¹ See, for instance, Matsuda, Fukutaro'sTaiwan no Shukyo (The Religions of Taiwan) now available in a Taipei reprint.Google Scholar

² The Taiwanese when asked what religion they believe in, almost invariably answer Fo chiao, or Buddhism, but which refers to the shen-ming or effigies of the spirits in their homes, which are called P'u-sa or Fo.Google Scholar The popular religion is noted for being syncretistic, and both Buddhist and Taoist Priests can be called into perform the funeral ritual, or to read sutras in the local temple. San chiao kuei-i or the Three Religions in One is a late term, and often refers to a secret society as well.Google Scholar

³ See De, Groot, The Religious System of China (1910), Vol. VI, pp. 1182–1183Google Scholar; also De Groot, Les Fêtes Annuellment Célébrées à Emoui (Annales du Musee Guimet, Paris, 1866), pp. 73–83. A Glossary of Chinese characters for important terms used in the text appears at the end of this article, p. 102.Google Scholar

⁴ For the clearest and most readable account, see Holmes, Welch, The Parting of the Way, Lao-tzu and the Taoist Movement (London: Methuen, 1958).Google Scholar

⁵ , Michaud's article on the Yellow Turbans, in Monumenta Serica (Tokyo), No. 17 (1958), pp. 47–127 denies any connection between the Yellow Turbans and the “Five Bushels of Rice” orthodox TaoismGoogle Scholar; Maspero, , on the other hand, in Le Taoisme (Paris, 1950), makes them into the same movement. The use of the Yellow Crown (Yellow Turban), the spiritual significance of “Lord of Heaven,” “Lord of Earth,” and “Lord of Men,” and finally the mention of the “nine-knotted staff,” a ritual implement of the Yellow Turbans still mentioned in modern Taiwanese Taoists' hand-books, are among the similarities to be found today, thus suggesting that Taoism drew from both sources.Google Scholar

⁶ See Rolf, Stein's excellent article in the T'oung pao Archives for 1963, Vol. 50. The Japanese scholars Ofuchi and Fukui were perhaps the first to establish the relation between religious Taoism at the end of the Han, and early Han local administration.Google Scholar

⁷ Holmes, Welch's article on the Heavenly Master in Taiwan is perhaps the most accurate and objective work done on the present head of Cheng-i orthodox Taoism. See “Chang T'ien-shih and Taoism in China,” Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. IV (1957–1958), (Hongkong University Press, 1960), pp. 188–212.Google Scholar

⁸ The five peaks are: T'ai shan in Shantung; Heng shan in Hunan; Hua shan in Shensi; Heng shan in Hopei; and Sung shan in Honan. These correspond to the five points of the compass, East, South, West, North and Centre; but they also have a religious significance, which will be seen below; see note 36.Google Scholar

⁹ See Holmes Welch, “Chang T'ien-shih and Taoism in China” (note 7 above); pp. 204–205. The Taoists of Taiwan ceased to make the long journey for their diploma to Lung-hu shan after the coming of the Japanese in 1895.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Chiao is the technical term for Taoist ritual, of the orthodox ling pao type in Taiwan. It originally had the same meaning as chai or ritual and fast. For a scholarly treatment of the origin of the word, see Liu Chih-wan's monograph in the Academia Sinica series, Taipei-shih Sung-shan ch'i-an chien chiao chi-tien (Great Propitiatory Rites of Petition for Beneficence at Sungshan, Taipei, Taiwan) (Taipei, 1967), pp. 1–9.Google Scholar

¹¹ The p'u-t'u ceremony is always performed on the last day of a chiao, as well as on the 15th of the seventh month, and in funeral ritual. Both Taoist and Buddhist ceremony make use of this ritual form, the Bon Odori of Japan being the same sort of a festival. The evening before the ritual, lanterns are floated on the nearest river, to summon back the souls for the banquet on the following day. The p'u-t'u is a general freeing of the inhabitants of the underworld, and at every chiao I attended the point was insisted upon that the souls not only of Taiwan but the world partook of its merits as well as the banquet.Google Scholar

