by Livia Kohn
The rulers of this period each ruled for a generation, their likes and dislikes leading them each in different directions. This is the reason the shu of the nine lineages swarmed forth and were created at the same time. Each [lineage] drew on a different basis, promoting what they were good at and taking it on the road. With these they united the feudal lords. ( Hanshu 30.1746)13
Ban Gu’s understanding is that the Warring States period was a time when “methods” arose as expedient because the more complete dao had disappeared. Ban Gu uses the same metaphor of “methods” as the constituent parts of the dao—just as the variegated parts of the bureaucracy fit together to create a functioning state, so too were the different genres of writing seen to cumulatively amount to the dao of the ancients. This underlying metaphor provides insight into the reason why the specialized bureaucracy of the new empire developed the type of taxonomy that is seen in the writings of Sima Qian and Ban Gu.
The consecutive types of taxonomy outlined above are, of course, painted with a broad brush and, therefore, contain many generaliza-tions. However, they do demonstrate real differences in the motives behind the composition of the taxonomies used to talk about early China and suggest that, as a result, some of the categories used in different taxonomies may also be different in kind. If this is the case, then it is quite possible that categories of different taxonomies might overlap or that a particular taxonomy might not be comprehensive. This preliminary conclusion lays the groundwork for the consideration of a special subclass of sacred texts that emerge unnoticed among the categories of traditional taxonomies.
The Emergence of the Category of Revealed Text
Because the categories of the Han dynasty reflect various earlier institutional and interpretive categories filtered through a generic framework determined by Han organizational forms, they are clearly not a reliable guide to the sociology of Han thought. While the official Han taxonomies reflected the organization of the state, a telling alternative is reflected in the second-century b.c.e. Huainanzi (Writings of the Prince of Huainan):
The average modern person holds the ancient in high esteem, but looks askance at the new. Those who work out ways must attribute them to
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Shennong [Divine Farmer] and Huangdi [Yellow Emperor], and only then will they be admitted into the debate. . . . Today, if the writings of new sages were to be taken and labelled “Kongzi” [Confucius] or
“Mozi,” then there would certainly be many disciples who would motion with their fingers and accept them. (ch. 19; 242, 244) The two tiers of attribution the author complains about are worth noting. The first claims the pedigree of the ancient sage-emperors, while the second claims the pedigree of more recent sages. The types of writings that constituted the Warring States taxonomies, metonymically represented by Confucius and Mozi, are contrasted to writings on methods that are attributed to figures further in the past, like Shennong and Huangdi.
The affiliation of texts with mythical sage-rulers of antiquity such as Shennong and Huangdi became increasingly common during the Han. This practice may be seen as a version of the strategy of “inventing traditions” via the construction of fictive lineages designed to privilege a particular individual or text by providing it with a historical pedigree.14 As Eric Hobsbawm has shown for Britain, the creation of a venerable past that grounds present institutions in a false cloak of timelessness is something done by many social groups, past and present (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983, 101–164). Similarly, as the Huainanzi points out, in the case of the Han, a particular type of text was valorized by association with extraordinary beings.
Texts related to Shennong and Huangdi or their disciples constitute a significant percentage of some categories of Ban Gu’s bibliographic treatise. In particular, these texts constitute 14 percent of the
“military,” 6 percent of the “algorithms and techniques,” and 28 percent of the “recipes and arts” sections of the text (see Csikszentmihà-
lyi 1994, 145–155, 216–226, 256–266). As such, had Sima Qian decided to group methods by their putative originators, Huangdi and Shennong might have constituted a category unto themselves. But Sima Qian did not see the attribution of the text to an author as the germane criterion for describing it in a taxonomy. So instead of incorporating Huangdi into his generic taxonomy, Sima Qian grouped Huangdi with Laozi and labeled particular individuals as followers of Huang-Lao methods. This may have happened because Sima Qian was attempting to confer authority by implicitly comparing the methods associated with Huangdi and Laozi to texts associated with the Spring and Autumn figures Confucius and Mozi, traditionally grouped as Kong-Mo.
This comparison provides insight into Sima Qian’s conceptualiza-
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tion of the Huang-Lao tradition. Huang-Lao was a category created by Sima Qian and retrospectively imposed on a handful of his contemporaries and figures in previous generations. Under this interpretation, attempts at defining Huang-Lao must begin by examining Sima Qian’s characterization of Huang-Lao and the realities of his time, and not necessarily the realities of those upon whom he imposed the label Huang-Lao. This explains the lack of a “motto,” or general principle, of the type used in Warring States taxonomies that may be used to summarize Huang-Lao thought. Instead of a coherent “philosophy,” Huang-Lao is most closely associated with a set of methods deriving from a particular cosmological view during a particular historical moment. This historical conclusion is consonant with Yates’s recent observation that texts associated with Huang-Lao are generally based on the knowledge of natural categories and the manipulation of yin-yang correlations (1997, 10–16). This type of category arose only in the Han, and for this reason comparison with categories of earlier pedigree is inherently problematic.
The methods associated with mythical sage-emperors like Huangdi did not claim them as authors but often as recipients of revelation.
