Spirit-Writing and the Development of Chinese Cults

Bibliographic Data

ID2591177
AuthorsGraeme Lang (Lund University, corresponding author), Lars Ragvald (Lund University)
Year1998
Volume59
Issue4
Pages309
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology of Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1069-4404 • E-ISSN: 1759-8818
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3712120
OpenAlexW1977976404
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited20

Chinese spirit-writing, like other forms of shamanism, is one route to authority and influence during social crisis. The writings discussed here were produced by a spirit-medium who founded a cult during the plagues and political turmoil in China in the 1890s. Such material is valuable for understanding how the medium defines his/her mission, attracts and impresses followers, deals with group problems, and responds to the socio-political conditions of the time. This method of revelation was abandoned, however, after the spirit-writer's cult was relocated to Hong Kong and gained a mass following, in favor of the alternative method of “fortune-sticks” and fortune poems. The former divination method is ideal for the origins of such a cult; the latter, for mass worship in the metropolis

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · China · Cult · Divination · Literature · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Revelation · Shamanism · Sociology · Worship · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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