Ling (, vi, linh) is the notion of

sacred Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

Chinese traditional religion Chinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled ...

Overview

''Xian ling'' and ''shen''

It is the state or power of gods and divine beings ('' shen'') that is multiplied by their appearance in vision during trance or by location through a ritual of inspiration into the objects that represent them. Their activity, actuality, is ''

xian ling ''Xian ling'' () is the notion of a numinous, sacred (''ling'') presence of a god or gods in the Chinese traditional religion. The term can be variously translated as "divine efficacy", "divine virtue", or also "efficacious response"; these term ...

'', literally "holy virtue, sacred efficacy, the sacred as manifest", or

numen Numen (plural numina) is a Latin term for "divinity", "divine presence", or "divine will." The Latin authors defined it as follows:For a more extensive account, refer to Cicero writes of a "divine mind" (''divina mens''), a god "whose numen ever ...

. Ling is a power, like that of the uncanny intelligence of great masters of building or of healing, and is a divine reciprocation for offerings and pledges of devotion to a deity or demon.

Mediation of ''yin'' and ''yang''

It is the inchoate order of creation, that is the "medium" of the bivalency constituted by the opposite forces of the universe (

yin and yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...

). ''Ling'' is the mediating bivalency, the "medium", between

, that is "disorder" and "order", "activity" or "passivity", with ''yang'' usually preferred over ''yin''. More specifically, the ''ling'' power of an entity resides in mediation between the two levels of order and disorder, activity and passivity, which govern social transformation. The mediating entity itself shifts of status and function between one level and another, and makes meaning in different contexts.

Liminality

''Ling'' has been described as the ability to set up spatial and temporal boundaries, represent and identify metaphors, setting apart and linking together differences. The boundary is crossed by practices such as

sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

and

inspiration Inspiration, inspire, or inspired often refers to: * Artistic inspiration, sudden creativity in artistic production * Biblical inspiration, the doctrine in Judeo-Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible * Creative inspirat ...

(

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

). Spiritual

mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship o ...

makes the individual the center of actualising possibilities, acts and events indicative of the will of the gods. The association of ''ling'' with

liminality In anthropology, liminality () is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they w ...

implies the possibility of constructing various kinds of social times and history. In this way, the etho-political (ethnic) dimension is nurtured, regenerated by re-enactment, and constructed at first place, imagined and motivated in the process of forging a model of reality.

Associations and symbolism

This attribute is often associated with goddesses, animal motifs such as the

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

—an amphibian animal—, the

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

which takes night for day, the

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

being half bird and half mammal, the

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

who crows at the crack between night and morning, but also

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

s dividing landmasses, and other "liminal" entities. There are ''yin'' gods and ''yang'' gods. ''Ling'' is a "cultural logic of symbolic relations", that mediates polarity in a dialectic governing reproduction and change.

References

Bibliography

* ** Note: in the economy of a discourse over Vietnamese religion, the author studies in deep certain concepts of Chinese religion at large. * {{refend Concepts in Chinese folk religion