figurative) cults, animism, and dynamism (cf. Edsman 1987:50).

From the secular point of view, a sacred stone/tree remains a stone/tree; apparently, nothing distinguishes it from all other stones/trees. Nevertheless, if the stones/trees are the dwelling places of the souls of ancestors (India, Indonesia), were once the scene of a theophany (as the bethel that served Jacob for a bed), have been consecrated by a sacrifice or an oath, are impregnated with a magical or religious power by virtue of its symbolic shape or its origin, represent or imitate something divine, or came from somewhere in sacred time, they become sacred (cf. Eliade 1958:216; 1989:4).

The initial formation of Chinese popular cults is not a subject of great interest or discussion among scholars (DeGlopper 1974:55). When describing the origin of deification, they only tautologically say that these deities are apotheosised because of increasing recognition of their efficacy (e.g. Feng 1970:20; Harrell 1974:204; Baity 1977:76; Tsai Wen-hui 1979:28).(note.1) Nonetheless, some scholars do delineate the reasons certain cults have started. They are deities favoured by a particular household on its domestic altar; the inspirer of a spirit medium; the ghosts or their guardian in a shrine to the forgotten dead; an off-shoot of a famous temple in the original home of a new settler; the guardian of a trade which has started in the area; the chosen deity of a local defence association; inspiration of a spirit-writing association or a dream etc. (Overmyer 1987:281; Feuchtwang 1992:62).

However, the deification of stones and trees is somewhat different from and more complicated than the general delineation above. Based on my field interviews, I shall illustrate that some of these natural objects are themselves regarded as deities and others as possessed by certain supernatural beings. Then, I argue that since the forms of "hierophanies" vary from one culture to another, the term is too general to thoroughly explain why Chinese, for instance, prefer worshipping stones with forms such as the crane, turtle or humankind. I shall assert that in order to understand why some forms are treated as containing intrinsic mystery, while others are not, it is vital to understand the significance of them in their own culture. Finally, I suggest that the deification legends derived from my field work are not only able to help us understand the initial formation of Chinese popular cults, but also help us study the world-wide phenomenon of stone/tree worship.

II. How the Stone Deities were Deified:

1, Performing miracles:

There are several reasons that make people deify stones and trees in Chinese society. Performing miracles by these objects is one. Among the 61 sacred stones I have studied, 11 were deified because they originally performed miracles. I will introduce these deities as follows:(note.2)

In Uan-lim Town, a stone is venerated and named "the Stone Buddha (#S5; see figure 5)". A legend says that more than a hundred years ago, a boy drowned in the canal called Pak-po Chun (literally, the Eight-stronghold Canal). The souls of the child appeared at the area at night. In order to oppress the souls, the local inhabitants set a cylindrical stone at the site and started to worship it. The stone glittered at night after it was deified. Therefore the villagers built a shrine for the stone and named it "the Stone Buddha". Thus, the origin of the Stone Buddha seems a "Shi Gandang", the Evil-warding Stone depicted in Chapter Two. Another legend goes that the stone was set by the landlord of this area by the end of eighteenth century to be the protector of his lands. But there is at least one other version, told to me by some local people over a game of chess in the temple precinct. About two hundred years ago (the Khen-liong Era (1785-1798 CE.), the village was extremely unpropitious (bo-peng-an). One night the Stone God revealed himself to a villager in dream and said that if the village wanted be become harmonious again, he should dig 100 cm beside a tree (now the Tree God n-lim Town (#T1); see figure 66) and would find the Stone God.(note.3) Therefore the man assembled some fellow villagers to do so and found the stone. Surprisingly, the stone sometimes glittered at night since it was unearthed. Therefore, they regarded the stone as the protecting god of the village and built a temple to worship it.

In the mid-1800s, in front the big rock where the temple "Hiap-ho Bio" (literally, the Temple of Harmony and Peace) is presently located, there was a small plain where some cowherds often played and fed their oxen. Every time they came, they were impressed by a rock with marvelous size and colour different from its milieu under the hill. One day they decided to worship the rock with incense deliberately taken from each family. As they worshipped, a boy fell into a trance. They suddenly realised that the boy was possessed by the spirit of the rock. From that time on, the rock was deified as "the Stone General (#S8; see figures 8 & 9)" and has nominally adopted many children.

