The Guanyin Fertility Cult and Family Religion in Late Imperial China: Repertoires across Domains in the Practice of Popular Religion

This study examines the unprecedented growth of the late imperial Chinese cult of Guanyin, "Bestower of Children." Focusing on a fertility manual written by a sixteenth-century Confucian official, I show how the author combined the Guanyin cult with Daoist bio-spiritual discourse and Confucian morality, using a discursive frame unique to the vernacular religious literature of the time. Theoretically, the study engages with scholars of ancient Mediterranean religions and theorists of religion who emphasize social ontology, practice theory, religion as repertoire, and "lived religion." In the conclusion, I offer ways of thinking about religious appropriation in terms of categories such as family religion, popular religion, and syncretism.