I. About Chinese Folk Religion

Folk religion in China is and has been influenced by the indigenous religions of ethnic minority groups. Northeastern beliefs and rites have unique characteristics deriving from the interaction between Han religion with Tungus and Manchu traditions including shamanism and the worship of foxes and other zoomorphic deities like the Fox Gods (狐神 Hu shen). In South-central China and along with the southeastern coast, ritual functions of the folk religion are dominated by Daoism. A process of cultural adoption or re-orientation of »older gods« into the context of the new, »main« religion as it can be noticed throughout history in cultures all over the world.

Deities, spirits, and mythological people of China
There is a great number of important deities, spirits, and mythological people in Chinese mythology and folk religion. Some are clearly seen as divine, such as the Jade Emperor (and even he is sometimes said to have begun life as a mortal). However, in Chinese language many beings are referred to as shen (神).²⁾The concept of »shen«: Gods and immortals (collectively 神仙 shenxian) in the Chinese cultural tradition reflect a hierarchical, multiperspective experience of divinity. In Chinese language there is a distinction between 神 shen, 帝 dì and 仙 xian. Although the usage of the former two is sometimes blurred, it corresponds to the distinction in Western cultures between »god« and »deity«. The latter term 仙 xian unambiguously means a man who has reached immortality, similarly to the Western idea of »hero«. There are shen of nature, gods who were once people, household gods, as well as ancestral gods. So gods can be incarnated in human form and human beings can reach immortality, which means to attain higher spirituality. In mythology various deities, spirits, and immortals (xian) are encountered. Some of these are particularly associated with Daoism, others became incorporated into Daoism deriving from ancient sha.manic cults or other sources. But the line between Daoism and folk religion is blurred. In Daoist-related mythology there is often a strong presence of sorcery and magic, such as spells, charms, magical abilities and elixirs.

 

II. The Pear Tree or an Unlucky Competiton

Mei Shan Zhang Wulang (梅山张五郎) or Zhang Wulang (张五郎) or Daolì Shen (»Inverted God«, 倒立神) is one of the local deities of the Meishan culture, whose influence extends beyond the Hunan region to spread all over Southern China, especially to the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, but also to the Chongqing and Hubei region.³⁾Meishan culture is one of the three ancestral Chinese cultures (the other two are the Zhongyuan and Jingchu cultures) and an important part of Huxiang history in South-central China. It is geographically located around the middle course of the Zi river in the central part of Hunan province. Meishan people include multiple ethnic groups such as Miao, Yao, Han, Dong and She. In the long-term historical evolutions of these peoples from different ethnic groups, Nuo culture, a unique tradition of worship, was formed. The origin of his cult can be located somewhere in Guangxi. He is attested in Lushan at the Fujian Province where he is known as »Zhang Wulang who Somersaults on the Altar of the Sea«. In other regions he is nicknamed »The Altar-thrower and the Destroyer of Temples«, or the »Overthrower of Altars and Caves«. He is always represented in the position of the »pear tree«. There are two stories how he came to this unorthodox pose: According to one local story Zhang Wulang was in fight with a fierce tiger. The tiger pushed him into a precipice where his fall had been stopped by a shrub planted on the flanks of the cliff, but alas with his head downstairs.

