Page 420 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

DONGY UE MIAO

the real master of the place was a large number of devotional associations
that built their own adjacent shrines, erected over a hundred and fifty stelae,
and organized festivals. It was they who made the Dongyue miao into one of
the largest and most active temples in China. The shrine was open year-round
to devotees praying for heirs, commanding rituals for relatives who had been
victim of unnatural death, or looking at the sculptures of the judges of hell
in the main courtyard (the subject of a rich written and oral folklore) or in
the adjacent Shrine of the Eighteen Hells (Shiba diyu rniao + )\itl!.r~lil).
Many of the associations active at the Dongyue rniao were created in honor
of the goddess *Bixia yuanjun (Original Princess of the Jasper Mist), whose
cult became the most active one in the shrine around the fifteenth century.
Soon after, yearly pilgrimages were organized to her shrines at various sites
around Beijing, most importantly on Mount Miaofeng (Miaofeng shan :l!')Il!~
ill ). The pilgrimage associations and Dongyue rniao associations were usually
distinct, but cooperated and shared common characteristics. Each Dongyue
miao association either supported a particular chapel within the compound,
organizing a festival with Taoist ritual and opera for the birthday of its patron
saint; or cooperated to manage the compound as a whole, by sweeping and
refurbishing the site before the major annual festival (Dongyue dadi's birthday,
on the twenty-eighth day of the third lunar month), or providing costly offer-
ings to all shrines such as flowers or paper ornaments. The associations were
varied in their social composition. During the late Ming, they were dominated
by powerful, rich, and devout eunuchs; in the Qing period, leadership mostly
comprised aristocrats and bannermen, but ordinary membership cut across
all strata of Beijing society. Some guilds worked as associations within the
shrine.
Similar voluntary devotional associations existed in other Beijing temples,
but no temple could compare with the Dongyue rniao in terms of the number
of associations and the scope of their activities. The shrine closed after 1949
and has reopened in 1999 as a museum.

Vincent GOOSSAERT
m Chen Bali 2002; Goodrich 1964; Goossaert 1998; Goossaert forthcoming;
Naquin 2000, 232-39, 506-17, and passim; Rinaker Ten Broeck and Yiu 1950- 51 ;
Schipper 1995b
* Bixia yuanjun; Dongyue dadi; TEMPLES AND SHRINES