More on Qingtong

Details of Qingtong's realm in Fangzhou described in the Chen Kao (489 CE) coincide with a series of notices about the country of Fusang in other works. The Liangshu, the annals of the Liang Dynasty compiled in the 7th century, tell of a priest or shaman named Huishen who comes to China in 499 CE as an envoy from Fusang. The same source mentions that in 458 CE, missionaries from Ki-pen brought the Buddhist religion to Fusang. The Liang Si Gong Zhi written in 695 tells of envoys from Fusang who bring official gifts in 520 CE.

Given the timing and the fact that one of Qingtong's titles is "Fusang Great Emperor" (Fusang Daidi, 扶桑大帝) , one can say that Qingtong's domain was intended by the Daoists to refer to the contemporary political entity known as Fusang that had sent two missions to China. And again there is the coincidence also of the introduction of Buddhism to Fusang described in the Liangshu and the mention in the Chen Kao of Buddhism in western Lesser Fangzhu.

Huishen's directions to Fusang are rather confused and have led to a great many theories connecting the legendary land to the Americas across the Pacific Ocean. However, as we have noted earlier the older descriptions of Fusang's location are quite different than those given by Huishen. The Fusang priest states that Fusang is tens of thousands of li to the east of Japan. However, at the same time he mentions the Lieu-kieu (Ryukyu) islands as existing to the north of Fusang.

Also, Huishen in attempting to relate the positions of the Kingdom of Dogs and Kingdom of Women, both linked in his story with Fusang, states that these countries had been visited by a ship from a Fujian port that was blown off course. Therefore it seems that even in Huishen's account, we get an idea of the more traditional location of Fusang. The Kingdom of Dogs (Kou kuo) is described in the contemporary (5th century CE) Hou Han Shu as an island located to the southeast of Zhejiang (Kuai-chi county) matching the geographical location for Fangzhu in the Chen Kao. Possibly the journey to the east of Japan mentioned by Huishen is related to some indirect route to Fusang using the Kuroshio Current.

Buddhism appears to have been introduced to Cambodia, known to the Chinese at the time as Chenla, around about 500 CE. Possibly this what is referred to in the Liangshu and the Chen Kao about the existence of the Buddhist religion in the southern regions.

In the Liang Si Gong Zhi, Prince Yukie interrogates the Fusang envoy of 520 CE about his distant kingdom. In the following passages derived from the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys' translation, the gifts from Fusang are described.

The envoy from Fusang wept, and responded with respectful ardour. The offering which he presented consisted principally of three hundred pounds of yellow silk, spun by the silkworm of the fusang tree, and of an extraordinary strength. The emperor had an incense-burner of massive gold, of a weight of fifty kin. This could be lifted and held suspended by six of these threads without breaking them. There was also among the presents offered to the emperor a sort of semi-transparent precious stone, cut in the form of a mirror, and of the circumference of more than a foot. In observing the sun by reflection by means of this stone, the palace which the sun contains appeared very distinctly.

The silk from the Fusang Tree is probably barkcloth and that would agree with Huishen's account in which the people make writing paper from Fusang Tree bark. The envoy goes on to describe the Kingdom of Women, where he says the female inhabitants marry serpents rather than dogs as in other accounts.

In this kingdom there are no books, and they know nothing of the art of writing. They believe firmly in the efficacy of certain forms of prayers or maledictions. The women who act uprightly prolong their lives, and those who swerve from the right are immediately cut off. The worship of spirits imposes laws that none dare to violate. To the south of Ho-cheu (the Island of Fire) , situated to the south of this country, is the mountain Yen-kuen (Burning Mountain), the inhabitants of which eat locusts, crabs, and hairy serpents, to preserve themselves from the heat. In this land of Ho-cheu, the ho-mu (trees of fire) grow ; their bark furnishes a solid tissue. Upon the summit of the mountain Yen-kuen there live fire rats (ho-shu), the hair of which serves also for the fabrication of an incombustible stuff, which is cleansed by fire instead of by water. To the north of this Kingdom of Women is the Black Valley (He-ko), and north of the Black Valley are mountains so high that they reach to the heavens...The attendants of tbe court were much amused at these stories. They all laughed and clapped their hands, and said that better stories had never been told. A minister of the emperor, named Wang-yun, interrupted Yu-kie with this bantering objection: 'If we believe the official accounts which have been collected regarding the Kingdom of Women, situated to the west of the country of Tsan-yai and to the south of the Kingdom of Dogs (Keu-kwoh), it is merely inhabited by barbarians of the race of the Kiang-jong, who have a woman as their sovereign; but there has never been any question of serpents filling the office of husbands. How do you account for that?' Yu-kie responded with pleasantry with a new explosion of extravagancies, in the midst of which there appeared here and there a true idea, burlesqued for diversion.

