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A case study on the evolution of Chinese religious symbols from talismanic paraphernalia to Taoist liturgy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2015

Grégoire Espesset
Grégoire Espesset*
Affiliation:
Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l'Asie Orientale (CRCAO), Paris
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The mid-fifteenth-century Taoist Canon (Zhengtong daozang 正統道藏) contains five specimens of a religious artefact called “Great Peace Symbol” (“Taiping fu” 太平符), dispersed between five texts spanning about a millennium. The introduction to this paper discusses the meaning of the Chinese word fu 符 and its most widely used English rendition, “talisman”. The article briefly presents the source of each specimen, attempts a deconstruction of its morphology, and analyses its modus operandi, thus providing a basic methodological model to outline the historical evolution of the category of “fu” artefacts from early medieval portable devices endowed with specific apotropaic functions – like charms and amulets – to multipurpose ritual implements designed for use within the framework of early modern Taoist liturgy. The epilogue introduces a sixth specimen, differently named but morphologically and functionally related to the latest three “Great Peace Symbols”.

Keywords

TaoismVisual materialSymbolTalismanGreat Peace (Taiping)Liturgy
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , October 2015 , pp. 493 - 514
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Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2015 

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References

2 For introductory remarks on visual materials in the Taoist Canon, see Verellen, Franciscus, “The dynamic design: ritual and contemplative graphics in Daoist scriptures”, in Penny, Benjamin (ed.), Daoism in History: Essays in Honour of Liu Ts'un-yan (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 159–86Google Scholar.

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4 Shuowen jiezi: fu jianzi 說文解字 附檢字 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1963), 95.

5 The classic introduction to the phenomenology of fu remains the first two sections of des Rotours, Robert, “Les insignes en deux parties (fou 符) sous la dynastie T'ang (618–907)”, T'oung Pao, 41/1–3, 1952, 1–148CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Bumbacher, Stephan Peter, Empowered Writing: Exorcistic and Apotropaic Rituals in Medieval China (St Petersburg, FL: Three Pines Press, 2012), 13–31Google Scholar. Bumbacher contrasts fu with three other types of authentication documents split into two parts or more: jie 節 (originally a “bamboo nod”), used by travelling merchants for taxation exemption; quan 券 (a “contract”), split between creditors and debtors to ensure financial transactions; and qi 契 (a “tally”), used for credit purposes by local officials accompanying foreign diplomats.

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8 See Kaltenmark, Max, “Ling-pao 靈寶: Note sur un terme du taoïsme religieux”, Mélanges publiés par l'Institut des hautes études chinoises (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960), 2, 559–88Google Scholar; Jack L. Dull, “A historical introduction to the apocryphal (Ch'an-wei) texts of the Han Dynasty”, PhD dissertation, University of Washington (Seattle, 1966), 160–62; Bumbacher, Empowered Writing, 46–53.

9 For a survey of this transition process, see pp. 310–16 of Seidel, Anna, “Imperial treasures and Taoist sacraments: Taoist roots in the Apocrypha”, in Strickmann, Michel (ed.), Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R.A. Stein, 2 (Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1983), 291–371Google Scholar. A ternary periodization of Taoist symbols in the imperial era has been proposed by Wang Yucheng 王育成, “Wenwu suo jian Zhongguo gudai dao fu shulun” 文物所見中國古代道符述論, Daojia wenhua yanjiu 道家文化研究, 9, 1996, 267–301. Our specimens would fit in Wang's first and second developmental periods, namely gradual formalization (third–sixth century) – first specimen – then apex, diversification, and transnational diffusion (seventh–nineteenth century) – second to fifth specimens.

