Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon 1438467087, 9781438467085

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JOURNEY of a GODDESS

JOURNEY of a GODDESS Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon

Translated, edited, and with an introduction by

Fan Pen Li Chen

On the cover: Detail of photos of Chen Jinggu as a statue (left) and as a string puppet (right). Photos by Fan Pen Li Chen. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2017 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production, Dana Foote Marketing, Fran Keneston Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wugenzi, active 1573 author. | Chen, Fan-Pen Li, 1953– translator. Title: Journey of a goddess : Chen Jinggu subdues the Snake Demon / translated, edited, and with an introduction by Fan Pen Li Chen. Other titles: Xin ke quan xiang xian fa jiang she hai you ji zhuan. English | Chen Jinggu subdues White Snake Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York, 2017. | A translation of Haiyouji, a short Ming dynasty novel originally published in northern Fujian — Acknowledgments. | “The complete title of the novel (translated here as Journey of a Goddess) is Xinke quanji xianfa jiangshe haiyou jizhuan. . . . However, it is generally referred to as Haiyouji. . . . The version translated and reprinted here is based on a 1753 wood block reprint (which was itself most likely based on a version originally printed by Zhongzheng Tang during the Ming dynasty” — Introduction. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016054532 (print) | LCCN 2017011496 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438467078 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438467092 (ebook) Classification: LCC PL2698.W86 X55413 2017 (ebook) | LCC PL2698.W86 (print) | DDC 895.13/46—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011496 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated to my granddaughter, Matilda Stonechen

Contents

List of Plates

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Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Subjugation of Snake Demons: The Snake Cult and the Hagiography of Goddess Chen Jinggu

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Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon 37 Appendix I: Passing through Nanjiao, Pacifying the Demons, and Stabilizing Beijiao Appendix II: Chen Jinggu Leads an Army to Pacify the Barbarians

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Bibliography 123

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Plates

(Following page 35) Plate 1. The main statues of Goddesses Chen, Lin, and Li at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. Plate 2. White Snake’s hole under Goddess Chen’s main statue. Plate 3. Inside the snake hole underneath Goddess Chen’s main statue at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. Plate 4. The Linshui Ancestral Temple. Plate 5. Statue of the goddess slaying White Snake at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. Plate 6. Incense burners at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. Plate 7. Statue of a traditional Lüshan priest. Plate 8. Murals depicting episodes of the goddess’ legend. Plate 9. Smaller, older statues of Lady Chen. Plate 10. Statues of Lady Chen (surrounded by smaller statues of the same) and Lady Lin. Plate 11. The Three Ladies/Goddesses on horseback at Temple of the Ladies. Plate 12. A shaman priestess blows a small conch shell in place of the dragon horn.

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Plate 13. Shaman priestesses at Temple of the Ladies. Plate 14. Announcement of a new child being named and adopted by Goddess Chen. Plate 15. First page of a prayer invoking the Three Ladies. Plate 16. A talisman at Temple of the Ladies. Plate 17. Divination blocks at Temple of the Ladies. Plate 18. A print block with the surnames of the three goddesses at Temple of the Ladies. Plate 19. Statues of Chen Jinggu and her brothers at the Taiyin Temple in New York City. Plate 20. Ingots made by devotees at the Taiyin Temple in New York City. Plate 21. Marionette puppets of Chen Jinggu, her brother (in red), and her husband (in white). Plate 22. Table with offerings in front of Xu Maobao’s stage. Plate 23. Old puppets of Lady Chen, her mother, and brother worshipped as deities at the home of a puppeteer. Plate 24. Another view of Wang Cunyi’s puppets of Lady Chen, her mother, and brother. Plate 25. Wang Cunyi with a newer puppet of Lady Chen. Plate 26. The Taishun County Troupe’s puppet of Lady Chen. Plate 27. White Snake in a local opera on the legend of Goddess Chen. Plate 28. Lady Chen and her husband in the same local opera. Plate 29. Daoist priests playing music at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. Plate 30. Devotees from Zhejiang making a pilgrimage to the Linshui Ancestral Temple. Plate 31. Ritual of “Pacing the Dipper.” Plate 32. Parade of the goddess’ statue at the Linshui Ancestral Temple.

Plates

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Plate 33. Lüshan priest in the ritual “Opening Lüshan Gate.” Plate 34. Lüshan priest in the ritual “Crossing the Passes.” Plate 35. “Climbing Honglou” with a performance of “The Foster Mother Paces the Dipper” on top of stacked tables. Plate 36. Girl handling a snake during the Snake Festival of the Snake God Temple. Plate 37. Lian Gong, also known as the Snake God, at the Snake God Temple. Plate 38. Dragon horn, a ritual implement. Plate 39. Rope with snake head. Plate 40. Dragon horn and bronze bells. Plate 41. Gong and drum for music. Plate 42. Cymbals at Temple of the Ladies. Plate 43. Broad knife, a Lüshan ritual implement. Plate 44. Ritual implements: the snake hemp whip, the divine bamboo whip, the Faba, a signature implement of central Fujian, and the Five Thunder Command Tally. Plate 45. Painting of Chen Jinggu with some priests and priestesses wearing the Forehead Mirror. Plate 46. Suona horn for music.

Acknowledgments

Inspiration for this project commenced during my attendance at the 2014 NEH Summer Daoist Seminar, organized by Terry Kleeman and Stephen Bokenkamp, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I’d casually brought along to the seminar a copy of Haiyouji 海游记, a short Ming dynasty novel I was considering translating. How very fortunate that I did. Chang Chaojan 张超然 and Hsieh Shuwei 谢士维, consultants at the seminar, met with me regularly to explain several difficult terms and assist with their translation. My sincere thanks to both of them. One of the slides Hsieh presented during the seminar was of a painting depicting priests wearing “forehead mirrors” (which were mentioned in the novel I’d brought). Hsieh arranged for me to obtain a photo of the painting (which belonged to Li Fengmao 李丰楙) for this book. I am deeply grateful to Terry Kleeman and Stephen Bokenkamp for providing me with the opportunity to meet Chang and Hsieh and to learn extensively about Daoist history and literature. I completed my first draft of the translation of this novel while I was at the seminar. Ye Mingsheng 叶明生 was instrumental in assisting my research concerning this particular goddess. When he first agreed to conduct fieldwork with me about Chinese puppetry, he warned that I would eventually end up conducting research on local religions. Sure enough, the puppet theaters of southern China (particularly those of Fujian) ultimately opened up a rich and many-layered world of local religions to me. Three very extensive Fujian marionette plays (translations of two scenes from one of these plays are included in the appendices of this book), edited by Ye, are hagiographies of Goddess Chen Jinggu. While conducting fieldwork on puppetry, we also watched a marionette play about this goddess (in Zhejiang), and another about the snake god, Jiaomang

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蕉蟒 (in northern Fujian). These plays inspired the main ideas in “Subjugation of Snake Demons: The Snake Cult and the Hagiography of Goddess Chen Jinggu” included in this book. A Chinese version of this article was presented at the first academic conference (organized by Ye), held at the site of the goddess’ ancestral temple in Gutian 古田, Fujian. Although originally published in northern Fujian, the original text of the translated novel would have been lost to posterity if it had not been discovered by Ye in the remote reaches of western Hunan. His knowledge of local Fujian culture and religions is reflected in many of the footnotes of my translation. Indeed, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Professor Ye (as I call him) for including me on many of his fieldwork trips, inviting me to many conferences he organized, and making available to me the less accessible of his prodigious published scholarship. The local gazetteer on Gutian and the numerous conference volumes and ritual texts edited by Professor Ye have all been essential for my gaining familiarity with the cult of this important goddess. Huang Jianxing 黄建兴, a Master’s Degree student when he first accompanied Ye Mingsheng and me on our fieldwork trips, has since obtained a PhD from the University of Hong Kong and is now an Associate Professor at the Normal University of Fujian. He remains a helpful friend and has generously provided many photos (from which I selected nine for this book). Donna Albright, my college roommate and best friend, edited this manuscript for me. I thank her and her husband, Steve Strauss, for their friendship, generosity, and abiding encouragement. I am also grateful to my daughters, Kimberley and Ingrid Chen, for their love and emotional support. This book is dedicated to my new granddaughter, Matilda Stonechen, the apple of my eye. May her life be filled with the joys of discovery!

Introduction

Journey of a Goddess is a lively mythology of Chen Jinggu 陈靖姑 (766–790), one of the most important goddesses in southeast China (the chief deity of the Lüshan Sect 闾山派). A historical shaman1 priestess who became a cult, the goddess was a demon slayer (particularly of the snake sprite) before she filled the niche as protectress of women (during pregnancy and childbirth) and children. Journey of a Goddess is the cult lore of the combats between the shaman goddess and a snake demon goddess. Both popular fiction and a religious tract,2 the novel is filled with the beliefs and practices of Jinggu’s cult and asserts the importance of Shamanism as one of the four Chinese religions. The complete title of the novel (translated here as Journey of a Goddess) is Xinke quanji xianfa jiangshe haiyou jizhuan 新刻全集显法降蛇海游记传 (New Woodblock Print of the Complete Travel Record and Biography of Manifesting Ritual Powers through Subjugation of the Snake and Journey among the Lakes3). However, the book is generally referred to as Haiyouji 海游记. Haiyouji, literally, “record of traveling among the seas/lakes,” is a most unusual term. The youji (travel record) portion of the title resonates with other Ming dynasty youji novels, such as the renowned Xiyouji 西游记 (Journey to the West; also known

1. I translate the wu 巫 priests and priestesses of Chinese local religions as shamans. 2. For the role of fiction (written and oral fiction and drama) as the “cultural nexus of legend, divinity, ritual, and community” and as the primary vehicle for the dissemination of religion, see Mark Meulenbeld (24) and Meir Shahar (221). 3. I translate hai 海, which usually refers to the sea, as “lakes” here, since in the novel any large expanse of water is referred to as a sea.

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Introduction

as Monkey);4 the Beiyouji 北游记 (Journey to the North);5 the Dongyouji 东 游记 (Journey to the East);6 and Nanyouji 南游记 (Journey to the South).7 But the reference to “sea/s” in the title is more difficult to comprehend since the novel’s protagonist, Chen Jinggu, a shaman priestess in real life, had never traveled to the sea (the way the character hai 海 is usually understood). In the novel, however, hai clearly refers to any large expanse of water (with the only true sea being the South Sea, where the Bodhisattva Guanyin resides). Accordingly, the title may mean “journey among the rivers and lakes.” Like the other “travel records” mentioned, Journey of a Goddess is a hagiographic account of folk religious beliefs. The title Haiyouju 海游居, literally, “sea travel residence,” is mentioned in a marionette play about the goddess, Biography of the Lady 夫人传, found in Shanghang 上杭, western Fujian. In scene 9 of the play, the emperor decrees, after he has bestowed titles upon Chen Jinggu and members of her family: Now that all the demons of the world have been subdued and eliminated, We, the king, bestow upon you the three words, “Haiyouju,” A volume on your story to be passed down for ten thousand years. When your mortal age has been reached, ascend immediately to the immortal realm.8 Apparently, Haiyouju and the similar sounding Haiyouji were both used as titles for the same novel.9 Indeed, the title Haiyouji was used for a nuo play 4. For the most complete translation of Journey to the West, see Anthony Yu’s book. This is a folk rendition of the Buddhist priest Xuan Zang’s 玄奘 (Tripitaka) pilgrimage to India. 5. For a translation of Journey to the North, see Gary Seaman’s book. This book is a hagiography of the Daoist deity, the Mysterious or the Dark Thearch 玄帝. 6. Dongyouji is on the Eight Daoist Immortals. 7. For more information on Journey to the South, see Ursula-Angelika Cedzich’s article. This novel is dedicated to the hagiography of Huaguang 华光, another famous deity of northern Fujian. 8. Ye Mingsheng and Yuan Hongliang, 264. This is mentioned again in scene 15 of the same play, see ibid., 390. 9. One of the reviewers notes that in some Fujian dialects the JI (YI, QI) sound is often used for JU (YU, QU) and the title Haiyouju may well be a misinterpretation based on Fujianese dialect.

Introduction

3

傩戏 in Shaoyang 邵阳, Hunan, and among the drum ballads of Lishui 丽 水, Zhejiang,10 which all portray the same story about the goddess that our novel portrays. The earliest mention of the cult was in Zhang Yining’s 张以宁 memorial on the restoration of Chen Jinggu’s ancestral temple (also known as the Linshui Temple) in Gutian from 1342 to 1343. Zhang regales the splendor of the renovated temple, but does not include the stories concerning the goddess herself. He does, however, mention a stele with an inscription about the goddess by Hong Tianxi 洪天锡, who served as the magistrate of Gutian during the Chunyou 淳祐 period (1241–1252).11 Consequently, the cult of Chen Jinggu must have existed since at least the Song dynasty (when she was supposedly canonized and given the title of Shunyi Furen 顺懿夫人, the Beneficent and Just Lady). The version translated and reprinted here is based on a 1753 wood block reprint (which was itself based on a version originally printed by Zhongzheng Tang 忠正堂, most likely during the Ming dynasty). Zhongzheng Tang of Jianyang 建阳, publishing house of the renowned publisher, Xiong Damu 熊大木 (ca. 1506–1578), also published a novel on Mazu 妈祖, the other famous goddess of Fujian. Given that Xiong Damu published numerous vernacular novels during the Jiajing 嘉靖 (1521–1567) and Wanli 万历 (1573–1620) periods, Haiyouji was also most likely printed then. Wenyuan Tang 文元堂, which printed the present edition, could be either a publisher in Nanjing 南京 that flourished during the late Ming, or a local publisher in a county in Hunan (located next to the county where the copy of Haiyouji discovered by Ye Mingsheng was found). The general shoddiness and crudeness of the block print and the prevalence of incorrect, but homophonic, characters, may indicate that this version was printed by the latter, more rural publisher.12 Based on similarities in our novel with the practices and lore of the Lüshan Sect “Daoist” priests13 in Jianyang 建阳 of northern Fujian—for example, ritual

10. See Ye Mingsheng’s introduction in Wugenzi, 8–10. 11. “Cuipingji 翠屏集” in Siku quanshu zhenben, 4.48b–50a. For a translation of this memorial, see Baptandier, 6–8. 12. See Ye’s introduction in Wugenzi, 14–16. 13. Because Shamanism (wujiao 巫教; local cultic beliefs and practices) was officially condemned in both late imperial and contemporary China, shamanistic local religious groups have come to call themselves Daoists.

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Introduction

practices and implements, and hagiography of the deities invoked—Ye Ming­ sheng concludes that the ritual texts and practices of the Lüshan Religion/ Sect of Jianyang constituted the source for Journey of a Goddess.14 Even the same misrepresentation of a word is found in both the novel and a Jianyang hand-copied ritual text about the goddess. Putuo Rock 普陀岩 (a mountain in Zhejiang on which Guanyin was supposed to have given sermons) is written as Putao Rock 蒲陶岩 in the original text of the novel, and also as Putao Rock 葡萄岩 in a Jianyang ritual text.15 Indeed, the novel is a faithful reflection of the beliefs and practices of the local religion in northern Fujian through this supposedly historical account of its chief deity. That the author (or the second publisher of the novel) intended the “history” to be as accurate as possible can be discerned from the blanks left for certain important contemporary religious practices, and the specific location of the temple in Gutian. He says in the very first paragraph of the novel, Ever since the creation of the Heaven and earth and settlement of people, the four religions of Confucianism 儒, Buddhism 釋, Daoism 道 and Shamanism 巫 have been promulgated among all in the world. Confucianism was founded by the sage Confucius who lived among the mortals and taught filial piety and loyalty. Buddhism was founded by the Buddha who lived in the Western Realm 西天 and advocated adhering to vegetarianism. Daoism was founded by Laozi who lived in Zhongnan 终南 and taught the practice of cultivation and physical refinement. Shamanism was founded by Jiulang 九郎 who lived in Lüshan 閭山 and taught the practice of XXX.16 And again, we find in the last paragraph, To this day her temple survives at XXX of Gutian County where the incense offerings have never ceased.17 14. See Ye’s introduction in Wugenzi, 22–26. See Ye Mingsheng and Lao Gewen eds., Fujiansheng Jianyangshi Lüshanpai keyiben, 508–585 for “Nai’niang zongzu 奶娘宗祖,” a ritual text that enumerates in verse form the hagiography of the goddess. For the relationship between the Lüshan Sect and other Daoist sects, see Baptandier, 15–21. 15. Wugenzi, 106, footnote 14. 16. Wugenzi, 60. 17. Wugenzi, 105.

Introduction

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Like many local religions, the sect affirmed the superiority of Guanyin and Buddhism. In Journey of a Goddess, however, the importance of Shamanism, the wu 巫 (local cultic beliefs and practices) is also recognized. As shown in the paragraph quoted above, the novel begins with the unusual and remarkable statement, naming Shamanism as one of the four main religions of the world (i.e., China), a rare occurrence indeed. Chen Jinggu (who was wiser than her brother, Haiqing) hesitates to confront the Bodhisattva Guanyin (whom she knew was hiding the snake demon), because she feared that her shamanistic powers were no match against Guanyin’s Buddhist powers. Only after Haiqing’s humiliating defeat does Guanyin eventually agree to Jinggu’s request to subdue the demoness, White Snake: Seeing that Haiqing was unwilling to listen to her, Guanyin chanted a sacred incantation, waved her hand, and pulled down a five-colored auspicious cloud with which she covered the area. She then summoned the Mysterious Thearch of Zhenwu 真武玄帝 to wrap the entire Lüshan army in a banner and trapped them. She also summoned the four Vajras to tie up Haiqing. When Jinggu saw that Guanyin was so irate that she subdued the Lüshan army and had Haiqing tied up, Jinggu immediately kneeled before her and implored. Guanyin laughed and said, “How can your brother, Haiqing, be so impertinent? It goes without saying that that Shamanism of yours should not dare to compete with my Buddhism, even a religion such as Daoism would submit to my Buddhism . . .”18 Later, Jinggu kowtowed, approached her and replied, “As you, the Buddha Mother, already knew, the ritual techniques of Shamanism are incomparably miniscule in comparison [to Buddhism]. There was no need to use the army of Shamanism to control the beast.” Guanyin smiled and said, “You wouldn’t have known if I didn’t tell you about it. Of the four religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and Shamanism, there is none that should be slighted. . . .”19 18. Wugenzi, 103. 19. Wugenzi, 104.

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Introduction

Hence, although the Buddhist goddess Guanyin is more powerful in Journey of a Goddess than local deities, shamanistic local religions were not to be denigrated because they served important functions for their believers. In Journey, the powers of both Chen Jinggu and the demon snake were seen as derived from the Buddhist goddess,20 Guanyin (a consequence of their having originally derived from parts of the goddess’ body). The snake demoness was transformed from a strand of Guanyin’s hair, while the shamanistic goddess Chen Jinggu was created from a fingernail clipping of the Buddhist deity. To legitimize Shamanism and discredit the older snake cult, Journey of a Goddess claims that Guanyin created these figures to glorify Shamanism through Chen’s defeat of the snake demoness. The novel begins with this story: When Mahasattva Guanyin was returning to her abode at the South Sea after the assembly, her powerful eyes espied from the cloud she was riding upon that the Lüshan Sect had sunk and been out of view for a long time. Desiring to revive the Teachings, she thought for a while and then pulled a strand of hair from her own head which she tossed into the sea.21 However, at the end of the novel (when Guanyin explains to Jinggu her own origins and those of White Snake Demoness), the Buddhist deity’s story changes to reflect the more popular view—that while White Snake’s creation was merely accidental, Jinggu was created purposely in response. According to Guanyin, The snake was created when a single strand of my hair fell into the sea when I was returning from an assembly in the Third Heaven. The power of Buddhism was so boundless that it eventually became a snake. Knowing that the evil beast would not be able to transform into a dragon and would consequently likely bring harm to the popu-

20. According to Ye Mingsheng, many local religions co-opted aspects of Buddhism, (including the inclusion of Buddhist deities, sutras, incantations, and mantras), mainly as a tactic for survival after the issuance of numerous imperial prohibitions against Shamanism during the Song dynasty. See Ye’s introduction in Wugenzi, 31–35. 21. Wugenzi, 60.

Introduction

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lace, I bit off a piece of my nail, transformed it into a golden light and sent it to your mother’s womb. You were born as a result with the mission of subduing the white snake. Precisely because I felt the religion of Shamanism had been in decline for quite a while, I had you enter the religion of Shamanism to learn its ritual techniques in order to glorify it.22 The popularity of the goddess probably derived from the niche she occupied, as a protector of women during pregnancy and childbirth, and for the safe upbringing of children. To this day, the populace of some regions in Fujian refer to her as Foster Mother (Nai’niang 奶娘), and perform a ritual to entrust their children to her care until the youngster reaches adulthood (sixteen years of age). Indeed, male gods abhorred and even feared the blood of menstruation and childbirth. Hence the importance of Chen Jinggu’s cult to its believers, even though she was not as powerful as many of the deities of Buddhism. The cult’s position in the hierarchy of religion seems comparable to that of the local magistrates—despite having far less power than the emperor, the people appealed to them to handle specific, localized problems. Two scenes from a marionette play on the goddess are included as appendices to highlight her roles as an exorcist and woman warrior, and to present ritual incantations that are still being used by the priests of the Lüshan Sect, of which Chen Jinggu is the chief deity. Journey of a Goddess and the marionette play provide a window to the practices, ritual structures, beliefs, and hagiography of a local cult relatively little recognized by the elites but of great influence among the populace in southeast China.

22. Wugenzi, 104.

Subjugation of Snake Demons The Snake Cult and the Hagiography of Goddess Chen Jinggu 1

A shaman priestess of the Tang dynasty (618–907), Chen Jinggu 陈靖姑 (766– 790; a.k.a. Lady Linshui 临水夫人 [Lady Bordering Water], Lady Da’nai 大奶 夫人 [Lady Great Foster Mother], Nai’niang 奶娘 [Foster Mother], Lady Chen Shisi 陈十四夫人 [Lady Chen the Fourteenth]) died of miscarriage at the age of twenty-four, but eventually became a protector-deity of women and children. She is the second most important goddess2 in the province of Fujian, and is worshipped throughout southeastern China and Southeast Asia. She received the imperial title of Shunyi Furen, the Beneficent and Just Lady 顺懿夫人 during the Song dynasty (960–1279).3 Although known primarily as a protector of children from conception to adulthood, the hagiography of the goddess also emphasizes her role as a slayer of demons. She is particularly renowned for 1. This is an expanded version of an article I originally wrote in Chinese. See Chen Li Fanping. 2. The most famous goddess of the province is Mazu. While Mazu is a sea goddess more revered in coastal areas, the cult of Chen Jinggu tends to be more popular in the mountainous regions. 3. Her hagiographies continued to add to this title. In the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan and Sanjiao yuanliu shengdi fozu soushen daquan, it is Lady Great Foster Mother, Universal Protector of the State, Devoted to Efficacious Response, Sanctifying Blessings, and Beneficent and Just 都天镇国显应崇福顺懿大奶夫人. Two titles are bestowed upon her in our Ming dynasty (1368–1644) novel, Journey of a Goddess: Lady Great Foster Mother and Universal Protector of the State 都天镇国大奶夫人; and Lady Great Foster Mother, Protector of the State, Merciful and Saving Heavenly Consort, Devoted to Sanctifying Blessings, and Beneficent and Just 护国慈济天妃崇福顺懿大奶夫人. In the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) novel, Pacification of the Demons of Linshui 临水平妖, her title is Lady of the Temple of Linshui, Manifesting Favors and Sanctifying Blessing 昭惠崇福临水宫夫人.

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Subjugation of Snake Demons

subduing snake demons—and, as Journey of a Goddess shows, a white female snake sprite, specifically. The deity Chen Jinggu filled a niche in her role as a protector of women and children, particularly women during childbirth, as male gods abhorred and even feared female blood from menstruation and childbirth. Why then, did her hagiography during the Ming and Qing dynasties emphasize her role as a serpent slayer, rather than as a protector of women and children? This study hopes to answer this question. Rather than complying with historical claims transmitted within cult lore, which view the main female snake as a demoness, and rather than regarding the serpents in Chen Jinggu’s legends as barbaric creatures,4 I propose to link the snake demons to deities of the ancient Yue culture and suggest that the goddess’ subjugation of the snake demons represents the success of her sect’s belief system over an indigenous cult.

Subjugation of Snake Demons in Chen Jinggu’s Hagiographies Chen Jinggu slays far more serpent sprites than any other demons in the plays and novels portraying her life. In all the legends about her life—be they in marionette (string-puppet) plays 傀儡戏, drum ballads 鼓词, human actors’ opera 戏曲, vernacular novels 小说, or collections of folk tales—no other type of sprite fought by Goddess Chen received as much attention as the White Snake Demoness (plate 27) and other snake sprites. Aside from the novel translated here, the full name of which is significantly New Woodblock Print of the Complete Travel Record and Biography of Manifesting Ritual Powers Through Subjugation of the Snake and Journey Among the Lakes5 新刻全像显法降蛇海 游记传,6 examples abound in other genres as well. Numerous traditional marionette plays in Fujian and Zhejiang enact the sacred legend of the goddess. A string-puppet play titled Luxi 鲁戏, found in 4. Baptandier sees Lady Linshui as the civilizing ancestor of Min, insofar as “her story is in large part made up of . . . her exploits in pursuit of malevolent beings that infested the mountains and other places in the country.” See Baptandier, 28. 5. As noted earlier, I translate hai 海, which usually refers to the sea, as “lakes” because any large expanse of water is referred to as a sea in the novel. 6. Although many Ming novels were regarded as true biographical tales of popular deities, the use of both ji, record, and zhuan, biography, in this title seems to show a desire to emphasize the biographical nature of this hagiography.

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Putian 莆田, Fujian, depicts Chen Jinggu vanquishing a python to rid the people of the evil sprite.7 Four scenes in the Biography of the Foster Mother: 8 A Siping String-Puppet Opera of Shouning, Fujian 福建寿宁四平傀儡戏奶娘传 9 demonstrate the Goddess’ annihilation of snake demons. In scene 3, volume 2, of “Crossing the Nanjiao, She Pacifies the Demons and Stabilizes Beijiao 过南蛟平 妖定北蛟,”10 Chen Jinggu executes an old snake demon, among other demons. Interestingly, the names Nanjiao and Beijiao mean, literally, “south kraken” and “north kraken,” which suggests the existence of the jiao 蛟, a snake-dragon–like creature, possibly the crocodile in the region. The kraken is traditionally considered to be a type of water serpent.11 In scene 5, volume 4, of “Expelling the Snake at the Daoist Altar of the Observatory of the Three Purities 三清观道坛 驱蛇,” Jinggu uncovers the deception by which a python has convinced the local people that the Daoists it devoured had ascended to heaven.12 Scene 2, volume 5, of “Stabbing the South Snake at the White Snake Village 白蛇村剑斩南蛇” depicts Chen Jinggu’s subjugation of a white snake13 sprite, the namesake of the village. Finally, scene 4 of the same volume, “Eliminating the Head of the Snake, the Sage Mother Gloriously Receives an Imperial Title 除蛇头荣封圣母,” enacts Chen Jinggu’s ultimate triumph over her nemesis. The subjugation of the White Snake Demoness, in particular, constitutes the core of many legends about Chen Jinggu. The five scenes14 in Biography of the Lady: A Luantan15 Marionette Play of Shanghang in Fujian 福建上杭乱弹 傀儡戏夫人传 include familiar episodes found in other versions of the legend,

7. Ye Mingsheng, Puxian xiju wenhua shengtai yanjiu, 393–397. 8. Goddess Chen Jinggu is the great foster mother. 9. See Ye Mingsheng, ed., Fujian Shouning Siping kuileixi Nai’niang zhuan. 10. This scene has been translated and is included in Appendix I of this book. The play calls the volumes ben 本, and the scenes pai 拍. 11. See Schafer, 20–21 and 123–126, for a discussion on the jiao. The jiao has also been identified as crocodiles. See also Hugh Clark, 102–109. 12. This ancient, popular tale of deception by a python is found in several sources. See Hisayuki Miyakawa, 96–99. 13. The south snake, nanshe 南蛇 is another name for ranshe 蚺蛇, the python. 14. Called duan 段, section, here. 15. Luantan refers to a type of music. Highly popular during the Qing, it displaced many of the older styles of music in Fujian.

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including in the translated novel in this volume. Scene 4, “Guanyin Dresses Up 观音梳妆,” depicts the creation of the White Snake Demoness from a hair that fell from the Buddhist Goddess Guanyin’s head when she was combing her hair. This spiritually endowed hair of a most powerful deity falls into a river below her dressing window and turns into a snake. Knowing that the snake would wreak havoc in the future, Guanyin clips off one of her fingernails and sends the spiritually endowed nail clipping to the womb of Chen Jinggu’s mother, so that Jinggu would be born of another part of Guanyin and eventually subjugate the wayward snake. In scene 5, “The Brothers Subdue the Demon 兄弟收妖,” Chen Jinggu’s brothers, two shaman priests, are commissioned to exorcize the White Snake sprite. One brother gets drunk and, when writing a petition for assistance from the celestial generals, makes a mistake regarding the exorcism date. Consequently, no generals came to their aid on the date the exorcism was conducted, resulting in the other brother’s capture by the snake demoness. In scenes 7 and 9, “The Siblings Eliminate the Demoness and Save Their Brother 兄妹除妖救 兄” and “The Siblings Subjugate the White Snake Sprite 兄妹收白蛇精,” Chen Jinggu and the brother who was not captured finally defeat the white snake demoness. The play ends with the goddess subduing a turtle-snake in Scene 11, “Defeating the Turtle-Snake at Mount Emei 峨嵋山收龟蛇.”16 The importance of the feud between Chen Jinggu and White Snake was revealed to me through a performance of Lady Chen the Fourteenth 陈十四娘 娘传,17 a marionette play on the goddess in Pingyang 平阳, Zhejiang.18 When I went to Taishun County 泰顺县 of Pingyang with Ye Mingsheng 叶明生 in 2008, we requested an episode of significance from Lady Chen the Fourteenth. The puppet master, Xu Maobao 徐茂宝, selected the climactic scene, “Subduing South Snake 收南蛇,” for us (see plate 21 for the puppets). Since it was considered a sacred play, the puppeteer had to cleanse himself ritually and also

16. See Fan Pen Chen (2015) for a more detailed discussion of vestiges of snake cults in Chinese shadow and puppet theatres. 17. Chen Jinggu is known as Lady Chen the Fourteenth in Zhejiang. 18. See Taishun xian zhengxie wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui, ed., 105–110, for the titles of the thirteen scenes of this marionette play and the story in scene 4.

