Volume Five August 1994 Number One July 6, 1995

Home , Bao Jing, Bugang, Chiwen, Du Tao, Fundamental Destiny, Li Chunfeng

Dr. Suzanne Cahill University of California, San Diego Department of History, C-004 La Jolla, CA 92093

Dear Dr. Cahill:

We recently ran out of copies of Taoist Resources 5.2 in which your photographs were used. When I went to the file for our printer's originals to order reprints, I discovered that your photo originals were still in the file. Please accept my sincere apology for the delay in returning these to you. That issue was published right at the change over from one Editorial Assistant to another, and returning your photos simply got overlooked. Again, I am deeply sorry for the delay and hope that it has not created too many problems for you.

Sincerely,

Benita G. Brown Office Coordinator

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Stephen R. Bokenkamp East Asian Studies Center Memorial Hall West 207 Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405

Advisory Board Book Review Editor

Suzanne Cahill, University of California, Robert F. Campany San Diego Department of Religious Studies Ute Engelhardt, Munich University Sycamore Hall 205 Norman Girardot, Lehigh University Indiana University Donald Harper, University of Arizona Bloomington IN 47405 Terry Kleeman, University of Pennsylvania Isabelle Robinet, Universite de Provence Harold Roth, Brown University

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CONTENTS

From the Editor ...... Stephen R. BOKENKAMP

Talking to the Gods: Visionary Divination in Early Taoism (The Sanhuang Tradition) ...... Poul ANDERSEN 1

Po Ya Plays the Zither: Taoism and the Literati Ideal in Two Types of Chinese Bronze Mirrors in the Collection of Donald H. Graham...... Suzanne CAHILL 25

Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists: Conflict and Assimilation in Medieval Chinese Ritual Practice (c. A.D. 100-1000) ...... Peter NICKERSON 41

BOOK REVIEWS

Les grands traites du Huainan zi. Translated by Claude LARRE, Isabelle ROBINET, and Elisabeth ROCHAT de la VALLEE ...... John S. MAJOR 67

Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity. By Isabelle ROBINET. Translated by Julian F. PAS and Norman GIRARDOT ...... Thomas H. PETERSON 70

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Introduction to the Electronic Forum .... T. Matthew CIOLEK 73

Books Received ...... 75 From the Editor

This is the second in a three-part series of issues dedicated to the memory of two pioneers in the field of Taoist Studies, Professor Edward H. Schafer and Dr. Anna K. Seidel. In "Talking to the Gods," Poul Andersen continues his important work toward recovering the San-huang tradition, whose texts were classified in the third ofthe san-tung divisions of the Taoist canon. The San-huang texts predated those of the other two divisions, Shang-ch'ing and Ling-pao, but remain the corpus of scriptures about which we know the least. In this article, Andersen explores the notion of "visionary divination" and its techniques as found in one of the probable early scriptures of the tradition, the Charts ofthe Eight Archivists. Suzanne Cahill explores a topic that seems at first unlikely-the early expression of wen-jen ideals on Han-period bronze mirrors with Taoist themes. Yet on dated artifacts with otherwise strictly Taoist decoration, we find the image of the musician Po Ya and the listener who understood him perfectly, Chung Tzu-ch'i. These mark, Cahill argues, the earliest examples we have of a Taoist belief that appealed, in a manner similar to that of the later Shang-ch'ing texts, to cultivated members of the elite class. Against the prevailing scholarly opinion that Taoism has always defined itself not in opposition to Confucianism or Buddhism but to popular religion, Peter Nickerson argues in his contribution that there were indeed ways in which Taoism was forced to accommodate popular belief and practice. He explores here the shifting Taoist attitudes to medium ism and divination and ties this shift to fundamental changes in the social organization of the religion. These articles were, in an earlier form, presented at the Western Conference ofthe Association of Asian Studies held at the University of Arizona in 1992. I would like to thank the organizers of that conference, and particularly Donald Harper, for providing the impetus for this series of articles. In addition, thanks go out to the readers for their thoroughness and promptness, to the staff of the East Asian Studies Center for their willing assistance, and to Lara Idsinga Ingeman and Guo Aihua for bearing more of the burden than they should have to while I try to finish my tenure book.

Stephen R. BOKENKAMP Talking to the Gods: Visionary Divination in Early Taoism (The Sanhuang Tradition)

Pout ANDERSEN University of California-Berkeley

1. An Inventory of Taoist Divinatory Literature

In a meticulously documented survey of the divinatory literature contained in the Taoist Canon (Daozang), Marc Kalinowski divides his inventory of a total of fifty entries (representing forty-three texts or parts of texts) into three groups and nine categories. l The first group represents the category of metaphysical speculation derived from interpretations of the numbers and symbols of the Book ofChanges (Yijing), while the second group refers to the collections of divinatory poems connected with the practice ofdrawing "oracle slips" (lingqian ._) in Chinese temples. The all-dominant third group, constituted by the remaining seven categories, then represents the large variety oftechniques of "deductive divination," such as astrology, hemerology, and calendarology (for instance the dunjia jI Efl and liuren 1\ systems), that is, the forms of observational and computational divination, of which the author has made himself a leading authority in Western sinology. Though the bias of the inventory thus very clearly is toward the domain usually designated by Chinese bibliographers as "numbers [applied in] techniques" (shushu fIIij fMi), the author constantly emphasizes the complementarity of the forms of divination of this domain and various magical and propitiatory procedures, commonly included in the manuals describing the techniques of divinatory calculation. A case in point is the cult of the liuding T spirits (i.e., the female spirits of the six ding days) of which the dunjia system of divination is said to "constitute the formal artifice. ,,2 It should be mentioned, however, that the inventory takes very little notice of the characteristically Taoist type of divination which places itself in the border area between rite and computational technique, which I shall refer to in the following as "visionary divination." It is a type which usually refers to the basic elements of deductive divination, such as the eight trigrams, the stars of the Big Dipper, the celestial stems and terrestrial branches, etc., but which typically in a more direct way relates to the spiritual forces and personified forms of these elements, rather than involving them in various forms of calculation. The visionary type of divination is approached by Kalinowski only in a footnote referring to the Tianlao shenguang jing 7( ::t ~ J'(;@ (CT 866) (which is mentioned, however, as providing

. IMarc Kalinowski, "La litterature divinatoire dans Ie Daozang," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 5 (1989-1990):85-114. 2Ibid., 91-95. See also my own article, "The Practice of Bugang," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 5 (1989-1990):31-37.

Taoist Resources, 5.1 (1994) ANDERSEN 2 evidence for forms ofphysiognomy, not because ofthe technique ofvisionary divination described in the text) and in the final category of Miscellanies (Divers).3 The second of the two entries of this category refers tojuan 31 of the early Yuan dynasty ritual compendium, the Daofa huiyuan ~m" (CT 1220), which describes a method of divination based on the observation of lamps representing the stars of the Big Dipper. Various matters of fortune are decided according to the colour, luminosity, etc. of the lamps, notably the Lamp of Fundamental Destiny (Benming deng *1$' ~ of the person authorizing the performance, and the rite includes the inner transmission by the officiating priest of a "petition ofthe heart" (xinzhang 'L'~) to the Prefecture of the Dipper (Doufu It1f.f) in order to improve the destiny of the person in question.4 Kalinowski mentions only this version of the method, but it should be noticed that a number of descriptions are included already in the earliest texts of the Tianxin zhengfa ~'L\ lim tradition, where the method

3Tianlao shenguangjing (CT 866) is attributed to the famous general Li Jing (571-649), but the book clearly is somewhat later, possibly of the late Tang dynasty. It describes a technique of divination said to be transmitted by a minister of the Yellow Emperor, the Celestial Elder (Tianlao), and based on visualization of the star Alcor (Fuxing 'Ill ~ [80 Ursae Majoris]), the tiny companion of the sixth star of the Big Dipper. The star is represented also by a spark of "divine light" (shenguang) behind the eyelids, and the loss of the ability to discern it is said to be an omen of misfortune and-when concomitant with illness-a presage of imminent death. See my Taoist Ritual Texts and Traditions (Ph.D. diss., Copenhagen, 1991),68. Texts in the Taoist Canon will be referred to in this paper by the number assigned in the Concordance du Tao-tsang compiled by K.M. Schipper (Paris, 1975; reprinted as the Zhengtong Daozang mulu suoyin, Taibei, 1977). These numbers are preceded by the abbreviation "CT." 4DaoJa huiyuan (CT 1220), 31.4a-7a. The inner transmission of the document is described under the heading Mochao shangdi ~ WJ 1: *, and it is directly related to the methods of "presenting a petition" (baizhang ~ or "submitting a petition" lfuzhang {jC ~ described in the early twelfth-century compilations of the methods of the Tianxin zhengfa. See my article on bugang, 45-48. Note that the complete ritual frame of the method is given in the preceding juan 30, under the heading Ziji xuanshu zougao daJa ~ fi ~ g ~ *m, and that the title ofjuan 31, Xuanshu yujue bizhi ~ g ::Ii ~ ft} g, identifies this as the manual of secret instructions describing the inner and esoteric (including the simply technical) aspects of the ritual performance described in the preceding juan. The distribution ofthe textual material related to this thirteenth-century rite thus corresponds directly to the categories of manuals used by present-day Taoist priests. The inventory of Zhengyi high priests, in addition to scriptures (which sometimes are printed) and ritual manuscripts containing the texts audibly recited, chanted, or sung during the performance of ritual, also includes one or more small-size manuals called "secret instructions" (mijue ~~) that typically contain esoteric and technical material of the kind described above for juan 31 of the DaoJa huiyuan (CT 1220). It should be noticed that the terms "jade instructions" (yujue) and "secret purports" (bizhz) used in the title of this juan, are found very commonly in the titles of such manuals in the present-day field. See for instance K. M. Schipper, "Taiwan zhi daojiao wenxian" • 7Mt Z ~ ~ X_, Taiwan wenxian 17.3 (1966):185. Talking to the Gods 3 is commonly referred to as the "method of lighting lamps" (randeng fa tt4~H!).s It may be added that the "method of lighting lamps" is frequently noted in vernacular stories and novels of the Ming dynasty, for instance in Xue Lushi yufu zhengxian Of ~ .. fl ij[i m{tlJ in the collection Xingshi hengyan Mt!t1'.li § (1627), where it is described at great length (though in a drastically simplified form) and where apparently it is conceived as an almost archetypical form of Taoist activity.6 The category of visionary divination traditionally classified as part of the Dongshen division of the Taoist Canon is completely disregarded in Kalinowski's inventory. An example is the Taishang chiwen dongshen sanlu ::k1: ~:X: iliil¥fl-fl (CT 5 89), attributed to Tao Hongjing 1SfilJ~.l.-m (456-536), and with a preface and commentary attributed to Li Chunfeng *i$:_ (602-670). Both attributions seem clearly to be spurious, and the book most likely is of the Song dynasty.7 The

SSee Shangqing tianxin zhengfa 1:m;R·L..,IEi! (CT 566), 6.1a-3b, Taishang zhuguo jiumin zongzhen biyao ::k 1: lltJlPXJ*5l ~*!Iifi1¥ (CT 1227), 9.15a-17a, and Wushang xuanyuan santian yutang dafa fm1: ~7C - ;R3i1i!*i! (CT 220), 11.10b-llb and 24.4a-5b. For an account of the early history of the Tianxin zhengfa, with detailed abstracts ofthese and other texts ofthe tradition, see my Taoist Ritual Texts and Traditions, 14-18 and 79-131. It may be noted that my assessment of the origin of the tradition is substantially different from the exposition found in Judith Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature, Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley, 1987), 33-38. 6See Verena Tent-Braucher, Punishment and Deliverance: Cycles ofMetamorphosis in a Ming Story: Xue Lushi yufu zheng xian (M.A. thesis, Berkeley, 1992). See also Sanguo yanyi -lPXJljij ~ by Luo Guanzhong ~lt. ~ (ca. 1330-ca.1400), j. 103, where the great strategist and master-mind of the loyalist cause, Zhuge Liang ~ i\~, attempts to avert his imminent death by praying to the Big Dipper (qirang Beidou :ffifl:lt-4) and by walking along the pattern of the stars of the Dipper (bugang tadou Wmi$-4) in order to stabilize his protective star (jiangxing ;m~) in its position. The stars are represented by lamps displayed inside his tent, and the success of the ritual is measured by the luminosity and endurance of the Lamp ofFundamental Destiny, corresponding to hisjiangxing. Thus, when this lamp is accidentally knocked over by someone rushing into the tent, the outcome is clear.

7The date of the preface is given as the sixth year of the reign-period zhenguan jl{ II (632 A.D.), but the added cyclical characters (renzi do not correspond to this year. Furthermore, the book mentions the Black Killer (Heisha ~ l~) who announced himself as a divine protector of the Song dynasty around the year 960 and appears here in the characteristic function also seen within the Tianxin zhengfa (emerging at the end of the tenth century), as a divine agent giving force to the brush for writing talismans (13a; cf. Shangqing tianxin zhengfa [CT 566], 3.5b-7a). Finally, the use of hand-mudras and pseudo-sanskrit characters (l4b-15a), that is, elements borrowed from Tantric Buddhist ritual, likewise seems to point to a date no earlier than the Song dynasty. Compare Michel Strickmann, "Exorcism et Spectacle," Chap. 4 in Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine (Paris: Gallimard, forthcoming). Having called for caution concerning the date and attribution to Li Chunfeng ofthe book, Strickmann nevertheless suggests that a seventh- or eighth-century date for the text should be retained and then proceeds to use the book as sole evidence for the adoption into Taoism ofTantric therapeutic ritual already in this period. He maintains that the Buddhist elements ofthe text are quite compatible with the state of Tantric Buddhism in China in the first years of the seventh century, that is, long before the arrival of the principal Indian adepts of ANDERSEN 4 preface is followed by an introduction which places the totality of the book in the context of systems of divination based on direct conversation with the spirits. It refers to the "inner writ of the Yijing" (Zhouyi neiwen fiJn ~ I*J 3<:) and the "decisive speech of the Three Jia spirits" (Sanjia chutan - EflIAli ~ and states that these represent the most exalted part of the book. The Zhouyi neiwen corresponds to the method described in the first of the three "registers" contained in the book Bagua neijixiong yinglu 1\.t~I*JEI2QJ1If& (3a-8a), which relies on talismans representing the spirits of the eight trigrams. The Sanjia chutan apparently refers to the method of the third register, Taishang xuanmiao qianjin lu ::kl:. E~.P'f~f& (16b-24b), in which the "talismans of the Three Jia spirits (Sanjia fu) playa prominent part. Both methods centre on the summoning of spirits by means of talismans and mainly serve the purpose of fortune-telling, and they both comprise offerings Vi fR) to the spirits. The preparation of the talismans of the book is usually said to be accompanied by the recitation of an incantation, for instance as the talisman is burned to ashes and mixed with pure water. In the case of the Zhouyi neiwen an initial talisman is prepared in this way on the first day of each ten day period (i.e., on the sixjia days). Thereupon, "one recites the above incantation (a short spell containing a one-character secret name for each ofthe eight trigrams) two hundred and twenty times and introduces the talismanic water into the seven openings of one's eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth. One swallows the rest of the water and, having completed this, once again writes the talisman, reciting the incantation as before, forty-nine times. Thereafter one wears the talisman, and one's vision of the spirits will be effective" (3a). The offerings to the spirits consist of dried deer meat and sheep liver, and they should be eaten by the practitioner himself after having been offered. A talisman for each of the trigrams is shown, accompanied by a short description of the spirit of the trigram and directions concerning the procedure to be followed. The examples translated here refer to the talismans of the trigrams Ii .. ofthe south (element fire, colour red) and dui ~ of the west (element metal, colour white), respectively:

The spirit has red clothes and the shape of a woman. If you practice assiduously, the spirit will come by itself and talk to you. At the mao hour (S-7 a.m.), you should face the place of Ii and swallow five copies of the talisman with water from the well (Sa).

The spirit has white clothes and cap, and the shape of a woman. [By means of it] you can know about auspicious and inauspicious dates. You can capture runaway [slaves] and avoid robbery, death by drowning, death by weapons, and death by tigers and wolves. Your eyes and ears will see and hear clearly, and you will know the names (of strangers?) beforehand. Use the water from below flowers in the well, face dui and swallow five copies of the talisman (Sb).

Tantrism in China during the reign ofXuanzong (713-755). The fact that the Taoist text would then contain the earliest explicit references to Tantric mediumistic practices in China is described as "perhaps not accidental," given the fact that the borrowers may have felt a particular need to put these current practices into writing and possibly may have been more free to do so. It thus is high stakes, indeed, that are placed by this author on the authenticity of the text, and as mentioned above, it would seem unjustifiably so. Talking to the Gods S

As indicated by the title, the book as a whole belongs in the Dongshen division of the Taoist Canon. The preface defines the contents of the book as "fonnulas of the Dongshen canon" (dongshen shi ~ *' it) stating that these were transmitted separately from the main corpus of Dongshen texts, that is, the Dongshen jing ~ *' m! which during the latter part of the Six Dynasties was constituted around the original talismans of the Sanhuang tradition, the Writ ofthe Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen - ~ 3'<:) in three juan. The preface further states that parts of the book were included in the section of untitled works transmitted by Ge Hong lim(283-343) and his father-in-law Bao Jing Mn.8 The rationale of these remarks would seem to be the idea that the registers (lu ~) of the Dongshen corpus were transmitted separately from the main scriptures of the tradition, but in fact, as we have seen, the book contains not registers in the usual sense of lists of deities, but descriptions of methods. Indeed, the method of divination by means of summoning the spirits of the eight trigrams described in this book appears as a rather late and simplified version of a method included as part of the main scriptures in the Tang dynasty edition of the Dongshen jingo It is the method of "making the Eight Archivists arrive by means of offerings" (Jizhi bashi fR 3& 1\ se) described at great length in the Dongshen badi yuanbian jing ~ *' 1\ :7i::. m! (CT 1202), which apparently dates from the eighth or ninth century and corresponds to juan 7-9 of the fourteen juan list of the Dongshen jing found in the Taishang dongshen sanhuang yi ic.l:. ~*'.:::. ~ M(CT 803), Sa-b, a text of the Tang dynasty. The structure of this list corresponds to the discussion of the Dongshen jing found in a passage from the Xuanmen dayi P.:. r~ *- ft, a text of the transition period between the Sui and Tang dynasties.9 It is stated there that the Dongshen jing in eleven juan comprised one juan received by each of the Three Sovereigns (i.e., the original Sanhuang wen) and one received by each of the Eight Emperors, and that the number of fourteen juan was reached by the addition of special ritual texts. It may be concluded that during the Tang dynasty not only were divinatory techniques related to the spirits ofthe eight trigrams incorporated as central parts of the Dongshen canon, but also the whole organization of this canon (as expressed in the concept of the Eight Emperors) was derived from notions concerning the trigramS.lO The history of divinatory techniques based on the summoning of the Eight Archivists, however, goes much farther back. As we shall see, they were known to Ge Hong, who furthennore in the list of the books in his master's library includes one Chart of the Eight

80n the two versions of the texts of the Sanhuang tradition, both said to be transmitted by Ge Hong, see notes 42-43 below.

9Yunji qiqian ~lk -t. (CT 1032), 6.11a-12a, cf. Xiaoyoujing xiaji IJ':ftm!r~2, Yunji qiqian (CT 1032), 9.9a.

IOSee also the Register of the Eight Archivists (Bashi lu J\ se ~ ), mentioned in the Tang dynasty Dongxuan Iingbao sandong fengdao kejie yingshi ~ P.:.••- ~ ~~ f-l ~if~ (CT 1125), 4.7b as part of the Dongshen canon. ANDERSEN 6

Archivists (Bashi tu J\ 5e iii). II My examination of a hitherto completely neglected text in the Daozang, the Taishang tongling bashi shengwen zhenxing tu :;k 1: ii11 J\ 5e ~:X A miii (CT 767), has led me to conclude that this text may well be identical with the Bashi tu referred to by Ge Hong. In any case, I believe to have demonstrated that a large part of the book (quite likely the whole of it) is no later than the third or fourth century A.D.12 It thus represents the period before the proliferation of revealed Taoist texts of the Shangqing and Lingbao traditions (latter part of the fourth century) and before the methods of the Eight Archivists were classified as belonging to any particular tradition, that is, before they were assigned to the bibliographical category of Dongshen. 13 It is these methods, and especially their early formulation in the Taishang tongling bashi shengwen zhenxing tu (CT 767), that form the proper subject of this article. But before entering the discussion of this subject, a few remarks must be made concerning the general problem of the position of divination within Taoism.

2. Divination and the Zhengyi Tradition

In his inventory, Kalinowski rightly emphasizes the close conceptual connection between various systems of divination and forms of Taoist ritual demonstrated in the texts of the Daozang. He mentions the rites whose internal organization evokes the abstract models and numerical procedures of known systems of divination and states that in the above-mentioned third group of divinatory texts (the group of deductive divination), "we find in a concentrated form the majority of procedures and prescriptions used by the Taoists to underpin their theories and regulate their activities." 14 He further underlines the functional complementarity of the two levels of practice, noting that according to the context the influence may go in either direction. In the case of hemerological systems used in the context of ritual, the prescriptions and injunctions related to the calendar serve to order the religious activities of a community by means ofconstraints external to these activities; while in the case of certain rites of exorcism used in the context of divination, the rites may serve the purpose of attenuating the effects of a bad state of destiny, determined by

"Baopu zi neipian jiaoshi ftQ ~ =r I*liii ~~, 2nd ed., annotated by Wang Ming :f El1=j (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 19.333. l2See my abstract of the Taishang tongling bashi shengwen zhenxing tu (CT 767) in Taoist Ritual Texts and Traditions, 49-53, and the summary of my arguments here below.

13The theory of the Three Caverns (Sandong -lIIlJ) is traditionally ascribed to Lu Xiujing ~~ ~~ p (406-77), whose catalogue of Taoist books is referred to in a source of the late Six Dynasties as the Sandongjingshu mulu - ~iiJ~ft § e~. See Ofuchi Ninji, "The Formation of the Taoist Canon" in Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion, edited by Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969), 256, 267; and John Lagerwey, Wu-shang pi-yao. Somme taoiste du VIe siecle (Paris, 1981), 24-26. 14Kalinowski, "La litterature divinatoire," 110, 112. Talking to the Gods 7 the diviner. 15 On a more general level, and referring back to the Day Books (Rishu B If) of the third century B.C., Kalinowski discerns in the hemerological constraints and the exorcistic rites (occurring side by side in the Day Books, as well as in later Taoist texts) complementary strategies for finding one's way through the uncertainties of life, analogous to the different approaches of preventive and curative medicine, respectively.16 He concludes that the Chisong zi zhangli (CT 615) ~fZ:=f II and the Yuanchen zhangjiao licheng Ii (CT 1288) 7i:~ 11111.1& II both of which describe elements ofthe Zhengyi ritual of "presenting a petition" (zouzhang ~Uit) and both of which contain a good deal of divinatory materials, demonstrate a continuity between the hemerological traditions of the late Warring States and those to which the Taoists had recourse for the regulation of their rituals. The hemerological manual contained in the Yuanchen zhangjiao licheng Ii (CT 1288) is said to be without doubt of the Six Dynasties, and the Chisong zi zhangli (CT615), which may be dated to around the middle of the Tang dynasty, is said to represent "the fruit of the slow assimilation by Taoism of the religious traditions of antiquity. u17 Plausible as all this may seem, it should be confronted however with certain historical information that tends to stain the neatness of the picture. Even if we accept the Six Dynasties date for the whole of the Yuanchen zhangjiao licheng Ii (CT 1288}-that is, including the ritual of "offering accompanied by the presentation of a petition" (zhangjiao IP.), which takes up juan 1, and not just for the hemerological manual found injuan 2 (which appears to be singled out in Kalinowski's remarks}-the book certainly cannot be taken as representative of the Zhengyi tradition from its origin in the middle of the second century to the fifth century. And as we have seen, the cognate Chisong zi zhangli (CT 615) has been transmitted only in a Tang dynasty redaction. It is conceivable that the incorporation of divinatory materials into Zhengyi ritual manuals of this kind occurred only from the latter part of the Six Dynasties. In any case, it is well known that many texts of the early Zhengyi tradition testify to a marked hostility toward practices of divination; indeed, the earliest collections of the precepts (jie nX) of the tradition all explicitly prohibit its followers to engage in such practices. See for instance the "One Hundred and Eighty Precepts Expounded by Lord Lao," Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie :t g ~~ - 8" J\ +nX included in the Taishang laojun jinglii :.t:. :t g ~~ (CT 786), 2a-12b. 18 Clear expressions of this attitude may be found also in excavated Taoist tomb ordinances (muquan ;i;~) such as the one dated 433, which contains the following passage: "In accordance with the Method of the Way of the Most High and all the Lords and Elders, we have not dared

15Ibid., 112. See also my article on bugang, 31-37, where some variants of the ritual practice of "walking the guideline" (bugang ~~ are shown on the one hand to be structured in accordance with the dunjia system of divination, and on the other hand to be used within this divination as a concrete expression of the calculation performed. 16Kalinowski, "La litterature divinatoire," 98. 17Ibid., Ill.

