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The fangxiangshi 方相氏 was a Chinese ritual exorcist who 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. ==Etymology== 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): *''paŋ'' 方 "square, a regular thing, side, region, country; two boats lashed side by side, raft; just now, to begin; method, law, norm, standard" *'' *saŋh'' 相 "look at, inspect; assist, help; assistant, minister" (also pronounced ''xiāng'' < '' *saŋ'' 相 "each other, mutually") *'' *geʔ'' 氏 "an honorific which is suffixed to place names ("the lord of X"), kinship terms ("uncle X"), feudal and official titles ("lord/lady" X); clan" 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'' 放 "put away; banish" for ''fāng'' 方 and ''xiǎng'' 想 "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'' 象 "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." Zheng Xuan's commentary to the ''Zhouli'' description of a ''fangxiang'' striking the four corners of the burial chamber with his lance and expelling the ''fangliang'' (see below) identifies this ''fangliang'' 方良 demon with the ''wangliang'' 罔兩 demon, also known as ''wangxiang'' 罔象. Ying Shao's (c. 195 CE) ''Fengsu Tongyi'' quotes this ''Zhouli'' passage with ''wangxiang'' for ''fangliang'' in explaining the origins of Chinese customs of placing thuja (arborvitae) trees and stone tigers in graveyards. On the tomb a thuja is planted and at the head of the path a stone tiger. In the Chou li, "On the day of burial the ''fang-hsiang'' chief enters the pit to drive out the ''Wang-hsiang''." The ''Wang-hsiang'' likes to eat the liver and brain of the deceased. People cannot constantly have the ''fang-hsiang'' stand by the side of the tomb to bar it. But the ''Wang-hsiang'' fears the tiger and the thuja. Thus the tiger and thuja are placed before the tomb. (tr. Harper 1985: 482) The common interpretation of the ''fang'' in ''fangxiang'' is that it denotes the ''sìfāng'' 四方 "the four quarters/directions; every side/direction", as ritually symbolized by the four golden eyes on the bearskin signifying the ability of a ''fangxiangshi'' to see in all directions. According to Dallas McCurley (2005:137), the early Chinese believed that "the forces of rain, wind, flood, and drought often came to the climatically vulnerable Yellow River Valley from the ''sifang''." Boltz's (1979: 431) review of Bodde's (1975) book agrees that taking the fundamental sense of ''fangxiang'' as "seer" is generally accurate, but believes that the binomial term ''fangxiang'' < Old Chinese *''pjwang-sjang'' originated as a dimidiation of the word *''sjang-'' < Proto-Chinese * *''bsjang-'' "seer". Thus meaning "not so much "one who sees in all directions" (though it may well have already been semanticized as that very early) as "one who conjures up visions, or images, phantasies." Many writers have noted the remarkable phonetic similarities among the names for the ritual ''fangxiangshi'' and the ''fangliang'', ''wangliang'', and ''wangxiang'' demons he exorcised; and some scholars such as Chen Mengjia, Kobayashi Taichirō, and William Boltz have theorized that the ''fangxiangshi'' exorcist was a personification of these demons, and was "in effect exorcising himself" (Boltz 1979: 423). In this understanding, the devouring exorcist and devoured creatures were ultimately identical. Boltz (1979: 431) suggests the possibility that the matching names ''fangxiang(shi)'', ''fangliang'', ''wangliang'', and ''wangxiang'' are all derived from the same Proto-Chinese '' * *BZjang'' "see" etymon, with him as a "Master of Visions" or "Imaginator" and them as "visions" or "specters" from the Latin ''spectrum'' "appearance; apparition", and to use the same root, the ''fangxiangshi'' "was in fact exorcising ''images'', or ''visions'', of himself." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fangxiangshi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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