Of Poems, Calligraphy, Zither, and Gardens: Quanzhen Monastic Hosting of Literati Arts in Late Qing Nanyang

• In Event: Temples and their Patrons: New Research on Local Religious Practices in China and Taiwan

Abstract

Focusing on the case of the Monastery of Dark Mystery (Xuanmiao guan玄妙觀), a public Quanzhen Daoist monastery located in Nanyang 南陽in Central China, I seek to re-examine and reinterpret the old familiar practice of Daoist patronage and sponsorship of elite or literati arts from the new perspective of religious sovereign and subjectification. In this study, I trace the history of the Quanzhen monastic and clerical practices of hosting the literati arts such as poetry, calligraphy, zither playing, and constructing retreats and gardens at the Monastery of Dark Mystery in Nanyang from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century. I then explore the underlying motives, and cultural and political implications of the Daoist hosting and pursuits of literati arts in the context of the Quanzhen Daoist monastic activism in local politics, pubic philanthropy and modern reforms in the late Qing and early Republican Nanyang. I argue that the Nanyang case shows that Daoist acts of patronage or sponsorship of literati arts must not be seen as unauthentic and opportunistic. Rather, these Daoist hosting practices are better and more profitably understood as genuine manifestation of Daoist sovereignty, and embodied practices of Daoist monastic culture and life.

Author

• Xun Liu, Rutgers University