These passages indicate that as in almost all ancient and medieval accounts, reliable facts are interspersed into a great deal of legend and hyperbole meant to amuse the listener or reader. The knowledgeable were expected to know how to discern the reliable information from entertainment. Of interest above for the themes of this blog is the mention of the "Island of Fire," and the "Burning Mountain."


Religion in Fangzhu

In the last post, the meditation known as 'ingesting the rays of the Sun and Moon' was mentioned. The name of Fangzhu itself might relate to the reverence of the solar and lunar luminaries.

In Daoism, the fangzhu mirrors were believed to capture the essence of the Sun and the Moon in a manner similar to Cinnabar Gold (danjin), which was used to make dishes and cups.

Further, take one pound of this elixir and place it over a fire. Fan it, and it will transmute itself into a flowing scarlet gold, called Elixir-Gold. If you smear daggers and swords with this Gold, they will keep the other weapons ten thousand miles away. If you cast plates and bowls with the Elixir-Gold and take food and drinks from them, you will live a long life. Just as you can collect a liquid from the [the essences of] the sun and the moon, and obtain their liquor. If you drink it, you will be free from death.

-- Ge Hong (3rd-4th century CE) , Baopu zi, 4.83, (Fabrizio Pregadio, 2006: 117)

In the article on alchemy in this blog, we discuss the story in the Shiji in which the fangshi wizard Lin Shaojun advises the Qin Emperor to use drinking and eating vessels of cinnabar transmuted into gold to prolong life.

Li Shaojun then advised the emperor, "If you sacrifice to the fireplace you can call the spirits to you, and if the spirits come you can transform cinnabar into gold. Using this gold, you may make drinking and eating vessels, which will prolong the years of your life. With prolonged life you may visit the immortals who live on the island of Penglai in the middle of the sea. If you visit them and perform the Feng and Shan sacrifices, you will never die."

The name "Fangzhu" referring to the square mirror basins that absorb the energies of the Sun and Moon, may thus relate to the importance of the Sun and Moon in local spiritual techniques including those practiced by Qingtong.

Qingtong is also specially charged with the duty of distributing to the realized seed people a powerful charm known as the "Bell of Flowing Gold and Fire" (liu-chin huo-ling) . This amulet is apparently modeled on the small globular ornamental bells that appear in the region as early as the Late Ban Chiang and Dongson periods.


Bronze bracelet with small pellet bells from Late Period Ban Chiang.


The Dongson variety of these bells, often worn on the ankles or on the fringes of clothing, is decorated with the signature Dongsonian motif of rows of circles joined by tangents. The well-known "tiger bells" that continue to be made today originate from these more ancient grelots and are still used as charms against danger and demons.

Considered one of the most powerful amulets in Shangqing tradition, this bell is considered to consist of the "elemental essence of the Nine Stars [of the Dipper]," and it allows the adept to magically transport away from danger to a place of safety. Qingtong himself is said to be garbed in a blue-green damask with a small bell as his pendant.


Qingtong and Later Millenarian Traditions

As already noted, the messianic beliefs in Qingtong show obvious links with the Buddhist savior Prince Moonlight. In some of the Prince Moonlight texts, we find the term "Luminous King" or "Mingwang" used for the this messianic figure.

The title Mingwang would appear frequently in the latter development of messianic sects. Two of the most important of these sects were the White Lotus Tradition and the Hong Society.

In both traditions, the concepts of a chosen elect, of a future paradise and of a bridge, as found in the Qingtong and Prince Moonlight texts, survive. A feature that is added to both the White Lotus Tradition and Hong Society is that of a boat that assists in the journey to the refuge of the elect.

In White Lotus lore this vessel is known as the "Dharma Boat" (fachuan) and the Hong Society version is naturally called the "Hong Boat."

