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is result-oriented, clients either multiply or fall away. The more "miracles" a god is perceived to have worked, now or in the past, the more popular he or she becomes with the public. Money flows like water to that temple, enabling major reconstructions that can double its size and more. Where there are no miracles, and results cease to flow from that image or shrine, the disappointed, discontented supplicants turn their attention elsewhere. I have frequently come across this attitude in the local temples, among worshippers and temple keepers alike, and it is apparently one of very long standing.
25
This capacity to discard as well as acquire gods, is due to the very pragmatic attitude adopted by the people. It has been styled the "shopping approach" towards religion and the deities because it is so deeply grounded in expectation and its continuation is so much dependent upon results.26 In line with this approach, frustrated devotees sometimes took their disappointment and dissatisfaction a step further. Especially in crises, gods who failed to protect were not only abandoned but sometimes harshly treated. Whilst this phenomenon had been noted by many Protestant missionaries in 19th century China, the practice was observed long before that time. In 1583, the most famous of all Roman Catholic missionaries to China, Father Matteo Ricci, had written that “when these [idols] do not grant them what they [the people] desire, they beat them hard and make peace again with them later on.”??
Many Gods in the Chinese Pantheon
From the foregoing, it will scarcely come as a surprise to learn that the gods were legion. The pantheons of both Buddhism and especially Taoism have shown over many centuries the extreme creativity of the Chinese people in the matter of finding extra deities to worship. Over a century ago, Rev. Hampden Du Bose, "for Fourteen Years a Missionary at Soochow," described the very wide range of gods adopted by different professions and groups in the late 19th century.
28 There has, in addition, always been a strong impulse to seek assistance and protection from any new deity or spirit which appeared to have miraculous powers, and this is far from being dead to-day.29
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is result-oriented, clients either multiply or fall away. The more "miracles" a god is perceived to have worked, now or in the past, the more popular he or she becomes with the public. Money flows like water to that temple, enabling major reconstructions that can double its size and more. Where there are no miracles, and results cease to flow from that image or shrine, the disappointed, discontented supplicants turn their attention elsewhere. I have frequently come across this atti- tude in the local temples, among worshippers and temple keepers alike, and it is apparently one of very long standing.
25
This capacity to discard as well as acquire gods, is due to the very pragmatic attitude adopted by the people. It has been styled the "shopping approach" towards religion and the deities because it is so deeply grounded in expectation and its continuation is so much dependent upon results.26 In line with this approach, frustrated devotees sometimes took their disappointment and dissatisfaction a step further. Especially in crises, gods who failed to protect were not only abandoned but sometimes harshly treated. Whilst this phenomenon had been noted by many Protestant missionaries in 19th century China, the practice was observed long before that time. In 1583, the most famous of all Roman Catholic missionaries to China, Father Matteo Ricci, had written that “when these [idols] do not grant them what they [the people] desire, they beat them hard and make peace again with them later on."??
Many Gods in the Chinese Pantheon
From the foregoing, it will scarcely come as a surprise to learn that the gods were legion. The pantheons of both Buddhism and espe- cially Taoism have shown over many centuries the extreme creativity of the Chinese people in the matter of finding extra deities to worship. Over a century ago, Rev. Hampden Du Bose, "for Fourteen Years a Missionary at Soochow," described the very wide range of gods adopted by different professions and groups in the late 19th century.
28 There has, in addition, always been a strong impulse to seek assistance and protection from any new deity or spirit which appeared to have miraculous powers, and this is far from being dead to-day.29
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