Introduction
Most of the pingmin [common people] who lived in China in the late Qing and the Republic (from 1850 to 1949) knew that many deities and ghosts had the power to affect their daily lives. Temples and shrines to these supernatural beings dotted the countryside and were an ever-present sight in all the villages, towns, and cities throughout China. Their images were frequently encountered, whether as statues in an incense-filled shrine or in printed representations pasted on the gates of homes to ensure protection, and all major festivals of the Chinese calendar contained references to the gods or the ghosts that populated both heaven and earth.1
Almost all premodern societies organized their belief and value systems around their perceptions of the world of spirits, gods, ghosts, and demons. These were powerful forces that had abilities far beyond those possessed by mere human beings. When large phenomena such as unexpected storms or thunder were encountered, or when smaller maladies such as a severe headache or sudden vomiting occurred, troublesome events that did not seem to have a clear or immediate cause, it was widely assumed that the influence of the superhuman forces was in play.
Because these forces were all-pervasive and not always predictable in their actions, they elicited both awe and fear among human beings. The big issues for Chinaâs pingmin were how to approach these powers, how to demonstrate oneâs respect for them, and how best to avoid their displeasure. Over the centuries in China, a large body of literature emerged to describe these powerful forces. Prepared by literate authors and published in woodblock texts, many volumes of writings have been handed down through the generations that discuss and explain the mysterious forces that toyed with human existence.
At the same time, an even more widespread body of popular assumptions existed about these mysterious all-powerful spirits. The common people passed down stories about their own encounters with the gods and ghosts. Some of the popular assumptions might eventually make their way into the printed literature, but the chaoben discussed in this book are an excellent source, virtually a first-hand source, for glimpsing how Chinaâs common people actually felt about supernatural beings, how they described them, and how they attempted to control them. These chaoben about gods and ghosts were used by the common people when they had to encounter the more powerful realm of the spirits.
Scholars usually define the beliefs and practices of the Chinese pingmin in regard to the perceived suprahuman forces as âpopular religion.â Chinese popular religion consisted of identifying a number of deities drawn from the Buddhist and Daoist pantheons of âorganized religion,â then expanded to include all sorts of frightening and âunknowableâ powers lurking about but usually ready to interfere in the lives of human beings. Given the pervasiveness of the perception among the people of the existence of so many spirits, gods, and ghosts, it was not surprising that many chaoben dealing with this aspect of popular culture appear in the flea and antiques markets of China.
At the top of the celestial hierarchy as perceived by the common people were the spirits associated with the power of nature and the passage of time through millennia. So powerful and extensive were these phenomena that they had an almost philosophical, ethereal existence. Just below them was a wider category, what I call the middle rank of spirits who carefully watched over human beings, to record their good deeds and transgressions to keep a register of human actions. People approached these deities in great numbers to ask for their help in preventing catastrophes and dangers or to forgive sins of the past and bring blessings in the future. The middle rank of deities could also be called upon for help, because they interacted with the lower rank of spirits, the ghosts and demons who were waiting to trouble the common people as they went about their daily activities. The middle rank of deities was stronger than the troublesome ghosts, and when sincerely asked for help they could marshal the spirit generals [shenjiang ç¥å°] and ghost soldiers [yinbing é°å µ or shenbing ç¥å µ]; the spirit of a dead soldier who had been wandering around] to chase away the evil spirits.
Some of the middle-ranking deities were even prepared to enter the gates of Hell if necessary to rescue an unfortunate sinner. Some middle-ranking deities changed their appearance from that of a deity [shen ç¥] to that of a ghost [gui 鬼] in order to deal with demons [mogui é鬼] and goblins [dousha æç , yaogui å¦é¬¼] who vexed and harassed the common people.2 For many of Chinaâs common people, so many of these deities could be beneficial or harmful, either god or ghost, that approaching the gods was something not to be done lightly and always with signs of ritual respect, such as burning incense or setting off firecrackers. This aspect of the changing nature of the deities is discussed below in this chapter and Chapter 9.
The spirits at the bottom of this hierarchy were the troublesome ghosts considered closely in Chapter 9. They caused everything from a headache and a feeling of lethargy to violent vomiting and irrational behavior. They could be driven away by a ritual specialist, such as a Daoist master [daoshi é士] or a yinyang master. They could also be chased away by the afflicted people themselves, if they knew how to confront the troublesome ghost and how to scare it away.
Using the chaoben that I collected, this chapter and Chapter 9 trace how people in China once regularly approached the deities and ghosts. It presents an overview of the rankings of some deities. And it shows, through their own writings and instructions, how the common people conceived of the troublesome ghosts that bedeviled them in everyday life. In this chapter I attempt to reconstruct the popular views of the common people in China during the late Qing and Republic on the mysterious beings and natural forces that impinged on their daily lives. Although buttressed in places by printed sources and scholarly studies, as far as possible I use the chaoben I have collected to accomplish this goal.
The Deities of Religious Daoism
Higher-Ranking Deities
Religious Daoism in China offers the Chinese people a panoply of deities who influence the existence of human beings in various ways. Each deity has an honorific title, often several titles, attesting to their attributes and powers. These deities are called gods. These are the deities represented as statues, sometimes in paintings, in Daoist temples. They are honored with incense and are given treats of fruits and flowers by the common people who honor them at the temple. When especially honored or when invited to descend from their otherworldly thrones into a temple to participate in a ceremony, they are welcomed by exploding fireworks often accompanied by clouds of incense smoke and sometimes the chanting of religious works by the officiating religious specialists. During the ceremonies, they are often asked for their favor or blessing or intercession in some matter. Both the religious specialists and the common people can join in requesting the intercession. As the ceremony concludes, they are thanked and sent away skyward by the clashing of cymbals, fireworks, and incense, all symbols of celebration and honor.
The Daoist deities are all ranked in a hierarchy that roughly resembles the official government bureaucracy of premodern China. Many deities carry the appellations of emperor [di å¸], lord [dijun å¸å], prince [gong å ¬], or duke [jun å]. These titles descend in rank, so, by knowing their titles, we can judge their relative position within the hierarchy. The exact hierarchy of the deities varies somewhat, depending on the particular school of Daoism honoring them, and it has been modified over time. Since the Qing dynasty, a standard hierarchy has been widely accepted in China, and it continues to be used in popular religious Daoism as practiced in Chinese communities around the world today.3
At the pinnacle of the typical hierarchy used today sit the Three Pure Ones [Sanqing ä¸æ¸ ]. These deities are involved in the most basic responsibilities of human existence in the universe. They seem to sit at the highest reaches of Daoist imagination, almost unmoving and never falling into temptation or under the influence of any other phenomenon. Their titles can be translated as celestial worthy or lord [tianzun 天å°]. First is the Universal Lord of Primordial Being [Yuanshi tianzun å å§å¤©å°], who created the physical heaven and earth. In philosophical terms, this was the energy [qi ç] that gave expression to the dao é. Second is the Universal Lord of Numinous Treasure [Lingbao tianzun é寶天å°], who divides time into epics, of which the millennia during human existence is only a small part. The third of these highest deities is the Universal Lord of the Way and Its Virtue [Daode tianzun é德天å°]. This is Laozi, well known as the philosopher who taught humans about Daoist thinking. He is popularly titled the Most Ancient Noble [Taishang laojun 太ä¸èå]. He came to earth in the form of a man to teach the about the Dao.4
The teachings of Laozi were and continue to be known and respected in China. A relatively short text probably composed in the Song dynasty, Taishang ganying pian 太ä¸ææç¯ [Folios of the Most High on Retribution], has been generally interpreted as the work of Laozi. It is being widely reprinted and distributed by Daoist temples all over China even now. These are printed versions, and so far I have not found any chaoben copies of this work, perhaps because the position of Laozi is so exalted in the heavenly bureaucracy that the common people hesitated to approach him and thus did not often follow the custom of copying one of his texts in order to gain merit.5
Daoist masters living among the common people, however, were sometimes bold enough call upon Laozi for help. A chaoben I bought in June 2014 is titled Secret Text for Summoning the Snake [Shechuan miben èå³ç§æ¬]. One would not guess from its title that this work involved Laozi. In this case, one of the highest deities would be summoned to an altar by a very common person through the help of a Daoist ritual specialist, in a colorful and possibly unostentatious way. Deities can easily transform themselves into other forms, and a snake was a popular form for some deities to take. Foxes and rodents were other forms encountered. On the one hand, most common people did not treat Laozi as just another of the exalted deities and did not seem to view him as a deity to be negotiated with. On the other hand, his name was regularly invoked in the ritual exhortations of Daoist specialists to quickly bring into force an incantation for assistance, as discussed below.6
The bulk of the twenty-nine-page work consists of incantations calling on Laozi for assistance. On pages 3â4 and 9â18, ten incantations [zhouyu åèª] are addressed to Laozi èå by his official title Taishang laojun. They are all titled ârespectfully submittedâ [fuyi ä¼ä»¥] and they all end with the words âI petitionâ [wu feng å¾å¥], and the standard phrase used to conclude Daoist incantations and ritual petitions to the deities, âPromptly, promptly, decree in accordance with the statues and ordinancesâ [jiji ru lüling æ¥æ¥å¦å¾ä»¤].7
They are addressed to Laozi, who brought Daoist teaching to earth, but whose form, according to the text, is now that of a snake [she è]. This can be seen on page 8, where the following phrase appears: âMaster Laoâs present form is the snake; go deep into the mountain districtâ [laojun xianshen shi she; songgui shenshan, difu èåç¾èº«æ¯èï¼ éæ¸æ·±å±±ï¼ å°åº]. This phrase makes up the middle section of a stylized Daoist character with a ârainâ element at the top [yu é¨], a âghostâ at its base [gui 鬼], and a final element at the bottom, âhiddenâ [cang è]. Daoist specialists thought the rain element represents a call to the god of thunder [Leigong é·å ¬] discussed below. The snake deity is addressed as Great Spirit of the Southern Snake [Nanshe dashen åè大ç¥] seen in the incantation on page 11.
The incantations on these pages appear to be standard forms of incantations to be used as reference material by the Daoist masters who wrote them down. Because they are standard incantations, some have places where the name of the specific petitioner and the date of the petitions can be inserted. (We see this in the incantations on pp. 15 and 18.) Writing information as reference material in the conduct of oneâs professional life was one of the basic purposes of chaoben across all the occupations discussed in this book. In other words, in this case the Daoist master would consult the reference text he had written in this book when writing out a petition on behalf of an individual who wished to address a request to the deity.
Several Daoist followers were involved with the petitions to the deities in this booklet; their names appear in two of the incantations: Ye Faling èæ³é (with the grass radical of the Ye surname omitted), Zhou Fahui å¨æ³è¼ (p. 3), and Zhou Fadao å¨æ³é (pp. 15â17). These are all Daoist religious names taken after ordination. In the margin on page 26, in a section of the booklet dealing with medical prescriptions is another Zhou name, that of a woman, Zhou Nixian å¨ å¦® è³¢. Her name appears to be a standard given name and not an ordination name. This book seems to have belonged to the Zhou family, which seems to be a standard given name, rather than a Daoist ordination name. From the handwriting and color of the ink that are different from the rest of the book, this final female name appears to have been added at a later date.
In the incantation on page 15 the Daoist masters Zhou Fahui and Zhou Fadao indicate where the name of any petitioning individual and the date of the petition can be inserted and sent to Laozi. As mentioned above, all these incantations appear to be general as to the specific complaint or request being made, but they all ask various deities to be marshaled and they ask Laozi to fulfill the request.
An example of a general incantation to drive away evil and troublesome spirits is on page 14. In this case, the Daoist master would use a live chicken and probably conduct the ceremony in public or with an audience present. The words and actions here could have been those of a yinyang master, and it illustrates how the two occupations of Daoist ritual specialist and yinyang master had many similarities. It also illustrates the degree of spectacle that the Daoist masters could incorporate into their rituals to impress the people who had gathered to watch.
The entry begins with a comment:
This chicken is not an ordinary chicken. It is the Queen Motherâs dawn-crowing cock. It is when the cock crows and the phoenix crows that the Daoist master achieves the Dao.
Ciji feishi fanji, wangmu niangniang baoxiaoji, jinji jiao fenghuang tizheng, shi shifu dedaoshi.
æ¤é éæ¯ åéï¼ çæ¯å¨å¨ å ±æéï¼ ééå« é³³å° å¼æ£ ï¼ æ¯ å¸«ç¶ å¾éæ.
The petition reads:
Figure 8.1
Secret Text for Summoning the Snake [Shechuan miben èå³ç§æ¬], Page 14, Daoist Ceremony Using a Live Chicken. In this example of a colorful ceremony by a Daoist ritual master, the entry reads: âThis chicken is not an ordinary chicken. It is the Queen Motherâs cock that crows at dawn. It is when the cock crows and the phoenix crows that the Daoist master achieves the Daoâ [Ciji feishi fanji, wangmu niangniang baoxiaoji, jinji jiao fenghuang, tizheng, shi shifu dedaoshi æ¤ééæ¯åéï¼çæ¯å¨å¨å ±æéï¼ééå«é³³å°å¼æ£ï¼æ¯å¸«ç¶å¾éæ]. Starting at the right-hand margin of the page, these are the beginning lines, just before the ritual master makes his official invocation [fuyi ä¼ä»¥, ârespectfully submittedâ] to the deities. Using a live chicken in ceremonies to link the deities with humans was probably not frequent, but not unknown, in rural China at the time.
