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The Flying Vermilion Bird 139 139 CHAPTER V The Flying Vermilion Bird I n previous chapters, spirit-writing appeared progressively to be the keystone of De Jiao. Almost everything in this religious movement, from the few “canonical” texts it has so far produced to the architecture of shrines, are issued by mediums. Even those among the Malaysian associations which suspended the activity in the late 1970s still rely on texts and rituals “revealed” by the gods straddling the flying vermilion bird. The main reason that the informants invoked in order to justify their interest and “faith” in De Jiao is the close and personalized interaction with the gods that spirit-writing offers, a pattern that sharply contrasts with the faith in divine words proclaimed to hold for all eternity by universalistic religions and which are propagated through the production of sacred books. In some respects, the followers conceive of their transactions with the gods as performative (Austin, 1962), in the sense that the faith in the oracles’ truth compels those to whom the ji wen are intended to act accordingly. As a consequence, divine oracles often have a significant impact on the followers’ decisions and way of life, thus permitting the mediums to exert a significant influence on personal destinies as well as on the initiatives, projects, and overall development of the congregations where they officiate. In the following pages, the focus of attention will be upon those who assume this very important duty. How do they become mediums in the first place? What are their perspective and the viewpoint of the other followers about their vocation, training, and states of mind before, during, and after spirit-writing? What are their relationships with the association leaders who hold economic power and are therefore in a position to implement the gods’ instructions? I shall also report, and analyze with 140 De Jiao reference to the proceedings of previous conferences, the sixth World Moral Meeting of the Divine Pen that De Jiao organized in Kluang, Malaysia. This event, which assembled in 2004 more than 40 De Jiao and non-De Jiao teams of ji-wielders, constituted an excellent opportunity to observe the various methods and styles of fu ji practised today. It was also a suitable occasion to record a wide range of points of view about the experience of spirit-writing, as well as to verify the claim of De Jiao that it plays a federative role concerning this particular activity. Finally, I shall consider the attempt by a minority of Malaysian followers to make De Jiao a universalistic religion by anchoring it in a “divinely revealed” holy book, and to distance it simultaneously from fu ji, which in their opinion has been corrupted by “human affairs”. Such an effort is noteworthy because its rejection of spirit-writing is all the more relative, as the “bible” of the said adepts is an anthology of famous fu ji texts. But before dealing with these matters, the kind of communication that the ji-wielders establish with the “honourable masters” must be described in greater detail. What Kind of Possession is fu ji? The most comprehensive taxonomic study about possession so far published is undoubtedly Music and Trance by G. Rouget (1985). According to this author, a basic distinction should be established between ecstasy and trance. Whereas the former is defined as “the action of moving through space, displacement, deviation” and involves “disturbance, agitation , wandering as applied to the mind”, the latter signifies a different kind of interaction. It entails a convulsive stage and, in numerous cases, is linked to symbolic death through depersonalization, as though the visiting spirit had taken over the medium (1985: 7). G. Rouget suggests that ecstasy should apply to the states of immobility, silence, hallucination, and isolation, whereas states of trance apply “solely to those that are obtained by means of noise, agitation and in the presence of others”, without hallucination (1985: 8). Concerning the latter, he makes a distinction between what he calls the conscious or “reprobate” possession and the “cultivated” type of trance which is always followed by amnesia. The De Jiao fu ji is frequently consistent with the latter type. However — and Rouget is the first to admit that the features he describes with respect to trances are not necessarily always directly observable — it should be noted that most De Jiao séances do not involve the generation of noise, with mediums trembling, shuddering, dashing o...

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