Page 278 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

BUGANG 239

thought to have taken the god through the three levels of the cosmos (thereby
establishing the universe), and which indeed, just like the Paces of Yu in Taoist
ritual, are known to have been imitated by Vedic priests as they approached
the altar-and in the same form as the Paces of Yu, that is, dragging one foot
after the other.
The Paces of Yu are described in the Baopu zi as elements of the divinatory
system of dunjia ~ Efl (Hidden Stem), which serves to calculate the immedi-
ate position in the space-time structure of the six ding (liuding; see *liujia and
liuding), i.e., the spirits that define the place of the "irregular gate" (qimen ~
P~) . This gate represents a "crack in the universe," so to speak, which must be
approached through performing the Paces of Yu, and through which the adept
may enter the emptiness of the otherworld and thereby achieve invisibility to
evil spirits and dangerous influences. The close relationship between divination
and forms of bugang has survived in later divinatory systems, and it is quite
common, even in present-day manuals of divination, to find a whole section
describing variants of bugang. In the early texts of the Shangqing tradition (in
which the theme of achieving safety through methods of invisibility is quite
strongly represented), this divinatory aspect of bugang is retained, however,
only as terminological reminders, and in the cosmological framework of the
practice; the overwhelming emphasis is on the purpose of achieving individual
immortality and the ascent to heaven.

Bugang in liturgy. A similar transformation is evident in the forms of bugang
that since the Tang dynasty were adopted into the general liturgy, mainly
from the *Zhengyi tradition. As in the Shangqing variants of the practice,
each step is accompanied by a line of incantation, pronounced inwardly by
the priest as he reaches the star or trigram in question. The movement of the
feet on the ground commonly is paralleled by the visualization of a journey
through heaven, and- at least since the Song dynasty- by "practices in the
hand" (*shoujue), i.e., a movement with the thumb of the left hand, which
represents a parallel movement through the body of the priest. The ritual
manuals commonly insist on the point that the three movements must be
carefully coordinated. Indeed, the basic patterns followed in the practice of
bugang are associated with the concept of the movement through heaven of
the high god *Taiyi, the Great One, or the Supreme Unity, and the accompa-
nying incantations often make it clear that as the priest performs the walk,
he impersonates Taiyi. A powerful theme underlying the practice is that of
world-creation and the establishment of order, frequently associated with the
construction of the sacred area in the initial part of a ritual. Within the liturgy,
however, the characteristic specific functions of bugang are, first, to serve as
elements of the purification of the ritual area, and second, to structure the
movement of the high priest (gaogong ~ Jj]), as he approaches the point of the