Cao Xinyu 曹新宇, Zushi de zupu—Ming Qing Bailianjiao shehui lishi diaocha 祖師的族譜—明清白蓮教社會歷史調查 (A genealogy of the patriarchs: A social historical investigation of the White Lotus Teachings in the Ming and Qing dynasties), Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 2023. ISBN: 978-7-1001-8416-8, 316 pages, 128 RMB.
Reviewed by Barend J. ter Haar (University of Hamburg)
Everybody working in the field of new religious groups in late imperial China will be familiar with Cao Xinyu’s 曹新宇 essential contributions, especially the 2012 donation of a cache of northern Chinese religious images and texts he received from an elderly lady in Wanquan 萬全 County (in the far north of Hebei Province) who wanted to ensure that her cultural inheritance ended up in the right hands. The complete find was published in Taiwan the following year and thus became generously available to international scholars (p. 1–7).[1] The present book is the mainland China reedition of the 2016 book, first published on Taiwan to accompany the seven-volume printed compendium containing the entire trove, but in simplified characters and with several sections added at the end.[2] In this review, I will take the reader briefly through the book, accompanied by some analytical or empirical comments (references given are to the book under discussion).