A Galaxy of Immortal Women by Brian Griffith

Author:Brian Griffith [Griffith, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Exterminating Angel Press
Published: 2012-03-29T20:00:00+00:00

China’s popular culture is filled with partly real and partly fictional heroes, who often resembled Robin Hood or Spartacus, and sometimes became gods or goddesses. As the struggles between autocrats and rebels split the world, so rebellion often spread to the heavens. While some deities solemnly upheld the ruling powers, others were divine outlaws. There was the monkey god, Sun Wukong, who proclaimed himself “The Great Sage Equal to Heaven,” and embarked on a riotous insurrection against the whole hierarchy of the Jade Emperor. More rebel heroes fill the folklore classics, such as The Water Margin, The Enfeoffment of the Gods, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or The Quelling of the Demons. There were utterly eccentric rebel deities like the Eight Immortals, the fat cloth-bag Buddha known as Budai Heshang, or Jigong the Mad Monk. In general, the rebellious deities always seemed to be the most popular (Shahan, 1996, 199–201). Goddesses like the Queen Mother of the West, Chang’e, Guanyin, or the Eternal Mother reportedly lent their hands to protect rebels or kill emperors.

Of course China is famous for tyranny, and for thousands of years tyranny seemed to be a core Chinese value. But China also has the world’s greatest tradition of popular rebellion. As Mao Zedong reflected in 1939, “In thousands of years of the history of the Hans [Chinese], there have been hundreds of peasant insurrections great or small, against the regime of darkness imposed by the landlords and nobility. And it was the peasant uprisings that brought about most dynastic changes” (De Bary and Chan, 1960, vol. II, 216). Peasant revolts played a major part in bringing down almost every major dynasty of the past 2,200 years: the Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and the Qing. Then, a peasant revolution overthrew the Nationalist government in 1949. If we compare this record with Europe’s, each major Chinese dynasty is like a reincarnation of the Roman empire. It’s as if the Roman empire rose and fell, not once, but about eight times. And several of those rises or falls happened through massive peasant rebellions.

In ancient and medieval Europe, peasant revolts were also endemic. But almost all of them were local affairs, which were quickly crushed by regional militias of the ruling houses. No peasant uprisings grew massive enough to threaten the Roman empire, and few endangered the thrones of medieval kings. Also, the prevailing attitude toward peasant rebels was different in Europe. In medieval European records of state or church, the scribes display naked contempt for rebellious peasants. Villagers who rebelled against church, state, and lord were officially recorded as diabolical heretics and terrorists against God. In 1358, Canon Jean le Bel explained a wave of French peasant revolts as “uncontrolled diabolical madness” and “senseless beastly rage” (Cohn, 2006, 15). Of course Chinese officials also condemned rebels who “form bands and carry out despicable acts as if they were outside the pale of civilization” (Ownby, 2002, 229). And some rebel leaders were basically scourges of the earth, like the almost unbelievably destructive Huang Chao in the 800s.

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