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How did a new science initially promoted by only a few individuals eventually become a widespread cultural phenomenon practiced and known by thousands of people? Following a transnational approach, this article traces the introduction of psychical research into China during the first two decades of the 20th century. Known in the Republican period (1912–1949) as Spiritual Science (xinling kexue or xinling yanjiu), psychical research flourished between the 1920s and 1930s, playing a key role in the popularization of applied psychology and mind‐cure across China. This article takes a step back from the heyday of Spiritual Science by looking at the period that immediately preceded and helped define it. Focused on wide‐circulation newspapers, popular manuals, and stage performances, it teases out the ways in which Chinese popular culture translated European, American, and Japanese psychical research to local Chinese audiences in the midst of China's search for modernity. By naturalizing the reality of psychic powers, spiritual scientists blurred the boundaries between science and superstition in a period when these were posited as diametrically opposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Competency-oriented medical education has become a global trend. However, most current studies focus on the independent effects of various competencies and lack an examination of the combined effects. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the competency configurations of excellent pediatric residents and general pediatric residents and to provide a scientific reference for the talent training and career development of pediatric residents. Methods: Behavioral event interviews were conducted with 23 pediatric residents at a children's hospital in Beijing in July and August 2019. Two researchers coded the interview data to summarize the competency of pediatric residents. The research group scored the performance of 23 pediatric residents in various aspects of competency and used the crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the competency configurations of excellent pediatric residents and general pediatric residents. Results: This study concludes that pediatric residents should have six core competencies: professional spirit, clinical skills, communication ability, learning ability, mental capacity and research ability. There are 4 combinations of competencies for becoming an excellent pediatric resident: the clinical type, scientific research type, all-around development type and high emotional intelligence type. In addition, there are 3 combinations of competencies for becoming a general pediatric resident: the comprehensive ability deficiency type, lack of professionalism and mental capacity type, lack of communication ability type. Conclusions: There are differences in competence between excellent and general pediatric residents. Excellent pediatric residents do not need to possess all competencies but should specialize in clinical practice, scientific research or communication skills. This study suggests that training in mental capacity, professional spirit and communication ability should be strengthened during pediatric resident training. Pediatric residents should make career development plans according to their actual situation, and hospitals should arrange suitable positions according to the characteristics of pediatric residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author analyzes the philosophical sources of the "soft power" strategy formation as one of the major components of the modern China political orientation. The PRC demonstrates notable achievements in the economic, political, social, and cultural spheres. The article also examines Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, which exerted great influence on the formation of the "soft power" concept principles in China, and shows the use of these teachings for political influence on neighboring countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spirit communication was a major facet of daily life across the ancient world. This paper seeks to enumerate and contextualize the act of prayer in elite religious ritual at the commencement of the historical period and is part of a larger inquiry into inscriptions and manuscripts unearthed over the last several decades that testify to the intimate relationship between divination, prayer, and the early development of the Chinese literary tradition. Within a corpus of oracle bone inscriptions recently discovered in Anyang, Henan, an intact turtle shell with hardly any other writing on it contains a rare divination on a prayer to be uttered by a princely grandson of the Shang royal family to his deceased kingly grandfather. After providing a synopsis of prayer in the ancestral cult of the royal family, I present an initial reading and commentary of what now stands as China's first prayer text. My conclusion verifies the pedigree of the prince, his otherwise undetectable personal name, and the identity of the recipient ancestor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the scriptural reception and structure of the Daoist text known as the "Scripture of the Jade Sovereign" (YHJ). It examines the meaning of the Jade Sovereign and its model of divinity and scriptural authority, the Jade Sovereign as a national deity, and the description of personal welfare in the YHJ. The article also examines the reception of the Jade Sovereign prior to modern scholarship, the identity of the Jade Sovereign, and historical records of the late Chinese imperial period. It also discusses Daoism, ritualized behaviors in the YHJ, and reaction among Buddhist readers of the YHJ.