18See Hans-Hermann Schmidt, "Die Hundertachtzig Vorschriften von Lao-chUn" in Religion und Philosophie in Ostasien [in honour of Hans Steininger1 (Wurzburg, 1985), 149-159. ANDERSEN 8 to select a time or choose a day, nor avoided the subterrestrial prohibitions and taboos. Our practice of the Way has been correct and true, and we have not inquired of the tortoise or milfoil. ,,19 In the Lu xiansheng daomen keliie ~~ $'t: ~ ~ r~ fHI~ (CT 1127), attributed to Lu Xiujing, the reason for this attitude is explained with reference to the "pure covenant" (qingyue m*9) between the Ritual Master of the Authority of the Alliance (mengwei fashi MiX it Bm) and the deities-the former does not receive money, and the latter do not accept food-offerings,

and this is called the pure covenant. When he treats illness, he does not use acupuncture or medicines, but only the swallowing of talismans with water, the confession of guilt and mending of one's ways, and the presentation of a petition (zhangzou). For arranging dwellings and pacifying graves, moving his abode and deciding when to start and when to stop, in all his affairs he does not divine about the day and enquire about the hour, but acts according to his own mind.

The text continues with deliberating about how to deal with those who write treatises on the demonic arts of divination, and once again the remedy is to "exorcise by sending up a petition"

(shangzhang quchu 1::m!l\ ~). 20 Presumably the various arts of divination are here conceived as quite unnecessary to someone who possesses the powerful weapon of petitioning. The manifold divinatory techniques are rejected together with the heterodoxy of "offering to the spirits and praying for blessing" (jisi guishen qiqiu fuzuo ~ *e.m. ;pfJ*JT >1< mrJ:) as examples of "perverse ways" (daofa ilJ it), that is, the forms and practices of the popular religion so strongly opposed by Taoism in its formative phase.21 However, as demonstrated by the above-mentioned later Zhengyi manuals of petitioning, this rejection of divination did not remain in force forever, the act of petitioning being presented there as complying with the prescriptions and avoidances determined by means of various systems of hemerology. When and why this change of attitude took place remains an open question. One might point to a general tendency in Taoism gradually to give in to the pressure of-and accommodate to its own purposes-practices continuing to be pervasive among the common people served by the new religion. Perhaps another factor of importance was the shift of the center of Taoism from the North to the South, occurring from the beginning of the fourth century, a move that lead to certain ideological reorientations.

19 iI$:t:1:~:gxA~lt, 1'~~Ifif~ 8, 1'~:tt!(f~~, ~~=rIEA, 1'rtl~iII!~. Hunan kaogu jikan li~r~ ~!5 ~ flj 1 (1982): 128. This and other tomb ordinances have been treated extensively by Peter Nickerson in a number of papers and form part of the material for his forthcoming Ph.D. thesis, Infernal Functionaries and Sanctified Demons: Taoism and Bureaucracy in Early Medieval China (University of California, Berkeley). I am indebted to Mr. Nickerson for having drawn my attention to this and other sources concerning the Zhengyi attitude toward divination. 2°Lu xiansheng daomen kelue (CT 1127), 8a-b. 21See RolfA. Stein, "Religious Taoism and Popular Religion from the Second to the Seventh Centuries" in Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion (New Haven, 1979),53-81. Talking to the Gods 9

3. The Southern Traditions and Ge Hong

As mentioned by Hans-Hennann Schmidt, the redaction of the precepts transmitted within the Lingbao tradition (which originated in the area south of present-day Nanjing around 397), while based on the earlier Zhengyi list, at the sarn,e time demonstrated a development toward greater conformity with the values in the surrounding society.22 Indeed, the one hundred and eighty precepts included in Taishang dongxuan lingbao sanyuan pinjie gongde qingzhongjing i\. trnJ -p;, IIft =j{; ~ rtJ." m~ (CT 456), a text which forms part of the old Lingbao corpus, contain only one vague allusion to forms of divination and none of the direct and precise prohibitions included in the above-mentioned Zhengyi list. We find there that not only divination in general (zhan jixiong.:!i 12Q) is prohibited [precept no. 16], but that specific techniques are singled out for rejection, including the practice of the Chart of the Eight Spirits (Bashen tu /\1$ III) [no. 114], geomancy [no. 77], and divination of the "times of Heaven" (tianshi ~) [i.e., the proper times of certain actions] through knowledge of the patterns of the stars (xingwen ~ :Q:) [no. 78].23 All that remains of this in the Lingbao list is precept no. 85, which refers to the transgression of "speaking falsely (or improperly) of the times of Heaven and the stars and constellations" (wangshuo tianshi xingxiu ~ a~::R. ~ ~ rei).24 The qualification wang, "falsely (or improperly)," is significant and marks the fundamental difference from the attitude expressed in the earlier Zhengyi list. 25 It should be noticed that the change in attitude is in accordance with the presence of elements of hemerology in the earliest Lingbao scripture, namely the Taishang lingbao wufu xu i\.1:••Iif.f ~ (CT 388), which predates the formation of the Lingbao corpus, and is quoted by Ge Hong, precisely for passages referring to hemerology.26 Similarly in the texts of the Shangqing tradition (which originated in the years 364-70, in the same area as the slightly later Lingbao tradition), we find several references to the use of divinatory techniques in conjunction with various rites of the tradition. See for instance the Dengzhen yinjue ~;Ji l~tUk (CT 421), 3.19b-20a by Tao Hongjing, where the causes of illness emanating from graves are determined by means of divination (buwen r r",~) involving among other things the terms of the system of "instauration and eviction" (jianchu ij! ~), described

22Schrnidt, "Die Hundertachtzig Vorschriften," 154. 23Taishang laojun jing/ii (CT 786), 4b-53o 730 8b. 24Taishang dongxuan lingbao sanyuan pinjie gongde qingzhongjing (CT 456), 26a. 25Note also precept no. 112 of the Lingbao list, in which the transgression of "falsely (or improperly) establishing avoidances and taboos" (wangzuo jihui ~ {IF it~d1ftt) is mentioned, Ibid., 27a. 26See below. On the formation of the Lingbao corpus, see Stephen R. Bokenkamp, "Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures" in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, vol. 3, edited by Michel Strickmann (Brussels, 1985), 812-834. ANDERSEN 10 already in the Day Books of the late Warring States.27 Note also the use of the basic component of this system, namely the concept of "Dipper instauration" (doujian 4l1!) or "monthly instauration" (yuejian J1l1!), in connection with the Taoist rite of "walking the guideline" (bugang) and the elaborations ofmany terms ofdivination found in the Shangqing texts describing this rite.28 Presumably these new Taoist traditions emerging in southern China in the latter part of the fourth century, with their large corpora of newly revealed, highly refined and esoteric texts, were more consolidated than the early Zhengyi tradition as forms separate from the general Chinese religion, and therefore better able to adopt elements of this religion without running the risk of blurring the lines of demarcation. However, an additional explanation for the more positive attitude toward forms of divination may be sought in the fact that the new traditions were constructed as syntheses and further developments of elements which included as important components the forms of Taoism already circulating in southern China. It is these forms (by some authors designated as representing a "southern occult tradition" rather than Taoism) that are reflected in Ge Hong's Baopu zi neipian, which was completed around 320 and still shows little trace of an influence from the Zhengyi faith being transmitted to the South with the great migration of northeners after the fall of Luoyang in 317.29 We find no hostility toward forms of divination as such in Ge Hong's text. On the contrary, in the context of a discussion of the ways of entering a mountain, he underlines the necessity of using some form of hemerology in order to achieve protection from evil spirits and dangerous animals in the wilderness. Having mentioned a number of historical precedents such as the legendary Yellow Emperor and the more recent Sima Qian (ca. 145 B.C.-ca. 86 B.C.), he further refers to the calendrical material in the classics and the histories, as well as to imperial sacrificial practices, as instances of the long and respectable tradition of relying on divinatory computation for selecting auspicious days. "And yet," he continues, "contemporary-minded people of mediocre talent allow themselves to abandon these customs, feeling ashamed at selecting a propitious day for initiating their activities. Isn't this really stupid?"30 A method of choosing days for entering a mountain is cited from the Lingbao jing II.@, and lists of days to be avoided are given for instance from a Taiyi durifia "* JI Efl.31

27Cf. the translation from this chapter of Dengzhen yinjue (CT 421) in Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, Das Ritual der Himmelsmeister im Spiegel jrliher Quellen (Ph.D. Diss., Wtlrzburg 1987), 141-42. On the jianchu system, see Marc Kalinowski, "Les trait6s de Shuihudi et l'hemerologie chinoise Ii la fin des Royaumes-Combattants," T'oung Pao 72 (1986):197-200. 28See my article on bugang, 23-24 and 37-38. 29See Michel Strickmann, "The Mao Shan Revelations: Taoism and the Aristocracy," T'oung Pao 63 (1977): 1-64. For the concept of a "southern occult tradition," see Michel Strickmann, Le taoisme du Mao Chan: Chronique d'une revelation (paris, 1981), 139 et passim. 30Baopu zi, 17.301. 31Ibid., 17.303 and 301. The quotation from the Lingbao jing corresponds to Taishang lingbao wufu xu (CT 388), 3.9a. Talking to the Gods 11

A Yuqian jing :Ii ~ *! is quoted to the effect that "if one wishes to enter a famous mountain. one cannot do withoiIt knowledge of the secret techniques of dunjia. "n Ge Hong informs us that he himself possessed more than sixty juan ofdunjia writings, and that he furthermore summarized the essentials of these writings in a book called Nangzhong licheng • !:J:l1z. fiX. or the Concise Pocket-Manual [ofDunjia Techniques}. However, he continues, the techniques are not suitable for transmission in writing, and therefore, if one wishes to walk in the mountains, one should consult someone knowledgeable, "likewise never in short supply in the world. ,,33 While thus embracing the category ofhemerological divination-to the extent ofconsidering its negligence in connection with entering mountains as downright stupid, since it is certain to have catastrophic consequences--Ge Hong nevertheless in another context expresses general scepticism regarding all the standard forms of divination circulating in the world. It is in chapter 15, titled "Miscellaneous Responses" (Zaying .UI), which includes a long answer to a question concerning the general possibility of knowing the future and its risks, thereby achieving safety for oneself.34 In his answer, Ge Hong first mentions a series of divinatory techniques that is clearly meant to be representative of the standard forms of deductive divination known in the China of his time. It includes the major categories of observation of the patterns of heaven and earth (i.e., astrology and geomancy), observation of winds and vapours and arithmetic computation, and the determination of good or bad fortune by means of tortoise or milfoil, as well as some of the more specific forms and underlying theoretical models such as "the walk through the Nine Palaces" (bu jiugong tJ7:tt. '8) [i.e., the concept of the cyclical movement of the Supreme Unity (Taiyi * through the pattern of the magic square corresponding to the nine divisions of the cosmos], and the related "examining of the eight trigrams" (jian bagua M J\ !~).3S Ge Hong considers all these to be "inferior techniques and ordinary arts" (xiashu changji rfi1tt1t). and describes them as tiring and unreliable. Instead, he advocates the use of visionary forms through which one may "see the whole world without going outside the curtains of one's apartment and thus enter the road to divinityll (rushen A 7-$). The first of the visionary methods mentioned by Ge Hong is based on the use of the basic Sanhuang talismans, the Sanhuang tianwen = :R)(. By means of these one may summon the Director of Destiny (Siming 0] ~), the Director of Dangers (Siwei 0] fit), the Lords of the Five Sacred Mountains (Wuyue zhijun Zt't), the Headmen of the Roads (Qianmo tingzhang ~f 1m ~~), and the Numinae of the Six Ding (Liuding zhi ling A T Z 11). They will allow themselves to be seen by the practitioner, who may ask them about all matters. In this way, "the issues of auspicious and inauspicious will be as clear as if they were retained in the palm of one's hand, and all things, no matter how distant or near, obscure or profound, can be known in

32Baopu zi 17.301-302. On these techniques, see my article on bugang, 31-37. HBaopu zi, 17.302. 34Ibid., 15.272-274.

350n the concept ofthe Supreme Unity, see my article on bugang, 23-37, and Marc Kalinowski, "La transmission du dispositif des neuf palais sous les Six-Dynasties" in Tantric and Taoist Studies in honour ofRA. Stein, vol. 3, edited by Michel Strickmann (Brussels, 1985), 773-811. ANDERSEN 12 advance." Ge Hong further mentions the related method of summoning the Jade Girls of the Six Yin (Liuyin yunu 1\ ~ =:IS fz.) and the method of "making the Eight Archivists arrive by means of offerings" (jizhi bashi ~ ~ 1\ 5e), to be discussed below, said "also to be sufficient to know in advance that which has not yet taken form." He further notes the use of a drug (a mixture of flowers ofkudzu, ge ii, [i.e., Pueraria lobata] and the awns and seeds of hemp) to induce a state in which one will hear voices that settle matters of the same kind, and finally launches himself on a lengthy exposition of a divination ritual involving the use of mirrors. In the most complete form of this ritual, a mirror is placed in each of the four directions of the sacred area, and a host of deities will arrive there, some riding dragons or tigers and wearing caps and robes of many colours. It is important that the practitioner knows the appearances of the deities in order to be able to identify them as they arrive, and that he uses their correct names and titles when summoning them through "inaudible chanting" (ansong Bffjfj). A large number of minor deities of fate, as well as an escort of warriors and musicians will arrive. The practitioner, however, will not regard or address any of these directly, but will concentrate on the clear vision of "the true form of Lord Lao" (Laojun zhenxing :t g A ff*). The appearance of the supreme god of Taoism is described in great detail, including his height (nine feet), the yellow colour of his skin, the beak shape of his mouth, the length of his eyebrows and ears (five and seven inches, respectively), the three vertical furrows on his forehead, his clothing and sword, the divine tortoise on which he is lying, and the riches of his palace. His cosmic dimensions are emphasized by the listing of emblematic animals of the four directions surrounding him (twelve green dragons to his left, twenty-six white tigers to his right, twenty-four red birds in front of him, and seventy-two pairs of tortoises and snakes [Xuanwu $. fi\:] behind him). The passage ends as follows: "If you see Lord Lao, then the span of your years will be prolonged, your heart will be like the sun and the moon, and there will be nothing that you do not know. ,,36 There is a clear connection between Ge Hong's emphasis on visionary divination and the prominent position accorded by him to the Sanhuang wen. In the Baopu zi, he consistently associates the Sanhuang talismans with the Chart ofthe True Forms ofthe Five Sacred Mountains (Wuyue zhenxing tu) as in chapter 17, where it is stated that a superior person entering a mountain should carry with him both sets of talismans. Wherever one stays, he should summon the gods of the mountain (shanshen W1$) and "arrange the register of devils" (an gui/u nc)i ei [i.e., surround himself with a host of protective deities]). He should summon the earth god of the district (zhoushe 1+1 *1), as well as the "mountain officials and guardians of the dwelling" (shanqing zhaiwei W91!P ~ if), and ask them (about the circumstances of the supernatural forces at the place?), and then the ghosts of trees and stones and spirits of mountains and streams will

36See Anna K. Seidel, La divinisation de Lao tseu dans Ie Taoisme des Han (paris, 1969), 100-102, where the same passage is summarized and the vision of the "true fonn of Lord Lao" is related to early descriptions of the cosmic Laozi, notably in the Inscription about Laozi (Laozi ming :t =f~) composed on imperial command in 165 A.D. Note, however, that Seidel omits to mention the divinatory function of the practice, referring only to the purpose of prolonging life. Talking to the Gods 13 not dare arrive in order to test the person.37 The Sanhuang wen in three juan, titled the Inner Writ ofthe Three Sovereigns [being the Sovereigns ofl Heaven, Earth and Man (Sanhuang neiwen tian di ren = p\J :Q: JC ttl! A), is placed at the very top of Ge Hong's catalogue of Taoist scriptures (Daojing) in his master's Iibrary.38 In the following discussion, he quotes the master Zheng Yin • WI as stating that "among Taoist books none are more important than the Inner Writ ofthe Three Sovereigns and the Chart of the True Forms ofthe Five Sacred Mountains." Those who possess these books should keep them permanently in a clean place and, whenever about to undertake some action, should always first state the matter to them, as if they were serving a lord or father. The blessings accruing to a household from possessing the San huang wen are described, and various exorcistic functions of the talismans of the text, such as curing sickness and alleviating pain in childbirth, are mentioned.39 It is made clear that the second part of the text, the Writ of the Sovereign of Earth (Dihuang wen ttl!~:Q:), is used particularly to counteract dangers emanating from the earth, that is, the powers disturbed in connection with the construction of houses and graves. Similarly, the Writ ofthe Sovereign ofMan (Renhuang wen A ~:Q:) is said to be directed against threats from other people, whether deceased persons creating trouble from the grave or living persons plotting against oneself. Finally, according to Ge Hong, the text can be used for the purposes of divination:

First one purifies and fasts for a hundred days, and then one can summon the Celestial God, Director of Destinies (Tianshen siming JC *' 1frl'), the Great Year (Taisui :t:~), and the Daily Traveller (Riyou S m), as well as the gods of the five sacred mountains, the four great rivers, and the local earth temples. They all will appear in the shape of human beings, and one may ask them about matters of good or bad fortune, safety or danger, and the origin ofthe evil influences causing sickness to someone.40

As mentioned above, the importance of the divinatory function within the texts of the Sanhuang tradition is borne out by the content of the Dongshen jing, constituted in the latter part of the Six Dynasties around the original Sanhuang wen in three juan. It furthermore is demonstrated in the earliest fragments of the core elements of the tradition-that is, in the

37Baopu zi, 17.300. Cf. the testing of Xu Mai WF jl!i by apparitions mentioned in Stein, "Religious Taoism and Popular Religion," 54. On the Chart ofthe True Forms ofthe Five Sacred Mountains and its relation to the Sanhuang wen, see K. M. Schipper, Gogaku shingyo-zu no shinkO IiJ&Ut:MIjjO) i~fIl1, Dokyo kenkyU ~*2li}f~ 2 (1967):114-162. 38Baopu zi, 19:333-335.

39Interestingly, it is stated that the methods ofthe text make it possible to initiate a project even without using divination to enquire about the proper place and select an auspicious day for starting the work, and still there will be no calamity in the household (l'r""ttl! ~ S, ~ 1m ~~). 4°Baopu zi, 19.336-337. ANDERSEN 14

remnants of the original Sanhuang wen preserved in the Dongshen badi miaojingjing lIjjJ~J\ *!lj; m~ (CT 640), probably of the sixth century, and in the excerpts from a Dongshenjing included as chapter 25 of Wushang biyao mLl.*i1~ (CT 1138), dated ca. 580. While scholarly assessment of the Sanhuang tradition seems in general to have focused on the exorcistic and protective functions of the texts and talismans,41 the early fragments of the Sanhuang wen accord with Ge Hong's account of the tradition, both in presenting it as being addressed in the first place to the central deities of fate and in describing the use of the talismans representing these deities as being to a large extent related to the purpose of obtaining answers to enquiries concerning matters of good or bad fortune, etc. This fact is demonstrated very clearly in the series of ninety-two talismans representing the original Sanhuang wen in three juan and forming the core of a work titled Essential Instructions of[the Immortal ofl the Western City: The Celestial Writ ofthe Three Sovereigns in Inner Great Characters (Xicheng yaojue sanhuang tianwen nei dazi ~ ~ ~ ~ =~ 7()( I*J *- *), which is included in the Dongshen badi miaojing jing (CT 640), 12a-29b.42 The instructions in this work concerning the use of the initial set of nine talismans are

41See Chen Guofu ~~I?!r~, Daozang yuanliu leao ~il7j7jff~, 2nd ed. (Beijing, 1963), 71-78, and John Lagerwey, Wu-shang pi-yao, 106-107. 42A note below the title of this work identifies it as "the ritual practices and the established fonn [of the Sanhuang talismans] of the Immortal of the Western City" (i.e., Wang Yuan :E ~ [Xicheng xianren shiyong licheng ~ ~ f~J A MIi ffllZ. nx ](12a), and in a short passage right after the talismans, the ritual instructions accompanying the talismans are said to represent "the practices of Lord Wang" (Wangjun shixing :E ~ M1ifi) [29a]. The Xicheng yaojue thus seems related to the work by Tao Hongjing titled Xicheng shixing and mentioned in a Dunhuang manuscript containing descriptions of the rituals of transmission of the Chart o/the Five Sacred Mountains and the Sanhuang corpus (P 2559, see Ofuchi Ninji, TonkO d5ky5, mokuroku hen ~~~~, EI ~~ [Tokyo, 1978],331-32, and Tonk5 d5ky5, zuroku hen iii ~ ~ [Tokyo, 1979], 721-25). The Xicheng shixing is described there as a one juan work containing "the essentials of summoning for inspection" (by means of the talismans) [hezhao chih yao ~ B Z~] and supplementary to the main corpus of Sanhuang talismans in ten juan (Ofuchi, TonkO d5ky5, zuroku hen (1979), 724.100-01). The Xicheng yaojue is said in the note below the title to have been written down by the disciple of Wang Yuan, Bo He 1ft la, who received the talismans in 100 B.C., after a three-year period of waiting. Cf. the account in the Shenxian zhuan ~ fw «\! by Ge Hong of the transmission of the Sanhuangwen from Wang Yuan to Bo He (Xianyuan bianzhufW1B*iII~ [CT596], 2.l7b-18b and Taiping yulan ::k.srzmw [Beijing, 1960], 663.6b). However, at the time of the late Six Dynasties, the transmission of the Sanhuang talismans was associated more particularly with the name of Bao Jing, the father-in-law of Ge Hong. It is stated in P 2559 (Ofuchi, Tonk5 d5ky5, zuroku hen (1979), 724.99-100) that all the basic tenjuan of talismans, including the Sanhuang neiwen tianwen dazi, were transmitted through Bao and Ge (cf. Erjiao lun =~~1fU, T 2103:8.l41b, on the "fabrication" of the Sanhuangjing by Bao Jing during the reign-period Yuanleang:7t:)jt, 291-99). The author oftheXuanmen dayi speculates whether Ge Hong in fact received the tradition from two different sources (Yunji qiqian [CT 1032], 6.12a and Daojiao yishu ~~~ g [CT 1129], 2.7a). See my abstract ofthe Dongshen badi miaojingjing (CT 640) in Taoist Ritual Texts and Traditions, 54-57. Talking to the Gods 15

included with only minor variations in the Wushang biyao (CT 1138), 25.9b-l0b, under the title Dazi xiapian fu *- ~ r iii f.f. 43 In both versions the emphasis is on summoning the deities in order to "ask them about good or bad fortune" (wen jixiong rA, ~. Each of the talismans are defined as representing the name of a superior celestial deity, such as the Sovereign of Heaven (Tianhuang the Most High (Taishang), etc., and the deities summoned include notably the four directors of various aspects of fate: the Director of Destinies (Siming), the Director of Registers (Silu D] til, the Director of the Underworld (Siyin D]~, and the Director of Dangers (Siwei). It will be noted that in the above-mentioned description by Ge Hong of divination based on the use of the Sanhuang talismans, the list of deities summoned opens precisely with Siming and Siwei. Ge Hong continues with the Lords ofthe Five Sacred Mountains, the Headmen of the Roads (Qianmo tingzhang), and the spirits of the Six Ding (Liuding)-all of whom are included in the first group of talismans following the initial set of nine in the Xicheng yaojue, Dongshen badi miaojing jing (CT 640), 17a-21 b, together with major divinatory deities such as the Great Unity (Taiyi) and the Daily Traveller (Riyou) also mentioned by Ge Hong. The Xicheng yaojue ends with a paragraph on the "method of writing the talismans" (shufu zhi fa f.:} Z i:t ) with instructions concerning the accompanying fast and purifications, as well as the directions to face while summoning the deities:

After a short while, one may observe the arrival of those summoned. The gods of heaven and earth, and the spirits of mountains and streams may have the shape of human beings. They may also have the head of a bird or animal and a human body, or the body of a bird or animal, dragon or snake and the head of a human being. They may be long or short, fragrant or stinking. They may be seductive and beautiful or frightening and repugnant. One should assume a calm and dignified posture and avoid being frightened. Then one may state the matters at hand and ask about them, and they will answer at once. Furthermore, when the celestial gods have arrived, one must not keep them for long, but should forthwith send them away. If the question asked is improper, they may even kill a person.44

The heavy stress on visualization and the identification of deities by means of their appearances in this whole set of practices makes it natural to compare them with the more well-known forms of Taoist visualization techniques commonly referred to as "retaining in meditation" (cunsi fi. ,~, ), central to the methods of achieving individual immortality transmitted within the Shangqing tradition. It seems clear, however, that the latter are distinguished from the divinatory forms of visualization by forming part of a much more developed and organized system, a "visionary mysticism" aiming at the complete transformation of the body of the adept

43Note that in the Xicheng yaojue, Dongshen badi miaojing jing (CT 640), 29a, the instructions concerning the use of these nine talismans are singled out for special mention as being different from the regulations in the Inner Scripture of Sir Bao (Baogong neijing lfg ~ r*J ~), that is, the similar work representing the line of transmission through Bao Jing.

