lff4 PAULR.

KATZ

~@1
Wang Chang-an. 1963a. "Chunyang, Chongyang Dian de Bihua" (The Murals
of the Chunyang and Chongyang Halls). Wenwu 8:40-43.
- - . 1963b. "Yongle Gong Bihua Tiji Luwen" (Transcriptions of the Car- .9 ~
touches on the Yongle Palace Murals). Wenwu 8:66-78. ~p
Wang Shiren. 1959. "Yongle Gong de YuandaiJianzhu he Bihua" (Yuan Dynasty
Architecture and Murals at the Yongle Palace). Wenwu Cankao Ziliao (Ref-
erence Materials on Cultural Artifacts) 9:32-33.
The Lady Linshui: How a Woman
Wang Shucun. 1982. Zhongguo Minjian Huajue (Chinese Folk Painting For-
mulas). Shanghai: Renmin meishu chubanshe.
Became a Goddess
- - . 1991. Xichu Nianhua (New Year's Prints about Dramas). Taipei: Han-
sheng chubanshe. BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER
Watson, James. 1985. "Standardizing the Gods: The Promotion of T'ien Hou
('Empress of Heaven') along the South China Coast, 960-1960." In Popular
Culture in Late Imperial China, edited by David Johnson, Andrew Nathan,
and Evelyn Rawski, 292-324. Berkeley: University of California Press.
White, William C. 1940. Chinese Temple Frescoes. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
Wilson, Stephen. 1983. "Cults of Saints in the Churches of Central Paris." In
Saints and Their Cults, edited by Stephen Wilson, pp. 233-260. Cambridge: The Cult of the Lady Linshui
Cambridge University Press. Sources, Origins, and Particulars
Wong Siu Hon. 1988. Mingdai Daoshi Zhang Sanfeng (Zhang Sanfeng: A Ming
Dynasty Daoist). Taipei: Xuesheng Shuju. The cult of Lady Linshui, named Chen Jinggu and revered under
Wu Yuan-tai (fl. 1522-1565). 1985. Dongyou Ji (Journey to the East). In Siyou the title Shunyi furen, 1 is one of the three biggest cults in Fujian. 2 She
Ji (The Four journeys). Harbin: Beifang Wenxue Chubanshe. is revered there as the protecting goddess of the people, especially of
Xu Bangda. 1956. "Cong Bihua Fuben Xiaoyang Shuo Dao Liang Juan Song women and children, and also as the mistress of the local Liishan
Hua-Chaoyuan Xianzhang Tu" (A Discussion of Two Scrolls of the Chao- ritual tradition, also called Sannai. This cult extends throughout
yuan Xianzhang Tu Based on a Mural Sketchbook). Wenwu Cankao Ziliao northern Fujian, and one finds it equally prevalent in southern Zhe-
2:57-58. jiang. It is very active in Taiwan, where it emigrated during the eigh-
Yang, Richard L. S. 1958. "A Study of the Origin of the Legend of the Eight teenth century, in Southeast Asia, and in other foreign countries.3
Immortals." Oriens Extremis 5(1):1-22. The cult goes back to the Tang dynasty. The Lady herself was once
Yoshioka Yoshitoyo. 1979. "Taoist Monastic Life." In Facets of Taoism, edited by
a woman-born, according to certain sources, in 766 C.E., which
Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, 229-252. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Yu Jianhua. 1958. Zhongguo Bihua (Chinese Murals). Beijing: Zhongguo
corresponds with the date of her base temple, constructed in 792.
Gudian Yishu Chubanshe. According to other legendary sources, she was born in 904, which is
Zeng Jiabao. 1989. "Yongle Gong Chunyang Dian Bihua Tiji Shiyi-Jian Ji Zhu a way to associate her life with the history of the Min kingdom, to
Haogu Ziliao Buchong" (Explanations of the Meaning of the Cartouches in which the cult has close connections.4 These two versions undoubt-
Yongle Palace's Chunyang Hall-With Additional Sources on Zhu Haogu). edly refer tb two. different stages of the same cult, a point to which I
Meishu Yanjiu (Research on Fine Arts) 55:44-48. shall return. The official canonization and inscription on the Register
Zhai Zongzhu. 1987. Zongjiao Meishu Gailun (Introduction to Religious Art). of Sacrifices took place under the Song, between 1241 and 1253, at
Hefei: Anhui Meishu Chubanshe. the request of the prefect of Fuzhou, Chen Qinsou. The cult is still
Zhang Chongyo~. 1984. Zhongguo Mingsheng Guji Quwen Lu (Interesting very active, with its rejuvenation occurring as much in its place of
Tales about China's Famous Ancient Sites and Monuments). N.P.: Nei- origin as in Taiwan, where the biggest part of its emigrant commu-
menggu Renmin Chubanshe, 1984.
nity lives.
Zheng Suchun. 1987. Quanzhen ]iao yu Da Mengguguo Dishi (Quanzhen Dao-
ism and the Mongol Imperial House). Taibei: Xuesheng shuju. Three essential points thus characterize the past and present of this
Zhongguo Minjian Gushi Quanji (Complete Collection of Chinese Folktales). cult: its presentation as closely connected with the history and terri-
1989. Shanxi volume. Taipei: Yuanliu Chubanshe. tory of a kingdom, its representation of a local shamanistic tradition,
and its female deity, in this kingdom, mistress of this ritual tradition.
In Meir Shahar and Robert P. Weller, eds., Unruly Gods: Divinity
and Society in China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996):
105-149 105
 I_
BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER I ----The Lady LinshuC - · - - --ftT7 - -
106
We possess various sources, as much historical as legendary: con- to visit many smaller temples presenting such wall frescoes with the
cerning the Lady and the origins of the cult. The Lady appears m the same division by hui, the same episodes and titles. This is the case in
local monographs of the Min, of Fuzhou, of Gutian, and of other Tainan too, where the main temple has just been rebuilt (1987-1989)
relevant districts, where laconic elements about the biography of a and where rich golden engravings have been executed according to
local shaman and more documented data on her later miracles and the Linshui Pingyao's seventeen chapters (Berthier 1988).
her cult are presented. Her historical existence is taken for granted by As Shahar discusses elsewhere in this volume, these xiaoshuo,
everybody. In 1993 a conference was organized by the Association of once written to be sold in markets and bookshops, are now treasured
International Cultural Exchanges, the Association of Research on by people in the temples. I have been given several copies of the Lin-
Civilization, and the Association of Research on Popular Literature shui Pingyao in temples in Taiwan. I have myself given one copy to
and Arts of Fujian (Fuzhou, Gutian, and Ningde) called "Research the temple in Gutian, on the recommendation of the man who did
into Chen Jinggu's Cult (Chen Jinggu wenhua yanjiu). One of its the engraving of the Tainan temple, because they were looking for a
major topics was the question of how she, as a human being, became model, a huaben, to restore the wall paintings in Gutian. Consider-
a goddess. Her most important exploits-the killing of the ~erpent, a ing this book as a valuable gift to keep the orthodox form of the
ritual to bring rain, her participation in Min kingdom affa1rs~were legend in memory, some Taiwanese participants at the 1993 confer-
not actually questioned, which obliges us to consider two periods of ence brought several copies, which they generously gave to the orga-
origin for her cult: in 766 and 904. nizers and to me. In addition, believers in the temple of Tainan gave
Apart from the monographs that I have mentioned, _the lif~ and me, two years ago, a copy of the book that I had myself given previ-
legend of Chen Jinggu are well documented in another kmd o~ litera- ously to the temple of Gutian, saying that it was an important docu-
ture. These are the mirabilia and hagiographic documents, hke the ment they had just brought back from the mother temple. The book
various Researches on Gods (Soushen Ji), or the Miscellaneous goes back and forth: it is the warrant of the memory arid proper
Documents on Min (Min Zaji), or the Monograph of the 36 Dames transmission and propagation of the cult. ,
(36 Pojie zhi). There is also a body of pious literature (shanshu) emanating from
The Mindu Bieji (Historical Legends of the Min), a collection of the temples, such as Danai Lingjing (The Sacred Book of the Great
local legends fictionalized and compiled under the Qing, dedicates Lady) and Yulin Shunyi Dutuochan Ruozhenjing (Authentic Book on
numerous chapters of its epic retelling to her. This book was the Abortion of Yulin Shunyi) of the Linshui temple in Gutian or the
reprinted in 1987. It has been a great success in North Fujian, where Sannai Furen Quanshi Zhenjing (Authentic Book of Exhortation of
it immediately sold out and was quoted by everybody as a reference the Three Ladies) of the Luyuansi in Taizhong. These works tell the
book on the subject. · story of the Lady and present the characters in her pantheon. They
More specifically, another kind of literature is totally dedicated to also furnish magical formulas, talismans, and ritual elements. Those
her. These are "novels," xiaoshuo, such as the Linshui Pingyao (Pac- documents given to people visiting the temples are certainly also an
ification of the Demons at Linshui) or the Furen Quanben (Complete important element of the propagation of the cult.
Works on the Lady). They were published in Fujian as well as in A song in the fashion of storytelling, the Furen Changci (The
Taiwan. Another novel, Chen Shist Qizhuan (Strange Story of Chen Ballad of the Lady), and a play with eleven scenes, the Chen Danai
Shisi), seems to be a secondhand version of the legends, published _in Tuotai (The Abortion of the Great Lady Chen) (Zhuan, n.d.), com-
Zhejiang (Ye 1985). These are not actually novels, that 1s to say, fic- plete these works. The play was still performed in Fujian some years
tions. They appear as collections of the most important episode~ of ago, and people there wish to perform it again, after a long period of
the legend of Chen Jinggu. They faithfully follow the mythological prohibition. It had been forbidden because it was considered too
episodes of her life and exploits, without personal innovation fr?m "superstitious." This point is important. What does it mean to be
the anonymous authors. People consider them as the story of her life. "superstitious"? This was precisely one of the topics discussed at the
Divided into juan and chapters (hui), those sequences of the epic conference in 1993. Most of the people there considered superstition
story have been and are still used as models for wall paintings and to be what could not be true, that is, metaphor. Of course, for the
engravings that retell her story in temples. This is the case in Fujian, faithful, it means that this play manifests the heart of the beliefs con-
where-apart from the base temple whose wall paintin_gs were cerning Chen Jinggu, the foundation of her cult as a goddess, and
designed, and are now restored, according to this model-I was able thus what has to be transmitted about her. The play shows her
----·-----·---------~

