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My professor recommended The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture by Von Glahn to me, saying it was a history of the demonic throughout Chinese history and thought that might appeal to me. Of course it did. So I checked out a copy from the library, and finished it last night. It was a very uneven book, certain chapters were brilliant and perfect, and others seemed to be a more general overview of history, that I already knew and had little to do with the demonic, or more sinister side of religion and were just a generic history of religion in China. It was almost as if he thought he had enough ideas for his book, but didn't quite. Or his emphasis was broader than he originally intended. But still it was very enjoyable.
Introductions seem to start one of two ways, either with a description of the sources used, or an analysis of previous work done in the field. This book does the second. It looks at the different analysis done of Chinese religion from and anthropological and a historical perspective. He shows their development, some he agrees with, some he doesn't. He uses lots of authors I'm familiar with, which was nice, only I think one of the books I hadn't read yet.
Chapter 1 is a little confusing. He seems to have written this book for someone familiar with the subject, but most of the 30 pages are a overview of different pre-han religious ideas. He doesn't mention much of controversy, but states mainly facts. And only at very end does he address a deity that was formerly a demonic entity that was later put in charge of dispelling them. Seemed kinda disjointed and unspecific to this research, not all that new, and kinda off topic. He seemed to mainly be included as was looking at his two points of "Chinese religion" and seeing how far back these were traced.
Chapter 2, looked at Han funeral religion. He didn't credit other workers in the main body of his text, all in footnotes. But it was an interesting description of changing tombs relating to changing ideas, separating out of elite and mortals. Also the fear of demons becoming prevalent in tombs, and the queen mother of the west. He then looked at divergent beliefs a long look at celestial masters, introduction of Buddhism, and then other Daoist beliefs, and millenarian movements, how different ideas of hell were incorporated together. He seemed to be straying from his main point a little too often, He rewrote lots of information I would assume his readers already have, well I did. But this was probably good for readers less familiar with subject, but why would they be reading this?
Chapter 3 was all about mountain Goblins, Shanxiao. This chapter was very good. He looked at the history of the demonic spirits that lived in the mountains, the different names they had in different areas, the different things that were blamed on them. Starting with the early spirits in The Classic of Mountain and Seas which was pre-Han, or very early Han, down to the Tang and Song, where he includes interesting social reasons for fear or the spirits in the woods. And gives accounts from books that were clearly people meeting with the indigenous people of the area, that they categorized as spirits.
Chapter 4 was also very good. This was a history of the Plague demons and epidemic Gods. He looked at the idea of demonic causes of illness from the early Zhou through to the song. Different rituals people participated in, to exorcise these demons. And the interesting history of how several of the original demons who caused plague were later turned into demons who fought against it. There were stories of demon quelling supernatural heroes. And also Daoist beliefs of sickness and exorcism. This chapter is really what I was hoping this book would be like. I enjoyed it very much.
Chapter 5 was back to giving a general overview of history of the Song. Which was very disappointing. He talked a little about the history of the 10 Kings of Hell, but there was nothing in there that was not in Stephen Teiser's article on "The Growth of Purgatory" from Religion and Society in the Tang and Song China. Von Glahn, looked too much at the growth of purgatory in my mind, it seemed to be more of a western interpretation linking the idea of purgatory with demons than a Chinese one. I know that there is very interesting information about demons and exorcism in the Song, Davis wrote and excellent book about it, Society and the Supernatural in Song China. But very little of this was covered in this chapter.
Chapters 6 and 7 traced the history of the Wutong cult from Song times through to the 20th century. Chapter 6 was very interesting and similar in a lot of ways to the Cedzich article in the Popular religion book. It contained some new and interesting information but was also a lot of overlap. Chapter 7 looked at the religion through Ming and Qing times and it was very interesting, as it covered a completely new area. He also linked the idea of the changing face of the God of wealth with people's ideas of wealth changing. This was a very interesting bit of social analysis for me, and it would have been very good if he'd started it a bit earlier. As when I was reading I couldn't help but wonder if the idea of a God of Wealth having blatantly demonic origins didn't have something to do with the way merchants, and money were perceived by society. It was also interesting that he pointed out how in rural areas attitudes towards the god did not change, as their attitudes towards wealth and money stayed the same.
The conclusion was interesting, though in the end, he tried to tie people's idea of a god of wealth to the fear of purgatory being the driving factor, the overwhelming feeling of guilt and sin, which seemed just a little too western in my mind. But explained his focus a little better for the Song chapter. Still it was an interesting work, though rather unbalanced. I'd definitely recommend reading chapters 3,4 6 and 7 and perhaps skipping the rest, unless you have only a little knowledge of Chinese religious history.
Introductions seem to start one of two ways, either with a description of the sources used, or an analysis of previous work done in the field. This book does the second. It looks at the different analysis done of Chinese religion from and anthropological and a historical perspective. He shows their development, some he agrees with, some he doesn't. He uses lots of authors I'm familiar with, which was nice, only I think one of the books I hadn't read yet.
Chapter 1 is a little confusing. He seems to have written this book for someone familiar with the subject, but most of the 30 pages are a overview of different pre-han religious ideas. He doesn't mention much of controversy, but states mainly facts. And only at very end does he address a deity that was formerly a demonic entity that was later put in charge of dispelling them. Seemed kinda disjointed and unspecific to this research, not all that new, and kinda off topic. He seemed to mainly be included as was looking at his two points of "Chinese religion" and seeing how far back these were traced.
Chapter 2, looked at Han funeral religion. He didn't credit other workers in the main body of his text, all in footnotes. But it was an interesting description of changing tombs relating to changing ideas, separating out of elite and mortals. Also the fear of demons becoming prevalent in tombs, and the queen mother of the west. He then looked at divergent beliefs a long look at celestial masters, introduction of Buddhism, and then other Daoist beliefs, and millenarian movements, how different ideas of hell were incorporated together. He seemed to be straying from his main point a little too often, He rewrote lots of information I would assume his readers already have, well I did. But this was probably good for readers less familiar with subject, but why would they be reading this?
Chapter 3 was all about mountain Goblins, Shanxiao. This chapter was very good. He looked at the history of the demonic spirits that lived in the mountains, the different names they had in different areas, the different things that were blamed on them. Starting with the early spirits in The Classic of Mountain and Seas which was pre-Han, or very early Han, down to the Tang and Song, where he includes interesting social reasons for fear or the spirits in the woods. And gives accounts from books that were clearly people meeting with the indigenous people of the area, that they categorized as spirits.
Chapter 4 was also very good. This was a history of the Plague demons and epidemic Gods. He looked at the idea of demonic causes of illness from the early Zhou through to the song. Different rituals people participated in, to exorcise these demons. And the interesting history of how several of the original demons who caused plague were later turned into demons who fought against it. There were stories of demon quelling supernatural heroes. And also Daoist beliefs of sickness and exorcism. This chapter is really what I was hoping this book would be like. I enjoyed it very much.
Chapter 5 was back to giving a general overview of history of the Song. Which was very disappointing. He talked a little about the history of the 10 Kings of Hell, but there was nothing in there that was not in Stephen Teiser's article on "The Growth of Purgatory" from Religion and Society in the Tang and Song China. Von Glahn, looked too much at the growth of purgatory in my mind, it seemed to be more of a western interpretation linking the idea of purgatory with demons than a Chinese one. I know that there is very interesting information about demons and exorcism in the Song, Davis wrote and excellent book about it, Society and the Supernatural in Song China. But very little of this was covered in this chapter.
Chapters 6 and 7 traced the history of the Wutong cult from Song times through to the 20th century. Chapter 6 was very interesting and similar in a lot of ways to the Cedzich article in the Popular religion book. It contained some new and interesting information but was also a lot of overlap. Chapter 7 looked at the religion through Ming and Qing times and it was very interesting, as it covered a completely new area. He also linked the idea of the changing face of the God of wealth with people's ideas of wealth changing. This was a very interesting bit of social analysis for me, and it would have been very good if he'd started it a bit earlier. As when I was reading I couldn't help but wonder if the idea of a God of Wealth having blatantly demonic origins didn't have something to do with the way merchants, and money were perceived by society. It was also interesting that he pointed out how in rural areas attitudes towards the god did not change, as their attitudes towards wealth and money stayed the same.
The conclusion was interesting, though in the end, he tried to tie people's idea of a god of wealth to the fear of purgatory being the driving factor, the overwhelming feeling of guilt and sin, which seemed just a little too western in my mind. But explained his focus a little better for the Song chapter. Still it was an interesting work, though rather unbalanced. I'd definitely recommend reading chapters 3,4 6 and 7 and perhaps skipping the rest, unless you have only a little knowledge of Chinese religious history.