Two things should first be mentioned. One, this book results from the author’s studies of ritual music in North China (Ritual and Music of North China, 2009, with DVD; Ritual and Music of North China, 2007, with DVD; and Plucking the Winds, 2004, with CD), but this is a new development – to expand the scope from music to broad issues of continuity in local traditions by looking at folk Daoist practice. It can be read independently of the other works, but it is more helpful to relate it to them, particularly to the DVDs. And two, as the author emphasizes, this is a book designed to fill in a gap in the studies of folk Daoist practices in North China, in contrast to South China, and thus aims to bring up awareness “that there are [Daoist] rituals to analyze” (210); the author intends to “give some fuzzy snapshots of north Chinese Daoists” in order to “open up a forum for discussion” (215). This goal the author has more than achieved.
The first chapter is an introduction to the context, focus, and limitation of the study, and is followed by three parts and a conclusion. The first two parts serve as a survey and set a frame for the third part. Chapter 1, “A Well-Kept Secret,” points out one important fact: that there have been almost no studies of Daoist ritual in North China, whereas there are many studies of the ritual in South China in the twentieth century. There are two points to be made here: first, the fact that there were no studies in English does not mean there were no studies in Chinese by the Chinese (in fact there were); and two, the model of studies done for South China should not be applied without recognizing the differences in the local settings. The author suggests an approach focused on the liturgical/ritual modality, rather than the previous approach focused solely on the rituals. In the present approach, the liturgical text and non-text-based practices are seen to interact as a central component of the local traditions. To pursue this approach, the author further divides the practitioners into several sub-groups: temple Daoist (or Buddhist) priests; lay Daoist (or Buddhist) ritual specialists; amateur lay ritual specialists; and ritual specialists within sects. All of these, except the first group, are peasants. This approach is then applied in the following chapters.
The first two chapters, comprising Part One, are surveys of the practices, chapter 2 for north Shanxi and chapter 3 for north-central Shanxi. Based on the author’s field experience from 1991-2005, chapter 2 provides descriptions of a few selected cases. The author integrates biographical information of key ritual specialists into the ethnographic account, an improvement over previous studies in South China. In chapter 3, the author makes a meaningful observation: the apparent lack of a particular jiao-ritual in North China, in contrast to South China, could and should be understood as a reflection of the fact that the local terms are different (77). This constructive thinking touches on an issue that many scholars are encountering in studying others.
Part Two takes up surveys of other areas, chapter 4 on south Shanxi and south Hebei, chapter 5 on Shaanxi, and chapter 6 on Gansu. Unlike in the previous part, where the ritual practices are relatively homogeneous, this part describes practices that are not homogeneous, with materials based “mainly on Chinese sources” (85). Part Three is the heart of the book, with three chapters on three locations at the village level in central Hebei Province, and mostly based on the author’s own fieldwork. This part looks at the “group” (or “ritual association”) in contrast to the previous part on “individual” ritual specialists. The updated description of the performances is certainly a contribution. Different from previous studies of the Daoist rituals, in this treatment temple fairs and funerals are given enough attention so that we may see the role of the ritual specialists as well as the ritual component in local traditions and in social life. From the folkloristic perspective, we have a departure from a text-centered to a context-centered approach. The author observes that the labeling of ritualistic events is a way to secularize them so that they may survive social upheavals.
Chapter 7 is about the ritual association in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing, in the 1990s. (One may no longer find the people and villages or associations described in the book there due to the fast urbanizing process, but similar practices must be continuing in some other ways.) It provides an interesting report on the parallel transmissions of the Daoist and Buddhist groups who are mixed in everyday village life and ritual performances of temple fairs and funerals with music. At one point, the author notes that many rituals are not in accordance with the “liturgy/ritual” model, but rather in non-text format. This may indicate that no single model works in real fieldwork. Chapter 8 provides more details for the Bazhou and Jinghai areas.
Chapter 9 focuses on the continuity of Daoist practices via the worship of Houtu (one of the four sovereigns of Daoism, or a major goddess), within historical context of the liturgy/ritual tradition. Funerals, of course, are also detailed as part of the ritual performance tradition. There are also descriptions of some less-performed or disappearing rituals. The author concludes that although folk Daoist ritual practice is performed beyond temples, those lay individuals or groups who do this do not have access to the liturgy that is central to the continuity of the practice as one or another sect of Daoist or Buddhist ritual. Nevertheless, local traditions of this kind are key to the survival of the tradition itself (200-01). This is a valid and meaningful point, which, for folklorists as well, is essential in studying the interaction of the elite/text tradition with folk, popular, or non-textual practices.
In the conclusion, the author writes: “It is Daoism, but not as we know it.” He does not explain who the “we” is, leaving the reader to wonder whether it refers to non-Chinese scholars, any scholars at all, or the local people – something worth pondering. In reflecting on the previous studies of Daoist ritual practices, the author poses many meaningful questions in relation to specific rituals, ritual sequences, and patterns of ritual transmission, while trying to detect patterns of distribution “on the basis of ritual sequences rather than of any explicit transmissions” (207). The author admits that there is some patterning in the region, but a bigger dip into its history is required to trace its lines. The conclusion that the change “from liturgical complexity to more mundane manifestations” is but a change in “the vehicle for ostentation” (214) is positive for studying traditions in terms of the ways in which traditions are transmitted.
The four appendices are very useful for those who want to study the subject. The first presents field notes on ritual practices in Beijing and Tianjin, using local terms. The second is about two ritual songs known as both Daoist and Buddhist, “The Lament of the Skeletons,” and “The Twenty-Four Pious Ones,” and refers the reader to other sources for the texts. The third appendix is on the background of the precious scrolls of central Hebei discussed in chapter 9. The last appendix offers “some sites for living folk ritual activities in Shanxi” (in nearly 30 counties). Included at the end is the glossary-index, which is particularly helpful for those who plan further the studies Daoist rituals.
Designed as a survey to provide a forum for further discussion, the book indeed leads to many thoughtful points that deserve serious thinking from the reader. The author makes a bold suggestion to abolish the terms like “Daoist music” or “Buddhist music” so as not to compartmentalize these practices as “ritual food” or “ritual text” (26). Such ideas challenge our already-stereotyped mind-set. But the book also leaves some puzzles, such as how to situate the folk Daoist practices in Shandong (around Mt. Tai, the sacred site for Daoist practices), a pivotal corridor between Beijing and Shanxi-Shaanxi areas.
What should be applauded is the author’s position-shifting thinking: rather than asking why one ritual (jiao) is popular in South China but rare in North China, we may reverse our perspective to ask why that particular ritual is common in the south (19). To extend the argument, we may ponder why we often try in one place to employ a term or model developed in another place. In this sense, anyone who works on Chinese folk beliefs should appreciate the author’s excellent work in providing valuable fieldwork data, in synthesizing the studies on the subject, and in establishing the focus on the performances of folk ritual specialists in North China.
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[Review length: 1459 words • Review posted on December 5, 2011]