Master Jiang Qun
In the vast river of traditional Chinese culture, Taoism, as the only religion native to China, carries the spiritual aspirations and religious practice of the Chinese nation over thousands of years. And among the many practices and sacrificial activities of Taoism, the rites of fasts and offerings (zhaijiao) are undoubtedly among its most representative and most mysterious cultural symbols.
Fasts and offerings, commonly called “holding a daochang” or “holding a ritual assembly,” are a complete set of religious rites in which Taoists communicate with the gods of heaven and earth, pray for blessings and protection, and deliver the spirits of the dead, by setting up altars, reciting scriptures, performing repentance, playing music, and pacing the stars of the Dipper. They are not only an outward expression of Taoist faith but also a unique feature of the landscape of Eastern religious culture.
The sacrificial rites of Chinese Taoism are customarily called “zhaijiao.” In the richness of their content, the completeness of their scriptures, the regularity of their forms, and the systematic nature of their theory, they stand apart among the world's religious systems.
Taoist fasts and offerings not only contain profound philosophical thought but also bring together many art forms—music, dance, fine art, calligraphy, and literature—and can be called a “living fossil” of traditional Chinese culture. For this reason they have long attracted wide attention from scholars in China and abroad.
The famous French scholars Kristofer Schipper and John Lagerwey, the Japanese scholars Ōfuchi Ninji and Maruyama Hiroshi, Lee Fong-mao, Liu Chih-wan, Li Hsien-chang, and Lü Chui-kuan in Taiwan, and mainland scholars such as Chen Yaoting and Zhang Zehong have all studied Taoist ritual in depth from different angles.
Building on the research of these predecessors, this article focuses on the cultural meaning and historical origins of Taoist fasts and offerings and on their practical concern for society and human life.
1. The Origins of Taoist Fasts and Offerings and Their Cultural Meaning
Since ancient times the Chinese have been a people who revere sacrifice. As early as the pre-Qin period there was the saying, “The great affairs of the state are sacrifice and war,” meaning that the two most important affairs of a state are sacrifice and warfare. Sacrifice was placed first in the political life of the state, which shows how much weight it carried in the minds of the ancients. And to hold a solemn and effective sacrifice, one first had to “keep the fast.”
So what is the “fast” (zhai)? The Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters) explains: “Zhai is abstinence and cleanness.” That is, the original meaning of zhai is purity and cautious restraint. Before sacrificing to the gods, the ancients had to make themselves pure within and without by cleansing the body, restraining their diet, and composing the mind, so as to face the gods with the utmost devotion. As the saying goes, “bring sincerity to the sacrifice”: only with a sincere heart and upright intention can one move heaven, earth, ghosts, and gods and achieve the aim of praying for blessings and averting calamity.
The three classics that sum up pre-Qin Confucian sacrificial culture—the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), the Etiquette and Ceremonial (Yili), and the Book of Rites (Liji)—expound the functions of sacrifice in depth. The “Summary of Sacrifices” chapter of the Book of Rites says: “Of all the ways of governing people, none is more urgent than ritual; of the five kinds of ritual, none is more important than sacrifice.” That is, in governing the people of the realm, nothing is more important than ritual; and although ritual has five kinds—auspicious, inauspicious, military, guest, and celebratory—the most important is the ritual of sacrifice. As the great synthesis of traditional Chinese religion, Taoism naturally inherited this ancient sacrificial culture and explained zhai as “evenness, cleanness, and purity.”
An important Taoist scripture of the Six Dynasties, the Code of the Most High Great Perfected, states clearly: “Zhai means evenness, cleanness, and purity.” This explanation comes directly from both the Confucians and the Taoists of the pre-Qin period. The “Summary of the Rules of Propriety, Part One” chapter of the Book of Rites says: “Fast and abstain in order to serve ghosts and spirits.” The chapter “Mastering Life” in the Zhuangzi also says: “Abstain for ten days, fast for three days.” Here the word qi (evenness) is a loan character for zhai (fast). In the Northern Song, the Taoist encyclopedia Seven Slips from the Cloudy Satchel (Yunji Qiqian), in the section “Fasting and Abstinence” of scroll 37, further explains: “Zhai means evenness—bringing the three karmas into order. Without, one is not stained by dust and dirt; within, the five organs are pure and empty. One brings down the Perfected and summons the spirits, and becomes one with the Tao in perfection.” The “three karmas” here refer to the three kinds of action of body, mouth, and mind. The Liu Song Taoist scripture Code of the Most High Great Perfected explains: “One who can control the body sits upright with folded hands and is undisturbed; one who can control the mouth knows in silence and is secretly clear; one who can control the mind has a spirit one with the Tao.” That is, one who keeps the fast must not move the body carelessly, speak carelessly, or think carelessly, and finally reaches the state of oneness with the Tao. This is clearly an important sublimation of pre-Qin theories of fasting and abstinence.
