Daoist Identity

by Livia Kohn

  The purpose of doing so is to integrate offerings typically used in popular religion into the structure of Daoist ritual. The list of essential offerings any Daoist client receives, then, includes meat as a valid sacrifice; it shows that Daoists today accept meat sacrifices without hesitation. This, in turn, raises the questions of whether a Daoist ritual that includes blood sacrifices is still a Daoist ritual? To answer this, the difference in emphasis and importance has to be pointed out. The most important components among Daoist offerings are incense, flowers, candles, tea, wine, and fruit, as well as products made from ground grain, which have the same significance and are used in many forms. In addition, offerings of writing utensils, as based on the tradition of object-based devotion, are also used prominently. Meat or the five strong-smelling vegetables never replace any of them or attain nearly as important a position in the offerings. They are included on the periphery, placed carefully away from the holiest altars, and mainly serve to complement Daoist offerings with popular ones in order to achieve fuller efficacy. Although Daoists, therefore, allow certain aspects of popular religion to enter their realm, the overall ritual structure of the religion has not been altered. There is no merging of Daoism and popular religion but a fruitful coexistence and complementary practice.

  In contemporary Daoist rituals in Taiwan, to conclude, specifically

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  Daoist features may appear rather inconspicuous. This is because they are often performed as part of larger ceremonies at the request of specific clients whose main orientation is popular religion. This is to say that while Daoism is at the core of the ceremony, the ceremony itself is of a popular nature —and this is clearly reflected in the offerings.7 Examining them, the identity and structure of Daoism in contemporary Taiwan becomes clearer.

  Translated by Zhonghu Yan

  Notes

  The sources on Taiwanese Daoism used in this paper were obtained during field work in Taiwan. In 1980 I did preliminary explorations on a short-term basis. From 1988 to 1990 I undertook more formal field work as a visiting research associate of the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica, Taipei.

  I am deeply indebted for its generous hospitality. In the past decade, moreover, I have continued to return to Taiwan for more short-term investigations.

  1. Daoists in Taiwan are distinguished according to redhead and blackhead (see Saso 1970; 1971). Although both are members of the lineage of the Celestial Masters or Orthodox Unity Daoism, their functions are slightly different. Redhead Daoists are centered in the northern part of the island; they do not perform funerary rites and refer to themselves as Zhengyi while calling their blackhead counterpart Lingbao (Liu 1994, 79; Lu 1994). Since both stand in the Zhengyi lineage, however, I feel the distinction according to these two terms is not properly applicable. I accordingly speak of both of them as Zhengyi priests. Should a distinction be necessary, I use the terms redhead and blackhead. My fieldwork was mostly undertaken among blackhead Daoists in southern Taiwan.

  2. Ginger in Daoism is typically not considered one of the five strong-smelling vegetables, which are defined variously. The Shangqing lingbao dafa (Great Methods of Highest Clarity and Numinous Treasure, HY 1213) has them as onions, leeks, big garlic, small garlic, and caraway seeds (9.6b); the Daoxue keyi (Rules and Observances for Students of the Dao, HY 1118) has them as leeks, big garlic, small garlic, onions, and scallions (1.4b). The latter text, moreover, encourages Daoist priestesses to take ginger honey (1.19a), showing that ginger was not considered unclean.

  3. See, among others, Sanhuang zhai (Rites for the Three Sovereigns, Wushang biyao [HY 581], 49.1b); Toulong bi yi (Observances for Casting Dragon Disks, Huanglu zhaiyi [HY 507], 55.3b); Jijiao fa (Methods of Offerings, Lingbao liuding bifa [HY 581], 2b); Ji tiannü shier xinü fa (Rites to the Twelve Heavenly River Ladies, Shangqing liujia qidao bifa [HY 584], 5ab); Toulong songjian (Casting Dragons and Sending of Memorials, Shangqing lingbao dafa [HY 1213], 41.3b) .

  4. A similar milk taboo is also recorded in the Huanglu dazhai yi (Obser-

  Offerings in Daoist Ritual

  293

  vances for the Great Yellow Register Rite, HY 508, 2.15b, .49.5b) and in Jin Yunzhong’s Shangqing lingbao dafa (HY 1213, 17.22b).

  5. Ofuchi explains the significance of incense by referring to ritual books used in southern Taiwan, including the Huanglu zhaiyi (Observances for the Yellow Register Rite) , Lingbao duren dafa (Great Lingbao Methods of Salvation), and the Shangqing lingbao dafa in its various versions. The smoke from the incense, he concludes, serves to convey the people’s sincerity and wishes to the gods (1983, 225–226). In addition, Yamada Toshiaki cites the Lingbao wufu xu on the use of incense when inviting the Five Emperors. He believes that in early Lingbao scriptures incense was offered as a way to solicit the divine presence, its curling smoke assuming important meaning (see Yamada 1989, 17).

  6. Kleeman, in his classification of Chinese religions from the perspective of blood sacrifices, describes the religious community since the Song as the

  “public religious world.” He observes that here “Daoism has been most successful in responding to the demands of popular religion” (1996). From what I have learned in my own studies in Taiwan, I can only agree with him.

  7. Furuie and Matsumoto (1991) observed Wangye sacrifices in southern Taiwan from the perspectives of both Daoist priests and village residents (that is, clients). They concluded that the nature of the ritual and the demands of the client are unrelated except for tangential contact.

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