A Contemporary Adaption and Transformation of Chinese Folk Religion: Revelations Brought by the Huiling 會靈 (Collective Trance) Movement

After the 1990s, in the local religious sphere in Taiwan, Huiling, a spirit writing movement, rose as a flourishing collective, a group that now receives widespread scholarly attention. This paper seeks to move forward from previous research and, through this example, discuss the subject of how Han Chinese folk religion faces the transformations of modernity and correspondingly adapts. Huiling is an image of collectively shared Han Chinese local beliefs; moreover, it is a system of religious practices, transformed in its intrinsic meaning from a symbolic system that had its origins in folk religious beliefs. This system exists simultaneously with folk religious beliefs and extends that symbolic system of Han Chinese folk religion into the contemporary world with a higher plausibility. This paper points out that, in the contrast between two forms of exposition, coherence theory and correspondence theory, Han Chinese folk religious beliefs can be regarded as a of kind disconnect from empirical evidence and possess a propositional system, intrinsically harmonious with this form of coherence theory. This system is openly facing the challenges engendered by the empirical evidence of modernity. As we observe through this example of the Huiling, its methods of adaptation are not those that answer to empirical evidence, but are instead a new model of transformation and practice that results from internal alterations to enter an even more transcendent standing and progress as a declaration of truth and bodily links. In this example of the Huiling, this new orientation includes remolding the emergence of a new systemization of the xiantian ling 先天靈 (spirits of the prior heavens), Xiantian mu 先天母 (Mother of the Prior Heavens), huiling 會靈 (collective of spirits), and a fresh definition of old landscape. This new orientation of symbolic markers assists in increasing the transcendency of Han Chinese folk religion and helping belief systems adapt in the present age.

關鍵字

Coherence Theory ； collective trance ； Chinese folk religion ； private temple altar ； modernity

並列摘要

1990年代以後在台灣地方宗教場域裡蓬勃發展的集體性起乩運動會靈，目前已廣為學界所注意，本文進一步想由這個例子，來討論漢人民間信仰面對現代性的轉化與適應議題。會靈是與既有漢人地方信仰共用相同的地景，而且是在民間信仰原有象徵系統上進行內在意義轉化的一套宗教實踐系統，這套系統在與民間信仰並存的同時，也擴大了漢人民間信仰象徵系統在當代世界裡的「可信性」的基礎。本文指出，在「融貫理論」與「符合理論」兩種論述型態的對比下，漢人民間信仰可以被視為一種與經驗事實脫鉤，而具有一套高內在協調性的「融貫理論式」的命題系統。當這套系統面臨現代性所產生的經驗證據的挑戰時，我們觀察到，以會靈運動為例，其適應方式不是以經驗事實來做回應，而是透過內在性的論述轉化與新的實踐模式，而進入了一個更為超越性的層次來進行真理宣稱和身體連結。在會靈的例子裡，這些新的取向包括了︰先天靈、先天母、會靈、地景的重塑與新修行制度的浮現等等，這些象徵符號的新取向，有助於提高漢人民間信仰象徵系統的超越性，並且也有助於漢人民間信仰適應於當代世界。