KNOTTING THE BANNER

David J. Mozina 莫達夫 studies contemporary Daoist ritual in central Hunan, and the roots of that ritual in Song, Yuan, and late imperial ritual traditions. He combines deep ethnography with historical-textual study to interpret the phenomenological, social, and historical dimensions of the vibrant religious life of that region. He strives to find ways to integrate text, image, and film in the study of Chinese ritual, and to put that ritual in conversation with the wider study of religion.

 

After playing two years of baseball at Columbia University, David became enchanted with the study of religion and the Chinese language. He spent time studying theology at King’s College London and Chinese at Peking University and at the Inter-University Program at National Taiwan University. While a doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School, he went off to find living religion in China and happened upon the masters featured in this book.

 

David is the author of “Oaths and Curses in Divine Empyrean Practice,” Journal of Chinese Religions 48, no. 1 (2020): 31-58; “Living Redactions: The Salvationist Roots of Daoist Practice in Central Hunan,” Daoism: Religion, History and Society 道教研究學報: 宗教、歷史與社會 11 (2019): 1-61; and “Daubing Lips with Blood and Drinking Elixirs with a the Celestial Lord Yin Jiao: The Role of Thunder Deities in Daoist Ordination in Contemporary Hunan,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 19 (2010): 269–303.

 

David is currently working on two monograph-length projects. The first is an ethnographic and historical study of the intertwining Daoist and Buddhist ritual traditions in the lineages of north-central Hunan. The second is a historical study of the Song- and Yuan-dynasty Daoist lineages dedicated to rites regulating deceased spirits in the Fengdu underworld.

 

David has been a book review editor of Daoism: Religion, History, and Society and co-chair of the Daoist Studies Unit of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). He has served on the board of directors of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions and on the steering committee of the Comparative Studies in Religion Unit of the AAR. He is a member of the advisory board of the Center for the Study of Religions at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, PRC.

 

David lives with his spouse, Ling Zhang, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and enjoys playing softball, running, cooking, baking, and following Cleveland sports teams.

 

Correspondence: davidjmozina@gmail.com

 

RITUAL AND RELATIONSHIP IN DAOIST PRACTICE

 

The author with master Jiang Shenzhi in his home, 2014. Photograph courtesy of Ling Zhang.

DAVID J MOZINA

David J. Mozina 莫達夫 studies contemporary Daoist ritual in central Hunan, and the roots of that ritual in Song, Yuan, and late imperial ritual traditions. He combines deep ethnography with historical-textual study to interpret the phenomenological, social, and historical dimensions of the vibrant religious life of that region. He strives to find ways to integrate text, image, and film in the study of Chinese ritual, and to put that ritual in conversation with the wider study of religion.

After playing two years of baseball at Columbia University, David became enchanted with the study of religion and the Chinese language. He spent time studying theology at King’s College London and Chinese at Peking University and at the Inter-University Program at National Taiwan University. While a doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School, he went off to find living religion in China and happened upon the masters featured in this book.

 

David is the author of “Oaths and Curses in Divine Empyrean Practice,” Journal of Chinese Religions 48, no. 1 (2020): 31-58; “Living Redactions: The Salvationist Roots of Daoist Practice in Central Hunan,” Daoism: Religion, History and Society 道教研究學報: 宗教、歷史與社會 11 (2019): 1-61; and “Daubing Lips with Blood and Drinking Elixirs with a the Celestial Lord Yin Jiao: The Role of Thunder Deities in Daoist Ordination in Contemporary Hunan,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 19 (2010): 269–303.

David is currently working on two monograph-length projects. The first is an ethnographic and historical study of the intertwining Daoist and Buddhist ritual traditions in the lineages of north-central Hunan. The second is a historical study of the Song- and Yuan-dynasty Daoist lineages dedicated to rites regulating deceased spirits in the Fengdu underworld.

 

David has been a book review editor of Daoism: Religion, History, and Society and co-chair of the Daoist Studies Unit of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). He has served on the board of directors of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions and on the steering committee of the Comparative Studies in Religion Unit of the AAR. He is a member of the advisory board of the Center for the Study of Religions at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, PRC.

 

David lives with his spouse, Ling Zhang, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and enjoys playing softball, running, cooking, baking, and following Cleveland sports teams.

 

Correspondence: davidjmozina@gmail.com