Chinese spirit possession
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Chinese spirit possession is a practice performed by specialists called jitong (a type of shaman) in Chinese folk religion involving the channeling of Chinese deities who are invited to take control of the specialist's body, resulting in noticeable changes in body functions and behaviour. The most famous Chinese spirit possession practitioners took part in the Boxer Rebellion in the 1900s, when boxers claimed to be invulnerable to the cut of a sharp knife, bullets, and cannon fire.
History
[edit]The State of Qi had shamans who claimed to be possessed by gods, and they were criticized as heterodox by Confucians. Movements by shamans practicing spiritual possession often led peasant rebellions against the ruling dynasty during Chinese history. The Boxer Rebellion was one of many peasant movements led by shamans who claimed to be possessed by spirits.[1] For the Boxers during the Boxer Rebellion, spirit possession was used for protective purposes.[2]
Larry Clinton Thompson, in his book "William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion: Heroism, Hubris and the ”Ideal Missionary”, has a description of the spirit possession practiced by Chinese boxers:
... whirling and twirling of swords, violent prostrations, and chanting incantations to Taoist and Buddhist spirits. When the spirit possession had been achieved, the boxers would obtain invulnerability and superhuman skills with swords and lance.[3]
Spiritual possession practitioners during the Boxer Rebellion and 20th century warfare claimed that once these incantations were chanted, Chinese deities would descend to offer protection, so that cannon fire or gunshots would not harm the human body.[4]
Spirit possession in the Song Dynasty
[edit]Practices of spirit possession varied among Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist tradition, and the three sects of belief were closely tied to Chinese societal hierarchy. Daoist priests and Buddhist monks who carried out possession rituals were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by a growing group of independent religious and ritual specialists such as lay Daoist exorcists (fashi) and Esoteric Buddhist monks. At the bottom were village spirit-mediums and rural practitioners.
Spirit possession was, as Edward Davis puts it, a "necessarily a social experience."[5] Denoted by Song dynasty writers as "pingfu," it focuses on the experience of possession of a mortal body by ghosts, gods, or ancestors.[6] It is important to note that in contrast to shamanism, the body or the self is not able to communicate with the entity that is possessing the body.
The Yijian Zhi by Hong Mai of the Southern Song dynasty contains almost two hundred accounts of spirit possession. The three main types of accounts included were of 1. village spirit mediums who were possessed by earthly spirits, 2. Child-mediums, employed by Daoist priests and Buddhist monks as a means of exorcism for the possessed, and 3. Funeral rites where relatives could be possessed by the deceased as a form of communication (4).[7] There were also accounts of non-ritualized possession, where spirits were believed to take over a body and was treated as an illness.
Child mediums
[edit]Particularly active in the Jiangsu region during the Song Dynasty, the employment of young boys in ritual exorcist practices was common. One account of such is from Hong Mai's Yijian Zhi is the “Rites of the Three Altars.” [8]The ritual employs child mediums to identify and deal with malevolent spirits. In one instance, three boys are called upon to identify a water demon. The boys fall into a trance, during which they locate and capture the demon in the form of a large turtle. This practice is noted during a period of Daoist and local village medium convergence.
Another account from Hong Mai, "At the Home of an Extended Confucian Family in Zhejiang,"[8] documents the young nephew of a possessed woman being summoned to aid with the exorcism. The exorcist Zhao Shandao burned incense, danced the yubu, and asked the children to search for demonic images in the smoke. The nephew identified the spirit to be from a corpse in the village, which consequently was instructed to be burned. He witnessed the descent of a Daoist priest who gave him instructions on how to heal the woman.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Joseph Esherick (1988). The origins of the Boxer Uprising. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 39. ISBN 0-520-06459-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ Paul A. Cohen (2003). China unbound: evolving perspectives on the Chinese past. Psychology Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-415-29823-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ Thompson, Larry Clinton (8 June 2009). William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion: heroism, hubris and the " Ideal Missionary". McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-4008-5.
- ^ 侯宜傑 (2010-10-08). 「神拳」義和團的真面目. 秀威資訊科技股份有限公司. p. 151. ISBN 978-986-221-531-9.
- ^ Davis, Edward L. (2010). Society and the supernatural in Song China. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-6436-1.
- ^ Davis, Edward L. (2010). Society and the supernatural in Song China. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-6436-1.
- ^ Davis, Edward L. (2010). Society and the supernatural in Song China. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-6436-1.
- ^ a b Zhang, Ellen (2018). Record of the Listener: Selected Stories from Hong Mai's Yijian Zhi. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 9781624667275.