Photo by author
Heaven and Earth reveal the opportunity, the auspicious day and suitable time are requested. Heaven evil, earth evil, year evil, month evil, day evil, also injuries: heaven evil go back to heaven get away from the earth; evils go away and hide in the ground. The thirty-six major evils, the seventy-two minor evils, wherever there are bad spirits, evil spirits will not be honored. This disciple, me, I have a heroic chicken coming to ward off evil. I humbly petition. Lord Laozi, promptly, promptly, decree in accordance with the statues and ordinances.
Fuyi. Tiandi kaizhang, riji shiliang. Tiansha, disha, niansha, yuesha, risha, bing shishang, tiansha guitian qudi, shagui di cang. Sanshiliu dasha, qishier xiaoshang, ruoyou xiongshen, eshabufuzhe, dizi woyou xiongji laididang. Wufeng. Taishang laojun jiji ru lüling.
ä¼ä»¥ã 天å°éå¼µï¼ æ¥åæè¯ã å¤©æ®ºï¼ å°æ®ºï¼ å¹´æ®ºï¼ ææ®ºï¼ æ¥æ®ºï¼ 並æå·ï¼ 天殺 æ¸å¤© å»å°ï¼ 殺æ¸å°è. ä¸åå å¤§æ®ºï¼ ä¸åäº å°å·ï¼ è¥æå ç¥ï¼ æ¡æ®ºä¸æè ï¼ å¼å ææééä¾æµæ. å¾å¥ï¼ 太ä¸èå æ¥æ¥ å¦å¾ä»¤.
On occasion, part of the ritual of chanting the incantation was to the click the teeth a set number of times. This was not specified in the document we are considering here.8 Humans, especially children, must pass through numerous gates [guan é], or crises points, in their life journey, so ritual texts on keeping evil at bay while they traverse these gates have also been developed, but in this case the Daoist master apparently did not use this sort of text.9
This compilation also contains other material, consisting of herbal recipes to treat a dog bite (p. 26) and a chart (p. 28) showing the sixty combinations of the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches [tiangan dizhi 天干å°æ¯], explained in Chapter 9. This indicates that these Daoist masters were involved in more than conducting rituals dealing with the deities; they also offered medical advice and helped to identify auspicious and inauspicious days and times. These are all typical skills of those who were able to read and write well and dealt with the concerns of the common people.
It appears that originally this compilation might have been bound with a sheet of red paper. One end of it appears now (in the string-bound version I currently have, just after the front cover on page 2) with the words âHide your tongue,â meaning âdonât speak outâ [wenkou duocangshe ç©©å£ èº²èè]. The other edge of this red paper is a long piece folded to form the final page (p. 29). It reads, âYour foolish younger brother Zhouâ [yudi Zhou æå¼å¨]. The word âfoolishâ is a polite way to refer to oneself or oneâs relatives, and it reinforces the idea that this booklet was written and owned by a member of the Zhou family.
At least two seals appear either on the cover and on various pages of the text above. They were seals bearing an incantation or a magical character (as on pp. 4 and 10), or the name seals of people who owned a copy of the text or who were involved in the writing of portions of it. The two name seals on the cover are for Zhan Jialiang è©¹ä½³è¯ and Yang Yifan æ¥ç°è. The great power and prestige of Laozi was invoked in the incantations written in this chaoben.
The chaoben shows us that even in the case of Daoismâs highest ranked and most venerated deity, some of the common people were able to interpret their relationship with the venerable Laozi as being enacted using a special chicken controlled by a Daoist master. The ritual specialist even claimed that Laozi had taken the shape of a snake. That approach seems as far from the generally accepted communication with Laozi as could be imagined, but it also shows the malleability of local culture, which was influenced by all sorts of ideas.
To return to the standard charts of Daoist deities, just below the Three Pure Ones mentioned above sit four celestial lords (sometimes called the Four Sovereigns [Siyu å御]) who have the rank of emperor. They each have a broad responsibility to regulate the known universe and the fates of the beings who dwell there. The Emperor of the North [Beiji ziwei dadi å極紫微大å¸] presides over the stars, the sun, moon, the wind, and rain (i.e., the climate). The Emperor of the South and Long Life [Nanji changsheng dadi å極é·ç大å¸] controls peopleâs happiness, misfortunes, and longevity. The Emperor of the Military Forces [Gouchen tianhuang dadi å¾é³å¤©ç大å¸] presides over the North and South Pole, as well as the military in heaven and on earth. The Empress of the Earth [Houtu huangdi zhi ååçå¸ç¥] presides over the mountains and the rivers and the birth of all creatures on earth.
The Jade Emperor
At about this level of ranking is the Jade emperor. He is sometimes included as among the Four Sovereigns, but in most celestial organizational charts he is given a special place above the sovereigns because he is considered the great executive director or chief administrator of all the deities.10 In particular, he commands and supervises the deities who rank below him, which includes hundreds of supernatural beings. Because of this great power, the common people often approach the Jade emperor when they decide to âgo to the topâ in making their request for assistance. Often in popular ceremonies, when other deities are invited to descend to an altar to receive the prostrations and entreaties of the common people, the Jade emperor is also invited and is the highest-ranking deity present.11
Among the common people, he was colloquially referred to as the Grandfather of Heaven [Laotianye]. Perhaps this is because the Jade emperor holds such an important position in Daoist rituals. For many of the common people of China who paid less attention to the official theological ranking and more attention to the deities that everyone said were most effective in granting requests, the Jade emperor was at the very top of the supernatural pantheon. He was the one they preferred to honor.12 He is venerated in every major ceremony of the general liturgy and a number of texts have been written for worshiping the Jade emperor. Because of the power of this deity, it was considered that a good way to gain blessings from the Jade emperor was to hand-write one of the texts dedicated to him. I bought a copy of what is considered his principal text, the Collected Scripture of the Deeds of the Jade Emperor [Gaoshang Yuhuang benxing jijing é«ä¸ççæ¬è¡éç¶], with an additional text of about six pages titled Scripture of Repentance [Chanhuijing æºæç¶]. The entire copied version is in three twine-bound volumes on bleached handmade paper and was written in practiced and attractive though not elegant calligraphy. On the cover page of each volume, the location of copying is given as the Hall of Profound Virtue [Houdetang åå¾·å ]. The total of 124 leaves was lovingly written by Gu Yitang 顧義å (which may have been his âreligiousâ or âordination nameâ) in the spring of 1879. The cover of each volume is stamped with a large seal reading âThe Three Treasures of the Dao, the Scriptures, Our Teachersâ [Dao, jing, shi, bao éç¶å¸«å¯¶]. These three volumes are each titled âNumber Seven,â so were presumably part of a larger collection.13
Figure 8.2
Collected Scripture of the Deeds of the Jade Emperor [Gaoshang yuhuang benxing jijing é«ä¸ççæ¬è¡éç¶], Cover of the Middle Volume. This was prepared in 1879 at the Hall of Profound Virtue [Houdetang åå¾·å ]. It was lovingly copied by Gu Yitang 顧義å , which may have been a âreligiousâ or âordination name.â Many woodblock print versions of this title circulated, from which Mr. Gu produced his copy.
Photo by author
Figure 8.3
Collected Scripture of the Deeds of the Jade Emperor [Gaoshang yuhuang benxing jijing é«ä¸ççæ¬è¡éç¶], Final Two Pages of the Middle Volume. This shows that the text was copied in 1879.
Photo by author
Figure 8.4
Repentance in Homage to Heaven, Complete [Chaotian chan, quan quan æ天æºï¼ å ¨å¸], Cover. It was copied in the Hall of Heavenâs Emolument [Tianlutang 天祿å ]. The full title of the text, written on the first and final inside pages, reads: âCorrect Way, Thirty-Eight Apologies of Repentance in Homage to Heavenâ [Zhengyi, chaotian sanba xiezui fachan æ£ä¸ æ天 ä¸å « è¬ç½ª æ³æº]. The same Daoist and Buddhist works regularly circulated under several different titles. Copies were supposed to be exact duplicates of the original printed work, but often were not.
Photo by author
Figure 8.5
Repentance in Homage to Heaven, Complete [Chaotian chan, quan quan æ天æºï¼ å ¨å¸], Page 2, Details of the Text. This sixty-three-page booklet appears to have been written by Liu Borong in his study [Liu Borong tang åæ榮å ]. He put his seal and some instructions at the end of each incantation addressed to the Jade emperor.
Photo by author (whose seal is at the bottom: Xue Long èé¾)
When religious scriptures were transcribed in order to gain merit, the copyist would try to follow the printed text and not make changes. Unlike the typical chaoben discussed in this book that were used as reference material by a person acting as a fortuneteller or a legal advisor or a writer of New Yearâs couplets, for example, the copied religious texts were not treated as reference notebooks. Instead, they follow the standard content that, by the time of the late Qing, was already available in printed editions in woodblock, lithograph, or movable type. Faithfully copying the standard text without mistakes would have been done in order to gain full merit in heaven for the act. The manuscript version I have is a faithful copy of a standard printed version that I bought at the White Cloud Monastery in Beijing in 2010.14
Another chaoben in my collection addressed to the Jade emperor is the Repentance in Homage to Heaven, Complete [Chaotian chan, quan quan æ天æºï¼å ¨å¸]. The full title, written on the first and final inside pages is âCorrect Way, Thirty-Eight Apologies of Repentance in Homage to Heavenâ [Zhengyi chaotian sanba xiezui fachan æ£ä¸ æ天 ä¸å « è¬ç½ª æ³æº].15 The phrase âcorrect wayâ or âorthodox unityâ [zhengyi] might refer to the Zhengyi school of Daoism, which today is more popular in South China. It is a school that in general does not form religious communities but allows its masters to travel about singly or in small groups, visiting temples and conducting ceremonies either in the temples or in the homes of individual families. The PRC government discourages the performance of Daoist rituals in private homes.16 This is possibly a Republican-era text written on machine-made paper.17
This string-bound volume of sixty-three pages was copied in the Hall of Heavenâs Record [Tianlu tang å¤©ç¶ å ]. It appears to have been written by Liu Borong in his study. He must have been a ritual master, as shown because he placed his seal and some instructions at the end of each incantation addressed to the Jade emperor. For example, on ten occasions in the text when he wrote one of the elaborate titles to address the Jade emperor âJade Sovereign, Great Celestial Worthy, Exalted Emperor in Mysterious Eminenceâ [Yuhuang datianzun, xuanqiong gaoshangdadi ççå¤§å¤©å° ç穹é«ä¸å¤§å¸], in each case he added the phrase âIn the following, after each sentence say the sacred title of the celestial worthy one timeâ [yixia meiju chenghe tianzun shenghao yibai ä»¥ä¸ æ¯å¥ 稱å å¤©å° èè ä¸æ]. He then placed his honorary [hao è] seal over the instructions. The seal reads âAt the Drum Wall Prefecture Gateâ [Guchengjun men é¼åé¡é]. Doing so reinforces the idea that he was acting as the ritual master leading the worship or as the master who was an instructor for those using the text.
I bought this chaoben in Beijing in 2009, but was told by the person selling the book that he originally acquired it in Hengyang è¡¡é½, Hunan Province. This person was from Hengyang and had come to the Panjiayuan Market in Beijing with a few boxes of Daoist religious texts from there.18
Beneath the Jade emperor sit the Five Lords [dijun å¸å], who were labeled with one of the five colors: yellow [huang é»], green [qing é], red [chi 赤], white [bai ç½], or black [bei é»]. This ranking, of course, represents the five directionsâcenter, east, south, west, northâwhich testifies to their wide areas of influence. Like the Three Pure Ones at the very top, they sit calmly in the heavens with their broad powers. They maintain the somewhat impersonal aura of power holders at a great remove from the common people on earth. In Korean shaman rituals, these deities of the five directions, perhaps personified as the somewhat-lower-ranking Five Generals [Obang janggun ì¤ë°©ì¥êµ°/äºæ¹å°è»] are frequently invoked.19 In China, one can find representations of the Five Lords in temples, but they are much less likely to be approached for assistance by a supplicant. For most Chinese, they are pervasive and impassive deities.
Middle-Ranked Spirits: The Three Officials
Just below this level of the most august deities are the deities who have interactions with human beings on a regular basis. These deities seem to be more active in exercising their influence over the lives of others. They should be routinely honored by humans because their beneficence can be directed at particular individuals. Well known among deities at this level is the Star Goddess [Doumu æå§], who presides over the star constellations in the heavens. Because a personâs fate is influenced by the star under which he or she was born, individuals should honor their star, along with the Star Goddess who regulates the movements of the constellations. She can grant posterity and chase away illness, ensure painless childbirth, and overcome sterility. She is honored at temples where people gather to pray to the stars of fate. She is said to be of Indian origin and is often portrayed with nine arms, each representing one of her powers, just as Hindu gods are visualized with many arms, each signifying one of their special powers.20
The Three Officials Great Emperors [Sanguan dadi ä¸å®å¤§å¸] are deities who are approached by the common people frequently, for assistance with all sorts of difficulties. These deities, discussed in earlier chapters, are responsible for three crucial areas of human life: the Official of Heaven [Tianâguan 天å®] can bestow happiness and blessings on people; the Official of Earth [Diguan å°å®] can absolve people of their sins; the Official of Water [Shuiguan æ°´å®] can remove disasters that befall people. These three are grouped together at altars. Based on the larger number of hand-copied texts addressed to them that I have found in markets in China, they seem to have been among the most frequently approached of the Daoist deities in the Qing and Republican periods. They are often present in the Daoist temples that are reopening or being reestablished in China today.
Figure 8.6
Agricultural Market. This photo appears to have been taken shortly after a harvest, when local farmers were selling their wares, especially walnuts [hutao è¡æ¡]. Here farmers were meeting with local merchants, all of whom were common people, with similar social and educational status, though the buyers had access to more cash than the farmers. Taiho Chiao 太åæ© Market, Fenyang æ±¾é½, Shanxi 山西, 1914.
