In the Shadow of the Spirit Image: The Production, Consecration, and Enshrinement of a Daoist Statue in Northern Taiwan

Abstract

Abstract:Statues of the gods, or spirit images (shenxiang 神像), remain among the most ubiquitous material objects in the religious culture of modern-day Taiwan. Notwithstanding, research to date has yet to examine adequately the people and processes that produce, consecrate, and enshrine these statues, work that effects a transformation of these cult statues into sacred presences. How should we understand the relationship between these artistic and ritual processes and the resulting spirit image that is born out of them? The article argues that the spirit image at the heart of this study, a statue of the Daoist god Guangcheng Zi 廣成子, emerges in the context of its religious lifeworld not as a discrete entity, but rather as an “assemblage,” a coming together of the people who contribute to it, the materials those people use, and the specific spirits and divine powers those people invoke.摘要:神像仍普遍存在於現今台灣宗教文化中，此乃屬於物質性的文物之一。然而迄今為止針對相關人員，以及製造、開光、安座等使塑像轉化為聖物的過程，這類的研究仍不足。該如何理解這些藝術和科儀的過程之間的互動關係，進而了解這兩者與其生成之神像間的關係？這篇文章主要探討的主題為道教神明廣成子的神像，在宗教世界觀之下，其並不是以分離的實體存在，而是以一個「集合體」出現於此世界觀之中，此集合體包括了貢獻的人員、人員所使用之材料、以及他們所祈求的對象，例如神明、靈氣等。