The Lady of Linshui: A Chinese Female Cult

This anthropological study examines the cult of the Chinese goddess Chen Jinggu, divine protector of women and children. The cult of the Lady of Linshui began in the province of Fujian on the southeastern coast of China during the eleventh century and remains vital in present-day Taiwan. Skilled in Daoist practices, Chen Jinggu's rituals of exorcism and shamanism mobilize physiological alchemy in the service of human and natural fertility. Through her fieldwork at the Linshuima temple in Tainan (Taiwan) and her analysis of the narrative and symbolic aspects of legends surrounding the Lady of Linshui, Baptandier provides new insights into Chinese representations of the feminine and the role of women in popular religion.

Author: Brigitte Baptandier
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 05/07/2008
Pages: 392
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.52lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.49w x 1.02d
ISBN: 9780804746663

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 07/04/2008 pg. 18
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2008 pg. 15

About the Author
Brigitte Baptandier is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), in the Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de Sociologie comparative, at Université Paris X, Nanterre, where she teaches Chinese anthropology. She also teaches at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris.