Communicating with the Gods: Spirit-Writing in Chinese History and Society
Matthias Schumann and Elena Valussi
Few religious innovations have shaped Chinese history like the emergence of spirit-writing during the Song dynasty. From a divinatory technique it evolved into a complex ritual practice used to transmit messages and revelations from the Gods. This resulted in the production of countless religious scriptures that now form an essential corpus, widely venerated and recited to this day, that is still largely untapped by research. Using historical and ethnographic approaches, this volume for the first time offers a comprehensive overview of the history of spirit-writing, examining its evolution over a millennium, the practices and technologies used, and the communities involved.
Dr. Matthias Schumann graduated with an MA in Chinese Studies and History from the University of Heidelberg in 2011, before pursuing his PhD with a thesis on “spirit-writing” (Chin. fuji 扶乩/ fuluan 扶鸞) in Republican China at the Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context.” In the following years, he held positions as scientific coordinator and postdoctoral research fellow at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, respectively. In his research, Schumann has mostly been working on the intersections between religion, social activism, and intellectual history in late imperial and Republican China.
Dr. Elena Valussi is a Senior Lecturer in History at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches courses in modern East Asian and Chinese history. Prof. Valussi has written on Chinese gender, religious, and intellectual history including the influence of women’s Qigong in the United States, the interpretation of Nüdan in a historical context, and the impact of gender ideas in Asian medicine. Her current research examines the relationship of printing and religion during the Qing dynasty, in particular with the alchemical author Fu Jinquan. She is also exploring Daoist ideas regarding the female body in various periods of Chinese history. Her research interests include Chinese history and religion, gender in China, Daoism, and late imperial Chinese intellectual history.
Schumann, Matthias, and Elena Valussi, eds. Communicating with the Gods: Spirit-Writing in Chinese History and Society. Leiden: Brill, 2023. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004677906
No
Reviews:
Matthias Schumann and Elena Valussi
Edward L. Shaughnessy
Klaus Herbers and Hans-Christian Lehner
Tze-ki Hon
Brandon Dotson, Constance A. Cook, and Zhao Lu
Hans-Christian Lehner