Page 187 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

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and local context-what comprises the popular. However, since the popular is
thus always oppositionally defined (see Bennett 1986), and Taoism frequently
straddles both sides of such binarisms, popular religion and its relationship
wi th Taoism cannot be reified. Perhaps the whole question needs to be refor-
mulated: To what degree does it make sen e to contrast Taoism, a religion
defined in terms of organizational, ritual, and scriptural traditions-i.e., in
terms of historical continuity-with popular religion, a sociological category
whose principal referents concern class and other social distinctions?

Taoism's beginnings. With these caveats in mind, one may proceed to examine
the history of Taoism and its relationships with popular religion (as variously
construed). When the Way of the Celestial Masters emerged as the basis and
core for the developing Taoist tradition, it drew on pre-Taoist practices that
were closely linked with popular religion. The grave-securing writs (zhenmu
wen ~:J;)C) written on bottles that have been found in tombs of the Later
Han dynasty likely were created by "village elders, exorcists and specialists in
funerary rites" (Seidel 198~0) . The writs issue the commands of a Celestial
Emperor (Tiandi 5(*) that are to be delivered by his Envoy (shizhe f.le1!f)
and transmitted to a minor spirit-bureaucracy of the tomb (Seidel 1987e).
Thus the entire otherworldly documentary Ibureaucratic framework of the
Celestial Masters-as represented, for instance, by their penitential "hand-
written documents of the Three Offices" (sanguan shoushu = '§ =p If; see
*sanguan) and the later petitions (zhang !j[) to "celestial officials" (tianguan
5( 'Er )-was anticipated by the grave-securing writs, the products of Han-
dynasty village religion. Early Taoism also drew extensively on still-older
traditions of mortuary exorcism and the recalling of souls, personified by a
variety of shaman-exorcists, most notably the so-called fangxiang 1f;f§ . Both
literate and non-literate forms of magico-religious practices, such as various
forms of divination and other techniques often associated with "masters of
methods" (*fangshi), were similarly integrated into Taoist practice (Nickerson
1994; Nickerson 1996b; Nickerson 1997).
Messianic groups who embraced apocalyptic visions of the future influenced
Taoism's origins. In one text from about 185 CB, the *Laozi bianhua jing (Scrip-
ture of the Transformations of Laozi), populist notions are clearly expressed.
The people's sufferings are described in detail; the deified Laozi promises to
descend to earth, save his followers, and "shake" the ruling Han regime (Seidel
1969-70). While such overt, antistate apocalypticism was renounced by the
Celestial Masters after *Zhang Lu's surrender to Cao Cao iI/' ~, it appears again
in Celestial Master texts like the probably early fifth-century Zhengyi tianshigao
Zhao Sheng koujue lE - 5( ~ffi"ff Mi ~ D t#c (Oral Instructions Declared by the
Celestial Master of Orthodox Unity to Zhao Sheng; CT 1273) which specifically
calls for the downfall of the Jin dynasty as part of its apocalyptic program.