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Ling (灵, Vietnamese: ''linh'') is the notion of sacred in Chinese traditional religions.〔Thien Do, 2003, p. 9〕 It is the inchoate order of creation, that is the "medium" of the bivalency constituted by the opposite forces of the universe (yin and yang).〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 10-11〕 Therefore it is the state or power of gods and divine beings (''shen'');〔Thien Do, 2003, p. 9〕 their activity, actuality, is ''xian ling'', literally "holy virtue, sacred efficacy, the sacred as manifest", or numen. ''Ling'' is the mediating bivalency, the "medium", between yin and yang, that is "disorder" and "order", "activity" or "passivity", with ''yang'' usually preferred over ''yin''.〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 10-11〕 More specifically, the ''ling'' power of an entity resides in mediation between the two levels of order and disorder, activity and passivity, which govern social transformation.〔Thien Do, 2003, p. 11〕 The mediating entity itself shifts of status and function between one level and another, and makes meaning in different contexts.〔Thien Do, 2003, p. 11〕 This attribute is often associated with goddesses, animal motifs such as the snake—an amphibian animal—, the owl which takes night for day, the bat being half bird and half mammal, the rooster who crows at the crack between night and morning, but also rivers dividing landmasses, and other "liminal" entities.〔Thien Do, 2003, p. 11〕 There are ''yin'' gods and ''yang'' gods.〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 12-13〕 ''Ling'' is a "cultural logic of symbolic relations", that mediates polarity in a dialectic governing reproduction and change.〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 13〕 ''Ling'' has also been described as the ability to set up spacial and temporal boundaries, represent and identify metaphors, setting apart and linking together differences.〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 14〕 The boundary is crossed by practices such as sacrifice and inspiration (shamanism).〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 14〕 Spiritual mediumship makes the individual the center of actualising possibilities, acts and events indicative of the will of the gods.〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 14〕 The association of ''ling'' with liminality implies the possibility of constructing various kinds of social times and history.〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 15〕 In this way, the etho-political (ethnic) dimension is nurtured, regenerated by re-enactment, and constructed at first place, imagined and motivated in the process of forging a model of reality.〔Thien Do, 2003, pp. 15〕 ==See also== * Chinese folk religion * Vietnamese folk religion * Yin and yang * Wu * Tongji * Xian ling 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ling (Chinese religion)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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