Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon

Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon
Format
Paperback
Publisher
State University of New York Press
Country
United States
Published
2 July 2018
Pages
184
ISBN
9781438467085

Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon

This book offers the first translation into English of the Chinese novel Haiyouji, as well as excerpts of a marionette play based on the cult lore of the goddess Chen Jinggu (766-790), a historical shaman priestess who became one of Fujian’s most important goddesses and the Lushan Sect’s chief deity. The novel, a 1753 reprint of what is possibly a Ming dynasty novel, was both a popular fiction and a religious tract. It offers a lively mythological tale depicting combat between the shaman goddess and a snake demon goddess. Replete with the beliefs and practices of the cult of this warrior goddess, the novel asserts the importance of Shamanism (i.e., local religious beliefs) as one of the four religions of China, along with Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. To further develop the links between literature and local religion, Fan Pen Li Chen includes translations of two acts from a Fujian marionette play, Biography of the Lady, featuring the goddess.

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