Religious Life in Ming-Qing Nanjing

Apart from being a reputed capital city famous for its decadent pleasure culture since the early 3rd century, Nanjing was also well known for its vigorous religious activities from about the same period. This project aims to present the many different aspects of religious life in Ming-Qing Nanjing.With the aim to offer a general outlook on these religious activities, I will first reconstruct the geographical distribution of all the Buddhist, Taoist temples and temples of popular cults in this period. On the basis of this physical ground, I will then examine the relationships between these supernatural beliefs and human agents, as well as spatial configuration.For the part of human agents, I will first discuss the role played by the ruling class at that time. Nevertheless, among all the emperors and royal households, I will single out Taizu of the Ming dynasty for particular analysis, for it is Taizu who set up most of the guidelines which most religious activities would follow and develop in later generations. In addition to the ruling class, I will also explore the roles of gentry-literati, merchants, different professors and the masses in promoting various beliefs.Regarding the relationship between spatial configuration and religious activities, I will attempt to analyze the possible connections between religious beliefs and several major areas of Nanjing city. It is noted that because of the major difference between the north and the south of the city, Nanjing was further divided into 35 compartments in around the 16th century and several of these compartments were named either after a certain cult or the different professions of craftsmanship. The relationship between these compartments and the religious cults has long been a neglected yet interesting topic. In addition to these local cults, I will also take a close look at the beliefs in ghosts and spirits, which seemingly have enchanted several of the leading gentry-literati who had left monumental accounts of life in Nanjing at different times. I would argue that this belief in ghosts and spirits had been related to both literary tradition and the unique structures of the Nanjing streets, which tended to be long and narrow in the south eastern and south western parts of the city.