GODS AND DEMONS, BEAUTIES AND ZOMBIES: THROUGH THE PAGES OF CHINESE EDUCATIONAL MAGAZINE “CULTURAL HERITAGE OF CHINA”

Thiis work reviews the Chinese cultural and mass-educational magazine “Cultural Heritage of China” going through several issues of the magazine those of 2016, 2017 and 2020 years. Thie brief history of how the magazine was established and structured is given in the firrst paragraphs. Following are the reviews of the magazine’s issues about the vestimental culture of China, the sensitive question of borrowing elements of Chinese culture into the Japanese oral tradition, the history of state examinations. In the last part of the review I analyze the contents of the special issue on Chinese spirits and demons.

Thie Chinese cultural and mass-educational magazine "Cultural Heritage of China" was firrst published in December 2004, sponsored by the China Bookstore, co-organized by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China, the Ministry of Construction of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO. It publishes monthly issues on Chinese traditional culture. History, literature, firne arts, architecture, folklore are within the sphere of its publications. Thie magazine claims to concern itself "with the oral and intangible heritage of humanity", but since it was firrst published in 2004 up to 2020 it has found no space for any other humanity other than the Chinese nation, so it would be more correct to disregard the world-wide claims and accept the magazine as introducing to the general Chinese-language reader some facts about Chinese culture.
Among its competitors "Cultural Heritage of China" is without any exaggeration the best of its kind. It is the firrst comprehensive systematic magazine in China, published by China National Geographic and Chinese Cultural Heritage Foundation and supported by World Natural and Cultural Heritage Foundation, China Folklore Photography Association and the Beijing Representative Officce of UNESCO. Recently the magazine has been transformed from a collection of fragmented articles to a manypaged journal with beautiful coloured illustrations, perfect polygraph work and interesting contents.
Thie renewed magazine has organized influuential contests such as "Thie Most Chinese Characters" and "Thie 100 Most Signifircant Archaeological Discoveries of Chinese Civilization".
In February 2008, the magazine formally cooperated with National Geographic China and launched its firrst renewed issue (Issue 28-29, Feb-03, 2008) in the same month. Thie new slogan of the magazine is "Let the past illuminate the future, let history influuence the present -we are here to share history and taste it together".
Thie magazine aims at: -giving a historical perspective on China and the world; -sharing with their readers the beauty of the humanities and exploring Chinese cultural treasures; -providing an interesting reading for those who love history. Thiey introduce themselves as "an authoritative magazine that will never go out of date" and claim that "anything of value that happened yesterday is our content, any history that interests you is the subject of our attrention". Thiey promise to enlighten and to uncover secrets. Thie high mission of "Cultural Heritage" is "to analyze the legacy of civilization and highlight the humanistic concern". Again, the civilization mentioned here is no other than the Chinese civilization, which in itself is quite enough for any periodical.
"Cultural Heritage" also serves as an important channel of communication between China's heritage sites, prospective World Heritage sites and UNESCO.
Thie magazines earned all sorts of praises and general acclaim all over China, it enjoys only positive reviews from critics and readers. Thie critic, who writes for "Planet Geographic Queest" under the pseudonym The King of National G ography appraised the magazine with the following remark: "Thie value of the magazine's content lies firrstly in the fact that their exclusive and deep content can be commercialized, they can cooperate with other periodicalsw..It is priceless, because it reveals the spiritual force that contributed to our success over the past 5,000 years, and is the reason why we are Chinese" (King of National Geography, 2019).
Thie magazine is by no means an academic periodical, the articles published there are no scholastic papers and don't claim to say a new word in history or culture studies. Thie magazine rather explains to the reader facts and realities of Chinese tangible and intangible objects of culture, provides interpretation and detail descriptions to the things the readers already know, at least at the surface level. Yet for the representation sake some articles, especially at the beginning of the magazine's post-reform life, were writtren by political firgures, renowned scholars and experts. Thius, Zhang Xinsheng, Chairman of the 28th session of the UN-ESCO World Heritage Committree, wrote the launch address; Mr. Banderin, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, wrote a congratulatory message for the firrst issue; Qiu Baoxing, Vice-Minister of Construction, Mr. Guo, Inspector and Director of the World Heritage Department of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Feng Jicai, Vice-Chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Yu Qiuyu, a famous scholar, all published relevant articles to ensure the authority of the magazine's content.
To give the reader general impression of the style the magazine employs and its typical content I give hereby a brief review of several issues published in the period 2015-2020 years.
