Making "Science" from "Superstition": Conceptions of Knowledge Legitimacy among Contemporary Yijing Diviners
Yijing prediction is experiencing a popular revival in the contemporary PRC, ongoing since the beginning of the Reform era. At the same time, state and popular discourse continue to valorize "science" (kexue 科學) as modern, accurate, and legitimate, against backward, false, and illegitimate...
| Published in: | Journal of Chinese religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Published: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
[2017]
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| In: |
Journal of Chinese religions
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
China
/ Yi jing (Work)
/ Revival
/ Fortune-telling
/ Superstition
/ Science
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| Further subjects: | B
PRC
B Yijing B Divination B Superstition B Epistemology B Science B Cosmology B Legitimacy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Yijing prediction is experiencing a popular revival in the contemporary PRC, ongoing since the beginning of the Reform era. At the same time, state and popular discourse continue to valorize "science" (kexue 科學) as modern, accurate, and legitimate, against backward, false, and illegitimate "superstition" (mixin 迷信). Yijing prediction is widely considered "superstitious," but is cast by diviners as a legitimate form of knowledge. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Hangzhou 杭州, this article identifies six common popular attitudes to "science" in relation to other knowledge systems, and examines them through case studies of two predictors. Predictors maintain a strong epistemological and ethical concern with accurately accounting for reality, identifying Yijing prediction positively as "scientific" or as compatible with "science," against other forms of knowledge like religion and Marxism, which are considered "superstitious" and inaccurate. Predictors thus appropriate and redefine the prevailing discourse of knowledge legitimacy based on their individual epistemological perspectives. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-8999 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Chinese religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/0737769X.2017.1345193 |