Abstract

In recent years, many ritual manuscripts have been discovered in Xiapu 霞浦 County of Fujian Province. They are probably the religious documents of Lingyuanjiao 靈源教, a polytheistic folk religion that prevailed in the Ming and Qing dynasties, which absorbed various elements of Buddhism, Daoism, Brahmanism, Manichaeism (Mingjiao 明教), Christianity, Zoroastrianism and other local beliefs. The paper discusses specifically an incantation Jisi zhou 吉思呪 in the Xiapu manuscripts. Yishuhe 夷數和 mentioned in the incantation refers to Jesus Christ, while Yihuo Jisi dasheng 移活吉思大聖 should be the early Christian martyr St. George. The incantation, identified as being associated with Nestorianism, depicts the historical background of his martyrdom. From the authors’ point of view, the incantation Jisi zhou from Xiapu is not only meaningful to the studies of Manichaeism, but also to Christian studies in traditional China.

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