各行各業供奉自己的祖師神或保護神,這在中國傳統社會是非常普遍的現象。作為一種獨特的民間信仰,行業神崇拜是業緣性社會組織的精神象征,通過共同的祖師神信仰和祭祀儀式,行業組織的整合和維系得以實現。通過行業神崇拜研究,我們不僅可以了解中國歷史上不同行業從業者的信仰文化和心態,還可以透視特定區域的產業結構、社群組織和基層社會秩序。檢視和反思學術界現有的研究成果,我們可以在研究路徑和理論視野上尋找中國行業神信仰研究的新的生發點。

It is a common phenomenon in traditional Chinese society that people of all walks of life worship their ancestral gods or protective gods.As a unique folk belief,the worship of industry gods is the spiritual symbol of the social organization based on industry relations.Through the common ancestral god belief and sacrificial ceremony,the integration and maintenance of industry organizations can be realized.The study of the industry god worship can not only help understand the belief culture and mentality of the practitioners from different industries in Chinese history,but also apprehend the specific region’s industrial structure,community organizations and grassroots social order.By reviewing of and reflecting on the previous research on this issue,we can find a new starting point for the study of Chinese industry god belief from both the methodological and theoretical perspectives.