Page 455 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

4I6 TH E ENC YC LO PEDIA OF TAOI SM A- L

fashi

"ritual master"

The term fashi generally refers to a "master of rites" and may denote a Buddhist
monk or a Taoist priest. In Taiwan, it is often used to designate the Red-head
(hongtou UliJO ritual masters (see *hongtou and wutou). Going barefoot and
wearing everyday clothes with red scarves wrapped around their heads, they
perform healing, exorcism, and magico-religious ceremonies that employ
trance techniques. They also carry out rites to protect the village community
by calling on the "soldiers of the netherworld" (yinbing ~ ~) of the Five
Camps (*wuying). The spells used by the Red-head ritual masters often contain
vernacular expressions. At present, they are recorded in books transmitted
from master to disciple, but Originally their transmission was oral.
ASANO Haruji

m Cohen 1992; Furuie Shinpei 1999, 98-100; Liu Zhiwan 1983b, 207- 317;
Liu Zhiwan 1983-84, 2: 5- 427; Naoe Hiroji 1983, 1008- 83; Sa so 1970; Schipper
1985e
* hongtou and wutou

Fei Changfang

Fei Changfang is most famous for his encounter with Hugong ft 0 , the Gourd
Sire. The classic version of this encounter is narrated in Hugong's biography in
* Shenxian zhuan, in which Fei is a guard in the marketplace. It happens that an
old man- who is really Hugong- sells herbs to cure illness in the market and
hangs a large gourd outside his shop. Each night Fei, alone, notices that the old
man disappears into the gourd and, understandably, thinks he is marvellous
and decides to serve him. The old man ultimately invites him into the gourd
which, like sacred caverns, houses an immortals' world of places, towers and
buildings of all kinds, an example of the typical Taoist motif of the inside being
larger than the outside (see the entry *dongtian andfodi). Hugong proceeds to