Page 190 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

150 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I

possession-and mediated communication, typified by the written petitions
and memorials of the priest. However, immediate forms of communication
are employed by many others besides spirit-mediums and their devotees, and
many practitioners other than priests use texts in their commerce with the
divine bureaucracy. The opposition between immediate and mediated access
to the supernatural cannot be neatly correlated with any of the elite/ popular
binarisms described above (with the possible exception of the contrast between
oral and written cultures). Instead, the ritual and the social categories once
again tend to crosscut one another.

Peter NICKERSON
m Bennett 1986; Cohen 1987; Davis E. 2001; Dean 1993; Feuchtwang 1992;
Johnson 1985a; Lagerwey 1987C; Lagerwey 1996; Little 2000b, 255-73; Ma Shu-
tian 1997; Nickerson 1996b; Okuzaki Hiroshi 1983; Robinet 1997b, 62-65; Sakai
Tadao and Fukui Fumimasa 1983; Schipper 1985e; Seidel 1969-70; Seidel 1987e;
Seidel 1989-90, 283-86; Stein R. A. 1969b; Stein R. A. 1979; Zhang Zehong
1999b; Zong Li and Liu Qun 1987

* fuji; yinsi; SYNCRETISM; TAOISM AND ANCESTOR WORSHIP; TAOISM AND
LOCAL COMMUNITIES; TAOISM AND LOCAL CULTS; TAOISM AND MEDIUM CULTS;
TAOISM AND POPULAR SECTS

Taoism and popular sects

Popular sects are voluntary religious associations run and patronized by lay
people unaffiliated with the major institutional religions of China. While
earlier religious movements, including the early Way of the Celestial Masters
(*Tianshi dao), may be loosely classified as popular sectarian, as a technical
term "popular sectarianism" is usually applied to a wide variety of lay religious
associations flourishing in early modern and contemporary China. The founders
of these groups frequently were religious virtuosi who in a syncretic manner
fashioned a new, popularized system of doctrine and practice out of the Three
Teachings (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism). They recorded their teachings
in a genre of religious literature called *baojuan (precious scrolls).
In many (though not all) sects, diverse elements drawn from these sources
were rearranged around a shared eschatological vision that focuses on the
Unborn Venerable Mother (Wusheng Laomu ~:1:~-B.t) as the ultimate origin
and destination of humankind. Oblivious of their divine origins, humans sadly
have become mired in the desires and illusions of the world and are no longer
aware of the bliss that awaits them once they return to their Mother. This