Ritual and Self-Cultivation in the Daoist Practice of “Oblatory Refinement”
In: NumenAbstract
This article describes a Daoist salvific ritual called jilian 祭鍊, “oblatory refinement,” as presented within a ritual manual written by Zheng Sixiao 鄭思肖 (1241–1318). Zheng’s formulation of this ritual and his extensive commentary on its individual elements show that he regards this ritual not only as a means of achieving salvation for others, but also as a complete system of self-cultivation that is capable of enabling the practitioner’s self-apotheosis. After discussing the historical background of the ritual and describing its various stages, I analyze Zheng’s approach to ritual practice and his understanding of the relationship between ritual and self-cultivation, both of which are characterized by his emphasis on the quality of “sincerity” (cheng 誠). Ultimately, I argue that the Daoist notion of an “inner,” cognitive and affective dimension of ritual practice points to useful ways of supplementing contemporary theoretical understandings of ritual that focus primarily, if not exclusively, on the formal aspects and social contexts of ritual activities.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Allan, Sarah. 1979. “Shang Foundations of Modern Chinese Folk Religion.” In Sarah Allan and Alvin P. Cohen (eds.), Legend, Lore, and Religion in China: Essays in Honor of Wolfram Eberhard on His Seventieth Birthday, San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1–21.
-
An, Yanming. 2004. “Western ‘Sincerity’ and Confucian ‘Cheng.’” Asian Philosophy 14(2): 155–169.
-
Andersen, Poul. 2001. “Concepts of Meaning in Chinese Ritual.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 12: 155–183.
-
Asad, Talal. 1987. “On Ritual and Discipline in Medieval Christian Monasticism.” Economy and Society 16(2): 159–203.
-
Baldrian-Hussein, Farzeen. 1990. “Internal Alchemy: Notes on the Origin and Use of the Term Neidan.” Cahiers d’Extreme-Asie 5: 163–190.
-
Bell, Catherine. 1992. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.
-
Bell, Catherine. 1997. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. New York: Oxford University Press.
-
Berling, Judith A. 1993. “Channels of Connection in Sung Religion: The Case of Pai Yü-ch’an.” In Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory (eds.), Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 307–334.
-
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. 1983a. “Death and Ascent in Ling-Pao Taoism.” Taoist Resources 1(2): 1–20.
-
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. 1983b. “Sources of the Ling-Pao Scriptures.” In Michel Strickmann (ed.), Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, vol. 2, Brussels: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 434–485.
-
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. 1989. “Death and Ascent in Ling-Pao Taoism.” Taoist Resources 1(2): 1–20.
-
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. 1997. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press.
-
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. 2007. Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China. Berkeley: University of California Press.
-
Boltz, Judith M. 1983. “Opening the Gates of Purgatory: A Twelfth-Century Taoist Meditation Technique for the Salvation of Lost Souls.” In Michel Strickmann (ed.), Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, vol. 2, Brussels: Institut belge des hautes etudes chinoises, 487–511.
-
Boltz, Judith M. 1996. “Singing to the Spirits of the Dead: A Daoist Ritual of Salvation.” In Bell Yung, Evelyn S. Rawski, and Rubie S. Watson (eds.), Harmony and Counterpoint: Ritual Music in Chinese Context, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 177–225.
-
Campany, Robert F. 1992. “Xunzi and Durkheim as Theorists of Ritual Practice.” In Frank Reynolds and David Tracy (eds.), Discourse and Practice, Albany: SUNY Press, 197–232.
-
Campany, Robert F. 2002. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth. Berkeley: University of California Press.
-
Campany, Robert F. 2006. “Secrecy and Display in the Quest for Transcendence in China, ca. 220 b.c.e.–350 c.e..” History of Religions 45(4): 291–336.
-
Cedzich, Angelika. 1993. “Ghosts and Demons, Law and Order: Grave Quelling Texts and Early Taoist Liturgy.” Taoist Resources 4(2): 23–35.