Photo: William Leete; Restoration and Print ©2015 William Morse. Used by special permission
One of the titles used collectively for these deities, as mentioned in Chapter 7, is Sanguan dadi. In the popular imagination, for hundreds of years they have been conflated with the Three Primes [Sanyuan ä¸å ] who rule over various four-month periods of the lunar calendar. The Three Officials are said to maintain a register of the acts of humans, and some believe they can pass judgment on the souls who die. But they can also distribute blessings and absolve transgressions, which is why they are so regularly approached in Daoist temples. They are not afraid to maintain contact with the underground Hell, known as Fengdu è±é½. This is thought of by the Chinese as an underground purgatory where the deceased who were virtuous in life are sent to be reborn in the living world, while sinners are sent to one of the underground torture hells (called âearth prisonsâ [diyu å°ç]). Thus as we descend along the celestial hierarchy, they are among the first deities and were once seen as interacting with the ghosts and malevolent supernatural beings of the netherworld regularly. In earlier times, some believed that they used torture to conduct inquisitions of people who had probably committed sins, but their overly stern approach to humans takes second place these days to the positive ways in which they assist living beings. They are popularly seen more as gods than as ghosts.21
Below is an examination of several chaoben I bought that deal with the Three Officials. Because of the similarity in their titles, for this discussion I label them A, B, C, and D.
Figure 8.7
Repentances to the Three Officials [Sanguan chan ä¸å®æº], Pages 2 and 3, Showing Dates. This is the inside cover of volume 1 of a religious text hand-copied in September 1876. The title as given on the inside pages is âCeremony of Repentances to the Three Primesâ [Chaoli Sanyuan chanfa æ禮ä¸å æºæ³]. The copyist identifies himself as Mr. Yurou [Yuruo shi é¨è¥æ°] of the Clear World Pavilion [Shiqingtang ä¸æ¸ å ]. People who copied religious texts often included the name of where they did the writing, their name, and the date of their effort.
Photo by author
Text A
The text of Repentances to the Three Officials [Sanguan chan ä¸å®æº] comprised three string-bound volumes hand-copied in September 1876. The copyist identified himself by his given name as Mr. Yuruo [Yuruo shi é¨è¥æ°] of the Clear World Pavilion [Shi qing tang ä¸æ¸ å ]. The text contains a number of written talisman characters, yet I am inclined to see the copyist as a layperson because of his use of âmisterâ [shi æ°] following his name. In practice, Daoist masters were sometimes addressed as âmisterâ [xiansheng å ç; perhaps in such cases, a good translation of the phrase would be âmasterâ]. Because on his title pages and a few text pages he used layout formats similar to those found in woodblock printed editions, Yuruo seemed to be copying from a printed text. For example, drawing a border around edge of the title page, placing the copy date in the upper-right-hand corner, and the title of his studio in the lower-left-hand corner were all conventions of woodblock print books. He also wrote the title of the work in the fold of the outer pages, the area called the âfishtail,â another convention of woodblock prints.22
In Volume 1, on page 34, Yuruo explained why he had copied this text. After giving the date of the copy he wrote:
The words I have written in this volume were all as told by the Most High Lord of the Dao [Taishang daojun 太ä¸éå], who is Laozi, directly to the Universal Lord of Primordial Being, to offer forgiveness, asking the deity to descend, and it was intended as an offering. My name [the copyistâs name?] is different, but it is my ordination [Daoist] name.23
Danquannei chenzi, jieshi Taishang Daojun zai Yuanshi tianzun mianqian kouqi, yu qichan, jiangsheng bichu. Chen jin fengwaizhi. Chenzi butong, shi fashi zicheng.
ä½å¸å §ï¼ è£å çæ¯ å¤ªä¸éå å¨ å å§å¤©å° é¢å å£æ°£ï¼ æ¼èµ·æº éèç¢è ã è£å ä¸åï¼ æ¯ æ³äº èªç¨±ã
Figure 8.8
Repentances to the Three Officials [Sanguan chan ä¸å®æº], Pages 22 and 23 of Volume 1, Listing Oneâs Sins. Perhaps speaking of his own transgressions, the copyist wrote (second vertical line from the right-hand side, beginning with the ninth character) of some specific sins: âThe sin of reviling nature, the wind, thunder rain, and marsh lands; Harboring an evil heart that destroys peopleâs spiritâ [Zihui fenglei yuze zhi zui, changxing exin, weini sunren xingming 訾æ¯é¢¨é·é¨æ¾¤ä¹ç½ªï¼å¸¸è¡æ¡å¿å¯æ¬æ人æ§å½].
Photo by author
In other words, Laozi said this to the Universal Lord of Primordial Being. In the ranking of the Three Pure Ones, Lord no. 1 was told this by Lord no. 3. The Most High Lord of the Dao is known to have revealed sacred scriptures, and Laozi has a special position in Daoism as transmitting those teachings to human beings. This transmission was given above by Yurou and is indicated in the full title of the work on the inside pages: Repentances to the Three Officials as Taught by the Universal Lord of Primordial Being [Yuanshi tianzun shuo Sanguan zuifa å å§å¤©å° 說 ä¸å® 罪æ³].
Figure 8.9
The Three Pure Ones [Sanqing ä¸æ¸ ]. The middle figure is the Universal Lord of Primordial Being [Yuanshi tianzun å å§å¤©å°], who created heaven and earth. To his left (our right) is the Universal Lord of the Numinous Treasure [Lingbao tianzun é寶天å°], who divides time into epics. On his far right (our left) is the Universal Lord of the Way and Its Virtue [Daode tianzun é德天å°], or Laozi, popularly called the Most Ancient Noble [Taishang laojun 太ä¸èå], who came to earth in the form of a man to teach the Dao.
Web photo
Yuruo was determined to carry out his vows to better himself, which is probably the reason he was copying this text in the first place: to gain merit after having reformed himself. His was a very concrete plan to get back into the good graces of the deities. In the text he copied, when he wrote of some specific sins Yuruo may have been speaking of his own transgressions:
Figure 8.10
Jade Emperor [Yuhuang dadi çç大å¸]. He is considered the great executive director or chief administrator of all the deities; he commands and supervises the deities who rank below him, which includes hundreds of supernatural beings. The Jade Emperor is often invited to popular ceremonies, where he descends to an altar to receive the prostrations and entreaties of the common people, and where he is the highest-ranking deity present. Among the common people, he is colloquially referred to as the Grandfather of Heaven [Laotianye è天çº].
Ming dynasty painting held by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
The sin of reviling nature, the wind, thunder rain, and marsh lands; Harboring an evil heart that destroys peopleâs spirit; The sin of striving for wealth and treasures; The sin of taking someoneâs wife forcefully; The sin of worshiping idols, of glorying in lavish decorations, of mistreating the holy books and Daoist objects. ⦠On this day I resolve to seek understanding and repentance, to be humble and to seek forgiveness. I resolve to repent, to respect all human beings [red circles are used here for emphasis]. I resolve to honor the rituals.
Zihui fenglei yuze zhi zui, changxing exin, weini sunren xingmingï¼ tuta caibao zhi zui, dao ren qizi nubi zhi zui, ren zun xiangjing qingfan hua xi daoju jingdian zhi zui ⦠jinri zhixin falu chanhui yuanqi dangchu fu xi. zhixin chanhui renge gongjing. [red circles here] Zhixin chaoli.
訾æ¯é¢¨é·é¨æ¾¤ ä¹ç½ªï¼å¸¸è¡ æ¡å¿ å¯æ¬ æ人æ§å½ï¼ åä» è²¡å¯¶ ä¹ ç½ªï¼ ç人 妻å 奴婢 ä¹ ç½ªï¼ äºº å° å é¡ç£¬æè±Xå¸ éå · ç¶å ¸ ä¹ ç½ª ããã ä»æ¥ å¿å¿ï¼ ç¼é² æºæï¼ é¡ä¹ï¼ è©é¤Xä¼ä¹ãå¿å¿ æºæ 人å ææ¬ã[red circles here.] å¿å¿ æ禮. (1: 22â23)
Text B
A volume titled Repentances to the Supreme Three Primes to Forgive Sins [Taishang sanyuan youzui fachan 太ä¸ä¸å 宥罪æ³æº] is another Daoist religious text supplied in Beijing by my friends from Hengyang, Hunan. There is no date in the handwritten string-bound volume of forty-seven pages. The unbleached handmade paper suggests a late Qing date.24
This text was copied in the Hall of Auspiciousness [Rui tang çå ] by Qin Yicheng 秦ä¸èª , who was seeking the Dao but had not yet found it. We know this because in his signature at the end of volume 2 [quan zhong å¸ä¸] on page 30, he described himself as âLeast of the Daoâ [modao æ«é, which could also be translated as âNot yet having achieved the Daoâ], and on page 47, where he signed his name again at the end of the three volumes, he describes himself as having âsuperficial learningâ [qianxue æ·ºå¸].
It is clear to see in this text how the Three Primes [Sanyuan ä¸å ] were conflated with the Three Officials [Sanguan ä¸å®], a point mentioned in Chapter 7. For example, at the beginning of volume 2 on page 18, the title beginning with âSupreme Three Primesâ [Taishang Sanyuan 太ä¸ä¸å ] is shortly followed by the phrase âMiddle Prime Official of the Earth, with your hundred officialsâ [Zhongyuan diguan, zhulu baisi ä¸å å°å®, 主é ç¾å¸]. The term âmiddle officialâ [zhongguan ä¸å®] is the Official of the Earth.25
Text C
In 2008 in Beijing I bought a hand-copied religious text called Chants of Repentances to the Three Primes [Sanyuan fachan ä¸å æ³æº]. It is a string-bound text of fifty-one pages copied in February 1909 by Wang Shuxiang çæé, who felt that he had low social status and thus asked readers [p. 49]: âdonât look at my unsightly writing and snickerâ [chou wu xiao éå¿ç¬].26 Master Wang had the Daoist religious name of Wang Observing the Dao (or Wang Protecting the Dao) [Wang Shoudao çå®é], which he wrote at the end on page 51. But he also had another name, Wang Who Has Achieved [Wang Youda çæé], which he stamped in black ink on various pages. The stamp reads âRecorded by Wang Youdaâ [Wang Youda ji çæéè¨]. Clearly he was proud to claim ownership of having produced this copy.
Figure 8.11
Chants of Repentance to the Three Primes [Sanyuan fa chan ä¸å æ³æº], Pages 20 and 21, Calling on the Deity for Help. This text was copied in February 1909 by Wang Shuxiang çæé. He wrote on page 21 (fourth line from the right of vertical text, beginning with the sixteenth character), âUniversal Lord of Primordial Beingâ [Yuanshi tianzun å å§å¤©å°], again call on the Middle Prime the Earth Official, and on the sacred multitude, henceforth, in this world wherever there are people who are not at ease, who suffer the three calamities and the five poisons spread out, when robbers come to bully and plunder and when all is burned up and destroyed, when the people lose their source of income [Yuanshi tianzun, fugao zhongyuan diguan, jizhushengzhong, zijin yilai, tianxia ruo you renming buan, sanzai jingqi, wudu xingxing, daozei qinling, renzao tutan, renmin shiye å å§å¤©å°ï¼å¾©åä¸å å°å®ï¼å諸èç¾ï¼èªä»ä»¥ä¾ï¼å¤©ä¸è¥æ人åä¸å®ï¼ä¸ç½ç«¶èµ·ï¼äºæ¯èè¡ï¼çè³ä¾µåï¼è¡½éå¡çï¼äººæ°å¤±æ¥].
Photo by author
The text consists of ritual repentances [fa chan æ³æº] for sins committed and is addressed to each of the Three Officials and refers to both as the Three Primes and the Three Officials, as in the title discussed earlier above.
This text also lists the fears of the common people who lived in a world of many actual and perceived dangers. In one section of this text, the Middle Prime is asked for help:
Universal Lord of Primordial Being, again call on the Middle Prime the Earth Official, and on the sacred multitude, henceforth, in this world wherever there are people who are not at ease, who suffer the three calamities and the five poisons spread out, when robbers come to bully and plunder and when all is burned up and destroyed, when the people lose their source of income, when government officials and all are worried, when all the fields are barren in the thirty surrounding counties and villages, when both those living and the spirits are starving, when the kinfolk all scatter, when flesh is separated from the bone, when the dead become holy but only are ghost soldiers, when the king of demons causes troubles, then order the Middle Prime to receive these many, who have suffered with no place to live, to examine all, and to let these things pass away.
Yuanshi tianzun, fugao Zhongyuan Diguan, jizhushengzhong, zijin yilai, tianxia rou you renming buâan, sanzai jingqi, wudu xingxing, daozei qinling, renzao tutan, renmin shiye, yishujinghuang, saxian xiangcun, tianyuan huangmo, shengling epiao, qinqi xiangshu, gurou fenli, siwang zhisheng, cishi guibing, mowang zaihai. Xingxing ling Zhongyuan zhiren, shouzhu kunao wuchu cunhuo, liangliang xiangkan, buneng weiji.
å å§å¤©å°ï¼ 復åä¸å å°å®ï¼ å諸èç¾ï¼ èªä»ä»¥ä¾ï¼ å¤©ä¸ è¥æ 人å ä¸å®ï¼ ä¸ç½ ç«¶èµ·ï¼ äºæ¯èè¡ï¼ çè³ä¾µåï¼ è¡½é å¡çï¼ äººæ° å¤±æ¥ï¼ ç屬 競æ¶ï¼ å 縣 éæï¼ ç°åèæ²ï¼ çé é¤æ® 親æç¸çï¼ éª¨èåé¢ï¼ æ»äº¡ è³èï¼ æ¤æ¯é¬¼å µï¼ éç ç½å®³ãèè¡ä»¤ ä¸å ä¹äººï¼ å諸è¦æ±ï¼ ç¡èåæ´»ï¼ å ©å ©ç¸çï¼ ä¸è½ çºè¨.
pp. 20â21
Text D
Among the chaoben I collected related to the Three Officials is one that is quite Buddhist in its orientation. It illustrates that, in Chinese popular religion, Buddhist and Daoist ideas were conflated and integrated, so most people did not draw distinctions between their beliefs.
