The Power of an Alleged Tradition - CHINA Buchservice

Hall of Light (mingtang���) where the feudal lords should be received in audience,
as it was said to have been in ancient times. 12 As for making plans for the imperial
tour of inspection, the Feng and Shan sacrifi ces, the reform of the calendar and of the
color of the ceremonial vestments, however, no steps had yet been taken. But it then
happened that the Empress Dowager Dou, who favored the teachings of Huang-Lao
��� 13 felt insulted by some of the most prominent representatives of the ru scholars
and thus reproached them for having been concerned only with serving their private
ends – an accusation which resulted in the suicide of two of them. As a consequence
of this incident, the author of the Shiji concludes, everything they had tried to initiate
so far was abandoned.
Six years later, after the death of Dowager Dou (135 B.C.), the emperor summoned
several specialists for the classical texts to court, among them Gongsun Hong
��� (c. 200–121). 15 It seems that due to his infl uence the emperor one year later
traveled to Yong for the fi rst time in order to perform the suburban sacrifi ce (jiao��)
at the altars of the Five Thearchs there. From that time on, the emperor performed
this ceremony once every three years.
At about the same time, as we are informed by the Shiji, the emperor also
appointed several gentlemen reckoned among the fangshi who declared themselves
to be specialists in the technique of dealing with ghosts and spirits. One of them, Li
Shaojun ���, introduced himself as one who knew how to worship the God of
the Fireplace and who also knew how to achieve immortality through special dietary
measures. He promised the emperor to show him how to call spirits, melt cinnabar
into gold and make golden vessels for eating and drinking which, when used, would
lead to longevity. Moreover, he won the emperor’s admiration by his ability to date
an old tripod in the emperor’s possession to the tenth year of the reign of duke Huan
of Qi (676 B.C.) After the tripod’s inscription had been deciphered and Li’s prediction
proved correct everyone in the palace believed he was either a God (shen) or
several hundred years old. 14
One piece of advice Li Shaojun gave to the emperor was that he should visit
the island of Penglai and perform the Feng and Shan sacrifi ces there, after which the
emperor would become an immortal, very much like the mythical Yellow Thearch
(Huangdi ��). Li also mentioned a certain Master Anqi ��� from Qi, an immortal
who was supposed to roam about the island. He himself, according to the Shiji
account, had visited Anqi before and was given jujubes big as melons to eat. Obviously
with an undertone of mockery, the author of the Shiji concludes Li’s biography
by mentioning his death, adding that the emperor could not believe that he
12 For the different philosophical concepts related to the Hall of Light �mingtang) in and before the Han, see Henri
Maspero, “Le Ming-t’ang et la crise religieuse avant les Han,” Mélanges Chinois et Bouddhiques 9 (1948–51):
1–71.
13 It should be noted here that the term Huang-Lao is explicitly used several times in the Shiji. As for a political
approach to what may be called the “Huang-Lao faction” in early Han see Hans van Ess, “Die geheimen Worte
des Ssu-ma Ch’ien,” Oriens Extremus 36 (1993): 5–28.
14 Shiji 28/1384–5; 12/452–4.
15 We may conclude from the fact that he had a biography in the Rulin zhuan (account on Confucians) that Gongsun
Hong is to be reckoned among the ru. He came from Zichuan which at the time of his birth lay in the state of
Qi. See Shiji 112/2949. Although there is no explicit hint of a relationship between Gongsun Qing and Gongsun
Hong, it is possible that they too were related by blood, which is all the more probable as both are said to have
come from Qi.
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