Ancient Chinese shamanism, like most shamanic traditons, was very connected to the world around it. It had its own practices tied to the natural world as a way of living in the world. What happened to the shamans of ancient China and their traditions? Like the butterfly, the form altered. Ancient Chinese shamanism took on a new shape with the followers of what would one day be labelled as Taoism. How does shamanism find itself manifested within the Chuang-tzu? A closer examination of the text can give some indications of how shamanism survived within Taoism.
In the primitivist essays, the writer of the passages says, "In the age when Power was at its utmost, men lived in sameness with the birds and animals, side by side as fellow clansmen with the myriad creatures...." 1 This sentiment appears to hearken to a much earlier time when people lived out their lives far more attuned to nature. That may be the case. Quite probably Taoism had its earliest roots within nature worship and shamanism. 2 Mircea Eliade even goes on to say that Taoists can be considered to be the successors of shamanism since they were probably respnsible for elaboration and systemization of shamanic technique and ideology of protohistorical China. 3 The primitivist does appear to be referring to these early beginnings within shamanism.
In order to understand the place of shamanism within the Chuang-tzu , it is necessary to have a brief understanding of exactly what is meant by the term "shamanism." As far as classifying the practice, it is better to call shamanism a form of mysticism than a religion. 4 Practices vary throughout different parts of the world, however, there are some universal apsects common to all shamanic traditions.
The shaman is a person who is able to have some kind of close or direct contact with the sacred. The sacred can be found within gods, tribal ancestors, spirits of all kinds, and nature. 5 In general, the sacred can be found everywhere: trees, rocks, animals, spirits of the dead, the clouds. In shamanism all phenomena of nature are believed to hold the essence of life, so everything is held to be qualitatively equivalent. 6 As far as ancient Chinese shamanism is concerned, the earliest records of the Chin civilization show that the Chin believed in a close relationship between the living and spirits of parallel worlds. 7 Contact with the sacred is key to all shamanic traditions.
Ancient Chinese shamanism itself seems to have been in two general forms. In one form, the shaman would receive a visit from the gods while in the other form the shaman would go on a journey to visit the gods in their own realm. 8 Either of these forms would have occurred by the shaman entering an ecstatic trance. Ecstasy is universal in shamanic traditions. It is merely an altered state of awareness. A rough analogy in everyday terms is someone who seems to be staring off into space then bringing her attention back to the world says, "My mind was a million miles away." However, this gives only the barest hint of the extreme intensity of an ecstatic trance. Ecstasy is generally induced by music, specifically drumming, and dance or in some traditions by hallucinogenic drugs or alcohol. 9
"Shaman" is a general term used to refer to persons previously called witch, witch doctor, medicine man, sorcerer, wizard, magic man, magician, and seer. 10 Eliade would also add psychopomp, priest, mystic, and poet to the definition of a shaman. 11 Eliade calls the shaman a great master of ecstasy, 12 and Michael Harner's definition of a shaman is a person who enters altered states at will to contact and use a reality which normally lies hidden in order to get knowledge, power, and for helping other persons. 13 Being a witch doctor, magician or seer does not necessarily make one a shaman. It is added ability to tap into nonordinary reality at will that makes one a shaman. Shamans have access to the regions of the sacred that normally fall beyond the reach of other members of their community. 14
Shamans are the keepers of this sacred knowledge. They cross the boundaries between ordinary and nonordinary reality. They have a strong connection to the forces of nature and remind others that nature is divine and speaks to those who can listen. 15 Indeed, the shaman can be considered a specialist of the human soul because only he can "see" it since he knows its "form" and destiny, as Eliade mentions. 16 The shaman is implicitly tied to the unity of all things and therein lies the source of his knowledge of the sacred.
A shaman is chosen due to a specific constitution and a proclivity for having ecstatic experiences. 17 The calling to hold the esteemed position takes place by initiation. The initiation manifests in sickness, dreams, and ecstatic trances. 18 Through this initiation, the person becomes able to enter regions of the sacred at will from then on out. The first dreams and trances usually involve the person seeing himself dismembered followed by a complete renewal of the body, travel to the sky to speak with gods or spirits, travel to the underworld to speak with spirits and the souls of dead shamans, witness his own death and subsequent resurrection, or he receives religious and shamanic revelations. 19 At least one of these events must happen, although a combination is more likely. Whichever is the case, the dream or ecstasy produces a profound transformation within the chosen individual.
