[ 英文摘要 ]

This research is to describe and analyze the relationship of the Matsu Cult and the politics. Time period of this research starts from 1949, the year that the Nationalist government fled to Taiwan, and ends with the KMT's defeat in the presidential election in 2000.

Before the suspension of the martial law in 1987, the folk religion was under the KMT's authoritarian control. The government restrained and guided religious activities of all kinds, such as pilgrimage, memorial ceremonies and others. People who worshipped Goddess Matsu at this time mainly believed in Her power to relieve the pains, to comfort the sorrows and to satisfy the needy. After the suspension of the martial law, the political restraints were moved away and all kinds of religious activities and new religious organizations sprang up quickly around the island. In the mean time, the cult of Daijai Goddess Matsu started to change too. Local politicians directly challenged the national safety policies and the current cross-strait situation in the name of the Goddess' will. Using religious needs as a cause, they tried to manipulate the public opinions and asserted “direct, religious transportation” to the Goddess's mother temple across the strait.

When the government just decided to suspend the martial law on July 1987, directors and supervisors of the Dajia Matsu Jhenlan Temple immediately organized a tour and made a pilgrimage via Fujian Meijhou Matsu Temple in Mainland China on October. It was indeed a big news which surprised the religious circles in Taiwan. In 1999, Mr. Yen, Ching0Biao, chairman to the board of the Dajia Matsu Jhenlan Temple, even asked the government to open up direct religious transportation across the Taiwan Strait. The “political” announcement caused tremendous pressure on the Taiwanese government. Goddess Matsu, the patron deity of Taiwan was then transformed by human persons into a deity of political resistance and protest.