Mazu culture is the general term for the material and spiritual wealth that left over and passed down in the process of admiring and believing Mazu by the working people for more than a thousand years. It is one of the important cultural treasures of the Chinese nation. Mazu spirit is an important manifestation of Mazu belief, and Mazu artifacts present Mazu culture more intuitively in the external manifestation of spirit, it conveys Mazu spirit through tangible materials. The material and spiritual aspects complement each other, blend into one, and set off each other so that they have written a beautiful scene of Mazu culture.
Mazu artifacts are an important part of Chinese traditional culture. It integrates practicality, functionality and aesthetics. Many aspects of it can reflect the historical origin and the characteristics of the social culture of a certain period, it can also reflect from the side about the thinking and living conditions of working people.
“Artifacts are one of the oldest types of art, covering a wide range of categories, including many earliest forms of artistic creation, such as jade carvings and traditional paintings and so on. Artifacts refer to a kind of aesthetic creation that aesthetically processing materials through production methods, it takes a function as a premise in the field of life. It is an art that beautifies daily necessities and the living environment.” (H Ruiguo, 2013: pp 440)
Mazu artifacts refer to all artworks or art phenomena which are related to art during the process of Mazu belief. “Artifacts are an important part of the material and cultural life of the human, as well as a materialized form of spiritual material of human.
As a cultural symbol, it inherits the politics, economy, culture and religious belief of a nation-state in a certain historical period, and it also reflects the inheritance, development and innovation of traditional skills themselves.” (H Xiulin, 2012: pp 245) The origin of Mazu artifacts can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. It is a type of plastic art that beautifies daily necessities and living environment, it is based on the needs and experience of ordinary people's actual life and belief, and it is directly integrated with people's daily life. Mazu artifacts are rooted in a profound cultural layer.
They have been accumulated through generations over thousands of years. It is the
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awakening of people's subjective consciousness and spiritual concepts. Mazu artifacts represent people's pursuit of a better life.
Mazu artifacts emerged under specific historical conditions and developed with the growth of people's belief in Mazu. Its many art forms are mainly used to serve Mazu folk culture, enrich and strengthen the atmosphere of Mazu folk activities so that the activities of Mazu belief can be displayed tangibly, not purely aesthetic motivation.
But in addition, it reflects social reality and embodies the cultural and artistic achievements reached by Mazu followers.
Mazu artifacts have a strong feature of inheritance, a strong collective consciousness and regional characteristics. The occurrence and development of various folklore activities such as Mazu folklore, mythical stories and festival sacrificial customs are inextricably linked with Mazu artifacts. The development of Mazu artifacts often changes with the l changes of these folk cultural ecology, they are full of randomness. The materialized production of folk artifacts continuously gives birth to the emergence of new substances. Mazu artifacts not only affect and enrich Mazu folk culture and the emergence of new themes and forms but also adds new vitality and blood to the entire folk culture and even human culture, forming an organic whole of mutual relationship.
1.2 The uniqueness and symbolic features of Mazu artifacts
Putian is located at the coast of Fujian Province. Meizhou Island is an island, and people living here have been dealing with the sea all their lives. Under the social background of a harsh environment and underdeveloped science and technology at that time, people would naturally wish to pray for the blessing of gods, and Mazu belief came into being. “As soon as the Mazu belief comes into being, a variety of Mazu artifacts will be needed to match it. Because Mazu belief is produced under a specific marine culture, Mazu artifacts also have strong marine cultural characteristics. It is a result of the combination of people's material production and spiritual production.
Currently, there are more than 300 Mazu temples preserved in Putian city, almost in every village, and many people also serve statues of Mazu in their homes.” (H Ruiguo, 2013: pp 443) The resulting Mazu artifacts have complex and diverse artistic styles, which have added a lot of luster to the prosperity and development of Chinese folk art.
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“Putian city has a long history and is well-known as the hometown of Chinese folk art. It is known as ‘the City of Chinese Woodcarving’, ‘the City of Classical Crafts and Furniture’, ‘Jewelry Characteristic Industrial Base’, and ‘Hometown of Chinese Silver Ornaments’. Folk artists have solid modeling skills, and many elements of Mazu culture are constantly being discovered, this more often shows the spiritual characteristics and cultural connotation of Mazu.” (H Xiulin, 2012: pp 246)
In Mazu artifacts, specific symbols have specific meanings, they are used in specific Mazu folk activities. For example, the wavy pattern of the sea often seen in Mazu artifacts is a prominent manifestation of marine culture. The decorative patterns on Mazu clothes imply blessings and embody the pragmatic expression of good desires from Mazu's followers. The decorative elements of Mazu statue usually use auspicious clouds, waves, sailing boats, dragons, phoenixes and other patterns as background. The colors are bright and festive, reflecting the believers' longing for a better life. The paper- made characters in the activities of Mazu sacrifice have distinctive personalities and exaggerated colors. Men are generally tall and mighty, while women are generally lovely and beautiful. They are the unique aesthetics of Putian people and a microcosm of Chinese traditional culture. Such works all reflect that the activities of Mazu artifacts carried out around Mazu belief, relying on the development of Mazu folk activities, have not only the morphological characteristics of marine culture but also the commonality of folk art.
As a branch of Chinese traditional artifacts, Mazu artifacts play a special role in its own application fields. It was produced in response to the needs of Mazu folk activities. It was mainly created by working people that were based on their pursuit of beauty. Mazu artifacts originated from people's daily life, and they have poured their simple and true emotions and aesthetic interests. They do not pursue the use of precious materials when selecting materials, and they do not pay attention to the technique of expression. Therefore, they are closer to people's lives and are more human. For example, the carving of Mazu stone statues are rough, the marks carved by chisel, knife and axe are obvious, it shows a strong romantic atmosphere. The paper-made horses incinerated in Mazu sacrifice were painted on square-inch rough-edged paper by improvisation. The shape was immature, clumsy and bold, but economical and
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affordable. Putian's traditional folk embroidery89 in Mazu artifacts usually uses trees, flowers, fruits, and auspicious birds and beasts as themes. The stitches of embroidery are not too exquisite, reflecting a simple and natural pleasure.
As an important part of Chinese traditional culture, artifacts are moving towards industrialization, becoming an important carrier for the great development and prosperity of socialist culture under market economy conditions. As the birthplace of Mazu culture, Putian city has rich artifacts resources, long history and culture. Its location is special, and its industry personnel is skillful. Putian artifacts have formed a certain scale. With the continuous improvement of material living and spiritual living standards, the craftsmanship of Mazu artifacts has been continuously combined with practicality and aesthetics. Its form has been enriched with the development and spread of Mazu culture and the continuous changes in its connotation and extension, its form has produced a rich variety of different expression forms and category characteristics.
This chapter will deeply analyze through Mazu clothes, Mazu architecture, understand and explore the spiritual connotation of Mazu culture from each detail, and how they fully reflect people's enthusiasm and wisdom. In addition, with the symbolic characteristics of Mazu statue as a starting point, analyzing its artistic characteristics and symbolic meaning. With the changes of the times, the functions of Mazu belief are also constantly developing. Therefore, it is necessary for us to combine the current development of tourism on Meizhou Island to discover the contemporary significance and characteristics of Mazu as the goddess of peace on the sea.