Text/Reporter Chen Liang Wang Yuying
Photo/Yangcheng Evening News
A folk belief that is “unknown” has no classics and no classics. It originated in eastern Guangdong and has lasted for thousands of years and has remained popular. In Taiwan alone, there are more than 6 million believers. Its ancestral home has just been awarded the “Cross-Strait Exchange Base”, which is called “King of the Three Mountains”.
What is the “three”? Why are there three “mountains”? Where did the “King Cinema” come from? What is the charm of this folk belief called “King of the Three Mountains”?
BabaylanOn November 4, the “Strait·Three Mountains·Four Seas” Sanshan King Academic Seminar, sponsored by Yangcheng Evening Newspaper Group, co-organized by Sun Yat-sen University Humanities and Social Sciences Department, and Guangdong Cross-Strait Exchange Promotion Association, was held on the South Campus of Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou Campus. Zhang Ke, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Guangdong, and Xiao Bing, Deputy Director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, attended the seminar.
Explore the core of folk beliefs and promote communication and exchanges among Chinese and overseas Chinese
Since the “First Sanshan Ancestral Temple Academic Seminar” in Jiexi, Jieyang City in October 1992, it has been from Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan, China. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Cinema More than 10 “Three Mountain Kings” cultural scholars from coming to Asia gathered again to discuss the development and current situation of the folk belief culture of the “Three Mountain Kings” and the history and path of its dissemination at home and abroad.
Four experts issued a keynote report, through the tracing of historical materials and the current situation, they explored the spiritual core of the folk belief of the “Three Mountains Kings” and demonstrated the important role played by the “Three Mountains Kings” culture in uniting the hearts of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and promoting communication and exchanges among Chinese at home and abroad.
Chen Chunsheng: The concept of “protecting the country and assassinating the people” is a common connection and vision for believers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and overseas.
Christian Professor of the Department of History of Sun Yat-sen University, Researcher of the Center for Historical Anthropology Research at Sun Yat-sen University, and also Chairman of the Ministry of Education’s History Major Teaching Steering Committee, delivered a keynote report entitled “National Consciousness and the Rise of the Faith of the Three Mountains Kings Since the Song Dynasty.” Chen Chunsheng and the Three Mountains King CultureIn the past ten years, his footprints have spread across Guangdong and Taiwan, and he has deeply thought about the origin, development and cultural values of the folk beliefs of the Sanshan King. His academic thoughts and research methods have had a profound impact on the academic community. Chen Chunsheng quoted the explanation of Professor Wolfgang Franke, a student at Hamburg University in Germany who had taught for a long time in China and Malaysia, pointing out that the so-called “Three Mountain Kings” may be the remains of the ancient Yue mountain god Komiks’ belief, which is related to ethnic minority customs, which are not unique to Chaozhou area.
“The Central Dynasty’s recognition of folk beliefs such as the Sanshan King was a very effective and widely adopted method that the central dynasty in ancient China ruled the southern region.” Chen Komiks in his speech, Chunsheng focused on the interaction between “national consciousness” and civil society. He believes that the “Mingxiang” method of awarding the “Sanshen Mountain” Temple in Chaozhou is a very typical expression of national consciousness in the developed southern civil society. Many Sanshan King Palaces and Temples in mainland China and Taiwan have plaques with “Protecting the Country and Safeguarding the People” hanging high, revealing the mentality of hope that the gods will maintain a balance between the “country” and the “people” so that both of them can benefit. The faith among the people is one of the links that connects the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Many folk belief traditions in mainland China have developed in Taiwan, which has also given people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait more connection and communication fate.
Chen Chunsheng said that although the customs and habits in different parts of China are very different, China has long been a unified country. To determine whether a place understands Komiks and accepts the central ideology lies in the extent to which the local scholars and gentry class can consciously interpret local cultural traditions and customs in accordance with the “rituals and laws” of the court.
He emphasized that in traditional Chinese society, “national consciousness” is everywhere and everywhere. In historical and cultural research, only by having a systematic grasp and deep understanding of national ideology and dynasty rules and regulations can we have the changes in local and folk customs and their significance,It is closer to the insights of historical reality.
Qiu Yangui: The Sanshan King Palace Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history
Sanshan KingdomBabaylanThe Royal Palace Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history and a symbol of the ancestral homes of relatives in Chaoshan and Hakka Township, Taiwan. Komiks Professor Qiu Yangui of the Department of Monumental Art Repair and Nursing of Taiwan University of the Arts, the report was titled “The Faith of the King of Sanshan, Taiwan”. He mentioned that Taiwanese believers had more communication with mainland people through the opportunity to go to the Sanshan Ancestral Temple in mainland China.
Qiu Yangui introduced that the phenomenon of the Three Mountains King’s belief in Taiwan is still regarded as a method of identifying Hakka groups in the 21st century, but in his opinion, this overly simple method should be discussed again. He observed the belief of the Sanshan King in Taiwan from the perspectives of social organization and ethnic relations, and summarized it into four types: “Carriage type”, “Customer type”, “Anti-Free type”, and “Chaohui Fulao type”. Among them, the number of “customer-bottom” and “anti-ban style” temples has reached about 80, with the largest size. After Taiwan’s industrialization in the 1970s, more “immigrant-type” temples appeared in the city.
