Collusion order: water god beliefs and regional society on the Jianghan Plain during the Ming-Qing era

ABSTRACT

During the Ming-Qing era, people of the Jianghan Plain 江漢平原 in central China worshipped a diversity of water gods. However, the water gods of the Jianghan Plain and their temples have been insufficiently studied in the past. In this article, we categorize the water gods and describe the geographical distribution of their temples. The water gods are arranged in a four-level categorization, within which the ‘Person-to-Gods’ category is the most common type. The wide and uneven distribution of water god temples on the Jianghan Plain was more affected by floods than droughts, and trade along waterways explained why some temples were located near commercial towns. Although the water god worship was a specialized faith, it established an alternative authority. The potential conflicts between faith and imperial authority were solved by ‘collusion’ 共謀 (used in a neutral sense), a special way of ancient Chinese governance. The ‘collusion’ required tripartite cooperation of the imperial court, local officials and local people. The implementation of the ‘collusion’ promoted the integration of faith and administration and strengthened the cooperation and competition of the local societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Jianghan Plain
• water gods
• water god temples
• collusion
• folk beliefs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Huang, Zhongguo de shuishen, 1–5. This is a monograph on the myth of Chinese water gods, which extensively records information about the water gods in novels of the past dynasties, the notes of literati, local chronicles and folklore.

2. As a type of prehistoric natural religion, water worship has had a profound impact on the formation and development of Daoist cosmology, basic beliefs, the lineage of immortals, rituals and other theories. Xiang, ‘Daojiao yu shui chongbai’.

3. This process often involves the recognition of the nature of folk beliefs by state power. Jiang, ‘Song zhi Qingdai de guojia yu cishen xinyang yanjiu de huigu yu taolun’.

4. For examples: Huang, Zhongguo de shuishen; Wang, Shui yu shuishen.

5. For examples: Yang, ‘Chudi shuishen yanjiu’; Cheng, ‘Ming Qing Poyang hu diqu minjian xinyang yanjiu’; Hu, ‘Ming Qing shiqi Subei diqu shuishen xinyang de lishi kaocha’; Li, Dongtinghu shuishen xinyang yanjiu.

6. For examples: Yang, Longwang de shanbian; Chen and Tang, ‘Dayu xinyang jiqi jisi huodong yuanliu’; Cheng, ‘Ming Qing Poyang huqu Yuan Jiangjun chongbai tanxi’; Li and Li, ‘Dongting huqu Yang Si Jiangjun xingyang de zaidihua yanjiu’.

7. For examples: Duara, Wenhua quanli yu guojia; Gao, Yunhe yu shuishen; Duan and Jia, Minjian xinyang puxi de shengcheng luoji.

8. Zhang, ‘Shanxi diqu yilongqiyu xisu yanjiu’ and Liu, ‘Ming Qing shiqi Huanghe diqu Longshen xinyang yanjiu’.

9. There are abundant resources on inscriptions in the Huabei region. These inscriptions involve many aspects of society such as economy, culture and religion, and play an important role in promoting the study of social change in this region.

10. In the Qing Dynasty, the geographical extent of the Jianghan Plain contained twenty-two counties in the six prefectures of Hubei Province. These counties include Jiangling 江陵, Gongan 公安, Jianli 監利, Shishou 石首, Zhijiang 枝江, Songzi 松滋, Qianjiang 潛江, Tianmen 天門 (also known as 景陵 Jingling), Hanchuan 漢川, Jingshan 京山, Zhongxiang 鍾祥, Yingcheng 應城, Yicheng 宜城, Hanyang 漢陽, Jiangxia 江夏, Jiayu 嘉魚, Puqi 蒲圻, Yunmeng 雲夢, Huangpi 黃陂, Xiaogan 孝感, Mianyang 沔陽, and Jingmen 荊門.

11. This section is explained in detail by Hamashima, Ming Qing Jiangnan nongcun shehui yu minjian xinyang, 96.

12. Shiyi ji, 235.

13. Zuanyi ji, 160.

14. Sanbao taijian xiyang ji tongsu yanyi, 1257.

15. Yang, annot., Chunqiu zuozhuan zhu, 1207.

16. Jiayu xianzhi, ZFC-Hubei vol. 1441: 92.

17. On the west bank of the Ji River 濟江 in Jingzhou, there was a piece of land shaped like a lung which was not submerged during floods, and people were surprised by this phenomenon. They thought the hole symbolized the unyielding spirit against the natural disaster, and named it difei 地肺, ‘Lung of Di’. See Wu zazu, 63. In 1788, Bi Yuan 畢沅 (1730–1797), the Huguang zongdu 湖廣總督 (governor of Huguang Province), ordered people to cast nine iron bulls and locate them in the Wancheng Dyke 萬城堤 and Shashi 沙市 in Jingzhou 荊州. See Jingzhou Wangchengdizhi, ZFC-Hubei vol. 1308: 210.

18. Huguang zongzhi, 996.

19. A prominent phenomenon of Chinese government behaviour is that when implementing various directives and policies from higher-level departments, especially the central government, local governments often collude and adopt various means of ‘having policies at the top and countermeasuring at the bottom’ (上有政策, 下有對策) to cope with these policy requirements and various inspections. Zhou, ‘Jicheng zhengfu jian de gongmou xianxiang’, 1.

20. Zhou, ‘Jicheng zhengfu jian de gongmou xianxiang’, 3.

21. Ibid., 18.

22. Guangxu xuxiu Jiangling xianzhi, ZDJ-Hubei vols. 31: 565.

23. Guangxu Qianjiang xianzhi xu, ZDJ-Hubei vol. 46: 418.

24. Jingzhou Wangchengdi zhi, ZFC-Hubei vol. 1308 598.

25. Kangxi Qianjiang xianzhi, ZFC-Hubei vol. 1446: 467.

26. Guangxu Qianjiang xianzhi xu, ZDJ-Hubei vol. 46: 411–414.

27. Zhijiang xianzhi, ZFC-Hubei vol. 1412: 712.

28. Zhijiangshi zhengxie wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui, Zhijiang wenshi ziliao dishisan ji, 47.

29. Zhijiang xianzhi, ZDJ-Hubei vol. 350: 672.

30. Guangxu Yingcheng xianzhi, ZDJ-Hubei vol. 11: 266.

31. Shishou xianzhi, ZFC-Hubei vol. 1404: 780.

32. Shishou xianzhi, ZFC-Hubei vol. 1405: 221.

33. Tongzhi Shishou Xianzhi, ZDJ-Hubei vol. 45: 84–87.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Project of the National Social Science Fund of China [19BZS138].