THE GNOSIS ARCHIVE
Gnostic Studies on the Web
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 09:44:42 -0600 (EST)
From: lness (lness@indiana.edu)
Subject: Re: Manichaeism and its "end" (fwd)
To: "alexandria@world.std.com", "arcana@unccvm.bitnet"
Some more interesting Manichaean info.
Lester Ness
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 08:54:02 +0200
From: Peter Bryder (WENG@SELUND.BITNET)
To: Multiple recipients of list ELENCHUS (ELENCHUS@UOTTAWA.BITNET)
Subject: Re: Manichaeism and its "end"
When I referred to the "end of Manichaeism" I took it historically, i.e. when did the last Manichee die? and to my knowledge this happened in China. Naturally Manichaeism died out several times at different places. The question about the Bogomiles and the Cathars and their eventual connection with Manichaeism has recently been dealt with in a Ph.D thesis here at Lund by Ylva Hagman, unfortunately in Swedish. The thesis will probably be translated soon into French.
For curiosity I can report that in Fujian I have some informants telling me that "Mingjiao" the religion of Light still lives on around the town of Quanzhou as a secret society. [Editors note: see Mo-ni Jiao for more info on them.] Next time I have the possibility to stay a longer time in Quanzhou I will try to get better information. There is also rumour of books (small) and other temples situated in Taiwan. The Manichaean research in Quanzhou is taken very good care of by two competent scholars Li Yukun and Huang Shiqun. Whenever substantial new material appears there they report it to the international Manichaean Society and it will be published in their Newsletter just like the stone found two years ago with the inscription:
Godliness, Light, Power and Wisdom. The unsurpassable Mani, the god of Light.
Best wishes,
Peter Bryder
Lund University, Sweden
[Editor's note: I will attempt to obtain info on this newsletter. Please remind me of it if I haven't posted an update by the end of June.]