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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.mythology,alt.christnet.demonology,alt.satanism,alt.philosophy.taoism
From: satanservice.org@boboroshi (SOD of the CoE)
Subject: Satanism and Chinese Demonology 
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2003 10:16:53 GMT

50030607 VIII om

Satanism / Demonology:Chinese -- 

"Scott Mcclintock" :
# Im really interested on some sort of reference book for Chinese
# demons/demonology.  Any hints, suggestions or guidance would be
# SIGNIFICANTLY appreciated.  

d00d, 
our interest is identical and I'll be happy to provide what I can:

I've selected three texts semi-randomly to look in for you, because
they were to hand and I'd intended to look in them for material on
the subject of Satanism also: 

	Rudwin's The Devil in Legend and Literature
	Messadie's A History of the Devil
and a new acquisition
	Carus' The History of the Devil

first Rudwin:

	The demons do not always remain in desert places.
	They can also sustain themselves in the civilized
	spots of this earth, and indeed their presence is
	felt everywhere on this globe. Certain parts of
	this planet are evidently more favoured by their
	presence than others, for China teems with demons.
	Indeed, there is one particular province in that
	country which is known as "Demonland." p. 63.

not on your topic but of relevance to Satan-as-hero material is:

	Apart from this diabolization of other men's deities
	as a result of denominational differences and
	sectarian strife, there actually were within the
	Church, down to the thirteenth century, many
	heretical sects, who fully deserved the term of
	devil-worshippers.

	[author's note:
		The Devil has always counted his admirers
		and adorers even among the orthodox Christians.
		Many devout church folk, wishing to be on good
		terms with both parties, offer their allegiance
		to both the Lord and Lucifer. An English
		preacher of American extraction, M.D. Conway,
		tells of a Christian lady residing in Hampshire,
		England, who made her children bow their heads
		whenever they mentioned the name of the Devil.
		When asked the reason for her queer conduct,
		she replied: "It is safer." He also relates the
		story of a French peasant woman who was found
		one day in a church kneeling before a marble 
		group. When she was warned by the priest that
		she was worshipping the wrong figure, namely,
		Beelzebub, she replied: "Never mind, it is well
		to have friends on both sides." (*Cf*. M.D. Conway:
		*Demonology and Devil-Lore*, 2 vols., London, 1879,
		II, 13.)]

                           Among the groups who continued within
	Christianity the traditions of Persian Magianism, Gnosticism
	and Michaeism, we may mention the Priscillianists of Spain,
	the Paulicians, the Bogomiles, the Catharists, and the
	Albigenses. The German Luciferians, of the thirteenth
	century, expressed their adoration for Lucifer in the belief
	that they had been unjustly banished from heaven and
	pronounced anathema against St. Michael, his conqueror. The
	Fench woman novelist, George Sand, puts her belief in the
	unjust treatment dealt out to the Devil by his celestial
	comrades in the mouth of the followers of Johann Huss in
	Bohemia, whom she designates as Lollards, a term really
	applied to the followers of Wycliffe. In her novel,
	*Consuelo* (1842-3), she tells us that

		"In the opinion of the Lollards, Satan was not the
		enemy of the human race, but, on the contrary, its
		protector and patron. They held that he was a
		victim of injustice and jealousy. According to them,
		the archangel Michael and the other celestial powers
		who had precipitated him into the abyss, were the
		real demons, while Lucifer, Beelzebub, Ashtaroth,
		Astarte, and all the monsters of hell, were
		innocence and light themselves. They believed that
		the reign of Michael and his glorious host would
		soon come to an end, and that the Devil would be
		restored and reinstated in heaven with his accursed
		myrmidons. They paid him an impoius worship and
		accosted each other by saying,

		 *Celui a qui on a fait tort te salue*

		-- that is to say, 

		He who has been misunderstood and unjustly
		condemned, salute thee -- that is, protect
		and assist thee."