Chen Zhiping: “Great Love” is the core meaning of folk beliefs
Professor Chen Zhiping, Dean of the Institute of Chinese Studies and President of the Chinese Ming History Society, gave a speech entitled “The Cultural Significance of the Faith of Mazu and the Sanshan Kings and Its Inheritance”. He believes that the belief in Mazu and the King of Sanshan are both part of China’s excellent traditional culture, and its core meaning is “urgent to the people”, full of “great love” spirit, and has the function of social education and culture. Folk culture, including the beliefs of Mazu and the Sanshan King, became one of the important channels for the spread of Chinese culture overseas after the 18th century.
Wang Chenfa: Studying the Sanshan King is one of the responsibilities of reviving China
Wang Chen, Dean of the Malaysian Taoist Academy and Distinguished Professor of Communication University of Hanjiang, Malaysia, gave a speech entitled “The Social Organization and Educational Function of the Sanshan King Temple in Nanyang”, explaining what kind of evolution the Sanshan King culture has taken place after it has arrived overseas, and how to achieve harmony between change and unchange. He said that the study of the Sanshan King Temple, from the standpoint of national rejuvenation, examines how the Sanshan King Organization in various places constitutes the development, construction and maintenance of society, is one of the responsibilities of future generations and descendants to strive to revive China. Wang Chenfa suggested that the Sanshan King Palace and Temple can do the same thing at home and abroad – acting as a cultural carrier and spreading cultural confidence, and taking root from academic research, and then branding it in combination with the advantages and characteristics of the Sanshan King culture, attracting more people to understand the Chinese nation more comprehensively through the Sanshan King. Many new technologies can be used, such as AI, social charity work, participation in local environmental protection activities, etc., and use limited temple space to exert global influence.
Creative transformation and innovative development, scholars have insightful insights
How to inherit the traditional culture for thousands of years and take root in the folk “grassroots” beliefs to achieve creative transformation and innovative development? During the roundtable discussion session of the seminar, the scholars put forward their own opinions.
Xiao Wenping, director and professor of the Hakka Research Institute of Jiaying College of Meizhou, pointed out that as a mountain god and a natural god, the King of Sanshan reflects the Chinese nation’s tradition of respecting nature. His spirit of patriotism, love for the country, protecting villages, and guarding the land has established the concept of hometown for the people. The spirit of fairness, justice and justice advocated by him also has important value in contemporary times.
Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology Professor Xie Guiwen believes that folk beliefs are important assets for the country, society, and people, with survival functions, integration functions, and cognitive functions.
Chan Xianbo, a professor at South China Normal University, said that the history of the King of Sanshan is not only a history of folk beliefs, but also a history of regional development, social and economic history, and a history of mutual learning between Chinese history and civilization.
Wu Mengxian, associate professor at Jieyang Vocational and Technical College, said that his investigation found that the people often regard the King of Sanshan as an important social bond in interpersonal communication.
Professor Lian Xinhao of Xiamen University suggested that the King of Sanshan can also learn from the successful cases of Mazu’s beliefs and customs, and the two sides of the Taiwan Strait work together. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Babaylan.
Xiamen University professor, Cinema doctoral supervisor and dean of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Chen Zhiping pointed out that if the King of Sanshan wants to achieve innovative cultural development, local governments should take the lead in promoting it.
Ou Junyong, associate professor of Hanshan Normal University, shared that as part of Jieyang culture, the King of Sanshan is actually “very vivid” and has to go to the fields to have a real feeling.
Wen Jianqin, associate professor of Hanshan Normal University, said that he is telling students about Chinese cultureCinema When history and Chaoshan history and culture, the Three Mountains Kings will be used as a case to analyze their cultural phenomena. The students are very interested and have developed related cultural and creative products. Chen Lihua, a professor at Tsinghua University in Taiwan, mentioned that to let young people understand traditional culture, we must make good use of the “discourse” methods of young people such as movies, short videos, music, and comics. Lin Guoping, a professor at Fujian Normal University, summarized that folk beliefs such as Sanshan Kings are an important part of Chinese traditional culture and are precious cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors. They should be cherished more.
From the Three Mountains to the Four Seas” Sanshan Kings Culture<a The premiere of documentary flower blossoms in the Three Mountains King Culture Documentary Flowers in the meeting was also held at the meeting. The documentary team went to Malaysia, Cambodia,The Sanshan King Palace and Temple in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Taiwan Bay in China communicate with believers and related folklore scholars, record the inheritance and changes of the Sanshan King's sacrificial culture, and display the profound historical, humanistic and social values accumulated by the Sanshan King's culture for thousands of years.
【Small Knowledge】Folk belief culture of “Three Mountains Kings”
The folk belief culture of “Three Mountains Kings” is derived from the eastern Guangdong region and is now widely spread to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, China. Its spirit of “protecting the country, safe and sound nation” has been respected by the people of all generations. Lintian Ancestral Temple, located in Jieyang, Guangdong, is the ancestral temple of the Sanshan King Palace Temple in the world. It was awarded the “Cross-Strait Exchange Base” in 2023.
