Associate Professor Rostislav Berezkin's article On the Performance and Ritual Aspects of the Xiangshan Baojuan: A Case Study of Religious Assemblies in the Changshu Area  was published in Chinese Studies, Vol.33, No.3.

Abstract:

     This article deals with performance of the Xiangshan baojuan（香山宝卷Baojuan of Incense Mountain）in the tradition of ritualized storytelling called "telling scriptures" in the Changshu 常熟 area of Jiangsu 江苏. The shortened recension of the Xiangshan baojuan that was compliled by a Buddhist monk around half of the 19th century, on the basis of an older text dating back to the period before 1500, has become well integrated into this performance tradition and still enjoys immense popularity among the people of Changshu area. The recitation of the text of the Xiangshan baojuan,following the tradition of scripture-telling as practiced in Changshu, is accompanied by an elaborate ritual setting and action, and its performance elicits a strong emotional response from the female portion of its audience. Based on field observations, I reconstruct the general content of these performance, discuss the ritual elements that augment the recitation， and analyze the social and psychological meanings of the performance.