Abstract:

This article is a field study examining the relationship between a Penglai mountain temple and its mountain foot community in Penglai Town, Anxi County, Fujian Province. The analysis focuses on the ritual of Qingshui Master Procession (qingshui zushi xunjing). It is argued that the Qingshuiyan Temple connects with both the secular world on the plain and the spiritual world in the mountain. The lowland community cannot be self-sustained without mountain deities and trade of goods between the Temple and the community. As a focal point of communal activities, the Qingshui Master Procession ritual facilitates the formation of communities on the surrounding plain, generates an orderly rhythm of everyday life, as well as promotes community renewal in regular intervals. This ritual thus provides an indispensable means through which group differentiation and cohesion play out. The Qingshuiyan Temple itself serves as a channel for people to communicate with the spiritual world, bestowing a sense of sacredness to the people, objects, and communities on the plain. The Temple's centrality in local life rests on, not so much its physical location in the middle way of the mountain, but its intermediary role between lowland (secular) and mountain (spiritual), not an uncommon feature in the region of Anxi county. Traditional mountain dwellers like scholars, monks and Taoist priests such as Qingshui Master, are regarded by people in Anxi as "sacred people" (zhenren). They move between the human and spiritual worlds freely, blending nature and society. The Qingshuiyan Temple mirrors the social fabrics of Anxi society and its people's conceptualization of humankind.

Key words: personhood, materiality, social structure, Qingshuiyan, Anxi