The second legend tells the story of an unlucky competition with the »Highest Elder Lord« (Tai Shang Lao Jun, 太上老): ⁴⁾»The Highest Elder Lord« is commonly known as Tai Shang Lao Jun (太上老). Often he is called »The Grand Pure One« Taiqing (太清); his official title is Daode Tianzun (道德天尊). He belongs to »The Three Pure Ones«, Sanqing (三清), the Daoist Trinity, the three highest gods of the Daoist pantheon. He is the most eminent, aged ruler, which is why he is the only Pure One depicted with pure white hair and a beard. Ironsmiths would worship Tai Shang Lao Jun. Zhang Wulang went to the Highest Elder Lord to study, but the study quickly turned into a competition. The Highest Elder Lord gave him more and more difficult challenges, which he only managed to overcome with the help of Jiji (姬姬), the daughter of Tai Shang Lao Jun, who fall in love with Zhang at the first sight. The two lovers finally managed to escape, which caused the murderous anger of the father, who launched two flying swords to kill them. But Jiji stole a magic umbrella from her father to protect Zhang Wulang. Now the Highest Elder Lord sent a third sword which was so strong that Jiji clothed Zhang Wulang in textiles which were stained by her menstrual blood to resist the attack of the magical sword.⁵⁾In numerous archaic societies women were banned during their menstrual days from the community. Especially blacksmiths feared the magical power of the menstrual blood which – this was the belief – could damage the strength of iron or metal in general. Once again Jiji managed to thwart his father who thought them dead. In order to be sure that the Highest Elder Lord could never find Zhang Wulang, Jiji entchanted him in the position of the pear tree (= handstand position), to hide him from the eyes of her furious father. So Zhang Wulang was called Daolì Shen (»Inverted God«). He then went to the forests and mountains and taught his people to hunt along with other magic. He became a God of the Hunt. Later he appeares in several identities, including that of Zhang Zhao Erlang (张赵二郎) and Zhang Shikui (张世魁), leader of the Five Furies, Wuchang (五猖). Zhang Shikui is often represent with a knife in one hand and a rooster in the other, a cup on one foot and a burning incense bowl on the other. But always in the »pear tree« position.

A story about the power of love and magic! And is love not like magic?

III. The Inverted World

In the real world the handstand is an act of supporting the body in a stable, inverted vertical position by balancing on the hands. Handstands are performed in many athletic activities, including circus, yoga, martial arts, sports and breakdance street culture.⁶⁾The handstand is in yoga known as »Adho Mukha Vrksasana«, translating to »Downward-facing Tree Pose«. Feet are against the sky, eyes are near the ground. Because of this new perspective, things can be seen which were previously hidden. It is a subversive, provocative and rebellious view.

In cultural studies »The Inverted World« is an interpretive pattern of ritual behavior. Rituals from ancient times to the modern period use the concept of inversion. These are times where the limit violation is allowed for a fixed duration. Like the Swabian-Alemannic Carnival in Germany, a threshold festival before the pre-Easter Lent. During these days the fools take over the government, people become animals, men become women and woman become men. The rule of law is replaced by the reign of demons and witches and the world and its proven order turns upside down. But on Ash Wednesday all is over and the beginning of Lent regularly restores the right order.⁷⁾In the Christian Church Lent is a period of preparation for Easter, and focuses on the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and penance or self-reflection. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday.

The World Turned Upside Down
»The World Turned Upside Down or The Folly of Man, Exemplified in Twelve Comical Relations upon Uncommon Subjects« is a series of woodcuts from an 18th-century chapbook (a type of cheap street literature). As well as the woodcuts showing various reversals, many revolving around the inversion of animal  and human relations, there is also included a poem on the topic. On the amusing and sometimes drastic prints the usual order has radically changed in an anarchic and subversive way.

The concept of inversion allows the creation – for a fixed and limited situation or time – of a new order. Allows the break of boundary borders, to critique authority and to ignore social and cultural rules.

IV. The Several Figures of the Inverted God

1. The Acrobat & Clown

Historical and Cultural Background

The historical context of hand balancing refer to the history of yoga, of jesters and jugglers, gymnastics, and acrobatics. Chinese acrobatics has existed for nearly 2000 years.⁸⁾In 1958, in the Xiaomachang village of Wuqiao County, archeologists unearthed tomb murals from Eastern Wei Dynasty (534–550) in the Southern and Northern Dynasties Period (386–581) showing various acrobatic acts such as plate spinning and handbalancing. Similarly gymnastics started in ancient Greece as a form of fitness but also for ritual entertainment. Later, during the medieval and Renaissance eras, jesters, and fools were members of the household for noblemen. They entertained with a wide variety of skills: music and storytelling, acrobatics, juggling, telling jokes, and magic tricks. Since the beginning of circus as a spectacle, during the 18th century, strongmen, jugglers and clowns performed for audiences, showing off their muscles and abilities. Handstands are a staple of their movement repertoire — they balance on the ground, on objects, and on other people.

Circuspeople were allways seen as »outside of the system« out of reach for laws and justice. In part of their nomad, independent lifestyle. They hide themself behind costumes and masks and they presented supernatural powers – flight, strength, tricks, magical skills and the ability to control dangerous animals.

