Papers by Mark Meulenbeld
Journal of Chinese Religions, Volume 52, Number 1, 2024
The Daoist role within traditional Chinese human/nature relationships has often been characterize... more The Daoist role within traditional Chinese human/nature relationships has often been characterized as one that aims at achieving harmony with nature. This arti- cle challenges many of the basic assumptions regarding the harmony model, focusing instead on the rich trove of judicial rituals that Daoist adepts had at their disposition for disciplining, correcting, or punishing elements of the landscape. A substantial part of these rituals was underpinned by Daoist legal codes from the Celestial Heart (Tianxin) tradition that emerged during the eleventh century and spread more widely soon after. Of the subjects these codices target, the present article focuses on trees, rocks, mountains, dragons, and certain animals. A picture emerges of stringent approaches to achieve order in the natural world, based on Celestial Laws, enforced by ritual officials. Throughout all these rituals, however, runs the idea of a landscape that is brimming with purpose, agency, responsibility, and divinity.
Asia Major, 2021
This article argues that late-Ming-era landscape paintings can be understood best historically in... more This article argues that late-Ming-era landscape paintings can be understood best historically in the context of such cultural practices as Daoist visualization and the discourses that accompanied it. Taking a Snowy Mountains-themed painting, it critiques the Cartesian perspective by demonstrating that landscape paintings were not regarded as closed objects available to the thinking subject for mere aesthetic appreciation. Instead, they were thought to possess an interiority that afforded space for the human spirit to roam in. A certain teleology associated with this practice was the merging of the beholder's human body with that of a purported broader cosmic body, thereby also giving interiority to the physical world-including landscape. Access to this space, or, "entering the mountains," allowed for a momentary yet reproducible experience of transcendence. To make this argument, the article draws upon late-imperial narrative prose, Daoist texts, and other materials from the same period, all describing the cultural significance of this pattern of interiority, accessibility, visualization, and merging of bodies.
T'oung Pao, 2021
Though long seen uniquely from the perspective of the Chinese literary canon, Tao Qianās é¶ę½ (365?... more Though long seen uniquely from the perspective of the Chinese literary canon, Tao Qianās é¶ę½ (365?ā427) famous āRecord of the Peach Blossom Springā (āTaohuayuan jiā ę”č±ęŗčØ) may find an even more fruitful disciplinary home in religious studies. The story refers itself to a grotto at Wuling ę¦éµ (present-day northern Hunan province), a site that has been associated with Daoist transcendents (shenxian ē„ä») at least since the middle of the sixth century. A Daoist monastery on that same site, the Peach Spring Abbey (Taoyuan guan ę”ęŗč§) or Peach Blossom Abbey (Taohua guan ę”č±č§), became officially recognized in 748 and received imperial support not long after. This article studies the long history of Peach Spring as a sacred site, or, as Tao Qian referred to it in his poem, a ādivine realmā (shenjie ē„ē).
Clart, Goossaert, and Hsieh (eds.), Daoism and Local Cults: Rethinking the Paradigms, 2020
This article studies an example of a local cult that might not be labeled as āDaoistā if taken at... more This article studies an example of a local cult that might not be labeled as āDaoistā if taken at face value, but that, by specifying those elements that can be attributed to Daoist ritual operations, can nonetheless be classified on the basis of formative contributions from Daoism. It is a study of the presence of Daoism in the absence of Daoists.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2019
The three principal religious denominations of China, referred to in English as Confucianism, Dao... more The three principal religious denominations of China, referred to in English as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, all share a concern with self-cultivation. Of these so-called āThree Teachingsā (Sanjiao), Confucianism situates the self hierarchically within a social order, Daoism attempts to free the self from society and realign it with the more fundamental natural order, and Buddhism ultimately strives to liberate the self by dissolving any and all order. The two indigenous traditions of Confucianism and Daoism have roots in the same cultural environment from which the residual category of Popular Religion also emerged, and the two have long existed in a symbiotic relationship with local cults of worship. After the introduction of Buddhism to China, it too became deeply immersed in this interactive dynamic between more unified denominations and the locally diverse forms of worship of spirits, saints, and sages. Though Popular Religion does not represent a unified ideology or a consistent corpus of self-cultivation practices, its ubiquitous rites of spirit possession similarly relate to the self: by allowing the presence of certain gods to displace individual selves, these rites play with the need to suspend socio-individual identity from time to time, instead allowing the sacred embodiment of lineages, villages, or even entire regions to take precedence.