108 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 109-

apprenticeship in the shamanic arts in Liishan,_ her exorcising of the steles in front of them. It includes the short versions of the Soushen Ji
demons of Min, her abortion, and her death while performing a and of the local monographs. Of course, it also follows the oral tra-
ritual for the rain to fall. "Those are the reasons for the temples to dition, _as trans?1~tted to me (1980-1993) by people in both Fujian
exist," I have been told so many times. And of course, this does and Taiwan. It is m harmony with the play and ritual texts, too. The
not fit very well the image of an orthodox, well-behaved historical story of Chen Jinggu does not present major contradictions in its dif-
character. ferent versions. They just have more or fewer episodes and more or
After this conference a book was published (1993) producing a fewer glosses surrounding them. The contradictory features are
kind of new, orthodox point of view on Chen Jinggu and her cult. rather to be found through the different aspects intrinsic to her own
Moreover, during the conference a new version of the play, more fic- character, as we shall see. I present here the heart of her story, in
tionalized and sometimes unfaithful to its actual meaning, was per- order to expand on it below. It begins with the episode of the con-
formed twice, for the first time in many years, once in Fuzhou and struction of the Wanan Bridge, which is built across an arm of the sea
once in Gutian. It was a local event, which generated articles in the called Loy~ng_, near the city of Quanzhou. It was actually built by the
newspapers and attracted the presence of national television. Yet the pr~fect Cai Xiang between 1054 and 1060, which indicates that this
people in both places felt that it was not the "real drama" of Chen episode of the legend corresponds to a late period. It is nonetheless
Jinggu. Why? This was clearly shown to me by one of the shamans I always mentioned as the origin. We can only conclude that the meta-
know, and it was not only because of the modifications of the story. phoric elements here included are structurally indispensable to the
Having heard that the play was going to be performed, he came to modern cult.
the temple to attend it. But he saw nothing ... because it was per- It is said in the legend that when the prefect despaired of success in
formed in the city theater. He was angry and disillusioned, and he building the bridge, the goddess Guanyin decided to help him. She
told me that it was time to show me the actual play of Chen Jinggu- appeared on the waves of the arm of the indomitable sea, in a mar-
"the corpus of all the rituals she is able to perform as the master of velous boat, rowed by none other than the local earth god. Anyone
the Liishan tradition." Thus the play, the true one, is an efficacious who could succeed in touching her by throwing a piece of money
ritual. It is impossible to perform it if you do not wish to enact what could m~rry her. The crowd filled the riverbanks, and money accu-
she does. In other words: the real drama of Chen Jinggu is the whole mulated m the boat as people tried to reach this woman offered on
corpus of rituals of the Liishan Sannai tradition, still performed in the water in a game of nuptial penny-toss. A vegetable merchant
her name by her shamans and mediums. This is exactly what a touc~ed her ?n the hair with a silver powder, under the good advice
medium of the Lady often told me, asking me: "What do you think I o~ Lu Don~bm, who had come to his aid. Like a mirage, it seemed to
am doing? trance? theater? playing mad? I am Chen Jinggu." The him, she disappeared. Horrified at this treason the man threw him-
texts of these rituals are, of course most precious to us to understand self in the water and drowned. But Guanyin se~t his soul to be rein-
the process of her "civilization," to keep the Chinese term. 5 carn~ted at Gutian, where he became Liu Qi, a young literatus and
The play is also part of the repertory of at least one theater group magistrate. Then she bit her finger and spat a drop of blood in the
in Gaoxiong, Taiwan. A television series on Chen Jinggu also ran water. Following mysterious paths in the water of the Min where it
there during the 1980s, presenting a fictionalized version of her story, sailed, this drop arrived at the Lower Ford. (Xiadu) at Fuzhou. A
whiCh, like the new play in Fujian, was not much appreciated by her woman, Lady Ge, was doing her wash there. Wife of a magistrate,
shamans and mediums, even if many people watched it. she was no longer young but nevertheless had not yet conceived chil-
All these documents, of different epochs and different natures, dren. Along the banks of the Min, in the tumultuous waters this
give detailed access to the cult's life, its role in the society of imperial s~all re~ pearl-resembling, it is said, a small strawberry or pr~ne­
China (especially in the Min kingdom), through the character of this dnfted m the water toward this woman with her sterile womb.
female shaman,. Chen Jinggu. Attracted arid absent-minded, she took and swallowed this blood-
~he blood of Guanyin. Chen Jinggu was born from this, to Lady Ge,
Chen Jinggu's Story m the Chen family of Xiadu.
Let me now introduce a brief synopsis of the legend of Chen Jinggu. The hair of Guanyin, which the man had hit turned white and fell
The version of the legend that I give here follows the one given by her in the water. This was hardly wasted either. I~ became a white ser-
novels, which is also engraved on the walls of her temples and on the pent, a female python. It is said that Guanyin bore Chen Jinggu to
110 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 1rr
dominate this serpent at the expense of her own life, in a premoni- A cult was then offered to her, and later she was officially canon-
tion of the misdoings of this demon, animated itself by the desires of ized as a goddess.
the future Liu Qi. Blood and hair of Guanyin, woman and demon
serpent, marriage and desire, they were both ready to marry, in their The Base Temples in Fujian and Taiwan
own manner, Liu Qi. The Linshui Mother Temple in Daqiao, Gutian
Chen Jinggu grew up in Xiadu as a model child. But when she was The base temple of the cult in Fujian can be found in the village of
about fifteen or seventeen, she refused to marry Liu Qi. She was Daqiao, in Gutian, at a place called Linshui. It was constructed in
taken by Liangnii, servant of Guanyin, to Mount Lii (Liishan), to 792, under the Tang. Much later (1341-1348), the temple was em-
learn the magical arts. She stayed there for three years and was bellished and aggrandized, and it was the occasion for a jiao ritual of
taught by Xu Zhenjun. She learned everything but the art of protect- installation. This was financed by the community of worshipers of
ing childbirth, still persisting in her refusal to marry. Then she the whole province and, without doubt, by newly gained imperial
returned to Fuzhou. During the two years following her return, she subsidies, if one believes the sources, notably the report of Zhang
acted as a shaman, exorcising the kingdom of Min of its demons and Yining (1301-1370), which was based on a stele written by the pre-
creating her own shamanic community of ancient demons she had fect Hong Tianxi (1225-1228). 6 The temple was restored after being
tamed and Daoist/shaman friends she met during her trips. These burned by a careless beggar under the Qing, during the first year of
included her two sworn sisters, Lin Jiuniang and Li Sanniang. the Guangxu era (1875). The statues were broken in 1950 during the
During her life Chen Jinggu battled the demon serpent three times, campaign against superstitions, and they suffered further damage
with each battle corresponding to the king giving her a new title. The during the Cultural Revolution, though they were not completely
first time, she cut the serpent in three pieces on the bed of the king, demolished.
where it had taken the human appearance of the queen and eaten the Since 1980 the keeper has undertaken the restoration of the
consorts. She put one part of it in the well of the Kaiyuan Si in temple and has also worked to revive the cult community. At this
Fuzhou, the second part in the Min River, and the third in the well of local level, the restoration has not been without conflict. There was a
the seven stars of the Dipper Constellation in Fuzhou. The second rivalry with a female medium of the Lady who had the same inten-
time was to save Liu Qi, who had been raped by the serpent's head, tion and wanted to be the main player. She finally withdrew, building
which had escaped from its jail and transformed itself into a beauti- another Linshui temple and taking part in the restoration of the old
ful woman to marry him against his will. The last time was during a Chenghuang temple in Gutian, the temple of the city god. This local
ritual to make rain, when they died together as they were born. anecdote is strongly suggestive about the formation of the cult com-
Chen Jinggu finally had to marry Liu Qi and became pregnant. At munities that weave the texture of these networks, and about their
that moment she was required to perform a ritual for the rain to fall, discords. I will have occasion to mention other, similar anecdotes.
to save the Min kingdom from a severe drought. This is why she had Since 1991 the State Bureau of Religions has taken charge of the offi-
to "abort" the fetus while acting as a shaman, taking the child out of cial restoration of the temple. A Quanzhen-tradition Daoist from the
her womb and hiding it in her mother's house. She died of a hemor- Baiyun Guan in Beijing has taken on the role of manager. The temple
rhage while dancing on the river's waters, because her double, the is now under the control of the Baiyun Guan.and of the local admin-
white serpent, which had found its way to Chen Jinggu's house, had istration. This latest development seems to me quite traditional, in
just swallowed her embryo, in a cannibal act to "feed its life" (yang- looking at the history of the temple and at the different metaphors
sheng). She had just enough strength left to kill the serpent, while for the strata of society and of Daoism that it raises. This will
riding on its head, both flying to the Gutian Linshui temple, where become more evident, I hope, in the rest of this essay. The conference
they are still represented together. It is said that Chen Jinggu's body in 1993 was held partly in Fuzhou and partly at the nearby temple at
was mummified, while the serpent is kept under her seat, in a small Linshui, in a new hotel constructed by a Taiwanese believer for the
cave that is still visible in the Gutian temple. pilgrims and overseas Chinese visitors, whose numbers are increasing
After her death, she returned to Liishan to learn the secrets of and for whom the small bedrooms at the side of the temple no longer
pregnancy. She took back the soul of her child by performing a ritual sufficed.
to transform it into a child god named San Sheren, the Third Secre- The temple was constructed on the site of a cave in Linshui, where
tary, or Qilin Sansheren, the Third Secretary Who Rides the Unicorn. there had been another, earlier cult of a demon serpent to which, it is
112 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 11.J-
p~otectors, the bet;ldi shen, local divinities-showing a cult commu-
0