-
Chen Fukang 陳福康. 1984. “Guanyu Zheng Sixiao de zhuzuo yu shengping” 關於鄭思肖的著作與生平. Fujian luntan 福建論壇 2: 70–79.
-
Chen Yun. 2009. “Revealing the Dao of Heaven through the Dao of Humans: Sincerity in the Doctrine of the Mean.” Frontiers of Philosophy in China 4(4): 537–551.
-
Chenivesse, Sandrine. 1997. “A Journey to the Depths of a Labyrinth-Landscape: The Mount Fengdu, Taoist Holy Site and Infernal Abyss.” In A. W. MacDonald (ed.), Mandala and Landscape, New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 41–74.
-
Copp, Paul. 2011. “Visualization and Contemplation.” In Charles D. Orzech et al. (eds.), Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, Leiden: Brill, 141–145.
-
Despeux, Catherine. 2008. “Jing, qi, shen.” In Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), Encyclopedia of Taoism, New York: Routledge, 562–565.
-
Douglas, Mary. 1970. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. New York: Routledge.
-
Durkheim, Emile. 1915. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. J. W. Swain (trans.). New York: Macmillan.
-
Eno, Robert. 1990. The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-
Eskildsen, Stephen. 2009. “Neidan Methods for Opening the Gate of Heaven.” In Livia Kohn and Robin R. Wang (eds.), Internal Alchemy: Self, Society, and the Quest for Immortality, Magdalena, NM: Three Pines Press, 87–103.
-
Eskildsen, Stephen. 2016. Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity: From the Latter Han Dynasty (25–220) to the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-
Esposito, Monica. 2008. “Shuangxiu.” In Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), Encyclopedia of Taoism, New York: Routledge, 906–907.
-
Fang Qiang 方強. 2010. “Zheng Suonan Taiji jilian neifa yanjiu” 鄭所南《太極祭鍊 內法》研究. M.A. thesis, East China Normal University.
-
Flood, Gavin. 2004. The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-
Forman, Robert K. C. 1990. “Introduction: Mysticism, Constructivism, and Forgetting.” In Robert K. C. Forman (ed.), The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy, New York: Oxford University Press, 3–49.
-
Foucault, Michel. 1988. “Technologies of the Self.” In Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hutton (eds.), Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 15–49.
-
Foulk, T. Griffith. 1993. “Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch’an Buddhism.” In Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory (eds.), Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 147–208.
-
Foulk, T. Griffith. 2013. “Denial of Ritual in the Zen Buddhist Tradition.” Journal of Ritual Studies 27(1): 47–58.
-
Gardner, Daniel K. 1995. “Ghosts and Spirits in the Sung Neo-Confucian World: Chu Hsi on kuei-shen.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 115(4): 598–611.
-
Gardner, Daniel K. 2003. Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects: Canon, Commentary, and the Classical Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press.
-
Geertz, Clifford. 1957. “Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example.” American Anthropologist, New Series 59(1): 32–54.
-
Gimello, Robert M. 1983. “Mysticism in Its Contexts.” In Steven T. Katz (ed.), Mysticism and Religious Traditions, New York: Oxford University Press, 61–88.
-
Goldin, Paul R. 1999. Rituals of the Way: The Philosophy of Xunzi. Chicago: Open Court Publishing.
-
Goldin, Paul R. 2005. After Confucius: Studies in Early Chinese Philosophy. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
-
Grimes, Ronald L. 1990. Ritual Criticism: Case Studies in Its Practice, Essays on Its Theory. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
-
Grimes, Ronald L. 2014. The Craft of Ritual Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.
-
Gyatso, Janet. 1999. “Healing Burns with Fire: The Facilitations of Experience in Tibetan Buddhism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67(1): 113–147.
-
Gyatso, Janet. 2002. “The Ins and Outs of Self-Transformation: Personal and Social Sides of Visionary Practice in Tibetan Buddhism.” In David Shulman and Guy G. Stroumsa (eds.), Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religions, New York: Oxford University Press, 183–194.
