《四大门》内容简介

　　所谓“四大门”，乃是对四种灵异动物即狐狸（“胡门”）、黄鼠狼（“黄门”）、刺猬（“白门”）和蛇（“常门”）的总称，在华北地区广泛流传着关于它们的民俗信仰。这篇燕京大学社会学系的本科论文通过深入的实地调查和访谈，自觉重视“局内观察法”和“民俗语汇”，站在社会学、人类学和比较宗教研究的立场上，以严谨认真和超脱公允的态度，详细地描述了北平西北郊一带农民信仰的实际情形，进而讨论了当地民众所信仰的“四大门”宗教及其对于农民生活的重要意义，尤其着力分析其社会功能。论文写成之后，在学界声誉卓著，被认为超过了现在很多的博士、硕士论文水平，却一直没有公开出版。此次经典重提，实为初刊，以飨读者。

　　作者简介

　　李慰祖，1918年生，广东南海人，云南大学政治系副教授，已退休。1941年毕业于燕京大学社会学系，主修社会人类学，本书主要部分即其学士学位论文。

　　周星，原北京大学社会学人类学研究所教授，现为日本爱知大学国际中国学研究中心教授。

"Four Gates" content introduction

The so-called "four gates" is a general term for four kinds of supernatural animals, namely foxes (" humen "), weasels (" yellow gate "), hedgehogs (" white gate ") and snakes (" Changmen "), and folk beliefs about them are widely spread in North China. Through in-depth field investigation and interviews, this undergraduate thesis of the Department of Sociology of Yenching University consciously attaches importance to the "inside observation method" and "folk lexology". From the standpoint of sociology, anthropology and comparative religion studies, it describes in detail the actual situation of farmers' beliefs in the northwestern suburbs of Beiping with a rigorous, serious and unbiased attitude. Then it discusses the "four gates" religion and its significance to the peasants' life, especially its social function. After the paper was written, it has a high reputation in the academic world and is considered to be more than the level of many doctoral and master's theses, but it has not been published publicly. This classic re-mention, in fact, is the first issue, to the readers.

About the author

Li Weizu, born in 1918 in Nanhai, Guangdong Province, retired associate professor of political Science, Yunnan University. In 1941, he graduated from the Department of Sociology, Yenching University, majoring in social anthropology, and the main part of this book is his bachelor's degree thesis.

Zhou Xing, formerly a professor at the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology at Peking University, is now a professor at the Center for International Chinese Studies at Aichi University in Japan.