Research Priorities in the Study of Ch'u ReligionAuthor(s): John S. MajorReviewed work(s):Source: History of Religions, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, Current Perspectives in the Study of ChineseReligions (Feb. - May, 1978), pp. 226-243Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062430 .Accessed: 24/06/2012 12:52

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John S. Major RESEARCH PRIORITIES IN THE STUDY OF CH'U RELIGION

The seemingly perennial issue of the origins of Chinese culture has been raised anew in recent years, with scholars resurrecting and

adducing new evidence for the positions of a North China nuclear area versus multifocal origins, indigenous origins versus diffusion of culture across Eurasia. Within that debate arises the more

narrowly defined but no less complex issue of the culture of the

Huai-Yangtse region, the area encompassed during much of the Chou period by the state of Ch'u. Almost all modern scholars agree that there is a definable entity that may be termed Ch'u culture, but the question of its origins is bound up with the larger issue- was it an early contributor to or a late recipient of Chou culture, or both-while the exact characteristics of Ch'u culture and the nature of its relationship to the "mainstream" culture of the Middle States of the Chou period are both matters of dispute.'

1 There is a very large body of scholarship on the whole question of Ch'u culture, and in this essay it will not be possible to provide detailed bibliographical information for every question or research strategy raised. A fairly complete bibliography of Ch'u studies before 1968 can be gleaned from the separate bibliographies of the articles in Noel Barnard, ed., Early Chinese Art and Its Possible Influence in the Pacific Basin (New York, 1972), vol. 1. Publications relating to Ch'u studies since the late 1960s have tended to center on the finds of the Ma-wang-tui tombs near Ch'ang-sha and have appeared in various issues of K'ao-ku and Wen-wu. For Ma-wang-tui tomb 1, see especially the articles in

? 1978 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0018-2710/78/1704-0002$1.51

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I shall summarize broadly the areas of concensus and disagree- ment that mark the present state of Ch'u studies and will focus on the problem of Ch'u religion as a field of study that is of consider- able interest in its own right and that might prove fruitful in approaching answers to some of the larger problems involved. Several hypotheses about Ch'u culture and religion will be stated and evidence for their probable validity and utility set forth; research strategies for further testing the hypotheses will be pro- posed. It is not my intention to try to answer many questions concerning the problem of Ch'u religion; it is rather to define some of the questions that might usefully be asked. I hope thereby to stimulate scholars who are interested in a broadly interdisciplinary approach to early Chinese religion to investigate more vigorously the important but somewhat neglected problem of the religious culture of Ch'u and its contributions to the development of Chinese culture generally.

The state of Ch'u was founded during the reign of Chou Ch'eng- wang at Tan-yang, in the far west of the later great state of Ch'u; the date would be around 1100 B.C. or somewhat later, depending on which early Chou chronology one accepts. The state gradually expanded eastward, moving its capital at intervals, until it finally encompassed most of the middle Yangtse region together with the Han and Huai Valleys, being bounded on the east by the states of Wu and Yiieh. The archaeological picture for early Ch'u is fragmentary, but from the sixth century B.C. the evidence be- comes copious. That evidence suggests a strong regional culture, existing within reasonably well-defined geographical boundaries, characterized by a distinctive art that includes the "Huai style" of decorative motifs on bronze artifacts and a heavy emphasis on objects of wood and lacquer. These facts are generally accepted by scholars who have investigated the Ch'u culture, though the exact catalog of artistic motifs that can properly be termed "Ch'u" or, more broadly, "southern," is a matter of dispute. One can point also to a scholarly concensus on the following:

K'ao-ku, no. 1 (1973), and Hunan Provincial Museum et al., Ch'ang-sha Ma-wang- tui i-hao Han-mo fa-chiieh chien-pao (Peking, 1972). Articles from K'ao-ku and Wen-wu relating to tombs 2 and 3 have been summarized by Jeffrey K. Riegel in Early China 1 (Fall 1975): 10-15. Some of the Han implications of the Ch'ang-sha finds will be discussed in Michael Loewe's forthcoming book, Roads to Paradise. It being understood that this entire body of scholarship forms the necessary foundation for Ch'u religious studies, footnotes hereafter will be limited to quota- tions or specific citations of individual works and references to works beyond the scope of those outlined here.

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Ch'u, during its Eastern Chou heyday, was a wealthy and power- ful state possessed of a rich material culture. The archaeological record makes this clear; works from the Warring States period refer to the "sharp weapons of Ch'u," 2 while the Shih chi describes the region as being amply supplied with domestic animals and rice.3 One may assume that the region's favorable physical en- vironment would have prevailed in periods far earlier than those of which the historical record gives us knowledge.

The Ch'u people were perceived by their northern neighbors as "barbarians," that is, ethnically and/or culturally distinctive. This characterization extends to the Ch'u self-image also; the Ch'u on occasion described themselves as Man Yi barbarians.4

The Ch'u people were regarded by their contemporaries as being remarkably religious and having a religion dominated by shamanism. The early portions of the Ch'u tz'u give ample testi- mony to Ch'u shamanism, while the geographical treatise of the Han Shu gives a clear record of contemporary opinion. The origins and characteristics of Ch'u shamanism are not clear, however; this problem will be addressed below.

