10/24/2023 0 Comments Suzhou guan yu statue5 Barend ter Haar has suggested in his study of Guandi that the god is the sum total of stories told about him or her 6 this is a fruitful avenue of enquiry but I would suggest that equally important is the sum of sensory experiences of people who have felt the presence of the god through a medium, on stage, in spirit-writing, dreams, visions, and other ways, which are all ritually produced. 4 Furthermore, I propose that, at least in some cases, a key mechanism for creating a divine persona is the ritual techniques used by religious specialists to make the god present. This is what I mean by “divine persona,” a notion related to but distinct from the Latourian notion of non-human actant. Divine identities evolve and complexify but can hardly change entirely: whatever a god does (or is made to do) needs to be coherent with what she or he had done before. My argument relies on the idea that a god can certainly be appropriated by various persons and groups, but that, in order to have any use, it needs to remain coherent. 3 My story is, however, somewhat different, as it is largely focused on how late imperial elites appropriated the cult while maintaining a direct continuity with early modern rituals. 2 This essay thus echoes earlier studies of gods with roots in Daoist exorcistic traditions that later developed into multifarious directions, such as Zhenwu 眞武 or Guandi 關帝 (Guan Yu 關羽). More specifically, I hope to show how certain modern cults, such as Lord Wang’s, were to an important extent shaped by the daofa 道法, the new exorcistic ritual traditions that emerged during the early modern period (tenth to fourteenth centuries) and have since remained central to Daoism. 1 This essay proposes to take a different approach: it explores, through the case study of Lord Wang, how a god could be present throughout late imperial (fifteenth to early twentieth centuries) and modern Chinese society, from the village processions to the monasteries to the clubs of the elites, in a thoroughly coherent guise and it argues that this divine persona was clearly defined by Daoist priests and their ritual practices. Both approaches, however, often emphasize the god’s different representations (including iconography, myths, and rituals) among different social classes or local contexts, and argue that the coherent discourse held about them by religious professionals, especially Daoists and Buddhists, has a relatively limited impact on the practices and imaginary of ordinary people. Obviously, they are not exclusive, but they are rarely given equal attention. The first is what we may call history of divine identity, that is, following the evolutions of a given god in narratives (notably hagiography, novels, and baojuan 寶卷 ) and iconography the second is the history of the god’s cult, focusing on social contexts and patronage. The most famous snack shop at City God Temple snack square is Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant around which there is always a long queue.Recent research on Chinese gods tends to align with either one of two main approaches. Hundreds of the local snacks and great treat to the taste sense are right here to tempt visitors who want to probe into the real Shanghai gourmet. There is a big snack square next to the temple. Perhaps City God Temple of shanghai attracts the visitors with all kinds of tasty snacks around rather than the statues of immortals inside. 24) Guan Yu, the most respected general in period of Three Kingdoms (AD 208 to 280) and the national martial icon for centuries the God that blesses Shanghai along with his parents and wife, the immortals in charges of wealth, fame, literature, luck of voyage, age and so forth. Just have a look at what immortals are being worshipped at the temple - Huo Guang, a famous general in Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. To foreigners, City God Temple of shanghai strongly helps mirror the concepts of immortals of Chinese people. Taoists praying in the main hall of City God Temple As a result, the locals and visitors usually go to the temple and the market after they finish touring Yuyuan Garden. They both are a step away to City God Temple. Inside it there are the representative classic Yuyuan Garden and world of handicrafts and traditional art works Yuyuan Market. With the temple as the core, the old town of Shanghai (in contrast of the modern Pudong New Area) has formed a well-known City God Temple Scenic Region. The lofty temple consists of 9 halls where various statues of immortals that are believed to be in charge of certain aspect of human life receive endless worship. With a rich history of nearly 600 years, City God Temple of shanghai is the most significant Taoist temple in Shanghai.
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