Abstract

For my Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, I worked under Professor Steven Udry in a spatial analysis of temple building and reconstruction across a few core and periphery counties within Sichuan Province, China from the Ming(1368-1644) up to the early 20^th Century. The goal of the ongoing study is to determine and identify particular trends in religious concerns and popularity of deities over a wide area and large span of time. William Skinner’s division of China into nine macro-regions based on economic ties has been accepted as a valid framework for examining China. The macro-region schema divides these regions into economic cores and peripheries, based on analysis of market patterns on the local level. This schema provides the basis for the spatial analysis of this project. This first stage is a temporal analysis across two counties. We have chosen to represent this data in a series of graphs and charts to observe any temporal correlations across these two counties. Using the data I compiled and translated from Republican-era editions of Sichuan county gazatters, Professor Udry will create maps using geographic information software, matching the compiled data to immigration and population growth patterns as well as rough economic data to highlight religious trends. Geographic data, chronological data and nomenclature was collected from gazatteers from two counties, translated as necessary and sorted in an excel spreadsheet.