NEW PUBLICATIONS IN 2013

 

Arami, Hiroshi, “The Tun-huang Su-chiang chuang-yen hui-hsiang wen and Transformation Texts.” Acta Asiatica no.105 (2013): 81-100.

 

Berezkin, Rostislav. “On the Survival of the Traditional Ritualized Performance Art in Modern China: A Case of Telling Scriptures by Yu Dingjun in Shanghu Town Area of Changshu City.” Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore/Min-su ch’ü-i 181 (2013): 167-222.

 

Berezkin, Rostislav. “From Imperial Metaphor to Rebellious Deities: The History and Modern State of Western Studies of Chinese Popular Religion.” Sino-Platonic Papers, no.243 (2013). For free download at http://www.sino-platonic.org/.

 

Berezkin, Rostislav. “A Rare Early Manuscript of the Mulian Story in the Baojuan (Precious Scroll) Genre Preserved in Russia, and Its Place in the History of the Genre.” CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 32.2 (2013): 109-131.

 

Berezkin, Rostislav. “The Transformation of Historical Material in Religious Storytelling: The Story of Huang Chao (d. 884) in the Baojuan of Mulian Rescuing His Mother in Three Rebirths.” Late Imperial China 34, no.2 (2013): 83-133.

 

Berezkin, Rostislav. "The Connection between the Cults of Local Deities and Baojuan (Precious Scrolls) Texts in Changshu County of Jiangsu: with Baojuan Performed in the Gangkou Area of Zhangjiagang City as Examples." Monumenta Serica 61 (2013): 73-111.

 

Berezkin, Rostislav and Vincent Goossaert. “The Three Mao Lords in Modern Jiangnan: Cult and Pilgrimage between Daoism and baojuan Recitation.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 99 (2012-13): 295-326.

 

Berndt, Andreas. “Heiligkeitskonzeptionen im spätkaiserlichen China: Die Drachenkönige (longwang) im Spiegel zweier Werke der traditionellen Literatur.” In Sakralität und Sakralisierung: Perspektiven des Heiligen, ed. Andrea Beck & Andreas Berndt. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2013. Pp. 141-175.

 

Bujard, Marianne. “Construction, organisation et histoire du territoire liturgique de la Dame du Yaoshan.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 99 (2012-13): 228-293.

 

Bumbacher, Stephan Peter. Empowered Writing: Exorcistic and Apotropaic Rituals in Medieval China. St. Petersburg, FL: Three Pines Press, 2013.

Abstract: Empowered Writing explores the inherent powers of Chinese talismans, petitions, registers, and holy scriptures, presenting a systematic study of their exorcistic and apotropaic properties. The book divides into three parts: tallies, petitions, and scriptures—all inherently empowered since they originate from the very same primordial energy as Dao, the heavens, and highest gods. Tallies emerge as certificates of legitimation, used both in the imperial government and in religion. Petitions and registers, on the other hand, are writings addressed to higher ranking spirits to control demons, disease, and misfortunes. Scriptures, third, contain power even in their physical presence: entrained with superior spiritual beings, they can exorcize evil spirits and negative energies. This feature holds also true in Buddhism, where the readers of sutras can count on the support of unseen guardian buddhas and bodhisattvas. Using a vast arsenal of original sources, the book traces the unfolding and transformation of empowered writing from the Warring States period through the Six Dynasties, closely examining the different kinds of writing, their uses, and interpretation as well as relating uniquely Daoist features to imperial and Buddhist usages. The book is pathbreaking in its endeavor and stunning in its depth of analyis. It is a must for all China historians and scholars of religion. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Burnett, Charles. “East (and South) Asian Traditions in Astrology and Divination as Viewed from the West.” Extrême-Orient/Extrême-Occident 35 (2013): 285-293.

Cai, Jiehua. “Li Hai und der Affengeist des Xiyang ji.” In Studien zum Roman Sanbao taijian Xiyang ji tongsu yanyi, vol.2 (Maritime Asia, vol. 24), edited by Shi Ping & Roderich Ptak, 123-139. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; Shanghai: Shanghai Zheng He yanjiu zhongxin, 2013.

