Sannai (Three Ladies) Branch of Lüshan闾山三奶派
- Also known as
- Sannai (Three Ladies) Branch, Sannai (Three Ladies) Teaching, Furen (Lady) Teaching, Redhead Method (Northern Taiwan)
- Type
- Folk Daoist Ritual Traditions
- Period
- Ming–Qing to the Present
- Founded
- Centered on the cult of Chen Jinggu, the lineage name took shape between the Ming and Qing
- Founder
- Chen Jinggu
- Derived from
- Lüshan (Mount Lü) Ritual Tradition
- Region
- The Min River basin and eastern Fujian, northern Taiwan, and Hokkien communities in Southeast Asia
- Status
- Extant — The tradition remains widespread in Fujian, northern Taiwan, and overseas Fujianese communities in Southeast Asia, and is one of the principal bearers of popular ritual practice; the Linshui Palace in Gutian serves as the shared ancestral temple on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Overview
The Sannai (Three Ladies) Branch of Lüshan is a division of the Lüshan tradition whose patriarchs are the "Three Lady Sovereigns" — Chen Jinggu (Lady Chen), Lin Jiuniang (Lady Lin), and Li Sanniang (Lady Li) — and represents the mainstream form of Lüshan ritual in the Min River basin and northern Taiwan. Chen Jinggu is traditionally said to have been a native of Xiadu, Fuzhou, in the late Tang or Five Dynasties period, who traveled to Mount Lü to study its methods and later died after inducing her own miscarriage in order to end a drought by praying for rain; deified thereafter, she became specially charged with protecting pregnancy, aiding childbirth, and exorcising demons to safeguard infants, and was canonized "Lady of Compliant Grace" in the Song dynasty; the Linshui Palace in Gutian is her ancestral temple, and her cult spread throughout Fujian, Taiwan, and Nanyang along with migrants in the Ming and Qing. Ritual masters of the Sannai branch take Chen Jinggu as their patriarch; their ritual altars enshrine the Three Lady Sovereigns together with Lüshan Jiulang, Fazhugong, and other deities. When performing rites they wrap their heads in red cloth (hence Taiwan's name for them, "red-head ritual masters"), and use the dragon-horn trumpet, ritual cord, ritual bell, and ritual ruler; their principal rites include praying for peace, restoring fortune, calming fright, protecting pregnancy, aiding childbirth, passing through life-crisis gates, worshiping the Dipper, exorcistic renewal, sending off malign influences, and building bridges to pass through crises — rites for the protection of women and children being especially characteristic. The "red-head masters" of northern Taiwan mostly perform both minor Zhengyi rites and Sannai methods together. Sannai rituals often feature dramatic elements such as the "Ladies' pacing of the Dipper," "passing through the gate," and "striking the net of heaven and earth," along with incantation texts such as the Charm of the Ladies and the Charm for Inviting the Deities of Lüshan, which intermingle with puppet theater, spirit mediums, and other folk performance traditions. Scholarly research shows that the Sannai branch preserves a living transmission of the Song-Yuan Fajiao (Folk Daoist Ritual) tradition and the legend of Chen Jinggu, and offers an important window for understanding the interaction between Daoism and local religion. Today there are numerous Sannai ritual altars in Fujian and Taiwan, and large-scale pilgrimages take place at the Linshui Palace in Gutian on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month each year, as well as on the birthday celebrations of the Ladies at various locations.
Core Doctrine
It reveres the Three Lady Sovereigns as patriarchs and regards Mount Lü as the source of its ritual methods; the core of its divine mandate is protecting pregnancy, safeguarding infants, exorcising demons, and delivering people from calamity; its conception of ritual power merges Daoist talismans and incantations, shamanic methods, and local deities; and it emphasizes that ritual masters must keep the precepts and observe the rules, using ritual to save people. The Sannai branch also gives weight to female ritual specialists, and some altars maintain a lineage of female ritual masters, corresponding to its core function of protecting pregnancy and childbirth.
Practice & Ritual
Protecting pregnancy, aiding childbirth, "planting flowers and changing the [birth] dipper" (praying for children), passing through life-crisis gates, calming fright, restoring fortune, exorcistic renewal, sending off malign influences, and peace-praying offerings; the use of the dragon-horn trumpet, ritual cord, ritual bell, and ritual ruler, worn with a red headcloth; the chanting of the Charm of the Ladies and the Charm for Inviting the Deities; rites such as the Ladies' pacing of the Dipper and crossing the bridge of crisis; ritual transmission proceeds through master-disciple "passing of the methods" and formal conferral. Its rites overlap considerably with those of other branches of the Lüshan tradition.
Transmission
The Lüshan ritual lineage → the legend of Chen Jinggu → master-disciple transmission at ritual altars in the Min River basin during the Ming and Qing → red-head ritual altars in northern Taiwan and Fujianese ritual altars in Nanyang → contemporary transmission. There is no unified organization. The Sannai branch is closely tied to the system of "red-head masters" in northern Taiwan, and many ritual masters also perform minor Zhengyi rites; its rituals have been designated an item of intangible folk heritage in Taiwan.