TAOS
448
TAOS
the Earth" (Dc Groot, IV, p. 5). Thus the kicei is
buried with the man and the shen hngers about the
tomb. Marking the distinction between the two
souls, there existed in the legendary period, according
to the "Li-ki", a sacrificial worship to each soul sep-
arately: the hwun or fc'i returns to heaven, the p'oh
returns to earth. These two souls are composite;
in fact all the viscera have a particular sheri. "There
are medical authors who ascribe to man an indefinite
number of souls or soul-parts, or, as they express it,
a hundred she?i. Those souls, they say, shift in the
body according to the age of the owner; so, e. g. when
he is 25, 31, 68 or 74, and older, they dwell in his fore-
head, so that it is then very dangerous lo have boils
or ulcers there, because effusion of the blood would
entail death. At other times of life they nestle
under the feet or in other parts and limbs, and only
in the 2l8t, 3Sth, 41st, and 50th years of life they are
distributed equally through the body, so that open
abscesses, wherever they appear, do not heal then at
all. Such patliologic nonsense regulates, of course,
medical practice to a high degree" (De Groot, IV,
p. 75). The fiver, the lungs, and the kidneys corre-
spond to the spring, to the autumn, to the winter, as
well as to the east, the west, and the north. The soul
may be extracted from a living man; the body may
still live when left by the soul, for instance during
sleep ; the soul of a dead man may be reborn into other
bodies. Ghosts may enter into relation with the
living, not only in dreams, but they may take re-
venge on their enemies.
At the head of the Taoist Pantheon is a trinity of persons: (1) Yuen-shi-t'ien-tsxm, "the honoured one of heaven, first in time", residing in "the jade-stone region", who created the three worlds; (2) Ling-yan- t'ien-lsun, "the honored one of heaven who is valued and powerful", residing in the "upper pure region", collector of the sacred books, calculator of the suc- cession of time, and the regulator of the two prin- ciples yin and yang; (3) Lao-tze himself, who exposed to mankind the doctrines uttered by the first person in the trinity and collected in the form of books by the second. Next come: Yuh-hwang-la-ti, "the great jade-stone emperor", who governs the physical uni- verse; Hen-t'u-hwang-li-k'i, "Spirit of imperial earth, ruler of the soil"; the star gods, whose lord (sing-chu) resides in a star near the pole; T'ien-hwang-ta-ti, who fives in the pole star, etc.; Liu-lsu, the "father of thunder". "While he discourses on doctrine, his foot rests on nine beautiful birds. He has under him thirty-six generals, t'ien tsiang" (Edkins, "Journ. North China Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc," III, Dec, 1859, p. 311) ; the sim and moon; the San-yuen or San-kwan, "the three rulers" who preside over three depart- ments of physical nature, heaven, earth, and water; Hiuen-kien-shang-li, "high emperor of the dark heav- en", who is described as the model of the true ascetic. He has transformed himself eighty-two times to become the instructor of men in the three national refigions (Edkins, 1. c, p. 312). A number of per- sonages were worshipped under the name of tsxi, patriarchs. Confucius himself has a place assigned him among the deities of this religion, and he is addressed as "the honoured one of heaven who causes literature to flourish and the world to prosper" (Edkins). Some men have been worshipped as gods after their death: Kwan-ti, the god of war; Hu-tsu, a physician; a medical divinity, Ko-tsu Sa-tsu; etc.
