Taoism at the Sung Court: The Heavenly Text Affair of 1008

Abstract

Taoism at the Sung Court:The Heavenly Text Affair of 1008 Suzanne E. Cahill Appreciation by Mark Halperin New Appreciation Suzanne E. Cahill, "Taoism at the Sung Court: The Heavenly Text Affair of 1008." Bulletin of Sung-Yüan Studies 16 (1980): 23–44. Good historical articles stand out in various ways. They can offer powerful arguments in ongoing controversies, approach and organize familiar material in a compelling, novel fashion, or introduce neglected but vital sources. Or they can open up new worlds. One could argue for a combination of all four for Suzanne Cahill's "Taoism at the Sung Court: The Heavenly Text Affair of 1008." Nothing quite like this "preliminary study" had appeared in western Song historiography at this time, as the entries in the first volume of Laurence Thompson's bibliographies attest.1 Forty years later, the article remains a touchstone, cited by scholars of political history, religious history, art history, and military history, working in the English, French, German, Korean, and Russian languages. Although nominally concerned with the miraculous revelations of a single year, Cahill's examination does many things. First, it provides a narrative overview of the complex ties between the Song state and the Taoist religion in Song Zhenzong's 宋宗 reign (998–1022). Second, the work illustrates the manifold manifestations of official religion: palace liturgies, imperial visions, astral oddities, elaborate processions in the capital and to sacred mountains, and, of course, the production and reception of divine omens. Third, Cahill demonstrates that "Confucian rule" in the early eleventh century mixed imperial authority, filial piety, and newfound divine ancestors. Fourth, we see how historical precedents meant very different things to different actors. For the Confucian Sun Shi 孫奭 (962–1033), Zhenzong's projects, such as the devotion to Laozi and the feng 封 and shan 禪 rites, recalled similar enthusiasms of the ill-fated Tang Xuanzong 唐玄宗 (r. 712–755) and so deserved censure. For Zhenzong and his supporters, though, Sun's cause-and-effect scenario failed to cut much ice, because court policies actually worked, leading to peace and stability at home and on the frontier.2 Finally, Cahill proposes that [End Page 7] conceptions of divine favor, authenticity, and artifice must be seen in their specific historical context. Modern scholarship, she notes, adopted the agenda of traditional historians and viewed the affair as a shabby incident. This verdict slighted the strong Taoist commitments of key players, especially Wang Qinruo 王欽若 (962–1025), and thus missed the religious diversity within the Song elite.3 In sum, looking back, Cahill's article served as an auspicious omen for the treasures that were yet to appear in the Journal. mark halperin university of california, davis [End Page 8] Footnotes 1. Laurence G. Thompson, Chinese Religion in Western Languages: A Comprehensive and Classified Bibliography of Publications in English, French, and German through 1980 (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1985). The characterization "preliminary study" is Cahill's own. 2. This success contrasted drastically with the familiar morality play seen in Song Huizong's 宋徽宗 (r. 1100–1125) reign. For this reason and others, Zhenzong's reign, as Charles Hartman notes, "presented a conundrum for the Yuan historians." See his The Making of Song Dynasty History: Sources and Narratives, 960–1279 ce (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 190. 3. One wishes that the study had explored more of Wang's Taoist writings. At twenty-one pages, however, the work already numbered among the longer of the Bulletin's articles. On February 12, 1008, a gate keeper of the imperial city found a yellow silk scroll, sealed and bound up with a blue cord, hanging from a roof tile at one of the gateways of the imperial palace. The Song Emperor Zhenzong 宗 (r. 998–1022), declaring the scroll an auspicious gift from heaven, named it the "Heavenly Text" (tianshu 天書) and received it with great fanfare.1 The incident has always attracted a great deal of attention, both by contemporary and later Chinese historians. To cite just one example, an entire chapter of the Songshi jishi benmo 宋史紀事本末 is devoted to an account of the Heavenly Text episode, together with the events which led up to and resulted from it. From 1008 to the present, Chinese...