Han texts portray Huangdi receiving advice on sexual hygiene from Sunü (Pure Woman) and ascending to immortality on the back of a wattle-bearded dragon.15 Narratives concerning the apotheosis of Huangdi found in the Zhuangzi and the Shiji share the motif that Huangdi’s achievements were predicated on his ability to understand Heaven and the spirit world.16 Huangdi both symbolized and gave historical grounding to a relationship between Heaven and humankind that was the basis of many self-cultivation methods.
As Anna Seidel has pointed out, the apocryphal chenwei tradition draws on a second type of revelation, texts not based on the testimony of deities per se but rather incipient in the patterns of the natural world (1983, 336–342). The representative work in this second category of revelation is the Yijing (Book of Changes), a set of patterns that might be accessed by divination because they are incipient in the natural world. This is the message of the “Xici” appendix to the Yijing:
Heaven suspends images that manifest good and bad fortune. The sage images himself on them. The [Yellow] River produces its Chart and the Luo [River] produces its Writing. The sage takes them as his standard.17
The idea of texts that were in some sense incipient in the natural world was the naturalistic counterpart to the revelation of texts by an-
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thropomorphic deities. Since the simultaneous existence of both views of the cosmos characterized the Han dynasty, the coexistence of these two categories of revelation should not be surprising. Huangdi’s use of “spirit stalks” ( shence) associates him with this kind of natural revelation, too. According to a story recounted in the Shiji, Huangdi found a precious tripod ( ding) containing “spirit stalks” that he used to calculate the calendar, and only then did he ascend to Heaven (12.467). The association of Fu Xi with the revelation of the Yijing and of Huangdi with that of methods of transcendence are just two of many instances of revelation texts that became popular in the Han.
As products of revel
ation, these books were incapable of becoming obsolete in the same way that the Warring States authors felt was inevitable over time. A prose poem written circa 50 c.e. by Feng Yan demonstrates the linkage between natural sources of knowledge and the writings of the ancient sages. Feng links the observation of the natural world, the empirical knowledge of the effects of plants and herbs, and the work already done by Huangdi and Shennong:
To accord with the alternations of the four seasons and distinguish the benificence of the five types of terrain,
To judge what is produced on the forested plains and hillsides and discriminate what grows in the rivers and springs,
To cultivate the essential tasks of Shennong and select the extraordinary memorials of [Huangdi],
To pursue the transmitted teachings of Zhou Qi and surpass the lost traces of Fan Li. ( Hou Hanshu 28b.90)
The idea of revelation is thereby grounded in precedent, and the successes of the sage-kings demonstrate the authority of methods based on the reciprocity between Heaven and human beings.
Revealed texts may be distinguished from the majority of texts in circulation in the Han not only by their nonhuman origins but also by the fact that they were transmitted in distinct ways. Li Ling notes that texts associated with mantic practices circulated differently from
“official” texts, and their divine or semidivine origins imbued them with a value not necessarily associated with other works (1993, 9–10).
Michel Strickmann, in his discussion of the revealed nature of the Shangqing corpus, says that one of the more important characteristics of the revealed text is the value associated with the natural limitation on its production (1979, 27). This limitation is consistent with an esoteric mode of transmission. In the second century b.c.e., “secret” recipes were passed down in the salon of Chunyu Yi, who stud-
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ied yin-yang medical theory and from 181 to 179 b.c.e. apprenticed with Yang Qing. According to the Shiji:
[Yang Qing] had [Chunyu Yi] discard his old recipes and replaced them with his secret recipes. [Yang] passed on the books on [reading]
pulse of Huangdi and Bian Que; the method of diagnosing illnesses by the five colors in order to understand whether a person will live or die; and the method of choosing among various differential diagnoses in order to decide whether an illness was terminal. (105.2794–2795) This master–disciple transmission of texts depends on the limitation of supply to assure its value.
The authority of such texts derives from such a transmission, a value reflected in the example of the Zhenzhong hongbao yuan bishu (Pillow Book of Secret Writings from the Garden of Vast Treasures). This text contained a recipe for turning metal into gold that Liu Xiang (d. 6
b.c.e.) claimed to have memorized when his father, a Huang-Lao devotee, attained the book while overseeing the prison in Huainan ( Hanshu 36.1928–1929). Another tale associated with “pillow books” is the story of Meng Xi, a student of Tian Wangsun:
Because Meng Xi wanted to be famous he took the Yijing as well as other texts on omen-lore and yin-yang based interpretations of disasters and events, and falsely claimed his teacher Tian had been lying on his deathbed with his head pillowed on his roll of inked slips, and that he passed them on to Meng alone. ( Hanshu 88.3599)
As Seidel has observed, there is a connection between such texts and later Daoist texts whose value is expressed by their nature as “pillow books” (1983, 301).18
A more direct link to the tradition of revealed texts in the Han is the account of the Baoyuan taiping jing (Scripture of Great Peace and Embracing the Prime) in the Hanshu. There, that text is the subject of the same style of claim to revelation by the perfected emissary of Heaven, Chijingzi, or the “Master of Red Essence” (75.3192). This text, the first of several bearing the title Taiping jing, bridges the gap between revealed texts that treat mantic practices and revealed texts associated with early Daoist movements.
Modes of Transmission of Revealed Texts
While not much is known about the sociological dimension of the circulation of texts in the later Han, there is evidence of a revival of the type of master–disciple transmission that was earlier identified with the
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institutional typologies of the Spring and Autumn period. The false claim of direct transmission from an Yijing master to the student Meng Xi notwithstanding, the increasingly popular private salons of the Han were a place where revealed esoteric texts were passed on from master to student. Two examples of salons ( suo) will provide evidence of this emphasis on direct master–disciple transmission: an early-Han example from the Shiji and a later one from the Hou Hanshu.
A key to understanding the Shiji description of Huang-Lao is the account of Yue Chengong who, Sima Qian notes, “excelled at cultivating the doctrines of Huangdi and Laozi, became famous in Qi, and was named ‘Worthy Teacher’ [ xianshi ]” (80.2436). Yue is identified in the Shiji as the teacher of Tian Shu and Gai Gong, who later went on to teach Chancellor Cao—all figures elsewhere identified with Huang-Lao (54.2025, 104.2725). At his salon, located in the state most closely identified with Huangdi, Yue may have been identified as “Jugong,”19 a title with Mohist overtones (Takigawa 1986, 104). Sima Qian likens the early-Han institution run by Yue to the master–disciple transmissions of the earlier Spring and Autumn period.
In the Eastern Han, transmission of methods in salons grew even more popular, as shown by the example of Yang Hou (fl. 109–149 c.e.), a native of southwestern China. Yang Hou’s techniques include tuchen, referring to the charts and apocryphal texts that served as the basis of correspondence theory used to interpret portents. After retiring from his official position (a common pattern among such teachers), Yang presided over the largest institution of Huang-Lao learning. Between 141 and 146 c.e.
[Yang Hou] specialized in Huang-Lao and [organized] the teaching of students. Over 3,000 students had their names written into the register. . . . [When Yang died] his disciples set up a shrine where the Commandery’s literary officials and scribes performed a yearly feasting and archery ceremonial, as well as regular sacrifice. ( Hou Hanshu 30a.1050) One of the students at Yang’s academy was Ren An (124–202 c.e.), who learned Yang Hou’s methods so well that his contemporaries said of him: “If you want to understand [Yang Hou], just ask Ren An”
(79a.2551). After studying with Yang, Ren An founded his own teaching institution.
The continuities between these institutions and later ones associated with organized forms of Daoism are suggestive but await further study. Another similarity between early Han institutions and early Daoist communities is the title taken by the leaders of these groups.20
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Such conclusions about the social continuities among modes of transmission of learning in the Han and in Daoist communities are in one sense consistent with the general approach of some scholars who have argued that the term Daoism had too often been applied on the basis of ideology rather than social structure and had, therefore, been applied inappropriately. Strickmann influentially summarized this position:
Whatever its ideological prehistory, this religion came into social being with the Way of the Celestial Master [Tianshi dao] in the second half of the second century c.e., and continues under the aegis of its successors and derivatives at the present day. (1978, 2) Strickmann’s formulation suggests that although previous pseudo-Daoist movements shared ideological elements, the second century c.e. was the first time that Daoism became rooted in the social background that informs it today. Taking Strickmann’s dictum seriously requires that we subject the categories we use to critical scrutiny and pay attention to the sociological context of the use and production of texts.
As this chapter has shown, the rise of the category of revealed texts and the resulting social dynamics in the Han are sociological continuities between early-Han social groups and early Daoist commun
ities. Given the historical evolution of Han-dynasty taxonomies in early China, it should not be surprising that these taxonomies do not reflect such social dynamics. This indicates that whatever the “ideological prehistory” asserted by traditional taxonomies, the “sociological prehistory” of early Daoist communities may be meaningfully traced prior to the second century c.e. Whether this particular continuity may be pushed further back is unclear, but recent work holds out this possibility.21 Though consonant with Strickmann’s method-ology, the above conclusions disagree with his specific result in regard to the origin of the social forms of Daoism.
While certain Warring States texts are cited as the “ideological” precursors of Daoism, it is often assumed that there were no significant forerunners to the social forms that characterized the Celestial Masters and later traditions. In terms of the history of religions, the notion that novel social and religious structures can spring up in this way has a clear and influential predecessor, and that is the idea that divine revelation set Christianity apart from earlier religions. The influence of this idea is such that very few histories of Christianity bother to relate it to other apocalyptic movements seeking independence from the Roman Empire in the second and first centuries b.c.e. (see Daniélou
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1964). The idea that Daoist social relations arose ex nihilo similarly gives Daoism a uniqueness and importance that may have been necessary at a time when it was not taken seriously in Western religious studies. The assumption that the social aspects of the Celestial Masters movement was created ex nihilo implies the same underlying valuation of that tradition and privileges the study of those social features in a way that is typical of insider accounts of early Christianity.22 These preliminary conclusions about continuities between certain Han traditions and early Daoism, then, might indicate a way to extend Strickmann’s concerns with social relations in a direction he might not have anticipated.
Notes