The tradition and infiltration of Confucian rituals: Ritual culture of the rural sages and the construction of “new rural sages” in contemporary China

Abstract

Rural sage culture is a cultural phenomenon in traditional China. This article explores the emergence and development of the rural sage shrine and uses the former Henan provincial administrative commissioner Wan Yi’s rituals to the rural sage shrine in 1614 as a case study to illustrate that the Confucian tradition of local rituals permeated and influenced the election culture of local society during the Ming Dynasty. The abolition of the imperial examination system at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the absence of a new bureaucratic system made it difficult for the traditional rural sages to survive as the old and new forces were renewed, which led to the cultural spirit of the traditional village sages becoming increasingly blurred in modern China. After the reform and opening up in 1978, China’s policy of reshaping rural grassroots society was put forward, which provided a good social environment and guaranteed the emergence of “new rural sages”. New rural sages were born in the wave of reform in the new era. From this historical experience, it is concluded that the nomination of rural sages to the shrine was a means of valuing rural talents. In the process of innovation and development of the culture of the rural sage, contemporary China has given a new mission to the “new rural sage”, that is, to transform the folk customs, to build models, and to correctitude value tropism.

Keywords:

• confucian rituals
• rural sage
• edification
• identity consciousness
• education value

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

The rituals of the rural sages were an important part of the edification of local society in ancient China. Throughout history, the spirit and characteristics of the traditional sages have been transformed by modernization and continue to exist under the term “new sages”.

The emergence and development of the “new rural sage” is a valuable experience rooted in China, with an educational function of transforming folklore, building models, and righting the hearts of the people. The emergence and development of the “new rural sage” is a valuable experience rooted in China, with an educational function of transforming folklore, building models, and righting the hearts of the people. This paper attempts to construct a model of understanding for the reshaping of the rural cultural sphere based on an in-depth reflection on the historical experience of traditional village governance by the rural sages, to provide a useful reference for the promotion of the village governance by the new rural sages.

1. Introduction

Since the Tang Dynasty, the combination of Confucianism and temples has been called a Confucian Temple.¹ Ancient Chinese schools are a space for teaching activities and sacrificial activities. The worship of rural sages has been a tradition since the Zhou Dynasty. After the developments and changes in the past dynasties, teaching activities of the Confucian Temple gradually became fixed and homogeneous in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The space constantly expanded, as local places of worship emerged, like the rural sage shrine, eminent official shrine, Zhao Zhong (昭忠) shrine, Zhong Yi Xiao Ti (忠義孝悌) shrine², and so on. The number and scale of rural sage and eminent official shrines became popularized and institutionalized in the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially the Qing. They achieved the social education purpose of the rural sage and eminent official rituals by imitating role models. Villagers, students, and governors must participate in the event to promote the local sages. It may be a communal event so that the villagers can learn and emulate the surrounding sages personally. The Ming Dynasty’s education policy carried out the grassroots society of “getting the people’s heart and implementing Tao”.

From a historical perspective, there is a relatively close inheritance relationship between traditional and new rural sages. Traditional rural sages are the elites in traditional Chinese rural society, mainly referring to the sages who are capable, moral, prestigious, have made significant contributions to their hometown, and are respected by the local people in traditional Chinese rural society. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, as China developed with the integration of urban and rural areas, and in the context of implementing the rural revitalization strategy, the connotation of the rural sage changed and was given a new connotation by the times. In 2013, China’s Guangming Daily launched a special report on “new rural sages-new countryside”, and “new rural sages” began to enter people’s vision. The 2018 Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Implementing the Rural Revitalization Strategy pointed out that “Effective governance is the foundation for rural revitalization, and the role of new villagers should be actively played.” In recent years, as an important initiative for the development of human capital in villages, the “New Rural Sages Rule Villages” has played a key role in promoting the economic, social, and cultural revitalization of villages, and has become a structural force in the innovation of governance in Chinese rural communities.

The emergence and development of the “new rural sage” is a valuable experience rooted in China, with an educational function of transforming folklore, building models, and righting the mind of the people. Traditional Chinese rural society was a society governed by rituals, and the traditional sages, as the endogenous authority of the countryside, mainly used rituals to govern the countryside.

In this new era, it is worthwhile for scholars around the world to focus on the modernization of the rural governance system and the ability to govern by building a sound rural governance system that combines autonomy, the rule of law, and moral governance, breaking the “economic-only” and “political-only” mindset of rural development, and promoting the parallel development of rural economic development and cultural and educational construction through the construction of a mechanism for the regeneration of elites in the countryside that values social education. In addition, the case of Wanyi in the Ming Dynasty also provides a special perspective on the life experiences of traditional Chinese elites in ancient times, to provide lessons for village construction on a global scale.