10 Quoting Bumbacher, Empowered Writing, 80.

11 Seidel, “Imperial treasures and Taoist sacraments”, 311: “The ruler (chün-tzu) reaches to what is above, he joins tallies (ho-fu) with Heaven”. In a footnote, Seidel refers to a citation of a Weft (wei 緯) text, without quoting it. Found in Yasui Kōzan 安居香山 and Nakamura Shōhachi 中村璋八 (eds), Jūshū Isho shūsei, 5, Kōkyō – Rongo 重修緯書集成 卷五 孝經・論語 (Tokyo: Meitoku shuppansha, 1973), 117, first item, this citation reads: “君子上達, 與天合符”. Its source is the Anthology of Literature (Wenxuan 文選), compiled between 526 and 531 by Xiao Tong 蕭統 (501–531), “Inscription for the new Clepsydra” (“Xin louke ming” 新漏刻銘), 56.32a (Siku quanshu edition). It appears in Li Shan's 李善 (630–689) commentary to the following couplet: 況入神之制, 與造化合符 / 成物之能, 與坤元等契. The disyllables hefu 合符 and dengqi 等契 therein are syntactically parallel and semantically equivalent. Both verb-object compounds function as verbs meaning “to match perfectly” or “to tally with”. The same goes for hefu in the citation, which may be translated as: “The gentleman reaches upwards and matches Heaven perfectly”. Shu-wei Hsieh, “Writing from heaven: celestial writing in Six Dynasties Daoism”, PhD dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2005, 80–81, repeats the mistake.

12 For various reproductions of such artefacts, see Legeza, Laszlo, Tao Magic: The Chinese Art of the Occult (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), 31–127Google Scholar; Drexler, Monika, Daoistische Schriftmagie: Interpretationen zu den Schriftamuletten Fu im Daozang (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994)Google Scholar; Despeux, Catherine, “Talismans and sacred diagrams”, in Kohn, Livia (ed.), Daoism Handbook (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 498–540Google Scholar; Mollier, Christine, “Talismans”, in Kalinowski, Marc (ed.), Divination et société dans la Chine médiévale: Étude des manuscrits de Dunhuang de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et de la British Library (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2003), 405–29Google Scholar.

13 For comparative studies of Taoist and Buddhist artefacts, see Dengfu, Xiao 蕭登福, Daojiao xingdou fuyin yu Fojiao mizong 道教星斗符印與佛教密宗 (Taipei: Xinwenfeng, 1993)Google Scholar; Strickmann, Michel (Faure, Bernard, ed.), Chinese Magical Medicine (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 123–93Google Scholar; Mollier, Christine, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008), 87–9 and 123–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Further examples of Buddhist artefacts are presented and discussed in Robson, James, “Signs of power: talismanic writing in Chinese Buddhism”, History of Religions, 48/2, 2008, 130–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Henri Doré (1859–1931) used both “talisman” and “charme” in his Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine, 5, La lecture des talismans chinois: Explication de ceux qui ont paru dans la première partie des Recherches (Shanghai: Imprimerie de la Mission catholique, 1913)Google Scholar. Édouard Chavannes (1865–1918) used “signe magique” in “Le Jet des dragons”, in Senart, Émile and Cordier, Henri (eds), Mémoires concernant l'Asie Orientale (Inde, Asie Centrale, Extrême-Orient) publiés par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1919), 3, 53–220Google Scholar. Maspero, Henri (1882–1945) used “charme” (but “talisman” for lu 籙) in Le Taoïsme et les religions chinoises (Paris: Gallimard, 1971)Google Scholar. Max Kaltenmark (1910–2002) used “talisman” in “Les Tch'an-wei”, Han-Hiue: Bulletin du Centre d’Études Sinologiques de Pékin, 2/4, 1949, 363–73. Isabelle Robinet (1932–2000) alternated “charme” and “talisman” in her Méditation taoïste (Paris: Dervy, 1979), 37–57Google Scholar.

15 Lagerwey, John, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 155Google Scholar. In a private communication, Lagerwey explains that he was behind the use of “symbol” in Schipper's earlier Le Corps taoïste: Corps physique – corps social (Paris: Fayard, 1982)Google Scholar, although Lagerwey's inspiration is not acknowledged in that book.

16 Raz, Gil, The Emergence of Daoism: Creation of Tradition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), 134Google Scholar, confuses the different meanings of fu according to contexts and eras when stating that “early fu were bipartite talismans”.

17 For examples of Taoist talismans called “seals” (yin), see Drexler, Daoistische Schriftmagie, 38–9; Liu Hexin 劉合心 and He Jianwu 何建武, “Daojiao fuyin jiedu (1)” 道教符印解讀 (一), Wenbo 文博, 4, 2006, 20–23; Liu Hexin, “Daojiao fuyin jiedu (2)” 道教符印解讀 (二), Wenbo, 5, 2006, 49–52.

