| Summary: | 碩士 === 玄奘大學 === 宗教學系碩士在職專班 === 100 === Abstract
Among the goddess worship in Taiwan folk belief, the cult of Xi Wangmu (Queen Mother of the West) and Matsu (Mother Ancestor) are of two the most flourished. The cult of the two goddesses emerged from different history backgrounds and developed respective distinctive philosophical systems by further integrating Taoist and Buddhist religion. Myth and legend are two elements related closely to the distribution of a religion, and by the developing and accumulating of myth and legend, the content of the cult of the two goddesses are built up and extended.
This paper aims to explore the divinities and images of Xi Wangmu and Matsu, by collecting and synthesizing the myths and the legends of the two goddesses as well as scrutinizing the narrative of their achievements to sort out their divine powers and responsibilities which is obscure in the recording of myths and legends. Xi Wangmu and Matsu share common place on divinity while showing differences at the same time. Their traits of divinity reflect the expectations and needs, and the emotion invested in by the followers. Followers nowadays, in a rapid changing society, are much more demanding. Deities are requested to be able to answer secular and mental wishes in a wide-ranging manner, as a result, the divine power and responsibilities are extended widely.
For thousand years, in the cult of the two goddesses, the images of Xi Wangmu and Matsu has been varying and changing with the circulation and distribution of myths and legends, thus, different goddess worship systems are branched off, and followers, being influenced by the acceptance of the images, thereby employ different expectations and have different religious experience accordingly. Appealing to followers of theirs, establishing temples of theirs, all the branches belong to the system of the goddess worship thrives and grows and that credits to the success in image creation.
|
|---|
