by Livia Kohn
Meat is not a proper Daoist offering. Although it is brought into the Daoist ritual space, it is not received without restriction and control but is subject to specific rules guiding its reception and has been included only to accommodate the needs of clients. In other words,
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when a client requests a ritual, he or she may wish to make some offerings in traditional Confucian and popular ways in addition to the Daoist ritual proper. Daoists will allow this, and in Taiwan, at least, this has become a tradition.
The Magic of Blood
Meat, as a product that contains the life-giving fluid of blood, has a distinctly magical aspect. In the land-purification rite, often undertaken by Taiwanese Daoists, a form of redhead magic is practiced, following traditional ways that have long been in existence on the periphery of Daoism. They involve blood from either a chicken or duck applied to the talisman that is used in the Daoist rite or the feeding of a small slice of meat into the mouth of a paper tiger. The magical function associated with meat and blood as used in this sort of rite is historically described both in the Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity, HY 1177) and the Daofa huiyuan (A Corpus of Daoist ritual, HY 1210). It is important to distinguish between the magical and ritual use of these substances, even though they may look the same on the surface.
When blood-containing food was proscribed in the rituals, blood and meat were probably excluded in all circumstances. According to the “pure covenant” (1b, 8a) described in Lu Xiujing’s (406–477) Daomen kelue (Abridged Codes for the Daoist Community, HY 1119; see Nickerson 1996), there was no eating or offering of meats and no use of blood and meat in the magic performance. In addition, according to the Tang-text Fayuan zhulin (Pearl Garden of the Dharma Forest, T. 2122, 53.269–1030), Buddhists criticized Daoists for changing the offering of what should have been “dried deer meat and pure wine” to “dried dates and fragrant water” (ch. 69). On the basis of this record, it seemed that meat and wine were excluded for some time during the middle ages. Also, the Zhengyi jie’e jiaoyi (Orthodox Unity Rites for the Liberation from Peril, HY 793) says that no “dried meat or impure food” should be allowed. Otherwise, the heavenly officials will not provide protection (14b). Beyond this, the Zhengyi jiazhai yi (Orthodox Unity Observances for the Protection of Residences, HY
800) and the Zhengyi jiaomu yi (Orthodox Unity Observances for the Protection of Graves, HY 801) have no meat listed among their various offerings.
However, blood and meat have different uses when it comes to the food consumed by the participants of the rite, the food used as an of-
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fering to the gods, and the food applied in magical activities. Thus the Baopuzi states that the “five strong-smelling vegetables” and all blood-containing food should not be taken when fasting in preparation for immortality practices (5.6b). In order to concoct an elixir, one must fast and obey purity rules for at least one hundred days, abstaining from the five strong-smelling vegetables and avoiding contact with ordinary people (4.19a). Taking raw vegetables and heavy or fresh foods will render the vital energy in the body too strong, making it hard to contain (8.4a). As a result, if one desires to ascend to heaven, one must not eat meat or blood-containing foods, instead fasting and obeying purity rules for one entire year (15.13b).
The text also says that “wine and dried meat” could be used as offerings, while blood-sealed covenants and the entrails of chickens were used only in magical arts (16.12b). Along the same lines, the Lingbao wufu xu (Explanation of the Five Lingbao Talismans, HY 388) states that “all the five strong-smelling vegetables and all food containing pork fat” are taboo as offerings (2.5a); “fat birds” and wine, on the other hand, could be used in offerings (2.4b). Similar statements are also found in other works.3
In all cases, participants in the ritual had to observe strict abstentions. The five strong-smelling vegetables and all forms of meat were basically regarded as unclean and could thus be used only under special circumstances. There were some rituals during which dried meat and wine were used together as part of the offerings. Dried meat, considered “cooked” and thus of a different quality than raw,
“blood-dripping” meat, was, therefore, not always included in the blood-food list. Thus Tao Hongjing’s (456–536) Zhen’gao (Declarations of the Perfected, HY 1010), in its “Verse of the Lady Immortal, Wife of Cheng Wei,” says: “When preparing to take an elixir of immortality, you must not eat blood food but you can eat dried meat”
(10.24a). Just as whole grains are distinguished from ground grains, so it seems a distinction was made between fresh meat dripping with blood and its dried variety.
