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” come from? What is the charm of this folk belief called “King of the Three Mountains”? On November 4, the “Cinema Cross-Strait·Three Mountains·Four Seas” Sanshan King Academic Seminar, hosted by Yangcheng Evening News Group, co-organized by Sun Yat-sen University Humanities and Social Sciences Cinema and co-organized by 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 Guangdong Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission, 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, more than 10 “Sanshan Kings” cultural scholars from Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan, and Malaysia, China gathered again to discuss the development and current situation of the “Sanshan Kings” folk belief culture, as well as 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 between Chinese and overseas 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 of the Department of History of Sun Yat-sen University, a researcher at 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 has been associated with the Sanshan King’s culture for decades, and has traveled across Guangdong and Taiwan. He has deeply thought about the origin, development and cultural value of the Sanshan King’s folk beliefs. His academic thoughts and research methods have had a profound influence on the academic community.
Chen Chunsheng quoted Fu Wukang, a University of Hamburg, Germany, who had taught for a long time in China and MalaysiaProfessor Wolfgang Franke’s explanation pointed out that the so-called “Three Mountain Kings” may be a remains of the ancient Yue Mountain God’s belief in the Yue ethnic group and is related to ethnic minority customs. Such belief customs 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.” In his speech, Chen Chunsheng focused on the interaction process between “national consciousness” and civil society. He believes that the practice of Song Huizong awarding the “Mingsheng” temple to Chaozhou’s “Three Shenshan” temple is a very typical expression of national consciousness in the developed southern civil society. The plaque “Protect the Country and the People” is hung high in many Sanshan King’s Palaces and Temples in mainland China and Taiwan, revealing the hope that the gods will maintain a balance between the “country” and the “people”, so that both can benefit Komiks‘s mentality. Folk belief is one of the links between 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 and accepts the central ideology lies in the extent to which the local scholars and gentry class can consciously interpret the cultural traditions and customs of the local area 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 a more intimate understanding of the changes in local and folk customs and beliefs and their significance.
Qiu Yangui: SanshanKomiksThe King’s Palace Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history
The King’s Palace Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history, and it is also TaiwanSymbol of the ancestral homes of Chaoshan and Hakka towns. A report by Qiu Yangui, professor of the Department of Monumental Art Repair at the Taiwan University of the Arts, under the title of “The Faith of the Three Mountains of Taiwan”, he mentioned that Taiwanese believers have more communication with mainland people through the opportunity to find their roots in the Three Mountains of the Babaylan 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 King of Sanshan in Taiwan from two perspectives: social organization and ethnic relations, and summarized it into four types: “guild hall type”, “guest base type”, “anti-ban style”, and “chaohui Fulao style”. 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 and Inheritance of the Faith of Mazu and the King of Sanshan”. He believes that the belief in Mazu and the Sanshan King 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 the responsibility of reviving China.
Babaylan One of the entrusted
Director of the Malaysian Daoli Academy and a special professor at the Hanjiang Communication University of Malaysia gave a speech entitled “The Social Organization and Educational Function of the Sanshan King Temple in Nanyang”, explaining what kind of transformation happened after the Sanshan King culture came overseas, and how to achieve harmony between change and unchange. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Babaylan. 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 to revive China. Wang Chenfa suggested that the Sanshan King Temple at home and abroad can do the same thing – acting as a cultural carrier Komiks and spread cultural confidence, and take root from academic research, and then combine the advantages and characteristics of the Sanshan King culture to do a good job. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>BabaylanBrandize to attract more people to understand the Chinese nation more comprehensively through the King of Sanshan. Many new technologies can be used, such as AI, social charity work, participation in local environmental protection activities, etc., and use limited palace and temple space to exert global influence.
Creative transformation, innovative development, scholars’ insights are incisive
Inheritance thousands<a How to achieve creative transformation and innovative development of the traditional culture of Cinema in the year of traditional culture, the "grassroots" beliefs rooted in the folk? During the roundtable discussion session of the seminar, scholars put forward their own opinions.
Xiao Wenping, dean and professor of Hakka Research Institute of Jiaying College, Meizhou, pointed out thatAs 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 also has important value in the contemporary times.
Xie Guiwen, a professor at Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, believes that folk beliefs are important assets for the country, society, and people, and have survival functions, integration functions, and cognitive functions. Chen Xianbo, a professor at South China Normal University, said that the history of the Three Mountains Kings 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 belief in the world, and the two sides of the Taiwan Strait work together.
Chen Zhiping, professor, doctoral supervisor, and dean of the Institute of Chinese Studies, pointed out that the Sanshan King must achieve innovative cultural development, and local governments should take the lead in promoting it cannot be ignored.
Ou Junyong, associate professor at Hanshan Normal University, shared that as part of Jieyang culture, the King of Sanshan is actually “very vivid” and he has to walk to the fields to have a real feeling.
BabaylanWen Jianqin, associate professor at Hanshan Normal University, said that when he tells students about Chinese cultural history and Chaoshan history and culture, he will use the Sanshan King as a case to analyze its cultural phenomena. The students are very interested and have developed related cultural and creative products.
Chin 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.
Fujian TeacherBabaylanProfessor Lin Guoping of Fan University summarized that folk beliefs such as King Sanshan are an important part of Chinese traditional culture and are precious cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors. They should be cherished more.
The Flowers of the Sanshan King Cultural Documentary “From the Three Mountains to the Four Seas” were also held at the meeting. The documentary team went to Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, as well as Sanshan King’s Palace and Temple in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Taiwan, China, to communicate with believers and related folk scholars, record the inheritance and changes of the Sanshan King’s sacrificial culture, and show the profound historical, humanistic and social values accumulated over the past thousand years of Sanshan King’s culture.
【Small Knowledge】Folk belief culture of “Three Mountains Kings”
The folk belief culture of “Three Mountains Kings” originated in the eastern region of Guangdong, and is now widely spread to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Its spirit of “protecting the country and safe people, peace and stability” 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.
