1 China folk culture has distinctive features and eternal vitality, which is confirmed by the history of 5,000 years of civilization. In the long-term field study of rural folk culture in northern China, scholars have continuously discovered the value of China folk culture, especially its modern value. Why do you want to study the folk culture in China and where is the folk culture in China? Is it in abandoned sites or still exists in people's lives? When some scholars turn their eyes from the emperor to the life of ordinary people, they need to put the cultural history of civil society and the daily life of ordinary people in an important position, which was ignored by elite culture in the past. For thousands of years, although ordinary people have not mastered the right to record history and have not been given the legitimacy to make a sound, they have integrated their lives into history in their own way and constantly formed collective memories with their own thoughts. If you don't fully understand the culture and customs of civil society, no one is qualified to comment on it, let alone belittle it with morality. Qian Mu, a master of Chinese studies, once described the village where he lived as a child in the preface to Soul and Heart: "For the rest of his life, people lived together in the village. There are nearly 100 families in a village, all with the same surname. Weddings, funerals and celebrations are bound to meet, and funerals are especially serious, and people of all ages will gather. When I was eighteen, it was a great event in my life to worship my ancestors and sweep the grave. The elders tell stories about their ancestors, and every family has some strange things. They enjoy the cool in summer nights and bask in the sun in winter mornings, telling the story of no decline. I told you that the ghost world and the human world are closely related and inseparable. " Professor Fei Xiaotong, a famous sociologist, once said very sincerely in his speech at the Chinese University of Hong Kong 1999 that the reason why he could not accept the Christian faith was entirely because he had heard too many serial stories in the countryside when he was a child. Therefore, China's folk culture is the original school that nourishes our China. Childhood memories are full of folk culture and customs, which will become a part of China culture, regardless of future career choice. This is the folk culture, and the inheritance of folk culture actually makes us feel the reason why China culture continues to burn. Because the illiterate old ladies in rural areas will tell their children the Confucian truth like telling stories, and the filial piety of respecting the elderly will become the simplest moral rate in rural areas with "the crow feeds back, the sheep kneels and milks" and "the cock has a long tail, ...". How does China folk culture shape China people and China culture? This is a very historical and complicated issue. Li Yiyuan, an anthropologist, described the cosmology and its operating principle in China's traditional folk beliefs in this way: when expressing the traditional Confucian ideas, it became metaphysical philosophical concepts such as "harmony between heaven and man", "harmony with man" and "harmony with all things"; It is manifested in small traditions and daily life, and can be found in physical and medical habits, naming system, ancestor worship ceremony, divination of choosing a day, geomantic geography, ritual of gods and incantation methods. These are the premises of ordinary China people's secular life. In fact, people all over China can find a point that fits their heart in the above contents. The important foundation of China culture lies in folk culture, which is the starting point of Chinese civilization. Many basic thoughts and activities began at least in the Han Dynasty. Before the emergence of rational elite culture, folk culture already existed, and constantly absorbed various other cultural resources in the long historical years. The reason why folk culture can be handed down after thousands of years shows that it has very important social and cultural functions, otherwise it would have been forgotten by history; When elite culture is impacted by various foreign cultures and changes, folk culture, like a never-flowing riverbed, still carries Chinese civilization. Cultural Code of Civil Society Any culture is represented by symbols and symbols developed by itself. Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist, believes that "culture is a mode of meaning passed down from generation to generation through symbols in history, which expresses the concept of inheritance in the form of symbols. Through the symbol system of culture, people can communicate with each other and continue to spread, and show their knowledge and attitude towards life. (Clifford Geertz's Interpretation of Culture, page 89) The symbols of cultural symbols or the life knowledge and attitudes that people can communicate, understand each other and pass down from generation to generation in a discourse system are expressed in the form of cultural codes. These meaningful symbols or cultural codes are very important for understanding the culture of a society. In this same system, people have the same goals, strategies