18 The most complete study of those funerary artefacts seems to be Xunliao, Zhang 張勛燎, “Dong Han muzang chutu jiezhu qi he Tianshi dao de qiyuan” 東漢墓葬出土解注器和天師道的起源, in Xunliao, Zhang and Bin, Bai 白彬, Zhongguo Daojiao kaogu 中國道教考古 (Beijing: Xianzhuang shuju, 2006), 1; 2, 307–31Google Scholar.

19 Cases in point include Drexler, Monika, “Schriftamulette fu aus zwei Grabvasen der östlichen Han-Zeit”, Monumenta Serica, 49, 2001, 227–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Yoshinobu, Sakade, Taoism, Medicine and Qi in China and Japan (Osaka: Kansai University Press, 2007), 69–86; and Bumbacher, Empowered Writing, 58–9Google Scholar.

20 That fu elements were only one part of the phenomenology of funerary artefacts had been made clear by Seidel, Anna on pp. 708–12 of her “Traces of Han religion in funeral texts found in tombs”, in Kan'ei, Akizuki 秋月觀暎 (ed.), Dōkyō to shūkyō bunka 道教と宗教文化 (Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppansha, 1987), 678–714Google Scholar.

21 Schipper, Kristofer and Verellen, Franciscus (eds), The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004) [hereafter Companion], 70–71, no. 1185Google Scholar.

22 For a contextualization of the early development of Taoist communalism, see Espesset, Grégoire, “Latter Han religious mass movements and the early Daoist church”, in Lagerwey, John and Kalinowski, Marc (eds), Early Chinese Religion. Part One: Shang through Han (1250 bc–220 ad) (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 1061–102Google Scholar. For the situation of the Taoist Church in Ge Hong's time, and in the area with which he was most familiar, see Peter Nickerson, “The Southern celestial masters”, in Kohn (ed.), Daoism Handbook, 256–82. On Upper Clarity Taoism, born of the rapid success of the Taoist Church among the Southern élite clans, see Robinet, Isabelle, La révélation du Shangqing dans l'histoire du taoïsme (Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1984)Google Scholar, 2 vols. For a survey of Numinous Treasure Taoism during the medieval era, see Yamada Toshiaki, “The Lingbao School”, in Kohn (ed.), Daoism Handbook, 225–55.

23 Ware, James R., Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of a.d. 320: The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung (Pao-p'u tzu) (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1966), 103, 164, 179 and 260Google Scholar.

24 CT 1185, 17.14a–22b. [The acronym “CT” and attached numbering refer to Schipper, K.M. et al. , Concordance du Tao-tsang: Titre des ouvrages (Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1975)]Google Scholar. Translated in Ware, Alchemy, Medicine, Religion, 279–300.

25 On this deification process, see Seidel, Anna, La Divinisation de Lao tseu dans le taoïsme des Han (Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1969)Google Scholar.

26 The seven stars (qixing 七星) are those of the Northern Dipper (Ursa Major) constellation, on which, see below.

27 Bawei 八威, a series of eight awe-inspiring animals (tiger, leopard) and supernatural beings (unicorn, dragon and spirits), or gods related to the eight trigrams.

28 Wusheng 五勝, probably an allusion to the succession cycle of the Five Agents (wuxing 五行) by “mutual conquest” (xiangsheng 相勝).

29 Li Er 李耳 is the name of Laozi in the biography Sima Qian 司馬遷 (145/135–86/87 bc) devoted to him in Records of the Historiographer (Shiji 史記), 63.2139 (Zhonghua shuju edition). First known as Lao Dan 老聃, Laozi was renamed Li 李 (a clan allied to the Liu 劉) under the Han.

30 Huagai 華蓋, a constellation comprising seven stars from the Western Cassiopeia; see Xiaochun, Sun and Kistemaker, Jakob, The Chinese Sky during the Han: Constellating Stars and Society (Leiden: Brill, 1997)Google Scholar, Appendix II, 164. It is the canopy of the throne of the heavenly emperor, to whom Central Yellow (Zhonghuang 中黃) certainly alludes.