The Pueblo clowns

The figure of clowns and jesters can be found in different cultures all over the world. The Pueblo clowns (sometimes called sacred clowns) are part of the Kachina religion practiced by the Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States. The clowns perform during the spring and summer fertility rites. In order for a clown to perform meaningful social commentary and public criticism via humor, the clown‘s identity must usually be concealed. Some sacred clowns do not employ masks but rely on body paint and head dresses. Others present themselves with black and white horizontal stripes painted on their bodies and faces, paint black circles around their mouths and eyes, and bind their hair in two bunches which stand upright on each side of the head. While the »mudheads« are usually portrayed with pinkish clay coated bodies and matching cotton bags worn over the head. Many native traditions held clowns as essential to any contact with the sacred. People could not pray until they had laughed (walking on hands could also be a quite funny act!), because the laughter freed them, even from rigid preconception.

Clowns and acrobats create their own »free space«. They are allowed to act and speak against authorities, they follow their own rules.

2. The Child

Some small sculptures show Zhang Wulang with childlike proportions – streched upper body, big head, short legs and short arms, showing a strange kind of cuteness. Actually cuteness is a subjective term describing a type of attractiveness commonly associated with youth and appearance. Konrad Lorenz, the founder of modern ethology, established for those body features the term »Kindchenschema« a scientific concept and analytical model.

Also young children are often not able to follow the rules of the adult world. They often act »anarchistic«, »subversive«, testing out borders and boundaries, »rebelling« against authority.

3. The Animal

On other sculptures Zhang Wulan or Zhang Shikui appears with animal characteristics – horns, facial hair and animal teeth. Such body features remind us of popular animal-like characters such as the Monkey King or the Fox Gods of China (狐神 Hu shen) and Europe (Reynardine / Reineke). Note that also some animals, like monkeys, use handstands and handwalking. Among other animals, dogs and sealions, can be trained to walk on their forelimbs. When attacked, the spotted skunk may rear up and move about on its forelimbs so in this position he is capable of spraying an offensive oil towards the enemy.

In social interaction »animal-like« has also the meaning of: – acting like an animal, with animal speed and power – following only one‘s own primary needs – ignoring the rules – being hard to control.

4. The Trickster – a Culture Hero

In the figure of the trickster, the acrobat & clown, the child and the animal reunite. In folk tales and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human, animal or animal-like), which exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge. He is used to play tricks and disobey normal rules and conventional behaviour. Often, the bending/breaking of rules takes the form of thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both. Sometimes they are lazy and they let others do the work for them. The trickster openly questions and mocks authority. They are usually (not always) male characters, and are fond of breaking rules, boasting, and playing tricks on both humans and gods. But the activities and struggles of the trickster touch us, we suffer and laugh with him. Like children and animals, tricksters are masters of disorder. Zhang Wulang mocks authority and the familiar family order, fighting with the daughter against the father. All cultures have tales of the trickster. Some examples:

• in Chinese mythology: Huli Jing (Fox spirit), Hong hai er (Red Boy), Sun Wukong (Monkey King)
• in Native American tradtition: Coyote, Raven
• in Greek mythology: Prometheus, Hermes, Odysseus⁹⁾Prometheus is in Greek mythology a cultural hero and trickster figure who is credited with the creation of man from clay, and who defies the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity, an act that enabled progress and civilization. Because of the theft, Zeus, the king of the Olympian gods, ordered that immortal Prometheus was bound to a rock, where each day an eagle, the emblem and alter ego of Zeus, was sent to feed on his liver, which would then grow back overnight to be eaten again the next day (in ancient Greece, the liver was often thought to be the seat of human emotions). Prometheus rebelled against the old gods like the Monkey King rebelled against Buddha and the gods – both were punished cruently.
• in African language communities: the rabbit or hare
• at West Africa (and from there into the Caribbean via the slave trade): the non-representable, immaterial spider Anansiis.
• in The Bible: the Person of Jacob
• in German folklore: Reineke Fuchs, the Pied Piper, Till Eulenspiegel etc., etc.

