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Rediscovering “Popular Confucianism”: Rujiao 儒教 in Modern Sichuan

「民間儒教」再探索：近代以來四川地區的儒教

In: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Author:
Zhu Mingchuan [aka. 朱 明川] School of Culture, History and Language, The Australian National University Canberra, ACT Australia

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https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2446-4499
Online Publication Date:
31 Jul 2025

Abstract

Since the nineteenth century, a religious tradition known as rujiao has flourished in Southwest China. Its origin in Sichuan is closely associated with the Lord Guan spirit-writing cult in the early Qing dynasty. From the early 1840s, the Qing Emperor’s Sacred Edict was believed to possess spiritual power, and rujiao integrated the imperial decree on Preaching the Sacred Edict into its theology and rituals. Furthermore, four traditional Chinese techniques of receiving revelations were used in combination by rujiao to produce scriptures and popularize the Sacred Edict. By transforming the Sacred Edict into a religious practice, rujiao not only secured support from local communities but also shaped subsequent popular religious movements.

摘要

十九世纪以来，中國西南地區活躍著一種自稱為「儒教」的宗教。四川地區的儒教與清代初期以來的關帝扶乩崇拜關聯密切。在 1840 年代之后，儒教相信清朝皇帝的聖諭具有靈力，将清政府的聖諭宣講政策融入了自身的神學與儀式。此外，儒教同時提倡傳統中國宗教中四種獲得啟示的手段，將它們整合為一套綜合方法，用于創造新的經卷和聖諭宣講的相關文本。儒教將聖諭宗教化的創舉不但使自身獲得地方社會的支持，也影響到了之後的民間宗教運動。
Keywords: rujiao; Confucian altar (rutan); Preaching the Sacred Edict (shengyu xuanjiang); revelation; 儒教; 儒壇; 聖諭宣講; 啟示

In his fieldwork in Sichuan in the 1930s and 1940s, the American missionary and anthropologist David C. Graham (1884–1961) discovered a religion called rujiao 儒教 (ru teachings) and the related organization rutan 儒壇, literally “ru altar” (Graham 1935:422, 486). He noted that this organization had become well-developed by the first half of the twentieth century:

Whether or not this religion spread from Szechwan into adjoining provinces, and when and by whom it was originated, I have never been able to learn. Certain it is that it grew steadily during the days of the Republic, until it had temples in most of the cities of Szechwan. In 1928 there was one temple in I-pin, with a population of 100,000, and in 1948 there were three. A nearby city with a population of 10,000 had one temple. In 1948 Chengtu, with a population of over 600,000, had seven Ju T’an temples. … The word ju means Confucian or the literati. The Confucian religion is often called the Ju Chiao, and thus the Ju T’an borrowed the prestige of the literati or the Confucian scholars. (Graham 1961:104)1

Among “three-religions-in-one” groups from the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was common to drew on Confucianism as a source of doctrine and thought. However, it was uncommon for them to identify themselves using the term ru. Thus, Graham’s discovery was particularly important. Graham returned to the United States in 1948 during the Chinese civil war, and his records of the rutan were not published until after his death in 1961. This may be why his discovery did not receive the attention it deserved.

In addition, most late twentieth-century scholars with related interests tended to ask questions such as “Was Confucianism a religion?” or, less strongly, “Can Confucianism be regarded as a religion?” The focus of these discussions was not on the religious practices of Confucianism, but on doctrine or philosophical teachings. By the twenty-first century, however, a considerable number of mainland Chinese scholars were willing to acknowledge that Confucianism had indeed appeared as a distinctive form of religion in Chinese history.2 By contrast, during the same period, scholars from outside mainland China examined the varieties of “Confucianism as a religion” from the perspective of local practice based on their investigations in Taiwan.3 In recent years, “Confucianism as a religion” has become a topic of interest in academic research, and several anthologies that address this theme have appeared. The subjects of these collections range from early twentieth-century sectarian movements, redemptive societies, and spirit-writing altars to contemporary Confucian temples, ancestral shrine rituals, and the recent phenomena of the “revival of traditional culture” in mainland China.4 It is important to note, however, that these phenomena were given the label “Confucianism” or rujiao by researchers. In other words, in these cases, the category “Confucianism as a religion” is not a self-identification. While scholars bestowed the label rujiao on their subjects, few have paid attention to actual historical instances where groups explicitly identified themselves in this way.5

The “Ju Chiao” documented by Graham continued to exist in China after he left, and indeed into the communist period, but it failed to receive much academic attention. In mainland China, only two scholars, both focusing on folk performance and music, conducted investigations and interviews into contemporary manifestations of rujiao in Sichuan. In 1995, during a field trip to Liangping County 梁平縣 in eastern Sichuan, folk opera researcher Yu Yi (1996) observed a local religious group holding ceremonies for the mid-spring and mid-autumn festivals, exorcisms, and funerals. They enshrined Lord Guan (Guan gong 關公, i.e., Guan Yu 關羽), and they identified themselves as rujiao. The scripture they used was entitled Draft of the Sacred Teachings (Shengjiao wengao 聖教文稿). More recently, Gan Shaocheng 甘绍成 (2013), who researches Daoist music in Sichuan, interviewed an elderly man who had joined a rutan in Chengdu before 1949. Gan learned that during the early Republican Period there were several rujiao groups in Chengdu, that rujiao was also called the “Sacred Teachings” (shengjiao 聖教), and that Guan Yu was their main deity.6 These two cases demonstrate that the “Ju Chiao” recorded by Graham maintained its presence in Sichuan.

In 2017, I encountered a rutan in Dazhou 達州 in northeastern Sichuan and found that this altar was using a copy of Shengjiao wengao published in the late Qing Dynasty. Subsequently, in 2019, I observed rutan in Mianyang 綿陽, in northwest Sichuan, who also used Shengjiao wengao. As a result of these discoveries, I started to collect different editions of Shengjiao wengao and located editions published in various provinces over the past two centuries, including Sichuan, Yunnan, and Shaanxi in the west, and Henan, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei in central China. The widespread presence of this text across different regions suggests that the “Ju Chiao” documented by Graham was not limited to Sichuan. Furthermore, it indicates that the rujiao found across China was influenced by, or even originated from, the same tradition.

