Women in Taoism
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Terminology
Since organized Taoism began in the late Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), women have been active in different schools, which gave them diverse names. In the Tianshi Dao (Way of the Celestial Masters), they were called nüshi (女士 or 女師, "female masters") when married to a Master, or nüguan (女官, "female officers") when among chosen zhongmin (種民, "seed people"). In the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School, Taoist nuns were most often solitary practitioners, and called nü daoshi (女道士, "female Taoists" or "female Taoist masters") or nüguan (女冠, "female hats", describing a distinctive ritual headdress) in the Song dynasty. The Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) School uses daogu (道姑, "ladies of the Dao") in reference to both convent nuns and devout laity.[2][3]
History
Pre-Han and Han
Xiwang mu, the
During the
Under the Six Dynasties, the Queen mother's sect was integrated into the pantheon of
Early Middle Ages
Women began to become important in organized Taoism during the Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties (221–590) and Sui dynasty (590–618) periods. In the 4th century the Shangqing School recognized a woman, Wei Huacun (251–334), as the school's founder. Women in this Taoist school transmitted scriptures, taught methods, and served as initiators.[3]
Married to a leading Tianshi officer, Wei Huacun became a respected jijiu (祭酒, libationer), which means that she received a thorough religious education in the organization, including sexual rites of passage and the reception of official registers.
According to a Six Dynasties text, the Tianshi School distinguished five different types of women suited to become Taoist practitioners: young unmarried girls, women unable to marry due to an inauspicious horoscope, women forced into marriage, widows, and rejected wives.[13] These were all undesirable classes, rejected by society, to which Tianshi offered a form of escape and an alternative. Such a status allowed these women to have at least some role and not be excluded completely. The same pattern also held true for other Taoist schools and periods, especially during the Tang dynasty.[14]
Tang
The status of women in Taoism reached a peak during the Tang dynasty (618–907), particularly in the 8th century, when women formed one-third of the clergy.[3] Under the auspices of the Shangqing School, which dominated organized Taoism under the Tang, women reached their most prominent religious positions as initiators, preceptors, and possessors of sacred texts and methods. This was actively supported by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756), whose "passions for women and Taoism extended to women Taoists". According to the official statistics, there were 1,687 Taoist temples in the 8th century: 1,137 for men and 550 for women. Women thus constituted an important part of the Taoist clergy as it was recognized officially.[9]
The rise of aristocratic Taoist nuns during the Tang was an unprecedented development in Chinese society and history. More than ten imperial daughters became ordained Taoist nuns and converted their residences into convents.[15] Separated from the Chinese social order through their religious conversion, the women could both maintain their political influence and avoid palace intrigues. They economically benefited from their new status, enjoying a remarkable degree of personal freedom for a Tang woman, often led a licentious life, traveled extensively, and devoted themselves to the arts.[9]
Women would enter Taoist convents for differing reasons, such as girls purifying their lives before entering society or widows seeking a better life. Sometimes a woman would become a Taoist nun in order to escape an unwanted marriage or to change her husband. Princess Taiping, the youngest daughter of Emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683) and Empress Wu, entered a Taoist convent in 670 to escape a requested marriage of state with the king of "barbarian" Turpan.[16] Yang Guifei (Most Honorable Consort Yang), the beloved concubine of Emperor Xuanzong, was married to Li Mao, the emperor's eighteenth son; she left him by becoming a Taoist nun in 745, which then allowed her to enter Xuanzong's imperial harem.[17]
A celebrated example of noble Taoist nuns was the elaborate 711 ordination ceremony of two imperial princesses, Xining (西寧) and Changlong (昌隆), the eighth and ninth daughters of Emperor Ruizong of Tang (r. 684–690) and sisters of Emperor Xuanzong.[3] The Taoist ritualist Zhang Wanfu (張萬福) described the princesses' splendiferous 14-day ordination rite, and noted the widespread criticism from ministers and officials about the high costs.[18] The emperor also ordered the construction of two monasteries for his daughter nuns in Chang'an, nearby the imperial concubines.[9]
Official Taoism incorporated several female-based sects during the Tang. While local followings had always flourished in the north and northwest of China, they predominantly began in the maritime and central regions of the east and south where divine women, including goddesses, shamanesses, and cultic founders, grew in stature and often became objects of pilgrimages undertaken equally by men and women.[19][page needed] Taoist texts often described the integration of regional divinities into the official pantheon as conquests, and praised female Taoists for their exceptional powers as prophets, healers, and saviors.[20]
