Sacredness and Secularity: Evolution of Sacred Space of Traditional Villages in Western Hunan

Abstract

Sacred space is an important space form of Chinese traditional villages, which combines religious belief, humanistic belief and complex space. Taking Gaoyi Village, Jingping Village of the North Dong Dynasty, Huangdu Village, Pingtan Village and Dutou Village of the South Dong Dynasty as examples, the paper analyzes the evolution of the sacred space, the change of the sacred space function and its influence mechanism in the traditional villages of the Dong nationality in western Hunan through in-depth interviews with the author. The research found that: 1) The sacred space of Dong traditional villages experienced the Ming and Qing dynasties: the space shape was preserved, and the ancestral sacrifices were the main things; During the period from the Republic of China to New China: the function of sacred space changed; After the reform and opening up: the space form is restored and the sacred space is protected. 2) The evolution of the function of the sacred space is in line with the formulation and adjustment of the social system, presenting a sacred space of religious belief type, humanistic belief type, composite type. 3) The evolution of sacred space is actually the result of the progressive evolution of agricultural culture, industrial culture, new era compound culture and other factors in different periods. 4) In different periods and different spatial scales, different sacred spaces based on local cultural identity have also been formed in the South and North Dong.