![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article delves into the world of powerful women at the Ming court and their patronage of Daoist ritual and visual arts, focusing on the significance of Thunder Ritual (leifa 雷法). By examining a painted ritual scroll of the Daoist exorcistic Thunder Deity Wang Lingguan 王靈官 (Efficacious Agent Wang), Wang Lingguan and His Retinue, this study unravels the connections between Daoist Thunder Ritual, court women and the realpolitik of the Ming court. The painting was commissioned in 1542 by the Jiajing Emperor’s 嘉靖 (r. 1521–1567) Honoured Imperial Consort Lady Shen (Huangguifei shen 皇貴妃沈), and the circumstances surrounding the commissioning of the scroll reveal an intertwined relationship between Daoist material culture and the religious identities of high-ranking court women. This study contributes to an ongoing scholarly re-visioning of Daoism’s critical role in Ming history by arguing that Wang Lingguan and His Retinue stands as a material witness to the significance of Thunder Ritual at Jiajing’s court and also serves as evidence of the important role that high-ranking court women’s patronage of Daoist art plays in the significance of Daoism during the Ming dynasty.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. This article comes originally from a section of my dissertation on Daoist ritual and material culture at the court of Ming emperor Jiajing. The current work been revised and improved by the invaluable comments and suggestions of the anonymous reader, and from the generous help of Richard G. Wang, Sara Schneewind, and Jingyu Liu.
2. For example, see Weidner, ‘Images of the Nine-Lotus Bodhisattva’; Wong, ‘Women as Buddhist Art Patrons’; McNair, Donors of Longmen.
3. Li, Becoming Guanyin.
4. Luk Yu-ping’s groundbreaking work on Ming Empress Zhang’s patronage of Daoism is one notable exception. See Luk, The Empress and the Heavenly Masters; idem, ‘Heavenly Mistress and Bodhisattva’.
5. Richard Wang’s work on how Daoist ritual defined interactions at the Ming court and in local society sets the foundation for recasting the critical importance of practicing Daoism in the history of the Ming. See Wang, Lineages Imbedded in Temple Networks, idem, The Ming Prince and Daoism. Meulenbeld, Demonic Warfare; Wan, ‘Building an Immortal Land’.
6. Chao, Daoist Ritual, State Religion, and Popular Practice; Giuffrida, ‘Representing the Daoist God Zhenwu’; Huang, Picturing the True Form.
7. DZ 1220 241.1a; DZ 1220: 242 1.b; DZ 1220 243.1a.
8. Sanjuan yuanliu soushen daquan.
9. For a more detailed discussion of Wang Lingguan and His Retinue’s iconography, see Naparstek, ‘Figuring on Salvation’.
10. Goossaert, ‘Ritual Techniques’.
11. For a discussion of the connection between Wang Lingguan and the ritual known as ‘The Iron Pot of Sa Shoujian’, see Naparstek, ‘The Iron Pot’.
12. Many thanks to both Jingyu Liu and Susan Huang for helping identify this larger context for the MMA scroll (private communications). While Daoists would often claim the Yellow Register Retreat as their exclusive practice, Jingyu Liu’s research has shown the history of the ritual to be far more heterogeneous, with a great deal of overlap between Daoist and Buddhist funerary ritual technologies. Liu, ‘Enroll in the Blue Sheet and Delist from the Black Book’. For further discussion of the material and visual culture of the Yellow Register Retreat, see Huang, Perfecting the True Form, Chapter 5.
13. See Goossaert, Taoists of Peking, 1800-1949.
14. DZ 1220 242.1a.
15. The earliest mention of her life at court is an imperial edict acknowledging Lady Fang’s rise to Empress sent to the Ministry of Rites on the first month of 1534. In addition to recognizing Lady Fang as Empress (Huanghou 皇后), the edict decrees that Lady Shen is to be enfeoffed with the title ‘Chamber Consort’ (Chenfei 宸妃) along with Lady Yan who is to become the ‘Elegant Consort’ (Lifei 麗妃). MSL 158.3537; Guochao dianhui 9.26b.
16. Ming Wanli xuwenxian tongkao 122.7416; MSL 158.3546
17. MSL 233.4783
18. Ibid. The rank of Huang Guifei was first established by the Chenghua Emperor 成化 (1464–1487) in 1466 to supersede that of guifei, which then became the second rank of consorts in subsequent reigns. See Hsieh, Concubinage and Servitude, 256. In her study of the world of Late Imperial concubines, Hsieh Bao Hua notes that Jiajing revised the imperial consort system established by the Hongwu emperor at the start of the Ming to more closely resemble that of the Zhou dynasty by expanding the number of ranks to 43 official titles, thus allowing for a larger harem. See ibid., 317.
19. Ibid., 279.
20. Ibid., 320.
21. Ibid, 198.
22. Yanzhou shanren sibugao 47.2407. Also see, Hsieh, Concubinage and Servitude, 198. While Jiajing’s sexual exploits late in life are couched in the narrative of his search for longevity, the reality behind his motivations is likely far more complex. In this case, Daoism plays a convenient target for the historical records to indirectly disapprove of the emperor’s behaviour. Nonetheless, the received narrative that Daoist influence is to blame for Jiajing’s sexual proclivities continues to hold traction, as evidenced by the Cambridge History of China’s entry on Jiajing perpetuating such claims (see note 44).
