du guangting and the hagiographies of tang female daoists

Du Guangting and the Hagiographies of Tang Female Daoists　��

臺灣宗教研究　�0��.�第�0卷第�期　頁��-��

Du Guangting and the Hagiographies of Tang Female Daoists

Jinhua Jia

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Macau

Abstract

This article applies a synthetic approach of philological, religious, and gender studies to investigate Du Guangting’s purposes of compiling the Yongcheng jixian lu and to examine the extant eighteen hagiographical accounts of Tang female Daoists contained in this text. It demonstrates that, although the compilation of the text was initiated by political purpose and Du constructed the Queen Mother of the West as the ancestress of not only the female immortal genealogy but also the “holy genealogy” of the Wang clan, the ruling clan of the Former Shu state, he edited or wrote the hagiographies with his own serious religious motivations. While incorporating earlier biographical and hagiographical sources of Tang female Daoists, Du applied several approaches to modify or recreate their images. Therefore, the true value of these hagiographies does not rest in providing primary sources for studying the actual life and practice of medieval female Daoists, but rather in presenting Du’s reflection on their roles and places in Daoist tradition and society, and his architecture of the ideal role-model for Daoist priestesses, which synthesized Daoist self-perfection with Confucian values and Buddhist ethics, and which was actually followed by female Daoists after the Tang dynasty.

Keywords: Du Guangting, Yongcheng jixian lu, Wangshi shenxian zhuan, female Daoists of the Tang dynasty, architecture of ideal role-model

��　臺灣宗教研究

I. IntroductionThe Daoist master Du Guangting 杜光庭 (��0-��) compiled the

Yongcheng jixian lu 墉城集仙錄 (Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Walled City, hereafter cited as Jixian lu) during the early tenth century. Yongcheng, the Walled City, is the legendary kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwang mu 西王母), who is the most powerful goddess in the Daoist tradition and in charge of all goddesses and female immortals. The text is a hagiographical account of Daoist holy women, which originally contained �0 juan and �0� accounts of goddesses, female immortals, and female Daoists.� Although it does not pass on to us in complete shape, from its fragments preserved in the Ming-dynasty Daozang (Daoist Canon) and several Song-dynasty encyclopedias, the text can be reconstructed to a total of about �� accounts, of which about �� are hagiographies of Daoist priestesses or women engaged in Daoist practices in the Tang dynasty (��-�0�).�

Scholars have taken different views concerning the accounts of Tang female Daoists. Some scholars regard them as basically fictional writings like chuanqi 傳奇 (transmissions of strange stories) or xiaoshuo 小說 (fiction).� Others look at them as biographical sources for reconstructing actual lives

I should thank Professor James Hargett, Dr. Norman Rothschild, and the two anonymous readers for their comments and suggestions on draft versions of this article.� Du Guangting, “Preface” to Jixian lu, in Yunji qiqian雲笈七簽, comp. Zhang Junfang 張君房 (jinshi �00�-�00�), collated by Li Yongsheng 李永晟 (Beijing: Zhonghua, �00�), ��.��; and Quan Tangwen 全唐文, ed. Dong Gao 董誥 (��0-��) et al. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ��), ��.�a; Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (��0�-��), Tongzhi ershi lüe 通志二十略 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ��), ��. See Piet van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period: A Critical Study and Index (London: Ithaca Press, ��), ��.

� See Li Jianguo 李劍國, Tang Wudai zhiguai chuanqi xulu 唐五代志怪傳奇敘錄 (Tianjin: Nankai University Press, ��; hereafter cited as Xulu), �0��-��; Catherine Despeux,“Women in Daoism, ” in Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden: Brill, �000), ��; Luo Zhengming 羅爭鳴, Du Guangting Daojiao xiaoshuo yanjiu 杜光庭道教小說研究 (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, �00�), �0�-��; Suzanne Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood (Magdalena, NM: Three Pines Press, �00�), ��; and discussions in section two. Some of the accounts were modified more or less by later compilers.

� For example, Luo Zhengming treats this text as a “Daoist fiction”; see his Du Guangting Daojiao xiaoshuo yanjiu, �0�-��.


and practices of Tang female Daoists.� Here as usually, we encounter the biography-hagiography dilemma. In religious traditions of any time and culture, including Chinese religious traditions, the coexistence of biographical descriptions and hagiographical prescriptions is a universal phenomenon on accounts of religious figures. The composition ratio of the two kinds of elements in a hagiography differs from case to case. Some hagiographies can be winnowed out prescriptive layers to reveal their descriptive, factual cores, while others are more intended to become accounts of the idealized, exemplified lives of religious figures, if not without containing biographical elements.� A careful study reveals that, in Du Guangting’s hagiographies of Tang female Daoists, factors of prescription are overloaded and greatly surpass that of description. For example, Wang Fengxian, who is prescribed as a Daoist female saint in Du’s account, was a cold-blood killer according

� Although she notes that Du Guangting compiled the Jixian lu with his own purposes and the text “weaves miracles and wonders”, Suzanne Cahill regards it as “a primary source unequalled in its richness for investigating the social and religious history of medieval Chinese women,” and Du’s accounts “supply us with the most reliable data we are likely to find on a variety of women’s physical practices.” See her “Practice Makes Perfect: Paths to Transcendence for Women in Medieval China,” Taoist Resources �.� (��0): ��-��; “Discipline and Transformation: Body and Practice in the Lives of Daoist Holy Women of Tang China,” in Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan, ed. Dorothy Ko et al. (Berkeley: University of California Press, �00�), ��-��; Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood, ��-�0; Yang Li 楊莉 also uses these accounts to study the actual lives, practice, social and political relations and statuses of Tang female Daoists; see her “Daojiao nüxian zhuanji Yongcheng jixian lu yanjiu” 道教女仙傳記墉城集仙錄研究 (PhD diss, Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, �000), ��-��; “Cong bianyuan dao zhongxin: Tangdai huguo nüxian yu huangshi benzong qingjie” 從邊緣到中心: 唐代護國女仙與皇室本宗情結, in Daojiao yanjiu yu Zhongguo zongjiao wenhua 道教研究與中國宗教文化, ed. Lai Chi Tim (Hong Kong: Zhonghua, �00�), ��-��.

� See mainly Hippolyte Delehaye, The Legends of the Saints (New York: Fordham University Press, ��); Peter Brown, “The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity,” Representations �.� (��): �-��; Mu-chou Poo, “The Images of Immortals and Eminent Monks: Religious Mentality in Early Medieval China,” Numen �� (��): ��-��; John Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, ��), �-�; Robert F. Campany, To Live As Long As Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents (Berkeley: University of California Press, �00�), ��-��; Jinhua Chen, Philosopher, Practitioner, Politician: The Many Lives of Fazang (643-712) (Leiden: Brill, �00�), �-�.


to historical records.� Therefore, it seems to be risky to use such accounts to reconstruct Tang female Daoists’ life and religious practice as some scholars have done. On the other hand, however, these hagiographies may not be simply seen as fictions, as they still bear the historical value of presenting the images of what Du Guangting, as well as the Daoist tradition, thought female Daoists should be in the beginning of the Five Dynasties.

Du Guangting was one of the most important figures in the Tang Daoist tradition, but he was also appointed as a high official at the courts of the Tang and the state of Former Shu during the chaotic period of late Tang to early Five Dynasties. This twofold identity greatly influenced his reflection on the roles of women in Daoist tradition. Edward Schafer indicates that the Jixian lu is “hagiography assimilated to the literary short story.”� Russell Kirkland examines the Tang priestess Huang Lingwei’s account in the Jixian lu and compares it with epitaphic inscriptions.� Franciscus Verellen and Suzanne Cahill analyze some of Du’s motives in compiling this and other marvelous texts.� These studies are insightful and inspiring in both approaches and views. However, it remains largely an unfinished task of a comprehensive examination of the hagiographies of Tang female Daoists contained in this text for the purpose of differentiating factors of hagiography from biography and also through this differentiation exploring Du Guangting’s ideal model of Daoist priestess.

By collecting all available sources both within and outside of the Daoist canon, this article aims to apply a synthetic approach of philological, religious, and gender studies to investigate Du Guangting’s purposes of compiling the Yongcheng jixian lu and to examine the extant eighteen hagiographical accounts of Tang female Daoists contained in this text in great

� See section four for detailed study.� Schafer, “Tu Kuang-t’ing,” in The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese

Literature, ed. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. (Taipei: SMC Publishing, ��), ��.� Kirkland, “Huang Ling-wei: A Taoist Priestess in T’ang China,” Journal of Chinese

Religions �� (��): ��-��.� Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds., The Taoist Canon: A Historical

Companion to the Daozang (Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, �00�), ��; Suzanne Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood, ��.


detail. The result of this investigation will detect the substantive features of these accounts, determine whether they are reliable sources for the study of the historical life and practice of Tang female Daoists, and reveal the ideal role and image of female Daoists which Du Guangting intended to define, modify, and recreate.

II. Compilation of the Jixian lu: Date, Causes, and PurposesAfter being ignored for a long time, in recent decades Du Guangting

has become a focus of academic interests. His life, works, and thought have been investigated in depth. We have now a relatively clear picture of his great contributions to Daoist tradition and the cultural development of Tang and Five Dynasties,�0 among which is his compilation of the Jixian lu.

