The Lady of Linshui: A Chinese Female Cult 9781503620575

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The Lady of Linshui

ARC Asian R e l i g i o n s & C u l t u r e s Edited by Carl Bielefeldt Ber nard Faure

Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism Fabio Rambelli 2008

Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority from The Chronicles of Japan to The Tale of the Heike David T. Bialock 2007

Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China Fabrizio Pregadio 2006

Chinese Poetry and Prophecy: The Written Oracle in East Asia Michel Strickmann Edited by Bernard Faure 2005

Chinese Magical Medicine Michel Strickmann Edited by Bernard Faure 2002

Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context Edited by Robert H. Sharf and Elizabeth Horton Sharf 2001

Brigitte Baptandier tran slated by k ristin ingrid fryklund

The Lady of Linshui A Chinese Female Cult

Stanford Universit y Press Stanford, Califor nia

Stanford University Press Stanford, California English translation © 2008 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. The Lady of Linshui was originally published in French in 1988 under the title La Dame-dubord-de-l’eau by Brigitte Berthier © 1988, Société d’ethnologie. Translator’s note and author’s additional material © 2008 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. This book has been published with the assistance of the Dean of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baptandier, Brigitte. [Dame-du-bord-de-l’eau. English] The Lady of Linshui : a Chinese female cult / Brigitte Baptandier ; translated by Kristin Ingrid Fryklund. p. cm. — (Asian religions & cultures) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-8047-4666-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Goddesses—China. 2. Women and religion—China. I. Title. BL1812.G63B3613 2008 299.5'142114—dc22 2007049941 Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/14.5 Sabon

c onten ts

List of Illustrations Preface

vii

ix

Translator’s Note

xiii

Introduction

1

1. Sexual Categories

43

2. The Goddess of Pregnancy Has an Abortion and Returns to Mt. Lü

65

3. The Bridge of a Hundred Flowers

85

4. Cinnabar Cloud Monkey

105

5. The Thirty-six Pojie

123

6. The God of the Soil and the Lady of the Birth Register

142

7. Women and the Temple: The “Celestial Flower”

166

8. Children and the Temple: The Passes (guan)

196

9. Rituals of the Flowers and Passes

222

10. Chen Jinggu’s Medium Conclusion Notes

259

265

Bibliography Index 349

242

321

l i s t o f illu str atio n s

I.1

Chen Jinggu dancing for rain, Baihe, Taiwan

13

I.2

Mount Lü ritual master, Tainan

32

I.3

Linshui Temple main gate, Daqiao

37

I.4

Linshui Temple ritual theater stage, Daqiao

38

I.5

The Three Ladies with the Qilin, Linshui Temple, Daqiao

39

I.6

Great Ritual Academy of Mount Lü, Longtan jiao, Fuzhou

40

1.1

Luoyang Bridge

44

1.2

Chen Jinggu meets Tigress Lady Jiang

47

1.3

Chen Jinggu drives out the White Snake

51

1.4

Chen Jinggu revives Liu Qi

52

1.5

Ancestral temple of Liu Qi, Zhongcun, Daqiao

56

2.1

Ancestral temple of Empress Chen of Linshui, Tating, Fuzhou

67

2.2

Chen Jinggu cuts off a piece of her flesh to heal her parents

71

2.3

Chen Jinggu withdraws to Linshui

74

2.4

Mount Lü ritual painting: Ritual for rain

78

3.1

Chen Jinggu meets the Ravine Demon

99

3.2

Mount Lü ritual painting: Lin Jiuniang captures the Ravine Demon

101

3.3

Chen Jinggu battles the Spider Demon

102

4.1

Great Sage Equal to Heaven and Journey to the West characters, Banling, Fujian

107

viii

Illustrations

4.2

Cinnabar Cloud cultivates the Dao

109

4.3

The Rock-Press Women

112

4.4

Ritual masters writing ritual requests, Banling, Fujian

120

5.1

Generals of the Five Directions, Tating, Fuzhou

136

5.2

The siege of Fuzhou led by Wang Jitu

137

5.3

Pojie, Linshui Temple, Daqiao

140

7.1

The flower palanquin with Huagong and Huapo, Tainan

185

7.2

Linshui Temple, Tainan

193

9.1

Mount Lü ritual master with silver ritual horn, Daqiao

224

9.2

Mount Lü ritual master tracing talismans, Daqiao

225

9.3

Children’s substitutes, ritual bows, and soul receptacle, Daqiao

228

9.4

Crossing the pass, Linshui Temple, Tainan

236

9.5

Crossing the pass, Ritual Master Ma, Daqiao

237

9.6

Divination with an egg, Daqiao

239

9.7

Beidou bushel with children’s substitutes and souls, Daqiao

240

p r efac e

La Dame-du-bord-de-l’eau was published in 1988 by the Society of Ethnology, in Nanterre. It grew out of my doctoral dissertation, which I defended in 1983. The book consisted of two parts: an analysis of the legends of the goddess Chen Jinggu, the Lady of Linshui, through the “novel” (xiaoshuo) Linshui pingyao zhuan, and an ethnological presentation of my work in the field in Taiwan in 1979–80. There I “explored” the collection of legends about Chen Jinggu by following the clues presented by the first temple to Chen Jinggu on the island, in Tainan. The divinities there gave me a way to approach the novel: Chen Jinggu and her ritual sisters Lin Jiuniang and Li Sanniang, Zhusheng Niangniang, Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, the Ladies of the thirty-six palaces of the king of Min, the god of the soil, and the guardians of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, over which the goddess rules. The first two chapters of that book analyzed the episodes that established the cult: the legend of Luoyang Bridge, the relation to Guanyin, and the division of the sexual categories that could be inferred from them, followed by the crucial episode of Chen Jinggu performing the ritual of “liberation from the womb” (tuotai). The second part presented the temple in Tainan. I discussed the principal rituals performed on behalf of women and children as I observed them there, and described the procedures of the “ritual masters” (fashi), “Red Head masters” (Hongtou) of the Mount Lü sect, the ritual tradition of which Chen Jinggu is the master. The final chapter was an encounter with the goddess through her medium in Tainan, Xie Fuzhu, who allowed me to observe her practice during my stay there. An inquiry into representations of the feminine as they appeared in this local cult, which arose in the Tang dynasty and was canonized in the Song, and which is still ix

x

Preface

very active today, guided this monograph. For this stage of my research, I want to express my thanks to K. Schipper, who, understanding the object of my thinking, opened before me this road. Academia Sinica of Taiwan made it possible for me spend a year in Tainan (1980) by inviting me as a Visiting Research Scholar. A “Cultural Regions” grant from the Ministry of Universities, in Paris, provided the means. Since 1986, as a researcher at the CNRS, in the Laboratory of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology (Université de Paris X, Nanterre), I have continued my field research in Fujian, the former country of Min, the place of origin of the cult of the Lady of Linshui and of the local tradition of the Mount Lü sect (Lü Shan pai). The places that the legends present are still identifiable there today, and the divine figures of the legends still receive offerings there. The mother temple, at Daqiao (in Gutian district in the north of the province), the temple in Fuzhou, and the temples in each district and village, were like so many open books recounting the myths of the kingdom of Min. The different layers of the cult and its relations to other local cults could be clearly read there. Observing the resurgence of the cults, and the unceasing rebuilding of temples that accompanied this resurgence, enabled me to analyze the “reinvention” of this ancient tradition, the “re-enchantment” carried out by its faithful in the context of the economic upheaval of modern China. The masters of the Mount Lü sect are also there and their practice is a choice site for understanding how a local ritual tradition develops and enriches itself thanks to its numerous borrowings over the centuries. In Fujian I met other mediums and the faithful of this cult, both men and women, who taught me a great deal. The republication of the Mindu bieji enabled me to re-situate the myths of Chen Jinggu in the global context of the region. The rehabilitation of the cult by the Chinese authorities and the research carried out by the Bureaus of Culture and Religion, which gave rise to two conferences (1993, 2003) and to publications with which I was associated, gave me an overview of the ensemble. I am indebted to Xu Gongsheng, the late Chen Zenghui, and Lin Jinshui, professors at the Higher Normal College in Fujian, for their hospitality in Fuzhou. Ma Xisha and Han Bingfang, professors at the Institute for Research into World Religions (Shijie zongjiao yanjiu suo) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan), in Beijing, likewise generously supported me. I participated in the Chinese Popular Culture Project organized at the University of California at Berkeley, in 1989, by David Johnson on the theme of Rituals and Scriptures, as did Michel Strickmann, whose subse-

Preface

xi

quent death represents the loss of a great scholar and an original thinker. There, the enlightening views of Kenneth Dean, Gary Seaman, and Allen Chun, as well as those of Edward Davis and Bernard Faure, encouraged me to pursue this exploration. On that occasion, I had the chance to meet Phyllis Brooks and the late Edward Schafer, whose works on the kingdom of Min and on the Tang dynasty were particularly valuable to me. Later, my research in the field resulted in articles on rituals, talismanic writing, dreams as divinatory practice, and on the trance understood as a development of the self. I am very grateful to Philip Clart, Alison Marshall, Meir Shahar, and Robert Weller for sharing with me their own research and publications. I was considering publishing an annotated translation of the Linshui pingyao zhuan to make available this wealth of local information, and thinking of writing another work on this cult, from the time of its inception up to the present day. Then, in 2003, Bernard Faure, Kristin Ingrid Fryklund, and Mark Edward Lewis suggested translating La Dame-du-bord-de-l’eau for Stanford University Press. It seemed to me a shame to republish the same work without incorporating some of the research I had carried out in the meantime. But the problem was how to rework the old manuscript without turning it into another book; it was a challenge, but also an unexpected opportunity. I therefore decided to keep the outline and structure of the earlier work as I had conceived it at the time, and incorporate the research I had carried out in Fujian. The ideas gleaned over the years in the course of reading numerous works published since that time on other local cults, other divinities, and immortals (U. A. Cedzich, K. Dean, C. Despeux, Hsü Xiaowang, P. Katz, Lin Guoping, S. Sangren, Ye Mingsheng, Yü Chun-fang), on the period from the Tang to the Song (E. Davis, P. Ebrey, P. Gregory), on certain aspects of Daoism (J. Boltz, R. Hymes, D. Overmyer), on Buddhism (B. Faure, M. Strickmann), on mediums (P. Clart), on therapeutic traditions and medicine (C. Furth, E. Hsü), on pilgrimages (S. Naquin), on women, children, and gender studies (A. Behnke-Kinney, F. Bray, V. Caas, F. Héritier, A. Waltner) were a great help to me in this undertaking. It is of course impossible to mention all those to whom I am indebted for their work and publications. At the same time, my institutional affiliation with a laboratory of ethnology that takes a strictly comparative scientific approach privileging work in the field also influenced my work. With the patience of Kristin Ingrid Fryklund and Mark Edward Lewis I thus rewrote the work chapter by chapter. Consequently, The Lady of

xii

Preface

Linshui is not, strictly speaking, a translation of La Dame-du-bord-del’eau. Nor is it an entirely new book, either: the chapters have the same titles and the structure is the same. It is the same work, transformed from the inside out. I especially want to thank Kristin Ingrid Fryklund for her translation. She captured the tone of the manuscript while carefully preserving the meaning. It was a pleasure to work with her. I am also grateful to Mark Edward Lewis for reading through the manuscript and for his many suggestions. I am indebted to Bernard Faure and Carl Bielefeldt for including this book in the series Asian Religions and Cultures. My first contact with Stanford University Press was with Muriel Bell. I want to thank Joa Suarez and Carolyn Brown for their efficiency and kindness, and Richard Gunde for meticulously going over the manuscript. I, of course, am solely responsible for the errors that remain.

t r a nslato r ’s n o te

I would like to thank Brigitte Baptandier for all of her help in preparing this translation. She sent me the revised chapters one by one as she completed them, and verified the accuracy of the English text. Where necessary she suggested corrections. It was a pleasure to work closely with her. I would also like to thank my husband, Mark Edward Lewis, who first brought this book to my attention. He regularly taught a series of courses on Chinese religion at Cambridge University, and wanted to use La Dame-du-bordde-l’eau for the course on women in Chinese religion. The book was particularly important because of its unique focus on the female body and the physical aspects of childbirth, abortion, and childhood diseases. Since it was unavailable in English, he suggested I translate it. When I read the book, it explained rituals that I myself had observed in Taiwan in the 1970s and attitudes of my Chinese women friends toward health, pregnancy, and motherhood. I consequently found it fascinating and was eager to translate it. I would like to thank Mark Edward Lewis for reading the translation with the revised French chapters in hand; he corrected many errors and suggested improvements. In the end, the translation is even more valuable since it incorporates the fruits of Professor Baptandier’s research in the years since the publication of La Dame-du-bord-de-l’eau. We hope that students of Chinese religion and gender studies will find it useful. K. I. F.

xiii

The Lady of Linshui

i n troduc tion

The subject of this study is the legend and cult of Chen Jinggu, the Lady of Linshui (Linshui Furen). Chen Jinggu is the protector of women and children, or, more precisely, of pregnancy and childhood, defined as the time between the moment of conception and adulthood. In the mainland province of Fujian as well as in Taiwan, she is also the˝21 master of the ritual line of the Three Ladies (Sannai), which in the twelfth century became the Pure and Perspicacious Tradition of the Three Ladies of Mount Lü (Jingming Lü Shan Sannai pai) (see Chen Yi, 1993: 137). And finally, she is the inspiration behind several spirit medium cults. It was a long journey that led me to Chen Jinggu and allowed me to discover her world, which, at the very beginning, seemed to hold no surprises beyond simple fertility rites, but which little by little was revealed to be the expression of an elaborate meditation on the sexual categories, and, at the same time, a ritual tradition of exorcism and treatment imbued with a syncretism representative of the era in which it developed. My first idea for this work was to show the discourse applied to the feminine, to ask what it means symbolically “to be a woman” in China, in order to illuminate the practices that characterize the division of the sexes. This procedure was made relevant by the fact that the religious history in 1

2

Introduction

the strict sense called “Chinese,” that of Daoism and the popular religion that is a manifestation of it, revolves around the pivotal idea that is none other than the search for the feminine.1 From then on, I contemplated different approaches. In the field of gender studies a number of works of history and anthropology constitute very valuable contributions on the place of women and their role in Chinese societies of different periods. But for me a “link” was missing between the sociological materials collected from women in the field and the feminine cosmogony emanating from the myths handed down through the texts. At the same time, the tradition of internal alchemy provided a possible field of study as a metaphoric discourse on the genders and the feminine. A number of scholars have taken this route. Works on female alchemy and studies of medicine particularly interested me. Such was not my path, however, because as an ethnologist I wanted to find a way to combine research on the texts with work on the ground. The tradition of the Celestial Masters of the Zhengyi ritual line combines Daoist procedure and liturgical tradition. It is active today. However, although we cannot deny the important presence at its center of women, who have occupied the highest ranks, it nevertheless seems to be the expression of a male point of view on this journey “in reverse” (ni) appropriated by the Daoists (Schipper, 1982b: 83). In fact, in the liturgical organization of the country, it was principally a matter of first of all allowing the local elite of the village or district to be recognized as such alongside the imperial administration.2 It is thus truly a question of a society of men. The proof of this is the disappearance today of parity between men and women in the performance of ritual, due to the masculine organization of society. As K. M. Schipper emphasizes: “In the Middle Ages, the performance of ritual called for a parity of men and women, and the wives of dignitaries were of the same religious rank as their husbands. . . . The disappearance of lay female Daoshi, Master of the Dao, is quite simply due to the evolution of a modern society that imposes a masculine presence in transactions with the heads of communities and guilds” (Schipper, 1982b: 83). That this community, through the Daoist religious act, seeks the feminine while basing itself on a past of faithfully transmitted texts strictly situates it on the symbolic level: Laozi was not a woman, and it is due to this fact that in the myth the gestation of his own self, the world, becomes meaningful. Even more revealing, therefore, is the fact that liturgical duties, and therefore sacred texts, originally could be handed down in the maternal

Introduction

3

line as well as the paternal (Schipper, 1982b: 83). However, in the transmission of the writings, this inheritance of the “bones,” as they are called, the “original body,” lost its integrity; only the masculine part involved in the conception remained.3 This also explains the custom of sacrificing texts and the rejection of bloody sacrifices by this tradition.4 My task, starting from this point, was to rediscover “upstream” this “body,” its origin. The cult of Chen Jinggu and the ritual tradition of the Three Ladies (Sannai) offered me this alternative. It is not that we find there, in reality, a “more feminine” society or a system of thought emanating from women and different from the others. It is because the language of its myths tells the story of a woman and, more precisely, the tearing apart of her fate between her “real” life in Chinese society and her search for the “alchemical” development of the self. The two aspects intertwine and weave the plot of the story against a background of ritual traditions that were themselves intermixed by the syncretic spirit of the time in which they were born. The cluster of ideas of this tradition can still be seen today in China and Taiwan. This is what I spent my time doing in Taiwan (between 1979 and 1986) and later in Fujian. What, then, do we know of the cult of Chen Jinggu, which originated in the country of Min, was canonized in 1241 during the Song dynasty, and which forms part of the living accretion of Chinese religion?5

Chen Jinggu Very few texts have come down to us on the subject of Chen Jinggu: many works have been lost. Some sources, all the more valuable because they are rare, are nevertheless still accessible. These are the records or local gazetteers of the district of Gutian in Fuzhou prefecture, the place of origin of the cult, which reproduce the memorial written by a scholar of the Ming dynasty, Zhang Yining, himself from Gutian, on the subject of the development there of the cult of Chen Jinggu. There are also different versions of the Soushen ji, collections of biographies of divinities, and inscriptions set up in front of her temples, which tell the story of her divinization. All these very brief documents have the advantage of revealing the roots of this cult as much in space—the country of Min—as in time—the Tang dynasty (618–907), when Chen Jinggu lived as a human being, the beginning of the period of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms (907–979), when the mythical story takes place, and the Song dynasty (960–1279),

4

Introduction

when she was canonized. I reproduce here in their entirety the most significant of these texts, in order to let them speak for themselves, without attempting to comment on them. Many of the themes they evoke and the figures they introduce will naturally find their place later on in this study.

The Sources Chen Jinggu is first and foremost presented as a shaman (wu), born in 767 during the Tang; she died in 790 in the country of Min, in Fujian. She gave rise to a spirit medium cult and performed miracles, which earned her the construction of a temple. She was canonized during the Song. “Biography of Shunyi Furen, the Beneficent and Just Lady,” in Soushen ji (1607: Xu Daozang, no. 1476, 6: 6b–7a). According to the Fengjing zalu, there was a daughter of the Chen family who lived in the subprefecture of Gutian, in the country of Min, during the Dali reign period [766–79] of the Tang. From birth, she had rare gifts: she could predict the future and all her predictions were correct. To play, she liked to cut out butterflies and sparrow-hawks and other animals. She blew charmed water on them, and they could then fly and dance. She fashioned with her teeth a baton one foot long with which she could make cows low and horses whinny; she could also make them run or stand still as she pleased. When she felt like eating, she emptied bushels and casks, but it also happened that she sometimes fasted for days, just as she pleased. She amazed everyone, and not even her parents had power over her. She had not yet reached adulthood when she died. It was then that she took possession of a medium (tongzi) for the purpose of communication. The people of the country appealed to her at times of drought and other calamities and each time her words were efficacious. They thus founded a temple for her and the Song dynasty canonized her as the Beneficent and Just Lady (Shunyi Furen). Many miracles occurred in all periods. Today, her cult is very widespread in the country of the Bamin [the “eight Min,” that is, the whole of Fujian].

The following text adds other elements to this archaic structure. Pregnant, the Lady performed a ritual for rain. She died and appeared as a goddess in order to eliminate a snake demon and to help a woman in childbirth. This is why they insisted on her canonization. “History of the Goddess of the Shunyi Temple,” in Gutian xian zhi (Gazetteer of the District of Gutian) (1710 [1967], 5: 12a–14a). The Shunyi Temple is 30 li east of the district of Gutian, at the place called Linshui. The goddess is named Chen. For generations, her ancestors were

Introduction

5

shamans (wu). Her grandfather was called Yu, her father Chang; her mother’s family name was Ge. She was born during the second year of the Dali reign period [767] of the Tang dynasty and she had supernatural gifts. She married Liu Qi and was several months pregnant when there was a severe drought. She performed a ritual for rain that was immediately efficacious. When she was carrying out her divine procedures and was on the point of death, she uttered the following formula: “After my death, I will save women in danger at the time of childbirth; otherwise I will not be a goddess.” At the time of her death she was twenty-four years old. Her miracles abounded. At Linshui, there was the grotto of the White Snake, whose breath was lethal and spread disease. One day, a person dressed in red and holding a sword captured the snake and cut it into pieces. The people of the country asked her her name. She said: “I am the daughter of Chen Chang of Xiadu (Lower Ford) of Jiangnan.” Then she vanished. They immediately went to Xiadu to make inquiries about her and learned that she had become a divinity. Subsequently, a temple was constructed on the grotto of the White Snake with a pavilion for her to dress up in. At Jianning, there was the daughter-in-law of a certain Chen Qingsou. She was seventeen months pregnant, without giving birth to her child. Suddenly a Lady appeared at her door and said that her name was Chen and that she was an excellent doctor. She asked Chen Qingsou to set up a pavilion to one side, make a hole in the middle, and put his pregnant daughter-in-law in the upper story. She ordered the servants to take sticks and wait in readiness on the floor below. Then [the daughter-in-law] gave birth to a snake three meters long. It fell down through the hole and the servants killed it. To thank her, they offered her gold and cloth, which she would not accept. She only took a handkerchief on which Chen Qingsou had written in his own hand the following eight characters: “Offering of Chen Qingsou to Lady Chen, who assists at childbirth.” Then [Lady Chen] said that she lived at Gutian at such and such a place and that her neighbors were so and so. “If you give me your goodwill,” she said, “please come visit me.” Then she departed and they did not see her again. Later, when Chen Qingsou became prefect of Fuzhou, he remembered this story. He ordered an emissary to pay a visit to the Lady’s house. A neighbor told him that at this place there was only the temple of the Lady Chen, and that she often transformed herself to go save women in the throes of childbirth. When he examined the temple, he saw that the handkerchief was hung in front of her statue. For this reason, Chen Qingsou asked the court to canonize her, and from this time on offerings flowed in without ceasing for a single day. During the Chunyou reign period [1241–53] of the Song she received the title of Ciji Furen: the Lady Who

6

Introduction Is Merciful and Saving. At the temple they bestowed on her the name of Shunyi, Beneficent and Just. During the Ming, Zhang Yining wrote a memorial about her and explained how people had long donated goods to provide for her cult.6

In 1347 the cult was still inscribed on the Register of Sacrifices, as demonstrated by Zhang Yining’s memorial. The literati and officials wrote about it. The temple was enlarged and embellished thanks to the gifts of the faithful. The principles of geomancy were respected. Rituals were performed there. We also learn that there was an illustrated booklet on this subject and that the cult was present in Zhejiang.7 The Lady is compared to the illustrious goddess Mazu. “Zhang Yining’s Memorial on the Shunyi Temple,” in Cuiping ji (Siku quanshu zhenben ed., 4: 48b–50a), and reproduced in the Gutian xian zhi (1710 [1967], ch. 5: 134–35). Thirty li from the town [Gutian] there is the place called Linchuan; a temple there bears the name Shunyi, and the divinity is the Lady Chen. This cult, which was born during the Tang, was canonized during the Song and [the goddess] was given the title of Shunyi Furen, Beneficent and Just Lady. Her divine power spread throughout Fujian and extended as far as Zhejiang. This entire story was related on a stele erected by the prefect Hong Tianxi.8 Under our glorious Yuan dynasty, there was an illustrated booklet on this subject and her [cult] is still inscribed on the Register of Sacrifices. Around 1333, Marshal Li Yunzhong, especially charged with the protection of the region of the Zhedong, came in person to visit the temple, and enthusiastically admired it. Just at that time, work to enlarge it had been undertaken, but not yet completed. In 1341 Chen Sui, a man of the region employed in the prefecture, deploring that the memory [of the story of the goddess] remained incomplete, compiled records about her. He then used them to submit a request that her honorific title be increased. This request was sent to the imperial chancellery, which carefully examined it. While waiting for a decision from his superiors [in the hierarchy], Chen Sui thought that in order to display the true splendor of this canonical story one should start by embellishing the house [of the goddess]. Thereafter he devoted all his efforts to making the temple even more beautiful. He placed himself at the head of all the men of good will and requested the clerk responsible for the inspection of public affairs of the prefecture [to direct the organization of the work]. Those higher and lower [in the hierarchy] thus coming together, each began to compete in generosity by bringing contributions. Having learned of this righteous cause, the great landholders and rich merchants happily adopted it. A religious service was arranged

Introduction

7

to which everyone near and far came to take part and on the occasion of which each and every one eagerly gave presents. A large sum was thus raised, and builders were able to begin work to renovate the temple. They built, going from the exterior to the interior, a pavilion for burning incense, a sanctuary for the twelve divinities, and a temple of happy births. Then they built a ceremonial door and an audience hall, followed by a two-story pavilion for private apartments. There was also a pavilion for dismounting and for [organizing] banquets. The statues were painted and decorated, and all were lacquered in red. The work of the artisans was extremely fine. In front of the temple they built a rock wall in order to protect the head of the dragon, and behind the temple they dug a pond to combat the geomantic influence of the springs.9 They also built a temple for the protection of life to commemorate the virtues of the head of the association. The work that had started in the dinghai year [1342] was completed in the spring of the following year, when the inauguration took place. Its extreme majesty and splendor caused hearts to thrill and eyes to widen. The old people of the region, full of respect, came to look at it, and said to themselves that, decidedly, since there had been temples, there had never been one so beautiful, and that now that there existed such a beautiful place, the gods certainly would not fail to honor it with their presence. From that time on, countless joyous crowds filled the place. It was then that I was asked to write this memorial, and I, Yining, think that the divinities of my country [Fujian] are already well known in the world, such as, for example, the Lady Who Helps and Saves, Shunji, of Putian, whom sailors deem as precious as their own lives, the one to whom they owe everything.10 Her merit to the nation is already great and her extraordinary fame is the subject of exhaustive descriptions. Now the Lady Shunyi is able to overcome calamities and avert disasters, she answers [prayers] with immediate efficacy and her virtue, in relation to the people, how could it be superficial? That is why it is right that she have a place [of worship] and that people like Chen Sui exert themselves, as he did, to build it. That the people did not avoid this work is also highly meritorious. I thus put all this in writing, and I composed the following poem: Contemplating Linshui And this temple so resplendent It is like a jewel Amidst the mountains and waters. When the emperor loves all living creatures The gods manifest their grandeur. When the people pray respectfully How can one not love it! Majestic is this new temple

8

Introduction That dominates Linshui! Like the baby nestled against its mother Are the hearts of men to the goddess. The houses are full of grain The offerings are abundant Gods and men alike rejoice Evil influences are no longer felt No more disease or pain The people are full of joy This cult will last thousands and tens of thousands of years In the service of our enlightened divinity!

Here is another version. The Bodhisattva Guanyin of the South Sea brought about the birth of the Lady so that she would fight against a demon emanation of the Snake constellation, to whom children were offered in sacrifice. She went to Mount Lü in order to study with Master Jiulang, who passed on to her the teaching of the Thunder rituals and those of the Northern Dipper.11 Her family consisted of officials and ritual masters, whose religious observance was tinged with tantric Buddhism. “Biography of Da’nai Furen,” in Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan and also in Sanjiao yuanliu shengdi foshuai soushen ji, which gives an almost identical version.12 I will give here only a single translation of these two texts, while noting in brackets the variants of the Soushen ji from the Tanya tang. The fourth Lady Chen lived for generations at the place called Lower Ford in the Luoyuan district in Fuzhou prefecture. Her father was censor and he received the title of steward in the Ministry of the People. Her mother was a Madame Ge, her older brother was Erxiang, and her adopted brother was Haiqing. In the first year of the Jiaxiang period a female snake caused disasters and devoured people. It had chosen for its home a grotto located in the village of Linshui, which was located in the pleasant countryside of Gutian district. The people of the village 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, to satisfy its desires. It then ceased to cause harm. At that moment, the Bodhisattva Guanyin was on her way home from a banquet 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 fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the first year of the Dali reign period [766], which was a jiayin year, at the yin hour [that is, between three and five in the morning], there were many favorable omens. A bright light was seen,

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perfume permeated the air around the baby’s body, and the sound of a golden drum was heard near the door, as if a multitude of immortals had come to attend her and present her. That is why she was called Jingu, “she who is presented.”13 Her older brother, Erxiang, had orally received the teaching of the true doctrine of Yoga, which was passed on to him by a divine man.14 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 (yinbing). His magic power was immense and he saved people everywhere. When he came to Linshui village in Gutian, it was the turn of the believer Huang San to preside over the sacrifice [of the children]. In his heart he hated this demon and he came up with a way to stop its evil deeds. He refused to send innocent victims to die in the poisonous mouth of the demon. At the same time, he respectfully requested Erxiang to perform his magic in order to destroy it. However, because at this time Haiqing was drunk, he missed the opportune moment to present his message to Heaven; therefore the celestial soldiers and the shadow soldiers were unable to come to his aid, and Erxiang was breathed on by the poisonous breath of the snake [and Erxiang was injured by the poisonous breath despite all his trouble, as is mentioned in the Soushen ji from the Tanya tang]. Fortunately, there was the divine power of the master Yu: rising up into the sky, he caused a golden bell to fall from the sky in order to protect him. Thanks to the divine wind that spread out around the bell, the demon could not approach, but Erxiang could not get out, either. Jingu was then seventeen years old and she cried over the one who was born of the same breath as herself. She went to the grotto of purity of Mount Lü where the Jade Maidens are masters. The master [Master Jiulang] taught her the exorcistic rituals of the Northern Dipper and the Thunder to destroy the snake’s grotto.15 She rescued her brother and cut the snake into three pieces. 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? One could only destroy its poison. 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 demons that are proof of its existence. When the queen of the later Tang [923–36] was in great danger during a difficult childbirth, and her days were numbered, the Lady performed rituals in the palace, and, thanks to this, the queen gave birth to the heir apparent. The ladies in waiting informed the king of this. He was

10

Introduction very happy and conferred on her the title of Great Lady Devoted to the Efficacious Response, Happy and Universal Protector of the Kingdom (Dutian Zhenguo Xianying Chongfu Shunyi Da’nai Furen). 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 present incense and save the world.” Today, people respectfully recall her story, and they revere her magic, which has many effects. Her father [received the title] of duke (wei xiang), the Sage Mother Ge [received the noble title] of Lady (furen). Her older brother, Chen Erxiang, was appointed duke. Her elder sister [was appointed] Prestigious and Beneficent Lin Jiuniang. Her festival takes place on the ninth day of the ninth month [the date of her festival is not mentioned in the Soushen ji of the Tanya tang]. Her younger sister, who destroyed the demon temple at the mouth of the river, received the title of Third Lady Li (Li San Furen). Her festival takes place on the fifteenth of the eighth month.16 There were also the great sages Zhang, Xiao, Liu, and Lian, who helped to destroy the sanctuary, and also Dongma Shawang, the great General Wuchang, the Sage Mother Who Hastens Births (Cuisheng Shengmu), and the two generals Pochan and Lingtong.

The following text is a sort of synthesis of the different versions. Many new honorific titles of the Lady are cited, among them that of Bixia Yuanjun. There is a reference to the tuotai, “liberation from the womb” / “abortion,” that preceded the ritual for rain. We also learn that there were many texts that recounted the episodes of her mythological great deeds, and that they served as models for carving the bas-reliefs of temples. “Note on Lady Chen,” by Shi Hongbao, in Min zaji (first ed. from the Qing; Shi Hongbao, 19th c. [1985], ch. 4: 73). The Lady Chen, also called Lady Linshui, has temples in every province and every district of the country of Min. It is above all women who make offerings to her. Liang Jilin wrote an essay on withdrawing into monasteries, according to which the Lady was called Jinggu, “She Who Pacifies.”17 She was a native of Gutian district, of the village of Linshui. At the time of king Lin [933–35] of Min, the Lady’s elder brother practiced the “Dao of the Left.”18 He had withdrawn into the mountains where the Lady often

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brought him food. Subsequently, she received a secret Register and a talisman that permitted her to command divinities and demons.19 She went to Yongfu to punish the White Snake demon. King Lin gave her the title of Benevolent and Just Lady, Shunyi Furen; later she disappeared at sea, it is not known where. Xie Jinluan, in his monograph (zhi) of the district of Taiwan, Taiwan xian zhi, says that the Lady was named Jingu. She was a native of Fuzhou. Daughter of Chen Chang, she was born in the second year of the Dali period [767] of the Tang. She married Liu Qi and was several months pregnant when there was a great drought. She “aborted” (tuotai) in order to perform a ritual for rain, and she died at the age of twenty-four.20 Dying, she said, “After my death, I will be a goddess, and I will save pregnant women in distress.” In Jianning, the daughter-in-law of Chen Qingsou was seventeen months pregnant and had not yet given birth. The goddess appeared and saved her; she gave birth to a snake the size of several bushels (dou). At the village of Linshui in Gutian, there was the grotto of the White Snake. Its poisonous breath caused epidemics of plague. One day a villager saw a woman dressed in red cut it in two with her sword. She said, “I am the daughter of Chen Chang of the Lower Ford of Jiangnan.” Then she disappeared. So, they constructed a temple on the site of the White Snake’s grotto and from this time on there have been many miracles. In the middle of the Chunyou period of the Song [1241–53], she received the title of Merciful and Saving Lady Who Accumulates Blessings and Spreads Benevolence (Zhongfu Zhaohui Ciji Furen), and the temple received an honorific plaque with the name Shunyi. Later on, she was further granted the title of Original Lady of the Jasper and Cinnabar Clouds, Sage Mother Celestial Immortal, Azure Spirit of Universal Transformation (Tianxian shengmu qingling puhua Bixia Yuanjun). Many books were engraved in different places that tell the story of Chen Jinggu, for example, the episode of Chen Qingsou’s daughter-in-law that we find in the records of Jianning: at the time of the Song, in the town of Pu, Chen Qingsou’s daughter-in-law had trouble giving birth. The Lady transformed herself and saved her without accepting any gifts in thanks. They asked her what her name was and where she lived. She said, “I come from Gutian and my name is Chen.” Later Chen Qingsou became prefect of Fuzhou. He ordered someone to go to Gutian to make inquiries, and the messenger saw the statue [of the goddess] in the center of the temple. Then they knew that the Lady had transformed herself. Chen then requested the court to canonize her. Today, pregnant women on the verge of giving birth hang up an image of the Lady in their bedrooms. On the day of the baby’s first bath they thank her and burn the image.

12

Introduction These different versions do not tally. The various editions recount any number of extravagant claims such as, for example, at seven years of age the Lady was carried off by the wind, at thirteen she had attained the Dao (the Way), she married a certain Huang of her village, she came to the rescue of King Lin with the help of soldiers, she killed the demon of the Great Ravine with a sword, she took in the Rock-Press demons, and so on. These stories do not make sense and their language is unrefined, although they are used for inscriptions on pillars of temples: one can only laugh at them.

Finally, here is an example of the text of a very recent stele, set up in front of a temple in the south of Taiwan. A carved motif on it also represents the scene described in the text. We may note that the date of birth is different and corresponds to the period of the kingdom of Min. The later theme of the rejection of marriage appears in relation to Guanyin and the figure of Shancai (Sudhana). Finally, the mantic steps performed on the ritual mat correspond to the bugang, the walk on the stars of the Northern Dipper constellation. This time, the master of Mount Lü is Perfected Lord Xu, Xu Sun, and the Celestial Master Chen Shouyuan is presented as a relative of Chen Jinggu. The White Snake and the demon of the Great Ravine are the main characters of the exorcistic combat that cost Chen Jinggu her life. History of Chen Jinggu recounted on a stele set up in front of the Linshui Temple (Linshui gong) of Baihe: “The Transformations of the Isle of the Dragon and Phoenix” (originally, Island of the Female Ducks).21 Chen Jinggu [the Lady of Linshui] was born during the Tang dynasty in the second year of the Tianyou reign period of Emperor Aidi [that is, in 905] on the fifteenth day of the first month, at the auspicious hour chen [between seven and nine in the morning]. They tried to force her to marry, but she would not. That is why Shancai begged the Bodhisattva Guanyin to use her magic power to take her to Mount Lü to study magic. At the end of three years she left Mount Lü. Her master warned her that when she was twenty-four years old she would be in great danger, and he earnestly cautioned her not to use her ritual instruments, read sacred books, or write talismans. In the second year of the Yonghe reign period of the Tang [936], in the seventh month, in the autumn, there was a great drought, the rain failing to arrive.22 The king of Min ordered Chen Shouyuan, the Daoist priest (daoshi) of the Lingbao Temple (Lingbao huang gong), to construct a sacred area (tan) and perform a sacrifice (jiao) to bring rain, but he was unsuccessful.23 Chen Shouyuan then went to beseech Chen Jinggu for help. Chen Jinggu knew that she would be in great danger if she violated the

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interdiction [of the master of Mount Lü]. And yet she wanted to save the people and she also wished to save her brother and all the other Daoist priests. She therefore went to Bailong jiang [White Dragon River, today under Nantai Bridge in Fuzhou]. She placed a mat on the water, unbound her hair, and put on her magician’s headdress and skirt [see Figure I.1]. In her left hand she held a horn with divine power, and in her right hand her ritual sword. Then she traced out mantic steps on the mat placed directly on the water, while dancing with her sword and blowing on the horn; she danced on the constellation of the Northern Dipper in order to perform the true magic of Mount Lü. She pronounced secret formulas, performed the

f i gur e I.1. Chen Jinggu dancing for rain, Linshui Temple, Baihe, Taiwan. Photo Jean-Charles Berthier.

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Introduction ritual, and wrote Thunder talismans in order to transform the sky. Then she ordered Great Guardian Wang to go immediately to the Dragon King of the Four Seas in order that he might cause rain to fall. The Dragon King knew that the Great Guardian brought an order from Master Perfected Lord Xu.24 Immediately, black clouds veiled the brightness of the sun, a violent wind sprang up, thunder, lightning, and storm clouds swiftly arrived, and a heavy, beneficial rain fell. When Chen Jinggu was about to conclude her ritual, take up her mat and return to the riverbank, the demon of the Great Ravine and the White Snake, who had concealed themselves in order to kill her, took hold of the mat and pulled it into the water. The master of rituals [Fazhu, Perfected Lord Xu], quickly flew to the top of the mountain and, by means of his magic vision, looked into the distance. He took three stones and threw them into the air. They turned into three female ducks able to dive into the water. They seized three corners of the mat and pulled it back to the surface of the water, and, so that it would not float away with the current, they turned it into an island, which was called Duck Island.25 On the fifteenth of the eighth month of that year, at a favorable hour, in Fujian, at Gutian, Chen Jinggu attained the Dao. On three occasions she received an honorific title. Right up to the present day people continue to burn incense for her.

All these different sources provide much information about the cult of Chen Jinggu. We learn that it was shared between two places in the country of Min, Fuzhou and Gutian, where its founding temple is located, and that it also existed in Zhejiang. The key elements of it are the battle against a snake—astral breath or harmful demon—and Chen Jinggu’s apprenticeship at Mount Lü with the ritual masters, Jiulang and Perfected Lord Xu, who pass on to her, above all, the Thunder arts and those of the Northern Dipper. She died while performing the ritual for rain, after having tuotai and after taking a vow to help women. Her family was divided between ritual tasks—shamanic, Daoist, or tantric—and official duties. Finally, according to some versions, Nanhai Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of the South Sea, is said to have miraculously caused her birth so that she would eliminate the snake demon of the country of Min. The theme of rejecting marriage is also sketched. In short, we learn between the lines what the ritual tradition of the Pure and Perspicacious Tradition of Mount Lü (Jingming Lü Shan pai) linked to Mount Lü consists of, which recalls in many ways Mount Lu in Jiangxi, the source of the Thunder ritual arts. We understand in the end that other sources, of another nature, exist in relation to this cult.

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There is in fact an entire literature of pious books (shanshu) emanating from the temples, such as the Da’nai lingjing and the Yulin Shunyi du tuochan ruo zhenjing of Linshui Palace in Gutian, and the Sannai jing.26 These works relate the story of the Lady and present the figures of her pantheon. They likewise provide magic formulas, talismans, and ritual elements. A song in the storyteller style, Furen changci, and a play in twelve scenes, Chen Da’nai tuotai, complete this set (see Ye Mingsheng, 1995, 1996; Ye Mingsheng and Wu Naiyu, 1997; Ye Mingsheng, 2000; Baptandier, 2002, (2008).27 The play, which was banned for many years in the twentieth century as “superstitious” (mixin), dramatizes the very core of the myths of Chen Jinggu: the ritual for rain that required her to tuotai and at the end of which she died. According to a Daoist master in Fujian, this play contains all the rituals distinctive of this tradition. What then is the Jingming Lü Shan pai? And first of all, where is the mysterious Mount Lü located?

Mount Lü Mount Lü, the Portal Mountain that is also called Mount Guangning, is in Liaoning province in Dongbei (Manchuria), in the City of the North, Beizhen, to the northeast of Jinzhou and to the south of Fuxin. Its highest point is Pine Peak. Emperor Shun (2257–2208 b.c.) is said to have given it the name of Youzhou when he divided the empire into twelve parts. It was only under the Sui (581 [589]–618) that this region took the name Beizhen, the “City of the North.” At the very top of a peak was found a statue of the immortal Lü Dongbin (see Cihai zidian, Yiwu Lü Shan, vol. 5). The name Youzhou recalls the Dark Capital (Youdu), region of the Shadows, where the souls of the dead return. Tao Hongjing locates the “borders of the north” (beifeng) at the northern extreme of the Liaodong peninsula in Liaoning province, at the frontier of the country. The Dark Warrior (Xuanwu), “ancestor” of Xuantian Shangdi (High God of the Dark Heaven), rules over this place (Mollier, 1997). Beizhen, located in Dongbei, is a major site of shamanism, as the full name of the mountain indicates: Yiwu Lü Shan, “Mount Lü of the Shaman Healers.” This feature of Mount Lü and the practices that are associated with it were already well known in the country of Min, as the Daoist master of Fujian, Bai Yuchan, attests.28 It would seem that at present there is still a temple on the top of the mountain, that people still practice the arts of long

16

Introduction

life there, and that a connection is, perhaps, maintained between Liaoning and the south of the country. In 1998, a Daoist woman of Liaoning, who had studied with a master at Mount Lü, was living at White Cloud Temple in the Wuyi Mountains, the sacred mountains of Fujian, where she continued her self-discipline. Her Daoist journey had taken her from Liaoning to Fujian. It is undoubtedly for this reason that a mythic Mount Lü imbued with the same symbolism was imagined in the country of Min in Fuzhou. It is precisely situated, in accordance with the names of real places, for example, Longtan huo, Tianning Temple, Diaolong tai, which are said to be vestiges of Mount Lü, located not far from Black Stone Mountain (Wushi Shan), also called Min Shan, high place of Min (see Fuzhou fu zhi, 1967: 93, 89, 95; Wang Yingshan, 1831 [1967]: 91). The present-day inhabitants of Fuzhou can still point out this Mount Lü in the Min River, at the place called Goulong tai, near the old bridge that links Nantai Island, where Xiadu is found, to the town. Fuzhou Lü Shan wenhua, a work published in 1998, glosses all of these points and locates the different places of the itinerary covered by the Mount Lü boat on its way to the Ritual Academy (Da fayuan) (see Lin Xiangcai, 1998). The Mount Lü of the myths of Chen Jinggu is thus a magic mountain. It is said to have been transported by its ritual masters to the bottom of the Min River, at the place called Longtan jiao, at the Upper Ford of Fuzhou, very close to Chen Jinggu’s birthplace at the Lower Ford, Xiadu.29 Moreover, the road that runs along the bank is also called Longtan jiao. Perfected Lord Xu is said to have been its master and it was in the grotto of this Ritual Academy that he is said to have taught his disciple Chen Jinggu. Access to it was by means of a magic boat at the end of a shamanic journey. Although it is thus situated in the actual geography of Fujian, this Mount Lü is neither visible nor accessible to the common herd. On the other hand, there is on Nantai Island a temple called Mount Lü Ritual Academy, which has just been restored. A small Chen Jinggu temple has also recently been rebuilt overlooking the site. Mount Lü goes back to this therapeutic tradition—Yiwu Lü Shan—of Liaoning, while also strongly evoking many ritual aspects characteristic of the neighboring Mount Lu (Lu Shan) in Jiangxi, where Xu Sun lived in the past. Xu Sun is said to have been in contact with the Old Mother (Laomu), protector divinity of women, rightly linked to Mount Lu, where a tradition of female shaman healers is said to have evolved.30 The first altar of the sanctuary of Mount Lu was built in 731, which makes it almost contemporaneous with Chen Jinggu’s first temple (792). This mountain welcomed

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many Daoist masters who were related to the Thunder magic techniques, among them Bai Yuchan himself, the uncontested master of the tradition of the Thunder rites in Fujian in the thirteenth century.31 The guardian of Mount Lu, Envoy of the Inquisition of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian caifang shizhe), who was mentioned in the sources cited above, is supposed to protect the world from “perverse” cults. In fact, this figure is also sometimes associated with Chen Jinggu, and in some temples in Fujian the two of them are represented sitting side by side, like a sort of exorcistic couple.32 Furthermore, a tradition has it that there is a female ritual line at Mount Lü, just as there is at Mount Lu. Chen Jinggu is said to have been taught there, this time by the Queen Mother (Wangmu).33 According to the legends, she later created around her a community of female shamans, some of whom still figure as divinities in her temples today. We should note that there is also a Dragon-Tiger Mountain (Longhu Shan) in Jiangxi province, a major site of the Celestial Master successors of Zhang Daoling. Zhang Daoling founded the movement of the Celestial Masters when he received a revelation from Laojun, the divinized Laozi (see Seidel, 1969). This hereditary lineage, animated by the power of the Orthodox Unity, Zhengyi, continues to this day, and with it the liturgical tradition of local communities (see Schipper, 1982b; and Robinet, 1976). According to Saso, in Taiwan one would associate the “Portal Mountain” (Lü Shan) with the Gate of Hell, site of the cosmos through which demons attack the living. This point clearly refers back to the exorcistic tradition of the ritual line of this name, Mount Lü sect (Lü Shan pai), that the ritual masters (fashi) trace themselves back to. We shall see that it likewise recalls the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun)—the daughter of the Eastern Peak—aspect of Chen Jinggu, who received the same canonical title. the mount lü sect (lü shan pai)

This school, or line, of the Three Ladies (Sannai pai) has been attested to since the Tang. From that era down to the present day this ritual tradition was syncretically forged by grafting borrowings from different branches of Daoism and esoteric Buddhism onto a local shamanic or spirit medium substrate.34 Thus was born the Pure and Perspicacious Three Ladies of Mount Lü sect (Jingming Lü Shan Sannai pai), considered to be both a branch of the Zhengyi sect (Zhengyi pai) of the Celestial Masters and a branch of the Jingming sect (Jingming pai), the tradition of filial piety (Xiao dao), of which Xu Sun was considered to be master.35 Moreover, we shall see that this theme

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Introduction

plays a very important part in the legend of Chen Jinggu, to whom Xu Sun, here the master of Mount Lü, is said to have passed on his teachings. Xu Sun was also a celebrated exorcist of dragons and snakes. To capture them, he used techniques linked to qigong practices known for their efficacy. Chen Jinggu, as we shall see, herself counterpart and subduer of the White Snake of her legend, shares with him this structural trait. Xu Sun is also credited as the founder and source of the Thunder ritual arts (leifa), which incorporate techniques distinctive to internal alchemy (Daofa huiyuan, Daozang no. 1220).36 The rituals of the Sannai sect (Sannai pai) based on the metaphor of the Five Camps—the five directions of the cosmos, the five elements, and the five organs of the human body—integrate the elements of this ancient tradition, called for this reason the “Five Thunders” (wu lei). All of this connects the Sannai sect to other ritual traditions, above all to the Shenxiao, the Divine Empyrean, founded by Lin Lingsu (1076–1120), a native of Wenzhou in Zhejiang and Daoist at the court of Emperor Huizong of the Song. The history of the Shenxiao is recorded in the “Formulary for the Transmission of Scriptures According to the Patriarchs of the Most Exalted Divine Empyrean” (Gaoshang shenxiao zongshi shou jing shi, HY 1272) according to which the Classic of Salvation (Duren jing) was revealed during the Song dynasty (Boltz, 1987).37 Emperor Huizong (1082–1135) is said to have received the mandate of heaven to carry out this mission of saving humanity. As Boltz demonstrates: “Designed to introduce the rudiments of the Shen-hsiao reenactment of the Ling-pao revelation, the treatise supplies the essential cosmological diagrams, talismanic inscriptions, sacred recitations, and lengthy registers of the celestial bureaucracy.” Comparable visual aids are to be found in the 12 ch. HY 1209 Gaoshang shenxiao zishu dafa, “Great Rites in the Purple Script of the Most Exalted Divine Empyrean” (Boltz, 1987: 27). According to Saso (1978a: 61), the masters of the Sannai Lü Shan pai were, moreover, initiated in accordance with the protocol of the Shenxiao, which integrates rites similar to internal alchemy and the rites of the Northern Dipper (Beidou). The local tradition of the Mount Lü sect is in fact well known for its talismans, mudras, and the ritual use of diagrams, for instance, the diagram of the trigrams, as we shall soon see (see Chapter 2). This same text also contains the codes of the liandu ritual, “Salvation through refinement or transmutation,” a funerary rite that includes a contemplative version, as well as a great number of therapeutic principles of the rites of the Five Thunders (wu lei).38 Theoretically, the Sannai tradition only

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carries out rituals intended for the living. No funerary ritual belongs to it in its own right. However, the legends of Chen Jinggu show her frequently performing the liandu ritual—above all for her own son. Today, many ritual specialists (fashi) tracing themselves back to her claim to carry it out, and they possess the texts for it. The Sannai pai is likewise close to the Qingwei, “Clarified Tenuity,” sometimes considered to be one of the names of the Shenxiao.39 The Qingwei is one of the best known traditions in the domain of the Thunder rites, having incorporated the legacy of the diagrams and the mandalas of tantric Buddhism for repelling demons.40 In both cases, these names refer to the central region of the empyrean of the cosmos where the Great Sovereign of Long Life (Changsheng Dadi) dwells, whom the masters of the Mount Lü sect also invoke (Boltz, 1987: 27; Baptandier, 1994b; Baptandier, 1996a). The same primordial breath that is said to have formed the texts of the Lingbao (Marvelous Jewel) is said to have condensed to form the sacred writings and Thunder talismans that are characteristic of the Qingwei (Boltz, 1987: 39). The Lingbao (Marvelous Treasure or Jewel, or Magic Treasure, or Numinous Treasure) is a corpus of texts that constitutes the second section, called “cavern” (dong), of the first Daoist Canon, compiled by Lu Xiujing (406–77). The new Lingbao scriptures attempted to integrate Buddhism through a synthesis at the liturgical level with the Daoist ritual traditions of the south (see Zürcher, 1980). Lingbao is an ancient term for medium or shaman (see Kaltenmark, 1960). According to Bokenkamp: They are thus the first Taoist scriptures to incorporate and redefine Buddhist beliefs, practices, and even portions of Buddhist scripture. They do this quite openly, positing the temporal priority and spiritual superiority of their message against any charge of plagiarism. The very name of the scriptures (ling, “spirit-endowed,” representing the heavens, and yang, joined to bao, “jewel,” representing Earth and yin) refers to the claim that these scriptures are translations of spirit-texts that emerged at the origin of all things when the breaths of the Tao separated into the two principles of yin and yang, thus giving the Lingbao texts priority over texts composed later. (Quoted in Little, 2000: 18)

In addition to its own patriarchs, many transcendent beings were associated with this tradition. As Boltz put it: “There was no divine worthy of any significance who was not given a seat within the ranks of ch’ing wei [Qingwei]” (Boltz, 1987: 39). At the origin of the tradition of the Qingwei we also find a woman called Zu Yuanjun, Zu Shu (fl. 889–904), whose

20

Introduction

story closely resembles Chen Jinggu’s: extraordinary birth, leaving home to receive a ritual education, healer and Daoist, but also cosmic power astride a dragon. She is likewise said to have been taught by female divinities, such as Lady Wen, and later by Lingguan Mu.41 Finally, in the legend the relationship between Chen Jinggu and the Daoist priest (daoshi) Chen Shouyuan is significant. This is because Chen Shouyuan was historically close to the Daoist Tan Zixiao (d. 973), one of the founders of the Tianxin zhengfa, “Correct Rites of the Celestial Heart,” which was very popular in the Song dynasty. This suggests a relation between the tradition of Chen Jinggu and the Tianxin zhengfa.42 The ritual masters insist, moreover, on this ritual relationship between the Mount Lü sect and the Tianxin zhengfa. They say that they are two branches of a single ritual tree, and their texts bear this out.43 The tradition of the Tianxin zhengfa also comes from Jiangxi, in particular, according to some sources, from Mount Huagai, where Rao Dongtian is said to have discovered sacred texts (in 994) that he could not decipher. He is said to have sought help from divine beings in order to understand these writings from the “Heart of Heaven.” On the other hand, other sources make Zhang Daoling (second century) the true founder of this tradition. According to Boltz (1987: 33–34), the earliest corpus we have of the therapeutic rites of the Tianxin zhengfa dates from 1116, and was compiled by the Daoist master Yuan Miaozong (fl. 1086–1116), in order to add it to the compilation of the Daoist Canon (Daozang) ordered by Huizong. Yuan brought with him the ten chapters of the Taishang zhuguo jiumin zongzhen biyao (Essentials on Assembling the Perfected of the Most High for the Relief of the State and Deliverance of the People), which contains within it a manual of talismanic applications entitled Shangqing beiji Tianxin zhengfa (Correct Rites of the Celestial Heart from the Northern Bourne of Shangqing).44 According to Yuan, the origin of the rites of the Tianxin was in fact the far north of the celestial empyrean (Boltz, 1987: 33–34). We shall see that the myths of Chen Jinggu constantly link it to this direction. Most of the materials codified by Yuan were later re-edited by Deng Yougong (1210–79) in two works.45 According to these texts, practitioners, divinities, and demons are all considered to be subjects of the Bureau of Exorcism (Quxie yuan), the therapeutic domain of the Tianxin. Later on, the origin of the Tianxin was located on Mount Heming (Heming Shan) in Sichuan, where Zhang Daoling is said to have received these same revelations. The principal feature of this tradition consists of three talismans of the

Introduction

21

“three luminaries” (sanguang): the sun, the moon, and the stars (Baptandier, 1994b: 59–92).46 Zhenwu and Tiangang are the spirits of the Northern Dipper; they purge humanity of all the demons that infest it. In addition, the practitioners of the Tianxin zhengfa are known for their expertise in the exorcisms of the spirits that cause various mental troubles, in particular those that induce possession by seductive succubi. As Boltz notes (1987: 33–38), many novels relate stories of this sort, in particular Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), the Romance of the Demon Slayer Zhong Kui (Zhong Kui zhuogui zhuan), and the Pacification of the Demons (Pingyao zhuan).47 The Linshui pingyao zhuan (Pacification of the Demons of Linshui), which will occupy us henceforth, is also such an example.

The Linshui pingyao (Pacification of the Demons of Linshui) the

LINSHUI PINGYAO :

a novel?

There is a text that recounts the life, great deeds, and divinization of Chen Jinggu and that differs from all those we have just examined. It is the Linshui pingyao, “Linshui Pacifies the Demons” or “Pacification of the Demons of Linshui.” The Linshui pingyao stands out from the other sources, above all by its length: it consists of four parts (juan) and seventeen chapters (hui). I have two editions of this work: the older is the lithographic edition of the Xiamen huiwen tang that was given to me by an antiquary in Beigang, in Taiwan. In this edition, the text is classified into “records,” “monographs,” and “biographic notes.” At the beginning of each part are illustrations. The other edition comes from Taizhong, in Taiwan. It was published by Ruicheng shuju, which issued the work again in the 1980s. K. M. Schipper was the first to give me a copy. The work is entitled Linshui pingyao. This edition bears no trace of the division into juan, but it preserves the seventeen chapters in their entirety. These two editions are essentially identical. In the Ruicheng edition, the illustrations are reduced to four small images, reproduced on the same page. These images illustrate the first juan of the Xiamen huiwen tang, which may have served as the basis for the Ruicheng edition. The Ruicheng editions classify this text as an “old vernacular novel” (guben tongsu xiaoshuo). There is no mention of the author’s name. In its form, the text resembles similar books that trace the great deeds of other divinities such as Guanyin in Nanhai Guanyin quan zhuan, or Mazu in the Tianfei niangma zhuan. Written in the vernacular (baihua) in prose, this style of work first appeared around the sixteenth century. These stories

22

Introduction

probably came from the baojuan, hagiographic texts containing liturgical parts and homilies, from the tradition of the bards and storytellers, who told the story of the divinities, and from the theater, dramatizing those episodes of the gods’ myths suitable for performance during their festivals.48 The steles set up in front of the temples, from which the faithful make rubbings, already provided a basic version of the founding myth. The Linshui pingyao therefore appears as a juxtaposition of episodes of various stories, of sketches that at first glance seem to have no direct relation to each other, or, at the very least, each of which could in practice stand independently of the others. Thus, it constantly skips from one story to another with no preliminary transition, except for the habitual phrase of the storytellers: “That is over, we will speak of it no more. Let us now turn to . . .” (Chuan shu buti. Qie shuo . . . ). In fact, it is precisely in this apparent incoherence that the readers recognize the authenticity of the text. Thus, during my first stay in Taiwan (in 1980), the episodes of the story of Chen Jinggu were adapted for television in the form of a serial. For the occasion, the subject was turned into a novel, and a logic, a continuity, was introduced into the episodes, which was necessary to hold the audience in suspense. But this version was criticized very severely by Chen Jinggu’s followers, as well as by the ritual masters who smiled caustically and said that “it was not her true story,” that it was not “like in the Linshui pingyao.” The fact is that through the apparent chopping of the text into small pieces, into a mosaic of stories, its readers are able to discern a more fundamental symbolic unity that lays the foundation of this cult. This text is not a “novel” about Chen Jinggu. Rather, it gathers together the mythic episodes that establish the cult and the ritual of the Mount Lü sect. It is also from this angle that I tried to analyze it, listening to the episodes, the stories, and the words as if I were listening to dream stories, memories, or fantasies. In particular, this was my method of approaching the powerful language of the Linshui pingyao. It seemed to me that this was the way to bring its true inspiration to light. That the Linshui pingyao is so confused in regard to dates is understandable if we consider the absence of unity of composition. The first episode, that of the construction of Luoyang Bridge, begins at the time of the troubles caused by the Huangchao Rebellion (874–84), during the Tang dynasty. No precise date is given for Chen Jinggu’s birth, unless we consider that her miraculous conception through the instrumentality of Guanyin is said to have taken place at the end of this episode. There is a Hokkienese song that tells

Introduction

23

this very famous story of the construction of the bridge, the Cai Duan zao Luoyang qiao ge, which may have inspired the author of the Linshui pingyao.49 The final sentence of the Linshui pingyao situates the time of the narration in the Zhengtong years of the Ming (1436–50), under the emperor Yingzong, that is, five hundred years after the events of the story, which comes to an end in the Changxing reign period of the Tang (930–34), under the emperor Mingzong. It is likely that the oral versions of the legend circulated and spread more and more widely, until the episodes were finally written down and printed in the form first of manuscripts and lithographies, and then published. For reasons of internal logic, the texts of the editions I have appear to date, in their definitive versions, to the beginning of the Qing.50 The copies I have were probably published at the beginning of the twentieth century. A delegation from the Phoenix Hall of the Limitless Heaven (Wujitian Feng tang) of Taizhong made a pilgrimage to Fuzhou in 1993, bringing with them a copy of the Linshui pingyao zhuan, which had been paid for by gifts from the faithful. This new edition is presented as a pious work conferring merit on the generous donors. This process probably does not differ greatly from those that gave birth to the first editions of the work. In 1993, a conference entitled Research on the Culture of Chen Jinggu (Chen Jinggu wenhua yanjiu) brought together in Fuzhou researchers from different bureaus of religion, of culture, of local monographs, and historians from Fujian and Taiwan, in order to trace the history of this cult. This accompanied the cult’s official rehabilitation, after years of prohibition as “superstition” (mixin) in the People’s Republic of China. Thus, this conference, whose subject was the cult of Chen Jinggu, transformed these “superstitious” beliefs into orthodox culture (wenhua). The proceedings of the conference were published in Fuzhou and cite different sources (Zhuang Kongshao, 1993: 7). This process is comparable to what occurred at the time when Zhang Yining was requested to write his memorial. the shaping of the linshui pingyao: emancipation of a local cult

Due to the publication of the Linshui pingyao, this cult of the country of Min was brought to the attention of a larger public, going beyond the place and time of its origin. Thereafter, Shi Hongbao had no difficulty criticizing texts of this genre for their “lack of literary skill.” Éliasberg also notes in her study of the Zhong Kui zhuogui zhuan this feature of containing almost

24

Introduction

no literary and historical allusions, citations, or poems. In fact, these are texts of a very special kind, not lacking rigor, as the author of the Min zaji suggests, but conforming to another logic: that of promoting a cultic ensemble that is already in and of itself a historic, local, literary, and cultural point of reference. This is a significant fact for the political implications of the process of the cult’s literary evolution. In fact, the freeing of the cult from a local community (economic and political structure) does not happen without a certain assertion of the power of this community. This is demonstrated by Zhang Yining’s description of the first official construction of the temple. It is likewise a significant fact for the subject of this cult (the feminine), for its adepts (women), and for its syncretic ritual tradition. In his book on the legend of Miaoshan, Dudbridge points out the sweeping influence exerted by this type of work intended for mass distribution. He accounts for it as follows: “Their undeniable importance lay in their normative force extending widely but unevenly through the whole spread of society, and in their simultaneous reflection of values and preoccupations common to the public at large, as they strove for the appeal which would guarantee their circulation and survival” (Dudbridge, 1978: 21). If we trust the example of the Linshui pingyao, it seems that the interest that is evinced for them is linked to the themes characteristic of the specific cults of which they are the reflection, rather than to a deliberate attempt on the part of their author(s) to capture the attention of the largest possible audience. And therein lies the answer to Éliasberg’s question, why today in the People’s Republic of China the Zhong Kui zhuogui zhuan is not accepted “as entertainment, a charming and picturesque fantasy that offers relaxation and escapism to the spirit” (Éliasberg, 1976: 149). It is precisely because it is not a matter of “entertainment” but of religion and myths, the fabric of which forms the web of local cultural manifestations of unconscious representations. Moreover, if for good reason they do not accept the Zhong Kui zhuogui zhuan as entertainment, they are not mistaken, either, about its true nature, which today continues to exercise an influence in a different context, as Éliasberg also shows: Despite the radical upheavals and transformations brought by the revolution, the traditional figure of the Demon Slayer still remains alive. In a letter (which appears to be authentic) to his wife on 8 July 1966, following the campaign led by Lin Biao to heighten his cult of personality in the 1960s, did Mao Zedong not say that he had become the Zhong Kui of the communist party? (Éliasberg, 1976: 149)

Introduction

25

The theme of the feminine in Chinese religion, which I discussed earlier, was particularly important in the Tang, when the cult was born. Thus it was inevitably fundamental to this movement promoting popular cults. Room was therefore made for it in the Linshui pingyao. That is why this work appears to me as the necessary link between the origin of this cult and its present observance, as I was able to trace it out in Taiwan and Fujian. the

LINSHUI PINGYAO ZHUAN :

a myth of the kingdom of min

Like the other sources cited above, the Linshui pingyao treats the close relation between the cult of Chen Jinggu and the ruling dynasty in the country of Min, a relation already enhanced by the fact that an eminent native of the country, the scholar Zhang Yining, was willing to devote a memorial to it. Here, Chen Jinggu, whose mother had received the honorific title of Lady (furen), is presented as belonging to a family of officials, secular as well as religious: her grandfather, Chen Yu, was an official of the second rank (erpin guan), and her father, Chen Chang, held an official post. Her husband, Liu Qi, was magistrate in the prefecture of Fuzhou, at Luoyuan, while her cousin Chen Shouyuan was an eminent Daoist priest (daoshi) at the court of the king of Min. The figure of Chen Shouyuan, moreover, was not unknown. According to Ouyang Xiu (1007–72), in a chapter devoted to the history of the ruling dynasty of Min, Chen Shouyuan is supposed to have been the instigator of the promotion of the king Wang Yanjun to the rank of emperor, in 953. Wang Yanjun had been king since 926. Here is what the text says:51 Lin [that is, Wang Yanjun] was fond of talk about supernatural beings and also of Daoism. The Daoist priest Chen Shouyuan gained his confidence by his heterodox practices and Lin constructed the Palace of the Jade Emperor (Baohuang gong).52 Chen Shouyuan said to him: “The Jade Emperor orders you to withdraw from the government for a time, after which you can be emperor for sixty years.” Delighted, Lin abdicated and entrusted the reins of government to his son Wang Jipeng. Then he remounted the throne. He ordered Chen Shouyuan to ask the Jade Emperor: “Where will I be in sixty years?” Chen Shouyuan conveyed the Jade Emperor’s reply to him: “After sixty years you will be Daluo xianren, an immortal of the Great Empyrean.”53 Thereupon, Lin proclaimed himself emperor. He received his document of investiture from the Jade Emperor. Because a yellow dragon was the basis of his dynasty, he took the reign title “Revelation of the Dragon” (Longqi) (933).54 He took Min as the name of the dynasty.

26

Introduction

In the same text there is mention of Lin’s son, Wang Jipeng, who succeeds him and thus returns to the throne (Ouyang Xiu, 11th c. [1974] 68: 6b). He, too, was fond of shamans. He bestowed on Tan Zixiao the title of Zhengyi Xiansheng (Master of the Orthodox One), and the title of Celestial Master on Chen Shouyuan.55 Subsequently, evil magicians (yaoren) arose in great numbers. . . . In all things, he [Wang Jipeng] followed the commandments of Baohuang (the Jade Emperor). Chen Shouyuan advised the king to build a three-story pavilion for the Three Purities and to use several thousand pounds of gold to cast statues of the Jade Emperor, Yuanshi Tianzun, and Taishang Laojun. In front of these statues, incense perfumed with orchids and amber was burned every day, and concerts were played day and night without interruption. Chen Shouyuan said: “It is thus that one must seek the great alchemical work. . . . [Wang Jipeng’s uncle, Yanwu, led a rebellion]. . . . After he had vanquished the rebels and executed them, the behavior of the king became more and more dissolute. He bestowed on a servant of his father, called Chunyan, the title of Virtuous Lady of the Court, and raised her to the rank of empress. (Schafer, 1954)

In an episode of the Linshui pingyao, Chen Jinggu took part in the internal struggles between members of the royal family of Min at the very moment of the accession of King Wang Yanjun to the rank of emperor, in 933. Some sources therefore situate the life of Chen Jinggu in this era. The Baihe temple inscription has her born in the second year of the Tianyou reign period of the Tang, under Emperor Aidi, that is, in 905, which conforms more or less to this version.56 In the Linshui pingyao, the emperor ordered the founding of the first temple of Chen Jinggu at the place called Linshui, near Gutian, where it is still found today. He gave it the name of Dragon King Temple (Longwang miao). On three occasions he bestowed official titles on Chen Jinggu, as her exorcistic mission proceeded within the kingdom. The empress Chen Jinfeng in person founded the Fuzhou temple (xinggong) at Xiadu, the birthplace of Chen Jinggu, who took the divine post (shenwei) of Chen Da’nai, Great Mothering Lady Chen. The temple is still there today. This work also derives from beliefs that are articulated in languages distinctive to this place, in particular Hokkienese and the other languages of Fujian. These languages are the ones in which people worship today on the mainland and in Taiwan, where the cult was carried by successive waves of emigrants.57

Introduction the

LINSHUI PINGYAO :

27

a creation renewed down the centuries

In the Linshui pingyao the ancient depths of the legends of the medium of Gutian remain, but through the ages they have been enriched with multiple borrowings. In it Buddhist elements are tightly intertwined with different Daoist aspects and with essentially local beliefs, as was already the case in the syncretic ritual tradition of the Mount Lü sect. Chen Jinggu was born of a drop of Guanyin’s blood; the demon snake of Gutian—the poisonous breath of the Snake constellation—is henceforward the White Snake, who was born of a hair of the bodhisattva, who had come to offer herself to one who threw coins at her in order to assist the construction of Luoyang Bridge. Chen Jinggu no longer goes to Mount Lü to save her brother Erxiang, prisoner of the snake; rather she goes there because she refuses to marry, just like Princess Miaoshan–Guanyin. However, not escaping her filial obligations, she performs the “gift of the body” (gegu) on behalf of her parents, which is also a Buddhist practice. She dies of an “abortion”—which is a tuotai—in the course of performing a ritual for rain. On this occasion, she makes two ritual areas similar to mandalas. She creates around her a community of women, repentant demons, and specialists of different ritual traditions and of internal alchemy. One of the demons she subdues is none other than a “double” of the King of the Monkeys, the hero of the novel The Journey to the West (Xiyou ji) (see Chapter 6). These episodes, like the images of an illustrated medieval manuscript, develop an elaborate fugue from the first musical phrase set down in the Tang. They constitute the very heart or synthesis of the myths of the Lady of Linshui. Later, the Mindu bieji, an amalgam of the legendary stories of Min, which was carefully studied during the Qing, devoted a number of its chapters to Chen Jinggu by taking up in part episodes of the Linshui pingyao and adding other pieces to them.58 There is also a novel (xiaoshuo), the Chen shisi qizhuan, published in Zhejiang, that seems to be a secondhand version of the legends of Chen Jinggu (Ye Zhongming, 1983). This process continued to feed on itself down the centuries. It was the same for the rituals. Thus the syncretic tradition of the Three in One (Sanyi jiao) created by Lin Zhaoen (1517–98) in Putian, in the south of Fujian, invokes Chen Jinggu in some of its rites (Dean, 1998b: 161–62). The fruit of this syncretism is finally the taking shape through the ages of this “seed speech” in an “efficacious” legend, with multiple aspects. The ensemble of this mythical narrative constitutes the exploration of this crisis, the divinization of this woman.

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Introduction the

LINSHUI PINGYAO :

the journey of a houtu furen

As the texts relating the life of Chen Jinggu hint in passages, she appears here as the civilizing ancestor of the country of Min, expelling demons and pacifying the land. In fact, the Linshui pingyao is in large part made up of the story of her exploits in pursuit of malevolent beings that infested the mountains and other places in the country, with the assistance of the local gods of the soil (tudi gong). Such was, moreover, the mission entrusted to her by Perfected Lord Xu of Mount Lü. Chen Jinggu and her cult derive from the ancient beliefs of this particular land, where local divinities lived and spoke, linked to the sacred places where their cults began. In this, Chen Jinggu resembles a sort of divinity of the soil, Houtu Furen. Her role in the kingdom of Min largely corresponds to that of a city god, god of the “walls and moats” (chenghuang shen), the pacifying god of the locale, who civilizes the country for which he is responsible in collaboration with the hierarchy of officials, his equivalent on earth (Lai Biqiang and Lin Weigong, 1993: 46; Jin Ming, 1993: 34). This is what links Chen Jinggu to the role of Bixia Yuanjun, the daughter of the great divinity of the soil in China, she, the god of the Eastern Peak, whose title she received (see Chapters 4 and 6). Most of the “demons” (yao or gui) she pursues and subdues, more often than not placing them in her divine Register, are incomplete beings. They “nourish their life” (yangsheng) and although they have already succeeded in taking on human appearance, lacking a master they are deviant beings: they lure to their deaths the victims whose vital energies they steal sexually. As we have seen, this is a familiar theme in the tradition of the Tianxin zhengfa, the principal act of which is precisely to exorcise succubi (quxie) and to treat the madness they cause. In doing this, Chen Jinggu closely conforms to the tradition that associates her with the Ministry of Medicine in the “celestial bureaucracy.” Moreover, if we are to believe her rituals, she plays her role of “healing shaman” (yiwu) to perfection, watching over the well-being of the people, in different ways. Not only does she cure young women who are possessed, she calls back the wandering souls of the living and the dead, and she makes use of her talents in areas as diverse as treating fevers and paralysis, healing burns, mending fractures, dislodging bones stuck in the throat, and so on. We shall see that she takes particular care of children.

Introduction the

LINSHUI PINGYAO :

29

founding myth of the

cult of the flowers, of the feminine

This civilizing ancestor who slays demons and enemies of the country of Min becomes the protector goddess of women and children. Several months pregnant, in order to perform a ritual for rain, she had to tuotai and died of a hemorrhage. In short, she died “in childbirth,” the reason for which she was divinized. Several of the sources I cited mention this point. This “liberation from the womb” (tuotai), which takes on the character of a fatal “abortion,” is the central episode of the Linshui pingyao: it is the justification for the temples of Chen Jinggu. It is what took place in heaven when she took over the divine region for which she was subsequently responsible, the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, place of transformations, where every soul comes to be reincarnated and where every earthly woman has a Flower that represents her femininity (see Chapter 3). There she rules in the Pavilion of the Qilin Who Bears Children (Yulin gong) as Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang), the title that accompanies this divine role. In addition, her exorcistic itinerary (pingyao) this time allowed her to record in another Register (lu), the register of the spirits who submitted to her, all the “components” of her “divine post” (wei): divinities of fertility, of the time inside the womb, of childhood (the thirty-six Pojie); of embryonic respiration (Jiang Hupo); of smallpox (Liu Xianniang); divinities of natural representations of the female body (the Rock-Press Women); divinity of the rites of the Northern Dipper (Beidou), taken as a metaphor for the womb (Lin Jiuniang); and so on. The analysis of this first ritual community of women, either magicians like herself or those in the process of becoming magicians at her academy, or even pacified former demons, whose traces we can still find today inscribed in the cults that are devoted to them, thus gives access to the symbolic representation of this female process. Finally, the text very clearly associates the cult of Chen Jinggu with the idea of communities of women: shamans (wu), Daoists, women who refuse to marry, or even widows seeking religious teaching, who are reminiscent of the communities of vegetarian women studied by Marjorie Topley in Hong Kong and Singapore, and which also existed on the mainland (Topley, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1975; see also Chapter 1). In the Linshui pingyao they are the women who benefit from the rites of treatment and exorcism performed by Chen Jinggu, and who find their equivalent today in the informal communities that form spontaneously around her mediums and among her faithful, who continue to employ her image as a demonifuge, and even

30

Introduction

in some ritual communities, such as the “Apprentices” (nü mentu) in Gaoxiong, Taiwan, who trace themselves back to Chen Jinggu. Still other communities grow up around the temples, such as that of the temple of Bixia Yuanjun, at Dashi in Gaoxiong district in Taiwan, where lay women come to live either temporarily or permanently, in order to devote themselves to meditation and ritual instruction, just like the women of the Linshui Temple (Linshui gong) in Fujian. It is to these societies of women that our study of the cult of Chen Jinggu will lead us. the

LINSHUI PINGYAO :

a tapestry of rituals

A journey through the sacred places of the country of Min, the Linshui pingyao is ultimately the story of the establishment of the cult of the goddess of the Flowers. It preserves embedded in its episodes many structures of rituals still practiced today. As we have seen, this tradition of the Jingming Lü Shan Sannai pai is syncretic, combining different Daoist influences, themselves more or less imbued with Buddhist influences: Zhengyi, Mount Mao (Mao Shan), Shenxiao, Qingwei, Tianxin zhengfa. The same is true in the Linshui pingyao: the different schools constantly combine and contend with each other. Thus Chen Jinggu confronts Yuan Guangzhi, a deviant disciple of “Daoism of the Left” (Mao Shan), and becomes sworn sisters with Jiang Hupo, the disciple of the Old Mother of Mount Li, and with Lin Jiuniang, master of the arts of the Book of Changes (Yi jing). Some episodes suggest the performance of particular rituals. Such is the case, for example, with the description of the rite to bring rain constructed as a mirror image of the scene of the tuotai, like two mandalas constructed as doubles in the manner of the fuling, the tablets, or written talismans. They evoke a mandala of the womb or of the Northern Dipper. These points, characteristic both of tantric borrowings and of the Thunder rites, are constantly and explicitly present in the text: the figures themselves swear their sincerity “on the Five Thunders.” But it is also the case with the warrior aspect of the ritual tradition of Chen Jinggu, who is armed with a sword of the Northern Dipper and a “demon-binding rope,” which she uses during battles of magic. Her modern emulators possess the equivalents, most notably a snake-headed whip. Chen Jinggu heals and exorcises by means of talismans, herbal potions, and magic formulas, just like the adepts of the Tianxin zhengfa. We see her perform again and again a liandu rite: for her child, for a Lady Yao, dead in childbirth, and for a Lady Shen, a suicide, whose soul she recovers

Introduction

31

(huanhun). But she also sacrifices some demons, such as the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui). This sacrifice, which establishes her cult at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, recalls the rite of “commanding the demon” (mingmo), the sacrifice of the demon in the course of establishing any sacrificial area in order to perform a Daoist ritual. All these elements are found in the specific rites performed for women and children: “crossing the passes” (guoguan) and “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua), which we shall examine in the second part of the book after we have pointed out their traces in the story of the Linshui pingyao as the occasion arises.

The Cult Today, in Taiwan and Fujian I first observed the cult of Chen Jinggu and the ritual practices of the Mount Lü sect in Taiwan (1979–86), and in Fujian thereafter. taiwan

In Taiwan, the heart of my research is located at the Linshui Temple (Linshui Furen ma miao) in Tainan, the temple of the Lady Mother of Linshui. It is not the only Chen Jinggu temple on the island: Qiu Dezai’s Taiwan miaoshen zhuan counts ten dedicated principally to Chen Jinggu, not including all the temples where she is revered as a secondary divinity, and lists nine others as dedicated to the Three Ladies (Sannai) (Qiu Dezai, 1979). However, it is the principal temple of this cult, as I was able to verify, and, as one also reads in Lin Hengdao’s Taiwan simiao daquan, probably the first to be established in Taiwan (Lin Hengdao, 1974). Built in 1736 at the end of the Yongzheng reign period (1723–36) during the Qing, it is an offshoot of a temple in Fuzhou and a neighbor of the Koxinga temple. One finds them together, at a bend in the road: the Koxinga Temple is located in a large, quiet park; from the Linshui Temple come the scent of incense, ritual chants, and the ringing of bells. In the late 1980s, the temple was enlarged and decorated at great expense and the construction ritual (jianjiao) and the reopening of the doors took place in 1987–89. The community of the cult, whose networks cover the entire island, is very lively and prosperous. A number of pilgrims have already returned to the mainland, to Gutian, to renew communal links; the earliest temple in Taiwan could well become a pilgrimage site in its turn. This temple was built on a classic model, with an audience hall where

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Introduction

the Three Ladies sit flanked by the Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang) and the Gardener Couple of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers (Huagong Huapo). The galleries are occupied by the royal concubines, the thirty-six Pojie of the cult. An altar is consecrated to Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng), the monkey demon castrated by the goddess. The god of the soil is also present. The White Snake, Chen Jinggu’s demon counterpart, is there, hidden under her altar. The myths of the Lady are carved in bas-reliefs covered with gold leaf, in accordance with the model of the Linshui pingyao: seventeen scenes called hui illustrate the chapters of the work. During the temple festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the play offered to the goddess is staged in front of the door, under the huge, bearded banyan tree hung with red votive ribbons. This reconstruction of the temple revealed dissensions between different groups of the faithful. Chen Jinggu’s medium chose on this occasion to build her own sanctuary, planning to go “divide the incense” (fenxiang) directly in Gutian. It is in this way that the networks of the cult are formed. We shall see that it takes place in the same way in Gutian. In this temple officiate almost exclusively Red Head (Hongtou) masters, ritualists (fashi) of the Mount Lü sect (see Figure I.2). They were given this name in Taiwan because of the headdress of red cloth that they wind around their heads to officiate. This headdress is often topped by a general’s hat, showing their mastery over the soldiers of the Yin (yinbing) of the Five

f i gur e I.2. Mount Lü ritual master dancing at the reopening of the Linshui Temple gate, Tainan. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

Introduction

33

Camps and the five directions. It is not unusual, however, to also see a ritual master (daoshi) of the Zhengyi liturgical tradition—indeed even a Buddhist priest—perform the same rituals there, that is, principally, rituals of exorcism for women, to “cultivate the Flowers” (zaihua), and the rituals on behalf of children who “cross a pass” (guoguan), which will be described in Chapter 9. One can also observe there a ritual for transforming one’s fate (gaiyun), a rite of the Northern Dipper (Beidou), dramatizing the combat diagram of the eight trigrams, at the center of which it is necessary to pass through the Door of Life (see Chapter 5, where this ritual is discussed). Over the years, the Red Head Master Shi Xihui was willing to let me follow his practice and give me access to the texts of the rituals into which he had been initiated and which he performed at the Linshui Temple (Linshui Furen ma miao), as well as at the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of the Eastern Peak, and in other places, including his home and the homes of patients who requested it. At the Linshui Temple I was also able to establish a relationship with many women. Although there is no structured organization (tuanti) of faithful at the temple, these women nevertheless represented the community of the cult of Chen Jinggu, and they brought me a great deal of valuable information regarding their origins, social milieu, motivations, and beliefs that enabled me to get to know more directly the concrete reality of this temple and its social implications (see Chapter 7). The contacts with these women came about naturally. There was no opposition, in fact, to my being there, one woman among others, just a little more motivated for having come such a long way. It was also starting from the temple and in trying to trace in reverse the itinerary that led these women to this place that I made contact with Xie Fuzhu, known as Ah Zi, Chen Jinggu’s medium in Tainan. Her trust made it possible for me to watch pass through her house a very large number of people who came to consult Chen Jinggu, and to hear both her diagnoses and her prescriptions, the ensemble creating before my eyes a picture of Chinese religion very close to some aspects of the Linshui pingyao. For my purposes, Xie Fuzhu’s story also was extremely interesting and revealing, in the context of the feminine, of the conduct of a woman facing the social law that weighs on her as a woman, and seeking in the cult an escape from ordinary life by devoting herself body and soul to Chen Jinggu. It is of course thanks to the favorable judgment given by the goddess consulted on this subject by divinization that I had the chance to keep up this relationship

34

Introduction

with Xie Fuzhu. It was difficult, however, to know exactly what role she attributed to me, although the place that devolved to me met certain criteria. Thus, when I came to witness her consultations, I was immediately offered the seat next to her; consequently, the role of assisting her when she entered into a trance automatically fell to me. Through small actions, I helped her to avoid injuring herself on anything when she got up suddenly. Once, the day after a ritual performed by her and at which I had not been able to be present, I ran into Xie Fuzhu when she came alone to the temple. Faced with the novelty of this situation, since she generally only went there to perform a ritual, I was surprised by her visit and she said to me: “Chen Jinggu told me that yesterday one guest was missing. Why didn’t you come? I have come to explain to her.” Finally, I had the opportunity to observe at her house the self-discipline and development of another woman, who had first come to confide her symptoms and family problems, and who was herself on her way to becoming a medium. Observing her helped me to understand where the journey, sometimes educational, that brings women to the temple could lead, and through what vicissitudes and detours it might pass. Thanks to the advice offered by the women who frequented Xie Fuzhu’s house I was able to meet Xu Lihua, whose widowed mother had become a devotee of Guanyin and a strict vegetarian. In her house she had set up a sanctuary, the Puming tang, where people came to consult her, since she was an expert in astrology and knew how to do horoscopes and read the almanac. Xu Lihua patiently initiated me into the mysteries of the eight birth characters (bazi), and helped me to better understand what is meant by the idea of fate (yun). Finally, starting from the Linshui Temple (Linshui Furen ma miao) I followed the paths that intersected there and led to the temple of the god of the Eastern Peak (Tai Shan), the divinity of hell, and to the temples of his daughter, the original Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun), taken here as one aspect of Chen Jinggu herself (see Chapter 6). It was in one of her temples, in Dashi, that I discovered the existence of the community of women already mentioned earlier. My steps also led me to the Temple of the Celestial Daughter Seventh Star (Tiannü Qixing miao) next door to the Linshui Temple, whose relation to the cult of Chen Jinggu became very apparent to me, which helped me to find the symbolic origin of some of their connections in the Linshui pingyao (see Chapter 6).59 In Gaoxiong I met the “Apprentices” (nü mentu), whom I mentioned earlier, and through whom I was welcomed by Ke Xianli and Lai Meilan.

Introduction

35

They invited me to be one of them, because it had been revealed to them that I was returning to the past places of my previous lives. They recommended that I set up in my home an altar to Chen Jinggu, in order to directly receive her teachings and so that when I came back to Gaoxiong they could say: “Chen Jinggu is back!”60 Thus I accompanied them on some of their pilgrimages and was present at rituals they performed: calling back “terror-stricken” souls, minor rites of exorcism, of atonement, rituals for the birthday of a divinity, for opening the eyes of a new statue, or for the founding of a new cult. These make up the corpus of what are called minor rites (xiaofa) and are the bedrock of Chinese religious life. This helped me to find to what extent, in parallel with their family life, they led lives of shamans and therapists, whose reality was the tissue of events and festivals that marked the lives of the divinities, the spirits, and their patients. They undertook to teach me to draw and render efficacious the talismans (fu) that they themselves used, and gave me access to the texts of the rituals of the Mount Lü lineage that they performed, in particular the ritual of the Lake of Blood and the region of the waters, infernal places from which supplicants had to be saved. It is not possible here to describe in detail all the relationships that helped me on my journey. A number of friends helped me greatly, among them Su Huiying, with whom I translated certain recordings from Hokkienese to Mandarin, and Xie Fuyun and Qi Longren, who made me welcome in Taipei. Ye Meihua, my neighbor in Tainan, also taught me many things. She was pregnant during my stay and made offerings to Chen Jinggu; her family had a small statue of the goddess that they kept on the family altar. Lin Yingsi gave me access to her family’s religious life, which was very instructive, since her uncle was the medium for Liu Bowen;61 there was a sanctuary dedicated to him in his house. It was she who put me in touch with Cai Xiaoyue, Chen Meie, and the Nansheng She in Tainan, whose musical repertoire also comes from Fujian and retells, in ballads, the ancient legends;62 and with Wang Shuming, master of taiji quan, at dawn in the parks of Tainan. Xie Jinzhu, medium of the Old Mother of Mount Li, also allowed me to be present at her consultations. And finally, Wu Songpo, the caretaker of the Linshui Temple, his wife, and daughter kindly facilitated my contacts with the visitors to the temple and introduced me to the circles around Shi Xihui and Xie Fuzhu, and all the Red Head masters who came to officiate at this temple and who readily accepted my inquisitive foreign presence.

36

Introduction fujian

In Fujian two places took precedence in my research: Fuzhou, Chen Jinggu’s birthplace, the site of Mount Lü and the ritual for rain; and Gutian, the site of the White Snake’s grotto at Linshui. The original temple of the cult, built in 792 during the Tang dynasty, is located in the town of Daqiao, in Gutian. Later (1341–48), it was improved and enlarged, which gave rise to a ritual (jiao) of enthronement. If we can trust the sources and in particular the memorial of the scholar Zhang Yining (1301–70), written in conformity with the stele of the prefect Hong Tianxi (fl. 1225–28), the project was financed by the community of the faithful of the entire province and probably by newly acquired imperial subventions (see Hansen, 1990, on the process of these canonizations). The temple was restored after it was burned down during the Qing dynasty in the first year of the Guangxu reign period (1875) by a careless beggar who was taking shelter there. In 1950 during the campaign “against superstition” its statues were smashed; later the Cultural Revolution did further damage, but did not entirely destroy it. In 1980, the year that cults started little by little to be tolerated once again, the caretaker, Chen, undertook the restoration of the temple and, in consequence, the revival of the community of the cult. This course was not without conflict. In particular, he found himself in competition with a woman who was a Chen Jinggu medium, who had the same intentions he did, and who counted on being the principal player. In the end, she withdrew from the dispute, and undertook the construction of another temple, Linshui ergong, and the restoration of the old temple of the Gutian city god, Chenghuang miao. This local anecdote is instructive as to the formation of the communities of the cult that make up the warp and woof of these networks. It is also significant for the relations between the temples of Chen Jinggu and those of the Chenghuang shen (see Chapter 6, which deals with this theme). Since 1991, the Bureau of Religions has taken charge of the official restoration of the temple. A Daoist master (daoshi) of the monastic line of the Quanzhen, who came from the White Cloud Monastery, Baiyun guan (China’s Daoist association) in Beijing, played the role of “manager” there for two years. The White Cloud Monastery was made famous by the presence of the Jin dynasty Quanzhen Daoist Qiu Chuji, who was buried there in 1227. Situated in the western outskirts of Beijing, it is the great center of the monastic tradition of Total Perfection (Quanzhen) and the place where Daoist initiations take place. It is also the place where the Masters of the Dao (daoshi) are instructed in the orthodox teachings of

Introduction

37

the national Daoist Association (Daojiao xiehui). The temple was thereafter under the control of the Baiyun guan and the local administration. The latter development appears to me to be traditional in the context of the history of this temple. It is a good example of the different strata of society and of Daoism that it brings into play. It was a very emotional experience for me to see for the first time, in 1986, the white and pink walls and the swallow-tail roof of the temple in the countryside, at the bend of the mountain road that follows a small stream (see Figure I.3). The bridge that spans the stream is . . . the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers! Even more moving was to find myself transported into the heart of the Linshui pingyao on entering the temple.

f i gur e I.3.

Linshui Temple main gate, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Alain Sounier.

38

Introduction

The temple was built on the site of Linshui grotto, the refuge of the snake demon to which offerings had been made in the past in the form of the sacrifice of two children every year, and also the refuge of the White Snake, according to a later stratum of the legend. It was built, according to the bureaucratic metaphor, as an official palace. According to the legend, at one time Chen Jinggu’s mummified body was seated there on the head of the vanquished snake, hidden in the little grotto under her throne. The temple consists of an official reception hall, at the back of which Chen Jinggu sits dressed as an empress, private apartments, galleries, a kitchen, and a dressing room for theatrical plays and processions. Facing the ritual area, beyond a sunken courtyard, is a very beautiful theater stage that has been restored, and on which a performance was staged in 1991 (see Figure I.4). But the characters who figure in the temple, just like its origin, tell a different story. Occupying the place of honor are the Three Ladies (Sannai): Chen Jinggu herself, Lin Jiuniang, and Li Sanniang, the three shamans trained in the ritual techniques of Mount Lü (see Figure I.5). At their side are the Tigress Woman, Jiang Hupo, disciple of the Old Mother of Mount Li, and the Rock-Press Women (Shijia Furen), repentant demons who became shamans

f i gur e I.4. Linshui Temple ritual theater stage, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Alain Sounier.

Introduction

39

f i gur e I.5. The Three Ladies with the Qilin, Linshui Temple, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

at Chen Jinggu’s academy. The galleries are occupied by the Ladies of the thirty-six palaces, the consorts of the king of Min who had been reduced to the state of white bones by the White Snake. They are depicted in their roles as protectors of children. Their names are displayed with their place of origin, so that no one will “make a mistake when invoking them.” These place names in fact make up a map of the cult (see Chapter 5). Chen Jinggu’s mother, Lady Ge, is also present in the “private apartments” on the second floor, as is her son, Liu Cong, who was aborted, eaten by the White Snake, and brought back to life by Chen Jinggu by means of a liandu ritual. He became a psychopomp child-divinity and he is represented mounted on a qilin (a mythical beast sometimes translated as “chimera” or “unicorn”) under the official title of San Sheren or Qilin San Sheren, the Third Messenger Who Rides the Qilin. At the temple, he is found in the galleries with the royal consorts. Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng) is likewise present, and the generals Wang and Yang, leading the celestial soldiers (yinbing) of the Five Camps, commanded by Chen Jinggu as shaman of Mount Lü, are there, too, ready to come to her assistance. At the entrance to the temple, the two guardians (taibao) are found again, local divinities (bendi shen) arising from an earlier state of the cult’s communities (see Baptandier, 1996d: 105–49).

