试析神明祭祀与清代行会活动的互动与影响——以苏州地区碑刻史料为视角

An Analysis of the Interaction and Infl uence of the Worship Activities and the Activities of Industrial and Commercial Guilds in the Qing Dynasty:From the Perspective of Historical Inscriptions in Suzhou

据碑刻史料记载,有清一代,苏州地区许多工商业行会都举办神明祭祀活动。行会不仅制定了专门的规约以保证神明祭祀活动的顺利举办,而且将许多重要的行会活动与之联系在一起。因此,祭祀活动的法制化与行会活动的宗教化是苏州地区工商业行会的一大特征,其中深受中国传统文化的浸润。通过苏州地区现存的碑文可以发现,清代商人们认为神明祭祀活动具有一种特殊的作用,它能够保证行规的执行,进而维护商人们的利益与行业的发展。

According to historical tablet inscriptions, many industrial and commercial guilds conducted worship activities. These guilds established special regulations to safeguard the successful implementation of the worship activities, and they related the guild activities to god worship. Therefore, the legalization of the worship activities and the religiousness of the guild activities were the characteristics of the guilds in Suzhou, which were inlfuenced by traditional Chinese culture. By reading the inscriptions in Suzhou, we can discover that the merchants thought the worship activities could protect the performance of the guild regulations by means of blessing, deterrent and expansion of the well-connected network, and then it could keep their vested interests and the sustainable development of the guilds.