Chinese Religions Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Religion, History of Religion, Chinese Religions, Ritual
- by Jie Shi 施傑
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- Archaeology, Art History, Visual Anthropology, Chinese Philosophy
- by Aaron K. Reich
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- Daoism, Chinese Religions, Chinese Art, Chinese art history
- by James A Benn
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- Art History, Chinese Religions, Buddhist Studies, Chinese history (History)

Poceski, Mario. Introducing Chinese Religions. New York and London: Routledge, 2009. Also available in an e-book format, as Chinese Religions: The eBook (published by JBE Online Books), and in a Portuguese translation: Introdução às... more

- by Mario Poceski
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- Buddhism, Chinese Studies, Daoism, Chinese Religions
- by Stefan Landsberger
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- Visual propaganda, Chinese Religions, Propaganda, Chinese Politics

The dissertation focuses on the texts of a religious movement known as Tianshidao (the Way of the Celestial Masters) from the 2nd to the 5th century CE. Tianshidao is presented as a multifaceted tradition that should not be reduced by a predefined essence or a teleological vision of history. Instead of reconstructing one coherent cosmology, the author interprets the texts as representing various alternative cosmologies. They are compared according to the theory of cultural bias of Mary Douglas, in terms of grid and group. Special attention is paid to the employment of the bureaucratic imagery and the representations of time which are interpreted in the context of the cultural bias and the various modes of relationship towards the institutions of Tianshidao and the state. The author also analyses the millennialist character of the movement which was noted by previous research and distinguishes between various types of millennialism.

- by Jakub Otcenasek
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- Daoism, Chinese Religions, Celestial Masters, Apocalypticism
- by Eugene Y Wang
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- Chinese Religions, Chinese Art, Chinese history (History), Immortality
- by Francois Thierry
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- Chinese Religions, Taoism, Chinese Numismatics

This article attempts to understand the fundamental principles of bell theology in Chinese religions: ideally cast by spiritual beings, bells emit sounds that are supposed to carry the message of the sacred texts far and wide, and are particularly apt to deliver the souls suffering in the underworld. Bells made by human hands, on which texts were initially cast, or later engraved, also have the power to preach the religious doctrine to those who perceive their sound. They were particularly numerous to be offered to the temples of the Ming and Qing capital, signs of the interest of the eunuchs and officials of Beijing in this effective substitute for the recitation of sacred texts.

- by Yang LEI
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- History of Religion, Chinese Religions, Chinese history (History), Sensory Studies

Cast in Peking around 1420 and covered with rich religious inscriptions in Chinese and lantsa, the great Buddhist bell of the Yongle reign was first placed in the Wanshou temple from 1607 to 1743 and then in the Juesheng temple, where one can still see it today. At each moment when it was moved, the Peking literati redefined the symbolism of its ringing and redrew the boundaries of its acoustic space. Thus, the bell became the soundmark of each temple that sheltered it. Towards the end of the Ming, it was believed that this gigantic instrument nearly 7 metres high was able to recite all the sutras and dhāraṇī inscribed on it and produced sounds that spread not only across the capital but also in the netherworld. After the change of dynasty, the Ming literati’s explanation was no longer accepted by the Qing authors for historical and political reasons. Emperor Qianlong reinterpreted the power of this large bell by claiming that it helped with the attainment of nirvāṇa. He placed it in an imperial Buddhist site and recreated a sound space, by marking several sites in Peking where one could hear its ringing. This article is an attempt to retrace the history of the soundscape formed by this huge Buddhist bell and it proposes a historical analysis of the acoustic environment in a Chinese temple.

- by Yang LEI
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- History, History of Religion, Chinese Religions, Soundscape Studies

Scholars of Chinese “popular religion” in the largest sense (including those reviewed in the present essay) have long complained that fieldwork-based studies are massively skewed to southeastern China, and that generalizations and models worked from these studies misrepresent actual practices in north China. Whereas fieldwork seemed very difficult in most of north China up to the 1990s, and few local scholars were attracted to the topic, the situation has changed dramatically over the last fifteen years or so. A recent flourish of major publications has been directly addressing this imbalance, making a large amount of primary material available and trying to de-southernize, as it were, our understanding of Chinese religion. This essay will begin with presenting and briefly discussing three major recent books that all take the above issue as their core question, before trying to engage with them, along with

- by Vincent Goossaert
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- Chinese Religions
- by Ting GUO
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- Religion, Buddhism, Folklore, Ethnography