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have an altar table with offerings set before the stage prior to the performance (plate 22). The audience exclaimed with excitement when, after performing an elaborate and extensive shamanistic ritual dance,19 the shaman priestess Chen Jinggu drew the snake sprite onstage (accompanied by rhythmic drum beats) and commanded two celestial generals (who had been hovering in the air) to attack. Once onstage, the snake sprite (played by an evil-looking female puppet) transformed instantly into a snake, upon which the two generals swooped down and landed. This scene was obviously more easily executed through the use of string puppets than it would have been with human actors. A short, hand-copied huaben 话本 from the Guangxu reign (1875–1908) (based on which the string-puppet master, Wang Hua 王华 of Qingshui xiang 青 水乡, Yong’an shi 永安市 in northern Fujian performed the biographical tale of Chen Jinggu) is titled both Legend of the Sovereign Emperor 皇君故事 and Story of the White Snake 白蛇记.20 Ye Mingsheng refers to this play as Haiyouji 海游 记 (Journey of a Goddess).21 Indeed, the story is basically a shortened version of Journey of a Goddess, and is probably called Legend of the Sovereign Emperor because the emperor of the Kingdom of Min became involved when Chen Jinggu vanquished White Snake, after the latter had devoured the queen and transformed herself into the royal figure’s likeness. That the text should also be named Story of the White Snake indicates the perceived importance of White Snake in the hagiography of the goddess. Even in Journey of a Goddess, translated here, it was precisely because of Chen Jinggu’s “intense desire to subdue the snake” that the Bodhisattva Guanyin petitioned the Jade Emperor of the Heavens to bestow upon her the title Lady Great Foster Mother and Universal Protector of the State.22 This marionette play is the most popular choice of the local population for repayment of vows made to deities. The story of this novel also forms the

19. This ritual dance replicates the “Pacing the Dipper Dance” 行罡舞, also known as “Summoning the [Heavenly] Army” 招军 performed by the priests of the Lüshan Sect. It is performed in the marionette plays about the goddess whenever she subdues a demon. See Ye Mingsheng, Fujian kuileixi shilun, 181–182. See page 181 for a photo of a scene from this play. The scene translated in Appendix I contains such a ritual. 20. For a translation of this story, see Tuen Wai Mary Yeung, 405–434. 21. See Ye Mingsheng, Fujian kuileixi shilun, 175. 22. Wugenzi, 104.

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backbone of a drum ballad named Biography of Lady Chen the Fourteenth 陈十 四夫人传,23 found in Lishui 丽水, Zhejiang, and is directly related to a nuo drama 傩戏 named Haiyouji24 in Shaoyang County 邵阳县 of western Hunan.25 Two other Qing dynasty “novels” of significance to the hagiography of Chen Jinggu include Liren Heqiu’s 里人何求 (an 18th century figure)26 Legendary Records of the Capital of Min 闽都别记,27 a collection of semi-related folk legends from Fujian, and an anonymous novel, Pacification of the Demons of Linshui 临水平妖.28 Of particular importance is the fact that the latter includes a legend concerning the transformation or deification—that is, death—of the goddess while sitting atop the grotto where the head of White Snake Demoness lies, in order to subdue it in perpetuity. Even today, a hole containing the sculpture of the head of a snake can be found beneath Chen Jinggu’s statue in the Linshui Ancestral Temple of the goddess in Gutian, Fujian29 (plate 2 and

23. Sung mostly by blind performers, Biography of the Lady 夫人传 about the goddess is its mainstay. The ballad itself announces that its source is a wood-block printed Haiyou jingshu 海游 经书 (The Haiyou Sutra), and Haiyouji (the name of our novel). See Wugenzi, edited by Ye, 40. 24. Haiyouji uses the same characters as Journey of a Goddess. 25. See Wugenzi, edited by Ye, 42–44. 26. The pen name of the author means literally “What More Would I, a Rustic, Wish For?” 27. The tales related to Chen Jinggu can be found in the following chapters: 21–28; 32–32; 44; 53; 58; 62; 65; 76; 78; 82–83; and 86. 28. Consisting of fourteen chapters, this novel includes details such as the seduction of men, including Chen’s husband by the snake demoness. It survived in Taiwan and was brought by devotees from there to the ancestral temple of the goddess in Gutian, Fujian. It has been regarded by the believers as an historical account of the goddess, just as the novel translated most likely was. See Baptandier’s book for a religious and anthropological analysis of this novel. Ye Mingsheng classifies the folklore, literature, and drama on Chen Jinggu’s hagiography into two major traditions. While Journey of a Goddess represents the tradition found in northern and western Fujian, Pacification of the Demons of Linshui represents the tradition of central and southern Fujian, whence the Fujian migrants to Taiwan originated. See Ye Mingsheng’s introduction in Wugenzi, 18. The episodes in Pacification of the Demons of Linshui and Legendary Records of the Capital of Min are very similar. Although the former has not been dated beyond the fact that it was most likely first published during the Qing dynasty, Baptandier thinks that the latter took some episodes of Pacification of the Demons of Linshui and added other pieces to them. See Baptandier, 27. 29. Many of the off-shoot temples of the goddess would take some incense from this ancestral temple to their own temples annually through an elaborate ritual. See Huang Jianxing. I would like to thank Huang Jianxing for pointing out the hole (which had the sculpture of a snake) to me when we visited the temple, and providing me with a better photo than I was able to take (since the hole was lit when he was there earlier).

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plate 3). The hole is called Linshui Grotto 临水洞.30 It is believed to be the location to which the head of the snake demoness flew. Given the existence of the practice of calling the abodes of Daoist deities and animal sprites “grottos,” or “caves,” this could have been the location where a shrine or temple31 dedicated to White Snake, a local deity, existed. To this date, coins are offered to the snake sprite (plate 3). In 2010, during a conference at Gutian devoted to the study of the goddess, I watched a traditional (human actor) opera portray the feud between Chen Jinggu and White Snake in an auditorium, packed to the seams with an enthusiastic local crowd. Although a rare presentation, it was not the first, or only, performance on this subject; in fact, the photo of the protagonist used for the poster was from an earlier performance. Enacted by a local governmentsponsored opera troupe, Chen Jinggu, the goddess was portrayed as a demure, beautiful priestess (plate 28); while White Snake Demoness, the snake sprite, was a ravishing seductress clad in flashy apparel (plate 27).

History of the Relationship between the Goddess and Snake Sprites Although subjugation of the snake demoness occupies a central role in the tales about Chen Jinggu, this aspect of her hagiography did not exist in the earliest records about her. They seem to have been added gradually to bolster her power and increase her sphere of influence. The earliest reference to her is found in an item titled, “Lady Chen 陈夫人” in Huang Yansun’s 黄岩孙 (a Song dynasty figure) Gazetteer of Xianxi 仙溪志, which describes her as a “shaman priestess for whom people built a shrine and worshipped her after her death. Pregnant women invariably prayed to her there.”32 A memorial on the 1342–1343 restoration of her temple, “Zhang Yi­ning’s 张以宁 Memorial on the Shunyi 顺懿 Temple” (written during the Yuan dynasty) seems to indicate that Chen Jinggu was a deity with rather ­general 30. The residence of White Snake in Journey of a Goddess was referred to as her grotto-cave. For another example of the fine line between demons and deities, see Paul Katz, 1987. 31. Aside from the main temple of Chen Jinggu in Gutian, most of the “temples” I saw in rural Fujian were quite small. The “temple” dedicated to Marshal Tian 田公庙 in Shuizhuyang Village 水竹洋村 of Shanghang 上杭, for example, consisted of only one small room. 32. Huang Yansun, 63–64.

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­rotective functions. Zhang Yining ends the memorial with a poem that p includes the lines, Evil influences are no longer felt, No more disease or pain.33 Two longer items concerning Chen Jinggu’s power over snakes can be found during the Southern Song (1127–1279) and Yuan (1279–1368) dynasties. They show Chen’s efficacy in aiding the populace from harm by snakes, but they do not yet portray her as a subduer of snake demons. According to Gazetteer of Xinghua County 兴化县志, concerning a temple dedicated to Madam Chen 陈氏 established during the Shaoxing reign (1131–1162) and named Temple of the Lady Who Spreads Blessings 广福娘庙, For seventy leagues dense forests and tangled under growths surrounded the temple. When country folks went to cut bamboo to make paper, they would pray to her whenever they climbed the mountains. Entering there in the morning and exiting in the evening, even though snakes and scorpions abounded, none would cause harm to the people.34 A more famous record in an anonymous Yuan dynasty source titled Continuation of Records of the Listener with New Items from the Lakes and Seas 湖海新 闻夷坚续志 combines the goddess’ ability to aid women experiencing trouble giving birth to the annihilation of a snake. Woman Chen had the birthing woman exhale forcefully and massaged her. And soon she gave birth to a small snake a few feet long which came through her opening. The servants clobbered it and killed it. The birthing woman was safe and the entire family raised their hands and celebrated.35 33. “Cuipingji 翠屏集” in Siku quanshu zhenben, 4.48b–50a. This translation is taken from Baptandier, 8. 34. Zhou Hua, 36. 35. Jin Xin, ed., Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi, 222. An elaborate form of this tale was found in later sources, such as the 1710 Gazetteer of the Gutian County 古田县志, 5:12a–14a. See Baptandier, 4–5, for a translation of its “History of the Goddess of the Shunyi Temple.”

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Although both of the above demonstrate Chen Jinggu’s protective power against snakes, she was not yet a shaman warrior capable of subduing snake demons. And the snakes were neither sprites nor deities. Her portrayals as a slayer of demons, particularly of a white snake demoness, are first found in Ming dynasty (1368–1644) works. Aside from Journey of a Goddess, discussed in the introduction and translated in this book, there is a biography of Chen Jinggu collected by Chen Minghe 陈鸣鹤 (a Ming dynasty scholar of presentday Fuzhou 福州 in central Fujian), that survived in a work by Xu Bo 徐勃 from the Wanli period (1563–1620) and in one compiled during the early Ming dynasty of a collection of hagiographies of religious figures. Chen Minghe’s “A Daoist Priestess Pacifies the Demons 女道平妖” is a rarely mentioned biography of Chen Jinggu that presents her as a Daoist rather than a shaman priestess, and as a younger sister of the historical Daoist, Chen Shouyuan 陈守元 (?–939). It is collected by Chen Minghe in his Anecdotes from Jin’an 晋安逸志, and preserved in Xu Bo’s New Inspections Under the Banyan Shades 榕阴新检.36 Chen Shouyuan served two kings of the Kingdom of Min (909–945),37 one of the states during the Five Dynasties (907–960). Possibly reflecting the recognition of her status as a goddess, Jinggu emerges as being more powerful than Chen Shouyuan. Her subjugation of a white snake sprite who impersonates a queen resonates with the episode in other accounts of her hagiography from the Ming dynasty onward, including Journey of a Goddess. Chen Jinggu hailed from Minxian 闽县 [present-day Fuzhou]. Five generations of her family were Daoists. Orphaned at a young age, she practiced farming and herding with her older brother, Shouyuan. One day, when Shouyuan was herding cattle on a mountain, Jinggu brought food to him and met a starving elderly woman. She immediately fed the woman the food in her rice basket, and gave her own food to her brother. Therefore the elderly woman entrusted herself to Jinggu who served her without any lapse, as she would have served her own mother. When the elderly woman was ill with a subcutaneous ulcer, Jinggu 36. Xu Bo, 27–28. I include this account in its entirety as this biography has neither been translated nor mentioned in English. 37. The two kings are Wang Lin 王鏻 (a.k.a. Wang Yanjun 王延钧; r.933–936) and Wang Chang 王昶 (a.k.a. Wang Jipeng 王继鹏; r.936–939). See Schafer’s Empire of Min, 96–99, for Chen Shouyuan’s Daoist activities at the court.

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Subjugation of Snake Demons knelt down and sucked it out.38 But her efforts were unsuccessful, and the elderly woman died. Jinggu placed her in a coffin and buried her. One day, Shouyuan was away from home, so Jinggu herded the cattle on his behalf. She drowned while crossing a river with the cattle, when suddenly, she saw a magnificent purple mansion. The previously starving elderly woman stood there welcoming her, clad resplendently in a cloud-like outfit and wearing a moon-like shawl. She smiled and said, “How come it took you so long to arrive, my child?” She subsequently taught her about divine books and secret charms. After residing there for more than a year, she presented Jinggu to Precious August 宝皇. Precious August was greatly pleased and bestowed upon her the position of a Perfected Official 真官 so that she could reign over the ghosts and spirits of the mortal world. She was also presented with a crane upon which she could fly home. When Shouyuan saw her, he was greatly frightened. He said, “You were already bait for the fish and turtles, how could you ride like that?” Jinggu told him what had transpired. He secretly exhumed the grave of the elderly woman, and found nothing but clothes there. Thereupon, he bowed to Jinggu repeatedly and begged to acquire ritual powers so he could also attain an official post in the immortal residence, and have an audience with Precious August. Jinggu presented a memorial to the elderly woman with the request, but the elderly woman replied, “There are disparities between the high and the low; there are rules governing the worlds of the dark and the light; there are differences between those who have attained the Dao and those who are mundane; these are the regulations of the deities. Your elder brother is of an ordinary sort—how could he receive gifts and get to see the lord on high? There is no way. He should be satisfied with getting enough magical arts to be ranked with the likes of Wencheng 文成 and Wuli 五利 of the Han.39 They should be enough for him.”

38. This resonates with Jinggu’s sucking the boil on her female master’s back in the third chapter of Journey of a Goddess. 39. Wencheng refers to Li Shaoweng 李少翁, and Wuli refers to Luan Da 栾大 (?–112 BCE). Both were Daoist adepts who served at the court of Wudi 武帝 (r. 157–87 BCE) of the Han dynasty.

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Subsequently, Shouyuan used the magical arts he learned and earned the favor of Lin 鏻, the King of Min. He and his son received the title of heavenly master, as well as mansions, carriages, horses, military tents and artifacts. The king also built an altar and melted gold to cast an image of Precious August in order to worship him.40 Since Jinggu was an expert in using Daoist charms, she was able to communicate with ghostly beings, command strong-men, and whip and strike the hundred evil spirits. Once, when she was traveling to the prefectural city, she passed by an abandoned grave where she obtained its skeletal remains, wrapped them up and placed them in a bamboo container for carrying soil to stop them [from being exposed]. Shortly after that, flesh grew on the bones. The body rose and bowed to her, saying, “I am a palace lady of Prince Yao 繇王.41 I am surnamed Ban 班 and I don’t know how many generations have passed. You have in fact given birth to me. I request that you allow me to serve you. I’d be willing to sweep your gate and courtyard for you.” Jinggu subsequently took her in as a disciple.42 There was a tiger sprite in the district which was able to transform into human form.43 Jinggu investigated its crimes, subjugated it and made it her vanguard whenever she traveled afar. At Yongfu 永福 there was a white snake sprite which caused harm many times to the prefectural county. Sometimes it hid in the king’s palace and transformed itself into the form of the queen to seduce the king. The king and his followers could not tell it apart [from the queen]. Greatly disturbed, the king summoned Jinggu and asked her to rid him of the snake.

40. It is recorded that the Min king Wang Jipeng used several thousand catties of gold to cast images of the Daoist deities, Precious August, and Laojun 老君. See Schafer’s Empire of Min, 71 and 99. 41. Named Chou 丑, Prince Yao was a ruler of the Fujian region. He got to retain his fiefdom during the reign of Wudi 武帝 (r.157–87 BCE) of the Han by not participating in a rebellion. 42. In later versions of Chen Jinggu’s hagiography, a person she revived accused her of stealing from him. She turned him back into skeletal form and vowed never to revive the dead again. 43. This tiger sprite may have been the forerunner of the one that married White Snake in Journey of the Goddess.

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Subjugation of Snake Demons Jinggu wrote charms using vermilion ink, surrounded the palace at night with her disciples, and chopped the snake into three parts. The parts transformed into three women, who broke through the siege and flew out. Thereupon, Jinggu commanded the Five Thunders and chased after them for several hundred leagues. She caught the tail at Yongfu, and the body at Minqing 闽清 which she subdued and killed. The head escaped into a well at Linshui 临水 of Gutian 古田. Following upon her victory, Jinggu rode into Gutian from another path and circled the well three times. Thereupon the snake, wearing woman’s clothes, tied herself up with a silk ribbon around her own throat and pierced one of her ears with an arrow, held the hoofs of Jinggu’s steed and begged to be allowed to surrender. Some of Jinggu’s disciples said, “Kill the snake!” Jinggu replied, “This snake is a thousand-year-old sprite. She is already of the same breath as heaven and earth. Moreover, she has surrendered. If we kill her now, it would not comply with the love for life of the Supreme One 太 上.” Thereupon, she formed a troop out of the snake’s body parts, and let them live permanently in the well. Chen Jinggu then returned and reported to the king. The King of Min said, “The snake demon performed evil magical arts, rebelled against the way of Heaven, hid in the imperial harem and tricked the populace. Battle-axes were not able to harm it, tigers and wolves did not scare it. Now, Jinggu has personally led an army of divine soldiers, chopped down and captured its head, and subjugated the rest of its evil followers in order to bring peace to the good people. There’s no merit higher than this!” He bestowed upon her the title of Shunyi Furen, the Beneficent and Just Lady, gave her the income from three hundred households in Gutian, and made one of her sons into royalty. But Jinggu declined and refused to accept the income. Thereupon, he bestowed upon her thirty-six palace ladies to be her disciples and built a mansion for her at Linshui. He had messengers inquire after her welfare. Officials and messenger crammed the streets. A few years later, Jinggu escaped and led a hermit’s life near the sea.44

44. The “sea” could be a large lake.

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While the snake’s impersonation of the queen, and the fact that the snake’s parts could survive independently, are found in both Journey of a Goddess and Pacification of the Demons of Linshui, the thirty-six palace ladies who became Jinggu’s disciples are found only in the latter novel. The work closest to Journey of a Goddess is found in the early-Ming Complete Compendium of the Origins of Sage Emperors, Buddhist Patriarchs, and Local Deities of the Three Religions 三教 源流圣帝佛祖搜神大全. In the past, the fourth Lady Chen lived for generations at Lower Ford Village in the Luoyuan County in Fuzhou Prefecture. Her father was a censor 谏议 and he received the title of steward in the Ministry of the People 户部郎中. Her mother was a Madame Ge 葛氏, her older brother was Chen Erxiang 陈二相, and her adopted brother was Chen Haiqing 陈海清. In the first year of the Jiaxing 嘉兴 period,45 a female snake caused disasters and devoured people. It had chosen for its home a grotto with a spiritual aura located in the village of Linshui of Gutian County. The people of the village built a temple and gave it offerings in order to appease it. Every year on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, they had to buy two children, a boy and a girl, and perform a sacrifice to satisfy the snake, so it would not cause harm. At that moment, the Bodhisattva Guanyin was on her way home from attending an assembly in the South Sea. Suddenly, she saw that a poisonous vapor filled the Fuzhou sky. She then cut off one of her fingernails, which turned into a ray of light that penetrated Old Chen’s wife, Madame Ge, who became pregnant. When she gave birth on the fifteen day of the first lunar month of the first year of the Dali 大历 reign period [766], which was a jiayin 甲寅 year, at the yin 寅 hour [that is, between three and five in the morning], there were many favorable omens. A bright light was seen, perfume permeated the air around the baby’s body, and the beating of percussion instruments and a drum was heard. It was as if a multitude of immortals had come to attend her and present her. That is why she was called Jin’gu 进姑, “she who is presented.” 45. Jiaxing is in fact the name of a place in Zhejiang, and not a time period.

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Subjugation of Snake Demons Her older brother, Erxiang, had orally received the teaching of the true doctrine of Yoga 瑜珈,46 which was passed on to him by a divine man. These methods enabled him to communicate with the three worlds. In the higher world, he was able to command the celestial generals, and in the lower world the shadow soldiers 阴兵. His magic power was immense and he saved people everywhere. When he came to Linshui Village in Gutian, it was the turn of the layman Huang San 黄三 to preside over the sacrifice [of the children]. In his heart, he hated this demon and wanted to end its evil. He could not bear to send innocent victims to die in the poisonous mouth of the demon. So he respectfully requested Erxiang to perform ritual magic in order to destroy it. However, because Haiqing was drunk, he filled out incorrectly the time of the ritual in his message to Heaven; hence, the celestial soldiers and the shadow soldiers did not come to their aid, and Erxiang was enveloped by the poisonous breath of the snake. Fortunately, an immortal of the Yoga Sect had divine powers and caused a golden bell to fall from the sky to cover Erxiang. Thanks to the divine wind that spread out around the bell, the demon could not approach, but Erxiang could not get out, either. Jin’gu was only seventeen years old then and she cried over the one who was born of the same breath as herself. She went to Mount Lü to learn its ritual techniques. The lord of the grotto, Master Jiulang 九郎法师, taught her the exorcism rituals of the Northern Dipper and the Thunder to destroy the snake’s temple. She destroyed the snake’s grotto, rescued her brother and cut the demon into three pieces. One would not have expected, however, that the snake was of a type that incorporated the vitalizing essence of the Snake constellation. The magic power born of the breath of the golden bell was thus completely dissipated in the air. How could one kill this snake?

46. Tantric Buddhism. A sect of Buddhism with its origins in India, the Yoga Sect became sinicized after its arrival into China and amalgamated with the local shamanistic traditions in Fujian after its entry during the Tang and Song dynasties. It was absorbed by the Lüshan Sect, and its Buddhist elements helped to prevent the shamanistic tradition from extermination by the government, which promulgated prohibitions of shamanistic practices. See Ye Mingsheng (2001), 179.

Subjugation of Snake Demons One could only destroy its poison so that it would not dare to act without restraint. Even today, starting on the thirteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the House of the Snake is ascendant in the sky and it causes much wind, rain, and hail, which ruin the people’s harvests. It also sends out numerous aquatic kraken demons 蛟妖 that are proof of its existence. Later when the queen of the Tang king 唐王 was in great danger during a difficult childbirth, and her days were numbered, the Lady performed rituals in the palace, and used ritual magic to enable the queen to give birth to the heir apparent. The ladies in waiting informed the king of this. The Tang king was greatly delighted and conferred on her the title of Great Lady Devoted to the Efficacious Response, Happy and Universal Protector of the Kingdom 都天镇国显应崇福 顺懿大奶夫人. A temple was constructed for her at Gutian so that she would prevent the snake from causing harm. The Sage Mother bestowed great benefits on the people and her magic spread throughout the world, particularly for protecting children, both boys and girls, for hastening childbirth, for protecting young children, and for preventing demons from causing harm. At the end of a long period, troubled by her failure to vanquish the snake once and for all, she took an oath, saying: “You are capable of spreading evil, but I can [help them] by [responding to] their presentations of edicts to me through burning incense.” Today people recall her story, and those who performed her magic tend to be efficacious. Her father [received the title] of duke of Weixiang 威相公, her mother [received the title] of Lady Ge 葛氏夫人. Her older brother, Chen Erxiang, was appointed duke. Her elder sister [was appointed] the Prestigious and Efficacious Lady Lin Jiu 威灵林九夫人. She was born on the ninth day of the ninth month. Her younger sister destroyed the demon temple at the mouth of the river. She received the title of Lady Li San 李三夫人 and was born on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. There were also the four great sages Zhang 张, Xiao 萧, Liu 刘 and Lian 连, who helped [the Sage Mother] destroy the temples of demons; and also Tongma Shawang 铜马沙王; Generals of the Five

23

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Subjugation of Snake Demons Epidemics 五倡大将; Sage Mother Who Hastens Births 催生圣母; Efficacious Lad Who Induces Miscarriages 破产灵童; and the two divine generals 二帝将军.47

The snake demoness was most likely a local deity for whom the populace presented sacrifices of children. Many of the details found in this and Journey of a Goddess (such as the goddess’ brother Haiqing’s filling in the wrong date for the arrival of the celestial generals, her learning magical arts in order to destroy the white snake demoness and rescue her brother, and her assisting a queen during childbirth), became the basis for later novels and dramas already mentioned. The last Ming dynasty source I would like to mention that demonstrates the significance of Chen Jinggu’s role in subduing White Snake, and the building of her temple on its grotto, is Huang Zhongzhao 黄仲昭’s Gazetteer of the Eight Min Peoples 八闽通志 written during the third year of the Hongzhi reign (1490). At the village of Linshui in Gutian, there was the grotto of a python. It frequently exhaled poisonous breath causing epidemics of plague. One day a woman dressed in red sought out the white snake and killed it with her sword. When villagers asked her for her name, she said, “I am the daughter of Chen Chang 陈昌 of the Lower Ford of Jiangnan.” Then she disappeared. It was not until they went to Lower Ford to inquire that they discovered she was a goddess. They subsequently constructed a temple on top of the grotto.48 This theme of Chen Jinggu’s execution of the demonic White Snake and the building of her temple over its grotto became so firmly established that this par-

47. This translation is based on Baptandier, 8–10, with some changes according to my own reading of the text; e.g., Baptandier read Haiqing’s mistake as having “missed the opportune moment to present his message to Heaven” when he in fact wrote the wrong date. For the original, see Wang Qiugui and Li Fengmao, eds., “Da’nai furen 大奶夫人” in Sanjiao yuanliu shengdi fozu soushen daquan, 179–180. The two divine generals are probably Wang Xian 王显 and Yang Tong 杨通 who are regularly invoked by the goddess in many of her tales, e.g. the excerpt translated in Appendix I. 48. Huang Zhongzhao, 373–374.

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ticular record has been repeated in local gazetteers and unofficial histories from the Ming dynasty to the Republican Period (1911–1949). I assembled a list of thirteen sources that made mention of the above. They appeared in sources such as a 1581 Ming gazetteer of Fujian province, the Qing dynasty Miscellany from Fujian 闽杂记, and a local gazetteer of Gutian County published in 1938.49

Snake Cults in Southern China There was a valid reason for presenting Chen Jinggu, a goddess who did not exist until the Tang dynasty, as the subduer of snake demons. Southern China— particularly Fujian, where the Min people resided—was apparently dominated by snake cults. White Snake was most likely an indigenous local goddess before she was defeated and demonized. Hence, in order for the belief system of the newer goddess to take hold and displace the original local cults, she must first upstage and destroy the local deities, at least in her hagiography. In his dictionary, Shuowen jiezi 说文解字, the Eastern Han (25–220) scholar Xu Shen 许慎 defines the word “Min 闽”50 as “the Yue 越 people of the southeast. They are descendants of snakes 蛇种.”51 The Dan 疍 boat people, descendants of the Yue people, worshipped the snake as their totem as late as the end of the Qing dynasty. A record indicates that the Dan people residing in the Minhou 闽侯 region of Fujian still referred to themselves as descendants of the snake.52 Given the tradition of deifying local leaders, important personages, and priests and priestesses after their deaths, many of the snake deities may have been revered leaders of the Snake people originally. Portrayed from the point of view of its adversary, these protective totemic deities were transformed into demons and demonesses in the legends of Chen Jinggu. Since the story of Chen’s subjugation of White Snake was created during early Ming dynasty at

49. See Chen Li Fanping (Fan Pen Chen), 37, for the list of the thirteen sources. A translation of the passage from Miscellany from Fujian (Min zaji) can be found in Baptandier, 11. 50. Min refers to the people and region of present-day Fujian. 51. Shezhong 蛇种, literally, the seeds of snakes. Xu Shen, 673. 52. Wang Xiongzheng 王雄铮, Guangji dashi yu Sanpingsi 广济大师与三平寺 published by Hepingxian Sanping fengjing guanli weiyuanhui 和平县三坪风景管理委员会. Quoted in Lin Guoping and Peng Wenyu, 55.

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the latest, one could assume that the Ming must have considered the influence of snake cults a serious threat to the expansion of a belief system that began during the Tang dynasty. Vestiges of the once flourishing snake cults are legion in Fujian. Records of shrines dedicated to snake deities include Temple of the Snake Yue Deity 蛇岳神庙 of Mount Luoyan 罗岩岭 at Sha County 沙县; the Flying Snake Temple 蛇腾寺 of Pingyuanli 平原里 at Changting 长汀; the Temple of the Snake God 蛇王宫53 at Yangli District 洋里乡 of Minhou County 闽侯县; the various snake king/god temples of Fuqing 福清 and Nantian 南田; and the Nantai Temple 南台庙, popularly known as Temple of the Snake King 蛇王庙 (outside the south gate of the city of Zhangzhou 漳州).54 To date, a snake king temple survives at the Shuikou Village 水口村 at Zhuotian 濯田 of Changting County 长汀县. In Zhanghuban 樟湖坂 of Nanping 南平, a snake god festival (which includes the handling of live snakes) is still celebrated annually.55 There, a python deity is worshipped in its own temple, adorned with carvings of snakes. The Creation of the Immortals about the python god Jiaomang 蕉蟒 (literally, “banana python”), a two-day string-puppet play I watched at Yong’an 永安, was preceded by an extensive shamanistic/Daoist ritual evoking the snake god. Donning a Daoist robe, the marionette puppet master performed rituals that included going to the countryside with a group of musicians, digging up a wild banana tree that represented the god, and setting “Him” up by the stage to watch the enactment of his own tale. As the snake cults indigenous to southern China confronted both the influx of Buddhist and Daoist deities and the deities of newer local cults (such as that of Chen Jinggu) with the migration into the region of the Han people, many snake deities were transformed into dragon kings/gods to gain acceptance. Snakes and dragons have always been conflated during antiquity.56 But while serpents came to be demonized since the Han dynasty,57 dragons gained repute 53. Literally, Palace of the Snake King. I translated “palace” as “temple” because larger shrines are called palaces, and “king” as “god” because many of the gods are called kings. 54. Lin Guoping and Peng Wenyu, 55. 55. For more information, see Chen Cunxi and Lin Qian. 56. See Pan Jiangdong, 5–7. 57. The founding emperor of the Han dynasty propagated a tale that his father saw a dragon on top of his mother when she was sleeping by a riverbank, shortly before he was born.

