The Supernatural
The Supernatural
The Underworld 冥
The Underworld 冥
There are over 50 narratives about the Underworld and over 20 stories about rebirth. The Underworld is mainly called 'the dark' and 'the obscure' (ming 冥). Whereas the terms 'nine springs' (jiuquan 九泉), 'yellow springs' (huangquan 黄泉) or 'underneath earth' (dixia 地下) are rarely used. The stories are frequently set out in a court of law and without detour the protagonists arrive in an underworld-agency or -office (mingsi 冥司, mingshu 冥暑). Of interest to the storytellers are the judgement of the dead and the living as well as the organisation and function of the administration. The few reports of the collection in which a frightening purgatory is described, are often said by Ji Yun to be interesting, but incredible.
Representation of the Underworld in the Compilation
Whereas the presence of heaven and gods is not questioned, as it directly reveals itself to the living, many narratives about the world below seem to be meant as evidence for its existence and efficiency. In the 79 stories about the underworld and rebirth it occurs more often than with the other topics, that the protagonist is only a witness to the happening through which the objectivity and authenticity of the report is stressed. The stories frequently tell of people whose soul travelled to the netherworld and who after their return to the living give first-hand reports of their experience. Shamans are also a useful and serious source of information about the underworld in the collection. Further on, two colleagues of Ji Yun tell about their involvement with the world of the death. The Director Gu Demao 顧德懋 and the Prefect Cai Bichang 蔡必昌 (jinshi 1778) both claim to be employed as judges for the otherworldly courts. Even though Ji Yun is sceptical, he states that there are some indications of them telling the truth; especially, that their descriptions are quite logical and make sense.[1] Other informants are individuals, whose souls journey to the underworld by mistake whilst asleep or during an illness. They then often meet a former friend or acquaintance, who will tell them about the hereafter and answer their questions. Furthermore, as has been mentioned, it frequently happens that ghosts err in the time of death of a person, who is then allowed to return from the netherworld. This not only happened to Ji Yun's great-uncle,[2] but also a maid servant. Upon her death in 1768, she is sent back to the living once more by ghosts, in order to demand more paper money. Ji Yun finds this quite strange as it is unclear to him how they can use the paper money in the underworld or blackmail a dead person. He moreover wonders how the underworld officials will deal with this kind of blackmail. (RS III.22)
Every dead person can officially accuse a living individual of some kind of offence. The accused is then summoned and his soul has to travel to the underworld. This is the case in the story told by Ji Yun’s mensheng Wu Huishu 吳惠叔 (fl 1762–d. 1800), in which a doctor denies a pregnant woman help with an abortion. In despair, the woman finally hangs herself and after her death brings action against the man. The verdict of the netherworld judge is that the doctor is not guilty, because since the time of the Song, it is common practice that people unyieldingly obey rules, without reflecting upon the outcome. Often, the trials of the underworld are about matters that seem to be of lesser importance, as in the following note:
[…] Dong Qujiang 董曲江 says that there were three brothers in Dongchang. When the second brother died without leaving a descendant, the elder as well as the younger brother wanted their son to be the heir. The older brother said that the younger one should give in, but the younger brother pointed out that his son was the older one and therefore the other brother should obey. The following trial lasted for over one year and finally the older brother won. The younger one was so upset that he first became melancholy and then ill. When his illness was in a very critical state he said to his son: "I certainly will seek for my right in the underworld (dixia 地下)!" He then fainted and was unconscious for half a day. When he woke up again, he said: "You think only the worldly officials (yang guan 陽官) are unreasonable? The otherworldly officials (yin guan 陰官) are even more unreasonable! Just now my hun 魂 was in the netherworld-agency (mingsi 冥司). After I outlined my case, the official said to me: "Why do you behave like this? Is it because your brother does not have descendants? You only argue because of the property. When two men see game in the wilderness and both hunt it, the faster of the two will get it. What do you complain about?" Unexpectedly, I did not receive justice. One argues about the property, but with eyes wide open, I have to pay attention to ancestral rites. How can one keep so aloof from the truth? Do put enough writing materials in my coffin, so that I can inform the Supreme Ruler (shangdi 上帝).
This indeed is a man stubborn beyond death! [Dong] Qujiang remarked: "Nevertheless I think it is praiseworthy that he did not conceal anything" (HX IV.52).
In case a dead person loses a trial this is only of relevance to the defendant, as the plaintiff seems not to be charged for an unreasonable or wrong accusation. As Michel Strickmann points out, the illustrations of the underworld do often resemble a 'pantheon of the profane': "Wie nicht anders zu erwarten, war das Reich der Toten natürlich kein sehr freundlicher Ort. Er quoll über vor Reue und Klagen, Rivalität, Rache und Intrigen. Schlimmer noch, die Geister waren besessen davon, sich in endlose Prozesse zu verstricken."[3] Whereas the ghosts in the YWCT do indeed support this impression, the netherworld itself seems to be well-organised. The idea of different tribunals seems as irrelevant as the different hells, courts of justice, and judges, as they all seem to be identical. Only rarely is the actual punishment of the dead mentioned as the focus is more on the moral admonishment of humans. Punishment and rewards are additionally administered by means of rebirth. A former existence also accounts for unreasonably strong sympathies and antipathies between humans and animals.
