Crazy Ji

Book excerpt: Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literatureis the first study in any language of one of the most colorful deities in the pantheon of late imperial and modern China: Sire Ji-or, as he is better known, Crazy Ji. The author uses the evolution of the cult of this eccentric deity to address central questions regarding the nature of the Chinese religion tradition, its relation to the Chinese social structure, and the role of vernacular fiction and popular media in shaping religious beliefs in China. Meir Shara demonstrates that vernacular novels and oral literature played a major role in the dissemination of knowledge about deities and the growth of cults and argues that the body of religious beliefs and practices we call "Chinese religion" is inseparable from the works of fiction and drama that have served as vehicles for its transmission. His analysis of the cult of Crazy Ji shows that far from being, as is often argued, a mirror of the Chinese bereaucratic order, Chinese religion offers a means of liberation from it. Finally, this study of the cult of Crzy Ji illustrates how lay believers influenced the practices of organized religion (in this case, monastic Buddhism). This study employs the analytical concepts of anthropology and literary criticism and is based on literary, historical, and ethnographic sources ranging from oral literature, vernacular novels, puppet plays, television serials, movies, local gazetteers, to monastic histories.