Shengjiao wengao 聖教文稿 and the Early History of rutan in Sichuan

The relevant texts of Shengjiao wengao I have collected were all published after 1850. Thus, it is hard to conclude when Shengjiao wengao was composed, or when rujiao and rutan emerged in Sichuan.7 During the late Qing dynasty, Shengjiao wengao had been revised and reprinted across different regions. Among these various editions, the earliest preface of Shengjiao wengao was compiled by Patriarch Lü 呂祖 in Mingyue Township 明月鄉 in Guang’an 廣安 in 1849, transcribed by Mr. Ran of the Peixian Studio 培賢齋冉氏. Although I do not find the original text of the preface in the 1849 edition, the preface was preserved in subsequent editions, where it became known as the “original preface” 原序. Later in 1855 and 1856, another two prefaces were composed in the Peixian Studio; one was for Shengjiao wengao, and the other for the Selection of the Sacred Scriptures (Shengjing zhaiyao 聖經摘要). During their ceremonies, for different occasions and stages, rutan people chant relevant scriptures in Shengjing zhaiyao, and they compose liturgical documents based on the guidance in Shengjiao wengao, producing a variety of types including bang 榜 (placards), shu 疏 (communication documents), die 牒 (mandates), and biao 表 (petitions).

According to an 1883 preface, the Shengjiao wengao originally appeared in eastern Sichuan and consisted of two volumes; this refers to the edition with the preface in 1849 in Guang’an. Over time the text grew, and a five-volume edition appeared and gained popularity. The five-volume edition printed in the 1860s bore the title prefix xinzuan 新纂 (newly compiled). I found one version of Xinzuan shengjiao wengao published in 1865 in Yunyang County 雲陽縣, eastern Sichuan; another in 1868 in Dongxiang County 東鄉縣 (now Xuanhan County 宣漢縣) in northeastern Sichuan; and yet another in 1869 in Xingshan County 興山縣 in west Hubei. In 1883, the five-volume edition was published in Mianyang, northwestern Sichuan, and in Hanzhong 漢中 in Shaanxi, which borders on Sichuan to the south. After 1902, a six-volume edition was composed in Hubei and became popular in Hunan and Jiangxi. By the Republican era, an eight-volume edition had emerged in Huili 會理, the southernmost county in Sichuan. In this article, I will mainly discuss the five-volume edition.

What rituals did the rutan conduct? Examining the content of Shengjiao wengao, the ritual activities performed by the rutan encompassed many aspects of people’s religious life. They included celebrations of the anniversaries of deities in different temples, sacrifices in connection with agriculture for villages and local communities, individual and family-focused rituals for seeking blessings and warding off disasters, and funerals (Figure 1). The comprehensive nature of these rituals allowed rutan to replace Buddhism or Daoism in some counties and towns, monopolizing the local market in ritual services.

rutan priests in a home funeral ceremony, 2023
Figure 1

rutan priests in a home funeral ceremony, 2023

Citation: Review of Religion and Chinese Society 11, 2 (2024) ; 10.1163/22143955-12340027

Photo: author

The foreword (juanshou 卷首) provides significant information about the origin of this text and the history of rutan. The rules and regulations outlined there clearly contributed to creating homogeneity in the ritual activities of the altars in different regions.

Shengjiao wengao is closely related to the worship of Guan Yu (also known as Wusheng dijun 武聖帝君, the Martial and Saintly Imperial Lord, Shengdi 聖帝 the Saintly Emperor, or Guandi 關帝 Emperor Guan). In the section of the foreword entitled “Regulations for Chanting Scriptures” (Songjing guili 誦經規例), the Saintly Emperor is recorded as having observed the “coagulation of black qi” 黑氣凝結 and recognized it as the sign of a forthcoming calamity. This was apparently the result of the extreme decay of the Three Religions, so he established the “Orthodox Teachings of the Three Saints” (sanjiao zhengjiao 三聖正教). As the Saintly Emperor dwelled in the Palace of Purple Mist (zixia gong 紫霞宮), the various prayers and rituals are known collectively as the Superior Offerings of the Purple Mist (Zixia shengjiao 紫霞勝醮). To this day, in Sichuan, followers of rujiao also call their teachings shengjiao, and the rutan are sometimes called Altars of the Purple Mist (Zixia tan 紫霞壇).

The section of the foreword entitled “Examples and Models of Petitions and Memorials” (Zhushu biaoshi 祝疏表式) states that the petition documents used for the morning and evening rituals were composed by Celestial Lord Gao (Gao tianjun 高天君) at the command of the Saintly Emperor. In recent years, Wang Chien-chuan (2021) discovered that Celestial Lord Gao originated from a spirit-writing altar in Jiading 嘉定 (near Suzhou in Jiangsu Province) in 1725. The term “Offerings of the Purple Mist” (Zixia jiao 紫霞醮) had already appeared by that time in a spirit-written text. With the materials we have at present it is not possible to determine how this religious tradition spread from eastern China to Sichuan.

The rituals in Shengjiao wengao and Shengjing zhaiyao were called “scripture recitations” (songjing 誦經). The “Regulations for Setting Up Offerings” (Jianjiao yize 建醮儀則) in the foreword claim that the “method of reciting the scriptures” was created by the deities and saints for redemption, which is as important as “preaching [the Sacred Edict]” (誦經法門，係神聖救劫而設，與宣講並重).8 The “Regulations for Setting Up Offerings,” however, then note that people ought to engage in both tasks. If people devote themselves exclusively to the songjing, then there is no difference between them and Buddhist monks or Daoist priests. This would betray the painstaking efforts of the deities and saints toward redemption, which would inevitably incur their reproach (勿徒口誦以襲僧道故態，是沒神聖救劫苦心，必遭譴責). This indicates that before Shengjiao wengao introduced other various rituals as supplements, preaching the Sacred Edict was the core business and the previous method used for the redemption of rutan.

