| Abstrakt: |
The jiedu initiation rite is a pivotal path for ritual experts to carry on their tradition. It is also an important basis for us to differentiate between traditions of ritual experts. In the past, when studying local ritual tradition, the researchers used to pay more attention to the ritual structure, religious pantheon, ritual context of the village and interactions between different ritual experts. Rarely did they bring the ritual experts' internal practices of ritual transmission into discussion. Use of texts is one of the core content of ritual practice. We need to conduct indepth analysis of the ritual texts within ritual context. The shigong of the Zhuang people in the central region of Guangxi use many scripts during the jiedu initiation rites. They summarize the process of initiation and give reasons why a disciple becomes a shigong. The shigong uses a script in the jiedu initiation ritual to indoctrinate his disciples. Narration of the scripts and ritual process demonstrate shigong's conceptual interpretation of the Shijiao subjectivity. Through analysis of scripts used in the jiedu initiation ritual, we can determine that this core textual media is an important written criterion the shigong used to construct their own ritual tradition. It is also an important symbol that separates them from other local ritual experts like Daoist and Buddhist masters. The script consolidates their master-disciple relationship through ritual performance and embodies the intent behind the ritual. With the completion of ritual, the initiated undergoes the indoctrination process of the shigong ritual heritage. The shigong who presides over the ritual also recognizes and confirms the script content. This helps the shigong tradi- tion to remain relative consistent within certain regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
