*Article* **Writing and Worship in Deng Zhimo's** *Saints Trilogy*

**Noga Ganany**

> Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9DA, UK; ng462@cam.ac.uk

**Abstract:** Around the turn of the seventeenth century, the prolific writer-editor Deng Zhimo produced three illustrated books narrating the lives of Lü Dongbin (*The Flying Sword*), Xu Xun (*The Iron Tree*), and Sa Shoujian (*The Enchanted Date*). This article focuses on the textual hybridity of Deng Zhimo's hagiographic *Saints Trilogy* and argues that it offers encyclopedic, practical, and entertaining guidebooks for worshipping the three immortals and pursuing Daoist attainment. The cultic lore woven into the fabric of Deng's *Saints Trilogy* reflects the important contribution of authors and publishers to popular reverence, highlighting the close interplay between "literature" and "religion" in late-imperial China.

**Keywords:** Chinese religions; Chinese literature; Ming; Deng Zhimo; hagiography; Lü Dongbin; Xu Xun; Sa Shoujian; print culture; Daoism
