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Plate 15.11a–b Details of Fig. 15.10. From front to back, right to left: (a) Celestial Lords and Marshals Xin, Tao, Zhao, Guan, Bi and Yin;
(b) Celestial Lords and Marshals Wen, Ma, Zhang, Deng, Wang and Gou

Flanking the Three Pure Ones in the front row are the Four rituals to protect the empire. The compilation and printing
Saints, with Zhenwu on the left. Towards the two ends of the of Daoist scriptures and books in the early 15th century
same row are twelve thunder marshals. They include contributed to the consolidation of the pivotal position of
Celestial Lords and Marshals Xin, Tao, Bi, Yin, Zhao and thunder marshals in major Daoist rituals and the
Guan on the left, and Deng, Zhang, Gou, Ma, Wen and legitimisation of their ties with Zhenwu. The final
Wang on the right (Pl. 15.11a–b, Table 1d). With the recognition of the thunder marshals as part of the imperially
exception of Marshals Yin and Wang, these individualised endorsed Daoist pantheon was also authoritatively
thunder marshals in the frontispiece were the same ones that announced through the printing of the frontispiece for the
were made into statues and donated by the Chenghua Daoist Canon. As succeeding Ming emperors continued to
emperor to Mount Wudang in 1473 (Table 1e). Although reprint the Daoist Canon and grant copies to major Daoist
Ming emperors never sent statues of Marshals Yin and temples all over the empire, the prestigious status of thunder
Wang to Mount Wudang, the two thunder marshals were marshals as the leading spiritual military force of the Great
depicted with the other ten thunder marshals in the Ming became firmly established.
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paintings of Qin’an Hall in the Forbidden City, discussed If the first half of the 15th century was a formative period
earlier (Table 1a). In other words, the frontispiece for the when individualised thunder marshals were in the course of
Ming Daoist Canon and the paintings of Qin’an Hall share becoming the core of Zhenwu’s troops and attaining
the same set of dark troops. It is likely that the latter were imperial recognition, the late Ming saw the full bloom of
painted after the platoon of thunder marshals were these processes. The Wanli 萬曆 emperor (1573–1620), for
standardised through the printing of the former. The example, was personally involved in worshipping thunder
depiction of thunder marshals in the frontispiece of the marshals and commissioning the production of paintings
Ming Daoist Canon confirms that the imperial court had and scriptures of thunder ritual traditions, in the hope of
fully accepted the demonic thunder deities as territorial deploying thunder gods to pacify the court in times of
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protectors by the middle of the 15th century. trouble. The close tie between Zhenwu and the thunder
The visual materials examined above show the marshals also became the main storyline of the 17th-century
collaborative efforts of Daoist masters favoured by the vernacular novel Journey to the North (Beiyou ji 北遊記). The
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emperor, princes and ordinary people to position thunder novel describes how Zhenwu retrieved the ‘Thirty-six
marshals in the imperially endorsed Daoist pantheon, and Heavenly Generals’ (Sanshiliu tianjiang 三十六天將) who
to pave the way for the imperial recognition of thunder escaped to earth. The ‘Thirty-six Heavenly Generals’
marshals as the troops of the Dark Emperor and the include the majority of thunder marshals described as the
protectors of the Ming empire. Underlying their efforts are dark troops in this chapter. Their inclusion as main
strong beliefs in the immense martial power of thunder characters of a vernacular novel about Zhenwu marks the
marshals and an urge to raise the status of these gods in both final stage of establishing their tie with Zhenwu – a tie that
the liturgical structure of Daoism and the Ming court was no longer only implanted in the Daoist community but
rituals. The efforts matched well with the desire of the early also infiltrated into the secular life of ordinary people in late
Ming emperors to harness martial spirits through thunder Ming times.

Enshrining the Dark Troops: The Printing of Daoist Books in the Early Ming Dynasty | 141