Monumenta Serica

Journal of Oriental Studies

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Shamanic Eroticism in the Jiu ge (Nine Songs) of

Early China

Thomas Michael

To cite this article: Thomas Michael (2017) Shamanic Eroticism in the Jiu ge (Nine Songs) of Early
China, Monumenta Serica, 65:1, 1-20, DOI: 10.1080/02549948.2017.1309102

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Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, 65. 1, 120, June 2017

SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE

(NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA
THOMAS MICHAEL

This article presents an analysis of certain erotic strategies employed by shamans of

the early Chinese state of Chu that were intended to attract and seduce an array of
spirits thought to inhabit the world of nature. These strategies are analyzed from a
collection of songs gathered together under the title of the Jiu ge from the Chuci
anthology, and they provide some of the clearest evidences for a tradition of early
Chinese southern Chu shamanism. After setting forth certain elements of the reli-
gious, historical, and theoretical background of this shamanism, this article
approaches and analyzes it in terms of the eroticized gender relations between
humans and spirits upon which this shamanism is centrally based. Because the
present author understands shamanism in terms of face to face communication
between human beings and bodiless beings in a sance event, and because these com-
munications are represented as taking place by way of either the shaman journeying
to the spirit or the spirit coming to take possession of the shaman, the final sections
of this article analyze each type of sance event separately.
KEYWORDS: Jiu ge, Chuci, early Chinese shamanism, shamanic eroticism

ABBREVIATION
CCJZ Zhu Xi . Chuci ji zhu (Collected Annotations on the Chuci).
Taipei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1987

A BRIEF OUTLINE OF EARLY CHINESE SOUTHERN CHU SHAMANISM

This study examines a collection of songs, the Jiu ge (Nine Songs),1 that I take
as reflecting an early Chinese tradition of independent shamanism associated with

1
My base texts of the Jiu ge are taken from two twelfth century works, Zhu Xis Chuci
jizhu (hereafter CCJZ and from which all citations herein refer) and Hong Xingzus
Chuci buzhu (id. 2002). See Hawkes 1995 (pp. 4855) and Sukhu 2012 (pp. 169) for
additional bibliographic information on the various Chuci texts, editions, and commentaries. In
this piece, I refrain from any substantial analysis of the composition, authorship, and transmission
of the Chuci, including the Jiu ge; I have much to say on this, but it remains the material for a differ-
ent study. Valuable Western-language studies of the Chuci (and the Jiu ge) are available but they
remain few and far between; noteworthy among them are Waley 1973, Hawkes 1985, Waters
1985, Chan 1998, Bresner 2004, Mathieu 2004, and Sukhu 2012. Things from the Chinese side
are very different, and Chuci studies have become a virtual field to itself even since before the
time of Wang Yi (d. 158 BC), the most important commentator of the collection to this
day. Sukhu (2012, pp. 169) provides an exhaustive discussion of Chinese Chuci commentary
and exegesis spanning from before the Han Dynasty up to the twentieth century, and he offers
an extensive bibliography of more than one hundred titles (very few of which, however, directly

Monumenta Serica Institute 2017 DOI 10.1080/02549948.2017.1309102

2 THOMAS MICHAEL

a southern Chu culture; I distinguish this from an early Chinese bureaucratic sha-
manism associated with a northern Zhou culture.2 I recognize both traditions as
possibly developing from a more ancient Chinese tradition of shamanism sometimes
associated with the Xia (21001600 BC) and Shang (16001046 BC).3 One segment
of that ancient tradition remained in the north and morphed in tandem with the pol-
itical and cultural transitions from the Xia to the Shang to the Zhou, and northern
shamans were ultimately placed at the lower end of the Zhous religious bureauc-
racy.4 Another segment migrated south beginning, according to some semi-
legendary accounts, during the Xia and Shang and continuing even into the Zhou.5
Northern Zhou culture was centralized under the absolute rule of the Son of
Heaven, and it achieved its own identity soon after the fall of the Shang and in
the same geographic area, the Central Plains. This largely occurred with the ritual
reforms putatively attributed to the Duke of Zhou, marking it as what would
soon enough turn out to be a uniquely Ruist culture.6 Southern Chu culture, on
the other hand, begins to come into historical focus primarily by way of its efforts
to maintain cultural and political autonomy against northern Zhou encroachments
beginning in the Spring and Autumn period (770476 BC).7

target the Jiu ge). My preferred modern Chinese studies include Chang Zonghao 1994, Guo Chang-
bao 1997, Song Zhaolin 2001, and, most particularly, Zhang Jun 1994, precisely because they have
closely attended to the shamanism depicted in the Jiu ge.
2
I call the latter bureaucratic because their shamans were subordinated to an array of other
religious and bureaucratic personnel, and the former independent because their shamans were
not so subordinated. For more on this distinction, see Michael 2015a and 2017.
3
Recognizing a southern in distinction to a northern culture in early China opens a conten-
tious argument in early Chinese studies. All too often early Chinese culture is seen either as a
single monolithic entity, or as two entirely separate spheres with little middle ground. My position
is that early southern Chu culture indeed felt the intrusive impulses of the scions of the northern
Zhou who established their rule throughout vast areas of the southern regions, but it was anything
but all-inclusive. The south was too big, too heterogeneous to be encompassed by any single cen-
tralized authority in these centuries, and it would take many more to bring the south into final
alignment with what came to be known as mainstream Han culture and authority. Guo Changbao
(1997, p. 11) writes, Chu never underwent the cultural transformations incepted by the Duke of
Zhou; for the most part, it resisted Zhou culture and maintained their own ways, but the cultural
traditions of Chu were for the most part those of Shang. Nonetheless, in the periods of the Spring
and Autumn and the Warring States, Chu never entirely broke with Zhou and received many influ-
ences from the Central Plains culture, of which many were quite important, but always peripheral.
Quotes from Chinese and French secondary sources have been translated into English by the author
throughout this article. For more on the ideological distinctions between the North and the South,
see Michael 2015a.
4
Early Chinese writings that would support claims about the bureaucratization of shamans
primarily come from the Chunguan section of the Zhouli ; see Falkenhausen 1995.
5
The best study of these semi-legendary accounts is given by Guo Changbao 1997; a detailed
Western-language study of them has yet to be written, although Thatcher 2004 provides a good
start.
6
For more on this ritual reform attributed to the Duke of Zhou, see Guo Changbao 1997,
Shaughnessy 1997 and 1999, Rawson 1990 and 1999.
7
Bresner (2004, p. 24) writes, It is true that the kingdom of Chu was seen by the people of the
North and the editors of the Shijing as a territory where the more or less revolting tribes all gathered
together. One judged the inhabitants as semi-civilized because they lived at the extreme limit of the
cultural sphere of the great Zhou dynasty. In the eyes of the Chinese, the kingdom of Chu had for a
long time been considered as a savage country, without doubt because its population was extremely
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 3

Chu was eminently local, far more diversified than the Central Plains politically,
ethnically, and geographically, and many of their religious specialists, including
their shamans, enjoyed a greater amount of independence than their brethren in
the north. With the gradual breakdown of Zhou authority beginning in the
Spring and Autumn period, the full force of its political intent to penetrate the
south and bring it to political submission was blunted, and southern shamanism
flourished.

