清代陕西的雨神祠庙初探

An Analysis of Rain Temples in Shaanxi in the Qing Dynasty

清代陕西地区干旱少雨,旱灾频仍,给社会带来了严重的困扰,以求雨为目的的雨神祠庙因而纷纷出现。雨神祠庙种类繁多,以太白庙为主,兼有龙王庙等其他神祇祠庙;数量非常可观,空间分布较为广泛,陕南、关中、陕北皆有,尤以陕北与关中为最多;选址多在广阔、幽静的地段。雨神祠庙的大量出现和大面积分布,反映了清代陕西地区旱灾之重与民众祈雨愿望之迫切。虽然建庙祈雨不无迷信色彩,但客观上,它们在调适民众心理、维护社会稳定等方面具有一定的积极作用,既是人们对于自然灾害的一种能动反应,也是当时人们群体抗灾的精神寄托和心理依赖。

In the Qing Dynasty,it rarely rained in Shaanxi,where it was dry and frequent droughts brought serious troubles to the people,so the rain god temples for the purpose of praying for rain appeared one after another.There are many kinds of rain temples,mainly Taibai Temple,but there were also other temples such as Dragon King Temple.The number of temples in southern Shaanxi,Guanzhong and northern Shaanxi was the most,where these temples were located in the vast and quiet areas.This phenomenon reflected the serious droughts in Shaanxi at that time and people’s urgent desire to pray for rain.Although those temples indicated people’s superstition,objectively,they had a certain positive role in adjusting people’s psychology and maintaining social stability,which became people’s active response to natural disasters,as well as their spiritual sustenance and psychological dependence to resist disasters at that time.