Studies on Daoist Morning and Evening Services of the Quanzhen Order

SUNG-HAE KIM

STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES OF THE QUANZHEN ORDER

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INTRODUCTION

Daoist spirituality is very attractive to contemporary people because of its depth and richness. Even though it is attractive to many, it is not easy to understand the true meaning of the dao (way) and all the images it inspired to produce during the last twenty-five centuries. I think it is the following characteristics that make Daoism so attractive and rich in its conceptions of the dao, human and natural world. The Daoists conceive the dao as both personal and suprapersonal. The beginning phrase of Laozi, which is also known as Daodejing, introduces the dao in its dual dimension: ‘The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way; the name that can be named is not the constant name. The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth; the named was the mother of the myriad creatures’.1 Since the dao as the beginning of heaven and earth is nameless, Laozi, the author of Laozi, who presumably lived in the sixth century B.C., approaches the dao in an apophatic way, using shapeless images such as empty space, void life-energy of the valley, the uncarved block of the tree and the chaos. At the same time, however, he does not hesitate employing the kataphatic approach to understand the dao by means of concrete images such as mother, water flowing in the streams, low ocean and natural workings of the four seasons. This freedom and easy transfer from the personal understanding of the dao to the transpersonal have continued throughout the history of Daoism as we can see through the statues of the Three Pure Ones as the personal images of the dao in the main shrine of Daoist temples and the empty space preserved at the top of that shrine. The Daoist meditation technique also starts with a visualization of many deities residing within one’s body, but always ends with the void of the dao which engulfs myriad forms and names.

1 Chinese classics Tao Te Ching (Daodejing), tr. D.C. Lau, Hong Kong 1982, 3 (chapter 1). 56 SUNG-HAE KIM

The Daoist understanding of human destiny is also very attractive because it proposes that a human person has an immense capability to achieve freedom and immortality by returning to the dao. It also holds a social vision of equality and benefiting others without display or accounting the cost. It is the Daoists who first cultivated the ‘fasting of the heart’ as the typical apophatic contemplation of East Asia. Daoist rituals and inner alchemy which have been developed through the centuries carry a clear cosmic vision that humans are intimately tied with the wellbeing of the entire cosmos because everything is originated from the primary energy (qi) of the dao. While grand rituals are celebrated a few times of the year during the festivals and inner alchemy is practiced and preserved hidden as a sacred private transformation of one’s body, the daily prayers of Daoist morning and evening services exhibit the primary intentions and aspirations of the Daoist masters in a public transparent way. This is the reason why I was attracted to look at their contemporary official prayer book carefully, so that I may grasp their vision and spirituality.

During the summer of 2001 I visited the White Cloud Monastery (Baiyunguan, ) in Beijing, China, the center of the Order of Complete Perfection (Quanzhenjiao, ) where we attended their morning service (gongke) which was about forty minutes in duration. They proudly presented us a few copies of their prayer book, newly printed in January 2000 at Baiyunguan Monastery. Since I could follow their prayers very closely, not only did I understood the general meaning of their service, my heart was also moved by the fact that the Daoist masters are praying everyday for all those who are sick, troubled, and alienated. Actually the scope of their prayers is wide enough to embrace the whole of humanity and the (entire) universe. While listening to the initially slow chanting accompanied with various bronze and wooden gongs which sounded faster as their prayers progressed, one word that came to my mind was the ‘Mother of the Myriad Creatures’ in the Lao Tzu. I was not surprised when I found out that according to their pure rule (qing gu, ) the absence from daily morning and evening prayer service is the first article to receive the punishment of kneeling while one incense stick is consumed completely.2 Fortunately during the same research tour I was able to attend again the Daoist morning and evening services in the Heavenly Master Cave Monastery (Tianshidong, ) in the Blue Castle Mountain (Qingchengshan, ) of Sichuan province. Using to the ritual prayer book that I received as a gift at Baiyunguan I followed their evening and early morning services, which lasted