EARLY CHINESE SOUTHERN CHU SHAMANISM AND THE JIU GE

Early Chu depictions of shamanic sance events that took place over two thou-
sand years ago come to us primarily by way of transmitted writings that are at
best pale refractions and reflections of their live and experienced performance.
The Jiu ge present highly stylized literary representations of nine8 separate
sance events that are squarely situated in a performance context, but they
can in no case be taken as ethnography.9 Scholars to this day remain puzzled
in their attempts to understand exactly what the Jiu ge actually are; Hawkes
writes,

The Nine Songs can best be described as religious drama; but though it is obvious that
they were written for performance, the absence of stage directions indicating who at
any given point was supposed to be singing, or what they were doing while they
sang, makes it impossible to be sure how they were performed It appears that the
actors or dancers in these dramas were gorgeously dressed shamans; that musical
accompaniment was provided by an orchestra of lithophones, musical bells, drums,

mixed and its customs were different from those of the Central Plain. For more on the two-culture
theory, see Hawkes (1985, pp. 1528), Guo Changbao 1997, Cook 1999, Major 1999, Zhang Jun
1994, and Michael 2015a and 2015b.
8
The Jiu ge actually consists of eleven songs, and commentators and scholars beginning from
the first circulations of the Chuci have been at pains to explain the discrepancy. I do not intend to
dig through all of their proffered options, but I take the nine to refer to the first nine songs which
depict sance events, with the last two simply serving to round off the ritual cycle (the tenth, Guo
Shang , is dedicated to the spirits of soldiers who died defending the country, and the eleventh,
Li Hun , is a processional).
9
Authorship of the Jiu ge is traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan , a nobleman of Chu
during the reign of King Huai (r. 328299 BC). This attribution is certainly false, but the
story is interesting: accused of some impropriety in court, he was banished to the south where he
drowned himself in the Miluo river. Before doing so, he spent some time with one of the
southern tribes, was deeply moved by their religious performances, and used them as inspiration
for the Jiu ge. While they are the highly polished products of a very gifted writer, they also
express a certain joie de vivre that is presented in the first person voices of shamans and spirits,
embodying a religious sensibility that feels most appropriate to a cultural consciousness rather
than an individual poet. In addition, they demonstrate a performance structure that reasonably
lies much further back in time than their reputed performances in the early Han court of
Huainan following the redaction of the collection. In my estimation, the Jiu ge are best taken as
literary representations of religious performances carried out already in the 4th century BC if not
earlier, but they are themselves also great works of a self-consciously poetic and romantic writer.
Sukhu (2012, pp. 195196) writes, Only a small fraction of the hymns that accompanied [early
Chinese shamanic] rites survives. The Jiu ge and possibly some items from the Shijing are all
that remain from the Warring States period However, in quality, in the original at least, they
rank among the best religious poetry in the world.
4 THOMAS MICHAEL

and various kinds of wind and string instruments; that to judge from one or two
references to a hall the performance took place indoors.10

Bresner puts it nicely: The ritual was erased in order to privilege the expression of
the shaman and the reaction of the deity.11 Despite this mystery of their origins and
position in Chu society, the Jiu ge remain the primary (but anything but exclusive)
evidence for approaching the early Chinese shamanism of the southern Chu culture.
I understand shamanism as representations of direct communication between
humans and spirits in a sance event for the benefit of the community. Shamans
are those who initiate this communication, either by enticing a spirit to descend
into the sance arena and take possession of his or her body, or by undertaking a
spirit-journey to encounter a spirit in its own realm. Indeed, the Jiu ge combine
these two shamanic ideologies (spirit-journey and possession) as co-occurring and
non-exclusive structures in the sance event.12 In other words, they are not, as
Eliade famously argued,13 two radically separate and antithetical ideologies;
rather, they are simultaneously mutual members of the same shamanic institution,
at least with respect to the sance itself.14
These two ideologies are often also combined in the framework of one and the
same sance event by the same ritual specialist (the shaman), as Rouget notes: Sha-
manic trance [i.e., spirit-journey] and possession trance can thus alternate in one
and the same person. Or, if one prefers, one and the same person can undergo in

10
Hawkes (1985, pp. 9596).
11
Bresner (2004, p. 101); she continues: The imagery of the fauna and flora, the musical indi-
cations and certain material emblems such as the harnesses or the costumes take the place of occult
formulas in the Jiu ge. Their incantations were purged in the hands of the poets, the only witnesses
who could let us know the unfolding of the seasonal performances. The vegetal elements, textiles,
and minerals named throughout should remind us of the mis en scene which was prescribed, and it
is only through the snatches of these scenic indications, reduced to a term which suffices to itself in
the chant, that makes us imagine the gestures, the postures, and the orchestras. The chants retained
the essentials of the ceremony as much as the process The reputation of the kingdom of Chu was
also constructed from the disposition to cultivate these performances. We can suppose that the
inhabitants profoundly knew the meaning of these gestures. Mentioning the difficulty of
reading and understanding the Jiu ge, Sukhu (2012, p. 196) echoes Bresners insights: Given the
apparent prevalence of the sort of ritual they accompanied another possible reason for their dif-
ficulty is the loss of the performative aspect of the rituals they accompanied. Marshall (2000) has
studied and documented a contemporary Taiwanese dance drama performance of the Jiu ge.
12
Eberhard is one of the few modern sinologists open to the non-exclusivity of the spirit-
journey and possession within the total field of shamanism; he writes, In general, we call a
shaman a person who either (a) can establish direct contact with ghosts, spirits, souls, deities,
and, by means of trance, dancing or other physical exercises, bring these beings into his presence
or into his body, or (b) can magically transport himself into other areas and contact the superna-
tural beings there. While some scholars have tried to separate the two kinds, we have the impression
that in South China both techniques co-existed and still co-exist. See Eberhard 1968, p. 77.
13
Eliade 1964, p. 506 and passim.
14
I use the term shamanic institution in its ritual and symbolic sense, not its sociological one,
to refer to the organization of relations (religious, social, economic, etc.) with the natural environ-
ment conceived on the model of alliance relations between shamans and spirits. For Siberian sha-
manism, such relations are typically structured in terms of the marriage alliance (see Hamayon
1998); for early Chu shamanism, they are structured in terms of the love affair. Both types of sha-
manic institution are, however, grounded in the eroticism between the shaman and the spirit in the
sance event.
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 5