44Dongshen badi miaojing jing (CT 640), 29a-b. ANDERSEN 16 and serving as a stepping stone toward the ultimate union with the unimaginable Dao.4s In the words of Isabelle Robinet, the visualization of the Shangqing tradition (exemplified by the methods set forth in the Shangqing dadong zhenjing 1:. m*- lIOJ Jt ~ [CT 6]):

aims at joining the spirits and the body which is their dwelling, but also at making the spirits of the body fuse and unite with the celestial deities. The reading of each stanza addressed to the celestial deities is associated with the visualization of the deities of the body, to the point where the description in the text of the roaming of the gods may apply equally well to the celestial deities as to those of the body, and where the human body, sanctified by the presence of the gods, ends up forming a terrestrial heaven. Furthermore, all the gods that we have referred to as being 'of the body' have a celestial residence which doubles as their dwelling in the body. The goal is to attain the unity through the diversity and the multiplicity of the forms of life that animate our body.46

The Shangqing system of visualization is a form of controlled and predictable experience, following the set patterns laid down in the texts and generally far removed from the conversational atmosphere of the Sanhuang texts. It is, nevertheless, a fact that also within this system the gods are initially visualized individually, and that some of the methods described in the texts of the Shangqing tradition include the act of addressing the visualized gods with one's wishes, even leaving open the possibility of receiving additional scriptures from them.47 The idea of maintaining a more personal and conversational relationship with the gods in the manner of the first recipient of the Shangqing revelations, Yang Xi ~ ft, is thus retained in the texts of the tradition, though clearly this did not represent the basic purpose of the methods described. It is worth noticing that both Yang Xi and Hua Qiao ~HI (a functionally equivalent, though less successful figure within the early Shangqing tradition) are described in the sources basically as mediums-that is, as recipients of revelations brought to them by the gods who descended to them and dictated their texts to them-rather than as controlling agents of visualizations in the manner of the methods described in the revealed texts. In the case of Hua Qiao, his background in popular mediumistic cults is mentioned in early sources. According to the Zhengao Jt ffi!i (CT 1016) compiled by Tao Hongjing, his family had been faithful followers of popular cults for generations, and he himself had had many communications with deities (po tong guishen 1m W**'fl).48 Worn out by the exactions of these deities, he 'had been converted to Taoism and started being visited by Taoist immortals instead.

45See Isabelle Robinet, Meditation taoiste (Paris, 1979), 76-77. 46Isabelle Robinet, Histoire du taoisme des origines au XIVe siec/e (Paris, 1991), 135-136.

47See my translation of Jinque dijun sanyuan zhenyi jing ~ IW ,*:g - :7I: Jt - ~ (CT 253) in The Method of Holding the Three Ones: A Taoist Manual of Meditation of the Fourth Century A.D. (Copenhagen, 1980), 42, 47. 48Zhengao (CT 1016), 20.12b. See Stein, "Religious Taoism and Popular Religion," 56. Talking to the Gods 17

According to Rolf A. Stein, "the organized Taoist religion acted as a catharsis and made possible the sublimation of obsessional contents." He adds that "between its own practices and those of the prohibited popular cults there was not a difference of nature, but only of degree; not of quality, but only of quantity. ,,49 However this may be, it is quite clear that the visionary practices of figures such as Hua Qiao are continuous with the practices of underlying forms of mediumism and shamanism. Something similar evidently applies to the forms of visionary and conversational divination examined in this article. Indeed, the ethnographical and historical study ofshamanism in Northern and Central Asia provides an abundance of examples of seances in which visualized or otherwise present deities are engaged in direct conversations for purposes of divination. See for instance the remarks by Jean-Paul Roux in a chapter titled "The specificity of shamanism" in his book on the religion of the Turcs and the Mongols:

It is [in the shamanistic seance] fundamentally a question of interrogating the spirits on the secrets that they possess, that is, of predicting the future, of retrieving the soul of sick persons, the soul hidden by invisible beings or roaming and in danger of being abducted by them, that is, of effecting a magical cure. A remarkable variant, especially in the ancient periods, maintains that the sickness is the result of the incorporation of a spirit in the body of the patient, a spirit which must then be driven out; and furthermore, that the future is disclosed by a spirit arriving to enter into a conversation with the diviner ...50

It may be added that the connection between visionary Sanhuang divination and early shamanism is indicated also by the fact that some of the major deities addressed in this divination, Taiyi and Siming, figure very prominently in the most ancient texts of Chinese shamanism, namely the Nine Songs of Chuci m~, dating probably from the third century B.C.'!

4. The Chart of the Eight Archivists

It was mentioned above that the Tang dynasty version ofthe Dongshenjing (i.e., the corpus

49Stein, 59.

sOJean-Paul Roux, La religion des Turcs et des Mongols (Paris, 1984), 63. See also Richard Noll, "Mental Imagery Cultivation as a Cultural Phenomenon: The Role of Visions in Shamanism," Current Anthropology 26.4 (1985): 443-461, in which controlled visualization within shamanism is discussed by a number ofscholars. The occurrence ofauditory revelations is also alluded to, and some interesting parallels from ancient Greek theurgy and medieval and Renaissance ritual magic are mentioned, for instance the thirteenth-century discussion by st. Thomas Aquinas of the visions of magicians in which he reveals that "through these visions or auditory messages which appear in the performances of magicians, intellectual knowledge of things which surpass the capacity ofhis understanding often come to a person. Examples are the revealing of hidden treasures, the showing of future events, and sometimes true answers are given concerning scientific demonstrations." (p. 448, Note 15). 5!See David Hawkes, Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs ofthe South (London, 1959),35-44. ANDERSEN 18 of texts constituted around the original three juan of Sanhuang talismans) included divinatory methods related to the Eight Archivists (Bash;). The methods are described most fully in the Dongshen bad; yuanbianjing (CT 1202) which dates apparently from the eighth or ninth century, and which corresponds to juan 7-9 of the fourteen juan list of the Dongshen jing found in the Taishangdongshen sanhuangyi (CT803), Sa-b, a text ofthe Tang dynasty. However, as we have seen, the method of "making the Eight Archivists arrive by means of offerings" is mentioned already by Ge Hong, who includes it in the same category as visionary divination based on the use of the Sanhuang talismans and states that it is "also sufficient to know in advance that which has not yet taken form. ,,52 The book referred to by Ge Hong in this connection is titled Chart ofthe Eight Archivists (Bashl tu) and it clearly is related to a text preserved in the Daozang, the Chart of the Saintly Writ and the True Form of the Eight Archivists for the Spiritual Communication ofthe Most High (Taishang tongling bashi shengwen zhenxing tu [CT 767]). In fact, it is entirely possible that this book (hereafter abbreviated Bashi tu) is identical with the work known to Ge Hong. In any case, there can be little doubt that a large part of the book (quite likely the whole of it) is ancient, predating at least the period around 400 A.D., when the early Lingbao corpus was propagated by the great-nephew of Ge Hong, Ge Chaofu IHi m.S3 It thus represents the earliest surviving Taoist manual for the performance of a ritual of visionary divination. The fact that the Bashi tu predates the formation of the Lingbao corpus appears from a comparison with one of the central texts of this corpus, the Taishang wuji dadao ziran zhenyi wucheng fu shangjing ':k mf fli *m13 ft.\ Jt - E. mr:f J: ~ (CT 671), hereafter abbreviated Wucheng fu shangjing.54 The first juan of the Wucheng fu shangjing describes the five basic Lingbao talismans, and the second juan centers on some practices related to the Eight Archivists and associated with a Bashi zhenxing tu f\ 51:! Jt MiII. 55 The latter title is included in the list of the twenty-four charts of the Lingbao corpus, given at the end of the second juan. The same list is found in the Dongxuan lingbao ershisl shengtu jing iIEJ ~ 11 J't =+~ ~ ill ~ (CT 407) with hymns pmising each chart, and it is clearly related to Ge Hong's list of the books in his master's libmry.56 In the Wucheng fu shangj;ng, the title of the talismans for communicating with the Eight Archivists is given as Xuandong tonglingfu ~ilEJiillr:f,S7 corresponding to the central set of the Bashl tu in the title of each of which the same phrase is included. 58 The actual talismans of the Eight Archivists are not included in the Wucheng fu shangjing, but it should be noted that the style of the version in the Bashi tu is closely similar to that of the five Lingbao

S2See above. 53See Bokenkamp, "Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures," op. cit. 54See a1so the Dunhuang version ofthis text in P 2440, Ofuchi, Tonko dokyo, zuroku hen (1979), 10-22. 5sWuchengju shangjing (CT 671), 2.12a.

56Baopu zi, 19.333-335. Cf. Bokenkamp, "Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures," 459-60. 57Wucheng fu shangjing (CT 671), 2.la, lIb. 58Bashi tu (CT 767), 5b-9a. Talking to the Gods 19 talismans in the initial part of the Wucheng fu shangjing-a fact which becomes even more apparent, when one turns to the Dunhuang version of this work. It seems obvious that the two sets of talismans together correspond to the Bawei wusheng fu f\ iX JJI~, mentioned by Ge Hong. 59 It may be added that the thirteen Bawei wusheng talismans are praised in the Tang dynasty Taishang dongshen sanhuang yi (CT 803), 10b-1 la, in a hymn which contains the line "they belong under the heading Xuandong" (pianmu xuandong ai § 1f;.lfiiJ ).60 The names ofthe Eight Archivists are the same in the Wuchengfu shangjing as in the Bashi tu, and the manner and purpose of relating to them is described in similar terms. The main difference is that in the Wuchengfu shangjingthe talismans of the Eight Archivists are presented as secondary in relation to the five Lingbao talismans/I and that the names of the eight spirits are combined with those of the Buddhas and Boddhisattvas of the ten directions-an operation which leaves a deficit of two Archivists and necessitates the addition of the two collective terms, Bajing f\ *fj and Bash;, as the names of the two spirits of the centre.62 These elaborations are clearly derivative in relation to the tradition of the Bashi tu, in which, furthermore, we find no indication of an influence from the Lingbao tradition. The two cases where the term tongling in the names of the above-mentioned talismans is replaced by lingbao are of little consequence. On the one hand, the term lingbao was in use independent of and well before the appearance of the Lingbao corpus, and on the other hand, it might very easily have slipped in during the later transmission of the book. In any case, it is inconceivable that the system of the Bashi tu could have been derived from the Lingbao context as defined by the Wucheng fu shangjing. We may conclude that the Bashi tu is-if not necessarily the source of the Wucheng fu shangjing-then at least a version very closely related to this source. The book is divided in two parts. In the first part, which has no separate title and may well lack the opening, the basic technique of divination through communication with the Eight Archivists is described.63 The Eight Archivists (Bashi) are the spirits of the eight trigrams, and

59Baopu zi, 19.335. Note that the term WushengJu, Talismans of the Five Victories, is predominant in the Dunhuang version of the Wucheng fu shangjing (CT 671), in spite of the term Wucheng, Five Denominations, in the title. 60The reference to the term Xuandong thus would seem to be less of a mystery than maintained by some writers. Quoting a passage from the Wucheng fu shangjing (CT 671), 2.11a-b, in which the Xuandong tongling shenzhen Ju 1f;. iliil mi t$lt ~ are mentioned, Bokenkamp states that he has no further information on these talismans (Bokenkamp, "Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures," 457), while John Lagerwey, referring to the same passage (Lagerway, Wu-shangpi-yao, 26), suggests thatXuandong probably is a variant designation of the Dongxuan (i.e., Lingbao) canon. Yet the material being examined here clearly seems to indicate that the category of Xuandong includes notably the talismans and practices associated with the Eight Archivists. Note also that Ge Hong's book-list includes aXuandong jing in ten juan, Baopu zi, 19.334.

61 Wucheng fu shangjing (CT 671), 2.1a, 11 a-b. 62Ibid., 2.5b-6b. 63Bashi tu (CT 767), la-5b. ANDERSEN 20 the interpretation ofthe tenn shi may be deduced from the name of the trigram kun in the system of the book. It is given alternately as Zhuxia ft l' and Zhushi ft 51;:, both of which are short fonns of the title Zhuxia shi (lit. "scribe below the pillar"), and both of which are also used as names for Laozi, the archivist of Zhou.64 The function of the ancient office of Zhuxia shi is variously defined as that of a censor and that of an archivist, and the title is used also as the name of a star in the Central Palace (possibly cp Draconis), said to be occupied with the "recording of offenses" (jiguo 'gc iMl ).65 It may be noted that in keeping with the etymology of the title Zhuxia shi the practices related to the Eight Archivists are described in the Bashi tu as taking place at a pillar or door-pivot of the main hall of the house (tangshu 1it +II), where two Archivists are thought to be constantly present. The spirits are said to be divided in couples, Zhushi (spirit of the trigram kun) being the wife of Lingang &iBm (spirit ofthe trigram qian), etc. Each couple descends into people's homes for a period of three days, followed immediately by the descent of the next couple, and so on through a cycle of twelve days. If one wishes to consult them, one must first fast for a period of one hundred days, then place a set of eight talismans written on wooden tablets in the eight directions, and on the day of the descent of a couple arrange offerings for the two spirits at the left door-pivot (hushu P .) of the main hall of the house. One must call out their names and may then ask them questions about all matters, including the future. Women should address the female spirit and men the male, and the spirits will respond by talking to them or by letting them know things in their hearts. It may be noted that a particular value is ascribed to the concerted practice of man and wife, likened to the union of qian and kun, in a later part of the book.66 The second part of the book is titled Bashi tongling ju 1\ 51;: j! II r,a: and presents a somewhat different level of practice surrounding the Xuandong tongling ju.67 While still emphasizing the divinatory purpose of the methods, this part also contains frequent reference to the protective and exorcistic functions ofthe Eight Archivists. The legend of the transmission of the talismans is told by the Yellow Emperor, to whom all the passages of this second part of the book are attributed (in the first part only one passage opens with such an attribution to the Yellow Emperor). He relates that he received the talismans from "Lord Li, the fonner master" (Xianshi Lijun ~ fliJi * i.e., Laozi), who saw them in the Big Dipper and is said also to have brought them to the barbarians ofIndia (hu~. The talismans are referred to as "stellar talismans" (xingfuJ!iJ. r:f), and they are described as being governed by the stars of the Dipper. The Eight Archivists are said to be found both at a pillar of the main hall in people'S homes and in the Dipper as subordinates of the Lord of the Dipper (Doujun 3} t5). When someone poses a question to them, they will return to the Dipper in order to consult the registers of fate. The same journey may be

64See for instance Hou Hanshu f~~. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965),59.1908, and Yunji qiqian (CT 1032), 3.3a.

, (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 11.289. 66Bashi tu (CT 767), 12b. See the discussion of this passage below. 67Ibid., 5b-14a. Talking to the Gods 21

undertaken by a superior person and Taoist (daoshi ~ ±), whose name has already been entered in the register of immortals in the constellation (ming yi ruxiu ::g e. A rei). When he wears the talismans, the spirits will attach to his body, and after a period of three years, he will ascend to heaven. The relationship between the talismans and the deities they represent is remarkably direct in the Bash; tu. Each of the Xuandong tongling.fu is referred to as the "spirit tablet" (shenzhu 1$ ±) of the spirit in question (and it should be noticed that in present-day religion such tablets are functionally equivalent to statues of the gods). Offerings are presented to the talismans (jiaoji.fu II~ ~), and each of the eight trigrams is said to be governed by "the talisman of one star" (yixing zhi.fu - ~ L ~). Furthermore, in the first part of the book-following the presentation of the eight talismans to be displayed in the eight directions of the ritual area-an additional set of eight talismans is shown and presented as actual pictures of the gods. The eight talismans are divided in pairs (in accordance with the above-mentioned concept of couples), and it is stated that on the three days corresponding to the couple in question, the talismans "descend and are present in people's homes." The method of summoning the Eight Archivists described in the Tang dynasty Dongshen badi yuanbianjing(CT 1202) differs from that of the Bashi tu, both by being more elaborate and by being classified as part of the Dongshen canon. The practices related to the Eight Archivists described in the Bashi tu are not ascribed to any of the major Taoist traditions. Rather they form part of the common stock of early methods, registered by Ge Hong as circulating in southern China prior to the large-scale immigration of northerners around 317, and drawn upon by all the new Taoist traditions emerging in this area in the course of the Six Dynasties. As the Wucheng .fu shangjing testifies, they were to some extent adopted into the Lingbao corpus, and in the Zhengyi Chisong zi zhangli (CT 615), we find the talismans of the Eight Archivists mentioned in a list of "mixed registers" (za/u 8Q).68 It was only during the later part of the Six Dynasties that these practices were classified as Dongshen, and in texts of the Tang dynasty this classification is standard.69 We find no trace of the classification in the Bash; tu, nor the recognition of any kind of clerical organization. When qualified at all, the officiant is referred to merely as a daoshi, and the rules of transmission stipulate simply that the recipient should be a worthy person. It should be noticed in this connection that the Tang dynasty version of the method differs from the earlier version not only in technical complexity and external classification, but it also testifies to a certain change in basic attitudes. It was mentioned above that the Bashi tu recommends the practice of the method of the book by husband and wife together and even ascribes a particular value to such concerted action. The husband addresses the male spirit, the wife addresses the female, and thus:

the couple worship them together, like the trigrams qian and kun (representing heaven

68Chisong zi zhangli (CT 615), 4.22h.

69See for instance Dongxuan lingbao sandong fengdao kejie yingshi lfiil ~...= lfiil ~ ~ fl ~ fi fds (CT 1125), 4.7h. ANDERSEN 22

and earth, yang and yin) accord with the operations of nature. Thus "when two people are at one in their inmost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or of bronze. ,,70 The benefit of cultivating together is very profound. It makes it possible to ride on green dragons and roam through the universe together with the spirits.71

One is reminded of the Zhengyi wedding ritual described in the Shangqing huangshu guodu yi 1:. ~ jI!i IB~ It{Ii (CT 1294), apparently of the latter part of the Six Dynasties. There, too, the joint practices of man and woman are described as perfectly balanced and symmetrical, and the sexual union of the couple is likened to the union of heaven and earth, yang and yin. The wedding ritual includes the practice of "toeing" with one foot the body of the other, performed in turns by both participants while lying side by side in the centre of the ritual area. The practice involves the notion of the movement of the four seasons, but is described also as a form of massage and clearly intends to establish an inner circulation in accordance with the patterns of the universe. The couple proceeds to have intercourse, each of them directing their inner breaths to the Lower Cinnabar Field (Xia dantian r PI- 83), where the immortal embryo is to be born, and praying that the life-giving breath emanating from the union ofyin and yang may affect the bodies of both.72 The divination ritual described in the Bashi tu accords with the early Zhengyi wedding ritual, not only in emphasizing the equal status of the two sexes and celebrating the supreme beauty and the profound mystical achievement inherent in their union, but also in a certain outspokenness concerning the sexual act as such. Thus, in the paragraph preceding the one translated above on the concerted action of husband and wife, we find a discussion of ways of procuring blessing for oneself by calling on the Eight Archivists. It is stated that in a very general way such blessing should be obtained not by causing harm to others, but rather by making them feel an irresistible love for oneself. In case it is suitable to compel others, one should do this by arranging the talismans on the ground (presumably in the eight directions around oneself) and command the Archivists. The paragraph ends as follows, "It works the same way, when you lie down in the evening and have sex (lit. "affairs of the chamber," fangshi zhi shi m Z $). The method makes the woman have no sense of shame."73 The Tang dynasty version of the method of summoning the Eight Archivists is performed in a totally different atmosphere. The method described in the Dongshen badi yuanbian jing (CT 1202) is based on two sets of eight talismans that clearly are related to those found in the first part of the Bashi tu. One set is suspended at the sides of the altar, and the other is swallowed by the

7°From the Appended Judgments (Xici ~ iI$) or Great Treatise (Dazhuan :*:.f$) 1.8 of the Yijing. Here, following the translation by Richard Wilhelm, rendered into English by Cary F. Baynes in The I Ching or Book ofChanges, 3rd ed. (Princeton, 1967),59, and 306. 7IBashi tu (CT 767), 12b. 72Cf. Douglas Wile, Art ofthe Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics, including Women's Solo Meditation Texts (New York, 1992),25-26. 73Bashi tu (CT 767), 12a-b. Talking to the Gods 23 practitioner-and once again a central part of the technique is an offering to the spirits. The total effect is that the Eight Archivists are "summoned and made subservient" (zhaoyi B ~~), and the result is that the spirits will appear in front of the practitioner (shuren fJIlj A), who may ask them questions about future and past events and about distant affairs. A secondary effect is that they will be at his service and protect him-and may indeed be called upon to assist him in obtaining any conceivable kind of blessing. However, in this version the technique can be performed only by a male practitioner, who preferably uses a secluded place in the mountains to construct a temple (shenshi :ptl ~), especially for the performance of the practice, and who keeps even the offerings free from the polluting touch of female hands. 74 The very different attitudes to women and sex in the two texts certainly may be taken as supporting evidence for the earlier date of the Bashi tu. It seems clear that within the great new traditions emerging in southern China toward the end of the fourth century, the attitude to women and their participation in significant roles in major religious rituals was at best very ambiguous. This is true also for the Shangqing tradition, which nonetheless traced its origin back to revelations from the female "libationer" (jijiu ~ l@) of the Zhengyi movement, Wei Huacun II ~ fl., and which at least in its early phases placed a great emphasis on the idea of divine spouses to be joined in heaven by male practitioners, when they finally ascended as immortals.75 Thus, in a passage of the Zhengao (CT 1016) by Tao Hongjing, it is stated that the sexual "methods of the red realm of the Yellow Book" (Huangshu chijie zhi fa Ji fi 'tf; W. Z It) most certainly will lead to a "harmonious union" (hehe fD ~) and that if one "makes contact with each other in accordance with the Dao" (yidao jiaojie .Gl. ~ ~ tl), one may be liberated from the web of the world, attain the six corners of the universe and set all its energies in motion, as well as avert calamities and dispel disasters, etc. 76 Yet in another passage, the Zhengao says, "The Lady of Purple Tenuity (Le., Wei Huacun) revealed the following: 'The arts of the red realm of the Yellow Book may contain some secrets of prolonging life, but in fact they belong to the lesser methods. They are not what the Perfected in the higher palaces of heaven or the ladies on the bright celestial luminaries speak about. These sexual methods developed as a branch of longevity techniques, they are not part of the superior Dao. ,,177 It should be noticed, however, that in spite of the secondary importance accorded to these practices, it appears that all through the Tang dynasty monasteries representing the Shangqing tradition were notorious for enforcing no

74Dongshen badi yuanbianjing (CT 1202), 25a.

75Note that also in the Bashi tu (CT 767), 12b-13a, the bestowing of a celestial spouse upon the male practitioner is envisaged in cases when some form of disturbance in the household (sannii exing - -9: ~fj [?]) makes the joint practice of husband and wife unfeasible. In such cases, the male practitioner should simply practice diligently on his own and upon completion of the Way will be accorded a Green-Waisted Jade Woman (Qingyao yunii WJlI3i -9:) by heaven. 76Zhengao (CT 1016), 6.4b. Cf. Masayoshi Kobayashi, "The Celestial Masters under the Eastern Jin and Liu-Song Dynasties," Taoist Resources 3.2 (1992):30. 77Zhengao (CT 1016), 2.1 b. Here, following the translation in Kobayashi, "The Celestial Masters," 31. ANDERSEN 24 restraints on activities of this kind. 78 For the methods related to the Eight Archivists, the attitude of the Lingbao tradition is of particular relevance, since elements of the methods were adopted and transmitted within this tradition. And here the attitude is much more clear-cut. The apparent misogyny of the founder of the Lingbao tradition, Ge Chaofu, has been discussed by Stephen Bokenkamp, who also points to the support for this attitude in the Buddhist texts from which Ge Chaofu borrowed.79 It seems clear that the relentless Buddhist attacks on Taoism for allowing its adherents to engage in sexual activities as formal expressions of religious practice were particularly effective in influencing the ideology of the Lingbao tradition, which more than any of the other early Taoist traditions based itself on borrowings of terminology and ideas from Buddhism. It was, of course, a general tendency within the Taoism of the late Six Dynasties to revise ideas and tighten organizations so as to conform with the conventional values of secular authorities and thus be in a better position to compete with Buddhism.80 There can be little doubt that this tendency contributed to the decline of the position of women within Taoist religious organizations, and the Bashi tu--with its straightforward egalitarian concepts of religious practice-represents among other things a precious and rare example of a Taoist ritual text from the period prior to the onset of this development.

78See K. M. Schipper, "Le monachisme taoiste" in Incontro di religoni in Asia tra if III e if X secolo dC. (Firenze, 1984), 199-216. 79Bokenkamp, "Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures," 445, 473-75.

