Ritual, Chinese

Already they had their own temples, opera troupes and vigorous ritual life, their own currency of copper cash which played a vital role in the commerce of the city, and means of subsistence including the pigs that ensured the majority Muslim population of the city kept its distance. A colourful English account of the same city suggested considerable tension between the two communities, so that the Javanese do much rejoice when they see a Chinese go to execution (as also the Chinese do when they see a Javanese go to his death) (Scott 1606 121). 

The dependence of Europeans on Chinese enterprise produced very mixed emotions of admiration, fear and scorn. Europeans immediately equated the Chinese of the region to Jews in Europe—uncannily successful in commerce, inscrutable in ritual, but marginal and powerless essential outsiders or pariah entrepreneurs (Lodewycksz 1598 26 Reid 1997). To instance one of many such stereotypes, Scott remarked of the Chinese in Banten that they live crouching under them, but rob them of their wealth and send it for China (Scott 1606 174). 

Figure 11. Chinese Hu (ritual vessel), late Chou Dynasty, bronze with copper decoration. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc. 29.100.545.

A custom adopted by the Chinese in 246BC still exists today. Known as the Chou Ritual, it was developed several centuries before the time of Confucius. In the first, wands with whole feathers were waved, in the worship of the spirits of agriculture. In the second wands with divided feathers were used in the ancestral temples. In the third feather caps were worn on the head, and the upper garments were adorned with kingfisher feathers in blessing the four quarters of the realm. In the fourth yak-tails were used in ceremonial for the promotion of harmony. In the fifth shields were manipulated to celebrate military... 

After the fragmentary documentation surveyed in this chapter, the history of Chinese alchemy confronts us with the Taiqing scriptures. The shift is a major one, for these scriptures claim to derive their teachings and methods from divine beings, describe actual methods, give details on ritual practices, and frequently refer to each other. In other words, the proper history of Chinese alchemy begins with these texts. The next chapter introduces the heaven from which they descended and the deities who revealed them. 

Ho, and Needham, An Early Mediaeval Chinese Alchemical Text on Aqueous Solutions, except for the final section on ritual. Note that the characters gao qi yue ii] 0, found at the beginning of this section, do not introduce a quotation from an alchemist ( Gao Qi said. . . ), but are an error for zhaiqi ri 0 ( On the day in which you start the purification practices. . . ), as shown by quotations of the same passage in the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles and in the commentary to the Nine Elixirs ... 

Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New Yor Macmillan,... 

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