Page 725 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

L1SHI ZHENXIAN TIDAO TONGJIAN

Lady Unshui has long been renowned for her ritual powers, and remains a
patron deity of spirit-mediums (wu m.;jitong ~Lj! or *tang-ki in Southern Min
dialect) and ritual masters (*fashi) in Fujian and Taiwan. She is also worshipped
along with Li Sanniang* :': ~R (Third Damsel U) and Un Jiuniang ** )U~
(Ninth Damsel Un; sometimes considered to be *Mazu) as one of the Three
Matrons (Sannai furen .=JY1 X A), the matriarchs of the Lushan branch of
Taoism. Ritual masters of this movement don skirts when performing their
rites. To this day, Chinese and Taiwanese women worship her as a deity who
can protect them during pregnancy and childbirth, and she is also invoked
during rites to protect children (Baptandier-Berthier 1994).

PaulR. KATZ
m Baptandier 1996; Berthier 1988; Chen Minhui 1988; Lo Vivienne 1993; Wang
Fang and Jin Chongliu 1994; Wu Gangji 1994; Xu Xiaowang 1993, 329-48; Ye
Mingsheng and Yuan Hongliang 1996
* HAGIOGRAPHY; TAOISM AND POPULAR RELIGION

Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian

Comprehensive Mirror of Perfected Immortals and
Those Who Embodied the Dao through the Ages

The Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian (CT 296) is an enormous compendium
of immortals' biographies compiled by Zhao Daoyi mUg ~ (£1. 1294-1307)
who came from Fuyun shan i¥-~ ill (Zhejiang). It is divided into fifty-three
chapters with over 900 biographies and inspired two additional collections,
Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian xubian ~i"i t.~ (Supplementary Chapters; CT 297)
in five chapters and Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian houji f~ * (Later Collection;
CT 298) in six chapters. The latter two collections are likely not be from
Zhao's hand-his name may have been attached to them as a pious act of
reverence to the original-as they appear to date from about a century after
the original compendium. The compendium includes an undated preface by
Zhao in which he notes his use of the *Hunyuan shengji (Saintly Chronicle
of Chaotic Origin) by Xie Shouhao ~Vf i~ii (1134-1212), a kind of history of
the operations of the Dao in the human realm. It should also be noted that
the Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian was compiled in an era that saw other grand
attempts at comprehensive history, both sacred and secular, as well as other
monumental anthologies.