40

Introduction

The walls of their little room are decorated with paintings illustrating episodes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, while on the second floor, in the dressing room where there is an articulated statue of Chen Jinggu for the processions, the walls are covered with pictures illustrating her myths according to the Furen zhuan, a work equivalent to the Linshui pingyao.63 So it is a strange palace, where the queen of Min is also found, ruling, as is her duty, over the royal concubines in the galleries of the temple. In former times, the altar to the god of the soil was at the side of the temple; then, they say, there was an altar to Guangong. Guan Yu (?–219), the Lord Guan (Guangong), was a general of Liu Bei, at the end of the Han dynasty and in the Three Kingdoms (220–60). After he was killed by a traitor, he was appointed Marshal by the Celestial Emperor and became a divine exorcist, killer of demons. Figuring in all three of the major Chinese religions (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism), he became an important divinity under the Ming and the Qing as the official God of War, divine protector of many associations, and the god of merchants (see Pimpaneau, 1999: 59–72). Now the Bureau of Religions seeks to build a hall of the Three Purities, which would perhaps better suit the patronage of the Baiyun guan and the orthodoxy of the cult, while recalling the Palace of the Jade Emperor constructed on the advice of Chen Shouyuan. There is also the huge tree and the turtle and dragon spring, signs of a correct geomancy (fengshui). An inn has been built opposite the temple for the pilgrims and overseas Chinese (Huaqiao), who flock there in ever greater numbers and who can no longer be accommodated in the small rooms still found at the side of the temple. Thus we see how bureaucratic metaphor, Daoist lineages, royal structures, and shamanic and cosmic values are closely intertwined in the story of this woman, Chen Jinggu, and how the story is imprinted into the very structure of her temple, which is not an anomaly. Gutian is located in the mountains to the west of Fuzhou; the masters of Mount Lü are very active there. Ma Shouzhong, like Shi Xihui in Tainan, allowed me to follow his practice, traveling the steep roads to the borders of the province. First, I accompanied him while he led other communities who had come on pilgrimage to offer incense in procession (jinxiang) during the festivals of the Linshui Temple, or even other temples, such as the temple of Qitian Dasheng, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, at Jianyou in Nanping prefecture (see Chapter 6). Next I observed his practice during the crossing of the passes (guan) he performed, this time in the child’s house rather than in the temple (see Chapter 9). He, too, gave me access to the texts of rituals

Introduction

41

that he had himself received from his master, with his corpus of talismans and mudras, the ritual treasure of the masters (fashi) of the Mount Lü sect. Yang Dongxiang, Cai Furen’s medium, came one day of her own accord to meet me and accompanied me, as if we had always known each other, on this journey that, without her, would have been a labyrinth for me. I visited the village of Changbei, at the far end of the lake behind the dam that has swallowed up the old town of Gutian, where Chen Jinggu lived, and many places where multiple encounters wove for me the tangible fabric of the actual experience of the local communities. In Fuzhou the course was very different. There, the places that were significant were the temple of the Great Ritual Academy of Mount Lü (Da fayuan) (see Figure I.6) on the border of Min, Nantai, and Mount Zhang’an. Xu Gongsheng and the late Chen Zenghui, professors at the Teachers College in Fujian, mischievously took me on my arrival to the City of Banyans (Rongshu cheng), as it is called, during my first visit. On the day that I arrived in Fuzhou, although it was already dark, I went to Kaiyuan Temple, the obligatory point of departure for my trip; there I met a woman who was a lay devotee of Guanyin, Ruan Baoyu. The temple was deserted, and she must have had an odd feeling when I asked her, unthinkingly, if she knew Chen Jinggu! Our long and complicated journey in Fuzhou and in the other

f i gur e I.6. Great Ritual Academy of Mount Lü overlooking the Min River, Longtan jiao, Fuzhou. Photo Alain Sounier.

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Introduction

districts of northern Fujian (Minbei) started there and was not to be interrupted through all my return visits as the years went by. Near Luoyuan, where Chen Jinggu lived with her husband Liu Qi, who was posted there, is found the Temple of Lin Jiuniang, in Feizhu. This region is the domain of the She people, who also make offerings to her. It was Lan Zhuzhu, herself a She, who showed it to me. To her, also, I owed the opportunity to take part in the Chen Jinggu wenhua yanjiu conference that took place in Fuzhou in 1993, the proceedings of which I have cited many times here. Once again, it is impossible to mention all the people whose presence and knowledge guided my steps, as did Lin Jinshui, Lin Guoping, professors at the Teachers University of Fujian, and Xu Xiaowang of the Academy of Social Sciences (Shehui kexue yuan), in Fuzhou. This work is not a monograph on the cult of Chen Jinggu. It provides a glimpse that privileges some of it aspects, without exhausting the analysis of its abundant riches. A number of studies of other cults conducted by historians and anthropologists guided me on my path. This book is organized in two parts. The first six chapters are an analysis of the Linshui pingyao. I felt that it was important to enter into the text starting from the elements of the cult that can still be seen in the temples today. The Linshui pingyao was thus “tailored” to fit the “pattern” of the temple of Tainan first of all, and later enriched by the subsequent observation of the temple in Gutian. The organization of the first half of the book is thus more or less mapped onto the organization of the temple. The second half of the book—Chapters 7 through 9—treats the role of Chen Jinggu in the lives of women and children. There I describe the principal rites—of the Flowers and passes (guan)—that are performed there. The final chapter is devoted to Chen Jinggu’s medium. To make possible this tour through Linshui, it was still necessary to provide the “magic weapons” that would allow us to open up the path and, at its end, to meet the goddess. That is the sense that I wanted to give to the first and last chapters of this work. The first chapter, on the sexual categories, makes visible the common thread of the journey of the male and female characters in the Linshui pingyao: it thus reveals the fabric they weave together, which will help us to understand the meaning of their roles in relation to this cult of female time and transformations. The final chapter is devoted to Chen Jinggu’s medium in Taiwan and to the trance.

1

s exua l categor ie s

The Linshui pingyao zhuan begins with a premonitory introduction recounting the construction of the bridge over the Luoyang River and the roles played therein by the Bodhisattva Guanyin of the South Sea and the High God of the Dark Heaven (Xuantian Shangdi). This curious hierogamy sets the stage on which the legend will be played out. In brief, when the High God of the Dark Heaven attained the Way, he cut open his belly and threw his entrails into the river. They turned into two monsters, a turtle and a snake, that, taking the form of a boat and its steersman, devoured all those who sought to take the boat across the river (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 1: 1).1 Troubled by this state of affairs, the goddess Guanyin decided to aid the people of the region and, in particular, their prefect, who was determined to construct a bridge to put these two scourges out of business (Figure 1.1). When his efforts failed, Guanyin herself made her way onto the river in a rainbow boat with none other than the local god of the soil at the helm (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 1).2 On this occasion, Guanyin gave birth both to Chen Jinggu and to her demon double, the White Snake, who were destined to fight one another. The former was a drop of blood that the bodhisattva caused to fall from her finger so that it could be incarnated in the Chen family. The latter was a strand of the goddess’s hair 43

44

Sexual Categories

f i gur e 1.1.

Luoyang Bridge. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

that fell into the river after it was struck by a coin thrown by Wang Xiaoer, who hoped to make her his wife (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 6).3 Each of these characters, Guanyin and the High God of the Dark Heaven, thus forms a differentiated group with multiple aspects. Guanyin “gives birth” to two aspects of herself, which will fight against each other before in the end being reunited, while the two monstrous products of the High God of the Dark Heaven’s awakening devour human beings before being eradicated by the construction of the bridge over the Luoyang River. Guanyin is a complex figure. Originally the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, depicted with masculine features, in China he became a female bodhisattva, endowed with many contradictory incarnations. In different places and times she is the Princess Miaoshan who refuses to marry, or the “Fish-basket

Sexual Categories

45

Guanyin,” Yulan Guanyin, offering herself to any man who desires her in order to free him from worldly passions; she is also Nanhai Guanyin, Bodhisattva of the South Sea, goddess of compassion, and even the later Songzi Guanyin, the Child-giving Guanyin.4 The True Warrior (Zhenwu), God of the North, who became the High God of the Dark Heaven, is most notably the hero of The Journey to the North (Beiyou ji), in which as an emanation of the Jade Emperor he attained the Way. According to this novel, while the High God of the Dark Heaven was practicing the asceticism of longevity at Mount Wudang, his entrails were taken from his belly by the Celestial Venerable Miao Le while he slept in order to help him achieve enlightenment.5 His entrails turned into a demon turtle and a demon snake that ravaged the human world. Once they were subdued by the True Warrior himself, these two monsters became, respectively, the Generals of Fire and Water, and were placed under his command (see Seaman, 1987: chs. 9–10). In other popular versions of this story, the High God of the Dark Heaven is a butcher horrified by his bad karma. Wanting to rid himself of the knife with which he had taken so many lives, he wrapped it in his own entrails and flung it to the bottom of the river. Moved by his piety, Guanyin took him to the Western Paradise, where he became a buddha under the name High God of the Dark Heaven. But even there he had to subdue his two demon offspring. This is why he is depicted standing with one foot on a snake and a turtle (Zheng Shengchang, 1967: 65–66, cited by Seaman, 1987: 2).6 Like a parable, this premonitory narrative raises the question of sexual categories in the development of the cult of the Lady of Linshui, which combines shamanism, Daoist asceticism, and Confucian lineages. This episode will give rise to the marriage of Chen Jinggu and Liu Qi, whose soul—that of Wang Xiaoer who wanted to marry Guanyin—was sent on this same occasion to be reincarnated in the Liu family of Gutian, in order that the goddess’s promise and the karma of this “scallion brother” could be fulfilled.7 The tragic result of this marriage will establish the cult of the Lady of Linshui as a divinity who is a divine patroness of women, maternity, and childhood. In order to understand who this goddess is, we must examine the constituent elements of her “divine seat” or “divine post” (wei), that of Chen Da’nai, Great Mothering Lady Chen, as the legend presents them to us and follow their dialectical journey toward this transformation. This analysis will bring to light different aspects of the male and female characters in their mutual relations.

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Sexual Categories

The Female Characters women who brush their hair alone

One of the earliest aspects of the feminine in the Linshui pingyao zhuan is introduced through young female magicians and shamans. Despite having reached marriageable age, these young girls refuse union with the opposite sex and begin a regression toward the body of the mother, represented by the mountains, the sites of “schools of magic.”8 Such was precisely Chen Jinggu’s path when on her wedding day she fled the bridal palanquin and set out for Mount Lü. What then is Mount Lü? In reality as in myth, this Portal (Lü) Mountain comes under the sign of the North: Mount Lü of the Healing Shamans (Yiwu Lü Shan) in Dongbei (Manchuria), with a temple of the High God of the Dark Heaven at its summit, or the “pass that rules the North,” opposite Magpie Peak, as stated in the Linshui pingyao zhuan (ch. 11: 7).9 In both cases, it is the domain of shamanism (Strickmann, 1978: 349n50). Moreover, as a sacred site in the country of Min, “Ritual Academy” (Da Fayuan), as the temple built today near its supposed site is called, this mountain is said to have been submerged by its masters at the bottom of the Min River. Only its South Terrace, Nantai, appeared on the surface (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2).10 Like so many other mythical mountains, Mount Lü is also a grotto, another female symbol, whose door is guarded by two individuals—the history of which we shall return to later—whose bodies are covered with eyes.11 The eye, a sexual symbol linked with all these other elements, serves to confirm the profile of Mount Lü, toward which Chen Jinggu achieves a return. If, in general, mountains are considered in China to be maternal symbols, simultaneously wombs and embryos, Mount Lü uniquely emphasizes this feature. In this tale, it would seem that only women were admitted to Mount Lü. On this subject, the legend relates the story of a young man, Yuan Guangzhi, “Vast Knowledge,” who had no karmic link (yuan) with Mount Lü, and so was unable to find the entrance, which was reached, once again, by means of a ferryboat. Consequently, he went to Flourishing Yang Grotto on Mount Mao, where he was admitted as a disciple.12 This character’s name, furthermore, recalls a famous passage of the Zhuangzi, “Intelligence Travels North,” and the moral here is the same: to have access to the Other it is necessary to share in its nature (Zhuangzi, ch. 22).13 The women, including Chen Jinggu, are immanent to the nature of Mount Lü, which is not the case with Yuan Guangzhi, despite all his wisdom.14

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The theme of communities of women is inherent in this first category of characters. In fact, there are also young women practicing ritual arts and living in hermitages or grottos in other mountains besides Mount Lü. One of them, Jiang Shanyu, “Jiang Born of the Mountain,” lives with the Old Mother of Mount Li (Li Shan Laomu) on Flag Mountain (Qi Shan), where she has come to be instructed in these arts (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d.: chs. 3 and 5).15 She, too, left human society in order to serve her apprenticeship, and she will meet Chen Jinggu and become her sworn sister. Although these girls have refused marriage, they have not renounced all sexuality. Thus, during her visit to Flag Mountain, Chen Jinggu shared the bed and food of woman Jiang (Figure 1.2) (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5: 31).16 This scene is presented as the union of the Registers of the two schools and

f i gur e 1.2. Chen Jinggu meets Tigress Lady Jiang. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

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as the initiation of Jiang Shanyu, who the next morning receives her ritual instruments from the hands of the Old Mother of Mount Li before setting out in the company of Chen Jinggu to perform her first exorcism, that of the spider demon who spins hemp, and from whom Jinggu will secure the magic pearl. Lin Jiuniang, an expert in the Book of Changes (Yi jing), will later use just such a pearl (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d.: chs. 5 and 15).17 This alchemical use of sexual energy as a step toward the Way, presented here in a “homosexual” version, is all the more fascinating as the protagonists, women, are called by masculine ritual appellations, as is the custom in the Quanzhen monastic tradition in the search for pure yang.18 The Old Mother of Mount Li is called shifu, “master-father,” and the two sworn sisters call each other shixiong, “brothers.” In their rejection of marriage, it is thus not so much sexuality that these women call into question as union in accordance with Confucian criteria. Their manner of nourishing themselves likewise clearly signifies their quest for long life: like the immortals, they imbibe the juices of precious stones such as jade and carnelian, and they drink the milk of stones.19 Such communities of women who refused marriage were still in existence near Guangzhou (Canton) at the beginning of the twentieth century. They were called “women who brush their hair themselves” (zishu nü). Their leaving home was ritualized on the model of a marriage (Topley, 1975: 82– 83).20 These women did not want to face childbirth, both painful and the cause of punishment in the next world in the case of death in childbirth.21 We shall see that this was one of the reasons invoked first and foremost by Chen Jinggu for not “getting dressed up,” as she called it, not allowing herself to be dressed up for the marriage ritual. These women also claimed that their partner in their previous life had not yet been reincarnated.22 Many widows likewise found refuge in these communities or in temples. Such was the case with Li Sanniang and the woman Ou, sworn sisters of Chen Jinggu. They thus escaped the hardship of a solitary life dependent on their husband’s or father’s lineage, and they avoided a second marriage of convenience. They lived together in women’s houses, and made pilgrimages to temples and monasteries in the region. The lives of these women were thus quite similar to those of the young female magicians in the legend. Although they did not study magic, as Chen Jinggu and her sisters did, they at least read pious books, hagiographies of Guanyin, Chen Jinggu, and other divinities. Even today one finds similar communities united around a cult, generally one of a female divinity.

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Chen Jinggu and her sisters were, indeed, magicians. As demon slayers, exorcists, and healers, they could also perform shamanic journeys seeking lost souls and visit celestial and infernal regions. As shamans (wu), they bore the marks of magic power, or ling, the logogram for which combines three elements representing (1) the shaman, (2) who chants, (3) to cause rain to fall—a rite that Chen Jinggu performed at a key moment in her life.23 They refuse marriage and live in communities of women. They effect a regression toward mountain-wombs where they nourish their vital principle and live like immortals (xian, literally, “mountain beings”), nourishing themselves on the nectar of precious stones. a fascinating strangeness

The second aspect of the female character is the one characterized by demons. We can readily understand that, slain by the magicians, the demons are in fact only their doubles. In this legend one finds many characters with two aspects. Such are Jiang Hupo, the Tigress Woman Jiang, the RockPress Women, and even Chen Jinggu and the White Snake. Such are, also, Lin Jiuniang, an expert in the Book of Changes, and her double, the spider demon of Shuikou; and Li Sanniang, who is matched with the sea illusion of Haikou. Such also are the empress Chen Jinfeng and the thirty-six concubines, the thirty-six Pojie; the White Snake takes the place of the one and devours the other thirty-six. Jiang Shanyu, “Born of the Mountain,” alias Jiang Hupo or Jiang Hudan, “Tiger Courage,” is an incarnation of this animal. When her mother was pregnant with her, a tiger pursued by villagers entered her belly. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to a baby girl with a strange nature. “Ferocious as a Tiger,” she bestowed slaps that left the imprint of a tiger’s paw (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3: 12). As an orphan who refused to marry, she went to study the ritual arts at Flag Mountain. Her mount, a golden-haired tiger, never left her side except occasionally, when, transformed into a marvelous creature, it seduced unlucky travelers who had ventured into the mountains. The woman Jiang perfectly combines two aspects of the female character. She is a Daoist, a female immortal (xiangu), a student of the Old Mother of Mount Li, who instructs her in the medical arts and teaches her to cure childhood maladies. She becomes a sworn sister of Chen Jinggu in the course of a banquet of the joining of the breaths. But she is also a demon, the Goldenhaired Tiger. This tiger, however, is not an ordinary beast. It knows how to shoujing (retrieve souls in the clutches of terror) and qidu (expel poison).24

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Moreover, the king of Min will give her the honorific title of Golden Tiger Great God (Jinhu Dashen), under whose outlines we can make out the god of the soil in person (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 15).25 Chen Jinggu and the White Snake, both issuing from the goddess Guanyin, also form a character with two aspects. Chen Jinggu is the favored adept of the ritual tradition of Mount Lü, the student of Perfected Lord Xu. She fights against the White Snake, the formidable demon of transformations (huasheng yao), who can transform herself at will into a seductive woman. Nevertheless, rather than simply constituting a character with two aspects, this time these two characters engage in a fight to the death that will end in their union under the aspect of the Lady of Linshui. Chen Jinggu sacrifices the White Snake on the imperial bed: she “cuts it into three pieces,” then dies astride its head at Linshui Palace in Gutian. The word “demon” (yao), made up of nü (woman) and yao (premature or sudden death), conveys two realities. The demon woman, in contrast to the female magician, seeks out partners whom she initiates into sexual activity, in China a traditional characteristic of women.26 Death inevitably follows in cases of sexual union with a demon, as these women-vampires cruelly nourish their lives by absorbing the vital essences of their partners in order to advance along the path of the Dao, while cultivating within themselves “the embryo of immortality.” This parody of yangsheng, practiced by the Daoists who achieve through their internal alchemy what the demons are said to “actually” inflict on their victims, reveals a fearful notion of female sexuality, experienced as a battle without mercy. The outcome for the man can only be death. We shall see, however, in regard to the male characters that their role in relation to this female demon is not that of a “defenseless” victim, since they let themselves be taken in by words as ambiguous as those of the aforementioned Golden-haired Tiger: “I will teach you to enter into my belly in order to sleep there.” The willing victims to whom these inviting words were addressed were future officials on their way to Fuzhou to take the imperial exams. The White Snake played the same role in relation to Liu Qi, Chen Jinggu’s future husband, whom the latter had refused to marry. It is there that the characters presented during the construction of Luoyang Bridge reunite.27 The White Snake demon kidnapped Liu Qi, whom she particularly lusted after, and held him prisoner in the grotto at Linshui, in order to “marry him.” But Liu Qi, an official respectful of Confucian propriety and already engaged to Chen Jinggu, rejected her offer. Liu Qi had been Wang

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Xiaoer, who had wanted to make Guanyin his wife, in order to be able to make offerings to his ancestors; the White Snake was none other than the strand of Guanyin’s hair struck by his coin. Consequently, the White Snake suffered in sympathy the tortures she inflicted on him. Chen Jinggu, in her role as shaman, came to free him. She cut his bonds, took him out of the grotto, and half carrying him took him home with her (Figure 1.3). There she purified him by giving him herbal potions and talismanic water to drink (Figure 1.4) (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 8: 45). The White Snake demon thus initiates this future husband, whom Chen Jinggu seems to “bring into the world.”28 But Chen Jinggu, caught in her own trap, is forced to marry him. To achieve this union between Chen Jinggu and Liu Qi, the demon had to initiate the future husband into a female sexuality

figure 1.3. Chen Jinggu drives out the White Snake. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

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f i gur e 1.4.

Chen Jinggu revives Liu Qi. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

portrayed as a source of dread, before the shaman causes him to be “born” into his true self. Thereafter, constrained to follow what the text calls her “fate,” she allows herself to be “dressed up,” and becomes as a result Chen Ruren, a wife in a Confucian patriline (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 8). Here the karmic cycle of Wang Xiaoer–Liu Qi is completed, as is explicitly stated. The demon woman thus corresponds to another aspect of this power (ling), an “alien” power of the female (see Kaltenmark, 1960). She inspires terror in her partners by allowing them to catch sight of an aspect of herself that seems to be invested with the very attributes of religion in revealing to them the prospect of their own deaths.29 A telling example of this is the

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Rock-Press Women (Shijia Furen), the rock split by lightning that thereby obtained the energy of the two fundamental principles of yin and yang and which took as a result the female aspect of the Taiyin, Su’e, the goddess of the moon. With their bewitching features, they unfailingly seduced captivated passersby, whom they crushed and consumed in their stone grotto, in order to cultivate their vital principle. In addition, these demons were “daughters” of zhen, the thunder trigram and the fifty-first hexagram of the Book of Changes, which signifies “shattering, the moment when the dread of a shock gives rise to a new vital drive” (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5). Subjugated by the shaman Chen Jinggu, they, too, become the object of a cult of spirit mediums, by means of which they henceforth aid women in childbirth and protect the babies of whom they are divine godmothers (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5).30 This theme is further developed at the level of the imperial line. There, the White Snake and Chen Jinggu play a crucial role, each in their own way. The White Snake worms her way into the palace in the guise of the empress Chen Jinfeng, whom she kidnapped and handed over to the Ravine Demon for his pleasure. As the “anti-empress,” she leads the king to his destruction. She rediscovers her lover, Guilang, who has become the master of the women’s quarters and she devours the royal concubines, whom she reduces to the state of white bones in the “cold palace.” Thus it is the fertility of the kingdom in its different aspects that this untamed femininity puts at risk. As the text states, “In the palace of the [self-declared] emperor of Min, it is nothing but unalloyed disaster; the snake made herself empress, the empress is a demon (gui)” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 13: 80). The vow taken by the White Snake–Empress to eat Chen Jinggu’s heart will be her undoing. Chen Jinggu makes her resume her demon form and sacrifices her in her reptilian aspect on the imperial bed. The thirty-six concubines, restored to life by her ritual arts, become her “apprentices.” They will be integrated into her cult under the title of Pojie guan, duly recorded by Guilang in his role of master of the women’s quarters, and they will protect women and children who seek their help. Moreover, it is the empress Chen Jinfeng who will establish the divine seat (wei) of Chen Da’nai at Xiadu. The regressiveinfantile character of the shaman and that of the demon—who initiates a regression, and becomes a “mother”—once reunited give access to another dimension. A demon of transformations, this character moves through the cycles in order to give birth to a new being.

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This pattern of regression is manifested by the third aspect of the female character. Not only young shamans live in the mountains. There are also “old mothers,” such as the Old Mother of Mount Li, also known as “Spontaneously Empty” (Zikong), with whom the young girl with the Golden Tiger lived. She had long ago “ceased to eat food cooked with human fire,” and lived only on breaths. Having successfully concluded her task of nourishing her vital principle, this woman had cast off her “old body”; she had developed within herself her embryo of immortality and cast off her womb (tuotai). Beyond magic and demonic religion, the rituals and categories of sex, she had attained the Way, the cyclical time of gestation. Transformed into pure yang, she was henceforth called by a masculine term of address, shifu (master) (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5).31 For Chen Jinggu, the path was different. After having passed through the first two stages of the journey, she did not, however, succeed in attaining long life. As Liu Qi’s wife and “actually” pregnant, she nevertheless wanted to continue to act as a shaman and perform the rite to bring rain. The White Snake does not fail to rejoin her, but, rather than having access to a symbolic transformation, once they were reunited they died together. Having died a bad death following a disastrous childbirth, fixed in this destiny, it only remained for her to return to Mount Lü. In accordance with the process of deification characteristic of the Chinese pantheon, she then becomes the Goddess of the Flowers (hua), goddess of maternity and childhood, and somehow, in her own way, of transformations (hua). On the level of the Confucian lineages, the story of Chen Jinggu is the story of the making of a wife and mother: Chen Ruren, Liu Qi’s wife and the mother of Liu Cong. She is a model of filial piety who died in childbirth. In another guise, it is also the story of the development of a divinity. Chen Jinggu, the shaman of the Mount Lü sect, and the White Snake, a demon of transformations (huasheng yao), in the end reunited in a single death, will transform themselves into a goddess (shen), Chen Da’nai. Surrounded by her different acolytes, Chen Jinggu “creates” this goddess of maternity and infancy, born, as always in this pantheon, of a bad death (see Baptandier, 2001; see also Chapter 3). Her son becomes the Third Messenger (San Sheren). On a metaphorical level, it is the story of Daoist self-discipline in accordance with the Mount Lü sect, leading to the development of the self and to tuotai (see Chapter 2).

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The Male Characters The male characters, also, are situated in different modes. Members of Confucian patrilines, fathers and husbands, officials of the state hierarchy, they seek marriage in order to guarantee offerings to their ancestors or even the fertility of the kingdom. Daoists belonging to different ritual traditions (Zhengyi, Mount Mao), themselves linked to actor, shaman, or demon accomplices (Flourishing Scabbard, Mengyu), give another response to the female characters. Certain characters, finally, take an ascetic course and are caught in a metaphoric development of themselves. They appear as if in transformation, true mutants. Just as with the female characters, this step is effectuated through a form of castration. establishing one’s father as an ancestor

The characters of the first category are represented by men belonging to patrilineal Chinese society in the Confucian manner, particularly well illustrated by the Chen family of Fuzhou and the Liu family of Gutian. They are part of the mandarin hierarchy and hope above all to be in a position to continue their ancestral cults, the absolute duty of filial piety (xiao) incumbent on every man: to provide a son for one’s patriline in order to make one’s father an ancestor. Liu Qi has been driven by this desire since his previous life when, as Wang Xiaoer, with the assistance of Lü Chunyang, he tried to get Guanyin as his wife by means of financial compensation: the money thrown at her topknot, while she was aiding the construction of Luoyang Bridge. It is this act that gave rise to both Chen Jinggu and the White Snake. This time the marriage is set in motion by another gobetween, Lin Bashu, when Liu Qi goes to the prefectural office to take the imperial examination. Moreover, he will receive an official post, that of Inspector, at Luoyuan, which he carries out with irreproachable and exemplary character. Like every official, from the time he first took up office he made offerings to the city god, Chenhuang Shen, brought deviant local cults back into line, and censured corrupt local notables (see Johnson, 1985a; Hamashima, 1992; Baptandier, 1996e; Dui Xuepei and Chen Xianmei, 1996). In the end he resigns from his post in order to register his condemnation of royal debauchery (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9).32 His wife, Madame Chen, Chen Ruren (“ruren” being the official Confucian term of address for an official personage or his wife), helps in her own way: she often secretly leaves the yamen in order to subdue demons and

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render justice that is to all intents and purposes divine (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9). But it took some time to establish this perfect collaboration between husband and wife. Although their “eight birth characters” (bazi) matched perfectly and their engagement was concluded according to the rules, the wait imposed by the wife for the consummation of their marriage would last more than three years.33 During this time, husband and wife each developed their own personality and sexuality. Rejecting marriage, Chen Jinggu left to learn the ritual arts at Mount Lü, but she refused to learn those of pregnancy. This fatal act of omission would sign her death warrant. Carried off by the White Snake, Liu Qi was subjected to a very cruel initiation in Linshui grotto, when on his return from a literary party his poems were examined by the demon of transformations, who claimed to be taking him as her husband. During this ordeal, Liu Qi remained faithful to the principle of propriety and to his commitment to the “life-long matter” of his engagement. It is then that Chen Jinggu rejoined the demon in order to fight her in Linshui grotto, where Liu Qi was held prisoner. She rescued him and married him, finally allowing herself to be “dressed up” at the end of her journey as exorcist of the demons of the kingdom (pingyao) (Figure 1.5).

f i g u r e 1.5. Sounier.

Ancestral temple of Liu Qi, Zhongcun, Daqiao. Photo Alain

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However, Chen Jinggu is no ordinary wife. Torn between the different aspects of her character and victim of her own filial piety, she dies in a disastrous childbirth, unable to save herself. Here the categories of country and family are in opposition. The two aspects wu and yao are then reunited and give rise to the goddess in Linshui Palace, built on the site of the former grotto of the White Snake, where the action took place. On the order of Perfected Lord Xu, master of the tradition of filial piety, Liu Qi has it “written” in her fate by a scholar calligrapher who mummifies her body. Thanks to this treatment, it is said, “incense will be burned before her for ten thousand years!” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16).34 It was then the turn of Guilang, the master of the royal women’s quarters, to come to make official sacrifices to Chen Jinggu. He also promoted the thirty-six Pojie guan, while the king conferred a new title on the heroine of the country of Min. Liu Qi led an irreproachable mourning period. After her death, wishing to “leave a posterity in the world,” Chen Jinggu carried out a liandu rite for her baby, Liu Cong.35 He became the “divine leader of souls of the dead,” the Third Messenger Who Rides the Qilin (Qilin San Sheren). He is conspicuous at the Gutian temple, where even today women who hope to become pregnant make sacrifices to him.36 It is the empress Chen Jinfeng who established the cult of Chen Jinggu, with her divine seat (wei) as “Great Mothering Lady,” Da’nai. She situated it at Xiadu, the place of Chen Jinggu’s birth and death. She also established a taboo on the flesh of female ducks, as they were the birds sent by Perfected Lord Xu to save Chen Jinggu from drowning while she was performing the ritual to bring rain. It was then that the fourteen female figures who make up her divine Register rejoined her in her bad death by committing suicide. As for the Pojie guan, they were already installed in small reliquary stupas in the galleries of Linshui Temple, Chen Jinggu’s death having reduced them once again to the state of white bones. This gives a very concrete idea of what a divinity is in this context, and also a striking picture of the relations between men and women as one imagines them. in search of long life

A second type of male character is represented by the ritualists of different traditions. Of course, only the ritual tradition of Mount Lü is highly regarded here, while the officiants of other schools are consistently caricatured. In the history of the kingdom of Min, Chen Shouyuan was a Celestial

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Master (see Schafer, 1954; see also Introduction, above). He belonged to the tradition of the Orthodox One, Zhengyi, which emphasizes ritual. Chen Shouyuan was in charge of the Palace of the Jade Emperor (Baohuang gong), located on Mount Yu in Fuzhou. This is also the case in the novel, where his kinship with Chen Jinggu is obviously invented out of nothing and is therefore all the more interesting. In order for him to arrive there, he had to travel a long road. At the beginning, he is a household member living in the house at Xiadu, where he looks after Chen Jinggu’s parents, who were injured by Guanyin’s acolytes at the time of her departure for Mount Lü. For him, there is no possibility of marriage: he is too poor, so he must content himself with living with a young actor, Flourishing Scabbard, whom the White Snake sucked dry of his bodily essence in Linshui grotto at the same time that she held Liu Qi prisoner. This lovely young man is not highly regarded: playing female roles (dan) in the Pear Orchard troupe of Suzhou, a victim of no great value for the demon of transformations, he, too, almost became an adopted “caterpillar son” (mingling zhi zi) in the Chen family.37 Chen Jinggu’s father, after all, had no son and Flourishing Scabbard could have taken this role. Cut off from his lineage ties—as he already was in the Suzhou troupe—such an adoption would have entailed the loss of his name, his descent, and his labor power. Chen Jinggu dissuaded her father, who had been captivated by the young man’s beauty, from committing what she considered to be an error that would inevitably lead to his ruin: adopting in such a way did not in fact conform to the Confucian rites according to which only a child of the same surname, preferably the son of a brother of the father, was able to offer sacrifice to the ancestors. But there was nothing to stop Chen Shouyuan from taking him as his companion. Together, they progressed in their respective careers: Chen Shouyuan became a well-known Daoist master, and Flourishing Scabbard a “shaman” (wu). The former was in charge of the Palace of the Jade Emperor, the latter pronounced oracles there. He was, in short, a medium, and his bonding with Chen Shouyuan made sense at this place, the collaboration of Daoist masters (daoshi) and ritual masters (fashi) with the mediums who pronounced the oracles of the dead and of the gods frequently occurring there. We will keep in mind this “union” of two men, who, under the cover both of a prohibited adoption transposed into a “marriage” that is scarcely orthodox and of their ritual complementarity, share a common life where a degree of education takes place. One is a specialist in canonical ritual texts and the other in ritual theater and oracles.

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We sometimes encounter Chen Shouyuan on the road in his capacity as a Daoist, hurrying to go carry out, for example, an exorcism ritual of “bloody curses.” But none of this makes him a very effective or very reliable character. He does not succeed in bringing rain, despite the ritual he conducts at the head of 128 Daoists, and he would certainly have been burned alive as punishment for his incompetence if Chen Jinggu had not sacrificed her life to save both him and her country. The efficacious “true rituals of Mount Lü,” rites of the Five Thunders and the Northern Dipper, which are of tantric inspiration, here are opposed to the classic rite of offering (jiao) of the Zhengyi sect. And this rivalry appears in this context as an externalized complementarity of the male and female.38 There is another Daoist who competes with Chen Jinggu. This is Yuan Guangzhi, the disciple of Mount Mao. He is in opposition to her from the time they meet on the road to Mount Lü when she fled marriage in the company of Guanyin’s acolyte. Guangzhi does not succeed in finding the magic boat to Mount Lü and it is through an “earth vein” that the Ravine Demon, taking advantage of this unexpected good fortune, takes him to the Grotto of Flourishing Yang. The tradition of high purity, in contrast to that of the Orthodox One, Zhengyi, privileges meditation and internal alchemy over ritual in the search for the symbolic union of the sublimated male and female principles in order to arrive at the transformation of being. Furthermore, it was by means of a dream that Wei Huacun, matriarch of this school, revealed her texts to the visionary Yang Xi, who then transcribed them. After an apprenticeship equal in length to Chen Jinggu’s apprenticeship at Mount Lü, Yuan Guangzhi, who was unworthy of this transmission, hoped to “make a career” and took leave of his perspicacious master, who predicted his future straying. Indeed, Yuan Guangzhi promptly let himself be seduced by the demon Dream Remnant, Mengyu, the vital essence of a Tang prince that had previously imbued an ink drawing of a marvelous butterfly drawn by the prince’s own hand.39 Of course, being consummately powerful (ling), she ravaged the country with the blind complicity of Yuan Guangzhi, who had been driven mad by this fatal passion. Mengyu brutally pillaged flowers—which, we shall see, symbolize women in the cult of Chen Jinggu—and children, who could not be protected (see Chapter 3). Their union is thus an alchemy that proved calamitous for the country. We will note that, just as in the case of Chen Shouyuan’s companion, Mengyu is not a woman, but actually the vital essence of an artist of the imperial line. The emphasis here is more on a procedure of internal alchemy.

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In addition, hedging his bets, Yuan Guangzhi imagines himself leading the kingdom of Min and, involved in a sinister plot, he attacks the imperial troops. It is then that Chen Jinggu, having come to the rescue with the assistance of all her sworn sisters, engages in an epic battle against Yuan Guangzhi and Mengyu. At the end of this merciless “war of the schools,” Mengyu, Dream Remnant, was reduced to her initial state, a painted scroll, which was incinerated so that she could no longer transform herself. This battle matches one to one the demon-poisons summoned up by Yuan Guangzhi and their respective antidotes from Chen Jinggu’s divine Register. Here again, male and female are in opposition. The rivalry between Yuan Guangzhi and Chen Jinggu presents in a highly exaggerated fashion two ideas of self-development, those of internal alchemy and ritual. In the end, in yet another way, a third character, the Buddhist monk of Luoyuan, Iron Head, comes into conflict with Lin Jiuniang, who is expert in the Book of Changes, by introducing two different arrangements of the trigrams: those of before and after creation.40 This time two ideas about the world—Buddhist and Daoist—come face to face. The Buddhists deal with the Real in its unrealizable aspect, located elsewhere in the realm of the transcendent, which resembles the notion of “before creation” (xiantian), or death, of which they are the ritual specialists. As for the Daoists, they regard themselves as immanent to the order of the universe; they do not believe that there is an “elsewhere,” no limit, no border between the worlds of the living and the dead, nor any discontinuity at all. The anecdote of the rivalry between Zhang Boduan and a Chan Buddhist gives a clear idea of this difference. When they both boasted of their gifts of ubiquity, they decided to each go to a certain place, chosen by common agreement, and then to compare their respective experiences. On his return, the Buddhist described in detail the place he had just visited; the Daoist brought back a flower.41 Iron Head, an adept of the Diamond sutra, considered Lin Jiuniang’s powers to be useless: she could not attain the order of xiantian, the order of the Real.42 “Jiuniang knows how to arrange the trigrams, but she does not know how to bring them into play,” he said. She possesses only the techniques of after creation, that of the Luo [River] Writing (Luo shu). She does not know the “Dragon Directions Chart,” according to which “To the north, water is born of the One of the Sky, which is complemented by the Six of the Earth” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 8: 50–52). We can see here a reference to the fact that, as Lewis (1999, 2006a) remarks,

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the Yellow River Chart (He tu), closely related to Fuxi’s discovery of the trigrams (bagua), was routinely paired in the Han dynasty with the “Luo (River) Writing” (Luo shu), a magic talisman of similar origins and significance that probably derived from the proto-Daoist scholarly traditions (see also Cammann, 1985: 227–31; and Saso, 1978b). This recalls the name “Luoyang Bridge” given by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang (r. 846– 59) to the Wan’an Bridge in Quanzhou (Fujian), where our legend begins. Luoyang is situated on this same Luo River. This episode sheds a new light on the “Luoyang Bridge” of the Linshui pingyao zhuan as associated with the Luo Writing (see Introduction; see also Shaughnessy, 1996; Wilhelm and Perrot, 1973; Jullien, 1993). Nevertheless, Lin Jiuniang is immanent to the order of cyclical time, of gestation, of the “creation of the ten thousand things,” and that is what allows her to prevail, admittedly with Chen Jinggu’s help.43 This episode is also, clearly, a metaphor for a sexual act. This time it is not a question of filial piety or ancestral worship, or of antithetical apprenticeships or internal alchemy. We are far from a display of strict monastic virtues. This conflicting arrangement of two layouts of the trigrams—mandalas—appears more as an assault of love magic where male vajra and female vajrini are in opposition.44 Iron Head works unceasingly to carry off Lin Jiuniang for his own pleasure, by worming his way into her trigram mandala—a figure that symbolizes the womb—which he shamelessly destroys. He sends two vajra to the yamen, the immediate effect of which is that lightning pierces the room where Lin Jiuniang arranges her trigrams with Chen Jinggu, while the two clumsy giants, armed with great swords, remain in the space between heaven and earth (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9).45 Iron Head “slanders” Lin Jiuniang, claiming that she uses her ritual arts for purposes as deviant as his own. This assertion perplexes Chen Ruren, and she will not fail to set Lin Jiuniang’s acolytes on the correct path, after exterminating Iron Head in the course of a fight that lasts an entire night, when “tiger and dragon” face each other without mercy. As in the case of the female characters, an alternative is offered to these two complementary types of the upright official infatuated with filial piety and of monks carrying out transgressive self-discipline: certain characters who are neither part of a line of “bone” nor ritualists who effect in themselves a radical form of transformation.

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In the Linshui pingyao zhuan there are many examples of characters engaged in this process of sublimation. “Sublimation” is in a way the very first word of the legend: the story of the transmutation of the High God of the Dark Heaven who, having become “pregnant” with himself and having successfully concluded the gestation of his own embryo of immortality, “gave birth” by cutting open his belly in the water of the Luoyang River.46 The strange characters we have mentioned earlier, the guardians of the door of Mount Lü, also underwent a striking transformation. Originally two young peasants who wished to study the ritual arts, they went to Mount Lü. Although they managed to gain entry, they had to grind and husk rice for three years after this primordial return to the mountain-womb in the grotto of Mount Lü. All day long they wielded the mortar and pestle that they had been given for this purpose. The husked grain of rice represents the essence with which the embryo of immortality is fed, while the pestle is the weapon of the Five Thunders, capable of summoning up the thunder and lightning from which the adepts of this tradition absorb cosmic energy in order to arrive at the alchemical transformation of themselves.47 After three years, their hands covered with sores from contact with the pure essence they were making, and, unconscious of the path they were thus following, the two young men thought that they were not being taught anything and wished to escape. But when they threw down their pestles, judging them to be too heavy to carry, they caused a violent earthquake on the mountain, and suddenly this cosmic energy passed through them. The ink that they were carrying with them, and which had served as an antidote to the excess of pure yang, spilled and ran over their bodies, inscribing them with thousands of eyes. In this way, transformed into eyes, they became the clear-sighted guardians of the grotto of the portal mountain, Mount Lü.48 Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng) provides another example of a self-transformation. The monkey Cinnabar Cloud is an ascetic (sheng). Like the Great Monkey Equal to Heaven (Qitian Dasheng), the king of the monkeys subdued by Guanyin in The Journey to the West (Xiyou ji), Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage had cultivated his vital principle for more than a thousand years.49 Without a master to teach him, and not entirely human, his efforts in this area were in vain and his practices deviant: he committed all sorts of heinous crimes stealing women’s vital energies. As the name Cinnabar Cloud indicates, he was stimulated by an excess of yang, which denied

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him access to transformation.50 Although he survived the injuries caused by the burning pearl—lightning—thrown at him on the way to Mount Lü by Liangnü, an acolyte of Guanyin, he did not, however, escape Chen Jinggu’s sword. She had him castrated, thereby giving him access to his symbolic female nature. This allowed him to complete the quest that he had until then undertaken in vain. Significantly, his character is presented by the Linshui pingyao zhuan as the double of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven: “From this time on, in the temple of the King of the Monkeys, next to the statue of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, we can see another figure, who was said to lack respect for women commoners and who offended the King of the Monkeys. Well! It is Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 4: 23). Inscribed in Chen Jinggu’s Register, and armed with his club of mulberry wood, he first subdues the Rock-Press Women, who thereby become patronesses of childbirth and children. With them, he fights the magic birds sent by the Daoist Yuan Guangzhi. Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage is a divine character associated with the cult of Chen Jinggu. He takes care of actual skin diseases (inflammations and eruptions) and symbolic ones (problematical fates), all manifestations of polarization, of a lack of balance of yin and yang (see Chapter 4 for a discussion of this figure). At the same time, another character, an accessory of Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, does not attain the stage of transmutation. He appears here as the “anti-embryo,” in contrast to Chen Jinggu’s infant son, Liu Cong, the San Sheren. This character is the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui). Born of a breath of congealed marsh, his name evokes the Northern Dipper (Ursa Major, Beidou) constellation, the Great Ravine, which symbolically designates the womb (Schipper, 1982b: 101). He has the power to move through the veins of the earth, and his own veins connect with the springs in the same way that a fetus is in symbiosis with the body of its mother. This character also claims to nourish the vital principle within himself through vampiric practices. An accomplice of the White Snake, he is the sworn enemy of Chen Jinggu, and causes her to die in childbirth. She will found her cult on his sacrifice (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17; see also Chapter 4). This cult is distinguished by an animal taboo, that of the female ducks sent by Perfected Lord Xu to save Chen Jinggu from drowning. According to local oral tradition, at that very moment the Ravine Demon, the “bad embryo,” transformed into a cock, cried, “Drown her!” Even today, at Linshui Temple in Gutian, a cock covered with an image representing the Ravine Demon is sometimes offered in memory of this wicked deed.

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Two opposing “lines” are thus drawn through the two characters of Chen Jinggu and the White Snake. They can be described thus: Chen Jinggu

White Snake

San Sheren

Ravine Demon

embryo

“bad embryo”

vital essence

coagulated breath of a swamp

divinized

sacrificed

The male characters thus also arrive at this “pass” that leads them to the Other, in the image of the pass crossed by Laozi himself, the “Old Baby,” when he set out toward the west. Laozi was originally his own mother, the Woman of Jade of the Mystery of the Cloud.51 This run-through of the sexual categories suggests the themes of sexual ambiguity under the cover of mythological wanderings that bring into play the different social and religious structures. Its working out implies a loss for both sexes, a castration that can be pushed so far as to be sublimated. In addition, on another level, a woman who rebels against patrilineal law here has only two choices: religion or death. In this exemplary case, the bad death is emphasized in the form of a divinization: the Lady of Linshui, written as a pictogram through her mummified body, or indeed her divine post as Chen Da’nai.

2

the goddess of p re gnancy h as a n ab ortion and re t urns to mount lü

At the end of her symbolic journey, Chen Jinggu will become the goddess of the distinct and privileged period of pregnancy, and the goddess-protector of children. But far from being a goddess-mother, the symbol of female fertility, she was a woman who died following an abortion after rejecting marriage. In this paradox lies the key to this legend and cult, which intentionally combines several levels: pregnancy and the alchemical “development” of the self, the search for long life, and the magical art of transformation. In addition, the fact that Chen Jinggu became a divinity (shen) after dying a bad death allows us to understand, beyond the process of divinization through which a being joins the Chinese pantheon, the clearly marked difference between the Daoist religion and local cults. It is this path that the legend reveals to us.

The Spiritual Powers of Blood We have already noted how Chen Jinggu was born of a drop of blood shed by the goddess Guanyin through biting her finger during the mythological episode of the construction of Luoyang Bridge. Guanyin allowed this drop of “buddha blood” to be incarnated in the Chen family of Xiadu. This was 65

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Chen Jinggu. Then Guanyin dropped into the water of the Luoyang River the strand of her hair that Wang Xiaoer had struck with a piece of silver in an act of desire. This was the White Snake, Chen Jinggu’s demon double. Both were born of Guanyin and both were incarnations of her. The fact that Chen Jinggu is a drop of blood, which is the female contribution to the conception of a child, determines her karma. According to traditional Chinese models, the woman’s blood is said to form the child’s flesh, while the man’s semen is said to give birth to the bones (see Furth, 1986, 1987, 1999; Despeux, 1990: 216). On another level of language, the man is said to “create” (sheng) and the woman to “transform” (hua). Despite her contradictory desire to follow—like Princess Miaoshan—a different path from the one laid out for her by the promise of marriage made before her conception, Chen Jinggu will not escape her fate as a woman subject to Confucian lineages by devoting herself to the ritual arts. Oral tradition tells of miracles and prodigies associated with Chen Jinggu’s conception. The drop of blood thrown into the water by Guanyin arrived at the lower ford, Xiadu, of Fuzhou, where Madame Ge was doing her laundry. She swallowed the red pearl floating in the river and became pregnant at over fifty years of age, having been unable to conceive a child. It was also said that at the moment of Jinggu’s birth the air was filled with the scent of exquisite perfumes. Y. Verdier has shown the relation between this traditionally female activity—laundry—and the double passage of birth and death. Each of these passages is accompanied by a ritual washing that is the responsibility of women (Verdier, 1979). These women are often the same ones who assist with childbirth. That will be precisely Chen Jinggu’s role as a goddess. Xiadu, where the Chen family lived, is also significant in this context. The term du signifies the ford of a river, where one “crosses” the water, and, in both the Buddhist and Daoist meanings of the word, “to save.” Here it is the “lower ford” (xiadu) (Figure 2.1). Chen Jinggu, who will later become the Lady of Linshui, is definitively marked by this symbolically female yin element of nature, the sign of her birth.1 How did this same Chen Jinggu paradoxically come to refuse motherhood? Fleeing the marriage palanquin and refusing to let herself be “dressed up,” she was first of all carried off to Mount Lü by the bodhisattva on the day of her wedding. She was welcomed by the master of Mount Lü, Perfected Lord Xu. During her three years there, she learned the ritual procedures characteristic of this tradition.2 However, in this mythological context there is one skill that distinguishes Mount Lü from the other ritual

f i gur e 2.1. Ancestral temple of Empress Chen of Linshui (interior), located in the house in which Chen Jinggu was born, Tating, Xiadu (“lower ford”), Fuzhou. Photo Alain Sounier.

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mountain-schools: that of helping women to conceive and of aiding them during the period of their pregnancy and delivery, as well as of protecting the embryo and the baby. Such is the formulation of the Law of Mount Lü: to penetrate the secrets of gestation and the transformation of life (huasheng), the specialty of the laws of the feminine, real and symbolic. Chen Jinggu, however, refused to learn these rites. As a devotee of Guanyin, she renewed her vow to never marry. She said she feared the pollution linked to the birth chamber, and she also expressed her eagerness to return to her family in order to take care of her parents, who had been ailing from the time she was carried off by the goddess. Her reasons anticipate the ultimate fulfillment of her cruel fate. As a shaman of Mount Lü, Chen Jinggu scarcely thinks of becoming a mother for the benefit of the patriline, as Confucian society expected of her. She thus corresponds to the first stage of the sexual categories, as we have defined them. Nonetheless, and such is her paradoxical fate, by pacifying demons (pingyao) she establishes the Register of Chen Da’nai, the divinity of maternity, in which figure her “sworn sisters,” Lin Jiuniang, Li Sanniang, the Rock-Press Women, Jiang Hupo, and others. Her fear of pollution linked to childbirth merits consideration. As Despeux (1990: 27–28) points out: Since antiquity, in China sex life was considered necessary not only for the individual but also for the proper functioning of the universe. . . . Daoism also emphasized the importance of sexual relations corresponding to the union of the breaths both inside and outside of oneself in such a way as to maintain order and to constantly further harmony in the system of correlations between the universe and the interior region that is the body.

Formerly, women played a very important role in the tradition of the Celestial Masters (tianshi). Their femaleness did not disqualify them from this ritual conduct. They were the alter ego of the Daoist masters, the female part of this “register” of breaths reunited during the initiation of the adepts, which consisted of sexual rites criticized by the Buddhists. “The purpose of these rites was to erase the names of the disciples from the Register of Death and to inscribe them in the Register of Long Life” (see Despeux, 1990: 27–30).3 This is just what Chen Jinggu will not be able to do. For, if women as fully fledged partners existed only in the imagination, in the transcendent form of immortals (goddesses who possessed power, ling) and in the Daoist feminization of the body, the fact remains that this imaginary delimited very precisely their subordinate place and role in society.

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Adopting a mode of interiorizing sexuality leading to visualisations, the Mount Mao tradition had a more ambiguous position (Despeux, 1990: 34–35).4 It preached chastity, and made sexual rites a fairly minor technique, although it did not actually prohibit them. In addition, in female alchemy the physiology characteristic of women plays a particular role. “Called by the metaphorical term ‘red dragon,’ menstrual blood is the foundation of the woman’s energy. It is what one should transmute in the course of the first stage, for if the original breath is lost in the man with the flow of semen, it is lost in the woman with the flow of menstrual blood,” which is also that of conception (Despeux, 1990: 243). In order to reach “long life,” Daoist female adepts (daogu) had to “decapitate the red dragon,” that is to say they had to cause the menstrual flow to cease, in this “transmutation of blood and its return to the void.” But these ascetic practices are clearly distinguished from real gestation—also marked by blood—which causes the woman to incline toward death rather than toward the Dao, which goes beyond divinity by abolishing death. Thus, it was in fact a hemorrhage that was fatal to Chen Jinggu. The Daoist nourishes within himself an “embryo,” which is none other than himself. This is precisely the meaning of the prologue that begins the tale of the Linshui pingyao zhuan: the High God of the Dark Heaven provides the countertype to the Lady of Linshui, thereby underlining the opposition between popular cult and Daoist religion. The example of another Daoist woman, surnamed Guan, converted between 1241 and 1252 by Lü Chunyang, closely echoes the fate of Chen Jinggu, and enables us to grasp the difference between their two paths. When her parents wanted her to marry when she was about seventeen years of age, she fled and sought refuge in the heart of the mountains. There she met an old man with blue eyes overhung by thick eyebrows. Drawing a line on Guan’s belly, he said to her, “I have decapitated your red dragon, and you can now enter into the Dao.” Ms. Guan prostrated herself and asked him to teach her the secret principles, after which she no longer ate anything but fruit and drank nothing but water, and she no longer had menstrual periods. She moved with the lightness of a divinity. From that time on, her parents no longer tried to force her to marry. The empress conceived a fondness for her and had her become a Daoist. (Despeux, 1990: 244)

It would seem that the same parallel was established in the text of the Linshui pingyao zhuan between Chen Jinggu and the Tigress Woman, Jiang

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Hupo, a student of the Old Mother of Mount Li. In contrast to Chen Jinggu, these two women nourish their vital principles without compromising with society. But Chen Jinggu does not know the techniques of developing within herself the “embryo of immortality” that would allow her to escape the Confucian patriline and attain the “liberation from the womb” (tuotai), the result sought from the ascetic practices of long life. On another level of language, that of Mount Lü, it will be said that she refused to learn the secrets of pregnancy, which will prove fatal to her. This popular notion of pollution linked to female blood thus comes from the power that is accorded to it to serve for the development of the self or for gestation (see Douglas, 1966; Ahern, 1974). According to an analogical way of thinking, women who fail to produce a child and die in childbirth are also punished by this same element: they are flung into the region of hell called the Lake of Blood (see Seaman, 1981; Doré, 1914). They are denied all pardon both for having failed to give birth to a son for the lineage and for the “pollution” caused by their spilled blood. Thus even though it seems to accord with the principles of Daoism, the ambiguous response of Perfected Lord Xu to Chen Jinggu’s fear is also the expression of the way of filial piety that she will follow in spite of herself. He affirms that, far from polluting her, contact with childbirth and the magical mastery of this time of gestation would enrich her and make her more powerful. In this ritual technique, he tells her, “there is a marvelous benefit. . . . It cannot diminish the merit of your three years of study at Mount Lü.”5 This is what Chen Jinggu will realize later to her cost, and it is what will motivate her return to Mount Lü after she dies. She will die a shaman, a victim of her demon alter ego during a “disastrous childbirth,” as she will call it, at the moment where she would have had to carry out a transformation of herself. In short, real maternity and long-life alchemy, as mirror images of each other, are also marked here by the sign of their incompatibility. Giving precedence to her eagerness to rejoin her lineage, Chen Jinggu thus foregoes instruction in the ritual techniques that would have saved her. A paragon of filial piety, she thus comes to pay with her body the debt owed to her parents: she treats the wounds that afflict them by covering them with pieces of her own flesh (Figure 2.2). This practice is not original. We find it both in the story of Guanyin—who gives her eyes to save those of her father—and in the legends of many famous individuals, such as the Third Prince Nazha, who gave his father his flesh and bones.6 After all, according to the Chinese notion of the debt contracted at birth, each person’s

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f i gur e 2.2. Chen Jinggu cuts off a piece of her flesh in order to heal her parents. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

body belongs to the patriline from which it was born. Nothing could harm it without injuring the family in its life capital, unless it is in order to save one’s parents. Chen Jinggu follows this rule to its extreme.

An Unavoidable Fate a look back

Perfected Lord Xu warned Chen Jinggu that the consequences of her refusal would be heavy: she will not be able to escape her fate, inscribed since her “previous lives.” Her departure from the grotto of Mount Lü shows the extent of her life. Equipped by Perfected Lord Xu with her ritual weapons and with the Register of Talismans, and accompanied by her two acolytes, the

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bodyguards Wang and Yang at the head of the soldiers of the Five Camps, the five directions and their active principles, Chen Jinggu sets out.7 Perfected Lord Xu had advised her to walk straight ahead and above all not to look back. But her fate awaited her at her twenty-fourth step, after which she looked back to see her master still standing at the threshold of the grotto of Mount Lü. He then told her that at age twenty-four she would lose all her ritual powers and be obliged to withdraw and look after herself “like the common herd” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3: 16–17). The number twenty-four corresponds to the totality of the annual solar cycle. It is made up of twelve months and twenty-four segments of breath (jieqi), marked by the combination of heavenly and earthly cyclical elements, the tiangan and the dizhi, hierogamy of the earth and sky where one’s destiny is written in sexually marked terms.8 It is in short a complete cycle, at the end of which Chen Jinggu will come face to face with her “demon” alter ego, the White Snake. The theme of turning back generally symbolizes death and is closely related to the theme of the double. It is found in the legend of Laozi, whose own mother, Xuanmiao Yunü, died as a consequence of breaking his prohibition to not look back to see him, her own son.9 It is also a recurrent feature of myths of the submerged village that is illustrated by many other mythical characters in a manner very close to that of Chen Jinggu. It is the case, for example, with the wife of the demiurge Yu, Tushan, who was turned into stone for having seen her husband while he was “turned into a bear” in order to break through a mountain. Their son was born in splitting his mother’s womb: Named expressly at the instant when her husband was boring through a mountain, Tushan [this family name literally means “Tu Mountain”], turned into stone and split; she was the necessary victim of a sacrifice, or, equally, the victim of a violated taboo. A woman does not come to watch when the men in the form of bears jump from rock to rock (and dance in the manner of a Chang-yang, who summons rain)—probably out of fear of lightning. (Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 565; see also Lewis, 2006a: 136–39)

It is a similar fate that awaits Chen Jinggu at age twenty-four. She, too, is a victim of a violated taboo for having seen what she was forbidden to see—her master at the threshold of the grotto of Mount Lü, a mountain submerged and turned upside down (fan) in the waters of the Min—and also the victim of a sacrifice: the rite to bring rain. Her womb will be torn during a bizarre parturition in the course of which she will die of a

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fatal hemorrhage. In many respects this episode recalls the fate of another woman, the mother of Yi Yin, advisor to the founder of the Shang dynasty. Transgressing a prohibition that had been made to her, she turned around and saw a flood pour out of a mortar. She was promptly turned into a hollow mulberry tree, in which her son was found (Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 564; Kaltenmark, 1985). On the model of the submerged village, this episode of the Linshui pingyao zhuan is developed in a complex version, with two aspects: the “liberation from the womb” (tuotai), and the rite to bring rain. We find here the themes typical of this motif: the death and deification of a woman who looks back in order to see what she should not have seen; the watery world of the dead; the womb and fertility; flooding and exorcism.10 To these themes we must add those of blood and the petrification of the woman. setting the stage for the two aspects

On her return from Mount Lü, Chen Jinggu makes use of her shamanic gifts. She heals people and expels demons; we shall return to some of her exorcisms. She takes advantage of her frequent visits into the mountains in pursuit of demons to create around her a community of sworn sisters who later on will become a ritual community. Then, just as Perfected Lord Xu predicted to her, she comes face to face with her fate: she is indirectly forced by the White Snake into marriage with Liu Qi. It is then that at age twentyfour, and pregnant, she remembers the words of her master telling her that she will no longer be able to make use of the ritual arts. Thus, she withdrew to Linshui grotto, from which she had chased the White Snake when she rescued Liu Qi, and which she had transformed into a palace where she taught her sisters (Figure 2.3). She sent them home and undertook to live alone during this period in retirement, as Perfected Lord Xu had enjoined her. Nevertheless, the thirty-six Pojie, the king’s concubines on whom the White Snake had inflicted the torture of the “cold palace” and whom Chen Jinggu had been able to bring back to life by means of her talismans, remained with her. These thirty-six personages, the very image of fertility and the perpetuation of the royal line, could only live on through Chen Jinggu, the guarantor of their resuscitated lives. Nonetheless, from then on she only taught them the classical texts (jing), because she had lost her capacity to teach ritual. The magic rituals work a transformation on the universe; pregnancy also works a transformation, which this time is carried out in the self, in the microcosm of the female body.11 These two types of transformation

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f i gur e 2.3.

Chen Jinggu withdraws to Linshui. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

correspond to two Daoist ritual periods: the zhai and the jiao. The former is the period of fasting, of abstinence, a moment of withdrawal into the self. The latter is an opening out to the universe, with which one renews ties and that one transforms. For Chen Jinggu, the time of the zhai has thus arrived: that is the meaning of her solitary withdrawal, shut away in Linshui grotto, pregnant both actually and symbolically, ready to give birth or to transform herself. However, in the Linshui pingyao zhuan, as elsewhere, there is no zhai without a jiao, and it is there that we rediscover the legend. While Chen Jinggu was in retirement at Linshui, the country of Min was suffering a severe drought. The king had ordered one hundred and twentyeight Daoist masters of the kingdom, with Chen Jinggu’s cousin Chen

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Shouyuan at their head, to carry out a jiao in order to cause rain to fall.12 Unfortunately, their ritual talents leaving much to be desired, no visible transformation of the weather could be glimpsed. The king then threatened to have all the Daoist masters burned alive if their efforts proved ineffective, and this is what made Chen Shouyuan decide to go find Chen Jinggu, the only one capable, he thought, of saving them.13 Causing rain to fall is a shamanic ritual generally carried out in the fifth lunar month, which marks the midpoint of the year: “The middle of the fifth month (full moon) is the critical point when Yin succeeds Yang. It is the moment of the great sacrifice for rain” (Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 530). Chen Jinggu, as an adept of Mount Lü, is in a position to undertake this role. This is what they request of her. She, for the moment, was more interested in the second meaning of the word ling, the power that is acquired precisely through the zhai, through “withdrawal” and the development within the self of the vital principle, this “strange” power, both female and religious, which also characterizes demons (yao). Nevertheless, unable to resign herself to abandoning her country and the Daoists, she is forced to give up her own withdrawal and once again take up her role of shaman, despite Perfected Lord Xu’s warning. This is why she must “bring her baby into the world” (tuotai) prematurely.14 The legend, playing on both these levels, will literally depict this process of internal alchemy, this metamorphosis (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 107).15 the “liberation from the womb, aborted

TUOTAI ”

By offering her body to save her parents on her return from Mount Lü, Chen Jinggu had situated herself as a child, the daughter of her patriline, for the sake of which she also agreed to marry. In transforming her house into a mandala of the womb, this time it is a maternal line to which she will appeal. In fact, after having sent Chen Shouyuan away, she went home to Xiadu, the Lower Ford, where her mother was alone, and tells her that she intends to leave her baby in her care, as in a rite of “liberation from the womb.” Lest the flow of time be interrupted, the silence kept by her mother was to be the guarantee of this illusion of the time preceding the birth. This point is crucial in the Daoist process that Despeux (1990: 276) describes thus: The adept enters a great absorption, she seems to be dead, she is pale and seems no longer to breathe. Someone must watch over her day and night, this state lasting from around one to ten days. All noise or any cry likely to startle her must be avoided, for fear of injuring the spiritual force and leading her in the way of madness or of demons.

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Here, it is precisely the fact of naming that will introduce a break and thus mark the failure of this “liberation from the womb” (tuotai). This is how Chen Jinggu proceeded: she shut herself up in the birth chamber and after removing the baby from her belly, she placed it in the birthing basin, called the “basin of happiness” (xitong). Then she turned the basin upside down on the ground and carefully closed the door to the room. By counting on the joints of her fingers, she transformed the room into a diagram of the bagua, the divination trigrams.16 Next she placed two guardians at the door: a tiger and a python. The tiger was a chamber pot (fendou), magically transformed by being sprayed with purifying water in which a charm (fu) had been dissolved.17 The python was a rope that was treated in the same way. Chen Jinggu then had her mother, who was in the next room, renew her promise to keep silent, even if anyone should address her, the condition sine qua non, she told her, for her own and her baby’s survival. Her mother replied that that would be easy enough as “her father was away.” Then leaving the house and closing the door, she gave this carefully arranged setting the appearance of a lake covered with lotuses. Her mind at ease, she then left to carry out the ritual to bring rain. We find once again in this magical construction the main elements that figure in the structure of the talismanic picture of the “Jade Emperor’s Team of Horses,” intended to protect houses. This “team” is the Northern Dipper (Ursa Major, Beidou), the constellation of fate, another representation of the womb (see Baptandier, 1994b). We can also see here the manifestation of a womb mandala of tantric Buddhism (see Strickmann, 1996: 278ff.; Stein, 1986; Cheng, 1997: 383). This passage is a key moment in the story and this sequence of the legend is also the plot of the ritual theater play The Great Lady Chen Removes Her Fetus (Chen Da’nai tuotai) that is still enacted in honor of the goddess.18 the palace of long life

The basin (xitong) that Chen Jinggu used to receive the baby is precisely the birthing basin, also called the “red basin” (hongpen), as red is the color for happiness, in former times an essential item in every woman’s dowry. It is found in stylized form on paper money offerings used to propitiate female divinities such as Guanyin, Mazu, and of course Chen Jinggu herself, in order to obtain children from them.19 This red basin is an inverted representation of the uterus as related to a mirror image of birth. Thus, in turning the basin upside down on the ground, Chen Jinggu reestablishes the direc-

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tion of the embryo, that of the maternal universe in which the infant is in fact “inverted,” and that of the zhai when the adept carries out a movement of return “in reverse” (ni). The transformation of the chamber into a diagram of the “eight trigrams and nine palaces” carries on this metaphor. In fact, what the eight trigrams represent is the development of yin and yang, which contain at their center the Ninth Palace: the Great Crest, the Taiji, the One. It is the image of alternation, the mutual engendering and sublimation of yin and yang. The image is that of a womb, with the embryo at the center. Each of the trigrams, moreover, expresses precisely this symbolism. They are imagined, for example, as a family, with father, mother, and children, thus suggesting reproduction. Originally primordial breaths that escaped from chaos when it exploded, they crystallized in the form of “true writings” (zhenwen), a manifestation of this birth outside the primordial womb.20 It is these same true writings that the trigrams represent, marking the evolution of yin and yang. Such is the Palace of Long Life (Changsheng gong), at the heart of which, as in a storehouse (ku)—its other name—the destiny that the Northern Dipper (Beidou) actuates is worked out.21 By analogy, it is thought that every woman bears on the wall of her uterus a diagram of the eight trigrams called “cuirass of the womb” (taijia). We also find this diagram on the talismans for expediting childbirth and for “calming the womb” (antai), as well as on most of the talismans for protecting children. For the same reason, this diagram is embroidered on the court robes of Daoist masters, who themselves occupy the place of the embryo of immortality. In transforming the birth chamber into a diagram of the eight trigrams, the legend of Chen Jinggu thus conforms to this metaphor. The tiger and the python are the door guardian gods. The tiger, an animal emblematic of the west, is the demon double of the Queen Mother of the West as well as Guanyin’s mount (Doré, 1914, vol. 7: 231, vol. 9: 32; Dudbridge, 1978; Cahill, 1993). We shall find it again here as the alter ego of Jiang Hupo, the Tigress Woman Jiang. It generally stands in opposition to the dragon, the symbol of the east. The two are represented in the human body where they depict an alternation between opposites: left, right, green dragon of the liver, white tiger of the lungs, essences of wood and of metal (see Despeux, 1994: 158). In the Jade Emperor talisman for the protection of houses, they correspond to two notable divine exorcists, one Daoist and the other Buddhist, the High God of the Dark Heaven and Puan. Moreover, hiding the house under a lake recalls both the talismanic structure

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of a taboo word, a hui—a silent word, rendered unpronounceable—and the myths of the submerged town, the principal themes of which have already been stated (see Baptandier, 1994b). The lotuses that cover it serve to emphasize the meaning of this arrangement.22 The lotus is itself a symbol of birth, of reincarnation, and of transformation: the goddess Guanyin is depicted on a lotus throne. This structure submerged in a lake of lotuses is constructed in a mirror image of Mount Lü, which is both a grotto and Portal Mountain, turned upside down in White Dragon Lake of the river Min. Chen Jinggu leaves her first mandala to go dance on the second, in order to bring rain (Figure 2.4). In the end, the breaking of the silence by Madame Ge will deliver her, after all, to the way of the demons. While Chen Jinggu was preparing to carry out the ritual to bring rain, the White Snake continued to “nourish its vital principle.” The Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui), having placed himself under the White Snake’s protection, had to provide her with her proper share of essential nourishment. These two opposed and complementary pairs, on the one hand Chen Jinggu

f i gur e 2.4. Mount Lü ritual painting, detail: Ritual for rain. München Museum für Volkerkunde.

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and her baby, and the White Snake and the Ravine Demon, an embryonic figure, on the other, will meet yet again. The Ravine Demon knows that Chen Jinggu is carrying out the magic rites. He immediately realizes that she must have removed her embryo (tuotai), and he goes to Xiadu in order to steal it. He sees only the lake of lotuses, but he quickly guesses that it is an illusion. The Ravine Demon still cannot see the house, kept invisible by the silence that gives rise to the magical artifice. But Madame Ge, Chen Jinggu’s mother, herself an essential element of this magic of which she is the guardian, is unaware of the lake of lotuses, the tiger and python, and the diagram of the eight trigrams. Located in this blind point of time, she is unable to perceive the manifestations of it. This is also what the Ravine Demon, who will call her a “blind old woman,” will say to her. And for this same reason, from the moment that the silence is broken, each of Madame Ge’s words will innocently destroy this precarious state. In fact, each of the words that she places on the symbolic artifices reveals their true nature (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 104).23 They slide along the charms arranged by Chen Jinggu like drops of water along threads invisible to the eyes of outsiders. This episode constitutes a virtual staging of revelatory speech. It is also the point-by-point deconstruction of the imaginary artifice that was supposed to lead either to long life or to the birth of a baby. In the end, all that remains of this mandala is the disastrous scene of a death in childbirth. The Ravine Demon conducts himself as follows in order to make his way through the labyrinth painstakingly set up by Chen Jinggu right to its heart, the embryo. He first transforms himself into a bird, perches on a lotus, and chirps until Madame Ge, bored and exasperated, chases him away.24 The silence is broken, and the Ravine Demon glimpses the house.25 It is thus through the expedient of speech that this “bird” finds its way into the house transformed into a “storehouse of long life without death.” He then quickly takes on the appearance of a youth from the village, the son, he says, of a Madame Lin, and gets the door opened to him by asking for some water. Frightened by the tiger and python guardians, he questions Madame Ge, who sees only a chamber pot and a rope; she names them, thereby revealing them to him. It is the same with the diagram of the eight trigrams, where she sees only her room, and says so. Then, the Ravine Demon, who has made himself invisible, turns over the birthing basin, seizes the baby and takes it to the White Snake, who promptly swallows it.

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Here the Ravine Demon once again takes on the embryo role that is his lot. In the next chapter we shall return to this filiation that he claims: that of a certain Madame Lin, “Forest,” a descent that we shall see realized during his encounter with the true Woman Forest, Lin Jiuniang, the magician of the eight trigrams. The White Snake, who is nourishing her vital principle, is compelled by her demon nature to engage in the practice of stealing men’s vital energies, the application in the real world of the inward asceticism of long life. Moreover, in popular tradition there are many examples of this type of witchcraft practice where there is an attempt to obtain by magical means the vital essence of the embryo during gestation, which represents the quintessence of yang.26 Here, we are told, the White Snake swallows this pure yang in order to recover from having been cut into three pieces. However, this particular alchemy fuses the two aspects of this single figure, Chen Jinggu and the White Snake, through the intermediary of this “baby,” who is common to both of them from the beginning. The ritual to bring rain, carried out by Chen Jinggu, sets the scene for it. the ritual to bring rain

After leaving the house at Xiadu transformed into a lake of lotuses, Chen Jinggu goes on to the Min at White Dragon River (Bailong Jiang) in order to perform shamanic magic (fashu) and this other fertility rite—making the rain fall. She goes down to the riverbank under the great bridge of the South Terrace (Nantai), where Mount Lü was submerged (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d.: 103).27 Like every master of ritual, she begins by creating her sacred zone (tan) by spreading on the river a straw mat, upon which she will dance, thus recreating the universe in its five directions—the four cardinal points and the center, which she occupies vertically. From there she directs the celestial soldiers known as the Five Camps, according to this martial shamanic tradition.28 She is furthermore equipped with all the magical implements that the ritual masters of the Mount Lü sect, the Red Head masters (Hongtou), still use today. First, there is the buffalo horn she blows in order to summon the divinities of her Register and expel demons; it is a horn like the one that, according to legend, Laozi is supposed to have given his servant Xu Jia, whom the Red Head masters of Taiwan invoke as their ancestor, when he set out on his journey to the west. Second, Chen Jinggu carries an immortal’s sword, capable of cutting in two the demons who get in the way; she also uses it to write invisible charms (fu) in the air that she actualizes, as we have seen, by

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spraying them with the purifying water that she holds in her mouth. In the legends, this sword is usually carried on the back; it is considered to be yin, female.29 Finally, she also has at her disposal a “demon-binding rope.” This rope, which magically binds hands and feet, also has the power to cause anyone who is immobilized in this way to resume his true shape and reveal his nature. Here she thus demonstrates a double power, that of immobilizing, paralyzing, and hypnotizing, and that of making manifest the nature of the prisoner. The ritual masters of the Mount Lü sect still use this instrument in the form of a whip made from braided rope with a carved wooden handle representing a snake’s head. This union of the vegetal and the snake reveals a common symbolism that they also share with hair (see Chapters 3 and 6). Then, dressed in the long red magician’s skirt, which the ritual masters of Mount Lü also wear, at least in Fujian, Chen Jinggu dances on the water while chanting her ritual, and rain falls.30 Her role of ritual official (faguan) thus completed, she saves the kingdom from drought, and it is now the female demon’s turn to act.

The Course through the Sexual Categories the collapse of the mountain

The White Snake having eaten Chen Jinggu’s embryo, it is henceforth a matter of reconstituting the totality that the two of them form—blood and hair—and of transforming themselves. This is what will take place at White Dragon River, where the Ravine Demon and the White Snake go to capture Chen Jinggu once and for all, or so they think. The White Snake is submerged in the water—a mirror image of Chen Jinggu, who dances there to bring rain. It is this play of reflections from the smooth surface of White Dragon River that must now be passed through. Chen Jinggu does not possess the magic that would allow her to save herself in this dangerous pregnancy, because she had refused to penetrate its mysteries. That is why after her tuotai was reduced to a real abortion, the fibers of her flesh tear and she loses her energies, the victim of a hemorrhage (beng). This term also signifies “the collapse (of a mountain)” or “avalanche.” It is composed of the characters for “mountain” (shan) and “flesh” (rou): it is the collapse of this carnal mountain, the womb. It also evokes another term signifying “collapse” (xian) that frequently recurs in the mythological motif of the immersed village, on which it sheds a significant light.31 Chen Jinggu loses all her blood—her very nature—which “flows in

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waves” and turns the water of the river red.32 The White Snake and the Ravine Demon take advantage of her collapse to seize the mat / ritual zone and pull it into the water, as if into the Lake of Blood, the region of hell where women who die in childbirth go as punishment.33 Chen Jinggu, whose responsibility as a divinity will be to protect women, herself suffers the bitterness of it in advance. She suddenly finds herself immersed without having mastered this element, which should have been her own. The mirrorsurface of White Dragon River is thus broken, as the gap closes between the demon-hair and the shaman-blood, now bound together by the development of their respective essence, the embryo. Chen Jinggu there rejoins the upside-down world of the dead.34 the master of mount lü rescues chen jinggu from the lake of blood

Chen Jinggu lost her magic power, but she is not “absolutely” dead. Forewarned by her two acolytes, Wang and Yang, of the danger to which she had exposed herself, Perfected Lord Xu knew by counting on his fingers that the hour was critical. He threw into the air three stone eggs, which changed into female ducks. They flew off to White Dragon River, where they took hold of three of the corners of the straw mat on which Chen Jinggu lay to pull her out of the water. In so doing, they made every trace of stain vanish from the mat and purified Chen Jinggu, to whom they thereby restored the power of her final exorcism. She then launched herself in pursuit of the White Snake, who was attempting to flee, while the Ravine Demon succeeded in escaping for the moment (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 106).35 Later, on the occasion of Chen Jinggu’s enthronement by the empress of Min, duck meat was declared taboo because of the role played by the three ducks (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d.: 108).36 This fact is still well known by the faithful, at least in Fujian, and for this reason they abstain from offering duck meat at the temple. This is again a recurrent motif in the myths of the submerged town. In an episode originating from Guangxi, a woman surnamed Chen was saved from drowning because she had set free a carp. After her death, this woman was deified as the Maiden Goddess Nülang Shen and the villagers ceased to eat carp (see Kaltenmark, 1985: 6). If we likewise compare this episode of the Linshui pingyao zhuan, where an empress moved by Chen Jinggu’s fate intervenes on her behalf, to that of the aforementioned story of the woman Guan, the parallel between the two women comes to an end. Having died a bad death, Chen Jinggu attains a

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“divine post” (shenwei) under the name Chen Da’nai, and is installed in a “traveling temple” (xinggong) right where the woman Guan became a Daoist continuing her self-discipline for longevity. The straw mat on which Chen Jinggu had danced subsequently becomes an island, the corner the ducks could not grasp rising up in a terrace. The same is true for Mount Lü, the south terrace of which floats on the surface in an image of the universe, the northwest corner of which collapsed, giving rise to the meeting of heaven and earth.37 It is an allegory that evokes the union of humans and gods through this vertical axis, well illustrated here by the mountain and all its symbolism. chen jinggu returns to mount lü

In rescuing Chen Jinggu from the Lake of Blood, Perfected Lord Xu still cannot preserve her from death. Astride the White Snake’s head, she arrives at Linshui Palace, and there in this same pose the two of them give up the ghost, reunited for all time. Perfected Lord Xu then intercedes to give his instructions: Chen Jinggu must not be buried; rather, her body must be covered with a cloth impregnated with charcoal, in order to avoid the corruption of her flesh, and with yellow earth, in order to give her a life-like appearance.38 In this form, astride the White Snake, she will be installed in Linshui Palace in the ancestral hall (zudian) (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d.: 108). This form of sepulture recalls the ancient practice of placing the dead on the tang, the ceremonial platform of the ancestral temple, before the final burial of the bones denuded of their flesh. The term “ancestral hall” (zudian) seems to justify this connection (see Granet, 1951: 22; 1953: 193, 200).39 However, the manner in which, according to the legend, Chen Jinggu’s body is exposed on the tang is more evocative of a mummification than a double burial.40 As Chen Jinggu is a drop of Guanyin’s blood, how could she be left to decompose? Rather, bodily “inscribe” her in this obligatory transition from the pictogram to the spoken, eternally present like a flash of crystallized lightning (Castoriadis-Aulagnier, 1975). We can see in this final development that will allow her subsequently to become an orthodox divinity (zhengshen) rather than an evil wandering soul (xie), which she could have become as a consequence of her bad death, a variation of the motif of petrification that strikes the heroines in the myths of the submerged town. Such is the process according to which the divinities of the Chinese pantheon called houtian are formed, all of them of human origin, the result of some slip-up or rupture in their fate.41 It was the same, to give only one

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significant example, for the goddess Mazu, a fisherman’s daughter who died when she was prematurely awakened by her mother from a trance that enabled her to save her father and brother, who had been caught in a storm. She became the patron of those who go to sea.42 This distinctive treatment of Chen Jinggu in the “ancestral hall” of Linshui Palace confirmed her in her fate of a bad death, a violent death following an “abortion.” Therefore, before being able to take up her role as a divinity, she will have to acquire the power or force (ling) that she had so painfully lacked, and this is why after her death her soul returned to Mount Lü, where this time she will be instructed. It is only then that her cult will be able to be established on earth, when she has taken charge of the celestial region that is incumbent on her henceforth, that of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. The displaying in the temple of her body astride the White Snake is the symbol of the simultaneous coexistence of the two aspects of the figure of Chen Jinggu: the blood and the hair of Guanyin, the shaman and the demon, who through transforming themselves gave rise to this third figure, which envelops them both: the Lady of Linshui. She is no longer either shamaness (wu) or demon (yao), but rather a fully formed energy, a divinity (shen). And it is here that she will finish this journey through the sexual categories that leads to her transformation. In other words, what seems to clearly emerge as a secondary motif in the story of Chen Jinggu, emphasized by the recurrent mention of blood, sacrificial as well as menstrual, would appear to be acceptance of a fate where deaths are required to produce gods, and of course children are required to perpetuate their worship. If femaleness is glorified, the myth immediately imposes limits on it as soon as it is taken up by women.

3

3

the br idge of a hundred flowe rs

Trapped in her fate as a woman in Chinese society, Chen Jinggu suffers a bad death that reveals the elements of her “divine post.” We shall see how after her death the process of her deification works itself out as an impossibility of mourning that closely resembles a duty of renunciation. The Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, the celestial region that falls to her, will be established by the sacrifice of her archrival, the Ravine Demon, while the rituals characteristic of her cult will be written into the corresponding mythical episodes.

The Bad Death dying before one’s time, violence, and incompletion

In contemporary thought, a death caused by violence is considered to be a bad death. In such a death the deceased was killed either by a living or a dead person, by a royal, divine, or demon power. There is a wide variety of means, such as death from disease; death in an accident whose causes will often be suspicious; death from a wound, murder, or being killed in battle. “Bad death” also includes suicide, since we can be manipulated or lured by a third party who wants to injure us or seeks to injure others by 85

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transforming the self into a dangerous force. This is the case with young brides who, by committing suicide in “red [auspicious] clothing” on the occasion of their weddings, plunge their families into a state of panic that could cause them to abandon the house of the tragedy (see Lauwaert, 1999, 2001). Such was the fate of Chen Jinggu, carried off to Mount Lü on the very day of her wedding, when she refused to let herself be “dressed up.” Guanyin, moreover, did not content herself with abducting Chen Jinggu to this aquatic mountain, the submerged region where the secret knowledge of rituals is transmitted as an alternative to marriage. She also chastised the recalcitrant parents who had destroyed her image: it is for having trampled on her image in a painting that they were beaten with a stick and suffered, until the return of their daughter, from open wounds that she returned to heal. This episode and the importance repeatedly accorded to images in the worship of Guanyin emphasize that the cult icons are understood as the real body of the divinity, her dharma body.1 In summary, the life of someone who has suffered a bad death has been abruptly cut short “before term.” Just as one can be born before term, one can likewise die before term. The story of Chen Jinggu dramatically shortens the space between these two ends of life. It is thus about a premature death, coming before the span of life initially granted by fate had run out. It is the cutting short of this span, leaving an unused “remaining life” held in abeyance as an active force, that constitutes a bad death. In other words, it is the karma that has not yet been exhausted; it originates in this incompletion. Chen Jinggu died at the age of twenty-four due to an untimely “reversal,” whereas she should have continued her journey. Dying in childbirth of an “abortion,” her womb both actually and symbolically torn, Chen Jinggu’s fate clearly dramatizes “bad death” as a fracture that needs to be set and assimilated. the bad death: individualization

In societies practicing ancestor worship, a bad death generally results in the deceased’s being left out of the genealogy. It is, in short, a rent in the line. In fact, someone who dies a bad death cannot himself become an ancestor. He is, in a way, lost to the genealogic patrimony. A sterile force unable to provide for the succession of generations, someone who has died a bad death becomes an “orphan soul.” Furthermore, the fact of not having produced offspring, and primarily sons, is enough to constitute a bad death, even if a person has died “naturally.” In fact, if no one takes the place of the absent

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child to make the offerings to the deceased that would make him a father, the deceased will be condemned to wander. A lonely soul, as is the case of someone who died a violent death, will not be able to rejoin its lineage as an ancestor. This is why the first act carried out by Chen Jinggu after her death was a rite to “refine and rescue” (liandu), which was the transmutation of an internal alchemy used to save her son’s life by developing his suspended breaths. She wanted, she said, “to leave a posterity in this world.” Thus was born Liu Cong, “Liu the Intelligent,” or “Liu the Sharp of Hearing,” to whom offerings are made under the name San Sheren, the “Third Messenger.” As a psychopomp, he guides souls about to be reincarnated, as well as the souls of the dead (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 108–9).2 The cult of Chen Jinggu and that of her stillborn embryo were thus inaugurated by a ritual of birth. Everything had been made ready on earth for the practice of this cult; it only remained for Chen Jinggu to take up her divine responsibilities in heaven. In general a bad death has the effect of individualizing the deceased, for whom ritualized mourning becomes impossible. This is striking in Chinese society, where the family can be defined by mourning ties. Someone who has died a bad death is no longer a link in the unbreakable line of ancestors, but rather an individual, a sort of free electron, condemned to wander, sterile and ostracized. He or she is thus impossible to mourn. Instead, dread takes the place of mourning. Such a death is also a form of debt, which we shall return to later. revenge: the non-forgetting of the dead

This impossibility of mourning is projected on the universe of the dead as an inability, on their part, to forget. This non-forgetting, with its distressing consequences, takes different forms. Whether through love or hate, the deceased can remain fixed at the moment of his or her death by an excess of feeling and emotion. In short, it is a question of the dead being too loving and unable to cut the ties that connect them to the living (see Brac de la Perrière, 2001). It is the dead who do not forget, who do not give up their lives as lost. This is precisely what the legend of Chen Jinggu expresses: “Lady Chen sat down and transformed her body [that is, died]. A small fragment of her souls (hun) was not dead; they did not disperse. They did not forget Mount Lü. . . . Her spirit was not dead; it had become again as it was before birth.”3 But the majority of the dead are not so loving. Imbued with a fundamental ambivalence, they are psychic spirits of both creation and destruction.

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They are driven by infinitely dangerous sentiments, passions, unsated desires, resentment, spite toward those who caused their deaths or injured, humiliated, or betrayed them. They think of nothing but revenge. Through these beliefs and representations, attested in all places, we see the emergence of conflicts and transgressions ascribed to these bad deaths. This is well illustrated by the story of Chen Jinggu. Before her return to Mount Lü, she swore two oaths that she connected in a significant way. This is the text: Chen Jinggu was dead but her heart did not forget. She still hated the Ravine Demon and she vowed once again to capture him. Then she made a vow, and with heaven as her witness she said, “Today I died in childbirth; I could not save myself. I swear to protect without fail every pregnant woman and every embryo in distress, to come to the assistance of children who are victims of a ‘demon of the passes.’ ” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 108)4

From the moment of her return from Mount Lü, she prepared to keep her word. “On her return from Mount Lü, Chen Jinggu set out in search of the Ravine Demon. She divided her Register into three battalions who were to travel through the ‘three worlds’ in search of him” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 111).5 This revenge from beyond the grave is envisaged in several ways. It is generally believed that someone who has died a bad death seeks to drag the guilty party after him or her by causing the guilty party to die a bad death in turn. We shall see that the Ravine Demon will indeed be sacrificed, in accordance with Chen Jinggu’s vow. Earlier, however, it is the sworn sisters who “spontaneously” follow her in her cruel fate. The text provides a very clear explanation of this: “Although they were not born on the same day, they share the same death. Driven by the same hatred, they seek the same revenge” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d, ch. 16: 109). It is precisely this that is supposed to nourish the persistence and inexorable necessity of bad deaths in the world: if a death is not “good,” if it is not what it should have been, this can only be because a dead person took revenge. But the vengeance of those who have died bad deaths is often not very specific: it does not distinguish between individuals of the same lineage. Thus, if those who died bad deaths are often “out of the genealogy,” as is said in some places, they have not, however, lost the sense of it. Certainly a living person can pay for the crimes of his forefathers, whose karma—which is not an expression of individuality in such a birth—is bad, whose morality is suspect. Here again, bad death and kinship are intimately

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linked. For better or worse, there is a belief in interdependence between the generations, and in the role of the dead as judges. Stripped of its religious trappings, this is a concept that clearly recalls the working of the unconscious. And Chen Jinggu’s death is indeed due to her lapses in filial piety, for having transgressed the Confucian law guaranteeing the worship of the ancestors, lapses that she will make up for after death. As it is said: She went to Perfected Lord Xu and begged him to teach her this marvelous method that she had stubbornly refused to learn. . . . She entreated him to alleviate her regrets and accept her repentance. Perfected Lord Xu agreed to this and gave her a manuscript, which she received on her knees, before going into the grotto of Mount Lü to study it. (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 106)

Like her, the Daoist master Chen Shouyuan, her cousin, is prey to regret for having caused Chen Jinggu’s death: he clearly owed his salvation to the establishment of her cult. Those deaths caused by the dead can be imagined in the guise of special trials from beyond the grave, taking place in these “documents, sanctuaries of not forgetting” (see Mollier, 2001). The next world, as a replica of the earthly bureaucratic universe, provides the necessary framework for these complaints after death, duly recorded by the judges in hell who diligently investigate these proceedings against the living, right up to the carrying out of punishments: in general, death. The systematic proceedings against the Ravine Demon well illustrate this point. This is how it is staged: While coaxing him with her deceptive words, Lin Jiuniang makes him admit his crimes against Chen Jinggu, and she makes him resume his true form. . . . Chen Jinggu’s judgment was unambiguous and without appeal. To punish him for his offenses on the way to Mount Lü, she ordered his hands to be cut off; for having seized victims for the White Snake, his feet were cut off; for having stolen her embryo, she had his heart and lungs torn out; for having caused her to drown when she was dancing on the ritual mat, his eyes were gouged out; for having bewitched the woman Yang, she had his heart, intestines, and liver cut into pieces; to punish him for Madame Yao’s dreadful childbirth, the remainder of his entrails were cut into pieces; finally, his body was cut into three pieces for having caused Chen Jinggu to die in childbirth. The two guardians Gao and Deng carried out this order. Then they sent him to Fengdu hell, where he was forbidden to be reincarnated for ten thousand generations. (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 116)6

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We thus see emerging a discourse on the past that is conceived precisely as that of the dead. A feeling emerges of eternal responsibility and painful guilt from the living toward the dead. That the living have responsibility for the generations that preceded them is a constant, even when the responsibility is tinged with impatience to forget: “No sooner do they leave than they return,” as is often said. But precisely what wells up here is all the evil experienced, all the debts, the unspoken words that haunt the generations, where the living know they must seek explanations regarding misfortune both present and to come. What is the reason for these failures, this degradation, these losses, this repetition, this series of disasters? Why these deaths “against nature” of children or young people? The answers are found on the other side of the tenuous screen that separates the worlds, in the secret of the earlier wrath of the dead for which the living pay, trembling for reasons they cannot name, afflicted with eternal regrets that they cannot specify, because they are the regrets of these others, the dead. Questioning the dead thus generates a language about these mortal bonds unconsciously formed in the past and eventually permits them to be brought to an end, appeasing both the dead and the living. Here, too, the cult of Chen Jinggu conforms to this model: we have seen that the Rock-Press Women speak through the mouths of mediums (see Chapter 2). Such is also the case with Chen Jinggu, and we shall return to this point.7 on the law

Those who have died bad deaths thus reveal conflicts and transgressions. What is more, they direct them; they are said to be in charge. They appear as judges of the living and the dead; they know their least thoughts and actions, and keep registers of them. We shall return to this point with the figure of the Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang), another name for Chen Jinggu’s divine “position,” which the Fujian myths illustrate. She is closely linked to the god of the soil, another divinity responsible for the registers of life and death, just as Chen Jinggu is in the Linshui pingyao zhuan. The transgressions marked out by bad deaths are of all types. They take place within the confines of families where they challenge the genders, categories, and rules. They illuminate the domain of sexuality, its phantasms, and its prohibitions. As a result, we seem to see in these notions of the bad death the very expression of the “alien”: the excessive violence and ter-

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rible unreality of the individual, primarily considered as the lot of women.8 This point is the wellspring of the legend of Chen Jinggu. Unamenable to the requirements of the Confucian lineages, she is depicted, according to a vivid popular iconography, as alternately leading a withdrawn life within a community of women or indulging in a sexual quest considered “demonic,” insatiable, and death-dealing, in order to “nourish her life” (see Baptandier, 1996d: 132–33). debt and ritual: passing away

What do these suffering souls—“spiteful ones,” as they are called in Japan— expect from such violence, vengeance, and legal procedures (Bouchy, 2001)? They are impeded, immobilized, blocked in their development after death, unable either to find peace or be reincarnated. Fixed for all time in this calamitous situation “halfway” between two worlds, they can neither vanish nor make themselves once again present in the world; they cannot “recycle” themselves in the proper sense of the word, within the cycles of life. In suspension, they are imagined as presences left over. Thus, after having made the vow to devote herself to the protection of women and young children and especially to watch over the period of pregnancy, Chen Jinggu had to return to Mount Lü. Polluted and polluting, the dead are capable of “contaminating” the living. They thus seek to be “cared for” by them. Everywhere, they wish to be provided with a material base: a body, even offerings, rituals that will appease them and that, without ever reintegrating them in the fertile field of kin, will make them beneficent and powerful entities, that is, divinities. In short, in this sense, they are the unimaginable aspect of the present, crystallized as a piece of the real. More frequently, the voices of the dead are heard through that of the oracle, who channels and transmits their complaints. They speak of their families, of course. But they can also reveal things to certain chosen individuals. And it is in fact through a dream that Chen Jinggu addressed the king of Min in order to tell him of her death in the course of carrying out her duties performing magic in the service of the kingdom (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17).9 She appeared to him in a dream one night dressed in red and told him how she had saved the kingdom from drought and in doing so had lost her life: While the country of Min in celebration after the beneficial rain praised Chen Jinggu’s excellence, she appeared in a dream to the king and revealed

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Bridge of a Hundred Flowers to him her pitiable fate. He stamped his feet with grief, unable to regain his peace of mind. It was just like in “The Branch of the South”! Having had a similar dream, [the empress] Chen Jinfeng knew that there was a karmic explanation. (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16)

Appearing in a dream as a mode of communication anticipates the role of images of the divinity, which are considered to be its “doubles.”10 Moreover, the theme of relics and mummification with which these images are associated immediately figures in the myth to illustrate this point. Their lives no longer being sustained by Chen Jinggu, who served as their guarantor, the thirty-six palace concubines immediately became “white bones” once again, confined in small reliquary stupas. A messenger from the master of Mount Lü appeared to the Liu family. He forbade them to bury Chen Jinggu and advised them to mummify her body and display it in Linshui Palace astride the head of the White Snake. He gave detailed instructions to this effect, and said, “In this way, incense will burn before her for ten thousand years.” The Liu family followed his recommendations. They invited a well-known educated master lacquerer to preserve her body. Then they set up an altar in front of Chen Jinggu, who watched over all aspects of life. (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 107)

The ritualizing of the dead derives from the need felt by the living to defend themselves from the deceased: ritual is the remedy for the deceased. As R. Hamayon (1978: 55–72) put it: it is a question of “taking care of the dead in order to heal the living.” But if rituals succeed in healing the living and to a certain extent those who have died “good deaths,” that is, ancestors, they do not do the same for those who have died bad deaths. Those who died bad deaths can only be neutralized, appeased, conciliated, and made a source of gain. For that, it is necessary to consolidate the boundary that tenuously separates them from the living, and through this “rituality of the boundary” repudiate “the death of the deceased” (Chenivesse, 2001). Through ritual action one can thereafter obtain powerful energies from those who have become forces, and, in accordance with sacrificial logic, all sorts of blessings—on the condition of not discontinuing the payment. They thus give fertility to women and rain to gardens. But without ritual, these momentarily benevolent forces once again become “bad deaths” who afflict the living. In any case, the debt owed to them is inescapable. Debt and death are indissolubly linked (Malamoud, 1988: 13–14). It could likewise be said that it is the very existence of the karmic link that makes ritual efficacy possible (Caillet, 2001).

