港大中文學院

School of Chinese Book Talk

The Presence of Peach Spring: Daoism, Ritual, and Locality
桃花源的臨在：道教、儀式與地方性

Speaker:
Prof. Mark MEULENBELD 梅林寳 教授
(School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong)

Discussant:
Prof. Mark CSIKSZENTMIHALYI 齊思敏 教授
(Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley)

Date & Time: November 4, 2026 (Wed) 16:30-18:00 (HKT)
Language: English
Venue: CRT-7.30, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Delivery Mode: Face-to-face ONLY

Abstract:
The Presence of Peach Spring radically breaks with conventional interpretations of medieval luminary Tao Qian’s famous “Record of Peach Blossom Spring” by connecting the tale to its stated geographical location in northern Hunan Province (PRC) and focusing on the Daoist lore that surrounds it. Drawing on more than two decades of fieldwork, Mark R. E. Meulenbeld uncovers the presence of Peach Spring as a site with a history of more than fifteen hundred years, locally embedded within a complex network of ritual referents that define the landscape as inherently sacred. Rather than a primarily textual analysis, Meulenbeld offers a more historically grounded and environmentally situated interpretation that engages with the religious manifestations of Peach Spring: on domestic altars, through spirit-mediums, at Daoist institutions, and, ultimately, as a source of transcendence. Meulenbeld shows that the category of the sacred offers a crucial framework for understanding traditional texts, even if they do not immediately seem to belong to any religious sphere. When read in the context of its native region, the tale of Peach Spring affords readers access to a sacred site, sacred objects, and the enduring traditions of Daoist ritual that continue to maintain its presence within a sacred ecology.

For more book Information, please visit: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674304833

《桃花源的臨在》徹底突破了對中古名家陶潛著名〈桃花源記〉的傳統詮釋：本書將這篇故事與其所明言的地理位置——今中國湖南省北部——連結起來，並將焦點放在環繞此地的道教傳說與知識之上。

梅林寳教授以二十餘年的田野調查為基礎，揭示桃花源作為一處具有一千五百年以上歷史的場所，如何在地方上嵌入一個複雜的儀式指涉網絡之中；正是這套網絡，將此一地景界定為內在地具有神聖性。梅教授並未以文本分析為主要進路，而是提出一種具有更深厚歷史基礎、也更置身於環境脈絡之中的詮釋，考察桃花源的宗教性顯現：它如何出現在家用神壇上、透過靈媒展現、存在於道教制度之中，並最終成為超越性的來源。

梅教授指出，「神聖」這一範疇，為理解傳統文本提供了一個關鍵框架，即使這些文本乍看之下並不直接屬於任何宗教領域。當〈桃花源記〉被置於其原生地域的脈絡中閱讀時，它便使讀者得以接近一處神聖場所、若干神聖物件，以及延續不絕的道教儀式傳統；正是這些傳統，使桃花源在一套神聖生態之中持續保持其臨在。

About the Speaker:
Prof. Mark Meulenbeld is the author of of the research monograph The Presense of Peach Spring: Daoism, Ritual, and Locality (Harvard University Press, 2026). He earned degrees from Leiden University (MA) and Princeton University (PhD). Currently, he is Associate Professor in the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong. He is interested in Chinese religious phenomena, especially the interplay between Daoism and popular religion. Within that field, he concretely focuses on demons and gods, ritual lore, and related narrative traditions such as traditional novels, local legends, and theatre.

 
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