Historic Ethnic Places of Religious Practice - the Bok Kai Temple vs. the California Missions

Essays: (To Complicated Chinese Script)	文章: (到繁體版)
Historic Ethnic Places of Worship — Bok Kai Temple vs. California Missions By Feng Xin-ming, 2025 (All photos by author except where otherwise noted)	历史性的族群宗教场所: 北溪庙对比加州传教站冯欣明著，2025年 (除另有说明外，所有照片均由作者拍摄)
I had already been to the Chinese Bok Kai (Guangdong Province Taishan dialect for beixi 北溪) Temple in Marysville, California, which belongs to the Chinese religious traditional of “folk” or “popular” Daoism, and so I thought to myself, for balance let's go see some historic ethnic places of religious practice that belong to a different ethnicity and a different religion. In California that meant the famous Spanish Missions with the oldest dating from 1769 — being Spanish in origin, they are naturally associated with the Hispanic population. To my surpise, after visiting and some deeper inquiry, I discover that the Temple and the Missions differ in more than just ethnicity and religion. There exist fundamental differences in founding purpose, original driving force, sources of financial support, and role in society. In a word, in their historical and social essences, they have been completely different. Of course, they are very different religiously as well. At the same time, however, I also discover that they share a common religious trait that differentiate them from the Protestant churches that occupy America's religious mainstream.	我之前去过加州玛丽斯维尔市的北溪庙 Bok Kai Temple（英语名字“Bok Kai”是广东省台山方言对“北溪”的音译），而它属于中国宗教传统中的“民间道教”，所以我觉得，作为比较，也应该去看看一些同样是历史悠久但属于其他宗教的民族宗教场所。在加州，这就意味著名的西班牙传教站了。它们源自西班牙，因此自然与加州的西班牙裔族群联系在一起。令我惊讶的是，参观并进行了稍为深入的了解之后，我便发现了北溪庙和西班牙传教站之间的区别远不止于宗教信仰的不同。虽然北溪庙和西班牙传教站都有百多年的历史，但在创建目的、最初动力、资金来源、及社会作用等方面都存在根本性的差异，两者的历史和社会本质是完全不同的。当然，宗教上他们也是非常不同的。但与此同时，我也发现它们在宗教上有一个共同的特点，使它们与处于美国宗教主流的基督新教教堂有所不同。
Here are the four places of worship I went to: Bok Kai Temple in Marysville, CA Mission San Miguel in San Miguel, CA Mission San Juan Bautista in San Juan Bautista Mission Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, CA I will first talk about their differences in historical and social essence, then about their religious differences, and finally about their shared trait that differentiates them from modern mainstream American churches.	以下是我参观过的四个宗教场所：北溪庙，位于加州玛丽斯维尔市圣米格尔传教站，位于加州圣米格尔镇圣胡安包蒂斯塔传教站，位于加州圣胡安包蒂斯塔镇圣巴巴拉传教站，位于加州圣巴巴拉市我将首先谈它们在历史和社会本质上的区别，然后谈宗教方面的区别，最后谈它们共有的与现代美国主流教堂的不同之处。

↑ Bok Kai Temple 北溪庙	↑ Mission San Miguel 圣米格尔传教站
↑ Mission San Juan Bautista 圣胡安包蒂斯塔传教站 (Photo from en.wikipedia - Mission San Juan Bautista)	↑ Mission Santa Barbara 圣巴巴拉传教站