"In my study "Prestigegüter entlang der Seidenstraße? Archäologische und historische Untersuchungen zu Chinas Beziehungen zu Kulturen des Tarimbeckens vom zweiten bis frühen fünften Jahrhundert nach Christus (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010)," I developed a method to identify genuine prestige goods in the context of burials. Whenever members of social groups were unable to obtain desired artifacts – be it on account of insufficient financial means or because they were prohibited to acquire them –, they resorted to a rather simple solution: imitations.
As early as the 8th century BCE, people in China began to emulate ritual bronzes. These were the ultimate status symbols at the time and possession of such valuable bronze objects clearly was restricted to the social élite. Various types of bronze vessels and bells constituted a so-called ritual set; the more different objects and the more specimens of each single type of object an individual could call his (sometimes her) own, the higher his / her social rank. At least this much we learn from several prescriptive texts dating from the 2nd through 1st centuries BCE. The ritual bronzes were an integral part of ritual ceremonies held at the ancestral shrines of one’s lineage. They were, however, not only employed to demonstrate one’s social achievements to the ancestors, but ultimately found their way into tombs and hoards where ritual sets are a common sight.
This paper is going to show how sumptuary rules grew less rigid with the factual decline of the Zhou. Earlier, expressing ones social rank through ritual bronzes was the prerogative of dignitaries with close ties to the royal house. Now, even politically rather insignificant local potentates made use of (substandard) replicas in attempts to signal their social position. The prestige of authentic ritual bronzes finally fostered the diffusion of an initially extremely elitist phenomenon. How strongly the association of ritual bronzes with social rank penetrated ancient Chinese thought and practices – that is to say, Chinese culture – is obvious in the fact that imitations of ritual bronzes remained a staple in tomb assemblages at least until the 2nd century CE."

- by Armin Selbitschka
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- Archaeology, Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Studies, Chinese Religions

Christians have not been a major part of the mainstream debates in studies on Chinese diaspora and transnationalism. This chapter attempts to move Christianity into the centre of such conversations through the theme of identity. Specifically, it proposes that the diasporic Chinese Protestants were an integral part of the transnational Chinese communities that settled across the globe from the late nineteenth century to the present day by demonstrating how they synthesized their faith and various types of Chinese identities in order to form three dominant global Chinese Christian identities: evangelical identity, religious nationalism and religious ethnocentrism. In terms of evangelical identity, the chapter demonstrates how Protestants were motivated by their particular historical circumstances to appropriate evangelicalism as the primary means for shaping their respective diasporic cultures. For religious nationalism, I show how Protestant communities became transnational participants in China’s national salvation discourse. Such participation was seen by synthesizing their evangelical faith with nationalism and delimiting the projections of their identity within the bounds of the modern Chinese nation. Lastly, the study outlines the process of synthesis between faith and ethnic concern after World War II. It shows how different independent Chinese Protestant organizations constructed ethno-religious discourses as part of the process of forming the global Chinese Christian industry. These discourses include the unique ‘chosen’ status of Chinese Christians and their special concern for evangelizing the transnational Chinese communities. In all, the study suggests that the multiplicity of global Chinese Christianity affirms mainstream calls to examine the Chinese diaspora in all its diversity.

- by Richard F Young
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- Chinese Religions, Divination, Chinese Popular Religion, Singapore Studies
- by Ori Tavor
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- Buddhism, Daoism, Chinese Religions, Sigmund Freud
- by Paul R Goldin
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- Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Religions, Early China, Chinese literature

In this talk, Esmond reviewed literature about the different gods of wealth and examine the historical context that has popularised the worship of these deities, namely the growth of commerce in the Song (960-1276 CE) and Ming dynasties (1368-1644 CE) in China. Closer to home, he will also discuss the popularity of the Sembawang God of Wealth temple in Singapore. Taking an anthropological approach, he will examine the temple’s success within the concept of eudaimonia (a state of happiness) in popular Chinese religion and discuss why Singapore’s neoliberal economy has contributed to the God of Wealth’s popularity.

- by Esmond C M Soh
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- Chinese Religions, Neoliberalism, Wealth

Religious groups can reinforce, complement, or undermine authoritarian domination. This article investigates whether high-status Protestant churches act as democratising civil society organisations by gathering hundreds of Protestants openly outside state structures to change church registration policies. In so doing, they also seek to curtail state domination over religion and, by extension, over all groups in society.

