Spirit-Writing and the Daoyuanâs Gendered Teachings

Xia Shi

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ChapterÂ 11 Spirit-Writing and the Daoyuanâs Gendered Teachings

äºCommunicating with the Gods

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Xia Shi

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Page Range:: 402â443

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004677906_012

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Abstract

The Daoyuan éé¢, a major religious and charitable organization in Republican China, used the ritual of spirit-writing to instruct its female members on various issues related to self-cultivation. An investigation of those deitiesâ exhortations can bring a much-needed gendered perspective to the twentieth-century history of spirit writing, revealing how this powerful medium was regularly applied to give authoritative instructions to their female members, most of whom were domestic-focused, relatively older married women without (modern) educations, who joined the organization along with their husbands to seek spiritual salvation. Often written in colloquial language more accessible to women, these instructions redefined Confucian gender doctrines to accommodate the challenges of modern gender ideologies and promoted charity as an alternative method to accumulate religious merit over those âsuperstitiousâ activities long favored by the female populace. Therefore, the Daoyuanâs use of spirit writing did not merely aim to seek deitiesâ protection and blessings to avoid personal calamities, which had been a common pursuit among many âsecret societiesâ and sectarian religious groups in Chinese history. It had a broader mission to save the crisis of the world and edify society through reconstructing gendered morality in a period of social flux and instability.

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Communicating with the Gods

Spirit-Writing in Chinese History and Society

ä¸ç¼ï¼ Prognostication in History, å·ï¼ 11

ISBN:: 9789004677906

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 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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PDFä¸è½½æ¬¡æ°	14	5	0

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ChapterÂ 11 Spirit-Writing and the Daoyuanâs Gendered Teachings

Abstract

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