Andre’s Reviews > The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China > Status Update

Good question: Why is it almost impossible to find fox depictions in actualy fox form in chinese temples but they are common in Japanese ones?

First foxes become agents of retribution and social uplift and now in late Qing times, they even play roles in official positions to pacify disturbances.

Taoists using captured foxes to do their bidding and gain fame and fortune... that sounds familiar

Oh. the old claim of prostitutes as lewd and lecherous again. These people had no clue about prostitution.

So local cults like these fox cults where generally labelled as illicit during imperal times and feudal superstitions later.

The local lore claims that the 4 main characters from Journey to the West where at this stone buddha temple? That story is pure fiction!

1997. That is the most modern date the author gave so far. I always wondered when he spoke of modern times.

So in this train of thought, only the foxes who successfully take the examinations under Mother Taishan are allowed to gain the higher levels of transcendence.

So the people worshipped gods like Guandi "merely as a sheet of paper" but for real and efficacious help they turned to magical animals. That is ironic.

In North China, those who became fox spirit mediums were considered genetically inferior by the other villagers? Is he sure? He mentioned that in Republican Beijing suburbs 3 kinds of people were most likely to be chosen as mediums:
1) mental/physical deficiencies
2) being an animal in previous life
3) transgressed against prohibitoons of the animal spirits
But what about that suggests genetic inferiority except 1?