The same is also obvious in Zhou Side’s Jidu dacheng jinshu (Golden Book of the Great Completion of Salvation, ed. Zangwai daoshu 17) of the Ming dynasty, which notes that wheat flour used in offerings must not be contaminated by any offensive smell (like that of raw meat) and should be handled only with a new bamboo steamer and clean cheese cloth (40.52b). Sometimes, because milk had such a smell, it too was considered unclean. Thus the Jidu dacheng jinshu states: “Because it smells offensive, milk in ritual must be treated like raw meat” (40.52b).4
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It is an undeniable truth that under different circumstances there were changes in the way in which meat was offered or whether it was offered. As recorded in the Baopuzi and Daofa huiyuan, bloody meat was allowed for use in magical practices. From the point of view of the ma-gicians, it was used because it symbolized the life force and was thus not considered unclean.
Offerings of Fruit and Writing Utensils
Aside from the use of meat, the other notable feature of the Daoist
“list of offerings” is the presence of fruit and writing utensils, although tea, soup, wine, and incense also played an important role.5
Fruit as offering is described in Jin Yunzhong’s (fl. 1224) Shangqing lingbao dafa:
Fresh fruit to be used as an offering for the occasion should be well selected and washed clean. According to the traditional observances for jiao rites, it must be changed every day. Excluded from use are pomegranates, sugar cane and other fruits of this type as well as all that contain unclean, muddy substances. Pure fruit growing on branches of trees is best. It should be placed, together with hot tea, before the Highest Emperor and the Three Treasures. Then a formal offering can be made in accordance with the regulations. (17. 22a)
Fruit is also used in the rituals performed by other religions. However, in Daoism it is probably the ideal material for offerings, because its lightness, purity, and origin on the branches of trees match the light and pure energetic power of the high gods of the Dao. Thus numerous ritual texts in the Daoist canon list fruit as a key offering, such as, for example, the Lingjiao jidu jinshu (Golden Book of Salvation of the Numinous Teaching, HY 466). Its list of “gifts to be used in the jiao ritual” includes dates, nuts, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, lichees, lotus seeds, mandarin oranges, tangerines, and persimmons, with a note that they all could be offered (319.41a). Other texts, not unlike the Shangqing lingbao dafa, mention that certain vegetables should not be included among offerings. The Jidu dacheng jinshu, for example, decrees that all vegetables should be excluded because they have been fertilized by manure and other human rejects (40.52b). Then again, the Zhengyi licheng yi (Proper Observances of Orthodox Unity, HY
1202) records that sugar cane, taro, potatoes, herbs (especially roots), lotus root, and kudzu vines are “unclean substances buried in the mud”
and, therefore, must not be used as offerings (26a). The “unclean,
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muddy substances” mentioned in Jin Yunzhong’s work cited earlier thus may well refer to vegetables growing close to the earth or roots, such as taro, potatoes, and lotus root. Fruit can be offered (except pomegranates and lotus seeds), but vegetables cannot.
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Fruit is also commonly used as a substitute for other food or as a major form of nourishment in the longevity practice known as “abstention from grain” ( bigu; see Lévi 1983; Eskildsen 1998). Practitioners avoid eating all grain and heavy food in order to prevent intestinal congestion and render their bodies lighter. In many immortals’
hagiographies, the protagonist consumes fruit either during or after the immortalization process—most commonly dates, persimmons, peaches, and pine nuts. Although these are not directly related to fruit used as offerings, the practice probably reflects the same underlying consciousness. Whether to become an immortal, to concoct an elixir, to practice magic, or to communicate with the divine through offerings and sacrifices, in all cases adepts had to keep their bodies light and pure and adjust their vital energies to the purer forces of the Dao.
