Belief, Ritual, and Local Society: An Historical Anthropological Exploration of Fengshui

Author: Chen Jinguo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: This book inherits the tradition of the social history school of Fu Yiling and attempts to employ the method of "anthropological history" to view Feng Shui customs as a cultural system and a way of life in China's rural society. It systematically explores the relationship between Feng Shui cultural phenomena and the identity, classification consciousness, and social-cultural order integration of the modern rural society, and "reconstructs" the cultural images and life scenes created by Feng Shui knowledge and concepts over long-term rural transformations. The author also places the narrative of Feng Shui knowledge, concepts, and beliefs within the broader context of Chinese intellectual history, reflecting on the intrinsic connection between the mysterious Feng Shui culture and China's "continuous civilization," thereby presenting the actual state of the cosmological concepts, beliefs, and intellectual world of the rural society since modern times. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the chapter summaries are as follows:
Chapter 1: Examines the close relationship between Feng Shui beliefs and the historical development of the rural society since modern times from the social backdrop of the migration and development process in the Fujian region. In southeastern China, Feng Shui concepts and beliefs carry a distinct regional hue, being closely related to the habits of Han Chinese settlers and their tradition of paying homage to deities. During the process of "indigenization," the Han migrants effectively transformed the original "witchcraft and ghost worship" ethos of the indigenous population through Feng Shui concepts and beliefs, completing the meaning transformation of "adapting to the local customs" and establishing a sense of place or "wilderness consciousness." As residential patterns developed and human-land conflicts intensified, clan consciousness also flourished in the rural society, further intensifying the competition for limited Feng Shui symbolic capital and profoundly influencing the form of folk beliefs in the region.
Chapter 2: Describes the overall dynamic of mutual competition and coexistence between the two major Feng Shui schools in the regional expansion process of the rural society since modern times, thereby revealing the cultural significance of Feng Shui in regional belief contexts. This section combines social history and divination history to attempt a phenomenological description of the conceptual genealogy and humanistic significance of the two schools, reflecting on how they achieved "localized" cultural expressions through the practice of "belief," thereby forming a general understanding of Feng Shui knowledge and cognition. This chapter also attempts a "role-switching study," enabling dialogue between folk Feng Shui experts and researchers to grasp the overall cultural attitudes and value judgments of Feng Shui experts in the context of social change. The trend of the blurring of Feng Shui school consciousness in the folk also indicates the resilience of China's tradition of deities and rituals.
Chapters 3 and 4: From the perspective of the cultural network rings that constitute the rural society since modern times, such as almanacs, spiritual talismans, pacifying charms, construction rituals, funeral rites, and spirit-writing texts, they meticulously explore how the rural society's memory of Feng Shui knowledge and concepts becomes possible. This involves analyzing how Feng Shui knowledge and concepts gradually "deepen" into a folk belief through related witchcraft-religious rituals, thereby becoming part of the people's "lifeworld." Various ritual behaviors related to Feng Shui reflect the agglomeration of cultural transformation in the rural society. The process by which Feng Shui knowledge and concepts are recognized, accepted, and transformed into folk beliefs is one of value conversion and meaning regeneration. In the process of traditional rites or sacrificial concepts "extending from family to village," Feng Shui masters, date selectors, and ritual officiants fully play the role of "cultural mediators," even "mediators."
Chapter 5: Analyzes the relationship between Feng Shui beliefs and the cultural space construction of the gentry class in the rural society since modern times, particularly examining the conscious Feng Shui practices and expressions of the gentry. This reflects on how Feng Shui knowledge and concepts become a cultural bridge connecting elites and commoners, the dynasty (state) and society, and how they influence local social and economic changes. The gentry class is an active cultural group pursuing "benefit maximization." As they internalize Feng Shui knowledge and concepts into their own beliefs, they also ideologize them, filling regional public or private spaces with the meanings and values they assign. The character "yi" (reason) is merely a performative collective image, while the character "li" (desire) truly writes the soul of the gentry.
Chapter 6: Through contracts and typical family cases, it meticulously analyzes the relationship between Feng Shui concepts and beliefs and the order integration and family development of the rural society since modern times. The construction model of the rural society's order since modern times has been partly constrained and arranged by Feng Shui conceptual schemes, thereby maintaining a dynamic balance in the tension of "destruction/integration." Feng Shui concepts and beliefs provide a culturally coherent mechanism for explaining the development space of families, lineages, and clan forces. The symbolic construction of ancestral tombs and clan halls' Feng Shui is intrinsically related to the genealogical patterns and functional forms of "lineage/family." The differentiation theory of Feng Shui practices within lineages, as well as the natural "cohesion/splitting" tension between families, contribute to shaping the "arrowhead effect" of Feng Shui worship in ancestral tombs or clan halls.