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Heroes, rogues, and religion in a tenth-century Chinese miscellany.
In the Tang, Huang Chao [??] (?-884) violated the palace, and [Emperor] Xizong [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (r. 873-88) went to Shu. Minister of State Zhang Jun [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (fl. 890-95) was of humble status and had not yet passed the examinations. (1) At the time he lived at an estate in Yongle in Hezhong. (2) In the hamlet there was a Taoist, who sometimes wore hemp clothes and sometimes wore a feathered cape. One could not be on familiar terms with him. One day Zhang was walking ahead on the village road. From behind there was a cry, "Gentleman Zhang Thirty-four, the troops ahead await you to defeat the bandits." He turned around, and it was this Taoist. The Minister of State said, "I am only a commoner. What basis could I rely on to be able to defeat the bandits?" The Taoist urged him to enter Shu. Just then the chancellor's parents were very ill, and it turned out that he could no travel south. The Taoist then gave him two cinnabar pills and said, "[Have them] take these and for ten years you will be without calamities." The Minister of State took the pills and gave them to his parents. They recovered from what ailed them. Later [Zhang] eventually ascended to be a Chief Bulwark of the State. The Taoist further was never seen again. As for the talk of defeating the bandits, how could it be verified? (3) This narrative contains several features often found in tales relating to Taoists in Chinese medieval anecdotal collections. The Taoist appears as an unusual, solitary, unapproachable figure. The encounter takes place suddenly, without warning, not in a temple or at a home but on the road, and the two parties never meet again. He divines the future of an educated man and offers healing prescriptions that turn out to be efficacious. By dint of his modesty and filial piety, as well as his assistance in the rebellion's suppression and later in his service at the court of Tang Zhaozong (r. 889-904), the beneficiary proves worthy of such attention, despite the anecdotalist's final note of skepticism. The Taoist also affirms the imperial order, then gravely imperiled by the Huang Chao Rebellion (874-84).
What makes this story especially notable is its source, the Beimeng suoyan [??], or Sundry events from the north of Yunmeng, a miscellany completed by the literatus Sun Guangxian [??] (896-968) in the 960s. As an example of biji [??], or "brushed notes," the work exhibits the rich variety typical of the genre. We learn about the personalities of various Tang emperors, as well as about methods for extracting terrapin urine. Two features in particular distinguish this collection. First, the Beimeng suoyuan belongs to the tenth century, a period of remarkable literary obscurity, especially when compared with the glittering talents and productivity of the ninth and eleventh centuries. At its present size of roughly twenty-five chapters, Sun's volume numbers among the largest extant works composed in the tenth century by a single author who did not belong to the Buddhist or Taoist clergies, and ranks as the largest miscellany of its time. (4) Second, despite Sun's conventional note that he wrote his book to transmit the "enduring fine reputations of the court and countryside" of the late Tang and Five Dynasties era, (5) the collection as a whole portrays a polity and society in ruins. Feckless monarchs, scheming officials, brutal warlords, and presumptuous scions of noble families serve as Sun's main dramatis personae, who combine to produce a world of constant insecurity, ...See the full content of this document
