Poisson et dragon : symboles du véhicule entre l'ici-bas et l'au-delà

Résumé En

Taoist texts dating from the fourth to sixth centuries mention the throwing of the figurine of a fish, along with one of a man or a message into a river as a sign of the oath taken at the moment of the transmission of a secret document or recipe. The aim of this article is to explain this ritual act. In certain texts and scenes from tombs in early China, the fish appears as a being ridden by immortals or spirits. In medieval times, the form of the fish was used for tallies involving communication between two parties distant from each other. With regard to ritual contexts and morphology, the "throwing of the fish" is analogous to the "throwing of the dragon" studied by Chavannes. The dragon in this rite represented the "postal service" for communicating with the gods, and some scholars consider this practice to derive from the dispatch of messages to the Officers of Heaven, Earth and Water in early Heavenly Master Taoism. The throwing of fish may therefore be interpreted as a ritual act designed to send a report of an initiation to the world of the immortals.