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as an imperial symbol and a deity in charge of rain. Hence, many who found their local snake deities efficacious probably came to call them dragon kings/ gods to elevate their status. Dragon culture originated in northern China, and seemed to have begun influencing some snake cults in southern China before the Qin and Han dynasties, which resulted in the reference of snakes in southern China as dragons in Sinicized regions. The Yue people of antiquity used to tattoo their bodies with scale-like patterns so they would be recognized as “progenies of the dragons to prevent [harm from] those deities of the water,”58 and so that “when they entered the waters, the jiao-dragons 蛟龙 would not harm them.”59 The descendants of the Yue people, the Dan boat people, similarly referred to themselves as dragon people, and not as snake people. According to a Ming dynasty source, the Dan 疍 people “worshipped paintings of snakes and called themselves the descendants of the dragon 龙种.60 Traditionally, almost all the counties in Fujian built at least several dragon king temples, with some counties having as many as several dozen.61 Even during recent times, the dragon king temple remains one of the most popular temples in rural Fujian.62 Not surprisingly, local snake cults must have been perceived as a major threat to the expansion of Chen Jinggu’s belief system during the Ming and Qing dynasties.63 The co-existence in Fujian of snake worship (chongshe 崇蛇) with “antagonism to snake demons” (yanshe 厌蛇) has been explained in various ways by scholars. Xu Xiaowang 徐晓望 considers the phenomenon a representation of the opposition between the Dan boat people and land-bound residents.64 Lin Guoping 林国平 and Peng Wenyu 彭文宇, however, consider the subjugation of snake sprites by the goddess as a manifestation of the conquering of Yue people in Fujian by Han migrants from the north, who eventually became the dominant group. Although, admittedly, snake worship remained among the

58. Liu Xiang 刘向 (77–6 BCE), Shuoyuan 说苑, the chapter on “Fengshi 奉史.” Quoted in Xu Xiaowang, (1993), 49. 59. Lin Guoping and Peng Wenyu, 57. 60. Kuang Lu 邝露 (ca. 1634), Chiya 赤雅. Quoted in Lin Guoping and Peng Wenyu, 54. 61. Ibid., Lin, 57. 62. Xu Xiaowang, 1993, 57. 63. For more information on snake worship, see Paul R. Katz, 19–20; and Eberhard, 378–390. 64. Ibid., 42–43.

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Dan boat people and populations of specific regions, “the snake totem of the Min-Yue people naturally also became a sign of their subjugation by the Han people after the annihilation of the Min-Yue kingdom.”65 While agreeing with both views, I would like to also add that the battles between the goddess and the snake sprites, White Snake in particular, represent the need for the deity to subdue the indigenous deities upon entering the latter’s territories. Although hagiographies concerning the goddess tend to negate the notion that the snake demoness was actually a deity in her own right, with her own temple, the latter was in fact known as Sage Mother White Snake 白蛇 圣母, with her own grotto-temple in Journey of a Goddess and other sources. Hence the goddess had to not only exterminate White Snake, but also take over the location of the snake sprite’s grotto-temple as the site of her own temple. To date, her title, Lady Linshui 临水夫人, is believed to have derived from the name of the grotto, Linshui Grotto 临水洞 at Gutian, where the goddess executed the snake demoness.66 It is also of significance that the goddess became connected to Xu Xun 许逊 (Xu Jingyang 许旌阳; 239–292/374[?]), a Daoist who lived more than four hundred years before her. He was known primarily as a slayer of snakes and for banishing a gigantic serpent that had threatened the economic and social welfare of a locality in Jiangxi. Xu Jiulang 许九郎, the patriarch of Chen Jinggu’s sect, the Lüshan Sect 闾山教, was supposed to have been Xu Xun (a.k.a. Perfected Lord Xu 许真君). In Journey of a Goddess, Xu Jiulang presided over the sacred realm of Lüshan 闾山67 when Chen arrived to learn the ritual arts. Xu may have been grafted onto the goddess’ legend by a creator of Chen’s hagiography to take advantage of his renown and his reputation as a serpent slayer. Although Xu Jiulang is reputedly Chen Jinggu’s religious master, she is in fact the main deity of the Lüshan Sect. Xu is better known as the founder of the Sect of the Loyal and Filial Way of the Pure and Perspicacious

65. Lin Guoping et al., 54–55. Also, aside from combating “demons,” Chen Jinggu also defeated local “barbarians” and was awarded the official title of Great Barbarian-Pacifying Marshal 平蛮大 元帅 in Biography of the Foster Mother. See Appendix II. 66. Liu Xiangru, 125. 67. Based on local gazetteers and the references to Lüshan as the Lushan 庐山 of Jiangxi in some Lüshan ritual texts, Ye Mingsheng concludes that Lüshan in fact refers to Lushan rather than the Lüshan in northeastern China. See Ye Mingsheng (2001), 154–160.

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淨明忠孝道, and is rarely worshipped by the priests of the Lüshan Sect.68 The relationship between the Lüshan Sect and the Sect of the Loyal and Filial Way of the Pure and Perspicacious (and that Chen Jinggu is the factual deity, while Xu Xun is the nominal patriarch of the former) puzzled Liu Zhiwan 刘枝万, one of the experts on the Lüshan Sect in Taiwan. Liu suggests that there may be a relationship between the two, but it is uncertain at this point.69 It is possible that there is no significant relationship between the two sects. Perhaps Xu Xun was co-opted by the Lüshan Sect as its patriarch because of his renown in slaying serpents, and also because, historically, he lived much earlier than Chen Jinggu. Fujian or Min was not the only region where snake cults existed. From the Shang (1766–1122 BCE) to the Han dynasties (206 BCE–220 CE), Yue people were found throughout southern China, including in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and the northern part of present-day Vietnam.70 Vestiges of snake cults can be found among their folklore, myths, rituals, and ritual dramas. Some portray snakes as deities; others depict them as demons. The Zhuang 壮 and Qiang 羌 peoples revere a beautiful snake and a snake goddess as their ancestresses, respectively. Members of the Dong 侗 people of the Sama 萨玛 culture spoke of the existence of a snake people (shezhong ren 蛇种人) whose society was matrilineal: “They [the snake people] traced descent matrilineally and would have nothing to do with their patrilineal descendants.”71 The altar of Goddess Sama was populated with images of dragons and snakes (long she 龙蛇); and some groups of the Dong people are referred to as snake people (shezhong 蛇种) or snake families (shejia 蛇家).72 However, most of the portrayals of snake deities are negative, reflecting the perspective of the other, most likely newer, belief systems. This can be seen in numerous nuo 傩 exorcist ritual dramas. When Meng Jiangnü 孟姜女 passes by a Snake King/God Shrine 蛇王庙 in scene 11 of the Guichi Nuo Drama 贵池傩戏 of Anhui, she sings,

68. Liu Zhiwan, 127. 69. Ibid. For more information on Xu Xun, see Li Fengmao. 70. Lin Weiwen, 4. 71. Huang Caigui, 223–224. 72. Ibid., 221–222.

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Subjugation of Snake Demons Here again, ahead of me, is a white snake sprite, Its mouth is like a basin full of blood, its teeth like swords. When the snake rears its head and opens its mouth, It can scare one to death!73

This snake is obviously not a benevolent deity. With the arrival of a new belief system, these powerful local gods are described as cruel and fearsome, and must be subjugated by the priests and deities of the new religion. On the Outer Altar 外坛 of the “Welcoming the Dragon Celebratory Altar” 接龙庆 坛 of Chongqing 重庆, Sichuan, the priests perform a play titled, “Subduing the Blue Snake” 降蓝蛇,74 which enacts the subjugation of Blue Snake by Li Laojun 李老君, the deified Laozi 老子 of Daoism.75 There is also a play named “Tale of Erlang” 二郎记 about the subjugation of an evil dragon 孽 龙 on the Lushan 庐山 Celebratory Altar of Sichuan. The play “Subduing the Evil Dragon” 收孽龙 remains within the repertory of both the human operatic traditions and the shadow theaters of Sichuan. In the nuo drama of Hunan, one also finds the play, “Peach Orchard Grotto” 桃园洞, which takes subjugation of Blue Snake as its theme. Vestiges of the annihilation of snakes and serpent-like krakens can also be found in unofficial historical records and fictions. They include Afei stabbing a kraken 佽飞斩蛟 in Annals of Master Lü 吕氏春秋,76 Zi Qiusu killing a kraken 葘丘诉杀蛟 in Unofficial Biography of Han Shi 韩诗外传,77 and Li Bing’s 李冰 combatting a kraken-dragon in Preface to Tales from Chengdu 成都

73. Wang Zhaoqian, 219. 74. In many southern dialects the “n,” “l,” and “r” consonants are frequently conflated. Hence, lanshe 蓝蛇 (Blue Snake) is the same as nanshe 南蛇 (South Snake). See Ye Mingsheng and Liu Yuan, 126; and Ye Mingsheng and Zheng Ansi, 128. Nanshe is also the same as ranshe 蚺蛇, the python. It represents the Black Python of the South 南乌大蛇 and is a signature ritual implement of all the sects associated with the worship of the Three Ladies, i.e., Chen Jinggu, Lady Lin, and Lady Li. See Ye Mingsheng (1996), 277. 75. Hu Tiancheng, 269–277. 76. Annals of Master Lü was compiled by Lü Buwei 吕不韦 (291–235 BCE) in 239 BCE. 77. This work was written by Han Ying 韩婴 of the Former Han dynasty (206–220 BCE). 78. These three records are mentioned in Zhongguo minjian wenyi yanjiuhui Zhejiang fenhui, ed., 262. I corrected the last source from Chengdu xu to Chengdu xuji. This last item was written by Lu Qiu 卢求 (a Tang dynasty figure) and collected in juan 0744 of Quan Tang wen 全唐文.

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记序.78 According to “Li Ji Hacks Down the Snake” 李寄斩蛇 in Gan Bao’s 干宝 (?–336) Collection of Tales on Ghosts and Spirits 搜神记, a python “either communicated through people’s dreams, or gave orders through shaman priests and priestesses of its desire for sacrifice of a maiden twelve or thirteen years of age. The girl would be offered outside the snake’s grotto and the snake would come out and devour her.” This custom continued for years until the brave girl, Li Ji, hacked the snake down with a sword.79 This is obviously a Confucianinspired rational tale that discredits the supernatural. In its desire for human sacrifice, this python is similar to the snake demons cut down by Chen Jinggu. Human sacrifice appears to have been a hallmark of many of the indigenous local cults, which came to be displaced by later belief systems. The hagiography of Huaguang 华光, another prominent local god of southern China, also features a demon known as Black Dragon Great King 乌龙大王, who demands the annual organization of a festival with sacrifices of a boy and a girl “to ensure peace for the year.”80 When his sister was tricked into being the sacrificial maiden, Huaguang subdued the demon.81 Not only local gods, but even Buddhist priests used the subjugation of local snake cults as a means of establishing their own credibility, and thereby displaced an older belief system with Buddhism. According to Biography of Eminent Buddhist Priests 高僧傳, compiled by Shi Huijiao 释慧皎 (a Liang dynasty figure),82 a Parthian priest known as An Shigao 安世高 encountered a local snake deity who claimed to have been a Buddhist colleague of An Shigao in a foreign land during a previous incarnation. Because of his irascible nature, he had been reduced to the repulsive form of a python. He offered silk and treasures to An Shigao to build a stupa to enable him to be reborn in a better world, and then perished along with his temple-shrine. Once he died, his temple was no longer efficacious. The village where the snake god resided was indeed called Snake Village 蛇村, and still in existence when Shi Huijiao wrote the biography. In fact, all the legends about this missionary Buddhist priest center on his “saving” snake deities of local shrines and building temples with funds furnished by them.83 79. Gan Bao, 231–232. 80. Yu Xiangdou, 146. 81. Ibid., 148. 82. The dates for the Liang are 502–557. 83. Shi Huijiao, 5–7.

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Significantly, during this early period of the intrusion of Buddhism into China, the Buddhist priest was not described as using force against the local deity. This story shows the willing subjugation on the part of the local god, admission to the superiority of the new religion, as well as abhorrence of its own form.84 The priest’s appropriation of the treasures of the local deity for the building of Buddhist temples is also explained as willing offerings from the converted local god. The Snake Attendants 蛇侍者 of Heping County 和平县 in Sanping 三坪, Fujian, were also subdued snake sprites and deities supposedly caught by the Buddhist Patriarch Sanping 三平祖师. To date, four dark-faced Snake Attendants with protruding teeth stand guard to the left and right of the statue of the patriarch.85 All the subjugated snake demons share one common trait with the other demons subdued by Chen Jinggu. They loved blood sacrifices, with preference for the “consumption” of humans, particularly of children. Similar to the episode in Journey of a Goddess, scene 6, volume 4, of Biography of the Lady, a Luantuan Marionette Play of Shanghang, Fujian 福建上杭乱弹傀儡戏夫人 传 enacts the demand for human sacrifice by White Snake and her new husband, Black Tiger Great King 乌虎大王, who defeated her and moved into her grotto-temple. He ordered a little demon to inform the populace through dream about his arrival, and that they should sacrifice a boy during the spring and a girl during the fall to ensure good harvest, peace, and health.86 In “Stabbing South Snake at White Snake Village” 白蛇村剑斩南蛇, scene 2, volume 5, of Biography of the Foster Mother, a Siping Marionette Play of Shouning, Fujian 福 建寿宁四平傀儡戏奶娘传, the local snake demon also required the populace of this village in Gutian to perform annual sacrifices of a girl in the spring and a boy in the fall in order for all their prayers to be answered.87

84. Various legends of monks converting local “snakes” to Buddhism exist all over Asia. Shenxiu 神秀 (606–706), founder of the Northern School of Chan Buddhism, similarly was supposed to have been presented a hidden treasure by a huge snake, with which the priest built a temple. Faure refers to the spatial displacement of popular religions by Buddhist monasteries as the creation of a new order, an “u-topian space that was a nonspace” over the “dense and pluralistic space that characterizes popular religion.” See Bernard Faure, 338, 341, and 346–347. 85. Wang Xiongzheng, Guangji dashi yu Sanpingsi. See Lin Guoping et al., 275. 86. Ye Mingsheng et al., Fujian Shanghang luantan kuileixi Furen zhuan, 73. 87. Ye Mingsheng et al., Fujian Shouning Siping kuileixi Nai’niang zhuan, 214–215.

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The practice of human sacrifice was a widespread phenomenon throughout the world during the early stages of human history, probably because people felt that the most precious gifts they could present to the deities were themselves or their children. The custom of child sacrifice was found among the cultures of South America, the ancient Near East, Pre-Modern Europe, and even in contemporary Uganda.88 In China, a temple dedicated to child sacrifice to a snake deity has been found in central Fujian, dating from the Later Han to early Six Dynasties Period (222–589).89 The lid of the M1 ceramic shellcontainer excavated from Mount Shizhai 石寨山 in Jinning 晋宁, Yunnan, also portrays the scene of human sacrifice to a snake.90 As late as the Song dynasty (960–1279), human sacrifice was still fairly prevalent. According to a chart on imperial edicts directed at both licit and illicit sacrificial rituals in the appendix of Pi Qingsheng’s 皮庆生 study of popular religions during the Song dynasty, 21 of the 214 prohibitions issued proscribed human sacrifice.91 In some remote locations, this custom survived into the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) and the Republican Period (1911–1949). A ritual segment named “Meeting the Girl and Kidnapping the Boy” 接女抢男, within the ritual of “Vow-repayment to King Pan” 还盘王愿 of the Yao people 瑶族 of Lanshan County 蓝山县 in Hunan, consisted of kidnapping a boy and a girl and sacrificing them to King Pan, their totemic ancestor.92 The Tujia People 土家族 similarly sacrificed a boy and a girl when they performed the “Vow-repayment Ritual to the Squire” 还相 公愿.93 The Wa People 佤族 of Yunnan practiced human sacrifice until 1949.94 Hence, it is not surprising that the various snake and other demons of Chen Jinggu’s hagiography demanded human sacrifice, which came to be understood as a penchant for consuming humans, particularly children.

88. Tim Whewell, “Witch-doctors reveal context of child sacrifice in Uganda.” BBC News, January 7, 2010. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8441813.stm 89. Xu Xiaowang (1993), 24. 90. Liao Mingjun, 352. 91. Pi Qingsheng, 354–376. 92. Sun Wenhui, 192–193. 93. Ying Ji, 163. The Squire refers to their ancestor. 94. Zhu Feiyun et al., 129–132.

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The ability of Chen Jinggu’s belief system to displace the older snake cults relied not only on her subjugation of the snake deities, but likely also through showing more efficacy in answering prayers and in her rejection of human sacrifice. Her believers could get the same or even better results without having to sacrifice children. In the episode of the Siping marionette play about Chen Jinggu mentioned above, she bids the girl who is nearly sacrificed, “Go home and tell your mom, tell all the people, to make you a ritual-organizer so that you can procure donations to build the Temple of Linshui 临水宫. The name of this village should be changed from White Snake Village to Linshui Village. Use only incense and candles as offerings. You will never have to sacrifice boys and girls again.”95 The deity Huaguang of Journey to the South 南游记 similarly tells Black Dragon Great King, after having subdued him: “Now that you have surrendered to me, tonight you can communicate to the villagers through dream that, from now on, they will not need to sacrifice boys and girls again. They should only use three kinds of animals for sacrifice and wine for libation.”96 Also, in scene 3, volume 2, of the Siping marionette play mentioned, after Chen Jinggu has subdued the various demons in the river, she tells the boatman “to procure donations of money from the populace to build a temple. Whenever it’s windy or wavy, just pray at the temple or at the prow of the boat using ingots,97 incense and candle, and you’ll be safe. You will not need to perform a sacrifice with pig’s head and goose again.”98 The construction of a new building for worship on the sacred site of an older belief system is also a common phenomenon found throughout the world. The main cathedral at the center of Mexico City is built on the grounds of an indigenous temple. The Virgin of Guadalupe in northern Mexico resembles an indigenous female deity. Her basilica is located on Tepeyac Hill, the very site of the temple of the original local deity.99 A quick search on the Internet yields further examples. St. Paul Cathedral was built on the sacred site where Diana, 95. Ye Mingsheng et al., 218. 96. Yu Xiangdou, 148. 97. These are ingots made of paper to represent the ingots of gold and silver used in traditional China. See plate 20 for the photo of ingots folded by volunteers at Chen Jinggu’s temple in Flushing, New York. 98. Ye Mingsheng et al., 99. 99. Matovina, 2–3; Rodriguez, 29–30, 37, and 41.

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the goddess of hunting and the moon, once had her temple. Some churches in Georgia were even built on sacred grounds occupied by the temples of several different cultures, including the Zoroastrians, Hittites, and Sumerians. Hence, after subduing the various local deities/demons, the new deity invariably offers to eliminate human sacrifice, or even regular blood sacrifice of animals, and requests that a new temple dedicated to the new deity be constructed at the site where the original deities were worshipped. The new belief system not only takes advantage of the sacredness of the site—most sites of worship were chosen for special characteristics—but also displaces the very location of veneration of the indigenous cult. Thus, snake cults were effectively displaced and nearly eliminated in southern China. In concentrating on the feud between Chen Jinggu and White Snake Sprite, Journey of a Goddess exemplifies the importance of demonizing and annihilating the deity of a major local cult in order to establish a new belief system.

Plate 1. The main statues of Goddesses Chen 陈, Lin 林, and Li 李 at the Linshui Ancestral Temple 临水宫 from Gutian 古田, Fujian. (Photo by Huang Jianxing 黄建 兴.)

Plate 2. White Snake’s hole under Goddess Chen’s main statue. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen at the Linshui Ancestral Temple from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 3. Inside the snake hole underneath Chen Jinggu’s main statue at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Huang Jianxing from Gutian, Fujian.)

Plate 4. The Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen at Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 5. Statue of the goddess slaying White Snake at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen at Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 6. Incense burners at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo provided by Huang Jianxing.)

Plate 7. Statue of a traditional Lüshan priest at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 8. Murals depicting episodes of the goddess’ legend at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 9. Smaller, older statues of Lady Chen. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Xiahouyang cun 下后洋村, Da’an xiang 大安乡at Taishun 泰顺, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 10. Statues of Lady Chen (surrounded by smaller statues of the same) and Lady Lin. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Taishun, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 11. The Three Ladies/Goddesses on horseback at Temple of the Ladies 夫人宫 at Zhongyang cun 中洋村 of Baisha zhen 白沙镇 of Shanghang 上杭 from Longyan 龙 岩, Fujian. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen, 2008.)

Plate 12. A shaman priestess blows a small conch shell in place of the dragon horn at Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 13. The shaman priestesses of Temple of the Ladies. The deities at the back consist of the Three Ladies on horseback with Lady Chen in the center, and Queen Mother 王母 and the Jade Emperor 玉皇大帝 behind them. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 14. Announcement of a new child being named and adopted by Goddess Chen at Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 15. First page of a prayer invoking the Three Ladies, used by the shaman priestesses of Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 16. A talisman at Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 17. Divination blocks at Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 18. A print block with the surnames of the three goddesses at Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 19. Statues of Chen Jinggu and her brothers at the Taiyin Temple 太阴宫. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Flushing, New York, 2014.)

Plate 20. Ingots made by devotees at the Taiyin Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Flushing, New York, 2014.)

Plate 21. Marionette puppets of Chen Jinggu, her brother (in red), and her husband (in white), belonging to Xu Maobao 徐茂宝. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Taishun, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 22. Table with offerings in front of Xu Maobao’s stage. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Taishun, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 23. Old puppets of Lady Chen, her mother, and brother worshipped as deities at the home of the puppeteer, Wang Cunyi 王存意. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Taishun, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 24. Another view of Wang Cunyi’s puppets of Lady Chen, her mother, and brother. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Taishun, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 25. Wang Cunyi with a newer puppet of Lady Chen. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Taishun, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 26. The Taishun County Troupe’s puppet of Lady Chen. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Taishun, Zhejiang, 2008.)

Plate 27. White Snake in a local opera on the legend of Goddess Chen performed in Gutian, Fujian. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen, 2010.)

Plate 28. Lady Chen and her husband in the same local opera. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 29. Daoist priests playing music at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 30. Devotees from Zhejiang making a pilgrimage to the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 31. Ritual of “Pacing the Dipper” at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Huang Jianxing.)

Plate 32. Parade of the goddess’ statue at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 33. Lüshan priest in the ritual “Opening Lüshan Gate.” (Photo by Huang Jianxing.)

Plate 34. Lüshan priest in the ritual “Crossing the Passes” (with ritual drum and dragon horn) at the Linshui Ancestral Temple. (Photo by Huang Jianxing.)

Plate 35. “Climbing Honglou 爬洪楼” by the She People 畲族 in Fujian. The priest performs “The Foster Mother Paces the Dipper” on top of the stacked tables. (Photo by Ye Mingsheng 叶明生.)

Plate 36. Girl handling a snake during the Snake Festival celebrated by the Snake God Temple 蛇王庙 at the Zhanghuban zhen 樟湖坂镇 in Nanping shi 南平市, Fujian. (Photo provided by Huang Jianxing.)

Plate 37. Lian Gong 连公, also known as the Snake God 蛇王, at the Snake God Temple in Nanping, Fujian. (Photo provided by Huang Jianxing.)

Plate 38. Dragon horn, a ritual implement. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from the Linshui Ancestral Temple from Gutian, Fujian, 2010.)

Plate 39. Rope with snake head belonging to Wang Hua 王华. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Qingshui xiang 青水乡 of Yong’an shi 永安市, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 40. Dragon horn and bronze bells belonging to Wang Hua. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Yong’an, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 41. Gong and drum for music belonging to Wang Hua. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Yong’an, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 42. Cymbals at Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Temples of the Ladies from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 43. Broad knife, a Lüshan ritual implement known variously as the landao 蓝刀, shidao 师刀, lingdao 铃刀, yangdao 杨刀, and Wang Lao jian 王姥剑, Temple of the Ladies. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Longyan, Fujian, 2008.)

Plate 44. Ritual implements (the snake hemp whip, the divine bamboo whip, the Faba 法把, signature implement of central Fujian, and the Five Thunder Command Tally). (Photo by Huang Jianxing.)

Plate 45. Painting of Chen Jinggu with some priests and priestesses wearing the Forehead Mirror 额镜. (Taken by the Museum of World Religions 世界宗教博物館 in Taiwan. Photo provided by Li Fengmao 李豐楙, owner of the painting.)

Plate 46. Suona horn for music. (Photo by Fan Pen Chen from Qingshui xiang 青水 乡 of Yong’an shi 永安市, Fujian, 2008.)

Journey of a Goddess Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon

1

Zhang Shikui 张世魁 and His Wife Meet with a Calamity

Ever since the creation of Heaven and Earth and the civilization of people, Confucianism 儒, Buddhism 釋, Daoism 道, and Shamanism 巫 have promulgated throughout the world.1 Confucianism was founded by the sage Confucius, who lived among the mortals and taught filial piety and loyalty. Buddhism was founded by the Buddha, who lived in the Western Realm 西天2 and advocated adhering to vegetarianism. Daoism was founded by Laozi, who lived in Zhongnan 终南3 and taught the practice of meditation and physical cultivation. Shamanism was founded by Jiulang 九郎,4 who lived in Lüshan 閭山 and taught the practice of XXX.5 1. The footnotes provided by Ye Mingsheng 叶明生 that explain many of the terms related to local religion are indispensable for understanding the religious aspect of this novel. I note where I have included them in the footnotes of this translation. 2. The Western Realm or Western Region refers to the Buddhist Paradise, where the Buddha and Buddhist deities reside. The Buddha, Shakyamuni, has many appellations, this one, shizun 世尊 (World Venerated), refers to the veneration he begets, and may also have been derived from the tale that when Shakyamuni was born, he was supposed to have said, “Everything above and below Heaven will take me as that which will be venerated 天上天下以我为尊.” See Fuguang dacidian 佛光大辞典. 3. This refers to Mount Zhongnan 终南山; the text used Zhongnan 锺南 for the name of this mountain. 4. Xu Xun 许逊 (Xu Jingyang 许旌阳; 239–292/374?). According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, Jiulang is also known as Lüshan Jiulang 闾山九郎, and Xu Jiulang 许九郎, who is Xu Zhenjun 许真君 (Perfected Lord Xu). This name “Jiulang” first appeared in Juan 1 of the Song dynasty “Haiqiong Baizhenren yulu 海琼白真人语录.” See Daozang 道藏 Vol. 33, Shanghai: Wenwu chubanshe (a photocopy reproduction of a copy published by Hanfenlou 涵芬楼), 114. 5. The two characters describing what Shamanism advocated are missing.

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Journey of a Goddess

During the first year of Jingzong of the Tang dynasty (AD 824), the Jade Emperor of the Thirty-third Heaven held a great assembly of the various deities of the earthly realm. When Mahasattva Guanyin was returning to her abode at the South Sea after the assembly, her keen eyes espied from the cloud she was riding upon that the Lüshan Sect had sunk and been out of view for a long time. Desiring to revive its Teachings, she thought for a while and then pulled a strand of hair from her own head, which she tossed into the sea. She blew upon the hair, and it immediately transformed into a huge, ten-meter-long white python sporting in the sea. Next, Mahasattva Guanyin clipped off one of her own finger nails, transformed it into a human, and turned it into a beam of golden light. She then bid the light to enter the womb of a person from a good family so that in the future the light beam would travel to Lüshan to acquire its rituals and subdue the snake in order to display the power of Shamanism. The beam of golden light drifted and eventually landed in the home of Chen Jianyi 陈谏议 of Lower Ford Village 下渡村 at Luoyuan County 罗 源县 of Fuzhou 福州, to be born there. We will speak no more of Goddess Guanyin, who returned to the South Sea. Meanwhile, a black tiger sprite had been menacing the local populace at Qingzhou Prefecture 青州府. In time, the sprite instructed the populace, through dream, to erect a temple by the name of Temple of the Black Tiger King 乌虎大王庙, and that to ensure peace, offerings of three kinds of animal must be made to the temple each spring and fall, and that all officials and commoners passing by the temple must make offerings. Anyone not adhering to these instructions would lose his life. All those who heard this news was terrified. An elderly man in Yongzhou Prefecture 雍州府 by the name of Zhang Baiwan 张百万 gave birth to a son, whom he named Shikui 世魁. He nicknamed the boy Wulang 五郎.6 This son passed the civil service examinations and was chosen by High Minister Guozheng 郭正尚书 to marry his daughter, Yueying 月英. A few months later, the imperial court selected Zhang Shikui to fill the position of the prefect of Qingzhou Prefecture 青州府 in Shangdong. 6. The somersaulting Zhang Wulang is a main deity of the Meishan Sect 梅山教, a primitive belief system of the hunters found in the regions of Hunan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Chongqing, and Hubei. In the Lüshan Sect of Fujian, he is known as “Zhang Wulang who Somersaults on the Altar of the Sea” 海上翻坛张五郎. See Ye Mingsheng (2004), 3: 74.

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Thereupon, Shikui and his wife, Yueying, went to his home to take leave of his parents, and then proceeded to his post with his wife. Within two months, they arrived at the border of Qingzhou Prefecture, at the Youting Station 邮亭 驿 of Songshan Range 嵩山嶺. The elders welcoming them respectfully reported, “There’s a Black Tiger Temple in the mountain ahead. All travelers passing through must make an offering of three different animals to it to ensure safety. Now that our lord will pass through there, we, the lowly ones, thought that we should report this for your honorable decision.” Shikui followed the elders’ advice, and the next morning he bought three sacrificial animals, incense, flowers, and a lamp and candles, and went to the temple with his wife to offer the sacrifice. During the middle of the prayer, a black vapor emerged from the ground. In no time, heaven and earth turned so dark that one was unable to see the person standing across. And the Black Tiger King kidnapped Yueying into his grotto.7 When at length the clouds dispersed and sunlight shone, Shikui could no longer find his wife. He wept loudly and tragically. Coincidentally, Golden Constellation Venus 太白金星8 saw him while riding on a cloud. He transformed into an elderly man, landed, and spoke to Shikui: “If your highness wants to find your lady, you’ll have to go to Lüshan to learn the ritual technique of Pacing the Constellations 罡法 in order to rescue her.” Golden Constellation Venus disappeared as soon as he finished speaking. Understanding he had been advised by a celestial, Shikui immediately returned home with his entourage instead of assuming his post. He wept as he told his parents what had transpired, and he insisted on going to Lüshan, despite his parents’ dissuasions. He then selected an auspicious day for traveling, took leave of his parents, and departed. Resting at night and traveling during the day, he finally came to Chenmao River 沉毛江. Here the road ended. He could only see a dragon and a tiger sporting in the river. Lüshan was nowhere in sight. Shikui wept loudly toward Heaven. A red bridge then surged out of the water. On the bridge stood a man with red upturned headgear on his head, a water-

7. Sprites and deities typically lived in caves and grottos. 8. All constellations are also deities.

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star mirror on his forehead, and a curved dragon horn in hand (plate 31, plate 33, plate 34, plate 45, plate 38, and plate 40).9 He announced loudly, “I am the Petition Transmission Celestial Master 引表仙师.10 I have received a command from the Lord of the Lüshan Sect to subdue the black dragon and white tiger so that you can be brought to him for an audience. Whoever you are—you can follow my dragon horn.” When Zhang Shikui heard him, he prostrated himself, kowtowed, and then followed the Master to the Lüshan grotto. The Lüshan ritual lord, Jiulang, ascended his seat, received the Petition Transmission Official’s report and summoned Shikui in for an audience. After prostrating himself to the ritual lord, Shikui told him what had transpired. Jiulang immediately bestowed upon him the techniques for martial arts and for Pacing the Constellations. Within a few months, Shikui completed his studies. He obtained an audience with the ritual lord of Lüshan, wept, and made a petition. Jiulang said, “Since you insist on leaving, I will give you these three talismans that you can burn after turning a somersault each time you take three steps. You will then surely be able to rescue your wife once you reach the temple.”

9. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote to the text, these are the headgear and ritual implements used by priests of the Lüshan Sect (plates 31, 33, and 34). The red upturned headgear, hongqiaojin 红翘巾 is also known as shen’e 神额 (spirit forehead). It is a red ritual crown made of carved cattle hide with the designs of either a tiger’s head or two dragon motifs, and is usually accompanied by a red scarf. The shuixing jing 水星镜 (water-star mirror), is also known as the fa jing 法镜 (ritual mirror) and qixing yuanyue jing 七星园月镜 (seven-starred circular moon mirror). It is a bronze mirror four to five centimeters in diameter with small holes on two sides in order to attach a red ribbon so the priest/priestess can wear the mirror on his forehead (plate 44). This ritual implement is frequently found among the practitioners of Gutian 古田 and Yongtai 永泰 in central Fujian, and in Dehua 德化 and Yongchun 永春 in southern Fujian. The longjiao 龙角 (dragon horn) is also known as mingjiao 鸣角 (sounding horn). It is a common ritual implement and can be made of wood, tin, buffalo horns, or other materials (plate 38 and plate 40). The dragon horns made out of tin can be either long or short. The long ones consist of two sections that are retractable and is 138 centimeters long. These headdress and ritual implements are usually used in the qing jiao 清醮 (Pure Jiao-Offering Ritual) or the ping’an jiao 平安醮 (Peace Praying Ritual), rituals that do not involve apotropaic functions. However, occasionally, the rituals for purifying the souls of those who died of unnatural deaths might also use them. 10. According to ritual texts of the Lüshan Sect, the biaoguan 表官, also known as zoubiao xianshi 奏表仙师 were men who died of unnatural deaths and were inducted to become members of the Lüshan celestial troop. See Ye Mingsheng (2004), 3: 65–66.

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Shikui bowed and took his leave. Thereupon, the ritual lord of Lüshan ritual secretly ordered Shawang 沙王11 to follow Shikui and assist him by setting fire to the temple. After Shikui left the master and went back through Chenmao River, he thought, “The ritual lord told me to turn a somersault each time I take three steps, but I’m anxious to return as fast as an arrow could. Why don’t I turn a somersault after each step and burn a talisman then? Wouldn’t it be better?” So this was what he did, not knowing that the three talismans he received from the ritual lord of Lüshan were to summon Shawang. Presently, Shawang was summoned by the talismans so hurriedly that he arrived at the temple first and burnt the entire temple to ashes. Unable to fend off the enemy, the black tiger was soundly defeated and left. Because she was unwilling to comply with the tiger sprite’s desires, Yueying was imprisoned at the back of the tiger sprite’s grotto. When Shawang set the fire, the poor woman burned to death. In time, Shikui arrived at the temple, but it had already been reduced to ashes and his wife had disappeared. Shikui wept ceaselessly. When the Golden Constellation Taibai witnessed how sad Shikui appeared, he [took pity on the man] and chanted a spell that brought back Yueying’s soul. He then blew ritual water on the soul, which gave the soul Yueying’s original form, and had the couple reunite. Embracing each other, the two wept and discussed what had transpired. Shikui and his wife then went to Lüshan to give thanks to the ritual lord. The ritual lord was greatly pleased and asked of them, “Would you two wish to return home or stay here to protect the Teachings?” Shikui answered, “We husband and wife owe our lives to the lord. Fame and riches mean nothing to us. We would like to follow the master and protect the Teachings forever.” The ritual lord was greatly pleased. He gave the title Great General Wulang 五郎大将 to Shikui, and the title Lady Calamity Savior 救难夫人 to Yueying. If you wish to know what happens next, please read the following chapter.

11. He might be the same as Changsha Wang (Prince Changsha) 长沙王 of Changsha 长沙, Hunan, during the Han dynasty, worshipped in the Meishan Sect 梅山教. See Ye Mingsheng (2004), 3: 74.

2

Fatong 法通 Attacks the Temple and Is Captured

Now, ever since the white snake sprite had been transformed from Guanyin’s hair, the sprite had spent all her time wreaking havoc on boats on a river1 in Gutian County 古田县. The local populace prayed to her and subsequently built for her a temple that they named Temple of the White Snake Sage Mother 白蛇圣母庙2 and performed offerings to her each season. Subsequently, peace finally prevailed on the river. After Black Tiger had his temple burned down by Shawang, he had no place to stay. One day when he was riding upon a cloud, he saw the temple at Gutian County and realized it was the white snake’s temple. He landed on the cloud and challenged the white snake to a fight with a broad knife (plate 43) in hand. The demon minions serving the Snake Mother reported the challenge to her, whereupon she donned military gear and engaged Black Tiger in combat. After two rounds of combat, Snake Mother said to Black Tiger, “You live in Qingzhou, and I reside in Fuzhou. We each have our own territory. Why do you come here to disturb me at my grotto residence?” Black Tiger replied, “I’m not here without a reason. My temple was burned to ashes by Shawang. He placed a talisman there, so I am afraid to return to it. That’s why I want to be here to keep you company.” Snake Mother said, “The ancients have said, ‘Men should not farm together; women should not weave together.’ Furthermore, I am female and you are male. How can we live together?” 1. The text refers to any large expanse of water as hai 海, which is normally translated as sea. But since Gutian is located within the mountains, the hai here obviously refers to either a large river or lake. 2. According to Ye, the original text called this temple “Temple of the White Kraken Sage Mother” 白蛟圣母庙.

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45

Black Tiger said, “The ancients also said, ‘A man without a wife is called a widower; a woman without a husband is called a widow.’ Now, you don’t have a husband, and I don’t have a wife. We are a heaven-made couple to meet from a thousand leagues away. Why don’t you go into your grotto with me as husband and wife so that we can enjoy a life of luxury and wealth together? Wouldn’t that be nice?” When the white snake heard this, she was greatly incensed. She charged at Black Tiger with her spear, and he countered her with his broadsword. Snake Mother was weaker and was ultimately unable to defeat him, so she went into her grotto and shut herself in. Black Tiger, however, surrounded the grotto’s gate so that not even water could escape from within. Snake Mother was at the end of her wits in scheming against her enemy. Thereupon her demon minions persuaded her to go along with marrying Black Tiger. Snake Mother had no option but to open the gate and welcome Black Tiger into her grotto. That night they held the wedding ceremony, complete with an elaborate banquet, and became husband and wife. The next day, the husband and wife conferred with each other and decided to announce to the populace through a dream that in order to obtain peace they had to perform an annual sacrificial offering of a boy and a girl. The populace, however, did not perform the sacrifices as they had been told. And sure enough, calamities struck ceaselessly. So the populace did as they were told. When Zhang Zhao Erlang 张赵二郎 3 heard about this, he left for Lüshan to 3. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, Zhang Zhao Erlang is one of the most important ritual deities of the Lüshan Sect. His name first appeared in juan 1 of the Song dynasty, Haiqiong Baizhenren yulu 海琼白真人语录, (The Sayings of Perfected Bai of Haiqiong). “Nai’niang zongzu 奶娘宗祖 (Account of Nai’niang’s Ancestry),” a hand-copied manual of the Lüshan priests at Jianyang 建阳, northern Fujian, dated 1883, relates the story of Zhang Zhao Erlang this way: A certain squire surnamed Zhang 张 had a neighbor called Squire Zhao 赵相公. One day, the vine of a squash grew from the wall between the two properties and bore a large squash. An argument ensued between the two families concerning ownership of the squash, and consequently the squash was not harvested. When the vine dried up and the squash ripened, the Jade Emperor dispatched five thunders to break it open, whereupon a boy was found within. The two families argued continuously concerning ownership of the boy until Lord Constellation Taibai 太白星君 persuaded the two families to befriend each other and named the boy Zhang Zhao Erlang, to be raised by both families. Later, when the parents of both families died and Zhang Zhao Erlang became an orphan, the black tiger and the white snake wanted to bring harm to him. He escaped and met the Squire Huang Niansan 乡绅黄念三, who provided him with traveling funds so that he could proceed to Lüshan and become a disciple there. See also Ye Mingsheng (2004), 3: 72, which traces the worship of Zhang Zhao Erlang to the Huainan Sect 淮南教 popular in the Jiangnan 江南 region during the Han dynasty.

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learn their ritual techniques. Three years later, it was layman Huang San’s 黄 三居士 turn to be the main organizer and sponsor of the sacrificial offering. Unable to obtain a boy and a girl for the offering, he wept day and night. We will continue with this story later. Meanwhile, Madam Ge 葛氏, the wife of Chen Jianyi 陈谏议 at Lower Ford Village 下渡村 of Luoyuan 罗源县 County, had recently given birth to a son named Fatong 法通. They also adopted a son named Haiqing 海清4 and had a daughter named Jinggu 靖姑. Fatong was a disciple of Sage of Snow Mountain Teachings 雪山法天圣.5 One day, Fatong took leave of his mother, intending to travel around the realm with Haiqing and give succor to those who were ailing and suffering. The mother agreed to this venture. The brothers traveled to a road far away and came face to face with an elderly man who was weeping bitterly. Fatong asked him, “Why are you weeping?” Layman Huang thereupon told the brothers about his problem in being unable to purchase a boy and a girl for the sacrificial offering. Fatong said, “I’m from Luoyuan County. I could feel demonic pneumas harming the populace and have decided to travel around in order to give succor to those who are ailing and suffering. Since this is happening to you, reverent elder, it must have been caused by demons. I will gladly be of assistance to you and help you with ridding them.” Layman Huang was delighted. He immediately invited the brothers to his home and treated them with food and drinks.

4. Although not as important as Chen Jinggu, Haiqing is one of the more significant deities of the Lüshan Sect and seems more highly regarded than Fatong. The Taiyin Temple 太阴宫 in Flushing, New York, worships mainly Chen Jinggu; it is, however, Haiqing who usually “comes” when worshippers pose questions to the resident female diviner. I was told that this is because Chen Jinggu is usually too busy. 5. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, Sage Fatian of Snow Mountain is one of the deities of the popular beliefs in northern Fujian. His appellation may have been influenced by the fact that he was initiated by an eminent monk by the name of Yicun 义存 at the Snow Peak Monastery 雪山寺. This monk was famous for practicing the Teachings of Snow Mountain, a branch of the popular Yoga Sect 瑜伽教. At locations such as Jianyang, he was the most important of the Three Qi Patriarchs 三齐祖师. His name was Liu Zhida 刘志达, and he was also known as Sage Liu 刘圣者. His tale can be found under “Xianshi 仙释 (Celestials and Buddhists)” in juan 14 of Shaowu xianzhi 邵武县志, Gazetteer of Shaowu County. See more information about Liu Zhida in footnote 9 below.

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He then asked, “What do you, the master, need, in order to perform the ritual?” Fatong answered, “I only need forty-five pieces of blank paper, one of the three sacrificial animals, offering items such as tea, fruits, and snacks. Nothing else.” The layman thereupon had the items prepared to await Fatong’s instructions. Haiqing wrote the petition for summoning the deities, and dispatched it,6 requesting they should arrive at the altar at chen-hour 辰时7 on the fifteenth. Unfortunately, Haiping loved to drink. He became so drunk as he wrote the document that he filled in wu-hour 午时8 of the fourteenth in all the petitions for the arrival time of the spirit generals to the altar. He then dispatched the documents by burning them. When he became sober and realized he had filled in the wrong date, the documents had already been dispatched. He was afraid to tell his brother about it and subsequently kept quiet. Who would have known that after the documents were dispatched, the three Wang, Gong, and Liu patriarchs 王龚刘三祖师, Sage Lantian 兰天圣 者, Sage Feitian 飞天圣者, and Master Fatian 法天师父9 all arrived at the

6. This ritual consists of invoking the spirits and reading the petition. Sometimes the document is burned as a way of dispatching it to the deities. 7. Specifically, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. 8. Specifically, 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. 9. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, these three patriarchs are the Three Qi Patriarchs 三齐 祖师 (these three Qi patriarchs should probably have been the three Ji 济 patriarchs. See below for their deity titles), also known as the Three Buddhist Patriarchs 三佛祖师. They are worshipped in various regions of northern Fujian. The patriarch surnamed Wang should have been Yang 杨. “Xianshi” in juan 14 of Shaowu xianzhi, a gazetteer already mentioned in a previous footnote, says, “The Three Buddhist Patriarchs of the Song dynasty consisted of a Liu from Jiaozhi 交趾 (present-day Vietnam); a Yang from Nanhua 南华; and one who belonged to the class of officials in Tuli 突利 of the Western Regions 西域 (present-day western China and Central Asia). He did not have a surname originally, but when his mother, who was a Khitan 契丹, married a man surnamed Gong 龚, he took Gong as his surname. Gong was by nature fond of the dao 道 (the Way; here it refers to Buddhism). He took leave of his parents and took Buddhist vows at an early age and went to the ritual space of Bodhisattva Dizang 地藏菩萨 (Ksitagarbha Bodhisattva, one of the kings/gods of the Hades) at Changhua County 昌化县 in Dan Prefecture 儋州, where he listened to dharma sermons along with the populace. He then met Liu and Yang at Dingshui 定 水. The three of them felt an affinity with each other, as if they had always known each other, and proceeded together to visit Yicun 义存 at Snow Peak to seek the superior enlightenment. Yicun

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altar but saw no offerings. Greatly incensed, the three patriarchs returned to their palaces, Sage Lantian went to Jiangnan to aid the sick, and Sage Feitian went to Shaanxi to rescue the rice seedlings from dying. Sage Fatian was the only one who stayed, as he was Fatong’s master and knew that his disciple was destined to have a calamity for three years. So he stayed on the cloud he was riding and waited for Fatong to attack the temple, in order to rescue him lest anything amiss happened to his disciple. Now, on the morning of the fifteenth, Fatong performed the ritual with his hair loose and a ritual sword. Chanting spells, he built an altar and summoned the spirit generals and soldiers amidst the clamoring of gongs and drums. He first ordered Haiqing to charge into Snake Mother’s temple. Just then, Snake Mother and Black Tiger were sleeping soundly. Their demon minions reported that a Heavenly army was attacking the temple. Greatly terrified, the two escaped into the sky and were at a loss as to what to do. Snake Mother then said, “There’s no need to worry, my husband. This is not a real Heavenly army. It’s but a fake ritual performer.” Black Tiger asked, “How do you know that?” Snake Mother replied, “It looks like a Heavenly army. But judging from the fact that they can’t ride on the cloud and give chase, I know they are not real.” Black Tiger then asked, “What are we to do? Snake Mother replied, “Well, although the Heavenly army is not real, the ritual that is being performed is quite complex. The priest is well hidden from harm and definitely a disciple of authentic ritual techniques. I’ll have to think of a scheme in order to get rid of him.” Black Tiger said, “How do you plan to trick him?” shaved their heads, ordained them as monks, and gave them the dharma names Gong Zhidao 龚 志道, Liu Zhida 刘志达, and Yang Zhiyuan 杨志远. They eventually received Buddhist stanzas from him and took their leave. They rode on a boat upstream back to their region, and then Yang went to Yang Yuan 杨源, Gong went to Daofeng 道峰, and Liu lived in the Lion Rock of Mount Qitai 七台山狮子岩. Subsequently, they all transformed and departed (mortals die, but deities and celestials “transform and leave”). In the eighth year of Shaoxing 绍兴 (1138), the prefecture suffered drought and the populace prayed to them for rain. They responded immediately. Hence, they received imperial bestowals of the titles of the Dukes 公 of Zhenji 真济, Shenji 神济, and Ciji 慈济 (hence the three Ji) . . .” Editorial Board of the Gazetteers of Shaowu, ed., Shaowu xianzhi, 1986 (based on a copy printed in the fifth year of Xianfeng 咸丰; 1855), 437. Of the three patriarchs, Liu Zhida was the most influential. He was later included by the Lüshan Sect as one of the Four Sages of Zhang, Xiao, Liu, and Lian 张萧刘连四圣者. Chen Fatong’s master, Sage Fatian in the novel, refers to Liu of the three patriarchs.

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Snake Mother said, “You can step aside and hide yourself, my husband. Let me transform into a common girl and return there to offer incense in the temple, so that I can find out what he’s up to and proceed from there.” Having finished the discussion, Snake Mother transformed herself into a beautiful girl and entered the temple to offer incense. Haiqing was standing to the north with a sword in one hand, performing a ritual. The girl who was transformed from the snake approached him and greeted him with a curtsy. Haiqing said, “Don’t curtsy, young mistress. I’m performing a ritual to subdue some demons.” The girl said, “What constellations are the master’s rituals based on? I’m so scared!” Not knowing that she was Snake Mother, Haiqing told her, “Don’t be scared, young mistress. My brother is a disciple of Sage Fatian of the Snow Mountain Teachings and has learned authentic ritual techniques. I am standing in the northern direction in order to transform myself into the Mysterious Thearch 玄帝.10 My feet trace the Northern Dipper 北斗 (plate 31) so that the demons will not dare approach.” The girl said, “I’m so scared by all this! Could you, the master, put down your sword and stop for a little while? You can continue the ritual after I finish offering incense. Would that be all right?” Haiqing said, “Since the young mistress is scared, I’ll stop for a while. Offer your incense quickly!” After so saying, Haiqing stopped executing the ritual and sat down. As soon as Haiqing stopped, Snake Mother reverted back to her original form and took Haiqing onto a cloud. She heard a loud “Ho!” from Sage Fatian, however, and became so flustered from shock that she let go of Haiqing, who went back and reported everything to Fatong. Immensely shocked, Fatong was captured by Snake Mother and taken to her grotto before he could hide himself. Haiqing wept aloud but had no choice except to take leave of Layman Huang San. He left his brother’s ritual manuals at Huang’s home and went home to report the events. If you wish to know what happened next, please read the next chapter. 10. The Mysterious Thearch or the Dark Thearch, Xuandi, is also known as Xuantian Shangdi 玄天 上帝, Xuanwu Dadi 玄武大帝, and Zhenwu Xuandi 真武玄帝. He resides in the north and is a main god of local religions. He is usually depicted dressed in black, wearing his hair loose, holding a sword, and treading on a snake and a tortoise. See Gary Seaman for more information on him.

3

Jinggu Acquires the Rituals to Rescue Fatong

Now, Snake Mother captured Fatong and had him tied and kneeling beside them. Black Tiger said, “The beast is so evil, we should devour him with a sauce of salt and vinegar.” Just as he was talking, Sage Fatian appeared riding on a cloud and castigated him loudly: “Don’t you two evil beasts dare be impertinent with my disciple!” Snake Mother said, “Sage—we husband and wife were not the ones who created a disaster for him. It was clearly your disciple who came to create a disaster for us! There’s no way we’ll let him go!” The sage said, “The power of my ritual is among the highest. How could it have suffered defeat in your hands? It was only because Haiqing filled in the wrong date that the problem occurred, and Fatong ended up being captured by you. I’m not going to argue with you—since you are not willing to release my disciple, then I’ll let you see the might of my superior power!” Having said this, Sage Fatian began to chant a sacred incantation. Thereupon, a bell twelve feet high with a circumference of eight feet flew from the Paradise Monastery 极乐寺 of the Western Realm and landed right on top of Fatong. Snake Mother commanded her demon soldiers to move the bell, but they were unable to do so. When the Snake Mother and her husband saw that the bell could not be moved, they decided to instruct the populace again through dream to be sure to perform a sacrificial offering with a boy and a girl. Meanwhile, after Haiqing took leave of Layman Huang San, he returned home and wept upon seeing his mother. His mother said, “You left with your brother. How come you returned by yourself, and why such weeping?”

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Haiqing had no choice but to tell the entire story about how his brother attacked the temple and got captured. His mother and sister wept after they heard it. Jinggu thereupon moved forward and reported to the mother respectfully, “Your child heard that the gate of Lüshan is open.1 Since our brother has been captured, I would like to go to its ritual lord and learn its ritual techniques in order to rescue our brother.” The mother replied, “I understand that you want to go because of the love for your brother. But you are a woman. How can you tread through rivers and climb mountains?” Jinggu, however, had already made up her mind and insisted. Madam Ge had no choice but to instruct Haiqing to carry her luggage and travel with her. Let us leave telling about Jinggu’s leaving home for Lüshan and tell instead about Zhang Zhao Erlang who went to Lüshan to learn its rituals. Seeing that he did not yet have a wife, Ritual Lord Jiulang married his eldest daughter by the name of Young Mistress Satan 撒坛小姐2 to him and taught him the Pacing the Dipper ritual. The husband and wife cherished each other. One day, Erlang went to the ritual lord and requested permission to take his wife back to his own home. The permission having being granted, the husband and wife bid farewell to the ritual lord and left. When the couple arrived at Chenmao River 沉毛江, they found a man there pounding rice. Wishing to please his wife, Erlang tried practicing a Ruining the Magic Technique 破人术 on the man. His wife, however, didn’t realize that he was making a fool of the man in order to please her. She thought that he was an evil person and told him, “I’ve been away from home for several days now and miss my mother very much. I’d like to take leave of you and return home.”

1. Entering the gate of the base of these sects is problematic. When their gate is open, they are accepting disciples. 2. Satan xiaojie literally means “Altar Spreading Young Mistress.” In his footnote, Ye Mingsheng does not feel that this name is consistent with the normal creation of names and thinks that the two characters of her name are homophones of a name that had been transmitted orally. The Lüshan Sect at Jianyang County refers to the daughter of Ritual Lord Jiulang as Xuelan Xianjie 雪兰仙姐 (Celestial Sister Snow Orchid), which may have been the original pronunciation for Satan Xiaojie.

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Erlang did not understand the real reason behind her decision. He tried to persuade her to stay with him, but she would not. However, before she left, she told him, “I am giving you, my husband, all of the thirty-six heirloom talismans I inherited and will instruct you the spells for commanding their use. If you want to see me, dispatch one of the talismans3 (plate 16) and I will arrive immediately.” The husband and wife then wept and took leave of each other. When Erlang had traveled halfway home, he met Jinggu. He asked her about the purpose of her trip, and she answered all his questions. Thereupon, Erlang drew a protective talisman for her and said, “I just came from having gone to Lüshan. Let me give you this talisman, which you can wear when you travel and be protected from the demons on the way.” Jinggu thanked him and took her leave. She had traveled a few leagues when she saw a woman approaching. They greeted each other, and Jinggu asked her about her reason for traveling. The woman replied, “I am Li Sanniang 李三娘, daughter of Li Fu 李 富 from Qingliang Bridge 清梁桥头 in Guangze County 光泽县 of Shaowu Prefecture 邵武府. My mother died at childbirth, and to repay her I would like to go to Lüshan to learn ritual techniques in order to bring deliverance to my mother and give succor to the populace.” She then asked Jinggu for her reason for traveling, the details of which Jinggu explained. They were both delighted and traveled together. The next day they met another woman on the way. They greeted each other, and again they asked her for her reason for traveling. She replied, “I am Lin Jiuniang 林九娘 from Linjia Village 林家庄 of Haicheng County 海澄县 in Quanzhou Prefecture 泉州府.4 My parents and others of the family, seven of them, all died of an epidemic. I would like to go to Lüshan to learn ritual techniques to bring deliverance to my parents and subdue the five epidemic demons.” Jinggu and Sanniang were delighted when they heard her. They also told her their stories, and everyone was overjoyed. After they had traveled a few leagues, the sun began to sink in the west, and the farmers and woodcutters 3. Dispatching the talismans involve burning the talisman and chanting an appropriate spell to activate it. 4. Lady Li’s statue looks exactly the same as that of Lady Lin.

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were heading home. Jinggu told Haiqing to find an inn, and they went to the Myriad Flower Inn 万花铺. That evening they conferred about becoming sworn sisters and gave each other the date and time of birth. Li Sanniang was seventeen years of age, born during zi-hour 子时5 of the fifteenth of the seventh month. Jinggu was also seventeen. She was born during yin-hour 寅时6 of the fifteenth of the first month. Lin Jiuniang was only sixteen, born during the chen-hour 辰时7 of the fifteenth of the eighth month. Accordingly, Jinggu was the eldest, Li Sanniang was the second eldest, and Li Jiuniang was third. They kowtowed to heaven and earth and swore an oath. In the morning of the next day, they paid for the inn and traveled as a group. After a few days, they arrived at Chenmao River, where the road ended. Just as they were wondering what to do, an elderly woman came to the opposite bank. The three girls greeted her and then inquired, “We would like to go to Lüshan to learn ritual techniques. But the road ended here, and we don’t see any boats. May we ask of you, grandma, if there’s a ferry around here?” The elderly woman said, “There’s never been a boat around here. If you want to cross the river, I can put my shoe on the river and let it float to you. You three can ride on the shoe to this side.” She then tossed one of her shoes onto the river, which floated across. When the shoe floated to the bank where the girls were, it was large enough to carry one person. All three girls rushed to get into the shoe. As a result, they all fell into the water. Haiqing, who was on the bank, saw Jinggu fall into the river and disappear. Not knowing that she was actually heading to Lüshan, he wept loudly and returned home to report what he had seen to their mother. We continue with the story that the elderly woman on the opposite bank was in fact Lady Zhang 张大夫人8 of Lüshan. The ritual lord already knew that the girls were there to learn the rituals and dispatched Lady Zhang to lead them to the celestial mountain. When the girls fell into the water, she immediately performed a magical ritual that brought them to Lüshan.

5. Specifically, 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. 6. Specifically, 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. 7. Specifically, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. 8. She was Zhang Zhao Erlang’s wife, Ritual Lord Jiulang’s eldest daughter.

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When the girls saw the elderly woman again, they inquired of her, “We three fell into the water. How come we meet with you again here?” The woman laughed and said, “I’m not a woman of the common world. I’m in fact Lady Zhang of Lüshan. I was sent by the ritual lord to bring you to the grotto.” After traveling a few leagues, a huge tiger charged at them with a loud roar, frightening the three girls. The elderly woman said, “Don’t be frightened. This is only Fierce Tiger Erlang 猛虎二郎, the guardian of Lüshan’s main gate. Just keep on going.” The three continued on and saw an elderly man approaching them with a dragon horn. The girls greeted him. The man said, “I am the Petition Transmitting Celestial Master. I was dispatched by the ritual lord to guide you.” Thereupon, they traveled forward together. They arrived at the first gate after the main gate to Lüshan, guarded by two Yellow Striped Hungry Tigers 黄斑饿虎.9 The celestial master yelled at them, and they left. He took them through the second gate, which was guarded by a qilin 麒麟10 and a lion. Again the celestial master yelled at them, and they left. He then took them through the third gate, where the audience hall of Ritual Lord Jiulang was. Lady Zhang and the celestial master entered first to make their reports. The ritual lord then summoned the girls for an audience, where they told them their own stories. Jiulang said, “Our Teachings is not transmitted to more than one person. How could you come as a gang of three to learn the ritual techniques together? I’m not accepting you as disciples.”

9. Incidentally, the words “huangban e’hu” (Yellow Striped Hungry Tiger) have special significance in connection with one of the ritual implements of the Lüshan Sect in Shouning County of Fujian. Before the ritual drum could become efficacious as a ritual implement, a priest had to draw the characters “huangban e’hu” in the air above the drum, a process referred to as hui 讳. See Ye Mingsheng, Fujiansheng Shouningxian Lüshan liyuanjiao keyiben huibian, 164–165. Also known as “huangban jihu 黄斑饥虎,” in a northern Fujian ritual text on the goddess, this Yellow Striped Hungry Tiger is also the divine general who guards the heavenly garden in which flowers representing children are grown, and who guarded the door of the room in which Jinggu hid the fetus of her unborn son (see Chapter 5). See Ye Mingsheng, Fujiansheng Longyanshi Dongxiaozhen Lüshanjiao guangjitan keyiben huibian, 77; and Fujiansheng Jianyangshi Lüshanpai keyiben, 562. 10. A mythical beast with antlers, the body of either a deer or lion, and the tail of a cow.

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When the girls heard this, they were greatly shocked. They wept and said, “It’s not that we dared to come as a group. We met by accident on the way, and each of us has come for our own reasons. We hope that the ritual lord will be most compassionate in giving succor to the weak and those who need support.” The ritual lord said, “If such is the case, so be it. In this sect of ours, males are instructed by males and females are instructed by females.” Thereupon, he commanded Lady Zhang to be their instructor. Lady Zhang received the command and led them to the residential area of the palace11 at the back. She ordered that they wash their feet and hair and began teaching them horse riding, martial arts, cloud riding, and ritual techniques. Lady Zhang knew that Jinggu was transformed from Guanyin’s nail clipping. She wanted to transmit all of her techniques, but she did not think Jinggu could learn them all. One day, she sent Li and Lin to the garden to pick vegetables. She then congealed all the techniques into a boil and pretended that she had a backache, and complained of the pain most desperately. Immediately Jinggu went to her and inquired of her condition. Lady Zhang said, “A large boil just appeared on my back. It’s terribly painful!” Jinggu said, “Shall I, your disciple, report to the ritual lord to find someone to cure it?” Lady Zhang said, “The pain is so awful—how can I wait for someone to cure it?” Jinggu said, “What should be done?” Lady Zhang said, “I need someone to pinch open the boil with the fingers and suck the puss out of the boil, and then it will be cured.” When Jinggu heard this, she had no choice but to prick open the boil with her fingers, and she then sucked at the boil with her mouth. The puss in the boil flowed out so fast that she could not spit it out, so she swallowed one mouthful after the other. Thereupon the boil immediately disappeared. Lady Zhang got out of bed and said, “If it weren’t for you just now, I would have been dead! Tell me, where did you spit the puss in the boil?”