There is some agreement that the Ch'u culture in part represents a survival and/or revival of Shang culture. Karlgren points out that the decorative motifs of Huai-style bronzes represent a revival of Shang concepts after a three-century hiatus marked by the Middle Chou style;5 Jao Tsung-yi has said that "the traditional ideas of the Ch'u people as recorded in the Ch'u Silk Manuscript show that they still followed the ways of Shang ... ,6 while Ho Ping-ti, citing Jao, affirms that "the Ch'u culture preserved some Shang lore and legends not found in Chou works."7 Clearly, no treatment of the problems of the material and religious culture of Ch'u can omit consideration of the relationship between Shang and Ch'u, and this too will be dealt with below.

The areas of agreement delineated above provide a solid founda- tion on which to build our knowledge of Ch'u culture. But as one

2 Shang-chun-shu 5 and Hsun-tzu 10, cited in Ho Ping-ti, The Cradle of the East (Hong Kong and Chicago, 1975), p. 204.

3 Shih chi 129, cited by K. C. Chang, "Major Aspects of Ch'u Archaeology," in Barnard, p. 30, and by William Watson, "Traditions of Material Culture in the Territory of Ch'u," ibid., p. 55. 4 Chang, p. 28.

5 Bernhard Karlgren, "Huai and Han," Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 13 (1941): 1-4.

6 Jao Tsung-yi, "Some Aspects of the Calendar, Astrology, and Religious Concepts of the Ch'u People as Revealed in the Ch'u Silk Manuscript," in Barnard, p. 122.

7 Ho, pp. 316-17.

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surveys the literature on Ch'u one also finds issues on which there might be agreement in general terms but specific areas of sharp disagreement, and other issues on which there is no agreement at all.

It is widely felt, for example, that the Ch'u people were not indigenous to the area that became the state of Ch'u. But from there, opinions diverge. K. C. Chang argues for a northwestern origin and says that "most historians are convinced" that such is the case, continuing, "The Ch'u rulers seem to have descended from an ancestor in common with the Chou."8 But he also cites Hu Hou-hsuan as arguing for a northeastern origin, and the evi- dence does not seem to me sufficiently clear to dismiss that possi- bility. Another author has been willing to state flatly that the Ch'u state was "un-Chinese" and "Hunnish."9 Others are more vague, describing the Ch'u people as simply "northern" in origin. In any case, one can hardly suppose that the Ch'u region was unpopulated at the time the Ch'u people arrived from elsewhere, so at best the issue is one of an alien ruling group arriving to domi- nate, but surely also partly to be assimilated and influenced by an indigenous local culture.

Similarly, it is widely understood that the Ch'u people, for as far back in history as we have evidence, were literate in Chinese and in general were thoroughly assimilated into the literate culture of Chou. But there is disagreement over whether or not the lan- guage of Ch'u was significantly different from that of the Middle States. Evidence from Mencius and the Tso chuan is used by Watson to aver that the differences were considerable, and by Chang to reach the opposite conclusion.10 Barnard has shown that extant Ch'u documents do not deviate significantly from standard Chou Chinese in grammar, vocabulary, or script and points out that the very considerable amount of interstate communication in the middle and late Chou would have been conducive to literary

8 Chang, p. 28. 9 Elfie Newman-Pepper, "On the Political Significance of an Archaic Ch'u

Motif" (paper delivered at the 25th Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society, Western Branch, Stanford, Calif., March 22-23, 1975; abstract published in Early China 1 [Fall 1975]: 28).

10 Watson, p. 55; Chang, p. 29. Mencius's description of the minor Ch'u philosopher Hsii Hsing as a "shrike-tongued barbarian of the south" also implies linguistic differences, though Mencius's main complaint against him, also significant for our purposes, is that his "doctrines are not those of the ancient kings" (Mencius 3.1.4.14 in The Chinese Classics, trans. James Legge, vol. 2, 2d ed., rev., The Works of Mencius [Oxford, 1895], p. 255). Cf. the "Madman of Ch'u" of Analects 18.5 and Chuang-tzu 4.8; the poet Li Po, in "A Lu Mountain Song for the Palace Censor Empty-Boat Lu," characterizes the Madman of Ch'u as a hsien Taoist (see Elling O. Eide, "On Li Po," in Perspectives on the T'ang, ed. Arthur F. Wright and Denis Twitchett [New Haven, Conn., 1973], pp. 380 ff.).

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standardization. On the other hand, he notes that by far the largest number of Chou-inscribed documents extant (excluding stereo- typed bronze inscriptions) are precisely from the Ch'u region, mak- ing the evidence hard to evaluate.11 The issue of Ch'u language thus remains unresolved.

It has already been noted that scholars have been unable to agree, in some instances, on what specific elements to include in the generally accepted Ch'u style in art.12

It is thus obvious that better answers to many specific questions concerning the Ch'u culture are sorely needed. Let us here restate the problem and see if better means of approaching it might be devised.

