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Chapter One

THE QING DYNASTY PERIOD

I. THE ARRIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHISM IN TAIWAN

     The history of Buddhism in Taiwan begins with the arrival of the Chinese people. There is no way to tell exactly when the first Han people migrated to Taiwan, but the Japanese scholar Kubō Noritada quotes the 1971 Gazetteer of Taiwan Province (hereafter 1971 Gazetteer) as indicating that there was a Chinese presence on the island well before the Dutch colonists arrived in 1624. The 1971 Gazetteer goes on to state that there were Buddhist monks among the Chinese inhabitants. However, these monks maintained only the most minimal forms of Buddhist practice, and were, in effect, mere caretakers of small temples built by the local Chinese people. Their main function was to provide funeral and memorial services for the Chinese population.(1) Whatever Buddhism existed in 1624 suffered from the Dutch law prohibiting the practice of any religion other than Christianity;-the penalty for "idol worship" was a public flogging followed by banishment.(2) Thus, a more substantial level of Buddhist presence and practice had to wait for

the first large-scale wave of Chinese immigrants, who arrived with the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 in 1661 following the downfall of the Ming dynasty.(3)

     Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662) had been carrying out a protracted rebellion against the Qing dynasty forces for many years when he decided to force the Manchu court's hand by besieging Nanjing. After his defeat at the hands of the Qing army on September 8 and 9, 1659, he grew less confident of his ability to maintain control over his base of operations along the southeastern coast of Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and decided to move his forces to Taiwan. He arrived toward the end of April 1661, accompanied by a fleet of warships carrying several thousand trained and battle-seasoned troops, and made landfall near the poorly manned and provisioned Dutch installation at Fort Provintia in the modern-day town of Tamsui [danshui 淡水]. By February the next year, he had succeeded in taking the southern Dutch installation of Fort Zeelandia (in modern Tainan city), thus expelling the Dutch and putting the entire island under his control. However, it quickly became dear that his plans for retaking the mainland from the Qing court .were unrealizable, and in his frustration he began to commit acts of madness and brutality against his own people, and even against his own family. Consequently, he soon lost the loyalty of his followers. He died in June 1662 at the age of 38.(4)

     The vast majority of those who followed Zheng Chenggong to Taiwan came from the provinces of Fujian 福建省 and Guangdong 廣東省. Even after his arrival with several thousand followers in 1661, people from these areas continued to migrate across the Taiwan Strait from these regions,(5) and indeed the southern Fujianese dialect, sometimes also called Hokkien or Taiwanese, remains the mother tongue of a majority of the people of Taiwan. There is, of course, much continuity between the religion of Taiwan and the mainland during the early years of the Qing dynasty. However, the act of emigration involves some uprooting as well, and so one finds that Buddhism in Taiwan e-exhibits its own special characteristics from its very beginnings.

     First, let us look at the continuities. During the early Qing period, the bodhisattva Guanyin 觀音菩薩 was the most popularly-worshipped Buddhist figure in Fujian province among the common people.(6) This has remained so in Taiwan right down to the present day. A government survey taken in 1959 found that Guanyin was the second most popular deity on the island, with 441 temples dedicated to her(7) (the first most popular was Wangye 王爺, a folk/Daoist divinity). In the same survey, Sakyamuni Buddha came in fifth with 306 temples.

     Another source of continuity lies in the connection between temples in Taiwan and counterparts on the mainland. Frequently immigrants to Taiwan brought with them either an image of a deity from their temple back home or

some incense ashes to enshrine in new temples they built in Taiwan. Very often these new temples simply took on the name of their mainland counterparts. For example, the Longshan Temple 龍山寺 in Taipei, founded in 1738, is named for a Longshan Temple in Quanzhou prefecture, Fujian province.(8) This temple was founded by immigrants from three counties (xian 縣 or yi 邑) in this prefecture (Jinjiang, Nan'an, and Huian (9)), who established the primary deity of the mainland temple, the bodhisattva Guanyin, as the main object of worship in the new temple as well.(10) So close have these links been maintained that the devotees of the Longshan Temple in Taipei periodically organize trips to the original Longshan Temple in Fujian province, taking the Guanyin image with them in order to "renew her power."(11)

     Sometimes, a more direct link was established when Taiwan temples recruited their abbots from mainland temples.(12) Since these monks also came primarily from Fujian and Guangdong provinces, the southern lineages of Chinese Buddhism dominated the scene in Qing dynasty Taiwan. Kubō Noritada believes that the Linji line of Chan Buddhism predominated at this time, although he is quick to point out that it was not a pure Chan lineage in the Japanese sense of the

term; it had much Pure Land thought and practice mixed in.(13)

     Temples in Taiwan continued to make use of the traditional method for meeting operating expenses: they owned farmlands and rented them out to tenant farmers. Some of the larger temples owned fairly extensive tracts of land. A Qing government gazetteer published in 1743 states that the Haihui Temple 海會寺 in Tainan owned 50 jia 甲 of pastureland in back and six jia of garden space out front (a jia equals 0.97 hectares, or about 2.396 acres). The Mituo Temple 彌陀寺 owned land in Fengshan County 鳳山縣 from which it received 72 shi 石 of rice paddy annually (a shi literally a "stone," is an ancient measure of weight equal to about 182.6 pounds).(14) The Fahua Temple owned about two jia of uncultivated land as well as an entire lake. The Zhuxi Temple 竹溪寺 received rice and paddy from 12 jia of land.(15) These landholdings were generally sufficient to provide for the temples' financial needs until the cession of Taiwan to Japan in 1895, when these lands were confiscated and temples suddenly had to look for other ways to support themselves.(16)

     One other factor o{ continuity deserves mention. The fortunes of Buddhism in Taiwan, as on the mainland, tended to rise and fall in dependence upon its relationship with the government and with the wealthy and intellectual classes.

Many temples were founded on land donated for the purpose by government officials and intellectuals, or using funds they provided for the construction of the temple buildings.(17) It is thus no accident that the earliest Buddhist temples flourished in the capital city of Tainan, although the constant military pressure from the Qing court during the period of Zheng rule must have made temple-construction difficult.

     However, when the Qing court finally took Taiwan in 1683, the political situation settled down, and other temples went up in the years following. The first of these, the Fahua Temple 法華寺 in Tainan, also shows the dependence of Buddhism on the governing and intellectual classes. The intellectual in this case is one Li Maochun 李茂春, who came to Taiwan in 1664 in response to Zheng Jing's 鄭經 call for all Ming loyalists who wished to avoid the disturbances on the mainland to come to Taiwan. He owned a hermitage (an 庵) called the "Dream Butterfly Garden" (Mengdie yuan 夢蝶園), which he donated to the monk Jiuzhong 鳩眾 for the construction of the temple.(18) In 1708 Song Yongqing 宋永清, the magistrate of Fengshan County, donated the funds for the new Front Hall and the Bell and Drum Towers of the Fahua Temple.(19) The Haihui

Temple (predecessor of the present day Kaiyuan Temple 開元寺, Tainan), is another example, having been built in 1692 on a plot of land behind a villa belonging to the Zheng family themselves.(20) Kubō concludes that many temples were sited in this manner.(21) This connection with the governmental, monied, and intellectual classes has continued to the present day, as we shall see in subsequent chapters.

     Despite the fact that Buddhism in Taiwan grew out of and continued to be an integral part of Chinese Buddhism as a whole, some very striking discontinuities appeared from the very beginning. First, on the mainland during that period, the Qing bureaucracy proscribed the construction of temples built by the common people (minjian chuangjian 民間創建). This is because the government was constantly wary of revolutionary secret societies that tended to congregate around temples, and so it placed heavy restrictions upon their founding. However, the government was much weaker and its ability to enforce imperial decrees much more limited on Taiwan than elsewhere in China, and so privately-built temples were probably more numerous. Many of these were simply set up at first in the largest room of a private residence until circumstances allowed the construction of a more suitable building.(22)

     This development produced some interesting results. Because so many temples in Taiwan were founded by private citizens with sometimes minimal knowledge of their religious traditions, many anomalies occurred. We have just seen how the immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong brought images from their home districts and enshrined them in their homes or in temporary huts until they could build a proper temple. One result was that occasionally, in the intervening years, the people forgot which deities the images represented and how they ought to be worshipped. So, for example, an immigrant group might bring an image of Tianshang Shengmu 天上聖母, a Daoist divinity, and worship her as the bodhisattva Guanyin, a Buddhist figure. Alternatively, they might take an image of Guanyin and worship her using Daoist rituals. A Japanese colonial government report issued in June of 1943 reported the existence of 304 temples dedicated to Guanyin where she was worshipped as a completely Daoist divinity under the appellation "Mother Guanyin" [Guanyin Ma 觀音媽]. The report goes on to say, "Pigs are butchered and chickens slaughtered in front of her image in sacrifice, and so she has completely lost all of her original Buddhist significance."(23)

     Lin Hengdao, a historian of Taiwan, believes that this "homegrown" quality gave Taiwan temples a special character that one does not encounter on the mainland. In several of the temples in Taiwan which have been active since the late Ming/early Qing period, one can see a profusion of altars dedicated to a

substantial number of divinities. Mr. Lin asserts that one does not see this on the mainland, but that there temples by and large are dedicated to one divinity only.(24) This is a very broad, unsupported generalization, however, and stands in need of verification.(25)

     Some temples in Taiwan during the Qing dynasty fulfilled functions that went far beyond the religious sphere. Large temples might very well also serve as community gathering places, meeting-halls for trade guilds and other groups, and loci of political power.(26) Again, I will quote Lin Hengdao's account of the role of the famous Longshan Temple in Taipei as an example.

During the Qing, Taipei's Longshan Temple was a central meeting place for trade guilds from the three yi [a small administrative district] of Jinjiang, Huian, and Nan'an in Quanzhou prefecture [in Fujian]. It had a great deal of economic muscle and military strength. It collected a five percent sales tax on anything imported from Quanzhou. At that time, the Longshan Temple not only took responsibility for Mengjia's municipal government, self-defense, and external relations, it also provided a center for socializing, education, and entertainment (Note: the township of Mengjia 艋舺 is now the Wanhua 萬華 district of Taipei]. In this respect its power was second only to the medieval European trade guilds. It could bring a lot of influence to bear on government policy. Once, during the Guangxu reign period [1875-1908], the Taiwan provincial governor planned to build a railroad, putting a large bridge across Mengjia. But because the authorities at the Longshan Temple opposed it, it was moved to another site across a rice paddy as a compromise.

From this one can see the government's weakness relative to the large temples.(27)

As Mr. Lin explains, the reason for this lies in the weakening of lineage ties that followed upon immigration into Taiwan.(28) In Fujian and Guangdong at the end of the tiling and the early Qing, villages tended to be dominated by a single family, and so the locus of political power at the village temple was the ancestral hall. However, people migrating to Taiwan left their families behind and typically settled in villages with other émigrés from other parts of the mainland. In these multi-family communities, temples founded on other bases than lineage affiliation took over the political and social functions previously belonging to ancestral halls.(29) Some Western scholars point out that these temples in Taiwan were not the basis for new forms of association, but were constructed after the fact as a symbol of an association already in existence.(30)

     Chinese and Japanese scholars are unanimous in their negative assessment

of the state of Buddhism in Taiwan between the brief reign of Zheng Chenggong and the cession of Taiwan to Japan in 1895. The modern Taiwan jurist and legal historian Chen Ruitang speaks for many other historians in attributing the weak condition of Buddhism in Taiwan during this period to Taiwan's status as an untamed frontier. He says

Taiwan at this time was a land of rain and miasmas, and the soil was undependable and inconsistent. Plague was rampant, and natural disasters followed upon one another. In addition, during the Qing dynasty, the ability and virtue of government officials constantly declined, the quality of government was poor, and those above competed with those below. The strong raised the banner of revolt, the weak merely swallowed their anger, and everyone lived out their days in fear.(31)

Under these conditions, the common people were not interested in learning meditation or in arguing the finer points of doctrine. Instead, they built temples for other purposes: divine protection; ethnic, common-surname, and common-hometown solidarity; trade-guild association and mutual aid; and local territorial community-building.(32)

     This was also not a situation attractive to the finest monks and nuns on the mainland, although some did come on the invitation of the laypeople who provided the funds and land to build temples. One of these monks was the Ven. Canche 參徹法師, who came over from Fujian province in response to a request from

Chen Yonghua 陳永華, a military staff officer who served under Zheng Jing. Chen was the moving force behind the construction of the Dragon Lake Grotto [Longhu Yan 龍胡嚴] in Chishan 赤山, Kaihua Settlement 開化里, and he invited Ven. Canche to serve as abbot. Canche arrived in 1675, but later moved on to found the Blue Cloud Temple [Biyun Si 碧雲寺] on Fire Mountain [Huoshan 火山] near present-day Chiayi 嘉義. The 1971 Gazetteer lists him as the first known monk to come over from the mainland.(33)

     The 1971 Gazetteer speaks very highly of Ven. Canche and his disciples. He was known for keeping the precepts, reciting sutras morning and evening, and worshipping the Buddha. When he first moved to Fire Mountain, he built a thatched hut in which to practice. He soon won the hearts of the local villagers with his piety and discipline, and they came and built a more suitable structure for him. When he passed away (the 1971 Gazetteer, quoting from the General History of Taiwan [Taiwan Tongshi 台灣通史] of Lian Heng 連橫, gives the date as 1790, 115 years after his arrival in Taiwan!), the local people buried him in front of the temple and built a pagoda for him.(34)

     The 1971 Gazetteer states that, during the Zheng era, Ven. Canche and his disciples were the only legitimate monks in Taiwan.(35) Further evidence of the paucity of properly-ordained monks comes from looking at tax revenue figures from the Zheng era. The government collected two taels in tax for each Buddhist ordination certificate, and five taels from Daoist ordination certificates. For one year (the 1971 Gazetteer, again quoting Lian Heng, does not say which), the Zheng government collected a total of 200 taels in ordination taxes, which shows what a small number of monies there must have been in Taiwan at that time.(36)

     There were somewhat more monks in the more settled situation of the mid- and late-Qing dynasty. However, because of the widespread destruction and renovation of temples that took place during the period of Japanese rule (a topic to which we will come presently), there is very little documentary evidence regarding other monks. A few names have come down to us in the 1971 Gazetteer as being among the more eminent of Taiwan's monks during the Qing period. One is the Ven. Chengsheng 澄聲法師, also called Shi'an 石岸, one of the abbots of the Haihui Temple (now the Kaiyuan Temple) in Tainan. He was known for his abilities in painting, singing, and playing go (a board game), and for his success in praying for rain during times of drought. Another was The Ven. Lianfang 蓮芳法師, also known as Ouchuan 藕船, who was the abbot of the

Sanguan Tang 三官堂.(37) He was widely acclaimed for his singing, painting, and skill in the medical arts. A third was the Ven. Zhaoming 照明法師, whose paintings of orchids and chrysanthemums were unrivalled, and who wrote the collection of poetry called "Songs Sung in Huanhua."(38)

     The 1971 Gazetteer, while praising the achievements of monks such as these, laments that legitimate monks at this time were the minority. Chen Ruitang explains that one of the reasons for the paucity of properly-ordained monks was the simple lack of any ordination platform in Taiwan during the Qing dynasty. Monks could and did accept disciples in Taiwan, shave their heads, and assign them monastic names, but if these disciples wished to take the full ordination, they had to go to the mainland at their own expense, something only a very few were willing to do. So, he says, the "monks" that one found in Taiwan during this time were usually only novices who had not undergone full ordination and the training in temple procedures that went with it. "They had shaved heads, wore robes, and lived in temples, and they thought that being able to recite a few

scrolls of scripture was sufficient."(39) The result is that the only legitimate monks in Taiwan at that time were those such as Ven. Canche who had come from the mainland and the few who had made the journey to the mainland and back.

     Chen also notes that there were very few nuns in Taiwan at the beginning of the Qing dynasty era, and none at the end. This is because the government actually put a stop to women's ordinations because of the confused and disorderly atmosphere that reigned at that time. The government also proscribed the ordination of Daoist priestesses for the same reason.(40)

     Taiwan, being a frontier area away from the centers of civilization and the arm of the law, came to be a haven for many fugitives. Some of these came into Taiwan wearing monk's robes and shaved heads, and the 1971 Gazetteer offers a selection of tales of these "dubious monks" [guaiseng 怪僧]. Here is one such story, taken from the Overview of the Unofficial History of the Qing Dynasty [Qingchao Yeshi Daguan 清朝野史大觀]:

At the time when Zheng Chenggong occupied Taiwan, there was an extraordinary monk in Guangdong who took up his robe and bowl and crossed the sea to visit him. He claimed to be familiar with the arts of disappearing into the earth(41) and predicting the future by observing the wind, which gave him the key to the martial arts, and he said that Zheng should test him and see. Zheng did as he suggested, and in discussing strategy with him found he went with certainty straight to the crux of each question, and that he was able to draw together the general outline [of the present situation]

with [the ways of] antiquity. Zheng marvelled at him, honored him as a "national teacher" [guoshi 國師], and accorded him special treatment, which the monk accepted with equanimity.

     This monk was by nature proud and haughty, even with his fellow monks. At first his peers treated him with deference because of the esteem in which Zheng held him, but over a long period of time, his presumptuousness even began to bother Zheng, who came to suspect him of being a Qing court spy. The disgruntled monks, seeing their opening, fanned up Zheng's animosity until he came to regard this monk as [no more than a] bandit. His heart became burdened with the problem of how to get rid of him, but he also was afraid of the monk's prowess in qigong 氣功, and feared that if his plans went awry, he might bring disaster upon himself.

     Now there was a man named Liu Guoxuan 劉國軒, a hoodlum who used to hang around on the coast. Once he had gotten drunk and killed someone, and had joined Zheng's forces for fear of being caught and punished. Zheng admired his courage, and had given him a high post. Upon hearing Zheng's complaint, he arched his back and vowed to stake his own life against that of this troublesome monk to repay Zheng for his patronage. Zheng was afraid that the venture would fail, but while he hesitated, Liu read his thoughts, went down on his knees before him and declared, "The success or failure of this matter is your servant's responsibility. Let your majesty not give it another thought."

     So Liu proceeded to strike up a friendly relationship with this monk. A little over a month later, Liu called the monk over to bathe with him in a pond fed by hot springs, and engaged the monk in friendly banter, saying, "The National Teacher has matched the Buddha's own original nature. You have a clear mind that seeks the Way, and your prowess in Gongfu is perfect. Suppose that you encountered Matanga herself, could you maintain your composure?"(42) The monk smiled and said, "The Venerable Canliao used to say that the plaster and wadding of Chan [practice] do not drive away the spring breezes,(43) but this old monk has engaged in long and thorough application, and the vow that I took to remain aloof from the female form is yet enough to obstruct the tempter!"

Liu feigned admiration at this, and the two arranged to meet another day.

     Soon afterwards, [Liu] gave a feast for the monk in an official reception hall for those who had offered significant public service. It was a real "red lantern and green wine" [i.e., debauched] affair, with fine dancing and excellent singing, and all the guests got dead drunk. Liu began to speak of his past and present erotic adventures, and pressed the monk to drink some more. The monk remained cheerful and composed, and kept his attention fixed on Liu. At last, the wine gave out, and Liu said, "The night is old and the evening quiet, and it is hard to find amusement. But in a back room here there is some secret sport that is very lively. Would you care to come and have a look?" The monk thought, "This is an even more interesting bit of business. What would it hurt to play along?"(44)

     So, casting aside discretion, the monk followed Liu to the secret room. Once there, he looked around a few times and saw [Liu's] pallets with their red woollen blankets covered with brocaded cushions and embroidered pillows. On top of these he saw rows of handsome young boys and fine women, most of them without a stitch of clothing on, each one of them in turn displaying their sensuality up [at him]. The brightly flickering lamplight made their lustiness appear more vividly, and their flowery faces and jadelike skin became all the more sexually beguiling.

     Now there was one particularly enchanting young girl who crouched down by his side and signalled him with her finger. Would not her tender feeling and lithe bearing [be enough to] send the mind of the beholder into disorder? The monk at first appeared to ignore her, and then to regard her only lightly. But in an instant he felt his vitality give out, and he called for a servant to arrange a seat, as if he had no more strength to stand. Then Liu, as soon as he saw that this monk was unable to maintain his composure, came up from behind, took up his sword, and swung it. Little flowers of blood spattered the ground, and the monk's head fell with a cracking sound.(45)

This is an extreme example, and probably has more to say about popular views on monastic life and the power of spiritual practice than it does about history. Be

that as it may, most monks of this period were probably not quite this "dubious," and their number may have included, in addition to criminals, former officials in the Ming state bureaucracy. Timothy Brook, in his study of gentry-monastic relations during the Qing dynasty, produces evidence that a number of scholar-officials who remained loyal to the deposed Ming court hid themselves by shaving their heads, donning Buddhist robes, and living in temples. They did not, however, take even the most basic of lay Buddhist precepts, and so cannot be considered genuine Buddhist monks.(46) Li Maochun, mentioned above in connection with the Fahua Temple in Tainan, may have been one of these, and others might have followed. As further circumstantial evidence of this possibility, we may note that the three eminent monks named in the 1971 Gazetteer achieved their distinction in such pursuits as the scholar-dilettante of late Ming gentry society would have valued: art, poetry, games, and so on.(47)

     So much for the monks, dubious or otherwise. As we have observed, they were few in number and for the most part not of high quality. However, predominance in the Taiwan Buddhist scene throughout the Qing dynasty lay not with them, but with another strain of Buddhism altogether, a form variously called zhaijiao 齋教 ("vegetarian religion"), baiyi fojiao 白衣佛教 ("white-clad(48) Buddhism"), or zaijia fojiao 在家佛教 ("lay Buddhism"). This form of Buddhism

has been largely ignored by Western-language scholarship on Buddhism in Taiwan,(49) but it is important that the reader understand its place and significance, because its fate under the Japanese colonial period has had repercussions in the emergence of the modem Buddhist scene.

II. ZHAIJIAO DURING THE QING DYNASTY

     A. Overview. The 1971 Gazetteer contains the following definition of Zhaijiao:

Zhaijiao means to adhere to a vegetarian diet and worship the Buddha within the householder's life. One does not leave human society, but while earning one's living in the city and village, adheres to the Buddhist precepts as a layperson.(50)

This form of Buddhism exists outside the traditional and orthodox structure of Chinese Buddhism with its relationships of mutual service and support between clergy and laity. Zhaijiao represents a strain of lay Buddhism that is completely independent of the Buddhist sangha, does not look to it for teaching, and does not support it with contributions. During times of political instability it has sometimes been suspected of alignment with rebellious White Lotus societies and been subject to persecution.(51) For these reasons it, like other forms of folk

Buddhism, has been held in suspicion and contempt by the government and the orthodox Buddhist world.

