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The first major reassessment of ancient Chinese religion to appear in recent years, this book presents the religious mentality of the period through personal and daily experiences.
This book is the first major reassessment of ancient Chinese religion to appear in recent years. It provides a historical investigation of broadly shared religious beliefs and goals in ancient China from the earliest period to the end of the Han Dynasty. The author makes use of recently acquired archeological data, traditional texts, and modern scholarly work from China, Japan, and the West. The overall concern of this book is to try to reach the religious mentality of the ancient Chinese in the context of personal and daily experiences. Poo deals with such problems as the definition of religion, the popular/elite controversy in methodology, and the use of "elite" documents in the study of ordinary life.
"In many ways, this is a revolutionary book—in terms of its focus on the 'common' religion of everyday life and its discussion of the overlap and interaction between the 'elite' and 'common' levels of religion in early imperial China—and will be controversial in the best sense of the expression. There is nothing on ancient Chinese religion (in any language) that is quite like Poo's book. It is truly pioneering in this respect." — N. J. Girardot, Lehigh University
"One of the most illuminating studies on early Chinese religion I have read in a long time, it is well written, cogently argued, and based upon impeccable research. Poo has been able to make use of the great mass of new archaeological material that has been accumulating through the last two or three decades in China and Japan, and he has also mastered the best Western scholarship on Chinese religion. His grasp of both sets of materials is pertinent, accurate, and fascinating. I frankly think that anyone interested in Chinese religion would want to buy this book. I believe it will become something of a standard reference." — John Berthrong, author of All Under Heaven: Transforming Paradigms in Confucian-Christian Dialogue
List of Figures
Preface
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
Toward a History of the Everyday, Personal Religion of Ancient China
Religion and Extra-human Powers: Working Definitions
The Popular-Religion Paradigm in Earlier Research and Theory
The Sources
2. Roots of a Religion of Personal Welfare
Prelude
The Religion of the Shang People
The Religion of the Chou People
3. Personal Welfare in the Context of Mantic Technique
Omens
Divination
Witchcraft and Exorcism
Ghosts and Spirits
Souls, Spirits, and the Abode of the Dead
Summary
4. Newly Discovered Daybooks and Everyday Religion
The Jih-shu or Daybooks
Elements of Religion in the Classic of Mountains and Seas
Jih-shu and Shan-hai-ching: Dealing with Domestic and Foreign Environments
5. Emperors, Courtiers, and the Development of Official Cults
The Establishment of the Official Cult of the Ch'in Empire
The Establishment of the Han Official Cult
Personal Factors and Official Religion
Reassessing Han Official Religion
Conclusion
6. Beliefs and Practices in Everyday Life of the Han Dynasty
Religious Activities Related to the Agricultural Cycle
Religious Activities Related to the Life Cycle
Religious Activities in Everyday Life
Local Cults
Omens and Portents
7. Immortality, Soul, and the Netherworld
The Conceptions of Immortality and Soul
Further Development of the Idea of the Netherworld
Social Change, the Development of Burial Styles, and the Idea of the Netherworld
8. Popular Religiosity and Its Critics
Literacy and the Commoners
Intellectuals as Critics of Popular Religion and Local Cults
Intellectuals as Reformers of Popular Religion
Intellectuals as Participants in Popular Religion
9. Conclusion
The Nature of Extra-Human Powers
Belief in a Correlative Cosmological Order
Death and the Netherworld
Apotheosis
Piety and Happiness
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index