Early Taoism, when holding sacrificial activities, placed great importance on the religious function of the fast. The Six Dynasties scripture Scripture of the Dignified Observances of the Lingbao Fasts and Precepts Set Forth by the Perfected of the Supreme Ultimate says: “To move heaven and earth, summon the host of spirits, communicate with the way of the immortals, penetrate the Supremely True, resolve the sins of generations, extinguish evil and misfortune, repel enemies, cultivate abundant virtue, cure illness, and relieve all things—nothing comes closer than fasting in stillness and turning the scriptures.” That is, whether for communicating with heaven and earth and summoning the gods, or for cultivating the Tao and attaining perfection, removing the sins of past lives, and curing illness and saving people, the most effective way is to keep the fast devoutly and recite the scriptures with a still mind. Therefore, for those who wish to study the Tao, the method of fasting is the first matter in cultivating body and mind. The Liu Song scripture Scripture of the Inner Explanations of the Three Heavens, in its second scroll, draws a comparison: “In studying the Tao, nothing comes before the fast. ... Therefore the teaching left by the Celestial Master says that to study without practicing the fast is like walking in the dark night without a torch.” That is, studying the Tao without first keeping the fast is like walking at night without a torch: one cannot find the way at all.
So how exactly should the fast be kept? The Six Dynasties scripture Great Treatise on the Mysterious Gate sets out nine methods: coarse food, vegetable food, restricted food, ingesting essences, ingesting sprouts, ingesting light, ingesting qi, ingesting the primordial, and embryonic nourishment. These methods were influenced by the pre-Qin Confucian theory of “bringing body and mind into order” and also reflect the character of Six Dynasties Taoist practices of nurturing life (yangsheng) and cultivation. Put simply, by adjusting diet, breathing, and state of mind, both body and heart are brought into a state of purity and harmony.
In the pre-Qin period, “zhai” was often joined with “jie” (abstinence) as “zhaijie” (fasting and abstinence). The “Li Lou” chapter of the Mencius says: “Even an evil man, if he fasts and abstains and bathes, may sacrifice to the Lord on High.” Even a man of bad character, if he sincerely fasts, abstains, bathes, and changes his clothes, may sacrifice to the Lord on High. The “Will of Heaven” chapter of the Mozi also says: “When the Son of Heaven has illness or calamity, he must fast, abstain, and bathe, and prepare clean wine and grain offerings to sacrifice to heaven and the ghosts; then heaven can remove it.” Clearly, in ancient times fasting and abstinence were widely regarded as a precondition for communicating with the gods and removing calamity.
On the basis of inheriting pre-Qin theories of fasting and abstinence, eminent Taoists of great virtue through the ages also gave them a theological interpretation. Du Guangting, the famous Tang master of Taoist liturgy, says in scroll 97 of the Great Complete Collection of Taoist Liturgical Norms: “The fast is the means by which one fasts and restrains the heart and spirit, purifies one's thoughts, concentrates one's essence, and seeks communion with the gods.” That is, the purpose of keeping the fast is to purify the heart and concentrate the spirit in order to seek communion with the gods. The Song Taoist Chen Chunrong says in the Ritual Methods of the Most High Dongxuan Lingbao Scripture of Limitless Salvation of the Highest Grade: “In fasting, one fasts the heart within and fasts the form without; in abstinence, one restrains the will within and holds the form without.” This stresses that only when inner and outer are consistent and form and spirit are one is it true fasting and abstinence.
It is worth mentioning that Zhuangzi also put forward the concept of the “fasting of the heart.” The fasting of the heart is not simply abstaining from meat and wine, but reaching a spiritual state of emptiness, stillness, and non-action (wuwei) through inner cultivation. The “Preface on Fasting and Abstinence” in the Seven Slips from the Cloudy Satchel explains: “Cleanse the heart—remove cravings and desires; wash the spirit as white as snow—remove defilement and burdens; strike down cleverness—cut off thought and deliberation. Without thought and deliberation, one is devoted to the Tao; without cravings and desires, one delights in the Tao; without defilement and burdens, one unites with the Tao.” Put simply, one clears away desires, washes the spirit, and casts off cleverness and scheming, finally reaching a single-minded state in which “the heart has no second thought.” This fasting of the heart is regarded as the highest method of fasting, which only eminent Taoists of great virtue, whom the Taoist community calls “superior practitioners,” can achieve.
