Cultural Complexes in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan

Spokes of the Wheel

Thomas Singer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780367441043
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000336429
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Salute mentale in psicologia

Thomas Singer presents a unique collection which examines cultural complexes in four parts of East Asia: China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

From ancestor worship in China to the "kimchi bitch" meme of South Korea, the wounded feminine in Taiwan and hikikomori in Japan, the contributors take a Jungian lens to aspects of culture and shine a light on themes including gender, archetypes, consciousness, social roles, and political relations.

This insightful and timely book will be essential reading for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian ideas, politics, sociology, and Asian studies. It will also be of great interest to Jungian analysts in practice and in training.

China

1
Femininity in Chinese Culture Archetype and Complex

Gao Lan and Shen Heyong

Gao Lan, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the City University of Macao (CityU) and South China Normal University (SCNU). She is a Jungian analyst and sandplay therapist. In addition to her work as president of the Chinese Society of Sandplay Therapy, she serves as CEO of the Oriental Academy of Analytical Psychology (Guangdong, China) and the Garden of the Heart & Soul Project.

Shen Heyong, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the City University of Macao (CityU) and South China Normal University (SCNU). He is a Jungian analyst and sandplay therapist, as well as founding president of the Chinese Federation for Analytical Psychology and Sandplay Therapy. In addition to being the main organizer of the International Conference of Analytical Psychology and Chinese Culture (1998–2015), Shen Heyong has presented at the Eranos Conferences (1997/2007) and the Fay Lecture Series (2018) and served as chief editor for the Chinese translation of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung.

Chinese culture, in a foundational sense, is essentially a culture of femininity. Ku Hweng-Min has characterized the national personality of China that arose from this feminine core as being “gentle,” and Richard Wilhelm also saw “gentleness and calm” as the main qualities of the Chinese people.¹ These “feminine” virtues are reflected in the Daoist philosophy laid down by Lao Tzu and are also reminiscent of what C. G. Jung called “introverted intuition” in both his psychological types and also in the Beebe Model of Typology.

Unfortunately, after more than a century of wars and revolutions and then pressure from extreme political movements, such as the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the Chinese people have lost their connection to the archetypal image and meaning of the feminine. Because the archetype of the feminine serves as the basic container for the psyche and the heart and soul of a culture, when the connection to it is lost or damaged, psychological problems are bound to increase. This loss of connection to the feminine contributes to various seemingly unrelated symptoms.

As Chinese people, once we know that something vital has been lost, we should search to find it again. We should seek to rebuild the connection to our lost cultural “container”—the archetypal feminine. The Garden of the Heart & Soul project is one such effort, founded on a yearning for kindheartedness.

Three archetypes of femininity: their images and meanings

Almost all of the original Chinese surnames incorporate script that shows a maternal influence. In their original oracle bone script forms, names such as Ji, Jiang, and Si (Figure 1.1) combine images for female and femininity in their makeup.

Figure 1.1: Ji (left), Jiang (center), and Si (right).

The fact that Xing (Figure 1.2), the very term for surname itself, is created by combining “female” and “life” also indicates the primacy of the feminine.

Figure 1.2: Xing.

The cultural archetype of Chinese femininity is mainly reflected through three historical supernatural images: Bixia Yuanjun (Goddess of the Tai Mountain), Xi Wang Mu (Queen of the West), and Nüwa (Empress Wa).

Bixia Yuanjun

The holy mountain of Mount Tai, which Richard Wilhelm described as the “Olympus of China,” was believed to belong to the goddess Bixia Yuanjun. People commonly refer to her as “Lady of Mount Tai,” “Mother of Mount Tai,” or “Master of Bixia.” Mount Tai is known as the easternmost of the Five Great Mountains of China and is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal. It is often regarded as the foremost of the five. Mount Tai has been a place of worship for at least three thousand years and served as one of the most important ceremonial centers in China during its long dynastic history.

According to Ge Hong, a famous Daoist of the Jin Dynasty (265–420 CE), the name Yuanjun means great immortal, the unity of Yin and Yang; and even though the common people worship Bixia Yuanjun as the “Mother of Mount Tai” or “Grandmother of Mount Tai,” her image, as shown in Figure 1.3, is always that of a young lady.

Figure 1.3: Bixia Yuanjun.

In the Bixia temple at the top of Mount Tai (Figure 1.4), several stelae record various scriptures related to the worship of Bixia Yuanjun. She is described as the fundamental representation of femininity and motherhood. Worshiping her produces life in abundance. She personifies great compassion, caring, and kindness, the containment of harm and protection from pain, comfort in suffering, healing in illness. During the Song (960–1279), Yuan (1271–1368), and Ming (1368–1644) Dynasties, there were many thousands of Bixia Yuanjun temples all over China, testifying to the power of the Yuanjun image.

Figure 1.4: The main temple for Bixia Yuanjun at the top of Mount Tai.

Xi Wang Mu

The next important image of the Chinese feminine emerged from the legendary Kunlun Mountains, one of the most enduring places in Chinese mythology. Worship of Xi Wang Mu, meaning “Queen of the West,” or literally, “Queen Mother of the West,” formed during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), with the golden age of her cult in the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE). She is the first “human-shaped” goddess to be widely worshipped and remains an important goddess in the Chinese mythological system. Academic researchers generally agree that the Queen Mother of the West is the representative figure of the matrilineal system widely existing in China about three thousand years ago. In a matrilineal community, women not only played a main role in production and politics, but also were the center of spiritual life in these tribes. The Feminine was deified as a hybrid creature, both human and Universe.

In Figure 1.5, we see the typical characteristics related to the Queen Mother of the West. She sits on a throne with a dragon and a tiger on each side. A giant toad dances below (in front of) her (the symbol of the toad relates to the goddess of the moon). At the lower left of the picture stands the jade hare, holding a Lingzhi (ganoderma lucidum), a woody mushroom and special spiritual healing herb. To the right of the toad is a three-legged crow (representing the Sun principle and Yang energy); beside the crow is the legendary warrior Da Xing Bo standing with his weapon. Above the hare, there is the nine-tails fox. And at the bottom of the image, a person kneels with a scepter in his hands, facing two people who may be Xi Wang Mu’s attendants.

Figure 1.5: Xi Wang Mu—a brick with picture of the Queen Mother of the West (Han Dynasty).

Although human in appearance, Xi Wang Mu was clearly not human. In the Shan Hai Jing (Legend of Mountains and Seas), a Chinese classic compilation of mythic geography and stories, Xi Wang Mu is described as having a human face with a leopard’s tail and a tiger’s teeth. Versions of the text may have existed as early as the fourth century BCE. According to her legend, the Queen Mother of the West takes charge of disease and healing, justice and penalty, production and destruction, life and death. The worship of the Queen Mother of the West has influenced culture across many regions and within most of the various ethnic groups of China. She was warmly worshiped by the poor who could not find what they needed in reality and prayed for release. Ironically, she was also worshipped by the wealthy, who prayed for long lives and immortality. She is the Golden Mother who protects people, the beautiful and passionate goddess, and the Iron Mother who punishes the evildoer.

The Chinese fairytale version of the Kunlun Mountains is a spatial reality where magic is a containable object. Unlike Mount Tai where worship took place at its peak, the mythological symbol of the power of Kunlun is a cave. The cave is the material representation of the uterus, the vaginal orifice, even the whole womb. The image of Kunlun and Xi Wang Mu who rules there is inextricably related to fertility.

A famous quotation from Chuang-tzu is “Kunlun Mountain is where the Yellow Emperor rests.” Cheng Xuanying who interpreted Chuang-tzu in various commentaries concluded that “Kunlun means human body.”² The fertility worship practiced at “Kunlun corresponds to the basic human prototype,” and working to contain vitality, fertilizing new life, the Queen Mother of the West is the “Great Mother!”

Nüwa

The third great symbol of the Chinese feminine is Nüwa. The Chinese creation myth begins with Nüwa who is credited with creating humankind and repairing the Pillar of Heaven to prevent the destruction of material existence. Her reverential name is Wa Huang, meaning literally “Empress Wa.” The Chinese character for the name Wa features the image of the feminine and was defined in the Han dynasty Imperial Dictionary as “The sacred woman of ancient times, who transformed all things.” According to Daoist tradition, Nüwa is the Mother of the planet Earth and in charge of the cycles of yin and yang and also fertility.

Figure 1.6 is an image of Nüwa from a stone coffin that dates from the Han Dynasty. Nüwa is shown holding the Ju (square) in her right hand and the moon in the left hand. Her lower body is like a snake, and she flies on flexible and elegant wings.

Figure 1.6: Nüwa, shown on stone coffin, Shandong Province.

In traditional Chinese culture, Nüwa was esteemed as the highest goddess. Her legend begins before any recording by the known historical books, and almost all traditions recognize Nüwa as the one responsible for creating human beings by using yellow clay to make the flesh of the people. Because the clay was not strong enough, she put ropes in the clay to make the bodies erect, forming the skeleton. In addition to giving birth to humanity, Nüwa is also credited with repairing the Pillars of Heaven. Chapter 6 of Huainanzi tells the story of how Nüwa came to the rescue during the time when Heaven and Earth were in disruption:³

Going back to more ancient times, the four pillars were broken; the nine provinces were in tatters. Heaven did not completely cover [the earth]; Earth did not hold up [Heaven] all the way around [its circumference]. Fires blazed out of control and could not be extinguished; water flooded in great expanses and would not recede. Ferocious animals ate blameless people; predatory birds snatched the elderly and the weak. Thereupon, Nüwa smelted together five-colored stones in order to patch up the azure sky, cut off the legs of the great turtle to set them up as the four pillars, killed the black dragon to provide relief for Ji Province, and piled up reeds and cinders to stop the surging waters. The azure sky was patched; the four pillars were set up; the surging waters were drained; the province of Ji was tranquil; crafty vermin died off; blameless people [preserved their] lives.

These catastrophes were supposedly caused by the battle between the deities Gonggong and Zhuanxu (an event that had been mentioned earlier in the Huainanzi). The five-colored stones symbolize the five Chinese elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). The black dragon was the essence of water and thus caused the floods. Ji Province serves metonymically for the central regions (the Sinitic world). Following this, the Huainanzi tells how the sage-rulers Nüwa and Fuxi set order over the realm by following the Way (道) and its potency (德).

In Chinese mythology, Nüwa is not only a remote deity responsible for cr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Permissions
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Introduction
• China
• Japan
• Korea
• Taiwan
• Index