said, two children were sacrificed every year. 7 Later, according to this
legend, this other white demon serpent challenged the Lady, who nity that preceded Chen Jinggu's. The walls of their small room are
killed it. 8 The Lady, according to legend, her body mummified, sits decorated with paintings illustrating episodes of the tales of the
upon the head of the vanquished serpent invisible in a small cave Three. Kingdoi:is, while at the floor, in the makeup pavilion, where
under her throne. It is said that the first temple was constructed by there is an articulated statue of the Lady for processions, the walls
the queen of the Min (or by a queen of the Tang) who had dreamed are covered in paintings illustrating her myths, following the Furen
of the Lady after her death. This fact holds significance for the rela- Z?uan. The mother of the Lady is also present at the floor, together
tions between the cult and the state. The temple looks like a palace, with the two gods in charge of the Bridge of One Hundred Flowers
with an official reception room, in the back of which the Lady is the heavenly region over which she reigns. An Earth God altar one~
dressed as an empress. There are also galleries on the aisle of the flanked the temple, and it is said that there was an altar to Guangong.
main hall and a floor with other altars and a pavilion for makeup, The State Bureau of Religions has rebuilt the Earth God altar and
theatrical performances, and processions. In the principal hall a wants t~ construct a room for the Three Pure Ones, which may
theater stage, which was restored and used for a performance in better smt the patronage of the Baiyun Guan and the claimed ortho-
1991,9 faces the ritual area; the two spaces are separated by a sunken doxy of the cult. There is also a large tree at the source of the turtle
courtyard. Perhaps one can see here a ritual mountainous Daoist and the dragon, signs of fengshui, affirming the correct local geo-
structure, like that of the temple of Baosheng Dadi in Xiamen, mancy. ·
described by Kristofer Schipper (1990) and Kenneth Dean (1993). w_e c~n see how ~he ~ure_aucratic metaphor of an official palace,
There is thus a temple, an imperial palace for Daoist rituals, nothing Daoist lineages, the imphcat10ns of royal structures, and shamanistic
but banalities. But the characters who appear in the temple, like its and cosmic values mix intimately into the history of this woman
origin, tell another story. Chen Jinggu. All of this is engraved in the very structure of th~
In the place of horror are the Sannai-Chen Jinggu, Lin Jiuniang, temple. Thus, to "read" the temple is to gain access to the whole
and Li Sanniang-the three shamans who use the ritual techniques of mythological and sociological story of the cult.
Liishan. All three of them died viblent deaths through abortion or
The Temple in Tainan
suicide. At their sides are the Lady Tigress (Jiang Hupo) ~nd the
Ladies Stone-Press (Shijia Furen), repented demons who have be- The founding temple in Taiwan, at Tainan, was conceived on the
come shamans under the, orders of Chen Jinggu. The galleries are same principle, with some mythological variations. Constructed in
occupied by the Ladies of Thirty-six Palaces, the consorts of the king 1736, it originated from a temple in Fuzhou and is the neighbor of
of the Min (Wang Yanjun, fl. 928-935), whom the white serpent the temple of Koxinga. It has been expanded and embellished at
reduced to a state of blanched bones. They have become the nur- great cost. The jiao ritual of construction and the ritual for the
turers and protectors of children, and this is how their statues in the reopening of the doors took place in 1987-1989. Officials of the
temple show them. Their names are posted with a mention. of the t~~n hierarchy were also present, as well as the newspapers and tele-
origin of each one, so that, as people say, "you don't make a mistake vision. The cult community of the whole island is active and prosper-
when invoking them." This may refer to previous local cults, later ous. In recent years many pilgrims have returned to Gutian to renew
subjugated to the Lady. This is the case for one of them, at least: the th~ir _communiti_es' ties. Such is the case of the Linshui temple in
smallpox goddess, coming from Fuqing, mother of twin brothers, Taipei, whose director is one of the most important benefactors of
sons of a serpent god. The aborted son, Liu Cong, is also present in the Gutian temple. The director, a native of Fuzhou, was present at
these galleries of the royal consorts. He is represented mounted on a the ~onfere~ce_ in 1993. The mother temple in Tainan also envisages
chimera or a unicorn (qilin). makmg a pilgni:iage. The reconstruction of the temple, again, saw its
It is a curious palace, where one also finds the queen of the Min, share of dissension among the different economic groups of worship-
reigning as she should, over the royal concubines in the galleries of ers. Here as well, a privileged medium of the Lady has chosen to con-
the temple. 10 The generals Wang and Yang, of the celestial army of struct her own temple and hopes to go and make allegiance "divide
the five directions (yinbing), whom the Lady commands as the in~ense" (fenxiang), directly in Gutian. The temple in Tai~an was
shaman of Liishan, are also there, ready to assist her. In a room at the bmlt on the same official model as the one in Gutian: an audience
entrance to the temple also stand the two Taibao-the two guardian room and galleries occupied by the royal concubines and nurturers of
 114 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER 115-
The Lady Linshui
the cult occur here as well. Performances take place in front of the
temple. The Earth God is present inside, but on the oth~r hand, Liishan and the Tradition of the Sannai
neither Jiang Hupo nor the Shijia Furen are present. There is, how- One of the partieularities of this cult is its association with a cer-
ever an altar to the monkey Danxia Dasheng, the Great Sage of the tain ritual tradition, the Liishan, Sannai tradition. This fact certainly
Cin~abar Fumes a demon castrated by Chen Jinggu. The Lady's played a great role in the transmission of the cult through the ages.
mother is missi;g, but there are Zhusheng Niangniang, th~ Lady Yiwu Liishan, Mount Lii of the Healing Shamans, is actually
who Registers All Births, and a couple of gardeners of the Bn~ge of located in Beizhen, in the Liaoning district of Manchuria. This high
One Hundred Flowers (Huagong Huapo), over which Chen Jmggu place of shamanism was ·already well known in Min country, as
watches and which one finds materialized in the Daqiao, in Fujian, certified by the master Daoist of Fujian, Po Yuchan (1209-1224).1 2
standing in the front of the temple. Her son, ~iu. <:ong, is also miss- According to both written and oral legendary traditions, Mount Lii
ing, but the white serpent is said to be there, i.nvisible. The myths of was "imported" to Fujian, after a fashion, in the form of a mytholog-
the Lady are sculpted in gold-plated bas-rehef, modeled after the ical mountain where the procedural rituals of shamanistic Daoism
Linshui Pingyao, just as in Gutian. were taught. Finally, this mountain, whose calm was troubled by the
One can make some very interesting comparisons among the affluence of the disciples, was immersed upside-down (fan) in the
numerous temples of the network, but this is not my objective here. waters of the Min at Fuzhou, at the place called Longtan Jiao, at
We can see well enough, through these two examples, how revealing Shangdu, the upper ford of the island of Nantai. Only those who
these paradoxes (bureaucratic metaphor and shamanistic ~tructu~e, truly have the proper destiny, after a "boat journey" that I consider
diachronic and syncretic representatio.ns) are about the cult, a pomt shamanistic, can successfully find the entrance to the cave where the
to which I shall return in presenting various facets of the character of master spreads his teachings. Perhaps one can see in this transposi-
Chen Jinggu herself. tion of Mount Lii a sign of affiliation with a tradition coming from
Every year, between the New Year and the fifteenth of t.he first elsewhere.
luna:r month, during the days of the festival of the Lady. m both A whole pantheon accompanies these beliefs, and the fashi of
Fujian and Taiwan, pilgrims flood the mother temple, ~ommg froi:i Liishan possess ritual paintings that represent it. These include their
all the points of the fenxiang network, accompamed by .the~r Treasure of the Magic Method (fabao). It is composed of three
shamans. The names of the communities that visit are conscienti- painted scrolls, always present on the altar, closed, when they per-
ously recorded and their gifts entered in the temple ~egistry. A~ ?oth form rituals. They are opened only in cases of extreme importance,
temples, new steles have recently been chiseled, showmg the affiliated and many offerings must be presented. The first scroll represents the
members from all regions. Other steles tell the story of the Lady, the celestial soldiers, the spirits who have submitted to the shaman. The
foundation myth. Those steles are considered to be the warrant of second represents the twelve "original bodies" (benshen), the twelve
the orthodoxy of the cult, to be transmitted to the pilgrims. masters of the fashi. Finally, the third scroll is a talisman of investi-
We can then see two important aspects of the cult: the networks of ture from Liishan. In addition, the fas hi usually use ritual paintings,
affiliation (fenxiang) and their economic function in the rea~ world, which they hang to create the sacred area. Those paintings show dif-
and the vertical ties of the state bureaucracy. These functions are ferent mythological episodes of Chen Jinggu's life, well known to all
i I
orchestrated in ritual performance by the fashi, "masters of the magic the faithful. The magical treasure of the fashi includes, besides paint-
: I
methods " the shamans who act in the name of Chen Jinggu. This ings and ritual texts, a body of written healing talismans for exor-
I, reveals a' particular aspect of the land: an economi~ network of affi~i­ cism and protection, transmitted through the generations. These ap-
ations animated by the shamans who appeal to this w?man, the. ~is­ pear sometimes to be true scriptural rituals, meant to express a
tress of the Liishan Sannai line. Fashi of the Liishan lmeage officiate specific vision of the world, like a chart of the universe with its para-
over these different temples. In Fujian they come princip~lly .to dises, pantheons, and mythologies (Baptandier Berthier 1994a). The
present incense (jinxiang), to divide incense to renew com!11umty ties masters of Liishan are equally celebrated for their mudras, gestures
and affiliations (fenxiang), and also to present peoples personal of magical value, reputed to be very efficacious. This fact recalls the
wishes or to demand an oracle. In Taiwan they also carry out other practices of the magical arts of thunder (leifa). This is a kind of bodily
rituals at the temple always in the name of the Lady. In Fujian these theater where every gesture tells a whole story and keeps it alive in
' completed m
same rituals are usually . the h ouses o f t h e patients.
•. 11
the memory of the shamans, as associated with secret mantras.
 The Lady Linshui 11-7-
116 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER a

tion and its metaphors. This is the interpretation of the shamans

Daoist masters from different lineages, like Zhengyi, also possess themselves. One can also see the application, as if in a dramatic act,
paintings of this pantheon, which serve t? constru~t a ritual a~e~ as of the Daoist precept of cultivating femininity inside oneself, as the
they conduct the Sannai rituals. In re_ahty, the dif~erent traditions way of nourishing life, yangsheng. This also establishes an equality
often blend in Fujian, and masters easily perform ~itual~ that co~e between femininity and ritual activity, to which I will return later. Or
from neighboring sects. One can thus see a Zhengyi Daoist, weanng perhaps it is merely a pure theatricalization of the rituals, based on
his black headdress, temporarily put the traditional red headdress of the myths.
Liishan over it when he completes a rite of this sect. There are also a number of female mediums of Chen Jinggu who
In effect th~ current Sannai Liishan tradition is melded from e~e­ act in her name, in trance, dispensing curing rites and talismans, gen-
ments of shamanistic and neighboring Daoist traditions, added to its erally less elaborately. The ritual virtue is placed here on trance and
own specific foundation (Baptandier. ~erthier ~994b). One can on direct contact with the goddess. The transformation is not the
clearly see that the Sannai Liishan tradition constitutes a local case, same as that of the fashi. One transforms ritualistically, the other is
founded on an ancient shamanistic tradition, supplemented acro~s possessed; one proceeds more by metaphor, the other by metonymy.
the ages and especially since the Song by borrowing from othe~ tradi- In both cases, it is the shaman Chen Jinggu whom we continue to
tions, leaving its origin uncertain. The ritu~l substrat~ of the lme are observe everywhere.
rites of curing and of exorcism, including ntes of callmg t~e souls of
the living, like shoujing (collecting frights). In any case, go mg beyond
the orthodoxies, the masters of one tradition and the shamans of the Who Is Chen Jinggu?
other can perhaps be seen as "the first <";hinese ysychoanalysts," as The Fundamental Destiny: Where a Woman Appears like a
Judith Boltz (1987) said in looking at their practices. . Landscape Chart
One of the most important rituals is the one for ram and for the According to the legends as painted in the temples and as told up
reestablishment of cosmic harmony that Chen Jinggu herself per- to the present, Chen Jinggu's origin was Guanyin-the promiser of
form~d. There are also the exorcism of terrestrial evils and of the marriage, alliance, and descendants-at Quanzhou during the con-
white tiger (xietu) and the rituals' for women and ch~ldren. These struction of the Bridge (see the short synopsis, above).
f
shamans also perform community rites (jinxiang, enxiang) and the Here, then, is the original destiny (benming) of Chen Jinggu, the
seasonal rites of passage. The ritual liandu, a kmd of after-death future Linshui Furen, Lady at the Edge of the Water. She is the blood
curing ritual that certain shamans adopted, can a_l~o be added. Note of a goddess, offered to the desire of humans, in order to construct a
that in parts of Taiwan, fashi of the Liishan tradition a!s? carry out bridge; the daughter of an old woman, who nevertheless conceived as
funeral ritual (chaodu). Spiritual administration to the h~mg an~ the she washed her laundry in the river water, where by a miracle she
dead is in all ways a shamanistic task. The presence m th~. ntu~l found the fertile blood; and also the future shaman, the exorcist of
corpus of the voyage rite called guo luguan confirms the fas hi m this the female demon serpent. It is no surprise at all to see the Buddhist
role. divinity Guanyin so integrated into the legend of this cult, an addi-
The fashi perform these rituals at the head of the cele~tial troops, tional marker of the general syncretism. Moreover, Buddhism was
the soldiers of the five directions, appealing to the Sannai, the Three favored in the land of Min throughout the time of Wang Shenzhi
Ladies. These shamans are men, but to practice the rituals of this tra- (898-925). His successors did not imitate him. They tended to favor
dition they must wear the ritual clothing of Chen Jinggu, notably her Daoism and the shamanistic cults. Some trace perhaps remains
skirt. They are thus transformed into this woman, and they dance through this "descent line" of Chen Jinggu.
and act like her.13 It is remarkable and strange to observe all these This is also a commentary on femininity and on the social role of
men dressed as female shamans, giving the impression of a collective women, which appears between the lines. The French anthropologist
ritual of transsexuality, especially during the festival of the Lady, as Yvonne Verdier (1979) has clearly shown the relationship between
the crowd invades the temple. The fashi, however, are generally mar- the traditional feminine activity of washing and a double passage: of
ried men and well integrated in the local society. Perhaps one car_i ~ee the newborn toward the world of the living and of the dead toward
in this transsexual ritual a memory of its origin, since the tradition the world beyond. During each of these two steps, there is a ritual
was female. Thus the very body of the shaman, as well as the ritu~l washing, which task is incumbent upon women. The woman who ac-
dress and attitudes, is also a support for the transmission of the tradi-
 118 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 119
complishes this often also helps to give birth. This is the later role of
Chen Jinggu, after she has become a goddess,· and also the role of
Zhusheng Niangniang at the temple in Tainan. Here, Lady Ge
washes and conceives at the same time, by eating the fruit of mater-
nity. This also shows the passage from the prior world (qianshi)
before birth to the present life of Chen Jinggu, the incarnation of a
vow of marriage and, in this patrilineal society, of conception. One
can also detect an archaic vein of representations of female genera-
tions, following a female lineage of miracle making/receiving that
constitutes Guanyin, who promises to marry and then disappears by
transforming herself; Lady Ge, aged and sterile, who conceives out-
side the patrilineage, by the grace of Guanyin's blood; and Chen
Jinggu, future goddess and protector of women and chil~ren, who
dies in the middle of an abortion. Her destiny as a shaman is already
presented in this "retro-image" of her original destiny: she is born to
tame the serpent demon, as we shall see.
The scenes in Fuzhou where her conception/birth took place,
which remain basically the same today, serve as landmarks for the
memory of the beliefs, of the practices, and of the past communities;
they gleam in the water of the river of Longtan Jiao, "where Lii.shan
can still be seen,'' say current believers. This is a construction in a
mirror: Xiadu, the lower ford, the place of birth, and Shangdu, the
upper ford, the place of mortal combat, one on each side of the
bridge in Fuzhou, itself the contemporary of the bridge in Quanzhou, Chen Jinggu and her husband Liu Qi at the temple in Zhongcun village.
place of her original destiny. Perhaps one can also see in the le?end- (Author photograph)
ary passage of the fertile blood from Quanzhou to Fuzhou an inter-
pretable sign as to the local rate of natality or to the exchange of stru~ted and decorated with images of celestial scenery by the female
populations.14 In any case, in this epoch of the creation of the cult, medium who was in rivalry for the restoration of the mother temple
when maritime commerce and water transportation were flourishing, and who represents a community of worshipers in Gutian. But on
all these spots were certainly vital points: fords, marketplaces, places the other side of the tiny river, in the village of Zhongcun, another
of exchange of all sorts, places of passage. This is again the case female medium, from Fuzhou this time, has constructed a small
today, when temples and their life appear once more as the face of temple to the Lady with the help of her followers. Here the goddess is
the market. represented sitting with her husband, Liu Qi (see figure). Both per-
Other sites also serve as important landmarks in this story. The sonify, even today, the alliance of a woman of Fuzhou and a man of
micro-environment of the temple at Gutian, for example, is very re- Gi:tian. A little farther ~way, in a neighboring hamlet, sits the second
vealing about the relations between the different communities, nota- bndge: Shuchuang (Hairbrush). It was cut during the war with Japan
bly between Gutian and Fuzhou. Curiously, the old village of Gutian (1931), which proves that it was important. It also represents the
Ii
has been submerged by a dammed lake. Near the temple of the Lady ~lac~ of the last exorcism accomplished by the Lady, who, with Lin
11
1
at Linshui, in the village called Daqiao (Great Bridge), there is a local Jn1:mang, raptured the Demon of the Big Crevice by using a long
11

