宋代 瘟神신앙의 형성과 전개 ― 疫鬼에서 瘟神으로 ― = The Worship of the God of Pestilence (Wenshen) during the Song Dynasty

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The people of the Song dynasty responded to the frequent epidemics in two ways: medicine and religion. First of all, the government and intellectuals of the Song Dynasty actively promoted the dissemination of medical knowledge to relieve the people suffering from the plague disaster and to eradicate the customs of shamanic treatment in southern China. On the other hand, the religious response has also undergone a notable change since the Song Dynasty, and it has been deviated from the vague fear of plague-causing demons and the reliance on exorcism for them, assuming the existence of a deity who can control the demons. In particular, through the worship of the God of Pestilence (Wenshen), the general public was able to escape from the vague fear of infectious diseases and heal the psychological trauma of the past.
This study aims to analyze from a new perspective the background of the seemingly contradictory phenomenon in which southern customs spread and became larger at the same time as the correction policy on the so-called southern customs was implemented extensively by the Song Dynasty and the ruling class. In particular, rather than concluding that the outbreak of infectious diseases and the rise of the worship of the God of Pestilence in the Song Dynasty are simply strong resistance to civilian customs, we would like to understand it in terms of balance and harmony between the official realm of the ruling class and the customary realm of the private sector.
Entering the Song Dynasty, assuming a more neutral image of higher-ranking gods who control the demons, temples were built for them, and periodic sacrifices and worship became more common and large-scale. In particular, the belief in the God of Plague during the Song Dynasty was the most representative form for the general public to visually recognize infectious diseases. In the end, it can be understood that in responding to the fear of epidemics in the Song Dynasty, the two realms had a mutually confrontational and complementary relationship at the same time.