By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

China has historically been an agricultural society, divided into the cooler northern and more tropical southern regions. The north is distinguished by the Yellow River, which links the highlands in the west to the East China Sea off the Shandong Peninsula. The south of China is defined by the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, butt the most famous river of the south is the Yangzi. Some parts of China present great obstacles to farming, such as the very dry landscape of the Western Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Tibetan Autonomous Region, as well as the steppes of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region in the north.

 

As the official language of Mainland China, Mandarin Chinese is today regarded as a unifier of Chinese thought and culture. However, beyond Mandarin Chinese and the Han Chinese culture associated with it, other ethnic groups include the Zhuang, Uyghur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, and Manchu. On the southeastern coast of Mainland China lies Hong Kong, with predominantly Cantonese, and on Taiwan (the Republic of China), the largest ethnic group consists of Hokkien, who speak the min language that is also spoken in Fujian province in Mainland China. Most of the Hakka, to use another name for the same people, came to the island from Guangdong province in Mainland China. Those who speak Mandarin Chinese (which is also the national language of Taiwan) are associated with the group of Mainland Chinese who came to the island after 1945.

In addition, a very small percentage of the population are aboriginals, including the Atayal, Saisiyat, Bunun, Tsou, Paiwan, Rukai, Ami, Puyuma, and Yami. Shamanism in the Chinese cultural sphere has been influenced by (and has influenced) the religious traditions of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Originally, Confucianism referred to -he ideas of the teacher Confucius (traditional dates 551-479 B.C.E.). Eventually, Confucianism became a term used to describe a corpus of Confucian classical texts. It was also a state doctrine opposed to beliefs and practices associated with shamanism and spirit mediumship.

To the Chinese diaspora, Confucianism still largely defines what it means to be traditionally Chinese. Early Daoism refers primarily to the texts of Zhuangzi (369-286 B.C.E.) and Laozi (mid-third century B.C.E.). Daoist religion is seen as developing out of these Daoist texts and the pursuit of immortality, as well as shamanic exorcism, healing, and spirit possession, during the latter part of the Han dynasty.

Among the many kinds of practitioner that fall under the broad heading of Chinese shamanism are the spirit medium, spirit writer, and diviner of the spirit, along with other ritual practitioners known by various names: bi, tâng-ki, fugei, wu, and paq. There is some debate as to whether these individuals qualify as shamans in the "traditional" Siberian sense, or whether they are spirit mediums Often the terms shaman and spirit medium are used interchangeably and without precision to describe religious functionaries within the Chinese cultural milieu who display abilities resembling those of shamans. As with shamanism in other regions and cultures, Chinese shamanism is so varied that it can be treated as a conglomerate of "shamanisms," with each belief and practice sometimes resembling and sometimes differing from those of more "traditional" shamans in Siberia.

Contrasting traditional mediumship and shamanic traditions, in Hong Kong there are three general types of mediums who engage in various levels of spirit possession. The first two types of mediums, the baisanpo and the manmaipo, or mangwaipo, are older women, who become possessed by spirits and the souls of those who have died, respectively.

While they are possessed, these mediums speak and sing the words of the deity or soul. The more prevalent kind of contemporary shaman is the male or female medium or spirit writer, whose hands only become possessed, by educated deities who are able to write.

In Singapore, the determination of who will become a shaman by the year, month, day, and hour of birth is important in both Nong shamanism and in the practice of spirit mediumship (here predominantly male).

These mediums practice selfmortification and speak the words of the possessing deity. Among the Nong of southern China, the shaman is one who becomes possessed by a spirit called a paq and travels to a realm known as the Flower Garden to recover lost souls. Young girls who have a "light destiny," as determined by the year, month, day, and hour that they were born, display this destiny by attracting a paq at a young age.

The more traditional Taiwanese shamans have a broad range of functions, ranging from exorcism to providing counseling on fengshui. Some use spirit writing, but others, mostly men, are associated with the martial tradition and practice similar to Singapore, selfmortification and, in trance state, participate as performers on festive occasions and during pilgrimages. A new religious movement has grown up on Taiwan that also involves dancing while in trance; in its performances, it shows the influence of the older performance tradition. The performers, many of whom are women, are called lingji (diviners of the spirit), and sometimes lingxiu (cultivators of the spirit), or lingmei (spirit mediums), and the focus is on lingdong (moving thespirit).

The shamanic beliefs and practices of the Qiang people of Sichuan Province in China have been influenced by Daoism and Buddhism, as usual in this area, and also by Christianity. Although shamans, called bi in the Qiang language (duangong in Mandarin), may be either male or female, female shamans are rare. The bi performs divination and fortune-telling and conducts rituals and ceremonies, sacrifices and blessings. To perform these tasks the bi carries a number of tools, for example, a white stone, a drum, a small gong, a horn, a dagger, as well as a holy stick used for exorcisms and a wooden board used for spirit writing. The bi does not, however, enter trance during rituals more often than other participants do, and does function as the community's intellectual and scholar, to a greater extent than is typical of shamans. Bis have helped to preserve the Qiang language and culture, but the tradition is in danger of dying out. In this way also the Qiang example is atypical, since elsewhere in the sphere of Chinese influence shamanism is thriving.

 

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