11. Monasteries and temples are also called palaces. This appellation suggests it was considered to be a complex religious establishment.

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Jinggu answered, “The puss in the boil was formed by your flesh and bones, my master. So I dared not spit it out—I swallowed all of it.” Lady Zhang then told her, “Let me tell you—that was not puss. It was ritual techniques.” Jinggu asked, “How could that be?” The lady said, “Stand underneath the eave and I’ll explain everything to you. You will have to receive the Teachings with all your heart!” Thereupon, Jinggu kneeled on the ground as she was directed. Lady Zhang held a bowl of pure water, chanted a sacred incantation, and poured the water into Jinggu’s mouth. Jinggu felt as if she was drunk. But when her mind cleared up, she felt that she understood completely all the Teachings of Lüshan. She rose up and bowed to thank the master. When Li and Lin came back from picking vegetables, Lady Zhang had them kneel before her and taught Li Sanniang the rituals for assisting with pregnancy and giving birth, and Lin Jiuniang the rituals for subduing the epidemic demons of the four seasons. The Spider Sprite of spring was named Zhang Yuanbo 张元伯; the Yellow Dog Sprite of summer was named Liu Yuanda 刘元达; the Toad Sprite of autumn was named Zhong Shigui 锺仕 贵; and the Wild Poison Sprite of winter was Zhao Gongming 赵公明.12 The three girls bowed in gratitude and retreated. Unexpectedly, an elderly man approached them. After having performed the ritual greeting, Jinggu asked, “May I inquire who the master is and why you are here?” The man replied, “I hail from Zhiqian Range 纸钱嶺 of Fuzhou. My surname is Lian 连, and my name is Gong 公.13 I have come especially to give you advice, seeing that we are from the same native land. Tomorrow you should also

12. These are the names of local plague demons, which are also referred to as spirits or deities. Ye Mingsheng has changed them to accord with the names found in Sanjiao soushen daquan 三教搜 神大全 (Compendium of the Deities of the Three Religions). One way of subduing a demon was to be able to identify its name. The Nüqinggui lü 女青鬼律 (Codes of the Female Blue Ghost; circa 220–589) juan 1 says, “It is propitious to know the names of the ghosts. Thereupon the myriad ghosts will not disturb you, and the thousand spirits will reverently submit to you 知鬼之 名皆吉, 万鬼不干, 千神宾伏.” See Zhang Jiyu 张继禹, Zhonghua daozang 中华道藏, 599b3–4. 13. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, Lian Gong, also known as Ritual King of the Nine Heavens 九天法王, is one of the most important deities of the Lüshan Sect. He is among the four sages, Zhang, Xiao, Liu, and Lian 张萧刘连四圣者, who are typically invoked at the Daoist

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go to the ritual lord and request from him the aid of Lüshan’s army and ritual implements to help you. Only then will you be able to rescue your brother.” Jinggu thanked him, and they left each other. If you wish to know what happened next, please read the next chapter.

rituals performed in Fujian and Taiwan, although information about him is scarce. Ye’s research indicates that he was born in Liandun 连墩 of Gutian County during the Song dynasty. Tales on how he and Chen Jinggu subdued snake and spider demons are still popular in this region. He “sat and transformed” (died and transformed into a celestial) at Qianling 钱嶺 of Xixi District 西 溪乡, where temples worshipping him have existed since the Song dynasty. According to “Places of Historical Interest” 古迹志 in juan 8 of Local Gazetteer of Gutian County 古田县志 published in 1750, the Temple of Master Qianling 钱嶺师父殿 was the main temple of the local populace. It and the Lian Gong Temple 连宫庙, commonly known as Temple of the Snake God 蛇王庙, at the town of Zhanghuban 樟湖坂镇 in the city of Nanping 南平市, both hold a festival during the seventh day of the seventh month each year. The festival at Zhanghuban is particularly renowned and elaborate with the handling of snakes by the locals.

4

Jinggu Attacks the Temple and Rescues Fatong

Now, one day Ritual Lord Jiulang held court. Jinggu and the other two girls—Sanniang and Jiuniang—prostrated themselves to him and beseeched him concerning the way to obtain aid from Lüshan’s army and acquire ritual implements. The ritual lord said, “Since you have already completed your training. Let me bestow titles upon you, and then you can proceed to the Treasure Mountain 積宝山 to collect your ritual implements.” Jinggu and the other two girls kowtowed and listened to their titles. Jiulang gave Jinggu the title of Lady Great Foster Mother 大奶夫人,1 Sanniang the title of Lady Efficacious Li San 显应 李三, and Jiuniang the title of Lady Protective Lin Jiu 护应林九 (plate 1 and plate 11). He also bestowed upon each of them a yang-cap 阳冠, a red robe, a golden whip, and a bronze magical sword. Thereupon Lian Gong stepped forward and reported, “The three girls have been given titles, but the white snake of Nanjiao 南蛟 is a seasoned sprite with an insatiable appetite for causing harm to the populace. If they don’t receive the aid of Lüshan’s army, I fear it would be difficult to rescue Chen Fatong, and the Lüshan Sect will lose.”

1. Da’nai literally refers to a nurse or foster mother. This refers to one of the main functions of the goddess as a protector of children. The children in regions where she is worshipped still have a ritual that a priest performs to make her into the adopted mother of a child until the boy or girl turns sixteen.

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The ritual lord asked, “Who shall we dispatch?” Lian Gong replied, “The ritual lord could order Bronze Horse Sanlang 铜马三郎 as the marshal, and the three Thearch Generals 三帝将军,2 Tang Xuan 唐玄, Ge Yong 葛勇, and Zhou Bin 周斌 as vanguard. Shawang can be in charge of burning the temple, Shiwulang 十五郎 can place the talisman, Bamian Pangshan 八面旁山 can watch guard, the Bronze Charging King 铜 撞王3 and Iron Charging King 铁撞王 can force open the gate of the grotto, melt bronze, and pour it into the grotto. You could also have the Universe Swallowing Demon King 吞世界魔王, the five hundred Evil Swallowing 吞邪 minor demons, and the five Tiger-Riding Shang Generals 五伤骑虎4 oversee the five encampments of soldiers and horses.” Thereupon Jiulang dispatched the generals according to his recommendations. He also ordered Lian Gong to be inspector of the army. The three girls kowtowed and thanked him. Before they left, Jiulang bid them, “Blow the dragon horn when ordering the army to settle in, to advance, to be rewarded, and to retreat. When settling in, use the Poplar Flower Flag 杨花旗.5 When being rewarded, use the Apricot

2. According to Xie Shiwei, the following three generals are usually referred to as sanyuan jiangjun 三元将军 (the three Primordial Generals), although the text has sandi jiangjun (the three Thearch Generals). 3. Kings refer to deities. These deities appear here as Bronze Blocking King 铜挡王 and Iron Blocking King 铁挡王, but in Chapter 6, Bronze Charging King and Iron Charging King, tong tie zhuangwang 铜铁撞王 are mentioned. I have changed the names to the latter because they correspond better to their function of forcing open the gate here. 4. These are most likely the Generals of the Five Epidemics 五倡大将 mentioned at the end of Jinggu’s biography, “The Biography of Da’nai,” in Complete Compendium of the Origins of Sage Emperors, Buddhist Patriarchs, and Local Deities of the Three Religions. A translation of this biography can be found in Chapter 2. These divine generals both spread and prevent epidemics and are also called Wutong 五通. For a studies of the Wutong, see Ursula-Angelika Cedzich and Paul Katz. 5. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, the Poplar Flower Flag, also known as Performing the Poplar Flower 打杨花, refers to a ritual. In regions such as Jianyang, this is performed when the deities make a tour of inspection and during the execution of very elaborate rituals, such as at the funerals of particularly high priests, called yuhuashi 羽化师 (Feather Transformation Master, implying they have transformed into celestials). The ritual consists of priests dancing in pairs with dragon horns and lion-shaped hammers, and a procession resembling the entourage of traditional tours of inspection by officials.

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Blossoms 梅花. When advancing, use the Pear Flowers 梨花. And when retreating, use the Peach Flowers 桃花.6” After the ritual lord completed his biddings, the three girls bowed, took leave of him, and left the gate of the grotto. Complying with his order, they went to the Treasure Mountain to get their ritual implements. Suddenly, a centipede flew down from the sky. Jinggu caught it, and it turned out to be a horse whip 马鞭 (plate 39).7 Then a pair of butterflies flew down. Jinggu caught them again, and they were a pair of divination blocks 筶杯 (plate 17).8 Now, two embroidered balls flew down. Jinggu caught them, and they were bronze bells (plate 40). A lion and tiger then flew down, and Jinggu caught them, too, and they were a gong and a drum (plate 41 and plate 34). A water basin flew down, and she caught it—it was an incense burner (plate 6). And, finally, a fierce snake flew down, menacingly. Jinggu was too scared to catch the snake, so it dropped onto the ground. Ever since then, whenever this ritual implement was used, it had to be struck on the ground to make a loud crack first (plate 39 and plate 44).9 Now that Jinggu and the others had received their ritual implements, they dispatched the vanguard to proceed to meet Ma Zhen 马真, the magistrate of Gutian County, with a message announcing that Lady Great Foster Mother was leading the Lüshan army to attack the temple to rid the evil for the populace.

6. Ye Mingsheng’s footnote suggests that all the flowers here refer to items used in rituals. The previous footnote (note 5) described the procession with dance and flags in the ritual known as Poplar Flower Flag. The Apricot Blossoms usually refer to the surnay or suona horn, although in a Jianyang ritual text, it referred to the dragon horn. The Pear Flower should refer to the spear usually known as the Pear Flower Spear 梨花枪. Ye is less certain about the Peach Flower but feels that it may be related to the demon subduing Peach Talisman 桃符 or Peach Rod 桃棒. 7. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, the horse whip is a ritual implement normally made of thirty-six segments of bamboo, and can be used to summon spirits and control ghosts. 8. The divination blocks consist of a pair of blocks made of bamboo shoot, metal, horn, or wood. They are horn shaped, flat on one side and curved on the other side, and thrown on the ground to divine the will of the deities. When one block has the flat side up and the other block has the curved side up, then the diviner knows that the deity has agreed to whatever has been asked. 9. This refers to the ritual implement known as Hemp Snake 麻蛇, or Southern Snake 南蛇. It consists of a rope with a carved wooden snake head at the end and is struck on the ground before it is swung in the air. The existence of the Hemp Snake reflects recognition of the power of snakes. It is mentioned in a Song dynasty (960–1279) source as a ritual implement used by heterodox priests. See “Haiqiong Baizhenren yulu” 海琼白真人语录 in Anonymous, Daozang 道藏, 114.

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The magistrate held court in the county hall to receive the message. Upon receiving the message from the Lüshan vanguard, he posted a proclamation and had the yamen clerks make preparations for their arrival. Meanwhile, when Jinggu’s mother, Madam Ge, heard from Haiqing, who had returned home, that Jinggu and the other two girls fell into the river and disappeared, she became so distraught day and night that she became ill. One day, she sent Haiqing to the county seat to hire a doctor for her. When Haiqing arrived in front of the yamen, he heard people chatting and murmuring there, saying that a Lady Great Foster Mother was leading an army from Lüshan to attack the temple. Haiqing was greatly puzzled. Just as he was deciding whether to stay or leave, he saw the approaching Lüshan army, followed by three women on horseback (plate 11). From afar they looked like his sister and the other two. Upon a closer look, it was them indeed. Haiqing was delighted. He subsequently went to the official guest house to meet them and learned what had transpired since they left each other. Everyone was very happy. The magistrate also visited them and provided them with provisions for the army and their horses. Layman Huang San also came when he heard about them. After they met, Jinggu ordered Lian Gong to order the army to settle in. The next morning, Jinggu presided over the tent for military command. She ordered Haiqing to hide his own form by transforming himself into a deity with three heads and six arms.10 After this, she ordered Lian Gong to blow the dragon horn (plate 37 and plate 34) to urge the army to get ready. Holding a Pear Flower, the pear flower spear, in one hand, while wearing her hair loose, and carrying a sword in her other hand, she ordered the Three Primordial Generals to be vanguard and to charge into the grotto. Black Tiger and his wife were terrified by the heaven-deafening clamor of gongs and drums outside their grotto. They rushed out with their weapons and met the three Primordial Generals head on. After a ferocious battle, the white snake and her husband were soundly defeated. They ran into their grotto and locked the door tightly. Jinggu ordered Bronze and Iron Charging Kings to force open the gate of the grotto, but it could not be opened. She then commanded him to melt bronze to pour into the grotto, but the gate was still closed. Jinggu was greatly worried. 10. Ye Mingsheng’s footnote indicates that the deity with three heads and six arms in the sacred paintings used in the rituals of northern Fujian is the Buddhist Ucchusima 穢跡金刚 of the Yoga Sect 瑜珈教.

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Layman Huang San then said, “My Lady, you could have the deity generals keep guard outside the gate of the grotto and take a rest right now. Tomorrow you can think of a scheme to attack it.” Jinggu took his advice. After issuing the orders, she and Layman Huang sat down at the guest house, where Huang had food and wine brought to them. Thinking that she had no way of rescuing her brother, tears flowed down Jinggu’s cheeks. Lian Gong, Haiqing, Layman Huang, and the others tried to comfort her, but to no avail. So they stared at each other. And then Layman Huang said, “In the past, when your brother encountered the calamity at my home, he left his ritual manual at my home. Since my Lady’s Lüshan rituals are unable to force open their grotto, maybe your brother’s ritual manual contains a ritual technique that is able to open the grotto. It could be possible.” When Lian Gong and the others heard this, they immediately asked Layman Huang to have the manual brought to them. Right away, Layman Huang brought the ritual manual and put it on the desk. In Chapter 1 of the first part of Volume 1, they read, “If one wishes to open the grotto of a demon, then place a medium in a great altar realm 大界.” When Jinggu and the others finished reading that section, they were all overjoyed. The next morning, Jinggu created an altar realm11 with the objects according to the ritual manual. She used Haiqing as a medium, and chanted incantations and spells. In a short while, Sage Fatian came down and landed in Haiqing’s body, who began to attack the grotto. As soon as Jinggu saw the medium rise, she summoned and dispatched the divine generals of Lüshan to come protect him. The white snake and Black Tiger were sleeping together like a couple of entwining wild geese when they suddenly heard a loud noise from the gate of the grotto. Their demon minions reported that the Lüshan army had opened the gate and was charging into the grotto. The white snake and Black Tiger immediately donned military gear. Just then Haiqing entered, and a fierce battle

11. The term used here is jiejie 结界, which Ye explains as a ritual that transforms the altar into a ritual world. In this case, the ritual universe is either the Lüshan ritual world, or the altar realm of the five directions 五方坛界 to prevent being harassed by demons and evil influences during the execution of the ritual. For more information, see Ye Mingsheng, Fujiansheng Shouningxian Lüshan liyuanjiao keyiben huibian, 134–136.

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ensued between them. The Lüshan army surrounded them from all four sides. The white snake was soundly defeated, so she retreated and escaped. Black Tiger, however, was unable to escape. So he transformed himself into a crane and flew into the sky. When Jinggu saw this, she threw her sword up and stabbed the crane. The crane dropped onto the ground and reverted back to its original form of a large tiger sprite. When Jinggu and the others arrived at the third grotto, they saw an inverted bell on the ground, but Fatong was nowhere to be found. Jinggu directed an invocation toward the medium Haiqing, who pushed open the bell, and there they found Fatong. Jinggu went forward and embraced Fatong. Haiqing now woke up from his trance. Fatong, however, was unconscious and without any breath. The brother and sister wept loudly and did not know what to do. Thereupon, Sage Fatian, who was riding on a cloud, spoke to them, “You don’t have to worry. It’s not difficult to bring Fatong out of the coma. I am none other than Sage Fatian. It was I who placed the bell over your brother when he was captured by the female snake. I summoned away his three hunsouls and seven po-souls. He will need the live breath of a family member to connect with his dead breath in order to get his souls to return to his body so that he can be revived. Then he will naturally wake up.” He left after he spoke. Jinggu bowed to him in gratitude. She then turned around and breathed into Fatong’s mouth. Thereupon, Fatong gradually came back to life. The brothers and sister wept upon seeing each other and told each other about what had transpired. Fatong then bowed and thanked the marshal and generals of the Lüshan army. He and Jinggu thereupon took leave of Layman Huang and returned home to their mother. Lian Gong summoned the Lüshan army and returned to their mountain. If you wish to know what happened next, please read the next chapter.

5

White Snake’s Failed Kidnapping of Wang Jixiang 王吉祥

Now, Lady Ge 葛夫人1 was deeply distraught from morning to night, but then Fatong, Haiqing, and Jinggu returned. She asked them about what had transpired, and they replied with all the details. Lady Ge was greatly pleased, and the family was reunited. Fatong then requested of his mother, “I, your son, was rescued by the ritual lord of Lüshan when I was harmed by the snake. I now would like to take leave of you, mother, and go to Lüshan. Not only to thank the ritual lord, but also to become his disciple and learn their ritual techniques.” His mother agreed. Jinggu then said, “If you intend to go there, I will give you a talisman (plate 16). You have to go underwater to reach Lüshan when you reach Chenmao River.” Fatong received the talisman. He and Faqing bid farewell to their mother, packed their luggage, and left the next morning. Traveling during the day and resting at night, they arrived at Chenmao River within a few days. There they burnt the talisman. Thereupon, an extensive road appeared in the river. Fatong and Haiqing took the road without a second thought. When they arrived at the gate of the grotto, they saw a large plaque across the top, which read, “Grand Grotto of Lüshan 闾山大洞,” and an old man holding a dragon horn was approaching them. Fatong and his brother prostrated themselves on the ground. The man said, “I am the Petition Transmission Celestial Master. The fact that you have arrived at the gate of the Lüshan grotto means that you must 1. The translation follows the text by referring to Jinggu’s mother as Lady Ge, rather than Madam Ge, from this point on. This seems to be a reflection of Jinggu’s accomplishments and rise in status.

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intend to have an audience with the ritual lord. Get up right away and follow my dragon horn.” After saying this, he led the way. Fatong and his brother followed him until they came to the hall outside the audience hall. The ritual lord took his seat in the audience hall. The Celestial Master went in and made his report. The ritual lord summoned Fatong and his brother to enter and asked them for the reason for their visit. Fatong enumerated what had transpired in detail. The ritual lord ordered Fatong to follow the instructions of King Linzhi 粦至 王.2 He would instruct Haiqing himself. Haiqing said, “I, the lowly one, am slow witted. I’m afraid that I might ruin the ritual lord’s divine reputation. It would be better to let me study with my brother.” The ritual lord replied, “I have a Surging Ocean Manshi Ritual 洋坪蛮 师法3 that I have not yet transmitted to anyone. I will personally instruct you this ritual technique. There’s no need to say anything more.” Haiqing had no choice but to kowtow and receive the order. Meanwhile, there was a man named Wang Li 王礼, styled Shouyi 守义, at the Upper Village 上村 of Luoyuan County. He married a woman from the Mao 毛 family and begot a son, whom he named Xian 暹. Xian was now eighteen years of age. In the past, when Wang Li was serving as an Assistant SubPrefect 通判,4 he and Jinggu’s father arranged a marriage between their children

2. Ye Mingsheng suspects that there is either a mistake here or that King Linzhi was the local name for a sect. 3. According to Ye, this Surging Ocean Ritual in the yangping manshi fa is also named Surging Sea Ritual and known by the various names of shuishang yangping 水上洋泙, haishang yangping 海上 洋平, and haishang yingpan 海上螢盘. It entails building the ritual space for Pacing the Dipper and performing exorcising rituals on water. The manshi 蛮师 in this ritual technique literally means “barbarian priest.” It refers to Shaman priests who possess aggressive techniques designed to deal with violent evil demons. Among the Lüshan ritual practices in regions such as Jianyang in northern Fujian, the ritual techniques that invoke Haiqing are so different from the usual Lüshan rituals that the locals call it Haiqing Sect 海清教, in contrast to the Furen (Lady) Sect 夫人教, which invokes Chen Jinggu and her two adopted sisters, Lady Li 李夫人 and Lady Lin 林夫人. While the rituals invoking Chen Jinggu usually serve apotropaic functions, and for praying for blessings, as well as for protecting birth giving and children, those invoking Haiqing are used for curing epilepsy and for enabling deliverance of those who died of unnatural causes. 4. This is a rank 6a, third executive official of a prefecture, after the Prefect and Vice Prefect during Ming-Qing dynasties.

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while their wives were pregnant.5 Knowing that Jinggu had returned home from studying Lüshan Teachings, they sent Li Qi 李起, their original matchmaker, to Jinggu’s home to discuss the matter of the marriage with Lady Ge. Arriving at Lady Ge’s home, Li Qi discussed the matter of the marriage with Lady Ge. Lady Ge said, “This marriage covenant was made between Assistant SubPrefect Wang and my deceased husband. I did know about it. I really should act according to In-law Wang’s wishes and send my daughter over to their place. But my two sons have gone to Lüshan to study their Teachings and have not returned. There’s no one but my daughter at home with me right now. Could I bother you, the matchmaker, to ask the in-laws to send their son to our home? When my sons return home, I’ll send both of them back to them so that no one will be inconvenienced.” Thereupon, Li Qi took leave of Lady Ge and went to see Assistant SubPrefect Wang, to whom he repeated Lady Ge’s words. Assistant Sub-Prefect Wang was greatly pleased. He had gifts prepared and told Wang Xian to proceed to the Chen’s with the matchmaker. After they arrived at the Chen’s, they met Lady Ge formally. The Lady then prepared wine and candles for the wedding chamber. She told Jinggu to come out to meet Wang Xian, had them kowtow to heaven and earth, and then sent them both into the wedding chamber. It was a case of during happiness the night is short, whereas loneliness makes the night much longer. Time shot by as fast as an arrow. Before one knew it, almost a year had passed. While Jinggu and her husband delighted in each other’s company day and night, let us get back to what happened to the snake sprite. After Snake Mother’s temple was attacked by Jinggu, she went to Spirit Mountain 灵山 to learn ritual techniques from the Buddha. The Buddha, however, was not willing to take her. Thereupon, the white snake went back to her grotto and continued to create havoc. Worried, the local populace went to Layman Huang’s home to discuss the problem. The Layman proceeded to the Chens’ to visit Jinggu. Jinggu came out to the living room and asked him the reason for his visit. He then told her about how the white snake had returned to her grotto and 5. Known as zhifu weihun 指腹为婚, literally, “pointing to the abdomens and arranging a marriage,” was a common practice in traditional China between two families that are close and of similar station.

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was wreaking havoc. Jinggu reported what he had said to her mother and her husband. Having received permission from them, she immediately left with Layman Huang. As soon as they reached the layman’s home, Jinggu set up an altar, burnt a talisman, and charged into the grotto. The white snake came out, fought with Jinggu, and then escaped after being soundly defeated. Jinggu wanted to give chase on a cloud, but she was seven months pregnant and hence could not pursue further. She returned to Layman Huang’s place, took her leave, and returned home. Intending to exterminate the white snake, she immediately went upstairs to perform a ritual that enabled her to give birth to her son prematurely. She brought the son out to see her mother and her husband. Her mother was greatly pleased. Jinggu said, “I, your child, gave birth to this son prematurely so that I could go subdue the white snake. I thought that I might have died from this. But thank heaven I survived. Your child will hide this son in the storage room upstairs and use a ritual technique called the Surging Sea 湧海法6 to protect the courtyard so that Snake Mother won’t be able to harm him. In this way, your child can give chase to the snake without worries.” Her mother said, “Do be careful.” Thereupon, Jinggu placed her son in the storage room and performed the Surging Sea ritual. She then took a bowl of ritually purified water and told Haicheng 海澄,7 “You have to guard this pure water until I return. There must be no mistakes.” Haicheng agreed. Jinggu then went downstairs and took leave of her husband and her mother. She donned military gear, burnt a talisman, and charged into the grotto. There she met Snake Mother, and they engaged in a fierce battle. Snake Mother was defeated by Jinggu and started to run away. Jinggu gave chase but was bleeding profusely. So she wrapped her inner clothing tightly and proceeded. Snake Mother looked back, saw the blood on the ground around

6. Ye explains it as a Lüshan technique that enables the hiding of the object of protection under what appears to be surging sea water. 7. Haicheng was not listed as one of Lady Ge’s children, but he is generally known as Jinggu’s youngest brother. According to a ritual text titled “Nai’niang zongzu,” 奶娘宗祖 from Jianyang 建 阳, Fujian, Haicheng was Haiqing’s twin brother. Their birth parents were so poor that they sold Haiqing to the Chen family, which raised him as one of their own. See Ye Mingsheng and Lao Gewen, eds., Fujiansheng Jianyangshi Lüshanpai keyiben, 512.

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Jinggu, and knew that Jinggu had given birth. So she transformed into a sparrow and flew to the homestead of the Chen residence. But instead of seeing their house, she saw the surging waters of a sea. But just as she was hesitating, she saw Haicheng leaving the area, singing. Thereupon Snake Mother devised a trick. She transformed herself into an old woman and approached Haicheng, crying, “I am from the Zheng family of the next village. I need to go find my daughter at Lower Ford Village. Could I ask you, young sir,8 why there are no houses around? I only see a vast sea before me.” Haicheng replied, “Don’t cry, old mother. All the houses are here. Why can’t you see them? My older sister said that people can see the houses, only demons see them as the sea. Why do you say that you only see water and dare not proceed?” Snake Mother said deceivingly, “I was taken by Snake Mother for seven days. She just released me because I was too old for her to eat. Maybe I was infected by snake poison, so my eyes got dim and I can’t see the houses.” Not knowing it was a trick, Haicheng thought what the old woman said made sense. So he said to her, “So what is to be done?” The old woman said, “I hope you, young sir, will show compassion and virtue. Consider that my daughter is dangerously ill—please break the spell temporarily9 so that I can proceed. I will not forget the favor.” Haicheng said, “It is not difficult to break the spell. I just need to pour out a bowl of water, and the spell will be broken. I’m only worried that if Snake Mother finds out about it, she will come and hurt my nephew. What would I do then?” The old woman said, “It’s just for a few minutes. How would Snake Mother find out about it? I beg that you, young sir, break the spell temporarily so that my child and I are able to meet. I will never dare to forget the favor.” She wept again after speaking. Haicheng said, “I’ll go upstairs and pour out the water right now—you can leave quickly.” He then indeed went upstairs and poured out the water. Snake Mother could see the house now, but she could not find the child. Greatly puzzled, 8. She addresses him most politely as xiaoguan 小官 here. 9. I think the text means zanjie fashu 暂解法术, break the spell temporarily, rather than jianjie fashu 渐解法术, break the spell gradually.

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she did not leave. After Haicheng poured out the water, he replaced it with clean water, not knowing that the previous water had been sanctified by ritual. How could the water he replaced work? He went downstairs and saw the old woman still there. So he went to her and said, “I’ve poured the water out. Why are you still here?” The old woman said, “I heard that your sister gave birth to a baby. Can I see your nephew?” Haicheng said, “My sister went to subdue Snake Mother. She has not yet returned. You cannot see the baby.” The old woman said, “How long has he been in the storage room?” Haicheng replied, “It’s been seven days.” The old woman said, “Wouldn’t he die from not eating for seven days?” Haicheng said, “My sister knows ritual techniques. This baby can last for forty-nine days without food.” The old woman said, “I smell a stench here. Maybe the baby is dead? I’m an old friend of your sister’s. You can let me go upstairs and take a look.” Haicheng said, “If that’s the case, you can come upstairs with me to take a look.” The old woman followed Haicheng upstairs, but in front of the storage room she saw a man ten feet tall, with black face, red beard, and holding a huge axe. The man stood there not saying a word. Snake Mother was afraid to proceed. So she asked, “Who is the general guarding the storage room?” Haicheng replied, “It’s not a real general. It’s a Lüshan talisman my sister drew.” The old woman said, “I am really scared of it. Could I trouble you, young sir, to take it off temporarily? You can paste it on the door again after I return downstairs.” Haicheng tore off the talisman, as she had suggested. When the snake saw that the spell was broken, she reverted back into her original form, opened the storage door, took the baby, and flew away with him. When Haicheng realized that the old woman was Snake Mother, he fainted from the shock and was afraid to tell anyone about it afterward. Who would have known that Snake Mother would place the baby on the seat of a swing and have him hung in front of the gate of the grotto?

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Now, when Jinggu was unable to find Snake Mother, she returned home. There she discovered that the spell was already broken and her son had disappeared. She castigated Haicheng vehemently. Haicheng had no choice but to tell her all that had happened. Jinggu regretted what she had done, but it was too late. So she returned to the snake grotto and challenged the snake to another battle. The snake had the baby hung in front of the gate. When the baby cried, Jinggu was so heartbroken that she could not concentrate on fighting. She was soundly defeated, and she retreated. Thereafter, she headed straight to Spirit Mountain 灵山 to have an audience with the Buddha.10 After the greeting formalities, Jinggu told him what had happened. The Buddha was full of compassion and agreed to help. Using his eyes of wisdom, he could see that Jinggu’s son was hung on a board. The Buddha yelled, “Ho!” loudly, reached his hand toward the sky, and the baby landed in his palm. When Jinggu saw her son, she prostrated onto the ground; she then received her son from the Buddha, and wept. Thereupon, the Buddha said, “This son of yours has the bones of a transcendent. He is not a common child. I would like to keep him here at Spirit Mountain as a disciple. How do you feel about it?” Jinggu agreed to it, and kowtowed in gratitude. The Buddha named the child Jixiang 吉祥. After Jinggu took her leave, she returned to the grotto to challenge the white snake to a fight. The snake was going to have the child beaten but then discovered that he had disappeared. She was greatly terrified and escaped without daring to fight. Jinggu then returned home and told her mother and husband what had transpired. If you wish to know what happened next, please read the following chapter.