succession these two forms of trance.15 However, with respect to the shamanic insti-
tution, the concerned spirits would always be different. In Siberia, for example, the
male shaman typically meets a female spirit out of his body, but he also can embody
his dead ancestors soul in order to be stronger and personify its desperate and
vengeful soul in order to calm it.16 In the case of the Jiu ge, which makes no
mention of ancestral spirits, the major distinction between the spirit-journey and
possession is systematically gendered.
Spirits believed to communicate with shamans are sometimes represented as
inhabiting transcendentally separate realms apart from human beings, but more
often as inhabiting liminal locales within this very world: on mountains, above
the clouds, in forests, or under water. In the Jiu ge, the locales where spirits can
be encountered are all domains of this very world, even if they are liminal.17

SHAMANIC STRUCTURES OF THE SEANCE EVENTS IN THE JIU GE

At risk of distorting the complex structures of the nine sance events of the Jiu ge,
four distinct ones stand out: a male shaman spirit-journeys to pursue the company
of a female spirit, as in Xiang jun (The Queen of the Xiang), Xiang furen
(The Lady of the Xiang), and Shan gui (The Mountain Spirit); a female
shaman spirit-journeys to pursue the company of a male spirit, as in He bo

15
Rouget 1985, p. 23.
16
See Hamayon 1990, pp. 670673.
17
If the locales of the spirits were radically transcendent, then even shamans could not bridge
that gap. This is the stated position of Puett (2002, pp. 202203): We are dealing not with a tra-
dition whose roots lie deep in the Neolithic (or Paleolithic) but with a phenomenon that arose at a
specific and late period of time. Moreover, the connection between the ascension literature and a
belief in a shamanistic/monistic cosmos does not hold. He continues: Instead, therefore, of
seeing these early Chinese texts as a survival of an earlier shamanism, I would argue that these
claims for ascension arose only in the third and second centuries BC for specific historical
reasons. They arose only after divinization practices had developed. The ascension literature pro-
liferated by appropriating and radicalizing these divinization practices in order to assert the ability
of individuals to transcend their roles, the political order, and the world of forms itself. Ibid.,
p. 223. My immediate response to Puetts comments is to absolutely agree with him, given that
the Jiu ge are not ethnographic records but the product of a highly-educated poet who was most
likely a man of his times (meaning one who had his own ideas of self-divinizing). But then I
revert back to my lens focused on shamanism as representations of direct communication be-
tween humans and spirits in a sance event for the benefit of the community. Doing so, I not
only do not find any indications of a personal desire for self-divinization (the writer, however we
conceive of that person, has no direct presence in any of them), nor do I not find the presence of
spirit-journeys (those are there aplenty), but I am unable to dismiss the shamanic eroticism that
is directed to the benefit of the community. Puett is correct in his reading of a very large number
of early Chinese writings that did actually posit the possibility of a radical transcendence of the
human being into a permanent higher state, I might argue that those writings were self-directed
(more to the self of the reader than that of the writer), whereas the Jiu ge are performed for the
benefit of the community by way of opening a renewed communication, encounter, or union of
nature and community through the shared and participatory communalism of the sance event.
What they offer is a very different kind of writing that reveals a very different world from the phi-
losophical writings of the educated elite (given that the writer was probably one of them). As Sukhu
(2012, p. 195) writes, The Nine Songs, however, do not carry any hint of Late Warring States phi-
losophical rhetoric. They appear to be simply hymns to accompany ritual sacrifice and shamanic
ritual .
6 THOMAS MICHAEL

(The Earl of the River); a female shaman gets possessed by a male spirit without a
spirit-journey, as in Donghuang taiyi (The Eastern August Supreme
One), Yunzhong jun (The Lord Amidst the Clouds), and Dong jun
(The Lord of the East); and finally, a female shaman gets possessed by a male
spirit and then spirit-journeys together with him, as in Da siming (The
Greater Master of Fate) and Shao siming (The Lesser Master of Fate).
Each sance targets a separate spirit, and we never see more than one in any of
them. Of these spirits, six are male; three are at home in the sky (Donghuang taiyi,
Yunzhong jun, and Dong jun); two are not specified in terms of placement (Da
siming and Shao siming); and the last is a spirit of the Yellow River (He bo). Three
of the spirits are female; two are spirits of the Xiang River (Xiang jun and Xiang
furen), and the third of a mountain (Shan gui). Note that five of the six male spirits
are at home in the sky, with He bo in his river as the single exception, while all
three female spirits are at home on the earth, two on a river and one on a mountain.
Seen from the perspective of the ritual and symbolic shamanic institution (at least in
its southern Chu guise) that pervades each of the songs, these locations for male sky
spirits and female earth spirits are not inapposite, particularly with respect to early
Chinese conceptions of yang associated with the sky, males, and husbands, and
yin associated with earth, females, and wives.18 Also note that the two female
spirits of the river were believed to be married to the mythic emperor Shun, said to
have reigned from 2233 BC to 2184 BC, and the male spirit of the river was
known to receive a young female human bride every year as sacrifice (a practice
stopped already before the Warring States).19 All nine of the spirits represented in
the Jiu ge participate in the sexual yin and yang categories of the early Chinese reli-
gious and social world.
The sexual characteristics of the nine spirits concern more than their location and
gender. Of the six male spirits, three are represented as descending to the sance
arena to possess the female shaman (Donghuang taiyi, Yunzhong jun, and Dong
jun); two are represented as descending to the sance arena to take possession of
the female shaman before taking her on a spirit-journey (Da siming and Shao
siming); and the last shares a spirit-journey with the female shaman without any expli-
cit description of his initial descent to possess her (He bo). On the other hand, none of
the three female spirits (Xiang jun, Xiang furen, and Shan gui) are represented as ever
having descended to the sance arena to take possession of the male shaman; in every
case the male shaman is represented as spirit-journeying by himself to her domain.
In the Jiu ge, the relations between shamans and spirits are mirrored in terms of
yin and yang. Thus, male shamans who spirit-journey and male spirits who
descend to possess participate in yang by being active and mobile, while female
shamans who get possessed and female spirits who receive (or not) male shamans
participate in yin by being passive and sedentary.20

