What are the street lamp customs in western Fujian?

When commenting on the public welfare undertakings during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese and Western experts on the street lamp customs of the Sibao in Western Fujian briefly thought of the concepts of 'public domain' and 'civil society' in European history. The two most famous examples are William T. Rowe's comments on public welfare undertakings in Hankou in the late Qing Dynasty and Mary B. Rankin's investigation of the aftermath and social reconstruction process in Zhejiang after the Taiping Rebellion. Linking two previously unrelated assignments may involve a great theoretical risk. In fact, the practice of William Luo and Rankin has been criticized by experts such as Phillp P.Kuhn, Frederic Wakeman, Jr, and Huang Zongzhi. They believe that the search for public categories and civil society in my country during the Ming and Qing Dynasties made a mistake in the theory of intentions. This approach not only misreads the complex and delicate connection between the state and society during the traditional period, but also touches various aspects of public affairs. The quasi-social civilization activities split from the thread of our country's native civilization. These criticisms, I think are appropriate and insightful. The intention of this article is not to repeat these criticisms, but to take the situation of Sibao street lights in western Fujian as an example to illustrate how a seemingly modern public project can be integrated with the surrounding civilized atmosphere. Speaking of street lights, usually readers know that in modern society, this is a proper and important part of municipal engineering. The appearance of street lamps in my country is very reminiscent of concepts such as the public domain in the West. This may be the case when the modern street light network spreads across many large and small cities in my country. However, these modern 'creations' can easily make us forget about their predecessors and lead to misunderstandings about them. What we have seen is that during the traditional period, 'lamps' had a relatively rich interior, and street lamps, as a cultural phenomenon, had an inherent connection with traditional villager civilization. From the perspective of the villagers, street lights are not new, but a natural extension of the social values u200bu200bof the villagers. From the root of civilization, street lamps are mainly affected by two concepts. One is the concept of 'light'. In many localities in my country, 'lamp' and 'Ding' are homophonic, and Ding means 'people'. Adding lights is rich in the auspicious nature of human reproduction. Because of the influence of this concept, family arrangements are very willing to set up street lights. The first is the bright view of Buddhism. The lamp can bring light, symbolizing the divine light of the Buddha. Therefore, it is also worth noting that the installation of street lights has the meaning of driving away demons. However, it is difficult to verify when the street lights will appear in my country. The four guarantees mentioned here are a group of villages located at the junction of Changting, Liancheng, Qingliu and Ninghua counties in western Fujian. There are 40 or 50 villages within a radius of tens of kilometers from Sibao, the largest of which are Wuge, Mawu, Changxiao, and Jiangfang. During the local investigation, the author noticed that there was a common habit of setting up street lights in the past. Sibao people call street lights 'sky lanterns' or 'adding lights'. There are two main local theories about the beginning of this custom: one is that it began in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty (1736-1795), because the ancestral hall dedicated to the sky lantern was built in the Qianlong period; the other is that it began during the Taiping Rebellion Movement. , with the meaning of 'anti-Qing Fu Ming'. The basis for the former statement is not strong enough, and the latter statement does not have much historical basis (the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not put forward the slogan of 'anti-Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty'). These arguments can be said to be better than nothing. When asked about the reason for setting up the sky lanterns, the usual answer is that the sky lanterns have their own gods, called Sky Lantern Bodhisattva or Sky Lantern Venerable Gods. An old man in Jiangfang Village informed the author that a sky lantern at the entrance of their village is very spiritual, and the foreign monsters will not dare to go forward when they reach the entrance of the village. It is said that there was a demon who, after arriving at the entrance of the village, was terrified by the power of the god of the lantern, he did not dare to retreat, did not dare to enter, and stayed in the adjacent culvert for three whole years. In this sense, the reason for setting up sky lanterns is appropriately close to that of Standing Stone. Some people also believe that the purpose of setting up sky lanterns is to pray for 'adding a baby'. When setting up sky lanterns in practice, these two reasons exist at the same time.