Unruly gods : divinity and society in China /

This collection of essays, a multidisciplinary offering by anthropologists, historians, and literary scholars, examines the relationship between "unruly gods" in Chinese popular religion and China's sociopolitical order. The contributors show that some deities "express and negotiate tensions within China's sociopolitical order, not just reflect it"; indeed, they sometimes turn it upside down. Even those deities organized in a bureaucratic hierarchy did not offer unequivocal support for the cultural hegemony of the Confucian elite. The focus of this collection, however, is on nonbureaucratic deities, generally from the Buddhist and Taoist pantheons. Meir Shahar argues persuasively that the Chinese supernatural world provided relief and liberation from the Confucian ethos. Other essays show how cults are transmitted through time and space. A significant and original contribution to the study of Chinese popular religion and society. Upper-division undergraduates and above. R. E. Entenmann St. Olaf College