Daoism ( Kun opera and Peony Pavilion)

The idea "human body is the image of a country" finds its origin in Taoism. As spirit is the king of the body and other viscera are the officials, the body of the ruler becomes an autonomous "ruling body"(Schipper, 355). Taoist has the ability to regulate wai (forces of the nature) by governing nei(spirit)(357). This separation of powerful spirit and discardable body make sense of resurrection of ghost as well as the existence of spirit medium in ritual performance. I'm going to discuss two Taoism films in this paper: the Kun opera The Peony Pavilion, depicting a young women revive from death, and the documentary about the intense ritual sensation in Putian- Bored in Heaven. Take two films together, we can see a similar conflict between Taoist and rationality in terms of content. These conflicts are always interesting to look at, because new things are produced in attempt to creat a counter-balance. The Peony Pavilion confronts the confucian rationality by promoting new moral attitudes while Bored in Heaven resolves conflict with the rational modernity by negotiating both the power of capitalism and state and absorb new elements in to the ritual. In this paper, I'll make comparison between two Taoist films and try to articulate the conflict presented in both films between Taoism and rationality in terms of content. Then I'll talk about the power of beauty and uncanny in the acceptance of new moral and new ritual, therefore , create a counter balance for Taoism and rationality. The Peony Pavilion depicts a lonely young women, Du Linniang, who had a dream in the garden about a handsome young man and fell head over heels in love with him. Yet, as she realizing he was only a dream, she drew a self-portrait affirming her existence and her valid emotion and hide it in the garden and dies. Liu Mengmei, who has the same dream and fall in love with the young women in his dream, find this portrait of Du Linniang when he find shelter in the garden in a storm. Du Linniang's ghost was released from the underworld to return to her pre-destined lover by judge Hu. She reveal herself to Liu Mengmei after he promised to marry her. He opens the cave and under the protection of the flower goddess she comes back to life. However, her stern confucian father, Du Bao, accuses her of being a demon and beats Liu Mengmei for grave robbing. In the end, the emperor tests Du Linniang with a magic mirror. Du Bao finally accept the fact that qing (love) can triumph death and bring the dead back to life. From this film, we see Du Linniang's pursuit of love reflecting one of the Taoism essence doctrine - to discard value, judgment and all those non-natural, artificial things created by intellectuals and act upon individual spontaneous impulse, in this case, freedom to pursuit love (The Dao de jing 6). Yet, this view on women, sex, and marriage was very controversial. The norm is the arranged marriage by both parents while women's active pursuit of her lover is not acceptable in that conservative society where Confucianism prevailed over other school. The manifestation of this doctrine conflict with confucian morality scattering in every plot of the Peony Pavilion. Look into details, we'll see that the character Liu Mengmei is the incarnation of masculine qing (love, emotion) while Du Lingniang's father Du Bao is the incarnation of confucian rationality(Peony Pavilion web). Eventually, Du Bao's acceptance of her son-in-law signify this conquer over confucian rationality. Bored in Heaven is a documentary about Daoist ritual sensation in Futian, China, filmed by professor Kenneth Dean. It starts with the scene of temples stands alone in the ruins of the bulldozed villages or surrounded by other domestic buildings to arise the question of the role of temple in contemporary Putian when it is no longer the centre of irrigation system which require its own system of control and punishment to keep people alive. Then, the narrator tells the story of the theatre god who is bored by all the bureaucracy in heaven and descends to earth. As he drinks too much and parties too late, he is forbidden to go back to heaven. After that, intense scenes of temple based public rites in Chinese New Year festivities make viewers overwhelmed by all senses(Dean, 53). The most interesting part is the Daoist master and the spirit medium, especially, spirit medium. They bring a vogue line between dream and reality which parallel to Du Linniang's dream blend with reality. In addition to that, they both present a sense of society. In the film Bored in heaven, most rituals are collective ritual performance conduct by the whole community. All the new ritual are accepted by the community and a strong sense of belonging can be seen by the viewer. For the Peony Pavilion, the ending of the story shows that happiness of the lovers can not complete without acceptance by the families and by society at large. This also reflects the Chinese tradition. In contrast to Peony Pavilion's conflict between Daoism and confucian orthodoxy, the conflict here is between ritual heritage and modernity. It shows how ritual heritage coexist with modernity by absorb modern elements into its ritual. While Daoist master still writing spells to control the power of ying and yang which is also the power that drive people to marriage in Peony Pavilion, People are using flash light and advertisement board posting the image and blessing of god in their march around the village. Instead of performing opera to please god, television are used to show opera record in the ritual site. Thus, it is clear to see, in terms of content, that both films of Daoism outline the interact between Daoism and rationality. New moral attitudes and new ritual are produce as to counter-balance the two. After outline how the conflict between Daoism and rationality. It becomes even more obvious how the new moral attitudes and new ritual are bring to the audience by power the uncanny. The first film blends dreams, ghosts, demons, into narratives of the unspoken from the 'rebellious' story. Theses uncanny elements make the story more supernatural, paradoxically, make the new moral attitude more acceptable. Thar is to say, a new moral attitude is bring to the audience by all the uncanny elements. Similarly, the second film put the uncanny modern technology into the heritage ritual performance to creat a new ritual form. It is really interesting to see that people are not rigid about ritual routine and accept it as a fluid and progressive concept. Another reasons for this conquer over rationality are the use of beauty as power(Dean 59). As the text of Bored in Heaven wrote:

"...there are several moments of considerable aesthetic beauty in the film some landscape shots; the shot of the line of linked lanterns stretching on and on as the line snakes around a large courtyard; the shot of a goddess being carried past a bonfire...In this case, beauty is power, as shown through communal creativity in the form of constantly evolving rituals of excess and celebration."

The folk cult in the documentary shows significant aesthetic values. As for the kun opera, I'd say that its all about beauty. Not only the make up, but also the elegant poems, customs, music and calligraphy make the opera extremely attractive to the audience. As clothing reflect status and character, we can see all the scenes even scenes of character in poverty are refined and given elegant customs. This carefully designed beauty is very different from the beauty in bored in heaven. Bored in Heaven film contingent events very naturally(57), there's no designed beautify events. It reflects the theme of self-so nature: the idea of how things are are just how they are without any attention to be so. To take a step further, we'll understand that there's no need to discuss if the whole thing is true or not for being part of the ritual performance is the point of the ritual. This is also true for the story of Peony Pavilion. There's no need to discuss the possibility of revive from death, the point is to follow one's spontaneous impulse. This is the beauty of the nature that roots in our blood. This make people relate to the film even deeper and pick up emotion from the character or the event as a whole. Given all these similarity between the two, I'm going to sum up this paper in prospective of their significant difference in presenting the Daoism. As Kun opera is a form of art and the documentary Bored in Heaven is more a folk culture. Also different audiences and different backgroup of the director explains why two films pick on the same Taoist element through different angles. Because the difference are so significant, it is always more interesting to dig into the similarities. Works Cited

Peony Pavilion Performing Arts Foundation, web, 2006 (http://www.peonypavilion.org/ThePeonyPavilion.asp)

The Dao de jing, R. Eno, Indiana University, Early Chinese Thought, Fall 2010

K.M.Schipper, The Taoist Body.

Cora Dean and Kenneth Dean Making Bored in Heaven: a film about ritual sensation.