23. WLYHB 3.72.
24. WLYHB bixu 1.809
25. Upon her death, Lady Shen received the posthumous honorific title of ‘Zhuangshun Anrong Zhenjing Huangguifei’ 莊順安榮貞靜皇貴妃 (Imperial Honoured Consort of Dignified Obeisance, Tranquil Flourishing and Loyal Serenity), which she seems to have shared with the Empress and Imperial Honoured Consort Yan, as well WLYHB 3.1, 73. According to Shen Defu, the specific title derives from that granted to the Chenghua Emperor’s (Jiajing’s grandfather) most beloved Lady Wan 萬. The resulting confusion over three women from Jiajing’s court all sharing posthumous names makes the details of Lady Shen’s death difficult to trace, and results in these conflicting accounts among later Ming authors. WLYHB bixu 809.
26. MSL 2203.
27. Ibid.
28. WLYHB 2 ‘Renyinsui e’ 壬寅歲厄 [Hardships of the Renyin Year], 65–66.
29. CHC 7, 464. See Carney T. Fisher’s excellent study of this rivalry in Fisher, The Chosen One.
30. The exact dates of this event remain in question, as some sources suggest it occurred on November 27, while others indicate it took place on October 21. (CHC 464; Hsieh, Concubinage and Servitude, 197). Interestingly, the Guochao diangu 國朝典故 [Classics of the Dynasty] notes that the assassination attempt occurred in the dingyou 丁酉 year (1537), (Guochao diangu, 36.725). I have yet to find any other sources to corroborate this dating and welcome any further suggestions.
31. MSL juan 267.6, 5285; Ming Wanli Xuwenxian tongkao 201.4389; for the doctor Shen’s 紳 response, see MS 114.3531, 925. Guochao dianhui 10.8a; Huadangge congtan 花當閣叢談 [Discussions from the Flowery Pavilion] 1.544; Songchuang mengyu 5.98–99. Also see Hsieh, Concubinage and Servitude, 197; CHC 7, 464–465.
32. Wan, ‘Building an Immortal Land’, 85.
33. Here I would once again like to thank the anonymous reader for offering such compelling questions.
34. Ibid., 67.
35. DZ 1220: 241.1b.
36. Maggie Wan notes the critical role objects played in realizing this paradise, and that reports of the opulence with which the construction was undertaken reveal a great many temples with a great many thunder names, all filled with a great many beautifully crafted (and expensive) objects. The expense was deemed outrageous by later writers.
37. While Tao Zhongwen is reported to have been responsible for only one of the many temples constructed in West Park, the nearly contemporaneous Huang Ming liangchao shuchao criticizes him heavily for going well over any reasonable budget. See the section on ‘Huan leidian gonzuo shu’ 緩雷殿工作疏 [Commentary on the Slowness of the Thunder Hall Work], in Huang Ming liangchao shuchao, 8.52a–53a.
38. Wan, ‘Building an Immortal Land’, 67. Also, Maggie Wan’s earlier work on the production of porcelain to fill the everyday needs of West Park and its denizens also shows that the material presence of objects was consciously thought of as contributing to the paradisiacal realm it was creating – that is to say, the forms in which everyday objects such as vases and bowls took were designed for ordinary use in an extraordinary environs. Wan, ‘Motifs with an Intention’.
39. Ibid., 79. Wan notes that ‘Xiangyi’ was one of the Daoist titles employed by the emperor (see 79, note 57). Wan makes careful note of how the names given to the most significant buildings constructed during the first two years of Jiajing’s permanent residency in reveal the emperor’s proclivity toward the efficacious power of thunder as articulated in Thunder Ritual liturgical traditions. Wan, ‘Building an Immortal Land’, 78, 84–86.
40. Ibid., 85; MS 307.7898, 2024. Jiajing’s ordination title includes the phrases, ‘Great Perfected Invested with the Scriptural Register of the Great Cavern of Highest Clarity’, as well as his title. ‘ … and the Great Perfected Commanding the Five Thunders of the Jade Void’ (參授上清大洞經籙 … 玉虛總掌五雷大真人). My thanks to Richard Wang for helping illuminate these titles.
41. For further discussion on the efficacious potential of the MMA scroll as an object, see Naparstek, ‘Figuring on Salvation’.
42. Wan, ‘Building an Immortal Land’, 90–91.
43. Meulenbeld, ‘Civilized Demons’, 263. Meulenbeld notes that imperial rituals were often held several times a year and on a consistent annual basis, with the exception of 1544–1545 and 1550–1551.
44. CHC 7, 481–482.
45. Wan, ‘Building an Immortal Land’, 79.
46. Luk, The Empress and the Heavenly Masters. Also see Little, Taoism and the Arts of China, 208–213.
47. Luk, The Empress and the Heavenly Masters, 24–26.
48. Luk, ‘Heavenly Mistress and Bodhisattva’, 63–90.
49. While textual records indicate that the official visual representations of empresses during the Ming was limited to portraiture, Luk Yu-ping has shown how court women found an outlet for ‘pictorial self-representation’ in Daoist and Buddhist idioms. Luk suggests that while extant visual examples are limited to those preserved in albums, though textual sources suggest portraits of Ming empresses also existed as hanging scrolls, as well. Ibid., 63–90.
50. Luk, The Empress and the Heavenly Masters, 26–32; Wang, The Ming Prince and Daoism.
51. Luk, The Empress and the Heavenly Masters, 25. Curly brackets are my own.
52. I am indebted to Richard Wang for this suggestion as to Lady Shen’s possible motivations.