80See for instance Kobayashi, "The Celestial Masters," 33-37 and Lagerwey, Wu-shang pi-yao, 21-38. Po Ya Plays the Zither: Taoism and the Literati Ideal in Two Types of Chinese Bronze Mirrors in the Collection of Donald H. Graham, Jr.1

Suzanne CAHILL University of California-San Diego

It has long been recognized that the decorations and inscriptions cast in relief on the backs of Chinese bronze mirrors of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220) reflect the beliefs of their makers concerning the ideal cosmic and social order of their world. Mirrors produced from the late Han through the Eastern Chin periods (up to A.D. 420) continue to illustrate an ideal world order. But as that order changed, the images and words cast on mirrors both illuminated and embodied the changes. Among the new designs devised by Chinese artisans of the late second and early third centuries are two known traditionally as: (I) "Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals" and (2) "Deities in Registers." Both designs show figures from classical Chinese mythology and from the Taoist pantheon, including the sixth-century B. C. zither player and immortal Po Va. Po Va's presence, the key to interpreting the mirrors which are the concern of this paper, corresponds to major religious and social changes of the time. As the Han dynasty began to collapse and divide into smaller kingdoms, there ensued an atmosphere of intellectual and political crisis where there had previously been confidence and security. The elite classes, comprised of the ruling family, landholding aristocracy, and officials in the imperial bureaucracy, were disrupted and dislocated. Ordinary people suffered the economic and social consequences of the breakdown of political order. The earliest schools of Taoism, China's native higher religion, arose in this climate. Schools we now know as the Celestial Master and Great Peace movements began in the latter half of the second century, combining a host of beliefs and practices originating in earlier cults of diverse social and geographic origins.2 The same period witnessed the early beginnings among Chinese elites of the social ideal which was to become the wen-jen or cultivated gentleman. Both the Taoist religion and the wen-jen ideal have exerted enonnons influences on Chinese intellectual history

I An earlier version of the material presented here appears in the catalogue of the Donald H. Graham Collection, forthcoming from Orientations. I am grateful to Mr. Graham for permission to publish these remarks. I am also grateful to Isabelle Robinet and Cynthia Chennault for their suggestions. For a summary of studies of Han mirrors with a cosmic design known as the TLV pattern, see Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise: The Chinese Quest/or Immortality (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1979), ch. 3. 20n the history of Taoism, see Anna Seidel, "Taoism" and Michel Strickmann, "Taoist History" and "Taoist Literature" in Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed. See also Isabelle Robinet, Histoire du Taoisme (paris: Cerf, 1992).

Taoist Resources, 5.1 (1994) 25 26 CAHILL

up to the present day.3 The image of the zither player Po Ya joins the dual worlds of Taoism and the cultivated gentleman.

The Mirrors

The two new types of bronze mirror which illustrate the latest developments in religion and society in early medieval China, traditionally called "Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals" and "Deities in Registers," were named after characteristic features of their decoration.4 The fonner design derives its name from a band of raised semi-circles and inscribed square seals surrounding the main field of decoration, and probably originated around A.D. 170. (plate 1) The latter shows Taoist deities arranged in tiers in a picture meant to be read vertically rather than around the circle, and probably originated around A.D. 200. (plate 2) Mirrors ofboth types are round with a large, smooth, central knob. We are fortunate to have in the Graham Collection a number of mirrors of both groups, including a dated example of each, which date from A.D. 201 and 262 respectively. There are also two pieces which combine features from both types and allow us to speculate about their relationship. These mirrors provide the opportunity to examine each pattern in some detail. Let us look now at the mirrors. We will describe each type, including standard iconography and inscriptions, using examples in the Graham Collection and drawing upon other sources for comparison. A final section on interpretation will connect the pictures and texts on both types of mirror to the Taoist religion and the new social ideal of the cultivated gentleman.

Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals

Beginning at the outside of the circular shape of the mirror and working inward, the design known as "Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals" (plate 1) includes a band of repeating decoration such as cloud scrolls, a band containing an inscription (replaced in later examples with racing animals and asterisms), another band of repetitive decor such as leaf shapes, the band of raised semi-circles and inscribed seals from which this design takes its traditional

3For the early appearance of the ideal of the cultivated gentleman in literature and art, see Richard Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yiJ: A New Account ofTales ofthe World (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1976) and Audrey Spiro, Contemplating the Ancients: Aesthetic and Social Issues in Early Chinese Portraiture (Berkeley: University of California, 1990). lowe much of the inspiration for this paper to the material and ideas presented by Mather and Spiro concerning the Six Dynasties detmition and portrayal of the cultivated gentleman. 4The traditional names, which go back to the catalogues of Ch'ing and even to Sung antiquarians, still serve well as a means of classifying mirrors. Mirrors of the two categories studied here appear with English descriptions in Annaliese Bulling, The Decoration ofMirrors ofthe Han Period: A Chronology (Ascona Switzerland: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1960), 90-96, plates 75-81. Dated, inscribed examples appear in Umehara Sueji, Kan sangoku rikucho kinen zusetsu [An Illustrated Discussion of Dated Mirrors from the Han, Three Kingdoms, and Six Dynasties Periods] (Kyoto, 1943). Umehara's work establishing the dates for most traditional types has not been smpassed. Po Ya Plays the Zither 27 name, a large central area with deities and animals in relief, another band of repeating decor like beads and discs strung on a necklace, and the knob. The large central zone is divided into four quadrants corresponding to the four directions, with the Taoist divinities known as the Queen Mother ofthe West or Hsi Wang Mu and the King Father ofthe East or Tung Wang Fu depicted in the western and eastern quarters respectively. The musician Po Ya together with his friend Chung Tzu-ch'i are often illustrated in the north or south quadrant, opposite the Yellow Emperor (Huang ti). They may be seated on animal thrones, attended by transcendents or other deities, and separated by auspicious animals such as dragons. 5 Inscriptions on mirrors of this type tend to be formulaic. The inscriptions on the Graham Collection mirrors resemble those found elsewhere. The text on the mirror illustrated in plate one (below) translates:

I have made a bright mirror, in seclusion refining the three shang elements [i.e., metals]. I engraved it without limit, matching and making images of all within the myriad boundaries. Po Ya is performing music, while the flock of deities show their faces. The hundred germinal essences are preserved together; good fortune and emoluments follow from this. May [the bearer] have wealth, noble position, peace and quiet; may his sons and grandsons multiply and prosper. With extended years and increased longevity, the life allotment of the [the mirror's] master will be prolonged.6

A very similar inscription from another mirror in the same collection runs:

I have made a bright mirror, in seclusion refining the three metals. It is engraved without limit [matching and making images of] all within the myriad boundaries. Po Ya is performing music while the flock of deities show their faces. Realized persons and worthies x, x x jade girls. x x [follows from this]. May [the bearer's] good fortune and noble position multiply and prosper. With added years and increased longevity, the life allotment of the [mirror's] master will be prolonged.7

5There are seven examples of the "Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals" category in the Graham Collection, numbers 57 (discussed here), 45, 80 (dated 262), 73, 84, 97, and 114. For comparison, see Bulling, plates 71-79, and Umehara for numerous examples.

~e inscription appears on number 57 in the Graham Collection in the square seals, four graphs to a seal. 7The inscription appears on number 84 in the Graham Collection in the square seals, four graphs to a seal. Other examples of this type in the Graham Collection bear the following inscriptions:

Number 80. (Outside rim) "On the 24th day of the ftfth month of the Eternal Peace Reign Period (of Wu = June 3, 262), I fashioned and made a bright mirror; with it one can illuminate and brighten. The bearer will have prolonged life. May he attain the office of a feudal lord or king." (Inside seals, one graph per seal) "The days and months of the heavenly king; great x work great. "

Number 97. (Outside rim) "I have made a bright mirror, in seclusion refming the three metals. 28 CAHILL

Deities in Registers

The type designated "Deities in Registers" (plate 2) developed a decade or two later than the mirrors with half-circles and square seals. Reading the design from the outside towards the knob in the middle, a typical mirror of this style includes a narrow band of repeated decoration, a band containing an inscription, a large central zone containing deities meant to be read vertically like a wall painting, a narrow flat band, and the smooth knob. Cartouches in the central zone may contain inscriptions. Deities represented include the Queen Mother of the West and King Father of the East in the western and eastern quadrants (to the viewer's left and right), the Yellow Emperor, Po Ya and his friend, rulers and animals ofthe four or five directions, and transcendent attendants, along with animal thrones and vehicles.8 Inscriptions on this category of mirrors also tend to be formulaic. The somewhat damaged inscription on the mirror in the Graham Collection illustrated in plate two (below) is typical, reading:

I have made a bright mirror, in seclusion refining metals from the palace. I arranged faces

I engraved x x; (po Ya?) makes music. The flock of deities show their faces. May you have sons and grandsons. Great good fortune x x." (Inside seals, one graph per seal) "It has taken five times three times two generations (= 600 years) to establish the element wood; in one hundred generations it will not be fmished."

Number 73. (Inside seals, one per seal) "three" (referring to tripart Tao, three kings, three heavens, heaven-earth-man).

Number 114. (Inside seals, one graph perseal) "The heavenly kings' days and months; the heavenly kings' days and months; the heavenly kings' days and months; the heavenly kings."

Number 45. (Inside seals, four per seal) "The heavenly kings' days and months" (This formula refers to traditional Chinese astronomy, celestial deities, and the emperor's prerogative of issuing the calendar.)

Compare a similar inscription on a mirror of this type in the Freer Gallery of Art (37.15):

I made a bright mirror, in seclusion refining the three metals. It is carved all around without stopping; it matches and makes images of all within the myriad boundaries. Po Ya plays music; the flock of deities show their faces. Let the bearer become a worthy or a squire; I respectfully offer the mirror up to a talented gentleman. May his sons and grandsons be numerous and prosperous; may they from this point on be wealthy and of noble birth. May peace and certainty be put into effect; may the expansive Tao never be exhausted. This is a greatly auspicious yang following mirror; its master's life allotment will be prolonged. snt.ere are three examples of the "Deities in Registers" category in the Graham Collection: 110 (dated 201),83, and 51. For comparison, see Bulling, plates 80-81; Umehara,plates 28-29 (dated 205),31 (dated 217). Po Ya Plays the Zither 29

and images: the Five Thearchs, Celestial lliustrious Ones, Po Ya plucking his zither, [the Yellow Emperor averting evil] x x x. In the sixth year of the Establishing Peace Reign Period [ofthe Han dynasty A.D. 201] xx. Mr. X made (the mirror). May your lordship reach the position of the Three Worthies.

Inscriptions in two vertical cartouches in the main field of decor read:

May your lordship gain public office.9

Combinations

One unusual mirror in the Graham Collection bears a transitional design (plate 3), including elements of both types discussed above, allowing us to speculate about how Han dynasty craftsmen moved from one style to another. The mirror has the half-circles and square seals characteristic of the earlier pattern, but its central zone is meant to be viewed vertically like the schemes ofthe "Deities in Registers" group. Divinities depicted include the Queen Mother of the West and King Father ofthe East to the left and right, Po Ya and listeners at the top, and perhaps the Yellow Emperor at the bottom. The design looks awkward; the figures seem to turn in their places to allow the viewer to read them straight on. The slightly later "Deities in Registers" pattern solves the problem of reconciling the round fonnat with a vertical plan by placing the figures on more or less horizontal steps, all arranged in relation to an imaginary central vertical line. While the present example itself may not be an early piece, we can guess that Han artisans made intennediate experiments roughly similar to this before moving decisively from the

'The inscription appears on number 110 in the Graham Collection. Inscriptions on other mirrors ofthis type in the collection read:

Number 83. "(1 have made) a bright mirror, in seclusion relIDing the three metals. It is engraved all around without limit, matching and making images of a myriad entities. Its virtues (of the ftve directions) arranged in order and Taoist masters will extend your life allotment, and (guarantee) riches, high position, and peace. Its bearer will enjoy increased years and abundant longevity; his

sons and grandsons x x x. II

Number 50. 37 graphs, many badly damaged, including: "Truly great craftsmanship, SUD, moon, three ssu, lord."

For comparison, see the nearly identical inscription on a mirror of this type in the Freer Gallery of Art (36.4):

"I made a bright mirror, in seclusion refining the three metals. All around I carved visages and images: the Five Thearchs, Celestial Illustrious Ones. Po Ya plucks the jade zither, the Yellow Emperor averts evil. The vennilion bird and dusky warrior, the white tiger and blue dragon. In the seventh year ofthe Establishing Peace (reign period =AD 202) this was fashioned and made. May your lordship become a lofty official." 30 CAHILL

traditional circular design which must be read from multiple points ofview to the vertical picture of gods in tiers which may be read from a single viewpoint.lO A fascinating fourth-century mirror (plate 4) blends features from the fully developed versions of both types. From the "Half-Circles and Square Seals" pattern, this mirror takes outer bands of racing figures and of raised half-circles and inscribed seals. These bands surround a composition of deities and animals in tiers meant to be read from a single viewpoint. Deities include Po Ya playing his zither to two listeners at the top, Hsi Wang Mu and Tung Wang Kung to the left and right of the central knob, and a muscular caryatid figure supporting the whole group at the bottom. The inscription on the seals reads:

I have made a bright mirror; riches and emoluments follow from this. [May the bearer obtain] longevity like that of the three stars; its Taoist masters should have their life allotment extended. The bearer will reach the rank of a worthy or esquire; his sons and grandsons will be numerous and prosperous. The flock of deities have their faces represented here; we thereby worship the talented and good. Po Ya performs music. In seclusion I refined metals-a hundred essences preserved together. In all cases [the bearer will] obtain his prayers and vows, for multiplied years and increased longevity, for riches, high position, peace and quiet.ll

Interpretation

Taoism

After examining this series of mirrors of the types known as (1) "Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals" and (2) "Deities in Registers" in the collection of Mr. Graham, we can be more precise about the way in which their inscriptions and designs embody the Taoism of the day and forecast that of the future. 12 The mirrors are excavated in areas related to early

laThe mirror in plate 3, number 86, bears an inscription inside the seals, reading: "I have made a bright mirror, reftning the three metals (shang and lien exchanged), engraving it all around with auspicious and lucky (images)." An inscription on the outside rim runs:

I have made a bright mirror; its basic material emerged from reftning metals. I engraved it with a hundred ftgures and images, all fashioned and made with great expertise, with craftsmanship and work that is skillful. For a hundred thousand days and months the bronze will radiate brilliantly. The Scarlet Illustrious One with a blue dragon (or blue lad?) to his left. (Blending) yellow metals (gold?) causes wood to come. (The mirror is) an emblem of westem Shu, with its flock of auspicious places. (May the bearer's) position reach that ofthe Three Worthies and may he receive good fortune and blessings. For comparison, see Umehara, plate 30, dated 209. liThe inscription appears on number 119 in the Graham Collection. 12The relation between contemporary Taoism and mirror inscriptions is examined in Suzanne Cahill, "The Word Made Bronze: A Study of the Inscriptions on Medieval Chinese Mirrors," Archives ofAsian Art 39 (1986). Po Ya Plays the Zither 31

Taoist history. The inscriptions mention dates and places connected with the faith and express Taoist concerns, such as achieving longevity, gaining celestial office, and pleasing the deities. The decorations in relief depict Taoist gods. The mirrors provide evidence that beliefs and practices characteristic of one ofthe great medieval schools of Chinese Taoism, the Shang-ch 'ing or Supreme Clear Realm school, were already present in germinal form in the late Han.13 Shang-ch 'ing Taoism was the school favored by the literate elite, the sort of people who would have patronized the bronze workshops where mirrors were cast during the Six Dynasties period. Words cast on bronze mirrors of the types in question refer to late second- through third century dates and to southern locations with great regularity. The Wu region was a major center of bronze production since at least the fifth century B.C. In the south of China, separate cultic streams which later flowed into the Taoist religion were bubbling up during the Han and even earlier. Many mirrors, including the piece dated A.D. 262 in the Graham Collection which bears a reign title ofthe southern kingdom ofWu, claim to be from this time and this place which were so important to the development ofTaoism.14 During the Six Dynasties period, the south was to become the center of aristocratic Shang-ch'ing Taoism. Inscriptions on mirrors ofmany different types throughout the Han and later eras mention the primary Taoist obsession-long life. The mirror texts quoted above wish for "extended years and increased longevity" on behalf ofthe bearer, asking the Taoist gods who control our life span, the Masters of Destiny, to prolong his predestined life allotment. Already the goal of the individual believer is long life on earth and personal immortality hereafter. Many of the developments of later Taoism concern the multiplication of techniques directed towards this goal. Mirror inscriptions also frequently wish for office on behalf ofthe bearer and his descendants. Such words as "may your lordship gain public office" honor the dead by suggesting that his worldly status was high. The same words are a prayer for celestial office after death. Han and later Taoists believed that the heavens were populated by a giant imperium of the gods, presided over by the Celestial Illustrious Ones (highest gods of the three heavens) and the Five Thearchs (emperors of the five directions). All the deities had their places in this system. Just as the highest earthly good was to attain a position in the emperor's government, so the highest good in the world to come was to achieve heavenly office. Late Han mirror texts refer to preserving or guarding the "hundred germinal essences," part of a whole series of practices devoted to yang ch 'i or "nourishing the vital breath" in order to

13Qn Shang-ch 'ing Taoism, its development and its preeminence among the elite, see Isabelle Robinet, La revelation du Shangqing dans I 'histoire du taoisme, 2 vols., (paris: Ecole Fran~aise d'Extreme Orient, 1984), 137; and Michel Strickmann, "The Mao shan Revelations: Taoism and the Aristocracy," T'oung Pao 63 (1977): 1-64. 14The late second- to early third-century date and the southern location seemed so auspicious to the makers of bronze mirrors that apparently a number of the mirrors bear inscriptions falsely claiming to be from that time and place. Wang Chung-shu makes this argument and discusses other issues related to the two types ofmirrors studied here in a series ofarticlesinK'ao-ku: 1982.6, 1984.5,1985.7, 1985.11,1986.7, 1986.11, 1987.7, 1988.4, 1989.2. On the importance of the south in Taoism and mirror inscriptions, see Cahill, "The Word Made Bronze," 62-70. 32 CAHILL

achieve immortality and celestial office.15 Such practices, intended to be perfonned privately by individuals, included meditation, fasting, and exercises. The techniques fonned part of Shang ch'ing Taoism, the school favored by the literate elite during the Six Dynasties period. The "flock of deities showing their faces" invoked in the inscriptions and depicted on the mirrors are Taoist gods and immortals. For example, the mirrors under consideration here illustrate the gods Hsi Wang Mu and Tung Wang Fu, a wife and husband pair of creator deities who protected the faithful, bestowed immortality on their believers, and registered the soul ofthe new transcendent on his way to heaven. Hsi Wang Mu, a goddess worshipped by both peasants and the imperial household during the Han and who later became a major Shang-ch 'ing divinity, appears on Han mirrors of many different types.16 The Queen Mother is occasionally identified by her sheng headdress which looks like two wheels at either end of a long stick; her husband, the King Father, wears a crown in the shape of a triple-peaked mountain. Another potent figure is Huang ti, the Yellow Emperor, first legendary ruler of China and symbolic ancestor of all the Chinese people. The focus ofa powerful cult with military and sexual overtones during the Han, he was believed to have been the first human to become immortal and fly to heaven in broad daylight. The transcendent musician Po Ya and his friend, of whom more will be said later, frequently appear. The mirrors also depict jade girls and blue lads, minor deities and servants of the gods, along with auspicious animal thrones and vehicles such as the dragon and ch 'i lin. The "flocks ofdeities" praised in the inscriptions represent the confusing host ofgods inherited by late Han Taoists. Taoist community leaders mediated between competing claims of various local cults for preeminence, harmonizing their practices and beliefs. Although no surviving texts prove this, Taoists must have attempted to arrange the divinities in hierarchical order and systematize a mass of different traditions to create a single coherent whole. The process, most probably started by the Celestial Masters and Great Peace traditions in the late Han, was brought to final fonn by the great masters ofthe Shang-ch 'ing lineage in the Six Dynasties period and the following T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618 - 907). The great medieval editor and master ofthe Shang-ch 'ing lineage, T'ao Hung-ching (456-536), compiled the first extant handbook to summarize the positions and jobs of the whole pantheon, "Chart of the Ranks and Duties of the Perfected and the Numina.tt11 We can see the same impulse to synthesize and arrange the gods in hierarchical order already at work a few centuries

150n techniques of nourishing the vital spirit, see Henri Maspero, "Les pro cedes de 'Nourrir Ie principe vital' dans la religion taorste ancienne," in Le taoisme et les religions chinoises (paris: Ga11imard, 1971): 293-466; see the translation by Frank A. Kiennan, Jr., Taoism and Chinese Religion (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981): 443-554.

160n the Queen Mother of the West, see Suzanne Cahill, Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother ofthe West in Medieval China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993). 11T'ao Hung-ching, Chen-ling wei-ye t'u (Chart of the Ranks and Duties of the Perfected and the Numina) in the Tao tsang (Treasure House ofthe Way [the Taoist canon]), Cheng-t 'ung edition, fIrst printed 1444 and reprinted by the Arts Printing House, Taipei, 1976, volume 5, 3317-3331; HY 167. HY followed by a number refers to the listing of the text in the Combined Indices to the Authors and Titles ofBooks in Two Collections ofTaoist Literature (peking: Harvard Yenching Institute, 25, 1935). The fIgure of Po Ya and his relation to social and religious developments in the Six Dynasties period is worth a separate study. Po Ya Plays the Zither 33 earlier, in the design called "Deities in Registers." The ruler of heaven sits at the top, with guardians of the gates to paradise (the Queen Mother and King Father) just below and the rulers of the four or five directions beneath and around them. The rulers of the five directions (the four compass directions plus the center) are frequently portrayed; they have several different traditional names. The directions, important in Chinese worship and cosmology since the neolithic, become part of a system of correspondences and categories during the Han. This system of five elements or phases (metal, water, wood, fire, and earth) was believed to lie at the root of creation and fonned the basis for classification of everything in the world. Han mirrors are usually arranged with reference to the directions, often showing some or all the animals ofthe four compass directions (the tiger in the west, tortoise and snake intertwined in the north, dragon in the east, and bird in the south) along with deities clearly identified with a certain direction such as the Queen Mother of the West and the King Father of the East. The directional orientation of the mirrors derives from their identity as charts of the universe, maps to salvation. The Han mirror itself is a microcosm, a mandala which represents the entire world in miniature. Everything in creation is there; the small world is complete in every detail, containing "images of all within the myriad boundaries." Laid out in quadrants according to the directions, it represents and calls upon the forces of nature and the heavens to help the bearer and bring him blessings. Instead ofthe abstract patterns embodying systems of cosmic order which were popular as mirror decoration earlier in the Han, the two groups of mirrors with deities discussed here embody universal harmony in anthropomorphic figures. The figures look nearly identical, despite the fact that some may have identifying marks like the Queen Mother's special headdress. Based upon comparison to other texts, we may posit various identities for these figures, but perhaps they are not meant to be distinguishable one from another. Rather they serve as general, all-purpose deities, defined by their position on the mirror and by the use to which the owner puts them. The patron is able to worship the gods of his time and place them under the guise of generic fonns available in any bronze workshop on a mass-produced basis. The specific identity of a figure may be quite beside the point. The exception is Po Ya, generalized like the others but still an individual and recognizable portrait. It is to him that we tum now.

Po Va: The Cultivated Gentleman

One innovation both groups ofmirrors considered here share is the depiction ofthe legendary sixth-century B.C. musician Po Va. He is also mentioned in numerous inscriptions. While most ofthe figures on late Han and early Six Dynasties mirrors are drawn with anonymous similarity, Po Ya alone is individually identified by his zither and his listening companion. Although the squat figure dressed in Chinese robes and seated cross-legged that is depicted on the backs of bronze mirrors could hardly be called the portrait of a specific person, he represents an ideal. His appearance reflects the new social model of the cultivated gentleman as well as the Taoist religious paradigm of the perfected man, the adept rewarded with individual immortality and a posthumous position in the celestial bureaucracy. Po Ya's joint portrayal with his friend Chung Tzu-ch'i further suggests the special value placed on friendship between educated men and the 34 CAHILL importance of mourning the irreplaceable dead. Po Ya is first mentioned in various texts of the Pre-Ch'in period, including the Hsfi.n-fzu, a collection ofessays by a follower of Confucius which was compiled around the third century B. C. Po Ya appears in a chapter arguing the importance of education:

In antiquity...when Po Ya played the zither, the six horses ofthe emperor's carriage looked up from their feed troughs. No sound is too faint to be heard .... Do good and see if it does not pile up. If it does, how can it fail to be heard of?18.

