Money God Temples in Taiwan

This book traces the history and development of Taiwan’s new money god tradition, where, by borrowing a small sum of blessed ‘fortune money’ and returning it with interest within a year, a temple’s deity may intervene in the recipient’s life, bringing them unearned good luck and good fortune.

Comprising an in-depth ethnography based on a decade of research, the book explores Taiwan’s money god tradition, revealing its ritual culture and underlying beliefs, thoroughly analysed from sociological, comparative historical/geographic, Taoist, Buddhist, metaphysical, and philosophical contexts. Drawing on Taoist and Buddhist cosmology, Chinese afterlife beliefs, and a trust in the power of the gods to influence the material world, the narrative explores the subjective nature of luck and fate; of human desires, choices and decisions; and of individuals’ subjective understandings of what the universe contains. These factors all contribute to the book’s final question, which, through an exploration of human-deity interactions, investigates whether Jacques Derrida’s true, un-reciprocal gift exists on a transcendent level amid the religious exchanges within Taiwan’s money god tradition.  

This will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Chinese religion and Taiwanese culture, as well as those with an interest in East Asian philosophy and religion.