Takeuchi Fusaji (1990) discovered that beginning around 1840, a new religious trend emerged in Southwest China, combining spirit-writing (fuluan 扶鸞) with preaching the Sacred Edict. Many popular religious groups at the time were simultaneously engaged in both activities. This may help explain the rise of rutan during the period. I will analyze these matters in subsequent sections. The significant event in 1840 was known as “Spreading the Teachings in the Gengzi Year at Longnü Temple” (Longnü si gengzi chanjiao 龍女寺庚子闡教) among popular religious groups. It was said that in the Gengzi year (February 3, 1840–January 22, 1841), Lord Guan descended at Longnü Temple to teach people how to rescue themselves during the upcoming great catastrophe. Longnü Temple was in Dingyuan County 定遠縣 (now Wusheng County 武勝縣, located southwest of the prefecture-level city of Guang’an), in eastern Sichuan. To date, the only text confirmed to have been produced by Longnü Temple is the Explication of Lord Guan’s Scripture Illuminating Saintliness (Guandi mingsheng jing zhushi 關帝明聖經注釋), which was composed in the twelfth month of the Gengzi year [December 24, 1840–January 22, 1841]. I have not located an original edition of this text. Fortunately, due to its importance, it has been revised and reprinted many times, and the three prefaces of the 1841 edition have been preserved. These prefaces record that Hu Yintian 胡印田, a Confucian scholar from Dingyuan County, was asked by a student whose surname was Zhao 趙, from Hechuan County 合川縣 (near Dingyuan County), to annotate Lord Guan’s Scripture Illuminating Saintliness. After Hu finished, the draft was sent to Longnü Temple in the winter of 1840–1841. Lord Guan ordered Celestial Lord Gao to revise it before it was published. It should be noted that Celestial Lord Gao, the deity of Lord Guan’s altar in 1725, appears in the Longnü Temple text in 1840. Also, in Shengjiao wengao and Shengjing zhaiyao, published later by the rutan, Celestial Lord Gao’s revelation was listed in the first volume. This indicates a strong relationship between the 1840 Longnü Temple Event and later generations of adherents of the rutan. Besides, Hu Yintian and the four members of the Zhao family who appear in the preface all have religious names. These names differ structurally from Buddhist or Daoist ones and were very likely conferred upon them by the rutan through spirit-writing.9 Therefore, at least by 1840, Longnü Temple was already being operated by people associated with rutan.

Celestial Lord Gao spent three days on his work, and he also composed one of the three prefaces. This preface expressed the view that moral improvement could rescue humanity. Vincent Goossaert (2014) has shown that during this period many scriptures revealed by spirit-writing proposed a similar soteriology. For the rutan in Sichuan, the most important method of moral reform was preaching the Sacred Edict.

The Transformation of Preaching the Sacred Edict in Late Qing Sichuan

In the early Ming Dynasty, the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 issued the “Six Maxims” (liu yu 六諭) and ordered them to be preached throughout the country.10 The Qing continued this policy, and in 1652, the Shunzhi 順治 emperor ordered the local governments to preach these Six Maxims on the first day and fifteenth day of each lunar month. In 1670, the Kangxi Emperor issued the Sacred Edict (shengyu 聖諭), consisting of sixteen maxims, each seven characters in length and possessing an identical grammatical structure.11

The Sacred Edict reflected Confucian ethical values and was applicable to all people, whether educated or not. In later years, preaching became increasingly common as a means of communicating the Sacred Edict to common people. Adaptations, commentaries, paraphrases, and exegeses began to appear, many of them written in the colloquial language. Groups who participated in preaching the Sacred Edict also diversified. As Yao Chi-On (2008) has shown, preaching the Sacred Edict was no longer solely the activity of governmental authorities. Some religious groups also participated, including emerging popular sects who used their preaching as a means of gaining legitimacy to avoid repression by the government. For example, in Ba County 巴縣 in eastern Sichuan, preaching was a task assigned to the local authorities by the central government. It was held twice a month and took place in the City God Temple 城隍廟 in the town. Local government officials were required to attend and official students (shengyuan 生員) from the prefectural and county schools were designated as preachers. However, the local government was also aware that such activities also took place outside the official realm and was willing to delegate activities associated with preaching the Sacred Edict to the public.

After the disruptions caused by the White Lotus Rebellion (1796–1804) in Sichuan, local officials recognized the limitations of the local bureaucracy. As a result, the responsibility to administer many local matters—including charitable activities related to social relief, as well as preaching the Sacred Edict—was delegated to people in those places. In 1874, the magistrate of Ba County, noting that the Emperors’ twenty-two maxims (that is, Shunzhi’s six and Kangxi’s sixteen) were a valuable means to educate the many domineering and unruly people in his county, stated that “Charitable halls have instituted preaching [the Sacred Edict].”12 Thus, some non-governmental organizations, including charitable halls (shantang 善堂), shared preaching activities with local officials. Undoubtedly, rutan in Sichuan were closely connected with charitable halls. According to records in the 1856 preface of Shengjiao wengao, rutan members who engaged in preaching the Sacred Edict were colloquially referred to as “Charitable Brothers” (shan’ge 善哥). In the late Qing, rujiao in Sichuan was also designated as a “charitable sect” (shanmen 善門), and by the Republican period it had become a “compassionate and charitable association” (cishan hui 慈善會).

The Gengzi year of 1840 marked a significant turning point not only for the popular religious movements described by Takeuchi Fusaji, but also for the transformation of preaching the Sacred Edict. The Qing archives of Ba County show that before 1840, local government decrees urging preaching the Sacred Edict were mainly directed to officials. After 1840, however, the decrees show that while local government encouraged grassroots preaching of the Sacred Edict, they also began to be wary of unofficial preachers “misleading the people with unorthodox teachings” (xiejiao huozhong 邪教惑眾).13 Why were these local organizations, especially religious groups, enthusiastic about preaching the Sacred Edict? In addition to being an attempt to gain legitimacy, preaching the Sacred Edict was believed to be a means of attaining redemption. Also, as with other ritual services, it could bring economic benefits.

According to the theology of the rutan, as noted above, Lord Guan observed the coagulation of black qi and became convinced of the imminent arrival of a calamity caused by the corruption of the Three Religions. Therefore, Lord Guan organized the saints and deities of the Three Religions into a new sect and instructed them to descend to the human world to spread the teachings, transform the morals of the people, and save them from calamity. The primary means of improving morality was preaching the Sacred Edict. From this perspective, the decrees issued by the Qing court tended to confirm the decrees from the deities of the rutan. The Emperors’ maxims, therefore, had a salvational role in their theology.

The fifth volume of Shengjiao wengao contains documents related to preaching the Sacred Edict, such as the “Prayer Document for Preaching [the Sacred Edict]” (xuanjiang zhuwen 宣講祝文) and the “Petition Document for Preaching [the Sacred Edict]” (xuanjiang shuwen 宣講疏文). These describe how the collapse of the five Confucian relationships (wulun 五倫) and the increasing decadence of society are the origin of the imminent calamity. As a result of the disastrous state of society, they continue, saints and the perfected (zhen 真), in their compassion, have interceded on people’s behalf and taught that preaching the Sacred Edict will transform morality and save humanity.

