Taoist "Paper Protection" in the 21st Century

by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Nai Jia Guo

Taxis in Taiwan have them dangling from the rear view mirror; high school students carry them into examinations; they are given away at every major Taoist temple event. Talismans are still very much a part of Taiwanese life (fn 1).

A good and very typical example of a modern-day Taoist talisman is the one shown in the photos. This charm was given to the authors at a celebration marking a "road trip" for the goddess Matsu (the name means literally "mother ancestor"). Matsu was a historical figure of the Qing dynasty who in life was known as Lin Mo Niang. After her death she became deified as the patron saint of the sea. Matsu is by far the most popular Taoist goddess in the Fukien and Taiwan area.

From time to time the major temples in Taiwan will have their gods go on these "road trips" to visit other temples. The statute of the god is taken either by truck or by hand from one location to another to spread their blessings about. When these road trips occur, a large number of charms are made available for the faithful. The talismans are "empowered" or "activated" by presenting them to Matsu by the temple assistants. This is done "in bulk." Boxes containing thousands of these charms are placed in front of Matsu by the temple attendants. They chant prayers to Matsu and ask Matsu, or whatever god or goddess the charm is tied to, to bring the charm "to life." Then the charms are distributed to the crowd. During the empowerment ritual, incense and food sacrifices are made to Matsu.

What the faithful receive is a small plastic envelope holder. It is a little over an inch square (see picture). The front side, with the twin dragons across the top, gives the name of the temple. Running down the center between the dragons is the formal name of Matsu, literally "Holy Mother in Heaven." The two smaller Chinese characters in the center are the words for "fire" and "incense" which together form a word in the Taiwanese dialect (fn. 2) that means "Taoist talisman."

Within the plastic envelope is the talisman itself (see illustration). The talisman is folded up in a way resembling a flower and then placed inside the plastic envelope. Temple volunteers donate their time to fold these talismans. The act of doing so is viewed as a very good way to gain the favor and protection of the gods. When unfolded, the talisman is a yellow strip of paper about 8 cm by 20 cm. All the printing is on the front side (the back side is blank). The reason for this is that talismans are often pasted somewhere (e.g., on a door, a travel bag, or the dashboard of a car) and so all the "good words" need to be on one side to be visible.

The talisman is divided into three parts that give specific information:

1. Where it was empowered (i.e., what temple this talisman comes from)
2. What deities are issuing this "order" (i.e., what gods are empowering this talisman)
3. What the order is (i.e., what protection the talisman provides)

The top third, above the red characters, gives the name of the temple and the standard "sun and moon" and "dipper diagram." The dipper diagram is the 7 star constellation seen on the left and right side of the talisman. The Big Dipper constellation was the most important constellation in Taoist rituals and it appears on many talismans.

The central part of the talisman lists the deities who are issuing this edict. In true Chinese bureaucratic fashion, what you have is a signature and a "counter signature" or endorsement. The black characters show that the God of the 5 Grains, the Holy Mother in Heaven (Matsu) and the Goddess of Fertility are the three deities issuing this order. Then in red characters Matsu has "counter signed" the other signatures to show they are "authentic." This follows in line with every government form in classical China (and in modern-day Taiwan!) where you need chops and then chops on top of the other chops.

The bottom third of the talisman is the order itself. This talisman will "get rid of thousands of disasters and bring hundreds of blessings, avert evil, suppress demons and ensure wellbeing to the home".

"Porn Industry Talismans!"
In modern-day Taiwan there are Taoist talismans for every need, no matter how specialized. Looking at a typical selection of modern talismans shows that the traditional favorites remain the same: talismans to help students pass exams, to help businesses thrive, to help mend the hearts of the broken hearted or the lovelorn, to ensure the safe delivery of new babies or the health of aging family members.

But beyond these eternal themes, modern-day Taiwan has some quite specialized 21st Century type talismans. For example, one supplier (who claims to be of the Mao Shan School, a traditional school of Taoism) offers for $3,000 USD a special talisman that will guarantee success in running an adult book and video store. And the regular working folks are not forgotten either. That same talisman supplier offers, for a far more modest price, a specialized talisman for department store sales women.

How they work
Actually this amounts to two questions: How well do Taoist talismans work, and by what mechanism do they work? The answer to both questions, however, may be the same: "It depends on who you ask." The answers will generally fall into three categories. It could be argued that Taoist talismans do not work at all, that they are an interesting historical and cultural artifact but they do not change anything in the real world. According to this line of argument, Chinese or Taiwanese who claim that Taoist talismans "work" are suffering from confirmation bias, which is a cognitive bias wherein the person either consciously or subconsciously looks for or interprets information in a way that confirms their preconceptions or hopes or are simply flat out wrong.

Another position would be that Taoist talismans do "work" in some percentage of situations, but by a mechanism similar to the placebo effect. When considering this explanation, it is important to emphasize the reality of the benefits arising from the placebo effect. Most modern researchers ? be they medical doctors, psychologist or social scientists ? would all agree that an individual's positive attitude, faith or beliefs can and do have a powerful influence on their lives. Talismans may well be part of this and the effect of talismans may be quite real.

Many Taoist faithful would state unequivocally that the Taoist gods, goddesses, immortals, and celestials are quite real and that talismans are effective and that they work in the same way that a government order works here on earth among humans. To steal a line from Hamlet, the Taoist faithful would tell the scientist that "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" and that the reality of the Taoist deities does not need any confirmation from science or psychology.

Of course the question of how religious rituals work is a deep and broad topic that lies far beyond the scope of this article, but we did want to mention the three major streams of thought on "how Taoist talismans work."

The Great Images of the Tao
Taoist talismans can truly be viewed as the "Great Images of the Invisible Tao," and for many Taoists they do fulfill their promise to ensure that the bearer "receives no hurt, but finds rest, peace, and the feeling of ease."

The Dark side of Talismans
It was March of 2006. A pregnant woman and her unborn baby had been murdered. The Taiwanese police had narrowed their suspects down to one person, the boyfriend. A police raid is conducted on his house and the police find a most eerie thing when they burst through the doors.

The murderer has plastered hundreds of Taoist talismans over every square inch of his apartment. His purpose was obvious, at least to Taiwanese observers, and that was to protect himself from the ghost of his murdered girlfriend and their unborn murdered child (fn. 3).

Although Taoist priest and pundits were quick to try and distance "legitimate" Taiwanese Taoism from the dark evilness of the murderer, nonetheless folk belief in Taiwan is that such talismans are, for better or worse, "morally neutral," meaning they will work regardless of the motive or personal morality of the users. It is noticeable to any observer of Taiwanese Taoism or any observer of Taiwan's criminal element that the two things often go hand in glove. For example Taiwanese gangsters often wrap their illegal firearms or knives in Taoist talismans.

Footnotes

1. Although in this article we talk about Taiwan, we strongly suspect that when it comes to Taoist talismans what is true in Taiwan is now equally true across the Taiwan Strait in mainland China. Although Chinese Communist Party ideology is very much against such things as "feudal superstitions and talismans," we suspect in reality the ancient Chinese belief in such things is unshaken.
2. Although it is sometimes said that written Chinese is the same all over China and that only the pronunciation varies between the different dialects, in fact different dialects (for example Cantonese, Taiwanese, Shanghaiese) have slightly different vocabularies for things. For example, Taiwanese has a number of phrases that would "draw a blank" with a Mandarin speaker in Beijing.
3. The suspect's name is omitted because his case is still pending in the Taiwanese court system.

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	Taoist "Paper Protection" in the 21st Century

Written by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Nai Jia Guo for KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM

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