On August 15th, the "Cross-Strait · Three Mountains · Four Seas" field study on the Three-Mountain Kings kicked off in Jieyang. The folk belief in the Three-Mountain Kings originated in eastern Guangdong more than 1,400 years ago and has spread widely to Chinese Taiwan and Southeast Asia. 

Its spirit of "protecting the nation and its people, ensuring national prosperity and people's well-being" has been revered for generations. The Three-Mountain Kings Ancestral Temple in Jieyang, also known as Lintian Ancestral Temple, is regarded as the mother temple of all Three-Mountain Kings temples worldwide. In 2023, it was designated as a "Cross-Strait Exchange Base."

This field study invited several well-known scholars, including Chen Chunsheng, Professor of History and Dean of the Institute for the Study of Lingnan Culture at Sun Yat-sen University, and Chun-Rong Yeh, Professor of Anthropology at National Taiwan Universityand Doctor of Anthropology at Michigan State University. Starting at the Three-Mountain Kings Ancestral Temple in Jiexi, the group visited several iconic sites related to the folk belief in the Three-Mountain Kings.

Professor Chen has studied the Three-Mountain Kings culture for more than 40 years. When visiting the Monument of Perpetual Honor at the Three-Mountain Kings Ancestral Temple in Jiexi, he shared the changes observed from an academic perspective: "The names on the monument were mainly from Taiwan and overseas over 30 years ago. In the past two decades, more and more donors were from the Chaoshan regionand cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), where large numbers of Jiexi natives have relocated. This is the biggest change over the past 40 years, reflecting the local economic growth and the prosperity of our fellow villagers."

After visiting the Three-Mountain Kings Ancestral Temple in Jiexi, Li-Hua Chen, Associate Professor of the Center for General Educationand Institute of Historical Researchat the National Tsing Hua University, remarked that her strongest feeling was, "I felt the flavor of Taiwan here!" She noted that she found many Taiwanese elements in the temple. "Famous Three-Mountain Kings temples from areas such as Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Changhua, Hsinchu, and Yilancan all be found here, demonstrating the ancestral temple's significance among the temples in Taiwan," she said.

三山国王文化田野调研行在揭阳启动

“两岸·三山·四海”三山国王田野调研行活动8月15日在揭阳拉开帷幕。“三山国王”民间信仰文化发源于粤东地区，迄今已有1400多年历史，广泛传播至中国台湾地区和东南亚等地，其“护国庇民、国泰民安”的精神被历代民众所尊崇。位于广东揭阳的三山祖庙（又称“霖田祖庙”），是全球三山国王宫庙的祖庭，2023年获授“海峡两岸交流基地”。

本次田野调研行邀请了中山大学历史学系教授、中山大学岭南文化研究院院长陈春声，台湾大学人类学系教授、美国密西根州立大学人类学博士叶春荣等多位知名学者参加，以揭西三山祖庙为起点，陆续走访三山国王民间信仰多处标志性点位。

陈春声教授研究三山国王民间信仰文化逾四十年，参观揭西三山祖庙的流芳碑时，陈春声从学者的角度道出了其中变化：出现在流芳碑上的捐款人名字，30多年前以台湾和海外的人士居多；近20年来，越来越多的捐款人来自潮汕地区和揭西乡亲移居人数较多的大湾区城市，“这就是40年来最大的变化，从中可以看到地方经济的发展和乡亲们更富裕了！”

台湾清华大学通识中心暨历史所副教授陈丽华参访完揭西三山祖庙后，最大的感受是“这里很有台湾味！”，陈丽华表示，她在祖庙找到了很多台湾元素，“台湾著名的三山国王宫庙，来自云林、嘉义、屏东、彰化、新竹、宜兰……在这里都能找到，正说明了祖庙在台湾宫庙心中的地位。”

文、图 | 记者 李国辉 曾潇 古司祺 王瑜瑛 温泽广
译丨盛嘉
英文审校丨赵凡