by Franciscus Verellen

The system of Twenty-four Dioceses formed the framework for ordering the ritual space administered by the ancient Heavenly Master community in the region of modern Sichuan in southwestern China. Endowed with multiple cosmological correspondences, the dioceses were conceptualized as projections of the stellar mansions on earth. They also constituted a hierarchically structured network of holy places, many of which commemorated founding acts of the movement’s first patriarch, Zhang Daoling. The sites were marked by temples that functioned as the main liturgical centers of the movement and as seats of its ecclesial administration. Here household registers of parishioners were kept, contributions collected, confessions transcribed and submitted to the gods, and communal and individual rituals performed. Finally, the Twenty-four Dioceses, mirroring the twenty-four-fold structures of the universe, the body, and cosmic time, played a central role of the Heavenly Master charter for salvation. Against the background of widespread expectations that the world would end after the end of the Han dynasty in 220 A.D., followers of the Heavenly Master joined the congregation of the elect who would survive the impending cataclysm by registering as members of their allotted diocese.

This study analyses the spatial and ritual dimensions of the sacred realm that was marked out by the Twenty-four Dioceses. It is based on the earliest available sources regarding this fundamental institution in the history of Chinese religions, including newly identified works of the ancient Heavenly Master canon. The narrative traces the reconfiguration and ultimate spiritualization of the system’s topography in the wake of the movement’s historical expansion throughout China. A series of maps and figures illustrate the spatial disposition of the sites, their cosmological correspondences, and the liturgical functions of the dioceses.

Components

1. Authored text by Franciscus Verellen, including a table titled “Schematization of diocesan correspondences,” a gazetteer of the twenty-four sites, a list of Chinese and Japanese references, and 141 footnotes. The text features Chinese characters in UTF8 code.

2. TimeMap layers, by Justin O'Jack (UCSB)

3. Five digital images (Fig. 1-5), of which four are reproduced from traditional Chinese sources and one from a modern Chinese publication.

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.May 2005

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