Often we see earlier themes pop up in latter messianic movements. Such is probably the case with the "Immortal Lad," who was originally named Liu Xi Gour (Liu Xi "The Dog") born in 1778. His deceased father was said to be either a Maitreya Buddha or an Immortal making him an Immortal Lad (xiantong). Around the same time, born in 1778, was Li Quan'er (Li the Dog) who was said to have the characters of the Sun and Moon on his palms together with the ideograph for the Ming Dynasty. Hong Society members believed that the messiah would be a prince from the Ming Dynasty lineage. In both these accounts, we can see motifs that may be related to that of the Blue-Green Lad, the Dog People of Fusang and the Fangzhu reverence for Sun and Moon.

The divine boat that rescues the elect is said by Hong Society members to transport passengers to the "City of Willows." The exact location of this city is not given but it involves an important journey over a body of water and it was located near the "Mountain of Fire" guarded by a deity known as the Hong Child. In White Lotus lore, Guanyin is often said to captain the boat of salvation. Sometimes this ship is said to take the elect to Putuoshan island, at other times to Mt. Ling, the Vulture Peak where the Buddha preached the Dharma, or to other locations. Guanyin is also often described as one of the divine passengers on the Hong Boat.

There may be an impulse from the regions south of China in the introduction of the boat motif. Guanyin in her form as Guanyin Nanhai or "Guanyin of the South Seas" is often shown riding across the sea standing on a giant fish's head or on the head of a dragon. Alternatively she is shown standing in a boat. The giant fish and dragon could be forms of the whale boat found in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The whale features throughout the region as a savior of people lost at sea, or as one who brings back people stranded on the Island of Women or some other distant place. Also, some researchers believe the Eternal Venerable Mother (Wusheng Laomu), the White Lotus supreme deity, originates primarily from Guanyin Laomu, who may appear earlier in the literature.

When Chinese migrants, mainly from the South -- Fujian and Canton -- began searching for the "Golden Mountain" and its riches in Southeast Asia and western America, they were accompanied by secret societies. These are often known as triad societies, many of them millenarian, although not all are involved in organized crime. Sun Yat-sen was surprised at the very high percentage of overseas Chinese who were members of these societies. He is believed to have become a member himself, of the Zhigongtang in Honolulu, and enlisted their aid in the fight against the Ching Dynasty.

Probably the reason for the strength of the triads among the Chinese diaspora lies in the fact that so many of the migrants were laborers for whom the attraction of the societies was great. We can not though discount any millenarian motivations among triad members to find the fabled overseas paradise -- once known as the home of Qingtong, the Fusang Great Emperor.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Pregadio, Fabrizio. Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Medieval China, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.

Ter Haar, B. J. Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads: Creating an Identity. Sinica Leidensia Series, 43. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2000.

Vining, E. P. An Inglorious Columbus, D. Appleton and Co., 1885.

Yu, Chun-Fang. Kuan Yin The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteshvara, Columbia University Press, 2001.

Qingtong, Lord Lad of the East

In the mid to late 4th century CE, messianic Daoist texts particularly those of the Shangqing sect mention the Divine King known as Qingtong, whose island home known as Fangzhu was also the location of the Hot Water Valley (Tanggu) and the fabled Fusang Tree. Qingtong means literally the "Blue-Green Lad" as qing is a blue-green color, but in scholarly literature he is usually referred to as Azure Lad, Green Lad or Blue Lad. He is also called the "Blue-Green-Clad Lad."

The Qingtong theme developed from older beliefs in Dongwanggong the "King Father of the East." Indeed, Qingtong took not only most of the roles of the Eastern King, but also of his consort Xiwangmu "Queen Mother of the West." His home region is also known as the "Eastern Florescence" or the "Blue-Green Florescence" as blue-green is the color of the East in Wuxing cosmology. So, "Blue-Green Lad" is synonymous with "Eastern Lad."

Early texts place Dongwanggong not only in the Eastern seas but decidedly in the southern regions, i.e., to the southeast. In the Zhouli ("Rites of Zhou") redacted around 130 BCE, but containing material mostly from the Zhou Dynasty, Dongwanggong, known by one of his alternate names, Mugong ("Wood Sire"), is said to reside at Chien-mu "the Determining Tree."

