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ABSTRACT
When we think of messianic or millenarian prophecies, we tend to think first and foremost of the saviours and the precise date when they are supposed to arrive in order to save the world. Clearly these are crucial elements of such traditions, but the kind of disasters that marked the end of times are in fact equally typical. Some of them are rather predictable, such as famine, war, and floods. In the Chinese context, however, one kind of disaster seems to be rather specific to the fear of the end of time. This was the prophecy that a Dark Wind (heifeng 黑風) would arrive and blow for seven days and seven nights (qiri qiye 七日七夜), causing great destruction, but also initiating the advent of a saviour who would protect the chosen ones against these apocalyptic disasters. In this contribution I investigate the fear of the Dark Wind, in an attempt to throw some light on how people might have experienced this particular prophecy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. ter Haar, Ritual and Mythology, 306–364; idem, ‘Rumours and Prophecies’, 382–418; Ownby, ‘Chinese Millenarian Traditions’, 1513–1530.
2. Wugong mojie jing (1903), 32a (179).
3. ter Haar, ‘The Sutra of the Five Lords’, 172–197.
4. Chen, Yinxu puci zongshu, 575.
5. Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 71–72; Unschuld, Medicine in China, 67–73.
6. Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics, 29–35 and passim.
7. Soushen ji, juan 1: 13.
8. ter Haar, Guan Yu, 231.
9. Goossaert, ‘Modern Daoist Eschatology’, 219–246.
10. The original story from the ninth century Guangyiji is summarized by Dudbridge, Religious Experience, 179. This story has been preserved in Taiping guangj, juan 104: 705–706.
11. Gaoshang yuhuang benxing jijing, vol. 2: 295.
12. Pingshan xianzhi (1854), juan 1: 34b, 35b, 37b.
13. ter Haar, Telling Stories, 202–281.
14. On wind prognostication, see Yu, Zhongguo yixiang, 140–170.
15. Wang Jia 王嘉 (fl. late fourth c.), Shiyiji 拾遺記, quoted in Taiping guangji, juan 135: 962.
16. Foster, ‘The “Shih-I Chi”’, 192.
17. Menglin xuanjie, juan 2: 4a. Commentary in Mengzhan yizhi, juan 1: 6b–7a.
18. Taiping guangji, juan 340: 2695.
19. Jiading chicheng zhi, juan 24: 7462.
20. Huangyan xianzhi (1877), juan 3: 5a–b; 21: 7a. Xuxiu Taizhou fuzhi (1936), juan 42: 10b; juan 91: 8a–b. For a recent description with photographs, see https://baike.sogou.com/v10866159.htm (Accessed November 2, 2021).
21. Guangdong tongzhi (1697), juan 3 shang: 54a–b.
22. Taiping guangji, juan 24: 161–162.
23. Copp, The Body Incantatory, 170–180. Quotation on page 179.
24. Taishang jiuzhen miaojie jinlu duming bazui miaojing, vol. 5: 223.
25. Xuantian shangdi qishenglu, vol. 32, juan 4: 761.
26. ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings; idem, ‘Giving Believers Back Their Voice’, 16–54.
27. Naquin, Shantung Rebellion, passim, and the recent reinvestigation by Kanner, ‘Fighting for the Self, the State, and the Dao’, 133–170.
28. Naquin, Shantung Rebellion, 56–57. I have been unable to track this specific quotation down in Wang Lun qiyi shiliao, which includes the mainland archives, but not the Taiwan archives that were used by Naquin at the time.
29. Menghan zazhuo, juan 6: 14a–b.
30. Vermeer, ‘The Mountain Frontier in Late Imperial China’, 300–329.
31. Wang, White Lotus Rebels, and Dai, The White Lotus War are recent studies, but somewhat circumscribed by a top-down perspective.
32. Gaustad, ‘Religious Sectarianism’, 198–199 interprets the passage differently. As far as I can tell, the ‘scripture’ is not extant and we cannot even be sure that it ever existed. I translate here from the memorial in the Qingdai dangan shiliao congbian, 9: 208 (there is a briefer reference in the same source, 196). The three disasters of the end of times are fire, water, and wind. The eight troubles are the eight circumstances in which one cannot cultivate Buddhahood, such as residing in the underworld, as an animal, as a hungry ghost, when blind and deaf, being overly smart, before or after the appearance of a Buddha, residing in a faraway northern continent, or being extremely long lived. These disasters and troubles could also be defined differently, but the basic idea remains the same.
33. ter Haar, Ritual and Mythology, 306–364.
34. ter Haar, ‘The Sutra of the Five Lords’, 172–197 and idem, ‘Rumours and Prophecies’, 382–341.
35. Qingzhongqi wusheng bailian jiao qiyi ziliao, vol. 1: 35.
36. Quoted from Naquin, Millenarian Rebellion in China, 12, 105, 125, 146. I have changed her Wade Giles transcription to Pinyin and her translation ‘Black Wind’ to ‘Dark Wind.’
37. For a Chinese language narrative see for instance Ma and Han, Zhongguo minjian zongjiao shi.
38. Copp, The Body Incantatory, 31–32 discusses this text.
39. To wit: intentionally murdering one’s father or mother, killing an enlightened being, shedding the blood of a Buddha, or creating a schism within the community of monks and believers.
40. Qifo bapusa suoshuo da tuoloni shenzhou jing, T no. 1332, 21: 1.537b–c.
41. British Museum Stein collection no. 5256, quoted in Yuankong, ‘Xin Pusa jing’, 62. I discuss this text in my ‘The Sutra of the Five Lords’, 177–179.
42. Taishang zushi sanshi yinyou zonglu, yin: 52b (281). More examples can still be found but would take up too much space here. On this text and the religious group around it, see ter Haar, Practicing Scripture, passim.
43. Overmyer, Precious Volumes, 136–177.
44. Huangji jindan jiulian zhengxin guizhen huanxiang baojuan, towards the end of section pin 11: no page (894a). I read 父 here as 夫.
45. A convenient summary is given in Overmyer, Precious Volumes, 248–271 with further references. We find more or less the same tradition among the missionaries whose messianic teaching during the early 1790s led to a repression by the Qing state that then triggered the so-called White Lotus Teachings rebellion discussed briefly above.
46. Longhuajing, juan 4: 27b–36a (730–734) overall discussion; specifically on the Dark Wind, see ibid., juan 4: 32b (732), 34a (374).
47. In Japan this happened integrally in 1873 and in Korea in 1896. China adopted most of the Western calendar in 1912 (and more fully in 1949), but the traditional calendar is still followed for a number of important festival days.
48. For an example, see Tong, Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore, 47.
49. Sun, Liji jijie, Tangong 檀公, shang: 189, 196 and so forth.
50. For a sample, see ter Haar, ‘Shobutsu o yomi riyō suru rekishi’, 135–152.
51. Wugong mojie jing, 7b (167), 9b (168), 10a (169), and so forth.
52. Ibid., 33a (180).
53. Ibid., 21a–b (174).
54. See ter Haar, Practicing Scripture, 30, 96–97, 111–112.
55. Wugong mojie jing, 19a–b (173).
56. See ter Haar, Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads, 63–88.