Abstract: Xiyang ji contains several short episodes that frame the longest and central section of the novel, namely Zheng He’s voyage through the Indian Ocean. Symbolically, as well as in terms of space, these segments mark the transition from the familiar Chinese to the unknown foreign world. One story in this “transitional segment” deals with a certain Li Hai, who drifts to a small island (evidently located in the Yangzi estuary), where he is saved by the local spirit – an old monkey mother – and her children (chs. 19 and 20). The monkey spirit becomes Li’s consort. In the end Li kills a giant snake and obtains a “night-glooming pearl” (yemingzhu). When the fleet returns to China he joins Zheng He and accompanies to the imperial capital where the pearl is pre-sented to the emperor. The article examines the internal structure of the Li Hai story, its unusual symbolism and the remarkable role of the monkey spirit. It also compares this multi-facetted episode to other narrations on the relations between monkeys and humans.

 

Chan, Margaret. “The Spirit-mediums of Singkawang: Performing 'Peoplehood'.” In Chinese Indonesians Reassessed: History, Religion and Belonging, ed. Siew-Min Sai & Chang-Yau Hoon. London; New York, NY: Routledge, 2013. Pp. 138-157.

 

Chau, Adam Yuet. "A Different Kind of Religious Diversity: Ritual Service Providers and Consumers in China." In: Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought, ed. by Perry Schmidt-Leukel & Joachim Gentz, 141-154. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

 

Chau, Adam Yuet. “Religious Subjectification: The Practice of Cherishing Written Characters and Being a Ciji (Tzu Chi) Person.” In: Chinese Popular Religion: Linking Fieldwork and Theory: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Sinology. Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2013. Pp.75-113.

Abstract: When looking at a particular religious tradition we can heuristically distinguish two crucial aspects. One aspect is the system of ideas, symbols, and ritual practices that make up this particular religious tradition. The other aspect is the mechanisms through which people mobilize this system of ideas, symbols, and ritual practices and are in turn mobilized by it. This second aspect we can call religious subjectification, i.e., how a certain kind of person (i.e. religious subject) is made through the dynamic interaction between “the system” and “the individual.” Religious subjectification as a model for understanding religious life works best when we look at religious initiatives that consciously aim at transforming people’s thinking and behavior and thus interpellating people into particular kinds of religious subjects. In this article I will use two cases to illustrate this kind of formation of religious subjects: the practice of cherishing written characters and lettered paper (xizizhi) and “being a Ciji person” (zuo cijiren). (Source: article)

 

Chen, Frederick Shih-Chung. "Who are the Eight Kings in the Samadhi-Sutra of Liberation Through Purification? Otherworld Bureaucrats in India and China." Asia Major 3rd series, 26, pt.1 (2013): 55-78

 

Chia, Jack Meng-Tat. “A Recent Quest for Religious Roots: The Revival of the Guangze Zunwang Cult and Its Sino-Southeast Asian Networks, 1978-2009.” Journal of Chinese Religions 41.2 (2013): 91-123.

Abstract: This article examines issues surrounding the revival of the cult of Guangze Zunwang and its religious networks between Southeast China and the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore from 1978 to 2009. It reveals that the quest of overseas Chinese for the religious roots of Guangze Zunwang’s cult has contributed to the rebuilding of the Shishan Fengshan Si in particular and the cult’s sacred sites in general. The resurgence of diasporic religious networks has facilitated the transnational movement of financial resources and allowed overseas Chinese to make regular pilgrimages and participate in the cult’s religious activities in China. I argue that, on the one hand, this renewal of religious ties, which has led to the proliferation of pilgrimages and religious excursions to the cult’s sacred sites in China, and expeditions from China to Malaysia and Singapore, has benefited both the Shishan Fengshan Si and the overseas temples; on the other hand, it led to religious competition and inter-temple rivalries between the different principal sites of the cult in China. (Source: journal)

 

Clart, Philip. “’Religious Ecology’ as a New Model for the Study of Religious Diversity in China.” In: Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought, ed. by Perry Schmidt-Leukel & Joachim Gentz, 187-199. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

 

Cooper, Eugene. “Market, Popular Culture, and Popular Religion in Contemporary China: The Market / Temple Fairs of Jinhua.” In Asian Popular Culture in Transition, ed. Lorna Fitzsimmons & John A. Lent, 15-37. London; New York: Routledge, 2013.

