Chinese history/religion DuBois (Continued from front flap) The Sacred Village Until recently, few villagers of rural North China ventured far from knowledge, the significance of formal Ű “Based on unusually rich their homes. Their intensely local ecclesiastical structures, the rise of new ů documentary materials The Sacred Village view of the world included knowledge of religious movements, millenarianism the immanent sacred realm, which derived during the Japanese occupation, the ongoing and extraordinary ethnographic from stories of divine revelations, cures, and place of sectarian groups in ritual life, and access (to Cangzhou county in miracles that circulated among neighboring the relationship between religion and the southeastern Hebei), this is a fresh villages. These stories gave direction to private village community. and bold attempt to answer two devotion and served as a source of expert big questions: what does religion information on who the powerful deities The Sacred Village is the first study in English were and what role they played in the human to discuss the entirety of North Chinese mean in the everyday life of world. The structure of local society also local religion in a holistic manner and over common peasants? and, what is shaped public devotion, as different groups an extended period of time. It adds a new the mental makeup that goes into expressed their economic and social concerns dimension to classic studies of the area that peasant religiosity?”—Philip in organized worship. While some of these will be appreciated by students and scholars Huang, University of California, groups remained structurally intact in the of modern Chinese history and society and face of historical change, others have changed adds to our larger understanding of how local Los Angeles dramatically, resulting in new patterns of religion is changed by forces from both within religious organization and practice. and without. “Combining the historian’s The Sacred Village introduces local religious is assistant professor of ů Thomas DuBois life in Cang County, Hebei Province, as a lens history at the National University of emphasis on long-term through which to view the larger issue of how Singapore. social change with the ethnog- rural Chinese perspectives and behaviors rapher’s close observations of were shaped by the sweeping social, political, local society, Thomas DuBois provides unprecedented detail on the historical and demographic changes of the last two development of local cults and sectarian traditions in north China local commu- centuries. Thomas DuBois combines new nities. The Sacred Village presents a stimulating treatment of the impact state archival sources in Chinese and Japanese with his own fieldwork to produce a work policies and organized religious movements could have on local communities. that is compelling and intimate in detail. This This book should attract a broad audience of readers, including specialists, dual approach also allows him to address the undergraduates taking introductory courses on Chinese culture, and non- integration of external networks into local sinologists interested in studies of local communities.”—Paul Katz, society and religious mentality and posit local Social Change and Religious society as a particular sphere in which the two Academia Sinica Jacket photos: (front) Procession of the Heaven and are negotiated and transformed. The book Earth teaching, White Yang Village, Cang County, China; (back) sectarian devotee chanting funerary Life in Rural North China presents fascinating and important aspects of scriptures. Photos by the author. local religious life: the production of religious University of Hawai‘i Press Jacket design: Chris Crochetière, BW&A Books, Inc. Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888 (Continued on back flap) www.uhpress.hawaii.edu Ű Thomas David DuBois ů The Sacred Village The Sacred Village Social Change and Religious Life in Rural North China Ű Thomas David DuBois Ű UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I PRESS • HONOLULU © University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data DuBois, Thomas David, – The sacred village : social change and religious life in rural north China / Thomas DuBois. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn --- (alk. paper) . Cangzhou (China)—Religious life and customs. I. Title: Social change and religious life in rural north China. II. Title. bl.d '.'—dc University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources Designed by Chris Crochetière, BW&A Books, Inc. Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group I should tell you, errant sir, that in these tiny places everything’s discussed and everything’s gossiped about; and you can be quite certain, just as I am, that a priest has to be a saint to make his flock speak well of him, especially in a village. —Cervantes, Don Quixote,I,XII Ű Contents Acknowledgments ix Note on Conventions and Usage xi Introduction CHAPTER 1 Background: Rural Cang County CHAPTER 2 Religious Life and the Village Community CHAPTER 3 Spirits, Sectarians, and Xiangtou: Religious Knowledge in Local Culture CHAPTER 4 Monastic Buddhism: The Limits of Institutional Religion CHAPTER 5 Pseudomonastic Sectarians: The Li Sect in Town and Country CHAPTER 6 Apocalyptic Sectarians: The Way of Penetrating Unity and the End of Days CHAPTER 7 Village Sectarians: The Most Supreme and Heaven and Earth Teachings Conclusion: Cang County and Chinese Religion Appendices Notes Character Glossary Bibliography Index Ű Acknowledgments To justly acknowledge all of the numerous individuals who have assisted me over the past few years would add at least one more chapter to an al- ready lengthy book, but a few people do deserve special mention. First and foremost are Philip Huang and Kathryn Bernhardt, who provided me with years of professional guidance and personal example during my doctoral study at UCLA. Richard Gunde of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies has been a great friend, providing me with encouragement, sound advice, and an extremely detailed critique of the text itself. The longest period of fieldwork, from to , was supported by a generous grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. During that time, I was the guest of the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, which was quite helpful to my work. Professor Li Shiyu, truly the great master of sectarian studies, gave me instruction, advice, and free access to his large store of materials. However great his role as an intellectual mentor, his per- sonal example of integrity, generosity, and humility will always remain dearest to my heart. Pu Wenqi organized much of the initial stage of field- work, accompanied me to the villages of Cangzhou, and provided vital in- troductions and background. Dong Jiqun of the Tianjin Cultural Museum provided me with source materials on Cangzhou folk tales and on the Tianhou Temple of Tianjin, about which he has recently completed a monograph. In Japan, the Research Center on East Asian Culture (T¯oy¯o Bunka Kenky¯u J¯o) at Tokyo University was especially helpful, introducing me to new colleagues and granting me full access to their library holdings. Late in the dissertation phase, I was invited to participate in the confer- ence “Religion and Chinese Society: The Transformation of a Field,” or- ganized by John Lagerwey and held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in which I was first introduced to the larger context of religious studies, along with an exciting new world of ideas, scholarship, and col- leagues. Among the latter, my deepest thanks go to Paul Katz, who gave the rough manuscript an extremely close reading and not only saved me from making a number of embarrassing blunders, but also vastly expanded the intellectual scope and import of the final product. An earlier version of ix Acknowledgments chapter of this book will also appear in the conference volume of the same name, and I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the volume edi- tors and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press for allowing me to reprint those materials here. Over the years during which the dissertation was transformed into a book, I taught first in the Program in Religious Studies at Washington University, in St. Louis, and currently in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. Each university provided me with time, funding, and facilities to work on the book, as well as opportuni- ties to meet new friends, students, and colleagues, from whom I have benefited greatly. The maps and illustrations were drafted by Mrs. Chong Mui Gek, of the National University of Singapore Department of Geogra- phy. Finally, I would like to express my thanks and admiration to Patricia Crosby of the University of Hawai‘i Press, who has been exceedingly pa- tient throughout the publication process and has tangibly improved the text in a number of ways. Naturally, my deepest and most heartfelt thanks go to my friends and family for their constant love and support. Tazuko Tanaka, Yao Hua, and, especially, Misako Suzuki have each given me years of friendship and have done more for me than I could ever hope to repay. My family carried me through the years of graduate school with their emotional and, all too of- ten, financial assistance. My father, David DuBois, and sisters, Alicia and Jennifer, each of whom know the rigors of graduate education and aca- demic life all too well, were wonderfully caring and supportive throughout the entire process. I wish to thank my hosts in the villages of Cang County, most of whom must remain unnamed in this text. Throughout my stay, I was treated with honesty, respect, and compassion, all of which come quite naturally to these people. Their basic humanity to guests and to each other moved me deeply and imbued my scholarship with a very personal sense of mission.