Page 591 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

50 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

jijiu

fR-iPJi
libationer

Tijiu or "libationer" was the term for priests within the early Celestial Master
church (*Tianshi dao). The term is ancient, referring originally to the village
elder who performed the oblation at the beginning of the village sacrificial
feast. By the Han it came to be used as an official rank for the head of the
Imperial Academy but had also been diluted on the local level until it meant
something like "squire," a prominent person from an established family. It is
ironic that this term referring pecifically to sacrificial actions was adopted as
the general term for religious professionals who consciously eschewed China's
sacrificial tradition.
Historical accounts record that those who first entered the Celestial Master
movement were known as "demon troopers" (guizu )\;:$) and only attained the
status of libationer after a period of instruction. There is no evidence for the
use of the term "demon trooper" in Celestial Master texts, but there is a stele
from 173 that records the initiation of severallibationers under the auspices of
someone (possibly a deity) referred to as a "demon soldier" (guibing )\;~). At
that time, accession to the office of libationer already involved the conferral of
sacred texts. There was internal differentiation within the body of libationers,
with higher ranking libationers appointed to the office of Parish-heading Great
Libationer (zhitou da jijiu ~5' fiJ! 1::. ~ mT). Among the duties of these libationers
was the collection of the annual tithe of grain, the management of "charity
lodges" (yishe ~i!?) supplied through these donations, and the supervision
of other public works like repairing roads and bridges. Libationers presided
over the three annual Assemblies (*sanhui) where the faithful confessed sins,
reported birth, deaths, and marriages, and shared a communal meal. During
the period of the Hanzhong ~l9=I theocracy, they performed all the functions
of the local governmental official and probably maintained a leadership role
within Taoist communities long after their formal governmental role disap-
peared.
Although libationers were originally appointed on the basis of merit, there
was already a tendency for the posts to become hereditary by the third cen-
tury, and fourth- and fifth-century reform movements like *Shangqing and
that led by *Kou Qianzhi (36S?- 448) frequently decried this development, but
the libationer eventually evolved into the hereditary Taoist priest (*daoshi).
Moreover, early libationers could be either male or female, but this evolved into
an exclusively male institution, with females only accepted within monastic