Hidden and Visible Realms Read online

  TERMS REGARDING WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

  dou 斗, a decaliter

  hu 斛, bushel, 10 dou before the Tang dynasty; 5 dou since the Song dynasty

  sheng 升, pint, 1/10 of dou

  jin 斤, catty, half a kilogram

  liang 兩, tael, 1/10 of jin

  dan 石, bushel, 10 dou

  yi 鎰, 24 liang

  chi 尺, foot

  cun 寸, inch, 1/10 chi

  duan 端, 20 chi

  fen 分, 1/10 cun

  li 里, half a kilometer, or approximately one-third of a mile

  zhang 丈, pole, 10 chi, approximately 3 1/3 meters

  pi 匹, bolt [of cloth]

  CHRONOLOGY

  Shang

  ca. 1554–1045 BCE

  Western Zhou

  ca. 1045–771 BCE

  Eastern Zhou

  770–256 BCE

  Spring and Autumn Period

  770–476 BCE

  Warring States Period

  475–222 BCE

  Qin

  221–207 BCE

  Western Han

  206 BCE–8 CE

  Xin

  9–25 CE

  Eastern Han

  25–220

  Three Kingdoms

  220–280

  Wei

  220–265

  Shu

  221–263

  Wu

  222–280

  Western Jin

  265–316

  Eastern Jin

  317–420

  Southern and Northern Dynasties

  386–589

  Southern Dynasties

  420–589

  [Liu] Song

  420–479

  Southern Qi

  479–502

  Southern Liang

  502–557

  Southern Chen

  557–589

  Northern Dynasties

  386–534

  Northern Wei

  386–534

  Eastern Wei

  534–550

  Western Wei

  535–556

  Northern Qi

  550–577

  Northern Zhou

  557–581

  Sui

  581–618

  Tang

  618–907

  Five Dynasties

  907–960

  Northern Song

  960–1126

  Southern Song

  1126–1279

  Yuan

  1279–1368

  Ming

  1368–1644

  Qing

  1644–1911

  INTRODUCTION

  The appearance of zhiguai 志怪 (accounts of anomalies), or “tales of the supernatural,” was an important cultural phenomenon in the history of China. Liu Yiqing’s 劉義慶 (403–444) Hidden and Visible Realms (Youming lu 幽明錄) was one of the most important zhiguai collections in early medieval China, or the Six Dynasties 六朝 period (220–589). This collection is distinguished by its varied contents, elegant writing style, and fascinating stories, and by the fact that it is among the earliest collections that were heavily influenced by Buddhism. Besides the traditional themes that appear in the genre of zhiguai, many new themes bearing Buddhist beliefs, values, and concerns appear here for the first time. In addition, Hidden and Visible Realms was not one of the collections of miraculous tales written by Buddhists for laymen, intended to assist in propagating Buddhism,1 such as the Records of Manifest Miracles (Xuanyan ji 宣驗記) or the Signs from the Unseen Realm (Mingxiang ji 冥祥記). Instead, it was miscellaneous in nature, drawing mainly on folklore that was widely spread throughout society. In this lies its unique value for the study of the cultural history of Chinese Buddhism. For these reasons, Hidden and Visible Realms deserves to be read by anyone interested in this era and in the rise of Buddhism.

  THE ZHIGUAI TRADITION AND THE YOUMING LU

  The zhiguai tradition is rooted in the pre-Qin 秦 period of China. Early individual records of anomalies were included in the historical texts. When they were separated from history and spread independently, the zhiguai as a genre emerged.2 This explains why some scholars consider zhiguai a branch of history.3 Zhiguai collections first appeared independently as early as the Warring States period.4 The genre developed during the Han 漢 dynasty, flourished during the Six Dynasties, and continued until the end of the Qing 清 dynasty.5