During the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties, Taoist fasting methods were mainly divided into several kinds, such as the Mud and Ashes Fast, the Shangqing Fast, and the Lingbao Fast. The Mud and Ashes Fast was an ascetic form of fasting, often used by the early Zhengyi school (the Way of the Celestial Masters); the Shangqing Fast stressed “cutting oneself off from the crowd and feasting alone, stilling the qi and forgetting the form,” emphasizing pure cultivation; and the Lingbao fasting methods later became the mainstream of Taoist fasting. Scroll 47 of the Northern Zhou Taoist scripture Supreme Secret Essentials (Wushang Biyao) says: “Fasting methods are very many and broadly similar with minor differences; the one of weightiest merit is only the Most High Lingbao Fast.”
Lu Xiujing, the liturgical patriarch of the Liu Song in the Southern dynasties, was famous for putting Taoist ritual in order. He compiled more than a hundred scrolls of fasting rites, the core of which was the so-called “nine fasts and twelve methods.” According to his Text on the Five Feelings of Dongxuan Lingbao, of the twelve fasting methods, the Lingbao methods accounted for nine: the Golden Register Fast, the Yellow Register Fast, the Fast of Bright Perfection, the Three Primes Fast, the Fast of the Eight Nodes, the Fast of Spontaneity, the Dongshen Three Sovereigns Fast, the Taiyi Fast, and the Fast of Instruction; the rest were the two Shangqing fasting methods and the Mud and Ashes Fast.
By the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming, the Taoist fasting methods used for the great state sacrifices were mainly the Lingbao fasting methods.
On the similarities and differences among the fasting methods of the three teachings—Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism—the Song scholar Li Gang gives an incisive account in his Text on Keeping the Eight Fasts: “The Confucians, Taoists, and Buddhists all have fasts. Their fasting is the same, but the reason for their fasting differs. The Confucian fast is for serving sacrifice and attaining clarity ... the Taoist fast is for nourishing the spirit and qi and attaining purity ... only the Buddhist fast does not merely attain purity and clarity, but also embodies the benevolence of loving creatures and the wisdom of cultivating the self.” This makes it clear: the Confucian fast emphasizes reverence at sacrifice, the Taoist fast emphasizes the purity and emptiness of nourishing spirit and qi, and the Buddhist fast combines the benevolence of loving creatures with the wisdom of self-cultivation. From this we can see that Taoist fasting methods were used not only for sacrificing to the gods but also widely in Taoist priests' daily practices of nurturing life and spiritual cultivation.
Besides fasting methods, Taoism also has a set of rites for sacrificing to and thanking the gods, called “jiao” (offering). The Shuowen Jiezi explains jiao as having two meanings: first, a ceremony in the ancient rites of capping and marriage; second, sacrifice. As early as the Warring States period, people already used “jiao” to refer to rites of sacrifice to the gods. Song Yu wrote in the Rhapsody on Gaotang: “Masters of the arts ... presented pure victims, prayed in the jasper chamber, made offering to the gods, and paid homage to Taiyi.” The Bamboo Annals also records that the Yellow Emperor “traveled on the Luo River, saw a great fish, and killed the five victims to make an offering to it.”
In the Han dynasty, in the first year of the Shenjue era of Emperor Xuan (61 BCE), a master of the arts said that in Yizhou (the region of present-day Yunnan) there were the gods of the Golden Horse and the Jade Rooster, who could be invited by means of an “offering sacrifice.”
So what is the difference between “ji” (sacrifice) and “jiao” (offering)? When the Tang Du Guangting edited the Offering Rite for Dispersing the Yellow Register Altar, he pointed out: “Blood food of sacrificial animals is called ji; vegetables and fruit, purely prepared, are called jiao. Jiao is another name for ji.” Zhang Ruohai of the Five Dynasties also says in the Treatise Correcting Errors of the Mysterious Altar: “Meat food is called ji; plain food is called jiao.” That is, using the flesh and blood of oxen, sheep, and other animals as offerings is called ji, while using plain vegetables and fruit as offerings is called jiao. Taoism distinguishes the two by the difference in offerings, reflecting a spirit of “pure cultivation.” The Southern Song Jiang Shuyu further explains in scroll 15 of the Complete Rite of the Supreme Great Yellow Register Fast: “Where there is toasting and response it is called an offering of presentation; where there is no toasting and response it is called jiao. Jiao means pouring wine at the seat, reverently completing the rite. Inviting the Perfected and bringing down the spirits, it is named jiao.” That is, the offering is mainly to invite the immortals, Perfected, and gods to descend to the altar and to honor them with wine, completing the rite.
