To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series)

To become a god Cosmology, Sacrifice, and SelfDivinization in Early China

Michael J. Puett

Published by (he Harv3rd University Asia Center for (he H arvard-Yenching Institute Distributed by Harvard U niversity Press

Cambridge, Massachu5ens, a~d London, England, 2.00:2.

PTimed in 111£ United 5 tl l(1 of Am~r lca The Harnrd · Yenchlng In,dune, founded in

1918

and he.adquarlered at Harvard Univcnity.

is a foundation dedlcaled to the IIdY~nceH1cm of higher education in the human ities and

lOCiaI sekru:es in Ealt and Somhtut AI~. The Insl itute supports adv.aneed research al HlrYard by {:aculty mtmb... of certa in A.~n universilies .and doclor:01 sludk. at Harvard Ind other univcnitiel by junior faculty

II

the lime universities. It also Juppom East AJian

For God doth know that in the day ye eol.{ therof, men your eyes shall be: opened, and ye shall be as gods. - The Bible, Genesis 3. King James version

Itudicl at Harvard through comributiou. 10 Ihe Harvard· Yenching Library and publicalion of lhe HG.",,,,l Jo~.","

of lu,'GIi< S/uJirJ and boob on premodern EaSt Asian history and

litcrature. Libra ry ofCongreu Cataloging.in. Publicarion Dati

Pucl!, Michael J., 1964 To becomc a god: tOIIllOlogy, lacriflCc, aud self·diviniudon in early China { Michael

J. Pnen .

Emperors and kings. are but obeyed in their several provinces, Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds; But in his dominion that exceeds in this Srretcherh as far as doth the mind of man. A sound magician is a mighty god: Here, Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity.

p. C111 . •• (Harvard· Yenchlng Inll ilUle Ulonograph aeries; S7)

-Christopher Marlowe. 'fix. Tragrdy of Doctor FaU5IUJ, lines 60-66

Ind ude. bibliosraphic rekre 'lCe. and index. I UN

I.

0·674 -009S9· " (alk. p.lIptr )

God--Proof, COJnl0logic:al. I. Diviniurion-· Chil1ll.). T. Tide: Cosmology, sacrifice,

and K1f-diviniurion in early China. II. Tide. III. Series. 8T100.Pg 1 001 199·.51--dc 11

Inde>:: by Mary Mortensen @Printed on acid·fr~ pIf 0,;114,

pp. '-n.

44. W ith [he e>laplion of Confucianism ~nd Mohism, many of the "schools' into which urly ChineK though, is often CltcgorizoeltI in the uny -raozhi: by Sima Tan (d. no 8C). AI Kidder Smith ("Sima Tan and lhe Invention of 010' ism, 'ugalism: el celeu") nu convincingly Ihown, many o{rhde 'schoolJ" were invented by Sima Tan and Irc therefore of quellion~b1e applicabili'y for d~U1IiolU of pre-Han lUll.

,6

INT RODUCT I ON

INTR ODUC TI ON

and the comparative terms-a point chat could o f course be made for any culture. On the contrary. I th ink comparative work can be very helpful, and I see my work as helping to develop.:l. compar;!civt framework. Ultimately. I hope (0 show mar an alternative: form of ,uINta! analysis man has heretofore been pracriced with these texts will aid in developing beettr comparative: methodologies. In particular. I will build on a number of recent works in ant h ropology to argue for a somewhat differen t appruach to srudy of early China; in tum, the: material on early C hina may help us [ 0 rechink issues in the anthropologicallirerature as well

I also critique in detail the argument, made for both C hina and Greece, that such movements-which I refer t o as ~self-divinizatio n movements- u ose through Ol re-reOlding of earlier shamanistic pnctice. I develop a comparison with earl y G reece ;md argue for Olfl approOlch to analyzing relatioru between hullWlS and divine powers in early Greece and China diffe rent &om the ones that have thus f:le been influential in sinology. In Chapter }. I look in detail at the rise of so-called nOlturalisric philosophy in Mencius Olfld ZhtlOlRgzi. I argue agairut a reading of these texa as representing either an wumption concerning the inherent continuiry betwee n humans Olfld H eaven in early C hina or a shift nom Olfl Olflimistic religion to a more rational worldview. On the contrary, as I hope to show, these teXTS should be read as statements in the contemponry debate over t he p0tentially divine powers of humans, and both texts contain attempa co t hink t hrough the implicOltions of such cbims for the relations of humOlfls and Heaven. If humans can indeed become spirits and can indeed gain divine powers, chen should they still accept the commands of a potentially capricious H eaven? Both Zhuangzi and M encius answer t h is question in the affirmative, although in different WOlyS. In o pposition to the way these figures are usually read, I argue that the (exu of Mencius Olfld ZhtlOlRgzi reveal the tremendous tensions emerging at chis time between Heaven and man. In C hapter 4, I turn to a study of correbrive cosmology. I argue that the emergence of correbtive systems in the late Waning Sates period wu directly rebred to the emergence of much stronger claims o f self-djvinization. In contrast to the satements in fourth -century IIC texes thac humans can attOlin powers comparable to t hose possessed by spirits. by the third century IIC numerous figures bevn to cbim to possess techniques thar enable them to become spirits.. In making this argument. I propose an alternative approach to reading early Chinese correbtjve thinking. If. as discussed above, Granet sought to explicate Chinese correlative thinking through a reconstruction of·Chinese t hinking.- Graham tried to do so by positing correlative t hinking ;u a universal mode of human thought. They disagree, in other words, on t he relationship of early Chinese correbtive thinking to contemporary observers: Granet emph;ui:zed diffe rence, G raham similariry. But both Granet ;md Graham ho pe to explain why cosmology would have seemed natural in urly China. And my disagreement with boch of their approaches begins here, I argue, building o n the pointS discussed in C hapters 2. and }, chat cosmology was in

me

Oudine: In Chapter I , I uriliu paleographic materials and received rexes to discuss che: complexities of ritual practices in che Bronze Age dealing with divinities. I analyze changes in notions of t he n,:l[Ure: o f spirits and. ancestors, as well as the rituals relating to both groups. r question several of the d ominilm models for Olnalyzing this mate rial Olnd ugue thOlt, conrrOlry co most interpretOltions, t hese documena revul Ol highly Olgonistic world, in which divine powers were perceived to be COlpricious Olnd in which humOlns were in t he position of trying. within t heir limited Olbilicies, to utilize sOlcrifices Olnd divinOltions to understand;md influence the spirit world. More specifically. I argue chOlt chere is Oln overriding concern in chese mOlterials to Olnthropomorphize the d ivine. Building on the work of David Keighdey, I cuce the attempa, through ritual puctices. to make che spirits into ancestors who could t hen be arrOlngcd intO Ol hieruchy Olfld directed co work on behalf of t he living to obcOlin suppon for the non-Olflcescr.a.i spiria u well C hOlprer 2. focuses on the emergence, during t he Warring States period, of numerous attempa co bypass the dominOlflt modes of orientation toward the world of spiri cs (involving. Olmong other things, divinOltio n Olfld sacrifice) through practices of seif-cuirivOltion. The advocOltes of these practices begln aniculating new definitioru o f che nOlture of spirits Olfld of humOlfliry Olnd the relatioruhip between che two. More precisely. these Ol n iculatioru we re Olttempes [0 reduce the d istinctio n between h urTWlS Olnd spirits Olnd co argue chu, through proper pnctices, one can Olttain powers compOlr.l.ble to those possessed by spirits and that one could disperue with divinuion and surifices. InsceOld of Olnthropomorphizing the divine, humOlru, through self~Iike spirits.~ cultivOltio n, could themselves become ru

wel1-

'1

,8

INTRODUCTION

INTROOUCTION

(Quntuintuirivt in early China. Not only did it arise late (as Graham COfreedy points out), it arose in direct opposition [0 the sacrificial practices dominant .at the rime. Correlative thinking emerged OI.S :l language of critique agairut me dominant nonons of the time, and it remained ",language of critique and opposition cluoughout the early imperial period. To develop chis argument, I analyze numerous late Warring SUtes eexts in full. I also review the amhropologicalliteracure on sacrifice 2nd cosmology that has betn so influential in sinological discussions of Chinese correlative thinking and argue that a somewhat different reading of that liter.nure. particularly of Graner and Claude Levi·Strauss, will allow for an alternative. and in my opinion more convincing. understanding of Chinese correlative

of spontaneous procC$SCS and patterns, not directed by spirits at :all, Lu J ia :and o thers like him could deny the theistic underpinnings of much of early H:an elite culture. If spirirs do not control n:atura.l phenomena, then both the theomorphic pretensions of t he emperors and the claims of :autonomy made by some practitioners of self-divini:zacion could be opposed. Chapter, is an in-depth srudy of the cosmologies preseored in several chapters of the Huainanzi, which build on the ascension and self-divinization literatures to argue fo r a cosmos populated by theomorphic humans :and :anthropomorphic gods. I analyze why these cosmologics were being presented and wh:ar claims were being m:ade. J also discuss the continuing proliferation of self-diviniz.uion movements during the early H:an and trace the various appeals thu were made for such powers, explicating why they became so prominent during this period. Chapter 8 srudics the shifts in the impcri.a.l S.1crificial system from t he time of Emperor Wu to the late first century IC in response to the contemporary debuts over how the system should operate. I analyze Emperor Wu's cre:ation of a new S.1crificial system bued upon Taiyi (rhe Great One), as well as Dong Z hongshu's and Sima Qian's critiques of the emperor. I then investigate why, in 31 IC, the impetial court embr:aced the :arguments of the Til-ius, :abolished significanr portions of its S.1crificw system, and PUt in pl:ace a new set of S.1crifices to H eOlven and E:arth. These new S.1crifices were based in ~rr on a particular re:adiog of documents concerning the s:acrificw sysrem of t he Wcstern Zhou. I seek to discern the significance dut had come to be usociated with these VOifious S.1crificial rites and to expl:ain the reasons for this shift in sacrifici.a.l practice. I argue that the shift was in ~rt:a reaction to the cl:ainu of autonomy th:at h:ad developed in the self-divini:z:ation movemenu. Although these movements h:ad themselves flourished in reaction to the theomorphic presentations of the early Han COUrt, the claims of aUtonomy that came to be :associated with these movements were seen as highly dangerous :and ultimately provoked:a strong shift in COUrt policies. The new sacrificial system put in place at the end of the first century IC involved a rejection of :any cla.inu ro sclf-d iviniutjon or theomorphism on the pOift o f humans. Humans and Heaven were posited as normatively correlated with each other, but they were also distinguished, with each given irs proper sphere of :activity. Divine kingship was rejected; the ruler was defined as human. There:after, self-diviniz:ation and ascension c:ame to be usociated with millenari:an movements opposing the imperial court.

faCt

thought. Chapter s is a study of the large literarure on spirit journeys and ascension from early China. Although this literarure has usually bc:en read as a survival of shamanism, I argue in contrast that it makes sense only when placed within the historical contexrs sketched in Chapters :1 through 4. In particular. several of the texts represent an attempt (Q develop selfdivinizarion c4ims to argue that humans not only can become spirits bur also can kave their body altogether and ascend [0 the heavens. The goal of Chapter s is to analyze these clainu in depth and see precisely why they we re bc:ing advanced at the rime. Ch:apt"er 6 rums to Qin :and carly Han COUrt practices. I reconstruct aspecu of the s:acrificw system and imperi.a.l ideology of the Qin and early Han COUtu and an.alyu the reasons for the prominence ofJanE'hi (masters of formulas) at the courtS of the First Emperor and Emperor Wu of the H:an. My main interest in chis chapter is to investigate the emergence during this period of theomorphic claims of rulership and the resulting debates that arose concerning the emperor's proper relationship to the world of spirirs. I reconstruct the historic.al complexity of these vuious stances over the counc of the Qin :and early Han empires to show both the rise of theomorphic forms of rulership and t he reaction against it. I also crace the intensifiarlon o f effortS by various offici.a.l.s to develop correl.1tive models during mis period. I focus in p:arcicular on Lu jia, who strongly :advocated following the transmitted texu of the ancient S.1ges. Lu Jia rumed to correlative models to critique both the dominant imperial ideology :and the v:arious self-divini:z:uion claims that were becoming increasingly popular among the carly H:an elite: by arguing that the cOlmOl conllsts

"

I

Anthropomorphizing the spirits Sacrifice and Divination in Late Bronze Age China

In both strains of the secondary literature discussed in me Introduction, a common reading of the Chinese Bronu Age pTev2m: humans and spiries were seen as continuous and were perceived to be harmoniously linked. Moreover, this period is repeatedly sun .as the formarive era in Chinese history. the period when one first finds the assumption of a continuity between the human and divine realms t hat, the argument goes, t hereafte r petvades Chinese history. Weber saw this .as a restricting aspect of Chinese culrore. as did Roct'Z, who argued that it ultimately reversed the transcendenw breakthrough of the Axial Age. Most of the scholars we looked at, howevcr, from Chang and Mote to Gnlham and Schwam. fully cdebr.ned it. But is it true! Were humans and spirits seen as linked in a harmonious continuum? And is it true that this period marks the beginning of a set of assumptions that (for bener or worse) predominated in later Chinese history~ In order to explore this question, it will be wonhwhile to look anew at some of these materiaLs :as well :as at some of the secondary literature devoted to the Bronze Age.

ANTHROPOMORPH I ZING THE SPIRITS

ANTHROPOMOR P H I ZING THII SPIR I TS

"

The Foundations of Chinese Cosmological and Bureaucratic Thought One thinke r who has tremendously influenced several recent scholars of the

C hinese Bronze Age is Mi rcca Eliade. It was Eliade who populuized the notion that primitive culrures univers:lUy .lh, and rhe Aneuton."

10.

11. Sec, e.g.,

31

The Shang king was the ,ommunicacor with rhe hierarchy of the dead; he attracted. them to his cult ,cntcr, in sequence, with rigorously scheduled sacrifices and hosted them with ordered groups of rituals; he communicated with them through thc highly formali«d techniques of pyromandc divinarion: he commissioned irucriptions, caflled into divination bones, th1t recorded the whole procedure in detail. Orderly divination, che hosting of guests (whether a1ivc or dead), sacrifice-chese were the ways of civiliud. men dealing.. nor with the wild and the unknown, not with ecstatic inspiration or [rance, but, through ritual and schedule, with their own kin. ~ Both sacrifice and divination are here explic:tble as expressions of a rational, bureaucr:ltic, civilized system. rather than of the shamaniscic model ad· vanced by Chang. Keightlet's concern wich rationalization in the successive stages of social development reveals a scrong Weberian influence. And, like Weber, Keight· ley is interested in how the religious orientations he finds in t he Shang played out in bter Chinese history. So, like Chang. Keightley sees the Shang 2S che origin of later C hinese cultural orientations, although he and Chang read this history very differently. k Keighdey argues in his seminal 'The Religious Commitment: S hang Theology and the Genesis of Chinese Politi· ("11 Culture": "It is the argument of this exploratory essay rh2t the secul2r values and institutions representing che great tradition of the Zhou and Han dynasties we re characterized to a significant extent by habits of t hin king and 11. Ibid., pp. 816-17, ho. Ibid., pp. 808-14. See ilio Keigtulcy, "T~ Rcligiow CO'lImiulIem: p. 118. 1}. Keigluley, "Sh.:ltnaniJm, Duth.. and the Anculon: p. Bll., 14.

