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Hello, welcome. It's kind of rainy here
in Ithaca but we're here together  

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to share some thoughts and insights
about Chinese culture at this year's

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Hu Shih distinguished lecture.
I'm Andrea Bachner, the director

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of the East Asia Program here at Cornell, 
and it's my pleasure to welcome you

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to this year's distinguished Hu Shih lecture 
which will be delivered by our colleague

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Meir Shahar. As you might know
the Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture is held

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annually at Cornell to celebrate the legacy
of Hu Shih, one of the foremost Chinese

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intellectuals of his time. A writer,
statesman, translator, and thinker,

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Hu Shih is also one of Cornell's most
famous international alums

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who graduated from Cornell in 1914.
Last year when I had the privilege

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of offering opening remarks for that year's
Hu Shih lecture I underlined the adventure

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of cultural and intellectual endeavors
that Hu Shih's life and work embody,

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endeavors that are exemplars of Cornell's
key values. I pointed to his role of mediator

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between different cultures, to the
interdisciplinary scope of his work,

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and to his synergistic attention
to the cultural past and the political present.  

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All of this is still important of course
but this year has been unlike  

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any other year, at least in my memory.
This year as we face a global pandemic

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we're both more isolated as individuals
in our social distance and quarantine pods

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and more connected with the rest
of the planet than ever before.

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While the challenges of covid-19
are shared by all humanity

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they are also making violent 
structures of difference more apparent,

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such as the rampant xenophobia
and anti-Asian sentiments

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that we're witnessing and the ever starker
racial social and economic divides

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that have sparked global resistance
movements. This context makes

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Hu Shih lessons more vital than ever
today as his work and life teaches

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how to create connections across cultures,
across disciplines, across traditions.

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And it is these connections that shape us
and make us better as individuals,

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as social and human beings, rather than
isolationism, the violent disconnection

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from and suppression of anything we
deem different. Last year we came together

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here in Ithaca and shared knowledge
and ideas as well as food and drink.

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This year it is the online media escape
of the zoom webinar that brings us together.

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But even as we might miss some of the contact
and presence that an in-person event provides,

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there's also a lot to be grateful for in 
this new format, especially the opportunity

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for bringing people together in thought 
and dialogue from many locations.

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For one, today's lecture by Professor
Shahar connects us across continents,

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from the US, where my East Asia Program
colleagues TJ Hinrichs and Suyoung Son

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host this event, to Israel, from where
Meir Shahar shares his research to China,

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the subject of this research. And this does
not yet describe all of you who are joining

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us here today for this event. It is up to all
of us to structure and live this as a shared

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as a shared space, a coming together
of minds and ideas. And I find it especially

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auspicious that the topic of Professor
Shahar's talk, namely "Chinese Animal Gods,"

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resonates particularly well with Hu Shih's
Cornelian story. After all Hu Shih came

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to Cornell to study agriculture,
only then to switch to and graduate

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in literature and philosophy. But let me
stop here with thanks to all of you

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for making this event possible
for being here. My colleague

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Professor TJ Hindrichs will introduce
today's speaker. Thank you.

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>> Thank you Andrea and thank you to the
East Asia Program for their sponsorship.

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I'd also like to make a special shout-out
to Amala Lane who has handled so much

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of the support and infrastructure of this event,
also to Josh Young and Jennifer Fields  

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at the East Asia Program, and not least
to my co-organizer Professor Suyoung Son

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from Asian Studies. And I would like
to thank Meir Shahar for staying up

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quite late in Israel to join us today.
Professor Shahar is the Shoul N. Eisenberg

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Chair for East Asian Affairs at Tel Aviv
University. And I have long been a fan

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of Professor Shahar's work. I have
assigned it in numerous courses

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over the years. It is interdisciplinary in the
best way, not to denigrate different forms

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of interdisciplinarity. But Professor Shahar
has long worked at the intersections

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of what had been, and in some ways
persist in being, domains that can

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be treated separately in American academic departments and disciplines

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But these domains are not separate,
are integral in the daily lives and lived

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experiences of the vast majority
of people in China historically and today.

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And so these are powerful interventions
for the history and anthropology,

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two of these separate disciplines that he 
intervenes in, of China for religious studies  

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and literary studies. And within literary
studies Professor Shahar began to

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take seriously popular novels as a genre
that is integral to the lived religious life

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of people in China, to martial arts
and religion, one of the first to bring

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martial arts from the margins
of academic study to the mainstream,

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and in his most recent work which puts
animals front and center. So he has also

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helped to break down older views of,
for example of Chinese religion as

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dominated by the three silos
of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, 

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with popular religion as this leftover
category, and studies of religious practice

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that treated the imperial bureaucratic
structure of the pantheon and of human

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divine relations as structured
in an imperial bureaucratic way.

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His very first coedited volume "Unruly
Gods" brought attention to a wide range

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of deities that did not fit those patterns.
And so he's given us a much richer

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and more diverse understanding
of Chinese religious practice

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both historical and contemporary.
And so thus he's brought attention

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to religious practices, divinities, and texts
that while marginal to some hegemonic

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state-centered traditions, have been
and again are central in the daily lives

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of most people. His monographs include
"Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literature,"

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"Oedipal God: The Chinese Nezha
and His Indian Origins,"

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and "Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion,
and the Chinese Martial Arts"

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and that volume has been translated
into multiple languages. His first

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co-edited volume "Unruly Gods,"
thank you to the publisher, I was able

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to assign multiple years at a cost
affordable to undergraduates.

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"India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth,
Religion, and Thought," another co-edited 

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volume, "Chinese and Tibetan
Esoteric Buddhism," and most recently

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"Animals and Human Society in Asia,"
which brings us to today's talk

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on Chinese animal gods and so without further ado Professor Shahar.

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Thank you so much. You are so kind.
So it's a great honor and a great pleasure

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to give the Hu Shih lecture. It's a real honor.
My only regret is that I can't visit you

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in the flesh because I hear that Cornell
is so gorgeous. And there are so many

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friends there, Steven Sangren for example
who helped me in my early years

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as a young scholar, that I would love
to meet but it's impossible now.

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But thank you so much. I would like
to begin by reminding us of something

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that you all know, namely that our
ancestors depended upon draft animals

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for a living. They depended upon beasts
of burden to make a living. And I'm not

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talking about our remote ancestors
of thousands of years ago. I'm talking

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about our relatively recent ancestors 
of say a hundred years ago.

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 Think for example about Hu Shih,
which Andrea just mentioned, Hu Shih

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in whose honor we gather today.
When Hu Shih arrived to Cornell to study  

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agriculture, as Andrea mentioned,
all agricultural implements, plows

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and harrows and whatnot,
in the United States and all over the world

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were harnessed to animals. So here,
he's I guess an American farmer,

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perhaps near Ithaca, I don't know,
and as you can see the plow is harnessed

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to animals. And what is true of agriculture
is certainly true also of transportation.

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Inner city transportation all over the world
into the 1920s was powered by animals.

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Think for example about, this is long 
after the train was invented and used

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for long distance travel, inner city travel
was still powered by animals. So for those

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of you who do study literature think for
example of Tolstoy's beloved heroine,

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tragic heroine, Anna Karenina. Anna
Karenina travels by train from Moscow

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to Saint Petersburg and in Saint
Petersburg at the train station 

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her husband awaits her in a horse-drawn
sledge. Or think of Sherlock Holmes

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rushing to Paddington Station to catch
the train. He rushes by a horse-drawn carriage.

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So here's for example New York
around the time that Hu Shih arrived

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to your gorgeous campus. All traffic
is powered by animals, buses and trams,

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even fire engines. If you see Charlie
Chaplin movies there's still horses.

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So it's all horses into the 1920s. Here
is for you the Champs-Élysées in Paris

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and rather than fancy cars, this is around the year 1900, these are still horse-drawn carriages.

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And the question is let us try to imagine the relations between our ancestors

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who relied on these beasts of burden,
on these animals. The relations they had

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with these animals, it's a kind of
relation that we don't have anymore.

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Consider for example this Chinese
peasant who is leading his buffalo

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across the rice paddies. What kind
of a relation do they have, the animal

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and the human owner, his human master.
So on the one hand this is exploitation.

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A human being is exploiting another
animal species. Humans are exploiting

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other animals. This is on the one hand.
On the other hand, the peasant depends

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upon his buffalo, is mutual dependence
between them. The peasant stands

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nothing to gain by mistreating the animal
because he depends upon the animal.

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It is in his interest, in the peasant's
interest, that the buffalo be well fed,

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be strong, be healthy. And this
is true of American farmers

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and French farmers and whoever all over
the world. It is the interest of the farmer

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that his animal is well treated, well fed.
In China even more so because Chinese

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peasants, for example in South China
where they relied upon buffaloes,

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Chinese peasants owned no more than
one animal usually per family. One animal.

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The buffalo was extremely expensive
and a family could not afford to own more

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than one. Sometimes they couldn't
even afford one. We know of families

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that rented or farmers that rented
or shared beasts of burden. But it's a very

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expensive animal. They owned only one
and it's a very powerful animal.

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You don't need two to pull the plow.
One is enough. So the Chinese peasant  

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has only one animal at his disposal.
And this animal by the way can live

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for many years. The buffalo can work
over 20 years, sometimes 30 years.

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So just imagine. Day in, day out the peasant 
goes out to the fields with the same animal.

