RAS-1987 — Page 99

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CONFUSED GODS:

HUANG DAXIAN (WONG TAI SIN) AND HUANG YEREN

Introduction

AT MT. LUOFU

LARS RAGVALD AND GRAEME LANG*

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Since 1984, we have been studying the history of the cult of Huang Daxian (Wong Tai Sin)' in Hong Kong and in South China. Initially, our primary concern was to explain the rapid growth in popularity of this god in Hong Kong, but we have also searched for the roots of this cult in Guangdong, where the first author in 1985 discovered the ruins of several temples to Huang Daxian built earlier this century. In the course of this research, we have encountered some intriguing variations in beliefs about this god.

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In a separate paper, we describe two cases where oral accounts regarding the god Huang Daxian differ sharply from the official accounts published by the Sese Yuan (Sik Sik Yuen), the organiza- tion which manages the god's temple in Kowloon.† Both of these oral accounts seem to have been borrowed from other local tradi- tions, a process familiar to students of folklore, Conditions such as those which can be found in Hong Kong may favour this kind of mixing and mingling of traditions, all the more so as there are few traditions about the god Huang Daxian which are widely known.

In more recent research in China, we have observed further instances of the mingling of traditions about the god Huang Daxian.* Many people in Guangdong province are aware of the

Lars Ragvald teaches at the Institute of Oriental Languages at the University of Stockholm, Sweden and Graeme Lang at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University, Canada.

+ Editor's note: "Official and oral traditions about Hong Kong's newest god”, at pp. 93-99 of this issue of the journal, was originally scheduled for earlier publica- tion. The editor regrets any inconvenience to the authors caused by the delay.