,8

ANTHROPOMORPHIZING THB SPIRITS

ANTHP.OPOMOP.PHIZING THB SPIRITS

acting mat had been sanctified at least a millennium earlier by the: religious

IfWheadey (like Chang and Ching in this particular sense) saw the signiS.

logic of the Shang theology and cuk..26 For Kcightley, however. what one finds in the Shang is not Chang's shamanism bur Weber's vision: !he radical world optimism which Weber identified as a central Confucian value was already present in Shang religious belief...:'7 As he: ebbo(;lccs: "In Weberian terms, then. we can refer co the hi-

C:lnce of C hina as lying in its embodiment of. in t he fullest sense, a primordial cosmological emphasis on the linkage of the hwn211 and sacred reahns, Keightley sees the signific211ce in the peculi:lr bureaucr;lric logic of Shang lI religion.

erarchical. contractual, rational. routini:z:c:d. m:arhc:nurical. computmental-

ized nature of Shang ancestor worship as bureaucratic...2I The Shang. then. wu the o rigin of a bureaucratic mentality that Weber-correctly. in Kcight-

ley's view-saw as a dominant aspect oflaccr Chinese culture. For Keighdey, the oracle-bone inscriptions uvea.! a bureaucratic mentality mat both rou tinized whatever sh2lt\.aniscic tendencies might have c:r1sred in me Neolithic

"

However, as we saw in the Introduction. the Webemn reading of Chi· nese culture does shue a number of similarities with the cultura.l·essentialist model underlying (in somewhat different ways) Wheatley'S and Chang'S interprerarions. Thus, although Keightley rejects the sh:lm:lnism hypothC5is for euly Chin:l 2lld a.lthough he does implicitly revise Wheatley'S interprerarion, he a.Iso sees hwnans 2lld divinities as harmoniously linked in early

Weber, seu as characterizing later Chinese culture. Keight!ey's position leads him to a view of urban genesis somewhat differ-

China. He explicitly compares this with the situation in early Greece: 'Greek epia also derive much of their complexity 2lld dramatic tension from the frank recognition th:lt unresolvable conflicts exist in the world. This fund.amenta.l assumption is symbolized in the conflict between the va.lucs

ent from that given by Wheatley. H e refers quite F...vorably to Wheatley's emphasu on the importance of religion in the genesis of the Chinese stue. 29 But

and wills of men and gods: According to Keighdey, no such discord be· tween gods and men can be found in e:lrly China: "There was little discord

period and iniri:ated the "radical world optimism" th.u Keighcley, foUowing

Keightley reads the significance of religion in Chin:l differently. IfWhudey is working from Eliade, Kcightley is working from Weber. Aner describing the importance of religion for the Sh:lngu;ue, Keighdey continues; There is nothing uniquely ChinC5e in this account 10 far. RdigiotU bdieflw played limilar rolell in the genC5is of other Statell. ' Kcighcley providC5 another reference here to Wheacley.) Signiflcant in the Chinelle f;aSe , however, were the moda of conceprualiz.uion cemu..! ro the rheology. For it is in the logical rdatiolUhips that Shangtheol. ogy POSnllated as basic, and in the emotiolU as$ociated with those rdarionshiJl', that we find the characteristic dements which influenced the devdopment of political cul· ture in Zhou and later rimes: We find, in fact, a paradoxical situarion: a Shang ltate penneated with a commitment to the anCC5tOrs, strongly religious in the torality of it. demands; and yet we find that the commitment can be chana:eriud as nonreligiolU, nonmysreriolU, and- because 10 explicidy goal direaro-rational in its logic. The logic may be characterized, in faa, with approprUte caurioru to which I shall rerum, as "bureaucratic' in Max Weber's sense of the term. JO

liS, Keiglnky, !be Religious Commitment: pp, llZ - ll. l,. Ibid., p. l16. See:ilio Keightky, "dtl divining: ~We will pray for millel, (starting) from Shang Jia. We will offer me /iIw (burning lacriflce):

)1. Indeed, I would quwion not only Whenkfl ruding of the Shangmaurial bw his use of a correblive modd to o«DUnl for the riK of dries in general. As noc:ed above, WheatIey'S :l.l"gummr concerning rhe uiJ m,,""i wu hued on rhe work of ElUde. Eliadc in rum hued his argumenll on the Pan-Babylonian kbolau-with the tn>ci.tI diffe«:nce that the Pan_Babylonian k hobrl l;lW nOlions of the ACted caller as difIUsed !tom the Near East, whereas ElUdt; I.I.W them as a I1f1iYC1"W aspcet of what he aIkd primitive cultures. In other wor.rlgrm, 'Ttu: Book ofDocumenu; p. 49; and Nivilon, "An imerprecalioR of the 'Shao po,'" p.•8•.

,8

ANTHROPOMORPHIZ I NG THB SPIIt.JTS

ANTHROPOMORPHIZING THE SPlIltTS

The king laid to the effect: "Father Yin, as for grearly illustrious Wen and Wu, au-

The founding of the city is thus presented as .a continwtion of the actions of Oi (or He.aven), and it serves to center the rulm. ConcraS{ mis with the inscriptionaJ material discussed .above concerning the malOng of settlements. There, the concern was the human .appropriation of land conrralled by Di. .and the king was .anempting to use u cri6ces:and divin.ation to determine OJ's will. Here, Oi is the prime mover, directing the king to sc:tde .a new city. Indeed, the entire relationship berween ancestors .and descendants that prev.ailed in the late Slung .appe.ars to h.ave been turned upside down. In· ste.ad ofh.aving me kings determine the ancestors, living kings.are &equendy presented in Western Zhou bronze inscriptio ns as simply foUowing the models .and p.aradigms of the anceston. As King Kang states in the Do Yu

gUst Heaven was extcruivdy satisfied with their virtue, and made us. the rulers of Zhou. a countcrpart [of hinudf). [We] gready rcsponded to and received the great mmrhtc, and led md embraced the bordedanch which werc not coming [ 0 court. N one was nO{ opened by Wen', and WU'J brilliant glory. It wu Heaven that directed and gathered their rrunW.te. and it was the former officers who yidded to and as-

listed their roIen. ro~ing and laboring for the greal mandue. And chen august Heaven tirdu,[y Watched oyer and protected us, the rulers of the Zhou, and greatly Ifrc:ngrhened the ITUndatc of which [he former kings were the counrcrpan:..67

Heaven granted the mand:irc to the Zhou rulers Wen

~d

Wu, and Wen

and Wu then served as the counterpart ofHe;vcn on arrh. At first glance, this appears to be quire different from the Shang material. Throughout the Shang mefS there is a strong notion that the world has a proper pattern. However, the evidence dearly reveals this pattern to have bun given by humans to the spirits, not the other way around: living humans, through their ritu.a1s and particularly through their sacrificial system. place spirits into a hierarchy and thereby ane mpt to obtain an order favorable to themselves. Spirits do not give this pattern to humans; nor leEr (0 their own devices, would the spirits observe such a hier.archy. And, in fact, even with the full ucri6cial system in piKe, spirits are still quite c.apricious: the rituals do not alw.ays work. Wh.at appears different about the notion of.a mand.ate is thn it explicitly comes from He.aven, :md Heaven's suppon is bued on the virtUes of the rulers in question rather than on their rirwl :actions. Humans do nO( determine the an cestors; rather, they follow He.aven :and.are rewarded fo r doing so and punished for not doing so. Thus, for example, the decision by King Cheng. Wu's son and successor, to found the city of Luoyang is presented in sever.al Western Zhou texts as simply the fulfillment of the wishes of Oi. The ~Sh.ao gao· chapter of me Shdn~u quotes the Grand Protector as making precisely this poinr. The king should come and continue the [work) of the Oi on high, and himself serve in the center of the land.1Y 67. Shirwwa, Killbt. .. ts~m..kw, 10.1'1:6)7. All bron~ inKripcionl are referenced in (ennl of (hit W.d read it aJ t.; t£, al iI common in WUlrrn Zhou bron~ iriKriptionl. 10. Following Guo Moruo (Ibid.) In reading ,i~., mti~.

a,

ANTHROPOMORPHIZING TH B SPIRITS

"

Pacifying the Spirits: Western Zhou Sacrificial Practice The notion of a mandate is linked wirh the idea of proper sacrifices. In the "Duo fang" chapter of the sn...Plgs"u, the Duke ofZhou is reponed to have said: "It was your last king of Shang who took pleasure in his ease, scorned his governance. and did not keep the sacrifices pure. Heaven thus sent down timely disasters." Heaven then rurned to rhe Zhou: "It was our Zhou king who efficaciously upheld the people, was able to util.i.u his power (at), and direct the spiritS and Heallen. Heaven then instructed us to utilize his favor. He examined and galle us the mandate of Yin ro administer your numerous regiolU ...:11 Of note here is me fact: rhat one of the fundamental distinctions drawn berween {he cwo rulers is an ability to utilize sacrifices properly. The last Shang king failed to do so, and Heaven thus sent down disasters. In contrast, the Zhou king was able to direct [he spirirs and Helven properly, lnd he thus won rhe mandlte. But whlt does it mean to use sacrifices properly? The Tilnwlnggui,71 which dares to the reign of King Wu, is inscribed: The gready iIIusrrious decened father King Wrn serves and pienes 7J the Oi on high. (Sh 1.1:1) The late King Wen, Wu's fiuher, is presented as serving and pleasing Oi. Here again. the ancestors are expected [0 do what they can ro keep rhe highest power, Oi, working on behalf of the living. Although the rirw.] involved here is different from those discussed above. the concerns are quite similar. The inscription in the bronze vessel was presumably intended for the ancestors-in this case King Wen-who would rhus read me inscription after descending to consume the sacrifices offered in the vesseL74 The inscription. therefore, is nor so much a statement of faCt as an exhortation to Wen to serve Oi: "May the greatly illustrious deceased father King Wen serve and please the Oi on high!"

71. "Ouofang." SJ,.,,,p,,,, 17.sb. 6a. My lranslalion"'" been aid~ by Karlgren. ""The Soo[.; of Documems: pp. 64-6S. n. Also known u the Oa Feng",i. 1). Guo Moruo rms this a Iypr of suriflCr th.u iI being offtr~ to Oi (u.. "g'ZIxo~ Ji"""'II(; Ju; I~rw kGo,j,;. p. lb.) BUI since lhrre is no,~ T following Ihe word, il _tnl difficult 10 rr>.d OJ al the indirect objecl of a sacrifite verb. J [hl1$ read Ihe word in ilt ulwl meaning. 14. For an exlremely hrlpfUI analYlii of meaninr of bron~ imcriptions, _ Falkenhaulrn. "hmu in Wrlttrn Zhou SlUdil:l." See aha idem, S~Jpt..Jtd M~Jic.

as.,

6,

6,

ANTHIlOPOMORPHIZING THB SP IIlITS

ANTHROPOMOP.PHIZING THB SP IRI TS

This concern with coaxing or even controlling the: ancestors appears fre quently in bronze: inscriptions. For example. in [he 50 Dong gu;, a vessel from the: middle Western Zhou:

su~de him to accept the new order. These are the actions of a king who KU

fl.] Bo Dong. for the first rime will make a treasure: for the: western Fat"c. It is 10 be wed to pacify (Jui

*:

~) the spirits.

and to embrace and call OUI to [he earlier, cultured men, who gnsp virt1.lc and uphold generosity. It is to pur for len thousand yean to have sons' sons and grandson. gnmuolU ec:«n.ally [reas!,lfC it. (Sh 17.S!1:w,) The explicit statement that the vessel was made for usc in p2cifying [he: spiro its through sacrifices, like t he oracular materia.! discussed in the preceding sections, impliu a belief [hat the mentors were 01.[ lusr potentially nor suppordl/c. But if. in the: Tianwang gui, it is Wen who serves and pleases Oi, what happened to the Shang anccstors! How, in [he afcc:nnarh of the conquest. were the Sh~ng ~ncestors repl~ced by the Zhou in serving the Di! HinD em be found in the ·Shifu· ch~prer of rhe YiWlluJhu. ~ chapter rhat may indeed date to the early Western Zhou.7'J We are told that after conquering the Shang. King Wu declared: "In declaration to rhe earth altar. (Wu] said: 'It is I. the young one. who p~cifies (my] culrured. deceued nther. M~y it reach to (me]. the young one,'·76 The descendant. King Wu, claims to ~city (sui) his deceued nther. King Wen, and hopes thac this will result in benefits for himself. The term Jui is the same one used in me Bo Dong pi to describe the p~cific~tion of the spirits. The declaration reveals thac Wu is not at all certain of his deceased father's support, King Wu's actions in the afterm~rh of the conquest 2fe telling: ·On wud,tn (day s], rhe king then performed an exorcism, made an inspection. and gave a commemorative sacrifice to King Wen. On rhis day. the king es71 cablished the government.· All these actions. aken immedi;udy mer the conquest and immediately before the establishment of the Zhou state, appear to be 2CD of consolidation. aimed at driving away malevolent forces ~nd settling the new order. The exorcism. as discussed above, serves to drive spirits away from me human ualm-presum~bly. in mis case, the spirits are the Shang ~ncestors. Sacrifices are then given to Wen-presumably to per-

7'. Su Shaughmllr. "'New' Evidell« ollihe Zhou COnquclI," pp. 60-66. 76. "Shifu," Yidx>~m~ ••.Iu-b. n.lbid.• • .la:I.

himself in a position similar to that implied by the Of2cular inscriptions discussed above: he is acting in ways th:a.t he is not convinced will be supported by me divine powers and hence perfonns ritwl ;acu aimed at coercing their acceptance. Another of the actions aken by Wu after the conquest. the beheading of me Shang masters of cawdroru," is ~rticuLarly intriguing. Bronze vessels were used to offer sacrifices to the ancestors and thus to pacify them and maincain their support. C~u1drons in parricw2f were :associ;ated with such nooons.79 The beheoading of the Shang cauldron mmrs can be undersrood :as symbolizing me end of the Shang means of determining me will of the divine powers. And rhe sacrifice: of rhe last Shang king makes the rransfer complete. The chapter records another announcement by Wu:

[Wu) allllounced in [he Zhou temple. soaying: "Blelier. I h;ave heard. [mr] culturcd. ckcc:ued fathcr cultiv;atc:d. hinudf on thc stmdarru of thc mcn of Shang. With [hc dismembercd body ofZhou Irhc Ian Shmg king). I anllounce (the change in rulership) ro Huvcn ;alld to IHou] Ji ...ICI The announcement is direcred both to He;aven (the high god) and to H ou Ji (the ancestor of the Zhou people). King Wu acknowledges th;at the Shang formerly held the rulership and th;at King Wen modeled himself on the Shang. By sacrificing me Shang king and behe;ading the Shang m:asrers of cauldrons. Wu ends [he .ucrificial system [0 the Shang ancestors. The claim is thar now the Zhou,. nor rhe Shang. will be rhe ones to serve Heaven. In the aftermath of the conquest. it is King Wen who is called on to serve and please Di and thereby bring order ro the reoalm. We rhus find in the Shi-

jingo Mao h3S: King Wm is ;above. How glorious hc u in Heaven. , • . Ibid .. . ."b. 19. IUlc....1n1 here is 1m (r.llufer of ,fM, Yin king, cauldrollJ 10 Wu. also recorded in lhe YiVIowmw (•. la:I). Later lext. prumt such rransfen~. a Itanoiard occurrelKe during a legitimalt change of d)'llallic:s. See. t.g.. the z..cV>wall. Huan. KCond year. in which ,fM, Shang arc reponed 10 have lransftrred nine cauldron. 10 the Zhou. The Shift. "Qinshihuang bellji: record. Ihe failure of 1fM, Bm emperor to get rhe cauldrons from lhe Zhou. a bilute tmderllood to .ignif)t the iIlegitirnlcy of dIe QUI dynuty. 10. "ShiIu.; yjdx>~mw .•.111.1.