	Among contemporary devil-worshippers we will mention
	Yezidis, a sect living in ancient Assyria, on the
	slopes of the mountain called Djebel Makub, who still
	worship the Devil as creator of the world and author
	of evil, the black Jews in Cochin, British India, and
	the Voodoos of the West Indies and Haiti. There are
	infernal cults also in the North of China, in Africa,
	near Lake Tschad, the South of India, in the Solomon
	Islands, and in the New Hebrides.

	[author's note:
                On the Yezidis, consult Isga Joseph's tesis,
		*Devil-Worship*. (Boston, 1919.) See also
		R.M. Macdonall's article "Solomon Islands
		and the New Hebrides", in *Cornhill's
		Magazine*, vol. LXIV (1928), pp. 178-92.]
	-----------------------------------------------------
	pp. 149-50.

interesting but barely touching on China at all.

Messadie has a ton of references in his index [all to one
single section in his book], which I'll explore for substance 
on Chinese demonology:

	... the higher one rises on the Asian social ladder,
	the less belief in demons one finds. To primitive
	rural peoples, demons are rude beings on a rank with
	animals; in the worldview of the literate population,
	they are interpretations of physical phenomena. Like
	everywhere else in the world, superstition prowls at
	the base of society....
	----------------------------------------------------
	p. 70.

Messadie's coverage of Chinese indigenous religious and demons
is spotty, incomplete, and at times humourous (speaking of
'larval demons' in comparison to 'the adult state of our own
Devil') perceived by superstitious country-folks as wandering 
through towns and wildlands. perhaps Carus will fare better, 
else I'll have to go on to other sources:

	[Tibet's] demonology is highly developed and shows
	traces of strong Hindu influences. Prominent among
	the evil spirits is mKha'sGroma, the Tibetan form
	of the Hindu Goddess Kali, who is represented as
	a frightful monster with a leonine head, surrounded
	by a halo of flames and ready to devour everything
	she sees.

	...

	The folklore of Chinese Taoism and Japanese Shintoism
	was naturally embodied in the mythology of the Buddhists,
	and we find therefore in their temples innumerable
	representations of hell with all their traditional
	belongings; Emma [sometimes Emma-O -- bobo], the stern 
	judge of Meifu, the dark tribunal; Kongo, the sheriff, 
	and all the terrible staff of bailiffs, torturers, and
	executioners, among whom the steer-headed Gozu and the
	horse-headed Mezu are never missing. By the side of the
	judge's desk stands the most perfect mirror imaginable,
	for it reflects the entire personality of every being.
	Since man's personality, according to Buddhist soul-
	conception, is constituted by the deeds done during
	life, the glass makes apparent all the words, thoughts,
	and actions of the delinquent who is led before it;
	whereupon he is dealt with according to his deserts. [sic]
	If good deeds prevail, he is rewarded by being reincarnated
	in a higher state of existence, be it on earth, or in
	the Western Paradise, or in one of the heavens of the
	gods; or, if bad deeds prevail, he sinks into lower
	spheres, in which case he must go back to life in the
	shape of the creature which represents his peculiar
	character; or, if he has been very wicked, he is doomed
	to hell, whither he is carried in the *ho nokuruma*,
	the fiery cart, the conveyance of the infernal regions.
	The sentence is pronounced in these words:

		"Thy evil deeds are not the work of thy
		mother, father, relatives, friends, advisers.
		Thou alone hast done them all; thou alone
		must gather the fruit." (Devad. S.)

	Dragged to the place of torment, he is fastened to red
	hot irons, plunged into fiery lakes of blood, raked
	over burning coals, and "he dies not till the last
	residue of his guilt has been expiated."

	But the Devil is not always taken seriously, and it
	appears that the Chinese and Japanese exhibit all the
	humour they are capable of in their devil pictures
	and statues, among which the Oni-no-Nembutzu, the
	Devil as a monk, is perhaps the most grotesque figure.