1. Different Founding Purposes and Driving Forces First, the founding purposes were different. For the Chinese Bok Kai Temple, it was founded in the 1860s to be a local place for religious practice, for the Marysville Chinese community to pray for personal safety, good fortune, personal and business success (including gold prospecting), flood protection, and local peace and order when the Chinese community lacked the same protective resources as the white community. Also it was for organizing local community activities, rituals, holiday celebrations and parades, etc. Its building was funded privately by the community, through volunary donations. Marysville at the time was a hub where the river boats docked, carrying inland those involved in the gold rush itself or the gold rush economy both Chinese and non-Chinese from San Francisco and beyond, who then regrouped, resupplied, and dispersed further into northern California. Naturally, once there were enough Chinese settled here, there was enough need to sustain an established, permanent place of religious practice.	一、不同的创建目的及动力首先，它们的创建目的截然不同。中国的北溪庙建于19世纪60年代，是玛丽斯维尔华人社区自发建立的当地祭拜场所，用于祈求个人平安、福祉、生意和包括淘金等事业的成功、社区防洪、在缺乏白人社会所得到的国家保护之下的治安良好等，亦用于组织社区活动、仪式、节日庆祝及游行等。资金由社区成员自愿捐款筹集。当时的玛丽斯维尔是河船停靠的枢纽，运载着参与淘金本身或和参与跟淘金有关的經濟体系的的华人和非华人。他们在此重新集结、补充物资、然后进一步分散前往北加州。很自然地，一旦有足够的华人聚居在这里，便产生了足以维持一个长久性祭拜场所的需求。
The Spanish missions, in contrast, were established beginning in 1769 to evangelize and convert indigenous peoples under colonial authority as part of the expansion of the Spanish Empire's New Spain, and these missions were initially funded by the imperial government and later maintained through production with coerced native labor on land now controlled by the missions. They were planted by outsiders in the frontiers of New Spain, not natural outgrowths of emerging communities — there were no local colonial settler communities able to sustain compounds of such size on their own.	相比之下，始建于1769年的西班牙传教站，目的在于向殖民政府控制之下的原住民传播基督教并使其皈依，这是西班牙帝国“新西班牙”殖民地扩张计划的一部分。这些传教站最初的资源来自帝国政府，后来的运营则依靠强迫原住民在传教站控制的土地上进行生产。传教站是由外来者在新西班牙的边疆地区即加利福尼亚建立的，并非新兴社区自然发展的结果，当时没有哪个当地殖民定居社区能够独自维持这种规模的建筑品。
2. Differences in Size and Scale Second, there is a big difference in size and scale of Bok Kai and the missions. The original 1860s temple building was a small, single-hall shrine. Then, as Marysville's Chinese community grew and stabilized, it was replaced in 1880 by a somewhat larger building that is still the existing temple building today. Since then until the early 20th century, shrine and altar spaces were installed, and ancillary rooms for storage, offerings preparation, meetiings, and caretaker spaces were gradually added adjacent to the temple building. In the mid-20th century, however, as the Chinese population declined, temple expansion stopped. The temple's scale has always been that of an ordinary community public place.	2. 不同的尺寸与规模第二，北溪庙与传教机构在规模和体量上有很大的不同。最初建于1860年代的寺庙是一座小型单堂式建筑物。后来，随着玛丽斯维尔镇华人社区的增长和稳定，1880年一座规模稍大一些的建筑物取代了原有的寺庙，这座建筑物至今仍然就是北溪庙殿堂。从那时起到20世纪初，寺庙内陆续增设了神龛和祭坛，并在寺庙建筑旁逐步增建了用于储藏、准备供品、会议以及供服务人员使用的附属房间。但是，到了20世纪中期，华人人口开始减少了，寺庙的扩建也随之停止。所以，这座寺庙的规模始终都只是一个普通社区公众场所。
For the Spanish Missions, however, right from the beginning they were monumental in scale. They were not just places of worship but were also residential facilities, built to house over 1,000 Native Americans who were brought here then forcibly confined to be converted into Christianity and to labor to build the missions — plus the friars, the soldiers who prevented baptized native from escaping and enforced discipline, and their families; the non-native artisan, farmer, and muleteer settlers along with their families, and the non-native skilled laborers like blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, and overseers. The missions held populations of entire small towns.	相比之下，西班牙传教站从一开始时就规模宏大。它们不仅是宗教场所，还是居住设施，旨在容纳1000多名被带到这里然后被强制留下来接受基督教信仰灌输并参与修建传教站的原住印第安人——此外还有修道士、负责阻止受了洗礼的原住民逃跑及负责执行纪律的士兵及其家属，以及非原住民工匠、农民、骡夫及其家属，还有铁匠、木匠、泥瓦匠和工头等非原住民技术工人。这些传教站的人口规模相当于一个小镇。

↑ The Bok Kai Temple compound, note scale 北溪庙的规模 (Photo by Isaac Crumm at en.wikipedia - Bok Kai Temple)	↑ A Model of the Mission San Miguel compound, for its scale note the gate at the front and then see actual photo of gate below left 圣米格尔传教站，要了解其规模请注意图中前门然后参考左下方的前门实照
↑ Actual photo of gate at Mission San Miguel 圣米格尔传教站的前门实照	↑ A contemporaneous sketched view of the Mission Santa Barbara compound 圣巴巴拉传教站当年的写真图

3. Religious and Non-religious Social Activities

For social activities that are religious, the biggest difference is that the Chinese Daoist Bok Kai Temple did not engage in proselytizing or converting anyone, whereas the Catholic Missions evangelized energetically and converted natives, ultimately baptizing them, with one of the aim being to change them into loyal subjects of the Spanish Empire.

3. 宗教性及非宗教性的社会活动

两者在宗教性的社会活动上，主要差别是：中国道教的北溪庙没有向他人宣道传教或使其皈依，而天主教的传教站则积极地致力于向原住民宣道传教及使其皈依，最终给他们洗礼，目的之一是把他们转变为忠于西班牙帝国的臣民。

For non-religious activities, the Bok Kai Temple was, as in other 1800s Chinese American community temples, a community hub for men in foreign lands whose families remained in China. The Temple was a respected place with moral gravity, where truth was witnessed before gods and daring to lie even there carried grave cosmological as well as reputational and "face" risk. There, people felt the need to and were pressumed to behave with goodwill and generosity, to help each other, to engage in fair dealing, to speak honestly, and to keep promises made. The Temple reminded people that both community reputation and divine favor were shaped by one's conduct. Therefore, the temple was where leaders mediated disputes, coordinated mutual aid, especially burials, organized festivals and festival parades that increased the bonding among these men, and furthered social ties through exchange of news and introductions to contacts. These functions were carried out through moral authority and voluntary participation rather than formal legal administration and enforcement. Having a temple in the community made accountability to the gods necessary, which in turn reinforced accountability to community. In the Chinese communities in those days, truth, trust, mutual help and prevention of abuse were not enforced by law but by reputation and moral consequences, and here the temples served as the moral anchor. Bok Kai provided the Chinese community with very important positive effects.

