Sacred Tree Worship, Ginkgo Folklore, and Fox Spirit Belief in Rural China: A Jiepai Sacred-Site Record from Jiangsu

This record is a primary-source archival item about sacred-tree worship, ginkgo folklore, fox-spirit belief, and local worship practices in Jiepai, Jiangsu, curated for research use in Chinese popular religion, vernacular religion, sacred-site folklore, Jiangnan folklore, rural China studies, oral tradition, and local belief narratives. It is released as the OA_V1 item-level record for “The Ginkgo Tree,” a Chinese narrative text within the Jiepai Jianghu section of the Chuanyue Archive. The text documents a Jiepai sacred-site narrative concerning a ginkgo tree in Hongdeng village, the former Dragon King Temple beside it, fox-spirit belief, temple demolition, tree worship, local prayer practices, and multiple oral versions of the tree’s sacredness. It preserves the ginkgo tree as a local sacred site where temple memory, post-temple worship, family oral transmission, and place-based vernacular cosmology converge. Methodologically, this item combines the Archive Author’s local knowledge, family oral transmission, the father’s oral account, additional versions from local interlocutors, direct site-related knowledge, author annotations, and provenance notes. The annotations distinguish factual site statements, father-based narration, alternate local versions, authorial summary, uncertain objectivity, observed worship infrastructure, and provenance boundaries. A key feature of the record is the transfer of sacred presence from temple to tree. In one version, the fox spirit formerly associated with the Dragon King Temple moves into the ginkgo tree after the temple is demolished. Other versions describe the tree as possessing “immortal energy,” being inhabited by a “Ginkgo Lady,” or simply having spiritual efficacy. The item therefore preserves multiple emic explanations for the same sacred site. The record also notes that a simple altar and stainless-steel enclosure exist at the tree, and that people are said to continue visiting it for blessing, fertility, peace, and offerings. It also marks “烧对头香” as a cultural concept present in a fuller version but not included in this OA version. This item belongs to the Jiepai Jianghu Legends and Beliefs Series. The series-level record has been published on Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20834123. This item-level record has DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20851225. The item is also part of the broader Chuanyue Archive, a native-insider emic vernacular multimodal archive. Related records will be released on a rolling basis over the next few months. This public OA_V1 release includes the public narrative text, author annotations, and contextual metadata. It does not include ginkgo-tree photographs, the ginkgo-tree location map, precise spatial materials, raw oral recordings, private videos, or unreleased provenance materials. Those materials are retained in the Author Private Master Archive. Authorship and upload roles are separate. The Archive Author, The Jiepai Archivist, is the creator, archive owner, rights holder, and public contact person. Any uploader, depositor, or curatorial assistant provides deposit and formatting assistance only and is not the author, creator, archive owner, rights holder, or public contact for this archive.