Issue No 6 of 2017 is entitled "Imperial Examinations" and all the articles there deal with this or that aspect of the famous exams, the neverending source of Chinese bureaucracy. Thie leading article of the issue, "Examinations in the city of Chang'an" describes the preparation schools that helped the seekers to prepare for the exams.
Thie article tells that there were two main sources of candidates for the imperial examination in the Tang dynasty. One such source was the "apprentices" from government-run schools, and the other was the "country tributes" recommended by local governments. Thie State Academy that was responsible for this preparation was divided into six brunches: Imperial College, Court School, School of Six brunches, School of Law, School of Calligraphy and School of Arithmetic. Of these the last three were specialized, but were considered to be relatively low-level and not politically influuential. Thie diffeerence between the more prestigious schools was not in the subjects they taught but in the parents of the students. Thie parents of students in the Imperial College were the most powerful officcials, ofteen of no less than the third rank in the civil and military hierarchy. Thie majority of students at the Imperial College were relatives of the court eunuchs (about 62%) (Liu Bo, 2017, p. 12). Thius, though the imperial examination system officcially was open to all the strata of the society, only the children of the powerful and rich can benefirt from it, which turned it to no more than just a selection test within the original elite class, while the general public had almost no access to the examinations and the officcial positions that they served a bridge to. Thie imperial examination system, according to one more article, had two main functions: to select officcials for the ruling class and to provide an occupation for the members of elite. Thie author believes that from the point of view of selecting administrative talents it has never been a very good system. In the Han dynasty, at the dawn of Chinese Empire, local officcials recommended talents to the central government on the following grounds: the candidates should be versed in the law, be of morally impeccable behaviour and be good at dealing with difficcult problems. So a person selected according to these criteria would have at least some experience of dealing with practical problems and would be far more experienced than a poet or a composer. Later these criteria were dropped or turned into mere formality, the candidates were selected based on the results of multilevel scholastic examination that proved their mastering of Confucian books and good memory. Thie public availability of the officcial posts through exams also degraded to a formality. An officcial of the Tang period Li Deyu stated openly that: "For a prominent officcial in the imperial court, it is necessary to be parented by a public officcial. Since the children of ministers are exposed to the rules and routines of the governmental machinery from childhood, they are naturally more familiar with them. But even the most talented scholar from a poor background has to face a difficcult period of transition afteer joining the court" (Cultural Heritage of China 2017, 67). In some cases, the examiners did not even look at the examination papers while selecting the winners.
It's curious that in attrempt to defend the examination system many contemporary writers would say that the "poor and lonely" sometimes had an advantage over the "children from the rich families". However, modern scholars afteer a quantitative analysis found out that the term "poor and lonely" refers to "all those who entered the imperial service other than the children of officcials", which in fact means the children of lower-middle-class bureaucratic families and the old scholarly families.
Thie author concludes that the Tang dynasty nevertheless was not a society in which the ordinary people had no hope of upward mobility (afteer having carefully proven to us otherwise). As an argument he says that the largest proportion of Tang officcials were so-called "in-ranking officcials", i.e. those who were originally junior civil servants but because of their good work performance gained a rank and became lower-level officcials. However, there was basically no hope of further promotion for them. So much for the upward mobility of the Tang.
Thiere are also some legends and firction stories in the issue related to examinations. One story in particular, writtren by medieval writer Xue Yongqiang and retold in the journal is worth mentioning, for though it is supposed to be a praise of a talented scholar, it in fact unintentionally demonstrates the level of objectivity of imperial exams. Thiere was during the reign of Tang dynasty a young man called Wang Wei whose talents won the favors of the Emperor's brother. Thie prince wanted to promote his favourite to some high officcial position, but for that Wang Wei had to pass the examinations together with other candidates. In order to be admittred to the exams this scholar Wang needed a lettrer of recommendation from the local authorities. He couldn't obtain it, because another member of the royalty, the ninth daughter of the Emperor, had her own favourite, also a renowned scholar, and made it known to the officcials that she expected the recommendation lettrer for her own protege. Thie prince then invited the princess to a banquet where she saw Wang Wei and was so impressed by his beauty, his music and his poetry that she changed her mind in favour of Wang and demanded the recommendation lettrer for him instead of her former favourite. Thius the members of the emperor's family, who were not supposed to have any say in the results of the examination, in fact decided among themselves who will win and who will lose.
