Ancestral God, Locality God, and Chinese Overseas

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Ancestral God, Locality God, and Chinese Overseas

• Tan Chee-BengChinese University of Hong Kong

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Introduction

• Chinese migrants, especially those who migrated
  to Southeast Asia, brought with them the popular
  deities of the regions where they migrated from.
• I should like to make a distinction between
  ancestor deity, which is the ritual focus of
  descendants of a particular lineage, and locality
  deity which is associated with a particular
  locality in China. The locality deities discussed
  here refer to deities of particular local origin
  in China and continue to be associated with that
  locality. This has significance for sub-ethnic
  identity of the Chinese overseas.

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• My research (between 2001 and 2003) on the Ye
  lineage in Shishan??, Nanan ??county in Fujian
  had led me to pay attention to two important
  deities in Shishan. The Ye? lineage there has an
  ancestor god called Huize Zunwang????. This is
  different from Guangze Zunwang????. The former is
  honored by the Ye lineage from Nanan as well its
  descendants among Chinese of different
  nationalities (CDN). The later is a popular local
  deity from Nanan, whose worship had spread
  beyond Nanan, but mainly in southern Fujian. The
  worship of Guangze Zunwang is quite widespread in
  Taiwan and Southeast Asia

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• In this presentation Ill discuss the
  significance of such local origin in China for
  the religious life and community organization of
  Chinese overseas, as well as the significance of
  the worship of these deities for the formation
  and perpetuation of transnational links between
  the Chinese overseas and the local religious
  sites in China.
• Relevant works Kenneth Dean (1993), Choo Chin
  Taw (1968), Zeng Ling (2006)
• Chinese overseas, transnational networks and
  China.

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Guangze Zunwang and Chinese Overseas

• Fengshan Si, Phoenix Mountain Temple, in
  Nanan, is a well known temple locally and
  overseas among the Minnan Chinese (Hokkien). The
  temple documents trace its history to the tenth
  century. This is an example of a local temple
  that had become popular, and migrants spread the
  worship overseas, making the worship of Guangze
  Zunwang more known and influential

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Phoenix Mt. Temple
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• The deity is traced to one Guo Zhongfu???born
  to a very poor family on the 22nd of the 2nd
  Chinese month in 923 in Shishan in Nanan,
  southern Fujian. The family was so poor that when
  his father died Guo Zhongfu sold himself as a
  slave to a Yang family in Anxi, also in southern
  Fujian. Guo Zhongfu and his mother eventually
  settled down at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain or
  Phoenix Mountain in Shishan. His filial piety and
  ability to do miraculous deeds formed an
  important discourse of his deification after his
  death/ascension at a young age of 16. The
  villagers built a temple at the place where he
  died/ascended, hence the present name of the
  temples that honor him, that is, Fengshan Si???
  or Fengshan (Phoenix Mountain) Temple, although
  the temple was originally called Guoshan Miao???
  or Guo Mountain Temple.

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• In 1195-1200 the deity was bestowed a long
  inclusive title of Weizhen Zhongying Fuhui Weiwu
  Yinglie Guangze Zunwang?????????????? which gives
  the present popular title for the deity, that is,
  Guangze Zunwang???? (The Reverent Lord of Great
  Compassion). Today he is popularly referred to as
  Guo Shengwang??? or Holy King Guo. He is also
  popularly called Shenggong, Holy Duke, or
  Shengwanggong???. His wife is similarly
  affectionately addressed as Shengma??, Holy
  Duchess, or Shengwangma???.

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Jinjiang Fengshan Si
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• During the Cultural Revolution, Guangze
  Zunwang was treated as a landlord (the temple had
  land), and the temple was attacked and destroyed.
  After the economic liberalization of China, in
  1978 the Nanan tongxianghui (hometown
  associations) in Singapore in cooperation with
  the Returned Overseas Chinese Association (ROCA)
  of Nanan agreed to rebuild Fengshan Temple,
  turning it into a grand temple of today. Chinese
  from other countries like Malaysia and the
  Philippines also contributed to the renovation
  over the years. By 1980, the local government
  took over the control of the temple.
  Commmodification of religion.

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• Every year there are around 60,000 people and
  many delegations visiting the temple. Most of
  these delegations are known as zumiao jinxiang
  tuan?????, and such visit and worshipping is
  described as yezu jinxiang???? sort of
  pilgrimages. Thus the Chinese banner welcoming
  the Sabah delegation in 2003 read Welcoming the
  Delegation from Papar Tengnan Tang and Kota
  Kinabalu Binan Tang of Sabah Malaysia Paying
  Homage to Guangze Zunwang (????????????????/?????
  ?????????).

