Women, Goddesses, and Gender Affinity in Spirit-Writing

Elena Valussi

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Chapter 4 Women, Goddesses, and Gender Affinity in Spirit-Writing

In: Communicating with the Gods

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Elena Valussi

Elena Valussi
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 133–168

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004677906_005

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Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the presence of women and goddesses in spirit-writing circles from the earliest materials available to us, in an effort to make women in this tradition more visible, and their activities more acknowledged. I wish to explore the role of actual women within spirit-writing circles, the role of goddesses as communicators and transmitters of texts, and the gender-specific connection established between women and goddesses during this transmission. I also wish to render the implicit gender roles of male and female divinities more explicit in the context of spirit-writing transmission. The history of spirit-writing, and especially of women’s presence within it, is far from complete so I will shift between periods, regions, types of literature, and social contexts, in order to provide an initial introduction to this topic. The last part of the chapter will focus more specifically on the transmission of spirit written texts at the core of the tradition of self-cultivation for women called female alchemy (nüdan 女丹).

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Communicating with the Gods

Spirit-Writing in Chinese History and Society

Series: Prognostication in History, Volume: 11

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004677906

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 25 Sep 2023

Subjects
- Asian Studies
  - East Asia
  - China
  - Religion
  - Philosophy
- Religious Studies
  - Religion in Asia

Front Matter

Part 1 Overview Papers

Part 2 Changing Techniques and Practices

Part 3 Spirit-Writing and the Literati Elites in Late Imperial China

Part 4 Spirit-Writing and Redemptive Societies

Part 5 Local Communities and Transregional Networks

Back Matter

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Chapter 4 Women, Goddesses, and Gender Affinity in Spirit-Writing

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Communicating with the Gods

Spirit-Writing in Chinese History and Society

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