Speaker: Vincent Goossaert (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes)
Date and time: Thursday, October 10, 2024 – 14:00 (London)
Location: FAMES Room 8/9, University of Cambridge
Abstract: This paper is based on my ongoing work on Chinese gods, processes of subjectification whereby such gods affirm unique personas and engage humans and each other in person-to-person interactions, and relational approaches to study divine-human sociability. It is based on a critical approach to much of the scholarship on gods who merely treat them as projection of human collective values and needs. I propose that the vast array of ritual techniques developed over the very longue durée in China to allow the gods to “talk back” to humans and create bonds have allowed these gods to affirm themselves as persons and subjects – even though there was also resistance against such developments.
I will develop this line of enquiry by adopting a social network analysis (SNA) on a varied corpus of groups of gods, centered on collective hagiographies and the late Yuan-period Soushen guangji 搜神廣記 in particular, exploring how the gods assembled in this collection came to cohere as a group.
Speaker: Vincent Goossaert (PhD, EPHE, Paris, 1997) is Professor of Daoism and Chinese religions at EPHE, PSL. He is co-editor of T’oung Pao, a leading journal in sinology established in 1890. His research deals with the social history of Chinese religion in late imperial and modern times, especially Daoism, religious professions, socio-religious regulations, productions of moral norms, and human-divine sociability. He has published about twenty books, including Making the Gods Speak. The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese History (Harvard University Asia Center, 2022), Heavenly Masters. Two Thousand Years of the Daoist State (University of Hawai’i Press & Chinese University Press, 2021), Vies des saints exorcistes. Hagiographies taoïstes, 11e-16e siècles (Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2021), and Bureaucratie et salut. Devenir un dieu en Chine (Geneva, Labor et fides, 2017).
高萬桑（Vincent Goossaert），1969年生于法國。1997年，在法國高等研究實踐學院（EPHE）獲得宗教學博士學位，論文題為《近代道教的建立—全真道》；次年成為法國國家科研中心專職研究員; 2012年，升EPHE宗教學系道教史教授。2017年當《通報》編輯.
“Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond” Lecture Series:
This new lecture series, launching in Michaelmas Term 2023, features talks on writing and publishing in the Buddhist tradition and in related religious and cultural spheres. Lectures in this series offer insights into the various ways in which writing and printing has been shaping Buddhism, as well as the multifaceted impact of Buddhism on book culture in East Asia, past, present, and future.
Registration is not required. The lectures are free and open to scholars, students, and the public.
Please note: all events take place in person at the University of Cambridge. Exact times and location will be circulated via email and posted on the webpage of Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
This lecture series is organised by Dr Noga Ganany (ng462@cam.ac.uk) in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge with the generous support of the Glorisun Global Network.
