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| Exorcist activities at an exorcist temple. | Ping Village along the mid-stream of the Yangtze River is a border area of Hunan and Jiangxi Provinces, situated right in between of the Dong Ting Lake and the Pan Yang Lake. In 1980s, when I set my foot onto this part of the world, I encountered an overwhelming, massive exorcist culture, with a general's statue every 5 li; and an exorcist temple every 10 li. I felt like being in an ancient world of totem culture and the center of a tribal culture. Si Ma Qian recorded in Shi ]i, "Old time San Miao tribe had Dong Ting on the left and Peng Li on the right." The place he referred to was right along the border area of Hunan and Jiangxi, the birthplace of San Miao Jiu Li tribal culture headed by Chi You in the ancient times.
Unearthed in 1989 from a commercial tomb in Xingan, Jiangxi Province, the bronze mask with ox horns and protruding teeth on a human face; and the pottery mask from the close-by Qing Jiang Wu relics; both fitted in with the totem imal~e of Chi You described as having a "bronze head with horns" in the historical records. It was also the image of the "mountain opener" in the culture of exorcism prevailed in Ping Village. They helped us visualize the folk customs in Shang Zhou period that people wore exorcist masks to dispel evil and pestilence. As was recorded in Zhou LL Xia Guan and Fang Xiangshi, "Fang Xiang Shi appeared in red and dark robe. He had four golden eyes, and covered his hands and feet with bare fur. Holding a shield and a dagger-axe in hands, and having hundreds followers under his command, he was ready to fight off demons and pestilence." This folk wizard custom spread from the mid-stream in Yangtze River to the east and the west covering the entire Yangtze River valley, and to the north into Sichuan and southern Shaanxi, connecting with the central plain culture of the middle reaches in the Yellow River. With a history of over 7000 years since primitive society, the culture of exorcism is like an important live fossil in the study of Chinese historical culture.
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| Exorcist cance. |
If we connect the time and location of all the images and masks, the tiger face with long teeth on the 7500-year-old pottery from Hunan; the sketches of a tiger with long teeth on the 6000-year-old ivory ware from Gansu and Shaanxi; and the 5000-year-old tiger face jade ware with protruding teeth from Liang Zhu culture in Wu County in Jiangsu Province; we would see a culture belt of tiger totem stretching all the way from the Yangtze River valley to the Yellow River basin. In addition, we have the bronze masks with ox horns and tiger teeth from the Xin Gan Tomb of the Shang Dynasty in Jiangxi, and bronze ox masks from Guanghan San Xing pyramid of the Shang Dynasty in Sichuan; together they formed a very unique image of Chinese "exorcist warrior" to protect the
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| Exorcist play"Zhang Wen Xian" | people and their residence in the area.
Through the practice of exorcist ceremonies, dance and theatres, people created a full house of good and vicious characters with different personalities, including father exorcist and mother exorcist in western Hunan and Guizhou; Tang, Ge, Zhou three generals and the high commander in Jiangxi; civil officials and warriors; handsome men and women; fairies and ghost; monks and priests. Following Chinese philosophy and aesthetics, the facial masks were drawn in a formulized way based on the nature of the characters, and touched up by symbolic colors and decorations. Virtue and evil, beauty and beast,
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| Wood carving exorcist mask from Yuan dynasty. |
Exorcist masks from Yuan,Ming Qing dynasties kept by an exorcist temple in Ping Village,Hudong,Jiangxi. | were portrayed most vividly through facial make-ups in figures representing loyal and courageous warriors; upright and virtuous civil officials; handsome young men and beautiful girls; friendly elders; green-faced, long toothed demons and ghosts. Dispelling evil and amplifying the brave and the honest for the peace of mind and a safe and comfortable life are the social base for the very existence of the culture of exorcism through all time.
The unique art style exhibited in the woodcut exorcist masks from Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in the temples of Ping Village stands out among others in the Yangtze River
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| Wood carving exorcist mask from Yuan dynasty |
Modern exorcist masks. | valley. Carved perfectly straight or rounded, the characters are presented in a simple and natural way, poised, mysterious and ferocious. The woodcut by Chen Tuanfa, a seventh generation of a folk artist family in Ping Village, is representative of today's art on exorcist masks. The same unsophisticated style is still largely visible in the art works in the region between Hunan and Jiangxi along the Yangtze River, the very birth place of the culture of exorcism.
The culture of exorcism in its very original mode of evil-dispelling and fortune- inviting is still well alive among the people in the Yangtze River valley today. It is a live fossil to the study of Chinese ancient historical culture. |