Taoist offering rites are closely tied to the early Zhengyi school (the Way of the Celestial Masters). Within Taoism there is the saying “Lingbao established the fast and Zhengyi has the offering,” meaning that the Lingbao school of Jiangnan excelled in fasting methods, while the Zhengyi school of Ba and Shu excelled in offering rites. The “Treatise on Classics and Writings” of the Book of Sui explains jiao: “At night, beneath the stars, wine, dried meat, cakes, and gifts of silk are laid out, and sacrifice is made in turn to the Heavenly Sovereign Taiyi, to the five planets and the ranks of lunar mansions; a document is written in the manner of submitting a petition and presented to them. This is called jiao.” The “submitting a petition” mentioned here was the main rite of request and prayer of the early Zhengyi school: writing a petition and reporting it to heaven. The Northern and Southern dynasties scripture Master Red Pine's Almanac of Petitions records that in the time of the three Celestial Masters Zhang Ling, Zhang Heng, and Zhang Lu, there were three hundred great petitions and the rites of the twelve hundred officials, used to heal people and things. Because petitions and offering rites are inseparable, Taoist scriptures often speak of “petitions and offerings” together.
The Tang was the heyday of Taoism, and Taoist fasts and offerings were formally incorporated into the state sacrificial system. Scroll 4 of the Six Statutes of the Tang records seven kinds of Taoist fasting methods used in state sacrifice, and also three kinds of rites for averting calamity and atoning for faults: “The first is called the petition, the second the offering, and the third the lisha.” The commentary states clearly that these methods all came from Laozi and, by the time of the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling (Zhang Ling) of the Later Han, were expounded, enlarged, and spread to the four seas. From this we can see that Taoist petitions and offering rites both began when Zhang Ling founded the religion in Ba and Shu. According to scroll 7 of the Book of Zhou, Emperor Xuan of the Northern Zhou once “went to the Daohui Park for a great offering,” which is the earliest clear record in the historical sources of a Taoist offering rite.
2. The Formation and Evolution of the Forms of Taoist Fasts and Offerings Liturgy
Although Taoist fasting methods and offering rites are both rites of sacrifice to the gods, each has its own emphasis. The True Scripture of the Most High Mysterious Numen of the Northern Dipper for Prolonging Life Through One's Natal Star says: “In fasts and offerings, the fast is restraint of the heart and the offering is sincerity of intention.” Jiang Shuyu makes a further distinction in scroll 16 of the Complete Rite of the Supreme Great Yellow Register Fast: “Burning incense and performing the Tao, repenting of sins and atoning for faults, is called the fast; inviting the Perfected and bringing down the holy ones, praying for grace and asking for blessings, is called the offering. The ritual rules of fasts and offerings cannot be the same.” The Quanzhen school, which arose in the Jin and Yuan, held that “the fast is for atoning for faults, the offering is for delivering from hardship”: fasting methods emphasize self-examination and repentance of faults, while offering rites emphasize invoking the gods, dispelling calamity, and delivering from hardship. As the Taoist community says: “The fast has its method, the offering has its rite.”
So when did the fast and the offering begin to be held together? This is owed to the creative work of the patriarchs of Taoist liturgy. The Southern Song Ning Quanzhen says in “Setting Up the Offering,” scroll 319 of the Golden Book of Salvation Received from the Lingbao Teaching: “Since ancient times, holding a fast had no rite of setting up an offering. ... Only in later ages did people arrange the offering feast and set out the seats of the holy ones—at the least only twenty-four, at the most as many as three thousand six hundred—each seat with tea, wine, fruit, and food, and a tablet set up for offerings.” “Later ages” here mainly refers to the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song. At that time, the chancellor Wang Qinruo, by imperial order, compiled a complete set of liturgical forms called the “Altar Methods of Three Classes and Nine Grades.” Of these, the largest of the upper three altars was the “Universal Heaven Great Offering,” with as many as three thousand six hundred holy seats for the gods; the middle three altars came next; and the lower three altars were for ordinary officials and commoners, the smallest having only twenty-four holy seats. Each holy seat represented the place of one god, as if seats had been arranged for the gods.
