Trial by Power: Some Preliminary Observatrions on the Judicial Roles of Taoist Martial Deities

Journal of Chinese Religions 36 (2008) 54 Trial by Power: Some Preliminary Observatrions on the Judicial Roles of Taoist Martial Deities PAUL R. KATZ Academia Sinica Institute of Modern History This paper explores an aspect of Taoist martial deities that previous scholarship has largely overlooked: their judicial roles in exorcistic and military rituals. These roles result from a wide range of factors, including: 1) The development of the Chinese underworld as a judicial bureaucracy featuring not only chthonic deities like the City God (Chenghuang shen 城隍神) and the Emperor of the Eastern Peak (Dongyue dadi 東嶽大帝), but also martial spirits responsible for assisting in judicial rituals; 2) The popularity of Taoist exorcistic liturgies during which priests assumed the status of judicial officials while deploying martial deities to capture and/or annihilate demonic forces; 3) The importance of military rituals (junli 軍禮) such as banner worship (jiqi 祭旗), which often featured Taoist martial deities and could be both judicial and exorcistic in nature. In some cases, Taoist martial gods functioned as law enforcement officers responsible for the capture of demons, but in others they were witnesses to judicial rituals and even potential judges of the guilt or innocence of worshippers. The data presented below is intended to help reorient our understandings of Taoist martial deities as being intimately involved in judicial rites. On a broader level, it also reveals the extensive use of legal procedures, language, and ideas in Chinese rituals. One prominent example of the judicial nature of Taoist martial gods involves the plaguefighting deity Marshal Wen (Wen Yuanshuai 溫元帥; Wen Qiong 溫瓊). Wen figured prominently in exorcistic rituals that sometimes resembled judicial proceedings, and was also worshipped during indictment rites (fanggao 放告; gao yinzhuang 告陰狀) held in Wenzhou 溫州 during the annual festival in his honor.1 Wen’s judicial features may also be seen in an This paper was originally presented at a 2008 AAS Annual Meeting panel entitled “Images of Rowdy Gods: Interpreting Daoist Martial Deities since the Song Dynasty.” I would like to thank my fellow panelists (Poul Andersen, Mark Meulenbeld, David Mozina, and Michael Puett) for their support and inspiration. Thanks also to Chiu Pengsheng 邱彭生, Vincent Goossaert, and Wu Jen-shu 巫仁恕 for their helpful comments. I am also grateful to Mark Csikszentmihalyi, Yong-yun Lee, and the Journal of Chinese Religions staff for their kind assistance, and the Journal’s two anonymous reviewers for their Trial by Power 55 account from Yuan Mei’s 袁枚 (1716-1797) Xu Zibuyu 續子不語, which describes a shop assistant who, while worshipping in a temple to Marshal Wen, screamed that he was being beaten and then confessed to having stolen money from his master. The Renhe 仁和 County magistrate who witnessed these events is reported to have said: “This is the law of the netherworld (mingfa 冥法), not official law (guanfa 官法). Wait until he calms down and then take him to the yamen.”2 Another relevant story in the Zibuyu 子不語 is about a young woman who fell ill just three months after marrying the son of a Hangzhou salt merchant, with symptoms including pains all over her body, moaning, and jumping up and down. When traditional medicine and Taoist fasts and offerings (zhaijiao 齋醮) proved ineffective, her desperate relatives filed a series of indictments at the City God temple. Marshal Wen was dispatched to capture and interrogate (qinxun 擒訊) the demons that had been tormenting the newlyweds, which turned out to be monkey and snake sprites.3 The use of the terms qin 擒 and xun 訊 is particularly significant, as it indicates that Wen functioned as both a martial and a judicial deity. Research on other prominent martial deities further indicates their judicial and exorcistic characteristics.4 For example, while Marshal Zhao (Zhao Yuanshuai 趙元帥; Zhao Gongming 趙公明) is best known as a money god,5 he could also be worshipped as an underworld and exorcistic deity. One story from the Erke pai’an jingqi 二刻拍案驚奇 describes a group of ruffians who went to Zhao’s temple and performed a blood covenant (xuemeng 血盟; shaxue weimeng 歃血為盟) in order to strengthen their fellowship.6 Other accounts about this deity, preserved in sources ranging in time period from the early medieval Soushen ji 搜神記 (Gan Bao 干寶 [fl. 317-350]) to the late Qing Chaxiangshi xuchao 茶香室續鈔 (Yu Yue 俞樾 [1821-1906]), portray Zhao as...