The History of Retired Emperorship in the Northern Wei Dynasty

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the practice of retired emperorship was practiced as a means to stabilize imperial successions; however, it is also closely simultaneous with organizations attempting to establish a primogenital type of succession over a prior potential institution of parallel succession.

Before the Northern Wei established their rule in China, the ruling Toba house was a nomad confederate chieftaincy, with the reins of power passing from brother to brother. There were also cases of uncle to nephew and nephew to uncle. However, once the Northern Wei Dynasty established their rule, they “successfully and rapidly engineered a switch from a horizontal, fraternal mode of political succession to a vertical, primogenital mode of succession. Generally speaking, the emperor's eldest son inherited the throne”.

For example, in 471 CE, emperor Xianzu retired from emperorship. At 16 years old, he proclaimed a four year old boy his heir, the future Xiaowendi, emperor. “Initially, during the course of a court conference called to discuss the issue, Xianzu offered the throne to his eldest paternal uncle, but retracted the offer in the face of strong court opposition”.

Xianzu was 11 years old when he became emperor in 467, the previous two years were a time of power struggles which saw him taking the throne. In 465 -647, his father’s first cousin, Toba Daofu, had unsuccessfully revolted and, according to one scholar, this traumatized the young emperor’s early reign. “In sum, Xianzu's retirement was an effort to insure the legitimacy of his young son upon the throne. The retirement would also serve to guarantee that the degree of accumulated court support for the young emperor would be sufficient to withstand future threats to the throne in the eventuality of Xianzu's unforeseen demise”.

The retirement of the emperor generally meant his removal to a separate palace complex buildings and then his heir was formally proclaimed emperor. However, it was more of a co-regency rather than complete retirement – in many cases the retired emperor would still manage all state affairs until he died. Until the retired emperor died the boy-emperor (all were under the age of 10 at their ascension) was required to visit him at his court at least once a month. As one scholar states, “Xianzu's institution of the Retired Emperorship was a bridge between the non-formal, familialistic power arrangements of Gaozong, and the formal institutional experimentation of the emperor Xiaowendi”.

Bibliography:

Eisenberg, Andrew (1991) Retired Emperorship in Medieval China: The Northern Wei, T'oung Pao, BRILL.

Myths and Legends from the Aztec World

In November 1519 CE, a group of exhausted Spanish soldiers led by Hernan Cortes found the Aztec capitol, Tenochtitlan, which had been founded in 1325. It was laid out on islands in the middle of a vast lake and was home to a population of 200,000, much larger than any European city of its day.

The Aztecs (or more accurately, the Mexica) were the result of a tradition that had begun in the mid second millennium BCE. Their culture had originated with the Olmecs, a culture we know very little about even today, and had carried on by a series of other Mesoamerican cultures, including the Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Toltecs and the Maya.

The Aztecs were the dominant group when the Spanish arrived (they had been in power for around a century) and had absorbed much of their mythology from the cultures that had power before them in order to legalize their rule. Because of this, there are no clear distinctions as to what myth belongs to the Aztecs or the other groups before them.

Despite the destruction that the Spanish brought upon the region certain information survived which details the religious beliefs of the Aztecs. A copy of the Quiche Maya’s sacred ‘Popol Vuh’ survived the destruction of the Spanish conquest, giving scholars an understanding of the regions religions, the daily importance of which was recorded in stone and paint.

According to Aztec mythology, the world came into being by a single deity. Ometeotl was the supreme god who, like most Aztec deities, had a duel nature. He was both male and female and existed beyond time and space. He/she brought the world into being with his breath and then created the gods (some 1,600). There he stopped his work and left the rest to the other gods and goddesses.

There are five ages in Aztec mythology called ‘Suns’. In the previous four ages, the world was destroyed when the sun was thrown out of the sky. Each age was presided over by a different god.

The first age was ruled over by Tezcatlipoca, the most powerful son of Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl (the male and female names of Ometeotl). One day Tezcatlipoca decided to turn himself into the sun and during his reign the world was populated by a race of vegetarian giants of immense strength. This age lasted for 676 years before Quetzalcoatl struck Tezcatlipoca into the waters with a staff, turning him into a jaguar. He devoured the giants and later rose into the sky as the constellation Ursa Major.

