Beasts for the Living: Talisman, Divination, and Ritual Practice in Dunhuang Manuscripts Sophia Shi,

This paper examines everyday practices concerning beasts in medieval Chinese religious life. I focus on talismans and divination manuals related to the household or residence (zhai 宅), particularly those from Dunhuang and relevant Daoist scriptures. I begin by clarifying the mechanisms of talismans and divination, emphasizing their efficacy through divine signs and the techniques through which such signs are produced and interpreted. The paper then analyzes three modes of beasts in religious tools: as individual signs, as components of astrological systems, and as (natural) phenomena. Through these three interpretive modes, I demonstrate the distributive agency of beasts across cosmological systems and the interpretations historical actors granted them, highlighting a reciprocal relationship between beasts and humans. I argue that these three modes reflect the role of the beasts channeling the supernormal, divine systems of religious power into the household, rendering complex cosmological knowledge operable for non-specialist users in everyday life.