Ritual and Self-Cultivation in the Daoist Practice of “Oblatory Refinement”

Abstract

This article describes a Daoist salvific ritual called jilian 祭鍊, “oblatory refinement,” as presented within a ritual manual written by Zheng Sixiao 鄭思肖 (1241–1318). Zheng’s formulation of this ritual and his extensive commentary on its individual elements show that he regards this ritual not only as a means of achieving salvation for others, but also as a complete system of self-cultivation that is capable of enabling the practitioner’s self-apotheosis. After discussing the historical background of the ritual and describing its various stages, I analyze Zheng’s approach to ritual practice and his understanding of the relationship between ritual and self-cultivation, both of which are characterized by his emphasis on the quality of “sincerity” (cheng 誠). Ultimately, I argue that the Daoist notion of an “inner,” cognitive and affective dimension of ritual practice points to useful ways of supplementing contemporary theoretical understandings of ritual that focus primarily, if not exclusively, on the formal aspects and social contexts of ritual activities.

The Origin, Evolution and Morphological Analysis of the Taoist Music of the Lingbao School: Historical Promotion and Cultural Inheritance

“…In 1949, after the founding of the People ' s Republic of China, the Three-Self Movement was introduced, and a policy of freedom of religious belief was established, which was neither compulsory nor prohibited. However, during the Cultural Revolution, with the change in the political environment and the negative propaganda that regarded religious activities as superstition (Capitanio, 2019), most of the descendants of Tianshi and believers returned to their hometowns. Tianshidao in Longhu Mountain, the main (the only surviving relatively intact) activities of Tianshifu House, was also occupied by the school.…”