ABSTRACT
This article explores how local Chinese authorities employed various strategies to promote the Patriarch of Sanping’s cult in post-Mao China from 1979 to 2015. It argues that the cult of the Patriarch of Sanping became an invented tradition for expanded religious tourism in Pinghe County in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. Local state agents employed various placemaking strategies to promote Sanping Monastery and endorse the deity’s efficacy, creating an opportunity for resources to be channeled from other parts of China, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities to develop Pinghe County. This study shows that, on the one hand, local state agents have propagated miracle tales to entice devotees to visit and make donations to this monastery while, on the other hand, they have courted scholars, journalists, and tour guides to generate attention and interest in the cult. Overall, this article demonstrates how local government placemaking and marketing strategies have contributed to the transformation of a Buddhist master from a local deity to a popular god in contemporary China.
Acknowledgements
This article was first presented as a paper at the “Transnational Religious Spaces: Religious Organizations and their Interaction in Africa, East Asia and Beyond” Workshop in Leipzig in December 2018, and again at the “Transnational Religious Networks: Alternative Articulations and New Methodologies” Workshop in Singapore in March 2021. I am deeply grateful to Ningning Chen, Philip Clart, Kenneth Dean, Ming-yen Lee, Jens Reinke, James Robson, Michael Szonyi, CAS editor Robert Shepherd, and two anonymous reviewers for their many helpful suggestions. I also wish to thank my informants and friends in China who wish to remain anonymous.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
4 A number of scholars have examined the phenomenon of religious revival in present-day China. See, for instance, Overmyer Citation2003; Lai Citation2003; Ashiwa and Wank Citation2009.
7 I thank an external reviewer for these thoughtful and constructive suggestions.
15 I have obscured identifying information to protect the confidentiality of my informants.
16 The impact of Sinicization policy on the Patriarch of Sanping’s cult, and on local territorial cults in general, is beyond the scope of this article. For further reading on this religious policy from 2015 onwards, see Chang Citation2018 and Vermander Citation2019.
17 Chan (禪) is one of the major schools of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism. Eminent monks from the Chan school are known as Chan masters (chanshi 禪師).
18 Wang Feng 王諷 was an official during the Tang dynastic period. In 872 CE, Wang was demoted as the Regional Inspector of Zhangzhou (Zhangzhou cishi 漳州刺史). A few years later, he was promoted to become the Attendant Gentleman of the Ministry of Personnel (Libu shilang 吏部侍郎) in Zhangzhou. During his tenure in Zhangzhou, he became a close friend of Yizhong and often visited him at Sanping Monastery. After Yizhong passed away, Wang wrote his funerary essay.
19 The “Zhangzhou Sanping dashi beiming 漳州三平大師碑銘” is collected in Tangwencui 唐文粹. See Huang Citation1934, 169–170. See also Sanping si Citation1995, 161.
20 For further reading on the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution during the reign of Wuzhong, see Weinstein Citation1987, 114–136.
22 Wudeng huiyuan Citation2008, 175. According to the historical records, Yizhong visited Sigong at his monastery in Fuzhou. When Sigong saw Yizhong entering the door, he immediately drew his bow and arrow, took aim at Yizhong, and shouted, “Watch my arrow (kanjian 看箭)!” Yizhong, however, remained composed. He pulled open the top of his robe and revealed his chest, wanting to use his chest to stop the arrow. He said, “This is a man-killing arrow, why has man-living arrow arisen (此是殺人箭, 活人箭又作麼生)?” Sigong stretched his bow three times and Yizhong bowed to the Master. Sigong replied, “For the past thirty years, my bow and arrow only managed to hit half a saint (三十年張弓架箭, 只射得半個聖人).” Thereupon, he broke his bow and arrow. Yizhong was enlightened by the words of Sigong and served him for eight years. He later became a disciple of Dadian and established his own monastery at Sanping.
23 Scholars such as Lin Guoping, Peng Wenyu, and Yan Yayu have argued that the erection of the stele “Record of Master Guangji of Mount Sanping” demonstrates that the Chan Master was being worshipped as a popular Buddhist deity in the local community by the Ming period. See Lin and Peng Citation1993, 268–275; Yan Citation1993; Yan Citation2001.
32 The building project was carried out in four phases. The first phase was aimed at reconstructing the Pavilion Hall. The second and third phases saw the rebuilding of the main and ancestral halls. The final phase focused on the construction of the monastery’s entrance gateway. Sanping si zhi Citation2008, 60–61.
34 The mandarin orange school was an agricultural school that trained farmers to grow mandarin oranges.
37 When I tried to search for the presence of the cult in the gazetteers of neighboring counties, I could only find an account of Yizhong and the Sanping Monastery in the prefecture-level gazetteer of Zhangzhou and the county-level gazetteer of Zhangpu.
40 MacInnis Citation1989, 14. The formal name of Document 19 is “The Basic Viewpoint and Policy on the Religious Question during Our Country’s Socialist Period.”
52 In 1996, the committee spent RMB 320,000 to expand the hotel and improve its facilities.
55 Sanping si zhi Citation2008, 225–226. In the early 2000s, the management committee incorporated the shops into a wider development plan for the scenic area.
61 Quanguo fengjing qu zhiliang dengji pingding weiyuanhui Citation2005.
62 The National Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China first handed out the status of 4A scenic areas in 2005 to rate the historical significance and attractiveness of the country’s tourist sites. See Fujian sheng Pinghe xian Sanping fengjing qu Citation2019.
63 A local cadre told me that state authorities at the national level recognize the economic potential and heritage significance of the monastery.
Additional information
Funding
This work was supported by the National University of Singapore Startup Grant [R-110-000-107-133] and the Ministry of Education Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship [MOE2020-SSHR-003].
Notes on contributors
Jack Meng-Tat Chia
Jack Meng-Tat Chia is an assistant professor of History and Religious Studies at the National University of Singapore. His first book, Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea (Oxford, 2020), won the 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize. He has also published articles in journals such as Archipel, Asian Ethnology, China Quarterly, Contemporary Buddhism, History of Religions, and the Journal of Chinese Religions. He is currently working on two book projects: Beyond the Borobudur: Buddhism in Postcolonial Indonesia and Diplomatic Dharma: Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7380-6158
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