�0 Major works are as follows: Ishii Masako 石井昌子, “Shinkō to Yōjō shūsen loku” 真誥と墉城集仙錄, Tōyō gakujutsu kenkyū 東洋學術研究 �� (��): �-�; Yan Yiping 嚴一萍, Daojiao yanjiu ziliao 道教研究資料, vol. � (Taibei: Yiwen yinshuguan, ��); Edward Schafer, “Three Divine Women of South China,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews � (��): ��-��; idem, “Tu Kuang-t’ing,” ��-��; Sunayama Minoru 砂山稔, “To Kōtei no shisō ni tsuite” 杜光庭の思想につぃて, Shūkan Tōyōgaku 集刊東洋學 �� (��): ��-��; Franciscus Verellen, Du Guangting (850-933): taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine medieval (Paris: Collège du France, Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, ��); Social History in Taoist Perspective: Du Guangting (850~933) on Contemporary Society (Hong Kong: Wenxing tushu, �00�); Russell Kirkland, “Huang Ling-wei,” ��-��; Zhao Zongcheng 趙宗誠, “Du Guangting dui Daojiao jianshe de duofangmian gongxian” 杜光庭對道教建設的多方面貢獻, Zhongguo Daojiao shi 中國道教史, ed. Qing Xitai 卿希泰 (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin, ��), ��-��; Timothy Barrett, Taoism under the T’ang (London: Wellsweep Press, ��), ��-��; Livia Kohn, “Taoist Scholasticism: A Preliminary Inquiry,” in Scholasticism: Cross-Cultural and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Jose Ignacio Cabezon (Albany: State University of New York Press, ��), ��-�0; Wu Bizhen 吳碧貞, “Tangdai nüxian zhuanji zhi yanjiu: yi Yongcheng jixian lu weizhu de kaocha” 唐代女仙傳記之研究：以墉城集仙錄為主的考察 (M.A. thesis, Taibei: Guoli zhengzhi daxue, ��); Yang Li, “Yongcheng jixian lu yanjiu”; Zhou Xibo 周西波, Du Guangting Daojiao yifan zhi yanjiu 杜光庭道教儀範之研究 (Taibei: Xinwenfeng, �00�); Jin Duiyong 金兌勇, Du Guangting Daode zhenjing guangshengyi de Daojiao zhexue yanjiu 杜光庭道德真經廣聖義的道教哲學研究 (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, �00�); Sun Yiping 孫亦平, Du Guangting pingzhuan 杜光庭評傳 (Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, �00�); Luo Zhengming, Du Guangting Daojiao xiaoshuo yanjiu; Suzanne Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood.


Du started his career as a Confucian scholar and literatus, working hard to master the classics and develop literary skills. After he failed the imperial examination in the Confucian classics in the late Xiantong reign-period (��0-��), Du entered Mount Tiantai to learn from the Highest Clarity (Shangqing) master Ying Yijie 應夷節 (��0-��). Soon Du himself became a famous master of this tradition. Because of his Daoist reputation and literary talent, Du was favored by the rulers and was appointed to high posts first by the Tang Emperor Xizong (r. ��-��) and then by the two rulers of Former Shu, Wang Jian 王建 (��-��) and Wang Yan 王衍 (r. ��-��).��

At the end of his “Preface” to the Jixian lu, Du signed with his honorific title “Guangcheng xiansheng” 廣成先生 (Master of Comprehensive Completion). This title was bestowed upon him in �� by Wang Jian.�� According to this, some scholars infer that the text was compiled shortly after ��.�� This date may be revised by looking at another hagiographical text of Du, the Goushiling huizhen Wangshi shenxian zhuan 緱氏嶺會真王氏神仙傳 (Hagiographies of Immortals Gathered in the Wang Clan from Mount Goushi; hereafter cited as Wangshi shenxian zhuan).��

Mount Goushi locates thirty kilometers west of Mount Song 嵩山 in Goushi district 緱氏縣 (present-day Yanshi in Henan). In legend, Wangzi Jin 王子晉 or Prince Jin, the heir apparent to King Ling of the Zhou dynasty (r.

�� For Du’s life, see mainly Yan Yiping, “Xianzhuan shiyi xu” 仙傳拾遺序, in Daojiao yanjiu ziliao; Verellen, Du Guangting; Jia Jinhua 賈晉華 and Fu Xuancong 傅璇琮, Tang Wudai wenxue biannian shi: Wudai juan 唐五代文學編年史：五代卷 (Shenyang: Liaohai chubanshe, ��), �0-��, ��, �0�, ��, ��, ��, ��-��, ��-��, ��, �0�, ��, ��-��; Sun Yiping, Du Guangting pingzhuan, ��-��.

�� Sima Guang 司馬光 (�0��-�0��), Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑒 (Beijing: Zhonghua, ��), ��.��; Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (�00�-�0��), Xin Wudai shi 新五代史 (Beijing: Zhonghua, ��), ��.��. See Verellen, Du Guangting, ��.

�� For example, see Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood, ��.�� This text is recorded in the Bishusheng xu biandao siku que shumu 祕書省續編到闕書目, �.��b (Yeshi guangutang shumu congke 葉氏觀古堂書目叢刻，(��0�); Zheng Qiao, Tongzhi ershi lüe, ��. See Loon, Taoist Books, ��; Verellen, Du Guangting, �0�. Although it is no longer extant, Yan Yiping reconstructs it with �� accounts, and Li Jianguo reconstructs it with �� accounts; see Yan, “Wangshi shenxian zhuan jijiao” 王氏神仙傳輯校, in Daojiao yanjiu ziliao, vol. �; Li, Xulu, �0��-��.


��-�� BC), rode a white crane atop Mount Goushi to ascend to heaven.�� By the Tang, the legend of Prince Jin had developed to a lesser cult.�� “Wang” is not the prince’s surname, as “wangzi” should be read together, meaning “prince.” Du Guangting, however, deliberately read “wang” as the prince’

s surname and “zijin” as his first name, in order to transform him into the first ancestor of the Wang clan-the clan of the Shu rulers.�� When recording the Wangshi shenxian zhuan, Chao Gongwu 晁公武 (��th century) asserted, “(Du) Guangting collected [accounts] of male and female immortals with a total of fifty-five, in order to flatter Wang Jian.” [杜] 光庭集王氏男真女仙五十五人，以諂王建。

�� Chen Zhensun 陳振孫 (fl. ��-��) recorded the same text and agreed with Chao, “When the Wang family ruled the state [of Shu], Du made this book to flatter them. They said Du attained the Dao, but I do not believe it” 杜光庭撰。當王氏有國時，為此書以媚之。謂光庭有道，吾不信也。

�� Yan Yiping also held a same critical opinion.�0 These scholars’ criticisms of Du Guangting’s purpose in compiling the text are not unwarranted. Wang Yan, the second ruler of Former Shu, and his two powerful mothers were extremely addicted to the Daoist faith of

�� Liexian zhuan列仙傳，attributed to Liu Xiang 劉向 (ca. B.C. ��-B.C. �), incorporated in Li Fang 李昉 (��-��) et al., eds., Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ��), �.��.

�� For a detailed discussion of the legend and cultic development of Prince Jin, see Marianne Bujard, “Le culte de Wangzi Qiao ou la longue carriere d’un immortel,” Etudes Chinois ��.�-� (�000), ��-��.

�� In the epitaph written for his concubine Wang Renshu 王仁淑, Zhang Linghui 張令暉 traces her family origin to Prince Jin: “After the prince became Heaven’s guest, his clan got the surname Wang of Taiyuan” 王子賓天之後，得姓於太原；see Zhang, “Shiren Taiyuan Wangshi muzhiming bingxu” 室人太原王氏墓誌銘並序，in Zhou Shaoliang周紹良 and Zhao Chao 趙超, eds., Tangdai muzhi huibian xuji 唐代墓誌彙編續集 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, �00�), Kaiyuan ��. According to this, it seems that Prince Jin had already been misunderstood as surnamed Wang by the Kaiyuan reign-period (��-��), perhaps by popular legend. However, Du Guangting’s profound knowledge should have been sufficient for him to know better, so we still can say he deliberately misread Prince Jin’s surname as Wang.

�� Sun Meng 孫猛, ed., Junzhai dushuzhi jiaozheng 郡齋讀書志校證 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, ��0), �.��.

�� Chen, Zhizhai shulu jieti直齋書錄解題 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, ��), ��.��.�0 Yan Yiping, “Wangshi shenxian zhuan jijiao,” Daojiao yanjiu ziliao, �.


immortality.�� They built many palaces and named them all with Daoist implication. They often dressed themselves and other palace ladies and maids like Daoists and immortals, changing their palaces into a Daoist paradise. In ��, Wang Yan was ordained as a Daoist by Du Guangting, and in return Du was conferred the titles of Chuanzhen tianshi 傳真天師 (Celestial Master of Transmission of the Perfection) and Chongzhenguan daxueshi 崇真館大學士 (Grand Academician of Institute for the Reverence of the Perfection). In the same year, Wang also built a Shangqing Palace (Palace of Highest Clarity) and erected a statue of “Wang Zijin,” which was worshipped as their ancestral king, with statues of Wang Yan and his father Wang Jian attending on both of its sides.�� Based on these records, both Verellen and Li Jianguo reasonably infer that Du presented his Wangshi shenxian zhuan to Wang Yan in ��.��

Among the thirty-nine accounts of the Wangshi shenxian zhuan reconstructed by Yan Yiping and Li Jianguo, five accounts are also seen in the Jixian lu, including Lady Wang of Grand Perfection 太真王夫人 (the Queen Mother’s daughter), the niece of Wang Hui 王徽姪女，Wang Fajin 王法進，Wang Fengxian, Lady Wang of South Ultimate 南極王夫人 (the Queen Mother’s fourth daughter).�� Since the Wangshi shenxian zhuan originally had fifty-five accounts, other female immortals and Daoists with the surname of Wang included the Jixian lu might have also been included in the Wangshi

�� Wang Yan’s mother, surnamed Xu 徐, and her younger sister, the famous Huarui furen 花蕊夫人 (Lady of Flower Pistil), were Wang Jian’s favored consorts. Wang Yan was the youngest among Wang Jian’s eleven sons, and he was established as the heir apparent only because of his mothers’ conspiracy. After Wang Yan ascended to throne, he conferred his mother the title Shunsheng taihou 順聖太后 and her sister Yisheng taihou 翊聖太妃 (the Shu taowu 蜀檮杌 by the Song literatus Zhang Tangying ā唐英 [�0��-�0��] records the younger sister as Wang Yan’s mother; see Shu taowu, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, �.��b). Both sisters, especially the younger one, were extremely beautiful and talented in poetry. See Wu Renchen 吳任臣 (d. ��), Shiguo chunqiu 十國春秋 (Beijing: Zhonghua, ��), ��.��-��; Pu Jiangqing 浦江清, “Huarui furen gongci kaozheng” 花蕊夫人宮詞考證, in Pu Jiangqing wenlu 浦江清文錄，ed. Lü Shuxiang 呂叔湘 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue, ��), ��-�0�.

