Opening up the ritual casket: patterns of concealment and disclosure in early and medieval Chinese religion
Ritual casketspotent containers of precious stone or metal housing divinely granted treasures and esoteric textsappear with some frequency in the literature of early medieval Daoism. These caskets reveal a rich complex of mythic narratives and ritual practices in Chinese religion as a whole. This...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2006]
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| In: |
Material religion
Year: 2006, Volume: 2, Issue: 1, Pages: 38-66 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | Ritual casketspotent containers of precious stone or metal housing divinely granted treasures and esoteric textsappear with some frequency in the literature of early medieval Daoism. These caskets reveal a rich complex of mythic narratives and ritual practices in Chinese religion as a whole. This article focuses on three aspects of religious practice involving a range of ritual caskets from the ancient to the early medieval period, including: (1) the vessels' function in the acquisition of the Heavenly Mandate tianming for imperial rulership as well as for immortality; (2) their mediating role in disclosing the revelation of sacred texts, especially from the Latter Han and into the narratives of early Daoism; and (3) their use in ritualizing expiation in early medieval Daoism through the depositing of "substitute bodies" into hidden caches and the advancing of liturgical petitions to otherworldly offices. On the most fundamental level, the ritual casket is a container that both conceals as well as reveals. We may thus see the hollow of the casket as a generative emptiness into which have been inserted a multiplicity of applications and interpretations over time, illustrating an esoteric dimension lying at the heart of the Daoist tradition. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2752/174322006778053951 |