18
Western-language studies on the sexual categories of yin and yang begin with Granet 1982
(1919) and 1994 (1926), and progress with van Gulik 2003 (1961), Guisso 1981, Golding 2001,
Raphals 1998, and Wang 2012, but none of them go on to relate this to the eroticism of early Chu
shamanism.
19
For more on this legend, see Hawkes 1985, pp. 113114 and Sukhu 2012, pp. 206207.
20
Granted that these structures could bolster arguments that spirit-journeying is a special pre-
rogative of the male shaman while possession is primarily identified with the female shaman, with
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 7

EROTICIZED GENDER RELATIONS IN THE JIU GE

Shamans and spirits in the Jiu ge are never represented as marrying, despite the fact
that they sometimes come close to announcing their desire to do so, as in the song of
the shaman whose temporary alliance with Da siming has just ended; she sings: I
wish only that our tryst of this day could last forever / But obstinate destiny is
unchangingly fixed. / Who is able to alter its dictates? (yuan ruo jin xi wu kui /
gu ren ming xi you dang / shu li he xi ke wei / /
).21 Theirs are temporary alliances, erotic as they remain, and the shamanic
eroticism of the sance event remains the most striking feature of the religious world
evoked in the Jiu ge.
These shamans depend on their ability to attract and seduce spirits, and they do so
through a variety of strategies. The energy of the sance event comes as a direct
product of their displays of shamanic eroticism, and this is far and away the most
effective of the several strategies that they employ, all of which serve the same
end: to attract and seduce the spirits. Their erotic displays include offerings of
flowers, food and alcohol, and music, song, and dance.
These strategies have deep implications for the ways in which the spirits are rep-
resented as being with the shamans. Thus, when male shamans go off to be with
female spirits, they are at pains to collect only the most sensual flowers to offer as
tokens of their desire. In Xiang jun, the shaman sings: My osmanthus oars, my
orchid paddles, / Chop against the ice and chunks of snow, / To gather fig leaves
in the water, / To search for lotus flowers on the tree-tops (gui zhao xi lan yi /
zhuo bing xi ji xue / cai bi li xi shui zhong / qian fu rong xi mu mo /
/ / ).22 Soon after, he also sings: I pick
pollia from the fragrant islet, / To leave as a gift for my Goddess gone under the
waters (cai fang zhou xi du ruo / jiang yi yi xi xia n /
).23 In Shan gui, the shaman sings: I gather sweet scents for the one of my
affections, / Cloistered in the thickness of her bamboo forest where the sun is
never seen (zhe fang xin xi yi suo si / yu chu you huang xi zhong bu jian tian
/ ).24
Certainly the most striking and elaborate representation of erotic and amorous
flower offerings from a male shaman to a female spirit comes in Xiang furen as
he readies their love nest, the site of his expected tryst:

I build a house in the water,

The walls and roof of lotus,
The court of purple cyprus,
The hall of fragrant xanthoxylum,
Beams of osmanthus with orchid rafters,

Lewis 1966 and 1989 and Kendall 1987 providing the classic arguments, I would like to avoid such
claims because the Jiu ge also and in fact give a central position to the female shamans
spirit-journeys.
21
CCJZ 39.
22
CCJZ 33.
23
CCJZ 34.
24
CCJZ 44.
8 THOMAS MICHAEL

Shingles of magnolia, bowers of peony,

Lintels of woven fig-leaves,
Bed-curtain screens of plaited coumarou,
White jades driven to hold everything in place,
Stone-orchids spread for their fragrance,
The lotus chamber ceilinged with iris,
Woven together with stalks of asarum,
I place a hundred bouquets to fill the court,
Their aromas wafting through the porch and the walls. .25

These lines particularly demonstrate the natural lush and sensual luxuriance of the
shamanic eroticism of the Jiu ge. We sense the shamans quiet confidence in expec-
tation of his sexual consummation as he concentrates his entire attention on the
preparation of the love nest; yet he is in no rush. The eroticism of the setting is high-
lighted by the richness of the visual and olfactory evocations brought out by the
elegant variety of flora and their seductively stimulating fragrances.
One passage in Da siming depicts the female shaman with the male spirit as they
undertake a spirit-journey; upon its completion, she stoops to pluck flowers for him
as she sings: I pluck the emerald flowers of the divine hemp / That I offer to my
departed Lord (zhe shu ma xi yao hua / jiang yi yi xi li ju /
).26 This is the only instance of a hemp flower offering in the Jiu ge, and it
is notable because hemp (in this case a floral variety of the cannabis plant) has
long been recognized and administered as an aphrodisiac intended to increase
sexual desire; this too is a mark of the shamanic eroticism of the Jiu ge.
When the females costume is described, it is with special reference to the floral
ornamentations and various other articles that are directly associated with the
spirit whom the shaman intends to attract and seduce.27 Such accoutrements
create an identifiable bond between them that the female shaman puts to her
special advantage, but the flowers employed for enticing the spirit go even beyond
the shamans costume, as the following passage from Shao siming makes clear:

Autumn orchids and asterid lovages,

Their blooms carpet the floor at the foot of the hall.
Verdant leaves with their white flowers,
Their luxuriant fragrance envelops me with their aromas. .28

As for food offerings, it is easy to imagine that the male spirits (and also possibly the
female spirits, although this is never mentioned) have their own favorite foods,

25
CCJZ 3637.
26
CCJZ 38.
27
Male shamans typically pluck flowers to offer to and seduce female spirits, while female
shamans typically adorn themselves with flowers to attract and seduce male spirits, and this
again is in keeping with the yin and yang symbolism at the heart of early Chu shamanism.
28
CCJZ 39.
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 9

which are often described in tandem with the shamans costume. Donghuang taiyi,
for example, presents a rich depiction of this:

