道教文化研究中心出版

Knotting the Banner: Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice

作者：David J. Mozina （莫達夫）

In the hills of China’s central Hunan province, an anxious young apprentice officiates over a Daoist ritual known as the Banner Rite to Summon Sire Yin. Before a crowd of masters, relatives, and villagers–and the entire pantheon of gods and deceased masters ritually invited to witness the event–he seeks to summon Celestial Lord Yin Jiao, the ferocious deity who supplies the exorcistic power to protect and heal bodies and spaces from illness and misfortune. If the apprentice cannot bring forth the deity, the rite is considered a failure and the ordination suspended: His entire professional career hangs in the balance before it even begins.

This richly textured study asks how the Banner Rite works or fails to work in its own terms. How do the cosmological, theological, and anthropological assumptions ensconced in the ritual itself account for its own efficacy or inefficacy? Weaving together ethnography, textual analysis, photography, and film, David J. Mozina invites readers into the religious world of ritual masters in today’s south China. He shows that the efficacy of rituals like the Banner Rite is driven by the ability of a ritual master to form an intimate relationship with exorcistic deities like Yin Jiao, which is far from guaranteed. Mozina reveals the ways in which such ritual claims are rooted in the great liturgical movements of the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368) and how they are performed these days amid the social and economic pressures of rural life in the post-Mao era.

Written for students and scholars of Daoism and Chinese religion, Knotting the Banner will also appeal to anthropologists and comparative religionists, especially those working on ritual.

在湖南湘中的一座山丘上，一位年輕的道教弟子在著一場名為「殷公旛法」的道教儀式。面對著師傅、親朋和鄰里鄉民，以及所有被延請來見證這次儀式的神明和已故的宗派祖師，他試圖召喚殷郊天君，期望這位勇猛的神靈以其斬妖除魔之神力來保家治病、驅除邪佞。如果年輕的弟子無法成功地召至殷郊天君，那麼這場儀式將被視為失敗，而他此次為了正式受度為道士而舉行的「奏職」儀式也必須被放棄。對這位年輕弟子而言，他一生的事業能否順利展開取決於這一刻的成敗。

這部《結旛》著作用功深厚、論述精妙，它致力於研究「殷公旛法」緣何成功或失敗，並運用宇宙學、神學和人類學的種種理論去解釋這一道教儀式如何獲得靈驗。本書中，作者David J. Mozina 將豐富的田野調查、文本分析及視覺影像交織重疊，將讀者帶入中國南方道教儀式專家的獨特的宗教世界。本書闡述了儀式的靈驗性來自於道士能否與驅邪神靈締結盟約、建立親密的關係，而建立這種關係並非輕而易舉之事。本書揭示了這種道教儀式的內容及強調其對人神關係的建立是起源於宋元時期的道教法術儀式運動，而在當代中國的農村社會中，這種儀式傳統面臨著巨大的社會和經濟壓力並努力地尋求持續發展。

本專著不僅對道教及中國宗教研究大有助益，並可為人類學研究、比較宗教學、尤其是儀式研究提供豐富的借鑑與參考。作為香港中文大學道教文化研究中心與美國夏威夷大學出版社、香港中文大學出版社合作出版的 New Daoist Studies（道教研究學術論叢）第三部專著 Knotting the Banner: Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice 已於2021年5月正式出版，並於全球發行。

Endorsement：

“Knotting the Banner is a major contribution to the study of Daoist ritual, focused on the notion of relationships: between human and divine beings, masters and disciples, and among the people of communities that rely on the services of Daoist priests for dealing with problems related to the otherworld. In this way, it breaks new ground and will be deeply appreciated by anybody interested in the study of Daoism as a ritual tradition.”

—Poul Andersen, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

“This book is not intended for those whose certainties are settled, nor for those who see things from afar and from above. Marrying rigor and honesty, historical anthropology and meticulous ethnology, David Mozina examines the ordination of a young apprentice hoping to enter a lineage of ritual masters in the neglected region of central Hunan. His attention to that moment allows us to see the recent and distant history of this lineage, which maintains a dual Daoist-Buddhist tradition that both worships the Daoist martial deity Yin Jiao and practices a Buddhist exorcistic tradition claiming to originate in the Song-dynasty monk Pu’an. With precision, Mozina analyzes the Banner Rite, a crucial moment in the ordination ceremony. He shows how much this particular ritual and the liturgical traditions on which it draws reflect the idea that ritual is about communication between initiates and deities and the establishment of a constantly renewed contract binding men and gods. Mozina’s book is intended for all those, specialists or not, who wish to understand what ‘religion’ and ‘religious practice’ mean in China.”

—Alain Arrault, École française d’Extrême-Orient; École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

“This is a first-hand report on Daoism in contemporary China based on fieldwork in the nearly unknown Anhua district of Hunan province. In spite of the torments Chinese religious specialists suffered during the twentieth century, they survive and continue a long liturgical tradition flowing from the religious movements of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries. Their story is told through an exploration of the Banner Rite, one of the most mysterious rituals in the entire repertoire of these Daoists. This wonderful book, full of data about religion and society, is a major contribution and should attract new researchers to the burgeoning field of Hunan Daoist studies.”

—Patrice Fava, École française d’Extrême-Orient; Renmin University, Beijing

“The emerging field of Daoist ritual is essential to our understanding of Chinese culture and society, but much of the work being done is technical and not easily accessed by non-specialists. David Mozina’s highly readable and engaging book is a breakthrough. He explains the fundamental logic of Daoist ritual and the worldview it stages in a way that both makes immediate sense and does full justice to the complexity of historical developments, regional variations, and diversity of ritual traditions. He starts from a detailed, exemplary ethnography, focusing on one young priest’s ordination ritual in central Hunan, then he explains how this ritual ‘works’ based on his thorough command of the deep textual heritage it draws on. His book’s fundamental insights will nurture scholarship for many years to come.”

—Vincent Goossaert, École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, PSL), Paris

“Based on original fieldwork and wide reading in the field, Knotting the Banner adds richly not only to our understanding of the unique form of Daoism still thriving in Central Hunan today, but to the entire fashi tradition that rose to prominence in the Song-Yuan. Canonical sources are put to excellent use by the author in explaining the liturgical work of married Hunan Daoists, and his fieldwork furnishes insight into the centrality of their liturgical lineages. By conjugating fieldwork and historical analysis, this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of modern ritual traditions, especially in South China.”

—John Lagerwey, The Chinese University of Hong Kong