2 Hua Yi, ‘Daost precepts and pure rule’, in: Daojiao yu chuantong wenhua (Daoism and Traditional Culture), Beijing 1992, 328. Other violations which receive are disrespect during the liturgy and those who fight each other. STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES 57 about a half-hour each. When the women Daoist masters at Tianshidong saw my long yellow book, the one published at Baiyunguan, they confirmed with me that they are using the same prayer book. They also told me that the Complete Perfection Order ( ) throughout China is using the same text. However, when I had another two weeks research tour during the summer of 2002, I found out that the Daoist masters in Changsha, Honan province, were using a slightly different version of the prayer book from that of the White Cloud Monastery. A Daoist master, Ma Yongqi ( ), who represents the Daoist Association in that area told me that the Daoist masters in the south are using the text printed in Wudangshan ( ) monastery.3 He was very helpful in presenting to me the version they are using and pointing out a few differences between the two texts. Later, when I compared the two texts carefully, there were some variations of words and a few additions in the southern version in the category of the baogao ( ) of the immortals, such as the Warning of the True Valiant One ( ) and the Warning of the Holy Emperor of the South Moun- tain ( ). It seems to me that it is in the area of the Warnings of the Immortals where the regional legend and cultural differences can enter in the gongke tradition of the Daoist masters of the Quanzhen Order. I will discuss this further when I analyze the structure of the Daoist morning and evening gongke.

The immediate reasons that I decided to study the gongke of the Quanzhen Order are threefold. First of all, it is the officially recognized prayer book which is accepted and used daily by the largest Daoist Order which accounts for about 80 percent of the total of Daoist masters.4 In other words, if we comprehend the content of this prayer book and its aspirations, we can grasp the core of the Daoist spirituality prevalent today. In the preface of the Baiyunguan text it is clearly stated that the gongke is the door through which one enters the world of the dao; the direct path to become an immortal, and the very steps by which one ascends to the world of the immortals. Secondly, it exhibits the self-identity of the Quanzhen Daoist masters who emphasized from the founding period both

3 Cao Benye & Puting Qiang, Wu dangshan daojiao yinyue yanjiu (Studies on the Daoist Music of Wudangshan), Taibei 1993. The authors say that they have seen two versions of the Quanzhen Gongke. One was printed in Baiyunguan, Beijing ( , 1987) and the other Taishang Quanzhen Gonke ( ) without a printing place (p. 31). The lat- ter might have been a southern version. Also it is in Mudangshan monastry where True Valiant One ( ) is honored especially. The South Mountain ( ) is where the legendary foundress Lady Wei ( ) of the Sangqing Sect which flourished in the south resides as an immortal. 4 Wang Xiping & Chen Fayong, Chong yang gong yu quanzhendao (Chongyang Monastry and Complete Perfection Order), Shanxi 1999, 206-208. The authors report that the Quanzhen monastries occupied two thirds of all Daoist temples in 1985 and that 88 were the Quanzhen masters out of 111 representatives gathered for the fifth Daoist Congress of 1992 in Beijing. 58 SUNG-HAE KIM interior cultivation and external works for people. Also, they daringly tried to synthesize the best teachings of the three religions: Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. In this tiny prayer book of some 70 pages their main insights and unique synthesis of the Quanzhen Order are summarized very well. Thirdly, this Morning and Evening Prayer Book contains the whole history of Daoism as the reservoir of ancient Chinese popular culture and its mythic imagery in a nutshell. It uses the age old images of ‘nine heavens’, ‘nine headed lion’, ‘five colored cloud’, ‘sweet dew of the Western Mother’, etc., which we first encountered in the Songs of the South, and the Classics of Mountains and Oceans in the War- ring States Period. Not only these ancient images, but the important cultivation methods of the Supreme Purity Sect (Shangqing pai ) and the ritual sym- bols of the Heavenly Master Sect (Zhengyi pai ) are incorporated and interpreted within their synthentic vision. The history of the formation of this Quanzhen gongke is not found even in the official commentary published by the Chinese Daoist Academy in October, 2000.5 However, one can draw a general sketch about how the Daoist tradition of petitions and prayers of repentance has grown gradually from the initial hand- written letters to heaven, earth, and water ( ) of the Heavenly Master Sect (Tianshi dao, ) in the second century.6 During the Six Dynasties the Daoist ritual practices were formulated with a Buddhist influence,7 and through the visualization of meditation on the inner deities by the Shangqing masters have developed as the path of returning to the dao. It is generally recognized that it is during the Tang dynasty that the Daoist gongke had started, incorporating both Confucian sacrificial rites with music and regular Buddhist chanting, which was established already during the Six Dynasties. The Daoist master Du Guang- ting edited a ritual text which was chanted three times a day: in the morning, during the day, and in the evening.8 It is Du Guangting who was also widely

