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Practices and Beliefs
- Ancestral worship (拜祖) - A practice to honor the deeds and memories of the deceased. This is an extension to the filial piety from the teachings of Confucius and Laozi. Elders, seniors, extended families and particularly parents are to be respected, heeded and looked after. Respects continue after their deaths. Other than the Qingming and Chongyang festivals, descendants should pay tributes to ancestors during the Zhongyuanjie, more commonly known as the Ghost Festival. Traditionally, other than the tombstones or urn-covers, descendants are expected to install altar (神台) in their homes to which they would pay homage regularly in the day, with joss sticks and tea. The ancestors, parents or grandparents, are worshiped or venerated as if they are still living.
- Three Realms (三曹) - the belief of the Heaven, the Living and the Deceased exist side by side, the heaven a place for the saints or rested souls, hell for the criminous deceased. Historically the concepts were passed down from Taoist priests or Buddhist monks, until the writings in the late 19th century to 20th century like Understanding Heaven and Hell (洞冥寶記), Journeys to the Under-World (地獄遊記), Tiantang Yiuchi (天堂遊記), The Feast of Immortal Feast (蟠桃宴記) appeared. Almost all of these books appear only in Chinese with no English translation, and were generally shunned as superstitious fictions by scholars. It is an accepted Chinese belief that the living could contact the heaven with prayers in temples and with the dead by sense.
- Gan (間) - The living world where people exist in reality is referred to as Yang gan (陽間). The underworld where spirits exist after death is regarded as Yum gan (陰間), though this is not necessarily a negative place such as hell or diyu.
Gifts or Skills
In Tiantang Yiuchi (天堂遊記) a mortal visited with Lingbao Tianchun (靈寶天尊) one of the Three Pure Ones who explained in details the 36 ways to manipulate the heavens (Note 1) and the 72 ways to manipulate the surroundings (Note 2) and their applications.
Incredulous the whole 108 skills may seem, these were once gifts granted by the heavens to the mortal, to humble and to help persuade the mortals to the right ways. These skills range from alchemy or turning stone to gold, summoning rain, wind or thunder, exorcism, summoning deity to name but few, were first depicted in the Fengshen Yanyi, in the deeds and heroism of Zhong Kui (鍾馗), as well as in many folklores throughout the ages. According to the other guidance books, the lines between the three Realms were not marked originally, in fact hell was created in the Zhou Dynasty (1122 to 256 BCE) a later addition. Before then gifted mortals could communicate, summon and perform feats similar to those of deities. These become the core concepts or beliefs in the spiritual world in China.
Stereotypes were created in movies heralding from Hong Kong putting off some of these gifts as pure superstitions, admittedly much of which were accurate. For example practitioners from Maoshan school, an offshoot of Taoism were commonly depicted as rogue daoshi with vice in mind rather than virtue. No scholastic work have ever been done to verify if these were occults, fictions or contrivance. Lingbao Tianchun explained in Tiantang Yiuchi that these gifts were once practised by authorized agents or Taoist daoshi or priests who would come to aid those in need or in oppression, however as many had perverted the usage in the proper way thus making the heaven revoked these licenses as it were.
Modes of Communications
- Fuji (乩文) - planchette writing is practiced using either a rattan sieve (see coscinomancy) or a wooden stylus to write Chinese characters in sand or incense ashes. This Chinese tradition of automatic writing continues to be practiced in Daoist temples in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.
- Mun mai (問米) - is the communication directly with spirits / ancestors / people who have passed away. The most common usage is for finding and contacting deceased relatives or loved ones. It is an extremely rare skill within Chinese culture nowadays. The general cultural term is that people are raised from the underground or down from heaven to communicate. A western comparison is likely seance or necromancy. One of the most well known western individual born with this unique ability is American John Edward.
- Yum si lou (陰?路) - is the idea of flooding the spiritual road with spiritual money to ensure the person who died will reach their destination safely. In Chinese culture, the road to heaven, diyu or reincarnation may not be clear. By overloading the path with spiritual money, hopefully all troubled souls on the way will be too occupied with the money and leave the traveling-soul alone. This is an assurance for the living.
- Villain hitting (打小人) - is a folk sorcery popular in the Guangdong area of China including Hong Kong used to demonic exorcising.[1]
- Tone ling (通靈) - is to tunnel and channel through to communicate with spirits.
Figures
- Guiren (貴人) - Someone who can help you. Or is destined to help you.
