Taoist Ritual & Popular Cults of Southeast China (Princeton Legacy Library) - Hardcover

Dean, Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691074178 ISBN 13: 9780691074177

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Most commentators imagine contemporary China to be monolithic, atheistic, and materialist, and wholly divorced from its earlier customs, but Kenneth Dean combines evidence from historical texts and extensive fieldwork to reveal an entirely different picture. Since 1979, when the Chinese government relaxed some of its most stringent controls on religion, villagers in the isolated areas of Southeast China have maintained an "underground" effort to restore traditional rituals and local cults.

Originally published in 1993.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

About this title

Review

"This excellent study, among its other virtues, makes one outstanding contribution to religious studies: it provides ethnographic reporting of local religious practices in the People's Republic of China (PRC). . . . Probably the most sophisticated study of contemporary popular Chinese religion that has yet appeared."--Alan Hunter, Sociology of Religion

"This excellent . . . book breaks new ground in several interrelated areas: its combination of fieldwork with the collection and study of texts and inscriptions, the inclusive, community-wide base of local religious practices, the role of Daoist priests in a community religion, detailed case studies of the development of popular deities, and the revival of religious festivals in China in the mid-1980s."--Daniel L. Overmyer, Pacific Affairs

"Dean has made a major contribution to our understanding of Chinese religion. . . . As an expert tour-guide, eyewitness reporter, archivist, historical interpreter, textual translator, and semiologist, he constructs a valuable multifaceted view of some old and continuously developing religious phenomena."--Scott Davis, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs

Synopsis

Explores how villagers in the isolated areas of southeast China have attempted to restore traditional rituals and cults despite the Chinese government's suppression of religious practices. The author argues that Taoist ritual provides the structure for this religious revival.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691074178
• ISBN 13: 9780691074177
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304