31 Xiyue gong 西岳公, the god of the Western Peak (Mount Hua 華山 in modern Shaanxi). It is the title of the immortal Huanglu zi 黃盧子, alias Ge Yue 葛越; see the Monograph on the Western Peak, Mount Hua (Xiyue Huashan zhi 西嶽華山誌), compiled by Wang Chuyi 王處一 and prefaced (1183) by Liu Dayong 劉大用, “Yellow God Gorge” (“Huangshen gu” 黃神谷), CT 307, 10b–11a. For a hagiography of Ge Yue, see Campany, Robert F., To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong's Traditions of Divine Transcendents (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 303Google Scholar. On the five sacred mountains of China, see n. 41 below.

32 CT 1185, 17.21a–22b. Cf. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine, Religion, 300.

33 These five figures are preceded by a short sentence, “Missing are those four symbols” 闕此四符也 (17.21a), probably a later commentary interpolated in the main text, as noted in Ming, Wang 王明 (ed.), Baopu zi neipian jiaoshi 抱朴子内篇校釋, second edition (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 322Google Scholar, n. 101. Ware omits the sentence in his translation.

34 Quoting p. 212, n. 5, of Pankenier, David W., “A brief history of Beiji 北極 (Northern Culmen), with an excursus on the origin of the character di 帝”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 124/2, 2004, 211–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 For meditation, see Robinet, Méditation taoïste, 298–327. For liturgy and symbol design, see Drexler, Daoistische Schriftmagie, 89–95; Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 134–73; and Juntao, Li 李俊濤, “Daojiao futu de xingchen fuhao tanmi” 道教符圖的星辰符號探秘, Zhonghua wenhua luntan 中華文化論壇, 1, 2008, 85–90Google Scholar.

36 Drexler, Daoistische Schriftmagie, 31 and 85–9. For the astronomical location of the Three Terraces, see Sun and Kistemaker, The Chinese Sky during the Han, 153.

37 Drexler, Daoistische Schriftmagie, 51, 67–8, and 99–101.

38 Drexler's sources mainly pertain to the Song 宋 era (960–1279) Heart of Heaven (Tianxin 天心) tradition of exorcism. See Andersen, Poul's review article, “Taoist talismans and the history of the Tianxin tradition”, Acta Orientalia, 57, 1996, 141–52Google Scholar.

39 Companion, 584–5, no. 390.

40 Stephen R. Bokenkamp, “Sources of Ling-pao scriptures”, in Strickmann (ed.), Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R.A. Stein, 2, 434–86, at pp. 458–60.

41 Wuyue 五嶽, five sacred mountains corresponding to the four cardinal directions and the centre, and whose geographical identification varied over the centuries before being fixed under the Sui 隋 dynasty (581–618); see Xiuguo, Cui 崔秀國 et al. , Wuyue shihua 五嶽史話 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1982)Google Scholar. On the sacred mountain of the South, see Robson, James, Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak (Nanyue 南嶽) in Medieval China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 According to the Shiji, 3.100, Wuxian 巫咸 was the chamberlain of King Taiwu 太戊, seventh ruler of the Shang 商 or Yin 殷 dynasty (c. 1570–1045 bc), called Dawu 大戊 in late Shang sacrificial inscriptions; see Keightley, David N., “The Shang: China's first historical dynasty”, in Loewe, Michael and Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds), The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins to 221 b.c. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 234–5Google Scholar, Figure 4.1. Later on, the name of Wuxian was attached to an astrological tradition.

43 Sishen 司神, a verb-object compound which may also be translated as “to control deities”. Yao would then have prohibited an action rather than a body of religious specialists.

44 Sidu 四瀆, the four major rivers of China – the Yellow River; the Yangtze; the Huai 淮, a tributary of the Yangtze; and the Ji 濟, today corresponding to the lower course of the Yellow River.

45 Bayi 八夷, a generic reference to the non-Chinese rather than to a specific ethnicity.

46 About 80 kilograms. A capacity unit, the catty (jin 斤) varied in time.

47 About 300 litres. The bushel (hu 斛) corresponds to 10 pints (dou 斗).

48 About 85 metres. The toise (zhang 丈) corresponds to 10 feet (chi 尺).

49 Baimao 白茅, a herbaceous plant: Imperata cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.

50 About 30 litres.

51 About eight-and-a-half metres.

52 About 36 metres.

53 Explaining the ritual production of symbols designed to stabilize each of the five sectors, the preceding five sections of the text give in turn prominence to soil (tu 土) the colour of the overcoming agent – green soil to stabilize the Centre, and so forth – over the four others. Presumably, this coloured soil was to be spread over the surface of the altar.

