Search Results (71)

The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) was a transformative era for Baojuan (寶卷, “precious scrolls”), a traditional genre of Chinese folk religious literature, which evolved from its Yuan origins to achieve widespread prominence. Luo Qing’s Wubu liuce (五部六冊, “Five Books in Six Volumes”) during the Zhengde reign (1506–1521) marked a pivotal moment, enabling the systematic dissemination of his teachings among diverse social strata and profoundly shaping popular religious beliefs. The Ming Baojuan texts, bridging the developments between the Yuan and Qing periods, offer rich and dispersed data suitable for digital visualization. Employing digital humanities tools such as 3D radar charts and GIS visualization, this study maps the spatial distribution and influence of Baojuan in Ming China. The findings reveal that transportation networks and regional economic prosperity played a crucial role in driving its dissemination, with southern regions–particularly the Wu-Yue region (referring to the historical cultural area encompassing southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, core parts of Ming Jiangnan)–showing high density, reflecting the economic and cultural vitality of Ming Jiangnan. The research further demonstrates that the flourishing of Baojuan publication and dissemination during the Ming period was sustained not only by economic and cultural forces but also by the ruling elite’s patronage, a form of discursive strategies that functioned as a mechanism of sectarian legitimation, thereby underscoring the interdependence of regional prosperity, elite patronage, and religious transmission. Full article

This study examines the traditional villages of the Tujia and Miao ethnic groups in Xiangxi Prefecture, western Hunan, and clarifies their spatial distribution and residential cultures through ArcGIS-based spatial analysis combined with extensive field investigation. On the basis of a systematic comparative framework, it explores differences in village patterns, architectural forms, and folk belief systems between the two groups. The results indicate that (1) in terms of spatial distribution, Miao villages are mainly located to the south of the Wuling Mountains, while Tujia villages are concentrated to the north, with the mountainous ranges of Baojing and Guzhang counties forming a clear transitional belt; (2) regarding village layout, Miao villages are generally clustered with “mountain-backed and water-adjacent”, whereas Tujia villages tend to adopt a more dispersed and defensive pattern than “mountain-anchored and water-distanced”; (3) in dwelling form, both groups share similar basic spatial organization, yet Miao dwellings exhibit greater diversity in construction materials, including timber, stone, and rammed earth; (4) in terms of belief and ritual, distinct folk practices and symbolic systems are embedded in the spatial organization and decorative features of each group’s villages. These findings deepen the understanding of cultural diversity among ethnic minorities in western Hunan and provide a theoretical basis for authenticity-oriented conservation and the sustainable development of traditional villages in ethnic regions. Full article

This paper focuses on the image evolution of Shi Daoji (Ji Gong), a monk of the Southern Song Dynasty, and explores its important significance in the history of Chinese Buddhism. The historical authenticity of Dao Ji was once questioned, but the Epitaph written by Jujian, provides key evidence for his existence. It records Dao Ji’s origin, ordination, personality, and behavioral characteristics, establishing the prototype for later Ji Gong legends. Initially, Dao Ji existed as an “unconventional monk” with eccentric behaviors yet possessing spiritual legitimacy. During the Song-Yuan period, huaben (vernacular tales) and recorded sayings shaped him into a “San Sheng” (Uninhibited Sage), which conformed to the characteristics of Buddhism’s sinicization and gained widespread acceptance among the people. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Dao Ji was further recognized as an “Arhat Yingzhen” (a realized Arhat), and his Chan lineage was gradually clarified in lamp records, with his status continuously elevated. The evolution of Dao Ji’s image reflects the process of Buddhism’s secularization and sinicization. It not only embodies the influence of folk beliefs on orthodox Buddhism but also reveals that Buddhism needs to integrate into people’s lives to complete its localization, providing a unique perspective for understanding the development of Chinese Buddhism. Full article

