Vincent Goossaert

The late imperial-educated Chinese interacted with a very large array of gods through various means, especially spirit-writing, for which we have abundant detailed records. While a few prominent gods have been studied in this context, there are currently no comprehensive studies of the connections between humans and gods. Using the records of thirteen different spirit-writing altars in various parts of the Chinese world between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, this paper maps the 478 gods involved using standard social network analysis visualizations, and identifies the types of gods that played central roles (connecting many different gods and humans) and those that had fewer, more exclusive sociabilities.

Un ouvrage collectif sur la fabrique des saints en Chine au 20e siecle: comment une societe en voie de secularisation a t-elle continue a produire un grand nombre de leaders religieux, veneres par leurs adeptes, et a qui on accorde des pouvoirs extraordinaires? Le volume rassemble douze figures de saints (bouddhiques, taoistes, issues des societes redemptrices et autres) dont il compara les mecanismes de production de la saintete.

Notre contribution porte sur l'articulation entre disciplines, aires culturelles et thématiques de recherche. Historiens et sinologues, notre expérience de chercheurs, au GSRL, est ancrée dans les études classiques parmi une équipe de sciences sociales des religions dont le centre de gravité est, à l'origine européen. Le cas chinois permet de faire état des apports réciproques sur les plans institutionnel, méthodologique et épistémologique et des blocages et des angles morts du dialogue inter-aréal.

Scholars of Chinese “popular religion” in the largest sense (including those reviewed in the present essay) have long complained that fieldwork-based studies are massively skewed to southeastern China, and that generalizations and models worked from these studies misrepresent actual practices in north China. Whereas fieldwork seemed very difficult in most of north China up to the 1990s, and few local scholars were attracted to the topic, the situation has changed dramatically over the last fifteen years or so. A recent flourish of major publications has been directly addressing this imbalance, making a large amount of primary material available and trying to de-southernize, as it were, our understanding of Chinese religion. This essay will begin with presenting and briefly discussing three major recent books that all take the above issue as their core question, before trying to engage with them, along with

... 87 Rebecca Nedostup 張倩雯 4. Heretical Doctrines, Reactionary Secret Societies, Evil Cults: Labeling Heterodoxy in Twentieth-Century China 113 David A. Palmer 宗樹人 5. Animal Spirits, Karmic Retribution, Falungong, and the State 135 Benjamin Penny 裴凝 ...

Throughout the 20th century, Chinese religion has undergone a process of massive destruction, which historiography has so far largely ignored. Traditional relations between the state, society and religion broke down around 1898. This break led within a few decades to the destruction of most Chinese temples. The western notion of “religion” upon which both Nationalist and Communist China built their religious policies separated legitimate forms of religion (world religions) from local cults considered as folklore and superstition. The author outlines the political and intellectual history of this process of partition and selective destruction, and then attempts to evaluate the role of the science of religions in the current reinvention of religion in China.

... un type de discours assez précisément identifiable qui entretient des rapports complexes avec ceux générés par les conflits inter-religieux ... soins et lors des rituels familiaux. ... insiste d'ailleurs sur l'importance d'un espoir dans le rapport direct, sans médiation, au sacré, «qui sous ...

Throughout the 20th century, Chinese religion has undergone a process of massive destruction, which historiography has so far largely ignored. Traditional relations between the state, society and religion broke down around 1898. This break led within a few decades to the destruction of most Chinese temples. The western notion of “religion” upon which both Nationalist and Communist China built their religious policies separated legitimate forms of religion (world religions) from local cults considered as folklore and superstition. The author outlines the political and intellectual history of this process of partition and selective destruction, and then attempts to evaluate the role of the science of religions in the current reinvention of religion in China.

... 4 Les paragraphes qui suivent reprennent Goossaert, Interdit du bœuf, chap. 1. ... Les groupes dévotionnels variés, désormais rassemblés par l'État sous le terme générique de Bailian 白蓮 (Lotus Blanc), connaissent à partir du XVIe siècle de nouvelles transformations dans leur ...

On July 10, 1898, the reformist leader Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858–1927) memorialized the throne proposing that all academies and temples in China, with the exception of those included in registers of state sacrifices (sidian 祀典), be turned into schools. The Guangxu emperor was so pleased with the proposal that he promulgated an edict (shangyu 上諭) the same day taking over Kang’s phrasing. On three occasions in the following weeks, the editorial in the famous Shanghai daily Shenbao 申報 discussed the edict not as a piece of legislation aiming at facilitating the creation ex nihilo of a nationwide network of public schools, but as the declaration of a religious reform, that is, a change in religious policy that would rid China of temple cults and their specialists, Buddhists, Taoists, and spirit-mediums. This it was, indeed, although both Chinese and Western historiography have so far usually neglected to appreciate the importance of the religious element in the so-called Wuxu reforms (June 11–September 21, 1898) and later modernist policies. This importance, as we will see, can be gauged both in the writings of some of the reformist leaders, and among the populations concerned by the practical consequences.