 

Goossaert, Vincent. “La sexualité dans les livres de morale chinois,” in Normes religieuses et genre. Mutations, résistances et reconfiguration, xixe- xxie siècle, ed. Florence Rochefort & Maria Eleonora Sanna, 37-46. Paris, Armand Colin, 2013.

 

Goossaert, Vincent. “A Question of Control: Licensing Local Ritual Specialists in Jiangnan, 1850-1950.” In Xinyang, shijian yu wenhua tiaoshi. Proceeding of the Fourth International Sinology Conference. Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2013. Pp. 569-604.

 

Goossaert, Vincent. "The Local Politics of Festivals: Hangzhou, 1850-1950." Daoism: Religion, History & Society 5 (2013): 57-80.

 

Goossaert, Vincent. "A quel point les Chinois sont-ils sortis de la religion? Quelques réflexions à partir de la vie religieuse locale au Jiangnan." Monde chinois nouvelle Asie 35 (n° spécial « A propos de la sortie de la religion en Chine… »), 2013, pp. 62-66.

 

Halperin, Mark. „Case Studies in Efficacy: A Reading of Shenxian ganyu zhuan.“ Journal of Chinese Religions 41, no.1 (2013): 1-24.

 

Homola, Stéphanie. "La relation de maître à disciple en question: transmission orale et écrite des savoirs divinatoires en Chine et à Taiwan." Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident 35 (2013): 11-43.

Abstract: This paper explores two contrasting modes of transmission of divinatory knowledge in contemporary Taiwan and mainland China. One is built on the academic model which emphasizes written communication and the other one on the teacher to student relationship which favors oral transmission. In Taiwan, faced with the declining quality of teaching and the multiplication of schools of thought, divinatory arts specialists tried to reform their knowledge and teaching methods to make them fit with the scientific requirements of contemporary society. This endeavor which had already been launched in mainland China in the Republican era, resulted in Taiwan in a boom of popular handbooks and a standardization of training. Then, I qualify this evolution through a case study conducted in mainland China which, on the contrary, highlights the importance of personal relationship and orality in the transfer of mantic techniques. In this context, methods and know-how are taught through predestined affinities, initiatory journeys and legends. (Source: journal)

 

Homola, Stéphanie. “Pursue Good Fortune and Avoid Calamity: The Practice and Status of Divination in Contemporary Taiwan.” Journal of Chinese Religions 41.2 (2013): 124-147.

Abstract: This article describes divination practices and analyses the evolution of their status in contemporary Taiwan. Unlike classical studies on divination, which focus on fortune tellers and aim to explain the symbolic system on which divination is based, this research carries out an ethnography of clients’ practices.1 Thus, in the first part of the article, I put divination practices in the context of the clients’ life stories and commitments of daily life to underline how they are led to consult, and how they process divination results. In the second part, I rely on the historical factors that have shaped the social status of divination as “superstition” from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards, and on the development of scholarly studies of divination, to account for the current evolution of its meaning in Taiwanese society. Indeed, Taiwanese social science researchers have shown a growing interest in this subject, particularly in the context of the “indigenization movement” (bentuhua), which advocates a new approach to the study of divination practices. (Source: journal)

 

Hong, Jeehee. “Exorcism from the Streets to the Tomb: An Image of the Judge and Minions in the Xuanhua Liao Tomb No.7.” Archives of Asian Art 63 (2013): 1-25.

 

Hu, Baozhu; Ptak, Roderich. "A Mid-Ming Pamphlet against Tianfei: Notes on Zhu Zhe's Tianfei bian." Monumenta Serica 61 (2013): 51-72.

 

Hua Zhiya. "Renao (Heat-noise), Deities' Efficacy, and Temple Festivals in Central and Southern Hebei Province." Cambridge Journal of China Studies 8, no.3-4 (2013): 1-18.

