The Beginning of the Subtle School of Taoism: An Official Perception of Taoism in the Early T’ang Period by Florian C. Reiter

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Beginning of the Subtle School of Taoism: An Official Perception of Taoism in the Early T’ang Period by Florian C. Reiter Jan De Meyer (bio) Florian C. Reiter. The Beginning of the Subtle School of Taoism: An Official Perception of Taoism in the Early T’ang Period. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Band 94. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014. viii, 127 pp. Paperback €39.00, isbn 978-3-447-10314-5. The Yiqie daojing yinyi miaomen youqi一切道經音義妙門由起 (Phonological glossary of all Daoist scriptures, and the origin of the Gateway of Subtleties, [End Page 364] Daozang 1123) is a massive two-part work in 113, 140, or possibly even 150 juan, commissioned by Tang emperor Xuanzong and compiled in 712–713 by a staff of forty-two editors under the guidance of Shi Chongxuan (d. 713). The largest part of the work, the Yiqie daojing yinyi, was lost after the Song, and only its preface, by Emperor Xuanzong, survives. The second part, the much shorter Miaomen youqi in six sections, is extant, together with its preface by Shi Chongxuan. The Miaomen youqi, a concise account of Daoist doctrine consisting of citations of older scriptures, is the object of Florian Reiter’s short monograph. In his introduction, Reiter points out the limited scope of the Miaomen youqi. Not surprising for a work compiled under imperial auspices by editors, the majority of whom were scholar-officials, the Miaomen youqi deals with the kind of Daoism that was acceptable to Confucian librarians and historians and that would have appealed to the contemporary elite. As a result, references to Daoist exorcist skills, for instance, are avoided. Despite the occasional references to major topics of Daoist philosophy, the Miaomen youqi is not a work of great depth, and neither is it a work that elucidates how exactly the Daoist clergy functioned within early Tang society. The different categories of Daoist priests, for instance, are described in the most general of ways. For example, of the lowest category, that of the libationer (jijiu 祭酒), it is said that “he reaches down to [the life of] common people and saves them to get across the world of feminine attraction and pain” (p. 86), and “They have a friendly disposition and are able to smooth out things. They neither covet nor desire. They put an end to intercourse and worldly fame, and simply display a pure mind as they faithfully rely on Tao” (p. 88). The closest we get to Daoist ritual is in the summary descriptions of the daoshi’s ritual garments. The bulk of Reiter’s monograph consists of three chapters. The first chapter (pp. 13–28) presents a translation of Shi Chongxuan’s preface to the Miaomen youqi. Chapter 2, titled “Survey and Thoughts” (pp. 29–54), paraphrases the six sections of the Miaomen youqi. These deal with the ineffable nature of the Dao and certain issues of Daoist cosmogony, Daoist deities and their different names and avatars, Daoist cosmology and sacred geography, a very general survey of Daoist practice, the different categories of priests and their respective garments, and the revelation and transmission of Daoist scriptures. Chapter 3 (pp. 55–116) contains a translation of the six sections of the Miaomen youqi. Some parts are not translated but summarized. Overall, the translation is well made and stays close to the original. There is some overlap between the second and third chapters, as a number of longish chunks of translation from Chapter 3 also appear in the second chapter. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Miaomen youqi is that, together with so many other early Tang Daoist texts, it reveals the massive influence exerted by Buddhism on the mental outlook and the imagination of the Chinese elite. Indeed, many pages of descriptions of Daoist deities and of the magical realms they inhabit are modeled on Buddhist examples, and of course we should bear in mind that the [End Page 365] Yiqie daojing yinyi itself was inspired by older, comparable Buddhist works. Everywhere in the Miaomen youqi one senses the presence of court Daoists competing with Buddhism in an attempt to garner the respect and esteem in which Buddhism was held by...