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Plate 15.4 Frontispiece to the Scripture
on Salvation, dated 1406. Accordion-
bound woodblock printed book. National
Central Library, Taipei, 312.2 09161

emperor is recorded to have donated statues to Mount 15.4). Instead, the earliest datable printed scripture that
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Wudang subsequently until 1458, when the Tianshun 天順 portrays thunder marshals as part of the Daoist pantheon is
emperor (r. 1457–64) sent statues of Zhenwu and his an edition of the Combined Scriptures of the Founding Acts by the
attendants to Yuzhengong 遇真宮 (Palace of Encountering Jade Emperor on High (Gaoshang yuhuang benxing jijing 高上玉皇
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the Perfected). It was in 1473, over 50 years after the first 本行集經, hereafter Scripture of the Jade Emperor), dated 1424,
donation made by the Yongle emperor, that the Chenghua in a private collection. This work was originally produced
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成化 emperor (r. 1465–87) commissioned a new set of statues through spirit-writing in the late Southern Song (1127–1279).
for the Golden Hall. Most notably, this set not only included Although it makes no mention of thunder marshals, it was
extremely high-quality statues of Zhenwu, his four nevertheless the fundamental scripture of the Qingwei 清微
attendants and a tortoise with a snake (a manifestation of (Pure Tenuity) school, a thunder ritual tradition that became
Zhenwu), made from silver with gold decoration, but also ten prominent in the 13th century. Exceptionally long with
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gilt bronze statues of thunder marshals (see Table 1e). On nine folded leaves, the first frontispiece in the 1424 edition
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the same occasion, the Chenghua emperor also sent gilt depicts two supreme Daoist gods, the Celestial Worthy of the
bronze statues to Yuxugong 玉虛宮 (Palace of Jade Void), Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi tianzun 元始天尊) and the
but they were only of Zhenwu, his four attendants and a Jade Emperor, flanked by their retinue. The Four Saints
tortoise with a snake. The absence of thunder marshals in (Sisheng 四聖), composed of Zhenwu in combination with
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the imperial donations of the Yongle and Tianshun Tianpeng 天蓬, Tianyou 天猷 and Leizu 雷祖, head the
emperors points to the fact that the Ming court only began military bureaucracy of the pantheon. They are followed
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to acknowledge officially and worship thunder marshals as by ten thunder marshals, namely Celestial Lords Xin 辛,
the dark troops of Zhenwu in the second half of the 15th Tao 陶, Pang 龐, Liu 劉 and Marshal Yin 殷 on the left, and
century. Once the thunder marshals were accepted by the Celestial Lords Deng 鄧, Zhang 張, Gou 苟, Bi 畢 and
imperial court, however, their position in the state cult of Marshal Wang 王 on the right (Pl. 15.5a–b; Table 1b).
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Zhenwu became very prestigious indeed, with their statues Another four marshals with the surnames Ma 馬, Zhao 趙,
being installed at the pinnacle of Mount Wudang. Wen 溫 and Guan 關 are depicted together with Zhenwu as
The shift in the imperial court’s attitude towards thunder guardians on the last page of the scripture (Pl. 15.6).
marshals was marked and, in part, fostered by the printing Although 14 thunder marshals are depicted with Zhenwu in
of Daoist scriptures, compendiums and collections compiled the scripture, only four are presented as his subordinates,
by Daoist masters favoured by the emperor, princes and while the remainder attend to the Celestial Worthy of the
ordinary people. These Daoist publications suggest the rise Primordial Beginning and the Jade Emperor. This shows a
of thunder marshals and their acceptance by the imperial sharp contrast with the imperial donation of statues to
family through writings and images. In particular, they Mount Wudang in 1473, wherein ten thunder marshals were
demonstrate how thunder marshals were raised to the status included as the retinue of Zhenwu (Table 1e).
of territorial protectors through fortifying and emphasising Produced roughly around the same period as the 1424
their ties with Zhenwu. edition of the Scripture of the Jade Emperor is a fully illustrated
The earliest extant illustrated Ming Daoist scripture, the edition of the Collected Glosses on the Precious Book of the Jade
Scripture on Salvation (Duren jing 度人經), dated 1406, now in Pivot, Spoken by the Heavenly Worthy of Universal Transformation of
the National Central Library, Taipei, shows no trace of the Sound of the Thunder of Responding Origin in the Nine Heavens
thunder marshals in the Daoist pantheon it records (Pl. (Jiutian yingyuan leisheng puhua tianzun yushu baojing jizhu

Enshrining the Dark Troops: The Printing of Daoist Books in the Early Ming Dynasty | 137