I look forward to reading a recent book collecting promising articles on the role of sectarian religious scriptures in folk ritual over a wide area:

• Hou Chong 侯沖 (ed.), Jingdian, yishi yu minjian xinyang 经典, 仪式与民间信仰 [Classics, ritual, and folk worship] (Shanghai guji cbs, 2018),

continuing a long tradition of such research in China.

The contributors pay attention not only to texts but to performed rituals; and while some articles discuss early history, the focus is on the modern era. Themes include “precious scriptures” (baojuan), the Luo and Xiantian sects, and Zhenwu worship, with contributors such as Wang Jianchuan, Cao Xinyu on White Lotus scriptures, Rostislav Berezkin on funerary baojuan in Changshu (see also n.1 here), Xiao Jihong on North Dipper rituals of the Bai minority in Jianchuan, Yunnan, and Lü Pengzhi on Five Thunder registers (Wulei lu 五雷錄) in west Jiangxi.

Excuse these crappy screenshots—you can view the contents more clearly on sites such as douban:

Many of my posts under Local ritual bear on sectarian worship in north China, both among devotional groups and, before the 1950s, among temple priests. See also here, and here.

For another recent volume on baojuan, click here.