I
market. There, two other bridges determine the surroundings of hair. 15 The usual landmarks of this demon are found in Fuzhou on
I the temple. One is the Baihua Bridge, the Bridge of One Hundred the island of Nantai, at Zhangan Shan, under Shangdu. But at' the
I Flowers, named after the celestial place the Lady runs, the place of all bridge of Shuchuang, one can also see a gap by the waterside, where
human reincarnations. Terrestrial and celestial places seem here to ~e was vanquished, associating the two places, which people say are
mix with one another in a troubling manner. This bridge was con- m communication. On the flanks of the mountain between these vil-
 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 121
120
lages, named the Mountain of the Lady (Furen Shan), one can find Chen Yu, shaman
the base Linshui temple. This is also where the old road ran, which
crossed these bridges. An ancient stele, standing at the entrance to
the mountain, attests to it. Today, pilgrims attending the goddess fes- Lady Ge Chen Chang, magistrate
tival at the base temple and about to rebuild their own temple come
here to do a kind of sociological enquiry, studying every detail of the Liu Qi, 6=0 Chen Jinggu, shaman/demon 6 Chen Shouyuan,
landscape-natural as well as built-to be able to follow the right magistrate I Daoist master
model in their own village.
This sketch follows the Min and its tributaries, landmarked by 6 Liu Cong, Qilin San Sheren
bridges, which indicate the mythological distance covered both by
this female shaman between the two vital points of her cult, Gutian
and Fuzhou, and, without doubt, by those communities that have Ai:iother point also merits attention. The Daoist (Tianshi sect)
adopted her as a tutelary divinity in their exchanges and proces- cousm C~en Shouyuan was, the legend tells, too poor to marry. He
sions. Witness the local proverb: "The serpent of Fuzhou does not kept at his ~ouse a young actor, who played female roles in a Suzhou
have a head, it is found in Gutian." This is a reference to the myth, troupe. This Y01:1ng man was vampirized by the white serpent and
where part of the serpent was cut off by Chen Jinggu and taken saved by Chen Jmggu at ~he same time as her husband Liu Qi. Chen
prisoner to Fuzhou, while she sits upon its head at the temple in s7ouyuan t~us kept at his house a victim of the white serpent "in
Gutian. The processions of local worshipers take this same road ~ace of a w1~e," ~ays the Linshui Pingyao. Chen Jinggu, at the ~ame
even today. ~~e, saved Lm Q1 from her alter-ego, the white serpent, and married
The main temple in Fuzhou, which was situated near the place Im. These are o~d marriages .... Moreover, the actor who plays the
considered to be the original birth house ~f the Lady, in Nantai, does fe.~ale roles curiously reminds us of the fas hi, the shamans of
not exist anymore. It is now a hospital. Thus, unfortunately, it is Lushan, who play_ fem~le roles as they transform themselves into
impossible to analyze the current relations between the two temples wo~e1:1 \mor_e precisely, mto Chen Jinggu herself) for ritual purposes
nowadays. Another Linshui temple is being rebuilt in the same sur- F_emm1mty, ritual, and theater find themselves this time strictly asso~
roundings. This will perhaps allow a further study at some future crated. ' '
date.
The Shaman of the Min Kingdom
An Interesting Genealogy: Where State, Religion, and
Cult Communities Become Associated Chen Shouyuan 6 =610 0 ID= 6 Magistrate,
Despite appearances, Chen Jinggu is presented as a "daughter of Daoist ' actor Chen Jinggu Liu Qi
(man/wife) (woman/demon)
i
good family," well placed in the masculine hierarchy of official Con-
'11
fucianism and religion. Her grandfather is said to have been a
I shaman named Chen Yu. Her father, Chen Chang, was a censor and
11
had received the title of Great Master of the Second Defense. Her This d~uble scheme of alliance and this genealogy once again
lj
cousin, Chen Shouyuan, was the official daoshi of the kingdom. His show an_ image of relations among the state, religion,' and the cul~
historical existence is certified, as well as his relationship with the com~umty that weaves together the social structure in all its com-
I
1'
1, 1
1

founder of the Tianxin Zhengfa tradition of Daoism.16 Her husband, plexity and ~as undo~bt~dly constructed to confirm them. It is a pic-
i1\\ Liu Qi, became an inspector in Loyuan. It is interesting to see the dif- ture that smts the Mm kmgdom at this historical epoch. Moreover.
l,'i\ ferent hierarchies: Confucian and Daoist, then Daoist and shama- we ~hould ~~te ~hat the entire family of Chen Jinggu would hav~
II
111
nistic, spontaneously mixing, without opposing or excluding one received official titles after her death, in memory of the merits of this
1111
another. Lady Linshui was daughter and wife of magistrates, grand- female shaman. ~e can also see that while the bureaucratic meta-
'I I'I 1
daughter and sister of a shaman and Daoist, mother of a divine phor emerges at this ~oment, it is only one part of the story. We need
1
'11 infant, itself shaman and celestial magistrate. only look at the steles m front of the temples to see the inverse, where
1111

1
!11
i1ii
1111

1111
I
122 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui
123
the names of the officials are shown without any particular distinc-
tion, considered as simple members of the cult community.
The current situation seems to be very much the same. A Daoist of
the Baiyun Guan has managed the temple since 1991, under the
direction of the State Bureau of Religion. Today, shamans and medi-
ums perform the rituals, while drama is enacted. During the 1993
conference, officials of the local government hierarchy and intellec-
tuals analyzed the exploits and the life of Chen Jinggu for a kind of
new "canonization" as an orthodox, Daoist, nonsuperstitious cult,
suitable to be shown to the overseas Chinese and even to foreigners.
The Warrior: Where the World Appears as a Shamanistic
Battlefield
Chen Jinggu, like most of her sister shamans or goddesses in this con-
text, is a warrior. The Liishan sect is governed by the symbolism of
the five elements, with their cycles of mutual creation and destruc-
tion, seen metaphorically as the five camps. Chen Jinggu commands
a celestial army, the yinbing (soldiers of yin). Two chief generals are
under her orders, Wang and Yang. She herself, an expert in martial
arts, possesses weapons: the Sword of Ursa Major and a whip whose
handle is a serpent.. Her dress as a magician is also for combat: the
crown placed on her undone hair is that of a general and her long
skirt, which is worn by the preseht shamans of her line, can be
hitched up when she jumps over rivers, mounts a horse, or engages in
hand-to-hand combat. Modern shamans enact these same gestures
during their rituals. Several statues represent her in this role (see
figure).17
Chen Jinggu's legendary history thus makes her an active partici-
pant in the wars of the kingdom. At the head of the yinbing and also
of an army of women-shamans, tamed demons, and even the queen
and her consorts-she succeeded in ending a historical siege of
Fuzhou, which had been led by the king's brother, assisted by a "per-
verse" initiate of the rival Maoshan sect. 1 8 Thus, the historical rival- Chen Jinggu next to her horse on the altar of the Linshui temple. (Author
ries of the royal clans and of the Daoist/shamanistic traditions are photograph)
again intimately mixed, alongside the battle of the sexes. Chen
Jinggu takes part, she is implicated, she fights. Or in other words, her ings of "nouri.shing life" through the exchange of yin and yang. Let
character is being manipulated to reveal this situation. u.s recall that m the a~s of the bedchamber, sexual vampirism exer-
This theme of warrior-goddesses is widespread in China. To take cised by one of the deviant partners is called "grasping in combat."
only one example, a repertory opera of the Min tells of such a siege It wo~ld be ~ro17g to think that the modern world has seen the
ended by a woman; it is called the City of the Lady (Furen Cheng). end of this martial virtue. During fieldwork (1991), a medium of Cai
Warrior-shamans disguised as women for ritual reasons, and women ~uren, anoth~r goddess close to Chen Jinggu, who herself died fight-
becoming warriors themselves, use this metaphor in ways that may mg the enemies ~f her fat?er's city, assured me that the divine sisters
evoke the relations between the sexes through these elements of ha~ taken part m the Vietnam War and indeed in the Gulf War
transsexuality. One can see a kind of alternation, as in the proceed- which was then raging. "They are going to help," she explained t~
 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 125
124
me, "they can't stay indifferent when people are _being oppr~ssed." founded for her, and the Song dynasty canonized her as the Favor-
This is perhaps the expression of a latent despair from seemg the able and Just Lady, Shunyi. Her numerous miracles survived the
intervention of other terrestrial structures. ages. Today [1607] her cult is spread throughout the country of
Bamin [that is, the Fujian region]. (Soushen Ji [1607] 6:6b-7a [Xu
The Different Strata of the Cult: Where a Local Shaman Becomes Daozang, no. 1476], Biography of Shunyi Furen)
the Favorable and Just Lady Linshui
An Exceptional Character: Where Her Transgression of Norms This portrait brings her together with her present mediums. Some
Earns Her a Cult of them explain their destiny, strange even to themselves, as if the
Chen Jinggu's birth was no less exc~ptiona~ than her conception. components of their horoscope (benming) went against the destiny of
While perfumes suffused the air, celestial music ~as hea:d. From her ordinary people, and of their families in particular, so that they
birth, she gave signs of being excepti?nal: There is no ~itual text,"no risked being "struck" (chong) and "striking" others. Like Chen
legendary narrative that does not begm with the following verse: At Jinggu, they are thought to have only a rather short life span, which
one and two years old, she was very intelligent, at three and fou!, only possession by the divinity-occurring as a cult-can prolong.
very clairvoyant. From five and six years old, she learned to embroi- Again like Chen Jinggu, they are consulted for both people and ani-
der. At seven, she learned to read and did it to perfec~ion. _She was mals, which are considered a part of the family wealth. But they are
wise and knowing, no one could rival her. Vegetarian smce her also expert in affecting harvests and the seasons, and in predicting
infancy, she offered a cult to Guanyin. At fifteen years old, she "."ent the future. They have unusual powers over their own bodies, which
to Liishan with the Lady of the Perfumed Pearl, to learn the m~gi~ of allows them, while in trance, to hurt themselves without acknowl-
Ursa Major and save the people." 19 This is a summary_ ~e~c:iption, edged danger and without durable marks.
quite standard and ordinary for immortals and ~ut?re dlVlmtie~: .~n~
close enough to the female precepts and proprieties of the Nu7ze. The "Face" of the Cult: Where Its Different Strata Appear like the
Other descriptions are less polished and come closer to the more Serpent's Successive Sloughings
archaic strata of the cult of a healing shaman and to oracle powers. The most interesting exorcism of Chen Jinggu, the heart of the cult,
Chen Jinggu is presented as the knowing mistress of the cycles of is her exorcism of the serpent, which gives access to the various
nature and of animals, as well as of her own body. Beyond n?r~s strata of the cult's existence. This again reveals a theme already
and social laws-notably those of filial piety-her very short hfe is emphasized: the serpent-bond, associated with the creation of the
like a flash, one deserving of a cult: territory. In effect, an attested cult was formerly dedicated to a
demon serpent, in the cave of Linshui. This serpent was mastered,
According to the Fengjing Zalu, there was a girl of th~ Chen _family according to the different versions, by either Chen Jinggu or her
who lived in the prefecture of Gutian in the land of M~n, dunng the brother (or cousin) Chen. This serpent, managing to escape death, is
Dali era (766-779). From her birth, she could predict the future associated in the legend with the constellation of the serpent. This is
I
and her predictions were correct. For pl~ying, she li~ed to cut out probably the expression of a stellar stage-the constellation of the
I paper butterflies and hawks and other ammals on which she would serpent-of the cult and as a manifestation of the Chinese belief in
I
breathe charmed water, and they would then know how to fly and baleful stars (the constellation of the serpent is one). This could also
dance. She made a wand with her teeth, about as long as a !oot, correspond to the first construction of the temple in 792. 21 I actually
with which she could make the cows moo and the horses whinny; know of at least one temple dedicated to the Lady in Fujian, where
she could also make them run and stop at her will. When she felt this stratum of the cult is figured by the statues of its protag-
like eating, she could reach the bottom of a barrel of food, but she onists. Moreover, the oral tradition continues to echo this phase
could also fast for several days if this pleased her. She stunned the of the cult: in the neighboring village of the Linshui temple, at
whole world and even her parents had no power over her. She had Gutian, people volunteer a tale of the sacrifice of the two infants to
not yet attai~ed the age of an adult when ~he died. This is why she the serpent.
possessed a medium in order to commumcate. The people of the The exorcism of the demon white serpent corresponds to another
country addressed her on the occasions of ~rought and other stage during the Min kingdom. Presented nowadays in almost all the
calamities and each time her works are effective. A temple was temples, it is also echoed in the novels Linshui Pingyao, Furen
------~-------·