¹² For the wang yeh ritual of expelling the demons of pestilence, see Lewis, Hodous, Folkways in China (London: Probsthain, 1929), pp. 205–213Google Scholar. The wang yeh were originally spirit-generals subordinate to the god of T'ai Shan, the star-spirit corresponding to Jupiter, who controlled life and death. They were 12 in number, one for each year of the 12-year cycle of Jupiter. The festival occurs in the Yüeh-ling section of the Book of Ritual, and De Groot, in Vol. VI of his The Religious System of China traces its origins to the “Noh” exorcisms of ancient Chou China. The ritual was performed by the predecessors of the Taoists, the Fang Hsiang priests of ancient China, who wore a red cloth around their heads. See below, where the young Taoist wraps a red cloth around his head to perform this ritual, showing the distinction between orthodox “Heavenly Master” Taoism and the popular “heterodox” Red-head, whose roots are even more ancient than the “Black-head” Taoist.Google Scholar

¹³ The gold crown of the Taoist priest of today bears more than a circumstantial similarity to the yellow turbans; see Stein's article in the T'oung pao, Vol. 50, p. 5Google Scholar, quoting Ofuchi, and P'ing-lin, Chang. In Ofuchi's opinion, the T'ai p'ing ching of the Yellow Turbans is the essential doctrine of the Heavenly Master sectGoogle Scholar. See Ofuchi, Ninji, Dokyo Shi no Kenkyu (Studies in the History of Taoism) (Okayama University Press, 1964).Google Scholar

¹⁴ For the flame on the Taoist's head-piece, see De, Groot, The Religious System of China, Vol. VI, pp. 1267–1268.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The Taoist trinity, the San ch'ing have a rather complicated meaning, and one must turn to the secret manuals which the Taoists hold to unravel its significance. The Three Pure Ones can be interpreted in an abstract as well as in a concrete sense. In the abstract they are a three-fold manifestation of the Tao, which cannot be expressed in one word, or in many words, for that matter. Thus the central figure, Yüan-shih t'ien-tsun or Primordial Heavenly Worthy is the Tao in its creative aspect; the second figure to the left of the Yüan-shih, named “Ling-pao Heavenly Worthy”Google Scholar means the Tao as governing the world. Ling has the significance of heaven and spirit, pao means the earth and its realm. The third figure is the Tao as in man, and therefore by concrete application is that very first of all Taoist immortals, Lao-tzu himself. The first, Yuan-shih Heavenly Worthy, is associated with hsüan, dark, and heavenly mystery, and with the colour green. The second, the Ling-pao Heavenly Worthy is associated with the earth and the colour yellow. The third, Tao-te Heavenly Worthy, symbolizes man, and is associated with the colour white, Lao-tzu or Lao-tan. This explanation is found in the Tao-chiao yuan-liu (see below, the collection of the Taoist Mr. Ch'ien, p. 91a, line 7), a book which each Taoist holds in his private collection. The gloss goes on to say that this refers to the 42nd chapter of the Lao-tzu, and the words, “The Tao gives birth to the One, the One gives birth to the Two, and the Two gives birth to the Three; the Three then gives birth to the 10,000 things.” The text is performed on the first night of the chiao liturgy, when a lamp is lit to each of the Three Pure Ones from a new fire kindled outside the temple (see below, note 36). The matter is further complicated by the fact that the Taoists give specific names to each of the Three Pure Ones (p. 42a of the same manuscript), where the Jade Pure One is called Chang Hua-tzu; the Highest Pure One is named Liang Wei-tzu, and the Ultimate Pure One is named Lao-tan. Thus the Three Pure Ones are given very specific names, being not just aspects of the Tao, but anthropomorphized beings as well (see below, note 20).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Yü-huang shang-ti, or the Jade Emperor Above, is found both to the left of the Three Pure Ones, and in the very centre of the sacred area where the liturgies are performed. He is both the head of the popular pantheon of the folk-religion, the shen-ming or spirits of the earth, as well as the mediator of the Tao, amongst the highest of the Heavenly Worthies as well. The main liturgies are performed in his presence, in solemn audience “before the Tao.”Google ScholarTs'z-wei ta-ti is the supreme ruler of the Purple palace in the North Pole star, and is also the first of the Three officials (San kuan) or the Three Origins (Shang yüan) of the popular religion (see Tao tsang, Vol. 281, Chapter 14, p. 12a–b). The distinction between the spirits of the popular religion and of orthodox Taoist worship is here made very clear. The Jade Emperor Above is both head of the shen-ming or earthly spirits, whose priesthood is the “red” or heterodox Taoist, and the mediator of the highest Heavenly Worthies as well, whose priesthood is the “black” (hsüan) orthodox Taoist. Note the concurrence of colours with note 15 above.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Hsüan-t'ien shang-tiGoogle Scholar is the patron of the Ming dynasty and the famous Taoist centre at Wu tang shan in Hupei, but his position here in complementary opposition to Chang T'ien-shih, the founder of orthodox Taoism and patron of Lung-hu shan, is to be noted. One could say simply that Chang T'ien-shih represents the fire-dwelling Taoist tradition, and Hsüan-t'ien shang-ti the monastic Taoists, Wu-tang shan being a distant cousin to the famous Mao shan near Nanking, famous for its mediumistic trances, seances and use of the planchette. One could surmise in fact that Hsüan-t'ien shang-ti, whose temples in Taiwan usually have a mediumistic cult, and represent the heterodox “Red-head”Google Scholar tradition, is juxtaposed to the Black-head orthodox tradition, both kinds of rituals being performed by the Taoists of Taiwan.Google Scholar

¹⁸ This text, one of those found only in the Taoist priests' collections, is preserved in the British Museum under the press mark OR 12693/15, and is indeed a part of an impressive collection of Taoist ritual, recently discovered on the shelves of the British Museum. The manuscripts originally belonged to a Taoist priest in Chang-chou, Fukein Province, whose name Ch'en Yü-hsiang proved to be an ancestral name of some of the Taoists who emigrated to Taiwan. The earliest documents are dated to the 14th year of the Yung Cheng reign, 1734, and are identical with those held by the Taoists in Taiwan. They somehow or other found their way to the British Museum, the date of acquisition being listed in the catalogue as 1872.Google Scholar

¹⁹ There are many kinds of chiao ceremony; see Tao tsang Vol. 111Google Scholar, Shang, Chapter 15 where nine kinds are listed, and Tao tsang, Vol. 761, Tai-shang ling-pao tao-hsüeh, Shang, pp. 17, et seq. The above-mentioned work of Liu Chih-wan, pp. 14–16Google Scholar, lists the main types of chiao practised in Taiwan. These include the p'ing an chiao for village renewal, once a generation, the wang yeh chiao for expelling the demons of pestilence, the lo ch'eng chiao for dedicating a new temple, and the lesser one-day chiao ritual for a birthday, asking for children, and so forth. Since rain is plentiful in Taiwan, the chiao against drought is not often used, the last recorded instance in the Ch'eng huang temple in Hsinchu being 1871.Google Scholar

²⁰ The point of whether the “T'ien-tsun” Heavenly Worthies are all many aspects of the one Tao, or whether in the belief of the pious Taoist they are individual spirits who attained Taoist immortality may seem a finely drawn distinction to make, but one need only recall the two theories enunciated in the Tao tsang as to the origin of the San tung, the earliest division of the Taoist canon. The first theory says that the Three T'ien-tsun who each formed one of the three sections of the Tao tsang were in fact Ying-hua shen or incarnated aspects of the first, Yüan-shih t'ien-tsun. The second theory gives equal independence to the Three T'ien tsun. The first theory bears a close resemblance to the “San shen chi-i” theory of Buddhism, that is, the theory of the three incarnated aspects of the one Buddha. The other, which makes each T'ien-tsun to be an independent spirit, is much closer to the faith of the popular religion. The detailed work of Fukui, Kojun, Dokyo no Kisoo teki Kenkyu (A Fundamental Research into Religious Taoism) (Tokyo, 1958), pp. 153–162, discusses the two theories at great length, finding the transformational aspect to be of more ancient origin, dating perhaps from the early San huang ching. Both of the Taoists in this paper, however, believed in the T'ien-tsun as individual spirits, in their practical acts of worship.Google Scholar

²¹ See the Tao chiao yüan-liu, p. 98a, which traces the origins of orthodox Taoism to the eighth-generation predecessor of Chang Tao-ling, Chang Liang of the early Han.Google Scholar

²² Though the Taoists of Taiwan are unwilling to reveal their trade secrets to Taoists of other groups, there is a remarkable willingness to open their great boxes of precious manuscripts to the interested scholar. Coupled with this is the traditional Taoist sense of hospitality, camaraderie and love of good wine, which recalls the descriptions of historically famous Taoists and their joy of good living.Google Scholar

²³ The rituals for a one-day chiao presented by Mr. Ch'ien, with similar texts indicated in the Tao tsang, appear in the following list: From this set one ritual was missing, Mr. Ch'ien told me, called chieh chi, or releasing the bonds. The text I later found in the British Museum collection, OR/12693/15, copied by the Taoist Ch'en Hung-yü in the second year of Tao Kuang, 1822, in the Ch'eng huang temple, Chang-chou, Fukien.Google Scholar

²⁴ This distinction is peculiar to Taiwan, especially in the north, where orthodox Taoists are called “Red-head” if they perform ritual for the living only, and “Black-head” if they perform funeral ceremonies as well. In south Taiwan “Red-head” refers to the heterodox little Taoist only, the Fang hsiang; the orthodox Taoists perform all of the rituals, heterodox and orthodox, themselves. In northern Taiwan the distinction is more closely observed, and thus during the chiao ceremony, one finds orthodox Taoists such as Mr. Ch'ien and Mr. Chuang performing only the elite k'o-i or orthodox ritual, while the “Red-heads” perform their own “little” rites. There is much more to be said on this problem, however, because the distinction between “red” and “black” orthodox priest is probably due to the historical development of north Taiwan, and peculiar to it alone. Most of the “Red-head” Taoists have not been orthodox for more than three or five generations, dating more or less from their family's immigration to Taiwan from Fukien. There being a great lack of orthodox Taoists, the secrets of the trade were evidently sold to little heterodox families, who learned the orthodox ritual, and then went to Lung-hu shan in Kiangsi to get their licence from the Heavenly Master. Thus the term “Red-head” Taoist may also mean a latecomer to orthodox ritual, who only began practising after arrival to Taiwan; these “Red-head” Taoists practise “ritual for the living,” having received only a part of the orthodox tradition. The “Black” Taoists of Hsinchu and of the north usually have a much longer Taoist tradition in their families. (See below, note 33.)Google Scholar

²⁵ An orthodox Taoist means one who has been ordained into the Heavenly Master sect, even if he has not been to Lung-hu shan (or more recently to Taipei) to acquire his licence from the Heavenly Master, the present Chang T'ien-shih. He knows the names of the spirits in the microcosm, and how to summon them out of his body, as the vital link between earth and heaven. He also knows the elite k'o-i ritual which is practised during the chiao ceremony, and which dates back to the beginnings of religious Taoism. (See below, notes 35 and 36.)Google Scholar

²⁶ There are commonly five Taoist sects listed in the earlier Japanese works on Taiwan, which are mentioned by Holmes Welch in the article cited above (Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. IV (1960), p. 199)Google Scholar. These are: Ling pao, Lao chün, Yü chia, T'ien-shih and San-nai; in fact, the first mentioned, Ling pao, and the fourth, T'ien-shih, are the same orthodox Heavenly Master sectGoogle Scholar. The third, Yü chia, refers to the Buddhist Vogic scripture, Yü-chia Yen-k'ou which is used both by Buddhist and Taoist priests in place of the p'u-t'u for feeding the hungry souls. Thus many of the temples in Taiwan, such as the Chi-nan kung near Taipei and the Hsüan-t'ien shang-ti temple in Chia-i, use Buddhist scripture to read before the Taoist pantheon. The Japanese scholars in the 1930s, then, were mistaken in identifying the use of this text with a separate Taoist sect. The Lao chün sect, the equivalent of the Fang-hsiang Taoists, such as are found all over China, claim to be descendants of Lao-tzu, and share the ceremonies of the chiao with the orthodox Taoists. They read the canons, the little rituals and leave the K'o-i liturgies for the orthodox Heavenly Master sect to performGoogle Scholar. Finally the San-nai sect, encountered here in the text, claim to originate from Lü shan, and their ordination is described by De, Groot, The Religious System of China, Vol. VI, p. 1248, “climbing the sword-ladder.”Google Scholar

²⁷ See Holmes, Welch, Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. IV (1960), pp. 188–212, for a description of this organization.Google Scholar

²⁸ See ibid. The folklore relating to the San-nai sect can be found in the Taiwan Provincial Gazette, Religion section, published in 1956 by the Taiwan Provincial Government, p. 46. The patron spirit of the sect is Hsü-chia Chen-jen, the third disciple whom Lao-tzu found on his way through the Western pass:

“Hsü-chia chen-jen was a pile of white bones by the side of the road. As a man he had been foolish, and could neither read nor write. Lao-chün (Lao-tzu) used a fu-talisman and an incantation to change him into a realized man. He honoured Lao-chün as his true master. Since not knowing how to read or write made life difficult, Lao-chün was able to teach him how to write fu talismans, in order to save the common people of the world.”Google Scholar

The secrets taught by Lao-tzu to Hsü-chia chen-jen were transmitted to the San-nai sisters during the Sung Dynasty, according to a legend given to me in the Ch'eng huang Temple in Hsinchu. “Ch'en, the eldest of the sisters, studied the Tao on the top of Lü shan. There, in a trance, Hsü-chia chen-jen taught her the secrets of the charm-sword held in the right hand, and the cow-horn held in the left. With a red cloth wrapped around her head, and dancing the steps of the 24 constellations, the ritual for expelling demons and curing sickness was passed on to her, as foundress of the San-nai sect.” There is neither space nor is it within the scope of this article to comment on the San-nai sect, but it must be said that all the Taoists of Taiwan know the ritual of the sect, and most have been ordained into it as well. The boundaries of Taoism are not limited. The legends of the San-nai sisters are contained in a popular novel available in most bookshops, called Lin-shui p'ing-yao.Google Scholar

²⁹ The accuracy of Ch'ien's drawing is remarkable, but in fact most of the Taoists of north Taiwan were quite clear on their relationships to one another. Only the Black orthodox group tended to remain aloof. The “Red-head” orthodox and the “little” heterodox tradition co-operated in the lesser daily rituals as well as in the great chiao festival, as members of the same Taoist faith.Google Scholar

³⁰ Even the most orthodox of the Black-head Heavenly-Master sect wrap the red cloth around their heads, and perform the San-nai style ritual. The two traditions are therefore seen again and again as one of spatial orientation, that is, red relating to earth and its spirits, and black to heaven, and the T'ien-tsun.Google Scholar

³¹ The difference between a medium and shaman is traditionally defined as (a) medium: one who is possessed by a spirit, as opposed to (b) shaman: one who goes off on a spiritual journey. The experience of Taoism in Taiwan will perhaps do something to alter the traditional understanding of these terms. The orthodox Taoist is in fact a man who stands before the Tao in solemn audience, who calls down the primordial breath which formed the heavens, and is therefore a most sophisticated religious form of what scholars would classify as shaman. The medium sometimes “goes on a trip” to the underworld, but is usually “possessed” by his patron spirit.Google Scholar

³² Here again the difference between the folk religion and the Taoist belief is clearly seen. The shen-ming or popular gods of the earth whom the people worship are here seen as subservient to the T'ien-tsun, heavenly spirits whom alone the Taoist worship. The Taoist wears the black hat and the gold crown when addressing the Heavenly Worthies, or when acting as a Heavenly Worthy in addressing the shen-ming. When, on the other hand, he performs the ritual of expulsion, he dresses with the red cloth around his head.Google Scholar

³³ The orthodox Black-head ordination can only be passed on to one son a generation. There were strict laws in the Ming as well as the T'ang dynasties limiting the spread of Buddhist and Taoist monks in this fashion, but the orthodox Heavenly Master sect proscription seems to be of much earlier origin. Maspero notes on p. 45 of Le Taoisme that the role of the Chi Chiu (the Kao kung fa-shih or Black-head orthodox Taoist priest of Taiwan) was always an hereditary one, and cites Vol. 78 of the Tao tsang, “Hsüan-tu lü-wen,” pp. 11a and 12a, showing that from the earliest times the ordination could only be passed on to one son in the paternal line, and failing a son, to one of the father's brother's children. This rule is still followed in Taiwan.Google Scholar