Scholars and practitioners alike recognize that contract formation in today's China requires more than an understanding of black letter law, but also knowledge of cultural practices. While there is much literature, however, about the legal unenforceability of contracts, the importance of guanxi (relationships), mianzi (face), and interpersonal harmony, there is little mention of eating and drinking rituals. Since time immemorial, ritual eating and drinking have legal meaning in China. These rituals often are the heart of building trust and negotiating terms in China. They are also the foundation for performance and enforcement. Often, however, these rituals involve drunkenness, which sometimes has turned fatal for contracting parties. Binge drinking is reaching epidemic proportions in China and employers, including law firms, openly recruit persons who can drink heavily. "Ganbei" is a popular toast which means to empty one's cup. This article explores what I call "ganbei contracts," the phenomenon of eating and drinking rituals in contract formation. I first discuss current Chinese contract black letter law, then contemporary ritual eating and drinking, the ancient roots of ritual practice, and then guidelines for proper contemporary practice consonant with a rule of virtue and law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Resiliency refers to the personal disposition favoring resilience, which is a state of adjustment in the face of adversity. As the nature and origin of resiliency are unclear, especially in older Hong Kong Chinese, the present study adopts a qualitative, grounded theory approach to elucidate resiliency. Findings from the study are notable because they contrast with existing knowledge. The study conducted personal interviews with 15 older Hong Kong Chinese identified by elderly service workers as resilient to recent adversities. Consequently, the study identifies a grounded, social–spiritual dialectic theory that relates resiliency to its contributors in early living conditions, family socialization, and religious faith. According to qualitative data, resiliency, which is characterized by self-reliance, openness, and relaxation, turns out to be a result of isolation in living conditions and family socialization. Isolation can also lead to religious faith, which is another contributor to resiliency. These findings are different from existing knowledge that social support is a basis for resiliency. They imply the possibility of converting negative experiences into impetus for generating resiliency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the ritual for Tibetan for the dead. It notes that nurses should gather the friends and relatives of a sick Tibetan and ask him about the will. It adds that the clothing of the dying Tibetan should be removed for consciousness transference. It also mentions that the body should not be handled until the consciousness transference has been completed.

The paper addresses the changing dynamics of Protestantism in contemporary urban China through the lens of the Christian discourse of quality (suzhi). Linking suzhi with processes of identity and subject formation in the Chinese Protestant community, the paper shows that the religiosity of today's Chinese Protestants is not so much related to acts of spiritual seeking in a state-centred political framework as it is shaped by desires and practices of self-making among neoliberal individuals under rapid marketisation. It also demonstrates that Chinese Protestantism has undergone not just a quantitative increase but also a qualitative change that counters the one-dimensional representation of Christian religiosity in the post-Mao era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the structure, content, and function of the Zhenwen in the Announcement (suqi) ritual shows that its purpose is to enact a feudal-like "contract" with the cosmic powers, spiritual officials, and the Holy-Emperors of the five directions. The ritual provides an opportunity for the priest's mystical union with the Dao. The Zhenwen offers a strong sense of security to the community that sponsors a Festival of Renewal (jiao) in which the five Zhenwen are implanted in the universe. Because the Zhenwen contacts and "contracts" the sovereign deities of the five directions and their various subordinates, such as the controllers of the charts and registers, this ensures that the proper functioning of the universe continues, and it prevents natural disaster or untimely death. Thus, the Zhenwen fulfills an important role in religious Daoism in that it spiritualizes both the Daoist priest in mystical union and the religious community in securing harmony. The Lingbao zhenwen plays a pivotal function in the liturgy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I shall argue that most religious ritual is a performance that not only invokes but also performs communication. The ethnographic material from which I derive this argument is from China, in particular the temple rituals of local festivals. My argument is that a deep obeisance of welcome and departure that is both like and not like the normal ritual of greeting marks a religious from a non-religious ritual occasion and place. It is a ritual doubling that makes the honoured guest also a host. Religious ritual is a medium, and as a medium it is double in another sense. It is deference and deferral, a repeated transmission of obeisance to authority that has the authority of repetition. As well as doubling, religious ritual is excessively communicative. The medium is a performance not only of invitation and departure but also of communicative response, and it repeats this communication as a test of communicative response over and over again. Religious ritual performs both the opening and closing of communication, both the seeking and the responsive reciprocation of gift offerings with bounteousness. It is shadowed by the possibility of no response, of giving offence, of being abandoned. This possibility is acknowledged by being prevented, while the possibility that the performers are their own responders is disavowed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in 1978, the spiritual and religious life of China has shown a strong and diverse awakening due in large part to the weakening ideological and organizational control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCF) - Christian-inspired groups which combine organizational and doctrinal elements of Christian, as well as Chinese folk religious tradition, have a special appeal for the "losers" of China's modernization process in the countryside. Since the Ming dynasty, spiritual-religious groups have been perceived as an indicator of socio-economic instability and potential political unrest, and, therefore, pose an ideological and organizational threat to the Chinese State. With a still unchanged repressive policy towards spiritual-religious groups, the CCF has not been very successful in stopping the spread of sptritual-religious groups. Finding a more comprehensive approach to religion and to the interlinked socio-economic problems is one of the great challenges for the future of the Communist regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]