Power and Justice by Xudong Zhao

Author:Xudong Zhao
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783662538340
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Unsolved or verdict-unsatisfied disputes always exist in the village. And the unsatisfied party often expresses their grievances towards villagers on informal occasions or seeks god’s judgment on the issues through rituals. Since they see the temple as the highest court to judge goodness from evil, they would tell god about their discontent in the same way to judge, and hope god bring fair back.

Just as the ordeal that reflects supernatural power through witchcraft in African tribes, in China, fortune-telling, geomancy and incense-viewing are sought to achieve the same purpose. Here, if ordeal has a special magic power, it shall be shown in its indiscriminate justice towards everyone, at least the locals have such expectation for god.

Another social function of temple and god is about its surveillance on social order. God is said to be clear about everything on earth and knows all its ins and outs of a dispute, so the unresolved disputes can be finally handled by god. In their view, only god wouldn’t take sides in disputes, so its will is the fairest. It is obvious that the fairness of god is reflected by its efficacy.

Order and Disorder

It is worth emphasizing that rituals like incense-viewing express villagers’ longing for order and their avoidance of disorder. The incense atlas below vividly reveals their cosmic view.

The atlas is kept by Li Erdan, who was in charge of incense-viewing ritual in the past (Table 6.4). It serves as the guidance to view and interpret incense, and the ritual is usually held in individual houses. The incense-viewing led by Li Erdan, which is called Kansanxiang is slightly different from the one introduced above, which is named Kanmingxiang. The former needs to light three incense sticks, and to be judged by the instructions of the incense atlas ; in contrast, the latter needs a bundle of incenses and the judgment would be made by its burning process.Table 6.4Incense Atla s for Incense-viewing

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