至于非宗教性社会活动，北溪庙就像19世纪由家人留在中国而自己远在他乡的男性组成的其他华人社区的寺庙一样，是一个社区中心。寺庙是一个受人尊敬、具有道德权威的地方。人们在此向神明见证真相，竟敢在这里撒谎不仅会招致神罚，还会严重损害声誉和面子。在这里人们感到有必要，也被认为必会，以善意和慷慨对待他人，互相帮助，公平地与他人交易，说真话，并践行作出的承诺。寺庙提醒人们，个人行为会影响他在社区里的声誉并决定神明会否眷顾。所以社区领袖们便在这里调解纠纷，组织增加人们情感联结的节日庆祝及游行，协调尤其是丧葬等互助事宜，并通过交流信息和介绍人脉来维系社会关系。这些社区功能是通过道德权威和自愿参与来实现的，而不是通过正式的法律管理或强制执行。社区中有寺庙的存在，使人们对神明的责任感更加强烈，从而也增强了对社区的责任感。在当时的华人社区，诚信、信任、互助、和权力滥用的防止并非依靠法律来维护，而是依靠声誉和道德后果，而此中寺庙正是道德的基石。所以，北溪庙为华人们提供了重大的积极作用。

↑ Bok Kai Temple's Community Office and Meeting Hall
北溪庙的公所和议事厅 Couplet on sides: "Discuss with fairness..." and "Talk matters over to achieve reasonableness..."
两边对联“议论公正..."和"事谈达理..."

↑ Parade in Marysville organized from the Bok Kai Temple — from the small Temple museum adjoining the Temple Hall
在北溪庙组织的玛丽斯维尔市农历新年游行，摄自庙旁的小博物馆

For non-religious activities, the Missions were all-inclusive work/economic, social/residential, educational, healthcare, quasi-judicial, and administrative centers, and were also instruments of empire. The main work/economic activities were one, construction of the Missions, which involved heavy, sustained labor that relied mainly on human power where overwork was common and contributed to illness, injury and mortality; and two, food, textile and craft production to sustain the residents economically. Assignment of daily work, enforcement of work schedules, punishment for disobedience or escape was carried out here. Social/residential-wise, the dormitories separated men and women, restricted movement outside mission grounds, and supervised family formation and sexual relations. For education, Spanish, trades and agricultural skills, and behavior norms were taught — children were often separated from parents for instruction. As quasi-judicial centers, missions delivered immediate, summary justice without debate and could mete out corporal punishment, public discipline, and detention. As administrative centers, missions kept registers of baptismals, marriages, burials, and population counts for colonial surveillance. As instruments of the Spanish Empire, the missions supplied food and goods to nearby garrisons, fortified settlements, and represented Spanish presence on disputed territories.

在非宗教性社会活动方面，传教站是集工作/经济、社会/居住、教育、准司法和行政功能于一体的综合中心，也是帝国的工具。主要的工作和经济活动：其一是建造传教站，这是持久、艰苦的、主要靠人力的劳动，过度劳累很普遍，导致了疾病、创伤和死亡；其二是生产粮食、纺织品和手工艺品，以维持传教站人们的生活。传教站负责分配日常工作、执行工作时间表，并对不服从命令或逃跑的原住民进行惩罚。在社交和居住方面，宿舍将未婚男女分开，限制人们在传教站范围外的活动，并监督家庭组建和性关系。在教育方面，传教站教授西班牙语、贸易和农业技能以及行为规范，而儿童则通常与父母分开接受教育。作为准司法中心，传教站可以不经辩论就立即进行简易审判，并可以实施体罚、公开惩戒和拘留。作为行政中心，传教站保存着洗礼、婚姻、葬礼和人口统计的记录，以便殖民当局进行监控。作为西班牙帝国的工具，传教站向附近的驻军和设防定居点提供食物和物资，并在争议领土上代表西班牙的存在。

Not counting the possible spirial benefits to the souls of the natives of conversion to Christianity, the practical effect of the Missions was quite disastrous for the natives, who constituted the great majority of the Mission's dwelling population. The worst effect for the Mission natives was an overwhelming death rate from the "white man's diseases" such as influenza, tuberculosis, smallpox, etc., to which they had zero immunity and which spread rapidly in the crowded condtiions of Mission dormitories. An estimate of the total California native population in the 1840s, after the Missions had forcibly confined baptized natives for 64 years from 1769 to 1833, point to an approximately 50% population decrease (footnote 1).

如果不考虑皈依基督教可能为原住民的灵魂所带来的精神性益处，传教站实际性的影响对构成传教站大多数居住人口的原住民来说是相当灾难性的。对传教区原住民影响最严重的是例如流行性感冒、肺痨（肺结核）、天花等“白人疾病”所导致的极高死亡率。他们对这些疾病毫无免疫力，而这些疾病在拥挤的传教区宿舍中迅速传播。据估计，经历了64年即1769年到1833年的受洗礼原住民被强迫居留在传教站之后的1840年代，全加州原住民人口减少了约50% （注1）。

↑ Farming at the Mission — from exhibit at Mission San Miguel
传教站的耕作，摄自圣米格尔传教站的展览室

↑ Construction at the Mission — from exhibit at Mission San Miguel
传教站的建筑，摄自圣米格尔传教站的展览室

