Jerome Yuchien's Ph.D Thesis
Chapter Five: The Deification of Stones and Tree (part VII)
Dosojin, a deity of Japanese folk religion, can be seen today in thousands of images, typically at the edge of a rice field or along the roadside (cf. Hartland 1917a:819). He is a god of harvests and a place deity who protects the field from trespassers and so on (Elder 1987:263). Dosojin may be seen as a realistically rendered, upright stone phallus, a few feet in height, or, just as likely, as a pair of phalli characterizing, presumably, his double nature. Indeed, his most frequent image is that of a "loving couple," usually holding hands but sometimes enjoying coitus in relief on a stone that may itself be phallic.
In some parts of France and the neighbouring countries, ithyphallic saints have been worshipped for the purpose of obtaining offspring or curing impotence and sexual disease. Perhaps the most famous of these was St. Foutin (whose name is variously spelt), by tradition the first bishop of Lyons. His cult was wide-spread in the south of France. When in 1585, the Protestants took the town of Embrun, they found among the sacred relics of the principal church an object said to be his phallus. Its extremity was reddened by the libations of wine offered to it by women in need of his help (Hartland 1917a:817).
Indeed, stone contains intrinsic beauty and suggests eternity. Many people cannot refrain from worshipping a stone or tree of a slightly unusual colour or shape, without knowing why they do this (Franz 1990 (1964):209). Psychologically speaking, it is innate in human nature. From the field research, we observe that in modern Taiwan, many people still cannot refrain from deifying stones without knowing why. We see, for instances, that cowherds of Tan-khe Rural-town (#S8), Tan-suan Rural-town (#S10), and Pak-tau istrict(#S47) were all attracted by stones and worshipped them without any obvious reason. However, whether Chinese have a distinctive figuration of phallicism is a question needed for further investigation and analysis.
VII. Miracle, Standardisation, and Historicisation:
In the previous chapter, we saw that since many divine stones and trees are not standardised, common people have their own mechanism to identify the festival dates for them. From the study of the origins of these natural objects' deification, we also observe that the origins are different from those of deities who are standardised in the written accounts. For instance, many oral versions of the Heavenly Empress contained strong hints that she was a seer or medium and had a special relationship with spinsters and other unmarried women. But the imperial-elite standardised myths that describe deification of her tend to serve as a means to carry the messages of civilization, order, and loyalty to the state (Watson 1985:323). Similarly, the story of the Heavenly Empress appearing in the Republican-elite standardised textbooks tells that she is merely a moral young girl who stands on the shore with a lantern in hand, filially awaiting the return of her father and brothers. No miracles performed by her are told (Meyer 1987:45).
However, miracles are very important for common people. Many Taiwanese believe in a certain deity since he or she directly or indirectly perform a miracle for them. Many temples were initiated because the deities performed miracles to people. In the previous sections, we saw that eleven stones and six trees were deified because they originally performed miracles. Moreover, many religious specialists get their professional careers and gain extraordinary powers by encountering miracles instead of through apprenticeship. For example, Feuchtwang (1993:42) reports that a spirit-medium started his religious career since a deity revealed himself to him. When he served his three years' national service in the navy, the ship on which he was serving hit rocks and sank. He was about to drown when he was saved. Whatever saved him, he identified it as the appearance of an immortal spirit called "the Sage King Guo (Guo Shengwang)".
Nonetheless, unlike the imperial-elite standardised ones, most of the miracle legends do not serve as a means to carry the messages of civilization, order, and loyalty to the state. Only one tree's deification legend relates to the loyalty to the state. It is the "Tree King of Tai-li Rural-town (#T39)" mentioned previously. However, according to the official history, the Emperor Jiaqing never did visit Taiwan. Why did local people manipulate the history and why did they historicise the tree's deification legend?
People in Taiwan often hear a legend that we eat pumeloes and moon cakes at the Mid-Autumn Festival in memory of the Ethnic Revolt and the Land God in the Mid-autumn against the Mongol Yuan Administration:(note.15)
At the end of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368 CE.), the Chinese people led lives of terrible hardship. At last they could bear it no more, so plans were made for a revolt against the Mongols. However, the Chinese had the greatest difficulty trying to keep in contact with each other and pass on information. This was because in every two or three Chinese families there was a Mongol soldier billeted to keep a vigilant eye on his hosts' every action at all times. Fortunately, at this critical moment, the Land God appeared and advised Chinese to take advantage of the medium-sized, round cakes that were so often taken to friends and relatives living some distance away. Little notes containing subversive information were concealed in the cakes, thus forming a link between all planners of the future revolt. With the distribution of important military plans, including the most important message - the date of the revolt, when this eventually occurred, Chinese utterly devastated their despised oppressors, and restored the leadership of China to the hands of her own countrymen. From that time onwards, at the Mid-Autumn Festival, every family worships the Land God and eats moon cakes and pumeloes in memory of the revolution and the Land God.(note.16)
A pumeloe, round, reddish citrus fruit very similar to the grapefruit although larger, and about the size of a human head, is said to symbolise the head of the fallen Yuan rulers. However, from the previous chapters, we learn that the cult of the Land God originated much earlier than the time of the Mid-autumn Revolt. Why, then, is the Land God attached the Ethnic Revolt? In other words, why do people make every effort to put their deities into historical contexts? Scholars have entitled this phenomenon "historicisation" (Maspero 1981; Feuchtwang 1992, 1993; cf. Allan 1979:3-5).
We can say that the Tree King's legend is attached to the Emperor because it can serve as a messager of order and loyalty. We can say that the attachment of the Land God to the Mid-autumn Ethnic Revolt is to explain why people worship him on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. We can also say that the legends cited in the last two chapters are to anthropomorphise these deities in order to stress that they were originally deified human beings. However, if we put our interpretation of these legends into Chinese cultural context, especially the notion of history, they mean more than these.
History is something significant in Chinese culture. Feuchtwang (1992:7) points out that:
The past was a lesson of good conduct. The past was the record of sages and the exemplary statements and conduct of those who followed them. It was negative examples of those who departed from their way. And it was stories of the correct who suffered under negative examples of rule. Historical signification here is an operation by which a past lends authority to a present in a continuing order. The past is demarcated and its pastness sanctified.
For Chinese people, history means authority. "Taishibi (historian's pen)" is the final judgement of one's conduct. The conducts written into history are something real and unchangeable. To historicise something is to make it real and unchangeable and, as a result, authoritative. Therefore, once we interpret these legends contextually, we find that the reason the Emperor Jiaqing is attached to the Tree King's legend is to historicise the deity. We find that the reason the Land God is attached to the Ethnic Revolt is to historicise the deity. We find that the reason the Land God legends articulating name, birthplace, life time, occupation, and conduct leading to deification is also to historicise the deity. With historicisation, these legends, like Chinese understanding of history, become real and unchangeable.
Furthermore, local leaders can gain authority by narrating history (Feuchtwang 1993:45). During the field work, I again and again encountered this authority. For instance, every time when I interviewed people around a temple about the history of it, they normally suggested that I should go to ask local leaders because these leaders knew the history better. When I interviewed people in the Land God Temple called Tiong-kheng-bi?(literally, the Temple of Eternal Celebration) located in Tong-an Street, a worshipper told me that the black stone (#S42) enshrined in the centre of the altar was the Stone God. But a local leader straightforwardly corrected him and assured me that it was the stone Land God deified by their ancestors.
In order to keep these legends as real histories, the local leaders can not tolerate divergence. Probably as a result that I could not get more than one version of a temple's deification legend and most of the deification legends presented in the previous sections are retold by those who I interviewed as if real histories.(note.17)
