歷經清代二百年的移民開拓，日據五十年的異族抑制，光復初期的經濟蕭條，至今日的民間信仰的復甦與抬頭，媽祖一直是台灣漢人信仰中香火最鼎盛的女神。媽祖不但得到信徒的愛戴與崇拜，也獲得學者的廣大注意。不同學科、不同角度的研究論文，使媽祖研究頗有台灣宗教研究的「顯學」之架勢。加上台海兩岸文化宗教交流密切，媽祖更成爲兩岸學術交流之「紅人」。值此大量研究文獻出版之際，實有必要對以往研究做一回顧，檢視已有之成績，作爲進一步研究之基礎。本文因而針對中文文獻一百七十篇論文、英文二十篇論文，時間上自1925年至1995年之間發表之作品作了回顧，分成八個子題：1.媽祖事蹟與傳說，2.媽祖的經典與祭典，3.進香研究，4.祭祀活動與組織，5.媽祖廟之間的戰爭，6.媽祖信仰與政治，7.媽祖信仰的傳播，8.其它等分別加以討論。可以對以往的媽祖研究之偏重及疏忽部分有一個全盤的了解。

Matsu has been the most popular goddess in Taiwan since the Ch'ing Dynasty, although during the period of Japanese rule (1895-1945) folk religion was repressed, and between 1945 and 1970's, due to economic hardship, folk religion was not encouraged. After Taiwan's modernization in 1970's, the popularity of Matsu has not declined as most modernists expected. On the contrary, more and more pilgrims go to the cult center to pay homage to the Goddess, larger and larger rituals are performed to honor her, and temples dedicated to her are built or remodeled. Consequently, this revival of folk religion and the cult of Matsu among it, gain attention from local historians and folklorists, and many of researches are conducted by local and western anthropologists. Different topics are explored, different perspectives and theories are applied. In this article, both Chinese and English research papers on the cult of Matsu are discussed. In total, about one hundred and seventeen items of Chinese documents and twenty items of English documents are reviewed, dated from 1929 to 1995. Eight topics are identified and reviewed. They are: legends, rituals and scriptures, pilgrimage, ritual organizations, disputes between Matsu temples, politics and the cult of Matsu, diffusion of the cult and overseas Chinese, and others. Among them, most local historians focus on the topics of legends and the dispute between Matsu temples and most anthropologists studied pilgrimage and ritual organizations, while western scholars cover wider theoretical interests and various topics.

媽祖祭典；傳說；儀式；進香；媽祖廟間的戰爭

the cult of Matsu; legend; ritual; pilgrimage; dispute between Matsu temples