Hsiin-tzu uses Po Ya as one example in his extended defense of the benefits of learning. He argues that virtue and talent·williead to material rewards. But the Han mirrors reflect more than rhetoric on the practical power of education; the full story of the musician and his friend Chung Tzu-ch'i which lies behind the illustrations in bronze appears first in the Lu-shih ch 'un-ch 'iu, "Springs and Autumns of Mr. Lu," from about 240 B.C.:

Po Ya strummed the zither; Chung Tzu-ch'i listened to him. Whenever he was strumming the zither with his thoughts on Mount T'ai, Chung Tzu-ch'i would say: "How skillfully you strum the zither! Lofty and majestic like Mount T'ai." When in quiet and leisure his thoughts were on flowing water, Chung Tzu-ch'i again would say: "How skillfully you strum the zither! Purling and rippling like flowing water." When Chung Tzu-ch'i died, Po Ya smashed his zither and severed its strings; to the end of his life he never again strummed on a zither. He thought there was no one left in the world worth strumming a zither for.19

Here is the story we see on the mirrors-the divinely skilled Po Ya appreciates and later mourns his friend whose special gift was to understand him intuitively. Both performer and audience, inspired by nature, make music together. In the developed notion of the wen-jen or cultivated gentleman, such perfect communication exists between poet and reader or artist and viewer as well as musician and audience. During the Six Dynasties period, among the educated elite ofthe south where many ofthese mirrors were cast, people spent time in ch 'ing-t 'an or "pure conversationu on philosophical and aesthetic subjects with one aim being a perfect communication between conversants. The story of Po Ya and Chung Tzu-ch' i is repeated many times in texts ofthe second century A.D. and later, contemporary with the fabrication of the mirrors which show and mention the pair.20 The writers and readers of such books were the very people who had the mirrors made

18Burton Watson, trans., Hsun-tzu: Basic Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963),19. 19Lu-shih ch 'un-ch 'iu, 14.2, 4a. This translation is indebted to that of Mather, 326n.

20A couple of centuries before these mirrors were cast, the story occurs in a second-century B.C. work, Han Ying's Han-shih wai-chuan, IX:

Po Ya (sixth century B.C.) used to play his zither while Chung Tzu-ch'i listened. Whenever in his Po Ya Plays the Zither 35 and then placed in their tombs. Late second and early third-century craftsmen and their patrons found this subject suitable for objects used to accompany the dead; the context suggests a comparison between the tomb occupant and Po Ya and his companion Chung Tzu-ch'i. The comparison implies that the deceased was just such a divinely gifted and cultured gentleman as Po Ya. At the same time, becanse of his intuitive understanding, the deceased will be mourned as Chung Tzu-ch'i was mourned. Instead ofthe contemporary historical reality of war, economic hardship, and political uncertainty, which seemed beyond human control, these mirrors transport their viewers and makers to a world where personal refinement and the friendship between individuals grant lasting reputation and eternal salvation. Usually, the figures on either side of Po Ya in mirrors like those illustrated in plates I and 4 are identified as Chung and the other as some unknown deity. I would like to suggest that they are two different versions of Chung Tzu-ch'i. The one with hands thrown up in exaltation is listening to music inspired by Mount T'ai; the one leaning over in quiet contemplation hears music expressing flowing water. What is expressed in parallel prose in the texts translates into doubled figures in the picture. The ideal of perfect communication between two like-minded gentlemen is conveyed. Po Ya and his friend remain important characters throughout the Six Dynasties period. They continue to evoke the meanings first alluded to on the mirrors. A third- or fourth-century Taoist text, the Lieh-tzu, retells their tale in a discourse on the limitations of everyday knowledge and the relativity of judgment.21 They reappear in connection with both the wen-jen ideal and the

playing his thoughts were on Mount T'ai, Tzu-ch'i would say, "How well you play the zither-lofty and majestic like Mount T'ai!" Or in a quiet place when his thoughts were on flowing water, Tzu-ch'i would say, "How well you play the zither-rippling and purling like flowing water!" But after Chung Tzu-ch'i died, Po Ya laid aside his zither and broke the strings, and to the end of his life never played it again, feeling that no one listening was worth playing for. (Translation in Mather, 326n.)

A short reference to Po Ya in a poem by Juan Chi (210-263) shows the musician was well known in the Three Kingdoms period. A line in "Purifying the Thoughts," describes music played by the Yellow Emperor after his transcendence: "So spirit-like was its subtlety, that neither K'uei nor [poJYa could hear it clearly." Translation in Donald Holzman, Poetry and Politics: The Life and Works of Juan Chi (AD 210-263) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 139. K'uei was Director of Music during the exemplary reign of Shun (traditionally 2255-2206 B.C.)

21pO Ya and Chung Tzu-ch'i remain important in the Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties periods. The Lieh-tzu retells their story:

Po Ya was a good lute player, and Chung Tzu-ch'i was a good listener. Po Ya strummed his lute, with his mind on climbing high mountains; and Chung Tzu-ch'i said: "Good! Lofty, like Mount T'ai!" When his mind was on flowing waters, Chung Tzu-ch'i said: "Goodl Boundless, like the Yellow River and the Yangtze!" Whatever came into Po Va's thoughts, Chung Tzu-ch'i always grasped it. Po Ya was roaming on the North side of Mount T' ai; he was caught in a sudden storm of rain, and took shelter under a cliff. Feeling sad, he took up his lute and strummed it; first, he composed 36 CAHILL theme of mourning in the Shih-shuo hSin-yu ("New tales ofthe world"), a fifth-century collection of stories about the sort of people who had such mirrors cast and engaged in "pure conversation. t! The significance of their friendship is most tellingly described in a chapter called "Grieving the Departed," where they are compared to two great Buddhist intellectuals of the time:

Following Chili Tun's (314-366) mourning for the monk Fa Ch'ien (d.c. 365), his vitality and spirit became languid and spent, and his manner and bearing went more and more into a decline. He often remarked to others: "In antiquity Carpenter Shih discarded his hatchet after the death of the man from Ying, and Po Ya broke the strings on his zither on the death of Chung Tzu-ch'i. Making inference from my own experience and examining that of others, I know these words were no empty tales. Since the one who understood me intuitively has passed away, now whenever I say anything no one appreciates it and 'my innennost heart is cramped and constricted.' I might as well be dead!" One year later Chili Tun also passed away. 22

Po Ya is separate and identifiable on the bronze mirrors because he is the most important figure in the design. He is significant because he represented the ideal human being to the tomb occupant and others like him. He was the ideal person because he achieved both Taoist immortality and the status of a cultivated gentleman in adverse times. Like the perfected adept of Shang-ch 'ing Taoism in the Six Dynasties period, Po Ya joined social and devotional superiority. His appeal to the literati as described in "New Tales of the World" is the natural outcome of a process which leaves its first traces on the mirrors of the late Han dynasty.

Conclusion

Mirrors of the types traditionally known as (1) "Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals" and (2) IIDeities in Registers" provide a unique window to the history of their time. The designs on the backs of these bronze artifacts reveal contemporary developments and foreshadow future trends in Taoism. In addition, they display some of the earliest evidence of the beginnings of the wen-jen ideal. The examples studied here demonstrate the importance of Chinese bronze mirrors as primary documents of social and religious history-and the equal importance of reading them in cultural context.

an air about the persistent rain, then he improvised the sound of crashing mountains. Whatever melody he played, Chung Tzu-ch'i never missed the direction of this thought. Then Po Ya put away his lute and sighed: "Good! Good! How well you listen! What you imagine is just what is in my mind. Is there nowhere for my notes to flee to1" Translated in A.C. Graham, "Chapter Five: The Questions of T'ang" in The Book of Lieh-lzu: A Classic of Tao (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 109-110. 22See Mather, 326. Po Ya Plays the Zither 37

Plate 1. Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals Type. Bronze Mirror. Third Century A.D. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. 38 CAHILL

Plate 2. Deities in Registers Type. Bronze Mirror. Dated 201. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. Po Ya Plays the Zither 39

Plate 3. Combination Type. Bronze Mirror. Fourth Century A.D. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. 40 CAHIT..L

Plate 4. Combination Type. Bronze Mirror. Fourth Century A.D. Collection of Donalci H. Graham, Honolulu. Shamans, Demons, Diviners and Taoists: Conflict and Assimilation in Medieval Chinese Ritual Practice (c. A.D. 100-1000)

Peter NICKERSON University of California-Berkeley

1. Introduction: The Celestial Masters' Proscription of Spirit-Mediumism and Divination

Early in the year 5l3, Shen Yiieh tt*9, author of the official history of the Liu-Sung I~ *= dynasty and then Vice-President of the Imperial Secretariat, was favored with an audience before Hsiao Yen II ~fj, Emperor Wu ~ of the Liang~. Shen had at one time known great influence at court. When Emperor Wu assumed the throne in A.D. 502, he had planned on making his predecessor, Emperor Ho ~ of the Southern Ch'i i¥i -, a prince in the distant south. It had been Shen who, repeating the words of the notorious Machiavellian Ts'ao Ts'ao .. fI, had advised Emperor Wu: '''Never hanker after an empty name and thus meet with a real disaster.'" Emperor Wu had taken the hint and sent his agent to force the former emperor to commit suicide. Since that time, however, Shen had become increasingly unpopular in the palace, and during this audience the emperor even went so far as to accuse him of disloyalty. The emperor departed, but Shen, distraught with fear, did not notice and remained seated in the same spot. Finally returning home, he collapsed before he could reach his bed. Soon afterwards, Shen became ill, and in his illness he dreamed that the deposed and deceased Emperor Ho was cutting off his tongue with a sword. Shen had a spirit-medium (wu ~ ) descry the source of the dream, and what the medium reported matched the dream exactly:l Emperor Ho was indeed the source of Shen Yfieh's illness. As the Liang shu ~ records, Shen then "called on a Taoist priest to send up a vermilion petition as a memorial to Heaven ~ 1fr. 1P:~, claiming that the idea for the abdication and succession had not come from him. tt2 The ritual of healing by sending documentary requests to the gods was fundamental to the Way of the Celestial Master (T'ien shih tao ~ ~iIi ~ ), the foundation for the Taoist liturgical

IMorohashi's gloss of ttl]. ('like the/a dream') as "unclear, incoherent," for which he cites this same sentenc~ ttO. "what the medium said was like the dream "-apparently is incorrect (Morohashi Tetsuji ~fj'~~ Dai kanwajiten *~~iI$!J4 [Tokyo, 1957-1960],5802.161). See Miyakawa Hisayuki's discussions ofthis incident (Miyakawa Hisayuki '8III il!6i5, Rikuch6-shi kenkyU: shuky6-hen :w.J5e7iJf~: **1l~ [Kyoto, 1964],353; Chugoku shUky6-shi kenkyU r:f::tlil ~5e7iJf~, vol. 1 [Kyoto, 1983], 276).

2Tzu chih t'ung chien Wmmi m(Peking, 1956), 10.145.4518; Liang shu ["LS"](Peking, 1973), 1.13.243; see also Richard B. Mather, The Poet Shen Yueh (441-513): The Reticent Marquis (Princeton, 1988), 130-31, 175,220-23.

Taoist Resources, 5.1 (1994) 41 42 NICKERSON tradition, which began in Szechwan and Han-chung ~ 9=' in the second century A.D. with the so-called "Five Pecks of Rice" sect (Wu tou mi tao ~ * ~ ). According to an early commentary on the Record ofthe Three Kingdoms, the lowest-ranking members of the Celestial Master priestly hierarchy

were responsible for praying for the sick. The ritual of prayer was that the sick person's name was written down, along with a statement of confession of his or her sins. Three sets were made: one was sent up to heaven, and was placed on a mountain; one was buried in the earth; and one was sunk in the water. These were called "handwritten documents of the Three Offices" [the three offices of Heaven, Earth, and WaterV

Detailed materials written by the Taoists themselves and preserved in the Taoist Canon show that, by Shen Yiieh's time, this ritual had become a more elaborate one of "petitioning celestial officials," but the method ofwritten communication with an otherworldly administration remained as the basis for Taoist healing ritual.4 Shen Yiieh's employment of the spirit-medium and the Taoist priest-to cure a disease he believed to have been caused by the spirit of a man he had (in effect) murdered-raises questions in a number of areas, the most tantalizing being that where psychology, medicine, and religion overlap. In historical research, such issues are perhaps best approached obliquely, rather than head on; this study is concerned instead with an issue in the social history of Chinese religion. The Taoists of the Way of the Celestial Master portrayed the ritual of confessional petitioning precisely as an alternative to what they saw as the debased practices of spirit-mediumism. Medieval Taoist scriptures reserve their greatest opprobrium for spirit-mediums and the sacrificial cults they encouraged. Yet in the episode of Shen Yiieh's illness, medium and Taoist priest were in effect collaborating in the process oftreatment: the medium provided the diagnosis; the Taoist effected the cure. This study will address the question of how this change-from antagonism to complementarity-was possible.

The Mantic Arts in Taoist Codes

First let us examine this attitude of antagonism. One of the most articulate early Taoist polemics against the popular religion is the Abridged Codes of Master Lu for the Taoist Community, by Lu Hsiu-ching ~~D (406-477) and an anonymous commentator, perhaps a

3San kuo chih =IiOO (Peking, 1959), 1.8.264, P'ei Sung-chih's ~ ~ Z (360-439) commentary quoting Tien lueh ~~. Shen YOeh had of course used his petition for a slightly different purpose: he had attempted to offer a plea, rather than confessing.

4The petitioning ritual (referred to variously as shang chang J:Jit, pai 1if chang, tsou ~ chang, etc.) has been reconstructed in detail and analyzed in its historical context by Ursula-Angelika Cedzich. See her "Das Ritual der Himmelsmeister im Spiegel friiher Quellen: Obersetzung und Untersuchung des liturgischen Materials im dritten chuan des Teng-chen yin-chueh" (Ph.D. diss., Iulius-Maximilians-Universitlit, WOrzburg, 1987) and the English-language review by Anna Seidel in Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 4 (1988): 199-204. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 43

S disciple who also had created the l abridgment." Lu criticizes the lax practices of some Taoists, who

tum their backs on the upright teaching of the Pure Covenant of the Alliance with the Powers [Commentary] The Ritual Master of the Alliance with the Powers [the Taoist priest] does not take money; the spirits neither eat nor drink [Le., receive sacrificial offerings]. This is called the Pure Covenant (ch'ing yiieh ~*9). In curing illness one does not use acupuncture, moxa, or hot liquid medicines. One only ingests talismans, drinks [talismanic] water,6 confesses one's sins, corrects one's behavior, and sends a petition-and that is alL When [choosing a site for] a dwelling-place, installing a sepulcher, or moving house--when moving, coming to rest, or in all the hundred affairs-not divining for a [lucky] day or making inquiries concerning [auspicious] times, simply following one's heart, avoiding or inclining towards nothing is called the Covenant [or 'is called restraint', yiieh]. Casting out the thousand sprites and ten thousand numena-all the [profane] gods-as one takes up the worship of Lord Lao and the [first] Three [Celestial] Masters is called the Upright Teaching.

and resort to the upside-down rites of perverse and calamitous spirit-mediumism.

Making sacrifices to demons and gods and praying for blessings is called Perverse. Weighing the words of demons and gods in order to divine auspiciousness and inauspiciousness is called Calamitous. Irresponsibly creating taboos and avoidances that are not in the codes and teaching of the [Celestial] Masters and Lao[-tzu] is called Spirit-medium ism. As for writing charts, [and thus] divining for sites of sepulchers and dwellings and the baneful influences of their geomancy, one ought [instead] to send up a petition to exorcise [those influences]. To persist in using calendars to pick days and choose times is even more stupidly obstreperous. That which is illumined by the upright codes, they are forever unwilling to follow. That which the law prohibits, they compete in reverently employing. Thus turning one's back on the true and turning towards the false is called Upside-down.

Here the Taoist distaste for China's "ecstatic religion"--especially the bloody rites of propitiatory sacrifice demanded by the gods who entered into and spoke through their mediums-is expressed with great force. An important facet ofthe treatment of spirit-medium ism

5Lu Hsien-sheng tao men k'o lUeh ~~$t~mr~fHl~ (CT 1127; "TMKLIf). All works in the Ming Taoist Canon are identified by their numbers in K. M. Schipper, Concordance du Tao-tsang ["CT'] (Paris, 1975). 6That is, water into which has been mixed the ashes of a burnt paper talisman. 44 NICKERSON

in this tract is its association with divination. The two are so little distinguished that creating calendrical and geomantic "taboos and avoidances," the province of diviners, is named simply as a form of spirit-mediumism. The "180 Precepts of Lord Lao" ~ B 1\ + me, which are preserved in a recension that most likely dates from the fourth century,' actually devotes more attention to divination than to mediumism and sacrifice.s Forbidden are:

seeking to know the affairs of the army and the state and divining auspiciousness and inauspiciousness; ... on behalf of others charting the hills for the building of tombs or raising of houses; . . . seeking to know the patterns of the asterisms and divining the celestial times; ... divining matters for the profane-the charts of the eight gods also may not be practiced. (CT 786, 4blO-5al, 7a6-7, 8b8-9)

The 180 precepts thus touch on all manner of mantic practices, and especially astro-geomancy: "charting the hills" for purposes of the proper orientation of houses and tombs, and prognostication by means of "the patterns of the asterisms" (hsing wen :X ) and the "celestial times" (t'ien shih::.R~ ),9

Mediums' and Diviners' Common Roots

Indeed, spirit-mediumism and divination are, in the Chinese context, both typologically and historically far from completely distinct phenomena. As Sawada Mizuho points out, divination most generally conceived refers to ways of gaining knowledge of the future through contacting the supernatural. "Mediated" forms ofdivination, such as oracle bone pyro-scapulimancy in which divine messages are recorded in the physical medium of the bone, in this way become linked to more direct forms, such as dream incubation (ch'iu meng *")or the hearing of the gods' words through the mouths of possessed mediums.1O Of course, the mediums' words are often unintelligible to lay bystanders and must be 'interpreted' by priests or other professionals, again

7Hans-Hennann Schmidt, "Die Hundertachtzig Vorschriften von Lao-chtln," in Religion und Philosophie in Ostasien: Festschrift fur Hans Steininger zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Gert Naundorf, Karl-Heinz Pohl, and Hans-Hennann Schmidt (Wllrzburg, 1985), 149-159.

aThe "180 Precepts" repeats the classical admonition against "giving cult to 'other' spirits" [tij fl:IHl ¥P :tin and further inveighs against "making sacrifices to spirits, to seek good fortune" (CT 786, 8b7-8, 931-3). 9Cf. CT463,5.15b6, 17a6, 17b6-7, 18a9-1O. As Poul Andersen notes, the Ling-pao version ofthe 180 Prohibitions (in CT 456) is a great deal more lenient as regards divination, likely owing to the greater influence of southern mantic traditions on the creators of the Ling-pao scriptures. See Poul Andersen, "Talking to the Gods: Visionary Divination in Early Taoism (The Sanhuang Tradition)," Taoist Resources 5.1 (1994), above, 1-24. Dr. Andersen's paper is also the first full study of the "charts of the eight gods" (pa shen t 'u 1\ ¥Pill ) and what he calls "visionary divination."

JOSawada Mizuho i1!EB Jffllfl, ChUgoku no juho r:p ~ (J) nit, rev. ed. (Tokyo, 1990), 336-8. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 45 adding a layer of mediation. II Wu in ancient times served not only as mediums, but also as diviners and doctors. As the arts of divination and medicine became more elaborate and more dependent on learned, literate traditions, wu activities became more and more confined to medium ism, but in medieval times this transition was far from complete. Chiang T'ung H*1C (d. 310) is reported to have criticized before a Chin prince "vulgar, petty spirit-mediums" * -m 'J-~, whose "mediums' writings" ~. contained instructions concerning days in the calendar on which construction should be forbidden, a traditional subject for diviners. 12 Exact classifications are made more problematic by the tendency of contemporary writers to use 'wu' as a term of disparagement not necessarily closely connected to a practitioner's actual activities. This is a kind of bias from which Chiang T'ung's purported remonstration certainly is not free. "Prohibitions and taboos" (chin chi ~ J1S ) in fact were determined with great frequency by means of calculations transmitted through a learned, literate tradition. 13 The interdictions of the Taoists involved potentially a whole gamut of forbidden activities, from blood-sacrifice and spirit-medium ism to erudite divinatory calculations.

The Celestial Masters' Rejection of Divination

It should not be thought that the strictures of the Celestial Master codes were simply on-paper prohibitions motivated by theological concerns, with no basis in actual practice. Dr. Seidel's research has shown us the importance of tomb ordinances--that is land purchase contracts and other such documents buried with the dead-for the understanding of Han religion. Especially central to her work were the late Han "grave-securing writs" (chen mu wen _1i:R ), which were put in tombs in order to assure the safe passage of the deceased to the next world. 14 Such artifacts are also highly relevant to Six Dynasties Taoism. Five Taoist tomb ordinances, from fifth- and early sixth-century Hunan and Hupei, each contain language like the following:

In accordance with the Law of the Way of the Most High and all the Lords and Elders, we did not dare to select a time or choose a day, and we did not avoid the subterrestrial

I1Cf. 1. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, vol. 6 (Leiden, 1910), 1274-5; Alan 1. A. Elliott, Chinese Spirit-Medium Cults in Singapore (London, 1955),64,67; K. M. Schipper, Le corps taoi'ste (paris, 1982), ch. 4, esp. 69. 12Li Fang *DJi (925-996) et aI., comps., T'ai p 'ing ya Ian ::t: ~ fill. ("TPYL"), collation of various Sung eds. (Shanghai, 1960), 735.5b8, quoting the Family Records ofthe Chiang Clan lI.fX~«t. I3See, e.g., the sixth-century Wu hsing ta i Iifi*ft, written by Hsiao Chi IIa , a close relative of the Liang imperial house and an official under the Sui; the work has been translated by Marc Kalinowski in his Cosmologie et divination dans la Chine ancienne: "Le Compendium des cinq agents" (Paris, 1991).

14Anna Seidel, "Geleitbrief an die Unterwelt: Jenseitsvorstellungen in den Graburkunden der spli.teren Han-Zeit," in Religion und Philosophie in Ostasien, 161-83, and "Traces of Han Religion in Funerary Texts Found in Tombs," in D6ky6 to shUky6 bunka ~~ 2':: ~:R~I::, ed. Akizuki Kan'ei tk Fi.~ (Tokyo, 1987), 21-57. 46 NICKERSON

prohibitions and taboos. Our actions in the Way have been upright and perfect, and we have not inquired of the turtle or milfoil. IS

The makers of the tombs proclaimed their allegiance to Taoist law, rejecting all types of divination normally carried out in connection with burials. These included the use of milfoil stalks (for choosing the grave-site) and the turtle shell (for choosing the day of burial), as prescribed in canonical texts such as the I Ii; 16 more popular mantic procedures, such as those designed to keep the digging of the grave from offending the spirits of the earth-the "subterrestrial prohibitions and taboos" (ti hsia chin chi ttl! r g ~ )---would also have been shunned. There were no doubt a number of factors behind the Taoists' proscription of mediumism and divination. The initial motivation for the prohibition may have been largely a matter of social organization and religious competition. The intent of the early Taoist church to tum itself into a utopian society "enclosed in a sealed vessel," as Rolf Stein has put it,17 meant that Taoist parishioners had to be cut off from non-Taoist sources of supernatural assistance. By the time of Lu Hsiu-ching, however, Taoism had spread out from its original heartland in the west and no longer had a chance of preserving a hermetically sealed society. The social organization of Taoism was changing, from that of a 'sect', with priests and registered lay followers, to a 'guild' of Taoist priests (ritual specialists), and Taoist priests began to compete, and cooperate, with their medium and diviner colleagues on the basis of efficacy, rather than sectarian exclusivity. This new relationship was made possible, as this study will try to show, because Taoism had found ways to 'remove the teeth', so to speak, from certain practices of mediums and diviners. This was

15The oldest of the five Taoist tomb ordinances dates from 433 and was found in a brick tomb near Ch'ang-sha, Hunan, while land was being cleared. It is inscribed on a slab of granite (33 x 26 x 2 cm). See Ch'ang-sha Municipal Cultural Object Work Brigade, "Ch'ang-sha ch'u-t'u Nan-ch'ao HsU Fu mai-ti-ch'Uan" ~i1>l:H± j¥n11~iijlJ'~'ttl!~, Hu-nan k'ao-ku chi-k'an liYlm~EflflJ 1 (1982): 127-128. The second, made of earthenware (50 x 23 x 8 cm), with a separate cover, is dated 485 and was recovered from a tomb near Wu-ch'ang in Hupei. See Hupei Provincial Museum, "Wu-han ti-ch'U ssu-tso Nan-ch'ao chi-nien mu" JF\:~ttl!;;IZ!I~m-Wj*2~J,;, K'ao-ku ~E 4 (1965):176-184,214. The final three all were excavated near Tzu-hsing in southern Hunan. Each is an earthenware brick covered with lime, measuring about 35 x 17 x 7 cm; the texts are written in cinnabar. The oldest of the three is dated 505; one of the other two is dated 520, and its companion, found in the same tomb, must date from about the same time. See Hunan Provincial Museum, "Hu-nan Tzu-hsing Chin Nan-ch'ao mu" liYlmWft-ffm-WjJ,; K'ao-ku hsueh-pao ~ E ~ ¥fj 3 (1984): 335-359. I would like to thank Professor Albert Dien for bringing to my attention these last three ordinances and for generously making available to me information from his database on Six Dynasties tombs.

