Bai Ze (simplified Chinese:
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Imperial_Encyclopaedia_-_Animal_Kingdom_-_pic155_-_%E7%99%BD%E6%BE%A4%E5%9C%96.png/300px-Imperial_Encyclopaedia_-_Animal_Kingdom_-_pic155_-_%E7%99%BD%E6%BE%A4%E5%9C%96.png)
In the Ming Dynasty book SanCai TuHui (
The only existing evidence related to Bái Zé Tú in China is an incomplete Dunhuang manuscript. It is said to have been copied in the 9th or 10th century and titled “Baize-jing guai—tu” ‘Bai Ze Diagrams of Spectral Prodigies’ (
In the folk beliefs of imperial China, Bai Ze also symbolized the ability to expel ghosts and ward off evil spirits.[4] According to the legend of Bai Ze, the remaining scrolls of the "Baize-jing guai—tu" recorded the signs of strange phenomena and evil spirits. It also detailed the disasters caused by these evil ghosts, as well as methods to avoid these calamities.[5] At the same time, besides serving as divination texts, according to Chinese records from the 9th to 10th centuries, there was a custom of hanging drawings of Bai Ze in households to protect against spirit-world harm, while Bai Ze diagram is also used to pray for the well-being and health of family members .[3]
In Japan
editIn Japan, Bai Ze is also called Hakutaku. The oldest known depiction of Hakutaku appears in the Tiandi ruixiang zhi ‘Treatise on the Auspicious Signs of Heaven and Earth’ (
In Zen and Japanese Culture, D. T. Suzuki describes the hakutaku as "a mythical creature whose body resembles a hand and whose head is human. It was anciently believed that the creature ate our bad dreams and evil experiences, and for this reason, people, wishing it to eat up all the ills which we are likely to suffer, used to hang its picture on the entrance gate or inside the house.[7]
Gallery
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Baize by Toriyama Sekien
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Portrait of the Bai Ze on a Ryūkyūan scroll painting by Gusukuma Seihō
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Edo era Japanese illustration of Bai Ze
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b He 2013, pp. 50.
- ^ Chou 2016, pp. 48.
- ^ a b Harper 2018, pp. 214.
- ^ He 2013, pp. 53.
- ^ Sasaki 2012, pp. 74.
- ^ Harper 2018, pp. 215.
- ^ Suzuki 2010, pp. 168.
References
edit- Chou, Hsipo
周 西 波 (2016). "The Baize Cult and Its Changing Images白澤 信仰 及其形像 轉變 ". Studies on Tun-Huang敦煌 學 . 32: 45–58. ISBN 978-986-88194-7-4. - Harper, Donald (2018). "Hakutaku Hi Kai Zu". Asian Medicine (Leiden, Netherlands). 2: 50–53. ISSN 1573-4218.
- He, Lingxia
何 凌 霞 (2013). "A STUDY ON "BAIZE" "白 泽"考 论". Journal of Yunmeng云 梦学刊 . 6: 50–53. ISSN 1006-6365. - Sasaki, Satoshi
佐佐木 聪 (2012). "Research on Original Dunhuang Manuscript Baize-jing guai—tu(P.2682) Kept at the National Library of France法藏 《白 泽精惟 图》(P.2682)". Dunhuang Research敦煌 研究 . 3: 73–81. ISSN 1000-4106. - Suzuki, Daisetz Teitarō (2010). Zen and Japanese Culture. US: Princeton. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-691-14462-7.