     To set the scene briefly, zhaijiao in Taiwan distributes itself into three dominant sects: the Longhua 龍華派 ("Dragon Flower"), Jinchuang 金幢派 ("Gold Pennant"), and Xiantian 先天派 ("Prior Heaven") sects. The 1971 Gazetteer mentions a fourth sect that is sometimes listed alongside these three, called the Kongmen ("Gate of Emptiness") sect [kongmen pai 空門派], but this "sect" has no patriarchate and no organizational structure, and so should not really be counted.(52) Ideologically, all three sects claim to be the descendants of China's ancient cultural heroes and sages of the past, the Buddha, the Indian and Chinese Chan patriarchs as well as their own founders,(53) but in reality, all three are the direct or indirect descendants of the Luo Teaching [luojiao 羅教], founded by Luo Qing 羅清 (1442-1527).(54) The origins, teachings, and development of the Luojiao on the mainland have been laid out in detail by Daniel Overmyer in

many books and articles, and so I will leave these issues aside.(55)

     The fact that all of these sects were identified primarily by the term zhajiiao indicates that they and others saw vegetarianism as their most distinguishing characteristic. The word zhai 齋, still used today to indicate the ideal Buddhist diet that eschews not only meat, fish, and wine but also the five members of the onion family (onions, garlic, leeks, scallions, and chives), was originally a Confucian term. Within imperial circles, it indicated a set of purificatory practices that all participants in the Sacrifice at the Round Altar were to engage in for the three days prior to the sacrifice.(56) Among such things as not inviting guests to one's home, abstaining from entertainments, and not sweeping tombs, one finds injunctions against eating meat or drinking wine. Because of the connotations of purification and special discipline, Buddhism borrowed the term to designate its special dietary proscriptions. Zhaijiao in Taiwan, in concert with other folk Buddhist sects on the mainland, took this as their special defining quality.(57)

     This should not be taken to mean that all zhaijiao adherents were vegetarian all of the time. The Xiantian Sect was particularly strict on this point, but the other sects left some room for individual members to exercise discretion.(58) Prof. Lin Meirong, an anthropologist at the Academia Sinica, carried out field research at a modern Longhua hall in 1990, and found that strict vegetarianism was reserved for members who had received the full initiation, which involves learning the secret formulae of the sect and receiving a new religious name beginning with the character pu 普 ("universal"). Others, wishing only to participate in the hall's activities and learn something of the sect's teachings, had the option of undergoing a lower initiation, which only obligates them to maintain a vegetarian diet on certain days, or for a certain meal each day. They called this initiation huazhai 花齋, and the religious name conferred to these members began with the character miao 妙 ("marvelous").(59)

     Besides vegetarianism, members of zhaijiao also vowed to observe other rules of conduct as well. During the initiation ceremony, members take refuge in the Three jewels of Buddhism (the Buddha, the Teachings, and the Community), take the traditional Five Lay Precepts [zaijia wujie 在家五戒] (not to kill, not to steal, not to indulge in illicit sex, not to lie, and not to drink alcohol), and vow to engage in the Ten Virtues [shi shan 十善] (i.e., to refrain from the Ten Demeritorious Acts [shi e or shi wu 十惡], viz., killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, double speech,

malicious speech, salacious talk, greed, anger, and false views). In addition, they take vows not to engage in other antisocial behavior: eat meat, smoke opium, smoke cigarettes, chew betel nut, gamble, or set firecrackers.(60)

     Researchers at different periods have reported varying degrees of elaborateness in the initiation ritual itself. Japanese researchers in the early twentieth century in Taiwan found that, except for the Xiantian Sect, becoming a zhaiyou 齋友 ("friend in vegetarianism") was fairly easy; one only needed to obtain the consent of the local hall and agree to abide by its rules of conduct.(61) J. J. M. de Groot, working in Xiamen (Amoy) at around the same time, produced a translation of a complete initiatory liturgical text of the Longhua Sect that would not take more than about an hour to complete, and includes the conferral of the Three Refuges and the Five Lay Precepts. However, de Groot did not, as far as his report goes, actually attend a ceremony.(62) Lin and Zu, on the other hand, reported that at their field site in Chang-hua 彰化, they found that the full initiation required seven full days to complete, during which time the initiates were kept secluded in an upstairs dormitory within the hall, and that the ceremony included much sutra-recitation and teaching of sectarian secret knowledge as well.(63) This might indicate the wide variability that one would expect in a highly decentralized religious group, or it might merely demonstrate the inherent difficulty in obtaining accurate data about a secret sect's most intimite rituals.

     Given that zhaijiao initiates take refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddhism, an interesting question arises: how do they reconcile this vow with their explicit rejection of the clergy's traditional supervisory role over laity? The translation of the Longhua initiation text given in J. J. M. de Groot's Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China includes this revealing section, which comments upon the third of the Three Jewels:

The Third Refuge! Bow down your heads to the earth and take refuge in the Sangha! This Sangha is not the tonsured clergy, nor the clergy who collect subscriptions from house to house; it is composed of all disciples who offer incense and keep temples in the country-hills, and to whose care our Old Patriarch [i.e., Luo Qing] has entrusted the religious books he left.(64)

Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui, in their field research, found that contemporary adherents maintain a similar pride in their independence from the "tonsured clergy," and even go so far as to assert their superiority on the following grounds: first, they maintain a "secret transmission" of teachings from the sixth Chan patriarch Huineng 惠能 (638-713) which was vouchsafed to the laity and denied to the clergy [chuansu bu chuanseng 傳俗不傳僧].(65) Members of this particular hall further asserted that monks and nuns all stood in the lineage of the Northern School patriarch, Shenxiu 神秀, a claim which, viewed in the context of traditional

Chan historical polemics, casts aspersions upon the efficacy of the clerical order's doctrines and religious practices. Second, because there is no need to seek ordination, their way is open to a broader spectrum of the population, and offers people the opportunity to cultivate religious practices while remaining engaged in family and society. Third, because they are not celibate, they can transmit the teachings to their posterity, whereas clergy cannot.(66)

     As the above presentation of zhaijiao apologetic makes dear, adherents of these sects consider themselves to be pure Buddhists; indeed, they believe their own credentials on this score to be more valid than even the clergy's. However, the question of their identity is far more complex, and requires one to take into consideration both the sources of their traditions and their actual doctrines and beliefs. On the basis of an examination of zhaijiao's scriptures and rituals, Zheng Zhiming asserts that there are four distinct sources of zhaijiao identity. The first is Buddhism, in particular the typically Buddhist emphasis on reciting scriptures and the Chan teaching of Sudden Enlightenment. The second is Daoism, from which it derived its practices of reciting spells and its emphasis on practices for "nourishing life" [yangsheng 養生] and Inner Alchemy. The third is Confucianism, from which it drew the content of its ethical teaching and the concept of the "Way of Heaven" [tiandao 天道], and from whose offshoot Neo-Confucianism it drew its cosmology. The last is folk religion, from which it derived its customs and its style of teaching and evangelization.(67)

     The specific mixture of these elements varied with each sect, each new generation of leadership, and each new "precious scroll" (baojuan 寶卷, the name given to folk scriptures frequently written by means of spirit mediumship). For example, over a period of two centuries, Prof. Zheng traced the doctrinal development of Xiantian Sect baojuan from an almost purely Buddhist style at the end of the Ming Dynasty, to a more overtly Daoist emphasis on Inner Alchemy [neidan 內丹] during the mid-Qing, to a balance of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism with the latter predominating during the late Qing period.(68) Marui Keijirō also noticed a Confucian bias in the Xiantian Sect as well as a slant towards Daoism in the Jinchuang Sect during his investigations on behalf of the viceregal government early in the twentieth century.(69)

     However, zhaijiao adherents always considered themselves to be Buddhists and not syncretists, and Prof. Zheng points out several factors that lend credibility to this claim. First, adherents typically reserved their veneration for Buddhist figures, such as Guanyin and Sakyamuni Buddha (although, as we shall see, this claim needs refining). Second, besides the scriptures composed by Luo Qing and some of his disciples, the scriptures that adherents chanted liturgically were strictly from the Buddhist canon, such as the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, and the Larger Sukhavativyūha Sūtra. Third, in form they were closest to Buddhism in their adherence to vegetarianism, the style of their rituals and in their terminology. Finally, the names that they themselves gave to their religion,

besides those with the connotation of vegetarianism, usually included the term "Buddhism," such as "White-clad Buddhism" or "Lay Buddhism."(70)

     Outside observers were never as certain of zhaijiao's Buddhist identity. Japanese government officials responsible for managing religious affairs during the colonial period may have referred to zhaijiao as "lay Buddhism" [zaike bukkyō 在家佛教], but they consistently classed it separately for statistical purposes, and used characteristic zhaijiao terminology to refer to their places of worship (zhaitang 齋堂, "vegetarian hall") and their adherents (zhaiyou 齋友, "friend in vegetarianism"). Recently, scholars in Taiwan have begun exploring the phenomenon of zhaijiao in a more rigorous way, and as the picture of these sects' actual doctrines and beliefs becomes more clear, their differences with more established Buddhist doctrines becomes more stark.(71)

     I do not propose here to present a detailed description of zhaijiao's cosmology, soteriology, pantheon, and practices; such a study would be a book in itself, given the fluidity of these things even within a single lineage. However, a general picture drawn in very broad strokes of just the Xiantian Sect's beliefs reveals a doctrinal framework that is both gnostic and millenarian. According to Xiantian cosmology, behind all reality and all sages and buddhas stands a creator-

deity, frequently conceived as a goddess called the "Unborn Venerable Mother" [wusheng Laomu 無生老母] who also goes by many other names as well.(72) This mother created all living beings, 9.6 billion in all, who subsequently found their way to the Saha world where they became entangled in delusion and suffering and forgot the way home. In her mercy, the Mother decided to sent a series of emissaries to call her children back. The identities of these savior-figures varies from one document to the next; in one scheme, the first emissary was Dīpankara Buddha, whose preaching brought 200 million suffering children back home, the second was Sakyamuni Buddha, who saved another 200 million. This leaves 9.2 billion beings still entrapped and in need of a savior. For some this future savior will be Maitreya, while for others he has already come in the person of Luojiao founder Luo Qing.(73) In another scheme, the first 200 million are saved by Daoism, the next 200 million by Buddhism, and the last 9.2 billion will be saved by Confucianism.(74)

     As these examples, all drawn from Xiantian literature, show, belief in the Unborn Venerable Mother was strongest in that sect, although there are scattered references to her in the writings of the other two sects as well.(75) It is also easy to understand why the Japanese investigators often took the buddhas and sages of the past as the objects of zhaijiao veneration: the Unborn Venerable Mother, being ineffable, was never portrayed in paint, wood, or stone and her image was never enshrined on an altar as the others were. According to Zheng's report, her presence was most often represented by a lamp on the central altar.(76)

     As is readily apparent, this scheme combines a Daoist or Neo-Confucian cosmology with a Pure Land Buddhist soteriology. In fact, in one Xiantian precious scroll, the entire content of religious practice prescribed by the three saviors during their periods of preaching (called the "three Dragon-flower Assemblies" [Longhua San Hui 龍華三會] consists of progressively longer invocations of Amitābha Buddha's name: a four-character invocation, a six-character invocation, and a ten-character invocation. In other schemes, however, the soteriology is based more on Daoist concepts of Inner Alchemy, and what the saviors teach are methods for generating the "Internal Elixir" [neidan 內丹]. This particular scheme was especially popular in Jinchuang as well as Xiantian teachings.(77) Still others

mix the two, claiming that the soteriology proclaimed at the first Dragon-flower Assembly focused on generating the Internal Elixir, that of the second meeting revolved around Chan-style meditation, whereas the third will preach the "Principle of the True Scripture Without Words" [wu zi zhen jing li 無字真經理].(78) This shows the extreme volatility of zhaijiao soteriological concepts, which, along with the fact that these are secret societies even to the present day and researchers simply do not know what practices members undertake as they attain to higher grades, should encourage caution against overly-hasty generalizations.

     It is also apparent that the cosmology implicit in the Xiantian Sect's creation-fall-redemption story, which it shares with the other zhaijiao sects,(79) reflects concepts regarding the generation of the cosmos that go all the way back to the Laozi 老子, which contains descriptions of an ineffable source from which all created things derive and to which they seek to revert.(80) Some of the terminology derives from Neo-Confucianism, especially the identification of this primal source as the wuji. the "limitless" or the "Extremity of Non-being," a term coined by the Neo-Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017-1073) during the Song dynasty in his "Commentary on the Diagram of the Great Ultimate" [Taiji Tu Shuo 太極

圖說].(81) However, in zhaijiao soteriology, it appears that: the return to this source is not a reversion of created things to their primal state, but a return of sentient beings to a personified creator-deity. This indicates the influence of Buddhist Pure Land soteriology, and the folk conception of the Pure Land as a palpable place to which one could go after death.

     This short presentation of zhaijiao beliefs should also shed some light on the question of how Buddhist these sects really were. Their soteriology sometimes coincided with more traditional Chinese Buddhist schemes of salvation, especially in recommending the invocation of Amitābha's name and seated Chan meditation to "see one's nature" directly. However, it should be apparent that their conception of the predicament from which living beings need salvation differs radically from the traditional Buddhist exposition. In contrast to the usual Buddhist assertion that beings have been caught in the cycle of birth-and-death since beginningless time, zhaijiao posits a well-defined etiology of human existence, and salvation comes as a reunion with one's long-lost mother, a concept that must have appealed powerfully to Chinese culture.

