Tales Of The Water God In The Water God Temple Of Guangsheng Monastery: Folk Religion And Social Justice In The Premodern Chinese Political Tradition

Abstract

This paper focuses on a Yuan dynasty Water God Temple in Hongtong County, Shanxi Province, China and hopes using this temple to research the special relation between Chinese political tradition, folk religion, and social justice. This paper used two argument tracks. The first argument track is focusing on the identity of Water God himself. The second but core argument track is to discuss the relation between Chinese political tradition, folk religion, and social justice. The first argument is not the evidence but a very important clue to finish the main argument. In conclude, both political authority and local communities were using folk religion as tool to search their benefits and remain social justice. The benefit for authority is the stability but the benefit for local communities is water, the resource. In the end, a Water God from folk religion became the symbol of social justice.