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ABSTRACT
The Way of the Nine Palaces (jiugong dao 九宮道) was founded in the late nineteenth century by a monk on Mount Wutai. Largely unknown in Western scholarship, it is studied in Chinese scholarship in the context of secret societies. In earlier research I have argued that research on new religious movements in China suffers from negative labelling, which skews our perspective on new developments at the level of lay religious activities. Since this particular movement has been relatively well-studied in Chinese language scholarship, I will use this case to show what insights we can get when we relinquish traditional labels and look at a specific local group or movement in a more empathetic way. In this case we will see that the Way of the Nine Palaces was very much an ordinary lay Buddhist movement in the eyes of northern Chinese believers of the time. Moreover, it is from this regular lay Buddhist perspective that its followers provided crucial financial support to the rebuilding of Mount Wutai in the early twentieth century. Without their support the mountain’s monasteries would not have survived into the present in their relatively well-kept form.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. On the distinction between movements or groups on the one hand and networks on the other, see Barend J. ter Haar, “Giving Believers Back Their Voice.”
2. Ter Haar, “Shobutsu o yomi,” 135–152 and Ter Haar, “The Sutra of the Five Lords,” 172–197.
3. This process can be traced to some extent from the collection of reports on the post-1949 repression of new religious groups, entitled Zhongguo huidaomen shiliao jicheng, passim. This source allows us to reconstruct the institutional networks that supported the efforts of Puji and his successors in restoring the mountain’s monasteries.
4. Zhou, “Jiugong dao ruogan lishi wenti bianxi,” 93–119.
5. Apart from the work discussed in the main text below, also see the earlier study on the Way of the Nine Palaces, by Kong,”Wanqing shidai jiugong dao yanjiu,” 1–25.
6. Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings analyses the history of this type of labelling and its consequences.
7. Hibino and Ono, Godaisan, 173–178.
8. Wang, “Qingji minchu wutaishan de puji ji qi jiaotuan,” 85–120,
9. See note 4 above.
10. Another prominent example of this phenomenon would be the Way of Yellow Heaven, studied most recently in Cao, Zushi de zupu, passim.
11. The term ‘biography’ would suggest a formal discussion of his life, but his biographical information is presented as part of a soteriological narrative, rather than in the strict historical format of the biography or hagiography.
12. Zhou, “Jiugong dao ruogan lishi wenti bianxi,” 94, 97. Mile jiuzhuan jiapu, 427. The Lishi baojuan presents the same basic chronology. For some background information on this and other Nine Palaces texts, see the survey further below.
13. Mile jiuzhuan jiapu, 428.
14. Mile jiuzhuan jiapu, 427.
15. Ter Haar, Practising Scripture, 52, 66.
16. Mile jiuzhuan jiapu, 428.
17. Mile jiuzhuan jiapu, 427.
18. Genben jing, 1a (809) in a list of her successive incarnations, starting with Guanyin. The same source also specifies her lineage in the larger network of the Eight Trigrams Teachings.
19. Zhou, “Jiugong dao ruogan lishi wenti bianxi,” 98–101. In his article he also demonstrates that the supposed military background of Li Xiangshan’s early life is a later historical fiction, again to serve the present of Puji’s day rather than our modern understanding of the past. By the time that I saw these inscriptions in the summer of 2016, they had been reconstructed and were standing again in the temple courtyard.
20. Zhou, “Jiugong dao ruogan lishi wenti bianxi,” 101.
21. Alternatively, there was an undocumented connection that predated Li Xiangshan’s presence here.
22. Bibliographical references can be found in the bibliography under the Chinese titles.
23. Guangxuan gufo zhimijing, 4b (658). Or “where he was cultivating the great overturn of Heaven and Earth at the [Monastery] of Extreme Joy.”
24. Mile jiuzhuan zhimijing, 428. Another scripture identified her as an incarnation of Guanyin, as will be discussed further below.
