KINSHIP OF THE THREE (Ts’an-t’ung ch’i/Cantongqï). The earliest still existing text on alchemy, attributed to Wei Po-yang (fl. 100–170 CE), dated about 142 CE.
The meaning of the title has been often discussed and could refer to the three areas of Taoist concern, as J. Needham explains:
. . . the theory of the Book of Changes, which in a broader sense includes those of the Yin and the Yang as well as the Five [Agents], the philosophical teachings of Taoism, and the processes of alchemy. (Needham: V, 3: 52)
The text is obscure and has given rise to numerous commentaries, roughly falling into two categories: those who claim that the book talks about outer alchemy, and their opponents, who believe it deals with inner alchemy, a dichotomy comparable to the western duality of practical versus allegorical-mystical alchemy (Needham V, 3: 57).
The proto-scientific spirit of the work is obvious: Needham quotes two texts, which clearly state the need for using the proper materials and the correct techniques, rather than to hope for miracles. Sexual symbolism is often used to illustrate the proper blending of materials (Needham: 68–69, 71).
Wei Po-yang’s influence on later philosophers and alchemists has been extremely powerful: it gave alchemy new directions, but also limited its scope of experimentation. The use of mercury and lead as the main sources of elixir would cause many cases of poisoning.
. . . indeed it is possible that many of the most brilliant and creative alchemists fell victim to their own experiments by taking dangerous elixirs. (Needham: 74)
The elusive language used was a factor that obstructed the easy spread of alchemy and was probably deliberate, for self-protection and in order to prevent the secrets from being communicated to unworthy amateurs. (See Needham V, 3: 50–75; see also Outer Alchemy.)
KITCHEN GOD See DIRECTOR OF DESTINY
KO CH’AO-FU/GE CHAOFU. A Taoist of the late fourth and early fifth century, the actual author of the Ling-pao Scriptures. He was a grand-nephew of Ko Hung. The scriptures he composed number about 50. Ko Ch’ao-fu claimed that they had been obtained from an immortal by Ko Hsuan, Ko Hung’s uncle. Later, the transmission lineage was reconstructed as follows: Ko Hsuan → Ko Hung → Ko Ch’ao-fu → Lu Hsiu-ching → T’ao Hung-ching. It was T’ao who first made the triple division of the Taoist Canon: Shang-ch’ing Scriptures, Ling-pao Scriptures, San-huang Scriptures.
Besides being the real author of the Ling-pao corpus, not much is known about the life and personality of Ko Ch’ao-fu. He was a syncretistic writer who had access to the Shang-ch’ing collection of scriptures and also was very much influenced by some Buddhist texts, which had circulated in southern China.
KO HSUAN/GE XUAN (164–244). An alchemist during the Three Kingdoms period. He was a native of Tan-yang, Chü-jung, in present-day Kiangsu province. According to the Pao-p’u-tzu, written by his nephew, Ko Hung, he received his training from Tso Tz’u, a famous alchemist of the period, who also gave him several alchemical writings, such as T’ai-ch’ing tan-ching (“Alchemy Scripture of Grand Purity”) and others. These texts were later transmitted to Cheng Yin (d. 302), then finally to Ko Hung. Recent scholarship has pointed out this transmission lineage, which later came to be known as the Tanting (Alchemy) School of Taoism.
Because Ko Hsuan once resided on Mount Ko-tsao in Kiangsi, a school named Ko-tsao School developed there: they worshipped Ko Hsuan as their founder. The later Ling-pao School also venerated him as their founding patriarch, because Ko Ch’ao-fu claimed that the Ling-pao scriptures had been transmitted to him by Ko Hsuan.
Many legends surround this famous personality. It was said that he was able to fast for long stretches of time without feeling hungry; that he was able to cure disease and to control the coming and going of spiritual beings. He was an expert in Taoist magic and talismans. He is also known as Ko Hsien-ong (Venerable Immortal Ko).
KO HUNG/GE HONG (283–343/63 CE). A famous author and alchemist of the Eastern Chin dynasty (317–420), usually considered to be a Taoist. This attribution must be qualified, however, since he was also a strong proponent of Confucian social-political thinking. His literary name was Pao-p’u-tzu (the Master who holds on to Wholeness), hence the book he wrote has also been called Pao-p’u-tzu/Baopuzi.
He was a native of Tan-yang in present-day Kiangsu province, a nephew of Ko Hsuan/Ge Xuan (164–244), a Taoist alchemist of the Three Kingdoms period. When he was young, he was very poor, but intelligent and eager to study. He often went to the mountains to cut wood, which he sold as fuel so that he could afford to buy writing materials. As an adult, he was well versed in the Confucian classics, historical, and philosophical writings. He was known as an expert in Confucianism, yet he was also attracted to the arts of immortality and instructed in it by Cheng Yin (d. 302), a well-known alchemist.
