Chapter Two: Textual References to Divine Stones and
Trees
(part II)
III. Textual References to Divine Trees:
The belief in sacred trees is also wide-spread in the Chinese world. There are many stories in Chinese texts regarding trees that have performed miracles or cured people's illness. There are records even relating that trees cried aloud with pain when they were cut down (Morgan 1942:110). There is a textual record that certain trees in Zhejiang got official recognition as deities (Eberhard 1970:23, 256). In the historical book Taiping Guangji (XXV, 315. 41a; tenth century), it is said that there existed a tree in Jiangxi Province which received girls, sheep, and pigs as sacrifices (Eberhard 1970:23, 256).
Moreover, according to the records of certain field researchers, divine trees are still venerated in various sequestered corners of Chinese society such as Hong Kong (Burkhardt 1958a:122; 1958b:151), Zhejiang Province, the south of Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province (Eberhard 1970:21-3), Sichuan Province (Graham 1936:61).(note.6) In the following paragraphs, I shall introduce four types of divine trees: geomancy trees, miracle trees, the tree Land God, and temple trees of the Land God. (note.7)
1, Geomancy Trees:
There are a great many geomancy trees in West China as described by Graham (1961:113-14). The geomancy tree may be a banyan, a cypress, a pine, or some other kind of a tree, but it is always a large and/or old tree. He reports that near the sacred cave called "Jinsha Dong" ("the Golden-sand Cave"), there is the geomancy tree of a powerful local family. Near a monastery on Mt. Emei is another great pine tree that is the geomancy tree of a city. In the rear of another monastery on Mt. Emei, inside the temple and growing up through the roof is a great pine tree that is the geomancy tree of Emei County and is also worshipped as a god (cf. Frese & Gray 1987:27).
Chinese people love Nature. The natural objects such as mountain, water, tree, and stone are synonymous with Nature. They are main foci of Chinese poetry and painting. A place consisting of these natural objects is generally regarded as a good geomancy place. Mountains shelter and protect the geomancy place. In places where mountains do not exist, big stones and trees may serve the same function of mountains. Geomancy trees in their places (e.g. family, city, or region, etc.), together with the geomancy stones described above, must not be cut or injured, for that would spoil the "geomancy". I think the reason is explainable according to Chinese cosmological ideas, especially of "the Five Elements (Wuxing)", that is, a stone or tree should be located at a certain point of a place which is regarded as a micro-cosmos, in order to induce a harmonious environment (cf. Feuchtwang 1974a; Wright 1977).
2, Miracle Trees:
Trees that are venerated are usually large and/or elderly. However, ordinary trees can also be regarded as gods if they perform miracles. For example, in the 1920's in Ding County of Hebei Province, there was the tale of a sick man who was told in a dream that he should make a drink from the bark of a certain old tree at the edge of a village. He did this and got well. The story spread; others strickened with sickness did the same, and many got well. Soon the tree became a busy shrine, bedecked with many banners presented by grateful worshippers to exalt the magical power of the tree god (Gamble 1954:412; cf. Yang 1961:353).
There is a legend that once during a war the enemy wanted to slaughter the people of a city, but would be willing to spare whoever was three feet above the ground. So people all climbed the trees and thus were saved. They regarded it as a miracle performed by the trees. Thereupon, the trees got temples and sacrifices (Eberhard 1970:255-56).
Feng (1970:20-21) also mentions a similar legend that at one time under a dynasty, a city was supposed to be destroyed, and the only favour that the highest official was able to obtain was that everything located three feet or more above ground might be saved. Thereupon, the entire populace climbed up trees, so as not to die. For this reason, the trees were later considered to be gods who saved their lives. Temples were built in their honour and sacrifices made.
3, Tree Land God:
Some sacred trees are specifically considered as the Land God himself. Eberhard (1970:21-22) noticed that an enormous camphor tree with a built-in niche containing incense cones and an earthenware dish for sacrifices is worshipped as the Land God. Burkhardt (1958a:70) also mentions that in the New Territories, almost every village has a sacred tree marked with honourific inscriptions which are worshipped as the Land God. some more
4, Temple Tree of the Land God:
Many scholars state that the altars of the Land God are usually built in front of or beside a huge tree (e.g. Proksch 1984:118; Overmyer 1987:260). These trees, though not worshipped, are regarded as divine. For instance, according to the field work of Chamberlayne (1966:170) in the North of Hebei Province, many shrines for the Land God have only the simple form of a small altar with a tree and a bell. The bell is of course a religious instrument and the tree is, I think, the temple tree of the Land God.
There is a story relating to this type of tree in the Chinese classical book "Zhuangzi". I quote the story as follows:
A wandering carpenter, called Stone, saw on his travels a gigantic old oak tree standing in a field near an earth- altar. The carpenter said to his apprentice, who was admiring the oak: This is a useless tree. If you wanted to make a ship, it would soon rot; if you wanted to make tools, they would break. You can't do anything useful with this tree, and that's why it has become so old." But in an inn, that same evening, when the carpenter went to sleep, the old oak tree appeared to him in his dream and said: "Why do you compare me to your cultivated trees such as white-thorn, pear, orange, and apple trees, and all the others that bear fruit, people attack and violate them. Their branches are broken, their twigs are torn. Their own gifts bring harm to them, and they cannot live out their natural span. That is what happens everywhere, and that is why I have long since tried to become completely useless. You poor mortal! Imagine if I had been useful in any way, would I have reached this size? Furthermore, you and I are both creatures, and how can one creature set himself so high as to judge another creature? You useless mortal man, what do you know about useless trees?" The carpenter woke up and meditated upon his dream, and later, when his apprentice asked him why just this one tree served to protect the earth-altar, he answered, "Keep your mouth shut! Let's hear no more about it! The tree grew here on purpose because anywhere else people would have ill-treated it. If it were not the tree of the earth-altar, it might have been chopped down" (Franz 1990:163).