A seer, one of the individuals who can be taken as a shaman, is a wise man or sage who possesses intuitive powers. 20 It is through the sage that one of the ways shamanism manifests itself within the Chuang-tzu can be seen. From the Syncretist writings in the text, the sage is "whoever recognizes Heaven as his ancestor, the Power as his root, the Way as his gateway, who has escaped beyond the alterations and transformations." 21 The sage, like the shaman, finds a unification with all things and that is the source of his power. The sage in the Chuang-tzu is perhaps better recognized as the daemonic man. Of one daemonic man in the text it is said, "this Power that is in him, would merge the myriad things and make them one." 22 Another passage reads,
The utmost man swims underwater but does not suffocate,
Treads fire but does not burn,
Walks high above the myriad things but does not tremble...
In such a man as this, what is from Heaven keeps itself
whole, the daemonic is without flaws...The sage stores
away in Heaven, therefore nothing is able to wound him. 23
Allowing the daemonic to enter, one can unite with everything. The daemonic also allows the sage to connect to Heaven, or the sacred. Finding a oneness to everything and a connection to the sacred, the sage or daemonic man displays a certain resemblance to the shaman.
What exactly is the daemonic, and furthermore, what does it have to do with shamanism? In order to answer these questions it is necessary to go back to the 4th century BCE. The Kuan-tzu , a text named after Kuan Chung who was considered to be the greatest chief minister of Ch'i, contained a chapter known as "Inward Training" which describes a meditative practice. 24 This particular meditative practice has two commonalities with shamanism: a brightening of the senses and the descent of the shen . 25 A brightening of the senses can be likened to the shaman's ability to perceive a nonordinary reality for gaining knowledge and power. Likewise, the descent of the shen is related to one of the two main forms of ancient Chinese shamanism in which the gods would descend to visit the shaman. In fact, shen means god or spirit, 26 and it is translated by A. C. Graham as meaning daemonic. The daemon ( shen ) descends, enters man, and allows him to be daemonic and clear-seeing ( shen ming ), at which time he can perceive the myriad things with perfect clarity. 27 The daemonic man, like the shaman, by allowing the spirit to commune with him is able to see a sort of nonordinary reality. He can see the unity of everything and gain a special understanding that the non-daemonic cannot have. The descent of the shen , however, should not be confused with possession. It differs from the possessed person in that the daemonic man, as with the shaman, retains complete control of his body, controlling the spirits instead of being controlled by the spirits which is the case for the possessed. 28
In the case of the shaman, the descent of the daemonic would be achieved through an ecstatic state. Ecstasy would come by means of dance and music until the trance is achieved. Once in trance the shaman can communicate with the spirit that has descended. In the Chuang-tzu , however, this music and dance is missing. Instead, there is another way to bring the daemonic down to dwell within the individual. One passage says, "If you adjust you body right and unify your vision, the harmony of Heaven will arrive. If you put together your knowledge and unify your measurements, the daemonic will come to lodge in you." 29 Still another passage declares, "If the channels inward through the eyes and ears are cleared, and you expel knowledge from the heart, the ghostly and daemonic will come to dwell in you.... This is to transform with the myriad things...." 30 In the Chuang-tzu it is really an emptying of the self that allows the daemonic to enter. In transforming one's self to a unity with all the myriad things, one becomes the daemonic man, or rather, the sage.
The daemonic is simply a mysterious power and the intelligence which emanates from a person or thing. 31 Through the incarnation of the daemonic, a person can attain a lucid awareness which is awe-inspiring to the ordinary person. 32 The Chuang-tzu provides an example of this experience. In the chapter "The advantages of spontaneity," Engraver Ch'ing made a bellstand. Those who saw the bellstand found it to be an amazing thing, "daemonic, ghostly." Ch'ing told the Marquis of Lu that he made the bellstand by joining "what is Heaven's to what is Heaven's. Would this be the reason why the instrument seems daemonic?" 33 Ch'ing, in his oneness with everything, has allowed the descent of the daemonic, not merely within himself, but to flow through his actions as well. Even the bellstand he creates stands in harmony with all, so it, too, seems to be daemonic. It seems analogous to the shaman who is able to, miraculously it often seems, bring back knowledge of cures for illnesses, to serve as one example, from an ecstatic trance by joining himself with his own daemon.
