Life, domesticated and undomesticated: Ghosts, sacrifice, and the efficacy of ritual practice in early China

Abstract

This article explores classical Chinese conceptions of and practices surrounding life and vitality. Focus is given to the practice of sacrifice as well as the rejections of sacrifice among millenarian movements in Chinese late antiquity. My argument is that an engagement with this material challenges many of our understandings in the anthropology of religion concerning ritual, sacrifice, and interpretation.