Abstract: There is a tradition of holding temple festivals in villages in central and southern Hebei Province. This tradition was once suspended after the establishment of P.R.C., but it revived and thrived after the reform and opening-up. Temple festivals are a kind of renao (heat-noise) events in rural life, and the organizers of temple festivals pursue the effect of renao as much as possible. Renao is a popular life condition welcomed by people; meanwhile, it can be regarded as an important exterior indicator of the efficacy of deities. Hence holding temple festivals and make renao at them provides an opportunity not only for people to experience and enjoy renao, but to acknowledge, publicize, and even produce the efficacy of deities. These sacred and secular rewards can partly account for the enduring resilience and vitality of the local tradition of holding temple festivals. (Source: journal)

 

Huang, Shih-ju. "Religious Experiences of Taiwanese I-Kuan Tao and Buddho-Daoism." In Religious Experience in Contemporary Taiwan and China, ed. Yen-zen Tsai. Taipei: Chengchi University Press, 2013. Pp. 91-104.

 

Jackson, Paul Allen. “Logographic Elements of Daoist Religious Language: A Case Study of Two Temples in Southern Taiwan.” Huaren zongjiao yanjiu/Studies in Chinese Religions 1(2013): 135-173.

 

Katz, Paul R. „Repaying a Nuo Vow in Western Hunan: A Rite of Trans-Hybridity.“ Taiwan renleixue kan 11, no.2 (2013): 1-88.

 

Koo, Hui-Wen. “Worship Associations in Taiwan.” Australian Economic History Review 53.1 (2013): 1-21.

Abstract: We analyse why Taiwanese families during the Ch'ing Dynasty still held communal assets vested in worship associations (chi ssu kung yeh) even after the division of family assets. Our analysis shows that worship associations benefitted the living as well as the dead. Although the high cost of managing common assets meant the associations were established infrequently, they arose often in a response to clan feuds and served as martial-style corporations for the protection of family property before the twentieth century. (Source: journal)

 

Laing, Ellen Johnston. “’Living Wealth Gods’ in the Chinese Popular Print Tradition.” Artibus Asiae 73, no.2 (2013): 343-363.

 

Lim, Chee-Han. “Migration as a Spiritual Pathway: Narratives of Chinese Falungong Practitioners in Singapore.” Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 14.1 (2013): 57-70.

 

Liu, Yonghua. Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers: Ritual Change and Social Transformation in a Southeastern Chinese Community, 1368-1949. Religion in Chinese Societies, vol.6. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

Abstract: In Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers, Yonghua Liu presents a detailed study of how a southeastern Chinese community experienced and responded to the process whereby Confucian rituals - previously thought unfit for practice by commoners - were adopted in the Chinese countryside and became an integral part of village culture, from the mid fourteenth to mid twentieth centuries. The book examines the important but understudied ritual specialists, masters of rites (lisheng), and their ritual handbooks while showing their crucial role in the ritual life of Chinese villagers. This discussion of lisheng and their rituals deepens our understanding of the ritual aspect of popular Confucianism and sheds new light on social and cultural transformations in late imperial China. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Llamas, Regina. “A Reassessment of the Place of Shamanism in the Origins of the Chinese Theater.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 133, no.1 (2013): 93-109.

 

Lo, Yuet Keung. "Indeterminacy in Meaning: Religious Syncretism and Dynastic Historiography in the Shannüren zhuan." Gender and History 25, no.3 (2013): 461-476.

 

Masuo Shin'ichiro; Elacqua, Joseph P., tr. “Chinese Religion and the Formation of Onmyodo.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 40, no.1 (2013): 19-43.

 

Menegon, Eugenio. “European and Chinese Controversies over Rituals: A Seventeenth-Century Genealogy of Chinese Religion.” In Devising Order: Socio-Religious Models, Rituals, and the Performativity of Practice, edited by Bruno Boute and Thomas Småberg, 193–222. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

 

Meyer, Christian. "Religionspolitik und die Transformation des religiösen Feldes in der Volksrepublik China am Beispiel Falun Gong - Gibt es eine neue ‚Religionspolitik chinesischen Typs’?" In Religion und Politik im gegenwärtigen Asien Konvergenzen und Divergenzen, edited by Edith Franke und Katja Triplett, 141-165. Berlin: Lit-Verlag, 2013.

 

Olles, Volker. Ritual Words: Daoist Liturgy and the Confucian Liumen Tradition in Sichuan Province. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013.