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They work together, they labor together
for over 20 years sometimes. So the peasant,

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it is in his interest to treat well the animal,
that the animal stays healthy. But beyond

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the utilitarian motive, I think it is reasonable
to assume, to imagine, that the peasant

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loves the animal, that there is a camaraderie
between them. After all the peasant spends

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with the animal almost as much time,
perhaps more, than he spends with his family,

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with his children, with his wife. So because
Chinese peasants depended upon animals

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for a living and because they probably
really cared for the animals, they really loved

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the animals, they prayed for the health
of their beasts of burden. And here I'm arriving

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at the topic of my presentation today.
There were gods in China, gods whose

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responsibility it was to protect animals.
And people prayed to these gods to protect

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their beasts of burden. And the two principal
gods, the two most widely worshipped gods

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were, you see them here in this image,
were the Horse King here on the right,

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Mawang (马王) the Horse King, who protected 
equine beasts of burden, that is horses, 

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donkeys, and mules. And the other god,
his bovine counterpart, is the Ox King,

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who protected oxen in North China and
buffaloes in South China. Oxen and buffaloes.

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By the way, if you permit me to digress
for a second, 牛, this Chinese word 牛

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in the name of this god, you see my mouse
here, Niuwang (牛王). This word "niu"

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which I translate as ox, this word can also be
translated as buffalo. The word 牛 means

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both buffalo and ox. So I imagine that in South
China when people said Niuwang what they

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had in mind was a Buffalo King protecting the
buffalo. In North China where they use oxen

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when people said Niuwang what they had
in mind was an Ox King. But anyway,

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these are the two gods that if you like
are the topic of my presentation today.  

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This beautiful image itself is colorful,
it's a print. It's a folk print. It's not only

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decorative. It has in fact a ritual function.
We know for a fact that such images

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were pasted in animal sheds, in stables,
cow sheds, to protect their inmates.

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So this is an icon. This is a religious icon
that was put in animal sheds to protect the animals,

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just as similar icons, similar paper prints of the
gods with images of human-protecting deities

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were placed inside the home to protect the human
members of the family. So it's the same thing.

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You have gods whose images are placed inside the house to protect the human

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members of the family and gods or images
such as this one which are placed in stables

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or animal sheds to protect the animals.
So the picture has, it's called New Year print,

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nianhua (年画), it has a ritual function.
One additional comment, a tiny comment

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perhaps related to my Jewish background
so that's why I'm making it. This is a folk print

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so it's beautiful, it's expressive, it's very
colorful, but it's rather crude. So crude

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that the horse here on the bottom right, 
he's protected by the Horse King, and the ox, 

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bottom left, protected by the Ox King,
are hardly distinguishable. I mean they are  

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distinguishable but they are rather similar.
They are not drawn very meticulously.

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But notice the care that the folk artist
took to differentiate between them

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the ox and the horse. He differentiates
between them by way of the hoofs.

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You see that the ox has split hoofs
which is a biological fact, oxen and buffaloes

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are split-hoofed ungulates it's true, whereas
the horse is an odd-toed ungulate and the hoof

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is unsplit. So this is how they distinguish
between them. Why is this interesting?

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Because when I was doing field work
in Chinese villages in Shanxi Province

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and I asked an old villager, "tell me what is the
difference between the Horse King and the Ox King?"

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So he said "look at the hoofs of the animal.
If the hoofs are split it is protected by the Ox King.

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If the hoofs aren't split it is protected by the
Horse King." So my field work corroborates

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this image. Or the image corroborates 
my field work. And as to my Jewish heritage,  

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Jewish kosher laws are based upon,
hinge upon, the hoofs of the animals.

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In Jewish kosher laws animals that have split
hoofs are kosher, such as cows, whereas animals

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which hoofs aren't split are non-kosher,
such as the horse. The horse is not kosher.

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So I just find it curious that the ancient
Hebrews 3000 years ago and Chinese

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peasants similarly differentiate animals by their hoofs. Anyway that's a side digression.

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But these are the gods that are my topic.
As you can see here they are often worshipped

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00:21:54,390 --> 00:21:58,870
together. The Horse King and the Ox King
are worshipped together. And if you have

197
00:21:58,870 --> 00:22:06,030
such an image at home of both of them
together, you are sure that all your animals

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00:22:06,030 --> 00:22:11,310
are protected. In between them they protect
all the animals. All your draft animals.

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00:22:11,310 --> 00:22:18,830
But sometimes they are worshiped
independently of each other. There are many

200
00:22:18,830 --> 00:22:26,750
temples just for the Horse King and many 
temples just for the Ox King. And when they  

201
00:22:26,750 --> 00:22:31,470
are worshipped independently, when we are
talking about the individual Horse King god

202
00:22:31,470 --> 00:22:38,150
in comparison to the individual Ox King Card 
or Buffalo King god there are differences.

203
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There are differences between these gods.
And the first difference concerns geographic

204
00:22:45,110 --> 00:22:52,710
distribution. How so? And here you can see
the relation between religion and ecology,

205
00:22:52,710 --> 00:23:01,230
or religion and animal husbandry.
The prevalent draft animals in North China

206
00:23:01,230 --> 00:23:09,950
were equines. Horses and mules and
especially donkeys. Look at this picture here.

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On the right you see a donkey. I've been very
much interested in donkeys. I wrote an essay

208
00:23:16,870 --> 00:23:20,510
about the donkey in Chinese history,
in late imperial Chinese history.

209
00:23:20,510 --> 00:23:26,750
The donkey is a remarkable animal.
It's incredibly sturdy and it can survive

210
00:23:26,750 --> 00:23:32,710
in arid areas. So here in so here in Israel,
have donkeys, but also China. The donkey

211
00:23:32,710 --> 00:23:38,830
was the most common draft animal in the
Yellow River plains, which are very arid and dry. 

212
00:23:38,830 --> 00:23:44,880
It's very hard to raise horses there because 
there isn't enough fodder for them. So in North 

213
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:51,389
China they rely on equines, especially donkeys.
And this means that in North China, they worship

214
00:23:51,389 --> 00:23:56,869
the Horse King. In North China there are many,
or there were, many many temples for the Horse

215
00:23:56,869 --> 00:24:03,469
King. By contrast in South China you don't
find many equines as beasts of burden.

216
00:24:03,469 --> 00:24:12,589
The most important draft animal in South
China is the buffalo. And therefore in South

217
00:24:12,589 --> 00:24:19,909
China they worship the Ox King. So this is
the basic geographic divide. North China,

218
00:24:19,909 --> 00:24:28,949
there were temples for the Horse King. South
China, temples for the Ox King, which as I said  

219
00:24:28,949 --> 00:24:36,669
might also be rendered in English as Buffalo
King. I should say I just used the past tense,

220
00:24:36,669 --> 00:24:45,229
where there were temples. Nowadays these
gods, I'm just noting, nowadays these gods

221
00:24:45,229 --> 00:24:50,069
are largely forgotten, the Horse King and the
Ox King. And the reason is because people

222
00:24:50,069 --> 00:24:56,869
don't rely upon draft animals anymore,
or much less. So many people just forget.

223
00:24:56,869 --> 00:25:02,869
These are for largely forgotten gods.
Not completely but largely forgotten.

224
00:25:02,869 --> 00:25:08,320
So this is the first difference between the two 
gods. South China, I said, I'm repeating myself,

225
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:17,349
Ox King, North China it's the Horse King.
The other difference concerns state patronage.

226
00:25:17,349 --> 00:25:26,960
What do I mean by that? The ox or the buffalo
is used, or was used, just by peasants.  

227
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:36,709
So we are talking rural cult. Basically these
were only peasants who worshipped the Ox King

228
00:25:36,709 --> 00:25:41,709
or the Buffalo King. Because government
officials didn't rely upon these animals.

229
00:25:41,709 --> 00:25:49,029
By contrast horses, equines, were tremendously
important for the imperial government.

230
00:25:49,029 --> 00:25:56,069
They were used on all levels of the
administration, from the imperial palace

231
00:25:56,069 --> 00:26:03,228
in Beijing, there used be a Horse King temple
inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, all the way

232
00:26:03,228 --> 00:26:11,268
to the postal service. Every courier station
in imperial China had an icon of the Horse King

233
00:26:11,268 --> 00:26:17,268
because the postal service was operated
by horses. And of course the military.

234
00:26:17,268 --> 00:26:25,068
The Chinese army, the elite units of the
Chinese army were mounted. So the Horse King

235
00:26:25,068 --> 00:26:31,988
was a military god. He was worshipped
beginning in the Ming period by the cavalry,

236
00:26:31,988 --> 00:26:37,348
by soldiers. This beautiful painting
for those of you interested in you probably,

237
00:26:37,348 --> 00:26:43,388
those of you doing Chinese art, know it's
by Castiglioni, the Italian Jesuit painter,

238
00:26:43,388 --> 00:26:49,588
at the court of the Chinese emperor.
And beginning in the Ming period,

239
00:26:49,588 --> 00:26:58,228
every Chinese military base featured a shrine
for the Horse King. Beginning in the Ming

240
00:26:58,228 --> 00:27:05,588
period and all the way to the early 20th century.
So here you have the, I'm sure many of you  

241
00:27:05,588 --> 00:27:13,308
visited this place, this is the Juyongguan,
the large fortress northwest of Beijing

242
00:27:13,308 --> 00:27:20,788
and in this large fortress there is to this day, 
you can visit it, there is a Horse King temple

243
00:27:20,788 --> 00:27:26,148
that protected the cavalry, the Manchu cavalry.
First the Ming cavalry and then the Manchu cavalry.

244
00:27:26,148 --> 00:27:33,988
And let me show you how it looks. This is the 
Horse King as the protector of the cavalry.

245
00:27:33,988 --> 00:27:40,588
This is an image from the Juyongguan
in northwest of Beijing. This should be Qing.

246
00:27:40,588 --> 00:27:49,828
period. He looks really ferocious as a military
god protecting the cavalry. One additional

247
00:27:49,828 --> 00:27:54,628
comment and then I will pause, I hope not
too quickly. I will pause for some questions

248
00:27:54,628 --> 00:28:01,748
in a minute. And my comment concerns
the image of the god. Look at this creature,

249
00:28:01,748 --> 00:28:07,747
this god. It's really a striking image.
First of all the god has multiple arms.