     In terms of organization, all the sects of zhaijiao shared a hierarchical structure that placed each member at a certain "level" which denoted both their spiritual attainments and the kinds of responsibilities they were eligible to undertake. For example, the Longhua sect, at its most elaborate, had a total of twelve levels, although after its transmission into Taiwan these were reduced to

only nine. Under the twelvefold scheme, new converts attained the first two levels by memorizing a mantra of 28 words and by "proceeding from Hinayana to Mahayana scriptures." At the third level, they received a religious name (with pu 普 as the first character) and at the fourth level were allowed to induct people into Hinayana teachings. At the fifth level, they could induct others into the Mahayana teachings, although at both these levels their responsibilities were limited to inducting; they were not allowed to teach. At the sixth level, they were allowed to teach the 28-character mantra to others, thus conferring on them the first level rank. When they attained the seventh level, they were permitted to attend to general religious affairs, and at the eighth level, they could confer the second rank. At the ninth level, they could induct others into the third level and confer religious names. Upon reaching the tenth level, they were permitted to conduct meetings and lead in organizing religious affairs. The eleventh level was a sort of assistant to the one person who occupied the twelfth level and was the leader of the entire sect.(82)

     While this exact structure was peculiar to the Longhua Sect on the mainland, ail zhaijiao sects were organized in a similar fashion following similar principles. In Taiwan, the Longhua Sect only recognized nine levels, the Jinchuang Sect five, while the Xiantian Sect was the simplest of all, having only two levels.(83) Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui also point out that these levels do not count for much in contemporary zhaijiao groups. The two top ranks, that of kongkong 空空 and

taikong 太空, are occupied by the real leaders of the Longhua Sect, although they report that members of the hall where they did their fieldwork doubted whether the sect even had a kongkong anymore. As to the other ranks, most members did not aspire to them. The conferral of a rank in one hall might not be recognized by another hall, and at any rate, seeking advancement in. rank carried the implication that one was willing to assume heavier responsibilities in the hall.(84)

     B. The Longhua Sect. 龍華派 Of the three generally-recognized sects, the Longhua is the largest and has left behind the most detailed records and elaborate sectarian ramifications. Its mainland source is a sect of Luojiao known as Laoguan Zhaijiao 老官齋教, whose name marks the first appearance of the term "zhaijiao." This term is thus properly applied only to the Laoguan Sect and the Longhua sect which issued from it. The application of this name to the other two sects as well is a convention originated by the Japanese colonial government in Taiwan after 1895 for convenience in compiling statistics.(85)

     The founder of the Laoguan Zhaijiao sect was one Yao Wenyu 姚文宇 (1578-1646), although he himself claimed to be the third patriarch of the sect. The first was, of course, Luo Qing himself. The second is Yin Jinan 殷繼南 (1540-1582),

a native of Chuzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. As the dates indicate, Yin was born several years after Luo Qing's death in 1527, which precludes any possibility of a direct master-disciple relationship between the two men. At the age of eleven he went to the Jinshan Temple 殷繼南 for ordination into the Buddhist novitiate, but was turned away by the abbot. Four years later, Yin converted to Luojiao and took on the religious name Puneng 普能. He quickly made progress in religious austerities, and gathered a large number of followers. He soon began making the claim that he was a direct reincarnation of Luo Qing, and calling himself the "Holy Patriarch of the Limitless" [Wuji Shengzu 無極聖祖], a name which would lead believers to associate him with the highest goddess of the religion. In 1582, his activities attracted official attention, and he was arrested and executed at the age of 42 on charges of inciting the masses.(86) He left behind a number of writings, and his "Limitless Orthodox Sect" [wuji zhengpai 無極正派] went through alternating periods of growth and decline. The Laoguan Zhaijiao sect came into being sometime after Yin's death, and his Limitless Orthodox Sect merged with it before its transmission into Taiwan.(87)

     Yao Wenyu was born in the same prefecture in Zhejiang as Yin four years before the latter's death. Legend has it that Yao did not open his mouth to speak until the age of four. Sometime in his early adulthood he took refuge in Yin's "Limitless Orthodox Sect" and took the religious name of Pushan 普善.(88) At the

age of 36 he achieved initial enlightenment and undertook a tour of the tombs of his two predecessors, after which he called three meetings in order to declare himself the Third Patriarch of Laoguan Zhaijiao. He called these meetings "Longhua Hui" 龍華會 ("Dragon Flower Assemblies"), and at each meeting thousands of followers came to take refuge under him.(89) The name and number of these meetings were highly symbolic, calling to mind the soteriological scheme outlined above in connection with Xiantian doctrines. These meetings mark the real beginning of the Longhua Sect, which derived its name from them.(90)

     From the third patriarch Pushan (i.e., Yao Wenyu) to the thirteenth patriarch Pucong 普聰, the Longhua sect had a unified lineage of leaders that gave it a point of focus despite subsequent brachiation. The lineage, called the "dharma-burden system" [fadan xitong 法擔系統] during this time, followed this course:(91)

     From among the 3000 or so followers Pushan attracted at his Dragon-flower Assemblies, he had eighty-one chief disciples divided into Left, Middle, and Right Branches [zuozhi 左枝, zhongzhi 中枝, youzhi 右枝]. [n addition, the Middle Branch was divided into seven divisions, and so Pushan's organization was sometimes referred to as the "Three Branches and Seven Divisions" [sanzhi

qipai 三枝七派].(92) Of these eighty-one disciples, only two are known by name, Puxiao 普宵 of the Left Branch and Puqing 普菁 of the Right. Puxiao was the more eminent of the two. He carne from an educated background and had tremendous energy and evangelical skills, so Pushan in 1639 deputed him to travel south to Fujian and Jiangxi Provinces to spread the teachings. In this he was wildly successful, founding no less than forty-nine new halls in under two years. He is also credited with editing all of the Longhua Sect's scriptures and liturgical texts. Unfortunately, he died in 1644 at the age of 49, two years before Pushan. Nevertheless, the sect honors him as the fourth patriarch.

     After Puxiao's death, Pushan selected another prominent follower, Pubu 普步 (lay name: Yang Shichun 楊時春) to be the fifth patriarch. He was also an educated man and a talented manager of temples and people, but political circumstances did not allow him to utilize the full range of his abilities. At this time the Idling Dynasty was failing, and political unrest was rampant, forcing Pubu to flee for his own safety to the mountains in panning Prefecture 建寧, Fujian Province.

     The next three generations of patriarchs remained in this region, and not much is known of them or their activities. Their names were Puqian 普錢, Pude

普德, and Pufang 普方. It was the ninth patriarch, Putong 普通, who finally left the mountains in order to escape a smear campaign that was being mounted against him by the local inhabitants, and went to Fuzhou. There he was welcomed by a fellow Longhua adherent named Pusheng 普昇. Pusheng had a follower named Puyue 普月. and when Putong passed away on the seventeenth day of the ninth month, 1696, he passed the dharma burden on to him, making Puyue the tenth patriarch.

     After receiving the dharma burden, Puyue moved to Guanyinpu in Fuqing county to spread the teachings. There he founded the Yishi Hall [Yishitang 一是堂], a hall that was to be of great consequence later on. The next two patriarchs, who spent a lot of time and energy building up this hall, were a pair of brothers. The eleventh was Pule 普樂 (lay name: Zhang Jiayi 張嘉義), who died in 1779, and the twelfth was Puying 普應 (lay name: Zhang Lang 張朗), who died in 1788. Unfortunately, they both died without having named a successor, and as the Longhua Sect searched for a new patriarch, a great deal of factional infighting ensued.

     At last, sect members held a general election, with the result that a relatively senior member of the sect named Pucong 普聰 attained the office. Pucong was evidently a very humble man who did not aspire to high office, and so he immediately passed the dharma-burden on to Puyou 普有, a younger man. However, the general membership of the sect, angry at having their wishes

thwarted, forced Pucong to resume the office of patriarch. Puyou, a man of quite different temperament and ambitions, refused to accept the fact that he was no longer patriarch after the dharma-burden had been legitimately passed on to him, and so he absconded with the official seal of zongchi 總敕.(the title of the leader of the sect) and fled to White Horn Ridge [Baijiaoling 白角嶺] in Xianyou county. There he set up his own zhaitang called the Hanyang Hall [Hanyang Tang 漢陽堂], thus forming a new subsect and ending forever the unified patriarchate of the Longhua Sect.

     It is possible that the Longhua Sect existed in Taiwan during its period of unity. According to a manuscript found in the Dehua Hall [Dehua Tang 德化堂] in Tainan city, one of the predecessors of this hall, called the Huashan Hall [Huashan Tang 化善堂] was founded in Qianlong 30 (1765). It also records that there was another hall, called the Kaihua Hall [Kaihua Tang 開化堂], which "was destroyed." The authors of the 1971 Gazetteer have corroborated this with a statement found in Lian Heng's General History of Taiwan to the effect that "toward the end of the Qianlong Reign, there was a White Lotus uprising that spread to four provinces. [The government] dispatched many troops, and commanded the destruction of all the 'vegetarian halls' in existence [tianxia zhaitang 天下齋堂]."(93) The 1971 Gazetteer identifies this with the White Lotus rebellion of

1793, and so concludes that the Kaihua Hall mentioned in the manuscript that "was destroyed" must have been razed around this time.(The authors humorously add, "since it obviously did not self-destruct.").(94)

     The Longhua sect was unified at least until the death of the 12th patriarch in 1788, and so, if w-e have evidence of halls having been established in 1765 (assuming the manuscript is accurate), or before the White Lotus rebellion of 1793, then it follows that there were pre-schismatic Longhua halls in Taiwan before the end of the 18th century. However, it appears that all of the halls that endured into the period of the Japanese occupation stood in the lineage of one of the three major subsects that formed after the debacle which ensued in the process of electing the 13th patriarch.

     1. The Yishi Hall Branch. The Yishi Hall Branch [Yishi Tang Pai 一是堂派] was the earliest of these to emerge, simply by virtue of being the center from which the other two branches split off. The headquarters [benshan 本山] of this branch or subsect was the Yishi Hall in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. As the reader will recall, this was the hall founded around 1696 by the tenth patriarch Puyue and developed by the next two patriarchs, It is not dear exactly when this branch entered Taiwan, but it seems to have been somewhere around the time of Pucong's election as 13th patriarch, or somewhere during the Qianlong Reign period (1736-1796). The earliest Yishi hall on record is the Shenzhai Hall [Shenzhai

Tang 慎齋堂], established in Taichung 台中 in 1797.(95) According to a manuscript written around 1900 by an Yishi Branch devotee named Zheng Langsong 鄭郎松 of Taichung,

During the time of [12th patriarch] Puying 普應, [13th patriarch] Pucong 普聰, and [14th patriarch] Puyao 普耀of the lineage of Pubai 普柏 of the Right Branch, those who came to Taiwan included Purong 普榮, who founded the Dadun daochang 大墩道場. [i.e., the Shenzhai Hall in Taichung], and Puci 普賜of Zhunan 竹南 [a township south of Hsinchu 新竹]. Furthermore, Puci's disciple Pumiao 普妙 was the founder of the Shande Hall 善德堂 in Jiasheng 嘉盛.(96)

According to the records of the Shenzhai Hall, Purong came from Fujian province, and founded the hall in 1797. He expanded the hall in 1804, and after his death in 1841, leadership passed on to his disciple Pujie 普傑.