�� Ouyang Xiu, Xin Wudai shi, ��.��; Wu Rencheng, Shiguo chunqiu, ��.��. Shu taowu records these events in �� (�.��b).

�� Verellen, Du Guangting, ��-�0, ��; Li Jianguo, Xulu, �0��.�� Yan Yiping, “Wangshi shenxian zhuan jijiao,” ��-��; Li Jianguo, Xulu, �0��-��,

�0��-��.


shenxian zhuan, such as Lady Cloud-Flower 雲華夫人 (the Queen Mother’s twenty-third daughter), Lady Wang of Purple Tenuity 紫微王夫人 (the Queen Mother’s twentieth daughter), Lady Right-Flower of Cloud-Grove 雲林右英夫人 (the Queen Mother’s thirteenth daughter), and Ms. Wang 王氏。��

More importantly, the genealogical structures presented in both texts seem to have been internally connected to each other. In the Wangshi shenxian zhuan, “Wang Zijin” is listed as the ancestor of the Wang clan of immortals, and the structure of the text serves as a paternal genealogy of the Wang clan. There were several clues indicating that the Queen Mother had a very close “blood-kinship” with this genealogy. First, in the Highest Clarity tradition, the King Father of the East (Dong wanggong 東王公), the Queen Mother’s consort, was supposed to be surnamed Wang, and so were their many daughters.�� The Queen Mother was therefore the maternal ancestor of the Wang clan. Her name “Wangmu” originally denoted both Queen Mother and ancestress, and the Jixian lu in particular emphasized her attribute as a mother.�� Second, in the Jixian lu, both hagiographies of the Queen Mother and Gou Xiangu 緱仙姑 state that the Queen Mother was surnamed Gou 緱 and was from the Goushi district in Henan; she engaged in Daoist cultivation on Mount Goushi,�� the same mountain atop which Prince Jin ascended to

�� Li, Xulu, �0��-��.�� About the formation of the genealogy of the Queen Mother and her many daughters,

see Li Fengmao 李豐楙, “Xiwangmu wunü chuanshuo de xingcheng jiqi yanbian” 西王母五女傳說的形成及其演變, in Wuru yu zhejiang: Liuchao Sui Tang Daojiao wenxue lunji 誤入與謫降：六朝隋唐道教文學論集 (Taibei: Xuesheng shuju, ��), ��–��. About the surname of the King Father, there were different sayings. For example, the late-Tang official-literatus Duan Chengshi 段成式 records Ni 倪 as his surname; see Duan, Youyang zazu 酉陽雜俎 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ��), ��.��.

�� See Cahill, Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China (Stanford: Stanford University, ��), ��; Yang Li, Yongcheng jixian lu yanjiu, ��-��.

�� The Queen Mother’s account states that she “was born at the Yi river in the divine land and her surname is Gou” 金母生於神洲 [州] 伊川，厥姓緱氏. The account of Gou Xiangu tells a story as follows: the Lady of the Eastern Marchmoutain sent a blue bird as her messenger to tell Gou Xiangu that “the Queen Mother of the West is surnamed Gou. She is your sacred ancestor; Mount Goushi in Henan is the place where the Queen Mother engaged in Daoist cultivation; it is the mountain of her hometown” 西王母姓緱，乃姑之聖祖也；河南緱氏乃王母修道之處，故鄉之山也。See Jixian

�0　臺灣宗教研究

heaven, and which was revered as the sacred origin place of the Wang clan in the Wangshi shenxian zhuan. As is well known, the Queen Mother was originally connected with the far west in Mount Kunlun; no sources prior to the Jixian lu ever mentioned her origin place as Goushi and her surname as Gou.�� Du Guangting seems to have invented these profiles in order to build a connection between the goddess and the prince, an effort that might have been inspired by Empress Wu Zetian (��-�0�) and her courtiers.�0Therefore, the Queen Mother was in effect the maternal ancestor of the Wang clan and their holy genealogy constructed in the Wangshi shenxian zhuan.

In the Jixian lu, the Queen Mother is revered as the ancestress and head of the clan of female immortals. Explicitly the structure of the text serves as a lineage of holy women,�� while implicitly it also hints at a maternal genealogy of the sacred Wang clan. The most apparent evidence for this assumption is that the daughters of the Queen Mother were included in both genealogies, as discussed above. Although the extant accounts from the Wangshi shenxian zhuan are mostly abridged or synoptic citations preserved in later encyclopedias, when comparing with their corresponding accounts from the Jixian lu, we still can see that originally they should have been the same. The two texts virtually correspond to each other, forming a holy kinship-net that interweaves the Shu male and female rulers with the two holy

lu, Yunji qiqian, ��.��, ��.��.�� Duan Chengshi recorded the Queen Mother’s surname as Yang 楊; see Duan, Youyang

zazu, ��.��. Other surnames attributed to the Queen Mother include Yan 焉, He 何, and Ma 馬; see Shizu daquan 氏族大全 (Siku quanshu), �.��a; Dong Sizhang 董斯張 (��-��), Guang bowu zhi 廣博物志 (Siku quanshu), ��.�a; Hu Yinglin 胡應麟 (��-��0�), Shaoshi shanfang bicong 少室山房筆叢 (Beijing: Zhonghua, ��),. ��.��.

�0 Although Empress Wu is renowned for her promotion of Buddhism, she also actively utilized the Queen Mother of the West for political validation and symbolically as her celestial counterpart. It was under the empress that the Queen Mother became closely identified with Mount Song, the Central Marchmount located close to Luoyang, her political center, and the Prince Jin cult in nearby Mount Goushi was in passing celebrated. The empress was flattered as the Queen Mother, and Zhang Changzong, one of her male favorites, was flattered as the incarnation of Prince Jin. See Norman H. Rothschild, “Empress Wu and the Queen Mother of the West,” Journal of Daoist Studies � (�0�0): ��-��.

�� Cahill, Divine Traces of Daoist Sisterhood, ��.


genealogies. Therefore, both texts might have been composed about the same time around �� for the same cause and purpose of catering to the interests of the Shu rulers and validating their government and royal lineage.

This political purpose may seem vulgar at first glance and as a result has attracted many criticisms. Du Guangting’s relationship with the Shu rulers, however, was rather complicated and should not be taken at face value. He received all the honorific titles and political positions from the Shu rulers, but he did not uncritically follow their will and desire; rather, he deliberately used their religious commitment to present his support of and advises to the Shu government, and to promote Daoism and his ambitious works in sorting and integrating all texts, practices, cults, and traditions of Daoism. When studying Du Guangting’s Luyi ji 錄異記 (Record of Marvels), another collection of hagiographies and wondrous stories compiled at about the same time as the Wangshi shenxian zhuan and the Jixian lu,�� Verellen argues that it “not only bolstered a sense of cultural cohesion for the region of Shu but also pointed to the historical precedents for its political independence and asserted a cosmological sanction for the succession of its current rulers to the Tang dynasty.”�� Likewise, Du compiled the Jixian lu with his own serious goals and themes. Russell Kirkland indicates that “the most common religious activities of the women commemorated in Tu’s text were altruistic activities, charitable deeds performed out of compassionate hearts.”�� Suzanne Cahill

�� The Luyi ji originally had ten juan, but now only eight juan are extant (in Zhengtong Daozang 正統道藏; Taibei: Xinwenfeng, ��-��; hereafter cited as DZ; no. ��), including three juan of accounts of immortals, extraordinary persons, and supernatural beings. Li Jianguo further collects twenty-eight more accounts from various sources. The latest of these extant accounts is dated ��, and in his preface Du signed with the five titles of Guanglu dafu 光祿大夫 (Grand Master for Splendid Happiness), Hubu shilang 戶部侍郎 (Vice Minister of Revenue), Guangcheng xiansheng, Shang zhuguo 上柱國 (Supreme Pillar of State), and Caiguo gong 蔡國公 (Duke of Caiguo) he carried around ��, without his titles of Celestial Master of Transmission of the Perfection and Grand Academician bestowed in ��. Thus, it can be inferred that this text was completed between �� and ��. See Loon, Taoist Books, ��0; Verellen, Du Guangting, �0�, and “Shu as a hallowed land: Du Guangting’s Record of Marvels,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie �0 (��): ��-��; Li, Xulu, �0��-��.

�� Schipper and Verellen, Taoist Canon, ��.�� Kirkland, “Huang Ling-wei,” ��.


sums up Du Guangting’s intents as follows: to clarify points of Daoist doctrine, to argue for the superiority of Daoism over Buddhism, to unify the Daoist church, to exalt his own High Clarity school over others, to encourage imperial and literati patronage, to promote Daoist religion as a means of salvation in troubled time, and to ally the Daoist church with the imperial bureaucracy and Confucian values.�� Inspired by these scholars’ insightful views, this study will further explore Du’s motivation in recreating Daoist priestess’ images in detail in sections four and five.