5 Xuanmen risong zaowan gongkejingzhu (Commentary to the Mysterious Gate Daily Morning and Evening Services), Beijing 2000. The general editor, Min Zhiting, wrote one page explanation how this commentary of 267 pages is written. The seven Quanzhen masters wrote different parts of the commentary and state clearly that it is not meant as a conclusive commentary, but needs to be complemented through further study. This commentary was a great help for this study, for I could gain the insiders’ point of view. 6 Zheng Suchun, Daojiao xinyang, shenxian yu yishi (Daoist Faith, the Immortals and Rituals), Taibei 2002, 253. 7 Daojiao yu chuantong wonhua, 327. The author states that the Daoist rules of life are not derived from the Buddhist rules, but came from ancient Chinese fasting regulation before the sacrifices. He emphasizes that the Daoist only imitated some of articles and formal structure from Buddhism. The Buddhist morning and evening rites contain purification chanting, recitation of sutras summarized, confessions and petitions to the Bodhisattvas. The formal structures between the Buddhist morning and evening chanting and the Daoist ones are similar. 8 Wu dangshan daojiao yinyue yanjiu, 29. STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES 59 known for the writing of the memorial literature to the Daoist deities (qingci, ), which, I think, is closely related with Daoist gongke.9

THE ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES

In order to manifest the implied meaning and significance of the daily services of the Quanzhen Order, first I will analyze the basic structure of the morning and evening services. Then I will point out the fundamental commonality and some interesting differences between the morning and evening rites which indi- cate a slight distinction of their function in the life of the monastery.

Morning gongke Evening gongke a. Preparation The ascent to the immortal world The ascent to the immortal world by ‘walking in the void’ (buxu) by ‘walking in the void’ and request and purifying of mind, mouth, the Heavenly Worthy of Deliver- body, heaven and earth. Incense ance from Suffering for the sake to the Heavenly Worthy of Purity of all the suffering lonely souls. and Stillness. b. Recitation of Chanting four canonical writings Three canonical writings by the canons given by the Three Pure Ones Three Pure Ones with an emphasis (sanqing) to cultivate the purity on delivering the dead from the of heart and life energy, i.e. the hell and driving away the evil core of inner practice. energy from the body. c. Warnings (baogao) Twelve precious warnings of, Eleven precious warnings of, and hymns to the immortals, and hymns to the immortals who the Three Pure Ones, the Stars, are the mother of the dipper, Yin and yang, and the founders heaven-earth-water, north star, of the Quanzhen Order. the deliverer of the dead. d. Petitions The repentance of sins which Qiu Twelve petitions and ten prayers Changchun made for disciples, for good weather, elimination of and 21 or 12 petitions which all famines, and that all their conclude with a wish to become merits will be transferred to the the immortals. four seas. e. Closing Finish the morning service, chan- Finish the evening service, chanting ting ‘taking refuge in the Three ‘taking refuge in the Three Pure Pure Ones’ as the Dao, Canon, Ones’ and offering the concluding and the Teacher. Some addditional prayers which ask refuge and prayers for long life follow. deliverance for the suffering. A few additional prayers for ancestors and lonely souls.

9 Zhang Zehong, Bu gang ta dou: daojiao jiliyidian (Waking to the North Star Stepping the Dipper: The Daoist Liturgical Ritual), Sichuan 1994, 173-195. Petitions were beginning to 60 SUNG-HAE KIM

If we compare the above five items, it is clear that the general sequence of the morning and evening services are the same, but the central focus is different. While the morning prayers are for the living, the evening prayers are mainly for the dead. Therefore, everyday the Daoist masters of Quanzhen monastery pray for the well-being of all living and dead men and women, animals, plants, and the forests.10 Another point that we can observe is that even though morning and evening services are entities in themselves, they are continuous and make a whole together. In the morning the Daoist masters read the purification incantation (zhu, ) for their mind, the mouth, the entire body, the land and the entire universe. Then they read the first canon, the Canon of Purity and Stillness ( ) which is believed to have been delivered by the founder of Daodism, Laozi.11 The author of this canon is not known, but it contains the teachings of Laozi chapters 1 and 25 that ‘It is capable of being the mother of the world, but I don’t know its name so I style it “the Way”’. The idea of Laozi chapters 38 and 81 ‘a person of the highest virtue does not keep the virtue’ and ‘the way of the sage does not con- tend’ forms the central theme of this canon. Since it teaches how purity and stillness gradually introduce a person into the path of true dao, this canon occupies the central position in the morning service. Of course purity of mind and stillness of physical energy have been the central word for Quanzhen masters from the founding period in the twelfth century. By reciting this canon, therefore, both body and mind become transparent and the immortals come to protect the praying person so that s/he can be united with the dao in truthfulness. If the canons of the morning service focus on self-cultivation ( or ) of the Daoist masters in its dual dimensions of spiritual ( ) and physical practices ( ), the canons of the evening services center around outside practices ( or ), delivering all suffering people and the lonely dead souls. In the third canon of the evening service Laozi as the incarnation of the dao spreads out the light of primary energy whereby the true nature of heaven and hell is exhibited. Even though it is because of their own sins that they suffer in hell, Laozi has pity on them and provided this canon for them. The canon is like a boat of mercy in the ocean of life and death. The popular character of the evening service is fully demonstrated when we see the character of the immortals whose lives are narrated. First, the Mother of the Dipper delivers all the sentient beings

