The Lady of Linshui A Chinese Female Cult [Hardcover]

This anthropological study examines the cult of the Chinese goddess Chen Jinggu, divine protector of women and children. The cult of the Lady of Linshui began in the province of Fujian on the southeastern coast of China during the eleventh century and remains vital in present-day Taiwan. Skilled in Daoist practices, Chen Jinggu's rituals of exorcism and shamanism mobilize physiological alchemy in the service of human and natural fertility. Through her fieldwork at the Linshuima temple in Tainan (Taiwan) and her analysis of the narrative and symbolic aspects of legends surrounding the Lady of Linshui, Baptandier provides new insights into Chinese representations of the feminine and the role of women in popular religion. [A]n anthropological account of a little-known cult, embedded in a rich description of its historical texts . . . The book's originality is in both the material and the way in which the author has made a complex of legends and surviving rituals available to an audience that will include all those interested in anthropology, healing, religion, and gender studies at undergraduate level and above . . . the first book, certainly in English, to provide in-depth insight into the role of women in Chinese religion. This book is a detailed examination of a Chinese women's cult that confronts the dangers of pregnancy, childbirth, and childhood diseases. It is in the dense texture of Baptandier's work and her refusal to flatten categories of religious behavior, gender, or morality that I see its greatest contribution to scholarship on Chinese religion. In terms of the study of practice the work has much to offer those just entering graduate studies in Anthropology and should be required reading for anyone considering fieldwork in the Chinese cultural sphere . . . I recommend Brigitte Baptandier'sThe Lady of Linshuifor its rich collection of mythological and ritual material and discussion of lived religious practices. [A] powerful, brilliantly presentel|