III. Extant Hagiographies of Tang Female Daoists from the Jixian luThe Jixian lu is preserved in two incomplete versions in the Daozang.

One contains three juan and twenty-seven accounts in the Yunji qiqian, and the other contains six juan and thirty-seven accounts (DZ, no. ��). Excluding two overlapping accounts, there are sixty-two in total, of which eleven are hagiographies of Tang female Daoists, all contained in the Yunji qiqian version. Li Jianguo has collected twenty-two more accounts from Song encyclopedias such as the Taiping guangji (Extensive Records Compiled in the Taiping xingguo Reign-Period) and Taiping yulan 太平御覽 (Reader for His Highness Compiled in the Taiping xingguo Reign-Period) and other texts (some are abridged or synoptic citations), of which six are hagiographies of Tang female Daoists.�� In addition, I collect two more accounts, “Wei Meng qi” 韋蒙妻 (Wife of Wei Meng) and “Yang Jingzhen” 楊敬真,from the Xianzhuan shiyi仙傳拾遺 (Collection of Omitted

�� Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood, ��.�� Li Jianguo, Xulu, �0��-��. By comparing the Taiping Guangji with extant original

texts, it can be concluded that the compilers of this text were quite serious and careful in incorporating more than �00 earlier texts. They made minor modifications, but overall they maintained the original stories, characters, and structures unchanged. The Taiping yulan usually greatly abridged original stories. See Chen Shangjun 陳尚君，“Sui Tang Wudai wenxue de jiben dianji” 隋唐五代文學的基本典籍，in Zhongguo dudai wenxue tonglun 中國古代文學通論，ed. Fu Xuancong 傅璇琮 & Jiang Yin 蔣寅, vol. � (Shenyang: Liaoning renmin, �00�), ��-��.


Hagiographies of Immortals),�� another collection of hagiographical accounts compiled by Du Guangting possibly in about a few years later than the Jixian lu.�� In the Taiping Guangji, the account “Yang Jingzhen” is cited from the Xu Xuanguai lu 續玄怪錄 (Continuation to the Records of Strange Stories) by Li Fuyan 李復言。However, according to the record of the Shaoshi shanfang bicong by Hu Yinglin, Du Guangting also incorporated this account into his Xianzhuan shiyi.�� The accounts of female immortals and Daoists included in the Xianzhuan shiyi usually shared the same contents with the Jixian lu. For example, the accounts “Wang Fajin” 王法進 and “Banished Immortal of Yangping zhi” 陽平謫仙 from the Xianzhuan shiyi incorporated in the Taiping Guangji are almost the same as those of Jixian lu.�0 Therefore, the two accounts of “Wife of Wei Meng” and “Yang Jingzhen” may also have been included in the Jixian lu.�� Thus, we have now eighteen extant hagiographical accounts of Tang female Daoists in total, as seen in table one.��

�� Incorporated in the Taiping Guangji, ��.��, ��.��-��.�� The Xianzhuan shiyi originally had forty juan and �� accounts, but it is no longer

extant. Yan Yiping has reconstructed it with �� accounts and five juan, and Li Jianguo has reconstructed it with �� accounts. See Chongwen zongmu 崇文總目 (Siku quanshu), �.�b, Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (��-��), Yuhai 玉海 (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji, ��0), ��.�b; Loon, Taoist Books, ��; Verellen, Du Guangting, �0�; Yan, “Xianzhuan shiyi,” Daojiao yanjiu ziliao, vol. �; Li, Xulu, �0��-�0. From these reconstructed accounts, we can see that the text shares many stories with Du’s other collections of hagiographies and wondrous matters such as Luyi ji, Wangshi shenxian zhuan, Jixian lu, and Shenxian ganyu zhuan 神仙感遇傳 (Accounts of Encounters with Supernatural Beings and Immortals, DZ, no. ��; see Stephen Bokenkamp, “Taoist Literature,” in The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature,��; Li, Xulu, �0��-��; Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, ��0). Judging from its large quantity of forty juan and �� accounts, we may infer that the Xianzhuan shiyi was likely an amalgamation of all Du’s hagiographical and wondrous collections of stories of immortals and supernatural beings, and therefore might have been compiled some years after ��.

�� The account was titled “Wuzhen ji” 五真記. See Hu Yinglin, Shaoshi shanfang bicong, ��.��

�0 Taiping Guangji, ��.��, ��.��.�� Yang Li has already noted that the “Wife of Wei Meng” account may have been

included in the Jixian lu, but she does not give any detailed verification; see her “Yongcheng jixian lu banben zhe kaozheng yu jiyi” 墉城集仙錄版本之考證與輯佚，Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo xuebao 中國文化研究所學報 �� (�00�): ��.

�� Yang Li has added two more accounts, Pei Xuanjing 裴玄靜 and Qi Xiaoyao戚逍遙,


Table �. Hagiographies of Tang Taoist Women from the Jixian lu��

No. Title Story Main Sources��

� Wang Fajin 王法進 Pries tess Wang Faj in t ransmit ted a Lingbo rite of confession and a s c e n d e d t o h e a v e n during the Tianbao reign-period (��-��)

Yunji qiqian ��.��-��; Taiping Guangji ��.�� ( i n c o r p o r a t e d f r o m Xianzhuan shiyi)

� Ms. Wang王氏 Ms. Wang, the wife of the official Xie Liangbi 謝良弼, converted to Daoism and achieved liberation by means of the corpse during Emperor Daizong’s reign (��-��)

Yunji qiqian ��.��-�0

� Huagu 花姑 Priestess Huang Lingwei 黃靈微 ( � � 0 - � � � ) restored the shrine of Lady Wei Huacun 魏華存 and achieved liberation by means of the corpse during the early Tang

Yunji qiqian, ��.��0-��

from the Xu xian zhuan 續仙傳compiled by Shen Fen沈汾; see her "Yongcheng jixian lu banben zhe kaozheng yu jiyi”, ��. In his “Preface” to the Jixian lu, Du Guangting actually mentioned a Xu shenxian zhuan續神仙傳 (Supplementary Lives of Immortals) as one of the texts he incorporated. However, Shen Fen was a contemporary of Du active in the lower Yangzi River region, and the latest accounts in his Xu xian zhuan were dated around ��0 (Li, Xulu, ��-��), about the same time as the Jixian lu was compiled. Even if ��0 was the date of completion, it is unlikely that the text was distributed from the lower Yangzi River region to Sichuan and incorporated into Du’s text so fast under the chaotic and disunion situation of early Five Dynasties. There was another text titled Xu xian zhuan by the Daoist priest Gaichang 改常 compiled around the Dali reign-period (��-��; see Tao Zongyi 陶宗儀, ed., Shuofu sanzhong 說郛三種, Shanghai: Shanghai guji, ��; ��.�0; Luo Zhengming, Du Guangting Daojiao xiaoshuo yanjiu, ��). What Du used and incorporated was more likely this earlier text.

�� Many of these accounts are also incorporated, usually in abridged or synoptic form, in the Xianyuan bianzhu 仙苑編珠 (ed. Wang Songnian 王松年; Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書), Sandong qunxian lu 三洞群仙錄(ed. Chen Baoguang 陳葆光, fl. ��; DZ, no. ��), Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian 歷世真仙體道通鑑 (ed. Zhao Daoyi 趙道一；DZ, no. ��), Leishuo 類說 (ed. Zeng 曾慥�0��-��; Beijing: Wenxue guji, ��), Shuofu, etc. For detailed discussions, see Li, Xulu, �0��-��.


� Xu Xiangu徐仙姑 Priestess Xu lived at least two hundred and fifty years and traveled broadly with her Daoist magical techniques

Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��; Taiping Guangji, �0.�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

� Gou Xiangu緱仙姑 Priestess Gou practiced austerities and defeated Buddhist monks during the late Tang period

Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��; Taiping Guangji, �0.��-�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

� Bian Dongxuan邊洞玄 Priestess Bian Dongxuan s a v e d p e o p l e a n d animals, and ascended to heaven during Emperor X u a n z o n g ’ s r e i g n (��-��)

Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��

� Huang Guanfu黃觀福 Huang Guanfu was a banished female immortal and, after engaging in Daoist practice, returned t o h e a v e n d u r i n g Emperor Gaozong’s reign (��-��)


� Yangping zhi 陽平治 A b a n i s h e d f e m a l e immortal acted as the wife of another banished immortal and worked as a tea-picker in Yangping zhi; later both returned to the Yangping grotto.

Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��; Taiping Guangji, ��.�� (titled “Yangping zhexian” 陽平謫仙 and incorporated from Xianzhuan shiyi)

� Shen Gu 神姑 T h e p a l a c e g i r l L u Meiniang 盧眉娘 was skilled in embroidery. Later she was ordained as a Daoist priestess and achieved transcendence du r ing t he r e igns o f Emperors Shunzong and Xianzong (�0�-��0)

Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��; Duyang zabian , �.�a-�a (SKQS); Taiping Guangji, � � . � � � ( t i t l e d “ L u Meiniang” and incorporated from Duyang zabian)

�0 Wang Fengxian 王奉仙 Daoist priestess Wang Fengxian engaged in D a o i s t p r a c t i c e a n d helped common people; f i n a l l y s h e r e a l i z e d transcendence during the late Tang period



�� Xue Xuantong 薛玄同 Xue Xuantong, the wife of the official Feng Wei, cultivated the Dao and realized transcendence dur ing the l a t e Tang period

Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��; Taiping Guangji, �0.��-�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

�� Yang Zhengjian 楊正見

Ya n g Z h e n g j i a n w a s c o m p a s s i o n a t e a n d a s c e n d e d t o h e a v e n during the Kaiyuan reign-period (��-��)

Taiping Guangji, ��.��-�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

�� Dong Shangxian 董上仙

Dong Shangxian ascended to heaven dur ing the Kaiyuan reign-period

Taiping Guangji, ��.�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

�� Xie Ziran 謝自然 Xie Ziran engaged in D a o i s t p r a c t i c e a n d a s c e n d e d t o h e a v e n during Emperor Dezong’s reign (��-�0�)

Taiping Guangji, ��.�0�-�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

�� Qi Xuanfu 戚玄符 Qi Xuanfu ascended to heaven during Emperor X u a n z o n g ’ s r e i g n (��-��)

Taiping Guangji, �0.��-�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

�� Wangshi nu王氏女 Wang Hui’s niece attained Daoist t ranscendence during Emperor Xizong’s reign (��-��)

Taiping Guangji, �0.��-�� (incorporated from Jixian lu)

�� Wei Meng qi韋蒙妻 M s . X u , t h e w i f e o f the official Wei Meng, ascended to heaven with her daughter and maid during Emperor Muzong’s reign (��0-��)

Taiping Guangji, ��.�� ( i n c o r p o r a t e d f r o m Xianzhuan shiyi)

�� Yang Jingzhen 楊敬真 Yang Jingzhen and four other girls ascended to heaven on the same day, but Yang later returned home to look after her grandfather

Taiping Guangji, ��.��-�� ( incorpora ted f rom Xu Xuangua i lu ) ; Shaosh i shanfang bicong, ��.��b (citation from Xianzhuan shiyi).


IV. Examination of the Jixian Lu Hagiographies of Tang Female DaoistsIn his “Preface” to the Jixian lu, Du Guangting lists major texts

before him telling stories of ancient and contemporary people who gained immortality/transcendence, and says he “has gathered these multitudinous discourses to complete one single discourse” 纂彼眾說, 集為一家。�� Du gathered and incorporated almost all relevant sources before him to compile this text. However, he did not simply copy from other texts, but rather made major modifications and even recreations according to his own Daoist beliefs and ideal images of female Daoists. Luo Zhengming and Suzanne Cahill have studied his approaches used in incorporating and modifying the accounts of pre-Tang figures, and Russell Kirkland has demonstrated an excellent study on the story of Huang Lingwei. In this section, I further examine the approaches Du used to modify or recreate the accounts of Tang female Daoists in a comprehensive scale.

The first approach Du used is recreation of brand new images. For example, in the Jixian lu, Wang Fengxian is presented as a Daoist female saint. Born to a peasant family, she was as beautiful as a goddess and also very bright and eloquent. Immortal girls often descended from heaven to play with her, and soon she was able to fast and fly. During the Xiantong reign-period (��0-��), when Du Shenquan 杜審權 was the military commissioner in Lunzhou and Linghu Tao 令狐綯 (jinshi ��0) the military commissioner in Yangzhou,�� they invited Wang to stay in their jurisdiction capitals and revered her respectively. Du even planned to present her to court, but Wang cut her hair and entered a Buddhist monastery to escape from it. As a result, she was called Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara) by people south of Yangzi River. In her debate with the lofty literatus Zhufu Huaigao 主父懷杲，Wang compared

�� Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��.�� Du was the commissioner of western Zhejiang and prefect of Lunzhou from �� to

��, and Linghu was the commissioner of Huainan and governor of Yangzhou from �� to ��. See Yu Xianhao郁賢皓，Tang cishi kao quanbian 唐刺史考全編 (Hefei: Anhui daxue chubanshe, �000), ��.��, ��.��.


Daoism to the father in a household, Confucianism to the older brother, and Buddhism to the mother. When the rebel generals Qin Yan 秦彥 (d. ��), Bi Shiduo 畢師鐸 (d.��) and others occupied Yangzhou, they all revered her as their teacher, even though at first they tried to force her follow their will. From the Xiantong to Guangqi reign-periods (��0-��), Wang always preached “the Way of loyalty, filial piety, uprightness, and rectitude, the admonitions to be clear, clean, temperate, and simple, and the essentials of the secret practices for refining the body.”�� Finally, she was ordained as a Daoist priestess and lived at Mount Dongting. At the beginning of the Guangqi reign-period (��), she moved to Mount Qianqing in Yuhang, and realized transcendence in over a year at the age of ��.��

This saintly portrait depicted by Du, however, is very different from historical records. In the fifth month of ��, the Huainan (Yangzhou) military commissioner Gao Pian 高駢 (d. ��) was imprisoned by his general Bi Shiduo. Bi invited the Xuanzhou commissioner Qin Yan to assume the position of Huainan commissioner. In the ninth month, Tang army besieged and attacked Yangzhou. The biography of Gao Pian in the Xin Tangshu新唐書 (New Tang History) records:

Bi Shiduo was defeated and afraid that Gao Pian might help the Tang army from within the city. There was a sorceress named Wang Fengxian, who told Shiduo: 'The prefecture is facing disaster. If a great man dies, the disaster can be dispersed.’ Qin Yan said, “Doesn’t this mean Gao Pian?” He ordered his attendant men Chen Shang and others to kill Gao. ... Qin Yan was defeated again and again, and the soldiers were all dispirited. Qin and Bi Shiduo sat with their arms about their knees and looked at each other, finding no way out. They consulted Fengxian again, and all rewards and punishments, light or heavy, were decided by her” [畢]師鐸既敗，慮駢內應。有女巫王奉仙，謂師鐸曰：「州災，有大人死，可以厭。」彥

�� Translation by Suzanne Cahill, Daoist Sisterhood, ��.�� Yunji qiqian, ��.��-��.


曰：「非高公邪。」命左右陳賞等往殺之⋯⋯〔秦〕彥屢敗，

軍氣摧喪，與師鐸抱膝相視，無它略，更問奉仙，賞罰輕重皆

自出。��

The Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government) gives a similar account：

After being defeated in several battles, Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo suspected that Gao Pian used sorcery to repress them. As [the Tang army] besieged Yangzhou more tightly, they were afraid of Gao Pian’s men might cooperate from within the city. There was an evil Buddhist nun named Wang Fengxian, who told Qin Yan: 'A great disaster is shown in Yangzhou region. One great man must die, and then blessing will come.’ On the jiaxu day, Qin ordered his general Liu Kuangshi killed Gao Pian and his brothers, sons, and nephews, no matter old or young, and buried them all in one pit. ... At first, Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo believed and revered the nun Fengxian. Even though there were battles, all rewards and punishments, light or heavy, were decided by her. By that time they consulted Fengxian again: 'What should we do to get through this?’ Fengxian said, 'The best plan is to run.’ Therefore they ran out of the Kaihua Gate to go to Dongtang.” 秦彥與畢師鐸出師屢敗,疑駢為厭勝。外圍益急,恐駢黨有為內應者。有妖尼王奉仙，言于〔秦〕彥曰：「揚州分

野極災，必有一大人死，自此喜矣。」甲戌，命其將劉匡時殺

駢並其子弟甥侄無少長皆死，同坎瘞之⋯⋯先是，彥，師鐸信

重尼奉仙，雖戰陳日時，賞罰輕重，皆取決焉。至是復諮於奉

仙曰：「何以取濟？」奉仙曰：「走為上策。」乃自開化門出

奔東塘。��

Similar accounts are also seen in the Cefu yuangui冊府元龜 (Original

�� Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tang shu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ��), ��.��0�-�.�� Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian, ��.��, ��.

�00　臺灣宗教研究

Treasures of the Imperial Library), Bai Kong liutie白孔六帖, and Shiguo chunqiu.�0 These historical narratives tell us that during the Yangzhou rebellion, Wang Fengxian was in the city, and was revered by the rebel generals Bi Shiduo and Qin Yan; she instructed the two to kill the former commissioner Gao Pian and his whole family.

Is there a possibility that the Wang Fengxian recorded in these texts was just another person with the same name? The answer is negative. The two characters had too many points of correspondence in time, location, and experience: both lived in the same time period of the reigns of Emperors Yizong to Xizong and the same region of lower Yangzi River, and both were in Yangzhou in �� and became associated with the rebel generals Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo. In the Jixian lu account, Wang Fengxian was a wandering Daoist practitioner who once stayed in a Buddhist monastery; she was not ordained as a Daoist priestess until her late years after ��. This explains why the historical records sometimes refer to her as “an evil Buddhist nun” and sometimes as “a sorceress.”

Compared with the historical records, we can see that Du Guangting recreated the image of Wang Fengxian, who fouled her hands with rebel generals and murdered people in cold blood, into a saint who represented the ideal personalities of both Daoism and Confucianism-goddess-like beauty and intelligence, synthesizing the three teachings, and preaching and practicing Confucian values and Daoist perfection. The Highest Clarity concept of divine descending is also distinctively featured. Du’s intention is quite clear here: on one hand, he expressed his idea of fusing the three teachings through this new image; on the other, because this hagiography was also included in the Wangshi shenxian zhuan,�� his recreation might have been stimulated by the purpose of adding one more virtuous priestess-immortal to the Wang family and setting a good example for the female rulers of the Shu state.

�0 Wang Qinruo 王欽若 (d. �0��) et al., eds. Cefu yuangui (Beijing: Zhonghua, ��0), ��.��b; Bai Juyi 白居易 (��-��) and Kong Zhuan 孔傳 (fl. ��-��), Bai Kong liutie (Siku quanshu),��.��a; Wu Renchen, Shiguo chunqiu, �.�.

�� Incorporated in Sandong qunxian lu, DZ, no. ��, �.�0�b-�0�a.