... 3–16. Paris: EFEO. Nedostup, Rebecca Allyn (2001) 'Religion, Superstition, and Governing Society in Nationalist China', PhD dissertation, Columbia University. Overmyer, Daniel, ed. (2003) Religion in China Today (The China Quarterly Special Issues, New Series 3), no. ...

... un 6chec. Pittman insiste d'ailleurs sur le sentiment d'6chec qui anima Taixu et ses disciples. Le ... en Chine ? >>, Renouveaux religieux en Asie, Catherine CLIMENTIN-OJHA, ed., Paris, EFEO, 1997 (Etudes th6matiques, 6), pp. 61 ...

In China's early-modern period (11th-14th centuries), a large number of divine codes (guilü 鬼律, or tianlü 天律) were revealed to adepts in the context of the new exorcistic ritual traditions (daofa 道法) of that period. Their texts prescribed how humans and spirits should behave; and laid out the mechanisms of divine punishments in case of any breach. After introducing the corpus of these codes, the article explores the moral charter they outline for priests. It argues that this moral discourse is contiguous with that of a genre called morality books (shanshu 善書), and shows how priestly codes gradually entered general circulation and thereby became morality books. An important link between the two genres is spirit-writing. During the early-modern period priests used spirit-writing for producing ritual documents (including moral exhortations from the gods), but later the technique became generalized and was used to mass-produce morality books. keywords: Daoism, morality books, spirit writing, daofa, exorcistic rituals, heavenly codes

This article explores the living Wutong cult in the Suzhou area. In continuation with its long history, this spirit-possession cult still has fortune-bringing and exorcistic dimensions. The authors combine historical and ethnographic approaches to the Wutong beliefs with a focus on the pilgrimage to cult’s centre at Shangfangshan (a sacred
site in Suzhou) and the domestic worship of the Wutong in the Changshu area. This provides us with a perspective on this cult as built by ritual specialists and common believers. In both forms of worship, the baojuan storytelling is actively employed, and the Baojuan of the Grand Dowager (transmitted as manuscripts) thus appears as a key scripture of local beliefs. With the analysis of textual and ethnographic evidence, we move beyond the established argument about these infamous deities, which consists of questioning whether the Wutong are essentially immoral, and to what extent the attempts at taming and standardizing them have succeeded. We uncover the ambiguity of the Wutong, who are presented as dangerous and kind at the same time in the local sources. The scriptures of the cult, notably the Baojuan of the Grand Dowager, acknowledge this ambiguity, which underpins the gods’ power, and develop ritual means to deal with it.

From the late Ming onwards, the intense production of spiritwritten texts, and morality books in particular, resulted in the circulation of a huge amount of religious literature. This led to various processes of canonization. This article examines one of the results of such processes, namely the publication of short compendiums
of essential religious knowledge, oriented toward individual practice, that have circulated in Chinese society since the late eighteenth century, and that I call piety books. I first define this genre, introduce several examples published during the early nineteenth century, and then discuss the type of piety that these books recommended and articulated, organized around daily spiritual exercises.

this article synthesizes the discourse on animals in Chinese morality books (shanshu) and focuses on the 19th century revelations where care for animal life is understood in eschatological terms (apocalyptical wars understood as divine punition for humans' slaughtering of animals).

summary of my 2012-2013 research seminar. Two themes: 1/ The history of the Heavenly Master. We focused on reading the Tiantan yuge 天壇玉格 (grades for ordaining people) as well as texts related to the canonization of gods to understand the bureaucratic logioc of the institution's management of living and dead souls. 2/ "morality books, divine justice, and eschatology" : we set out to outline the historical development of eschatological texts revealed through spirit-writing from the Song to the modern period.

In recent years, both scholars and the general public have become increasingly fascinated by the role of religion in modern Chinese life. However, the bulk of attention has been devoted to changes caused by the repression of the Maoist era and subsequent religious revival.
The Fifty Years That Changed Chinese Religion breaks new ground by
systematically demonstrating that equally important transformative processes occurred during the period covering the last decade of the Qing dynasty and the entire Republican period. Focusing on Shanghai and Zhejiang, this book delves in depth into the real-life workings of social structures, religious practices and personal commitments as they evolved during this period of wrenching changes. At the same time, it goes further than the existing literature in terms of theoretical models and comparative perspectives, notably with other Asian countries such as Korea and Japan.

