12.07.2015 Views

"O Soul, Come Back!" A Study in The Changing Conceptions of The ...

"O Soul, Come Back!" A Study in The Changing Conceptions of The ...

"O Soul, Come Back!" A Study in The Changing Conceptions of The ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

392 YING-SHIH YUfrom the belief that it is the abode <strong>of</strong> p 'o souls. Moreover, the samejester also def<strong>in</strong>ed po as "the court <strong>of</strong> the ghosts" (kuei-t'<strong>in</strong>g gg). 73In Han times the term t'<strong>in</strong>g commonly designated the yamen <strong>of</strong> acounty magistrate, just asfu was the popular name <strong>of</strong> the <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> aprov<strong>in</strong>cial governor.74 This fits perfectly well with the bureaucratichierarchy <strong>of</strong> the Han underworld: the deity <strong>in</strong> charge <strong>of</strong> the p 'o soulswas lower by one level <strong>in</strong> rank than the deity <strong>in</strong> charge <strong>of</strong> the hunsouls,the Lord <strong>of</strong> Mount T'ai. In approximately the middle <strong>of</strong> thefirst century B.C., the name Kao-li , suddenly ga<strong>in</strong>ed popularityas an abode for the dead. Interest<strong>in</strong>gly, it turns out that Kao-li wasanother place <strong>of</strong> deep religious significance at the foot <strong>of</strong> MountT'ai, where Emperor Wu performed the ritual <strong>of</strong> sacrifice to theLord <strong>of</strong> Earth <strong>in</strong> 104 B.C.75 Later <strong>in</strong> Han popular literature Kao-lialso came to be identified as the Lower Village (hsia-li T-T) or theYellow Spr<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong> which the dead take their permanent residence.76At first it seems puzzl<strong>in</strong>g that there should be two different places <strong>in</strong>the Han underworld for the departed souls. However, the puzzledisappears as soon as we remember that each person was believed tobe <strong>in</strong> possession <strong>of</strong> two separate souls, the hun and the p 'o. <strong>The</strong>re isclear evidence from <strong>in</strong>scriptions found <strong>in</strong> Later Han tombs thatboth the hun and the p'o are subject to the call <strong>of</strong> the underworldgovernment.77 This suggests the good possibility that the p 'o soul <strong>of</strong>7Han shu M (Pek<strong>in</strong>g: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1962), 33.2845.74 Forfu Vf and t '<strong>in</strong>g 4f as popular names <strong>of</strong> the governor's and the magistrate's <strong>of</strong>fices respectively,see vol. 1 <strong>of</strong> Yen Keng-wang IWO, Chung-kuo ti-fang hs<strong>in</strong>g-cheng chih-tu shih VfuPhtU%IJt, Part 1 (Taipei: Chung-yang yen-chiu-yulan li-shih yii-yen yen-chiu-so,1961), p. 216.Han shu 38.1991.776 For the term Kao-li mean<strong>in</strong>g underworld, see Han shu 63.2761 and Yen Shih-ku's commentaryon p. 2762. For Kao-li and hsia-li TFT <strong>in</strong> Han popular literature, especially <strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>scriptions on tombstones, see Wu Jung-tseng ;IN, "Chen-mu-wen chung so-chien taoti Tung-Han Tao wu kuan-hsi" AUTAWJ ,, WW 1981.3: p. 59. In hisTaoism and Ch<strong>in</strong>ese Religion (tr. by Frank A. Kierman, Jr., Amherst: <strong>The</strong> University <strong>of</strong>Massachusetts Press, 1981), Henri Maspero gives a brief account <strong>of</strong> the T'ai-shanfu-chun <strong>in</strong>later Taoist tradition <strong>in</strong> which the underworld is localized <strong>in</strong> "the hillock Hao-li," (pp. 102-04). Here "Hao-li" is a variant read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> Kao-li. Though much distorted, this later traditionnevertheless shows unmistakable traces <strong>of</strong> its Han orig<strong>in</strong>.7 See some <strong>of</strong> the examples given <strong>in</strong> Wu Jung-tseng, "Chen-mu-wen," pp. 60-61. It has<strong>of</strong>ten been po<strong>in</strong>ted out that Han beliefs <strong>in</strong> the afterlife as revealed <strong>in</strong> the vast amount <strong>of</strong>literary and archaeological sources are full <strong>of</strong> contradictions and <strong>in</strong>consistencies. I wouldargue that on the whole the various ideas about death rituals, heaven, and hell discussed

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!