2. Literature review

This paper arranges the historical process of the ancestral shrines of rural sages from the Zhou Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties by exploring and analyzing many original historical materials. It selects a case of rural sages from the Ming Dynasty through the case study method. What is particularly important is that through historical experience and lessons, this paper aims to highlight the importance and modern value of the construction of the “new rural sage” education system in contemporary China. At the end of the Middle Ages in Europe, rural elites developed rapidly and played an important role in politics, economy, and society. Calatayud Giner (1999) examines the development of agriculture in Valencia, Spain, in the 19th century and finds that rural elites played an important role in the emergence of modern agriculture there. Stephen (2002) similarly argues that rural elites play an important role in Russia’s economic and social transformation. Françis and Jean-Pierre (2007) note that the village elites of the time were engaged in a wide range of economic activities, including various sectors such as agriculture, animal husbandry, and commerce. In contrast to the European village elite’s focus on the goal of economic development, Asian scholars are more concerned with the great influence that the village elite had on local politics. Edward and Noor (2017) argue that village elites have directly influenced changes in local politics by using the example of elite elections in Indonesian villages. Craig (2014) examine the prominent contribution of local elites to agricultural development and social order and rural political administration during the period of revolutionary change in Japan, 1890–1912. Ansoms (2003) argue that rural elites in Rwanda, Africa, have transformed large-scale social reconstruction and driven the development of rural societies.

Chinese scholar Wei (2022) takes Baidu Township, Napo County, Baise City, Guangxi Province as a case study, proposed that the spirit and local feelings of new rural sages should have the role of influencing, inspiring, and cohesive force, and believed that the shaping of rural sage culture should focus on local nostalgia and memory. J. Y. Liu (2022) argues that China’s population loss, withering culture, and poor governance hinder rural development and that the participation of new sages in rural governance should focus on three aspects: strengthening the connection between new sages and the countryside, creating a cultural atmosphere conducive to the participation of new sages in rural governance, and improving the institutional mechanism for the participation of new sages in rural governance. Y. C. Liu and Wang (2022) argue that new rural sages can be effectively embedded in various aspects of village politics, economy, culture, and morality, but their role is limited by insufficient endogenous motivation, an inadequate rural governance system, and deficiencies in governance subjects. Therefore, giving full play to the unique advantages of the villagers, activating the motivation mechanism, improving the participation mechanism, sounding the supervision mechanism, and creating a cultural identity of new rural sages to improve grassroots governance capacity and realize the value of new rural sages. C. K. Yang (2022) argues that the alienation of new rural sages due to the temptation to return to their hometowns, the strong conflict between traditional social morality and modern moral consciousness, and the weak awareness of the initiative of new rural sages to return to their hometowns have constrained the pace of new rural sages returning to their hometowns and that the path of new rural sages returns needs to be optimized. It is suggested that there is a need to strengthen the cultivation and training of new villagers, establish an incentive mechanism and improve the organization of new rural sages.

Experience at home and abroad has shown that village elites have made outstanding contributions in driving the political, economic, and cultural spheres. The focus of this paper is on the influence of village elites on the educational level. The concept of the “new rural sage” is an inheritance and development of the traditional rural sage. As China attaches particular importance to the Confucian way, which is centered on moral cultivation and human relations, the experience of the traditional rural sage, who relies heavily on Confucian moral thinking and ethics to educate the villagers and maintain the ruling order, thus achieving soft governance of the countryside, enables the new rural sage to consciously promote advanced culture and mainstream values, take the core socialist values as his code of conduct and actively cultivate a civilized village style.

3. Methods and theoretical framework

This article uses both historical documentary research and case study methods to demonstrate the historical development of the rural sage shrines attached to Confucian temples in China. The aim is to provide scholars and readers worldwide with an understanding of the places with edifying significance that were attached to the Confucian temples in China. After learning about the history of the development of the rural sages’ shrines, we have chosen the case of the rural sage shrine set up for the Ming Dynasty rural sage Wan Yi, to demonstrate in concrete terms the complex process by which the Ming government selected sages of good moral character for admission to the shrine. This case was not chosen at random. Wan Yi was a Jinshi (进士) ³of the Ming dynasty in the 25th year of the Jiajing reign (1541), and during his time in office, he protected the territory and kept the people safe, and was loved by the people both his life and after his death. This article, therefore, uses Wan Yi as a case study, aiming to provide historical reference for the selection of contemporary Chinese village officials in terms of moral cultivation, behavior style, and wisdom in dealing with life.

This article adopts a cultural-logical framework, i.e. through three dimensions: historical transmission, case reflection, and reinterpretation, to explain the contemporary value of using traditional village sage culture to activate traditional village sage culture in contemporary Chinese rural governance to promote effective rural governance. The reason for the long-standing existence and role of the traditional rural sage in China’s historical development is that it is essentially in line with the spirit of traditional Chinese Confucian ethics. Such as the basic human relations of fatherhood, filial piety, brotherhood, and sisterhood. The Chinese people’s values of cultivating their minds internally, respecting their parents, being sincere and kind externally, and not deceiving, are internalized in the spirit of most individual sages. Secondly, as a traditional virtue of the Chinese people, when it becomes a mode of governance, the selection of virtuous and moral sages to take up positions of rural governance, making them role models of moral education, can effectively urge the people to cultivate their minds and moral character. This paper attempts to construct a model of understanding for the reshaping of the rural cultural sphere based on an in-depth reflection on the historical experience of traditional village governance by the rural sages, to provide a useful reference for the promotion of the village governance by the new rural sages.

