Way and BywayTaoism, Local Religion, and Models of Divinity in Sung and Modern China

Taoism, local religion, and models of divinity in Sung and modern China

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19968014
AutoresRobert Hymes (autor correspondente), Robert P Hymes
Ano2002
Páginas364
Data de publicação2002-05-21
Open AccessNão
TipoBOOK
PeriódicoWay and byway (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/california/9780520207585.001.0001
OpenAlexW3153025492
Open LibraryOL15626972M
ISBN9780520207585
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas22

Using a combination of newly mined Sung sources and modern ethnography, this book addresses questions that have perplexed China scholars in recent years. Were Chinese gods celestial officials, governing the fate and fortunes of their worshippers as China's own bureaucracy governed their worldly lives? Or were they personal beings, patrons or parents or guardians, offering protection in exchange for reverence and sacrifice? To answer these questions the author examines the professional exorcist sects and rising Immortals' cults of the Sung dynasty alongside ritual practices in contemporary Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as miracle tales, liturgies, spirit law codes, devotional poetry, and sacred geographies of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. Drawing upon historical and anthropological evidence, he argues that two contrasting and contending models informed how the Chinese saw and see their gods. These models were used separately or in creative combination to articulate widely varying religious standpoints and competing ideas of both secular and divine power. Whether gods were bureaucrats or personal protectors depended, and still depends, he says, on who worships them, in what setting, and for what purposes

Archaeology · China · Divinity · Theology · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy · Chinese Gods · Gods · Gods, Chinese · Religion · Religion and culture · Religious life and customs · Taoism