25. Zhou, “Jiugong dao ruogan lishi wenti bianxi” discusses these internal struggles, but does not link the title of Ms. Wang to the mountain. The institutional weakness of the Eight Trigrams Teachings and its spin-off networks is one of the reasons why I understand this movement as a set of networks, rather than a set of stronger groups.
26. Guangxuan gufo zhimi jing, 3a–b5 (658–659).
27. Guangxuan gufo zhimi jing, 5b (659).
28. Guangxuan gufo zhimi jing, 7a (660).
29. Guangxuan gufo zhimi jing, 11a (662). I have corrected 層 ceng to 會 hui, and ting 疒 + 丁 to liao 療 (inspired by the modern abbreviation 疗).
30. Guangxuan gufo zhimi jing, 7b (660).
31. While the mostly southern Chinese who built the Northern American railways during the nineteenth century might have brought home stories, these accounts would probably not have reached northern China.
32. See the discussion in Seligman, Weller, Puett, and Simon, Ritual and its Consequences.
33. Genben jing, 1a–2a (809).
34. Genben jing, 2a–b (809).
35. See Ter Haar, Guan Yu, 34, 140, 158. A figure called Pujing, written in the same way as the name of the figure who helped Lord Guan in local folklore, also appears in the Way of Yellow Heaven, see Seiwert, Popular Religious Movements, 295ff.
36. See my discussion and some further references in Ter Haar, Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads, 132–133. Since this book came out I encountered the story as well on the stone Wongaksa Pagoda in Seoul, built in 1467 and still extant today. It will have served as a visual account of the arrival of Buddhist scriptures in China, much in the same way that the story functioned in northern Chinese religious groups. No doubt Korean traders had brought the story here during their travels to northern China. On early traditions, also see Dudbridge, The Hsi-yu chi, 60–74.
37. Ter Haar, “The Sutra of the Five Lords,” 172–197. Also see the separate Zhigong jing 志公經 (1862), which was a simplified version of the Sutra of the Five Lords.
38. Seiwert, Popular Religious Movements, esp. 293–297.
39. Cao, Zushi de zupu, passim.
40. Ter Haar, Practising Scripture, 22. For some examples, see Seiwert, Popular Religious Movements, 232–233, 316–317, 332, 395–396 (although I do not always share his overall analysis).
41. See Puming laozu yiliu wudao pian, 239–240 for a very comparable list in its mythical elements. Moreover, as Cao Xinyu points out in an email to me (d.d. 1 January 2017), the Mile jiuzhuan zhimijing, 446 contains a partial variation of the list discussed above that is even more similar to the Way of Yellow Heaven list in question.
42. Genben jing, 2a–b (809). Li Hongzhang’s direct involvement is not very likely, since by this time he was already much too highly placed to be involved in a local suppression campaign. I will not deal with the further historical details here for reasons of space.
43. Genben jing, 2–3a (809–810).
44. Genben jing, 3b (810).
45. Genben jing, 5a–b (811).
46. Interpreting tutan 塗嘆 (to sigh) as the more relevant and homophonous tutan 吐痰 (to spit).
47. Interpreting the character 寳 bao (precious) as shi 實 (veritable, real).
48. Lishi baojuan, 82.
49. The Sutra of the Five Lords prescribed pasting amulets to the house in order to protect against apocalyptic disasters.
50. The character translated as “taking refuge” is unclear, but looks similar to an earlier occurrence of “taking refuge” (gui 皈).
51. It is these networks, whose demise is chronicled in the Zhongguo huidaomen shiliao jicheng, passim.
52. Overmyer, Folk Buddhist Religion, 151.
53. Observations made during a visit to two of the monasteries closest associated with him in July 2016, when people were burning huge quantities of paper money shaped like golden ingots in burners next to his two pagodas. This also fits the curious fact that the hall in the Nanshan Monastery that had been originally intended for receiving travelling monks (as is evidenced from the original reference to shifang 十方 over its door) has now been revamped as a hall for the god of fortune (in this region invariably Lord Guan). Observation on July 20, 2016.
54. Ter Haar, Guan Yu, 99–100.