Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China

6. The Ideas of Illness, Healing, and Morality in Early Heavenly Master Daoism

173 Although many scholars of Daoism have noticed the close interaction between early Heavenly or Celestial Master Daoism (Tianshi dao 天師道) and popular religion in the Han period (206 bce–220 ce), it is important to identify the distinctive features of the former and examine how they impacted on the latter. Michel Strickmann recognizes the importance of this task in observing that “it is clear that [Heavenly Master] Taoism really amounted to a religious reformation in the China of late antiquity.”1 The early third-century Dianlüe 典略, quoted by the commentator Pei Songzhi 裴松之 (372–451) in the Sanguo zhi 三國志, provides the earliest extant historical evidence of the religious teaching of early Heavenly Master Daoism in connection with its ideas about good and evil and the link between morality and disease. In particular, the Dianlüe refers to the early Heavenly Master ritual of invoking heavenly officials and praying for the healing of illness: The ritual of invitation and prayer involved writing down the sick person’s name, along with a statement of confession of their sins. Three sets were made: one was sent up to heaven and was placed on a mountain; one was buried in the earth; and one was sunk in water. These were called “Personal Writs to the Three Officials [of Heaven, Earth, and Water]” (sanguan shoushu). 請禱之法, 書病人姓名, 說服罪之意, 作三通。其一上之天, 著山上, 其一 埋之地, 其一沉之水, 謂之三官手書。 2 6 The Ideas of Illness, Healing, and Morality in Early Heavenly Master Daoism Chi-Tim Lai Chi-Tim Lai 174 Ethical, religious, and ritual concerns cohere in the healing ritual of early Heavenly Master Daoism. Most scholars consider the healing ritual of sending “Personal Writs to the Three Officials” (also translated as “Handwritten Documents”) as practiced in the early Heavenly Master community to be a prototype of the later Daoist ritual of the presentation of petitions (shangzhang 上章). The submission of the Personal Writs was made first to the Official of Heaven by placing a set of confessions on a mountain, followed by burying a second set addressed to the Official of Earth, and submerging in water a third set addressed to the Official of Water. The confession records a sick person’s evil deeds and is presented to the Three Officials to seek pardon for the devotee’s sins and healing.3 Such personal confession was held by the early Heavenly Master community to be a significant way to disperse a person’s sins and eliminate subsequent judgment from the heavenly administration. Apart from the one historical record that is preserved in the Dianlüe, there are few references to the continuation of the healing practice of petitioning the Three Officials in the Heavenly Master scriptures of the Six Dynasties (220–584), and for this reason scholars have often mistakenly concluded that the Heavenly Master community no longer practiced it after the Eastern Jin period (317–420). Instead of the Personal Writs to the Three Officials, it is often suggested that the “Protocol of the Twelve Hundred Officials” (qian erbai guanyi 千二百 官儀) was later adopted as the primary ritual of presenting petitions in Heavenly Master Daoism.4 Consequently, little in-depth study of the distinctive theological system that underlies the Personal Writs to the Three Officials has been undertaken.5 Although scholars have long realized that early Heavenly Master Daoism emphasized the “confession of sins” (shouguo 首過) or “recollection of sins” (siguo 思 過), the underlying belief system of the Three Officials, which informs the rites of confession and petition to the heavenly deities, remains largely unexplored.6 Rather, in most cases, scholars quickly pass over the practice of confession to the Three Officials in early Heavenly Master Daoism and move on to examine the medieval Daoist notion of the Three Principles (sanyuan 三元) in the scriptures of Shangqing 上 清 and Lingbao 靈寶,7 the Retreats of the Three Principles (三元齋), the rites of Casting Dragons and Tablets (tou longjian yi 投龍簡儀),8 and the official Sanyuan festival (三元節) in the Tang period (618–907).9 I believe that revisiting the rite of confession to the Three Officials and its underlying belief system will help us better understand how early Heavenly Master Daoism developed its religious teaching, which was Illness, Healing, and Morality in Early Heavenly Master Daoism 175 characterized by a distinctive moral sense of sin (zui 罪) and a strong emphasis on the religious rite of repentance (chan 懺). In this chapter, I argue that the belief system of the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water (tiandeshui sanguan 天地水三官) forms the key link that integrates all the...