In Pat-po Village a stone is worshipped in a grand temple and named the Stone Divine Grandfather (Chio Seng Kong, #S9; see figure 10). I interviewed some local people, and they all told me that more than a hundred and fifty years ago, a stone of about 100 cm in height was found by a farmer in his rice field. He thought the stone would disturb his farming work and decided to remove it. As a result, he pushed the rock into a pond beside his field. But next day when he came to his field he found that the rock had come back automatically to his rice field again. He tried three times, but the rock came back to the field again and again. The farmer soon realised the rock was divine, so he and the local inhabitants began to enshrine it (see also, Yuan Chang- rue 1987:129).

In Tin-an Temple, the village temple for the God Sam-san Kok-ong (or the Kings of Three Mountains), we can find a stone god called "the Emperor of Six Areas" ("Liok-kah Then-te", #S10). Around the 1870s, a cowherd named Li a-chau, and his playmates witnessed an unusual small stone, with the form of a normal deity statue, shining in the grass. They believed that the stone was divine and began to worship it with incense. One day the landlord found that the cowherds worshipped a stone on his land. He was annoyed and destroyed the humble altar. As soon as he did it, his abdomen ached terribly and he fell down on the ground. When his wife realised it was because of her husband's rude act, she promised that if the god forgive him, they would donate the land to build a temple for the stone. Of course her husband recovered after the prayer. As a result, villagers came to worship it too and venerated it as the Emperor of Six Areas.

On the hall of the family altar of Mr. Phuan Hong-guan, a Chinese pharmacist, two stones are worshipped as (Ko Bio Kong, see figure 42). The pharmacist told me that in 1984 he was selected by "the Granny" to be an official for her annual celebration on the twenty third day of the third lunar month. According to the tradition, as an official of that kind, he must go to the old site of the goddess's temple to offer incense. After the rite he sincerely put the incense on the earth. On the earth he found two stones that he believed were the stones left by the original temple of the goddess and brought them home in memory of his honorable office. When he got home, he found he could not light incense to worship on the family altar. He felt strange and asked the goddess what the matter was. The goddess, through throwing moon blocks, told him that the two stones were divine and should be enshrined. Therefore he set them on the altar and worship them and named the two natural stones "the Ancient Temple God".

The Stone God of P?hun Ward (#S44; see figures 46 & 47) is located in a mountainside tea plantation and beside the small path leading to Taipei city centre. About 100 years ago, again and again when the tea farmers of the area shouldered their tea for sale in Taipei City, they saw, from a distance, a large dog on the rock. But when they came close to the rock, the dog disappeared. They felt strange and regarded it as a miracle performed by the rock. Therefore they started to worship it to ask for prosperity in the tea business. The rock was very divine and responsive to their wishes. As a result, they built the temple to worship the rock.

Under a big temple named "Tin-an Kiong" (literally, the Palace of Harmony) dedicated to the Royal Lords in Pak-tau District, there is a stone (#S47; see figure 50) for the worship of the Stone God. Because of the marginal location, even many of its neighbours do not realise that there is a cult of the Stone God here. An elderly man living in front of the temple told me that more than a hundred years ago, cowherds of the area liked to get together around the big stone. One day, in the seventh lunar month, they thought it might be fun to worship the stone of unusual size. When they brought incense and some offerings for the stone, a boy was suddenly possessed. The elders of the village regarded the possession a divine manifestation of the stone and started the cult.

In the Bak-sa District of Taipei City, a big stone is worshipped as the Stone God. I was told that because when a gale blows, the stone can be dramatically moved by the gale. The local people believed that the phenomenon is a divine manifestation of the stone and thus deified it as the Wind-moving Stone (#S48; see figure 51).

The Stone God of Tang-si Town (#S59) has been worshipped only for about fifteen years, since the lottery gambling "Dajiale" ("Everybody Happy") became popular.(note.4) I was told that a person of the town one day took pictures for entertainment on the hill. When the film was developed, he found a vague image of a god in the photo. He came back to the site where he took the picture and found the stone. As the news became widespread, the stone was since deified as the Stone God of Tang-si Town.

