**Link to this page!**

This is a new page in the sub-menu  “Local ritual” under the “Themes” menu, on the Daoists of Datong county.

In my work on Daoist ritual specialists in north China, I often stress that the notional dichotomy between Orthodox Unity and Complete Perfection branches is largely academic at the village level. Still, so far it looks as if the received portrayal of household Daoism in north Shanxi as being dominated by Orthodox Unity is mistaken. With household Complete Perfection groups active in Tianzhen, Guangling, Shuozhou, and Yingxian counties, the Orthodox Unity Daoists of Yanggao (such as our Li family in Upper Liangyuan) are beginning to seem an exception.

But in Datong county, the Daoist groups are also Orthodox Unity—and what’s more, here we have a clear connection with former temple priests!