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This article offers a comparative study of exorcism (ghost-expelling) rituals recorded in the "Rizhi" (Day Books) from excavated Qin bamboo slips and those found in the Dongba religious texts of the Naxi ethnic group. The Shuihudi Qin slips, discovered in 1975, contain the "Jiejiu" chapter, which preserves rich and varied methods for exorcising ghosts and is a valuable source for studying folk customs of the pre-Qin period. Similarly, the Naxi Dongba scriptures—written in the only living pictographic script still in use—contain detailed and elaborate exorcism practices rooted in ancestral migration from northwestern Qiang peoples. Despite being separated by more than two thousand years and vast geography, both traditions share common cultural origins. The author compares them across four dimensions: forms of exorcistic behavior, ritual objects used, causes of ghost affliction, and the practitioners performing the rituals, revealing both unity and divergence in spiritual worldviews across time, as well as the continuity and innovative evolution of Chinese folk customs.
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