4. Bok Kai Temple's Popular Daoism and its Gods In religious doctrine, what the Bok Kai Temple follows is the folk or popular Daoist tradition, which is polytheistic and has many deities. This tradition is eclectic and embraces all kinds of historical personnages, legendary and mythical beings, as well as almost all Buddhist personnages and beings. The Daoist divine pantheon is an imperial government bureaucracy headed by the Jade Emperor. In orthodox Daoism, the Three Purities or Sanqing 三清 are considered supreme, above the Jade Emperor. However, in popular folk Daoism as well as in imperial political doctrine about the divine, the Jade Emperor is considered supreme, and the Three Pure Ones are merely respected elder advisors to the Jade Emperor. Of course, this was because the Jade Emperor represented Heaven, while emperors were merely Sons of Heaven, and so the Jade Emperor's status was even higher than that of the emperor, making it politically infeasible for any higher deities than the Jade Emperor to exist. Below the Jade Emperor is a whole host of heavenly ranked officials both civil and military, mirroring the historical Chinese imperial bureaucracy.	四、北溪庙的民间道教及其神祇从宗教教义来看，北溪庙所追随的是中国的民间道教传统，有很多神祇，来自多个方面。这种传统兼收并蓄，涵盖了各种历史人物、传说和神话灵体，以及几乎所有佛教人物及灵体。道教神祇体系是一个以玉皇大帝为首的等级分明的官吏体系，在正统道教眼里玉皇大帝之上是至高无上的道教的三清，但是在民间道教和历代王朝政治论述里玉皇大帝才是最高的，三清只是玉帝的尊老顾问。这是因为玉皇大帝代表天，而皇帝则只是天子，所以玉皇大帝的地位比皇帝还更高，政治上就不可能有更高的神处于玉皇大帝之上了。玉皇大帝之下则是众多天界官员，包括文官和武官，与中国王朝历史上的官吏体系高度相似。
This system of divine officialdom was actually created by the Chinese imperial governments. Throughout Chinese dynastic history, emperors frequently "conferred divine titles" on deceased personnages and deities, and thus elevated them to the status of heavenly officials, dukes and marquises. Also, emperiors often "upgraded" already titled deities. A number of emperors conferred the title of Di" 帝, which is the second word in the Chinese term for emperor Huang Di 皇帝, upon the most important deities and deceased heroes or highly venerated personnages. This Di title, however, was not the same as the human world emperor; their status was clearly lower than his, nor were they kings, since their status was higher than that of a king. Therefore, the English translation should not be "emperor," and I use "Great God" to render their status, avoiding officialdom titles since no positions called "Di" but lower ranked than the Huang Di (emperor) in the human world. The term also conveys the intent of the emperors, that other than the Jade Emperor, these "Di" gods were above any other divine official, dukes, or even the heavenly kings. The main deity of Beixi Temple, the Northern Great God or Beidi received his title of Di from a Song Dynasty emperor around 1000 AD; before that, his name was "Xuanwu."	其实这个神祇官吏体系是由历代王朝政权所塑造出来的。中国王朝历史上经常“封神”，把神祇和民间神化了的已故人物封为天上的官和侯爵，亦很多时把已经封了的神“升级”。多个皇帝把最重要的神祇和已故英雄或特别值得尊敬的人物封为“帝”，但这个“帝”并不是皇帝，地位明确地低于人间皇帝，也不是王，地位高于王，因此英文翻译也不应该是用“emperor”，我这里是用了“Great God"即”大神“,这样就避开了使用官爵职位，因为人间没有对称的、低于皇帝的“帝”这种官爵职位，亦把封号的原意，即除了玉皇大帝之外，这些帝都是高于其他所有天上官爵甚至天王的。北溪庙主神北帝就是被宋朝皇帝约公元1000年时册封而得到“北帝”的名号，之前他的名号是“玄武”。
It was also through this process of being inducted into the system of divine officials, albeit at lower tiers, that many local heroes and highly respected figures were deified. To deify a deceased local personnage, it was only necessary for a genuine Daoist priest, registered in the official roster of Daoist priests recognized by the divine system called the Lu 籙, to "present a petition memorial" to the Jade Emperor or the corresponding deity in charge, and then perform a consecration "eye-opening" kai-guang 开光 ceremony for the statue.	也正是通过这种被纳入神祇官吏体系的过程，很多地方性的英雄人物和德高望重人物得以被神化，虽然他们的官职是比较低一点的。要把一个去了世的地方人物神化，只需要找一位真正的、在被神祇体系认可的道士名册（籙）上注了册的道士，向玉皇大帝或相应的负责神祇“呈递奏章”，然后为该人物的雕像进行“打开眼睛”的“开光”仪式。
Like other Chinese common folk community temples, however, Bok Kai is not a true orthodox Daoist temple, but is a "folk" or "popular" Daoist temple. True, orthodox Daoist temples are rather elitist: they have voluminous scriptures called the daozang 道藏 and are run by professional priests called daoshi 道士 or priestesses called daogu 道姑, who are ordained and registered on the Daoist register called the Lu — they have been “given the Lu 授籙”, which endows them with power to call up and give orders to local deities. In true Daoist temples the main altar has The Three Purities or Sanqing 三清, three elderly figures who represent the primordial energies or formation stages of the universe. Bok Kai, on the other hand, is run, like most popular Daoist community temples, by a local communittee of lay persons and back in the early days may or may not even have a full time caretaker, let alone professional priests or priestesses. It has a "messy", eclectic altar, and the main god is not the Three Purities but a deity chosen from the heavenly bureaucracy. Often the deities in such temples are selected because their powers match local needs. An example is that the Great God of the North or Beidi 北帝, the main god in Bok Kai, controls floods, for which there is a community need in the 1800s river town of Marysville. Despite levees, the Yuba River flooded regularly and severely during the winter rains, often catastrophically, especially after hydraulic mining upstream began in the 1850s and dumped large amounts of sediment into the Yuba River, raising its beds.	跟中国民间庙宇一样，北溪庙并非真正的正统道教寺庙，而是“民间道教”寺庙。真正的正统道教寺庙比较精英化：它们拥有卷帙浩繁的经书，称为《道藏》，由专业的道士或道姑主持，而他们都经过了“授箓”，即在道教名册（称为“箓”）上注了册，从而获得呼唤和命令地方神灵的权力。在真正的道教寺庙中，主神坛供奉的是三清，即三位代表宇宙原始能量或形成阶段的年长神祇。而北溪庙则由当地社区人士小组管理，当年甚至全职的看守工作人员都可能时有时无。神坛供奉的神有些“杂乱”，主神并非三清而是来自天神官吏体系的某位神。这类寺庙的主神通常是根据其神力是否符合当地社区需求而选定的：例如，北溪寺的主神北帝掌管洪水，而1800年代位于河畔的玛丽斯维尔镇正需要这样的神祇。当年虽然有堤坝，但是尤巴河在冬季降雨期间仍然经常发生严重的、很多时灾难性的洪水，特别是在1850年代上游开始了水力采矿之后，大量泥沙被倾倒入尤巴河、导致河床抬高。