     The Yishi Hall Branch focused its missionary activities on the area north of Taichung, and at its peak had 25 halls in what was then Taichung zhou 州 (now Taichung city 台中市 and Taichung 台中, Nantou 南投 and Changhua 彰化 counties 縣), and 43 in Hsinchu zhou 新竹州 (now Hsinchu 新竹, Taoyuan 桃園, and Miaoli 苗栗 counties 縣). It acted independently of the headquarters in Fujian until 1914, when Mr. Xu Lin 許林 went to Fujian to receive the title taikong (the second highest rank in the Yishi Hall Branch, meaning "great emptiness") from the kongkong (the highest rank, meaning "emptiness of

emptiness"), 28th patriarch Pumei 普梅. There was a kongkong of the Longhua Sect in Taiwan at the time, but he was a member of the Hanyang Hall Branch, and Mr. Xu felt the need to receive the conferral at the hands of the leader of his own branch. After his return, he went ahead and promoted others to the rank of taikong as the kongkong's proxy, primarily because of the increasing difficulty of travel to the mainland as the Japanese occupation progressed.(97) In addition to this, the 30th patriarch Pujing's 普經 visit to Taiwan in 1929 further reinforced contact with the home temple.(98)

     2. The Hanyang Hall Branch. 漢陽堂派 We have already seen how this branch was founded as a direct result of the break between the 13th patriarch Pucong and his putative successor Puyou. Not long after his defection, Puyou, now the zongchi of his own subsect, sent his fuchi(99) 副敕 Putao 普濤 to Taiwan to establish the branch there. Putao arrived somewhere around 1797 and went directly to the capital city, Tainan, where he remained for eight years. What happened after this is difficult for the present writer to determine, because the 1971 Gazetteer and the researchers who depend upon it for their information are all ultimately dependent upon the garbled chronology contained in the manuscript left by Mr. Xu Lin, whom we have already met. The earliest hall to have been constructed, according to him, was the Huashan Hall 化善堂, which, as we have

already seen, was said to have been built in 1765, at least twenty years before the schisms which divided the Longhua Sect

     However, the 1971 Gazetteer goes on to state that Putao, assisted by his follower Pujue 普爵 built the Huashan Hall in 1799, and then built the Deshan Hall 德善堂 in 1814. This presents another problem. This date is well beyond the eight years that Putao is supposed to have remained in Taiwan, and indeed only two lines after staling this fact the 1971 Gazetteer tells us that Putao boarded a ship to go back to Fujian Province in 1804, but unfortunately died on the way.(100) I believe that this is simply a typographical error, either in the 1971 Gazetteer or in its manuscript sources. The date given for the founding of the Deshan Hall is "Jiaqing 19," but if the character shi 十 ("ten") is omitted, then the date becomes 1804 and the discrepancy is resolved.

     As for the variant dates in the founding of the Huashan Hall, there are two possible explanations. One is that there were two halls by that name. The other is that there was a Huashan Hall built in 1765, but early in the nineteenth century it was merged with the Deshan Hall to create the present Dehua Hall 德化堂. which brought it into the Hanyang lineage.(101) I should note, however, that the 1971 Gazetteer states very clearly on page 74b. that the Huashan Hall was built in 1765, and on page 75a that Pujue built (not rebuilt) the hall in 1799, which makes the first explanation more likely. At any rate, the Dehua Hall moved to its

present location in 1834, but under the Japanese occupation the whole branch was subordinated to the Japanese Buddhist establishment, which compromised its character as a true zhaijiao group. It seems to have still existed in some form at the time the 1971 Gazetteer was edited, because the editors give the name of the current head of the group at that time. The 197T Gazetteer lists a total of thirteen halls in this branch,(102) which kept its headquarters in Tainan and concentrated its proselytizing efforts in the area south of Chiayi."(103)

     3. The Fuxin Hall Branch. The Fuxin Hall Branch [fuxin tangpai 復信堂派] was the last of the three subsects to form. The initial driving force behind its formation was the 14th patriarch Puyao 普耀. His lay name was Lu Bing 盧炳, and he had a strong religious bent and had maintained a vegetarian diet since childhood. At the age of 24 he joined the Yishi Hall and threw himself into its religious life, but left in disgust after the controversy surrounding the election of the 13th patriarch, in spite of his having been chosen as the 14th patriarch. He lived for a while in the Hanyang Hall, but eventually left and founded the Fuxin Hall 復信堂 in Fuzhou city. It went on for a while as a part of the Hanyang Hall Branch, but because of. Puyao's energy and charisma, it grew until it was in a position to act independently and establish its own lineage. This branch entered Taiwan at about the same time as the Hanyang Hall Branch, and operated mainly in the central region, eventually establishing evolve halls around Taichung and

Changhua.(104)

     C. The Jinchuang Sect. 金幢派 The Jinchuang ("Gold Pennant") Sect claims to be a direct offshoot of Luojiao by virtue of the putative connection between its founder, Wang Zuotang 王佐塘 (1538-1620) and the fourth patriarch of Luojiao, Sun Zhenkong 孫真空. According to a pair of sectarian chronicles quoted in the 1971 Gazetteer. Wang Zuotang was born in 1564.(105) In 1578, his niece was accepted as an empress in the central palace, giving him the title of "outer uncle" [waishu 外叔]. However, Wang Zuotang had already been ordained as a monk at this time with the name Guangming 光明, and so he received no special ceremonies or treatment. By this time, Longhua Sect founder Luo Yin [another name for Luo Qing] had passed away, and his son Fo Zheng 佛正 and daughter Fo Guang 佛廣 (also named Jiliunü 機留女) had taken over their fathers work upholding lay Buddhism, but had changed their sectarian affiliation to Longhua. Wang Zuotang wanted to marry Luo's daughter Jiliunü, but she refused his requests, and so he married a daughter of the Zheng family instead. At this time he took leave of Master Luo, and went to Guanlin Prefecture to follow the Patriarch Sun. At this tune. Patriarch Sun was an eminent follower of the Longhua Sect.

     In 1582, Sun ceded his leadership position, to Wang, then only eighteen years old. Eventually, Wang's talent and success made it possible for him to break free of the Longhua Sect altogether, and by 1612 he took a grand four of Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, where he proselytized openly in the streets.(Other sources give his itinerary at this time as Jiangnan, Henan, Guangdong, and Guangxi provinces.(106)) His procedure was to raise a gold-colored banner and beat a gong to attract an audience, which accounts for the name of the sect he founded. Enough people took refuge in his new teaching to worry the imperial court, and he was arrested. However, the court pardoned him in 1619 on account of his niece's position. There were apparently no further incidents, and he passed away quietly ten years later, leaving his sect in the care of his disciple and second patriarch Dong Yingliang 董應亮 (1582-1637).(107)

     This biography provides many important bases for the Jinchuang Sect's self-understanding. It provides Wang with two different connections with Luo Qing, first in his failed attempts to marry Luo's daughter, and second in his alignment with Luo's fourth-generation disciple Sun Zhenkong. Furthermore, his 1612 tour gives the halls in those areas the cachet of the founder's presence. However, in 1993, Academia Sinica scholar Wang Jianchuan 王見川 made a systematic survey of a broad range of sect documents and collated his results in order to determine the real course of Wang's life, and discovered that much of the traditional account did not stand up to scrutiny.

     As to his dates, Wang notes that Jinchuang literature gives two possibilities for his birth year, and several for his death. The dates accepted in the above account derive from a mnemonic verse probably borrowed from another sect's literature, which fixes his dates as 1564-1630. However, this birth date would have him enjoying his early successes at an improbably young age. Thus, he believes that 1538 is more credible. As to his death, Wang traces traditions which have him dying at ages sixty-seven, eighty-one, and eighty-three, and finds the last of these the most believable. The first is based on the traditional chronology already rejected, and the second is based on a misunderstanding: at age eighty-one, according to some texts, he handed over leadership of his sect to his disciple Dong Yingliang, and died two years later. Thus, his death date would be 1620, when he would be eighty-three by Chinese reckoning.(108)

     More significantly, Wang disputes Wang Zuotang's connections both with Luo Qing's daughter Fo Guang and his fourth disciple Sun Zhenkong, or that he actually undertook any grand tour of the southern provinces. Scholars examining the 1971 Gazetteer had already noted that Wang Zuotang, born nearly forty year's after Luo's death by the traditional chronology and eleven years afterward by Wang's corrected chronology, would be unlikely to have proposed marriage to Luo's daughter.(109) However, Wang Jianchuan, moving beyond the 1971 Gazetteer and looking at other sources, found that Luo's daughter Fo Guang and Jiliunü were not the same person at all, something the 1971 Gazetteer asserts

parenthetically. Rather, Jiliunü was one of Luo Fo Guang's disciples, and furthermore, relations between Wang Zuotang and Jiliunü, far from conducing to a proposal of marriage, were in fact very tense.(110)

     The other relationship by which the Jinchuang Sect explains Wang's connection to the Patriarch Luo Qing is that with the latter's fourth generation disciple Sun Zhenkong. The first problem with this explanation is that the documents never actually identify this figure as a disciple in the Luo lineage, or even give his full name ("Zhenkong," meaning "true emptiness," was probably a religious cognomen). The second problem is that Sun Zhenkong's movements are fairly well documented, and his areas of activity do not coincide with Wang Zuotang's. Thus, the true identity of the "Patriarch Sun" who appears in Wang's biography remains unclear.(111)

     Finally, Wang Jianchuan raises doubts as to whether Wang Zuotang ever actually undertook the grand tour that spread the sect into several other provinces. Using the corrected chronology, Wang would have been over seventy years of age, which makes such an arduous undertaking very unlikely (though not impossible). In addition, Wang Jianchuan discovered that the sect document used by the compilers of the 1971 Gazetteer as a source for Wang Zuotang's life is the only one that records this tour. At least four other documents state that Wang deputed his chief disciple Dong Yingliang to go on this tour, and the time and itinerary they give match those recorded for Wang very closely. Thus, Wang

Jianchuan concludes that it was Dong, and not Wang, who went on this evangelistic journey. It is likely that Wang Zuotang simply remained in Beijing and passed his days quietly after his release from prison.(112)

     The second patriarch of the sect, Dong Yingliang 董應亮 (1582-1637), has a fascinating biography. He was born outside Beijing in a district called Yongping in 1582, but lost his father at an early age and was given over to live with his uncle. His uncle changed his name to Qingcao青草, dressed him in female clothing, and sold him as a serving-girl to a family named Li. There he came under the influence of the Li's daughter Yuying 李玉英, who was a Longhua devotee. At the suggestion of a friend named Chang Shaosong 常少松, however, he soon switched his allegiance to Wang Zuotang's Jinchuang teaching. Through his connection with Chang, who held a very high position within the sect, Dong made the acquaintance of Wang himself, who came to think very highly of the young man. He and Li Yuying eventually married, and after 1612, when Wang was arrested, he was sent southward on a tour of the countryside to spread the teachings. During this trip he converted his three most important followers, one of whom was Cai Wenju 蔡文舉.