250
00:28:07,747 --> 00:28:15,867
He has 2 upper arms waving 2 swords
that are crossed over the head and 2 front

251
00:28:15,867 --> 00:28:23,867
arms also holding arrows and other weaponry.
Usually these gods sport either 4 or 6 arms.

252
00:28:23,867 --> 00:28:33,027
Then there is a small horse on top
of the human face, And note the third eye 

253
00:28:33,027 --> 00:28:43,427
in the middle of the forehead. So it's a
multi-limbed multi-eyed god. And I imagine

254
00:28:43,427 --> 00:28:50,507
that you can already figure where I'm heading.
When you see a Chinese god that is multi-armed

255
00:28:50,507 --> 00:28:57,627
and multi-eyed you know that if came to China
from where? From India. Because Indian gods

256
00:28:57,627 --> 00:29:02,627
are multi-armed and multi-eyed. This is
by the way another image of the Horse King

257
00:29:02,627 --> 00:29:11,187
and this is our image from India. This is Shiva.
I'm sure you're all familiar. Shiva, who is both

258
00:29:11,187 --> 00:29:19,947
charming and ferocious, frightening, and you
see the third eye in the middle of the forehead.

259
00:29:19,947 --> 00:29:26,067
So our god the Horse King, and I know this,
I mean, I've written about this, there's no

260
00:29:26,067 --> 00:29:32,787
question about it, the Horse King originated,
his image originated in India. His immediate

261
00:29:32,787 --> 00:29:41,587
ancestor is this god. This is the horse-headed
Avalokiteśvara. You all know who Avalokiteśvara is,

262
00:29:41,587 --> 00:29:49,587
it's the bodhisattva Guanyin, believe it or not.
There is also a Tantric image of Avalokiteśvara 

263
00:29:49,587 --> 00:29:56,547
which is known as the horse-headed
Avalokiteśvara. You see the small horse on top

264
00:29:56,547 --> 00:30:04,107
of the human figure, just as we saw with the
Horse King. The flames rising, the third eye

265
00:30:04,107 --> 00:30:09,027
in the middle of the head. Here it's
also multi-headed and multiple arms.

266
00:30:09,027 --> 00:30:16,547
So the Horse King is a Chinese god.
A Chinese god that has a Chinese function

267
00:30:16,547 --> 00:30:24,826
to protect Chinese horses. But this god
was fashioned after an Indian prototype.

268
00:30:24,826 --> 00:30:31,546
I hope this is not too early. I don't know if you
have any questions so far. Should I pause

269
00:30:31,546 --> 00:30:35,546
for a minute? I was thinking of pausing
here if you have any questions so far

270
00:30:35,546 --> 00:30:42,266
before speaking about the Ox King.
Should I go on or, what do you say?

271
00:30:42,266 --> 00:30:43,506
Or should I pause now?

272
00:30:43,506 --> 00:30:53,386
>> Right now I am not seeing any questions.
Oh here's one. So RL says, and RL I'm not sure

273
00:30:53,386 --> 00:31:00,386
who you are, "I was curious about what you
said about these gods being somewhat forgotten.

274
00:31:00,386 --> 00:31:08,186
"To what extent was this forgetting sponsored
by the state and not sort of a natural process?"

275
00:31:08,186 --> 00:31:13,626
>> The question is an excellent question.
What you are suggesting here, you say

276
00:31:13,626 --> 00:31:22,346
sponsored by the state, what you are hinting at
is the communist state repression of religion,

277
00:31:22,346 --> 00:31:29,946
which the Horse King suffered from and the
Ox King, like all other Chinese gods, so yes.

278
00:31:29,946 --> 00:31:36,346
You know it's a sad story but, I don't know
how many of you travel through northern

279
00:31:36,346 --> 00:31:42,106
Chinese villages, villages that housed in past
dozens of temples and none survived.

280
00:31:42,106 --> 00:31:49,906
Yes there is destruction by the state,
but in the case of these gods forgotten

281
00:31:49,906 --> 00:31:56,386
is also a natural process. It's also a natural
process, simply because people don't need

282
00:31:56,386 --> 00:32:05,106
them anymore. No draft animals so the gods
that protected them are forgotten gradually.

283
00:32:05,106 --> 00:32:10,946
Many people that I speak to in China, I tell them
I'm researching the Mawang, they don't know

284
00:32:10,946 --> 00:32:14,906
who Mawang is.
Some know but some don't.

285
00:32:14,906 --> 00:32:25,866
>> We also have not a question but a comment
and that is from [Sue George] that as a child

286
00:32:25,866 --> 00:32:31,745
he saw farmers in his hometown singing
to the buffalo to thank and relax them.

287
00:32:31,745 --> 00:32:40,265
 >> Yes and I think you are almost guessing
where I'm heading, I might, if I succeed

288
00:32:40,265 --> 00:32:50,745
technically, I might put on a small recording
of a village ritual master singing.

289
00:32:50,745 --> 00:33:02,185
It's more than a song, it's a prayer. A prayer
for the health of the buffalo. I hope we'll

290
00:33:02,185 --> 00:33:09,705
be able to listen to this in a few minutes.
Should they go or, I don't know.

291
00:33:09,705 --> 00:33:14,265
>> I do not see any more. If anybody
has more we can save them for the end.

292
00:33:14,265 --> 00:33:24,225
>> So I'm going to turn now to the Ox King.
Only the Ox King, which might be rendered

293
00:33:24,225 --> 00:33:32,905
as Buffalo King. What is interesting
about the Ox King, and in this he differs also

294
00:33:32,905 --> 00:33:40,305
from the Horse King, is that we have a large
body of scriptures, religious scriptures,

295
00:33:40,305 --> 00:33:50,105
dedicated to the Ox King, such as this one here.
It's titled "佛说牛王妙经." That is "The Scripture,"

296
00:33:50,105 --> 00:33:56,385
"The Miraculous Scripture," or "Efficacious
Scriptures of the Ox King Spoken by the Buddha."

297
00:33:56,385 --> 00:34:04,425
Here is a scripture. And these scriptures,
I collected several dozens, these scriptures

298
00:34:04,425 --> 00:34:13,105
were intended for the prevention and the
healing of bovine disease. So if I have a buffalo

299
00:34:13,105 --> 00:34:19,545
and the buffalo falls ill, I can invite
a ritual master, a village ritual master,

300
00:34:19,545 --> 00:34:29,265
and the ritual master will recite the scripture
to heal the animal. More commonly however

301
00:34:29,265 --> 00:34:37,504
I think these scriptures were recited as
preventive measure, prophylactic medicine,

302
00:34:37,504 --> 00:34:44,504
meaning that once or twice every year often
on the occasion of the Ox King's birthday 

303
00:34:44,504 --> 00:34:55,104
people will gather and the ritual master
will recite the scripture to guarantee

304
00:34:55,104 --> 00:35:04,264
that all the animals in the village stay healthy.
By the way these scriptures are very long.

305
00:35:04,264 --> 00:35:11,184
The rituals are really long. I mean it can last several hours to recite such a scripture.

306
00:35:11,184 --> 00:35:13,344
Several hours or even days.

307
00:35:13,344 --> 00:35:24,240
Where do I find these scriptures?
I'm sharing you my adventures as a researcher.

308
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:32,784
These scriptures are not to be found in any
library in the world. Librarians around the world

309
00:35:32,784 --> 00:35:42,144
don't have them. They never made it into libraries.
However, surprisingly, you can buy them online.

310
00:35:42,144 --> 00:35:48,944
What is happening is this. Village ritual
masters are gradually disappearing,

311
00:35:48,944 --> 00:35:53,984
many of them. They don't use their scriptures
anymore, whatever scriptures they had.

312
00:35:53,984 --> 00:36:01,664
The scriptures find their way to secondhand
bookstores and secondhand book dealers

313
00:36:01,664 --> 00:36:09,944
put these scriptures online for sale. So you
can buy them. So if I enter a website such as,

314
00:36:09,944 --> 00:36:15,864
I'm sure many of you from china know it,
the Kongfuzi 旧书网 [old book network],

315
00:36:15,864 --> 00:36:25,824
it's like Amazon, but for bookstore, and I type in
牛王, Ox King, I find many scriptures,

316
00:36:25,824 --> 00:36:34,024
Qing dynasty scriptures dedicated to the Ox
King. I find it really astonishing that I can buy

317
00:36:34,024 --> 00:36:44,264
online scriptures that were written, copied,
by humble village clerics, village ritual masters,

318
00:36:44,264 --> 00:36:49,663
100 years ago or 200 years ago or more.
I should mention right here that I have

319
00:36:49,663 --> 00:36:53,543
a good friend in China, Professor Hou Chong.
He introduced me to this literature.

320
00:36:53,543 --> 00:37:02,103
I bought and he gave me many of these
scriptures. And when we read these scriptures,

321
00:37:02,103 --> 00:37:07,383
here I'm arriving, if you want, I'm disclosing
the main point of my talk, when we read

322
00:37:07,383 --> 00:37:18,503
these scriptures we discover a remarkable
theology in them, namely that these scripture

323
00:37:18,503 --> 00:37:26,543
articulate the idea that the animal itself,
the ox itself or the buffalo itself, is a god.

324
00:37:26,543 --> 00:37:34,583
If you want this is a remarkable expression of
gratitude, of human gratitude to another animal.