- Xiaoren (小人) - Someone who can hurt you. Or is destined to hurt you. Simple methods such as kau cim can usually inform you whether a guiren or xiaoren is visible in your near future.
Objects
- Peach wood sword (桃木劍) - the definitive weapon used for demon exorcism during Taoist exorcism.[2] The ones from Long Mountain in Jiangxi province are particularly valued as the premium quality peach wood swords.[2]
- Stone tablets (石敢當) - the tablets are placed at main doors, junctions of small avenues, three-way junctions, river banks or ponds to gather positive energy and ward off evil spirit. Sometimes it is used to block natural mishaps such as natural disasters.[2]
- Tai mountain stone tablets (泰山石敢當) - the most powerful of the stone tablets are made from stones coming from Mount Tai. These stone tablets are shaped like the mountain forming the 5 fingers shape.[2] The ones inscribed with (泰山石敢當) go with along with the legend of the fight between war deity Chi You and the Yellow Emperor.[2][3] Supposedly goddess Nüwa dropped the tablet with the inscription on Chi You and scared him off. Yellow Emperor have since put the same inscription everywhere to scare off Chi You.[2]
- Spirit tablet - a spiritual home in your house for ancestor spirits.
Notes
- ^ *(English) "Demon-exorcising Service at 'Goose-neck Bridge' ". My Heart, My Home - 18 Districts Reach Out Together for Lovable Sights in Hong Kong. Retrieved 11 June 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f Lee, James. [2006] (2006). James Lee Astrology guide 2006 English edition. World publishing co. ISBN 962-432-503-0.
- ^ 石敢當. "石敢當." Tai-san stone. Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
References
- Note (1) Chapter Six of Tiantang Yiuchi on 36 ways to manipulate the heavens 天罡三十六法： 一、斡旋造化。 二、顛倒陰陽。 三、移星換斗。 四、迴天返日。 五、喚雨呼風。 六、振山撼地。七、駕霧騰雲。 八、劃江成陸。 九、縱地金光。 一○、翻江攪海。一一、指地成鋼。一二、五行大遁。 一三、六甲奇門。一四、逆知未來。一五、鞭山移石。 一六、起死回生。一七、飛身托跡。一八、九息服。 一九、導出元陽。二○、降龍伏虎。二一、補天浴日。 二二、推山填海。二三、指石成金。二四、正立無影。二五、胎化易形。二六、大小如意。二七、花開頃刻。 二八、遊神禦氣。二九、隔垣洞見。三○、迴風返火。 三一、掌握五雷。三二、潛淵縮地。三三、飛砂走石。 三四、挾山超海。三五、撒豆成兵。三六、釘頭七箭。
- Note (2) Chapter Six of Tiantang Yiuchi continues on 72 ways to manipulate the surroundings 地煞七十二術： 一、通幽。 二、驅神。 三、擔山。 四、禁水。五、借風。 六、佈霧。 七、祈晴。 八、禱雨。九、坐火。一○、入水。一一、掩日。一二、御風。 一三、煮石。一四、吐焰。一五、吞刀。一六、壺天。 一七、神行。一八、履水。一九、杖解。二○、分身。 二一、隱形。二二、續頭。二三、定身。二四、斬妖。 二五、請仙。二六、追魂。二七、攝魂。二八、招雲。 二九、取月。三○、搬運。三一、嫁夢。三二、支離。三三、寄杖。三四、斷流。三五、禳災。三六、解厄。 三七、黃白。三八、劍術。三九、射覆。四○、土行。 四一、星術。四二、布陳。四三、假形。四四、噴化。四五、指化。四六、屍解。四七、移景。四八、招來。 四九、云。五○、聚獸。五一、調禽。五二、禁。 五三、大力。五四、透石。五五、生光。五六、障服。 五七、導引。五八、服食。五九、開避。六○、躍喦。 六一、萌頭。六二、登抄。六三、喝水。六四、臥雪。 六五、暴日。六六、弄丸。六七、符水。六八、醫藥。 六九、知時。七○、識地。七一、辟穀。七二、魘禱。
External Links
- Sift Text dictation in Chinese from Master Lu #1, in Oct 2000
- Sift Text dictation in Chinese from Master Lu #2, in Dec 2000
- Tiantang YiuChi 天堂遊記
- Tiantang YiuChi 天堂遊記 in chinese
See also
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