Popular Religion in Early Republican China Based on Vasilii Alekseev’s Materials from to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography RAS (fund No. 2054)

Full Text

Introduction

Parts of Alekseev’s travel diary, which he carefully kept during his expedition in 1912, have been added to the new edition of Alekseev’s travelogue V Starom Kitae (In Old China, 2012, first edition 1958) by the volume’s editor Boris L. Riftin. T. Vinogradova’s research on Alekseev’s diaries catalogued in his “sinological file cabinet” revealed that there were diaries from Ningbo and Canton (Guangzhou), which whereabouts are not known for certain. One of the suggestions is that they may have been handed over to the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences by Alekseev’s family members. Hand notes made by the future academician during his visit to the island of Putuoshan 普陀山 (June 6–22, 1912) are kept at the State Museum of the History of Religion (GMIR). Upon his return back to Russia in 1912 Vasilii Alekseev delivered a report to the Russian Committee for Middle and East Asia Exploration about his mission. An typewritten archival inventory enumerates all acquired artifacts and becomes a very helpful source for the attribution of the ethnographic objects and various printed materials from this fund. Yet, some terms used in the inventory for describing various documents appear lacking accuracy, one of the goals of this study has been to clarify of these terms and purpose of the documents. In early 2020, technical staff of MAE, RAS has completed photographing and scanning of the large scope of the No. 2054 fund’s objects, some of the artifacts previously unseen by anyone from outside of the Museum are analyzed in this paper, which continues the authors previous research on the Alekseev’s fund No. 2054 from MAE, RAS.

Part of Alekseev’s travel diary published in 2012 mentions that acquired objects allowed “studying religion in its intimacy, instead of randomly relying on book translations or some extracts”, which was seen by the collector as one of the most positive results of the expedition. Total amount of the objects of religious nature reached 686 pieces out of 1083. In his report Alekseev expressed intention to write a paper on “spells from Fuzhou”, but did not realize his plan. Alekseev’s travel notes at our disposal barely mention when and how he purchased various kinds of ritual objects. This our knowledge of their place of origin, purpose and context may only derive from consulting similar well-studied ritual documents produced in abundance by the southern popular Daoism. Written texts played important part in the liturgy of the Zhengyi 正一 Taoist school prevailing in the southeastern China. Detailed and reliable study of the sequence and meaning of Taoist ritual practice is possible if ritual manuals keyiben 科儀本 kept by the masters and field observations are both available. In our case we only have “disposable materials” like empty forms which were probably sold at temple shops and purchased by customers before the ritual. Below we take closer look at a series of textual memorials and talismans.

 

No. 2054-191/1, 2 (Pl. 1)

Museum attributes this piece as “envelope with a prayer for happiness”, envelope has rectangular piece of red paper with words “Memorial brining good fortune” zhifu shuwen 植福疏文 (No. 2054–191/2) glued on top, inside is a standard prayer text requiring filling in personal data. Information about location is the following: “Great Han Republic of China, Fujian province…” 大漢中華民國福建省 (there is word “Amoy” Xiamen 廈門 written in Russian with pencil on the envelope), administrative units prefecture fu 府, county xian 縣, address, particular date, are to be written in. To the very left there is a date: 6th of year renzi 壬子 (1912). Document says: “memorial shuwen to pray for peace/luck concerning a certain matter (to be written in), pray to some deity to protect peace and make a bow”. Right part of the document is hand written, while memorial is printed with use of a woodblock, where we see a prayer to the Host of the Dipper department dousizhu 斗司主 to minimize influences of malicious stars, addresses to North Dipper beidou 北斗 relieving from misfortune and South Dipper nandou 南斗 prolonging lifespan. Further text mentions star influences upon human fate. We suggest that this document might have been recited in the temple upon believer’s request in the beginning of a new year in order to minimize misfortunes caused by stars, since each person’s birth date and hour determined different star influences he/she experienced each year, after the ceremony the memorial would be burnt with paper money.

pl. 1

 

No. 2054-202/1-9 (Pl. 2)

