Written Sources on Yao Religion in the Bavarian State Library
Over the last few years, the Department for Rare Manuscripts of the Bavarian State Library has acquired a collection of more than 1000 manuscripts pertaining to the Yao, an ethnic group living in China and the states on its southern border. To make the manuscripts known to the public and available for further research, a Yao Project was launched in 1995 by the departments for Chinese Studies of the Universities of Munich and Hamburg and the Bavarian State Library. The project is supported by the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the Foundation of Friends and Patrons of Munich University (Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft. An exhibition of selected manuscripts rounded off the project in November 1999.
By SHING MÜLLER, LUCIA OBI, AND UTA WEIGELT
The Yao collection of the State Library consists of more than 1000 manuscripts. The earliest date back to the beginning of the 18th century, the latest to the 1980s. They originate from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the southern provinces of China Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. The manuscripts are written in Chinese characters, most of them being religious manuals. Canonical and liturgical texts for initiations, communal sacrifices, and funerals show clear relations to Chinese Daoism. Looked at along with textbooks for children, mythical-epical songs, manuals for divination and therapeutical treatment by exorcism as well as various other documents they give an insight into the social and religious life of the different Yao groups.The research team of the Yao Project, headed by Prof. M. Friedrich (University of Hamburg) and Prof. Th. O. Höllmann, consists of X. Götzfried, S. Müller, and L. Obi (all Munich University). One of the main aims of the project is to make the Yao manuscripts accessible and to contribute to a methodological approach of using written sources as a basis for research into Yao religion. A database noting date, regional origin, and persons mentioned has been produced in order to classify and analyse the manuscripts. The results will be published in Germany as a catalogue in the series Index to Oriental Manuscripts (Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland).
As the manuscripts cover a period of over 260 years and a wide geographical range, it is not only possible to find information on related families, clans, and ethnic groups but also on the relationship of Yao religious culture to Chinese local popular cults and Daoism. The history of Chinese Daoist schools among different Yao groups and the development of their liturgies and local cults can be revealed using exemplary manuscripts which were examined and annotated, and which will be published.
Priests
Manuscripts of the Pan-Yao (Iumian-speaking) and the Landian-Yao (Jingmen-speaking) are the two largest groups in the collection. While the Pan-Yao seem to have only one written tradition maintained by so-called Shigong priests, the Landian-Yao have an additional textual tradition under the auspices of Daogong priests. Usually Landian Daogong and Shigong priests operate in the same communities. Daogong are responsible for communal sacrifices and funeral rites, and have a higher social status. They are also higher-ranking within the Daoist hierarchy than the Shigong who are responsible for minor rites (xiaofa), such as exorcisms and the healing of individuals. The Daogong texts, consisting of scriptures jing, liturgical texts keyi for Jiao and Zhai rituals, and esoteric instructions (miyu), are more orthodox and more similar to the Chinese tradition as represented in the Daoist Canon Daozang.
The famous 'Scripture of the Salvation of Mankind', Duren jing, the first text in the Daozang, of which the collection contains several copies, was obviously used in most of the Daogong rituals, as it often is mentioned in other liturgical texts. The traditional Chinese Jiao liturgy is represented in 'Jiao for Morning, Noon, and Evening', Sanshi ke, and 'Notification ritual to the Big Dipper', Gaodou ke. There are rituals similar to classical Chinese Zhai such as 'Three Grottoes Retreat', Sandongzhai ke, and the 'Notification Liturgy', Guan'gao ke, but also versions not known from the Chinese context like 'Calling the Soul Liturgy', Nanling ke Miyu, like the 'Instructions to Purifying Jiao Rituals', Qingjiao miyu, to be used exclusively by ordained priests contain instructions on how to conduct special rituals and how to communicate with the other world.
Shigong texts, sometimes transmitted orally and in seven-syllable rhyming verses, are more related to local popular traditions. The 'Demon Foot Liturgy', Guijiao ke, is a major text sung in thanksgiving rituals to the mythical ancestor, King Pan, while the 'Flowing Radiance Liturgy', Chuan'guang ke, is used during initiations.
The Pan-Yao Shigong texts are different again from Landian-Yao Shigong texts. They are concerned with communal as well as xiaofa rituals for individual purposes and are a mixture of prose and rhyming passages. They comprise charms, incantations, and choreographies as well as parts of traditional Chinese liturgies. They are called 'The Book of Hell', Diyu shu, 'The Book of Calling Heaven', Jiaotian shu, and 'The Book for Dealing with Demons', Shegui shu. The 'Book for Opening the Sacred Area', Kaitan shu, is a liturgy used especially in Pan-Yao initiations.
Elaborate epic songs in honour of King Pan, Panwang ge, are used in the thanksgiving rituals of Iumian-speaking groups. The 'Charter of King Ping', Pinghuang quandie, and 'The Placard for Crossing the Mountains', Guoshan bang, tell of the origin of mankind, the Yao, and their history up to the present. These highly esteemed documents are said to have been bestowed on the Yao by the Song emperor in the year of 1260, when they were granted an exemption from forced labour and taxes and permitted to move freely in the mountain regions.
Ethnic exchange
Besides these texts used exclusively by one or the other, there are others used by both as well as by other ethnic groups. These include liturgies for female deities like 'The Meeting in Honour of Goddess Dowager', Dimu dahui ke, 'The Liturgy of the Southern Hall', Nantang ke, and 'The Liturgy of the Red Tower', Honglou banzuo ke. Texts for divination with using coins, Qiangua shu, geomantical methods, dili, and divination to find suitable marriage partners, Hepen shu, are also found among various other ethnic groups in southern China. 'The Book of Nine Classics', Jiujing shu, 'Wise Literature Enhances Knowledge', Zengguang xianwen, and 'Various Characters', Zazi, are textbooks for teaching children Chinese characters and inculcating Confucian ethics. This huge variety of manuscripts in the State Library provides a better insight into Yao culture and religion and the impact of Chinese Daoism and popular cults on these for the first time.
The most outstanding manuscripts of this collection along with other objects concerning their religious background were on display in an exhibition in the Bavarian State Library from 4 November to 23 December 1999. The catalogue covering the exhibition contains short essays describing facets of daily life of this ethnic group. *
Thomas O. Höllmann, Michael Friedrich (eds)
Botschaften an die Götter.
Religiöse Handschriften der Yao.
(Asiatische Forschungen; 138)
Wiesbaden 1999, Harrassowitz.
ISBN 3-447-04203-6)'.
(Religiöse Schriften der Yao,
Harrassowitz, DM 78,-).
For more information please contact:
Yao-Projekt
Institut für Ostasienkunde
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Kaulbachstr. 51a
D-80539 München, Germany
Tel.: +49-89-2180 3633
Fax: +49-89-342 666
E-mail: yao@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Http:\\www.fak12.uni-muenchen.de/sin/projekte/yaoproj.htm or:
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Ludwigstr. 16
80539 München
Http:\\www.bsb.badw-muenchen.de