For the ancient Chinese shaman, the descent of the daemonic made the ecstatic trance possible, but it was not the only way. The other main form of ancient Chinese shamanic practice consisted of the shaman leaving to visit the gods. Ecstasy was also made possible by the "magical flight" of the ancient Chinese shaman. 34 Magical flight is not a physical event, but rather a spiritual event. The flight is a sort of plastic formula for ecstasy in which the shaman exteriorizes his soul, making a journey in spirit. 35
The descent of the daemonic can be found within the Chunag-tzu , but can this second form of ancient shamanic practice be traced within the text? One passage relates that the sage "rides upon those white clouds / All the way to the realm of God." 36 Another passage decribes a daemonic man who "rides the vapour of the clouds, yokes flying dragons to his chariot, and roams beyond the four seas." 37 Still another passage attests to a daemonic man's unity with nature and his ability to journey far by flight:
The utmost man is daemonic. When the wide woodlands blaze they cannot sear him, when the Yellow River and the Han freeze they cannot chill him, when swift thunderbolts smash the mountains and whirlwinds shake the seas they cannot startle him. A man like that yokes the clouds to his chariot, rides the sun and moon and roams beyond the four seas.... 38
The idea of the magical flight of the shaman, like the descent of the daemonic, can also be found to manifest in the Chuang-tzu . The daemonic man is capable of riding the clouds and journeying far away as is the shaman. One sage, as noted in the first passage, even can reach the realm of God by flying on the clouds, just as the shaman flies to reach the realm of the gods.
The text also has clues of other ways in which shamanism manifests itself within the passages. One passage relates how
The sage is skilled in what is Heaven's but clumsy in what is man's. To be skilled in what is Heaven's and deft in what is man's, only the perfect man is capable of that. Only the animal is able to be animal, only the animal is able to be Heaven's. 39
This passage indicates the sage is skilled in allowing the daemonic to enter, but the animal (or nature in general) is truly daemonic. Animals are an important aspect of shamanic traditions, and ancient Chinese shamanism was no exception. In ancient China there was a definite relationship between the shamanic dance and an animal that consisted of a complex cosmological and initiatory symbolism. 40
The imitation of animal behavior allows the shaman to forget the limitations and false measurements of being human and, instead, gain a refined attunement to nature. 41 The shaman can share in the power of an animal by invoking that energy through imitation of that animal by posture, dance, or dress. 42 In the Chuang-tzu , however, the imitation of animals seems to be missing. There are a number of passages which mention animals, but only one can truly be said to resemble the shamanic imitation of animals. Chunag-tzu is approached by two grandees from the King of Ch'u who offers Chuang-tzu the state. Chuang-tzu then mentions a sacred tortoise that is dead and stored in a box by the King. Asking the grandees if the tortoise would rather be dead or alive dragging its tail in the mud, the grandees answer that it would prefer to be alive. Chuang-tzu then tells them to leave because he also would prefer to drag his tail in the mud. 43 This passage is the only one which even remotely comes close to the shamanic practice of the imitation of animals. In fact, in the Syncretist writing, the bear-hang and bird-stretch, practices which involved animal imitation to extend life, are all but forgotten by the sage. 44
The shaman imitates animals to share in the power of that animal, but there is also a deeper reason for the connection to animals, and nature in general, in shamanic practice. The shaman works to stay connected to nature, and the image of an animal is an aid so that the shaman may transcend normal consciousness, or ordinary reality. 45 The shaman can use the image to achieve altered state of awareness.
For shamanism this altered state of consciousness is a trance or transcendent state of awareness and a learned awareness of shamanic practices while in an altered state. 46 Altered states of awareness can be found to manifest themselves within passages of the Chuang-tzu . One passage says, "Tzu-ch'i of Nan-kuo reclined elbow on armrest, looked up at the sky and exhaled, in a trance as though he had lost the counterpart of himself." Then when Tzu-yu comments the man he sees reclining now is not the same man of yesterday, Tzu-ch'i replies, "This time I had lost my own self." 47 Tzu-ch'i had entered an altered state in which he even lost sight of himself within ordinary reality. Another passage finds Yen Hui telling Confucius, "I just sit and forget." Yen Hui goes on to say, "I let organs and members drop away, dismiss eyesight and hearing, part from the body and expel knowledge, and go along with the universal thoroughfare." 48 Yen Hui also enters an altered state in which he becomes numb to the sensations of ordinary reality to experience a unity with the motions of the universe in nonordinary reality.
The altered state of the shaman, though, is not so easily cut and dried. It is a highly complex issue requiring deeper examination, not only within shamanism, but within the Chuang-tzu as well. Generally, the shaman will have an experience in the altered state in one of two ways. The experience can be like a waking dream that feels real and in which the shaman can control his actions as well as direct the experience. In the second type, the shaman has access to information about the meaning of his own life and death, and also concerning his place within the universe, within a new yet familiarly ancient realm. 49 Both types of experiences can be found manifesting within the Chuang-tzu .