This set of printed documents including nine sheets is termed in the Museum inventory as “talismans for the netherworld”. All sheets have similar textual part and nine different talismanic characters in the central part, talisman was seen to be the most potent part the document. All these talismans are issued by the Bureau of Great Methods of the Numinous Treasure Lingbao dafasi 靈寶大法司, related to the “Great Law of the Great Clarity Numinous Treasure” Shangqing lingbao dafa 上清靈寶大法, juan 10 by Wang Qizhen 王契真 of Northern Song. The ritual is performed by Heavenly master Zhang 張天師 whose full title is written to the very left of the document — Zushi santian fujiao fuyuan tianfa tianshi zhenjun 祖師三天扶教輔元大法天師真君, ritual is conducted on behalf of the chief mourner zhaizhu 齋主, who hires ritual specialists to arrange passage chaodu 超度 of the deceased from the trials of the underworld to the paradise in the West. As mentioned in this memorial, the soul of the deceased is to be bathed, afterwards each of talisman is probably placed in one of the nine directions (south, north, west, east, center, south-east, south-west, north-west, north-east). Each direction has a Host of hell diyuzhu 地獄主, believed to be a demon-king overthrown to hell by the Bodhisattva Manjushri. Susan Huang mentioned that figure “nine” in salvation ritual is related to the ninefold darkness jiuyoujiao 九幽醮 associated with the Yellow Register fast. Taoist salvation rituals, which grew largely after Song, had a special ritual space reserved for the souls and consisted of earth mounds marked by lamps and banners to symbolize the multichambered prisons in which the suffering souls were trapped, in the cause of the ritual the ritual master gradually moved toward main altar while leading the summoned souls onto the path of purity and salvation. In our case nine talismans could be placed in different directions for the souls to be saved.

In Taoist ritual, “bathing” is the name of one of the rites performed as a part of the Yellow Register fast huanglu zhai 黃籙齋 and the ritual of merit gongde 功德 for the salvation of the deceased, during which the spirit of the deceased is summoned and bathed during the ceremony of purification. After it has been released from the underworld, he is bathed, purified and given a change of clothes. Ritual of soul bathing muyu 沐浴 is mentioned as a part of initial summoning of the souls of the deceased ancestors zhaohun 招魂 on the first day of the mourning ceremony. It was performed to for soul saved out of netherworld during an “incense and flower” Buddhist funeral service of Guangdong province.

 

pl. 2

Another set of printed documents discussed below seems to be a set of talismans and memorials used for the salvation ritual as well.

 

No. 2054-217/1-9

A series of nine sheets printed with red ink and termed as “talismans for the relief from sufferings in the upcoming life” in the inventory were probably sold as one set for the funeral service performed by Taoists. Based on the information from sheet nine (2054–217/9) we learn that this set of documents was produced in Guangdong 廣東 province. In his travel diary describing visit to Canton Alekseev mentioned purchasing a lot of printed materials on three cults, but we don’t find any details on talismans related to mortuary rituals.

Sheet 2054–217/1 is covered by columns of accurately printed mystic Taoist characters representing talismans.

Sheet 2054–217/2 has vertical inscription “Genuine Talisman Saving from Distress of Yellow Register Addressing Gods” huanglu baijian jiuku zhenfu 黃籙白簡救苦真符, to the left is the talisman per se, the text to its left starts with mentioning Yuanshi fuming 元始符命 talisman, together with above mentioned Yellow Register talisman it is summoning one hundred and twenty soldiers, five emperors, official investigators and mighty evil spirit warriors lishi 力士 from Ten directions, Three Palaces and Nine prefectures and Nine hells for deities to make fines, for Departments of Soldiers bingsi 兵司, Official`s salary lusi 祿司, Fate mingsi 命司 and Merits gongsi 功司, demon Cow head, Soldiers of hell and Six demons of three directions to save the soul (a blank for the name of the deceased) from hell and for it to turn into an ancestor and see the light, to be cleaned of sins, take up Nine prohibitions jiuzhen miaojie 九真妙戒 and be reborn in paradise.

Sheet 2054–217/3 is a ritual text signed by The Supreme One, the Heavenly Venerable who Saves from Distress taiyi jiuku tianzun 太乙救苦天尊, “the principle deity to whom funeral services are directed”. The title of the memorial called “Heavenly Treasure Register of Passing Life of the Supreme Lord” taishang baodusheng tianbaolu 太上寶度生天寶籙 is borrowed from “Great Law of the Great Clarity Luminous Treasure” Shangqing lingbao dafa 上清靈寶大法, juan 44 by Wang Qizhen, where its original title sounds like “Heavenly Luminous Register of Supreme Mysterious and Primordial Lord ordering pardoning to the living” yuanshang xuanyuan taishang chi shesheng tianbao lu 元上玄元太上敕赦生天寶籙. This whole juan of Wang Qizhen’s writing is consisted of memorials and official forms relevant to the ritual of saving hungry ghosts from underworld.

