The aims of this article is to understand the constancy and change of cultural dominance of local government in late imperial China(the Song through the Qing dynasties) by examining who and how to worship in the temples which were mandated for all prefectures and counties.
There were so many temples in late imperial China, but the most important temples were those for Confucius, Sanhuang(Three Progenitors), Chenghuang(City God), Guanyu(the God of War), Wenchang(the God of Literature) which were mandated for all prefectures and counties, and the temples for Vaishravana, Taishan(Eastern Peak), Phags-pa, Mazu(The Goddess of the Sea) which were quasi-mandated for all prefectures or counties. Especially the temples for Confucius and for Chenghuang were crucially important.
The temples for Confucius were mandated in the Tang Dynasty and persisted until the Qing Dynasty, while the temples for Chenghuang were mandated in the Ming Dynasty and persisted until the Qing Dynasty. These two kinds of temples and worships for them have been studied mostly from the viewpoint of the cultural style of the official or popular rituals. But they can also be understood as two means of local government, that is, the edification of Confucianism and the dependence on popular beliefs. And what they represented were ‘the ideological domination of Confucianism’ and ‘the domination of the real world by local officials’ respectively. And this was why these two kinds of temples were remained mandated so long time.
In regard of the changes of the mandated temples, there was no change in the Song Dynasty, one addition in the Yuan Dynasty, and there were one addition and one abolition in Ming Dynasty, two or more additions in the Qing Dynasty. So there were increases only in Yuan and Qing. These increases were not merely increases in numbers but also increases in diversity. It can be assumed that the socio-economical changes like the development of commerce were one reason. But it also can be assumed that the dominance of the alien regimes who were less rigorous in the Confucian doctrine was another reason.
There were also the constancy and change of the method how to worship. Since the Song period on, the leading Confucianists criticized the clay idols and supported using the wooden tablet. In the Ming period, the clay idols were removed, but afterward the clay idols of Chenghuang were recovered and the clay idols of Confucius were not recovered and remained the wooden tablets. In theory, the clay idol of an nature deity should be criticized more severely than that of an anthropomorphic deity. But in reality, the clay idols of Chenghuang were recovered by the support of popular beliefs.