10. Shizun Rulai 世尊如来.

6

Fatong and His Sister Trap the White Snake

Now, ever since the white snake was defeated and managed to escape, she dared not return to her grotto. She tried to go to Lüshan to learn their rituals, but was not able to get there. So she went to Maoshan 毛山.1 When she finally reached the mountain, she saw two elephants guarding the gate, with their ivories interlocked in front it. The snake dared not enter. How would one have known that this Maoshan was under the control of Balang 八郎? His ritual techniques were not as powerful as those of Lüshan, but he could blow at a strand of hair and transform it into a sword, and toss beans and transform them into soldiers. One day, Ritual Lord Balang took his seat in his audience hall and noticed Snake Mother standing by the gate, not daring to enter. So he called out, “Who is it outside the gate?” Snake Mother knelt down and said, “I would like to learn ritual techniques and am reverently requesting to be accepted by the master.” 1. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, Maoshan, also known by the characters maoshan 茅山 and maoshan 峁山, is a sect of popular religion. In the literatures on Chen Jinggu, Maoshan is usually depicted as a heterodox sect in opposition to the orthodoxy of Lüshan. In other sources, however, Maoshan and Lüshan are mentioned together as different Teachings of the same sect. These sources include Gaohuang ge 高皇歌 (Song of the Exalted Sovereign), an historical epic hymn of the She 畲 People, and the texts of some of the Daoist groups in northeastern Fujian. I would like to add that a hand-copied ritual text of precepts for a communal Daoist initiation 度戒仪 式抄本 of the Yao people of the Mian branch 勉系瑶族 at Lanshan County 蓝山县 of Hunan, copied by Maruyama Hiroshi 丸山宏 in 2008, includes the following: “The male members who have been initiated have received the Teachings of Lüshan; the Teachings of Lüshan and Maoshan have been thoroughly transmitted 师男投得闾山法, 闾山茆山法通传.” This was shown to the participants at the 2014 NEH Summer Daoist Seminar organized by Terry Kleeman and Stephen Bokenkamp at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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The ritual lord bid the elephants to unlock their ivories and let her in. Thereupon the elephants unlocked their ivories, and the gate also opened. Snake Mother entered the hall and prostrated herself on the ground. The ritual lord said, “My elephants did not unlock their ivories for you— you must be an evil person. I will not instruct you any ritual techniques. You should leave immediately.” The snake said, “I am a snake sprite and hence not good by nature. But I have repented my past wrongs. I have been chased out of my grotto and have no place in which to reside. Having no choice but to implore, lamentingly, for acceptance by the ritual lord, I sincerely beseech that the ritual lord will be filled with compassion and teach me ritual techniques. If I could regain my grotto, I will never forget the favor and will never dare to commit the sins I did in the past.” The ritual master said, “Since you’ve repented your past sins, I will transmit to you the ritual techniques for transforming hair into sword by blowing at it and tossing beans into the air and transforming them into soldiers. I will also bestow upon you a ritual bell. When you encounter an enemy, you can ring the bell and he will feel faint and retreat.” Snake Mother received the ritual techniques. She then took her leave, bowing, and came down the mountain, ever so pleased, back to her old haunt to continue causing trouble. Meanwhile, Fatong and his brother continued to learn the rituals of Lüshan. One day, when the ritual lord held audience, they petitioned to take leave of the master to return home. Jiulang gave Fatong the title of Chen Erxiang 陈 二相,2 and bestowed upon him a yang-cap 阳冠, a red robe, a magical sword, and a white horse. He was to stay at Lüshan to copy petitions.3 To Haiqing, the ritual lord also bestowed a dragon horn and a large ritual bell so that he could rescue the populace from calamities wherever he encountered them. 2. Ye Mingsheng notes that Chen Erxiang is not a proper ritual name or title. It was Fatong’s secular name when he was still at home, according to the song books 俗唱本 and play scripts of puppet plays 傀儡戏本 in the Jianyang region. This may have been an attempt on the part of the author of this novel to provide a source for this other popular appellation. 3. Xiebiao 写表. A copy of all the petitions presented to the ritual lord either at Lüshan, a realm of deities and celestials, or presented through the reading of petitions by ritual masters like Chen Jinggu via creating a ritual space and altar elsewhere, had to be made and filed. Copying the petitions refers to the job of making the copies for the files.

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Haiqing then took his leave. On his way home, he came across a corpse and immediately used a ritual technique on the body which revived the man. When the person came to, he grabbed Haiqing and said, “You murdered me and took the two taels of silver I had.” Unable to explain that he had been wronged, Haiqing had no choice but to give the man the two taels of silver that he had for traveling. He thereupon vowed that henceforth he would only rescue the living and would never again revive the dead. Within a day, Haiqing returned home. The whole family met, and everyone was delighted. Unexpectedly, Layman Huang San arrived. They invited him in and performed the greeting formalities. After they had tea, Layman Huang San said, “After Snake Mother was defeated, she made her escape to some place. But she has returned to the grotto and is doing even more evil than before. I implore my lady to deal with her soon.” As soon as Jinggu heard this, she took leave of her mother and husband. Chanting incantations with her hair loose, she performed the Surging Sea ritual technique with a seven-star sword in hand. After that, she left with Layman Huang San and went directly to his home. Once there, Jinggu, the layman, and Haiqing conferred together regarding the battle with the snake. Haiqing said, “We must not commit the same mistake we made last time. This time, we must not let the evil beast know of our arrival ahead of time. It would be better to create a Surging Sea and summon the spirit generals first, before we attack.” Jinggu was greatly pleased. She immediately ordered Haiqing to proceed. Haiqing wrote a petition, transformed himself, and left. Jinggu then prepared an Altar Anchoring Petition 镇坛文书 and summoned from Lüshan for the deities, Shawang, the four Vajras 金刚, the Yellow Striped Hungry Tigers 黄斑 饿虎,4 and the demon-devouring spirits and deities 食鬼神王 to come. Jinggu then went out and met them. After performing the greeting formalities, Jinggu informed them of what had happened, and they took orders from her. They thereupon charged at the snake grotto under Jinggu’s leadership. When the

4. Ye notes that this is one of the spirit animals of the Lüshan Sect. See footnote 9 of Chapter 3 for more information on this animal.

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white snake heard the clamor outside the grotto challenging her to a fight, she donned military gear and came out to engage Jinggu in battle. When she saw Jinggu, she said to her, “I had no feud with you originally. I captured your brother only because he was mean to me. But I did not harm his life. Now you’ve learned the rituals of Lüshan, but why do you come here to cause trouble with me without any cause? The ancients have said, ‘Don’t push others to the extreme.’ If you insist on doing this, there is no guarantee you will succeed. Do think about it, retreat with your army, and let it be. We can keep peace between us from now on. But if you are even slightly unwilling, you may make a mistake later, and it would be too late for regrets.” Jinggu said, “ ‘When people are at peace, they do not complain. When the water is calm, it is not flowing 人平不语, 水平不流.’5 People owe their lives to the three lights6 from above. But whenever they meet you, they are eaten. How can you be at peace with that? If you want me to stop the attack, you can submit yourself to the Teachings of Lüshan. If you are even slightly unwilling, I will immediately raise my ritual sword and chop you into halves! Pity that the hard work you put into cultivating yourself for a hundred years7 will all be in vain!” When the white snake heard this, she said no more but pulled off a strand of her hair and chanted a spell. She then blew on the hair, and it immediately transformed into a sword. She also took a handful of soy beans and tossed them into the air. Immediately, they turned into heavenly soldiers who charged forward in battle. Jinggu and her brother were unable to withstand them. They suffered a sound defeat and retreated. Thereupon, the white snake called back her army and returned to her grotto. Jinggu returned to Layman Huang’s home with her defeated army. She convened with the generals and told them how the white snake tossed beans and blew on hair. Shawang said, “These are ritual techniques that Snake Mother tricked the people at Maoshan into instructing her.” 5. Ye Mingsheng thinks this was a local saying. 6. The three lights refer to the lights of the sun, the moon, and the stars. 7. Snake Mother apparently had to cultivate herself for a hundred years before she could transform from a snake into a sprite capable of turning herself into human form.

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Jinggu said, “Since the evil beast managed to learn these ritual techniques, how can we overcome her?” Shawang replied, “Don’t worry about it. Our ritual techniques of Lüshan invoke real soldiers and swords. Her ritual techniques of Maoshan invoke unreal soldiers and swords. One thousand unreal things cannot compare to one real thing. Tomorrow when we fight, don’t charge with the spirit army. Lady Great Foster Mother, you should challenge her to a fight by yourself. If the white snake should perform this technique again, I will command our spirit soldiers to put down their weapons and each take a dragon horn instead. You, Lady Great Foster Mother, could pretend defeat and retreat. When she gives chase with her army, I will have all our spirit soldiers blow their dragon horns together. Her unreal soldiers will fall down immediately. You don’t have to worry about anything. Just follow this plan tomorrow.” Jinggu was delighted when she heard this and took leave of the generals for the night. The next morning, she donned military gear, gave the orders, and challenged the snake to a fight. The white snake also donned military gear and came out of her grotto. Before the battle, the snake said, “The ancients have said, ‘If you know yourself and your opponent, you will invariably win. If you don’t know yourself and your opponent, you will invariably lose.’ You retreated after a mere battle yesterday, and yet you dare to fight again today. Aren’t you asking for death?” Without saying a word, Jinggu struck at the white snake with her sword. The white snake countered the attack, but was not able to resist Jinggu, so she brought out her beans, tossed them into the air, and pulled out a strand of hair and blew on it. Immediately, spirit soldiers appeared mid-air to help her. When Jinggu saw the spirit soldiers, she retreated, pretending she had been defeated. The white snake gave chase with the soldiers until they arrived at the place where the Lüshan army was hiding in readiness for ambush. The dragon horns sounded in unison from all four directions, and all of the white snake’s spirit soldiers fell to the ground and turned into nothing but soy beans. When the white snake saw that her spells were broken, she was greatly terrified and tried to escape as fast as she could. Jinggu gave chase. Thereupon, the white snake began to ring a ritual bell. Jinggu’s head ached so much from the bell ringing that she could not continue the chase. So she went back to Layman Huang’s home. The white snake also decided not to give chase and returned to her grotto.

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Jinggu and Haiqing invited all the generals together and said, “Although the spells for turning hair into sword and beans into soldiers were broken, when I gave chase yesterday I felt a headache as soon as the evil beast rang her ritual bell. If I hadn’t retreated fast enough, I could have been hurt. What shall we do about this?” Shawang replied, “The Teachings of Maoshan only has these three ritual techniques. Who would have thought that Ritual Lord Balang taught them all to her? The ringing of this ritual bell can only be stopped by the Bronze Blocking King and Iron Blocking King.8 Only through them can the spell of this technique be broken.” Thereupon, the two deity kings were given their orders, and all the generals returned to their own camps. The next morning Jinggu took the two deity kings with her and yelled at the grotto, challenging the snake to a fight. The white snake was in the middle of drinking wine when she heard the yelling outside the gate. She immediately donned military gear, came out, and fought ferociously with Jinggu. Then she rang her ritual bell, but its sound was blocked by the two Bronze Blocking and Iron Blocking deity kings with bronze and iron. As soon as the spell was broken, the white snake retreated in defeat. She escaped to the Western Sea 西海 and hid herself there. Jinggu chased her to the Western Sea but could not find her there. Greatly vexed, she had no choice but to perform the rituals to have the camps settle in for the night. Please read the next chapter for details.9

8. The text referred to them as Bronze Charging King and Iron Charging King. Since the function of these deity generals was to block rather than charge, I have changed their names to Bronze Blocking King and Iron Blocking King, who also appeared in the text of Chapter 4. 9. The ending sentence of this chapter is slightly different and shorter than all the others.

7

The White Snake and Haiqing Compete in Performing Transformations and Magic

Now, it was the birthday of the dragon king of the Western Sea, and his daughter, Dragon Girl, was in the midst of participating in the celebrations. Suddenly, the water creature sprites reported that a white python had fought her way into the palace. The dragon king and his daughter rushed to the inner palace at the back. When the white snake arrived at the palace, the table settings were in disarray, but delicacies of a hundred flavors were spread out. So she approached and devoured everything, and became so drunk that she fell into a stupor under the table. Jinggu went into the sea, but was not able to find the snake. When she saw Dragon Girl, she thought the girl was the white snake and was going to strike her down with her sword. Thereupon, Dragon Girl cried loudly and knelt down. Jinggu then told her about what had happened. The dragon king also came out to meet Jinggu and told her about everything. Impressed by the ethereal appearance of Jinggu, Dragon Girl desired to become a sworn sister of hers. Jinggu agreed to it and immediately gave Dragon Girl the title of Lady Thirteen 十三夫人, and they vowed to kill the white snake together. As they were speaking, the water creature sprites reported that the white snake was still drunk under the table in the front hall of the palace. Jinggu was delighted. She charged into the front hall and, sure enough, the snake was under the table. So Jinggu struck the white snake with her sword. But the white snake’s powers were prodigious. She transformed herself into a waft of wind and left the sea. Thereupon, Jinggu and Dragon Girl chased after her until they came to the bank. But the white snake was nowhere to be seen. They

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only saw King Hengshan 横山王 and Chen Sheren 陈舍人1 playing chess by the bank. Jinggu and Dragon Girl were straightening their clothes in order to continue the chase. When King Hengshan and Chen Sheren saw them, they clapped their hands and laughed. Jinggu and Dragon were embarrassed and angered by their laughter. So Jinggu pointed to them with her ritual sword and said, “That which is open will not get to close, that which is closed will not get to open!” Indeed, thereafter, the mouths of these two could never close again. Now, after the white snake left the sea for a while, she saw a girl named Zeng Sanjie 曾三姐 washing clothes by a river. Just as the white snake was going to devour Sanjie, the snake was frightened away by the approaching Jinggu. Sanjie bowed and thanked Jinggu in gratitude. Seeing how well behaved Sanjie was, Jinggu approached her and said, “If you, young mistress, is not contemptuous of me, would you consider becoming a sworn sister and subdue the white snake together?” Sanjie replied, “I would have died if it were not for my lady. Since I am fortunate enough to be favored by you, I will do as you command.” All three girls were greatly pleased. They performed the ritual for sworn sisterhood and continued to travel until they reached the homestead of a Xu family 许家庄. The Xu family had a daughter by the name of Wuniang 五娘, who was burning incense in the evening to pray for the health of her parents in the rear garden. When the white snake saw her, she landed the cloud she was riding on. Just as she approached Wuniang and was going to devour her, Jinggu and the others saw her and yelled loudly. Thereupon, the white snake ran away. Xu Wuniang was so shocked that she fainted on the ground. Jinggu and the others approached her. They used ritual water on her and brought her back. They then told her their stories. Thereupon, Wuniang also agreed to become a sworn sister of Jinggu’s to subdue the white snake together. Now, the white snake had nowhere to escape and so came up with the scheme of riding on a demonic cloud to go devour Layman Huang San. Jinggu used her forehead mirror and saw the white snake enter Layman Huang’s home.

1. Ye notes that Heng Sanwang and Chen Sheren are deities of the Lüshan Sect. Heng Sanwang appears frequently as Heng Shanchang 横山长 in the ritual texts in northern and western Fujian. Ye is not certain about Chen Sheren and suspects he is a deity specific to the locality of the author of the novel.

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She thereupon pulled a cloud over the layman to hide him. The snake went into the house but was unable to find Layman Huang. She only saw a hen hatching eggs in its nest, so she devoured the hen and transformed herself into a hen in the nest. Haiqing saw her and immediately transformed himself into a fox to devour the hen. When the snake saw Haiqing approach as a fox, she turned around and changed herself into a tiger, which now chased after the fox. Haiqing then transformed himself into Zilu 子路,2 who went after the tiger to beat it up. The snake immediately transformed herself into Zilu’s master, Kong Zhongni 孔仲尼,3 to beat up his disciple. When Haiqing saw this, he transformed himself into Laozi 老子,4 who reviled at Kong Qiu 孔丘.5 Thereupon, the white snake ran into the rear garden and transformed herself into a persimmon on a tree. When Haiqing saw the snake changing into a persimmon, he turned himself into a crow to peck at the fruit. The white snake thereupon entered a pond and changed herself into a carp. When Haiqing saw this, he immediately transformed himself into a large crane to peck at the carp. Seeing that Haiqing was able to transform himself endlessly, the white snake finally had no choice but to return to her own grotto and shut herself in securely. Haiqing and the sisters followed the snake to the gate of the grotto and circled it three times. When the white snake heard the heaven-reaching clamors of gongs and drums outside the gate, and all the loud challenges for her to engage in battle, she was truly scared. Gathering her demon minions, she donned military gear and charged outside the gate, where she and Haiqing engaged in fierce combat. Jinggu spread a net that covered heaven and earth,6

2. Ferocious in nature, Zilu was one of Confucius’ disciples. This reference to Zilu beating up a tiger evolved from a conversation between Zilu and Confucius in which Zilu asked Confucius whom the master would prefer to be with if he were the marshal of an army, expecting Confucius to name someone like him as the person of choice. However, Confucius replied that he would not be with someone who fights a tiger with bare hands and walks across a river. This conversation developed into the proverb baohu pinghe 暴虎凭河, “fighting a tiger and crossing a river” to refer to someone with more brawn than brain. 3. Zhongni is Confucius’ style. This is not a very reverent way of referring to the founder and sage of Confucianism, which the followers of Lüshan Teachings consider as simply another religion. 4. Laozi is considered the founder of Daoism, which the author of the novel obviously considers to be of superior status than Confucianism. 5. Qiu is the personal name of Confucius. 6. This is a metaphorical reference to forming an impenetrable trap.

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which gradually pressed in on the white snake. During this juncture, the white snake chanted a sacred incantation and transformed herself into a flying centipede. There was a loud bang, and she disappeared. Jinggu had no choice but to send the spirit army back and return with the sisters to Layman Huang’s homestead, where they retired separately. We will speak no more of them. Now, after the white snake escaped being surrounded, she went to the City of Fuzhou 福州城, where she pressed down the head of the cloud she was riding on, and espied the queen of the Min-Yue 闽粤 Kingdom,7 by the name of Jiang Luniang 蒋露娘, burning incense at night to pray for child at the rear garden. The white snake approached and blew poisonous vapor into the air. The queen and all the accompanying palace ladies and maids fell to the ground. Thereupon, the white snake devoured the queen and threw her bones into a pond. She then transformed herself into the likeness of the queen. Thereafter, she made pleasure with the king during the day, and consumed the flesh and blood8 of the populace at night. One day, the white snake thought to herself, “Although I have escaped and am enjoying unlimited luxury at the palace and the flesh and blood of the populace, what if that shrew, Jinggu, should find out about me and come after me? What then?” So she devised a scheme and pretended that she had taken ill and was unable to get out of bed. The King of Min was greatly distressed. He issued a public notice to find a doctor who could heal her. But none was successful. The white snake then made up a story and memorialized to the king, saying, “This illness of mine cannot be cured by medicine. Last night a deity spoke to me via a dream. He said, ‘The only way for you to be healed is to go to the homestead of the Chen’s at Lower Ford Village in Luoyuan County. A woman by the name of Chen Jinggu lives there. Put her heart and liver in wine and drink it. Then your illness will be cured.’ If this is not done, your majesty, you and I will be separated very soon!” 7. Fujian was known as Min—an independent kingdom during 909–945, with Fuzhou as its capital. The text called the kingdom Min-Yue 闽粤, literally, the Kingdom of Fujian and Guangdong, which never existed. 8. The text says “flesh and bones,” which I changed to “flesh and blood” to correspond with the following sentence, and the fact that the snake sprite could not consume the hair and bones of the queen.

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Accordingly, the king of Min dispatched Captain Yuan 元指挥 of the palace to proceed to the homestead of the Chen’s to obtain Chen Jinggu. The captain hung up the edict upon arriving at their home. Jinggu and Haiqing came out to meet with the officer, and the entire family wept loudly when they saw the edict, having no idea why it was issued. Haiqing said, “This is an order from the court—what good will crying do? Why don’t I go with my sister and we’ll decide what to do there?” After discussing it between themselves, they had no option but to take leave of their mother and follow the captain to the court. Within a few days, they arrived at the provincial capital. The next day, the king held court. The captain presented his report of what had transpired. The king then ordered Jinggu to enter to have her executed in order to extract her heart and liver to use as medicine. Jinggu memorialized thus, “Since antiquity, one has never heard of using human heart and liver to save lives. At the present time, many demons and evil influences lurk around. I fear that there is a fraud. One would never know.” The king laughed and said, “Our queen has been ill for a long time. No medicine can cure her. She dreamt that a deity instructed her that she will be cured if she drinks wine soaked with your heart and liver. You are but our subject. How can you treasure your own body and refuse the king’s order to save a life by using the talk of demons and evil influences to deceive us?” The king was obviously incensed. Jinggu then memorialized thus, “If the queen is indeed sick and can be healed by consuming human heart and liver, how could I, your subject, dare to treasure my own body, contravene the royal command, and jeopardize the queen’s life? But I fear that there exists a deception. The king could take your subject into the palace to verify the symptoms of the disease. If there’s any fraud on the part of your subject, I am willing to die without making any excuses!” The king said, “Your memorial is reasonable.” Thereupon Jinggu established a net that covered heaven and earth and requested the king to bestow upon her a sword. Before she even approached the dragon bed, her face felt a waft of poisonous pneuma. She knew it was the white snake. She rushed forward with a loud yell and struck with the sword. Unable to escape in time, the white snake reverted back to her original form and had six feet of her tail chopped off.

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Jinggu then went out and reported this to the king. The king was greatly startled. He went in to take a look and, indeed, what was on the dragon bed was the tail of a snake. So he asked Jinggu, “Since it was a snake that you have eliminated, where shall we put the tail?” Jinggu replied and memorialized, “It can be taken to an uninhabited mountain to rot on its own.” The king ordered warriors to take the tail away according to Jinggu’s memorial. He then asked her, “Would you know where our queen is?” Jinggu memorialized in reply, “The snake sprite never tired of devouring and harming humans. Your subject went to Lüshan to learn ritual techniques precisely to get rid of this evil beast, never thinking that she would enter the palace and transform herself into the likeness of the queen in order to harm me. I, your subject, think that since the white snake used the queen’s likeness, she must have devoured the queen.” The king wept and said, “Since the queen was devoured, there must be the remains of her hair and bones. We wonder where the evil beast put them. Considering the love we had for each other as husband and wife, we would like to find her hair and bones and give them a proper burial. Is there anything you can do?” Jinggu memorialized in reply, “The only way we can find the queen’s hair and bones would be to write a divine petition and use a medium.9 Only then could we find them.” The king said, “Who knows how to perform this ritual?” Jinggu replied, “I, your subject, know.” The kind said, “What do you need in order to perform it?”

9. Ye Mingsheng’s footnote indicates that this ritual, called xiebiao guantong 写表观童, is a traditional shamanistic ritual. The xiebiao involves writing and presenting a petition to a deity. The guantong, also known as luotong 落童, is a ritual technique that involves inducing a medium into a trance and sending him to the underworld to search for a soul. This episode of Haiqing going into a trance and searching for the remains of the queen is also found in the eighth act (called “book”—ben 本—in the play script), “The Brother and Sister Subdue the White Snake Sprite 兄 妹收白蛇精” in a string-puppet play 傀儡戏 from Shanghang County 上杭县 in western Fujian, titled, Biography of the Lady 夫人传. See Ye Mingsheng and Yuan Hongliang 袁洪亮, eds., Fujian Shanghang luantan kuileixi furen zhuan 福建上杭乱弹傀儡戏夫人传.

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Jinggu memorialized in reply, “I only need tea, fruits and snacks, incense, and mock money. Your subject’s younger brother is a medium. I will perform the ritual and have a deity descend into his body.” The king said, “Do it quickly, and we will reward you amply.” Jinggu thanked the king for the favor and set up an altar in the palace. After she summoned the deity general, she wrapped Haiqing’s head with a scarf, sprayed him with three mouthfuls of cold water, and performed the Mudra of the Cattle Whiskers 牛鬚诀10 three times with her fingers. Thereupon, Haiqing stood up quickly, went directly to the pond in the rear garden, and retrieved the queen’s hair and bones to the altar. Jinggu asked the king to look at them. The king wept so loudly and pitifully that everyone present also shed tears. The king then said, “You, our subject, have recovered her hair and bones, but the whereabouts of the soul has not been divined. We are truly worried about it! We will not feel relieved until the soul of our queen has returned to Heaven and does not land in Hell. Do you have a way to do that?” Jinggu replied, memorializing, “There is a ritual technique in the Teachings of Lüshan specifically directed at bringing deliverance to those who died of the ten types of unnatural deaths.11 If our lord wishes to deliver the queen from the sufferings of Hell, we will need to establish an offering called the Shi-Offering 师醮, which lasts for seven days and seven nights. This will enable the soul to be summoned to Lüshan for the bestowal of honorary titles. Only then will she be able to escape the calamities of Hell.” The king complied with what Jinggu had suggested and issued an order instructing her to perform the ritual. Seven days later, after the completion of the ritual, Queen Jiang entered the palace in the middle of the night, bid

10. Ye Mingsheng notes that this is one of the secret mudras used in the altar of the Lüshan Sect. 11. These unnatural deaths are known as the shishang 十殇. Ye’s footnote says that this remains one of the most important characteristics of the rituals of the Lüshan Sect in northern and western Fujian. The ritual is designated for cleansing the souls of individuals who died of the shishang, unnatural deaths before the performance of the ritual for salvation. The number “ten” is a general number. Examples of unnatural deaths include demise by fire, hanging, snake bite, tiger attack, drowning, falling, arrow shot, stabbing, birth-giving, clubbing, falling tree and others. It is believed that the souls of those who died through these means could not obtain salvation to ascend Heaven without going through a specific Lüshan ritual first. Whether the soul is to receive the ritual of salvation through a Lüshan priest, or through a Daoist or a Buddhist priest, this shishang Lüshan ritual to rid the soul of pollution is a mandatory preamble to the ensuing ritual of salvation.

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farewell to the king of Min, and left for Lüshan. The king met her through dream—he was greatly pleased and held court the next morning. He summoned Jinggu for an audience, told her about how he dreamt the queen bidding him farewell, and bestowed upon her the title of Great Foster Mother Lady, Protector of the State, Merciful and Saving Heavenly Consort, Devoted to Sanctifying Blessings, and Beneficent and Just 护国慈济天妃崇福顺懿大奶夫人.12 Furthermore, he bestowed upon Haiqing the title of State Protecting General 护 国将军, and upon Jinggu’s husband Wang Xian the title of Inspector of the Port13 of Quanzhou 泉州海口巡查. A great feast was also prepared to reward Jinggu before she left the court. When Jinggu returned home, she greeted her mother and husband and told them all about the bestowal of official titles. Everyone was greatly pleased. Thereupon, Wang Xian took his leave of his mother-in-law and invited his wife to proceed with him to his new official post. Jinggu said, “After I returned home from learning the rituals, I established my altar here. I have to guard it day and night. How can I leave?” Wang Xian said, “What would I do if you don’t go? Besides, the demons are creating havoc everywhere now. What am I to do if there is an imminent danger? But if I don’t go, I would be contravening a royal order. What a difficult choice!” Jinggu said, “My husband—you can proceed there without any worries. Let me give you two talismans that you can burn whenever you meet with disaster, and someone will be there to rescue you.” After speaking, they went their own ways. Within a few days, while Wang Xian was traveling by boat, he encountered the two robbers, Xie Gu and Ding Xian. Wang Xian was terrified. He burnt a talisman, and a Ritual Protecting deity received the command and came to rescue him. The robbers were killed in the river, and Wang Xian was able to assume his post safely. If you want to know what happened next, please read the following chapter.

12. This is a combination of several titles. 13. Haikuo 海口, mouth of the sea.

8

The Princess Is Captured by a Demon Before Her Marriage

Now, Wang Jixiang wanted to bid farewell to the Buddha to return home to see his mother. The Buddha gave him his permission, so Jixiang bowed and took his leave. When he reached home and saw his grandmother and his mother, everyone was overjoyed. Jixiang then wanted to leave his mother and visit his father at the port. His mother gave him her permission, and transformed a ritual implement, the golden whip, into a donkey for him to ride on. She also gave him a body-protecting talisman. Jixiang bowed and took his leave. Halfway there, he met an elder by the name of Baiyun 白云. Knowing that he was Jinggu’s son, Baiyun approached him, broke the legs of the donkey, and placed Jixiang under a metal pan. Once inside the pan, Jixiang realized he had been tricked. He thereupon brought out the calamity-talisman his mother gave him before he had left and chewed on it. When Jinggu realized that Jixiang was in trouble, she immediately reported to her mother and proceeded to rescue Jixiang. She figured out that he was trapped under a metal pan by the elder, Baiyun. Immediately, she performed a ritual and used her ritual sword to pry open a hole in the ground, thus rescuing Jixiang. When the elder discovered this, he engaged in a fierce battle with Jinggu. He was unable to resist Jinggu’s power, however, so he sought refuge with Great Sage Qianxia 千虾大圣,1 who came out to meet with him and was told 1. Qianxia Dasheng literally means Great Sage One Thousand Shrimp and is referred to variously in the text as Qianxia Huosheng 千虾火圣 (Fire Sage Qianxia) and Qianxia Tiansheng 千虾天圣 (Heavenly Sage Qianxia). Ye notes that although the name resembles the title of a monkey sprite by the name of Danxia Dasheng 丹霞大圣 (Great Sage of Vermilion Cloud) mentioned in the novels, Mindu bieji 闽都别记 (Legendary Records of the Capital of Min) and Linshui pingyao 临水平妖 (Pacification of the Demons of Linshui), judging from the description of his limited power, this deity, who is in fact a demon, probably had nothing to do with Danxia Dasheng.

