List of wu shamans

Wu (Chinese: 巫; pinyin: wū; Wade–Giles: wu; literally: "shaman") shaman are spirit mediums who have practiced divination, prayer, sacrifice, rainmaking, and healing in Chinese traditions dating back over 3,000 years. Various wu shaman are known from thousands of years of Chinese folk religion, mythology, and poetry. Individually and collectively they form an important part of the world's cultural heritage.

Word wu

Chinese Seal script for wu 巫 "shaman"
Main article: Wu (shaman)

The Chinese word wu 巫 "spirit medium; shaman; shamaness; sorcerer; doctor; proper names" was first recorded during the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600-1046 BCE), when a wu could be either sex. Shaman is the common English translation of Chinese wu, but some scholars (de Groot 1910, Mair 1990:35) maintain that the Siberian shaman and Chinese wu were historically and culturally different shamanic traditions. Arthur Waley (1955:9) defines wu as "spirit-intermediary" and says, "Indeed the functions of the Chinese wu were so like those of Siberian and Tunguz shamans that it is convenient (as has indeed been done by Far Eastern and European writers) to use shaman as a translation of wu. In contrast, Schiffeler (1976:20) describes the "untranslatableness" of wu, and prefers using the romanization "wu instead of its contemporary English counterparts, "witches," "warlocks," or "shamans"," which have misleading connotations. Taking wu to mean "female shaman", Edward H. Schafer translates it as (1951:153) "shamaness" and (1980:11) "shamanka". The transliteration-translation "wu shaman" or "wu-shaman" (Unschuld 1985:344) implies "Chinese" specifically and "shamanism" generally. Wu, concludes Falkenhausen (1995:280), "may be rendered as "shaman" or, perhaps, less controversially as "spirit medium"." Paper (1995:85) criticizes "the majority of scholars" who use one word shaman to translate many Chinese terms (wu 巫, xi 覡, yi 毉, xian 仙, and zhu 祝), and writes, "The general tendency to refer to all ecstatic religious functionaries as shamans blurs functional differences." The word "shaman" is often pluralized as "shamans", especially in old school sources, but may also be formed into a plural without morphological change, as just "shaman". The -man ending is distinct from the English word "man", referring to a human being, although some speakers may treat it as such.

Li Sao shaman list

In the Li Sao, two individual shaman are specified.

(Hawkes:45, note 9)

This Wu Xian may or may not be the same as the (one or more) historical person(s) named Wu Xian. Hawkes suggests an equation of the word ling in the Chu dialect with the word wu.(46 and 84)

Shanhaijing 6 list

In some cases, the individual wu shaman are known from sources, such as the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas). The name of some individual shaman includes "Wu" (巫) in the normal position of the family surname, for example, in the case of the following list, where the 6 are depicted together reviving a corpse, with Wu Peng holding the Herb of Immortality.(Hawkes:45 and 230-231):

Wu Peng and Wu Yang and others are also known from the Chu Ci poetry anthology. Wu Yang is the major speaker in Zhao Hun (also known as, Summons for the Soul).

Shanhaijing 10 list

The Lingshan 10 are:

Historical and legendary shaman by dynasty

Shang

Qin

See also

References

External links

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