The original text from “Great Law of the Great Clarity Luminous Treasure” is represented below, on the sheet No. 2054–217/3 it has been printed with slight discrepancies, representing a list of entities (prefectures, seas, peaks, passes) and deities in charge of the underworld prisons summoned for the ritual:

告下十方三界，天曹地府，山川海嶽，泉曲冥關，北都羅酆，六洞十宮，三官九府，百二十曹，鬱絕之鄉，幽塗之境，諸大地獄，九州分野，福地名山，城隍社令，神物司臨之所，仙曹典錄之墟，較量罪福，考察功過，一切天牢地嶽主者，咸領符命。

 

The next passage from the original memorial is omitted and continued with the passage below depicting the process of transformation into Daoist saints xian 仙, divinities and overcoming the sufferings in underworld prisons:

承此太上慈恩，並與疾除罪簿，落滅惡根，不得拘留。徑出地獄，永離幽陰，皆證妙果。如擔砂負石、漣汲溟波之眾，驅雷役電、掃山穿地、貫天引水之徒，並與斷地逮役，永使逍遙。即令上件亡魂，七炁成真，六儀運虛，五靈續絕，二曜扶衰，旋綱躡空，飛步雲宮，胚胎有始，塵劫元終，金城孕質，玉洞凝神，真炁內養，以成真人。上入太虛，下洞幽泉，雲官寶闕，中有真魂，出入福鄉，周旋生門，咀嚼靈芝，灌漱金泉，甘露川流，懸澎丹田，紫霞朝映，三炁凝煙，瓊室化仙，安座金蓮，真儀掩日，塵劫為年，一如告命。

 

The talisman is activated by the Supreme One, the Heavenly Venerable who Saves from Distress whose name is printed to the left on our document.

Sheet four (2054–217/4) contains both talisman and textual part, probably its purpose is to address the abode of the immortals xianjie 仙界 so that the host’s body (the body of the deceased) is to go through the salvation and rebirth together with his soul.

Sheet five (2054–217/5) represents an order on behalf of the Three Pure Ones sanqing 三清 to transform the soul of the deceased into a “correct soul” zhenghun 正魂, or an ancestor, the order is supported by a circular seal Precious circle baohuan 寶環, there are blank spaces for date and a name two masters witnessing this process.

Sheet six (2054–217/6) contains a talisman and textual part which mentions “The Most Excellent and Scripture of Limitless Salvation” yuanshi duren shangpin jing 元始度人上品經 used to annihilate three evils, after that the saved soul to the Heavenly gate tianmen 天門 and sublimated on the Cinnabar hill zhuling 朱陵.

Sheet seven (2054–217/7, Pl. 3) contains the image of the soul-catcher called the Lad of Five Directions and Five Souls wufang wuling tongzi 五方五靈童子, who wears boys hairstyle, carrying a soul-banner lingfan 靈幡 with words “bring [soul] to the West” yinjie xifang 接引西方 on it, the text to the right mentions Passer from Three palaces sangong duzhe 三宮度者, Five emperors interrogation officials wudi kaoguan 五帝考官 who can exclude the soul’s sin record. The text to the right pleads the Lad to lead the soul with the banner.

pl. 3

Sheet nine (2054–217/9) representing a notice bang 榜 is most likely the first one used in the sequence of the salvation ritual, its purpose is to announce start of the salvation ritual and summon gods and demons to descend to the altar.

As was shown above, the sheet enumeration made by the Museum does not reflect the sequence of their use in the cause of the Taoist soul salvation ritual, which bears many features similar to the liturgy of modern Fujian and Taiwan.

 

No. 2054–218/1-35

This series of thirty five yellow sheets are termed as “posthumous talismans” in the inventory. Indeed, they were supposed to be used in the cause of salvation ritual and present a valuable source of information, since each talisman has incantation formula explaining its meaning. The style of characters allows suggesting that this set was produced by the same shop in Guangdong along with set No. 2054–217. These talismans were used by a Taoist priest to activate such ritual acts as pardoning all the misdeeds and sins of the deceased, healing all his previous wounds and illnesses (No. 2054–218/10, Pl. 4), bathing and cleansing the body, preparing new clothes to enter the abode of the immortals, passing through the Gates of different death causes, summoning gods and spirits. Some of these talismans were borrowed from juan 5 of “The Jasper Mirror of the Luminous Treasure” lingbao yujian 靈寶玉鑑 written by unknown author of Song dynasty, which has a section “Genuine Talismans of Opening Eight Gates for Salvation” kaidu bamen zhenfu 開度八門真符, some talisman titles originate from “Great Law of the Great Clarity Numinous Treasure” Shangqing lingbao dafa 上清靈寶大法, juan 46.