Why set up an offering feast after the fast? Its religious meaning is that after the fast has been performed to completion, an offering rite is used to thank the gods for their protection, and so it is called the “thanksgiving offering.” On the specific period in which the thanksgiving offering took shape, Jiang Shuyu gives a key record in scroll 15 of the Complete Rite of the Supreme Great Yellow Register Fast: “Zhang Qingdu's Yellow Rite has no thanksgiving offering; it first appears in Du Guangcheng's rite.” Zhang Qingdu refers to Zhang Wanfu, a famous liturgical master of the mid-Tang, who compiled the Yellow Register Rite, which circulated in his time. This shows that in the mid-Tang, the Yellow Register Fast rite did not yet have the thanksgiving offering. In the late Tang, Du Guangting (styled Master Guangcheng) revised the fasts and offerings liturgy and compiled the Yellow Register Fast Liturgy in 40 scrolls (today's Most High Yellow Register Fast Rite in the Zhengtong Taoist Canon), and only then was the thanksgiving offering added after the fast. From then on, a complete Great Yellow Register Fast contained three main stages: first the fast rite was held, then the thanksgiving offering to honor the gods, and finally dragon tablets were cast into the grotto-heavens of famous mountains (called “casting the dragons”) as a pledge and witness. Du Guangting's innovation united the fast and the offering into one and was epoch-making in the history of Taoist liturgy.
The Lingbao fasting methods and the Zhengyi offering rites were thus able to merge on a single altar, and the forms of fasts and offerings liturgy became complete. After the Song, the thanksgiving offering became universal in Yellow Register Fast rites. The various fast rites recorded in the Golden Book of Salvation Received from the Lingbao Teaching—such as the Yellow Register Fast of Opening Salvation, the Azure Mystery Yellow Register Fast, the Fast of Bright Perfection, the Fast of the Five Refinements of the Living Corpse, the Fast of Delivering the Stars, the Fast of Spontaneity, the Fast of Settling the Home, the Fast of Transmission and Ordination, and the Thunder Fast—all include the thanksgiving offering.
The liturgical texts collected in the Taoist Canon and in Taoist Texts Outside the Canon run to over a thousand scrolls, the crystallized wisdom of eminent Taoists of great virtue through the ages in spreading the methods of the Tao. The “post-fast thanksgiving offering” compiled by Du Guangting in fact integrated the two rites of fast and offering into a ritual assembly of fasts and offerings that was more complete in structure, richer in content, and grander in scale. The fundamental driving force of this innovation came from the needs of state sacrifice.
In the Tang, Taoism had risen to become a state religion and had to fulfill the sacrificial functions of a state religion. Frequent state fasts and offerings spurred the Taoist elite to devote great effort to compiling liturgical scriptures. The method of the post-fast thanksgiving offering laid down by Du Guangting was revered as the standard by later Taoist liturgy and became the basic model of Taoist fasts and offerings for more than a thousand years.
The “Altar Methods of Three Classes and Nine Grades” compiled by Wang Qinruo of the Northern Song by imperial order not only set the number of divine seats for altars of different grades but also matched the three great altar offerings with three fasting methods.
Scroll 3 of the Fixed Regulations of the Taoist Community by Lü Yuansu of the Southern Song records: “The Three Register Fasts: the Golden Register Fast of the Upper Prime is observed by the emperor, performing the rite to match heaven; at its close, the Universal Heaven Great Offering of three thousand six hundred seats is set up. The Jade Register Fast of the Middle Prime protects the six palaces and supports the consorts and empress; at its close, the Circling Heaven Great Offering of two thousand four hundred seats is set up. The Yellow Register Fast of the Lower Prime is observed in common by officials and commoners, benefiting family and state alike; at its close, the Luotian Grand Offering of one thousand two hundred seats is set up.” This is the famous pairing of the “three register fasts” and the “three great offerings” in Taoist history. Of these, the Golden Register Fast was reserved for the emperor, the Jade Register Fast was used by the empresses and consorts, and the Yellow Register Fast was open to officials and common people. This clearly graded system of altar methods both reflected the hierarchical order of feudal society and met the religious needs of different classes. A complete state-level fast and offering often lasted as long as forty-nine days, and the grandeur of its scale and the complexity of its ceremonies were breathtaking.
Because offering rites grew more and more popular in later ages, the Southern Song liturgical patriarch Jiang Shuyu lamented: “Today offering methods are found throughout the land, while fasting methods have all but vanished.” That is, offering rites were everywhere in society at that time, while the traditional fasting methods were on the verge of disappearing.
The Ritual Affairs of the Jade Sound, compiled by imperial order in the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song, mentions offering feasts and offering methods in many places and even speaks of “yang offerings” and “yin offerings”; its liturgical music was likewise composed mainly for offering rites. By the Ming, the distinction between fast and offering had grown increasingly blurred.
