The Everyday Practice of Chinese Religions

This book unites the experiences of Buddhist monks, Daoist masters, Confucian officiants, shamans, and mediums who navigated the tumultuous landscape of twentieth-century China during the religious prohibition that took place during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), examining how their lives and legacies have helped shape the religious and social landscape of modern China.

The book explores how these individuals preserved, adapted, and transmitted religious traditions in the face of adversity and societal change, often forced into secular professions. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and first-hand testimonies collected three decades after their return, this book traces the trajectories of these "old masters" and explores how they have preserved ancient knowledge while adapting to contemporary society. Through careful attention to their gestures, daily practices, social interactions, and ritual performances, the authors reveal the complex ways in which traditional religious expertise has been maintained, transformed, and transmitted across generations. By examining a diverse range of religious specialists across multiple regions and time periods—including their disciples and attendants—the case studies illuminate the heterogeneity and fluidity of religious mastery in modern China. By examining the firsthand experiences of those who lived through this adversity, the book supports an understanding of the transformation of religious life in China, its enduring complexity, and the personal and collective significance of its renewal. Ultimately, the book offers a nuanced portrait of religious continuity and change in one of the world's most dynamic societies.

Demonstrating how resilience, adaptation, and transmission have shaped contemporary Chinese religiosity, the book will be of direct relevance to postgraduates and scholars of Chinese religions, anthropology, modern Chinese history, Asian studies, and religious studies. Those familiar with, and interested in, Chinese history and religion more broadly may also benefit.