RT Article
T1 The Social Networks of Gods in Late Imperial Spirit-Writing Altars
JF Religions
VO 14
IS 2
A1 Goossaert, Vincent 1969-
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2023
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/183335401X
AB The late imperial-educated Chinese interacted with a very large array of gods through various means, especially spirit-writing, for which we have abundant detailed records. While a few prominent gods have been studied in this context, there are currently no comprehensive studies of the connections between humans and gods. Using the records of thirteen different spirit-writing altars in various parts of the Chinese world between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, this paper maps the 478 gods involved using standard social network analysis visualizations, and identifies the types of gods that played central roles (connecting many different gods and humans) and those that had fewer, more exclusive sociabilities.
K1 Gods
K1 Buddhism
K1 Daoism
K1 spirit-writing
DO 10.3390/rel14020217