Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500-1700

"In this illuminating study of a vital but long overlooked aspect of Chinese religious life, Jimmy Yu reveals that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, self-inflicted violence was an essential and sanctioned part of Chinese culture. He examines a wide range of practices, including blood writing, filial body-slicing, chastity mutilations and suicides, ritual exposure, and self-immolation, arguing that each practice was public, scripted, and a signal of cultural expectations. Individuals engaged in acts of self-inflicted violence to exercise power and to affect society, by articulating moral values, reinstituting order, forging new social relations, and protecting against the threat of moral ambiguity. Self-inflicted violence was intelligible both to the person doing the act and to those who viewed and interpreted it, regardless of the various religions of the period: Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and other religions. This book is a groundbreaking contribution to scholarship on bodily practices in late imperial China, challenging preconceived ideas about analytic categories of religion, culture, and ritual in the study of Chinese religions."--Publisher's website. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments A Note on Dynasties and Reigns Introduction The Significance of This Study Emic Categories and Exegetical Apparatuses Methodological Approach Sources and Their Agency and Limitations 1. A Culture in Flux: Historical Background Dramatic Economic Prosperity Political Intrigues at the Court Widespread Literacy and New Ideas of Morality An Age of Sages? 2. Embodying the Text through Blood Writing Blood Writing as Filial Devotion Self-Sacrifice and Negotiating Boundaries 3. Nourishing the Parent with One’s Own Flesh The Larger Context of Anthropophagy Contentious Representations of Filial Slicing Miracles, Divinities, and Healers 4. Chaste Widows as Entertainment and Revenants The Practical and Conceptual Implications of Female Chastity Performing Chastity as Passion (Qing) Reading Female Chastity as Entertainment Chastity Suicides and Vengeful Revenants 5. Exposing and Burning the Body for Rain The Thaumaturgist and Ritual Exposure Immolating the Body for Rain The Power of the Body Conclusion Character Glossary A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P R S T W X Y Z Notes Abbreviations and Conventions Select Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z In this Illuminating Study or a vital out long overlooked aspect of Chinese religious life, Jimmy Yu reveals that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, self-inflicted violence was an essential and sanctioned part of Chinese culture. He examines a wide range of practices, including blood writing, filial body-slicing, chastity mutilations and suicides, ritual exposure, and self-immolation, arguing that each practice was public, scripted, and a signal of cultural expectations. Individuals engaged in acts of self-inflicted violence to exercise power and to affect society, by articulating moral values, reinstituting order, forging new social relations, and protecting against the threat of moral ambiguity. Self-inflicted violence was intelligible both to the person doing the act and to those who viewed and interpreted it, regardless of the various religions of the period: Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and other religions. This book is a groundbreaking contribution to scholarship on bodily practices in late imperial China, challenging preconceived ideas about analytic categories of religion, culture, and ritual in the study of Chinese religions Jimmy Yu reveals that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, self-inflicted violence was an essential and sanctioned part of Chinese culture. He examines a wide range of practices, including blood writing, filial body-slicing, chastity mutilations and suicides, ritual exposure, and self-immolation, arguing that each practice was public, scripted, and a signal of certain cultural expectations.