54 About 12.5 metres.

55 Gongzi 公子, an archaic term; see Hucker, Charles O., A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985)Google Scholar, 296, no. 3494.

56 Qi 氣 is the primary constituent of the universe and of all things in Chinese metaphysics, and a Chinese word for which no entirely satisfying English rendition seems to exist; see Libbrecht, Ulrich, “Prāṇa = pneuma = ch'i?”, in Idema, Wilt L. and Zürcher, Erik (eds), Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies Dedicated to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 42–62Google Scholar.

57 CT 390, 12a–b. This source mentions the “Great Peace Symbol” solely in the title preceding both the illustration and the text.

58 Hendrischke, Barbara, The Scripture on Great Peace: The Taiping jing and the Beginnings of Daoism (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2006), 4–13Google Scholar.

59 Skar, Lowell, “Lingbao yujian 靈寶玉鑑: Jade Mirror of the Numinous Treasure”, in Pregadio, Fabrizio (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Taoism (London: Routledge, 2008), 679–80Google Scholar. Lagerwey (Companion, 1018–1021, nos 546–7) parallels the text to other more or less contemporary summae liturgicae but refrains from proposing a precise date.

60 CT 546, 15b.

61 The early Taoist Church referred to its founding revelation as the “Newly appeared way of the covenantal authority of Orthodox Unity”, xinchu zhengyi mengwei zhi dao 新出正一盟威之道. “Orthodox Unity” later became the usual label of the Church's teachings, scriptural corpus, and liturgy, and by metonymy of the whole Heavenly Master tradition.

62 Further on (CT 547, 18.24b), the invocation complementing the “Five Gods Symbol” (“Wushen fu” 五神符) names these corporeal deities: 1. Great Unity (Taiyi 太乙), located in the Upper Prime (Shangyuan 上元), here the upper Cinnabar Field (dantian 丹田); 2. the Director of Destiny (Siming 司命), in the Middle Prime/Cinnabar Field; 3. Peach Vigour (Taokang 桃康), in the Lower Prime/Cinnabar Field; 4. Primordial Blossom (Yuanying 元英), a probable misspelling for the more frequently encountered Blossomless (Wuying 无英); and 5. White Prime (Baiyuan 白元). The last two entities are deprived of location. These names already appear in early medieval Taoist sources, some of which locate the fourth entity in the liver and the fifth in the lungs; see Fabrizio Pregadio, “Early Daoist meditation and the origins of inner alchemy”, in Penny (ed.), Daoism in History, 121–58. On Taiyi, also spelled “太一”, see Allan, Sarah, “The Great One, water, and the Laozi: new light from Guodian”, T'oung Pao, 89/4–5, 2003, 237–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Lixia ri 立夏日, forty-five days before the Summer solstice (xiazhi 夏至). Lixia 立夏 is the seventh of the twenty-four divisions of the Chinese tropical year; see Needham, Joseph with Ling, Wang, Science and Civilisation in China, 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959)Google Scholar, 405, Table 35.

64 Ru shi 入室, in which shi stands for jingshi 靖室.

65 CT 547, 18.23b–24a. My punctuation of this passage remains tentative.

66 Further characterized as being the “primordial god” (yuanshen 元神) of the officiating priest, a fraction of primordial pneuma descended into his or her body, and the “ruler of [his or her] natal destiny” (benming zhu 本命主), this personal deity should be worshipped on each birthday (CT 547, 18.26b). Interestingly, Cinnabar Prime is also one of the “Taoist names” of the fifth star of the Northern Dipper constellation, Alioth (ε Ursae Majoris), according to Schafer, Edward H., Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977)Google Scholar, 51, Table 1. The astronomical name of Alioth is Jade Transverse (Yuheng 玉衡).