To begin: The Ch'u state was politically, socially, and culturally distinct from, but in close contact with, the Middle States of the Chou period. It was one of several foci of such differences (others being found, for example, in Shu in west-central China and in Ch'i in the northeast), but the degree of distinctiveness seems greater in the case of Ch'u. There is ambiguous evidence for a degree of ethnic difference from the main population of China, but the Ch'u state was quite Sinicized, with probably minor excep- tions, in terms of political organization, written language, and modes of warfare and diplomacy. If the Ch'u people came from elsewhere, it could not have been later than very early in the Chou period. One distinctive characteristic of Ch'u was a strong commitment to a shamanistic religion and to literary and artistic forms associated with that religion. Religion being a conservative force, one might argue that Ch'u religion was uniquely likely to survive the political, and to some extent sociointellectual, Sinici- zation of Ch'u. Can one identify a truly distinctive Ch'u religious culture? If so, how does it relate to other Chinese and East Asian religions of the period, and what can it tell us about the origins of the Ch'u people? What are its distinguishing characteristics, and how were they maintained against the advancing integration of Ch'u into a more broadly Chinese culture? What influence did it in turn have on the religion of the rest of China in the Chou and into the Han (when political unification gradually brought about the end of a distinctive Ch'u high culture)? To what extent did Ch'u religion survive into later periods in local popular cults in the region?

11 Noel Barnard, "The Ch'u Silk Manuscript and Other Archaeological Docu- ments of Ancient China," in Barnard, pp. 85-87.

12 See Chang, pp. 26 ff.; Watson, pp. 69-73.

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As an approach to the interrelated set of problems just stated, I will first propose a set of hypotheses and then go on to discuss each in turn.

1. The dominant inhabitants of Ch'u were not indigenous to the region but were a northern group ethnically distinct from the Shang Chinese and related to the inhabitants of the Mongolian steppe and northeast Asia, who, for reasons not clearly under- stood, migrated south around the end of the second millennium B.C.

2. The belief system of the early Ch'u people was a variant of the pan-Eurasian Grand Origin Myth, transmitted to them by the proto-Indo-European inhabitants of the south Siberian steppe and in turn transmitted by them to the Shang Chinese; the cosmologi- cal mythology of ancient China was essentially a Ch'u phenomenon and survived most strongly and coherently in Ch'u in the Chou period.

3. The religious tradition of Ch'u was indeed strongly charac- terized by shamanism and was directly related to the shamanistic cultures of north and northeast Asia.

4. The state of Ch'i also had, to perhaps a lesser extent, a shamanistic religious culture, with elements in common with that of Ch'u.

5. Taoism and the yin-yang/Five-Phase School of Naturalism were in large part derived from the Ch'i and Ch'u element of the religious-intellectual heritage of Shang and Chou.

6. A belief in immortality and in ecstatic spirit-journeys was both a characteristic and a consequence of the distinctive religious cosmology of Ch'i and Ch'u and its expression in shamanistic practices.

7. Burial practices in Ch'u differed significantly in form and intent from those of the Middle States. The purpose of burial in Ch'u was not so much to adhere to a semisecular cult of ancestor worship as to prepare the deceased for a spirit-journey to paradise.

8. The Ch'in-Han political unification of China resulted in the gradual destruction of a distinctive Ch'u culture, but also in the increased dissemination of Ch'u beliefs and practices throughout China.

9. Local cults reflecting Ch'u beliefs and practices survived in the Huai-Yangtse region at least into the T'ang period.

If these statements seem perhaps more extreme than the present state of our knowledge warrants, it is to be emphasized that they are hypotheses and not firm conclusions; they are intended to

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suggest promising areas for future research, and thus their dis- proof would advance the cause of the study of Ch'u religion almost as much as would their verification.

The first hypothesis states an opinion which, as has been men- tioned, is already fairly widely held and which thus should present no great difficulties of acceptance. Verification is difficult, however, since most present evidence depends on inference from literary sources. To this extent, hypotheses 1 and 2 form a closed feedback loop; acceptance of the second implies the truth of the first, but both might be false. One approach that to my knowledge has not yet been applied in this case might prove useful, therefore, in providing a different sort of evidence-the use of detailed compari- sons of dental morphology. This approach has already been at- tempted for comparisons of ancient peoples of China and Japan, though the attempt was marked by methodological difficulties.13 In the case in question here, dental morphological comparisons of southern Siberian and Mongolian tomb remains of an appropriate period with remains from Ch'u, with remains from elsewhere in China also examined as a control, might show a greater degree of ethnic similarity between the two test groups than between either test group and the control group. The method alone would probably not be sufficient to constitute proof or disproof but would add further evidence for consideration.

The second hypothesis, as stated, is bound up with the first and so far constitutes the best evidence for its plausibility. I have demonstrated elsewhere that the principal themes of ancient Chinese mythology as recovered from Chou and Han sources fall solidly within the pan-Eurasian Grand Origin Myth tradition, as defined by de Santillana and von Dechend.14 While the mythic themes in question-Kung Kung and the tilting of the world- pillar, the expulsion of the San Miao, the great flood and its taming by Yii the Great-are found in a wide range of Chou sources, they figure most prominently in works of southern (i.e., Ch'u) origin. These include especially the Shan-hai ching, the Ch'u tz'u (most importantly "Li sao" and "T'ien wen"), and the Huai- nan-tzu. In my earlier work I expressed puzzlement concerning the transmission of the Grand Origin Myth to China, and one

13 Christy G. Turner II, "Dental Evidence on the Origins of the Ainu and Japanese," Science 193 (September 3, 1976): 911-13. Turner's study is marred by a lack of adequate control-group studies and insufficient attention to associated cultural evidence.