Abstract: The Qing dynasty scholar Liu Yuan (1768-1856) developed a unique system of thought, merging Confucian learning with ideas and practices from Daoism and Buddhism, and was eventually venerated as the founding patriarch of an influential movement combining the characteristics of a scholarly circle and a religious society. Liu Yuan, a native of Sichuan, was an outstanding Confucian scholar whose teachings were commonly referred to as Liumen (Liu School). Assisted by his close disciples, Liu edited a Daoist ritual canon titled Fayan huizuan (Compendium of Ritual Words). Daoist priests affiliated with the Liumen community and using the Fayan huizuan canon in their rituals constituted an independent liturgical branch of Daoism, which is still extant and known under the name of “Fayan tan” (Altar of Ritual Words). Following a comprehensive description of the Liumen tradition, the volume by Volker Olles discusses the compilation history of the Fayan huizuan canon, the lineage of the Fayan tan priests, as well as the temporal framework of their liturgy. The main part of the volume consists of a detailed study of the ritual canon, identifying its textual sources and describing its pantheon, the influence of the Liumen ideology on its texts, as well as the function and performance of its rituals in contemporary religious practice. Furthermore concluding thoughts about the Fayan tan tradition’s role in present-day Sichuan constitute the epilogue. By showing how members of the Confucian elite were involved in the evolution of modern Daoism, this study sheds light on hitherto obscure or poorly understood aspects of the intellectual and spiritual culture of Southwest China. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Olles, Volker. “Der Wahre Mensch von der Smaragdgrotte. Teil I einer Reihe kommentierter Übersetzungen von fünf Inschriften aus der Liumen-Tradition in der daoistischen Anthologie Chongkan Daozang jiyao.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 163.2 (2013): 485-504.

 

Overmyer, Daniel L. “Local Religion in North China in the Twentieth Century: The Structure and Organization of Community Rituals and Beliefs.” Zongjiao renleixue / Anthropology of Religion 4 (2013): 3-24.

 

Paper, Jordan. “A New Approach to Understanding Chinese Religions.” Huaren zongjiao yanjiu/Studies in Chinese Religions 1(2013): 1-33.

 

Paton, Michael John. Five Classics of Fengshui: Chinese Spiritual Geography in Historical and Environmental Perspective. Sinica Leidensia, vol.110. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

Abstract: In Five Classics of Fengshui Michael Paton traces the theoretical development of this form of spiritual geography through full translations of major texts: the Burial Classic of Qing Wu, Book of Burial, Yellow Emperor’s Classic of House Siting, Twenty Four Difficult Problems, and Water Dragon Classic. This theoretical development is analysed through the lens of history, philosophy and sociology of science in an attempt to address Joseph Needham’s conundrum of the "great beauty of the siting" in traditional China being based of such a “grossly superstitious system” and to understand what part fengshui played in the environmental history of China. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Pankenier, David W. Astrology and Cosmology in Early China: Conforming Earth to Heaven. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Abstract: The ancient Chinese were profoundly influenced by the Sun, Moon and stars, making persistent efforts to mirror astral phenomena in shaping their civilization. In this pioneering text, David W. Pankenier introduces readers to a seriously understudied field, illustrating how astronomy shaped the culture of China from the very beginning and how it influenced areas as disparate as art, architecture, calendrical science, myth, technology, and political and military decision-making. As elsewhere in the ancient world, there was no positive distinction between astronomy and astrology in ancient China, and so astrology, or more precisely, astral omenology, is a principal focus of the book. Drawing on a broad range of sources, including archaeological discoveries, classical texts, inscriptions and paleography, this thought-provoking book documents the role of astronomical phenomena in the development of the 'Celestial Empire' from the late Neolithic through the late imperial period. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Raphals, Lisa. Divination and Prediction in Early China and Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Abstract: Divination was an important and distinctive aspect of religion in both ancient China and ancient Greece, and this book will provide the first systematic account and analysis of the two side by side. Who practised divination in these cultures and who consulted it? What kind of questions did they ask, and what methods were used to answer those questions? As well as these practical aspects, Lisa Raphals also examines divination as a subject of rhetorical and political narratives, and its role in the development of systematic philosophical and scientific inquiry. She explores too the important similarities, differences and synergies between Greek and Chinese divinatory systems, providing important comparative evidence to reassess Greek oracular divination. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Rawson, Jessica. “Ordering the Exotic: Ritual Practices in the Late Western and Early Eastern Zhou.” Artibus Asiae 73, no.1 (2013): 5-76.