The lesser-known
Song
In the early Song dynasty (960–1279) the number of women Taoists declined to about 3–5% of the registered clergy and only rose again later, with the emergence of the Quanzhen School in the late 12th century during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). Nevertheless, cults of women continued to flourish and there were some senior female practitioners of various techniques.[22]
Among the cults, in addition to the Queen Mother of the West, the Taoist pantheon includes other well-known female divinities. For instance, He Xiangu (Immortal Maiden He), one of the Eight Immortals, whose cult was established between the Tang and Song dynasties.[3]
The cult of Linshui furen (臨水夫人, the Lady of the Water's Edge), or
Among female Taoist practitioners, Cao Wenyi (曹文逸, fl. 1119–1125) was a renowned author who was posthumously honored as the first woman to practice
While women were of lesser importance in Taoism through most of the Song, their position rose again with the growth of the Quanzhen School, in which they served as
Yuan, Ming, and Qing
While the cult of Sun Bu'er became increasingly important during the Yuan (1271–1368), Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties, the general prestige of Taoist women decreased. Under the Yuan dynasty, when the Mongols governed China, there were 20,000 registered Taoists, many of them women, and institutions run by and for women were established throughout the country.[28] References to women in Taoism become less frequent in the late Yuan and early Ming periods, and hagiographies of women are rare. The image of women became more complex in Qing sectarianism, which witnessed a revival of the tendency to honor women as matriarchs.[3] The Qing rulers instituted the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism as the state religion, and forced Buddhists and Taoists to use the same institutions. Some Taoist subsects and local groups had lineages that go back to a woman founder. In addition, Qing authors wrote texts specifically dealing with inner alchemy for women.[29]
Cults of female deities developed mainly in the southern and coastal regions of Anhui, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong. Cult sites in these provinces were centers of intense religious activity and pilgrimage sites that attracted both male and female devotees. Beginning in the Tang period, the growth and reputation of the cults depended on their recognition by official Taoist institutions, learned circles, and the imperial court.[3]
The Taoist pantheon adopted several popular goddesses. One of them is the Buddhist goddess Marici, the personification of light and daughter of the creator god Brahma who rules destiny.[30] In Daoism, she appears as Doumu (斗母, Mother of the Big Dipper) and protectress against violence and peril.[29]
The cult of Bixia yuanjun (碧霞元君, Goddess of the Morning Clouds) began in the Song with the discovery of a statue on Mount Tai, and during the Ming she was venerated as the daughter of Dongyue dadi (東岳大帝, Great Deity of Mount Tai), and merciful helper of dead souls.[31] As documented in the Bixia yuanjun huguo baosheng jing (碧霞元君護國保生經, "Scripture on the Guarding of Life and Protection of the Country through the Goddess of the Morning Clouds"), she was officially integrated into the pantheon through formal empowerment by Yuanshi Tianzun (Heavenly Worthy of Primordial Beginning), who reportedly gave her the necessary spells and talismans for helping people.[29]
The
Texts
Sources on women in Taoism include both collections of biographies of
Hagiographies
Taoist biographical compilations, dating back to the c. 2nd century CE
The first text is the 913 Yongcheng jixian lu (墉城集仙錄, Records of the Immortals Gathered in the Walled City), compiled by the Taoist priest and author
The second is the Houji 後集 (Later Compilation) portion of Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian (歷世真仙體道通鋻, Comprehensive Mirror of Perfected Immortals and Those Who Embodied the Tao through the Ages), compiled by the Yuan hagiographer Zhao Daoyi (趙道一, fl. 1294–1307) of the Quanzhen school. The text contains 120 biographies, including many found in the Yongcheng jixian lu, and combines mythic Taoist deities, such as Laozi's mother Wushang yuanjun (無上元君, All-Highest Goddess), Doumu, and Xiwangmu, with real women, including fourteen biographies of Song women.[33]
Works written by women
Emperor Xuanzong's younger sister Yuzhen gongzhu (玉真公主, Princess of Jade Perfection) who became a Taoist nun wrote two texts, both dated 738: the Qionggong wudi neisi shangfa (瓊宮五帝內思上法, Highest Methods of Visualizing the Five Emperors of the Jasper Palace) and Lingfei liujia neisi tongling shangfa (靈飛六甲內思通靈上法, Highest Methods of Visualizing the Flying Spirits of the Six Jia to Communicate with the Divine). Both describe meditation methods used in the Shangqing school, and her calligraphy was preserved in a Tang calligraphic collection by Zhong Shaojing.
The 848 Huangting neijing wuzang liufu buxie tu (黃庭內景五臟六腑補瀉圖, Illustrated Description of the Tonification or Dispersion of the Five Organs and Six Viscera According to the Yellow Court Scripture) was written by the Tang Taoist physiologist Hu Jin (胡惜), said to have been taught by the mythological Sunü (素女, Immaculate Girl) on Mount Taibai in Shaanxi. This text contains a discussion of the central organs in the human body, and lists neidan therapies for internal ailments, including drugs, energy absorptions, dietary restrictions, and gymnastic exercises. They correspond with the meditational techniques from the c. 4th-century Yellow Court Classic that were popular during the Tang.[36] The illustrations have been long lost, but the book is "full of therapy and pharmacy, throwing valuable light on the borderline between medicine and Taoist physiological alchemy".[37]
Cao Wenyi's 12th-century Lingyuan dadao ge (靈源大道歌, "Song of the Great Tao of the Numinous Source") is also attributed to He Xiangu, the only female of the Eight Immortals. This lengthy Chan Buddhism–influenced poem does not specifically mention anything female, but Qing Taoists associated its author with women's inner alchemical practices, and the text was accordingly included into collections on the subject.[36]
Works on women's inner alchemy
A corpus of Taoist literature concerning nüdan (女丹, women's [inner] alchemy), or kundao (坤道, "the female way", with kun "female; 8th of the 8 trigrams, ☷), comprises about thirty documents of unequal length, dating from 1743 to 1892. These texts are generally attributed to both male and female divinities and said to have been transmitted through spirit-writing.[3] The few earlier sources that specifically mentioned neidan practices for women were typically in terms of yin and yang correlations. Since yin is associated with women and left while yang with men and right, the breath supposedly turns toward the left in men and toward the right in women.[38]
The 1834 Gu Shuyinlou cangshu (古書隱樓藏書, "Collection of the Ancient Hidden Pavilion of Books"), edited by Min Yide (閔一得), contains two consecutive works about women's internal alchemy. First, the Xiwang mu nüxiu zhengtu shize (西王母女修正途十則, "Ten Principles of the Queen Mother of the West on the Correct Path of Female Cultivation")[39] was revealed in 1795 by Sun Bu'er to Li Niwan (李泥丸). The original title was Nü jindan jue (女金丹訣, "Women's Formula of the Golden Elixir"). The text shows some Tantric Buddhist influence, and presents ten rules specifically for women's practice, including techniques on how to intercept menstruation, breast massages, visualization of qi meridians in the body, and breath meditation exercises.[40][3] Second, the Niwan Li zushi nüzong shuangxiu baofa (泥丸李祖師女宗雙修寶筏, "Precious Raft of Women's Double Cultivation According to Master Li Niwan"), subtitled Nügong zhinan (女功指南, "A Compass of Women's Practice"), was also revealed to Li in 1795. The text explains nine rules for the progressive transformation of the adept's body, including calming and purifying the spirit, increasing energy circulation through breast massages, eventually leading to the accumulation of wisdom, and formation of a new spiritual "body of light" within the adept's body.[41]
He Longxiang's (賀龍驤) Nüdan hebian (女丹合編, Collected Works on Inner Alchemy for Women) was included in the 1906 edition Daozang jiyao (道藏輯要, "Essentials of the Taoist Canon"). His preface notes that he spent thirty years collecting and compiling the collection, based on the practices undertaken by the Taoist women in his family. The materials consist of about twenty prose and poetry texts that outline the various major stages of the inner alchemical path, precisely describe the energy meridians, and make clear distinctions between men's and women's practices.[42]
The Nü jindan fayao (女金丹法要, "Essential Methods of Women's Golden Elixir"), by Fu Jinquan (傅金銓, 1765–1844), mostly consists of poems and prose texts revealed by Sun Bu'er through planchette writing. The author emphasizes the importance of cultivating companionship with others and the necessity of performing virtuous acts. Women adepts are supposed to purify their karma, repent their sins, and cultivate goodness, sincerity, filial piety, and proper wifely devotion.[42] Fu Jinquan also compiled nüdan texts in the early 19th century collection Daoshu shiqi zhong (道書十七種, "Seventeen Books on the Tao").[3]
The Nüzi daojiao congshu (女子道教叢書, Collection of Taoist Writings for Women), compiled by Yi Xinying (易心瑩, 1896–1976), contains eleven texts, describing women's liturgy, women's Taoist lineages, the principles of body transmutation, interception of menses, and interior cultivation.[42]
Practices
Women's inner alchemy
Writings on inner alchemy for women emphasize the
