Cat Demon, Gender, and Religious Practice
Towards Reconstructing a Medieval Chinese Cultural Pattern
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3961492 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rebecca Doran (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 135 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-16 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289 |
| Publisher | American Oriental Society (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.7817/jameroriesoci.135.4.689 |
| OpenAlex | W2333683314 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
This paper examines and contextualizes rituals and beliefs surrounding the cat demon (maogui 貓鬼). While the demon has been briefly discussed or referenced in earlier scholarship, there as yet exists no systematic attempt to understand how it is treated in various sources. The paper approaches the complex of practices and ideas associated with the cat demon as a unique and richly informative cultural phenomenon that is suggestive of tensions relating to gender and class. The paper begins with a close examination of materials surrounding the most famous and well-documented case of cat demon practice, that involving Dugu Tuo, the half- brother of Empress Dugu of the Sui (Dugu Qieluo 獨孤伽羅, 544-602), before turning to medico-religious approaches and, finally, to transformations of the supernatural or demonic cat in post-Tang materials
Art · Class (philosophy) · Demon · Epistemology · Literature · Phenomenon · Political science · Scholarship · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.88 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2019 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |