Diaries as a Window on the Private Religious Lives of Late Imperial Chinese Literati Two Nineteenth-Century Case Studies

This essay surveys diaries ( riji 日記) as a source to explore the private, quotidian religious lives of late imperial (1550‑1900) Chinese literati. Large numbers of such diaries (some running to several thousand pages) exist, sometimes published, often in manuscript form. Some have been used (to a limited extent) for intellectual or political history, but almost never to study religiosity. They nonetheless contain rich information about their authors’ public and private participation in rituals, domestic devotion and various sorts of spiritual exercises. This essay will introduce the genre then focus on two case studies, showing how they document private religious practices and regular spiritual exercises.