The Stone God represented by five stones (#S36; see figure 38), in yellow official gowns, is worshipped in Ka-ho Ward. According to Liu Zhiwan (1961:160), in the earlier period of the Ka-kheng Era (1796-1821 CE.) of the Qing Dynasty, some children found several stones with human appearance, when they were playing in a pond called In-tam-a (literally, the Round Pond). They felt it strange and began to worship them for fun. Suddenly, one of the children was possessed by the spirit of the stones. Villagers were surprised by the miracle and initiated a small temple for the stones and named them Chio-thau-kong (the Stone God).

About 60 years ago, a hamlet in Po.-ho Village, was called "Chio Lang-thau" (literally, stone head of human being). Some elders still remember that there was a stone on the side of a road in the village. A legend says that a driver of an oxen cart once urinated on the stone and, as a result, his cart broke down. He regarded the stone as an evil spirit and out of fear offered it some silver spirit money. Therefore, the villagers also regarded the stone as an evil spirit and kept it at a distance. Year after year, the stone was slowly pushed by rains into a stream beside where it had been located and villagers forgot the stone gradually. In 1984, a shaman of the Royal Lord of Ti, the patron deity of the biggest temple of the district, in trance found the stone again. He commanded the villagers to worship it, because he said that the stone had been deified as an deity. So villagers enshrined the stone and called the deity "Chio-lang Kong" (literally, Stone Man Grandfather) "Chio-thau Kong" (the Stone God) or the Literate and Militant Emperor of Po.-ho Village (#S38; see figure 40).(note.5)

2, With Special Location:

A big stone (#S43; see figure 45), located in Lai-o. District of Taipei City, is named "the Grandfather Yellow Stone (-ch-kong)". More than 50 years ago, a man came to the hill side to dig a coal shaft. The stone was located just beside the shaft. The man prayed to the stone that if the stone was divine please bless him to make money by mining coal. As a result, when he became rich, he enshrined the stone and worshipped it. Moreover, all coal miners for the shaft regarded the stone as their protector. Every time before they went down into the shaft, they made wishes to the god to bless them and keep them safe. When they got out from the shaft, they would bring offerings to the god for thanksgiving. Gradually, the stone became the local patron deity of the coal shaft and the village Chap-si-hun (literally, the Fourteen Shares).

The Stone God (#S52; see figures 56 & 57) of Pat-li Rural- town is famous in Taipei. The stone is not particularly huge but is the biggest and most distinguishing one of its surroundings. I think that it is because of its special location that the stone was deified.

Big stones located beside temples are susceptible to be deified. For example, next door to the Stone Goddess (#S2; see figure 2) Temple, a stone (#S3; see figure 3) is worshipped and named "Chio-ia" (literally, Stone Grandfather). Originally there was only a stone deity called Chio-buo (the Stone Grandmother). When the Temple of the Stone Goddess was rebuilt in 1983, building workers found a stone looking like a man under the foundation of the old temple. People believed that the stone, since it is apparently similar to a human being and had been under the stone temple for a long time, should be divine. They decided to deify the stone and enlarge the new temple to set the Stone Grandfather and the original Stone Mother together as a couple.

Beside the Tree God (#T8) of Kang-khau Ward, a stone is venerated as the Stone God (#S14; see figure 14). The stone has been apotheosised for more than 100 years, but no adherent knows the history of its deification. I think that it is its special location that made the stone deified.

3, With Unusual Origin:

During the Japanese colonial period, there was a flood in the area of Lek-biau Ward of Biau-liek City. As soon as the flood ceased, a human-shaped stone was found beside a river. The elders of the village regarded the stone as the manifestation of the Stone Goddess and worshipped it with incense. As a result, a temple was initiated for her (#S4; see figure 4) in 1911 and named "Temple of Stone Goddess (Chio-buo-liun-liun Su)

Below the hill called Chi-san Giam of Su-Lim District, there is a temple dedicated to the Stone God (#S50; see figures 53 & 54). The stone is not the biggest one around the hill, but because it is big, and partly embraced by a big tree, it is the most distinguishable. Nobody knows why or by whom the stone was deified. But the neighbours of the temple are very sure that it was originally worshipped by the Plain Aborigines before Chinese immigrants came to this area to cultivate. The neighbours told me that the Plain Aborigines probably worshipped the stone as the Mountain Deity or something. Chinese immigrants just followed the custom of these Plain Aborigines to worship the stone as the Stone God.(note.6)

4, With Unusual Appearance:

The most important factor that makes stones deified is unusual appearance. At least 32 stone deities were initiated for this reason.