4. The history of the rural sages shrines and case studies

The ritual of rural sages is a traditional form of worship in Chinese society to remember famous local scholars and honor local worthies. The sacrifice of rural sages instills respect and worship for the township’s deceased sages. Local shepherds and townspeople, either at the state’s initiative or voluntarily, built shrines and pavilions for the famous sages of the township. They performed yearly rituals to respect and remember the sages (Zhang, 2015, p. 14). The state actively promoted constructing shrines for rural sages and eminent officials in the local Confucian Temples due to their social edification. Thus, the Ming and Qing governments promoted the construction of the two shrines to inspire the local students to imitate their ancestors.

4.1. Creation and development of the rural sages’ shrine

A person serving in his place, making achievements, and benefiting the people is called an eminent official. A person born instead of socially popular virtues and knowledge is a rural sage. Since the Zhou Dynasty, there was a tradition of worshiping the sages in Xixue (西学) for “teaching the virtues of the vassals”. The worship of local sages began in the first year of Yuanfeng (元鳳) in the Western Han Dynasty (80B.C.) when Emperor Zhao (昭帝) honored Han Fu and other four people with the standard of Zhong Lao (中牢) ⁴. He gave them fifty pieces of silk for their righteousness. Thus, there was a tradition of “edifying the villagers with filial piety.” In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming (明帝) worshipped Xiao He and Huo Guang with Zhong Lao’s standard (中牢).

At Eastern Han Dynasty’s end, Lu Yun became the county head of XunYi and left the government. The people memorialized him by drawing images and worshipping him with the God of the stove in the county. Song Deng was called a man of God when he was the magistrate of Ruyin. When he was the governor of Yingchuan, people bought and sold fairly, and there was no fraud. Passers-by would not claim the lost property on the road. So, the people of Ruyin worshiped him as the God of the stove. These two forms are admired for their moral conduct.

Initially, the sacrifice of rural sages was not promoted by the state but a bottom-up autonomous activity of the people. There was no specific worshiping place for the rural sages and they were worshipped in the She (社) ⁵. She (社) was a place of worship in ancient China. During the pre-Qin period, the usual belief was that land was crucial for the survival of mankind by nourishing all things. The rural sages could enjoy the same privileges as the land god by setting up She (社). Emperor Liu Shan banned it because he believed that the people set up private temples for those with merit and virtue, which “did not preserve virtue and recollect merit or trace the past.”

Before the Sui Dynasty, the first warning signs for the worship of local virtuous people became evident. There was no customized offering of sacrifices to the sages and no unified standard. Local sages were called “historical predecessors”, “township head”, and “township gentleman” as the township (鄉) ⁶ emerged. After the Sui dynasty, local sages dedicated ancestral halls. Emperor Yang ordered the establishment of shrines for the rural sages. Emperor Yang ordered the establishment of ancestral halls for the sages.

The first edict was issued to build a sacrificial place for the sages, marking the rising worship of the sages to the level of the system. Since then, the Tang Dynasty began to build temples for sages of merit and virtue. In the 19th year of Kaiyuan (731 A.D.) in the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong ordered the two capitals and all the states to build temples for Shangfu (太公尚父) which Zhang Liang was worshipped in. These temples performed sacrifices in the second month of spring and autumn⁷. In the 7th year of Tianbao (748A.D.), they established temples for the loyal and righteous. Those who were loyal and righteous, and virtuous in history should have a shrine built at their birthplace or their office and should be worshipped at appropriate times. The loyal and righteous must have a shrine built at their birthplace or their office, and they should be worshipped there after death. This was the first time to stipulate the temple site. The state clearly defined the sage rituals of the Sui and Tang dynasties. The sage rituals started institutionalization and developed gradually.

In the Song and Yuan dynasties, the rituals of rural sages approached the school and became part of the Confucian Temple, while having an edifying function. In the first year of Kaiqing (1259A.D.), Ma Guangzu, a bachelor of the ZiZhengDian (資政殿), built the Qingxi Sage Hall in the east of the Prefectural school, west of the Mingdao Academy. It includes 41 sages from the Han to the Song dynasties, classified into three categories: “born here”, including the sages born in the area; “appointed here”, including the sages who served in the area; and “lived and traveled here,” including the sages who traveled here. This is also the first instance of simultaneous worship for a group of sages. This was a period of collective rituals that brought the regional sages together. From the Southern Song Dynasty onwards, many ancestral halls commemorated the sages of Neo-Confucianism. For example, the “Four Sages Ancestral Hall” (四賢祠) of Lucheng Academy worshipped the famous Confucian Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao, Zhu Xi, and Zhang Shi. During the early days, the ancestral shrines within the school worshipped only a few local sages. Later, the number of sages increased, and the characteristics of group worship became more apparent. This formed the foundation of ancestral shrines in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Figure 1 is the general of the Confucius Temple in Nanning in the Qing Dynasty. The red signs are the rural sage shrine and eminent official shrine, which are still preserved on both sides of the Dacheng gate.