Du Guangting and the Hagiographies of Tang Female Daoists　�0�

The image of Yang Zhengjian was also likely recreated by Du Guangting. In the Jixian lu account, Yang was bright and compassionate, and accepted the Daoist concepts of purity and nullity ever since she was a child. She was married into a Wang family when she was fifteen. Once, she prepared dinner for guests but could not bear to kill the fish, so she had to leave the family in fear of condemnation by her parents-in-law. She entered a mountain in Pujiang district to learn from a Daoist priestess. Later, she found and ingested a human-shaped poria and became extremely beautiful. Immortals often descended down to her chamber to discuss matters of heaven with her. After one year, in Kaiyuan �� (��), she ascended to heaven in broad daylight.��

The Song-dynasty Linqiong tujing 臨邛圖經 (Illustrated Gazette of Linqiong), however, records a completely different story:

Yang Zhengjian was the daughter of the peasant Yang Chong, and was not married at the age of thirty. She entered Mount Changqiu in Pujiang district to engage in Daoist cultivation during the Kaiyuan reign-period. She reclaimed a piece of wasteland and was in shortage of water. Suddenly a white ox appeared and told her: “I lie underground where the sacred water runs. If you dig through the land for about one zhang, you will get the water.” Zhengjian did as the ox told her, and sure enough found a rushing spring. Later, she gained transcendence and ascended to heaven. The Daoist priest Zhao Xianfu presented her story to the emperor. 楊正見，鄉民楊寵之女，年三十無家。開元時入蒲江長秋山修煉，墾田艱水，

忽見白牛語曰：我伏地下，有神水，可穿丈餘得水。正見如其

言，果有湧泉。後得道上升。羽士趙仙甫以事聞進。��

In this account, Yang Zhengjian never got married. She reclaimed wasteland and dug a well to water the land with the help of a mysterious ox,

�� Taiping Guangji, ��.��-��.�� Cited by Cao Xuequan 曹學佺 (��-��); Siku quanshu), Shuzhong guangji,

��.��a.

�0�　臺灣宗教研究

in order to support her ascetic life of Daoist cultivation in the mountain. This story happened at the same time (Kaiyuan reign-period) and the same place (the Pujiang district in Sichuan) with the same ending (ascending to heaven), so this character was unlikely another person. Although this account is preserved in a later text, the possibility that it was based on an earlier account cannot be omitted, and the simple plot tells us that it was possibly the original one. The familiar, complicated Daoist themes in the Jixian lu account--compassion, early faith, divine descending, and beautiful, goddess-like appearance-inform us that this story seems again to have been Du Guangting’

s recreation.The second approach Du Guangting used to modify images of Daoist

priestesses was adding large portions of stories and attaching new concepts to the characters, in order to idealize them. His modification of Bian Dongxuan’

s story is a typical example. The Taiping Guangji incorporates an entry titled “Bian Dongxuan” from the Guangyi ji 廣異記 (Extensive Records of Marvels) compiled by Dai Fu 戴孚 (jinshi ��).�� It states that Bian was a Daoist priestess in Zaoqiang district of Jizhou (present-day Zaoqiang in Hebei). She had engaged in Daoist practices such as fasting and ingesting elixir drugs for forty years and was �� by the end of the Kaiyuan reign-period (��-��). Then, after taking an elixir given by an old man, her body became light. With final farewells to her disciples she ascended to heaven in broad daylight, witnessed by Yuan Fu 源復, the prefect of Jizhou, and his officials and local people.�� Yuan Fu was the prefect of Jizhou in Kaiyuan �� (��).�� He sent a presentation to Emperor Xuanzong to report Bian’s ascension, and the Emperor issued an imperial decree titled “Decree to Yuan Fu, the Prefect of Jizhou, for Performing Fast Rite in Immortal Bian Abbey” 敕冀州刺史原復邊仙觀修齋詔。The decree reads:

�� See Glen Dudbridge, Religious Experience and Lay Society in T’ang China: A Reading of Tai Fu’s Kuang-i chi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ��), ��.

�� Taiping Guangji, ��.��.�� Yu Xianhao, Tang cishi kao, �0�.��.


The Daoist priestess is a perfected person of the elixir tower. She rode on five-colored clouds and ascended to heaven in broad daylight. Her love of the Dao had unexpectedly resulted in actual efficacy, which brings me great pleasure. You are the son of a former prime minister, and your family reveres the Dao, which is in accordance with your mind. Your witness [of the ascension] at the spot fulfilled my wish. ... Now taking advantage of your representative’s return, I send you a few objects. You should perform Daoist rite of fast in the abbey, in order to express my intention. 彼之女道，丹台真人，白日上升，五雲在禦。不圖好道，遂有明征，深為喜慰。卿為舊相之子，家上元元，能葉心

志。自茲目視，果成朕願⋯⋯今因奏使回，便付少物。卿可以

觀所，宜修齋行道，以達朕意也。��

Emperor Xuanzong praised Yuan and ordered him to perform Daoist rite of fast at the abbey where Bian used to stay. Later, this decree was inscribed on a stele erected in the abbey.�� From Xuanzong’s decree, we can infer that Yuan Fu’s presentation might have focused on Bian’s ascension. In addition, the Song-dynasty catalogue Bishusheng xu biandao siku que shumu records a text titled Bian Dongxuan shengtian ji 邊洞玄升天記 (Record of Bian Dongxuan’s Ascension to Heaven).�� This title hints that its main content

�� Quan Tangwen, ��.��a-b. Both the Song-dynasty Baoke leibian寶刻類編 (Congshu jicheng chubian叢書集成初編, �.�) and Mochi bian墨池編 (Siku quanshu, �.��b) by Zhu Changwen 朱長文 record the inscription of this decree which was still seen then.

�� Sun Chengze 孫承澤 (��-��) records in his Chunming mengyu lu 春明夢餘錄, “Tang-dynasty ‘Stele Inscription of Ziyang Abbey’ written by Emperor Xuanzong, in Zhuozhou where the Daoist priest[ess] Bian Dongxuan cultivated Dao and transcend to immortality” 唐紫陽觀碑，玄宗御制，在涿州，道士邊洞玄修真成僊於此 (Beijing: Beijing guji, ��; ��.��). The Jifu tongzhi 畿輔通志 has a similar record, “Bian Dongxuan of Tang dynasty was a native of Zaoqiang district. She left her family and cultivated herself at the Ziyun abbey when she was a child. She finally gained transcendence and ascended in broad daylight. Emperor Xuanzong wrote an imperial decree to praise her. The stele inscription is still preserved at the abbey” 唐邊洞元，棗強人，自幼于紫雲觀出家修行，後得道，白日上升。唐元宗御制詞褒揚之，碑刻尚存於觀. See Tian Yi 田易 et al, Jifu tongzhi (Siku quanshu),��.��b.

�� Bishusheng xu biandao siku que shumu, �.��, ��; Loon, Taoist Books, ��.


should have been the story of Bian Dongxuan’s ascension. Dai Fu, the compiler of the Guangyi ji, passed the imperial examination in ��; when the story of Bian Dongxuan’s ascension spread in ��, Dai might at least already be a child. His account of Bian was likely based on texts such as Yuan Fu’

s presentation, Emperor Xuanzong’s inscription, and the “Record of Bian Dongxuan’s Ascension.”�0

The simple story of Bian Dongxuan’s ingesting elixir drug and ascending to heaven was greatly sophisticated by Du Guangting. In the Jixian lu, she became a virtuous person, who was “pure, clever, perceptive, humane, and compassionate” since she was a child. She always saved endangered small animals and fed hungry birds, fulfilled the Confucian family value of filial piety, and worked hard as a skilled weaver. After her parents passed away, she finally entered a Daoist convent. She continued her weaving work and exchanged her products for food, which she used to feed small animals and people when there was a famine. Her love of elixir drugs and final ascension remained in this new account, but Du Guangting again added a twist that before she left for heaven she did not forget to fly to the capital to bid farewell to Emperor Xuanzong, even though the emperor did not mention this miracle in his decree at all.�� Under Du’s brush, Bian Dongxuan became a Daoist saint who cultivated herself with Daoist faith, Confucian values, and Buddhist compassion, being loyal, filial, compassionate, and transcendent at the same time. As indicated by Kirkland and Cahill, the hidden virtue that led to transcendence was one of Du’s favored themes:�� Yang Zhengjian saved the fish, and Bian Dongxuan saved small animals. The compassion for animals was a Daoist incorporation of Buddhist ethics.

The hagiography of Xie Ziran was another example of the second approach. The primary source for this account was likely the official-

�0 This text was likely written by Wang Duan 王端, as Du says at the end of the Jixian lu: “[Emperor] then ordered Editor Wang Duan [polite name] Jingzhi to compose a stele inscription to record this marvelous event of immortals” 仍敕校書郎王端敬之為碑以紀其神仙之盛事者也 (Yunji qiqian, ��.��).

�� Yunji qiqian, ��.��.�� Kirkland, “Huang Ling-wei,” ��; Cahill, Divine Traces of Daoist Sisterhood, ��0-��.


literatus Li Jian’s 李堅 (��-��) “Biography of the Perfected Person of East Ultimate” 東極真人傳.�� Li Jian was the prefect of Guozhou (present-day Nanchong in Sichuan) in ��-�� and claimed he witnessed the ascension of Xie Ziran in ��. He sent a presentation reporting this event to Emperor Dezong, and the emperor replied with two letters, one addressing Yuan and the other local people in general. These letters were inscribed on steles and are extant today.�� They only mention Xie’s ascension, without talking about any Daoist cultivation. Li Jian then composed a hagiography for Xie.�� Li’s account is no longer extant, but some poems concerning Xie Ziran’s story by Tang literati seem to have been written according to it. For example, Han Yu 韓愈(��-��) has a poem titled “Poem on Xie Zira” 謝自然詩, in which he describes Xie’s ascension in detail, but does not mention anything about her engagement in Daoist practices.�� Li Xiang 李翔,who likely lived in the late Tang period, had a poem titled “Written behind the Biography of Xie Ziran of Mount Jinquan” 題金泉山謝自然傳後.�� This biography of Xie Ziran likely referred to the one by Li Jian. The poem again vividly describes Xie’s ascension, without mentioning her Daoist cultivation at all. Both poems may

�� This text is recorded in Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, ��.��; Zheng Qiao, Tongzhi ershi lüe, ��.

