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PoPular religion in Modern China
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Popular religion in Modern China
The new role of Nuo
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g lan li
e
Di University College Dublin, Ireland
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First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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0 Copyright © Lan Li 2015
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c Lan Li has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified
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a as the author of this work.
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0 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
9 form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
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: including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
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1 without permission in writing from the publishers.
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o] Notice:
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e Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
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D identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
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S British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a, A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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o The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
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li Li, Lan (Social anthropologist)
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C Popular Religion in Modern China: The New Role of Nuo / by Lan Li.
f pages cm
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y Includes bibliographical references and index.
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si 1. Nuo religion. 2. Tujia (Chinese people) – Religion. 3. China – Religious life and customs
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e – 21st century. 4. Gods, Chinese. I. Title.
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i BL1812.N86L5 2015
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U 299.5’1–dc23
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y 2014024658
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d
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d ISBN 9781409436782 (hbk)
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o ISBN 9781315601465 (ebk)
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Contents
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1 List of Figures vii
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2 Acknowledgements ix
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9 1 Problem and Method 1
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4 2 Shenxi and Tujia Society 19
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at 3 Tujia Cosmology 49
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eg 4 Nuo 81
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n 5 Nuo as a Cultural Marker of the Tujia 123
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ia, 6 Nuo and State Ideology 151
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if 7 Nuo, Intangible Cultural Heritage and the
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C Commercialisation of Culture 181
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y 8 Conclusion 217
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n Glossary 229
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[ Bibliography 259
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b Index 279
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List of Figures
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1 2.1 A view of the upper part of Shenxi (‘deep stream’) village 20
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2 2.2 The traditional houses of Shenxi village 27
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c 3.1 A Shenxi villager making paper money for the worship of
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a his ancestors 60
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9 4.1 Three generations of nuo practitioner. With the youngest
0 disciple on the left and the oldest master second on the right,
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4 these four men form one of the nuo performing teams in
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0 Wenping township, Dejiang county 81
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t 4.2 The dashen diviner, An Mingxiu, performing divination for
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] the Shenxi villager, Li Chunming, who had suffered a life-
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g threatening injury 84
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D 4.3 The eleven-year-old boy (second on the right), one of only three
n children to have survived and, more importantly, the
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S only surviving boy among nine children of the Hou family. His
ia, father (on the left) is led by two nuo masters (on the right and
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r second on the left) to thank the gods for allowing the boy to
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if grow healthily in the vow-fulfilling nuo ceremony of huan
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C guoguan yuan 85
of 4.4 A shrine displaying the two most powerful ancestor gods of nuo,
y Nuogong and Nuopo 92
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s 4.5 A nuo master prepares to throw the sacred guazi, the most
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v important tool nuo masters have for communicating with
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n the gods 94
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[ 4.6 A client of nuo (on the left) whose mother recovered from an
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b incurable disease after his family made a vow to the gods, is
ed shown holding a thanksgiving nuo ritual to fulfil the vow. In the
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a ritual he was led by the nuo master (on the right) kneeling down
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l in front of the nuo shrine and making contact with the gods,
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w seeking to be continuously protected from calamities 98
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D 4.7 A nuo master exorcising for his client using the qinghuo
(cleansing fire) ritual 99
4.8 In one of the most technically demanding rituals, a nuo
master begins his ascent of a knife ladder with the child of his
client strapped to his back. These knife ladders usually reach
ten metres in height 104
viii Popular Religion in Modern China
4.9 By pushing a knife into his head, a nuo master offers his
own blood as the ultimate sacrifice to the gods so that they
may save the life of his client 110
4.10 Nuo masters wearing the distinctive nuo masks that are