The book is titled Precious Repentances to the Three Primes [Sanyuan baochan ä¸å 寶æº]. This handwritten account of seventy-five pages was rebound in heavier paper sometime in the 1950s or 1960s, and it appears the title and the name of the altar where it was held were cut from the original cover and pasted onto the newer heavier cover. In the same red paper as the title, the altar is given as Record of the Altar of the Mysterious Thunder Deity [Xuanmiao leitan zhi çå¦é·å£èª]. The book is organized into three volumes, and each volume calls upon one of the Three Officials for assistance.27
But on the first page of text the title is given as âPrecious Repentances to the Yoga Three Primes, Completeâ [Yujia sanyuan baochan, quanbu çä¼½ä¸å å¯¶æº å ¨é¨]. Yoga is a system of linking the mind and the body through controlled meditation. It is part of Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist religious discipline for many people, but in the popular Western imagination is probably associated mostly with Buddhism. In the text, many Buddhist deities are cited by name and called upon for help. Among these are Amida [Namo amituofo åç¡é¿å½éä½],28 who presides over the Western Paradise; the chubby and laughing Maitreya [Namo mile zunfo åç¡å½åå°ä½],29 expected to be a Buddha in the future (both are on p. 6); and the much-loved Goddess of Mercy [Namo guanshiyin pusa åç¡è§ä¸é³è©è©],30 who anoints all with mercy (p. 21). Namo åç¡ comes from a Sanskrit word that can be translated as âworshipful.â Pusa è©è© comes from a Sanskrit word to indicate a divine being who has put off enlightenment in order to help sentient beings in the world achieve enlightenment; such deities are called bodhisattvas. These and numerous other Buddhist deities are called upon throughout the text.
In fact, the first Buddhist deity so addressed is the Worshipful Bodhisattva of the Fragrant Cloud Canopy [Namo xiangyungai pusa åç¡é¦é²èè©è©] (p. 2). This is a god associated with medical healing. The canopy refers to its protective power and is depicted in art to resemble the ritual umbrellas used to shade deities and high power holders. This deity can cure illness, forgive sins, and increase fortune.31
The first page of text sets the stage for the prayers to follow. It reads in part:
Offering incense with smoke that curls upward to the lotus cave from where the many buddhas and bodhisattvas can descend from their heavenly palace and the Luohan saints on the Cold Mountain can come to be worshipped [missing character]
Gongxiang yanliaorau lianhuadong zhufu pusa xiatiangong qingliangshan luohan nashou renjian gong X.
ä¾é¦ ç ç¹ç¹ è®è±æ´ 諸ä½è©è© ä¸å¤©å®® æ¸ ï¥¹å±± ç¾ æ¼¢ ç´å 人é ä¾å. (p. 2)32
The Daoist Three Officials are called upon frequently in the work. One example repeated in some version in each volume of the work is
Upper Prime, the Heavenly Official and Emperor who gives blessings, with your forty-two officials and many heavenly spirits and immortals, please decrease our transgressions of the past.
Shangyuan cifu tianguan dadi sishiersi zhutianshenxian qiushuai chanhui guoqu.
ä¸å è³ç¦å¤©å®å¤§å¸ ååäºå¸ 諸 天ç¥ä» æ±è¡°æºæ éå». (p. 5)
Although I bought this in Beijing, it is another of the religious items obtained by my friends from Hengyang, Hunan. I bought it in 2010, but this text was copied out in the autumn of 1863. It was âRespectfully given by Mr. Tian Yicheng for use on the altarâ [Jing yu Tian Yicheng xiansheng tanzhong yingyong æ¬æ¼ç°ä¸æ¾ å ç å£ä¸æç¨; p. 75]. As mentioned above, the word for âmisterâ can also be used to address Daoist masters, so we cannot know whether Mr. Tian was a layperson or a religious specialist.
Although the structure of these four texts, such as calling on the deities for help and vowing [zhixin å¿å¿] to follow the teachings of the text, and most of the imagery, such as those referring to numerous palaces [gong å®®] or offices [fu åº], are similar, only occasionally do portions of the texts seem to have been taken from the same source. None of these texts resemble a printed version, the Precious Repentances to the Supreme Three Officials [Taishang sanguan baochan 太ä¸ä¸å®å¯¶æº], which I bought at Baiyunguan in Beijing in 2010. This printed version should have been treated as the âstandard and correctâ version of the text to be copied, and it was likely available to all the writers of these chaoben from the late 1800s onward. But this printed text was not used as the single source for their chaoben, even though they were not writing original text but were copying pages from some other source.
Figure 8.12
Repentances to the Supreme Three Primes to Forgive Sins [Taishang sanyuan youzui fachan 太ä¸ä¸å 宥罪æ³æº], Cover. The title is also written on the inside pages as Taishang sanyuan miezui miaochan 太ä¸ä¸å æ» ç½ªå¦æº. Each of the three volumes addresses one of the Three Officials [Sanguan ä¸å®] and gives the text of memorials [zou å¥] that can be written to approach them, often followed by the text âafter delivering this memorial, it is burnedâ [toubiao fenhua æ表çå; e.g., p. 30].
Photo by author
However, two of the handwritten texts resemble each other in portions. This indicates a single source, whether hand-copied or printed is not clear, to which both writers were referring. They are Text A, Repentances to the Three Officials, and Text C, Chants of Repentances to the Three Primes. For example, in the section addressing the middle prime [zhongyuan ä¸å ], they both have the wording âAll males and females can achieve total redemptionâ [Yiqie nannv, jie shouhudu, juheng xiaoyao ä¸ åç·å¥³ï¼çåè·åº¦ï¼ä¿±äº¨éé; as seen in Repentances to the Three Officials, vol. 2, p. 3]. Text C (p. 20) has the same sentence with the simple insertion of âIn accordance with Daoist practices, all males and females can achieve total redemption.â The inserted phrase is âIn accordance with Daoist practicesâ [Yiqie daosu ä¸åéä¿]. The two versions have some slight differences.
If these two works followed a printed text, which they likely should have, the difference between them would mean they were violating the idea of copying a âstandardâ or printed version faithfully. Possibly the copyist was reciting as he was writing, and the text as recorded became more âcolloquial,â as if it were being spoken. That might account for some of the âextraâ words added in places. If we accept this idea, we can conjure up a nice image of the copyist fully engaged in his work, chanting and writing at the same time. I find this a comforting and âhumanâ image.
A further difference between the printed and the written versions is that two of the rather similar texts are focused more on oneâs parents [fumu ç¶æ¯] than on males and females [nannv ç·å¥³]. These two are Text B, Repentances to the Supreme Three Primes to Forgive Sins (p. 25), and Text D, Precious Repentances to the Three Primes (p. 52). Those copying these texts were perhaps most keenly interested in being filial and in gaining blessings for their parents. Perhaps they were older and past the age of constructing their marriage relationships and were more concerned with their aged parents. The copied texts were being adapted to reflect their own concerns, which in their minds must have taken precedence over slavishly copying the standard text in front of them.
In both cases, we see that the hand-copied chaoben were works created by the copyist as he went along. They were, in that sense, documents being brought to life, reflecting not just the material being copied but something of the perceptions of the copyist as well, perhaps his way of speaking or his ideas of how the phrase ought to be stated. They became part of the specific local culture that the pingmin always created. The texts show us that, even in the realm of the suprahuman deities and natural forces, the pingmin interpreted those phenomena with their own eyes. They were not constrained by the distant and exalted deities to transmit only received information. They were, instead, absorbing those received ideas into their more meaningful everyday world.
Figure 8.13
Celestial Lord Who Relieves Suffering. [Taiyi jiuku tianzun 太ä¹æè¦å¤©å°] is usually approached by people at funerals or when they are worried about a serious health issue. By transforming into a ghost, the Celestial Lord Who Relieves Suffering can descend to the netherworld to assist those suffering there. The top illustration shows him as a deity, the bottom after his transformation into a ghost.
Zhang Mengxiao 張夢é, Tujie Daojiao: Jieshi Zhongguoren zuiyinmi de mengxiang å解éæï¼æ示ä¸å人æé±ç§çå¤¢æ³ (Daoism Illustrated: Revealing the Most Hidden Dreams of the Chinese People), Xiâan: Shaanxi shifan daxue chubanshe é西師ç¯å¤§å¸åºç社, 2010, 139.
Gods and Ghosts: The Netherworld
As we continue to descend the hierarchy of Daoist deities, we arrive at the altar of the Celestial Lord Who Relieves Suffering [Taiyi jiuku tianzun 太ä¹æè¦å¤©å°]. Here is a deity whose responsibilities are clearly designated to deal with the lives of the common people. When facing worrisome and disturbing situations, this deity is specifically ready to receive the pleadings of human beings and to assist them in overcoming their difficulties. He sits as impassively as do the other venerated deities, but he casts his eyes on the particular people who approach him for help.33
Figure 8.14
Spirit Generals [shenjiang ç¥å°]. These ghosts will escort the newly dead into the netherworld. This tableau is in the Fengdu Temple [Fengdu miao è±é½å»] in Chongqing, China.
The common people of China, involved in their daily lives and struggles, interpreted their concerns and fears in very concrete terms. They were fearful of the transgressions and sins they had committed against their fellow humans and against the deities. They were apprehensive about the ultimate fate of death and dreaded the punishments they might face when their souls descended to the netherworld, which was commonly referred to as the underground prison or Hell [diyu å°ç]. In the popular conception, when people died, their soul or spirit [hun é]34 descended to the lower world, where they would be judged by various deities. The judges would examine the record of each person, which had been compiled during the personâs life on earth. Each person had to pass through ten gates, each commanded by a judge [panâguan å¤å®] who would assign them a punishment based on the sins or transgressions they had committed. Most people knew that in the course of their lives, they had done things that they regretted. In the commonly circulated explanation, each gate had several minor hells, in which the dead, reunited with their physical body in Hell, had to undergo horrendous punishments, being tortured and mutilated. Very graphic illustrations were produced detailing the awful punishments. The punishments could last for a long time, perhaps hundreds of years.35 At the end of the punishment, they proceeded to the next gate, to be assigned other punishments if they had sins in that category of punishment. At the conclusion of this period of âpurgatory,â those who had suffered the punishments and thus atoned for their sins would be freed from Hell and sent across a bridge in order to be reborn as a sentient being, whether an animal or a human.36
The punishments were administered by ghosts. Some texts in Chinese refer to these as âsmall ghostsâ [xiaogui å°é¬¼]. When we come to the level of the common people in China in the late Qing and Republican periods, we encounter ghosts. Some ghosts were the souls of former human beings. As mentioned above, the Chinese popular imagination said a person had two souls: the hun was the spirit that had to undergo punishments and be cleansed; the po é soul stayed with the physical body, even as it decayed, and stayed in the world. Thus the po soul of a person who had died a tragic death or who had no relatives to offer sacrifices to him after death might wander the earth as an orphan ghost [gugui å¤é¬¼], seeking revenge on living humans.37
From the level of the Celestial Lord Who Relieves Suffering on down the hierarchy, we need to accept that many ghosts exist. In fact, some of the Daoist deities at these levels can transform themselves into ghosts. This means they are both deity/spirit and ghost. These spirits can assert themselves either as deities or as ghosts. The most powerful of these deity/ghost figures is probably the Celestial Lord Who Relieves Suffering. In order to descend to the netherworld to locate a spirit whose relative has beseeched the deity for help, the Celestial Lord transforms himself into a ghost, thereby to examine the various hells and to extract the dead person who is suffering punishment. Because of this important role, traditional funerals might carry a banner in the funeral procession with the name of the Celestial Lord, to indicate he was requested to assist the souls of the recently departed. I found these banners for sale near Baiyunguan in Beijing in 2014.38
One text I bought in 2012 is titled Supreme Morning Text for Becoming an Immortal [Taishang xiuzhen chenke 太ä¸ä¿®çæ¨èª²]. There is no date on the forty-eight-page handwritten text, and it could as easily be from the late Qing (1890â1911) as from the mid-Republican period (1920sâ1930s). I bought this in Shanghai, but someone (in the 1940s or later) wrote in ink: Kui å¥ Village, Wujin æ¦é² County. Today this area is called Wuzhou æ¦æ´² district in Changzhou 常å·, in Jiangsu Province. The city is in the southeast region of the province, just south of the Yangtze River on the Grand Canal in a very luxuriant region of China. Early on, it became a distribution center for agricultural products and fish. Cotton mills flourished in the 1920s. Today it is considered one of the most developed cites in Jiangsu Province and is on the main Shanghai-Beijing rail line.39
Figure 8.15
Supreme Morning Text for Becoming an Immortal [Taishang xiuzhen chenke 太ä¸ä¿®çæ¨èª²], Cover. This is a Daoist text meant to be recited in the morning as part of the devotions that begin the day, and at places in the text are indications that a particular phrase should be spoken three times: âEver pure, ever serene, most supreme heavenly worthy, three timesâ [Changqing changjing wushang datianzun, san sheng å¸¸æ¸ å¸¸éç¡ä¸å¤§å¤©å°ï¼ä¸è², p. 2], along with prayers to âcleanse my heartâ [jingxin shenzhou åå¿ç¥å], âcleanse my mouthâ [jingkou shenzhou åå£ç¥å, both p. 3]; âcleanse my bodyâ [jingjingshen shenzhou å淨身ç¥å, p. 4]. Also written on the cover is Kui å¥ Village, Wujin æ¦é² County, now called Wuzhou æ¦æ´² District, Changzhou 常å·, Jiangsu æ±è Province.
