Making the Gods Speak: The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese History by Vincent Goossaert (review)

A comprehensive examination of divine revelation in Chinese culture, this new publication explores the development of a rich yet underexamined tradition and traces it through Daoist history. The text is well researched and provides a cohesive readable contextualization of the interweave of revelation in the Daoist religion and Chinese society.

The main theme is spirit writing, joining the exploration of a wide range of divine communication. Noting the continuous nature of divine revelation in the Chinese context, the author begins with the examination of the origins of this somewhat unique dynamic. He clearly divides the religious and academic perspective on revelations: for the believer the gods choose to speak, yet to the academician the revealed texts are produced. He duly pursues the evaluation of the production of texts in narrative accounts, revelations, and ritual.

There is a variety of techniques in early Chinese culture that serve to induce the presence of divine beings. Examining them, this section of the work brings out taxonomic differences in the agent of the divination as well as the production of simple divine presence or revelation.

During the first millennium of the Common Era, five distinct types of revelations appear: sutra, possession, encounter, visualization, and presence. The first four have a longer history, while the fifth is a latter development. The taxonomy is useful for scholars to build on and refine into subdivisions predicated on operative conditions, gender dynamics, and social station.

The fifth type of revelation, presence, is the focus of the next section, which introduced the methods of ritual that require divine presence to empower them. They demanded the palpable presence of a metaphysical entity to manifest their effect. Interestingly, the revelations associated with them are almost a byproduct of the association of the ritual practitioner with the divinity.

Next, the book examines spirit writing in detail, coming to its most central portion. Exorcistic and almost shamanic undertones set the stage for this type of divination; there are many different kinds of practitioners deities, and techniques. The author clarifies and delineates the terms used in this aspect of divination, providing a needed lexical distribution of terms that are confounding to those seeking to approach the texts.

From the 11th to the 14th century, the method grew, creating key historical genealogies as well as textual materials, examined next. Goossaert divides the texts into separate genres, noting that revealed texts share an ecological balance with sutra-type scriptural works, serving as derivative personalized instructions. The revealed texts are part of an ongoing dynamic, allowing a vibrancy of technique that grows and develops in correlation with the ongoing larger tradition and practices of the believers, while being grounded in deference to the scriptural canons.

During the Ming and Qing periods, spirit writing came to enjoy a more open popularity and produced large amounts of textural materials. This period saw the groups of practitioners working together focusing on morality books and divinely revealed instructions. These texts were widely disseminated leading this to be a heyday of spirit writing.

The plethora of revelatory material led to a push in the 18th and 19th centuries to organize and classify it. Goossaert in due course focuses on this movement toward canonization examining textual as well as divine canonization. He observes that the state canonized deities as being more acceptable in their revelations, observing an interesting interweave of the political and religious discourse.

The book then turns to the latter part of the 19th century and contextualizes the revelatory dynamic in the context of the Taiping Rebellion. Sectarian religious groups adopted spirit writing as a main venue of revelation, which led to a cross-hybridization of methods and approaches in the spirit-writing world as more groups adopted this technique and blended it with their existent methodologies.

Goossaert concludes with an exploration of the complex tradition of revelation in the early 20th century. He observes and delineates the long development of these techniques and...