In 303, he was appointed as a military officer and in this function was instrumental in the suppression of the Shih Ping rebellion. After the rebels’ defeat, Ko resigned from the military and wanted to go to Loyang to look for Taoist texts. Because of the chaotic situation in the north at that time, he had to give up his plan and instead accepted his friend Chi Han’s invitation to go south. His friend was the governor of Canton, and Ko joined his staff. When Chi was assassinated soon afterward, Ko was stranded in Canton, but decided to stay anyway. During this Canton episode, Ko experienced the instability of a political career and started to devote his time and efforts to studying and writing. Later, he returned to his home in Tan-yang.
In 317, he completed the Pao-p’u-tzu. Although the government offered him several high positions, he declined on the grounds of getting old. He wanted to search for the elixir of life through alchemical experiments. When he heard that cinnabar, a basic alchemical ingredient, was produced in northern Vietnam, he asked to be appointed magistrate of Kou-lou county. But when he reached Canton with his family, he was detained by the governor and not allowed to go any further. Forced to comply, Ko stayed on nearby Mount Lou-fu, where he continued his writing and his alchemical experiments. He passed away there in 343 or 363.
Ko hung was a versatile scholar who authored several books. His best-known work, Pao-p’u-tzu, contains 70 chapters: 20 inner chapters and 50 outer chapters. The former deal with immortals, medical prescriptions, and drugs, the configuration and transformation of spiritual beings, methods of nourishing and prolonging life and how to avoid disasters. These inner chapters summarize all the theories on immortals since the Warring States period. They also describe a theoretical system on the concept of the immortal. Founded on the alchemical legacy of Wei Po-yang, it outlines a summation and synthesis of all the alchemical theories of the Wei and Chin periods. In those 20 chapters, 282 texts on immortals and talismans are listed and evaluated. This is indeed very valuable as a source of information on Chinese alchemy up to the Eastern Chin period, and as a source for studying the intellectual currents of the Wei-Chin periods. Moreover, important concepts, such as Tao, Oneness (yi), and Mystery (hsuan), are analyzed, and the possibility of becoming an immortal (hsien) is strongly defended.
The 50 outer chapters contain Ko Hung’s social and political views, implying that he saw himself as a Taoist in his inner being, while acting as a Confucian in his social life. It is the combination or reconciliation of his immortality concepts with Confucian social obligations. This reconciliation was not purely artificial: For him, the Confucian virtues of loyalty, filial piety, humaneness, and trust were basic conditions to achieve (Taoist) immortality.
As to his method for achieving immortality, Ko combined inner cultivation with outer nourishment. The inner part included breathing exercises and sexual practices; the outer part consisted of taking drugs and alchemical elixirs.
Although Ko Hung was both a Taoist and a Confucian, he was an important figure in the further development of Taoism. He transformed Taoism from being a movement for the masses to one of individual practice and personal choice in the search for immortality.
KO YI/GEYI (“Matching Meanings”). Refers to a method of textual hermeneutics and exegesis practiced for a short period of time (fourth century CE) when Buddhism started to adjust itself to the intellectual climate of China. Buddhist ideology had created its own very technical concepts and philosophical interpretations, which had no exact equivalents in Chinese language. Yet, in order to make its message understandable to a Chinese audience, Buddhism had to use Chinese terms. With the help of analogous terms and concepts found in the Chinese classical literature and more so in Taoism, they tried to explain the new Buddhist ideology. Tao-an and Hui-yuan and others used this technique. But Tao-an soon realized that it was more harmful than helpful and abandoned the method. With the arrival of Kumarajiva (401 CE), who devised better translation techniques, the ko-yi practice was abandoned. (See E. Zürcher, 1959: 184, 187; K. Ch’en, 1964: 68.)
K’OU CH’IEN-CHIH/KOU QIANZHI (365–448). A Taoist priest during the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534). He was a native of Chang-ping, Shangku (present-day Beijing), and claimed to have descended from an aristocratic family of the Later Han dynasty.
From an early age, he was attracted to Taoism and studied the teachings of Chang Lu, but was unable to grasp their subtleties. Later, together with Ch’eng Kung-hsing, he went to Mount Sung, where he studied Taoism for seven years. Ch’eng allegedly was a Taoist immortal and a well-known mathematician. K’ou’s reputation gradually spread. He started to reform the Heavenly Masters School, which he claimed had been corrupted by the three Changs (Chang Ling, Chang Heng, and Chang Lu). He also claimed that T’ai-shang Lao-chün (Lao-tzu deified) had descended on Mount Sung, conferred upon him the title of Heavenly Master, and had given him a sacred text in 20 chapters dealing with talismans, breathing exercises, and other practices. He decidedly wanted to abolish the sexual ritual of ho-ch’i (union of energies), as well as do away with the imposed taxation of five bushels of rice. K’ou maintained that the religious practices of Taoism should concentrate on social etiquette and manners, in combination with the taking of medicinal drugs and the observation of mental discipline as effective ways toward salvation. This shows that K’ou had in mind to restore Heavenly Masters Taoism by raising it to the level of the higher classes of society and transforming it from a popular movement to a religious establishment, submissive to the political authority of the Northern Wei.