14 John S. Major, "Myth, Cosmology, and the Origins of Chinese Science," Journal of Chinese Philosophy (forthcoming); see Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill (Boston, 1969).

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might well ask how this body of myth, pan-Eurasian in distribu- tion, made its way to China and other parts of East Asia, and why its most prominent manifestations and longest survival in China should be in Ch'u, an area remote from trans-Asian diffusion routes.

Ho Ping-ti has cited Jao Tsung-yi's opinion to the effect that "the Ch'u state, which had been on good terms with the Shang kingdom and was originally located in North China, was forced to migrate to the south some time after the Chou conquest of Shang.... Because of the northern origin of the Ch'u ruling class and the prolonged semi-isolation of the Ch'u state in the south, the Ch'u culture preserved some Shang lore and legends not found in Chou works."15 Hayashi Minao refers to "the preservation and the development of Shang culture which had entered the Ch'u territory," citing as evidence the survival in Ch'u of Shang official titles, bronze decor, and bronze bell types. He continues, "The myths and legends of ancient times that appear in the 'T'ien wen' section of the Ch'u tz'u may also be considered to have been brought into the Ch'u area some time following the Ch'ii- chia-ling cultural incursion [ca. 2800-2200 B.C.] and prior to Middle Western Chou times-they were not imported from the northern states in Middle Ch'un-ch'iu times as is usually sup- posed." 16

My second hypothesis, if confirmed, would allow one to account for all of the major questions involved. Ho, Jao, and Hayashi all imply that the proto-Ch'u people were a recipient of Shang culture, and in some areas that doubtless was the case. But with regard to belief systems, the opposite seems more plausible. I propose that the Grand Origin Myth was transmitted to the progenitors of the Ch'u people before or during the second millennium B.C., while they were still in the north, through the vector of the steppe civilizations of southern Siberia, and in turn transmitted by the Ch'u ancestors to Shang, undergoing modifications of detail in the process because of Shang influence. Trans-Asian contacts were a distinguishing characteristic of the steppe civilizations; food- production techniques were introduced into the steppe by proto- Indo-European peoples at the end of the third millennium B.C. and rapidly spread as far east as the Yenisei Valley, encountering there the Andronovo culture of the Altai region, which was an

15 Ho, pp. 316-17. 16 Hayashi Minao, "The Twelve Gods of the Chan-Kuo Period Silk Manuscript Excavated at Ch'ang-sha," in Barnard, pp. 177-79.

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important metallurgical hearth culture in contact with steppe and

forest-steppe peoples in an area stretching east as far as Man- churia during the second millennium B.C.17

The case for material contact between the proto-Chinese and the proto-Indo-Europeans of the Kurgan culture has been made

by Pulleyblank, citing two examples in particular: the sudden introduction into Shang China of chariot warfare and a strong possibility of a significant number of shared word roots between the most ancient levels of Chinese and Indo-European.18 As a further example, one may note that if, as is usually assumed, pigs were first domesticated in China,19 then the presence of swine as an important domesticate of the Kurgan culture implies Chinese influence there. If these examples are valid, it is reasonable to

suppose that cosmological myths (which would, of course, have been part of an oral tradition of transmission) could have entered China via the steppe. Assuming that the ancestors of the Ch'u people, because of their original location, were the primary proto- Chinese recipients of what basically was an Indo-European cos-

mological myth, their contact with the Shang accounts for the dissemination of the myth and its attendant cosmology throughout the Chinese culture area and at the same time for the fact that the cultural commitment to the myth and its cosmology, and to

religious forms giving honor to them, remained strongest among the Ch'u people even after their southern migration.

Several research strategies are suggested to test this hypothesis with evidence that goes beyond internal circularity. The first is greater attention to the question of the regional provenance of Chou texts. Can the songs of the Shih ching be assigned to one or another region of China? (It is already well known that some of the

songs are Shang, and others Chou, dynastic songs incorporating myths and legends from those regions.) Is the Shan-hai ching, as I believe, basically a southern work? How old is the "T'ien wen"? Some attention has already been paid to these problems, of course, but not specifically to the end required for the problem before us. Second, a more complete compendium of early Chinese mythic themes is needed, drawing the myths from all available sources

17 Chester S. Chard, Northeast Asia in Prehistory (Madison, Wis., 1974), pp. 145-49; Ho, pp. 216, 352-54.

18 E. G. Pulleyblank, "Prehistoric East-West Contacts across Eurasia," Pacific Affairs 47, no. 4 (Winter 1974-75): 500-508.

19 One should note, however, that Ho, 106-7, postulates that swine domestica- tion took place independently at several widely scattered places in the ancient world; this is consistent with his strongly antidiffusionist approach.

