Page 249 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

210 TH E ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A- L

the Yuan period, and from the mid-1990S the Baiyun guan has begun again to
attract large crowds for the New Year festival.

Vincent GOOSSAERT
W Hachiya Kunio 1990, I: 1- 26 and 257-58, 2: 3-10; Ishida Kenji 1992; Ishii
Masako 1983a, 147-62; Marsone 1999; Oyanagi Shigeta 1934; Qing Xitai 1994,
4: 231-32; Yoshioka Yoshitoyo 1952, 196-345; Yoshioka Yoshitoyo 1979
~ Longmen; Quanzhen; TEMPLES AND SHRINES

bajing

Eight Effulgences

On the cosmologicallevel, the term bajing refers to eight astral bodies: the
sun, the moon, the five planets and the Northern Dipper (*beidou). These
celestial waijing ;rH~: (outer effulgences) are related to the eight sectors of
the world, the eight nodal days of the year (bajie j W, namely, equinoxes,
solstices, and the first day of each season), and the eight trigrams (*bagua). On
the human level, the neijing i*J ~ (inner effulgences) are various sets of eight
inner divinities who play a prominent role in *Shangqing texts, but have also
been included in Taoist ritual.
According to *Lingbao sources, the Three Pneumas (sanqi = w:; see * santian
and liutian) generated twenty-four jing (with each pneuma issuing eight jing) ,
while the nine Great Heavens generated seventy-two jing (with each heaven
issuing eight jing). The seventy-two jing of Lingbao correspond to the seventy-
two celestial deities of the *Dadong zhenjing, the main Shangqing scripture;
this group increases to seventy-four with the Original Father (Yuanfu j[;j()
and the Mysterious Mother (Xuanmu K tiJ:). The seventy-two deities are ar-
ranged into three sets-higher, middle, and lower-each of which is related
to a et of eight inner divinities.
The twenty-four jing of the body are both deities and luminescent points,
and are also arranged into three sets of eight. These twenty-four jing are re-
lated to the twenty-four pneumas (*qi) of the year (thejieqi WW: or "energy
nodes," each of which presides on fifteen days) and the twenty-four zodiacal
constellations. During meditation practices, the adept merges them into a
single deity who carries him to the heavens. They are further conceived as
openings or gates within the body through which the divine pneumas go in
and out.