Eight years later, he claimed to have received new revelations, this time by the appearance of Li P’u-wen, the great-great-grandson of Lao-tzu. K’ou claimed that Li had personally given him a text in 60 chapters: the True Scripture of Registers and Charts (Lu-t’u chen-ching). Moreover, Li P’u-wen instructed him in the skills of summoning spiritual beings and practicing alchemy. Li also ordered K’ou to assist Wei Emperor T’ai-wu, whom he called “True Ruler of Great Peace” (T’ai-p’ing chen-chün).
With the assistance of Ts’ui Hao, a high court official, K’ou went to P’ing-ch’eng, the Northern Wei capital (present-day Ta-t’ung in Shansi) and presented various Taoist texts to the emperor. With the emperor’s support, he built a new sacrificial site in the capital: a building of five floors, which he himself had designed. The emperor followed K’ou’s advice and changed his reign title to T’ai-p’ing chen-chün. Initiated into the order by K’ou personally, he became a Taoist emperor-priest, and K’ou became the imperial teacher. The Northern School of Heavenly Master Taoism became an upper-class religion, infused with Confucian concepts, and emphasis on social relationships and obligations, such as filial piety and loyalty.
Probably due to K’ou and especially the Confucian minister Ts’ui Hao, starting in 445, Buddhism suffered suppression during the reign of T’ai-wu. K’ou Ch’ien-chih died in 448 during the high tide of suppression. Ts’ui Hao was executed in 450, and two years later, in 452, Emperor T’ai-wu was assassinated. With the enthronement of the new emperor, Buddhism regained its freedom, whereas Taoism went into gradual decline. It is doubtful whether this short episode of Taoist glory had any lasting effects.
KUAN See TEMPLES
KUAN-KUNG See KUAN-TI
KUAN-SHENG TI-CHÜN See KUAN-TI
KUAN-TI/GUANDI or KUAN-KUNG/GUANGONG. One of the most popular gods of Chinese religion, properly belonging to the Communal religion, but also claimed by Taoism as one of its own, although the state religion, during imperial times, promoted his cult with great efforts: He was considered for all citizens to be a model of civic virtues, especially loyalty and courage. This makes Kuan-kung a very intriguing deity indeed.
A more formal and dignified title, found today in sectarian movements, is Kuan-sheng Ti-chün/Guansheng Dijun (Holy Emperor Lord Kuan). Other names are Wen-heng Ti-chün, Fu-mo Ta-ti, Hsieh-t’ien Ta-ti, En-chu kung (“Lord Benefactor”). It is interesting to note that none of these titles indicates that Kuan-kung was worshipped as “God of War,” although this is the most common epithet found in Western literature. He is a martial god all right, very brave and strong in war, but not a god of war as such.
Kuan-kung was a historical figure named Kuan Yü. He lived during the period of Three Kingdoms (220–265 CE). After the collapse of the Han dynasty, he and two other eminent warriors: Liu Pei, throne pretendant and Chang Fei, a general, swore an oath of mutual loyalty in the “peach garden.” They would remain loyal to each other throughout their life and made great efforts to restore the Han dynasty. Kuan Yü was eventually captured by the southern armies and executed. After his death, a cult arose and legends flourished.
His character and exploits were popularized in the great work of historical fiction entitled The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written during the fourteenth century. The extraordinary success of this novel . . . was spread among the entire populace through the medium of the storytellers and the stage. (L. Thompson, 1996: 59)
Being a popular deified martial hero, his worship was strongly promoted by the imperial court: His temple “became an integral part of every major Chinese community” (Yang, 1970: 159), often built at government expense, since this god symbolized and actively encouraged “. . . the civic values of loyalty, righteousness, and devoted support for the legitimate political power” (Yang: 160).
For the community, however, Kuan-kung served other functions.
He was worshipped by merchants as a god of wealth and of fidelity in business contracts, by common people as a curer of disease, by soldiers as their patron god, and by many local communities as the chief protective deity against calamities and destruction. (Yang: 159)
Because of his popularity, Kuan-kung’s image is still often found today in temples, private homes, shops, and restaurants. Characteristically, he has a red face and wears a long beautiful beard, of which he was very proud. Several temples are dedicated to Wen and Wu (example: the Wen-Wu temple on Hollywood Road in Hong Kong): Wen means culture, literature, and is represented by such gods as Wen-ch’ang Ti-chün; Wu means martial, and Kuan-kung is the martial hero par excellence.