Frequently the trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability. In Norse mythology the mischief-maker is Loki, who is also a shape shifter. Loki also exhibits gender variability, in one tale even becoming pregnant and giving birth to a mare.

The Boundary-Crosser

The trickster crosses and often breaks both – physical and social rules. Therefore Zhang Wulang could also be called a »boundary-crosser«:

• He ignores the social order and challenges the Highest Elder Lord and his authority.
• He is a shapeshifter. Zhang Wulang dress himself in woman clothes. He becomes a tree and changes into a kind of animal-god.
• Tricksters are not tied to a region (the element of travel can be also found in the stories around Odysseus or Till Eulenspiegel): Zhang Wulang travels from the realm of the gods into the everyday world of human beings and there from one region to the next.

The Conflict between the Old Order and the Everchanging World

The Highest Elder One, Tai Shang Lao Jun, also stands for the sacred and its immutability-based theory, a theory of conformity – which stands in total contradiction to the unsteady, on disorder and change based attitude of the trickster. But in reality the world is always in motion. And when we say »the world is on the move«, then we also say »the world is (in) disorder«.¹⁰⁾Balandier, Georges: »Die Unordung im Universum« in: Narren Künstler Heilige (Berlin: Nicolai, 2012), p. 212-213 So the conflict line between the Highest Elder Lord and trickster Zhang Wulang goes finally between old vs. young, old order vs. disorder/new order, conformity vs. unsteadyness/progress – an everlasting conflict.

V. Resume

All these figures – acrobat & clown, child, animal, trickster – are »allowed« to act outside of the traditional order. They fight »tricky« and cleverly against authority and for this the people like them. Because they fight in a thrilling and entertaining way. Remember the flying swords and the magic umbrella? Zhang Wulang and Jiji act in unison and we could call them »a trickster-couple«. Finally their story is also a romantic tale showing that love can be stronger than old thinking and old authorities!

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Dieter Jüdt, born 1963 and now living in Berlin (Germany) and Yiyang (Hunan, China), has published different illustrated books and a few Graphic Novels. He is doing illustration and book design for international publishing houses and newspapers and magazines. He is also co-founder of the international artist group Poste Aérienne. Together with colleagues he is curating »Jitters-Wunderblock«, a series of artist talks and exhibitions. He published different papers, last: »No more heroes! (New) narrative options in Graphic No.vels«, in »What is actually a Graphic Novel?«, edited by Ute Helmbold, HBK Braunschweig, Braunschweig: 2015. »In Search of the Graphic Sound«, in Aviso 4/2014, Journal of Science and Art in Bavaria, Munich: 2014. »Take the Money and Run! or The mutual friction and contradictions in the media-specific narrative modes of Comic and Film«, at www.dkritik.de, Braunschweig: 2014.
In 2014 he was Visiting Professor at the UDK Berlin-CDK Hangzhou (China) and at Jishou University, Zhangjiajie (China). From 2015 – 2016 he held a Deputy Professorship at Muenster University of Applied Siences (Germany). Since 2016 he is teaching as a Visiting Professor at Hunan City University, Yiyang.

Gong Longyu, born 1988, Han nationality, lecturer, master of University of Arts in Berlin, is currently depu.ty director of visual communication design department of the art college of Hunan City University, director of sino-foreign cooperative education department of Hunan City University, director of animation art committee of Hunan Artists Association and member of Hunan Artists Association. In recent years, she has presided over three provincial and ministerial projects, two municipal and departmental projects, and participated one National Social Science Fund. She mainly teaches professional courses of sino-foreign cooperative education.

Last Major research projects: Presided over the 2017 national civil committee research project, »Research on the education and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage of national arts« Presided over 2017 Hunan social science fund project, »Research on the coupling of art and digital media creative industry of Western Hunan minorities«
Presided over 2016 Hunan 13th five-year education planning project, »Research on the integration of art education and folk art in universities in ethnic areas«

Last Main Papers: Research on the Establishment of Miao Nationality Embroidery Database in Western Hunan from the Perspective of Digitizing, Advances in Social Science, Education and Hunanities Research, 2017 The local cultural features and Han cultural influence of Laosicheng cliff carving of Ming Dynasty-Decoration, 2016.