Yet another article compares the present day Chinese gaokao system -the exams taken by high school students seeking admission to universities -with imperial system of Confucian scholastic exams taken by candidates for officcial posts. Thie history of the gaokao can be indeed traced back to the imperial examination, with its practice of sealing examination questions and solemnly breaking the seals in the examination rooms, strict secrecy of the contents and general exclusive atmosphere. Thie difference between two examination systems the author of the article sees in the fact that the imperial court produced but a few successful candidates (jinshi) who were admittred to the ranks of bureaucracy. Thie average number of candidates admittred each year in the Tang dynasty was no more than twenty, whereas nowadays those who are able to pass such exams are many. Thie article clarifires that "In today's college entrance examinations, the top provincial candidates would be called 'scholar candidates', and with the division into arts and science subjects, this means that more than 60 scholar candidates would be produced each year, more than three times the number of jinshi in the Tang dynasty. Such a limited number of candidates was simply not enough" (Liu Bo, 2017, p. 11).
Thie articles of the issue are illustrated with colourful reprints from medieval books. Thiere are also photographs of historical relics -the examination hall, the interior design of royal academy etc. Some modern artists contributed their paintings too.
To give the reader an idea of the style of writing the magazine ofteen employs I provide a word-per-word translation of two extracts from two 2017 issues, that speak about dresses and vestments throughout the Chinese history: "Thie body of a petite Chu woman was delicately and gracefully shaped by the 'deep garment', while the plump body of a Tang dynasty lady was even more feminine when wrapped in the loose dress. Thie thousand-fold pleated 'horse-faced skirt' was made to follow the steps of females of the Ming and Qing dynasties, revealing the glory of the delicate embroidery between the pleats. Thie 'qipao dress'.... proclaimed the self-reliance and independence of women in the new erawwThiese are images that are unique to China and we should not forget them" (Who is there half-coveringw2017, 41); "Nowadays, beauty is in the face, but in the olden days, when beautiful women approached, even the tinkling sound of their footsteps could signal of infirnite musical beauty. Thiis, of course, is because they had an indispensable decorative magical thing -the ring pendant. In fact, the ring pendant was a product of the hierarchical society of the Western Zhou Dynasty, with diffeerent jade pendants symbolizing diffeerent classes and strictly maintaining social order. Thierefore, wearing jade pendants was not simply for the purpose of listening to their sounds, but more for the purpose of ritual, that is, "to listen to oneself and the chime, so that the sound of jade is in tune with one's walk" (Jingling rings on the skirt, 2017, p. 20).

Picture 3. "Cultural Heritage of China". The issue of 2017 No 11. The index page
One more interesting issue of the magazine attrracts interest due to the fact that its whole contents express the popular idea, that everything worth noticing in Eastern Asian countries was borrowed from China. Thiis outspoken blatant China-centrism can be found in many books, public lectures read by Chinese professors, academic articles, TV-documentaries and textbooks. From the screens of television and in school and University classrooms the Chinese persuade each other not only that their culture is the best in the world but also that any other masterpiece of culture was invented by the Chinese and borrowed by foreigners, especially by their neighbouring countries who at this or that period of history experienced Chinese influuence. Thie Japanese kimono was not created by the Japanese -it was borrowed from China. Thie Korean female vestment (as in fact the Korean v rything) was borrowed from China. Even Russian dumplings were borrowed from China. Why? Well, because Russians eat dumplings, the Chinese eat dumplings too, which in itself is a proof. Thie idea that something in any other country can vaguely resemble something Chinese without being actually borrowed never occurs and is never discussed. It is enough to firnd something with resembling features in both cultures to make the Chinese claim it is invented by them and borrowed by others.
Thie No 8 issue of 2016 follows this line. It is entitled "Cultural Heritage of China. Ghosts of the Night: Monsters exported from China" and describes various ghosts and demons of Japan -only to claim that their images were borrowed from the Chinese culture. Thie article starts by describing Thie Night Parade of Demons as a cultural phenomenon. Thie Night Parade of Hundred Demons is a Japanese folklore legend that refers to a parade of monsters and goblins that takes place on a summer night. Thie legend developed from the oral tradition, and was firrst described in the records of the Heian Period (794-1192 AD): the sources depict ancient Kyoto as a world infested by spirits and ghosts. Thie demons and monsters did not just linger in the deep woods or in the underworld -they sometimes lived under the same roof and in the same city as humans. In summer, as soon as darkness fell, the demons would parade in groups along Kyoto's avenues. If any human happened to catch a glimpse of this parade, they would be cursed and die a sorrowful death.