Figure 1. After developing the local ancestral shrines in the Song and Yuan dynasties, the sacrifices to the sages in the Ming and Qing dynasties became very mature. In the second year of Hongwu (1369A.D.), Zhu Yuanzhang ordered.

Schools nationwide build shrines to worship virtuous herdsmen on the left and rural sages on the right. In the middle months of spring and autumn, they were also worshipped during the state rituals. Later, the two shrines got renamed the rural sage shrine and eminent official shrine. (Z. Z. Li, 1608, p. 301)

The ancestral hall of former worthies has officially been renamed the shrine of rural sages and eminent officials. In the 9th year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty, Wang Yunfeng, the chief sacrificial officer, made it customary for the schools of the prefectures and counties worldwide to build shrines for rural sages and eminent officials. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was an order to newly-built or rebuilt shrines of eminent officials and rural sages in a local school, located on the left and right sides, outside the gate of the Confucian Temple, respectively, forming “two separate shrines”.

The Qing dynasty continued the Ming dynasty’s tradition, but there were still some rural sage and eminent official shrines, and City God Temple (城隍廟), Taoist temple (道觀) combined sacrifice. Scholars in the Qing Dynasty realized that this combined sacrifice was “very rude”. Although the shrines of rural sages and famous officials were attached to the Confucian temples, they did not include the national sacrifice ceremony like the Confucian temples. The sacrificial offerings and ritual notes of the two shrines are simple. Many scholars consider the ritual of the rural sage as an ancillary ritual extended from the Confucian Temple ritual. After incorporation with the Confucian temple, they had a Confocalized spirit. The first sage Confucius enunciated the Tao (道) of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, and Zhougong to show the scholars succeeding them. Later scholars explained their Tao (道) and embodied it in their bodies and minds. The two shrines of the eminent officials and the rural sages received the permeation of Confucian culture and completed the transformation into Confucian orthodoxy.

4.2. A case study of selecting rural sages into shrines in the Ming Dynasty

In ancient times, worship for sages included certain conditions. They were worshipped in the Confucian Temples because of their inheritance Confucius Tao (道). They could worship local sages, and eminent officials in the shrines were respected worldwide as they must have made great local contributions.

The sages are qualified for worship in ancestral temples if they meet the above conditions. Here is a look at the entry process into the shrine of Wan Yi, a native of Dehua County, Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, and the former provincial administration commissioner of Henan, in the 42nd year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (1614).

Local school students bolstered the public election. In 1603, Liao Gu, Zhu Shide, and others from the Prefectural and county schools submitted a public recommendation to worship the former provincial administration commissioner of Henan, Wan Yi, at the shrine. In 1607, students Kong Mo and Zhou Jiayan again submitted the public election submission. In 1614, Dong Simin and Ding Yingrui from the Prefectural and county school submitted successive petitions, arguing that Wan Yi was a great man, comparable to a sage, and he was elected for the shrine.

A guarantor from Dehua County submitted the guarantee. After the submission of the public recommendation by the Prefectural and county school students, someone still had to vouch for the public recommendation by submitting a guaranteed submission. The content of the guaranteed submission confirms that the public submission of the students is true and expounds on Wan Yi’s deeds.

The county magistrate of Dehua received the submission. The re-submission of it depends on a joint review of the prefecture and county schools. The submission requested the two schools’ students give another account of Wan Yi’s deeds. Ru Xue Du (儒學督)⁸confirmed that Wan Yi’s virtues qualify for admission to the shrine based on the public submission of Ding Yingrui and others and requested the county magistrate to convey its implementation.

Dehua County magistrate submitted to the prefect of Jiujiang. After the review of the two schools’ students, the Dehua County magistrate made an evaluation based on the application. He affirmed Wan Yi’s virtue and recognized his contributions to his ethics and education. He agreed to the request of the two schools’ students and continued to apply to his superiors for their approval.

The prefect of Jiujiang submitted to the literary chancellor. After receiving the submission, the deputy to the Chief Justice of Jiangxi Province, after consultation with the Ministry of Rites, considered it a prudent thing to enter the shrine of RS and asked the prefect to reexamine it.

The literary chancellor asked the Dehua County magistrate for re-examination. After that, both Prefectural and county schools must detail the merits of Wan Yi, proving that his virtues will live on for upcoming generations. It means that the county magistrate would convey again.

