Ritual Healing in Early East Asia

Dear Colleagues,

In many societies, healing practices initially developed in close interaction with ritual activities. In East Asia, Daoist healing practices have long attracted scholarly attention (e.g., Depeux 1989, 2004, 2010; Stanley-Baker 2013, 2019, 2023; Raz 2013; Kleeman 2021), as have Chinese Buddhist medieval therapeutic traditions (e.g., Despeux 2010, 2017; Salguero 2017, 2018). The role of both religions in the Japanese medical tradition has also been enhanced from the medieval to the modern period (e.g., Goble et al. 2009; Goble 2011; Kleine 2012; Triplett 2019; Winfield 2005), as in Onmyodo practices (Hashimoto 1991; Shinʾichirō et al. 2013). However, comparable Korean scholarship remains an issue (e.g., Yi 1981; Baker 1994; Lee 2008).

Attention has also been paid to healing practices termed ‘shamanic’, in China (e.g., Lin 1994, 2009; Sukhu 2012; Cook and Major 1999), in Korea for the modern and contemporary period the kut/gut rituals have also been studied as healing rituals (e.g. Oak 2010); while there is still a gap in scholarship about the esoteric healing practices in medieval Japan (Winfield 2005; Poletto 2021) and Korean Three Kingdoms period (Kim 1988; Magner 1993).

Yet, because of the scarcity and fragmentary nature of primary sources, many studies lack clear connections back to healing practices of earlier periods, particularly for antiquity, where magical or ritual healing practices played key roles, even helping to define aspects of traditional medicine (for China, see Harper 1998; Liu 2019; Caro 2025). This is still the case for the medieval period (for China, see, e.g., Ma 1988; Lo and Cullen 2005; for Japan, see Lomi 2014; Triplett 2012; and for Korea, see Yi 1981). Scholarship on ritual medicine even more rarely addresses issues concerning the circulation and transmission of knowledge across early East Asia (for the role of Buddhism in the transmission of Chinese medicine to Korea and Japan, see, e.g., Salguero 2009, 2022; Lo 2000; Wilms 2005; Hsu 2017; Triplett 2021; Cook 2023 for China; in Korea, Suh 2010). While some healing traditions developed in highly localized settings (for early China, see e.g., Harper 1998; Cook 2006; Lo, Ochs, Yang 2024; for medieval Korea to Japan, see, e.g. Baker 1994), religious institutions, diplomatic exchanges, migration, and trade networks also played a crucial role in the circulation, adaptation, and transformation of healing knowledge across regional boundaries.

This Special Issue seeks to open new discussions on healing practices from antiquity to the early medieval period in China, Korea, and Japan (up to the tenth century CE), while introducing a transregional perspective to the study of ritual healing. We particularly welcome contributions examining the circulation of medical texts, religious healing techniques, ritual specialists, materia medica, and therapeutic knowledge across political, linguistic, and religious boundaries in early East Asia.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Research area A: incantations, exorcism, or other “magical” aspects of local medical traditions.
• Research area B: the transmission of local healing knowledge throughout Early East Asia.
• Research area C: ritual healing artifacts: texts, material objects, and iconography.

We hope that this Special Issue will stimulate new research on early ritual healing practices in East Asia, highlighting forms of knowledge that fall outside major religious canons, and emphasizing esoteric practices, material objects, and the transregional circulation and transformation of healing traditions across the region.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors, Professor Constance Cook(cac8@lehigh.edu) and Dr. Eléonore Caro(eleonore.caro@ehess.fr), and CC the Assistant Editor of Religions, Clare Chai (clare.chai@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References:

Baker, Donald. 1994. Monks, Medicine, and Miracles: Health and Healing in the History of Korean Buddhism, Korean Studies 18: 50–75.

Caro, Eléonore. 2025. Les pratiques magico-médicales de la Chine ancienne: textes et objets. Ph.D. dissertation, Paris, EHESS, France.

Cook, Constance A., and John S. Major, eds. 1999. Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Cook, Constance A. 2006. Death in ancient China: the tale of one man’s journey. Leiden, Pays-Bas.

Cook, Constance A. 2023. Medicine and Healing in Ancient East Asia: A View from Excavated Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/medicine-and-healing-in-ancient-east-asia/63BDA5E61EEE44FE0AC23712789C9321.

Despeux, Catherine. 1989. Santé et longue vie dans la Chine traditionnelle. PhD dissertation. Sciences de l'Homme et Société. Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7.

Despeux, Catherine, and Livia Kohn. 2003. Women in Daoism. Cambridge: Three Pines Press, p.300. 978-1-931483-01-8. ⟨halshs-04949795⟩

Despeux, Catherine. 2004. La gymnastique daoyin dans la Chine ancienne. Études Chinoises 23(1): 45-86.

Despeux, Catherine. 2017. Chinese Medicinal Excrement: Is There a Buddhist Influence on the Use of Animal Excrement-BasedRecipes in Medieval China? Asian Medicine 12(1‑2): 139‑69. https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341390.

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Prof. Dr. Constance Cook
Dr. Eléonore Caro
Guest Editors

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• ritual healing
• ancient Asian medicine
• transmission of local knowledge
• artifacts