Thie legend was illustrated by many Japanese artists, including the famous Toriyama Ishiyan, who all his life painted mostly goblins and monsters, the imperial painter Mitsuonobu Tosa from the Muromachi period, Yoshiyuki Tsukioka, an ukiyo-painter from the Edo period etc. Thie works of Japanese authors are renowned for intricate details and preciseness: each monster has its own peculiar features but through their frightful deformity one can recognize the original things from which they transformed -a hair comb, a lute, an umbrella. Thiat's because many of such demons were not some evil spirits from outside the human worldthey were usual household utensils, old artifacts forgottren and neglected by the owners turned into monsters out of spite or just old age.
Thie modern entertainment world also pays tribute to this legend. Thie Night Parade of Demons has been adapted into numerous anime and firlm productions that have swept the world. One can firnd it in modern horror novels, manga, animated series and firlms.
Thien the author claims that those colorful images of ghosts and demons are in fact Chinese by origin: "However, not many of the hundreds of ghosts parading around are native to Japan, and most of them came from China" (Xiao Xi 2016,6). Thie author would repeat this idea again and again, without proof or reason other that in the literary works of some Chinese authors -like early Jin dynasty author Gan Bao and late medieval Pu Songlin -one can firnd descriptions of similar demons.
Thie other argument to the claim that Japanese demons were borrowed from China is given in the summary: "Chinese monsters were "exported" to Japan in large numbers during the Tang Dynasty in China, the Japanese Nara and Heian periods. At that time, a large number of Japanese envoys came across the sea with an open mind to study Chinese culture. Japan imitated the laws, political system and capital construction of the Tang dynasty, and even demons and monsters were copied from China. Chinese demons and monsters have gradually penetrated deeply into the Japanese folklore with the arrival of classical literature It can be said that China played a vital role in the real formation of Japanese demon culture" (Xiao Xi 2016,11). Thiat's it. No details, no quotations of any research, no citations or proofs.
I am not trying to dispute here the idea that Japanese demon mythology borrowed a lot from China -it might very well have done so or it might not. It is the level of argumentation that "Cultural Heritage of China" generally provides for their claims that I point out here.
Thie issue of the magazine that I really enjoyed reading was the latest special issue about the Chinese demons called "Thie Book of Ghosts and Demons". Published in 2020, it has no number, for it is a special additional issue, a big 295-paged book (twice as big as a usual issue), magnifircently illustrated and with excellent polygraph work. Thie issue is a sort of allround encyclopedia of Chinese demons and evil spirits: their sorts and classes, their origins and cults, their history and related modern practices and traditions, ghost-worshiping carnivals and specifircs of Chinese zombies. Thie illustrations are both modern photographs of masks, demon-related paraphernalia, exorcisms etc. as well as reproductions of medieval engravings and other works of art depicting demons.
It would take too much space and time to review here all the rich and interesting contents of the issue, so I chose a few.
One of the most curious elements of the issue are graphic schemes of evil spirits explaining various elements of their images and their symbolism. Thie reader can learn what exactly is symbolized by each head of a three headed-deity, by each arm of a six-armed demon. Thiis kind of information is quite unique and hard to firnd for either a Chinese or a foreign reader. Thius, we can learn that there are 8 types of Chinese zombies, including the hairy zombie whose body is covered with fur, the white zombie whose body is covered with white fur, the purple zombie with purple fur, the green zombie with white hair and green firr, the fluying zombie who can fluy, the swimming zombie who can swim, the immobile zombie -an indestructible corpse that cannot move, and the part-zombie whose certain body parts are indestructible while the others can decay. To firght against these creatures one uses dog's blood, chicken's blood, Taoist sword made of peach tree, papers with magic spells writtren in red ink etc. Evil Taoists use zombies to wrack chaos, controlling them with magic books and magic bells the sound of which makes the living corpses move in a certain direction. A terrifying zombie bride is a heroine of many modern Chinese horror movies -this image is inherited from a long tradition of real ghost weddings. According to archaic beliefs, unmarried females couldn't enter their ancestors' post-mortem realms, so the parents of a deceased girl organized a ghost wedding to marry her spirit to some male, dead or alive. Thiis was more ofteen done with a picture or a photo of the deceased, though actual dead bodies still sometimes participated in the ceremony (and still do) (Sheng Wenchang 2020, 95-96). An unmarried young man could enter the otherworldly realm, but he would still be unmarried there and also needed a bride to be wed to. Thiese traditions are believed to be one of real-life sources of the zombie legend.