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The text is meant to be chanted as part of the morning services offered by the Daoist masters. As the text begins, a deity addressed as Supreme Great Celestial Worthy [Wushang da tianzun ç¡ä¸å¤§å¤©å°] is called upon by two formal names Great Holy Fragrant Cloud Achieving Trust Great Celestial Worthy [Dasheng xiangyun daxin da tianzun 大èé¦é²é信大天å°], Ever-Pure Ever-Silent Supreme Great Celestial Worthy [Changqing changjing wushang da tianzun å¸¸æ¸ å¸¸éç¡ä¸å¤§å¤©å°; p. 2]. But after some ceremonial incantations to pacify the altar and to approach the deities by âopening the scriptureâ [kaijing éç¶; pp. 3â11], the prayers are directed to the Three Officials. This idea is confirmed on the final page (p. 44), where we see that the deity so named is in fact the Three Primes. We might therefore have placed this text with those mentioned above that are directed to the Three Officials. It is in this section, however, because the text goes on to earnestly call for assistance from the Three Officials, in particular from the water official, for help in escaping from the tortures of Hell.
Figure 8.16
Supreme Morning Text for Becoming an Immortal [Taishang xiuzhen chenke 太ä¸ä¿®çæ¨èª²], Pages 32 and 33, Begging to Be Released for a Better Life. The text on these pages asks for release from Hell. âThe cycle of birth and death, take me out of the earthly prison [Hell]. Then turn me toward the Eastern Ultimate Heaven, past the gate of saving from suffering, to the place on the earth for altering my actions, where there is heaven without the earthly Hell. Where the King of Hell dare not raise his voiceâ [Lunhui shengsi, chuli diyu, jiwang dongji tianjie. Jiuku menting, jiuruo dishang haoxiuxing. Zhiyou tiantang wu diyu. Yanwang yijian, bugan gaosheng 輪廻çæ»ï¼åºé¢å°çï¼å³å¾æ±æ¥µå¤©çãæè¦éåºï¼æè¥å°ä¸å¥½ä¿®è¡ãåªæ天å ç¡å°çãé»çä¸è¦ï¼ä¸æ¢é«è²].
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As mentioned above, the Official of Earth can absolve people of their sins, and the Official of Water can remove disasters that have befallen or might befall people. Both of these deities are earnestly addressed in this text. One cause of anguish is the death of children, so the following text reads: âOneâs child dies in the womb, or the child is born then dies. The child dies at age three, six or nine years. The child dies at age twelve or fifteen. One day and one night, there are ten thousand deaths and ten thousand birthsâ [Zaishen erwang, shengxia erwang. San, liu jiu sui erwang. Shiâer wu sui erwang. Yi ri yi ye, wansi wansheng å¨èº« å 亡, çä¸ å 亡. ä¸ å ä¹æ² å 亡, åäºäºæ² å 亡. ä¸æ¥ä¸å¤, è¬æ» è¬ ç; p. 30].
The text goes on to ask for release from Hell.
The cycle of birth and death, take me out of the earthly prison [Hell]. Then turn me toward the Eastern Ultimate Heaven, past the gate of saving from suffering, to the place on the earth for altering my actions, where there is heaven without the earthly Hell. Where the King of Hell dare not raise his voice. Where the children of righteousness raise their hands in supplication. Where the Oxhead [Niutou çé ] and the Horse Face [Mamian 馬é¢] completely take refuge from the eighteen earthly Hells, all the Hells where they ramble in the thirty-three Heavens the heavenly palaces, all the palaces are there, beyond the boarder of being born in Heaven, where there are no sounds of Hell. Take me out of Hell, forever away from hardship, toward the human Heaven, reborn in the Pure Land, happiness without measure. Going and coming, without anxiety, without obstruction.
Lunhui shengsi, chuli diyu, jiwang dongji tianjie. Jiuku menting, jiurou dishang haoxiuxing. Zhiyou tiantang wu diyu. Yanwang yijian, bugan gaosheng. Tongzi yeyi, qinju gongshou. Niutou Mamian, zongjin fanyi, yishiba zhong diyu, yu yu xiaoyao. Sanshisantian, tiangong gonggong zizai. Chaosheng tiantang zhijing, ji wudiyu zhi sheng. Chuli diyu, yongli kunan, jingwang rentian, chaosheng jingtu, kuaile wuliang. Yiqu, yilai, wugua wu ai.
輪廻çæ»ï¼åºé¢å°çï¼å³å¾æ±æ¥µå¤©çãæè¦éåºï¼æè¥å°ä¸å¥½ä¿®è¡ãåªæ天å ç¡å°çãé»çä¸è¦ï¼ä¸æ¢é«è²ãç«¥åå¤ç¾©ï¼æèä¾æãçé 馬é¢ç¸½ç¡çä¾ï¼ä¸åå «ç¨®å°çï¼ççééãä¸åä¸å¤©ï¼å¤©å®®å®®å®®èªå¨ãè¶ ç天å ä¹å¢ï¼å³ç¡å°çä¹è²ãåºé¢å°çï¼æ°¸é¢è¦é£ï¼ç¶å¾äººå¤©ï¼è¶ çæ·¨åï¼å¿«æ¨ç¡éãä¸å»ä¸ä¾ï¼ç¡æç¡ç¤ã(pp. 32â33)
The King of Hell is called Yama in Sanskrit and Yanwang é»ç or Yanlouwang é»ç¾ ç in Chinese. The Oxhead ghost [niutou gui çé 鬼] and the Horse-Faced Ghost [Mamian gui 馬é¢é¬¼] assist the Kings of Hell [the ten judges mentioned above] by arresting people and delivering them before the hell tribunal for judgment. In this text, the character for âheadâ [tou é ] was miswritten as âbeanâ [dou è±], as the writer simply omitted the second portion of the character. The Pure Land [Jingtu æ·¨å] is the Buddhist Heaven into which those who have achieved enlightenment are reborn. After entering the Pure Land, with its everlasting ease and calm, humans are released from the cycle of birth and rebirth.40
Since we have descended to Hell in this narrative, I mention another chaoben that lets us spy the netherworld. The text is titled Sutra of the City God, Sutra of the Dead [Chenghuang jing, Duwang jing åéç¶ åº¦äº¡ç¶]. It was written in attractive calligraphy, and the leaves are folded, as holy books or sutra in China with accordion-style folds often are.41 A date that appears is the wuzi æå year, which would be either 1888 or 1948. Based on the text and the paper, a date of 1888 seems reasonable. But because at some point the chaoben was falling apart, the pages were pasted onto machine-made notebook paper, so a date of 1948 is also possible. The text may have been written by Xia Linchang å¤ææ, whose name appears. Xia was in Quanzhou å ¨å·, a city in Guangxi 廣西 Province about 100 miles northeast of the often-visited tourist spot, Guilin æ¡æ. Quanzhou was a key market city and trading center and was seen as the transportation entrance to Guangxi, linking it with Hunan æ¹å Province. This text may have been written on the unused side of pages from Mr. Xiaâs ledger. One item that Mr. Xia ordered (or perhaps supplied to someone else) was hard cinnabar [genzhu è®ç¡]. This is the principal ore of mercury, sometimes called mercury sulfide, or native vermillion. The mineral resembles quartz but is a deep red color. It was used in making Chinese lacquerware and gilded religious statues. Daoist mystics tried to refine cinnabar into magical elixirs to grant immortality, and they often spoke of the cinnabar fields [dantian 丹ç°], three areas of the human body that play a role in breathing, meditation, and inner alchemy [neidan å §ä¸¹]. So if Mr. Xia was a supplier or customer for the mineral, it could easily have been used by a Daoist master, and in this instance it would be natural for it to be connected to this text.42
Figure 8.17
Sutra of the City God, Sutra of the Dead [Chenghuang jing, Duwang jing åéç¶ åº¦äº¡ç¶], Cover and First Page. Sutra of the Dead inside this text is labeled the Sutra of the Six Hells [Liu yu jing å çç¶]. The city god is approached here on behalf of a woman, possibly someoneâs wife, who had died in childbirth with the heavy loss of blood. Unfortunately, because of common beliefs at the time, she would be plunged into the hells of blood. The city god had to arrest people who had committed transgressions and send them to the netherworld, but he could also assist and pardon the poor souls descending to Hell.
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This text was most likely prepared to be read at a funeral, and all its contents are related to death and to Hell. One function of the city god was to take charge of the souls of the deceased, either by arresting them because they had committed transgressions or to order them to be escorted to the gate of Hell. He was assisted in this task by two jailers, the Oxhead Ghost and the Horse-Faced Ghost. The city god is approached in the Sutra of the City God (pp. 6â8) on behalf of a woman, possibly someoneâs wife, who had died in childbirth after the loss of much blood. Unfortunately, because of the beliefs of many at the time, she would be plunged into the hells of blood, which these days Americans would see as a case of âblaming the victim.â The city god could also assist and pardon the poor souls descending into Hell. His scripture is on pages 2 to 17 in this text.43
The Sutra of the Dead of the title is inside this text labeled as the Sutra of the Six Hells [Liu yu jing å çç¶], on pages 17â43. This actually consists of several shorter Buddhist-inspired texts. For example, the Precious Sutra of the Correct Teaching of the Dizang King [Dizang wang å°èç] about the Blood Mountain as Revealed by the Buddha [Foshuo dazang zhengjiao xueshan miaojing ä½èªªå¤§èæ£æè¡å±±å¦ç¶] begins on page 18. He is known for his great compassion; he carries a staff with tiny bells to warn away insects as he approaches, so that they will not be stepped on as he passes. He also has the power to descend to the netherworld and to break open the gates of Hell to release the souls suffering there. He is often associated with the Daoist judges of the underworld and is regularly pictured in illustrations of the underground hells of the netherworld mentioned earlier, Fengdu.44
For the unfortunate woman whose soul was consigned to this purgatory, as described in the Sutra of the Six Hells, she might have to experience a mountain of blood [xueshan è¡å±±; pp. 18â25]; a lake of blood [xue hu è¡æ¹; pp. 26â29]; a sea of blood [xue hai è¡æµ·; pp. 30â33]; a pool of blood [xue chi è¡æ± ; pp. 33â37]; or a vessel of blood [xue pen è¡ç; pp. 37â43]. Although the adjectives used to refer to these places tell of filth and dirt [huiwu 穢污] and filthy blood [huixue ç©¢è¡; p. 34], and although the various tortures and the ghosts who rule this realm, the judges and small ghosts [panguan xiaogui å¤å® å°é¬¼; p. 35] occur inside the unwelcome place, there is still redemption, because we also see the phrase âLook into the vessel and pond of blood and there are five lotus blossoms coming forthâ [Kanjian xuepenchizhong you wuduo lianhua chuxian çè¦ è¡çæ± ä¸ æ äºæµ è®è± åºç¾; p. 41]. The lotus is the Buddhist symbol of a pure white flower that grows in the mud. It is a symbol of forgiveness and of overcoming the filth of the world to reach a higher plane.
Figure 8.18
Sutra of the City God, Sutra of the Dead [Chenghuang jing, Duwang jing åéç¶ åº¦äº¡ç¶], Pages 42 and 43, Asking for Release from Hell. The person who had this text copied inserted a personal plea: âThe petitioner was filial. Break open the gates of Hell to search for our poor and miserable mother in the vessel and pool of blood. It is hard to think this birth mother has sinned. We call out âmotherâ and ask that she be rescued and sent to the Western Paradiseâ [Zunzhe xingxiao. Poyu xunniang. Xuepenchinei jianxihuang. Chanmu zui nandang. Jiaoqi aniang. Jiumu wang xifang å°è è¡åãç ´çå°å¨ãè¡çæ± å §è¦ææ¶ãç¢æ¯ç½ªé£ç¶ãå«èµ·é¿å¨ãææ¯å¾è¥¿æ¹]. On page 43, these are lines 2 and 3, reading from right to left.
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The event that prompted the copying of these texts to be read at the funeral or at a service remembering the deceased is made clear on the final page of this work. The copyist has written:
The petitioner was filial. Break open the gates of Hell to search for our poor and miserable mother in the vessel and pool of blood. It is hard to think this birth mother has sinned. We call out âmotherâ and ask that she be rescued and sent to the Western Paradise.
Zunzhe xingxiao. Poyu xunniang. Xuepenchinei jianxihuang. Chanmu zui nandang. Jiaoqi aâniang. Jiumu wang xifang
å°è è¡åãç ´ç å°å¨ã è¡çæ± å § è¦ææ¶.45 ç¢æ¯ 罪 é£ç¶ãå«èµ· é¿å¨ã ææ¯ å¾è¥¿æ¹. (p. 43)
The petition ends by calling on the name of the Holy Bodhisattva Dizang King [Namo dizangwang pusa åç¡å°èçè©è©]. From this text, we can imagine the anguish and sorrow of those who had suffered the loss of someone they held dear, someone who had died in pain and was unjustly suffering. One can imagine the earnestness and pleading of the bereaved petitioner as this text was being read aloud. This was very likely recited by a priest on behalf of the poor man who had lost his wife, the mother of his children, and who anguished over the suffering he thought she was being forced to endure. It shows complete acceptance of the explanations of Hell and its indignities given to the common people at the time. Their only recourse in the face of such overwhelming loss and impotence compared to the powerful forces governing human life and death was to prepare handwritten texts such as this and to beseech the deities for help.