  During the Han, Wei 魏, and Six Dynasties period, a variety of collections appeared in large numbers. According to their contents, Li Jianguo 李劍國 classifies the zhiguai collections into three categories: 1) records of anomalies associated with specific sites, such as the Comprehensive Charts of Terrestrial Phenomena (Kuo di tu 括地圖) and Zhang Hua’s 張華 (232–300) A Treatise of Curiosities (Bowu zhi 博物志); 2) miscellaneous biographies, such as Liu Xiang’s 劉向 (ca. 77–6 BCE) Biographies of Exemplary Immortals (Liexian zhuan 列仙傳) and Wang Jia’s 王嘉 Uncollected Records (Shiyi ji 拾遺記); and 3) miscellaneous records of anomalies, such as Chen Shi’s 陳寔 (104–187) Records of Marvels Heard (Yiwen ji 異聞記) and Cao Pi’s 曹丕 (220–226) Arrayed Marvels (Lieyi zhuan 列異傳). The last category flourished during the Six Dynasties period, and Gan Bao’s 干寶 (fl. 335–349) In Search of the Supernatural (Soushen ji 搜神記) and Liu Yiqing’s Hidden and Visible Realms are the most important and famous ones.6 It can also be useful to divide zhiguai collections based on their relationship to religion: those collections that tend to especially promote a single religion or religious idea, such as the Records of Manifest Miracles, Signs from the Unseen Realm, and Biographies of Exemplary Immortals; and those that do not, including In Search of the Supernatural and Hidden and Visible Realms.

  Almost no zhiguai collection survives in its original form.7 Fortunately, however, from the fourth century forward important zhiguai were widely quoted in the leishu 類書, reference works arranged by category, which have become invaluable sources of early zhiguai. Lu Xun’s Collected Lost Old Stories (Guxiaoshuo gouchen 古小説鈎沉), a monumental work first published in 1938, was the earliest attempt to extensively recompile early zhiguai collections from the quotations in the leishu.8 Today it is still the most important text for zhiguai studies.

  The Nature of Zhiguai as a Genre

  The term zhiguai first appears in the early Daoist classic Zhuangzi 莊子(ca. 320 BCE) and was later used as the title of several supernatural tales collections during the Six Dynasties period. Zhiguai xiaoshuo 小說 (fiction) was first mentioned by Duan Chengshi 段成式 (803–863) of the Tang (618–907).9 But as early as the Six Dynasties, Yin Yun 殷芸 (471–529) named his tale collection (which includes numerous strange tales) xiaoshuo.

  Zhiguai were widely viewed as historical works during the Tang dynasty, and many pieces of zhiguai are included in the official histories compiled in this period. Around twenty tales from Hidden and Visible Realms, for example, are included in the History of the Jin (Jin shu 晉書), compiled by Fang Xuanling 房玄齡 (578–648). The bibliographic treatise of History of the Sui (Sui shu 隋書), compiled by Wei Zheng 魏徵 (586–643) in the early seventh century, includes zhiguai texts under the category of history in a section devoted to works labeled “miscellaneous biographies” (zazhuan 雜傳). Other works in this category are accounts of local worthies, exemplary types of people, group biographies of famous families, and hagiographies of religious practitioners and immortals. Even though the compiler(s) views the contents of some of the works in this category as absurd or doubtful, he still believes that all of the works are histories. This reflects how contemporary people regarded the zhiguai genre.

  This situation changed during the Song dynasty. In the bibliographic treatise of the New History of the Tang (Xin Tangshu 新唐書), compiled by Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007–1072) and Song Qi 宋祁 (998–1061), zhiguai is included under fiction (Xiaoshuo) instead of history. Ming dynasty scholar Hu Yinglin 胡應麟 (1551–1602) considers zhiguai to be one of the six categories of x
iaoshuo in his classification system. Of course, the term xiaoshuo can be confusing because its original meaning in Chinese tradition was “minor talk,” a kind of gossip,10 similar in nature yet not equivalent to the modern concept of fiction.

