Magistrates and Miracles: The Supernatural Arsenal of Fine Officials in Early Medieval China

Our common view of the local magistrate is that he was a rational problem-solver who had to cater to his superstitious constituents by performing sacrifices or conducting rain ceremonies.  Yet, upon perusing early medieval biographies of exemplary officials, which were called “Accounts of Fine Officials” (Liangli zhuan), one finds that miracles often punctuate these narratives.  How can this be?  To what are these miraculous occurrences attributed?  What is their function within these narratives?           

Simply put, through moral transformation (jiaohua), good magistrates bring about sympathetic responses from the spirit world.  Through displaying solicitude and providing assistance, a magistrate treats his subjects as his children; they, in turn, regard him as a parent. The spirit world responds to this display of extreme parental solicitude (ci) by producing miracles.  Sometimes these consist of favorable omens; other times, they have practical benefits – dangerous elements, such as bandits, locusts, or tigers, do not pester the local official’s precinct.  By actively studying the mantic arts, a number of good officials also staved off supernatural disaster.            

The miraculous content of these accounts celebrate the supernatural efficacy of Confucianism.  The spirits of Heaven and Earth hunger to see people act well.  By setting a personal example and improving commoners’ morals, good local officials obtain the spirits’ admiration and help.  Hence, the narratives not only provide a model of how a local official should act, they also confirm the sacred nature of the government’s ideology.