Online Sinology Fortnightly: The Making of Miracles Texts of Xiang Yu Belief and Its Interaction with the State and Regions in the Southern Dynasties

Dr. Ho Wei-kang is an Assistant Professor at Department of Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University.
Moderator: Dr. Chang Huilin (Postdoctoral Research Fellow of HKBU Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology)

Abstract: Wu Xing’s Xiang Yu belief in the Southern Dynasties was characterized by folk worship of temples and military icons, which shared similar situation and development of Jiankang’s Jiang Ziwen belief. Yet the regionalism of Xiang Yu belief was quite different from the nationalization of Jiang Ziwen belief. Xiang Yu’s miracles texts in Jin Dynasty and Liu Song Dynasty mostly featured migrated governors having misfortunes or passing away at their posts. The tales of “short-lived governors” could be traced to memories of military violence from Wu Xing’s rebellions and repression, which particularly portrayed the conflicts between the Qiao people and the Wu people. Since the Southern Qi and Liang Dynasties, the competition between Wu Xing and Jiankang has gone from military to religions. Buddhist temples prevailed at Wu Xing thanks to the encouragement from royal families of the Southern Dynasties. From the haunted image to vegetables worship of Xiang Yu belief, it could suggest the conflicts among folk beliefs, the state, royal families and Buddhist and how they eventually reached a reconciliation. When it came to the making miracles texts, the plots of the tales of Xiang Yu belief featured repetition. Wu Xing locals tried to deter migrated governors by miracles texts; on the other hand, the state intended to alter the plots of tales to repress the regions, which could suggest different stances would directly impact on the development of miracles texts.

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