Spirit Writing Cults and Popular Sects in modern China: a case study on Dejiao

Abstract

This paper studies the development of the planchette cult movement in modern China by focusing on the combination of spirit writing cults and charity movements in TeoChew, Guangdong province. During mid-nineteenth century in response to the rapid changes in the social, political and cultural fabric, a new type of spirit writing cult that combined the internal structure of a spirit writing cult with the conservative social reformism of the charitable society became especially prevalent in China. This is called planchette cult movement. It was driven by a millenarian sense of mission by the local intellectual elites to express their profound concern over the decline of traditional orders. The members of this movement hoped to effect a moral reform for their times. Not content to merely hold séances for their membership, they also worked to disseminate their revelations to the illiterate masses by means of active public lectures. Dejiao was a newly formed popular sect which appeared in this context and spread rapidly within the TeoChew community then. This paper examines the activities and expansion of Dejiao to determine the local context and detailed aspects of the planchette cult movement in modern China in the early twentieth century