The Daoist Jiao Celebration

Abstract

204 The Daoist Jiao Celebration MICHAEL SASO The following analysis of Daoist jiao 醮 liturgy is based on the oral teachings of Daoist masters in Hsinchu, Taiwan (1955-1976, 2008-2013), and Mainland China (1986-2013). The primary written sources for the rituals listed here were published in the 25-volume Zhuanglin Xu Daozang 庄林 续道臧 (Taipei: Chengwen Press, 1972). A second volume, Dokyo Hiketsu Shusei 道教秘诀集成 (Tokyo: Ryukei Press), containing the esoteric mijue oral teachings reserved for the use of Daoist masters, appeared in 1978. Audio and video productions of the entire jiao festival were made in 1969, 1972, and 1980. Readers may access them online, via YouTube, and the blogsite www.michaelsaso.org. Printed source materials are also available in CD and DVD format, making once overly expensive sources readily accessible. On-going field research, continuing to the present day, brings a much deeper understanding of the role of women Daoists in the meditative and liturgical traditions of mainland China. Men and women equally share, and perform the Daoist rituals described in this article The Evolution of the Word Jiao The word jiao in pre-imperial China (before 221 BCE), meant the ritual offering of wine and incense to the invisible spiritual forces that govern nature (Karlgren 1923, #1065-66). When China was united under a single visible emperor, during the Qin-Han dynasties, concepts of the spirit world, internal cultivation, and “rites of passage,” were unified through he acceptance of Yin-Yang Five Phases 陰陽五行 theory by the so-called New Text (Jinwen 今文 ) school as governing the rites of passage (see Liji Saso, “The Daoist Jiao Celebration ” / 205 礼记, Yili 义礼). The expression “three teachings, one culture” (sanjiao guiyi 三教歸一) was later used to describe this unifying of China into a single socio-cultural system. Confucian teachings (rujiao 儒教) codified ethics for human relationships. Buddhism (fojiao 佛教), imported from India and altered substantially in China, was successful only after it provided ritual for pacifying the souls of ancestors and other “daemon” spirits in the afterlife. Daoism (daojiao 道教) provided a ritual system to mediate changes in nature, and relations with the spirit world. Daoists, from the period of division (3rd - 6th c.) by imperial order were graded or classified into nine ranks of perfection, as were the grades given to officials in the Confucian mandarin system. Daoists of Grade Five and above (wupin 五品以上) were given higher grades because they were able to practice of internal cultivation (neigong 內功) as a part of formal ritual observances (keyi 科仪). Daoists were not trained in neigong were given Grade Six (liupin 六品) or lower. The title of “Three-Five Surveyor of Merit” (sanwu dugong 三五度公) was, and still is, used to name Grade Six, and lower Daoists (Dokyo Hiketsu Shusei, p. 33b). During the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), Daoists adopted jiao from Confucian liturgical sources and used it for a specific kind of “ritual of renewal.” Anna Seidel and various Japanese scholars, including Kubo Noritada, have attributed this phenomenon partially to the conversion of New Text scholars, rejected by the dominant “Old Text” (Guwen 古文) school of the Later Han dynasty to Zhengyi 正一 or Orthodox Unity Daoism . The Hetu 河圖 (River Chart) and Luoshu 洛書 (Writ of the Luo) texts of the apocrypha (gu weishu 古緯書) were among its original sources. They show a strong influence of the Yijing 易经 (Book of Changes) and the Laozi as well as their various apocryphal commentaries on (e.g., 有 易，老子与已经) (see Seidel 1983). Three kinds of jiao rituals appear in today’s Daozang 道臧 (Daoist Canon): Golden Register Jiao (jinlu jiao 金籙醮) for village and temple renewal; Yellow Register Zhai (huanglu zhai 黃籙齋) for burials; and Jade Register Jiao (yulu jiao 玉籙醮) for imperial court and state rituals. Due to its colorful liturgies, Daoism was called the weft (wei 緯) and Confucianism the warp (jing 经), together forming the fabric of Chinese society. Confucianism, as the “warp” or vertical threads of Chinese society, provided the classical Chinese source for texts defining socio-political 206 / Journal of Daoist Studies 8 (2015) relationships. These texts were the basis for entrance by imperial examination into the upper strata of Chinese political bureaucracy. Daoism as the “weft” or horizontal threads of Chinese society provided rituals to keep people in harmony with cosmic changes and the seasons of nature. The four seasons, life...