Abstention from grain and eliminating impurities both come from this same basic understanding. Whether it is in the sacrifice from which the “five strong-smelling vegetables” and blood food are prohibited or in the abstention from grain whose purpose is to attain longevity or immortality, “fresh fruit from the branches of trees” plays a major role and is accepted with enthusiasm. It is highly suitable for both deities who were originally transformed from the light and pure energy of the cosmos and practitioners who wished to communicate with or get closer to the gods.
If the same understanding of food is found in both ritual offerings and the abstention from grain, then there might be other common features. One such feature is the distinction made between whole and ground grains. Among ancient immortality seekers, it is recorded in the biography of Tao Yan in the Daoxue zhuan (Biographies of Students of the Dao, in Sandong zhunang, HY 1131; see Bumbacher 2000): Tao Yan, styled Aijing, was from Xunyangin Lujiang. When he was about fifteen to sixteen years old, he changed his diet and began to abstain from grains. At first, he would still eat flour, later he only ate dates.
(3.2a)
This shows that ground grains were still consumed in the early phases of grain abstention and that a strong distinction was made between ground and whole grains. To classify the offerings from this angle, one could list ground grains together with fruit, that is, with the purest
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of offerings. The reason why ground grains are used as offerings may well be due to the fact that they are often considered the equivalent of fruit.
Unlike fruit, writing utensils are more like offerings of meat and can appear as its substitute. The Shoushen ji (In Search of the Supernatural) describes the Lord of the Yellow Stones as a deity very fond of purity who would never kill an animal in sacrifice. To honor him, paper, ink, and brushes were offered instead (4.84). Aside from replacing meat sacrifices, offerings of writing utensils also implied that the image of the deity was that of a literati-official. In addition, their offering is related to the Daoist tradition of object-based devotion ( zhenxin).
A general description of this phenomenon is first found in the Huanglu dazhai yi of the Song dynasty. It says: People of old were pure and simple, they cherished the Dao and embraced virtue, were free from greed and free from desires, each being sufficient upon himself. By merely using their will and sincerity, they could communicate with the divine and elicit a response; without any material objects or valuables, they could mysteriously harmonize with the perfection of Heaven.
However, in our latter-day age, people’s hearts are full of pride and deception, and they only desire riches and material goods, ignoring the law of karma and retribution; they devalue life and honor wealth, forgetting their family and destroying their country. Within, they harbor the myriad evils; without, they accumulate bad fortune and disaster, more and more causing destruction for each other, without ever becoming aware of what they are doing.
For this reason, it is important to teach them to give things up. Then, robbers will no longer arise on the outside, and both within and without will be tranquil and at peace. All bad occurrences will be dissolved.
Thus, to prove one’s devotion and liberate one’s mind, using material objects is primary. If one is able to give them up, the mind will soon follow suit and one will attain the goodness of sages.
As a result, one’s mind and intention will be as lofty as heaven, as solid as the earth, reaching out to the sages and perfected above. Then there is nothing that will not be attained by one’s faith; nothing that will not respond to one’s heart. The ultimate in finding divine responses lies in faith alone —and nothing else. (1.12b)
Object-based devotion thus means the voluntary giving up of material wealth and personal properties as a proof of faith and way of purifying the mind and heart. Only by offering money, valuables, and other
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material things can one find proper communication with and response to the divine. A list of suitable objects follows:
13 gold dragons
11 rolls of devotional colored silk
10 sets of devotional high-quality paper, ink sticks, brushes, and ink stones
10 bundles of devotional fragrant flowers
2.4 bushels of devotional rice
2.4 dippers of devotional oil
24 pounds of devotional charcoal
14,000 units of devotional money
3 devotional wood tablets
10 devotional jade pieces
3 devotional jades for the casting of dragons
27 gold buttons
( Huanglu dazhai yi 1.12b–15b)
Gold dragons are best made of gold, but people lacking the means for providing them can also use other materials, more suitable to their status and financial situation. They appear even today in the form of small cards with dragon designs that are used in piles in Taiwanese rituals. They are placed on wooden buckets filled with rice, the rice representing the devotional rice of the earlier tradition. Similarly, the real paper, ink stone, black and red ink sticks, and writing brushes demanded here are often placed on wooden buckets. Although offerings in Taiwan today are, therefore, not comparable in scale to those prescribed in the Huanglu dazhai yi, they are yet part of the same Daoist tradition of object-based devotion.