Ce numéro rassemble sous le titre Vies taoïstes : communautés et lieux un choix des communications présentées au colloque international Vies taoïstes, organisé en septembre 2015 à l'occasion du quatre-vingtième anniversaire de Kristofer Schipper 1. En hommage à l'oeuvre de ce pionnier des études taoïstes, ont participé au colloque vingt-sept chercheurs venus d'Asie, d'Amérique du Nord et d'Europe. Le thème choisi était celui des multiples façons par lesquelles le taoïsme a façonné les vies des individus et celles des communautés dans le monde chinois au cours de l'his-toire : les biographies taoïstes, mais aussi la poursuite de la bonne vie, qui doit être longue et accomplie, guidée par des principes moraux qui portent leurs fruits dans ce monde comme dans l'autre. Plusieurs des communications ont porté sur les vies de taoïstes éminents, et d'autres sur les carrières d'individus ou de groupes dédiés aux pratiques, croyances et engagements taoïstes. Les lieux saints tels que les temples, les grottes-ciel ou les refuges naturels sont des sites privilégiés pour mener une vie idéale. Aussi, il était approprié que le colloque se tienne dans le village alpin d'Aussois (Savoie), un lieu particulièrement à même de favoriser des débats intenses autant qu'informels et d'encourager la réflexion sur les vies taoïstes en rapport avec l'environnement naturel. Un atelier du colloque était consacré aux théories et pratiques taoïstes de la protection de l'environnement. Ses résultats font l'objet d'une publication en langue chinoise 2. La première partie de ce volume rassemble des contributions explorant les lignages et ordres religieux taoïstes. Vincent Goossaert (École Pratique des Hautes Études) propose une étude de la vie de Zhang Yuchu 張宇初 (1361-1410), le 43 e Maître céleste, éditeur du Canon taoïste des Ming, et une personnalité majeure des premiers règnes de cette dynastie. Son analyse distingue quatre aspects de la vie de ce grand digni-taire : sa fonction de maître céleste, son intense vie lettrée et sa production écrite, ses pratiques de perfectionnement de soi, et sa gestion, depuis le Longhu shan 龍虎山 d'un réseau d'ordination à l'échelle de l'empire. L'article de Pierre Marsone (École Pratique des Hautes Études) est consacré à la carrière du patriarche Quanzhen Yin Zhiping 尹志平 (1169-1251). Sur la base d'une analyse approfondie de toutes les sources existantes sur la vie de Yin et de celles de son successeur, Li Zhichang 李志常 (1193-1256), Marsone met en exergue des contradictions concernant la question de cette succession. Ensuite Lai Chi Tim 黎志添 (Chinese University of Hong Kong) étudie les rapports entre les pratiques rituelles et dévotionnelles taoïstes et l'alchimie intérieure autour du cas du Taiyi jinhua zongzhi 太乙金華宗旨 (Doctrine de la fleur d'or de l'Un suprême), l'un des textes alchimiques les plus influents de l'époque des Qing. Il retrace l'origine de ce texte qui fut produit par une branche locale de l'école Jingming 淨明 au tournant des dynasties Ming et Qing, organisée comme groupe de pratique d'écriture inspirée autour de Pan Jingguan 潘靜觀 à Changzhou 常州

This special issue of Cahiers d'Extreme Asie entitled "Vies taoïstes : communautés et lieux / Daoist Lives: Community and Place" gathers ten articles that were first presented at the International Conference "Daoist Lives" in honor of Kristofer Schipper (Aussois, 2015)

Chinese theology of the netherworld: visions of the dead in Yuli baochao (19th c.). Abstract: The term gui 鬼, often translated as « ghost » does not correspond to the Christian/Western concept of ghost. In Chinese culture, all human beings, after they die, are separated into distinct entities: the corpse and the more spiritual elements (“souls”), called gui as long as they have not reached a ontological status (reincarnation, divinization, etc.). All humans thus become gui, as a rule temporarily. This distinction is key to understanding any discourse on gui. Theological productions on the nature of gui and their evolution are very numerous throughout Chinese history; this article is devoted to a late such production (likely dating from the turn of the 19th century) but extremely common and influential in modern and contemporary Chinese societies, the Yuli baochao 玉歷寶鈔, “Precious manuscript of the Jade Calendar”.
This text presents five forms of posthumous destiny: reincarnation; recruitment in the staff of the vast infernal bureaucracy; divinization (notably for heroes killed on the battlefield or for a just cause); the eternal inferno Avīci (reserved to the worst sinners); annihilation and transformation into a specter. It is also remarkable by what is not mentioned (Buddhist paradise, ancestralization), and by the mechanism of control over the gui so as to limit their relations with the living and thus the very ghosts stories that are dealt with in this volume.

Bureaucratie et salut (Bureaucracy & salvation) argues that the aspiration to become a god (divinization) has since late antiquity played a key role in Chinese religious, intellectual and cultural history. While families work at transforming their dead into ancestors, individuals tend to rather prefer divinization for themselves, and often take steps in that direction while alive. The two main ways to divinization are 1/ salvation through self-cultivation and 2/ gaining initial access in the divine bureaucracy. While the first has remained elitist, the second gradually opened to all and sundry, most remarkably as a consequence of the religious changes of early modernity (10th-13th centuries). Becoming an otherworldly bureaucrat has become in modern time the main way to saving oneself from postmortem suffering and oblivion, and this book surveys the various ways available to reach that goal as practiced in late imperial times. This leads the author to reflect upon the intimate connection between two categories not often examined in tandem: bureaucracy and salvation.

This edited volume explores how a society facing anti-superstition and anti-religion movements such as 20th-century China could still produce large numbers of religious leaders venerated by their followers as saints. It compares twelve figures of saints (Buddhists, Daoists, Confucians, redemptive society leaders), describe their careers and analyses the procedures for sanctifying them.