The Ming writer Zhang Xuan says in the entry “Fasts and Offerings” in scroll 7 of the Yi Yao: “Fast and offering differ in meaning but are the same in practice; few of the feather-robed can tell them apart.” That is, although fast and offering differ in meaning, they are done in much the same way in practice, and even ordinary Taoist priests find it hard to explain the difference. In the seventh year of the Hongwu era of the Ming (1374), Emperor Taizu, Zhu Yuanzhang, ordered the Ministry of Rites and the Taoists to draw up liturgical forms together and promulgate them for observance throughout the realm. The Taoists Song Zongzhen, Zhao Yunzhong, and others compiled the Complete Rite of Fasts and Offerings of the Mysterious Teaching of the Great Ming, the first title among surviving liturgical texts to use the combined term “zhaijiao” (fasts and offerings). The trend toward uniting the fast and the offering became more and more evident in the Ming and Qing.
3. The Religious Functions and Social Value of Taoist Fasts and Offerings
Fasts and offerings are an important religious activity through which Taoism helps the world and delivers people, and their content and form went through a long process of development and enrichment. When Lu Xiujing of the Liu Song put the scriptures of the Three Caverns in order, only twelve fasting methods were in use. But by the Tang and Song, the kinds of fasts and offerings had greatly increased and the content of the liturgy had become ever richer and more varied.
The Southern Song Jin Yunzhong says in scroll 10 of the Great Methods of Shangqing Lingbao: “Fasts of twenty-seven grades and offerings of forty-two classes serve the practices of the world.” That is, there were already twenty-seven fasting methods and forty-two offering rites, able to meet all kinds of sacrificial needs in the world. Similar records appear in such classics as Ning Quanzhen's Great Methods of Shangqing Lingbao, Jiang Shuyu's Complete Rite of the Supreme Great Yellow Register Fast and Lingbao Jade Mirror, and Zhou Side's Great Complete Golden Book of Shangqing Lingbao Salvation.
So what exactly were these twenty-seven grades of fasting methods? The Tang Taoist scripture Rite of Opening the Covenant for the Golden Register Great Fast records their names: the Great Perfected Fast, the Shangqing Fast, the Great Cavern Fast, the Golden Chamber Fast, the Taiyi Fast, the Nine Heavens Fast, the Golden Register Fast, the Jade Register Fast, the Covenant with the Perfected Fast, the Yellow Register Fast, the Dongshen Fast, the Fast of Spontaneity, the Three Primes Fast, the Mud and Ashes Fast, the Fast of Deliverance, the Grotto Abyss Fast, the Heavenly Treasure Fast, the Nine Abysses Fast, the Five Refinements Fast, the Zhengyi Fast, the Great Peace Fast, the Three Sovereigns Fast, the Eight Emperors Fast, the Northern Emperor Fast, the Fast of Instruction, the Fast of Resolving Trials, and the Fast of Converting the Barbarians. Each of these fasting methods had its own function and occasion of use. For example, the Golden Register Fast was used for great state ceremonies, the Yellow Register Fast for the ritual deliverance of the dead, the Three Primes Fast for praying for blessings and dispelling calamity, and the Mud and Ashes Fast for repentance and ascetic practice. These twenty-seven grades of fasting methods had taken shape by the end of the Tang at the latest, and Du Guangting himself saw complete records of them.
As for the forty-two classes of offerings, no complete record survives in the Taoist scriptures. But from the record in scroll 12 of Jin Yunzhong's Great Methods of Shangqing Lingbao we can see that forty-two classes of offerings did exist before the Song, of which the twenty-fourth was called the “Northern Dipper Offering.”
Scrolls 6 to 17 of the Tang Du Guangting's Guangcheng Collection contain a great many offering texts he wrote for fasts and offerings in Shu, which shows that Taoist offering rites were already quite rich by the late Tang. Scroll 6 of Lü Yuansu's Fixed Regulations of the Taoist Community of the Southern Song lists twenty-two kinds of offerings and states that Master Guangcheng (Du Guangting) had standard ritual texts for all of them. This shows that by the Tang and Song a fairly complete system of fasts and offerings had formed, able to meet every need from great state ceremonies to small popular sacrifices.
The religious functions of Taoist fasts and offerings can be summed up in two phrases: relief and deliverance, and prayer and averting calamity. Relief and deliverance means relieving the living and delivering the dead—helping the living remove calamities and obstacles, and delivering the dead from the sea of suffering; prayer and averting calamity means praying for blessings and protection and averting disaster. These functions are realized through a series of religious symbolic means.
The term “relief and deliverance” first appears in the Six Dynasties Scripture of Salvation (Duren Jing). That scripture says: “All universally receive relief and deliverance and complete their allotted years”; “Relieving and delivering those on the point of death, so that those cut off gain life.” The idea of relief and deliverance in Taoist fasts and offerings comes precisely from the salvation theory of the Scripture of Salvation.