Religions, 2019
This article maps out a sphere of ritual practice that recognizably serves as a framework for the... more This article maps out a sphere of ritual practice that recognizably serves as a framework for the famous Ming dynasty (1368ā1644) vernacular narrative Water Margin (ę°“ę»øå³ Shuihu zhuan). By establishing a set of primary referents that are ritual in nature, I question the habit of applying the modern category of āliterary fictionā in a universalizing, secular way, marginalizing or metaphorizing Daoist elements. I argue that literary analysis can only be fruitful if it is done within the parameters of ritual. Although I tie the storyās ritual framework to specific Daoist procedures for imprisoning demonic spirits throughout the article, my initial focus is on a genre of revelatory writing known as ācelestial scriptā (天ęø tianshu). This type of script is given much attention at important moments in the story and it is simultaneously known from Daoist ritual texts. I show a firm link between Water Margin and the uses of ācelestial scriptā by presenting a nineteenth century Daoist ordination manual that contains ācelestial scriptā for each of Water Marginās 108 heroic protagonists.
Studies in Chinese Religions
This article investigates different types of rituals that constitute the Daoist repertoire of Yan... more This article investigates different types of rituals that constitute the Daoist repertoire of Yangyuan Village in Hunan (PRC). I first show that the āindigenousā Meishan rituals represent an older ā possibly nonāHan ā stratum of the Yangyuan repertoire. Revolving around mountains, grottoes and other landmarks of the local sacred geography, it nonetheless bears the traces of inter-regional exchange between Hunan, Jiangxi, and Fujian ā an exchange that can be situated in a historical context. Secondly, I show that the local liturgies of Yangyuan are permeated with references to the codifying authority of the regional Daoist institution called Yuxu Gong, and that its rituals were synthesized under the judicial aegis of this templeās main divinity, the Dark Emperor. It is this exorcist god to whom the divine offices of the law enforcers of Tianxin report. Finally, I make a case for reconsidering the role commonly attributed to Ming dynasty āvernacular fiction.ā Instead of serving solely as a source of narrative entertainment, it provided knowledge about ritual traditions and the authoritative institutions associated with them, such as the Yuxu Gong.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
The Chinese goddess known as Guanyin may commonly be referred to with the Buddhist epithet of " b... more The Chinese goddess known as Guanyin may commonly be referred to with the Buddhist epithet of " bodhisattva, " yet her many hagiographies contain only the most stereotypical references to anything that could be defined unambiguously as " Buddhist. " Instead, the narrative of Guanyin that gains greatest popularity between the twelfth through the nineteenth centuries is one that describes the bodhisattva's last incarnation, as the unmarried Princess Miaoshan, within the parameters of indigenous Chinese religionāor, rather, its demonology. I argue that all of the many versions of Miaoshan's legend represent her deification into Guanyin as a process necessary for solving her spirit's demonical status that has arisen from the recurring violence done to her body by herself and her father. Moreover, I show how Miaoshan's narrative of a violated body is deeply rooted in practices of trance-possession that ultimately explain her efficacy.
Daoism: Religion, History and Society
The present article investigates different representations of Sire Thunder (é·å
¬ Lei Gong), classif... more The present article investigates different representations of Sire Thunder (é·å
¬ Lei Gong), classifying them according to the particular modes of viewingā " registering " āthey exemplify. My analysis involves Tang dynasty (" literary ") stories, hagiographic materials, Daoist ritual manuals from the Ming, and some visual representations of modern provenance. Taken together, they will allow me to bring to light a theory about a repertoire of differentiation that I would like to characterize as Daoist " modes of perception. " I argue that different perspectives for viewing Sire Thunder (as an outlandish demon, as a registered god, and as a cosmic entity that inheres throughout the bodily micro-cosmos) express a hierarchical understanding of his ritual transformation from an individual and lowly spirit to a force that can be ritually called forth from the cosmic " realities " latent with the human body. Much of my analysis is developed in dialogue Mark Meulenbeld is Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches Chinese religion with a focus on Daoism. His areas of research range from vernacular literature of the Ming dynasty to fieldwork on Daoism in Hunan (PRC) and on Taiwan. His recent publications include a monograph on the intersection of literature, religion, and society, entitled Demonic Warfare: Daoism, Territorial Networks, and the History of a Ming Novel (University of Hawai'i Press, 2015), and an article about late imperial hagiographies of a Buddhist goddess that depict her as a gloomy spirit: " Death and Demonization of a Bodhisattva: Guanyin's Reformulation within Chinese Religion " (JAAR, September 2016).
