By looking at the activities of Taoist clerics in Peking, this book
explores the workings of religion as a profession in one Chinese
city during a period of dramatic modernization. The author focuses
on ordinary religious professionals, most of whom remained obscure
temple employees. Although almost forgotten, they were all major
actors in urban religious and cultural life.
The clerics at the heart of this study spent their time
training disciples, practicing and teaching self-cultivation,
performing rituals, and managing temples. Vincent Goossaert shows
that these Taoists were neither the socially despised illiterates
dismissed in so many studies, nor otherworldly ascetics, but active
participants in the religious economy of the city. In exploring
exactly what their crucial role was, he addresses the day-to-day
life of modern Chinese religion from the perspective of ordinary
religious specialists. This approach highlights the social
processes, institutions, and networks that transmit religious
knowledge and mediate between prestigious religious traditions and
the people in the street. In modern Chinese religion, the Taoists
are such key actors. Without them, "Taoist ritual" and "Taoist
self-cultivation" are just empty words.
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