The period between
the second and the sixth centuries C.E., constitutes the formative period of Daoism.Daoist lineages were concerned with distinguishing
themselves from other lineages of practice and had an emic set of categories
for doing so. Traditions are constructed retroactively as adherents seek sources for the practices advocated
by their communities in order to distinguish them from other practices.
For an
introductory summary of the historical background and historiographical
issues related to the period following the collapse of the Later Han and
through the Six Dynasties period, see Scott Pearce, Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey, "Introduction" in Scott Pearce, Audrey
Spiro and Patricia Ebrey, Culture and Power in the
Reconstitution of the Chinese Realm, 200-600 ( 2001): 1-32.
An important document
that also needs to be taken into account is the Array of the Five Numinous Treasure
Talismans of the Most High (Taishang lingbao wufu xu, hereafter WFX).
This is a core text for understanding the processes by which Daoists constructed their identity. The major part of the
text was compiled in the southern kingdom of Wu and may tentatively be
dated to the late third century C.E.
There are different
ways in which tradition is created - that is, the strategies by which authors
compile new rituals and narratives, and establish a self-consciously distinct
style of practice. The process by which Daoists
constructed their tradition ranged from the discourse of transcendence found in
late Han inscriptions to the integration of imperial ritual and breathing
practices in the ritual synthesis of the jiao rite.
In order to emphasize the creative aspect of the process by which earlier
textual and ritual elements were adopted and adapted, I demonstrated that while
underlying notions such as the "power of inscription" were common,
the actual choices made by the authors to include specific elements, such as
the motifs of the Red Bird or Mt. Zhong, were comprehensible in specific
contexts. These choices were often misunderstood, or made irrelevant, in later
formulations - and were either discarded or changed to accommodate new
interests.
The best example for
the early personal quest may be the Inaugural Emperor of Qin whose
administrative and ritual system was based upon the cosmological speculations
of Zou Yan, and who, under the influence of masters of esoterica from the
coast, was personally devoted to the quest for transcendence.l
The same type of quest is evident in other inscriptions which suggests
how the small localized family based lineages may have been organized. By the
late second century, as the three other inscriptions demonstrate, shrines to
individual adepts had become foci of communal cultic practice.
The so called Tang Gongfang and Wangzi Qiao inscriptions to earlier forms of cultic practice
attest to the historical developments of these cults. The deification process
of the adepts evident in the inscriptions in question also demonstrates that
the Laozi inscription does not mark a unique development. While Laozi may have
been perceived as the greatest of the masters, his deification and eventual
identification with the Dao itself must be seen within the context of the
deification of other masters of esoterica and as part of the same spectrum.
By the late Han
seekers of immortality were deified in various locales throughout China and
became foes of communal cultic practice. Inscriptions share terminology and
refer to similar practices. These similarities are also shared with early
hagiographies and with narratives embedded in contemporary sources. This shared
discourse should therefore be seen as reflecting actual social practices rather
than mere literary tropes. These inscriptions reveal a process, common to all
social levels, in which individual practitioners of esoteric arts, fangshi, came to be perceived as deified beings that
provided their communities with benefits, ranging from healing disease to
providing good weather and pest control for agricultural work. Simultaneously,
these deified beings continued to be seen as transmitters of esoteric arts to
individual practitioners.
The deification of
Laozi was not unique. Rather, the cult to Laozi should be understood within a
spectrum of communal cultic centers. Such cults ranged from small, family based
cults, similar to the cult revealed by the Fei Zhi
inscription. through local cults, such as formed around Tang Gongfang, to trans-regional cults, such as evidenced by
the. inscription to Wangzi Qiao.
Along this spectrum, I characterized the cult to Laozi as a uni
versal cult. The language in the Laozi inscription portrays hirn
as a successful adept who has become one with the Dao. The same qualities with
similar phrases are also ascribed to Wangzi Qiao and the other transcendent. The language of
transcendence itself is traceable to pre-Han texts, but reaches an apogee in
the language used by the Inaugural Emperor of Qin and Han emperor Wu. The
active quest for transcendence through esoteric practices and the terminology
of attainment used exemplifies the links between the individual quest and the
imperial project.
The Han-era transcendents were appropriated into the later Daoist pantheons.
Thisvery act of appropriation, however, reveals one
of the qualitative differences between the Han practitioners and Daoists. The various Daoist lineages ranked individuals and
practices into hierarchies of attainrnent as they
attempted to map the entire panoply of practices. and local cults into
systematic and unified pantheons. In this sense the Daoist enterprise
paralleled the imperial project of unification.
The Fei Zhi inscription is evidence for the existence of a wide
range of communal cults, which can be characterized simultaneously as aspects
of local common religion and as part of the esoteric lineages of the jangshi. Along with the inchoate Taiping movement and
Celestial Master Daoism, these cults were the milieux from which Daoist
lineages were to emerge in the following centuries.
