by Livia Kohn
The Zeng Collection has a number of unique characteristics. First, it is a tremendously practical and clearly arranged manual that allows the priest of High Merit easy access to all the information he needs.
It first presents an overview of the various kinds of announcements and mandates used in the preparatory Announcement ceremony and in the formal ritual itself, then details their structure and contents. In the section on the Announcement, it has seven types of announcements, eight kinds of mandates to officials and generals, four forms of written announcements, and two kinds of talisman orders. Follow-
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ing this, the text presents eight models for placards, both large and small, and five formats of memorials. This text also contains certain stylistic patterns and specific information, such as parallel verse, formal titles and insignia, the name of the sponsoring group and family, as well as slogans to be put on banners.
In the section on documents to be used in the formal ritual itself, the collection presents three kinds of memorials, five types of written announcements, twelve kinds of mandates, seven kinds of talisman orders, as well as songs on cherishing the womb. It is particularly noteworthy that the section on talisman orders divides clearly according to the form and style of the talisman involved. The only documents missing here are the basic text of the writ of pardon and the mandate for the replenishing of the treasury. It is thus not entirely complete.
The missing sections can, however, be easily supplemented on the basis of Ofuchi’s collection, so that a complete picture of Taiwanese Daoist ritual documents can be gained.
The Du Collection differs from the other two sources described so far in that it is clearly a revision of materials used and burned in real rituals. It contains the sacred documents as they were actually used in a recently celebrated rite and specifies the details of the texts down to the type of paper and color of ink employed. This, as well as the unique format it gives for the talisman order, makes it a special and precious collection. Nevertheless, it is not entirely handwritten; areas other than the celebrants’ specific names are often typed or copied from handwritten originals. Still, even these have handwritten notes and talismans added by Master Du, which really make the collection invaluable. Listing all the various documents in a table comparing the three sources, it appears that the Du Collection has all the different types employed—a grand total of forty-one documents. The total table would come to ninety-two sheets, listing Du’s materials as the standard on the right and the comparable materials from Zeng and Ofuchi on the left.
All three of them, although not complete each in itself, match one another very closely and taken together provide an excellent source of basic materials on Daoist ritual documents in Taiwan.
The Documents and Their Contents
Using the Du Collection as the standard and most basic source, the following discussion examines the various documents used in rituals of
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merit in Taiwanese Daoism and studies some documents of importance both in terms of content and volume. At the same time, I will also try to find matching materials in texts of the Song and Yuan dynasties, as they are now contained in the Daoist canon of the Ming, in an attempt to point out continuities and divergences over the ages.
A standard for the volume used in the rituals, that is, the number of documents dispatched at any given stage, the Du Collection includes twenty-three documents used at announcement ceremonies, six documents sent as writs of pardon, thirty used when chanting precious litanies to the underworld kings, and twelve orders to the talisman lads.
It also uses highly special materials in the ritual of untying the knots and in the replenishing of the treasury. With this in mind, let us now look at the four main kinds of documents used.
Announcement.
During a two-day ritual of merit, an announcement is made first to the various deities. This begins by sending a message to the Palace of the Three Pure Ones and Seven Treasures (Sanqing qibao gong), dispatching a formal message to the various supervising officials, generals, and deities of the soil who have their offices here. This is known as the three rectangular envelopes ( sanfang han). In the ritual celebrated by Master Du, he also sent off orders to a number of different deities that served to protect the purity of his altar platform. They included the messengers and troops of the various celestial offices, the city god of Gaoxiong County, the two soul-hunting generals Shenhu (Spirit Tiger) and Heqiao (How Proud), as well as various lesser local gods, including Tudi gong (Earth God). They were all given orders to save the soul of ancestress He Jinmei, who married into the Huang family. There were, then, five different kinds of mandates.
Once the three rectangular envelopes and five mandates had been prepared for send-off into the otherworld, a written announcement of this pending delivery was made to the underworld officer in charge of talismans (Xiajie zhifu li). This written announcement of delivery originally consisted of twelve documents, which in the ceremony were joined in one mandate. In addition to this mandate, there were twelve talismans, one for each department of the underworld. In a formal rite of ordering the talisman lads, these were entrusted to be taken below and thus became secondary talismans. We will come back to this later.
The documents used in the preparatory Announcement are also
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found in earlier materials. For example, Jin Yunzhong’s Shangqing lingbao dafa (Great Rites of the Highest Clarity and Numinous Treasure Traditions, HY 1213) and Wang Qizhen’s work of the same title ( HY
1211), both of the thirteenth century, contain representative ritual documents used in similar ceremonies and of a highly similar nature. To distinguish the two texts, I will call them Jin Dafa and Wang Dafa, respectively. They match Master Du’s performance, except that they prescribe formal letters to the otherworld to be dispatched three times and that the deities addressed are a great deal more numerous (see also Lagerwey 1987, 174–175). For example, the Jin Dafa lists 118
deities (28.17b–20a), and the Wang Dafa has even more (62.24a–26b, 63.58b–61a, 64.59a–63a). However, the two texts have in common with Master Du’s practice that they begin their announcements with letters addressed to the Three Pure Ones, then proceed to the local city god, gods of the soil, and the various divine officials in the Bureaus of Heaven, Earth, and Water. This shows that, at least in rituals of merit, the organization, ranking, and structure of the Daoist pantheon has remained constant.
As for the actual content of the announcement documents, the Du Collection says:
Respectfully and sincerely, your servant prays for mercy and grace from the Great Dao. I humbly beg that you grant my wish. From now on, day and night, let us receive your radiance of grace and accept our testimony of deliverance and salvation. To this end, I humbly present the various talismans and writs I have here, properly sealed and executed by me. (Line 13)
A comparable phrasing is found in the Jin Dafa, in the section that contains the announcement to Jade Clarity, to be dispatched as part of the Yellow Register rite. It says:
Respectfully and sincerely, your servant prays for the mercy of the Dao.
I humbly beg that you let me, your humble servant, open salvation for the deceased and make it known to all the perfected officers in the various departments that we are preparing to perform ceremonies in accordance with the divine order. Let your radiance of grace descend upon us and accept our testimony of cultivation and worship. (28.21a) These, then, are fundamentally the same and, as a more detailed examination of their contents reveals, present very much the same topics. There are no major differences in the modern documents used by Master Du and those recorded from the Song dynasty.
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Writ of Pardon.
The ritual of the writ of pardon, according to the Du Collection, involves three talismans: the Perfe
ct Talisman of the Destruction of Purgatory ( Po diyu zhenfu), the Perfect Talisman to Rescue the Benighted Souls ( Ba youhun zhenfu), and the Talisman Order of the Nine Dragons of the Eastern Ultimate ( Dongji jiulong fuming ). It begins with requesting their descent from the spirit world, and to this end a written announcement is dispatched, known as the Announcement of the Destruction of Purgatory. This announcement forms a set together with the writ of pardon, written under the authority of the Three Heavens and sent to the underworld, and with the announcement sent to the meritorious officials of the Realm of Earth.
The third of the talismans used here, the Talisman Order of the Nine Dragons, can be traced to the Six Dynasties. Here we have the Ziran zhaiyi (Observances for the Rite of Spontaneity, HY 523), a ritual manual of the Lingbao tradition. It says:
“Humbly bowing, I pray to the Highest Lord, lofty sages, and great spirits, as well as all the many perfected and numinous, wishing that they pour down the richness of the great compassion upon me. May they create numinosity in proper response [to this prayer] and deliver us all to the blessed state of salvation. I pray: Please bring down your limitless grace!”
With this, summon the flying celestials and spirit beings from above, receive the Talisman Order of the Nine Dragons from the Green Palace of Eastern Florescence, and hand them down to the investigative departments of the Ten Directions. (5b–6a)
This explains the celestial location and ritual use of the talisman but does not describe its shape or contents. A somewhat clearer description is found in the Jin Dafa, which lists a total of twelve talismans to be used in traditional Lingbao rites ( zhai). They include all three talismans still used today as well as the Numinous Talisman of Long Life ( Changsheng lingfu), the Perfected Talisman of Salvation from Suffering ( Jiuku zhenfu), the Talisman Order of Primordial Beginning ( Yuanshi fuming), the Talisman Order of Ascension to Perfection ( Dengzhen du fuming), the Talisman of Teaching the Three Worlds ( Pugao sanjie fu), the Talisman of Penetrating to All Heavens ( Liguan zhutian fu), the Talisman of Controlling the Earth Gods ( Chizhi dizhi fu), the Talisman of Joining the Four Protections ( Sizhen hetong fu), and the Triple Contract of Ascension to Heaven ( Shentian sanquan). The three talismans used in Daoist ritual today, therefore, have a long history,
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but their many companions have not survived in active ritual application.
How about the writ of pardon itself, then? The Jin Dafa states that on the evening before the rite proper, three talismans and one register need to be called down. They are the Talisman of Salvation from Suffering, the Talisman to Rescue the Benighted Souls, the Talisman Order of the Nine Dragons, and the Register of Rebirth in Heaven ( Shengtian lu). The last is described more specifically as the Highest Precious Register of Ordering the Pardon for Rebirth in Heaven ( Taishang chishe shengtian baolu), but it does not play any role in the modern Du Collection, which in its stead has the writ of pardon. Still, both are broadly similar in that they are orders issued to the underworld authorities with the aim of gaining the release of the dead from their sins and suffering.
In the Wang Dafa, on the other hand, there is a specific document entitled “Writ of Pardon” (44.12b), which contains materials that are almost identical to those used in Daoist ritual today. For example, the writ of pardon as contained in the Du Collection begins with a description of the world at the time of creation:
Then the kalpa Dragon Country (Longhan) commenced, and the perfect pivot of the origin took shape in symbolic writings. (Line 3) To compare, the Wang Dafa has
The Talisman Order of Primordial Beginnning, since the kalpa Dragon Country, has been transmitted in sacred verse and hidden, symbolic writings. (44.12b)
Highly similar is the description of the emergence of human suffering in the world. Here the Du Collection has
Then there was greed and attachment in the world, and people came to be immersed in an ocean of suffering. (Line 5)
The Wang Dafa, in comparison, says:
Thereupon people were immersed in suffering, and the fate of the world was determined by greed and attachment. (44.12b)
Again, the latter section of the writ of pardon in the Du Collection reads: Whatever they have done in past generations or in this life, to go against Heaven or put a burden on Earth, all disloyalty, disobedience, and in-justice, whatever sins of the three karmic factors and the six senses, whether serious or light: pardon and remove them all! In accord with
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the documents of this ritual, deliver them from their suffering and, according to their fruits, cause them to ascend on high.
As for all the other orphaned souls and obstructed souls of the six modes of existence and the four modes of birth, may they ascend in accordance with their destiny and find happiness in a new life.
Let all those in charge of the infernal offices of the Long Night in the Nine Obscurities and the buffalo-headed clerks be promoted one degree in rank. Let the generals and officers who have watched over the altar, their subordinates and assistants, the agents of the symbols
[talismans] and officers of merit in charge at the time of the ritual also advance one grade. In future whenever there is a great ceremony of salvation to rescue those in the underworld, carry out [the orders] according to the rules and regulations.
Oh! The Great Dao is formless; it changes as the situation requires.
(Line 17; see Lagerwey 1987, 208–209)
A highly similar passage occurs in the Wang Dafa:
Whatever they have done in the past to go against Heaven or put a burden on Earth, all disobedience and disloyalty, all inhumanity and in-justice, they have wrongly suffered the punishment of death. Whatever sins they have committed through their six senses and six desires, whether serious or light: pardon and remove them all! In accord with the proper talisman order of this ritual, deliver them from darkness and suffering and let them ascend to the realm of bliss. . . .
As for all the other orphaned souls and obstructed souls of the six modes of existence and the four modes of birth, may they ascend in accordance with their destiny and find happiness in a new life. . . .
Let all the numinous officers that hover near the sacred altar, all their subordinates and assistants, all the swift messengers carrying the talismans be promoted one degree in rank. Let the buffalo-headed clerks in charge of the Long Night of Fengdu, the great demon kings, the administrators of the Nine Obscurities, the City God, the Earthgod of the village, and all the many officials and generals who have aided the ritual also be advanced one grade.
From now on and in future whenever there is a great Yellow Register rite or a rite of Universal Salvation, any ceremony geared to save those in the underworld, carry out [the orders] according to the rules and regulations.
Oh! The numinous power of the Great Dao resides in the manifestation and transformation of the gods. (Line 17; see Lagerwey 1987, 208–209)
Comparing these various citations, it is easy to see that there is a close match in wording and content between the modern Du Collection and
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the traditional Wang Dafa, a match not found with materials contained in the Jin Dafa. This allows the conclusion that the writ of pardon used in Daoist rituals in Tainan today is not part of the tradition of the Jin Dafa but follows that of the Wang Dafa.
There are some further points of interest regarding the writ of pardon. For example, the Wang Dafa has both a writ of pardon and a writ of summons and explains that ordinary ritual manuals do not contain any versions of these documents. According to him, in his day both kinds of documents were often written informally by contemporary practitioners, using a style that did not conform to that of the standard manuals and exerting an increasingly powerful influence on the tradition. He regrets the loss of the less common forms and explains that he has decided to preserve all varieties in his collection, yet edits them in the proce
ss.
To understand this historical dimension and editing process somewhat better, certain passages are of particular relevance. There is first, as John Lagerway has pointed out (1987, 209), a critical review of the register used in the talisman enunciation ceremony. Although there is no such register in the modern Du Collection, its writ of pardon closely resembles it and, in fact, takes its place in the ritual. For this reason, the criticism also applies to materials still in use today. It was composed by Ning Quanzhen (1101–1181) and is cited in the Jin Dafa (32.14b–
16a), the Wang Dafa (ch. 44), and also in Jiang Shuyu’s (1156–1217) Wushang huanglu dazhai licheng yi (Highest Observances for Setting Up the Great Yellow Register Rite, HY 508, ch. 44). It can be summarized in five points:
1. The descent of the register from Heaven is described in an exaggerated fashion.
2. The end of the document does not have a proper order of execution; instead, it first needs an order from Heaven, and only then can it be executed.
3. Examples of sins committed are too numerous and too extreme.
4. After the date, the names of the celestial executives are given, which is too much like the order of pardon issued by the earthly authorities.
5. The phrasing and structure of the register is too much like the order of pardon issued by the earthly authorities; this is not suitable for a writ of pardon addressed to the underworld rulers.