534 joshua capitanio
Other Deities
In addition to these few examples, a number of other deities of Buddhist
origin can be found within these ritual manuals, such as Nata ̣
(Davis 2001, 48–49), Ucchusma (Huiji jin’gang ̣ ) (Davis
2001, 128–152), Mahāmāyūrī (Kongque mingwang ),^18
Gaṇeśa (Davis 2001, 284 n. 48), and other minor deities such as the
Four Heavenly Kings, eight great vajra [beings],^19 various Buddhist
nāgarāja,^20 and the like.
Conclusion
As the above examples indicate, Daoist ritualists incorporated a con-
siderable number of elements from esoteric Buddhist traditions in
forming these new styles of Daoist ritual that emerged during the Song
dynasty. More work remains to be done in further investigating the
nature and extent of the contact between Daoist and esoteric Buddhist
ritualists during this period, and in continuing to investigate the spe-
cific sources for some of these borrowed concepts. However, it must
be emphasized that, despite the presence of such Buddhist-inspired
elements, the practices described in the texts under consideration here
are not merely Buddhist rituals in a Daoist guise. These ritual practices
are still overwhelmingly Daoist in character; that is, at their core lies a
certain set of assumptions concerning the nature of humanity and its
relationship with the supernatural that is consistent with the earliest
forms of organized Daoist religious activity.^21 Thus, just as important
(^18) Several individual texts are devoted to the cult of this goddess (CT 1433–1435);
see Schipper and Verellen 2004, 1233–1234.
(^19) Often found together, as in CT 1220, 165:15a, in which a ritual method associated
with Tianpeng and the Northern Emperor calls on the “Four Heavenly Gate Kings and
eight great 20 vajra [beings]”.
For example, CT 1220, 61:6b, lists [Va]suki , Nanda , [Ta]ksaka ,
[Anava]tapta , Bhadra , and others. For more on the incorporation of Bud-
dhist nāgarāja into Daoist rainmaking ritual, see Capitanio (2008, 195).
(^21) Among other notions, this would include the related concepts of (1) the human
body as a microcosm populated by a number of specific deities, and of (2) the priest as
an investitured member of an extra-worldly bureaucracy. Regarding the first notion,
Reiter (2007a, 16) has said that the practitioner of thunder rituals “first addresses
divine and transcendent entities that are not at all beyond the confines of his own
human body.... [The Daoists] developed and fostered specific convictions concerning
the divine nature of the human being... [that are] the absolute basis for any ritual
activity.” For more on the Daoist notion of the human body as microcosm, see Schip-
per (1978). The second concept, of the priest as a bureaucrat, encompasses several