RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author 80 that a Taoist priest entered her chamber. She was indignant and shouted, "This is my inner room; how dare you, a stranger, come in!" The Taoist priest said, "Hurry up, madam, receive your marvellous child!" Before she had had time to reply, the priest pushed something into her arms and she awoke, and her body was wet with cold sweat. She was frightened and before she could tell her husband all about the dream, she was again seized with a birth spasm. Li Ching went to the sitting room which was adjoining and thought over the matter. Suddenly two maids came out exclaiming “Madam has given birth to a monster!” Li Ching held his sword and rushed into the chamber. The room was filled with red mist which emitted a strong fragrance. A lump of flesh was rolling round the room like a wheel. Li Ching cut it with his sword and a baby jumped out, bathed in red light. The boy was very handsome; his face was as white as powder; on his right wrist was a golden bracelet; and his belly was covered with a piece of red silk gauze, which shone with a golden glow. He was a god, a re-incarnation (avatar) of the Ling-chu-tzu (Master of the Intelligent Pearl) and was destined to be the vanguard under Marshal Chiang Tzu-ya. To give birth to a lump of flesh is something unusual in Chinese legends. But similar cases can be cited from the Buddhist sutras translated into Chinese as early as the third century. In the tale of Putrah (7) in chüan 7 of the Avadanasataka (# E), it is said that "when the Buddha was in the country of Kapilavastu (E6) under the nyagrodha tree (ficus Indica), there was an elder who was very rich and his treasures were abundant and beyond measure. He married a wife from a notable family whom he loved very much, and with music and dances he used to entertain her. Now she conceived and when ten months elapsed she gave birth to a freak—a lump of flesh. The elder was vexed about it and thought it inauspicious. In the Fu-kuo Chi (DE "A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms") under the "stupa in the Vaisali” (œÊME) it is recorded, + · • • On the upstream of the Ganges River there was a king whose concubine gave birth to a lump of flesh. The formal wife was jealous and said it was inauspicious, so she ordered this lump to be put in a wooden box and thrown into the river. Another king went out for an excursion on the river and opened the box in which he found a thousand babies who were extraordinarily handsome and dignified. The king took care of them until they grew up, when they were brave 23 No. 20, The Tripitaka in Chinese. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 95 B (c) The T'ao T'ien-chün ( or Celestial Master T'ao), one of the four attendant-generals forming the retinue of the Premier Wên T'ai-shih in the Fêng-shên Yen-i is an invention of the author of the Fêng-shên for a particular reason.3 In any one of the earlier works before the Fêng-shen, whether Taoist canonical texts or popular literature, we can find the other three T'ien-chün but not this one. This fact strengthens the hypothesis that this particular character was created with a purpose. But he appears also in Wu Ch'êng-ên's Hsi-yu-chi. (Ch.4 etc.) (d) Yin Chiao () in his transformed figure is an ugly and evil god. "His face was as blue as indigo, and he had long projecting teeth" (Ch.63, Fêng-shên Yen-i). He was canonized as the T'ai-sui (✯ the God of the Cycle) in Ch.99 of the Feng-shên. Now in Wu's Hsi-yu-chi there is a line of verse, "The other had a blue face and protruding teeth as ugly as the T'ai-sui.” (56) (e) In Wu's Hsi-yu-chi, when Sun Wu-k'ung ( the Monkey) was repelled by Hsüan-tsang (), he thought of “going to the islands (hai-tao ) but he was rather ashamed to meet those immortals in the three fairy-lands (san-tao chu-hsien l)". (Ch.57) This is probably influenced by the islands and the immortals there (hai-tao tao-yu fă‡) in Chs.38, 47 and 59 of the Fêng-shễn. In Ch.59 of the Feng-shên when Lü Yüeh (BG) was defeated by the troops of Chiang Tzu-ya, he fled to the islands as his last resort. (f) In Wu's Hsi-yu-chi (Ch.60), the Demon-king of Oxen (Niu Mo-wang 4E) rode on a "water-proof golden-pupiled monster" (Pi-shui Chin-ching Shou HR). I think this name was invented after the "fire-spitting golden-pupiled monsters" (Huo-yen Chin-ching Shou ) ridden by Chêng Lun, Chiên Ch'i and Ch'ung Hei-hu in the Fêng-shên Yen-i. (g) In Ch.61 of the Wu's Hsi-yu-chi there are the "four great Vajras" (MAI) which are no doubt an adaptation of the “four great heavenly kings". One of their dwelling-places is in the Chin-hsia Tung ( Golden Clouds Cave) of Mt. K'un-lun. In fact this Chin-hsia Tung is exactly the name of the grotto where the Yü-ting Chên-jên (EMRA Immortal of the Jade Urn) lives in the Fêng-shên Yen-i, and Mt. K'un-lun is the sacred mountain of the Promulgating Sect. 37 Ibid., pp. 251-55. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN (c) Taoism 181 Taoism, as a religion nowadays, is hard to define; it is much more than Buddhism caught up in popular religion and very often identified or confused with it, not only by students of Chinese religions but by believers as well. Examples are lists of temples in Taiwan, where temples are identified either as Taoist or Buddhist, with the rare exceptions of Confucian temples and ancestral halls. If we see the folk-religion as a separate category, then Taoism as such should be stripped of all the folk-religious elements and seen in its purity. In that case, only a few temples can be identified as Taoist, and the Taoist religion has thus basically to be identified with the various sects of Taoist priests. The matter has become more complicated since the institution of a Taoist Association in 1950. This is organized and run by Taoist laymen but has requested and obtained membership among many temples of the folk religion (in many temples, one can see the metal membership plates on the wall). The Taoist priesthood is divided into 3 (or 4) sects: the ling-pao, cheng-yi, or t'ien-shih and san-nai sects. The cheng-yi sect, or the sect of the Heavenly Master, has been trying for a long time to control the Taoist priesthood of all sects to unify them (and collect their dues). The 64th successor to Chang Tao-ling, living in Taipei, confers ordinations and promotions all over the island. However, as over the centuries, candidates to the priesthood (often hereditary) are not well trained in Taoist philosophy: they start their instruction as apprentices of a particular master, but throughout their training, they usually do not go beyond learning to recite the sacred texts and performing the various rituals. There are, happily, exceptions to the rule, and a fascinating example is Master Chuang of Hsinchu city, who is not only a master of rituals but performs the esoteric meditations of inner alchemy as well. In Taiwan, there are no Taoist monasteries where priests live as celibate monks, although there seems to be a movement of return to the ancient model: in one temple in Kaohsiung, the Tao-Te-Yuan, a group of young women have been ordained as Taoist priests and have made the vow of celibacy. The same temple also organizes study sessions for laymen to foster a deeper understanding of Taoist philosophy. As in Buddhism, the laymen again are promoters of a more serious involvement in Taoism. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN 191 10 See M. Saso, The Teachings of Master Chuang. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978. 11 Journal of Buddhist Culture, Fo-Chiao wen-hua hsüeh-pao,*** published by the Institute for the Study of Buddhist Culture since 1972. Articles are in Chinese or English. 12 Journal of Taoist Culture, Tao-chiao wen-hua,Maxit published by the Taoist Culture Journal Association since 1976. Articles are in Chinese. 13 Examples are: Fo-kuang hsüeh-pao,1*£* published by the Buddhist monastery on Fo-kuang mountain near Kaohsiung, since 1975 or 1976; Boahedrum, Pw-ti-shu,### Taichung: Hui-châ, & Torch Wisdom, Taipei; Hal Ming-tao, published in Tounan (Yünlin district). of 14 See E. Ahern, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973. 15 See L. G. Thompson, "Notes on Religious Trends in Taiwan", Mon. Ser., vol. 23 (1964), 319-350. 16 See A. P. Cohen, "Fiscal Remarks on some Folk Religion Temples in Taiwan", Mon. Ser., vol. 32 (1976), 85-158. 17 See Liu Chih-wan, Taipei-shih Sung-shan ch'i-an chien-chiao chi-tien (Great Propitiatory Rites of Petition for Bene-ficence at Sungshan, Taipei, Taiwan), Taipei: Academia Sinica, Institute of Ethnology, (monographs no. 14), 1967, Liu Chih-wan, Chung-kuo min-chien hsin-yang lun-chi (Essays on Chinese Folk Belief and Folk Cults), Taipei: Academia Sinica, Institute of Ethnology (monographs no. 22), 1974. M. Saso, Taoism or the Rite of Cosmic Renewal, Washington State University Press, 1972. 18 See St. Harrell, "Modes of Belief in Chinese Folk Religion", in JSSR, vol. 16 (1977), 55-65. 19 See D. Jordan, Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors. Folk Religion in a Taiwanese Village, University of California Press, 1972, G. Seaman, Temple Organization in a Chinese Village (Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs, vol. 101), Taipei: Chinese Association for Folklore, 1978, 20 See D. Overmyer, "The Saying of Master Lu", Unpublished paper, given at the joint panel of the CASA and the CSSR on Chinese Religion at the Conference of the Learned Societies in Saskatoon, May, 1979. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 106 JULIAN F. PAS Therefore we next light a lamp in front of the Primordial Old One (Lao Tzu Heavenly Worthy) to clarify (signify) the proceeding and descent of the Third Ch'i from the Original August One,34 The parallelism between the Taoist and the Christian Triad or Trinity should be left out of the discussion here; what is significant in this context, however, is how the trinitarian formula in each case is used in the new-light ceremony. Another, minor, detail is the raising of the chanting tone in the two cases: the deacon chants “Lumen Christi” three times in successively higher intonations; the Taoist “deacon” or tu-chiang, repeats three times the phrase chanted by the high-priest, elevating his tone of voice. (iv) The liturgical procession. After the new light has been struck and carried into the temple, a procession takes place in which Taoist high-priest and all his assistants participate. The Christian version is a little different: the new light, struck outside the sanctuary, is carried into the darkened church during a procession in which all those present participate. Although the details differ, the main ritual event of a light-procession is strikingly similar. (v) The context of both rituals leaves considerable room for speculation. Although in the case of the Taoist fen-teng, the ritual context has become rather obscure, still, a careful analysis of this context may open up new avenues of interpretation. The context in question are two rituals which in the present chiao celebration, as witnessed in Taiwan, as well as in the older ritual texts derived from China, seem always to follow the fen-teng. These two rituals, already mentioned above (p.95) are: the "rolling up of the screen" and the “sounding of bell and chime”.35 It appears that the connection between these two and the fen-teng is rather uncertain and is probably not older than the Sung dynasty. As M. Saso mentions, not all Taoist priests perform the ritual at the same time or in the same ritual context.36 In other words, the phenomenological significance of these two rituals is not obvious and new speculations are possible. If again the Christian Easter rituals are called upon, it is possible to come up with a plausible interpretation of the three ritual acts as a whole: the Christian Easter celebrations contain indeed three similar rituals of which the relationship is clearly understandable. Although the historical links are still left out of the discussion here, the very structure of the Christian ritual may throw light on its Taoist counterpart and help us to understand the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT 111 contacts between Taoists and Nestorians may reasonably be assumed. When Wieger further states that "Nestorian influence appears to be undeniable in Taoist texts", we have a better case. Much depends, however, on the validity of Wieger's evaluation of some Taoist texts, in which he finds clear indications of Christian influence.52 To establish a reasonably strong case we need a more thorough investigation in two directions: historical and literary. Historically, all the clues already pointed out by previous authors, have to be carefully checked, esp. all the information derived from official histories and Taoist biographies. Very likely not much more than known so far may be discovered in this area. Therefore the second direction, the literary traditions may prove to yield a more bountiful harvest. Both the Taoist and the Nestorian literature has to be carefully scrutinized. If positive influence may be reasonably assumed, pure assumptions are dangerous. On the one hand, all the Nestorian writings in Chinese have to be studied; and if important works are not any longer available in Chinese translation, the Syriac originals should be consulted, esp. with regard to the Nestorian liturgy. So far I have assumed that the Nestorian Easter liturgy contained the ritual of consecrating the new fire to light the Easter Candle. But an assumption here is not sufficient to relate the Christian liturgy with the Taoist fen-teng. If the Nestorians in China never had such a ritual, the whole question of influence collapses, and we can only compare two independent (archetypal) rituals. On the other hand, the Taoist liturgical writings have to be carefully examined, especially in their historical development. K. Schipper has listed a large number of Taoist writings referring to the fen-teng ritual.53 Their careful study and analysis may reveal some of the influences that were operative in the origin and growth of one ritual like the fen-teng, but will also throw the road open to further similar researches into other areas of Taoist liturgy as well as of Buddhist liturgy. END NOTES 1 M. Saso, The Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978), p. 209. * M. Saso Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal (Washington State University, 1972), p. 73. See end-note 9. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 13 Master Sect of Chang Tao-lin. All these sects claim to have received a special revelation. They all teach that disease is caused by sin and/or demons. Healing must go hand-in-hand with repentance. They all decline the use of medicine but resort to prayer and exorcism. They are all organized into religious sects. Do these similarities among healing sects speak for a type of religious expression? Perhaps, underneath the conscious mind, all men have something in common which, when manifested externally, is constituted along similar lines. The second reflection to which I would like to draw attention concerns the association of Tan Tse Tao with Taoism. As can be seen from the history of the Supreme Deity's revelation and the teaching as recorded in Lo's important writings, there is little hint that Tan Tse Tao is a form of Taoism. Yet in its later development, Tan Tse Tao was considered as such by the Patriarch and his disciples. It is in fact at present a member of the Hong Kong Taoist Association. It is not too clear how this could have occurred. Perhaps Patriarch Lo felt that the ineffable quality of the Supreme Deity is the same as the "Tao" discussed by Lao Tzu, and that the quiet-sitting is similar to Chuang Tzu's "sitting in forgetfulness.” Or perhaps he found an identity in the terminology used in his own religion and that of Taoism. Or perhaps the association with Taoism is simply revealed.42 Whatever the reason for the association, it must have provided a strong support by reason of Taoism's reputation as the most ancient native Chinese religion. This association is a parallel to the association of the Heavenly Master's sect with Lao Tzu. Scholars with Confucian sympathies have invariably ridiculed the association of the Han Dynasty faith-healing sect with Lao Tzu. In their minds the faith-healers have simply twisted the meaning of Lao Tzu to fit their own purpose. The association of Tan Tse Tao with Lao Tzu should make us think again. Perhaps the association is not as arbitrary as Confucian scholars make it out to be. Perhaps Maspero's conjecture of a religious base to Lao Tzu is still a live issue.43 The last notable character about Tan Tse Tao is its exclusive veneration of the Supreme Deity. This practice is unprecedented in Chinese cults. Writers have often drawn attention to the fact ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 71 Most Chinese will, however, tell you that a dragon has sinews and veins which can be severed. Blood can be spilled. Thus, when the earth's flesh was pierced, blood, in the form of bright red, ochre-coloured earth, appeared during excavations for the construction of Hong Kong's underground railway in the 1970s. This could mean the time had come for workers to down tools. The evil that might follow had to be averted ritually. Taoist priests would then beat ceremonial gongs and offer prayers to pacify spirits of the earth where the dragon's peace was being destroyed. Exorcism in modern day Hong Kong is by no means uncommon (Raceday rites, 1987). Neither is exorcism uncommon in Christian churches. It is mentioned in the Bible. One can compare certain Buddhist, Taoist or folk-religion ceremonies, which purify and bestow blessings, with walking through fields in Europe in springtime while conducting a Christian Rogation Service to ensure a good harvest. Interestingly, some Chinese came to the conclusion during the last century, that foreigners know far more about fung shui than they are prepared to admit. Otherwise, why would they have picked such a fine site (as it was then) for the Governor's residence? Why would they plant vegetation over the slopes of Victoria Peak in which dwells the resident dragon? Returning to the cutting edges of the Bank of China: a fung shui master is supposed to adhere to strict ethical standards and not do anything which could be construed as the 'black art'. He should not 'attack' a neighbour. However, in the New Territories, for example, a case where a successful family's fortune has suddenly waned has sometimes been traced to the desecration of an ancestor's grave. As a result, revenge against perpetrators was, in the past, not uncommon. A buried 'person' needs to 'breathe', and, whether he or she can do this properly or not, affects his or her descendants. Some believed Chiang Kai-Shek's rise to power depended on his mother's fine grave. This, the Communists are said to have dug up. The People's Republic's 'Red Guards' went to considerable lengths during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) to destroy the 'Four Olds' (old customs, old habits, old culture, old thoughts). These included fung shui. ================================================================================