One may well ask how the pure, abstract doctrine of Lao-tze was turned into a medley of alchemical researches, a practice of witchcraft, with the addition of Buddhist superstitions, which constitute to-day what is called T(ui-kiiui, the religion or the teaching of Tao. This was the work of a legendary being, Chang Tao-ling, a descendant of the eighth generation of Chang Leang, a celebrated advisor of Liu-pang, founder of the Han dynasty. He was born in the
tenth year of the Emperor Kwang Wu-ti (a. d. 34)
in a cottage of a smaUviUage of the Che-kiang Prov-
ince, at the foot of the T'ien-mu-Shan, in the Hang-
chou Prefecture. At an early age Chang studied the
works of Lao-tze to which he added researches of
alchemy, a science aiming at "prolonging fife beyond
the limits assigned by nature". He found the drug
of immortality, and by order of Lao-tze he destroyed
the six great demons of the province; Lao-tze gave
him also two books, two swords, one male, one female,
a seal called Tu-kwig, etc. Chang gave his swords
and books to his son Heng, bidding him to continue
his pontificate from generation to generation. At noon
on the seventh day of the first moon of the second
year Yung-shou of the Han Emperor Heng (a. d. 157),
Tao-Ung ascended the Cloudy Mountain {Yun-
shan) with his wife and two disciples, and with them
disappeared into heaven. Chang Heng, son of
Chang Tao-ling, continued his father's tradition both
in spiritual and alchemical researches, and Chang
Lu, the grandson, played an important part in the
Yellow Cap Rebellion at the beginning of the Han
dynasty. During the fifth century a. d., when the
Wei dynasty was rufing in Northern China, a cer-
tain K'iu Kien-che tried to substitute himself to the
Chang family and received in 423 from the emperor
the title of T'iert-shi, "Preceptor of Heaven", which
formerly belonged to Tao-ling. In 748 the T'ang
Emperor Hiucn-Tsung conferred this title upon the
heirs of the latter, and a grant of a large property
near Lung-hu Shan was made to them in 1016 by
the Sung Emperor Chen-Tsung. Heredity in the
charge of high priest of the cult was secured to the
descendants of Chang by the transmigration of the
soul of Tao-ling's successor, at the time of his demise,
to the body of a junior member of the family, whose
selection is indicated by a supernatural phenomenon.
To-day, at the head of the Taoist hierarchy is the
Cheng-i-sze-kiao-chen-jen, "Heir to the founder of the
Taoist sect"; this title was conferred by the Ming
dynasty upon Chang Cheng-shang, descendant from
Chang Tao-ling of the thirty-ninth generation. This
title "belongs, by an hereditary privilege, to the first-
born descending in a direct line from Chang Tao-ling.
He lives upon the Lung-hu Mountain, in the Kiang-si
Province. His office consists in using his magical art
to frighten demons away, to baffle diabolical influ-
ence, anil to refrain the evil-doing souls of the dead.
He names the new Ch'eng-hwang, 'tutelary deities of
the cities', and for a fee, he gives to Taoists titles per-
mitting them to celebrate the ceremonies with more
solemnity" (P. Hoang, "M(51anges sur I'Adniinistra-
tion",34). In the capital of the empire the Taoist
priesthood includes: two Tao-lu-sze, superiors, a title
corresponding with that of the Buddhists, Seng-lu-
sze; two Cheng-i, Taoists of right simplicity; two Yen-
fa, ritual Taoists; two Che-ling, Taoists of gi-cat excel-
lence, thaumaturgus; and two Che-i, Taoists of great
probity, an inferior class of priests. In the provinces
at the head of the priestliood are: Tao-ki-sze Tim-ki,
superior of the Taoists of a/u (prefecture), and Tao-
ki-sze Foil Ton-ki, vice-superior of the Taoists of a/w;
Tao-cheng, superior of the Taoists of a chou or a t'ing;
Tao-hwei, superior of the Taoists of a hien. The
superiors are appointed by the governors-general
(tsung-tu), or by the governors (fu-t'ai), on the presen-
tation of the prefect of sub-prefect of the chou, t'ing,
or hien. Henri Cordier.
Taos Pueblo, an important town of the Pueblo group, inhabited by Indians speaking the Tigua language of Shoshonean finguistic stock, and situated on Taos River, Taos County, New Mixicii, I'nited States of America, about fifty miles north-cast fix)ni Santa Fe. From an estimated jxipulation of 251K) in 1630, and 2000 just previousto the outlireak of the re- bellion in 1680, it had dwindled to 578 in 1788 and
