Specialist Ghosts

Abstract

Both Buddhist and Taoist performances of the Universal Salvation rites feature active, concrete beings, similar to those in the popular tradition. Yet specialist performances differ from popular interpretations in important ways: they draw heavily on ideologized styles of interpretation, and they rely strongly on training people to interpret religious texts and the oral traditions that accompany them. This chapter will concentrate on how specialist organization of religious knowledge differs from the more context-bound interpretations of the popular tradition. Although it concentrates on northern Taiwan, the analysis should be broadly relevant to all of Taiwan and to late imperial China.