Ritual and Order in Rural Society——An Historical Anthropology Study of Donghua Three Villages, Putian

In historical anthropological research into Chinese rural society, village temples and ritual traditions can offer profound insights into the operational mechanisms of grassroots culture. Based on genealogies, stone inscriptions, and ritual texts preserved in the three villages of Donghua, Putian, supplemented with data collected through fieldwork, this paper investigates the ritual traditions of lineages and lishe (local communal organizations), village temples and jiaotou (sub-village) shrines, as well as inter-village ritual alliances and associations. The study reveals that the she community shrine serves as a "ritual marker" for the lineage, while village temples and jiaotou temples function as territorial-based ritual communities. Furthermore, beyond the scale of the village there also exist "ritual alliances" and corporate ritual organizations. This multi-layered ritual system constitutes a complex socio-cultural network that sustains interpersonal relationships and social order in rural society, reflecting the historical process of the ritualization of local power structures.