be called as qingci from Tang dynasty. Even though both are prayers and hymns to the dao and Daoist immortals, qingci is read during the Chiao (Grand Renewal) ritual, while gongke is daily prayers. 10 The Evening prayer of Quanzhen Gongke, Baiyunguan edition, 50-51; and the Commentary, 69-73. 11 The Commentary to Gongke, 42. STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES 61 from hardship; the North Star causes all the evil powers to surrender; the popular immortal Lu Dongbin ( ) drives away all the ghosts with his sword; the deity of thunder ( / ) brings down the rain and heals the sick with medicine.

In a word, the morning service takes care of inner cultivation, while the evening service concentrates on the works of mercy as the outreaching works of the Quanzhen masters. The daily services, therefore, summarize and represent the entire cultivation and orientation of the Quanzhen Order. The Daoist masters, both men and women, chant their morning liturgy in common as a symbol of their life as pilgrims who continuously ascend to the world of the immortals. After spending the whole day for the people, they come together to chant their evening service to transfer all their merits for the suffering people, both living and dead.

INCORPORATION OF THREE RELIGIONS AND SYNTHESIS OF DAOIST SPIRITUAL TRADITION

Wang Chongyang, the founder of the Quanzhen Order, stated clearly that his teaching incorporated the good points of the Three Religions. He encouraged his followers to read not only the Daodejing and the Qingjingjing but the Bud- dhist Prajnaparamita Sutra and the Confucian Book of Filial Piety (Xiaojing, ) as well. Therefore, it is natural to find various elements of the Three Reli- gions in this official prayer book of the Quanzhen Order. From Buddhism many technical terms were borrowed and used without any explanation, such as transmigration ( ), moksa from transmigration ( ), the five aggregates ( ), the six roots ( ), the eight layers of consciousness ( ), the 180 sufferings ( ), and the transference of merits ( ).12 The importance of the thunder deity who is invoked both in the morning service (12th baogao) and in the evening service (9th baogao), may have originated from Buddhism. The Hindu thunder deity, Indra, was very popular as the guardian against the evil powers and for taking down the barriers in the way. Within Buddhist circles, Indra was thought of as the highest Heavenly Emperor ( ) who watches over all the transmigrat- ing world and thus was identified with the Heavenly Emperor ( ) in East Asian Buddhism. In the Daoist gongke, the thunder deity ( ) is regarded to be stationed at the top of the ninth heaven by the command of the Three Pure Ones. His duty is to conquer all the evil spirits. Thus the thunder deity is well incorporated within the Daoist spiritual hierarchy.

12 Gongke, Baiyunguan edition, Morning services, 27, 48, 56, 65, 66, 67, 90; Evening services, 17, 19, 80, etc. 62 SUNG-HAE KIM

