Confinement and Stabilization: A Case of a Local Ritual Master Helped a Spirit Medium with His Re-consecration

Spirit mediums play an important role in the religious practices of Chinese villages. They offer various religious services, such as exorcism and illness treatments, and communicate with the villagers' ancestors upon villager's request. Lin Wei-ping describes a case in Wannian, Taiwan, which illustrates how spirit mediums are selected. [1] When villagers need a spirit medium, they perform the Guan Jitong ritual to select one. Deities then possess some villagers to determine who is the most suitable. Once the selection is made, the new spirit medium is "reborn" through confinement (Shoujin), and the connection between the village temples' deities and the spirit mediums is expected to be stable.

However, the relationships between deities and spirit mediums can sometimes be unstable. On May 28, 2023, I witnessed a ritual performed by Wu Zhuohao, the local ritual master of Mount Mao Divine Arts (Maoshan shengong 茅山神功). During this ritual, Wu Zhuohao "locked" the connection between a spirit medium, Hu Guanglin, and his master from the spirit world, thus stabilizing their connection. Mount Mao Divine Arts (Maoshan shen gong) is a local exorcist tradition that is prevalent in Huizhou's Hakka community. The patriarch of this tradition is said to be Hu Fawang (胡法旺). According to local and lineage legends, Hu Faming was born on the twenty-fourth day of the eighth lunar month in 1394. He relocated from Fengshun County (豐順縣) of Guangdong to Wuhua County (五華縣) of Guangdong. Unlike the Daoist Mount Mao liturgy, Mount Mao Divine Arts primarily relies on talismans and spells (咒) to provide exorcist services to villagers. Local ritual specialists often become masters from Mount Mao Divine Arts who apply talismans and spells. Daoist priests are typically absent from villages in Huizhou. Many of Huizhou's Mount Mao Divine Arts focus on the skills of spirit mediums who train to be possessed by their deceased patriarchs (yinshi 陰師) of the tradition to provide religious services, including Guanglin.

Guanglin faced a significant challenge when he was unable to maintain a stable possession by any particular individual or group of deceased patriarchs of Mount Mao Divine Arts. As a result, his reputation among the villages suffered. Seeking a solution to this predicament, Master Wu stepped in to offer his expertise. The ritual he proposed to resolve Guanglin's issue is known as Consecration, Confinement, and Stabilization (kaiguang fengding 開光封定) and comprises five distinct components.

1. Inviting gods (qingshen 請神)
2. Possession (futi 附體)
3. Selection and confirmation (xuanshen queren 選神確認)
4. Confinement and Stabilization (fengding 封定)
5. Consecration (kaiguang 開光)

It took more than two hours for Guanglin to undergo the selection process, during which he exhibited the traits of various gods and patriarchs. Though some patriarchs possessed him multiple times, they could not obtain confirmation from their leaders, Hu Fawang and Hu A'hui, considered the most important deceased patriarchs of the spirit-medium-emphasized group. Thankfully, the patriarch of two camps (er'ying zushi 二營祖師), who claims to be a celestial military member tasked with guarding high-ranking celestial gods, was able to provide guidance.

After receiving three confirmations through his divination blocks (gaobei 筶杯) from Hu Fawang and Hu A'hui, Master Wu drafted a document to confine Guanglin's ability to channel the spirit world. This document stipulated that only the patriarch of the two camps would possess in the future. Once the document was burned, Master Wu presented the theatre to Guanglin, allowing the patriarch to consecrate him personally.

No signs of Daoist liturgy were observed during the observation. However, the talismans and documents of the Mount Mao Divine Arts exhibited Daoist-like characteristics, including the use of Daoist characters (huizi 諱字) that represent the cosmic power that Daoism embodies. Communication between Master Wu and the spirit world involved verbal spells and written bureaucratic memorandums to godly patriarchs (shu 疏), commonly seen in Daoist rituals for high-ranking gods. Master Wu and Guanglin acknowledged the authority of Daoism and claimed that all local traditions have their roots in it.

Without extensive knowledge of the Mount Mao Divine Arts, one could hypothesize that the religious practices offered to villagers by Huizhou's Mount Mao Divine Arts is, to some degree, self-governing. Additionally, they exhibit their power over low-ranking spirits and their representatives, known as spirit mediums. In situations where spirit mediums cannot control their connections to spirits, the masters of Mount Mao Divine Arts - who differ from spirit mediums - can contain and stabilize the spirit mediums' ability to communicate with their deities and deceased patriarchs. This event demonstrates a continuation from spirit mediums to local masters, which aligns with Schipper's concept of the "master of gods" phenomenon and his hierarchy of low-ranking gods, ritual masters (fashi 法師), and Daoism. [2]

This proposed presentation will reconstruct the Consecration, Confinement, and Stabilization ritual that Wu Zhuohao did for Hu Guanglin. It would like to demonstrate the hierarchy of local spirits (represented by spirit mediums) and ritual masters. Mao Shan Divine Arts has developed a simplified and flexible liturgy. At the same time, masters of Mao Shan Divine Arts use cosmic power, always represented by Daoism, through Daoist-like bureaucratic communication methods to control low-ranking spirits and their mediums. Even though the Daoist priest is absent, Daoism reveals its authority through its Daoist characters and its bureaucratic-like communication method. Therefore, absent Daoist priests do not sufficiently construct the absence of Daoism in this case.

[1] Lin, Wei-Ping, Materializing Magic Power: Chinese Popular Religion in Villages and Cities (Cambridge and London, Harvard University Asia Center, 2015), 55-63.

[2] Kristofer Marinus Schipper, The Taoist Body, trans. Karen C. Duval (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993),.