Download pdf
The Metamorphosis of Mazu Belief and the Reconstruction of Mazu Temples
- 1 China Academy of Art
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Mazu, also known as Tianhou/Tianfei is the most prosperous belief in Chinese Mainland and in the shipping developed areas like Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese immigrants’ communities. It forms a unique belief system with goddess worship as its core, and form a religious culture integrating marine culture. This article focuses on the main carrier of Mazu belief, Mazu Temples, and attempts to sort out its architectural evolution strategies in the development of history. This article briefly analyzes the similarities and differences in the forms of Mazu temples in their birthplace and overseas regions. And a systematic summary is proposed, that is, Mazu Temple is not only a religious building and a sacred space experience. But more importantly, it act as a cultural and spiritual symbol, playing a different role in the dissemination of Mazu culture at home and abroad for communication purposes.In previous studies on Mazu culture and beliefs, the vast majority of researchers only focused on the changes in Mazu beliefs themselves, including the evolution of artistic sculptures, paintings, ritual offerings, and their political significance. But few people pay attention to Mazu Temple, or in other words, Mazu Temple, as an important material carrier of Mazu belief, has always been regarded by believers as a simple religious place and used by scholars as a way to study the development of Mazu belief, while its importance in architecture has been ignored.
Keywords
Mazu belief, religion architectures, religion evolution, cultural integration, space
[1]. Zhang, Y., Wu, C., & Liu, X. (2023). The Development and Modern Transformation of Material Culture in the Worship of Mazu. Religions, 14(7), 826. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070826
[2]. Verkaaik, O. (2013). Religious Architecture: Anthropological Perspectives. In O. Verkaaik (Ed.), Religious Architecture: Anthropological Perspectives (pp.7–24). Amsterdam University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wp6sx.3
[3]. The Imperial Edict Gate and Yimen Square.[Photograph].(n.d.).Retrieved from: https://www.mzmz.org.cn/zmjdjs.html?newsid=2363191&_t=1710661366 (Accessed:25 July 2024)
[4]. Ruitenbeek, K. (1999). Mazu, the Patroness of Sailors, in Chinese Pictorial Art. Artibus Asiae, 58(3/4), 281–329. https://doi.org/10.2307/3250021
[5]. Irwin, L. (1990). Divinity and Salvation: The Great Goddesses of China. Asian Folklore Studies, 49(1), 53–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/1177949
[6]. Wooden Carving Mazu and Maid. [Photograph].(n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.mazuworld.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=Show&catid=55&id=10481 (Accessed:4th August 2024)
[7]. White Glazed Guanyin Statue.(n.d.).[Photograph].The Palace Museum, Beijing, China. Retrieved from: https://www.dpm.org.cn/collection/sculpture/233546.html
[8]. Zmshao. (2021). The Biggest Mazu Sculpture in Guangdong, China. [Photograph].Retrieved from: https://www.shanwei.gov.cn/swswgltj/gkmlpt/content/0/662/post_662452.html#1088 (Accessed:25 July 2024)
[9]. DY, A. C. (2014). The Virgin Mary as Mazu or Guanyin: The Syncretic Nature of Chinese Religion in the Philippines. Philippine Sociological Review, 62, 41–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43486492
[10]. Zhuang, L., & Liu, K. (2023). Cultural Exchange in the East Asian Seas in Light of the Acceptance of Mazu Beliefs by Japanese Sea Gods. Religions, 14(3), 361. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030361
[11]. Hokki.(2022). The Mazu Temple.[Photograph] Retrieved from: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B4%87%E7%A6%8F%E5%AF%BA_(%E9%95%B7%E5%B4%8E%E5%B8%82) (Accessed:25 July 2024)
[12]. Li, Q. (2022). Schematic diagram of Soufukuji.[Image]. Retrieved from: https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_17188695 (Accessed:31 July 2024)
Cite this article
Yu,F. (2024). The Metamorphosis of Mazu Belief and the Reconstruction of Mazu Temples. Communications in Humanities Research,48,84-90.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Art, Design and Social Sciences
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).