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Indeed, with regard to someone who has died a bad death, the debt seems to substitute for mourning in a desperate attempt to buy off fate: that of the dead and one’s own. We have seen how Chen Jinggu seeks her redemption by resuscitating her baby for the benefit of her husband’s lineage and how, overwhelmed by regret, she returns to Mount Lü as an obedient pupil of Perfected Lord Xu. The king of Min is similarly in debt to Chen Jinggu. Her canonization is both the expression of the tormented gratitude of the king and a cure for this potentially dangerous wandering soul. As in every ritual act of favor, one should recompense the divinity or the celestial benefactors and allow them to move up in the divine hierarchy.11 The legend thus conforms to the usual schema: the king of Min gave Chen Jinggu the title of Lady of Luminous Goodness and Venerable Happiness of Linshui Palace. He likewise promoted all the members of her family, on whom he conferred honorific titles. That gave rise to an official ceremony held in accordance with court ritual: Officially notified of the death of Lady Chen by the prefect of Gutian and by the Minister of Rites, the royal couple sent Gui Shouming to Gutian to carry out a mourning ritual.12 Gui Shouming also inquired after the fate of the thirty-six concubines. Learning that they had once again become white bones, he gave them the title of Official Ladies of the Thirty-six Palaces.13 The king of Min bestowed a third title on Chen Jinggu: Lady of Luminous Goodness and Venerable Happiness of Linshui Palace.14 Linshui Palace was named Temple of the Dragon King (Longwang miao). The Liu and Chen families received official titles. The ceremony of “thanks for the favor bestowed” was thus completed.15 A “traveling palace” was also constructed at Xiadu on the site of Chen Jinggu’s house; the empress Chen Jinfeng went there in person and bowed before the consecrated statue of Chen Jinggu.16 The empress bestowed on her the title of Great Mothering Lady Chen (Chen Da’nai). In consideration of the fact that Chen Jinggu had sacrificed her life to save the people, she ordered that her “divine post” be honored on the first and fifteenth days of each month.17 Then, in recognition of the role of the three female ducks in raising up the mat pulled down into the depths of the water by the two demons, she vowed to no longer eat duck meat. This is why, when offerings are made to Chen Jinggu, one must not offer her this animal. (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 108)

The cult of Chen Jinggu was thus officially established and linked to the kingdom of Min. Thereafter, only a sacrifice and an initial ritual act were required to give it life.

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Very often we imagine those who died bad deaths as desperate to obtain a new body. Ordinarily, it is ritual that constructs the transfigured bodies of the dead, turning them into ancestors or gods. Those who have died bad deaths thus seek by attacking the living, more or less violently, to assume their aspect. It is for this reason that they very often try to kill them in order to take their place: both their body and their fate. Having done so, who are they? It also happens that they temporarily seize the body of a living person in order, by “possessing it,” to speak through its mouth, to act through it, or even to assume the person’s role. How better to express the past conflicts and quarrels that haunt human beings and take possession of them? All this has to do with the generally shared anxiety to preserve one’s own identity after death, to “keep one’s souls together,” to preserve the spirit, one could say more conventionally. We have seen that the text of the Linshui pingyao zhuan conforms to this formulation: “Her souls had not dispersed. . . . She did not forget Mount Lü” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 106). On another level, a bad death heightens the phantasms associated with representations of the body of the dead, shading them with elements of cruelty. The humors, the bones, and the blood of a body that died a bad death do not have the same fate, the same uses, as those of people who died ordinary deaths. Their suffering and their wounds also require special care. In general, the loss or absence of the body of the deceased induces the living to project onto the dead a feeling of incompletion. Those who died bad deaths appear to have lost a part of themselves. This sometimes represents the real image of a terrible death. In all cases it represents the newly disembodied state of the deceased, but it appeals back to the feeling of incompletion associated with a death at the wrong time, before the proper moment. The reactions are thus diverse. Sometimes, as though by fetishism, parts of the body are preserved as a base for the soul. These fragments serve to make the deceased present (see Pauwels, 2001). Sometimes it is the entire body that is preserved, mummified. Such was the case for Chen Jinggu, whose body was preserved as if she were still alive, and displayed, “written” in the temple. the non-inescapability of death

In China, it is believed that death results from a mistake, an act of negligence, a slip-up, or the expression of a personal “bankruptcy” (Herrou, 2001). In short, what is not normal is to die. Of course, most human beings

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do not succeed in escaping this fatal outcome, in keeping on target right up to passing through the looking glass and “ascending to heaven in broad daylight” to become one with the stars, or even to setting out on the “journey of the immortals” toward the isles of the blessed. But there are those who exert themselves in this attempt. They are the Daoists, who at the time of initiation receive a “certificate of immortality.” Dying is what Chen Jinggu would have been able to avoid, had she followed her master’s advice. She would not have had to look after herself and live “like the common herd.” On the other hand, it is what the Woman Tigress Jiang and the Daoist woman Guan seem to have attained, establishing the boundary between popular cults devoted to gods and Daoist religion focusing on immortality. Alchemical asceticism allows one to “cast off the old body,” the cadaver, and to break free of death. In this way, one “nourishes life” within oneself, or even the “embryo of immortality,” in order to proceed backward toward birth. One leaves the contingencies of this life in going back in time against the current. As Cioran puts it in an aphorism that seems particularly well suited to the case of Chen Jinggu: “When one has exhausted all the interest that one had in death, and one believes there is nothing more to get out of it, one turns back to birth, one begins to confront an abyss even more inexhaustible” (see Cioran, 1973: 18). All hope, however, is not lost, for in these places where the notion of time is disavowed longevity is accessible in a posthumous time, through the progressive transcendence of a death by stages. That is the meaning of the offerings made to the divinities and the ancestors. the land of the dead: the bridge of a hundred flowers

One thus imagines everywhere a great permeability between life and death. The other world is accessible on earth, to which it transfers a sort of geography of fate. Everywhere there are areas that belong to those who died bad deaths. Chinese gods who died bad deaths rule over these “lands.” Most of those who died bad deaths thus occupy the earthly places where traces of their past remain, in the same way that they possess the spirits and bodies of humans. This is confirmed in Fujian, where the countryside around Linshui is dotted with the traces of legendary episodes of the cult (see Baptandier, 1996d). One imagines the dead in these places where they “return,” as in this case to Mount Lü. One situates them in the heavens, or rather in the “anterior heaven” prior to birth where space and time merge, in this case the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. The geographies of death are manifold. One can also put the dead in the same situation as the living and construct for them a kingdom

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in the image of ours, with its joys and its cares, with the hope at the end of the day of putting an end to it: leaving the wheel of cycles of rebirth, and plunging into the oblivion of generations gone by. This is a blessing denied in many places to those who have died bad deaths. This is precisely the case with Chen Jinggu, and this is how her divine territory is presented to us. In the legend, Chen Jinggu returns from Mount Lü. Accompanied by Lin Jiuniang, her sworn sister, she arrives in an enchanted landscape. There they see a river of gold with jasper water spanned by a rainbow, around which bloom in profusion every species of flower and plant, whose intoxicating perfume is gently wafted by the wind. There she sees orchids and chrysanthemums, plum blossoms “shaped like lightning that brings wind and dew,” the cinnamon tree of the moon, and all sorts of “purple and vermilion” flowers that grow in this mountainous landscape (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 111).18 This place is none other than the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, where all human life has its origin. It is described as a landscape in continual transformation: the flowers bloom, the water flows, the wind bends the stems and the dew fringes the petals, the bridge makes its way toward the steep mountains where a pavilion can be discerned. The Bridge of a Hundred Flowers is, one could say, the celestial reverse of the mirror of every earthly woman. Like every divine land, the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers is protected by two guardians. These are Gao, Guardian of the Birthing Basin That Sends Babies, and Great Spirit Deng (Deng Dashen) Who Protects the Baby and Assures an Easy Birth.19 These two figures have the typical appearance of door guardians or vajra beings. One has a blue face, cinnabar red hair, and a long beard; he wears a gold helmet (jinkui), a red cuirass, and is equipped with a sword. The other has a powder-white face, hair ten yards long, and wears a gold hat (jinguan); his cuirass is made of silver and he is armed with a musketoon. These individuals are reminiscent of a divine couple whom we will have the occasion a little later to find again at the temple: the Celestial Gardeners of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers (Huagong and Huapo), who are invoked in the course of the ritual of the Flowers (see Chapters 7 and 8). The Guardians Gao and Deng welcome Chen Jinggu on her arrival at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, and immediately place themselves under her command. She accepts them as servants and promptly confers on them the ranks of Marshal and Great Spirit, respectively, and having done this, she places them on her divine Register. This is her first ritual act as mistress of the place. Chinese tradition has it that every woman has a Flower representing her in

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heaven at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. “The Flower,” a Red Head master said to me, “is what women have and what men don’t have.” What does this Flower, this “something in addition” that he attributes to women, represent for the Red Head master? Although the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers is the place where every life is born, the Flower is not assimilated to the woman it represents. The Bridge of a Hundred Flowers is a process. What women have “in addition” is this power to transform (hua), to cause life in its essence to evolve dialectically, to be themselves and the other at one and the same time, to give birth in themselves to the other.20 The reflection in heaven of this power of transformation is a Flower (hua), and the whole collection of these Flowers forms a magical landscape, unique and changeable, where all the essences are combined, mistresses of time and its seasons. a bad life: how to achieve a way out

Finally, it is more a matter of a bad birth than a bad death. Those who have died bad deaths are precisely those who were bad at life. They were ill born because they inherited the bad karma of their predecessors and of their own particularity of character, of the debt that runs through the generations and follows them right up to their deaths. They died bad deaths by the very fact of their bad lives, and from the cruel indifference of those who, later, will fear their revenge. And this continues after death, where they “live badly” their deaths, purging a part of the retribution due to past acts before being born. Thus they are punished doubly, in death as well as in life. And as Tarabout put it in connection to preta, “It is the worst who remain among us” (Tarabout, 2001: 195). We recall the episode of Luoyang Bridge. The origin of Chen Jinggu’s karma is indeed this “debt” of Guanyin’s, her promise of marriage. As Perfected Lord Xu tells Chen Jinggu, she will not be able to change any part of it. It takes place, in fact, in the cruelest indifference and in accordance with the law of the patriline, which requires descendants, children, to make offerings to their dead, who are unable to escape human fate.

Sacrificial Logic cultivating the flowers

The Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, like the river ford where Chen Jinggu lived, is a symbol of birth: it is necessary to cross it to be born. Thus, during the ritual for “cultivating the Flowers,” the Lady Who Watches over Births,

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the Lady Who Leads Children and Makes Them Cross the Bridge (Guoqiao Pojie), the Lady at the Head of the Bridge (Qiaotou Pojie), and the Lady at the End of the Bridge (Qiaowei Pojie) will be called upon. In addition, this celestial region is the one that Chen Jinggu recognizes as the place of her divine mission: henceforth she will be the Goddess of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, at the head of which she will be installed in a palace with the evocative name of Pavilion of the Qilin Who Bears Children (Yulin gong). An initial rite and a sacrifice will consecrate the stage on which Chen Jinggu will thereafter be able to perform the rituals of fertility: “cultivating the Flowers,” to give rise to their cycles and sometimes to “graft” them, to care for them, to exorcise them; and also the rituals to allow the souls to be incarnated, reincarnated, and sometimes to select their sex (see Chapters 7, 8, and 9). During her first departure for Mount Lü, Chen Jinggu made a vow before Heaven by planting her hairpin in the earth. She swore to revenge herself on the Ravine Demon, who had tried to bar her way to Mount Lü (Figure 3.1) (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2: 8). She still had to exterminate her sworn enemy. And it was in pursuing him that she carried out her first ritual as divinity of the Flowers. Having fled from White Dragon River, the Ravine Demon believed he was out of danger and devoted himself to his practice of stealing vital energies. The scene of his most recent misdeed was the house of a certain Yang family, which consisted of the husband, Yang Chun, his pregnant wife, Madame Yao, and his young sister (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 114). In the guise of a young lover, the Ravine Demon first attacked the young girl, whose vital energies he stole every night, causing her to lose her health. Madame Yao pasted an image of Chen Jinggu on the door and, recognizing his enemy, the Ravine Demon no longer dared to enter.21 To avenge himself on Madame Yao, one night he wormed his way into her chamber and cruelly induced her labor, killing both mother and baby. The husband, Yang Chun, called on Chen Jinggu, who, faithful to her vow, immediately appeared. She first imprisoned the Ravine Demon in the household well; then, summoning the souls of the dead mother and baby, she performed the rites that she had not been able to perform to save herself. Refining their essence and their breaths, she gave them life once again. Such was her first intervention as Goddess of the Flowers, and the first time that she entered the chamber of a woman who had just given birth without fearing the consequent pollution, in order to exorcise her and save her from death in childbirth. The scene exemplified by this family presents a pious image of her works and the Ravine Demon is the archetype of the perni-

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f i gur e 3.1. Chen Jinggu meets the Ravine Demon. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

cious influence to be combated in the rituals of “cultivating the Flowers.” Only the foundational sacrifice of this cult in the legend was still lacking: the sacrifice of the Ravine Demon. pearl, womb, and hair

Born of the putrid breath of a swampy ravine, coagulated (jie) under the effect of the sun and the moon, the Ravine Demon lived in the Great Ravine at Great Ravine Mountain, behind Mount Wangbeitai, “the Mountain That Looks Out over the Terrace of the North.”22 He was “the very essence of the demons” (guizhong zhi jing). His appearance was typical of this category of creature: several yards tall and very burly, on his head at the depression of the fontanel a horn and cinnabar-red hair, his face indigo blue and his beard

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red. He had a hooked nose, enormous eyes, and long fangs in his huge mouth. Finally, his cleft feet had only three toes. But above all, “the veins of his body connected with the springs of the earth.”23 Admittedly a symbolically “embryonic” character, he was born however of breaths and putrid essences, and he is thus deviant (xie), naturally bad, and it is in his nature to steal vital energies to obtain the essences with which to nourish himself. He is the accessory of the White Snake, the Demon of Transformations, and the two present a negative mirror image of Chen Jinggu and her baby. We come now to the hour of the sacrifice of the Ravine Demon. Sealing him in a well, given his nature, was to put him in his element, except that the spring of this well led to the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, where we shall now find him once again, in battle with Lin Jiuniang. 24 When the Ravine Demon arrived at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, Lin Jiuniang, Ninth Lady Forest, was combing her long hair.25 The Ravine Demon turned himself into a young child and in order to capture her asked her for a strand of her hair to use as a fishing line. Here we again find the aquatic world and its creatures, the world of the dead where the souls ready to be reincarnated dwell. Having recognized him, Lin Jiuniang gave him a “dead” hair, one that had already fallen from her head, which he rejected. She then spread out her hair on the bridge and told the Ravine Demon to choose a hair himself. However, at the moment when he seized one of them, it turned into a “heavenly net and earthly web” (tianluo diwang), and bound him tightly hand and foot. After forcing the Ravine Demon to confess his misdeeds, Lin Jiuniang made him resume his “true form” of demon, in which aspect he would be judged by Chen Jinggu (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 116). Lin Jiuniang had been taught the magic of the eight trigrams (bagua) by an immortal who gave her the Luo River Writings (Figure 3.2).26 One must thus regard her as the master of the transformations or mutations of the trigrams. Her capture of the Ravine Demon recalls the exorcist action of the Northern Dipper, the “heart of heaven,” which stimulates the eight trigrams and arouses their movement. In this light, her name, Ninth Lady Forest, takes on a new significance, since the eight trigrams are also identified as the nine palaces (jiu gong), the ninth being the one at the center, the locus of the transformation-sublimation of yin and yang symbolized by the Taiji. She is the Lady of the Nine Palaces.27 Her hair, assimilated to the heavenly net and earthly web, establishes the link between heaven and earth. During the construction of Luoyang Bridge,

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f i gur e 3.2. Mount Lü ritual painting, detail: Lin Jiuniang captures the Ravine Demon. München Museum für Volkerkunde.

it was necessary to strike Guanyin’s topknot in order to be able to marry her. The strand of the bodhisattva’s hair thrown into the river became the White Snake, the Demon of Transformations. And it was by planting her hairpin in the earth that Chen Jinggu took Heaven as witness to her vow to exterminate the Ravine Demon.28 Finally, we know that the spreading out of the hair was essential to the ritual act, and we have already seen Chen Jinggu dance with disheveled hair on White Dragon River.29 A sexual symbol, hair is the movement of desire, an impulse, the force ling. It was the power of the White Snake, and also that of Lin Jiuniang, whose hair becomes none other than the heavenly net and earthly web, another image of the union of heaven and earth and the sexual practices employed in order to achieve the refinement of the vital essence.30 The name Lin, “Forest,” confirms this cluster of ideas. In fact, we know the close link that exists between trees and hair: trees, it is said, are the hair of mountains. Hair and forest thus share the same essence and, besides, is it not true that when Pangu, the hero of

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China’s origin myth, died, his hair became the trees of the earth? (See Maspero, 1971: 374, where he cites Ren Fang’s Shuyi ji, 1: 1a.) Hair, in contact with water, becomes a snake or a magic rope, the two elements often being one and the same. The Ravine Demon, whose veins connect to the springs of the earth, is caught in the net of the Lady of the Eight Trigrams, joined to her as if by an umbilical cord. There is another allusion to this theme of the womb mandala and to the bonds connected to it in the episode of the exorcism of the Spider Demon, whose web was placed at “the mouth” (Shuikou) (Figure 3.3) (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 6: 32ff.). There, in the guise of a seductive young woman, the spider demon spun the hemp that she held by the handful and that magically turned into ropes capable of immobilizing her prey.31 Then

f i gur e 3.3.

Chen Jinggu battles the Spider Demon. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

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the monstrous spider had only to come suck the vital energies from the victim caught in these umbilical ropes and distill out the magic pearl that she hid, like an embryo, within her body. It was in this evil web that Chen Jinggu was made prisoner in the company of the Woman Jiang of the Golden Tiger. She owed her rescue, unsurprisingly, to a drop of blood that she caused to flow by biting her finger, and which turned into a red cloud that enabled the shadow soldiers to come free her. In the magic battle between Chen Jinggu and her sisters, on the one hand, and Yuan Guangzhi, the adept of Mount Mao, on the other, it is Lin Jiuniang herself who will use a “spider pearl” to destroy the perverse stratagems of her enemy. The theme of the pearl occurs again and again in the Linshui pingyao zhuan. Earlier, on the road to Mount Lü, Liangnü, Guanyin’s acolyte, had thrown this magic jewel at Cinnabar Cloud Monkey, burning him cruelly. This episode immediately reveals its meaning: it is the lightning that gives rise to enlightenment or childbirth (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2).32 We see here a set of linked images: the spider’s web constructed of hempen rope and containing a magic pearl; Chen Jinggu’s bedchamber protected by a diagram of the eight trigrams and containing her embryo; the heavenlynet and earthly-web hair of Lin Jiuniang, the mistress of the eight trigrams, tying up the Ravine Demon as with an “umbilical cord,” while this same Lady Forest is capable, on other occasions, of using a “spider pearl.”33 Lin Jiuniang holds up to the Ravine Demon the dreadful mirror that makes him resume his “true form.”34 By binding him to his original body, tied up with this umbilical hair, she makes him into an offspring in the water of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, himself a fish right at the spot where he had come to fish. As a prisoner of the magician of the eight trigrams, he is ready to be sacrificed. Lin Jiuniang, Chen Jinggu, and Li Sanniang make up a triad of divinities known by the name of the Three Ladies (Sannai).35 Statues of them are always grouped together in temples dedicated to Chen Jinggu, and rituals are performed in their names. The figure of Li Sanniang is the most retiring of the three in this cult. She is associated with the exorcism of a marine illusion, the demonic gate of the false Pure Land Paradise of Amitābha, located in another place called “the mouth,” Shuikou, near Luoyuan (see Lan Zhuzhu, 1993: 144–46). There is a temple dedicated to Lin Jiuniang in Feizhu, also near Luoyuan; it was restored in the 1990s. Near the temple is a tomb topped by an eight trigrams motif, which is said to be the tomb of Lin Jiuniang, further evidence for the cult of relics.

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sacrifice of the demon of the sacred zone (mingmo)

In his demon guise, the Ravine Demon lay in Lady Forest’s web, bound with the cords of her hair.36 He was thus trapped in the center of this womb mandala that unites heaven and earth, crucible of conception. And it is Chen Jinggu, mistress of the place and the cult, who put him to death. She thus fulfilled her initial vow and avenged her own and her son’s deaths. She also punished the Ravine Demon for his evil deeds in Madame Yao’s family, the scene of her first ritual. But above all, she ritually sacrificed this “bad” embryo, forbidding him to be reincarnated for ten thousand years, thus taking charge of the divine mission that she creates in this very action. This ban matches the evil act performed by this same Ravine Demon at Mount Lü during Chen Jinggu’s first journey. Wanting to avenge himself on her, with a scrape of his horn he altered the inscription on the frontispiece of the gate of this ritual college. It had read, “The gate opens every thirty years.” He changed it to read: “The gate opens every three thousand years.” He thus forestalled a “birth” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2: 12). With his death, the Ravine Demon inaugurates the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, of birth, to which he himself will not have the right before “ten thousand years,” during which he will remain in this alchemical crucible of transformations, of which he will be the guarantor, the founding element.37 It is the figures who watch over this crucible and over the children who come to life there whom we shall meet in the following chapters, bizarre figures, who for the most part are either women who died bad deaths or very peculiar ascetics.

4

4

ci nnabar c loud m onke y

At the Linshui Temple in Tainan there is a figure to whom only modest offerings are made, but who is nevertheless important. This is the monkey Great Sage Great Lord (Dasheng Daye). In the legend, he also has the name Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, or Cinnabar Mist (Danxia Dasheng). Although he is not usually found in Chen Jinggu’s temples in Fujian, the cult of the King of the Monkeys, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven (Qitian Dasheng), the Monkey Who Realizes the Truth of Emptiness (Sun Wukong), is omnipresent. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven is the monkey character in the novel The Journey to the West (Xiyou ji). In the novel he was subdued by Guanyin, who sent him to accompany the monk Tripitaka on his search for the holy scriptures in India (see Wu Cheng’en, 1991; see also Dudbridge, 1970).1 Moreover, just like Guanyin and Chen Jinggu, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven and Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage are closely linked, and the Linshui pingyao zhuan takes great care to assimilate them. In the temple of the King of the Monkeys, we read in the novel, there is another figure at the side of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven who is said to have “violated” (fan) women commoners. This figure is Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 4: 23).2

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Cinnabar Cloud Monkey

Alchemical Interpretations the example of the

XIYOU JI

There are alchemical interpretations of The Journey to the West. As Despeux (1985: 67–68) points out, the idea of the alchemical commentaries is that The Journey to the West dramatizes a spiritual quest and illustrates the different stages of the alchemical transformations achieved inside the human body in the course of this quest. The principal characters correspond to locations in the body (Figure 4.1). The most commonly accepted schema is as follows: the monkey symbolizes the heart, the pig the kidneys, and the monk the spleen. Furthermore, these principal characters correspond to the five elements, most notably wood and metal, that play a decisive role in alchemy, and to the fundamental ingredients of alchemy, such as essence (jing), breath (qi), and spiritual energy (shen). Despeux emphasizes this: The monkey is thus unequivocally a reference to the expression “the monkey of the mind,” a Buddhist metaphor that characterizes the mind as being as agitated as a monkey that must be tamed. . . . The mind as monkey is a common metaphor in the texts attributed to Lü Ch’un-yang, the patriarch of all the schools of interior alchemy, as well as in the texts of the Quanzhen school. But an important source of this metaphor as it relates to the monkey figure seems to me to be the following sentence from the Wu-chen p’ien, a very beautiful eleventh-century alchemy text, where it says: “When we know the mechanism of this square inch (referring to the heart) or the monkey of the mind, the task will be finished and one will become the equal to heaven.” In the novel, the monkey acquires the title of Great Sage Equal to Heaven, a title that was also given to him in a play dating probably from the Ming. (Despeux, 1985: 67–68, 71–72; see also Hawkes, 1981: 162–163 and n30)

Despeux concludes: It is clear that the author of the novel deliberately employed alchemical symbolism. . . . Nonetheless, it would be fruitless to look for a methodical description of the alchemical system. After all, the author did not confine himself to a single objective, and fortunately gave free rein to his imagination while playing with the possible levels of reading, with the result that alchemical symbolism does not predominate and does not impose a single interpretation. Nevertheless, hidden between the lines, it remains one of the essential components of the novel, whose final chapters are entitled: “Liberation from the shell” and “The five sages attain perfection,” expressions in neidan that mark the final phases of alchemical transmutation. (Despeux, 1985: 71–72)

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f i gur e 4.1. Great Sage Equal to Heaven and Journey to the West characters, Mount Huaguo Temple, Banling, Fujian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

As we have seen, the first chapter of the Linshui pingyao zhuan presents the episode at Luoyang Bridge, whose name, given by Emperor Xuanzong in memory of Luoyang, evokes the Luo River and its talismanic chart (see Introduction, Note 49). Here Guanyin appears in the dharma boat to vanquish the demonic entrails of the High God of the Dark Heaven, who had attained enlightenment. This already invites an allegorical reading. In this

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first chapter, the intervention of Lü Chunyang, who helps Wang Xiaoer–Liu Qi strike the bodhisattva with a coin, is another element leading in this direction, since Lü Chunyang is the unrivalled master of internal alchemy. The two final chapters of the work—just like the final chapters of The Journey to the West—correspond to the outcome of the alchemical process: chapter 16 presents a “liberation from the womb” (tuotai); chapter 17 is the establishment of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, the alchemical crucible of births and transformations, thanks to the sacrifice of the Ravine Demon by the Lady of the Eight Trigrams, Lin Jiuniang, and Chen Jinggu–Guanyin herself. The figure of Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage can likewise be interpreted in this fashion. His name “Cinnabar Cloud” is sufficient to evoke his yang nature in transformation (see Chapter 1). cinnabar cloud great sage, the yang of the other

Cinnabar Cloud is a monkey “more than a thousand years old,” with red fur and golden eyes (Figure 4.2). It is said that he is immortal, like the Great Sage Equal to Heaven who, having stolen the peaches of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wangmu), survived forty-nine days of transmutation—like cinnabar—in the furnace of Laozi’s eight trigrams (see Wu Cheng’en, 1991, chs. 5 and 7). Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage lives on the South Terrace of Panther Head Mountain (Baotou Shan) in a grotto that serves as a dormitory (su) for the monkeys.3 The word su also refers to the twenty-eight celestial mansions, the twenty-eight deified constellations of Chinese astronomy.4 In Buddhism, it also refers to what comes from a previous existence, the “root” of present karma (sugen), which goes deep into previous existences. It is in this evocative place that Cinnabar Cloud practices the asceticism of long life, seeking to attain the Dao by nourishing his embryo of immortality through ascetic practices (kuxiu). He is the companion of the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui), with whom he travels in the mountains, giving free rein to his debauched nature (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2). It is in the course of such an escapade that we first meet him. The elements of this first meeting will allow us to sketch the outline of the cosmic antagonism that both links him to and contrasts him with the Ravine Demon, like the two primordial principles of yin and yang, liang yi. When Chen Jinggu, accompanied by Liangnü, Guanyin’s acolyte, first set out for Mount Lü, the Ravine Demon and Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, who had taken human form, barred their way and tried to seize them. After unmasking them, Liangnü threw at them a “perfumed pearl” (xiangzhu), Guanyin’s magic jewel attribute, which immediately turned into a flaming

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f i gur e 4.2. Cinnabar Cloud cultivates the Dao. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

red ball (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2: 9). The Ravine Demon managed to escape, but Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage was struck by the flaming pearl and cruelly burned. He returned to his dormitory where it took an entire year to recover from his wounds. It was then that Chen Jinggu, planting her hairpin in the earth, took a vow before heaven to have revenge on these two evildoers. The monkey is associated with the ninth earthly branch (shen).5 According to the alchemical interpretation of The Journey to the West proposed by the School of the South, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven would be the yang of the other (the partner): For the Hsi-yu yüan-chih, the monkey represents metal in the depths of water, the true yang of the other, the life force (ming). It is the ancestral

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breath that governs the development of the working of the martial fire (respiration) during seventy-two periods. That is why the monkey undergoes seventy-two transformations. Moreover, his rod of gold symbolizes this martial fire, the working of which varies in the course of the alchemical process. (Despeux, 1985: 68)6

The Linshui pingyao zhuan appears to consistently fit this interpretation. Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage is a pure yang. He is the other of the cult of Chen Jinggu and the Flowers. This is precisely the meaning of the episode in which Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage was struck by Liangnü’s pearl: lightning. “A tradition of eastern origin explains the birth of the pearl as the product of lightning penetrating into the oyster (Pauly Wissova, s.v. Margaritai of 1962): the pearl is said to be the result of the union of fire and water.” This is how Mircéa Eliade begins his work on the archetypal images of the pearl (Eliade, 1972: 195).7 This idea closely resembles the Chinese notion of lightning, which we have already mentioned, as the union of yin and yang. In the process of internal alchemy, the formation of the pearl corresponds to the result of the first stage. “These processes give birth to a grain or a pearl in the lower cinnabar field. Sometimes called a dewdrop, this pearl is the manifestation of the drug of immortality, an elixir growing through proper care, the embryo of breath marking the completion of the first stage” (Despeux, 1990: 236–38). Lightning would thus seem to give rise to “childbirth” understood as the unveiling of one’s true nature, the end result of the inversion of light in internal alchemy, whereas the pearl-lightning is the symbol of the development of the embryo and birth (see De Groot, 1892–1910, vol. 1: 217).8 castration as access to the dao

Barely healed of his burns, Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage once again takes up his licentious activities. Near Xihe he meets a young man from Yangzhou named Yang Shichang, the son of a Madame Forest, Lin, and the new husband of a Madame Drowning, Shen (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, ch. 3: 14ff.).9 This young man had left his home to go transact business in Fuzhou, and Cinnabar Cloud seized this opportunity. Taking on Yang Shichang’s appearance, he went to the home of the women Lin and Shen, where he took the role of their son and husband, respectively, under a name with the same symbolism as his own: Light of the World, Shichang. When the real Yang Shichang returned, no one could distinguish the true one from the false. Chased from his home, the human Yang Shichang could only call on

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Chen Jinggu, back from Mount Lü, and appeal to her for help.10 Faithful to her initial vow, she captured Cinnabar Cloud by means of her exorcist magic. She made him resume his true monkey form and castrated him in order, she says, to open to him the way of true asceticism stripped of desire, of true wisdom allowing him to obtain the “just fruits,” zhengguo (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 4: 22). It is from the castration of Cinnabar Cloud—the second stage of his alchemical ascetic practices—that the legend draws the conclusion that he is in fact the “double” of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. These two figures have a number of points in common. They are both endowed with the same flamboyant nature and excess of vital force that makes them dangerous, and which must be subdued and transformed. The King of the Monkeys was subdued by Guanyin. She encircled his head with a band of gold that she could tighten at will, in order to keep him on the straight and narrow and to transform him into a faithful servant (Wu Cheng’en, 1991, bk. 4, ch. 14).11 Chen Jinggu, born of a drop of Guanyin’s blood, castrated Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, thereby opening to him the way to the “just fruits” of the Dao. These are two methods of exorcism with identical symbolism. Just as the King of the Monkeys could not be transmuted in the furnace of the eight trigrams, the life of Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, the son of Madame Lin, was spared. This Madame Lin, homonym of Lin Jiuniang, the mistress of the eight trigrams, also suggests a term of internal alchemy, the “mother of wood” (mumu) that gives birth to fire-yang. Thanks to his magic weapon, the iron bar set up by the Jade Emperor as a tidal gauge, the King of the Monkeys is master of time, seasons, cycles, and, in the register of internal alchemy, of the respiration that controls the female journey. His castration also marks Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage with the sign of transformations, as his name, Cinnabar Cloud, attests. This castration establishes him as the yang of the other at the very place where he played the role of “vampire,” stealing vital energies. His role in the exorcism of the RockPress Women (Shijia Furen) demonstrates this. cinnabar cloud great sage and the exorcism of the rock-press women

Subdued by Chen Jinggu, Cinnabar Cloud was established in his ritual role on the occasion of the exorcism of the Rock-Press Women (Figure 4.3). The Rock-Press or Split-Rock (Shijia) Women live on Cloud-riding Terrace (Lingxiao tai) situated at the top of Xuelao Peak, in Black Stone Mountain,

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f i gur e 4.3.

The Rock-Press Women. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

in Fuzhou. Originally, these demons were nothing but a block of stone, the “child” of Rock Cavern (Yan), their mother, split off by Rock Lightning Strike (Shizhen), their father. As a result, they received the energy of the two original principles, yin and yang. But in place of “giving birth,” this rock press closed tight on its victims and crushed them to the point of “squeezing the water, blood, and soul” out of them, reducing them, it is said, to the state of a “flattened magpie” (bianque) (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5: 25).12 Here then on Black Stone Mountain (Wushi Shan), located just above Panther Head Mountain, where Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage lived, are the Stone Vagina demons. The theme of the vagina that crushes, has teeth, or is in any other way threatening, is often linked in mythologies to the theme of birth and fertility, but also to castration (see, for example, Lévi-Strauss,

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1964; Verrier, 1959: 239). It is often linked to the theme of metal and blacksmiths, and meteorites. This is the case in Chinese mythology through the theme of lightning and lightning strikes. Only Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage– the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, himself “born from a stone egg laid by a rock impregnated by heaven and earth,” could capture these demons. This is also how The Journey to the West tells the story of the birth of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven: At the summit of the mountain (of Flowers and Fruits, Huaguo Shan), right in the middle, was an immortals’ rock. . . . From the time of the creation of the world, day after day this rock had been permeated with celestial purity and earthly luxuriance, with the vigor of the sun’s rays and the softness of the moonlight. The rock had been caressed in this way so long that, stirred by a penetrating thought, it was divinely impregnated; splitting apart one fine day, it expelled a stone egg the size of a balloon. As it was exposed to the open air, it turned into a stone monkey endowed with the five senses and having four limbs. Having speedily learned to climb and walk, it bowed to the four directions. A flash of his glance shot a double beam of gold that reached the Palace of the Polar Star and startled the Jade Emperor, the Great Compassionate of the Higher Celestial Spheres. (Wu Cheng’en, 1991, bk. 1: 10)

This is what connects the Rock-Press Women to Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, this birth under the influence of a maturation of cycles and of the “traces” of the union of opposites. It is on this occasion that Cinnabar Cloud fashioned his mulberry wood club. This recalls the myths of the submerged village and the hollow mulberry tree, and also of the weapon of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.13 the blacksmiths’ bird

Although its presence does not figure directly and explicitly in the legend, I would like to digress for a moment on the subject of another bird, the owl. The different legends relating to this bird can be linked in several respects to the story and figure of Chen Jinggu and, in particular, to the themes that we have just touched on.14 In ancient Chinese mythology, lightning was represented by the owl, the blacksmiths’ bird. For metal to melt, the sacrifice of a woman was required and probably for this reason, thinks Granet, the owl was accused of stealing little girls or at least of staining their clothing with blood, thereby provoking convulsions and death. Indeed, the owl lost blood through a wound inflicted by the Celestial Dog in pulling off one of its ten heads (Granet, 1959,

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vol. 2: 527, 537ff.).15 As such, the owl that is called Spirit Bird (Guiniao) is assimilated to the daughter of the Celestial Sovereign, traditionally a woman who died in childbirth (De Groot, 1892–1910, vol. 5: 642). This association of death in childbirth and the theme of blood recalls the fate that befell Chen Jinggu. But it is here that this mythological connection suddenly demands attention. Chen Jinggu, in fact, is close to another divine figure, the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun), the daughter of the god of the Eastern Peak (Tai Shan), infernal hypostasis of the Celestial Sovereign.16 This is what connects her even more closely perhaps to the Night Stalker, another name for the Spirit Bird. We shall return to this aspect of her character in Chapter 6. Furthermore, the day of the sacrifice to bring rain, notably celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month, is also the day of the owl: in the form of lightning splitting the cloud, it makes the rain fall. It is a similar sacrifice that only Chen Jinggu can perform in the seventh month, a sacrifice for the fertility of the kingdom, a sacrifice that resulted in her death “in childbirth.” At this time of year many water rituals were also performed in relation to the fertility of women, and the text of the Linshui pingyao zhuan takes care to link together the different periods of rain, confirming that the drought of the seventh month, in autumn, was due to the excess of rain in spring (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 100).17 The fate reserved for Chen Jinggu’s child takes on another aspect in this new light. In brief, the owl infant eats its mother, and for this reason the infant born on the fifth day of the fifth month (the day of the sacrifice for rain) is a threat to its mother, and must therefore be exposed in front of the interior door of the house, which is guarded by Thunder-Lightning, the yang energy of heaven and the yin of the earth, respectively.18 the ravine demon, the union of opposites

Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage is the accomplice of the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui), the demon (gui) of the Great Ravine (Zhangkeng).19 He is a putrid emanation, half earth, half water, a breath congealed from yin, of which he is the quintessence. The Linshui pingyao zhuan (n.d., ch. 2: 7) presents him as follows: “Behind the Mountain That Faces North (Wangbeitai Shan) there is the Mountain of the Great Ravine (Zhangkeng Shan). On the slopes of this mountain the impure exudation of a swamp received the quintessence of the sun and moon. It congealed and hardened, and became a Ravine Demon. This Ravine Demon is the very essence of the gui.”20

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The fact that the Ravine Demon is a gui makes him a skeleton spirit. Moreover, Madame Yao, whose fatal labor he provokes, is not fooled by him. “Yang Chun’s wife, Madame Yao, knew that it was a soul of the skeletons, and not a wandering soul” (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17).21 Kaltenmark demonstrated the relationship between the words po, the seminal soul, and gui. For him, the two refer back to the depiction of the skeleton, whose white bones contain the marrow and the jing, the “seminal essence” equivalent to po. Both are white because they have the color of the “original breath” (yuanqi).22 This same seminal essence is the indispensable ingredient of internal alchemy. This allows us to consider the pair Ravine Demon–Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage in yet another way. The Ravine Demon is the seminal essence in relation to the white bones; his nature is yin. He is contrasted with the “cinnabar” of Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage of the red fur, whose nature is yang. The Ravine Demon is the quintessence of yin, which must be sublimated to give birth to the quintessence of yang. discerning contemplation, guanyin

The multiple elements of internal alchemy are depicted in Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage and the Ravine Demon: the spirit (shen), the heart (xin), and the essence (jing). The figure of Guanyin–Chen Jinggu is their catalyst. Indeed, in the context of the alchemical interpretations of The Journey to the West, Guanyin is considered to be the discerning contemplation (guan) that gives rise to the process of transformation. As Despeux (1985: 69) shows: Most commentators have failed to pick up on its Buddhist meaning. They have relied on an analysis of her name to say that she represented discriminating contemplation (kuan), without which the quest for immortality cannot succeed. Only this contemplation allows one to transmute, harvest the remedy, move the breath, establish the embryonic respiration for ten months, give birth to the baby and suckle it for three years. . . . Each time he is in extreme difficulty, the monkey asks Guanyin to save him; because those who cultivate hsing (spirit) and ming (vital force) must contemplate with discernment.

Again and again the Linshui pingyao zhuan alludes to this magic gaze, this “divine eye” (shenyan) that Chen Jinggu is said to have possessed and that allows her to see right through to the “true nature of beings.” It is the same story with the door guardians of Mount Lü, whose bodies were covered with clairvoyant eyes when they fled down the mountain and threw away their pestle, the weapon of the Five Thunders, another technique of

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internal alchemy.23 In Buddhism, one of the five supernatural faculties is to see every distant object by means of the eye of wisdom (huiyan), which Daoism calls the “celestial eye” (tianmu) or “spiritual light” (shenguang). The second phase of the quest for immortality is described by Despeux (1994: 239) in the following terms: At the end of ten months the embryo is ready to be born. It is then moved to the upper cinnabar field in the head, and from there it can henceforth come and go at will through the fontanel. This is the rebirth of the adept who formed within himself a new being of light, a miniature double of his body called yinshen or “spiritual force” yin. . . . During the third stage, about which the texts have little to say, this yinshen is gradually transformed into yangshen or pure yang, essentially by means of contemplation. Then once it has been reintegrated into emptiness . . . the only thing that counts is the ultimate result that is the transcendence of the duality life-death. the alchemical quest and the emergence of the subject

The alchemical quest thus consists of refining the breath and the essence within the self, to the point of giving birth to a new yang being.24 In addition, this process requires the union of opposites: yin and yang, as cosmic principles—moon and sun, lightning and thunder—of elements characteristic of the body (breath and essence) or of real or imaginary partners who thus inscribe “traces” that allow them to accede to being.25 This path is seen as a journey “in reverse” (ni) toward the womb, because when the ocean of breaths is activated in the normal sense it goes from one to many and allows procreation; in the opposite sense it leads from the many to the one, and to immortality. This is what the story of Chen Jinggu demonstrates. But the transmutation cannot take place without this “discerning vision” (guan), this inversion of the light, giving rise to a flash: the unveiling of the “true nature of beings and things.” As we have seen, the metaphor of being struck by lightning is frequently employed: it is after having been split by Thunder-Lightning that the rock receives the energies of the two original principles, yin and yang, lunar and solar, and becomes either “human,” like the Rock-Press Women, or immortal, like the monkey Great Sage Equal to Heaven.26 Likewise, in the process of internal alchemy, the yang that rises is the solar breath, and the yin that falls is the lunar breath. This “flash of lightning” appears as the instant when the pain becoming pleasure gives birth to the subject. This is what is expressed by the idea of “taking human form,” or, even better, “pure yang.”

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The development must, however, continue in order to allow the eruption of the “traces” of this opening, of this inscribed sexual memory, called here karma. It is the meaning of having to be admitted onto the Register of a master. But this is a matter of a procedure without words, which does not pass through language.27 This asceticism is approached differently according to the sex of the adept: “With the man, one speaks of sublimation of the breath by the supreme yang; with the woman, of sublimation of the body by the supreme yin. With the man, one speaks of the embryo; with the woman, of respiration” (Despeux, 1990: 240). The woman first sublimates her body, because she must renounce her impure yin nature and transmute it in order to become completely yang. This is the meaning of the stage called “decapitating the red dragon,” intended to make the sexual characteristics disappear in internal alchemy, and for women to cause the menstrual flow to cease. However, as Despeux (1990: 286) emphasizes: “Despite this, the woman can succeed in the great undertaking more quickly than the man . . . because she has the immense privilege of being a mother. It is often said that the woman already has the universal remedy within her own body; she has no need to produce it.” This is what the story of Chen Jinggu demonstrates, while simultaneously denying her its benefits. This denial of the woman corresponds closely to the notion of the inverted direction built into the process of this “return toward the womb.” As we have seen in this legend, it gives rise to a constant rivalry between the partners, each seeking to steal the other’s female essence. The feminine cultivated by the Daoist adept consists, in fact, of stealing the secrets seen as the female prerogative. The process thus appears as a dream of androgyny that satisfies the desire to rediscover the opposite sex within oneself. But, as Faure (1994: 127–29) shows, this “return to the womb” is a male fantasy. The woman is regarded both as possessing an inexhaustible reserve of yin and as a devourer of health, a female “fox,” a sexual vampire like the White Snake, who was a strand of Guanyin’s hair. It is significant that we find female bodhisattvas in Chinese popular Buddhism whose stories often imitate Guanyin. Chen Jinggu is an example of this. We recall that the Chinese goddess Guanyin was originally the Buddha Avalokitesvara, depicted with masculine characteristics. She is the perfect example of this union of opposites. In the ritual tradition of the Mount Lü sect that traces itself back to Chen Jinggu, in Fujian, the ritual masters (fashi), who are men, put on the skirt of the goddess to officiate,

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and pronounce a ritual formula to transform their bodies into the body of Chen Jinggu. And, as Faure (1994: 109) says, “If the Chinese Guanyin, after her mysterious sex change, becomes a model and a recourse for women who rebel against their role of procreators or on the other hand seek to assume it despite all obstacles, for the monks she also constitutes a sublimated female ideal.” When Guanyin promises marriage at Luoyang Bridge, and Chen Jinggu castrates Cinnabar Cloud, both are promising access to enlightenment. Of course, we must not see in the Linshui pingyao zhuan any more than in The Journey to the West a systematic desire to elaborate this alchemical metaphor. Here, however, it is amply supported by the theme of this legend that establishes the cult of a local divinity of the fertility of women. The symbol of birth is often used to speak of internal alchemy. Here it is internal alchemy that is used to speak of birth.

The Temple of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven at Banling in Fujian the local cult of jade mountain (YU

SHAN )

In northern Fujian province at the place called “mid-slope” of Jade Mountain (Yu Shan banling), there is a temple, placed a short while ago under the authority of the Buddhist Association. This is Banling Temple (Banling si), also known as the Temple of the Great Sage of Banling (Banling Dasheng miao), or as the Temple of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven (Qitian Dasheng miao), since it is dedicated to the King of the Monkeys.28 It is also called the Temple of Flowers and Fruits (Huaguo si), from the name of the mountain located in the kingdom of Aolai where the Monkey in The Journey to the West was born, or even the Temple of the Pure Spring (Qingyuan si).29 Higher up on Jade Mountain is a landscape of large black rocks that form natural grottos. The cult of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven originated in this place, where he was a divinity (shen), a spirit closely resembling a demon of nature (yao). It is said that one day a traveler passing by there rested on a rock. When he wanted to set off again, he could not lift his load, which had become too heavy. He thought that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven had thus appeared to him, and questioned him. Suddenly the Monkey King emerged from the rock—or was it the man who made him “visible” by becoming his medium? The man then built a small temple, at the time only a simple shelter. That was in 1333, in the Yuan

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dynasty. Later, in 1368, the temple was enlarged. In 1996 a bigger building was constructed, because the grotto had become too small to receive all the pilgrims who throng there during the festival of the King of the Monkeys, dividing themselves between this grotto of the “miracle” of the apparition at Jade Mountain, the Grotto of the White Gibbon (Baiyuan dong), as it is called, and the Temple of Fruits and Flowers (Huaguo si).30 Many pilgrims enter a state of trance and indulge in reckless jumps and all sorts of martial arts moves, leaping from rock to rock like the Great Sage Equal to Heaven himself. pantheons and rituals

Today this temple is a fascinating place, situated right on the mountain. The slopes, covered with abundant vegetation, extend as far as the eye can see without any buildings in sight. On the ridge beam of the gate the name “Mountain of Flowers and Fruits” (Huaguo Shan) is carved in gold on a panel. The place is lonely and yet on festival days a tightly packed crowd fills this space, strange as it is: built on a cliff, two rooms are like openings, with two “sky wells” that plunge down the mountain. Galleries are arranged all around where bustling people write requests addressed to the divinities of the place, intended for different rituals: “to pacify” (ping’an), to tell fortunes (suan ming), to invite the gods to return with them (jinxiang) (Figure 4.4). Divinatory slips specific to the Great Sage Equal to Heaven and Guanyin are interpreted there. For this temple dedicated to the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Monkey God whose principal altar occupies the center of the temple, while he likewise figures on a secondary altar surrounded by characters from The Journey to the West, is a Buddhist temple. The gilt statues of the buddhas figure prominently: on one side is an altar of Amitābha-Amitofo, Buddha of the Present, of Infinite Light or of Infinite Time, who in the present rules over the Western Paradise; on the other side is the altar of Ksitigarbha-Dizang, the Buddha Redeemer of the Hells. A little further on, there is the altar of the Great Heroes of the Three Jewels (Sanbao Daxiong dian); and, below, is Guanyin with the vessel of ambrosia, flanked by Liangnü and Shancai; lower, in front of them, is Maitreya-Milefo, the Future Buddha, whose coming will bring the Great Peace (Taiping) into this world. On the other side of the “sky wells,” facing Maitreya, Weituo watches over the temple.31 On each side of the altar of the Great Heroes of the Three Jewels are the twenty-eight celestial mansions and the eighteen lohan. A carved motif, the rococo altar of Guanyin of the Purple Bamboo

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f i gur e 4.4. Ritual masters writing ritual requests, Mount Huaguo Temple, Banling, Fujian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

Forest (Zizhulin Zhong Guanyin), the Guanyin of Putuo Shan depicted on the back of the “Golden Fish-demon,” the jin moyu that she tamed, occupies another room (see Wu Cheng’en, 1991, bk. 10, ch. 49).32 An altar houses the Three Ladies: Chen Jinggu, the “Great Mothering Lady” (Da’nai), and her two sisters Lin and Li. Everywhere incense burners are choked with the pink-stemmed sticks of reddish incense. The spirals of smoke cloud this half-open half-closed space, where sunlight and shadow compete, making the reds of the offerings and the blues of the jackets of the faithful shimmer. In a festive disorder and thinking little of the expense, the faithful, on their knees before the altars, cast divination blocks and bamboo strips, hoping for a favorable response to their questions. The tables overflow with the favorite vegetarian offerings of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven: fruits, peanuts, and cakes. In front of his cheerful statue, the theater troupe performs day and night for a week on the ancient stage hung with curtains of gold, pink, and green.33 Near the altar of the Great Heroes of the Three Jewels a small group of

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old women read sutras. In front of their mouths they hold bundles of yellow paper-money offerings representing “gold” (jin). They employ them like the beads of a rosary to count the sutras they recite because they must say a hundred and eight of them, this being the number of totality. Read in this way, the words are preserved in the paper offerings, which are then burned to transmit them, as are the requests, in an old furnace still tinged with a faded blue. Many people come alone and leave with a sachet of incense. Others come with a Daoist or Buddhist master to “offer incense” (jinxiang), or to invite the god to return with them to their local temple, “dividing the incense” of its incense burner (fenxiang), thereby affiliating themselves with its cult. Two monks, Guoming and Guoyu, live in the temple, and a woman who came at the age of ten as a “wife raised since childhood” (tongyangxi) in a neighboring village spends the best part of her time there “helping.” cinnabar cloud great sage and the “strange children”

At the Linshui Temple in Tainan, Cinnabar Cloud Monkey is responsible for children whose lives are always difficult. Often sick, they require constant attention: consultations with doctors and mediums, frequent visits to the temple with or without the performance of rituals, purchases of talismans and medicines.34 They are the same children who, very often, lose their souls—“suffer terrors” (shoujing)—and are likewise most liable to “collide with” (chong) the fate of one of their own relatives if they are under the influence of contrary elements.35 This opposition is particularly serious when in the child’s very earliest years it is a matter of opposition to the fate of the mother, which gives rise to what are called poisoned disturbances.36 Thus we find here, in connection with these children for whom people frequently come to seek the help of Cinnabar Cloud and through this theme of polarization, the aforementioned danger linked to the presence of contrary elements. Thus, every child is to a certain extent placed in this dangerous situation of opposition to its own mother. In fact, children are considered to be particularly “hot” (yang) up to the age of seven, and in any case until they have the measles, an eruptive manifestation of the uterine poison that the mother and child together stirred up during the fetal period.37 Here we can see another form of the expression of the “yang of the other.” Some children, however, in whom this opposition is especially strongly marked,

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and possibly the children with “strange fates,” show inflamed cutaneous manifestations (scurf, pimples, redness, and the like) outside the expected time for measles, before or after this disease strikes. That is why these children also come under the protection of Cinnabar Cloud, who himself had to suffer the fire of the cosmic womb: the lightning pearl or even the furnace of the eight trigrams.

5

the thirty-six po j ie

In addition to Cinnabar Cloud Monkey and her sworn sisters, Chen Jinggu was assisted in her mission as protector of women and children by thirtysix female figures who played the role of “official ladies of the Palace” (Gongpo guan), the title of the secondary wives of the king of Min. In the temple in Tainan, they are represented by thirty-six very beautiful small statues placed on either side of the principal hall where the incense burner is located. Each side gallery shelters eighteen of them; behind each one is a tablet engraved with her name and place of origin. The Pojie are represented standing, in the poses of their roles as “wet nurses,” surrounded by small statues of young children who cling to their robes or whom they hold in their arms: one of them even gives her breast, while another, exhausted, stretches herself. A third brandishes a stick with which she threatens the child at her feet, and yet another holds two children, perhaps twins, in her arms.1 In the Linshui temple at Gutian the polychromatic statues of the thirty-six Pojie are located in the west gallery of the temple. Chen Jinfeng, the empress of Min, and the Third Messenger Who Rides the Qilin (Qilin San Sheren) also figure there. Their names and places of origin are carved on tablets above them. In the Linshui pingyao zhuan the thirty-six Pojie are associated with 123

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eleven prefectures and thirty-three districts in the province. They correspond strikingly, in fact, to a local register of the cult of Chen Jinggu and its communities.2 It is clear that the register of this cult goes far beyond this list, either through mythological references or through the presence of temples dedicated to Chen Jinggu (or of temples of other divinities where she is depicted).3 The Pojie are also called the thirty-six “wet nurses” (niangniang) or even the “Beauties of the Thirty-six Palaces” (Sanshiliu gonge). This last name alludes directly to their origin: in the legend they were the thirty-six concubines (gonge) of the king of Min. How they went from being royal concubines to assistants of the shaman of Mount Lü, and what meaning should be given to this transformation, will be the subject of this chapter. Their number and their role in the cult will lead us to consider their esoteric symbolism in relation to the trigrams and rituals of the Northern Dipper (Beidou). We shall also see how the metaphor of the body, the female body envisaged this time as a kingdom, is elaborated. We will recall with regard to this subject the theme of sacrifice—this time, that of the disobedient female—and we will reflect on the nature of the female elements that articulate in this legend paternal power and its lineages.

Trouble in the Palace of Min In order to understand this last point, we shall go back to the time before Chen Jinggu’s death, when the Ravine Demon was commanded by his master, the White Snake, to capture “attractive and intelligent” young men so that she could consume their vital energies at leisure (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., chs. 12 and 13: 71ff.).4 We discussed this point in Chapter 1 in relation to the sexual categories. We return to it now in relation to the sacrifice of the “wild feminine” to the state. When the task proved to be difficult, the Ravine Demon had an idea: the White Snake could take the place of the empress at the side of the king. There were two advantages to this plan: it offered the White Snake a choice victim—the king—and allowed her to find once again a former victim of hers, the empress’s lover, who had discovered her identity in time to escape; he had subsequently become responsible for the royal women’s quarters (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 11: 67). The White Snake then assumed the appearance of empress Chen Jinfeng and wormed her way into the palace, while the real empress was kidnapped and bewitched by the Ravine Demon—the quintessence of yin—for his own pleasure.

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The White Snake having taken the place of the empress, the health of the king of Min deteriorated day by day. Furthermore, she had the thirty-six royal concubines locked up, condemned by her order to the torture of the “cold palace.”5 They would certainly have died of starvation if they had only been dealing with a cruel empress and not with a demon who did not give them time to starve. For, every day, the White Snake came to devour one of these women, leaving only a little pile of white bones on the ground. On her way to Fuzhou, Chen Jinggu saw a “demonic vapor” over the royal palace; she knew she had to expel this demon. The Ravine Demon, keeping watch, went to the palace to warn the White Snake of the presence of her enemy, Chen Jinggu. The two of them devised a strategy to rid themselves of her. The White Snake empress pretended to suffer acutely from pains in the heart and confided to the king the account of a dream in which the Jade Emperor supposedly revealed to her the only possible remedy for her ills: she would have to eat the heart of a person whose superior nature matched that of an empress. Only Chen Jinggu would do, since “her heart was supposed to have seven orifices and three holes” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 12: 74).6 The Daoist master Chen Shouyuan, Chen Jinggu’s cousin, who is responsible for giving divine assent, goes to warn Chen Jinggu who, in her turn, prepares a strategy to capture the White Snake. She lets herself be taken prisoner to the palace, where a sword is handed to her so that she can cut open her own chest. At her request, the king agrees to give her a bowl of water to “wash her heart.” She writes magic formulas in the air over the water, and by spraying the talismanic water succeeds in capturing the White Snake empress on the imperial bed with her “demon-binding rope.” She then forces her to resume her original form of female python, the “true form” of the disobedient feminine.7 With the consent of the king, Chen Jinggu cuts the White Snake into three pieces on this very bed, drenching him with the demon’s blood, which flowed in waves.8 The middle section of the White Snake’s body is thrown into the well of Kaiyuan Temple, while the tail is put in the Well of the Seven Springs. The head, as we already know, is submerged in White Dragon River (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 12). These are real places in the kingdom of Min, all located in Fuzhou. After this sacrifice, Chen Jinggu prepared for the task of bringing back to life the thirty-six concubines, of whom only white bones remained strewn on the ground. When Chen Shouyuan’s ritual instruments proved ineffective, she succeeded in restoring the concubines to life with the “true ritual of

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Mount Lü” and her efficacious talismans: the Beidou rituals and Thunder methods. That is why the king of Min gave the concubines to her as an expression of gratitude. They became “apprentices” or “disciples” (tudi) of Chen Jinggu, who took them with her to Linshui Palace, where she installed them and taught them, all the while enabling them to live off her own life energies. The narrative of this episode dramatizes the sacrifice of the White Snake. We see set in opposition the three protagonists of the female roles linked to power: the demon, the empress, and the shaman. We shall first return to these different elements, before coming to the Pojie themselves.

The Execution of the Demon of the Feminine on the Imperial Bed Here once again the opposition between the White Snake and Chen Jinggu appears: on the one hand, hair and blood, “wild” female sexuality, “vampire” of the patrilines, and on the other, the obedient feminine, procreative, inculcating orthodoxy. The White Snake wants to eat Chen Jinggu’s heart, just as she will eat her embryo when Chen Jinggu comes to dance on White Dragon River in order to bring rain. In both cases, the struggle between these two aspects of the feminine is dramatized. This time, at the imperial palace, it is the White Snake who loses her blood: it flows in waves, just as Chen Jinggu’s will when she dances on White Dragon River.9 And the blood that flows on the imperial bed, and the execution of the demon that stains the bed with blood, recall another kind of princely sacrifice: the sacrifice the emperor performs on the altar of the god of the soil to obtain investiture and power. The sacrifices offered to heaven and earth mark the establishment of a dynasty.10 The jiao sacrifices to the earth god were also performed to the south of cities, on a sacred mound raised for this purpose (see Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 345n1). This theme of the sacrifices of investiture is closely related to that of royal hunts, an expression of “efficacy,” of power. The place of these hunts was considered, in itself, a sacred site, equivalent to the altar of the god of the soil, and, as Granet notes, “the externalized principle of all governing.” Likewise, it is here in these sacred places that the former sexual festivals (guan) took place.11 This term, guan 奨, refers not only to the festivals, but also to the observation towers on the hunting grounds. There is a famous poem of Song Yu’s on the subject of the marsh of the Dream of Clouds (Yunmeng), the sacred site of the state of Chu, that tells of the union

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of the king of Chu with the divinity of the Mountain of the Shamans (Wu Shan) on this observation tower.12 The poem specifies that this union of the king and the goddess gave rise to great blessings for the whole kingdom. In the Linshui pingyao zhuan it is the White Snake demon in the guise of the empress who marries the king in place of the divine shaman. That is what makes her the object of the sacrifice on the imperial bed, substituting here for the mound of the sacred site, the guan of the sacred hunt. The desire of the White Snake false empress to eat Chen Jinggu’s heart recalls the ordeals where the flesh of the enemy was eaten in order to possess his vital force and power.13 It was just such a feast that the White Snake wanted to have by eating Chen Jinggu’s heart, whose role of “demon pacifier” (pingyao) she would thus have destroyed, giving free rein to her own nature of “demon of transformations,” triumphant once and for all through this feast.14 The Linshui pingyao zhuan (n.d., ch. 13: 80) repeats this: “The common people were saying, ‘There is nothing but calamity in the palace of the king of Min; the Snake has made herself empress, the empress is a demon (gui)!’ ” For this sacrifice to be definitively completed, it will still be necessary for Chen Jinggu to die on White Dragon River where, sacrificed for the fertility of the kingdom, she will die in symbiosis with the White Snake. These two reunited aspects of the feminine will thus be “inscribed” in Linshui Temple where the mummified Chen Jinggu sits astride the vanquished demon. The execution of the White Snake while she is impersonating the empress and incorporating the role of the concubines demonstrates that for royal power to be exercised the demonic female force that haunted the kingdom had first to be expelled.

Female Roles in the Country of Min In the country of Min, in the Linshui pingyao zhuan, three female roles thus revolve around the royal power: the empress, the shaman, and the demon. All three represent different aspects of the feminine that are illuminated by their relation to the royal concubines. The important role played by the empress Chen Jinfeng in the affairs of state unleashes male fantasies, as evidenced by the manner in which her “countertype,” the White Snake empress, caricatures her as holding the reins of the kingdom while the king, weakened by her practice of consuming his vital energies, recedes into the background (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 11: 67–68). That was not far

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from the case of the historical Chen Jinfeng, who as empress had taken the “affairs of the kingdom in hand,” in an equally disastrous manner. But here the empress plays an appropriate role: she rules over the women’s quarters of the kingdom of Min, of which she is the most important element. As mistress of the royal concubines, she is the guarantor of the fertility and posterity of the king. It is she who ensures the periodic visits of the secondary wives to him, in accordance with the cycle determined by etiquette that recalls the phases of the moon.15 Gui Lang—her lover as well as the White Snake’s lover—is officially in charge of the women’s quarters. After the death of Chen Jinggu, to whom the king had presented the royal concubines resuscitated by her treatment, it is Chen Jinfeng who will found this cult of fertility and maternity. The White Snake is here a sort of “anti-empress.” By usurping Chen Jinfeng’s role, she parodies it and shows what would happen if female excesses are not brought to an end; she consumes the vital energies of the king, who can no longer govern and whose power, “virtue,” and efficacy she absorbs. The White Snake turns to her advantage the role of guarantor of royal fertility that is incumbent upon the empress by delivering the true empress to the Ravine Demon and eating the concubines. She thereby consumes the vital substance, the fertility, and the enduring existence of the kingdom. Victim of a yin demon, the royal line is brought to extinction. Finally, if she had also eaten the heart of the shaman of the kingdom—Chen Jinggu—she would have obtained a power devastating to the country of Min. She thus asserts herself here as the force ling, the obscure force of the feminine that is sacrificed so that royal power can be exercised. As shaman of the kingdom, Chen Jinggu is responsible for preserving it, which she does in three ways: by expelling the demons (pingyao) from its territory, by rescuing the king from the dangers that threaten him, and by assuring the fertility of the kingdom. These are three metaphoric aspects of the same reality: action based on the feminine. Saving the kingdom from the dangers that threaten it was the mission accomplished by Chen Jinggu during another episode of the legend that we shall analyze later on. Assisted by her ritual community, she placed her magic powers at the service of the king, whose enemies, an adept of Mount Mao and a butterfly spirit that was the demonic vital essence of Prince Teng, were threatening the kingdom with their outrages (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 14: 90ff.; see below). The expulsion of the demons (pingyao) is Chen Jinggu’s first role as shaman of Mount Lü. This is the origin of her name, Jinggu, “she who pacifies.” This

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is the mission that was entrusted to her by Perfected Lord Xu, the master of filial piety, and we have seen that the demons subdued through her diligence constitute the different aspects of her cult. This mission reaches its apogee in the extermination of the White Snake, whom she sacrifices to the royal family of Min. The ritual performed on White Dragon River to bring rain cost Chen Jinggu her life for the benefit of the kingdom (see Chapter 2). In this rain ritual, performed to save the country of Min, she is torn between her fate as a wife within the lineage and her search for long life. It will separate her from both of these and transform her into a divine symbol: goddess protector of women. As such, she is the icon of the majority of women who know themselves to be both mortal and immortal, links in a chain of life that goes through them, which began before them and will continue after their deaths. Men, less certain of surviving in progeny, look for other means to guarantee their survival. Theirs are symbolic means, such as the worship of the ancestors of their lineages. By restoring to the king the real empress and the concubines she had resuscitated, Chen Jinggu guarantees power as a result of the sacrifice of the demon she keeps captive after vanquishing her, and with whom she will die. As shaman, she thus plays the role of integrating the rebellious feminine force. This is why, having defeated the White Snake and “purified her own heart,” she becomes the guarantor of this linkage between the king, the empress, and the concubines. She receives the concubines symbolically as followers and animates them with her vital essence, that is, the force of the tamed transformations (hua), the Flowers.16 Moreover, we may note that throughout this episode a parallel is also drawn between Chen Jinggu and Chen Jinfeng, which became a reality in the offering of the concubines and in the empress’s deification of Chen Jinggu. Thus, they have the same name, Chen, and both were victims of the Ravine Demon’s misdeeds. The Ravine Demon stole Chen Jinggu’s baby—her “essence”—and Chen Jinfeng’s vital energies. And both had either husband or lover kidnapped by the White Snake: Liu Qi, Chen Jinggu’s husband, and the king of Min, Chen Jinfeng’s husband, as well as Chen Jinfeng’s lover, Gui Lang, the master of the royal women’s quarters. Furthermore, Chen Jinggu is the only one, the White Snake says, who possesses a heart as noble as that of the empress. In Gan Bao’s Soushen ji there is a version similar to this legend, situated in the Min region of eastern Yue. This is the tale “Li Ji Rescues Yue from the Snake” (Gan Bao, 4th c. [1992], ch. 19, no. 440; see Mathieu, 1992: 196–97, who quotes it). Through filial piety, the young heroine of this tale,

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who comes from Nanping in Fujian, exterminates a demon snake that ravages the region of Min.17 She finds in its grotto the bones of nine little girls previously eaten by the snake, and, as Chen Jinggu does for the thirty-six concubines, she brings them out of the cave and sighs out of grief for them. The end of the story brings us even closer to the Linshui pingyao zhuan, since Li Ji, the heroine of the Soushen ji, ends up marrying the king of Yue, who admires her exploit. In this story, too, her family was promoted to honorific posts. We are not far from this point of view here. What does Chen Jinggu do with the white bones to which she has restored human appearance and who will henceforth be hers, who will become wet nurses, midwives, providers of children of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers? It is to these “dried bones” that we shall now turn our attention.

The Bones and the Flower After the White Snake’s feast there remained in the “cold palace” nothing but little piles of white bones. The text uses two words to refer to these bones: baigu and kugu, two terms that are very close in meaning. The “white bones” (baigu), aged, have gone through cycles, and have thereby acquired a force that makes them efficacious and, generally, dangerous. We shall recall on this subject the legend of Xu Jia, Laozi’s servant, who was also reduced to a pile of white bones when Laozi, after having animated him for many years with his vital force, on his journey to the west took back the talisman that he had given him.18 In Chen Jinggu’s case it is by means of her efficacious talismans that she succeeds in bringing the thirtysix Pojie back to life, when the ritual instruments of master Chen Shouyuan of the Zhengyi tradition were of no avail. And, like Xu Jia, they will revert to the state of white bones at her death. Female fox spirits and the unappeased spirits of skeletons are also white; the White Snake demon is white, as is Guanyin’s hair, which turned white under the effect of Wang Xiaoer’s desire.19 Their spirits wandering because they died bad deaths, the concubines of the king of Min are animated by a harmful force that Chen Jinggu was able to transform into a beneficent one. The word ku, “dead wood,” “faded,” “withered,” also adds a vegetal connotation. By this transformation of the white bones, Chen Jinggu combines in the same crucible the essence of the bones and blood that she represents, that of the “flowers,” of the transformations over which she rules. This union of bone and flower is represented by the reanimation of the

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concubines—Chen Jinggu’s apprentices (tudi)—whose flesh she restored. This fusion gives birth to a real or symbolic baby, a newborn or embryo of immortality.20 Consequently, when Chen Jinggu dies at Linshui Palace after finally vanquishing the White Snake and becomes Goddess of the Flowers, once again only bones remain in the concubines’ rooms (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 109). They are an inherent element of the sacrifice of the White Snake and of Chen Jinggu, and we shall see that they are her auxiliary spirits, stars of fate.

Divine Officials, and Local Ties Linshui grotto, from which Chen Jinggu expelled the White Snake, had been transformed into a palace (gong), where she taught her sworn sisters the magic arts of Mount Lü. There she also installed the thirty-six apprentices in a manner that sheds considerable light on the nature of their role. Chen Jinggu dedicated to them the side galleries of the palace, on either side of the great hall. Today there is also a small statue of Chen Jinfeng in this hall. Chen Jinggu herself shared the “rear room” with the women Lin and Li, forming the triad of the Three Ladies (Sannai), as they are called.21 In each of the side galleries eighteen “rooms” were arranged. Above each door, the text specifies, hung a tablet engraved with the name and place of origin of the woman who lived there, so as to avoid any confusion when they were “invoked” (huhuan). As a result, they became divine posts (wei) of the different places from which they came. Their names (ming) are their only life, their only fate (ming). And these names each refer to a specific place, for example, the Woman Jinxiu of Wenping district in Yanping prefecture, as if to spatially attribute different regions to each of them. Like Chen Jinggu herself, they will be charged with a role in the kingdom. This leads us to reflect further on the role of the thirty-six Pojie guan in the legend and in the reality of the temple.

The Thirty-six Pojie Thirty-six is a symbolic number that is revealing for this group of acolytes.22 The court of the Jade Emperor, dominant in the tradition of the Heart of Heaven (Tianxin zhengfa) and in the rites of the Five Thunders, is also made up of “thirty-six palaces and seventy-two courts,” two numbers that added together make a total of one hundred eight, another key number

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of totality, in particular that of the constellations. In the Linshui pingyao zhuan the wives of the king of Min are divided into two groups: the thirtysix “palace concubines” (gonge) and the seventy-two “court concubines” (yuane). Divided into eight battalions under Chen Jinggu’s command, they intervene in a battle fought to protect the kingdom of Min from the enemies who were attacking it, and to whom we shall return. These eight battalions clearly echo the eight trigrams (bagua) and the diagram of those trigrams earlier used by Lin Jiuniang in combat against the monk Iron Head. In the Tianxin zhengfa tradition, the Great Emperor of Purple Tenuity (Ziwei) himself, at the head of the Dipper constellation, led thirty-six generals under the command of Marshal Tianpeng. “With courage and ferocity they perform the rites, ride purple clouds, and completely cover the Body of the Law” (Despeux, 1994; see also Mollier, 1997). Encircling the Northern Dipper, there are thirty-six constellations (tiangang) that are summoned to come down to transform and win over the earth. They fight against the seventy-two harmful earthly breaths (qi), which cause trouble in the plain.23 There is a literary expression of this combat in Shi Naian’s novel Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan). This is what Dars has to say about it: Thirty-six celestial stars (tian-gang) and seventy-two earthly stars (di-sha): these personal “stars” influence the activities and the life of an individual; their number, thirty-six and seventy-two, is precisely that of the bands of robbers in the Marshes when they are all assembled together. We also see that the sum of these two numbers, one hundred eight, is in Buddhist doctrine the number of the evil passions that infest the human heart. (Dars’s annotation in Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong, 1978, ch. 1: 108–9n1; see also ibid., ch. 70: 556n1)24

The thirty-six gonge and the seventy-two yuane correspond to these stars. The role of exorcist and protector of the thirty-six celestial elements that encircle the Northern Dipper is dramatized, in the ritual that corresponds to it, by the magic traditions that invoke the Thunder (see Saso, 1978a; Baptandier, 1994b; Baptandier, 1996c: 1–31; Baptandier, 1997). The goal is to rescue a child who has lost its soul. For this purpose a diagram of the trigrams is constructed in which one must find the Door of Life corresponding to this person’s fate consonant with the moment. The Door of Life is found exactly where the handle of the Northern Dipper constellation points. This is the path that the soul of the deceased must take to escape the subterranean world and win eternal life. In a poem handed down from master to disciple to teach this ritual method, the end of the handle of the Northern

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Dipper is called “horse,” and, more commonly, “army smasher” (pojun). The direction it points is the Door of Life whose secret talismanic character is gang, the esoteric name of “army smasher,” the tail of the North Star (see Saso, 1978a, ch. 6: 248ff.). The secret taught by the magic method of the Thunder, borrowed from an ancient divinatory system called “monthly positions” (yuejian), is that the Door of Life, namely the gen position in the trigrams, changes. It is different for each month, day, and hour of the lunar calendar. If the precise situation is not known, it is impossible to correctly perform the exorcism, or the rite of protection or meditation. One thus constructs a diagram of the trigrams into which, depending on the case, either the patient himself or a substitute (tishen), who is also called a “straw man,” is introduced. Candles are placed behind each trigram, their number corresponding to the number of lines making up the trigram: altogether there are thirty-six candles (one per line). The power of the Thunder is thus summoned from the organ of the Daoist master’s body that corresponds to the direction that “army smasher” points.25 There are seventy-two noxious breaths that are determined in accordance with the almanac, the date of birth of the possessed child, or according to the evil direction of the yuejian method (Saso, 1978a: 256). The Thunder must be summoned from the direction in which the North Star points, with the intention of acting against the evil power of the Six Spirits (liujia), whatever other black magic tricks are used against the Daoist master’s client (Schipper, 1982b: 190).26 As a result, the Door of Life indicates the direction from which one must begin the ritual and the place through which the soul of the deceased—or the imprisoned soul of the patient—must escape the subterranean world. From an esoteric point of view, this can be understood as the Door of Eternal Life.27 The yuejian method is mentioned in Tao Hongjing’s Zhen’gao. Saso concludes from this that it was used at Mount Mao beginning in the fifth century, with no direct link to the Thunder rituals. The Daofa huiyuan (Daozang, no. 1220, fasc. 884–941), chapter 77, presents it as an essential part of its rubric “Thunder” (Daofa huiyuan, ch. 77). Saso thinks that its adoption by the Qingwei tradition and by the Master of Fire, Wang Zihua, demonstrates the influence of Mount Mao on these two other traditions (Saso, 1978a: 244). Indeed, we shall see here how the episodes in the Linshui pingyao zhuan concerning the thirty-six Pojie are connected to the exorcism of the Mount Mao adept who makes use of his malevolent arts in

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the company of an ink spirit, the “deviant” vital energy of an exiled Tang prince. Let us go back to the legend to further understand the role of the thirty-six Pojie at Chen Jinggu’s side.

Male-Female: The Body Is a Kingdom That Must Be Ruled When Chen Jinggu is still only the shaman of the kingdom of Min, the Pojie help her in her work, assisting with exorcisms and the protection of the kingdom. Thus they take part in an extraordinary battle between Chen Jinggu and her enemy, Yuan Guangzhi, the adept of Mount Mao who was trying to usurp the throne of Min after becoming the lover of a butterfly spirit who was stealing the vital energies of the kingdom.28 Assisted by her seven sworn sisters—among them the women Lin and Li, the Tigress Woman Jiang, and the Rock-Press Women—and accompanied by Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage and the thirty-six apprentices, Chen Jinggu came to rescue the kingdom of Min from its enemies. The generals Wang and Yang, at the head of the soldiers of the Five Camps, marched alongside them. Chen Jinggu enlisted all the Palace Ladies, including the empress Chen Jinfeng, dividing them into eight battalions to take part in the battle. The butterfly spirit called Dream Remnant, Mengyu, was originally a painting of a butterfly by Prince Teng, the son of the Tang emperor Gaozong (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 13: 83ff.). The painter had transmitted to his work such “vigor” (shenqi) through his brush and ink that it had taken on a human body and the appearance of a young girl.29 Mengyu is thus, as she says herself, the “ink of a celebrated family,” the spirit of the ink, animated by the vital force of this exiled prince.30 The expression “cinnabar red and blue” (danqing) means “painting.” Certainly the very nature of these two primary colors in their alchemical sense compels us to see here a term equivalent to jing, the vital essence that one causes to circulate with the breath in the cinnabar fields (dantian) in order to cultivate the embryo of immortality within oneself.31 The episode concerning the guardians of Mount Lü in the Linshui pingyao zhuan was an early example of this associated with the practices of the Five Thunders (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2). Mengyu, one surmises, nourished herself with flowers, particularly orchids and cinnamon tree flowers, whose symbolism is close to that of pregnancy. Dreaming of orchids presages pregnancy, and the cinnamon tree is the tree of the moon, at the foot of which the hare of the moon grinds the elixir of immortality. But Mengyu was also particularly fond of other

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“alchemical” ingredients: penises of little boys, nipples of little girls, and secretions of the scalp, all things that Yuan Guangzhi helped her obtain in order to “nourish her life,” thereby terrorizing the kingdom of Min. Thus, rather than giving birth to children, this spermatic essence devoured them for its own benefit. This union of the Mount Mao adept and an ink spirit is not surprising. In a farewell poem recited at the time of his departure from Mount Mao, the master of the Grotto of Flourishing Yang had cautioned his disciple, Yuan Guangzhi, that he would not remain faithful to his teaching: “To faithfully preserve the arts of Mount Mao, many paths lie before you; a demon will pass by and you will stop to make love to her; you will see an image and you will be taken in by it. This butterfly is a fatal breath; the vital essence of Chen Gao ground its ink. Three armies will form a league; you will overlook the heroine among the women” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 13: 82).32 We may recall that in the Linshui pingyao zhuan Mount Mao, an academy of magic, seems to be reserved for male adepts, whereas Mount Lü is a female place. In this struggle between Chen Jinggu, assisted by her sisters, and Yuan Guangzhi, who has taken up arms against the king, it is thus Mount Lü and Mount Mao that are opposed, the female and the male.33 If, in the customary metaphor in this context, the body is imagined as a kingdom that must be ruled—in this case the kingdom of Min—then we can also see here a struggle between the male and female spirits of the bisexual body.

The Technique of the Thunder Accompanied by her seven sisters and the thirty-six Pojie, Chen Jinggu comes in ritual formation to the rescue of the king: “They marched with neither cuirasses nor warhorses, each with a sword in hand, giving the appearance of an army formed into a long snake,” says the text (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 14: 91). Indeed the magic tradition of Mount Mao has an open arrangement of the trigrams in the form of a snake (Saso, 1978a: 261). We have an example of it here: in their attack on Yuan Guangzhi, the eight sworn sisters and the thirty-six Pojie trace the form of this diagram. At their sides the generals Wang and Yang, leading the soldiers of the Five Camps, represent the breaths of the five directions, the five elements, or the five organs of the body (Figure 5.1). They represent the Five Thunders.34 On her arrival at Fuzhou, Chen Jinggu enlists all the women of the palace, “the

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f i gur e 5.1. Generals of the Five Directions, ancestral temple of Empress Chen of Linshui, Tating, Fuzhou. Photo Alain Sounier.

thirty-six palaces and the seventy-two courts,” whom she divided into eight battalions, like the chart of the eight trigrams. When combat is joined, Chen Jinggu first of all makes the magic soldiers summoned up by Yuan Guangzhi resume their “true forms”: they are nothing but blades of grass and beans (Figure 5.2). It is then that a curious sequence of events occurs. After having captured Mengyu, the castrated monkey Cinnabar Cloud turns himself into a “celestial horse” and, galloping in all directions, he destroys the virtual soldiers who are still fleeing. Do these preliminaries not dramatize the “horse,” the “smasher of armies” (pojun), the gang, which points to the Door of Life? Henceforth, this battle, which of course will be a contest of magic, introduces in four sequences all kinds of virtual creatures that Chen Jinggu’s sisters must fight in turn. Yuan Guangzhi first summons up an army of tigers and wolves, which in fact are nothing but paper figures animated by charms and magic formulas. Woman Jiang fights them with her golden-haired tiger. When they are vanquished, Yuan Guangzhi makes birds appear: crows, sparrows, goshawks, and magpies. It is the Rock-Press Women who come to fight them, and the birds resume their true form of shellfish (conchs, mussels). Again Yuan Guangzhi recites some magic formulas, and turtles, snakes, poisonous insects,

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and crocodiles appear in the sky. Cinnabar Cloud Monkey attacks them, and they resume their true form of “dragon hair,” “horse hair,” and plants. Next comes a shower of insects: flies, wasps, grasshoppers, and so on. It is Lin Jiuniang’s turn to fight them by means of her “spider pearl.” She disperses them and they turn out to be nothing but a ball of rice (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 14). Yuan Guangzhi is at last out of magic tricks. The eight female battalions of Chen Jinggu’s army then rush up with buckets full of the foul blood of dogs and pigs, and bring the battle to an end. Finally, Yuan Guangzhi’s head is cut off and exposed outside the town. Mengyu, going back into the painting, is incinerated and her ashes scattered in the river. This extraordinary battle serves to establish each of the figures around Chen Jinggu in her symbolic role and value, each having to confront a

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f i gur e 5.2. The siege of Fuzhou led by Wang Jitu. Linshui pingyao zhuan.

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savage power for which she is the beneficent opposing force and for which she becomes responsible. This army of women, joined by the castrated monkey Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, the quintessence of yang, fights against the ink spirit, the yin spermatic essence, the painting-butterfly Dream Remnant. In the context of the Linshui pingyao zhuan this is a battle against the magic of Mount Mao. In this desperate struggle to save the “kingdom of Min” we can see a metaphor for a ritual asceticism to control the bodies of women, in particular here in their procreative mission. This is a warning that the yin essence at the center of the female body must not be kept for an exclusive, personal, use. It is the victory of a docile femininity, guarantor of power over those who, here of a “deviant” masculine essence, try to appropriate it for their own benefit. The concubines also participate at Chen Jinggu’s side in the rescue of the kingdom: their number, thirty-six, is equal to that of the thirty-six astrological stars that encircle the Northern Dipper, which animates the diagram of the trigrams. Like the other figures, they will be rewarded by the king, who will give them honorific titles, in this case the official title of royal concubines, Gongpo guan. Thus we also see in this cult the expression of a ritual tradition, that of the Tianxin zhengfa, of which Mount Lü and Chen Jinggu are local expressions, applied here particularly to the realm of the feminine.

The Thirty-six Pojie in the Life of the Cult When Chen Jinggu dies, returns to Mount Lü, and becomes mistress of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, the thirty-six Pojie share in this new responsibility. It is precisely when Chen Jinggu vows to come to the assistance of women and children that they themselves become wet nurses, midwives, and providers of children. They had been royal concubines in the kingdom, responsible for giving the king children. In the battle fought to save the “kingdom of Min” they were the thirty-six celestial stars, thirty-six gang, assisting the warriors of the Northern Dipper and the Five Thunders. And, on another metaphorical level, at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers they are responsible for watching over the processes of the transformations. This is what their present role reveals, as it is described in the rituals carried out in the temple and in the practices of the faithful who appeal to them for help as the “Ladies Who Transform Life” (Huasheng Pojie). They are divine posts (wei) like the thirty-six stars (gang) that encircle the Northern Dipper. In the various rituals of the Mount Lü tradition, “cultivating the Flow-

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ers” and “crossing the guan,” one invokes the thirty-six Pojie. They are regulatory authorities responsible for initiating “grafts” of the flowers in order to enable women to conceive; they watch over the development of the pregnancy during its ten lunar months; and they guide the baby, who passes over the “bridge” of birth, tracing its path in its mother’s body. Later, they will make the escaped soul of a child return. They will also guide the child through the “knotty passes” that mark the stages of childhood, protecting it from the “demon breaths of the passes” (guansha), just as the thirty-six stars that encircle the Northern Dipper combat the seventy-two “noxious earthly breaths” (disha). They are invoked collectively as well as individually (see Chapters 7 and 9). This ritual role of the thirty-six Pojie, who are associated with real places in the kingdom of Min, blends together different levels: the actual topography of the kingdom and the province of Fujian that Chen Jinggu, as shaman of Mount Lü, moves through in order to “pacify the demons” (pingyao). But it is also the real topography of the bodies of the women Chen Jinggu protects. Ultimately it is also a cosmological topography: a body, certainly, but also the universe, with its paradises and hells—such as the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers and the different passes (guan)—that the Pojie watch over. Here we again find the classical notion that the body is a kingdom that must be ruled (Despeux, 1996: 96; Dean, 1998b, ch. 4). This is understood on the level of internal alchemy, but also on the level of simple metaphor: in the kingdom of Min, the thirty-six Pojie were royal concubines. In the cult of Chen Jinggu, they are the “divine officials” of the female body they regulate and of children up to the age of sixteen years, in a state of symbiosis with the maternal universe (Figure 5.3). In the temple the Pojie are Chen Jinggu’s immediate helpers, her assistants, and most of the time it is to them that the faithful appeal for a ritual, once they have expressed their worries and their vows to Chen Jinggu herself. The Pojie have numerous roles. They accompany children on their journey to adulthood from the time of their reincarnation in the garden of the Flowers. Above all, they watch over the reincarnation of souls at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers: they help women conceive children. In the next chapter we shall see that this is one of the aspects of the figure of Chen Jinggu under the name Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang). The Bridge of a Hundred Flowers is the place where every soul comes to be reincarnated. Thus it is proper that the Pojie share in this mission, by guaranteeing transmigration through the Door of Life. In this way they

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f i gur e 5.3.

Pojie, Linshui Temple, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Alain Sounier.

symbolically play the role of “gardeners,” since they must distribute or “plant out” pregnancies (fentai), fen being a word used for the planting out of rice seedlings. On another metaphorical level, that of internal alchemy, it is thought that fully realized beings can master the “mechanisms of the transformations.” They are able to create a flesh and blood body that replicates their own. It is said that they divide their body (fenxing or even fenshen), that they create a “double” of themselves (yingren). This is what we see in the ritual of crossing the guan, when a “substitute” (tishen) is used (another name for the “straw man” [caoren] of the ritual of the Northern Dipper), in order to re-create the child who has lost its soul (see Schipper, 1985a: 83–95; Baptandier, 1996a; Boltz, 1983). This notion is found at the level of the female body imagined as a sort of “rhizome” capable of producing stem cuttings, grafts, or “doubles.” Moreover, are not these esoteric “others” a simple metaphor for the real production of a child? The Pojie must also “register pregnancies” (zhutai) in the Register of Life and Death. Once a child has been granted and the “sowing” of souls eager to be born who must be “planted out” has been put in order, the Pojie watch over the proper development of the pregnancy. First of all they must “stabilize” it (dingtai), because this grafting of the child into the mother is considered to be precarious up to around five months. Early on, they can

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also change the sex of the baby if the parents wish it. Finally, they protect the mother and embryo from all the dangers that can threaten them during this period when the equilibrium between mother and child, on the one hand, and between the two of them and external influences, on the other, is especially difficult to maintain. Likewise, they intervene when the child is born. They know how to hasten birth; they help the baby “cross the bridge” (duqiao, guoqiao), protecting mother and child in this dangerous passage, thereby sparing them the Lake of Blood. Once the baby is born, they take it in charge: they hold it in their arms, wash it, teach it to laugh, speak, eat, sit up, and walk.35 They take care of the child, watching over it to ward off illness, healing it, and protecting it from the malevolent influence of wandering souls and curses. Finally, they watch over the stages, the passes (guan), of childhood that every individual must cross in a distinct manner according to his or her own particular fate (see Chapter 8). In accordance with the baby’s eight birth characters (bazi) and the time of the calendar when they are appealed to, one or another Pojie will be called on. This is exactly what the text of the Linshui pingyao zhuan says: their names and places of birth are written in the temple so that the faithful do not make a mistake when invoking them. And these tablets are still there. In the same way, it is believed that the different ages of childhood, up to age sixteen, correspond to different Pojie. We shall see that during pregnancy the trigrams are believed to be written one by one on the placenta (see Chapter 7). In fact it is important not to make a mistake, since these figures, beneficent in principle, if invoked at the wrong time or without good reason, become unlucky and harm the child. Moreover, such a reversal can occur spontaneously: it is one of the aspects of fate that will have to be corrected (gaiyun). It is also the name of one of the “knotty passes,” the “guan of the Pojie.” This is, in fact, what we see in the rituals.36 It is also what the revelatory aspect of the Pojie expresses in this cult where they are faded “white bones,” reincarnated in the literal sense of the word by Chen Jinggu. Like her, they are somehow hostages of male power over women, divine tokens, guarantors of an obedient earthly feminine, but always ready to rise up under its “untamed” aspect.

6

th e god of the so il and t he lady of the birth re gis t e r

There are two other divinities in the Linshui Temple in Tainan. They are the god of the soil, near the southwest door, and the Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang), to the east of Chen Jinggu’s altar. The god of the soil is found in all temples, regardless of their patron goddess. Therefore his presence in the Linshui Temple is not at all surprising. The Lady of the Birth Register here simply takes on one aspect of Chen Jinggu’s responsibilities as Goddess of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. Both are agents of universal regulatory functions: they gather, bind together, and weave the human and cosmic web of life and death. We earlier highlighted the connections between Guanyin and Chen Jinggu, who often appears here as an incarnation of the former. Other connections, with the Old Mother of Mount Li or the Queen Mother of the West, are presented more as ties of apprenticeship. In fact it is said that as the disciple of the Queen Mother of the West, the Lady of the Birth Register is supposed to have received from her the “birthing basin ritual treasure” (chanpen fabao) that is called the “golden bushel of original chaos” (hunyuan jindou).1 Now we shall turn our attention to the overlapping in this place of the divine duties of Chen Jinggu and the god of the soil. This will enable us to bring to light the privileged relations that exist, moreover, 142

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between Chen Jinggu–Lady of the Birth Register and the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds. We shall examine the many points the two divinities have in common, since both of them protect women and children. One of them is the great goddess of northern China and the other is her counterpart in the south, to the point that, according to some sources, the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds’ title (shenhao) seems also to have been attributed to Chen Jinggu when she was canonized during the Song dynasty.2 In this new light we will be able to reveal the links that connect the temples and cult of Chen Jinggu to those of the Eastern Peak, on the one hand, and to those of the Celestial Daughter Seventh Star (Tiannü Qixing, also known as Qixing Niangniang or Qixing Nai), on the other. We shall first take up the oldest aspect of the cult offered to Chen Jinggu as a kind of earth divinity (Houtu Furen or Tudi Po), sharing the exorcist role of the god of walls and moats (Chenghuang), who “captures demons and expels the deviant” (zhuoyao chuxie). In this regard she is also described as the protector of wells (hujing), a theme that often appears in the Linshui pingyao zhuan (see Jin Ming, 1993: 34). Then we will deal with her canonization as Lady of the Birth Register (Songzi Guanyin–Sovereign of the Azure Clouds). Since Chen Jinggu is thus linked to the Eastern Peak, we shall consider her relation—implicit in the Linshui pingyao zhuan—to life, death, and sexuality. We shall recall above all that Mount Lü, the Portal Mountain, is considered to be the door through which demons attack humans.3 But first, we shall make a digression on some aspects that generally characterize the god of the soil, in order to later better highlight his relation to Chen Jinggu and his appearances in the Linshui pingyao zhuan.

