Sacredness and Secularity: Evolution of Sacred Space of Traditional Villages in Western Hunan ()
ABSTRACT
Sacred space is an important space form of Chinese traditional villages,
which combines religious belief, humanistic belief and complex space. Taking
Gaoyi Village, Jingping Village of the North Dong Dynasty, Huangdu Village, Pingtan Village
and Dutou Village of the South Dong Dynasty as examples, the paper analyzes the
evolution of the sacred space, the change of the sacred space function and its
influence mechanism in the traditional villages of the Dong nationality in
western Hunan through in-depth interviews with the author. The research found
that: 1) The sacred space of Dong traditional villages experienced the Ming and
Qing dynasties: the space shape was preserved, and the ancestral sacrifices
were the main things; During the period from the Republic of China to New
China: the function of sacred space changed; After the reform and opening up:
the space form is restored and the sacred space is protected. 2) The evolution
of the function of the sacred space is in line with the formulation and
adjustment of the social system, presenting a sacred space of religious belief
type, humanistic
belief type, composite
type. 3) The evolution of sacred space is actually the result of the
progressive evolution of agricultural culture, industrial culture, new era
compound culture and other factors in different periods. 4) In different
periods and different spatial scales, different sacred spaces based on local
cultural identity have also been formed in the South and North Dong.
Share and Cite:
Zhang, Z. (2022) Sacredness and Secularity: Evolution of Sacred Space of Traditional Villages in Western Hunan.
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
10, 407-423. doi:
10.4236/jss.2022.1012027.
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