The Daoists of Yangyuan Village (central Hunan Province, P.R.C.) offer important insights into th... more The Daoists of Yangyuan Village (central Hunan Province, P.R.C.) offer important insights into the relationship between so-called " popular religion " (or " local religion "), on the one hand, and institutional religions with greater interregional coherence such as Daoism, on the other. I argue that the concept of " popular religion " does not do justice to the situation in central Hunan, especially not in its common usage as a sphere of culture that can be studied separately from national traditions such Daoism. Focusing on Yangyuan Village, I show that Daoists there have incorporated local traditions into their liturgies, particularly in a constellation whereby local gods protect canonical divinities. From a reverse perspective, I show that local ritualists who are not nominally " Daoist " have nonetheless constructed their own ritual traditions in reference to the mythology and liturgy of Daoism. In particular, the deified manifestation of Lao Zi , entitled Most High Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun), is presented as authoritative source of the local village ritual traditions. Although this paper is primarily written in order to provide a comprehensive introduction of the religious repertoire that the Daoists in Yangyuan represent (as was the motivation behind the conference for which this paper was originally written), my secondary motivation is to go beyond a mere survey and formulate the case of Yangyuan Village as an argument about ways in which disparate elements of Chinese religion may have to be understood as parts in a coherent cultural framework. Because ritual constitutes the most comprehensive venue for individual and communal engagement with specific gods, it is thus a main focus throughout this paper. In order to situate my exploration of ritual interactions with gods within a particular academic debate, I start out in this section with a brief discussion of the limits of the concept of " popular religion. " Then, in section 2, I map out the variegated world of local gods and ancestors that are worshiped throughout Yangyuan 1 This term is widely used in reference to some sort of autonomous category within the whole of Chinese religious phenomena. Among the earlier generations of scholars who took this cultural sphere seriously, C.K. Yang posits a theory that is at once sophisticated and flawed ā and that has greatly influenced the field. Yang understands " popular religion " as a set of " diffused " beliefs and practices that have been derived from " institutional " religion. While Yang's model is useful for understanding the correspondences between Chinese religious traditions, it is less accurate in the assumption of some sort of mainstream " Great Tradition " of ancestor worship that has influenced all of the disparate " Little Traditions. " It seems to be more accurate to understand Chinese religious phenomena as built upon a stratum of shared beliefs and practices that have been reconfigured or reemphasized within different contexts. For a general overview of the way in which the term " popular religion " has been used in modern scholarship, see Stephen Teiser, " Popular
Cahiers dāExtrĆŖme Asie
If the Chinese literary imagination has long been fascinated with the fabulous feat of body trans... more If the Chinese literary imagination has long been fascinated with the fabulous feat of body transformation and mystified it as a typical prerogative of extraordinary beings such as capricious monkeys, mighty gods, or the unquiet dead, this bewilderment must have been welcomed by those who practiced body transformation in their daily performance of ritual: Daoist priests. In the present article I will argue that rituals of metamorphosis (huashen/bianshen åčŗ«/č®čŗ« or huashen/bianshen åē„/č®ē„) have constituted the central act of power production within Daoist liturgy.
(chapter in R. Nadeau, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions)
The Religious Landscape of the Ming and Qing The Chinese religion of the Ming (1368 ā 1644) and Q... more The Religious Landscape of the Ming and Qing The Chinese religion of the Ming (1368 ā 1644) and Qing (1644 ā 1911) Dynasties has often been studied along the lines of the so-called " three teachings " of Confu-cianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. The scriptural traditions of these three major traditions are extensive, and, in the case of Buddhism and Daoism, have been compiled into voluminous canonical collections that were commissioned by imperial order: the Buddhist Canon and the Daoist Canon. The relatively clear-cut religious parameters of these three textual traditions have, however, made it all too easy to marginal-ize the predominant form of Chinese religion, namely the territorial forms of religion that were practiced in localities across the Chinese empire. The present chapter will therefore pay close attention to this paramount form of religion, which was at the same time a form of social organization. Local strata of religion were neither sanctioned by the imperial government nor organized from within any central governing organ. Indeed, partly as a result of this lack of offi cial recognition by the imperial state, and the lack of institutional defi ni-tion as legitimate bodies of religious practitioners, scholars have often imagined the many regional varieties of Chinese religion to be an unorganized hodge-podge of superstitions that lacked coherence. Intellectuals have sometimes understood local religion to be a rural or low-class phenomenon, and therefore have indiscriminately and somewhat disparagingly referred to it as " popular religion. " While it is true that the religion of the people was not organized in ways similar to the major three traditions in terms of self-conscious denomination, or in terms of institutional charisma, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, First Edition. Edited by Randall L. Nadeau.
(chapter in: Jacob Neusner (ed.), Introduction to World Religions: Communities and Cultures)
Introduction to Daoism
Book Reviews by Mark Meulenbeld
ę¼¢åøē ē©¶ Chinese Studies, 2016
review of my book by Vincent Goossaert
review of my book by James Benn
review of my book by Paul Katz
review of my book by Wang Yuanfei
review of my book by Richard Wang
review of my book by Vincent Durand-Dastes
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Papers by Mark Meulenbeld
Book Reviews by Mark Meulenbeld