Both the Daoist morning and evening services finish with a threefold chanting: ‘taking refuge in the Three Pure Ones’ whose representations are the Dao, the Canon, and the Teacher. According to the Buddhist ritual text the Buddhist Sangha (monastic community) completes their morning and evening rituals ( ) with the formula of ‘taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha’ repeating it three times. The fact that both the Quanzhen daily gongke and Buddhist daily rituals are concluded by the similar formula of taking refuge in the Three Pure Ones or the Three Jewels cannot be accidental. Not only that the founder of Quanzhen Order made it a policy to combine the teachings from the three religions, but also his adoption of the celibate life style for the Quanzhen Masters itself probably was inspired by Buddhist counterparts. Once the celibate form of life and the consequential community way of living in the Daoist monastery was accepted, the daily communal services became indis- pensable. The daily communal services are a symbol of their cultivation, while the inner alchemy (neidan, ) remains a private, hidden cultivation, even though its importance is bigger because it causes the transformation of the human body into that of immortals. Whenever I asked about their neidan practice of the Daoist Masters, their answer was always same. ‘It is done privately under the direc- tion of a teacher’. Another Buddhist influence strongly felt in the evening service of the Quan- zhen Order are two interesting figures: One is the immortal who delivers the suffering souls from hell and the other is the Lady Immortal, the Mother of the Dipper. The name of the first immortal in the Baiyunguan text is ‘the Great One, the Heavenly Worthy who is Deliverer of the Suffering’ ( ); in the Wudangshan text the name of his baogao is ‘the warning of Blue-Green Flower’ ( ), the immortal who presides over the east and symbolizes the life of Spring. This immortal acquired an immense capacity of mercy which is comparable to the Buddhist boddhisattva Dizang ( ). He is said to have vowed to deliver all the suffering dead and so his manifold appearances revive even dried up bones.13 The Mother of the Dipper is also comparable to the Buddhist Mother of the Seven million Buddhas, Zhunti ( ) Boddhisattva who takes away all sins. Chinese Buddhism and Daoism responded to the popular desires of people within their own systems. The Confucian elements in the Daoist morning and evening services are less conspicuous than the Buddhist ones. The Daoist masters’ concern for those who suffer and for the dead is generally inclusive, but there is just a special feeling of care for the well-being of ancestors. The eleventh baogao of the evening service is the ‘paying back the benefits’ ( ). Here the Daoist masters’ petition that the living parents may enjoy blessing and a long life and that ancestors may

13 Gongke, Baiyunguan edition, Evening Services, 45; and the Commentary, 254. STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES 63 attain quickly the immortal world. It is not unique in the Quanzhen Order, for it is already stated repeatedly in the Shangqing canons such as Tadongzhenjing (The Book of Great Profundity, ) of the Six Dynasties that if one reads the canon ten thousands times, seven generations of ancestors will be delivered from hell. Just like the Buddhist monks and nuns have done already, the Daoist masters reaffirmed that the cultivation of a celibate lifestyle itself is the best form of filial piety.14

It is most natural that the official prayer book of the Quanzhen Order, the last biggest reformed branch of Daoism, succeeds and synthesizes the whole history of the Daoist spiritual tradition. Chang Daoling is recognized as the ancestorial heavenly master ( ),15 and Ge Xuan ( ) and Xinyinjing ( ) of the Lingbao Sect occupy a notable position in the fourth canon of the morning service.16 The notion of the mouth-deity ( ), the tongue-deity ( ), the teeth-deity ( ) and the Nine True ones ( ) etc., and the visualizing meditation on these inner deities as the primary energy of the dao in the human body which is highly developed in the Shangqing Sect, is incorporated as a part of neidan. The climax of this visualizing meditation, the ‘return of the whirlwind’ ( ), is interpreted as the completion of minggong ().17 The concept of ma ( ) as the tempter or the barrier on the way of the immortal is also carried over from the Shangqing Sect.18 The popular Daoist ethic which is represented in the Treatise on Response and Retribution (Taishang Ganyingpian, ) can be found in various parts of the morning and evening gongke.19 The importance of the founder and his seven disciples, called the ‘Seven Perfect Ones’ ( ), can be easily observed by the ‘Precious Warnings of the Seven Perfect Ones’ in the morning service and the short biographies presented at the end of the evening gongke.20 The Northern Five ancestors ( ) and the Southern Five Ancestors ( ) are not forgotten,