Grasping my long swords by their jade hilts

Amidst the tinkling of my lin-lang gem-stones.
The plaited emerald mat is held down with precious jades.
Why not hold up the jade-branch incense?
Steamed meats wrapped in coumarou on a bed of orchids,
Libations of cassia wine and pepper beer. .29

Here the shaman is adorned in the martial attire associated or identified with the
spirit in her efforts to attract and seduce him, with the long swords and girdle pen-
dants; she is, further, erotically pictured holding up the tantalizing dishes and wines
favored by him which are sure to entice, while the fragrant and shadowy billows of
smoke from the smoldering incense branches waft in lingering curls, trailing her
every movement.
In Yunzhong jun, the description of the shaman comes in the first two lines: My
body bathed in warm orchid water, my hair washed in fragrant herbs, / Here I am,
wearing my robe richly brocaded with polis (yu lan tang xi mu fang / hua cai yi xi
ruo ying / ).30Adorned with polis flowers which could
only have been chosen for their particular appeal to the spirit, the shaman is singled
out apart from all other participants in the sance event by her costume first of all.
In Shao siming, these erotic strategies have their intended effect: Autumn
orchids bloom luxuriant / Verdant leaves and mauve stems / The temple is filled
with beautiful women / But his eyes fix on me alone (qiu lan xi qing qing / l ye
xi zi jing / man tang xi mei ren / hu du yu yu xi mu cheng /
/ / ).31 The shamans costume has been designed
for maximum sensuality with its lush floral luxuriousness, all with the exclusive
intent of appealing to the erotic nature of the spirits desire, and it is only after the
spirit has already come to possess the shaman that we get the description of her
costume: A lotus robe, a sash of melilotus (he yi xi hui dai ).32 The
dress of the spirits is also noted in several of the songs, and they are similarly
sensual; in Dong jun, for example, the spirit is described as adorned in my pure-
cloud coat and a white-rainbow robe (qing yun yi xi bai ni chang
).33
In every case, the female shamans attire appeals to the male spirits sense of erotic
attraction, and all of its materials come from natural flora; no mention is ever made
of any of her articles having been constructed from human manufacture. Further-
more, her costume would have no lasting duration or remaining value:
the flowers would have wilted already by the end of the sance, even if they could

29
CCJZ 2930.
30
CCJZ 31.
31
CCJZ 40.
32
CCJZ 40.
33
CCJZ 42.
10 THOMAS MICHAEL

be imagined to have kept their integrity during her erotic furie throughout the course
of it.
That the shamans costume primarily consists of floral materials certainly impres-
ses but does not surprise, because the spirits are beings of nature who inhabit
domains apart from (yet still next to) the human world. The burden of the
shamans is to appeal to the spirits sense of erotic attraction, and they manage
this by relying primarily on their own natural beauty (at least for female shamans;
male shamans rely primarily on their virility) enhanced by the pristine floral pro-
ducts of nature.
In the Jiu ge, the shamanic dance remains de rigueur the main source of the female
shamans erotic appeal to the male spirits.34 Shamanic dance, however, is not
entirely unique in its eroticism and provocativeness, and might in some ways be
compared to the Persian belly dance or the classical Hindu Bharatanatyam dance.
In its performance, shamanic dance is the central force for evoking the deepest
erotic desires, and I regard it as the primary vehicle for the expression of shamanic
eroticism. This eroticism excites the basic instincts for taking possession of the other
and for being taken possession of by the other, totally and completely. It is transgres-
sive in its challenge to socially imposed standards of propriety and moral decorum
and, as well, notably dangerous, because it can unlock the Pandoras box of primal
sexuality that threatens to overflow the limits of its own containment by disrupting
the order of the world with the violence of the libido. I would also argue that this
goes a long way in explaining the Ruist distaste for shamanism. In a word, the
dances of the Jiu ge demonstrate shamanic eroticism unmasked, unleashed,
liberated.
The raw primality of the shamanic dance situates it at the opposite side of the
spectrum from courtly ballroom dancing where single drops of sweat are considered
an unforgiveable faux-pas. While shamanic dance can never be choreographed, and
its efficacy depends on the erotic furie into which the shaman is believed to tap and
surrender, it remains a central part of the shamanic institution at play in the sance
event. The furie of the dance is expected, and the shaman, if successful, will fulfill the
expectations which the community brings to the sance. If not, he or she will be
effectively fired. This should not be entirely foreign to us, as we also have measures
for bad, mediocre, good, and great performance, whether for theater, film, or
orchestra.
Donghuang taiyi presents a remarkable depiction of the shamanic dance. I have
discussed above certain of the shamans preliminary actions that precede it, includ-
ing her ablutions and her raising up of the offerings of food and drink for the spirit.
We next witness the start of her shamanic dance which culminates in her being taken
possession of by the spirit. In this passage, note the building crescendo of her dance

34
But note that the shamanic dancing of male shamans is nowhere mentioned. In general, the
central technique of male shamans is the spirit-journey leading to a direct encounter with the female
spirit, while the central technique of female shamans is the dance which entices the male spirit to
descend and possess her. Eberhard has devoted a section of his work (1968, pp. 7280) to the sha-
manic dancing of early China, but it is very truncated and does not really break the surface of what
is at stake; his most substantial claim is the following: The fundamental difference between sha-
manistic dances, on the one hand, and the group dances of love festivals, war dances, and other
cult dances, on the other hand, is that shamanistic dances are single dances for the purpose of
achieving a special psychic condition (p. 77).
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 11

in accord with the music which in the finale eventuates in the spirit taking possession
of her.

Raise the mallets to beat the drums.