- by Carsten Vala
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- Chinese Religions, Protestantism, China, Chinese Politics
- by Joseph A Adler
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- Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Religions, Confucianism

Sergey Filonov. “Early Taoism: Looking for methodological integrity,” in: Religiovedenie (Study of Religion), No. 3 (2009), pp. 56—69. ISSN 2072-8662. (In Russian). Филонов С.В. Ранний даосизм: поиск методологической целостности //... more

Sergey Filonov. “Early Taoism: Looking for methodological integrity,” in: Religiovedenie (Study of Religion), No. 3 (2009), pp. 56—69. ISSN 2072-8662. (In Russian).
Филонов С.В. Ранний даосизм: поиск методологической целостности // Религиоведение. — 2009. — № 3. — С. 56—69. ISSN 2072-8662.

- by Sergey Filonov
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- Chinese Studies, Daoism, Chinese Religions, Taoism

What can remain unchanged while the Ru tradition (Confucianism) is continually passed down generationally and passed on geographically to non-Chinese Asian countries and beyond? Does the answer to this question hinted by the tradition itself, viz., the ethic of Three Guides and Five Constant Virtues, still work in contemporary society? As intrigued by these fundamental questions on Ruism, scholars have debated on the nature of the ethic and its adaptability to the contemporary world. One side of scholars condemned it as an outdated, premodern ethic of power which urges unconditional obedience to hierarchy, while another side championed it as a modern ethic which aims to strengthen the autonomy of each individual in reciprocal relationships. While presenting two cases of Ru business practice, viz., Shibusawa Eiichi in Meiji Japan and Peter Drucker in the contemporary U.S., the article treats the controversial ethic as a hypothesis, and assesses it using an empirical method to reinforce views of scholars who have furnished a favorable interpretation of the ethic.

- by Bin Song
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- Business Ethics, Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Religions, Confucianism

It is often said that there are three teachings (三教) that have defined Chinese society through the ages. Yet at first glance, these teachings seem very different, almost irreconcilable. In this course, we will examine each of these on both an intellectual and personal level. You will meet wild Daoists who will propose that the Way, the secret of the universe and the key to living a good life, can be summarized as “go with the flow.” You will be admonished by stern Confucians that this is not true at all, that order can only be found by paying careful attention to history, to the rituals and customs of our ancestors. Bald Buddhist monks will then tell you that the only way to live is to leave everything behind. Whatever you choose to believe or think, these meetings will give you a firm knowledge of some of the most important sources of Chinese culture, a living heritage that affects the world around you, at DKU and in modern China. So don’t be mistaken: this course is not just about reading books. It is intended to challenge your vision of yourself and the world.

- by Ben Van Overmeire
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- Chinese Religions, Syllabus

Sergey Filonov. The early stage of the formation of Taoist religious tradition: case study of the history of compilation of Taoist Canon. Synopsis for the Ph.D. thesis / Saint Petersburg State University. St. Petersburg, 2000.
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Филонов С.В. Ранний этап формирования религиозной традиции даосизма. Автореферат диссертации… кандидата философских наук по специальности 09.00.06 «Философия религии» / Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет. — СПб., 2000.

- by Sergey Filonov
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- Chinese Studies, Daoism, Chinese Religions, Sinology
- by Yang Liu
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- Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Studies, Chinese Religions, Painting

Округ Алтай находится в северной части Синьцзян-Уйгурского
автономного района Китайской Народной Республики. Рус-
ские старообрядцы из Российской империи и Советского Союза
жили в этом округе в деревнях вокруг озера Канас с середины
XIX в. до 1960-х гг. Большинство из них являлись старообрядца-
ми часовенного и спасовского согласий1.
Богатый природными ресурсами, округ Алтай привлекал
внимание Советского Союза, США, Англии, Японии и ряда дру-
гих стран. Вместе с тем округ был постоянным полем сражения
коренных этносов за национальную независимость.
Русские казаки-белоэмигранты играли важную роль в воен-
ном противостоянии в Синьцзяне в первой половине ХХ в. Об их
мобилизации опубликовано много исследований. История же во-
енной мобилизации русских старообрядцев в Синьцзяне изучена
крайне мало, несмотря на то что старообрядцы этого округа тоже
принимали участие в военных действиях в 1933 и 1940-х гг.
Цель статьи – опираясь на изученную литературу и новые
интервью со старообрядцами, показать, как Китайская Республика
(правительство Гоминьдана), Восточно-Туркестанская Республика,
Советский Союз, Соединенные Штаты Америки и
Китайская Народная Республика мобилизовали русских старо-
обрядцев и как они участвовали в войнах в округе Алтай в 1933
и 1940-х гг.

