Daoism and Landscape: Unruly Landmarks, Punitive Rituals, and Ecology

Abstract: The Daoist role within traditional Chinese human/nature relationships has often been characterized as one that aims at achieving harmony with nature. This article challenges many of the basic assumptions regarding the harmony model, focusing instead on the rich trove of judicial rituals that Daoist adepts had at their disposition for disciplining, correcting, or punishing elements of the landscape. A substantial part of these rituals was underpinned by Daoist legal codes from the Celestial Heart (Tianxin) tradition that emerged during the eleventh century and spread more widely soon after. Of the subjects these codices target, the present article focuses on trees, rocks, mountains, dragons, and certain animals. A picture emerges of stringent approaches to achieve order in the natural world, based on Celestial Laws, enforced by ritual officials. Throughout all these rituals, however, runs the idea of a landscape that is brimming with purpose, agency, responsibility, and divinity.