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154 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I

also used in Taoist texts to refer to popular deities-that the people should only
fear them and not place faith in the Dao?" The text continues to reprimand
the contemporary Taoist faithful for consulting spirit mediums (Zhengyi fawen
Tianshi jiaojie kejing lE - ~ftY.:. 7( Biji ~ R:X: H #~; CT 789, I4a and 17a; Bokenkamp
1997, 171 and 178).
These ideas are developed in greater detail in medieval Taoist scriptures
such as the * Santian neijie jing (Scripture of the Inner Explication of the Three
Heavens), ascribed to the fifth century. This text claims that Zhang Daoling
formed a covenant with the Three Offices (* sanguan, of Haven, Earth, and
Water) and the stellar deity Taisui jc I~£ (Jupiter) "so that they then entered
the orthodox system of the Three Heavens (see *santian and liutian) and no
longer oppressed the faithful" by requiring bloody offerings or lavish temples
(Schipper 1993, 61).
Attempts at reform. The extent whereto Taoism was actually able to reform
local cults is another matter entirely. While medieval Taoists frequently
attacked yinsi, such efforts rarely had any lasting impact, particularly since
many Taoist coverts persisted in worshipping local deities with meat offerings,
despite the exhortations of their leaders (Stein R. A. 1963; Stein R. A. 1979).
Medieval Taoist leaders strongly opposed such practices, formulating agendas
expressed in polemical scriptures such as the * Daomen keliie (Abridged Codes
for the Taoist Community), compiled in the fifth century by *Lu Xiujing. Ac-
cording to this text, the world had entered a degenerate age in which people
worshipped the souls of the unruly dead, particularly soldiers who had fallen
in battle. Lu proposed numerous liturgical and organizational reforms to
combat such decay, but the deities included in various registers (*LU) trans-
mitted to ordinary Taoist believers were full of "spirit generals" who seem in
many ways little different from the slain soldiers mentioned above (Nickerson
1996a, 348, 352, 356). In addition, the ecstatic and occasionally erotic visions of
young *Shangqing Taoists such as *Yang Xi (330-86) and Zhou Ziliang Jj!,J T
~ (497-516) appear little different from the shamanic rituals Taoist leaders so
often derided (Bokenkamp 1996b; Kroll 1996c).
One of the most interesting and widely researched examples of the interac-
tion between Taoism and local cults involves the cult of the plague-fighting
deity *Wen Qiong, which was highly popular throughout south China from at
least the Song dynasty. The Taoist Canon contains a hagiography about Wen
written by the *Shenxiao Taoist, Huang Gongjin Jf0 Jjl (fl. 1274), entitled
Diqi shangjiang Wen taibao zhuan .ttjJJa;~J#fi~:;tdliH~ (Biography of Grand
Guardian Wen, Highest General of the Earth Spirits; CT 780). According to this
text, Wen was a Tang-dynasty military leader who later worked as a butcher
before accepting a position as a spirit-medium in the *Dongyue dadi temple
at Mount Tai (*Taishan, Shandong). Wen was later miraculously transformed