The Huainanzi (2nd century BCE) says of the Chien-mu Tree:

The Chien-mu is in Tu-kuang. All the gods ascended and descended by it. It cast no shadow in the sun and it made no echo when someone shouted. No doubt this is because it is the center of Heaven and earth.

As the Chien-mu tree casts no shadows at some point in the year, we should suspect an equatorial location. The Shanhaijing, from about the same period as the Huainanzi, confirms the statement of the Chien-mu Tree casting no shadow and adds:

Beyond the South Sea, between Black River and Green River. . .There is a tree with green leaves, a purple trunk, black blossoms, and yellow fruit called the Chien-mu tree. For one thousand feet upward it bears no branches, and there are nine tanglewoods, while underneath there are nine root twinings. Its fruit is like hemp seed; its leaves resemble bearded grass. T'ai Hao used to pass up and down by it.

In the Shangqing and other medieval texts, the Chien-mu "Determining Tree" is equated with the Fusang Tree, and this probably was also the case in more ancient times judging from the similar geography and characteristics. Medieval sources also place Dongwanggong's home on the island of Penglai suggesting a further equation with this fabled location.

Penglai along with the other paradise islands was famed for its location to the east, but ancient sources also confirm that this should be specifically to the southeast. According to Liezi (4th century BCE), there were originally five paradise islands beyond the eastern seas that floated on the backs of great turtles. A giant caught two of these islands with a fishing line to sacrifice them for tortoise shell divination causing two islands to float away. The remaining three isles of the blest led by Penglai were located near the Ta-Ho a great abyss into which "the waters from the eight points of the compass and from the uttermost parts of the earth, and from the streams of the Milky Way all flow." And it is further states that "this they do without causing any appreciable change in the depth of the 'Abyss."

Zhuangzi from about the same period as Liezi calls this cosmic drain into which all waters flow the Weilu and notes that "it never empties."

In the Chuci, a collection of poems from the state of Chu dating to the Warring States period, this "gap" in the ocean is located to the southeast where the waters drained after Gong Gong caused the earth to lean in that direction.

Kang Hui [Gong Gong] was enraged, and the land leaned southeast [why?]
The nine provinces were askew; the river valleys were fouled [how?]
The eastward flow never fills the sea [who knows why?]

(John S. Major, 1993:64, emphasis added )

Zhuangzi also mentions a geographical feature known as the 'Southern Stygia," to which the Phoenix (Feng) flies regularly with the south-blowing monsoon in the sixth month. This deep or underworld location is also called the "Stygian Sea," and is located a great distance to the South. The 4th to 5th century CE geographical work Hai Nei Shih Chou Chi associates the dark waters of the Southern Stygia with Penglai. During the T'ang Dynasty, the Southern Stygia was located in the midst of the South Sea (Nanhai) where the goddess Lady of the Southern Stygia (Nan ming fu jen) dwelt. Medieval texts also locate the Weilu clearly in the southeastern regions of the ocean.

The Chen Kao dated to about 489 CE states that Qingtong's home of Fangzhu, described as having a square shape, is located in the ocean southeast of Kuai-chi county, the latter corresponding approximately to modern Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. The name "Fangzhu" has been translated "Square Speculum" and probably is linked to a bronze mirror that was thought in ancient times to collect lunar dew drops during the Full Moon. There was a Greater Fangzhu proper and two Lesser Fangzhus on the eastern and western sides of Greater Fangzhu. There were two great mountains among the ranges of Fangzhu, the Great Mountain of Lasting Light and the High Mound of Night's Moonlight. Qingtong's palace was located on the Mountain of Eastern Florescence. The Lesser Fangzhus were described as circular in shape. The western Lesser Fangzhu had a large Buddhist population with many prominent stupas and tiered buildings. The eastern Lesser Fangzhu was a storehouse of treasures and the plants of immortality. Interestingly with reference to Buddhism in western Fangzhu, the Liangshu states that in 458 CE just 31 years earlier than the Chen Kao, Buddhist monks introduced their religion to the country of Fusang. In 520 CE, emissaries from Fusang are said to have brought to China a gift of a semi-transparent jewel or crystal about a foot in circumference used for gazing at the Sun (Joseph Needham, 1962: 114).


Messianic background

Qingtong plays an important role in Daoist millenarian texts through his connection with Li Hong, the end-times savior believed by some sects to be a reincarnation of the sage Laozi.