For example the
choice of Mt. Zhong as a locus of revelation, while traceable to earlier
mythical narratives, is explainable when associated with the mountain of this
name outside Jiankang, the new capital city of the Wu
kingdom, which was to become the capital region for the Southern Dynasties for
the next four centuries. The sacrality attributed to Mt. Zhong and Lake Dongting in the transmission narrative coheres with the
search for legitimacy by the Southern Kingdoms, which also sought to transpose
the sacred geography of the entire of "China" realm into the smaller
territory in the south.
Narratives were
reformulated to achieve a unified Daoist traditions, for example the one
culminating with the reformed Celestial Masters of the Northem
Wei. But also the more modern false claim that “Daoisrn
emerged from Laozi”
We may consider the
"charge" for the author(s) to have been the production of a text
which would: (a) advöcate a specific ritual as the
ultimate practice for attaining transcendence, (b) legitimate the practice by
providing it with a prestigious lineage, and (c) create a mythology that would
cohere with the expectations of the ultimate audience, the emperor.
However lineages were
constructed by dual processes. First, actual historieal
lineages were formed by rituals binding master and disciple, and, second, these
historie al lineages claimed ancient prestige by
creative constructions of mythical antecedents. The correct transmission by
which lineages defined themselves centered on texts and practices. Restricting
access to these practices ensured their secrecy and efficacy.
The earliest textual
layers consisted of discrete practices which the authors thereby claimed as
their heritage. This was the tradition which the authors constructed and which
the lineage claimed as its own. By this claim the authors assured the
legitimacy and authority of the ritual synthesis which is advocated in the
third juan of the Wu Fu Xu one of the most authtentic Daoist documents.
The structure of the
WFX is coherent if we realize that the text includes passages emanating from at
least two groups. While alert to the danger of "inventing" and
reifying lineages,IS I wish to stress that these
groups need not be seen as distinct seets or cults.
On the other hand, we must be aware that several contemporary groups were
active in the Jiangnan region, as elsewhere. Their historical existence and
actual contributions to the developing Daoist traditions is obscured by the
textual production ofthe Six Dynasties period, which
tended to systematize competing notions into hierarchie
schemes of attainment and toreformulate oldertexts and practices to fit new interests. Thus, while
we may generally label these various lineages as Daoist, we risk losing sight
of the specific differences andsimilarities between
them.
The interaction and
impact of various groups on each other' s practices is reflected in the
redaction process of the text and its constituent parts.
The text was composed
before Ge Hong and that it is representative of a lineage whose interests
differed markedly from those found in theBPZ. The
early strata of the text were impacted by a lineage associated with Celestial
Master Daoism, and active in the south. While I am unable to name any of the
members of the main lineage within which the text was produced, I can
characterize them with following attributes: Closely affiliated with fangshi groups with an interest in qi-circulation, and
particularly in the ingestion of astral and directional pneumas, as opposed to
herbal and mineral compounds, a deep interest in the weft-texts and debates on
ritual efficacy, and eIose links to the court.
Hopefully, future research will further cIarify these
issues and perhaps evenidentify the author and
compilers of the text.
The source of the
Daoist traditions can be found in the so called five Lingbao
talismans and represented the Dao itself.
A summary of the
importance of the five Lingbao talismans in the
Daoist tradition is found in the Tang manual of transmission rites, the
Synopsis of Precepts, Methods, and Registers for Transmission of Scriptures of
the Three Caverns by Zhang Wanfu. The passage
concerning the Lingbao talismans describes them as
primordial simulacra of the cosmognic process. As manifestations
of the transformative power by which the universe itself was generated and
continues to transform. And the talismans are said to confer transcendence on
those fortunate enough to possess them. Zhang writes:
The Five Talismans of
Lingbao are the concealed patterns of the Dao, the
congealed pneumas of the flying mysteries. They are spontaneously generated
radiant graphs, one zhang square, emitting rays in
the eight directions. They emerged before the Primordial within the Cavern of
Emptiness. Preserving and managing the epochal revolutions they cause heaven to
long endure, lead the Brahma-pneumas to diffuse and spread, and cause the
myriad forms to sprout and grow. All those in the ten directions who attained
the Dao, and all the spirits and transcendents, wear
and revere [these talismans] to gain longevity, to transform and become
self-sufficient. Driving the hundred spirits they ascend and enter the
formless, and merge their perfection with the Dao.
Zhang Wanfu's comment to this passage reiterates the cosmogonic
and transformative power of the talismans. Significantly, in describing their
appearance in the human realm he summarizes two transmission narratives , the
transmission through the Yellow Thearch, described in
the Zhenyi jing, and the transmission
though the Great Yu, described in the prefatory section of the WFX, refer,
in fact, to the same set of talismans. Thus, the two distinct narratives
are finally reconciled in a short rhetorical fIourish.