ANTHROPOMORPH I ZING THE SPIRITS

"

Although Zhou is ;l\1 old state. Its mandate is new. Are the mIers ofZhou not illUSlriOUS, Was rhe mandate ofDi not timdr~

King Wen ascenth and descends. Residing to the right and left of Oi. Much is said in chese few lines. The Zhou is an old Statt., but only with King Wen did Di grant it rhe mandate to rule. Thus. it is Wen who resides with

Di, descending to the hum;m realm to receive sacrifices and ascending to the heavens to serve D i and maint:1in his support for the Zhou. Wen thus serves the same function as the Shang ancestors had earlier. These ritual exhortations to ancestors continue throughout the dynasty. But what about the descendants? The inscription on the Tianwang gui condudes:

King Wen looks down from above. The gready illustrious king [WuJ makes the inspection, the greatly majestic king [Wul becomes the successor. (Sh 1.1:1)

Here we see another side of the equation: the living, in this case King Wu, attempts to become a proper successor to the ancestor. The deceased Wen is presented as watching h is descendant from above, and Wu claims legitimacy because of his abiliry to inspect Wen and serve as his successor. The relationship between them, therefore, is bi-ditectional: the living work to make the deceased into proper ancestors, who will wotk [0 maintain O i's favor for the living. But, as the deceased are made into proper :mces[Ors, the

AN T HROPOMORP H IZING THE SPIRITS

"

may [they] frequendy be in [he COUrt of the Di on High, ascending and descending. continuously enoompassing the august [DiJ on High's great and generous mandate, thereby commanding and protecting our family, my position, and Hu's person. The p resentation is similar to that seen in the earlier vessels, except th;L.t the ;L.ncestralline is now older. King Li h;L.s ordered the vessel for s;L.crifices to his deceased father ;L.nd gr;L.ndfather, whom he thereby hopes to Hm~e rranquil and compliant." The father and grandfather, rende red compli;L.nr t h rough s;L.crifices, are exhorted to approach the "former cultured men" -;L. reference to the founders of t he dynasty, presumably Kings Wen and Wu. T he latter in rum arc called on to ascend and descend between {he human realm and the court of O i, preserving Oi's mandate for the Zhou ;L.nd thus protecting the living king's posicion. T he inscription closes w ith the King's exhortation th;L.t he be able to continue his sacrifices and thus g.in long life and a continuing mandate from Oi: M~y

[I), Hu, for cen thousand years greatly bring to realization

my many sacrifices, thereby sedcing long life and enr[eating an eternal mandate co govern in posicion and act as the stem bdow. The text is a pr;L.yer to the king's ;L.ncestors to remain with Oi in order to

living promise to make themselves intO proper descendants. T hese themes pervade the Western Zhou bronze inscriptional material.

protect the king's position. The repeated claim throughout these poems and b ronze inscriptions is t h;L.t the d eceased ·must be made into proper ;L.ncestors who will then convince Oi to maintain support for (he Zhou roy:.a.lline. The living represent themselves as proper descendants to these proper ;L.ncesIOrs. The living, in

A further example is an extremely late vesseL the Hu gui, which was comS missioned by King Li. ! The vessel was cast in the twelfth, and possibly last, year of Li's reign before his forced exile:

other words, will follow [he ancestors, but only after the deceased have in f;L.ct been m;L.de into p roper anceSIOrs. The bronze inscriptions and the poems from at [east the ·Zhouson{ sec-

[IJ, Hu [King LiJ, make chis great sacrificial treasured gui tureen, with which to make tranquil and compliant my august cultured and valorous grandfather and deceased father; may [they] go to the former cultured men, 81. Pubfuhed in Luo Xi~h~ng. ·Shuru:i Fufeng raxian Xi·Zhou Liwang Hu gui." AI. though I dingr« in a few lp«iflC poilltl, my tranlLation of the uIJCrifMion geoerally rollowl that givell in Shaughneuy, Sowrw ofWtl!tr~ Zhow Hil!O'Y, pp. 111- 1:1·

tion of the Shijing m;L.y rhus have been written from ;L. perspective nor unlike rh;L.t seen in the Sh ang oracle inscriptions, a perspective, n;L.mely, of living h umans attempting to coerce the divine powers to grant aid or, ;L.t lease, not to send down disasters. Statements in these works th;L.t the descendants are simply following the enmple of the ;L.ncestors, who in rum were simply following t he example of Heaven, should perh;L.ps not be taken purely at face value, Instud of reflecting ;L.n assumption that descendants should simply follow t heir ancestors, such statements more likely arose as ;L.n attempt by

"

"

ANTHR O POMOR,PHIZIN O THS SP IRITS

ANTHROPO M OIlPHtZ IN G THB S PIRITS

me desccn
77

As Jonathan Z. Smith has argued: It urikes me that historians of religion have been weakest in interpreting those myths which do not reveal a cosmos in which man finds a place to dwell and on

which he found [lieJ his existen(C. but rather which suggest the problematic tWUre of cxlstenCe and fundamental tension in the cm:mos. I have in mind such ruditiolUl as dualisric creation myths. Earth·diver traditiolUl, Tricksters. or the complex narra· tives of Com or Rice Mothel'S who aeate by 10athsome" processes (e.g.. rubbi ng the dirt off their bodies. by defecation. scaetion). Oearly these mythologies. many of which arc extremely archaic. point to a different spiritual horizon [han thar de· scribed by Eliadc:u the fundamental "archaic onrology: 91

I would go further than Smith here: I would question the very usefulness of terms such as "archaic Mand Mspiritual horizon." Nonetheless. the basic point Smith raises is an importam one: there is no empirical evidence to support the notion that harmony with the "sacred" is somehow more primordial in human experience than are radical tensions and conflicts. Even for those scholars like C hang who wish to claim that such an assumption existed in early China, there is no basis for arguing that this assumption is closely linked to some archaic. primitive experience lost by other civilizations. But. in the case at hand. the argument is not only methodologically flawed but also empirically inaccurate: I have followed Keighrley in arguing against the hypothesis that shamanism was a guiding force in the State socie· ties of Bronze Age C hina. Keighdey's provocative argument about "making ancestors" presents the ritual systems of the Shang court as anempts to in· fluence nom the bonom up. The higher. non·ancestral gods were the most powerful beings. but they were also relatively impervious to human rituals. The spirits of deceased humaru were more maUeable. but. even here. a hierarchy held: the more distant in rime the deceased human. the more powerful but less subject to influence it became. The concern of the ritual system was thla ro transform these deceased humans into proper ancestors. H owever. although my rt2dings of the oracle-bone inscriptions have largely followed Keighdey·s. I reach different conclusions. In particular. I question Keightley's attempts to rt2d the Bronze Age material as evidence of a proto-bureaucratic mentality as defined by Weber. The Bronze Age sacrificial systems supported by the Shang and Zhou courts do not. I have argued. revt21 an assumption of harmony between humans and gods. nor do

9J. Jonl,hall

Z. Smith. Ille Wobbling P;vot," p. 100.

7'

ANTHR.OPOMORPHIZING THE SPIRITS

ANTHROPOMORPHIZING THE SPIR IT S

they reveal:!. belief in a ao tl aCJ vision of sacrifice. On me contrary. What we can reconstruct of Bron:ze Age religion reveals a highly agonistic world in which humans were constandy trying to force impulsive divine powers into

roles defined by the living and

to

convince them

to

act :accordingly. Keight-

ley's argument about making ancestors, in other words, should lead us to see sacrifices lS ;lcrcmpu to transfonn c.apridous divinities intO figures who could be conrrolkd by the living: humans, while in pan submitting themselves to the ancestral powers, we re also actively transforming and ordering mem. In short, the concern in the ancestral sacrifices W2S not simply to submit to the ancestors; rather, it was to Ctt;lCC proper ancestors to which the living could then become proper descend:anu. And these ancestors were then called on to pacify the higher, non-ancestral powers-including. most important, Oi. The cosmos would thus, to the limited extent possible, become o rdered by the living. The Shang SlIIcrincial system was an attempt to domesticate tbese bighly agonistic forces and place them within a hierarchy manipulable for tbe sake of human interests. Far from revealing an assumption of harmony, a belief in tbe benevolent intentions of the divine powers, and a desire to adjust to the .....orld as given, sacrificial practice in the Shang was aimed at a radical transfo rmation of m e divine world. a transformation undertaken precisely so tbat humanity could appropmte and domesticate natute for its purposes. Such an attempt to transform botb tbe divine and the narural worlds does indeed involve an enormous investment in sacrificial action. but t hat investment emerged not from an assum ption of harmonious collaboration berween man and god but from a sense of radical discontinuicy and lack ofbarmony. I have argued that similar ideas are visible in t he Western Zhou materials as well, and I t herefore question tbe attempt to read the Western Z hou materials as evidence of a correlative mode of thinking. I suspect, in fact, that what we see in the Shang and Z hou are a shared set of practices common in the North China plain. The Zhou conquest simply meant a replacement of the Shang pantheon with the Zhou pantheon, but the general ritual principles were much the same. The basic notion was to try to use sacrifices to build suppott through tbe ancesrn1 pantheon and ultirmtdy win the support even ofDi. As I noted in t he Introduction, most discussions of ancient China have been based on the claim that a bdief in continuity and harmony between the divine and human reaIms pervaded the Bronze Age period. The comparative

7.

frameworks have tben diverged in their reading of the later history of early C hina: Did such an assumption of harmony continue in early C hina, or was mere a shift- toward rationality and humanism with t he rise of phi1osopby~ But if, as I bave argued in t his chapter. no such assumption existed. then we will have to develop a rather different reading of Warring St:.l.[es and Han developments.

GAIN I NG THE POWERS OF SPIRITS

2

Gaining the powers of spirits The Emergence of SelfDivinization Claims in the Fourth Century Be

8,

leads to one subject of this chapter: the question of why such claims arose at this time. l As noted in the Inrroducrion, much of the secondary scholarship on texts such as rhese is divided between two readings: one school of interpretation sees these texts as records of a shift from religion (based on an animistic worldview) to philosophy (based o n a human-centered worldview); m e other views them as an organic development of a set of deep assumptions concerning rhe continuity of humans and divinities. Both readings are based on the claim that philosophy in early China emerged from an earlier shamanism, but they disagree on the degree to which philosophy broke from rhis earlier tradition. As we saw in t he preceding chapter, the shamanism hypothesis for the Chinese Bronze Age is questionable. In this chapter, I argue t hat the shamanism hyporhesis, and hence our understanding of the development of Chinese thought, grows out of a misleading comparison of G reece and China and thar t he concerns evident in this quotation from the Guanzi were not outgrowths of an eadiet shamanism. I offer an alternative explanation and argue for a diffe rent approach for comparing these developments with chose found in ancient Greece.

Conctntmt the 'Ii as if a. spirit. and all the myriad things will reside within. Can you concentrate? Can you unifyl Can you not engage in crackmiling a.nd milfoil divina_

Spirits Within Humans: The Issue of Shamanism in

tion and yet understand auspiciousness and inauspiciousness! Can you Stopi' Can you reach an endl Can you nor seek from others and obtain it in you rsdP. Think about it. think about ie, and chink about it again. If you thi~ about ie but do not penetrate, the ghOSts and spirits will penetrate if. This is not due to the power of the ghosts and spirits; it is due to the ultimilte poillt of essemial 'Ii,!

Early China and Early G reece

The fourth-century

BC

authors of chis p.assage from the "Neiye~ chapter

of the Guanzi are :uguing for

'Ii-bued cosmology in which spirits can understand the future not because they control it but because, as concentrated 'Ii, everything resides within them. In a similar fashion, those humans :.l.

who can concentrate their qi [0 the same degree as a spirir will also gain an understanding of auspiciousness without resorting to the arts of divination. As we will see, t his sntement is only one of a number of such claims voiced in this period abo ut the abilities of humans to gain access to divine powers without the mediation of ritual specialists. The emergence of these views

K. C. Chang was a strong advocate of the view that Chinese thought of the Warring States period evolved from earlier shamanistic practices: What may be seen as the most striking feature of ancient Chinese civiliudon is that ideologically spukingi! was created within a framework of cosmogonic holism. In the words of Frederick Mote, "the genuine Chinese cosmogony is that of organismic process. meaning chac all of [he parts of the entire cosmos bdong to one organic whole and that they all interact as participants in one spontaneously sdf-generating life process." This organismiC process. T u Wei-ming amplifies, "exhibits three basic motifs: connnuity. wholeness, and dynamism. All modalities of being. from a rock to heaven, are integral p,artS of acontinuum... . Since nothing is outside of this continuum. the chain of M:ing is never broken. A linkage will always be found between any given pair of things in the universe." This ancient Chinese world view. sometimes referred to as

~. Portion, of thi.! dupter are taken from my "Humans and God.J: The Theme of SelfDlvinlulioll ill Early China and Early Greece:

.,

GAINING THB POWERS OF SPIR I TS

·cOfTd:u:ive cO£moiogy; iJ surdy not unique; in cuenc!!: it represents the substratum of the hu man view of the world found widely among primitive societies (IiCC, e.g., Uvi.Sctauss). \Vhat is uniquely Significant about its presence in ancient China is the M that a verkable civiiiucion was built on tOP of and within iti confines. J

Julia Ching argues:l very similar position,· and A. C. Graham develops a comp1nlhle argument. Graham reads the "Neiyc" U;I; mediution text based on earlier shamanisric prlllcricc: "It is interesting also in providing clear evi· dence that the medit:uion practiced priv;mdy and recommended to rulers as an lrcanwn of government descends directly from the nance of the professional shaman," But whereas shamanism dealt with actwl spirin, the "Neiyc" deals with n:arun.listic. numinous forces: "By this period the gods and ghous, like Heaven itself, a fC in t he direction of becoming depersonalised though still vaguely numinous forces of nature.... M an himself can aspire, not indeed to omniscience (since Chinese thinking does not deal in absolutes), but to that supremely lucid awareness which excites a shudder o f numino us awe." T he meditation techniques o f che "Neiye~ thus involve a shifting of emphasis from linking with the spirits to perfecting the self "The shamanic origin o f the exercise is plain. The point of it however is not to become a medium fo r t he gods o r for deceued anceStors. This is a programme for self-petfection, u usual addressed primarily to the rulers.~ As such, the text ~may well be the earliest Chinese interpretation of the exper ience o f mysrial oneness:! Although Graham does not go as far u Chang and Ching in directly connecting shamanism co later not ions of correlative cosmology, he d oes, like C hang and Ching. S« the n ocion o f hunwu being fully linked to the oneness of the cosmos u a philosophical re-reading of an earlier shamanistic aperience. Indeed , the main d ifferences in the positions of these scholars concern the relations between chis earlier shamanism and lacet philosophy. For Chang and C hing, shanunism marked the primordial experience out of which later Chinese philoso phy grew, whereu for Graham (he philosophy involved a significant rewo rking of t he earlier shamanistic practice. C hang and C hing are arguing for a fundamental assumption of mo nism in early

). K. C. Chang. "Ancient China and III Anrhropological Significance: pp. 161-6a. MYlficilm "M J(j~l'hip j~ OJ,.., pp. 67-1)1. S. Graham, DUpWfn'! OJfht T 40, pp. 101, 104.

~. Ching.