-
Hagen, Kurtis. 2003. “Xunzi and the Nature of Confucian Ritual.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71(2): 371–403.
-
Handelman, Don. 2005. “Introduction: Why Ritual in Its Own Right? How So?” In Don Handelman and Galina Lindquist (eds.), Ritual in Its Own Right: Exploring the Dynamics of Transformation, New York: Berghahn Books, 1–32.
-
Handelman, Don. 2006. “Framing.” In Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg (eds.), Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts, Leiden: Brill, 571–582.
-
Harth, Dietrich. 2006. “Ritual and Other Forms of Social Action.” In Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg (eds.), Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts, Leiden: Brill, 15–36.
-
Humphrey, Caroline, and James Laidlaw. 1994. The Archetypal Actions of Ritual: A Theory of Ritual Illustrated by the Jain Rite of Worship. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
-
Ing, Michael David Kaulana. 2012. The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Katz, Steven T. 1978. “Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism.” In Steven T. Katz (ed.), Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, New York: Oxford University Press, 22–74.
-
Katz, Steven T. 1983. “The ‘Conservative’ Character of Mystical Experience.” In Steven T. Katz (ed.), Mysticism and Religious Traditions, New York: Oxford University Press, 3–60.
-
Katz, Steven T. (ed.). 2013. Comparative Mysticism: An Anthology of Original Sources. New York: Oxford University Press.
-
Kim, Ha Tai. 1977. “The Religious Dimension of Neo-Confucianism.” Philosophy East and West 27(3): 337–348.
-
Kleeman, Terry F. 1994. “Licentious Cults and Bloody Victuals: Sacrifice, Reciprocity, and Violence in Traditional China.” Asia Major, 3rd series 7(1): 185–211.
-
Kline, T.C. III, and Justin Tiwald (eds.). 2014. Ritual and Religion in the Xunzi. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-
Knoblock, John. 1988. Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
-
Kripal, Jeffrey J. 2006. “Mysticism.” In Robert A. Segal (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 321–335.
-
Krueger, Derek. 2014. Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
-
Lagerwey, John. 1987. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: MacMillan.
-
Lai Chi Tim. 2011. “The Daoist Identity of the Yellow Register Retreat in the Southern Song: A Case Study of Jin Yunzhong’s ‘Great Rites of Lingbao.’” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 20: 63–93.
-
Lai Guolong. 2015. Excavating the Afterlife: The Archaeology of Early Chinese Religion. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
-
Lamotte, Étienne. 1949. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna, Tome II. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste.
-
Lamotte, Étienne. 1976. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna, Tome IV. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste.
-
Leach, Edmund. 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure. London: G. Bell & Son Ltd.
-
Leighton, Taigen Dan. 2008. “Zazen as an Enactment Ritual.” In Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds.), Zen Ritual: Studies of Zen Buddhist Theory in Practice, New York: Oxford University Press, 167–185.
-
Li Chu-tsing. 1976. “Cheng Ssu-hsiao.” In Herbert Franke (ed.), Sung Biographies: Painters, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 15–23.
-
Lü Pengzhi. 2010. “Daoist Rituals.” In John Lagerwey and Lü Pengzhi (eds.), Early Chinese Religion, Part Two: The Period of Division (220–589 ad), vol. 2, Boston: Brill, 1245–1349.
-
Lü Pengzhi. 2011. “The Lingbao Fast of the Three Primes and the Daoist Middle Prime Festival.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 20: 35–61.
-
Lye, Hun Yeow. 2003. “Feeding Ghosts: A Study of the Yuqie Yankou Rite.” Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia.
-
McCauley, Robert N., and E. Thomas Lawson. 2002. Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-
Meulenbeld, Mark. 2010. “From ‘Withered Wood’ to ‘Dead Ashes’: Burning Bodies, Metamorphosis, and the Ritual Production of Power.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 19: 217–267.
