Ritual, Legend, and Metaphor: Narratives of the Willow in Yuan Zaju

Narratives of willow trees in Yuan zaju 雜劇, or variety play, largely come in three types, namely, the ritual performance of shooting willows; the deliverance of willow spirits by Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals of Daoism; and the use of the word willow to refer to women. The willow shooting ritual depicted in Yuan zaju was highly reminiscent of the willow shooting ritual popular throughout the Song (960–1279), Liao (916–1125), Jin (1115–1234), and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties, with its conceptual origins traceable to the ancient shamanic belief in the willow as a sacred tree prevalent among the Khitans and Jurchens who lived in what is now northeastern China. The legend of Lü Dongbin delivering a willow spirit to immortality is a recurring motif in Han Chinese folklore and Daoist hagiography, which also finds expression in the iconic image of Guanyin Pusa or Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara holding a willow branch with which they cure diseases for people and bring fulfillment to their wishes. The frequent use of “willow leaf-shaped eyebrows” (liumei 柳眉) and “willow-like waist” (liuyao 柳腰) in Yuan zaju as metaphorical references to women can be seen as a continuation of the great literary tradition of Shijing 詩經 (The Book of Songs) and also as a dramatic enactment of the fertility cult of the willow and women in Chinese folk religion. Evidence abounds that the narratives about the willow in Yuan zaju were not a new creation but an artistic manifestation of centuries-old folk belief and literary tradition.

“Byzantium on the Volga”: To the Anniversary of Nikolay D. Barabanov

This brief sketch written to the 65th anniversary of Nikolay D. Barabanov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, lecturer at Volgograd State University, specialist in the Byzantine history, medieval folk religion researcher is devoted to his life, scientific and educational activity. The article also presents the publication of complete bibliographic information about the scientist’s works beginning in 1977, or from his learning period.

The influence of cyberization on folk religion: A case study of Chinese online religious group

Religious cyberization is a new way of dissemination and development of traditional offline religions. In the process of cyberization, all aspects of religions are likely to be affected by the new Internet environment. Taking a Chinese online religious group as Internet field, this article analyzes the influence of cyberization on belief system, religious authority and religious experience of folk religion, and makes a preliminary exploration of its causes in combination with the characteristics of Internet and folk religion. This study mainly adopted the method of participant observation, and conducted online and offline interviews with participants when necessary. In addition, the researcher also analyzed documents, audio and other files uploaded in the online group. In the case discussed in this article, compared with officially recognized religions in China, folk religion seems to be more adapted to the opportunities and challenges brought by the new territory of the Internet due to its unique diffuseness and inclusiveness.

Exploring Chinese folk religion: Popularity, diffuseness, and diversities

Folk religion, as the basis of the religious landscape in traditional China, is a highly syncretic system which includes elements from Buddhism, Daoism, and other traditional religious beliefs. Due to the shortcomings of denomination-based measurement, most previous social surveys have documented a very low percentage of folk religion adherents in China, and found almost no overlapping among religious beliefs. This study offers a quantitative portrait of the popularity, the diffuseness, and the diversity of Chinese folk religion. With the improved instruments in the 2018 China Family Panel Studies, we first observe that nearly 50% of respondents claim to have multiple (two or even more than three) religious beliefs and the believers of folk religion account for about 70% of the population. By using latent class analysis, this article explores the pattern of inter-belief mixing and identifies four typical classes of religious believers: “non-believers and single-belief believers”, “believers of geomancy”, “believers of diffused Buddhism and Daoism”, and “believers embracing all beliefs”. Finally, we find that the degree of commitment varies across these religious classes. Believers of folk religion are found to be less committed than believers of Western institutional religions, but as committed as believers of Eastern institutional religions.

Connecting with Deities: The Practice of Spirit Mediumship among the Chinese in Kuantan, Pahang

The belief towards the spirit medium is one of the oldest beliefs in Chinese folk religion. This research explored spirit mediumship practices among the Chinese in Kuantan, Pahang, and interviewed 10 spirit mediums by applying interpretive phenomenological analysis. The findings indicate that the ability to interact with deities is either due to unavoidable illness, hereditary, naturally acquired, or learned. Indeed, a spirit medium may or may not convey messages to the audience or the deities from ritual performances. However, the ritual had revealed an “indispensable and official” status among mediums and worshippers. Although some expectations of this practice have faded due to modernity, it is still popular among the Chinese, especially in bonding the Chinese together as one community.

The Book of Jeremiah as Case Study in Asian Contextual Theology

The past decades have seen many calls for Asian contextual theology thais both recognizably Asian and true to the Bible’s message. Given the lack of consensus on how to do such theology, however, the present study proposes that the Old Testament itself provides a worthy example to follow. Using the book of Jeremiah as a case study, it is suggested that the prophet’s engagemenwith the historical situation and theological issues of the sixth century BCE— fatalism, the identity of the divine vis-à-vis monism, prosperity theology, and cosmic suffering—offers a hermeneutical model for engaging modern Asian religious issues such as Islam, Hinduism, folk religion, and Buddhism.

The materiality of the representation of the owl in the Mari ways of speaking

This article shows how language materiality is conceptualized through an ethnolinguistic analysis of the representation of the owl as an indication of human-bird relationships. This approach enables addressing the multiple relations between birds and speakers and their perception of the environment as these are reflected in language, folklore and rituals. This research is related to such discourses as “language”, “materiality” and “environment” and is based on a case study of the Mari, a Finno-Ugric people who live in central Russia and still adhere to their folk religion. First, it sets out the Mari names which are used for birds of the owl family, then it shows how the terminology has changed due to the emotional side of humanity, and how terms express things in metaphorical way. Next, the article focuses on how the bird (owl) can be a source of positive or negative information with regard to auguring the future and how the symbolic use of birds in rituals and magical actions contributes to co-creating landscapes between human and non-human agencies. This study is based on extensive linguistic, folklore and ethnographic material, including my own field material.

Jizō in Action: The Role of Jizō Statues in Temple Atmosphere, Seen through the Eyes of Sendai Temple Abbots

This article shows how abbots at four Buddhist temples in Japan interpret the image and role of the Bodhisattva Jizō – the most popular folk deity in Japan. Statues of Jizō can be found in almost every Japanese Buddhist temple, but their roles differ significantly due to the folk character of this Bodhisattva and the wide range of its functions. Jizō was granted the role of universal saviour in Japanese folk religion, with more and more functions added throughout the centuries. The author attempts to show that abbots see Jizō statues very differently, and that sometimes the Jizō statues of one temple can be interpreted differently by the abbots of different temples.