Spirit-Writing and the Development of Chinese Cults
Chinese spirit-writing, like other forms of shamanism, is one route to authority and influence during social crisis. The writings discussed here were produced by a spirit-medium who founded a cult during the plagues and political turmoil in China in the 1890s. Such material is valuable for understan...
| VerfasserInnen: | ; |
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Oxford Univ. Press
1998
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Jahr: 1998, Band: 59, Heft: 4, Seiten: 309-328 |
| Online Zugang: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallele Ausgabe: | Nicht-Elektronisch
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| Zusammenfassung: | Chinese spirit-writing, like other forms of shamanism, is one route to authority and influence during social crisis. The writings discussed here were produced by a spirit-medium who founded a cult during the plagues and political turmoil in China in the 1890s. Such material is valuable for understanding how the medium defines his/her mission, attracts and impresses followers, deals with group problems, and responds to the socio-political conditions of the time. This method of revelation was abandoned, however, after the spirit-writer's cult was relocated to Hong Kong and gained a mass following, in favor of the alternative method of “fortune-sticks” and fortune poems. The former divination method is ideal for the origins of such a cult; the latter, for mass worship in the metropolis. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3712120 |