神明，祖先，儀式專家：明以降梅山「家主」與「地主」信仰

In central Hunan, deities known as the lord of the house (jiazhu 家主) and the lord of the land (dizhu 地主) are worshipped as ritual specialists, territorial gods, and ancestors. Every village in the Meishan 梅山 area consists of a collection of scattered house clusters known locally as yuanzi 院子. Inside each house cluster is an Incense Hall (Xianghuo tang 香火堂) or ancestral hall, where the lords of the house and the land are worshiped as protective deities that safeguard local society. The statues of these guardian deities are colorful wood carvings standing 30-40 inches high. Each deity has its own name and legends, but all are revered for their consummate ritual powers ( fashu 法術), which reveals their close identification with ritual specialists. Based on fieldwork and documentary research, this article examines long-term changes in the cults for the lord of the house and the lord of the land, in order to highlight the factors that have caused these deities to embody the diverse images of ritual specialists, territorial gods and ancestors.