³⁴ The British Museum collection, mentioned above, contains 45 k'o-i ritual texts, including the fen teng, su ch'i, tao ch'ang, the most important texts of the three- or five-day chiao ceremony. They are filed under catalogue number OR/12693, and represent to my knowledge the only collection of Taoist liturgical texts in the West.Google Scholar

³⁵ The fen teng ritual contains three sections; the first is a ritual lighting of the new fire, whereupon to a recital of the 42nd chapter of the Lao-tzu, “The Tao gives birth to the One,” etc., the lamps in front of the Three Pure Ones, and then all the lamps of the temple are lit. Thereupon, “The scroll of the Heavenly Emperor” is unrolled, for a solemn audience before Yü-Huang shang-tiGoogle Scholar; and finally a rite called “Sounding the Bell and the Chime” is performed, in which the bell representing Yang and the chime representing Yin are sounded a ritual number of times, representing the harmonious union of these two principles, whereby primordial chaos was formedGoogle Scholar. Cf. Tao tsang, 213, Chapter 27 for the first; Tao tsang, 212, Chapter 17 for the second, and Tao tsang, 211, Chapter 14 for the third. British Museum, OR/12693/28.Google Scholar

³⁶ The su ch'i ritual, perhaps the most beautiful and ancient of the chiao ceremonies, is the night ritual for establishing the sacred Taoist altar, and gaining all blessings. It is basically the establishing of the five sacred writs, representing the five directions, and primordial breath from those directions, in the five sacred peaks, represented by five bushels of rice. The text of the ritual can be found in Tao tsang, 281, Chapter 16, and in the British Museum, OR/12693/D.Google Scholar

³⁷ See Tao tsang, 208, index, for a list of k'o-i ritual.Google Scholar

³⁸ Many years of study are required to be able to perform the more than 300 rites which the Taoist must know by heart, with music, ritual dance and so forth. The estimate of Mr. Chuang, 20 years, was not an exaggeration.Google Scholar

³⁹ The Tao tsang has had a very difficult history, filled with burnings and pillaging perhaps unparalled in bibliographical history. For an account of its history see the work of Ch'en, Kuo-fu, Tao tsang yuan-liu k'ao (Chung hua Press edition, 1949), pp. 139–141Google Scholar. The Sung edition of the Tao tsang made use of the local collections of the Southern Taoist priests in completing its massive sourcesGoogle Scholar. See Tao tsang, 677, Yün-chi, Ch'i-chien, preface, p. 1b, ch. 9Google Scholar. The present Tao tsang, a Ming compilation, has many lacunae, listed by Ch'en, Kuo-fu on pp. 196–200Google Scholar of the above-mentioned work. Among the titles of the Taoists' collections are many not found either in that form, or with such clarity of explanation in the Tao tsang; thus the Taiwanese Taoists' collections can be of invaluable assistance in sorting out the order and the meaning of the present Tao tsang, which has so far defied a complete critical study.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ One of the basic rituals, the ch'u kuan or summoning of the spirits out of the Taoist's body, can be found in Tao tsang, 193, Hsia, the Teng chen yin-chüeh, compiled by T'ao, Hung-ching in the Liang period c. a.d. 502Google Scholar from a much earlier version of the Shang ch'ing ching; (see Ofuchi Ninji, Dokyo shi no kenkyu, and Yoshioka, Dokyo kyoten shiron)Google Scholar. The su ch'i ritual mentioned above, note 36, is found in the Wu shang pi yao, a work of the northern Chou, c. a.d. 557, but the version in Tao tsang, 281 bears the name of Lu Hsiu-ching (died a.d. 477). The use of the five talismans in a similar ritual can perhaps be pushed even earlier to a passage in the ancient Wei shu, a kind of ho t'u, or “River Chart” from the early Han dynasty, a fact which gives the su ch'i an even more antique flavour.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Permission to enter the sacred area requires that the priest, participants from the lay community, and the scholar bathe, abstain from meat, and wear neither leather nor wool while in the ritual area.Google Scholar

⁴² Compare the Taiwanese Taoist ritual with the Tao tsang passages, above, notes 23, 35 and 36.Google Scholar