There are many different gods and goddesses in the Aztec pantheon, most with different forms and names. One goddess was Toci (‘Our Grandmother’) who was worshipped alongside Chicomencoatl in the annual harvest festival where she was the personification of nature’s generosity.

Another goddess was Coatlicue (‘She of the Serpent Skirt’) who was added rather late to the pantheon. She symbolised fecundity in her role of mother of the fire and warrior god Huitzilopochtli (‘Hummingbird of the South’), the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui and her 400 sons. Despite her obvious fertility, she was also seen as a virginal goddess. However, she was also associated with death and regeneration, showing the darker side of her dual nature.

The picture that is painted of the myths and legends emerging from the Aztec word can be somewhat alien to us, full of blood and death and destruction. However, the Aztecs saw the world and humanity’s role within it as part of a continuous cycle of destruction and regeneration. Within each rotation an immense disaster threatened the world and it was thought that it could only be prevented by a sacrifice of blood – human blood – to pay homage to the gods.

The History and Significance of the god Lao Jun

Chinese mythology is full of mortals who, after their deaths, were deified due to the impact they had on Chinese society. We can see this in Guan Yin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy and compassion who was based on an ancient Chinese princess who became a nun. Guan Di, a mortal general was made the Daoist guardian of soldiers and policeman.

The religions that flourished in China helped give Chinese mythology a uniqueness of its own. For a long time, ancestral worship was the main religion, then Confucianism, Daoism (also spelt Taoism) and Buddhism was introduced. Each gave China a vast range of deified mortals to add to the pantheon.

Perhaps the most important mortal man to be elevated to the status of a god was Laozi who, after his death, became the god Lao Jun (or Lao Chun).

Laozi (or Lao-tzu) was said to have lived sometime from around 600 – 517 BCE and is the founder of Daoism, as well as being a key deity in it. His original name was Li Erh and he was deified under the name Lao Jun around the second century BCE. Then he was declared the god of alchemists and potters, and regarded as one of the three San Ch’ing, the Three Pure Ones.

Ancient writers state that his birth was unusual. “When Laozi was born, within three days his body underwent nine changes. It grew to a height of nine feet. He had gray eyebrows and white hair. On his forehead, he had the Sun Horn and the Moon Crescent. His nose had a double rim, and his ears three openings. His face was adorned with beautifully shaped eyebrows and a square mouth. He showed the sign of lordship on his feet and had the mark of the ruler on his palms. All in all, he possessed the seventy-two divine signs and eighty-one auspicious marks of the sage on his body”.

As the original and principle aspect of the Dao, he cannot be seen or touched. However, unlike the Dao itself, Lao Jun is a person, an entity, and can be seen as the humanized symbol of the Dao. Although he is a fully developed being, he remains within the void and at the root of all creation.

Another ancient writer, Xie Shouhao, claimed that when Lao Jun was resting, then his form took that of a man. However, he did not originally have a permanent body; he was pure energy.

Lao Jun was said to have two bodies – a teaching body and a true body. This distinction was derived from the Buddhist doctrine of the trikaya (three bodies) of the Buddha: the dharmakdya (body of the law), the true spiritual body of the deity that signifies the fundamental nature of his being, the complete and means of the universe; the sambhogakdya (reward body), the celestial materialization of the Buddha in which he enjoys heavenly ecstasy; and the nirmdnakaya (transformation body), the human appearance in which he takes shape on earth.

In this regard then, Lao Jun’s true body is “utterly complete and entirely still, never arising, never passing”. His true body is invisible and cannot be artistically represented. However, his teaching body, that in the form of a human man, can be depicted. Adepts use these man-made replicas as guides to visualization and, praying at the deity's altars, act as if they were facing his actual true body. Thus they learn to "observe with proper penetration" and eventually find that "his body is no longer a proper body”. The image of the deity becomes true and coincides with the void; adepts penetrate the true Tao, in which Laozi is shapeless. "The Tao cannot be seen-if you see it, it is not the Tao."