The Stone God (#S34; see figure 36) located in front of Khe- te Land God Temple is a typical case. An informant living in this location told me that about 10 years ago, when a farmer cultivated his rice field, he found a beautiful round stone and put it at the courtyard of the Temple, which was the only public place of the hamlet. About five years ago, one day when the informant came to worship the Land God of the Temple, he recognised that some incense sticks had been put beside the stone. He guessed that the stone was deified by gamblers from outside the village. Therefore the villagers started to worship the stone as the Stone God.

A, With a Human Appearance:

Not far from the Stone God of n-lim Town (#S5; see figure 5), a stone with the appearance of human being is worshipped in a temple "Thai-an Kiong" (the Palace of Peace). The Stone God (#S6; see figure 6) here is about 200 cm in height and resembling a human being; therefore people call it the Stone God. Even though the God has thousands of nominal children and the Temple is now the belief centre of six hamlets, the believers know only that it was built at least in 1883 CE. (according to the date engraved on a stone censer in the temple) and do not know the origin of it. I believe that it is because of the human appearance that the stone has been deified.

A stone of about 30 cm high is worshipped as the Land God in the Land God Temple of Pe-go Village. Some villagers told me that it is the Land God while many say that it is the Land Goddess. However, they only remember that the Land God with human appearance (#S12; see figure 12) has been worshipped for more than 100 years and do not know its origin.

There is a stone with human appearance enshrined with some deity statues in the Land God Temple of Tua-un Village as the Land God (#S13; see figure 13) of the hamlet. Mr. Lim, a resident of the hamlet told me that it is the stone that the ancestors of the villagers chose to represent the Land God when they came to cultivate the area more than 100 years.

A standing stone is worshipped in Ho-peng Ward as the stone Granny (#S16; see figure 16). Villagers told me that it is the goddess Mazu (the Granny), but some say that it is Guanyin. Anyway, it is a goddess because the appearance of the stone resembles a goddess. Like the Stone God beside her, it has been deified since approximately 10 years ago and is worshipped mostly by lottery gamblers.

More than 100 years ago, a resident of Tek-san Town of Lam- tau County dug foundation for his new house and unearthed a stone with human appearance. Villagers considered the stone divine and deified as the Stone God (#S17; see figure 17) in Chi-lam Kiong (literally, Purple South Palace), the most important Land God Temple.

In front of the Tieng-ka-lo Land God Temple, a stone with human appearance is worshipped as the Stone God (#S18; see figure 18) in a hole in a tree that represents the Tree God (#T13; see figure 78). I was told that the Stone God was originally located in front of the Tree God more than a hundred years ago. When the courtyard of the Land God Temple was enlarged, the Stone God Temple was knocked down and the Stone God was put in the hole of the tree. However, though they know that the Stone God has been apotheosised for more than 100 years, they do not know for what reason it was deified.

A stone, resembling a human being, set in a stone chamber shrine at a small hamlet called "E-kham-a" of Chhau-tun Town, has been apotheosised for more than 100 years (#S19; see figure 19). Even though it looked like a normal shrine dedicated to the Land God, I was told that it was the Stone God.

In Chhen-th?Lane, we can find a stone (#S21; see figures 21 & 22) with human appearance worshipped as the Land God in a stone chamber that is hardly ever seen in Taiwan. There is a saying that since the initiator of the rebuilding of the temple of the Land God has to be the god's inferior, nobody there wants to be in the low office. Therefore the temple is now still a stone shrine (Lin Mei-rong 1987:68). But when I came to visit the site in 1992, they told me that a new temple for the Land God is going to be built after the road has been widened so that the dolmen will have to be removed.(note.7) They also told me that when the new temple has been built, they plan to bury the dolmen under the temple because the dolmen is also divine.