Only twice in 23 stories about rebirth, are humans rewarded, whereas they are more frequently punished by being reincarnated as an animal. It can be said that it is four times more likely being punished than being rewarded by rebirth. It is also more than double as likely to have an ‘indifferent’ experience, as rebirth is an explanation for something inexplicable or simply said to be incomprehensible. One example is the story told by Ji Yun’s friend Song Bi 宋弼 (1703−1768) about a certain Sun Eshan 孫峨山. Mr. Sun was once so seriously ill, that he fell into a coma. He then came alive in the body of a newborn baby of an unknown family. The baby died after a few days, whereas Sun Eshan regained consciousness again in his old body. The same entry tells of similar experiences other men made, like the official Meng Jianxi 夢鑒溪 [Presumably Mengji 夢吉, b. 1736], and Ji Yun comments:
[…] why have these two gentlemen experienced the reincarnation temporarily and returned to their original bodies? This is the cause of unreasonable empty hope and cannot be according to the principle. As we do not know what is outside the six directions (liuhe 六合), the sage (shengren 聖人) acknowledges this and lets it rest. This question can be left aside (LY IV.7).
As has been the case before, incomprehensible occurrences are explained with limited human understanding, since there is always an unfailing underlying principle.
Yanluo wang himself is commenting upon the evaluation of officials and women in the underworld and thus compares the highest and the lowest social class with each other. In one entry it is reported, how Yanluo wang respectfully welcomes an old countrywoman and ensures that she will be reborn at once into a good social position. The reason given is that she has never in her life tried to gain an advantage at other people's expense. In the same story an official is also judged, who is proud of the fact that in his whole lifetime he has not accepted a bribe. Yanluo wang tells him that this does not suffice. He did nothing bad as well as nothing good, but to do nothing good as an official is in itself a misdemeanour. Nevertheless, since he had a minor rank, he only receives this moral instruction and not punishment. Another example is told by the Vice-Minister Gu Demao 顧德懋, who reports that the underworld judges respect chaste widows and subdivide them in different categories. The lowest category includes women who are chaste because they love their children too much and have rich parents-in-law. The highest respect deserve those who have no personal wishes, are poor and stoical. Naturally, only a few of the latter exist. When an old countrywoman with such an altruistic character arrives in the netherworld, she is at once permitted to descend to heaven and become a god. Concerning officials, the ones who are afraid of the law and criticism are in the lowest category. These are followed by the ones who are primarily concerned about their reputation. The highest esteem is due to those officials, who are worried about the people and the country, without caring about their own private matters. Individuals who are upstarts are generally detested, because they are without scruples, and people who retire early from office are additionally not appreciated, since they are irresponsible. Moreover, the judges have a strong prejudice against private secretaries, based on experience. This becomes clear in a narrative told by Song Laihui 宋來會 (bagong 1723), the father of Song Bi 宋弼 (1703–1768). At the time, when Mr. Song studied to become a private secretary for Wang Lansheng 王蘭生 (1660−1737), a friend told him about his experience in the other world, where he became a witness of how a group of private secretaries are harshly condemned. The friend of Mr. Song then met a clerk whom he knew and who explained to him in great detail the immoral and opportunistic behaviour of private secretaries, for which they are found guilty in the netherworld court. Therefore, private secretaries have to be especially careful in life to not upset the underworld.
Further social groups, who have a reason to be afraid of harsh post-mortem discipline, are the relatives and employees of officials. This becomes obvious from the report of the monk Mingxin, who tells of a monk who was once in the underworld. Here he learns that the people who are seen as doing the greatest damage to society, are the assistants, servants and relatives of officials. Most of these people are misusing their unfounded position of authority and only think about their own advantage. Thus, in the afterlife they are brutally punished and send to the deepest hell. Ji Yun remarks of this story as exaggerated and not especially trustworthy, but as a good warning example.
Officials are comparatively often chastised for ordinary transgressions, like corruption or neglect of duties. A rather extraordinary case is that of Ren Dachun 任大椿 (1738−1789):
Ren Zitian [Ren Dachun] from Taizhou […] had a broad knowledge and a superb memory. He was especially skilled in the discourse and commentaries of the Three Rituals (san li 三禮) and the classification of the characters (liushu 六書).[4] In the year Qianlong jichou [1769], he was the first jinshi of the second class and thereafter he had better and worse times during his official career. Later on, he was promoted censor, but died before he could take up office. Since the beginning of the Qing dynasty, only three men who had been first jinshi of the second class did not enter the Hanlin Academy. Ren Zitian was one of them.
