Communicating with the Gods

Spirit-Writing in Chinese History and Society

Matthias Schumann, Elena Valussi (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

656 Seiten

2023
Brill (Verlag)
978-90-04-54904-3 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

This book offers the first comprehensive overview of the history of one of the most fascinating forms of communication between gods and humans in Chinese culture: spirit-writing. It showcases the many ways in which this practice shaped Chinese religion, literature and society during the last millennium.

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.

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.

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 王見川

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 靈乩指迷 (Instructions on the numinous stylus) and the Reform of Spirit-Writing Techniques during the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Fan Chun-wu 范純武

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 朱明川

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 Tendō

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 李國平

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

Luo Dan 羅丹

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

Paul R. Katz

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	18.10.2023
Reihe/Serie	Prognostication in History ; 11
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	1236 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Östliche Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
ISBN-10	90-04-54904-8 / 9004549048
ISBN-13	978-90-04-54904-3 / 9789004549043
Zustand	Neuware