Dehua County magistrate applied after re-examination. The recommendation by the prefect to the superior shows that Dehua County always respects learning and worshiping the local sages, and the local people remember the virtues of the sages. It would unsettle his heart if he did not report the merits of the sages. He hoped his superior would understand and recognize his sentiment of worshiping the sages.

The prefect of Jiujiang submitted the county magistrate’s application to the literary chancellor. Chen Shikong, the deputy prefect of Jiujiang, commented that Wan Yi was “a man of great courage and integrity” and compared him to Fan Wenzheng. The prefect of Jiujiang reviewed Wan Yi based on the submissions of the two schools’ students, the guarantee, and the Dehua County’s magistrate. The review content was consistent with the previous review, and the admission request for the shrine was renewed.

The literary chancellor called for Wan Yi’s works. According to the prefect and deputy prefect of Jiujiang’s application, the literary chancellor again asked for a re-examination. The prefect of Jiujiang had to collect Wan Yi’s works and send them for the decision. The prefect of Jiujiang immediately collected Wan Yi’s works and sent them with the original engravings to the literary chancellor and also begged him to make a decision.

The literary chancellor approved, the prefect of Jiujiang issued the document, and the Dehua County magistrate created Wan Yi’s memorial tablet. Feng Ting, the deputy literary chancellor approved the proposal. He informed the prefect to send a document to the county magistrate to create Wan Yi’s memorial tablet.

On 11 September 1614, the county magistrate, following the prefect’s official document and the approval of the literary chancellor, chose an auspicious day to place Wan Yi’s memorial tablet in the right shrine of the rural sages in the Confucian temple. After the entire application-rejection-re-application process, Wan Yi finally entered the Confucian temple shrine. Dehua County followed the old rules of sage worship and welcomed the memorial tablet into the township shrine. They chose an auspicious day and provided the county’s public fees in silver to buy offerings, like pigs, sheep, etc., for worship.

Diagram 1. Procedure diagram of Wan Yi enter RS shrine.

In the Ming Dynasty, the application for the entry of rural sages into the shrine was submitted by lower-level units to higher-level units, which experienced a tedious process of “submission—rejection - re-submission”. It shows that the state organs of the Ming Dynasty paid attention to and were cautious in the selection and screening of rural talents. The sages’ achievements should be outstanding before they die, making an entrance to the shrine after death a matter of human effort. The county officials, students, and villagers are crucial to the process.

5. The value of “new rural sage” education in contemporary China

Ancient scholars dreamed of being worshiped in the Confucian Temple. Zang Yingkui, a scholar of the Qing dynasty, considered himself a sage. When he passed by the Confucian temple, he said, “hope I can be worshipped like a sage after I die. Such was his ambition.” Whether it is the Confucian Temple or the shrines of rural sages, they are the places where the sages’ virtues and wisdom were spread to later generations. The social edification function of the rural sage shrines shows loyalty and goodness, upholds the virtue of the elderly, and maintains good customs. The content and ways of commemorating the village sages are not only reflected at the national level but also extend to the local level, thus expanding and changing the connotation and extension of the village sage culture (J. G. Xu, 2022, p. 3). Although the rural sages in contemporary China no longer enjoy the lofty status of being worshipped in the shrines, the new era gives “new rural sages” more cultural connotations and requirements.

5.1. Transform the folk customs

With the development and progress of social civilization in the Ming Dynasty, the prosperity of the rural economy was accompanied by social and cultural bad habits with characteristics of the times, such as superstition, litigation, thieves, and gambling. Especially in some areas with developed clans, how to coordinate and control the harmonious relationship between the various families is one of the important issues that rural sages deal with every day. Various families in the countryside, compete for control of local society, and bullying and confrontation between families, and townships are common. All the people live together and are accustomed to bullying, bullying the weak with the strong, oppressing the few with the masses, and often fighting each other with weapons. The role of rural sages is to deal with the contradictions between the various families, harmonize neighborhoods’ relations, and help families become prosperous and coexist harmoniously. “Yu Zhi, a rural schoolteacher in the Qing Dynasty, lived by teaching and tried to persuade people to be good by rural conventions. Once he saw the Pear Garden (singing place) performance was obscene and vulgar, so he wrote ten new scripts to persuade people to be good, to improve the obscene and vulgar style of the play, although his writing style was not very graceful, to improve the moral cultivation of the people enough. (W. Jiang, 2019, p. 173)” Therefore, in history, the rural sages often wrote conventions to restrict people’s behavior and character and used their practical actions to promote etiquette and change people into customs.

Chinese traditional society pays attention to regulating human relations and moralizing people. As the Analects of Confucius said, “Govern the people by regulations, keep order among them by chastisements, and they will flee from you, and lose all self-respect. Govern them by moral force, keep order among them by ritual and they will keep their self-respect and come to you of their own accord (B. J. Yang, 2009, p. 294).” The Confucian culture emphasizes morality first and pays equal attention to etiquette. Rural sages should have good moral cultivation, through their moral conduct to guide people’s moral behavior. During the Hongwu period, Peng Qin, a tribute student, was selected to teach Fushun County during the Yongle period. He was a “learned and versatile man, strict in his studies and rules”, and the scholars of Fushun County followed his example, and it is said that “Fushun literature began with Qin”.

Song Jun of the Eastern Han Dynasty used to say, “Famous officials must be in the sacrificial system, and those who do not have great merit and virtue to benefit the people will not be sacrificed. The sage must have three immortal deeds. If an ordinary good official is a good person who only did his duty, what is the purpose of a shrine?” There is no better way to educate than to teach by example, and those who are sages should set an example in their moral behavior. In the eleventh year of the Jiajing era, Gong Jue, the governor of Qufu, was “incorruptible and generous, and ruled with benevolence and love”. When a state official was falsely accused and imprisoned, Gong Jue risked his life to defend him. An elderly local man said, “I was born in a town of sages, and under the rule of the governor, Gong Jue, neighbors lived in harmony and the people loved each other.” The governor took precedence over the people, and the people were moved by him. The people thought that he had no shelter from the storm, so they transported earth to build houses for him, and to this day, when people pass by this place, they call it “the wall of the people”. After Gong Jue’s death, he was worshipped in the rural sage shrine as the village sage.

The village sage lives and works in the village society, living and working with the villagers, playing the role of value leader of the village spirit, and has the function of criticizing and teaching the bad customs of the village. On the one hand, they set an example as “moral people”, modeling the village and passing on village culture; on the other hand, they act as “cultural figures”, explaining national policies, promoting mainstream ideas, and organizing cultural activities to shape a modern village with a civilized culture.

5.2. Set a role model

There are two points of departure for the sage rituals: honor virtue and reward merit. Honor virtue is to set up a memorial tablet, ancestral hall, and other realistic objects or rituals. It creates a solemn atmosphere, strengthens the respect for sages and worship education, and encourages learning so that future generation will respect their traditions. It would also secretly resolve to follow previous sages. Rewarding merit includes the future generations repaying the meritorious deeds of the sages. The second is to remember and pray for blessings. Praying for the blessing is more profound than rewarding merit. It includes deifying the sages, giving them invisible power, and respecting them to get blessed. People worshipped in the shrines of rural sages and eminent officials have made outstanding contributions to the area. The sense of geographical intimacy and the word of mouth of the local society give rural sages and eminent officials a high status and reputation. Most of these rural sages and eminent officials were virtuous and talented. It included local officials, who benefited the people, and people highly respected and admired them. The use of the deeds of these people to inspire the villagers and scholars was the best means of edification. The sage shrine in the Qingzhou Prefecture was reconstructed from the Xiyu Pavilion and built within the Songlin Academy of the Northern Song Dynasty. Thirty-four people been offered sacrifices in the shrine from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, like Wang Zhu and Lu Zhonglian of the Warring States period, Jiang Ge and Dr. Hu Musheng of the Han Dynasty, Fang Xuanling of the Tang Dynasty, Li Zhicai of the Song Dynasty, and Ma Yu in the Ming Dynasty, etc. During the Jiajing era’s 44^th year, the adjutant of Qingzhou Prefecture, Chen Menghe, recalled his admiration for the shrine when he first saw it as a child. He said,

Since I was a child, I had heard about the shrines of the rural sages and eminent officials in Qingzhou, and I admired them. When I grew up, I studied for the imperial examination at Songlin Academy, where the two shrines stood tall. When I saw the eminent officials, I wanted to emulate them. When I saw the rural sages, I wanted to be like them. (Feng, 1565, p. 428)

Chen Menghe believed that officials do not require the same political achievements, but they should consider loyalty and integrity as their professional ethics, and only worry about the people and governance. As local people born in Qingzhou could be worshiped at the local sage shrine, their contributions to the local area do not have to be similar, but they should consider filial piety, fraternity, loyalty, and goodness as morality and contribute to their hometown.

When sages and officials existed, no one knew if they could join the shrine after death. It was a matter of “sincerity”. After visiting the shrines, Chen Menghe admired the rural sages and eminent officials and regarded them as his life goals. The sages expressed their sincerity and devoted themselves to the governance of the local culture, education, and economy. The sage shrines lead as examples. The sacrifice of rural sages gives people a specific and intuitive feeling, compared to the Confucian Temple sacrifice. Confucius’ everlasting worship has been largely deified. The sages worshipped at the Confucian Temple did not compare to the ordinary people. The rural sages and eminent officials were real people who existed and lived around them. They moved people, the scholars admired them, aspired to them, and rose to the occasion. This was the greatest function of the shrines of the rural sages.

5.3. Correctitude value tropism

The rituals of the rural sages focus on the promotion of moral norms, the punishment of evil, and the promotion of good. The power of the sages inspired the people to do good, avoid evil, and educate the local people. The main aspects of edifying the people include several aspects: one is erudition and the implementation of rituals. During the second year of Jiajing, there was a knowledgeable and versatile magistrate of Weixian County, Qian Shu. When he was an official, he promoted education with propriety and righteousness and established the shrines of local sages and eminent officials. During his term of office, he built the Ming Yang Academy and equalized fields and grain, opening streets and drains to benefit the people (F. Chen, 1650, p. 929). After his death, he was worshipped in the shrine of eminent officials. Second, he was virtuously noble and loved the people as a son. During the reign of Chenghua, Wang Han, the magistrate of Xiu Wu County, Henan Province, was “clean and diligent in his administration, loving the people like his son”. He provided relief to the people, and no one died. When he retired due to illness, the people cried to keep him. After his death, they worshipped him at the shrine of eminent officials (Z. K. Li, 1853, p. 724). In the early Qing Dynasty, Yuan Mao, an official of Zhili Province, “from a student to a general government official, and popular for his virtue.” After his death, he was worshipped at the shrine of rural sages (W. Li, 1728, p. 1038). The best way to educate is to teach by example, and those who served as officials should set an example with their behavior and morals. The establishment of rural sage and eminent official shrines was a conscious, purposeful, and organized policy of the state that improved local social customs. National edification in the Ming dynasty did not exist in isolation. The state used various means of edification in a multi-pronged manner to provide education for all. The rural sage rituals served the same function of edification similar to the Confucian temple rituals. This invisible form of edification subtly changed people’s lives, as the people respected the virtuous sages and confirmed the achievements of famous officials.

For contemporary China, the identity of the “new rural sage” helps to promote the development and construction of rural society and the management of rural education. Rural sages are defined as “strong leaders and important shapers of local civilization”, bearing the lofty direction and lofty ideas of intellectuals.

6. The spiritual inheritance of traditional rural sages and the connotation of “new rural sages”

In ancient China, the clan and family system was huge, and the state’s intervention in rural social governance was very limited. From the worship of the rural sage of Wanyi in the Ming Dynasty, it can be seen that the selection of rural elites was mostly promoted by rural cadres, students, and villagers, with little state participation. However, after the founding of New China, the power of various autonomous organizations such as clans and families was largely eliminated. The soil from which the village sages arose and existed was disintegrated, and the traditional rural sages were left in disgrace in the ongoing rural movement. After the reform and opening up, China’s urbanization accelerated abruptly and the rural population began to flock to the big cities, leaving the countryside increasingly hollowed out and marginalized. Against this backdrop, the village sage community returned to the people’s attention and was given new and modern values, and educational efforts to cultivate the “new village sage” gradually began.

6.1. The spirituality of the traditional rural sages and its modern transformation

In the Jiajing period, an imperial governor inspected the southern regions of the Yangtze River and found that many local people believed in ghosts and admired litigation. So, he built a Confucian temple to educate the students, but it had negative effects. He sighed, “the Tao (道) of Confucius is far away but difficult to seek. Shall I choose a near one to persuade the people? (J. Xu, 1583, p. 820)” Therefore, he set up regional shrines of rural sages and eminent officials to stimulate folk customs. Because Confucius was so distant from the people, the state selected village elites to lead the local people, and this was the original value of the village sage’s existence.

Traditional rural sages actively participate in rural governance, performing functions such as maintaining the stability of the rural order, cultivating morality and ethics, and educating the villagers, earning respect, trust, and affection in the process of participating in rural public affairs, making them an authority in the governance of the rural society. As an organic collection of informal authorities in the framework of rural social governance, traditional rural sages are both the supporters of state power extended to rural society and the protectors of the interests of rural people in rural society, providing historical experience and governance wisdom for the new rural sages to participate in rural governance.

With the abolition of the imperial examination system at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the new bureaucratic system had not yet been established, and it was difficult for traditional rural sages who were in the transition between the old and the new forces to survive. Under the dual impact of chaos in national governance and turbulence in the rural social environment, they gradually lost their power to protect the countryside. With the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, some of the most powerful sages became representatives of the “evil gentry”, plundering the resources of the countryside and oppressing the people, causing them to lose their civil rights and prestige. As a result, the image of the traditional sages as “virtuous” and “noble” became increasingly blurred in rural society, and the spirit and culture of the traditional sages ruling the village declined. It was not until the reform and opening up of China in 1978 that the concept of reshaping the rural grassroots society was introduced, and villagers’ self-governance became the basic model for the development of Chinese rural society in modern times. This policy fully mobilized villagers to govern themselves, enhancing the autonomy, self-discipline, and self-governance of political democracy, and gave birth to a new term—the “new rural sage”.

