Wu () is a Chinese term translating to "shaman" or "sorcerer", originally the practitioners of Chinese shamanism or "Wuism" (巫教 wū jiào).
Terminology The glyph ancestral to modern is first recorded in bronze script, where it could refer to shamans or sorcerers of either sex. Modern Mandarin wu (Cantonese mouh) continues a Middle Chinese mju or mjo. The Old Chinese reconstruction is uncertain, given as *mywo or as *myag, the presence of a final velar -g or -ɣ in Old Chinese being uncertain.
By the late Zhou dynasty (4th to 3rd centuries BCE), wu referred mostly to female shamans or "sorceresses", while male sorcerers were named xi "male shaman; sorcerer", first attested in the Guoyu or Discourses of the States (4th century BCE). Other sex-differentiated shaman names include nanwu for "male shaman; sorcerer; wizard"; and nüwu , wunü , wupo , and wuyu for "female shaman; sorceress; witch".
Wu is used in compounds like wugu "sorcery; cast harmful spells", wushen or shenwu (with shen "spirit; god") "wizard; sorcerer", and wuxian (with xian "immortal; alchemist") "immortal shaman".
The word tongji (lit. "youth diviner") "shaman; spirit-medium" is a near-synonym of wu. Chinese uses phonetic transliteration to distinguish native wu from "Siberian shaman": saman or saman . "Shaman" is occasionally written with Chinese Buddhist transcriptions of Shramana "wandering monk; ascetic": shamen , sangmen , or sangmen .
Joseph Needham suggests "shaman" was transliterated xianmen in the name of Zou Yan's disciple Xianmen Gao (or Zigao ). He quotes the Shiji that Emperor Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BCE), "wandered about on the shore of the eastern sea, and offered sacrifices to the famous mountains and the great rivers and the eight Spirits; and searched for xian "immortals", [xianmen], and the like." Needham compares two later Chinese terms for "shaman": shanman , which described the Jurchen leader Wanyan Xiyin, and sizhu , which was used for imperial Manchu shamans during the Qing dynasty.
Translations Shaman is the common English translation of Chinese wu, but some scholars maintain that the Siberian shaman and Chinese wu were historically and culturally different shamanic traditions. Arthur Waley 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 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 "shamaness" and "shamanka". The transliteration-translation "wu shaman" or "wu-shaman" implies "Chinese" specifically and "shamanism" generally. Wu, concludes von Falkenhausen, "may be rendered as "shaman" or, perhaps, less controversially as "spirit medium"." Paper criticizes "the majority of scholars" who use one word shaman to translate many Chinese terms (wu , xi , yi , xian , and zhu ), and writes, "The general tendency to refer to all ecstatic religious functionaries as shamans blurs functional differences."
The character wu besides the meanings of "spirit medium, shaman, witch doctor" (etc.) also has served as a toponym: Wushan (near Chongqing in Sichuan Province), Wuxi "Wu Stream", Wuxia "Wu Gorge".
Wu is also a surname (in antiquity, the name of legendary Wu Xian ). Wuma (lit. "shaman horse") is both a Chinese compound surname (for example, the Confucian disciple Wuma Shi/Qi ) and a name for "horse shaman; equine veterinarian" (for example, the Zhouli official).
Characters The contemporary Chinese character for wu combines the graphic radicals gong "work" and ren "person" doubled (cf. cong ). This character developed from Seal script characters that depicted dancing shamans, which descend from Bronzeware script and Oracle bone script characters that resembled a cross potent.
The first Chinese dictionary of characters, the (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi defines wu as zhu "sacrifice; prayer master; invoker; priest" ("") and analyzes the Seal graph, "An Invoker. A woman who can serve the Invisible, and by posturing bring down the spirits. Depicts a person with two sleeves posturing." This Seal graph for wu is interpreted as showing "the 工 work of two dancing figures set to each other – a shamanistic dance" or "two human figures facing some central object (possibly a pole, or in a tent-like enclosure?)".
This dictionary also includes a variant Great Seal script (called a guwen "ancient script") that elaborates wu . Hopkins analyzes this guwen graph as gong "two hands held upward" at the bottom (like shi 's Seal graph) and two "mouths" with the "sleeves" on the sides; or "jade" because the Shuowen defines ling "spiritual; divine" as synonymous with wu and depicting , "an inspired shaman serving the Spirits with jade."
Schafer compares the Shang dynasty oracle graphs for wu and nong "play with; cause" (written with "jade" over "two hands") that shows "hands (of a shaman?) elevating a piece of jade (the rain-compelling mineral) inside an enclosure, possibly a tent. The Seal and modern form may well derive from this original, the hands becoming two figures, a convergence towards the dancer-type graph."
Tu Baikui suggests that the wu oracle character "was composed of two pieces of jade and originally designated a tool of divination.""" 2014, citing Citing Li Xiaoding that gong 工 originally pictured a "carpenter's square", Allan argues that oracle inscriptions used wu interchangeably with fang "square; side; place" for sacrifices to the sifang "four directions".
This component is semantically significant in several characters: wu (with the "speech radical" ) "deceive; slander; falsely accuse" shi (with the "bamboo radical" ) "Achillea millefolium (used for divination)" xi (with the "vision radical" ) "male shaman; male sorcerer" ling (with the "cloud radical" and three "mouths" or "raindrops") "spirit; divine; clever" yi "doctor", which is an old "shaman" variant character for yi (with the "wine radical" )
Etymology
A wide range of hypotheses for the etymology of wū "spirit medium; shaman" has been proposed.