Unlike the passage on which he is commenting, Zhang Wanfu
specifies that merely carrying the talismans onone' s
body will confer longevity. He proceeds next by describing how:;
“The Five Talismans
of Lingbao produced heaven and earth, separated into
the five phases, mixing with the pneuma they inhale and exhale the hundred
spirits, in accord with the epoch they hide and reveal [themselves]. Enduring
over succeeding epochs they r€wolve through the five
epochs, spreading the pneumas through the ten heavens. Xuan Yuan [the Yellow Thearch] received it from the Celestial Perfected Luminary
(Tianzhen huangren ) and
transmitted it to his descendents. Xia Yu obtained it
at Mt. Zhong and secreted it at Dongting. The King of
Wu divulged it and the blessings of his state did not advance. When a Daoist
wears them the Dao does not depart from his body, his spirit and pneuma
transform and harmonize within the heart. When the spirits and the pnuema of the Dao are unified, transformations will be
natural, and longevity will equal that of heaven and earth. Having refined your
effulgence’s and entered perfection. after dissolving your physical body you
will be without danger and will endure alone for long epochs.”
Traceable to ancient
myths, notions of the "power of inscription." underlay the inherent
efficacy of "charts and registers" which provided authority to the
ruler.
Talismans were
perceived as the most subtle form of inscription. In political contexts
talismans were used as emblems of fealty, but in the fangshi
traditions and common religion and functioned as emblems of authority and
power.
The original use of
the Lingbao talismans was as apotropaic devices for
entering mountains, and this remains the function of the talismans in the BPZ.
Ge Hong continues to see the primary use of talismans as protective devices.
While this function is clearly alluded to in the incantations of the jiao rite, the talismans are perceived with far greater
numinosity.
The Lingbao talismans continued to function as core elements in
the Lingbao ritual synthesis. Reformulated as the
Five Perfect Writs in the Perfect Writs in Red Script and the Jade
Instructions, these talismans retain their significance in contemporary Daoist
rituals, in which they function as the markers of sacred space. They are the firstdevices to be instalied when
a Daoist altar is constructed, and the last to be removed.
Divergences with
other Daoist lineages may be demonstrated by examining the place ascribed to
the Lingbao talismans in texts emanating from other
lineages. We may, for instance, look at the Hidden Commentary of the Great
Culmen on the Jade Scriptures and Treasured Instructions oi Great Purity (Shangqing taiji yinzhu yujing baojue
):
A late Six Dynasties manual
associated with the Lingbao ritual system
incorporating practices and texts of other Daoist lineages, and typical of the
systematizing texts of the fifth and sixth centuries. Within this system the
primary talismans are the Nine Great Talismans of Concealment
Next in importance
are the Lingbao wufu which
''worn on one's body, allow one to drive dragons and ride the pneumas, cross
through fire and water. The five Thearchs will be at
one's side as one roams afar and flies high.
This practice which
refers to the five Thearchs together with the five
talismans is elearly informed by the WFX, and the
later codifications in the Peifect Writs in Red
Script.
The notions of
inscription and naming to concepts of the body described in the Zhenyi jing and related passages
in the WFX, included the notions of bodily gods, the Three-Ones and a focus on
internal sources for their practice.
These notions were
also found in the LZZJ, in which Taiyi has a central
role. However, this complex of notions and practices is different from the
practice of the Five Sprouts, which is celebrated in the main body of the WFX,
and which seems to have been the core of the Lingbao
jingo In the practice of the Five Sprouts the practitioner seeks to imbibe qi
from sources external to his body, and Taiyi has no
part in the rite. This conception is retained in the developed jiao rite of the Peifect Writs in
Red Script and in later formulations.
The ritual synthesis
of the WFX can be seen on the distinct elements by which the jiao rite was constructed I demonstrated the close links
between imperial ritual ideoIogy and early Daoist
ritual. I also stressed the divergent cosmoIogical
implications expressed by the variant naming schemes of the five Thearchs.
The changes in
meaning and significance of emplacing the Lingbao
talismans between the red and green silks, and the implications of abandoning
the ritual sacrifice of a goose. The WFX still includes a sacrifice and
offering of flesh, demonstrating its association with common religion of the
Han. This aspect of the ritual recedes from use in the ritual synthesis of the Lingbao scriptures until it is abandoned in the
codification by Lu Xiujing.
These changes reflect
changes in the understanding of the five Thearchs.
While in the imperial
system and the WFX the five thearchs were perceived
as ancestralspirits in need of nourishment. This was
no longer the case in the Perfect Writs in Red Script, where the fiveThearchs are perceived as aspects of the Dao and thus
beyond the need of physical nourishment.
In tracing the
creative processes by which the WFX took form and the changing conceptions of
the practices associated with the Lingbao talismans,
the five sprouts and five Thearchs, the redaction
process of the WFX - in narrative, mythography, andritual
systemization - reflects the emergence of Daoism. The creative processes
involved in the construction of mythical narratives, practices of lineage
construction, and ritual synthesis reveal similarities which point to a
systematic and coherent creative authorship. Similar processes can be found in
other Daoist texts, exemplifying the "creation of Tradition."
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