The Power of Wish-Vows: Ethics and Ritual Transformation in Buddhist Temples in Contemporary China
Among the most noteworthy practices in Buddhist temples in China today are yuan or wish-vow actions. Wish-vows encompass both wish-making (xuyuan 许愿) and vow-giving (fayuan 发愿), with both modalities embraced by average temple-goers from a general population. Chinese Buddhist liturgies encourage ritu...
| Auteur principal: | |
|---|---|
| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Publié: |
2023
|
| Dans: |
Material religion
Année: 2023, Volume: 19, Numéro: 3, Pages: 211-235 |
| Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
China
/ Buddhisme
/ Supplication
/ Rituel
/ Fonction sociale
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociologie des religions AF Géographie religieuse AG Vie religieuse BL Bouddhisme KBM Asie TK Époque contemporaine |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Self-transformation
B Ethics B Rituel B wish-making B vowing B Chinese Buddhism B temple religions |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Résumé: | Among the most noteworthy practices in Buddhist temples in China today are yuan or wish-vow actions. Wish-vows encompass both wish-making (xuyuan 许愿) and vow-giving (fayuan 发愿), with both modalities embraced by average temple-goers from a general population. Chinese Buddhist liturgies encourage ritual performers to adopt a bodhisattva stance, wishing/vowing for the well-being of all beings. This introduces an ethical dimension to yuan performances. This paper analyzes the continuity in practice between wish-making and vow-giving, exploring how popular and Buddhist understandings of ritual entangle and how ritual generates meaningful narratives for practitioners. The article shows how the human pursuit of ritual effects and ethical self-transformation are not contradictory but rather complementary processes. Considering this Chinese ritual situation deepens our comprehension of votive practices in syncretic religious traditions. Additionally, it offers a new direction for considering religious potentialities in late socialist societies. Furthermore, it usefully challenges the use of the term “prayer” in Chinese contexts. In this way, the article bridges anthropology, Chinese studies, and religious studies and enhances our conceptual toolkit for studying ongoing human transformation. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Material religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2023.2251356 |