The Shifting Balance of Power in the City God Temples, Late Qing to 1937

The City God temples 城隍廟 occupied a particular place in the socio-religious organization of late imperial China. They were state-mandated shrines under the control of local officials, but also housed a large variety of local religious organizations. There was cooperation between such organizations in staging festivals, but also tensions about control over temple resources and management. These tensions evolved during the late Qing and the Republican period, as political and social change empowered certain actors and weakened others, thus affecting temple life and activities. The article first presents the various actors that played a role in managing and running a City God temple, what type of religiosity they invested in it, and how they shared its space. It then examines two moments of change in this sharing of the common temple space, namely the post-Taiping reorganization of local society, and the post-1898 policies to build a nation-state.