Jin Yunzhong says in the “General Preface” to the Great Methods of Shangqing Lingbao: “Only the single scroll of the Scripture of Salvation contains the deep pivot of rescue and relief. Within, refining conduct and cultivating immortality, one can ascend to perfection and transcend the world; without, establishing merit and completing affairs, one can bring blessings to the living and benefit to the dead.” That is, the single scroll of the Scripture of Salvation contains the profound principles of relieving and delivering all beings.
Cultivating inwardly, one can achieve becoming an immortal and attaining the Tao; acting outwardly, one can bring blessings to beings in both the world of the living and the underworld. The reason the liturgical patriarchs of Taoism through the ages poured their hearts into writing liturgical books and scriptures was to express the Taoist idea of relief and deliverance to the full. This idea has the character of “universal relief” and is not limited to any one ethnic group or region. Because the Chinese nation very early took shape as a pluralistic unity, Taoist fasts and offerings also had to relieve and deliver the various minority peoples within its borders.
The Taoist scriptures say that all peoples, whether “born in heaven or born in the human world, whether dwelling in China or living in foreign lands,” are to be raised and delivered by Taoism and helped to escape suffering.
Prayer and averting calamity are mainly for the living. In ancient China there was the saying, “The Taoists speak of prayer and averting calamity; the Buddhists speak of repentance.” Prayer (qi) means praying for blessings and protection, such as long life, health, wealth and rank, and flourishing descendants; averting calamity (rang) means warding off disaster, such as illness, floods, fires, war, and banditry.
Ning Quanzhen says in scroll 54 of the Great Methods of Shangqing Lingbao: “The great methods of Lingbao above can preserve heaven so that it endures forever, averting the dimming of the sun and moon and the errant courses of the stars and lunar mansions; below they avert the turns of the kalpa, and the calamities of war, flood, fire, and the Yang Nine and the Hundred and Six.” That is, the great methods of Lingbao are very powerful: above, they can protect heaven and earth so that they endure, and resolve anomalies of the sun, moon, and stars; below, they can avert kalpic calamities, wars, floods, fires, and all kinds of disasters. In ancient Chinese society, emperors, generals, and ministers as well as ordinary people all hoped to gain the protection of the gods through sacrifice. The rise and fall of feudal dynasties, the ruthlessness of political struggle, the sudden onset of natural disasters, the inescapability of birth, aging, sickness, and death—in life one always meets all kinds of predicaments beyond human control. And Taoism, rooted in Chinese society, could offer people spiritual comfort in a religious sense.
For every problem one might meet in life, Taoism designed corresponding liturgies to meet people's needs for prayer and averting calamity. Jin Yunzhong says in the “General Preface” to the Great Methods of Shangqing Lingbao: “Prayers, requests, quelling, and exorcism were all, after middle antiquity, established as rites according to the matter and fixed as rules according to the times.” That is, the various rites of prayer and averting calamity were all created in later ages according to different matters and the needs of different times.
It can be said that Taoist liturgy covers almost every problem of society and human life: from the rise and fall of the nation to individual fortune and misfortune, from changes in the weather to the treatment of illness, all reflect Taoism's meticulous care for both the living and the dead.
Taoism declares that fasts and offerings have the power to deliver the world, able “above to dispel heavenly calamities, in the middle to secure the fortunes of the state, and below to deliver the people.” The functions of prayer, averting calamity, relief, and deliverance, expressed through the symbols of ritual, achieve the aims of praying for blessings and dispelling calamity, relieving the living and delivering the dead.
Taoism holds that “the way of the immortals values life,” and fasts and offerings are to “broaden the Great Tao's virtue of giving life and fulfill the people's wish to live.” The purpose of Taoist fasts and offerings is to “bring down the Perfected and pray for blessings, to relieve beings and benefit people.” The common idea symbolically expressed by all the liturgies is “to establish merit and relieve beings, to deliver people and spread the Tao.”
As a work of merit for salvation, fasts and offerings are Taoism's “gate of the method of saving from suffering and delivering people,” regarded as “the boat across the sea of suffering and the path to attaining perfection,” intended to exhort and transform the people of the world so that they attain the Tao and perfection.
