TALES OF THE WATER GOD IN THE WATER GOD TEMPLE OF GUANGSHENG MONASTERY: FOLK RELIGION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE PREMODERN CHINESE POLITICAL TRADITION A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ASIAN STUDIES MAY 2020 By Xinli Zhang Thesis Committee Cathryn H. Clayton, Chairperson Edward L. Davis Kate Lingley Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to thank all of my committee members including Prof Cathryn Clayton, Prof Edward Davis, and Prof Kate Lingley. I would also like to thank Mr. Starr and his foundation and the Asian Studies Program, which granted me enough funding to do fieldwork in China in winter 2018 and summer 2019. During the fieldwork, I visited all the places mentioned in this paper and collected enough evidence to support my research and argument. In addition, I would like to thank my family. They accompanied me and drove me across the whole province of Shanxi, on rugged and bumpy roads, to find these hidden temples located on remote mountainsides. I would also like to thank my friend Yufei Ye, who drove me and acted as a guide on my visit to Fujian province. Last but not least, my girlfriend Rui helped me a lot and gave me the emotional and psychological support I need to be able to finish this paper on time. In this paper, I have a two-track argument. One track presents a new hypothesis on the identity of the Water God of Guangsheng Monastery. However, as I mentioned in the paper, there is no direct evidence to prove this identity; my argument is largely conjecture. The second and more substantiated argument concerns the relationship between Chinese political tradition, religion, and social justice. The hypothesis of Water God’s identity was a clue that pointed me in the direction of this argument but is not direct evidence to support it. In fact, the reason why local people forgot the identity of Water God is what serves as evidence for the second track of my argument. 1 Abstract: This paper focuses on a Yuan dynasty Water God Temple in Hongtong County, Shanxi Province, China and hopes using this temple to research the special relation between Chinese political tradition, folk religion, and social justice. This paper used two argument tracks. The first argument track is focusing on the identity of Water God himself. The second but core argument track is to discuss the relation between Chinese political tradition, folk religion, and social justice. The first argument is not the evidence but a very important clue to finish the main argument. In conclude, both political authority and local communities were using folk religion as tool to search their benefits and remain social justice. The benefit for authority is the stability but the benefit for local communities is water, the resource. In the end, a Water God from folk religion became the symbol of social justice. Keywords Water God Temple, Ming Ying Wang, Guangsheng Monastery, Chinese Political Tradition, Folk Religion, Social Justice 2 Introduction The Water God Temple of the Guangsheng Monastery (广胜寺水神庙) (Table 1) is in Hongtong County (洪洞县), Shanxi province (山西省), in the lower Fen River valley (Fig.1). Its location is 17 kilometers to the northeast of today’s Hongtong city. The temple sits on the north bank of the Huo Springs (霍泉), facing the Huo Canal (霍渠). To the east of temple is the Mount Huo (霍山). On top of the mountain lies the Upper Guangsheng Monastery (广胜寺上寺). Today, the Water God Temple is referred to as the Lower Guangsheng Monastery (广胜寺下寺). Its principal hall is dedicated to Ming Ying Wang, or King of Luminous Response (明应王), also known as the Water God, and its four walls are adorned with some of the most beautiful Yuan-dynasty religious frescos extant in China (Table 2). Despite the fame of these frescos, only the southeastern portion of the murals has been examined in any detail, and scholarly discussion of the frescos on the other three walls is limited. The mural on the southeastern wall is a very important resource for research into Chinese theater. There have been four attempts to explain the temple murals, but only two of these focus on all four walls. In a paper published in 1981, Chai Zejun and Zhu Xiyuan divide the murals into thirteen units or separate compositions (tu 图).1 They emphasize the realism of these compositions, which describe different historical scenes from life in the Yuan dynasty. But scholars have totally ignored the religious context and significance of these paintings, and the main theme linking all these paintings has gone unnoticed. Although Chai and Zhu assign names to each of their thirteen ‘compositions,’ 1 Chai Zejun and Zhu Xiyuan, “Guangshengsi Bihua Chutan 广胜寺壁画初探.” 