The Dragon King
Another example of a deity who can be both god and ghost is the Dragon King [Long wang é¾ç]. Dragon kings are numerous, probably one for each major river and lake in China. Although some Daoist pantheons list the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas [Sihai longwang åæµ·é¾ç] and thus grant them status as universal deities, most dragon kings are local deities tied to a specific source of water. The dragon kings can bring water for growing crops, cooking, washing, and many life actions, so they were often invoked for help in ceremonies asking for rain. The dragon kings can equally bring floods and devastation or withhold needed rain. Chinese farmers were respectful to their local dragon kings in good times, but they could chastise or threaten this deity when its services were withheld. In times of trouble, a dragon king was seen as a bad ghost causing hardship.46
One chaoben in my collection is titled Prayers to the Dragon King [Longwang fashi é¾ç æ³äº]. Its more descriptive title is on the inside cover page is Recommended Memorials, Petitions and Certificates for a Religious Service [Gongjin biao shu die fashi è²¢é²è¡¨ççæ³äº]. It was written in the renyin å£¬å¯ year; judging from the handmade paper and the twine binding of the work, 1902 seems a reasonable date. I bought it in Beijing in 2010.47
The text is composed of invocations and petitions, spoken and written, that can be offered up to the dragon kings, to ask them to descend to earth to hear the petitions of the people and to address the concerns of those offering the petitions. Petitions were often written and read aloud by the ritual master at the ceremony, then burned so that the smoke would ascend to heaven, where the gods would receive and understand them. This process is the focus of the first subsection of the manuscript. The text is divided into subsections: âOffering up Memorialsâ [Shang biao ä¸è¡¨] on pages 3â15; âOffering up Petitionsâ [Shang shu ä¸ç] on pages 15â25; âCeremonial Texts for Water Ceremonies, Certificatesâ [Qingshui yiwen, shu è«æ°´åæ ç] on pages 25â29; âPetitions to the Dragon Kingâ [Longwang biao é¾ç表] on pages 30â34.48
Figure 8.19
Prayers to the Dragon King [Longwang fashi é¾çæ³äº], Page 1 and Inside Cover. The more descriptive title is on the inside cover: Recommended Memorials, Petitions, and Certificates for a Religious Service [Gongjin biao shu die fashi è²¢é²è¡¨ççæ³äº]. It was written in the renyin å£¬å¯ year; based on the handmade paper and the twine binding of the work, 1902 seems a reasonable date. The text is composed of invocations and petitions, spoken and written, that can be offered up to the Dragon Kings, to ask them to descend to earth to hear the petitions of the people and to address the concerns of those offering the petitions. Petitions were often written and recited by the ritual master at the ceremony, then burned so that the smoke would ascend to heaven, where the gods would receive and understand them.
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The first sentence of this work was recited by the ritual master, possibly also written as a text to be burned after it was read aloud at the altar.49
The glory of the mountains and the rivers, each cave is a treasure; the irrigation of the paddies and fields, cannot be accomplished without water. We chant this petition, and today offer it up here.
Shanchuan zhi jingying, meixue weizhibao. Tianye zhi guangai, feishui bunengcheng. Gongbiao yinji, jin wei juchang.
å±±å·ä¹ç²¾è±ï¼æ¯ç©´çºä¹å¯¶ãç°éä¹çæºï¼éæ°´ä¸è½æã貢表ååï¼ä»çºèæã
The dragon kings are sometimes accorded honors or respect, because some of them hold high office with much responsibility. At the local level, they are given a much less exalted rank, although their power can still be great in the local community, especially where a river and its rushing currents are involved or when rain is desperately needed for growing crops. At this local level, the gods and the people seem to have a close relationship or at least sometimes a relationship bordering on the informal. Thus the dragon kings make a good point for us to descend even lower in the hierarchy, to the level of pesky, troublesome ghosts who vex and frustrate people. This aspect of the ghosts who lived with the common people of China in the late Qing and Republican periods is discussed in Chapter 9.
Conclusion: How Should We View These Spirits?
These gods and ghosts at the lower end of the hierarchy could be troublesome creatures, changeable in nature to the point of being unpredictable. They were not harmless pranksters; as we see in Chapter 9, they could cause real unpleasantness and discomfort for human beings. Negative spirits are found or referred to at the temples and shrines of all the worldâs major religions, since the holy deities worshiped are to some degree defined in contrast to the negative forces that are also said to exist. Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu literature finds it important to mention the negative powers that lurk. Islam is concerned with the evil of Satan. In religious Daoism, however, negative and uncontrollable spirits are numerous, and even the troublesome spirits might change their course to aid human beings. Like the complementary forces of yin and yang, they contain all aspects of the Dao, and they exist in relation to one another.
Liu Daochao åéè¶ , an anthropologist and scholar of popular religious practices in China, has made interesting observations about popular religion in China, a topic he has been investigating since 1984. In his book Zhumeng minsheng: Zhongguo minjian xinyang xinzhihui ç¯å¤¢æ°çï¼ ä¸åæ°éä¿¡ä»°æ°æºæ § [Constructing Dreams for Life: New Thinking about Chinese Popular Beliefs], he assembles a number of ideas about this changeable nature of Daoist deities.50 When talking about âThe Wisdom of Worshiping Evil Spiritsâ [Jingji eâshen zhi zhihui æ¬ç¥æ¡ç¥ä¹æºæ §], he says there are two kinds of spirits, good spirits [shan de shen åçç¥] and evil spirits [e de shen æ¡çç¥]. The first part of this chapter discusses the most holy of the Daoist deities, those who rule with grace and absolute authority. Liu says that many spirits bring only blessings and good, including the god of wealth, the city god, Wenchang, the Goddess of Mercy, the Jade emperor, and the Spirit Controlling Locusts [Quhuang shen é© èç¥].
Among the spirits who can bring either blessings or destruction [keweishan yi keweiâe å¯çºå亦å¯çºæ¡], Liu lists the following: the year god [taisui 太æ²], the thunder god [leishen é·ç¥], the Big Dipper [Beidou åæ], the god of wind [fengshen 風ç¥], the dragon king [Long wang é¾ç], the king of the underworld [Yanluo wang é»ç¾ ç], the Dizang king, the Emperor of the Underworld [Fengdu dadi è±é½å¤§å¸], and the stove god [zaoshen ç¶ç¥]. When we look at the horoscopes compiled by astrologers and fortunetellers, we find a number of these spirits cited, sometimes in their helpful form and sometimes in their negative incarnation. Several are mentioned in this chapter, especially the Dizang king, whom I refer to as the Dizang bodhisattva because he can descend to the gates of Hell and help tortured souls to escape their torments there. Some of these spirits have more than one manifestationâfor example, the numerous dragon kings.
Liu also lists a number of ghosts frequently encountered in popular religion as among the spirits harmful to human beings [yuren wei eâde shen æ¼äººçºæ¡çç¥]: the demon of drought [hanba æ±é], the god of plague [wen shen çç¥], the tiger spirit [hu shen èç¥], the king of locusts [huangchong wang èè²ç], the god of smallpox [dou shen çç¥], and the snake god [she shen èç¥]. Most of them ought to be considered plural. It is not clear from Chinese texts whether they are considered one god or one iteration of the god. Liu seems to correctly identify them as harmful spirits, which is the way they appear in most horoscopes. Fortunetellers and astrologers construct horoscopes by listing the âstarsâ for âforcesâ that will influence oneâs future, and they often refer to these ghosts.
Liu says that people sometimes erected shrines to these harmful spirits, and they worshiped them with offerings or incense or ceremonies. He says the purpose of such worship was to control the evil spirit, as if by offering a bribe, they could mollify the evil spirits or lull them into being passive. He goes on to say that people recited incantations against these plague gods and cursed them. Before the growing season, they burned fields as a way of threatening the locust gods.
Liu describes several other ways in which people dealt with demons and evil spirits. Of course, they could take hold of symbolic items thought to have power, such as a branch of a peach tree [tiaozhi æ¡æ] or a ceremonial sword made of wood [baojian 寶å]. They could curse the ghost [magui 罵鬼], say a magic spell or incantation [fuyu 符èª], or âpress downâ on the ghost to control the evil spirit [zhengui é®é¬¼]. Further, they could chase the ghost to expel it [gangui è¶é¬¼], they could eat the ghost [chigui å鬼], they could send off the ghost [songgui é鬼], or they could exorcise the ghost [nuogui åºé¬¼].
All the symbolic actions and items cited by Liu were those regularly used by ritual specialists when grappling with ghosts or demons. The peach branch was a favorite of yinyang masters, and the wooden sword is a popular item in religious Daoism. If one wanted to send off the high gods after a ceremony, the reasoning must have been that, by burning incense, setting off firecrackers, and bidding farewell, people could use the same techniques to scare away and banish demons, i.e. they would create an atmosphere of noise and incense through which the spirits, be they deities or demons, could move. We know from observation that putting tablets of the plague gods on a boat and sending them down the river or ritually burning them on a boat was part of the exorcist rites of rural peasants. We also have reports of dragon kings who failed to bring rain being set out under the hot sun to give them a taste of the suffering they were causing to the people by not bringing rain.51
The result of these actions, Liu tells us, was to empower the people in the face of difficulties. Rather than being passive, the people confronted their difficulties. The priests or mediums (he calls them âshamanâ) [saman è©æ»¿] helped the people to organize and confront the demons. Government officials often participated, lending the authority of the government and helping to bind the people and the government together. These actions and ceremonies by the people helped to change a frustrating and threatening situation into an optimistic situation in which the people had hope for a favorable outcome. The actual efficacy of the event, such as changing the weather pattern and bringing rain, was less important than the spirit of optimism and potential that the people gained through the ceremonies and rituals.
Liuâs point about the common people being faced with difficulties and working to empower themselves in the face of these threats is well taken. The practices they devised to confront the demons, such as threatening them with a ritual sword or yelling at them, can be seen as an attempt not to let themselves be overwhelmed by the mysterious and seemingly powerful forces that seemed almost beyond human control. Through the noise and frenetic activity against the demons, they could vent their anger (to the ghosts and to one another) about the situation in which they found themselves.
Liuâs comments seem positive and contemporary, so I thought it would be interesting to consult with a Daoist master I had met to get his perspective on Liuâs views. I contacted Zhou Xuanyun å¨çé², a member of the Zhengyi school of Daoism who now lives in the Boston area. Master Zhouâs view was that everyone writing about religious Daoism reflects his own understanding of the phenomenon. From that perspective, he had no special quarrel or criticism of Liuâs analysis. Like Liu, Zhou believed in two types of spirits and ghosts, good and bad. People can pray to the good ones for help, and they can pray to the bad ones to be left alone. If a human being upsets a good deity, the god might be cruel to them. But if a human placates a bad spirit, the demon might be good to the human. Therefore, the important thing is not the alignment of the ghost or spirit but the relationship between the human being and the spirit.52
Concerning Liuâs use of the term âshaman,â Zhou said that was a term used to describe early practices, but in present-day Daoism the terms used for the medium who interfaces with the spirits are nanxi ç·è¦¡ for males and nüwu 女巫 for females. Dictionaries translate these terms as âwizardâ or âsorceress.â These translations seem somewhat dismissive for describing people who play a crucial role in extending the power of humans with forces that seem to exist in a different realm. Perhaps the term âmediumâ is a more neutral term. A general term used by Chinese scholars for a medium is wuxi 巫覡, although in practice it often refers to a woman.53
Human beings and the deities of Chinese popular religion have a lively relationship and an energetic exchange of prayers and favors that continues in Chinese communities to this day. When faced with powerful or overwhelming influences, it becomes a comforting and hopeful action to call upon the superhuman or âotherworldlyâ spirits, whether we label them ghosts or deities. The universe of spirits that seems so distant and ethereal from daily social interactions becomes very real, colorful, and alive when given form by the Daoist masters and ritual specialists and by the fervent believers who participate in addressing the gods of popular religious Daoism. This universe of spirits, ritual specialists, and humans was very much alive and accepted by the pingmin of China in the period 1850â1950. As the anthropologist Liu Daochao outlines, by knowing something of the gods and ghosts and by taking an active stance toward them, the common people empowered themselves as they struggled through lifeâs vicissitudes.
The great number of religious believers, who exceeded the secular Confucians, is characterized by Benjamin Elman as follows: âIn a sea of 100â300 million imperial subjects, Ming-Qing Confucian literati never outnumbered the pious adepts of Chinese religion, Buddhism, or Daoism: vast numbers of each mind-set accommodated the imperial system to the greater society that supported it.â See Elman, Civil Examinations and Meritocracy in Late Imperial China, 2. Thoughtful views on the Chinese supernatural and their relation to deities are expressed in Susan Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400â1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 35â48.
Confucians regularly debated the differences between spirits and ghosts. The standard phrase was âghosts and spiritsâ [guishen 鬼ç¥], as used (apparently) by Confucius himself. An overview of these debates with original insights is offered in Koyasu Nobukuni åå®å®£é¦, Kishinron: Juka chishikinin no deskuru 鬼ç¥è«ï¼å家ç¥è人ã®ï¾ï¾ï½²ï½½ï½¸ï½³ï¾ [On Ghosts and Spirits: The Discourse among Confucian Intelligentsia] (Tokyo: Fukutake shoten, 1992). Special talisman designed to summon the power of spirit generals are in the chaoben in my collection titled Cao Suosen æ¹é森, as on the cover. This book is 9 in (22.86â¯cm) h à 5 in (12.7â¯cm) w, has seventy-seven pages, and was purchased in Shanghai in 2014. See p. 18 for summoning General Ding [Ding jiangjun ä¸å°è»], and p. 19 for summoning General Xu [Xu jiangjun å¾å°è»].
