Saving the soul in Red China: Music and ideology in the Gongde ritual of merit in Fujian

Abstract

In China, a commemorative ritual for the dead, known in Minnan (southern Fujian) as Gongde, may be performed by Buddhist, Daoist or lay ritual specialists. Commercialism and syncretism with popular beliefs over time have long since led institutional Buddhists to frown upon its performance by their own members. Since the 1980s, the government‐mandated religious reform has provided the institutional Buddhists with an opening to reinvent the Gongde tradition. This change, I argue, is due in part to state control and in part to the Buddhists ‘ redefinition of ideological orthodoxy, the basis of which lies in a Buddhist reform movement of the early twentieth century. Change in the Gongde has a definite impact on music, a fundamental component in ritual. This paper examines how political and ideological forces serve as coercive and enabling factors influencing the meanings of Gongde and its music.