126 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 127--

Zhuan, and Mindu Bieji, and in the rituals. The white serpent, the
hair of Guanyin, was also the master of the cave of Linshui, at
Gutian, from which Chen Jinggu expelled it.
Two stages thus appear in relation to this theme of the serpent. In
one, the poisonous serpent, devourer of children, is ritually mastered
by the shaman who removes its venom and reestablishes order in the
country "by offering incense," says the legend. Since she cannot actu-
ally kill it, she offers a cult to "transform" it. In the second stage, the
shaman kills the female python, while she creates the affiliation net-
works of the fenxiang by taming the other demons of the kingdom-
or, in other words, by incorporating the older cult communities: it is
the pingyao (pacification of demons) that transformed her into the
benefactor of the kingdom. She then created an order by conquering
in high combat the first occupants of the place, fatally represented as
primitive and dangerous. Then, because of her tragic death, she also
became the protective goddess of women and children. It is at the
end of this long process that she became, through her canonization,
Lady Linshui. Those are the main periods of the cult. One could go
on further and analyze other community strata. I shall give only one Chen Jinggu's little foot etched in the rock at Daqiao, Gutian, Fujian.
example. · (Author photograph)
Formerly, it is said, in the neighboring village of the Linshui tem-
ple, Zhongcun, the bendi shen (local gods) were two country boys, and i~ time. It transforms itself around the original center the per-
who became the tutelary divinities, Taibao. Chen Jinggu obtained her sonality of the divinity, this woman, shaman and serpent, dcross the
precedence over the temple at Linshui in rivalry with them. The local ages.
surroundings still retain perceptible traces of the relentless fight
between the two rival communities, in which a female shaman van- The Shaman as a _"W_oman in lv_1.ovement: Where the Fluid Gift
quished the two strapping fellows. Local discourse integrates these System and the Rzgzd State Hierarchy Become Articulated
events painfully and incredulously. People still show the imprint of A~er her re~urn from. Liishan, Chen Jinggu led a free life, not only
Chen Jinggu's small foot engraved on the rock from which she took ":ithout social ~~nstramts but also as the mistress of time and space.
off running toward the temple, while the horseshoe prints of her Constantly solicited to save people from demons who infested the
rivals rest visibly in the ground, immortalizing this apparent inequal- country, she passed he~ time crossing the mountains and plains,
ity, like a last petrified denial of the result of the combat (see figure). w~ere she fought, exorcised, healed, and purified. Vertigo sometimes
The two Taibao, of course, are represented in the present temple: a sei~ed even her,. during the solitudes that are the reverse of liberty in a
conquering cult always offers a place, if only a secondary one, to the s~ciety where. it was hardly permitted. A passage of the Linshui
vanquished community. They find themselves in a side room in the Pmgyao describes her suddenly taken by this agony, calling on the
main temple. People draw divination lots before these statues. 22 Earth God to ~omfort_ her. The sensitive human elements that express
When I asked why, a medium of Chen Jinggu responded that the vil- these shamamc emotions are still another resonance. The place is
lage people have never fully accepted this victory of a woman (should savage _a~d. deserted. It is mountainous, the environment considered
we accept this even for her local community?) and preferred to kneel ~s a pnn:i~ive and dangerous place, a place of regression, approach-
in/ front of the two male gods of the locality when demanding m~ asceticism. T~e vegetation is luxurious, unconquerable, and the
oracles. anu?als are _ferocious. _Nobo~y ventures there with impunity, unless
New episodes from the current restoration of the temple are eqmpped with protecti:e. t~hsman~. 23 _T~di Gong, the locality god,
inscribed in this same vein, and one sees how they create the "face" appears here to be the d1v1mty of this virgm nature, with whom Chen
of such a cult, through the different facets that compose it, in space Jmggu must deal in order to accomplish her civilizing work.
 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 129
128
Despite the handicap of her bound feet, that _social sti~ma, she subject, and thus social strata, appears in incessant movement, fluid.26
moves without pain, knowing how to use magical tech~iq_ues to The model of the state subject, on the other hand, appears rigidly
"narrow space," by following the veins of the earth. 24 This is h~w fixed, as a family, a structure, a function from which there is no
she vanquished the two Taibao and it is _n~t by ch~nce t~at the prmt escape in time or in space, totally dependent on an official model,
of her tiny foot is still shown there. This mterestmg i:iomt could. be coming from high in the hierarchy. The observation of the cult also
understood, again, as a kind of challenge to masculme Confucian shows clearly how the community level is constructed and how the
society, which used to bind the feet of its wo~en t~ ~eep thei:n from two structures are interdependent, which doubtless allows each to
escaping the house universe. The mythological o~~gm of this ~ero­ survive without destroying itself.
cious custom is attributed to the Shang empress Da1i. She was said to
be a fox demon. She tried to deceive the emperor by hiding her paws. The Woman Chen Jinggu and Patrilineal Confucian Society
She then bound them and ordered all women to do the same, so that Beyond the Principle of Filial Piety: Where Lineages Appear like
he could not catch on to her strangeness. Note that the legend "Flesh Rhizomes"
attributes to women the origin of their alienation by men and makes The legend of Chen Jinggu thus has two extremes. Initially oblivious
an obvious analogy between all women and fox demons, well known to all filial piety-the cardinal virtue of Confucian society-she fin-
to be sexual vampires. . ishes with self-sacrifice and death, in part for the very reason of filial
Here again, this description also applies in part to Chen Jmggu's piety.
more modern initiates, fas hi or mediums, men or women who are Chen Jinggu's departure to Liishan resembles a ravishment, in all
free to transport themselves, to travel,. in. contrast _to the _c?mm~n senses of the word. When she refuses to marry-the first serious
people of both imperial and modern society.. Ordi:iary citizens m breach of filial piety-an acolyte of Guanyin literally comes to lift
effect have little freedom of movement. The imperial bureaucr~cy, her up and snatch her from the red palanquin. In order to do this, she
like the republican structures, demanded stability of t~e population, fights violently with the Chen parents who interfere, thus creating
an immobility that allowed constant control. 25 -!1-t a~l ~imes, howe"."er, the second major fault. During the three years of Chen Jinggu's
Daoists and shamans have taken travel as their privilege, follow~ng absence, her parents suffer from ulcers and abscesses on their backs
the roads of the earth as they follow its veins in ritual. T~ey cns~­ and hands. On her return, Chen Jinggu will save them by grafting a
cross the real world as they do the celestial regions dunng their piece of her own flesh, taken in advance from her arm (or leg), onto
shamanistic voyages' "to traverse the roads and :he_ passe~" (g~o their wounds. This is surely an eloquent description of the family,
luguan). They are also masters of time because their ntuals, mdivid- conceived as one single body. Chen Jinggu, by her departure, cuts
ual or community, follow the rhythms of the seasona_l cycl~s and_ of into the integrity of this body, which she reintegrates, literally, after
life and death (see Baptandier 1996b). Moreover, while their ~allmg her return. This is a crude Oedipal way, it seems to me, to deny the
of souls may not revive the dead, it does at least put a umversal succession of generations.
human experience into practice: the effect of language on memory This is a common theme in Chinese mythology. Princess Miao-
and forgetting. Like Chen Jinggu, they also come tog_et~~r. to cele- shan/Guanyin, for example, offered her eyes to save those of her
brate during the communal festivals for their tutelary divmiti~s. father, just as Nazha-Taisui gave up his bones to the paternal line.27
In looking over this portrait of free su~jects, masters of time and Thus the flesh and bones of the patrilineal line form a certain number
space, who form communities appa~ently m~ependent of state str~c­ of bodies, male and female, apparently independent, but made of the
tures one can retrieve images of Chmese society structured accordmg same material, a bodily essence that appears interchangeable.28 This
to v~rious coexisting models: the gift system of guanxi, the stat~ is the basis of filial piety, which takes a specific form in the case of
bureaucratic system, and an emerging individual model. The guanxt women. The Bridge of One Hundred Flowers, which Chen Jinggu
system is based on the relationship network ~etween par_ents or watches over, is a sort of nursery garden where one can care for and
friends and on the exchange of gifts and services. M~yfair .Ya~g make cuttings of the flowers of terrestrial women. Each woman has
(1989) has shown how this relational model of guanxi-w:hich is one individual flower there, which represents her capacity for pro-
also the model for cult communities-is founded on a composite su~­ creation. A ritual, still very common these days, makes it possible to
ject, in perpetual construction and dec~ns~ruction, i_n which "face" is cultivate these flowers by cutting a new flower bud (child) taken
drawn and altered according to the principles of give and take. The from a particular plant (woman) and grafting it on another plant
130 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 131
(another woman). It means, in brief, that a sterile woman can always ers of conception and ritual. Here the ritual lends its~lf well to this
ritually "borrow" a future embryo from another woman, in order to since r~in mus~ be _made to bring fertility to the country. In the leg-
give it birth herself. Thus, feminine nature is also composed of a sort end, this abortion is not ordinary. Chen Jinggu somehow "exterior-
of primary material (flowers) that individualizes itself, certainly, but izes" her infant, whom she places in a kind of symbolic maternal
is also always susceptible of exchange. It looks like a kind of "ovule body, the house of her mother at Xiadu. She is ready to "reabsorb" it
grafting." This is expressed again in the rite of passage of guan, lat~r and continue_ her pr~gnancy. This exteriorization of the embryo, '
specific to this tradition, conjuring one of the "nourishers" of the while she dances m the ntual area of the waters of the Min (which
cult not to spirit away the soul of a living child, to "implant it" in contained Li.ishan), resembles the exteriorization of breath or vital
another woman, pregnant, who would bring it into the world in her energy. This should perhaps be seen as the creation of the double
turn. Here there is a direct menace not just to the infant itself, but to ritual area characteristic of all Daoist sacrifices: an interior ritual
its lineage, which risks being deprived of it for the benefit of another, area, secret, here the sacrificed body of the pregnant woman and an
"rhizomelike" lineage. This justifies the ritual, which is similar in . '
exterior area, outwardly expressed, here the waters of the river. This
part to that of recalling the soul (see Baptandier Berthier 1994b, Bap- constitutes the ritual metaphor (see Berthier 1988).
tandier 1996a). Still, Chen Jinggu died at the same time as her double the serpent
This is also evident in the field, where women actually practice who had absorbed the infant. All three form here another metapho;
this intense "traffic in children" through adoption and sworn sister- o_f _the pregnant maternal body, reconstituted, and one could say sac-
hood. They do exchange children: for instance, a woman without a rificed, for the well-being of the people and for the reestablishment of
son could get one from a friend, in exchange for her newborn daugh- the cosmic order. A double sacrifice, of the two feminine entities one
ter. The daughter could later be married to the adopted son. "When sitting astride the other: the shaman, herself part and creator of the
you are sworn sisters, the bellies should communicate," a woman cultural order, and the demon serpent, the feminine element of sav-
told me. They put this into practice, and it is a women's affair, where age nature. As to the infant, the ritual sublimation of its death will
men s'carcely appear to take part. found the cult of Chen Jinggu, as well as its own.
Nevertheless, returning to Chen '.Jinggu, a girl is not made to stay We cai: also see in this picture-Chen Jinggu dancing on the water
in her patrilineage: she must marry out and bear children. After the of ~he Mm where Li.ishan stands inverted, and where she rejoins the
return to her natal family body, Chen Jinggu was finally obliged to white serpent that has absorbed the infant-a variant on legends of
accept this. Yet this still would not suffice. She also had to sacrifice the immersed village. Chen Jinggu had taken care to conceal her
herself for the country, agreeing to abort to save the people from a maternal house under a magical lake before coming to execute her
deadly drought. Dead for country and for family, certainly. Yet she ritual on the river and dying of a hemorrhage. This unhappy destiny
was also caught by the heartbreak of her destiny as a woman and a occurred bec~use, like all the heroines in this legendary motif, she
shaman and, paradoxically, was also guilty of having broken the could not resist the desire to look back and see what had been forbid-
rules of alliance by failing to produce a son for the patrilineage. den. Leaving L~shan, she turns back at the end of twenty-four steps
Death in childbirth, after a fashion, is a grave breach for which a to see Xu Zheniun, her master. She sees him indeed, at the threshold
woman must endure infernal punishment in the Bloody Pond. 2 9 This of the door, as if between two worlds. He then announces her destiny
is why Chen Jinggu is valued as a divinity. to her: that at age twenty-four her pregnancy will place her in great
danger. Another motif of these legends involves pregnant women
To Give Birth or to Abort, a Social Duty: Where She Loses Her who ~re petrified, turned into trees, or, as here, die of a hemorrhage:
Feminine Substance for Having Seen Too Much that is, who lose all their feminine substance,3o for having seen too
Chen Jinggu's story of giving birth/aborting while dancing for the much. We need only recall the mother of Yiyin or the pregnant
rain to come lies at the heart of her legend. We see that it uses a lan- spouse of Yi.i the Great, transformed into a mulberry bush for having
guage of life and death in the traditional society's system of represen- seen the animal (bear or fish) dance of her husband (Kaltenmark
tations. In effect, Chen Jinggu, having been forced to conceive an ~985). Here C~en Jinggu sees her own animal double, the serpent,
infant, found herself forced to abort, always for the fertility of the hke her reflection m the water where the world (Li.ishan) is also
country. It seems to me that this archaic theme is also very modern. reversed.
We can find once again an equivalence between the feminine pow- Sacrifice of the female nature in its double aspect to the cosmic
132 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 133

