Reflections on the Political Role of Spirit Mediums in Early China
The Wu Officials in the Zhou Li
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20380751 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lothar Von Falkenhausen (0009-0007-2037-5140, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Pages | 279-300 |
| Publication date | 1995-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Early China (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0362-5028 • E-ISSN: 2325-2324 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s036250280000451x |
| OpenAlex | W2488464077 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 33 |
| References cited | 11 |
Through close analysis of the traditional hermeneutics of the Zhou li sections on the Si 丽(Manager of the Spirit Mediums), Nanwu (Male Spirit Mediums), and Nüzou (Female Spirit Mediums), this article attempts to reconstruct the classical image of spirit mediums during the Zhou dynasty. It shows that spirit mediums, though grouped under the “bureaucratic” hierarchy of the Zhou li , have traditionally been assumed to be distinct in function and activities from the officials with whom they interacted duringceremonies. As specialized religious virtuousi capable of communicating with the supernatural forces, they apparently continued to play a distinguished role in political ritual — possibly derived from Shang court shamanism, and undoubtedly ancestral to the function of mediums in late traditional popular religion
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Bureaucracy · China · Function (biology) · Hierarchy · Literature · Political science · Politics · Shamanism · Sociology · Theology · Western Zhou · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Archaeology and the study of Chinese local religion
Shamanic Eroticism in the Jiu ge (Nine Songs) of Early China
Anthropology and Historiography
Does Shamanism Have a History? With Attention to Early Chinese Shamanism
The Heritage Left to the Empires
The Evolution of Confucian Belief in Ghosts, Spirits, and Sacrificial Culture
Some Ritual Elaborations on Cooking and Sacrifice in Late Zhou and Western Han Texts
The Art and Architecture of the Warring States Period
The Cambridge History of Ancient China
The Classical Philosophical Writings
Shang Archaeology
Language and Writing
Western Zhou History
The Northern Frontier in Pre–Imperial China
The Shang
Warring States Political History
Western Zhou Archaeology
China on the Eve of the Historical Period
Shi Jing Songs as Performance Texts
Abstinence halls ( zhaitang 齋堂 ) in lay households in early medieval China
An Ethnological Analogy and Biogenetic Model for Interpretation of Religion and Ritual in the Past
Divination in the Han shu Bibliographic Treatise
To Leave or Not to Leave
Religion, Violence, and Emotion
The Cambridge History of Ancient China
Performing Patterns
Nuo Altar Theatre on a Liminal/Liminoid Continuum
Shamanism Theory and the Early Chinese Wu
Body and Mind in Early China
Women, Rituals, and the Domestic-Political Distinction in the Confucian Classics
Chamanismes de l'Asie de l'Est. Termes et rôles en mouvement
Engendering mediumship
Chinese Wu, Ritualists and Shamans
The Late Shang State
The Nine Songs
Where Do Classical Chinese Nouns Come From
The Origins of Chinese Civilization
The Animal in Shang and Chou Bronze Art
Old Sinitic * M γ ag , Old Persian Maguš , and English “Magician”
Suspended Music
Some Dualistic Phenomena in Shang Society
Festivals in Classical China
Culture, Thought, and Social Action
| Unique citing works | 33 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,18 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2026 (29) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 29 |