Bugang
Bugang is a Daoist ritual dance or walk, based upon the Yubu "Steps of Yu" tradition, in which a Taoist priest paces through a supernatural pattern, such as stars in the Big Dipper or numbers in the Loshu magic square.
Texts from the (4th century) Shangqing School revelations contain the earliest descriptions of bugang, frequently with the practitioner pacing among constellations, especially the Big Dipper's stars.
When religious Daoism began during the Six Dynasties period (220–589 CE), the expression bugang tadou 步罡踏斗 "pacing the guideline and treading on (the stars of) the Dipper" became popular.
Tiangang 天罡 and Tiangangxing 天罡星 (with tian 天 "sky; h/Heaven" and xing 星 "star; heavenly body") both mean "Big Dipper; (esp.)
[4] In both variants of the practice, each step is accompanied by three actions coordinated with the movements of the feet: the inwardly pronounced line of incantation when the priest reaches the star or trigram in question, the visualization of a journey through heaven, and shoujue 手訣 "hand practices" in which the thumb of the left hand represents movement in parallel to the body of the priest.
A powerful theme underlying the practice is that of world-creation and the establishment of order, frequently associated with the construction of the sacred area in the initial part of a ritual.
[6] Shangqing "Supreme/Highest Clarity" School texts, supposedly revealed to Yang Xi from 364 to 370 CE, contain the earliest extant references to bugang along the stars of the Dipper.
[9]For instance, the Bu tiangang jing 步天綱經 "Scripture on Walking the Celestial Mainstay" (DZ 1316), which explains itself as the full revelation mentioned in an earlier "excerpted and abbreviated" text, describes the origins and practice of bugang.
[10] Although this Bu tiangang jing time scheme may prove to correspond to the actual history of bugang, Andersen says this story "also gives ample cause for suspicion.".
"We find ample information in Han dynasty texts on the use of the Dipper as an exorcistic weapon, but I have found no trace of bugang in any of these accounts."
[12] Traditional Chinese astronomy calls β UMi the beijier 北極二 "North Pole second [star]", and locates Ursa Minor within the Ziweiyuan 紫微垣 Purple Forbidden enclosure.
[13] In Chinese terms, gang 綱 "guiding rope of a net" is the Dipper and ji 紀 "leading thread" is the circle, and their original meanings were semantically extended in gangji 綱紀 "social order and law", the norms of conduct directed by the emperor.
Gang and Ji connect in the constellation Jiao 角 "Horn", which is one of the 28 xiu 宿 "lunar mansions" at which the Dipper points during the year.
The Shangqing huangshu guodu yi 上清黄書過度儀 "Liturgy of Passage of the Yellow Writ of Highest Clarity" (DZ 1294) is the earliest preserved Zhengyi text to record bugang-type dancing following the magic-square pattern.
[17]This text gives a series of sexually implicit incantations for neidan "inner circulations" uniting the couple's yin and yang, in order to reach the Shengmen 生門 "Gate of Life".
These nine stars have a special Daoist nomenclature of: Tianpeng 天蓬, Tiannei 天内, Tianchong 天衝, Tianfu 天輔, Tianqin 天禽, Tianxin 天心, Tianzhu 天柱, Tianren 天任, and Tianying 天英.
[20] The Song dynasty Zhengyi master Lu Shizhong 路時中, who founded the Yutang dafa 玉堂大法 tradition in the 1120s, explained the efficacy of bugang: Between heaven and earth man is the most numinous of all things.
[21]Daoists have conceived Taiyi's movements as occurring either along the stars of the Dipper or through the palaces of the eight trigrams, in both cases leading eventually to a return to the point of departure.
The Jiuling gang is based on the Daoist celestial stem-based "magic invisibility" system of Qimen Dunjia "Irregular Gate, Hidden Stem", which the (4th century) Baopuzi "Into Mountains: Over Streams" chapter first mentioned in context with Yubu.
The Dunjia 遁甲 "Hidden Stem" calculates the position within the space-time structure of the liuding 六丁 ("six ding") "spirits that define the place of the Qimen 奇門 "Irregular Gate", going through which one may obtain invisibility and thus protection from all dangers.
[24]The Zhengyi (1201) Daomen tongjiao ji 道門通教集 "Collected Works for All Daoists Penetrating the Teaching" text records bugang purification of the altar at the end of the rite, following the "three steps and nine traces" from the Baopuzi.
It is compared with walking the Yijing Hexagram 63, Jiji 既濟 "Already Fording", which is composed of the trigrams li 離 (☲) Fire and kan 坎 (☵) Water.
Du Guangting's (891) Taishang huanglu zhaiyi 太上黃籙齋儀 "Protocols for Yellow Register Rites of the Most High" (DZ 507) describes using bugang during presentation of the memorial in the general liturgy.
This practice originated with the Song dynasty Zhengyi tradition of the Tianxin zhengfa 天心正法 "Orthodox Method of the Celestial Heart", founded by Tan Zixiao.
The (1116) Taishang zhuguo jiumin zongzhen biyao 太上助国救民总真秘要 "Secret Essentials of the Perfected Totality, of the Most High, for Assisting the Country and Saving the People" (DZ 1227), compiled by Yuan Miaozong 元妙宗, has a section on bugang that contains Tang dynasty altar purification techniques, which are still used by Zhengyi Daoist priests.
A similar view is expressed in many historical texts, such as in the Taishang zhuguo jiumin zongzhen biyao ([太上助國救民總真必要] Secret Essentials of the Totality of Perfected, of the Most High, for Assisting the Country and Saving the People...), by Yuan Miaozong, who says: "The Paces of Yu along the guideline of the Dipper, and the instructions for practices in the palm of the hand, are the great essentials of the Way, the primordial leading thread of (all other) methods.".