Why, then, are gold dragons, paper, ink sticks, and ink stones used as offerings? The text explains the presence of the gold dragons as follows:
Dragons are steeds that carry messages up to Heaven. In order to have any communication established and to evoke a powerful response, there is nothing better than a dragon messenger. As soon as the message is put on his back, he is already soaring off. (1.13a)
To convey one’s wishes and messages to Heaven as part of the practice of object-based devotion, gold dragons are, therefore, indispensable. Should one try to get one’s message across without them, divine retribution from the side of the heavenly officials will inevitably follow.
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As for the offering of paper, ink sticks, and ink stones, the Huanglu dazhai yi says:
Setting up purification ceremonies and conducting rites to the Dao can be done either to rescue the souls of the dead, of one’s myriad ancestors and innumerable forebears, to pray for good fortune, or to ask for divine grace in the dissolution of disasters and the prevention of bad luck.
In all these cases, the various officers of the Four [Heavenly] Bureaus, Five Emperors, Three Worlds, and Ten Directions keep a detailed record of all good deeds and merits, noting carefully and in detail the sins committed. In order to do so, they need paper and brushes, to write in the ledgers of merit and good deeds. In offering devotion to the Ten Directions, these must therefore never be missing. (1.13b) As human beings conduct rites on earth, so the celestial officials will record the merit accumulated in the ledgers kept in the administrative centers of the otherworld. Only through their record keeping does the ritual take effect. To have one’s merit, as it is earned through the performance of the ritual, properly recorded, paper, ink stick, ink stone, and brush are indis
pensable. Without them, the ritual will not be efficacious, and to make matters worse, the divine officials will mete out punishments for the oversight. The Huanglu dazhai yi makes no mention of ink sticks or ink stones, but brush and paper alone will not produce records; thus I think they should be part of the discussion.
The text has, on the other hand, a number of other devotional objects to be offered, together with a detailed description of which divine official will mete out which punishment when a certain object is missing in the presentation. Modern versions tend to omit the latter, but they include dragon cards, paper, black and red ink sticks, brushes, ink stones, and rice in the list of necessary offerings. These, then, can be understood as belonging to the tradition of object-based devotion .
Daoist ritual imitates the formal rites performed for traditional literati-officials, and Daoist priests are officials in the divine realm. A key component of Daoist ritual is to activate the power of the divine offices through various forms of written communication—memorials, petitions, letters. Writing utensils are, therefore, not only part of the established tradition of object-based devotion, but can be considered representative of the unique self-image Daoism has of its role in the world and the functions of its rituals.
Fruit and ground grain occupy an important position in the offerings, as do paper, ink sticks, writing brushes, and ink stones. Both in
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traditional rites and in the rituals performed today, they constitute the dominant portion of the offerings, demonstrating the active exclusion of blood food and reconfirming Daoist identity in ritual action.
Conclusion
Daoism fundamentally rejects blood sacrifices as part of its offerings as a way of reconfirming and maintaining its identity vis-à-vis popular religion, pursuing a higher religious goal than the latter. However, in the Song dynasty, when traditional Chinese sacrifice and ritual were in decline and Daoist and Buddhist funeral rites and sacrifices increased in popularity (see Matsumoto 1983), Daoists performed rituals less for their own sake or for that of the nation, focusing more and more on the benefit for the greater populace. At this time, they did not oppose popular religion but developed a position of tolerance.6 That is to say, while Daoists basically kept their inherent self-understanding and basic characteristics, they moved closer to the practitioners of popular religion. As a result, as the modern list of offerings shows, Daoists today allow meat to be presented in the sacred area.