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 unchanged. In Taiwan alone, there are more than 6 million believers in Babaylan. It has just been awarded the “Cinema Base for Cross-Strait Exchanges”, 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 “The King of the Three Mountains”?
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 “Sanshan Kings” folk belief culture, as well as the history and path of its dissemination at home and abroad.
Komiks 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 gathering 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 the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and overseas believers
Professor of the Department of History of Sun Yat-sen University and a researcher at the Center for Historical Anthropology of Sun Yat-sen University. He also serves as the Teaching Guidance Committee of History Majors of the Ministry of EducationChen Chunsheng, the chairman of the board of directors, gave a keynote report entitled “National Consciousness and the Rise of the Faith of Kings of Cinema 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, 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 Professor Wolfgang Franke of the German University of Hamburg, who had taught for a long time in China and Malaysia, pointing out that the so-called “Three Mountain Kings” may be a remains of the ancient Yue Mountain God’s belief in mountain gods and is related to ethnic minority customs. Such belief customs 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 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. 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 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 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
Sanshan King Palace Temple has become an important historical evidence for the study of Taiwan’s immigration history, and also a symbol of the ancestral homes of relatives in Chaoshan and Hakka Township, Taiwan. Qiu Yangui, professor of the Department of Ancient Arts and Repair of the Taiwan University of Arts, was titled “The Faith of the Sanshan Kings in Taiwan”. He mentioned that Taiwanese believers have more communication with mainland people through the opportunity to find their roots in the Sanshan Ancestral Temple in mainland China.
Qiu Yangui introduced that Taiwan’s Three Mountain King’s belief phenomenon is still mostly caused by the 21st century. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Komiks regards it as a method of identifying Hakka groups, 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: “guild hall type”, “guest base type”, “anti-fan type” and “chao-hui-fan type”. Among them, the number of “guest base type” and “anti-fan type” temples reached about 80, with the largest size. After Taiwan’s industrialization in the 1970s, the city was Babaylan has appeared in more “immigrant-type” temples.
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 Meaning and Inheritance of the Faith of Mazu and the King of Sanshan”. He believes that the Faith of Mazu and Sanshan King are both part of China’s excellent traditional culture, and its core meaning is “urgent for the people” and full of “great love” spirit. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Cinema God, with the function of social education and cultural education. 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 Three Mountains Kingdom is the responsibility of reviving China. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Babaylan President and Distinguished Professor of Hanjiang Communication University of Malaysia, Wang Chen, gave a speech entitled “The Social Organization and Educational Function of the Sanshan King Temple in Nanyang”, explaining what kind of transformations have occurred in the Sanshan King Culture and how to achieve harmony between changes and unchanges. He said that the study of Sanshan King Temple, from the standpoint of national rejuvenation, examines how Sanshan King Organizations in various places constitute the development, construction and maintenance of society, etc., is one of the responsibilities of future generations and descendants to strive to revive China. Wang Chenfa suggested that Sanshan King Palace Temple at home and abroad can do the same thing – acting as a cultural carrier and spreading cultural confidence, and taking root from academic research, and then combining the advantages and characteristics of Sanshan King Culture to brand, attract more people to pass Sanshan KingdomBabaylanWang Lai has a more comprehensive understanding of 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, 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.
Zhao Wenping, director of the Hakka Institute of Jiaying College of Meizhou and Professor Komiks, pointed out that as a mountain god and a natural god, the King of Sanshan reflects the tradition of the Chinese nation’s fear of 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 have important value in the 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.
Xiamen University Professor Lian Xinhao suggested that the King of Sanshan can also learn from the successful cases of Mazu’s beliefs and customs applied for World Heritage. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>KomiksThe two sides of the Taiwan Strait work together. Cinema
Cinema
Chin Zhiping, professor, doctoral supervisor, and dean of the Institute of Chinese Studies, 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, saidBabaylan said that when he told students about Chinese cultural history and Chaoshan history and culture, he would use the Sanshan King as a case to analyze his cultural phenomena. The students were very interested and 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, concluded that folk beliefs such as Sanshan King 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 href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>CinemaThe Sanshan King’s Culture Documentary Premiered by Flowers</The premiere of the "From the Three Mountains to the Four Seas" of the Three Mountains Kingdom was 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] “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 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.