The first type of experience, dreams, are an important aspect of shamanism. Dreams can be described as ordinary or nonordinary, but it is this second type of dream that is of primary importance to the shaman. 50 What exactly is a nonordinary dream? It can be a repetitious dream, one which occurs on several nights in the same way. It can also be an unusually powerful one-shot deal in which the dream is so vivid, the boundaries between what is real and unreal become distorted. These dreams generally are taken by the shaman as being communications from his guardian spirits (often animals) and at times, the guardian itself may appear. 51 There is no way to mistake a nonordinary dream for an ordinary one. Whereas an ordinary dream can be analyzed for hidden symbolism, this is not the case with a nonordinary dream. The nonordinary dream is not to be analyzed for hidden symbolism, but instead is to be taken as a literal message.
Are there indications within the Chuang-tzu that these nonordinary dreams survived from ancient Chinese shamanic practice? A few passages do exist which do show this aspect of shamanism manifest in the text. Confucius, in answering a question, says to Yen Hui, "You dream that you are a bird and fly away in the sky, dream that you are a fish and plunge into the deep. There's no telling whether the man who speaks now is the waker or the dreamer." 52 This passage describes the distortion between the real and unreal that can occur during a nonordinary dream. This passage also has significance with the animal connection in shamanism. Becoming the bird or the fish, it could be noted the dreamer is putting on the guise of the guardian spirit to share in its power, although this practice is mainly performed in the physical state as opposed to a dream state.
Another passage in the text resembles directly the appearance of the guardian spirit to teach a lesson to the dreamer. Although guardian spirits, in general, tend to be animals, it is not necessarily the case. A guardian spirit can be anything, including a member of the plant kingdom, as is the case in this next passage. Carpenter Shih was travelling to Ch'i when he happened to pass by a sacred oak. He continued on his way without so much as looking at the tree. When questioned by his apprentice as to why he had not even bothered to pause by the tree, Carpenter Shih explained the tree was useless for anything which was why it had been able to grow so old. After returning home, the sacred oak came to Carpenter Shih in a dream. The sacred oak gave Shih a lecture on the value of being useless. When Shih awoke, he had a new appreciation of what it meant to be useless. 53
One last passage worthy of mention of the nonordinary dream appearing within the Chuang-tzu is Chuang Chou's butterfly dream. This dream again identifies the distortion that can occur between the real and unreal. Of the dream Chuang Chou says, "He does not know whether he is Chou who dreams he is a butterfly or a butterfly who dreams he is Chou." 54 This dream is significant on another level as well. The strong connection between shamanism and animals has previously been discussed. At another level, animals have their own associated symbolism which the shaman must learn to read and interpret. No animal represents more the process of transformation than does the butterfly. 55
Transformation is the concern of the second type of altered state of the shaman which is primarily concerned with his own life and death. Again, at this level, animals have significance to the shaman, as the butterfly to Chou, in terms of transformation. The presence of a spirit in animal form, communication with it, or the incarnation of that spirit by shamanic methods is a way for the shaman to show he can release his own human condition to "die." 56 Death is a topic the shaman is familiar with from the outset of his initiation. During initiation, the shaman experiences his own "death" in ecstatic dreams, sickness, unusual events, or ritual only to then experience his own resurrection. 57
The shaman has reconciled himself with death at the earliest beginnings of his vocation. Furthermore, the shaman's ability to travel to other realms allows him to bring back information which contributes to the knowledge of death. 58 Death becomes not something to fear, but rather indicative of something far more important. Death becomes a rite of passage into a more spiritual mose of being. 59 A passage from the Chuang-tzu seems to suggest the ancient Chinese shamans and their reconciliation with death:
The True Men of old did not know how to be pleased that they were alive, did not know how to hate death, were neither glad to come forth nor reluctant to go in; they were content to leave as briskly as they came. They did not forget the source where they began, did not seek out the destination where they would end. They were pleased with the gift that they received, but forgot it as they gave it back. It is this that is called "not allowing the thinking of the heart to damage the Way, not using what is of man to do the work of Heaven. 60
This passage speaks of reconciliation with death, recognizing it as part of the way things are. It is merely a transformation. The True Men of old remembered their source, and to the shaman, the origin of life is believed to lie in transformation. 61
The above passage is from a chapter called "The teacher who is the ultimate ancestor." As Graham notes, "Its profoundest lesson is reconciliation with death, by a surrender without protest to the process of living and dying as mere episodes in the endless transformation of heaven and earth." 62 It would seem that on this point shamanism and the Chuang-tzu have a common ground.
Through initiation, the shaman has already witnessed his own destruction symbolically, often by dismemberment, and accepts death as just transformation of life. Likewise, Chuang-tzu sees being able to face squarely in the eyes one's own physical death as the ultimate test in acceptance of one's own eventual demise as part of the natural process of transformation. 63 Both the shaman and Chuang-tzu seem to hold the same view of death, even if the means of obtaining the view are different. Graham notes Chunag-tzu's view of death is that "...in grasping the Way one's viewpoint shifts from 'I shall no longer exist' to something like 'In losing selfhood I shall remain what at bottom I have always been, identical with all the endlessly transforming phenomena of the universe.'" 64
There is no better passage within the Chuang-tzu than the passage of the death of Chuang-tzu's wife to epitomize his view on death. Hui Shih came to pay his respects to Chuang-tzu and there found him singing and drumming on a pot. Hui Shih, taken aback by Chuang-tzu's behavior, inquired as to the nature of his reprehensible actions. Chuang-tzu said he had, of course, grieved for the loss of his wife at first. But then something happened to change his outlook:
I peered back into her beginnings; there was a time before there was a life. Not only was there no life, there was a time before there was no shape. Not only was there no shape, there was a time before there was energy. Mingled together in the amorphous, something altered, and there was the energy; by alteration in the energy there was the shape, by alteration of the shape there was the life. Now once more altered she has gone over to death. 65
This passage indicates the continual process of transformation that is always in motion. His wife's death, as well as her beginning, are only a part of that continual process. Like the shaman, Chuang-tzu sees life and death only as transformation.
Transformation, beyond life and death, can apply to the endless cycle of all things, such as the transformation of ancient Chinese shamanism into what would later be known as Taoism. Many aspects of ancient Chinese shamanic practices can be found, in altered form, within the Chuang-tzu . The descent of the shen and magical flight of the shaman and altered states of awareness can be found as still existent in the text. However, the significance of animals can be seen as dwindling in the text. In either case, the butterfly can show the way to the salient point that all things must alter for such is the nature of the universe itself.
End Notes
1 A. C. Graham, trans., Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters , (London: Mandala, 1991) 205.
2 Deng Ming-Dao, Scholar Warrior: An Introduction to the Tao in Everyday Life , (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990) 177.
3 Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy , trans. Willard R. Trask, (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1964) 450.
4 Eliade 8.
5 Livia Kohn, Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition , (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992) 81.
6 Gary Seaman and Jane S. Day, eds., Ancient Traditions: Shamanism in Central Asia and the Americas (Denver: UP of Colorado, 1994) 2.
7 Seaman 229.
8 Kohn 83.
9 Kohn 81.
10 Michael Harner, The Way of the Shaman , (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990) 20.
11 Eliade 4.
12 Eliade 4.
13 Harner 20.
14 Eliade 6.
15 Ted Andrews, Animal-Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small , (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1995) 1.
16 Eliade 8.
17 Kohn 81.
18 Eliade 33.
19 Eliade 34.
20 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language , (New York: Portland House, 1989) 1291.
21 Graham, Chuang-tzu 274.
22 Graham, Chuang-tzu 46.
23 Graham, Chuang-tzu 137.
24 A. C> Graham, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China , La Salle: Open Court, 1989) 100.
25 Graham, Disputers 101.
26 Da Liu, The Tao and Chinese Culture , (New York: Schocken Books, 1979) 141.
27 Graham, Disputers 101.
28 Eliade 6.
29 Graham, Chuang-tzu 160.
30 Graham, Chuang-tzu 69.
31 Graham, Disputers 101.
32 Graham, Disputers 101.
33 Graham, Chuang-tzu 135.
34 Eliade 451.
35 Eliade 448.
36 Graham, Chuang-tzu 179.
37 Graham, Chuang-tzu 46.
38 Graham, Chuang-tzu 58.
39 Graham, Chuang-tzu 106.
40 Eliade 459.
41 Eliade 460.
42 Andrews 8.
43 Graham, Chuang-tzu 122.
44 Graham, Chuang-tzu 265.
45 Andrews 8.
46 Harner 21.
47 Graham, Chuang-tzu 48.
48 Graham, Chuang-tzu 92.
49 Harner 21-2.
50 Harner 99.
51 Harner 99.
52 Graham, Chuang-tzu 91.
53 Graham, Chuang-tzu 73.
54 Graham, Chuang-tzu 61.
55 Andrews 339.
56 Eliade 93.
57 Eliade 64.
58 Eliade 509.
59 Eliade 510.
60 Graham, Chuang-tzu 60.
61 Seaman 2.
62 Graham, Chuang-tzu 84.
63 Graham, Disputers 203.
64 Graham, Disputers 202.
65 Graham, Chuang-tzu 123-4.
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