Preaching the Sacred Edict in the Various Rituals of Rutan

In Shengjiao wengao the ultimate goal of preaching the Sacred Edict is to gain salvation. From at least the late nineteenth century, rutan had preached the Sacred Edict. In the vicinity of Mianyang, I found another guide for rituals used by rutan, called “The Superlative Compilation” (xuanqing bian 选青编). The codifier noted that although the contents of Xuanqing bian and the earlier Shengjiao wengao are very similar, the documents in Shengjiao wengao are more colloquial and lengthier, whereas Xuanqing bian employs a more classical style and is shorter, consisting of four volumes instead of five. The earliest edition I have found was printed in 1902, with the front page bearing the inscription “Blocks cut and deposited in the Gui’de shrine, Northern Mianyang 綿北歸德祠刊藏.” The beginning of each volume includes the notice, “Collected, compiled, put in order and supplemented by [Wang] Hanzhi [王]翰之, edited and published by Gui’de Temple members 翰之氏匯纂輯補，歸德祠諸子校刊.” This text also includes a spirit-written preface transcribed by Li Shanjian 李善兼 in 1902 and a guide for readers entitled “Ordinances” (tiaoli 條例) written by Wang Hanzhi, which explains that rutan members from three counties near Mianyang published the book after selecting and simplifying various types of documents used by both rutan and other religious traditions.

Unlike Shengjiao wengao, Xuanqing bian lists “Preaching the Sacred Edict” as an individual category. Under this heading are various prayers for specific problems that all invoke the Sacred Edict. The logic in these prayers is that the problem at issue is caused by the moral laxity of the individual, family, or community. Preaching the Sacred Edict, sometimes repeatedly, will correct the errant behavior which will, in turn, lead to the eradication of the problem. Thus, preaching the Sacred Edict had become an element of normal prayer. A person encountering illnesses, infertility, or other troubles in their life could request preaching the Sacred Edict ceremonies from the rutan to gain merit and receive the blessings of the deities. Xu Xinyu (徐心余, 1866–1934), who traveled through Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty, recorded:

It is the custom in Sichuan Province, when a family member falls ill or encounters misfortune, to make a wish to the deities and authorize several nights’ lecturing on the Sacred Edict.

川省習俗，家人偶有病痛，或遭遇不祥事，則向神前許願， 准說《聖諭》幾夜。(Xu 1985:95)

The transformation of the Sacred Edict into a text that could prevent the upcoming calamity and also help people to overcome various problems in their daily lives turned it into a scripture. As this occurred, the moral instructions of the Sacred Edict became precepts (jie 戒) that every rutan believer had to adhere to.

Tadao Sakai (2010) has demonstrated that in the late Qing many books intended for non-official preachers emerged, such as the Collected Essentials for Preaching [the Sacred Edict] (Xuanjiang jiyao 宣講集要) and A Supplement for Preaching [the Sacred Edict] (Xuanjiang shiyi 宣講拾遺). These were texts that derived from the Sacred Edict, containing commentaries and moral stories for each maxim, intended to make preaching activities more vivid and attractive. They explained that, first, the Shunzhi Emperor’s Six Maxims and the Kangxi Emperor’s Sixteen Maxims were to be recited, followed by a series of precepts composed by the deities, including the “Ten Rules of the Banana Window of Imperial Lord Wenchang” (Wenchang dijun jiaochuang shize 文昌帝君蕉窗十則), the “Twelve Regulations of the Martial Saint and Imperial Lord” (Wusheng dijun shier jiegui 武聖帝君十二戒規), the “Ten Rules of the Family Guide of Imperial Lord Fuyou” (Fuyou dijun jiagui shize 孚佑帝君家規十則), and “The Stove God’s Six Precepts for Men (Six Precepts for Women, appended)” (Zaojun xun nanzi liujie fu nüzi liujie 灶君訓男子六戒附女子 六戒). These precepts are all related to moral rules similar to the content of the Sacred Edict.14

These precepts can be seen as a religious manifestation of the Sacred Edict, giving the government decree a theological effect. Just as becoming a Buddhist monk or a Daoist priest requires getting the Certificate of Ordination (jiedie 戒牒) and adhering to the corresponding precepts, the same applies to the rutan. Those converting to the rujiao were asked to take an oath to adhere to their Twelve Precepts. After the oath was taken, the convert received a “Certificate of Lord Guan’s Twelve Precepts.” I have documented one of these certificates, which was given to a rutan member from Zhaohua昭化 (now a district in the city of Guangyuan 廣元) in northern Sichuan in 1939 (Figure 2).

Certificate for Lord Guan’s Twelve Precepts from 1939
Figure 2

Certificate for Lord Guan’s Twelve Precepts from 1939

Citation: Review of Religion and Chinese Society 11, 2 (2024) ; 10.1163/22143955-12340027

Photo: author, 2023

In many cases, such precepts are granted to the departed, especially to “unclaimed souls” (guhun 孤魂), sometimes also called “abandoned ghosts” (yegui 野鬼). This ritual is known as “giving precepts” (shijie 施戒). Traditional Chinese religions believed that after a person died, his soul still existed. However, some souls were “trapped” in between the netherworld and human world, as they had died a violent death or had no one to sacrifice for them after death. Thus, they became “unclaimed souls” and caused people to fall sick or encounter other troubles. Hence, it was necessary to conduct rituals to appease their anger and to send them to the netherworld. Rutan believed that during the ritual, it was necessary to preach the Sacred Edict to the departed souls and educate them to repent the sins they had committed during their lifetimes and not to commit evil deeds that bothered the living. Subsequently, these souls would be given precept certificates and offerings to send them away from the human world. Rutan considered educating the unclaimed souls with the Sacred Edict to be important because they believed that the sixteenth maxim of the Sacred Edict, “remove enmity and anger so the body and life can be valued” (jiechou fenyi zhongshen ming 解仇忿以重身命), meant to reconcile conflicts between the living and the departed, not conflicts between people. Thus, the rutan used this maxim to educate the dead. This clearly contradicted the intentions of the Qing government, but it provided a foundation for the rituals of the rutan.

In the third volume of Xuanqing bian, there are various documents for “giving precepts [to the dead] to get rid of enmities” (shijie jieyuan 施戒解冤), which are not found in Shengjiao wengao. These documents were typically used in rituals to assist in curing or preventing illnesses. Quoting the sixteenth maxim of the Sacred Edict, they included the granting of a precept certificate to unclaimed souls (Figure 3).

Certificate for Lord Guan’s Twelve Precepts for the Departed
Figure 3

Certificate for Lord Guan’s Twelve Precepts for the Departed

Citation: Review of Religion and Chinese Society 11, 2 (2024) ; 10.1163/22143955-12340027

Photo: author, 2019

Compared with these ceremonies, funeral rites were more frequent. Death is a matter all families face, and providing funeral services became one of the main concerns of rutan. A major aspect of these ceremonies was the preaching of the Sacred Edict to the souls of the departed. A liturgical text used by altars in northwestern Sichuan provides information on this. Ritual Texts of the Sacred Teachings (Shengjiao keyi 聖教科儀) was compiled and published in 1904 by the Dengyun Pavilion in Northern Mianyang 綿北登雲亭. Like the Shengjiao wengao, Shengjiao keyi also has five volumes. The most solemn funeral ritual is “Purple Mist Flaming Mouths” (Zixia yankou 紫霞焰口), from the fourth volume.15 During this ritual, when the priest has summoned the ghosts, he reads out the “Edict on Instructing Ghosts” (quangui yu 勸鬼諭). In this text, Lord Guan says that he has come to teach the Sacred Edict to those of the dead who seldom had the opportunity to hear it while alive. This will enable those ghosts who are kind, and who can rid themselves of hatred, to be reborn in a blessed land. There, they may be able to cultivate themselves and even ultimately attain immortality.

While the Sacred Edict itself did not encourage people to perform rites for the departed, preaching the Sacred Edict survived as part of the funeral ceremonies of the rutan. The foreword of Shengjiao wengao makes it clear that at least until the mid-nineteenth century, preaching the Sacred Edict was the primary business of rutan in Sichuan, with the performance of ritual being supplementary. However, by the end of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, preaching the Sacred Edict had become fully integrated into the various rituals of rutan. During my fieldwork, I was told that the present rutan in Sichuan no longer conducted Sacred Edict preaching aimed at the living. However, the funeral rituals that included preaching the Sacred Edict continue to be performed regularly.

Both Chinese Buddhist and Daoist priests hold rituals for teaching the departed and giving them precepts. Rutan found theoretical justification to provide similar ritual services by using the Sacred Edict. This not only gave theological significance to the Sacred Edict but also conferred political legitimacy on the rituals of the rutan. As a result, preaching the Sacred Edict became more closely related to people’s lives, giving them reasons to invite preachers to conduct rituals. This ensured its survival even after the fall of the Qing. By the 1940s, in Chongqing, the temporary capital of the Nationalist government, the popularity of preaching the Sacred Edict surprised the premier, Chiang Kai-shek. His government attempted to use these preachers to propagate official ideology again, but this time for the Kuomintang. However, it was obvious that the preaching had become distinctly religious. In a decree signed by Chiang Kai-shek, local officials in Chongqing reported that many Sacred Edict preachers in Sichuan were “promoting superstition” (guchui mixin 鼓吹迷信), so the Ministry of Education decided to train preachers and reform preaching materials.16

Importantly, rituals associated with preaching the Sacred Edict provided rutan with substantial economic benefits, encouraging people to learn and perform their rituals. In 1851, the Ba County court issued a decree to arrest people if they accumulated wealth under the pretext of preaching the Sacred Edict, indicating the economic benefits of doing so.17 Among the texts I have collected is a preacher’s liturgical book from Santai County三台縣 in Sichuan, transcribed in the twentieth century. At the beginning, following the Shunzhi Emperor’s Six Maxims and the Kangxi Emperor’s Sixteen Maxims, appear the “Twelve Precepts of Patriarch Lü for Preachers” (Lüzu jiegui xuanjiang shier tiao 呂祖戒規宣講十二條), which instruct that preaching should not be done to make money. Thus, preaching the Sacred Edict for economic benefit was also a cause for concern for the rutan itself. However, acquiring wealth through rituals apparently did not lead to corruption and the decline of religious groups; rather, to some extent it appears to have stimulated the development and transformation of religious groups, ensuring the continuity of rutan up to the present.

Shenjiao 神教: the Combination Method of Revelation

David Graham did not record the rutan he observed preaching the Sacred Edict. However, he did document other activities that left a deep impression on him. Graham initially translated rutan as “Spiritualism” in his Chinese Record article of 1935.18 He believed that communicating with spirits was the most significant characteristic of the rutan:

What are the reasons for the success and gradual growth of the Ju T’an at the very time when Buddhism and Taoism were waging a life-and-death struggle for their very existence in West China? They are, first, the borrowing of the prestige of the literati through its name; second, the uses of methods and ceremonies acceptable to most of the people; and third, and I would say mainly, because of its supposed ability to obtain at will messages from the gods and from deceased relatives and ancestors. (Graham 1961:104)

This relates to the second aspect of the new religious trend in Southwest China in the late Qing that Takeuchi Fusaji proposed, namely fuluan 扶鸞. The term fuluan here likely refers to a general category of phenomena where people communicate with the spiritual world through the writing down of revealed information. In previous academic work and contemporary religious practice, apart from fuluan, various terms have been used to refer to such phenomena, including fuji (扶箕/乩), jiangluan (降鸞), and even feiluan (飛鸞). Typically, these terms are all translated as “spirit-writing” in English. In recent years, scholars have traced and analyzed the origins of these terms (Goossaert 2022:98; Hu 2023). Rutan activities provide an excellent sample for identifying the differences between these terms and determining how they correspond to various forms of communication with the spirit world.

Graham identified the main reason for the success of the rutan as their ability to “obtain messages” from the other world. He described what he saw:

The Ju T’an produced and used ceremonially its own sacred books, with the same purposes and the same expected results as among the Buddhists and the Taoists. They had charms and incantations, conducted funerals and memorial ceremonies, and exorcised demons, but they did not have a celibate priesthood. Their greatest distinction was that they obtained messages from the gods or from deceased relatives and ancestors. Often they used the planchette, a table covered with sand, on which two persons skillfully manipulated a pen so as to write characters that they read as messages. Sometimes these revelations were published in books, and some of these books contained the words of Jesus, called the Chi-tu-chiao-chu.

In some of the Ju T’an temples there were dark rooms in which were left pens, ink, and paper ready for writing. No one was supposed to be inside, but later when the door was opened, characters appeared on the paper, supposedly written by the gods. …

Even more impressive are the works of the mediums in getting messages from deceased husbands, wives, and ancestors for their living friends, relatives, and descendants. These are delivered verbally. In one instance the widow of a wealthy church member at Chi-t’ien-pa, south of I-pin, was the recipient of such a message. She was, of course, able to make a very sizable contribution. In due time the medium called her by name. “Your husband says,” he began, and gave her a long message. She was thrilled, believing that her husband had spoken to her through the medium. I heard of another man who received a message supposedly from his father. On hearing the words of the medium, he knelt down and burst into tears. (Graham 1961:103–104)

This passage presents at least three ways of receiving messages: (1) two persons use a planchette to write characters on sand, the characters then being recognized as words; (2) in a sealed space, without human intervention, a deity’s words appear directly on paper using ink and pens provided for the purpose; (3) a medium delivers messages from the deceased.

The first type is typically termed fuji 扶乩. Based on my fieldwork and on documents from the rutan, the second type is feiluan 飛鸞. However, the boundary between these two appellations is clearly blurred. In Overmyer and Jordan’s classic book (1986) on spirit-writing, feiluan was used in the title to refer to what the rutan calls fuji. Spirit-writing temples in Taiwan are always called Phoenix Halls (luantang 鸞堂), while they only use fuji and not the second type of communication. This could be explained by speculating that feiluan was not present in all areas, while fuji was widespread. Historically, these two practices were distinct, and fuji appears to have emerged earlier. Hsieh Ts’ung-hui (2013:105–112) discovered that by the Southern Song Dynasty, a large number of new Daoist scriptures had been produced through feiluan, which was considered a more advanced technique than fuji. The most marked feature of this form of spirit-writing, as Graham recorded, was that it was conducted in “dark rooms.” In other records from the same period, these dark rooms likely referred to attic spaces. At about the same time as Graham’s investigations, in 1935 the Chinese anthropologist Wei Hwei-lin (衛惠林, 1904–1992) encountered a religious organization called Literati Altar (wentan 文壇) in Fengdu County 酆都縣 in eastern Sichuan. His observations on their fuji and feiluan activities were similar to Graham’s record; however, he found that the “dark room” was always “in an attic,” and “would be locked for a day and a night” (Wei 1935:28).

Furthermore, Wei’s account provided additional details and included the terminology related to the third method described by Graham, namely communicating with the dead. According to Wei, this was called “traveling to the underworld” (youming 游冥) and involved sending a living person to the world of the dead. Observers could ask the traveler to speak about their experiences or to locate a loved one.

Traveling to the underworld has a long history in Chinese religion and has been an important way of creating morality books: many of them describe the experiences of a living person entering the underworld and returning to narrate what they saw, admonishing people not to commit evil deeds so as to avoid punishment after death. One of the most famous works of this kind is, in Jordan’s translation, the Jade Guidebook (Yuli baochao 玉歷寶鈔), which is said to have been written during the Song or Liao dynasties. I have collected several similar books produced in Sichuan or Yunnan in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries.

Wei added a fourth method of communication with the otherworld, namely mediums; in Sichuan they were called xiang 相, also written 像 or 象, or xiangshen 相身. Wei described deities or spirits manifesting through a living person and speaking through them. As these possessions became habitual, the medium would be asked to undergo possession to give advice or to help heal somebody.

Compared to fuji, feiluan does not require individuals to write down and identify characters one by one; instead, it can produce lengthy, readable texts directly. However, youming and xiangshen are even quicker, with the messages being conveyed orally. Additionally, unlike fuji or feiluan, these latter two methods are public and performative, and accessible to the illiterate.

All four of these methods of revelation have a long history in Chinese religions, but it is unusual to find all of them mentioned in the same context. However, since 1840, the rutan started to employ fuji, feiluan, youming, and xiangshen in a combined method, which accelerated the production of their texts. From that point on, a large number of scriptures and moral books related to preaching the Sacred Edict were generated. The Shengjing zhaiyao published in 1856 contains twenty-four volumes containing over 130 scriptures, and most of them were composed by these four methods. To a certain extent, rutan acquired the ability to continuously produce new texts and steadily update their doctrines, allowing them to evolve in step with the times.

This significant innovation had a profound impact on its spread, but it also meant that when a new rutan was established, it was necessary to learn all four techniques. Between 1860 and 1863, the Qunying tan 群英壇, a rutan in Kai County 開縣 in eastern Sichuan, composed and published the book A Boat to Save Lives (Jiusheng chuan 救生船), which recorded the history of the altar from its establishment to its dissolution. It shows how these techniques of revelation played an important role in the construction of a new rutan. This text has been quoted and discussed in the works of earlier scholars,19 but I will try to provide a different interpretation here.

The first chapter records that in 1840 a book composed by the Divine Teachings (shenjiao 神教) appeared and was greatly admired in that district. As the local people were not witnesses to its revelation, they prayed fervently for a chance to see these teachings directly. In the winter of the Gengshen year (庚申年, 1860 or early 1861), a man with the religious name Wuyuan 悟元 who had practiced the Divine Teachings for a long time arrived in the town. The townsfolk wished to receive the teachings, and subsequently Patriarch Lü descended onto a medium (xiang 象). The patriarch instructed them to establish an altar and compile a morality book, namely Jiusheng chuan.

In this book, the combination of the four techniques was named shenjiao, an abbreviation of “Establishing Teachings by the Divine Way” (Shendao shejiao 神道設教). In the passage summarized above, Wuyuan taught the local people how to establish the cult. Initially, the deity instructed people through a medium, but later they learned all four methods of the Divine Teachings. In one of the twelve brief introductory statements (leishu shier tiao 類敘十二條) at the beginning of the book, it says that the altar was founded when Patriarch Lü descended and he transmitted [fu]ji, xiang [shen], [fei]luan, and [you]ming (乩象鸞冥) all at the same time.

The example of the Qunying tan illustrates the impact of the revelation of techniques in 1840 on the spread of rutan, with cross-regional dissemination of altars occurring with the transmission of these four methods. Sometimes, this transmission relied on people like Wuyuan traveling to other places, but at other times it relied on the circulation of books. For example, the Xuanqing bian, which circulated in northwest Sichuan, includes instructions on all four techniques.20 Thus, the methods of the Divine Teachings could be learned directly from this book.

Longnü Temple was still active in the first half of the twentieth century; I have observed a plaque with this name dated 1932. This indicates that nearly a hundred years after the innovations of 1840, Longnü Temple remained active. During this period, the combination technique was so influential that various rutan regarded Longnü Temple, where this combination technique was revealed, as a holy site, and claimed it as their origin point, even if they had no real connection to it. Beyond the rutan, this event had a broader influence on Chinese religions. Many sects that had been banned by the government began incorporating the 1840 event into their sacred narratives, claiming that they too originated in Longnü Temple in order to gain more recognition and claim orthodoxy. An altar in Songpan County 松潘縣 in northwest Sichuan published a spirit-written scripture in 1944, entitled “New Scripture of Awakening from Delusion and Attaining Great Peace” (Xingmi taiping xinjing 醒迷太平 新經), which criticized such phenomena. The scripture stated that while rutan in various locations received scriptures and liturgies using the four methods after the Gengzi-year revelations, there were some unethical and deceitful people who borrowed the name of the rutan but taught their own teachings. The two sects the hymn named were the Red Lantern (hongdeng 紅燈) and the White Lotus (bailian 白蓮).21 This represented an obvious appropriation of the sacred narrative of Longnü Temple of the rutan and thus demonstrates the power and popularity of the narrative and its related revealed combination method of communication with the other world.

Conclusion

Based on the Lord Guan spirit-writing cult, rutan in Sichuan developed a theological framework for salvation. Obtaining revelations to compile morality books and preaching the Sacred Edict became the two main approaches to elevate peoples’ morality. The two approaches complemented each other. While morality books primarily targeted literate individuals, preaching the Sacred Edict could reach those who were illiterate.22

In addition, during the development of rutan, both approaches acquired additional functions. Preaching the Sacred Edict became part of the rutan rituals for prayer and funerals, while the four techniques of revelation were used to help people with divination or communicate with their departed relatives. This meant that rutan could be employed to offer ritual services for economic benefit, ensuring their persistence over the long term.

As anthropologists, David Graham and Wei Hwei-lin observed the rutan, but they did not have the opportunity to examine the history of this religious tradition. Over eighty years later, I have been able to locate existing altars and collect their texts. As this article has shown, they are still using texts printed in the nineteenth century. These texts survived partly because of the rutan teachings on valuing paper and written texts, and also partly because of its unique publishing culture.

Liturgy books of local religious traditions are usually in manuscript form because the transmission of manuscripts is typically private, and they better reflect the sacredness of their religious knowledge. However, rutan were always keen on printing and publishing their liturgy books. Over the past two centuries, we have seen the repeated printing of Shengjiao wengao throughout the country, as well as of other texts used only in a few counties and published by local altars, such as Shengjiao keyi and Xuanqing bian. The circulation of liturgy books of rutan may be related to their publication of morality books. These morality books often state that the deities commanded rutan to compile and publish the book as a meritorious act. Similar statements also appear in the prefaces of their liturgy books. Thus, both the morality books and liturgy books of rutan have become public publications. In 2019, I interviewed an altar member born in 1928 in Mianyang who recalled that before the 1950s, all liturgy books in his altar were printed copies. A town near Mianyang specialized in printing and selling these texts, and rutan members from nearby counties would go there to purchase them.

Rutan were established in different places. They had similar but not identical doctrines and rituals, forming a relatively loose community with no hierarchy or cross-regional leaders. During the Republican Period, various religious groups registered with the government, with Buddhists and Daoists forming associations from the national and provincial to the county levels. We can observe that several counties in Sichuan had rujiao associations 儒教會,23 but no cross-regional organization was formed. In other words, this article defines the scope of rutan as groups that self-identified using this term or rujiao or shengjiao and used Shengjiao wengao for rituals. However, these groups certainly had different understandings and interpretations of precisely what rujiao entailed. On the one hand, the loose structure allowed rutan to develop more rapidly; on the other hand, it also amplified the differences between altars in various locations. The process of localization of rutan certainly made the religious landscape of modern Southwest China more complex and diverse, and their interaction with other religious traditions across time and space deserves further attention.

The locations mentioned in this article. Key: A. Chengdu 成都 B. Liangping 梁平 C. Dazhou 達州 D. Mianyang 綿陽 E. Guang’an 廣安 F. Yunyang 雲陽 G. Dongxiang 東鄉 H. Xingshan 興山 I. Hanzhong 漢中 J. Huili 會理 K. Dingyuan 定遠 L. Hezhou 合州 M. Ba County 巴縣 N. Zhaohua 昭化 O. Santai 三台 P. Yibin 宜賓 Q. Fengdu 酆都 R. Kai County 開縣 S. Songpan 松潘 T. Lu County 瀘縣
Map 1

The locations mentioned in this article. Key: A. Chengdu 成都 B. Liangping 梁平 C. Dazhou 達州 D. Mianyang 綿陽 E. Guang’an 廣安 F. Yunyang 雲陽 G. Dongxiang 東鄉 H. Xingshan 興山 I. Hanzhong 漢中 J. Huili 會理 K. Dingyuan 定遠 L. Hezhou 合州 M. Ba County 巴縣 N. Zhaohua 昭化 O. Santai 三台 P. Yibin 宜賓 Q. Fengdu 酆都 R. Kai County 開縣 S. Songpan 松潘 T. Lu County 瀘縣

Citation: Review of Religion and Chinese Society 11, 2 (2024) ; 10.1163/22143955-12340027

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Benjamin Penny, and the two anonymous reviewers. They carefully read the manuscript, offered valuable suggestions, and corrected various grammatical errors. Special thanks go to my friend, Daoist Master Huang Xinzhi 黃信之. In his temple I first encountered surviving rutan people and rujiao ceremonies. I also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (Project: Mapping Religious Diversity in Modern Sichuan) for the completion of this research.

References

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1

In this article, I have converted Graham’s romanization from Wade-Giles to Hanyu Pinyin.

2

In the late 1970s and 1980s, mainland Chinese scholars like Ren Jiyu initiated several discussions on the issue of Confucianism. Ren Jiyu delivered a speech titled “Confucianism is a Religion” in late 1978, followed by a series of articles that sparked wider discussions. See Ren 2000.

3

For instance, Lee Fong-mao pointed out that in the first half of the last century in Taiwan, rites specialists (lisheng 禮生) and Daoist priests were the two most important groups for local religious practice, and the former group held ceremonies according to the Confucian canon. See Lee 2001:331–364. Philip Clart introduced the concept of “popular Confucianism” (minjian rujiao 民間儒教), which includes several traditions such as the spirit-writing altars, lisheng, and the unofficial ceremony for Mazu 媽祖. See Clart 2003:1–38.

4

For recent studies, see Billioud and Thoraval 2015; Cao 2019.

5

Philip Clart first noticed Graham’s research on rujiao in the Sichuan region. See Clart 1997:348.

6

The term 聖 corresponds to different words in English, such as “sage,” “sacred,” “saint,” and “emperor.” With respect to the term 聖教, I have chosen to translate it as “sacred.” It may be, however, that 聖教 is an abbreviation of 三聖正教 (Orthodox Teachings of the Three Sages/Saints), which would imply a different translation. See the next section. In the ritual texts of rutan, participants called themselves “disciples of the saints of the Three Religions” 三教聖人門下.

7

I did discover a rutan ritual text reprinted in 1898, entitled the “Honesty and Sincerity Collection” (Dunhou ji 敦厚集). Its preface, dated 1828, mentioned that during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor (1796–1820), a Confucian scholar from Sichuan went to Guizhou Province and got a copy of the Shengjiao wengao there. Possibly, by the early nineteenth century, the Shengjiao wengao was being used in southwestern China. However, there is still a lack of physical evidence to support this claim.

8

In rutan texts, “preaching” (xuanjiang 宣講) only ever refers to “preaching the Sacred Edict.”

9

Hu’s religious name was Wan’an 萬安, and Zhao’s religious names were Shi’an 世安, Ping’an平安, Jing’an 靜安, and Xin’an 心安. Their religious names consist of two characters, with the second character being fixed. In contrast, in Buddhism and Daoism, it is usually the first character that is fixed.

10

The Six Maxims are as follows: Be filial to your parents 孝順父母, Be respectful to your elders 尊敬長上, Live in harmony with your neighbors 和睦鄉里, Instruct your sons and grandsons 教訓子孫, Be content with your calling 各安生理, and Do no evil 毋作非為.

11

The Sixteen Maxims are as follows: Esteem most highly filial piety and brotherly submission, in order to give due importance to the social relations 敦孝悌以重人倫; Behave with generosity toward your kindred, in order to illustrate harmony and benignity 篤宗族以昭雍睦; Cultivate peace and concord in your neighborhoods, in order to prevent quarrels and litigations 和鄉黨以息爭訟; Recognize the importance of husbandry and the culture of the mulberry tree, in order to ensure a sufficiency of clothing and food 重農桑以足衣食; Show that you prize moderation and economy, in order to prevent the lavish waste of your means 尚節儉以惜財用; Give weight to colleges and schools, in order to make correct the practice of the scholar 隆學校以端士習; Extirpate strange principles, in order to exalt the correct doctrine 黜異端以崇正學; Lecture on the laws, in order to warn the ignorant and obstinate 講法律以儆愚頑; Elucidate propriety and yielding courtesy, in order to make manners and customs good 明禮讓以厚風俗; Labor diligently at your proper calling, in order to stabilize the will of the people 務本業以定民意; Instruct sons and younger brothers in order to prevent them from doing what is wrong 訓子弟以禁非為; Put a stop to false accusations, in order to preserve the honest and good 息誣告以全良善; Warn against sheltering deserters, in order to avoid being involved in their punishment 誡窩逃以免株連; Fully remit your taxes, in order to avoid being pressed for payment 完錢糧以省催科; Unite in hundreds and tithings, in order to put an end to thefts and robbery 聯保甲以弭盜賊; Remove enmity and anger, in order to show the importance due to the person and life 解仇忿以重身命. The English translation of the Six Maxims and Sixteen Maxims follows the translations by James Legge and Victor Mair (Mair 1985).

12

Ba County Archive, 6-23-1119.

13

Ba County Archive, 6-8-583 and 6-4-363.

14

For instance, the most popular precepts in rutan, Lord Guan’s “Twelve Precepts,” are as follows: Do not disobey your parents 一戒不孝父母. Do not insult or disrespect elder siblings 二戒侮慢兄長. Do not criticize or blame others unjustly 三戒道人過失. Do not engage in violence 四戒好勇鬥狠. Do not be arrogant 五戒驕傲滿假. Do not pollute the stove to offend the stove deity 六戒污穢灶君. Do not whore七戒嫖. Do not gamble 八戒賭. No abortion or female infanticide 九戒打胎溺女. Do not consume the meat of oxen, dogs, loaches, or eels 十戒食牛犬鰍鱔等肉. Do not pollute written paper 十一戒穢溺字紙. Do not instigate quarrels or litigations 十二戒唆人爭訟.

15

Originally, yan kou was a Buddhist food-bestowal ritual, performed to liberate hungry ghosts with flaming mouths from their thirst, hunger, and suffering in the netherworld by providing them with food and Buddhist teachings. The term yankou was adopted from Buddhism by rutan. In addition, keyi was originally a Daoist term, also adopted by rutan as the title of their liturgical book. Some preaching the Sacred Edict activities were also incorporated into rutan rituals. For example, according to Xuanjiang shiyi, at the commencement of preaching the Sacred Edict, the assistants of the preacher would shout, “Everyone, be quiet! Every member, be devout!” (大眾肅靜 諸生虔誠). This step also appears at the beginning of the ritual in Shengjiao keyi, which we would never see in Buddhist or Daoist rituals.

16

Chongqing Archive, 81-4-722-1.

17

Ba County Archive, 6-18-363.

18

Chinese Record 1935, 464.

19

See Jordan and Overmyer 1986:49; Clart 1997:22–34.

20

Xuanqing bian, vol. 3, 44–45.

21

The most representative case is Precious Raft Pointing the Way (Zhilu baofa 指路 寶筏), published by Xiantiandao 先天道 in the 1860s, which was embedded in a sectarian view of the cosmos. Both Takeuchi Fusaji and Barend ter Haar mistakenly believed this book was compiled and published by Longnü Temple. See Takeuchi 1990:70–80; Ter Haar 2017:235–237. However, we cannot find any sectarian elements from Jiusheng chuan, Shengjiao wengao, or any other rutan text in Precious Raft Pointing the Way.

22

Jiusheng chuan contains a discussion of these two approaches.

23

Some newspapers during the Republican era recorded activities of rujiao associations. See, e.g., “Chongde Primary School in Lu County was established by the rujiao Association” (瀘縣設立崇德小學係儒教會主辦), Xinshu bao 新蜀報, February 10, 1935; “Fang Hezhai and other local elder gentry in Chengdu founded Chenggu Academy” (成都耆紳方和齋等辦承古書院), Sichuan Chenbao 四川晨報, February 19, 1935.

Title:
Rediscovering “Popular Confucianism”: Rujiao 儒教 in Modern Sichuan
Article Type:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/22143955-12340027
Language:
English
Pages:
95–120
Keywords:
rujiao; Confucian altar (rutan); Preaching the Sacred Edict (shengyu xuanjiang); revelation; 儒教; 儒壇; 聖諭宣講; 啟示
In:
Review of Religion and Chinese Society
In:
Volume 11: Issue 2
Received:
13 Jun 2024
Accepted:
18 Apr 2025
Publisher:
Brill
E-ISSN:
2214-3955
Print ISSN:
2214-3947
Subjects:
Religion in Asia, Religious Studies, China, Asian Studies, Religion, Sociology of Religion, Religion & Society, Social Sciences

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