 

Reiter, Florian C., ed., Theory and Reality of Feng Shui in Architecture and Landscape Art. Asien- und Afrika-Studien der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, vol. 41. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013.

Abstract: Feng Shui is a practical reality that is rooted in Chinese life, merging the spiritual potential of human existence in life and death. The art of Feng Shui is not confined to houses but is also connected with landscape art. This fact becomes especially evident in traditional temple architecture and locations of Buddhist caves and statues that dot the scenery in Sichuan province and other locations. The volume, edited by Florian C. Reiter, presents the results of a symposium held in 2012, that assembled specialists to discuss theoretical and practical aspects of Feng Shui. Some analysis in the present volume shows the inseparable connection between the ancestors, the graveyards, and the housing for the ancestry at the home altars in residential quarters. It appears that the element of a religious connotation in building practice is a condition that characterizes genuine Feng Shui and must be considered by customers and architects. Some contributions show that comparable elements exist in European building practice, which seems to prove the impact of common notions about human habitation without being due to any intercultural stimulation. With contributions by Gyda Anders, Howard Choy, Huang Lan-Shiang, Michael Y. Mak, Florian C. Reiter, Ellen Van Goethem, Klaas Ruitenbeek, Tsai Sueyling. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Schneewind, Sarah. "Beyond Flattery: Legitimating Political Participation in a Ming Living Shrine." Journal of Asian Studies 72, no.2 (2013): 345-366.

 

Sheng Kai. “The Different Faces of Nezha in Modern Chinese Culture.” Archiv orientální 81, no.3 (2013): 391-410.

 

Smith, Richard J. Mapping China and Managing the World: Culture, Cartography and Cosmology in Late Imperial Times. London & New York: Routledge, 2013.

Abstract: From the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE to the present, the Chinese have been preoccupied with the concept of order (zhi). This cultural preoccupation has found expression not only in China’s highly refined bureaucratic institutions and methods of social and economic organization but also in Chinese philosophy, religious and secular ritual, and a number of comprehensive systems for classifying every form of human achievement, as well as all natural and supernatural phenomena. Richard J. Smith’s Mapping China and Managing the World focuses on several crucial devices employed by the Chinese for understanding and ordering their vast and variegated world, which they saw as encompassing "all under Heaven." The book begins with discussions of how the ancient work known as the Yijing (Classic of Changes) and maps of "the world" became two prominent means by which the Chinese in imperial times (221 BCE to 1912) managed space and time. Smith goes on to show how ritual (li) served as a powerful tool for overcoming disorder, structuring Chinese society, and maintaining dynastic legitimacy. He then develops the idea that just as the Chinese classics and histories ordered the past, and ritual ordered the present, so divination ordered the future. The book concludes by emphasizing the enduring relevance of the Yijing in Chinese intellectual and cultural life as well as its place in the history of Sino-foreign interactions. (Source: publisher's website)

 

Stevens, Keith. "Temple Dedicated to Emperor Yao in Yaocheng, Shanxi." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch 53 (2013): 135-151.

 

Stevens, Keith. "Fox Spirits (Huli)." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch 53 (2013): 153-165.

 

Sun, Jiang; Wu, Guo, tr. “The Predicament of a Redemptive Religion: the Red Swastika Society under the Rule of Manchukuo.” Journal of Modern Chinese History 7.1 (2013): 108-126.

 

Szekeres, András Márk. "Early Roots of Chinese Astrological Thinking in the Religious Belief of Di." Studia Orientalia Slovaca 12, no.2 (2013): 207-226.

 

Tsai, Yen-zen. “How Syncretic is Taiwanese Religion?” Huaren zongjiao yanjiu/Studies in Chinese Religions 2(2013): 37-65.

 

Tsai, Yi-jia. “Taiwanese People’s Cultural-Psychological Images of Gods and Divine Power.” Huaren zongjiao yanjiu/Studies in Chinese Religions 2(2013): 101-133.

 

Weiß, Katrin. “Lishan laomu im Xiyang ji.” In Studien zum Roman Sanbao taijian Xiyang ji tongsu yanyi, vol.2 (Maritime Asia, vol. 24), edited by Shi Ping & Roderich Ptak, 107-121. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; Shanghai: Shanghai Zheng He yanjiu zhongxin, 2013.