	In the later development of Northern Buddhism, all
	the evils of this world, represented in various devil
	personalities, are conceived as incarnations of Buddha
	himself, who, by showing the evil consequences of sin,
	endeavors to convert mankind to holiness and virtue.

	... ugly figures of demons [apparently in a Mandala
	in Paris' "Musee Guimet"], whose appearance is
	destined to frighten people away from sensuality,
	egotism, and evil desires.

	The devils of Buddhism, accordingly, are not the
	enemies of Buddha, and not even his antagonists,
	but his ministers and co-workers. They partake of
	Buddha's nature, for they, too, are teachers. They
	are rods of punishment, represneting the curse of
	sin, and as such have also been fitly conceived as
	incarnations of the Bodhi. In this interpretation,
	the Buddhist devils cease to be torturers and
	become instruments of education who contribute their
	share to the general system of working out the final
	salvation of man.
	----------------------------------------------------
	pp. 129-135.

# Please, please help and Ill reciprocate however I can 

refs
	Maximilian Rudwin, The Devil in Legend and Literature
	The Open Court Publishing Company, 1973 (prev. 1931/1959)

	Gerald Messadie, A History of the Devil
	Kodonsha America, 1996.

	Paul Carus, The History of the Devil
	The Open Court Publishing Company, 1974 (prev. 1900)

it seems Open Court has some focus in devil-related literature.
 
# --- perhaps helping you with some math homework?

I didn't get enough Chinese demonology for anything extensive.
how about if you find out for me more information on the
'Council of Nine', the 'Ninth Scholar', or the 'Ninth Gate',
and why Satanism and 9 keep intersecting, whether this has
anything to do with either trapezohedrons or trapezoids.
Google it and reproduce it here! thanks!

meanwhile I'll look at some real demonology books rather than
just Devil bios and if I get anything more keen than this
conventional material (I know a couple better sources), 
I'll see what I can offer you through similar channels. enjoy!

blessed beast!

boboroshi at-sign satanservice.org: Satanic Outreach Director
Church of Euthanasia: http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/
TOKUS WEBLINKS: http://dmoz.org/Bookmarks/B/boboroshi
Ninth Scholar's Library (Satanism Archive): http://www.satanservice.org/
========================================================================

ps here's JBR's descr of demons and a mention of Emma-O and 
their ambivalent societal roles (as punishers and jailers, 
punitive purifiers) JAPANESE, NOT CHINESE:

	In addition to the principle of evil [the Devil], 
	a legion of lesser spirits who personify specific
	evils, rather than evil itself, can be found in
	most societies. These spirits of extreme heat and
	cold, barrenness, disease or storms are sometimes
	considered ghosts, sometimes gods, sometimes
	manifestations of destructive natural forces.
	Seldom clearly distinguished from one another,
	they are wild and disruptive and have the strange
	and blurry quality that provokes the undirected
	terror the Greeks named "panic" after their god
	Pan. They possess the body, causing disease, or
	the mind, causing insanity. They appear as male
	incubi or female succubi seducing sleepers. They
	are usually ugly and often deformed, their
	deformity of appearance being an outward and
	visible sign of the deformity of their actions.
	Almost always they attack a person directly and
	crudely; seldom in non-Western cultures do they
	play the role of moral tempters assigned them
	in Christian tradition.

	...

	A curious function of demons in both East and West
	is that they serve the God's justice by tormenting
	damned souls in hell. In Japan, twenty-four thousand
	demon servants of Emma-O were needed to drag the
	unfortunate souls before the god's tribunal. Frequently,
	as in the West, these beings have grotesque forms and
	use dreadful tools of torture. In China and Japan, as
	in the West, it is not always clear whether the demons
	are employees or inmates, whether they are damned and
	suffering themselves or whether they merely mete out
	suffering to others. 
	--------------------------------------------------------------
	 p. 73-4. Jeffrey Burton Russell,   The Devil:
	 Cornell Univ. Press, 1977.          Perceptions of Evil 	
                                             From Antiquity 
					     to Primitive Christianity
	==============================================================
END