The God of the Soil In ancient China, the god of the soil was the deified land, just as the ancestors were the deified family. This notion is found at all levels of society, starting with the house. There the god of the soil is worshipped in the impluvium, where he is exposed to the breaths of the exterior—rain, sun, and wind—so as to remain in contact with the universal energy and in particular with the life-giving water and the sky, his alter ego (see Stein, 2001). The impluvium is one of the five cult sites at this level, along with the front and back doors of the house, the corridor, and the well. The hearth god plays a comparable role. Within the house, the southwest corner, where the

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wife’s bed and the grain stores were located, was also dedicated to him. It was also near this spot that the dead of the family were temporarily buried, so that they could lose their flesh there and, without any loss, circulate their vital essence to the benefit of the family patrimony: children and harvests (see Granet, 1953: 159–202). Newborn babies were likewise placed on the ground, in order to allow them to absorb a little of its energy, the energy of the place (see “Le dépôt de l’enfant sur le sol” in Granet, 1953: 157–202). The god of the soil of the fief, the she, was associated with the harvest gods, Prince Millet in the north of China and the rice soul in the south (see Maspero, 1971). He was assisted in his work by the divinities of the mountains, rivers, lakes, and localities in the territory. At the level of the family, the manorial ancestors corresponded to him. At the level of the country, the dashe, or Wangshe, was assisted by the divinities of the Five Peaks, the Four Seas, and the gods of famous places in the empire, and of course by the Royal Ancestors. Thus the god of the soil is truly the deified earth, though not in the capacity of “mother goddess.” He is the delimited territory subject to a prince, the patron god of the princely domain and its inhabitants. The god of the soil’s various territories are organized in a divine hierarchy comparable to the hierarchy of the heads who correspond to him: the family, the household, the village, the fief, and finally the royal god of the soil. In the village his rudimentary altar was placed in a small grove, a remnant of the former forest. In autumn, one took care to advise him of the time of the hunt and he received his share of the raw meat when his tablet was smeared with blood. We have already seen elsewhere what an important relation was maintained between the place of the royal hunts, the sacred site of the god of the soil, and the royal fertility rites.4 The gods of the soil are not permanent, nor do they have well-defined individual characteristics. They are associated with the jurisdiction over which they preside and with it they disappear. Possessing the altar of the god of the soil of a location or a country, the guoshe, and making oneself the master of his cult was a sign of investiture. One thereby held the land, the space that was under the authority of this divinity. The god of the soil was responsible for controlling the inhabitants of this space and, should the occasion arise, punishing them. He received tribute from it—the life of the defeated enemy—as a mark of power (Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 125).5 In the village and in the kingdom, the god of the soil’s mound, located to the southwest, had to be left bare for the same reasons. That is why the god of the soil of a

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prince defeated in war was sealed up and covered with a roof. The victor continued to make offerings to him—those for the dead—and he became the malevolent god of the soil, unsubdued once again (Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 125). Only a single god of the soil is individualized: Goulong, the son of the monster Gonggong. Goulong set up the earth, which is why he was called Lord of the Earth (Houtu).6 The god of the soil is also the God of the Dead, whom he keeps in the Dark Prisons of the Nine Obscurities. The god of the soil is the master of the Yellow Springs, the domain located below the sacred Eastern Peak (Tai Shan), to the summit of which the emperors came from time to time to sacrifice to heaven (see Chavannes, 1910). It is there that he imprisons the dead and it is from there in springtime that the souls of the ancestors who will be reincarnated escape with the thaw. In ancient China it was commonly believed that the souls ready to be born were brought by water (see Granet, 1951, ch. 1). As Master of the Dark Prisons, he is thus the arbiter of life and death, for which he keeps the register: he notes the dead and confines the soul of the deceased in the Yellow Springs, but he also allows its reincarnation by freeing it with the waters. Later, the Daoists called him Earth Official (Tuguan, comparable to Houtu), with whom Lord Millet (Houji), the harvest god, is associated. In addition, every named place has its divinity, but the only one to be an individual properly speaking is the Yellow River, the River Earl (Hebo), whose cult, as savage as his anger, required human sacrifices. We must also mention the cults of the wind earl, the rain master, the sun mother, the moon mother, and the Lord on High (Shangdi), the sovereign Heaven (see Maspero, 1971). One sacrifices to the god of the soil in spring and in autumn, and in summer for rain. He is notified of the opening of the soil, at the time of the first plowing, and also of the opening of the marriage season. In his customary role of cosmic regulator, he guarantees the continuity of the seasons and cycles. Advised of every seasonal event, he puts them in good order, like the freezing and thawing of the waters of the Yellow Springs. He guarantees the orderly reeling of the thread of time and of the fabric that he weaves in space. In Chinese society the god of the soil is the element that holds everything together. After the Warring States period the destruction of the princely states dealt a fatal blow to the archaic religion. Under the Qin, the princely cult became the concern of the ruler, assisted by scholars, scribes, and fangshi.7 The gods become impersonal forces: the Lord on High became Heaven,

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and the Lord of the Earth, the Earth. One sought both a rational, scientific explanation of the world—Confucianism—and a more personal religion, alleviating the deficiencies of the official cult, Daoism. As Maspero (1971: 33) said, it is this religious feeling that would enable Buddhism to establish itself in China, leading to borrowings and transformations of the conception of the gods. For the Daoists as well as the Buddhists, gods were men who had obtained positions through their merits. The lesser gods of the rivers and mountains thus appear as the faithful who did not succeed in attaining immortality. They were not able to avoid death, but they were rewarded for their merits and obtained divine posts, reaching the rank of immortal after their deaths. Little by little, the gods were nothing more than deified people. For example, in Heaven, the Lord on High became the Jade Emperor, and on Earth, the gods of the soil became the gods of the walls and moats (chenghuang), who were deified historical or legendary heroes. In the world of the dead, Yanluo (Yama) and his compartmentalized hells took the place of the Daoist hells of the Dark Prisons, where the souls of the dead were piled up every which way under the authority of the Earth Official (Diguan) (Maspero, 1971: 61–62).8 The feudal world having disappeared, the hierarchy of princes was replaced by the hierarchy of officials. The princely gods of the soil became provincial gods of the soil, to whom governors, prefects, and subprefects regularly made offerings.9 Thus, the gods of the walls and moats replaced the she, which were the personifications of the fief; thereafter they protected the town. But it is not simply a matter of the former she under another name, but rather of an Official of the Celestial Court, a new divinity, influenced variously and jointly by Buddhism and Daoism, and also by popular cults. He has an entire administration under his command, notably Bai Laoye and Hei Laoye, White Lord and Black Lord, familiarly called “the Great White and the Little Black” because of their respective size and color as personifications of the yin and yang principles of life, who come to find the souls of those whose fatal hour has struck. Under the gods of the walls and moats are the gods of the soil (tudi gong). Each responsible for a territory of varying size, they have a role analogous to the gods of the walls and moats, to whom they are subordinate. They keep the registers of their districts, and they are informed of all life and death events. They are sometimes associated with famous figures, having performed worthy great deeds for their adopted territory. Beginning in the Song dynasty, particularly in Fujian, local customs asserted themselves in parallel with the

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orthodox classical model, giving rise to cults judged to be heterodox by strict Confucians.10 Dean (1998a: 61) cites on this subject a very clear text of Zhang Qin, the last jinshi of Putian, at the end of the imperial era: After the Song, the worship of city gods spread throughout the empire. Some were given titles of enfeoffment, while some were by association given particular surnames and personal names, which borders on the non-canonical. However, if we recognize that the she altar is the site where the gods of the soil and the grains are worshipped, then the name is correct and the terms accord, and nothing can be in doubt. Because the city god is the she altar of the soil of the prefecture or district, the people’s prayers and thanksgiving are first and foremost directed toward his temple.

Even within this human grouping that he thus controls, the god of the soil is also responsible for controlling and sanctioning marriages and links of all sorts. Often depicted in legends in the role of matchmaker—and we shall see that this is also the case in the Linshui pingyao zhuan—above all he keeps the marriage register. He is depicted as the grocer of the village or the peddler, the itinerant merchant who knows everything about everything, and who by serving as a go-between or intermediary weaves the links between the villages and the families whose existence he sanctions.11 This was likewise the significance of the spring and autumn seasonal festivals, of which he was the principal figure and where the relations between clans and villages were cemented. the god of the soil in the

LINSHUI PINGYAO ZHUAN

As shaman of the kingdom of Min, Chen Jinggu is clearly connected to the guoshe, the god of the soil of the country, the god of the princely territory of Min. We pointed out earlier how the bloody sacrifice of the White Snake on the imperial bed echoed the offering of the rebellious demon to the god of the soil of the kingdom (see Chapter 5). The episode of the battle of magic against Yuan Guangzhi to save the king is described in this same vein.12 In all the aspects of her role, Chen Jinggu is closely connected to the god of the walls and moats, who captures demons and protects the kingdom. That is the mission she was charged with by Perfected Lord Xu—to pacify the country and subdue demons (pingyao). She carried it out, as we have seen, with the cooperation of the god of the soil. Throughout the legend, Chen Jinggu is also constantly in contact with the gods of the soil in their capacity as faithful guardians of local registers.

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Thus, for example, she summoned the god of the soil of Fuzhou in order to learn what demons were causing harm in the vicinity, and he disclosed to her the existence of the Rock-Press Women on the Cloud-riding Terrace of Xuelao Peak (see Chapter 4, note 12), whose capture by Chen Jinggu we are already familiar with (see Chapter 4). It is the god of the well in which she had the Ravine Demon imprisoned who told her how the demon had escaped to the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers through one of the springs that fed the well (see Chapter 3). It was another god of the soil who enabled Chen Jinggu to bring back to life the Lady Drowning (Shen), the wife of Shichang, alias Cinnabar Cloud, by breathing into her a new soul after she committed suicide out of despair (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 4: 22; see also Chapter 4). We could cite numerous examples all showing the easy relations between these two figures: Chen Jinggu summoning the god of the soil as she would summon a faithful functionary whose skills she would employ. She sometimes goes so far as to entrust him with her magic implements (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5: 25–26).13 That is a role that corresponds to her as wife of the Lord of the Earth and wife of the god of the soil. It is also a recurrent theme in the legends of Guanyin that the god of the soil provides help again and again. He is the steersman of the dharma boat; in his tiger aspect he saves Princess Miaoshan, whom he carries on his back to Xiang Shan; and we find him again at Putuo Shan, the realm of Guanyin of the South Sea (Nanhai Guanyin). The tiger is likewise present in the Linshui pingyao zhuan as the alter ego of Lady Jiang: the Old Mother of Mount Li makes the tiger Jiang Hupo’s mount. In addition, one finds in the Linshui pingyao zhuan a figure by the name of Lin Bashu, who takes one of the god of the soil’s customary roles: that of the go-between. It is common in the legends to find a wife of the go-between—the god of the soil—filling the role of midwife. This role was certainly undertaken by Chen Jinggu–Sovereign of the Azure Clouds. This Lin Bashu in fact ran the store in Xiadu in Fuzhou, near the Chens’ home. He frequently went from town to town on business and knew everything that happened in the region. It was on the day of a rainstorm when the Lius, father and son, were going to Fuzhou where Liu Qi had to take the imperial exam that they were caught in a sudden downpour. They took shelter under the eaves of the Chens’ house, and Chen Chang invited them in. It was then that Liu Tong and Chen Chang met and Lin Bashu offered to serve as go-between between their families in order to negotiate their union and the marriage of Chen Jinggu and Liu Qi. Lin Bashu carried out his role

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to perfection since the marriage was finally consummated despite numerous unforeseen events, some of which we have examined. There is nothing accidental about this meeting in the rain, and we will recall that the household offerings to the god of the soil are made in the impluvium of the house, the reservoir where rainwater was collected. Thus it is under the auspices of the rain, the fertile union of sky and earth, that the marriage of Chen Jinggu and Liu Qi was proposed by the go-between Lin Bashu. This figure’s name also requires closer scrutiny. The name Lin, “forest,” is not arbitrary since the god of the soil is also the god of wild nature, of the forests and the bush, god of the hunt, to whom bloody sacrifices were offered. We have already seen that his rustic altar was situated in a small grove. And in the interior landscape of the body the altars of the god of the soil and the god of the harvest were also situated in a forest, the liver.14 As for the name Bashu, it is particularly revealing. The word shu designates the father’s younger brother, the paternal uncle; bashu thus means “eighth uncle.” We cannot help seeing in this name an allusion to the bagua, the eight trigrams that as a group link together the eight directions and the elements that correspond to them. There is also a parallel with Lin Jiuniang, who is mistress of the eight trigrams and the nine palaces. Thus we find here the god of the soil, the figure at the center of the compass rose marked by the eight winds that he binds together, while ruling over wild nature, the forest.15 Finally, we must consider once again the strange funerary ritual reserved for Chen Jinggu. After her death, Chen Jinggu was not buried in the ground: her body was smeared with yellow earth and displayed in the ancestral hall (zudian) (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16; Chapter 2). Just like the god of the soil, who must remain exposed to the cosmic influences under pain of death, Chen Jinggu could not be buried. Enveloped in yellow earth as if by a placenta, she was thus able to return a second time to Mount Lü where she became, after this new self maturation-gestation, Goddess of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, of reincarnations and births, the Lady of the Birth Register.16 If she had been buried, “sealed up,” she would have been only a bad death, harmful just like the god of the soil sealed up to the southwest of towns. This passage, this rebirth, however, conferred on her her new function: that of controlling life and death, since the inner law of the Chinese pantheon holds that one can only master what one has experienced oneself.

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relations to the place, territorial attachment

Another aspect of this cult is characteristic of the god of the soil: weaving together networks. As Dean (1998a: 57) puts it in connection with the region of Putian: “The she/temple served to bring together multiple surname groups of neighbors. As the population around the temple expanded, they divided into different pai (a term taken from lineage) and regrouped within district jing (spiritual territories).” The Linshui pingyao zhuan lists many toponyms belonging to the region of northern Fujian: Fuzhou, the capital of Min, and Xiadu, Chen Jinggu’s birthplace; the aforementioned Gutian, where the exorcisms of the ancient snake demon of Linshui and the White Snake took place, and also the place of the reincarnation of Liu Qi, Chen Jinggu’s husband; Luoyuan, where Liu Qi was magistrate and where Lin Jiuniang and Li Sanniang came from (see Introduction; see also Ye Mingsheng, 2000). There are also all the aforementioned places of the various exorcisms carried out during her mission to “pacify the demons” (pingyao): Black Stone Mountain (Wushi Shan), Panther Head Mountain (Baotou Shan), and so on, where temples were subsequently built. The first trace of the network of the cult properly speaking appears indirectly through the thirty-six Pojie, each positioned in a particular place in the province. This network, which anticipates that of the “dividing of the incense” (fenxiang) and its communities (hui), subsequently very extensive, developed along with the spread of the cult.17 The cult was first propagated in the northeast of the province, where it originated; next it spread to southwest Fujian, and then to the north, in the neighboring province of Zhejiang. It is also found in the religion of the She people, a local Fujian ethnic group related to the Yao (Lei Dehe, 1993: 215; see also Lemoine, 1983; and Lemoine, 1991). Finally, the cult emigrated to Taiwan in the sixteenth century, where it remains extremely vibrant; it is also found in Malaysia. In Fujian, the Linshui Temple in Gutian, the grotto of the White Snake transformed by Chen Jinggu into a palace, holds the place of the mother-temple, as the founding temple of the cult. Every year on the fifteenth of the first lunar month pilgrims flock to renew their links with Chen Jinggu’s cult by “dividing the incense” of her incense burner: they take a glowing charcoal from it home with them. They also come to pay their share as members affiliated with this large territorial network. In the Putian region in the south of Fujian the cult of Chen Jinggu is, significantly, explicitly associated with the cult of the god of the soil. On

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this subject, Dean cites the preface of the Register of the Regulations of the Three (Goddess) Temple of the Upper Ascending to Sagehood Spiritual Territory for the Ritual Observances Dedicated to the Filial Woman Lin (Mo, that is Mazu), dated 1932: In the northern part of the district city (of Xianyou) there is a she altar called the Three (Goddess) Temple Spiritual Territory. At first it was known as the Flying Phoenix (Territory); in it are worshipped the Saintly Mother on High (Mazu) and other goddesses (Fazhu Ma, the Mother of the Ritual Arts, surnamed Wu, and Chen Ma, the Goddess Chen Jinggu) who guard the state and protect the people. (Dean, 1998a: 56)

Here then is the thread of this celestial fabric, the thread of time and fate that puts us back on the trail of the other symbolic threads that we have followed here and that suddenly come together. On the one hand, threads woven by the god of the soil between previous lives and reincarnations, and between the directions and the cardinal points of the spatial network, on the other; they are the same threads to a certain extent woven by Chen Jinggu–Lady of the Birth Register. But they are also the magic ropes and nets that Chen Jinggu uses to “bind demons,” and that constitute the “umbilical hair” of the Lady Forest, Lin Jiuniang, the mistress of the eight trigrams. Similarly, it is another Lin, Lin Bashu, who embodies some aspects of the god of the soil in the Linshui pingyao zhuan in the network he weaves from the center of the compass rose. Finally, these are also the hemp threads of the web of the spider demon, who keeps within herself the magic pearl that Lin Jiuniang uses to transform birds into shellfish (see Chapter 3; Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 6). And at this point we should recall that the eight trigrams, the original womb, are formed from primordial breaths emanating from the womb of chaos and that the wind is the master of the nets and ropes (Granet, 1950: 289; Schipper, 1978a: 363; Eliade, 1972: 150; Kaltenmark, 1960: 571). This aspect of the cult organized into a network of affiliated groups leads us back to Mount Tai (Tai Shan). the eastern peak (TAI

SHAN )

Another divinity corresponding to different aspects of the god of the soil and the land is the god of the Eastern Peak (Tai Shan) (see Chavannes, 1910).18 The Eastern Peak is the earliest of the five sacred peaks in China. Placed under the authority of the Jade Emperor, he presides over human life, determining births and deaths; souls leave his mountain to be born and return there after death. All earthly matters are entrusted to him by

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the Jade Emperor, and under his authority there are seventy-two offices for governing fate. From the time of the Zhou, the Eastern Peak was considered to be a god, a high official of the court, and various dynasties conferred on him longer and longer honorific titles. In 1370, during the Ming, the emperor Taizu put an end to this inflation of titles and ordered that he be addressed simply as “Eastern Peak” (Tai Shan). As the principle of stability of the land, he spreads fertility in the world, gives rain, and makes crops grow. In spring and autumn, sacrifices are offered to him. It was assumed that there were connections between the emperor and the Eastern Peak, since both are intermediaries between heaven and humans. It is as a consequence of this constant cooperation between the moral power of the emperor and the natural power of the Eastern Peak that drought, earthquakes, and floods can be avoided. From the Ming dynasty, he was also informed when armies set out. The feng and shan sacrifices to heaven and earth that mark the consecration of the legitimacy of an emperor were performed at the foot of the Eastern Peak and at its summit. Only twelve emperors are said to have performed them. As Chavannes points out, this number, which has no historical basis, is certainly a symbolic number corresponding to the twelve years of Jupiter’s cycle (Chavannes, 1910: 17).19 The essential purpose of this cult was to announce the success of the dynasty at the height of its glory and to give thanks to heaven and earth. A text engraved on a jade tablet was placed on the Eastern Peak in order to be transmitted to Heaven. In addition, the east being considered yang, the Eastern Peak presides over the origins of all life. It is the inexhaustible spring of births, and souls return there after death, where a subterranean life opens out. At its foot, the hill where the shan sacrifice to the earth was performed corresponds to the realm of the dead.20 The Eastern Peak decides the duration of life and, as Chavannes states, he combines in this way the roles of the Three Fates in the West: giving life, maintaining it, and cutting it off. This idea was borrowed from Buddhism and Daoism and connected both to the gods of the walls and moats—the personification of the towns and their magistrate responsible for judging the conduct of citizens—and to the Eastern Peak, who presides over the souls of the dead. The cult of the Eastern Peak is one of the most widespread. It is revered in its temples called Eastern Peak Traveling Palaces (Tai Shan xinggong) or Eastern Peak Temples (Dongyue miao), or even temples of the God Who Matches Heaven (Tianji miao). Every town has one, but its principal temple,

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the Temple of the Eastern Peak, is in Beijing. After having been closed and then largely destroyed in the course of the twentieth century, it has now been rebuilt and restored. An imperial Daoist institution of the fourteenth century, the Temple of the Eastern Peak was, as Anna Swann Goodrich (1964: 6) says, “definitely a temple of the people.” Numerous lay associations (xianghui) were attached to it and took part in the life and maintenance of the sanctuary. Steles, the rubbings of which have been preserved in the Shoudu Library in Beijing, have been bequeathed by these associations and attest to this collective life between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.21 The god presides over human and animal life, and the assigning of rebirths according to the karma of each. Formerly, the offices of the seventy-two officials of the afterlife were depicted in the dwellings situated around the great court of the temple, among which is an Office of the Registration of Births and an Office of the Registration of Deaths (Schipper and Wang, 1997: 14). Some offices were concerned with human officials, and others with divine officials, that is, the gods of the walls and moats, the gods of the soil, and those of the mountains; there were those who administered religious specialists, demons, and those who died unjustly. Other offices were devoted to natural elements: water, rain and wind, and the five grains (see Chavannes, 1910). The anthropomorphized god of the Eastern Peak has an entire family. His daughter, the Lady of the Eastern Peak (Tai Shan Niangniang), is the Goddess of the Dawn, also known as Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun). Offerings, attested since the Ming dynasty, are made to her as the protector of women. According to legend, in 1008 the emperor Zhenzong of the Song went to the Eastern Peak to perform the feng and shan sacrifices. At the summit of the mountain, he is said to have found a small stone statue that was taken to be the ancient divinity of the place, the Jade Maiden (Yunü). Zhenzong had a copy of it made in jade and placed near the pool where the original had been found. They called this place “the Pool of the Jade Maiden” (Yunü chi) (Chavannes, 1910: 27–28).22 A passionate cult was quickly offered to her and honors were conferred on her during the Song, Jin, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. In the Ming dynasty, during the Jiajing reign period of 1522–66, she received the title of Celestial Immortal Jade Maiden Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Tianxian Yunü Bixia Yuanjun). Her crucial roles are controlling the life span of humans, giving children, and judging the dead. As Pomeranz demonstrated, locating the jurisdiction of the god of the Eastern Peak under the eponymous mountain accords with the theory of

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yin and yang and the five elements, according to which the origins of life are found at the juncture of heaven (qian) and earth (kun) (see Pomeranz, 1997). Everyone concurs in the belief that the summit of the Eastern Peak represents the acme of the female principle (kun), the earth. The power of this place is thus immense and—even if the link with the cult of the Jade Maiden remains unclear—it was thought that it corresponded more closely to the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds than to her “father,” Yanluo Wang, the god of “hell.” She thus soon became “the” great divinity of the Eastern Peak. A very important pilgrimage is tied to her cult at this site.23 She became, in the north, the counterpart of Guanyin in the south. She has at her disposal a great number of temples that are called Niangniang miao, Bixia Yuanjun xinggong, or Bixia gong. She is also revered in the temples of the Eastern Peak. As Naquin remarks, the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds’ capacity to possess mediums, to heal, to give sons, and to produce miracles made her cult more popular than that of her illustrious “father,” the god of the Eastern Peak (Naquin, 2000: 240ff.). Her cult, much more recent than that of Guanyin, to which it is similar in many respects, was canonized under many titles, among them Tai Shan Niangniang, Tianxian Shengmu, and, during the Qing dynasty, Niangniang or Shengmu. A temple of the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds, built in the northeast outskirts of Beijing, was called Xi Ding (West Peak). It is said to have been originally a temple of the True Warrior (Zhenwu), “ancestor” of the High God of the Dark Heaven (Xuantian Shangdi) (Naquin, 2000: 240–44). Many elements of this cult correspond to those of the cult of Chen Jinggu.

Chen Jinggu and the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds: The Lady of the Birth Register The relation between the Lady of the Eastern Peak, the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds, the daughter of the god of the Eastern Peak, and Chen Jinggu is clear in the Linshui Temple in Tainan through the presence of the Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang). But their relationship is not limited to sharing the same divine title that had become “generic.” Their legends and powers show many points in common, the background of which probably is to be found in ancient strata, such as those explored by Granet.24 The legend of the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds as “human” is little documented. Her cult is said to have come from Shandong during the Ming

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dynasty. During the Qing dynasty she was turned into the daughter of a prince, who having refused marriage went to the Eastern Peak to practice the asceticism of long life. There she is supposed to have become a Celestial Immortal (see Chavannes, 1910; Naquin, 2000: 505). Here we are reminded of Miaoshan, as well as of Chen Jinggu. In her temples, she is depicted seated in the posture of a sovereign, holding in her clasped hands a gui, the insignia of authority. Three birds adorn her headdress in a way that is unique to her. Generally, two women are at her side: the Lady Who Sends Children (Songzi Niangniang) or the Lady of the Children (Sunzi Niangniang) and the Lady of the Clear Eyes (Yanqing Niangniang), also called the Lady of Discerning Vision. Perhaps we can see in the role of this Lady of Discerning Vision something other than the task that is ordinarily attributed to her of healing diseases of the eye in early childhood. Conventionally it is thought that children, who still hover between the two worlds, have the power to “see” what their elders, having become adults, can no longer discern: the world of the dead, of spirits (see Baptandier, 2003). It is probably over this clairvoyance that the Lady of Discerning Vision watches, as the episodes of the Linshui pingyao zhuan concerning this theme suggest. Guanyin herself can be represented with an eye in her hand: this is an illustration of the theme of the discriminating vision that characterizes her, which we discussed earlier. But in the syncretic context of popular cults we also sometimes find her in the company of another goddess of vision called the Lady of the Light of the Eyes (Yanguang Niangniang).25 Likewise people attribute to the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds a following of six secondary divinities who play the role of the thirty-six Pojie who follow Chen Jinggu. They specifically see to the facilitation of pregnancy, the nourishment of the embryo, the hastening and protection of childbirth, the suckling of the baby, and the avoidance of smallpox (Chavannes, 1910: 37; Naquin, 2000: 241; Goodrich, 1964: 53–64, 257–58). The group made up of these three divinities and their six acolytes, also known as the Nine Ladies (Jiuniang), very often appears in the rituals of the Mount Lü sect performed in Chen Jinggu’s name. Like the Pojie, they are in fact divinities of the embryonic period and of childhood.26 Many other elements connect the cults of the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds and Chen Jinggu. Pomeranz showed how this goddess is closely associated with young women of marriageable age who come to pray for children (see Pomeranz, 1997). She protects them, especially when on their return to their birth family after marriage they are caught in the contradictory relations between the

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two lineages to which they belong. The Sovereign of the Azure Clouds illustrates the sexual aspect of women’s lives, which her cult depicts in different ways. This thoroughly anthropomorphized goddess has in her temple a bedroom where she reposes on her bed. This point, which Pomeranz reports, is verified in the Temple of the Eastern Peak in Fuzhou: behind a curtain of pearls the goddess has a little room with a bed covered with brilliantly colored bedding, and all the necessary toilette articles women ordinarily use. The Sovereign of the Azure Clouds has bound feet, and she is offered embroidered lotus slippers as an expression of gratitude, which Pomeranz contrasts with the austere wooden fish symbol that characterizes mendicant monks. Her beauty and eroticism give her a demonic aura to the extent that her cult was always placed in the category of “licentious” (yin) cults. Moreover, she is the patron of foxes, ambiguous animals capable of taking human form, associated with a dangerous feminine and death (see Chavannes, 1910: 120; Pomeranz, 1997; Naquin, 2000; see also Lévi, 1985). This theme of death also appears brutally in her cult. The faithful, seeing a karmic debt in her fulfillment of their wishes, committed suicide, sometimes by throwing themselves into the void during a pilgrimage to her temple at the Eastern Peak or Mount Miaofeng. Of course, it is said that the goddess gathered them in as they fell and kept them safe and sound. But the legitimacy of this extreme act was not contested. The pilgrimage of the cult of Guanyin to Mount Emei included similar practices, but they were attributed to the deviance of the pilgrims and the goddess “rejected” them. As we know, all these points also figure in their local form in the legend of Chen Jinggu, which depicts precisely this split between two irreconcilable aspects of female fate. Her entire story relates the impossibility of conforming to Confucian demands while “cultivating one’s own life.” It also shows this terror of the feminine, which is expressed through the demon doubles of Chen Jinggu and her sworn sisters. If the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds is the patron of foxes, Chen Jinggu is the alter ego of the White Snake, astride whom her mummified body sits. An episode of the Linshui pingyao zhuan presents her, moreover, under the aspect of Guanyin with a thousand arms fighting a white fox that was stealing the vital essences of a young girl (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 7). Young and beautiful, Chen Jinggu ended up marrying Liu Qi and dying pregnant. She gives women children, protects them, and watches over the period of pregnancy and childhood. In the cult of the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds, women who wish to conceive borrow from her temple a

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small statue of a child that they keep with them and that they return when their wishes are granted. One can see similar practices in some of Chen Jinggu’s temples. The little statue thus represents the San Sheren, to whom one performs offerings and rituals that contain an important element of genuine emotionalism and eroticism.27 The circulation of this child fetish from house to house and woman to woman is seen elsewhere, symbolically, in the rituals of Cultivating the Flowers and in the practices of adoption carried out by women (see Chapters 7 and 8). Chen Jinggu, too, has bound feet: the landscape around the Linshui Temple in Gutian at Daqiao still bears her footprint left on the rock, a relic of her rivalry with the two strapping young men who became the taibao protectors of Linshui Temple (see Baptandier, 1996d). Furthermore, the text of the Linshui pingyao zhuan often notes this fact: given that Chen Jinggu has bound feet, how could she possibly get to the places of her various exorcisms? Happily, she knows how to “travel through the veins” of the earth! Today her believers offer her embroidered shoes in gratitude for favors granted. The description of Linshui Palace in the Linshui pingyao zhuan also mentions the fact that she occupies the “bedroom” at the rear. At present, in this temple the floor occupied by the articulated statue of the goddess that is brought out in procession and the statue of Chen Jinggu’s mother, Madame Ge, is in fact called the “tower of cosmetics” (zhuanglou). The theme of suicide for karmic reasons appears in the legend of the Lady of Linshui, when all of Chen Jinggu’s sworn sisters follow her in death in order to form the community of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. There they watch over fate, reincarnations, births, and the dangers of childhood, poised between the world of the living and that of the dead, and also over pregnancy and its embryonic period, and the feminine (see Chapter 8, for the ritual of crossing the guan). Such is the domain of the Lady of the Birth Register. In this role of divinity of life and death, Chen Jinggu–Sovereign of the Azure Clouds can be compared in some respects to a sort of Chinese Persephone. Both daughter of Heaven (Tiandi Nü) and of hell (Bixia Yuanjun), she is also linked to the god of the soil, with whom she forms a sort of couple with duties in part identical and complementary. Watching over reincarnations, she also watches over female fertility, over the capacity to “transform life” (hua sheng). In the continuity that she guarantees between life and death, she is also the mistress of the fate of each person in the reincarnation that she allots through the Lady of the Birth Register as intermediary. Like the Fates,

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she is depicted taking her place in a group of three ladies (the Sannai), Chen, Lin, and Li.28 Like them a divinity of birth, she is also a nocturnal divinity: the Lady of the Eastern Peak (Tai Shan Niangniang).29 In short, these goddesses—Guanyin, Chen Jinggu, and the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds—combine aspects of sexuality, as it is controlled by the different religious traditions. Guanyin—Buddhism—seeks the cessation of the passions, which occurs through a form of castration that some of her legends make quite literal. That the goddess does not accept responsibility for the suicides of pilgrims to Mount Emei and prefers to attribute their deaths to their lack of “sincerity” or folly is not surprising: the symbolic annihilation of karma in nirvana is the only liberation envisaged here. The Sovereign of the Azure Clouds illustrates the dilemma of women seen as torn between their role of wife in a Confucian lineage and that of the fox demons with their dangerous sexuality. The incompatibility of the two aspects gives rise to the overflow of karma that the pilgrims whose prayers are answered by the goddess could not escape. The Daoist asceticism aimed at the “liberation from the womb” (tuotai)—the birth of the self—and at “long life without death” symbolically illustrates this incompatibility. Chen Jinggu alternately passes through all the subtleties characteristic of these different palettes.30

The Lady of the Birth Register in Linshui Temple Just as the god of the soil has no personal legend, the Lady of the Birth Register is here a role rather than a real character. In the temple of the Lady of Linshui, she is the representation of the duties that fall to Chen Jinggu at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. The Lady of the Birth Register is responsible in particular for allowing the soul of a dead person to leave the realm of the dead to come be reincarnated at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. It is she who “sends children” (songzi) and notes in her Register the name of the people who will be reborn, as well as the circumstances of their new families. Just like the god of the soil, she must see to it that the karma of each is respected; an error on her part allotting to a soul a reincarnation that is not appropriate to it can have catastrophic consequences. Thus, if it happened through a “registration error” that a soul came to be reborn in a family in which a member had a fate that was incompatible with it, many miseries would arise for everyone. Far from being fulfilled by the Sender of Children, as they believed, the unlucky parents would suffer the consequences of her

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error: grief, misunderstandings, illnesses, accidents, even death, if the fate of their child is so opposed to their own that it can lead them to ruin. We have already mentioned the existence of such cases, and we have considered the role played in them by Cinnabar Cloud Monkey.31 The adoption of the child by a divinity or another family is sometimes prescribed if a medium pronounces this conclusive judgment: “It was the Lady of the Birth Register’s mistake.” The relation between the temple of Chen Jinggu–Lady of the Birth Register and that of the Eastern Peak appears to be very close in cultic practice. Very often a woman desiring a child will go pay a visit to the Temple of the Eastern Peak to pray to the god to allow a soul to come be reincarnated. Then she will go to Chen Jinggu’s temple to beg her, in her role as Lady of the Birth Register, to see to it that her prayer is answered in the garden of a Hundred Flowers and to carefully consider the previous life of her future child. There can also be other motives for visiting both temples: this is the case, for example, when the soul of an ancestor, or even the soul of a “parent from a previous life” (xiantian fumu) comes to trouble the child whom he has not “made up his mind to abandon.” It is then necessary to cut the link to previous lives, with their encumbering karma. This is also the case when an already pregnant woman comes to ask Chen Jinggu to “change the sex” of her child.32 It is likewise the case for some rituals, as for example “the opening of the passes” (kaiguan), that are often performed, at least in Tainan, at the Temple of the Eastern Peak (see Chapter 8). Each time, she is asked to influence time and its consequences, and to influence the permeability between the worlds that it is a matter of clearly distinguishing. Despite all this, it is not uncommon that a single visit to the Linshui Temple suffices in each of these cases. Like the god of the soil, the Lady of the Birth Register turns into a reality the link that exists between a previous life and the present one by making her mark in her Register, the Register of Births.

Lady Seventh Star (Qixing Niangniang or Qixing Nai) The binding aspect of divinity that she shares with the god of the soil is further emphasized by the connections that we can establish between her cult and that of Lady Seventh Star. This is strikingly the case for the presentation of the baby at the age of one month, and the ritual of passage to adulthood performed for sixteen-year-olds (see Chapter 8). The legend of the Weavingmaid separated from her husband the Cowherd by the Milky Way that she

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crosses once a year—on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month—to join him by means of a bridge made of hovering magpies is well known to the Chinese. The legend of Dong Yong, the model of filial piety, and the female immortal, is an equally famous version of this legend.33 The Lady Seventh Star weaves the very fabric of the sky, that is, seasonal time and space. Above all a myth of the stars, her legend, originating in the mythological riches of ancient China, marks the seasonal time of this period and the meetings and engagements of men and women at the time when their work left them free to participate in fertility rites.34 Here, punctuating time, she binds together men and women, which, let us note, was also an attribute of the Fates. But the myth of the Weaving-maid is also a myth of separation. In the legend of Dong Yong (in which she is the wife), not only is the couple separated, as are heaven and earth, but their son is punished for having tried to find his mother where his father had married her: he becomes a star in the Taisui constellation.35 This normative aspect of sexuality and procreation and the emphasis put on the mother-son relationship that these two mythological groups share probably explains the close relation of the cults that correspond to them.36 Chen Jinggu and Lady Seventh Star, the Weaving-maid, are in fact mistresses of women and transformations. Thus, the day of the festival of the Weaving-maid, the seventh day of the seventh month, a key number in the life of women, is also the day of the women’s festival.37 We thus glimpse a whole web of correspondences between these female divinities who are different aspects of a particular Chinese notion of the feminine.38 the weaving-maid and the cowherd

The myth of the Weaving-maid illustrates the relations between the sexes, in particular marital relations. The story of the Cowherd and the Weavingmaid was originally a star myth, that of the two stars—Vega in the constellation Lyra, the Weaving-maid (Zhinü xing), and Altair in the constellation Aquila, the Cowherd—located on opposite sides of the Milky Way, in Chinese the “Silver River” (Yinhe) or Han He, the river Han. It explains the creation of the Milky Way in the sky. United by an undying love, the two lovers are, however, separated by the Celestial River. They can cross it only once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, by means of a bridge formed of magpies. This myth reproduces the idea of the separation of the sexes and the tasks that devolved to them in ancient peasant society:

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weaving and cultivation. In former times, taxes were paid in rolls of cloth and grain, the currency of women and men, respectively. That is the reason for the festival rite on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the day of the festival of women’s work. The goddess of mulberry trees, weaving, and gourds is honored on this day. It is in fact in the seventh month that the leaves of the mulberry tree that will feed the silkworms are collected. In the Book of Odes (Shijing), one of the five canonical books of China, two stars are mentioned: “The Weaving-maid that ‘in one day cannot weave a roll of material’ and the ‘Buffalo unable to pull a chariot’ ” (Pimpaneau, 1999: 153). In the Han dynasty it was the subject of the tenth of the “Ancient Poems,” which presents them as separated lovers. This is the earliest trace of the legend that, beginning in the Han, was to enjoy great popularity. This is the text of the poem: Far, far, the Cowherd star Bright, bright, the Lady of the Milky Way. Slender, slender, the hand that draws the thread Clack, clack, she works the shuttle. At the end of the day, the pattern unfinished Tears fall like rain. The Milky Way is clear and shallow They are not far apart. Full, full, the water between Longingly gazing, they cannot talk.39

As Diény points out, having rejected the picturesque, the heroic, and the exceptional, the way is cleared for human passion. The Weaving-maid is an ordinary worker unable to work due to unhappiness in love. She moves through the sky seven times in a single day, yet she cannot complete a single pattern. Overwhelmed by a disaster that is both all-powerful and ironic, “the Weaving-maid is separated from her lover only by a derisory obstacle, a shallow, clear stream. And yet the river is there, mysteriously uncrossable,” the symbol of a hard fate (Diény, 1974: 110).40 from the obligation to a father-in-law to the obligation of filial piety

The first elaborate written versions of this legend, strictly speaking, date from the sixth century, though the story might have been well known before that time.41 The basic outline is as follow: two stars, the Cowherd and the Weaving-maid, wish to marry. The Cowherd borrows money for their

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wedding banquet from the Jade Emperor, but he is unable to pay it back; the Emperor then separates the two lovers. He nonetheless takes pity on them and allows them to visit each other once a year, in the middle of a bridge formed of magpies. Another version includes later themes inspired by filial piety. She is a star, an immortal who weaves the celestial garments and the clouds of the sunset, and he, Dong Yong, is a human being, poor and in debt. He has sold himself into slavery to pay for his father’s funeral. The Weaving-maid helps him pay back his debt by producing three hundred rolls of silk in ten days. Then she returns to the sky. Finally, the myth of the stars and the story of filial piety merge. An orphan receives a divine buffalo as an inheritance. On its advice, he steals the Weaving-maid’s dress when she comes to earth with her sisters to bathe in a lake. Everything goes as predicted. About to die, the buffalo tells the boy to strip off its skin before burying it; later on his wishes will be granted if he puts the skin on his shoulders. The orphan and the Weaving-maid live happily and have two children. But the Queen Mother, unable to bear the absence of the Weaving-maid and even less this interference between Heaven and Earth, comes to recover her daughter, who leaves their two children on earth. The Cowherd, covered with the skin of the divine buffalo and carrying his two children at the ends of a yoke, follows his wife into the sky. The Queen Mother, afraid that he will take her back, separates them with her silver hairpin, with which she draws a line in the sky, thus forming the Milky Way, which henceforward flows between them. The Cowherd and the Weaving-maid become two stars separated by the Celestial River, only meeting on the seventh day of the seventh month, by means of a bridge of magpies. the seventh day of the seventh lunar month

This myth, known throughout China, is the reason for the festival held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. On this day, women make offerings to the Weaving-maid, Lady Seventh Star (Qixing Nai). They present to her embroidered shoes, cosmetics, handkerchiefs, combs, and fans, burning paper copies of these objects in order to transmit them to her. Then, in the evening the faithful come together for a dinner where they eat the leftovers from the offerings made to the Seventh Sister. Young women themselves engage in all sorts of propitiatory rites. They float a needle in a bowl of water, and from its shadow on the bottom they deduce portents of success. They compete at threading needles to see who

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will be the most skillful embroiderer of the year. Or they put a spider in a box overnight and in the morning they study its web to draw conclusions about the success of future brocading.42 The young women also ask to see the face of their future husband in a dream. In Taiwan when girls turn seventeen, the age of marriage, they offer a paper pagoda to obtain a good husband. During the Tang dynasty, the legend in which the Weaving-maid is the principal figure was very popular. Then in the Song dynasty, under the influence of Neo-Confucianism, the Cowherd became the hero of the story. Revived under the communist regime, a version of the myth in the form of a play invariably introduced class struggle, with the Jade Emperor becoming an envious rich man representing, of course, all the evils of religion. The sexual aspect of this myth can be expressed in yet other ways. In the legend it is the Queen Mother’s hairpin that draws the Milky Way. As we know, this object, given to young girls in the course of a nubility rite at age sixteen to seventeen, is also an instrument of the arts of long life, according to which it is necessary to use one’s vital essence sparingly (see Van Gulik, 1971).43 Here, the Milky Way that separates the two lovers takes on an obviously sexual connotation underscored by the couple’s hierogamous meetings on the seventh day of the seventh month, celebrated by women who provide the accessories for it, while the bridge of magpies provides the setting. In a local version of the myth, this black-and-white bird, which unites yin and yang, is punished for the help it gives to the two lovers. This is why henceforth its head has no feathers. In yet another version, it is the Cowherd himself who gives rise to the Celestial River. The Jade Emperor wants to test him before accepting him as his son-in-law (reported by Stovickova and Stovickova, 1974: 81–89, from Minjian wenxue). He first proposes a game of hide-and-seek: disguised as a poisonous insect he himself will hide in a hole in the wall and he will “eat” the Cowherd if he fails to find him. Then it will be the Cowherd’s turn to hide. Thanks to his wife’s advice, the Cowherd overcomes these difficulties. The third test is a race. It is then that the Weaving-maid gives the Cowherd her own hairpin, with which he must draw a line in front of himself to stop the Jade Emperor and prevent him from catching him. But the Cowherd makes a mistake: he draws the line behind himself. This is why the Milky Way henceforth separates him from his wife. As Diény suggests, fate is here the authority. The Milky Way seems to be so inconsequential that in one of the local versions the Cowherd even undertakes to draw the water from it in order to dry it up! However, they

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are inexorably separated, just like the difference of the sexes and the rules of marriage. The Cowherd’s debt is likewise a recurrent theme. Either he borrows money for their wedding from the Jade Emperor, the Weaving-maid’s father, or he sells himself to pay for his own father’s funeral. In both cases, he is unable to pay back his debt, and it is this debt to a father or father-in-law that makes him a husband: the Weaving-maid’s husband. She weaves for him and bears him two children. The series of tasks the Jade Emperor sets for the Cowherd is to be placed on the same level: the Cowherd loses and will be “eaten.” In general, one should clearly distinguish yin and yang, male and female. When the Weaving-maid lives too near the Cowherd she can no longer weave, or else the Cowherd cannot adapt himself to life in the celestial empyrean. In the same scheme of ideas, according to Chinese theories of medicine, one of the pulses clearly indicating impending death is the one where “yin and yang merge,” creating a contaminated nature (see Hsü, 2000). However, while they must not be mixed, yin and yang, which engender each other, cannot be separated. The Jade Emperor—or the Queen Mother, depending on the version—takes pity on the lovers. The Weaving-maid and the Cowherd meet, in the seventh month, on a bridge of hovering magpies. These birds, which always live in a pair, also symbolize marital fidelity. It is said that a magpie will fly away from a mirror put in front of a woman if she is unfaithful to her husband in his absence. In Fuzhou yet another connection unites Chen Jinggu and Lady Seventh Star. According to Xu Xiaowang, the Goddess of the Seventh Star (Qixing) Temple in Fuzhou is said to be Qi Ke Yusheng, the wife of Qi Liang (Xu Xiaowang, 1993: 344). This woman was deified for her exploits worthy of a god of the walls and moats, which recall the battle led by Chen Jinggu and her army of women to rescue the king of Min from Yuan Guangzhi’s malevolent designs. During an attack by the Mongol Yuan, she saved the women and children of the town by building a wall of gourds thirty-five li long. A temple was erected to her in gratitude for this miraculous act and she was canonized under Taizu of the Ming dynasty (the first year of the Hongwu reign period, 1368) as the Lady Who Protects Children and Registers Births (Baochan Zhusheng Yuanjun). Later she received the title of Sage Mother (Shengmu). Parents have long placed their children under her ritual protection, making them her adoptive children (yier). The Dan, who live on junks, also consider her to be their patron. A gap three feet long in the screen wall of her temple is said to place them directly in her field of

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vision, under Wanshou Bridge.44 Here, once again, we find the Lady of the Birth Register and the god of the walls and moats in association. This brings us back to our point of departure, and it is precisely along this thread that human life unfolds. It gives rise to the rites and rituals that punctuate it, as in the Linshui Temple.

7

wo men and the te m p l e The “Celestial Flower”

In this day and age why do women continue to make offerings to Chen Jinggu? Why are her temples so lively? Why, in Taiwan as much as on the mainland, are the temples rebuilt even more magnificently on an even grander scale, while taking care to follow to the letter the ancient models provided in the myths? The Tainan temple was enlarged in 1989 and magnificently decorated with gilt bas-reliefs illustrating the Linshui pingyao zhuan; the Taipei temple is no less impressive. In the original temple at Gutian in Fujian, the paintings depicting the topos of the Furen zhuan and the theater stage have been restored and embellished at great expense. Several conferences (in 1993 and 2003) have accompanied this renovation. In Fuzhou, the Mount Lü Ritual Academy (Lü Shan Da Fayuan) at Xiadu was recently the object of similar attention. In the age of contraception and (in the PRC) the single child policy, when women more often give birth in the hospital than at home, and regardless of whether the political regime is liberal or communist, people continue, just as they did during the imperial period, to perform the rituals of the Mount Lü sect: “to cultivate the Flowers” for women, “to open the Passes” for children, to carry out healing rites and rites for “correcting fate” (gaiyuan), rites to call back the soul (liandu), and the rites for the Northern Dipper 166

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(Beidou). Something thus continues to be expressed in these places, which resumes, prolongs, and transforms the original discourse formulated long ago, beginning in the Tang dynasty. Chen Jinggu’s temples give a glimpse of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers in action today.

Gestation and Childbirth in Song Dynasty Medicine: Androgynous Body and Sexed Body The age when this cult was born and above all the time when it was officially recognized and canonized—during the Song dynasty—corresponds to an important turning point in Chinese medicine in regard to the manner in which the female body was understood and treated.1 Furth showed how, under the Song, a new clinical system of gynecology (fuke) developed in the midst of a larger movement of medical innovations. Educated specialists capable of identifying specific disorders in women appeared in the field of medicine. According to Furth, when the experts in fuke applied their diagnostic models to privilege blood over breath in women, they produced a gynecology that modified the model of the androgynous body that had prevailed up until that time, without, however, consciously breaking with it. They extended the language of the androgynous body in order to accentuate the sexual aspects of yin and yang, of the blood and breath (qi). They tried to incorporate the gestating body into their discourse by theorizing the transformations of pregnancy according to the classic categories of thought about yin and yang and the Five Phases. In the same era, the fetus was imagined as an intrusive, destabilizing spirit. Female blood was thought to be impure, requiring propitiation. Ideas about birth clearly demonstrated how androgyny was challenged by the difference between the sexes. It likewise revealed how the boundaries between the sexes were negotiated by Song society, which greatly esteemed motherhood. The medical elites were thus invited to involve themselves in the drawing of these boundaries. Medicine was thus fundamentally a domestic activity linked to the laying of a hearth, and ritual was integrated into the strategies of treatment. Scholarly medicine was imbedded in a cosmology and a culture of daily life, which gave it meaning, just as in the traditions of treatment carried within families. According to Furth, one finds traces of this in the way Song writings on obstetrics, in which erudite doctors were inspired by the body in gestation, treat topics having to do as much with ritual as with the pharmacopoeia, as much

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with concrete symptoms and the techniques for relieving them as with the range of cosmological speculation (Furth, 1999: 99). Doctors did not refer to the model of illness in wondering whether pregnancy and childbirth were normal and healthy processes or rather a type of illness. When they thought about “nature,” they thought of a process similar to that of cosmogenesis in which over time heaven and earth reach completion and produce life on earth. In short, in Song medicine birth took on the sense of a cosmogonic sign, as a crisis of the body requiring the management of symptoms and as a ritual transition in the stages of life.

The State, Neo-Confucianism, and Agnatic Lineages: The “Imperial Bureau of Medicine” and Popular Healers According to Furth (1999: 61), during the Song dynasty, medical thought thus appears as more concerned with the female difference than at any time before or after in Chinese history. This was an element in the broader context of the involvement of scholarly medicine in the problems of maternal and infant health, required by a state anxious to make medicine an effective instrument of the precept of imperial benevolence. In the same era, society was reexamining the models of kinship and family inherited from the past. It witnessed a renewal of Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism) and a movement aimed at reorganizing the family around agnatic lineages. Medical training reinforced a literate elite and marginalized heterodox healers and popular ritualists. Gynecology and obstetrics became a branch of medical knowledge. The emphasis was on menstruation, and different theories were proposed from those previously taught about the sex of the embryo. At this time, scholarly discourse on gynecology was principally the work of experts attached to the State Bureau of Medicine, who were specially charged with serving the imperial palace.2 They took the place of a whole ensemble of healers who had officiated there during the preceding period: ritualists, shamans, herborists, acupuncturists, and masseurs, as well as female healers. It is difficult to determine what the effect of this scholarly gynecology was on female practitioners, on the whole set of ritualists and popular healers, and on their techniques. It is possible to cite many examples of stories about such female healers caring for the women of the palace, and one could actually observe a form of interaction between healers and the tradition of the educated doctors.

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The Cult of Chen Jinggu Today: An Echo from Its Origin In short, the myths of Chen Jinggu speak of nothing else; they are constructed within this global context. The story of this shaman so intimately linked to the Min dynasty and palace clearly shows the place of women: desire is understood here as linked to procreation for the benefit of a patriline. Women are transfixed by this paradoxical law that is written into the cosmic order. The echo of these myths, reshaped through the centuries, reaches us even today. Of course, notions of scholarly medicine about gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics have evolved. However, holistic thought, theories on fate and the subjugation of women’s bodies to the laws of patrilineal society still have their place in modern society, even if they are different from those of the Song dynasty, and the Ming and Qing dynasties that succeeded it. One way or another, women are always subject to these contradictory injunctions that are addressed to them in regard to their sexuality. Furthermore, the ritual techniques of the healers and the shamans continue to coexist alongside those of the practitioners with official responsibilities in hospitals. This is because their ritual acts have another virtue: they establish a language dealing with the conflicts, misfortunes, and calamities, the unsatisfied desires engendered by the human condition linked to the difference of the sexes and by the social structures that govern them. These pass down the centuries unchanged, even if the discourse employed to express them— myths—appears today as outmoded, or “superstitious” (mixin) “errant beliefs.” They are articulated through cosmological analogical thought. the linshui temple in tainan in the lives of women

As a rule, offerings are made to Chen Jinggu in the morning, in contrast to those made to the divinities of the afterlife, such as the god of the Eastern Peak, who is visited more often in the afternoon. However, this rule can be broken for reasons of personal convenience: Chen Jinggu, the expeller of demons and homologue of the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds, would not fear the presence of demons or of those who died bad deaths.3 This is also the case for certain exorcisms that, after examining the astrological signs, one prefers to perform in the afternoon. Sometimes in such circumstances the ritual will take place at the Temple of the Eastern Peak. Nonetheless, it is mainly in the morning that the Linshui Temple fills up with women and children who come to pay a visit. Men are much fewer in number and almost always in the company of a woman, either wife or mother, or even

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in place of a woman who cannot travel, a garment of whose he brings as a “substitute.” The faithful who go to the Linshui Temple come from all walks of life and all parts of the island. There are also as many peasants or women of modest circles who remain very traditional as women belonging to more modern or intellectual classes. The Tainan temple, believed to be the oldest of Chen Jinggu’s temples established in Taiwan, and probably stemming directly from the one in Fuzhou with which it is said to “share incense” (fenxiang), attracts women from all districts of the island (see Introduction). They come from Taipei, from Pindong, from Hualian and Gaoxiong, as well as from very out-of-the-way villages, which sometimes means the absence of a day or more from home. In addition, the large number of faithful who visit the temple demonstrates the vibrancy, even now, of the cult of Chen Jinggu, particularly if we take into consideration the networks that are attached to it: other Linshui temples in other towns, altars to the goddess in other sanctuaries (such as those of the Weaving-maid and the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds, or, in Fuzhou, the Temple of the Eastern Peak), houses of mediums claiming a connection with her or performing “minor rites” (xiaofa) by invoking her, and so on. This diversity dramatizes the various aspects of this shamanic divinity’s cult: the cult of the Flowers concerning women and children in the Linshui temples, other shamanic rites spilling out of this framework into different ritual places where one again finds Chen Jinggu as exorcist and rainmaker. All of these ramifications of the cult are explicitly revealed in visits and pilgrimages at the time of the temple festival, the festival of Chen Jinggu, celebrated on the fifteenth of the first lunar month.4 Here we will only deal with the rites specific to women and children—precisely those who were the object of Chen Jinggu’s vow when she became Goddess of the Flowers—performed most often in the Linshui Temple or even, particularly in Fujian, at the homes of patients. The temple visit fits one of two different models, depending on whether a ritual is carried out. Many women come alone or accompanied by their mother, a friend, or a neighbor, much less often by their husband, to perform what could be called a “ritual visit,” during which no formal rite requiring the presence of an officiant is carried out. Nevertheless, some women have a medium accompany them, who serves to interpret the communication with the goddess. The only purpose of this intercession, which is by no means required, is to increase the chances of the wish being granted due to the persistent presence of this specialist. The medium can also immediately help obtain a clearer interpretation of the responses given by the goddess. Fur-

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thermore, the visits are almost always motivated by a request for a favor. In fact no regular offerings at all are made to Chen Jinggu aside from the day of her festival and indirectly on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the festival day of the Weaving-maid.5 Only the temple caretakers—in 1989, a family in Tainan that was living there—make an offering of incense morning and evening. It is neither necessary nor particularly desirable to make regular visits to the temple gratuitously. Women thus come either to solicit Chen Jinggu or to thank her for granting a wish. When the case proves serious, or when a repeated wish has not been granted, it is then necessary to perform a ritual. It is the medium or the Red Head master who was consulted who will decide and undertake the ritual, should the occasion arise.6 the bridge of a hundred flowers in practice

Just as the myths intimated, the time of pregnancy—the desire to become pregnant, the period of gestation, childbirth, and the post-natal period— gives rise in female life to many occasions to appeal to Chen Jinggu and for her to intervene. It is therefore this female time that we will now study. We will try to extract its significant elements and key moments, which we will examine in the light of the teachings of the legend. The description of the substitute body playing the role of the Celestial Flower of each woman will add a symbolic and ritual dimension and will provide a base for the discussion of this process. In her roles as Goddess of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers and Lady of the Birth Registers (Zhusheng Niangniang), Chen Jinggu—like Guanyin and the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds—is thus particularly qualified to “send babies” (songzi) to be reincarnated in women who desire it.7 In fact they alone have the power to literally “distribute embryos” (fentai), that is, to allow a soul to be reincarnated. In this manner, women weave the generations that pass through them to “increase posterity” (guangsi) by “planting descendants” (zhongzi) (Furth, 1995: 163). Furthermore, as we have already said, the term fentai evokes the image of gardening, precisely that of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. One speaks of dividing or apportioning embryos, just as one would speak of thinning and planting out rice seedlings (fenyang), whose symbolism we are already familiar with: the essence, the baby (see Despeux, 2003; and Furth, 1995: 183). We have seen how this discourse likewise refers back on a metaphoric level to the creation of the embryo of immortality by this process of fenxing. This is what will give rise to the ritual of “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua).

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the tree and the rhizome: the grafts

From the most ancient times down to the present, in patrilines fathers and sons were considered to be one and the same body. The name that makes this identity concrete is handed down from generation to generation and, with it, the ancestral cult. In this sense, it is said that men “transmit the identical.” According to the same Confucian canons, it is believed that women, in contrast, have “nothing to transmit,” neither name, bones, nor ancestral link, for “they cannot reproduce identity.” Mother and son or mother and daughter do not make up this “same body.” Motherhood was thus said to be cultural, social, and artificial, and not natural. This goes a long way toward assimilating it to the cosmological process. Quite simply, according to the Classic of Rites (Li ji), “The wives of the father are mothers.” In this sense, the biological mother is not privileged as a mother among the others in that category. The father’s word, his command, made the woman the mother of a child. There is thus a striking similarity between childbirth and adoption.8 At present, as in the past, every form of adoption by women is theoretically still forbidden. According to these criteria, there is no way a sterile woman can adopt a child and give it the status of son or daughter, and thus bring it into the patriline. The only mode of adoption recognized according to this classical model is the gift by a man of one of his sons to a brother. The abstract ideal that we can see here logically would be to “dispense with women” and to strategically distribute children from the same lineage among brothers. No strategy aimed at grafting children onto a sterile trunk is officially tolerated in this society so tenaciously attached to its lineage identity, since only a descendant of the same name and consequently of the “same bones” can make the offerings owed to the ancestors of his father’s lineage. Reality, as one sees it today, reveals circumstances much less orthodox.9 An “anti-genealogic” female axis that is more evocative of a “rhizome” is joined to this tree of the patriline. If the tree-like structure is filiation, the rhizome is marriage and gives rise to a diagram with multiple entrances. As the rhizome-like structure grows and multiplies, it overflows both the classical structures of marriage and those of filiation.10 Thus, women create specific networks that put in place a form of “transmission to the feminine” where they manipulate in reality the children of the patrilines. “Exchanges” of children often take place between “sworn sisters” (jiepai jiemei). As we have seen in the story of Chen Jinggu, it is a fictive kinship established

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between two women, friends but not relatives, between whom, according to their statements, “their bellies communicate.”11 Such exchanges sometimes lead to a return exchange of the children in the form of marriage between their offspring (see Baptandier, 2003).12 That is one of the images of the “rhizome” that violates both symbolically and actually the prohibition that forbids women to adopt and thereby introduce a stranger into the patriline. In addition, the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers and the rituals it occasions reveal a sort of “female territory” on a symbolic level, this celestial nursery that can be cultivated at will. Thus, a sterile woman can, through a suitable ritual, “borrow” a “bud,” that is, an embryo, from the celestial “Flower” of another woman in order to give birth. By contrast, in other rituals one entreats a certain divinity—generally one of the thirty-six Pojie—or even a demon, to not steal the soul of one child for the benefit of another woman, who would give birth to it in her place. This is most notably the purpose of a ritual sequence of opening the “passes” (guan), which consists of “calling back the soul” (diaohun) of the child in order to reinsert it into the patriline from which it was going to be diverted (see Baptandier, 1996a). We shall see that these kinds of “grafts” from one woman to another are symbolically formalized in rituals such as “Cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua), just as they are expressed in fanciful depictions: those of the myths of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers (see Chapter 9; see also Baptandier, 1996d: 129–30). choosing the sex of the embryo

In addition, a pregnant woman may wish to choose the sex of her baby. The absolute necessity of having at least one son to perpetuate the ancestral cult of the father, and thereby to be admitted as a real member of the family, compels most women to want a boy. This is the very expression of the victory of yang over yin at the moment of conception. Although it is very rare, it also happens that a woman who has several sons wants to have a daughter. It is believed—just as Chinese medicine thought until very recently—that up until the third month of pregnancy one can change the sex of the baby in its mother’s belly. It is thought that the embryo is not yet “fixed” and that one can still intervene to transform the future identity of the child.13 As Furth (1995: 163) states, “In cosmogony, yin and yang are the first differentiation. By analogy, the differentiation of the embryo into male or female is not a pre-existent gift of Heaven but was seen as the most fundamental of characteristics shaped by the forces of Earth.” Thus it

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is thought that in the third month the sex of the embryo definitively takes shape by differentiation and thereby becomes a fetus (tai). Depending on the intensity of her desire on the one hand and the response of the oracles on the other, the woman will be able either to address a simple prayer to the Lady of the Birth Register, asking her to record in her Register the sex desired for the baby, or have a Red Head master perform a ritual during which he will carry out a shamanic journey to the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, in order to examine the Celestial Flower of the woman in question. It is during these first months of pregnancy, when it is not yet “fixed,” that the risks are greatest for the mother and baby, although the dangers do not entirely disappear later. The dangers, in fact, are multiple and give rise to Chen Jinggu’s most important mission: to stabilize mother and child, “to stabilize the embryo” (antai). This is the magic that she so cruelly lacked and that she subsequently learned during her second journey to Mount Lü. the risks of pregnancy

A pregnant woman—and the baby she carries—is believed to be particularly vulnerable to the evil acts of demons, of those who died bad deaths, and of those who died without descendants to guarantee them offerings. Those who died bad deaths, that is, violent or unnatural deaths, are condemned to wander the earth for the remaining duration of time that had been allotted to them and thus faced in the afterlife the ravages of cold and hunger. By dispensing with the services of the divinities in charge of this task, these wandering souls seek to be reincarnated as quickly as possible. As the myths on this subject demonstrate, they seem to be perpetually on the lookout, waiting to take the place of the embryo of a pregnant woman. This is why the period when the pregnancy is not “fixed” is especially dangerous, for the intervention of these unappeased souls is made easy and often gives rise to miscarriage (liudong), literally, “letting the baby flow away.”14 Without necessarily reaching this extreme, one ascribes to these harmful souls most of the symptoms that accompany a difficult pregnancy and which medicine, whether traditional or Western, is powerless to relieve. That is why a pregnant woman must remain very vigilant and, should the occasion arise, consult a medium about the reasons for her difficulties in order to arm herself against such dangers. Beseeching Chen Jinggu for protection can suffice in benign cases, but, when symptoms persist, it is necessary to perform an exorcism ritual and cultivate the Flower. On the other hand, the harmful soul does not always seek to be reincarnated. It can

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simply exercise a kind of blackmail against the woman, who is particularly vulnerable at this moment, by provoking difficulties in her in order to obtain presents of food and money offerings, which it will be necessary to give in the course of a suitable ritual to drive it away.15 This can take place at the Temple of the Eastern Peak or even at Chen Jinggu’s temple, depending on the prediction made by the medium in regard to the case examined. The medium’s diagnosis is based on the examination of the eight birth signs in relation to the moment in question. We thus note, once again, the extreme permeability of the border between the worlds of the dead and the living. In addition, we likewise note the permeability of women’s bodies, caught between the two universes, like a mirror constantly passed through. That, moreover, is exactly what is implied by one of the meanings of the term ling, which refers to the “primordial soul” (yuanqi) present at the time the child is conceived. For Daoism, this is the manifestation of the time before creation (xiantian); for Buddhism, it is the manifestation of the process of reincarnation of the ancestors; for Confucianism, it is the very spirit of the ancestors. But this force ling is also that of desire. We shall recall on this subject the depiction that the Linshui pingyao zhuan gives of this point in the sequence of the ritual for rain: while her embryo is left in the lake of lotuses (the maternal home transformed into a mandala), Chen Jinggu dances on the water, at the deep abyss of White Dragon River where Mount Lü is submerged, like a watery region of the next world. In the water the White Snake, the power ling of desire, is her reflection in reverse. As Furth (1995: 161) says, “A tiny bit of pre-existent perfected spirit qi (xiantian zhengzhi lingqi) moved to germinate by the feelings of desire, miraculously is part of it.” This is what the ritual object representing the Celestial Flower will show. This particular gaze, here focused on the desire for a child, is still a way of expressing the belief according to which children, situated between the worlds of the living and the dead, see what adults can no longer see: the other world (see Baptandier, 2003). Through this perception of women as that through which the generations succeed one another, we also recognize the related theme of the quest for immortality through the procedures to “nourish life,” even if it would be necessary to pass through death for it. Moreover, it is thought that demons (yao or gui) who work toward this end act largely in the same way, with the single minor difference that their concern is generally to steal vital energies. For them it is a matter of taking advantage of this abundant source of vital

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yang energy that the embryo represents. And that is exactly what the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui), “the very essence of the gui,” was doing when he stole Chen Jinggu’s embryo for the White Snake and Madame Yao’s embryo for himself, giving rise to the first of Chen Jinggu’s interventions as Goddess of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers (see Chapter 3). When this happens, the symptoms are precisely those that we mentioned above, to which are added a particular languor, a pale or yellowish complexion, all threatening to end in the death of the baby and mother if the demon exposed by the medium or the Red Head master is not expelled through a ritual of tending the Flower. This discourse on desire accords with that of the medical tradition of the Song dynasty, which connected it to the “need to procreate” rather than to pleasure.16 We have seen how the myths, while preaching orthodoxy, reveal the hidden, cruder face of this interpretation. That is likewise the emphasis of the Tianxin zhengfa ritual tradition, which originated in the same period and specialized in the struggle against succubi and their sexual violence that, it was believed, could lead to madness (see Introduction; and Boltz, 1987). As we have seen in the legend, these demonic beings, continuing in their own way the practices of long life, can themselves seek to be incarnated and become human.17 Such was the case of the Golden Tiger, the demon that wormed its way into the womb of Madame He, the mother of the young girl Jiang. With good reason, the girl was named Tiger Courage (Hudan), and she continued her quest for the Dao as magician and sworn sister of Chen Jinggu. taisui

At the moment of conception, the “soul” (ling) of the child, sent by the Lady of the Birth Register, penetrates the womb of its mother. This soul corresponds to one’s “original breath” (yuanqi), which must be distinguished from one’s hun and po souls, which develop along with the embryo (see Despeux, 2003; and Furth, 1995). Thereafter, mother and baby are both particularly threatened by the Taishen. Literally “divinity” or “spirit” (shen) of the “pregnant womb” or of the “embryo” (tai), the Taishen roves around the house. This maternity spirit will remain present until the fourth month after birth, the moment when the symbiotic period of the mother and baby comes to an end and the baby is presented to its father, who gives it a name and inscribes it in his lineage. Because the Taishen, also called “wandering demon who kills fetuses” (youtaisha), constantly moves around, it is necessary to be especially vigilant regarding the actions carried out in the house

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(Furth, 1999: 108). Thus every day the Taishen is in a different place in the house: sometimes in the doors, sometimes in the kitchen, or under the wife’s bed. Today, as in the past, almanacs faithfully indicate for each day of the year the place where it is located, expressing the spatial taboos that are connected to its presence.18 One will then take care not to offend this place in any way, out of fear of harming or angering the Taishen. In general, in a house where a pregnant woman lives, it is necessary to refrain from pounding nails, cutting cloth, moving furniture, sweeping under the bed, or doing major tasks thoughtlessly: if the Taishen happened to be hit, the child to be born would be seriously harmed, even malformed. Birthmarks, harelips, bone deformations, blindness, and deafness were attributed to such accidents. An example was my neighbor in Tainan who had just given birth at the time of the New Year festivities. Without taking into consideration the fact that the Taishen was in the door that day, her husband quite naturally pasted up red New Year good luck streamers there. In the following days red spots were seen on the baby’s neck, and their manifestation was attributed to the presence of the Taishen in the door when the red streamers were pasted there. They had to be taken down without delay. In addition, under the name Great Year star, Taisui, the Taishen is the earthly counterpart of Jupiter (Suixing), whose orbit is the measure of the solar year.19 However, Taisui is not a visible constellation. Like the earthly shadow of Jupiter, it follows its own course on earth in the opposite direction, and corresponds to a different time, of the same nature as the temporary ruptures or blind spots in the symbolic system constituted by the dun.20 It is thus to this very special time before creation or birth (xiantian), and to the course of the star made invisible by the earth’s shadow, that pregnant women are subject. Here we are in the presence of a curious “womb spirit” that moves not in the woman’s body but in harmony and in resonance with its spatial and cosmic environment, according to the customary system of the heavenly and earthly cyclical signs in combination.21 The Taisui-Taishen, a divinity linked to the earthly branches (dizhi) and to the calendrical demons that correspond to them (sha), is extremely dangerous and easily angered. This is why pregnant women must take care not to witness excavation work outside of their homes or any other activity requiring the moving of earth and, even more important, not engage in it themselves. If that should happen, it would be necessary to perform a ritual of exorcism to “apologize to the earth,” which can be carried out by a medium or a Red Head master, and for which a “substitute body” (tishen) is used in order to expel the curses.

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polarization

The concern to maintain equilibrium between the colder yin nature of the mother and the warmer yang nature of the embryo gives rise to many dietary precautionary measures. We have shown the importance of this point for the bipolarized entity formed by the mother and baby during pregnancy. If the hot-cold equilibrium (particular to each mother and each baby) is disrupted in one direction or another, both will suffer. We have seen how incompatible horoscopes, which were attributed to the Lady of the Birth Register, could give rise to such a rupture, which constitutes the most serious case.22 Even when the fates of mother and baby do not clash, certain avoidable errors can nevertheless give rise to a situation of excess yin or yang, which is manifested by more or less serious symptoms in the mother and baby. The diet to be followed thus depends on each woman and each pregnancy, because, for example, food that is too spicy or “hot” could cause inflammation (huoqi) that would manifest itself in cutaneous symptoms at birth, attributed to the “poison” secreted at this time by the mother’s womb.23 The rupture of equilibrium would also give rise in her to a secretion of “poison” and in the baby to pustules, a skin disease whose treatment would require the intervention of Cinnabar Cloud Monkey. In this context it is extremely difficult to separate the purely empirical aspects from the ritual sense that is attributed to them by analogical thought. In each instance, the particular situation of the mother (the astrological configuration of her own conception and birth) and that of the embryo that she is in the process of carrying to term give rise to precautionary measures and recommendations corresponding to these same cosmological criteria. These mark out a diagram, the correspondences of which are different each time, contributing in a way to the birth of the “ten thousand created things,” to the brilliance of their diversity and to the cosmological and cyclical aspect of their production. Specific examples could be cited in profusion. During her pregnancy, my neighbor had to eat lots of mutton, which is believed to be particularly “hot,” guaranteeing, she said, that her baby would not suffer from the cold; during a previous pregnancy she ate lots of apples, considered to be “cold,” in order to avoid, she said, her baby having a skin disease caused by an excess of “heat.” It is clear that an excess of polarization in the baby that was not relieved by an adequate diet could give rise, in the same way, to symptoms in the mother. Most of the time the necessary recommendations are dispensed by the medium, whose oracular response

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is dictated by the divinity according to these same criteria. Chen Jinggu and her mediums are, obviously, particularly apt to pronounce this type of recommendation. Let us note that these precautionary measures for maintaining equilibrium between mother and baby must be observed even after birth: such a medium will attribute cutaneous symptoms of a baby several months old to the excess weight of its mother. It is for similar reasons that pregnant women must not visit the houses of bereaved people or houses where a marriage is being celebrated. Likewise, they must avoid other pregnant women. Such encounters could be extremely dangerous, as all these people are in an exceptional state of polarization. Their presence could provoke misfortune, or give rise either to common illnesses or to illnesses of “poisoning” if the two people happened to be polarized in opposite directions. The period of pregnancy is in any case considered to be one of reduced social activity for the woman, since it corresponds to the time of the zhai, of retreat, of transformation, or, according to the schema characteristic of the notion of polarization, of incubation, which ultimately gives rise to this communication, childbirth, which is equivalent in the ritual structure to the jiao and, on the level of polarization, to a sudden outbreak. We will recall on this subject the story of Chen Jinggu shut up in Linshui Palace performing her zhai for her pregnancy, and required to disrupt it in order to carry out the sacrifice for rain, the equivalent to the jiao, performed at the same time by the Daoists of the kingdom (see Chapter 2). birth: placenta

A brief stage on the journey to becoming human, the moment of birth is especially dangerous for the mother, the baby, and those around them. Seeing to it that all goes well is one of Chen Jinggu’s attributes. The dangers that hover over childbirth are essentially the same as those of pregnancy, made even more powerful by the moment of transition, of “crossing the Bridge,” as it is symbolically called in the ritual texts.24 It is a matter of protecting the mother and the baby from malevolent spirits, who are particularly drawn by this event and who are said to want to carry off the mother or the baby, or even the placenta. Traditionally, the placenta and all the birth fluids were collected in the birthing basin that the woman brought as part of her dowry at the time of her marriage.25 We have seen that this instrument was considered to be Chen Jinggu’s “ritual treasure” (fabao), under the name “golden basin of formless beginnings” (hunyuan jinpen), and that there is a money

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offering with this name (see Hou, 1975). Collected in this way, the placenta must be handled with considerable caution, because it is imbued with great vital energy: that of the origin of the transformations, as is the diagram of the eight trigrams, which also contains an embryo, the One. Moreover, it is believed that the trigrams are inscribed one by one on the placenta during gestation (see Chapter 2).26 Pregnancy and the transformation that it sets in motion are thus “mapped onto” the idea of resonance (ganying), which is that of the creation of the universe, according to the Book of Changes (Yi jing). According to Despeux (2003: 89–90), this is what explains the influence attributed to the “images” (xiang) and to the signs perceived by the pregnant woman. In fact, everything she sees and perceives during this period resonates in the development of her baby. The episode of combat between Lin Jiuniang and the Iron Head monk, who tried to steal the “images” from her magic diagram of the eight trigrams, is a good illustration of this point (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9). It is thus necessary at all cost to avoid “shocking” the placenta in any way. Since it belongs to the forces of water and earth, it should not be burned on pain of causing the death of the baby. It must be gently placed in a stream with a current rapid enough to carry it away, or, if this is not possible, it should be buried. The ritual of Opening the Passes also includes a séance of exorcism of the calendrical demon “killer” of these “passes” (guansha), which closely resembles the rite of interring or submerging the placenta (see Baptandier, 1996a; also see Chapter 9). We thus understand how the cosmological vision of the pregnant female body “naturally,” “spontaneously” (ziran), leads to a homology between these different elements. childbirth

We recall the mandala—the image of the Northern Dipper (Beidou) or womb mandala—effected by Chen Jinggu to perform her tuotai (“remove the fetus”) in her mother’s house before going to perform the ritual for rain. The embryo was placed in the hunyuan jindou, or hongpen, which was turned upside down in the bedroom, the door of which was transformed into a diagram of the trigrams, guarded by tiger and snake. The house itself was hidden under a lake covered with lotuses. A parallel to this mythological transformation is found in Song dynasty medicine. When the hour of childbirth arrived, the woman had to assume a position facing a particular direction, which was determined in relation to the date of her own con-

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ception and that of the time of her labor. This “birth chart” (chantu) was organized in accordance with her “personal calendar” (xingnian).27 Thus this “identity card of fate” for each person is imagined as a correspondence or harmonizing of her personal history and the fabric of the heavenly and earthly cyclical signs (see Baptandier, 1996a). Nowadays, people continue to take into consideration these auspicious and dangerous spatial correspondences. Thus, in addition to possible interventions by harmful beings, difficult births are attributed to a clash of the horoscopes of mother and baby that can cause, for example, a breech birth. In the legend we have seen how the Rock-Press Women intervened in similar cases in order to facilitate birth and how, in contrast, the Ravine Demon caused the death of Madame Yao, who was saved by none other than Chen Jinggu (see Chapter 4). The thirty-six Pojie, who correspond to the secret stars of the Northern Dipper constellation, the womb of fate, are also able to intervene in Chen Jinggu’s place and name. If necessary, they possess the medium whose services are needed and who will be able to bring magic assistance by means of the appropriate formulas and the talismans (fu) that go with them. These talismans often contain the graphs for lightning, thunder, or horse, which by means of its speed can accelerate birth. We can also see here an allusion to the “handle” of the Northern Dipper, the Pojun, which points to the Door of Life, as we have already seen. It is called “horse” and is associated with the Thunder rites (see Chapter 5; Saso, 1978a: 248). In accordance with this same numerological and cosmological symbolism, people still use talismans bearing the cyclical signs of the six jia, just as was done in antiquity.28 If in spite of all these precautions the woman happened to die in childbirth, she would not escape the punishment of the Lake of Blood, which would submerge her in menstrual blood, the blood that she had failed to give life by transforming it into a child.29 the period of seclusion and the “full month” ( MANYUE ) ritual

This period extends over two distinct times: first, the first month, which culminates in the celebration of the “full month” (manyue), and second, the three months of seclusion in the course of which, in the past, the mother and baby could not leave the house. This second period, in accordance with medical instructions, also corresponds to one of the “passes” that some children cross, the “hundred-days guan” (Furth, 1999: 110–11; see Chapter 8). After the birth, it is said that the mother is “in the month.” Nowadays,

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many women refuse to strictly observe the rule of confinement to the birth chamber, and freely move about the house. Some, however, continue to not leave their house even if they gave birth in the hospital, which makes keeping this injunction less relevant, one would think, since the birth chamber was not in the home. In reality, the seclusion of mother and baby is due to the fact that both are still imbued with the force of the development of life, of “spontaneity” (ziran), proximate to that of the original chaos, sharing in the earthly forces. The baby is not “completely born.” Not yet truly distinct from its mother, it is still at the border of the time before birth (xiantian), from which it emerges by crossing the successive stages that we shall examine subsequently. The power of transformations that the woman puts into play is now manifested by the loss of blood that continues for approximately the duration of this ritual month. It is believed that this is what remains of the blood of conception, which gave flesh and body to the child, and which accumulated during the nine months (ten lunar months) of pregnancy. It flows, in a month liberating a force equivalent, it is believed, to nine months of menstruation. That is why the mother and baby, so intimately connected to the earthly forces, must avoid exposure to opposing heavenly influences when going out. Their opposition could engender poison and sickness in both of them. Here we again find the notion according to which “in women blood is the leader” (Furth, 1999: 58). It is likewise to preserve the equilibrium of the polarity characteristic of each of them that neither the woman nor the baby can take a bath or have their hair washed during this month, aside from the ritual bath given to the baby on the third day. At present certain liberties are taken with this rule after examining, in the best of cases, the birth characters of mother and baby, in order to guarantee that the hot/cold equilibrium that ties them together is not disrupted.30 This vital force uniting the woman who has given birth and the newborn is precisely the one that Perfected Lord Xu of Mount Lü revealed to Chen Jinggu; far from polluting her, it is said to have brought her a “marvelous benefit” (see Chapter 2; Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3). The period of seclusion culminates in the “full-month” (manyue) ritual. On that day the woman performs rites of purification—bathing, washing her hair—in order to free herself of the earthly forces that have enveloped her up to that time. This moment is particularly important in the case of a first child and above all when it is a son, since the mother is then accepted as a full member of the family. But the Full Month ritual is, most important, the ritual of presenting the baby to the paternal lineage and to Chen Jinggu’s

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temple, the moment when the baby is entrusted to the thirty-six Pojie. We shall describe the rites associated with it in the following chapter. cultivating the flowers ( ZAIHUA )

If pregnancy is the occasion par excellence for a woman to have recourse to Chen Jinggu, it is by no means the sole instance of this relationship. Onemonth-old babies—both boys and girls—are officially entrusted to the care of the goddess. Nonetheless, when boys become adults at the age of sixteen they leave the influence of the temple for good, while girls leave only to immediately return, this time no longer as girls but as women (see Chapter 8). That was in fact traditionally the suitable age for a young girl to marry, which causes her to partake in her turn of the Flowers, over which Chen Jinggu keeps watch. Chen Jinggu’s marriage plays an important part in her legend, which is unusual in Chinese mythology. Initially rejecting marriage in the name of the autonomy of the female power of the shaman (wu), she accepted it under the distinctive form of the liberation of her husband, Liu Qi, from the grotto of the White Snake, the Demon of Transformations (see Chapter 1). Nor was it by coincidence when, during a marriage solemnized “in the traditional way” in 1979 in Tainan, the Linshui Temple was chosen as the home of the bride. She was dressed and made up in the temple and the groom came to get her there to take her, after they had both bowed to her parents, to the temple of Heaven to perform the traditional rites, as described in the Linshui pingyao zhuan. Once again, the fatal role that Chen Jinggu takes in the marriage recalls the Fates that we mentioned in regard to the Lady of the Birth Register and also, of course, the Weaving-maid (see Chapter 6). Chen Jinggu watches closely over the sexual life of women, and over its sociological inscription at the heart of Chinese society. It is this that earns her the title of Sovereign of the Azure Clouds. Thus, through the Flower and the tending that it requires when it manifests certain disorders, women have the means to express the difficulty of living subject to the laws of patrilineal society, which impose on them both marriage and the gift of a son, and a sexuality turned essentially toward procreation. These disorders are manifested by gynecological disturbances, manifestations of what we have called “polarization” or even by some completely different psychosomatic problem attributed by the medium consulted to the stealing of vital energies by a ghost or demon. It would be impossible to give an account of these disorders here—except for an empirical list by

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necessity incomplete, since it is a matter of particular cases and diagnoses determined by divination—if we did not have a depiction of the curses that cause these disorders in a “substitute body” (tishen) used in the ritual of the Flowers, which we shall now describe. the “flower”

The substitute body is used exclusively in the ritual of “tending of the Flowers” (zaihua). It seems to be a feature of the Tainan temple, since I have not seen it elsewhere in Taiwan or in Fujian. This ritual is recommended by the medium or the Red Head master when the woman’s case appears to be so serious that it requires a shamanic journey to the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers. The ritual object that the woman in question will thus obtain in the temple is a depiction of her heavenly Flower and the curses that attack it, along with the gardeners who will expel them. It is a flimsy wooden framework bearing seven flower buds on an iron stem wrapped in white paper. Five of the buds are white and two are red, in the image of the five sons and two daughters that every woman should ideally conceive, according to the Chinese canon. The “root” (gen) of this flower is represented by a small red figure of indeterminate though visibly depicted sex, and which none of the informants questioned will be able to ascertain. It is reminiscent of the androgynous notion of the human body in archaic depictions of Chinese medicine. It is birth, however, that marks the difference, in two ways. First, only women have the power to give birth. Second, they produce both sexes equally well—daughters and sons—“the ultimate obstacle of thought,” according to Héritier, that the Confucian canon comes up against.31 It is in fact the development of scientific thought on this point, according to Furth, that characterizes Song medicine. And here the root of the Flower seems to correspond to the “original breath” (yuanqi), the essence in material form (xing) not yet distinguished from the soul (ling). It is present from the moment of conception, and only the woman will transform it. We have seen that it is only in the course of this process—in the third month—that the embryo will reach the stage of sexual differentiation under the combined effect of yin and yang. On the ritual flower buds there are curses depicted in gold paper, such as a butterfly or wasp or snake, and in front of the plant that is being attacked in this way there is a dog made of purple paper. To either side of the Flower are found the “Gentleman and Lady of the Flowers” (Huagong and Huapo) (Figure 7.1). The man holds a basket in his hand and the woman a shovel;

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f i gur e 7.1. The flower palanquin with Huagong and Huapo, Tainan. Photo Jean-Charles Berthier.

this deliberate reversal of the traditional symbols of the division of labor by gender emphasizes the hierogamic aspect of the process.32 Huagong and Huapo also have at their feet many gardening implements—spade, bucket, and yoke—all implements that will be used to tend the sick Flower and weed out the curses, which the Red Head master will do for them at the appropriate moment of the ritual (see Chapter 9). In the Tainan temple the altar of

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Huagong and Huapo and their little statues are found to the west of Chen Jinggu’s altar, opposite that of the Lady of the Birth Register. Serving as gardeners of the Transformations of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, they have no individual legends and are only acolytes, servants of Chen Jinggu, playing the role of divinities of the soil (god of the soil and his wife) of this very distinctive place.33 It is important to note that, conversely, in 1980 the caretakers of the Tainan temple were a couple who lived right in the temple with their children. Though not exceptional, this fact is unusual enough to be noted. The caretaker’s wife played the role of counselor. Women who visited the temple asked her advice on the protocol to follow: in what order should they bow to the divinities, how much paper money should they burn, how should they gather incense to take home with them as a remedy or to repel demons? It is also from her that they readily asked for the address of a medium or Red Head master, when that was necessary. And it is she who performed the daily rites in the morning and evening of burning incense and making offerings in front of Chen Jinggu’s altar.

Curses One feature distinguishes the curses that endanger the Flower and prevent it from performing the transformations from other things that endanger human beings in general: they are specific to women and never attack men.34 By contrast, we should note that there are no typically male misfortunes that could not affect women. Curses common to women and men generally attack their “fate” (yun); thus it must be modified or “corrected” (gai). Fate is the road that takes its origin at the intersection of the eight birth characters (bazi) that form the horoscope and the “segment of breaths” (jieqi) closest to the date of birth or even of conception; it is a linear progression of life. It is very different from the Flower, the cycle of transformations that completes a cycle and disappears, only to reappear. A woman can be doubly afflicted: in her fate (and her Flower is not necessarily affected by it) and in her Flower. What afflict her are her own vermin, which we will examine one by one. the wasp ( HUANGFENG )

This is a curse that steals vital energies, like those we met throughout the legend seeking to “nourish their lives” (yangsheng) at the expense of the woman-Flower whose vital essence they steal. Thus it was the process of

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the transformations that it attacked.35 We met this honey-gathering / energystealing insect in the battle between Chen Jinggu and the adept from Mount Mao (see Chapter 5). The latter summoned up a cloud of harmful insects, including wasps, that Jiuniang fought with her “spider pearl.” She caused them to resume their “true form” of grains of rice, another symbol of the essence (jing) and of the child, which seems here to have been diverted from its proper course. the butterfly ( HUDIE )

We also met in the Linshui pingyao zhuan the spermatic essence, the ink spirit called Mengyu, Dream Remnant, an expression both of the vital force and the desire of a prince in exile (see Chapter 5). We recall the demonic gathering of flowers and children’s sexual parts in which painting of a marvelous butterfly of “five colors” indulged in the guise of a beautiful young girl, along with an adept from Mount Mao. It was necessary to perform many rituals to protect the women and children of the kingdom of Min from the calamitous effects of the insatiable lust of this butterfly spirit. The threat posed by the butterfly depicted on the ritual object is, as in the legend, that it might fly off and steal the vital energies of the Flower, thereby obstructing the birth-gestation of the baby. We find here once again the notion of desire as something that must be mastered and turned toward procreation. the snake of the grottos ( DONGSHE ) or bronze snake ( TONGSHE )

This curse recalls the White Snake, the Demon of Transformations (huayao), the feminine depicted in its “wild,” disobedient aspect (see Chapter 1). Before she was driven out by Chen Jinggu, the White Snake cultivated her embryo of immortality through demonic practices in Linshui grotto. It is Chen Jinggu’s fight with this counterpart who menaced society that the Linshui pingyao zhuan depicts. The White Snake, associated with the force ling that characterizes the second sexual category, that of the female demons, is also associated with orgasm, which in Daoist religion represents the danger of an uncontrolled loss of vital energy, to the detriment of the partner whose vital energies are stolen and to the benefit of the one who can make use of it (see Chapter 1). The White Snake proceeded in this manner with her lovers, Liu Qi, the king of Min, and the others. The ritual tradition of the Tianxin zhengfa specializes, as we have seen, in the struggle against the succubi that

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cause sexual disorders leading, it is believed, to madness. Daoist practices for nourishing “the embryo of immortality” give many precise instructions on this subject, which another snake in the Linshui pingyao zhuan likewise followed, whose wife, the mother of twins, became the Lady of Smallpox and Measles (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17). Furth (1999: 91) notes that Chinese medicine, which associates the determination of the sex of the baby with the “victory” of the yin or yang principle in the sexual act understood as a “battle,” does not assign any particular role in this process to the female orgasm.36 This ritual object resembles a warning consonant with the place accorded to sexual desire by medicine: that of procreation. We will recall, also, the other mythological episode related by the Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan, which mentioned offerings made to a demon, an emanation of the Snake constellation to which every year two children were offered in sacrifice in this same Linshui grotto (see Introduction). This is what gave rise to the ritual battle, of tantric origin, between Erxiang, Chen Jinggu’s “brother” and disciple of Master Yu, and this Snake. Erxiang was made prisoner, and Chen Jinggu rescued him by means of the ritual techniques of the Northern Dipper and the Thunder that Jiulang, the “yoga” (yujia) master, had taught her. The magic weapon with which she fought this Snake—a bell encircled by a violent wind—also recalls the other ritual instrument that she received, this time from the Queen Mother: the birthing basin, “golden basin of the formless beginning” (hunyuan jinpen), which is depicted in a form very like a bell in the paintings that are set out during the rituals of the Mount Lü sect (see Ye Mingsheng, 2000). As for the Flower, a variation of its name designates it as the Bronze Snake (tongshe). This reference to metal, the element associated with the west, the direction personified by the Queen Mother of the West and the symbol of death and rebirth, is not surprising. The “Apprentices” of Gaoxiong also allude to it in their incantation accompanying the talisman to hasten births: “Let the iron bone (tiegu) open!” The Iron Dog (Tiegou) curse will reintroduce this theme under the aspect of meteoric metal, well known in this context. the celestial dog

Red Head Master Shi Xihui distinguished the Iron Dog (Tiegou) from the Celestial Dog (Tiangou), of which we have already spoken. It was a star, the Dragon’s Tail, auspicious for the emperor, whose palace it protects, but inauspicious for the people when it descends to earth (see Hou, 1979).37

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Responsibility for lunar eclipses was always attributed to it, and it was associated with the owl, one of whose heads it ate.38 It is both a meteor and a comet. This is what Granet (1959, vol. 2: 538) said about it: “Another meteor which also has the appearance of a falling star is the Celestial Dog or Red Dog. It produces the noise of thunder and the flash of lightning; when it descends to earth it resembles a dog; where it crashes you can see a blazing fire.” The name Tiegou is thus no longer set in opposition to that of the Tiangou, both being linked to meteoric metal. The Celestial Dog is associated with the five directions and the twelve earthly branches. According to some sources, there is even said to be a different Celestial Dog for each of the twelve months, as is the case for Taisui. Here, once again, it is necessary to observe the spatial and temporal taboos to protect oneself from it (Hou, 1979: 220). The Celestial Dog, a bloodthirsty astrological demon, is believed to be an enemy of childhood: it devours embryos and leaves catastrophic desolation in its wake. This is what an episode of the Mindu bieji relates, in which under the name of Jing Quwen the Celestial Dog is associated with a terrible story.39 In summary, when a sow-dragon devoured human placentas placed in the Stream of Children (Haixi), those who lived there died by the thousands. The Celestial Dog then revealed his “true form” during an exchange of poems with one of Chen Jinggu’s sworn sisters, Li Erniang, in a play on the word hong, which denotes the “sound of thunder.” In the practice of black magic, the dog is sometimes associated with menstrual blood, which in this context is called “black dog.”40 If menstrual blood is considered to be dangerous, it is precisely because it is experienced as an abortion, a failure to conceive an embryo, of which it should have been the constitutive material. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Celestial Dog, which is associated with it, is the enemy of childhood. Whatever the case, one cannot avoid the Celestial Dog’s close association with blood and lightning, both of which can mark birth and abortion.41 the white tiger

Another curse that is not depicted on the Flower nonetheless appears in the exorcistic practices as they are performed today. It is what Red Head Master Shi called “White Tiger under the Flowers” (Xiahua Baihu), which he took care to distinguish from the White Tiger demon that, according to him, only attacks a person’s fate. Both of them, however, have many points in common.

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The White Tiger is a malevolent star particularly dangerous for pregnant women because it provokes miscarriage (Hou, 1979: 209ff.). It is also capable of eating an embryo in its mother’s belly. To protect oneself from it, it is necessary to observe the spatial and temporal taboos linked to the twelveyear cycle and to the times when the White Tiger is found on earth. It is dangerous to celebrate a wedding on the day when there is a risk of finding the White Tiger in the path of the bride. Furthermore, her bed must be situated taking into consideration the places where this terrible, bloodthirsty predator is found. Furthermore, on these days one must make bloody sacrifices to it in order to keep it at a distance. It is likewise given “knife” (dao) money offerings and coins to “buy off fate” (mai ming). In addition, people born under the sign of the tiger, which corresponds to the third earthly branch (yin), will avoid weddings and refrain from visiting newborns. According to Hou, the remedy for all these dangers is to place in the house a red paper bearing a depiction of the beneficent Qilin star, which is one of the transformations of Jupiter, an asterism that protects the place above which it is found. Chen Jinggu’s cult provides an example of this practice. In her temples in Tainan and Gutian there is a representation of the Qilin depicted as a small figure astride the eponymous beast. It seems to be associated with the goddess’s baby, under the name Qilin San Sheren.42 Since antiquity the White Tiger has been believed to be one of the four sacred animals identified with stars.43 Consequently, one can invoke the Queen Mother of the West to chase it away. Chen Jinggu also undertakes this task. Significantly, in the Thunder techniques of the Tianxin zhengfa the White Tiger is a servant, which demonstrates the ambivalence of this astrological entity. In fact one of the invocations—that of the Supreme Yin—activating the celestial network (tiangang), that is, the stars of the Northern Dipper around the Polar star, of the Supreme Yang and the Supreme Yin, says: First appeal to Taiyin: let the court official of the court of thunder and wind prepare to command the White Tiger servant Zhang Hou to quickly gather the killing wind of the five directions, let him sweep and purify the altar and let the black clouds pile up and spread rain. Let the order be carried out with the speed of lightning. (Despeux, 1994: 186)

Even today, the exorcism of this potent curse takes up a large part of the practice of Daoist masters and mediums close to the Mount Lü sect.44 On this subject we are reminded of the story of the woman Jiang, also known as Tiger Courage (Hudan). A tiger with a white forehead and golden fur

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had wormed its way into her mother’s womb when she was pregnant with her (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3).45 Consequently, under her human aspect, this young girl had a particularly impetuous temperament, not hesitating to strike those who contradicted her, leaving tiger paw marks on their bodies. Under her tiger aspect, she was endowed with a strong disposition that made her, like other demons, seek young people reckless enough to go for a walk in the mountains. Was it not she who cajoled such a young man, promising: “I will teach you to enter my belly in order to sleep there” (see Chapter 1; Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5)? This then is a very distinctive curse. Although at first there is nothing that distinguishes it from other demons, it is nonetheless a matter of a female nature presented as overabundant that incarnates itself in a woman and not of a soul eager for reincarnation. We will recall however that Jiang Hudan is a student of the Old Mother of Mount Li, a specialist in embryonic respiration, who teaches her the arts of medicine in order to take care of children. This White Tiger, described by Red Head Master Shi Xihui as being “under the flowers” and sharing in their shade and their nature, may well represent the dangers of a terrifying excess of the Flower itself, leading to the edge of its demonic nature, of madness.46 Thus, this “substitute body” that represents women obviously warns against different elements of nature that would divert them from procreation. The threats depicted put in question the “excess” of their own desire or that of others; they anticipate the dangers encountered by the embryo. In at least one case, the enemy is a malevolent star, the Celestial Dog. But it is also necessary to consider other elements that bring into play constellations and astrological elements (Snake, Taisui, White Tiger). Although not all of them are depicted on the object, they play a role in the rituals. In any event, the relation of the cycle of the Great Year to the twelve earthly branches is constant and matches the spatial-temporal taboos and prescriptions that ordinarily accompany them, and that we find spelled out in the diagnoses and instructions of present-day mediums and Daoists. Metal, the West, and meteors are all present here, along with thunder and lightning, which is not surprising. the effects of these curses, the root of the flower

In a ritual, these curses cannot be considered separately. Each harms in a specific way, but it is believed that all of them act in concert to injure the Flower.47 It is said that they cause “trouble” or harm (zuolong), and that

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if they are left to their own devices they will “rot” (fulan) the root of the Flower, which is its “substitute” (daibiao). In attacking the Flower, the curses do not attack only its fruit, children, but its very existence and ability to transform. This is what the characters that make up the word “rot” (fulan) enable us to understand. Fu is also used to form the word “to castrate” (fuxing); to cause the root to rot is in a way to castrate it, to take away its efficacy, its power. It is important to note that to “castrate a Flower,” and by extension a woman, is to steal its power to “transform life.” By contrast, in this context castrating a male figure, for example Cinnabar Cloud Monkey, is to confer on him a symbolic feminine nature, thereby opening to him the door of the Dao (see Chapter 1). The word lan has a similar meaning. It can be related to words pronounced lian, which mean “to refine” or “to melt,” and which are used to speak of the alchemical refinement of cinnabar or the breath. This word was also used to describe Chen Jinggu’s ritual procedure of “melting” or “refining” (lian) the bones of the thirty-six concubines of the king of Min in order to bring them back to life by means of a liandu ritual (see Chapter 5). But if lian signifies—and that is the meaning of the transmutation—“to purify by fire,” lan means “to burn,” or even “to rot through overripeness.” That is because in one character lian, the element jian, which means “to choose” or “to select,” was literally “barred,” “closed off” in the character lan, which has precisely this meaning. When the “fire” radical is added to it, it means to cause the flower and root to rot through an excess of polarization. When the “plant” radical is added to this same character lan, this new character means “orchid,” which in a dream presages pregnancy. It is the root of the Flower, which Master Shi said was its “representation” (daibiao), that is thus destroyed. This object therefore reveals a mirror-image construction of the Flower and its power: that of transformations. Here, then, is depicted the feminine, mistress of the yang, the two forming an indissoluble, bipolarized pair. It is this that enables us to understand from the perspective of the patriline why in the Chinese system it is so important to have sons, to the extent that daughters do not count as “children” (erzi). This power of transformation is what men seek to capture for their own advantage—just as in the Daoist mode of action. In order that men will not be complete losers in the transaction, they must take the transformation to the point where they recognize themselves in it and deprive women of it. The curses on the Flowers testify to that. Although women give rise to the other, men rediscover themselves in it as a “son,” as long as this other is in their

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own image. And if the little girl does not count as a “child,” it is because she is on the woman’s side, “woman child” (nüer), that is, from the Chinese point of view she is a potential mother and not a child, which is a male position. This is what the Flower demonstrates.

