93
FROM LANGMING ORDINATION NAMES TO GONGMING IMPERIAL DEGREES: STUDY OF A HAKKA RELIGIOUS PRACTICE AND ITS DECLINE
CHAN WING-HOI
From what we know about Chinese religion, ritual experts / magicians appear to be specialists living among lay populations whom they serve but who are not otherwise involved in their tradition. One notable exception is the case of the Yao who practiced a system of ritual obviously originated from the Han people. The Yao however differ from what we know about Han communities in that, generally, becoming a “Daoist” magician is part of their initiation into full adulthood.' Another important difference is that rituals of ancestral worship and those for the worship of gods appear to be separate among the Han but not among the case of Yao and She ethnic groups.
Reading the ritual manuals of ritual experts of Guangdong and Fujian provinces who claim to be Daoist, and of those from the Yao, one notices that they share a literary style that is quite different from the manuals in the Daoist Canon. As I shall show later, they share a peculiar group of gods central to their traditions but not found in the canonical tradition except a mention in the Southern Song dynasty of the magic of the "sorcerers" Moreover, we find in some Han genealogies, especially those of the Hakka, indications of similar practices of ordination and related customs. Instead of showing that the Hakka were of Yao or related non-Han minority origin, it confirms that the Yao practice is derived from a practice widespread among their Han neighbors that is less well documented.
Genealogies from among the Hakka of Guangdong and nearby provinces collected by the late Hakka scholar Luo Xianglin, and those found in the collections from the New Territories of Hong Kong, provide records of such ordinations from as early as the 10th Century. Many villagers in the New Territories have ordained ancestors, some held occasional celebrations which suggest that ancestral worship among those people could have been very different from what it is now, before the 18th Century when new ordination names were no
93
FROM LANGMING ORDINATION NAMES TO GONGMING IMPERIAL DEGREES: STUDY OF A
HAKKA RELIGIOUS PRACTICE AND ITS DECLINE
CHAN WING-HOI
From what we know about Chinese religion, ritual experts / magicians appear to be specialists living among lay populations whom they serve but who are not otherwise involved in their tradition. One notable exception is the case of the Yao who practiced a system of ritual obviously originated from the Han people. The Yao however differ from what we know about Han communities in that, generally, becoming a “Daoist” magician is part of their initiation into full adulthood.' Another important difference is that rituals of ancestral worship and those for the worship of gods appear to be separate among the Han but not among the case of Yao and She ethnic groups.
Reading the ritual manuals of ntual experts of Guangdong and Fujian provinces who claim to be Daoist, and of those from the Yao, one notices that they share a literary style that is quite different from the manuals in the Daoist Canon. As I shall show later, they share a peculiar group of gods central to then traditions but not found in the canonical tradition except a mention in the Southern Song dynasty of the magic of the "sorcerers" Moreover, we find in some Han genealogies, especially those of the Hakka, indications of similar practices of ordination and related customs. Instead of showing that the Hakka were of Yao or related non- Han minority origin, it confirms that the Yao practice is derived from a practice widespread among their Han neighbors that is less well documented.
Genealogies from among the Hakka of Guangdong and nearby provinces collected by the late Hakka scholar Luo Xianglin, and those found in the collections from the New Territories of Hong Kong, provide records of such ordinations from as early as the 10th Century. Many villagers in the New Tertones have ordained ancestors, some held occasional celebrations which suggest that ancestral worship among those people could have been very different from what it is now, before the 18th Century when new ordination names were no
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