Touching the Sacred: Sensory Experience and Religious Expression in Zhang Chengzhi's Novels

Abstract

Zhang Chengzhi’s novels construct a literary world that integrates religious sacredness and ethnic cultural identity through sensory narration, exploring the profound connections between humans, nature, faith, and culture. This study selects five representative works—History of the Soul, Golden Pasture, Black Steed, The River in the North, and The Assassination Examination in the Western Province—to examine the artistic expression of sensory narration and its role in religious representation and ethnic culture. By analyzing the multi-sensory depictions of vision, hearing, and touch, this study reveals how Zhang Chengzhi conveys religious sacredness and cultural symbolism through natural landscapes, religious rituals, and emotional experiences. Furthermore, the paper discusses the unique role of sensory narration in reconstructing the sacred and reflecting on the secularization of modernity, highlighting its contribution to contemporary literature and cultural discourse. The findings indicate that Zhang Chengzhi’s sensory narration facilitates an in-depth dialogue between religion and literature, individual experience and collective memory, tradition and modernity, offering new theoretical perspectives and research approaches for ethnic minority literature and religious literature.