The Ritual Visit This visit, when it is not accompanied by the ritual of tending the Flower, and in which the Flower is not used, is generally the carrying out of a vow or an expression of gratitude. It can also be to seek the goddess’s advice in regard to some course of action or to carry out the visit required in conjunction with a consultation with the medium. The medium would already have given an answer to the woman’s questions, but she will also have recommended a visit to the temple to make offerings (Figure 7.2). This is how it takes place. The woman making the visit, as we have already said, comes alone or accompanied by another woman, sometimes with the “persistent attendance” of the medium, which is not required by ritual. She brings offerings with her that, for such a visit, are not necessarily substantial. Usually, it is a few fruits—all are suitable—or a few cakes colored red, which is the auspicious

f i gur e 7.2. Linshui Temple, Tainan. Photo Jean-Charles Berthier.

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color.48 One can also bring a little meat or fish, as long as it is cooked, raw meat being reserved for demons, or a bowl of cooked rice, but the whole range of these offerings is not required for a private visit. In any case, a libation of tea or rice wine must accompany the food offerings: it is poured into little red cups placed in front of the altar. Fresh flowers are also welcome. All these offerings are placed on a table reserved for this purpose in the reception hall of the temple, and people add to them a few bundles of offering money. If the woman wants to have a baby, she can offer “flowery money,” multicolored offering paper printed with a flower motif. This miniature money is bundled together for presentation. At the conclusion of the visit, the paper offerings will be burned in a furnace placed for this purpose outside the temple.49 To burn an object or text is, after all, in Chinese religion the way to make it real in the universe of the gods. These offerings are thus purified by fire; they are transmuted or “transformed” (hua) and pass directly into the divine world. Hua is also the word one uses to say that one is “burning” these objects.50 During a visit to give thanks, the grateful woman can also bring a gift: some jewelry or an embroidered court robe that is draped around the statue of the goddess, or most often simply a length of red fabric to place around the goddess’s shoulders.51 Having laid out these offerings, the woman procures some incense from the temple caretaker, from whom she can also buy money offerings. She places some of the incense sticks in the temple’s large incense burner, thereby greeting the goddess and signaling her arrival to her, as well as the purpose for her visit. She then moves through the temple, pausing at different altars before which, respectfully holding in both hands several sticks of incense, she freely states her prayer. Then she places the incense sticks in the burner at each altar she visits. Sometimes, hoping to obtain an immediate response from the goddess to a specific question or to know if her wishes will be granted, the visitor can cast divination blocks. These are two blocks of wood in the shape of a halfmoon, one face of which is rounded and the other flat. After the divinity has been summoned, the blocks are thrown on the ground. For a positive response one of them must land on the flat side and the other on the rounded side, thereby reproducing the harmony of yin and yang. One can also repeat the request up to three times but, very often, the divinity continues to be asked until she assents. One can also draw divination sticks. These are long wooden sticks contained in a cylindrical receptacle: one stick is removed at random and the

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number on it noted. Then one goes to ask the temple caretaker for the prophecy printed beforehand on a slip of paper corresponding to this number. These prophecies are generally perfectly sibylline, allowing complete freedom of interpretation.52 Once she has completed her round of the temple and obtained responses to her questions, the woman considers her visit finished. If the incense sticks that she placed in the principal incense burner or on the offerings themselves have burned down, she can do as she likes with the food offerings, which she will take home with her. It is believed that the divinity’s meal lasts as long as it takes a stick of incense to burn down. These dishes, which are regarded as the leftovers of the goddess’s meal, will be eaten by the woman and her family. The little cups of wine will be overturned and the money offerings burned. The woman will then be able to return home.

8

ch i ldren a nd the t e m p l e The Passes (guan)

The Semantic Field of Childhood In China children are generally considered to be incomplete creatures. Birth is only one of many passages leading to the state of “adult” (chengren) and being human. The period that Westerners call “childhood” in China takes on a more precise meaning (its boundaries can be demarcated); at the same time, its rhythms are out of synch with those to which we in the West are accustomed. Intra-uterine life and that of the first year after birth correspond more to two symmetrical parts of a whole divided by the passage of birth than to two distinct strata of life.1 Furthermore, the period that we call “adolescence,” a relatively recent notion, does not really make sense in the Chinese context. The stages that delineate “childhood” mark first of all the progressive separation from the maternal world, followed by the age of instruction, and finally adulthood, which is consecrated by a rite of nubility, “passing the age of sixteen” (guo shiliu). The child thus reaches the age that was appropriate in the past for marriage, making the child a chengren, a “human being” counting as a full adult member of his family. The state of childhood is not entirely left behind, however, until the birth of the first son, who will guarantee the continuity of the cult 196

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of the ancestors, or until a daughter who has become a wife in another lineage produces a son for her husband’s lineage. This stage is decisive: it turns a man into a father and a woman into a mother, that is, individuals who are fully integrated into a lineage. Different fields of activity are mobilized to dramatize this precarious aspect of the child’s situation, and different levels of discourse reveal the risks the child is exposed to.

Under Chen Jinggu’s Protection Children are connected to Chen Jinggu from the moment of their conception, and even before, since it is she, the Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang), who allows their souls to cross the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers to be reincarnated in accordance with their individual karma (see Chapters 3 and 6). We find in rituals concerning children invocations addressed to the Lady Who Watches Over Parents from Previous Lives and to the Lady Who Permits Parents to Give Life and to Transform It, and so on.2 Thereafter, all the events of childhood up to the age of sixteen will be directly or indirectly linked to the cult of Chen Jinggu, to the Linshui Temple, and to her officiants—mediums or Red Head masters. We have seen how the mother and child in symbiosis were protected by Chen Jinggu and her acolytes up to and during birth. Once the child is born, what happens when it and its mother can no longer be called by the shared name that previously linked them together, tai, even though this separation is believed to be so incomplete that the symptoms of the one continue to be attributed to the other? This is what we will now examine. We will first trace the outlines of childhood by placing markers at its important stages in order to later return to the elements that connect them—threats, dangers, crises—and the remedies that are used for them. An exhaustive description of what childhood is will not be given because many elements, ritual and medical, would have to be mentioned. We shall only try to shed light on the aspects principally taken into account within the cult of Chen Jinggu.

The Stages of Childhood from birth to the first month

On the day of its birth, the newborn is already “one year old.” The calculation of age in China starts at the moment of conception: since pregnancy lasts ten lunar months, the infant is consequently almost a year old at birth.

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In ancient China, the baby, just born, was placed on the ground. It stayed there, left to itself and the earth, for three days (see Granet, 1953). During this time it detached itself from the energies of the womb and was permeated either with the earthly familial forces if it was a boy or with universal forces in the case of a girl, who would before long be taken away. It was at the end of the three days, when the baby was held for the first time, that it was given its first bath, thereby freeing it from the bonds of childbirth. It would be most unusual nowadays to see the practice of placing the baby on the ground, and yet the ritual division of time that corresponds to it remains in the customs. In fact, according to Red Head Master Shi Xihui, a Pojie, different for each infant, is specially appointed to watch over it during the first three days of its life after birth. This is the key transitional period between the infant’s life in utero and its life on earth, when it must prove that it is fit to live. The ritual bath on the third day, even if it is not always given on that precise day, nevertheless preserves the purifying and liberating function that it had in the past. Thus, herbs intended to cleanse and strengthen the baby are put in the water of this first bath. Moreover, although the custom of placing the baby on the ground is no longer practiced, one can at the very least observe the fast that is connected with it and not feed the infant during its first three days: it is given water or herbal infusions to drink, in order, it is said, “to wash it.”3 In noble families in feudal China, at birth a boy was given a jade rattle in the shape of a scepter and a girl an earthen spindle (Granet, 1953: 160). The symbolism of the jade scepter in this era, when a boy was raised to achieve his destiny as head of a family or head of state, does not require commentary. In contrast, the earthen spindle, a weaving implement, although obviously a mark of the sexual division of labor, is probably also a way of placing a daughter under the protection of the Weaving-maid, on whom she will depend throughout her life.4 Once these three liminal days have passed, the infant remains, as we have seen, confined with its mother to the house: this is what is called “sitting out the month” (zuo yue). At the end of this period the baby is given another ritual bath. In ancient China, this period of seclusion lasted three months.5 Here again a Pojie is specially delegated to take care of the mother and baby. These Pojie who watch over the first three days and the first month are called on only if the mother or baby presents symptoms and if it is necessary to bring in a ritual specialist. A family offering can be made to them

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at this moment without there being any obligation to do so.6 We may note the cyclical aspect of the role played by the different Pojie, divinities of fate and time, responsible for watching over the baby. Up to this time, the infant does not have a personal name. It is after the third day that a parent will be able to consult a medium, a Red Head master, or an astrologer to submit the “eight birth characters” (bazi) of the baby’s birth, corresponding to the earthly branches and the heavenly stems of the year, month, day, and hour of its birth, in order to choose a name that suits the infant perfectly. These astrological signs enable one to know which elements control the infant’s personality and what its strengths and weaknesses are. It is then a matter of choosing a name that will ameliorate the deficiencies of the stars under which it was born, and repair the imbalance caused by a potential excessive polarization within it. Thus, for example, for an infant strongly marked by the signs of water in its eight birth characters, this excess can be compensated for with a name containing either the earth or fire radical, depending on the context. It is necessary, furthermore, to take into account the parents’ eight birth characters, so as to avoid incompatibilities. We may note here the performative aspect of the name. Chen Jinggu, of course, is entirely capable of intervening in this search, but it is a divinatory science to which all the specialists of this cosmological aspect of fate have access. The name is usually already selected at the time of the Full Month (manyue) ceremony.7 the “full month” ( MANYUE )

The Full Month (manyue) celebration marks the end of the seclusion of mother and baby and the moment of the infant’s official presentation to its father, grandfather, and ancestors. The infant must also bow to the family gods and pay a visit to Chen Jinggu’s temple. It is obvious that in the circumstances of life today, and this is true even in the countryside, the observance of the seclusion of mother and baby has lost its force. Usually, the woman moves about the house and can even go out in the immediate neighborhood. The presentation to the father thus nowadays preserves only the essence of the ancient rite, to permanently integrate the infant into the body of the family. It also marks the resumption of sexual relations between the mother and father, which had been ritually suspended. And, finally, it is the moment when the baby’s personal name is announced. In the past, the giving of the name took place at the third month. Granet (1953: 185, where he refers to

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Li ki, tr. Couvreur, vol. 1: 665–72) describes this ceremony thus, following the Li ji: At the third month, the baby, held in its mother’s arms, was presented to the father (it could then see, and was capable of smiling); the father then pats the baby, making it smile, thereby giving it, along with a personal name, a personality and intelligence, and orders that care should be taken in raising it; it then became someone who could not yet be formally mourned but at whose death it was permissible to cry; its hair was cut for the first time and arranged so as to symbolically show that it would become a filial son; it had received from its father a pat and thereby began to be affiliated to him; its mother was able to carry it, without it any longer interfering with relations between her and her husband; both, after a meal similar to that of their wedding, resumed living together. This ceremony put an end to the isolation of both mother and infant.

This description, transposed to the Full Month celebration, still holds today. It corresponds, in another sociological context, to what I saw in Tainan, which I will now describe. On that day in front of the family altar one sets up a table of offerings on which gifts of food are placed. These are above all “red turtles” (honggui), which are steamed breads covered with red food coloring. Present in all auspicious ceremonies, they symbolize good fortune and long life. Boiled eggs colored in the same way are also offered. Finally, one places on the table another traditional offering, “oily rice” (youfan), which is arranged on the plate in such a way as to form two halves of different colors, one white, one brown. The white rice, to which peanuts, mushrooms, chestnuts, and fresh coriander may be added, is cooked with oil. The brown rice is sweetened. This offering of two colors, brown and white, and two flavors, salty and sweet, is presented here as the reconstruction of a symbolic yin and yang totality. Once it has been bathed, the infant is turned over to its maternal grandmother (waipo), who has come to visit.8 In a receptacle filled with lukewarm water she places two boiled eggs, peeled and dyed red. Taking the baby on her knees, she traces a circle on its head with each of these eggs, which will impart to it the life force they represent. Finally, she shaves the baby’s head at the fontanel, the decisive rite of purification marking the baby’s real birth in the world and its separation from the earthly forces of the intra-uterine period.9 The infant thus prepared, three sticks of incense are placed in its right hand and it is made to bow before the tablets of the ancestors and the gods of the family altar: it thereby permanently enters the patriline. It is

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then presented to its father and grandfather, and possibly to any uncles present. The father takes the baby in his arms and gives it a name. The father’s younger brother (shushu) then gives the baby a “red envelope” (hongbao), a present of money. The maternal grandmother also gives several ritual gifts: the first bonnet and shoes, as well as symbolic offerings such as stalks of sugar cane. Because sugar cane grows tall and straight, the stalks will inspire the same behavior in the baby. She also offers a rooster to show the baby the way, or perhaps because the name of this bird (ji) is homophonous with “auspicious” (ji), or because the rooster is the animal of the dawn, just as the baby is at the dawn of its life. It is also the name of a constellation and the animal representing one of the twelve earthly branches of the Taisui; we will have occasion to return to this aspect. Then the first bonnet is put on the baby and, if it is a girl, the bonnet can be decorated with a pin in which are inserted twelve flowers representing the symbolic flowers of the twelve months of the year, each characterizing a kind of female fate (see Chapter 9, where we will discuss the ritual of the Flowers). In this way, one hopes that she will move happily through the cycles of her life as a woman. One can also pin to the baby’s garment, whether boy or girl, a gold paper flower as a token of good fortune and wealth. Once these ceremonies are concluded, the parents will officially announce the birth to neighbors and friends by taking them gifts of oily rice and red eggs, in exchange for which they will receive gifts, most often food. In the past, these gift exchanges only took place when the newborn was a boy. If it was a girl, one made do with announcing its birth to friends without any particular ceremony. This difference is observed less strictly nowadays and people are free to do as they please. Finally, it is time to go present the baby to the divinities. Possibly one visits the temples of the gods worshipped at the family altar, which the baby just bowed to. In any case, one visits Chen Jinggu’s temple and sometimes also that of Lady Seventh Star, the Weaving-maid. This presentation at the temple requires neither ritual nor the presence of officiants. It takes place on the same model as the “ritual visit” (see Chapter 7). On this occasion, however, offerings are quite generous, distinguished by the oily rice and red eggs that mark this celebration, the honggui being a common auspicious offering. One brings many fruits, a large quantity of money offerings, and incense. If the baby is a boy, one will also offer a rooster to the goddess, and possibly other meats, which is not necessary if it is a girl.10 The mother and the people who accompany her—husband, mother, mother-in-law, there is

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no rule in this regard—ask Chen Jinggu, the Pojie, and the other divinities of the temple to watch over the baby who is officially presented to them, and who can henceforth be called by name. In this way the visit comes to an end, the leftovers are taken home, and the celebration itself draws to a close. a full year ( YINIAN

SUI )

When the baby has lived one year after its birth, it will be two years old, according to the Chinese way of reckoning. To mark the passage without incident of this first year of life, it will be necessary to carry out another ritual visit to the temple, which will be similar to that of the Full Month. The offerings will probably be somewhat less generous, except for babies whose first year on earth was put at risk by particularly serious threats, generally already detected at birth.11 The parents of these babies who have triumphed, probably due to a suitable ritual, over the various dangers that hung over them have every reason to thank the goddess who brought them safely through. Nevertheless, no ritual is celebrated on this day when the period imagined as being in symmetry with that of the intra-uterine life reaches its conclusion. passing sixteen years ( GUO

SHILIU )

The third visit to the temple prescribed for all children is that of the sixteenth year, the age when the child becomes an adult and takes leave of the goddess. It is a matter of “thanking the divinity” (xieshen), which we can also understand on the ritual level as “taking leave.” In contrast to the Full Month and one-year celebrations, corresponding to the actual dates calculated from the date of birth, the guo shiliu celebration, “passing sixteen years,” is celebrated for all young adults on the same day, since in China one does not celebrate birthdays on the anniversary of one’s birth but at the new year: on this day everyone ages one year. On this day, accompanied by his or her mother and possibly by other family members, the child goes to the temple, bearing a great quantity of offerings. This time again, it is a ritual visit not requiring the intervention of an officiant. Leaving the world of childhood, the young adult is on the verge of the age appropriate for marriage. Furthermore, in ancient China, it was at this moment that the young girl was given a hairpin, with which she thereafter bound up her hair as a sign of nubility, and the boy a man’s hat. In the evening, a solemn celebration takes place at the child’s home. As with the Full Month celebration, the maternal grandmother gives gifts. The

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maternal uncle (jiujiu) must go into the bedroom of the child, who thereby starts his or her adult life. To portray this passage, the table of offerings with gifts of food is set up in front of the family altar; it is then lifted up in order to allow the young adult to pass underneath, by which, symbolically, he or she “passes sixteen years.” The young adult then bows to the parents, grandparents, and ancestors. He or she will thereafter be counted among the adult members of the family, which a young girl will soon leave for that of her husband. The entry of the maternal uncle into the child’s bedroom is probably connected with the preference for matrilineal cross-cousin marriages, on the “following the mother” model, which is still common in Taiwan today, as in mainland China. However, this preference is in no way compulsory (see Gallin, 1960, 1963, 1966; Hsu, 1945; see also Wolf and Huang, 1980). The presence of the mother’s brother in the bedroom of the young adult thus foreshadows a future marriage. The very word jiujiu seems to embody this portent: it is made up of the “mortar” (jiu) and a “boy” (nan), and in itself presages a posterity of male children capable of guaranteeing sacrifices to the ancestors.12 In Tainan, the seventh day of the seventh month, the day of the festival of the Weaving-maid, Lady Seventh Star, is often chosen to celebrate this rite of passage. On that day mothers take their children to the temple to “repay the goddess” (choushen) for having protected the child up until this time.13 On this occasion, some families go with the child to the two temples involved, those of Chen Jinggu and the Weaving-maid; more rarely, some people go only to the latter. This shows once again how closely these two cults are linked. This fact is also emphasized by the distinctive offering given on this date both to Chen Jinggu at the Linshui Temple and to the Weaving-maid. This offering is a paper palace, furnished with everything to make the Weaving-maid attractive and comfortable on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month when she again meets the Cowherd, her husband. Cushions, mirrors, combs and brushes, feather beds and sheets, all made of paper, decorate these sometimes very large and richly ornamented houses (see Chapter 6; Pimpaneau, 1999: 153–82). At the conclusion of the visit, these palaces will be burned in the furnace located outside the temple so that they will reach the recipient. This celebration of the wedding of the Weaving-maid and the Cowherd evokes the future marriage of the child who is taking leave, and thus formulates the wish that, thanks to the goddess, the links that the child will form will be propitious and happy (see Chapter 6, where this theme is taken up).

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This particular offering is identical in every way to the offering made to the spirits of the dead in order to guarantee them a comfortable life in the next world. That is doubtless a way of indicating mourning, as is done in every rite of passage. Here it is the mourning for the childhood that is ending, mourning for this period of life when the child belonged to the maternal universe, and for the passage, by means of the future marriage, to a new social integration. Such was also the journey of Chen Jinggu, who died as a consequence of this passage. It was the same for the Weaving-maid, whose story essentially tells of the separation of two universes (male and female), as does mourning (living and dead). Marriage and the beliefs pertaining to it are thus regarded as marking the separation from an archaic universe, ratifying the loss of childhood, its distinctions, and its ties.

Fate (yun) The celebrations of Full Month, one year, and sixteen years are the major childhood celebrations of passage. That does not mean that aside from visiting the temple on these occasions the child will not be obliged to go there, or at least to enter into contact with Chen Jinggu. Childhood is constantly threatened by dangers, crises, and illnesses that require the intervention and protection of Chen Jinggu and her acolytes. We will now examine these reasons for meeting the goddess. Another level of discourse that expresses the unforeseeable nature of this period of life is that of fate. Just as the child is not yet entirely “human,” it does not yet have a “fate.” Of course, already from the moment of its conception, and then again at the moment of its birth, the personal chart of “eight birth characters” that clearly identifies the child can be drawn up. However, these elements of its individual astrological situation are not yet connected to the universal cosmological fabric. Up to this moment, which is precise and can be calculated, the child is prey to all sorts of “shocks” (chong). We could compare this state to that of the astral bodies, meteors and comets, that “strike” the places where they fall, leaving an impact. Chong, the word that is used in such cases, refers to such astral collisions, just like the term fan, “to offend, run contrary to.” As Hou (1979: 227) says: “According to Meng K’ang, these technical terms of astronomy are applied when the rays of two stars seven inches apart cross. In the opinion of Wei Chao these terms describe what takes place when one star strikes another on a vertical plane, from below.” The child is, moreover, especially

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vulnerable to misfortune caused by malevolent stars, such as the Celestial Dog, the White Tiger, and the Bronze Snake, and to the cyclical elements pertaining to Taisui, which take turns occupying the palace of the moon. As always, one should avoid the directions they designate, for fear of offending them. Childhood here appears as a sort of navigation that should take the geomancer’s compass as its guide. The distinctive fate of the child begins at a date that varies according to the individual, but which generally falls before the age of ten. The moment of the arrival of fate is calculated from the eight birth characters and above all by means of the two signs marking the month of birth: the heavenly stem and the earthly branch. In the cycle one counts the number of days separating the earthly branches and heavenly stems of the month of birth from those of the past or future jieqi (that is, the “segment of breath” marking the half moon), three days counted in this way equaling a year. Thus, for one yang year, if it is a boy, one counts the days to the following jieqi; if it is a girl, to the preceding jieqi. For a yin year, one counts in the reverse direction: to the past for boys, to the future for girls. The procession of time is, in fact, sexed; it differs in its formulation for men and women (Granet, 1953: 206; Baptandier, 1996a). The beginning of the child’s fate is thus the imprint of the first encounter between this form of universal respiration that is the jieqi structure and its own signs of cosmological inscription. This date is calculated in the first month after birth, when the child’s name is chosen.14 When the child’s fate has begun, it will thereafter be possible, by examining its eight birth characters, to explain its illnesses and misfortunes and even its personality defects. To “correct its fate” (gaiyun), should the child be in an astrological position unfavorable for the stars of its birth, it will suffice to make the child, in the course of an appropriate ritual, pass over a “bridge” symbolizing the seven stars of the Northern Dipper (Beidou), the Controller of Fate. However, while waiting for this moment that arrives sooner or later, one cannot know exactly what the source of the child’s difficulties and symptoms is, nor can one, by definition, help him by examining his fate, his route through the folds of the universal fabric of the heavenly stems and earthly branches, since he has not yet connected his own thread. How, then, can one know where the obstructing knot is located? The only way to help a child who shows symptoms without yet having a fate is to ask a divinity about the reasons for the child’s difficulties, and to rely on this divinity to dispense treatment. Divination is the only language for dealing with this period of life: this is Chen Jinggu’s role. The families affected

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generally appeal to a Red Head master or even to a medium, who will give his or her diagnosis and possibly prescribe a suitable ritual. In general, the illnesses these young children suffer from are attributed to the wandering souls of ghosts, of ancestors who are dissatisfied or without direct descendants. I was able very often to verify how easily the maternal ancestors were accused of such crimes.15 It may also be a case of what are called “earth spirits” (tushen), who, just like Taisui-Taishen, to which they are assimilated, are easily angered and dangerous. Such are the threats that hang over the child; they are said to threaten to “carry off” the child or to “shock” (chong) it. Moreover, its fate being impossible to control, the child can itself likewise “shock” its parents and those around it. For all these reasons, it is necessary to be extremely vigilant in regard to the symptoms, even mild ones, that children present, and to try to keep children from places believed to be dangerous: houses in mourning and places where large-scale digging is taking place, which pose for these children the same risks as for pregnant women and their fetuses. If the child is supposed to have been seized by the earth spirit (tushen), it would be necessary to have a Red Head master or a medium carry out an exorcism in its home to “apologize to the earth” (xietu). If the specialist thinks it is necessary, one can also make a ritual visit to the temple. In any event, during the ceremony one uses, as we said earlier, a “substitute body” (tishen), which is a straw figure wrapped in an article of the child’s clothing in which is placed the image of his or her “birth divinity” (yuanshen): one of the twelve earthly branches represented by the cyclical animal, the Taisui of his year of birth. This ritual substitute, which will be burned after the exorcism, takes upon itself all the child’s ills (see Chapter 7; see also Baptandier, 1997; Schipper, 1985a). If the source of the problem is an ancestor or a wandering soul, a ritual visit with substantial offerings to Linshui Temple to beseech Chen Jinggu for help should suffice to appease this hungry ghost from the other world. One can perhaps make a visit to the Temple of the Eastern Peak. terror-stricken ( JING ) children

At birth, children who are at the “boundary of their mother’s belly” (duji) are perceived as being poised between life and death.16 A fear of losing the child haunts this situation. In particular, this is revealed by the belief that children see equally well what pertains to the world of the dead as what happens in the world of the living.17 In general, they are at the very edge of the comprehensible universe. Once they have become adults and are firmly established

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in life, they will lose this awareness. Until then, the child is in contact with entities belonging to the world of the dead: “parents from previous lives,” patrilineal and matrilineal ancestors who visit them, who cannot resign themselves to parting company with the child, or who even fight over it.18 Demons and those who have died bad deaths likewise prowl around these children: they wish to take the children’s place in this life, to be incarnated through them in order to escape an accursed fate. This entire period is thus characterized by a mysterious instability. It is also marked by what is called “terror” (jing), which means a loss of the soul, which escapes in a moment of opening or absence, comparable to a kind of short circuit or lightning strike. The notion of terror (jing) is in fact present throughout childhood. “To be terror-stricken” (shoujing) constitutes a permanent threat to the child, whether or not it already has a fate. Adults can also be “terror-stricken,” but that occurs more rarely and one can easily understand why. Any event, whether harmless (a fall, startling at a noise), unusual (a real accident, a psychological trauma), or even supernatural (the appearance of a ghost, interference from a dead person), is liable to “terrify” the child, provoking the dazed state that, by causing the child to gape, allows its soul to escape. This happens less easily to an adult, whose soul is more firmly “attached” to the body. Thereafter, the child will fall more or less seriously ill; it may be only a cold, but the illness will quickly take a turn for the worse if one does not find the cause, and it may manifest itself through convulsions. In any case, the child will have a greenish color, especially under the nose. The child will lose its appetite and will often cry. In addition, this pathological state described as “terror” (jing) is on the pediatric level linked to the symptomatology of the “winds” (feng). It belongs to the semantic field of the strange, of agitated (kuang) or apathetic (dian) madness. Whether it is of somatic or psychological origin, this pathology belongs to the level of the incomprehensible or the deviant.19 It is necessary to pay particularly close attention to the behavior of the child, who does not personally know that he or she is “terror-stricken” (shoujing). Indeed, one must carefully distinguish “terror” from simple fear. Obviously one cannot expect information from the child about its state: by definition, it does not know. Furthermore, the symptoms manifested can be those of many other disorders, such as those caused by the earth spirit or by wandering souls or even by the other dangers that threaten childhood, the passes (guan), to which we will return later, or indeed by disorders of polarization. But precisely because the child is

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particularly apt to be struck by so many causes of misfortune, it is necessary at the slightest suspicion to seek the origin of its disorders, always undefined. The mother, or a relative, of the child presenting the symptoms will go to a medium or to a Red Head master.20 If the child does not yet have a fate, the medium or Red Head master will directly question the divinity, or examine the child’s eight birth characters. If the child is actually “terror-stricken,” it will be necessary to “collect the terror” (shoujing). In order to enable the child to “recover its soul,” the soul will have to be tracked down. There are different ways to do this. The medium, with the help of the divinity or the Red Head master, can proceed to an exorcism and to a “calling back of the soul,” which resembles certain sequences of the liandu ritual to save wandering souls. They can track down the soul by means of the child’s eight birth characters, which constitute its precise coordinates in the universe of fate. We will recall that Chen Jinggu officiated in the same way to bring back the soul of a Madame Shen who, violated by Cinnabar Cloud, had hanged herself. Unfortunately, too much time had elapsed between the woman’s death and the performance of the ritual and, unable to recover her soul, Chen Jinggu had to replace it with the soul of another deceased woman (see Chapter 4; see also Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 4: esp. 23–24). In such a case, the officiant must re-create the cosmic landscape within his or her own body, visualize the soul that is to be found there, and through a process resembling transference restore it to the child who lost it when he was “terror-stricken.”21 The child is purified with incense smoke and, if it is a ritual master officiating, he will also crack his snake-handled whip, a ritual instrument used to frighten evil spirits and collect lost souls. The child will drink talismans (fu) burned and dissolved in water, unless they were burned immediately at the temple. One way or the other, it is a matter of making these talismans realities in the celestial regions involved and in the body of the child. With offerings one will also be able to placate the spirit or ancestor responsible for this crisis of terror and thus invite it to leave. For this problem, one can also consult an “old woman practitioner” (xiansheng ma), a specialist in recalling souls, who will employ a less elaborate divination technique. One fills a bowl with raw rice, whose essential symbolism we are already familiar with, and a little salt with exorcistic properties, and carefully covers it with an item of the child’s clothing. The cloth is stretched taut over the mouth of the bowl to firmly hold down the spirit essences thus enclosed. One then waits for the incense offered to burn

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down, while the officiant recites ritual formulas; then, with infinite care the garment covering the bowl is removed. One then examines the surface of the rice and looks for the place where there is a slight depression. The bowl being placed in a certain direction, it is believed that the direction highlighted by this mark on the rice, even if it is very slight, points to the place where the child lost its soul. At this time, the mother usually recalls an incident that could have been the cause. This method, which in practice allows any interpretation, nonetheless proves very effective in leading those around the child, most often its mother, to reveal possible causes of the tension. One then takes the few grains of rice and salt that form this slight depression and puts them in a bowl of water that is given to the child to drink, by means of which the spirits of the rice and salt contained in this bowl rescue the child from its “terror” and enable it to recover its soul. The child will generally also have to drink a talisman dissolved in water. At the conclusion of either of these rites, one can, if one wishes, make a visit to Linshui Temple, in order to commend the child to the goddess’s safekeeping.

Disorders of Polarization Some children suffer from an imbalance between the elements represented by their eight birth characters or from a lack of balance between their personal eight birth characters and those of a member of their family. In addition, although any child up to the age of seven or at least until the age when it has measles is considered to be especially yang, “hot,” this state in fact does not lead to any illness, if the hot-cold balance existing between the child and its mother from the moment of conception can be properly maintained. If not, at the very least, the child will be subject to more or less serious cutaneous manifestations (aphthas, sores) due to the “poison” created by the breakdown of equilibrium between the two antithetical forces: the mother (cold) and the child (hot). It is said that the child suffers from “inflammation” (huoqi, “inflamed breath”), which is a manifestation of “poisoning.” The character for “poison” (du) is, incidentally, made up of zhu, “authority” or “mastery,” and mu, “mother.” Such children will be taken to the temple and placed in front of the altar of Cinnabar Cloud Monkey, whose protection they come under (see Chapter 4). In this case, some of the cinders from Cinnabar Cloud’s incense burner are mixed with a little water in order to wash the irritated skin. We should note that the incense from Cinnabar Cloud’s

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brazier, although used as a plaster or as symbolic protection in a tiny paper sachet worn around the neck, must in no case be swallowed, unlike the incense from other braziers in the temple, a pinch of which can be dissolved in water along with the ashes of the burned talisman. Sometimes these polarized children do not have cutaneous symptoms but, rather, conspicuous difficulties in living out their childhoods, such as frequent illnesses or a difficult temperament (see Topley, 1974; M. Wolf, 1968). For these children, too, it is useful to come pray to Cinnabar Cloud Monkey. Should the oppositions worsen, and should the dangers prove too great for the child and mother or the relative in question, it would then be necessary to consider having the child adopted. I witnessed such a case when the medium consulted immediately discerned a glaring opposition between the fate of the mother and that of the child. The medium strongly urged adoption, asserting that the child could, simply by its presence, “kill its mother.” This practice of adoption is widespread at present in Taiwan, as well as in China, and it can be done in different ways. It may suffice—and this is the least distressing solution for the child and its parents—to have the child adopted by a divinity, through whose intervention the astrological “shocks” between parent and child will be avoided. Chen Jinggu can of course serve as an adoptive mother (ganma). The link thus created between the child and the divinity is only evinced very discreetly through slightly more frequent visits to the temple and, if the divinity is Chen Jinggu, by a more solemn leave-taking at the time of the passage at age sixteen.22 One can also have the child adopted by a person or by another family whose fate seems favorable, while keeping the child in its own home. A privileged connection that entails no compulsion is thus established between the child and the adopting family. The most distressing remedy is when the adoption marks an actual separation of the child from its parents. The circumstances of an “adopted child” (ganer) are in any case dreadful.23 Being adopted cuts boys off from the vital connection that links them to their ancestors and thus deprives them of an essential part of their identity, especially if they are given as adoptive sons-in-law. Girls are most often turned over to a family happy to get a “wife brought up from childhood” (tongyang xi) for one of its sons. These girls were most often treated as servants, browbeaten, and in the end forced to marry someone they considered to be a brother. Already a source of conflict in the past, this situation was so common that it was considered up until recently to be one of the preferred

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types of marriage in the south of China, where it produced many tragedies. It was recently outlawed, but one can still see many examples of it.24 We should emphasize here the discretionary power of the medium, whose position justifies her recommending such a solution and whose advice is usually followed, since it is that of the divinity.

Moving to the “Passes” (guan) Finally, this cosmic wandering between life and death, this road strewn with ambushes, is marked periodically by “passes” (guan), which delimit its “boundaries.” The set of these guan defines a field that more or less encompasses the dangers we have already mentioned, as they are written into the language of the cosmological and astrological cycles: malevolent stars, calendrical demons, hostile divinities, childhood illnesses marking the passages between stages, and the opposition of the patriline and the matriline in regard to the child. We shall see how the ritual for saving the child from such traps imitates a shamanic journey “through the routes and passes” (guo lu guan) of space-time (see Chapter 9; Baptandier, 1996a).25 It stresses the precarious aspect of the child’s life, hovering between life and death, and it resembles, moreover, the liandu rite for fixing in place the soul of a dead person: one tries to save it (du) and restore it. In some cases, this rite can also be performed at the Temple of the Eastern Peak.26 The crossing of the guan, literally “passes, frontiers, customs zones,” is perhaps the most unusual feature of the child’s relation to this cult. If not the most important reason for taking a child to the temple, it is at least the most obligatory, and it most often requires the performance of a ritual. But each child’s journey is different and not all children are confronted with these dangers. Van Gennep devotes several pages in his work on rites of passage to this Chinese rite, which he knew from the description by Reverend Justus Doolittle, who had observed it in Fujian. This is what he says: The essential rite is still to pass under the artificial gate, and here one could suppose that childhood, considered as a real quality (like an illness) was transferred to the destroyed gate, or, and I prefer this interpretation, one could suppose that the gate is the boundary between two periods of existence, so that to pass under it is to leave the world of childhood and to enter the world of adolescence. (Van Gennep, 1909: 85) 27

Van Gennep’s preference seems to be justified, and this interpretation can be taken further. It is on this road that we will now venture.

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the killer of the pass: a polarization of the eight birth characters

In some children there is a contradiction or division among their eight birth characters. Such individuals are said to carry (dai) in their fate one or more guan. In short, it is a sort of knot that sooner or later will imprison them and, depending on the case, make them ill or unhappy, expose them in particular to certain calamities, and prevent them from being in harmony with their family, society, and indeed the cosmos itself; it can even cause them to die. Within the eight birth characters there are three types of oppositions that enable the successive passing of the various guan by each time causing a “heavenly stem” and an “earthly branch,” or even an “earthly branch” and the attribute of the month of birth, to cancel each other out. We know, according to the level of discourse selected to interpret this image of fate— temperament, health, family, social relations—and according to the particular balance of powers among the stars under which the child is born, that each personal image presents a different severity and is individually taken into account.28 This danger is also called the “knot” or “obstacle” of the pass (guansha), or the “demon” (sha) of the pass. It is a harmful influx, a death-provoking, astrological and terrestrial demon. This word is also homophonous, and nearly synonymous, with sha, “to kill, massacre”; that is why it is often translated as “killer.” The sha is thus the physical embodiment of this barrier that looms up on the child’s life path. It represents the violence, power, and fatal character of the pass as long as the knot remains untied. This is a task that it will be necessary to undertake before the age of sixteen, the threshold of adulthood.29 These “harmful spirits” (shashen) are part of this enigmatic time called the “Great Year,” Taisui, or Great Yin, the sixty-year period that corresponds to the complete cycle of the combinations of the heavenly stems and earthly branches.30 The Taisui of the year is the “earthly branch,” the symbolic animal that embodies the energies of the current year. At the end of the year, this worn-out energy will become malevolent and will have to be expelled: this is the great exorcism of the pestilences in the masked theatrical Nuo ritual, which for this reason includes animal dances.31 It is probably one of the reasons for the common choice of the passing of the New Year as the time for having children who require it “cross a guan.” Here it is not a simple duplication of the symbol of the passage, but rather an

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identity of direction. The sha, associated with the guan and with dangerous earthly influences, projects onto the frontiers of humanity the boundaries of a semantic field related to the earthly maternal universe and the cycles that correspond to it. These frontiers include an earthly star, intra-uterine time, the embryonic lump of flesh, and the “animal” universe personified by the heraldic animals of Taisui. The child who is burdened with guan is literally absorbed by this universe. the guan in the cosmic fabric: a polarization of yin and yang

Somehow caught in these harmful circumstances of his or her fate, the child who is burdened with guan personally becomes a sort of unmoving knot in the cosmic fabric. He or she blocks, hinders, and also shocks (chong) those nearby. This opposition within the constitutive elements creates a kind of magnetization that attracts numerous vexations. Everything turns against the child, including the elements that should have been favorable at the beginning. This is what is expressed by the language of the ritual to be carried out in the names of two principal divinities: the Queen Mother of the West and the Lady of Linshui. The Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wangmu) is considered above all to be the mistress of nature and of the female cycles, and also of the calendar divinities, the liuding. These assistants and judges of fate are also responsible for nourishing the embryo, whether real or symbolic.32 In addition, they are the deified heavenly stems and earthly branches of the calendrical computation that makes up the child’s horoscope and determines the diagnosis of a guan. Contrary to all expectations, it is thus these “nursemaid” goddesses of time who produce the filaments of the guan imprisoning the child. It is a knot tied into this calendrical—or maternal—fabric of the liuding liujia that creates the guan and in so doing fashions the child who becomes dangerous through being in danger. 33 Just as the dun, ruptures and blind spots in the system combining earthly branches and heavenly stems, allow one to worm oneself into a reversal of time, the other side of the looking glass, the guan are the passes through which the incompatibilities of these two systems are revealed. The guan is a tear in the fabric of the yin (liuding) and the yang (liujia), as is shown in the complete cycle of the 60 two-character binomes that designate the year, month, day, and hour, and thus the four binomes that make up the eight characters of each person’s birth. The High God of the Dark Heaven, the Controller

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of Fate, rules over the set of these binomes, which are also depicted in their deified aspect surrounding the Mother of the Dipper (Doumu) (Pimpaneau, 1999: 115).34 Because of the intrinsic weakness in the child’s fate, which is a sort of congealing of its vital energies, the Pojie, who are supposed to protect him or her during childhood in the cult of Chen Jinggu and the Mount Lü ritual tradition, instead each harm the child in turn. They will steal the soul (hun) of the child, who is then at risk of dying. Just like the sha, the earthly influx that through the rupture inherent in the child’s fate turns against him, the Pojie might well kill him. This is moreover one of the generic names of the guan: Pojie guan. Here again we see the manifestation of the relation of the thirty-six Pojie who assist Chen Jinggu to the cyclical elements and to the thirty-six elements of fate, the tiangang of the Northern Dipper (Beidou). the passes: a concept of childhood

The guan, at most thirty in number, are not all equally serious (according to Doré, 1914, vol. 1: 26–27).35 From the first examination of the horoscope in the month following birth, it is already known if the child will be confronted with such ordeals and which guan the child will have to cross. But at this time it is impossible to say exactly when he or she will arrive at these passes. The parents must pay careful attention to every symptom in order to be able to help the child at this difficult time, failing which it could die. To rescue the child will require reestablishing passages and respiration in the image of the original breaths that alternately become knotted and dispersed. The lives of children are subject to this form of respiration, as was the life of the embryo, and just as is all life.36 Prisoner of one of these symbolic coagulations, the child is ambushed at the “frontier” (guan) of the explicable. The child is caught in this pass, as if in a rupture or black hole in the fabric of its life, of its fate, of its ordinary language. At this moment it comes into contact with another time, another meaning, that it cannot personally say, the symptoms of which nevertheless must be given a name—the words of a ritual—in order to be able to master them. The guan, independent in themselves of the great stages of infantile life with which they intersect, are thus the emergence as knots of the risks and dangers typical of the symbolic field of childhood. In vernacular works, the list of the guan and the astrological characteristics allowing their diagnoses are most often accompanied by simple

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prescriptions and popular images that recall the depictions of punishments inflicted in “hell.” One is thus confronted with two levels of discourse: one astrological, the other ordinary. The passes judged less significant nonetheless conform to the same model as the most serious ones, which provide much information through the mythological and sociological allusions they evoke. The more serious passes are, generally, those that require the performance of a ritual in order to be crossed, and of course the very ones that are least likely to be forgotten. It is to some of these manifestations, both the most serious and the most common, that we will now turn our attention. guan that challenge the personal structure of the child

The guan of the “Four Pillars” (sizhu guan) refers to the four “heavenly stems” (tiangan) of each individual: those of the day, hour, month, and year of birth. If the “pillars” that rule it are weakened by disharmony with the earthly branches that correspond to them in relation to the seasons, the child will not be robustly constituted. The elements represented by these heavenly stems may even become hostile to it and imprison it in a guan, from which the child will have to be rescued. This is what the “substitute” (tishen), the ritual object physically embodying the situation, represents. Like the Flower, it is a paper object mounted on a flimsy wooden framework. The child is represented in the middle of four figures, the “four pillars” (sizhu) that hold it prisoner. A clear manifestation of a disharmony between the earthly and heavenly elements in the child’s horoscope, this guan is assimilated by Master Shi to the harmful effects of earthly curses (tushen). In the ritual mode, it will be necessary to “correct” (gai) this imbalance of the eight birth characters. On the level of popular discourse, it is said that a child burdened with such a guan should not be seated too soon on a chair since it would have trouble holding itself up, its “four pillars” not giving it sufficient strength. The guan of the King of Hell (Yanwang guan), that of the Five Demons (Wugui guan), allegory of the five directions and the elements that correspond to them, and that of the Door of Demons (Guimen guan) opposite the Door of Life, are the passes of “the way of the hungry ghosts” (guidao), that is, of those who died bad deaths, the preta. It is said that wandering souls (gui) come prowling at the door of the house at night, causing the child to cry. All three presage early death as written in the child’s life chart.

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opportunistic infection: the foreign object

Some passes, like that of the Pojie and that of the Four Seasons (siji guan), express the child’s difficulty in registering itself into cyclical time. In the guan of the Pojie (Pojie guan), it is said that one of them lacks “affinity” with the child. Thus, while theoretically the child’s protector, such a Pojie will become hostile if the child’s birth characters come into conflict with the period over which she watches. It is said that she will then be especially severe and will even beat the sleeping child, causing it to cry during the night. The guan of the four seasons presages that the child will have serious difficulties at one year, when it will have completed one cycle, that is, four seasons. If children burdened with this pass in their horoscope manage to get through the year safe and sound, they will show particular gratitude to Chen Jinggu at the time of the ritual visit at one year, and it will be necessary to bring more lavish offerings in thanks. In the Chinese cosmogenesis, it is the cycles, the four seasons above all, that guarantee the formation of all beings and things: beings are real only to the extent that they are registered into a cycle, the model of which is the passing of the seasons (see Kalinowski, 1996). In the same way, being burdened with a guan can be more difficult when the hour of the child’s birth does not accord with the season in which it was born. It is then said that the child also carries an “arrow” (jian). There is a mental image for each season: these images are the celestial generals who relieve the child of the arrow, thereby curing him or her of this opportunistic infection caused by unlucky birth, that is, acquired from contact with the fabric of universal fate. The “arrow” is the expression of this individual “jamming.” The child burdened with a guan is, in short, a dangerous child whose excessive power must be neutralized. Split, wild, polarized, unstable, when the child carries an “arrow” it is also cast out of space-time. It will therefore be necessary to make the child present and real. We note that this malevolent aspect seems to confer on the child a degree of autonomy, a certain responsibility for its own instability. One part of the ritual will consist, in fact, of exhorting the child to stay put in its family, to give up this wandering in time and space. It is this autonomy that must be subjected to the interests of the lineage. The “guan of the general’s arrow” (jiangjun jian guan) presents mortal risks. According to Master Shi, a child receiving such an arrow will die from it at the age of two (age one, in the Western reckoning); if the child receives two arrows, it will die at age six; three arrows will kill it at nine, and four

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will guarantee that at age twelve the child will find itself before the king of the underworld.37 We find here again the expression of periodicity: every three years. This grim general is probably the personification of a personal “demon” (sha). The theme of archery and arrows is also familiar. In the course of the ritual for opening the guan, a tiny bow is used to shoot an arrow to protect the child. Granet reports that in ancient China they made curved or undulating arrows, which “it was asserted, could carry fire, and resembled shooting stars. . . . These undulating arrows symbolized the Bow constellation, which appears to aim at the celestial wolf.” In addition, continues Granet: “Undulating Arrow is also the name of a meteor that has the appearance of a great shooting star. . . . Only in not making a sound does it differ from another meteor that also has the quality of a shooting star: the Celestial Dog, or the Red Dog” (Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 537–38). Once again we are in familiar territory, that of the meteors and lightning that constitute a threat to children while also provoking childbirth. guan linked to astrological elements

Among the most frequently encountered guan we will not be surprised to find the guan of the Celestial Dog (Tiangou guan). We know how this meteor could be in more than one way the enemy of childhood. According to the custom of countering harm with the same harm, people often used the fur of a dog mixed with talismans to protect the child. One can thus make an amulet by tying together a lock of hair shaved during the Full Month ceremony with several dog hairs.38 Perhaps we can see here a way of guarding against the harmful star, for this rite of shaving the hair should guarantee the child a risk-free journey. We should note that the Dog is also associated with the eleventh earthly branch, subordinate to Taisui; it is one of the twelve “original deities” (yuanshen). On the popular level, it is said that a child who encounters the Celestial Dog on his journey will be afraid of the barking of dogs and that he will be at risk of falling ill from it, losing sleep over it, or being subject to “terror” and to the loss of his soul. During the ritual performed in order to rescue the child from this guan, one uses a tiny figure made of purple paper representing the Celestial Dog, which is trampled under foot before being burned. The White Tiger guan (Baihu guan), like that of the Iron Snake (Tieshe guan), is a reference to the west, symbolized by metal and the color white. This is the direction of the Queen Mother of the West, who is also the

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preferred divinity for expelling the White Tiger. Thirsty for blood, the latter risks causing wounds and loss of blood, as well as convulsions (jingfeng, “terror wind”). These convulsions will be even more serious if they occur at the same time as smallpox (Hou, 1979: 209ff.). Here we again find themes associated with blood and skin eruptions, the sign of the elimination of an excess of heat, of yang. The White Tiger, sworn enemy of pregnant women and children, is thus in this situation the embodiment of the excess that we have already emphasized in regard to the White Tiger under the Flowers, distinguished by Shi Xihui from the demon White Tiger (see Chapter 7; Hou, 1979: 209–19). The tiger corresponds moreover to the third earthly branch of Taisui. In alchemical terms, it is associated with the lungs and with po souls (Despeux, 1994: 159). The Iron Snake, also the cause of smallpox, like the Bronze Snake (Tongshe), curse of the Flowers, recalls the python king of the Linshui pingyao zhuan, Mangtian Shenwang, whose wife, Liu Xianniang, is none other than the Lady of Smallpox and Measles. According to the Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan, it is against a poisonous emanation of the Snake constellation that Chen Jinggu fought to save her brother by summoning a violent wind.39 The guan of “the Rooster’s flight” (Jifei guan) introduces the name of this constellation, which is not malevolent in itself but which seems here to turn against the child burdened with a particular configuration of fate.40 Associated with the tenth earthly branch, the rooster corresponds to the hours of the dawn (between five and seven). It is readily associated with another dawn, that of the year. The rooster is the animal of the first day of the New Year, when it is the custom to eat eggs, a symbol of vital energy. In ancient times, people sacrificed a rooster at this time of year at the doors of houses, and the rooster was depicted on auspicious red banners (Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 155).41 Finally, they also burned a rooster during the sacrifice performed to bring rain; we are familiar with the intimate connection between this sacrifice and the sacrifices to obtain children. Oral tradition reports that when Chen Jinggu, in the course of carrying out the ritual for rain after having removed her fetus (tuotai), was attacked by the White Snake, the Ravine Demon in the guise of a rooster cried, “Drown her!” By contrast, the female ducks sent by Perfected Lord Xu rescued her. Ever since, a rooster is offered in sacrifice, while duck meat is taboo. The child who is prisoner of this guan will be at risk of dying before birth or before the third day. If it survives, it will be weak and will often cry. It will be

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especially afraid of the crowing of roosters and the peeping of chicks, and will have to be kept away from them. This will of course preclude offering a rooster to the parents for the Full Month ceremony, as is customary. passes that intersect the stages of childhood

Another guan, that of the Wash Basin (yupen guan), is also believed to be very serious. If they are bathed too soon, children burdened with this guan risk catching fatal diseases. The water associated in particular with maternal care can make the child vulnerable to fevers.42 Perhaps we can see here an allusion to the first baths, which have a ritual aspect. The guan of the Hundred Days (bairi guan) belongs to a different semantic field. For one hundred days, that is, approximately three months, the end of which concludes the period of seclusion, the child cannot be presented to its mother’s family, lest the child or a member of the family fall sick. Thus it is said that the child has “no affinity with its maternal grandmother” (meiyou waipo yuan). This is a typical example of polarization. In fact, this lack of affinity has nothing to do with family feeling, but is related to the temporary incompatibility, in this case, of the child’s birth characters with those of the maternal grandmother. This guan is also very revealing of the relations existing with the “outside family” (waijia), the mother’s family. The waipo guan thus seems to reveal a certain rivalry between the two families in regard to the child, who belongs to its father’s lineage. Other signs point in the same direction: thus, very often the dissatisfied ancestors who come to trouble the child are, according to the mediums consulted, maternal ancestors seeking reincarnation. All the same, after passing the one-hundred-day mark, the child, officially acknowledged and named by its father’s family, can without risk be visited by its mother’s family (see above, concerning manyue). Nowadays, when the period of seclusion is abbreviated to a month, it may happen that a child burdened with this guan cannot be visited by the maternal grandmother on the day of the Full Month ceremony. It is an imperfect compromise between the old and new systems. The Thousand-day guan (qianri guan) threatens the passage of three years. The Deep Water guan (shenshui guan) is particularly serious. According to Master Shi, nine out of ten children burdened with such a pass in their birth characters will die if a ritual to help them free themselves is not performed. This guan brings serious risk of drowning, my informants all maintain. Although unfortunate, this would be uninteresting if the potential symptom were not a violent case of the measles. We know that measles,

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also, constitutes a passage: it marks the first separation from the mother.43 Could this indicate that children who pass through this guan and risk drowning, another maternal symbol, cannot achieve this separation without risk? By not giving up the excess of heat characteristic of the fetus and the young child, they would prolong the state of symbiosis with the mother. They thus risk drowning, thereby symbolically returning to the mother. On this subject, we will recall the episode in the story of Cinnabar Cloud—the very symbol of an excess of polarization and of yang—at the end of which he was castrated by Chen Jinggu for having violated a Lady “Drowning,” Madame Shen, daughter-in-law of a Madame “Forest,” Lin (see Chapter4; Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3: 14ff.). We know that at Linshui Temple Cinnabar Cloud watches over children subject to this sort of symptom of “poisoning.” guan that give rise to a dangerous divinity

Finally, a less frequently encountered guan, the guan of the God of Thunder (Leigong guan), seems to sum up the meaning of this entire set. This divinity, whose cult is very old, is well known in the context of the Mount Lü sect. Both an astral divinity and a phenomenon produced by the bonding and clashing of yin and yang, the God of Thunder is the son of Heaven and Earth. He lives in the latter for 183 days and emerges in spring for an equal period of time. Linked to the north and to the Northern Dipper, the God of Thunder is, in the human body, the original spiritual force (yuanshen).44 Children burdened with this guan are terrified by the sound of thunder. These guan that the child must cross also evoke the other pass (also guan) that the “old child,” Laozi, crossed during his journey to the west. It was at this time that he dictated to the guardian of the pass his Daode jing. It is likewise language—and what a language, that with which one embellishes the Ineffable, the Dao—that untied this knot, opened the way and permitted Laozi to pass beyond. In contrast, Xu Jia, his servant, without access to these words, could only keep the trace of them, the talisman or tablet that conferred life on him, as well as the state of childhood that characterizes mediums (see Ge Hong’s biography of Laozi; 5th. c. [1989] 1: 2–11; see also Schipper, 1985b; Baptandier, 1997). It is the very image of the guan that children cross, at the edge of the ineffable, of the archaic, mythological, or unconscious. We only see the child who crosses it and the work of the modern counterparts of Xu Jia, the ritual masters and the mediums. The other part of this tablet, its meaning, is now revealed only in a veiled man-

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ner. In this game, the child occupies the center: the center of the pass, but also the symbolic center of Chinese society, of which he is the heart. This is why he is especially threatened. This situation also constitutes the child’s power: that of joining in itself cosmic forces and influxes. That is likewise the power of the mediums who, while absent from themselves, are the crucible of divine forces, by which they hold in their hands the links that unify the visible world and the invisible world of signs.

9

ri tua ls of the fl ow e rs an d passes

Religious Context of the Mount Lü Sect Two rituals are unique to Linshui Temple: the ritual for “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua) and the ritual for “crossing the guan” (guoguan).1 Both are performed by the ritual masters of the tradition of the Mount Lü sect. The first is called for when the medium or Red Head master deems his patient’s problem severe enough to warrant a journey to the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers to cultivate her celestial Flower. The second is performed when a child encounters on its way one of the most serious guan or when it finds itself facing a normally benign guan that it lacks the power to cross. These two rituals belong to the corpus of what the Daoist masters call the “minor rites” (xiaofa), meaning that they concern the fate of an individual and not that of the community. We shall examine these two rituals after first situating them in their Daoist context. We have already presented the tradition of the Mount Lü sect as being close to that of the Celestial Masters of the Zhengyi tradition and the Divine Empyrean (Shenxiao) (see Introduction). The latter tradition emerged during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song, when in 1114 he ordered Lin Lingsu to compile the texts for a new Daoist canon. It was shortly thereafter that the cult of Chen Jinggu was canonized (1241). This Song 222

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liturgy continues to influence the liturgy of the present day (Schipper, 1975; Strickmann, 1975, 1980; see also Saso, 1978a; Andersen, 1991, 1996; Davis, 2001; Boltz, 1983, 1987). As Boltz (1983: 492) noted, the Lingbao tradition, on which Lin Lingsu relied for his codification of the Shenxiao, rests on three types of sources: pre-Daoist cults of immortality, current in southern China in the third through fourth centuries; meditation exercises inspired by Shangqing texts, revealed to the medium Yang Xi on Mount Mao between 364 and 370; and the tradition of Buddhist writings prevalent in Jiangnan (the area south of the lower Yangzi River) in the fourth century. The Shenxiao gave rise to multiple rival schools, and it may well be that the Mount Lü sect, attested to during the Song, is one of them. The Mount Lü tradition intimately combines meditation, visualization practices, and liturgical dramatizations watched by the patient, who only witnesses the visible part of the rituals. It is therefore clear that secrecy plays a part in the performance of these rituals, and that the Red Head masters guard their texts jealously. There are two aspects to their rituals: the ritual master must both visualize the set of the cosmic regions that he passes through in search of the lost souls, and sublimate his own body and his breathing in a process close to internal alchemy (neidan), enabling him to save through transference souls imprisoned in purgatories.2 This process of “refining and saving” (liandu) presents an obvious danger for the uninitiated, which, in part, explains the secrecy. In Fujian, the ritual masters of the Mount Lü sect conduct their rituals alone. In Taiwan, in contrast, the bipartite structure of the ritual is dramatized by the presence of two officiants: the ritual master and the medium. The medium intervenes at the moment when the “cosmologization” of the ritual master’s body having been completed, the patient’s crossing of the guan and his or her exorcism will be able to take place. In short, the presence of the medium in a trance makes visible the secret aspect of the ritual. Moreover, we find this same dual structure in the rites of the Zhengyi tradition: thus, the Daoist master carries out the communal rites of the jiao within his own body, while his assistant externalizes them (Schipper, 1982b: 134; Schipper, 1966).3 The masters of the Mount Lü school receive a certain body of liturgical texts according to their degree of initiation (Saso, 1978a: 234–39). Their ritual treasure (fabao) is likewise made up of a corpus of written talismans (fu) and mudras, hand gestures with a magic function comparable to seals for calling a divinity into action.4 These two elements—the theater of writing and that of the body—represent two ways of externalizing the set of spirits appearing

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on the divine Register (lu) that the ritual master received from his master, just as Chen Jinggu did when she left Mount Lü (see Chapter 2; Linshui pingyao zhuan, ch. 3: 16, where this episode of the legend is described). The talismans and mudras are accompanied by secret formulas that the ritual masters keep “in their bellies” and pronounce mentally at the moment of actualizing them, while externalizing the breath of the corresponding organ in their body. The Red Head masters (Hongtou) generally do not specialize in one ritual or another. Likewise, mediums can take part in any sort of case, even if being possessed by a divinity with a relatively well-defined function sometimes leads them to perform some rites more often than others.5 The Red Head master today has at his disposal the same ritual instruments as Chen Jinggu when she danced on White Dragon River to bring rain: the spirit horn (shenjiao) (Figure 9.1) for summoning spirits and driving out demons, and the sword of the Northern Dipper, with its pommel polished into a mirror that evokes the phases of the moon, for revealing the true forms of beings and slaying demons (see Chapter 2).6 He also wields a snake-headed whipcord, the cracking of which summons divinities and frightens demons.7 We have

f i gur e 9.1. Mount Lü ritual master with silver ritual horn, Linshui Temple, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

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already seen the relation between the whipcord, snakes, and hair. This whipcord is the “heavenly web and the earthly net” of the eight trigrams. Its cracking, like lightning, masters time and space (see Chapters 3 and 6). Like Chen Jinggu’s magic rope, it can also be used to bind demons. The Red Head master also has a metal receptacle containing water in which the ashes of talismans have been dissolved. This water thus becomes ritually efficacious, serving to expel the demonic miasmas that still envelop the patient. A flower is used to sprinkle the patient with the talismanic water: it acts as a purifying remedy. The Red Head master can also spray the lustral water by filling his mouth with it and then forcefully expelling it. In this way he makes efficacious the charms that he writes in the air with his sword or with the snake handle of his whip. We may note here the importance of the breath projected out of the master’s body, which animates his gestures and writings. The tradition of Mount Lü is known for the efficacy of this ritual technique. Another indispensable instrument is the wooden block of the Northern Dipper (Beidou), which rules over the universe (Figure 9.2). It is upon the stars of the Northern Dipper, called by their secret name, gang (the Guide-

f i gur e 9.2. Mount Lü ritual master tracing talismans with the Beidou ritual block, Linshui Temple, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

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line), that both the Daoist master and the Red Head master dance in order to reestablish the order of the world.8 That is what this block of wood, a measuring stick, represents. The striking of it on the altar punctuates the discourse of the ritual and makes it efficacious.9 The Red Head master also marks the rhythm of his discourse with a bell with a handle in the form of a trident, to which an assistant responds by striking a hand-held drum.10 This musician also has the status of an officiant. His role is to give the response to the Red Head master throughout the ritual, but also to induce the medium’s trance and to see to it that she is brought out of it at the right time. He also interprets the divine utterances of the spirit medium. Finally, just like Chen Jinggu at White Dragon River, the Red Head master wears a special costume during the ritual. In reality, putting on this outfit is a ritual sequence that transforms the body of the ritual master into Chen Jinggu herself. This is the formula that he pronounces at this moment: I respectfully pray that Taishang Laojun quickly obey my order and take possession of the king of the celestial demons, and that he prevent the starving demons from harming me. Celestial soldiers help on my right, the seven ferocious celestial generals are in front of me, the eight fierce gods protect me from behind. I wear the shoes of the Lady on my feet, the divine generals of the six ding help on my left with the six jia. The crown on my head is the headdress of the Lady. I wear the clothing of the Lady on my body. I invite my immortal Master and the Venerable of Transformations to metamorphose my body. My body does not belong to the ordinary world. It transforms itself and becomes the body of the Lady.11

In fact, in contrast to the daoshi dressed in a richly embroidered court robe, the Red Head masters generally wear ordinary clothes and have bare feet. In Fujian, to officiate they wear Chen Jinggu’s long red skirt.12 In Taiwan, they wear an apron tied at the waist and split in front. This outfit, which exposes the body in a ritual nudity, is explained by their familiarity with the trance and thus with the state of childhood that they share: consequently, they dress like little children. The head is encircled by a red headdress, which can be a simple cloth ribbon, wrapped in such a way as to form a peak or crest in front, or even an ordinary hat decorated with red pompoms, marking the warrior role of the Red Head master who fights against curses at the head of the celestial soldiers of the Five Camps, of the five directions.13 In this case, the headdress also includes a length of cloth that falls down the back and which is often decorated with depictions of the divination trigrams, the bagua. In Fujian, the Three Ladies (Sannai) are painted on the headdress of some ritual masters. The difference between these two headdresses is not

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well established, and the Red Head master I questioned could not explain it. They reject any suggestion that it is a sign of hierarchy. Perhaps it is the mark of different local sects. Thus, Master Shi is of the opinion that the ordinary headgear denotes association with the martial lineage of Mount Lü and the other headdress the Mount Mao lineage. In both cases, the color red is required and gives those who wear it the name Red Head. The “minor rites,” such as the rituals of the Flowers and the guan, belong to a model that can be described as shamanic: they include a request, a journey in the celestial land in question, an exorcism, and an oracular séance. All these minor rites are constructed on this model, but of course vary as to the celestial land visited and the exorcism performed. Likewise, the invocations will be different and the ritual material of the substitute bodies used will vary depending on the case. Most of the rites concerning individual fate are in any event connected to the cult of the Northern Dipper, the Controller of Fate, and that is the case, we shall see, for the two rituals that concern us. As Schipper (1982b: 101) pointed out, the etymology of the word “ritual” (ke) is “measure of grain,” a synonym of dou, the name of the Northern Dipper (Beidou). I will describe here the principal sequences of the rituals performed at the Linshui Temple in Tainan. I will also describe significant variations of these same rituals, also performed by the ritual masters of the Mount Lü sect, as I observed them at Gutian, in Fujian.14

The Ritual preparations

The rituals performed in order to cultivate the Flowers and to cross a pass are constructed on the same model and differ only at the moment of the exorcism. We shall therefore examine their initial sequences together. On the day of the ritual, the woman (and her child, if it is for a guan) again joins the medium and the Red Head master at the temple. She first carries out what we have called the ritual visit, laying out offerings and burning incense. On that day, she provides herself with several money offerings: one, celestial, is decorated with a fine sheet of gilded paper, and the other, intended for the demons and the dead, is decorated with a sheet of silver paper. These moneys will be burned differently, the celestial money in the furnace of the temple, and the infernal money on the ground or in a receptacle placed directly on the ground. The patient can also supply herself with flowery money offerings, if it is a matter of cultivating the Flower.15 From the temple caretaker she obtains the “substitute bodies” (tishen) that will

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be used at the time of the exorcism: a celestial flower for the ritual of the Flowers, or one of the depictions of the guan, if it is for this ritual. She must also obtain a little figurine of braided straw or a paper-cut silhouette, which will take onto itself the ills of the patient or the child (Figure 9.3). The consecration of this object constitutes a sequence of the ritual in the course of which the ritual master is imagined as going to the slave market in the town of Yangzhou to buy a substitute, an orphaned or unlucky figure, an outcast soul. He offers it a feast and all the money offerings it could desire in order to convince it, in the course of a relentless haggling where the substitute has little room to refuse, to accept this unenviable role (see Schipper,

f i gur e 9.3. Children’s substitutes, ritual bows, and soul receptacle, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

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1984, 1985a; Baptandier, 1996c). It is wrapped in a piece of the woman’s or child’s clothing, into which is slipped a paper figure representing the emblematic animal, the yuanshen, the Taisui of the year of birth of the person in question, which will come to help expel the curses, along with a willow branch with protective and exorcistic properties.16 We discussed in Chapter 8 the use of such a substitute in relation to Taisui. Meanwhile, the Red Head master sets up his ritual instruments on the principal altar. He rolls up the length of his snake-handled whip, so that it can be stood upright on the table.17 He lays out the sword and Northern Dipper wooden block and, dressed in his costume, he prepares to draw up the request. the request

The request is the announcement (fabiao) to the divinities of the patient’s identity and the reason that brings her to the temple. Like an administrative document, it is drawn up on a sheet of yellow paper that will subsequently be burned so that it will go directly to the divinities. Once the declaration has been written, the ritual can begin, announced by the blowing of the horn and the ringing of the bell. The officiant reads the request out loud and reinforces it with several incantations, while the woman (and possibly the child) kneels before the altar, burning incense. Once the divinities have been informed, the celestial walk begins, during which the woman can move about freely in the temple. This sequence, where the ritual master travels in the cosmos and sublimates his body, does not require her presence. the walk

In the part of the ritual that is called “crossing the roads and passes” (guo lu guan), the Red Head master chants a text that is an enumeration, as we have seen, of the names of divinities and celestial and infernal locations.18 It is his circuit. First of all, he summons the shadow soldiers (yinbing) of the Five Camps and the divine beings who figure on his Register and, with them, he sets out by “crossing roads and passes” in the celestial or infernal region that concerns the patient or child: the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers or the places of the different passes. Master Shi’s ritual begins in the following manner: I pray to the Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang), the Sage Mother (Shengmu) [that is, the Queen Mother of the West or the Lady of Linshui], the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian Xuannü), the Celestial Immortals, Lady Zai, the Three Correct Talismans, and all the gods to inform the Three Purities that I am going to open this book and pray.19

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Then he calls on many divinities, distributed according to the directions and their roles. He pronounces the names of the Lady of the Northern Dipper (Tiangang Pojie), “who assigns births and watches over pregnancies”; the Jade Maidens and Gold Children (Yünü Jintong), who assist her; the Pojie; the divinities of the bed; those who watch over each month; as well as the local divinities of one province or another, real or mythological.20 The Red Head master draws the attention of all these figures to the offerings that are provided for them—incense, wine, tea, and various foods—and begs them to hear the blowing of his horn and to come into this consecrated area that he is creating by means of his ritual, in order to enact the exorcism. The sacred area is thus constructed as the Red Head master travels: it is the recital of his journey and the summoning of the spirits concerned that make the area “real” in the temple. Therefore the journey is made in two senses at the same time: the shaman leaves to go into the celestial regions and, at the same time, he makes them real here on earth through his words and gestures, simultaneously in his body and in the temple itself. Each verse of the invocation is punctuated by a clacking of the Northern Dipper wooden block, which marks the efficacy and function of the verses as commandments, along with the dance steps depicting the Red Head master’s journey. In order to protect himself from wandering spirits, he blows his horn, cracks his whip, and rings his vajra bell, accompanied by the beating of the drum that responds in an alternating chant; the recitative is entrancing when the ritual master has a beautiful voice. He also draws talismans in the air with his sword, sketching a battle with the demons he encounters. Finally, while chanting, he writes in the air with little sheets of yellow paper rolled into cones that he sets on fire as he goes along, in order to make them “real,” magic formulas corresponding to the places where he is and to the divinities he has summoned.21 This is money used to pay the guardians of each of these stages of the journey. At other times, he also uses the bowl of purifying water and drives away curses by flinging several drops in the air, or even by spraying a mouthful of it. At the end of this walk, when all the divinities summoned are present in the ritual area, the woman returns to kneel and burn incense, while the Red Head master intercedes on her behalf. This sequence ends with a powerful blast of the commanding horn. crossing the bridge

In Taiwan, once the circuit has been carried through to a successful conclusion, the Red Head master removes his red headdress and takes a rest, while

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the musician, who has taken his place in front of the altar of the celestial gardeners (Huagong Huapo) or in front of the altar of the Pojie, depending on the case, continues to play the drum close to the medium, who starts to enter a trance. Soon, the medium hops about while whistling and tracing the dance steps. The medium’s trance comes only at the moment when the sacred area has been created, when the divinities have descended into the temple and when the Red Head master has externalized the spirits of his Register (lu), and has finished creating the cosmos in his body. It is the medium in a trance who animates the sacred area. With one hand, she makes the sword mudra with two fingers, the index and middle finger, pointed in front; a packet of lit incense is slipped into her other hand. The woman (or the child) is there, standing or kneeling in front of the altar, holding in her hands the corresponding substitute bodies. In Fujian they do without the medium for this dramatization of the intimate aspect (neidan) of the ritual (see Baptandier, 1996a). It is at this moment that the rite of “crossing the bridge” (guoqiao) takes place if it was deemed necessary by the medium or the master consulted before the ritual, in order to “alter the fate” of the patient. In this case, a bench is covered with a black cloth on which is traced an itinerary, a passage from the distress of body or mind to equanimity, where there are seven stages, controlled by the character gang, the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, whose names are written on the cloth. The ritual whip is arranged on this symbolic bridge, its curves following the route decided upon from stage to stage. It is therefore equivalent to a bugang rite, of a dance on the stars of the Northern Dipper. The ritual master guides the patient (or the child) through the constellation of fate, thereby “re-creating” it and leading the patient to be reborn, transformed into his or her new fate. Under the bridge, two types of offerings are placed. On one plate are noodles, a symbol of long life, and cooked meats intended for the divinities; in another are raw meats to buy off the demons. Into these offerings laid out at each end of the bridge are placed sticks of incense. Between the two plates, seven candles are lit to represent the stars of the Northern Dipper. Sometimes, talismans written on yellow rice paper are hung on the black cloth that covers the bench. Having put his red headdress back on, the Red Head master then takes his whip, places it over his shoulder, and undertakes to “cross the bridge,” followed by the woman, who holds in one hand the end of the whip and in the other the substitute body. The two of them are escorted by the medium who is at the side of the bridge, which she does not cross, and who protects them

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by enveloping them in incense smoke and by performing the dance steps and the sword mudra, as a consequence of which they cross the Northern Dipper. They undertake crossing the bridge several times in this manner; then the patient sits down at the end of the bridge. The Red Head master places his whip around the neck of the woman and, drawing on her a talismanic formula with the snake handle, he sprays a mouthful of water animated by his breath in order to free her. This sequence of the ritual must be carried out without the woman touching her feet to the ground at the end of the bridge, where a small bench has been placed for this purpose. If this should happen before the conclusion of the rite, she could suffer serious harm. 22 In Fujian, this sequence is represented by the construction of a seven-story tower (baota) made by stacking bowls of graduated size, in which are placed offering coins; the substitute body climbs the tower little by little. On the altar is also found a rice bushel containing the instruments of the constellation of fate: a balance, scissors, ruler, and mirror. If it is a ritual of crossing a guan performed for a child who does not yet have its own fate, this sequence of “correcting the fate” (gaiyun) will be omitted. On the other hand, those who already have a personal fate can benefit from this rite. Some Red Head masters also perform the “crossing the bridge” rite for very young children. Here it is not a matter of correcting their luck; rather, it is a prophylactic rite and a ritual redoubling of the crossing of the guan. In this case, the bench is left bare, without tracing the itinerary there. In Fujian, the “bridge” is represented by a white cloth, on which is painted a landscape resembling the ritual paintings representing the pantheon of the Three Ladies, the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, and the birth of the child.23 On this occasion, it is the substitute body (tishen) that crosses it. In contrast, if it is an adult over sixteen years of age who is crossing a guan late, the object that customarily represents the guan will not be used. A different ritual of crossing the Northern Dipper will be performed, which resembles an assault on the fortress of hell. The passage through the constellation of fate and the exorcism will be conflated. At the end of a circuit of seven tiles placed on the ground to represent the stars of the Northern Dipper, the patient, accompanied by the medium, will have to penetrate to the heart of the trigram chart, the mandala of which will be depicted on the ground with pieces of yellow paper cut to form the solid and broken lines. The patient is laid down in the center of the chart, where the characters of the Taiji, the Great Ultimate representing the “One,” the foundation of

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the universe, are drawn. Equipped with both his sword and the substitute body, the master then gives himself up to an exorcistic dance. At the end of this violent fight, the patient is abruptly led out of the temple. The cloth that covered the patient, the substitute body bearing the harmful fate, and the offering money are all burned in a little sarcophagus made of red paper. The patient is thereby freed from this pass, where he or she had been held prisoner.24

The Exorcism “cultivating the flower”

When it is a ritual carried out for a woman whose celestial Flower is sick, she must “cultivate her Flower” (zaihua) by means of the substitute body of the same name. In front of the altar where the woman is, the Red Head master recites a new invocation: the song of the Flowers.25 This song is made up of twelve verses, one for each of the twelve months of the year. For each month the Flowers that will bloom are mentioned and each is exhorted to cultivate them so that they will bear fruit. Master Shi’s song of the Flowers begins thus: When one cultivates the Flowers in the first month, that is the time of the spring rains. The water dragons (jiaolong) cause the waters to rise. The trees turn green. The peony sends out its first branch and lets it be known that it must be cultivated without delay. Let us form a couple, on the sacred ground they cultivate the Flowers. If one gives the Flowers a basin of pure water, they open their buds. If one gives the Flowers two basins of pure water, they can turn green. If one gives the Flowers three basins of pure water, they set fruit (jiezi). If one gives the Flowers four basins of pure water, they give birth to boys. If in the first month one cultivates the Flowers (zaihua), one has cultivated a granary (xiang).

The term “cultivate” (zai) is used here also in the sense of “to heal” or “to take care of.” It is composed of the wood radical, mu, in association with earth, tu, and the halberd, ge. Zai differs only in its radical from the word that means “to gather,” “to prune,” or “to kill”: cai.26 Thus, just as in French the word guerir, “to heal,” is very close, as Monique Schneider (1979: 132) noted, to the word guerre, “war,” and thus suggests that for this healing there is a battle to be joined, an enemy to kill, the word zai also seems to share this same semantic range, since it includes (like the word “gather,”

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“kill,” cai) a martial instrument, the halberd, ge. And that is indeed the case. Cultivating the woman’s Flower and curing it of this “mother’s malady,” to borrow a term from Schneider (1979: 128), implies that one rids her of these supposedly foreign bodies that steal her vital energies and prevent her from devoting herself to the transformations, while at the same time giving rise to symptoms that can run from sterility to various pathological manifestations. It is also often at the time of one of these crises, attributed to a deficiency of the Flower or corresponding to a stage of female life, that the process of the spirit medium emerges, which can therefore be thought of in this case as another use of the female power of transformations.27 Thus, while he is chanting the song of the Flowers, the Red Head master will pull out of the substitute body in succession the Butterfly, the Wasp, the Snake, and the Celestial Dog, in order to stop them from “overheating” the Flower and thereby causing to “rot” (fulan) the root of the fruit, the baby, which there is no question of doing without (see Chapter 7). One will thus do whatever it takes to revive and maintain the Flower by giving it these basins of pure water to make it bloom. This is what the Red Head master will do symbolically by spraying water on the woman and by removing from the palanquin Huagong and Huapo’s bucket of water, after having literally “washed the hair” (mu) of the Flowers (muhua).28 The name of this sequence is the name of a ritual of purification that has certain similarities to funerary rites. It marks a rebirth after a symbolic death.29 The woman also swallows a mouthful of this purifying water. One endeavors to make the Flower “take root in the basin,” genpen, the same pen that when it is described as being red or gold signifies the birthing basin. A certain sexual connotation is emphasized by the refrain of this song when one says: “Let’s form a couple, let’s cultivate the Flowers in the soil!” Meiliu luoshang, tuchang zaihua ren! The word tu, “earth,” is here joined to chang, the sacred area, the place of coming together, while the one who “cultivates the Flowers,” zaihua ren, is, according to the Red Head master, neither a divinity nor an officiant, but just a human being. We can see here an allusion to the ancient seasonal peasant rites discussed by Granet that were likewise carried out in contact with the soil (tuchang), and the token of which was none other than a flower (Granet, 1951). It is in this regard that the song of the Flowers would claim, once the ritual has been performed, that one has cultivated the “granary,” xiang. This word, which means “box,” “coffer,” or “granary,” “the place where grain is stored,” is a homonym of xiang, which refers to the bedrooms located on the east and west sides of Chinese houses. But

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above all, the “granary,” xiang, is one of the names of the Northern Dipper, in which one has the suffering woman “take root.” In Taiwan, this exorcism is carried out with the assistance of the medium, who waves incense in front of the patient, while the Red Head master punctuates his song with the steps of the dance and draws talismans in the air with his sword or the handle of the whip with which he fights demons. He also burns cones of yellow rice paper as he moves around in the garden of the Flowers. Once this phase of the ritual is concluded, the flowery palanquin and the substitute body are burned, so that they will carry away with them the woman’s ills. Next, the Red Head master sticks a good luck flower into the patient’s hair, and he marks her neck with the seal of the Northern Dipper in order to protect her. In Fujian, women who want a baby can also borrow the little statue of the San Sheren, Chen Jinggu’s baby, to take home with them. They will return it to the temple once their wish is granted. crossing the guan

When it is a question of a guan, depending on whether or not the child has crossed the Northern Dipper to “correct his or her fate,” the child is seated either at the end of the bridge or in front of the gallery of the Pojie after the first part of the ritual. Depending on the child’s age, it sits alone or is held by its mother. The child holds in his or her hands the paper tower representing the pass that holds him or her prisoner, as well as the little straw figure that serves as a substitute body. There are several representations of the guan that the child must cross. The most common is a framework of sticks in the form of a square tower, covered in white paper and on which there is depicted a half-open door in purple paper. This object is similar to the fortress of hell in which the child is said to be imprisoned. It will be used for crossing all of the guan, except for the guan of the “four pillars,” for which there is a particular depiction, which we have already described. At the end of his shamanic journey, the Red Head master pronounces divine invocations punctuated by cracks of his whip, calls, blasts of his horn, and mudras performed with his sword, while burning the yellow papers (Figure 9.4). Then, after having performed a mantic step, abruptly brandishing his sword he tears open the door of the guan, from which he pulls out the little paper figure that was imprisoned inside, thereby freeing the child. Once again, this sequence is similar to that of the assault on the fortress of hell during a funerary ritual to liberate the deceased. The palanquin representing the guan of the “four pillars” (sizhu) is employed in the same

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f i gur e 9.4. Berthier.

Crossing the pass, Linshui Temple, Tainan. Photo Jean-Charles

way: it is destroyed after the little figure at the center representing the child is removed from it. If it is the guan of the Celestial Dog, the child will in addition wear around the neck a string, at one end of which is a tiny bow and at the other an arrow. The arrow will be shot at the Celestial Dog, just as the immortal Zhang does, who protects children from its curses.30 If it is the guan of the general’s arrow (jiangjun jian guan), however, the bow and arrow will be broken into pieces, thereby protecting the child from the fatal blow. The crossing of the modern “automobile guan,” common in Taiwan, requires the representation of a miniature car in paper, which will be smashed at the time of the exorcism, before being burned with the tower.31 The child’s first step following this exorcism must be over the representation of the guan: this demonstrates that the child has emerged victorious. Then the Red Head master traces on the child a talisman with the handle of his whip, which he

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then cracks three times. Next he sprays purifying water at the child, and also gives it a mouthful to drink to cleanse it of any malevolent miasma. The exorcism then comes to an end and it only remains to burn the substitute body. In Fujian, when the child “wears an arrow,” the broken bow and arrow are enclosed in a jar containing grains of rice, corn, and soy; at the conclusion of the ritual, it will be buried at a crossroads or near a river, as is done with the placenta at the time of the child’s birth. This ritual act also recalls the exorcism of the pestilences of the Nuo. In Fujian, however, the guan is not represented by this “fortress” (Figure 9.5). It is crossed by moving back and forth across the altar, as many times as there are guan, a tray holding all the ritual master’s ritual instruments, the fateful instruments of the Northern Dipper, the substitute body representing

f i gur e 9.5. Crossing the pass, Ritual Master Ma, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

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the child, and a receptacle called the “soul cup” (hunzhan) that contains the freed souls and that becomes, at the end of the sequence, the “palace of long life” (changsheng gong), another name for the Northern Dipper. This object will remain in the child’s room until the child reaches the age of sixteen. It is the child’s father and uncle (shushu), on opposite sides of the altar, who pass this tray back and forth, while the ritual master chants.32 The exorcism is usually an ordeal for the very young child, badly frightened at being the object of such treatment: the passing of burning papers around its head; the ritual dance of the Red Head master, who suddenly rushes with his sword to the tower that the child holds in its hands, when he pierces it with the sword and violently tears from it the little figure at the center; the din of the bell and drum; and, finally, the presence of the medium in a trance, who shakes in front of the child’s face the packet of burning incense that she holds in her hand, while whistling and hiccupping. Most children who are not yet old enough to sit by themselves start to cry and wail. One wonders if the fear they are made to suffer is not an important part of the ritual. They are at a critical moment in their childhood that can only vaguely be understood through symbols, and over which, through this ritual, liberating words are placed. The fear felt by the child at this moment causes an affective and emotional release, a shock that will perhaps free it from its state of sickness. the divine oracle

Once the exorcism is completed, the part of the ritual performed directly by the Red Head master comes to an end. It is now the turn of the medium to pronounce the divine message. The medium moves to the altar, which she rhythmically strikes with her wrists while chanting the message from the divinity in a voice transformed unrecognizably by the trance. The musician who induced the trance with his drum remains at her side and interprets her chanting, which is sometimes difficult to understand. Since she is speaking a divine language, she distorts some syllables and ignores the tones. It is by this glossolalia that the divine presence is recognized. Most of the time this oracular response is only a duplication of the one that was already pronounced during the visit to the same medium before the ritual. In it is explained the nature of the ills that afflict the patient or the child and what should be done henceforward. It also gives a report of the exorcism and the results obtained through the spirit journey. The instructions given generally include ingesting the ashes of talismanic writings dissolved in

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water or sprinkling the ashes in the house in order to purify it. The medium immediately begins to write the talismans on rice paper. Once the oracle has been pronounced, the medium comes out of her trance alone or, if necessary, with the assistance of the musician, who helps her up from the ground in order to tear her from the earthly influences to which she belongs. In Fujian, it is the ritual master who performs this divinatory sequence. For this, he uses a basin of water in which he dribbles with his sword four drops of egg yolk (Figure 9.6). At contact with the water, the egg takes the shape of “four pillars,” by means of which one will be able to read the state of the pillars of the restored child.33

f i gur e 9.6. Divination with an egg during a ritual to cross a pass, Ritual Master Ma, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

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The woman will then be able to obtain other amulets, medals of the divination trigrams, or tiny sachets containing incense from the temple to either wear herself or have her child wear, as additional protection. Once the oracular séance has concluded, each prepares to leave. It remains only for the woman to discharge her debt to the officiants (Figure 9.7). In the temple itself, she pays the Red Head master the sum agreed upon. She also pays the medium, who makes a show of refusing the money. To all intents and purposes, a good medium is supposed to render service free of charge. In practice the medium accepts only token compensation, because it is her lot and not her profession.34 She only embodies the divinity, who has already been recompensed with the offerings brought by the woman. The food offerings will be divided between the Red Head master, the medium, and the woman, and eaten as the leftovers of a divine meal.

f i gur e 9.7. Mr. Chen holding the Beidou bushel with children’s substitutes and souls, Daqiao, Gutian. Photo Brigitte Baptandier.

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The whole ensemble is thus both a ritual of internal visualization and a shamanic journey and exorcism rite to recapture the soul of the patient and free it from this pass, where it is held fast. One can see this especially in the liturgical dramatization in Fujian, where the ritual master progressively builds the seven-story “tower” that the child’s substitute (tishen) climbs story by story. Finally, the tower is placed in the bushel on top of the three stacked altars—at the summit of heaven where it has arrived, comparable in the body to the top of the head through which, in the liandu rite of internal alchemy, the new being, the embryo of immortality, emerges. This journey through the womb of the Northern Dipper is equivalent to a “rebirth” to a restored fate, or indeed to the birth of this sublimated body—the embryo of immortality.35 Boltz analyzes a similar ritual (dating from the twelfth century) to “open the doors of purgatory” in order to save the imprisoned souls. The chart of this ritual, which reveals the development of the meditation through the body to produce a “pearl,” a quintessence of the being, has many points in common with the rite for “crossing the passes” performed by the ritual masters of the Mount Lü sect.36 There we find above all the stage of the “Bridge of the Great Ritual for Mounting to Heaven” (shengtian dafa qiao [causing the breath to move from the lower part of the belly to the heart]) and the “twelvestory tower” (shier zhong lou [the trachea]), leading to the “Palace of Nirvana” (at the top of the head) and finally to the Jade Clarity (yüqing).37 Boltz emphasizes the likely relation to Buddhist tantric rites and to the rites carried out on the fifteenth of the seventh month: Daoist rites of Universal Salvation (Pudu) and Buddhist rites of the Avalambana (Yulan pen hui). We have noted on several occasions the similarity to the funerary rites of salvation. The Linshui pingyao zhuan moreover provides two ritual charts resembling the structure, both internal and external, of the rite for opening the passes. They are found in the sequence of the tuotai, when Chen Jinggu “aborts,” that is, removes, her embryo, by transferring the internal structure of her own body onto that of her mother’s house, and in the shamanic sequence that follows it of the ritual to bring rain, when she dances on the stars of the Northern Dipper until she dies. Here, once again, the Northern Dipper and the maternal body are conflated. This combination of ritual exorcistic practices and practices of internal alchemy is characteristic of the Tianxin zhengfa, “Heart of Heaven,” that is, the North Star, tradition and of the Thunder rites. The Mount Lü sect, which is so similar to them, seems to conform to this pattern even today.

10

ch en j inggu’s med ium

This study would not be complete without examining the figure of the medium, who is central to the contemporary cult in Tainan, where she makes visible the “internal alchemy” of the ritual. She is also central to the symbolism of that cult—the legend of Chen Jinggu.1 We shall consider the journey to becoming a medium in the light of the sexual categories (see Chapter 1). The story of Xie Fuzhu, “Pearl of Abundance,” Chen Jinggu’s medium in Tainan, who permitted me to observe her procedures (1980–88), will serve as an example and enable us to trace the main outlines of her activities.

The Trance as “Wild Therapy” Young children who still lack their own fate are vulnerable to being chong, “shocked,” “buffeted,” “carried off by the waters” of the fate of others or by the calamities that beset them.2 They are therefore totally dependent on the good will of the divinities, who will help them navigate the dangerous journey of childhood. The fate of the medium likewise depends on the divinity. Her “self” (benshen) has given way to the divinity (benshen), which is her birth divinity (yuanshen “original spiritual power”) and her “fate” (benming), as it “manifests” itself (fa) after “testing” (chong) her.3 It is gen242

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erally believed that the life span of the mediums is particularly short and that it is literally prolonged by the divinity who comes to “possess” them.4 Accepting the trance would consequently be only a way of saving herself, of taking care of herself, just as is the crossing of the guan, those black holes that bestrew childhood. But by crossing the guan the child is only following the normal course of life; the medium, however, travels it “in reverse” (ni). It is in following this path advocated by Daoism that the medium develops her state of childhood, “divination child” (jitong), indeed even the fetal state or karma of “previous lives.” It is the alternative to a life of suffering and sickness, and it is this therapy that Xie Fuzhu ended up adopting. I shall sketch her life story, which is in many places symbolically similar to that of Chen Jinggu.

A Contract of Fixed Duration The life story is decisive for understanding the activity of the spirit medium during this very distinctive time in which she is traversed by the power (ling) that is briefly accorded to her. As a result, she takes on the status of an active agent.5 This self-development is a metonym for the stages of life traversed as if in the flesh, and for the sexual categories that form their common thread. Chen Jinggu’s hagiography provides the model for this, and it is not surprising that the specific examples of lives of women mediums follow its twists and turns. However, this “prolongation” of life lasts only for a time, at the end of which the divinity is said to withdraw. At a certain moment the medium lets go of this transfer, which has perhaps become too restrictive or inefficacious. This period of ambiguity, which bestowed on her a gift that she shared, comes to a sudden end, which is like a betrayal. That is because this self-development through the divinity leads only to the divinity herself; that is the meaning of this limited prolongation of life. The goddess does not allow the medium to triumph over her own fate, because for that it would be necessary to become either the divinity in person or an immortal. That is precisely what the story of Chen Jinggu teaches, and that is the meaning of the warning that Perfected Lord Xu addressed to her when she left Mount Lü after refusing to learn the ritual arts of maternity—or of internal alchemy. He tells her that at the end of her journey, pregnant, she will become an ordinary person, just as she was before her three years of study at Mount Lü (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3). That is why she became, after her death, a goddess and not an immortal.

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Xie Fuzhu, Pearl of Abundance Raised in a suburb of Tainan in a very modest peasant family, Xie Fuzhu, as far as she can remember, began from the age of puberty to experience certain symptoms that were later to become more pronounced. She suffered from headaches and from pains in the abdomen and stomach. She often dreamed of divinities that she could not have known, and she especially loved to visit temples. She would go to attend rituals that took place in the temples of Xi Wangmu, Guangong, and Guanyin, and in many others whose names she did not even know. Neither Chinese nor Western medicine could find a cause for her ills, and nothing succeeded in curing her permanently. When she was twenty-three years old, believing that she was well past the marriageable age, her parents decided to marry her to a chicken merchant in Tainan, whom she had never met, as was the custom. Despite her apprehension and lack of desire to marry, she acceded to her parents’ wishes. However, on the day of the wedding, when she had just arrived in her new home and her mother-in-law had placed flowers in her hair as a sign of fertility and good luck, she fainted and remained unconscious for eight hours.6 Her relatives were powerless to help her. We cannot help recalling Chen Jinggu being carried off on the day of her wedding, when Guanyin took her to Mount Lü. Xie Fuzhu, we should note, only vaguely knew the story of Chen Jinggu, so she was not trying to imitate the legend.7 After this baleful day, she did not recover. Her heart especially caused her to suffer, with no treatment bringing any improvement in her condition. When she was twenty-four years old, her stomach problems proving more than she could bear, she went on a pilgrimage to a Guanyin temple located at Kangshan.8 The goddess informed her that she was pregnant and should, according to Buddhist custom, fast on the first and fifteenth days of each month, eating only fruits and vegetables.9 Likewise, it was when she was twenty-four that the pregnant Chen Jinggu—just as Perfected Lord Xu had predicted—withdrew to carry out the retreat and fast that constituted her zhai (see Chapter 2). In the fifth lunar month, the month of the sacrifice for rain, believed to be inauspicious for the birth of a baby, Xie Fuzhu gave birth to a girl (see Chapter 4; Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 528). On the day she gave birth, she fell into a coma lasting the whole day. Subsequently, her pains becoming more insistent, she had X-rays in Taipei that did not lead to any diagnosis. Then she began to yawn and to have hiccups again and again, which doctors attributed to a stomach deficiency.10 Her mother,

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however, went to consult a divinity to find out if her symptoms were caused by a ghost or demon (gui). But the god did not reply, and Fuzhu’s condition worsened. It was then that she became pregnant a second time. In the third month, her father died and her illness worsened. Then she gave birth to a second daughter and when the baby was one month old (manyue), Fuzhu again fell into a coma. Tired of suffering, when her first child was five years old Xie Fuzhu went to Chen Jinggu’s temple to pray for help, but her visit was without effect. A Red Head master advised her to perform a ritual at Linshui Temple to cultivate her celestial Flower.11 On this occasion, she begged Chen Jinggu to save her, promising to obey her in all things if her wish was granted. The goddess responded through a spirit medium oracle that, if she granted her request, Fuzhu had to in her turn help her save people by becoming her medium. From this moment Xie Fuzhu began to get better, her symptoms disappearing one by one. At the end of six months, Chen Jinggu came to ask her to keep her promise, which she had to do, and she began to prepare herself to become a medium. Thus one saves oneself from a bad karma by helping to save others. The role of the medium has a definite communal aspect to it.