The hierarchy I use in this chapter follows a scroll of Daoist deities I bought near Baiyunguan in Beijing in 2014 titled âDaojiao quanshen tu éæå ¨ç¥å [Chart of All the Daoist Deities].â This follows the same hierarchical ranking as that used by Baiyunguan. See Beijing Baiyunguan, which describes the Baiyunguan grounds and deities and is offered free to visitors. The textual explanations show that the hierarchical ranking mentioned here is followed by the temple. This hierarchy of deities is not followed in all Daoist temples or by all schools of religious Daoism. This point is mentioned again below in relation to the Jade emperor, who is considered the highest deity by many of the common people. For a history of the Baiyunguan in the late Qing and Republic, see Vincent Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, 1800â1949: A Social History of Urban Clerics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007).
In Chinese, each of these deities has several honorific titles. Their titles are translated in English in different ways by different scholars. The English translations used in this chapter are taken from many sources, so are not consistent with any particular English-language work. The word for âenergyâ [qi ç] is often written in this way by Daoists. It is equivalent to the more common way of writing it, æ°£.
For a complete translation into English, with the Chinese original, see Li Xinjun æä¿¡è», ed., Taishang ganying pian 太ä¸ææç¯ [Treatise on Sympathetic Response, (Spoken by) the Supreme] (Beijing: Baiyunguan, 2008). Incantations by a Daoist master regularly invoke Laozi. Most scholars doubt that this was written by Laozi, and many doubt that Laozi actually existed.
Secret Text for Summoning the Snake is 6¾ in (17.14â¯cm) h à 7¼ in (18.41â¯cm) w, with twenty-eight pages. I bought it in Beijing in June 2014. For examples of deities who could be called upon to protect humans, to relieve suffering and sickness, and who took the form of a fox, snake, rodent, etc., see Huang Qiang é»å¼·, âWuxi yu shouhu fuzhuling: Guanyu Dongbei diqu wuxi de Huxian Xinyang 巫覡èå®è·è¼å©éï¼ éæ¼æ±åå°å巫覡çè¡ä»ä¿¡ä»° [Mediums and Protective Spirits: On the Medium and Belief in the Immortal Hu in Northeast China],â Minsu quyi æ°ä¿æ²è [Popular Arts], no. 118 (March 1999). Daoist ceremonies concerning the snake were practiced in Hengyang, Hunan, in 1899. See Peake in China, 95.
On magical incantations, see Zhang et al., Daojiao fuzhou, xuan, jiang.
The character 殺 sha here is the equivalent of ânoxious influenceâ or âevil force,â also written ç . The equivalence of these two characters is explained in Min Jihui éæºæ, Shinsalhak chonso ç¥æ®ºå¸å ¨æ¸ [Complete Book of Spirits and Evil] (Paju, Korea: Tongyang sojok, 2005). The equivalence is also mentioned in Han-Han daesajon æ¼¢é大åå ¸ [Chinese-Korean Dictionary] (Seoul: Minjong solim, 1988), 775. See also Yi, Zhongguo shenguai dazidian, 425â426. On dealing with sha, see Song Daoyuan å®éå , Jietu Zhongguo daojiao shengsishu解åä¸åéæçæ»æ¸ [The Book of Life and Death in Chinese Daoism, Illustrated] (Beijing: Zijincheng chubanshe, 2009), 148â155; Wu Kang, Zhonghua shenmi wenhua cidian, 2â3, 204. On examples in which clicking the teeth [kouchi å©é½] was prescribed, see Zhang, Daojiao fuzhou, especially pp. 12 (click three times), 13 (click seven times), and 15 (click thirty-six times). The evil force sha and how it affects human actions are illustrated in Nimaru ichigo Heisei nijÅ«schichinen jingukan kaiunli 2015 å¹³æäºåä¸å¹´ç¥å®®é¤¨ééæ¦ [The Jingukan Horoscope for 2015] (Tokyo: Jingukan, 2014), 7â9. The chaoben Petitions to the Thunder Altar [Fengzhi chiling leitan å¥æ¨æ令é·å£] has drawings of some of the sha forces on pp. 2â5 of this sixty-seven-page work. The title page and some of the early pages have fallen off this book, so I assign the title based on the first talismanic character that appears on the first extant page. Based on dates that appear in the text, this chaoben was likely written between 1886 and 1900. Bought in Beijing in January 2015, it is 9 in (22.8â¯cm) h à 10 in (25.4â¯cm) w. Use of a chicken as a potent animal to ward off evil spirits is mentioned in Plopper, Chinese Religion Seen Through the Proverb, 134.
See Zhang Zhenguo å¼µæ¯å, ââ¯âRangguan dusha keâ de gongneng ji qi tese 禳é度ç ç§âçåè½åå ¶ç¹è² [The âExorcist Gate to Overcome Evilâ: The Function and Special Characteristics of This Text],â Shanghai daojiao ä¸æµ·éæ [Shanghai Daoism], no. 4 (2013), 38â40.
The âChart of All the Daoist Deities,â mentioned above, has the Jade emperor holding a special place flanked by the Four Sovereigns. A source listing him as one of the Four Sovereigns is Li Dianyuan æ殿å , Tianshen diqi: Daojiao zhushen chuanshuo 天ç¥å°ç¥: éæ諸ç¥å³èªª [Heavenly Deities, Earthly Gods: Legends of Daoist Gods] (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 2012), 25â27. When one of the four, he is flanked by the Supreme Emperor [Taihuang 太ç], who is Emperor of the North [Ziwei beiji dadi ç´«å¾®å極大å¸]; the Heavenly Emperor [Tianhuang 天ç], who is Emperor of the Military Forces [Gouchen tianhuang dadi å¾é³å¤©ç大å¸]; and the Earthly emperor/empress [Tuhuang åç], who is Great Empress of the Earth [Houtuhuan diqi ååçå°ç¥] and is often portrayed as a female. When the Jade emperor is given his own special ranking, he is replaced as one of the Four Sovereigns by Great Emperor of the South and Long Life [Nanji Changsheng dadi å極é·ç大å¸], as seen in the âChart of All the Daoist Deitiesâ and the rankings of deities at Baiyunguan in Beijing.
Among many people in China today, the Jade emperor is considered the highest Daoist deity, and they strongly assert that this is the case. Although the standard hierarchy of deities used by the Complete Perfection [Quanzhen å ¨ç] school has the Three Pure Ones at the very top, a major Zhengyi temple in Shanghai, the Hall of Receiving Grace [Qinciyangdian 欽è³ä»°æ®¿] has the Jade emperor in its innermost and therefore most important building. But I recall seeing him also seated in one of the inner halls as one of the Four Sovereigns. The temple is dedicated to the Emperor of the Eastern Peak [Dongyue dadi æ±å¶½å¤§å¸], who presides over purgatory, and it is common these days for people to hold a ceremony asking the powerful Jade emperor to help the soul of their departed loved ones to be released from Hell (since the Jade emperor outranks the Emperor of the Eastern Peak), in a ceremony known as âcrossing overâ [chaodu è¶ åº¦], in which the souls cross the bridge out of Hell to be reborn or to enter Paradise. See Ding et al., Yinciyangdian yu Dongyue dadi xinyang. For a description of the crossing-over ceremony, see Duan Ming 段æ, âChaodu wanghun de guoqiao jisi yishi è¶ åº¦äº¡éçéæ©ç¥ç¥åå¼ [Ceremony of the Soul Crossing Over],â Minsu quyi æ°ä¿æ²è [Popular Arts], no. 118 (March 1999). This issue is devoted to ethnographic field reports of popular Daoist religious ceremonies observed in China and Taiwan in the 1990s concerning belief in the soul [hunpo xinyang ééä¿¡ä»°], with photos of many of the ceremonies in progress.
For mention of the common assertion that the Jade emperor was the supreme Daoist deity, see Li, Tianshen diqi, 28. In December 2014 a Chinese scholar with whom I was discussing the place of the Jade emperor in the hierarchy of Daoist gods also expressed her belief that the Jade emperor was at the very top, because that is what she grew up believing. This idea is reinforced in the illustrations in Zhang Xianchang å¼µæ²æ and Zhang Moxue å¼µé»éª, Zhongguo minsu baitu ä¸åæ°ä¿ç¾å [An Album of Chinese New Year Paintings] (Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2009). The folk art illustrated on pp. 2â7 all shows the Jade emperor as the supreme deity.
Collected Scripture of the Deeds of the Jade Emperor [Gaoshang Yuhuang benxing jijing é«ä¸ççæ¬è¡éç¶] is 9½ in (24.13â¯cm) h à 5 in (12.7â¯cm) w. Vol. 1 [shang ä¸] has forty-five leaves; vol. 2 [zhong ä¸] has thirty-eight leaves; vol. 3 [xia ä¸] has forty-one leaves. I bought this in June 2012 in Shanghai. The Jade emperor as a high deity regularly approached by the common people is also mentioned in Chapter 7.
Many Daoist temples in the PRC have obtained lithograph versions of the sacred texts, which are simply reprinted on inexpensive paper and sold in the temple bookshops. In many cases, all publishing identification has been omitted. We can expect that more attractive and expensive copies of these texts will gradually appear for sale.
This is a standard Daoist text. My copy faithfully follows a printed version of the text. See:
On the government discouraging Daoist rituals in private homes, see Adeline Herrou, A World of Their Own: Daoist Monks & Their Community in Contemporary China (St. Petersburg, FL: Three Pines Press, 2013), 92. Local authorities in China sometimes turn a blind eye to some activities in order to reach compromises with local religious practitioners. See Adam Yuet Chau, Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China (Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006), 224.
Repentance in Homage to Heaven, Complete [Chaotian chan, quan quan æ天æºï¼ å ¨å¸] was purchased in Beijing in March 2009 but is originally from Hengyang, Hunan. It has sixty-three pages and is 10½ in (26.67â¯cm) h à 5¾ in (14.6â¯cm) w.
In my collection is a recently printed text titled Exalted Jade Emperor Precious Repentances for Forgiveness of Sins [Gaoshang Yuhuang youzui baochan é«ä¸çç宥罪寶æº], that I bought at the White Cloud Monastery in Beijing in 2005. This is a liturgical text developed for worship of the Jade emperor. I compared it with the handwritten text Repentance in Homage to Heaven, Complete [Chaotian chan, quan quan æ天æº, å ¨å¸] to see if the printed text followed the handwritten text. I found that only a short portion of my handwritten text followed the material in the printed text: âSupreme Flourishing One in the Highest Heaven, beyond the subtle and mysterious true border, where there is the distant purple gold watchtower (Golden Portal) of the Supreme and Pure Palace. Supreme Holy One without Limit, in the vastness issuing light, silently without doctrine, spreading to all corners of the universe, the pattern of the True and Everlasting Daoâ [Taishang miluo wushang tian, miaoyou xuanzhenjing. Miao miao zijinque, taiwei yuqinggong. Wuji wushangsheng, kuoluo faguangming, jiji haowuzong, xuanfan zongshifang, zhanji zhenchangdao 太ä¸å½ç¾ ç¡ä¸å¤©ï¼å¦æççå¢ã渺渺紫ééï¼å¤ªå¾®çæ¸ å®®ãç¡æ¥µç¡ä¸èï¼å»è½ç¼å æï¼ å¯å¯æµ©ç¡å®ï¼çè總åæ¹ï¼æ¹å¯ç常é]. In the printed text, see pp. 37 and 38; in the handwritten text, see pp. 53 and 54. This appears to be a standard phrase of glorification, which does not necessarily have a direct relation to the textual material.
Alan Carter Covell, Folk Art and Magic: Shamanism in Korea (Seoul: Hollym International, 1993), 93â97. In Korea, âthe lesser Five Direction Forces abide in every room, storeroom, and stock pen within the walls, and in at least one city home, in the dog house.â See Laurel Kendall, Shamans, Housewives, and Other Restless Spirits: Women in Korean Ritual Life (Honolulu: University of Hawaiâi Press, 1985), 114. A number of Chinese Daoist deities, such as the Jade emperor and the Seven Stars [Qixing ä¸æ], make appearances in Korean shamanic ceremonies, along with the Five Direction Forces [Generals of the Five Directions; in Chinese, Wufang jiangjun äºæ¹å°è»], but the Koreans treat them more as âcomrades,â and they do not regard the Generals of the Five Directions with much more formality; they may be different entities than the Five Lords mentioned in my text above. Ideas on Korean shaman ritual behavior are in Laurel Kendall, Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF: South Korean Popular Religion in Motion (Honolulu: University of Hawaiâi Press, 2009). Kendall refers to them as the Spirit Warriors of the Five Directions [Obang sinjang äºæ¹ç¥å°], in God Pictures in Korean Contexts: The Ownership and Meaning of Shaman Paintings, ed. Laurel Kendall et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawaiâi Press, 2015).
Chen Liansheng é³è®è¼ et al., Taisuishen zhuanlue 太æ²ç¥å³ç¥ [Biography of the Star Goddess] (Beijing: Zongjiaowenhua chubanshe, 2005). This deity is normally assumed to be female. The openness of Daoism toward gender issues, in the sense of accepting the idea that male and female elements exist in a mixed and complementary way, has been a factor in allowing some new âChristianâ religions in China to rapidly gain a following by accepting female leadership as equally valid with male leadership. A case in point for the Forerunner Christian Church [Muzhu xianfeng jiaohui æ 主å éææ] is discussed in Joy K.C. Tong and Fenggang Yang, âThe Femininity of Chinese Christianity: A Study of a Chinese Charismatic Church and Its Female Leadership,â Review of Religion and Chinese Society 1, no. 2 (2014): 208â209.
See Terry Kleeman, âThree Officers,â in The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Pregadio, 2: 833â834.
