Abstract
In the traditional beliefs, whether it is worshipped as a protective god of the city or as an official of the underworld, city-god temples should be built within the city walls, and city-god temples built outside the wall were often regarded as abnormalities. However, in actual practices, such a strict relationship did not exist between city-god temples and the city walls. City-god temples, which began to be established in the Tang and Song dynasties, were built inside walled cities as well as at other places. Utilizing historical documents, mainly local gazetteers, and scrutinizing a larger geographical area, we find that the temples built outside of the city walls present a lot of new meanings beyond our conventional understanding.
This paper studies the condition of these outside temples in different historical period. As city-god temples constitute one of the main elements of traditional Chinese cities, where they were built has a close relationship to the history of city-wall building. The notion of outside temples would not exist if there was no wall. The changes of city walls could be a major factor leading to the emergence or termination of the outside temple, but there was no definite correlation. More importantly, there were far less of these outside temples than walled cities. Therefore, only in some particular regions, we are able to find a correlation between the city’s changes and the appearance of the outside temples, where the outside temples more or less reflect the changes in the local community. However, it is hard to find a general pattern.
Keywords
city wall, city-god temple, protective god of the city, the underworld official
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