Self and Personal Divinity Pearl of Abundance’s story, which seems exemplary in many ways, is, save for a few details, the story of many Chinese women who have become mediums. They could, like the “possessed,” whom Monique Schneider speaks of, say that it is the “impotence of medicine that forces sick people to dedicate themselves to the devil,” or, we could say here, the divinity.12 But what impotence is it if not that of medicine to procure an escape from a conventional life story and to lead to self-development? The possibility of turning directly to the goddess offers unimagined powers.13 It is certainly also a means of using in a distinct manner the female power of transformations. The shudder of fear at the prospect of puberty, marriage, and childbearing is in itself the expression of an irreducible desire to transform oneself, which, turning these women into mediums, will also give them an ascendance over others. “To create” (zaohua) the divinity in oneself goes back to the sexual identity of the individual and a certain shaping of her being. Zao (to make) and hua (to transform) refer respectively to the action of yang and of yin, of the male and the female, that one progressively develops through the stages of life (Stein, 2001: 76n168; Robinet, 1995: 15; see also Baptandier, 2003).

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Glossolalia: The Language of the Gods The language of the medium in a trance also attests to her state of “return.” A primordial, incomplete language, in misshapen signs, it has to be interpreted, rather like baby talk, which is also in the process of transformation. This glossolalia is the defining characteristic of the language of the gods. As Malamoud (1995: 53) says in another context, “Finally, the unarticulated appears as a special case, a possibility of articulate speech. And that may well be the condition of communication with the supernatural or with the god. That may well be the power of the shaman, and the mystery of communication with the gods.”14 Here, also, Xie Fuzhu is an exemplary case, since her mother served as her interpreter.15 In 1987, when her mother was very old, she retired to live with one of her sons. Thereafter, it was Xie Fuzhu’s own daughter, not yet married, who played this role, thus perpetuating this special mother-daughter relationship. Xie Fuzhu also thinks that perhaps after her this daughter will take the divinity “on herself.” That is a very common mode of transmission, which puts into effect and makes visible the repetition through the generations (see Baptandier, 2003). The “old divinity” (jiushen) will be reprised and transformed, made into a “new divinity” (xinshen): the “personal divinity” (benshen) of the new medium. As a result, informal genealogies of mediums are created that do not always follow the direct line of family generations. However, it is Xie Fuzhu’s husband who takes her on a motorcycle when she goes to the temple and who looks after her when she enters a trance. From the moment she received Chen Jinggu’s presence into herself, Xie Fuzhu took pleasure in saying that she was a “brilliant pearl on the goddess’s palm” (zhangshang mingzhu), a common expression for a beloved daughter, and she was nicknamed Ah Zi. “Ah” is the familiar prefix for women’s names in the vernacular language, and zi, which means “child,” also serves as a grammatically empty suffix. Although it is common, this nickname is nevertheless very surprising, essentially empty and absent since it is made up of the prefix of a female name—but without the name—and an empty suffix, zi, which is the child, the medium, the “pearl on the goddess’s palm.” Moreover, in Hokkienese, the language of Taiwan, “Ah Zi” is pronounced “Ah Ge,” which sounds like “elder brother.” That name is also surprising. It recalls another name used in the legend of Chen Jinggu. The Daoist Zikong, “Spontaneously Empty,” calls Chen Jinggu shixiong,

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which means “son of the master” or “elder brother,” in accordance with the practice of the monastic Quanzhen tradition, indicating the sublimation of the sexes (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 6: 31). If we stick to the journey through the sexual categories, it would seem that this way of naming Xie Fuzhu, confirming her in her place of symbolic “child” (by definition male and yang) marks the evolution of her path in reverse.

The Inward Asceticism of the Spirit Medium: “Taking Her Role” After Xie Fuzhu carried out the ritual of the Flower and made her vow to serve Chen Jinggu, the latter came to her several times in a dream to remind her of her promise. At the end of six months, Fuzhu, despite her reluctance, had no alternative but to begin to assume her role (daban). This term is also employed in the language of the theater, where it means “to put on make-up” or “to dress up,” which further emphasizes the links between the theater and being a spirit medium. We shall recall the episode of the Linshui pingyao zhuan where the “Great Queen”—the White Snake—disguises herself with the theater costumes of the Jade Prophecy troupe, whose young actor Shengtao became the spirit medium (wu) of the temple of the Jade Emperor, at the side of the Daoist priest Chen Shouyuan, who was also Chen Jinggu’s cousin (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 7).16 We should note that this new state was not readily accepted; generally, all mediums try to delay as long as possible the moment of permanently giving themselves up to the divinity.17 Xie Fuzhu first of all undertook a retreat lasting forty-nine days, during which, shut up in the room where she had set up the altar of the goddess, she drank only water and ate only sugarcane. It is likewise a period of seclusion, a retreat and a fast, of forty-nine days that must be observed during mourning. Xie Fuzhu therefore was mourning her past being, while developing her self (benshen), which is her personal divinity (benshen) and her fate (benming). During this very trying period, the goddess constantly came to test her: she came to her in dreams or directly in guises that were sometimes terrifying. The care that surrounds the future medium at this time of zhai must be vigilant, since she is especially vulnerable to the designs of demons who try to seize control of her, forestalling the divinity and causing uneasiness and terror.18

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Trance and Internal Alchemy: “Seizing the Three Treasures” Once this retreat was over, Xie Fuzhu, as she put it, “seized the Three Treasures” (chaole sanbao). In Daoism, this term refers to the Way (Dao), the sacred texts (jing), and the masters (shi). In the vocabulary of alchemy, these three terms designate either the three cinnabar fields or the essence (jing), the breath (qi), and the spirit (shen), but it can also be the ear, eye, and mouth.19 In Daoist ascetic practice, it is a matter of providing the occasion for the sublimation of one’s being, the tuotai, which will give birth to the embryo of immortality. For the medium, it is the moment when the divinity will express herself through her mouth and her whole body, freeing her divine language and leading her to the trance. She will then take up the formidable ritual weapons by means of which she will cause her own blood to flow for the community. Here, they are the “sword of the Seven Stars” (qixing jian, the seven stars of the Northern Dipper), the ball of nails or “celestial mandarin orange” (tiangan), and the shark-toothed sword (paijian).20 However, it was not yet time for Xie Fuzhu to make use of these ritual weapons; she had to await the day of her official enthronement. During her period of divine apprenticeship, she had already begun to write talismans (fu). But she could not “speak” in Chen Jinggu’s name until the time when the Red Head master whom she now calls her “master” (laoshi), who supervised this time of transition toward her new being, had her swallow a talisman, the ashes of which were dissolved in water, in order to “open her mouth” (kaikou) and permit her to utter the divine words.21 Shortly afterward, this same master “enlightened” her eyes (dianyan), “dotted her eyes” (dianyan) and ears (er), thereby giving her access to the Three Treasures (Sanbao). The first expression, dianyan, is very significant. Dian means “lightning” and yan “eyes.” The opening of the medium’s eyes, a gesture of consecration that is also performed on new statues of divinities not yet possessed by them, consists of literally projecting the divine lightning into her eyes, thereby conferring on her supernatural, discerning vision. This act is carried out with a mirror.22 Dian, “to dot,” is the word used to describe another act also performed by the master, this time with a paint brush, with which he brings to life the organs thus designated, while externalizing his own breathing. Then, Xie Fuzhu had to clothe the statue of Chen Jinggu in new, richly embroidered vestments, called gold or brocade vestments (chuan jinzhuang).23 Finally, in the three days preceding her first public séance, she again had to

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remain in seclusion by the altar of the goddess, taking nothing but water in which incense ashes had been dissolved. Incense is, as we know, the privileged means of communication with the divinity, and the food of the gods. By ingesting Chen Jinggu’s incense, Xie Fuzhu was sharing her food and hence the same vital essence.

The Séance of Initiation Next came the initiatory séance of enthronement in the Temple of Heaven, the temple of the Jade Emperor, when Xie Fuzhu used her weapons for the first time, causing her own blood to flow in a trance. Some mediums also walk on fire, as did Xie Fuzhu, and climb a ladder of swords (See Dean and Zheng, 1993). The mortifications that mediums inflict on themselves are taken to be evidence of the authenticity of their trance state, while their insensitivity to pain and the speedy healing of the wounds they suffer are the signs that they are possessed by a divine benefactor and not a demon. The legend of Chen Jinggu dramatizes such a sacrifice (gegu), characteristic both of filial piety and of Buddhism, when she used flesh from her arm to heal her parents (see Chapter 2). The self-inflicted wounds of the mediums meet the same need: to serve the divinity who takes the place of mother and father for them, the “divination children,” in a sort of communal offering of their own blood. Thereafter, Xie Fuzhu was officially considered to be Chen Jinggu’s medium. From that time, although she continues to sell vegetables in the market every morning, in the afternoon, as a part-time goddess, she receives in her home any person wishing to consult Chen Jinggu. The goddess comes to possess her and breathes into her a song, always the same, demonstrating her presence, after which Ah Ge yawns and violently shakes her head in all directions, a sign that she yields her place to her sublimated being, the divinity. It is at this moment that in a trance she takes her place to the west of the altar set up in a room at the back of her house, and replies to patients by knocking on the table with her wrists, by means of which she communicates with the cosmos.24 Her mother used to sit to the east of the altar and interpret her divine words. When her mother died, in 1987, Ah Ge’s daughter took her role. Once they reach a certain age, mediums can give up the practice of the trance, while continuing to fulfill an important ritual role as ritual master officiants (fashi). Such was the case in Gaoxiong of Ke Xianli, who was at

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the center of the female ritual community of the “Apprentices” (nü mentu), which traces itself back to Mount Lü. For many years, Ke Xianli officiated there as medium. By the time I met her, she hardly ever entered into a trance any more, but continued to perform minor rites (xiaofa) as an officiant, in the same way as a Red Head master, without, however, either the title or the costume. She could “quiet the mind of a terror-stricken child” (shoujing) and do exorcisms; she could also write a large number of talismans and even bring to a successful conclusion more complex rites without divine inspiration.25 This was in part the result of the teaching she had received in the community of the Apprentices, and also in part the result of the ecstatic dreams during the trance.26 On this subject we recall once again the Daoist “Spontaneously Empty,” Zikong, the Old Mother of Mount Li (Li Shan Laomu), specialist in embryonic breathing (see Chapter 1, note 15). Having reached the end of her alchemical journey, she was living in a hermitage where she was teaching the young girl with the Golden Tiger, Jiang Hupo. She had given up food cooked with fire, just as the mediums give up the trance. The outcome for the Old Mother is not the same as the outcome for the mediums, however, as the story of Chen Jinggu shows. The journey carried out by the medium has in fact many similarities to the one we outlined in Chapter 1: after a regression to the state of infancy, “divination child” (jitong), which at the same time gives access to the very essence of the divinity and confers this power of mastering the “alien” (ling) in the self and in others, one finally liberates oneself from one’s former fate. This is the tuotai of internal alchemy, but it is the return to ordinary life for the one who does not possess the secrets, when the divinity withdraws her transferential support. It is stated, moreover, in precisely these terms: the divinity “has withdrawn” (likai).

Ah Ge after the Trance Xie Fuzhu–Ah Ge was at this time, like Chen Jinggu at the time of her visit to Spontaneously Empty at Flag Mountain (Qi Shan), at the stage of symbolic infancy that Ke Xianli had for her part passed beyond, just as had Spontaneously Empty. Nevertheless, Ah Ge did not escape her inevitable destiny. Several years later, in 1989, the Linshui Temple was rebuilt and decorated at great expense, with gilded bas-reliefs and new statues: nothing was considered too beautiful to ornament the new building. But the heads

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of the temple (literally, “heads of the incense burner”) had changed; the community of the cult and its priorities were evolving. Many of the faithful declared that, despite its magnificence, the temple had lost its power (ling); Ah Ge–Chen Jinggu shed many tears on this subject. Xie Fuzhu and her community of faithful decided to change their affiliation. They wanted to go back and renew links with the mainland, going there to “divide incense” (fenxiang). Each member of the informal community made a contribution and they began to build a little temple in the courtyard of Ah Ge’s house. Unfortunately, the work had to be suspended. A motorcycle accident on her way to the Linshui Temple forced her to stop—temporarily?—her practice. Without Chen Jinggu’s help, she says, she would not have survived.

Xie Fuzhu and the Linshui Temple: The Festival of Chen Jinggu Xie Fuzhu is not officially attached to the Linshui Temple, as some mediums are to the temple of their divinity, but unofficially she is the most important figure there. It is to her that the temple caretakers will send a believer who seeks a consultation. Moreover, they often call her by the name of her personal divinity, Chen Jinggu, a practice that, though not unique to her, nevertheless guarantees her predominance.27 She visits the temple frequently, if not regularly: she can come, following a dream, for an audience with Chen Jinggu, or to participate in a ritual that she prescribed in the course of a consultation at her home. Once a year, however, she goes in great ceremony to the temple, on the day of the festival of Chen Jinggu. This day is officially fixed on the fifteenth of the first lunar month, her birthday. And it is on that day, and for several days before and after, that pilgrims flock to the temple from all over the island. Xie Fuzhu, however, does not go to the Linshui Temple on this day. Every year Chen Jinggu reveals to her the true date of her festival, which takes place a little earlier. And it is on this unofficial date, not a secret for all those who regularly visit her house, that Xie Fuzhu goes to the Linshui Temple in a procession. Dressed in white and wearing a red belt, which is the mourning costume worn by a daughter, Xie Fuzhu, in a trance since dawn, dances while escorting to the temple the statue of Chen Jinggu that is usually on her personal altar. She is accompanied by musicians who lead the procession and by all the faithful who make up this informal ritual community brought together on this day.

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Chen Jinggu sometimes travels at the time of this festival. Thus, in 1980, she left for several days before her birthday to go to her natal province to visit her home. Xie Fuzhu who, once again, knows Chen Jinggu’s story only vaguely, could not say exactly where the goddess went. She knew, however, that she went to Fujian and that her seat remained empty for several days. She returned for the day of the festival.28 At the temple, the community tries to reactivate the links of consubstantiality with the personal divinity (benshen). The statue of the divinity is passed over the principal incense burner so that it can absorb the incense offered by her believers, thereby making her renew the authority of her cult. This ritual act is called “crossing the incense burner” (guolu). Then Ah Ge, still in a trance, dances and sings while using the ritual weapons to hit herself several times on the back and the forehead, causing blood to flow. The festival of Chen Jinggu is the only official occasion in the year when Ah Ge uses her weapons. She never uses them during the rituals of the Flowers or the guan (nor do the other mediums). She can, however, handle these celestial weapons if she goes on a pilgrimage in a trance at the time of another divinity’s festival. This act always has a communal function. Furthermore, the believers, who respectfully and gratefully witness these mutilations, subsequently hurry to sponge with the yellow rice paper used for writing talismans the blood that flows from the wounds thus inflicted. It is believed that this blood confers invulnerability to illness and demons. Finally, while dancing, she reveals the words of the goddess in her house: she relates how her journey went, comments on the festival on that day, and, possibly, pronounces oracles for the year to come. The procession then takes the road to Ah Ge’s house, where the day ends in festivities. On the official day of the festival, the fifteenth of the first month, at Ah Ge’s house a private festival is celebrated by all her clients, while crowds of pilgrims go to the temple. They come from other Chen Jinggu temples throughout the island or from temples of friendly divinities, whose mediums hurry to offer congratulations on this occasion, while scourging themselves with their celestial weapons. They also pass statues of other divinities over the incense burner as a sign of communion and purification. The festival thus takes place exactly as described earlier. At Ah Ge’s, large tables of offerings are set up and Chen Jinggu, present in the person of her medium since dawn, blesses the faithful who come to visit her. At the same time Red Head Master Lin, her master, helps her to “correct the fate” (gaiyun) of the visitors and to consecrate the offerings.

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The festival of Chen Jinggu is thus the great moment of meeting between these two locations of her cult: the temple, which is the visible and exposed part, and Ah Ge’s house, which is its private space. It is the moment when the communities of the “incense sharing” (fenxiang) are made visible. They come to make their contribution, renew the links, and even to create new ones.

Xie Fuzhu’s House In Xie Fuzhu’s house there is a room in which she has set up an altar of the Three Ladies (Sannai)—Chen Jinggu, Lin Jiuniang, and Li Sanniang—and on which there is also a painting of the goddess Guanyin.29 Every afternoon this room fills with patients who have come with questions for Chen Jinggu. Women make up the majority, but many men also come to consult her. It is in this place that visits to the Linshui Temple and the rituals to be performed are decided on.30 These visitors come for all sorts of reasons, and it is in this place that they find Chen Jinggu, at one and the same time shaman, Mount Lü exorcist, and protector of women and children. In fact, although the part of her field of action that is visible in the temple exclusively concerns women (the Flowers) and children (the guan), at Ah Ge’s the range is much broader. She is asked to “correct fate” (gaiyun) or to make a medical prescription, to carry out an exorcism or to pronounce an oracle. Whenever Chen Jinggu manifests her presence, Ah Ge, in a trance, takes her place, seated to the west of her altar. Patients take turns kneeling there and express their requests while clearly indicating their eight birth characters. After quickly calculating on the joints of her fingers the basic facts of the stars under which the patient was born, she gives her response in song and her mother, at the end of the altar, interprets, if necessary.31 Then Ah Ge usually writes several talismans, which she gives to the patient to take away; the patient will drink the ashes of the talisman dissolved in water. She writes these fu automatically, drawing tangled graphs rather than identifiable characters: these inspired lines are the distinctive features of the body thus evoked, that of the spirit from Chen Jinggu’s divine Register (lu) delegated to help the patient, before whom she waves incense, while pronouncing ritual formulas and performing dance steps.32 That is the outline of a minimal consultation. It can vary and become much more complex, depending on the case. If it is a question of health, for

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example, Ah Ge will be directed to take the patient’s pulse, which she will do at three different locations on the wrist, like doctors of Chinese medicine. She will prescribe traditional medicines, plant-based decoctions, for which she provides the formulas and measures.33 When she deems it necessary, it also happens that she sends a patient to a doctor trained in Western medicine, which is not unusual for a medium. If it is an exorcism, she will sometimes be led to “correct the fate.” She will then travel “through the paths and passes” by enveloping the patient in wreaths of purifying incense and by burning cones of rice paper to pay the demons she encounters, thereby rectifying—as is done during rituals—the patient’s path and fate.34 She can likewise recommend a ritual at the Temple of Heaven or at the Temple of the Eastern Peak. And finally, we have already cited the cases where, like other mediums, she will be led to “collect the terror” (shoujing) of a stricken child, or even go to the patient’s house to carry out a rite of exorcism, for example, the rite of “apologizing to the earth” (xietu) (see Chapter 8).35 It is also in comparable consultations that she can decide to prescribe a ritual to “cultivate the Flower” of a woman or to help a child “cross a guan,” or even to guide an adult in crossing the Northern Dipper. In any case, the only visible part of the ritual is the medium’s trance; the other part, invisible, is performed by the divinity. Patients can also come just to ask for an oracle or for specific advice for daily life: When should one get married? When should one move house? Is this child’s future assured? Will the husband’s business affairs work out? And so on. These are seemingly trivial questions, but ones that, if we think about it, give her considerable power. It is in this way that Ah Ge–Chen Jinggu makes and unmakes families. She strongly counsels divorce to one woman or, on the other hand, she sharply reprimands another for what she considers to be her bad behavior as a wife; she advises giving up for adoption a child whose birth characters are opposed to those of a member of the family; she reveals that the source of the ills the husband or the woman, or even the child, suffer from is none other than an ancestor of the family related by marriage, thus reviving old quarrels, and so on. It is in her little office that the great lines of force in Chinese society intersect, and it is she, the divination child, who at the center of this web spins its thread. It is therefore entirely consistent that her advice usually champions the status quo, since she works with—is it really unconsciously?—its fundamental ideas.

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The Didactic Trance There is a possible encounter, however, among these diverse interactions that causes another thread of this web to vibrate: that of Ah Ge and another woman who is on her way to becoming a medium herself. It is a true shaping that is achieved in the ascetic practice undertaken by this woman. The secret elaboration of her dreams, physical symptoms, and desires leads her gently in a regression to the state of infancy right up to the trance—up to oblivion, since this word means “to sit down and forget” (zuowang), when she escapes the traditional model and role.36 I had the opportunity to observe such a relationship. Ah Ge’s patient, who had undertaken this procedure, came very often to consult her. She faithfully reported all her dreams, her fantasies, and her symptoms, which Chen Jinggu interpreted as stages on her journey to the trance and as signs from the divinity who was trying to possess her. Little by little, she too began to yawn and to suddenly have the hiccups. She then set up in her house an altar to Guanyin whom she worshipped every day by burning incense. However, the time had not yet come for her to “take her role” (daban). The divinity was content to test her, causing symptoms and indispositions. It is worth noting that Ah Ge–Chen Jinggu did not teach her directly, but only interpreted and directed the discourse that this woman addressed to her. What she learned was actually from herself. This knowledge was enhanced by the almost daily observation of Ah Ge’s practices. Thus, one day she realized that she “knew” how to “collect terror.” Finally she realized the efficacy of the formulas that she had heard repeated for so long when she pronounced them herself. She regarded this fact as a step in her personal self-discipline toward the trance. This teaching without pedagogy is the path generally adopted. That is the path that the Gaoxiong Apprentices recommended to me: to set up in one’s home an altar to Chen Jinggu and to harvest from it private teaching through meditation and by analyzing dreams and symptoms. The study of ritual invocations, the writing of codified talismans (not written automatically in a trance), and ritual techniques are another step that can only come possibly as an adjunct.

The Pearl of Chen Jinggu The “linking” of Xie Fuzhu and Chen Jinggu makes itself visible on three different levels, through three symbolically complementary locations: Ah Ge’s body, the Linshui Temple, and Xie Fuzhu’s house. These three sites

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merge on the day of the unofficial festival of Chen Jinggu, when these three strands appear simultaneously as things in themselves and as part of a larger scheme. Ah Ge + Chen Jinggu

temple

self

Xie Fuzhu’s house

+ Red Head master

original body / self

+ mother as interpreter

+ ritual community =

+ regressive union =

+ shamanic community =

women and children

self and goddess

women, men, and children

Ah Ge as medium

Ah Ge as divinity

Ah Ge as shaman

Chen Jinggu’s festival

Sexual Categories There is a question that arises outside the evidence thus far presented: what do the people who come to consult Xie Fuzhu actually expect from her? And what, then, is the language whose words form of their own accord in her throat? The Red Head master performing a ritual uses a codified language: his efficacy lies in a liturgical tradition. The language of the medium, in contrast, arises in the self, outside of codified laws—since the medium observes neither tones nor the coherence of words in her song. This is what accounts for the impossibility of recalling their dreams that the mediums experience, part of this divine language that neither can nor should be completely spoken. In the same way, Xie Fuzhu’s life turns key points of the legend into a reality, sequences whose symbolic efficacy does not have to be recognized to be lived. The story of Chen Jinggu reprises elements typical of the sexual categories and of Daoist alchemy. This explains Ah Ge’s scant knowledge of the story of Chen Jinggu, which nevertheless provides the model for her own. There is a tacit code in this story that makes manifest the pattern in which each particular variant of the female biography traces its own path.

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There is another way to become a medium that is reserved for men (see Dean and Zheng, 1993). Young men are trained in martial arts groups for the trance and for certain ritual practices. These are the “monkey children” of the processions, or the “boxers.” But the principle of their identification with a mythical model is created through a process of apprenticeship, in the classic meaning of the word, including a teaching of specific techniques. Their trance is a ritual dance; it thus pertains to offerings and sacrifice. Some men, of course, also follow the same self-discipline as Ah Ge. Ah Ge’s trance (and that of the mediums who follow the same journey) is located prior to the sacrifice: it is the verbal origin of it. Its words are signs written on the wind in an impossible arrangement: that of religion or of the quest for the unconscious self. It is these signs that people come to demand from her, people who have only an inkling of this language, because they have lost the spontaneity of it, the spontaneity of forgetting.

co nc lusion

Although forgetting, “spontaneity” in the Daoist sense of the word, is the basis of this religious system, just as it is emptiness that connects the manifestations of the full life, the cult does not let itself be forgotten. It overlooks no means of crossing time and space to continue to emerge, be present, and be known. Thus, from its probable origin as a shamanic lineage worshipping the Snake constellation, it became one of the dominant cults of the country of Min. It was subsequently supported by a canonized divinity, Chen Jinggu, who was recognized by the Daoists of the country, such as Chen Shouyuan, and later by the educated, such as Zhang Yining. Out of different myths of the country of Min and its sacred sites, it was able to fashion its own myth of origin, reprising for its own purposes local traditions and the mapping of the country in its pilgrimages and the expulsion of its “demons.” This goddess then became a sort of civilizing ancestor or goddess of the soil (Houtu Furen), accomplishing her “undertaking to pacify” the country (pingyao). Later, the legend was embroidered, bedecked over the centuries with various borrowings—from the Fengshen yanyi and the Xiyou ji. The heart of its myths was elaborated, giving rise to other “novels” or collections of legends, such as the Mindu bieji or Chen shisi qizhuan. And finally, as Chen 259

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Jinggu’s original identity became hazier, she became an ersatz Guanyin or Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wangmu), “sister” of the Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun). Its affiliation with the tradition of the local Daoist Mount Lü sect (very close to that of the Zhengyi tradition) allowed it to make Chen Jinggu the master of the line and its ritual masters (fashi or Hongtou), just like Xu Jia, Laozi’s servant. Here, again, its shamanic rites of treatment and exorcism merged with those of the Song dynasty traditions emanating from Shenxiao, Tianxin zhengfa, and the alchemical techniques of the Five Thunders and the Northern Dipper, while also integrating many elements from tantric Buddhism. The original story tells of Chen Jinggu, a woman who became the patron of the feminine and of childhood. In her shamanic practice, she was able, just like Xie Fuzhu today, to be omnipresent in the daily lives of people through her therapeutic rites, particularly those marking the different stages of women’s lives. The myths of Chen Jinggu and the ritual tradition of the Mount Lü sect were extended to underpin these practices. Song dynasty medicine in its heyday particularly influenced this cultural ensemble. Finally, the cult was able to go beyond the country of Min. The “dividing of incense” (fenxiang) had already taken it to Taiwan. Soon language and writing became its weapons: Guoyu rather than Hokkienese, and the “novel” (xiaoshuo) rather than the stories of the bards or the theater. It was the Linshui pingyao zhuan that filled this role so well that the cult has reached Europe and the United States. And before long even promotion to the level of a national cult was not enough; it required other texts for an even larger audience. This new stage was soon reached. This work cannot give an account of the present breadth and vigor of the networks of the cult in Taiwan as well as in Fujian where, starting from the years of relative liberalization (1980) right up to the present, it has been rehabilitated and encouraged. The present-day cult is under the control of the Daojiao Xiehui, the (government) Daoist Organization of China, making it a recognized “Daoist” cult and no longer a “superstition” to be banned. Two conferences, in 1993 and 2003, have already encouraged research into the history and different aspects of “Chen Jinggu culture.” The two communities, one on the mainland and one in Taiwan, long ago renewed contact. The Taiwanese “brothers” come regularly to divide incense and refurbish the temples. Those in Singapore and Southeast Asia do likewise. The economic networks are again watered from the source that had once dried up.

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My strange encounter took place with the consent of the goddess and the hearing of her words through her medium, who invited me to sit next to her in the place of assistant. The Red Head masters, among them Shi Xihui in Taiwan and Ma Shouzhong in Gutian, gave me access to their divine registers; and finally, the faithful and their communities, recognizing me as one of their own, shared with me the altar of the goddess. This book, I hope, will fulfill our tacit agreement. No doubt it sometimes jumbles the way historians would arrange things, as ethnologists tend to do when they try to separate “comparable things,” such as mechanisms of thought or, to borrow Lendclud’s expression, “localized layers of quasi causal linkages” (Détienne, 2000: 51). I sought above all to bring these different elements together and to show the close relations that exist between the acts, beliefs, rites, and myths that are usually treated independently. In this context they articulate the Chinese notions of the feminine, the sexual categories, and childhood. They are not a catalog of scattered examples of what the most hostile call “superstitions,” and the well-intentioned “beliefs without a factual basis.” This journey, this passage through the places and times of the cult, has shown along the way many paths to take, many secondary roads open to other cults, other myths, other places and times. One could undertake the study of the cults and sacred sites of the country of Min in this and other eras, or studies of other cults that in the same period sent out messages similar to those in the Linshui pingyao zhuan: the cults of Mazu or Guanyin, for example, which have rarely been examined from this anthropological point of view. One could also study the cults of other divinities of the pantheon of the Mount Lü sect in relation to the cult of Chen Jinggu. Furthermore, the exploration of the relations between the different ritual traditions in this syncretic field undertaken over the centuries should allow us to better understand the traditions of South China. Biographies of women could also shed more light on it. Such was the point of departure for this study. One question occurred to me at the outset: What does it mean to be “a woman in China,” in Chinese religion? This question seemed to be relevant because of the way Daoism exploited the theme of the feminine. From this point of view, the Linshui pingyao zhuan did not disappoint. It expresses very clearly, in a language other than the classic language of Daoism, what the feminine is in Chinese culture. The rites and the actual experience of Chinese women observed, especially that of Chen Jinggu’s medium, demonstrate the true function of

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the language that says that women as full partners in liturgical Daoism, as “half the sky,” exist only in the imaginary, as transcendent symbolic qualities of the sexual categories. These are the goddesses, the power ling, the female Immortals who create religion and its efficacy through the power of regression (ni) preached by Daoism. In reality, women are mothers, givers of sons to a patriline, and if escape is necessary for them, they become shamans and mediums, in this way moving between their social reality and their religious model. Some of them will try Total Perfection (Quanzhen) long-life asceticism and become Daoist specialists, the “immortals of present-day China.” The truth of the novel is confirmed not only in the myths of Chen Jinggu, dead because of her inability to combine motherhood, rituality, and the selfdiscipline of internal alchemy, but also in the life of Xie Fuzhu, who reconciles all three, and in the lives of women in general through the rites of the cult. “Cultivating the Flowers” can lead to conception, just as it can lead to the trance. This explains the striking gap between the predominance of the role of women in primitive Daoism—sexual equality, the necessity to unite the male and female breaths and essences, the existence of matriarchs in real life, of whom little is said—and their very unenviable status in the reality of Chinese society in the past: infanticide, adoption, forced marriage, lifelong exile from their place of birth, and many suicides. This also explains the relation between the feminine and shamanism and its dramatization here: the story of Chen Jinggu and the White Snake, the story of the death of the shaman of the country of Min following an “abortion,” which made her into a goddess of motherhood and master of the line of ritual masters of Mount Lü, their womb-embryo mountain. At the beginning of this work another question arose in regard to childhood and its actual and symbolic function, a question suggested by calling the mediums “divination children” (jitong). The answer came naturally in the language of the feminine, that is, in this context, of the woman-child pairing. It would seem that a distinctive notion of childhood emerges in this religious universe, childhood envisioned as the “manifest” (fa) quality of two universes. On the one hand, “the divination child” “reveals the divinity” (fashen), a phrase that indicates the trance. On the other hand, this period of childhood, with its still ill-defined fate, manifests “limits” (guan): limits between two universes, the one of the living and the one of the dead, limits between two kinds of societies, two sociological groups, matrilineal and patrilineal, with their respective ancestors. And finally, it manifests through these knots (guan)

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the violent rhythms of a personal cosmogony. In developing the notion of previous lives, karma, it establishes bridges with the psychoanalytic mode of action and its work on language and the generations of a family. Once again, a certain notion of religion emerges, as seen from the center occupied by the child, in the different meanings of this word. Through this notion, women appear as producers of children in two ways. As mothers, they produce sons and guarantee the perpetuation of the lineage. In religion, as mediums, they produce “divination children,” thereby manifesting both revelation and divinity. Therein lies their ambiguity, just like that of pregnancy and tuotai, this birth of their own sublimated being.

n otes

Introduction 1. Thus the original history of the universe, that of the Dao, is in a way the history of the body of this woman, Laozi’s mother, the Jade Maiden of Obscure Subtlety (Xuanmiao Yunü), Laozi himself. If the body of the universe— space—is thus symbolically a female body, then the time of creation, the time of transformations, is none other than the period of gestation. Laozi, the Old Baby, singing in the womb of his mother, was in a way pregnant with himself, the Universe. See Schipper, 1978a: 362–63. It is to these myths of the creation of the universe that the fundamental principles of Daoist philosophy based on the notion of return, of a movement in reverse (ni) toward the origin, toward the image of a maternal body, the original chaos, correspond. The word ni, which refers to this process, specifically evokes that of the embryo in the body of its mother. The practices of “nourishing life” (yangsheng) developed from this choice, that is, nourishing within oneself the “embryo of immortality” and becoming, like Laozi, pregnant with oneself. In order to arrive at this result, one is advised to develop the feminine within oneself. See Waley, 1958: 178 (ch. 28): “He who knows the male, yet cleaves to what is female / Becomes like a ravine, receiving all things under heaven, / And being such a ravine / He knows all the time a power that he never calls upon in vain. / This is returning to the state of infancy. / He who knows the white, yet cleaves to the black / Becomes the standard by which all things are tested; / And being such a standard / He has all the time a power that never errs, / He returns to the Limitless.” That is the origin of the two different approaches to the world, of two complementary languages that Zhuangzi likewise places in opposition: that of wisdom (zhi) and that of listening to oneself, of gestation, in the sense where one “preserves” (shou) in oneself. See Kaltenmark, 1965. 2. Schipper, 1982b: 22, where he says: “The local chiefs, the elders who lead the villages (sometimes even non-Chinese minorities), will find in the initiation and the Daoist cult the consecration that legitimizes their power at the limits of the official administration and sometimes in opposition to it.” 265

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3. See Schipper, 1982b, on the transmission of the writings, called the transmission of the “bones.” In addition, the Chinese believe that at the time of the conception of a child the man transmits the bones and the woman the blood and the flesh. The female part of this symbolic body is thus absent here. 4. See Schipper, 1982b: 122, on the sacrifice of the writings. 5. The country of Min corresponds to the present-day maritime province of Fujian, located in southeast China. Between 909 and 945, during the period of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms (907–79), this country was one of the ten kingdoms of the south. In general, for the history of the kingdom of Min, see Schafer, 1954; Zhu Weigan, 1984: esp. 142–79. See also Ouyang Xiu, 11th c. [1975]; Liu Xu, 945 [1975]: (jiu) Tangshu; Su Juzheng, 10th c. [1976]: (jiu) Wudai shi. See also Ouyang Xiu, 11th c. [1974]; Chen Shouqi, 1868–71 [1983]; He Qiaolian, 1992; Huang Zhongshao, 1485–89 [1990]; Wu Renchen, 17th c. [1983]. 6. Zhang Yining (1301–70) was a scholar, a native of Gutian district in Fujian. An official during the Yuan (1277–1367), he was also a celebrated statesman at the beginning of the Ming (1368–1644). See Chen, 1974: 21. 7. Zhejiang is a maritime province in eastern China, north of Fujian, the place of origin of the ritual tradition of the Shenxiao. Mount Tiantai and Putuo Island, major sites of Buddhism, are also located there. 8. Hong Tianxi, a man of Quanzhou (fl. 1225–28). 9. This is a reference to the laws of geomancy. The temple represents the head of the dragon that must be protected from harmful influences. 10. It is the goddess Mazu, protector of sailors. See Doré, 1914, vol. 11: 914–20; Maspero, 1971: 164; Xu Xiaowang, 1993: 303–29. See J. Watson, 1985, on the “standardization” of her cult following methods similar to those that we observe here. However, no specific ritual tradition is associated with Mazu’s legends and cult. 11. Clearly it is Jiutian caifang shizhe, the Messenger of the Inquisition of the Nine Heavens, one of the masters of the Thunder ritual tradition and guardian of Lu Shan in Jiangxi, who was supposed to protect the world from “heterodox cults.” See Boltz, 1987: 81. 12. Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan, reprinted by Ye Dehui from a Ming (1368–1644) edition, 4, 15–16; and Sanjiao yuanliu shengdi foshuai soushen ji (undated, probably nineteenth century), xylographic edition of the Tanya tang, 2, 5a–6b, which gives an almost identical version. 13. Chen Jinggu, here, is called “She Who Is Presented,” Jingu. Usually, she is called “She Who Pacifies,” Jinggu, because of her exorcistic role in the Min Kingdom. 14. This description recalls tantric Buddhism. 15. It is called: Qulei pomiao gangfa. 16. Today in Taiwan the festival of Lin Jiuniang takes place on the fifteenth of the eighth month, and that of Li San Furen (Li Sanniang) on the ninth of the ninth month. The dates are thus reversed. 17. There is no trace of this essay. 18. In this context, Dao of the Left (zuodao) refers to the ritual arts of Mao Shan. See Saso, 1978a: 127ff.

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19. It is a fu, a written talisman composed of seal script giving power over the spirits. See Strickmann, 2002: 123ff. The use of talismans combines, once again, Daoist and Buddhist practices. 20. Tuotai is a Daoist expression referring to the “liberation from the womb” performed by beings who have attained the Dao. It is used here ambiguously when the pregnant Chen Jinggu “aborts” in order to perform the rite for rain. We shall analyze this point in Chapter 2. 21. Baihe, Gaoxiong district, Taiwan, stele dated 1977. 22. On this date, a year in the Yonghe reign period of Kangzong (935–39) of the country of Min, Chen Jinggu would have been thirty-one years old and not twenty-four. 23. On the Daoist master Chen Shouyuan of the Zhengyi ritual tradition, whose presence is attested between 931 and 935 at the court of the kingdom of Min, see below in the Introduction, where I reproduce a passage from the Xin wudai shi that refers to him. See also Hu Fuchen, 1985: 110. Schafer (1974: 47, 91–97) mentions him. The temple that is mentioned is the temple of the Jade Emperor in Fuzhou. It was restored at the end of the twentieth century. 24. Xu Zhenjun (239–92/374?) is supposed to have been prefect in Shujun district in Sichuan. He lived in Yuchang in Jiangxi. As Boltz (1987: 70) says: “Apparently Hsü [Xu] was venerated first both as a healer and for his capacity to vanquish dragons and similarly fearsome creatures. Only later, it seems, was this heroic vision amplified by legends defining him as a paragon of filial piety. Eventually, the regional customs of worship associated with this local guardian were subsumed into a nationalistic dispensation given the name of Chingming chung-hsiao Tao (Jingming zhongxiao dao) (The Loyal and Filial Way of the Pure and Perspicacious).” Ibid.: 72: “When the reptiles he confronted were identified as manifestations of wayward spirits commanding local shrines, Hsü also made certain their altars were destroyed and that all propitiatory rites were terminated. This new emphasis in the hagiography reflects one of the concerns that apparently motivated Sung Hui-tsung to offer special homage to Hsü Sun. In 1112 he authorized Hsü’s first official title: Shen-kung miao-chi chen-chün (shengong miaoji zhenjun).” Xu Sun was thereafter considered to be one of the mythic founders of the Thunder rites, of which there are different traditions dating from this period during the Song. See Saso, 1978a: 53, 235–36. See also Schipper, 1982a. We shall return to this point. 25. Yamu zhou. This island is in the Min River, at the place where, it is said, Chen Jinggu carried out her ritual for rain. 26. These are manuscript texts. 27. I also found a manuscript of this play in 1991 in Fujian. It had been translated by a former actor who had acted in it himself in the past. The play principally dramatizes the figures of Chen Jinggu, the White Snake, the Ravine Demon, and the queen of Min. 28. See Recorded Sayings of Pö Yüchan (Harvard Yenching Index to the Taoist Canon, Daozang zumu yinde [1296] I, 8b–9a, Beijing, 1936; reprint Taipei, 1966) cited by Strickmann, 1978: 349n50. 29. This theme of “flying” mountains is also found elsewhere. See Shahar, 1992.

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30. See Despeux, 1990: 53, who mentions this fact following Houji, 5, 8a: “In the Zhenyuan era (785–805) two Daoist women, Cai Xunzhen and Li Tengkong, healed with the help of talismans, various remedies, and alchemical techniques on Mount Lu.” 31. Bai Yuchan (1194–1229), a native of Minqing in Fujian. See Hu Fuchen, 1985: 127; Boltz, 1978: 176–79: HY 263, Xiuzhen shishu. According to Boltz (1978: 179n467), a text collecting communications on the rituals pronounced by Bai at Zhongyou guan at Mount Wuyi in Fujian (HY 263: 47, 10a–16b, dated 1216) clarifies especially the codifications that the Daofa huiyuan gives of the multiple traditions of the Thunder rites. See also Boltz, 1978: 47, 72. 32. In 1991 the statue of Chen Jinggu remained for two weeks in the rustic little temple of Jiutian fazhu, near Pingnan. It had been carried there in procession during the festival of the goddess and had not yet been reinstated in her own temple. These visits between divinities are common and represent the relations established between their communities of believers. 33. This is an oral tradition reported to me in Fujian, reprising this theme of female communities, so firmly established and vibrant in this place. Many of them are of Wangmu and Laomu, whose identities are sometimes confused; they are associated there with mountains and presented as initiators. This is the case, for example, with Li Shan Laomu, the Old Mother of Mount Li, who is said to have come to Flag Mountain (Qi Shan) in Fujian to teach Lady Jiang. See Chapter 1. The painting on the cover illustrates this point. It shows Wang Mu sitting above Chen Jinggu and her sisters Lin and Li. See also Baptandier, 1996a, where another painting shows the Mount Lü Masters sitting above the Three Ladies. 34. The Three Ladies are Chen Jinggu and her two ritual “sisters,” Lin Jiuniang and Li Sanniang, whom we will return to later in this work. See also Hu Fuchen, 1985: 113. 35. The Jingming zhongxiao dao began with a certain Liu Yuzhen (12th c.), who had a vision of Xu Sun, after which he founded this movement. This school includes elements of internal alchemy. Despeux, 1990: 99n4; Boltz, 1978: 70– 78. On Xu Sun, see note 24 above. On the relation between the tradition of the Mount Lü sect and the Zhengyi and Jingming sects of Daoism, see Zhuang Kongshao, 1993: 13; Lai Biqiang and Lin Weigong, 1993: 47; Saso, 1978a: 60. See also Hu Fuchen, 1985: 71. 36. On the therapeutic methods associated with them, see Boltz, 1983, 1987, 1993; Saso, 1978a, 1989; Despeux, 1994: 173–91; Strickmann, 1975, 1983–85, 2000. 37. See Boltz, 1987: 26–30: HY1272, “Formulary for the Transmission of Scriptures According to the Patriarchs of the Most Exalted Divine Empyrean” (Gaoshang shenxiao zongshi shou jing shi), which traces the history of Shenxiao from its cosmic origins to the reign of Emperor Huizong (no. 1282 in Schipper Daozang: “Protocol of the Reception of the Scriptures of the Patriarch of the Highest Divine Empyrean”). 38. Boltz, 1987: “Great Rites in the Purple Script of the Most Exalted Divine Empyrean” (Gaoshang shenxiao zushu dafa, HY 1209). 39. See Boltz, 1987: 39: “Preserved in an anonymous text, the HY 222, are

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in fact some extraordinary mandala-like diagrams serving as demonifuge talismans. This manual, a late distillation of the Ch’ing-wei textual corpus, defines Ch’ing-wei as merely another name for Shen-Hsiao.” HY 222: Qingwei shenlie bifa, “Secret Rites of the Sacred Candescence of Qingwei.” 40. See Boltz, 1987: 39, 68–70: HY 171: Qingwei xianpu (Genealogies of the Qingwei Immortals), T. 171 (fasc. 75), compiled in 1293 by Chen Cai of Jian’an in Fujian, a student of Huang Shunshen (1224–86), the principal codifier of the Qingwei texts. 41. Zu Shu is said to have possessed all the learning of the different Daoist traditions: Lingbao, Daode, Zhengyi, and Shangqing. A native of Guangxi, she received the revelations in Hunan. Her hagiography was compiled in 1293 by Chen Cai, in Fujian. See Boltz, 1987: 68–70; and Despeux, 1990: 99: “An important work of this syncretist movement that combined elements of the Zhengyi, Shangqing, and Lingbao is T1220 (fasc. 884 941) Daofa huiyuan, in 268 juan, including the list of the names of the female divinities and female adepts of this movement (15.6b).” 42. According to Hu Fuchen (1985: 112), Tan Zixiao, under his zi (“style”) Zilei, is said to have been a master of the arts of the Shangqing tianxin zhengfa. Furthermore, the king of Min appointed him master of the Zhengyi sect. See also Schafer, 1954: 98. 43. As an example, the Furen Nainiang zhuan, a manuscript of Linshui gong of Gutian, is attributed both to the Tianxin zhengfa and to the Lü Shan zhengfa, the two traditions here being called “twins” (shuanglun). 44. See Boltz, 1987: 34, quoting the “Secret Essentials on Assembling the Perfected of the Most High for the Relief of the State and Deliverance of the People” (Taishang zhuguo jiumin zongzheng biyao, HY 1217). At the heart of this corpus is a manual of talismanic applications with the title “Correct Rites of the Celestial Heart from the Northern Bourne of Shangqing” (Shangqing Beiji Tianxin zhengfa) (Schipper Daozang, no. 1227). 45. See Boltz, 1987: 35: Shangqing tianxin zhengfa (“Correct Rites of the Celestial Heart of Shangqing”), in 7 ch. HY 566 (Schipper Daozang, no. 566); and Shangqing gusui lingwenguilu (“Ordinances Governing the Specters, a Numinous Text from the Marrow of Shangqing”), in 3 ch. HY 461 (Schipper Daozang, no. 61). 46. The Talismanic Image of the Jade Emperor, written by a fashi of the Mount Lü sect in Gutian, is constructed precisely on this opposition between the Bureau of Exorcisms (Quxie yuan) and the Ministry of Thunder and Lightning (Leiting du sifu). 47. On the Romance of the Demon Slayer (Zhong Kui zhuogui zhuan), see Eliasberg, 1976; Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong, 1978; and The History of the Pacification of Demons by the Three Brothers Sui (San Sui pingyao zhuan), attributed to Luo Guanzhong (14th c. [1983]), reprised and enlarged by Feng Menglong, Pingyao zhuan (ca. 17th c. [1957]). 48. On the emergence of this type of literature, see Dudbridge, 1978, where he examines the evolution of the existing sources on the subject of the legend of Guanyin. See also Overmyer, 1999.

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49. Wan’an Bridge was first built around 820. It was rebuilt, 240 years later, by the prefect Cai Xiang (1011–66) over the river Pujiang, where it exits Quanzhou, in Fujian, between the fifth year of the Huangyou reign period and the fourth year of the Jiayou reign period of Emperor Renzong of the Song, that is, between 1054 and 1060. The name Luoyang Bridge (Luoyang qiao) was given to it in memory of the words pronounced one day by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang (846–59), to whom the beauty of the countryside recalled the town of the same name. See Shi Hongbao, 19th c. [1985]: 46; Ye Zhongming, 1983: 1. This mythological episode of the so-called Luoyang Bridge symbolically transfers the Wan’an Bridge (on the Pu River, in Fujian) to the Luo River (in Henan). This is the very place where the “Luo (River) Writing” was revealed. It is routinely paired with the “Yellow River Chart” (He tu), which revealed the secret patterns of Heaven to Fuxi, who also discovered the Trigrams (bagua) (see Lewis, 1999: 200). We shall come back to this point in Chapter 5. Cai Xiang was born in Xianyou, in the south of Fujian. He became president of the Ministry of Rites under the name Cai Zhonghui. See Giles, 1898: 750. See also Quanzhou fu zhi, 1967, vol. 26: 8, and vol. 10: 8ff.; Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 1. (Unless otherwise noted, all citations of the Linshui pingyao zhuan refer to the Ruicheng shuju edition.) 50. This is also the opinion of Xu Xiaowang (1993) and also of Lin Guoping (1993). The latter points out that some of the prefectures mentioned here did not exist before this date. That is also the interpretation of the different authors of the proceedings of the conference “Research on the Culture of Chen Jinggu” (Chen Jinggu wenhua yanjiu) held in Fuzhou in 1993. Furthermore, the Xiamen huiwen tang editions, which began to be published during the Song, were subsequently destroyed in a fire. They only resumed publication after the Opium War (1840–60), during the Qing. 51. See Ouyang Xiu, chapter 68 of the Xin Wudai shi (between 1044 and 1060) (Ouyang Xiu, 11th c. [1974]: 3b). 52. The temple of the Jade Emperor, Baohuang Dadi. This temple was built on Jade Hill (Yu Shan) in Fuzhou, where it has recently been restored. 53. The heaven of the Great Empyrean, the highest of all the heavens, is the Jade Emperor’s place of residence. It is the Shenxiao, where Changsheng Dadi also reigns. 54. According to the Linshui pingyao zhuan (text dated from the Ming, believed to be from the Qing; different modern reprints, undated), ch. 11, p. 69, which also mentions this fact, a dragon is said to have emerged from a well located near the Jade Emperor Temple. Chen Shouyuan interpreted this prodigy as a sign of the investiture as emperor of the king called in the text Wang Yanbin, in fact Wang Yanjun. 55. Tan Zixiao (?–973) was, according to the Lishi zhenxian tidao tongdian (Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals Who Embodied the Dao through the Ages), by Zhao Daoyi (1294), Daozang, no. 296 (ch. 43: 8a), which gives his biography, a famous magician who, according to legend, obtained from Chen Shouyuan texts that the latter is said to have found buried in the ground and on which were written mysterious signs, whose meaning he did not understand.

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Tan Zixiao knew how to decipher them and identified them as talismans of the first Celestial Master. He founded the ritual tradition of the Tianxin zhengfa, the orthodox method of the Heart of Heaven. See note 42 above. See also Hu Fuchen, 1985: 112. See also Schafer, 1954: 98, on his relation to the emperor of Min and Chen Shouyuan. 56. See above, and also Jin Ming, 1993: 27–38. 57. Fujian is located in southeast China, at approximately the same latitude as Taiwan. Many emigrants arrived in Taiwan in the seventeenth century, fleeing both climatic catastrophes (the floods on the coasts of Fujian in 1628) and the Manchus, as was the case with Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga). Among the native communities of this province, some brought with them the cult of Chen Jinggu, with whose temples they had “divided incense” (fenxiang). In fact, when a group belonging to a ritual community leaves to establish itself in another town or another country, it takes with it a little of the incense from the brazier of the temple to which it is affiliated. This act signifies that it remains linked to the original temple and to the community of believers. This is what is called “dividing incense.” 58. The text of the Mindu bieji (Legendary History of the Capital of Min) was established during the Qing, between the Qianlong (1736–96) and Jiaqing (1796–1821) reign periods. It was a work composed down the centuries, collectively reprinted in 1987 (Fujian renmin chubanshe, in 3 vols.). 59. Mount Tai, situated in Shandong, is the easternmost of the Five Sacred Peaks of China. It is thus the Eastern Peak, Dongyue. It received an imperial cult to the God of Mount Tai, the Eastern Peak (see Chavannes, 1910). Its main temple, in addition to the one on Mount Tai, is in Beijing (see Schipper, 1997; Naquin, 2000). But every town had its own temple of the Eastern Peak (Dongyue miao), which created a network across the country. 60. Mediums are often called by the name of the divinity they embody. 61. Liu Bowen was a scholar, geomancer, and mathematician. He helped to found the Ming dynasty. He is the author of the 1370 Datong calendar. He was poisoned in 1375. See Doré, 1926: 151. 62. The Nansheng She, an ensemble of musicians of Nanguan music, joined together to play in the Baosheng dadi temple. Nanguan is a musical genre that developed in Minnan, the southern part of Fujian Province, where it is called Nanyin, the “Sound of the South.” It represents a typically local repertoire, linked to the cultural area defined by the use of the Minnan language. Nanguan possesses an original musical system that has produced its own notation and its own terminology. The Nansheng She came to Paris for the first time in 1982 for a one-night concert at the Hall of World Cultures, organized by Kristofer Schipper. Several records were recorded with Ocora, Living Traditional Music. 63. The Sangguozhi yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), a historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong (second half of the fourteenth century) presents in 120 chapters the events leading from the rebellion of the Yellow Turbans (184) to the end of the kingdom of Wu (280). The title was inspired by the histories of the countries of Wei, Wu, and Shu written by Chen Shou (233– 97), assembled and published during the Northern Song (960–1127) under the

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title Sanguozhi (History of the Three Kingdoms). See Luo Guanzhong, 14th c. [1959]; Lévy, 2000b.

Chapter 1 1. This episode is part of the popular legend of Zhenwu, the True Warrior, who ultimately became Xuantian Shangdi, by the grace of Guanyin. It is not distinctive to the Linshui pingyao zhuan. On the legends of Xuantian Shangdi, see Grootaers, 1952: 156–58, which compares the legend of the god in a popular novel of the Ming, Yu Xiangdou’s Quanxiang beiyou ji yuandi chushen chuan, to his popular hagiography. See also Seaman, 1987, for an annotated translation. 2. Appearing on a boat is a classic motif of the Daoist aspect of Nanhai Guanyin dashi cihang pudu tianzun (Great Being Guanyin of the South Sea, the Compassionate Sailing Universal Savior Celestial Worthy), who causes the souls of the elect to enter the Western Paradise and who also gives instructions on internal alchemy. See Yü, 2001: 311. 3. Mindu bieji, 1987, ch. 21: 132, gives a version that is more or less comparable to this episode: the White Snake is said to have been born from the coin thrown by Wang Xiaoer on the advice of Lü Dongbin, after it struck the goddess’s topknot. The demon is then supposed to have taken refuge in Linshui grotto in Gutian. 4. The legend of Miaoshan was well known from the eleventh century. See Yü, 2001; Dudbridge, 1978. 5. On the cult of Zhenwu at Mount Wudang (Wudang Shan) and the pilgrimages that it occasioned, see Lagerwey, 1992. 6. His talismans depict him in this way. See Baptandier, 1994b. 7. The motif of the wife of Mr. Ma (Malang fu, also called Fish-basket Guanyin) can be recognized here (see Yü, 2001, ch. 4). Yü summarizes the history as follows: “In 809 (or 817) a beautiful young woman came and told people that she would marry any man who could memorize the ‘Universal Gateway’ chapter (of the Lotus Sutra) in one night. On the next morning, twenty men passed the test. Saying that she could not marry them all, she asked them to memorize the Diamond Sutra (or the Prajnaparamita Sutra). More than ten could recite it in the morning. Then she asked them to spend three days memorizing the Lotus Sutra. This time, only Mr. Ma succeeded. So he made wedding preparations and invited her to come to his house. Upon her arrival, she claimed to feel ill and asked to be allowed to rest in another room. Before the wedding guests had departed, she suddenly died. In a short while, the body rotted and had to be buried in a hurry. Several days later, an old monk wearing a purple robe came and asked Ma to show him the tomb. The monk opened it and touched the corpse with his staff. The flesh had already disintegrated, exposing bones that were linked together by a gold chain. . . . She was therefore also called Bodhisattva with Chained Bones (So-ku p’u-sa)” (Yü, 2001: 419–20). 8. On mountains as “schools of magic,” see Demiéville, 1965a: 25, where he explains how during the Tang withdrawing into the mountains and staying in a hermitage or monastery had become a custom to such an extent that, he says,

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“the very word mountain took on the sense of monastery, and for founding a monastery or a sect, one said, ‘to open a mountain,’ and for entering into a religious order or taking vows, one said, ‘to go into the mountains.’ ” Second, the theme of the mountain-womb is familiar in the Daoist context. The mountain is also the grotto where hermits live, who cultivate their embryo of immortality in these symbolic representations of the original chaos. We shall see later that this is also the case for Mount Lü in the Linshui pingyao zhuan, in which the master and adepts live in a grotto. The passage of Shitao’s Hua Yulu (Remarks on Painting) cited by Demiéville (ibid.: 28) has the same sense: “Mountains and watercourses speak for me (lit., are given birth by me) just as I am myself born of mountains and watercourses.” On this subject, see also Kaltenmark, 1953: 164n2; Schipper, 1978a: 365–66; Stein, 1988. 9. See Introduction. 10. This landscape where a terrace is described, an island rising from a lake that conceals the mountain where the action takes place, will be reprised in the Linshui pingyao zhuan and we will mention it in Chapter 2. It is a frequent image in Chinese symbolism. The interior landscape of the body thus provides another example of it: that of the lake located at the top of the head and from which emerges the hall of the calendar, the mingtang. See Schipper, 1982b: 145, where he mentions the Laozi zhong jing. See also Maspero, 1971: 527ff., where he cites the Huang ting jing. Such is also the case of the Isle of the Immortals, Penglai, a mountain that conceals grottos, and that emerges from the water. See Kaltenmark, 1953: 113. 11. It is also the case with Mount Kunlun, pillar of the world, also called Kongdong: Empty Grotto. See Schipper, 1982b: 146, 178, 365; Kaltenmark, 1953: 164n2. See also Stein, 1988. In addition to the discussion in Chapter 1, see Chapters 4 and 6 on the subject of the “celestial eye” and discerning vision. 12. On Mao Shan, seat of the Daoist movement of High Purity, Shangqing, see Strickmann, 1981; Robinet, 1995. On the subject of Wei Huacun, matriarch of this movement, see Despeux, 1990; Despeux and Kohn, 2003. The opposition between these two traditions is of course understood here on different levels: ritual antagonism and complementarity, or symbolism distinctive to this legend. On the subject of popular traditions derived from the “orthodox” Mao Shan since the Song and commonly taking this name for themselves, see Saso, 1978a. It is a question of these traditions here. See Introduction. 13. At the beginning of Zhuangzi ch. 22, it is told how Knowledge, a metaphoric figure, journeys in search of the Dao. In the north, it encounters Donothing Saynothing, who cannot answer his questions, while in the south, the Scatterbrain, wanting to reveal his experience to him, immediately forgets what he wanted to tell him. Knowledge then returns to the palace of the Yellow Emperor, who says to him: “To understand (the Dao) you must not take any position or do anything. To reach it, you must not set out from any particular point or follow any fixed path. . . . He who knows does not speak of it; he who speaks does not know it” (Wieger, 1950: 389). See also, in the same sense, the interpretation proposed by Billeter, 2002: 75–79, of the episode where the Yellow Emperor loses his dark pearl (Zhuangzi, ch. 12).

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14. I use the term “immanent” in the sense of Bataille, in his Théorie de la religion, when he says, “that which is produced when one animal eats another is always the ‘fellow’ of the one which eats: it is in this sense that I speak of immanence. It is not a question of a ‘fellow’ recognized as such, but the eater does not transcend the eaten. No doubt there is a difference, but the eater cannot put itself in opposition to the eaten by affirming this difference. . . . All animals that are eaten exist in the world like water in water” (Bataille, 1973: 24). Zhuangzi, ch. 17, “Autumn Floods,” says the same in regard to the possible knowledge of the “happiness of fishes.” See Liou, 1969: 143. 15. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., chs. 3 and 5. Li Shan Laomu, the Old Mother of Mount Li, is said to have transmitted to Li Quan of the Tang, on Mount Song, the Yinfu jing, fundamental canonical work of the Quanzhen school under the Yuan, Ming, and Qing, when it was part of the liturgy. This work is considered by the Records of the True Line of Transmission of the Golden Lotus School (Jinlian zhenzong ji; Daozang, no. 173, fasc. 76: 2.2a) (1241) to be one of the fundamental texts along with the Dao de jing. Li Shan Laomu belonged to the line of transmission of female alchemy. She was considered to be a specialist in embryonic respiration, taixi. See Despeux, 1990: 104–5, 172. See also Zhang Taoyuan and Yan Liang, 1993. The Yunji qiqian, juan 77, testifies to the existence of her magic recipe for achieving immortality. See Hu Fuchen, 1985: 912. 16. See Cahill, 1993: 235ff., on the Daoist nun Yu Xuanji (Yü Hsüan-chi) (844–68) and the Sapphic poems she wrote for three young courtesans in the hope that Xi Wangmu, who protected them, would serve as an intermediary. Like Chen Jinggu and Jiang Shanyu, they spend an evening drinking wine, writing poems, and playing music. 17. See Chapter 5. The spider and her web, equivalent to the “heavenly web,” recall the diagram of the trigrams, the bagua, and the winds of the eight directions. The union of the Registers practiced by the Celestial Masters consisted of a very complex rite of sexual union intended to unite the breaths of the two Masters, one man and one woman. A complete register was thus the union of two halves, one female, the other male. Here the two halves of the Register are both female. See Schipper, 1982b, 1984; Despeux, 1990, ch. 2: 29. On the subject of Lin Jiuniang, magician of the Yi jing, specialist in the divination trigrams, see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9; and Chapter 1; on her use of such a pearl, see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 15. 18. Chan Buddhism, in its concern to deconstruct the genders, used such a transgressive discourse: “Enlightened female ch’an masters are therefore called ta chang-fu (heroically masculine man; Levering, 1992) and kind-hearted male ch’an masters ‘old woman’ ” (Yü, 2001: 484). See also Hsieh, 1999: 171ff. 19. On immortals sipping the juice of precious stones, see Kaltenmark, 1953: 85nn2–3. “Qiong Shu (a dignitary of Zhou) . . . ate the marrow of rocks after having cooked it: he called it ‘milk of the stone bells.’ ” This is a reference to the immortals’ custom of living in grottos and drinking, as a consequence, the milk that dripped from the stalactites and of using stalagmites and other natural concretions as furniture. See also the biography of Zisong zi, who drank liquid jade, in Kaltenmark, 1953: 36n2.

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20. “The nonmarrying woman’s hairdressing ceremony, like the bride’s, was a prerequisite to leaving home. As for the marriage ceremonies, an auspicious day was chosen for the ritual. Whereas the bride was assisted at the hairdressing ceremony by an elderly woman with many sons, the nonmarrying woman was assisted by an elderly celibate female. Like wedding ceremonies, the tzu-shu ceremonies were followed by a banquet, and like the bride, the nonmarrying woman received red packets of money from her relatives, as well as from her ‘sisters’ and friends” (Topley, 1975: 82–83). Here we find the theme of hair and makeup in relation to sexuality and marriage, or its refusal. Topley also shows how, thanks to the silkworm culture in this region, women could take care of themselves financially, which made this practice possible. On this “natural” woman / “made up” woman opposition in the context of marriage, see Baptandier, 1996d. This alternative to marriage is one of the principal themes in the Guanyin-Miaoshan legend. 21. Women who die in childbirth suffer the punishment of the Lake of Blood, which consists of being plunged into a lake of impure blood, menstrual blood and the blood of childbirth, which constitutes one of the infernal regions of the afterworld. See Seaman, 1987. Coming to the aid of women facing these punishments due to their very sex is one of the reasons ascribed to Avalokitesvara-Guanyin for being incarnated in a female body. See Yü, 2001: 464, “True Scripture of Guanyin’s Original Vow of Universal Salvation.” On the subject of female fate, see also Grant, 1989; Overmyer, 1992. 22. The Linshui pingyao zhuan plainly dramatizes these karmic relations in marriage: Chen Jinggu and Wang Xiaoer–Liu Qi will not be able to escape this fate. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 8. 23. See Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979). On the relation between shaman (wu) and power (ling), see Kaltenmark, 1960, which emphasizes the female aspect of this term. “Rainmaker” is also an attribute of Guanyin. 24. Shoujing, “collecting terror,” is a rite for recalling the wandering soul of a living person, and qidu, “expelling poison,” is a therapeutic rite for treating the imbalance of yin and yang. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3. See also Chapter 8. 25. The tiger, god of the soil, is Guanyin’s favored mount. It is also the counterpart of other goddesses, such as Xi Wangmu, whom Li Shan Laomu resembles in many ways. At the end of the legend, for example, it is said that Lady Jiang, her pupil, “set out for the west” (see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17), the direction of Xi Wangmu, where the paradise of Amitābha is also found. On the subject of Xi Wangmu, see Cahill, 1993; Despeux, 1990; Despeux and Kohn, 2003. Two other figures, both also characterized by an excess of sexual appetite, are specialists in the treatment of inflammations. These are Liu Xianniang, the wife of the python demon Mangtian Shenwang, who gave birth to twins (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17), and the hermit monkey Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng), who will be castrated. See Chapter 4. 26. On this particular role, which is the responsibility of women, and the

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“arts of the bed chamber,” see Fangzhong zhi shu, Schipper, 1982b: 169; Van Gulik, 1971: 104–5. See also Lévy, 2000a. 27. On the subject of the White Snake, see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 6. Many of the elements of this legend in relation to the White Snake / hair of Guanyin recall Feng Menglong’s well-known tale (from the Ming dynasty), which was preceded by a novelette in the style of the storytellers dating from the Song (10th–12th c.). See Feng Menglong, 1994: 229–62. According to an interpretation of the roles of the figures in this legend reported by Pimpaneau, 1977: 131, “the story could be a reference to two forms of Buddhism: Fahai could represent Buddhist ritual with its rules, while the White Snake, who follows its nature and rejects all rules, could represent chan Buddhism (or zen, in Japanese).” This idea seems to correspond well here to the two aspects of the Guanyin figure: Chen Jinggu and the White Snake. 28. We can see here a “realistic” application of the radical techniques of Yulan Guanyin and of the wife of Mr. Ma to lead to enlightenment. 29. We can see an example of this in the episode where Guilang makes the White Snake resume its original form by pronouncing revelatory words. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 11. On this subject see Lévi, 1985; Vernant, 1985. This is the theme of the motif of the wife of Mr. Ma. 30. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5. We will return to these figures in Chapter 4. In the past there was a temple of the Rock-Press (or Split-Rock) Women (Shijia Furen) at Wushi Shan. It has been destroyed, but many residents of the area, born at the beginning of the twentieth century, remember having been given to them as god-children when they were little. They are represented in the company of Chen Jinggu at Linshui Temple at Daqiao, in Gutian, where offerings are still made to them today. 31. See note 15 above. Li Shan is in Shaanxi, near Xi’an. A temple of Li Shan Laomu is said to have been established there in 748. See Hu Fuchen, 1985: 1076. At present a temple where Daoists (both men and women) of the ritual monastic Quanzhen line live is still dedicated to her. She is venerated there as the ancestor of humankind, Nüwa, the companion of Fuxi, the inventor of the trigrams. On the subject of Nüwa, see Lewis, 1999, 2006a, 2006b. The figure of Li Shan Laomu also recalls Wusheng Laomu, the Old Mother Never Born, the ultimate incarnation of Guanyin, who is herself very close to Wangmu, Xi Wangmu, Guitai Shengmu, other elements of the tradition of which assert that she taught Chen Jinggu. See Stein, 1986; Yü, 1992, 2001; Pimpaneau, 1999. 32. On this subject, see Lévi, 1989; Ebrey and Gregory, 1993; Boltz, 1993; Davis, 2001. 33. Especially in the south of China, in Fujian, there is a form of marriage called “minor” that anticipates this form of postponed cohabitation of the spouses. See Wolf and Huang, 1980. 34. On this treatment of the bodies, the image of the double, and the sublimation of the corpse, see Faure, 1991, ch. 8: “Metamorphosis of the Double: Sublime Corpses and Icons.” This theme of the preservation—even mummification—of the body is also present in the legends of Guanyin, as wife of Mr. Ma or the Old Mother Never Born. See Yü, 2001.

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35. On the association of this ritual with the ritual tradition of the Shenxiao (see Introduction), see in particular Boltz, 1983: 495: “The procedure outlined, that of lien-tu (salvation through refinement), draws upon images classic to meditation texts of the fourth-century Shang-ch’ing and Ling-pao traditions as well as those found in Buddhist scriptures. Refinement or smelting, fusion or catharsis, as denoted by lien, was a skill cultivated by the Shang-ch’ing adepts who spoke often of lien-ch’i (refining the breaths or pneumas) and lien-hsing (refining the temperaments). The purification of these psycho-physical elements lightened the practitioner’s body to the point where complete sublimation rendered him transcendent and, for example, capable of flight from the mortal to celestial realms in broad daylight.” See also Strickmann, 1975. 36. Perhaps we can also see this episode as belonging to the theme of the child causing the death of its mother in childbirth in retribution for a bad karma. See Yü, 2001: 125; Ebrey, 1993: 175. On the Qilin San Sheren, see also Chapter 3, note 2, and Chapter 7, note 42. 37. It was a case of the adoption of a child who did not have the same name as the adoptive father. The latter is thus a foster father who “takes a child with him in order to raise it” (baoyang), just as the wasp does with the “son of the caterpillar” (mingling zhi zi) in the poem “Xiaoyuan” in the Shijing: “The silkworm has little ones. The wasp takes them away on his back. Teach and instruct your sons, through their goodness, they will be your equals” (Lauwaert, 1991: 14, 39–45). See also Baptandier, 2003; Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 8. In addition, the Pear Orchard was a school of dramatic art established in Chang’an (Xi’an) by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang (r. 712–56). See Pimpaneau, 1983. 38. See, for example, Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 13, where we see Chen Jinggu “borrow” Chen Shouyuan’s ritual instruments in order to bring back to life the royal concubines who were eaten by the White Snake. She does not succeed by these means, and she then performs the “true ritual of Lü Shan,” immediately followed by the anticipated effect. 39. It is a reference to the importance of dreams in this tradition, and obviously, in a burlesque fashion, to the famous passage of the Zhuangzi, ch. 2, “The ontological reduction,” where Zhuangzi dreams he is a butterfly. Once awakened, he does not know if he is actually a butterfly, or Zhuangzi dreaming. 40. Xiantian-houtian. Here it refers to two ways of arranging the trigrams and of placing them in relation to the directions. The order called “Before Heaven” is the arrangement of Fuxi, which the text calls longma jiao tu. That of “After Heaven” is known as that of the Zhou. These are two ways of representing the alternating movement of yin and yang, before and after their emergence from the Dao, and of acting on reality in perceiving the smallest beginning of its change. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9. 41. Regarding Zhang Boduan (987–1082), whose Daoist name is Ziyang, Purple Yang, see the biography of Zhang Ziyang in Lishi zhenxian tidao dongjian (Daozang, no. 297, fasc. 149); for the biography of Zhang Yongzheng, see Lishi zhenxian tidao dongjian, juan 49: 9a. 42. Iron Head is described as “a Chan master.” On the subject of Chan, whose founder as a specifically Chinese school was the patriarch Hongren

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(602–74), whose teaching was based on the Diamond Sutra (in Chinese Jingang jing), see Demiéville, 1970; Despeux, 1981b; Faure, 1986, 1991. See also Cheng, 1997: 385ff. This sequence evokes above all tantric Buddhism, Vajrayāna, vehicle of the diamond-lightning, an allusion to the sutra on the diamond head, translated into Chinese under the title Jingang jing by the tantric master Vajrabodhi, who came to China in 720 and died in 746. See Strickmann, 1996. 43. We also witness in this episode an opposition between tantric Buddhism (Iron Head, whose name evokes the vajra beings) and the Pure Land school, the Western Paradise, ruled over by the Buddha Amitābha, assisted by the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara-Guanyin. It is no accident that this legendary combat with Iron Head is mixed up in ch. 9 of the Linshui pingyao zhuan with the exorcism of the marine illusion leading to the paradise of Amitābha. We are reminded of the sectarian movement of the Prior Heaven, Xiantian dao (end of the Ming). See Topley, 1954, 1958, 1963; Yü, 2001: 461–67. Legacy of the White Lotus (well established in the 12th c.), this sectarian movement that venerates Wusheng Laomu incorporates both practices of internal alchemy and Buddhist ideas. This appropriation of the goddess marks the end of the process of the feminization of the bodhisattva. See Yü, 2001: 452. See also Robinet, 1991: 215–29, in regard to the association of this movement with the masters of the Quanzhen (founded by Wang Zhi [1112–70]). See also Overmyer, 1976: 106ff.; and Chapter 7. 44. On this subject, see Strickmann, “L’amour chez les éléphants,” in Strickmann, 1996: 243–90. 45. The vajra is, in particular, an emblem of power and a sexual symbol in tantric Buddhism. 46. This is also the case with another Daoist figure also present in this text, Lü Chunyang, Lü “Pure Yang,” Lü Dongbin (755–805), a famous Daoist venerated as one of the Eight Immortals and the master of Inner Alchemy. A wellknown episode of his hagiography tells how he was fond of strolling in the streets, saying that he was “pregnant” with himself and about to give birth. See Lüzu zhi, ch. 3: 96, cited by Schipper, 1978a: 364. See also Ang, 1993; Katz, 1996b; Doré, 1914, vol. 6: 69–70. 47. The tradition of the Celestial Masters is called the school of the “Five Bushels,” in part for this reason. Schipper, 1982b: 100. On the subject of the Five Thunders (wu lei), see Introduction. 48. This story of the two guardians of Mount Lü, overcome with a dizziness that one could call “mountain sickness,” and who, having passed this test, become clairvoyant, endowed with the ability to see into the distance (“to the ninth heaven,” it was said), dramatizes these two familiar themes in tales of the mountains. See Demiéville, 1965a, on this subject. These figures covered with eyes also recall the myths of the ball of flesh, also covered with eyes: the Taishen, divinity of the pregnant womb. See Eberhard, 1968: 185. Finally, we should recall that in tantric Buddhism Guanyin receives the secret name of “Eye of Vajra” (jingang yan); see Stein, 1986: 35. See also Stein, 1986: 39–40, on the subject of the legends of Indra covered with thousands of vaginas transformed into eyes.

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49. On a reading on the level of internal alchemy of The Journey to the West (Xiyou ji), see Despeux, 1985: 61–74. See Chapter 4 for his assimilation here to the figure of Danxia Dasheng, incarnation of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. 50. Cinnabar is mercury oxide that, when transmuted through alchemical procedures, becomes the elixir of immortality. Originally white in color, once it is transmuted it becomes red and essentially yang. 51. See Ge Hong, 5th c. [1989], “Biography of Laozi,” in Shenxian zhuan (Hanwei congshu, 1: 2–11); Schipper, 1982b: 165, where he cites the Santian neijie jing (Daozang, no. 1205), 1: 3b–4a.

Chapter 2 1. These are actual places in Fujian: the lower ford of Fuzhou is found on the island of Nantai, where a road still bears this name. A Chen Jinggu temple was built there a short time ago at the presumed place of her birth. The place called Linshui is near the mother temple, in the town of Daqiao, in Gutian. The fact of living at the “lower ford” nonetheless marks the nodal position that Chen Jinggu occupied there. The ford of a town is, in fact, a crossroads, a place of meeting, of crossings, of worship, of communication and exchange, a place where markets are held, where arbitrage agreements take form and links are established. It is also in these terms that the legend depicts Chen Jinggu, and this is the role that she plays in popular religion. 2. That is to say, according to the Linshui pingyao zhuan, how to move mountains and turn seas upside down, “turn beans into soldiers and grass into horses,” make sand fly and stones walk, raise the wind and cause rain to fall, and also how to carry out exorcisms: to capture demons and make them assume their true form of being, how to write spells and talismans (fu). Finally, she learned to recapture the souls of the dead and to “melt the bones” (liangu, actually the ritual liandu), to bring them back to life, to heal diseases, to practice the magic of the dunjia, to move around through the veins of the earth, and to wield thunder and lightning. The dun are the ruptures, the blind spots in this system of the computation of time that enable one to conceal oneself and to move around. On the subject of this magic technique defined as “seizing the yin moment to conceal oneself (dun),” see Ge Hong, 5th c. [1990], ch. 17, on “Ascending mountains”; Ngo Van Xuyet, 1976: 190–91; Kalinowski, 1986. See also Schipper, 1965, 1975. See also Chapter 5, note 26. All these sciences make her a shaman (wu), a master of ritual procedures (fashi). On the subject of this syncretic tradition of the Mount Lü sect, see Introduction. 3. On the subject of the absolute parity between men and women as the founding principle of the tradition of the Celestial Masters, see also Schipper, 1982b: 172. Buddhism, on the other hand, expresses much more negative ideas on the subject of the impurity of women, which suggests their supposed incapacity for self-sublimation. See Yü, 2001: 333, citing Yoshioka, “Kenryūban Kōzan Hoken kaisetsu” (The Precious Scroll of Xiangshan of the Qianlong Edition Explained), Dōkyō kenkyū 4 (1971), p. 140: “When man and woman get married, they plant a tree of bitterness and cast seeds broadly which take root only in Hell.” The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is supposed to have decided to

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reincarnate himself with the features of Princess Miaoshan to lead humanity toward enlightenment, and in particular for the benefit of women. His reasons are stated in a late text belonging to a sectarian movement, “True Scripture of Guanyin’s Original Vow of Universal Salvation,” cited by Yü, 2001: 464: “I have observed that men of the world are more or less aware of the principles of the Three Teachings. However, women do not understand the heavenly principle, and they are totally ignorant of prohibitions. That is why they have fallen so pitifully. I feel sorry for them and had better go to the world below, take on a woman’s body, undo the calamity of the five stages of impurity as an example for future generations, so that women will know their sins and reform. They will avoid the suffering of rebirth, escape the punishment of Hell, the retribution of the Bloody Pool, and set out together on the road to enlightenment, enjoying the beautiful scenes of Paradise. Only this will fulfill my vow” (Guanyin jitu benyuan zhenjing, 7). 4. On the subject of Mount Mao (Mao Shan), see Strickmann, 1981: 142. A woman, Wei Huacun, is at the origin of the Daoist tradition of the Shangqing, at Mao Shan. 5. Nei you miaoyong. Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3: 17. Here we find the expression of an idea shared by popular Buddhism and filial piety that is stated by a text entitled Nüren jing (1: 21b) that transmits the instructions of Guanyin through spirit medium writing, published in Guangzhou in 1904, cited by Yü, 2001: 467: “Know that the room of a filial wife is no different from a Buddhist place of truth (daochang). Although there are neither wooden fish nor bells and cymbals, the Buddha will listen to the prayer of a filial woman. . . . If you serve your parents and parents-in-law sincerely, this is far superior to cultivating the elixir in vain.” 6. On the subject of the practice of gegu (“the gift of the body”) in the legend of Miaoshan-Guanyin, see Dudbridge, 1978; Doré, 1914, vol. 6: 134–96; Yü, 1990. Yü, 2001: 338–47, emphasizes the relation between this cannibal practice and Chinese medicine that makes human flesh the ultimate remedy. Nazha, divinity of the Taisui, the equivalent to the Taishen, divinity of the womb and the embryo, himself the son of a king, having seriously contravened the law and therefore filial piety, gave his flesh and bones to his father, keeping for himself only his divine spirit, ling. This is essentially what Chen Jinggu does symbolically and what she will achieve in dying with the demon, itself a ling power. See Ye Dehui, 1980, vol. 7: 14. On the subject of Nazha, see also Xu Zhonglin, 16th c. [1979]. See also Sangren, 1996. 7. It is a question of the Register (lu) that the Daoist initiate receives, and on which figure the names of the divinities and spirits that the initiate will henceforth possess the power to command. See Schipper, 1982b. The fashi of the Mount Lü sect have a corpus of talismans representing these spirits in action. The talismans are the transcription, made by the gods, of the primordial signs that preceded cosmogenesis, the creation of the universe. They reveal the hidden but true essence of beings. 8. On the subject of the inverse journeys of male and female time, see Granet, 1953: 205ff.

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9. This is an episode of the legend of Laozi, preserved in oral tradition. According to this legend, Laozi, himself, is also his own mother; see Schipper, 1982b: 163. On the subject of the divinization and legends of Laozi, see Seidel, 1969; Kohn and Lafargue, 1998. 10. We recall that, according to Saso, 1978a: 60, Lü Shan, this “Portal Mountain,” is associated with the Gate of Hell. 11. On the subject of the universe imagined in the image of a female body and of the human body as the universe in miniature, see Schipper, 1978a, and 1982b: 155ff. See also Kaltenmark, 1965: 48. 12. On the subject of this figure, see Introduction. This episode of the Linshui pingyao zhuan is in ch. 16, pp. 101–2. It has its real equivalent in the history of Min: this drought actually happened and Chen Shouyuan in fact performed a jiao ritual to obtain a saving rain. See Schafer, 1954. 13. Exposing shamans to the sun to cause rain was an ancient tradition in China. Huang Zhongshao, 1485–89 [1990], reports threats to have inefficacious Daoists burned. 14. See Despeux, 1990: 278: “According to Collection of the Sayings on Female Alchemy [Nüdan huijie, ⤛ᷡ⼁妋, included in the Nüdan hebian ⤛ᷡ ⎰䶐, attributed to the Buddha of the Incommensurable Kalpa (Wuliang qie fo) and revealed by the Old Yuexi from Canton], the man must wait until he has arrived at the supreme yang before leaving the shen, while the woman can leave it much earlier.” 15. On the subject of the mixing of these different registers, see Robinet, 1995: 244, chapter on the Metamorphoses: “Magic is a reproducing of the natural world. It is understood as a mimesis, a production, and not as a masquerade; it produces a living form, and not a copy. The difference of its working from that of nature resides above all in that its action is superficial and unstable, and that it depends on a support.” Liezi said: “If you understand that it does not differ in any way from life and death, then I will be able to teach you magic”; in Robinet, 1995: 243 (Liezi, ch. 3: 33–34). 16. The hand constitutes in itself a diagram where the earthly branches and heavenly stems appear. It is used in astrology and in magic to calculate horoscopes and astral time. Present day fashi and other ritual technicians still practice this divinatory art. 17. Here, this fu, which combines ritual characters and ordinary Chinese characters written on a strip of paper, is burned in order to be transformed into what it depicts. The ashes obtained in this way are dissolved in water, to which they impart a magic efficacy. The tiger, an exorcist animal, is often entrusted with this “rubbish” and other dangerous leftovers, in order to expel them. 18. There are different versions of this ritual theater play about the story of Chen Jinggu. Chen Da’nai tuotai (manuscript, Fujian), is one of them. See also Ye Mingsheng, 1995; Ye Mingsheng and Wu Naiyu, 1997; Ye Mingsheng and Wugenzi, 2000. 19. There is an image of it as an offering money under the name “Golden Basin” in Hou, 1975: 201. This name is glossed on page 22 of the work as follows: “In the Linshui pingyao (ch. 16: 112) a very popular novel in Taiwan,

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a newborn is brought in a ‘golden basin’ (jinpen) by Marshal Gao, Guardian of the Hundred Flowers Bridge (Baihua qiao) that leads to the mythical Garden of a Hundred Flowers where the life trees grow.” Hou considers that this “golden basin” offering money was used to obtain progeny. See also Jin Ming, 1993: 27. 20. On the subject of these original writings, their relation to chaos and the production of the “myriad things,” see, in particular, Granet, 1950: 175ff.; Kaltenmark, 1981: 198, 222; Schipper, 1982b: 121n51, on the subject of the ritual text of the suqi; Lewis, 1999; Robinet, 1995. 21. The Mount Lü tradition possesses this exorcistic and therapeutic ritual of the Northern Dipper, the “heart of heaven” (tianxin), characteristic of the Tianxin zhengfa, in which the patient is placed in a mandala of the trigrams in order to transform his or her fate, as if in a new birth. See Baptandier, 1994b, 1996a. See also Saso, 1978a. The Changsheng gong is the domain of Changsheng Dadi, to whom the Shenxiao and the Qingwei trace themselves back. 22. A lake covered with lotuses of all colors is one of the depictions of the Paradise of the Pure Land of the Buddha Amitābha. In addition, Avalokitesvara and Tara are associated with a net: a net of lotuses and illusion. See Stein, 1986: 44. 23. The text says: “Word by word, the entire construct was destroyed by Lady Ge” (dou bei Geshi yiyi shuo po). Offerings are still made to Lady Ge, Chen Jinggu’s mother; there is a statue of her on the second floor of the Gutian temple. 24. It is the bird xique. Que, which means “sparrow,” is homophonous with que, the magpie. Xique is also a name of the magpie, considered to be an auspicious (xi) bird, associated with the symbolism of weddings and the lunar cycle. The game of madiao, an earlier form of mahjong, was previously called maque (sparrow). This game was banned because it is said to have dramatized a fatal blow, arousing with its name the idea of killing the “sparrows of the granaries,” the soul, the essence of rice, which was an intolerable crime. See Miossec, 2003. This comparison makes sense here. 25. This point recalls chapter 1 of the Laozi: “The Dao that one can name is not the Dao, it is the mother of the myriad things.” 26. On these practices of black magic, see De Groot, 1892–1919, vol. 6: 1323ff., and on demons nourishing themselves on embryos, p. 540. Even today people continue to report stories of similar magic crimes. 27. This place is found at present to the south of the city of Fuzhou, in Min, opposite the Lower Ford. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2: 9, 10. See also Introduction. It is also in this same place that the head of the White Snake, earlier fought by Chen Jinggu, was imprisoned. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 12: 77. 28. The sacred zone is a symbolic mountain; see Schipper, 1982b: 225. A sequence of creation of the sacred zone fachang, that of the investiture of the earthly demon who will be its guardian (mingmo), entails a battle by means of a similar mat. See Lagerwey, 1987a, 1987b. 29. The theme of the sword whose casting is a hierogamy is developed by Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 496–99, 533. On magic mirrors, see Loewe, 1979; Kaltenmark, 1966.

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30. On this ritual garment worn by men fashi, in Fujian, secret formulas pronounced while they are putting it on, and the manner in which this skirt transforms them into Chen Jinggu herself, see Baptandier, 1996d: 141n13. See also Chapter 9. 31. As Kaltenmark (1985) notes in “The legend of the submerged town,” in these myths, the town or the house is said to be “sunk” (xian) before being covered by water. 32. The Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., chap. 16: 105, uses the term lin, which has this meaning. 33. This torture appears in religion during the Song. See Doré, 1914. See in particular Seaman, 1981. Miaoshan also went to this region during her visit to hell, and saved the women she found there. See Yü, 2001: 320ff., 333ff. 34. In the myths of the submerged town, life is said to continue in the world of the dead who are depicted as fish and other aquatic creatures. Here the White Snake plays this role. At Nantai in Fuzhou oral tradition preserves the memory of this underwater life. 35. The text says: “She had been purified of all defilement” (wuhui xiti qingjing). 36. In the Linshui pingyao zhuan there is another case of the miraculous transformation of a stone: these are the Rock-Press or Split-Rock Women (Shijia Furen), born of a rock split by lightning, who took human form. They became divinities and protect women and children. 37. In Fuzhou, on the Min there is a polder called in their honor Yamu Zhou (the Island of the Female Ducks). A small island, “the island in the middle of the river” (Jiangxin Zhou), located at the very place where the gates of Mount Lü were said to be found, could be this same mat, according to some riverside residents. 38. This episode recalls once again similar elements in the legends of Guanyin: the body of Miaoshan was likewise preserved. In addition, it would seem that the Xiantian Dao sect, venerating Wusheng Laomu, practiced the preservation of the body of certain adepts as “living buddhas.” See Yü, 2001. In Fujian, people still speak of this episode as a possible reality. On the subject of another use of charcoal in ritual practices intended to facilitate the obtaining of long life, see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 116. In the mountains, a woodcutter made a particularly fragrant charcoal, whose blessings were obtained by a python. This snake received the protection of the Jade Emperor, himself charmed by the perfume of this smoke. This Snake King (Shewang), the husband of the Smallpox Lady, an acolyte of Chen Jinggu, is venerated today, in particular at Lianjiang, where a temple is dedicated to him and where he is represented with his wife and his sons, generally twins. 39. Granet explains how in antiquity the proximity of the woman’s bed, where she conceived, to the stores of grain that germinate and to the bodies of the ancestors who rejoin the womb, the “capital” of the souls of the lineage, made possible the circulation of a current of fertile energy. In addition, zudian is the customary name for the principal hall of a temple. 40. On the practice of mummification, see Demiéville, 1965b; and Gernet,

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1994, which treats, in this Buddhist context, the idea of the sacrifice of one’s own body. Such was in fact the case of Chen Jinggu at the moment of her death, but also when she mutilated herself in order to save her parents. See also Faure, 1991: 148–76, on these “sublimated” bodies as icons. 41. On this subject, see Maspero, 1971: 98; Granet, 1959, vol 1: 158–59; Schipper, 1982b: 54–59; Dean, 1993; Baptandier, 1996d; Baptandier, ed., 2001. To these divinities of the local pantheons must be added the divinities of nature, which often follow a similar process in elaborating their bit of vital energy (shen), sometimes accrued by accident, for example, by lightning strike. As for the “breaths” of the Daoist pantheon, they are cosmic energies coming from the Dao. 42. Like Chen Jinggu, at her death Mazu is supposed to have been mummified and preserved in her temple. On the history of Mazu, see Doré, 1914, vol. 11: 914–19; De Groot, 1886, vol. 1: 260–67; J. Watson, 1985. See also Tianfei niangma zhuan, n.d.

Chapter 3 This chapter in large part reprises the argument from my introduction to a collective work, De la malemort: en quelques pays d’Asie (Paris: Karthala, 2001). In a way, the example of the Linshui pingyao zhuan serves as a “demonstration” of this introduction. 1. This theme of icons is decisive in Chan Buddhism, as Faure (1991: 169– 79) notes. More than just a portrait, the image appears to be a substitute, as real as the divinity and impregnated with its power. “Thus icons came to be perceived no longer as a ‘metamorphosis body’ (nirmanakaya) ‘standing (or sitting) for’ the true ‘Dharma-body’ (Dharmakaya), but as the Dharma-body itself. Chan discourse, however, fluctuated between metaphor and metonymy, transcendence and immanence, endlessly re-playing the fort/da game of absence and presence” (ibid., 170). 2. The San Sheren is generally present in Chen Jinggu’s temples. Some temples are also dedicated to him. Among others, there is one in Fuzhou on the island of Nantai, near Xiadu. In the past there was one in Luoyuan. See Xie Qiquan, 1989: 54ff., 146ff., on the legends of Jin Sheren and Yin Sheren. He figures in Linshui Temple under the name Qilin San Sheren (Third Messenger Who Rides the Qilin). He is represented there astride a Qilin. Independently of the cult of Chen Jinggu, Qilin, the star of the Qilin, neutralizes the influence of all the evil stars. Jupiter, a planet favorable for the region above which it is found, can turn into a Qilin. Hou (1979: 214) associates the two. And perhaps we can see in this connection of the Qilin and San Sheren the traces of an astral cult. See also Chapter 7. 3. Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16: 106, says: “Chen Furen zuo huashen wang, yi dian linghun bu mei, zhenghun bu san, bu wang Lü Shan, qi xin bu mei, ru shengqian yi ban.” 4. On the ritual of opening the “passes” (guan), see Chapters 8 and 9. 5. The three worlds are the celestial world, the world of humans, and the world of the demons.

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6. Fengdu diyu. Mount Fengdu is in Sichuan. It is believed to be one of the residences of the dead. In particular it is the mythic site where those who have died bad deaths dwell. See Mollier, 1997; Chenivesse, 1995, 2001. 7. See Chapter 10. On the subject of the asceticism leading to the trance conceived as an elaboration of the self, an entry to the instauration of the subject, and an alternative to madness, see Baptandier, 2003. On the Rock-Press Women, see Chapter 2. 8. Balibar, 1996, referring to Bataille, “La structure psychologique du fascisme,” in Bataille, 1970, vol. 1: 339–71, defined in this way the notion of “heterogeneity”: “The ensemble of irrational forces that is set off when the antagonism becomes irreconcilable, and which is necessarily expressed in a violent form” (ibid.: 63). See also Lauwaert, 2001, which takes up this idea as connected to the feminine. 9. This sort of dream where an ancestor comes to demand offerings as a divinity is not rare (Soymié, 1959: 284). I was able to witness a similar case in a Taiwanese family, where the father had died of illness at a young age. He often appeared to his wife in dreams; she would then go for a consultation with her brother, who was a medium (and thus the maternal uncle of the children of the deceased), so that he could interpret the dream. In general, the interpretation was as follows: the dead man was improving in the afterlife. He was becoming stronger and stronger and was requesting that offerings be made to him officially. We should note that this family already had within the walls of the house a small temple of Liu Powen to which the faithful had access. In 1980, at the time of Qingming, the Festival of the Dead, the family hoped to be able to establish a cult the following year. In 1987 they rebuilt the family temple where the father thereafter had an altar. We should recall that communicating an oracle through a dream is characteristic of Guanyin. It is one of the motifs of the pilgrimage to Putuo Shan. See Yü, 1992, 2001. See also Strickmann, 1987, and 1996: 127–65, 291–337. See also Baptandier, 1996b: 99–122. 10. As Faure, 1991: 176, shows: “This heuristic category provides a common link (ling) among relics, mummies and apparitions, Arhats, gods and icons; it helps explain why the ‘response’ of the spirit of deceased masters or of gods to the request addressed to their relics or icons usually takes place in dreams or apparitions: all these ‘doubles’ are functionally and/or psychologically related. The icons are, in the strict sense, the visible bodies of the gods, their ‘traces,’ although ‘trace’ here implies an invisible presence, not an absence.” 11. We find this promotion of the celestial troops in all the rituals, including in the great ritual of renewing links, the jiao. See Schipper, 1992b: 105. 12. Gui Shouming is the name of Guilang. We may recall that he is responsible for the women’s quarters. The rite that is called jidian is part of the Confucian tradition; the king’s representative carries it out according to court etiquette. 13. Sanshiliu gong Poguan. Poguan is the title of the concubines in the official hierarchy. 14. Zhaohui Chongfu Linshuigong Furen. As custom has it, Chen Jinggu’s title is made up of an increasing number of characters, this time nine.