325
00:37:34,583 --> 00:37:40,983
What this scripture say is that the Ox King
or Buffalo King, which they identify

326
00:37:40,983 --> 00:37:51,623
as a bodhisattva, as a Buddhist bodhisattva,
merciful deity, chose willingly, volunteered,

327
00:37:51,623 --> 00:37:57,183
to descend from heaven and serve the peasants as their beast of burden,

328
00:37:57,183 --> 00:38:03,983
 to help them make a living. So here let us read
one passage. "At that time the Bodhisattva

329
00:38:03,983 --> 00:38:09,063
"of Great Strength, 力大菩萨 [Dali Pusa],
emerged from his seat. Pressing his palms

330
00:38:09,063 --> 00:38:13,783
"in reverence, he addressed the Buddha saying."
So here we have this god, the Ox King

331
00:38:13,783 --> 00:38:20,143
or Ox Bodhisattva, addressing the Buddha,
a supreme Buddhist god, and saying this.

332
00:38:20,143 --> 00:38:26,543
"World-Honored One," that's an epithet of the
Buddha, "I have made up my mind to become

333
00:38:26,543 --> 00:38:30,943
"a Buddha." I want to become a Buddha.
"I have long seen the people of the world 

334
00:38:30,943 --> 00:38:36,543
"struggling in the fields. With their ten fingers they claw at the mud until the blood flows.

335
00:38:36,543 --> 00:38:42,343
"I pledge to be born in a buffalo body."
Here I chose to translate 牛 as buffalo.

336
00:38:42,343 --> 00:38:48,583
I could have translated it ox. "I vow to save
the people. With the two horns on my head

337
00:38:48,583 --> 00:38:57,622
"I will pull the plow, break up the earth, and turn
over the soil." So it's very clear. You have your god,

338
00:38:57,622 --> 00:39:04,262
he is now a bodhisattva. In order to become
a Buddha, in order to achieve the highest rank  

339
00:39:04,262 --> 00:39:12,982
of divinity he volunteers to descend to Earth.
You know probably what a bodhisattva is.

340
00:39:12,982 --> 00:39:17,582
I'm sorry to say something you probably all
know. A bodhisattva in Buddhist theology

341
00:39:17,582 --> 00:39:27,862
is a creature, a divine creature that
postpones its own salvation for our sake.

342
00:39:27,862 --> 00:39:38,502
The bodhisattva decides not to enter nirvana,
delays his escape from our world of suffering

343
00:39:38,502 --> 00:39:43,102
into nirvana for our sake. And he makes
a vow. The bodhisattva makes a vow.

344
00:39:43,102 --> 00:39:48,902
That's the crucial moment in the career
of bodhisattva, a vow. A vow to save all living

345
00:39:48,902 --> 00:39:57,422
beings before he or she or it, this bodhisattva 
himself or herself or itself, disappears,

346
00:39:57,422 --> 00:40:05,102
escapes into nirvana. And this is exactly
what this god does. He makes a vow to save

347
00:40:05,102 --> 00:40:11,422
the Chinese peasants as the beast of burden.
So if you like, this is a remarkable example

348
00:40:11,422 --> 00:40:19,782
of the integration of Buddhism into Chinese
rural religion, integration of Buddhism,

349
00:40:19,782 --> 00:40:27,702
into Chinese village culture. The idea
of the bodhisattva is harnessed to express

350
00:40:27,702 --> 00:40:30,982
the gratitude of the
peasant to his animal.

351
00:40:30,982 --> 00:40:35,942
Let us read - why can't I do it. Okay.

352
00:40:35,942 --> 00:40:41,382
Let us read a little bit more.
This bodhisattva has one fear.

353
00:40:41,382 --> 00:40:47,582
"The Bodhisattva of Great Strength said, 'I only
worry that because of people's accumulated

354
00:40:47,582 --> 00:40:54,222
"evil karma they will prize my robust flesh
and skin. They will slaughter me, peel off my skin,

355
00:40:54,222 --> 00:41:00,102
"and consume my flesh.'" So this bodhisattva
doesn't mind becoming a beast of burden

356
00:41:00,102 --> 00:41:07,501
but he's afraid that people will eat it when he
descends to Earth. He's not afraid about himself.

357
00:41:07,501 --> 00:41:12,821
He doesn't care to be eaten. He's not worried
about this. What he's afraid of is for their sake

358
00:41:12,821 --> 00:41:18,021
'cause eating a buffalo or an ox is a crime.
Hence they will be punished in hell. 

359
00:41:18,021 --> 00:41:23,101
There's no possibility of redemption. This leads
me to something that I'm not sure how much

360
00:41:23,101 --> 00:41:30,861
you're aware of it. I wasn't aware of it.
Many Chinese people did not eat beef.

361
00:41:30,861 --> 00:41:37,981
There was a beef taboo in China. It's kind of
surprising. People are not aware of it.

362
00:41:37,981 --> 00:41:47,981
But it's a fact. There was a 牛禁 [niu jin], a beef
taboo, in China and precisely because they felt

363
00:41:47,981 --> 00:41:52,901
so close to these draft animals they didn't
eat them. I mean there were people

364
00:41:52,901 --> 00:41:57,341
who ate buffaloes and oxen. But there was
a religious prohibition against it.

365
00:41:57,341 --> 00:42:03,181
There is by the way a book in French
by an excellent French scholar Goossaert,

366
00:42:03,181 --> 00:42:08,501
Vincent Goossaert, on this beef taboo.
So this passage alludes to this beef taboo.

367
00:42:08,501 --> 00:42:14,301
The bodhisattva says I'm willing to serve
as a beast of burden but just don't eat me

368
00:42:14,301 --> 00:42:21,861
because if you eat me you go to hell. We can
go over there at the answer of the Buddha.

369
00:42:21,861 --> 00:42:26,421
"The Buddha answered the Bodhisattva
of Great Strength saying 'in the past

370
00:42:26,421 --> 00:42:34,701
"the Golden-Spirit Prince Sattva sacrificed his
body to feed the tigress.'" This is a reference

371
00:42:34,701 --> 00:42:43,661
to the Buddha's own former lives. In his former
life, the story goes, the Buddha was a prince

372
00:42:43,661 --> 00:42:50,381
and once he ran across a starving tigress 
and the tigress was mad from hunger

373
00:42:50,381 --> 00:42:59,861
and was about to eat its own cubs. So this
Buddha in his previous life gave his own flesh

374
00:42:59,861 --> 00:43:06,981
to the tigress. And he was eaten by the tigress
and later he became a Buddha. So in fact

375
00:43:06,981 --> 00:43:13,581
this passage compares the Ox King
to the Buddha. You can volunteer to become

376
00:43:13,581 --> 00:43:18,860
a buffalo and you will be like me. You will
become a Buddha. So in fact it elevates

377
00:43:18,860 --> 00:43:28,420
the Ox king or Buffalo King to the level of the
Buddha. I told you that I purchased most of

378
00:43:28,420 --> 00:43:35,020
these scriptures online but I also obtained
some in the field doing field work.

379
00:43:35,020 --> 00:43:44,380
And the example I will give you is from Guizhou
in South China. I traveled to Guizhou, well I can

380
00:43:44,380 --> 00:43:49,700
tell you how it goes. The scriptures I bought
online and the scriptures that Hou Chong

381
00:43:49,700 --> 00:43:55,780
gave me hinted of a Guizhou provenance,
of provenance in Southwest China in Guizhou,

382
00:43:55,780 --> 00:44:01,420
Sichaun, and Yunnan. There were hints in the
text. Some gave place names in Guizhou

383
00:44:01,420 --> 00:44:07,620
et cetera. So we went to Guizhou. I said we,
that's me and my good friend Hou Chong 

384
00:44:07,620 --> 00:44:13,300
from Shanghai Normal University. We traveled
to Guizhou to search for such scriptures.

385
00:44:13,300 --> 00:44:22,180
And here you see us. This is in a tiny village in
Guizhou Province. On the right, this wonderful

386
00:44:22,180 --> 00:44:28,740
person is Hou Chong. Professor Hou Chong.
And here you see an exhausted jet-lagged  

387
00:44:28,740 --> 00:44:37,740
western scholar, that's me. And in the middle
this person here, master 李荣录 [Li Longlu],

388
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:47,620
is a village ritual master who as late as 2015,
5 years ago, conducted rituals for healing

389
00:44:47,620 --> 00:44:55,700
buffaloes and oxen. And in his house we
found scriptures that match the ritual tradition

390
00:44:55,700 --> 00:45:02,420
that I was familiar with from the scriptures
I purchased. So we saw it on the ground.

391
00:45:02,420 --> 00:45:11,540
And here let me try and see if I can play it
for you. We just listen for one second. He sang

392
00:45:11,540 --> 00:45:17,500
it for us. It's so bizarre, you do field work, you
know I was tired, I was exhausted, I recorded him

393
00:45:17,500 --> 00:45:22,020
with my smartphone but I should have taken
pictures of him singing it. But for some reason

394
00:45:22,020 --> 00:45:28,659
it didn't occur to me. So I just recorded it
and not so well but let us listen for a second.

395
00:45:28,659 --> 00:45:34,459
I hope you can hear. Oh sorry.
Go back. Here I am.

396
00:45:34,459 --> 00:45:51,779
[recording plays, conversation in Chinese]

397
00:45:51,779 --> 00:46:23,219
[singing in Chinese]

398
00:46:23,219 --> 00:46:27,619
You heard this "牛王 [niu wang]".

399
00:46:27,619 --> 00:46:33,419
It just said the Ox King. Anyway, it was
a real revelation for me to hear him singing

400
00:46:33,419 --> 00:46:39,059
because as a textual scholar I'm working on
text but it's completely different experience

401
00:46:39,059 --> 00:46:46,619
to hear it being sung. The musicality of the text
is a revelation. I'm not in musicology so I can't

402
00:46:46,619 --> 00:46:51,739
say anything about it but it's the difference
between reading a Jewish prayer and then

403
00:46:51,739 --> 00:46:56,299
going to the synagogue and seeing the people
singing it. It's completely different experience

404
00:46:56,299 --> 00:47:02,240
I guess. Or church and the choir is. 
Anyway. Let me go ahead.

405
00:47:07,699 --> 00:47:11,979
I will make only two or three
more points before concluding.