 

pl. 4

No. 2054–263/2 (Pl. 5)

A printed document with text and image of the Supreme One, the Heavenly Venerable who Saves from Distress taiyi jiuku tianzun 太乙救苦天尊 inside a frame composed of auspicious objects. The inventory attributes it as “talisman”, but what we see here is a “permit” for the soul of the deceased to be out from the netherworld mingtu luyin 冥途路引. Lagerway calls it “ ‘dark path road-puller’, that is, a device like a flag for pulling the soul along the road that leads out of the underworld. It is issued in the name of the Heavenly Master of the Great Method of the Three Heavens, Chang (Tao-ling), and is addressed to the Savior from Distress, whose image appears between the end of the text and title of the Heavenly Master”. It is important to note that, the design of the document observed in southern Taiwan in 1980s basically matches the one from Alekseev’s collection, which was produced in Guangdong province. When discussing funerary practices of Guangdong Li Zhitian mentions that mingtu luyin 冥途路引, or “road passport” lupiao 路票, is issued to the souls of the deceased by Taoist be means of burning this passport, which says that the Supreme One, the Heavenly Venerable who Saves from Distress offers the passport to the soul so that no obstacles are created on its way by various hell departments and checkpoints, in other words, such passport guarantees smooth traveling of the soul out of the underworld.

A document identical to No. 2054–263/2 is kept in the collection of GMIR (No. Д–3272–VII), Alekseev probably sold it to the Museum in 1938 together with around one thousand other pictures and objects. In our previous paper we have discussed “license for the soul of the deceased” shenhun zhizhao 神魂執照, which “the soul of the deceased receives after bathing and putting on clean clothes, and it is transmitted to it by the ‘servant’ of the Three Pure Ones, that is, the priest, whose ordination has made him an ‘immortal official’. In this ritual the priest is making the soul of the deceased a Taoist initiate, an initiation that is at once comparable to and dependent upon his own ordination”. Therefore two documents, “dark road-puller” and “soul passport”, were used during the stages of the salvation ritual.

pl. 5

 

No. 2054–232/1–12

In the inventory a series of twelve talismans and characters printed on orange paper with black ink are termed as “incantation formulas”, but this term does not seem to be accurate. They are: tianyi 天乙, kun 坤, li 離, dui 兌, zhen 震, kan 坎, dingfu 定福, guiren 貴人, jinma 金馬, yutang 玉堂, tongchun 同春, liuhe 六合. Among them kun 坤, li 離, dui 兌, zhen 震, kan 坎 represent four out of eight hexagrams, therefore this set of prints was probably used for divination purposes, supposedly, to determine person`s luck. Tianyi 天乙 is one of the four basic astral forces that may bring luck and misfortune upon a person, guiren 貴人 is a term describing some helping person or an auspicious deity (in this case they are stars), who could positively affect one`s fortune. Divination methods based on “eight birth characters” aim to determine a guiren star of a particular parson. Notions jinma 金馬 (“golden horse”) and yutang 玉堂 (“jade hall”) are probably metaphors for respectful address an to academician of Hanlin academy, in divination practice they may be used to determine person`s chances during exams; tongchun 同春 as a part of the wish for longevity guihe tongchun 龜鶴同春, could be used to determine person`s life span, liuhe 六合 “six cardinal points” (No. 2054–232/12, Pl. 6) was widely used by diviners to check whether a man and a woman are suitable for marriage.

pl. 6

 

