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

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SOUL AND AFTERLIFE 367excavated at Ma-wang-tui, in Ch'ang-sha, Hunan. At the time ofits excavation, tomb no. 1 aroused worldwide attention primarilybecause of the well-preserved body of its occupant, the wife of Lits'angAlJN, the Marquis of Tai 1k, who probably died sometimeafter 175 B.C. (hereafter "Countess of Tai"). In tomb no. 3, dated168 B.C. and belonging to Li-ts'ang's son, a large quantity of silkmanuscripts of lost ancient writings were found. Since theirdiscovery the scholarly literature on these two tombs and theirunusually rich contents has been enormous and is still growing. Mydiscussion below will be confined to the light that this spectaculardiscovery sheds on thefu ritual. For this purpose, I will focus on thetwo T-shaped polychrome paintings on silk from tombs no. 1 andno. 3 respectively. In addition to these two, similar paintings havealso been found in other Han tombs. A Chinese archaeologist hasrecently summarized the contents of the Han paintings as follows:They are all of silk and are painted with fine colored pictures. The picture is dividedinto three sections, depicting, from top to bottom, heaven, man's world, and theunderworld. Both heaven and the underworld are represented by mythological images;the heaven picture has sun, moon, and sometimes stars, and the sun has agolden crow and the moon has a toad and a white rabbit, and sometimes a pictureof Changeh, the Goddess of the moon. The underworld picture shows variousaquatic animals, representing an aquatic palace at the bottom of the sea. As forman's world, the picture depicts scenes from daily life and also a portrait of themaster of the tomb.4This characterization is on the whole accurate, taking as it obviouslydoes the painting from tomb no. 1 at Ma-wang-tui as typicalof its kind. Scholars are generally agreed that the central theme ofthe painting is the "Summons of the Soul." According to Yui Weich'aoMM801, the two male figures above the aged woman, who canbe clearly identified as the Countess of Tai, are most likely the"summoners" (fig. 1, c). Judging by the position they occupy andthe robes and hats they wear, these two men are represented as callingthe departed soul back from a rooftop.5 While other identificationshave also been suggested, Yii's seems to fit with the maintheme of the painting best, especially, as we shall see momentarily,4 Wang Zhongshu, Han Civilization (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), p. 181.5See Yii Wei-ch'ao's J
368 YING-SHIH YUwhen the function of painting is clarified.6 Moreover, the lady belowthe moon (fig. 1, b), instead of being the goddess of the moon(Ch'ang-eh *M or Heng 0 -), may well have been a representationof the departed soul of the Countess of Tai herself. A comparisonwith the T-shaped silk painting from tomb no. 3 shows thatthe most noticeable difference between the two heavenly scenes liesin the absence of the so-called Ch'ang-o in the latter.7 MichaelLoewe has also made an interesting suggestion that the beautifulwoman's figure ending in a serpentine tail at the central apex of thepainting (fig. 1, a) may not be intended to represent any of themythological figures that scholars have put forth. Instead it mayhave been the artist's intention to represent the final stage of thecountess' journey to heaven when she has reached her destination.8In other words, one of the two figures must be a representation ofthe countess' hun-soul. It is important to note that in the round centralspace of the second painting, the female figure is replaced by amale figure. This difference of gender makes better sense when wetake into consideration the gender of its occupant. It is quitereasonable to assume that the male figure in this case is also arepresentation of the soul of the countess' son in heaven.9The establishment of the central theme of the T-shaped paintingsas the summons of the soul also helps to identify the function of thesilk painting. While the suggestion that the painting was a bannerused in funeral processions cannot be completely ruled out, it ismore likely that it was the burial shroud, hu, frequently referred toin Han texts in connection with thefu ritual. In the Han inventoriesof funeral furnishings found in both tombs there is an item listed as"fei-i, 12 feet long," which has been identified with the T-shaped6Ch'ang-sha Ma-wang-tui i-hao Han-mu RbJ,'F*-yt if, 2 vols. (Peking: Wen-wuch'u-pan-she 1973), 1:41 identifies the two men as "the guardians of the heavenly gate," andAn Chih-min %,O "Ch'ang-sha hsin fa-hsien ti Hsi-Han po-hua shih-t'an" :i'V'*R,(,9, A R, K'ao-ku ~ti (hereafter KK), 1973.1:45-46, identifies them as ta ssu-mingand shao ssu-ming. For a detailed and technical study of this painting in English, see MichaelLoewe, Ways to Paradise, The Chinese Questfor Immortality, (London, Allen and Unwin, 1979),chapter two.7Wang Po-min, IE{b "Ma-wang-tui i-hao Han-mu po-hua ping-wu Ch'ang-o penyiieh".:FEi L ff.I,, KK 1979.3:274.8 Loewe, Ways to Paradise, p. 59.9 See Chin Wei-no, eNCZ "T'an Ch'ang-sha Ma-wang-tui san-hao Han-mu po-hua,"A '$'.%iEi Vi ,M, WW 1974. 11:43.
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