406
00:47:11,979 --> 00:47:17,120
You have seen that the oxen
is conceived of as a bodhisattva,

407
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:23,840
the bodhisattva that is incarnated in 
the very draft animals that it protects.

408
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:31,520
And some scriptures from Southwest China,
from Sichuan Province, from Southwest China,

409
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:36,178
Sichuan Province, Guizhou Province,
identified this bodhisattva as Guanyin.

410
00:47:36,178 --> 00:47:45,298
So therefore in Southwest China the Ox King was rendered as a female deity, as Guanyin,

411
00:47:45,298 --> 00:47:51,378
mounted upon an ox - upon a buffalo because we are in Southwest China. So if you see here

412
00:47:51,378 --> 00:47:58,298
you can see the Ox King, in fact
it's already an Ox Queen. This is Guanyin

413
00:47:58,298 --> 00:48:05,138
as the buffalo protector deity
and she's mounted upon a buffalo.

414
00:48:05,138 --> 00:48:11,618
This is from Sichuan Province. I bought
by the way such a statue in an antique store

415
00:48:11,618 --> 00:48:28,898
in Chengdu. This idea of the ox or the buffalo
as a god is, I believe, in fact quite widespread

416
00:48:28,898 --> 00:48:36,378
in China and you can find it not only in religious
scriptures but also in popular legends.

417
00:48:36,378 --> 00:48:40,560
And the example I have in mind is one you are probably all familiar with. And this is the legend

418
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:51,218
of the herdboy and the weaving maiden,
"The Herdboy and the Weaving Maiden."

419
00:48:51,218 --> 00:48:58,658
You probably all know this legend, it's the most
famous Chinese love story. I'm sorry I will tell

420
00:48:58,658 --> 00:49:06,058
you this story even though you're probably
familiar with it. The legend goes that there was

421
00:49:06,058 --> 00:49:12,778
a poor boy, herdboy, who had nothing
in the world but a buffalo or an ox and yoke.

422
00:49:12,778 --> 00:49:17,778
That's the only thing he had in the world.
And he was so poor that he could not marry,

423
00:49:17,778 --> 00:49:24,178
he couldn't find a wife. He was too poor.
No one wanted to marry him. One day,

424
00:49:24,178 --> 00:49:31,938
let us say it's a buffalo, one day the buffalo
opened its mouth and said, "listen on this

425
00:49:31,938 --> 00:49:40,058
"or that date in this or that place the heavenly
maidens will descend from heavens to bathe

426
00:49:40,058 --> 00:49:46,297
"in a pond. So you should steal the clothes 
of one of them, and when she demands

427
00:49:46,297 --> 00:49:51,657
"her clothes, you demand that she marries you.
And this way you will obtain the wife,

428
00:49:51,657 --> 00:49:57,177
"not just the wife but heavenly maiden."
So our hero, the protagonist of the legend,

429
00:49:57,177 --> 00:50:02,697
the herdboy, did as suggested by the ox.
And indeed the heavenly maidens were there

430
00:50:02,697 --> 00:50:07,017
and he stole the clothes of one of them
and demanded that she marries him

431
00:50:07,017 --> 00:50:11,857
and she did and they lived happily together
and they even had two kids, two children,

432
00:50:11,857 --> 00:50:21,577
a handsome boy and a lovely girl. But when you
marry a heavenly maiden that's the sad end

433
00:50:21,577 --> 00:50:25,257
of such marriage is one day she has to go
back, she has to go back to heaven.

434
00:50:25,257 --> 00:50:30,257
And she was summoned back to heaven
forcefully against her will and he was left again

435
00:50:30,257 --> 00:50:37,457
alone with the buffalo and his two children.
So again the buffalo spoke and the buffalo said,

436
00:50:37,457 --> 00:50:45,977
"I'm going to die soon. When I die you should
peel off my skin and wrap yourself in it

437
00:50:45,977 --> 00:50:52,137
"and it will carry you to heaven where you will meet your beloved." So the herd boy did

438
00:50:52,137 --> 00:51:01,377
as advised by the buffalo and took off
to heaven. But the vicious Queen Mother

439
00:51:01,377 --> 00:51:07,297
of the West, the goddess, saw him coming
and she scratched the skies with a hairpin

440
00:51:07,297 --> 00:51:14,657
of hers, creating the Milky Way that forever
separated the two lovers, the herdboy,

441
00:51:14,657 --> 00:51:21,337
which became a star Altair, and the weaving
maiden, which became also a star Vega.

442
00:51:21,337 --> 00:51:25,657
And they are forever separated. They meet
only once a year as you all know on the

443
00:51:25,657 --> 00:51:31,057
Chinese lovers day on the 7th of the 7th lunar
month. This is the Chinese Valentine's Day.

444
00:51:31,057 --> 00:51:38,977
So the focus of the legend is on the herdboy
and the weaving maiden. But for the purpose

445
00:51:38,977 --> 00:51:47,297
of today's talk, we are interested in the animal.
And arguably the animal itself is divine.

446
00:51:47,297 --> 00:51:56,416
He knows the when and where of the heavenly
maidens bathing so he must himself

447
00:51:56,416 --> 00:52:02,536
have come from heaven. And it might even
be argued that he descended from heaven

448
00:52:02,536 --> 00:52:10,336
in the first place to help the herdboy find a wife.
He sacrificed his own life so that the herdboy

449
00:52:10,336 --> 00:52:17,056
finds a wife. So this legend, like the ritual
scriptures I presented to you, expresses

450
00:52:17,056 --> 00:52:22,736
I believe the gratitude of the peasant
to the beast of burden and this conception

451
00:52:22,736 --> 00:52:37,136
of the beast of burden as a god and mercy
from god. One last question. Why the buffalo

452
00:52:37,136 --> 00:52:42,136
or the ox were conceived of his gods and other
draft animals no. I'm thinking of the poor

453
00:52:42,136 --> 00:52:50,656
donkey which I like so much. Donkeys worked
so hard but no one said that they are gods. 

454
00:52:50,656 --> 00:52:57,176
And people ate donkey meat in China.
Whereas the buffalo, people said it was a god

455
00:52:57,176 --> 00:53:02,896
And I think the answer might be related,
and here I'm focusing upon the buffalo not the ox,

456
00:53:02,896 --> 00:53:11,136
upon the combination of this animal's
strengths and gentleness. The buffalo is,

457
00:53:11,136 --> 00:53:17,696
so I understand, I'm not a veterinarian myself,
but the buffalo is a remarkably docile animal.

458
00:53:17,696 --> 00:53:26,336
It's tremendously strong but equally docile
and across Southeast Asia these are usually

459
00:53:26,336 --> 00:53:32,296
children that take care of the buffalo, as you
can see in this picture. So I think that perhaps

460
00:53:32,296 --> 00:53:39,576
this combination of gentleness and strength
led people to conceive of the buffalo as

461
00:53:39,576 --> 00:53:55,016
a merciful god. In fact this image of the tiny
toddler mounted upon this huge beast

462
00:53:55,016 --> 00:54:00,336
was a favorite topic of Chinese art beginning
in the Song Dynasty and all the way

463
00:54:00,336 --> 00:54:08,255
to the present as you see here, this detailed
masterpiece by Li Keran. I think I can stop here,

464
00:54:08,255 --> 00:54:19,215
I hope not too early, and we can talk.
You can see my conclusion written here.

465
00:54:21,175 --> 00:54:27,055
>> No thank you so much. And we have
been accumulating some further comments

466
00:54:27,055 --> 00:54:35,415
and questions and I will just work through
them in order. So Anthony Fazio, going back

467
00:54:35,415 --> 00:54:43,975
to an earlier point, also reports that he saw
farmers singing to donkeys or mules near

468
00:54:43,975 --> 00:54:54,935
Harbin in 1996. And Liang Luo reports that her
or his mother who grew up in a southern

469
00:54:54,935 --> 00:55:02,135
Chinese village in the '50s and early '60s
whose family was the designated village

470
00:55:02,135 --> 00:55:10,495
buffalo feeder has no knowledge of the
Ox/Buffalo King. They will ask their grandmother

471
00:55:10,495 --> 00:55:15,375
who grew up in the '30s and '40s. But they're
curious about whether the knowledge

472
00:55:15,375 --> 00:55:21,495
and popular religious practice relevant
to the Buffalo King in Southern China started

473
00:55:21,495 --> 00:55:28,095
to decline in the late imperial period into the
Republican period, or whether such knowledge

474
00:55:28,095 --> 00:55:34,815
and practice still has a lot to do
with personal/family/local background

475
00:55:34,815 --> 00:55:43,375
and therefore varies widely.
>> Yeah I imagine that what you are saying,

476
00:55:43,375 --> 00:55:49,575
in your question you gave the answers.
I imagine that yes perhaps it started declining

477
00:55:49,575 --> 00:55:53,295
in the Republican period, even though I have
many scriptures from the Republican period

478
00:55:53,295 --> 00:55:57,895
that were copied in the Republican period
and I have scriptures copied as late as [215].

479
00:56:03,535 --> 00:56:10,000
So it's hard for me to answer but yeah
and I imagine it also varies from locality

480
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:16,960
to locality. What is interesting, and it might
also be that people just didn't use the word

481
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:23,254
Ox King, that instead of saying Ox King
they refer to it as the 骑牛觀音 [qi niu Guanyin],

482
00:56:23,254 --> 00:56:29,974
that is Guanyin mounted on a buffalo or an ox.
They used one of the other names. I just said

483
00:56:29,974 --> 00:56:35,814
that it was also conceived of as a bodhisattva, as a 菩萨 [pu sa]. So perhaps they said

484
00:56:35,814 --> 00:56:39,494
牛王菩萨 [Ox King bodhisattva]
or they said 骑牛菩萨 [bodhisattva riding ox].