Criminal laws and their deserts-based punishments, particularly in Anglo-American systems, remain grounded in folk psychology assumptions about free will, willpower, and agency. Yet advances in neuropsychiatry, neuromicrobiology, behavioral genetics, multi-omics, and exposome sciences, are revealing how here-and-now decisions are profoundly shaped by antecedent factors. This transdisciplinary evidence increasingly undermines the folk psychology model: some argue it leaves “not a single crack of daylight to shoehorn in free will”, while others suggest the evidence at least reveals far greater constraints on agency than currently acknowledged. Historically, courts and corrections have marginalized brain and behavior sciences, often invoking prescientific notions of monsters and wickedness to explain harmful behavior—encouraging anti-science sentiment and protecting normative assumptions. Earlier disciplinary silos, such as isolated neuroscience or single-gene claims, did little to challenge the system. But today’s integrated sciences—from microbiology and toxicology to nutrition and traumatology, powered by omics and machine learning—pose a threat to the folk psychology fulcrum. Resistance to change is well known in criminal justice, but the accelerating pace of biopsychosocial science makes it unlikely that traditional assumptions will endure. In response to modern science, emergent concepts of reform have been presented. Here, we review the public health quarantine model, an emergent concept that aligns criminal justice with public health principles. The model recognizes human behavior as emergent from complex biological, social, and environmental determinants. It turns away from retribution, while seeking accountability in a way that supports healing and prevention. Full article

The origin of the Wutong deity, a controversial figure in Chinese folk religion, has long been an unresolved academic issue, hindering a clear understanding of its complex godhead and its derivative cults, such as the Five Road Deities of Wealth. This study aims to provide a comprehensive etymological solution to this long-standing problem. Through a systematic investigation combining cross-cultural linguistic analysis, comparative mythology, and socio-historical contextualization, this paper traces the deity’s evolution from its prototype to its final forms. The study argues that the Wutong deity’s prototype is the Buddhist Yakṣa General Pañcika, known in early China as the “Wudao Dashen” (Great Deity of the Five Paths). Its core godhead was formed by inheriting Pañcika’s attribute as a wealth deity, while degrading his myth of prolificacy into a licentious characteristic by conflating it with indigenous stereotypes of Yakṣas. Its name resulted from an orthographic corruption of “Wudao” to “Wutong,” and its “one-legged” image from a phono-semantic misreading of its transliterated name, “Banzhijia (半支迦).” This transformation was catalyzed by the severance of the Tangmi (唐密) lineage and the concurrent rise of commercialism in Song-dynasty Jiangnan. This evolutionary chain reveals the complete process by which a foreign deity was seamlessly integrated into the indigenous Chinese belief system, a “Flowing Pantheon,” through misreading and reconstruction, vividly illustrating the pluralistic and harmonious nature of Chinese religion. Full article

A unique illustrated manuscript of the Ten Kings Sutra from Dunhuang (S.3961) depicts two anomalous paths of rebirth alongside the traditional six: a path of serpents and a path of Buddhas, neither of which is found in canonical Buddhist scriptures or other illustrative paintings. This paper argues that these two paths should be understood as a symmetrical visual and rhetorical strategy designed to serve the sutra’s didactic and ritual functions within the local community. The serpent path visualizes a popular belief linking rebirth as a serpent to dying in a state of anger, functioning as a terrifying warning against the consequences of neglecting filial duties and mortuary rites. In symmetrical opposition, the Buddha path offers the ultimate promise of liberation, symbolizing the goal of rebirth in a Pure Land and eventual Buddhahood, which could be achieved by performing the very rituals the sutra promotes or by resorting to the protection of Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha. This pairing of “fear” and “faith” stands as a uniquely powerful example of the creative localization of Buddhism in late Tang and Five Dynasties Dunhuang, revealing how local communities actively synthesized elite doctrines, popular scriptures, and folk beliefs to create a potent visual narrative that addressed their pressing anxieties about afterlife judgment and liberation. Full article

As a representative form of popular religion in southern Fujian (Minnan 闽南), the Sanping Patriarch (Sanping Zushi 三平祖師) belief exhibits distinct transregional and cross-cultural characteristics in its dissemination across Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Taking the ancestral temples in Fujian 福建 as a point of departure, this article systematically analyzes the transmission routes and localization strategies of this belief system in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Drawing on detailed archival research, fieldwork (including site visits), and interviews, the study reveals how the belief has continually revitalized itself in pluralistic societies through strategies of “orthodoxy preservation” and “localized innovation.” The findings suggest that in Taiwan, the Sanping Patriarch belief primarily relies on kinship networks to maintain traditional practices. At the same time, in Southeast Asia, it spreads across ethnic boundaries through commercial and trade networks. Differences are also evident in the realm of mythological symbols, core rituals, and social functions. This study pays special attention to often-overlooked mythological figures such as the “Serpent Attendant” and “Tiger Attendant,” shedding light on the multilayered structure of folk religious systems. Full article

