Paperback: 283 pages
Publisher: Routledge; 2nd Revised edition edition (March 11, 2001)
The institution of local festivals and temples is not as well known as that of ancestor worship, but it is just as much a universal fact of Chinese life. Its content is an imperial me
Students of anthropology will be intrigued. This is not a religion of a Book. Nor is it one of the named religions of China. Popular religion includes some elements of both Buddhism and the former imperial cults, more of Daoism, but it is identifiable with none of them. It is popular in the sense of being local and true of the China of the Han, or Chinese-speaking people, where every place had or has its local cults and the festivals peculiar to them. Its rites, in particular offerings of incense and fire, suggest a concept of religion. It is quite different from theories of religion based on doctrine and belief.
Contents
Preface v
Acknowledgements x
1 History, identification and belief 1
2 The annual apocalypse 27
3 Official and local cults 63
4 Local festivals and their cults 95
5 The incense-burner: communication and deference 133
6 Daoism and its clients 159
7 Ang Gong, or the truth of puppets 191
8 The politics of religion and political ritual 211
Notes 247
References 255
Glossary 265
Index 275
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