Abstract
Chinese folk religion has two important elements: "doing good deeds" and "planchette divination". For most Chinese people, revelations of the planchette were absolutely trustworthy and reliable in revealing the will of the gods. Through planchette divination, people also confirmed their "doing good deeds" as moral achievements.
Chueh-wu hsuan-hsin (《覺悟選新》 Enlightening and Selecting New People), the first morality book in late imperial Taiwan, is a good example of the phenomena described above. During the Kuang-hsu period, some local elites in the Peng-hu Islands started to write this morality book using planchette divination at local temples. They also delivered lectures based on stories in this book. After a close examination of this morality book, we found that traditional value systems were conveyed. Men had to maintain, or even to revive their own families' property and social status through hard work, saving money, and teaching their children to pass the civil examination and become degree-holders. Bad actions harmful to the existence of the family were forbidden, such as gambling, fighting among brothers, opium-smoking, and others.
Scholars have generally believed that only modernized elites would engage in social reforms. However, this study clearly shows that traditional elites also pursued social reforms through religious activities.
Cite
Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.
