BEIJING AS A SACRED CITY

On December 2, 1994, Professor Kristofer Schipper delivered
his inaugural address, thereby officially succeeding Professor
Erik Zurcher to the chair of the History of East Asia at the
Sinological Institute, Leiden University. His address was
titled "The Temples of Beijing", and its theme was the
endurance of popular religion in China throughout the ages.
Chinese popular religion is a mixture of elements borrowed
from Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, with a sprinkling of
remnants of even earlier pantheistic beliefs added.

By Stefan Landsberger

In his oration, Schipper reconstructed the history of the
worship of Taishan (The Great Mountain), a mountain in
Shandong Province in East China, which became the most sacred
site in Chinese religion. This worship was started in the 13th
century by the Daoist Zhang Liusun, who was employed by the
Mongol Emperor Kubilai Khan. Towards the end of his life,
Zhang built and consecrated a temple devoted to the worship of
Taishan in Beijing as well. This temple, the Dongyue Miao, was
not intended for a closed Daoist community, but for all the
people. The Dongyue Miao became the most cherished sanctuary
of the inhabitants of Beijing.
In later times, the content of the Taishan-cult underwent
gradual changes. A female deity appeared on the scene, the
Jade Maiden of Divine Immortality. A small mountain, the
Miaofeng Shan, close to Beijing, was dedicated to her. In the
cult of the Jade Maiden, the middle-class city dwellers of
Beijing experienced their finest hour. In the fourth month of
the lunar calendar, all citizens visited Miaofeng Shan and the
Dongyue Miao. All expenses involved in the journey to the
mountain were taken care of by the guilds (hang) of Beijing;
this not only meant free tea, free lodgings, free theatrical
performances, but also free medical care along the route.
After the great persecutions of Chinese popular religion which
started in the 1930s and were exacerbated after 1949, it
seemed to have been successfully suppressed. The Dongyue Miao,
for example, was converted into a police academy and closed
for the public. Recently, the strict attitude of the Chinese
Communist Party towards religion seems to have softened a
little. Taishan Mountain is once more visited by throngs of
people, in the past few years alone some 50,000 pilgrims have
visited Miaofeng Shan. The temple complex of Dongyue Miao also
will be restored and opened to the public once more.

INTERLOCAL NETWORKS
The theme of Schipper's address is closely connected to the
major research project that he has initiated. The project,
which will be completed in three years, is titled "Beijing as
a Sacred City: liturgical structures and civil society." The
aim of the project is to study the history, location, and
denomination of the approximately 1,000 temples and other
sacred structures which existed, and in general were still
active, in Beijing during the first half of the 20th century.
The study of these religious foundations and the relevant
historical material is of paramount importance for the
understanding of Beijing's "civil society" as it was organized
into guilds and corporations (hang), associations and leagues
(hui). Such organizations were often part of interlocal
networks. These largely unofficial and independent groups were
always of a religious nature, established as cult communities
in honour of a tutelary deity or patron saint. None the less,
such organizations often cooperated closely with the imperial
court and with the administration. They built temples and
monasteries and organized festivals, processions, and
pilgrimages. More than 1,000 temples and other religious
structures in Beijing were owned or supported by these hui.
The need for a project of this kind is all the more essential
as the city of Beijing is now being subjected to major
transformations. More and more ancient sites and buildings are
being torn down and replaced by modern high-rise
constructions. Moreover, the memory of the ancient city and
its traditional society is vanishing rapidly. In the light of
this development, two aims have been formulated for the
project:
The first aim is the preparation and publication of a map
showing the locations of the temples in the city. The various
denominations will be indicated by different colours (yellow
for Buddhist temples, green for Daoist, etc.). A separate
booklet will be produced which will list all temples, their
present address, the date of their foundation and other major
facts. It has also been proposed that a map showing the
temples of Beijing at the end of the Ming dynasty (early 17th
century) be included. By producing such materials, for the
first time it will be possible to get a glimpse of the
liturgical structures which dominated the social, economic,
and cultural life of the Chinese capital. The publications
will be produced in both Chinese and English.
The second aim is to copy, edit, and publish all available
commemorative inscriptions that belonged to these temples. The
materials include the inscribed steles that were erected at
the time of the foundation and after subsequent restorations
of the temples, as well as the many inscriptions that were
produced by the associations (guilds, corporations, and other
societies) which had their headquarters there or were
responsible for the place and its maintenance. Such materials
provide a unique source for in-depth research of Beijing
society. At present, rubbings of some 2,000 inscriptions have
been preserved, while another 500 have been preserved in local
gazetteers and other sources, but they are in danger of being
lost. These materials will be published in Chinese, with an
English presentation.
The project, which started on January 1, 1995 is set up as a
cooperative undertaking involving the Universities of Leiden
and Beijing, under the joint direction of Schipper and
Professor Hou Renzhi, the nestor of historical and
geographical studies of Beijing. Other organizations
participating in the project are the Ecole Practique des
Hautes Etudes and the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (Paris), The Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts
and Sciences (K.N.A.W), and the International Institute for
Asian Studies (Leiden). Professor Li Xiaocong of Beijing
University, a close associate of Professor Hou who is
responsible for establishing the maps, has arrived at the
Sinological Institute for a three-month research visit, funded
by the International Institute for Asian Studies.