One of the best, to my mind, articles of this issue explores the selfidentifircation of believers with demonic beings during the rituals of exorcism. Thie cults of evil gods in South China was described in the work of a few researchers (me including) -it is an interesting phenomenon worth of attrention of anthropologists and culture researchers. Behind the respectable facade of many Chinese deities lies their obviously demonic origin. For example, the wangy (princely) spirits, who cure diseases, in fact send out these diseases themselves. Thieir modern cult in Taiwan refluects their dual nature; believers worship and expel them at the same time. Even when people make sacrifirces, they put the images of these deities in a boat that goes out to sea or is burned (Katz 1987, pp. 197-215). Similarly, in South China the Gods of the Five Ways to Wealth are worshiped (ulu tsaish n) -their cult firrst appeared in Jiangnan in the 17th century. Thiese firve deities descended from mountain spirits called Shanxiao, one-legged villains known for throwing stones at lonely travelers and throwing them offe the path. Just like the wangy spirits, these devilish deities are simultaneously worshiped -sometimes through female shamans who claim to have sexual intercourse with them -and exorcised .
A very worthy contribute to the exploration of such cults is offeered by the journalists of the special issue of 2020. Thie authors Zhuang Wen, Guo Jing and Zhang Jing describe self-identifircation of believers with their revered deities in the worship rites of the Nuo exorcisms in the southern provinces of China. Thie rites include offeering sacrifirces, burning incense and sacrifircial candles, but the most important part of them is the dance of masks.
Brightly coloured ritual masks are made of fabrics and diffeerent types of wood, most commonly bamboo. Thie masks are rich in symbolism. Every colour, every feature of a mask, every constituent element of a mask has a meaning, pointing to the character of a deity, demon or ancestor Outside of the rite though a mask is not treated with a special respect -it is stuffeed in a box, hung on a wall or put in a pantry. But when worn during a religious ceremony the mask turns into the face of a deity, and the person wearing the mask, at least on a sacred level, is perceived as a deity itself. "Thie person wearing the mask becomes sacred, " explained participants in religious ceremonies with masks in Guizhou province (Zhuan, Guo, Zhang 2020, 49). In Linshan county, Guangxi province, masks are worn during sacrifirces to ancestral spirits traditionally made by women. In doing so, a witch dance is performed. Thie ritual is sometimes called "the game of ghosts". Thie essence of the ritual is that the masked dancer embodies the worshiped spirit, which gives her the strength and power to carry out the actions desired by the community -for example, to leave the village, taking away the disease with her. Thie dancers themselves explain that they "absorb the power of deity" during the masked sacrifirce ceremony.
In the neighbouring province of Guizhou, in the city of Anshun, mask dancing is a male activity. Here, participants dress up in dressing gowns and take weapons in their hands. Thieir painted masks represent the warrior ancestors, and the whole dance depicts a battrle with demons that the dancers are driving out of the borders of the human world.
In Yunnan province, on the border with Myanmar, sacrifirce to the spirits with masks is practiced by the Wa people, Chinese 'bounty hunters' (until recently, a human skull or severed head was an essential attrribute of the Wa rituals). Before wearing the mask, participants are advised to think about the deity they will have to personify, then supernatural powers will come down on the wearer of the mask.
Interviewed by Chinese ethnographers, believers describe their experiences during ceremonies in a fairly straightforward way: "When I put on a heavy mask, I do not know who I am anymore" (ibid., p. 46), "At that moment I became a spirit", "Thie human and divine are merging and transforming" (ibid., p. 54) One of the interviewees even expressed his refluections in this firgurative form: "Gods and spirits are in darkness, you cannot see them, you cannot touch them, but they are kept in the hearts of our ancestors and exist in colourful masks. To understand God, you have to wear a mask" (ibid., page 35). Thius the data offeered by the journalists of this issue do have scientifirc value, for they show that in the southern regions of modern industrial China still exist religious practices of evocation and impersonation of spirits and demons, allowing the believers to merge on an emotional and ecstatic level with the objects of their veneration and to protect themselves from the disasters ofteen caused by the same spirits and demons. To sum it up, the "Cultural Heritage" magazine demonstrates a set of features very typical for Chinese humanitarian studies in general. It is less interested in research than in educating the public and transmittring the cultural tradition, it disregards the necessity to prove, and prefers statements bordering on indoctrination. It pays special attrention to the aesthetic side of the subject mattrers, which can be seen both in the beauty of the illustrations and in the picturesque, firction-like wording of the articles. Thie patriotic pride characteristic for this periodical leads it to diminish other national traditions and to overlook their innovative potential, ascribing all the inventions to the Chinese. Yet this very infatuation with all things Chinese becomes the magazine's strong point when it comes to exploring local cultures of China.