This article argues that the sharp increase in the patronage of popular religion, including popular forms of Buddhism and Daoism as well as local deity cults, by the regional regimes in south China during the tenth century stemmed from a rapid shift in the political environment and the transformation of the Chinese religious world.
First of all, the formation of regional states such as Wu, Southern Tang, and Wuyue was built on the support of local communities. Therefore, these states actively carried out not only economic development projects to improve the living standards of the local communities but also cultural development projects intended to raise the region’s cultural standards. As another aspect of these regimes’ locally oriented policies, the rulers patronized the popular religious culture. Since the southern kingdoms lacked the imperial pretensions of the northern dynasties, they focused their efforts to secure symbolic legitimacy not on sacrificial rituals for official state deities but rather through promotion of local popular cults. Consequently, the permeation of state authority into the local communities facilitated their close involvement with and manipulation of popular cults.
The key transformation of the Chinese religious world, the increasing participation of the ordinary people in religious life and activities, invigorated the mutual interaction between Buddhism, Daoism, and popular cults. The interplay between organized religious and popular deity cults during the late Tang and the Five Dynasties period occurred both on the level of liturgic rites and through the transformation of their deities. As a result, the transformation of the Chinese medieval religious world erased the once firm boundary between the practices of organized religion and those of popular religion. Therefore, the southern kingdoms actively supported both the organized religions and the popular local cults that were being transformed by the ordinary people’s enthusiastic participation.
As a unified imperial house, however, the Northern Song dynasty-a northern regime that gradually annexed the southern kingdoms - had a different attitude toward the popular religious cults from both the previous northern dynasties and the southern kingdoms of the Five Dynasties period. While the Northern Song emperors devoted great attention to carrying out the sacrificial rituals for the official state deities to bolster their imperial aspirations, they also paid considerable attention to the popular religious cults since they needed to attract support from the local communities of the newly annexed southern territories.