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- Title
Spirit-Writing and Salvation: The Development of the Ming-Qing Daoist Spirit-Writing Cults of Lüzu and Related Literati Spirit-Writing Altars.
- Authors
Lai Chi Tim
- Abstract
Since the mid-Ming period, Lüzu's 呂祖 (or Ancestor Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓) spirit-writing cult has been so popular within the Daoist milieu that it was regarded as the mainstream development of Daoism in the past few centuries. This paper focuses on exploring the overall development of Lüzu's spirit-writing cult from the late Ming Wanli reign (1573-1620) to the Qing Jiaqing reign (1796-1820) . The present study shows that Lüzu's spirit-writing cult in this specified period was characterized by four religious features in general. This research is based on the extant collections of multiple Lüzu scriptures that emerged from Lüzu's spirit-writing altars throughout China from the Ming Wanli period to the Qing dynasty. A holistic perspective is adopted to arrange and analyze these collected materials so as to explore the general historical context in which Lüzu's spirit-writing cult developed in the Ming-Qing era and to study the related literati spirit-writing groups. Besides, through investigating how devotees of Lüzu's spiritwriting altars in different places continuously built up Lüzu's spirit-writing cult, this paper reveals how Lüzu's celestial status and divine connotations had been promoted and expanded continually at these altars during the period 1573-1820. It is worth noting that the literature involved in this part of discussion includes nineteen pieces of "Lüzu gao" 呂祖誥 (Lüzu's Spirit-altar Proclamations) the author gathered from different editions of Lüzu quanshu 呂祖全書 (Complete Writings of Ancestor Lüzu) . Lastly, this paper will discuss the underlying reason why the Qing imperial court conferred on Lüzu the title "Xieyuan Zanyun Chunyang Yanzheng Jinghua Fuyou Dijun" 燮元贊運純陽演正警化孚佑帝君 and included him in the official worship in the ninth year of the Jiaqing reign, which led to an empire-wide worship (tongsi 通祀) of Lüzu as ordained by the Ministry of Rites. The author concludes that the worship of Lüzu at the official and local levels in the Qing dynasty was the result of a boom in the popularity of Lüzu's spirit-writing cult during the period 1573-1820.
- Subjects
CHINA; CULTS; QING dynasty, China, 1644-1912; SALVATION; TAOISM; SPIRITS; ORDINATION; WORSHIP
- Publication
Daoism: Religion, History & Society, 2020, Issue 12/13, p1
- ISSN
2075-2776
- Publication type
Article