�� Long Xianzhao 龍顯昭 and Huang Haide 黃海德, eds., Ba Shu Daojiao beiwen jicheng 巴蜀道教碑文集成 (Chengdu: Sichuan University Press, ��), ��-��. Wang Xiangzhi 王象之 (jinshi ��) records this stele in his Yudi beiji mu 輿地碑記目 (Congshu jicheng chubian, �.��).

�� The Yudi beiji mu (�.��) records a stele inscription in Mount Heqi 鶴棲山: “It roughly says that in the tenth year of Zhenyuan in the Tang dynasty, which was the year of Jiaxu, a Guozhou woman Xie Ziran ascended to immortality in broad daylight. Prefect Li Jian sent a presentation to the Emperor and also wrote a biography for Xie” 其大略云，唐貞元十年，歲在甲戌，果州女子謝自然白日升仙，刺史李堅以狀聞，又為之傳。

�� Wei Zhongju 魏仲舉, ed., Wubai jia zhu Changli ji 五百家注昌黎文集, Siku quanshu, �.�0b-��b.

�� Dunhuang manuscript, P. ��; incorporated in Quan Tangshi bubian 全唐詩補編, ed. Chen Shangjun 陳尚君 (Beijing: Zhonghua, ��), vol. �, ��-��; noted by Fukazawa Kazuyuki 深澤一幸, “Sennyo Sha Shizen no tanjō” 仙女謝自然の誕生, Kōzen Kyōju taikan kinen Chūgoku bungaku ronshū 興膳教授退官紀念中國文學論集, ed. Kōzen Kyōju Taikan Kinen Chūgoku Bungaku Ronshū Henshū Iinkai 興膳教授退官記念中國文學論集編集委員會(Tokyo: Kyūko shoin, �000), ��-��.


reveal to us the main content of Li Jian’s account on Xie’s story.The hagiography of Xie in the Jixian lu is very long, describing Xie

Ziran’s Daoist cultivation towards her ascension in great detail. Xie was from a gentry family. When she was a child, her mother twice sent her to learn from Buddhist nuns, but she always requested to come back. She asked her mother to move to the top of Mount Dafang, because there was a statue of Laozi. She always recited the Daode jing and Huangting jing 黃庭經 and started to practice fasting at the age of fourteen. That year she stopped consuming grain and instead only ingested cypress leaves each day. After seven years she stopped ingesting leaves, and in two following years she even ceased drinking water. In ��, she was ordained by the Daoist priest Cheng Taixu. Prefect Han Yi and Xie’s father did not believe her fast to be real and twice locked her up for a long time, but she finally convinced and astonished them with her healthy and beautiful appearance and manner. One year before Xie’s ascension, epiphanic signs of animals, gods, immortals, and heavenly messengers started to appear. By ��, the year of Xie’s ascension, the Queen Mother of the West descended three times to meet Xie, conferring her elixir drugs, peaches, and talisman, and setting a schedule for her final ascension. Before her ascension, Xie offered a long sermon to Li Jian, teaching ways of Daoist practices in an exceptionally comprehensive and “professional” manner, including worshipping statues, reciting scriptures, doing virtuous deeds, performing Daoist music, transmitting Daoist arts, fasting, ingesting elixir drug, and practicing breath control. Finally, when the moment of Xie’s ascension came, the account only uses a couple of sentences to describe it.

After comparing Jixian lu’s account with those poems concerning Xie Ziran’s story by Tang poets, Fukazawa Kazuyuki suggests that in Li Jian’

s hagiography the part of ascension may have been more detailed than the part of Daoist cultivation, while in Du’s account the reverse may have been true.�� This observation is insightful. The plot of the Queen Mother’s three-

�� Fukazawa Kazuyuki, “Sennyo Sha Shizen no tanjō,” ��-��. The Xu shenxian zhuan by Shen Fen has an account of Xie Ziran, which tells a different story in which Xie became the Highest Clarity master Sima Chengzhen’s司馬承楨 (��-��) disciple


time descending and scheduling for Xie’s ascension especially conforms to Jixian lu’s central theme and structure of the Queen Mother as the ancestress and family head of all female immortals. The comprehensive, “professional” sermon on Daoist practices was also more likely to have come out of the hands of a Daoist master like Du Guangting.

Moreover, in another text, the Lidai chongdao ji 歷代崇道記 (Record on the Veneration of Daoism through Ages), Du records:

In the tenth year of the Zhenyuan reign-period of Emperor Dezong, the Undifferentiated Beginning [i.e., Laozi] secretly sent the Golden Mother [i.e., the Queen Mother of the West] to descend to Mount Jinquan of Guozhou several times, to transmit the art of breath control to the perfected woman Xie Ziran. After she completed the cultivation, Xie ascended to heaven in broad daylight on the sixteenth day of the tenth month of that year. 德宗貞元十年，混元潛使金母累降于果州金泉山，授練氣之術，付女貞謝自然。修

習功成，其年十月十六日白日上升。��

This work was written as a memorial addressed to Emperor Xizong in ��, in which Du “announced the divine restoration of the Tang dynastic house under the auspices of their ancestor Lord Lao.”�0 Du wanted to make sure that the Queen Mother’s meetings with Xie Ziran and Xie’s eventual ascension were under the order of Lord Lao, the ancestor of the Tang royal house. However, since the Jixain lu was compiled to present to the Wang family of Shu after the fall of the Tang, Du took out Lord Lao’s order and instead stated that “in the supreme realm the Queen Mother is the most revered” 上界王母最尊. This time Du not only avoided the holy ancestor of

(DZ no. ��, �.��-��). As Sima died long before Xie’s time, this story was another recreation. See Fukazawa, “Sennyo Sha Shizen no tenkai” 仙女謝自然の展開, Gengo bunka kenkyū 言語文化研究 �� (�00�): ��-��.

�� Du, “Lidai chongdao ji,” Quan Tangwen, ��.��b; DZ, no. ��, �0b.�0 Verellen, “A Forgotten T’ang Restoration: the Taoist Dispensation after Huang Ch’

ao,” Asian Major �.�.� (��): �0�-��.


the former dynasty, but also uplifted the holy maternal ancestor of the Wang family. Here Du’s modification of Xie Ziran’s story according to his own purpose seems to be most apparent.

The third approach Du Guangting used to compile the hagiographies in the Jixian lu was stories and texts by Tang literati with some minor yet significant modifications. For example, as shown by Russell Kirkland’s study, the hagiography of Huang Lingwei under the title “Hua Gu” was based on Yan Zhenqing’s 顏真卿 “Nanyue furen Wei furen xiantan beiming” 南嶽夫人魏夫人仙壇碑銘.�� Because of the hagiographical and mysterious orientation of Yan’s writing, Du Guangting followed it very closely, but he still added a few passages. One of the new passages is as follows:

It is not known what region she hailed from. From the beginning of the Tang, she wandered around the Yangzi River, the Zhe River, the Dongting Lake, and the Dayi Mountain. There was not a single famous mountain or numinous grotto to which she did not go. When she visited a place, if she dwelt in forests or wilds, divinities and spirits would protect her. If anyone had an evil thought about her, intending to mistreat or insult her, he would immediately encounter failure. Far and near, people stood in awe and revered her. They served her as a deity. 不知何許人也。自唐初往來江浙湖嶺間，名山靈洞，無所不造。經涉之處，或宿于林野，即有神靈衛之。

人或有不正之念，欲淩侮者，立致顛沛。遠近畏而敬之，奉事

之如神明矣。��

�� Yan, Yan Lugong ji 顏魯公集 (Sibu congkan 四部叢刊), �.�a-�a; Quan Tangwen, ��0.��b-��b. Yan had another stele inscription on Huang Lingwei titled “Fuzhou Linchuanxian Jingshan Huagu xiantan beiming” 撫州臨川縣井山華姑仙壇碑銘 (Yan Lugong ji, �.�a-�b; Quan Tangwen, ��0.�a-�b), but Du Guangting did not cite this inscription. Yan’s inscriptions were based on the hagiography by the Daoist priest Cai Wei’s 蔡瑋 originally included in his Houxian zhuan 後仙傳, which was composed under Emperor Xuanzong’s order (Quan Tangwen, ��0.��b). See Kirkland, “Huang Ling-wei,” �0.

�� Yunji qiqian, ��.��0. Translation adapted from Kirkland, “Huang Ling-wei,” ��; Cahill, Daoist Sisterhood, ��.


As indicated by Russell Kirkland, Du “seems to obscure Huang’s geographical background in order to render her more mysterious and awe-inspiring.”�� Huang’s transcendental and supernatural aspects are therefore enforced. Another new passage is inserted before Huang’s request about her own funeral arrangements addressed to her disciples: “My journey to immortality is urgent, so I cannot stay any longer” 吾仙程所促，不可久住。

�� This announcement serves to show more clearly her knowledge of her own time of death, which was a stereotypical sign of gaining transcendence, and also to emphasize her ultimate goal of immortality.

The hagiography of Lu Meiniang was copied from Su E’s 蘇鶚 Duyang zabian 杜陽雜編 (Miscellaneous Compilation from Duyang).�� Du abridged the detailed description of Meiniang’s marvelous skill of embroidery in the original account, but added a few wondrous events which supposedly occurred after she became a Daoist priestess-"she did not eat for several years, and there were often immortals descending down to meet with her” 數年不食, 常有神人降會。�� Here Du again elaborated on two of his favored themes--Daoist practice of fasting and the High Clarity concept of divine descending.

