This volume explores practices and experiences in Chinese popular religion. The research adds new materials and new approaches to well-known worships such as the cults of doomsday, underworld, and Lord Guan on the one hand, and draws attention to under-the-radar deities and holy figures hiding in the mountainous countryside or among the urban crowd. While this book centers on Chinese popular religion, it will be of use to non-China scholars in folklore, religious art, and ritual studies as well as China scholars in popular culture from late-medieval to contemporary times.

Shin-yi Chao is Associate Professor of Religion at University of Rochester, US. Her research interests include Chinese popular religion, Daoism, and ritual studies. She has published extensively on Daoist rituals and women in Daoism. Currently, she is working on two projects: village religion in North China and temple cults in Taiwan. Her most recent publication is Seekers and Seers: Lay Buddhists and Buddhist Revival in Rural China (2022).

Introduction - Shin-yi Chao
1. Confluence of Fears: The 1923 Doomsday Hysteria in China - FAN Chun-wu ...
2. Temple Inscriptions as “Text Acts” - Adam Yuet Chau
3. Shuilu Rites and the Baodingshan Rock Carvings, Dazu - HOU Chong ..
4. The Worship of the Ten Kings of Purgatory during the Ming-Qing Period - WANG Chien-chuan
5. Feasting with the Great Grandma: The Tea Banquet Ritual Programs and the Worship of the Mother of the Wutong Gods - CHEN Yongchao
6. Knowledge and Ritual: The Dual Nature of the Scripture Illustrating the Holiness of Emperor Guan (Guandi mingsheng jing) - LI Shih-wei
7. Scorched Head: Daoist Exorcists and their Divine Generals in Jiangnan Lore - Vincent GOOSSAERT
8. Assimilation by Names: A Mechanism of Pantheon Development in Local Religion -WANG Yao
9. Our Lady on the Mountain: The Cult of a Daoist Immortal in Village China - Shin-yi CHAO
10. Stone Inscriptions on Mt. Tai and Contemporary Folk Pilgrimage: A Speculation on “Lefu Yinbei” - YE Tao
Index