Daoist messianism traces its roots back to the earliest sages. Confucius, Laozi and Mencius all believed in a type of savior king who ruled, and shall rule, in the Teh "the age of perfect virtue. Daoists know this virtue as wu-wei and Confucianists call it jen. According to Mencius, a new savior sage or king appears cyclically every 500 years. Zhuangzi used the term "Great Peace" or Taiping to describe the golden ages, and "Perfect Ruler" or Zhenjun for the savior king. These terms would appear predominantly in latter millenarian literature. Early in the Han Dynasty, Jia Yi and the father of Sima Qian expressed expectations of a new sage or king as the period of 500 years from Confucius was fast approaching. A Daoist book, "The Classic on Great Peace and on the conservation of the Origin according to the Calendar revealed by the Officers of Heaven" was presented to the emperor requesting that the dynasty renew the Mandate of Heaven. The author was promptly imprisoned and terminated. Rebellions broke out leading up to the first great millenarian Taiping revolt of 184 CE.

If we admit to a greater antiquity for the legendary history, there are also cosmological cycles of destruction and creation that may have helped in the development of later millenarian views. The great deluges caused by Gong Gong and the battle between the fire and water gods are examples of such upheavals. These world catastrophes are usually followed by golden age periods. The Wupian Zhenwen of Ge Chaofu (400 CE) describes the deluge as the most important element in the turning of the great ages. Medieval punning on the sound "hong" as in the savior Li Hong's name is believed to be linked with the word hong "flood, vast, e.g., the first Ming emperor uses the word in his first year title with suggested millenarian motivations (David Ownby, Mary F. Somers Heidhues, 1993: 167).

By at least the mid-T'ang period, we also see the Daoist idea of the geological formation known as the "Mulberry Fields" in the eastern Ocean that undergoes cyclical catastrophic change. Due to changing sea levels and/or rising land formations, the Mulberry Fields would periodically rise above the ocean allowing people to cross on the resulting land bridge to Penglai. In latter times, messianic Buddhists believed that Prince Moonlight would lead the elect across this land bridge to hide in caverns under Mount Penglai during the apocalypse, which is characterized by a great world flood.

Among Daoists, Qingtong leads the 'seed people' across the Mulberry Fields to Fangzhu during the end-times tribulation.

During the Six Dynasties period, texts like the Spirit Spells of the Abyss suggested that a sage during the Former Han Dynasty known as Muzi Gongkou, the cryptic four character spelling of Li Hong, was an avatar of Laozi. The Shiji (2nd or 1st century BCE) of Sima Qian states that Laozi had the surname of Li and it became a Daoist tradition that future messiahs would have the same surname. Some also suggested they should have the same name as the Han dynasty sage Li Hong. Shangqing texts make Li Hong the deity of the Golden Porte in Heaven, to whom Qingtong visits to obtain millenarian scriptures.

It is Qingtong, acting as a mediator, who delivers these texts to humanity. In some versions, he must deliver them twice because people cannot decipher their hidden meanings. As mentioned, Qingtong also leads the elect over the Eastern Sea dryshod via the Mulberry Fields to his island Fangzhu, and from there to the heavenly Golden Porte of Li Hong during the latter's return.


Solar symbolism

Another example of cosmic cycles in Chinese myth may be found in the story of the archer Yi's shooting down of nine of the Ten Suns. The superfluous Suns rose from the Fusang Tree and fell into the Weilu. Although the legends do not connect the events directly with cyclic periods, the geological and climate upheavals associated with this myth and similar ones in neighboring regions indicate catastrophic and cyclic thinking. The Ten Suns are related to the cyclical ten celestial stems used in astrology and calendrics that originate from at least Shang Dynasty times.

With his residence near the Fusang Tree and "Sun Valley" (Yanggu), Qingtong has clear solar associations. He is called the Lord and Master of the brilliance and "florescence" of the dawn, and one 6th century text states that his given name is Yang "Sun." Thus, it is not surprising that Qingtong along with other residents of Fangzhu practice a type of alchemical mediation known as 'ingesting the rays of the Sun and Moon.'

