水仙尊王信仰精神的建構──以臺南大天后宮之陪祀水神為探討中心

The Construction Of Religion Spirit In Shuexian Deities: A discussion on Shuexian Deities worshipped in Tainan Grand Matsu Temple

臺南大天后宮所陪祀之五位水仙尊王，除大禹之外，其餘如項羽、寒奡、伍子胥、屈原等皆為死於非命之失敗者，這種崇拜失敗者的信仰精神，與古今歷史中成王敗寇的主流思想背道而馳。本文在此種特殊的崇祀行為之下，發展水仙尊王信仰精神面向中的深層意涵作為探討中心。本文以重新拼貼先民崇祀水仙的精神意涵開始，以文化持有者的視域，嘗試解開部分水神在大天后宮中不斷延異之信仰意義，並將大天后宮另一陪祀的四海龍王崇拜納入討論，從而整理出該宮除奉祀媽祖外又另祀其他水神的歷史過程，再深入探尋水仙尊王信仰如何成為支持臺南三郊商團和船隊，成功縱橫臺海長達二百餘年的經營理念。最後討論目前在水仙尊王信仰逐漸沒落之際，如何重新組織和建構信仰精神，與在目前的社會文化中能夠持續尊奉的實踐價值。

"Among the Shuexian Deities worshipped in Tainan Grand Matsu Temple, besides Da Yu, the others such as Xiang Yu, Shou Wang, Wu Zi- Xu and Qu Yuan, all died sadly and became losers. The religion spirit of worship losers is absolutely different from the mainstream thought in history. In this paper, the development of the in-depth meaning for this spirit is based on this kind of special worship. This paper starts with re-collaging the spiritual meaning of our ancestors' worship. In the sight of culture holders, we'll not only try to solve the religion meanings which are constantly processing for some deities in Tainan Grand Matsu Temple, but also combine the worship of the Four Dragon Kings in the temple with the discussion, in order to reorganize the historic procedure for Matsu worship and the worship for other deities. Besides, we'll discuss thoroughly why Shuexian Deities worship became the management idea for supporting Tainan Sanjao and the fleet, which successfully managed across the Taiwan Strait for more than two hundred years. At the end of the paper, we will consider how to re-organize and build religion spirit while the belief in Shuexian Deities declines, and how to construct practical values for constant respect in present social culture."