485
00:56:39,494 --> 00:56:46,534
When I bought the statue of this god
in Chengdu, so in the antique store I went to,

486
00:56:46,534 --> 00:56:54,174
with friends, I depend on Chinese friends,
so when I go to these stores we all ask for

487
00:56:54,174 --> 00:56:59,734
骑牛觀音 [qi niu Guanyin]. That's the word
they use. The Guanyin mounted on buffalo,

488
00:56:59,734 --> 00:57:07,454
which is the same as the Buffalo King.
So perhaps the use another name for the god.

489
00:57:07,454 --> 00:57:13,094
But perhaps it also varies from locality
to locality. Another interesting question,

490
00:57:13,094 --> 00:57:21,534
I'm sorry I'll just say it in passing, is the issue
of other people, other nationalities in South

491
00:57:21,534 --> 00:57:27,694
China. Because the buffalo is tremendously
important also for all the minorities who also

492
00:57:27,694 --> 00:57:34,254
rely on it for plowing the fields. And it appears
that they too conceived of the buffalo

493
00:57:34,254 --> 00:57:40,294
as a god. There were all sorts
of myths but I'm not an expert on it.

494
00:57:40,294 --> 00:57:48,374
>> There's a lot to explore here.
Liang Luo also reports that, beef taboo,

495
00:57:48,374 --> 00:57:59,014
that her grandmother refused to eat buffalo
her entire life, beef, and the whole family

496
00:57:59,014 --> 00:58:05,614
who stayed in the village, I might be
interpreting this, also never ate beef.

497
00:58:05,614 --> 00:58:19,134
In her mother's words "牛很痛感情 [buffaloes
are very emotional]." So anyway, fascinating

498
00:58:19,134 --> 00:58:31,893
personal reports. Yuanyuan Duan says that
the Horse King had long existed in China

499
00:58:31,893 --> 00:58:41,093
but why is it that it is since the Ming
that it was worshipped widely by the military

500
00:58:41,093 --> 00:58:49,293
and imperial court, and is it because of military
threats from the steppe? And in part 2

501
00:58:49,293 --> 00:58:55,533
of her question, considering that horses
were widely exploited by the nomads,

502
00:58:55,533 --> 00:59:02,933
she's curious whether the Ming soldiers
had an identity crisis when they worshipped

503
00:59:02,933 --> 00:59:13,493
the Horse King. For example did this blur the lines between themselves and the Mongols.

504
00:59:13,493 --> 00:59:21,733
>> Thank you for this great question.
I'll begin by saying that horse-protecting

505
00:59:21,733 --> 00:59:33,653
deities existed in China as early as the 10th 
century BC. We know this from scriptures

506
00:59:33,653 --> 00:59:40,453
that were discovered in tombs, pre-Han
scriptures, and from archaeological finds

507
00:59:40,453 --> 00:59:50,253
of horse effigies, and from the ancient Chinese
classics such as the "周禮," the "Rites of Zhou."

508
00:59:50,253 --> 00:59:57,013
So gods were summoned to protect horses
as early as the Zhou. I mean, almost as early

509
00:59:57,013 --> 01:00:06,613
as Chinese used horses, they venerated gods
that protected horses. One of these gods

510
01:00:06,613 --> 01:00:11,933
was called Mazu (马祖), the horse ancestor.
Not Mazu (妈祖) that is worshipped

511
01:00:11,933 --> 01:00:19,773
in South China nowadays, which is a female. 
Not the 妈 [mother] but a horse, 马 [horse] 祖.

512
01:00:19,773 --> 01:00:29,693
So there were such gods in China. I think
that the Horse King, I find it beginning

513
01:00:29,693 --> 01:00:36,892
in the Ming because it was originally an Indian
god introduced to China during the medieval

514
01:00:36,892 --> 01:00:45,052
period and it was only gradually that it
penetrated Chinese folk religion. So I think that

515
01:00:45,052 --> 01:00:51,612
that's why I find it only in the Ming. In fact
I find it from the Song Dynasty but I think

516
01:00:51,612 --> 01:00:58,292
that this is the slow impact of Indian
mythology on Chinese religion.

517
01:00:58,292 --> 01:01:03,332
It's a complicated topic in itself and I think that
that's why in the Ming Dynasty this is the god.

518
01:01:03,332 --> 01:01:11,732
But Tang Dynasty military scriptures also
include worship of equine deities.

519
01:01:11,732 --> 01:01:22,052
Just not this one. Did they have an identity
crisis? I don't know. The horses is an issue

520
01:01:22,052 --> 01:01:26,852
in China because the Chinese had to buy horses from their enemies. You know this, yes?

521
01:01:26,852 --> 01:01:31,692
The Chinese always had problem raising
horses. So they bought horses from the people

522
01:01:31,692 --> 01:01:38,932
north of the Great Wall. But they needed them
so what can I say. But anyway if you read

523
01:01:38,932 --> 01:01:42,932
the writings of Chinese generals, famed
generals of the 16th century such as

524
01:01:42,932 --> 01:01:48,372
Qi Jiguang, they always mention the Horse
King. Sometimes they call him not Horse King,

525
01:01:48,372 --> 01:01:55,212
they call him Horse God, Mashen (马神).
神 [shen] rather than 王 [wang]. So another name.

526
01:01:59,372 --> 01:02:09,172
>> Fascinating. Su George asks whether
there were scriptures for the horse gods.

527
01:02:09,172 --> 01:02:16,012
>> There are. I sort of made a neat picture,
I said well the ox had scriptures. Sort of

528
01:02:16,012 --> 01:02:23,732
differentiated. I also have Horse King scriptures,
but much fewer. Much much fewer, really short

529
01:02:23,732 --> 01:02:35,532
and fewer. And my sense is this. I'm sharing
with you ongoing research so I might change

530
01:02:35,532 --> 01:02:42,772
my opinion. But my sense is that,
the cult of horses, there was less interest

531
01:02:42,772 --> 01:02:50,051
in the animal itself. They pray to the Horse King
to protect the horses but there wasn't this

532
01:02:50,051 --> 01:02:58,051
personal affinity with the animal. That's my 
feeling. Whereas in the case of the ox

533
01:02:58,051 --> 01:03:02,531
or the buffalo you really sense this
personal affinity. There is the beef taboo.

534
01:03:02,531 --> 01:03:11,371
Also in the case of the ox or the buffalo,
we have a Horse King birthday,

535
01:03:11,371 --> 01:03:16,611
which was a holiday, and we have an Ox King
birthday, which was a holiday. In the case

536
01:03:16,611 --> 01:03:23,171
of the Ox King the holiday meant a day off for
the buffaloes and the oxen. They were given

537
01:03:23,171 --> 01:03:33,211
a day off. They were fed special food. People
washed them and there was real attention

538
01:03:33,211 --> 01:03:38,491
given to the animal itself. It was really care
for the animal. Whereas in the case

539
01:03:38,491 --> 01:03:43,171
of the Horse King there are these rituals
to protect the horses, to protect the donkeys,

540
01:03:43,171 --> 01:03:50,531
to protect the mules, but I don't sense
the same. But perhaps I'm wrong. One of you

541
01:03:50,531 --> 01:03:57,411
just mentioned that he also heard, or she heard,
people singing the donkey. So they were also

542
01:03:57,411 --> 01:04:04,051
obviously personal affinity with the donkey.
But somehow overall my feeling is that the ox

543
01:04:04,051 --> 01:04:07,731
or the buffalo got special
treatment in Chinese culture.

544
01:04:10,491 --> 01:04:15,371
To answer your question, short answer is yes.
There are also scriptures for the healing

545
01:04:15,371 --> 01:04:24,331
for horses. Yes, we do have such scriptures.
>> I hate to interject but I'm just a little bit

546
01:04:24,331 --> 01:04:37,531
suspicious of connecting the divinity
or divinization of oxen verses horses

547
01:04:37,531 --> 01:04:44,240
to the nature of the animals themselves.
And I just want to throw out the possibility

548
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:52,411
that this works its way through, the docility
allows you to send them out, which my  

549
01:04:52,411 --> 01:04:58,130
grandfather also did as a child in the prairies,
in the Nebraska prairies, send them out

550
01:04:58,130 --> 01:05:07,730
with the oxen alone to watch and feed them,
as opposed to horses and donkeys,

551
01:05:07,730 --> 01:05:15,730
which you would not necessarily be able to do
or even need to do necessarily in the same way.

552
01:05:17,130 --> 01:05:23,050
>> It's wonderful. So what you mean is that
it's the fact that they go and come back.

553
01:05:23,050 --> 01:05:28,650
That's what you mean?
>> It's the fact that the relationship builds

554
01:05:28,650 --> 01:05:38,090
from early childhood so putting this
into the lived experience of and the power

555
01:05:38,090 --> 01:05:45,730
of something that develops from childhood.
>> Now you see that I'm really sharing with you

556
01:05:45,730 --> 01:05:53,690
my own doubts. I've emphasized throughout
the talk that 牛 [niu] is both ox and buffalo.

557
01:05:53,690 --> 01:06:00,210
And yet my explanation was the docility
of the buffalo. I stress the buffalo.

558
01:06:00,210 --> 01:06:11,490
But what about the ox? I will just hint here
that I know that as early as the 10th century

559
01:06:11,490 --> 01:06:20,090
a Dunhuang manuscript described the ox as a
大力菩萨 [great bodhisattva]. And it's an ox

560
01:06:20,090 --> 01:06:24,970
it's not a buffalo. And it's the 10th century.
So it wasn't the buffalo that they had in mind,

561
01:06:24,970 --> 01:06:32,160
it was an ox. So my explanation of the buffalo 
doesn't work there. So, yeah. But thank you. 

