Communicating with the Gods

Spirit-Writing in Chinese History and Society
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-04-54904-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 11, 656 Seiten, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 1108 g

Reihe: Prognostication in History

Few religious innovations have shaped Chinese history like the emergence of spirit-writing during the Song dynasty.

From a divinatory technique it evolved into a complex ritual practice used to transmit messages and revelations from the Gods. This resulted in the production of countless religious scriptures that now form an essential corpus, widely venerated and recited to this day, that is still largely untapped by research.

Using historical and ethnographic approaches, this volume for the first time offers a comprehensive overview of the history of spirit-writing, examining its evolution over a millennium, the practices and technologies used, and the communities involved.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schumann, Matthias

Valussi, Elena

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Östliche Religionen
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Nicht-Westliche Philosophie Indische & Asiatische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

List of Figures and Tables

Note on Formal Conventions

Dynastic Table

1 Introduction to the Volume

Matthias Schumann and Elena Valussi

Part 1 Overview Papers

2 Making the Gods Write: A Short History of Spirit-Written Revelations in China, 1000–1400

Vincent Goossaert

3 Spirit-Writing Practices from the Song to Ming Periods and Their Relation to Politics and Religion

Wang Chien-chuan ? ??

4 Women, Goddesses, and Gender Affinity in Spirit-Writing

Elena Valussi

Part 2 Changing Techniques and Practices

5 Terminology and Typology of Spirit-Writing in Early Modern China: A Preliminary Study

Hu Jiechen

6 The Transcendent of the Plate

The Lingji zhimi ???? (Instructions on the numinous stylus) and the Reform of Spirit-Writing Techniques during the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Fan Chun-wu ? ??

Part 3 Spirit-Writing and the Literati Elites in Late Imperial China

7 Instantiating the Genealogy of the Way: Spirit-Writing in the Construction of Peng Dingqiu’s Confucian Pantheon

Daniel Burton-Rose

8 A Credulous Skeptic: Ji Yun on the Mantic Arts and Spirit-Writing

Michael Lackner

9 The Liu-Han Altar: Between a Literati Spirit-Writing Altar and Popular Religion

Zhu Mingchuan ? ??

Part 4 Spirit-Writing and Redemptive Societies

10 “Protecting the Dao and Transmitting the Classics”

The New Religion to Save the World and the Confucian Dimension of Spirit-Writing in Republican China

Matthias Schumann

11 Spirit-Writing and the Daoyuan’s Gendered Teachings

Xia Shi

12 The Phoenix Perches in the Land of the Kami: Spirit-Writing from Yiguandao to Tendo

Nikolas Broy

Part 5 Local Communities and Transregional Networks

13 The Nineteenth Century Spirit-Writing Movement and the Transformation of Local Religion in Western Guangdong

Ichiko Shiga

14 The Rise of Spirit-Writing Cults in Chaozhou: Reassessing the Role of Charitable Halls

Li Guoping ? ??

15 Spirit-Writing Altars in Contemporary Hong Kong: A Case Study of Fei Ngan Tung Buddhism and Daoism Society

Luo Dan ? ?

16 A Motley Phoenix? On the Diversity of Spirit-Writing Temples and Their Practices in Puli, Taiwan

Paul R. Katz

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Matthias Schumann is postdoctoral research fellow at Heidelberg University. His research deals with the interconnections between religion, society and politics in modern Chinese history. He is author of several articles and co-editor of Protecting the Weak in East Asia: Framing, Mobilisation and Institutionalisation (Routledge, 2018).

Elena Valussi is a senior Lecturer at Loyola University Chicago. She has published extensively on the intersection between religion, gender and the body in China, on Daoist intellectual history and on spirit writing in China. She is the Vice- President of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions.