by Livia Kohn
The points raised second, fourth, and fifth apply equally to the Song materials and the modern Du Collection. As raised in the second point,
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the Du Collection definitely concludes with certain phrases, such as cunxin (visualize in your mind) and chenggao fengxing (receive orders and properly worship), which indicate that a direct order from Heaven was required for the text’s execution. It also, matching the fourth point of the criticism, lists a number of celestial executives ( tianxiang ), such as Messenger Xu, Operator Jia, Supervisor Lu, Celestial Master Zhang, and Nonultimate Spirit Yin. Then again, in accordance with point five, it contains mandates along the very same lines as found in the order of pardon addressed to the rulers of the underworld, as it is included in the Wang Dafa (44.13b–16a). All these points, then, suggest strongly that the writ of pardon used by Master Du follows the tradition of the Wang Dafa.
The Precious Litany to the Rulers of Darkness.
The Du Collection contains ten talisman orders used in combination with ten scrolls of litanies to be chanted to the underworld kings. At the end of the first scroll, it prescribes the issuing of talisman orders to the nonultimate worlds in the ten directions, beginning with the east. These are then joined by announcements issued to the crane-mounted immortal officials and by mandates given to the souls of the dead. This combination greatly increases the numbers of the various documents found in the Du Collection. Also, the ten talisman orders each have a different format and shape. Their efficacy, as already pointed out in the ancient Duren jing (Scripture of Universal Salvation, HY 1), powerfully dispels all diseases of hearing, eyesight, speech, and movement and does away with chronic ailments and repeated patterns of suffering. They also serve to grant successful growth and development, the discovery of precious objects, and the revival of the dead (ch. 5).
As the talisman liturgy is chanted in the rituals of merit, the power of the talisman orders is activated to effect a kind of bodily resurrection of the dead, their sublimation into a more celestial form. Similar patterns are also found in the traditional ritual manuals of the Song to Ming dynasties. Here we have the Duren shangjing dafa (Great Rites of the Supreme Scripture of Universal Salvation, HY 219), which contains a section entitled “Tenfold Reverted Numen” ( Shi zhuanhui lingpin, ch. 9), as well as Lin Lingzhen’s Jidu jinshu (Golden Book of Rescue and Salvation, HY 466), which describes a Rite of Tenfold Return ( shihui zhai) and the sacred space to be erected for the rites of universal salvation, which too involve the Tenfold Return (chs. 235–236).
The same text, furthermore, contains a number of talismans to be used
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in these rites (270.29ab), but the latter are entirely different from anything contained in the Du Collection. In the light of these earlier sources, the idea of the Tenfold Reverted Numen can be described as yet another feature of modern Daoist ritual that has been transmitted from the Song and Ming.
The Talisman-Matching Lads.
According to the Du Collection, the ceremony addressed to the Talisman-Matching Lads (Hefu tongzi) involves the issuing of twelve mandates to the Lads, which are parallel to the written announcements that were made on the previous day of the ritual and sent off to the twelve rulers of the underworld. Both serve to effect the release of the dead from purgatory, and both are written in the format of a talismanic half that has to be matched with its proper counterpart in the otherworld. The task of the twelve Lads is to send off the talismans and to see to the proper matching of the talismanic mandates.
The Lads appear first in Six Dynasties texts. The Mingzhen ke (Regulations of the Luminous Perfected, HY 1400) has a Lad of Highest Wisdom (Shangzhi tongzi) who resides in the northwestern corner of the universe and addresses questions about the underworld, as he is invited to see it by the Heavenly Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi tianzun) (1a). Also, the idea of one or a group of divine Lads assisting in salvation is already present in Lingbao rites of the same period. However, the notion of a separate ceremony that focuses on their role in matching the talismanic mandates appears only since the Song. The expression “Lad Ceremony” ( tongzi ke) is first found in the Jin Dafa (44.19b), but even here it is not described in any detail. In the Wang Dafa, on the other hand, there is a brief mention—without detailed explanation—of certain talismanic documents used in comparable ceremonies (64.42b–43a). The ceremony involves twelve mandates entrusted to the Lads as well as twelve mandates directed to the Nine Hells below. Their content largely matches that of the materials found in the Du Collection today.
For example, the latter, in its written mandate to the underworld rulers, has:
The above listed talisman should be transmitted to the Underworld Ruler of Wind and Thunder who resides in the east. It is to be sent through the host of Precious Radiance Lads. They, once arrived in the underworld, will see to the proper matching of the talisman. Then the sins [of the dead] can be pardoned in due accordance with the rules and regulations. May it be executed in proper order!
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A very similar statement occurs in its mandate to the Lads: The above listed talisman should be transmitted to the Lads of Precious Radiance who reside in the east. Holding the Talisman of the Destruction of Purgatory, they will swiftly go to the Underworld Ruler of Wind and Thunder, and for him see to the proper matching of the talisman. Then the sins [of the dead] can be pardoned in due accordance with the rules and regulations. May it be executed in proper order!
The first of these passages also appears in the Wang Dafa in a mandate to be transmitted to the Nine Hells (64.42b–43a), while the second is seen in the same text in the mandate to the Lads. Again, the continuities between the Wang Dafa and the modern ritual are striking.
Untying the Knots and Filling the Treasury.
According to the Du Collection, at the time of the ceremony of untying the knots ( jiejie), one mandate of liberation is read to the souls of the dead, then transmitted to them so they can attach it to their bodies.
This document serves as formal proof that the loan from the celestial treasury the now-dead person received when he or she was first born into the world has been repaid fully. It also testifies to the sums of spirit-money transmitted to the otherworld by the descendants of the deceased. Later, at the ceremony for filling the treasury ( dianku), similar mandates are issued to the officials there. They order the officials to properly receive and administer the sums transferred and, on their basis, to remove the names of the dead from the list of debtors. To activate both kinds of mandates, the officiating priest in this world attaches a powerful seal to them, the Seal of the Three Treasures ( Sanbao yin). Like the talisman orders used earlier, these mandates, too, come in talismanic form and have to be properly matched. It is interesting, then, that they are fundamentally treated as talismans.
Comparable documents in historical sources are not found in either the Jin Dafa or the Wang Dafa. However, there are some ritual manuals, dated to the Yuan and Ming dynasties, that have similar materials, notably in the context of the Yellow Register Rite celebrated on behalf of the living. One of them is the Jidu jinshu, which has a mandate to the underworld treasury that orders the matching of funds and the release of the souls to the living (313.30ab; see Hou 1975, 152); another is Zhou Side’s Jidu dacheng jinshu (Golden Book of the Great Completion of Rescue and Salvation, Zangwai daoshu 17), which has a yang mandate of ritual merit to be issued to the disciples and a matching yin mandate addressed to the supervisors of the ritual (36.17b–
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19a). The same text also contains a yang mandate to receive life, which is addressed to the worshiping devotee, and a yin mandate of the same nature, dispatched to the supervisors of the treasury who plan human life (21.22b). The rite of filling the treasury plays an important role in modern rituals of merit. However, it is not very an
cient and goes back only to materials of the Yuan or Ming dynasties. Why this would be the case is a question that requires further study.
Conclusion
Let us, therefore, summarize our findings so far. First, it is a difficult task to obtain relevant materials on the various sacred documents that are issued to the gods in the course of a Daoist ritual of merit. There are different versions even today, beginning with the collection undertaken by Ofuchi, moving on to the standard reference work used by practicing Daoists (the Zeng Collection), and finally coming to the texts actually used and burned in a contemporary ritual that were kindly written down by Master Du in what we have called the Du Collection. These three are all valid sources, but they differ significantly enough to preclude the establishment of a truly standardized canon of modern ritual documents. The same holds true for the various ritual manuals that have survived from the Song period onward; their texts present the additional difficulty that we cannot know or even reconstruct the actual use the documents were put to at the time. On the other hand, we are fortunate to have all these materials, both modern and traditional, which provide a valuable resource for our studies.
Next, placing the documents and rites contained in the Du Collection at the center of the inquiry and linking them with various historical predecessors, we can distinguish three levels of ritual development and lineage. The first of these is the level matching the Jin Dafa, the earliest ritual manual that has relevant materials. Here we find mainly documents used in the ceremony of the preparatory announcement, the three talismans employed in the Writ of Pardon ritual, and the format of offerings used. They are important in that they show that at least some section of modern Daoist ritual definitely goes back as far as the Song dynasty.
A second level of ritual is revealed in the materials of the Wang Dafa, which was compiled by Daoists of the Eastern Florescence lineage (Donghua pai), which flourished around Mount Tiantai in Zhejiang.
Its tradition is later than that represented in the Jin Dafa and stands at
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a certain critical distance to it. It shares the writ of pardon, the announcement to the Department of Earth, and the various mandates issued to the Lads with the practices undertaken today. In addition, the Daoists of Taiwan still use the Talisman Order of the Nine Dragons in their writ of pardon as it was composed by Ning Quanzhen of the Wang Dafa tradition; they are conscious of this fact, attributing the talisman to Ning, the Perfected of Great Wisdom Who Rescues from Suffering and Saves All in Great Pity and Great Compassion (Daci dabei jiuku jiudu dahui zhenren Ning; see Lagerwey 1987, 237). It is likely that the tradition was transmitted from Zhejiang down to Fujian, and from there to Taiwan, thus establishing a continuity of ritual practices to the line of Ning Quanzhen. The level of ritual represented by him, in turn, is part of the ritual reorganization under the Southern Song, which transformed and elaborated the ritual patterns of earlier schools.
The third level of ritual found in modern practice can be traced back to the ritual manuals of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. It is apparent most clearly in the mandates issued during the ceremonies of untying the knots and filling the treasury; they are used as part of the litanies sung to the underworld rulers. Just as was the case with the Talisman Order of the Nine Dragons, so some aspects of these documents, notably the Lad of Highest Wisdom who is sent to the underworld, appear in the Lingbao texts of the Six Dynasties period, but their use in that time is not clearly known. The way the mandates are being used today involves a great deal of direct contact with the souls of the dead. In fact, the mandates sent out at the time of the preparatory announcement, those used when the road to the underworld is opened, the various formulaic mandates used as part of the precious litanies, as well as those applied in the ceremony of untying the knots, are all directly addressed to the dead themselves, giving their specific names as the subjects of rescue and salvation. Not only that, the documents are intended to be worn by the dead on whatever spirit bodies they may have in the underworld. Such a concrete understanding of the power of the physical documents themselves is not found so clearly in either the Jin Dafa or the Wang Dafa. The former, for example, has only one mandate called Zhengjian gongde die that addresses the dead (29.6a). This records numerous merits dedicated to the soul and summarized in one single document, unlike Taiwanese mandates that appear in various documents.
Comparing the modern and Yuan-Ming practices to those described in Song-dynasty materials, it becomes evident that the kinds
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of mandates used later and their particularly concrete application were not yet present in the earlier period. They, therefore, can be said to represent a slightly later stage of Daoist ritual. The same stage already goes beyond the set of nine precepts to be observed by the dead as well as the use of talismans and registers to effect their successful transfer into the heavens. In Taiwan today, rites of sublimation into heaven tend to be rare, and similarly there are only very few documents in the Wang Dafa that are pronounced for the dead at the time of sublimation. Rather than using talismans and registers, this work resorts to mandates directly addressed to the souls of the dead. These mandates, then, are increasingly numerous today, a feature that now characterizes Daoism in Taiwan.
The purpose of rituals of merit is ultimately the transfer of the souls of the dead into the heavens of eternal life; they end with a ceremony that signifies their successful transformation. Rites to this same end can be found both in primitive and organized religions, from ancient shamanism to modern religion. However, among this wealth of similar rites, the Daoist practice stands out in that the officiating priest himself takes on the role of an otherworldly bureaucrat, and the rites involve large numbers of highly formalized written documents that have to be issued, transported, and executed with proper formality and great care. As this is a feature unique to the Daoist religion, it is significant in understanding its special nature and the particular identity Daoists express in their ritual practices. Yet this identity is by no means static. Rather, it can best be understood as a continuous process of adaptation, renewal, and change, through which specific rites and their accompanying written documents are transformed to accommodate the varying needs of different communities and different times.
Translated by Livia Kohn
Note
The present study is based on fieldwork conducted in the southern part of Taiwan, beginning in 1987. Districts studied include in particular the city and county of Tainan as well as the area around Gaoxiong. The focus of the fieldwork was the performance and understanding of Daoist rituals, as undertaken in this area by Daoist masters of the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) or Tianshi (Celestial Masters) tradition.
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Bibliography
Hou, Ching-lang. 1975. Monnaies d’offrande et la notion de trésorérie dans la religion chinoise. Paris: Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient.
Lagerwey, John. 1987. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York: Macmillan.
Liu Zhiwan. 1983. Taiwan minjian cinyang lunji. Taipei: Lianjing.
Lü Chuikuan. 1994. Taiwan de daojiao yishi yu yinyue. Taipei: Xueyi.
Ofuchi Ninji. 1983. Chugokujin no shukyo girei. Okayama: Fukutake shoten.
Saso, Michael. 1974. Zhuang-lin xu daozang. Taipei: Chengwen.
Schipper, Kristofer M. [Shi Bo’er ]. 1966. “Taiwan zhi daojiao wenxian.” Taiwan wenxian 17.3:173–192.
———. 1974. “The Memorial in Taoist Ceremonies.” In Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, ed. by Arthur P. Wolf, 309–324. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
———. 1977. “Toko no shikino ni kansuru ni, san no kosatsu.” In Dokyo no sogoteki kenkyu, ed. by Sakai Tadao, 252–290. Tokyo: Kokusho kankokai.
13
Offerings in Daoist Ritual
Asano Haruji
Offerings, given to a deity for
a ritual purpose, form a major element in the structure of ritual. They express the will and wishes of the devotees while also serving to communicate with the deity. All objects presented in formal offerings have symbolic value, just as the act of offering itself should be understood from the perspective of symbolism. While this is of great interest, this chapter is concerned with another question.
During my field work in Taiwan, I have observed that offerings in Daoist ritual are similar in kind to those used in popular and Buddhist rites. It seems that objects offered by Daoists do not distinguish this religion from other religious traditions. Offerings are such an important element in the ritual structure —why, then, do they not reveal something unique about Daoism? There should be a unique Daoist identity to both the rituals themselves and the offerings made in them. Studying them and their raison d’être, therefore, will shed light not only on the role of Daoism in Chinese society but also on how Daoism expresses itself.
In the following, I will first introduce the offerings presented in Daoist rituals in Taiwan, then discuss and analyze them in a wider cultural and historical context.
Offerings Currently Used in Daoist Rituals
Daoist rituals in Taiwan are performed by priests associated with the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) or Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi) tradition,1
while the structure and organization of the rituals themselves go back to the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao) school, which distinguishes zhai (purgation ceremonies) and jiao (sacrificial offerings). In Taiwan today, z hai are generally rites geared to the salvation of the souls of the 274
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dead, while jiao are used to elicit blessings for the living. Both involve confession of sins and prayers for forgivenness, originally part of zhai, as well as the formal offering of wine, food, and other objects in an act of blessing and thanksgiving, which was originally part of jiao. Being close in their nature today, they can well be considered the same ritual; for this reason, I refer to them as Daoist ritual in general.