believed to transform them from humans into nuo gods 122
7 4.11 A nuo performance is also a social event; here a performance at
1 the house of a client has drawn in people not only from Shenxi
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2 but also from neighbouring villages 122
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c 7.1 The wealth that can come from working as a migrant worker in
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a the cities – seen here in an elaborate house constructed in
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9 Shenxi village in 2010 – was one of the key causes of nuo’s
0 inability to attract new disciples 197
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4 7.2 Master Wang and a disciple (one of his nephews) constructing
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0 a pillar of nuo masks, similar to those seen in the Gan River
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t Citizens’ Park. Once complete, a pair of ornaments can sell for
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] the equivalent of three years’ annual net income of the local
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g farmers. Master Wang’s company was established with the
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D support of the Dejiang county government as part of their effort
n to commercialise nuo culture 206
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S 7.3 A row of nuo products destined for the tourist market
a, manufactured by the government-supported Dejiang Nuoyuan
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r Tourism and Culture Exploitation Company Limited 207
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if 7.4 Nuo Liquor, produced through an arrangement between the
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C Dejiang government and a local distillery. Nuo has become
f commercialised by local governments in order to promote
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y local tourism 209
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s 7.5 A fire-based exorcism ritual, similar to that in the qinghuo
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v (cleansing fire), but this time being used by the Tongren city
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n government as a purely theatrical display to entertain tourists 212
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[ 7.6 A highly adapted nuo ritual, complete with modern stage
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b effects, being used to entertain tourists in Tongren city 213
ed 7.7 Nuo as a tourist attraction. Ornamental pillars displaying nuo
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a masks in the capital of Jiangxi province, Nanchang. These
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l pillars form part of the decorations of the Gan River Citizens’
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w Park, a popular tourist spot 215
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Acknowledgements
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1 First and foremost, I heartily thank all Shenxi villagers for offering me their
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2 warm hospitality, generous help and great support during my fieldwork between
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c 1993 and 2012. I also sincerely thank the people of Dejiang county, Tianlong
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a county, Tongren city, Guiyang city in Guizhou province and Nanchang city
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9 in Jiangxi province who kindly provided me with the information needed. I
0 particularly thank Li Chunheng, the retired township official based in Shenxi
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4 village, for treating me as his daughter, sharing his rich local knowledge with
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0 me and helping me approach local government officials through his personal
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t connections. I am also very much indebted to many others for their support and
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] generous insight into their society and culture in the course of my fieldwork.
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g They are, namely, Li Keyuan, then the teacher at Shenxi Primary School; Li
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D Xiuhui, then the Director of the Shenxi Villagers’ Committee; Zhang Baolin,
n then the Deputy Secretary of the Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
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S of Dejiang County; Peng Jiaqi, then the Deputy Governor of Dejiang county; Li
ia, Shihong, then the Officer of the Cultural Bureau Office of Dejiang county; Wang
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r Shihua, then the Director of the Planning Committee of Tongren prefecture; Li
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if Chunyang, the head of the Shenxi nuo group; Zhang Jinliao, then the head of
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C the Shenxi nuo group; Wu Xianfu, the head of the Longxi nuo group; Zhang
f Yuedong and Zhang Jianhua, heads of Huayuan Daoist group; Li Keping, the
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y Director of the Villagers’ Committee of Shenxi; Zhang Yong, the Head of
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s Department of Propaganda of the Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
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v of Dejiang county; An Kang, the Director of the Bureau of Culture, Sports,
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n Broadcasting, TV and Tourism of Dejiang county; Liu Longyi, the Secretary of
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[ the Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the Academy of Agricultural
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b Science of Guizou Province; Liu Jie, the Head of Department of Propaganda
d of the Committee of the Chinese Communist Party of Tongren City; Zhou
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a Tianqing, the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Culture, Broadcasting and TV
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l of Tongren City; Ai Beifang, the Deputy Director of the Standing Committee
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w of the People’s Congress of Tongren City; and Wu Changhui, the Deputy
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D Director of the Bureau of Nationality and Religion of Dejiang county.
Special thanks are due to Professor Reginald Byron, the former head of the
Department of Social Anthropology at The Queen’s University Belfast and of
the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Wales,
Swansea, who expressed great enthusiasm for the project when I first contacted
him in 1989 and has continued to encourage and support me throughout my
more than twenty years’ research in this field. He guided me to apply for a