Abstract: In the Java segment of Xiyang ji Zheng He and his men are drawn into heavy conflicts that involve several female figures with supernatural powers: Wang Shengu, Huomu and Lishan laomu. They all belong to the Daoist world. The conflict is solved through the joint efforts of Guanyin, commonly associated with Buddhism, and the Jade Emperor, who belongs to the Daoist pantheon. While there is mutual understanding in the supreme spheres of “Heaven”, the “earthly” contest between Buddhism and Daoism, as represented through the rivalry between Jin Bifeng and Zhang Tianshi, remains a recurrent theme in the novel. It is largely against this background that the article analyses the role and story of Lishan laomu, her presentation in earlier texts, certain common features she seems to share with Nüwa, and possible influences of her description in Xiyang ji on later works such as the Fan Lihua quanzhuan.

 

Witt, Barbara. “General unter Jiang Ziya, göttlicher Beistand für Jin Bifeng: Der Himmelskönig Li im Fengshen yanyi und Xiyang ji.” In Studien zum Roman Sanbao taijian Xiyang ji tongsu yanyi, vol.2 (Maritime Asia, vol. 24), edited by Shi Ping & Roderich Ptak, 141-163. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; Shanghai: Shanghai Zheng He yanjiu zhongxin, 2013.

Abstract: The “Heavenly King Li” (Li tianwang) – also known as the “Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King” (Tuo ta tianwang), or Li Jing, etc. –, belongs to the Daoist pantheon. He appears in several popular narratives such as Fengshen yanyi and Xiyang ji – often together with his son Nezha san taizi. Usually they are portrayed as powerful, yet minor military characters with no individual traits, and they are instrumentalized by nominal leaders of different backgrounds, such as Jiang Ziya, Jin Bifeng, and others. The present paper outlines the historical roots of Li and then turns to his role in both novels. In each case – and that also includes another book, Xiyou ji – Li and his son are “adjusted” to the specific conditions of the narrative. To understand why this is so, one has to examine individual scenes and the functional dimensions of the major characters in these works. This kind of comparative approach permits us to draw several conclusions in regard to minor figures in different types of traditional novels.

 

Woolley, Nathan. "The Many Boats to Yangzhou: Purpose and Variation in Religious Records of the Tang." Asia Major 3rd series, 26, pt.2 (2013): 59-88.

 

Yang, Yu. "Chinese Zhima Plates Held in Russian Collections, Part II, God of Wealth." Manuscripta Orientalia: International Journal for Oriental Manuscript Research 19, no.2 (Dec 2013): 26-30.

 

Yu, Minghua. "Folk Religion and Religious Experience in Taiwan." In Religious Experience in Contemporary Taiwan and China, ed. Yen-zen Tsai. Taipei: Chengchi University Press, 2013. Pp. 41-57.

 

Yue Yongyi. "The Equality of Kowtow: Bodily Practices and Mentality of the Zushiye Belief." Cambridge Journal of China Studies 8, no.1 (2013): 1-20.

Abstract: Although the Zushiye (Grand Masters) belief is in some degree similar with the Worship of Ancestors, it obviously has its own characteristics. Before the mid-twentieth century, the belief of King Zhuang of Zhou (696BC-682BC), the Zushiye of many talking and singing sectors, shows that except for the group cult, the Zushiye belief which is bodily practiced in the form of kowtow as a basic action also dispersed in the group everyday life system, including acknowledging a master (Baishi), art-learning (Xueyi), marriage, performance, identity censorship (Pandao) and master-apprentice relationship, etc. Furthermore, the Zushiye belief is not only an explicit rite but also an implicit one: a thinking symbol of the entire society, special groups and the individuals, and a method to express the self and the world in inter-group communication. The Zushiye belief is not only “the nature of mind” or “the mentality”, but also a metaphor of ideas and eagerness for equality, as well as relevant behaviors. (Source: journal)

 

Zhang, Zhenjun. "From Demonic to Karmic Retribution: Changing Concepts of bao in Early Medieval China as Seen in the You ming lu." Acta Orientalia 66, no.3 (2013): 267-287

 

Zhou Yiqun. “The Status of Mothers in the Early Chinese Mourning System.” T’oung pao 99, no.1-3 (2013): 1-52.