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and comparing them systematically. Here the availability of the computer will allow us to go beyond what could have been done before. Third, the knotty issue of the Huai-style bronzes needs to be reopened in this context. Huai-style bronzes flourished from ca. 650 B.C. into the Han and revived many decorative motifs from Yin and Yin-Chou styles (to use Karlgren's typology) that had become extinct by 950 B.C.; they also show some influences from the Ordos style. They have been found widely in ancient China, but the majority come from Ch'u. Bronze objects in Ch'u consisted mainly of Shang and Western Chou imports until the rise of an independent bronze-working capability in Ch'u around the eighth century B.C. The following explanation is consistent with those facts: The Ch'u culture arose in the north (this accounts for the Ordos elements in the Huai style)20 and shared many traits with Shang; it represents a continuity of Shang culture in South China after the Chou conquest (this requires rejection of Chang's hy- pothesis that the Ch'u and Chou peoples shared a common an- cestry); thus when Ch'u gained an independent bronze-making capability, the decorative motifs they employed represented a rejection of the motifs on the bronzes of Western Chou provenance that they had previously imported and a revival of Shang ideas that had disappeared three centuries earlier in the Middle States- perhaps these had been preserved meanwhile in Ch'u in other media. But then how does one account for Karlgren's objection that while Huai-style decor represents a Shang revival the shapes associated with the Yin and Yin-Chou styles were not revived- Huai-style decor being invariably found on shapes typical of the Middle Chou style?21 Also there is the problem that the Huai style is mainly, but by no means exclusively, a Ch'u phenomenon. It is not certain that renewed attention to the problems of the Huai style will shed additional light on the relationship between Shang and Ch'u but the possibility exists, and scholars interested in that relationship in the fields of cosmology and religion would welcome evidence from this other field of inquiry. Fourth, a com- puter catalog of Ch'u iconography, drawing on bronzes of Ch'u provenance as well as lacquerware, wood carvings, paintings and murals, figured woven fabrics, etc., would be a major asset to future research on Ch'u religion.

20 On this issue, see William Samolin, "Western Elements in the Art of Ch'u," in Barnard, pp. 187-98.

21 Karlgren, p. 3.

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Regarding the third hypothesis, there is no dispute that the religion of Ch'u was shamanistic, this being amply attested by contemporary accounts and by modern studies alike. Waley and Hawkes have studied the shamanism of the Ch'u tz'u, while Hayashi has examined the Ch'u Silk Manuscript from that point of view, concluding that the peripheral figures of the manuscript have little relationship to the various tribes of fabulous beings mentioned in the Shan-hai ching, the Huai-nan-tzu, etc., but are clearly related to the divine shamans named in the same sources.22 What is less clear is the exact nature of Ch'u shamanism and its relationship to other shamanistic cultures, particularly those of northern Asia.23 The most persuasive evidence for such a connec- tion is derived from the antler-bearing, long-tongued wooden cult images, demonic in form and presumably apotropaic in intent, that have been found in Ch'u tombs and the antler headdresses associ- ated with shamanism in the Siberian steppe (for example, the horse headdresses found in the first and second Pazyryk kurgans and a human-headed, antlered composite figure depicted in the fifth kurgan, all from ca. the fifth century B.C.).24 A further extension of the antler motif might be sought in the gold crowns of the royal burials of early Silla in Korea. However, here one must proceed with caution, the later date of the Korean finds making later diffusion of the motif to that area, perhaps from the Ch'u region itself, a distinct possibility.25 The implications of the antler- and-tongue motif need not be recounted in detail here, as the problem was thoroughly explored by Salmony (though his con- clusion that the motif originated in India is now rejected by most scholars). One detail, not noted by Salmony, may be mentioned to illustrate the need for a more integrated approach. An i pouring vessel of Ch'u provenance, now in the Seattle Museum of Art, depicts a scene of dancers, some of whom wear antlers and some of whom are shown with hair unbound and standing on end.26 Hayashi notes that such unbound, erect hair is a distinguishing

22 Arthur Waley, Chiu Ko-the Nine Songs. A Study of Shamanism in Ancient China (London, 1955); David Hawkes, Ch'u Tz'u. The Songs of the South (London, 1959; Boston, 1962); Hayashi; see also Hayashi's more complete treatment of this subject, "Chugoku kodai no shinpu," Tohogakuho 38 (1967): 199-224.

23 Joseph Thiel, "Schamanismus im alten China," Sinologica 10 (1968): 149- 204.

24 Chard, pp. 154-56; Alfred Salmony, Antler and Tongue, Artibus Asiae, suppl. 13 (Ascona, Switzerland, 1954), pp. 19-23; Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, trans. W. D. Trask, Bollingen Series, no. 76 (Princeton, N.J., 1964), p. 155.

