Daoist Identity Read online

Lewins, Frank W. 1978. “Religion and Ethnic Identity.” In Identity and Religion, ed. by Hans Mol, 19–38. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.

  Mol, Hans. 1976. Identity and the Sacred. New York: The Free Press.

  ———, ed. 1978. Identity and Religion. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.

  ———. 1983. Meaning and Place: An Introduction to the Social Scientific Study of Religion. New York: Pilgrim Press.

  Reiter, Florian C. 1988. Grundelemente des religiösen Taoismus: Das Spannungs-verhältnis von Integration und Individualität in seiner Geschichte zur Chin-, Yüan-und frühen Ming-Zeit. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.

  Roth, Harold D. 1999. Original Tao: Inward Training and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism. New York: Columbia University Press.

  Shaffir, William. 1978. “Witnessing As Identity Consolidation: The Case of the Lubavitcher Chassidim.” In Identity and Religion, ed. by Hans Mol, 39–58.

  Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.

  Sinha, Manju, and Braj Sinha. 1978. “Ways of Yoga and the Mechanisms of Sacralization.” In Identity and Religion, ed. by Hans Mol, 133–150. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.

  Van der Ven, Johannes A. 1994. “The Communicative Identity of the Local Church.” In Catholic Identity, ed. by James Provost and Knut Walf, 26–37.

  London: SMC Press.

  Part I

  Early Formations

  1

  Ethnic Identity and Daoist

  Identity in Traditional China

  Terry F. Kleeman

  The ancient Chinese portrayed themselves as an island of civilization in an ocean of barbarism, as a beacon of light surrounded by in-significant others who, if intelligent, were fascinated by Chinese culture and actively sought to assimilate into it and, if not, were recalci-trant recidivists who deserved to be subjugated militarily or driven from the region by force. The reality was much more complex. Recent archaeological discoveries make evident that the Neolithic period saw a variety of advanced regional cultures stretching from Hangzhou Bay to Liaoning, and that the culture of the traditional heartland was by no means the most advanced among them. During the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, non-Chinese intermarried with Chinese kings and joined them in military expeditions. In the Eastern Zhou,

  “barbarians” attended interstate conferences and, judging from the resplendent remains of the Zhongshan state, enjoyed a lifestyle comparable in most respects to that of the Chinese. The barbarians are usually thought of as geographically beyond the borders of Chinese civilization, but in fact, there were non-Chinese tribes in the hills and wilds across China (Prusek 1971). As late as the fifth and sixth centuries c.e., peoples identified as Man-barbarians were a constant threat to public safety in Central China.1 Today, China shares its territory with fifty-five officially recognized non-Chinese peoples speaking over 150

  distinct languages and worshiping a wide variety of gods and ghosts.

  Daoism is properly dubbed China’s indigenous higher religion. It is the culmination of an array of distinctively Chinese beliefs, practices, and movements, including popular deity worship and ancestor veneration, traditional ritual practices of the state and home, self-cultivation practices and medicine, cosmological speculation, the political phi-23

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  losophy of the Huang-Lao school, the cult of immortality, Han Confucianism, and the apocryphal writings ( chenwei). Daoism is not the national religion of China in the way that Shinto serves that function in Japan by encompassing all indigenous cults and beliefs. On the contrary, Daoism is a militantly reforming faith that consciously rejects significant parts of traditional practice as heretical, even evil.

  Still, it has come over time to enjoy pride of place in the Chinese religious world. Moreover, it has eventually incorporated into its pantheon a select group of the most influential popular gods, and Daoist priests regularly officiate at ceremonies honoring gods of the larger popular pantheon. In this sense, Daoism is quintessentially Chinese, an expression of the Chinese spirit and the Chinese historical experience.

  It is surprising, therefore, that a cursory examination of the history of Daoism shows that non-Chinese ethnic groups have played a significant role in Daoism from the beginning, that Daoism remains an influential religion among ethnic minorities within and outside China even today, and that archaic forms of Daoism survive among non-Chinese peoples that are no longer to be found among the Chinese. The topic of this chapter is the role of non-Chinese peoples and their beliefs in Daoism, the influence Daoism has exerted and continues to exert on these peoples, and the significance of a multiethnic Daoism for our study of the religion. Since this is a vast topic, I will focus on some of the more significant evidence and point out where I believe further research would prove fruitful.

