Fangxiangshi
| Fangxiangshi | |||||||||||||||||
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| Literal meaning | directions scrutinizing master | ||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | fāngxiàngshì |
| Wade–Giles | fang-hsiang-shih |
| Middle Chinese | |
| Middle Chinese | pjangsjangdzyeX |
| Old Chinese | |
| Baxter-Sagart | paŋ[s]aŋk.deʔ |
| Transcriptions | |
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| Revised Romanization | bangsangssi |
| McCune–Reischauer | pangsangssi |
| Transcriptions | |
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| Revised Hepburn | hōsōshi |
The fangxiangshi 方相氏 was a Chinese ritual exorcist, the meaning of whose name is obscure but has been translated as "one who sees in all (four) directions", "he who scrutinizes for evil in many directions", and "one who orients unwanted spirits in the direction to which they belong". Ancient Chinese texts record that he wore a bearskin with four golden eyes, and carried a lance and shield to expel malevolent spirits. 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. 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 hōsōshi 方相氏 exorcist in Shinto ceremonies.
The obscure etymology of fāngxiàngshì is a subject of disagreement. The name combines three words, with the following Old Chinese pronunciations and meanings (Schuessler 2007: 231, 531, 466):
Scholars agree that shi < *geʔ is the Chinese honorific suffix translating "master; lord", but construe fangxiang < *paŋsaŋh in various ways. Fang 方 is also a common Chinese surname.
The earliest interpretation was Zheng Xuan's (2nd century CE) Zhouli commentary (see below). Zheng explains fāngxiàng(shì) as fàngxiǎng 放想, substituting fàng "put away; banish" for fāng 方 and xiǎng "think; imagine" for xiàng 相. This ambiguous fàngxiǎng 放想 gloss is translated as "expellers of formidable things" (Laufer 1914: 198), "to give release to one's thinking . . . so as to have an awesome and terrifying appearance" (Bodde 1975:79), and "to cause visions to be forthcoming; to conjure up visions" (Boltz 1979: 431). Boltz says Bodde misunderstood this term because Zheng was reaffirming that xiàng 相 means not just "observe; scrutinize", but "vision; image; phantasy", cognate with xiǎng 想 "to draw up a mental image; vision", as well as with xiàng "image; representation". Therefore, Boltz (1979: 431) concludes it was not the appearance of the fangxiangshi that is important, but "the visions which he brings forth (and which presumably only he can see) that are crucial. In this sense he should be called the Master of Visions, or Imaginator, or Phantasmagoricist."
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