In the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming, Taoist fasts and offerings presented a flourishing scene, “above as state ceremonies, below as folk custom.” Above, they were great state sacrifices; below, they were deeply woven into the daily life of the people. It can be said that from the imperial household and officials above to the common people below, all had countless ties with Taoist fasts and offerings. Taoism inherited and carried forward the sacrificial culture of the pre-Qin period, rooted itself deeply in Chinese society, and was more closely bound up with folk belief than any other religion. Whenever ordinary people met with auspicious or inauspicious events—weddings and funerals, building a house or moving, illness and disaster, praying for children or wealth—they would invite Taoist priests to hold fasts and offerings for prayer and averting calamity or for relief and deliverance. The religious symbolism of Taoist sacrificial rites and the devout faith in the liturgy that “one sacrifices to the gods as if the gods were present” fully meet people's cherishing of life, their remembrance of ancestors, and their hopes for the future. It is no exaggeration to say that the sacrificial needs and religious customs of the people are the deep soil in which Taoist fasts and offerings live.
The Ming Taoist scripture Corpus of Taoist Ritual (Daofa Huiyuan), speaking in scroll 4 of fasts and offerings delivering people, says: “The supreme Tao is not complicated; the supreme essentials are not confused. From beginning to end, announcing talismans and presenting petitions, performing the liturgy and expounding the teaching, all are only to transform ordinary people.” That is, the most wondrous Tao is not complicated, and the most important principles are not confused. From the start of the fast and offering to its end, whether announcing talismans and presenting petitions or performing the liturgy and expounding the teaching, the fundamental purpose is to transform ordinary people. The so-called “religious function of salvation and transformation” of fasts and offerings is precisely the aim that Taoist ritual seeks to achieve in preaching the teaching and spreading the Tao.
The ancients already had a very clear understanding of the religious functions of fasts and offerings. The Southern Song Zhen Dexiu wrote in A General Address on the Yellow Register on Behalf of Zhou Daozhen: “I humbly consider that the methods of the Taoists take purity and non-action as their root, and holding fasts and setting up offerings is only one matter within the teaching. Yet it has been transmitted and practiced from the Han until today and cannot be abandoned, because its intention lies in saving and delivering living beings, removing calamity and hardship, and opening for people the road of repenting their faults and renewing themselves.” These words hit the mark exactly: the methods of the Taoists take purity and non-action as their root, and fasts and offerings are only one matter among them; but the reason they have been handed down from the Han to today and cannot be abandoned is that their original intention is to save and deliver living beings, remove calamity and hardship, and open for people a road to repenting their faults and renewing themselves. In ancient Chinese society, where the idea of “establishing teaching through the way of the gods” was strong, people widely believed in the functions of prayer, averting calamity, relief, and deliverance of Taoist fasts and offerings.
Chinese Taoism has a history of more than 1,800 years from its emergence to the present, and the reason fasts and offerings have been handed down without break is that their distinctive religious functions have always been able to answer the spiritual needs of the people.
In sum, in form Taoist fasts and offerings are Taoist rites of sacrifice to the gods, but in essence they are the ritual enactment of Taoist doctrine. In a certain sense, the holding of a fast and offering assembly is a vivid transmission and preaching of Taoist doctrine.
In the course of the development of Chinese feudal society, Taoist fasts and offerings, with their broad functions of relief, deliverance, prayer, and averting calamity and their rich and colorful ritual performance, gradually became part of the spiritual and cultural life of the people and formed an indissoluble bond with folk customs. It is no exaggeration to say that in Chinese sacrificial customs and sacrificial culture, Taoist fasts and offerings hold the mainstream position in traditional sacrificial culture.
Fasts and offerings contain Taoism's theological theory, philosophical thought, ideas of sacrifice, and religious customs, touching on many levels of Taoist culture. The core idea expressed by fasts and offerings liturgy is, in the end, the Tao of Taoism. All those seemingly complicated liturgical forms—whether pacing the stars of the Dipper, reciting scriptures and performing repentance, or playing music and offering wine, casting dragons and sending tablets—contain the metaphysical meaning of the Tao. It is precisely this perfect unity of the metaphysical and the physical that built the rich liturgical forms of Taoist fasts and offerings and let them play an irreplaceable role in the spread and development of Taoism.
The famous French scholar Kristofer Schipper once said: “Ritual is the true monument of culture.” Borrowing these words, we can also say that fasts and offerings are the true monument of Taoist culture. It is because of these rich and colorful ritual performances that we can glimpse the glory Taoist culture once had; and it is because ritual services of fasts and offerings are still frequently held among the people today that we can truly feel the deep meaning and enduring vitality of Chinese sacrificial culture.
For us today, studying and understanding Taoist fasts and offerings not only helps us recognize the breadth and depth of traditional Chinese culture but also lets us draw from it the spiritual wisdom of the ancients in revering nature, honoring virtue and turning toward goodness, and helping the world and benefiting others. This may be precisely the most precious value of the culture of Taoist fasts and offerings in contemporary society.