No. 2054–197/1–5

A series of five sheets of different color with the same talisman, text and image printed with black ink, the talisman contains an image of a boy (probably deity Mangshen 芒神) holding a banner with words “Clay ox gives peace and protects” tuniu anzhen 土牛安鎮 with a “clay ox” depicted next to a boy. The inventory marked this series as “farmers` talismans”. The printing board and writing on it are rather coarse, which is a characteristic of the cheapest products consumed by common folks (No. 2054–197/1, pl. 7). The phrase on top “Talisman of the Highest for pacifying earth” taishang antu fuming 太上安土符命 points at the widely spread practice of using talismans to pacify earth spirits of five directions, who could be disturbed by people digging the ground, for instance, in the result of digging a grave. We also have five talismans matching five directions, therefore they are probably a set. Juan 30 of the collection of Daoist religious texts “The Reprieved Pearls from the Sea of Methods” fahai yizhu 法海遺珠 by unknown author of late Yuan early Ming period contains “Earth pacifying talismans of five directions” wufang antu fu 五方安土符, whose purpose is to address Dragon Kings of Five Directions protecting a lodging wufang zhenzhai longwang 五方鎮宅龍王. Our talisman is signed by Heavenly Worthies Five Saints Dragon Kings bringing peace taisheng wulong anzhen tianzun 太聖五龍安鎮天尊. In this case talisman concerns probably Yin lodging yinzhai 陰宅, a term for a grave.

 

pl. 7

 

No. 2054–372/1–19

We may be certain that this set of paper icons zhima 紙馬 was produced in Foshan 佛山, the largest centre of woodblock prints production in southeastern China. Inventory terms them as “popular prints, images of Liuhai 劉海 and Hehe 和合”. Alekseev could have purchased them either in Guangzhou or in Shantou, where Foshan printing shops had multiple branches. One of the features of Foshan paper icons was to use colored paper with one color imprint made with black ink, gold color was probably added in some parts by hand. Our icons have similar composition: on top tier is an image of two figures — probably gods of harmony Hehe 和合, on the bottom level there are compositions with human figures, but who are the deities in the centre? On the sheet No. 2054–372/17 (pl. 8) we probably see Nezha 哪咤 wearing a princely crown holding longevity peaches on a tray, below him stands Longevity god Shouxing 壽星 with a peach. On the sheet No. 2054–372/16 a female figure in the centre is most likely the Queen of the West Xiwangmu 西王母 also holding a tray with peaches and Shouxing flying a crane below her. Such icons could be used for the 60th birthday celebration or for some ritual of praying for longevity of an elder family member.

pl. 8

Conclusion: Regional Variations in Talisman Usage

 

One of the objectives of this study has been to reveal and summarize regional specifics of early Republican popular religion based on the printed objects brought by Vasilii M. Alekseev from South China. Apparently, Alekseev purchased printed Taoist ritual documents texts & drawings without being able to look through them in detail and observe the process of their application in the ritual practice. Yet he was rather familiar with Chinese talismans per se, since he had acquired several dozens of them during his studies in China in 1906–1909, now most of them are stored at the GMIR.

What makes northern talismans different from southern ones is that majority of them are painted with a brush with Zhang Daoling’s 張道陵 magic stamp on top and serve concrete purposes such as driving away evil spirits (No. Д-2848-VII, pl. 9), “five poisonous creatures”, curing illnesses etc. Due to his interest for “demon conqueror” Zhong Kui, Alekseev purchased large amount of talismans and pictures related to Duanwu 端午 festival (No. Д-2828-VII, pl. 9), which make up a large part of his collection of northern talismans. Notably, northern talismans do not bear obvious signs of being a part of a larger ritual, neither do specimens collected by Alekseev relate to salvation ritual, which appears to be central for the southern tradition judging from randomly selected prints from fund No. 2054 in MAE RAS. Northern talismans seem to have been bought straight by their end users, rural and urban believers, from producers, who could be either “roaming Daoists” or some shops associated with them. Afterwards people just glued talismans on the wall or burned them with paper money after chanting an incantation (this part could be performed by a professional for a pay). Shape and content of northern talismans reflects the status and role of Daoists in the northern regions of China, where monastic tradition of Quanzhen 全鎮 Daoism prevailed. As for the southern specimens discussed in this paper, they represent just one aspect of the funerary ritual practice, which was carried on by priests with use of special liturgical books keyiben 科儀本, accompanied by music, chanting and ritual actions, and these aspects are not reproducible based just on the documents we have. Yet it would be legible to claim that tradition of “Great Law of the Great Clarity Numinous Treasure” seems to have been prevailing in the area of Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Nevertheless, a larger portion of documents collected by Alekseev needs to be thoroughly studied in order to make final conclusions about regional specifics.

About the authors

Ekaterina Alexandrovna Zavidovskaia

National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Author for correspondence.
Email: katushaza@yahoo.com

Polina V. Rud

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: prud@kunstkamera.ru
Russian Federation

References

Supplementary files