     While he was on this tour, he received word that his teacher Wang Zuotang was critically ill. He hurried back to Beijing with his three disciples, and Wang on his deathbed declared that Dong was to succeed him as the second patriarch of the sect.(In Wang Jianchuan's critical recasting of this tale, this would have

been in 1618, when Wang was eighty-one years old). Chang Shaosong was not willing to accept this at first, but both Wang and Dong convinced him that Dong was Wang's reincarnation (no easy feat when Wang was still living!), and the succession went forward. Things did not go smoothly from there, however; in 1635 a White Lotus rebellion broke out, and the Jinchuang Sect was implicated in it. Twenty of its leaders were executed, six were banished, and another hundred or so were imprisoned. Dong Yingliang himself was executed by dismemberment in the 16th day of the sixth month, 1637. His followers had all been executed or had fled. Only Cai Wenju of the Shude Hall Branch [Shude Tang Pai 樹德堂派] in Fujian remained alive.(113)

     As we have seen, Cai Wenju 蔡文舉 (1584-1654) took refuge under Dong during the time that the latter was despatched southward as a missionary. Like Dong, he was originally a Longhua devotee, but converted to the Jinchuang teachings under Dong's influence. He quickly attained a leading role in the sect and went to Fujian to found the Shude Hall in 1622, thus spreading the sect further south. He was among those imprisoned after the 1635 uprising, but fortunately for the sect, he was pardoned and lived to propagate the sect's teachings and practices. Unlike his predecessor, he lived out the rest of his life peacefully and died at a ripe old age.(114) Although he had 10 personal disciples who spread the teachings to other parts of the mainland, he remained in control of the Shude Hall in Fujian, and the leadership of this hall passed down to the sons and

grandsons of his family for at least ten generations.(115)

     It was Cai's grandson, Cai Quan 蔡權, who first brought the Jinchuang sect into Taiwan sometime after the Qing court captured and subdued the island in 1683.(116) Cai Quan established two halls in Tainan (one of which, the Shende Hall 慎德堂 is still standing). At the same time, another Jinchuang missionary named Weng Wenfeng established another hall, also in Tainan. Other missionaries came, and the Jinchuang sect flourished primarily in the belt connecting Tainan 台南, Kaohsiung 高雄, and Pingtung 屏東, although Jinchuang zhaitang were established in other parts of the island as well. The sect recruited most of its members from among the laboring, mercantile, and farming classes, and established 27 halls in all.(117)

     Huang Mei 黃美 reports that the sect still maintained a presence in Taiwan when he visited in 1980 and found the head temple in Tainan. It was a fine, three-story building with a side hall to maintain the cult of the founder Wang Zuotang. However, for reasons that will become clear when we discuss the period of Japanese occupation, the group had lost the true lay character of zhaijiao. and the building was in the care of clergy, with a single elderly woman left to

carry on the traditional Jinchuang religious observances.(118)

     D. The Xiantian Sect. 先天派 By all accounts, the Xiantian Sect was the strictest in observing a constant vegetarian diet, and furthermore it did not allow its members to marry.(119) Japanese field investigators also noted that its entry requirements were the most difficult to fulfill.(120) For this reason, it was always the smallest of the three sects in Taiwan, having only twenty-one halls across the island when the Japanese conducted their field investigations and published their results in 1919.(121) It has also been one of the most secretive and ill-documented. J. J. M. de Groot was able to find out almost nothing of the sect, even though he had the acquaintance of a number of sect members; although he devotes a chapter to the sect in his Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, he provides almost no concrete information on its practices, and says nothing at all about its history.(122) The 1971 Gazetteer was forced to rely entirely on the oral testimony of the sect's leader in Taiwan early in this century, and other works on zhaijiao present no more than a page or two of sect history.

     As has been the case with the other two sects, the patriarchal lineage includes several figures prior to the actual historical founder, who in this case is

Huang Dehui 黃德輝 (1624-1690), a native of Jiangxi province. Xiantian lineages are unanimous in naming him as the ninth patriarch, but the names of the first eight are quite fluid. Huang Mei, looking through a lineage book in a Xiantian hall in Pingtung county in 1983, found the record as follows: 1. Bodhidharma; 2. Patriarch Shenchong; 3. Patriarch Sengcan; 4. Patriarch Daoxin; 5. Patriarch Huangmei; 6. Patriarch Huineng; 7. Bai Huairang,- 8. Luo Weiqun. This list reveals a heavy reliance on traditional Chan school patriarchal lineages: the first, third, fourth, and sixth patriarchs are identical to the patriarchs in the corresponding positions of the Chan tradition. The seventh is one of sixth Chan patriarch Huineng's more famous disciples (although the lay surname as given in the book is incorrect), and the eighth is probably Luo Qing.(123)

     The 1971 Gazetteer, citing oral testimony taken during the Japanese period by Lin Delin 林德林, presents a different list. The first patriarch is still Bodhidharma, but the second is "Caodong" 曹洞 (normally the name of an entire lineage of Chan Buddhism, and not of any one person), and the seventh position in the lineage is actually shared by Huairang and Mazu Daoyi, the first being the latter's master during the Tang dynasty and both standing in the lineage leading up to the founding of the Linji school.(124) Zheng Zhiming 鄭志明 does not attempt to list the first eight patriarchs before Huang, but notes that the Xiantian Sect, like the Longhua Sect, traces its lineage from China's highest

antiquity, where the first patriarch of the teachings is the mythical world-creator Pangu 盤古, through all of China's ancient cultural heroes and enlightened emperors, Confucius, Mencius, then over to India and the Buddha, then back to China via Bodhidharma.(125)

     Regardless of the actual persons who make up the patriarchate of this sect. it is clear that the transmission of its teachings do not depend upon a physical meeting between master and disciple; if one considers Mazu Daoyi a shareholder in the seventh position, then there is an interval of some six and a half centuries between his death and the birth of the eighth patriarch Luo Qing. Similarly, there is another interval of nearly one hundred years between Luo Qing's death in 1527 and Huang Dehui's birth in 1624. How did the sect legitimate this succession? One day, according to a sect tradition, Huang was in Lushan, a famous Buddhist site in Jiangxi Province, when he received Patriarch Luo's "hidden mind-dharma," apparently by telepathy. With this transmission from afar, he was authorized to re-establish the Luo teachings and to assume the role of ninth patriarch. He worked with great vigor and success in his own home territory.(126)

     After his death, the sect suffered a gradual decline for about half a century, after which Wu Ziyang 吳紫洋 was named tenth patriarch at the Youyuan Temple 有緣寺, although who commissioned him is unclear. After his death in 1784, the patriarchate passed to He Liaoku 何了苦. Eleven years later. Patriarch He was

exiled into military service in Guizhou, which took the teachings into the southwest. Yuan Zhiqian 袁志謙 assumed the mantle as the twelfth patriarch in 1802. and in 1823 founded the Xigan Hall 西乾堂 in Chengdu. From this hall he worked actively to spread the teachings in the Yangtze River valley. In 1826 the patriarchate passed to a new generation, and once again was shared between two men, Yang Shouyi 楊守一 and Xu Jinan 徐吉南. The fact that these two men both gained recognition as the thirteenth patriarch seems symptomatic of a general decentralization that prevailed during this time, for history records several new sub-sects that got their start during their tenure: Yuanming Dao 圓明道, Guiyi Dao 歸一道, Tongshan She 同善社, and, most importantly for Taiwan religious history after 1945, Yiguandao 一貫道.

     After this, the sect lost any semblance of a unified patriarchate, but Xiantian records in Taiwan record one Peng Shuide 彭水德 as the fourteenth patriarch and Lin Jinmi 林金秘 as the fifteenth. After their passing, the Xigan Hall in Chengdu split into two other halls with separate lineages, the Sanhua Hall 三華堂 and the Xihua Hall 西華堂, the former of which was led by three men whom the subsect remembers collectively as the sixteenth patriarch. After they passed from the scene, the Sanhua Hall itself underwent a further schism into no less than four more halls under four separate leaders. For the history of Xiantian in Taiwan, two of these are important. The first is the Wanquan Hall 萬全堂,

founded by Xia Daohong 夏道洪, the man who is, from the Taiwan perspective, the seventeenth patriarch. Around 1861, two missionaries, Li Changjin 李昌晉 and Huang Changcheng 黃昌成, came to Taiwan all the way from Chengdu in Sichuan in order to bring the teachings into a new region. Later, sometime during the Guangxu reign period (1875-1907), another missionary named Chen Yunrong 陳運榮 came from the second sub-sub-sect, based in the Ganyuan Hall 乾元堂 in Chengdu.(127)

     According to tradition, when the first pair of missionaries arrived in Taiwan, they decided to draw lots in order to determine who would work which territory. As it came out, Lin went to the northern end of the island, while Huang went south. They both worked very hard and enjoyed some measure of success, although, as noted, the strictness of the sect's rules and requirement of celibacy kept it from ever rivalling Longhua in popularity.(128) Altogether, they founded some twenty halls.(129) In the north, Lin personally inducted the man who would dominate the sect in Taiwan through the early Japanese period and who would provide most of the oral information upon which Japanese researchers depended for their information: Huang Yujie 黃玉階 (185?-1918).

     Huang Yujie was a native of Taipei, but he received his consecration from Lin in the Chongfo Hall in Taichung in 1867.(130) Five years later, another missionary

named Cai Yunchang 蔡運昌 arrived from the mainland, and Huang traveled with him on his preaching tours. Cai saw the young man's potential and later gave him the mission of taking the teachings back to his native Taipei, equipping him with books and a sum of money before sending him on his way.

     At that time, Li Changjin, the missionary to the north, was still active and made an annual tour of his territory. During the first year that Huang was in Taipei, Li gave him a hail to cultivate. Huang worked assiduously during this time, and in 1892 he founded the Xingshan Hall Hill:. As the 1890s progressed, all of the original missionary-leaders of the Xiantian sect passed away, and Huang Yujie gained recognition as the general leader of Xiantian in Taiwan. His leadership became official in 1908, when the leader of the sect in the Fujian-Zhejiang area paid a visit to Taiwan and formally charged Huang with responsibility for the entire island. Again, two years later, another sect leader from the mainland came and reaffirmed Huang's status, conferring upon him the formal title of dinghang 頂航 ("first navigator").(131) He remained very active in religious affairs for the few years that remained to him, and we will see a few of the tasks he undertook on behalf of the wider religious community in Taiwan in the next chapter, as well as the further vicissitudes of the sect. Suffice it here to say that, in a lecture delivered toward the end of his life, he lamented the fact that the sect was then in

decline.(132) He passed away in 1918.

III. CONCLUSION

     It may appear to the reader that this chapter lacks a clear focus on the subject at hand, which is Chinese Buddhism in Taiwan, and often strayed afield in its discussions of folk religion, devotions to Daoist divinities, and zhaijiao. However, this meandering is simply the natural result of the unboundedness of Chinese religion in Taiwan during the Ming and Qing periods. To take one example, as of this writing. Nationalist government documents officially list the Longshan Temple in Taipei as a Buddhist temple, and in its past it has had Buddhist monks and abbots in residence. However, a look at the history of this one temple has also revealed its functions as a guild-hall, a center for one particular Hokkien-speaking sub-ethnic group (i.e., the people from the sanyi 三邑 area in Fujian province), and a Daoist/folk temple enshrining the images and worship of many different divinities, very few of them Buddhist. Furthermore, it currently has no discernible Buddhist characteristics at all beyond the monks and nuns who regularly stand at the gates, bowl in hand, soliciting donations from the passersby. Yet its official classification as a Buddhist temple stands.

     If an apologia need be made for the attention given to zhaijiao and its sectarian histories, I would repeat what was stated earlier, that is, that zhaijiao represents itself as a form of orthodox Buddhism, and thus from the emic point of view falls within the scope of this study. In addition, should the reader desire

an etic justification, I would point out that it shared at least one functional characteristic with Buddhism proper. The reader may recall that temples in Taiwan during this period generally served the interests of various social groups: people from a common hometown or district on the mainland, trade groups, local communities centered on earth-god temples, lineage-groups, and so on. In no case does participation in the life of a temple call for the adoption of a belief system or the acceptance of a new social grouping that supercedes the ones one is born into, with two exceptions: Buddhism and zhaijiao. Buddhism with its ideology of leaving the household", and zhaijiao with its millenarian soteriology, both called the believer to enter into an alignment with a new group of people based on commonly-shared beliefs, not on social, residential, familial, ethnic, or occupational circumstances.

     One may understand this through a typology developed by Winston Davis for studying Japanese religions.(133) The general run of folk and Daoist temples, guild-halls, and ancestral temples are what Davis calls "locative" religious organizations. That is, they function to integrate community, kinship, hometown-provenance, and occupational groups, the very characteristics which Stephan Feuchtwang imputes to temples in Taiwan during the Qing period.(134) In addition, they exclude people from outside these groups, their deities have undifferentiated functions within the lives of group members, their authority is reflected in the

political, economic, social, and cultural circumstances of their constituency, and leadership in their cults generally rotates among members of the group.

     Buddhism and zhaijiao during this period, on the other hand, fit the pattern that Davis says is typical of the cults of "adventitious" deities. Membership in these religions falls outside of or cuts across natural kinship, geographical, or occupational groupings. They are inclusive and missionary. Their deities have special stories and personalities: the Buddha and the Venerable Unborn Mother are not the faceless bureaucrats of Chinese religion in general. Both rely on a charismatic leadership that leads to an ordained body of spiritual leaders rather than drawing leaders directly from the community. Because of these shared characteristics which oppose them to the kind of religion that usually falls within the purview of anthropological study, I have chosen to include Buddhism and zhaijiao together in this study. In the following chapters, we shall see that political circumstances forced the two even closer into each others' company as they sought safety from official persecution through solidarity.

