| Research Abstract |
Since the Ming and Qing, baojuan, or "precious scrolls," have been regarded as the scriptures of popular esoteric religions. Because they were anti-establishment publications, many of the original editions were proscribed, and consequently only manuscripts and reprints from the late Qing and Republican period have survived, making this an area in which it has been difficult to conduct research from the perspective of the history of publishing culture.
But an investigation of Ming-dynasty baojuan preserved in China and the United States has revealed that early baojuan can be broadly divided into "sectarian" baojuan, which were the scriptures of popular religions, and "narrative" baojuan, which were popular works of literature, and that in the first half of the Ming and earlier it was sectarian baojuan that predominated. In the first two years of this planned research project, emphasis was placed on a survey of the whereabouts of original editions of sectarian baojuan of the Ming and earl
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y Qing and on the bibliographical study of these works, during the course of which a hitherto unknown sectarian baojuan of the Way of Yellow Heaven (Huangtiandao), called Pufu zhouliu wushisan san baojuan, was discovered, and along with its content it came to light that its compiler was from Xuanfu (Xuanhua county) in northern China and that he had entrusted its publication to the Dangjia, a shop dealing in scriptures in Beijing.
During the second two years of this study, the character of the publishers of sectarian baojuan during the Ming was analyzed. Many different kinds of baojuan were published in Beijing during the Ming, and their publication was undertaken by shops dealing in scriptures, such as the Dangjia, and, as is indicated by the donors inscribed at the start of baojuan of the Hongyang Teachings, it seems that imperial consorts, palace women, imperial relatives, bureaucrats, provincial landowners, and the rural gentry provided funds and supported the religious activities of each sect. Because shops dealing in scriptures also took on the publication of officially sanctioned publications such as the Beijing edition of the Buddhist canon (Beizang), the format of the published editions of baojuan and officially sanctioned religious scriptures were either similar or of the same type. In other words, when the character of baojuan is considered in light of their publishers, from the Ming through to the early Qing sectarian baojuan bound in the form of sutras were not caught by the dynasty's controls on publication, and they began to be banned only during the reign of Yongzheng of the Qing. Less
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