Going Home to Our Mother: A New Reading of Baojuan as Sermons from the Perspective of Origin and Salvation

Abstract

In the textual studies of Chinese popular religion, Baojuan (precious volumes) are often studied as sociological objects without enough voice from the believers. Hence, I intend to offer my reading of precious volumes, as a Chinese Christian, who have a cultural kinship to Chinese popular religion. By reflecting upon my personal experience of a Christian sermon and analysis of Luozu (1442 – 1527)’s precious volumes, I will present a sympathetic reading of precious volumes. I shall re-examine Luozu’s collection precious volumes, called Five Books in Six Volumes (Wubu liuce), in comparions to a particular Christian sermon I have experienced myself. My comparison between precious volumes and Christian sermons does not always dovetail. Nevertheless, I hope to urge scholars of Chinese religion and even comparative studies to reconsider precious volumes as a living tradition that does their pastoral significance. My paper investigates how arcane religious concepts are transformed into relatable and endearing images in a Christian sermon and Luozu’s precious volumes, respectively. Similar to how the Pauline “fruits of the spirit” might be compared to bananas and watermelons in theologia via negativa, the Chinese Buddhist concept of recognizing one’s intrinsic Buddha-nature might be likened to a lost child going back to his home and to his mother. These vivid new messages effectively facilitate popular religious practitioners’ spiritual cultivation and theological inquiry.