Fate or Future?—A Discussion of Taishan Pilgrimage around the 19th and 20th Centuries

As one of the most sacred mountains in China, Taishan had drawn people’s attention near and far to make pilgrimage each year. In the corner of the 19th and 20th centuries, this changed as Christian religion came into Tai’an city at the foot of Taishan. The paper tries to describe what was happening, the re-sult and why, from the aspect of historical description.


Introduction
Taishan, as a sacred mountain in China, has attracted people from all over the country to ascend to the top and worship since the very ancient times (the following figures show different aspects of Taishan, Figure 1 is Bixiaci; Figure 2 is Yuhuangding and Figure 3 is the panoramic Taishan). It was described in the History Record that Emperor Shun had been to Taishan to worship and pray which was called Xunshou 1 , meaning the patrol of the whole country. Later on, emperors of different dynasties came to Taishan to Feng and Shan 2 in person or sent imperial official representatives to do so for them. So, people of different social status, all ages and genders had come to Taishan as pilgrims to pay respect, ask for blessings, beg for the recovery of the kinship from illness, and even 1 Xunshou was recorded in Chinese classic books such as Historical Record, Book of History, etc. 2 The word Feng and Shan are two Chinese characters, but always combine together to express the sacrificial ceremony held by the ancient emperors. Feng is to build altar on the top of the Taishan to sacrifice and worship the heaven; and Shan is to do this at a small lower place called Sheshou Shan at the foot of Taishan to sacrifice and worship the earth. In traditional Chinese belief, Heaven was regarded as the place where Gods, Goddesses live, and earth was the place when people died they would go under earth to live another life. It was the Yanluo Wang who governed the people after death in underneath.     Taishan beliefs? These are questions concerned in this paper, and the rest of the paper is going to focus on answers to these three questions.

The Tradition of Pilgrimage to Taishan
The tradition of Pilgrimage originated from people's belief that Taishan was the most sacred mountain in China. It was the God of Taishan 3 who controlled the birth and death of people. It was the Goddess of Taishan who could cure disease.
It was the Goddess of Taishan who beheld the happiness and safety of the country and people. Their relationship can be achieved in. Like Zhou Ying (2015) stated "from Ming Dynasty, because of the uprising populace belief in Bixiayuanjun, the belief in Dongyuedadi was ignored" 4 . So people from all parts of the Shandong province or even from some parts of the country came to ascend Taishan worshipping and praying for rebirth, fortune, happiness, and recovery, etc.
Vicar Besi recorded his experience with a group of women, "...the youngest was 78 years and the oldest 99, they had come from the south of Honan, i.e. more than three hundred miles, to remind their god that they had..." 5 Most of the people were organized by groups called Xianghui (license society) 6 . Generally, Xianghui began to prepare a year before the pilgrimage by collecting money once a month by average share of the members 7 . When everything was ready, the pilgrims would set off by taking wheel-chair, or caravan, some even on foot in the early three lunar months of the new year: February, March and April.
Although called pilgrims in general, they differentiated each other by their social status, genders, ages, etc., each with specific personal purposes 8 . Of them, old women aging from 70s to 90s with bound feet were quite popular, like what vicar Besi had stated above 9 . They ascended and descended the mountain on foot, with the purpose of worshipping before Bixiayunjun, the Goddess of Taishan, to beg a happy life after death (Che, 1991;Dai, 2003;Liu, 1991;Lvg, 1994)  The relation between Goddess of Taishan and God of Taishanlies in detailed description, please see Liu, 1991;Lv, 1994;Che, 1991;Dai, 2003.  Besides, there were literati who ascended Taishan for leaving their works such as calligraphy, poems to record and eulogize that they had been to and Taishan, the sacred mountain 13 . Of which, the most famous poem was Gazing on Taishan by Du Fu in Tang Dynasty.
In the late 19th century to the early 20th century, although the pilgrimage went on as usual, things were changing as the beliefs were under challenging of Christian religion.

The Inburst of Christian Missions
In 1874 Generally, people's thoughts were under influences to some extent. And different beliefs began co-existing for a long period of time.

The Co-Existence of Taishan Beliefs and Christian Religion
When the foreign missions came to the inland, they would do something to invite the local people as well as the pilgrims. For example, Alexander Williamson recorded "Next day we attended the great fair in the large temple called the Tai Some would reject severely, the missionaries have met with oppressions and obstacles from the local people and societies such as Big-knife and Boxers. In 1887, rumor was that the foreigner was bullying and stealing, and people who rented the house to them were bad. They even issued the foreigners to the local Yamen, the governmental court. In December 1899, Sidney Brooks was murdered by the Boxers. Chen Hengte of Methodist Episcopal Church had recorded that, "An-chia-chuang is one of the oldest stations and had formerly a membership of over two hundred. At the time of the Boxer uprising many of the members could not endure the persecutions which arose and went back into the world, so that the church membership was reduced to between sixty and seventy." 33 Some made use of it, and became missionaries and benefited. At that time when pilgrims worshipped Gods and Goddesses for help but in vain, they would change and turn to Churches. For example, Francis W. Verity recorded, "... at the foot of the sacred Tai mountain, whither so many pilgrims resort, and it is interesting to hear relate her conversations with them. One poor old devotee of seventy has walked twenty-five miles, and climbed the lofty mountain every year for ten years, but confessed that she had not yet found the peace and happiness for which she so deeply longed. Earnestly she listened as . Later, after this period, especially in the period of Japanese Invasion, people's thoughts rearranged: some gave up the missions; some insisted on and some joined the army influenced by the advanced thoughts, many students from Cuiying Middle School turned to revolution to join the army.

Discussions of the Results
During the period, pilgrims were influenced by Christian religion, and some turned to churches. This period is a co-existing of foreign belief and traditional Taishan Beliefs. This can be clearly depicted in Mrs. Hanson's record. She described several women's pilgrimage in a small village called Han Village. In it, several women: old Mrs. Han, young Mrs. Han, Mrs. Chao, Mrs. Zhang Mrs. Wu, etc. planned to go to Taishan worshipping, each with their own respective vow to make 37 . Mrs. Zhang wanted to thank Taishan for bringing good crops and life; Mr. Wu longed to beg a boy child for her son; Mrs. Chao wanted to enjoy; Old Mrs. Han was old, she had been to Taishan before and now wanted to prepare for the rebirth; young Mrs. Han wanted to change life. They made preparations before setting off and after the pilgrimage they went to the Dongyue Fair held in Dai Temple at the foot of the mountain where they met a Christian tent. Mrs. Chao saw, enjoyed and then left. She would not accept foreign religion. She was a typical representative of the majority of Chinese pilgrims who formed deep-rooted traditional beliefs refusing to take in new thoughts. However young Mrs. Han would turn to churches. WHY? The answer is that young Mrs. Han had suffered and was suffering misery from life; she could not find any help. She felt extremely hopeless. So at this time, when a new thought came to her, she would feel comfortable, fresh and improved in spirit and soul. Similarly, when the traditional belief could not satisfy the needs or couldn't comfort people at that time, they would change beliefs. This seems to be very practical, however it is the truth; also as Alex. Armstrong recorded, "In one of these villages, a temple of three Pu-sas and to the Goddess of Taishan, was cleared of about fifty idols, by the voluntary act of the villagers, under the lead of the keeper of the temple, who was an inquirer into Christian truth. All these divinities were taken out and buried darkly at dead of night in a gutter, and the buildings were turned into a Christian chapel.  Due to time and format, this paper has to be concluded. This is a historical record of changes in Taishan Beliefs under the influence of foreign thoughts.
What the paper wants to make clear is to describe what was happening at that time.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.