By looking at the activities of Taoist clerics in Peking, this book explores the working of religion as a profession in one Chinese city during a period of dramatic modernization. Rather than the political history of modern Taoist institutional development or the idealized narratives of spiritual history, the author focuses on ordinary religious professionals, some of whom became famous (revered gurus or homicidal abbots), but most of whom remained obscure temple employees. Although almost forgotten, they were all major actors in the urban religious and cultural life.
The clerics at the heart of this study spent their time training disciples, practicing and teaching self-cultivation, performing rituals, and managing temples. Arguing that there cannot be a history of Taoism without the Taoists--all of them--Vincent Goossaert shows that these Taoists were neither the socially despised illiterates dismissed in so many studies, nor out-of-this-world ascetics, but active participants in the religious economy of the city. In exploring exactly what their crucial role was, he addresses the day-to-day life of modern Chinese religion from the perspective of ordinary religious specialists. This approach highlights the social processes, institutions, and networks that transmit religious knowledge and mediate between prestigious religious traditions and the people in the street. In modern Chinese religion, the Taoists are such key actors. Without them, “Taoist ritual” and “Taoist self-cultivation” are just empty words.