Chinese 方相氏 Wade–Giles fang-hsiang-shih Baxter-Sagart paŋ[s]aŋk.deʔ | Hanyu Pinyin Middle Chinese pjangsjangdzyeX | |
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Literal meaning directions scrutinizing master | ||
The fangxiangshi 方相氏 was a Chinese ritual exorcist, the meaning of whose name is obscure but has been translated as "one who sees in all (four) directions", "he who scrutinizes for evil in many directions", and "one who orients unwanted spirits in the direction to which they belong". Ancient Chinese texts record that he wore a bearskin with four golden eyes, and carried a lance and shield to expel malevolent spirits. His primary duties were orchestrating the seasonal Nuo ritual to chase out disease-causing demons from houses and buildings, and leading a funeral procession to exorcize corpse-eating wangliang spirits away from a burial chamber. From the Han dynasty through the Tang dynasty (3rd century BCE to 10th century CE), fangxiangshi were official wu-shaman specialists in the imperially sanctioned Chinese state religion; after the Tang, they were adapted into popular folk religion and symbolized by wearing a four-eyed mask.
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In the present day, the fangxiangshi is a masked character in Chinese Nuo opera, and continues as the Japanese equivalent hōsōshi 方相氏 exorcist in Shinto ceremonies.
Etymology
The obscure etymology of fāngxiàngshì is a subject of disagreement. The name combines three words, with the following Old Chinese pronunciations and meanings (Schuessler 2007: 231, 531, 466):
Scholars agree that shi < *geʔ is the Chinese honorific suffix translating "master; lord", but construe fangxiang < *paŋsaŋh in various ways. Fang 方 is also a common Chinese surname.
The earliest interpretation was Zheng Xuan's (2nd century CE) Zhouli commentary (see below). Zheng explains fāngxiàng(shì) as fàngxiǎng 放想, substituting fàng 放 "put away; banish" for fāng 方 and xiǎng 想 "think; imagine" for xiàng 相. This ambiguous fàngxiǎng 放想 gloss is translated as "expellers of formidable things" (Laufer 1914: 198), "to give release to one's thinking . . . so as to have an awesome and terrifying appearance" (Bodde 1975:79), and "to cause visions to be forthcoming; to conjure up visions" (Boltz 1979: 431). Boltz says Bodde misunderstood this term because Zheng was reaffirming that xiàng 相 means not just "observe; scrutinize", but "vision; image; phantasy", cognate with xiǎng 想 "to draw up a mental image; vision", as well as with xiàng 象 "image; representation". Therefore, Boltz (1979: 431) concludes it was not the appearance of the fangxiangshi that is important, but "the visions which he brings forth (and which presumably only he can see) that are crucial. In this sense he should be called the Master of Visions, or Imaginator, or Phantasmagoricist."
Zheng Xuan's commentary to the Zhouli description of a fangxiang striking the four corners of the burial chamber with his lance and expelling the fangliang (see below) identifies this fangliang 方良 demon with the wangliang 罔兩 demon, also known as wangxiang 罔象. Ying Shao's (c. 195 CE) Fengsu Tongyi quotes this Zhouli passage with wangxiang for fangliang in explaining the origins of Chinese customs of placing thuja (arborvitae) trees and stone tigers in graveyards.
On the tomb a thuja is planted and at the head of the path a stone tiger. In the Chou li, "On the day of burial the fang-hsiang chief enters the pit to drive out the Wang-hsiang." The Wang-hsiang likes to eat the liver and brain of the deceased. People cannot constantly have the fang-hsiang stand by the side of the tomb to bar it. But the Wang-hsiang fears the tiger and the thuja. Thus the tiger and thuja are placed before the tomb. (tr. Harper 1985: 482)
The common interpretation of the fang in fangxiang is that it denotes the sìfāng 四方 "the four quarters/directions; every side/direction", as ritually symbolized by the four golden eyes on the bearskin signifying the ability of a fangxiangshi to see in all directions. According to Dallas McCurley (2005:137), the early Chinese believed that "the forces of rain, wind, flood, and drought often came to the climatically vulnerable Yellow River Valley from the sifang."
Boltz's (1979: 431) review of Bodde's (1975) book agrees that taking the fundamental sense of fangxiang as "seer" is generally accurate, but believes that the binomial term fangxiang < Old Chinese *pjwang-sjang originated as a dimidiation of the word *sjang- < Proto-Chinese **bsjang- "seer". Thus meaning "not so much "one who sees in all directions" (though it may well have already been semanticized as that very early) as "one who conjures up visions, or images, phantasies."
Many writers have noted the remarkable phonetic similarities among the names for the ritual fangxiangshi and the fangliang, wangliang, and wangxiang demons he exorcised; and some scholars such as Chen Mengjia, Kobayashi Taichirō, and William Boltz have theorized that the fangxiangshi exorcist was a personification of these demons, and was "in effect exorcising himself" (Boltz 1979: 423). In this understanding, the devouring exorcist and devoured creatures were ultimately identical. Boltz (1979: 431) suggests the possibility that the matching names fangxiang(shi), fangliang, wangliang, and wangxiang are all derived from the same Proto-Chinese **BZjang "see" etymon, with him as a "Master of Visions" or "Imaginator" and them as "visions" or "specters" from the Latin spectrum "appearance; apparition", and to use the same root, the fangxiangshi "was in fact exorcising images, or visions, of himself."
Translations
While it is comparatively easier to transliterate Chinese 方相氏 alphabetically than to elucidate it, some scholars have made translations. The first in a Western language may have been French sinologist Édouard Biot's (1881 1:6) "inspecteurs de region" or "preservateur universel".
English translations include
Laufer's interpretation takes fang to mean fangshi 方士 "alchemist; doctor; exorcist" and xiang to mean rénxiàng 人相 "look at and appraise; practice physiognomy". Bodde's (1975: 79) translation "he who scrutinizes for evil spirits in many directions" is based upon taking fang as meaning sifang "four/all directions" and taking xiang in its verbal sense of "observe, scrutinize" comparable with "physiognomize".
Interpretations
Lisa Raphals (2009: 61) suggests that the Zhou dynasty ritual fangxiangshi 方相氏 may have been a predecessor of the Han dynasty professional fangshi 方士 "recipe masters".
Bodde (1975: 124) identifies the fangxiangshi with the demonic "God of War" Chiyou, who, according to legend, opposed the Yellow Emperor, citing Zhang Heng's (2nd century CE) Xijing fu poem that describes Chiyou similarly with how other texts portray the appearance and behavior of the fangxiangshi.
Japanese hōsōshi
During the Heian period (794-1185), the Japanese adopted many Tang dynasty (618-907) Chinese customs, including the fangxiangshi known as hōsōshi 方相氏 who would lead a funeral procession and exorcise demons from a burial mound. This practice was amalgamated with traditional Japanese exorcism customs such as the Shinto ofuda "talisman with the name of a kami".
The earliest record was the (c. 797) Shoku Nihongi history (Gras 2004: 45), which mentions a hōsōshi exorcist officiating at the burial ceremonies for Emperor Shōmu (756), Emperor Kōnin (781), and Emperor Kanmu (806).
The Kyōgen actor Nomura Mannojō noted that Chinese Nuo rituals 儺 were the 8th-century source for the Japanese tsuina 追儺 or setsubun "ritual to exorcise evil spirits on the last day of winter", and proposed that supernatural power links the Chinese nuo performer fangxiangshi and the Japanese gigaku masked character Chidō 治道 "govern the way" who leads a (Fukushima 2005: 258).
In Japanese tradition and art, the hōsōshi wears a four-eyed mask rather than the original four-eyed bearskin.