| Modern study of religious practices in Chinese communities tends to overlook the ritual manuals used by ritual specialists. This has created a gulf between text-oriented scholars, who are usually more interested in ideas, and fieldworkers, who often focus on the socio-economic dimension of religious practices. This study combines the textual approach with the method of participant observation. In its presentation of four selected rituals, this study emphasizes the fact that all these rituals consist of actions and words. The discussion of each ritual includes a description of ritual actions as well as an analysis of the ritual manuals used. It shows that the contents of the written materials deepen our understanding of the rituals, including their history and their relationship with other domains of Chinese culture. After examining the four rituals, this study comes to the conclusion that, in a complex ritual that involves communication with different categories of spirits and the use of both words and deeds, there is the tendency to use words to address deities of higher ranks and to use gestures and physical movements to deal with low-ranking spirits and demons. Moreover, the recitation of ritual texts tends to involve less use of gestures, material symbols, and percussion instruments, while an emphasis on gestures and physical movements often entails a heavier reliance on material symbols and percussion instruments. This study ends with a discussion of the distribution of ritual knowledge in local communities. It argues that the best way to approach the ritual manuals is to place them on a spectrum of information-distribution within local communities, rather than to adopt a dualistic view that separates ritual specialists from the majority of people in a community. |