The gods at Bok Kai: The main god "in charge" at Bok Kai is Beidi 北帝 or the "Great God of the North", and his image is on the main altar at the back. As said above, he suppresses floods. He also suppresses lawbreaking. Meanwhile, on another counter-like altar that is closer to the front of the temple are the name tablets of other deities. In the photo below and to the left, we can see the name tablets of： Guan Di 关帝 or "The Great God Guan", the famous general from the approximately 200 A.D. Three Kingdoms Era. His powers are business and work success and he represents honesty, keeping promises, meeting obligations, and loyalty — exactly what is required for success. By the way, with the Song Dynasty around 1000 AD he was only a duke, then a 1200 AD Mongel emperor made him a king, and finally after 1300 AD a Ming Dynasty emperor made him a Great God Di. Guanyin 观音, the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Compassion, originally known in Sanskrit as Avalokiteshvara. In Chinese folk tradition, she is also a deity who can bring male children to people. Because the wives of most Chinese remained in China at that time, and husbands would spend a lot of money to return home for a few months to get their wives pregnant before rushing back to America to work and earn money, they all longed to increase the probability of having a son from their trip, as having a male heir was of supreme importance, but overseas Chinese had few chances to procreate. Therefore, a "ling 灵"or efficacious Guanyin was very important. Also in this photo we can see the partially obscured name tablet of Beidi 北帝 the Great God of the North to the right. In the middle photo we can see the name tablets of: The Holy Earth Lord 土地圣君, who is in charge of the municipality's lands. The Great Goddess of Heaven or Tian Hou 天后, who was the sea goddess that protected travelers on the oceans, like the Chinese immigrants all were back then. Very conveniently, the men who were about to return to China by ship to procreate could come here to pray to Guanyin for a son then pray to Tian Hou for safe cross-ocean travel. Her title of Hou 后 was the female equivalent of Di, in that she was greater than any other female god, though not Guanyin, who was highly revered. Tian Hou also gradually gained her high title through the successively higher and higher bestowments of emperors, culminating in Hou in the 1700's. Her original name, which is still used in temples in southern Fujian Province and Taiwn, is Ma Zu 妈祖. However, the Chinese immigrants who built Bok Kai were Cantonese, from Guangdong Province, so here they can be seen to use the name Tian Hou. In the photo to the right we can see down on the floor beside the main altar a small shrine to: The Dragon Gods of the Five directions and Five Realms — they keep out evil airs and protect the living quarters, keeping the dwellers healthy and safe. The two Earth-and-Wealth Gods, one each of the ground in front and one of that in the back. These deities look after a much smaller land parcel than the Holy Earth Lord, who looks after the whole municipality and surrounding area and so is very important, and whose name tablet is up on the altar. For the well-being and wealth of the specific land parcel concerned, however, the Earth-and-Wealth Gods are also very important indeed — the fact that their shrine is down on the ground doesn't mean lack of importance, rather, it means that they belong there, their post is on the ground. From the powers of these deities we can discern the main concerns of the Marysville Chinese at the time.	北溪庙的神：主神是北帝，他的神像和神牌处于殿后方的主祭坛上。如上所述，他能够"镇住"洪水泛滥，亦能镇住犯罪行为。庙里的另一个类似柜台的祭坛也供奉着其他神祇的神牌。下面左边的图片可以见到：关帝（被神化的约公元200年代三国时期将军）和观音的神牌。关帝主管生意兴旺及事业成功，他代表诚实、遵守诺言、践行责任、和忠心，而这都是成功的要素。顺便说，在公元1000年左右的宋朝时期，他只是一个公爵；公元1200年左右，一位蒙古元朝皇帝侧册封他为王；最终，在公元1300年之后，一位明朝皇帝才将他封为帝。观音，她是佛教的慈悲菩萨，梵文原名为 Avalokiteshvara，在中国民间传统里她也是能够为人们带来男婴的神祇，而因为当年多数的华人妻子都是留在中国的，花很多钱回乡逗留三几个月令妻子怀孕后便要匆匆赶回美国工作赚钱，所以都渴望能够增加生育男孩的概率，因为有男嗣极为重要，而生育机会不多，所以一位“灵”的、“管用”的观音就很重要了。同时，该图右边可以见到被遮掩了一部分的北帝神牌。中间的图片可以看到: 土地圣君，他是管理本市土地的。天后，亦称妈祖，她是保佑海上旅人的海上女神，而当年的华人都是海上旅人。这个安排很方便，即将乘船返回中国繁衍后代的人们可以来这里向观音菩萨祈求生子，然后再向天后祈求平安渡海。她的称号“后”是“帝”的女性对应名号，意味她的地位高于其他所有女神，除了备受尊崇的观音之外。她也是通过历代皇帝不断升级的册封，才最后在1700年代获得了这么高级的名号。她原本的名字是“妈祖”，在福建南部和台湾仍然使用。但是，建立北溪庙的华人来自广东省，所以我们可以看到他们使用的称号是天后。右边的图片可以看到主祭坛旁的地面上有一个小神坛，供奉着五方五土龙神，即属于五个方向和金木水火土五行的龙神。他们防御邪气的入侵，保护房宇安全、令居住者健康平安。前后土地财神，即庙前面和后面的两位土地财神。他们管理的土地范围比在神坛上的土地神君小得多，土地圣君管理的是整个市区及周边地域，很重要，但是土地财神对于这小片土地及相关人们的幸福和财富来说，的确也非常重要。他们的神龛位于地面上并不表示他们不重要，而是表示他们就应该在那里，他们的岗位就在地上。从这些神祇的神力功能，可以看出当年玛丽斯维尔市华人们的主要关切。