16J Ii shu {ti~ am, vol. 4 of Shih-san ching chu shu +- ~7±lift , ed. Jen YUan (1764-1849), reprint of 1816 ed. (Taipei, 1985), 37.15b2ff., 18a8ff.; John Steele, trans., The J-li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial (London, 1917; reprint Taipei, 1966),2:73-77. For further evidence for the observance of the prohibition on divination, see below. 17Rolf A. Stein, "Remarques sur les mouvements du taolsme politico-religieux au lIe siecle ap. J.-C.," T'oung Pao ("TP") 50.1-3 (1963): 40. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 47 done largely by limiting the scope of those techniques to diagnosis rather than cure, thus making them subsumable beneath the overarching bureaucratized cosmology and curative rituals of Taoism. Having described Taoism's early attitude of antagonism towards the mantic arts, this study will next try to trace what appears from Celestial Master liturgical sources, especially Master Red-Pine's Almanac ofPetitions i/ft. ~ .11 ["CL"] (CT 615), to have been the course during the medieval period of the relationship between the Way of the Celestial Master and these same mantic arts. The chief concern will be the Celestial Masters and certain types of divination. The prohibition of divination in the Celestial Master codes, and the reflection thereof in excavated mortuary texts, has already been noted. But other sources indicate that the complex pattern of antagonism and complementarity found above in the case of Taoism vis-a-vis spirit-medium ism also obtained for the Celestial Masters and divination. Celestial Master rituals in certain respects even assimilated the spirits and the principles of some forms of divination. 18 This study will then conclude with an attempt to account for how such a process of assimilation was possible in the face of the seemingly unequivocal prohibition.

2. The Celestial Masters' Assimilation of Divination

In order to understand how the Way of the Celestial Master was able to reach an accommodation with some kinds of mantic practices, the following will try to determine the character of the medieval Celestial Masters' relations with divination. Evidence concerning this topic is especially rich in Master Red-Pine 's Almanac ofPetitions, which survives in a relatively late recension, probably from the late T'ang, but contains much material from the earlier centuries of the Way of the Celestial Master.19 Precisely because the contents of Master Red-Pine's Almanac date back over such a wide expanse of time, several stages of the relationship between Taoist priests and diviners may be detected in that source. Besides the early stance of proscription, new and very different kinds of relations emerge. Celestial Master priests seem to

taIt was pointed out above (n.9) that other elements within the larger Taoist synthesis, in particular those of Southern origins, such as San-huang, Ling-pao, and Shang-ch'ing, regarded divination much more leniently from the start. (T'ao Hung-ching l!filJiibJl [456-536], who edited and wrote commentaries on the Shang-ch'ing scriptures and, through his Concealed Instructions for Ascent to Perfection Jf Ii!~ [CT 421], provided the best surviving source on the early petitioning ritual, himself seems to have been an accomplished diviner [see, e. g., LS 3.51.743]. He also compiled important pharmacological (pen tS'ao* 1it] works; see Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History ofPharmaceutics [Berkeley, 1986], 28ff.) The topic here, however, is the prohibition of the mantic arts in Celestial Master codes and the evidence for its eventual accommodation specifically in the Celestial Masters' ritual of petitioning, the most clear-cut example of the confrontation between the mantic traditions and Taoist ritual. Cf. below, nA8. 19See Cedzich, 15-17, and Marc Kalinowski, "La litterature divinatoire dans Ie Daozang," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 5 (1989-90): 96-99. Dr. Seidel, though certainly aware that the surviving redaction is late, believed the text to date from the third to fifth centuries. See Anna Seidel, "Post-Mortem Immortality, or: The Taoist Resurrection of the Body," in Gilgul: Essays on Transformation, Revolution and Permanence in the History ofReligions dedicated to R J. Zwi Werblowsky (Leiden, 1987),233. 48 NICKERSON

have employed the reports of diviners-and even to have practiced divination themselves-in connection with their petitioning rituals.

The Consequences of Eschewing Divination

As noted above, archaeological evidence tends to confirm that some Taoists observed the prohibition on divination, for instance in the choice of sites or times for burials. Such piety was not without its drawbacks, however. Though the Celestial Masters forbade the propitiation or avoidance of the spirits that were the province of the diviners, they never ceased to believe in and fear them. There was, in fact, a clear awareness that in eschewing divination Taoists might leave themselves open to the depredations of those spirits, if precautions were not taken. In the fifth and sixth-century excavated Taoist tomb ordinances mentioned above, the claim is made that the makers of the tomb "did not avoid the subterrestrial prohibitions and taboos"; at the same time, the spirits of the earth and tomb made subject to Lao-tzu's command by means of the ordinance are themselves addressed as "subterrestrial prohibitions and taboos ... 20 Hence, the spirits of the earth and minor functionaries ofthe tomb named as recipients of the ordinances are identified with the chthonian spirits that would be offended by geomantically incorrect burials. The ordinances express simultaneously a lack of concern for geomantic taboos on burials and the explicit recognition that ritual means-the ordinances themselves-were still necessary to pacify the "subterrestrial prohibitions and taboos." Providing more complete information about the Celestial Masters' mixed attitude of disdain for, and continued fear of, the spirits that were the concern of the geomancers, Master Red-Pine 's Almanac ofPetitions contains a model text for a petition-for "Removal from Lying-in-State for Burial" I±I ~ r ~ i':-that was to be dispatched by the priest on the occasion of the removal of a corpse from the family's home and the procession to the tomb-site. The petition is to inform the celestial authorities as follows:

[The supplicant,] (So-and-so) worships and belongs to the pure and true and has entrusted himself to the Pneumas of the Way. He has not resorted to following a master and making divinatory inquiries. He is [therefore] afraid that he will be harmed by Great Year (T'al sui -:kWl. ), or by the establishing, hooking, punishing, crushing, or killing influences of the twelve months, or by the stale vapors that are subordinate officials, or by some other of the thousand prohibitions and ten thousand taboos. He has sought out your servant [Le., the priest] to report this on high in order to protect himself. Your servant notes that (so-and-so) is one of the People of the Way, and his affairs are different from the profane-when sending off and burying the dead he taboos and avoids nothing. Such a devoted person is worthy of your pity.

lonte fact that 'taboo' really means 'tabooed object', and hence refers more to the potentially offended spirit than to the rule for avoiding it, accounts for why 'not to avoid a taboo' means not to take cognizance of the prohibited day, direction, etc., rather than actually to observe such rules, as the literal English translation might imply. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 49

The petition then requests the responsible celestial officials to send down a talisman and order the spirits of the earth and tomb, and of the locality through which the funeral procession is to pass, not to trouble the supplicant or his family, and to allow the deceased unfettered passage to the next world (CL 6.17a-18a). This petition makes clear that the failure to make the customary funerary divinations left Taoists open to the depredations of the spirits of the earth, the heavens, and the calendar, protection from which was by custom sought from diviners. Fortunately for the thus-beleaguered Taoist, an even more reliable prophylactic was provided by Taoist ritual itself. Potentially hostile spirits could be subdued by the blanket command of the celestial officials so petitioned.

Spirits of Divination in the Taoist Otherworldly Bureaucracy

Of particular importance is the manner in which these spirits were subdued: the Taoists turned them into minor functionaries on the margin of the vast Taoist bureaucratized pantheon of the other world and the unbureaucratized (and hence demonic) realm of the gods of the popular religion.21 For example, the fifth- and sixth-century excavated Taoist tomb ordinances already mentioned begin by naming a large number-about forty individuals or categories-of such divinities as recipients of the commands of the god Lao-tzu on behalf of the deceased and his family. At the end of this list, which is made up primarily of the minor demon-functionaries of the tomb, are mentioned, individually or by inclusion, twelve unusually-named spirits. One text refers to: "Celestial Kang ~:." Grand Monad:t:. , Ascendant Brilliance ~Bfj , Merit Bureau rtJ •• Transmitter f$ ~ , and [the other of] the twelve divinities that follow the Dipper ~ -4 += :»." These same spirits are named quite specifically in the Lun heng of Wang Ch'ung (27-91). Wang gives an account of first-century notions concerning Great Year (T'ai SUI) and the harm it can cause when "struck" (ch 'ung Ii) by those who travel or move their residences in the direction occupied by Great Year at a particular time: "For instance, if Great Year is in chia-tzu, no one under heaven may go between south and north. When putting up a house or marrying one must also always avoid this."ll (Such prohibitions also covered the construction of tombs.) Wang then adds:

Instead there may be the twelve spirits, of the sort of Ascendant Brilliance and Follower

21In this respect they continued a process begun at least as early as the late Han grave-securing writs (chen mu wen) studied by Dr. Seidel.

22In early astronomy, the position of Great Year was determined in accordance with the position of ~upiter (Sui ruing ~ £ ) in its twelve-year cycle, but T'ai sui progressed in the opposite direction from Jupiter and the other planets. In the popular conception, both today and most likely also in early times, Great Year and the visible planet Jupiter were identical. See Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, vol.3, Mathematics and the Sciences ofthe Heavens and the Earth (Cambridge, 1959),402-6; and Hou Ching-lang ~jIiH~~, "The Chinese Belief in Baleful Stars," in Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion edited by Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel (Yale, 1979),200-209. 50 NICKERSON

ofK'uei mill. Specialists in craftsmanship and techniques say they are all celestial spirits. They always stand in the positions of tzu , ch 'ou :B. , [and the other ten of the twelve terrestrial branches,] and all possess pneumas of striking and blocking. Although as divinities they are not the equal of Great Year, still one may suffer small defeats by them.23

The passage takes on greater significance when the first character, huo §)C , is read, as the commentators suggest, as shih?:: , the name for the Han diviner's board or cosmic board. Thus Wang Ch'ung was in fact referring to "the twelve spirits on the cosmic board"; the names of the twelve spirits actually do appear on an archaeologically excavated cosmic board dating from the Wang Mang interregnum or the early Latter Han, and on all subsequent boards.24 The twelve, as one might expect, are spirits of the twelve months--but the solar months, not the lunar months typically identified with the Chinese calendar. Moreover, the twelve spirits of the solar months were created specifically within the context of divination with the cosmic board, and eventually fulfilled a central role within the related Six Jen t\ ± system of divination. The diviners had created the spirits and given them, as Marc Kalinowski puts it, "the particular charge of revealing for mantic ends the occult power of the sun in the determination of the lunar months and the civil calendar. 1125 Returning to the Taoist tomb ordinances, one sees, then, that by including the spirits of the cosmic board and Six Jen divination in the list of spirits subject to Lao-tzu's edict, these early medieval Celestial Master Taoists incorporated into the documentary framework of Taoist liturgy spirits that originally were created by diviners for mantic purposes. Moreover, in these excavated tomb ordinances, the spirits of the tomb, and the minor spirits of the earth and the heavens related to tomb-siting and divination, such as our twelve, are promised advancement in the otherworldly bureaucracy if they obey Lao-tzu's command and act as trustworthy guides for the deceased, or punishment according to statute should they disobey. The Most High promises the spirits:

[If] the way is opened [for] the deceased, and he is made to be without worry or trouble, and [if] the living are benefited and protected, on the auspicious days of the Three Assemblies, on behalf of all the divinities of the mound and tomb, we shall speak: of their merit and put them up for promotion, adding to their offices and emoluments, in accordance with the classifications and precedents of the Celestial Bureaux. If they hinder [the deceased] through criticism, not accepting the celestial law, or cast aspersions on the

23Wang Ch'ung :£ 1C , Lun heng chiao shih iii fii f5lfJ , ed. Huang Hui fi iii (Peking, 1990), 3.24.1016-7, "Nan sui").

24Yen Tun-chieh M~~, "Pa liu-jen shih-p'an iDtt\ ?::fi ," Wen wu Is 'an k'ao Izu liao :x4m~~ Wft 1958.7:20-23; Donald Harper, "The Han Cosmic Board: A Response to Christopher Cullen," Early China 6 (1980-81): 52ff.; Marc Kalinowski, "Les instruments astro-calenderiques des Han et la methode liu ren," Bulletin de I'Ecoie Fran~aise d'Extreme-Orient 72 (1983): esp. 354-360. 2sKalinowski, "Les instruments astro-calenderiques," 359-60. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 51

grave-site, and do not put the deceased to rest, their crime shall be dealt with in accordance with the Demon Statutes of the Heaven-dark Capital.

This means that through meritorious service the spirits of the popular religion, including those created by diviners for forbidden mantic purposes, could be incorporated within the framework of the Taoist invisible bureaucracy. The inclusion within the petitions of the Celestial Masters of the spirits of the geomancers no doubt represents a very early example of a phenomenon also noted much later by Maurice Freedman. Freedman has observed that "in popular religion a ... transformation is worked by which the disembodied forces of the geomancer are turned into personal entities .... For the geomancer the landscape is full of the signs of forces; for the priest it is inhabited by gods and spirits."26 In a similar vein, Hou Ching-lang shows that ancient notions of baleful stars (hsiung hsing ~ ~ ) had changed by modem times, losing their astrological or calendarological components and instead becoming simply another category of harmful demon.27 And, in the Taoists' case, we might also posit a reason for transformations of this type: when geomantic concepts become spiritual beings, they are best handled by the commanders of the spirit world-Taoists-rather than those merely skilled in technical calculations--diviners.28

26Maurice Freedman, "Geomancy," in The Study o/Chinese Society: Essays 0/Maurice Freedman, edited by G. W. Skinner (Stanford, 1979), 325. 27Hou, "Baleful Stars," 193. 28The process was already begun, however, by the diviners themselves, as they transformed the solar months represented on the Former Han cosmic board into the menstrual spirits of the Latter Han board and Six Jen divination. Note also that the assimilation of these demon-functionaries by the Taoist tomb ordinances represents a different way of handling these petty demons than is employed in the petitions of Master Red-Pine IS Almanac, which sought only to suppress the minor spirits of the earth and stars and to reward the Taoists' own celestial officials for so doing. In the tomb ordinances, the minor spirits themselves are given advancement in the hierarchy of the other world in exchange for services rendered. The tomb ordinances appear to have arisen out of a milieu that was both more popular and less urban than, say, that of Lu Hsiu-ching. They also represent a rather different approach to dealing with the competition provided by diviners and their spirits. The tomb ordinances reflect clearly the acceptance of the prohibition on divination, and, as in the conventional Celestial Master petitions, the minor spirits concerned are subjected to punishment under the statutes applicable to demons in cases ofmisbehavior. In the ordinances, however, the minor spirits are also promised promotion "in accordance with the classifications and precedents ofthe Celestial Bureaux" tll13Ctffl.l:l::, the same treatment normally accorded to Taoist celestial officials in the standard petitioning texts. This divergence would also appear to be more than simply a difference ofdocumentary genre (Le., tomb ordinance vs. petition). Cf. CT 463, which contains instructions for the funeral rites of a Taoist priest that are likely to date back to the late fifth century. In the form of tomb ordinance and the related model petition that the text provides, the spirits of the tomb are again simply subjugated, and it is the assisting Taoist celestial officials that are promised, following commission of their duties and return to the Celestial Bureaux, "promotion in rank in accordance with the regular classifications and precedents" )ifiRtll1mflt~ (CT 463, 16.4a8-10). 52 NICKERSON

Divination as a Preliminary to Taoist Curative Rites

If the diviners' spirits could be dealt with through their incorporation into the bureaucracy of minor spirits and demons, what of the diviners themselves? In the texts of the Way of the Celestial Master, especially the petitions preserved in Master Red-Pine 's Almanac, there is some suggestion that Celestial Master priests may have employed the diagnoses of practicing diviners. The Almanac gives a model text for one ritual document-a "Petition for Cutting Ties ofInfection from the Departed" iii L A ~ iltl-which describes the supplicant's condition thus: "In this month on (such-and-such a) day, he contracted a severe disease, and his hallucinations were numerous. His prospects appearing poor, he consulted a diviner (suan shu iffJIij ), who said the departed (so-and-so) was causing calamities by infecting him" (4. 17a2-3). The petition then goes on to request the celestial authorities both to put an end to the supplicant's disease, and, for a more permanent solution, to transfer the soul of the trouble-causing ancestor to heaven. In the scenario envisioned by the text of this petition, an ailing individual might first go to a diviner to get a diagnosis of his or her illness; having ascertained that the problem was the hostility of an ancestor, he or she might then proceed to a Taoist priest for the ritual remedy. Similarly, in the next model petition in the Almanac, "Petition in Case of Illness for Propitiating the Departed" ~ wH"Bt: L tl , the patient again is said to have consulted a diviner, who in this case attributed the problem to an ancestor who died away from home (k'o ssu ~~). It appears that the departed may at one time have received cult from the people of the locality where he had died, but that the offerings gradually had dried Up:29 "One suspects that, sooner or later, in some year or season, the food and drink in the sacrifices of the shrine became less fine, and the offerings meager, leading to later generations being punished with calamities and plagues" (4. 18a-b). In this case, then, the petition describes a situation in which a family illness is attributed by a diviner to an ancestor who died away from home. Seemingly because he had ceased to receive cult where he had died, he returned to punish his living descendants for failing to sustain him with ancestral offerings. The source of the problem having been diagnosed, the Taoist priest is again called in to effect the cure by petitioning the Taoist celestial authorities. Divination, once prohibited in the Celestial Master codes, is employed in connection with the Celestial Master ritual as a diagnostic tool. Moreover, although the term used for "diviner" in these petitions-suan shu or "[practitioner of] computational techniques"-refers literally to numerology,30 it must have had somewhat broader connotations. If one is to judge by the information procured, the practices of these numerologists seem as if they may have been closer to those of spirit-mediums, specialists in discovering the identities and demands of the aggrieved dead. Other evidence from Master Red-Pine's Almanac also might indicate a like relationship between Taoist priests and spirit mediums. In an introductory passage to a "Great Petition for

29 Alternatively, the text may be referring simply to the lack of the usual ancestral offerings.

30Cf. Kenneth 1. DeWoskin, Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians ofAncient China (Columbia, 1983),24. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 53

Sepulchral Plaints, ,,3 I the priest when discussing the mysterious influence of the dead on the living that makes the netherworld lawsuits possible observes that "the visions of female and male mediums also fail to penetrate to the bottom of things" (5.25a9-10). Could this be taken as implying that, in some cases, mediums might also have been employed prior to the ritual of petitioning in order to identify the relevant angry spirits? Certainly this was so in the case of Shen Yiieh, with whom our discussion of mediums and Taoists began.

Taoist Devaluations of Mantic Diagnoses

Again one is confronted with the contradiction between prohibition in the codes and complementarity in actual practice. The "Great Petition for Sepulchral Plaints" just mentioned shows one way in which the Celestial Masters sought to lessen the tension of this ambiguity-namely by claiming that such diagnostic procedures were in any case unimportant:

Now seven generations ofancestors are long ago and far away, and the descendants cannot fathom them. Who among them might be (or have been) good or evil cannot be known in detail. Now, having no object of knowing the affair [behind the suitl, instead we respectfully set forth the multitude of items, listing all of them. (5.25b8-10)

The petition then proceeds to list what genuinely is a multitude of possible causes for the suit-e.g., death by drowning, by fire, from wounds, by strangulation, while imprisoned, from a fall, by beating, from poisoning by drugs or insects, in childbirth, from starvation, cold or heat and thirst, etc.-using over four hundred characters and more than a double page of text (5.25bI0-27a7). While allowing diviners and other non-Taoist practitioners to participate as diagnosticians in the process of treatment, the effect of such an approach, it would seem, would have been at the same time to minimize the value of those diagnoses. Since the petitions' texts may address any and all possible causes of the patient's distress, requesting simply that the celestial deities assist with eradicating the roots of any applicable problem, a specific diagnosis is in fact unnecessary. This devaluation of the specialties of other practitioners is also evident in a common turn of phrase in the petitions preserved in Master Red-Pine 's Almanac, in which the priest protests his ignorance of various mantic arts. For example, one petition recounts a situation in which a family buries a deceased member in accordance with the "profane" (su -m ,Le., non-Taoist) rites. Since no provision was made for the absolution of the deceased's sins, he or she is doubtlessly suffering in some hell, with predictably evil consequences for the living descendants. The priest, however, again expresses little interest in the deceased's specific condition or location in the underworld. Instead he claims that he is "ignorant, with no understanding of the pneumas of ghosts" (kue; ch'i }11. ), and thus will simply send up a petition to secure the pardon and salvation of the departed. The knowledge of the medium, who might him- or herself journey to the underworld to discover

3lSepulchrai plaints, or 'lawsuits of the tomb' (chung sung ~~ ), were lawsuits conducted in the magistracies of the underworld that could involve the living and cause illness. See Michel Strickmann, Le Taoisme du Mao chan, Memoires de I'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, vol. 17 (Paris, 1981), 144ff. 54 NICKERSON

the soul's whereabouts, becomes unnecessary; the powers of the Taoist heavens do not need to be provided with such information. Similarly, in another petition the priest is to say that he "is common and stupid and does not understand the Descrying of Vapors" (ch'i hou i\~; S.l1b2; cf. S.14bS-6, 18a2), a term which normally meant divination by the weather, but in these texts also was used more generally to include astrology and horoscopy.32 The bureaucratic procedure of petitioning-and, following the Most High's granting of the petition, the issuance in the invisible world ofedicts and talismans, and the in-person descent of the celestial officials and their civil and military subordinates-is the means by which the malady is remedied. Unnecessary as curative rites were the sacrifices or exorcisms of mediums; also unnecessary were the rearrangements of space or alterations of routes or times suggested by the diviner's calculations. And since, as in the "Great Petition for Sepulchral Plaints," requests may be phrased so as to make knowledge of the specific cause of the malady superfluous, even the diagnoses provided by mediums or diviners would seem unneeded. The Way of the Celestial Master tried to address the concerns of the diviners at the same time as it belittled their knowledge. In the "Petition for Continuing the Reckoning" 1t.. (that is, one's suan or fated lifespan), the priest states:

[The supplicant] is an ordinary person, and does not understand the Jade-cog Armil and Jade Transverse, the Dipper Determinant,33 and the approaches and punishments of the Soil and the Lunar Lodgings. But he fears that in his annual horoscope the evil conjunctions are serious indeed. His original chronograms34 strike and break one another. In the Celestial Net and the Terrestrial Seine 7C R ttl! ~ his reckoning is due to be exhausted. The Nine Nasties fLM all surround him; day and night he trembles with fear. The auspicious is difficult to preserve, and he fears that the springs of the underworld await him. Thus he can only single-mindedly take refuge with the Great Tao, respectfully providing all the ritual pledges, displaying and offering them to the numinous officials of the five directions, and today announcing to your servant, beseeching that I deliver a petition to the Celestial Bureaux to redeem his life. Your servant does not understand the Descrying of Vapors [again, ch'i hou]; I [can] only take up this request, respectfully prostrating myself on the earth, and submitting this single petition, [thus] reporting to my superiors in the Celestial Bureaux.

The priest then presents his request to the Most High and his celestial court and asks that the responsible celestial officials and their assistants descend to rectify the problem. Once the petition reaches this point, however, the problem ceases to be that of the supplicant's horoscope. Instead, the petition requests that the celestial forces

32Another text in the Taoist Canon (CT 1276) also shows an admixture of astro-calendrical divination and "meteoromancy" (Kalinowski, "La Iitterature divinatoire," 107).

330n these astronomical terms see Donald Harper, "The Han Cosmic Board (Shih i\: )," Early China 4 (1978-79): 1-10; and Harper, "Response to Christopher Cullen," 51-2.

34These are the yuan ch 'en :7i: ~ , the basic constituents of the horoscope. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 55

descend all together and redeem (so-and-so), extricating him from [the clutches of] the Twenty-four [Earth] Prisons, the Celestial Bureaux and the Terrestrial Prefectures, the ancient temples and spirit altars, the generals and clerks of the grain and soil altars, and the offices and departments ofthe Directorate ofFate. Find out which of his or her crimes and mortal sins are recorded in the Black Register-I beg that you remove them. If there are disasters, let them be eliminated. If there are illnesses, let them be cured. Let the withered bloom anew, the dead live again. (CL 5.l7b-19a)

The supplicant's problems are no longer purely horoscopic. The initial concern with the supplicant's crashing chronograms has faded into the background, and the main worry becomes the supplicant's sins and the removal ofthe record thereof from the files of the Celestial Bureaux. According to the text of the petition, it is this action by the Taoists' Celestial Officials that will bring the supplicant good fortune, the interruption of which might have been superficially expressed in a poor horoscope.

