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Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood by Susan Cahill is easily the best £20 I've spent this year. I had to special order it from the publisher's website as it seems to be totally unavailable in this country which is a shame as it's going to be one of the best primary sources for my dissertation. Cahill translates Du Guangting's 10th century book about women Taoist saints, most of whom were alive during the Tang dynasty and therefore is an amazing source about the lives of Taoist women. Not only does she provide the translation, but she also includes the original text! So me, with the translation, and my poor Chinese can go back and figure out which bits say what. Very exciting.
Cahill is rapidly turning into my favourite Chinese historian. I've found at least 10 articles that she has written on my dissertation topic. In addition to the translations this book provides an excellent background to the Tang, and to Du Guangting, and his work. In the introduction she looks at the biases and purpose of Du Guangting's work, his very anti-Buddhist stance, and his close association with Confucianism add for a very interesting dynamic to the books, and insight into the world view of the time. The book itself is at a very interesting time for Taoism, later in the Song there become different ways for different genders to achieve transcendence, but here women and men follow the same path, or paths, as there is more than one way to achieve enlightenment.
The stories range from the very factual and historical to the fantastic. Some are a lot of fun, the Tea Granny escaping jail, and Yangping Zhi going to the pub with her women friends and getting drunk from a never ending bowl of wine. (Great miracle). Cahill points out that it was MOST unseemly for women to go to bars, let alone get drunk, but these women were following the established Taoist tradition of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, and therefore drunkenness was seen as part of the Taoist tradition. This raises some interesting ideas towards gender roles within medieval Taoism, but unfortunately, I do not think that it can be taken as proof that women Taoists did actually go to bars and get drunk. Though I would like to think it did.
It is interesting to compare the hagiographies with other works. One example that I thought was particularly striking was Mother Liang. She was an immortal who ran a successful inn on her own. She always provided free food and wine to the guests and let them stay as long as they wanted. She ascends to heaven, because of her accumulated merit. I could not help be reminded of the story about the Tang women in De Groot, who also ran a successful inn on her own, except that in that case she did so through sorcery and was eventually caught and punished by the clever man.
Cahill, or really Du Guangting answered in several examples, my question of why Taoism. One of the best reasons he gave was that even a young virgin suicide was able to achieve transcendence in Taoism, and did not become a vengeful ghost bent on destruction. He also wrote how that even if a person had not achieved transcendence at the time of death it was possible to do so afterwards, which offered hope to the relatives of the deceased. It also offered up the interesting idea of "ghost transcendent" which is now one of my favourite ideas!
There were also more practical examples, he mentioned how a nunnery was able to support itself through weaving silk, answering a more practical economic side of how women Taoists are able to support themselves outside of family life. While at the same time participating in a "virtuous" woman's task, in keeping with Confucianism.
Lastly there is an example of a woman preacher who started a very popular cult. She seems to have been adopted by both Buddhists and Taoists, Du spends a great deal of time in her biography stating why such actions should be interpreted as Taoist and not Buddhist, and ends with a speech made against Buddhism by the woman. It is interesting to read about a woman in a time of war travelling the countryside and being a popular teacher and preacher.
I am so pleased by this book. Which is a good things as I'm going to spend so much of the next few months studying the biographies closely and using it for the dissertation. There was also a very helpful bibliography, and several of the hagiographies had been translated by other people, which will make for an interesting comparison. I'm feeling much more excited about doing my dissertation now.
Cahill is rapidly turning into my favourite Chinese historian. I've found at least 10 articles that she has written on my dissertation topic. In addition to the translations this book provides an excellent background to the Tang, and to Du Guangting, and his work. In the introduction she looks at the biases and purpose of Du Guangting's work, his very anti-Buddhist stance, and his close association with Confucianism add for a very interesting dynamic to the books, and insight into the world view of the time. The book itself is at a very interesting time for Taoism, later in the Song there become different ways for different genders to achieve transcendence, but here women and men follow the same path, or paths, as there is more than one way to achieve enlightenment.
The stories range from the very factual and historical to the fantastic. Some are a lot of fun, the Tea Granny escaping jail, and Yangping Zhi going to the pub with her women friends and getting drunk from a never ending bowl of wine. (Great miracle). Cahill points out that it was MOST unseemly for women to go to bars, let alone get drunk, but these women were following the established Taoist tradition of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, and therefore drunkenness was seen as part of the Taoist tradition. This raises some interesting ideas towards gender roles within medieval Taoism, but unfortunately, I do not think that it can be taken as proof that women Taoists did actually go to bars and get drunk. Though I would like to think it did.
It is interesting to compare the hagiographies with other works. One example that I thought was particularly striking was Mother Liang. She was an immortal who ran a successful inn on her own. She always provided free food and wine to the guests and let them stay as long as they wanted. She ascends to heaven, because of her accumulated merit. I could not help be reminded of the story about the Tang women in De Groot, who also ran a successful inn on her own, except that in that case she did so through sorcery and was eventually caught and punished by the clever man.
Cahill, or really Du Guangting answered in several examples, my question of why Taoism. One of the best reasons he gave was that even a young virgin suicide was able to achieve transcendence in Taoism, and did not become a vengeful ghost bent on destruction. He also wrote how that even if a person had not achieved transcendence at the time of death it was possible to do so afterwards, which offered hope to the relatives of the deceased. It also offered up the interesting idea of "ghost transcendent" which is now one of my favourite ideas!
There were also more practical examples, he mentioned how a nunnery was able to support itself through weaving silk, answering a more practical economic side of how women Taoists are able to support themselves outside of family life. While at the same time participating in a "virtuous" woman's task, in keeping with Confucianism.
Lastly there is an example of a woman preacher who started a very popular cult. She seems to have been adopted by both Buddhists and Taoists, Du spends a great deal of time in her biography stating why such actions should be interpreted as Taoist and not Buddhist, and ends with a speech made against Buddhism by the woman. It is interesting to read about a woman in a time of war travelling the countryside and being a popular teacher and preacher.
I am so pleased by this book. Which is a good things as I'm going to spend so much of the next few months studying the biographies closely and using it for the dissertation. There was also a very helpful bibliography, and several of the hagiographies had been translated by other people, which will make for an interesting comparison. I'm feeling much more excited about doing my dissertation now.