Only the first stage differentiates practices between men and women. In neidan terminology, semen is called baihu (白虎, White Tiger) and menstrual blood is chilong (赤龍, Red Dragon). Instead of refining seminal essence and transforming it into energy, women refine their menstrual blood by progressively diminishing their flow and eventually stopping it altogether. This is known as duan chilong (斷赤龍, "cutting off the Red Dragon") or zhan chilong (斬赤龍, "decapitating the Red Dragon"), and identifies the adept as pregnant with an embryo of pure energy. Menstrual blood is sublimated into a "new blood" called the baifeng sui (白鳳髓, "white marrow of the phoenix"), which is refined into a higher level of spiritual power.[43]
In traditional Chinese medicine, menstrual blood and seminal fluid represent the fundamental energies of women and men. The cessation of the menstrual flow in women structurally corresponds with the retention of the semen in men. In both cases, loss of an essential substance is stopped and with it, the loss of original energy. This cessation creates a reversal of the natural processes and allows the symbolic creation of a new internal sprout of energy that turns into an embryo of energy. According to traditional medical literature, menstrual blood is formed from maternal milk, which two days before menstruation, sinks down from the breasts into the uterus where it transforms into blood. The refinement of menstrual blood into energy is therefore a reversal of the natural process and consists of its returning to milky secretions. The process begins with breast massages to stimulate the internal fire of sexual desire, which is then controlled to nurture the inner being. Furthermore, the female adept uses breath meditation to transform menstrual blood back into breast secretions. A warm energy is felt rotating around her navel, the area heats up, and the "red is transformed into the white". According to the Nü jindan, "When yang is close to being transformed into yin and to flow out through the jade channel [vagina], quickly get on the wheel of fire. When the wind of the Xun blows in the upper part, in the original Scarlet Palace [solar plexus], decapitate the periodic flow of blood so that it can never run again!"[44]
Texts on neidan practices affirm that since the internal movement of energies corresponds to the gestational capabilities already present in women, their spiritual progress with inner alchemy is consequently faster than that of men. While a male adept has to develop a womb inside himself and learn how to nurture an embryo in it, a woman already has this natural faculty and thus has an easier time learning the practice. He Lοngxiang's preface says, "In the case of women, we discuss breathing techniques but not embryonic practices".[45]
Mediumistic activities
Women played an important role in the long tradition of Chinese shamanism. The word wu (巫, "spirit medium; shaman; sorcerer; doctor") was first recorded during the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600–1046 BCE) when a wu could be either male or female. During the late Zhou dynasty (1045–256 BCE) wu specifically meant "female shaman; sorceress" as opposed to xi (覡, "male shaman; sorcerer"). Later names for shamanesses include nüwu (女巫, "woman shaman"), wunü (巫女, "shaman woman"), wupo (巫婆, "shaman old woman"), and wuyu (巫嫗, "shaman hag"). Shamans communicated with the divine world, serving as diviners, diagnosticians, healers, exorcists, and zhaohun summoners of souls.[46][page needed] Early Taoist movements absorbed certain popular shamanistic practices, especially revealed texts and automatic writing, but also criticized shamans for heterodox practices and black magic.[47]
Many Taoist texts were thought to have been revealed to
Mediumistic literature enthralled Chinese
Women had privileged positions in mediumistic circles and Taoism. Shamanic elements underlie traditions of both schools with female lineages and women's inner alchemical texts. When organized Taoism adapted the ancient practices of shamanesses, female Taoists took on important new roles and functions.[50]
Sexual practices
The Taoist spectrum of sexual activities ranged widely across schools. Some stressed strict celibacy, others mystically married celestial partners, and still others practiced communal ritual intercourse.[3]
In the early Tianshi movement, all community members were initiated into a religious life of strict moral control and ritual sex. Women in the movement played key organizational roles and were essential in the guodu (過度, "rites of passage") sexual initiation, which went back to ancient fangzhong shu (房中術, "bedchamber arts") longevity techniques, and to shamans' ecstatic unions with the divine.[51][page needed] Best known is the sexual ritual of heqi (合氣, "harmonizing the energies"), during which community members, regardless of their marital affiliations, joined in formal intercourse. The rites took place in the oratorγ or jingshi (靜室, "chamber of tranquility") in the presence of a master and an instructor. The techniques involved visualization of bodily energies and ritualized body movements aligned with Chinese numerology and astrology. In contrast to the sensual bedchamber arts, the ritual sex of Tianshi adepts was believed to result in formation of the Immortal Embryo, which benefits themselves as well as contributed to greater universal harmony.[52] Daoxuan's 644 Guang hongming ji (廣弘明集, "Expanded Collection on the Propagation and Clarification [of Buddhism]") says, "During the rituals held at new and full moon, Taoists attend on their preceptor in their private chambers. Feeling and intention are made akin, and men and women engage in joining together. They match their four eyes and two noses, above and below. They join their two mouths and two tongues, one with the other. Once then yin and yang have met intimately, essence and energy are exchanged freely. Thus, the rites of men and women are performed and the Tao of male and female is harmonized."[53]