-
Michaels, Axel. 2016. Homo Ritualis: Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
-
Moeller, Hans-Georg, and Paul J. D’Ambrosio. 2017. Genuine Pretending: On the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi. New York: Columbia University Press.
-
Mollier, Christine. 2008. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
-
Mozina, David. 2009. “Quelling the Divine: The Performance of a Talisman in Contemporary Thunder Ritual.” Th.D. diss., Harvard Divinity School.
-
Mugitani, Kanio. 2008. “Huoling.” In Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), Encyclopedia of Taoism, New York: Routledge, 532–533.
-
Nickerson, Peter. 1996. “Abridged Codes of Master Lu for the Daoist Community.” In Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Religions of China in Practice, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 347–359.
-
Nickerson, Peter. 2006. “‘Let Living and Dead Take Separate Paths’: Bureaucratisation and Textualisation in Early Chinese Mortuary Ritual.” In Benjamin Penny (ed.), Daoism in History: Essays in Honour of Liu Ts’un-yan, New York: Routledge, 10–40.
-
Orzech, Charles D. 1994. “Esoteric Buddhism and the Shishi in China.” In Henrik H. Sørensen (ed.), The Esoteric Buddhist Tradition: Selected Papers from the 1989 SBS Conference, Copenhagen: Seminar for Buddhist Studies, 51–72.
-
Orzech, Charles D. 2002. “Fang Yankou and Pudu: Translation, Metaphor, and Religious Identity.” In Livia Kohn and Harold D. Roth (eds.), Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 213–234.
-
Orzech, Charles D. 2016. “Ritual Subjects: Homa in Chinese Translations and Manuals from the Sixth through Eighth Centuries.” In Richard K. Payne and Michael Witzel (eds.), Homa Variations: The Study of Ritual Change Across the Longue Durée, New York: Oxford University Press, 266–287.
-
Pang, Duane. 1977. “The P’u-T’u Ritual.” In Michael Saso and David W. Chappell (eds.), Buddhist and Taoist Studies I, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 95–122.
-
Paper, Jordan. 1995. The Spirits are Drunk: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Religion. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-
Pines, Yuri. 2000. “Disputers of the ‘Li’: Breakthroughs in the Concept of Ritual in Preimperial China.” Asia Major, Third Series 13(1): 1–41.
-
Poo, Mu-chou. 1998. In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-
Poo, Mu-chou. 2004. “The Concept of Ghost in Ancient Chinese Religion.” In John Lagerwey (ed.), Religion and Chinese Society, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 173–192.
-
Pregadio, Fabrizio. 2006. “Early Daoist Meditation and the Origins of Inner Alchemy.” In Benjamin Penny (ed.), Daoism in History: Essays in Honour of Liu Ts’un-yan, New York: Routledge, 121–158.
-
Pregadio, Fabrizio. 2008. “Jindan.” In Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), Encyclopedia of Taoism, New York: Routledge, 551–554.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2002. To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2006. “Innovation as Ritualization: The Fractured Cosmology of Early China.” Cardozo Law Review 28(1): 23–36.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2010a. “Ritualization as Domestication: Ritual Theory from Classical China.” In Axel Michaels (ed.), Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual I: Grammars and Morphologies of Ritual Practices in Asia, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 365–376.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2010b. “The Haunted World of Humanity: Ritual Theory from Early China.” In J. Michelle Molina and Donald K. Swearer (eds.), Rethinking the Human, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 95–109.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2010c. “Theodicies of Discontinuity: Domesticating Energies and Dispositions in Early China.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 27: 51–66.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2010d. “Becoming Laozi: Cultivating and Visualizing Spirits in Early-Medieval China.” Asia Major, 3rd Series 23(1): 223–252.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2014. “Ritual Disjunctions: Ghosts, Philosophy, and Anthropology.” In Michael Jackson, Arthur Kleinman, and Bhrigupati Singh (eds.), The Ground Between: Anthropologists Engage Philosophy, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 218–233.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2015a. “Ritual and Ritual Obligations: Perspectives on Normativity from Classical China.” The Journal of Value Inquiry 49: 543–550.