Laufer proposed a relation between Mongolian bügä "shaman", Turkish bögü "shaman", "Chinese bu, wu (shaman), buk, puk (to divine), and Tibetan aba (pronounced ba, sorcerer)".
Coblin puts forward a Sino-Tibetan root * "magician; sorcerer" for Chinese wū < mju < *mjag "magician; shaman" and Written Tibetan 'ba'-po "sorcerer" and 'ba'-mo "sorcereress" (of the Bön religion).
Schuessler notes Chinese xian < sjän < *sen "transcendent; immortal; alchemist" was probably borrowed as Written Tibetan gšen "shaman" and Thai < Proto-Tai * "doctor; sorcerer". In addition, the Mon–Khmer and Proto-Western-Austronesian * "shaman" may also be connected with wū. Schuessler lists four proposed etymologies:
Firstly, wū could be the same word as wū "to deceive". Schuessler notes a written Tibetan semantic parallel between "magical power" and "deceive": sprul-ba "to juggle, make phantoms; miraculous power" cognate with "magical deception".
Secondly, wu could be cognate with wǔ "to dance". Based on analysis of ancient characters, Hopkins proposed that wū "shaman", wú "not have; without", and wǔ "dance", "can all be traced back to one primitive figure of a man displaying by the gestures of his arms and legs the thaumaturgic powers of his inspired personality". Many Western Han dynasty tombs contained jade plaques or pottery images showing "long-sleeved dancers" performing at funerals, whom Erickson identifies as shamans, citing the Shuowen jiezi that early wǔ characters depicted a dancer's sleeves.
Thirdly, wū could also be cognate with mǔ "mother" since wū, as opposed to xí , were typically female. Edward Schafer associates wū shamanism with fertility rituals. Jensen cites the Japanese sinologist Shirakawa Shizuka 's hypothesis that the mother of Confucius was a wū.
Fourthly, wū could be a loanword from Iranian *maguš "magus; magician" (cf. Old Persian maguš, Avestan mogu), meaning an "able one; specialist in ritual". Mair provides archaeological and linguistic evidence that Chinese wū < *myag "shaman; witch, wizard; magician" was a loanword from Old Persian *maguš "magician; magus". Mair connects the bronze script character for wū with the "cross potent" symbol ☩ found in Neolithic West Asia, suggesting the loan of both the symbol and the word.
Early records of wu
The oldest written records of wu are Shang dynasty oracle inscriptions and Zhou dynasty classical texts. Boileau notes the disparity of these sources. Concerning the historical origin of the wu, we may ask: were they a remnant of an earlier stage of the development of archaic Chinese civilization? The present state of the documentation does not allow such a conclusion for two reasons: first, the most abundant data about the wu are to be found in Eastern Zhou texts; and, second, these texts have little in common with the data originating directly from the Shang civilization; possible ancestors of the Eastern Zhou wu are the cripples and the females burned in sacrifice to bring about rain. They are mentioned in the oracular inscriptions but there is no mention of the Shang character wu. Moreover, because of the scarcity of information, many of the activities of the Zhou wu cannot be traced back to the Shang period. Consequently, trying to correlate Zhou data with Neolithic cultures appears very difficult.
Wu in Shang oracular inscriptions Shima lists 58 occurrences of the character wu in concordance of oracle inscriptions: 32 in repeated compounds (most commonly "wu spirit/sacrifice" and "bring the wu) and 26 in miscellaneous contexts. Boileau differentiates four meanings of these oracular wu: "a spirit, wu of the north or east, to which sacrifices are offered" "a sacrifice, possibly linked to controlling the wind or meteorology" "an equivalent for shi , a form of divination using achilea" "a living human being, possibly the name of a person, tribe, place, or territory" The inscriptions about this living wu, which is later identified as "shaman", reveal six characteristics:whether the wu is a man or a woman is not known; it could be either the name for a function or the name of a people (or an individual) coming from a definite territory or nation; the wu seems to have been in charge of some divinations, (in one instance, divination is linked to a sacrifice of appeasement); the wu is seen as offering a sacrifice of appeasement but the inscription and the fact that this kind of sacrifice was offered by other persons (the king included) suggests that the wu was not the person of choice to conduct all the sacrifices of appeasement; there is only one inscription where a direct link between the king and the wu appears. Nevertheless, the nature of the link is not known, because the status of the wu does not appear clearly; he follows (being brought, presumably, to Shang territory or court) the orders of other people; he is perhaps offered to the Shang as a tribute. Based on this ancient but limited Shang-era oracular record, it is unclear how or whether the Wu spirit, sacrifice, person, and place were related.
Wu in Zhou received texts Chinese wu "shaman" occurs over 300 times in the Chinese classics, which generally date from the late Zhou and early Han periods (6th-1st centuries BCE). The following examples are categorized by the common specializations of wu-shamans: men and women possessed by spirits or gods, and consequently acting as seers and soothsayers, exorcists and physicians; invokers or conjurers bringing down gods at sacrifices, and performing other sacerdotal functions, occasionally indulging also in imprecation, and in sorcery with the help of spirits.