GAI NING THE P OWB R S O F S PIRIT S

"

C hina that can be traced to a shamanist ic pUt, and Graham is utilizing a ~religion co philosoph( framework in which part of the distinctiveness of

C hinese philosophy emetged when thinkers turned from shamanism to selfcultivation.' In both approaches, however, shamanism lies behind Chinese philosophy. These arguments by C hang and G raham are closely paralleled by a large body of scholarship on ancient Greece char argues thac G reek phiJosophy emerged against a shamanistic background. The most influential t hesis was Chat advanced by E. R. Dodds. Much u G raham claims for C hina, Dodds argues that a fundamental shift in nocions of the self occurred in Greece in the fi fth century Be: The ·soul" was no rductant prisoner of the body (in pre-fifth century ac Greece); it was the life or spirit of the body, and perfectly at home there. It was here that the new religious pattern made ir, fateful contribution: by crediting man with an occult ,df of divine origin, and thus setting soul and body at odds, if introduced into European culture a new inrerpretation of human existence, the interpretation we call puritanical?

Dodds arguu that this occult notion o f t he soul is traceable to Central Asian shaman istic practices: Now a belief of this kind is an essential dement of the shamanistic culture which still exisfl in Siberia. ... A ,haman may be described :as a psychically urutab!e person who has received a call to the rdigiolU life. ... H is own soul u thought to leave its body and tr.avd to distant parfl, most often to the spirit world .... From these experiences, nur.ated by him in extempore song. he derives the skill in divination. rdigiolU poetry, and magical medicine which makes him socially impottant. He be· comes the repository of a lupemonnal wisdom. (p.14O)

Dodds argues that chis shamanistic culture emered G reece in t he seventh century from Scythia md Thrace ( pp. I ~ O, 1 4~)' and was picked up by fig6. ~raJ Otoo scholars have devdoped this sarnc "religion to philosophy" ~rgument in regard to fhe "Neiye: as wdI as the rdated "XiJllhu" chapters. (I discuss the "Xiruhu" tau in Ch.pter 4.) .5«, e.g .. Shilnta, "Klnshi shihm ni okenlshin to d6"; and Qiu Xigui, 1i:ria Daojia jingqi shuo de y:mjiu." Bach Shib;au ami Qiu paint the same gmeral narr.ltive that Gralum doeJ- from a shamanistic practice Inscd on external Ipiriu entering the human body to . ph~olophical regimen Inscd on the cultivation of an infcmallpiru. , . Dodds, Th G,ulu ~~d fht Irr~rio""', p. 1)9; hereinafter cited in the tUt. a. Dodd.! Is bu~ding here on Karl Mudi"s work; JeC his "Scythia."

"

"

GA I NING THB POW B RS OF S PIRITS

GA I NING T H E POWERS OF SPIUTS

ures such as Pythagoras and Empcdoclu: these men diffused the belief in a detach.able: soul or self, which by suitable techniques can be withdrawn lTom me body even during life, a self which is older than the body and will ourwr

Chinl, might in fa.ct have been Iranian magi who entered China during the Bronze Age. 1l And, of course. ,he Scythians. whom Dodds sees as having become so influential in Greece, were Irlnians. This line of reasoning implies that both Chinl and Greece received a similar diffusion of idelS and techniques ftom me same Irlr\ian source. Moreover, H. S. Nyberg hu £2mously argued that Zoroastrianism was influenced by Siberian shamanism. U Thus. were one to follow all these links, one could tnce l shlmanism arising in Siberia. influencing Ir.ronian cuJture, lr\d in turn influencing both Greece and China. However. severotl problems arise for anyone who wished to trace such a hinorical development, First. Nyberg's arguments about links between Siberilr\ shlmanism and Zoroastrianism hlve been widely rejected by special14 ists. Even Eliade himself, who lrgues explicitly thlt shamanism wu diffused from Siberi:a to many cultures throughout the world. has questioned memo Elilde insreld reads Zoroutri:anism u revealing elements of l belief in a sacred link between heaven and elrrh-ideas, as discussed in the pteviow chapter, that Eliade relds as primordill elements of human experience. He thus opposes the attempt to see such elements as l result of l diffusion of shamanism from Siberil:

it" [0

(pp. 146-47). In short. [he diffusion of sh2ffi.tnisric culruce to Greece: led (he emergence: of a true dualism of body and soul-a duilism mat had

never existed before in early Greece. We have seen-or I hope we have sun-how contact with shzmanisdc belief. :and pncrices might suggest to a thoughtful people like the: Greeks tk rudiments of such a psychology: how the notion of p'ychk Qcursion in sleep or nance might sharpen the soul-body antithesis; how the shamanistic "retreat" might provide the model for a ddibeme ukais, a consciolU training of the psychic powers through ;lNtinence and spirirual exercises: how tales of vanishing and reappearing shamans might encourage [he belief in an indemuctible magical or dacmonic sdf. (pp. 149-50)

Dodds goes on to deu.il how this notion of an occwt self of divine origin was later appro priated by Placo ( pp. 107- 35). These ideu have since been hody debated. Jan Bremmer, for one, hu strongly criticized Dodds', shamanism hypothesis. After a lengthy survey of the evidence, both in Greece and Scythia, Bremmer concludes: "No convincing evidence exisrs for shamanistic influence on Archaic Greece.... It has not yet even been shown that the Scythians who were supposed by Dodds to have influenced the Greeks knew a shamanistic journey of the soul!~9 Peter Kingsley, however, hu recently come OUt in defense of me hypomesis.lO Carlo Ginzburg hu referred £2vor.robly co it u a piece of what he sees u l widespreld diffusion of shlmanism lcroS5 Eumia in the early --=~ .J II

pO$itions

pulses of the ~r (lfi $;it ·fl:). T he spirit specialist cannot interprer this at all Finally, Huzi presents himself as "not yet having emerged from one's ances.

H uiz i men asia him what adding to life means. and Zhuangzi rcsponds:

W

7.m.

tor" (*"9a -H and J i Xian flees (W"h.5-2.9). The spirit specialist. whose an is concerned only with attaining knowledge over life and death, fails before Huzi. Not only is J i Xian unable to foretell the life and death of H uzi. but H uzi, through cultivation of his 'Ii, is able to rea ch a state in which he is not bound by things, in which me very concerns of life and death become irrelevant. In this s(ate. Huzi can reach back to the point before th ings were diffe rentiated-symbolizcd here as [he

void that cannot be overcome and the state prior to the genef2rio n of t h ings. H The term for "overcome is again JlX"ng--me same word used in the dictum that t hings cannot overcome Heaven. O nce again. for Z h uangzi rhe cultivated figure is one who gains access to the state [ha t nothing can overcome. This sam e point may explain the differenccs between Zhuang:ti and the authors o f a text like the "Neiye." J ust as Z huangzi opposes any attempt to

1r.1

Diuinguishing "right" and "wrong" is what I mean by the disJ>O$irions. Whar I mean is char man should not allow likes and dislikes to en· (ef and thw harm hinudf. He should always, accord with the spontaneous and not add to life. (15/5/51 - 58)

The Way gave w appearance, and Heaven gave w form. Do not use likes and dis· lika to enter and harm the self. Now, you are putting your spirit on the outside. and wearing OUt your essence. (ls/s/s8-S9) The call here is for man to accept that which ill given to him and not to add to life by categorizing rhings according to humanly constructed distinctions of right and wrong. Those who do so hann me self and rhw prevent t hemselves from living out their allotted lifapan. Instead. on e must accord

s. For a careful diKuuion of dlC' (datioN between Heavm and m.m in

tnc Zhuangzi, sec

Ol'llham's "lnnoduaion" to idem, a,"""f'/tM, pp. IS-II'. 1'. For an aceLkm diKunion of Ihit puugc. _ Or.harn, "The Background of the Men· dan Theory of Human Nature: pp. 61 -6). 10. For t he rCUOIIi behind my translat ion of ,/i~f as "ditposiliolu: KC my "Ethics of Re· Ipondh11 PropulYI The Notion ofQi"lin Early ChineK TIlOuglu :

·,'

."

ACCBPTING THB ORDER OF HBAVEN

ACCEPTING THE O RDER OF HEA VEN

with the spontaneous, keep onc's spirit internalized, md not war our onc's essence. Here again, rhen, the notion of spirit is connected with the proper use of thou which was given by Heaven and with the spontaneous way. Gnosis is not a matter of transcending the hum:.!.n but of continuing and perfecting the Heaven within man-a contimation rh.oir requires us ro StOP imposing distinctions on things and to cultivate t hat with which we were endowed.. By now it should be dear that we lre [0 r(.ad the term "spirit.man" liter· ally. Zhuangzi is not calling on humans to become spirits; he is c211ing on humans to cease being dependent on artificial attempts either to rcify things or to categori%e them according co arrific:ia1 standards. A spirit.man is nO{ a man who becomes a spirit but a man who fully CUitivltU his spirit 2nd thus wanders free from things while allowing things (including his own human form) to fulfill their narural endowment. For Zhuangzi. then. the ultimate goals are not to be dependent on things. not to conrrol things. not to transcend the human fonn. He thus opposes the arrempts either to impose artificial distinctions on things or to become a spirit and gain control over things. For Zhw.ngzi. both of these would be a failure to maintain the proper rel:.ationship with Heaven. It is wrong to be bound to things. and it is wrong to attempt [0 transcend the human-for Zhuangzi. becoming bound and overreaching are related. Just as Zhuangzi portrays unloosening and accepting the order of things as the same things. so he sees possessiveness and hubris as linked as well. We often associate Zhuangzi with liberation. with a denial of boundaries. with a call for humanity to become uncaged And. indeed. all these images do appear regularly in t he text. Zhuangzi is clearly concerned that most humans spend their lives dependent on things. foolishly clinging to life and possessions. But. as we have seen. t his concern with not being dependent on or bound by things. with becoming untied. with wandering beyond any boundary. is intimately and directly tied to a cosmological claim: the liberated spirit accords with Heavenly patterns. helps things be as they naruraUy ought to be. and allows things to fulfill {heir Heaven-given allotment. As Zhuangzi repeatedly argues. we cannor overcome Heaven. we must accept fate. and we must accord with the order of Heaven. Through this argument. Zhuangzi is able both to call on man to cultivate himself and to strive to perfeCt his spirit and the Heaven within him and to undercut many of the cl:.ainu being made at the time concerning the ability of

man to gain t he powers of spirirs-whether through magic or cultivation of the qi. Zhuangzi is arguing against any attempt to gain knowledge o r control over the universe; instead he calls on the spirit-man to tab: pleas ute in the patterns of H eaven. Contrary to the general perception. then. Zhuangzi is srrongly committed to the notion mat there are proper patterns in [he namral world mat a cultivated person inherently follows. This is a point. I think, t hat has been missed by those who portray Z huangzi as a relativist. Fo r example. Robert Eno has argued that Zhuangzi is calling on man to engage in skill-based activities mat lead to a state of spirirual spontaneity. And. according to this reading. any skill·based activity would work: "Dao-pracrices can be adapted to any end: the dao of butchering people might provide much the same spiritual spontaneity as the dao of butchering oxen- as many a samurai might testify."u I would argue. on the contra.ry. that Z huangzi is asserting that the cultivated human spirit acts in certain ways rather than others. He docs so not by asserting chat particular activities are ethically better than others but by making a cosmological claim: the truly human person will inherently behave in certain ways rather than in other ways. Just as the pheasant. if it is allowed to do as Heaven means it to do. will walk ten paces for one peck and a hundred paces for one drink. so will a human. if he uses his endowment properly. act in conformity with the Heavenly patterns as well. In this sense. Z huangzi is not a relativis t; he is. on the contrary, a cosmologist with a strong commitment to a certain view of the proper place of humanity in the

"

. universe. Z huangzi's alls for libera.tion can t hus be read as involving a carefu1 redefi nition of notions current at t he time-spirit, Heaven. and man-to argue for a particular type of gnosis-a gnasis involving a breaking of boundaries and yet. at the same time. an acceptance of t he patterns of H eaven. For Z huangzi. liberation involves a proper and spontaneous accepta nce of the o rder of the world. Anything else is an attempt to overcome H eavco-a project doomed to failu re.

LI. Eno, "Cook Dingl DlOl nd 1he Umill of Philolophy: p. '+1. For :another argument , h.>, Zhu;mgzi iI a rw.livin, &« Han"n."A Tao of Tao in Chuang-rz.....11. My condwlonl are thw 1..aT~!y in line with tho" ofPhUip J. Iv:anh~. even Ihough our r(lp«d~ conclwionl WUt achieved IIlrough diR"erem route.!; I « his "\Val Zhuangzi a R,da. ejvlltf

'34

A CCB PTING THS O RDBR OF H EAVEN

The Resign.ation of the Sage to the Order of H e.aven: The Cosmology of the M cnciu5

Like ZhlW1gz~ Mencius calls on humans [ 0 accept the order of Heaven. u Indeed, as he blundy states: "'He who accords with H ayen is preserved; he who opposes H eaven is desrroyed~ (4Ah). Submission to the order of Heaven is fo r Mencius a crucw clemenr along the path to sagehood. Indeed. Mencius at times argues that culrivating oneself is precisel)" the means by which one fulfills onc's duty to H eaven. Preserving and nourishing the mind and nature endowed o n us by Heaven :arc how one serves H eaven. and knowing onc's nature is how one knows Heaven. And. as with Zhuangzi. a cmew part of this accepunce of the order of H C;lven is t hat o ne accepts whatever Heaven o rdairu. without concern for living long or dying young: Mendu. said: "He who has fuUy used his mind kno ws his natU re. If he knows his natu re, he knowl H eaven. Preserving his mind and no urishing his narure arc the ways that he .erYcs H eaven. Dying young and living long are nor tWO distinct things. He cultivates hinudf so as to await what is to come. This is the means by which he establishes his destiny (ming)." (7Ah) One establishes one's destiny Heaven mandates.

by cultivating onesdf and accepting wharever

Like Zhu.m g2:i, M encius accepts much of t he vocabulary of the day for th e potentially divine powers of humans. Indeed, several pusages from the Mencius are reminiscenr o f the ~Neiye.~ In describing his flood-like 'Ii, for enmple, Mencius stlltes: ~If one cwrivates it with straighmess and d oes not harm it, it will hll the space berween H eaven and Eanh~ (uh). Elsewhere, he argues thar such a cul tivation allows one to encompass all things: -rhe myriad t hi nV are complete in me~ (7A/ .). Because of rhese grear powers, he who CWtw.ues himself can transform the people and unite Heaven and

E.nh, Mencius said, "If there is a hegemon, the people are happy. If there is a king. the peo ple are rontented. They do not bewme resentful if people are put to death, nor do they become 1:l:1:y14 if they gain profits. The people are daily moved toward the good, but they do nOt know what nuka it so. Now, where a gentleman passa, he

Ii· Pon ions of ,his secl ion are uken 6-0 111 my "Following t he Command, ofHe:lven: The Notion of Ming in Early China:

'4. Reading II for oW.