14 Gongke, Evening Service, 11; and the Commentary, 260. About petitions for ancestors, refer Evening Service, 49. 15 The ‘Baogao of Chang Daoling’ was not included in Zhou Gaode’s Daojiao wenhua yu shenghuo (Daoist Culture and Life), Beijing 1999, 83. The author mentions only nine baogao without that of Chang Daoling and Wenchang, the popular deity of culture, in 1999. This means that the inclusion of the ‘Baogao of Chang Daoling’ is quite recent as Quanzhen Order is beginning to encompass the representative role of Zhengyi Sect as well. 16 Gongke, Baiyunguan edition, Morning service, 21. 17 The Commentary to Gongke (p. 87) states that this canon shows the cultivation method of minggong (). 18 Gongke, Baiyunguan editon, Morning service, 3, 36; and the Commentary, 87. 19 Gongke, Baiyunguan editon, Morning service, 65-66. 20 Gongke, Baiyunguan edition, 76-89. 64 SUNG-HAE KIM allotting a separate baogao to each category in the morning service. Qiu Chang- chun ( ), however, occupies a special place in the Quanzhen prayer book as the teacher of neidan par excellence in the evening service and as the author of the confessions which begin ‘we repent’: We went against the wish of our parents and insulted them. We wrongly betrayed our leaders and teachers. We were disrespectful to Heaven, Earth and the Spirits. We blamed the wind and railed at the rain. We did not believe in sin, blessing and retribution. We clouded the right principle and deceived the mind. […] And so realizing that we are sinking into sufferings, we aspire for a clear pure heart. We return to the holy True Ones and following them we especially beg to repent.21 The sins listed here are moral ones, such as avarice, jealousy, cursing, murder, sexual misconduct, violence toward parents and superiors as well as religious ones through a lack of respect towards heaven and earth and the immortals, cursing or laughing at the wind and rain, etc. It is interesting that the ‘Edited Sayings of the Danyang Perfect One’ ( ) reports that the founder Wang Chongyang angered his disciples on a few occasions. Once a disciple said that they were not willing to go to their own villages to beg. When Wang Chongyang realized that the disciple was still too proud to beg, he angered him quite hard during the night that he even thought about leaving him. On another occasion a disciple picked up a sales contract that had dropped on the road off of a donkey. When the teacher found this out, he was angry at his young disciple who still did not give up the desire for worldly treasure and beat his face many times.22 This kind of occasions may have caused Qiu Changchun to com- pose a confessional list for repentance. But this fact cannot be confirmed and the commentary on the prayer book explains that Qiu wrote this in order to warn his disciples. Another list that we should observe are the twenty-one petitions and twelve further petitions of the morning service, and the list of ten petitions in the evening service. These formal petitions exhibit general wishes and intentions towards life of the Daoist masters. We see the forerunner of these petitions in the memorial (qingci, ) of the Grand Renewal (Chiao, ) ritual of traditional Daoism.23 Just like the qingci summarized the intention of the ritual in a

21 Gonke, Baiyunguan edition, Morning service, 66-67. Some phrases are found exactly the same in Treatise on response and retribution by Laozi (trans. D.T. Suzuki & Paul Carus), La Salle 1950, 60. 22 The Saying of Danyang zhenren yulu (Danyang Perfect Person), in: Zhang Masters (Ed.), Ortho- dox Daoist scriptures, Shanghai 1923-1926, book 40, fasc. 12-13 (orig. publ. 1445). 23 Kristofer Schipper, ‘Vernacular and classical ritual in Taoism’, in: Journal of Asian Studies 45 (1985) no.1, 31, 46-48. STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES 65 form of memorial to the heavenly worthies, these lists of petitions directly show what the Daoist masters were asking through their daily prayers in common. The petitions begin with the prayer for peace and prosperity for society in general and proceed to the well-being of all living beings – including animals, insects, the forests, and the lonely, dead souls of men and women. The petitions end with a wish for even distribution of benefits and that they may attain the dao through a listening to the canons and ascend to the world of the immortals.24 We may say that this is the Daoist soteriology with its unique vision of wellbeing as equality, freedom, and eternal life.

In these Daoist morning and evening services, the unity of the Daoist masters with the dao is symbolized in their initial prayer melody called buxuyun (), which accompanies the ‘walking in the void’ ( ). This performance is the well known final performance of the Zhengyi ( ) of Daoist masters during their few-days-long ritual of renewal of the primary energy.25 This performance of the ritual by walking around the main altar as if the chief priest is walking up to the heaven through the empty cloud of the dipper, is the final act show- ing the unity of the master with the dao. Interestingly enough, the Quanzhen masters chant this ‘walking in the void’ in the beginning of the morning and evening services. They do not perform it, but just chant slowly along with the melody named after this ritual. It seems to me that the Quanzhen masters start with the culminating ritual of the Zhengyi sect by presenting themselves imme- diately to the world of the immortals by the purifying invocations of their bod- ies and the whole universe. It is the heavenly power of the canons and the warning speeches of the immortals by which they communicate with the spiritual world for the sake of the entire humanity and universe. One can feel a solemn dignity in the Quanzhen Morning and Evening Services.

