Page 585 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

544 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

functional symbiosis with the local cults of the common religion-in which of
course the emphasis on sacrifice and offerings had remained dominant since
ancient times. The term zhai was still used for communal services during the
Song dynasty, when however its association with ceremonies for the dead
becomes more and more pronounced, and today it is used most commonly
as the technical term for the Taoist funeral liturgy.
A final addition to the sequence of offerings included in the jiao liturgy was
the ritual of Universal Salvation or *pudu, which was borrowed from Buddhism,
first incorporated during the Song dynasty, and concerned with the salvation
and feeding of the lost souls suffering in hell, the so-called "orphaned souls"
(guhun tJI1~). In most present-day ceremonies the pudu occurs at the very end
of the program, in fact, quite commonly after the sending away of the gods
that marks the end of the Taoist liturgy, properly speaking. It thus represents
in a sense the most exoteric level of activity in a jiao, though it should be noted
that in many local traditions there is a strong emphasis both on this pudu ritual
and on other means of averting harm from the dangerous spirits of hell. In all
cases, the jiao today seems strongly focused on territoriality and its definition
through local cults, with the important qualification that, in the perspective
of the jiao, the territory is not the land as such, but the land as possessed by
a certain community, and therefore subject to the inclusion or exclusion of
certain groups (that mayor may not be actually resident) from participation
in the ceremony, depending on the alliances of the dominant strain of the
population.
Poul ANDERSEN

W Andersen 2002; Benn 1991; Benn 2000; Cedzich 1987, 61-105; Ch en Dacan
1987; Dean 1993; Dean 1996; Dean 2000; Hsu Francis L. K. 1952; Hymes 1997;
Lagerwey 1987C; Lagerwey 1991, 136-56; Li Xianzhang 1968; Liu Zhiwan 1983-84;
Maruyama Hiroshi I995; Matsumoto K6ichi I983; Min Zhiting 1995; Ofuchi
Ninji 1983, 234-422; Robinet 1997b, 166-83; Saso 1978b; Saso 1989; Schipper 1985e;
Schipper 1993, 72-99; Schipper 1995a; Thompson 1987a; Tian Chengyang 1990;
Yamada Toshiaki I995b; Zhang Zehong 1996; Zhang Zehong 1999a

* For related entries see the Synoptic Table of Contents, sec. III.4 ("Ritual")