My “Five Treasures” of Monkey King Spirit-Mediums
I was running errands on Saturday in Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan, when I noticed a religious shop was selling the "Five Treasures" (wubao, 五寶). I've previously mentioned that this set of five weapons is used in the self-mortification rituals of Monkey King spirit-mediums (Ch: jitong, 乩童; Hokkien: tangki, 童乩), and the resulting holy blood is believed to ward evil. Well, I'm now the proud owner of my own set of Five Treasures. But these are just to admire; I'm not going to flog myself with them anytime soon.
In November of 2020, I traveled with a small monkey god temple on a bus trip south. The resident spirit-mediums walked from one ritual fire to the next performing self-mortification with the Five Treasures. I was told that each fire represented one of five protector spirits called the “Five Camps Spirit Generals” (wuying shenjiang, 五營神將), who protect the five cardinal Chinese directions. I just learned that each weapon represents a direction.
1. East (green dragon) - spiked mace
2. West (white tiger) - sawfish nose sword (I have a metal variant)
3. South (red pheasant) - seven-star crescent moon ax
4. north (black tortoise) - seven-star jian sword
5. Centre (yellow dragon) - spiked ball