In modern sectarian movements, Kuan-kung, or rather Kuan-sheng Ti-chün, is especially revered as one of the major patron deities of automatic writing. Many temples are dedicated to him in Taiwan, and devotees gather there several times a week to ask for divine messages. It is the belief of these groups that Kuan-sheng Ti-chün has succeeded in the role of the Jade Emperor or Yü-huang Ta-ti, and is now the supreme deity of the pantheon.
In Taiwan, there are important centers of Kuan-kung worship in temples of Tainan, Changhua, Hsinchu, Hsinchuang, Taipei and San-hsia, as well as on the outskirts of Taichung (Ta-k’eng) at the newly built, grandiose temple Sheng-shou kung. The god’s birthday is celebrated on the 13th of the fifth lunar month.
KUAN-TZU/GUANZI. A collection of essays dating from the Warring States and Han periods, attributed to Kuan-tzu, a minister of the state of Ch’i who died in 645 BCE. Kuan-tzu (Master Kuan), whose personal name was Kuan Chung, probably did not personally write any of the essays, but because he had the reputation of a model minister, it is not surprising that his name was chosen by whoever edited the collection at a later time.
A recent study and partial translation of the text (A. Rickett, 1985) suggests multiple authorship. The core of the present work (“proto-Kuan-tzu”) is said to date from about 250 BCE. It “originated with the Jixia [Chi-hsia] Academy founded by King Xuan [Hsuan] of Qi [Ch’i] . . . in about 302 BCE, and additional materials were gradually added until its final shape was determined in about 26 BCE” (Rickett: 15).
The Kuan-tzu is one of the oldest and largest pre-Han and early Han works that have survived. Its content indicates a variety of sources and authors involved in it: Not only does it deal with political, social, and economic theory, it also combines various schools of thought, such as Confucianism, Legalism, and Taoism. It discusses yin-yang theory, military strategy, and Huang-Lao philosophy. Some essays may even derive from the school of Huai-nan-tzu.
From the viewpoint of Taoism, it is most interesting to see how various schools of thought are interwoven into a new synthesis. It is syncretism in action, not surprising when the variety of contributing authors is considered.
KUI See “SOUL”
K’UI-HSING/KUIXING. A star-god transformed into the Taoist god of literature, worshipped for success in the imperial examinations, usually placed on the left of Wen-ch’ang Ti-chün.
There is some uncertainty about his actual identity: Sometimes he is considered as the chief star of the Big Dipper, other times as the four stars in the bowl of the Dipper.
The character k’ui is enigmatic: The left part represents kui (ghost) and on the right is tou, meaning “dipper, bushel.” Most likely it is an artificially composed graphic, and so is the god’s iconographic representation: a stylized form of the character kui, with a face and limbs added. In the right hand he holds a writing brush, and in his left a bushel (tou). This is very interesting and unusual and betrays its purely stellar origin, for which no “human” figure was available.
KUO HSIANG/GUO XIANG (d. 312 CE). A well-known Neo-Taoist philosopher from the Western Chin dynasty (265–316), most famous for his still-existing commentary on the Chuang-tzu (translated by Fung Yu-lan, 1933/1964).
He was a native of present-day Loyang in Honan province. He served as a high government official. According to his biography in the Chin Dynastic History (Chin-shu), he was a talented and precocious young man. He loved the Tao-te ching and the Chuang-tzu and was skillful in “pure conversation” (ch’ing-t’an/qingtan). Wan Yen (256–311), another famous Neo-Taoist, compared Kuo Hsiang’s intellectual abilities to the inexhaustible waters in a flowing river. His contemporaries placed him on the same intellectual rank as Wang Pi (226–249).
Kuo Hsiang is mainly known for his commentary on the Chuang-tzu. Yet, there is some controversy about whether it was Kuo’s own work, or whether he plagiarized Hsiang Hsiu’s (227?–272) previous commentary. Sometimes, scholars refer to the work as the Hsiang-Kuo commentary.
Kuo Hsiang elaborated the idea of tzu-jan (self-so, natural) and its self-transformations. All things in the universe transform themselves without any external force. He rejected the idea of Tao as Non-Being as the origin of all things. He also considered human ethics and institutions important in society, thus rejecting Chuang-tzu’s contempt for social obligations. To follow one’s nature is not contradictory with observing moral and social duties: Both are complementary; whoever is capable of combining both naturalness and social involvement is a true sage. He is not someone who “folds his arms and sits in silence in the midst of some mountain forest . . . Confucius, and not Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu, was such a sage” (Chan, 1963: 317–8).
Jen Chi-yu and others state that Kuo Hsiang’s thought is the final synthesis of Neo-Taoist philosophy (in Historical Development of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 3. Beijing, 1988—in Chinese). It is indeed a synthesis of Taoist and Confucian thinking.