Social Science Research Council

"How to Subjugate a God: the 'Banner-Writing Invocation of General Yin' in Contemporary China"

Since the economic boom and the liberalization of political policies toward religion in the 1980's, Daoist (Taoist) priests have been drawing on ritual traditions that had been suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party since the late 1950's to rebuild the liturgical lives of their communities. Ordinations, exorcisms, and mortuary rites are once again flourishing in much of rural south China. I am exploring the ritual repertoire of one troupe of Daoist priests currently practicing in Hunan Province. Theologically charged music and mythically resonant dance allow the priests to travel in trance to the celestial Golden Palace of the Jade Emperor and offer petitions on behalf of the community. Elaborately written talismans and poetic incantations imbue them with the powers of thunder to quell demons and thereby cure illness. As a student of Daoist ritual, I am trying to understand the theological, social, and medical assumptions that allow performance and literature to come together to heal the community of its demonic afflictions. As a student of Chinese religious history, I am trying to turn up evidence that the Daoist priests from this region are heirs of a liturgical movement called Thunder Rites, which flourished in south China during the religious and social ferment of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).