     Such, then, was the state of Buddhism in Taiwan during the Qing era. Taiwan was a wild frontier, and attracted people of all sorts. The monastic establishment contained a few virtuous monks and not a few charlatans, but for the most part consisted of unlearned temple caretakers and funeral specialists who lived quietly and did their jobs for the surrounding community without the benefit of full ordination. Most of the laity were ignorant of Buddhist doctrines and scriptures, resulting in such anomalies as animal sacrifices before images of

Guanyin. and so forth, and some broke free of the clergy and forged their own faith in the form of zhaijiao. Many too turned Buddhist temples into guild-halls and bases for political power. But the whole scene was to change drastically in 1895 with the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the Sino-Japanese war. It is to these changes and the interactions between Chinese and Japanese Buddhism as well as between Chinese Buddhism and the Japanese government that we will him our attention next.

Footnotes

(1) Kubō 1984, p. 49-50. [back to text]

(2) Li T'ianchun. "Mingmo Qingchu de Taiwan Fojiao" ("Taiwanese Buddhism During the Late Ming and Early Qing Periods"), in Zhang. ed. l979b, p. 59. [back to text]

(3) In many books on Taiwan history, his name is given as "Koxinga." which is an old Dutch romanization of guoxingye 國姓爺, meaning "lord of the imperial surname." [back to text]

(4) Mote and Twitchett. ed. 1988, vol. 7, p. 717-724. [back to text]

(5) Kubō 1984, p. 51-52. [back to text]

(6) Xing 1981, p. 11. [back to text]

(7) Lin Hengdao 1976, p. 42. [back to text]

(8) Buddhism in Taiwan n.d., p. 19. [back to text]

(9) These are the so-called sanyi 三邑 or "Three Counties," which took in much of the metropolitan area around Amoy. Immigrants from these three counties tended to band together in trade and temple associations wherever they settled. On the situation in the area that would become Taipei, See Feuchtwang 1974, p. 265; on a similar sanyi temple alliance in the nearby town of Shulin 樹林, see Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974, p. 73. [back to text]

(10) Editorial Committee for the Complete Annals of the Longshan Temple 1951, p. 10. [back to text]

(11) Buddhism in Taiwan n.d., p. 19-20. [back to text]

(12) Xing l981, p. 11. [back to text]

(13) Kubō 1984, p. 53. [back to text]

(14) Equivalencies for the jia and the shi were taken from the table of "Dates, Measures, and Usages" in Shepherd 1993, p. xvii-xviii. Wang Shih-ch'ing gives the shi as equivalent to 133 pounds in Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974, p. 76, n. 3. Shi can also be a measure of capacity, a "picul" (Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary, p. 817), equal to ten dou 斗 (Morohashi 1984, vol. 8, p. 300c). [back to text]

(15) Chongxiu Fujian Taiwan Fuzhi 1743; Reprint 1983, p. 1112-1113. [back to text]

(16) Lin Hengdao 1976, p. 42. [back to text]

(17) Xing 1981, p. 10. Xing notes that this activity continued through the time that Taiwan came under the Qing court's control. Since the intellectuals in question were invariably Confucian scholars, Xing contends that this directly refutes Holmes Welch's assertion (on page 23 of his The Buddhist Revival in China) that Confucians and Buddhists were mutually antagonistic at that time. [back to text]

(18) Chongxiu Fujian Taiwan Fuzhi 1743; Reprint 1983, p. 1113. This story is reproduced in every Qing-era gazetteer of Taiwan that I have examined. [back to text]

(19) Chongxiu Fujian Taiwan Fuzhi 1743; Reprint 1983, p. 1113. [back to text]

(20) Chongxiu Fujian Taiwan Fuzhi 1743; Reprint 1983, p. 1112. The 1743 Gazetteer goes on to state that, as was the case with most Chinese temples at the time, its income derived from the rent of arable land to tenant farmers. [back to text]

(21) Kubō 1984, p. 52. [back to text]

(22) Chen Ruitang 1974, p. 2. Chen's study relates to Daoist and folk temples as well as Buddhist temples, arid so it is unclear that his comments on this issue have much to do with the latter. [back to text]

(23) Taiwan Sōtokufu Bunkyōkyoku 1943. unpaginated, mechanically reproduced manuscript in the collection of the Ethnology Institute Library, Academia Sinica. Taipei, Taiwan. [back to text]

(24) Lin Hengdao 1976, p. 41. [back to text]

(25) Mr. Wing-kai To, a colleague in the History Department at Carleton College who has done extensive field research into folk temples in southeastern mainland China, informs me that he has seen many multi-altar temples in the course of his research. However. Lin's assertion may well be correct as far as Buddhist temples are concerned. This topic awaits further investigation. [back to text]

(26) Chen Ruitang notes that during the Qing, trade-guilds traditionally paid allegiance to particular gods, usually of Daoist provenance. For instance, musicians had a connection with Wangye, druggists with Nong Dadi or Huatuo Buddha, and so on. That guilds would pool their resources to build temples, then, was not unusual. Chen Ruitang 1974, p. 3. [back to text]

(27) Lin Hengdao 1976, p. 42. [back to text]

(28) John Shepherd also writes: "...migration to the frontier inhibited rather than stimulated lineage growth and fostered voluntary associations on non-agnatic bases of shared experience and provenance." See Shepherd 1993, p. 512. n. 26. [back to text]

(29) Lin Hengdao 1976, p. 42. Founding temples together was one of many possible methods that Chinese immigrants could use to establish linkages in their new multi-family, multi-ethnic homes. The reader should also be aware that anthropologists working in Taiwan have found many villages that were in fact dominated by a single surname, which means that one should not generalize Lin Hengdao's assertions to all towns and villages in Taiwan. Lawrence Crissman, for example, found that single-surname settlements were common along the coast, less common in the interior. See Crissman 1981, p. 96. [back to text]

(30) See for example, Wang Shih-ch'ing's account of two formerly hostile ethnic groups around the town of Shulin who built a temple to symbolize their truce in Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974, p. 81. Stevan Harrell points out that many religious organizations and rituals in the area of his fieldwork came about in response to local environmental conditions. Thus, even people of common ethnicity, language, and cultural heritage were likely to settle into different patterns of temple affiliation and religious rituals. See Harrell 1981, p. 126 and passim. [back to text]

(31) Chen Ruitang 1974, p. 2. [back to text]

(32) The concrete ways in which these temples and related religious associations were founded, staffed, and financed, as well as the purposes they served, both this-worldly and other-worldly, are outlined in Wang Shih-ch'ing 1974, p. 71-82; and in Feuchtwang 1974, p. 263-264. [back to text]

(33) 1971 Gazetteer p. 48b. The 1743 Gazetteer mentions this temple and its founding by Chen Yonghua, but do not mention Ven. Canche or give the date of its founding. Neither does any other Qing-era gazetteer that I have seen. [back to text]

(34) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 49b. It should be noted that the Gazetteer gives two contradictory stories about Ven. Canche's arrival in Taiwan and his subsequent itinerary. I have consulted Mr. Jiang Canteng 江燦騰, a specialist in Taiwan Buddhist history, about this problem, and he told me by telephone that the Gazetteer is probably just quoting two different historical sources. My own feeling is that this may be an example of the compilers' uncritical use of sources, a feature of both this and the 1992 Gazetteer that must be taken into account when using them for gathering historical information.

     As to the problem of Ven. Canche's improbably late death, this may simply be a typographical error in Lian's General History. This gives the date of his arrival as Kangxi 14 (1675), and the date of his death as Qianlung 55 (1790). My own speculation is that Lian meant Kangxi 55, which yields the much more believable date of 1718. [back to text]

(35) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 49b. [back to text]

(36) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 48b. [back to text]

(37) Kubō Noritada observes that it is highly unusual for a Buddhist temple to be referred to as a tang 堂, and he further notes that the term san guan (the "three offices") occur in Daoist folklore and refer to the Three Lords of Sky, Earth, and Water: the so-called San Guan Da Di 三官大帝. However, the monks in charge of this temple are called heshang 和尚 in the 1971 Gazetteer, a term normally reserved for eminent Buddhist monks. See Kubō 1984, p. 53.

     The answer to Kubō's puzzle may be that this establishment was not a Buddhist temple, but a zhaijiao 齋教 hall. Murano Takaaki 村野孝顯, a Japanese-era researcher in Taiwan, notes that the San Guan Da Di were frequent fixtures on the altars of zhaijiao halls. Murano 1934, p. 10. As to the abbot having the title heshang, a term never used by zhaijiao adherents but reserved for Buddhist monks, J. J. M. de Groot notes several times that, on the mainland, there was some cooperation between "orthodox" Buddhism and zhaijiao, and that sometimes, elder zhaijiao adherents actually sought ordination, after which they maintained their ties with and continued to serve their original zhaijiao halls. See Groot 1970, p. 238, 240. [back to text]

(38) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 51a. Kubō adds that Huanhua is a place in Sichuan province known as the home of the poet Du Fu. [back to text]

(39) Chen Ruitang 1974, p. 11.[back to text]

(40) Chen Ruitang 1974, p. 11.[back to text]

(41) Tudun 土遁, or "earth escape," a method of disappearing into the ground by taking a clod of earth in one's hands. It was one of the so-called wudun 五遁, or "Five escapes." the other four being the escapes of fire, metal, water, and wood. See Morohashi. vol. 1, entry 257:902.[back to text]

(42) This is a reference to Matangi, a lower-class woman who, in the first chapter of the Surangama Sutra, attempts to seduce the Buddha's disciple Ananda through magic. The Buddha, knowing what is about to happen, brings both Ananda and Matangi into his presence by means of his own supernatural powers, and the teachings he gives them about the roots of desire form part of the basis of the preaching of this sutra. The reader can find an English translation of this story in The Surangama Sutra, trans. Charles Luk 1978, p. 2.[back to text]

(43) A Chinese idiom for sexual desire.[back to text]

(44) The story as given in the 1971 Gazetteer does not close the quotation of the monk's thoughts until the very end of the story, but this makes no sense, in my judgement, the story line is far more coherent if the quotation is closed here.[back to text]

(45) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 49a, 49b.[back to text]

(46) Brook 1993, p. 50.[back to text]

(47) See Brook 1993, chapter 1, for an enumeration and explanation of the religious and aesthetic values of the gentry class at this rime.[back to text]

(48) That is to say, lay Buddhism, white robes being the traditional garb of the laity in Indian Buddhism.[back to text]

(49) See for example Raguin 1976, p. 170-185, which confines discussion of the topic to one half of one paragraph; and Hsing Fu-Chuan 1981, p. 79-34, which gives it one paragraph which mistakenly presents zhaijiao as a phenomenon of the Japanese period only. and merely mentions its existence without analyzing its significance.[back to text]

(50) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 73b.[back to text]

(51) For example, Murano Takaaki mentions a series of persecutions against the Longhua Sect of zhaijiao between 1773 and 1802 during which the 15th patriarch of the Yishi Hall Branch 一是堂派 suffered punishment. Murano 1934, p. 10. Groot 1970 has chapters devoted to the Xiantian and Longhua Sects, in which he stresses their need to remain inconspicuous so as not to attract official notice and possible persecution.[back to text]

(52) 1971 Gazetteer p. 73b. In her 1985 article on White Lotus Sects in late imperial Chinese history. Susan Naquin organizes such sects into two kinds: sutra-recitation and meditation sects. The first kind emphasizes collective gatherings of all local sect members for sutra-recitation and other works of merit. The second is more private, has much less organizational infrastructure, and emphasizes vertical teacher-pupil lineages rather than horizontal member-member fellowship. The three major sects examined in this section clearly fall into the first type. It is possible, though not certain, that the so-called "Gate of Emptiness" sect is of the second type. and thus would not have left traces of a well-articulated organization. See Naquin 1985, p. 255-291.[back to text]

(53) For samples of these lineages, see Zheng Zhiming 1969, p. 39 for the Xiantian Sect. For a Longhua Sect lineage, see Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui 1994, p. 2 for an analysis of the lineage's structure, and p. 16 for a discussion of the lineage's polemical uses in disputes with clerical Buddhism.[back to text]

(54) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 74a.[back to text]

(55) A good synopsis of his findings is contained in Overmyer 1978, p. 284-302. Further remarks on the Luojiao can also be found in Overmyer 1976, p. 113-129.[back to text]

(56) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 73b. For further clarification, I present here two relevant entries in the Liubu Chengyu Zhujie 六部成語註解, translated in Ch'ing Administrative Terms, trans. E-tu Zen Sun 1961.

