CC BY
1УДК 299.51
Zelnitskiy A.D.
Senior Lecturer of Department for Theory and Methods of Training in Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Faculty of Asian and African Studies St. Petersburg State University (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
THE FIGURE OF THE DEITY ZHONGKUI AND THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT OF THE TANG DYNASTY
Abstract: the study of the figures of popular deities is an important task in the study of Chinese religious traditions. The article discusses the origin of one of the most popular heroes belonging to the group of defenders against the harmful influence of spirits. When examining the figure of Zhongkui, his connection with the Taoist tradition is noted, as well as the attention that was paid to him at the imperial court. There has also been an increase in its popularity already in the second half of the epoch of Tang. The question of the deity's genealogy still remains completely unclear, but the most likely assumption is that he is connected with one of the local Taoist traditions, in the canonical work of which he was first mentioned.
Keywords: religions of China, imperial power, Daoism.
Zhongkui is one of the most popular deities of so-called "folk religious" complex. It is well known that he always gets the greatest attention during the New Year (chunjie #Щ) celebration period, as well as during the fifth month, especially on the "Double Five" (duanwu iffi^) holiday. These periods are considered the most dangerous and people look for special protection and patronage from spirits and deities, whose functions include protection from the evil entities, which are believed to be the most active during this particular time of the year.
However, the origin of this character remains rather mysterious. It worth mentioning that in the late imperial period there was a version supposing that the figure of this spirit took its origin from the hammer, which was used in ancient times by the kingdom of Qi ^ (1040-221 BC) citizens during the evil spirits exorcism processions, as well as from the name of the top of the ritual jade tablet1. This version, with some reservations regarding the difference in writing of the deity's name and the subject used in the rituals of the Zhou ^ era (1045-221 BC), was also accepted by de Groot (18541921). Following the author of the "Records of Daily Study", he points out the fact that starting from the Chunqiu era (771-481 BC) there was recorded a number of names that were written in the same way as the name of the mentioned above ritual object. Later the first characters of these names were replaced with the one that became the part of the deity's name. He also points out that the kui ® character includes the element "head" (show which he believed may indicate the connection between the name of the spirit and the ancient ritual object characteristic2. Later the French researcher Danielle Eliasberg, who studied the figure of Zhongkui in literature, criticized this version, she specifically emphasized the difficulty of accepting this version due to the historical and linguistic issues3. However, she mentions that in one of the remarkable texts of the Six Dynasties era there appears a character named Zhongkui, whose functions include the demons exorcism. This is the "Most High
1 This version is presented in the "Records of Daily Study" corpus (Rizhi lu 0 by the early Qing scholar Gu Yanwu
(1613-1682). He relies on the report of the canonical text Zhou Rituals (Zhou li ^ffi), particularly to the chapter "Records of Crafts" (Kaogong ji where there was a description of an object and the tip of this object is called
"zhong kui" (zhong kui shou . The commentary on this extract says that "zhong-kui is a hammer" and that the
people of the Qi kingdom called this way the hammer used in the great ritual named "no" (da nuo (See [1]. For more details [1, p. 148; 2, p. 267-268]).) However, we should mention that the writing of the word used to designate this object is completely different from the way the name of the deity was written. Gu Yanwu notices this fact but does not find it important.
2 However, we should mention that the "head" element was supposed to refer only to the top of the ritual tablet mentioned in Zhou li.
3 Her doubts are based on the fact that such a genealogy of the cult does not take into account the historical phonetics of the language, being based entirely on homophony of the characters included in both word combinations [3, p. 19-20].
Cavernous Abyss Divine Spells Scripture" (Taishang dong yuan shen zhou jing ^^ a "revelation text" formed within the tradition close to the Shangqing ^ f tradition [3, p. 22-23].4
However, it is important to mention that the image of Zhongkui that becomes typical in the later eras refers to the period of the Tang ^ dynasty (618-907). Moreover, the traditional Zhongkui legends talk about the very specific era, the Xuanzong ^^ reigning period (712-756)5. Perhaps, the only undated record is the extract of the "New Book of Tang" (Xin Tang shu by Ouyang Xiu ^ifi
(1007-1072), which describes a remarkable ritual performed on the last day of the year: on this day, the emperor gave some of the courtiers the calendars with the images of Zhongkui. However, the earliest existing letters of gratitude to the highest name, which refer to this court ritual, also date to the Emperor Xuanzong reigning period.6 Considering these circumstances, it is necessary to find out what could have appeared to be so-called "generating context" for the Zhongkui image using practice during the court ceremonies, as well as for the formation of his image, which later became so popular.
