Power of Place has much to offer anyone who is interested in Chinese religious history. James Robson employs a place-based methodology, suggesting that a focus on the history of a religious site rather than on the categories of Buddhism, Daoism, or Confucianism can lead to fresh insights. To this end, the book examines the religious history of the mountain Nanyue (the Southern Sacred Peak), one of Five Sacred Peaks in the imperial cult, from antiquity into the Five Dynasties period (907–60). The most important source for Power of Place is the twelfth-century Nanyue zongshen ji (Record of the Collected Highlights of Nanyue), which relates the history of Buddhists and Daoists on Nanyue. Following this source, Robson's study focuses on Buddhism and Daoism, and much of the book reads like a series of essays on Daoist and Buddhist religious activity on Nanyue through the ages.
The book has two main parts,...