- by Tsutomu Tsukada
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- Chinese Studies, Chinese Religions, Islam in China, Xinjiang

PREFACE The primary purpose of this essay is to identify certain recurrent patterns of female spirituality in a group of relatively well,known popular religious texts printed during the late Qing period, although many of them represent versions of earlier stories. These texts were chosen primarily on the basis of availability and the fact that their central characters are female. Most, although not all, are baojuan, or "precious scrolls," and most feature well, known religious heroines such as the royal princess Miaoshan (the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, Guanyin) and He Xiangu (the sole female member of the Taoist Eight Immortals). Thus, the stories themselves will be familiar to many readers.

This article analyses the place and value of occult arts in the healthcare market of Republican China (1912-1949). Medical historiography has long neglected the resilience of such occult arts as talismans, astrology and divination in the context of China's search for modernity. Focusing on the production, trade, and consumption of goods and services related to talismanic healing, I give voice to Chinese occultists by investigating the formation of a 'market of the occult' in the Republican era. I adopt a global perspective to clarify the changes that occult healing underwent following the popularisation of new printing technologies, mass media and transnational spiritualism in early twentieth-century China. Erstwhile embraced in secrecy, the occult was now being made public. Cheap manuals, wide-circulation newspapers and book catalogues reveal that in contrast to past studies that herald the disenchantment of the world as the hallmark of Chinese modernity, occult healing did not simply survive but thrived in the face of modern science and technology.

- by Frederick Shih-Chung Chen
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- Buddhism, Chinese Religions, Sinology, Chinese Buddhism
- by Armin Selbitschka
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- Archaeology, Chinese Philosophy, Zhuangzi, Chinese Studies
- by Benjamin Brose
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- Japanese Religions, Chinese Religions, Zen Buddhism, Chan/Zen Buddhism

This set of four articles, focusing on cases in Hong Kong, offer rich materials for studying the evolution of ritual practices in Chinese religion, within a local social context. Scholarship on Daoism and Chinese religion has identified a number of broad categories of religious specialist and organization: the non-monastic “householder priests” 活居道士 typically of the Zhengyi 正一 order, and other, “vernacular” ritual masters; the monastic Daoist monks of the Quanzhen 全真 order; lay spirit-writing groups often called “phoenix halls” 鸞堂; salvationist movements and redemptive societies, and so on. Each of these represents a specific type of religious lineage and organization, and of relationship between religious professionals and lay clients and practitioners. But these categorizations are merely convenient abstractions: as these four articles show, the boundaries between them are blurred, negotiated, and evolving. Over time, a single group may evolve from one type to another, or one type of group may replace another as the dominant provider of a specific set of local rituals. The content and significance of rituals also evolves within a shifting ecology of religious providers, community organizations, socio-political contexts and spacial transformations.

- by David Alexander Palmer
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- Chinese Studies, Daoism, Chinese Religions, Hong Kong

This essay investigates three transmissions of esoteric movement from the perspective that the religious, theatrical, and martial arts of China are a single subject. This is a comparative and speculative exploration of personal practice contextualized by current scholarship. The practices we examine are healing exercises (daoyin) as taught by American Daoist and Buddhist initiate Liu Ming (1947-- 2015), those taught by American martial arts and yoga teacher Paulie Zink (b. 1954), as well as Himalayan Rigdzin Trulkhor transmitted by the Tibetan Buddhist sage Jigmé Lingpa (1729-1798) in the 18th century. We selected these practices for both systemic and phenomenological reasons: they have strong structural similarities, they treat the body in correlate ways and their effects on the practitioner are similar.

- by Daniel Mroz
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- Theatre Studies, Daoism, Chinese Religions, Yoga, Himalayas, Tibet
- by Paul R Goldin
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- Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Religions, Doctrine of Creation, Early China
- by James A Benn
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- Daoism, Chinese Religions, Daoist studies
- by Jan Erik Christensen
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- Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Religions, Environmental Ethics, Confucianism
- by David Vanderper
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- Geology, Chinese Studies, Chinese Religions, Geobiology

""This paper examines convergent discourses of cure, health and transcendence in fourth century Daoist scriptures. The therapeutic massages, inner awareness and visualisation practices described here are from a collection of revelations which became the founding documents for Shangqing (Upper Clarity) Daoism, one of the most influential sects of its time. Although formal theories organised these practices so that salvation superseded curing, in practice they were used together. This blending was achieved through a series of textual features and synæsthesic practices intended to address existential and bodily crises simultaneously. This paper shows how therapeutic interests were fundamental to soteriology, and how salvation informed therapy, thus drawing attention to the entanglements of religion and medicine in early medieval China.""

- by Michael Stanley-Baker 徐源
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- History of Religion, History of Medicine, Daoism, Chinese Religions
- by Don Seeman
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- History of Science and Technology, Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Classics