Gradual pulses open the slow tempo of the song.
Enter the ranks of the zithers and flutes to the raucous
rhythm!
Descending in sinuous movements, the spirit possesses
the shaman.
The wafting hazes of fragrant incenses engulf the temple
with a splendid fragrance.
The frenzy of the five notes comes to accord, the dazzling
array!
The Lord savors his pleasure in ease. .35

The spirit is represented as irresistibly enticed by the tantalizing and sensuous food
offerings, the swinging sword, girdle pendants, and floral accoutrements of the
shamans costume, and also, but most importantly, the rhythm of her erotic shama-
nic dance.36 In tandem with the music, her dance begins in slow, undulating rhythms
but builds to crescendo with her erotically charged swirls and twists leading to her
furie during which the spirit sinuously descends (ling yan jian ) into her,
marking not only the apex of her dance but also its conclusion, for then the spirit
has taken possession of her and he savors his pleasure in ease (xin xin xi le
kang ). This too is part of the shamanic institution.
The success of the sance is seen in the crossing of the boundaries separating
humans and spirits (here to there or there to here), and by having them crossed,
they dissolve, at least temporarily. The erotic strategies employed by the shamans
(their displays of costume and adornment, their music, song, and dance, as well
as their offerings of flowers, delicacies, and alcohol) are all chosen for the express
purpose of joining with the spirits and thereby generating, concentrating, and

35
CCJZ 30.
36
The shamanic music that hovers around the sance events of the Jiu ge may or may not be as
ancient as the music of the Xia and Shang Dynasties that might have migrated south in the coming
together of early southern Chu shamanism, but it likely gave a prominence to percussive instru-
ments. Nonetheless, Falkenhausen 1995 has convincingly demonstrated that new technologies
and musical theories surrounding early Chinese bells greatly developed throughout the course of
the Zhou Dynasty which does not mean that if the Jiu ge in fact have ancient pedigrees predating
the origins of the Zhou Dynasty, that they were not also performed with less technologically
advanced percussive instruments. More in relation to the music of the Jiu ge, Bresner (2004,
p. 25) writes, From the end of the 5th century BC, a new music appeared which was opposed
to that which was associated with the Odes of the North. The chords and the airs of the South com-
peted with the traditional percussions. Several anecdotes report the instances of rulers who fell
asleep when hearing the ancient music and could not do without the new tonalities of the South.
But these avant-garde melodies inspired too much languor and eroticism when they were played
slowly. And if the rhythm was accelerated, it excited the nerves too much Such songs are
found in the Chuci under the title of Jiuge.
12 THOMAS MICHAEL

finally releasing the erotic and life-endowing energies of the spiritual realm into that
of the human.37

SPIRIT-JOURNEYS IN THE JIU GE

Songs depicting the male shamans spirit-journeys provide no details of their prelimi-
nary activities that might be seen to launch them during the sance event. We read
nothing concerning their costumes, seduction songs, or dances while they are in
the sance. These songs all open in media res, when the shamans are already
present in the spirits domain, and this is in stark contrast to those songs that
present in such lush detail the preliminary activities of the female shamans.
The three songs depicting the spirit-journeys of male shamans (Xiang jun,
Xiang furen, and Shan gui) describe the female spirits as wary of the male
shamans as if they were intruders. They remain compunctious and mindful of them-
selves as females in relation to males, and they are coy and possibly distracted by
thoughts of those male spirits to whom they may or may not be otherwise predis-
posed; as the shaman sings in Xiang jun: My Goddess does not come, she is too
hesitant. Oh, who amuses her on the island? Playing her bamboo flute, who
lingers in her thoughts? (jun bu xing xi yi you / jian shei liu xi zhong zhou chui
can cha xi shei si / ).38 This song
gives no clear representation of any consummation between the shaman and the
spirit.39 The shaman then finally recognizes that he has lost her as he sings: Unfaith-
ful intercourse breeds bitter resentment. / She does not honor our rendez-vous, saying,

37
While there is an on-going debate concerning the origins of shamanism, whether it has more
to do with hunting or healing, a third motivation has to do with bringing the realms of the human
and the spiritual together in order to release the life-giving energies of the spiritual realm into the
human. The shamanic institution of the Jiu ge seems in no way to concern itself with either hunting
or healing, and if we want to look for its overriding goal, it is here that we will find it.
38
CCJZ 34.
39
With this claim, I defer to the long line of Jiu ge readings spanning from Wang Yi to the
present that insist on the shamans frustration in failing to consummate with the spirit, but I
remain unconvinced. Hawkes writes, In several of the songs a shaman appears in the first half
to be invoking or searching for some god or goddess, and in the second half to be complaining
because the god or goddess, either failed to turn up or left after too short a visit (Hawkes 1985,
p. 96). Bresners comments are also representative of this reading: A man or a woman, after
having been dressed and perfumed with extreme care, attempts to attract a god or a goddess,
then laments because the divinity has refused to appear or because it manifested only for a brief
moment. A dance would have separated the party consecrated to the attempt and those given to
the lamentations. Carnal passion frustrated, tears and cries of disappointment (Bresner 2004,
p. 25). My own reading is more positive, and I see several instances of consummation between
shamans and spirits, with two points important to note. First, the songs give the impression that
the time that shamans and spirits spend together is very short; Sukhu writes that the departure
of the spirit may not be as sudden as the text seems to tell us; the sudden transition between the
arrival and departure of the spirit may in fact hide a gap in the middle of the song where, in
ritual performance, the love affair between the shamanka and the spirit was danced or acted
out (Sukhu 2012, p. 77). Second, the melancholy that Bresner ascribes to the shamans frustra-
tion is, in my opinion, better read as the exhaustion experienced (or represented, at least in terms of
the shamanic institution) by the shaman at the end of the sance. I intend in a future work to pursue
a reading that entertains the possibility that there is indeed a consummation here as well as in the
other two male shaman songs, but this does not affect my arguments in the present article.
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 13

I have not the time. (jiao bu zhong xi yuan chang / qi bu xin xi gao yu yi bu xian
/ ).40
In Shan gui, after the male shaman has spirit-journeyed to the mountain domain
of the female spirit in his attempt to seduce her, he also is frustrated and sings: I see a
figure appearing on the flank of the mountain, / Her body covered in fig leaves,
girdled with rabbit silk. / With a seductive glance and a disarming smile, / She
says, You desire me, for I am beautiful and gracious. (ruo you ren xi shan zhi e
/ pi bi li xi dai n luo / ji han di xi you yi xiao / zi mu yu xi shan you tiao
/ / / ).41 Here, she
turns the tables on his erotic strategies as she tantalizes and titillates him. When
he comes to realize that his rendez-vous will bear no fruit, he sings: Bitterly sorrow-
ful at her failure to come, in my frustration I forget to go back. / My Goddess has me
in mind but says, I no longer have time for you. / My Goddess keeps me in mind
but says, I must hold myself back from you. (yuan gong zi xi chang wang gui / jun
si wo xi bu de xian jun si wo xi ran yi zuo /
).42
In Xiang furen, a very different outcome is indicated in which the tryst is indeed
represented as achieving consummation. Having arrived at her aquatic domain in
the watery depths of Dongting Lake, she finds him and says: I hear my beloved
beckoning to me, / We mount the chariot and race off together (wen jia ren xi
zhao yu / jiang teng jia xi xie shi / ).43 They then
proceed on a further spirit-journey to their love nest (described above) where she
is sufficiently enamored with his erotic strategies of seduction that she gives
herself to him. Their consummation is marked by the descent of numerous mountain
spirits who come to celebrate, or even possibly to hide, this hieros gamos (she is in
fact one of the two wives of Shun who would most likely not appreciate this tempor-
ary alliance of coincidentia oppositorum). The shaman portrays this in his song with
the words: The spirits from Mount Jiuyi welcome us, / Their thronging arrival is
thick like that of gathering clouds (Jiuyi bin xi bing ying / ling zhi lai xi ru yun
/ ).44
Representations of the consummations and frustrations of the female shamans in
the Jiu ge are subject to many of the same ambiguities as those of the male shamans,
although male spirits are more open to the seductions of female shamans than are
female spirits to those of male shamans. The erotic desire of the female shaman in
Da siming is represented as achieving consummation, but the sequence and mech-
anics at play in its erotic strategies slightly differ from those involving male shamans,
notably the timing of the flower offerings which here follow the consummation
rather than precede it.
Da siming opens from the point of view and in the voice of the male spirit
soaring on his own spirit-journey; he sings: Open wide Heavens Gate, / In splendor
I harness my dark cloud, / I summon the winds to clear the way before me, / And
order the rains to wash away the dust (guang kai xi tian men / fen wu cheng xi