562
01:06:33,360 --> 01:06:42,170
>> Sorry to jump in. Jin Ya thanks you for your
wonderful talk and wonders whether there is

563
01:06:42,170 --> 01:06:51,610
a tie between the Chinese zodiac and
commitments to worship of the Horse King

564
01:06:51,610 --> 01:06:57,410
and Buffalo King.
>> There is a connection.

565
01:06:57,410 --> 01:07:08,729
I can point the connection in the case
of the ox. The ox is also a constellation.

566
01:07:08,729 --> 01:07:14,849
There is a constellation of the ox
in heaven. The ox constellation.

567
01:07:14,880 --> 01:07:21,489
And this constellation is governed by a god,
a Daoist god called Zhenwu (真武),

568
01:07:21,489 --> 01:07:29,329
the true warrior, a Daoist god. I didn't go into
this because I was focusing on presenting  

569
01:07:29,329 --> 01:07:35,969
the Buddhist side of things, but in fact
the ox and buffalo are sometimes described

570
01:07:35,969 --> 01:07:47,329
as incarnations of Zhenwu. And the reason
is because of the zodiac I think.

571
01:07:47,329 --> 01:07:52,089
Because the constellation of the ox is
governed by Zhenwu. So there is a connection.

572
01:07:52,089 --> 01:07:56,849
that I can point in the case of the Ox King.
In the case of the horse, I don't know.

573
01:07:56,849 --> 01:08:06,560
Of course it's also part of the zodiac.
But I have to think about it. Yeah thank you.

574
01:08:08,249 --> 01:08:17,689
>> Jin Ya also points out stories
in the Buddhist tradition mentioning buffalo

575
01:08:17,689 --> 01:08:25,249
and tying the beef taboo to the prevention
of epidemic or contagious diseases.

576
01:08:25,249 --> 01:08:34,809
I'll just also throw out I'm familiar with a Song 
text that describes contagion from beef meat,

577
01:08:34,809 --> 01:08:46,009
oxen meat, or beef yeah.
>> And this scripture, I will ask both of you,

578
01:08:46,009 --> 01:08:56,209
you are talking about contagious disease,
about episodic disease that impacts animals

579
01:08:56,209 --> 01:09:01,280
or about disease that impact people? Those
who eat beef will be punished by becoming sick.

580
01:09:02,320 --> 01:09:12,529
>> It's not apparent in the text I know.
It's not a scripture, it's talking about avoiding

581
01:09:12,529 --> 01:09:19,728
the fumes, the contagious fumes.
>> The beef taboo, I'm answering you first

582
01:09:19,728 --> 01:09:26,768
then I will answer refer to the person that asked this question. The beef taboo emerged

583
01:09:26,768 --> 01:09:33,368
during the Song period. And so it's not surprising you have this text. It emerged

584
01:09:33,368 --> 01:09:36,248
during the Song period and there was
this feeling that people who eat beef

585
01:09:36,248 --> 01:09:44,488
will be punished by disease, falling ill.
So it fits well. Buddhist scriptures, I would love

586
01:09:44,488 --> 01:09:50,928
to see them. What you just mentioned,
if you could email me the reference I will be

587
01:09:50,928 --> 01:09:57,768
really grateful. I will be really grateful for seeing
Buddhist scriptures that you are familiar with.

588
01:09:57,768 --> 01:10:08,528
>> I'll make a note. Jenny Lao says what
was the ritual when the oxen eventually died.

589
01:10:08,528 --> 01:10:14,408
>> There was a ritual and I'm embarrassed you're asking me such, what is the definition of,

590
01:10:14,408 --> 01:10:19,288
a good question. It's a question that the
speaker can't answer, doesn't know the answer.

591
01:10:19,288 --> 01:10:25,048
So your questions are great. There was a ritual. That is to say there was burial. There was

592
01:10:25,048 --> 01:10:34,288
burial for the animal and there were prayers
for its salvation, for its reincarnation

593
01:10:34,288 --> 01:10:44,368
either as a human or as a god. And this goes back to medieval times. In Dunhuang we found,

594
01:10:44,368 --> 01:10:53,408
the Dunhuang trove of medieval texts,
include funerary rituals for the benefit

595
01:10:53,408 --> 01:11:00,688
of actually not only oxen but also other beasts
of burden. And the people who conducted

596
01:11:00,688 --> 01:11:06,768
these rituals made a ritual with the hope
of transferring the merit to the animal

597
01:11:06,768 --> 01:11:15,168
so that the animal be reborn as human
or as a god in paradise. What is interesting

598
01:11:15,168 --> 01:11:22,528
about these scriptures is that why did they do it?
This is always the question. Why do we do

599
01:11:22,528 --> 01:11:26,207
good things? Is it because we are good
or is it because we are afraid?

600
01:11:28,320 --> 01:11:34,567
That's always the question. When you read 
this, I'm talking about the medieval scriptures,

601
01:11:34,567 --> 01:11:41,687
it's quite clear that the people who prayed 
for the health of the animals were afraid that

602
01:11:41,687 --> 01:11:47,887
if they don't the animal will sue them
in the netherworld. The animal will sue them

603
01:11:47,887 --> 01:11:52,887
in front of Yama in the netherworld. So in fact
when they prayed for the animal they were

604
01:11:52,887 --> 01:12:00,447
begging the animal to forgive them. So it's
asking the animal please please don't panic.

605
01:12:00,447 --> 01:12:08,607
'Cause if you mistreat your ox you will be born
as an ox. So they are asking the animal

606
01:12:08,607 --> 01:12:12,367
to forgive them and they say I'll pray
for you, you will be reborn as human.

607
01:12:12,367 --> 01:12:21,527
>> I am so excited that the oxen got
in on the juridical part of your afterlife.  

608
01:12:22,607 --> 01:12:29,487
>> You know, I have, I'm sorry to ramble, but I have a dog, and after reading these scriptures

609
01:12:29,487 --> 01:12:36,447
I became afraid if I mistreat my dog, it will sue
me in my afterlife. That will be really sad.

610
01:12:36,447 --> 01:12:42,927
>> Be careful.
>> Yeah.

611
01:12:42,927 --> 01:12:51,327
>> Mara Yue Du asks whether you could
elaborate a little more on the gender attributes

612
01:12:51,327 --> 01:12:59,007
of the Horse and Ox King and whether male buffalo could be regarded as an incarnation

613
01:12:59,007 --> 01:13:08,487
of a female deity.
>> I can't say really. My simple answer

614
01:13:08,487 --> 01:13:17,007
is obviously yes. We are talking about male 
animals, male and female but certainly also

615
01:13:17,007 --> 01:13:25,247
male. So the simple answer would be yes.
The male ox was an incarnation of a female

616
01:13:25,247 --> 01:13:32,007
goddess of Guanyin. Yeah definitely. Definitely.
Yes, that's the simple answer. The texts don't,

617
01:13:32,007 --> 01:13:38,206
the Chinese text doesn't give you the, they just
say 牛 [niu]. They don't specify whether it's

618
01:13:38,206 --> 01:13:44,006
a male that they have in mind or female.
They don't use the vocabulary. They don't add

619
01:13:44,006 --> 01:13:56,606
female or male in the text I'm working on.
There is a Tang Dynasty text of a monk,

620
01:13:56,606 --> 01:14:04,406
by the way this whole thing of the ox in Chan
literature, those of you who are familiar with  

621
01:14:04,406 --> 01:14:09,406
Chan literature know the parable of searching
for the ox. Are you familiar with this parable?

622
01:14:09,406 --> 01:14:14,406
It's a famous Buddhist parable that's searching 
for enlightenment he's searching for the ox. 

623
01:14:14,406 --> 01:14:20,326
It's a Buddhist parable. So the ox is really 
important in Zen Buddhism. It's really

624
01:14:20,326 --> 01:14:25,286
important. But anyway there was at least
one Zen master from the Tang Dynasty

625
01:14:25,286 --> 01:14:35,086
who specified that he wishes to be reborn,
and he specifies as a male ox.

626
01:14:35,086 --> 01:14:41,046
This is the only thing that come to my mind
that I remember gender being mentioned.

627
01:14:41,046 --> 01:14:50,846
Otherwise I can only, as your question, yeah.
The texts don't specify if it's male or female.

628
01:14:52,006 --> 01:15:00,166
>> Okay. Steve Sangren is here and he invites
you to speculate or elaborate a bit more

629
01:15:00,166 --> 01:15:06,486
on why in mythic narrative various
animal spirits, such as snakes and foxes,

630
01:15:06,486 --> 01:15:16,126
often manifest in human-disguised form
on the one hand and why various animal

631
01:15:16,126 --> 01:15:23,446
deities are imagined to occupy human-like
social structures as kings, soldiers, et cetera.

632
01:15:23,446 --> 01:15:35,166
>> I have a feeling that Steve Sangren has an
answer. But it's a great question. You are right.

633
01:15:35,166 --> 01:15:46,685
The title of my talk is "Chinese Animal Gods"
but it's a misleading title. The title should be

634
01:15:46,685 --> 01:15:54,325
"Animal-Protecting Gods." Animal-protecting gods. Because when you see the icons,

635
01:15:54,325 --> 01:15:59,685
as you point in your question, these are human
gods. These are human gods, they have human

636
01:15:59,685 --> 01:16:04,965
face, even though the Horse King has this small horse on top. So there is a sort of

637
01:16:04,965 --> 01:16:13,925
a reminder of its equine function at least.
But you are right. Perhaps because gods

638
01:16:13,925 --> 01:16:19,125
have to be human. At least in China,
if they are bureaucrats they must be human. 

639
01:16:19,125 --> 01:16:23,725
They are bureaucrats, heavenly bureaucrats.
And if they are Buddhist gods also

640
01:16:23,725 --> 01:16:30,325
they are usually imagined as having
human facial attributes, even if the bodies,

641
01:16:30,325 --> 01:16:38,045
yeah you're right, they're imagined as humans.
You're absolutely right. The only thing is

642
01:16:38,045 --> 01:16:43,765
that these gods are incarnated as an ox.
So the ox itself is a god, a human god perhaps.

