Conceptions of Divinity

Statue Making in Contemporary Taiwan and the Ritual of Embedding the Spirit ( Rushen)

Bibliographic Data

ID3200652
AuthorsAaron K Reich (Saint Joseph's University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume20
Issue3-4
Pages205-232
Publication date2024-08-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMaterial Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1743-2200 • E-ISSN: 1751-8342
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17432200.2024.2391142
OpenAlexW4403298449
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited13

This article examines a ritual called the rushen (“Embedding the Spirit”) as it takes place in Taiwan. The second in a traditional series of three consecration rituals, the rushen involves the transformation of varied materials and their subsequent assemblage inside of a nascent deity statue. How do statue carvers, ritual specialists, and patrons express what the ritual achieves? This article argues that the rushen aims to purify, potentiate, and protect the interior space of a young statue. To this end, the ritual achieves the conception of a spirit embryo (shentai) inside the statue’s body. The concurrent assemblage of consecrated materials thereupon works to nourish and protect this incubating divine presence as it continues to grow in subsequent weeks. From the moment of the rushen, the spirit embryo, like a newly planted seed, gestates under the statue’s surface, protecting the image from malevolent spirits and engendering it with divine capabilities. Hidden beneath the surface, the spirit embryo awaits the kaiguang, the final ritual of animation, the moment when the statue will come to life as a spirit image, like a seedling sprouting up through the soil, like an infant emerging from the womb

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Divinity · Literature · Statue · Theology · Chinese history and philosophy · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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