-
Puett, Michael J. 2015b. “Constructions of Reality: Metaphysics in the Ritual Traditions of Classical China.” In Chenyang Li and Franklin Perkins (eds.), Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 120–129.
-
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred R. 1945. “Religion and Society.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 75(1/2): 33–43.
-
Rao, Ursula. 2006. “Ritual in Society.” In Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg (eds.), Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts, Leiden: Brill, 143–160.
-
Rappaport, Roy A. 1999. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-
Raz, Gil. 2010. “Ritual Theory in Medieval Daoism.” In Axel Michaels (ed.), Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual, vol. 1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 407–424.
-
Robinet, Isabelle. 1990. “The Place and Meaning of the Notion of Taiji in Taoist Sources Prior to the Ming Dynasty.” History of Religions 29(4): 373–411.
-
Robinet, Isabelle. 1993. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-
Robinet, Isabelle. 2008. “Xing and Ming.” In Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.), Encyclopedia of Taoism, New York: Routledge, 1103–1105.
-
Roth, Harold. 1999. Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism. New York: Columbia University Press.
-
Ruan Yuan 阮元, (ed.). 2009. Shisanjing zhushu 十三經註疏. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
-
Sanderson, Alexis. 1995. “Meaning in Tantric Ritual.” In Anne-Marie Blondeau and Kristofer Schipper (eds.), Essais sur le ritual III: Colloque du centenaire, Louvain- Paris: Peeters, 15–95.
-
Sax, William S. 2006. “Agency.” In Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg (eds.), Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts, Leiden: Brill, 473–481.
-
Sax, William S. 2010. “Ritual and the Problem of Efficacy.” In William S. Sax, Johannes Quack, and Jan Weinhold (eds.), The Problem of Ritual Efficacy, New York: Oxford University Press, 3–16.
-
Schafer, Edward H. 1954. “Non-Translation and Functional Translation — Two Sinological Maladies.” The Far Eastern Quarterly 13(3): 251–260.
-
Schipper, Kristofer. 1974. “The Written Memorial in Taoist Ceremonies.” In Arthur P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 309–324.
-
Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen (eds.). 2004. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
-
Seidel, Anna. 1987. “Traces of Han Religion in Funeral Texts Found in Tombs.” In Akizuki Kan’ei 秋月觀暎 (ed.), Dōkyō to shūkyō bunka 道教と宗教文化, Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppan, 21–57.
-
Seligman, Adam B. 2009. “Ritual, the Self, and Sincerity.” Social Research 76(4): 1073–1096.
-
Seligman, Adam B., Robert P. Weller, Michael J. Puett, and Bennett Simon. 2008. Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity. New York: Oxford University Press.
-
Sharf, Robert H. 1995. “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience.” Numen 42(3): 228–283.
-
Sharf, Robert H. 2000. “The Rhetoric of Experience and the Study of Religion.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 7(11–12): 267–287.
-
Sharf, Robert H. 2005. “Ritual.” In Donald S. Lopez Jr. (ed.), Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 245–269.
-
Sigwalt, Patrick. 2006. “Le rite funéraire Lingbao à travers le Wulian shengshi jing.” T’oung Pao 92: 325–372.
-
Sim, Luke J., and James T. Bretzke. 1994. “The Notion of Sincerity (ch’eng) in the Confucian Classics.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 21: 179–212.
-
Skar, Lowell, and Fabrizio Pregadio. 2000. “Internal Alchemy (Neidan).” In Livia Kohn (ed.), Daoism Handbook, Boston: Brill, 464–497.
