中國 后土 信仰의 변천과정─ 漢代~唐代 후토 이미지의 역사적 변천과정 고찰 ─

Abstract

This article examines the historical transformation of the divine image of Houtu (后土), an earth god, between the Early Western Han Dynasty and the Late Tang Dynasty. Although the deities which were commonly referred to Houtu included both the territorial spirits (社神) and the gods of the earth (地神), the latter ones did not emerged until the Han Dynasty. During the Early Western Han Dynasty, the Han Wudi (漢武帝) ordered to construct the temple for the Houtu in Fenyin (汾陰) of the Shanxi province for the first time. Since he came under the influence of the Daoists, occulters, or socerers, however, the Confucian principled scholars of the late Western Han period began to criticize the sacrifice rituals to the Houtu of the Fenyin which was inconsistent with the Confucian ritual codes. As a result, the sacrifice to the Houtu of Fenyin was abolished when the Wang Mang (王莽) took the power. While the Houtu was deified as an earth god by the Western Han authorities, it was not until the Early Tang period that the characters of female deity began to be superimposed on the Houtu. During the reign of Wuzetian (武則天), in particular, the gendered image of Houtu was influenced by her popular images, and then the Tang Elites of the mid-Tang period who published novels associated with the Houtu made big contribution to widespread of the image of female deity throughout the Empire. After the Wuzetian and Tang Xuanzong (唐玄宗) carried out the sacrifice to the Houtu temple of Fenyin in person, the sacrifice rituals were suspended until the governor-general Gao Pian (高騈) of the Southern China resumed the ritual within his jurisdiction. However, the sacrifice performed by him was completely against the Confucian principle but was definitely based on popular custom. Consequently, between the Early Western Han Dynasty and the late Tang Dynasty, the cult of Houtu transformed itself from an official deity which had been worshiped according to the state ritual codes into the popular deity which had gendered image and protected her worshipers from danger as tutelary deities of popular religions.