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15. Xieen. This is the name of an official rite and also, on this same model, of the Daoist ritual sequence where the divinities who played a role are promoted “in thanks.” 16. The term xinggong, “traveling palace,” refers to temples other than the original temple that are sometimes affiliated with it. The gods travel, above all during festivals when they are carried in procession. It is believed that they visit each other and it is not unusual on this occasion for the statue of a divinity to stay for a period of time in a temple of a friend. They will say, for example: “Chen Jinggu is on a journey.” It also refers here to the network of “dividing the incense” (fenxiang) and to the affiliation of the temples to each other. The Xiadu xinggong was restored some years ago under the name Ancestral Temple of Empress Chen of Linshui. We should note the equivalence established between the presence of the mummified body of Chen Jinggu in the original temple of the cult at Gutian and that of a consecrated statue, Chen Furen shenxiang, in the Xiadu xinggong. 17. Da’nai shenwei. Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 16. 18. The colors of this landscape, like the flowers found there, clearly evoke pregnancy and birth. Thus, in a dream, the orchid symbolizes pregnancy; see Soymié, 1959: 283, where he recounts the dream of Duke Wen of Cheng’s concubine, and Granet, 1982. A branch of plum blossoms represents lightning, which provokes childbirth, as does rain; see note 32 below and Chapter 4. In his Lie-sien tchouan: biographies légendaires des immortels taoistes de l’antiquité, Kaltenmark (1953), on the subject of the biography of Wangzi Qiao (pp. 109ff.), citing the “Commentary on the Chu ci, ‘Tian Wen’ of Wang Yi,” reports, moreover, how Wangzi Qiao turned into a rainbow, which was none other than an immense snake possessing the elixir of immortality (p. 112). This is a very familiar theme here. 19. These are: Jinpen songzi Gao yuanshuai, Baotong shunsheng Deng dashen. 20. This power of women to “transform” life is accompanied by another distinction: they alone can give birth to the “same” (other women) and to the other sex (men). On this subject, see Héritier, 1996a: 19–20, who envisages a new structuralist theory starting from these limiting facts. “The human body . . . presents a noteworthy, and certainly scandalous, feature, which is the sexual difference and the different role of the sexes in reproduction. It seems to me that it is a question of the ultimate limit of thought, on which is founded an essential conceptual opposition, which sets in opposition the identical to the different, one of these archaic themata that we find in all scientific thought, ancient as well as modern, and in all systems of representation.” 21. This use of images of Chen Jinggu as demonifuges is still common today. We find here the theme of the icon and the double, mentioned earlier. 22. The name Great Ravine is itself a symbol of the original chaos, of the north, of the Northern Dipper. On this subject, see Schipper, 1978a: 367, where he cites Ge Hong: “My Master told me that The One (i.e., chen-i) is in the Great Ravine of the Pole Star” (Pao p’u tzu [Baopuzi] 93). He notes the equivalence with the cinnabar field in the body: “Note the parallelism with the k’ung-t’ung

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Polar Star mytheme mentioned earlier. The Great Ravine ta-yüan is linked to the tan-t’ien in the Lao-tzu chung-ching” (ibid.: 367n63). This place associated symbolically with the north also recalls the location of Mount Lü, this “womb grotto,” at Beizhen, or Zhenbei guan; see Introduction. The sun and the moon are the manifestations of the two original principles, yin and yang. In Fuzhou, this place is said to be Zhang’an Shan, on Nantai Island. 23. This appearance recalls that of the demons of nature, of rocks, trees, and mountains (wangliang or shanxiao) who take human form, and their transformations; see Shanhai jing; Mathieu, 1989; Stein, 2001. See also Cedzich, 1995. As Cedzich shows, Huaguang, originally the halo of the lamp placed in front of Tathagata, was personified under different aspects. First a demon of nature, shanxiao, then wutong, and wuxian, the Five Manifestations, he soon became the Wuxian lingguan whose spirit medium cult continues to be worshipped throughout China. Finally, Daoism transformed this heterodox cult by creating the figure of Ma Yuanshuai (Marshal Ma), their exorcist counterpart, who fights them. There is a corpus of plays for ritual puppet theater, enacted by the Mount Lü masters especially for childbirths, which has the name Wuxian zhuan. According to some local stories, this figure is said to be likely sometimes to resume his demon appearance in order to kidnap a woman about to give birth, just as the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui) did. See Ye and Wu, 1997: 19. See also Baptandier, 2008. The Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3: 16, also mentions a Wuxian Lingguan Temple in which Yang Shichang sought refuge when Cinnabar Cloud assumed his appearance. It is said that the Ravine Demon’s “veins are connected to the springs” (shenti chuan mai tong yuan) and that he is “the very essence of the demons” (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2: 7). 24. The well of the house, like the impluvium, is the place of communication between heaven and earth. See Stein, 2001. 25. This scene recalls the name of the communities of women who refuse to marry: “The women who brush their own hair.” See Chapter 1. 26. See Chapter 2 on the symbolism of the bagua. Concerning this episode, see Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 8: 50, and ch. 9. 27. In the talisman “The Team of Horses of the Jade Emperor,” the talisman of the Northern Dipper, there is a diagram of the bagua. Between each of the trigrams is written a taboo word (hui), each including the demon radical. The whole set makes up an exorcistic phrase: “Let the passage of the Northern Dipper exterminate all the demons!” These hui represent the names of the stars of the Northern Dipper (Beidou). Likewise, in the Beidou ritual, the patient is placed in the mandala of the bagua in order to be exorcised by a ritual dance performed by the fashi to bring to life the diagram of the trigrams. See Baptandier, 1994b; Saso, 1978a. We are also reminded here of the Mother of the Northern Dipper (Doumu), and her rituals. See Despeux and Kohn, 2003, ch. 3. 28. The hairpin, to which a role in the arts of the bed chamber is attributed, is given to the nubile young girl when she reaches marriageable age. 29. Today, mediums still unbind their hair to officiate. 30. This expression recalls the “techniques of nourishing the vital principal” and the sexual practices related to them. See Maspero, 1971: 573–74. For a

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comparison with Greece on the subject of the power emanating from hair, see Vernant, 1985: 43ff. 31. Hemp is a plant believed to connect the worlds of the living and the dead. It is a plant with well-known therapeutic and hallucinogenic virtues. It is also often used as a link between the world of humans and that of the spirits. It is ritually picked on the seventh day of the seventh month on the slopes of Mount Tai, whose goddess, Tai Shan Niangniang, is also the goddess of hemp, Magu. See Schipper, 1978b: 46n52. Tai Shan Niangniang, known by the name of Bixia Yuanjun (Sovereign of the Azure Clouds), whose role toward women is close in north China to that of Chen Jinggu in the south, is the daughter of the god of the Eastern Peak, Tai Shan. See Chapter 6. On the subject of Magu, see also Despeux and Kohn, 2003: 94–97. 32. It was thought that lightning was an emission of light resulting from the friction of yin and yang. See Doré, 1914, vol. 10: 16; Burkhardt, 1978: 173; Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 514. Coming from the earth, it is female and personified by the Lightning Mother, Dianmu. She holds in her hands the mirrors with which she projects two rays of light. This luminous emission is constant, but it is only visible when it splits the clouds, causing the rain to fall. This transformation of the cloud by lightning is perceived as the symbol of childbirth. It is for this reason that the character for lightning, dian, is used in writing talismans, fu, intended to hasten births, accompanied by magic spells. Doré, 1914, vol. 3: 229, gives the following example of such a spell: “Just as lightning splits the breast of the cloud to turn it into water, it opens the breast of this pregnant woman and assures the birth.” Talismans using the character dian, “lightning,” or lei, “thunder,” still exist today. 33. In Chapter 6 we will return to the god of the soil and the Lady of the Birth Registers, other gods who bind and rebind, on this theme of links (hair, ropes, and umbilical cords) and breaths. The trigrams, let us recall, are themselves originally cosmic breaths. 34. One may see in the character of Lin Jiuniang a form of the figure of the Gorgon, the mask of terror having manifest affinities, as Vernant (1995: 32–33) shows, with the raw, brutal depiction of the female sex organ as if wearing a mask. In Greece this theme is associated with that of hair in a way that is familiar to us and that is of interest to us here for two reasons. As Vernant demonstrates, hair is the symbol of the warrior’s virile beauty and in this it has a “terrifying” aspect. It gives rise to rites of passage with inverted sexual status: “By shaving the head of the young wife, one extirpates from her what she still possesses of the male and the warrior in her femininity, of the savage right up to her new matrimonial state. One avoids introducing into one’s house, under the mask of the wife, the face of Gorgon” (ibid.: 45–46). See also Obeyesekere, 1981, on the subject of the theme of hair, the individual, and religious experience. 35. Guanyin is also depicted in a triad with Manjusri and Samantabhadra. According to the legend of Miaoshan, these names are the titles conferred by the Jade Emperor on the princess’s two sisters. See Yü, 2001: 441. 36. This image recalls certain popular practices, such as that of placing a young child in a fishing net in order to, by catching him, guarantee him a long

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life, and all the other customs that still persist in which one attaches an infant to life by passing a collar around his neck, sometimes equipped with a padlock, sometimes just a simple string. In addition, in evoking this image we are reminded of the omphalic sacrifices offered to Apollo, in which the omphalic stone, in some cases assimilated to a newborn, was surrounded by ribbons similar to umbilical cords. See Delcourt, 1981: 144–49. 37. We may wonder if this sacrifice is the vestige of an ancient custom linked to this cult, of sacrificing young children on certain occasions, although we cannot prove it. One indication of it would be the custom, reported by the Soushen ji, of sacrificing two children every year on the ninth day of the ninth month to the White Snake, which, according to popular belief, lived in Linshui grotto before being subdued by Chen Jinggu. This date, which today is the date of the festival of Li Sanniang, according to the Soushen ji, would have been the date of the festival of Lin Jiuniang.

Chapter 4 1. The novel, the result of a long development of a popular subject, is dated in its definitive form to 1592, during the Ming dynasty. Earlier forms are known, among them that of Li Zhichang (1193–1278). 2. The term fan, “to offend,” “to defy,” refers to the sexual practices (kidnapping, rape) usually attributed to this figure. It is said that following such an encounter with the King of the Monkeys, women were overcome with languor, probably due to his vampiric practices linked to the intention to nourish within himself the embryo of immortality. On the subject of these legends, see Lévy, 1979–81, vol. 2: 52ff. See Jin Ming, 1993: 29, on the syncretic composition of the Linshui pingyao zhuan including elements of the Xiyou ji. 3. These are two actual places. Panther Head Mountain, where the grotto where the monkeys dwell (suyuan dong) is found, is in the region of Black Stone Mountain (in Fuzhou), like all the other sacred sites relating to Mount Lü. See Wang Yingshan, 1831 [1967]: 55, 60. This name appears, however, in the Xiyou ji as the place of an exorcism. See Wu Cheng’en, 1991, ch. 89. 4. These twenty-eight constellations are mapped onto the interior landscape of the body, where they help to destroy harm and the hells by assisting the Heavenly Net, that is, the stars of the Northern Dipper. See Despeux, 1994: 190. 5. On the subject of the association of the monkey with the cycle of twelve, see Saussure, 1920: 23. 6. “One of the characteristics of the School of the South is to start first of all by cultivating the ming, next the hsing, and then the two of them simultaneously, while the School of the North starts with the hsing” (Despeux, 1985: 69n32). Xing (hsing) is the innate nature, the spirit, the being, the spiritual life; ming is the vital force, the body, existing, the sexual life. For the School of the North, Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng) would be the yang that one has within oneself: “The Lung-men hsin-ch’uan on the other hand gives an opposing interpretation. There the monkey represents the spiritual energy (shen) of the innate nature (hsing). That is the interpretation that prevails if we consider that the monkey corresponds to the heart, seat of the shen and of the

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hsing. The latter interpretation corresponds to the system of the School of the North in contrast to that of the Hsi-yu yuan-chih placing itself in the alchemical perspective of the School of the South, emphasizing ming and distinguishing between the Yang of the other (of the partner) and the Yang that one has within oneself” (ibid., 69). 7. See also Boltz, 1983: 506–7 (on the subject of a Shenxiao text): “The generative powers of the pearl are almost universally acknowledged, for it is a symbol in which, by definition, multiple aspects of human and cosmic transformation are integrated. In physiological alchemy, the pearl is, as a rule, representative of condensed vital forces. All means of respiratory, gymnastic, and sexual techniques are exploited by the physiological alchemist in regenerating primary vitalities. The cyclical movement of corporeal pneumas in the transformation of a pearl, as noted in the Operative Essentials, has its parallel in earlier techniques of inner alchemy. . . . The sixth century Tz’u-i ching (Scripture on Feminine Unity), for example, speaks of the union of sun and moon, the product of which is a brilliant pearl with a yellow interior, resembling an egg.” 8. On another level, certain legends of Laozi have him born of a pearl, embodying the coagulation of the breaths of which he is the result. See Schipper, 1982b: 165, which cites the Hunyuan huangdi shengji, Yunji qiqian, 102: 2a. That is also the meaning of the pearl that is depicted between two dragons on the roofs of temples: the essence of the incense burner, the very heart of the temple, through which communication is established with heaven. The pearl is also used in traditional medicine for its gynecologic and fertilizing virtues. Finally, in general, shellfish and pearls, often associated with metal, share the symbolism of the moon, whose phases they follow. One need only point out the (metallic) mirror of the Pojing (see Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 154), or the lightning-owl, bird of the blacksmith. This theme is also addressed by Eliade, 1977, on the relations between rocks, lightning, and metal. 9. Xihe is near Fuzhou. 10. The theme of the double, where we see the Monkey pass himself off as someone else and constantly transform himself, is a recurrent one in the Xiyou ji. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven (Qitian Dasheng) in fact obtained from Subhūti the teaching of seventy-two transformations and a cloud somersault capable of propelling him a hundred thousand li. See Wu Cheng’en, 1991, bk. 1, ch. 2. 11. At the end of his travels, the Monkey, like his companions, becomes a buddha, and the band that constricts his head spontaneously falls off. See Wu Cheng’en, 1991, ch. 100. 12. The curious expression bianque is also the strange nickname of Qin Yueren, a doctor in the Warring States period famous for his diagnoses using the pulse (mai). See Hsü, 2001: 52–55. We shall see that Chen Jinggu captures these demons by seizing them by the veins of their wrists (shoumai), which connect with each other. See also Chapter 1. Various gazetteers of Fuzhou give interesting details about this split stone. The Cloud-riding Terrace formerly was called the “Terrace of Processions” (Jinxiang tai). The inhabitants of the neighboring villages were potters. People

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said that “once you damaged the vases, you should not repair them; if you did, they would break.” This is why this high peak stands unshakeable while thunder rages (zhenling). Later, people forgot this maxim (fa); they began to repair the vases, and shortly after, they broke (huai). Later the word ling (ⅴġ “to ride”) was replaced by lin (惘 “neighbor”). See Xie Qiquan, 2000: 108; Liang Kejia, 12th c. [2000], chap. siguan (On temples), section 1; Wang Yingshan, 1831 [1967], juan 10. This episode plays on the words huai ⢆ “to break” and huai ㆟ “to be pregnant.” Sun ㎵ “to harm” is also the forty-first hexagram of the Book of Changes: “Diminution: moment when what is below, declining, helps the progress of what is above.” Lin (neighbor) is also a Buddhist term for “near to emptiness.” Zhen 暯, a violent thunderclap, is the fifty-first hexagram: “Shaking: moment when the terror of a shock gives birth to a new burst of activity.” This Cloud-riding Terrace is situated at the top of Xuelao Peak, on Black Stone Mountain, in Fuzhou. It used to be called The Peak Looking Toward the Yang (Xiangyang feng). Xue Feng, magistrate of the Houguan district in Fuzhou (847–60), went for a walk to the Monastery of the Divine Brightness (Shenguang) situated on this peak. He had a pavilion built there, on which he wrote three words: Xue Lao Feng, Peak of the Old Xue. Wang Yingshan, 1831 [1967], juan 10, says: “In the first year of the Kaiyuan period [944] of the Five Dynasties, a violent thunderstorm knocked over (dao Ὰ) this inscription. In this very year, the Min Kingdom came to an end.” A poem written on this occasion states that the stone was animated by the words written on it. It reminded people to give up worldly pleasures. The word dao also means “to arrive.” It recalls the custom of turning upside down the character “spring” (chun) during the New Year festival. Then people say “Spring has arrived!” (chun daole). The Bamin tongzhi (Huang Zhongshao, 1485–89 [1990], vol. 1: 70) sheds even more light on the story. It says that the stone, animated by the three characters Xue Lao Feng, became a Chan meditation stone. Situated to the east of the mountain, it is as straight as bamboo (sun 䫵), and as hard as stone (pan shi 䡸䞛). People who touch it feel a strange emotion. It is also called “the stone that subjugates and puts to sleep” (xiangshui shi 旵䜉䞛). 13. See Chapter 2. In particular, it is the mother of Yi Yin, transformed into a hollow mulberry tree. See Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 564. 14. The myths referred to here are reported by De Groot, 1892–1910, vol. 5: 642; Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 515–37. They come from high antiquity, from the Warring States period. Their language sheds light on the mechanisms of thought identical to those described in the Linshui pingyao zhuan. On the subject of showing materials so distant in time to reveal logical processes of chains of thinking, see Détienne, 2000. 15. This is the name of an evil astrologic constellation. See Hou, 1979. As we shall see in Chapters 7 and 8, the Celestial Dog is believed to be the enemy of children. It continues to figure in a number of rituals; it is, among others, the name of one of the “passes” (guan) of childhood. 16. Chen Jinggu supposedly received this title (shenhao). See Introduction. See also Jin Ming, 1993: 34; Lai Biqiang and Lin Weigong, 1993: 46; Doré,

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1914, vol. 11: 914–19, 991–94. We shall return to this point in Chapter 6. We may readily note this assimilation of the “divine functions” (wei) of Chen Jinggu and Bixia Yuanjun in both Taiwan and Fujian, where the two divinities have similar roles. See Naquin, 2000: 241ff. They are easily invoked interchangeably by their believers. As an example, Bixia Yuanjun–Tai Shan Niangniang and Chen Jinggu both figure in the Temple of the Eastern Peak in Fuzhou. See also Doré, 1914, vol. 10: 65. 17. On the subject of the water rites performed in the seventh month, see Granet, 1982: 255n2, 257. We should note that the seventh day of the seventh month is the day of the festival of the Weaving-maid, a divinity whose cult is very close to that of Chen Jinggu. See Chapter 6, where we shall examine the link between the two cults. In addition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month is the festival of Avalambana, the Buddhist festival of the dead, when everyone is supposed to feed the Hungry Ghosts on the model of Maudgalyayana-Mulian (see Teiser, 1988). This is also the day of the apotheosis of the pilgrims, according to the chantefable of the search for the sutras by Tripitaka, the text of which preceded the taking shape of the novel Xiyou ji. See Wu Cheng’en, 1991, introduction: xxviii, xxxv. 18. This led Granet to wonder if this placing of the newborn on the ground was a vestige of sacrificial customs. 19. See Chapter 3, note 22, on the subject of the Great Ravine, which we have seen is located under the Polar Star (in the legend, the Terrace That Looks North), and that it is in a way equivalent to the undifferentiated original chaos. See Schipper, 1978a: 367, where he cites Ge Hong, Baopuzi (93). On the sacrifice of the demon of the Great Ravine (Zhangkeng Gui) to inaugurate the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, see Chapter 3. 20. The Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 2: 7, says: “nei shanbian yi keng chuanze zhuoqi, shou riyue zhi jinghua, hunjie cheng yige Zhangkeng Gui, gui zhong zhi jing.” 21. The souls of skeletons (pogui) are heavy essences belonging to the earth. Wandering souls (mihun) are the souls of people who died bad deaths; they wander the earth demanding food and offerings, in the seventh month, when they come back to the world of men. 22. Kaltenmark, 1960: 579n3, emphasizes the relation between the words po and gui, in the following way: Suetoshi Ikeda, in a work on the characters hun and po, concludes that k’i p’o was in fact the complete representation of a kouei, a skeleton; see “Houen p’o kao,” in Toyo shukyo, 1, 3 (1953). “Without going this far, I would be willing to concede that the po element in the character p’o (spermatic soul), evokes the skeleton where, it is believed, the vital principles represented by the marrow and the tsing reside.” And on p. 538 of the text: “We have said that the tsing is practically the same thing as the p’o. The Siang Eul shows us that both are white, because they have the color of the ‘original breath’ (yuan ki).” 23. See Introduction. On the subject of the door guardians of Mount Lü, see Chapter 1; and Baptandier, 1991a. 24. “The seminal essence will be sublimated in the breath. The seminal es-

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sence, not being allowed to flow out, is retained and its course is reversed. . . . What goes up into the head is not the seminal essence itself but the breath that carries it and precedes its flow. This material essence is in fact of a yin nature, like menstruation in women, whereas its quintessence is the yang contained in the yin. . . . At the top of the head, the essence joins the yin of the body of the adept and redescends in the form of secretions through the channel of conception as far as the lower cinnabar field, also called the ocean of breath, the descent corresponding to an increase of yin” (Despeux, 1990: 237–38). 25. See Despeux, 1990: 35. This word is used by the Zhen’gao to designate the imaginary sexual relations between the adept and the divine. The Zhen’gao (Declaration of the Perfected) is a collection of documents containing the revelations received at Mount Mao by the visionary medium Yang Xi (330–?) from Perfected Immortals, Zhenren. Written by Xu Mi (303–73) and Xu Hui (330–?), they were collected later by the Daoist Tao Hongjing (456–536), who added a commentary. The Zhen’gao contains descriptions of Yangxi’s visions, exhortations and warnings, technical instructions, revelations regarding the secret hierarchy of Mount Mao, details about the Islands of the Dead, and personal writings of Yang and Xu. The Zhen’gao had a considerable influence on the Daoism of its time. See Strickmann, 1991. 26. Lightning or diamond, the term vajra also refers to tantric Buddhism. 27. Derrida, 1967: 300–302, in the chapter “La scène de l’écriture,” says something that is directly related to our subject: “Memory . . . is the very essence of the psyche: resistance, and precisely, thereby, an opening to the effraction of the trace. . . . It is the difference between breaches which is the true origin of memory and thus of the psyche. . . . All these differences in the production of the trace may be reinterpreted as moments of deferring. . . . The effort of life to protect itself by deferring a dangerous cathexis, that is, by constituting a reserve. Is this not already the detour which institutes the relation of pleasure to reality? . . . Life is already threatened by the origin of the memory which constitutes it, and by the breaching which it resists, the effraction which it can contain only by repeating it. It is because breaching breaks open that Freud, in the Project, accords a privilege to pain. . . . Life must be thought of as trace before Being may be determined as presence. This is the only condition on which we can say that life is death.” 28. In Nanping prefecture in Jian’ou county. I visited this temple in 1993 and 1996. 29. According to the “official” document of the Buddhist Association, it was first of all a very small Daoist temple (Daojiao siyuan), which subsequently came under the control of the Buddhist Association (Fojiao xiehui). In 1399 (during the Ming dynasty) a great hall (dadian) was built. Then in 1442 (year thirty-one of the Ming) a Three Jewels (Sanbao dadian) altar was added, and in 1414 the altar of the protective divinities of the gates (Qielan dian). In 1487 a theater stage (xitai) was built. In 1672 (fifty-sixth year of the Qing dynasty), the Guanyin Hall (Guanyin dian), then in the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong’s reign (1763), an Altar to the Great Sage (Dasheng dadian) was added. In the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong’s reign (1775) the Precious Altar of the Great

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Heroes of the Three Jewels (Sanbao daxiong baodian) was constructed. In the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong’s reign (1795) the Qielan dian was enlarged. After Liberation, the temple was badly damaged. In 1982 it was repaired and there was an attempt to return it to its original appearance. In 1989 the temple was made a historic monument and its restoration and redecoration continue. Most of the small temples in the region come here to “divide incense” (fenxiang), thereby creating the network of the cult. 30. Qitian Dasheng is usually depicted with the features of a macaque and not a gibbon, particularly in the Xiyou ji. In many points the respective cults of the two monkeys are often linked, each representing an aspect of the search for immortality. The present example seems to move in this direction. 31. The triad of the Three Jewels, the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha, appears in the Xiyou ji. The three formulas recited by the faithful correspond to them: “I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the dharma, I take refuge in the sangha.” See Doré, 1914, vol. 6: 16. About Skanda, see Stein, 1986: 67: “Skanda (who became Wei-t’o in Chinese) was associated with a female Guanyin (as a chaste young warrior who venerates her). Moreover as a temple door guardian, this Wei-t’o (looking toward the North where Guanyin is often found) is placed back to back behind Mi-lo with the fat belly holding several children.” 32. It was in fact a red fish that had escaped from Guanyin’s basin and whose weapon was a hammer made of a lotus bud. On the subject of this episode and this depiction of Guanyin standing on a fish, see Stein, 1986: 58–60. 33. The twenty-fourth day of the seventh month is the shengri, the birthday, of his access to the Dao (dedao), and the twenty-seventh day of the tenth month is the date on which the Jade Emperor gave him the title of Qitian Dasheng, which he had already arrogated to himself. See Wu Cheng’en, 1991, bk. 1, ch. 4. The troupe that performed there in 1996 came from Banyang. 34. They are the very children that Topley calls “strange” (translating the term guai), and that M. Wolf calls “children with an expensive fate” (guiming). The latter defines them thus: “A child who has frequent, though not necessarily serious illnesses, is troublesome, quarrelsome, forever getting into trouble, falling into drainage ditches, tearing her clothes, and in general occupying more of her parents’ attention than her siblings is frequently labeled kui khi [guiqi]” (M. Wolf, 1972: 63). Whereas Topley explains thus what she prefers to call “strange”: “Whereas my informants spoke of strangeness, the doctors spoke of polarization: some people or some objects were polarized, either in the direction of yang or in the direction of yin” (Topley, 1974: 234). These facts can still be confirmed today. 35. See Chapter 8 on the subject of “being terror-stricken.” Lady Jiang’s tiger is also said to be able to perform this same ritual. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3. 36. Topley, 1974: 239, explains very well how two beings polarized in opposite directions engender poison (du). This situation, temporary and harmless in certain situations, for example, pregnancy (the mother being “colder” and the baby “hotter”), can be tragic in other circumstances, when the fates of

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the mother and child prove to be in opposition; the death of one or the other can occur. It, too, is a specialty of Jiang Hupo’s tiger: it could “dispel poison” (qidu). See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 3. 37. The Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17: 119, gives an account of a Measles and Smallpox Lady placed under Chen Jinggu’s authority. It is a Lady Liu, whose given name is Xianniang, the wife of the python king Mengtian Shenwang. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17. We should note that although Cinnabar Cloud is directly associated with all these symptoms of inflammation, the white gibbon (baiyuan) seems to be associated with diphtheria. There is a paper money offering depicting the white gibbon. It is used in exorcisms in order to heal children afflicted with this illness. Fortunately, diphtheria is no longer common today. Nonetheless, many of my Taiwanese informants were able to give me evidence corroborating this practice.

Chapter 5 1. The temple in Tainan was rebuilt in 1989. New statues were subsequently set up on either side of the principal hall of the temple. 2. It is Fuzhou fu: Gutian xian, Changle xian, Luoyuan xian, Futing xian, Houguan xian, Lianjiang xian, Minchun xian, Shuifu xian, Minqing xian; Yanping fu: Shunchang xian, Nanping xian; Quanzhou fu: Jinjiang xian, Nan’an xian, Huian xian, Tongan xian, Anxi xian; Jianning fu: Ouning xian, Jianyang xian, Puchang xian, Zhenghe xian; Shaowu fu: Jianyang xian, Guangze xian; Shuichun zhou: Zhuhua xian; Xinghua fu: Putian xian, Xianyou xian; Funing fu: Ningde xian, Xiapu xian; Tingzhou fu: Liancheng xian, Chanting xian; Changzhou fu: Changpu xian; Sheyan fu: Changhu xian. The Lady of the Twenty-fifth Palace came from Yongchun zhou, Dehua xian (“Shuichun zhou” in the manuscripts I have, according to a probably mistaken orthography). According to Lin Guoping, 1993: 171, since this Qing prefecture did not exist during the Ming, this point attests to a later addition and to the composite nature of the manuscript. 3. If one limits oneself only to the different manuscripts concerning Chen Jinggu cited in the proceedings of the conference on “Chen Jinggu Culture” held in Fuzhou in 1993. See Zhuang Kongshao, 1993: 7. This title is ambiguous. Wenhua means “culture.” It was the purpose of this conference to decide whether this cult was part of Chinese culture—Daoism—or if it was only made up of aberrations and superstitions (mixin). The subject was thus Chen Jinggu’s cult. It gained a new title: wenhua, “culture.” The thirty-six Pojie are identified with forty-five districts in the province: Gutian, Ningde, Jian’ou, Pujiang, Liancheng, Lianjiang, Luoyuan, Pucheng, Changting, Ninghua, Huian, Houguan, Minqing, Anxi, Shunchang, Putian, Changle, Zhangpu, Shouning, Zhangping, Nan’an, Fuding, Xianyou, Yongfu, Guangze, Zhenghe, Tongan, Yanping, Xiapu, Fuqing, Chongan, Ouning, Yongan, Qingliu, Shaoan, Youxi, Qiangle, Fuan, Jianning, Yongchun, Shaowu, Shanghang, Longyan, Dehua. 4. The Great Queen is the name the White Snake gives herself when she dresses up in the theater costumes. 5. This torture consisted of locking the concubines in their respective palaces and leaving them there to die of cold and starvation. Linshui pingyao zhuan,

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n.d., ch. 12: 72. We may recall the battle between Iron Head monk and Lin Jiuniang, whose family had been confined in pots on a diagram of the trigrams. We shall see later how the punishment suffered by the Pojie—future “apprentices” of Chen Jinggu—is equivalent to it. 6. Here it is an allusion to the belief that the sages had seven openings in their hearts: seven corresponds to the number of the orifices in the human face and also to the holes that the Rulers of the North and South Seas pierced in Hundun, Chaos, in order to thank him for his kindness to them. See Wieger, 1950: 269. See also the story of the ruler of the house of Yin who eviscerated a sage to see if his heart really had seven openings, in Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 544n3. Three is one of the numbers of totality and the key number of the alchemical transmutation of the body, of the breaths. We are reminded of the theme of the gift of the body, and of the belief according to which human flesh was supposed to be a supreme remedy, as we find stated (in 739) in the text Corrected Pharmacopoeia-Ts’ao-mu shih-i of Ch’en Tsang-ch’i. See Yü, 2001: 339, which also cites examples from the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. 7. The text says: jiangxin xijing. This is an allusion to a ritual sequence of purification called qingxin. It was also about a practice of internal alchemy that consists of quelling the heart, the spirit, and renouncing the passions. See Min Zhiting and Li Yangzheng, 1993: 886, who cite the Laojun neiguan jing: “qingxin zhe, ling bu zhuo ye”: those who purify their hearts no longer experience torment. 8. The Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 13: 76, says: linli. 9. The word used in both these cases is the same, linli. 10. On the subject of these sacrifices, see Chavannes, 1967, vol. 3: 413; Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 345n1, and vol. 2: 525n1. 11. See Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 445ff., and esp. 447, where the author cites a passage from the Mozi, chapter 8, which “shows that at the end of the feudal period, the link uniting the diverse urban cults to the sacred sites where the ancient sexual festivals were held was still felt.” This is the passage cited: “And Zu (the name of a sacred site) for the country of Yan, is like the god of the soil and the harvests for Qi! It is like Sang-lin (the forest of mulberry trees) for Song! It is like the Yun-meng marsh for Chu! That is where boys and girls meet and come to witness the festivals (nannü zhi suoshu er guan ye)!” 12. Song Yu was both a statesman and a poet of the kingdom of Chu in the fourth century b.c. He was one of the authors of the songs of Chu. See Giles, 1898: 703. The poem in question is the “Gaotang fu.” 13. See Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 164, where he says on the subject of the hunter and evil archer Yi whose son’s body was boiled into a gruel and fed to him: “There is something of the ordeal in the cannibalistic feast. The one who eats the gruel proves his virtue. . . . The gruel is both a purgative and a sacrament.” 14. “The cannibal feast is necessary to a power that is establishing or extending itself,” says Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 162. 15. See Granet, 1982: 72; Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 533, where it is a question of the cyclical organization of the women’s quarters in relation to the phases of the moon.

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16. Feng Menglong’s story “The White Snake” can also be interpreted in this way. Although Xu Xuan, the husband of Madame White—the White Snake—is in conflict with the “true nature” of his wife, it is because of the way that others (orthodox priests, lustful rivals, or judges) look at her. It is they who get him into trouble. It is they who bring serious difficulties upon him, rather than she herself. As Madame White says to him, they have lived together happily for a long time. But the judges, the orthodox priests, the envious, all see a deviance there, they are envious of him and punish him. And the White Snake bears the cost of it, there too: she is buried under a pagoda in her reptilian aspect. 17. The cult of another snake, the snake king Mangtian Shenwang who is mentioned in ch. 17 of the Linshui pingyao zhuan and whose wife is the Smallpox Lady, Liu Xianniang, associated with the cult of Chen Jinggu, should be noted here. This cult is still very important in Fujian, in particular around Nanping. See Lin Guoping, 1993; Xu Xiaowang, 1993. Oral tradition in the region of Gutian also reports how the grotto of the White Snake in Linshui was formerly inhabited by a snake to whom two children were sacrificed every year. This snake is said to have been vanquished by Chen Jinggu or by her Daoist brother. Here again we find the story from the Soushen ji, reprised in the later versions of this work, and which echoes the intervention of Chen Jinggu, while associating the episode with an astral cult of the Snake constellation. See Introduction; and Ye Dehui, 1980. See also Sanjiao yuanliu shengdi foshuai soushen ji. 18. See the biography of Laozi in Ge Hong, 5th. c. [1989] 1: 2–11. 19. See Chapter 4, note 22; Kaltenmark, 1960, on the relations between the skeleton, the bones, supposed to hold the essence (jing), and the words po and gui, which refer to them. See also Lévi, 1984. 20. On the subject of the union of bone and flower, one must cite the legend of the Snake Prince. His wife, a sort of Chinese Cinderella, was killed by her own mother, who wanted to put her sister in her place. The unfortunate wife, transformed into a bird, became the only consolation of the prince. The mother kidnapped the bird, killed it, and served it to the prince to eat, after which she buried the bones. At the very spot where the bones were buried, a superb bamboo (or a peach tree) grew that the woman soon cut to make into a bed. But each time she lay down on it, the bed groaned terribly, whereas the prince slept happily in it. Consequently, she ended by throwing it into the fire; a red cake found in the cinders was entrusted to a neighbor to keep warm. This cake turned into a baby, who was none other than the true wife of the prince. The evil sister was finally cooked in a cauldron of oil through her own error and thus caused her mother to die of horror. See Eberhard, 1965: 17–23. Here we see through a more complicated process this same union of bone and flower producing a baby. We are also reminded of the well-known legend of Meng Jiangnü who brought back to life the bones of her husband buried in the Great Wall by pouring a drop of her blood on them. 21. It was Lin Jiuniang and Lady Li, who became a sworn sister of Chen Jinggu at the time of the exorcism of a sea monster that, by means of an illusion summoned up on the sea, swallowed pilgrims who believed they were going to

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the paradise of Amitābha. This exorcism was performed in Luoyuan (Fujian) at a place called Shuikou. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 8: 47ff., and ch. 9: 57ff. 22. In the temples dedicated to the Lady of Linshui there are sometimes twelve or six female figures—even only one or two—around the Three Ladies (Sannai). It is thus a matter of other divine posts (wei), also specialists in women, of other “divine titles” (shenhao), such as Jiuniang, the Nine Ladies, that is, Bixia Yuanjun and her acolytes; or quite simply Zhusheng Niangniang and her acolytes (see Chapter 6), to whom these names or that of Chen Jinggu are given interchangeably. 23. See Hu Fuchen, 1985: 1162, for the thirty-six palaces and the thirty-six guan; p. 1455 for the thirty-six grottos; and p. 1654 for the thirty-six thunders. See also Min Zhiting and Li Yangzheng, 1983: 96, on the subject of the relation between the number thirty-six (the “thirty-six Palaces,” sanshiliu gong) and the divination trigrams. 24. The Shuihu zhuan was written in the fourteenth century based on oral traditions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 25. The Door of Life (gen) is also the Gate of the Demons, because it is the most vulnerable point of the chart, through which the vital essences, the primordial breath, and the spirit escape. It is through this point that the demons attack. See Saso, 1978a: 137. It recalls another Gate: Mount Lü, the Portal Mountain, also assimilated to the Gate of Hell in the cosmos (ibid.: 60). According to Schipper (1978a: 371), “Ming-men (Gate of Life) therefore may mean the vulva, the penis (yi-shu or Jade Tree) etc.” (See also Schipper, 1969: 24.) This meaning is particularly relevant here. 26. The six jia periods are the generals of the yang; the six ding periods are the generals of the yin. According to the dunjia method, it is within the set constituted by these twelve divinities that one determines the empty sign by which one can go out the Gate of Heaven. These Jade Maidens are the assistants to the Queen Mother, Xi Wangmu. They are censor agents of fate, but “they are suddenly mothers who bring divine nourishment to the embryo! Under the name ‘Strange Powers of the Hidden Periods’ they are also musicians, comrades of the Dao. On the subject of the instruments they play, we should note that they are those of love, of sexual union” (Schipper, 1982b: 190–91). In the episode in which Lin Jiuniang fights the Iron Head monk (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9), the latter commanded the divine jia of his mandala to turn into seal images (Zhuanxiang) to go destroy Lin Jiuniang’s trigrams. As Robinet, 1991: 227, shows, in them we can see seals, mudras, or texts: “In internal alchemy (neidan) the term xiang has almost the sense of simulacrum, artifact, figuration, impoverished re-presentation that shows and reflects what cannot be said. These are the puppets that the master manipulates in every sense and beyond all sense.” On the subject of the seals, the mudras, and their relation to tantric Buddhism, see Strickmann, 1996, esp. ch. 4, “Ensigillation.” 27. The Sanyi jiao sect, created during the Ming dynasty by Lin Zhaoen (1517–98), tries to reconcile Confucianism, Daoism (internal alchemy), and Buddhism (principally Chan). Lin devised a method of internal alchemy called

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Kongmen xinfa (Confucian heart method), or Genbeifa (Gen hexagram in the back method). It is a technique associating visualizations and meditations to finally recover the embryonic respiration and, combining breath, sexual essences, and spirit, to give birth to an embryo of immortality, while rediscovering the undifferentiated state of before birth. The Sanyi jiao moreover rewrote the liturgies for local divinities, among them Chen Jinggu. In a ritual of this tradition dedicated to birth and childhood, several ladies of the thirty-six palaces of Chen Jinggu were invoked, starting with “Chen Jinggu of Gutian” herself. This battle, where a cosmic/alchemical ritual is concealed, also recalls these later practices. See also Berling, 1980; Lin Guoping, 1991. 28. See Chapter 1 on the subject of this figure. This magic contest is described in the Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 15: 93ff. 29. The Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 13: 84, says: de cheng renti. The possibility of assuming human form is of course considered to be one of the superior transformations on the way to the Dao. This was also the case with the Rock-Press Women; see Chapter 4. 30. Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 13: 84, where it says: nai shi mingjia zhi danqing ye. 31. Dan is cinnabar; qing is the first of the five primordial colors, that of nature. 32. We can see in this prediction imputed to the master of Mao Shan, historically Wei Huacun, a reference to the heterodox magic ritual techniques of the Five Thunders, which only appeared in the Song dynasty. See Despeux, 1994: 173–91. 33. On the subject of this negative vision of the popular practices said to be from Mao Shan, see Saso, 1978a: 239: “Though relieved of its earlier aberrations, the new shen-hsiao sect is still considered to be the latest and least of the Taoist brethren. As practiced in Taiwan today, new shen-hsiao Taoism, like the aberrant form of popular Maoshan Taoism, makes use of evil talismans to kill, injure, or harm people in the community.” 34. On the Thunder procedures in relation to the Xiuzhen tu, see Despeux, 1994: 173–91. This tradition combines ritual exorcistic practices and meditative practices based on the techniques of internal alchemy: “Since Bai Yuchan, the Thunder rites have been imbued with tantric Buddhism and with rites linked to the terrible divinities, whose external and internal aspects develop anger as a method of controlling the external ills, illusions, and thoughts of the adept” (ibid.: 175). It is at this intersection of the ritual traditions that the Mount Lü sect is found. See also Strickmann, 1975; Saso, 1978a; Boltz, 1987. 35. Learning to laugh is an important stage in childhood. In “Le dépôt de l’enfant sur le sol” Granet (1953: 185) explains how, in the third month, at the end of the period of seclusion, the father takes the baby in his arms and makes it laugh, thereby breathing into it its soul. 36. We shall return to the ritual aspects of the roles of the Pojie in Chapters 8 and 9.

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Chapter 6 1. We should note that the Marshal Gao who watches over the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers has the title of Guardian of the “Birthing Basin,” called the “Golden Basin” (jinpen). See Chapter 2. See also Jin Ming, 1993: 27, on this connection between the two goddesses, readily expressed on the ground. See the painting on the cover, which illustrates this point. 2. See Introduction; and Shi Hongbao, 19th c. [1985]. See also Jin Ming, 1993: 28; Lai Biqiang and Lin Weigong, 1993: 46. Hu Fuchen, 1985: 1503, “Linshui Furen,” confirms this point. In the entry “Bixia Yuanjun,” p. 1506, the presence of this “title” is mentioned in the south of China, but only in connection with Mazu. See Chapter 4 and note 28 below. 3. This is also a central theme of the legend of Miaoshan-Guanyin, who traveled through hell to save those suffering there. See Dudbridge, 1978; Yü, 2001. Certain parallels have been established between the legend of Mulian saving her mother from hell and Qitian Dasheng, the King of the Monkeys. See Wu Cheng’en, 1991. 4. See Chapter 5, notes 11 and 12. 5. See Chapter 5, notes 13 and 14. 6. We find the demonic aspect of the god of the soil in the legend of Gonggong, father of Goulong, the dynastic god of the soil from the time of the Xia, and whose domain was the earth before men wanted to cultivate it. He was expelled to the Northwest where, enraged, he overturned Mount Buzhou, which held up the sky in this place. Thus the god of the seigneurial soil, sacrificed and walled up, only receives the harmful influences of the north through a small opening especially made for this purpose. The son of Gonggong, Goulong, heir to the earth, submitted and introduced agriculture. He thus became the Lord of the Earth. See Maspero, 1971: 255; Granet, 1959, vol. 2: 485, 517–21; vol. 1: 125; De Groot, 1886: 394ff. 7. On the role of these figures, see Kaltenmark, 1979; Stein, 1979. 8. As Maspero, 1971: 61–63, says: “The notion gradually established itself in the spirit of the Chinese that divine titles were roles that successive title holders filled through the ages.” 9. According to Maspero, 1971: 122ff., the first recorded case of a sacrifice to a chenghuang by an official was in 555. See also Johnson, 1985a; Hamashima, 1992. 10. See Dean, 1998a: 25–26: “Despite the best efforts of Confucian educators, the sheji altars quickly deviated from official prescriptions. One form this took was that temples dedicated to an anthropomorphised earth god became common in the Song dynasty. . . . Increasingly she altars merged with temples to local deities.” See also Dean and Zheng, 1993; Overmyer, 1989–90: 207; Taylor, 1990; Zito, 1987; Dui Xuepei and Chen Xianmei, 1996. For a local example, see also Baptandier, 1996e. 11. This is the case in a certain way in the legend of Meng Jiangnü, mentioned in Chapter 5, note 20, where the god of the soil reveals to the heroine the bones of her husband buried under the Great Wall. 12. Armies were also presented to the god of the soil, who was notified in

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advance of wars. See Maspero, 1971. See also Chapter 5. 13. Chen Jinggu entrusts her ritual instruments to the god of the soil when she leaves to search for the Rock-Press Women. 14. See Schipper, 1982b: 143–45, where he mentions the Laozi zhong jing, the jade calendar. See also Despeux, 1994, and the diagrams of the body, wuji neijing tu, depicting the interior landscape of the body. 15. Perhaps we can also see here a reference to traditional cross-cousin marriage, in which the paternal uncle, shu, plays the role of herald. See Granet, 1953. See also Chapter 7 on the subject of the ritual of passing sixteen years. 16. Yellow, the color of the center, is also that of the earth and of the god of the soil who lives in its bosom. 17. On the subject of this organization into networks of “dividing incense,” see Schipper, 1977; Schipper and Wang, 1990; Dean, 1993. 18. In the Tang dynasty, Xuanzong in 725 bestowed on him the title of “King Equal to Heaven,” Tianji Wang. In the Song dynasty, in 1008, Zhenzong added “Humane and Sagely Emperor Equal to Heaven,” Rensheng Tianji Di. The Mongol dynasty, in 1291, invested him as “Emperor Equal to Heaven, Great Producer of Life, Humane and Sagely,” Tianji Dasheng Rensheng Di. See also Johnson, 1985a; Hamashima, 1992. 19. To this were added sixty unknown princes, the number of the sexagenary cycle of the days, which gives a total of 72, and 72 multiplied by five (the five elements) constitutes the total number of days of the year, 360. The first date recorded for these sacrifices is 110 b.c., when Emperor Wu of the Han performed them. They were sacrifices including a substitute responsible for diverting from the emperor the ills he bore onto the head of another. Subsequently, under the Eastern Han, the Tang (666, 725) and the Song (1008), the sacrifices were performed publicly with great pomp. In 695 the empress Wu Zitian went to Mount Song to offer them in her turn. 20. There are other locations believed to be the kingdom of the dead, in particular, Mount Fengdu. See Mollier, 1997; Chenivesse, 1995, 1996b, 1998, 2001. 21. See Schipper, 1997, and the works of the group Sanjiao wenxian; Naquin, 2000. See also Dean, 1998a: 30ff., on the subject of the observation tower on the Eastern Peak, at Putian (Yuan), and its federating role. 22. This point recalls the origin of the cult of Li Shan Laomu, near Xi’an. See Chapter 1, note 15. 23. Bixia Yuanjun is venerated at Tai Shan and also at Miaofeng Shan, near Beijing. See Naquin, 1992; Gu Jiegang, 1928 [1988]. See also Pomeranz, 1997. The two mountains are the object of pilgrimages that bring together crowds on the goddess’s birthday, the eighteenth of the fourth lunar month. See Naquin, 2000. 24. See Chapter 4, where we bring together Chen Jinggu and Tai Shan Niangniang, the daughter of the Eastern Peak, also called the Night Stalker and assimilated to the owl, divinity of the lightning that induces childbirth. The cult of Bixia Yuanjun is a later equivalent. See Granet, 1959, vol. 2. 25. See Chapter 1, note 48. On the Clear-Sighted Lady, and the theme of the eye, see also Doré, 1914: vol. 10: 58.

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26. These data collected in the field are also reported by Doré, 1914, vol. 10: 58–59. On a symbolic level, Bixia Yuanjun is associated with Daoist practices of the elaboration of life in the self. This point is confirmed by the set of pictures commissioned by the Abbot Gao Rentong of the Quanzhen White Cloud Monastery (Baiyun guan) in Peking in 1890, on Daoist transformation by means of his Bixia Yuanjun procedures of internal alchemy. See Liu Xun, 2004. 27. This is the case, for example, in a Minqing temple in Fujian. 28. Also Bixia Yuanjun, Yanguang Niangniang, and Songzi Nainai. This illumination confirms the idea that one can develop of this “look” turned toward the other world. 29. See Chavannes, 1910, which emphasizes this point in regard to Tai Shan. See also Stein, 1986: 71, on the subject of the triad of the Three Sage Mothers, Houtu San Shengmu (of the Song), as we find them depicted in the Dazu cave sculptures in Sichuan: “Some inscriptions give the names of divinities. The principal, in the center, is called ‘Sacred Mother Hou-tu (Earth) Who Registers Births (Chu-sheng Hou-tu sheng-mu)’ . . . as if prefiguring the role of the modern Zhusheng Niangniang and as identical to Jiutian Xuannü, whose cult was associated with Houtu Furen around 821–925. She is known as guardian of the sexual and military arts.” See also Yü, 2001: 360–63, on the subject of another triad: that of Avalokitesvara, Samanthabhadra, and Manjusri in the “Three Sisters” version of the Upper Tianzhu Temple in Hangzhou. There White-robed Guanyin sends rain and incubating dreams. They still practice this kind of divination through dreams in Fujian, near Fuqing, at Shizhu Shan, where one spends the night (sushan) at the temple of the Nine Immortals to ask for dreams. Guanyin is also present there. See Baptandier, 1996b. 30. On this theme of female divinities envisaged as passing through all aspects of sexuality, see Sangren, 1983. 31. See Chapter 4, where this problem of polarization was first mentioned. See also Chapter 8, where it will be approached through materials from fieldwork. 32. See Chapter 7, where these cases will be mentioned. 33. This legend that the Chinese readily tell is reported by, among others, Doré, 1914: vol. 11: 1027–29; and by Granet, 1968: 176, and 1982: 257–58. See also Eberhard, 1985: 43–44. On the subject of Dong Yong and the immortal, see Qing pingshan tang huaben (Shanghai, 1957), tale no. 19, pp. 235–44. This tale is mentioned in Lévy, 1979–81, vol. 1: 81. See also Lévi, 1984. 34. Granet, 1968: 176, says: “The symbol of young peasant girls in former times, the Weaving-maid is a constellation who all year long leads a life of solitary work; not far from her, but also completely alone, is another constellation, the Herd-boy, who works at celestial labors. . . . The collaboration of the sexes was all the more efficacious in that being sacrilegious in normal times it was reserved for sacred moments.” 35. This aspect of the legend of Dong Yong and the immortal (the Weaving-maid), which alludes to incestuous conduct on the part of their son, makes logical the possibility still offered today to the faithful of the two divinities of performing the ritual of taking leave of childhood, carried out by sixteen-year-

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olds either at the temple of Chen Jinggu, who takes responsibility for them, or at the temple of the Weaving-maid, whom they must now, as adults, take leave of. See Chapter 8, on this ritual, and Lévi, 1984. Taisui is the planet Jupiter, whose mythic counterpart carries out a similar journey in reverse in the earth, symbol of fetal time. 36. On another level, see Yü, 2001: 346: “The stress on filial piety was not the sole concern of Confucius. Alan Cole argues that Buddhist ‘propaganda’ since the fifth century has focused on the need of sons to repay the debt of kindness to their mothers and Buddhist monasteries serve as the indispensable mechanism to enact the dramas of salvation by performing requisite rites. Mothers, sons and monastics were thus the three main actors in the perpetuation of the Buddhist establishment in China.” See Cole, 1998. 37. See “La vie et la mort,” in Granet, 1953: 209, which explains how female life is regulated by the number seven, while that of men depends on the number eight. 38. In a variation of the story of Bixia Yuanjun, she was one of seven jade maidens who attended the Yellow Emperor. Hu Fuchen, 1985: 1506. 39. Poem number 10 of the “Nineteen Ancient Songs,” translated by Mark Edward Lewis, 1990. 40. According to Dieny (1974: 109), the Shiji presents the Weaving-maid as a granddaughter of Heaven, and the Huainanzi considers her both as a divinity and a wife, while the Celestial Emperor plays the role of permitting the lovers to meet once a year on a bridge made of magpies in flight above the Milky Way. See Yuan Ke, 1975: 133–34, where we find complete stories of the Six Dynasties. 41. Here I take up what Pimpaneau says in Chine: mythes et dieux (1999), the first chapter of which analyzes this cult. See also Mathieu, 1989. 42. See Pimpaneau, 1999: 158–59, who cites on this subject a play from the Mongol dynasty, Bai Pu (1226–1306?), “Rain on the Phoenix Tree”: the love of Minghuang and Yang Guifei, which recalls this custom. All these practices could be observed in the Qixing Temple in Tainan in the 1980s. 43. In the Linshui pingyao zhuan, Chen Jinggu plants her hairpin in the ground to take an oath before heaven to avenge herself on the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui). 44. Xu Xiaowang, 1993: 344, following Chen Wentao Minguo, Minhua, juan 3. The Qixing Temple was previously located near Kaiyuan Temple (si), in the neighborhood of the gate of the well. It no longer exists, but the residents of the place preserve its memory. A well of the seven stars, Qixing jing, still remains; offerings are still made to it today. It was being renovated in recent years.

Chapter 7 1. It is useful here to make a synthesis of the main features that structure the medical conceptions of this period in regard to the creation of the cult of Chen Jinggu, on the one hand, and contemporary practices, on the other. I owe the historical data to which I refer to Furth, 1995, and 1999, esp. chs. 2 and 3,

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which, without my always citing them precisely, inspired the first paragraphs of this chapter, dealing with this subject. 2. The Linshui pingyao zhuan recounts such deeds. 3. This is confirmed on “double seven” days (the seventh day of the seventh lunar month) and the “fifteenth of the seventh” when the gates of the afterworld open in order to let out the souls of the dead to which great banquets are offered. On this occasion, as for the entire seventh lunar month, the month of ghosts, temples remain deserted, most often with their doors closed, and no rituals are performed. During this period, however, Chen Jinggu’s temple stays open and, although the flow of the faithful is somewhat less, one can go there without fear, and even have a ritual performed if it is urgent. We should note that this fearlessness, due, I was told, to Chen Jinggu’s exorcistic role, is certainly related to her association, as already noted (see Chapter 6), with the Weaving-maid, whose festival takes place on the seventh day of the seventh month. Nor should we forget that Chen Jinggu, under her aspect of Bixia Yuanjun, is the “daughter” of the god of the Eastern Peak. 4. This day of the first lunar month, called Shangyuan, is an important festival in the Chinese calendar. The festival of the Jade Emperor, the celestial emperor, it is also the lantern festival at this first full moon of the year. On this date everyone goes out into the street carrying a lantern, even the most jealously watched-over young girls. This was traditionally the occasion for many romantic encounters, as De Groot reports (1886: 124ff.). This day was also the festival of Zigu, the Purple Lady, goddess of the toilet, who is also called Third Lady or Seventh Lady (Qigu). On this date women make offerings to her and invoke her to ask her to predict the future. Chen Jinggu is also commemorated in the eighth month, the anniversary of her death, when she died and became a goddess. People say that she “attained the Way” (dedao). 5. It is on this same day that sixteen-year-old children take leave of the Linshui Temple, where the rites particular to their childhood took place, and the Pojie who protect them. Consequently, the crowds at the temple are large. See Chapter 8. On the subject of this festival, see also De Groot, 1886: 436–44. 6. As the mediums who come to officiate at the Linshui Temple are most often women possessed by female divinities and as I myself had the opportunity to work with a female medium of Chen Jinggu, who will be mentioned in Chapter 10, I will opt here for the feminine. I will describe these rituals in Chapter 9. 7. Other divinities, I was told, can intercede apart from Chen Jinggu or Guanyin, but they do not have the power to send a soul from the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers to a woman. That is what Guanyin did for Chen Jinggu’s future husband, who, in a previous life, during the construction of Luoyang Bridge, drowned himself in despair at not being able to marry her. She sent his soul into a new mother, at Gutian, so that he would become Liu Qi and marry this drop of blood incarnated in the Chen family, at the Lower Ford of Fuzhou: Chen Jinggu. We should note that it is not, for good reason, the soul of Chen Jinggu that Guanyin had incarnated in the Chen family, but her own blood, her flesh, the female part of conception.

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8. We are reminded here of what Héritier (1994) calls the “seminal speech of the father.” See also Lauwert, 1991; Mauclaire, 1993. 9. On this subject, see also Waltner, 1990: 48–80. 10. On the subject of the “rhizome” structure, see Deleuze and Guattari, 1980: 9–38. Deleuze and Guattari state that the individual is social from the first, traversed by the flux of the world. To those who argue that desire expresses an absence, they reply that, to the contrary, it is a productive force that fabricates a fixed reality. For them, the real does not result from a vertical causality (like a tree from roots) but shoots out in a series of horizontal arrangements, in “rhizomes.” They say: “The rhizome is an ‘uncentered’ system, without hierarchy or significance, without generality, without an organizing memory or a controlling mechanism, uniquely defined by the circulation of states of being. What the rhizome deals with is the relation to sexuality, but also to the animal, to the vegetal, to the world, to politics, to books, to things of nature and of what is artificial; it is very different from the tree-like relation: many kinds of ‘becomings’ (devenirs)” (ibid.: 32). They also say: “We call ‘plateau’ any multiplicity connectable with others by shallow subterranean stalks that form and spread a rhizome” (ibid.: 33). This way of thinking seems to correspond to the Chinese notion of a female axis (like a rhizome), opposed to the male genealogical tree. The Bridge of a Hundred Flowers evokes this kind of rhizome-like structure. 11. This was said to me by a woman in a village in Fujian. The Linshui pingyao zhuan gives many examples of this practice and it even describes the ritual that consecrates such links. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 9. 12. Bray, 1997: 357, and Wolf and Huang, 1980, give similar information. 13. One says: meiyou dingtai. See Chapter 9. According to Despeux, 2003: 66: “Moreover, it is in the third month, it was believed, that the sex of the embryo was determined. Consequently, from the first to the third month, but principally in the third month, it was thought possible to change the course of things and even the sex of the baby.” 14. See La Fleur, 1992, on the subject of this “liquid life” and the cult of dead embryos, an expression of karmic retribution. 15. It is ritual paper money used as an offering for divinities and for demons. It is also given as a present to the dead, so that they will be able to pay for the services of the demons in the afterworld. This money, which is offered under different aspects depending on the case, is burned after the ritual in order to be transmitted to its recipient. On this subject see Hou, 1975. 16. As Furth shows (1999: 91): “The woman’s sexual body was not separated from her generative and gestational body, and desire in both sexes was naturalized as a manifestation of the intentionality of Heaven and Earth rather than psychologized as erotic pleasure.” 17. This represents, in the hierarchy of reincarnations, a step toward obtaining the correct Dao. See the case of the Rock-Press Women and that of the butterfly spirit, Mengyu. 18. Almanacs are calendars of the lunar and solar cycles that record all the necessary information for the practice of popular religion: auspicious and inauspicious days, activities that are recommended or not recommended for the day,

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appropriate foods, and any other means of circumventing fate. For this reason, almanacs are a valuable source and very rich in mythological and astrological information, as shown by the work of Morgan (1980) and Palmer (1986). On the subject of these spatial taboos, see also Despeux, 2003: 84; Furth, 1999: 107ff. 19. The equivalence between Taisui and Taishen is an accepted fact for anyone I questioned on this subject. The “Apprentices” (nü mentu) of Gaoxiong spoke of it very readily. 20. According to a stratum of his legend, Taisui-Taishen was said to have been born in the form of a lump, of a shapeless mass of flesh covered with eyes. It was necessary to beat him, cook him, and eat him to prevent him from causing harm. See Eberhard, 1968: 185, where the author also refers to the fact that Taisui is the astrological counterpart of Jupiter-Suixing. See also Doré, 1914, vol. 10: 142–52, and De Groot, 1892–1910: 538, who emphasizes the equivalence between Taishen and the earthly divinities, Tushen. He is in fact identified interchangeably by one or the other of these names: Taisui, Taishen, or Tushen. On the subject of the myths of Taisui–Nazha Santaizi, see Xu Zhonglin, 16th c. [1979]. See also Sangren, 1996: 150–84; Ngo Van Xuyet, 1976: 190. 21. This wandering spirit and its course in the depths of the earth in inverse time recall the beliefs in the “movement of the womb” in the female body that in other places has been called “hysteria.” Here it is not, however, the body of the woman that is the stage for it, but, according to this cosmological vision of the body in gestation, its environment, and on a larger scale, the universe, which, in return, is considered to be a female body. 22. We should note that this incompatibility is detectable from conception. One can also in this way take into account these givens of fate to choose the suitable moment to conceive a child in harmony with those around it, or even to forgo conception. 23. The notion of “poison” (du) is a category distinctive to Chinese medicine. It characterizes the relationship of elements adversely polarized. See Topley, 1974. See also Chapter 4. 24. In the ritual texts, one invokes, for example, the Ladies Who Enable One to Cross the Bridge (guoqiao, duqiao), and the Ladies of the Head and Foot of the Bridge. See Chapter 9. 25. See Chapter 2, where this “red basin” (hongpen; red being the color for happiness) plays an important role. See also Chapter 3, where it is a question of the protective divinities of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, and above all of Gao, the guardian of the birthing basin. During a traditional marriage that was celebrated with great pomp at the Linshui Temple in Tainan in 1979, the hongpen was part of the bride’s dowry. 26. According to the theory of the Daoist Liu Peizhong of Taiwan collected by Despeux (1981a: 51): “The original breath is concentrated in five elements that form the embryo. At the end of sixty days of fusion of the semen of the father and the blood of the mother the placenta is formed. The semen of the father becomes a Yang fish, the blood of the mother a Yin fish; the shape of the Taiji appears

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and the fetus begins to take form. The latter absorbs the breath of heaven and earth through the umbilical cord and the naval, called ‘wheel of the meridians’ (mailun), the Taiji begins to move in the maternal belly and there is formation of the embryonic respiration. After sixty days, a trigram appears each month on the placenta: if it is a boy, the first to appear will be the qian (Yang) trigram, if it is a girl the kun (Yin) trigram will appear first. At birth, once the umbilical cord is cut, the embryonic respiration disappears.” 27. According to Furth (1999: 107ff.) this calendar “ran from the sign of origin at zi, the hour of each person’s conception, to the time of death.” 28. See Chapter 5, where this point is discussed. On the subject of these divinized signs, see also Schipper, 1982b: 190. As Despeux shows (2003: 69–70): “In the Luxin jing, a pediatric and shamanic work attributed to Wei Fan, a doctor at the end of the Han, a work whose authenticity has been questioned, it is a matter of the development of the spirits of the fetus. We find this description, except for a few details, in several texts of the Daoist canon, such as the Tang dynasty Classic of Inner Vision or the Taishang shuo liujia zhifu baotai huming miaojing (Marvelous Classic Expounded by the Most High on the Protection of the Fetus by Means of the Six Jia Cyclical Signs).” 29. See Chapter 2, note 33, where this theme is taken up in connection with Chen Jinggu’s death. 30. It is believed that washing the mother’s hair would accentuate her normally “humid” and “cold” nature and could give her rheumatism or other symptoms corresponding to this tendency. The mother thereby becoming abnormally “cold,” the baby would feel it, too. 31. As Héritier (1996a: 20) aptly put it. See also ibid., ch. 2, “Les logiques du social.” 32. According to Granet, 1950: 138ff., when heaven and earth join, they exchange their attributes. This exchange results from a hierogamy. We have already seen similar phenomena of inversion, especially in the hierogamic episode between Guanyin of the South Sea and Xuantian Shangdi, High God of the Dark Heaven. 33. The fact that it is a couple, however, recalls another that also guarantees fertility: we are reminded of the necessary reunion of the Weaving-maid and the Cowherd for the success of agricultural rites. At the Tainan temple two other divine figures are represented next to the god of the soil: they are “Those who take care of the Flowers” (Guhua tongzi) in the company of a female figure whose hand he holds. In Gutian, we do not find comparable statues, but at the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers Gao and Deng keep watch and bring children. 34. This is what Master Shi and other ritual specialists claim. 35. See Chapter 3, where the Flowers are described as the crucible of the process of the transformations. 36. Furth, 1999: 91: “Interestingly, though in all these ways desire was understood as an aspect of female fertility, medical authorities did not talk about female orgasm as important to successful conception.” 37. We are also reminded of the Yao people’s myth of Pan Hu, their ancestor who was a Dog of five colors. See Lemoine, 1978: 806.

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38. See Chapter 4, note 14, where it refers to Granet, 1999, vol. 2: 515–37; and to De Groot, 1892–1910, vol. 5: 642. 39. Mindu bieji, 1987, vol. 1, ch. 67: 363ff.: “The Celestial Dog explains the karmic laws at the inn” (Tiangou zai jiudian shuoyin). See also ibid., vol. 1, ch. 84: 424. 40. See Ahern, 1974: 173. We will also recall, on the subject of the magic power of blood, the episode of the battle Chen Jinggu and her disciples engaged in against the adept of Mao Shan: the women of the palace and the thirty-six Pojie used at this moment the “foul blood of dogs and pigs” to cause their enemies to resume their true forms. See Chapter 5. We will also refer to Furth, 1986, where this time she deals especially with the Ming and Qing periods. 41. The Celestial Dog is said to be “red.” The dog, this time black, is associated with menstrual blood; in the legends reported by Granet, the dog injures the owl, which loses blood and is said to be a woman dead in childbirth. See above. The Celestial Dog is also associated with blood and lightning through the theme of the meteor and that of the owl. 42. At the head of the Bridge of a Hundred Flowers is found, they say, the Palace of the Qilin Who Bears Children (Yulin gong). That is where Chen Jinggu stands. Moreover, the Ritual Book (Shanshu) of the cult is entitled Yulin Shunyi du tuotai ruo zhenjing: “True Writing on the ‘Tuotai’ of Yulin Shunyi.” 43. The Huainanzi (cited by Hou, 1979: 215) says the following: “The west is Metal; its spirit is T’ai-po (‘The Great White One’); its animal is the White Tiger.” 44. We should note that the tiger is the female symbol in opposition to the dragon, the male symbol. On this theme of the tiger demon who haunts mountains and forests, and which is a constant in Chinese mythology, see De Groot, 1892–1910, vol. 5: 550–54; Hou, 1979: 209. We will also recall Dournes’s Forêt, femme, folie: une traversée de l’imaginaire jorai (1978), where, although the context is Vietnamese, woman, tiger, and madness are closely related. 45. This is also a current use of this curse, which is dreaded for this same reason. See Hou, 1979. 46. See Chapter 8 on the subject of the White Tiger guan (Baihu guan) that threatens children equally with an excess or a loss of blood. On madness due to excess or melancholy, see also Bresner, 2004. 47. This is what the Daoist Red Head Master Shi claims. 48. These are the same cakes that, in the legend of the Snake Prince (see Chapter 5, note 20), were transformed into children when they were reheated, the same ones that are offered on the day the one-month-old child is presented at the temple. See Chapter 8. 49. If it is offering money offered to a demon or a ghost, it will be burned directly on the ground or in a receptacle placed on the ground. 50. Such will also be the fate reserved for the body of the substitute Flower, once it is exorcised of its curses during the gardening ritual. It will thus be “actualized,” made “real.” See Chapter 9. 51. These offerings give rise to a flourishing craft industry that makes min-

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iature clothing and jewelry, often very richly decorated: tiny embroidered shoes, court robes, headdresses of pearls, and so on. 52. The two parallel phrases inscribed on these oracles are generally taken from Tang dynasty poems. On the subject of this kind of divination, see Morgan, 1987.

Chapter 8 1. Granet, 1953: 188, notes this construction of the first stages of childhood as a mirror image of prenatal life in ancient China. 2. This is especially the case in the ritual of the guan, one part of which is also found in the ritual of the Flowers. The text invokes Qianshi fumu pojie, huasheng fumu pojie. 3. This was the custom in Taiwan in 1980. See also Furth, 1995: 175. 4. Although in the feudal period the Chinese people no longer perceived this reference very clearly (see Granet, 1953), it is possible that the agrarian cult of the Weaving-maid was already challenged by cults of new divinities playing this same role, as Chen Jinggu was to do later. 5. See Granet, 1953: 185, for this ritual aspect; and Furth, 1999: 110–11, for the medical instructions of this period, especially during the Song. 6. Some people, however, judge it more prudent in these circumstances to make regular offerings to Chen Jinggu. They put a small statue of Chen Jinggu on the family altar and burn incense every day in her honor during the period of pregnancy and seclusion. 7. On the subject of the complex rules of naming, the manner in which the name situates the person within the generations, and the different taboos related to it, see Alleton, 1993. 8. Not having astrologic affinity with the maternal family, the baby will not be able to receive the visit of its waipo. See below, bairi guan, the “Hundred Days guan.” 9. The fontanel, which only closes some time after birth, symbolizes this progressive anchoring in life. 10. The ritual meats—pork, chicken, fish—are offered cooked to the divinities and raw to the demons (see Chapter 7). 11. See below, the guan and in particular the siji guan, the “guan of the four seasons.” 12. The bride’s brother, who is designated by this same term, jiujiu, moreover had to spend the night before the wedding in the same bed as the groom, as a sign of good luck and fertility. This ritual rule was observed at the time of a traditional marriage celebrated in 1980. 13. The name Qixing Niangniang is ambiguous. Qixing commonly refers to the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, the constellation of fate. However, it also serves to designate Zhinü xing, the star of the Weaving-maid, Qixingniang Ma, Qixing Niangniang, whose myths, like those of other divinities, present multiple aspects. See Chapter 6. See Pimpaneau, 1999; Xu Xiaowang, 1993; Ma Shutian, 1991: 22–23. A single temple is listed in the Taiwan simiao daquan. This is the Kailong gong in Tainan, where I observed the festival that I describe here.

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14. This information was given to me by Xu Lihua, a specialist in the astrological calculations for horoscopes. It was confirmed by the Red Head Master Shi Xihui. See Berthier, 1987. 15. See below, “the Hundred Days guan” (bairi guan), which keeps the child away from its maternal family during this period. 16. According to Shi Xihui. 17. This widespread belief was repeated to me by a monk from the Louguan Tai Monastery in Shaanxi. It clearly connects this spontaneous, “natural” faculty that children enjoy to that of the soothsayers and mediums. They are also called, at least in Taiwan, “divining children” (jitong; dangki in Hokkienese), and their initiation goes through a stage called “breaking in the child.” See Chapter 10. See also Berthier, 1987; Dean and Zheng, 1993. 18. On the subject of this past karma, see Demiéville, 1927. 19. See Furth, 1999: 80, and p. 88: “Fright as descending qi, emptying out the bowels”; and Furth, 1995: 176: “Similarly ‘fright wind’ (jing feng), a pediatric syndrome marked by crying, high fever, and convulsions, could be attributed to the temporary loss of a young child’s unstable soul, calling for the services of a shaman.” 20. It does not necessarily have to be a medium of Chen Jinggu, although she would be judged particularly well qualified to act in these cases, also. On the subject of this theme of terror, we are reminded of the terror that mountains also give rise to: the terror of chasms and the creatures that haunt them (Demiéville, 1965a: 15; and Ge Hong, 5th c. [1990], chapter on “Ascending mountains”), and of connecting yet again these symbolically maternal places to the space of the child; we shall see, on the subject of the guan, at what point it is experienced, symbolically, as linked to the maternal body. On this subject, see also Schneider, 1979, which relates the notion of terror and depictions of demonic beings to the maternal body and the activities of the mother (cooking, care, and the like). 21. See Baptandier, 1996c, and 1997, which discuss this ritual, which closely resembles the description of the ritual “Private tutor of the nine spontaneously generating Ling-pao Heavens of Primordial commencement: on latent refinement for transcendent salvation and vitalizing transformation,” HY 219, ch. 57, 2b.7–5b.3, presented by Boltz, 1983, under the title “Opening the gates of purgatory.” 22. Topley, 1974: 244, shows how one can also link the fate of such a child to a very old stone or tree with a particularly suggestive shape, supposed to be beneficial for this reason. See also Ahern, 1973; Jordan, 1967. 23. The character gan, “dry,” corresponds to the trigram qian, the yang, which characterizes heaven, the father. On the subject of this antagonism with the father as it is manifested in the cyclical signs, see Baptandier, 2003. 24. M. Wolf, 1972: 171–90, vividly describes this situation of the adoptive daughter. See also A. Wolf and Huang, 1980; Lauwert, 1991, 2001. See also Baptandier, 2003. 25. On the subject of the shamanic journey “through the roads and passes” (guo lu guan), see Baptandier, 1996c. In this journey, the fashi, as he is called,

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presents himself in front of numerous “passes” guarded by terrifying demons. These are, for example, the “Bridge of Sighs,” the “Bridge over the Nai River” of hell where an icy wind whirls around, the “Forest of Starving Tigers,” the “Chasm of Icy Water,” where the heart is at risk of freezing if one drinks even a single mouthful, the “Mountains of Defective Coins” or of “Cut off Heads,” the “Staircase of Poisonous Snakes,” where one arrives sad and alone, the “Gate of the Eight Difficulties,” where the demons are piled up for eternity, the “Fortress of the Seven Islands,” where heaven is covered with barriers of copper and iron, and so on. These passes, always the same, that the Daoist shaman crosses by fighting, are, however, different from the guan that some children confront and from which they must be freed, as we shall see. 26. We shall return to this point in Chapter 9. 27. See also Doolittle, 1865: 127–32; Doré, 1914, vol. 1: 26. Topley, 1951, describes the rite for Singapore. 28. Every fashi knows how to “arrange” (bai) and read the bazi to detect these elements. Manuals of divination tell how to do it. See, for example, Huang Youde, 1967. On the subject of hemerology, see Kalinowski, 1986; on the subject of iatromancy in relation to medical diagnostics, see Harper, 2001. 29. It happens, however, that some people cross a guan when they have reached adult age, just as others contract childhood diseases well after childhood. The consequences are similar: the older the person, the more serious and painful the crossing. In addition, there are other “passes” that dot the path of the afterworld. 30. On the subject of Taisui, terrestrial star and counterpart of the planet Jupiter, which moves around inside the earth in a direction inverse to the planet and marks the rhythm of this maternal time in reverse, see Chapter 7, particularly note 20. On the subject of the cycle of Taisui and its relation to Jupiter, see Saussure, 1920, 1930. On the subject of Taisui as an evil star, see Hou, 1979. In depictions of the “Celestial Bureaucracy,” Taisui is the President of the Ministry of Time. See Doré, 1914, vol. 10: 142ff. 31. On the festivals of the Nuo exorcism and its animal dances, see Granet, 1959, vol. 1: 300–330. See also Pimpaneau, 1999; Wang Ch’iu-kuei, ed., 1993. 32. See Schipper, 1982b: 152, on the different aspects of Xi Wangmu; and 190ff. on the subject of the computation of time and “mothering” calendar divinities, agents of fate. We have already discussed this theme in Chapter 5, note 26. 33. On the reasons for this division of the twelve earthly stems into six ding and six jia and on the relation to the ruptures of time, the dun, see Schipper, 1982b: 190: “The computation of time, we have seen, is calculated with the help of two series of numbers, one base ten and one base twelve. Together they form a cycle of sixty days, made up of six periods of ten days, which start with the first signs of the series of ten, the jia. In the ten-day period, one always finds two signs of the series of twelve that remain unused. The ‘left over’ signs cannot join with the signs that are located opposite them on the compass rose of the winds. The latter are believed to be ‘empty.’ If the twelve earthly signs are placed in a circle, the eleventh and twelfth signs are found opposite the fifth and

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sixth signs. The first sign (jia) is thus separated from the ‘empty’ signs by three signs: these are the three ‘bizarres.’ Through calculations that put in relation the phases, unions, and other criteria, the third of the ‘bizarres’ becomes the force ling (spiritual power). It corresponds to the sign ting, and is considered to be the antithesis, the absent, the rupture in relation to the first sign that is the head of the period of ten days. There are six periods of ten days, hence six ding signs. These are the six yin forces.” The six jia are yang forces. 34. We can see an example of this pantheon at Fuqing (in Fujian), at Shizhu Shan, in the hall dedicated to the Mother of the Northern Dipper (Doumu) at the Temple of the Nine Immortals. 35. Some popular manuals, like the Lingyan shenfu ping’an pian used by the Apprentices (nü mentu) of Gaoxiong, only count twenty-six of them, while other informants do not count more than twenty-four, which allows them to be associated with the twenty-four jieqi, the twenty-four “segments of breath” of the solar year. Master Shi only retained a dozen of the most serious for which he deemed it necessary to perform a ritual, the others seeming to him to involve simple daily vigilance, as, for example, the guan of the well. It would thus seem that some aspects of this semantic field are forgotten. 36. “During the ten months of gestation, the embryo successively turns in the ten directions. The vital breaths of the ten directions envelop this original beginning” (Hou, 1975: 43, following the Duren jing 2: 13–18). We are reminded here of the other successive stages of childhood that pediatrics calls “changing and steaming” (bianzheng). See Furth, 1995: 173. 37. Master Shi says: “Yijian ersui si; erjian liusui wang; sanjian jiusui si; sijian shiersui jian Yanwang.” See also Granet, 1959. An arrow is shot with a peachwood bow at the birth of a baby to keep away demon soul-stealers and the Celestial Dog. 38. Doré, 1914, vol. 1: 10, reports this practice, which could still be seen in Taiwan recently. 39. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 17, on the subject of Lady Liu Xianniang; see the Introduction, on the subject of Chen Jinggu’s combat against the Snake constellation. See also Ye Mingsheng, 2000. 40. Doré, 1914, vol. 1: 26, calls this pass the “guan of the golden cock who falls in the well” (jinji luo jing guan). This name suggests that the cock, ordinarily supposed to open the child’s path, leads the child to his destruction. 41. This recalls another bird, also nailed to doors, the owl. 42. This customary theme—pestilence spirits as aquatic spirits—is particularly prominent in this cult. It is also found in the texts of the rituals used by Shi Xihui, and, concerning children, invocations to a Fish Lady who protects against disease. 43. On the same level, some informants associate this pass with interference from relatives from previous lives who cannot separate themselves from the child in this life. 44. We recall that in internal alchemy the Five Thunders are the breaths of the five elements and of the five organs of the human body. See Despeux, 1994: 173ff.

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Chapter 9 1. I analyzed different aspects of the ritual of crossing the passes in “The Kaiguan Ritual and the Construction of the Child’s Identity” (Baptandier, 1994a), and “Le rituel d’ouverture des passes” (Baptandier, 1996a), where the ritual is described as it was performed in Fujian, at Gutian. See also Baptandier, 1996c, and 1997, on rites that employ a substitute. 2. On the performance of such rituals in the context of the Mount Lü sect, see Baptandier, 1997. 3. It is on the same model that the puppeteer acts with his puppets, or the gods with the actors who play them in the theater. 4. See Strickmann, 1996, ch. 4: 123–93, “Ensigillation: A Buddhist-Taoist Technique of Exorcism,” which emphasizes the tantric aspect of this ritual practice. 5. See Chapter 10 for a discussion of Chen Jinggu’s medium. We have already had the occasion (Chapters 7 and 8) to note this multiplicity of roles of the Red Head masters and the mediums, since any one of them is entitled to perform a ritual symbolically deriving from the cult of Chen Jinggu. 6. On such mirrors and their relation to the geomantic compass, see Loewe, 1979. See also Chapter 2. 7. The theme of the snake is found in many shamanic contexts. Thus, the shaman Xian, who lives on the mountain by which sorcerers go up and down, is supposed to hold a green snake in his right hand and a red snake in his left. See Kaltenmark, 1953: 36n1, which refers back to the Shanhai jing, 4–13a; De Groot, 1892–1910: 1024, 1257. This pose associates him with the master of the rain and his wife, who also have snakes in their hands and others dangling from their ears. Liangong, one of the gods in the Mount Lü pantheon venerated in many temples in Fujian, is also depicted with a snake around his neck. 8. “Pacing the Northern Dipper” (bugang) consists of dancing on this constellation of fate so as to affect the chart of time. One can also perform this ritual on the body of the patient, as a sort of massage to harmonize the circulation of the energies of the person with those of the universe, in order to lead him or her firmly toward the Door of Life (shengmen). See Andersen, 1989–90. In the body, “The navel is the gate of life. The Supreme One remains there, it controls the innate nature and the vital force of the individual, it is the regulator of the twelve thousand essences of the body” (Despeux, 1994: 89). See also Lagerwey, 1987a. On the technique of meditation on the seven stars of the Northern Dipper characteristic of the Shangqing tradition, enabling the name of the adept to be inscribed on the register of life of the constellation of fate, see Mollier, 1997. The Northern Dipper (Beidou) is the constellation of the North. Its seven stars are supposed to reign over humankind’s fate. As an astrological constellation, it is called the “Guideline” (gang 䵙). It gives its name to the Daoist practice of “walking (or dancing) the Guideline,” whose other name is “Pace of Yu” (Yubu). Both these names refer to a ritual of walking along the seven stars of the Northern Dipper. The gang is supposed to be the transformations of the universe’s ten thousand things, represented by the eight trigrams, bagua. Gang is also associated with the “Army Smasher” (Pojun), and with the surrounding

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thirty-six astrological stars, which are divinities of time (see Chapter 5). Under its secret name of gang 伉, it designates the perverse demons (sha) that dwell in its stars and must be controlled by the ritual process. The Dipper and the Celestial North Pole together are commonly referred to as the Heart of Heaven (Tianxin), which gives its name to the True [Ritual] Methods of the Heart of Heaven (Tianxin zhengfa). 9. Generally, on the two sides of this block are carved a talisman and a celestial mandate in the name of none other than the Northern Dipper (Gang), along with the representation on the sides of the block of the seven stars that make up this constellation, considered to be a symbol of the womb, the center of the body where the one, the embryo, is born. 10. These two instruments correspond symbolically to heaven (the drum) and earth (the bell). The bell very clearly recalls a tantric vajra. 11. This formula, collected in 1991 in Gutian in Fujian, is the one Master Ma Shouzhong pronounces. 12. In the ritual play Nainiang zhuan, this ritual skirt of Chen Jinggu is said to be “soaked” in her blood: “Wo Jinggu jinri qu qiyu, luole shuinan, xueshan pengqu, yitiao shenqun jinhong le.” See Ye Mingsheng and Wu Naiyu, 1997: 168. See Chapter 2. 13. We are reminded of the red band worn, in accordance with the Linshui pingyao zhuan, by children of the kingdom of Min to protect them from the butterfly spirit and her accomplice, the adept of Mao Shan, Yuan Guangzhi. A similar band is wrapped around the heads of children who have already had smallpox so that they will not get it again. See Doré, 1914, vol. 1, ch. 1. 14. See Baptandier, 1996a, for a detailed description of this ritual in Fujian. 15. On this money offering, see Hou, 1975: 30. See also Chapter 7. 16. This point also illustrates the fact that the elements are not in themselves either good or bad: such a yuanshen who will attack a person whose horoscope reveals a momentary weakness will also be able to help this same person in other circumstances. 17. In Fujian, the fashi has at his disposal another ritual instrument that he also calls “whip” (bian). It is a curved bamboo root with the characteristic segments. This whip is used to collect lost souls (zhaohun, “to summon the soul”). There is an illustration of this in the play The Biography of the Mother (Nainiang zhuan), where the Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui) uses a bamboo to capture the soul of Chen Jinggu’s infant in her mother’s house (see Ye Mingsheng and Wu Naiyu, 1997; Baptandier, 2008). The segments of bamboo, called jie (“knots, joints”) evoke the twenty-four joints (jie) of the solar year. Jie thus also means “festival,” the “knots of breath,” that divide the twenty-four periods of fifteen days. 18. See Chapter 8, note 25, where there is an example of the regions visited in this way. See also Baptandier, 1996c. 19. We should note that if he wants to notify the Three Purities of the performance of the ritual, he does not do it directly himself. He prays to the divinities to intervene on his behalf, and it is to them that he addresses himself

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henceforth. The reference to the “Three Correct Talismans” recalls the talisman of the three luminaries (sanguang fu), the talisman of the Celestial Net (tiangang fu), and that of the Dark Warrior (Xuanwu fu), on which the Tianxin zhengfa tradition relies. See Despeux, 1994: 173. 20. See Baptandier, 1996c, on this constant passing from reality to the universe of the gods. 21. This yellow paper, the color of the earth and the center, is commonly used for writing magic formulas. It readily absorbs the ink and seems to assimilate the magic spiritual power that takes shape there. We have seen how the women in Huaguo Temple in Banling (Fujian) used this same paper to absorb the power of the sutra’s words (see Chapter 4). People use it as well to sponge the blood shed by the mediums during temple festivals (see Chapter 10). 22. We are reminded here of the prefect of Quanzhou, who when crossing Luoyang Bridge to inaugurate it, was struck down before reaching the bank by the Star of the Nine Dragons (Jiulong xing), because he had looked back. See Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 1: 4. 23. See Baptandier, 1996a, for illustrations of these pictures. 24. See Baptandier, 1994b, which has some illustrations and relates this rite to the talismanic image of the Jade Emperor. In the temple in Tainan, a fashi had specialized in this rite of the Northern Dipper. He wore the Mao Shan headdress. 25. She can also be found seated at the end of the bridge, if this part of the ritual has been performed. 26. The radical of the term cai (“to gather”) is “clothing” (yi), which also means the skin, the peel of a fruit or a grain, and is used to designate the “placenta” (yibao). 27. See Chapter 10, where this point will be considered in connection with Chen Jinggu’s medium. 28. The ritual text says: yi pen qingshui (see Zaihua keyi, n.d.). 29. These rites of purification also recall those of the Avalambana on the fifteenth of the seventh month. 30. The immortal Zhang is a legendary figure depicted in the process of shooting the Celestial Dog, the enemy of childhood. See Doré, 1914, vol. 1: 10. See Baptandier, 1996a, for a description, and illustrations, of these sequences in Fujian. 31. These are, to my knowledge, the only objects commonly used at the Linshui Temple in Tainan; in any case, they are the only ones that are sold there. Some rustic Red Head masters also use strings of coins placed around the child’s neck to attach it firmly to life. These strings of coins suggest both the payment of the debt to the celestial bank and the computation of time. 32. The hun, the escaped “souls” of the child, have been carefully confined in the hunzhan during a sequence in which one “broke with the relatives of previous lives.” Next a “recalling of the soul” (zhaohun) takes place, in the course of which the child’s mother calls out its name three times, as is done in a funerary rite in order to fix the soul of the deceased on the tablet. Here it is the hunzhan that will keep the soul of the child in life.

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33. Divination with eggs is an ancient technique still frequently used by the fashi in Fujian. In parallel with the oracular séance, during which one will be assured that the fate of the child has been entirely restored, and that it has successfully crossed this guan, the child will be made to eat an egg taken from the altar. 34. The story of Xie Fuzhu, Chen Jinggu’s medium, highlights this aspect. See Chapter 10. Many episodes of the legend of Chen Jinggu present her refusing to be rewarded for her help. See for instance the Introduction, quoting the Gutian xian zhi, 1710 [1967], 5: 12a–14a. 35. This transfer also finds its expression in talismans such as the talismanic image of the Jade Emperor that the fashi of the Mount Lü sect also use. See Baptandier, 1994b. 36. See Boltz, 1983, which analyzes the Private Tutor of the Nine Spontaneous Generating Ling-Pao Heavens of Primordial Commencement: On Latent Refinement for Transcendent Salvation and Vitalizing Transformation (Yuanshi lingbao ziran jiutian shenghua chaodu yinlian bijue) based on the Book of Salvation, the first work of the Ming dynasty Daoist canon, closely related to the revelations of the Shenxiao as they were codified by Lin Lingsu. 37. Here the tower (the trachea) has twelve stories and not seven as in the ritual of the Mount Lü sect. However, according to Schipper, 1982b: 104: “The Northern Dipper has seven principal stars, two for the secondary stars and three for the constellation of the Flowery Dais that forms the dais of heaven and at the same time symbolizes the Three Primordial Breaths. Consequently, there are altogether twelve lamps of which one corresponds particularly to the fundamental fate of the patient (in virtue of the links that exist between the patient’s date of birth and a particular star of the Northern Dipper).”

Chapter 10 1. We have seen, in particular in Chapter 5, how the thirty-six concubines of the king of Min, the thirty-six Pojie, were literally brought back to life by Chen Jinggu. In Chapter 4, the story of the Rock-Press Women, Shijia Furen, is the basis for a spirit medium cult. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 make frequent reference to the ritual action of a medium. 2. The expression “wild therapy” is borrowed from Schneider, 1979: 31. On children and chong, see Chapter 8. 3. According to the alchemical processes of the Thunder, in the body the “original spiritual power” (yuanshen) is the thunder divinity, linked to the North and to the Northern Dipper. See Despeux, 1994: 176. 4. Such was in fact the case of the thirty-six concubines of the king of Min: see Chapter 5. See also Berthier, 1987; Baptandier, 2003. 5. See Bouchy, 1992, which gives a similar interpretation of the Japanese facts. 6. Xie Fuzhu herself uses in her narrative the expression sidiao, “to fall dead.” 7. On the creation of a “new divinity,” the fashioning of a personal benshen that serves as a divine “support” that does not correspond to any god of the ordinary pantheon that people usually venerate, and the fact that mediums,

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consequently, do not need to be very familiar with the god’s myths, see Baptandier, 2003. 8. Kangshan is a town located in Gaoxiong district, adjacent to Tainan district. 9. Here yet again we can see the extent to which, in the context of popular cults, Buddhist and Daoist practices are observed interchangeably by the same believers. 10. Yawning and hiccupping are the commonly recognized symptoms of the trance: the soul, it is believed, in this way escapes from the person in question, while the divinity tries to take possession of her. 11. Xie Fuzhu’s story is a very instructive example of the journey accomplished by the women who come to the Linshui Temple for a ritual of the Flowers. Although this is an extreme case, the journey is, however, the same for all: visits with a medium, possibly a visit with a doctor, and finally the ritual of the Flowers. Xie Fuzhu’s symptoms, finally (and not a priori) identified as a disorder of her celestial Flower, give an idea of the psychological dimension that generally connotes them. See Baptandier, 2003. See also Kleinman, 1980. 12. The respective stories of all the women mediums I was able to meet present the same knots at the pivotal times of their lives as women. This suggests that their instruction in the trance is, in brief, a metonym for the stages of their lives. See Baptandier, 2003; Bouchy, 1992. 13. On these powers, Schneider, 1979: 8–9, says: “Indeterminate powers, powers emanating from the complicity with the nocturnal realm that is enclosed within her, the inseparable realm of the maternal belly.” 14. See also Baptandier-Berthier, 1991b. 15. This seems to be fairly exceptional: on the one hand, as it is rare for mother and daughter to live under the same roof, few mothers of mediums are even able to be present to assist them. In fact, it turns out that Xie Fuzhu’s mother lives with her, in her husband’s house. On the other hand, this role is most often played by someone outside the family, either a neighbor, an active member of the cult community, or a future medium. 16. See also Chapter 5 for the installation of the thirty-six Pojie in the galleries of Linshui Palace. See also Schipper, 1996. 17. Jordan (1967: 73, 71) notes the same reservations. 18. Thus Chen Jinggu, pregnant and in great danger, withdrew to Linshui grotto to perform her zhai. During the period of her seclusion, Xie Fuzhu’s husband bought sugarcane from a family who, unbeknown to him, had just suffered a bereavement. Fuzhu was seized by disorders and hallucinations as soon as she ate it, and Chen Jinggu advised her in a dream to immediately throw away this impure food. 19. See Hu Fuchen, 1985: 470: 忻⮞, ⣒ᶲᶱ⮲ḇ; 䴻⮞, ᶱ㳆⚃庼䛇䴻ḇ; ⷓ ⮞, ⋩㕡⼿忻䛦俾ḇ, “daobao: taishang sanzun ye; jingbao: santong sifu zhenjing ye; shibao: shifang dedao zhongsheng ye.” See also p. 1137: 䱦, 㯋 䤆, 䁢ℏ ᶱ⮞; 俛, 䚖, ⎋, 䁢⢾ᶱ⮞, “jing qi shen ye wei nei sanbao er mu kou wei wai san bao.” 20. To these three formidable instruments that Xie Fuzhu uses must be

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added two spirit medium weapons that she herself does not employ: the “moon ax” (yuefu), and the “rod of the golden grotto” (jindong gun). It would seem that these two weapons are more masculine. 21. It is not a matter here of learning techniques but rather of a personal approach to the trance based above all on listening very carefully to dreams, which come in great abundance at this time, and to physical symptoms. It is thus more a development of the self that we elsewhere compared to the epimelia of the Greeks. See Baptandier, 2003. 22. This way of proceeding goes back to the Chinese theory of vision: the Chinese believe that the light that permits sight comes from inside the eye. This theme of lightning (splitting the cloud and allowing childbirth) is familiar to us. By projecting the light of the divine lightning into the medium’s eye, the medium is permitted in a way to give birth to her new being, her benshen. It is the same for the statues that are sanctified in this way: they are given life by the light that enters into their eyes and by pointing at the different vital organs, places of the sanbao. This divine vision from which the mediums benefit, just like the discerning vision characteristic of Guanyin, evokes the “distant vision” (yuankan) related to the theme of the mountains: it is this vision that enables the guardians of the gates of Mount Lü to see through the heavens and beings (see Chapter 1), and it is through the thunder and lightning released by the pestle, the weapon of the Five Thunders thrown into the void, that they benefit. See Baptandier, 1991a. Under another name, jiushi (enduring vision), it evokes eternal youth. Moreover, we should note that these different stages—opening the mouth, enlightening the eyes, and beginning to write talismans (fu)—can be, depending on the individual, crossed simultaneously or in succession. 23. We are reminded here of a similar rite in Fujian, already mentioned, of dressing in Chen Jinggu’s ritual red skirt. See Chapter 9. 24. By striking the wrists, the joints (jie) or knots of the body that correspond to the universe, the medium is imbued with divine influences. We find a reference to this in the legend of Chen Jinggu at the moment she captures the Rock-Press Women. Chen Jinggu, it is said, tried at the moment when the two young girls wanted to lead her into their grotto to hold them tightly by the veins of their hands, of their wrists, thus capturing them (Linshui pingyao zhuan, n.d., ch. 5: 26). It is at the wrist that one takes the pulse, a means, according to the Chinese technique, of “sounding out” the viscera and thus of mastering the whole body. 25. She knew, for example, how to perform the rituals of opening the eyes of statues and how to officiate during the festival of a temple, which means the ability to chant the ritual texts. Xie Fuzhu is not able to do this at the moment. She only officiates in a trance, and it is Chen Jinggu who, invisibly, performs the ritual for her. 26. Xie Fuzhu is not a part of such a community. She is, on the other hand, in frequent contact with the Red Head master who assisted her during her initiation, and with whom she performs the rituals recommended to the patients by Chen Jinggu. Ah Ge still officiates with the same Red Head master, which is the usual case with the mediums. On the other hand, one Red Head master can officiate with different mediums.