Bibliography:

Kohn, Livia (1996) The Looks of Laozi, Asian Folklore Studies, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.

The Various Jewish Sects in the First Century BCE

During the time of the man known as Jesus, in the region known today as Israel and Palestine, there were several Jewish sects. Until around 165 BCE, this area known as Judea was under Seleucid rule until a new Semitic dynasty called the Hasmoreans were able to establish semi-independence. However, in 63 BCE, the Roman general Pompey conquered the area and was forced to become vassals to the Romans.

The Hasmoneans:

The Hasmoneans did not have the religious legitimacy in the eyes of many strict Jews as they were not the descendants of King David. The Hasmoneans rebuilt Soloman’s temple and temple worship began to flourish once more.

The most famous Hasmonean king was Herold, the man known for the massacre of many innocent children when he heard about the birth of the Jewish Messiah. However, many do not realise that he was given the name Herold the Great, due to his magnificent architectural works and expansion of his borders.

The Sadducees:

The Sadducees were the official sect who controlled the Temple and many other key religious posts on the Sanhedrin (the official Jewish organization that decided all religious issues). They held close ties to which ever secular power was established, at this time it was the Romans. The Sadducees believed in the Old Testament but “not in what they thought were extraneous beliefs, which in their case included, for example, resurrection from the dead and an afterlife”.

The Pharisees:

The Pharisees were just as religious as the Sadducees and held to the notion of a parallel, oral tradition of rabbinical teachings. These teachings evolved over time with the Scriptures called the Torah.

The Pharisees was open to all people, unlike that of the Saducees. The New Testament claims that the Pharisees, at the time of Jesus, had become too proud in their extensive religious knowledge.

The Essenes:

The Essenes were a smaller sect who lived separate from the other Jewish sects. They lived in special communities and rejected the Hasmonean monarchy. Ascetics, they are famous today due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 20^th century. These are fragile scrolls which have managed to preserve their teachings.

The Zealots:

The Zealots were another smaller sect who had their own interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. They were highly political and organised several rebellions which resulted in a major revolt from 66 – 70 CE and the mass Jewish suicide at the fortress of Masada in 73 CE.

The History and Significance of the goddess Benten

Japanese mythology is full of interesting deities; for the scholar it can be somewhat difficult to unravel the ties between Shinto, the native religion of Japan, and the Indian gods that travelled with Buddhism to the country during the sixth century CE.

One of the most interesting goddesses in the Shinto pantheon is Benten, who is also known as Benzai-ten. She was a sea-goddess, a goddess of music and one of the seven Shinto deities of good fortune known as the Shichi Fukujin.

The Shichi Fukujin was a group of seven deities that were assembled sometime during the 17^th century CE by a monk; it was his intention to present them as a symbol of all the virtues that a man of his time should inspire to.

Benten can be compared to that of the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Hindu Sarasvati, in that she was known as the Queen of Love. She is believed to help humans in acquiring material gains and to bring good fortune in marriage. Benten is also the patron of geishas and worshipped by gamblers and jealous women. As well as this, she is the goddess of oratory, happy wisdom, longevity, freedom from harm, and victory. The island of Enoshima is sacred to her and, according to the noh drama Chikubushima, is where the goddess resides.

According to mythology, Benten was said to have descended to earth where she met and married a dragon in order to stop him eating young children. Because of this, she is sometimes depicted as riding a dragon in art.

Another legend tells of how the goddess helped the young poet Baishu. He had found a poem written by a maiden and had fallen in love with her, despite never having seen what she looked like. Praying to the goddess for help, Benten arranged for the young poet and the girl to meet outside the shrine. Later, it turned out that the young girl Baishu had fallen in love with was actually the soul of the women he later met and married.

In art, Benten is sometimes shown with snakes. Some statues of her reveal eight arms, six of these which are raised and the hands holding different objects. These include a bow and arrow and two hands are folded in prayer.

Bibliography:

Shokyu, Arii and Sato, Hiroaki (2002) Record of an Autumn Wind: The Travel Diary of Arii Shokya, Monumenta Nipponica.