25 Salmony, pp. 27-28. 26 Ibid., pp. 14-15 and plates IX and X.

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feature of Ch'u deities.27 Presumably, then, the figures shown are understood to be in a state of religious transport. From this

example-many others could be cited-it is clear that perhaps the greatest priority in the study of Ch'u religion is an exact and

thorough catalog of traits associated with Ch'u shamanism, drawn from both literary and archaeological materials, and a comparison of those traits with the better-known traits of Siberian shamanism. Can a more solid connection than is now evident be made between the antler motifs of Ch'u and the Siberian cults? What is the sig- nificance of the snakes that figure so prominently in Ch'u art and in the regalia of shamans as described in the Shan-hai ching? What is one to make of the hints of a bear cult that appear in the Chinese cosmological myths-for example, that Yii the Great was able to transform himself into a bear, and that the totem-name of the Ch'u ruling clan was hsiung, "bear"? Does the myth of Yi the Archer, the fu-sang tree, and the ten sun-crows (cf. the silk banner from Ma-wang-tui tomb 1) really reflect a sun-crow myth current throughout northeast Asia and the Pacific Northwest of North America? 28 Did the Ch'u shamans employ Amanita muscaria as a hallucinogen to induce their spirit-journeys? This would imply a Siberian hearth for the use of that drug, with separate routes of diffusion to India and to the Ch'u people while they were still in the north.29 These and other similar questions await detailed study before the nature and significance of Ch'u religion can be said to be understood.

The fourth hypothesis holds that the coastal area of North China, that is, the state of Ch'i (and to a lesser extent the state of Yen), also had a shamanistic religious culture which was related to that of Ch'u. (It should be noted that in most other respects Ch'i was closer than Ch'u to the cultural traditions of the Middle States; this is probably explained by Ch'i's geographical and kinship proximity to Chou.) The problem to be investigated here can be stated simply. It is well known that Ch'i (and Yen) was a center of activity of the "magicians" known as fang-shih; the Chi-hsia Academy of Ch'i was a focus of fang-shih learning and later became a center of Huang-Lao Taoism.30 What exactly the

27 Hayashi in Barnard, p. 146. 28 Eduard Erkes, "Chinesisch-amerikanische Mythenparallelen," T'oung Pao 24

(1926): 32-54. 29 Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China (Cambridge, 1974), 5,

pt. 2: 116-25. 30 Ying-shih Yii, "Life and Ilnmortality in the Mind of Han China," Harvard

Journal of Asiatic Studies 25 (1964-65): 88-96.

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fang-shih did is less clear, though a classic study of the problem exists,31 and it is understood that their practices involved shaman- ism in addition to alchemy, geomancy, and "black magic" (wu-ku).32 It would be tempting to suppose that, the Ch'u people having their origin in the north, the cultures of Ch'i and Ch'u had a common origin, but there is no clear evidence to support that supposition and there exists one bit of evidence, though a slender one, to contradict it: the evidence from Mencius for the linguistic distinctiveness of Ch'u, mentioned above, says specifically that the language of Ch'u differed from that of Ch'i.33 What is needed, then, is a catalog of Ch'i fang-shih practices to be compared with the catalog of Ch'u shamanistic traits that has already been seen to be essential-no small undertaking.

The fifth hypothesis suggests one area in which such a compari- son might be undertaken, however. This is the possibility that Taoism is mainly associated with the religious tradition(s) of Ch'u and Ch'i.34 Chuang-tzu was a native of Ch'u, and the "spirit of the South" in his work has been widely remarked, though such a subjective statement does not mean much. More positive evidence for a strong interest in Taoism in the Ch'u culture is seen in the inclusion of two separate texts of Lao-tzu in the funerary offerings in Ma-wang-tui tomb 3. On the other hand, as was just noted, the Chi-hsia Academy of Ch'i was an important center of Huang-Lao Taoism. So again, a much broader question of ancient Chinese religion enters our problem: is there a regional aspect to Taoism, and what is the relationship of classical philosophical Taoism of the Lao-Chuang variety and the more magical and religiously oriented Taoism of Huang-Lao? A long-sought textual connection may have been found in the possibility that four untitled essays found on the same scroll as one of the Ma-wang-tui Lao-tzu texts might be the lost book Huang-ti ssu-ching.35 This would provide a link between classical Taoism and Huang-Lao and also estab- lish Ch'u alongside Ch'i as a place where there was at least sub-

31 Ku Chieh-kang, Ch'in-Han-ti fang-shih yi ju-sheng (Shanghai, 1955; originally published in 1934 under the title Han-tai hsueh-shu shih-lueh).

32 On fang-shih, shamanism, and "black magic," see Michael Loewe, "The Case of Witchcraft in 91 B.c. Its Historical Setting and Effect on Han Dynastic History," Asia Major 15, pt. 2 (1970): 159-96.

33 Cited by Chang, p. 29. 34 Ellen Marie Chen of St. John's University has studied several aspects of this

question. See also Yen Keng-wang, "Chan-kuo hsueh-shu ti-li yii jen-ts'ai fen- pu," Hsin- Ya shu-yian hsueh-shu nien-k'an [New Asia College academic annual], 18:1-27, esp. map 5, p. 27, showing connections between the Taoism and Natural- ism of Yen, Ch'i, and Ch'u.