Celestial Master Horoscopy

In the above example it is not clear how the supplicant happened to determine that baneful astrological conjunctions lay behind his misfortunes-that is, whether he had decided this himself, consulted a professional diviner, or been so advised by the Taoist priest. In another petition text, the priest makes the same recital concerning his ignorance of divination: he "does not understand the Descrying of Vapors and is imperfect in [his knowledge of] techniques of calculation." However, the priest then goes on to state that he "merely relies on the mutual alternation of the Six Chia A Ef1 and the Five Phases in order to know the calendrical numbers," and he further recites in extenso the principles underlying the system of horoscopy that has been employed to determine that the supplicant is suffering owing to his entanglement with the "Celestial Net and the Terrestrial Seine" (CL 4.2aff.). It would seem that the petition is evidence that Celestial Master priests had themselves come to practice this form of divination.3s Still, the petition employs solely non-astrological means for rectifying the supplicant's astrological problems, and thus continues to subordinate the mantic arts to the Celestial Masters' petitioning ritual, giving the former a purely diagnostic role. In order to remedy the evil results of the horoscopic conjunction, the petition first requests that the "Lord of the Blue Pneuma of the East, the chronograms yin and mao, and the [celestial stems] chia and i, disperse and eliminate (chieh ch 'u fAll Mt ) the blue disasters and the blue poisons of the east"-and so on for the remainder of the five directions and five colors. Next, other celestial officials are asked to dissipate the supplicant's difficulties in the stars, among the terrestrial spirits, and as concerns the supplicant's own sins-the three levels of heaven, earth, and man. Then the deities representing the seven stars of the dipper are requested to expunge the records of the supplicant's trespasses and remove his name from the registers of death. And, finally, yet another set of celestial

3SFor that matter, the references cited above to 'consulting the computational techniques' (suan shu) could in some cases even indicate, not the consultation of a specialist diviner, but instead the performance of divination by the priest her- or himself. 56 NICKERSON officials is called on to effect the salvation of all the supplicant's ancestors (whose sins could otherwise implicate the living). The remedy for what initially were diagnosed as horoscopic problems becomes that of any other Taoist petition: the ritual request to celestial officials to remove current evils and to exculpate the supplicant and his or her ancestors from their sins, the root cause of all misfortune. Divination is incorporated into the ritual solution through the transformation of horoscopic concepts-such as the ten celestial stems and twelve terrestrial branches, or chronograms-into celestial officials, like the "Lord of the Blue Pneuma of the East, the chronograms yin and mao, and the [celestial stems] chia and i" just mentioned.

3. The Taoist Bureaucratization of the Mantic Arts

The Tradition of Mantic Diagnosis and Ritual Cure

The relationship between medieval Taoist ritual and divination appears in some ways to be extremely close both to very early mantic and therapeutic practices and to those of recent days. Even as early as the oracle bones of the Shang, illness was treated first by divining its source, and then by rites of sacrificial propitiation and exorcism. 36 As for the religion of the Warring States period, divination records from fourth century B.C. Ch'u tombs in Hupei show an analogous pattern in which the source of a problem, frequently illness, is divined, and then prayers and propitiatory sacrifices are prescribed.37 Again one sees a combination of mantic diagnosis and ritual cure. Concerning modern times, Hou Ching-lang has observed in Taiwan that those with problems often consult mediums, diviners, or almanacs in order to identify the sources of their maladies. Both popular almanacs and the more specialized manuals of the diviners provide diagnoses based on the day on which the illness struck, which in turn points to the identity of the spirits one has offended, thus allowing one to make the appropriate sacrifices and then expel them. Hou also points out that some people prefer to take stronger measures, for which they go to a Taoist priest. But, he notes, the Taoist priests confine their activities to a limited, ritual sphere-the rite of "Sending Off the Baleful Stars" (sung hsiung hsing ~ ~ ~ }-and consign the duties of prediction or diagnosis of horoscopic crises to diviners and mediums.38 One may see, then, in broad outline, a remarkable continuity in Chinese traditions of magico-religious healing. The Shang oracle bones, the Ch 'u divination records, the petitions of the Celestial Masters just discussed, and the modern procedures described by Hou all evince the same sequence of divination, diagnosis, and curative rite.

36See Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History ofIdeas (Berkeley, 1985), 17-28. 37Donald Harper, "Religious Traditions ofthe Warring States, Ch'in, and Han" (paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., April, 1992), 5. 38Hou, "Baleful Stars," 194ff., 226-7. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 57

Divination in the Medieval Taoist Synthesis

The Taoists' assimilation of divination is most clear in the petition texts simply from the ubiquity therein of the spirits of divination-of the stars, the sexagesimal cycle, etc. Hou Ching-lang states that the modem Taoist rite of "Sending Off the Baleful Stars" differs from analogous popular measures in three ways: the use of written petitions; the invocation of gods to witness the performance; and "the multiplication of the forms of demons to correspond with the Taoist divisions of time and space." We have seen these same features in the Taoist ritual documents just examined; they are written petitions that invoke the deities of the Taoist pantheon and seek to command the spiritualized forms of geomantic concepts-inevitably appearing in each of the five colors, in three levels corresponding to heaven, earth, and man, or in some other similar cosmological configuration. However, according to Hou, belief in baleful stars-and, one could assume, perhaps, other concepts from divination-was adopted by Taoists "without adding much of their own,,;39 hence, he would seem to find these divergent features of the Taoist ritual to be comparatively insignificant, not affecting the underlying popular beliefs. A not dissimilar view is advanced by Maruyama Hiroshi. According to Maruyama, as the social organization of Taoism changed during the medieval period, priests no longer served tightly bound, coresident parish communities whose members possessed the registers of initiates, but instead moved among the unregistered people at large who were highly credulous where popular traditions and taboos were concerned. The conventional religious demands of this new clientele centered around the daily threats to well-being posed by disease, accident, and other varieties of misfortune. Hence the Taoist ritual of petitioning also changed-in effect becoming popularized-as it became less the feature of the ritual organization of a residentially distinct Taoist community and more a ritual remedy for the individual misfortunes of members of the larger community. It was for that reason, Maruyama says, that Taoist petitions became more elaborate, the quantities of pledge-offerings increased, and popular calendrics and taboos were assimilated. 40 According to both Hou and Maruyama, "popular" magico-religious beliefs were adopted within Taoism without being much changed themselves. If anything, the change was in the other direction, as Taoist ritual became redirected to a wider spectrum of needs. In one respect, this is a point worthy of attention and the first conclusion that one should draw from this material. The incorporation of spirits of prohibited divination into the Taoist invisible bureaucracy, and the acceptance of mantic techniques for the diagnosis of maladies, each are indicative of substantial change in Taoism itself. The field of Taoist studies has long appreciated the importance of the syncretistic movements of the fourth century: the Shang-ch'ing synthesis of the Way of the Celestial Master and the southern tradition of ritual and occultism, as well as the Ling-pao syncretism that was responsible for the incorporation into scriptural Taoism of much from Buddhism. One might claim that a third such synthesis should receive equal attention-that is,

39Ibid., 226-7.

4°Maruyama Hiroshi j;tW~ , "Sei'itsu dokyo no joshO girei ni tsuite" IE-~~ (f) J:i':mm t::: ~ l) l , ToM shUkyo ]ilt1J*~ 68 (1986): 44-64, esp. 48-50, 58-60. 58 NICKERSON precisely the incorporation of divination and related, initially prohibited traditions within the liturgical framework of the Celestial Masters' petitioning ritual. This would have allowed the larger medieval Taoist syncretism-involving not only the Way of the Celestial Master but also the Taoism of Shang-ch'ing, Ling-pao, and San-huang, all of which traditions had few qualms about divination-to come into being much more readily. Furthermore, it was the incorporation of the practices and deities of the popular religion into the texts and performances of the petitioning ritual that made possible the accommodation between Taoism and popular religion which is still visible today.

The Celestial Masters' Bureaucratic Incorporation of Divination

Particular attention should be paid to the mode of incorporation, which was bureaucratic. Donald Harper has recently made the point that, since in Warring States religion there existed a number of specific continuities with the Shang tradition of divination and sacrifice, divination remained the primary structuring influence on religious conceptions, with even the bureaucratization of the other world being the product of the influence of divination practice and not of state bureaucracy.41 However, in medieval Taoist ritual it would seem that the influence was the reverse, with bureaucracy placing its stamp upon both ritual generally and divination specifically. Both geomantic concepts and symbols and the divinities of the popular religion were incorporated into the structure of Taoist ritual by means of bureaucratization. The petition texts also make clear that the ultimate etiology of misfortune is moral, and therefore in the Taoist scheme of things bureaucratic, involving the records of the behavior of the supplicant and his or her ancestors which are then merely reflected in the conjunctions of the asterisms. The petition for "Dispersing [chieh 1fIll ] the Celestial Net and the Terrestrial Seine," discussed above in connection with the Taoists' practice of horoscopy, contains an interesting discourse on the relations between astro-geomancy and moral behavior. The priest states:

Your servant has heard that the three and five above 1: =: Ii is heaven, the three and five in the middle is man, and the three and five below is earth.42 Heaven has the five phases, earth has the five vapors, and man has the five constant [relationships]. If heaven does not lose the five phases, the sun and moon are pure and bright. If earth does not lose the five vapors, then the myriad things multiply. If man does not lose the five constants, then he can produce and nurture the rites and music and attain perfection.43 (So-and-so's) household members are afraid that the five vapors are disharmonious, their innards are not attuned, and the five phases are subduing each other. I humbly wish that the higher officials in charge will on behalf of (so-and-so): above disperse (chieh) the inquisitory

4lHarper, "Religious Traditions," 5-6. 42The threes and fives represent most generally vertical series of three (e.g., heaven, man, and earth) and horizontal arrangements of five (e.g., the five directions).

43fjl§ ~ ~ m~ Hi ~-Should sheng and chang be reversed and read ch 'ang sheng, with the whole phrase thus reading, "can gain life everlasting and attain perfection in rites and music"? Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 59

vapors of the Images of the Dark [Heavens] ~ ~ and the Five Asterisms [the five naked-eye planets]; below disperse the thirty-six subterrestrial44 prohibitions and taboos; [and] in the middle disperse the thousand sins and ten thousand trespasses of (so-and-so) and the others [of his family]. (CL 4.4al-8)

In this way, both the celestial and the terrestrial aspects of astro-geomancy-the stars in the heavens and the taboos of the earth-are simply correlated and assumed to be in sympathy with the supplicant and the record of his and his family's behavior. Astro-geomancy is subordinated to Taoist ritual first by subjecting astro-geomantic phenomena to the control of the Celestial Bureaux ("the higher officials in charge"), or alternatively, as noted already, by bringing astro-geomantic spirits themselves (like the "Lord of the Blue Pneuma of the East, the chronograms yin and mao, and the [celestial stems] chia and i") into the celestial pantheon. Divination is further subordinated by the continual focus of these rituals on non-astro-geomantic solutions to astro-geomantic problems. Recall that in the case of this petition, despite the diagnosis of the malady as horoscopic in origin, the ultimate solution lies in the moral, bureaucratic, and soteriological realms: the erasure of the records of the supplicant's sins and of his or her name from the registers of death, as well as the salvation of all related ancestors.

4. The Mantic Arts in the Social History of Taoism

Mantic Diagnosis and Healing Ritual

Still, why did the Celestial Masters go so far as to incorporate divination into their rituals, even to the extent of turning the texts of petitions into expositions of horoscopic theory? To address this question, it would be useful to re-examine the early prohibitions on divination and mediumism, though we are now aware that they did not hold, even among the Celestial Masters. Lu Hsiu-ching's commentator, in criticizing mediumism and divination, emphasized two aspects of the issue: mediumism to him is "making sacrifices to demons and gods and praying for blessings," while divination involved particularly "divining for a [lucky] day or making inquiries concerning [auspicious] times, [rather than] simply following one's heart." Thus two functions, the propitiatory and the predictive/manipulative, are singled out as especially opprobrious by the Celestial Masters. The late third century B.C. Book ofDays E3 excavated at Shui-hu-ti lJj~itl.! in Hupei is a valuable object for comparison. This text contains more than the hemero log ical prescriptions-that is, days on which it is lucky or unlucky to carry out certain activities--one would expect to find. It sets out instructions for numerous minor exorcistic rituals, as well as

44Reading itl.! r for itl.! 1: in accordance with the parallel structure of the passage and the appearance of the then identical phrase, "subterrestrial prohibitions and taboos" itl.! r ~ ~ . in the excavated Taoist tomb ordinances and elsewhere. 60 NICKERSON

propitiatory sacrifices, such as one for the prosperous raising of horses.4s Moreover, using the Book ofDays, the cause of an illness could be divined, often by means of hemerology. One entry from a section entitled "Illness" ("Ping" ~ ) begins as follows: "If symptoms begin on a keng or min day, a demon of another family that had died prematurely is plaguing one; [the illness] was contracted tbrough dog meat, fresh eggs, and the color white." As the last phrase suggests, the system is built largely on five phase theory, and the remainder of each entry uses the same system to predict the course of the disease: "If one is ill on a chia or i day, there will be a respite on the ping day, and on the ling day one will be able to get up ..." (SHTCMCC, 193).46 In his analysis of the religious world of the Book of Days, Marc Kalinowski points to two functions of magico-religious practices as essential: prevention, fulfilled by the hemerological prescriptions that list lucky or unlucky days for certain activities; and cure, effected byexorcistic or sacrificial ritual.47 To these two functions one should probably add a third-diagnosis. As just mentioned, principles of divination, such as the five phase theory and the cycle of celestial branches, could also be used as means of ascertaining the spirit responsible for a disease. It is precisely this diagnostic function that is not much addressed in Lu Hsiu-ching's Abridged Codes. Sacrifices to move the gods and effect cures and mantic practices, such as hemerology, designed to allow one to avoid various evils or enhance one's good fortune are both ruled out specifically. Mantic techniques as applied to diagnosis are not criticized, and, as our evidence has shown, it is precisely as diagnosticians that mediums and diviners first begin to appear in the Celestial Master sources.48

4SDonald Harper, "A Chinese Demonography of the Third Century B.C.:' Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies 45.2 (1985): 459-498; Shui-hu-ti Ch'in mu chu chien Ilineitl!j!I!'r'rfm ["SHTCMCC'1(peking, 1990), 227-8. Actually, the title Book ofDays has been applied to two texts from Shui-hu-ti that share much common material.

46For the explanation of tso m: as tso ~ , 'to get up', see SHTCMCC 247. Another set of instructions states that, if a child dies during infancy, this is due to an attack by the spirit of someone who had been killed unjustly. At dawn on a keng day, one should blow ashes on one's gate, and set out offerings (chi *R). After ten days, these should be collected and buried, and then one will be free from further harm (SHTCMCC 214). Cf. Kalinowski's somewhat different interpretation of this passage in "La litterature divinatoire," 99, n. 43. 47Marc Kalinowski, "Les traites de Shuihudi et l'hemerologie chinoise a la fin des Royaumes-Combattants," TP 72 (1986): 183; cf. Kalinowski, "La litterature divinatoire," 98-9.

48Another point that needs to be acknowledged-while, as established above, Master Red-Pine's Almanac gives clear evidence of the avoidance ofdivination in connection with burials, its first two scrolls contain a wide variety of hemerological prescriptions to be observed when sending petitions (Kalinowski, "La litterature divinatoire," 96-99). The ritual of petitioning itself was to have been governed by mantic "prohibitions and taboos." This issue was addressed neatly by Lu Hsiu-ching's commentator: "Irresponsibly creating taboos and avoidances that are not in the codes and teaching of the [Celestial] Masters and Lao[-tzu] is called Spirit-mediumism." "Taboos and avoidances" that are in the Celestial Masters' codes are sanctioned; those advocated by other religious and mantic practitioners are not. More substantively, the issue likely has to do with the way the mantic arts were used. In addition to the diagnostic use of Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 61

How was it then, that divination and medium ism came to be employed diagnostically? First of all, so used, they did not directly undercut Taoist notions of sin and otherworldly bureaucracy. A dangerous horoscopic conjunction, as treated in the text of a Taoist petition, became simply the expression on the celestial level of that which, with respect to earth, was the offense of taboos on construction and other activities, and, on the level of man, was embodied in an individual's accumulated stain of sin and hence also in his or her illness (see the above quotation from the "Petition for Dispersing the Celestial Net and the Terrestial Seine"). Even the horoscopic conjunctions themselves were determined by the records held in the Celestial Bureaux.49 The Celestial Masters did not deny that diviners had access to certain truths; they were simply sensing the reflection on the level of the stars and the calendar of the more basic mechanism of moral behavior and otherworldly record-keeping. A diviner's diagnosis of a problem as horoscopic still pointed ultimately to the need for petition, confession, and cure by bureaucracy. On the other hand, the inclusion of mantic diagnosis in the larger sequence of ritual healing may have greatly increased the effectiveness ofthe Taoist priests' own healing rite of petitioning. Perhaps it was the case that the overweening concern with morality--one's own and one's ancestors' ---characteristic of the Celestial Masters was more suited to the sectarian fervor of the late Han. For a cure based on penitence to work, the patient must have a sufficiently developed sense of sin. What is a Taoist to do, for example, when confronted with someone like Wang Hsien-chih :fIlZ (344-388) who, when dangerously ill, had a healing petition dispatched on his behalf? According to one version of the anecdote, when asked of what sins he wished to repent, Wang responded, "There is nothing I ought to confess. I only regret having sent away [i.e.,

divination, it would seem that certain techniques ofdivinatory calculation could be used for what one might call 'regulative' purposes, such as the fixing of a day for the petitioning ritual. A significant difference between such forms ofdivination and the prohibited types may have been that 'regulative' divination sought to make all individuals obey the same rules for aligning their activities with astro-geomantic cycles. Some hemerological instructions for days and times on which petitions should be sent amount in effect to notices of the opening and closing hours of the Celestial Bureaux (CL 1.19a-20a). Manipulative divination such as tomb geomancy sought instead to attain for the client the "best possible future," and also tended to employ techniques that placed much more emphasis on individuation, such as the alignment ofa tomb based on the surname of the occupant, the association of individual family members with specific 1 ching trigrams (and hence with specific sectors of the grave-site), or the coordination of geomancy with horoscopes. ("Horoscopes personalize geomancy . . . • marking out a separate future for separate men and their descendants" [Freedman, "Geomancy," 329].) For a further use of divinatory principles in Taoist ritual-that is for determining the ritual structure itself, as in the ritual of "walking the guideline" (pu kang tIT .. ) which is sometimes organized according to the divination system of "avoiding stems" (tun chia JI Ifl)-see Poul Andersen, "The Practice of Bugang," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 5 (1989-90): 15-53, esp. 33-7; also Marc Kalinowski, "La transmission du dispositif des Neuf Palais sous les Six-Dynasties," in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R A. Stein, edited by Michel Strickmann, vol. 3., Melanges chinois et bouddhiques, vol. 22 (Brussels, 1985), 773-811.

49Cf. CT 1288, Yiian ch'en chang chiao Ii ch'eng Ii j(;~:fiUI:rrnXlI, A.12a7-b3. 62 NICKERSON divorced] the daughter of the Ch'ih family.,,50 By insisting on sin as the chief cause of misfortune, the early Celestial Masters made diagnosis impossible when a patient was not able to recall specific malfeasances on the part of self or ancestors and was not otherwise afflicted with guilt. The blanket statements of penitence and laundry lists of possible causes for sepulchral plaints could be effective bureaucratically, but not necessarily psychologically. Perhaps medium ism and divination provided a sense of immediate contact with the supernatural (and hence the objective) and therefore could produce a diagnosis that would be psychologically effective as part of a process that was essentially one of faith-healing.

Early Taoist Sectarianism

This possible connection between sin and sectarianism may allow us to try to place our material more accurately, both historically and sociologically. In his analysis of the Way of the Celestial Master and the Way of the Great Peace (T'ai p 'ing tao j;;: -V m) during the late Han, Rolf Stein argues eloquently for the identity of literati and Taoist religio-political values during that time--"un fonds commun, ... un structure sous-jacente qui peut se manifester differemment selon les milieux ou les mouvements, mais qui est commune a la majorite des esprits." This common foundation united both rich and poor literati with the Taoist "rebels" of the Way of the Celestial Master and the Way of the Great Peace around an ethic that looked for the leadership of the local worthy, in any of several guises:

Dans l'ensemble, l'ideal de la vie communale, avec sa morale et sa vie relativement fermee en vase c1os, est bien l'arriere-plan sur lequel se profilent les personnages dont Ie comportement peut etre rapproche de nos deux mouvements. C'est dans ce milieu qu' on trouve a maintes reprise des lettres integres, magiciens et retires, qui sont proclames hien-leang ("sages") et Jang-tcheng ("justes") . . .. La bureaucratisation de la religion chinoise ... s'explique ... par l'organisation ala fois administrative et religieuse de nos mouvements. Elle se nourrit de cette coexistence, dans une seule et meme personne, du lettre-fonctionnaire et du magicien ou de l'homme religieux de type taoi"ste ou sorcier.51

It is easy to see how the Taoists' prohibition on mediumism and divination would have fit in this social scheme. If the society of the Celestial Masters was to be "enclosed in a sealed vessel," then in order to 'seal the vessel', so to speak, it was necessary that Taoist converts be cut off from the local religious practitioners and cults they had been accustomed to patronizing. The Taoist community was to have been a single, self-contained body, which, monad-like, had no windows. From this perspective one may see that, in their opposition to popular magico-religious practices, both the late Han "recluse" local elite and the late Han Taoists may have been attempting to

SOTYPL 3.641.8a. See also Shih shuo hsinya chiao chien tt!:;uafiiH~3I (Hong Kong, 1987), 1.23, no. 39; Chin shu (Peking, 1974), 7.80.2106; and Richard B. Mather, "Shih-shuo Hsin-Ya"; A New Account ofTales ofthe World (Minnesota, 1976), 19. SIStein, "Les mouvements du taoIsme politico-religieux," 40-41. Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 63 streamline and hierarchize the lines of religious, and hence social, authority. In later centuries, Taoists like Lu Hsiu-ching who were affiliated with the Celestial Masters were no doubt acting with some of the same motivations. In the case of the Southern Dynasties, the attempt to impose a new religious order, or at least to weaken the pre-existing one, took the form of the Taoists acting against the power of the local cults of Wu ~ and their adherents on behalf of the established authorities, the exiled Eastern Chin and its successors.S2 This interplay between relatively inclusive, non-hierarchized uses of ritual and bureaucratized, mediated forms demonstrates, perhaps, the relevance of Peter Brown's notion of "access to the supernatural" as a central variable in the social history of religion. Brown contrasts Late Antique paganism, in which "the supernatural was constantly available to men," with the early Christians' attempts to keep "heavenly power" in the hands of a few select "men of God."s3 We have seen that early Celestial Master Taoists also attempted to restrict the average person's access to the supernatural, as through the prohibitions on divination and spirit-mediumism. Diviners and mediums seem often to have been the first resort of common people experiencing or anticipating difficulties. As evinced by the Book ofDays from Shui-hu-ti, as early as the late third century B.C. written handbooks also allowed amateurs to avail themselves of mantic arts by which the earthbound could contact heaven.s4 Mediumism and other non-literate techniques were even more generally accessible. The Christians never wavered, at least doctrinally, in their opposition to divination as an instrument of the devil.ss Contrastingly, we have seen among the Celestial Masters an eventual accommodation with diviners.

The Transformation of the Taoist Community: From Sect to Guild

This accommodation was in part the product of a change in the social organization of the Taoist religion itself, that is, the transformation of early Taoist sectarianism. One might be inclined to invoke the distinction developed by Ernst Troeltsch-between the "sect-type" of religious organization, in which believers as a group stand apart from society and demand from themselves a higher level of morality, and the "church-type," in which the church is an "integral part of the social order" and accepts that order and the conventional morality on which it is

S2Cf. Michel Strickmann, "The Mao Shan Revelations: Taoism and the Aristocracy," TP 63.1 (1977): 7. Early medieval Taoist scriptures contain a number of references to "attacking temples" of the local cults (fa miao fiM; see, e.g., Teng chen yin chueh, CT 421, C.21b3 ff.; TMKL Ib3.) s3He quotes the pagan Ammianus Marcellinus: '''The elemental powers, when propitiated by diverse rites, supply mortals with prophecy, as iffrom the veins of inexhaustible founts'" (Peter Brown, The Making ofLate Antiquity [Harvard, 1978], 98-101). s4For the social background to the Book ofDays, see Kalinowski, "Les traites de Shuihudi," 181-4. sSHowever, various mantic practices remained popular through Christianity's first centuries, making possible, for example, the transmission of horoscopic arts and ancient "books of fate" to medieval Europe and the transformation ofpagan shrines for dream incubation into Christian ones (Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians [New York, 1987],677-81). 64 NICKERSON based56-and say that Taoism's assimilation of divination was a symptom of its change from a sect to a church. However, as Kristofer Schipper has remarked, the Taoist community in recent times is defined very differently from the early Way of the Celestial Master, and certainly cannot be described as a church:

C'est la fonction liturg;que qui definit la situation du Tao-che, son role en tant que specialiste des rites au sein de la societe. Etre Dignitaire du Tao est d'abord un office.... Le corps des Tao-che ... doit etre vu, non point comme une Eglise, mais comme une confederation de Maitres .... II en est de meme pour Ie Tao-che, qui na pas de communaute, ou plutot n'est pas Ie chef spirituel d'un groupe constitue de fideles. 57

The process by which this new situation came about is very visible through the transfonnation of the parish and parish registers in Taoism. By about the fourth or fifth century, owing to the geographic diffusion of the religion, Taoist parishes, or chih m, no longer were linked to residence in specific locations in Taoism's birthplace in the west; parishioners in distant areas continued to be assigned to the original parishes in Han-chung and Shu (Szechwan}-a practice criticized by K'ou Ch'ien-chih a~z (d. 448). T'ang evidence shows how the parishes became astral and horoscopic, assigned to individuals based on the dates of their birth and the sexagesimal signs of their Original Destinies (pen ming *~).'8 The Taoist community, defined as those holding Taoist lu f&-registers that conferred parish membership--thus gradually would have ceased to mean groups of sect members residing in the same area under the leadership of priests (or "Libationers" [chi chiu ~~]). As Schipper has put it, "Les Dioceses des Maltres se situent dans les astres. ,,59 By modem times, the possession of Taoist registers had become limited to the priests themselves; the Taoist "community" became a guild of ordained religious specialists. As such, it was hardly in a position to prohibit its clients from approaching competing specialists. Taoism did, however, have very good reasons to apply such restrictions to its own ranks. I argue elsewhere that Taoist ritual found a niche in the early medieval religious environment because of certain (bureaucratic) functional features it possessed that could be portrayed as working to reduce social conflict.60 If Taoist priests began taking up activities that were inimical to that function, such as the use of the mantic arts to further private disputes, that function would have been undercut and the distinct place Taoism had made for itself threatened. It is against this background that the criticism of divination and spirit mediumism in the Abridged Codes ofMaster Lu may be interpreted. If we understand the emerging social fonn of Taoism as that of a guild, we can see the Codes in part as an attempt to impose guild discipline.