IV. Conclusion:
From the above textual references we can see that stones which were regarded as divine are usually large (e.g. the Elder Brother Stone of the eccentric artist Mifu; the Rain-making Stones in the south of Hengshan County or in Dong Zhungshu's essays; the stone giving birth to the Stone Monkey) or strange in appearance (e.g. the stone that made Gaolin's mother pregnant; the Horse-liver Stone as a tribute to the Court of China; the stones regarded as the Geomancy Stone). Moreover, divine stones are usually regarded as having rain-making, evil-warding, fertilizing, and good-geomancy-bringing capability.
After careful enquiries for a number of years (in 1924 and 1925, and again in 1935) in Sichuan Province, Graham (1936:59-61; 1961:114) found that large and aged trees such as cedar, banyan, cypress, pine, and other varieties sometimes are worshipped as divinities. Allan (1979:5) maintains that trees are considered as divine because of their unusually long life and immense appearance. The research of Burkhardt (1958b:119) in Hong Kong also asserts that the trees elaborately decorated and worshipped as gods are usually trees with long life. Moreover, after field study in the southern parts of China, Eberhard finds that trees that are worshipped are generally large trees (1970:21-22). Additionally, these trees were normally venerated as geomancy trees, miracle trees, the Land God, and temple tree of the Land God etc.
In Chapter Three and onwards, the data which I collected from the field research in 1992-1994 will be applied to this study to see why and how the divine stones and trees are worshipped in present-day Taiwan.
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(note.1)
The most well-recorded and important type of divine stones in Chinese texts is "She" stones and the stone Land God. I shall discuss them in the following chapters.
(note.2)
In imperial times, when drought struck part of a province, the governor usually appealed to local deities to bring rain as it was believed that the timely production of rain was a part of the duty of the local gods. If in vain, he, acting as representative of the Emperor, who himself was the "Son of Heaven," could order them to see to their duty, treating them with as little ceremony as he would treat one of his county magistrates. Gods who failed in their duties could be tried and condemned to a public beating (cf. Eberhard 1970:257; Wolf 1974:144).
(note.3)
If someone is sick, Chinese think he is in a Yinyang imbalance. To correct this, treatment often involves tonification (i.e. stimulating the lack) or suppression (i.e. reducing the excess) and restoring a balance (Frese & Gray 1987:27; Yeh Kaofang 1987:21).
(note.4)
Since these stones were usually hewn or inscribed with characters, I excluded them from the current field research.
(note.5)
People have always been ambivalent about the Geomancy Stones, and the belief has been changed since 1929. Graham describes that formerly the streets of Yibin were very narrow, and in them were several large stones believed to be the Geomancy Stone. These stones made it more difficult for people to pass up and down, especially when carrying loads or sedan chairs. No one dared to chip them down so that they would not obstruct traffic - that would certainly cause calamities among the people of the city. In 1929 the Yibin City had a mayor who widened and paved the streets, and had stone masons chip away the stones. The act lessened people's fear of, and respect for, the Geomancy Stone.
(note.6)
There are also some tree legends in Taiwan. Among them, the legend of the divine tree of the Sun Moon Lake is the most famous. According to a story recorded in a gazetteer of Zhanghua (Chang- hua) County of Taiwan (cf. Yuan Chang-rue 1993:8), an Autumn Maple tree grew up overnight on the side of the Sun Moon Lake. The root of the tree stuck 20 m deep in the lake, and the trunk towered 30 m into the sky, where the tree leaves extended a coverage of 20 metres square. The local tribal people considered it as a divine tree.
As soon as the tree had grown big, a child was born by a woman who was made pregnant by the Autumn Maple Tree in her dream. The child was named Guzong, and in time, grew into a man of strong stature and was chosen as the chief of the Tribe. The gazetteer states that in 1726, the Qing Government sent a troop to suppress Guzong who killed and robbed the people of neighbouring areas. In order to facilitate the suppression, the leader of the troop decided that the divine Autumn Maple Tree be cut down. Guzong, the tribal chief, and his two sons were thereupon caught and executed (Yuan Chang-rue 1993:8-9).
However, according to the folk version of the story, the troop was unsuccessful in their first attempt of suppression. Soon, the leader of the troop was advised that Guzong, was actually the incarnation of the divine Autumn Maple Tree which must be uprooted to destroy his mystical power. By piercing the back of the tree all over and by applying dog blood to it, the divine tree was felled. It was at that very moment that Guzong drowned himself in the Lake (Yuan Chang-rue 1993:9).
(note.7)
By the same token, the most well-recorded and important type of divine trees in Chinese texts is "She" trees and the tree Land God. I shall discuss them in the following chapters.
