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Tuesday night at work I read Edward Schafer's book The Divine Woman: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens. Schafer was one of the foremost scholars in Tang studies in America. He's written several books, now mostly out of print, describing the dynasty. He has a rather poetic writing style and while writing scholarly books I think he's something that would appeal to the general reader as well.
The Divine Woman is his book about Tang water Goddesses. In the introduction he started by talking about the tradition of female shamans in China, and the worship of Chinese Goddesses. Schafer starts by talking about the history of the different river Goddesses in China the appearance of female water spirits and longs (dragons) and chiao (kracken). The different Goddesses he identified as; Nu Kua, The Goddess of Wu Shan, The Lo divinity, the Han woman, the Hsiang consort. While offering little evidence of any cultic practices, beside the mention of alters, he looked at the literary references to the Goddesses during the dynasty, particularly to their appearance in poetry.
I hate to say it but Schafer almost came across as a bit of a snobb. He spent a great deal of time analyzing poetical accounts, and only a little time analyzing prose tales, and no times at all on "non-fiction" or religious or governmental documents. His entire impression of the Goddesses came through what the elite poets wrote and not what "ordinary" people thought about them. (Whether or not this popular elite divide existed is another debate to go into another time). However it seemed a rather unbalanced approach, he spent most of his time carefully scrutinizing the references to Goddesses found within a handful of Tang poets, and spent only a little time on the hundreds of stories about the Goddesses and their interactions and roles among the mortals that were popular during the day. Something I think would have been much more informative and interesting. He seemed to dismiss most of these stories as being too popular with little literary merit. While from a religious studies perspective this may not have been the most sensible way to go it did make for a picturesque and enjoyable read. Explaining a lot of Tang poetry about wind and rain.
He also had a brief chapter in particular on the works of Li Ho. He sounded fantastic. He died at the age of 27, I think, and wrote about ghosts, and spirits and supernatural and dark things that sound absolutely delightful. I found his works on line and will now have to search through my Tang poetry books, particularly the one with the cds, to try and find more of his poems.
While more of a literary history than a religious history there is definitely some interesting religious interpretations to be made from this book. Schafer states how the traditional Chinese rain and water Goddesses were replaced by the Long from India who were made into the Dragon Kings and the Goddesses were transformed into their daughters. Something I have not come across before. He also is a strong believer in the Shamanistic tradition which is also nice. The book is quite old now and these arguments have become more controversial. However the book is still a delightful read. Rather than a dry academic text it is full of poetry and prose.
The Divine Woman is his book about Tang water Goddesses. In the introduction he started by talking about the tradition of female shamans in China, and the worship of Chinese Goddesses. Schafer starts by talking about the history of the different river Goddesses in China the appearance of female water spirits and longs (dragons) and chiao (kracken). The different Goddesses he identified as; Nu Kua, The Goddess of Wu Shan, The Lo divinity, the Han woman, the Hsiang consort. While offering little evidence of any cultic practices, beside the mention of alters, he looked at the literary references to the Goddesses during the dynasty, particularly to their appearance in poetry.
I hate to say it but Schafer almost came across as a bit of a snobb. He spent a great deal of time analyzing poetical accounts, and only a little time analyzing prose tales, and no times at all on "non-fiction" or religious or governmental documents. His entire impression of the Goddesses came through what the elite poets wrote and not what "ordinary" people thought about them. (Whether or not this popular elite divide existed is another debate to go into another time). However it seemed a rather unbalanced approach, he spent most of his time carefully scrutinizing the references to Goddesses found within a handful of Tang poets, and spent only a little time on the hundreds of stories about the Goddesses and their interactions and roles among the mortals that were popular during the day. Something I think would have been much more informative and interesting. He seemed to dismiss most of these stories as being too popular with little literary merit. While from a religious studies perspective this may not have been the most sensible way to go it did make for a picturesque and enjoyable read. Explaining a lot of Tang poetry about wind and rain.
He also had a brief chapter in particular on the works of Li Ho. He sounded fantastic. He died at the age of 27, I think, and wrote about ghosts, and spirits and supernatural and dark things that sound absolutely delightful. I found his works on line and will now have to search through my Tang poetry books, particularly the one with the cds, to try and find more of his poems.
While more of a literary history than a religious history there is definitely some interesting religious interpretations to be made from this book. Schafer states how the traditional Chinese rain and water Goddesses were replaced by the Long from India who were made into the Dragon Kings and the Goddesses were transformed into their daughters. Something I have not come across before. He also is a strong believer in the Shamanistic tradition which is also nice. The book is quite old now and these arguments have become more controversial. However the book is still a delightful read. Rather than a dry academic text it is full of poetry and prose.