35 T'ang Lan, "Huang-ti ssu-ching ch'u-t'an," Wen-wu, no. 10 (1974), pp. 48-52. 238

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stantial interest in Huang-Lao Taoism. Further, interest in yin-yang/Five Phases cosmology seems to have been strongest in those two states. Tsou Yen, a particularly important proponent of that form of Naturalism, was a native of Ch'i, while his theories figure importantly in late works in the Ch'u tradition, most notably the Huai-nan-tzu. Again Ma-wang-tui provides evidence, with two previously unknown treatises on yin-yang/Five Phases cosmology included among the texts in tomb 3. What must still be done is to see if a Ch'u-Ch'i regional bias can be seen in the distri- bution of authorship and/or archaeological provenance for texts in that tradition and to study more carefully the connections between shamanistic belief and practice, fang-shih magic, and yin-yang/Five Phases cosmology.

Hypothesis 6 in turn provides an approach to the last-stated problem. In his study of the Han cult of immortality, Ying-shih Yii mentions several instances of rulers of states during the Chou seeking the drug of "no-death"; the instances he cites involve the rulers of Ch'u, Ch'i, and Yen.36 Fang-shih from Ch'i and Yen flocked to the court of Ch'in Shih-huang-ti, and later to the court of Han Wu-ti, to cater to those monarchs' interest in deathlessness. Yii draws a distinction between a search for longevity or purely physical immortality on the one hand and transcendent immortality of the spirit on the other.37 The latter is linked with the spirit- journeys so vividly portrayed in the "Li Sao" and other poems of the Ch'u tz'u, with winged immortals and gods such as those de- picted, inter alia, on the silk banner draped over the coffin in Ma-wang-tui tomb 1, and with the cult of hsien immortality that has its roots in the Chuang-tzu and which reached a sort of peak in the Han story of Liu An, Prince of Huai-nan, ascending to heaven as an immortal accompanied by all of his family and goods. Again the problem here is one of searching for the relevant con- nections, or of showing that they cannot be found and that the hypothesis is false.

The possibility that the cult of hsien immortality has its origins in Ch'u (and perhaps in a related set of beliefs current in Ch'i) will be enhanced if the seventh hypothesis can be shown to be true. This states that burial practices were significantly different, not only in form (which by now is clear) but also in intent, in Ch'u as against the Middle States. Hulsewe first stated the theory that the text of the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan found in a Wei tomb of circa

36 Yii, p. 90. 37 Ibid., pp. 88-89.

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300 B.C. excavated in A.D. 279 during the Chin period (the same tomb in which the Bamboo Annals was found) had been included as a guidebook to enable the soul of the deceased to find its way to paradise and suggested that the Ch'u Silk Manuscript may have served a similar purpose.38 Barnard dismissed that theory, holding instead that the Ch'u Silk Manuscript was an accidental inclusion in the tomb in which it was found, even perhaps a bit of rubbish inserted between two beams.39 The Ma-wang-tui tombs tend to support Hulsewe in this regard. At least some of the texts from Ma-wang-tui tomb 3 might have served the purpose of guiding the soul of the dead to paradise. More significantly, the extreme care taken in the construction of those tombs, exemplified by the successful preservation of the corpse of the Lady of Tai, argues that they were built with an eye toward ensuring the immortality of those entombed. The silk banner from tomb 1 is unquestionably a cosmological diagram, with the Lady of Tai depicted between Heaven and Earth, beneath an opening which is to be interpreted as the Ch'ang-ho Gate of the K'un-lun Mountains, the gods' gate- way to Heaven. The ancestor cult of the Middle States was some- what secular, designed to placate the spirits of the ancestors and secure their blessings on those left behind. In contrast, the evi- dence of Ch'u burials seems to point to a cult of hsien immortality.

The political unification of China under Ch'in and Han, con- solidated in 122 B.C. with the full absorbtion into Han of the semi- independent principality of Huai-nan in the former region of Ch'u, obviously spelled the end of independent high cultures in the various regions of China (though local variations persisted), but at the same time it provided a greater opportunity for such cultures to influence the emerging, more homogeneous culture of Han. The early Western Han period was a time of unusual activity and change in Chinese philosophy and religion, and hypothesis 8 suggests that some of that activity and change resulted from the influence of Ch'u (and Ch'i) regional cultures as they were absorbed into the Han mainstream. Literary sources for the Han are fairly rich, and the historical record is clearly set forth in the Shih chi and Han shu, from which a more detailed picture of religious belief and practice can be drawn for the Han than for the Warring States period. Our eighth hypothesis affords an opportunity for research that is potentially mutually reinforcing with respect to

