The Continent of the Gods
It first occurred to me some thirty years ago that Shenzhou 神州, translated “continent of the gods,” was a perfect way of talking about “China in the Daoist mirror.” It made it possible to think of China as a series of concentric spaces, going from the self to the cosmos, all structured in the same a...
| Published in: | Review of Religion and Chinese Society |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
[2019]
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| In: |
Review of Religion and Chinese Society
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
China
/ Space
/ Philosophy
/ Confucianism
/ Taoism
/ Buddhism
/ Gods
/ Folk religion
/ Belief in spirits
/ Medium
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| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BM Chinese universism; Confucianism; Taoism |
| Further subjects: | B
popular religion
B spirit-mediums B 地域神祇 B Daoism B 中國 B 道教 B 靈媒 B 民間信仰 B territorial gods |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | It first occurred to me some thirty years ago that Shenzhou 神州, translated “continent of the gods,” was a perfect way of talking about “China in the Daoist mirror.” It made it possible to think of China as a series of concentric spaces, going from the self to the cosmos, all structured in the same away around nodal points occupied by gods. Because it revealed a dense organization at every level, this space-based approach led me as well to call into question the classic distinction between “diffused” and “organized” religion. Subsequent work, both historical and in the field, gradually enabled me to see this as a long evolutionary history which begins with elite attacks on spirit-medium religion in the Warring States and culminates with the emergence of popular religion in the Song. This religion includes popular versions of the Three Teachings, but it is built around the local, anthropomorphic gods whose primary task was the protection of bounded territory and whose natural servants were the ever-maligned spirit-mediums. |
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| ISSN: | 2214-3955 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22143955-00602003 |