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27. It is common practice to refer to the mediums by the name of the divinity who possesses them. Thus when I asked the caretakers of Linshui Temple which mediums were going to come to the temple on a particular day, they replied “Chen Jinggu and Lin Jiuniang.” The Linshui Temple (Linshu Furen ma miao) is not the only temple where Xie Fuzhu officiates. When Chen Jinggu deems it necessary, she also goes to the Temple of Heaven and to the temple of the god of the Eastern Peak. 28. The gods likewise visit back and forth among themselves. One year in Fujian during the festival of Liangong, one of the masters of the Mount Lü sect, the statue of Chen Jinggu stayed for three weeks in his temple, thereby demonstrating the close relations between the two communities of the cult. 29. Generally, an element of ritualized improvisation enters into the installation of the altar of a medium: one must set up one’s own altar, without help or precise directions. Of course, they are all similar in large part, but each nonetheless bears the mark of the personality of the one who directs it. 30. In this place but also with other mediums. Although Xie Fuzhu is the privileged medium of the Linshui Temple as Chen Jinggu, she is not, as I have said, the only one to prescribe rituals or visits to this place to which she does not have exclusive right. And on the other hand she also prescribes rituals in other temples, such as the Temple of the Eastern Peak and the Temple of Heaven, which in part explains the presence of men coming to ask questions. 31. As we have seen, the hand by itself is a diagram of the earthly stems and heavenly branches for one who knows how to read them. Ah Ge can only do it in a trance. Granet (1950: 188) gives an example and cites an instance of this mode of calculation. 32. On these practices of automatic writing, see Thompson, 1982; Overmyer and Jordan, 1986; Clart, 2003. 33. It is only in the trance state that Ah Ge can sound out patients and pronounce the prescriptions that Chen Jinggu reveals to her directly. She herself never learned even the barest rudiments of traditional medicine. 34. See Chapter 9 for a description of this sequence in the ritual of the Flowers and the guan. 35. These rites of exorcism are much more spectacular than those usually carried out at Ah Ge’s. It is a true battle between Chen Jinggu and the demon who harms the family it visits. This exorcism requires the use of a substitute body (tishen), a straw figure wrapped in an article of the patient’s clothing that takes onto itself the patient’s ills. It will also be necessary to purify the house with the rice and salt with which the spirits will exorcise the curse. Jordan (1967: 128–33) gives a partial description of this rite. 36. Like most mediums, Ah Ge says that she has no memory of what she says or does in the trance state. According to Master Shi Xihui, however, this forgetting is not total, rather the memory of it slips away like the memory of a dream. In common parlance in Taiwan, the trance state is generally called fa, “to manifest.” It is clearly a matter of the divinity manifesting itself (fashen) in this other language that is none other than the unconscious language of oblivion. Just as often, it is called rushen, “entering into divinity.”

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i n dex

adoption, 58, 157, 173, 254, 262, 277n37, 310nn23,24; vs. childbirth, 172; and marriage, 210–11; and spirit mediums, 210–11 Ah Ge/Ah Zi. See Xie Fuzhu Ahern, Emily, 70, 308n40, 310n22 Alleton, Viviane, 309n7 almanacs, 177, 305n18 ancestor worship, 51, 86–87, 88–89, 90, 92, 95, 97, 174, 203; relationship to Confucian patrilines, 55, 58, 129, 172, 196–97 Andersen, Poul, 223, 313n8 Ang, Isabelle, 278n46 Apollo, 289n36 “Apprentices” (nü mentu) of Gaoxiong, 30, 34–35, 250, 255, 306n19, 312n35 asceticism, 69, 74, 75, 80, 95, 104, 108, 117, 138, 155, 255, 285n7; and Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, 62–63, 110–11; in Daoism, 45, 55, 70, 158, 248, 262 automobile guan, 236 Avalokitesvara, 44, 117, 275n21, 278n43, 279n3, 282n22, 302n29 Bai Laoye, 146 Bai Pu: “Rain on the Phoenix Tree,” 303n42

Bai Yuchan, 15, 17, 299n34 Balibar, Étienne, 285n8 Banling Temple, 118–21, 293nn28,29, 294n33, 315n21 Bataille, Georges, 274n14, 285n8 baojuan, 22 Beijing, 36; Shoudu Library, 153; Temple of the Eastern Peak, 153; Xi Ding, 154 Beizhen, 15–16, 287n22 Berling, Judith, 299n27 Berthier, Brigitte, 310n17, 316n4 Billeter, Jean-François, 273n13 Bixia Yuanjun. See Sovereign of the Azure Clouds Black Stone Mountain (Wushi Shan), 150, 276n30 blood, 73, 94, 103, 113–14, 117, 125, 130, 137, 167, 297n20, 306n26, 308nn40,46; of Chen Jinggu, 81–82, 126, 314n12; of Guanyin, 27, 43, 65–66, 83, 84, 111, 304n7; Lake of Blood, 70, 82–83, 141, 181, 275n21, 280n3, 283n33; of menstruation, 66, 69, 70, 168, 181, 182, 189, 248, 266n3, 275n21, 293n24, 306n26, 308n41; of spirit mediums, 249, 252, 315n21; of White Snake, 125, 126, 147 349

350

Index

Bokenkamp, Stephen R., 19 Boltz, Judith, 18, 19, 20, 21, 140, 176, 223, 241, 268nn31,35,36,37, 269nn41,44, 276n32, 277n35, 290n7, 299n34, 310n21, 316n36 Book of Changes (Yi jing), 30, 48, 49, 53, 60–61, 180, 274n17, 291n12. See also eight trigrams (bagua) Book of Odes (Shijing), 161, 303n39 Bouchy, Anne, 91, 316n5, 317n12 Brac de la Perrière, Bénédicte, 87 Bray, Francesca, 305n12 Bresner, Lisa, 308n46 Bridge of a Hundred Flowers: Celestial Gardeners of, 32, 96, 184–86, 231, 234; Chen Jinggu as Lady of the Birth Register (Zhusheng Niangniang)/Goddess of the, 29, 32, 84, 90, 96, 97–99, 139, 142– 43, 149, 151, 154, 157, 158–59, 164–65, 171, 174, 176, 178, 183, 186, 197, 229–30, 288n33, 302n29, 306n24, 308n42; guardians of, 14, 89, 96, 282n19, 286n19, 300n1, 306n25, 307n33; and Pojie, 130, 138, 139–40; and Ravine Demon, 31, 85, 100, 103, 104, 108, 148, 292n19; and reincarnation, 139–40, 157, 158–59, 171, 197, 304n7. See also ritual of “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua) Buddhism, 40, 119, 132, 152, 244, 317n9; Buddhist Association, 293n29; cessation of passion in, 158; Chan school, 60–61, 276n27, 277n42, 284n1, 291n12, 298n27; and Chen Jinggu, 17, 27, 30, 66, 117–18, 249, 260, 284n40; eye of wisdom (huiyan), 116; festival of Avalambana, 292n17, 315n29; filial piety in, 303n36; gods in, 146; and Guanyin, 158; karma in, 108; the mind in, 106; Mount Tiantai, 266n7; Pure Land school, 278n43, 282n22; Putuo Island,

266n7; and reincarnation, 175; rites of the Avalambana (Yulan pen hui), 241; and sexuality, 68; and talismans, 267n19; tantric Buddhism, 8, 14, 19, 30, 76, 241, 260, 266n14, 278nn42,43,45,48, 293n26, 298n26, 299n34, 313n4; and women, 279n3 Burchardt, Valentine, 288n32 Bureau of Exorcisms (Quxie yuan), 20, 269n46 Cahill, Suzanne E., 77, 274n16, 275n25 Cai Furen, 41 Cai Xiang, 270n49 Cai Xiaoyue, 35 Caillet, Laurence, 92 Cammann, Schuyler, 61 cannibalism, 296nn13,14 Castoriadis-Aulagnier, Piera, 83 castration, 55, 64, 112, 158; of Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng), 32, 62–63, 110–11, 118, 192, 220, 275n25 Cedzich, Ursula-Angelika, 287n23 Celestial Daughter Seventh Star (Tiannü Qixing). See Lady of the Seventh Star (Qixing Niangniang/ Qixing Nai) Celestial Dog (Tiangou), 113–14, 205, 291n15, 308n39, 312n37, 315n30; curse of the, 188–89, 191, 234; guan of, 217, 236 Celestial Emperor. See Jade Emperor celestial mandarin orange (tiangan), 248, 252 Changsheng Dadi, 270n53, 282n21 Chavannes, Edouard, 145, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 271n59, 296n10, 302n29 Chen, C. K. H., 266n7 Chen Cai, 269nn40,41 Chen Chang, 5, 9, 10, 25, 148 Chen Erxiang, 8, 9, 10, 27, 188 Chen Jinfeng, 92, 123, 131, 134,

Index 267n27; Chen Jinggu’s cult established by, 26, 53, 57, 93, 129; and Ravine Demon, 53, 124, 128, 129; and White Snake, 49, 53, 124–25, 127–28, 129 Chen Jinggu: battle against snake demon, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 27, 36, 38, 43, 150, 188, 218, 289n37, 297n17, 312n39; as Beneficent and Just Lady (Shunyi Furen), 4, 6, 11; birth of, 8–9, 14, 22, 27, 43, 55, 57; canonization of, 3–4, 5–6, 11, 64, 65, 82, 83–84, 85, 92–93, 129, 143, 222; as Chen Da’nai (Great Mothering Lady Chen), 45, 53, 54, 57, 64, 68, 76, 83, 93, 120; as Chen Jingu, 9, 266n13; as Chen Ruren, 52, 54, 55–56, 61; compared to Guan, 69, 82–83; compared to Mazu, 6, 7, 83–84, 151, 261, 284n42; compared to Miaoshan, 27, 66; conception of, 8, 27, 43, 65–66, 83, 111; death of, 5, 11, 50, 54, 56, 57, 63, 64, 65, 69, 70, 72–73, 81–84, 85–89, 91–92, 94, 96, 114, 128, 131, 149, 204, 262, 280n6, 283n34, 284n40, 285n9, 304n4, 307n29; demon-binding rope of, 30, 81, 125, 225; horn of, 13, 80, 224; as Lady of Luminous Goodness and Venerable Happiness of Linshui Palace, 93, 285n14; as Lady Who Is Merciful and Saving (Ciji Furen), 5–6; life as human being, 3–15; and marriage, 5, 12, 14, 25, 27, 29, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50–52, 54, 55–57, 65, 66, 68, 86, 97, 148–49, 156, 183, 244, 304n7; mummified body of, 38, 55, 57, 64, 83, 94, 127, 149, 156, 276n34, 283nn38,40, 286n16; parents healed by, 70–71, 75, 86, 248, 284n40; pregnancy of, 4, 5, 10, 11, 14, 15, 54, 57, 69, 70, 73, 156, 179, 243, 244, 317n18; as

351

protector of children/childhood, 1, 10, 28, 29, 42, 45, 53, 54, 65, 88, 91, 97–98, 123, 138–39, 143, 156, 157, 170, 171, 174, 179–80, 183, 197, 199, 202, 204, 205–6, 209, 213, 214, 253, 260, 295n37, 303n35, 309n4; as protector of women/pregnancy, 1, 4, 5, 11, 14, 29, 35, 42, 45, 53, 54, 65, 82, 91, 97–98, 123, 129, 138–39, 143, 149, 156–57, 170, 171, 174, 179–80, 183, 197, 253, 260, 262, 309n6; Register of, 29, 63, 68, 72, 80, 88, 96, 124, 224, 253, 280n7, 284n5, 295n2; relationship to Lady of the Seventh Star, 34, 143, 159–65, 201, 203, 309n13; relationship to spirit mediums, 1, 4, 29, 42, 53, 90, 178–79, 197, 242, 243, 244–45, 246–47, 248–49, 251–53, 255–57, 260, 261, 262, 313n5, 315n27, 316nn34,1, 318nn25,26, 319nn27,30; relationship with Jiang Shanyu, 47–48, 49, 69–70, 274n16; ritual for rain performed by, 4, 10, 11, 12–14, 15, 27, 30, 49, 54, 57, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78–79, 80–81, 91–92, 101, 114, 126, 129, 175, 179, 180, 218, 224, 226, 241, 267n25, 281nn12,13, 283n30; role as adoptive mother (ganma), 210; sources for, 3–15, 21–31; sword of, 11, 12, 13, 30, 63, 80, 81, 125, 224, 282n29; tuotai (“liberation from the womb”) performed by, 10, 11, 14, 15, 27, 29, 30, 54, 65, 73, 75–77, 81, 86, 108, 158, 180, 218, 241, 262, 267n20; Zu Yuanjun/Zu Shu compared to, 19–20. See also Chen Jinfeng; Chen Shouyuan; Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng)/Great Sage Great Lord (Dasheng Daye); exorcism; Guanyin; Li Sanniang; Lin Jiuniang; Liu Cong; Liu Qi; Mount

352

Index

Lü; Mount Lü sect (Lü Shan pai); Pojie; Ravine Demon; Rock-press Women; shamanism; Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun); White Snake; Xu Sun (Perfected Lord Xu) Chen Meie, 35 Chen Qingsou, 5, 11 Chen Shou, 271n63 Chen Shouqi, 266n5 Chen Shouyuan: and Chen Jinggu, 12–13, 20, 59, 74–75, 89, 125, 130, 147, 259, 277n38; as Daoist, 12–13, 20, 57–59, 59, 74–75, 89, 125, 130, 247, 259, 267n23, 270nn54,55, 281n12 Chen Sui, 6–7 Ch’en Tsang-ch’i, 296n6 Chen Xianmei, 55, 300n10 Chen Yi, 1 Chen Yu, 25 Chen Zenghui, 41 Chen Da’nai tuotai, 15, 267n27, 281n18 Cheng, Anne, 76, 278n42 Chenivesse, Sandrine, 92, 285n6, 301n20 Chen Jinggu wenhua yanjiu conference, 42, 295n3 Chen shisi qizhuan, 27, 259 childbirth: vs. adoption, 172; birthing basin, 76–77, 96, 142, 179–80, 188, 281n19, 300n1, 306n25; death in, 48, 70, 82, 86, 98, 114, 275n21, 308n41; eight birth characters (bazi), 34, 56, 141, 175, 182, 186, 199, 204, 205, 208, 209, 212–13, 215, 219, 253, 254; and lightning, 110, 288n32, 301n24; period of seclusion after, 181–83. See also pregnancy childhood: Chen Jinggu as protector of, 1, 10, 28, 29, 42, 45, 53, 54, 65, 88, 91, 97–98, 123, 138–39, 143, 156, 157, 170, 171, 174, 179–80, 183, 197, 199, 202, 204,

205–6, 209, 213, 214, 253, 260, 295n37, 303n35, 309n4; and Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, 63, 121– 22, 159, 178, 209–10; defined, 1, 196–97; “exchanges” of children, 172–73; eyes of children, 155; and fate (yun), 204–6; fontanel, 200, 309n9; “full month” (manyue) celebration, 181–83, 199–202, 217, 219, 308n48; full year (yinian sui) celebration, 202; illnesses in, 121– 22, 205–6, 207–10, 218, 219–20, 295n37, 314n13; laughing in, 141, 299n35; naming of children, 199–200, 201, 247, 309n7; passes (guan) of, 141, 207, 211–21, 253, 262–63, 291n15, 299n36, 308n46, 309nn8,11, 310n20, 311nn25,29, 312nn35,40,43; “passing sixteen years” (guo shiliu) celebration, 196, 202–4, 210, 301n15, 302n35, 304n5; and Pojie, 39, 141, 183, 198–99, 202, 214, 216, 235, 304n5; polarization during, 121–22, 178, 207, 209–11, 212–14, 219, 294nn34,36, 302n31, 306n22; shocks (chong) in, 121, 204, 206, 213, 242, 316n2; Sovereign of the Azure Clouds as protector of, 154–55, 156–57; stages of, 197–204, 309n1, 312n36; terrorstricken children, 49, 121, 206–9, 250, 254, 275n24, 294n35, 310nn19,20; and Weaving-maid, 198, 203, 204, 309n4. See also adoption; ritual of “crossing the passes” (guoguan) Chinese pantheon (houtian), 83–84, 284n41 Chu, king of, 126–27 Cihai zidian, 15 Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng)/Great Sage Great Lord (Dasheng Daye), 39, 103, 105–18; castration of, 32, 62–63, 110–11,

Index 118, 192, 220, 275n25; and Chen Jinggu, 32, 63, 108–9, 110, 111, 118, 134, 136, 137, 138, 148, 208, 220; and childhood, 63, 121–22, 159, 178, 209–10, 220, 295n37; and exorcism of the Rock-Press Women, 63, 111–13; and Great Sage Equal to Heaven (Qitian Dasheng), 62, 63, 105, 108, 111, 113, 279n49, 294n30; and Ravine Demon, 108–9, 114– 15; sexual practices attributed to, 105, 289n2; and Madame Shen, 110, 208, 220; as yang, 62–63, 108, 110–11, 115, 121–22, 220, 289n6; and Yang Shichang, 110– 11, 148, 287n23 Cioran, Émile M., 95 city gods, 28, 36, 55, 147, 300n9 City of Banyans (Rongshu cheng), 41 Classic of Rites (Li ji), 172, 200 Classic of Salvation (Duren jing), 18 Cloud-riding Terrace, 111–12, 290n12 Cole, Alan, 303n36 communities of women: “Apprentices” (nü mentu) of Gaoxiong, 30, 34–35, 250, 255, 306n19, 312n35; and Chen Jinggu, 17, 29–30, 33, 34, 47–49, 91, 268n33, 287n25 Confucianism, 40, 48, 175, 298n27; and ancestor worship, 55, 58, 129, 172, 196–97; and Chen Jinggu, 66, 68, 70–71, 75, 89, 91, 126, 156, 172–73, 182–83, 249; filial piety (xiao), 54, 55–57, 61, 70–71, 89, 129–30, 160, 161–62, 249, 267n24, 280n5, 303n36; and local customs, 146–47, 300n10; NeoConfucianism, 163, 168; patrilines, 45, 52, 55–57, 58, 64, 66, 68, 70, 70–71, 91, 93, 97, 126, 129, 156, 158, 168, 169, 172–73, 182– 83, 192–93, 196–97, 200–201, 207, 262

353

constellations, 108, 132, 289n4. See also Northern Dipper; Snake constellation Cuiping ji, 6 curses, 184, 186–93, 215; the butterfly (hudie), 187, 234; the Celestial Dog (Tiangou), 188–89, 191, 234; the snake of the grottos (dongshe)/ bronze snake (tongshe), 187–88, 191, 218, 234; the wasp (huangfeng), 186–87, 234; the White Tiger (Xiahua Baihu), 189–91 Dan, the, 164 Da’nai lingjing, 15 Dao de jing, 274n15 Daode tradition, 269n41 Daofa huiyuan, 133, 268n31, 269n41 Daoism, 16, 40, 49, 191, 299n29; asceticism in, 45, 55, 70, 158, 248, 262; Baiyun guan, 36–37; celestial eye (tianmu), 116; and Chen Jinggu, 12–13, 14, 17, 20, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 36, 45, 54, 65, 66, 68, 70, 74–76, 89, 95, 158, 179, 192, 246–47, 250, 256, 259, 260, 267n20, 268n35, 295n3, 297n17; Daoist Canon (Daozang), 19, 20, 222–23, 274n15, 307n28, 316n36; Daoist Organization of China (Daojiao xiehui), 37, 260; and death, 95, 145; and embryo of immortality, 69, 77, 188, 248, 265n1, 273n8, 278n46; the feminine in, 2–3, 261–62, 265n1, 266n3; forgetting/spontaneity in, 257, 259; gods in, 145, 146, 284n41; Laozi, 2, 17, 64, 72, 80, 108, 130, 220, 260, 265n1, 279n51, 280n9, 282n25, 290n7; and Lingbao scriptures, 19; vs. local cults, 65, 69, 95, 146, 152, 317n9; and local elites, 2, 265n2; and Ma Yuanshai, 287n23; regression (ni) in, 2, 77, 116,

354

Index

243, 262, 265n1; rite of “commanding the demon” (mingmo), 31; ritual period of fasting (zhai), 74, 75, 179, 244, 317n18; ritual period of opening out to the universe (jiao), 74–75, 281n12; and sexuality, 50, 68–69, 187; and spirit mediums, 243, 248; Three Treasures (sanbao), 248; time before creation (xiantian), 175; Universal Salvation rites (Pudu), 241; “walking/dancing the Guideline,” 313n8; yin and yang in, 19, 53, 54, 75, 77; and Zhen’gao, 293n25. See also Daode tradition; internal alchemy; Lingbao tradition; minor rites (xiaofa); Mount Lü sect (Lü Shan pai); Mount Mao (Mao Shan) ritual tradition; Quanzhen (Total Perfection) tradition; Shangqing tradition; Shenxiao (the Divine Empyrean); Tianxin zhengfa tradition; Zhengyi ritual line Dark Capital (Youdu), 15 Dark Warrior (Xuanwu), 15 Dars, Jacques, 132 Davis, Edward L., 276n32 Dean, Kenneth, 27, 139, 147, 150, 151, 249, 257, 284n41, 300n10, 301nn17,21, 310n17 death: bad deaths, 54, 57, 64, 65, 82–83, 84, 85–97, 104, 130, 149, 169, 174, 207, 215, 285n6, 292n21; bodies of deceased, 94; in childbirth, 48, 70, 82, 86, 98, 114, 275n21, 308n41; and Daoism, 95, 145; debt owed the dead, 87, 91–93, 97; good deaths, 92, 94; Register of Death, 68, 90; relationship to bad births, 97; relationship to ritual, 92–93, 94; relationship to turning back, 72–73 Deep-water guan (shenshui guan), 219–20, 312n43 De Groot, J. J. M., 110, 114, 282n26, 284n42, 291n14, 300n6,

304nn4,5, 306n20, 308n44, 313n7 Delcourt, Marie, 289n36 Deleuze, Gilles, 305n10 Demiéville, Paul, 272n8, 278nn42,48, 283n40, 310nn18,20 demons (yao or gui): and childhood guan, 215; and the feminine, 49– 53, 75; as practicing yangsheng, 28, 50, 175–76, 282n26; and raw meat, 194; ritual of “commanding the demon” (mingmo), 31. See also Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage (Danxia Dasheng)/Great Sage Great Lord (Dasheng Daye); exorcism; Ravine Demon; Rock-Press Women; Spider Demon of Shuikou; White Snake Deng, Marshal, 89, 96, 286n19, 307n33 Deng Yougong, 20 Derrida, Jacques, 293n27 Despeux, Catherine, 66, 77, 132, 139, 171, 176, 218, 268nn30,35,36, 269n41, 273n12, 274nn15,17, 275n25, 278n42, 279n49, 281n14, 287n27, 288n31, 289n4, 292n24, 293n25, 299n34, 301n14, 305n13, 306nn18,26, 307n28, 312n44, 315n19; on conception, 176; on curse of the White Tiger, 190; on Daoist asceticism, 69, 117; on Guan, 69; on internal alchemy, 106, 109–10, 115, 116, 117; on “pacing the Northern Dipper,” 313n8; on pregnancy, 180; on School of the South and School of the North, 289n6; on sexuality, 68, 69; on tuotai (“liberation from the womb”), 75–76 Détienne, Marcel, 261, 291n14 Diény, Jean-Pierre, 161, 163, 303n40 discerning vision (guan), 115–16, 155, 248, 273n11, 318n22 divination, 208–9, 311n28; divination blocks, 194; divination sticks,

Index 194–95, 309n52; with eggs, 239, 316n33 divine eye (shenyan), 115–16, 155 divine seat (wei), 45, 53, 57 Dong Yong, 160, 162, 302nn33,35 Dongbei (Manchuria), 15, 46 Doolittle, Rev. Justus, 211, 311n27 Door of Demons guan (Guimen guan), 215 Door of Life, 33, 132–33, 136, 139– 40, 181, 215, 298n25, 313n8 Doré, Henri, 70, 77, 214, 266n10, 271n61, 278n46, 280n6, 283n33, 284n42, 288nn31,32, 291n16, 294n31, 301n25, 302n26, 302n33, 306n20, 311nn27,30, 312nn38,40, 314n13, 315n30 doubles, 77, 78, 140, 157, 276n34, 290n10; Chen Jinggu and White Snake, 32, 43, 49, 66, 72, 156, 175, 187; Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage and Great Sage Equal to Heaven, 27, 63, 111; icons as, 285n10, 286n21; Lin Jiuniang and Spider Demon of Shuikou, 49 Douglas, Mary, 70 Dournes, Jacques, 308n44 Dragon King of the Four Seas, 14 Dream Remnant/Mengyu/butterfly spirit, 55, 128, 277n39, 299n28, 305n17, 314n13; the butterfly (hudie) curse, 187, 234; and Yuan Guangzhi, 59, 60, 134–35, 136, 137, 138 dreams, 91–92, 285n9, 302n29 ducks, female/duck meat taboo, 14, 57, 63, 82, 83, 93, 218, 283n37 Dudbridge, Glenn, 24, 77, 105, 269n48, 272n4, 280n6, 300n3 Dui Xuepei, 55, 300n10 dunjia, 279n2 duty of renunciation, 85 Earth Official (Diguan), 146 earth spirits (tushen), 206, 215, 306n20

355

Eastern Peak (Tai Shan), 143, 145, 155, 271n59, 301n21; daughter of the, 28, 114, 153–54, 158, 288n31, 292n16, 301nn23,24; god of the, 23, 33, 34, 114, 151–54, 169, 301nn18,19; Temple of the, 33, 34, 156, 159, 169, 170, 175, 206, 211, 254, 292n16, 319nn27,30 Eberhard, Wolfram, 278n48, 297n20, 302n33, 306n20 Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, 276n32, 277n36 eight birth characters (bazi). See childbirth, eight birth characters (bazi) eight directions, 149, 274n17 eight trigrams (bagua), 19, 76, 122, 136, 225, 226, 281n16, 282n21, 287nn26,27, 288n33, 298n23, 313n8; diagram of the, 18, 33, 60, 61, 77, 79, 103, 132, 133, 138, 180, 274n17, 287n27, 296n5; and Fuxi, 61, 270n49, 276n31, 277n40; and Lin Jiuniang, 30, 100, 102, 103, 108, 111, 149, 151, 180, 298n26; and the placenta, 141, 180, 307n26; and the womb, 77, 151; yin-yang regarding, 277n40, 307n26, 310n23 Eliade, Mircéa, 110, 151, 290n8 Éliasberg, Danielle, 23–25, 269n47 embryo of immortality, 50, 54, 62, 70, 95, 108, 131, 134, 171, 187, 241, 289n2; and Daoism, 69, 77, 188, 248, 265n1, 273n8, 278n46, 299n27 Envoy of the Inquisition of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian caifang shizhe), 17, 268n32 exorcism, 21, 33, 77, 103, 132–33, 177, 208, 250, 254, 279n2, 299n34; and Chen Jinggu, 1, 12, 17, 28, 29, 35, 49, 56, 59, 73, 80– 81, 128, 134, 143, 150, 157, 169, 170, 174–75, 253, 260, 304n3,

356

Index

319n35; in minor rites, 180, 227, 233–38; Nuo ritual, 212, 237, 311n31; of Rock-Press Women, 63, 111–13; and substitute bodies (tishen), 206, 227–28; and Xu Shun, 18 fate (yun), 34, 52, 94, 95, 97, 132, 151, 152, 157–59, 160, 161, 163, 183, 189, 190, 201, 204–9, 212, 213–14, 218, 275n21, 294nn34,36, 305n18, 306n22, 307n27, 308n50, 310n22, 313n8; and Chen Jinggu, 3, 57, 66, 68, 69, 71–84, 73, 85, 86, 88, 92, 93, 97, 114, 129, 156, 157–58, 169, 183, 184, 214, 275n22; correction of, 33, 141, 165, 166, 186, 205, 231–32, 235, 237, 252, 253, 254, 316n33; of mother and child, 121–22, 210, 294n36; and Northern Dipper, 33, 77, 134, 181, 205, 214, 227, 235, 237, 241, 309n13, 313n8, 316n37; and Pojie, 131, 181, 199, 214; relationship to minor rites, 222 Faure, Bernard, 117, 118, 276n34, 278n42, 284nn40,1, 285n10 Fazhu Ma, 151 Feizhu, 103 Feng Menglong: “The White Snake,” 276n27, 297n16 Fengjing zalu, 4 Fengshen yanyi, 259 fertility: of the kingdom, 53, 55, 73, 80, 92, 114, 127, 128, 144, 307n33, 309n12; of women, 29, 65, 73, 92, 98, 114, 118, 157, 244, 307n36 filial piety (xiao), 54, 55–57, 61, 70–71, 129, 129–30, 160, 161–62, 249, 280n5, 303n36; and Xu Sun, 17, 57, 70, 89, 129, 267n24 Five Camps, 18, 39, 72, 80, 134, 135, 226, 229 Five Demons guan (Wugui guan), 215

Five Directions, 18, 33, 72, 80, 135, 136, 189, 190, 215, 226 Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms period, 3, 266n5 five elements, 18, 106, 135, 154, 301n19, 306n26, 312n44 Five Phases, 167 Five Thunders, 30, 62, 115–16, 138, 260, 312n44, 318n22; rituals of, 8, 9, 14, 17, 18–19, 30, 59, 115– 16, 126, 131, 132–33, 134, 135, 181, 188, 190, 241, 260, 266n11, 268n31, 299nn32,34; and Xu Sun, 14, 18, 267n24 Flag Mountain (Qi Shan), 47, 49, 250, 268n33 Flourishing Scabbard, 55, 58 Flower, the, 29–30, 59, 130–31, 191– 93; Celestial Gardeners, 32, 96, 184–86, 231, 234. See also Bridge of a Hundred Flowers; ritual of “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua) foot binding, 156, 157 Four Pillars guan (sizhu guan), 215, 235–36 Four Seasons guan (siji guan), 216, 309n11 Freud, Sigmund, 293n27 Fujian, 36–42; Fuqing, 312n34; immigration to Taiwan from, 271n57; Jade Mountain (Yu Shan), 118–19; Lianjiang, 283n38; Mount Wuyi, 268n31; Nanping, 293n28, 297n17; Putian, 27, 147, 150–51; temple of Jiutian fazhu near Pingnan, 268n32; Wan’an Bridge, 61, 270n49; Wuyi Mountains, 16. See also Fuzhou prefecture; Linshui Temple in Daqiao/Gutian; Min fuling (tablets), 30 full month (manyue) celebration, 181–83, 199–202, 217, 219, 308n48 funerary rites of salvation, 234, 235, 241. See also liandu ritual

Index Furen changci, 15 Furen Nainiang zhuan, 269n43 Furen zhuan, 40, 166 Furth, Charlotte, 66, 167–68, 171, 173–74, 175, 176–77, 181, 182, 188, 303n1, 305n16, 306n18, 307nn27,36, 308n40, 309nn3,5, 310n19, 312n36 Fuxi, 61, 270n49, 276n31, 277n40 Fuzhou fu zhi, 16 Fuzhou Lü Shan wenhua, 16 Fuzhou prefecture, 23, 125, 150; Black Stone Mountain, 111–12, 289n3, 291n12; Changbei, 41; Diaolong tai, 16; Feizhu, 42; Goulong tai, 16; Great Ritual Academy of Mount Lü, 41, 46; Gutian district, 3, 4–8, 9–14, 26, 31, 32, 36, 40–41, 297n17; Jade Hill (Yu Shan), 270n52; Longtan huo, 16; Longtan jiao, 16; Luoyuan, 25, 42, 55, 60, 61, 103, 150, 284n2, 298n21; Min River, 16, 41, 46, 267n25, 283n37; Mount Lü Ritual Academy, 16, 166; Mount Yu, 58; Nantai Island, 16, 279n1, 283n34, 284n2, 287n22; temple of the Jade Emperor, 267n23; Tianning Temple, 16; Wuyi Mountains, 16; Xiadu, 16, 26, 53, 57, 58, 65, 66, 67, 75, 79, 80, 93, 97, 148, 150, 166, 279n1, 284n2, 286n16, 304n7. See also Linshui Temple in Daqiao/Gutian Gallin, Bernard, 203 Gao, Marshal, 89, 96, 282n19, 286n19, 300n1, 306n25, 307n33 Gao Rentong, Abbot, 302n26 Gaozong, Emperor, 134 Ge Hong, 220, 279nn51,2, 286n22, 310n20 Ge, Madame, 8–9, 10, 39, 66, 75, 76, 78, 79, 157, 282n23 gender roles, 2, 160–65, 169, 172, 184–85, 196–97, 198, 261–63

357

general’s arrow guan (jiangjun jian guan), 216–17, 236, 312n37 geomancy, 6, 7, 40, 266n9 Gernet, Jacques, 283n40 Giles, Herbert, 270n49 god of the soil, 40, 126, 142–58, 300n12, 307n33; and Chen Jinggu, 28, 32, 90, 142–43, 147–51, 158, 159, 186, 288n33, 300n6, 301n16; as God of the Dead, 145; and Guanyin, 43, 50, 148, 275n25; and Meng Jiangnü, 297n20, 300n11; and weaving of networks, 150–51 God of Thunder guan (Leigong Guan), 220–21 Gonggong, 300n6 Goodrich, Anna Swann, 153, 155 Gorgon, the, 288n34 Goulong, 145, 300n6 Granet, Marcel, 72, 73, 75, 83, 113–14, 126, 144, 145, 151, 154, 189, 198, 199–200, 205, 217, 218, 234, 244, 280n8, 282nn20,29, 283n39, 284n41, 286n18, 288n32, 290n8, 291nn13,14, 292nn17,18, 296nn6,10,11,13,14,15, 299n35, 300n6, 301nn15,24, 302nn33,34, 303n37, 307n32, 308n41, 309nn1,4,5, 311n31, 312n37, 319n31 Great Emperor of Purple Tenuity (Ziwei), 132 Great Lady Chen Removes Her Fetus, The (Chen Da’nai tuotai), 76 Great Peace (Taiping), 119 Great Ravine, 286n22, 292n19. See also Ravine Demon Great Ritual Academy of Mount Lü, 41 Great Sage Equal to Heaven (Qitian Dasheng)/King of the Monkeys, 27, 106, 107, 109–10, 116, 118– 21, 290n10, 294n33, 300n3; and Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, 62,

358

Index

63, 105, 108, 111, 113, 279n49, 294n30; and Guanyin, 62, 111 Great Sovereign of Long Life (Changsheng Dadi), 19 Greece, 288n34, 289n36, 318n21 Gregory, Peter, 276n32 Grootaers, Willem A., 272n1 Grotto of Flourishing Yang, 59 Gu Jiegang, 301n23 Guan, 69, 82–83, 95 Guan Yu, 40 Guangong, 40, 244 Guangxi, 82 Guangxu, Emperor, 36 Guangzhou (Canton), 48 Guanyin, 34, 41, 48, 76, 77, 103, 154, 244, 253, 255, 269n48, 272nn1,2, 280n5, 288n35, 294nn31,32, 302n29; as Avalokitesvara, 44, 117, 275n21, 278n43, 279n3; and Banling Temple, 119–20; blood of, 27, 43, 65–66, 83, 84, 111, 304n7; and Buddhism, 158; and Chen Jinggu, 8–9, 12, 14, 22, 27, 43, 50, 55, 58, 59, 65–66, 68, 70, 83, 84, 86, 97, 105, 108, 111, 115–16, 117–18, 142, 171, 244, 260, 261, 275n23, 276nn27,31; discerning vision of, 115, 155, 318n22; and dreams, 285n9; as “Eye of Vajra,” 278n48; and god of the soil, 43, 50, 148, 275n25; and Great Sage Equal to Heaven (Qitian Dasheng)/King of the Monkeys, 62, 111; hair of, 27, 43–44, 51, 66, 81, 82, 84, 101, 117, 126, 130, 276n27; and High God of the Dark Heaven, 43, 44, 45, 107, 272n1, 307n32; in Journey to the West (Xiyou ji), 105; lotus throne of, 78; at Luoyang Bridge, 43–44, 107–8, 118; as Miaoshan, 27, 44, 275n20, 280nn3,6, 283n38, 300n3; as Nanhai Guanyin, 14, 21, 45, 148, 272n2; and reincarnation, 171; as

Songzi Guanyin, 45; and suicide, 156, 158; and Wang Xiaoer/Liu Qi, 44, 45, 55, 66, 130, 272n3, 304n7; and White Snake, 27, 43, 50, 51, 55, 66, 84, 101, 117, 272n3, 276n27; as Yulan Guanyin, 44–45, 276n28 Guattari, Félix, 305n10 Guilang, 53, 57, 128, 129, 276n29; as Gui Shouming, 93, 285n12 Guitai Shengmu, 276n31 Gutian xian zhi, 4–5, 6–8, 316n34 gynecology (fuke), 167–68 hair, 217, 225, 275n20, 287nn29,30, 288nn29,30, 307n30; of Guanyin, 27, 43–44, 51, 66, 81, 82, 84, 101, 117, 126, 130, 276n27; hairpins, 98, 101, 109, 162, 163, 202, 287n28, 303n43; of Lin Jiuniang, 99–102, 103, 104, 151, 288n34; women who brush their hair alone, 46–49, 287n25 Hamashima, Atsutoshi, 55, 300n9, 301n18 Hamayon, Roberte N., 92 Han dynasty, 161, 301n19 Hangzhou: Upper Tianzhu Temple in, 302n29 Hansen, Valerie, 36 Harper, Donald, 311n28 Hawkes, David, 106 He, Madame, 176, 190–91 He Qiaolian, 266n5 Hei Laoye, 146 herbal potions, 30, 51 Héritier, Françoise, 184, 286n20, 305n8, 307n31 Herrou, Adeline, 94 High God of the Dark Heaven (Xuantian Shangdi), 15, 62, 69, 77, 154, 213–14; and Guanyin, 43, 44, 45, 107, 272n1, 307n32 Hong Tianxi, 6, 36, 266n8 Hongren, 277n42 Hou, Ching-lang, 180, 188, 189,

Index 190, 204, 218, 281n19, 284n2, 291n15, 305n15, 308n44, 310n30, 312n36, 314n15 Hsieh, E. Ding-Hwa, 274n18 Hsü, Elisabeth, 164, 290n12 Hsu, Francis L. K., 203 Hu Fuchen, 267n23, 268nn31,34,35, 269n42, 271n55, 274n15, 276n31, 298n23, 300n2, 303n38, 317n19 Huainanzi, 303n40, 308n43 Huang, Chieh-shan, 203, 276n33, 305n12, 310n24 Huang San, 9 Huang Shunshen, 269n40 Huang ting jing, 273n Huang Youde, 311n28 Huang Zhongshao, 266n5, 281n13, 291n12 Huangong, 32, 96, 184–86, 231, 234 Huapo, 32, 96, 184–86, 231, 234 Huizong, Emperor, 18, 20, 222, 268n37 human body, 149, 301n14; as androgynous, 184; human flesh as remedy, 280n6, 296n6; seven orifices of, 296n6 Hundred Days guan (bairi guan), 219, 309n8 icons of divinities, 86, 92, 284nn40,1, 285n10, 286n21. See also doubles Ikeda, Suetoshi, 292n22 incense: “dividing incense” (fenxiang), 32, 121, 150, 170, 251, 253, 260, 271n57, 286n16, 294n29, 301n17; as means of communicating with divinity, 249, 290n8; as offering, 7, 10, 14, 40, 57, 92, 120, 121, 171, 186, 194, 195, 200, 201, 208–10, 227, 229, 230, 231, 238, 252, 255, 309n6 infanticide, 262 internal alchemy, 2, 62, 65, 140, 223, 278n43; the breath (qi), 106, 116, 167, 248, 292n24, 296n6,

359

299n27; and Chen Jinggu, 27, 75, 87, 95, 116, 117–18, 139, 241, 243, 262; discerning contemplation (guan), 115–16, 155, 273n11; the essence (jing), 101, 106, 115, 116, 134, 186–87, 248, 287n30, 292n24, 297n19, 299n27; Five Thunders in, 312n44, 316n3; the heart (xin), 115, 296n7; Jingming sect, 17, 268n35; and Journey to the West (Xiyou ji), 106–8, 109– 10, 115, 279n49; of Lin Zhaoen, 298n27; and pearls, 290n7; vs. ritual, 59, 60; and Sovereign of the Azure Clouds, 302n26; and spirit mediums, 242; spiritual energy (shen), 106, 115, 248, 289n6, 296n7, 299n27; and Thunder ritual arts, 18; tuotai of, 250; xiang in, 298n26; yangsheng in, 50, 186–87, 265n1; yin and yang in, 111, 115, 116, 290n6. See also embryo of immortality Iron Dog (Tiegou), 188, 189 Iron Head monk, 60–61, 132, 180, 277n42, 278n43, 298n26 Iron Snake guan (Tieshe guan), 217, 218 Island of the Immortals/Penglai, 273n10 Jade Emperor (Baohuang), 25, 26, 45, 58, 76, 77, 111, 113, 114, 125, 131, 146, 151–52, 162, 163, 164, 249, 267n23, 270n53, 288n35, 294n33, 303n40; festival of, 304n4; palace of, 40; talismans of, 76, 77, 269n46, 315n24, 316n35; temple of, 270nn52,54, 271n62 Jade Maiden of Obscure Subtlety (Xuanmiao Yunü), 72, 265n1 Jiang Shanyu, 268n33, 275n25; as Golden-Haired Tiger, 49–50, 54, 69–70, 77, 95, 103, 134, 136, 148, 250; as Jiang Hudan, 49,

360

Index

176, 190–91; as Jiang Hupo, 29, 30, 38, 49, 68, 69–70, 77, 148–49, 250, 294n35, 295n36; and Old Mother of Mount Li (Li Shan Laomu), 30, 38, 47, 48, 49, 54, 70, 148, 191; relationship with Chen Jinggu, 47–48, 49, 69–70, 274n16 Jiangnan, 223 Jiangxi: Dragon-Tiger Mountain (Longhu Shan), 17; Mount Huagai, 20; Mount Lu, 14, 16–17, 266n11, 268n30 Jianning, 5 Jin dynasty, 153 Jin Ming, 28, 271n56, 289n2, 291n16, 300nn1,2 Jingming sect, 17, 268n35 Jiulang, Master, 8, 9, 14, 188 Jiutian Xuannü, 302n29 Johnson, David, 55, 300n9, 301n18 Jordan, David K., 317n17, 319nn32,35 Journey to the North, The (Beiyou ji), 45 Journey to the West, The (Xiyou ji), 105, 119, 289n1; alchemical interpretations of, 106–8, 109–10, 115, 279n49; vs. Linshui pingyao zhuan, 27, 62, 106–8, 109–10, 113, 115, 118 Jullien, François, 61 Jupiter, 152, 177, 190, 284n2, 303n35, 306n20, 311n30 Kailong gong in Tainan, 309n13 Kaiyuan Temple, 41–42, 125 Kalinowski, Marc, 216, 279n2, 311n28 Kaltenmark, Max, 19, 52, 73, 82, 115, 151, 265n1, 273nn8,10,11, 274n19, 275n23, 281n11, 282nn20,29, 283n31, 286n18, 292n22, 297n19, 300n7, 313n7 karma, 117, 153, 156, 243, 245, 263, 277n36, 305n14, 308n39;

and bad deaths, 88–89, 92, 207; in Buddhism, 108; of Chen Jinggu, 66, 71–73, 86, 97, 275n22; and Chen Jinggu as Lady of the Birth Register, 158–59 Katz, Paul R., 278n46 Ke Xianli, 34–35, 249–50 King of Hell guan (Yanwang guan), 215 Kleinman, Arthur, 317n11 Kohn, Livia, 273n12, 275n25, 281n9, 287n27, 288n31 Koxinga Temple, 31 Ladies of the thirty-six palaces of the king of Min. See Pojie Lady Drowning (Shen), 148, 220 Lady Liu, 295n37 Lady of Smallpox and Measles, 29, 188, 218, 275n25, 297n17, 312n39 Lady of the Clear Eyes (Yanqing Niangniang), 155 Lady of the Seventh Star (Qixing Niangniang/Qixing Nai), 143, 159–65, 201, 203, 309n13 Lady Wen, 20 Lady Who Sends Children (Songzi Niangniang), 155 Lafargue, Michael, 281n9 La Fleur, William R., 305n14 Lagerwey, John, 272n5, 282n28, 313n8 Lai Biqiang, 28, 268n35, 291n16, 300n2 Lai Meilan, 34–35 Lake of Blood, 70, 82–83, 141, 181, 275n21, 280n3, 283n33 Lan Zhuzhu, 42, 103 Laozi, 2, 17, 108, 279n51, 282n25, 290n8; and mother (Xuanmiao Yunü), 64, 72, 265n1, 281n9; and Xu Jia, 80, 130, 220, 260 Laozi zhong jing, 273n10, 301n14 Lauwaert, Françoise, 86, 277n37, 285n8, 305n8, 310n24

Index Legacy of the White Lotus, 278n43 Lei Dehe, 150 Lemoine, Jacques, 150 Lévi, Jean, 156, 272n63, 276nn29,32, 297n19, 302n33, 303n35 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 112 Lévy, André, 289n2 Lewis, Mark Edward, 60–61, 72, 276n31, 282n20 Li Erniang, 189 Li Sanniang, 150, 268n33; festival of, 10, 266n16, 289n37; as one of Three Ladies (Sannai) and sworn sister of Chen Jinggu, 10, 38, 48, 68, 103, 120, 131, 134, 158, 253, 268n34, 297n21, 298n22; and seal illusion of Haikou, 49 Li Yangzheng, 296n7, 298n23 Li Yunzhong, 6 Li Zhichang, 289n1 liandu ritual, 30–31, 93, 166, 192, 208, 211, 223, 241, 277n35, 279n2; performed by Chen Jinggu for Liu Cong, 18–19, 30, 39, 57, 87 Liang Kejia, 291n12 Liangnü, 63, 103, 108–9, 110, 119 Liaoning province, 15–16 Liezi, 281n15 lightning, 62, 96, 189, 191, 217, 225, 248, 284n41, 286n18, 290n8, 308n41; and childbirth, 110, 288n32, 301n24; Ministry of Thunder and Lightning (Leiting du sifu), 269n46; and pearls, 103, 108–9, 110, 122; and RockPress Women, 53, 112, 113–14, 116, 283n36; and yin-yang, 112, 288n32 Lin Bashu, 55, 148–49, 151 Lin Biao, 24 Lin Guoping, 42, 270n50, 295n2, 297n17, 299n27 Lin Hengdao: Taiwan simiao daquan, 31

361

Lin Jinshui, 42 Lin Jiuniang, 29, 150, 253, 268n33; festival of, 10, 266n16, 289n37; the Gorgon compared to, 288n34; hair of, 99–102, 103, 104, 151, 288n34; and Iron Head monk, 60–61, 132, 180, 296n5, 298n26; as Lady Forest, 80, 100, 110, 111, 151, 220; as Lady of the Eight Trigrams, 30, 100, 102, 103, 108, 111, 149, 151, 180, 298n26; as one of Three Ladies (Sannai) and sworn sister of Chen Jinggu, 10, 30, 38, 48, 60, 68, 96, 103, 120, 131, 134, 158, 253, 268n34, 297n21, 298n22; and Ravine Demon, 89, 100, 102, 103, 104; and Spider Demon of Shuikou, 48, 49, 151, 274n17; “spider pearl” of, 48, 103, 137, 151, 187, 274n17 Lin (Lady Forest), 80, 100, 110, 111, 151, 220 Lin Lingsu, 18, 222–23, 316n36 Lin (Red Head Master), 252 Lin Weigong, 28, 268n35, 291n16, 300n2 Lin Xiangcai, 16 Lin Yingsi, 35 Lin Zhaoen, 27, 298n27 Lingbao tradition, 19, 130, 269n41, 277n35 Lingguan Mu, 20 Lingyan shenfu ping’an pian, 312n35 Linshui pingyao zhuan, 21–31, 32, 33, 34, 37, 42, 90, 133–34, 141, 157, 166, 183, 187, 218, 260, 273nn8,10, 303n43, 304n2; female characters in, 25, 42, 43–45, 46–54, 55–57, 58, 59, 60– 61, 187–88, 261–62; and Furen zhuan, 40; vs. Journey to the West, 27, 62, 106–8, 109–10, 113, 115, 118; Luoyang Bridge episode, 22–23, 27, 43–45, 50, 55, 61, 65, 69, 100–101, 107–8, 123–24,

362

Index

270n49, 304n7, 315n22; male characters in, 42, 45, 50, 55–61; vs. Mindu bieji, 272n3; passages from, 71–72, 79, 82, 83, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 94, 96, 98, 102–3, 104, 105, 108, 111, 112, 114, 115, 124, 125, 127, 128, 131, 132, 134, 135, 137, 143, 148, 149, 151, 156, 180, 182, 188, 191, 208, 220, 224, 241, 243, 247, 270nn49,54, 274nn15,17, 275nn22,24, 276nn27,29,30, 277nn37,38,40, 278n43, 280n5, 281nn12,19, 282n27, 283nn32,38, 284n3, 286n17, 287nn23,26, 292n20, 294n35, 295nn5,36,37, 298nn21,26, 299nn28–30, 305n11, 312n39, 315n22, 318n24; Ruicheng edition, 21, 23; vs. Soushen ji, 129–30; syncretic composition of, 289n2; Xiamen huiwen tang edition, 21, 23 Linshui Temple in Baihe: stele in front of, 12–14, 26 Linshui Temple in Daqiao/Gutian, 36–40, 42, 57, 63, 123, 150, 157, 166, 190, 269n43, 276n30, 279n1, 282n23, 286n16, 307n33; dividing the incense (fenxiang) at, 150, 170, 251, 260; founding of, 4, 6–8, 11, 14, 24, 26; rituals in, 224, 225, 226–27, 232, 235, 237–38, 239, 240, 241, 313n1, 314n17; taibao protectors of, 157 Linshui Temple in Tainan, 31–34, 35, 40, 42, 142, 154, 166, 190, 295n1, 304nn3,5, 307n33; Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage at, 105, 121–22; festival of Chen Jinggu at, 170, 171, 251–53, 256, 268n32; marriage in, 183, 306n25; Pojie at, 123; ritual visits to, 169–71, 193–95, 201–4, 206, 209, 216, 253; rituals in, 32–33, 159, 165, 169–71, 183, 184–86,

203, 226–41, 245, 253, 314n19, 315nn21,24,25,30,31, 317n11; spirit mediums at, 170, 171, 245, 250–51, 255–56, 304n6, 313n5, 317n11, 318n26, 319nn27,30; and Xie Fuzhou, 245, 250–51, 255–56 Liou, Kia-Hway, 274n14 Liu Bei, 40 Liu Bowen, 35, 271n61 Liu Cong, 54, 63; liandu ritual performed by Chen Jinggu for, 18–19, 30, 39, 57, 87; as Qilin San Sheren, 39, 57, 123, 157, 190, 235, 277n36, 284n2 Liu Peizhong, 306n26 Liu Powen, 285n9 Liu Qi: Chen Jinggu as wife of, 5, 11, 25, 42, 45, 50–52, 54, 55–57, 73, 129, 148–49, 150, 156, 183, 275n22; as Wang Xiaoer, 45, 50–52, 108, 275n22, 304n7; and White Snake, 56, 58, 73, 129, 183, 187 Liu Tong, 148 Liu Xianniang, 29, 218, 275n25, 297n17, 312n39 Liu Xu, 266n5 Liu Xun, 302n26 Loewe, Michael, 282n29, 313n6 long life: Register of Long Life, 68; search for, 48, 54, 57–61, 65, 68, 69, 70, 79, 80, 129, 158, 163, 176, 283n38, 288n36 Lord Millet (Houji), 145 lotus, 78, 282n22 Louguan Tai Monastery in Shaanxi, 310n17 Lü Chunyang, 55, 69, 106, 108, 278n46 Lü Dongbin, 15, 272n3 Lu Xiujing, 19 Luo Guanzhong, 132, 269n47, 271n63 Luo (River) Writing (Luo shu), 60– 61, 100, 107, 270n49

Index Luxin jing, 307n38 Ma, Mr., wife of, 272n7, 276nn28,29,34 Ma Shouzhong, Master, 40–41, 261, 314n11 Ma Shutian, 309n13 Ma Yuanshuai, 287n23 madiao, 282n24 Magu, 288n31 Maiden Goddess Nülang Shen, 82 Maitreya-Milefo, 119 Malamoud, Charles, 92, 246 Malaysia, 150 mandalas, 27, 60, 61, 78, 79, 175, 232, 282n21, 287n27; in tantric Buddhism, 19, 76; womb mandala, 30, 75, 76, 102, 104, 180, 188 Mangtian Shenwang, 188, 218, 275n25, 297n17 Manjusri, 288n35, 302n29 Mao Zedong, 24 marriage, 254, 262, 275n20, 276n33, 279n3, 309n12; and adoption, 210–11; age of, 163; and Chen Jinggu, 5, 12, 14, 25, 27, 29, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50–52, 54, 55–57, 65, 66, 68, 86, 97, 148– 49, 156, 183, 244, 304n7; crosscousin marriage, 301n15; and passing sixteen years (guo shiliu) celebration, 202, 203, 204; and rhizome-like structure, 172–73. See also Confucianism, patrilines Maspero, Henri, 102, 144, 145, 146, 266n10, 273n10, 284n41, 287n30, 300nn6,8,9 Mathieu, Rémi, 129, 287n23 Mauclaire, Simone, 305n8 Mazu, 76, 266n10; Chen Jinggu compared to, 6, 7, 83–84, 151, 261, 284n42; in Tianfei niangma zhuan, 21 measles, 121–22, 295n37 Measles and Smallpox Lady, 295n37 mediums. See spirit mediums

363

Meng Jiangnü, 297n20, 300n11 Meng K’ang, 204 Mengyu. See Dream Remnant/ Mengyu/butterfly spirit metal, 77, 106, 109, 113, 188, 189, 191, 217, 290n8, 308n43 Miao Le, 45 Miaoshan, Princess, 148, 155, 272n4, 283n33, 288n35; Chen Jinggu compared to, 27, 66; Guanyin as, 27, 44, 275n20, 280nn3,6, 283n38, 300n3 Milky Way, 160, 161, 162, 163–64 Min, 36–42, 170, 223, 226, 266, 266n5, 279n1, 314n13; King Lin, 10, 11; King Wang Yanjun, 25–26; origin of cult of Chen Jinggu in, 3, 4–8, 9–14, 25, 57, 63, 82, 91–93, 124–30, 150, 167, 169, 259–60, 303n1; ruling dynasty, 25–26, 40, 93, 126–27, 169; White Dragon River (Bailong Jiang), 13, 78, 80, 81–82, 98, 101, 125, 126, 127, 175, 224, 226, 282n27; Yue, 129– 30. See also Chen Jinfeng Min Zhiting, 296n7, 298n23 Mindu bieji, 27, 189, 259, 271n58, 272n3, 307n39 Ming dynasty, 3, 6, 23, 40, 152, 153, 154–55, 164, 169, 266n6 Mingzong, Emperor, 23 Ministry of Medicine, 28 Ministry of Thunder and Lightning (Leiting du sifu), 269n46 Ministry of Time, 311n30 Minjian wenxue, 163 Minnan language, 271n62 minor rites (xiaofa), 35, 170, 222, 249–50; exorcism, 180, 227, 233– 38; journey in celestial land, 211, 227, 229–33, 310n25; oracular séance, 227, 238–40; relationship to fate, 222; request, 227, 229 Miossec, Jean-Marie, 282n24 Mollier, Christine, 15, 89, 132, 285n6, 301n20, 313n8

364

Index

Mongol dynasty, 301n18, 303n42 Morgan, Carole, 306n18, 309n52 Mother of the Northern Dipper (Doumu), 214, 287n27, 312n34 mountains and the womb, 46, 49, 62, 82, 262, 273n8 Mount Emei, 158 Mount Kunlun, 273n11 Mount Lü, 273n10, 281n10, 289n3, 298n25; Chen Jinggu at, 8, 9, 12– 13, 14, 16, 17–18, 27, 28, 46, 50, 54, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, 70, 71–73, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91, 93, 95, 96, 98, 104, 108–9, 138, 149, 174, 182, 224, 243, 244, 286n18; guardians of, 46, 62, 115–16, 134, 278n48, 292n23, 318n22; location of, 15– 16, 78, 80, 175, 283n37, 287n22; and Master Jiuliang, 8, 9; vs. Mount Lu, 14, 16–17; vs. Mount Mao, 135, 138; and Pojie, 124; as submerged in White Dragon River, 78, 80, 175 Mount Lü sect (Lü Shan pai), 1, 155, 188, 214, 220, 268n35, 269nn43,46, 280n7, 282n21, 313nn2,7, 316nn35,37, 319n28; and Chen Da’nai tuotai, 15, 267n27, 281n18; in Fujian vs. Taiwan, 166, 190, 223, 235, 260, 307n33; Northern Dipper wooden block, 225–26, 229, 230, 314n9; origin of, 3, 4–8, 9–14, 25, 54, 57, 63, 82, 92–93, 150, 167, 169, 259–60, 303n1; Red Head masters (Hongtou) of, 32–33, 40–41, 80, 81, 97, 117–18, 171, 174, 177, 184, 185, 186, 197, 199, 206, 208, 222, 223–26, 228, 229–33, 234–35, 236–38, 239, 240, 241, 245, 248, 250, 252, 256, 260, 262, 283n30, 287n23, 313n5, 315n31, 318n26; relationship to other ritual traditions, 17–21, 66, 68, 268n35, 299n34; religious context of, 222–27; ritual horn

(shenjiao), 224, 235; secrecy in, 223, 224; sword of the Northern Dipper in, 224, 229, 233, 235; as syncretic, 17, 19, 30, 31, 279n2; whipcord in, 81, 208, 224–25, 229, 230, 231, 232, 235, 236–37, 314n17. See also Five Thunders; Ma Shouzhong, Master; Northern Dipper; ritual of “crossing the passes” (guoguan); ritual of “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua); Shi Xihui, Master Mount Mao (Mao Shan) ritual tradition, 55, 128, 133–35, 187, 223, 227, 266n18, 273n12, 283n25, 299n33; and sexuality, 69; and Wei Huacun, 59, 273n12, 280n4, 299n32; and Yuan Guangzhi, 30, 46, 59–60, 134–35, 138, 187, 308n40, 314n13 Mount Miaofeng, 156, 301n23 Mount Tai. See Eastern Peak Mount Wangbeitai, 99, 114 Mount Wudang, 45, 272n5 mourning: impossibility of, 85, 87, 93 Mozi, 296n11 mudras, 18, 41, 223–24, 231, 232, 235, 298n26 Nainiang zhuan, 314nn12,17 Nanping prefecture: Jianyou, 40 Nansheng She, 35, 271n62 Naquin, Susan, 154, 155, 156, 292n16, 301nn21,23 networks, 150–51, 170, 260, 271n59, 286n16, 294n29, 301n17 Ngo, Van Xuyet, 279n2, 306n20 Night Stalker, 113–14, 301n24 Nine Ladies (Jiuniang), 155 nirvana, 158 Northern Dipper (Beidou), 138, 139, 190, 220, 231, 238, 316n3; block of, 225–26, 229, 230, 314n9; and Door of Life, 132–33, 313n8; and fate, 33, 76, 77, 134, 181, 205, 214, 227, 235, 237, 241, 309n13,

Index 313n8, 316n37; as gang (“Guideline”), 225–26, 313n8; and Ravine Demon, 63, 100, 286n22; rituals of, 8, 9, 12–14, 18, 29, 30, 33, 59, 124, 126, 140, 166–67, 188, 227, 231–33, 241, 254, 260, 282n21, 287n27, 313n8, 314n8, 315n24; sword of, 13, 30, 224, 225, 229, 230, 233, 235, 238, 239, 248, 252; talismans of, 287n27, 314n9; and womb mandala, 30, 75, 76, 102, 104, 180 Nuo ritual, 212, 237, 311n31 Nüren jing, 280n5 Nüwa, 276n31 Obeyesekere, Gananath, 288n34 Official of the Celestial Court, 146 Old Mother (Laomu), 16, 268n33 Old Mother of Mount Li (Li Shan Laomu), 35, 274n15, 275n25, 301n22; and Chen Jinggu, 142, 276n31; and Jiang Hupo/Jiang Shanyu/Jiang Hudan, 30, 38, 47, 48, 49, 54, 70, 148, 191; as Zikong, 54, 246–47, 250 Old Woman Never Born (Wusheng Laomu), 276nn31,34, 278n43, 283n38 old women practitioners (xiansheng ma), 208–9 Opium War, 270n50 Ouyang Xiu, 25–26, 266n5, 270n51 Overmyer, Daniel L., 278n43, 300n10, 319n32 overseas Chinese (Huaqiao), 40 owl, the, 113–14, 189, 301n24, 308n41, 312n41 Pacification of the Demons (Pingyao zhuan), 21, 269n47 Palace of Long Life (Changsheng gong), 77 Palmer, Martin, 306n18 Pan Hu, 307n37 Pangu, 101–2

365

Panther Head Mountain (Baotou Shan), 108, 150, 289n3 passing sixteen years (guo shiliu) celebration, 196, 202–4, 210, 301n15, 302n35, 304n5 Pauwels, Simonne, 94 Pavilion of the Qilin Who Bears Children (Yulin gong), 29, 98 Pear Orchard troupe of Suzhou, 58, 277n37 pearls, 241, 290n8; and internal alchemy, 290n7; Liangnü’s pearl, 108–9, 110; and lightning, 103, 108–9, 110, 122; magic pearl of Chen Jinggu, 48, 103; “spider pearl” of Lin Jiuniang, 48, 103, 137, 151, 187, 274n17 People’s Republic of China, 163; Bureau of Religions, 36, 40; policies regarding cults, 23, 24, 36, 260; single child policy, 166 Perrot, Étienne, 61 Phoenix Hall of the Limitless Heaven (Wujitian Feng tang), 23 Pimpaneau, Jacques, 40, 161, 203, 214, 276n27, 303nn41,42, 309n13, 311n31 poison (du), 178, 306n23 Pojie, 93, 123–26, 130–41, 155, 230, 231, 285n13, 299n27, 308n40, 316n4, 317n16; association with Fuzhou, 123–24, 150, 295nn2,3; and Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, 130, 138, 139–40; and Chen Jinggu, 32, 57, 73, 92, 124, 125–26, 127, 129, 130–31, 132, 135–41, 138, 141, 181, 192, 277n38, 295n2, 316n1; and childhood, 39, 141, 183, 198–99, 202, 214, 216, 235, 304n5; and fate, 131, 181, 199, 214; and pregnancy, 138–41, 173; and White Snake, 49, 53, 73, 125–26, 130, 277n38, 295n5 polarization, 63, 220; during childhood, 121–22, 178, 207, 209–11, 212–14, 219, 294nn34,36,

366

Index

302n31, 306n22; during pregnancy, 178–79, 183, 192; and medicine, 178, 306n23; of yin and yang, 63, 213–14, 220, 294n34 Pomeranz, Kenneth, 153–54, 155–56, 301n23 power (ling), 49, 52, 59, 68, 75, 84, 101, 128, 187, 250, 251, 262, 275n23, 280n6, 312n33; as primordial soul (yuanqi), 175, 176, 184 pregnancy, 159, 263, 294n36, 306n26, 312n36; of Chen Jinggu, 4, 5, 10, 11, 14, 15, 54, 57, 69, 70, 73, 156, 179, 243, 244, 317n18; Chen Jinggu as protector of women and, 1, 4, 5, 11, 14, 29, 35, 42, 45, 53, 54, 65, 82, 91, 97– 98, 123, 129, 138–39, 143, 149, 156–57, 170, 171, 174, 179–80, 183, 197, 253, 260, 262, 309n6; miscarriage (liudong), 174, 190; perceptions during, 180; placenta, 141, 179–81, 189, 237, 307n26, 315n26; and Pojie, 138–41, 173; polarization during, 178–79, 183, 192; power to “distribute embryos” (fentai), 139–40, 171; risks of, 174–76; sex of embryos, 173–74, 184, 188, 305n13; and Song dynasty medicine, 167–68; and the Taishen, 176–77; and the TaisuiTaishen, 176–77, 278n48, 280n6; yin and yang in, 173–74, 178–79, 184, 306n26, 307n30 Prior Heaven Movement (xiantian dao), 278n43 Puan, 77 Pure and Perspicacious Tradition of the Three Ladies of Mount Lü (Jingming Lü Shan Sannai pai). See Mount Lü sect (Lü Shan pai) Pure Land Paradise of Amitabha, 103, 275n25 Qi Ke Yusheng, 164–65

Qi Liang, 164 Qi Longren, 35 Qilin San Sheren. See Liu Cong Qin Yueren, 290n12 Qing dynasty, 36, 40, 145–46, 154, 155, 169, 270n50, 271n58 Qing pingshan tang huaben, 302n33 Qingming/Festival of the Dead, 285n9 Qingwei (“Clarified Tenuity”), 19–20, 30, 133, 268n39, 269n40, 282n21 Qiu Chuji, 36 Qiu Dezai: Taiwan miaoshen zhuan, 31 Qixing Temple, 164–65, 303nn42,44 Quanzhen (Total Perfection) tradition, 36, 48, 247, 262, 274n15, 276n31, 278n43, 302n26 Quanzhen school, 106 Quanzhou fu zhi, 270n49 Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wangmu), 77, 190, 217–18, 244, 274n16, 275n25, 298n26; and Chen Jinggu, 17, 142, 188, 260, 268n33; and Great Sage Equal to Heaven, 108; as mistress of nature and female cycles, 213, 311n32; and Weaving-maid, 162, 163, 164 Rao Dongtian, 20 Ravine Demon (Zhangkeng Gui): appearance of, 99–100, 287n23; and Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, 31, 85, 100, 103, 104, 108, 148, 292n19; and Chen Jinfeng, 53, 124, 128, 129; and Chen Jinggu, 12, 14, 63–64, 78–80, 81–82, 88, 98–99, 101, 108–9, 125, 129, 148, 176, 181, 218, 267n27, 292n19, 314n17; and Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, 108–9, 114–15; and Madame Lin, 79, 80; and Lin Jiuniang, 89, 100, 102, 103, 104; punishment of, 88, 89, 100, 101, 104, 148; and Madame Yao, 98,

Index 104, 115, 176, 181; as yin, 108, 114, 115, 124, 128; and Yuan Guangzhi, 59 regression (ni), 46, 49, 53, 54, 250, 255; in Daoism, 2, 77, 116, 243, 262, 265n1 reincarnation, 141, 145, 149, 153, 174, 176, 219, 275n21, 280n3, 305n17; and Bridge of a Hundred Flowers, 139–40, 157, 158–59, 171, 197, 304n7; and Buddhism, 175 Ren Fang, Shuyi ji, 102 Renzong, Emperor, 270n49 “Research on the Culture of Chen Jinggu” (Chen Jinggu wenhua yanjiu), 23, 270n50 rhizome-like structure, 172–73, 305n10 Ritual Academy of Mount Lü (Da Fayuan), 41, 46 ritual meat, 194, 231, 309n10 ritual of “apologizing to the earth” (xietu), 200, 254, 319n35 ritual of “collecting the terror” (shoujing), 49, 121, 206–9, 250, 265n24, 275n24, 310n21, 319n35 ritual of “commanding the demon” (mingmo), 31 ritual of “correcting fate” (gaiyun), 33, 141, 166, 186, 205, 231–32, 252, 253, 254 ritual of “crossing the bridge” (guoqiao), 231–32, 235 ritual of “crossing the incense burner” (guolu), 252 ritual of “crossing the passes” (guoguan), 31, 42, 157, 211, 215, 217, 219, 227–33, 235–41, 309n2, 313n1, 315n32, 316n33; and Pojie, 138–39, 140, 141; as ritual of “opening the passes” (kaiguan), 159, 166, 173, 180, 208, 217, 284n4; role of Red Head Masters in, 32–33, 40–41, 222, 228, 229–30, 232–33, 235, 236–38,

367

239, 240, 241; role of spirit mediums in, 222, 223, 226, 231–32, 238–40, 252, 254, 313n5 ritual of “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua), 31, 42, 99, 157, 166, 173, 183–86, 193, 201, 227–35, 262, 308n50, 309n2, 317n11; and Huagong/Huapo, 96, 184–86, 231, 234; and Pojie, 138–39; role of Red Head Masters in, 32–33, 171, 174, 176, 184, 185, 186, 222, 228, 229–33, 234–35, 245; role of spirit mediums in, 176, 184, 222, 223, 226, 231–32, 235, 245, 252, 254, 313n5 ritual of “expelling poison” (qidu), 49, 275n24 ritual of “thanks for the favor bestowed” (xieen), 93, 286n15 ritual of the Lake of Blood and the region of the waters, 35 ritual paper money, 76, 121, 175, 179–80, 186, 190, 194, 195, 202, 227, 228, 230, 233, 281n19, 295n37, 305n15, 308n49 rituals of healing, 1, 29, 30, 167–68, 169, 170 River Earl (Hebo), 145 Robinet, Isabelle, 17, 245, 273n12, 278n43, 281n15, 282n20, 298n26 Rock Cavern (Yan), 112 Rock Lightning Strike (Shizhen), 112 Rock-Press Women (Shijia Furen), 29, 49, 68, 90, 148, 276n30, 299n29, 305n17, 316n1; and Chen Jinggu, 12, 38–39, 53, 134, 136, 181, 290n12, 301n13, 318n24; exorcised by Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage, 63, 111–13; and lightning, 53, 112, 113–14, 116, 283n36; as protectors of women and children, 63, 283n36; as Stone Vaginas, 112–13 Romance of the Demon Slayer Zhong Kui (Zhong Kui zhuogui zhuan), 21, 23–25, 269n47

368

Index

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sangguozhi yanyi), 40, 271n63 Rooster’s flight guan (Jifei guan), 218–19, 312n40 Ruan Baoyu, 41 Samantabhadra, 288n35, 302n29 Sanguozhi yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), 40, 271n63 Sangren, Steven P., 280n6, 302n30, 306n20 Sanjiao wenxian, 301n21 Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan/ Sanjiao yuanliu shengdi foshuai soushen ji, 8–10, 188, 218, 266n12 Sannai jing, 15 Sanyi jiao sect, 298n27 Saso, Michael, 17, 18, 61, 132, 133, 135, 181, 223, 266n18, 267n24, 268nn35,36, 273n12, 280n10, 281n10, 282n21, 287n27, 298n25, 299nn33,34 Saussure, Léopold de, 289n5, 311n30 Schafer, Edward H., 26, 58, 266n5, 267n23, 271n55 Schipper, Kristofer M., 2–3, 17, 21, 63, 133, 140, 151, 153, 206, 220, 223, 227, 228, 265nn1,2, 266nn3,4, 267n24, 271nn59,62, 273nn8,10,11, 274n17, 276n26, 278nn46,47, 279nn51,2,3, 280n7, 281nn9,11, 282nn20,28, 284n41, 285n11, 286n22, 288n31, 290n8, 292n19, 298nn25,26, 301nn14,17,21, 307n28, 311nn32,33, 316n37, 317n16 Schneider, Monique, 233, 234, 245, 310n20, 316n2, 317n13 School of the North, 289n6 School of the South, 109–10, 289n6 Seaman, Gary, 45, 70, 272n1, 275n21, 283n33 Seidel, Anna, 281n9 self, development of, 2, 3, 54, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75 sexual categories, 43–64, 81–84;

eyes, 46, 62, 91; the feminine, 1–3, 25, 29–30, 33–34, 42, 43–45, 46–54, 55–57, 58, 59, 60–61, 66, 68–69, 75, 84, 91, 92, 96–97, 116–18, 124–27, 129, 135, 138, 141, 155–56, 159–60, 173–74, 187, 187–88, 192–93, 245, 256–57, 261–62, 265n1, 266n3, 274nn17,18, 275nn21,22,26, 278nn43,45, 280n8, 281n14, 283n39, 285n8, 286n20, 288n34, 303n37, 305nn10,11, 306n26, 308n44; the masculine, 42, 45, 50, 55–61, 124, 135, 138, 141, 193– 94, 247, 257, 266n3, 274nn17,18, 280n8, 281n14, 286n20, 303n37, 305n10, 306n26, 308n44, 310n23, 318n20; and spirit mediums, 242, 243, 256–57, 262 sexuality, 101, 143, 163, 275n26, 302n30; and Buddhism, 68; of Chen Jinggu, 47–48, 51–52, 91; and Daoism, 50, 68–69, 187; orgasm, 187–88; relationship to procreation, 176, 187, 188, 191, 286n20, 305n16, 307n36; and Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun), 156, 158, 183; and yin-yang, 167, 188. See also sexual categories Shahar, Meir, 267n29 shamanism, 15–17, 35, 268n30; and Chen Jinggu, 4, 5, 14, 17, 28, 29, 38–39, 45, 46, 49, 51, 54, 68, 70, 73, 75, 80, 84, 125–26, 128–29, 130, 134, 139, 147, 169, 170, 183, 190, 211, 253, 259, 262, 279n2, 281n13, 282n28; shamanic journey in minor rites, 211, 227, 229–33, 310n25; and the snake, 313n7 Shancai (Sudhana), 12, 119 Shandong, 154–55, 271n59 Shang dynasty, 73 Shangqing tradition, 223, 269n41, 277n35, 313n8; and Wei Huacun,

Index 59, 273n12, 280n4, 299n32. See also Mount Mao (Mao Shan) ritual tradition Shanhai jing, 287n23, 313n7 shark-toothed sword (paijian), 248, 252 Shaughnessy, Edward L., 61 She people, 42, 150 Shen (Madame Drowning), 30–31, 110, 208, 220 Shengtao, 247 Shenxiao (the Divine Empyrean), 18– 19, 30, 222, 260, 266n7, 268n37, 270n53, 277n35, 282n21, 290n7, 316n36 Shi Hongbao, 300n2; Min zaji, 10– 12, 23, 24, 270n49 Shi Naian, 269n47; Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), 132, 298n24 Shiji, 303n40 Shijing: “Xiaoyuan,” 277n37 Shitao: Hua Yulu, 273n8 Shi Xihui, Master, 33, 35, 40, 215, 261, 307n34, 308n47, 310nn14,16, 312nn35,42, 314n19; on Celestial Dog, 188; on the Deep Water guan, 219; on enumeration of divinities, 229–30; on guan of the general’s arrow, 216–17; on headdress of Red Head Masters, 227; on memory in spirit mediums, 319n36; on the Pojie, 198; on the root of the Flower, 192; song of the Flowers of, 233; on the White Tiger curse, 188, 189, 191 Shun, Emperor, 15 Sichuan: Dazu cave sculptures in, 302n29; Mount Fengdu, 89, 285n6, 301n20; Mount Heming, 20 Snake constellation, 8, 9, 27, 188, 218, 259, 297n17, 312n39 Snake King (Shewang), 283n38 Snake Prince, 297n20, 300n11, 308n48

369

Song dynasty, 18, 20, 146–47, 153, 163, 222–23, 270nn49,50, 299n32, 300n10, 301nn18,19; canonization of Chen Jinggu during, 3–4, 5–6, 11, 64, 65, 82, 83–84, 85, 92–93, 129, 143, 222; medicine during, 167–68, 176, 180–81, 184, 260, 303n1; NeoConfucianism during, 168, 169 Song Yu: “Gaotang fu,” 126–27, 296n12 soul, primordial (yuanqi), 175, 176, 184 souls of skeletons (pogui), 115, 292n21 souls, wandering, 115, 207, 208–9, 292n21 Soushen ji, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 129–30, 289n37 South Terrace (Nantai), 80 Sovereign of the Azure Clouds (Bixia Yuanjun): and Daoism, 302n26; as daughter of the Eastern Peak (Tai Shan Niangniang), 114, 153–54, 158, 288n31, 292n16, 301nn23,24, 304n3; as Jade Maiden (Yunü), 153; as Lady of the Light of the Eyes (Yanguang Niangniang), 155, 301n28; and Nine Ladies (Jiuniang), 155; as protector of children, 154–55, 156–57; as protector of women, 155–56, 158; and reincarnation, 171; relationship to Chen Jinggu, 17, 28, 34, 114, 143, 148, 153, 154–58, 169, 170, 171, 183, 260, 288n31, 291n16, 298n22, 300n2, 304n3; and suicide, 156; temples of, 30, 34, 154, 155, 170; and women’s sexuality, 156, 158, 183; and Yellow Emperor, 303n38 Soymié, Michel, 285n9, 286n18 Spider Demon of Shuikou, 48, 49, 102–3, 151, 274n17 Spirit Bird, 113–14 spirit horn (shenjiao), 224, 235

370

Index

spirit mediums, 36, 91, 177, 183, 186, 191, 193, 199, 206, 208, 220–21, 271n60, 280n5, 287n29, 316n7, 319n29; and adoption, 210–11; and Daoism, 243, 248; as “divining children” (jitong), 243, 249, 250, 254, 255, 262, 263, 310n17; Flourishing Scabbard, 55, 58; language in trance, 246–47, 256; at Linshui Temple in Tainan, 170, 171, 245, 250–51, 255–56, 304n6, 313n5, 317n11, 318n26, 319nn27,30; relationship to Chen Jinggu, 1, 4, 29, 42, 53, 90, 178–79, 197, 242, 243, 244–45, 246–47, 248–49, 251–53, 255–57, 260, 261, 262, 310n20, 313n5, 315n27, 316nn34,1, 318nn25,26, 319nn27,30; relationships with other mediums, 255; role in ritual of “crossing the passes” (guoguan), 176, 222, 223, 226, 231–32, 238–40, 252, 254, 313n5; role in ritual of “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua), 184, 222, 223, 226, 231–32, 235, 245, 252, 254, 313n5; and sexual categories, 242, 243, 256–57, 262; trance of, 231, 244–45, 248, 249–50, 253–55, 317nn10,12, 318nn21,25, 319nn31,33,36; Yang Dongxiang, 41. See also Xie Fuzhu Stein, Rolf A., 76, 143, 245, 273n11, 278n48, 287nn23,24, 294n32, 300n7, 302n29 Stovickova, Dana and Milada, 163 Strickmann, Michel, 46, 76, 223, 267n19, 268n36, 273n12, 277n35, 278nn42,44, 280n4, 285n9, 293n25, 298n26, 299n34, 313n4 Su Huiying, 35 Su Juzheng, 266n5 submerged towns, 72, 73, 78, 82, 83, 113, 283nn31,34 substitute bodies (tishen), 133,

170, 177, 217, 231–32, 235–36, 319n35; for children, 140, 206, 215, 227–29, 231, 232, 233, 237– 38, 240, 241; in ritual of “cultivating the Flowers” (zaihua), 171, 184–86, 191, 192, 215, 227–28, 231, 233, 234, 235, 308n50 Su’e, 53 suicide, 156, 157, 158, 262 Sung Hui-tsung, 267n24 syncretism, 1, 3, 27, 45, 155, 158, 249, 261, 267n19, 269n41, 289n2, 317n9; of Mount Lü sect, 17, 19, 30, 31, 279n2; of Sanyi jiao Sect, 298n27 Taiji/Great Ultimate, 77, 100, 232– 33, 306n26 Taishang Laojun, 26 Taishang zhuguo jiumin zongzhen biyao (“Essentials on Assembling the Perfected of the Most High for the Relief of the State and Deliverance of the People”), 20 Taisui-Taishen, 160, 189, 191, 201, 205, 217, 306n19; and pregnancy/the womb, 176–77, 278n48, 280n6; relationship to earth spirits (tushen), 206, 306n20; relationship to Jupiter, 177, 303n35, 311n30; Taisui of the year/symbolic animals, 201, 206, 212, 213, 218, 229 Taiwan, 12–14, 26; Dashi, 30, 34; Gaoxiong, 30, 34–35, 188, 249–50, 255, 317n8; immgrants from Fujian, 271n57; television serial regarding Chen Jinggu, 22. See also Linshui Temple in Baihe; Linshui Temple in Tainan Taiyin, 53 Taizu, Emperor, 152, 164 talismans, 15, 18, 19, 20–21, 35, 41, 61, 76, 107, 130, 133, 181, 188, 217, 220–21, 223–24, 230, 231, 232, 235, 236–37, 248,

Index 250, 252, 255, 267n19, 268n30, 268n39, 269n44, 270n55, 279n2, 280n7, 281n17, 288n32, 299n33, 314n19, 318n22; of Chen Jinggu, 11, 12, 14, 30, 71, 73, 125–26, 130, 279n2; and Daoism, 77, 267n19; of Jade Emperor, 76, 77, 269n46, 315n24, 316n35; and lightning, 288n32; of Northern Dipper, 287n27, 314n9; in water, 51, 125, 208, 209, 210, 225, 238–39, 253 Tan Zixiao, 20, 269n42, 270n55 Tang dynasty, 17, 23, 61, 134, 163, 270n49, 277n37, 301nn18,19, 309n52; Huangchao Rebellion, 22; origin of cult of Chen Jinggu during, 3, 4–8, 9–14, 25, 167; withdrawing into the mountain during, 272n8 Tao Hongjing, 15, 293n25; Zhen’gao, 133 Tara, 282n22 Tarabout, Gilles, 97 Taylor, R., 300n10 Teiser, Stephen F., 292n17 Temple of Heaven, 33, 249, 254, 283, 319nn27,30 Temple of Lin Jiuniang in Feizhu, 42 Temple of Qitian Dasheng, 40 Temple of the Celestial Daughter Seventh Star (Tiannü Qixing miao), 34 Teng, Prince, 128, 134 Third Lady Li (Li San Furen), 10 Third Prince Nazha, 70, 280n6 Thompson, Laurence G., 319n32 Thousand-day guan (qianri guan), 219 Three in One (Sanyi jiao) ritual tradition, 27 Three Sage Mothers (Houtu San Shengmu), 302n29 Thunder rituals. See Five Thunders Tianfei niangma zhuan, 21, 284n42 Tiangang, 21

371

Tianpeng, Marshal, 132 Tianxin zhengfa tradition, 20–21, 28, 30, 131–32, 138, 176, 187–88, 190, 241, 260, 269nn41–44, 271n55, 273n12, 282n21, 314n8, 315n20; and Tan Zixiao, 20, 269n42, 270n55 time before birth/creation (xiantian), 60, 175, 177, 182 Topley, Marjorie, 29, 49, 210, 275n20, 278n43, 294n34, 306n23, 310n22, 311n27 trigrams. See eight trigrams Tripitaka, 105, 292n17 True Warrior (Zhenwu). See High God of the Dark Heaven Tushan, 72 Van Gennep, Arnold, 211 Van Gulik, Robert, 163 Verdier, Yvonne, 66 Vernant, Jean-Pierre, 276n29, 288n34 Verrier, Elwin, 113 Waley, Arthur, 265n1 Waltner, Ann, 305n9 Wang Chi’u-kuei, 311n31 Wang, general, 14, 39, 72, 134, 135 Wang, Hsiu-Huei, 301n17 Wang Jipeng, 25, 26 Wang Shuming, 35 Wang Xiaoer: and Guanyin, 44, 45, 55, 66, 130, 272n3, 304n7; as Liu Qi, 45, 50–52, 108, 275n22, 304n7 Wang Yanjun, Emperor, 25, 26, 270n54 Wang Yingshan, 289n3, 291n12 Wang Zhi, 278n43 Wang Zihua, 133 Wangzi Qiao, 286n18 Warring States period, 145, 290n12, 291n14 Wash Basin guan (yupen guan), 219 Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), 21

372

Index

Watson, James, 266n10, 284n42 Weaving-maid, 303n40, 304n3, 309nn4,13; and childhood, 198, 203, 204, 309n4; and the Cowherd, 159–65, 183, 203, 302n34, 307n33; as Lady Seventh Star, 34, 159–65, 201, 203, 309n13; and seventh day of the seventh month, 160–61, 162–65, 171, 203, 292n17, 303n37, 304n3; temples of, 170, 201, 203, 303n35 Wei Chao, 204 Wei Fan, 307n28 Wei Huacun, 59, 273n12, 280n4, 299n32 Weituo, 119, 294n31 Well of the Seven Springs, 125 White Cloud Monastery, 36–37 White Cloud Temple, 16 White Snake, 36, 57, 247, 276n29, 283n34, 297n17; blood of, 125, 126, 147; and Chen Jinfeng, 49, 53, 124–25, 127–28, 129; and Chen Jinggu, 5, 11, 12, 14, 18, 27, 32, 38, 43, 49, 53, 54, 58, 63–64, 66, 72, 73, 78–80, 81–82, 83, 84, 89, 92, 100, 101, 125–26, 127, 129, 131, 147, 150, 156, 176, 183, 187, 188, 218, 262, 267n27, 280n6, 282n27, 289n37; and curses, 187–88; as demon of transformations (huasheng yao), 50, 53, 54, 56, 58, 100, 101, 127, 183, 187; and Flourishing Scabbard, 58; as Great Queen, 295n4; and Guanyin, 27, 43, 50, 51, 55, 66, 84, 101, 117, 272n3, 276n27; and Liu Qi, 56, 58, 73, 129, 183, 187; and Pojie, 39, 49, 53, 73, 125–26, 130, 277n38, 295n5 White Tiger (demon), 189–91, 218, 308nn44,46 White Tiger guan (Baihu guan), 205, 217–18 White Tiger under the Flowers (Xiahua Baihu), 189–91, 218

Wieger, Léon, 273n13, 296n6 Wilhelm, Richard, 61 Wolf, Arthur P., 203, 276n33, 305n12, 310n24 Wolf, Margery, 210, 294n34, 310n24 Woman Jinxiu, 131 womb, the, 29, 46, 49, 62, 63, 73, 76–77, 81, 82, 102, 104, 151, 176, 177, 178, 180, 241, 278n48, 283n39, 306n21, 314n9; and diagram of eight trigrams, 77, 151; and mountains, 46, 49, 62, 82, 262, 273n8; and Taisui-Taishen, 176–77, 278n48, 280n6; womb mandala, 30, 75, 76, 102, 104, 180, 188 Wu Cheng’en, 105, 108, 111, 113, 120, 287n23, 289n3, 290nn10,11, 292n17, 294n33, 300n3 Wu, Emperor, 301n19 Wu Naiyu, 15, 281n18, 314nn12,17 Wu Renchen, 266n5 Wu Songpo, 35 Wu Zitian, 301n19 Wu-chen p’ien, 106 Wuxian lingguan, 287n23 Xiang Shan, 148 Xiantian Dao sect, 283n38 Xie Fuyun, 35 Xie Fuzhu, 33–34, 35, 242, 242– 57, 260, 313n5, 316nn34,6, 317nn11,16,18,20, 318nn25,26, 319nn30,31,33,36 Xie Jinluan: Taiwan xian zhi, 11 Xie Jinzhu, 35 Xie Qiquan, 284n2, 291n12 Xin wudai shi, 267n23, 270n51 Xiyou ji, 259, 289nn2,3, 290n10, 294nn30,31 Xu Gongsheng, 41 Xu Hui, 293n25 Xu Jia, 80, 130, 220, 260 Xu Lihua, 34, 310n14 Xu Mi, 283n25 Xu Shen, 275n23

Index Xu Sun (Perfected Lord Xu): Chen Jinggu taught by, 12, 14, 16, 17–18, 28, 50, 66, 70, 71–72, 73, 75, 90, 93, 95, 97, 129, 147, 182, 243, 244; as exorcist, 18; female ducks sent by, 14, 57, 63, 82, 83, 93, 218, 283n37; and filial piety, 17, 57, 70, 89, 129, 267n24; and Thunder ritual arts, 14, 18, 267n24 Xu Xiaowang, 42, 164, 266n10, 270n50, 297n17, 303n44, 309n13 Xu Zhenjun, 267n24 Xu Zhonglin, 280n6, 306n20 Xuanmiao Yunü, 64, 72, 265n1, 281n9 Xuantian Shangdi. See High God of the Dark Heaven (Xuantian Shangdi) Xuanzong, Emperor, 61, 107, 270n49, 277n37, 301n18 Xue Feng, 291n12 Yan Liang, 274n15 yang. See yin and yang Yang Chun, 98 Yang Dongxiang, 41 Yang, general, 39, 72, 82, 134, 135 Yang Shichang, 110–11, 148, 287n23 Yang Xi, 59, 223, 293n25 yangsheng, 28, 50, 175–76, 186–87, 265n1, 282n26. See also embryo of immortality Yanluo Wang, 154 Yanluo (Yama), 146 Yanping prefecture: Wenping district, 131 Yao, Madame, 30, 98, 104, 115, 176, 181 Ye Dehui, 266n12, 280n6 Ye Meihua, 35 Ye Mingsheng, 15, 150, 188, 281n18, 287n23, 312n39, 314nn12,17 Ye Zhongming, 27, 270n49 Yellow River Chart (He tu), 61, 270n49

373

Yellow Springs, 145 Yi Yin, 73, 291n13 Yi jing. See Book of Changes yin and yang: as Bai Laoye and Hei Laoye, 146; Chen Jinggu and yin, 66, 81, 138; Cinnabar Cloud Great Sage as yang, 62–63, 108, 109–10, 110–11, 115, 121–22, 138, 220, 289n6; cinnabar (lead oxide) as yang, 279n50; and conception, 173, 188, 292n24; cults as yin, 156; in Daoism, 19, 53, 54, 75, 77; and development of self, 245; ding periods as yin, 298n26, 312n33; and discerning contemplation, 116; the earth as yin, 114, 190; the east as yang, 152; and eight trigrams, 277n40, 307n26, 310n23; embryo/children as yang, 80, 173, 176, 178, 209, 247; and fate, 205; and god of the Eastern Peak, 153–54; harmony/union of, 163, 164, 194, 200; heat as yang, 209, 218; heaven as yang, 114; in internal alchemy, 111, 115, 116, 290n6; jia periods as yang, 298n26, 312n33; and lightning, 112, 288n32; moon as yin, 75, 116, 287n22; mother as yin, 178, 209, 307n30; polarization of, 63, 213–14, 220, 294n34; in pregnancy, 173–74, 178–79, 184, 306n26, 307n30; Ravine Demon as yin, 108, 114, 115, 124, 128; and sexuality, 167, 188; sun as yang, 116, 287n22; Supreme Yang, 117, 190, 281n14; Supreme Yin, 117, 190; and the Taiji, 100, 307n26 Yinfu jing, 274n15 Yingzong, Emperor, 23 Yü, Chun-Fang, 272nn2,4,7, 274n18, 275n21, 277n36, 278n43, 279n3, 280n6, 283n38, 285n9, 288n35, 296n6, 300n3, 303n36 Yu, Master, 188 Yu Xiangdou, 272n1

374

Index

Yu Xuanji, 274n16 Yuan Guangzhi, 63, 103, 129, 134–38, 147, 164; and Dream Remnant, 59, 60, 134–35, 136, 137, 138; and Mount Mao (Mao Shan) ritual tradition, 30, 46, 59– 60, 134–35, 138, 187, 308n40, 314n13 Yuan Ke, 303n40 Yuan Miaozong, 20 Yuan dynasty, 118–19, 153, 266n6 yuanshen, 229, 314n16, 316n3 Yuanshi Tianzun, 26 yuejian method, 133 Yulin shunyi du tuochan ruo zhenjing, 15, 308n42 Zaihua keyi, 315n28 Zhang Boduan, 60, 277n41 Zhang Daoling, 17, 20 Zhang Qin, 147 Zhang Taoyuan, 274n15 Zhang Yining, 266n6; memorial about Chen Jinggu, 3, 6–8, 23, 24, 25, 36, 259 Zhang Yongzheng, 277n41 Zhao Daoyi, 270n55 Zhejiang, 6, 14, 150, 266n7; Wenzhou, 18

Zheng Chenggong, 271n57 Zheng Shengchang, 45 Zheng Zhenman, 249, 300n10, 310n17 Zhen’gao, 293n25 Zhengyi ritual line, 30, 55, 260, 268n35, 269nn41,42; Celestial Masters of the, 2–3, 17, 33, 57–59, 68, 222, 267n23, 278n47, 279n3; and women, 2–3, 68, 279n3. See also Chen Shouyuan Zhengyi tradition, 130, 223 Zhenwu, 21, 272n5 Zhenzong, Emperor, 153, 301n18 Zhinü xing, 309n13 Zhou dynasty, 152 Zhu Weigan, 266n5 Zhuang Kongshao, 23, 268n35, 295n3 Zhuangzi, 46, 265n1, 273n13, 277n39 Zhusheng Niangniang, 29, 32, 298n22 Zigu, the Purple Lady, 304n4 Zito, Angela, 300n10 Zu Shu, 269n41 Zu Yuanjun/Zu Shu, 19–21 Zürcher, Eric, 19