The Flowing "Qi"

This book is an ethnography of the important cultural characteristics, local myths, and legends in Shawo Town, a subordinate to Dongming County in Shandong Province. Based on the author’s fieldwork in this unique region of the Yellow River area, this book examines the local people’s daily practice and religious beliefs in the dominant symbol “Qi.” In local society, Qi has three levels of structural characteristics and significance. First, it is a material entity which exists in people’s living world as three different forms of existence: Qi of Heaven, Qi of Earth, and Qi of Humans. Second, in a material sense, Qi has individual cultural significance and collective action social significance: QiXing, YunQi, QiShu, and so on, can concisely express this meaning. Thirdly, Qi has the most important symbolic meaning in its special form of Shen (god or goddess) and ancestors. This meaning can represent local society’s basic clan organization and can also include the traditional construction of local identity and local political power, as well as the performance of fairness and justice, and good and evil. The concept of Qi plays a crucial role in the construction of local people’s universe view, and through the holism of Qi, much can be understood about the daily lives, religious beliefs, and societal connections of the local people.