Establishing a Literati Spirit-Writing Altar in Early Qing Suzhou: The Optimus Prophecy of Peng Dingqiu (1645-1719)

Abstract

In recent years the Suzhou literatus Peng Dingqiu (1645-1719) has attracted scholarly attention as a figure embodying the rich diversity of elite religiosity in the early Qing dynasty Yangzi delta. The present article employs Peng Dingqiu’s previously neglected manuscript autobiography Shijiang gong nianpu to hone in on a prophecy he claimed to have received in 1674 of his two-fold optimus success in 1676. It provides detail on the social conventions of verification of spirit-altar communications and probes the challenges Peng Dingqiu’s solitary method of communicating posed to communal verification. Concurrently, the article establishes a baseline of historically plausible events and identifies the narrative elements most likely modified by Peng Dingqiu and his admirers after the achievement of the prophecy.