祈雨习俗及其地域差异——以传统社会后期的江南地区为中心

江南地区虽属平原水乡泽国 ,但是由于季风气候的缘故 ,降水变率大 ,往往旱涝不常。所以旱期祈雨 ,在江南水乡也很普遍。江南地区的祈雨一般选择在龙王庙、观音庙、城隍庙以及其他神灵和已故乡贤名宦的祠庙中进行。本文研究表明 ,江南有共同的祈雨对象 ,但区域内部这种祈雨却呈现了多样化 ,有其各自的特色和主要的侧重对象 ,并且在地域分布上也有明显的差异。可以认为 ,江南地区祈雨神灵的分布特点和地区差异完全是受地理环境影响的结果。

Prayer for Rains and its Regional Differences: A Preliminary Survey on the Custom of the Jiangnan Delta during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

When the droughty seasons' coming, the Jiangnan delta has faced the condition of lacking water, although it is a waterish region. Thus, rains' prayer was very urgent and prevalent during the drought in Jiangnan. People in this region always selected such gods as Dragon, Guanyin, Chenghuang and other deities to pray the rain. There would have the same or several targets in each region, but each region also has its own important target to pray the rain. We can conclude that the targets' position and distribution of different region has its distinguishing feature, which caused mainly by the environmental differences.