英文摘要 |
This paper discusses how Chicken Foot Mountain 雞足山 in Yunnan was shaped into a Buddhist sacred site during the late Ming period, and describes the strategies utilized by native officials (tusi 土司) to strengthen their ascribed status. The Ming state gradually extended its influence into southwest China's mountain areas in order to bring material resources under its control, resulting in conflicts between mountain populations and lowland farmers that frequently required the intervention of native officials. During the same era, a local mountain in the Dali 大理 area came to be popularly identified as Chicken Foot Mountain, renowned as the favored meditation site of the Indian Buddhist Saint, Mahākāśyapa, and many Buddhist temples were built in the area by native elites. Worship at Chicken Foot Mountain was eventually brought under the auspices of the Ming state. However, the real concern behind these ritual institutions was to establish control over a huge quantity of mountain resources, land and trading routes. In this paper, I argue that as commerce increasingly impacted southwest China, the formation of orthodoxy and its accompanying institutions in the mountain areas legitimatized native officials' traditional privileges. |