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In the Souls of China, Journalist Ian Johnson Introduces Readers to Religious Practices, Rituals, and Associated Beliefs As They Unfold Throughout a Lunar Year

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In the Souls of China, Journalist Ian Johnson Introduces Readers to Religious Practices, Rituals, and Associated Beliefs As They Unfold Throughout a Lunar Year book reviews 233 The Souls of China: The Return of Religion after Mao. By Ian Johnson. New York: Pantheon, 2017. x + 455 pages. Hardcover. isbn 978-1-101-87005-1. us$30. In The Souls of China, journalist Ian Johnson introduces readers to religious practices, rituals, and associated beliefs as they unfold throughout a lunar year. Although the lunar calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1929 in China, it is still the meter by which rituals unfold. Taking readers to diverse regions, including Beijing, Shanxi, and Chengdu, Johnson’s aim is to highlight the various ways spiritual movements are lived and practiced in China today. Pointedly, Johnson’s work is a manifestation of in-depth research and partici- pation with pilgrimage associations, Daoist funeral masters and alchemic prac- titioners, and Christian pastors. Throughout, Johnson provides readers with an emic look at China’s religious landscapes, awakened rituals, and spiritual cus- toms, while also addressing practitioners’ concerns of government oversight and religious practice. Although religious practices were outlawed by Mao’s regime, religious cul- ture, Johnson contends, is being reborn in a variety of locations and settings, across diverse traditions, and among rural and urban citizens alike. His study is a general-purpose text that will be of interest not only to scholars of Religious Studies or Chinese Studies, but also to any reader curious to encounter vibrant spiritual revivalism in China today. Throughout the book, Johnson draws on scholarship analyzing historical Chinese religious practices to contextualize the data he collected through ethnographic methods. Johnson’s cultural data derives from intensive time spent with religious practitioners, and he conveys his encounters through first- person narrative. In his analysis of ethnic Chinese (Han), Johnson identifies pilgrimage as a significant revitalized practice. “For decades,” he writes, “we have been ac- customed to thinking of China as a country where religion, faith, and values are marginal” (16). Revived pilgrimages, however, evidence that individuals are breathing new life into ancient rituals, and are still searching for meaning, mo- rality, and answers that the secular world cannot provide (16–17). China’s eco- nomic expansion brought about new realities and turned cities into alienating spaces where individuals are without friends and circles of support. Johnson writes, “Religion and faith offer ways of looking at age-old questions [such as] How do we achieve contentment?” (18). “We realize,” one practitioner ex- plained, “there’s something missing and that’s a spiritual life” (17). Spirituality and faith in contemporary China thus includes the gathering of pilgrims dur- ing a two-week pilgrimage at Miaofengshan—the Mountain of the Wondrous Peak. Located outside Beijing, the mountain is home to Our Lady of the Azure © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/22143955-00502007Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 04:31:10AM via free access <UN> 234 book reviews Clouds. To investigate this pilgrimage, Johnson follows the Ni family, which manages an association that supports those making the pilgrimage, while also interviewing pilgrims paying respect to a variety of deities. Reverence for the goddess, he observes, includes seeking the healing of diseases, fertility, and wisdom: “This was about the future. These were universal aspirations for fam- ily, for safety, for community, for good health” (391). Rituals of pilgrimage offer a “bridge to the future” (392), and many Miaofengshan pilgrims travel not only to this auspicious place but also to other sacred sites to seek out ancient wis- dom. “We’re in a new era of uncontrollable desire and greed,” one pilgrim said. “The ancients found answers in these mountains. Maybe there is something for us to learn too” (381). Miaofengshan’s first recorded pilgrimage was in 1689, and today, Johnson reports, men and women are revitalizing rituals through individual acts and religious life is being reborn (187). Across China, in multiple spiritual set- tings, individuals are passing down religious practices to the next generation. In Shanxi, Li Bin serves as a yinyang man—a geomancer, fortune-teller, and funeral director. Li Bin’s father, too, had been a fortune-teller, but Li Bin also possesses the gift of vision. Even though many Chinese have chosen urban life over their family villages, Li Bin recognizes city people’s hunger for belief (36). Thus he serves as a ritual specialist, priest, and undertaker. Across the coun- try, Johnson encounters another contemporary