Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China 9781503622098

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Transcendence & Divine Passion The Queen 1\llother of the West in Medieval China

Transcendence & Divine Passion The Queen Mother of the West

in Medieval China

Suzanne E. Cahill

Stanford University Press Stanford, California

Stanford University Press Stanford, California © 1993 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University Printed in the United States of America CIP data appear at the end of the book

Published with the assistance of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Original printing r99 3 Last figure below indicates year of this printing: 04

03

02

OI

To Edward H. Schafer I9I3-I99I

Acknowledgments

My thanks are due to many teachers, colleagues, and friends who have given me guidance and encouragement. I owe a debt of gratitude to those who introduced me to Chinese poetic texts: Peter Boodberg, Cheng Ch'ing-mao, and Edward Schafer. The research for this book began with my doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley, directed by Edward Schafer, Chang Kun, and Frederic Wakeman, all of whom made valuable suggestions. During two years at Peking University, I had lively discussions with Professor Ch'en 1-hsin and others concerning interpretations of T'ang poetry and Taoist texts. In addition, several people have read and criticized various parts and versions of this manuscript or helped with specific problems, including Steve Bokencamp, Ch'en Kuo-fu, Chang Ming-fei, David Noel Freedman, Barbara Kandel Hendrischke, Thomas A. Hessling, David Keightley, Ko Shao-yin, Paul Kroll, Daniel Overmyer, Anna Seidel, Christena Turner, Victoria Vernon, Wang Shih-lun, and Angela Zito. Audrey Spiro and Ann Waltner read numerous recensions and patiently contributed their wisdom. I have benefited from the advice of all these scholars; the mistakes that remain are my own. I am grateful to the Committee for Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China for grants that enabled me to study in Peking from 1980 to ry82 and to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Freer Gallery of Art (1982-83), where I did the research on the Queen Mother of the West in early Chinese art. A postdoctoral teaching .

vm

Acknowledgments

fellowship from the Mellon Foundation allowed me to spend a year at Emory University (1983-84) revising my manuscript and exploring women's studies; a further postdoctoral appointment at the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (1984-86), gave me access to many colleagues as well as the East Asian Library and its fine staff. I also express my gratitude to Muriel Bell, senior editor at Stanford University Press, for her perceptive handling of both author and manuscript. As always, I thank my husband, friends, and family for their support and encouragement. An earlier form of Chapter 6 appeared in the journal ofthe American Oriental Society ( r 986). A few poems and other texts translated in Chapters r, 3, and 4 were published in short essays in the Journal of Chinese Religions (1984, 1985-86, and 1988) and T'ang Studies (r986, 1987). S.E.C.

Contents

Figures x Preface xi Note on Citation and Abbreviations Chronologies

xm

xv

Introduction The Most Honored One

I I

2

The Primordial Ruler, Metal Mother

3

Singing of White Clouds Beside the Turquoise Pond: Encounters with Legendary Rulers and Sages I08

4

Eating the Peaches

5

Coming to Her Court to Receive the Way: Men of the Tang

6

Her Dependents: Women Conclusion

~{Immortality:

~{the

243

REFERENCE MATTER

Notes 247 Bibliography 263 Chinese Character List Index 287

28 I

66

Emperors and Immortals

Tang

213

143 190

Figures

I. 2.

3. 4·

s. 6. 7. 8.

Sheng Line drawing of ceiling painting from the tomb of Po Ch'iench'iu at Lo yang Painted lacquer bowl hom Lo lang (Korea) Rubbing from stone reliefs at Wu Liang shrine Rubbings from reliefs at I nan Rubbing of pottery tile from Szechwan Rubbing of stone pillar from Shantung Han bronze mirror Figures follow p. 24

Preface

This book is about love, death, and immortality. It examines the greatest goddess of medieval Taoism, the Queen Mother of the West (Hsi Wang Mu), through the eyes of medieval Chinese people. My main sources are a religious biography of the goddess written by the Taoist master Tu Kuang-t'ing (850-933), and the works of numerous poets of the T'ang dynasty (61 8-907). Both Taoism, the native higher religion of China, and poetry flourished during this era. The main body of this book interweaves information from Tu's account with T'ang poems to reveal what T'ang people thought about the Queen Mother's identity and about her acts among humans. My own interest in this subject arises from a fascination with Taoist religion, T'ang poetry, and women. The Queen Mother of the West joins all three. Medieval Taoists considered her the embodiment of the ultimate yin, the dark female force. Taoist texts claim that, along with the other high deities, she created the world and continues to maintain cosmic harmony. Her followers associated the Queen Mother of the West with transcendence and divine passion. Transcendence implies overcoming human limitations such as mortality and ignorance. Divine passion suggests the communication between humans and deities that was one means to achieve transcendence. Divine passion mirrors the bliss of the immortals in the human metaphor of sexual love. The Queen Mother of the West governed both immortality and the means through which it might be achieved. Her image in T'ang Taoist texts and poetry embodies

xu

Preface

universal human concerns of love and death at a specific time and place. I am not the first person to study Chinese goddesses. I am indebted to David Hawkes for his identification of the quest theme in early Chinese poetic texts and to Edward Schafer for his work in The Divine Woman on the treatment of other ancient Chinese goddesses in T'ang literature. Scholars before me have taken an interest in the Queen Mother of the West during the Han and Six Dynasties periods: I have made grateful use ofHomer Dubs's early article on a Han dynasty peasant cult devoted to that deity, of Kominami Ichiro's research linking her with the festival of Double Seven, and of Michael Loewe's careful survey of the early sources in his Ways to Paradise. I have also benefited profoundly from work done by others in Taoist studies, most notably Ch'en Kuo-fu, Isabelle Robinet, Edward Schafer, Kristopher Schipper, Anna Seidel, and Michel Strickmann. The research of Joseph Needham and Nathan Sivin in Chinese alchemy has also helped me. Some fine related work reached publication too late to assist in my own research, but welcome all the same, including Wu Hung's book on the Wu Liang shrine of the Han and Franciscus Verellen's study of the life and works ofTu Kuang-t'ing. The special contributions of the present study are its focus on a single great goddess, the Queen Mother of the West, during the period when her Taoist cult and literary image were most fully developed, the T'ang dynasty, as well as the questions it raises about that goddess and the society that revered her. What kind of a goddess was she, and how does she compare with other deities in China and elsewhere? What does her worship tell us about religion and the state, about religion and the lives of men and women, courtiers and peasants, during T'ang China? What can we say after studying her about the relation ofTaoism and T'ang poetry? My goal has been to present an integrated picture of the goddess, as portrayed in both religious and literary texts, in her social and historical context. I also hope to bring rarely studied texts and beliefs into the light they deserve.

Note on Citation and Abbreviations

Unless otherwise noted, T'ang poems are cited by page number in the edition of the Ch'iian T'ang shih published by the Fu hsing Bookstore (Taipei, 1967). Texts in the Taoist canon (Tao tsang) are cited by their serial number in Weng Tu-chien, Tao tsang tzu mu yin te, Harvard-Yenching Sinological Index Series 25 (Peking, 1935). Volume numbers are followed by a colon; chiian numbers by a period. Except as noted, all translations are my own. The following abbreviations are used throughout the book; see the Bibliography, pp. 263-80, for complete references. ch. CMYC CTS FSTI HHS HNT HS HWTNC HY MTTC PWC

sc

SHC

chiian Tu Kuang-t'ing, Chin mu yuan chiin (The primordial ruler, metal mother), in YCCHL, 24158-64 Ch'iian T'ang shill Ying Shao, Feng su t'ung i Fan Yeh et al., Hou Han shu Huai nan-tzu hung lieh chi chieh Pan Ku et al., Han shu Han Wu-ti nei chuan Wcng Tu-chien, Tao tsang tzu mu yin te Mu T'ien-tzu chuan Chang Hua, Po wu chih Ssu-ma Ch'ien, Shih chi Shan hai ching chiao chu

xrv

Abbreviations

TSCC TSYT

WH WSPY

YCCHL

T'u shu chi ch'eng Tu Fu, Tu shih yin te Hsiao T'ung, Wen hsiian Wu shang pi yao Tu Kuang-t'ing, Yung ch'eng chi hsien lu

Chronologies

Major Chinese Dynasties and Periods Hsia Shang Chou Western Chou Eastern Chou Spring and Autumn Warring States Ch'in Han Former Han Hsin Latter Han Three Kingdoms Wei Shu Wu Six Dynasties (Wu, Eastern Chin, Liu Sung, Southern Ch'i, Southern Liang, and Southern Ch' en) Chin Western Chin Eastern Chin

ca. 2100-ca. r6oo B.C. ca. r6oo-ca. 1028 B.c. ca. 1027-256 B.c. ca. 1027-771 B.c. ca. 770-256 B.c. 722-468 B.C. 403-22 I B. C. 221-207 B.C. 206 B.C.-A.D. 220 206 B.C.-A.D. 8 A.D. 9-25 A.D. 25-220 220-265 220-265 221-263 222-280

222-589 265-420 265-317 317-420

XVI

Chronologies

Southern Dynasties Former (Liu) Sung Southern Ch'i Southern Liang Southern Ch'en Northern Dynasties Northern Wei Eastern Wei Western Wei Northern Ch'i Northern Chou Sui T'ang Chou Five Dynasties Liao Sung Northern Sung Southern Sung Chin (Jurchen) Yuan Ming Ch'ing

420-589 420-479 479-502 502-557 557-589 386-581 386-534 534-550 535-577 550-577 557-581 581-618 6r8-907 690-705 907-60 9I6-II25 960-1279 960-1126 1127-1279 1115-1234 1260-1368 1368-1644 1644-1911

T'ang Dynasty Emperors and Reign Periods

Emperors Posthumous title

Personal name

Accession date

Kao tsu T'ai tsung Kao tsung Chung tsung Jui tsung Tse-t'ien huang hou Chung tsung Shao ti

Li Yuan Li Shih-min Li Chih Li Hsien Li Tan Wu Chao Li Hsien Li Ch'ung-mao

18Junc618 4 Sept. 626 15 July 649 3 Jan. 684 27 Feb. 684 r6 Oct. 690 23 Feb. 705 5 July 710

Chronologies Posthumous title

Personal name

Accession date

Jui tsung Hsiian tsung Su tsung Tai tsung Te tsung Shun tsung Hsien tsung Mu tsung Ching tsung Wen tsung Wu tsung Hsiian tsung I tsung Hsi tsung Chao tsung Ai ti

Li Tan Li Lung-chi Li Heng Li Yi.i Li Kua LiSung Li Ch'un Li Heng Li Chan LiAng Li Yen Li Ch'en Li Ts'ui Li Hsiian Li Yeh Li Chu

25 July 710 8 Sept. 712 12 Aug. 756 18 May 762 12 June 779 28 Feb. 8os 5 Sept. 8os 20 Feb. 820 29 Feb. 824 13 Jan. 827 20 Feb. 840 25 Apr. 846 13 Sept. 859 15 Aug. 873 22 Apr. 888 26 Sept. 904

Reign name

Translation

Inaugural date

Wu te Chen kuan Yung hui Hsien ch'ing Lungshuo Lin te Ch'ien feng Tsung chang Hsicn heng Shang yuan I feng T'iao lu Yung lung K'ai yao Yung ch'un Hung tao Ssu sheng

Martial Virtue Honorable Outlook Eternal Beauty Manifest Felicitation Dragon Conjunction Unicorn Virtue Supernal feng (Sacrifice) Consolidating Design Total Efficacy Supreme Prime Exemplary Phoenix Harmonious Dew Eternal Ascendancy Opened Coruscation Eternal Purity Accrescent Tao lieritor Sage

18June618 23 Jan. 627 7 Feb. 650 7 Feb. 656 4 Apr. 66r 2 Feb. 664 14 Feb. 666 22 Apr. 668 27 Mar. 670 20 Sept. 674 18 Dec. 676 I 5 July 679 22 Sept. 68o 15 Nov. 681 2 Apr. 682 27 Dec. 683 23 Jan. 684

Reign Periods

xvn

XVlll

Chronologies

Reign name

Translation

Inaugural date

Wen ming Kuang chai Ch'ui kung

Cultured Illumination Radiant Residence Hanging (Robes) and Folded (Hands) Eternal Glory Beginning of the Era Heaven Given As You Wish Prolonged Longevity Extended Era Proven Sage A Myriad Years on Heaven's Tablatures A Myriad Years' Ascent for the feng (Sacrifice) A Myriad Years' Communication with Heaven Divine Exploit Sage Calendar Enduring Vision Great Footstep Prolonged Stability Divine Dragon Spectacular Dragon T'ang Ascendant Spectacular Cloud Grand Culmination Extensive Accord Preceding Heaven Opened Prime Heavenly Treasure Ultimate Virtue Supernal Prime Supreme Prime Treasure Response

27 Feb. 684 I9 Oct. 684 9 Feb. 685

Yung ch'ang Ts'ai chu T'ien shou Ju i Ch'ang shou Yen tsai Cheng sheng T'ien tse wan sui Wan sui teng feng Wan sui t'ung tien

Shen kung Sheng li Chiu shih Ta tsu Ch'ang an Shen lung Ching lung T'ang lung Ching yun T'ai chi Yenho Hsien t'ien K'ai yuan T'ien pao Chih te Ch'ien yuan Shang yuan Pao ying

27 Feb. 689 IS Dec. 689 I6 Oct. 690 22 Apr. 692 23 Oct. 692 9June 694 23 Nov. 694 22 Oct. 695 20 Jan. 696 22 Apr. 696

29 Sept. 697 20 Dec. 697 27 May 700 IS Feb. 70I 26 Nov. 70I 30 Jan. 705 5 Oct. 707 5 July 7I0 I9 Aug. 7IO I Mar. 7I2 21 June 712 I2 Sept. 7I2 22 Dec. 713 ro Feb. 742 12 Aug. 756 r8 Mar. 758 7 June 760 I3 May 762

Chronologies Reign name

Translation

Ample Virtue Kuang te Eternal Majesty Yung t'ai Great Calendar Tali Established Center Chien chung Exalted Prime Hsing yuan Honorable Prime Chen yuan Eternal Probity Yung chen Primal Accord Yuan ho Ch'ang ch'ing Prolonged Felicitation Pre