It is well known that the Xuanzong reigning period was marked by a major institutional reformation during the "Kaiyuan" period (713-742). The
reorganization of the state ritual system was an important part of the reformation.7
4 For a detailed analysis of the history and content of the text, see [4]. The author of this research calls the tradition, which this text was formed within, "the Religion of the Three Lodges", which refers to origins of the classification of the "Treasury of Dao" (Dao zang texts compiled by Lu Xiujing (406-477), and thus to the traditions of the Shangqing, Lingbao Mt and the Writ of the Three Sovereigns (San huang wen H^^) schools [4, p. 44-47]. For more on the history of Taoist literature of the Six Dynasties era, see, e.g. [5].
5 We are referring to the famous story "Mengxi conversation records" (Mengxi bitan WMWtfc) contained in Shen Kuo's
(1031-1095) compilation, which is the earliest record of the story of Zhongkui and Xuanzong. See about it: [1, p. 144-145; 2, p. 269-270].
6 Danielle Eliasberg names the poets Sun Ti MM (696-761) and Zhang Shuo ^^ (667-730) as the composers of the gratitude letters. She also emphasizes that Zhang Shuo was a minister at the court from 723 to 726. [3, p. 25].
7 This reformation lasted over the entire "Kaiyuan" period and culminated in the construction of a temple dedicated to the ruling dynasty's ancestor - Laozi, who was given the title of the "Supremely Mysterious and Primordial Emperor"
During this period, a new register of rituals was compiled, it was called the "Rituals of [the years of] Kaiyuan" (Kaiyuan li IXll). All the official sacrifices were described once again and the most important deities were redefined [6, 7].
An important feature of that ritual reformation is that it was performed with the active participation of the Taoist clergy representatives due to the certain historical and political reasons.8 Moreover, the Shangqing school was the most influential school during the Tang period.9 The "Dong yuan shen zhou jing" text was also well known from the very beginning of the dynasty and was included in the Taoist book collections [4, p. 53].
Another important circumstance worth paying attention to is the issues on the borders of the empire. In the period of "Kaiyuan", the relations with the neighboring prairie states and Tibet became complicated, and a rather successful expansion in several directions was performed [6].
In addition, the very personality of Emperor Xuanzong is undoubtedly worth mentioning. Especially his adherence to Taoist study. It is well known that he was initiated into the rituals of the Shangqing school by its famous patriarch Sima Chengzhen (647-735), and that he wanted to establish a system of Taoist
education similar to Confucian one.10 We should also point out the important role of dreams in the emperor's life. The most famous one was a dream, alleged to have taken
(Taishang xuanyuan huangdi ^i^x^^). All the reformation initiatives of the "Kaiyuan" period and specifically the reformation of the ritual was caused by the need to correct the situation that had developed after the reign of Empress Wu Zetian ^MlK (624-705). Xuanzong's court, and perhaps him personally, wanted to return to the period of the Tang dynasty's beginning, to the Taizu period (the time when Tang administrative and ritual system began its formation). In fact, it was an issue of "renewing the mandate of the dynasty". The fact of organizing the fengshan ## sacrifice in 725 confirms this (See [6]).
8 Firstly, of course, due to the fact that the ancestor of the dynasty was believed to be Laozi.
9 It is well known that Xuanzong's mentor was the twelfth patriarch of the school, the famous Taoist thinker Sima Chengzhen. It is him who was credited with the idea (realized in 727) of reinterpreting the spirits of the Five Peaks, whose cult was reasserted in the Kaiyuan era, as Taoist deities. See on this [9, p. 35-37]
10 In 741, he established a network of Taoist schools with the general name of "chongxuan xue" where, among other things, texts of the ancient Taoist classics were studied, such as Daode jing ^^M, Zhuangzi Liezi Wenzi X^ [7].
place in 741, when the emperor was visited by the Supreme Sovereign Lao (Taishang Laojun ^^^Ш) and shown the location of a chest which contained a golden box of a few jade plates covered with cinnabar writings. This event inspired the emperor to order the construction of the Laozi Temple, and to change the motto of the reign to "Heaven Treasure" (Tian bao ^Ш) because the box had been named that way [8, 7].
All these circumstances of political, ideological and personal nature may have aroused the interest of the court representatives to the variety of deities mentioned in the Taoist texts, especially the ones associated with the exorcism of evil entities. However, there is still a question why it was Zhongkui who was chosen. It is possible that the fact that the spirit named Zhongkui appeared as the one who expels the spirits of disease in the "Dong yuan shen zhou jing" text played the crucial role [3, p. 39-41].
There are not any doubts that the court's interest, as well as the inclusion of the Zhongkui figure in the court new year ceremonial, caused the fast popularization of the deity, which soon spread around.11
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