↑ Name tablets of the deities Guanyin and Guan Di, Beidi is to the right and half obscured 观音和关帝的神牌，北帝在其右，被掩盖了一半

↑ Name tablets of The Earth Lord and the Sea Goddess Tian Hou 土地圣君和天后的神牌

↑ Shrine to the Dragon Gods and Earth Wealth Gods
五方五土龙神和前后土地财神的小神坛

5. The Missions' Catholicism and its Saints

The Catholicism of the Missions holds that there is only one god, so it appears to be the diametric opposite of the different deities with different powers that Bok Kai offers. Catholicism, however, offers not multiple gods but multiple holy beings known as saints, who have different intercession and protective powers for believers to pray to. These saints are comprised of both deceased humans and angels. Humans include the Virgin Mary, who is the highest of all saints both human and angelic, the Old and New Testament biblical personnages, and the post-biblical saints from about 100 A.D. on who have been canonized by the Catholic Church. As for angels, they are all considered holy right from their creation by God, have powers to intervene and carry messages to God, and can be prayed to. Catholic doctrine does draw a strict line between God on the one hand and saints/angels on the other, describing the saints both deceased human and angelic as only God's helpers, as having powers only given by God, and as intermediaries between humans and God. Still, however, they can intercede on behalf of humans, have specialized powers and functions, and can get prayers answered and wishes granted. Catholic believers can select who they pray to, depending on the need. For example, Saint Michael is the chief warrior angel, so soldiers often pray to him. Therefore, the different Catholic saints may be said to function the same way as the Chinese temples' gods.

五、传教站的天主教及其圣人

传教站的天主教教义认为只有一位神，这似乎与北溪庙供奉的拥有不同神力的众多神祇截然相反。然而，虽然天主教并非供奉多位神，但它供奉多位圣人，信徒可以向这些圣人祈祷，祈求他们不同的代祷和庇佑。这些圣人包括人类和天使。人类圣人包括圣母玛利亚（她是所有圣人中地位最高的，包括人类和天使）；旧约和新约圣经中的人物；以及从公元100年左右开始被天主教会封圣的圣人。至于天使，他们从被上帝创造之初就被认为是圣洁的，拥有干预人间事务并将信息传达给上帝的能力，信徒也可以向他们祈祷。天主教教义严格区分上帝与圣人/天使，将已故人类的圣人和天使描述为上帝的助手，他们的能力都来自上帝，是人类与上帝之间的中介，但他们仍然可以为人类代祷，拥有特定的能力和职能，并且会受到祈祷者虔诚度的影响。天主教信徒可以根据自己的需要选择祈祷的对象。例如，圣迈克尔是首领天使战士，因此士兵们经常向他祈祷。因此，可以说各个天主教圣人起着与各个中国寺庙神祇相同的作用。

The patron saints for our three Missions are:

Mission San Juan Bautista — Saint John the Baptist: he is the prophet who baptized Jesus and is the saint who prepares souls to receive Christ. Thus he is the patron of converts, who bridges their souls from the "Old Life" to the "New Life". Since the Missions were all about converting natives to Christianity and baptizing them, Saint John the Baptist would serve a most important function here and therefore would be a natural choice.
Mission San Miguel — the Archangel St. Michael: he is the chief warrior angel, and therefore those in the frontiers of New Spain, as the then fortress of San Miguel was, who must wage war both physically to maintain imperial rule and spiritually to convert the natives naturally turned to him.
Mission Santa Barbara — Saint Barbara is the legendary 3rd century AD princess who was killed by her own pagan father when he discovered she had converted to Christianity and her father was reduced to ashes by an explosion of lightning the instant he killed her. Thus she is the patron saint of those who dealt with lightning, explosions, and artillery or faced sudden death. Since the Santa Barbara area was prone to storms and the Mission served both military supply and defense functions, her being chosen here was also natural.

Of course, the functions of these saints were for the Spanish friars, soldiers and settlers, not for the indigenous natives who constituted the majority here but were at the bottom of the hierarchical order.