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Penang Greenlane Fengshan Si
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Kong Tik Tjuen Ong (Surabaya)
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Ancestral God of the Ye Clan

• Huize Zunwang is the ancestral god of the Ye
  people who trace their root to Nanan in China.
  My Shishan Ye informants in Malaysia call Huize
  Zunwang affectionately in Hokkien as zoo-ong
  (zuwang??, ancestral king) or zoo-but (zufo??,
  ancestral Buddha). Some also refer to him as
  zoo-gong??. The Ye people traced their origin to
  Nanyang Prefecture??? in Henan province. Thus the
  temple in Malaysia in honor of Huize Zunwang is
  usually called Nanyang Gong??? or Nanyang Temple.

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• Huize Zunwang was originally a Ye person from
  Gaotian in Nanan born on the 10th of the 12th
  month in the year 1189. Named Ye Sen??,this
  twelfth-century Ye ancestor was a vegetarian and
  he remained single until he ascended/died in 1208
  at the age of twenty. The relatives built a
  temple called Cijigong??? to honor him. He was
  awarded by the imperial court the title of Huize
  Zunwang????, The Reverent Lord of Kind
  Compassion.

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• Huize Zunwang is worshipped by the Nanan
  Ye-surnamed Chinese in Nanan and overseas. In
  Malaysia the Nanan Ye people are mostly in Kuala
  Lumpur and Penang. In KL mainly concentrated in
  Segambut (???), Jinjiang (??), and Sentul (??),
  and they are mostly the Ye people whose ancestral
  root is in Shetan?? village in Shishan. There is
  a Huize Zunwang temple at each of these places,
  all named Nanyang Gong, differentiated by the
  name of each place, such as Jinjiang Nanyang
  Gong?????.

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Jinjiang Nanyang Gong
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Jinjiang Nangyang Gong
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Penang Ciji Gong
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Huize home altar (Penang)
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• The Ye clan associations and Huize Zunwang
  temples regularly organized delegations to visit
  the grand temple in Nanan as well as the
  respective ancestral houses of the respective
  sub-lineages.
• In 2003 the Yap Temple in Penang (?????????) was
  planning to build a new Huize Zunwang temple in
  Shenan??, Jintao Township??? of Nanan
  Municipality. Convinced of attracting tourists
  and establishing contacts with Chinese overseas,
  the Jintao Township government provided 300 mu (
  20 hectares) of land free of charge for the
  building of the temple. However, the planning and
  the selection of building materials are done by
  some Ye members under the coordination of the Yap
  Temple chairman.

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Gaotian Cloud Mt. Temple
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Conclusion

• This presentation shows that the gods,
  especially the locality deities and ancestral
  deities, are important in linking the Chinese
  overseas to the emigrant regions in China. In
  fact these locality specific deities, not
  depending on kinship ties (although in the case
  of ancestral deity it is related), is more
  lasting in perpetuating the ties of Chinese
  overseas to their ancestral homeland.

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• Chinese overseas of Nanan or general south
  Fujian origin established early local
  organization around the worship of Guangze
  Zunwang. The Guangze Zunwang worship in a number
  of early settlements preceded the establishment
  of Nanan associations. As the temple in Shishan
  has the special status as being the original
  temple, it has become the Mecca of Guangze
  Zunwang temples and his worshippers everywhere.
  Both the Guangze Zunwang temples and Nanan
  Associations are thus involved, together or
  separately, in organizing pilgrimages to the
  original temple in Shishan.

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• Other examples of locality deities Qingshui
  Zushi???? (The Patriarch of the Clear Stream) of
  Anxi County in south Fujian Fazhu Gong???
  (Miraculous Lord) associated with the Yongchun
  people in Malaysia and Singapore.
• The ancestral deities are known mainly among a
  particular surname group only, especially if they
  are deified ancestors of particular lineages.
  However, some surname associations have adopted
  some well known deities as the patron deities of
  their clans. For example, the Lim (Hokkien for
  Lin) clan associations in Malaysia have adopted
  Tianhou as their ancestral deity as the goddess
  surname was Lin (her full name being Lin
  Moniang???).

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• The description in this presentation shows
  that locality deities and ancestral gods, and
  founding ancestors, too, form the bridge between
  Chinese overseas and the ancestral homeland. They
  provide the symbols which link Chinese overseas
  and those in regions outside mainland China to
  the localities (villages and counties) where they
  or their migrant ancestors had migrated from. As
  long as these symbols remain meaningful to the
  Chinese outside the ancestral localities, the
  transnational networks will persist.

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• The religious and cultural symbols, as
  illustrated by the locality and ancestral
  deities, link Chinese outside mainland China to
  specific localities in China. As the original
  migrants recede into history, it is the symbol of
  the religious sites in China, and not loyalty to
  the land or the increasingly remote kin, that
  makes visiting particular localities in China
  particularly meaningful. Furthermore there are
  many tourist sites in China, and so it is
  convenient to combine religious pilgrimages
  with tourism in China.

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Thank you