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about what had happened. Thereupon, Qianxia arrived and fought with Jinggu. When he was defeated by her, he immediately resorted to employing demonic powers, which enabled him to issue black clouds that blocked the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Jinggu was defeated, so she went back to camp and discussed tactics with Haiqing, and they decided to summon the generals of Lüshan for assistance. After the army from Lüshan arrived, Jinggu issued an order for the five Tiger-Riding Shang Generals to guard the altar space, for the black-faced Shawang to capture the ghosts and exorcize the evil spirits, and for Li Sanjie and Lin Jiuniang to stay in the camp to await further instructions. She also issued a command for Shawang to use fire to burn the black clouds spread by Qianxia. The next morning, Jinggu and her sworn sisters donned military gear and proceeded to the battlefield. They encountered Great Sage Qianxia and Elder Baiyun and fought fiercely with them. Li Sanniang chopped off Qianxia’s head with one swing of her sword, and Elder Baiyun was shot to death by Princess Thirteen, the dragon girl. They then returned to their own camps, and the spirit generals returned to Lüshan. Jinggu and her son thereupon went to Quanzhou to visit her husband. They met and were overjoyed. Wang Xian then reported their extermination of the evil spirits above to the prefect, who in turn memorialized the event to the king of Yue. When the king saw the memorial, he promoted Wang Xian to the position of the magistrate of Jinjiang County 晋江县. Wang Xian assumed his post the following day. Jinggu took leave of her husband and went home to see her mother. Meanwhile, the tail of the snake, which had been taken to an uninhabited mountain, became a demon, as this sprite originated from a part of a bodhisattva and was hence inextinguishable. One day, knowing that the king of Yue was marrying off his daughter, a princess, this snake rode on a demonic cloud, sped to the palace, and carried the princess back to its mountain in order to devour her. The princess, however, was wont to performing good deeds. She was moreover particularly fond of worshipping Guanyin, and observed a vegetarian diet piously. When Guanyin saw from the tip of a cloud that the princess was captured and was going to be devoured by the sprite, the bodhisattva yelled “Ho!” loudly in midair, grabbed an auspicious cloud, and covered the princess with it. She then dispatched a ritual-protecting deity to protect the princess so the demon was not able to consume her.

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Meanwhile, when the king discovered the disappearance of the princess, he was greatly distraught. He issued a public notice announcing that he would marry the princess to anyone who could rescue her. There was a place named Dongyanglin 东阳林 about thirty leagues from the city, where a man named Zhang Dafa 张大法 lived. Of a poor family, he eked out a living by cutting wood. However, he was fond of the Teachings of Buddhism, and would always first help woodcutters who could not carry their load before carrying his own load. Moreover, his ancestors worshipped Buddhist deities and he observed its dietary strictures devoutly. Seeing that he was a man wont to performing good deeds, the bodhisattva Guanyin decided that he could be the one to rescue the princess. That very night, she instructed Dafa through a dream to go rescue the princess so that he could marry her and be rewarded for his good heart. Dafa had the dream, but he had his doubts. He had a sworn brother by the name of Qin Zhong 秦仲 who lived in the capital city. Thinking that it would be better to believe than not to believe, he immediately went to the city to meet with Qin Zhong and asked whether the princess really disappeared. Qin Zhong replied, “Yes. Why do you, older brother, ask about it?” Dafa said, “Let me tell you the truth, younger brother. Last night I received an instruction from Guanyin through a dream that the princess and I have a marriage affinity. She has been captured by a demon in an uninhabited mountain. I am to rescue her, take her to the king, and complete the destined marriage. I would like to invite you, my brother, to go with me.” They were both greatly pleased and went to the mountain together to search for the princess. But she was nowhere to be found. Suspecting the dream to have been created by Dafa, due to greed, Qin Zhong was rather unwilling to search with him. So he sat outside the mountain and waited for his friend there. Dafa ended up searching the entire mountain by himself until he reached a grotto. There he found a girl weeping pitifully. Dafa jumped into the grotto and inquired of her. The princess told him all about it. Dafa then said, “Although I was able to get down here, princess, I am unable to get back up with you. What are we to do? However, I do have a friend who is outside the mountain right now. Let me call for him to come here right away and ask him to take you, the princess, up first.” The princess was overjoyed. She said, “The fact that we have this opportunity to talk to each other in the grotto indicates that we must have a karmic

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marriage affinity. I have a pair of golden bracelets. Let me take one off to present to you as a token of my agreeing to the marriage.” When she finished speaking, Dafa yelled, “Brother, come here right away!” Qin Zhong walked quickly and saw before him Dafa down in a grotto with a girl, with no means of getting back up. As he thought, he asked, “Why do you, brother, call me?” Dafa said, “I’ve found the princess here but can’t get back up. You, brother, can use a rope to pull the princess up first, and then you can pull me up.” Qin Zhong was in fact an evil man. When he heard this, he was secretly pleased. He threw down a rope and pulled up the princess. And then he tossed away the rope and left with the princess, leaving Dafa down in the grotto. When Dafa saw Qin Zhong taking off into the distance, he wept unceasingly. Qin Zhong ignored him and left. He went with the princess to the court and had an audience with the king, memorializing that he was the one who had rescued the princess. The king was greatly pleased when he saw Qin Zhong and immediately declared him to be his son-in-law to be married to the princess. When the princess saw Qin Zhong, she asked, “Who are you that you dare to falsely claim merit and marry me?” Zhong said, “I rescued you in the grotto—how could the princess have forgotten it?” The princess said, “Since you rescued me, what token of pledge do you have to prove it?” Zhong said, “When I rescued the princess, there was no token of pledge.” The princess said, “If you don’t have the token of pledge, then you are not my husband!” Thereupon, she ordered the palace maids to push him out of the palace and have him executed. The palace maids immediately beheaded Qin Zhong, and that was that. When the king heard about it, he summoned the princess and scolded her, “Your life was in jeopardy in an uninhabited mountain, and you were finally rescued. Even if you didn’t want to marry the person, you shouldn’t have had him executed. To forget the favor of another and betray his righteousness is not the way of a human.” The princess memorialized, saying, “The person who rescued me was not this one.”

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The king said, “If he was not the person, how was it that you returned with him? Where did you meet him?” The princess said, “I, your daughter, gave a golden bracelet to the one who rescued me as a token of pledge. My lord can issue a public announcement that the person who comes to the court with the right golden bracelet will be my husband.” Although the king had his doubts and wavered, he had no choice but to issue a public announcement. Within three days, Dafa was rescued by Guanyin from the grotto. He went to the capital city and saw the public announcement. He then tore off the announcement and went to see the king. After he memorialized concerning what had happened, the king was greatly pleased, and the princess was summoned to come to meet him. When the princess came to the audience hall, she saw that the bracelet was exactly the same as the one she kept, and she also recognized Dafa as the person who had rescued her. So she approached him, embraced him, and wept loudly. The king had an elaborate banquet prepared, married the princess to Dafa, and celebrated the wedding. If you want to know what happened next, please read the following chapter.

9

The White Snake Seeks Refuge with Guanyin

Now, since the headless white snake could only shine light from its body and tail, it was therefore unable to display its magical powers fully. In the meantime, the head of the snake became sick from hunger at the back of the uninhabited mountain. One day, however, a violent wind raged from all four directions, and rain and thunder burst forth. Terrified, the two parts of the snake leapt into midair simultaneously. It must have been the case that the snake was not fated to die, as the two parts floated in the sky and rejoined with each other. The white snake could now make full use of its powers. So, swaggering proudly, she traveled atop a cloud. The white snake returned to her original grotto, gathered her demon minions, and together they tricked people into their grotto-dwelling in the evenings. The populace in the region began to find a person missing one day, and then another missing the following day. When they met with each other, each would tell the other with a hand on the forehead,1 not knowing what might have happened. Thereupon, the populace invited each other to gather at Layman Huang’s home, where they told the layman about the matter mentioned earlier. The layman said, “I, the old one, heard that the white snake had been executed and could not live again. Now that this strange thing is happening, I can’t imagine what demon might be harming people here again. Why don’t you return right now, and I’ll tell Lady Chen about this tomorrow? We’ll only know after I invite her here.” 1. Indicating being puzzled.

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The people returned home after hearing what Layman Huang had said. The next day, Layman Huang went directly to Lower Ford Village to visit Jinggu. After having had tea, the layman relayed to her what the populace had told him. Jinggu said, “Judging from the fact that the white snake was cut into halves by my sword, even though it had managed to escape, the head can’t be expected to live again. The one creating trouble must be another demon. One never knows. Let me go to your home tomorrow and take a look from your roof. I’ll know for sure then.” Having said this, Jinggu saw the layman off. The next day she arrived at his home with Haiqing. She ordered Haiqing to use a long ladder and climb onto the roof to scout out a ritual space, and to build a structure there called a Seven Storied Dragon Tower 七层龙楼 by stacking seven square tables (plate 35).2 She then performed a ritual with her dragon horn, ritual bells, and forehead mirror, while Haiqing watched from the top of the tower. Seeing a demonic cloud rising from the back of a mountain, Haiqing climbed down and reported this to the layman and his sister. Jinggu said, “Could it be that the grotto of the white snake is occupied by another demon that is now creating trouble? That is quite possible. Tomorrow I will summon an army from Lüshan and force open the gate of the grotto, and then we’ll know.” The next day, Jinggu established an altar. Haiqing wrote down the sacred names of the deities in the petition to summon them, and gathered Jinggu’s sworn sisters. Together they circled the gate of the grotto three times. Now, ever since the white snake’s head and body were united, she returned to her grotto. She had her demons trick people, and then she devoured them, expecting no one would find out. She also didn’t think that the layman would invite Jinggu back and have the gate of her grotto surrounded. When the demons reported this to her, the white snake was greatly startled. She donned military gear and charged out, with the sole intention of escaping alive and not daring to engage them in battle. But Jinggu’s pursuing army was so fast that the white snake had nowhere to go. She had no choice but to seek refuge with Mahasattva Guanyin of the South Sea.

2. See plate 35 for a thirteen-storied “tower.”

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After hearing her implore pitifully one hundred different ways, Guanyin thought to herself, “This beast is a monster transformed from a strand of my hair. I should accept her today.” So she told the white snake to go behind her seat. Jinggu chased the white snake to the South Sea. She prostrated herself to the ground and told Guanyin what had transpired. Guanyin said, “No snake sprite has come here. Why do you arrive with the clamor of gongs and drums?” Jinggu said, “After your disciple’s brother suffered injury at the hands of the white snake, I endured ten thousand hardships to learn the ritual techniques of Lüshan precisely in order to eliminate this sinful beast and rid the populace of this evil. Since you, the bodhisattva, are someone who has taken the vows, how can you protect the malevolent being and allow people to suffer its poison?” Guanyin replied angrily, “You, a disciple of Shamanism—how dare you be so impertinent as to talk to me like this? Although the white snake was harming the populace, she is now seeking refuge with me. You should let it be. Why do you insist on being her enemy?” Jinggu said, “If the evil thing is not eliminated, she will always cause trouble.” Guanyin said, “No more from you. If you don’t leave immediately, I fear that inconveniences to you will ensue.” Jinggu had no option but to intone agreement. Haiqing, who was standing on the side, however, said, “I’ve heard that Buddhism is rooted in compassion. How can she protect the evil and cause harm to the populace now? We belong to Shamanism, but she belongs to Buddhism. Since she insists on hiding the evil snake and refuses to hand her over, I will blow my dragon horn and create the Surging Sea of the Four Directions 四方 洋泙 to force the beast out. Why beg of her?” Jinggu said, “I fear that Shamanism is no match for Buddhism. Don’t act rashly.” Haiqing said, “When it comes to ritual techniques, I think our Shamanism is better than her Buddhism.” Having said this, he blew the dragon horn with his mouth, and wrote the sacred names of the generals of the Lüshan army to request for their assistance. He also established the Surging Sea of the Four Directions. Hearing the clamor-

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ing and yelling of the army, Shancai 善才3 and the others were terrified. The white snake felt as if she was being stabbed by needles. So lying at the bottom of Guanyin’s seat, she implored the deity to help her. Thereupon, Guanyin said, “Don’t worry. How can the ritual techniques of his Shamanism match the powers of my Buddhism? The only reason that I have not subdued him is because of my desire to see what Shamanism can do.” Before she finished talking, a corner of Rock Putuo 普陀岩4 was blown off by Haiqing’s horn and landed on the tail of the snake. Thereupon, the white snake again yelled, “Bodhisattva—please hurry up and help me! He has blown off a corner of the rock—it has landed on my tail!” When Guanyin heard this, she ordered the lad attendant to deliver a command for Haiqing to stop the playing of the gongs and drums and to go to her with Jinggu. Jinggu had no choice but to approach her and prostrate herself on the ground. Although Haiqing ceased the playing of the gongs and drums, he stood on the side and refused to prostrate himself. Guanyin said, “Although the snake is demonic, it has the nature of Buddhism, so you will not be able to exterminate it. Now that she has taken refuge with me, you should have ceased your chase. How can you do what you did? How can the disciples of Shamanism match the powers of Buddhism? But I am not going to condescend to your level and fight with you. You had better stop fighting immediately and become friends with the snake. If you refuse to agree and submit, I’m afraid it will be too late for you to regret it!” Jinggu agreed with everything Guanyin had said, but Haiqing was not willing, thinking that if he could blow off a corner of the rock through performing ritual techniques, then what could Guanyin do to him? So he responded on the side, “No! No!” 3. The lad Shancai is one of Guanyin’s attendants. 4. According to Ye, the original text wrongly wrote the name of the rock as Putao Rock 蒲陶 岩. Juan 3 of a 1949 ritual text, “Nai’niang zongzu 奶娘宗祖 (Account of Nai’niang’s Ancestry),” copied by Liu Faling 刘法錂 in Jianyang also wrongly wrote the name of the rock as Putao Rock 葡萄岩. The similarity in pronunciation of the rock in our text and the northern Fujian ritual text indicates a close relationship between the two. Putuo Rock refers to Mount Putuo 普陀山, the ritual space where Guanyin is said to have preached the dharma. Mount Putuo is located at Putuo County of Zhejiang. There is also a Putuo Monastery at Xiamen 厦门 of Fujian, known as the Southern Putuo 南普陀.

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He thereupon again performed ritual techniques in his ritual space, mobilized the Lüshan army, and had the gong and drums play so loudly that the clamor reached up to heaven. Seeing that Haiqing was unwilling to listen to her, Guanyin chanted a sacred incantation, waved her hand, and pulled down a five-colored auspicious cloud with which she covered the area. She then summoned the Mysterious Thearch of Zhenwu 真武玄帝5 to wrap the entire Lüshan army in a banner and trap them. She also summoned the four Vajras 四大金刚 to tie up Haiqing. When Jinggu saw that Guanyin was so irate that she subdued the Lüshan army and had Haiqing tied up, Jinggu immediately kneeled before her and implored. Guanyin laughed and said, “How can your brother, Haiqing, be so impertinent? It goes without saying that your Shamanism should not dare to compete with my Buddhism—even a religion such as Daoism would submit to my Buddhism. My Buddhism can “join perpetually without joining, lament perpetually without lamenting.”6 The impertinence he has shown is detestable!” Jinggu implored repeatedly. Thereupon, Guanyin said, “If it weren’t for the sake of your ritual lord, I would have exterminated the religion of Shamanism completely!” Jinggu then said, “But I am willing to listen to your instructions.” Guanyin said, “Your brother said that his dragon horn was able to blow down the corner of my rock. How about I try to use the power of Buddhism to patch it up?” So saying, she commanded loudly, “Where is the Stupa Lifting Heavenly King 托塔天王? You can lift up the corner of the rock and repair it!” In less than a moment, the corner of the rock rose from the ground and repaired the corner from which it fell, without a trace of its having being repaired. Haiqing then entered. When Jinggu saw him, she again kowtowed to Guanyin and implored forgiveness. Thereupon, Guanyin released the Lüshan army and allowed them to return. She then ordered the white snake to come out, had her kneel beneath the rock, and scolded her, saying, “You evil beast—you’ve lived in the human world for a long time and have never had enough of causing harm to people. 5. He is the same deity as the Mysterious Thearch of footnote 10 of Chapter 2. 6. Yongjie bujie, yongqi buqi 永结不结, 永戚不戚. This saying does not appear in any of the existing Buddhist sutras. It may have been made up by the author, or circulated in his locality.

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Your crime is so great that it should not be forgiven. Originally, I had intended to eliminate you along with that disciple of Shamanism. But considering the sincerity of your desire to take refuge in Buddhism, I am willing to save your life. Do you willingly submit henceforth?” The white snake kowtowed and said, “How dare I not submit to Buddhism? But my body was born into an evil race. If I do not consume blood, my body will immediately take ill, and I will not be able to move easily. Now that I take refuge in Buddhism, I intend to cleanse my mind and accept the precepts. But I am unable to control my body and mouth. I hope that you, the bodhisattva, will open a gate of expedience for me.” Guanyin replied, “The religion of Buddhism takes compassion and the prohibition to killing as its basic tenets. How could I open a gate of expedience to allow you to cause injury to people?” The white snake said, “The way I see it, the one who consumes blood can be a Buddhist who observes all but the stricture of observing a vegetarian diet, and can still accept blood sacrifices from the people. I do not dare ever to devour humans again!”7 Guanyin said, “Originally, I was not going to allow you to covet blood sacrifices again, but I realize that living beings are not able to stop killing anyway. Moreover, I understand the intensity of your supplication. Let me issue an edict: ‘I bestow upon you the right to establish a temple next to the river to enjoy sacrifices offered by the populace. This temple will be called Temple of the Sage Mother White Snake 白蛇圣母庙. Whenever one hundred boats pass the temple, they must make an offering of one duck to your temple. There must not be a breach of this edict. You can bow to take leave and proceed right away.” Gluttonous and insatiable, when the edict was read, the white snake heard the words “whenever one hundred boats pass the temple, she can eat one duck” as “whenever one hundred boats pass the temple, she can eat one person [riding the boats],” and was greatly pleased. She immediately kowtowed in gratitude and left riding on a demonic cloud. When Jinggu heard them, she immediately said, “The snake will never change. The edict allowed for ‘whenever one hundred boats passed, she can eat one duck,’ but she thought it was ‘whenever one hundred boats passed, she can eat one person’ and left ever so pleased. Considering how thousands 7. This implies that she will never require human sacrifice to her again.

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of boats pass through the river each day, she could cause harm to the life of at least one person each day. How can one give succor to the sufferings of the populace? I beg of you, Buddhist Mother, to be greatly inspired by compassion and bring salvation to living beings.” Guanyin then said, “What you said makes sense. How could I not cherish and pity the lives of the people? Since the evil beast’s nature will not change, I have a way of controlling it.” Having said that, she chanted a sacred incantation. And then tearing off a piece of her inner robe, she yelled “Ho!” and transformed it into a floating plaque. She then ordered the plaque, “Whenever the snake causes waves, you are to make calm the waters.” And then she pointed with a finger, and the feet of the snake sprite were nailed down so that she could never leave the temple. Thereupon, Guanyin asked Jinggu, “Do you recognize the technique I used for controlling the evil beast just now?” Jinggu kowtowed, approached her, and replied, “As you, the Buddha Mother, already knew, the ritual techniques of Shamanism are incomparably miniscule in comparison. There was no need to use the army of Shamanism to control the beast.” Guanyin smiled and said, “You wouldn’t have known if I didn’t tell you about it. Of the four religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Shamanism, there is none that should be slighted. The snake was created when a single strand of my hair fell into the sea when I was returning from an assembly in the Third Heaven.8 The power of Buddhism was so boundless that the hair eventually became a snake. Knowing that the evil beast would not be able to transform into a dragon and would hence probably bring harm to the populace, I bit off a piece of my finger nail, transformed it into a golden light, and sent it to your mother’s womb. You were born as a result with the mission of subduing the white snake. Precisely because I felt that the religion of Shamanism had been in decline for quite a while, I had you enter the religion of Shamanism to learn its ritual techniques in order to glorify it. Now that you have done your best and have attained both merit and fame through practicing the Teachings of Shamanism, I have decided to take back the evil beast in order to glorify the powers of Buddhism.” 8. The first chapter said the Thirty-third Heaven.

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Thereupon, Jinggu kowtowed and said, “I am willing to following your saddle and stirrup in order to assist the religion of Buddhism.” Guanyin said, “This would be too difficult for you! Ever since you joined the religion of Shamanism, you have never severed the attachment between husband and wife, and the love between you and your siblings and your mother, and you have never observed dietary prohibitions. How can you take refuge in Buddhism? But, considering the great effort you put into subduing the snake, I will memorialize to the Jade Emperor 玉帝9 to bestow upon you the title of State Protecting Heaven Ruling Lady Great Foster Mother 都天镇国大奶夫 人 and have you occupy the highest position in the Teachings of Shamanism among the populace. You are to save the populace from the sufferings of the various illnesses and hardships, and the calamities of the ten unnatural deaths. Your brother, Haiqing, will receive the title of Ritual Protecting Erlang of the Barbarian Army 蛮师护法二郎. You should go home right away. You, husband and wife, will receive the edict very soon, and your entire family will ascend to Heaven. Thereupon, Jinggu and Haiqing kowtowed in gratitude and then left the South Sea. They went home directly, greeted the mother and husband, and told them all about the subjugation of the snake. The entire family was overjoyed. In no time at all, the arrival of an edict was announced in the sky, which issued instructions for the entire family to go to Lüshan to receive the enffeofments and thereby enjoy wealth and rank in perpetuity. Jinggu was bestowed the title of State Protecting Heavenly Ruler Lady Great Foster Mother of the Linshui Temple of Gutian County in Fuzhou in order to subdue XXX.10 The entire family expressed gratitude for the favor and left for their celestial residence together. To this day, Jinggu’s temple survives at XXX11 of Gutian County, where the incense offerings have never ceased. Whenever someone is seriously ill among the populace, the family can invite12 Shaman priests to heal the sick person by beating on gongs and drums at night to celebrate the celestial lady. And then they can present a petition to request the presence of Chen Jinggu the

9. Emperor of the Daoist heavens. 10. Two characters are missing in the text. Ye Mingsheng added the snake demon here. 11. Three characters are purposely missing here. The author and publisher were obviously very serious about presenting only the “truth” and were reluctant to fill in a location they were not sure of. 12. Although emoluments are expected, people refer to hiring priests as inviting them.

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following morning by building a tower of either seven or nine stories (plate 35).13 Sacrificial offerings of the various domesticate animals can be used as a gesture of gratitude. There is none who does not receive blessings from her. As for those whose illness is not serious, the beating of gongs and drums is not necessary. Performing quiet chanting and “rescript baths” 书浴14 can also be efficacious. I have now created a biographical account by stringing together all the events that happened to Chen Jinggu since her birth. Republished by Yuanwentang 元文堂 on a fine sunny day 榖日 in the first month of summer (fourth month of the lunar calendar), during the eighteenth year of Qianlong 乾隆 (1752).

13. These are built by stacking square tables on top of each other, as seen at the beginning of the chapter. 14. This refers to the practice of burning a talisman, written by a priest, and placing its ashes in a pan of water or in bath water, which can be used for bathing or sprinkling on the body of the afflicted.

Appendix I

Passing through Nanjiao, Pacifying the Demons, and Stabilizing Beijiao

Biography of the Foster Mother 奶娘传: A Marionette Play from Siping 四平 in Shouning 寿宁, Fujian Volume 2: Scene 3 “Passing through Nanjiao 南蛟, Pacifying the Demons, and Stabilizing Beijiao 北蛟 ” 1 Dramatis personae (in order of appearance) Boatman Head Yamen Runner 班头: A minor officer Chen Jinggu 陈靖姑: Protagonist of the play Wang Xian 王显: A heavenly general of the Lüshan Sect Yang Tong 杨通: A heavenly general of the Lüshan Sect

Demons,

sprites, and monsters

Demon Sea 魔海: A demon general Demon Pool 魔池: A demon general Water Tiger Sprite 1. Ye Mingsheng, ed., Fujian Shouning Siping kuileixi Nai’niang zhuan, 96–101. The play was recorded from memory by Wu Naiyu 吴乃宇. The scene contains rituals distinctive to the Lüshan Sect.

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Water Snake Sprite Water Tortoise Sprite Fish Sprite Water Buffalo Sprite Boatman: (Enters and sings.) (Tune of the Rowing Song 摊船歌) From east comes, from east coming from the east, Coming from the east is a ferry boatman. How does one know that it’s a ferry boatman? From the coir rain-coat2 I wear and the sail above my head. Ah ya ya li the boat, ya ya li the boat, Ah ya ya ya, it’s me, the ferry boatman. (Previous tune) From south comes, from south coming from the south, Coming from the south is a southern barbarian. How does one know that it’s a southern barbarian?3 Speaking gibberish,4 he has arrived at Jiangnan 江南. Ah ya ya li south, ya ya li south, Ah ya ya ya, it’s a southern barbarian. (Previous tune) From west comes, from west coming from the west, Coming from the west is a bald ass,5 How does one know that it’s a bald ass? From the rosary beads around his neck and the “a mi” he chants,6 Ah ya ya li “mi,” ya ya li “mi,” Ah ya ya ya, it’s a bald ass. (Previous tune) 2. This is a raincoat made of palm leaves. 3. The term fanman 番蛮 refers specifically to barbarians from the south of China. 4. Literally, “jiji guagua 叽叽呱呱,” indicating gibberish sounds. 5. Tulü 秃驴, bald donkey or ass, is a derogatory appellation for Buddhist monks with their shaven heads. 6. “A mi” stands for “A mi tuo fo 阿弥陀佛,” an invocation to the Buddha.

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From north comes, from north coming from the north, Coming from the north is a merchant from Huzhou 胡州.7 How does one know that it’s a merchant from Huzhou? From the barbarian silk he carries on his shoulder to sell. Ah ya ya li to sell, ya ya li to sell, Ah ya ya ya, it’s a merchant from Huzhou. Head Yamen Runner: (Enters.) Ai! Brother Boatman, Brother Boatman! Boatman: Who are you calling? Let me insert the boat-pole at the head of my boat. Head Yamen Runner: I’m calling for Father Boatman, no, just a boatman.8 Hi boatman! Bring your boat over, I want to hire it! Boatman: Fine. I’m lowering the gang plank to the bank. Come right up! Head Yamen Runner: I’m from the prefectural yamen. Boatman: So it’s Brother Head Yamen Runner! Ai! A head yamen runner is high class. This is a brand new boat. I’ll treat you to some wine if you say something nice for me! Head Yamen Runner: Speaking to yamen officials is like either hitting a cliff or ramming into a wall. Boatman: Aiya! Aiya! Please say something nice—we boatmen have a taboo against using words likes hitting cliffs and rocks. This is no good. Don’t say such things. Head Yamen Runner: Just now I can’t think of anything good to say. My mind is sinking, it’s sinking. Boatman: Aiya! The worst taboo for us boatmen is to use the word sinking. I don’t want you to say anything more for me. What did you come here for? Head Yamen Runner: Is it convenient for you to give me some glue paste?9 Boatman: Yes, I can make you some. Head Yamen Runner: I’m going to paste this notice on the mast of your boat. Come and read it for yourself. (He exits.)

7. Huzhou, means literally the region of Hu. Hu traditionally refers to barbarians from the north and west of China. 8. He is trying to be funny here. “Father Boatman” is chuanfu 船父 and “boatman” is chuanfu 船夫. 9. Glue can be made by boiling powdered rice.

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Boatman: What is this notice he pasted on my mast? Let me take a look at it. It says, “This is an official notice from Lord Xu 徐老爷, the local prefect: This boat is hereby named the official boat for the express purpose of ferrying a priestess10 back to Fuzhou 福州. Goods may be transported, but gender segregation must be observed. Should the latter prohibition be infringed, those involved in the infraction will be given forty lashes at the yamen.” Aiya! Oh no, brothers—my new boat has just been hired by our prefect, Lord Xu! (Offstage: That’s good business!) It certainly is good business. Let me wait with my boat at the bank. Chen Jinggu: (Enters.) Hello, Boatman—was it your boat that the Lord hired? Boatman: Yes. Chen Jinggu: Lower the gang plank for me. Boatman: Certainly. Come up slowly. Chen Jinggu: I’m on the boat. Boatman: Dear Priestess, please sit at the front of the boat. We lowly boatmen go straight to the point. Have you prepared the pig’s head and goose?11 Chen Jinggu: If you wanted to eat pig’s head and goose, you should have told the head yamen runner about it. It wasn’t convenient for me to bring any. Boatman: You’re right. It was very stupid of me to ask for pig’s head and goose to eat. Chen Jinggu: Where are we passing through to go to Fuzhou? Boatman: We are going through Nanjiaoyang 南蛟洋.12 Do you know about the place? Chen Jinggu: If we have to go through it, we’ll go through it. Boatman: Aiya! You are more daring than the blacksmith who repairs tripods!13 Let me explain it to you. The five temples at Nanjiaoyang are controlled by a million water monsters and two demon brothers, Demon Sea and Demon Pool. When one comes prepared with pig’s head and goose, one

10. The appellation used here is nüxiansheng 女先生, female teacher/master. 11. The “pig’s head and goose” stand for all the items needed as offerings to the ocean demons and spirits. 12. Nanjiaoyang literally means “Ocean of the South Kraken,” kraken being a water serpent. 13. This is a proverb that refers to the difference in attitude (when treating cooking pots with cracks) between regular people and blacksmiths. Instead of treating cracks in pots with utmost care, the blacksmith repairing a pot would beat the pot and even increase the size of the crack before repairing it.

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chops them up nice and small and casts them into the ocean. They’ll all go after the food and then with one heave with the boat pole and the oars, the boat will ride over the waves and pass without their knowing it. Without the pig’s head and goose, even a celestial would find it difficult to cross. Chen Jinggu: Just wait a minute. (Aside.) My Master had told me to be wary of the temple at Nanjiao. Now that I happen to be crossing Nanjiaoyang anyway, it’s a case of fueling the fire with the aid of the wind. (Toward the boatman.) Is your cabin clean? Boatman: Yes, it’s very clean. Chen Jinggu: Let me go change my clothes. (She exits and re-enters in warrior outfit.) Boatman: Aiya! Dear Priestess—I’m not fighting with you, what are you doing with this bell and crooked firewood?14 Chen Jinggu: This is the military priestly garment of the Mount Lü Sect. Let me know when the boat arrives at Nanjiao. Boatman: Brothers—a priestess wants to ride my boat across Nanjiao without a pig’s head and goose! (Offstage: We brothers can sleep in water for three days and three nights. If she’s not scared, what are we afraid of? What’s there to lose?) All right. Dear Priestess, let’s go. (He pushes the boat away from the bank with his pole.) Dear Priestess, the boat has arrived at Nanjiao. Chen Jinggu: Moor the boat in a bay. Watch if you are brave. Boatman: I understand. I’ll moor the boat in a bay. (He exits.) Chen Jinggu (Performs a ritual using a bell and a dragon horn. Sings.) (Tune of Announcing the Military Order 喝军令) The first sound of the bright horn reaches to Mount Lü, The head of Mount Lü is the Queen Mother Goddess 王母娘.15 14. The “crooked firewood” is in fact a ritual implement made of carved wood called the “dragon horn.” 15. Queen Mother Goddess, literally “king-mother,” usually refers to Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West. However, in religious traditions related to Chen Jinggu, Queen Mother actually refers to her. See Ye Mingsheng’s introduction in Wugenzi, 44; and Ye Mingsheng, “Linshui furen xinyang wenhua yuanliu yu fazhanshi tantao,” 189–191. Here she is referred to as shifu 师父, master, an appellation for the teacher of one’s religious sect or martial arts. Shifu can be either male or female. I translate the appellation as “head” to take into account its distinction from the appellation shimu 师母 in the next line. Although shimu, literally “teacher-mother,” is usually used to address the wife of one’s master, Wuniang seems to be simply another female deity of lesser importance than Chen Jinggu, the Queen Mother Goddess.