ACCEPTING THE ORD B Il O F HEAV E N

'"

trarufomu; where he raides, he is divine (~n). Above and below, Heaven and Emh flow together. How can it be said that he is but a small addition!" (7A/ ,)

Indeed, Mencius even goes so fiar as to define reach ing a state of divinity

(shm) as being above sagehood itself Haosheng Buhzi asked: -what kind of a person is Yuezhtngrif" Mencius said, "A mean by 'good' and 'tnutworthy'?" Mencius responded, "If one can desire it, one can be called 'good.: If one h.u it within onadf. one o.n be called 'trusr:worthy: If one is filled with it and embodies it, one can be called "beautiful: If one is filled with it, embodies it and also hal radiant brilliance, one o.n be called 'great: If one is great and can transform it, one can be called ·sage.' If one is a sage but cannot be understood, one can be called ·spirit: Yue:hengzi is in the fi~t two of thf:$e, but is less Ihan the last fout." b Bh.s)

good man, a tnutworthy man." "What do you

Despite t he similarit ies with teXtS like the "Neiye,· the ultimate goals are qu ite different. The "Neiye" taught how to gain t he powers o f spiritspowers [0 understand forrune and misfortune and powers to control things- but Mencius is concerned with a diffe rent set of issues. Like Z huangzi, h e wants to d efine sagehood as meaning an acceptance of the order o f H eaven. Like Z h uangzi, then, M encius is tying together twO $CemingJy disparare bodies o f thought: an emphasis on accepting the o rder of H eaven and support for the divine powers of humans. With Z huangzi, these rwo are joined

by claiming mat the ultimate spirit will simply and spontaneously enaCt what H eaven ordained: [he spirit spontaneously follows-and aids-the movemen t of H eaven. Thus, cultivating one's spirit and accepting the order of H eaven ate for Zhumgzi o ne and the same thing. For M encius, h owever, t here is a potential tens ion here. In this respect, Mencius is building on Con· fucius. Like Confucius, Mencius holds that H eaven is the source o f the moral patterns that hu mans should foUow. Because of h is interest in p lacing divine powers wimin humans, however, Mencius argues t har these patterns are obtainable nOt because me an cient sages modeled themselves on Heaven but because H eaven has rooted them in man himself. H eaven has gran ted hu· mans a nature t hat, if cultivated proper ly, allows them to become fully mo ral: "The nature of the superior man is humaneness, propriety, r itual, and knowledge. They are rooted in h is mind" (7 A /:u ), H eaven has given aU h umans the potential for sage hood. But such a commitment means that the fe n.ion implicit in the LunJu (discussed in the previous chapter) becomea all

."

ACCEPTING THB OROS P. Of HBAVBN

the motc significant, If aI.J. humans have within themselves the porcnrial

ACCEPT ING TH E OR OER OP HEAV E N

[0

become a sage and if H eaven. not man. decides whether order will prev:a.i1, then the potential conAier between Heaven and man deepens.

Humans have: within memsdves both (he porcnri21 f O become fully moral and the: potential to become spirits and bring order to the world. But, as with Confucius. the question of whether o!'
ods, and hc makes it qu itc clcar thar according with H eavcn means, ar rimes, acccpting a statc of a!hiTS that runs countcr m rhc norrtUtive way-a way that Heavcn itself has givcn man thc potcntial to bring about. Bur wh.;n happens in such an cvCnt? Must humans simply resign t hc mselvcs to a lack of ordcr if such are thc wishes of Heaven~ This is l difficult question for M encius to answer. Thc ultimate answer, of course. is that one must indced lCCCpt the ordcr t har H eaven o rdains. But for Mcndus t his must nor imply simple resignation. As hc argues:

This potcntial conflict-unthinkable from thc point of view of Zhulngzi-pb.ys OUt forccfully in numc rous places in Mencius' work. One obvious problcm, givcn Mencius' poliric:.tl thcology, is the issue of hcrcditary mo narchy. If everyonc has the potcnriil to become l S:.l.gc, thc n why is it no t the C:.l.5C thu. u any givcn timc. the most cultivued person in t hc rcalm is t hc king~ Indeed, for Mcncius, most o f the greatest sages since the introduction of hereditary monarchy havc not becn kings: Yi Yin, thc Duke ofZhou, Confucius, and. perhlps. Mcncius himself. Is hereditary monarchy thercforc in opposition to t he ordcr ofHeavcn~ On the contrary. Mcncius is committcd to claiming rhlt H C:.l.vcn itself esclblishcd the cusmm: Wan Zhang asked: ·Some people say that, when it came to rhe rime ofYu. power (de) declined He did not give power to the wonhy but inuC2Ci gave it to his son. h this correct:'" Mencius uid, "No. Ie is nO{ so. If Heaven h;u:l given it to a wonhy, then it would have been given to a wonhy. Since Huven gave it to the son. it was given to the son." (sA/6) Mencius recounts the history of thc succession of Yao. Shun, and Yu and points out that. in each C:.l.SC. the won:hy man worked with t he ruler for several ycars. and the people grcw to crust him. But this W:.l.S not trUC of Yu's minister Yi. whom the people did not know weU. Moreover, Qi. me son of Yu, W:.l.S worthy. whercas the sons of Yao and S hun were not. All of this. lccording to Mencius. was mandatcd from Heavcn and thus was not due toYu:

Mencius said. "Everything is mandated (IIIing). One accords with what is rorrect. Thtteforc. one who undersrands what is mandared does not ,rand beneath a &lling wall. One who dies after fulfilling his way has corrected his destiny (millg). Dying in fetter. i. nor a correct destiny: (7A/'J.)

All this wu due to H uven. It is not ,omething that man could have done. If no one does it and yet it is done. then it is Huven. If no one brin~ something about (zhi flI:) and yet it is brought about, it is mandated (ming). (sA/6)

Everything is mandated. but this should not lead to shirking: the concern should. rathcr, be to corrcct onc's destiny by trying to fulflll onc's way. But this stancc opens scvcral qucstions. Zhuangzi tcaches thlt liber:.ttion involves m lCCCpunCC of thc ordcr of Helvcn. Mcncius also lrgues thar onc must lCCCpt thc ordcr of H Clvcn, but for him t his is not l mattcr of liberation. Although s:ages must submit to what Hcavcn o rdains. thc puh to s:agchood docs not rcst on submission. Indecd. Mcncius' fonnulatioN sccm to imply thar whatever is to comc is no t necessarily right-but one must acccpt it.

According to M encius, therelfter hereditary monarchy became thc nonn: the kingship was :.tlWlYS hmded down to the son. O nly if :.I. ruler were truly horrible-as with Jie and Z hou-was the trmsmission from f.l.ther co son interrupted. Otherwise. Heaven would not stOP the succession. For Mencius. th is ex plains why Yi. Yi Yin, and thc Duke of Zhou could never be kings: thcir rulers were acceptable-even if not as sagely as Yi. Yi Yin. and the Duke ofZho u themselves. But Mcncius' argument begs thc qucstion. This may explain why Yu should no t be criticiud, but it hardly answers the I:.trger point implied in

",

ACCEPTING THE ORDER OF HEAV EN

ACCSPTING THS 0ll,D811, OP HBAVBN

Wan Zhang's query: even if Qi was ;it better prospenive ruler than Yi, it h,ardly follows th.u hereditary monarchy is in general a good thing. And, smet Huven chose the rulers, Heaven is resporuible for the institution. Why, ifYi. Yi Yin, and (he Duke ofZhou were morc wonhy, did they not become rulers! Or. [0 put the question more forcefully, why did Heaven ordain hereditary monarchy ro be the norm? No answer to (his is given. note here is th.u Mencius mues no p",,"t~..J O.di"0'

THE ASCBNSION OF THB SPIRI T

THE ASCENSION OF THB SPIRIT

The key to longevity lies in obtaining the utmost essence. The implic;!tion here is that spirit is born from a concentration of essence and an accumulation of the signless. And when spirit is abundmt, it will flow into one's form. The image of "flowing into the form· (lill xillg) clearly refers back (0 Huangdi's initial question concerning the birth ofhumws. By means of this initial cukivation. Rong Cheng is arguing. the spirit will once again fill one's form as it did;l.t the rime of initial birth. In many ways, the argument thus (If is bued on a lIoc29ulary and cosmology highly reminiscent of those found in much of the self-cultivation literature from [he W2rring SUres period. For example, as was discussed in Chapters ,. and 4. respectively. the "Neiyc" and ·Xinshu· chapters make a srrikingly similar set of claims. The :arguments of such teXlS :are built around the interrelated terms ii, essence (jing), and spirit (slxn). Both jing and men are defined as highly refined ii-definitions that the Shiww is utilizing as well. And, like the Shiwe7I, one of the goals of human cultivation is to concentrate more of this essence and spirit- this highly refined qi-within one's body. H H Despite the apparent similarities between the "Neiye and HXinshu chapters and this portion of the Shiwcn, however, there are also several crucial differences. The arguments of the "Neiye and HXinshu reSt on the claim of:a monistic cosmos: the entire universe is composed of ii, 'and spirit, me most highly refined qi, controls the less rarified qi. Accordingly, he who accumulates more of this refined qi within himself gains great power ro understand and control phenomena, avoid injuries and disasters, and understand auspiciousness and inauspiciousness without resorting to divination. All these arguments rest on the claim of monism: since the universe is composed of qi, and since all change is a product of the alterations and tr.lnsformatioos of this qi, then spirits, the most highly refined fonn of qi, are able ro control phenomena md understand the proper movements of the universe.. And, since hum:ans have this spirit within themselves as well, they can, with H proper cultivation, ultimately become (it is argued in the HXinshu chapters) ')Il spirits. The Shiww shares some of these concerns and much of this vocabulary, but the argument develops in a very different direction. Whereas the highest H scate that a human can reach in the ·Xinshu is that of a sage, the Shiwfn explicirly States that its teachings are aimed at ·one of the Way: The authors

me

H

H

>0,

of the $biwen are proclaiming themselves ro be in possession of a higher teaching than that possessed by sages. And only one of the Way understands that "the utmost essence of Heaven and Earth is born from the sign less, grows in the formless, becomes complete in the bodiless: Essence is born, grows, and becomes completely separate from the forms-and only the one of the Way fully grasps this. Essence, in other words, is not simply a more refined type of what exists H in the forms; the twO are distinct. In contrast to the authors of the "Neiye and HXinshu· chapters, the authors of the Shiwen ate not necessarily committing themselves to an explicitly monistic cosmology. There is no claim here chat everything is composed of qi; ramer, the argument is presented in terms of the relationship of qi, essence, and spirit on the one hand to fonns on the other. I am certainly not trying to argue that the framework here is comparable to me fully dualistic claims o£ for example, Gnosticism. It is possible th:at the authors of the Shiwcn would have held th:at the form is in fact unrefined qi, and thus their position would still be, at a fundamental level, monisric. My point is, rather, mat the argument itself is couched in a dualistic framework: instead of arguing, as other authors certainly did, that forms were simply unrefined qi and thus capable of being understood and conrrolled by more refined (more spiridike) qi, the authors here m:ake no claims concerning the substance of forms. Whatever their position on the monism (or lack thereof) of the cosmos, the argument itself rests on a dualism between fonn and spirit. The implications of this will become dear as we continue to follow the texc. Rong Cheng next explains how spirit should be drawn inco the form: As for the way of inhaling 'Ii, one must direct it ro the extremities. Euence will be born and not CUt off. Above and below. all is essence. Cold and warmth are peacefully born. Breathing must be deep and long-luting. The new 'Ii is easy to hold fast to. Stale qi is old; new qi is long-lived. He who is good ac controlling qi makC$ the stale qi dissipate nightly and the new qi collect in the morning so as to penetrate the nine apertures and fill the six cavitiC$. (4: [47) The method recapitulates Rong Cheng's earlier statement that the practitioner needs to put into practice the disposition of Heaven and Earth. Thus, JUSt as the qi of Heaven becomes exhausted and then flourishes, so must the ruler do the same with his own qi. Moreover, this must be done in accord with the earthly seasons:

THB ASCBNSION OF THB SPIRIT

TH E ASCENSION OF T HE SPIRIT

There are prohibitions for eating 'Ii: in the spring avoid turbid JQng, in the summer avoid the hot winds, in the aurumn avoid rhe frigid mist, in rhe winter avoid icy Jill, Discard the four defects, and then breathe deeply so as to achieve longevity. (4: 147)

This practice is a continuation of that already laid out. Rong Cheng is telling

This parallel berween Heaven and the ruler continues: As for the intem of breathing in the moming: when brealhing OUt, strive to harmo20 nize with Heaven; when bruthing in, estimate the duOLlity of the doors as if galhering in a deep pool. Then the old 'Ii will be daily exhausted, and the new 'Ii will daily 110m·ish. And then the form will glow deeply and be filled ~rh essence, One can therefo re live long. (4: 147) The consequence of such a pracrice is, again, rhar rhe fonn becomes filled wirh essence, and one will thus, like Heaven .nd Ean:h, live long. Rong Cheng t hen outlines the type of breathing th.e ~hould oo::c ur in each of the four periods of the day: As for the intent of breathing during the day: exhOLling and inhaling must be subtle, the urs and eyes must be keen and perceptive, the yin and yang mUSt move the qi, Within, ehere is nothing dense or rorten, Thus the body is without pains or injuries. As for the intent of breathing at dusk: deeply bruthe. long and carefully, cause the ears co not hear, and thereby peacefully go to bed. The hUll and po will be peaceful in the form. Therefore you can live long. As for breathing at midnight: when you awake, do not alter rhe form in which you were sleeping. Deeply and carefully expel your strength, with the six cavities all shining forth, You will uke longevity to the extreme. (4: 147)

sition is like mat of H eaven and Earth; a constant replenishment of qi fills the fonn with essence and spirit and thus allows it to be long-lived. At rh is point, the nar~tion shifts to t he longevity of the spirit: If you wish to make the spirit long-lived, you must use the skin's patterlUl to breathe. \\/hen it comes [0 controlling the essence of qi, one exirs duth and enters life. Happy and joyous, one uses this to fill the form. This is called concentrating the essence. Controlling the 'Ii h:u an alignment. The task lies in accumulating essence.. \\/hen essence flourishes, it invariably leaks. The es$Cnce that e][its must be supplemented. As for when to supplement what has leaked: do it during sleep. (4: 147)

Ha~

(&"11 Chi"... M.Jil~1 LiItl'4Im, p.

Huangdi to contin ue filling h is fonn with concentrated essence. Exit11 and enter $0 as to cultivate the skin's pattem. u When the firm and white ace completed within, what sickness can there be:' As for this life having misfortUne. ir is invariably because the essence of the yin has leaked our and the hundred vessels have become infirm and decrepit. HappinC5s and anger will not be rimdy, one will nor dariJ}t the great way. and the 'Ii of life will depart rum. The common man livC5 recklessly and then depends on ritual specialistS and doctots. When one hu lived half one's years,21 one's form will invariably be buried young. To kill onesdf by laboring in affairs is truly lamentable and pirifuL (4: (48) In the final stage, one can store up the essence to such a point thar rhe 'Ii does not leak ou~ \\/hercver death and life reside, rhe discerning man regulates them, By solidifying what is bdow and storing up the essence, me qi does not leak out. If the mind controls death and life, who can be defeated by them:' Carefully hold fast and do nor lose it, and long life will continue across generations. For continuous generarions there will be contentment, joy, and long life. Long life is generated through sroring and accumulating. As for the increasing of chis life, above one obsetves in the Huvens, and below one distributC5 to the Earth. He who is capable will invatiably become a spirit. He will therefore be able to be liber.l.ted from his form. (4: 148) The successful adept ultimately becomes a spirit and achieves liberation from his form.

The goal of all these exe rcises is to gain the practitioner a fonn whose dispo-

lO.

'"

3!HII.)

luggem that lhe term gNi1i4ftllll

'iii be read aJ "dual' entry doorway: rererring to the nomill,

Huangdi's initial questions revolved around the flowing inro form thar oo::curs at rhe beginning of existence: Whar is such a life and how can it be preserved! Rong C heng began by expla.ining how the life span of this form could be extended. But the ultimate goal is to become liberated £Tom one's fonn altogether. One begins rh e proo::ess by cultivating the fonn in o rder to keep the spirit within it, Next one cultivates the spirit within the form until it becomes long-lasting. Finally. one becomes the spirit, and the spirit is liberated from the form altogether. Human life, in other words, normally

a" The Ie1 by leaving his form. In other texts, however. the claim is that one can be freed from the usual limits of the human form. In the "Neiye: the claim is tha t grasping the one word allows one to survey the cosmos: "With the liberation of the one word, one explores (cha) Heaven above. reaches to Earth below, and encirdes and fills the nine regions." We saw a similar argument in the ·Chengfa" chapter of the Shiliujing: "The liberation of the One allows an exploration (cha) of H eaven and Earth." But in neither case does this involve a separation of the spirit from the body: the argument is that the human form is limited, but gras ping the One allows the adept to understand the cosmos as ifhe were a spirit-as if, in other words, he were not limited by a human form. The authors of the Shiwen passage have shifted the argument. H ere, the successful adept does indeed become a spirit, transcend the limitations of the human body, and explore the heavens personally. Instead of teaching that

He who clarifies the great way tnvds and traverses the clouds. From the Collected Jade above, as the water flows he can traverse far, as the dragon ascends he can reach high, fast and nOt wearied of strength. (4: 148-49) Rong Cheng concludes with an anecdote about a certain Wucheng Zhao: [Seven graphs missing.} Wucheng Zhao [twO graphs missing} did not die. Wucheng Zhao used the four seasons as his support and Heaven and Earth as his alignment 0;>1g). Wucheng Zhao was born together with the yin and yang. The yin and yang do not die; Wucheng Zhao can be seen with them. The master who possesses the Way is also like this. (4: 149) The significance of Rong Cheng's earlier claim thar "the utmosr essence of Heaven and Earth is born from the signless. grows in the formless, becomes complete in the bodiless" now becomes clear. The utmost essence with which the practitioner fiUs himself allows him to Jeave the world of forms and join Heaven and Earth. Like them. he never dies. Wucheng Zhao thus takes Heaven and Earth as his alignment. The word that I am translating as "alignment" here is jingo This is the same word (along with ying. "orient") that. as discussed in the Introduction, was used to describe the aligning of the cosmos by rwo spirits in the "Jingshen" chapter of the Huaimm~i. It is also the same word, discussed in Chapter 4, used in both the T aiyi shtngshui and the "Yousht chapter of the Lushi chunqiu to describe the alignment of the cosmos. As I will discuss in detail in Chapter 7. the authors of the "Jingshen" chapter of the Huai>1an~i were arguing that spirits arranged the alignment of H eaven and Earth. In this pusage from the Shiwffl. however, the implication appears to be that He
ir.se1f. .. ' they observe the four WUte! ... they survey (fing png) rhe Fiery Mountain and drift aiongrhe Soft River. (Shiji, ~Sim.a Xiangru liezhuan," 117.3060) Similarly, the poem describes the Great Man as having direct power over spirits. Thus, for example, when the skies grow dark, the Great Man has Yushi ( the Lord of Rain) and Fengbo (the Duke of Wind) punuhed ("Sima Xiangru limuan,· 11].3060). The Great Man, therefore, hu di rect conrrol over the wind and rain, for he controls the spirits who direct such phenomena. The poem concludes with the Great Man leaving behind his procession and continuing alone: In the depths below there wu no Earth, in the expanse above [here was no Heaven. Looking about confusedly and with d osing eye!, he sees nothing.

'

.

A THlIOCRACY OF SPIRITS

LUtening indistinctly and uncertainly. he hearl nothing. Riding emptiness and nothingness, he ascends above Transcending. without friends, he residea alone. ("Sima Xiangru Liezhuan: 117.)06:&)

The Gre2t Man ultimately u'anscends the world of forms and Heaven and Earth themselves. The poem, in short. defines the Great Man as both totally dominating the world of forms and being completely &u of depmdence on anything within the world of forms-including other h\Ul'Wl5. If such views reprc..sented. in the "'Yuan you: a claim of autonomy. here they represent,

when utilized co describe the ruler. a claim of absolute power.

The Ascension ofHuangdi: Divine Kingship

in the Qin and Early Han H ow can we OIIccounr for the new S2crificial sYStem of the Qin and u.rly Han~ And how should we interpret these claims of ascension and immorta1ity~ The ingestion of medicines and other substances as a means of artaining immortaJi£)' is a clear difference from breathing exercises that concentrated the qi (see Chapter s, pp. 109-11). But can we go further than thisf It is important to avoid l simple dichotomy of"philosophicaJ" discussions of ascension and immortali£), versus a more "superstitious· view on {he part of the First Emperor and Emperor Wu. We need to develop a position from which we an understand the competing cosmologies of the time and the implications of those cosmologies. Unforrunately, our evidence is limited: we possess no writings from the JanK'hi, and our knowledge of court practices is limited to Sima Qian's statements and to the First Emperor's inscriptions. 43 However, we have enough to piece together at leur part of what was going on. Sima Qian portrays the Jangsh; as, among other things, liberating themselves from their forms (xin,gjit). As he describes the Jangshi l[ the COUrt of [he First Emperor: "They practiced formulu lnd the Wly of the trlnscendents. Their forms were liberated, smelted, and transformed. They relied on the lctivities of ghosts and spirits" ("Fengshan shu; lB.136&-69). The term xinfiit lppeared in the Shiwtn pas~ge discussed in [he preceding chlpter. H ere, however, the libenuion is accomplished through means different from those described in the Shiwtn: the fangshi rely on ghosts lnd spiria. 4l. For all ucdlellt allaly'is oflhe Fiur Elllperor. inlCriptions, .ee Kern, 1'ht Sldt /~Krip' riolU o/O'i" Sbib-h ...."l.

A THBOCRACY O F SPIRITS

Both the First Emperor lnd Emperor Wu supporred the JangJhi in the belief that these figures would help [hem gain lCCesS to the world of spiria and ultimately immortaJi£),' Indeed, the fangsh! claimed mlt their conrTol of me spirits enabled them to share in thost spirits' power. According to Sima Qian, Li Shaojun, an important figure at the court of Emperor Wu, claimed to be able to "control phenomena~ (shj wu). Since such powers were regularly asu, il is noi1Clhc:lcu poslible Ihal OIl( of (he .eatOll. lhat

>,>

A TH80CRACY OF SPIRITS

not JUSt patterning themselves on the cosmos hut are in

A THBOCRACY OF S PI R ITS

F...ct bringing the

cosmos into accord with the proper p.acrerns. Lu Jia underlines this .argument by contrasting me rulers of the past with mose of the present day. He begim by discussing the ancic:nu: The: calculatiON ofHe3ven and Eanh are the signs (xiallg) of fate. The slin (mining eight graphs] eight cOnJrdlarioru are all urayed, each with its own ruler. The myriad $proU[$ em different padll, and the thousand models have different (omu. The

sages accorded with their propensities (shi) and adjwred ,hem. They cawed snWl and luge to not mutually (one graph missing] and squues and circles to not confl ict with e.u:h other. IThc: sages] divided them with standarw and regulated (ji) them with measures. The stU S could nor be seen in the daylight, the sun did not shine at

night. thunder did not appear in the winter, and fros[ d id nor descend in the sumIf ,he minilfen did noc: attack the ruler, then yin would not encroach upon

mer.

yang. If at the height of summer it was not hot, if in cn:reme wimer there was no f'tos[; if black qi bound the sun, comeu scattered in brightness, rainbows appeared in wimer, torpid insects hibernated in summer, Mars brought di$Order to the connd· lations, and vadOUI starl 10le their orbits-if thil occurred, the sages accorded with chese alterations of Heaven and recrified their losses, patterned (Ii) thei r extremities. and rectified their roor. ("Si B.gb- lOa)

wu:

The sages followed the movements ofHe.aven and E.anh to understand fine. They then grasped the propensities of things and adjusted them accordingly. Here a~, the sages .arc gnnted tremendous power over the natural world, but only because they understand fone and recognize the proper propensities of things. They thus regul.ate things according (0 their correct tendenciC5. In other words, they exercised power over the cosmos not by altering it to fit their will but nlher by .according with fate and the natural propensities of mings. And LuJia explicitly contT'Uu such sages wim the rulel'S of his own day: -rhose who are rulers in the present time are not like mis" rSi wu," B.loa). The rulers of his own day reject the proper patterns of Heaven. Like King Ling trying to ascend ro the skies .and gau on the patterns of He.aven, the rulers of the day are, according to Lu Jis,

to themselves nther thm trying to bring the cosmos intO accord with the proper patterns. The decline at issue here is companble to the one pre5Cnted by both Mencius and the aumors of me Xid Wllall. Beuuse of this decline, Confu. cius, a latter·born uge, was forced to establish the classics in order to allow humanity to .again bring itself into .accord with the patterns of the cosmos: "The later .ages declined .and fell to waste. T hereupon, [he later s.age (i.e., Confucius) established the Five Classics md clarified the six am to COITC'spond to Heaven, govern E.arth, and probe a.fF.airs~ rOao ji." A.:lb). Confu· cius was not a king and therefore could not order the world himself. Accordingly, he had no choice but to establish [he classics. This at leut opened for later kings the possibility of bringing order to the world again by following the teachings of the classics. In the "Benxing" ch8,

THE SACRIFICES TH AT ORDBR TH E W O R L D

THE SACR IFI CES THAT ORDBR T HB WORLD

reasserted :l. distinction between the human and the divine rulms. In shorr, in this chapter I focus on the shift in the Han ritual system from divine to human kingship. In Chapter I, I discussed the tendency Olmong sinologists to focus on sac· rifice as a gift-a do ut d(s arrangemem. This reading of sacrifice has a long pedigree in anthropology; a notable example is [he work of H enri Hubert and Marce! Mauss, who discussed sacrifice as " form OENcommunicarion be. tween [he sacred and profane realms. I Although attacking Hubert ;lnd Mauss's model as being inappliC2ble to this or thar culture h:.l.s become something of a cottage industry of late,2 at least a porrion of their theo rythat focused on the transformation of the human and divine spheres through the sacrifice-may provide a compelling way to approach aspects of u rly Chinese sacrificial practice. M y argumen t is in pare inspired by Valerio Valeri's reading of Huben: and Mauss. Ramer than communication and gift giving. Valeri emphasizes the agonistic elements underlying sacrifice: "All fundamemal relations involved in sacrifice are permeated by the spirit of comest: not only interhuman rei:.ttions, but also relations between humans and gods and between animals and humans. ~J Valeri describes H awaiian sacrificial practice in terms of a conflict: "Thus the desacraliza t ion of narure implies the sacralization of man. Perhaps, then, it is possible to follow Kojeve when he refo rmulates H egel's interpretation of sacrifice by writing that in th is ri te 'il £aUt .. _ supprimer une partie du d ivin pour sanctifier I'homme.' "4 Hawaiian sacrificial practice, in o ther words, involves an agon between humans and gods, in which rhe king arrempts to divinize himself while ell:orcising the gods from nature and thus making nature avaii:.tble for human appropriation.

The clail1Ul of imperial deificatio n discussed in C hapter 6 can be read in terms of these provocative formulations: the formation of imperial practice in early China involved an attempt to appropriate divine powers and ultimately transform the ruler into a god. In this chapter, I trace the debates that developed &om about 140 to 30 BC o n the nature, efficacy, and significance of sacrifice. I analyu some of the competing sacrificial practices employed during this period. explore the concerns behind these practices. and srudy the h istOrical implications of the choices made. Throughout, as we will see, the issues of agon and transformation became recurrent topics of d ebate, as several figures disputed imperial practices of appropriating divine powers and attempted to restore the d istinction between humans and gods.

N

Hubert and M~un. $..crifiu, p. 97. For critiques of ,he Hubert ~nd Mauss model trom the perlpccne ralnu- with the sacri6ce ,hw serving to s;acr:!.lm: the pro(:.ne. For urly Chlna. however, ,his would no, rule out the modd:.aI I ha~ argued in this book. continuity W.al by no munl an ;wumption in urly China, and certain sacrificial modcu did ind«d posit such a disrinc· tion tha, was ,hen 10 be overcome. J. Valeri. "W~d Victim.: p. 1°9. 4. Valeri. King>hip aM S«rificr, p. 8J. I.

1.

The Sacrifices of the Sage: Dong Zhon gshu D o ng Zhongshu, who was active during the early pare o f Emperor Wu's reign, was a scholar of the Spring ana Autumn Annals, and his life's work was to follow what Dong thoughr were the principles laid out by Confucius in the text. Like Lu Jia, Dong Zhongshu appropriated cosmological argume nD in o rder both to advance h is argument and to critique the coure practices of t he day. My interpretation of Dong d iffers consid erably from that of H einer Roctz, who argues thar Dong Zhongshu

discards the rmonal view of nacure which Zhou philosophy had devdoped and Xunzi had brought to completion. Nature, for Xunzi a sphere with its own invarilinked with man by any sympathetic ties, becomes the arena of cosmic judgment. It supplantS the ·sdf· before which the Zhou Confucian had [0 justify his acrions. T hus Confucianism pays for irs rise to nate orthodoxy tailored to the superstition of the powerful wirh a double regression: Ethically as wdl as cognirivdy it falls back on a levd which the axial age philosophers had once overcome.s ant rules and nor

I disagree with almost every one of these points. I argued in C hapte r 4 t hat Xunzi does indeed see humans as normatively performing a crucial role in generating order in t he cosmos, and in this sense, D ong Zhongshu's arguments are quite closely related to Xunzi's. Moreover, the cosmology of Dong Zhongshu hardly represents a "regression" to the su perstitious of rhe COUrt. D ong Zhongshu certainly did not represenc state orrhodoll:Y under Emperor ,. Ro~n:, Collfoui.lll Erbi(, Qf thr A1 Dong's contemporary Sima Qian described him:

ii of humans rises, the yin ii of Haven and Eanh also properly responds to it and rises. Their way 11 one. As for those who are dar on this, if they desire to bring (VIi

When me current ruler [Emperor WuJ came [0 the throne, (Dong ZhongshuJ be·

Rain is nOt" controlled

came minister ofJiangdu. He used the alterations of din-seers and ilTegularities from the Spring .nd Allfllmn """au to infer the means by which yin and rOUlg interact roo gether. Therefore. when ledting rain. he would block yang and" rdeue yin; when stopping rain, he WQuld do the oppo£ite. While practicing in this one snrc. he al. waY' ohained what he wanted. 6

yang. lherefore, bringing (Wi) rain is not shell. Delusions about shen arise because (the rain's] pattern (Ii) is subtle and mysterious" (13-)b-..a). Every·

The study of the Spring ana .AII/umn .AnnalJ provided Dong the ability not only to interpret omcrul but also ro control the weather. The cosmology that underlay this practice is fleshed OUt in the -ronglei xilngdong. chapter 57 of Dong's Chllnqill fan/II. !u have many others, M

Needham analyzes [his cha pter as an example of Chinese correlative thinking? But, since it should be clear by now that correlative thinking was not an asswnption in early C hina, we should instead read the text as a series of claims, and our goa.! should be to understand what [he author is trying ro argue. The chapter closely corresponds (Q the Shijts description o f Dong Zhongshu's views, and it seems reasonable to read it as a product of eirher Dong Zhongshu himself or one of his disciples.' The author argues that humans can in fact exercise tremendous power over the narura.! world, bur this power does not mimic, o r even rival that of the shtll - for it has nothing to do with J,rn at

all Rather, it is based. on the resonance of yin and yang:

since like attraca like. the author argues. yin attraca yin and yang attracts )'mg. Moreover, this correlative system is developed solely in terms of the in· teractions of Heaven and man: sMlI do not figure in the discussion at all Since both Heaven and nun are composed of yin and yang. one's ability to affect the narural world is defined by the degree to which one can control yin and yang so as to influence the yin and yang in the enema.! world: Haven hu yin and yang; humuu also havt yin and yang. When the yin ii of Haven and Eanh rue, rht yin i i ofhullUfU responds to it and rises. When tht yin

•

6. 5mjl". la •. )la7- 13.

7. Nttdham.Scit"" ~nJ Civm'~ljO" j" o,j"Q. pp. 18I- h. I. oS« the c:xcdlem diKunion of thit th~p(eT in Queen, From o,ro"klt /0 CA"o", pp. no~,. Queen arguu

that the chaprcr can plaulibly Ix uc:ribcd 10 Dong Zhonphu hjmJdf.

~) rain. they will activate [he yin so u ro m.ake (he yin rise; if they desire 9 the rain, they will activate the yang in order (0 m.akt tht yang rise.

by Jhtn;

(0 stOp

it is a product of the interaction of yin and

thing can be masured in terms of yin and yang. and, moreQyer, this explains how humans can affect the natura.! world: they do not need to contTol or become sMn, they simply need (0 understand these basic principles and undergo the self-cultivation necess;lry to urilize them. Dong Zhongshu thus follows Xunzi in seeing riruab as not sMn. But they are also not JUSt wrn: they do work. Dong Zhongshu is reworking rain sacrifices much as the Xid Wllan reworked divination. As in the Xid wllall, the reworking involyes a claim about the forma.! patterns o f the cosmos: divination and sacrifice work, but they work because they link human acrions to powers more primordial than the spirits. But. for Dong Zhongshu. these powers are active agents. Thus, the movements of the phenomena (WII ) are not spontaneous: ~W hen things activate each other without form, then it is called spontantous (:;i rail). In faCt, it is not spontaneous. There is something thac is causing it co be so. Things certainly have substances causing them; but what is causing them is without form" ( I ) ...a). For mis aumor. howtver, the causative agent is not the shell but the yin and yang. Dong Zhongshu thus denies the efficacy o f shen and instead proposes a model based on the interactions of Heaven and nun. with human power deriving from self·cultivation. Humans do indeed have power Oller the natural world, but only because of t heir proper interactions with Heaven, not through any supposed abiliry to coerce-or achieve the powers of-sMn. The same principle of interaction between yin and yang explains omens: "If a [hearch or a king is about to arise, auspicious omens will appear first. And when he is about ro perish, inauspicious portents appear first. Things of the same category swnmon each other" (13.3b). Like Lu Jia, Dong Zhongshu supportS omenology, but only by defining it as a product of the natura.! inrtractlons of tht unillerse.

'9'

THE SACR IFIC BS THAT ORDIlR THE WORLD

TH E SAC IUFICE S TH"T ORDER THB WORLD

Accordingly, Dong is able to cbim a complete understanding of the emergence of blessings. disasters, and misfortunes:

also like Lu Jia, he wanted ro define the proper way in which human power could be exercised in the world. The main tool that Dong Zhongshu utilized for this was the interplay of yin and yang. the twO forces of the universe: "If a king desires ro undertake an aerion, it is fitting for him to seek his clues in Heaven. The greamess of the way of Heaven resides in yin and yang. Dong Z hongshu's argument in these memorials is that statecraftincluding omenology and sacrifice-should be based on yin and yang. which is also the way of Heaven. II For Dong. H eaven both generated and aligned [he cosmos:

It is not only the 'Ii of yin and yang that can be advanced or withdrawn according to category. Even the production of misforrones. disasters, and blessings is also because of this. T here is always something [hilt first makes it :irise. and things, responding [0 it by kind, are activated. (13.4a)

Dong Zhongshu uses a simiur argument to explain why me sages of the past were able to understand and articub.te theM; princip';' of interaction: -Therefore, jf he who is keen of hearing. deu of sight. sagely. and divine (jhen) looks and listens within, his words become clear and sagel( (1).4:1.). The claim here follows directly from the overall argument of the chapter: something arises, and things respond. Accordingly, a sage should rule by looking within himself. Human divinity (men) thus resides not in gaining me powers of spirits: if om understands the proper processes of the cosmos, one will realize that the ability to conrrol natural phenomena depends on cultivating oneself. The essay closes with a story from the ShangJhu dawuan about an omen that preceded the rise of the Zhou dynasty.

'93

""

I have heard that Heaven is the ancestor of the myriad things. Therefore, it completdy covers, embrues. ;rnd envdops them. and nothing is treafed diffetendy. It es· tablished the sun and moon, wind and rain, to harmonize them; if aligned (jng) yin and yang, hot and cold. to complete them. (Hg"shll.56.2515) Heaven gave birth to the myriad things and then organized the cosmos ro nourish [hem. The alignmellt (jing) of me cosmos, then, is a product neither of humans nor of sages: it was accomplished by Heaven. The sages used this alignment:.lS their guide:

At the rime when the Zhou wu about to arise, great red birds dutching seeds of grain g:uhewi atop the kinis palace. King Wu rejoiced, and the various ministers rejoiced. The Duke ofZhou said.: ·Ai~i, aizai! Heaven is showing this to encourage us: H e wu 2fraid they would rdy upon it. ([H.a)

Therefore, the sages modeled thenudves on Heaven and established the Way. They cherished extensively and without selfishness, disseminated virtue and displayed humaneness to enrich [the people], and established ptOpriety and Set up riroals to guide them. (Hg ,uhu, 56.2515)

The Duke ofZhou wanted to prevem the king and his other ministers from reading the omen as an indication that Heaven would support the king. Instead, the Duke of Zhou argued, the king needed to respond to the omen properly. One cannot rely on Heaven; rarher, one must respond to its promptings. The text is thus an exhortation for human activity in the world. Not only do humans have the power to summon natural occurrences, but they in nct must do so if order is to prevail. That Dong Zhongshu saw such advice as being directly applicable to his own time is dear from a series of memorials he submitted at the beginning of Emperor Wu's reign calling on the emperor ro follow the pri'lciples laid out by Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Annals. The Annals, in Dong'. reading. was authored to guide humans in following the Heavenly way. Like Lu Jia, Dong Zhongshu was interested in defining (he relationship between humans and Heaven through cosmological arguments, and

This .rgumenr is reminiscent of that given by Confucius, but Dong takes it • step further: the sages' modeling of memselves on Heaven was itself mandated by Heaven. Humans receive the mandate from Heaven. They are certainly superior in the way they differ from the other fornu of life. Within they possess the relarions of father and son, dder and younger brothet. Outside they possess the propriety of ruler and minisrer. upper and lower. When gathering together. they possess the arrays of se· niority and age. Bright is the culrure (wen) with which they meet each other; peaceful is the kindness with which they rdate to each orher. This is why humans are so noble. (Hgnmll.56.2516)

.0. H~".bM .-S6.1S01;

hereinafter ci,tci in the lUI .

u. Portion. of the remainder of thi. "clion ue [run from my "Following the Commands o(Huven: The Not ion ofMlng In Early China:

'"

THB SACRIP I CES T HA T ORDllil THE WORLD

THB SACRIFICBS THAT ORDBR THB WORLD

What is distinctive about humans and makes them the most noble of erearunes is [bar HC2ven hu mandated them to have hierarchy and disrincrions.

and thereby rectifiCll the myriad people; he rectil1Cl1 the myriad people and thereby rectifitl the four quarters, Once the four qlart'en are rectified, no one, distant or near, would dare not unice with the rectification, and there would be no bad f to COfTUpt those within, BecallSe of this, yin and yang will mix, and the wind and rain will be cimdy. The variow fornu of life will be harmoniud, and the myriad people will proIper, the five grains will ripen. and the grasses and trees will thrive. All within Heaven and Earth will be moistened and greatly abundant and splendid. Everyone within the four Seall will hear of the flourishing vinue and come to serve. AU the things of blessing and all the auspiciow omens that can be summoned will arrive. and the kingly w.:l.y will be achieved. (H"lIshv, s6,asO)

'94

Moreover, they appropriate: the rest of the narunl. world for their benefit: They grow the five grailU to feed menudves. silk and hemp to dothe themsdves. the six dOmelldc animili to nourish themsdvcs; they yoke OJ[aI. and hameJJ hones, emnuc leopards and nge tigers. This is how they obnin the numinousness of Haven. and why they an: more lofty clan other things. Therefore Confucius said, ~Pu for the fUtUre of Haven and Earth. man is the: most lofty: (Hanshu.56.:l516)

The appropriation and domesric2tion of nature is the means by which humans ohtain the nummousness of Heaven. Ultimately. one un come to accord with the patterns of the wo rld: If one is illuminated about the n.:nu re of heaven. one undentanw onadf to be more noble than other things. Only if a person understanru himsdf to be more noble than other things does he understand humaneneu and propriety. Only ifhe understanru humaneness and propriety does he value ritual and modulation. Only if he values ritual and modulation dotl he reside in goodness. Only if he resides in goodness will he ddight in according with the patterlU (Ii). Only if he ddights in acco rding with the p.:l.(terns can he be called.:l. gencleman. Therefore, ConfucillS said, «If you do not understand the nundate, you are without that with which to become.:l. gemleman.« This is the meaning. (H~,uhll, S6..:I.5J6)

As with Lu Jia, there is a teleology here in which Heaven mandates that humans appropriate narure, and by doing so, humans come inco accord with the patterns of the cosmos. Whereas the First Emperor, in his inscriptions. claimed the ability [0 pattern the cosmos, Dong Zhongshu is arguing that Heaven has mandated a set of p;merns with which man must accord. And. unlike me -Jingshen- chapter of the Huai"a"ri, which makes a comparable claim, Dong presenu the appropriation o f nature as one of the crucial as· peru of according with these patterns. H eaven, [hen, set up the cosmos for the benefit of man. Narure was so made that man can appropriate it and thereby thrive, The implicacion is that the cosmos will be nor properly ordered unless humans make it an object of appropriation. And this, indeed, is a crucial part of understanding Heaven's mandate. • And th e cosmos itself requires that humans bring order to the world. Therefote, the ruler rectifltl his mind and thereby rectifitJ his COUrt; he recrine. hi. COUrt and thereby recrine. the hundred official.; he rectine. the hundred official.

The ruler's rectification of himself inaugurates the orde ring and harmonizing of his court, the people, and ulrimarely [he natural world. The ruler thus controls the wind and rain, but only by properly foUowing [he mandate given to him. Thus, by culriv.:l.ting himself, th e ruler brings virtue co the myriad forms on earth and gains the support of divine powers: Humaneness, ptopriety, ritual, knowledge, and sinceriry are the w.:l.y of five conSCanfl, They are what the king mllSt culrivilte. When these nve are cultivated. he will therefore receive Heaven's favor and enjoy the numinosity of the ghOstS and spiritS, Hill vinue will sptead beyond the boundaries, reaching to the myriad fomu of life. (H.. nshv, s6.l;OS) Heaven therefore requires a human sage to complete the process of ordering. H eaven gives che mandate, but a sage must pur ir intO practice. This is true not only for rhe cosmos as a who le but also for the people: Heaven', command is known u the mandate; if the mandate is not (used by] a sage, it will not be put into practice. One's substance is called narure; if natUre iI not transformed through education. it cannot be completed. Hu man duires are called the disposition ('iillg); if the disposirion is nor standardi:ted and regulated (4111 tIN), it will not be modulated (fie). It is for this reallon thar a king above is .:I.ttentive to upholding the intent of Heaven so u to accord with the mandate; below he endeavo rs to clarify, educate, and transform the people so as to complete their narure; and he correctS the appropriateness of the laws and nandarru and diuinguishes the hierarchy of upper and lower in order to restrain their desires. When he hu accomplished these three, then the great basis is established. (NGllshll, S6 ..:I.S JS)

Sagely acrion, again, is neceuary for Heaven's commands to be realized.

,,6

THE SACRIFICSS THAT ORDEIl THB WORLD

THB SACRIF I CBS THAT ORDI!R THI! WORLD

As a consequence, the sage is granted extraordinary powers: not only does the order of the n.arura! world depend on the sage, bur even one's life span depends on his rule.

ars trained in the classics can advise rhe ruler, for only they can correctly interpre t omens. Bur why, if Confucius was such a sage, did he not found a new dynasty~ The answer again lies with me mandate. Like Mencius, Dong emphasizes that Heaven confers the mand.!.rei one cannot acquire it through human effort. "I have heard mat the king who has been charged by Heaven invariably possesses something that human effort could not summon (thi) and yet it arrives nonetheless. This is the rally of the receipt of the mandate~ (Hanshu, 56.2500). Confucius, therefore, whatever his sagely qualities, could not become a ruler:

I have heard (h::1.[ the m::mdace is the command of Heaven, narure is the substance one is born with, and disposition is human desire. As for dying young or living long. being humane or licentious: once it is molded and compleced, it cannot be purified or beautified. Order :md disorder arc generared: [herefore things are unequal. Con-

fucius said: "The virtUe of a gentleman is like rhe wind; the virtue-of a petty man is like the grass. If the wind blows above, (che grass] will invariably bend.~ Thus, when Yao and Shun practiced virtUe, the people were humane and long-lived: and when Jie and Zhou practiced oppression, rhe people were licenooUli and died young. If what is above transfornu whar is below, what is below will follow what is above. This is lilc:e day on a potter's wheel; only .1 porrer can form it. Or like metal in a mold; only a smith cw cast it. (Hanshu, 56.2501)

Both the humm and the natural worlds depend on me sages' correctly utilizing and putting into practice the mmdate of H eaven. For Dong Zhongshu, as fo r Lu Jia, the last sage was Confucius. And for Dong Zhongshu, the crucia.! act of Confucius was to compile the Sprillg alld Autumll AllllalJ: ~Confucius created the Sprillg alld Autumll Anlla/s, above calculating it to the Heavenly way, below making it substmtive with the fundamentals of man; comparing it with antiquity, examining it with the present~ (Hanshu, 26.25(5). Since Confucius followed H eaven, the Sprillg alld Autumll An lla~ matches the alignment of Heaven md Earth: "The great un ity of the Sprillg alld Autumn Allna~ is the enduring alignment Uillg) of Heaven md Earth, the connecting propriety of the past and present" (Hall5hu, 56.2.52.3). Since the text ma tches the alignment of me cosmos, it can be used in omenology: hidden in the text is the key to interpreting the cosmos md thus [ 0 guiding human action. For example, Dong Zhongshu is said to have attributed a flood recorded in the Sprillg alld Autumn Annalj to the behavior of a COUrt lady; ~Dong Zhongshu took this to mean that the consort Ai Jiang was licentious and diso rderly, acting COntrary to the yin qi. Therefore there was a grear flood" (Hanshu, 27A.1339). Since the cosmos is based on the interplay of yin and ymg. similar things amacr: yin will amact yin, md yang wiU attract yang. 1 Like Lu Jia, therefore, Dong Zhongshu is arguing that the classics- for Dong the Spring and Autumll Annah in particular-provide me principles for understanding omens properly, Here, tOO, the implication is thar only sehol-