Performing the Way of holding the sun in the heart, the moon in the "Clay Pellet," is referred to as "Reducing Change" (sheng i). If one is able purposefully to perform it, there will be no marantic or knotted things within. It is a Way of eradicating the Three Corpses of the body, the hundred diseases, and the thousand malevolences, of refining the cloud-souls and constraining the white-souls. If sun and moon constantly illuminate the interior of your physical form, demons will then have no form in which to hide. The Azure Lord performs it (i.e., this exercise) now as he did in the past. We pattern ourselves on his person.

-- Chen Kao
(translated in Paul W. Kroll, 1985: 82)

Another important aspect about Qingtong is his youth. The theme of the precocious child and the child prodigy date back to some of China's oldest extant literature including what is believed to be the most ancient layers of the Book of Odes. Possibly this theme, which became very popular during the Han Dynasty, helped in the development of Qingtong. The Buddhist savior Prince Moonlight, who appears somewhat later, is also portrayed as a youth. In the case of Qingtong though he is only young in appearance as his age in years is great.

There appears to be a good argument for Prince Moonlight developing out of the Qingtong theme. The latter originating from legends of Dongwanggong "King Father of the East" who lives in the region of the Chien-mu "Determining Tree." The Chien-mu is not only to the East but to the South, i.e. to the Southeast in the South Sea and the equatorial region where the Sun casts no shadows at certain times. The Chien-mu acts as an axis mundi and in latter literature is equated with the Fusang Tree. Also in latter literature, Dongwanggong's home is specified as Penglai.

Qingtong's home is said to be in the region of the Chien-mu/Fusang Tree, while Buddhist literature says Prince Moonlight resides on Penglai. Both lead the elect across a land bridge to their paradise islands in the latter days. From Fangzhu, Qingtong leads the seed people to the Golden Porte of Heaven, an obvious reference to the Chien-mu axis mundi. In a similar sense, Prince Moonlight in some versions escorts the chosen people to Penglai but in others to the Tushita Heaven. The following passages, translated by Kroll, from the Chen Kao describe a flight through the heavens that starts from Qingtong's home in the Eastern Florescence.

Relaxed and rested in the stillness of Eastern Florescence,

I take aloft the screened carriage, circumvolve the
Eight Directions.

Looking down peer amidst mounds and ant-hills,
Not at all aware of the Five Marchmounts' eminence.

Those numinous hursts are the equivalent of abyssal
springs;

Larger and smaller follow one another in exchange.

"Length" and "brevity" are lacking in any "more" or
"less";

The great cedrela in just a moment is come to its end.

-So why not commission the compliance of Heaven,
And take office as an unleashed spirit in the Hollow
of space?

The geologic catastrophism associated with Qingtong's home region in the Southeast is noteworthy. In the tales of the loss of two of the original five paradise islands, the catastrophes of the Mulberry Fields, the shooting down of the multiple Suns and the resulting fiery water-consuming Weilu, we could have significations of the "Ring of Fire" environment.

The floating away of the two isles of the blessed could possibly preserve ancient oral remembrance of times when rising sea levels submerged whole islands. The reference to the forming of land bridges at the Mulberry Fields could also possibly refer to the climate cooling phase that started about 5,000 to 5,500 years ago in which sea levels dropped before stabilizing to current levels. During that time, land bridges could have indeed formed among some small island chains.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Birrell, Anne. Chinese Mythology, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1993.

Bokencamp, Stephen R. Early Daoist Scriptures, University of California Press, 1999.

Kroll, Paul W. "In the Halls of the Azure Lad," Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 105, No. 1. (Jan. - Mar., 1985), pp. 75-94.

Liu, Kwang-Ching and Richard Shek [eds.]. Heterodoxy in Late Imperial China, Honolulu : University of Hawai'i Press, 2004.

Major, John S. Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four and Five of the Huainanzi, State University of New York Press , July 1993.

Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilization in China. Cambridge University Press, 1962.

Ownby, David; Heidues, Mary Somers, Editors. Secret Societies Reconsidered, Perspectives on the social history of modern South Asia and Southeast Asia, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y., 1993

Schafer, Edward H. "Wu Yün's 'Cantos on Pacing the Void'," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 41, 1981, 377-415.

__. 'Three divine women of south China', CLEAR, 1 (1979), 31-42

Wang, Eugene Y. Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in. Medieval China, Seattle WA: University of Washington Press, 2005.