REINTERPRETATION OF ANCIENT CHINESE MYTHIC IMAGES

The Quanzhen morning and evening prayers contain many colorful images such as the Five Colored Clouds, the Nine Headed Lion who sits beside the immortal and delivers a precious speech, the Nine Layers of Heavens, and the Mother of the Western Kingdom ( ). These imageries have a long history from the

24 Gongke, Baiyunguan edition, Morning service, 69-73. 25 Michael Saso, The teaching of Taoist master Chuang, New Haven 1978, 223; Isabelle Robinet, Taoist meditation: The Mao-Shan tradition of Great Purity (trans. N.J. Girardot), Albany 1993, 31. Robinet explains the efficacy of recitation of the canon and that of sound which is charge with power; Cao Benye & Puting Qiang (Wudangshan daojiao yinyu yanjiu, Taibei 1993, 234- 235) illustrate the history of walking in the void melody. 66 SUNG-HAE KIM

Classic of Mountains and Oceans ( ) and the Songs of the South in the War- ring States period. The commentary to the prayer book acknowledges this fact, stating that in the Classic of Mountains and Oceans ‘there is a god who has nine heads, a human face, and the body a bird, and his name is called the ninth phoenix’.26 It is the Classics of Mountains and Oceans where the gods of the mountains are pictured mysteriously with various combinations of human and animal forms. The highest God ( ), even though devoid of any particu- lar form, had his city here below on the mountain of Kunlun with nine layers of boundaries. Both the heavens and the nether worlds were divided into nine layers and ordinary people could not approach those places because each gate was guarded by fierce animals. In a word, the number nine was a symbol of mystery and perfection that one could not reach without a special command from heaven.

It is in the Songs of the South, the oldest ritual songs of the shaman in East Asia, where is recorded the ‘Nine Songs’ ( ), that the Great One ( ) whose ritual temple was located in the east, not only receives the sacrifices from the hands of the shaman, but also orders the shaman to find the wandering souls of the dead by the ritual of ‘Calling Back the Soul’ ( ). Actually, both the ‘Nine Songs’ and the ‘Calling Back of the Soul’ are meant to give peace and security to the dead souls of the country whether killed during the war or in periods of unrest or by a grudge. Definitely there is a continuation of the theme from these ancient ritual songs and the Quanzhen morning and evening chanting, but one can observe that there is also a clear development in the notion that it is the Daoist masters themselves who grace these dead souls by their inner and outer cultivations. Actually the recitation of morning and evening services themselves is con- ceived as an effective way of deliverance. There is an intriguing combination of self-power ( ) and other-power ( ) in this area of deliverance. In a way the Daoist masters’ prayer to the Three Pure Ones and other immortals for the deliverance of the dead souls causes the deliverance, but at the same time it is themselves who deliver the entire universe by their cultivation of the primary energy.27 I think that it is an attraction contained in Daoism that it always keeps a tension between the personal and transpersonal concepts of the dao; its manifold manifestations as personal deities/immortals and the nameless void coexist as a

26 The Commentary to Gongke, 153. The Commentator adds that this is the name of the seat of the thunder deity. 27 The effect of reciting the canon of Purity and Stillness is illustrated as the immortals come to protect and all diseasters disappear while both body and mind are so spiritualized that one becomes one with the dao and ascends to heaven (Gongke, Morning service, 23-24). At the same time in the evening service where the inner visualization meditation is portrayed, the commentary states that deliverance actually happens by one’s own effort (p. 191). STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES 67 creative tension between self-deliverance and salvation by grace. Dancing through the two areas without sticking into one probably possesses the key to the truth of deliverance.

CONCLUSION

I have attempted to show the basic structure of the daily services of the Quan- zhen Order which possesses the majority of contemporary Daoist masters. This structure as a whole shows the primary canons which are daily recited, and historical figures in Chinese Daoist history who are remembered as the models and spiritual masters for the present generation. Even though they consciously try to encompass the total history of Daoism, there is no doubt that it is the seven disciples of Wang Chongyang and especially Qiu Changchun who are dearest to the present Quanzhen Masters. When I heard their morning service for the first time at Baiyunguan, Beijing, in the summer of 2001, it was chanted in the shrine-hall of the Seven Perfect Ones.28 The fact that their short biographies are printed at the back of their daily prayer book does say that in fact, every Daoist master of Quanzhen Order aspires to become like them through inner and outer cultivation. After two hours’ interview, when I asked a Daoist master of the Quanzhen Order, Ma Yongqi, ‘Do you want to be an immortal ( )?’ he answered without hesitation, ‘Yes, of course!’ and I felt that I had asked an unnecessary question, because it was so obvious. But as a scholar who is not within that tradition, I wanted to confirm what I have read in the books. In the beginning of the Daoist Masters’ morning and evening services, they walk right into the world of the immortals through the chanting of the ‘walking in the void’. Then the Quanzhen Daoist Masters hear the holy teachings of the Three Pure Ones and reflect on the holy lives of the immortals who have gone through human life as they are doing now. After hearing the canons and the reflections on the immortals, the Daoist masters arise to praise their worthy cultivations and determine to follow in their footsteps. The Daoist Masters’ cultivations, however, include not only themselves, but all living beings, both the living and the dead. The influence of other religions, especially that of Buddhism, is obvious and also recognized by Quanzhen’s theory of the unity of the three religions. It seems

