The Cult of the Fox - Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China

Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-0-231-13338-8
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 508 g

For more than five centuries the shamanistic fox cult has attracted large portions of the Chinese population and appealed to a wide range of social classes. Deemed illicit by imperial rulers and clerics and officially banned by republican and communist leaders, the fox cult has managed to survive and flourish in individual homes and community shrines throughout northern China. In this new work, the first to examine the fox cult as a vibrant popular religion, Xiaofei Kang explores the manifold meanings of the fox spirit in Chinese society. Kang describes various cult practices, activities of worship, and the exorcising of fox spirits to reveal how the Chinese people constructed their cultural and social values outside the gaze of offical power and morality.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kang, Xiaofei

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsMap: The Chinese Empire in the Early Twentieth CenturyIntroduction1. Foxes in Early Chinese Tradition2. Huxian and the Spread of the Fox Cult3. Foxes and Domestic Worship4. Foxes and Spirit Mediums5. Foxes and Local Cults6. Fox Spirits and OfficialsConclusionNotesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Xiaofei Kang is an assistant professor of history at St. Mary's College of Maryland.