Society and the Supernatural in Song China / / Edward L. Davis.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Davis, Edward L.,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2001]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2001
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (368 p.)

Society and the Supernatural in Song China is at once a meticulous examination of spirit possession and exorcism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and a social history of the full panoply of China's religious practices and practitioners at the moment when she was poised to dominate the world economy. Although the Song dynasty (960-1276) is often identified with the establishment of Confucian orthodoxy, Edward Davis demonstrates the renewed vitality of the dynasty's Taoist, Buddhist, and local religious traditions. He charts the rise of hundreds of new temple-cults and the lineages of clerical exorcists and vernacular priests; the increasingly competitive interaction among all practitioners of therapeutic ritual; and the wide social range of their patrons and clients.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Therapeutic Movements in the Song: Texts -- 3. New Therapeutic Movements in the Song: Practitioners -- 4. The Cult of the Black Killer -- 5. The Daoist Ritual Master and Child-Mediums -- 6. Tantric Exorcists and Child-Mediums -- 7. Daoist Priests, Confucian Literati, and Child-Mediums -- 8. Spirit-Possession and the Grateful Dead: Daoist and Buddhist Mortuary Ritual in the Song -- 9. The Syncretic Field of Chinese Religion -- Appendix: Huanglu jiao and Shuilu zhai -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author