and consistent outlook on life. There is no need to distinguish between mainstream culture and non-mainstream culture. In the understanding and acceptance of cultural symbols or cultural codes, we are socialized as "China people". For example, in the Yangliuqing New Year pictures that people are familiar with, there are many works of folk beliefs, such as "Lotus (Lotus) has a surplus (fish) in the year", and the big fat doll is holding a fat fish with a lotus, which is homophonic with Lotus and also symbolizes many children and grandchildren; Fish "and" surplus "are homophonic, symbolizing wealth and good luck. For another example, the significance of jade in China culture is beyond itself, because it is a symbol of moral integrity for intellectuals, "It is better to break jade than to fill tiles" and pursue the realization of morality beyond life; For ordinary people, it is a symbol of good luck. People believe that wearing jade ornaments can ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. At the same time, it is also a requirement for female chastity. Whether married or not, a woman's purity is beyond life, and she should "keep her body as jade". The cultural code that permeates our daily life is not those scattered and chaotic superstitions, but a meaningful and ethical whole. The concept of "Yin and Yang" fully expresses China people's world outlook. This subsystem first thinks that heaven is the dominant force in the whole universe, including the human world. The world in which people live is made up of yin and yang, day and night, light and shade, men and women, cold and heat, excess and deficiency. Not only should the four seasons be harmonious, but also the harmony between man and nature and the balance of the body. Therefore, there is no doubt that China people accept traditional Chinese medicine and folk treatment, the view of harmony between Yin and Yang, the view of mutual dependence of fortunes, the tradition of names related to Yin and Yang and the five elements, the world outlook of harmony between man and nature, and the belief that ghosts and gods systematically monitor human behavior. Therefore, only on this basis can we understand why rural families in the north do not resort to the law when they have conflicts, but seek advice from others. When I am sick, I also listen to the advice of rural folk remedies and folk doctors. In our field investigation, we found a large number of examples, showing the significance of cultural code as a cultural gene being recognized and passed down by the people, which is helpful for us to understand the value of folk belief activities. Because in public activities, cultural codes provide people with a collective symbol, which can transcend economic interests, social status and social background and make people integrate into a society. Folk belief activities and people's lives The belief activities around temples constitute an integral part of people's daily life and occupy an important position in folk culture. In his influential book Religion in China Society: A Functionalist Perspective, sociologist Yang Qingkun reveals a fact that many scholars ignored before: the people of China have their own religious activities, and this belief still exists after years of tempering. For the study of China society, folk belief activities are certainly not the only entry point. However, we find that folk belief activities, including various folk flower parties, seemingly simple economic and trade activities without administrative participation, can actually help us understand the rural society in China, and it is possible to see through the deep content of society, understand the social network that is different from the modern social structure but effective in rural areas, and discover major problems that were neglected in the past. What has a great influence on ordinary people in China is the collective folk belief activities. On the one hand, this collective folk belief is related to practical needs, such as praying for rain, on the other hand, it is related to historical traditions, and on the other hand, it is also the embodiment of local cohesion. This traditional organizational structure is the village itself, based on family, clan, local leaders in the community and temples in the community. Local beliefs belong to the level of rural life, focusing on the worship of ancestors and gods, the divine power of natural geography, the renewal of celebration time, and the driving away of harmful forces (ghosts). (Daniel Overmeyer's History, Literature and Field Investigation-A Comprehensive Method to Study Religion in China, Journal of Historical Anthropology, Vol.2, 2004 1 issue) Peter Berger, a modern value sociologist with folk beliefs, believes that the root of modernization in East Asia today is another kind of Confucianism, that is, the work ethics of ordinary people in their daily lives, which he calls "vulgar Confucianism". This is a set of beliefs and values that arouse people's efforts. The most important thing is a deepening class consciousness, an almost unreserved commitment to the family, a discipline and frugality. Berger believes that such beliefs and values constitute the same heritage of East Asian culture. (see gold:

On Chinese Folk Beliefs