38 A. F. P. Hulsew6, "Texts in Tombs," Asiatische Studien/Etudes asiatiques 18-19 (1965): 78-89.

39 Barnard, pp. 82-83.

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the several hypotheses just discussed. That is, if distinctive Ch'u and Ch'i-Yen traditions can be defined for the Warring States period, the more detailed Han information on beliefs and practices can help to fill the gaps in our understanding of those traditions, while an awareness of a Han belief system arising from disparate sources can add to our understanding of Han syncretism. Several foci of research in this general field are suggested. The first concerns the notable increase during the Han, and especially during the reign of Wu-ti, of interest in the cult of Hsi Wang-mu, the Queen Mother of the West.40 The cult was a part of Huang-Lao Taoism, which we have seen to have had important roots in Ch'i and per- haps in Ch'u. Hsi Wang-mu certainly was a significant cult figure in Ch'u, as can be seen from her prominence in the Shan-hai ching, from her position enthroned between the sun and moon at the apex of the silk banner from Ma-wang-tui tomb 1, and from the elaborate description of her realm, the K'un-lun Mountains, in Huai-nan-tzu chapter 4. National interest in her cult, as exemplified by official devotions instituted under Wu-ti, thus probably repre- sents another instance of the influence of the fang-shih of Ch'i and an extension of Ch'u beliefs to the Middle States. Similarly, Naturalist works attributable to the Ch'u-Ch'i philosophical nexus (Shan-hai ching, Ch'u tz'u, Huai-nan-tzu, the writings of Tsou Yen) show an unusual interest in the numerology of three and nine, especially as seen in figures which can be represented as a 3 x 3 grid -the Lo Writing and the River Chart, the nine provinces of Yii and the nine continents of Tsou Yen, the magic square of three, etc. These in turn are connected to Five Phases cosmology and are all cosmological in import, being in the final analysis mandalas depicting the polar axis-equatorial plane cosmology of the Grand Origin Myth.41 These figures also gain prominence during the Han, as can be seen in the sudden proliferation of TLV mirrors during the Former Han, the construction by Wu-ti of a ming-t'ang (a "cosmological hall" based on the magic square of three), and the institution of sacrifices to the Five Sovereigns (wu ti) as part of the state religion.42 The same influence can be seen in the incor- poration into Confucianism of Five Phase cosmology by Wu-ti's

40 Michael Loewe, "Kuang Heng and the Reform of Religious Practices (31 B.C.)," Asia Major 17, pt. 1 (1971): 1-27.

41 John S. Major, "The Five Phases, Magic Squares, and Schematic Cosmog- raphy" (paper delivered at the Harvard Workshop on Classical Chinese Thought, Cambridge, Mass., August 1976); see the abstract of this paper in H. Rosemont, Jr., and B. Schwartz, eds., Proceedings of the Harvard Workshop on Early Chinese Thought (Cambridge, Mass., forthcoming).

42 Loewe, "Kuang Heng and the Reform of Religious Practices," pp. 7-12, 22. 241

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court philosopher Tung Chung-shu. Another aspect of the problem is Wu-ti's performance of the feng and shan sacrifices on T'ai-shan, and the fact that the sacrifices were arranged by fang-shih rather than by the Confucian Masters of Rites.43 An integrated approach to the related questions of Ch'u and Ch'i religion, fang-shih magic and shamanism, the nature of the feng and shan sacrifices, the cults of Hsi Wang-mu and the Yellow Emperor, and the nature of Huang-Lao Taoism would provide a firmer basis in Han religion from which to evaluate what is known of the earlier religious cultures of Ch'u and Ch'i.44

Concerning the final hypothesis, the survival of Ch'u religious ideas in popular cults in South China, little need be said except that the subject is an enormous one that cries out for further work. The related cults of dragons, river brides, and rain maidens have been studied extensively by Schafer.45 Here too one has the possibility of mutually reinforcing studies. If the early religion of Ch'u can be better understood, the significance of cults such as those studied by Schafer can be evaluated more clearly; on the other hand, there is the opportunity to draw inferences (carefully, to be sure) from the later cults to enlighten our understanding of earlier Ch'u religion, once a sufficiently sturdy framework of fact is constructed on which the inferences can be arrayed.

Satisfactory answers to the questions raised in this essay, and to others which may arise in the minds of its readers, will depend on the combined efforts of historians of religion, intellectual histori- ans, physical and cultural anthropologists working with archaeo- logical materials, art historians, and perhaps even cliometricians; no single disciplinary approach will be adequate. Collaborative research would seem to be called for in some instances, but at a minimum scholars in any given field must pay greater heed to the results of those in others. A great deal of research has already gone into Ch'u studies, but so far that research has produced far more questions than answers, as I hope this essay has made plain. It is my hope that more colleagues will wish to take up the challenge that this situation poses to all of us interested in the religions of ancient China. The task will not be an easy one. Conceptual problems abound; the evidence, while in some cases copious or even overwhelming, is often incoherent and not comprehensive, difficult to evaluate and apply, and open to challenges on various

43 Ibid., p. 22. 44 Yii, p. 103, discusses some of the possible connections. 45 Edward Shafer, The Divine Woman (Berkeley, 1973).

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grounds; for the moment some conclusions will have to be based on informed speculation. Many hands, and many minds trained in different disciplines, will be needed even to begin the task. But I believe that the rewards will be commensurate with the difficulty of the task, for even the relatively simple task of trying to define the relevant questions and suggest research priorities for approach- ing them has convinced me that in the ancient culture of Ch'u a

great and rich religious tradition awaits our recognition, recon- struction, and understanding.46

Dartmouth College

46 I wish to thank Dr. Barry Blakeley of Seton Hall University for reading this article in draft and for making a number of helpful criticisms and suggestions. In a series of articles to be published in the Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, Blakeley sheds additional light on the question of how closely the political organization of Ch'u resembled that of the Northern States.

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