sage—a well-known Buddhist master. At his Lake Tai Hall of Great Learning, ninety-four-year-old Nan Huai- chin draws audiences of up to fifty people for evening gatherings consisting of dinner and a lecture from the master. Dinners include airline executives, bank managers, scholars, architects, and children of political leaders (99). Provid- ing guidance in multiple arenas—including investment and ethics—Master Nan questions China’s economic development, criticizes Chinese modernism, and encourages audience members to be “future oriented” (98). And in a small apartment in Beijing facing the White Cloud Temple, Johnson engages in Dao- ist internal alchemy led by Qing Ling. One practice here is qigong—a spiritual tradition that falls into a gray area between religions that have been declared legal by the state, including Christianity, Buddhism, Daoism, and Islam, and those that have been banned outright, such as falun gong, a close cousin of qigong. For thousands of years, internal alchemy has been an important as- pect of Chinese spirituality. And while the practices have changed, Qing Ling explains, they still exist, are still powerful, and have not been destroyed (120). Thus, across the nation, Johnson encounters a variety of spiritual practices that have not in fact been forgotten, but are reviving in a variety of ways. Finally in Chengdu, Johnson encounters the Early Rain Christian Church— a community that combines faith and social activism, as they believe that it review of religion and chineseDownloaded society from 5 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2018) 229-257 04:31:10AM via free access <UN> book reviews 235 is through such a combination that China will be “saved” (294). During inter- views, practitioners express uncertainty regarding China’s morality and show concern about a lack of law, governance, and human rights. Many churches, like Early Rain, are “unregistered,” meaning they are shrouded in political inse- curity. They are part of China’s gray religious market—neither permitted nor banned. Unregistered churches risk being shut down by the state because they are not part of “official” Christian organizations, and in the past, such churches were called “house churches” or “underground churches” because they met in secret (56). However today, unregistered churches like Early Rain are very pub- lic, Johnson notes, and are made up of individuals fighting for social justice and human rights—interests shared by many Chinese who are experiencing a “reawakened national conscience” (398). Many scholars of Chinese religion have observed that in the contemporary era, religious revitalization has occurred alongside economic development (Bruntz 2014; Chau 2011; Fisher 2011; Oakes and Sutton 2010; Ryan and Gu 2009), and many studies question whether such development across Asia has de- sacralized locations by stripping them of religious referents (for Buddhist sites in Asia, see Guo 2006; Oakes 1998; Prideaux and Timothy 2008). What Johnson’s work successfully achieves is an emic analysis of religious revival- ism not from the standpoint of religion and economics, but instead from the perspective of individual movements across the nation. Johnson shows that individuals reviving religious rituals are indeed concerned with government intervention, for it greatly impacts religion. “All temples,” Mr. Ni of the Mi- aofengshan pilgrimage explains, “are not the same. Some are fake” (10). This is an aspect of contemporary religious life that many scholars have examined, but what has been missing within the scholarship are studies that uncover in- dividual revivalist movements. Practitioners participating in religious rituals illustrate Johnson’s main point: the fact that people participate in rituals and pilgrimages proves that spirituality has not in fact been destroyed. And further- more, although great economic development has generated much wealth and political oversight has created challenges for religious organizations, there is a lingering need for spirituality. As Mr. Ni tells Johnson, “People are unsettled. They come to the mountain, so we should be there for them. We are carrying this on to the next generation. I feel it is our duty” (13). While Johnson’s work may be criticized for not incorporating the voices of ethnic minorities, what it successfully provides is a thorough examination of Han religious practice. Johnson reveals ardent practitioners maintaining re- ligious rituals and traditions amid great economic and political change. He furthermore articulates the difficulties religious practitioners currently face, and the challenges confronting particular organizations. China’s “traditional” review of religion and chinese society 5 (2018) 229-257Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 04:31:10AM via free access <UN> 236 book reviews religions (Daoism, Buddhism, and folk traditions), he explains, will most likely continue to thrive, for the government views them as “easier to manage” (397).
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