67 Drexler, Daoistische Schriftmagie, 52.

68 According to Drexler, Daoistische Schriftmagie, 50, 53 and 73, the god Heavenly Unity (tianyi 天一), or the four Grand Emperors (dadi 大帝) of Jade Clarity (Yuqing 玉清), Upper Clarity (Shangqing), Great Clarity (Taiqing 太清), and Purple Tenuity of the North Pole (Beiji ziwei 北極紫微), with their immortal retinue, or the three Offices of Heaven (Tianguan 天官), Earth (Diguan 地官), and Water (Shuiguan 水官); according to Liu and He, “Daojiao fuyin jiedu (1)”, 22, and Liu, “Daojiao fuyin jiedu (2)”, 51, the Three Clarities (Sanqing 三清) – the Jade Clarity, Upper Clarity, and Great Clarity just mentioned.

69 Dengxin 燈心 refers to a medicinal substance obtained from a species of rush, dengxin cao 燈心草 (Juncus effusus L. var. decipiens Buchan), whose therapeutic uses are expounded in the “Swamp Herbs” (“Xicao” 隰草) sub-category of the “Herbs” (“Cao” 草) category in the Systematic Materia Medica (Bencao gangmu 本草綱目), compiled between 1552 and 1578 by Li Shizhen 李時珍 (1518–93), 15.98a–99b (Siku quanshu edition).

70 Jianggong 絳宮, the organ heart.

71 Alternative esoteric names of the Three Heavens are given in other texts such as the Tang Secret Avoided Names of the Three Heavens of Pervading Truth (Dongzhen Santian mihui 洞真三天祕諱), CT 1350, 1a–b: “Bulwark” (Fang 防) for Clear Tenuity Heaven (Qingwei tian 清微天) above; “Origin” (Yuan 元) for Yu's Leftover Heaven (Yuyu tian 禹餘天) in the middle; and “Mound of Virtue” (Deqiu 德丘) for Great Scarlet Heaven (Taichi tian 太赤天) below. For the date of that source, see Companion, 491–92, no. 1350.

72 Yudi 玉帝, also known as the Jade August One (Yuhuang 玉皇), located in the Jade Hall (yutang 玉堂) mentioned in the same sentence, is the highest god in the late Taoist pantheon after the Three Clarities. Perhaps derived from popular religion, it was given an increasingly prominent status in Taoism from the late Tang or early Song era onwards. See Fêng, H.Y., “The origin of Yü Huang”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 1/2, 1936, 242–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Sansu 三素, a varying combination from a group comprising purple (zi 紫), the imperial colour par excellence, and some of the emblematic colours of the Five Agents.

74 CT 547, 18.25a–b.

75 On this category of exorcist rites, see Reiter, Florian C., Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007)Google Scholar.

76 According to Companion, 1090–91, no. 1166.

77 Ru jing 入靖, in which jing stands for jingshi 靖室.

78 Wang fang 旺方 is the direction determined by the season – and the agent dominating accordingly – or perhaps the sexagesimal binomial of the day.

79 CT 1166, 19.20a–21a. The closing injunctive formula, “Promptly, pursuant to the statutory orders” (jiji ru lü ling 急急如律令), is a well-documented borrowing from the early imperial administration; see Seidel, “Traces of Han religion in funeral texts found in tombs”.

80 Cf. CT 547, 18.26a–27a.

81 Liujia 六甲, stellar deities possibly named after the homonymous six-star constellation located in the circumpolar area of the nocturnal sky known as the Purple Tenuity (Ziwei); see Sun and Kistemaker, The Chinese Sky during the Han, 165. In ritual context, they derive from the six divine generals of early medieval Heavenly Master Taoism and, connected with the Northern Dipper as well as the binomial corresponding to the adept's year of birth in the sexagesimal cycle, preside over lifespan duration; see Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 114–20.

82 Suwei 肅衞, another official term; see Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, 461, no. 5855.

83 Ziran 自然, also often translated as “spontaneity”, here an aspect of the Way.

84 Ziting 紫庭 is the seat of the heavenly emperor, more or less equivalent to the Purple Tenuity (Ziwei) already encountered.

