A History of Daoism and the Yao People of South China By Eli Alb ...

Ignoring the majority of previous scholarship that countered their assertions (see the following section), Lemoine and others endorsed Strickmann as the one scholar who discovered Yao Daoism.

Yao Daoism Before Liberation

Despite his being credited with this discovery, Strickmann clearly was not the first scholar to speak of it. Already in the Qing Dynasty, some gazetteers and other locally based documents from South China discussed Yao practices, using terminology that most contemporary scholars would associate with Daoism, unfortunately only in brief mention. Li Laizhang’s Bapai Fengtu ji (1654-1721), for instance, explains that Yao mourners, after burning spirit money and covering the deceased in a white cloth, must conduct a purification for one night—a practice which could either be Daoist or Buddhist in nature.¹¹ The same text more explicitly states that “…they make offerings to the deities and invite Daoist priests to intone Daoist scriptures….”¹² The Gazetteer of Lianshan County (1693) claims that Yao do not take medicine when sick, but rather “…invite Daoist priests to pray for them…,”¹³ The Gazetteer of Lechang County (1719) adds that they “[administer] talismanic water to heal them,”¹⁴ thus recalling the standard use of talismans and talismanic water in mainstream Daoist healing rituals since the 2nd century C.E.¹⁵ The Lianshan Suiyao Ting zhi (c.f. 1830) describes the presence of Daoist priests at Yao funerals. In front of the pit where the body of the deceased will be buried: “… Yao Daoist priests face the corpse and intone memorials and charms, and only then place it in the coffin.”¹⁶ Further on the same page the text maintains that “Yao Daoist priests are their teachers. They also have keyi (Daoist liturgy). Their texts cannot be understood. For those who are outstanding in their studies they invite Daoist priests so that they can receive the registers (shoulu).¹⁷ Those who receive the registers wear a scarlet robe.”¹⁸ Finally, the Gazetteer of Lianshan County remarks: “Those male children