essay

The written memorial in Taoist ceremonies

Religion and ritual in Chinese societyStanford, Calif.Published In 1974 • Pages: 309-324

By: Schipper, Kristofer Marinus.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This essay presents the text and textural analysis of a written prayer which accompanied services marking a collective Great Communal Sacrifice in the village of A-lien. Schipper considers such texts a hallmark of Taoist, rather than Buddhist, practice, and traces their historical and literary relation to the great liturgical tradition of China. The functions of Taoist priests are also discussed.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Literary texts
Prayers and sacrifices
Ritual
Organized ceremonial
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Taiwan Hokkien
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
1995
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Asia
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
East Asia
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
M. A. Marcus; Marlene Martin
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1969
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
not specified
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
A-lien village, Kao-hsiung hsien (p. 312-313), Taiwan
NotesAdditional notes
Kristofer M. Schipper
Includes bibliography
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Taiwanese