3 these titles do not correspond to the content or meaning of the paintings. For example, they call the painting on the southwest wall “The Thousand-Mile Journey of Tang Taizong” (Tang Taizong Qianli Xingjing Tu 唐太宗千里行径图), but the scholar Liu Nianzi has concluded, “It is not certain if the painting depicts this story.”2 This legend will be discussed in the later part of this paper. Furthermore, Jing Anning provides additional evidence that the person in this painting is not the Tang emperor, noting that the person wears the costume of a low-level Yuan-style official.3 It is obvious that, to some degree, Chai and Zhu’s research is only conjectural, but it is an important initial hypothesis. Their papers, however, are very short, and do not provide enough evidence to support it. A second explanation of the murals may be found in a 1990 paper by Isobe Akira.4 He rejects the notion of multiple isolated compositions. He thinks the murals present a singular theme: ‘Liu Quan Presents Pumpkins’ (Liu Quan Jin Gua 刘全进瓜). This is also the name of a Yuan drama, the complete text of which has been lost.5 Although the play is no longer extant, Isobe Akira reconstructs the plot based on quotations and references in later sources, including a Qing period legend called Fishing Boat (Diaoyu 2 Liu, “Yuan Zaju Yanchu Xingshi De Jidian Chubu Kanfa 元杂剧演出的几点初步看法.” p.68 3 Jing, The Water God’s Temple of the Guangsheng Monastery: Cosmic Function of Art, Ritual and Theater, p.74. 4 Isobe, “Kosho Ji Myoo o Ten No Gendai Gikyoku Hekiga No Gadai Ni Tsuite.” 5 The story of Liuquan Presenting the Pumpkin is that when Emperor Taizong of the Tang was saved from Hell, he asked a volunteer to present a golden pumpkin to the King of Hell (Yan Wang,阎王) on his behalf, as a token of his appreciation. Low-ranking general Liu Quan, whose wife had committed suicide, offered himself to Taizong as an ambassador. When he arrived in hell, he presented the golden pumpkin to the King of Hell and also asked if his wife might return with him to the world of the living. The King of Hell approved his request, but his wife’s corpse had already rotted away, so a new body had to be found for her soul. Liu Quan asked Tang Taizong to allow him to borrow the corpse of the Yuying Princess (玉英公主) for his wife to inhabit. Taizong approved and let him marry the reborn Yuying Princess. The question remains, however, as to why the painters used this story to decorate the main hall of the Water God Temple. Isobe Akira finds no narrative or religious links between the Water God and the story of Liu Quan and his wife. 4 chuan 钓鱼船) and the twelfth chapter of the Journey to the West (Xiyou Ji 西游记), one of four famous novels of the Ming Dynasty.6 Although Isobe’s explanation is not strong enough to prove the relation between the Water God, Liu Quan and the Ming Ying Wang, the link between the murals and the stories in the Journey to the West is still a very important clue as to the theme and the meaning of the murals inside the Ming Ying Wang Hall. At present, the meaning of the murals inside the Ming Ying Wang Hall remains obscure. This paper will offer an interpretation of the murals, taking several clues from the paintings as potential evidence. Recorded information on the paintings or in texts is very limited, as is our understanding of the identity of the Ming Ying Wang himself. However, my analysis of the social and political context of the lower Fen River valley from the Tang through Yuan will suggest a new hypothesis concerning the identity of Ming Ying Wang: namely, that the King of Luminous Response, the Water God of the Lower Guangsheng Monastery, was first identified with the Tang Marshal Guo Ziyi (郭 子仪); then transferred to the Fenyang Guo clan, who were his descendants; then became a local immortal with power over water, and finally became the Water God with responsibility over water distribution and irrigation in Hongtong county. In the end, he became an omnipotent deity who controlled the everyday life of the local agricultural community. Anning Jing presents a comprehensive argument in his book, The Water God’s Temple of the Guangsheng Monastery: Cosmic Function of Art, Ritual and Theater. He 6 Isobe, p. 57. 5 tries to explain the Water God and his temple in terms of the Chinese cosmic system and how it was an instantiation of local religion and the visible patterns of art and theater. This paper will continue the discussion of the Chinese cosmic system, but will focus on the relation between religion and art.