Tongji (; Tâi-lô: tâng-ki) or Jitong () is a

Chinese folk Music of China refers to the music of the Chinese people, which may be the music of the Han Chinese in the course of Chinese history as well as ethnic minorities in today's China. It also includes music produced by people of Chinese origin in som ...

religious practitioner, usually translated as a " spirit medium", " oracle", or "

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

". This word compounds ''tong'' "child; youth; boy servant" and ''ji'' "to divine" (cf. ''

fuji Fuji may refer to: Places China * Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan Japan * Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan * Fuji River * Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture * Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefec ...

'' "divination; planchette writing"). Regional variants include

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...

''tâng-ki'' and

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

''gei-tung'' or ''san-daa'' . A ''tongji'' or ''jitong'' is a person believed to have been chosen by a particular '' shen'' "god; spirit" as the earthly vehicle for divine expression. The Chinese differentiate a '' wu'' "shaman; healer; spirit medium" who gains control of forces in the spirit world versus a ''tongji'' who appears to be entirely under the control of forces in the spirit world.

External links and references

* Andersen, Poul. 2008. "''Tâng-ki'' (or ''jitong'') (or ) spirit-medium", in ''The Encyclopedia of Taoism'', ed. by Fabrizio Pregadio, pp. 964-966. Routledge. * Elliott, Alan J. A. 1955. ''Chinese Spirit Medium Cults in Singapore''. Monographs on Social Anthropology, No. 14. Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science. * Groot, Jan Jakob Maria. 1892-1910
''The Religious System of China: Its Ancient Forms, Evolution, History and Present Aspect, Manners, Customs and Social Institutions Connected Therewith''
6 volumes. Brill Publishers. * Jordan, David K. 1976

''Anthropology: Perspective on Humanity'', ed. by Marc J. Swartz and David K. Jordan. John Wiley & Sons. * Jordan, David K. 1977

* Jordan, David K. 1999

3rd edition. Department of Anthropology, UCSD. * Myers, John T. 1974
''A Chinese Spirit-medium Temple in Kwun Tong: A Preliminary Report''
Social Research Centre, Chinese University of Hong Kong. * Myers, John T. 1975
"A Hong Kong Spirit-medium Temple"
''Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society'' 15:16-27. {{Authority control Anthropology of religion Asian shamanism Practices in Chinese folk religion Shamanism in China Spirituality