Finally, Du might even have applied the approach of changing certain character’s sex in order to add more female immortals. The account of Wang Fajin in the Taiping Guangji is included in the section of male immortals. This account was incorporated from the Xianzhuan shiyi, Du’s another text, but the entire story is about the same as that of the Jixain lu. The Sandong qunxian lu incorporates an abridged account from the Wangshi shenxian zhuan by Du as well.�� All three versions do not clearly state Wang’s sex,

�� See Kirkland, “Huang Ling-wei,” ��.�� Yunji qiqian, ��.��.�� Duyang zabian (Congshu jicheng chubian), �.��; also incorporated in Taiping

Guangji, ��.��. Originally, the story in the Duyang zabian was based on the “Lu Xiaoyao zhuan” 盧逍遙傳 (Hagiography of Lu Xiaoyao) by Li Xiangxian 李象先 who was a literatus from Mount Luofu; see the statement at the end of the Duyang zabian story.

�� Yunji qiqian,��.��.�� Sandong qunxian lu, �.�0�b-�0�a. See Li Jianguo, Xulu, �0��.

��0　臺灣宗教研究

and the only evidence showing Wang was likely female is that when she was young her parents asked a Daoist priestess to protect her. However, in the account there is also evidence indicating that the character may be male. It states that when Wang ascended to heaven for the first time, the Sovereign-on-High predicted that Wang would become “an unsurpassable attendant lad waiting upon the heavenly palace” 當為無上侍童, 入侍天府。�� Although “tong” 童 can also mean “child” and “young” and can be used for a young female immortal, when mentioning the Sovereign-on-High’s attendants the same account clearly differentiates blue lads (qingtong 青童) from attendant girls (shinü 侍女). In the account of Huang Guanfu from the Jixian lu, Huang called herself “Attendant Girl of the Supreme Clarity” 上清侍女, and two other female immortals “Attendant Girl of the Jade Emperor” 玉皇侍女 and “Attendant Girl of the Grand Thearch” 大帝侍晨女。�� Therefore, the “attendant lad” in the Wang Fajin account seems to refer to a male immortal. It is possible that Du incorporated an earlier account and added a priestess as Wang Fajin’s master at the beginning of the story in order to hint that Wang was female, but he forgot to change the “attendant lad” in the middle portion. Since this account is also included in the Wangshi shenxian zhuan, Du Guangting might have deliberately changed Wang Fajin’s sex, in order to add one more virtuous priestess-immortal into the Wang family. Moreover, as Wang Fajin’s story is about her transmission of a kind of Numinous Treasure 靈寶 rite of confession, her inclusion in the genealogy of the Jixian lu also shows Du Guangting’s integration of various practices and traditions of Daoism.

V. Concluding RemarksDu Guangting compiled the Jixian lu and presented it to the Shu rulers,

along with the Wangshi shenxian zhuan, possibly in about ��. In the Highest Clarity tradition, the Queen Mother’s consort and daughters were supposed to be surnamed Wang, and Du Guangting further connected the Queen

�� Taiping Guangji, ��.��; Yunji qiqian, ��.��.�� Yunji qiqian, ��.��.


Mother with Mount Goushi, where “Wang Zijin” who was revered as their first ancestor by the Shu rulers attained transcendence. Therefore, while the structure of the Wangshi shenxian zhuan presents a paternal genealogy of the sacred Wang clan--the Shu ruling clan, the structure of the Jixian lu serves as both a lineage of holy women and a maternal genealogy of the Wang clan. Together the two texts form a holy kinship net that interweaves the Shu male and female rulers with the two holy genealogies.

Although the political purpose of catering the Shu rulers’ interests and validating their government and royal lineage seems to be the initial cause for the compilation of the Jixian lu, Du Guangting completed the work with other serious, religious motivations. Through an examination of the extant eighteen hagiographies of Tang female Daoists contained in the Jixian lu, this article demonstrates that, while incorporating earlier biographical and hagiographical sources of Tang female Daoists, Du Guangting applied various approaches to modify or recreate their images according to his own opinion of the roles and images ideal for Daoist priestesses. The most common themes and elements that Du added to the sources include: �) the Highest Clarity concept of divine descending; �) beautiful, goddess-like appearance and forever youth of female Daoists; �) religious and genealogical connections with the Queen Mother; �) marvelous signs, magical powers, and supernatural attributes; �) self-cultivation and self-perfection of various Daoist techniques, including fasting, ingesting elixir drugs, practicing breath control, reciting the Highest Clarity scriptures, and practicing the rites of the Numinous Treasure tradition; �) accumulated hidden virtues and compassionate deeds toward people and creatures, which blended classical moral ideas on right and wrong into the mix of Daoist and Buddhist ethics; �) Confucian values such as filial piety and loyalty, and connections to political dimension of imperial court or local government. These themes are in accordance with Du’s grand project of integrating Daoist rituals, practices, cults, and traditions and synthesizing the three teachings of Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.�0

�0 The compilation of this first hagiography of female Daoists might have inspired by the Biqiuni zhuan 比丘尼傳 (Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns), the first


These observations indicate that the Jixian lu hagiographical accounts of Tang female Daoists should be used with great caution and should not be directly interpreted as historical accounts of their life and religious practice. The true value of the text does not rest in providing primary sources for studying medieval female Daoists, but rather in presenting the reflection of Du Guangting on their roles and places in Daoist tradition and society, and his architecture of the ideal role-model for Daoist priestesses, which synthesized Daoist self-perfection with Confucian values and Buddhist ethics.

There were historical and practical reasons for Du to work on such reflection and architecture. The Tang dynasty witnessed the prosperity of Daoist priestesses and other female Daoists. About one third of Daoist convents were nunneries, and women from all statuses of society were ordained as priestesses, including many imperial princesses and other aristocratic women. This situation made it impossible for the government and monasteries to strictly discipline the priestesses in many circumstances. The Tang priestesses assumed multiple roles of religious leaders, teachers, practitioners, adepts, poets, artists, and even lovers. They participated in social parties with men of various professions, especially with the official-literati.�� They were called “female immortals” 仙女 or “heavenly immortals” 天仙 and were regarded as semi-goddesses to a certain extent. Like many Daoist goddesses who were related to erotic legends, Daoist priestesses seem to have been quite free in their relationship with fellow priests or official-literati. Sexual practice of various kinds, which was still conducted in the Tang Daoist tradition, also provided excuses for their love affairs. �� The pure,

hagiography of female Buddhists by the Liang-dynasty monk Baochang 寶唱.�� For example, from Jiaoran’s 皎然 (ca. ��0–ca. ��) poem titled “I and Office Manager

Wang Meet the Zhang Sisters of Imperially Summoned Priestesses in Their Cloister to Enjoy the Snow Scene While Missing Reverend Qinghui” 與王錄事會張徵君姊妹煉師院玩雪兼懷清會上人 (Quan Tangshi, ��.��0�), we see the monk-poet Jiaoran and a local official visited the cloister where two priestess-sisters surnamed Zhang lived; they shared the pleasure of watching the beautiful snow scene and each of them wrote a poem celebrating the event.

�� See mainly Edward H. Schafer, “The Capeline Cantos: Verses on the Divine Loves of Taoist Priestesses,” Asiatische Studien �� (��): �–��; Suzanne E. Cahill, “Sex and the Supernatural in Medieval China: Cantos on the Transcendent who Presides over


virtuous, self-discipline and self-perfection images presented in the Jixian lu may imply Du Guangting’s unspoken disapproval of other roles performed by many Tang female Daoists.

Du Guangting’s reflection and architecture were not just individual concerns, but rather represented that of the Daoist tradition. As scholars have indicated, Daoist tradition underwent tremendous changes from the late Tang to the early Ming (��-��), and Du Guangting was a key figure standing at the beginning of this reshaping period. Du’s integration of Daoist rituals, practices, cults, and traditions and his synthesis of the three teachings initiated new dimensions of the development of Daoism in the following centuries.�� The role-model constructed by Du in the Jixian lu accounts was also actually followed by female Daoists from the Song dynasty onward, such as the self-cultivation and self-realization of Sun Bu’er (��-��) and many other priestesses of the Complete Perfection tradition, and filial piety, royalty, compassion, selflessness, and other virtues were written into manuals of women’s alchemy.��

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杜光庭與唐代修道女性的聖傳

賈晉華

澳門大學社會科學及人文學院副教授

摘要

本文綜合運用考證、宗教及性別研究方法考察杜光庭編寫《墉城集仙錄》的

目的，及其中所收唐代女道士及其他道教女信徒的十八篇傳世聖傳。本研究表

明，雖然此集的編纂起因於政治目的，杜氏將西王母推崇為不僅為女仙譜系之母

祖，而且為王氏神仙譜系（前蜀國王譜系）之母祖，但他對聖傳的編寫還體現了

嚴肅的宗教目標。他在採用有關唐代修道女性的傳記和聖傳資料的基礎上，運用

了多種方式修改或重塑她們的形象。因此，這些聖傳的真正價值並不在於提供有

關中世紀修道女性的生活和宗教實踐的歷史資料，而是在於反映杜光庭對女性在

道教傳統和社會中的角色和地位的反思，以及他對理想中的修道女性的角色典範

的設計，這一設計融合了道教的修真觀、儒家的價值觀和佛教的倫理觀。隨著三

教合流在宋代以降的進一步發展，杜光庭所塑造的這些修道女性的形象在後世實

際上成為道教婦女的典範。

關鍵詞：杜光庭、《墉城集仙錄》、《王氏神仙傳》、唐代修道女性、角色典範

設計

du guangting and the hagiographies of tang female daoists

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