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Appendix I The Mistress, Wuniang 五娘, will descend personally, To exorcize Nanjiao and protect the good citizens. The second sound of the dragon horn reverberates loudly, Upon Mount Lü, the various masters gather and meet. The troops of the nine camps are summoned by the bright horn, In order to aid the annihilation of the temple at Nanjiao. The third sound of the dragon horn reverberates spiritually, The deity generals, Wang and Yang, descend and arrive. The two deity generals have been summoned by the bright horn, To aid my spiritual powers for saving the good citizens. The fourth sound of the dragon horn reaches the oceans, The water soldiers and warriors I have now summoned. Queen of the dragon king’s palace, the Water Mother Goddess 水母娘, And dragon kings of the four seas, are all here to show their prowess. The fifth sound of the bright horn reaches the five directions, The five directions raise armies of the five camps. Five times five, twenty-five generals and soldiers have arrived, To pacify Nanjiao and protect the myriad people. The sixth sound of the bright horn reverberates spiritually, The deity, Prince Nazha 那吒 throws an embroidered ball. Holding the embroidered ball and spinning it in his hand, He scatters about the one million soldiers in the ball. The seventh sound of the bright horn reaches Gutian 古田, And Lady Chen 陈夫人 within her Temple of Linshui 临水殿.16 The Heaven-reaching Holy Mother descends from her high seat, To exterminate the demons and monsters and save the good citizens. The three disasters and eight calamities I now send away, The five plagues and ghost slaves I now exile abroad. The heretical demons, ghosts and sprites, I now send off, Evil spirits caused by harm and deaths, I now exorcize. Men and women are now cleansed, and all the households will have peace.

16. Lady Chen and Lady Linshui are in fact Chen Jinggu’s own name and title after her deification, respectively. Here, Chen Jinggu seems to be invoking the assistance of herself as a deity because this and the following songs are likely adopted from exorcist ritual songs used by priests of the Lüshan sect, of which Chen Jinggu is the presiding goddess.

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(Tune of Pacing the Dipper Dance 行罡调) Speaking about mountains and waters, speaking about Heaven and earth, Speaking about waters, lead to the exposition of the origins of the Foster Mother.17 Speaking of people, one speaks of those of great filial piety, The tales of the twenty-four filial sons will flourish perpetually.18 The Foster Mother’s native home was Jiangnan Ford 江南渡 at the County of Fuzhou, She was of the village of Lower Ford 下渡村, born of the Chen family. Her father was an elder surnamed Chen, from the Jiangnan region, Her mother was from the Ge 葛 clan, from the West River County 西河县. During the first year of the Dali 大历 reign,19 in the middle of the First Month, And at the hai 亥 hour,20 the Foster Mother was born. At one and two, she was ever so bright, At three and four, Nai was so intelligent. At five and six, she learned how to sew and embroider, At seven and eight, she prayed to Guanyin at the sutra halls. At nine and ten, she was able to read Buddhist sutras, At eleven and twelve, she went over to Mount Lü. A dragon princess personally came to take her there, And instantly she arrived into the midst of Mount Lü.

17. Foster Mother, that is, Chen Jinggu, is related to water since one of her deified appellations is Linshui, literally, “Bordering the Water.” 18. Stories concerning twenty-four legendary sons of phenomenal filial piety that have become household knowledge. 19. This would make it occur in the year AD 766, during the Tang dynasty. 20. Between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. The time of her birth is slightly different in “Biography of Da’nai Furen” in Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan. The latter locates the date of her birth as being during the same year, month, and date as those mentioned in this play. The hour of her birth, however, is given as the yin 寅 hour—between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. It appears these times are given to prove the historicity of her existence. Indeed, a stele set up in front of her temple in southern Taiwan that recounts her biography records the hour of her birth as during the “auspicious hour of chen 辰—between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. See Baptandier, 8 and 12.

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Appendix I The dragon princess came and showed her the way, And showed her into the gate of the great hall in Mount Lü. Men learning the spiritual arts are taught by men, Women learning the arts must acquire them through women. Jiulang 九郎 of Mount Lü, however, ascended the spiritual throne, And taught the Foster Mother the supernatural powers without any ado. First, he taught the Foster Mother to traverse the three worlds,21 Second, the ritual enacted to beget water to fight against drought. Third, he taught her to bring clouds to shield the sun, Fourth, to transform a one-thousand-year-old skeleton back to life. Fifth, to go to Yongzhou 雍州22 to get rid of the ghosts, Sixth, to exorcize evil and catch sprites and monsters. Seventh, to exterminate plagues and annihilate diseases, Eighth, to go through precipices and caves to slaughter snakes. Ninth, to prevent miscarriages and ensure safe births, Tenth, to turn Heaven and Earth topsy-turvy in order to cure the sick. After all ten powers were learned and mastered by the Foster Mother, She was sent back to her parents’ home in her native land. With bushels of hemp for oil lamps, we provide offerings of incense,23 All the households now worship the Goddess Foster Mother. A thousand places pray to her, she responds to the thousand, Ten thousand areas worship her, she is efficacious in ten thousand regions. If you ask for a boy, you will get a healthy, handsome boy, If you ask to preserve a girl, you will stay united with the girl. On my left, there is a dark blue dragon with Soldiers A and B, On my right, there is a white tiger with Soldiers C and D. In front of me, Scarlet Bird24 guards the gate of Heaven,

21. Heaven, earth, and the underworld. 22. One of the nine divisions of ancient China, comprising the territory lying west of the Yellow River and north of River Wei. 23. Foster Mother prefers offerings of incense, oil lamps, and candles rather than those of animal meat required by the spirits she defeated. 24. Scarlet Bird, zhuque 朱雀, is the name of a constellation in the southern sky.

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Behind me, Xuanwu 玄武25 protects the northern direction. On the back of the five dragons, I execute the rituals, Rolling over snakes in the midst of dark winds, I, Foster Mother, perform magic. With my first step, the sky becomes hazy and turns dark, With my second step, the hundred monsters are totally annihilated. With my third step, all the heretical sprites are now subdued, With my fourth step, the water of the Yellow River flows backward. With my fifth step, the tops of the five greatest mountains tumble, With my sixth step, the colorful snakes of the six caves are exterminated. With my seventh step, all the city gods preside over their temples, With my eighth step, I make a hexagram and the ghosts can’t come. With my ninth step, I perform the mantic-step ritual of the nine regions,26 The thousand evil sprites and hundred ghosts are subjugated by me. (Chen Jinggu blows the dragon horn. Wang Xian and Yang Tong fight with Demon Sea, Demon Pool and other monsters. Chen Jinggu exits. Wang Xian captures Demon Sea and they exit. Yang Tong captures Demon Pool and they exit. Wang Xian re-enters, captures the Water Tiger, and they exit. Yang Tong re-enters, captures the Water Snake, and they exit. Wang Xian re-enters, captures the Turtle Sprite, and they exit. Yang Tong re-enters, captures the Fish Sprite, and they exit. Wang Xian re-enters, captures the Water Buffalo Sprite, and they exit.) Boatman: (Enters.) Aiya! The thunders rumbled, and the wind and rain wreaked havoc at Nanjiaoyang. I saw on the sea a water tiger larger than a water buffalo, a water snake as wide as a barrel and a turtle as large as a big basin. Each and every one of the million demons was captured by the soldiers of Mount Lü. Then all of a sudden, the wind and waves subsided, and 25. Xuanwu is the deity associated with the north, represented by a black tortoise and snake. 26. During high antiquity, the legendary great Yü 禹 of the Xia dynasty was said to have divided China into nine regions. Here she most likely traced out the mantic steps of the stars of the Northern Dipper 北斗 constellation associated with the Mount Lü Sect.

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the sun and blue sky reappeared. She is not just anybody—she’s in fact a high priestess of Mount Lü. Come prostrate yourselves and thank her. Chen Jinggu: (Enters.) Did you see anything? Boatman: High priestess, please do not blame us lowly boatmen who were not able to recognize the might of Mount Tai 泰山. We saw the soldiers and warriors capture each and every one of the million monsters in the sea, and a water tiger, a water snake and a turtle. The wind and waves have now subsided. Chen Jinggu: Nanjiaoyang will be calm and peaceful from now on. There will not be any more monsters to create winds and waves and wreak havoc. Are you able to organize a ceremony of worship?27 Boatman: Yes, and I’d be happy to do it. Chen Jinggu: Get people to contribute silver and cash to build a temple, and have a statue made of the chief deity of Mount Lü. Henceforth, Nanjiaoyang will be renamed Beijiaoyang 北蛟洋. The wind and waves should be calm from now on. If the wind and waves should ever cause any problems, just use ingots, incense, and candles to worship and pray to the god at the temple from the prow of your boat and you will be safe. You don’t need to offer pig’s head and goose to the river again. Boatman: Certainly, I will do everything as you have instructed. Now that the wind and waves have subsided, let’s get the boat moving! (They exit.)

End of scene

27. The term used here is zuoyuanshou 做缘首, which refers to the main organizer of popular religious activities. The yuanshou participates in the rituals performed by shamanic priests and is usually a highly respected local citizen with good luck, healthy parents and spouse, and at least one son and one daughter.

Appendix II

Chen Jinggu Leads an Army to Pacify the Barbarians

Biography of the Foster Mother 奶娘传: A Marionette Play from Siping 四平 in Shouning 寿宁, Fujian Volume 3: Scene 2 “Chen Jinggu Leads an Army to Pacify the Barbarians”1

Dramatis personae (in order of appearance) Fu Xiang 富祥: a high minister Wang Ji 王纪: Chen Jinggu’s husband; an official Chen Jinggu: protagonist of the play Soldiers A & B Song Taigui 宋太贵: mayor of the city under siege Yang Guangzhi 杨广智: military advisor of a barbarian rebel army Water Buffalo and Cattle Tiger Hornet Falcon Fu Xiang: (Enters and recites.)

1. Ye Mingsheng, ed., Fujian Shouning Siping kuileixi Nai’niang zhuan, 125–132.

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Appendix II Worried about national problems, I am filled with anxiety day and night. (Speaks.) I am Fu Xiang. (Wang Ji and Chen Jinggu enter.)

Wang Ji: I prostrate myself to the Lord Minister. Fu Xiang: So, Wang Ji, you’ve arrived. Wang Ji: Yes, I’ve arrived. Fu Xiang: Who is that behind you? Wang Ji: It’s my wife. Fu Xiang: Why did you bring her? Wang Ji: I brought her to pacify the barbarians. Fu Xiang: Ai! You beast! (Sings.) (To the tune of Rapid Crescendo 紧叠) The little beast is daring enough to hire Heaven! Haiya, haiya! You, you, you are here under imperial decree, How dare you bring your wife here with you? You bear no respect for the laws of the imperial court I will fire you from your post and relieve you of your job, Fire you from your post and relieve you of your job— And reduce you to the status of a commoner. I will fire you from your post and relieve you of your job! (Angrily.) Woo! Wang Ji: (Sings.) (To the tune of the Elaboration Music 诉牌) Please cease your anger, dear Lord Minister, Please case your anger, and hear your student’s explanation. My dear Lord Minister, ah! The bandit Yang Guangzhi employs the sorcery of the sect of Mount Mao 茆山, But my wife performs the upright spiritual powers of the sect of Mount Lü. She can use the orthodox to defeat the heretical and gain victory. My dear Lord Minister, ah!

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My wife is none other than the Chen Jinggu who pacified Nanjiaoyang. Having knowledge of the military texts, she is highly skilled in the orthodox spiritual arts. Together we will embark on a military expedition to preserve the laws of the court, We will embark on a military expedition to preserve the laws of the court. Fu Xiang: Oh, so Chen Jinggu is your wife? Chen Jinggu: Yes, she is. Fu Xiang: I was wrong in blaming you. Chen Jinggu: Thank you, Lord Minister. Fu Xiang: Chen Jinggu—I hereby ordain that you be named the Great Barbarian-Pacifying Marshal 平蛮大元帅.2 Wang Ji will be in charge of the camps, the horses, and provisions. Here is a marshal flag, a marshal seal, and a treasured sword for you. You will receive further awards and entitlements after you pacify Mount Nine Dragons 九龙山. Go ahead with the army. Chen Jinggu: Thank you, Lord Minister. (She receives the marshal flag, seal and sword.) The three armies—await my orders at the gate of my military tent. (Wang Ji and Chen Jinggu exit; Fu Xiang follows.) Soldier A: (Enters and recites.) During times of peace, civil ministers are valued. Soldier B: (Enters and recites.) During times of turmoil, military generals gain strength. Soldier A: We are soldiers from the Pumpkin Stockade 南瓜寨. Our Lady is surnamed Chen. She learned the arts of Mount Lü to preserve the state and aid the people. She now has the marshal’s seal to invade Mount Nine Dragons. She’ll win for sure. 2. Independent, and “bandit” groups not under the control of the imperial, central government are frequently designated as barbarians in military romances.

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Soldier B: Our lord is truly an upright official. He knows fully well the hardships of the people. During times of peace, he let us go home to plant our rice paddies. Now that the imperial decree has arrived, summoning the thirty-six armies of the Pumpkin Stockade to join the rescue mission, we came here immediately. Soldier A: When my old lady heard that I was going on a military expedition today, she took a glass of wine, knelt before me, and said, “Ah, my dear husband, ah! Let’s drink this parting wine with which I wish you an immediate success. Ah, my dear husband!” Soldier B: My old lady also knew that I was going on the military expedition today. Before dawn, she wept while still lying in the bed and said, “Good men don’t become soldiers. What bad luck that you can’t do anything else! If something goes wrong during combat, who am I going to depend on? What a short-lived scum!” She wouldn’t get out of bed, and I had to eat a bowl of leftover rice before I came. Soldier A: What a bummer—how about your old lady? Soldier C: Leave the rubbish. Let’s ask the Lady Marshal to come out. Soldier A: Marshal—the Lord requests your presence. (Wang Ji and Chen Jinggu enter.) Chen Jinggu: (Recites.) The war drums roll in front of my military tent, I ascend the platform as Marshal and inspect the three armies. With one hand, I press the seal of my office to my chest, With the other hand, I raise the flag of my post. (Speaks.) I, the Marshal, am Chen Jinggu. I have received an imperial decree to pacify the barbarians and conquer Mount Nine Dragons. Soldiers! Soldiers A & B: Present! Chen Jinggu: You will be the vanguard—create paths when you come upon mountains and build bridges when you come across rivers. Soldiers A & B: We accept the command! Chen Jinggu: Wang Ji—you will be in charge of supplying provisions for the camps and taking care of the horses. Warriors and soldiers! (Everyone responds, “Yes.”) We will unite as one to conquer Mount Nine Dragons. Let’s go to the city of Shanghang 上杭 first. Fire the cannon and march!

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(She exits with everyone. The two armies enter and fight. The rebel soldiers withdraw; Chen Jinggu leads the imperial army which chases after the rebels.) Soldier: (Enters) I report to the Mayor—the imperial army has arrived! Song Taigui: (Enters.) Open the city gates and welcome them! The three armies—join them and fight! (The two sides combat. The rebel army is defeated and chased offstage.) Barbarian Soldiers: (Enter.) We report—please come here quickly, Lord Military Advisor! Yang Guangzhi: (Enters.) Soldiers, why are you so flustered? Barbarian Soldiers: We are in trouble. You said that the imperial court didn’t have any capable warriors. But now they have a female shaman as their Marshal, and she is really amazing. She brought a rescue force and provisions, and fought us until we dropped like fallen flowers on flowing water. She even wants to capture you! Yang Guangzhi: Ai ya ya! So a female shaman really skilled at fighting has arrived? (Thinks.) Ah, I’ve got it! I’ll create a Fierce Tiger Formation 猛虎 阵 to kill them all. Soldiers! Go herd as many cattle and water buffaloes as possible for me to use. (Exits.) Barbarian Soldiers: Ai! There are lots of cattle at the village in the mountain and lots of water buffaloes by the creek. Let’s go herd them here. (They exit and re-enter.) Please come here quickly, Lord Military Advisor! We’ve brought the cattle and water buffaloes. Yang Guangzhi: (Enters.) You can leave for now. (The soldiers exit. Yang performs a ritual to transform the cattle and water buffaloes into tigers.) Ah! Cattle and water buffaloes! Let me paste a talisman on the head of each one. A one, a two, a three! Change to fierce tigers to devour the troops of the imperial court! Efficacious, efficacious in Heaven! Efficacious, efficacious on earth! Let the fierce yellow striped tigers descend! (Tigers appear and exit with Yang. Soldiers A & B enter.) Soldier A: (Recites.) If the wife is virtuous, the husband is free from calamities. Soldier B: (Recites.) If the official is upright, the people will naturally be at peace.

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Soldier A: Isn’t it so! Just look at how our lord is a bookworm ever so scared of fighting. He even cried when fighting was mentioned! But look at how our lady is good at both the literary and military arts. She ascended the platform and was ordained the Marshal; and she is skilled in all the military strategies and weapons. Soldier B: Our lady has mastered the magical arts of Mount Lü, but she also knows the military arts! Soldier A: Combining the magical arts of Mount Lü with the military arts, she defeated the barbarians like flowers dropping into flowing water—they were all abandoning their armor and throwing away their helmets! Now she has ordered us to capture Yang Guangzhi. Let’s charge bravely! (The tigers enter.) Soldier B: Aiya! Oh no! Tigers are attacking us! Soldier A: Jump over them! Jump hard! Soldier B: Duck underneath! Lower your head! Soldier A: Jump over them! Soldier B: Duck! Don’t jump! Soldier A: Aren’t you an idiot? One escapes from bears, runs from tigers, and ducks to avoid being stung by bees. If you duck and not jump when a tiger attacks, you’ll be killed by the tiger! What an idiot! Soldier B: I duck underneath so that my head won’t be bitten off by the tiger. Soldier A: If you can’t fight a tiger when it charges at you, you’ll have to jump upward, or climb up a stake. Soldier B: This is not good at all. This sudden appearance of fierce tigers means trouble. Maybe the State is fated to lose? Soldier A: It won’t lose. Let’s tell our Lady about it. We report—our Lady, the army is unable to advance. A group of fierce tigers suddenly appeared to help the enemy. We are unable to advance. What shall we do? Chen Jinggu: (Answers offstage.) Do not fear, my soldiers. I observed everything from the city tower. Those were not fierce tigers. They were transformed from cattle and water buffaloes through sorcery by that bandit of Mount Mao, Yang Guangzhi. Soldier A: Ah! I see! (Toward Soldier B.) What an idiot you must be! Your family has been tending cattle and water buffaloes for us for three generations and you couldn’t even recognize them! Soldier B: So they were transformed from cattle and water buffaloes? Ask our Lady if there’s a way to break the talisman? Soldier A: Dear Lady—is there a way to break the talisman?

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Chen Jinggu: (Answers offstage.) There is a way to break it. It’s actually quite easy—not difficult at all. Just paste a piece of paper with the Qilin Talisman 麒麟符 and a piece of paper with the Lion Talisman 狮子符 onto the tip of a bamboo pole. Perform the proper ritual incantations3 three times, and the cattle and water buffaloes will transform back to their original forms. Keep the good ones for ploughing and take the lesser ones to the camp to be slaughtered for food. Soldier B: I understand. Oh, I’m so happy—we’ll have beef to eat! (He swallows.) Woo-gulp-gulp-gulp. Soldier A: Are you eating? Soldier B: I’m imagining eating. Our Lady says the tigers will transform back to cattle and water buffaloes by pasting Qilin and Lion talismans on the tips of bamboo poles and perform the proper incantations three times. The good ones we keep for ploughing—the lesser ones we can take to the camp for food. I started to chew just from thinking of the beef. Soldier A: People call me the beef coffin. Whether they are good or rotten, I eat them all. I’ll build a shrine right in front of a cattle pen. I don’t need any dishes to go with my rice if I just get to smell cattle shit. Soldier B: If you like beef, then go get the talismans. (They exit. The tigers enter. Soldiers A & B re-enter with the talismans.) Soldier A & B: We send off the efficacious talismans once, twice, three times! (The tigers exit and re-enter as cattle and water buffaloes.) Soldier A: This is a good one—let me take it away. Soldier B: This one is not so good. We’ll have beef to eat! (They exit with the cattle and water buffaloes.) Barbarian Soldier: (Enters.) I report to my Lord, the Military Advisor. The Fierce Tiger Formation has been broken. They’re coming to capture you. Run away quickly! Yang Guangzhi: (Enters.) Ai! She’s really something else! Now that she has broken my Fierce Tiger Formation, let me create the Hornet Formation. Bring me lots of husks and long grained rice.

3. This ritual, ji 祭, which usually refers to making offerings, here refers to the performance of a “sending-off” ritual that makes talismans and magical weapons efficacious. The ritual usually involves the incantation of a specific spell, and usually also of the configuring of specific mudras with the fingers.

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Barbarian Soldier: I understand. (Exits and re-enters.) We’ve brought two piculs4 of husks and several piculs of long-grained rice. Here they are. Yang Guangzhi: Good. You can withdraw. Barbarian Soldier: Yes. (Exits.) Yang Guangzhi: Let me paste this efficacious talisman. (Recites.) Efficacious, efficacious in Heaven; Efficacious, efficacious on earth. Yellow hornets will now appear To string the troops without stopping. (Hornets fly on stage.) (Speaks.) Fly, fly, fly! (Exits.) Soldier B: (Enters.) That beef was so good! Soldier A: (Enters.) We’ll capture Yang Guangzhi today. (The hornets enter, flying.) Soldier B: Aiya! These hornets will sting us to death! Quickly, jump! Soldier A: Buzz, buzz, buzz! Duck, quickly! Soldier B: Jump, jump! Soldier A: What an idiot! When you jump your head raises and the hornets will get you for sure. Duck so that they can’t get you. Don’t you know that you should run when encountering a tiger and duck when you run into hornets? Soldier B: Didn’t you tell me to jump yesterday? Soldier A: They were tigers yesterday. Soldier B: This is very bad. They’ve got hornets aiding them. Let’s report to our Lady right away! Soldier A: I report—(toward the back stage.) Our Lady, the Marshal—they’ve got hornets aiding them. We can’t advance. Chen Jinggu: (Enters.) My soldiers—they’re not real hornets. I saw them with my spiritual eyes from the city tower. They were transformed by Yang Guangzhi from husks and long-grained rice through sorcery. Soldier A: How can we break the talisman? Chen Jinggu: Buy me a picul of soybeans. I’ll transform them into falcons to eat the hornets. I will carry a hornet nest on the city tower to collect the 4. A picul consists of either 100 catties (133.3 pounds) or 120 catties.

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hornets that are chased by the falcons. We will keep the long-grained rice as provision for our camp. Soldier A: I understand. (Chen Jinggu exits.) You idiot! Your family has been helping us with autumn harvests and guarding the granary for three generations. Your grandma helped with washing our clothes. When your Ma brought you over, you used to cry for food all day. We fed you three meals a day and got you to watch for sparrows at the grain-drying field. You let the chickens eat the grains. So we asked you to watch for the chickens, and you let the sparrows eat the grains. You couldn’t even do that properly—how could one expect you to recognize long-grained rice? Soldier B: You are certainly full of it. My family has been guarding your granary for three generations. Look at how much extra grain you’ve saved over the past few years. Soldier A: We’ve had to buy grain every year to make do. Soldier B: Our Lady said we need soybeans to break the talisman of Mount Mao. Where are we going to get them? Soldier A: Go buy them at Zhenghe 政和.5 Soldier B: Let’s go get the soybeans! (They exit.) Barbarian Soldier: (Enters.) I report—we’re in trouble, Lord Military Advisor! Yang Guangzhi: What’s the trouble, Soldier? Barbarian Soldier: The Hornet Formation has been broken. The army of the imperial army is on its way to capture you! Yang Guangzhi: Pass down my order—the entire army should retreat back to Mount Nine Dragons. Barbarian Soldier: The Lord Military Advisor has given an order—the entire army should return to Mount Nine Dragons. (Exits.) Yang Guangzhi: Aiya! Oh no! (Sings.) (To the tune of the Clear Water Command 清水令) My art is not as good as her art, What should I do now that I’ve exhausted my store of black magic and am defeated? 5. According to Ye Mingsheng’s footnote, this is a neighboring county of Shouning, where this play was written.

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Appendix II Let me bite my middle finger, (Speaks.) Aiya! (Sings.) The blood from my finger is turning into black clouds, I’ll go into the air and save my life there. (The marionette puppet of Yang is hung from the top of the stage. Soldiers A & B enter.)

Soldier B: Our Lady’s powers are boundless. She can subdue both humans and sprites. Soldier A: Yes, she’s so powerful that she can subdue both humans and sprites. The bandit, Yang Guangzhi, created military formations using black magic. She broke all of his talismans, but he was unable to figure out any of her talismans. Today, our big army has come to capture Yang Guangzhi. Soldier B: Yang Guangzhi was patrolling his camps yesterday. How come he has disappeared today? Soldier A: Yes, he has disappeared. Our Lady—please come here. Chen Jinggu: (Enters.) What do you want, Soldiers? Soldier A: Yang Guangzhi has disappeared today. Chen Jinggu: Let me see with my spiritual eyes. Yes, I see him. That disciple of the Mao Sect is tricky. He had his army retreat to Mount Nine Dragons to mislead me. And then he bit his middle finger so that the blood could transform into a black cloud for him to hide behind. Let me bite my middle finger as well. I will transform my blood into red arrows to shoot him down. (Sings.) (The Foster Mother Incantation 奶娘赞.)6 Ordained by imperial decree as Empress Dowager Lady Chen 太后 陈夫人, I protect boys and rear girls, as well as all human beings.7 Ordained by imperial decree as the Heaven Born Holy Mother 圣 母生天, I was additionally titled as the Great Yin 太阴8 of Guangchao 广朝. 6. This is a ritual chant. 7. When this recitation is chanted in rituals by an officiating Daoist-shaman priest, the implication of the subject for this and the following lines would be “she” rather than “I.”

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At the tops of Three Mountains 三山, I subdued evil sprites and demons, Appearing among mortals, I saved and showed the path to human beings. On my side, I have six elder sisters and nine younger sisters,9 Below my feet, I have a picked troop of one hundred million. On the water, my sunny sails reach throughout the world, And I killed at and destroyed the gates of five temples at Nanjiao. At the Three Mountains of Gutian County 古田县, I performed miracles, My cauldron of incense has been transmitted to ten thousand households. If you have an emergency, seek after the Foster Mother for assistance, You can also pray for favors and the Foster Mother will grant them. The state-preserving Foster Mother hereupon descends personally, Soaring through clouds, riding on a crane, she will arrive tonight. (Yang Guangzhi falls from the cloud. The soldiers move forward and catch him.) Yang Guangzhi: Aiya! Troops of the imperial army—don’t capture me! I have a son by the name of Yang Tong 杨通. He’ll exact revenge when he grows up. Chen Jinggu: How dare you, you bandit! You’ve raised a rebellion against the imperial court during time of peace. And instead of surrendering, you dare to talk about revenge. Soldiers! Escort him to the imperial court to be tried there. Soldier B: I receive the order! (He escorts Yang offstage.) Barbarian Soldier: (Enters.) The chief of Mount Nine Dragons has decided to surrender, and I’ve been ordered to deliver the letter of surrender. I report—I, a barbarian soldier, request an audience. Soldier A: What are you here for? Barbarian Soldier: I request an audience with the Marshal.

8. The temple dedicated to Chen Jinggu in Flushing, New York, is called the Taiyingong 太阴 宫, the Taiyin Temple. 9. These most likely refer to her adopted sisters within her religious pantheon.

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Soldier A: I report to our Lady—a barbarian soldier from Mount Nine Dragons requests an audience. Chen Jinggu: Tell him to come in. Soldier A: Barbarian Soldier, you can come in. Barbarian Soldier: I prostrate myself to the Marshal. Chen Jinggu: What are you here for? Barbarian Soldier: I prostrate myself and report to the Marshal—Niu Xiong 牛雄 of Mount Nine Dragons sends a letter of surrender. I present his letter and a map of the mountain. Please look at them, Marshal. Chen Jinggu: Let me take a look. (Music representing reading of the letter.) I accept the surrender. He only needs to pay indemnity for the losses. Barbarian messenger, you can go back. Barbarian Soldier: Thank you, great Marshal! (Exits.) Chen Jinggu: Soldiers, Mount Nine Dragons has surrendered. We will return victorious. Report to the Lord Minister for rewards. Gather the troops to return to the imperial court. Soldier A: I receive the order. Beat the drum to indicate triumph and return to the court. (They exit.) Fu Xiang: (Enters and recites.) The army returns from the borderlands triumphant, Let me memorialize and make a report to His Majesty. (He kneels.) I, the minister Fu Xiang prostrate myself to memorialize to Your Majesty. (Offstage: “Present your memorial, Minister Fu.”) Allow me to memorialize. (Music representing recitation of the memorial. Offstage the Emperor says: “Chen Jinggu is indeed a woman of overwhelming powers. She has attained great merit by subjugating Mount Nine Dragons and returning victorious. We issue an edit: We award Chen Jinggu the title of Lady Gracious Administration 淑政夫人. We bestow upon Wang Ji a raise of three grades in rank. The Pumpkin Stockade will be recognized as the County of Luoyuan 罗源县10 with Wang Ji as its magistrate. Song Taigui’s position will be reinstated. The flag-bearing soldiers will be given

10. It is now an administrative unit rather than a stockade that belonged to a bandit chieftain.

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the post of constables. Wang Ji’s mother will be endowed with the title of Lady Grand Dame. Yang Guangzhi should be beheaded as befitting his crime. Niu Xiong has surrendered to the imperial court. He will pay tribute and present grains to us annually. End of edict.”) Thank you, Your Majesty! (Exits.)

End of scene

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