     1205.(p. 188) Chai Chieh [zhaijie 齋戒]: Fasting and purification. "Fasting" means to alter one's diet, and "purification" means to avoid unclean things. Before performing sacrifices to a deity these must be observed for three days as evidence of one's sincerity and reverence.

     1217.(p. 190) Huan-Ch'iu [huanqiu 圜丘]: Round Altar. For sacrifices at the Altar of Heaven an earthen mound is built, round in shape after (the shape of) Heaven; there the sacrifices are held. It is known as the "Round Altar."

     The entry "huanqiu" in Morohashi's dictionary indicates that this earthen altar was round because heaven is round, and thus the altar symbolized the union of heaven and earth. The emperor performed the Sacrifice of the Round Altar during the winter. Morohashi. vol. 3, p. 106c.[back to text]

(57) Besides zhaijiao. this style of lay Buddhism was also sometimes known as caijiao (lit. "vegetable religion") or chicaijiao ("religion of eating vegetables"), thus reinforcing the impression that this was their most essential characteristic. See Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 39.[back to text]

(58) Murano 1934, p. 10.[back to text]

(59) Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui 1994, p. 5.[back to text]

(60) Murano 1934, p. 9.[back to text]

(61) Marui Keijirō ed. 1919; reprint 1993, p. 81.[back to text]

(62) Groot 1903-04; Reprint 1970. vol. 1, p. 204-220.[back to text]

(63) Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui 1994, p. 5.[back to text]

(64) Groot 1903-04; reprint 1970, p. 206.[back to text]

(65) It may be pertinent in this connection that researchers in the Japanese period who studied zhaijiao noted that Huineng, after fleeing south from the Dongshan monastery with the robe and bowl of the Chan patriarchate, lived and worked as a layman for four years in a fishing village. They further say that he preached among them, and it may be at this point that he imparted his "secret transmission" to the laity. In the Japanese sources, this appears as part of the lore of the Xiantian Sect. See Marui Keijirō. ed, 1919; reprint 1993, p. 79.[back to text]

(66) Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui 1994, p. 16.[back to text]

(67) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 73.[back to text]

(68) Zheng Zhiming 1989, p. 49.[back to text]

(69) Marui Keijirō ed. 1919; reprint 1993, p. 82.[back to text]

(70) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 73.[back to text]

(71) Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui (p. 18) point out that the academic study of zhaijiao is still in its infancy. My own observation is that. until the early 1990s, most studies of the subject were content to repeat the materials found in the 1971 Gazetteer (often verbatim), which in turn was based mainly upon the Japanese government's investigations during the early colonial period. Much of this material simply repeats the contents of a few, uncritically-read documents and makes no attempt to address errors and contradictions. Wang Jianchuan's 1993 paper on Wang Zuotang, the founder of the Jinchuang Sect. stands as a model of the kind of rigorous critique that needs to be brought to these materials, and also shows what a fertile field of inquiry it is.[back to text]

(72) Zheng Zhiming, in his comparison of seven. Xiantian Sect "precious scrolls" spanning two hundred years, presents the following list of "chief deities" [zhu shen 主神]: 1. The Celestial True Buddha of Antiquity [Tian Zhen Gu Fo 天真古佛], a figure who works with, or is possibly identical to the Unborn Venerable Mother; 2. The Unborn Venerable Mother; 3. The Buddhas of Antiquity of the Three Heavens [San Tian Gu Fo 三天古佛]; 4. The Unborn Venerable Mother; 5. The Mother of the Way of the Prior Heavens [Xian Tian Dao Mu 先天道母], sometimes also referred to as the Limitless Celestial Worthy [Wuji Tianzun 無極天尊]; 6. The Unborn Venerable Mother; 7 the Limitless Venerable Mother [Wuji Laomu 無極老母], also referred to as the Lady Golden Mother [Jinmu Niang Niang 金母娘娘]. Zheng Zhiming 1989, p. 40-43, 45-16.[back to text]

(73) This is according to an unspecified Xiantian document translated in Groot 1903-04; reprint 1970, p. 180. In this scene, the "Limitless Venerable Ancestress" calls a meeting of all buddhas and asks who will volunteer to save the remaining denizens of the Saha world. None of the buddhas present dares to step forward, except for the patriarch Luo who boldly presents himself for the job. By the way, I believe de Groot is wrong to translate the name of this deity, Taishang Wuji Laozu as "the very highest Wuji, our Old Patriarch." because this deity speaks of the lost souls specifically as "children of [my| womb" [huaitai ernü], revealing her female character.[back to text]

(74) Zheng Zhiming 1989, p. 43. 50-51.[back to text]

(75) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 82.[back to text]

(76) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 82.[back to text]

(77) Teachings on generating the inner Elixir apparently were not unknown within the Longhua Sect. In fact. Wang Jianchuan, in his investigation o ( Jinchuang scriptures and history, found that their Inner Alchemy teachings could be traced from Jinchuang scriptures back to some Longhua scriptures, and from these further back to Daoist sources outside the zhaijiao tradition. Thus, Inner Alchemical techniques came into zhaijiao (and perhaps other derivatives of the Luo Teachings) well after Luo Qing's time. Wang Jianchuan 1993, p. 38-40.[back to text]

(78) Zheng Zhiming 1989, p. 42. 48-50.[back to text]

(79) Li Tianchun 李添春, who was a member of the Longhua Sect before going to work as a field researcher in the Japanese colonial government's investigations into religion in Taiwan, presented Longhua cosmology in very similar terms: The Wuji 無極 gave rise to the Taiji 太極 ("Great Ultimate"), which in turn produced all existent things, in this manner, the One pervades all things, and all things return to the One. Li Tianchun 1928, p. 43. On Li Tianchun's early sectarian affiliation, see Wang Jianchuan 1993, p. 35-36.[back to text]

(80) See for example, sections 25, 40, and 42. Henricks 1992, p. 104-105, 106-107, 236-237.[back to text]

(81) See Morohashi. vol. 7, p. 433b.[back to text]

(82) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 75.[back to text]

(83) Murano 1934, p. 10.[back to text]

(84) Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui 1994, p. 5.[back to text]

(85) Zheng Zhiming 1989, p. 31. Daniel Overmyer gives a synopsis of the appearances of the term "Laoguan zhaijiao" in Qing dynasty official memorials beginning in 1748 in Overmyer 1973, p. 292.[back to text]

(86) Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 40.[back to text]

(87) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 74.[back to text]

(88) Overmyer, having surveyed a number of Qing-era memorials to the throne concerning Luojiao, also notes that pu was the most commonly-used character for religious names among Luo adherents generally-. Overmyer 1978, p. 294.[back to text]

(89) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 75.[back to text]

(90) As the reader can see, the sect's claims to being an offshoot of Luojiao are rather forced, depending entirely upon Yin's and Yao's assertions that they were reincarnations of Luo Qing. Zheng (in Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 40) rejects these claims as completely spurious, calling them a ploy on the part of these two figures to gain credibility through name-dropping.

     In contrast to Zheng, Overmyer says that, in a folk tradition which has no central authority and takes in followers of overlapping allegiances, it becomes very difficult to make hard and fast distinctions between true followers and spurious hangers-on. This strikes me as wise counsel against dismissing all sectarian claims outright. See Overmyer 1978, p. 290, 298-299.[back to text]

(91) This entire chronology is taken from the 1971 Gazetteer, p. 76a, b. The source is not cited.[back to text]

(92) Later documentation shows that the sect still considers it important to be able to trace the lineage of one's hall back to one of these three branches. De Groot reproduces a funerary text composed for a deceased sect member in Xiamen (Amoy), which specifies his lineage going back to the Left Branch. See Groot 1903-04; reprint 1970, p. 234. Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui note that the modern Longhua hall that they studied in Chang-hua traced itself back to the Right Branch. Lin Meirong and Zu Yunhui 1994, p. 3.[back to text]

(93) Lian Heng 1977, p. 450. Lian goes on to say that there was another Longhua zhaitang in existence at this time which found it expedient to change its name to the "Academy for Hero-Formation" [peiying shuyuan 培英書院].[back to text]

(94) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 74b-75a.[back to text]

(95) Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 40-41.[back to text]

(96) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 75b.[back to text]

(97) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 75b.[back to text]

(98) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 76.[back to text]

(99) zongchi and fuchi are the eleventh and twelfth of the twelve ranks of Longhua on the mainland, as outlined above.[back to text]

(100) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 75a.[back to text]

(101) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 75a.[back to text]

(102) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 75a.[back to text]

(103) Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 41.[back to text]

(104) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 75b. 76b; Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 42. The Chaotian Hall 朝天堂 in Chang-hua. where Lin and Zu did their fieldwork in the early 1990s, belonged to the Fuxin Hall Branch. See Lin. Meirong and Zu Yunhui 1994, p. 3.[back to text]

(105) The reasons for the discrepancy with the dates given in parentheses above will be discussed shortly.[back to text]

(106) Wang Jianchuan 1993, p. 25.[back to text]

(107) 1971 Gazetteer, p.81a-b.[back to text]

(108) Wang Jianchuan 1993, p. 23.[back to text]

(109) For example, see Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 79.[back to text]

(110) Wang Jianchuan 1993, p. 15.[back to text]

(111) Wang Jianchuan 1993, p. 16.[back to text]

(112) Wang Jianchuan 1993, p. 26-27.[back to text]

(113) Dong's biography compiled from 1971 Gazetteer, p. 8lb and Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 79.[back to text]

(114) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 79.[back to text]

(115) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 82a.[back to text]

(116) Huang Mei notes that the Jinchuang Sect traditions include the story that the sect existed in Taiwan during the Dutch administration. According to this tradition, Jinchuang followers were among the immigrants from Fujian. that arrived between 1624 and 1644. They established a zhaitang in Tainan, but the property was requisitioned by the Dutch in order to erect a government building in 1650. After this, the followers were forced to meet in private homes. Huang Mei 1984, p. 748.[back to text]

(117) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 82a-b.[back to text]

(118) Huang Mei 1984, p. 749.[back to text]

(119) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 82.[back to text]

(120) Suzuki 1989, p. 35.[back to text]

(121) Marui Keijirō, ed. 1919; reprint 1993, appendix, p. 6.[back to text]

(122) Groot 1903-04; reprint 1970, p. 176-196. In fact. his discussion in this chapter is limited almost entirely to philological investigations into a few concepts common to all sects derived from the Luo Teachings.[back to text]

(123) Huang Mei 1985, p. 615. Interpretations of the identities of the seventh and eighth patriarchs are from Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 44-45.[back to text]

(124) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 82b. For Chan lineages. see Doumoulin 1988, vol. 1, p. 327, 330.[back to text]

(125) Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 44-45.[back to text]

(126) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 80.[back to text]

(127) Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 80-82.[back to text]

(128) Huang Mei 1985, p. 616.[back to text]

(129) Zheng Zhiming 1984, p. 45.[back to text]

(130) Lin Wanchuan 1984, p. 1-232. Zheng Zhiming 1990, p. 81, states that Huang Yujie was born in 1867, but this figure is not believable in terms of the story that is to follow. Although I have not been able to trace Huang's birthdate, the 1971 Gazetteer (p. 83a) states that he was "over ten years old" when he was inducted into the sect, and that at the age of twenty-one he began helping Li Chang]in with his duties.[back to text]

(131) Lin Wanchuan 1984, p. 1-232-234.[back to text]

(132) 1971 Gazetteer, p. 83b.[back to text]

(133) Davis 1992, p. 30-32.[back to text]

(134) Specifically, he says "Taipei's local temples may thus be loosely differentiated into three kinds of association-compatriot, territorial, and commercial." See Feuchtwang 1974, p. 275.[back to text]

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