Lord of the Three in One: The Spread of a Cult in Southeast China

Kenneth Dean

Published by Princeton University Press 1998

Lord of the Three in One

The Spread of a Cult in Southeast China

Kenneth Dean

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691261218

Overview
Contents

About this book

Lin Zhao'en (1517–1598) set out to popularize Confucianism by combining Confucian studies with Daoist inner alchemical techniques and Buddhist Chan philosophy into something he called the Three in One Teachings. Despite periods of clandestine activity since its inception, the Three in One cult has undergone a remarkable revival in post-Mao China: today Lin is worshipped throughout Southeast China and Southeast Asia as Lord of the Three in One in over a thousand temples by tens of thousands of cult initiates. Many of the temples have been restored since 1979, when China began to experience an explosive resurgence of popular culture and religion. In this book, based on ten years of field work, Kenneth Dean vividly documents the reemergence of this cult, which seeks to transmit a universal vision of truth yet retains a strong local appeal through its healing rituals and spirit mediumism. Although the Chinese government still tries to suppress these resurgences in the interest of modernization, the cult's locally based networks appear in this account as unstoppable social forces.

Dean explores the organization and transmission of the Three in One's unique cultural vision, the reception of this vision, and the construction of subjectivity within a vibrant ritual tradition. Outlining such features as inner alchemical meditation, scripture and iconography, ritual practice, and spirit mediumism, he demonstrates the cult's transformative potential as well as its contemporaneity and dynamism. Rural Chinese popular culture as a whole emerges here as highly complex and always evolving--traditional and resilient.

Author / Editor information

Kenneth Dean is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at McGill University. His books include Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults in Southeast China (Princeton) and, with Brian Massumi, First and Last Emperor: The Absolute State and the Body of the Despot.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	C
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations and Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
1. Ritual-Events Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
2. The Apotheosis of Lin Zhao’en Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
3. The Early Disciples Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
4. Inner Alchemy, Scriptures, and Liturgies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
5. The Three in One in the Qing and Republican Eras Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
6. Ritual Traditions of the Three in One Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
7. Current Cultural Range of the Three in One Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
8. The Three in One in Contemporary China Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Appendix 1: Editions of Lin Zhao’en’s Writings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Appendix 2: The Chart of the Inner Landscape of the Nine Stages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Appendix 3: Summary of the Xiawunijing (Lord Xia Scriptures) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Appendix 4: Scriptures to Popular Deities: The God of Theater Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
Appendix 5: Ritual Documents in the Wubentang Guitiao Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Appendix 6: Ritual Calendars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Appendix 7: Liturgies: The Purification of a Stage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Appendix 8: Ritual Spells and Visualizations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	344
Appendix 9: The Evolution of the Dragon Mountain Hall (1986 Stele Inscription in the Longshantang, Taipei) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347
Appendix 10: Chinese Text of the Bentijing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Appendix 11: List of Three in One Books and Manuscripts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	350
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397

Language: English
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 393

eBook

Published: November 14, 2023
ISBN: 9780691261218