Abstract: The research on Qiang folk beliefs is carried out mainly from the perspective of anthropology, religion, and literature, while that from the perspective of political science is lacking.Figuring out the context and trend of the research on this is the basic task of the Political Science approach to the research on Qiang folk beliefs and the promotion of related practical work.Through literature analysis and comparative analysis, this paper systematically sorts out the research on the value of Qiang folk beliefs that was done in the past 40 years,and addresses issues such as research content, research methods and modernization. The conclusion is that the research is focused on the ethical governance of folk beliefs, the research methods are mainly empirical research and case studies, and the research approach is the traditional value of folk beliefs.With a clear idea of the status quo in mind, the author creatively points out the future research direction.On research content, there should be a shift from the “rule of virtue” to the “three ways of governance”; methodologically, there should be a shift from“experience drawing” to “theory formulation” and a combination of folk beliefs with the theory of rural governance; with respect to the approach, there should be a shift from “traditional approach” to “modern approach” to explore the specific ways for folk beliefs to be modernized in the governance of Qiang rural areas.Earnest efforts in this direction are set to achieve a breakthrough in the research on the value of Qiang folk beliefs.
Keywords: Qiang folk beliefs; rural governance; state intention; modernization
The Chinese version appeared in Journal of Aba Teachers University, 2020(01).