ABSTRACT
Published material on Daoist ritual in modern times is dominated by studies of south China, notably Fujian and Taiwan, as well as Jiangsu, Hunan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan. The growing body of work on religious behaviour in North China has mainly revealed more vernacular practices such as 'hosting', and the activities of temple committees, spirit mediums, and performing arts groups. The ethnographic approach entails an engagement with continuities and disruptions in the modern social, economic, and political history of China. Surveying the diverse forms of religious behaviour in China, Adam Chau usefully lists five 'modalities': discursive/scriptural, personal/cultivational, liturgical/ritual, immediate/practical, and relational. Remote mountain sites are ideal for ascetic Daoists seeking to retreat from the world, but inconvenient if they need to make a living performing rituals among the people. Funerals too may be performed without ritual specialists, except for a master of ceremonies, a geomancer, a shawm band, and helpers.