Talisman characters are specially written words that appear to be versions of Chinese characters, but they are not standard characters. They have special powers allowing them to control the gods or repel ghosts; the words can offer protection from harm and sickness. Many of them are illustrated with brief explanations in Fuzhou tonglingshenfa 符åééç¥æ³ [Talisman as a Way to Contact the Spirits and Gods] (Taipei [?]: Dashan shudian, n.d. [ca. 2000s]). This work has the phrase longtange cangban é¾æ½é£èç [From Blocks Held by the Dragon Pond Pavilion]. Repentances to the Three Officials [Sanguan chan ä¸å®æº] was bought in Beijing in January 2010, but it was originally from Hengyang, Hunan. Its volumes are 8¼ in (20.96â¯cm) h à 5¼ in (13.33â¯cm) w. Vol. 1 has thirty-five pages; vol. 2 has twenty-two pages; vol. 3 has twenty pages.
This last phrase is confusing and could also be translated as âIf my words are different [not correct?] they were [intended to conform to] the words as spoken by the deity.â
The text of Repentances to the Supreme Three Primes to Forgive Sins [Taishang sanyuan youzui fachan 太ä¸ä¸å 宥罪æ³æº] is 9¾ in (24.76â¯cm) h à 8¼ in (20.95â¯cm) w and was purchased in Beijing in March 2009. The three volumes have a total of forty-seven pages. This title was discussed in Chapter 7. On the inside pages is the title Taishang sanyuan miezui miaochan 太ä¸ä¸å æ» ç½ªå¦æº. The word miao å¦ can be translated as âmysterious.â It is a word often used in reference to spiritual matters.
The mixing up of the Three Officials with the Three Primes is also discussed and documented in note 32 in Chapter 7.
This work is described in Chapters 1 and 2. Chants of Repentance to the Three Primes [Sanyuan fachan ä¸å æ³æº] is 9¼ in (25.46â¯cm) h à 5½ in (13.97â¯cm) w.
Precious Repentances to the Three Primes [Sanyuan baochan ä¸å 寶æº] is 9¾ in (24.76â¯cm) h à 5½ in (13.97â¯cm) w. It was originally from Hengyang è¡¡é½ in Hunan æ¹å but was purchased in Beijing in May 2010. The copy dates to 1863.
The Sanskrit name of this deity is AmitÄbha.
Maitreya is the Sanskrit for Milefo å½åä½, whose form is often seen on scrolls or as statues in China and Japan.
The Sanskrit name of this beloved deity is AvalokiteÅvara.
This is the Buddhist deity Gandharaja, also called Fragrant King Bodhisattva [Xiangwang pusa é¦çè©è©]. See Sawa RyÅken ä½åéµç , ButsuzÅ zÅ«ten ä½åå³å
¸ [Dictionary of Buddhist Statues] (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kubunkan, 1978), 96. This healing Buddha is also known as a manifestation of Guanyin, called the Fragrant King Guanyin [Xiangwang Guanyin é¦çè§é³]. The word âfragranceâ [xiang é¦] refers to flowers and herbs used to make medicine. The sutra mentioning this deity is the Xiangwang pusa tuoluoni zhoujing é¦çè©è©éç¾
å°¼åªç¶ [Sutra of Appealing to the Fragrant King Bodhisattva],
The missing character could be âofferingsâ [feng å¥], to complete the phrase âto be worshiped,â or âto receive offeringsâ [gongfeng ä¾å¥]. The luohan ç¾ æ¼¢ are similar to Christian saints, individuals who are following a holy path and wish to help others.
The printed religious text for this deity is Precious Repentances to the Lord Who Relieves Suffering [Taiyi jiuku baochan 太ä¹æè¦å¯¶æº], a copy of which I bought at Baiyunguan in 2012. With its many repeated words and phrases, this is clearly a text written to be chanted aloud.
In the popular conception, people had two or more souls. The soul left the body at death and descended into the netherworld, where it could suffer and then be reborn or sent to Paradise. Another soul [po é] might stay with the body, or it might be released to wander about the earth. People feared these wandering po souls because if they were lonely or hungry, they could cause troubles to living human beings. This concept is explained again below in the text. Some people postulated three po souls, and some seven or more.
A highly illustrated study of the Ten Kings of Hell is Shen Hong æ²æ³, Shidian yanluo: Minjian shuiluhuazhong de wuqing lunhui å殿é»ç¾ ï¼æ°éæ°´é¸ç«ä¸çç¡æ 輪迴 [The Ten Kings of Hell: The Merciless Rebirth Shown in Popular Illustrations] (Beijing: Zhongguo caifu chubanshe, 2012). We have the record of a Taiwanese author named Yang Zanru æ¥è´å (b. 1950), who paid several visits to Hell between 1976 and 1978. His account is Diyu youji å°çéè¨ [Voyages to Hell] (n.p.: Jingdian wenhua zhiban, n.d.), which I purchased in Jilin City in July 2015, most likely an unauthorized reprint of an edition published in Taiwan.
The torturers of Hell are graphically illustrated in color and black and white in Kim Manhee éè¬ç, Jiokdo å°çå [Pictures of Hell] (Seoul: Sangmisa, 1990). Graphics of the tortures of Hell were always reproduced in the Yuli baochao çæ¦å¯¶é [Precious Jade Calendar], which has been issued for decades in China. My collection includes Illustrated Precious Jade Calendar to Save the World Huitu Yuli baochao quanshiwen 繪åçæ¦å¯¶éå¸ä¸æ (Shanghai: Jinzhang tushuju, 1921?), a printed edition with the illustrations on pp. 7â18. This was one of the books considered appropriate to reprint and pass out gratis as a way of incurring and encouraging blessings, as can be seen from the publisherâs inscription on the cover page: âShanghai Qipanjie, Jinzhang tushuju cangban, shanren yinsong, zhiqu zhiliao yinong ä¸æµ·æ£ç¤è¡, é¦ç« åæ¸å±èç, å人å°é, ç¥åç´æå°å·¥ [This book was printed from woodblocks held by the Jinzhang Publisher on Shanghaiâs Qipan Road. A kind gentleman provided the book, and the paper and printing were performed by our company].â The book is 8¼ in. (20.96â¯cm) h à 5¾ in (14.61â¯cm) w. I bought it in Beijing in June 2013. A more recent version, prepared in colloquial Chinese and given out free by the Qinciyangdian in 2010, is titled Yuli baochao çæ¦å¯¶é, with the illustrations of Hell on pp. 23â29. These are popular titles intended for the common people.
Livia Kohn, Introducing Daoism (New York: Routledge, 2009), 128; Song, Jietu Zhongguo daojiao shengsishu, 120â129. This belief in multiple souls is of ancient origin in China, going back to at least the first century CE. See Jean M. James, âThe Iconographic Program of the Wu Family Offering Shrines,â Artibus Asiae, 48, no. 1 (1988â1989): 47.
A mention of the Celestial Lord Who Relieves Suffering as a deity who changes into a ghostly form in order to enter the gates of Hell is in Song, Jietu Zhongguo daojiao shengsishu, 103. This source shows that the banner calling the soul back to the body can be carried at the head of the funeral procession by the eldest son. See ibid, 261. The manner in which this spirit transforms from a deity into a ghost is illustrated in Zhang Mengxiao 張夢é, Tujie Daojiao: Jieshi Zhongguoren zuiyinmi de mengxiang å解éæï¼æ示ä¸å人æé±ç§çå¤¢æ³ [Daoism Illustrated: Revealing the Most Hidden Dreams of the Chinese People] (Xiâan: Shaanxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2010), 139.
Supreme Morning Text for Becoming an Immortal [Taishang xiuzhen chenke 太ä¸ä¿®çæ¨èª²] is 8¾ in (22.22â¯cm) h à 5 in (12.7â¯cm) w, with forty-eight pages. I bought it in Shanghai in January 2012.
Yi, Zhongguo shenguai dazidian, on Yama [Yanluowang], see pp. 610â611; on the Ox-head and Horse-face ghosts, see pp. 366â367. On the Pure Land, see Ren Jiyu 任繼æ, ed., Zongjiao cidian å®æè©å ¸ [Dictionary of Religion] (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 2009), 645. In this chapter, the Pure Land is also referred to as the Western Paradise, which was another of the terms used by Buddhists.
The word sutra is from Sanskrit and is most regularly used to designate a Buddhist religious work. The term in China is jing ç¶. Some scholars translate jing as âscriptureâ or âclassic.â In most cases, any of these three terms would be appropriate translations, and I use all three of them in this book.
Sutra of the City God, Sutra of the Dead [Chenghuang jing, duwang jing åéç¶ åº¦äº¡ç¶] is folded like a typical Buddhist sutra in the âaccordion foldâ style, in this case with forty-three âpages.â It is 9 in (22.86â¯cm) h à 4¼ in (10.79â¯cm) w and dates from 1888 or 1948. I bought it in Beijing in May 2012.
The role of the city god in dealing with souls of the dead is in Song, Jietu Zhongguo daojiao shengsishu, 130â133; Yi, Zhongguo shenguai dazidian, 65â66. For historical comments, see David Johnson, âThe City-God Cults of Tâang and Sung China,â Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 4, no. 2 (December 1985); Cai Limin è¡å©æ° et al., Suzhou chenghuangmiao èå·åéå» [The Suzhou City God Temple] (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2011). See also Katz, âDivine Justice in Late Imperial China.â A comprehensive study is Zheng Tuyou éåæ et al., Hucheng xingshi: Chenghuang xinyang de renleixue kaocha è·åèå¸ï¼åéä¿¡ä»°ç人é¡å¸èå¯ [Protected City and Flourishing Markets: Anthropological Investigations of City God Worship] (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 2005).
Dizang is very popular in northeast Asia. His Sanskrit name is Ká¹£itigarbha à¤à¥à¤·à¤¿à¤¤à¤¿à¤à¤°à¥à¤. He is beloved in China and Korea because of his ability to break open the gates of Hell and his desire to protect all sentient beings. He is beloved in Japan as a protector of the souls of innocent children who have died. His sutra is widely reprinted and given away free at temples in China. I have several in my collection, including Dizang pusa benyuan jing å°èè©è© æ¬é¡ç¶ [Sutra of the True Intention of the Dizang Bodhisattva], a published work that was reprinted in Jiânan, Shandong, and distributed by the Chengnei Guangong miao åå §éå ¬å» [City Guangong Temple] in 2013. Dizangwang receives a long entry in Yi, Zhongguo shenguai dazidian, 95â96; Sawa RyÅken ä½åéµç , ButsuzÅ zÅ«ten ä½åå³å ¸ [Dictionary of Buddhist Statues] (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kubunkan, 1978), 90â92. As mentioned earlier, Fengdu is generally considered the underworld kingdom of Hell. By some accounts, it is located below Taishan æ³°å±± in Shandong Province.
In Shanxi dialect, xihuang ææ¶ is sometimes used to mean âmother,â according to my colleague Du Yuping æçå¹³. It is also used to mean âpoor and miserable.â
On both worshiping and chastising the dragon king, see Snyder-Reinke, Dry Spells.
Prayers to the Dragon King [Longwang fashi é¾ç æ³äº] contains thirty-four pages and is 9 in (22.86â¯cm) h à 5¼ in (13.33â¯cm) w. I bought it in Beijing in January 2010.
The honorific titles by which the dragon kings can be addressed are given in Min Zhiting éæºäº, Daojiao yifan éæåè [Daoist Ceremonies] (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2006), 168.
Comments on rituals are in Kohn, Introducing Daoism, 144â148. For comments on how the carved statues of deities are âbrought to lifeâ and infused with religious efficacy, see Laurel Kendall, âThings Fall Apart: Material Religion and the Problem of Decay,â The Journal of Asian Studies, 76, No. 4 (November 2017), 861â886.
Liu Daochao åéè¶ , Zhumeng minsheng: Zhongguo minjian xinyang xinzhihui ç¯å¤¢æ°çï¼ ä¸åæ°éä¿¡ä»°æ°æºæ § [Constructing Dreams for Life: New Thinking about Chinese Popular Beliefs] (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2011), especially 238â249. A study of the earliest Chinese concepts of deities and spirits being both helpful and malevolent is Richard von Glahn, The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004). This excellent study touches on many points made in this chapter and Chapter 9. Many of the earliest beliefs and practices continue today among Chinese communities. Some, such as throwing beans near a house to chase away spirits, are not seen much in China but are part of the popular setsubun ç¯å festival in Japan celebrating the end of winter and the coming of spring. See Setsuko Kojima and Gene A. Crane, A Dictionary of Japanese Culture (Tokyo: Japan Times, 1993), 298â299.
Examples of putting the dragon king statue under the hot sun are in Snyder-Reinke, Dry Spells. Old texts held that the plague gods lived in the rivers and would come at the change of seasons to afflict the people. So it made logical sense as part of the ritual to rid an area of pestilence by sending representations of the plague gods on a boat down the river. The old texts are in Ren, Zongjiao cidian, 1038. For an overview of the plague gods from the point of view of a Western-trained medical man, see John R. Watt, Saving Lives in Wartime China: How Medical Reformers Built Modern Healthcare Systems Amid War and Epidemics, 1928â1945 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 6â8, with other descriptions of plague situations throughout the book. A description of burning the plague gods on a boat is in Donald S. Sutton, Steps to Perfection: Exorcistic Performers and Chinese Religion in Twentieth-Century Taiwan (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003), 38â39.
The comments generously offered by Zhou Xuanyun are in a personal communication dated February 18, 2014. The idea of a troublesome ghost becoming a protective deity is discussed in Huang, âWuxi yu shouhu fuzhuling,â 291â294.
This usage referring to a woman is seen in ibid., 281â314.