三个传教站的主保圣人是：

圣胡安·包蒂斯塔传教站：圣若翰洗者（天主教正式译名，人们亦称约翰·施洗者）：他是给耶稣施行洗礼的先知，也是预备人们心灵接受基督的圣人。因此，他是皈依者的守护神，引导他们的灵魂从“旧生活”走向“新生活”。由于传教站的主要任务是将原住民皈依基督教并为他们施行洗礼，圣若翰洗者在这里会扮演着极其重要的角色，所以便自然地被选中了。
圣米格尔传教站：总领天使圣米迦勒：他也是首领天使战士，因此，在新西班牙边境地区（例如圣米格尔镇），人们既要进行军事战斗以维护帝国统治，又要进行精神上的战斗以使原住民皈依基督教，因而自然地会向他祈求庇佑。
圣巴巴拉传教站：圣巴巴拉是传说中公元3世纪的公主，她信奉多神宗教的父亲发现她皈依基督教后便杀死了她，而就在他杀死她的那一刻，一道闪电击中了他，使他化为灰烬。因此，圣巴巴拉是那些与闪电、爆炸、火炮或面临突然死亡的人的守护神。由于圣巴巴拉地区容易发生风暴，而且传教站兼具军事补给和防御功能，因此选择她作为守护神也是很自然的。

当然，这些圣人的功能跟西班牙僧侣、士兵和殖民定居者息息相关，但跟虽然占传教站人口大多数却处于等级最底层的原住民无关。

↑ Altar at Mission San Juan Bautista, St. John the Baptist is center in the lower tier, surrounded by other saints 圣胡安·包蒂斯塔传教站的圣坛, 圣若翰洗者处下行正中，围着他的是其他圣人

↑ Altar at Mission San Miguel, at the sides are Franciscan saints 圣米格尔传教站的圣坛，两侧是方济各修道士会的圣人

↑ Altar at Mission Santa Barbara, to the reader's left is The Virgin Mary, to the right is Saint Joseph
圣巴巴拉传教站的圣坛，读者左边是贞女玛利亚，读者右边是圣约瑟夫

