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 charm does this folk belief called “King of the Three Mountains” have?
On November 4, the “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 Department, and the 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 folk belief culture of the “Sanshan Kings” and its history and path of its dissemination at home and abroadBabaylan.
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.
Professor 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 Stream of the Faith of the Three Mountains Kings since the Song Dynasty. Chen Chunsheng has been associated with the Sanshan King culture for decades, and has traveled all over Guangdong and Taiwan. He has thought deeply about the origin and development of the folk beliefs of the Sanshan King and his cultural value.The academic thoughts and research methods have a profound impact on the academic community. Chen Chunsheng quoted the explanation taught by WolfKomiks, who had taught for a long time at Komiks in Germany, Germany, and pointed out that the so-called “Three Mountain Kings” may be a remains of the ancient Yue mountain god’s belief in the mountain gods and is related to ethnic minority customs, which are not unique to the 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 Cinema 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. 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. 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 various 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 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 the historical and cultural studies of Cinema, only the country’s meaning is available./”>Cinema Only by having a systematic grasp and deep understanding of the ideological and dynasty rules and regulations can one have a more intimate understanding of the changes in local and folk customs and beliefs and their significance.
Qiu Yangui: The Sanshan King Palace Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history
The Sanshan King 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 towns in Taiwan. Qiu Yangui, a professor at the Department of Ancient Arts and Repair at the University of Arts, wrote a report titled “The Faith of the Sanshan Kings in Taiwan”. He mentioned that Taiwanese believers have more communication and exchanges with mainland people through the opportunity to find their roots in the Sanshan Ancestral Temple in mainland China.
Qiu Yangui introduced that the belief phenomenon of the Three Mountains Kings in Taiwan is still mostly regarded as a method of identifying Hakka groups in the 21st century, but in his opinion, this kind of overly simple method should be discussed again. He observed the belief of the Three Mountains Kings in Taiwan from the perspectives of social organization and ethnic relations, and summarized it into four types: “guild hall type”, “guest base type”, “anti-economic type”, and “chaohui Fulao type”. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Komiks type. Among them, the number of “guest base” and “anti-ban style” temples reached about 80, with the largest size. After Taiwan’s industrialization in the 1970s, more “immigrant” temples appeared in the city.
Chen Zhiping: “Great Love” is the core meaning of folk beliefs
Professor Chen Zhiping, President of the Institute of Chinese Studies and President of the Chinese Ming History Society, gave a speech entitled “The Cultural Meaning of Mazu and the King of Sanshan”. He believes that the beliefs of Mazu and the King of Sanshan are both part of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and its core meaning is “urgent to the people”, full of “great love” spirit, and has the function of social education and cultural education. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>CinemaFolk culture has become 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
Director of the Malaysian Daoli Academy and Malaysia South KoreaBabaylanWang Chen, a distinguished professor at Jiang Communication University, gave a speech entitled “Social Organization and Educational Functions of the Sanshan King Temple in Nanyang”Komiks explains what kind of transformations and how to achieve harmony between changes 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, etc., is one of the responsibilities of future generations to revive China. Wang Chenfa suggested that the Sanshan King Palace Temple at home and abroad can do the same thing – acting as a cultural carrier and spreading cultural confidence, and take root from academic research, and then combines the advantages and characteristics of the Sanshan King culture to make good branding, attract more people to use the Sanshan King to more comprehensively. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Cinema Understand the Chinese nation. 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 can the “grassroots” beliefs rooted in the folk achieve creative transformation and innovative development? During the roundtable discussion session of the seminar, scholars put forward their own opinions.
Xiao Wenping, director and professor of the Hakka Institute of Jiaying College of Meizhou, pointed out that as a mountain god and a natural god, the King of Sanshan reflects the tradition of the Chinese nation to respect nature, and his patriotism, loves his country, protects his villages, and guards his territory. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Cinema‘s spirit of responsibility has established the concept of hometown for the people, and the spirit of fairness, justice and justice it advocates also has important value in the contemporary era.
Xie Guiwen, a professor at Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, believes that folk beliefs are for the country, society, href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>CinemaThe people are all important assets, with survival functions, integration functions, and cognitive functions. Chen Xianbo, a professor at South China Normal University, said that the history of the Three Mountains King 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 Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that the three kings of Cinema Mountains should achieve innovative cultural development, and local governments should take the lead in promoting it.
Hanshan Normal University Deputy Professor Ou Junyong shared that as a part of Jieyang Culture, the King of Sanshan is actually “very vivid”. He had to walk to the fields to have a real feeling.
Wen 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 Normal University professor Lin Guoping summarized that folk beliefs such as the King of 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, Vietnam, and the Sanshan King’s Palace 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 value, humanistic value and social value of the Sanshan King’s culture accumulated over the past thousand years.
[Small Knowledge] “King of the Three Mountains” Folk Belief Culture
The “King of the Three Mountains” Folk Belief Culture originated in eastern 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 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.
