Ghosts and Religious Life in Early China

216 Pages·2022·4.399 MB·English

by  Mu-Chou Poo

Ghosts and Religious Life in Early China
For modern people, ghost stories are no more than thrilling entertain-
ment.Forthoselivinginantiquity,ghostswerefarmoreseriousbeings,
astheycouldaffectthe lifeanddeathof peopleandcauseendlessfear
andanxiety.Howdidancientsocietiesimaginewhatghostslookedlike,
what they could do, and how people could deal with them? From the
vantage point of modernity, what can we learn about an obscure, but
no less important aspect of an ancient culture? In this volume,
Mu-ChouPooexplorestheghostsofancientChina,theideasthatthey
nurtured, and their role in its culture. His study provides fascinating
insights into the interaction between the idea of ghosts and religious
activities, literary imagination, and social life devoted to them.
Comparing Chinese ghosts with those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia,
Greece, and Rome, Poo also offers a wider perspective on the role of
ghostsinhumanhistory.
Mu-ChouPooisProfessorofHistoryattheChineseUniversityofHong
Kong. He is the author of In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of
Ancient Chinese Religion (1998), Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes
towardForeignersinAncientMesopotamia,Egypt,andChina(2005),
WineandWineOfferingintheReligionofAncientEgypt(2014),and
DailyLifeinAncientChina(2018).

Ghosts and Religious Life
in Early China
MU-CHOU POO
ChineseUniversityofHongKong
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doi:10.1017/9781009086523
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Contents
Preface pagevii
1 Ghosts:The Other Side of Humanity 1
1.1 Talking about Ghosts 1
1.2 Cross-CulturalTypologies ofGhosts 8
1.3 Looking for Ghostsin Early China 12
1.4 The Structure ofThisBook 16
2 The Emergence of Ghostsin Early China 21
2.1 The Meaning and Originof Gui,or Ghost 23
2.2 The Image ofGhosts 31
2.3 The Relationship between Ghosts and Human Beings 37
2.4 Ritual Actsand Exorcism 40
2.5 The Religious and Social Background of the Concept
of Ghosts 49
3 Imperial Order and LocalVariations 57
3.1 The Nature ofthe Qin-HanOfficial Religion 60
3.2 Belief inGhosts intheQin-Han Period 63
3.3 The Nuo, orExcorcism 74
3.4 Ghosts and the Netherworld 78
3.5 The Changing Image of Ghosts 82
4 Stories That Revealthe Dark Corner 89
4.1 Pursuing Ghosts intheZhiguai 89
4.2 The Typology ofGhosts 92
4.3 The Intentionality of Ghost-Story Writers 101
4.4 The Religious Significanceof Ghost Stories 119
v
vi Contents
5 Ghosts in Early DaoistCulture 126
5.1 The Originof GhostsAccording to Daoist Belief 128
5.2 Imagesof Ghosts 133
5.3 ExorcisticRituals 135
5.4 New Ghostsor Old? 146
6 The Taming of Ghostsin Early Chinese Buddhism 150
6.1 The TermGui,or Ghost,in Early BuddhistTexts 153
6.2 The Tamingof Ghostsin Early Buddhism 160
6.3 Competition with IndigenousBelief Systems 163
6.4 The Origins of Ghostsin BuddhismCompared 168
7 Chinese Ghostsin Comparative Perspective 170
Bibliography 190
Index 205
Preface
Itisironicthat,afteryearsoflivingwithapersonwithpassionforlifeand
rigorous intellectual examination of things around us, I should write
something about ghosts, something that death brings about, and some-
thingamorphousthatoftendefiesreasonandrationalexplanation.There
has to be a good reason for someone to spend a long time trying to
describe the history of ghosts in any culture, let alone trying to establish
somegeneralunderstandingofghostsinhumansocieties,pastorpresent.
For one thing, the idea of ghosts is very much alive and even thriving in
somepartoftheworld.Themetaphoricaluseoftheideaofghostscanbe
evenmorepervasive.Thusonecanscarcelyexpecttoreachanyconsensus
regarding the ramifications of the idea of ghosts in human societies,
ancient or modern. Yet it seems that ghosts are important constituents
of human cultures and societies, and very few societies could claim to
havenotdevelopedsomesortofideaaboutghosts,aboutthepostmortem
existenceofhumanbeings.Inordertohavearoundedunderstandingofa
peopleoraculture,itseemslogicaltoinvestigatewhatpeoplethinkabout
the living aswellas the dead.
Of course, whether or why one should engage in such an effort is not
necessarilyatotallyrationalorobjectivematter.Thisbookcanbesaidto
haveoriginatedfrommypersonalfascinationaboutbelief,faith,andthe
phenomenon of religion, within which the idea of ghosts has occupied a
role. How should we understand the phenomenon that is now called
“religion”? And how to explain the tug-of-war between the human and
the extra-human forces that constituted the history of religions, and
indeed historyatlarge?
vii
viii Preface
Asahistorian,Iammoreinterestedinthehistoricalandsociocultural
ramifications of religion in human societies. Although I do not have the
proper training to tackle religion in all its spiritual, philosophical, or
theological aspects, yet the fascination about religion led me to seek for
a less conventional way to study things religious. Not by asking what is
the nature and purpose of the divine, or whether god or gods exist,
I found my focus on the phenomenon of ghosts, not only in Chinese
society but also in other societies. This is because, as I try to articulate
inthisbook,theideaofghostsisalmostaspervasiveasgod(s)inhuman
societies, yet not enough attention seems to have been paid to this phe-
nomenon. How did the idea of ghosts originate, how did it impact each
society,andhow couldit helpus to further understand humanity?
Sothisbookiswrittenwithcomparisoninmind,althoughneithermy
training nor the space in this book allows me to engage in a full-scale
comparison with other societies. I did, however, try to make some pre-
liminary comparative observations in the first and final chapters so that
theChinesestorycouldbeplacedinapropercontextofmultiplesocieties.
These observations are meant to be invitations for interested scholars to
jointhediscussion,andhavebynomeansexhaustedallthequestionsand
issuesthatcan be investigated.
Most of the material in this book has previously been presented in
various forms as book chapters, articles, conference papers, or invited
talks; thus, I have received criticism and help from numerous colleagues
and students, for which I am very grateful. Here I like to thank the
anonymous reviewers who helped to correct many mistakes and revised
someofmyunderstandingofthesources.Forallitsshortcomings,Ihope
this book might perhaps serve as a beginning for more in-depth studies
that could advance our general goal of understanding humanity. Last,
I would like to dedicate this book to my life partner Ping-chen, who
constantly reminds me how far I am still away from what I claim to
be pursuing.