-
Slingerland, Edward. 2000. “Effortless Action: The Chinese Spiritual Ideal of Wu-wei.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 68(2): 293–328.
-
Smith, J. Z. 1982. Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
-
Staal, Frits. 1979. “The Meaninglessness of Ritual.” Numen 26(1): 2–22.
-
Stephenson, Barry. 2005. “The Kōan as Ritual Performance.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73(2): 475–496.
-
Stevenson, Daniel B. 1999. “Protocols of Power: Tz’u-yün Tsun-shih (964–1032) and T’ien-t’ai Lay Buddhist Ritual in the Sung.” In Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, Jr. (eds.), Buddhism in the Sung, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 340–408.
-
Teiser, Stephen F. 1988. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
-
Teiser, Stephen F. 2003. The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
-
Turner, Victor. 1966. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
-
Valantasis, Richard. 1998. “A Theory of the Social Function of Asceticism.” In Vincent L. Wimbush and Richard Valantasis (eds.), Asceticism, New York: Oxford University Press, 544–552.
-
Wallace, Vesna. 2005. “A Generation of Power through Ritual Protection and Transformation of Identity in Indian Tantric Buddhism.” Journal of Ritual Studies 19 (1): 115–128.
-
Wang, Li. 2004. “A Daoist Way of Transcendence: Bai Yuchan’s Inner Alchemical Thought and Practice.” Ph.D. diss., University of Iowa.
-
Wilson, Thomas A. 2002. “Sacrifice and the Imperial Cult of Confucius.” History of Religions 41(3): 251–287.
-
Yokote Yukata 橫手裕. 2008. “Ichi nin de okonau bōkon kyūsai: Tei Shishō no Taikyoku sairen naihō,” Ajia yūgaku アジア遊学 110: 10–17.
-
Yokote Yukata. 2015. “Daoist Internal Alchemy.” In John Lagerwey and Pierre Marsone (eds.), Modern Chinese Religion I: Song-Liao-Jin-Yuan (960–1368 AD), Boston: Brill, 1053–1110.
-
Zhu Xi 朱熹. 1983a. Chuci jizhu 楚辭集注. In Yingyin Wenyuange Siku quanshu 景印文淵閣四庫全書, vol. 1062. Taibei: Taiwan Shangwu yinshuguan.
-
Zhu Xi 朱熹. 1983b. Sishu zhangju jizhu 四書章句集注. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
-
Zhu Yiwen 祝逸雯. 2016. “Zheng Sixiao ‘Taiji jilian neifa’ yanjiu: Zai fashi shenzhong wancheng de jidu yishi” 鄭思肖《太極祭鍊內法》研究 – 在法師身中完成的濟度儀式. Chinese Studies 漢學研究 34(4): 35–62.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 479 | 175 | 4 |
| Full Text Views | 106 | 37 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 159 | 96 | 7 |
Ritual and Self-Cultivation in the Daoist Practice of “Oblatory Refinement”
In: NumenAbstract
This article describes a Daoist salvific ritual called jilian 祭鍊, “oblatory refinement,” as presented within a ritual manual written by Zheng Sixiao 鄭思肖 (1241–1318). Zheng’s formulation of this ritual and his extensive commentary on its individual elements show that he regards this ritual not only as a means of achieving salvation for others, but also as a complete system of self-cultivation that is capable of enabling the practitioner’s self-apotheosis. After discussing the historical background of the ritual and describing its various stages, I analyze Zheng’s approach to ritual practice and his understanding of the relationship between ritual and self-cultivation, both of which are characterized by his emphasis on the quality of “sincerity” (cheng 誠). Ultimately, I argue that the Daoist notion of an “inner,” cognitive and affective dimension of ritual practice points to useful ways of supplementing contemporary theoretical understandings of ritual that focus primarily, if not exclusively, on the formal aspects and social contexts of ritual activities.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 479 | 175 | 4 |
| Full Text Views | 106 | 37 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 159 | 96 | 7 |