Week 8 Religion

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Week 8 Religion

• The Religious Culture of Everyday Life in Late
  Imperial Jinhua
• What is Religion?
• Three Case Studies
• Changes over Time

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• Religion zongjiao ??

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What is Religion?

• (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2)
  establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting
  moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating
  conceptions of a general order of existence and
  (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura
  of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations
  seem uniquely realistic Clifford Geertz
• Talal Asads critique

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Traditional China Traditional Europe Modern West
Category of Religion
Relationship of human world to world of spirits
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What is Religion?

• Assumptions
• Practices
• Institutions that seek to impose order

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Historical Changes

1. Formation of the bureacratic metaphor mirrors
   expansion of state power
2. Commercialization of religious mentalities

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(No Transcript)
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Case Study 2 Lord Hu

• Hu Ze (963-1039)
• Mt. Fangyan

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Case Study 3 Great Immortal Huang

• Huang Chuping (Jin dynasty c3)
• Ge Hong (284-364)
• Gazetteer of Red Pine Mountain (c13)

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Assumptions

1. The human world is situated between and interacts
   with Heaven and Earth
2. Various categories of beings inhabit world of
   spirits, and can move to and from human world
3. The world of the spirits is organized like the
   human bureaucracy BUT
4. There is a wide range of ways of interacting with
   the gods
5. Gods and cults map an alternative version of
   space and locale