Page 284 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

CES H EN

Today, the Can tong qi is chanted daily in Sata Zen temples throughout Japan.
InJapanese, the title of the alchemical Cantong qi is transcribed Sandokei, while
the title of the Buddhist Cantong qi is transcribed Sandokai.

James ROBSON
ID Robson 1995, 259-{)3; Shiina Kayli 1981; Suzuki Shunryli 1999; Yanagida
Seizan 1974
* Zhouyi cantong qi; TAOISM AND CHINESE BUDDHISM

Ceshen

Spirit of the Latrine

It may be speculated that the Spirit of the Latrine was at first installed to guard
a particularly unclean and thus vulnerable area of the residential complex
against the intrusion of similarly unclean ghosts and demons. The earliest
stories about a spirit of the latrine, which date from the fifth century, however,
already give this figure a different twist: the Spirit of the Latrine is the soul of a
concubine or secondary wife killed in the outhouse by a jealous principal wife.
Sacrifices to the victim's spirit started out of pity or a felt need for propitiation.
Various names were given to this spirit, of which the most common were:
the Purple Maiden (Zigu ~~i!i), the Third Damsel of the Latrine (Keng san
niangniang :l:Ji: = ~LHli!), or Lady Qi (Qi furen ~:j(A). Being closely connected
with the concerns of women through her manner of death, this deity came
to be worshipped mainly by women. A household's women would assemble
at the latrine on the fifteenth day of the first moon to make offerings to the
goddess and to divine about the prospects of the coming year.
The manipulation of a Zigu image fashioned out of chopsticks and a
winnowing basket to trace lines on the ground is generally believed to be
the earliest form of Chinese spirit writing, out of which the practice of *fuji
developed. Thus this humble deity is closely connected with spirit writing as
a divination technique that came to play an important role in both Taoist and
popular practice since the Song dynasty.
Philip CLART

ID Jordan and Overmyer 1986, 38-39; Ma Shutian 1997, 275-82; Maspero 1981,
II9-20; Zong Li and Liu Qun 1987, 418-26

* TAOISM AND POPULAR RELIGION