Page 634 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

59 2 TH E ENC YC LOP E DI A OF TAO ISM A- L

Jiuku tianzun

Celestial Worthy Who Relieves Suffering

The Celestial Worthy Who Relieves Suffering is a god who rescues the souls
of the living and the dead. Dwelling in the Palace of Green Florescence (Qing-
hua gong w~g), he manifests himself in the ten directions, appearing as
ten separate divinities. This notion developed based on the concept of the
Buddhas of the Ten Directions (shifo +f~), who appear in Mahayana (Great
Vehicle) scriptures from an early date, and the idea of savior bodhisattvas such
as Guanyin f].:g. (Avalokitesvara), Dizang ~~ (K$itigarbha), and Wenshu
:)0* (Mafijusri). *Du Guangting's *Daojiao lingyan ji, written around the
year 900, shows that the belief in the ten gods played an active part in Taoist
practice under the Tang, but most scriptures specifYing their iconography and
ritual date from the Song.
The ten gods are identified variously in the literature. An early list of ten
names, still rather Buddhist in nature, includes such titles as Great Compassion
(Daci j(rg,), Universal Deliverance (Puji i{frfif), and Wisdom Transformation
(Huihua ~ f-t). This list appears in the Sui-dynasty *Yebao yinyuan jing (6-4a- b)
and in a Song ritual text, the Huanglu jiuyou jiao wu' ai yezhai cidi yi Jt ~ fL ~
M~II~jf't!J\.~f~ (Sequential Liturgies for the Yellow Register Offerings to
the Nine Shades and the Unimpeded Nightly Retreats; CT 514, 26a). A second
list, which later became the standard version, contains more typically Taoist
names. It appears first in the *Fengdao kejie (6.1a-b), showing a development
of the cult in early Tang Taoism. A third list, found only after the Tang, in-
cludes the same names as the second list but links the Ten Worthies with the
Ten Kings (shiwang +.:E) of hell (Teiser 1994). Here the Ten Worthies are
designated saviors who save specifically from the tortures of hell. They are
worshipped in memorial services for the salvation of the dead, outlined in the
Difu shiwang badu yi ~Jff+ .:E WJJtf~ (Liturgies for Salvation from the Ten
Kings of the Earth Administration; CT 215), and can be described as a salvific
counterpart to the Ten Kings of hell, on whose development as a group of
deities they also had some influence.
LiviaKOHN
ID Yusa Noboru 1989

* H ELL; DEITIES : THE PANT H EON