Flowing Qi : A Study on Local Chinese Practice and Rituals

This book is an ethnography of the important cultural characteristics, local myths, and legends in Shawo Town, a subordinate to Dongming County in Shandong Province. Based on the author’s fieldwork in this unique region of the Yellow River area, this book examines the local people’s daily practice and religious beliefs in the dominant symbol “Qi.” In local society, Qi has three levels of structural characteristics and significance. First, it is a material entity which exists in people’s living world as three different forms of existence: Qi of Heaven, Qi of Earth, and Qi of Humans. Second, in a material sense, Qi has individual cultural significance and collective action social significance: QiXing, YunQi, QiShu, and so on, can concisely express this meaning. Thirdly, Qi has the most important symbolic meaning in its special form of Shen (god or goddess) and ancestors. This meaning can represent local society’s basic clan organization and can also include the traditional construction of local identity and local political power, as well as the performance of fairness and justice, and good and evil. The concept of Qi plays a crucial role in the construction of local people’s universe view, and through the holism of Qi, much can be understood about the daily lives, religious beliefs, and societal connections of the local people.

Yanjiao Chen, P.H. Doctor in anthropology, lecturer, is currently the deputy Dean of the College of Social Affairs in Henan Normal University, in charge of teaching and international exchange. She studied for bachelor's and master's degrees in the Department of Sociology of Qingdao University and the Department of Sociology of Shanghai University, and achieved the doctor's degree in the Institute of Anthropology of Shanghai University. She is also a researcher at the Research Center of Chinese Cultural Ecology, the Key Research base of Humanities and Social Sciences in colleges and universities of Henan Provincial Department of Education, and the Innovation Research Center of Public Policy and Social Management of Henan Normal University. From 2017 to 2018, she was funded by the China Scholarship Council as a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology, Boston University. She has been committed to the research of rural and religious areas for a long time, and has published papers in journals such as Frontier, Social Science Forum, and Frontier of Social Science. She has participated in 2 National Social Science fund research projects, 1 research project of the Ministry of Education, and 2 philosophy and social science planning projects of Henan Province; Two survey reports won the first prize of municipal social science research; The two social survey results have been adopted and applied by municipal departments.