The Social Networks of Gods in Late Imperial Spirit-Writing Altars

The late imperial-educated Chinese interacted with a very large array of gods through various means, especially spirit-writing, for which we have abundant detailed records. While few prominent been studied in this context, there are currently no comprehensive studies the connections between humans and gods. Using records thirteen different spirit-writing altars parts world sixteenth nineteenth centuries, paper maps 478 involved using standard social network analysis visualizations, identifies types that played central roles (connecting many humans) those had fewer, more exclusive sociabilities.