40
CCJZ 34.
41
CCJZ 45.
42
CCJZ 45.
43
CCJZ 36.
44
CCJZ 37.
14 THOMAS MICHAEL

xuan yun / ming piao feng xi xian qu shi dong yu xi sa chen /

/ ).45
Her erotic dance catches his attention and he swoops down to scoop her away
with him; she sings, Lord, in sweeping circles you descend to me, / I accompany
you in crossing Mount Kongsang (jun hui xiang xi yi xia / yu Kongsang xi cong
n / ).46 The consummation of their alliance is rep-
resented in images of ecstatic flight that call upon the symbolism of the union of
yin and yang:

Our towering flight, soaring serenely,

Harnessing the pure vapors, steering through yin and yang,
Together with my Lord in pure velocity.
Leading the Emperor of Heaven through the Nine
Mountains,
His sacred robes in billowing folds,
His jade pendants dangle and dazzle.
Now in the yin, now in the yang,
No one knows what it is that we do. .47

Her erotic ecstasy is depicted in the images of her riding through the skies with him
in pure velocity (zhai su ) while steering through the yin and the yang (yu
yin yang ). This does more than border on the orgasmic; it is in fact the con-
summation of shamanic eroticism. In the language of the Jiu ge, such consumma-
tions are never explicitly articulated; they linger, rather, at the hazy center of the
mysteries of shamanic eroticism.
He bo provides another striking instance of the female shamans spirit-journey,
and it too opens in medias res in which the spirit has already taken her.

I roam together with you along the Nine Rivers,

As a mighty wind arises, unleashing the waves.
Mounted on a water chariot, with its lotus dais,
Pulled by two dragons and flanked with serpents on
all sides.
We ascend Mount Kunlun to survey the four quarters.
My heart is dizzy and flutters, overcome with giddiness.
Enraptured by you under the setting sun, I forget to .48
go back.

The language of this passage unmistakably makes clear that they have achieved con-
summation in the course of their spirit-journey. Riding together in the chariot as they

45
CCJZ 38.
46
CCJZ 38.
47
CCJZ 38.
48
CCJZ 43.
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 15

fly over mountains and rivers, directly recalling the erotically charged pure vel-
ocity (zhai su) of Da siming, the shaman sings, My heart is dizzy and flutters,
overcome with giddiness. Enraptured by you under the setting sun, I forget to go
back (xin fei yang xi hao tang / ri jiang mu xi chang wang gui /
).
Male shamans, in the employment of their erotic strategies intended to seduce
their targeted female spirits, spirit-journey to the domains that those spirits
inhabit; they are suitors or intruders, as the case may be. Female shamans, on the
other hand, employ other kinds of seductive strategies meant to attract male
spirits into the sance arena, even into their own bodies, with their erotic
enticements.

POSSESSIONS IN THE JIU GE

Above, I discussed the seductive strategies at play in Donghuang taiyi, with atten-
tion to the female shamans dance leading to her possession by the male spirit. This
possession occurrence, however, does not mark the conclusion of the sance, for he
remains in the sance arena, present by way of the bodily anchor she provides. Phys-
ically present and holding his long swords in his hands (or her hands, as the case may
be), it finishes with these words: The Lord takes his pleasure, happy and at ease (jun
xin xin xi le kang ).49 He partakes of the offerings, all the while sharing
his presence with the sance participants there to worship and celebrate him.
The sance event depicted in Yunzhong jun shows the success of the shamans
erotic dance, and the spirit has been hooked:

In flutters and coilings, the spirit

takes me, he lingers.
His brightness unhindered shines
forth,
As we solemnly proceed to the
Temple of Longevity.
His radiance equals that of the sun
and the moon.
In his royal finery, he mounts his
dragon chariot,
Now soaring aloft, tracing orbits on
high.
The spirit in a shower of radiance
descended into me,
When of a sudden he flew off into the
distance returning to the clouds.
He gazes down upon Jizhou and the
lands beyond.
Circling the Four Seas, where will he
stop?

49
CCJZ 30.
16 THOMAS MICHAEL

I remember my Lord and heave a

great sigh.
In utter exhaustion, my heart is pure .50
anguish.

Depicting the very act of the spirits possession of the shaman as he comes to her in the
fullness of his ethereal being described in a reduplicated term for brightness (zhao
zhao ), her experience of being taken possession of is also described in terms of
luminosity: The spirit in a shower of radiance descended into me (ling huang
huang xi ji jiang ). The verb used here (jiang ) is a technical term for
descending and taking possession of the shaman.51 Embodying the fullness of yang
in his most erotically charged spiritual manifestation, his luminosity overwhelms her.
The spirit needs the body of the shaman to physically manifest and inhabit the
sance arena, and once he has, he proceeds to the Temple of Longevity (shou gong
) to take his leisure.52 Yunzhong jun then jumps to the spirits departure and
its final lines describe the anguish of her emotional distress recognized by any lover
immediately abandoned after coitus: I remember my Lord and heave a great sigh
(si fu jun xi tai xi ). She pines for him with an overwhelming emptiness
brought on by his abrupt departure, better conceived as the residue of the petite mort
rather than frustration, and she sings, In utter exhaustion, my heart is pure anguish
(ji lao xin xi chong chong ). This too is a central feature of the shamanic
institution, and He bo echoes these sentiments as the shaman, back from her spirit-
journey over rivers and mountains, sings: Returned to myself, I long for those distant

50
CCJZ 3132.
51
The term jiang is laden with significance for the shamans furie. Keightley (1989, p. 12)
argues that jiang refers to nothing more than that the spirits descend to the ritual arena, but
Sukhu (2012, p. 36) argues that the spirits descend into the body of the shaman to possess her.
I am persuaded that jiang signifies the spirit coming into possession of the shaman, and Zhu Xi
(CCJZ 30) is of the same mind: In ancient times, the shaman made the spirit descend into
(jiang) her. When the spirit descended into her, it rested in her, and all could see the beauty
of her appearance and the fineness of her dress. While it was the shamans body, it was the
spirits heart (). Mathieu
(1987, pp. 1516) even questions whether or not the body belonged to the shaman during the posses-
sion: Shamans were the receptacles of spiritual powers: their mouth was that of the divinity, their
members were its agents The presence of the spirits among the people thus occurred by the incor-
poration of their being into that of the shaman. About possession as incorporation, Rouget writes,
For a longer or shorter period the subject then becomes the god. He is the god. We can call this pos-
session in the strict sense of the word (Rouget 1985, p. 26). Although these ideas are in exact keeping
with the southern Chu shamanic institution, they still embarrass. I want to keep myself in the realm of
representation, not psychology, for what can we know about what shamans really experience when
they perform?
52
Wang Yi (CCJZ 31) writes that this Temple was where the spirits rested, and he takes it as
the ritual arena for sance events. Zhang Jun writes about three kinds of shamans: The first were
travelling shamans; the second were shamans who were members of small shamanic associations
centered around temples and shrines (including shaman associations around shaman temples
that were subsidized by royal courts and other officials); and the third were lineage shamans cen-
tered in lineage estates. The shamans of Chu were mostly of the first two categories, and the
majority of them were of the second category (Zhang Jun 1994, p. 419). I think the Temple of
Longevity might just refer to where these Chu shamans, as a corporate body, lived and performed,
as described by Zhang Jun, and this would clarify why Yunzhong jun would be at ease there.
 SHAMANIC EROTICISM IN THE JIU GE (NINE SONGS) OF EARLY CHINA 17

rivers But you bid me farewell to take up your eastern journey (wei ji pu xi wu huai
/ zi jiao shou xi dong xing / ).53
Underscoring the spirits erotic attraction for the shaman, Shao siming describes
the sance arena replete with flowers beautifully arranged intended to entice and
seduce him, and he took possession of her; it then continues:

The hall is filled with lovely women,

But your eyes suddenly fix on me alone.
Without a word you came to me, without a word you left,
Riding your wind-vortex with cloud-banners flying.
No affliction is more afflicting than separation,
No happiness was happier than our first knowing .54
each other.

In typical fashion, the song truncates the possession period, moving quickly from his
attraction for her, to his possession of her, to his departure from her. What remains is
the residue of their alliance, remembered by her in terms of their first knowledge of
each other (xin xiang zhi ), a phrase replete with erotic connotations, and we
feel her physical and emotional exhaustion described in terms of her anguish at their
separation.
The most erotically charged of the Jiu ge is Dong jun, entirely presented in the
voice of the spirit (but performed and sung by the female shaman, or so we can only
imagine), and it portrays his erotic attraction for her in full force. It opens with the
launching of his own spirit-journey from the east to the west (in keeping with the
solar symbolism of his yang associations) before the day has started in the lingering
hours of the night, his radiant brightness illuminating the lands below. In the course
of his journey, the shamans seductive strategies involving food and wine offerings as
well as the music and dancing indeed catches his attention, and he says:

Your music and beauty distracts and delights me!

I, the spectator enchanted, forget to go back.
Pluck loudly your zithers to the beat of the drums!
Strike the bronze bells on their jade-studded hangs!
Blow forth the flutes and sound off the reed organs!
I see you, shaman, inspired and ravishing!
You flutter and whirl like a king-fisher in flight.
Displaying your verse in time with the dance,
The pipes keep their measure in accord with your steps.
The descent of my spirits darkens the sun! .55

53
CCJZ 43.
54
CCJZ 40.
55
CCJZ 41.
18 THOMAS MICHAEL

Already having taken possession of the shaman, and as the day breaks, he remains
reluctant to depart because his erotic desire for her has still not been completely sat-
isfied. He commands the musicians to continue their performance, while she mean-
while never ceases her dancing: her body possessed by the spirit responds to the
music and also sings by nature, without any trace of conscious activity or intent
to do so on her part.
In possession of the continuously dancing shaman, he is present to the sance par-
ticipants. Her dance is so powerful, so enticing, and so erotically charged that it
attracts numberless other spirits, drawing them as well to the sance arena: The
descent of my spirits darkens the sun (ling zhi lai xi bi ri ).

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The Jiu ge represent the most remarkable textual evidence for the early Chinese tra-
dition of southern Chu shamanism. Shamanisms absolute sine qua non remains the
phenomenon of direct encounter and communication between humans and spirits
for the benefit of the community, and this is amply demonstrated in the Jiu ge.
More, they express the nature and mechanism of these direct encounters and com-
munications as spirit-journeys or possessions, all of which are grounded in the eroti-
cism that the shamans direct to the spirits.

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CHINESE ABSTRACT

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTOR
Thomas Michael (Ma Simai ) received his Ph.D. in History of Religions from Univer-
sity of Chicago in 2001. He is Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy at Beijing
Normal University. Michaels research and publication focuses on early Chinese philosophy
and religion. In addition to The Pristine Dao: Metaphysics in Early Daoist Discourse
(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005) and In the Shadows of the Dao:
Laozi, the Sage, and the Daodejing (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press,
2015), Michael has published articles on Daoism and shamanism in the Journal of the Amer-
ican Academy of Religion, History of Religions, Numen, and the Journal of Daoist Studies,
and he has also contributed book chapters to several edited volumes. He is currently
working on a book-length study of shamanism in early China.
Correspondence to: School of Philosophy, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjie
kouwai Street, Beijing, 100875, P.R. China. Email: maike966@gmail.com