  Early Sichuan and the Foundation of Daoism

  The earliest and most prominent encounter with non-Chinese ethnic groups occurred at the time of Daoism’s founding. The story of Zhang Ling’s immigration from Jiangsu to Sichuan and his subsequent revelation from the divinized Laozi in 142 c.e. is well known and generally accepted, despite the lack of corroborating evidence in contemporary documents. Less attention has been paid to what he found upon his arrival in western China. The Sichuan region possesses a long history of settlement, and the recent discoveries at Sanxingdui, dating to the Shang and Western Zhou periods, have confirmed the sophistication of its indigenous culture. The Qin conquest in the late fourth century b.c.e. initiated a period of intensive colonization, including forced resettlement on a large scale that permanently changed the face of the region (Sage 1992, 107–142). Thanks, in part, to the

  Ethnic Identity and Daoist Identity in Traditional China 25

  efforts of the legendary educator Wen Weng, Sichuan soon became a center of learning. By the Western Han period, the area was already contributing officials of the rank of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers ( sangong jiuqing; Chen 1980, 176–177) as well as the period’s most prominent poet, Sima Xiangru. During the Wang Mang interregnum, Sichuan was an important center for the development of the apocryphal literature.

  One might expect that by the end of the Han dynasty, the area would have been thoroughly sinicized and integrated into Chinese culture.

  Such was not the case. Instead, we find in Sichuan a congeries of ethnic groups living intermixed with the ethnic Chinese ( zaju) and in segregated communities, reflecting a range of assimilation from near merger in the large urban centers to preservation of the original tribal society in the mountains and remote areas. This was particularly true in the areas of eastern Sichuan that had once been part of the Zhou-period kingdom of Ba. The Ba were an ancient people, first entering Chinese history around 700 b.c.e. They were warriors who gloried in their military prowess, celebrating it in martial songs and dances so full of vibrant energy that they enthralled the first emperor of the Han dynasty and were adopted into the repertoire of court performances.

  They also maintained an unusually high standard of living for a group comprised essentially of hunter-gatherers with limited agriculture, though not so high as the settled agriculturalists of the Chengdu plain.

  The secret to this high culture was, no doubt, their service as merce-naries to their neighbors to the east (Chu) and west (Shu) but may also have been founded in their role as salt producers and traders. In any case, the Ba were unique among China’s neighbors in developing a distinctive script of their own (actually two scripts, though one may have been of limited function). This limited literacy may have been one factor in their ability to resist assimilation, as may have their different lifestyle.

  For whatever reason, there were large numbers of identifiably Ba peoples living in Sichuan during the second century c.e., when Daoism was taking form.2 They were locked in an adversarial relationship with local representatives of the Chinese state, who sought to integrate the wealth and power of unassimilated Ba tribes into the Chinese administrative framework a
nd thereby provoked repeated rebellions.

  When the Daoist message of deliverance spread through the region, the Ba flocked to its banner, with Ba kings, marquises, and other local elites leading groups numbering in the thousands to adopt the new faith and join the apocalyptic kingdom in Hanzhong.3 We do not of-

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  ten think about the early Celestial Masters as a multiethnic community, but non-Chinese peoples must have comprised a significant portion of their population.