6.2. The connotation of “new rural sages”

With the development and advancement of society, the identity of the “new rural sage” in contemporary China is no longer to preach the Taoist tradition, but the role of the rural sage as a model still exists and has the same educational value of “To set virtue”, “To set meritorious” and “To expound ideas in writing.” “Venerating the former positive figures was to set an example for later generations, rituals performed in one hall can inspire a county. Supporting society to guide people, its significance is big. (Wang, 1703, p. 39)” They act as messengers of edification and cultural leaders of the moral culture of rural societies, by taking advantage of the situation and persuading people to do good. However, China is a vast country, and different geographical locations and economic conditions lead to different difficulties and problems in villages with different social structures. For example, the united villages in southern China, where clans live together and clans and villages are united as one (He, 2013, p. 47). These villages are linked by blood ties and have a strong sense of cohesion. For example, in recent years, Guangdong province has stepped up the efforts of attracting investment, accelerating the improvement of the undertaking platform, ensuring the use of land and other measures, agglomerating the strength of the sages, encouraging the returning of the sages to return to their hometown and invest in the industry and give full play to the promoting role of the sages to the economic development of their hometown (X. R. Li, 2018, pp. 1586–1600).

These rural sages who have returned to their hometowns are more motivated to participate in the construction of the local villages and are more enthusiastic and willing to contribute to the governance of the villages. They are a major force in the modernization of rural governance (Q. Q. Chen, 2016, pp. 115–121). Excellent rural sages donate to local schools and students, while excellent students find excellent jobs after graduation to donate to their native school, which becomes a good cycle (Y. W. Jiang, 2022, pp. 92–100). As mentioned above, some sages are “appointed here” and some are “born here”. For local sages, the state should strengthen the spiritual incentives for them out of their love and attachment to their hometowns, such as awarding them with certificates or plaques to encourage more elites to contribute to rural governance. The state should also pay more attention to the livelihood of the new sages who have been appointed to this task. This is mainly for the sages who “work here”, their housing and living problems should be supported by the state to avoid the problem of new villagers having difficulties in working.

7. Conclusion

The aim of strengthening the education and training of “new rural sages” in contemporary China is to find a new path to safeguard the homeland and help revitalize the countryside. Judging from historical experience, people never await people who are distant from them. They always look forward to people and things close to them. Since the shrines of rural sages and eminent officials are attached to the Confucian Temple, it has the people and sages closer. The more people who are worshipped at the shrines around them, the more their desire and motivation to learn. Cultivating “new rural sages” is neither a compulsory requirement for them to return to live in the countryside, nor is it a requirement for all those who have gone out to their hometowns to become “new rural sages”, but rather a way to return people to their hometowns with a dignified public identity, to guide them to develop a strong sense of rural education. It is also a way to make them fully aware of their value, responsibility, and mission to contribute to the development of the countryside. This requires stimulating the inherent initiative of people who want to become new rural sages and guiding those who want to become new rural sages to participate in the construction of the countryside from their practical point of view (Peng & Xu, 2023, pp. 118-128). This spiritual pursuit is in line with the ancient Chinese sages’ rituals at Confucius’s temples, which highlighted the value of edification. Regardless of whether they are traditional or new sages, to make them concerned about the development of rural society, to let them find new directions and ideals for their professional development and life development, to return to the social status of rural cultural elites, and to stimulate the exemplary and leading role of new villagers is the modern value and significance of “new rural sages” education in contemporary China.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Major Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China [grant number 16ZDA230].

Notes on contributors

Xiaoxuan Wang

Wang Xiaoxuan is a lecturer at South China Normal University and a supervisor of postgraduates. Her research interests include Chinese Traditional Culture Education and social education.

Jinrong Liu

Jinrong Liu is a Ph.D. at South China Normal University. Her main research areas include Chinese Traditional Culture Education, higher education, social education. Main papers: A New Attempt to Compile the Textbook of Modern Confucian Classics——An Analysis of Liu Shipei’s Textbook of Confucian Classics (DOI:10.19503/j.cnki.1671-6124.2022.04.011); Chinese universities’experience of social education, 1912-1949 (https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01366-3)etc.

Notes

1. The temple-school system originated in the Tang Dynasty. It is an organic combination of temple and school. The temple of Confucius was a place to worship the sage Confucius, and the school taught the classics represented by Confucius. The two merged into one to combine the ancient Chinese tradition of Confucian education and the importance attached to rituals. It indicates the initial refinement of Confucian education since the Tang Dynasty.

2. Refer to the shrines built for the sage scholars, virtuous officials, soldiers who died during wars, and people who were loyal, righteous, filial, and fraternal during their lifetime in the Ming and Qing dynasties. After their death, the local officials applied for them to be worshipped in their hometowns, and gave them sacrifices in spring and autumn.

3. Jinshi: a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations.

4. They used only two animals in the ritual, the sheep and the pig, which were known as the “中牢”.

5. In ancient times, the places, days, and rituals of worshipping the gods of the earth were called she.

6. A Township is the grassroots administrative unit below the country level.

7. Refer to the February and August of the lunar calendar.

8. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were supervisors in prefectural and country schools, responsible for school management.