Baojuan

Baojuan (宝卷 bǎojuàn), literally precious scrolls, are a genre of prosimetric texts (texts written in an alternation of prose and verse) of a religious or mystical nature, produced within the context of Chinese folk religion and individual Chinese folk religious sects. They are often written in vernacular Chinese and recount the mythology surrounding a deity or a hero, or constitute the theological and philosophical scriptures of organized folk sects.[1] Baojuan is a type of performative text or storytelling found in China that emphasizes worship of ancient deities from Buddho-Daoist sects[2] often recounting stories concerning suffering or apocalyptical scenarios. Because Baojuan was not considered a serious art-form for most of its existence, nonlinear records of baojuan make it difficult to credit writers, actors, and other contributors to the genre as very little, if any, mark of these individuals exist.[3]

  1. ^ Berezkin, Rostislav (2013). "The Transformation of Historical Material in Religious Storytelling: The Story of Huang Chao (d. 884) in the Baojuan of Mulian Rescuing his Mother in Three Rebirths". Late Imperial China. 34 (2): 83–133. doi:10.1353/late.2013.0008. S2CID 143716315. Project MUSE 534454.
  2. ^ Berezkin, Rostislav (December 2019). "Baojuan (Precious Scrolls) and Festivals in the Temples of Local Gods in Changshu, Jiangsu". 民俗曲藝 (206): 115–175.
  3. ^ Alexander, Katherine Laura Bos (2016). Virtues of the Vernacular: Moral Reconstruction in late Qing Jiangnan and the Revitalization of Baojuan (Thesis). The University of Chicago. doi:10.6082/uchicago.1643.