Planetary health is a transdisciplinary concept that erases the dividing lines between individual and community health, and the natural systems that support the wellbeing of humankind. Despite planetary health’s broad emphasis on justice, the promotion of science-based policies, and stated commitments to fairness, equity, and harm reduction, the criminal justice system has largely escaped scrutiny. This seems to be a major oversight, especially because the criminalization of mental illness is commonplace, and the system continues to be oriented around a prescientific compass of retribution and folk beliefs in willpower, moral fiber, and blameworthiness. Justice-involved juveniles and adults are funneled into landscapes of mass incarceration with ingrained prescientific assumptions. In non-criminal realms, such as obesity, there is a growing consensus that folk psychology ideas must be addressed at the root and branch. With this background, the Nova Institute for Health convened a transdisciplinary roundtable to explore the need for a ‘Copernican Revolution’ in the application of biopsychosocial sciences in law and criminal justice. This included discussions of scientific advances in neurobiology and omics technologies (e.g., the identification of metabolites and other biological molecules involved in behavior), the need for science education, ethical considerations, and the public health quarantine model of safety that abandons retribution. Full article

In late imperial China, a type of painting known as “panoramic maps” (shengjing tu 聖境圖, literally “sacred realm maps”) depicted Buddhist sacred sites. Often surviving as woodblock prints, examples from Mount Wutai and Mount Putuo are particularly representative. Previous research has often viewed these images as pilgrimage guides or focused on the relationship between pictorial perspectives and actual geography. This study centers on panoramic maps of Mount Wutai and Mount Putuo, examining both vertical and horizontal layouts, to offer a preliminary understanding of this genre. This study argues that: (1) Unlike urban maps, panoramic maps emphasize significant monasteries and landscape features, incorporating local legends and historical narratives, thus possessing strong narrative qualities. (2) These images likely functioned as pilgrimage souvenirs. Diverging from practical roadmaps, their primary goal was not strict realism but rather to convey the site’s sacredness and associated information through landscape painting conventions, allowing viewers to perceive its sacredness. (3) The woodblock print medium facilitated affordable reproduction, accelerating the circulation of the sacred site’s significance among the populace and aiding in its promotion. This research contends that the panoramic maps primarily function as folk landscape paintings reflecting the sacred site, capable only of approximating the relative positions of features. The widespread adoption of late-period woodblock printing enabled the low-cost reproduction and dissemination of the sacredness inherent in these Buddhist landscapes, constructing idealized spatial representations shaped by religious belief and geomantic principles. Full article

Soon after the devastating Ansei Edo earthquake in 1855, popular prints known as catfish prints (namazu-e) circulated widely. These prints were rooted in the folk belief that a giant catfish beneath the earth caused earthquakes. Various types of catfish prints were published: some depicted a punished earthquake catfish and served as protective charms against future quakes, while others functioned as sharp social commentary. In the latter type, the catfish was portrayed as a popular deity capable of bringing favorable societal change for people in the lower social class, symbolizing hope for commoners through reduced economic disparities after the disaster. The print “Prodigal Buddha” positioned the catfish as an antihero, criticizing the Tokugawa government’s inefficacy and the failure of religious institutions to provide spiritual salvation. By juxtaposing the catfish—now a newly popular deity—with a thunder god, formerly a fearsome deity but now submissively obeying the catfish, the print effectively visualizes the shift in status between the two. This article examines the criticism directed at political and religious authorities in the aftermath of the disaster, analyzing the layered symbolism of the thunder gods in the print. Full article

The Kitchen God has always been regarded as the protector of Chinese families and one of the most common and far-reaching gods in Chinese folk beliefs. The emergence and development of the Kitchen God are inseparable from the material carrier of the stove. The Han Dynasty was a critical period for the development and integration of stoves and the Kitchen God belief. Based on archaeological discoveries of cultural relics, characters and images, as well as relevant historical documents and records, this paper focuses on the interactive and symbiotic relationship between the spiritual belief in the Kitchen God and the material culture of kitchen stoves and its influence during the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty combined stoves with high cooking benches, large stove chambers, multiple burners, and functional designs that incorporated images of the Kitchen God, making them both practical and spiritual. The Kitchen God’s identity and functions were transformed from ancestor to household god, from giving food to monitoring merits and demerits, along with the renewal of stoves. These developments laid the foundation for the Chinese people’s earnest hope for a prosperous life and a peaceful and harmonious family. Full article