85 CT 1166, 19.21b–22a.

86 Lagerwey suggests that the author could be a disciple of Ning Benli 寧本立 (1101–81), the synthesizer of Northern and Southern traditions of exorcism (see Companion, 1028–32, no. 219). For a later date taking into account the references to the Ming (CT 219, 43.5b and 55.8a), see Jiyu, Ren 任繼愈 and Zhaopeng, Zhong 鍾肇鵬 (eds), Daozang tiyao 道藏提要, third edition (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue, 2005), 154–56Google Scholar, no. 218.

87 “True Symbols of the Eight Effulgences” (“Bajing zhenfu” 八景真符) are introduced in Chapter 43, with complete guidelines (CT 219, 43.7b–8a); the “Eight Effulgences” therein seem to refer to gods coming to inform the officiating Taoist of the outcome of the petitioning. The next section, titled “Gods Ascending to Enter the Wondrous” (“Shengshen rumiao” 昇神入妙), stresses the importance of practising “circulating gods to join the effulgences” (yunshen hejing) for having one's petitions successfully transmitted to the heavenly emperor (CT 219, 43.8a–b). For jing 景 as referring both to stellar and bodily entities, see pp. 174–5 of Strickmann, Michel, “On the alchemy of T'ao Hung-ching”, in Welch, Holmes and Seidel, Anna (eds), Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1979), 123–92Google Scholar.

88 CT 219, 43.5a–b. Cf. CT 1166, 19.21b–22a (half a dozen variants).

89 CT 219, 43.5b.

90 Ibid., 43.6b–7a. Cf. CT 1166, 19.20a–b.

91 CT 219, 43.7a.

92 Cf. CT 547, 18.26b, and CT 1166, 19.20b–21a. There are only a few variant readings between both versions.

93 CT 1185, 19.3a.

94 On which see Espesset, Grégoire, “Les Directives secrètes du Saint Seigneur du Livre de la Grande paix et la préservation de l'unité”, T'oung Pao, 95/1–3, 2009, 1–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

95 See Hendrischke, The Scripture on Great Peace, 13–6 and 47–54.

96 Companion, 96–97, no. 332, and 184–85, no. 331.

97 For a synthesis focused on the early medieval era, see Pengzhi, Lü, “Daoist rituals”, in Lagerwey, John and Pengzhi, Lü (eds), Early Chinese Religion. Part Two: The Period of Division (220–589 ad) (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 1245–349Google Scholar.

98 Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 106–9. Catalogues dated to 695 and 730 mention a Buddhist version of this text, known from Dunhuang manuscripts. In addition to CT 650 and its Buddhist adaptation, nearly identical, the Canon has a second Taoist version, the Marvellous Scripture of Divine Symbols for Adding to the Account, Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun shuo yisuan shenfu miaojing 太上老君説益筭神符妙經), CT 672. Though different, the series of symbols included in CT 650 and CT 672, according to Mollier, may “form part of a ritual ensemble” (p. 109).

99 Suan 筭, the “account” in the text title just translated, refers to an individually allotted capital of time units determining effective life duration; the value of a unit seems to have varied over time and with authors. For a few examples in medieval sources, see pp. 21–9 of Grégoire Espesset, “Criminalized abnormality, moral etiology, and redemptive suffering in the secondary strata of the Taiping jing”, Asia Major, Third Series, 15/2, 2002, 1–50. For medieval Taoist and Buddhist strategies to increase this capital, see Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 100–33 (Chapter 3: “Augmenting the life account”).

100 Drexler, Daoistische Schriftmagie, 116.

101 Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 113–4.

102 Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 132–3.

103 For a Heart-opening symbol also ingested for divine petitioning, see the mid-twelfth-century Orthodox Rites of the Heart of Heaven of Upper Clarity (Shangqing Tianxin zhengfa 上清天心正法), edited by Deng Yougong 鄧有功 (1210–79?), CT 566, 6.5a–b. Other Heart-opening symbols appear in the Upper Clarity Instructions to be Kept in Hand (Shangqing wozhong jue 上清握中訣), ascribed to Tao Hongjing 陶弘景 (456–536) but certainly later, CT 140, 2.16a–b; and the anonymous, Southern Song 南宋 (1127–1279) or later Master Guigu's Numinous Text of the Quintessence of Heaven (Guigu zi tiansui lingwen 鬼谷子天髓靈文), CT 867, 2.12b–13a.