In the Land God Temple of Tua-khut of Sin-hong Ward, a stone is worshipped as the Stone God (#S27; see figure 29). Although no villager knows the origin of the Stone God, I suspect that the stone was originally the stone that represented the Land God of the hamlet. Later on, when the economic condition of the hamlet improved, villagers bought the wooden statue which represents the patron deity of the Temple and set the original stone aside. Nowadays, since the original worshippers of the stone Land God have died or moved out, younger residents have come to consider the stone as the Stone God.

In the Land God Temple of Hok-bin Kiong (literally, Happy People Palace) of E-huan Field (Lin Mei-rong 1987:75), a stone with human appearance is worshipped as the Land God (#S28; see figure 30) in temple. Different from other stone deities, the stone is clothed in a black robe. However, even though there is also no record for the origin of the deified stone, I guess its human appearance brought about its deification.

In Chui-bue-a Land God Temple of Hu-liau Ward, a stone in a gown is put at the right of the altar as the Land God (#S30; see figure 32). The villagers told me that it is the Land God but did not know its origin. I think it is because it looked human and so was deified.

The statue of the patron deity of -liau Land God Temple is a stone (#S31; see figure 33) with human appearance. The villagers do not know where the stone is from, nor do they ask him to adopt their unhealthy children. Nowadays, the stone deity has become a patron deity for gambling.

There is a stone (#S32; see figure 34) with human appearance deified in the Land God Temple of Khe-chiu, Phek-chiu Ward. I was told that the stone is the statue of the Land God.

There are three stones, each with human appearance, worshipped in a small shrine of Chhen-kah Ward and called the stone Land God (#S39; see figure 41). Some call them "the Land God" ("Tho.-ti Kong") and some call them the Stone God ("Chio- thau Kong"). I was told by a woman that: "because there was no Land God Temple when they came to this area to reside, they chose some stones with human appearance to worship. These three stones are the stones they chose for the worship of the Land God and it is a mistake to call them 'the Stone God'."

The stone in a big Land God Temple called Tiong-kheng-bio (literally, the Temple of Eternal Celebration) located in Tong-an Street of Taipei is also of interest. A black stone (#S42; see figure 44) with human appearance is enshrined in the centre of the altar of the Land God temple in front of the patron deity statue. A local leader told me that it was the original stone Land God (Chio-tho.-ti-kong) of the temple. He also told that their ancestors, the pioneers of this area, established a tiny shrine under the tree which is located behind the present temple and chose the cylindrical stone as the Land God for worship when they first came to the place.

The patron deity in a temple of Chhim-khen Rural-town in Taipei County is a stone goddess. People told me that because their seniors found a stone looking like the goddess Granny (Ma- cho.), they regarded it as divine and enshrined it. Even though now a statue has been moulded for the worship and we can only find the stone from the back of the statue, it is still called the stone Granny (Ma-cho., #S45; see figure 48).

In the temple of the Land God of Tua-kham Village, we can find a stone (#S51; see figure 55) with human appearance worshipped beside the statue of the patron deity. An elder told me that because the stone looked like the Land God, it was picked up by a villager and worshipped as the Land God of the hamlet.

In the Land God temple of Si-hun-a, a stone (#S54; see figure 59) is venerated as the Land God beside the statue of the patron deity. The person who was in charge of the temple told me that the stone Land God with the censer was brought by one of his ancestors from China. It was originally put under a big rock after his ancestors settled down in this area. A year ago, because a tunnel is going to be built through the rock, the stone Land God was moved to the site. He also told me that it was the Land God who decided the site for the present temple.

The Stone God of Chhau-o. Hamlet (#S58; see figure 63) is a famous in this area. There are three stones each with human appearance worshipped in the temple. The biggest one wearing a gown is the statue of the patron deity, the other two stones are comparatively small. They told me that about two hundred years ago Mr. Lim, a farmer, found a human-shaped stone in his field. He regarded it as a manifestation of the Stone God and decided to deify it under the altar of his home. Later on the God told the farmer to build a shrine to let him be worshipped in public to bless more people.

Near the exit of the First Freeway to Hong-guan City, a stone with human appearance is enshrined as the Stone God (#S60; see figure 64). A legend says that about a hundred years ago, a local inhabitant called Mr. Lim g