This paper elucidates the cognitive and cultural underpinnings that facilitate the coexistence of multiple—occasionally contradictory—interpretive frameworks of magico-religious beliefs and practices within a single sociocultural context. Religious beliefs and practices frequently transcend the boundaries established by a tradition’s official doctrines and normative frameworks. From the perspective of religious authorities and theological elites, such transgressions may constitute sites of tension and doctrinal concern. However, individuals, as the primary agents of lived religion, rarely conceptualize these situations as crises of faith or legitimacy. Instead, they develop improvisational strategies to negotiate these apparent contradictions within their sociocultural milieus. At the cultural level, religious beliefs and practices are not rigidly constrained by dominant official doctrines and normative prescriptions; rather, they accommodate a diverse range of interpretive possibilities. Focusing on a specific rainmaking ritual known as “Tiger Head Sinking” from the Joseon Dynasty—a period marked by the hegemony of Neo-Confucian doctrinal and normative structures—this study investigates how the dynamic interplay between cognitive constraints and cultural schemas facilitates the coexistence of seemingly incompatible interpretations and folk theories of the ritual. Full article

Architectural color painting is one of the cultural heritages of the Tibetan people. To address the issues of “loss” and “variation” in architectural color paintings during the renovation of traditional Tibetan timber dwellings in Yunnan, it is essential to organize and categorize the forms and cultural content of ethnic minority timber architectural paintings. This approach will help supplement foundational research on the subject. This study, based on linguistic research findings, focuses on the Diqing South Locus Dialect Region as the research area, conducting field investigations in over 30 settlements (involving more than 80 dwellings). This study analyzes patterns, colors, and forms across various architectural elements to develop a detailed atlas of decorative painting patterns. A combined analysis of historical documentation reveals three primary folk causes behind the architectural color paintings of Tibetan timber buildings in Yunnan: (1) primitive worship under animism; (2) decorative norms guided by religious beliefs; and (3) cultural fusion resulting from ethnic heritage. This will help people understand the cultural essence behind architectural paintings, avoiding the cognitive limitation of knowing only their form but not their meaning. This paper aims to raise awareness of the cultural heritage of regional timber buildings, providing a basis for typological accumulation and model references for the protection and transmission of regional timber architectural color paintings. Full article

The She (社) organization is an ancient Chinese folk religious group that was formed to worship the god of the soil through various activities. In contemporary society, the She organization plays a non-mainstream but important role in increasing social cohesion in China’s rural communities. This case study concentrates on the She organization in Songyang County to examine how its practices contribute to the Han and Non-Han peoples’ continued social cohesion and separate identities through observations, in-depth interviews, and the reviewing of local documentation materials. The findings are as follows: Firstly, as forms of social capital, the normative rituals, values, and informal situational networks of the She organization constitute the mechanisms for building trust, which ultimately promotes social cohesion between the Han and Non-Han peoples. Secondly, the coexistence between She and other belief systems is conducive to establishing the extended social capital of the She organization and maintaining the Han and Non-Han peoples’ separate identities according to their ethnic features. Finally, from the perspective of state-society relations, the social cohesion and continuation of the She organization in contemporary civil society are further interpreted as the results of state systems and policies. Full article

Examples of how Spiritism merged with local beliefs have been the subject of research in religious studies, ethnology, and folkloristics. Serbian Spiritism can also be viewed as such, but its history is an under-researched topic. We examine the syncretic product we will call ‘folk Spiritism’, being different from the ‘high Spiritism’ of elite and middle-class intellectuals. Folk Spiritism was part of a grassroots movement for Church reform in the first half of the 20th century. The difference between folk and high Spiritism is also confirmed in the emic perspective. Based on a closer reading of its texts, we can discern a better image of the dead and communication with them in the practice of folk Spiritism. We conclude that the difference between the traditional and Spiritist image of the dead is that the former causes fear, while the later brings comfort; folk Spiritism gave preference to communication with heavenly forces (God, Christ, Holy Mother, angels, saints) while retaining the traditional view of the dead. Full article