祠神信仰是近年来颇受海内外学界关注的领域，本论文以张王、祠赛社会、祈雨、祠神信仰传播、正祀与淫祀五个个案为例，将宋代民众祠神信仰置于唐宋社会变革的背景下，全面考察祠神活动存在、演变的真实状况，及其复杂的社会、政治与文化背景。在史料分析的基础上，本文检讨并纠正了前人的若干观点，如正祀、淫祀二元对立，商人是祠神信仰传播的主要力量、社首与会首混淆等，将国内外的同类研究向前推进了一步。 本论文认为，祠神信仰是宋代各社会群体共享的信仰世界。皇帝、士大夫、释道人士、商人、普通百姓都是祠神的信众，积极参与祠神信仰的各种活动，如修建庙宇、组织赛会、申请朝廷封赐、主持祈雨仪式等。其中，转任各地的官员、士人以及释道人士，而非商人，是传播祠神信仰的主要力量，一些士人还以重新解释儒家经典的方式，为祠神信仰传播寻找理论支持。 同时，祠神信仰也是现实世界的有机组成部分，它与政治权力、经济发展、交通网络等要素之间存在互动关系。朝廷的祈雨观念、实践可能推动现实政治措施、政治态度的改变，乃至制度的建立，而赛会中的组织、仪式活动直接影响着地区、宗教、职业群体的认同，祠赛社会、祠神传播也可以推动不同自然区域、行政区划、经济区域之间的经济、文化交流。 地方社会是祠神信仰最主要的推动力量，朝廷的祠神封赐制度受其影响，地方官员的祈雨活动为其左右，打击淫祀的努力常因之受挫。以张王为例，当朝代更革，或者当官方试图改变张王信仰中的某些传统时，都是广德地方社会使其香火维持，传统不坠。 当然，国家是祠神信仰的合法性来源。但同时要看到，在正祀与淫祀之间，尚存在着一个广阔的“中间地带”。在面对祠赛社会、祈雨中的“异端”、正祀与淫祀等问题时，朝廷、地方官、理学士大夫与地方社会在观念与行为上存在着差异，这反映了唐宋社会变革中朝廷与地方、官方与地方社会、推广中原儒家文明与维持地方传统之间的复杂关系。当政治理想、国家制度与现实生活发生冲突和乖离之际，也往往是三者互相折衷与妥协之时。
The popular gods worship has gained great attention in domestic and abroad scholarship recently. This paper selected five cases, such as King Zhang cult, ci-sai she-hui (temple fair), rain-praying, the spread of the gods worship, orthodox and excessive worship, comprehensively researched the existence and evolvement of the popular gods worship and its complex social, political and cultural circumstance under a broader historical context of Tang-Sung transition. After examining a great deal of historical materials，the author reviews and corrects some modern scholar's ideas, such as the dichotomy of orthodox and excessive Worship，the merchant playing the most important role in the gods worship expansion, the confusion of she-shou(the leader of a worship society) and hui-shou( the leader of a communal celebration),etc. and will make some progress to the field studies. The Gods worship is a belief world shared by every social group, including the emperor, shi-da-fu(official and gentry), Buddhist and Taoist priest , the merchant and common people. They actively participated in varied action about gods cult, such as building temple, organizing temple fair, petitioning official titles and temple plaques, presiding at the rain-praying rites, etc. Among them, a lot of local officials who were appointed varied regions, shi-ren(gentry) , Buddhist and Taoist priests, but not the merchant, were the main force to spread the gods worship. Some shi-ren also searched the theory support for spreading the god worship through reinterpreting the traditional Confucian classics. At the same time，the gods worship is an organic component of realistic world and interacts with other parts of society such as political operation, economic progress and traffic network. the ideas and practice of the center government about praying rain may improve the change of realistic politics measure and attitudes, and even the establishment of political system. the organization and rituals of temple fair bring directly influence on the self-identity among community, religion and occupation groups. The temple fair and gods expansion could boost economic and culture communication among various physical, administrative and economic areas. The local society was the most important force to spread the god worship, which had great effect on the center government's policy granting some gods official titles and temple plaques, dominated the local government's rain praying, and even prevented the officaldom's action of fighting against excessive worship. In the King Zhang case, when the state tried to change some tradition of King Zhang worship, or at the transition stage of dynasties, it is Guang-de local society that made King Zhang’incense continue and the tradition not giving up. Although the state is the only validity source of gods worship, there exists a broad “intermediate region” between the orthodoxy and excessive worship. The discrepancy between the center government , the local governor, Neo-confucist and the local society on the “heterodoxy” during the temple fair and rain-praying, the conception and action about the orthodoxy and excessive worship, reflected their complex relationship in spreading the Chinese civilization, Confucian tradition and maintaining the local tradition in the Tang-Song transistion. While the political idealism and state institution conflicted with the realistic world, it’s also the time they compromised with each other.