  This situation raises a number of questions concerning how Daoism related to the native beliefs of the Ba. First, what can we say about Ba religion? Since the lifestyle of the Ba seems to have focused on hunting, fishing, and warfare, we might expect religious beliefs related to these activities to loom large. Representations of hunting and warfare, no doubt understood to include potent magic that would lead to success at these endeavors, seem to have made up the famous Ba Yu dances.4 Stories of tigers being hunted by Ba tribesmen, of people turning into tigers, and of tiger worship predominate in the historical record for this region. Material objects confirm this emphasis, with numerous representations of tigers on weapons, musical instruments, and the like. Snakes and birds, especially the cormorant, are important secondary motifs. Finally, we find among people of Ba descent names referring to tigers, such as Li Hu who led his followers to join the Celestial Masters at the time of the Hanzhong community ( Huayangguo zhi 9.119, 5). Clearly, a tiger spirit and other zoomorphic spirits played a role in Ba religion. The were-tiger theme may reflect the presence of shamans who were thought to transform themselves into tigers or to use these mighty beasts as their familiars. In other respects, we can probably assume that Ba religion resembled that of the indigenous peoples of southwest China today, that is, the worship of nature, hero, and ancestral spirits by tribal shamans who play a significant role in the direction of the group. Given the long history of Han domination by the second century c.e., it is likely that there was some intermixture of Chinese popular beliefs and deities; the degree of this influence, no doubt, varied with the degree of contact with and assimilation into Chinese culture. In fact, although indigenous beliefs would have included distinctive autochthonous spirits, the overall tenor of Ba religion, with its presumed emphasis on the shamanic control of demonic spirits, does not seem all that different from the contemporary popular Chinese religion, as revealed in recent years by scholars such as Harada Masami (1963; 1967), Donald Harper (1985), and the late Anna Seidel (1987).

  One is struck by accounts of mass conversions among the Ba to Celestial Masters Daoism. Local leaders converted with their entire communities; Li Hu’s group alone comprised more than 500 families, perhaps some 2,500 individuals. Some migrated to Hanzhong to participate directly in Zhang Lu’s millennial kingdom, but others

  Ethnic Identity and Daoist Identity in Traditional China 27

  maintained a base of support in northeastern Sichuan to which he could retreat when Cao Cao pressed him.

  The most detailed comment in historical sources concerning why the Ba were attracted to the new religion is the following: Their race ( zhongdang) was strong and brave; by custom they were fond of necromancer shamans ( guiwu). At the end of the Han, Zhang Lu occupied Hanzhong, teaching the common people the way of the ghosts ( guidao). The Zong people revered and believed in him. ( Huayangguo zhi 9.119, 4–5)

  The exact sense of this “way of the ghosts” is uncertain. One source tells us that initiates to the movement were referred to as “ghost troop-ers” ( guizu), and an inscription from 173 records a Daoist initiating god with the title “ghost soldier” ( guibing ).5 We also know that members of the church possessed certificates of ordination called registers, which specified the number of spirit generals they had at their command; these generals and their troops, once freed from the civilizing control of the Dao, would revert to demonic status, as detailed in one of the early scriptures of the movement, the Nüqing guilü (Ghostly Ordinances of Nüqing, HY 563). But the Celestial Masters also condemned popular cults in no uncertain terms and rejected the blood sacrifice that was at their root. It is also interesting to note that among the modern Gelao, descendents of the Lao who invaded Sichuan in the fourth century, the primary religious officiant is sometimes referred to as daoshi, or Daoist priest, but the most common title is guishi, or “master of the ghosts.”6 Another intriguing parallel is the Lord of Ghosts, the priest of the Black Man-barbarians, a figure directly ancestral to the Zimo of the Yi peoples (Nuosu) of southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan province today.7 The words of the Xin Tangshu (New Book of the Tang) in describing this figure recall earlier descriptions of the Ba:

  The tribesmen have great reverence for ghosts. The officiant at sacrifices is called the Lord of Ghosts. Each year every household must contribute an ox or sheep, which is brought to the home of the Lord of Ghosts and sacrificed. In sending off or welcoming demons there is always a great flourish of weapons, inevitably resulting in conflict and blood feuds. (222c.6315)8

  Thus we may conclude that the control of demonic forces was an important aspect of the Daoist priest or libationer’s social role and that this mastery was influential in gaining adherents for the new faith.