  Following Hu Yinglin, modern scholar Lu Xun classifies Six Dynasties tales into two genres: zhiguai and zhiren 志人 (records of people).11 While zhiren works are mainly anecdotes of notable figures, zhiguai is “the generic name for collections of brief prose entries, primarily but not exclusively narrative in nature, that discuss out-of-the-ordinary people and events.”12

  Lu Xun believes that, differing from the much later Tang tales, the Six Dynasties zhiguai were not consciously created; he argues, “The men of that age believed that although the ways of mortals were not those of spirits, nonetheless spirits existed. So they recorded these tales of the supernatural in the same way as anecdotes about men and women, not viewing the former as fiction and the latter as fact.”13 However, he still considers the two genres, zhiguai and zhiren, the earliest forms of Chinese xiaoshuo,14 and the term xiaoshuo is used here as “fiction” in a modern sense, which was defined a century ago.15 Lu Xun’s above argument has become authoritative and influential in China since the publication of his book. Western scholars such as Kenneth DeWoskin upheld it by claiming that the Six Dynasties zhiguai constitute the “birth of fiction” in China.16

  This conventional view on zhiguai has been challenged by more recent scholarship. In his Strange Writing and later works, Robert Campany argues that the major feature of zhiguai is “historical,” not “fictional,”17 and that considering zhiguai as “made up” is “misleading.” His argument is supported by the following evidence: 1) early medieval zhiguai compilers saw their enterprise as a branch of history; 2) both these works’ narrative forms and their generic suffixes incorporated into their titles (ji 記, “records”; zhuan 傳, “traditions”; and zhi 志, “accounts”) were drawn from classical historical writings; 3) the verb used in metatexts to name authors’ activity connotes “collect” or “stitch together,” not “fabricate”; and 4) their compilers were attempting to understand the subtle workings of the actual unseen world, not to invent a new fictional world from their own imagination.18

  In this vein, whether the Six Dynasties zhiguai can be viewed and studied as fiction or folklore becomes an issue. In a book review on Xiaohuan Zhao’s Classical Chinese Supernatural Fiction: A Morphological History (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2005), Kang Xiaofei remarks, “Recent works on zhiguai by historians of Chinese religion and literature have recognized zhiguai as a special form of historiography. The genre can no longer be taken as mere fiction or folktales.”19

  Sarah M. Allen goes even further. Contrary to the conventional view of Lu Xun and his followers, she considers neither Six Dynasties zhiguai nor Tang tales (chuanqi 傳奇) fiction.20 Her rationale is that “there is no evidence that the writers of these tales conceived of them in terms of a ‘making’ of something new that is associated with fiction; rather, the process of composition, in the few instances when we can find one articulated, is that of collecting material and filling in gaps in an incomplete record.”21

  Opposite opinions exist. Scholars such as William Nienhauser and Ma Zhenfang 馬振方 believe that fictionality exists not only in early medieval zhiguai but also in the pre-Qin texts.22 Ming Dong Gu even says that Lu Xun “evidently underestimated the intelligence of [the] Six Dynasties period” by saying that “people of the Six Dynasties period were not engaged in consciously creating fiction, because they treated the events of ghosts and those of men as the same; both kinds were regarded as real events.”23 Daniel Hsiah argues that “one does not have to be conscious of doing something to do it”: “While one can agree that writers such as Yuan Zhen 元稹 (779–831) or Bai Xingjian 白行簡 (ca. 776–826) were not consciously writing fiction in the modern sense, this does not necessarily mean that what they wrote was not fiction.”24

  Starting from Lu Xun’s view on zhiguai, scholars clearly go opposite ways, fiction or history. Both interpretations of zhiguai have their own evidence and rationales, but neither is able to beat the other side.

