ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the ethnographic analysis in a larger theoretical background. It critically examines some key categories in the academic study of Chinese religion, such as religion, ritual, and Chinese concepts of zongjiao 宗教 (religion), dao 道 (life paths in the making), and li 礼 (ritual actions aiming to embody ideas). This chapter illustrates the complex interplay of concepts and categories as well as layers of meaning formed in different cultural and discursive traditions. Invoking Chinese visions through zongjiao, li and dao, I challenge the position that religion as a clear-cut system contrasted with profane everyday life within which beliefs and ritual actions are separate components as defined by Emile Durkheim and Clifford Geertz.