order cult of an aborted embryo that has failed his patrilineage, of long life and studying rituals. The other model is the one men-
equiv'alence of the power of conception and ?f ri~al p_ower, and tioned earlier, which female mediums choose, or rather endorse. We
example of legends of the immersed village: this episode_ is all these should recall that the fas hi shamans are men, even if they dress like
things at once, and it continues to function. We can certainly al_s? see women when officiating. Yet much like the woman I just discussed,
here, in another register, the grasp of the state and of the patnlineal most of the female mediums are married and are mothers. This does
structures over fertility and the female body. In contrast to what one not prove that they must ultimately leave their homes. Nevertheless,
might expect, the present family-planning ~ampaig~ to have _only one the possession, the trance, that characterizes them and whose vocab-
child has caused the cult to regain popularity. Having a son is always ulary is almost theatrical_.:...one speaks of initiation as "taking a role"
indispensable for patrilineages. But the chai:ces a~e ~iminish~d when (daban)-weighs down the women with the suspicions of orthodox
the women are "sacrificed" to this new social obiective of birth con- Confucian and Daoist structures about their powers and their sexu-
trol. Appealed to, contradictorily, by two masculine authorities (the ality. Such cults are called perverse or licentious. Split characters,
family and the state), just as violently as in the la°:d of Min, the ~elp these women come quite close to the double image of Chen Jinggu:
of this cult does not necessarily seem superfluous in the countryside, shaman and wife of Liu Qi/white serpent. It is nonetheless interesting
where temples are reconstructed and where I could see many new that in this context the vocabularies of marriage, theater, and trance
statues of San Sheren. intersect: people say that Chen Jinggu refused to "make herself up"
and to "take her role" when she refused to marry. We know that
Alliance, a Destiny: Where the Natural Woman Stands Opposed the temple at Linshui in Daqiao includes a pavilion for makeup
to the Made-up One (chuanglou). We should remember as well that an actor becomes the
Chinese patrilineal lines demand only a single thing ~roi:i w?men: a acolyte/"wife" of Chen Shouyuan. These are then the themes embroi-
descendant who will assure the ancestral cult. This implies that dered in the legend of Lady Linshui.
women agree to be goods of exchange and material for the alliance The legendary story of Chen Jinggu is undoubtedly a kind of deri-
between two lines. This is the model that Chen Jinggu refuses. She sion of marriage. But it is also a warning of its inevitability. It is
prefers to dedicate herself to meditation, to studying rituals, and to really an illustration, at the same time idealized and menacing, of
keeping her independence as a shaman. In other words, sh~ hopes t_o those many women for whom arranged marriages, or being given in
consecrate herself to religious practices, the only alternative to this adoption as a child-wife, was standard practice. The changes that
feminine destiny, except in certain places that practiced sericulture have taken place during the last half-century have only superficially
(see Tapley 1975). For some Chinese women this choice is ~ither a modified the situation, especially in the countryside. In the legend the
matter of survival or a search and an attempt at self-preservat10n and two family heads paint a portrait that has always been real: the
self-cultivation in a society that offers no other personal alternative. fathers of Chen Jinggu and Liu Qi can think only of concluding their
This was als~ the experience of my friend Winter Perfume, medium alliance and assuring their descendance thanks to a woman, who her-
of another goddess. Daughter of poor peasants, she loved learning to self only wishes to escape them. This split conception of a woman
read and write and would have liked later to teach. At eight years with two faces is also real: serpent and shaman, natural and madeup,
old-she is no~ in her fifties-she was given to be married as a child- a danger yet one to whom men must resort to perpetuate the genera-
wife to a family even poorer than her own, which did not allow her tions.
to c~ntinue her studies. Searching to escape this forced marriage, she
was nevertheless caught and became the mother of five children. Female Insatiability and Universal Harmony: The Demon
After that she left and became a medium, founding her own cult Serpent, Where Menacing Women "Nourish Life" on
community around her house. Her husband does not ~~pose her:_ she Their Own Behalf
had given him a son for the ancestral cult .. In tr~~itional so~iety, Let us return to the origin of the white serpent: a hair of Guanyin,
women have two possibilities outside of, or in addition to, alliance which turned white because it was touched and animated by the
and the Confucian arrangement. The first model is the one chosen money/desire of Liu Qi, the future husband of Chen Jinggu, during
by Buddhist and Daoist nuns, looking to the practices _of interior the episode of the Warran Bridge. Here again the sexual metaphor is
alchemy to sublimate their bodies. 31 This mode~ ~pproximat~s. one evident, be it feminine or masculine. The hair in this context has
facet of Chen Jinggu and her Daoist sisters, practicing the asceticisms always been considered as the place where vital energy and sexual
134 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui
135
power are concentrated. The man hit Guanyin. on her hair knot, in the West, ~hose ~ouble is a tigress, is the archetype of this feminine
0

