Jieling Xu

Jieling Xu

August 23, 2026

Sangyuanwei, Folk beliefs, Cultural gene decoding, Deity Pedigree, Spatial construction.

As the world irrigation engineering heritage of the Pearl River Delta, Sangyuanwei's folk belief is an important cultural dimension to understand the social structure and historical changes of the region. Based on the historical literature and field investigation, this study uses the theoretical perspective of “cultural gene decoding” to systematically investigate the deity pedigree and spatial distribution of Sangyuanwei folk beliefs. The study found that the god pedigree of Sangyuanwei folk beliefs cover many levels, such as water deity, industry deity, buddhist and Taoist deity and ancestor worship, reflecting the value orientation and realistic needs of local society. The spatial distribution follows the nested logic of “temple - community - embankment”, forming an integrated structural form of “belief - space - water conservancy organization”. The interactive logic of “water - deity - human” constitutes the deepest cultural gene of Sangyuanwei folk beliefs. This study not only provides a new analytical framework for understanding folk beliefs in irrigation engineering areas, but also provides historical and cultural resources for contemporary rural revitalization. 

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license