Chinese Gods: An Introduction to Chinese Folk Religion

by Jonathan Chamberlain, John Blofeld

Chinese folk religion is the underlying belief system of more than a billion people. Wherever there is a Chinese community there are temples and shrines with altars, statues and paper images. But how do these beliefs connect to Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism? This book explains the building blocks of this religion, touching upon anthropology, history, numerology, feng shui, mythology, nature cults and ancestor worship. Includes colour images of the major gods of the Chinese pantheon.

Genres: China, Religion, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

I am a writer who has been hijacked by life. When my daughter, Stevie, exploded into my life with all the problems she had to cope with I ended up founding two charities for children with developmental disabilities (and wrote a memoir of this time in my book: Wordjazz for Stevie) - then when my wife was diagnosed with cancer I had a new battle on my hands - and this led to a series of cancer books starting with Fighting Cancer: A Survival Guide (1996) to the latest book The Cancer Survivor's Bible (2012) - see my website www.fightingcancer.com and cancer blog www.cancerfighter.wordpress.com. I am now seeking to get back to my writing career and in recent years have published the rather controversial novel, The Alphabet of Vietnam, and my comic take on the London 2012 Olympics (Dreams of Gold) - I have also started a blog In Praise of Older Books www.2ndhandbooklover.wordpress.com

Reviews

[Aida]

feng shui is very much a part of pinoy culture, whether one is tsinoy or not. people get chinese buddhas to bring fortune to their homes -- tsai shen is the god of wealth. understanding the chinese gods, despite mao and his revolution, is a fascinating journey into china's past. which may also explain our fascination with the now-awakened giant of asia.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was an pretty interesting read… first the positives. the general content of the book is really fascinating, I really enjoyed learning about the folklore of the different gods as well as the different symbolisms and mythologies present. it got me a lot more interested in chinese mythology/religion and i def do wanna read and learn more about it!! i like the way this book sorta links different aspects of taoism, buddhism, and folktales together to explain how these gods and mythologies originated.

however, the writing in this book is really meandering without the meandering part saying much at all… i checked the other goodreads and amazon reviews of this book and it seems i’m not the only one who noticed this. this book (especially part 1 of it) is really unorganised and seems to jump from topic to topic with nothing really connecting them together, making it really confusing. it doesn’t really explain the concepts it’s presenting well or clearly, especially when attempting to tie these different concepts together, so it’s super confusing despite being labelled as an “introduction” to chinese folk religion.

all in all, this was a alright read, but very confusing and meandering. this topic (chinese folk mythology and religion) is very interesting though, and I borrowed some other books about it with a better general consensus. hopefully those are good!

rating: 2.2/5 (slightly below average)

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure how this scrappy little book fell into my hands. It seems to have come from a Taipei bookstore, with some annotations in Chinese characters in what looks like my father's handwriting. The illustrations of Chinese gods are of not exactly high quality, and the text itself is scrappy too. My mother points out that the author's name is not Chinese. The non-fiction writing is 1st person autobiographical, describing Chamberlain's encounters with and attempts to figure out the mythologies behind nearly a score of gods he finds depicted as small paintings in small shops. It seems the small shops are in Hong Kong and Taiwan; from Chamberlains's narratives I surmise he is likely an expat. His narratives are disjointed and substantively self-contradictory. Chamberlain himself clearly proclaims that he is no scholar, and that this examination of Chinese folk religion is an amateur pursuit. The quality of the text, or lack of quality control thereof, is consistent with the amateur, self-published feel. Nevertheless Chamberlain's efforts are entertaining and educational. He claims not to have read any systematic description of Chinese paganism, and for me too this is the first such description. Chamberlain's attempts to organize the plethora of major and minor deities lead to interesting discussions of feng shui and the zodiac, the magic square and yin/yang, the interaction between Taoism and Buddhism, and so on. Upon finishing the book, I feel full of new factoids, but unsatisfied with the meal. If there is an overarching system to this religion (can it even be called a single religion? Maybe it's too scrappy to be called a system), Chamberlain has not found it, and neither have I.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was, honestly, a little difficult to get through. I don't know much about Chinese, well, I was going to say history, but really I don't know much about Chinese anything. There were definitely things that I missed because of this lack. I started reading this book like two years ago and it was easier to read now, because I have slightly more Chinese history and literature knowledge. I would not say this book is for the beginner who is just getting interested in Chinese folklore and mythology. It is interesting and I learned a lot but it took time to get through and I'm left feeling like I need to go find another book that introduces the topic and then come back to this one to really fully appreciate what I just read.

[Victoria Law · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very engagingly-written with a lot of supposition and speculation.