| Popis: |
A critical study of the rich religious tradition surrounding Guan Yu 關羽 (Guandi 關帝 / Guangong 關公 / Lord Guan) was long overdue. Bared ter Haar’s recent book rises up to the task with commendable thoroughness, a tour de force of religious and cultural history analysis. One of the book’s many contributions is its treatment of religious practices as inseparable from cultural, political, economic, and social action in the construction of shared memory. No less important is the book’s nuanced approach to oral traditions and practices, which, Ter Haar argues, played a more significant role in the history of the Guan Yu cult than written texts that invariably receive excessive attention from scholars. The extensive range and diversity of sources he analyzes in this book is likewise laudable, including local gazetteers, anecdotes, hagiographies, folktales, inscriptions, dramas, morality books (shanshu 善書), and precious scrolls (baojuan 寶卷). |