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  Terry F. Kleeman

  What else in the Celestial Masters’ message would have appealed to the Ba? We know that a central element of the new faith was a focus on sin, on the supernatural bureaucracy that observed, recorded, and punished sin, and on a method to erase sin through the submission of documents to the Three Offices ( sanguan) confessing to the sin, through repentance, and through works of penance. Judging from modern, anthropological parallels, it is unlikely that the Ba shared this concern, but it is possible that the doctrine was effective in proselytization, much as Christian tales of hellfire and brimstone have scared countless indigenous peoples across the world into converting.9

  More likely, it was the social content of the new faith that drew the Ba. We know that they had repeatedly rebelled in protest against ex-orbitant taxes and other unfair treatment. The Celestial Masters replaced the local representatives of the central government with libationers ( jijiu) who demanded only a modest, fixed contribution of rice from each family. The onerous demands of corvée labor were replaced with more modest requirements for participation in communal projects like repairing roads, which also served as penance for sins and as a merit-making activity. We do not know exactly how the famous

  “lodges of righteousness” ( yishe) functioned, but there was at least some provision for the indigent and starving. All of these features were part of a larger message of social justice that was founded in the ideal of Great Peace, or Great Equity (Taiping). One can well imagine the appeal egalitarianism would have had for an oppressed minority like the Ba. The millenarian ideal that was the culmination of this doctrine would have held a similar attraction. Instead of facing the un-savory choice of abandoning their culture in order to assimilate or maintaining their culture at the cost of continued oppression, the world to come held out a new possibility, a new and perfect world where Chinese and Ba would share a common identity as “seed people.”10

  We must conclude, I believe, that the earliest Celestial Masters community was truly multiethnic, accepting people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds as equal members of the new faith. This was an unprecedented event in Chinese history and deserves far more recognition than it has received. It had always been the case that barbarians were free to absorb the transforming influence of Chinese civilization and merge into the Chinese populace. Here we find culturally and eth-nically distinct peoples forming a new union with the Chinese while maintaining their own identity as Ba.

  Ethnic Identity and Daoist Identity in Traditional China 29

  The Ba Create a Daoist Kingdom

  When Cao Cao conquered the Hanzhong state, huge numbers of Daoists were forcibly transferred to other parts of the country, primarily to the area around the capital of Ye and to the northwest (modern Shaanx
i and Gansu). It would seem that most of the Ba were moved to the northwest. Reliable records for the third century are rare, but the Celestial Masters faith maintained some semblance of organization at the same time that the movement was spreading across North China. We cannot know to what degree the Daoists of Shaanxi and Gansu remained under the administrative control of some central successor to Zhang Lu, but they did retain their Daoist identity and practices.

  At the end of the third century, a large body of refugees, predominately non-Chinese and Daoist, were driven south by civil unrest, natural disasters, and famine.11 Members of the Li family, descendents of Li Hu who originally hailed from Dangqu in eastern Sichuan, but more recently from Tianshui in Gansu, were pushed forward as leaders of this stream of immigrants, hundreds of thousands strong. They moved south into Hanzhong, then through the passes into Sichuan, returning after a century to the land of their origin. There the immigrants took up the menial jobs normally open to refugees, but when local officials sought to drive them back north, they arose in rebellion, with Li Te and then his son Li Xiong at their head, and established a state called Great Perfection (Dacheng). The name, taken from a prophetic passage in the Shujing (Book of Documents), denoted a land of Great Peace, and the state was built in part upon the expectations of a savior figure surnamed Li who would appear as an avatar of the divine Laozi and establish a utopian kingdom in this world. When Li Xiong assumed the imperial throne, he was installed in his office by Long-lived Fan, a Daoist sage, possibly of Ba ethnicity himself, who confirmed that Xiong was indeed the one destined to rule. Fan was made Chancellor and State Preceptor ( guoshi), and his son succeeded him in that position. Although they do not seem to have been especially active politically, the Fans continued to guide the state and its rulers, and when the state was finally conquered by the Jin, it was the son, Fan Ben, to whom surviving officials turned in one last, desperate attempt to restore Great Perfection.

  For the brief half century of its existence, Great Perfection was in some sense a realization of the Daoist utopian ideal. Here, as in the lost Hanzhong community, Chinese and non-Chinese lived in harmony