6. The Strange Similarity between Bok Kai's Popular Daoism and the Missions' Catholicism For me, the figures and settings in the Mission churches elicit emotional responses that are quite indistinguishable from that elicited by the simple incense offering worship rituals to the gods at Bok Kai. Although Catholic doctrine carefully distinguishes between worship owed to God and veneration directed toward saints, the physical and emotional experience of Mission churches seem to blur this distinction by their actual effect. Life-like figures, elevated placement, dramatic lighting, and ritualized approach create an affective environment that demands devotion in ways functionally indistinguishable from deity worship. To those who are uninitiated in Catholic doctrine, in this setting, the saints are clearly to be worshipped. And in fact, Catholicism holds that praying to the saints can result in one's wishes being granted, which is also exactly why people pray to the Gods at Bok Kai. While at the intellectually level the saints are said to be intercessioners rather than gods, at the emotive level they leave an impression indistinguishable from that of gods. This reveals what appears to be a commonality between Catholicism's supposedly monotheistic "sacred materiality" that elicits devotion to the saints and popular Daoism's openly polytheistic sacred materiality that elicits devotion toward the gods. Of course, Catholic theology teaches that Christ’s true presence is not in the statues but in the Eucharist ceremony performed on the altar. From this intellectual perspective then, the prominence of saints only points to their intercession and exemplarity rather than their divinity. Yet in lived religious experience, especially within mission churches where the patron saints occupy the highest and most visually commanding positions, the emotional effect of these figures is undeniable and often overrides theological nuance. To the body and the senses, such spaces call forth devotion to those figures in ways functionally indistinguishable from deity worship — the emotional effect overwhelms the doctrinal explanation. Therefore, at the emotional, affective level I feel Mission Catholicism is strangely similar to Bok Kai polytheism.	六、北溪庙民间道教与传教站天主教之间的奇特相似性我的感受是，传教站教堂中的雕像和场景所引发的情感反应，与北溪庙中对神灵进行的简单奉香祭拜仪式所引发的情感反应没有显著的分别。尽管天主教教义明确区分了对上帝的崇拜和对圣人的敬仰，但传教站教堂的实际效果似乎模糊了这种区别。栩栩如生的人物形象、高高在上的位置、强烈的灯光以及仪式化的氛围营造出了一个引发虔诚敬拜的情感环境，而这种虔诚敬拜跟对神灵的崇拜没有什么实际区别。对尚未熟悉天主教教义的人们来说，在这种情景之下，圣人分明是要崇拜的。而事实上，天主教认为向圣人祈祷可以使愿望得以实现，这也正是人们在北帝庙向各位神明祈祷的原因。虽然在思维层面上，圣人是说为为代祷者而不是神灵，但在实际的宗教体验中，他们在情感层面上所留下的印象却跟神灵没有分别。这揭示了，引发对多个圣人虔诚感的一神制天主教“神圣物质形式”好像跟引发对多个神祇虔诚感的多神制民间道教“神圣物质形式”具有共同性。当然，天主教神学认为其实基督并非存在于雕像中，而是存在于圣坛上所举行的圣体圣事仪式中。从这个角度来看，突出圣人只不过是为了表明他们有代祷和榜样作用，而不是他们有神性。然而，在实际的宗教体验中，尤其是在主保圣人雕像占据着最高、最引人注目位置的传教站教堂里，这些人物形象的情感效果往往会覆压神学所论述的细节。这样的空间所对身体和感官所呼唤出来的虔诚感觉跟祭拜神灵所呼唤出来的感觉相同，情感效果压倒了教义解释。因此，在情感层面，我觉得传教站的天主教与北溪庙的多神教奇特地相似。
This strange emotional similarity is absent in a Protestant church, where Protestantism has explicitly broken with Catholicism's icons and figures. The emotional similarity can be considered a common trait that the religious traditions of Bok Kai Temple and the Mission churches share that differentiates them from America's Protestant religious mainstream. Of course, Bok Kai represents a tradition that is even less mainstream than the Missions' Catholicism.	这种奇特的感情相似性在基督新教教堂中并不存在，因为新教已经明确地与天主教的圣物和圣像划清了界限。这种感情相似性可以被视为北溪庙和传教站教堂各自代表的宗教传统共同拥有的一个特征，使它们有别于美国的主流宗教。当然，北溪庙所代表的传统比传教教堂更加非主流。
Where Bok Kai's popular Daoist tradition and the Missions' Catholicism differ sharply is that while popular Daoism openly acknowledges the emotional reverence and devotion towards multiple holy beings elicited by the temple's sacred materiality as being polytheist, Catholicism does not. Instead Catholicism layers on this equal emotional feeling of reverence and devotion towards more than one being an intellectual labeling: that for God is worship and that for the saints is only reverence.	这里北溪庙的民间道教传统与传教站的天主教有一个显著的差异：民间道教公开承认寺庙神圣物质性所激发的对众多神灵的情感上的崇敬与虔诚是一种多神论信仰，而天主教则不然。相反，天主教在这种对多个神圣的同等情感上的崇敬与虔诚之上，附加了一种思维性的标签：对上帝的虔诚是崇拜，而对圣徒的虔诚则只是崇敬。
7. Summary The Bok Kai Temple and the Missions in California, USA, are indeed surprisingly quite different in several important ways. Bok Kai is a grassroots religious institution built by the Chinese community in California to meet community needs, while the Missions are large-scale religious institutions established by the Spanish Empire in the frontiers of New Spain (California) to expand and consolidate the Empire's territories and to convert the indigenous people to Catholicism and thus into loyal subjects. The Bok Kai Temple provided much practical assistance to the Chinese community, but the Missions inflicted great harm on the indigenous people who constituted the majority of the Mission population: an associated catastrophic decline in the native population. At the religious level, Bok Kai's Daoism is polytheistic, worshipping the Great God of the North as the main deity, who played a decisive role in the community, along with other deities relevant to the main concerns of the Chinese people. The Missions' Catholicism is monotheistic, but it also venerates saints, placing statues of patron saints at the central focus of the church altar. The devotion to multiple saints inspired by missionary churches is at the emotional level very similar to the devotion to multiple deities inspired by Beixi Temple, and in both, devotion to human form spiritual beings is shaped and sustained through concrete and tangible "sacred materiality". This common trait distinguishes both from the mainstream Protestant churches in the United States.	七、总结美国加州北溪庙和传教站的确令人意想不到地在多个方面存在着显著的差别，北溪庙是美国加州华人自发的、为了满足社区需要而建造的草根规模场所，而传教站则是西班牙帝国为扩张和巩固边疆领土，以及把原住民转化为信仰天主教的忠诚臣民，在新西班牙的边疆加利福尼亚所设立的宏大规模工程。北溪庙为华人社区的人们提供了很多实际性的帮助，但传教站对占其人口大多数的原住民们提供了的却是巨大的实际性伤害：相随的灾难性人口锐减。在宗教层面上，北溪庙的道教是多神制，供奉的主神是对当年社区洪水灾害具有决定性功能的北帝，亦有其他对当年华人主要关切具有重要功能的神祇。传教站的天主教是一神制，但亦崇敬圣人，把主保圣人雕像放在教堂神坛的中心焦点。传教站教堂引发人们对多个圣人的虔诚，与北溪庙引发人们对多个神祇的虔诚，在情感层面上高度相似，而两者都通过具体而可感的“神圣物质形式”来塑造和维系这种对人形灵体的虔诚。两者都在这个特点上相同地有别于处美国宗教主流地位的基督新教。
By comparing these differences and similarities, I have gained a deeper understanding of California history and the history of the Chinese and the Native people in California, as well as the history of the missions. This exercise has also given me some insights into the doctrines and practices of Daoism, Chinese folk religion, Catholicism, and Protestantism. It's been very meaningful.	通过比较这些差别和相似，我进一步认识了加州历史和加州的华人、原住民、及传教站历史，也对道教、中国民间道教、天主教、和基督新教的教义与实践获得了一些启发，很有意义。

Footnotes	脚注
^ Sherburne F. Cook， The Population of the California Indians, 1769–1970, (University of California Press, 1976), pp.28-29. From reconstruction of records, Cooks puts the original Indian population at the order of 300,000. He then said that prior to the discovery of gold in 1842, the numbers may be liberally considered as being 150,000. This meant a 50% decline.	^ Sherburne F. Cook，《加州印第安人人口，1769-1970》（加州大学出版社，1976年），第28-29页。 Cook进行了史料重建，估计最初的印第安人口约为30万。他接着指出，在1842年发现金矿之前，印第安人口可以大致估计为15万。这意味人口减少了50%。