the hope of marrying her. Chen Jinggu, as a shaman, performs ritual model keepmg alive the masculine terrors:
with her hair undone. Lin Jiuniang captures the demon of the Big
Crevice, who tries to rape her, with one hair. This demon is the The ~ueen Mother of the West is a good example of a woman who
acolyte of the white serpent. obtamed the path of immortality by nourishing her yin. Each time
The hair of Guanyin becomes white, powerful (ling), uncontrolla- she_ had relations with a man, he fell sick, while she herself kept a
ble. The serpent thus created devours the embryo of Chen Jinggu; it polished, trans~arent face of the sort which had no need of make-
devours also the flesh of the women of Min; it takes their appearance up [~y em~hasis]. She fed herself continually on milk, and played
to sexually vampirize men to go on "nourishing its life" (yangsheng). the £i:ve-stnnged lute, always keeping harmony in her heart and
Transformed into a seductive woman, it bewitches young men, from calm m her thoughts, without any desire. So, the Queen Mother of
whom it steals their vital energy by absorbing their semen, finally the_ West never married, but she loved to couple with young men.
devouring them when they no longer satisfy it. Thus, the king and Liu This secret could never be divulged, for fear that other women
Qi, the future spouse of Chen Jinggu, were victims just like the young ~oul~ get it i~ their heads to imitate her methods. (Yufang Bijue,
apprentice of the Daoist Chen Shouyuan. For each of these fortunates cited m the Ishmpo 28:7a-b, in Despeux 1990:39)
who was spared a certain death, many others lost their lives. Lascivi- . Yet the methods of the Queen Mother of the West "were
ousness and sexual addiction accompany the devouring practices. div:rlged" at lea~~ to her disciples, including Chen Jinggu, if one
On the other hand, when the serpent ravished the queen, Chen b~lieves the traditi?? of a feminine Liishan, having Wangmu as its
Jinfeng, and then changed its own appearance to take her place next mistress. Commumt~es o~ female mediums dedicated to this goddess
to King Wang Yanjun, the health and the affairs of the kingdom were have also always existed m both Fujian and Taiwan. Here is a good
dangerously jeopardized. One does not have to look very far to see example of one of these "licentious cults," or so it is claimed
here a satire on the dissipating role of Chen Jinfeng next to this king, founded on the popular mediumistic practices that orthodox Daois~
who enjoyed nothing better than to allow himself to be pulled away had always _sought to d_ownra:e, as it does a woman. Throughout her
to the luxurious pavilions on the 'lake west of Fuzhou. This historic l~gendary life_, Chen Jmggu is presented as employing herself pre-
period of the kingdom can be described as more or less byzantine cis~ly to p~cif~, to transform these savage practices, this savage
(see Schafer 1954). During its passage in the palace the white serpent, desire, by fightmg the serpent. But she finally dies with it showing
parodying the role of the queen, took charge of the royal consorts, that they are one single body. '
the guarantors of fertility of the line; it devoured them, reducing !here still ~xist_s a very important cult of the python in Fujian.
them to the state of blanched bones. This is the occasion when Chen This p~thon km~ is related to the Min and precisely to King Wang
Jinggu accomplishes the liandu ritual to return flesh to their bones by Shenzhi. ~ccordmg to the legend, it is the husband of a human
refining them (lian). The king offers them to her as her apprentices. woman, sister of a fa~ous Da?ist master of Fuqing. They gave birth
They will later become the acolytes of the Lady, celestial nourishers t~gethe~ to eleven children, mcluding twins. The Daoist brother
charged with taking care of terrestrial children, as they had in life killed. eight of them. The wife of the python committed suicide and
been in charge of the royal fertility. It is thus their processing, and was given, after her death, the title of Smallpox Goddess by the Jade
then their ritual apprenticeship, that "refined" these bones and gave Emper~r,. who plac~d her under the orders of Chen Jinggu. Her
them access to the power to conceive-that, in sum, gave them back statue is m the Gutian temple among the Thirty-six Dames where
their flesh.3 2 Femininity and ritual are rejoined once again. she holds the twins. '
Daoism considers sexuality as fundamentally necessary to the T~e sexual connota:ions of this theme of the serpent, as well as its
procedures of longevity and cosmic harmony. Women traditionally relat_i~ns to the cre~t10n of the territory of the kingdom, become
appear as partners, real or imagined, and as initiators, possessors of explicit her~. In an im_portant episode of the legend, Chen Jinggu is
secrets. However, the fear that one of the partners may exercise a s~own cuttu:ig the white serpent in three pieces on the bed of the
vampirism on the other quickly points to the guilt of the woman as k1:ig, where it prete_nded to be the queen. I have already shown (Ber-
the probable culprit because of her yin nature. This is what happens th1er 1988) that this could be regarded as the sacrifice of the king-
here. Chen Jinggu and her companions are certainly not the only d?m's demon-or its first occupant-on the ancestral altar of the
divinities suspected of having a double nature. The Queen Mother of kmg (become here, somewhat bluntly, his bed).
 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 137
136
b_ad deaths will become divinities. This is just what p;oduced Chen
Bad Death and Mummification: Where to Keep the Flesh Appears Jmggu. Better to preserve and mummify her flesh and bones out-
like a Forced Passage from Pictogram to Utterance wardly visible, a relic (guji), than to allow her souls-hun a~d po
Dying at age twenty-four from a uterine hemorrhage, Chen Jinggu (the bones)-to be the only trustees of this encrypted venomous
had a bad death. This is why she became a deity, following the usual memory, invisible and unserviceable. In the same way, she thus
process of divinization in this pantheon. F~r this reaso:i too they appeased the consorts of the king, who had become blanched bones
mummified her flesh, to prevent her from fmally becommg a bone by giving back their flesh, which disappeared once again at the death
demon. This practice is not exceptional and corresponds to tradition. of the Lady. 35 Flesh and bone, blood and sperm are the base ele-
The goddess Mazu herself would have undergone the same treat- ments, feminine and masculine, of conception. A bad death prohibits
ment. 33 The commentary on conceptions of death, divinization, and the reintegration of the bodily essences and of the souls into the
the body made here in the legendary narrative and in the oral tradi- ancestral capital of the family, by creating savage elements that must
tion strikes me as very interesting. Here is what they say (Linshui be propitiated to render them beneficial, indeed fertile and without
Pingyao, chap. 16:106, also published in the Daoist dictionary}: which they risk devouring humans. This is again what' we have here
with "incense burned for her for 10,000 years." This is the ritual that
The Lady Chen was dead. A part of her soul [linghun] did not lose serves as the remedy.
consciousness [bumei]. Her real souls [zhenhun] did not disperse. This also permits us once again to see the ambiguous character of
She did not forget Lushan. It is as if she were reborn [ru zaisheng this goddess in the cult. Ordinarily favorable and beneficent she can
yiban] and returned to Lii.shan. Then a Daoist appeared to her hus- also sometimes appear as evil-suddenly more blanched bo~es than
band Liu Qi, who was preparing the funeral rites, to give him the goddess-through the characters of her acolytes in particular. She
following directions: "Today she has attained zhengguo, her just revenges herself on incredulous or neglectful believers by cursing
reward. It is necessary to seat her and to use a piece of charcoal to the~, 36 _or she seek~ to ravage the soul of some infant instead of pro-
preserve her flesh [roushen]. If she is left here at the Linshui palace tectmg it (Baptandier Berthier 1994b, Baptandier 1996a). She is at
of Gutian and incense burned ~or her for 10,000 years, she will the same time mother and "bad mother," maternal and menacing,
expel demons and help everyone, dispensing her protection. She flesh and bones. By nourishing her magical power (ling) with incense,
I
will be preserved as a relic [guji]. There is no need to use a coffin to the food of the gods, by refining (liandu) her, by offering her a cult,
I bury her." Liu Qi asked an eminent scholar and a reputed lacquer people can lead her to a more "civilized" and more humane attitude.
I master [qijiang] to [envelop] her body in a tissue of charcoal. On It is as if the cult were ultimately equivalent to the lost flesh, pre-
I

I
the outside, he used earth [nitu] to model her and to give her the served by mummifying her, or as if this perpetuation in everyone's
i I
appearance of the Lady riding a white serpent. Then they used a memory alleviates the impossibility of mourning.37 This is obvious on
I 11 little niche to offer her sacrifices. the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when one offers a collective
ba~quet to all bad deaths who have neither the power nor the oppor-
' 11
I ·..
' 11
The story of this mummification appears to be alive today. It is dif-
I 11
ficult to say if there was ever a mummified body at the temple. Some tumty for a personal cult. People feed these "little brothers" for
I ~horn the entire society feels responsible. In just this same way, a
people say yes, and that she was carried from the temple in a sack, in
order to hide her. Legend or reality, in any case, it seems to me that smg_le sentei:ice notes the mummification of Chen Jinggu's body and
many points merit being raised. Chen Jinggu's bad death made her a the mstalla_tion of an altar, a niche, to make her offerings. The period
guhun (wandering soul). Had she been buried, her souls would not of her festival, between the New Year and the fifteenth of the first
'1
,. have dispersed, like those of people who have died correctly. She c~n­ month, seems equivalent to the cycle of the fifteenth of the seventh.
,1
not forget. She lacks the virtue of renunciation that makes mourmng This is the moment when all come back to honor her, to feed her
possible-on the part of the living just as, projected in the _sy~tem of together, so that she will not be harmful and will be beneficent. We
~hould recall the other venomous serpent of Linshui, which is offered
representations, on the part of the bad death herself. T~is. is wh~t
makes the dead into wandering souls and not ancestors: this impossi- mcense (jinxiang) so that it will stop devouring the infants of the
bility of disappearing into the undifferentiated, which seems to people. Feed and ritualize, make the memory evident (this is also a
na~e for trance: "to make the spirit evident" [(ashen]), to avoid
regenerate death as a force in itself and thus to sterilize ~he bo:ies
themselves, the usual generators of vital essence. 34 At best, if the vital bemg eaten, absorbed, and reified oneself (see Ang 1989).
force of t}:ie "remnant soul" can be cultivated and elaborated, these It is interesting, finally, that an eminent scholar and lacquer master
 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 139
138 0

is in charge of the operation, even if lacquering mummies was a iated communities. By 1992 many temples had been reconstructed
current practice. Chinese writing has well-known valu~s of coi:is~b­ and a real procession had taken place with incense burners and
stantiality that need not be shown again. But ~er~, t~is so~atic m- statues of the Lady, following an itinerary modified only by the new
scription of not forgetting, executed by a specialist m wntmg and configuration of the affiliation network. That is, as we have already
painting, offers a very strong expression of it, like a forced passage seen, these different communal strata have continued throughout the
from pictogram to utterance. 38 ages.
The second possibility for rediscovering the land of the cult is to
trace the present networks of affiliation-of the temples that divided
The Land and Maps of the Cult Today: incense from Gutian and then of those that divided incense from
Back to the Landscape Chart these temples in turn. One can observe in such a journey the present
This cult, as we have seen, is still profoundly rooted in the landscape. state of the temples and of their communities, and the expression of
Nevertheless its religious practices were prohibited for a half- their varying local myths and rituals. One can thus draw the present
century, con~idered to be superstition. If they are still alive, it is map of the fenxiang networks, which ignore borders-those of prov-
because their systems of representation were deeply anchored at the inces, districts, and even of China. Nowadays, throughout the land
communal, sociological level. There are today two possibl~ ways ~o of this cult, temples are being reconstructed and their communities,
rediscover the networks of the cult and to retrace the outlines of its often helped by returned overseas Chinese, are again taking up the
activities of exchange that had been put on ice for the last half-
land.
The first possibility is to traverse the archaic map by allowing one- century. The temples appear like an aspect of the market and its net-
self to be guided by the toponomies encountered in the legends (see works. Thus, one can see the two halves of a village, each with its
Baptandier Berthier 1989). The place names sprinkled t~roughout own temple to Chen Jinggu, taking up business again and concretiz-
them correspond to the first holy places, where exorcisms were ing it by having a communal procession for the first time during the
accomplished by the Lady herself and where the first affiliated com- festival of the Lady. It is also moving to see the elders of a village and
munities were created. These are Xiadu, Shangdu, Longtan Jiao where the heads of the incense pots of a destroyed local temple return to
one finds the immersed Li.ishan, the Wushi Shan where one finds the Gutian to do sociological work. They study the mother temple-its
split stone of the Ladies Shijia, Loyuan, Xihe, Daqiao, and so forth. characters, its inscriptions, its paintings, its steles-and cross the
In doing this, one creates a sort of "memory palace," a m~p of mem- micro-landscape so that finally they know how to reconstruct their
ories of the original territory, preserved in the re.collections of. the own community temple. The founding temple plays its role well as
present occupants of these places. One could also, mversely, consider guarantor of the memory and the orthodoxy of its cult. Soon after
these places, their ~ames and their legends, as a st~ucture that. h~~ they have reconstructed their temple, the villagers will return in pro-
itself preserved, a~ if ~rogramm~d, the memory ~f ~t~ J?ast. reality. ,, cession with their shaman, to renew their ties by dividing incense
Situated on archaic vems of the first networks of dividmg mcense, again. They carry their contributions, duly registered, and leave
these points remain as sensitive and inexhaustible language sources. again with incense and a blazing coal from the founding incense pot.
Even when they remain only as imperceptible traces to a stranger, the It is interesting also to see how written soµrces, such as the local
inhabitants still recognize them and discern the elements of an annals or the Mindu Bieji or Furen Zhuan, serve as references for
ancient micro-landscape. Legends and fresh memories mix to main- engraving new steles, while earlier it was the ancient steles that
tain these benchmarks of other realities, intimately entangled over served as references to write these same sources. Modernity obliges
the years. The narrative of the high doings of C?en Ji~ggu intersects hiring a local scholar-for whom, unfortunately, one must pay
with the memories of processions and commumty festivals from _the dearly-to consult the written literature on the Lady, which was once
childhood of the inhabitants. These traces themselves are susceptible the oral tradition of these same communities, in order to engrave a
panel or stele before a newly reconstructed temple. Time has hardly
to evolution over the years.
Several years ago, at Xiadu, people could still show the hous_e changed this point of view (see Schipper 1977).
where, they said, the Lady was born. They recalled the legendary epi- It is edifying then, to see the overseas Chinese come back, carrying
sodes associated with the corner of some street or some roundabout their images, statues, and votive offerings in local overseas variants.
of the Min River, much as they recalled the processions between affil- At the same time they often bring considerable gifts for the temple
140 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui

and for community structures. Thus, the offering of a new incense versions are practically identical. The oral tradition has preserved the memory of
pot-truly the construction of an entire temple-will go hand in, the cult.
hand with the construction of a shopping arcade or factory, or with ~- This white demon serpent clearly evokes the legend of the White Serpent,
concluding an import-export marketing agreement. :Vh1ch ~lso wou!d d~te from the Tang (seventh to ninth centuries) and takes place·
Nonetheless, the temple remains what it is, what I have described, m Zhe11ang. It msprred a famous short story in the style of storytelling and was
and what the State Bureau of Religions itself will restore from now oft~n ad~pted to theater beginning in the seventeenth century. Several common
on, sheltering this society of suspect shamanistic divinities. Even the tra~ts urnt~ th~se legends, especially the themes of animal spirits capable of culti-
vatmg their vital force. There is, of course, the theme of the serpent that trans-
rituals that punctuate communal life and its representations in space formed itself into a woman arid also the theme of the flood or of the immersed
and time, accomplished by their shamans dressed as women, have re- village (see below). The legends also share the theme of the infant whom the
appeared. This is without doubt a transitory phase between two mother-ser~ent or ~haman must renounce. All these elements are again, in both
epochs, of which the second remains to come, after a long period of cases, ~ssoc1ated "'.'1th the origin of the royal lineage. It is evident in the legend of
prohibition that apparently never proposed any viable alternative. Its ~hen J1~ggu, and It could perhaps be the case also for the White Serpent, which
existence is invaluable since it permits us to observe today, as if in a is sometimes associated "'.ith the origin of a royal line of Birmany (see Pimpa-
hologram, the lives and systems of representation of this part of neau 1965). The two white serpents are nevertheless two different characters
China over more than a dozen centuries. local variations on similar themes. '
9. In 1991 a troupe from the district of Xiapu called the Minxi Tuan
inaugu_rated the newly restored theater. The actors pe~formed a very brief play;
The Eight Immortals Offer _Their Co_ngratulations (Baxian Qinghe). At night,
for the temple of th~ L~dy m the ne1ghboring village of Zhongcun, they per-
Notes formed Baogong W~1me1 (Baog?ng Serves as Intermediary). Before each perfor-
1. She is also revered under the names of Chen furen, Danai furen, Nainiang mance they offered mcense to Tran Du Yuanshuai, the theater divinity.
furen, Chen taihou, Ciji furen, and Shuntian Shengmu. 10. The Temple of the Eastern Peak, the Temple of Hells in Beijing now
2. See Wei Yingqi (1969). aband~ne~, incl:i?ed a lateral room where the queen was seated, surrounded by
3. The steles of the temple of Gutian bear the names of communities coming her lad1es-m-wa1tmg and children. This room appears to have been the privileged
from Malaysia and the Philippines. Moreover, some worshipers emigrated to site of a cult for women. The Temple of Hells also honored the great divinity
Japan and the United States. At the temple to Mazu in San Francisco, people Bixia Yuanjun, t~e daughter of the god of the Eastern Peak, who holds a role in
offer incense to nine Ladies who protect children and who play the same role as th: north of Chma that approximates that of Chen Jinggu in Fujian. This is,
Chen Jinggu. They are also associated with the Linshui temple at Gaoxiong. without doubt, a common point of the different female communities. See also
4. In geographic terms the country of Min corresponds approximately to the Cahill 1986, concerning the communities of Xi Wangmu.
present province of Fujian. It was a kingdom between 909 and 945 c.E., governed . 11. See Berthier 1988 on the rituals carried out at the temple in Tainan. Most
by the Wang family. The king referred to here is Wang Yanjun (928-935). He pro- r~tuals are completed for women and <::hildren. Despite some interesting varia-
claimed himself emperor in 935 and named his wife, Chen Jinfeng, empress. They t10ns, the structures of the rituals in Fujian, as in Taiwan, remain more or less the
were assassinated the same year. The daoshi of the Celestial Master lineage who same. See Baptandier Berthier (1994b) and Baptandier (1996a) on the rituals as
officiated at the court and who will be mentioned below was Chen Shouyuan (see performed in Fujian.
Schafer 1954). . 12. See Recorded Sayings of Po Yuchan, Harvard Yenching Index to the Tao-
5. Recall that anthropological theory was called the "science of civilization" ist Canon, Daozhang Zumu Yinde (1296) 1:8b-9a (Beijing 1936· reprint
(Wenhuaxue) by Huang Wenshan, one of the propagators of the thought of Boas Taipei, 1966). ' ' '
and Lowie in the 1920s. 13. The ~ecret formul_a pronounced by the fas hi for transforming his ritual
6. Zhang Yining (1301-1370) was a literatus originally from Gutian in appearance is the followmg: "I respectfully pray that Taishang Laojun rapidly
Fujian. A bureaucrat under the Yuan (1277-1367), he was equally a celebrated obey my order and take possession of the king of the celestial demons and that
statesman in the beginning of the Ming (1368-1644). Hong Tianxi was a man of he p~event the starving demons from harming me. Celestial soldier~ help on
Quanzhou. The report of Zhang Yining on the temple of Chen Jinggu, published my nght, the seven ferocious celestial generals are before me, the eight fierce
in the Cuiping Ji (published by Siku Quanshu Zhenben), 4:48b-50a, is repro- gods . ~rotect me from b:hin~. I wear the shoes of the Lady on my feet,
duced in the Gutian Xianzhi, chap. 5, 134-135. the d1vme_ generals of the six ding help on my left with the six jia. The crown on
7. This fact is related in the Sanjiao Yuanliu Soushen Daquan (reprinted by Ye my head is the headdress of the Lady. I wear the clothing of the Lady on my
Dehui from a Ming edition, 4:15-16) and in the Sanjiao Yuanliu Shengdi Fozu ~ody. I invite my immortal, ancestral Master and the Venerable of Transforma-
Soushen Daquan (n.d., woodblock edition of Tanya Tang, 2:5a-6b). The two tions to metamorphose my body. My body does not belong to the ordinary
 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER
The Lady Linshui 143
142
21. This version is apparently supported by the Sanjiao Yuanliu Soushen
world, it transforms itself and becomes the body of. the Lady" (collected at Daqua~, 4:15-1~,. which is practically identical to the Sanjiao Yuanliu Shengdi
Gutian in 1991). Foshu~i SoushenJt, 2:5a-6b, "The Biography of the Lady Danai." About the
14. Quanzhou and Fuzhou are put in opposition here in the legend as they are worship of baleful stars, see Hou 1979.
in history (see Schafer 1954). It seems strange a priori to place the origin of this 22. In reference to these divine lots, see Zhuang Kongshao 1989:97.
cult at Quanzhou, where it is in the minority. There was nevertheless a temple of 23. In referenc: to :hese talismans, see especially Ge Hong, Baopu Zi, the
the Lady behind the Kaiyuan temple. It became a factory after the revolution, chap~~r. on ascensions mto the mountains. On this theme of the mountain, see
but an old woman perpetuated the cult there and received the faithful. Moreover, Dem1ev1lle 1965, Baptandier 1996b.
Wang Zhao was the first member of the ruling Wang family, originally from 24. See e~pecially Ngo V~ri ~uyet 19~6 and Kalinowski 1986 on the dunjia
Henan, to obtain an official post in Fujian. He was named prefect of Quanzhou method. It 1s a matter of fmdmg the ym moment to hide oneself in the six
(886), from which place he conquered the entire province and in particular ~ecades of the cycle of ten stems and twelve branches. In conjunction with the
Fuzhou. The Tang emperor Zhao Zong (888-904) named him legate to Fuzhou five elements-earth, water, metal, fire, wood-this method makes it possible to
in 896. act on space and time.
15. See Linshui Pingyao, chap. 17, and Berthier 1988. In general, I refer read- . 25. The modern hukou system of residential certificates, which were trans-
ers to this latter work for a more complete analysis of the legend and of the par- ~mtted through women _until recently, limited the 1geographic and social mobil-
ticular elements of the cult of the Lady, especially the episode of the Wanan ity of the people. Marnages between people of different regions, and even of
Bridge. d1££e:~nt cla~ses, are extremely rare and in any case do not permit much
16. Chen Shouyuan is sometimes credited with discovering the talismans of n:iob1lity. In imperial China kinship structures and the structures of alliance
the first celestial master, which Tan Zixiao had known how to decode; faith in fixed the citizens very efficiently, joined to the demands of the imperial
these founded the Tianxin Zhengfa. Boltz attributes this legendary discovery to bureaucracy.
Rao Dongtian in 994. The dates coincide," at any rate. This tradition relates 26. Yang 198;9, fo~lowi~g especially Deleuze and Guattari 1979, envisaged
directly to the teachings of Zhang Daoling (see Boltz 1987:33). In fact, King r:vo types _of subiects 1~ Chma: the subject of the state, created by an organiza-
Wang Yanjun honored Chen Shouyuan with the title of Celestial Master (Tian- tion ~ach1~e of centralized and rigid power-here the hierarchical bureaucracy,
shi) when Tan Zixiao was given the title of Master of Zhengyi. Three shamans both !~penal and moder~and a subject placed in the gift economy-here
were, in addition, very powerful at the court: Xu Yen, Lin Xing, and Sheng Tao. guanxi-based on the establishment of metonymic relations. This second model
See Schafer 1954:96-98. Together they led the king to construct the Temple to produces a molecular micro-organization, with fluid power.
the Precious August (Baohuang Gong), for which Chen Shouyuan was named 27: See_ Dudbridge 1978 and the Fengshen Yanyi. See also Steven Sangren's
Responsible Official (Gongzhu) in 931. essay m this volume. . .
17. Chen Jinggu is represented as an empress, dressed in a brocade robe, 28. This conception of the individual body as part of a whole that exceeds it
holding her court tablet, and also as a warrior-shaman, brandishing her sword corresponds w:ll t? this molecular construction of the subject at the community
and her buffalo horn to summon the spirits and chase demons. One can see her le~el of guanxi. It 1s not only the social side of the subject that is elaborated like
dancing with her hair disheveled or riding a horse, or sitting on a throne or arm- this, but also the body of_ flesh and bo~es, whose limits are as blurred and open
chair, covered with tiger skins, which evokes better the seat of a medium than a to change as tho~e o_f ~ocial groups. Skm, where the individual destiny lies, does
court chair. not separate the md1v1dual from the rest of the universe. This calls to mind two
18. People often presented Maoshan to me in the field as the rival tradition to other concepts of Deleuze and Guattari 1979: the rhizome and the body without
Liishan. The first was the male tradition, the other was female. The legends of organs.
Chen Jinggu echo these beliefs, which were reported to me as much by Zhengyi . 2~. The Bloody Pond is a region of hell where women dead in childbirth are
Daoists as by local storytellers or shamans. Still, we know of the importance of 1mp~1s~ned, plunged in the impure blood of the menses. A ritual, including a sha-
women in Maoshan, one of whose protecting divinities is Wei Huazun (Despeux ~a.mstlc voyage, must be completed for a woman who has died under these con-
1990, Strickmann 1981). This seems unquestionably to be a local expression of d1t1?ns to allow her to find peace. During the ritual the son of the deceased
the dissensions between the different traditions, which perhaps also reflects dif- "dn~s the bow~ ?f blood," a pious act that buys back his mother. The fashi of
ferent ritual and sexual (the search for long life) practices. the Lushan trad1t10n complete su~h a ritual, as well as others involving men-
19. This passage was extracted from a guoguan ritual, collected at Gutian, strual. blood, for example, the nte of propitiation of the Vagabond Shrimp
1991-1993. (youxia), the demon appointed to this region and to female blood, along with the
, 20. The Nujie (Female Precepts), written in the Han by a woman named Ban Sword Goat. Moreover, at Fuzhou, people still show with emotion the site where
Zhao, is a manual of traditional female education treating the following seven the Bl?o.dy Pond_ was formerly represented in the Temple of Hells and which is
themes: the malleability of women, relations between husband and wife, venera- now (1s 1t an accident?) a rice warehouse. I refer here to my own fieldwork. See
tion and vigilance, female activities, concentration, obedience, and relations also Hou 1975:80, Seaman 1981, and Ahern 1975. On representations of blood
between uncles and sisters. See Despeux 1989:33.
 BRIGITTE BAPTANDIER The Lady Linshui 145
144
and pregnancy, see Furth 1986 and 1987; also Berthier 1988. Note that in the Literature Cited
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Ahern, Emily Martin. 1975. "The Power and Pollution of Chinese Women." In
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and on certain organs, to make the pain cease and to save the deceased (personal Baptandier, Brigitte. 1996a. "Le rituel d'ouverture des passes. Un concept
d'enfance." I.:Homme 137:119-142.
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the Shenxiao tradition, see also Boltz 1987:28. pays du reel, voyages reels au pays des chamanes." Proceedings of the Con-
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gists had been preserved with the same ingredients as those to be mentioned ference Recits de voyages asiatiques: genres, mentalites et conception de
l'espace. Ecole Frarn;aise d'E:x:treme Orient. Paris, Claudine Salmon editor.
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34. Mauclaire 1991 astutely analyzes similar themes in Japan as they relate to
apres la revolution culturelle." Cahiers de litterature orale 26:37-59.
femininity and to the real body (benshen) of the gods. See also Berthier 1987.
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