S6Emst Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches (Chicago, [1911] 1981), 1:331ff.

S7K. M. Schipper, Le corps taoisfe (Paris, 1982), 81-2.

s8Ch'en Kuo-fu 1Sl1mllf-l , Tao-tsang yUan-/iu k'ao i!tiiiliimt (Peking, 1963), 2:330ff. s9Schipper, Le corps taofste, 93. 60"Ritual, Bureaucracy, and Conflict in Early Medieval China: The Social Implications of Taoist Healing Rites" (paper delivered at Harvard University, March 16, 1993). Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists 65

Consider the following anecdote from the History of the South, in which one sees the employment of geomancy by an ambitious crown prince. With shocking disregard for the neat categories set up by regulations like those in Lu Hsiu-ching's Codes, the geomancer so employed is called by the History ofthe South a Taoist priest. The crown prince Hsiao Tung lUx was the eldest son of Emperor Wu of the Liang. When Tung's mother died in 526, he sent someone to find an appropriate piece of land in which to bury her. Just when work was about to commence on the grave-plot, the owner of another piece of land bribed the palace eunuch YU San-fu 1f.J.=: MI] with the promise of a commission of one third should he be able to sell the plot at a high price. YU went secretly to the emperor and told him "that the plot found by the crown prince was not as auspicious for the emperor as the plot that had just been located." The new plot was purchased, and Hsiao Tung'S mother was buried there. Shortly thereafter, Tung was approached by "a Taoist priest who was good at charting tombs" (tao-shih shan t 'u mu ii ~ iii ~). The priest announced, "the location [of the tomb] is unbeneficial to the Crown Prince; [however] if one suppresses (yen fu It4* ) [the unbeneficial influences], perhaps [your good fortune] may be extended." The priest then buried a waxen (la !HI , or perhaps a dried, la IJi ) goose together with some other items next to the grave in the geomantic location that was the "position of the eldest son." Unfortunately, the device was discovered; the goose exhumed; the priest executed; and Hsiao Tung and his heirs removed from the line of succession.61 With the Abridged Codes ofMaster Lu on the one hand and this goose-burying geomancer on the other, we may perhaps detect two opposed strategies employed by Taoists for dealing with popular traditions. As evinced by the life of Lu Hsiu-ching himself, the Codes would seem an attempt to preserve, among an urbanized clergy and a small number of devotees from among the social elite, a sort of purist confraternity that continued to draw inspiration from the old Celestial Master parishes in Szechwan. The Codes also prohibit "taking up one's scholar's knife and brush [the basic tools for writing petitions] and traveling among the villages" (TMKL 8b3), thus highlighting the urban, settled character of Lu's circle. The example of the priest-geomancer would suggest that others who called themselves or were perceived as Taoists had taken the opposite approach and had included within their ritual repertoires the techniques of diviners and popular exorcists. It is not surprising that such practitioners should have met with strident criticism from Lu Hsiu-ching's camp. Nothing undercut the Taoists' entire raison d'etre more directly than the use of divination and ritual to promote the private, competitive interests of individuals. Such acts stood in diametric opposition to the Taoists' championing of the bureaucratic and, hence, their insistence on the imputation of disease to one's long list of sins in the Celestial Bureaux (rather than to the curse of a rival), as well as their proscription of religious activities that incited conflict, such as the manipulation of the geomancy of tombs. As opposed to the strident tones of the Celestial Master codes, or Hsiao Tung's priest-geomancer's amoral manipulations, it is in the ritual documents, such as Master Red-Pine 's Almanac, that we see yet a third, and indeed middle, way. Divination is allowed, and even may

61Nan shih i¥I 51:! (Peking, 1975),5.53.1312-3; c[ Miyakawa, Chiigoku shiiky6-shi kenkyii, vol. 1,278. I differ from Miyakawa as concerns the identity of the "eldest son" (chang tzu ) in the passage, taking the phrase as referring to T'ung himself, rather than T'ung's eldest son. 66 NICKERSON be practiced by priests, provided it serves only for diagnosis and thereby remains subordinated to the bureaucratized, curative ritual of petitioning (and in that way it is also prevented from serving purposes of social strife and interpersonal competition). In a sense, the Celestial Masters reached an accommodation with the popular religion by parceling out various channels of access to the supernatural. Immediate access to the other world was allowed to non-Taoist practitioners through divination, and even mediumism, if employed for diagnostic purposes. This had the dual advantage for Taoism of providing a more realistic stance, given the change in the priests' clientele after the early medieval period, and of inducing into the healing process the advantages of the identification by unmediated supernatural authority of a specific cause of an illness. When it came to curative ritual, on the other hand, the Celestial Masters insisted that only they were the legitimate channels between heaven and earth, and the mantic arts continued to be subordinated to Taoist cosmology and ritual. Perhaps it is understandable that this should have been the attitude that has been transmitted down to the present day. It allowed Taoism to serve the larger, non-sectarian community, yet also allowed the religion to maintain its separate identity and its posture of superiority with respect to the popular religion, as the embodiment in the religious sphere of the elite tradition of literate bureaucracy. BOOK REVIEWS

Les grands traites du Huainan zi. Translated by Claude LARRE, Isabelle ROBINET, and Elisabeth ROCHAT de la VALLEE. Paris: Institut Ricci and Les Editions du Cerf, 1993. Patrimoines: taoisme. Varietes Sinologiques no. 75. 255 pp. (Map, glossary, bibliography, index.)

John S. MAJOR

This book is a partial translation of the Huainanzi, encompassing Chapters 1, 7, 11, 13 and 18, plus the Preface of Gao You and part of Chapter 21. As a volume in the Patrimoines series of French translations of scriptures and fundamental texts from the world's great religious traditions, it is aimed primarily toward an audience of well-informed lay readers. The translated Huainanzi materials are intended to stand on their own, with only a minimum of commentary and annotation. After a brief preface, the book begins with two short chapters, the first on Liu An's literary court at Huainan, the second on the Huainanzi itself as a text. These chapters cover material that will for the most part be familiar to scholars of early China. They perform perfectly adequately their task of introducing the text and its author to a general audience. The book continues with the translation of Gao You's Preface to the Huainanzi. This is an interesting document, and it is good to see it made available to non-readers of Classical Chinese; it has often been quoted in partial translation in earlier works, but I know of no previously published full translation. Next, the authors continue with their introduction to the Huainanzi by translating a substantial portion of Chapter 21, the "Yaolue" (Summary of Essentials). Included are the chapter's opening section, which praises the breadth and insight of the Huainanzi, and the chapter's capsule summaries of Huainanzi 1-11 and 20. It is not clear why the authors omit the summaries of Huainanzi 12-19, though those are shorter and perhaps might be considered of less interest. The authors regard the "Yaolue" as a work that was drafted by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin in the course of their editorial labors in the Han imperial library and put into final form by Gao You. Most other Huainanzi specialists, I think, would disagree; the more general view is that the flYaolue" was probably written by one ofthe principal compilers of the Huainanzi, perhaps by Liu An himself, who wrote it to summarize and unify the sometimes disparate-seeming individual chapters. In addition, the present authors describe the "Yaoluefl as being influenced by Buddhist thought; no evidence is given for this view, which perhaps reads too much into the nuances of the text. On the other hand, the authors accord with the widely accepted view that the Huainanzi shows a certain internal consistency that can be traced to what might be called an editorial director. This contrasts with the view current before the 1970s, which saw the Huainanzi as a very eclectic and disorganized text that had not much new to add to our understanding of the intellectual life of the early Han. The authors of this book regard the titles of the twenty substantive chapters of the text, and their order of presentation, as an extended working-out of themes presented or prefigured in the first chapter, flYuandao" (fiLe Tao Originel"). Furthermore, they view the text as a whole as dividing naturally into two halves, with chapters 1-10 dealing with Dao and De as such, and chapters 11-20 dealing with the operations of Dao and De in the

Taoist Resources, 5.1 (1994) 67 68 MAJOR

realm of human affairs. This suggestion strikes me as being both reasonable and illuminating. The translations themselves are, as one might expect, done to a high standard. Larre, Robinet, and Rochat de la Vallee are experienced scholars well attuned to the meanings of early Daoist texts. The translation of each chapter is preceded by a brief introductory essay discussing the content and organization ofthe chapter. The translated material is not subdivided into sections (there are, ofcourse, no such divisions in the original text), but thematic disjunctions are indicated by line breaks. The translations are keyed to the Chinese edition of Liu Wend ian, Huainan honglie jijie, which, pending the publication of an authoritative critical edition of the Huainanzi, is a good choice for textual accuracy, amplitude of collected commentaries, and wide availability. The translators' commentary is confined to the brief chapter introductions and to footnotes. The notes deal in about equal measure with textual matters and with amplification of meaning of particular words and phrases. One senses that the authors were disciplining themselves to keep these notes and comments to a necessary minimum; one sometimes wishes for more, but if the translators had provided a full scholarly annotation, this work could hardly have been confined between the covers of a single volume. The translators have divided responsibility for the translations as follows: Chapter 1 is by Larre and Rochat de la Vallee; Chapter 7 is by Larre (based on the scholarly partial translation of that chapter that he published in 1982); Chapter 11 is by Rochat de la Vallee; and chapters 13 and 18 are by Robinet. The first three of these chapters are translated in what amounts to blank verse; the last two are in straightforward prose. Both literary forms work well. At its best the blank verse captures some of the grace and dignity of the original as well:

Ainsi, celui qui parvient au Tao Revient it ce qui est pur et tranquille; II scrute jusqu'au fond des etres Et s'en tient finalement au non-agir; II nourrit son etre de calme; II se retire, il demeure avec les Esprits; Ainsi entre-t-it par la Porte du Ciel. (p. 52; HNZ 1:12a)

These chapters are well chosen to suit the purpose of the books in the "Patrimoines" series; as a set the chapters translated here tend to emphasize the Daoist character of the Huainanzi. The chapters benefit from collection in a single volume; each seems to gain significance in the company of the others (which may be what Liu An had in mind in the first place). Chapter 1, "Yuan Dao," is closely related to the Daode jing; it embraces a primitivist Daoist cosmology, as well as advocates a stance of wuwei (non-striving) and of making all actions conform to the Dao. Chapter 7, "Jingshen" (ilLes Esprits Ugers et Subtils"), characterizes the nature of humans in relation to Heaven and Earth, poses a number of microcosm/macrocosm correspondences, enquires into the proper methods of "nourishing the vital spirit," and adduces examples from myth and legendary history of the consequences of according with the Dao, or not. Chapter 11, "Qisu" ("Que Toutes les Coutumes se Valent"), deals more specifically with the role of humans in society, and argues again using examples from mythic or quasi-historical sources - against accepting as universally valid any standards of human conduct that arise from social behavior or particular political doctrines. Chapter 13, "Fanlun" ("Discours sur les Incertitudes"), and Chapter 18, "Renjian" ("Parmi les Hommes"), deal more specifically with the world of human affairs, and seem, more than the earlier chapters, to consist of political advice intended for the ears of a ruler. Both are replete Book Reviews 69 with historical anecdotes, many of which are familiar from other texts ofthe late Warring States Period and early Han. Chapter 13 treats especially the problem of change in human affairs, noting that seemingly similar initial conditions can have widely different outcomes. The message of the chapter is that a ruler must ground all of his actions in the Dao, and cultivate such subsidiary virtues as judgment, discernment, and penetrating insight. Chapter IS (which has the same title as Zhuangzi 4, and is rather Zhuangzi-like in style) also deals with the theme of change and uncertainty; it counsels prudence (as against a desire for gain), true virtue (as against expediency), and knowledge based on reflection, manifested in a variety ofways. Much ofthe chapter consists of anecdotal answers to questions that often have a paradoxical or riddling quality ("Qu'est-ce que 'vouloir un profit qui se renverse en domage'?"; p. 203, HNZ lS:Sa); as is characteristic with this kind oftext, the argument is pressed by rhetorical brilliance rather than by logical demonstration. These translated chapters serve very nicely in their intended role as good-reading versions of a significant portion of the Huainanzi; they also merit the attention of scholars of early Chinese intellectual history, philosophy, and religion, either to be read on their own or consulted as a kind of mental sounding-board or cue sheet while reading the original Chinese. With the exception of chapter IS, which appears in a Western-language version here for the first time, all of these chapters have already been available to some extent in one Western language or another, but these translations are on the whole superior to those previously available. Many students of Daoism and other aspects of early Chinese thought will rightly want to add this book to their personal libraries.

(John S. Major, formerly Associate Professor of History at Dartmouth College, is a specialist in early Chinese cosmology. His most recent book is Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four and Five a/the Huainanzi (SUNY Press, 1993).) 70 PETERSON

Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition o/Great Purity. By Isabelle ROBINET. Translated by Iulian F. PAS and Norman I. GIRARDOT. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993. 285 pp.

Thomas H. PETERSON Indiana University

l In the forward to this work, Norman J. Girardot places Isabelle Robinet's Taoist Meditation , a synthesis of and commentary on a compendium of Great Purity Taoist scriptures, in the same order with classical Chinese commentaries, traditionally the only true sources of classical Chinese textual meaning. He sees Robinet as a latter day Wei Hua-ts'un, bringing the Great Purity revelations back to life "for another more universal, though darker, era." (Are things worse now than they were in the Six Dynasties period?) Certainly Robinet's contributions to the modem study ofTaoism should not be understated, and neither Girardot nor Pas do so. As Girardot notes, Robinet has reestablished long-neglected links to ancient Taoist beliefs and inspirations by deciphering, systematizing and summarizing an imposing store of difficult literature. Rather than the immortal Lady Wei, however, Robinet might better be compared to T'ao Hung-ching, the fifth- to sixth-century scholar who collected, annotated and struggled to find consistency in a scattered selection of Great Purity documents. After an outstanding preliminary chapter describing the spiritual roots of scripture, the body of Taoist Meditation becomes an ordered transmission of Robinet's readings, sparse of opinion or critical comment. Typically, passage upon paraphrased passage of diverse classical texts are followed by brief elaborations by the author on what the texts have in common and how they might fit into a system of Taoist thought. Robinet does not claim to explain or define Taoism, an accomplishment that in the long run may elude us all. Still, her presentation goes a fair way towards advancing just such a cause. Presenting the reader with a compendium of literature in such a concise manner may be far more useful than any direct attempt to discourse on the Tao's ineffability. We may do little better than to amass such indirect impressions of the Tao, given that words in Taoist texts are no more than errant, earthly corruptions of transcendent notions. Yet Robinet's occasional synthesizing comments are her book's most valuable moments, such as when she points out how Taoist meditation has more in common with holistic medicine and the maintenance of an adept's good health than with a simple, passive visualization of divine states. Such knowledge does not come easily, however. Mixed with bursts of eloquence (liThe silver-toned sound of the recitation of the text awakens an echo in the heavens ... "[p. 104]) are passages which make Robinet sound truly like an ancient Chinese Taoist commentator:

The division ofthe One into two distinct principles is followed by the reunion of the two in order to form a third principle which is the image of harmony and the condition of alllife... These new entities are the Nine-Ones. Three and Nine are the numbers which symbolize Unity and Totality. They are the origin and also the Return to the Origin or the Whole. (p. 122)

Clearly this is not a book to be put down and casually picked up again. Much of Robinefs paraphrase seems only incrementally less abstract than the texts she discusses. As much as

IOriginaily titled Meditation taoi'ste (Paris: Dervy Livres, 1979). Book Reviews 71 possible, she lets the ideas of the ancients stand on their own, with no apologies or compromises for apparent inconsistencies and contradictions. A mind-numbing volume of detailed ritual and fanciful scenery accumulates, threatening to bury the hesitant reader who pauses too long in search of explanation for why something is so. One is left wondering, then, why Pas and Girardot chose this work to translate for "the broadest possible audience" beyond the Taoist scholarly community. The book may be worthy of translation, yet despite its many merits, it is in fact written for scholars close to the field; simply taking it out of the French will not be enough to make it compelling for the general reader. Taoist Meditation is foremost a resource for scholars interested in the texts which inform our view of the Six Dynasties period school of religious thought and practice known as Great Purity Taoism. Though the work is packed with information on various techniques, it was not meant, for example, to instruct a novice in meditative practice, as a casual browser might presume. Furthermore, Robinet peppers her prose with Chinese terms in romanization. This is convenient and useful for China-hands familiar with the language and the French system of romanization (even the translators' shift to Wade-Giles, though well-intentioned, still reveals a prejudice towards scholarship; the average person is more likely to recognize a few words of pinyin, like "Beijing" or "Nanjing," from the newspaper. Pinyin, then, would have been a more user-friendly choice). It can easily frustrate the English-only reader, however, who may often have to retrace the meaning of a term left untranslated after its initial occurrence in the book. Yet the most telling evidence of whom Robinet intends as an audience is her calm exposition of overt contradictions in her source material. Those who have dealt with Taoist texts will realize that Robinet has actually done a remarkable job of ordering a jumbled bag of Taoist pronouncements. These are the people who expect contradiction in Taoism, who may even smile and point to the unity of opposites in Taoist philosophy as a convenient release from such sticky situations, but who nevertheless appreciate that an honest portrayal of Taoism will not be able to resolve all of its issues. Readers without this experience, however, can only grow skeptical as intertextual contradictions multiply with no words of explanation from the compiling author. How is it that Mount K'un-Iun corresponds to the central celestial pole if the mountain is in the northwest (p. 179)? If in the Huang-t'ing ching the heart corresponds externally with the mouth and tongue and the lungs with the nose (p.66), why in the T'ai-p'ing ching does the heart correspond with the nose and the spleen with the mouth (p. 65)? How is ching m[male semen] inherited from the mother (p. 86)? Why, if the adept strives to increase circulation within his body (p. 84), does he want to block ch'i i\. [breath] and ching from freely circulating in and out of it (p. 87, 88)? Related to this question, if constant response and transformation is the way of the saint (p. 156), why would the adept again want to block up his orifices, making himself non receptive to the flux of the world? If transformation from being to non-being to being is the inevitable and natural state ofthe Tao (p. 153-4), from where comes the Taoists' intractable drive for longevity (p. 161)? In describing some of the supernatural powers thought to accompany Taoist sainthood, Robinet states, "the saint is able to immerse himself in water without getting wet, is not burned by fire, is not attacked by wild animals, and cannot by harmed by anyone (p. 161)." Two pages later, however, she quotes a text that says the saint "becomes wood when he enters into the woods, becomes water when he sojourns in water (p. 163)." So what happens? Does he become water without getting wet? Perhaps this is the quintessence of the Taoist paradox. Taoist Meditation deals with a few such contradictions, but only when a Taoist text has something to say about one. On the problem of why the celestial north pole is the source of the Origin and life, while the earthly north is associated with death, Robinet appeals to the Huai-nan 72 PETERSON

tzu's clever yet incomplete explanation that the zenith of the celestial north pole is juxtaposed in the earth with the nadir of the infernal Yellow Springs (p. 218). One might raise one's hand and ask where the south, the land of life, fits in all of this, and why the south pole gets overlooked as the north pole's counterpart. Yet the discussion tenninates with the Huai-nan-tzu. Robinet to the end is a transmitter, not a critic. She propounds no ideas that are not textually based in ancient Taoist literature. Even her periodic generalizations are brief and careful. Yet she has neither qualms about presenting a multiplicity of contrasting theories and techniques nor doubt that her audience will do anything but give a knowing nod to Taoism's unsettled status quo. Still, Pas and Girardot presume their English version accessible to a wide audience. Clearly the translation itself, especially since it was done in close consultation with Robinet, cannot be faulted. Their effort to reduce the length of the longer original sentences is moreover appreciated. Yet an indication that the translators had a naive audience in mind can be seen in their unfortunate lack of care in compiling an index and glossary of Chinese characters. Robinet's original two indices (one solely for Chinese tenns) together fonn a workable access to the resources in her book, again revealing concern for the scholarly reader. Pas and Girardot's single index is perhaps only a third the size of Robinet's total index and therefore is too sparse for serious academic use. One can only wonder why the translators did not simply translate Robinet's original indices. Errors and omissions in the glossary are even more egregious and critical, since Robinet relies so heavily upon romanized Chinese in the body of her prose. Many items are simply missing. Two noteworthy examples are chu :m [incantation], where Robinet specifically discusses the composition ofthe graph (p. 30), and hsien m[heavenly immortals], which Robinet makes a point of distinguishing from another fonn of hsien ftlJ [earthly immortals], the latter of which stands alone in the glossary (p. 46). Homophonous characters (there are four ching's and threefo's, for instance) are not distinguished in the glossary by definition or superscript notation corresponding to the text, except in one curiously token instance. Neither does the first occurrence of a homophone necessarily correspond to its frrst instance in the glossary. The translators' Wade Giles is occasionally incorrect (T'ien-peng ~ Ii , "Heaven's tumbleweed," or a fonnula for exorcism, should be T'ien-p'eng [po 37]). Elsewhere, what is translated "chamber of semen" (ching-shih m~) is misromanized ching-she in the text and in the gloss, and further miswritten in the gloss as ft1l ~ (ching-shih, literally "quiet chamber," a tenn for a meditation chamber that appears in Celestial Master Taoist texts [po 80]). Many of these are picky points that would not deter a general reader. Perhaps Pas and Girardot assume that any true student of textual Taoism would have read Robinet's book in French already. On the contrary, this translation's primary audience is sure to be an academic one - whether novice, but serious students of Taoism who have yet to discover the indispensibility of reading in French, or established China experts in other fields who want to learn about Taoism and have developed the patience and skill for reading academic material. Certainly a broader audience, with forebearance, can enjoy and learn from this book; yet its emphasis is clearly on learning and the academic forum. Robinet first and foremost has provided us with a bulk of infonnation, a seminal resource for further study. Pas and Girardot's slighting treatment of its scholarly tools, the glossary and index, leave one wondering whom exactly this book was translated for. Despite being a significant contribution to the field to Taoist study, Taoist Meditation promises to cause aggravation for readers at all levels of interest, from scholarly to casual. Pas and Girardot may find that their "broadest possible audience" is narrower than expected. ANNOUNCEMENTS

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BOUCHER, Sandy. Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. 387 pp. $15.00 (paper).

CAHILL, James. The Painter's Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 187 pp. $32.50 (cloth).

DAVID-NEEL, Alexandra. My Journey to Lhasa. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. 349 pp. $14.00 (paper).

WATSON, Burton, trans. The Lotus Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 384 pp. $34.95 (cloth); $14.95 (paper).

Taoist Resources, 5.1 (1994) 75 Po Ya Plays the ZiUler 37

Plate 1. Deities and Animals with Half Circles and Square Seals Type. Bronze Mirror. Third Century A.D. Collection of Donald H. Grallanl, Honolulu. 38 CAHILL

Plate 2. Deities in Registers Type. Bronze Mirror. Dated 201. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. Po Ya Plays the Zither 37

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Plate 1. Deities and Animals with Half-Circles and Square Seals Type. Bronze Mirror. Third Century A.D. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. 38 CAHILL

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Plate 2. Deities in Registers Type. Bronze Mirror. Dated 201. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. 38 CAHllL

Plate 2. Deities in Registers Type. Bronze Mirror. Dated 201. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. SfI/r7 PLE -70

Po Ya Plays the Zither 39

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Plate 3. Combination Type. Bronze Mirror. Fourth Century A.D. Colleciton of Donald H. Graham. Honolulu. 40 CAHILL

Plate 4. Combination Type. Bronze Mirror. Fourth Century A.D. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu. Po Ya Plays the Zither 39

Plate 3. Combination Type. Bronze Mirror. Fourth Century A.D. Collection of Donald H Graham, Honolulu. 40 CAHILL

Plate 4. Combination Type. Bronze Mirror. Fourth Century A.D. Collection of Donald H. Graham, Honolulu.