Sacred Edict lecturers, who recited shanshu about loyalty, filial piety, and fidelity, often came to our village. Most shanshu were nothing but our own legends or tales. In form, the narratives were a combination of speech and song, very much like tanci, though not identical to them. . . . At a street corner they would set up a high platform made of three square tables, one placed atop the other two. On the platform, incense and candles were lit as offerings to the plaque of the Sacred Edict. A chair was placed on the right-hand table. If two people performed together, then a chair was placed on each of the side tables. When it came time for the Sacred Edict lecturer to preach, he, dressed in the cap and gown of an official, would kowtow deeply four times to the plaque. Then he would stand up again and, drawing out his voice, would recite the ten [sic] maxims of the Sacred Edict. After that, he would get back up on the platform and begin his performance. As for the style of delivery, he would recite from a text quite artlessly. The sung parts were sung with drawn-out tones, to which was added the sound of weeping at tragic moments. Some of the lecturers would accompany themselves with bells, “fish tubes,” bamboo clappers, and the like to help their tunes along. This artless kind of storytelling was a form of entertainment that people in the villages liked very much. They would stand before the Sacred Edict platform and listen for two or three hours. The better storytellers could make their audiences weep.
[Guo Moruo, Moruo wenji 6: 29–30; trans. adapted from Mair, “Language and Ideology,” pp. 354–355—DJ]
CHANTEFABLE
Didactic narratives using a combination of verse and prose (chantefable) originated, at the latest, in the Tang dynasty. Manuscripts from the late Tang and Five Dynasties (eighth to tenth centuries) containing prosimetric accounts of Mulian’s rescue of his mother and of the contest between Buddha’s disciple Śāriputra and the heretical wizard Raudrākṣa have been discovered in Dunhuang. For the next thousand years, chantefable never lost popularity, and it eventually gave rise to many of the most important genres of popular performing literature, such as cihua, guci, dagu, zidishu, tanci, and baojuan. It is baojuan with which we will be concerned in this section.
The term baojuan was used to refer to various kinds of texts, unfortunately. Some, which clearly grew out of performance, were long narratives of the struggles of pious men and women to convert their families or to attain salvation. Since we have already looked at a text with a very similar theme, the Woman Huang tanci, we will not consider this type further. There were other baojuan that were concerned more with ethical or theological instruction than with stories that illustrate them. The Stove God baojuan introduced below is an example of this type.
Yet other texts labeled baojuan expounded, often in the words of a god, theological or eschatological doctrines, especially those of the White Lotus system, but we will postpone consideration of this type of text, which is better called “scripture,” until the next section, where it properly belongs, since it was probably intended for reading or congregational recitation rather than performance.
THE PRECIOUS SCROLL [BAOJUAN] ON THE LORD OF THE STOVE
The cult of the stove was very ancient, and by late imperial times it had become nearly universal in China. Rare was the kitchen that did not have a small shrine to “Grandfather King of the Stove” (Zao wang ye), with a woodblock print of the god pasted on the wall and incense burning before it. Most people believed that the god left the kitchen to make a report to the Jade Emperor on the twenty-fourth (or twenty-third) of the twelfth lunar month and returned from Heaven on New Year’s Eve. There were ceremonies in the family both to send him off and to welcome him back. He functioned in theory as a divine spy in the bosom of the family, one who was particularly concerned with the behavior of the women. But people did not fear him, and the ceremonies appear to have been occasions of fun rather than religious devotion, at least in the last century or so.
A sterner version of the cult was contained in the Stove God baojuan and Stove God scriptures, of which there were many. The authors of both baojuan and scriptures wanted to popularize the idea that the god made a report to the heavenly authorities every month, and hence those texts stress the need for constant moral self-examination. They are concerned with controlling the behavior of the family’s women and strengthening the structure of authority, but at the same time, somewhat unexpectedly, many also strongly advocate basic Buddhist teachings, like those we have seen in Mulian or the Woman Huang tanci, and the perennial ethics of the Chinese village, such as those we encountered in Guo Ju Buries His Son.
The Baojuan on the Lord of the Stove is firmly in the chantefable tradition and may be quite close to actual performance. From internal evidence we know that it was chanted or recited by a single person, with occasional group responses (see the opening section and the repeated response “Praise to the Bodhisattva August One of the Wheel of Fire”). It appears to have been performed at home, with the family as the audience.
Our text is an undated manuscript in the Shanghai Library, written largely in vernacular verse of seven characters per line.
The text begins with a section in literary Chinese establishing the sanctity of the ritual arena within which it was to be performed.
The baojuan on the Lord of the Stove is now first unfolded,
All the bodhisattvas descend.
It is an auspicious time, the ecliptic today opens up:
Respectfully I urge you all to recite the name of the Buddha.
Through the hundred years [of a lifetime], thirty-six thousand days,
If you do not constantly eat vegetarian food you are foolish.
We bow our heads and submit, unfolding hearts of goodness
All the Buddhas are accordingly delighted, and all have the same name.
As I expound on the subtle and marvelous dharma of the sacred wise ones,
Friends with understanding will accept it and listen with all their hearts.
The great masses jointly reveal that their piety and sincerity have been cultivated to completion, and first present the offering of a vegetarian repast to respectfully invite the myriad of spirits from the Ten Quarters, Three Treasures, and Ocean of Benefit to come together to witness the covenant and create a Sacred Congregation to the Lord of the Stove. Your Disciple, on behalf of the ancestors, promulgates the “Precious Scroll on the Lord of the Stove.” . . . It is necessary to still the mind and listen to the promulgation, and cry out praise with one voice. The Three Karmas will be washed clean, and if one prays for good fortune, good fortune will naturally come, and if one performs exorcism to ward off disaster, disaster will be extinguished.
There follows a section in which the listeners are urged to honor their parents, ancestors, and the patriarch masters of the three teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. This ends with the exhortation “Let each of those present hail with one voice the fullness of the god’s piety and sincerity.” The next section recounts the origin myth of the Stove God.
The story says: Formerly, when Undifferentiated Chaos and the world had not yet been divided, there was a Buddha named Lamplighter. He was a proper ancient Buddha. Once he was on Spirit Vulture Peak explaining the dharma. Then Lord Lao [i.e., Laozi], leading the Perfected One of Miraculous Action, joined Lamplighter in discussing the hour for the Opening of the Prime. Suddenly they saw a shaft of red light rush up, piercing straight through Spirit Vulture Peak. At this time the three Buddhas hurriedly mounted a cloud and followed the red light to a mountain peak. This mountain was called Mount Kunlun. On its peak was a huge tree, its roots and leaves rich and luxuriant. In its branches was a large jujube. The jujube fell onto a great rock. Then a powerful light flashing in many colors came from the inside of the rock. Immediately the rock burst open and a person appeared. His/her name was Plucking the Source. The three of them stood still on the edge of the cloud, watching. Then a girl-child appeared from inside the jujube. Lamplighter hurried down off the cloud, embraced her, and bestowed a mark upon her. Lord Lao touched th
e rock, and suddenly a spring of the milk of the Celestial Transcendents flowed forth. . . . Gradually the girl grew to adulthood and became the Mother of Fire. She meditated on top of the rock, waiting for the world to be complete. . . . Sitting on the high mountain she cultivated the Way for a thousand years.
. . . Sitting upright on Kunlun the goddess refined her pneumas,
Waiting in anticipation of the completion of the world.
The entire body of the Old Mother was fire,
The rock beside her was fire in solid form.
Neither hungry nor sated,
She drank only from the springs of Heaven; the dew was not pure. . . .
When the red sun came up the sky grew light,
When the sun sank down again it was pitch dark.
When hunger came people ate only the herbs and leaves of the Transcendents,
When it was cold they could only cover themselves with skins.
People did not eat the Five Grains so they had no strength,
It was difficult for them to cultivate, plant, and be tillers of the land.
Though in the time of the Three August Ones they had nests,
What method did they have for getting the Source of Fire?
All in the world of the Ten Quarters were despondent and worried.
From the sky descended a Perfected One,
He ascended straight to the Upper Realm, summoned by the Jade Emperor.
He bowed down and presented his words to the Exalted One.
The Perfected One was the Perfected One of Miraculous Action. Holding his tablet in front of his breast, he memorialized: “The world below is completed, men and women are paired together. Although there are the Five Grains, there is no fire. They cannot eat raw food, thus I report to the throne.”
He goes on to recommend that the Old Mother be sent to bring fire to the world.
When the Jade Emperor received the memorial, he exclaimed, “Good! Good! Since there is a Divine Mother Who Seeds Fire, summon her here for me so that she may rescue mortal men.” Lord Lao memorialized again: “If you summon the Old Mother here, you must invest her with an official title and give her the authority to control troops. Otherwise I do not know whether she will be willing to save mortals.” The Jade Emperor approved the memorial. Then he told the Golden Lad and Jade Maiden to go to the peak of Mount Kunlun and make manifest the summons to the Mother of Fire.
. . .
The Jade Emperor transmitted his summons that she come at once.
The Golden Lad and Jade Maiden floated off on their cloud
To swiftly announce that the Old Mother was to go to the Courts of Heaven.
They hurried to the peak of Mount Kunlun;
They came before the Old Mother and said,
“The Saintly Orders have come from on high to summon you.”
When the Old Mother heard this she was delighted in her heart;
She gathered up her fiery rock and mounted the cloudy road.
In less than an instant she reached the Palace of Heaven,
And walked straight up into the Basilica of the Numinous Empyrean.
Three times she called “Ten Thousand Years!” and called herself “Vassal.”
The light of the fiery rock illuminated the entire Gate of Heaven. . . .
[The Old Mother said,] “If the Jade Emperor wants good fortune to redden the world,
I am willing to bestow fire on the mortals below.”
. . .
The Jade Emperor enfeoffed her as the Lord of the Stove,
To rescue mortal men with fire,
To inspect the affairs of the world of men,
To report good and evil to the Courts of Heaven.
Praise to the Bodhisattva August One of the Wheel of Fire!
The Old Mother then creates five subsidiary lords of fire, who are enfeoffed by the Jade Emperor as the Emperors of the Five Directions.
They investigate and inspect men, watch them do good and evil;
Every month on the twenty-fourth day they report to the Court of Heaven.
They write in two books the good and evil in the world;
Based on this, disasters and good fortune are sent down to men.
The text next names the things that must not be done in and around the stove. Since this list is very much shorter than in other Stove God baojuan, I include additional prohibitions from another Stove God text.
Lord Lao said, “All of the stoves in the homes of mortal man have prohibitions and taboos.” The Perfected One of Miraculous Action said . . . “I wish to hear the explanation of this.” Lord Lao said, “The stoves in the homes of mortal men may not be violated or offended against with chicken feathers, dog bones, human hair, knives and axes, unclean firewood and fuel, and other foul and filthy things. [It is forbidden to knock on the pots and stove, and throw about and destroy implements and vessels; to expose the body, sing, cry, or weep before the stove, or to come into the kitchen if one has recently given birth; to urinate or defecate, and beat or curse before the stove; to turn small children loose on the floor near the stove; to set up pigsties and privies close to the kitchen; to put one’s feet on the door of the stove, and wrap one’s feet in the kitchen; to dry dirty shoes and stockings and wet clothes in the stove; to leave things in the kitchen or on the stove overnight.]
“If these things are done, the God of the Stove will immediately provoke discord between men and women, entangle people in disease and ailments, cause dimness and darkness of the eyes, reversals of dreams and waking thoughts, barrenness of fields and silkworms, and wasting and exhaustion among the six domestic animals. He will allow strange demons to enter into the house fearlessly and at random, thieves and bandits to intrude and harass, quarrels and trouble from officials to arise, and the family patrimony to be scattered and lost. If one suffers from desperate difficulties, one should summon a true Buddhist monk who practices the precepts, or a Gentleman of the Way [Daoist priest], to set up a full Congregation of the Lord of the Stove. . . .” Let everyone piously and sincerely praise with one voice.
The text now describes the Stove God’s reports on people’s good and bad deeds.
First [the Stove God] made clear records in the Books of Virtue.
The virtuous practice filial piety and burn incense,
They maintain a vegetarian diet, keep the precepts, and chant the texts of the sūtras.
They carry out respectful rituals to the saints and wise men and follow the Three [Buddhist] Treasures.
They give vegetarian food to monks and nuns and those who seek something to eat,
They are filial to their parents-in-law and respect their parents.
They honor their relatives and older and younger uncles.
They make scriptures to distribute and install statues of the Buddha.
They support and maintain those in crisis and trouble, and aid the orphaned and poor.
They build bell towers and also temples.
They build bridges and lay roads for people to walk on.
In summer they give out tea and open up public wells,
In winter they give out padded jackets and light bright lamps.
Through all twelve periods of the day they practice great filial piety.
They are harmonious with their relatives and with all the people of the neighborhood and village.
The Lord of the Stove reported the virtuous people to the Celestial Departments. When the Jade Emperor looked at the records, his dragon face was delighted. “Excellent! Excellent!” he said. “That there are such good people in the realm below! Quickly send the Lads of the Record-Books.” At that time the Lord of the Stove and the Emperors of the Five Directions said, “Add to their good fortune and longevity, exempt them from disasters and calamities. . . .”
When the household is pure and clean the gods are delighted,
When the thought arises to do malevolent deeds the gods and ghosts are enraged.
The Stove God investigates the things that anger
them,
And makes clear notations in the Record-Books of Evil.
The wealthy bully the poor and harm the good.
Plot to swallow up fields and get more women to marry.
The poor steal firewood and pilfer rice,
Kidnap widows and unmarried girls for licentious purposes.
They rob traveling merchants of their wealth and property,
Steal chickens, drag away dogs, and kill living things.
Birds, fish, fowls, beasts, and sparrows that fly by,
Snails, loach, and eels: they seize them, cook them, and gulp them down.
Killing hosts of living things is constantly in their thoughts,
They cook filthy and polluted things on the stove.
Through all twelve periods of the day they practice evil deeds.
The Lord of the Stove recorded them all clearly,
In an instant he ascended to Heaven to report to the Jade Emperor;
When the Jade Emperor saw the records he was furious and enraged.
There follows a list of the diseases and afflictions sent down to punish sinners.
Both good and evil are caused by oneself alone; Heaven and Hell one must bear oneself.
Praise to the Bodhisattva August One of the Wheel of Fire!
Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 2 Page 20