The Shangqing Clarity tradition takes an ambivalent position toward sexual practices, while not completely rejected, sexuality is considered a lesser technique unable to grant advanced levels of spiritual realization. This Taoist school contends, along with some other religions of the world, that an adept must practice sexual abstinence and chastity in order to see and hear deities. Although the basic theme of sexual union is preserved, it is transposed into imaginary interactions with the divine.[54] As the Zhen'gao says: "When a perfected appears as a presence of light and one engages with him or her, then this is union with the light, love between two beings of light. Although they are then called husband and wife, they do not engage in marital relations".[55] Shangqing adepts sought to transcend mundane sexual union and move into the invisible realm, through the mediation of celestial partners and divine marriages.[56]
Daoist schools of neidan inner alchemy have two basic views on women and sexual union. First, retaining the semen during intercourse creates psycho-physiological transformations, which benefit both female and male adepts as equal partners. Second, practicing sexual abstinence emphasizes women's mediumistic abilities and results in autoeroticism, such as massaging her breasts. In both cases, the union's goal is the formation of an Immortal Embryo, the first sprout of the adept's spiritual rebirth.[54]
Taoist literature describes the ideal sexual union as an even exchange of energies between partners, but some non-Taoist literature mentions a sort of "sexual vampirism" in which one partner selfishly tries to obtain energies at the other's expense. This practice, called caizhan (採戰, "plucking [of energy] in [amorous] combat"), usually benefited men but sometimes also women. For instance, the Queen Mother of the West attained Taoist immortality by nurturing her yin essence; legends say that she never had a husband, but liked to copulate with young boys.[57] Taoism consistently described such practices as improper and heterodox, even though they were covertly practiced within certain Taoist sects.[54]
Celibate and monastic life
Female Taoists who chose to become nuns typically lived in temples known as
Taoism has a long history of polemics over sexual abstinence. Some, such as Song Wenming (宋文明) of the early 6th century strongly recommended that all Taoists be celibate; others preferred family life, such as Li Bo (季播) who presented a memorial to the emperor in the early 7th century recommending that he not prohibit
As mentioned above, Taoist temples during the Tang period segregated women's and men's institutions. Promiscuity was prevalent in some Tang monasteries, for example, the Xianyi guan (咸宜觀, Abbey of Universal Benefit) in Chang'an. It was named after Princess Xianyi, the twenty-second daughter of Emperor Xuanzong, who became a Taoist nun and entered the abbey in 762. Many widows from wealthy families became Xianyi nuns, and continued living in luxury, aided by their servants. The nuns mingled with women from many social classes, such as the celebrated female poet Yu Xuanji (c. 844–869),[60] who was born into a poor family and married a Tang official as his second wife. After denunciation by his first wife, she joined the abbey, took the poet Wen Tingyun (812–870) as her lover, and became renowned as a leader in Tang poetry.[61]
Sex segregation in Taoist institutions became stricter under the Song. In 927, Emperor Taizu issued the following edict: "There are decadent tendencies in the temples, including wearing rough fabric and cohabitation with women and children. This is prohibited for all Taoist clergy. Those with family must live outside of the temple compound. From now on it shall be illegal to install someone as a Taoist clergy without proper official authority."[61]
When the Quanzhen School spread throughout north China, they established many nunneries or guan especially for women, and supported those who had lost family support. Monastic life in Quanzhen temples for both sexes was strictly regulated, and the daily schedule included periods for chanting scriptures, community work, and individual practices, including inner alchemical exercises.[62]
See also
- Houtu
- Zhusheng Niangniang
- Bao Gu (4th-century)
- Gender and religion
- Women as theological figures
- Women in ancient and imperial China
- Women in Buddhism
- Women in China
- Women in Confucianism
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