  In fact, early Chinese fiction and history are too close to be distinguished absolutely from each other. I have observed that the earliest authors/collectors of xiaoshuo were historians, the earliest novels were “unofficial history,” and the narrative structure, elements, and skills of Chinese xiaoshuo were all derived from historical writings. Mimesis of history is the most prominent national feature of traditional Chinese fiction; thus valuing reality (尚實), a standard by which to evaluate historical writings, is also one of the major standards for evaluating fiction in the history of China. However, there are numerous fictional depictions in official history, which have been frequently criticized by historians, and it is common to see zhiguai tales in an official history.25 In addition, neither the zhi (account) nor ji (record) in the title of zhiguai guarantees that it is purely historical, because even much later writers such as Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640–1715) still named his book zhiyi 志異 (accounts of marvels), and nobody would venture to deny the fictional creativity in his works. If we use the evidence Campany used (to deny the zhiguai as fictional works) to evaluate all traditional Chinese fiction, including such masterpieces as Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou meng 紅樓夢), also known as Records of a Stone (Shitou ji 石頭記), none of them should be considered fictional.

  Andrew Plaks observed many years ago, “Any theoretical inquiry into the nature of Chinese narrative must take its starting point in the acknowledgement of the immense importance of historiography and, in a certain sense, ‘historicism’ in the total aggregate of the culture.” “Since both history and fiction are engaged in the mimesis of action, it is often difficult to draw the line neatly between the two.”26

  Thus, in order to study zhiguai in different perspectives at ease and avoid the impossible task of defeating others, perhaps a better solution for the debate on the nature of zhiguai would be to stop trying to draw such a neat line.

  The Nature of Zhiguai as a Cultural Phenomenon

  The nature of zhiguai as a cultural phenomenon is also significant, and it is closely related to the compilers’ sources. Gan Bao says in his “Preface to In Search of the Supernatural,” “I inspected the previously recorded [stories] in old books and collected the lost anecdotes of the time.”27 This is a clarification of the sources of the zhiguai: besides selecting stories from a variety of earlier texts, the compilers recorded local folktales that were widespread at that time as well as stories directly told by individuals. For this reason, zhiguai stories are often considered to be from oral tradition and related to popular culture.28

  However, some scholars disagree with this assumption. Robert Campany, for example, argues in his Strange Writing: “authors (of anomaly accounts), with few exceptions, must have drawn mostly on written documents as opposed to oral sources.”29

  Campany’s observation on the sources of zhiguai is probably true for the genre as a whole, but it is clear that some collections of the third category of zhiguai (miscellaneous records of anomalies), such as In Search of the Supernatural, Hidden and Visible Realms, and A Garden of Marvels (Yiyuan 異苑), are among the “few exceptions.” According to Li Jianguo’s research, less than one-quarter of the tales in Hidden and Visible Realms are taken from older books.30 Most pieces appear for the first time in the collection and are mainly about current events of the Jin and the Song periods. Therefore the whole book reflects a strong sense of the time in which it was written/compiled. In addition, the majority of tales in Hidden and Visible Realms are anecdotes about scholars, commoners, Buddhist monks, and laymen living in this period.31 Many of these pieces could be considered records from people of the compiler’s local community as well as part of oral tradition.32 The cases of In Search of the Supernatural and Hidden and Visible Realms are fairly similar in this regard. Thus the zhiguai accounts were not necessarily devoid of “f
olklore” tracts.

  Significance of Zhiguai: Why Should They Be Read?

  The Analects (Lunyu 論語) says, “The topics the Master did not speak of were prodigies, force, disorder, and gods,”33 indicating Confucius’s prioritization of mundane practicalities and neglect of the supernatural. The fact that almost all the zhiguai collections were lost soon after their compilation can be taken as an indication of their status in Confucian culture. Then, why did zhiguai exist and why were they circulated?

  It seems easy to find the motive behind and aim of a zhiguai collection if it is explicitly promoting Buddhist or Daoist teachings, but it is harder to know the aims of the collections with miscellaneous contents that were compiled by general intellectuals, though some compilers might have been followers of Gan Bao, who himself claimed he was attempting “to make clear that the way of spirits is not a fabrication.”34 As mentioned above, tales of the supernatural were viewed as history in ancient China. Their historical value, the fact/event, is beyond doubt an important factor behind their circulation.35

  Many scholars also read zhiguai for entertainment. For instance, Tao Qian 陶潜 (365–427), the compiler of the Sequel to In Search of the Supernatural (Soushen houji 搜神後記), writes in a poem: