Fangxiangshi
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thumb|200px|Chinese Han dynasty#Eastern Han|Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE) tomb guardian figure identified as a Fangxiangshi The fangxiangshi () or just Fangxiang was a Chinese ritual exorcist. His primary duties were orchestrating the seasonal Nuo ritual to chase out disease-causing demons from houses and buildings, and leading a funeral procession to exorcize corpse-eating wangliang spirits away from a burial chamber. Ancient Chinese texts record that he wore a bearskin with four golden eyes, and carried a lance and shield to expel malevolent spirits. From the Han dynasty through the Tang d
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Encyclopedic overview
11 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Translations
- Early references
- Han dynasty
- Southern and Northern dynasties
- Tang dynasty
- Later periods
- Interpretations
- Japanese ''hōsōshi''
- See also
- References
thumb|200px|Chinese Han dynasty#Eastern Han|Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE) tomb guardian figure identified as a Fangxiangshi The fangxiangshi () or just Fangxiang was a Chinese ritual exorcist. His primary duties were orchestrating the seasonal Nuo ritual to chase out disease-causing demons from houses and buildings, and leading a funeral procession to exorcize corpse-eating wangliang spirits away from a burial chamber. Ancient Chinese texts record that he wore a bearskin with four golden eyes, and carried a lance and shield to expel malevolent spirits. From the Han dynasty through the Tang dynasty (3rd century BCE to 10th century CE), fangxiangshi were official wu-shaman specialists in the imperially sanctioned Chinese state religion; after the Tang, they were adapted into popular folk religion and symbolized by wearing a four-eyed mask.
In the present day, the fangxiangshi is a masked character in Chinese Nuo opera, and continues as the Japanese equivalent exorcist in Shinto ceremonies.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Fangxiangshi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.