643
01:16:43,765 --> 01:16:52,085
But you are right. And on the other, dangerous creatures, such as vixen, they are animals

644
01:16:52,085 --> 01:16:57,645
assuming human form. Yeah. So it's a great
question. You are pointing in the right direction.

645
01:16:57,645 --> 01:17:05,485
>> He also notes, he suggests this changeling
quality also manifests in the small images

646
01:17:05,485 --> 01:17:08,965
of the avatar placed
on the heads of the icons.

647
01:17:10,165 --> 01:17:14,245
>> The small image of the --
>> So I'm guessing the little --

648
01:17:14,245 --> 01:17:25,005
>> The little horse on top, yeah. The little horse
on top. You mean in the case of the horse?

649
01:17:28,800 --> 01:17:33,765
Here I guess you can see the,
this is what you are referring to, or?

650
01:17:33,765 --> 01:17:41,325
>> I don't have direct access
to Professor Sangren but that's what I infer.

651
01:17:41,325 --> 01:17:45,285
>> Yeah. Thank you.

652
01:17:49,605 --> 01:17:59,684
>> [Chen Xiaoyuan] thanks you for
a fascinating talk and wonders how may

653
01:17:59,684 --> 01:18:07,404
people's attachment to horse and ox differ
when horses were partners of military missions

654
01:18:07,404 --> 01:18:17,564
and oxen were partners in rural life and --
>> Yeah. I'm sorry but I cut you short or?

655
01:18:17,564 --> 01:18:23,284
>> I think that's the gist.
>> So you see as I said I don't have,

656
01:18:23,284 --> 01:18:35,284
I should find a text in which the owner
of a horse, a soldier, in which you sense

657
01:18:35,284 --> 01:18:40,524
the sympathy or the gratitude to the animal.
Somehow it comes up to mind more

658
01:18:40,524 --> 01:18:46,884
in Western literature. But there must be
examples also in China in the Chinese literary

659
01:18:46,884 --> 01:18:55,084
traditions of people going to battle with
the horse and perhaps the horse gets injured

660
01:18:55,084 --> 01:19:01,284
and they are so sorry. But somehow
I don't have, I'm sure there are examples,

661
01:19:01,284 --> 01:19:09,124
but in my research on these religious texts
usually, as I said, I came upon numerous

662
01:19:09,124 --> 01:19:15,004
instances of sympathy to the ox or the buffalo
and more what seems like a little bit more

663
01:19:15,004 --> 01:19:23,924
perfunctory care for the horse or the donkey
or the mule. Even though there should be,

664
01:19:23,924 --> 01:19:34,964
especially in a military context.
But I don't have it. But I would love to get it.

665
01:19:38,324 --> 01:19:47,804
>> Yuanyuan again asks, her personal
experience is that ritual manuscripts

666
01:19:47,804 --> 01:19:55,484
were usually preserved without dates,
and she's wondering how we can

667
01:19:55,484 --> 01:20:04,283
put these in historical context.
>> So actually the ritual scriptures that I have,

668
01:20:04,283 --> 01:20:12,523
I don't know if I want to stop the share screen
and show you some examples that I had

669
01:20:12,523 --> 01:20:16,763
in my computer, I think it will mess
the presentation if I start looking for them.

670
01:20:16,763 --> 01:20:23,083
But actually they do have dates. Some of them
don't. Some don't have dates but many do have

671
01:20:23,083 --> 01:20:31,523
dates. And my impression is, from my very
brief field work with this that I just showed you,

672
01:20:31,523 --> 01:20:37,723
is that the date was put when the ritual master
copied the scripture and usually copied it

673
01:20:37,723 --> 01:20:43,283
on the occasion of the performance of the
ritual. So for example he received a scripture

674
01:20:43,283 --> 01:20:51,083
from his teacher, and often when he copies it he puts on a date. In any event the earliest

675
01:20:51,083 --> 01:20:57,363
scripture I have, and it's an incredibly long
scripture, I'm talking thousands of Chinese

676
01:20:57,363 --> 01:21:04,483
characters, a scripture for the healing of oxen
or buffaloes, it's from Guizhou, and the date

677
01:21:04,483 --> 01:21:17,203
is the Qianlong reign. I don't remember
right now but I can check, it's 18-something, 

678
01:21:17,203 --> 01:21:23,763
I'm sorry, 17-something, it's 18th century.
18th century, Qianlong reign. I have the exact

679
01:21:23,763 --> 01:21:36,443
date. So yes there are dates and in these
village rural manuscripts that I have

680
01:21:36,443 --> 01:21:41,843
and most of them were given to me by,
again I cannot express my thanks

681
01:21:41,843 --> 01:21:47,723
to my colleague Hou Chong from Shanghai
Normal University. Just to give you an idea,

682
01:21:47,723 --> 01:21:56,683
I'm sorry I'm digressing here for a minute,
Hou Chong has at home a collection of I think

683
01:21:56,683 --> 01:22:03,003
10,000 ritual scriptures on various topics
from South China. Many he collected himself 

684
01:22:03,003 --> 01:22:09,683
and many he bought. Just imagine what we are talking about. No publisher will ever be able

685
01:22:09,683 --> 01:22:14,002
to publish these, to photocopy these scriptures
and publish them. These are thousands

686
01:22:14,002 --> 01:22:21,322
upon thousands of pages. So there is
a treasure trove of rural culture, rural religion,

687
01:22:21,322 --> 01:22:27,002
that is waiting to be studied.
Enormous body of scriptures.

688
01:22:27,002 --> 01:22:32,962
>> Meir, did they preserve the dates of the previous, do they only put the last date

689
01:22:32,962 --> 01:22:36,162
of copying or do they preserve
the earlier dates of copying?

690
01:22:36,162 --> 01:22:44,962
>> No they put the date of copying,
which is a problem. Because when did this

691
01:22:44,962 --> 01:22:49,202
ritual tradition, I'm talking a ritual tradition
from Southwest China for healing

692
01:22:49,202 --> 01:22:56,642
and protecting buffalos, when did it originate?
Perhaps in the Song dynasty. I don't know. 

693
01:22:56,642 --> 01:23:03,162
The earliest scripture I have is Qianlong
but who knows? Who knows how far back

694
01:23:03,162 --> 01:23:10,682
it goes? It's a big riddle.
>> So we have time for,

695
01:23:10,682 --> 01:23:16,562
maybe just get through the last couple
of questions. Hui asks, can you speak

696
01:23:16,562 --> 01:23:25,122
to how the Buffalo King or bodhisattva is given embodied expression, such as in ritual or sport

697
01:23:25,122 --> 01:23:31,882
like wrestling. For instance I believe there are
Zhuang; humans dressed as buffalo,

698
01:23:31,882 --> 01:23:36,082
wrestling ceremonies, and similar
things in Southeast Asia.

699
01:23:36,082 --> 01:23:45,402
>> I confess that I don't know. I'm not familiar
with this wrestling but I would love to see it.

700
01:23:45,402 --> 01:23:54,762
If you can trouble yourself to find my email
or if I can even do it, I don't have the chat here,

701
01:23:54,762 --> 01:23:59,482
I can send it to you, you find my email and
send me references I would be really grateful.

702
01:23:59,482 --> 01:24:04,442
The only thing I can point to are the images
that I showed you of Guanyin mounted

703
01:24:04,442 --> 01:24:11,442
upon a buffalo. You have a female goddess
seated on a buffalo. That's the only embodied

704
01:24:11,442 --> 01:24:23,241
expression I can think of. And the animal itself.
The animal was decorated during the festival

705
01:24:23,241 --> 01:24:30,641
of the Ox King. Even though I haven't seen it
myself. I haven't attended an Ox King holiday

706
01:24:30,641 --> 01:24:35,441
myself but I would love to receive pictures,
if you can share them with me

707
01:24:35,441 --> 01:24:46,001
or whatever material you have.
>> So I just sent your email to the chat

708
01:24:46,001 --> 01:24:52,641
so hopefully that does the trick. But one last
question, does the image of the buffalo god  

709
01:24:52,641 --> 01:24:57,921
appear in Buddhist temples, and if so,
how do they differentiate in their meanings

710
01:24:57,921 --> 01:25:02,361
from the ones in temples
specifically to buffalo gods?

711
01:25:06,401 --> 01:25:16,561
>> I don't know. I didn't go into this today,
but I'm not going exactly to answer your

712
01:25:16,561 --> 01:25:21,641
question. I'm not going exactly to answer your
question, but I hope I won't tease you too much

713
01:25:21,641 --> 01:25:32,481
with one bit of information that awaits to be
researched. The Buddha is called in Chinese

714
01:25:32,481 --> 01:25:37,561
scriptures Ox king. The Buddha is called
Niuwang. This is one of the epithets

715
01:25:37,561 --> 01:25:45,081
of the Buddha. It's a translation of Sanskrit.
And in Sanskrit, as I understand it, what they

716
01:25:45,081 --> 01:25:50,441
had in mind was not an animal really,
what they had in mind was a very manly person.

717
01:25:50,441 --> 01:25:55,761
The Buddha was very manly, very virile,
so they called him an Ox King or like

718
01:25:55,761 --> 01:26:03,081
an ox among man. But there is a connection
to be explored between the Ox King,

719
01:26:03,081 --> 01:26:11,961
the Chinese Ox King as protector of bovines, 
and the ancient Indian tradition or the Indian

720
01:26:11,961 --> 01:26:18,921
epithet of the Buddha as an Ox King, and how 
it was translated into Chinese from Sanskrit.

721
01:26:18,921 --> 01:26:28,361
But I haven't written on this yet and I'm afraid
that's a topic for a whole other talk.