'97

Confucius said: "The phoenix does not arrive, the River does nor show fonh rhe diagram. I :l1l1 at my end!"u Self-pity can summon (zhi) these things; bur because he held a low posirion, he was not able to summon them. (Hanshu, S6.2503) If, howeve r, H eaven grantS one the posidon of ruler, then one has the power to summon the basis for order: Now, Your Majesty, your noble posirion is as rhe Son of Heaven, your fonune encompasses the four sea!!. You reside in the position from which you can summon, you control the authority to summon, and you possess the resources that cw be used to summon. Your actions are lofty, and your kindness deep. You r knowledge is brighr, wd your intentions splendid. You cherish rhe people, and are fond of the officers. You cw be called a proper ruler. And yet Heaven and Eanh have nor yet responded, wd auspicious omens have not arrived. Why is rhis~ Because education and trwsformation have not been esrablished, wd the myriad people have nor been rectified. (HAnmu, 56.2.5"03) Dong Zhongshu thus reasserts the Mencian argument that one's position determines one's ability to summon power. According to Dong. none of the H an rulers-those in position to bring order to the world- has succeeded in summoning the auspicious omens. Confucius modeled himself on Heaven, but H eaven did not grant him the position from which he could summon [he omens; the Han rulers have been granted such a position. but they have failed to model themselves on Heaven. The immediate solution to this problem is, by the way that Dong has set up the argume nt, clear: the Han rulers need to follow the principles laid out in the Spring and Autumn Annak But there is a deeper problem with Dong's argument. Why, if H eaven mandates who will have power and if H eaven

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THB SACRIFICBS THAT ORDBR THE WORLD

THB SACRIFICBS THAT ORDBR THB WORLD

needs a proper person to Clrry our the mandate and thereby bring order to the cosmos, did Heaven nor put Confucius in power.' Why wait morc than two centuries and then allow the Qin and Han to take power-particwarly if all that wu required was simply for the ruler to follow the principles bid out by Confucius! The question is quitt similar to thac posed by Mcncius: Why is it that uges arc not given che mandate by Heal/cn! But Dong's response is unique. Mcncius aruwcts chis question with a simple St2tcment of resign.uion-one must accept the mandate and attempt to do so without resenrment. Dong

terns in the natura] world and then to make rhe natural world work along t hose lines. In other words. the natural wo rld will not necessarily function properly without human guidance. This argument. then. supportS human power. Nature needs humans in order to reach its most perfect srate. Or. pur differently. nature cannot reach its potentiality for order without human intervention. Dong Zhongshu's solution to the tensions sun in Mencius is [0 grant humans extraordinary powers over the cosmos. He denies the potential for tension between sages and Heaven that Mencius posited. Whereas Mencius granted divine powers to man and saw a porenrial conflict with Heaven. Dong Zhongshu underlines the proper hierarchy of humans and Heaven. Humans must follow patterns. By doing so. they can exercise power over the world: they can control the rain and create the proper harmony in the world. Dong Zhongshu's articulation of this position serves to deny the tensions thar pervade the cosmology of Mencius. Heaven is an agent within this cosmology. but Heaven does not sometimes disrupt the moral patterns thar should be guiding humanity. H eaven is equated with the patterns, and the only issue for Dong Zhongshu is whether the sages follow these Heavenly patterns and thereby bring order to the world. Accordingly. if there is a discrepancy between the patterns of Heaven and the function ing of the natural or human worlds. the responsibility lies squarely with the ruler. jt is the ruler who must impose me panerru of Heaven on the human and natural worlds. But for some reason. Heaven no longer grants the mandate to sages as it did in the rime of Yao. S hun. and Yu; sages tend now to be ministers. not rulers. This may not be ideal. but. in Dong's view. it also need not result in a lack of o rder. It simply means that ministers must be properly trained in the classics so that they can guide rulers. In other words. the fact that rulers are nor sages simply requires an institutional response. The implication of this is that the bmed notion of humans and Heaven existing in harmony-a view so often attributed to Dong Zhongshu-was not an assumption at all. Ramer. it was a response to the political events of the time and an alternative to the vision proffered by Mencius almost twO cenruries before. And. unlike the authors of the Hilainanzi chapters. Dong Zhongshu is proclaiming the absolute nece~ity of accepting tradirions handed dow n from the sages-both sacrificial acts and the texts of Confucius,

instead offers an insritutioll21 fe.sponse: although Confucius was not granted t he kingship, he did author the Spring flrla Autu",,, Annals in order to guide humans in foUowing the Heavenly way. The ruler should therefore est2blish a fonnal sy5tem in which people are trained to undemand the alignment of the cosmos and to guide the ruler accordingly. This is, in a sense, an institutionalization of the degeneration implied in the M~cills and preunted in the Xic; milan. The implicit claim here appears to be that rulers ar this point need trained scholars to guide t hem: Confucius understood the alignment of the cosmos, and scholars of the textS composed or edited by Confucius can guide the ruler properly. Overall, Dong Zhongshu has therefore defined both divination and sacrince as necessary, but the purpose of such acts is nor ro learn o r influence the will of the divine. Rather, rhe goal is to place humanity properly within the cosmos and thereby ensure the proper functioning of that cosmos. Dong Zhongshu was every bit as interared in influencing natura] phenomena as were, for example, the masters of formulas. But his cosmological claims were designed ro present a view of the relationship between humans and nature different from both the instrumental and the agonistic conceptions of the relation between humans and gods prevalent at COUrt. Dong Zhongshu's goal was to articulate a cosmology in which the cosmos required human action-defined according to the traditions of Confucius-in order to function properly. In this specific sense. Dong Zhongshu's cosmology, despite its incorporation of so much Han terminology. repudiates the sortS of arguments found in the Xi,; milan in f...vor of elements of earlier Confucian th~ught. For Dong Zhongshu. the goal for humans is not to replicare the parterns of an existing natural world but to cause the natura] world to function properlythat is. to do as Heaven requires. The sages are to discover the proper pat-

TH B SAC IlIFICBS THAT OROBI!. THE WORLD

THB SACRI FICBS THAT O R DER T H B WO R LD

The overall argument il t hla quire similar ro rh;![ ofLu Jia: like Lu Jia. Dong Zhongshu presents humans 2S playing a crucw role in bringing order

then held an audience for the feudal lords. Every five years he made an inspection tour of t he Five Mounruru beginning with Mount Tai in t he east, where he would .sacrifice ro H eaven• .sacrifice from afar to the mountains and rivers. and meet with the feudal lords. H e would then travel to the other four mountains (to the south. west. north, and center). This .sacrificial system. based on a feudal political arrangement, continued, according to Sima Q ian. with some variations, until the rise of 2n alternative system unu de r the Qin. According to Sima Qian. Yu, Shun's successor and the founde r of the Xia dyn:ury. continued Shun's sacrificial practice. But problems became apparent in the fourteenth generatio n: "Yu accorded with this. After fourteen generations, ir came to the reign of Oi Kongjia. He turned to iicentiousnes.s and wu fond of spirits. The spirits we re angered, 2nd the twO dragons left(18.13s6).The Xia fell three generations later. A similar structure characterizes Sima Qian's present2tion of the Shang dynasty. Two rulers are singled OUt. The fi rst is Oi Taiwu. O ne night a mulberry grew in his courtyard. Although this caused great alarm. his minister Yi Zhi argued: ~Evil portents cannot overcome virrue.~ O i Taiwu then cultivated his virtue, 2nd t he mulberry died. Fourteen generations lacer, a decline set in. But Oi Wuding arose and restored the dynasty. A bad portent appeared under Wuding as well, and Wuding wu abrmed. But his minister Zu J i uid: ~Cultivate virtue: Wuding did so, and his reign was thus long· lasting and peaceful. Five generations later, however, Oi Wuyi "treated the spiriu with contempt- and was killed. The dyn:uty fell three generations bret (18.13S6). S ima Qian sums up his argument rhus far: -From [his it can be seen that. at t he beginning [of 2 dynasry] there is alW2YS reverence and respect, but later it deterioutes intO disrespect and contempt· (l!. 1)S6-S7). Overtly, this is a simple reference to t he dynastic cycle: a dyn:uty begins in virtue and ends in vice. But Sima Qian has set up this claim in a specific way. Virtue is based here on the behavior of the ruler 2nd involves. among o ther things, proper reverence for spirits. Virtue, Sima Q ian argues, overrides even b2d portents sent from the spirits. And vice, so to speak, involves improper reverence, an impropriery that can take the form of either being overly fond of the spirits o r trearing t hem with contempr.

)00

to the cosmos, and like Lu J12. Dong Zhongshu emphasizes the: importance of following the rraditions of the sages. Bur unlike Lu Jia. Dong Zhongshu does not borrow the langu:.ge of ascension and diviniurion in order to make these poinu. On the connary. Dong opposes such language. To a fir grater degree than Lu ) 12. Dong Zhongshu opposed the imperial system and its

theomorphic claims.

The W Fengshan shu· Chapter ofSim2 Qian Although Dong Zhongshu's recommendations for employing specialists in [he classics at court" were accepted by Emperor Wu. his cosmological notions 2nd his idea on sacrifices and omenology were no(. In order to trace the developme nt of the Han sacrificial system and to understand why particular sacrifices came to be imbued with a particular significance, we must turn to the ~ Fengshan shu~ chapter of Sima Q ian's Shiji. B Sima Qian was rhe coun hisroria n during the reign of Emperor Wu. and the chapter is in part a critique of t he emperor's sacrificial system. Emperor Wu played a major role in consolidating imperial rule in C hina. M part o f his poHdcal program. rhe emperor decided ro undertake {he feng and Jhtm sacrifices-sacrifices (har symbolized the legitimacy of a dynasry. Sima Qian's chapter places this decision within the entire hisrory of culric acriviry in China. M many comment:uors have pointed OUt, Sima Qian's 14 goal was to criticize Wu's decision. However. thete is much more of interest in the chapter than jun this criticism. As I will uy ro argue. the chapter, if read carefuUy, gives us a unique and suggestive glimpse of some of t he views at COUrt concerning sacrifices and thus provides crucial dues for aplieating the later debares that led to the parrial eradication of Emperor Wu's sacrificial system. Early in the chapter. Sima Qian quotes t he -Sh un dian- chapter of the Shangshu, which d iscusses the sacrificial system of Shun. one of the early sage-kings. Shun is described as sacrificing to the higher gods at his capital and sacrificing from afar to the mountains, rivers. and various fipirits. He

I). Portionl of Ih;. ~d I~ ensuing J«fion a", laken /Tom my "Determining {he P().Iilion of Heaven and Eanh: 14. For a full diKuuion of {hil, lee dUpi'er s of my TM Am~NltllCt ofC¥t~lio".

'S. Shiji. "FenS-han 11m;

~a.llSS-s6:

hereinafter cited in the: lerr.

THB SACRIFICBS THAT ORDBR THB WORLD

lO'

With this as his frame, Sima Qian rurns next ro the rise and fall of me

Zhou dynasty. He begins by quoting from [he Zhouguan, portS

: All fuJa] 011 Two rlldo·Europtan RtprnmllltionJ IIfSo~tI'dI'JjJ' New York.: Zf Xl/lIl'i. Chicago: Open CoUrt Press, 1999. Graf, Frit%. "Oionysian and Orphic Eschatology: In M"Uts ofDioll]!U!, cd. Thomu H . Carpenter and Chmtopher A. Faraone, pp. :I.)9-S8. Ithaca: Corndl Univer· sity Press, 199). Graham, A. C ihe Background of the Mencian Theory of Human Nature.· In idem, Slildics ill Chi~)/ Philosoph] lind PhiloSIJpbiCilI Lit"Alllrt, pp. 7-66. Singapore: Institute ofEut Asian Phil05ophies, 1986 (1961). - - - . Dispuler! of tht T /SO: PhiloUlpbiCilI Argu",,"IIt ill Allcielll Chilli!. La Salle, III.: Open COUrt, 1~9· _ _ _. "Introduction: In idem, nans., ChwIIIIg.IZII: Th Srwn 11111" ChIlptCTJ 1"'.1 Olher Writillgs from the Book Chll~ng'lZlI, pp. IS- 19. u.ndon: George Allen and Unwin, 1981. _ _ _ . Yill' Y~lIg Alld lIN: N~IIIr( of C rrtllllillt Thinking. Singapore: Institute of east Asian Philosophies, 19116. Graham, A. C, tram. Cbu~lIg Tl'lI: The 11111" CMptCTJ. u.ndon: George Allen and Unwin, 1981. Granet, Mared. o,ill(~ Civiliz"lioll. New York: Alfred. A. Knopf, 19la. - -- . Ut cilliliUllioli chilWill. Paris: Editions Albin Michd, 19:1.9___. 00")/$ tl ligmdcs de. III Chine dncicllllC. :I. vols. Paris: Libraries Fdix Alean. 19l6· - - -. La ~IIstt ,hilloi~. Paris: La Renaiuance du Livre, 1934· Gu Jiegang Ii 1ifi Nf et al., eels. GIIlhi,",111 i!i j! t9l6- 41. Shanghai: Guji ehu· banshe, 1981Guan Feng III ,.. Zhllllllgli zhu1.e IAo/llllji iI! T t!r 1M Beijing: Zhonghua .huju, 19M. Guo Moroo"" t*.;s. LilllIg-ZboIl jin"""d dui 111111 .l:..otb; PIii Ji!lJ it 3( J$ ~ III ~ :md rev. ro. Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1\lS8. Guo Moroo '11 ~ ;s and Hu H ouxuan NJ .l!J 1£. jillguwcII heji Efl1t 3( i!t Beijing: Zhonghua Ihuju, 1979-1981Guo Yi JIl GliodiIlIlZhuji""]II xi~" 'Qi" XlIuhw sixiAng JIl16fT fIi'j W 9t: • ~ 1f:j Mt. Shanghai: Shanghai jiaoyu ehubamhe, 1001. GlloJi~1I ,hllmw l'hlijillll fI\ J6 'fi!: M( 1"t fIj. Beijing: Wenwu, 19911·

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BUlL IOGlt APHY

1118 LI 00 R,A P H Y

Guthrie. W . K. C. OrpIxIlJ /111: j""mal of an..ur Philosoph] 2.4 (1997): }l)-S9NivUon. David S. "An Interpretation of the 'Shao ga.o:" blM] Chinll ao (1995): 177-9)' Nyberg. H. S. Die Rdigionell dc, IIllen IrQII. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 19)8. Nylan. Michael. "A Problematic Modd: The Han 'Orthodox Synthesis; Then and Now." In ImQgining BOYlldllr;(J.: Chllnging Conjudlln DocrriMJ, Texl" lind Hmtlfntll· lics," cd. Kai.wing Chow. On·cho Ng. and John B. Hendcn;on. pp. [7-56. Al· bany: Scace University ofNcw York Press. 1999. Panagiotou, S. "Empedodes on His Own Divinity: MntJml'JM}6 (198): l76-8S. Pankcnier. David W. -me Cm:mo·Polidcai Background of Heaven's Mandate." blrl]an,,11 lO (1995): 111-76Paper. Jordan. Tht Spirits Are Drllnlt; Compo;arlllivt Appr~hcJ 10 Chinac Rc~gion. Al· bany: State University ofNcw York Press, 1995. Pccrenboom, R. P. LAw lI",l MorlllitJ in Allcient Chinll: Tbr SiUt M""I1Striptl oj Hilling!..IIo. Albany: Scare University of New York PrCSI. 1993. Pepin. Jean. Idla gru'illtllllr I'hommt ct lur It diclI. Paris: Societe d'Edition "Les BeUes Lmres; 1971. Peterson. Willard J. "Making Connccrioru: 'Commentary on the Attached Verbali· :tatioru' of the &ok oj Challge: Hllrvllrd JOIl'",,' oj AlilIlj4lJliln, by Susan Blakdcy Kldn Printillgftr Profit: ~ Commtrd4l / Pllb/i!hcrs ofjianJ41ng, 1050-1700, by Lucille Chia To Become 41 GoJ: Cosmolog;y, SOicrijia, 4IIId SeIf·Di~iniNtio" ill blr/, Chi,,4I, by Michad J. PUetT