28 Yoshitoyo Yoshioka wrote that it was in the shrine-Hall of Seven Perfect Ones that he heard the morning service at Baiyunguan at 6:30 a.m. in the year of 1940. The Daoist canons he mentioned for gongke are the same as in the version printed in 2000. See ‘Taoist monastic life’, in: Holmes H. Welch & Anna K. Seidel (Eds.), Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese religion, New Haven 1979, 229-252, esp. 244. 68 SUNG-HAE KIM to me, however, that Buddhist influence on the Daoist daily morning and evening services is more formal and on the level of spiritual inspiration as we have seen in the case of ‘taking refuge to the Three Pure Ones’ and enforcing the delivering capacity of the immortal who delivers all the suffering dead from hell. In the Quanzhen Daoist Masters’ core aspirations and dual paths of cultivation, they follow Wang Chongyang and the Seven Perfect Ones. Of course one can argue that in their cultivation of nature ( ) Buddhist influence is great, but even in it the Daoist thinkers are indebted in their theorization more than in actual practice.29 In the matter of the practice of spiritual cultivation the Chan Buddhists were formerly indebted to the Daoist ‘fasting of mind’ ( ) and ‘sitting in forgetfulness’ ( ) as portrayed in the inner chapters of Zhuangzi. In other words, there has been a mutual learning and a giving of inspiration in the area of spiritual cultivation between the followers of Buddhism and Daoism in China. The relationship between the Quanzhen Daoists and the Confucians are more subtle and interpenetrating because they shared common cultural values such as filial piety toward their ancestors, even though the Daoists preserved more of the ancient popular culture with its mythic images and a wide open concern for the entire universe and the lonely dead souls without blood ties. Finally, I would like to point out that the Daoist morning and evening services are official symbolic acts of cultivation, implying both inner and outer dimensions which the Quanzhen founders emphasized so clearly. We have seen how the morning prayers signify the inner cultivation ( ) of the Daoist masters themselves, while the evening prayers are directed for the outer cultivation ( ) by delivering all the suffering beings from their agony. Through their daily petitions the Daoist masters embrace the whole world and bless it for its peace and well-being. They want to ascend to the immortal world of the dao with the entire universe. Through their common ritual prayer, the Quanzhen Daoist Masters manifest what they individually practice in a hidden way with a direc- tion of a teacher their unique neidan ().

SUMMARY

This is a study on the daily prayers of the Daoist Masters of Quanzhen Order who occupies 80 percent of all the Daoist Masters of contemporary China. I attempted to grasp their world view and their concept of salvation through the analysis of this official

29 Chang Guangbao ( ) stated that various schools derived from the Seven True Ones exhibit different degrees of Buddhist influence, but the schools who kept their identity seem to survive. (, Studies on inner alchemy and theories of the nature of mind, Beijing 1995, 80, 120). STUDIES ON DAOIST MORNING AND EVENING SERVICES 69 liturgical prayers which they recite together twice a day. First I compared the structural commonality and differences in content between the morning and evening services and thereby pointed out that their functions are different, even though two parts are con- nected and together form a whole. The morning service focuses on the inner cultivation of the Daoist Masters themselves, while the evening service concentrates on their acts of mercy for the sick, lonely, and suffering people and natural word as a whole. These two dimensions of the inner and outer cultivation constitute the integral unity that the Quanzhen Order emphasized from its founding period in the 12th century. We can also observe their famous theory of the unity of three religions, Confucian- ism, Buddhism and Daoism, and how the total history of Daoism is summarized in this official liturgical prayers as well as the Chinese ancient mythical images are melted in them. Finally, it is a good material to grasp the characteristics of Daoist mysticism from the comparative perspective of religious studies.

Sung-Hae Kim is professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Sogang Jesuit University, Seoul, Korea, and director of Seton Interreligious Dialogue Research Center. She also is mem- ber of the Korean Province of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Address: Seton Interreligious Research Center, 120-2 Songbuk-Dong, 1 Ga, Song Buk Ku, Seoul 136-875, South Korea. E-mail: [email protected].