He once said, that when he was 14 to 15 years old, he wrote a palace poem (gongci 宮詞) on the fan of his uncle's concubine without giving it any further thought. After his uncle saw the poem, however, he became so suspicious of his concubine, that she finally hanged herself out of grief. In the netherworld, her ghost accused Ren Zitian. He became ill and when Ren Zitian’s breath became weaker and weaker, his soul travelled to the underworld to take part in the trial. During the following four to five days, he was interrogated by the otherworldly officials seven to eight times. Only thereafter it became clear that he had really not thought anything about his action. Nevertheless, since he was liable for the death of a human, it was decided that his future career as an official should stagnate. […] (RS III.25)
The report makes clear that, next to heaven, the underworld can also directly influence the personal living condition and destiny of men. A malevolent ghost, who accuses a human, can therefore be an explanation for individual failure in life. Another example of a rather perfidious penalty is the rebirth of an official in a woman's body. This incident happened in 1737 in the home of the Vice-Director of the Ministry of Work, Chang Tai 長泰.[5] The reincarnated man is shattered when he wakes up in the body of a recently deceased servant's wife. He bitterly laments his fate, all the more since he has studied for twenty years and worked as an official for 30 years. It is suspected that he must have committed a great crime to be punished like this, but until his death three years later, the former official is too bad-tempered to reveal anything about the matter. People of the lower stratum are more often chastised for not paying back their debts or stealing money. These individuals are reborn as animals and thus pay back their material dues from their previous existence. In addition, butchers and other tormentors of animals are frequently reborn as creatures and thus have to suffer bad treatment themselves.
Women are rewarded by the underworld more often than men, and some are compensated for their deficient life, as for example, the mother of the official Shen Yunjiao 沈雲椒[6] She was married for one year when her husband died and the child born post-mortem, only lived for three years.
Upon the child's death, the mother cried bitterly and said: "Only because of you I did not die and now this is over now. I cannot bear to imagine that no one will perform the ancestor rites and that this branch of the family will cease now." Then she painted a scarlet-red dot on the arm of the child and said in a prayer: "Should heaven decide to not let the family line end and should you be born again, this will be the sign of recognition." This happened in the 12th month of the year Yongzheng jiyou [1729]. In the same month, a baby was born in the neighbouring family by the same clan-name, who had a red dot on his arm. The widow was happy and raised him as her own son. This child was later the Vice Minister Shen.
At the time when I [Ji Yun] was president of the Ministry of Rites, I worked together with the Vice Minister and he has told me this story in detail himself. There are many absurd reports in the Buddhist writings […]; but the transformation of souls itself and its laws are beyond doubt. The Determiner of human destiny (simingzhe 司命者) does sometimes use a person or occurrence to give a sign of the divine way. The story of the Vice Minister is a proof of reincarnation and shows how the severe fate of the chaste widow has touched [heaven]. Confucians (ru 儒), who stubbornly claim that there are no ghosts, should know this (RS III.5).
Next to the example of how the underworld helps a devastated mother, the wish of a dead farmer's wife is granted, who was to be rewarded for her virtuousness by becoming a provincial graduate (juren 舉人) in her next life. Here, the supernatural reward is to be reborn as the opposite sex and thus compensate for gender hierarchy.
In conclusion, like Heaven, the underworld in the collection is also part of a system that changes human life and fate as a consequence of a person’s character and certain deeds. In case of the underworld, this mainly happens by prolonging or shortening the life span of humans.
The underworld is not described as a fearful Buddhist inspired idea of hell, but rather as a place, where the recently dead have to morally account for their former life. This place is frequently represented as an earthly court of justice, in which a judge examines each dead person. The protagonists are judged and punished differently, and this becomes especially apparent in the stories in which members of the privileged classes are compared to the ones of the disadvantaged groups. Women are generally more often rewarded and officials more frequently admonished or punished. Nevertheless, in harmony with the less intimidating description of the underworld the reported offences and imposed retributions are seldom severe. Again, the topic of a higher moral jurisdiction for persons of the elite is pointed out; ensuring that even though privileged persons might have the means to escape legal punishment for their misdeeds during their lifetime, they cannot escape punishment in death. The evaluation of the actual verdict shows that 28 individuals are from the upper class and less than half of these are judged. Apart from a few exceptional stories that are funny, ironical, or overly self-evident, these individuals do mostly receive a moral warning. The persons of the other social classes are more often recompensed, but also punished – for example, if they are reborn as animals, even though these reports do frequently have a mocking undertone.
NOTES
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[1] See RS: 7, RS: 161, HX: 177, and GW: 114. Gu Demao also claims that he was later demoted to the position of local God of Earth because of his talkativeness concerning the affairs of the netherworld. YWCT, 715; see also Chan 1998, 285–286.
[2] See Biography of Ji Yun
[3] 'As could be expected, the realm of the dead naturally was not a very friendly place. It was flooded with regret and lamentation, rivalry, revenge, and intrigues. Even worse, the ghosts were obsessed to get involved in never ending lawsuits.' Strickmann 1985, 194.
[4] The “Three Canons of Rites”, the Zhouli 周禮, Yili 儀禮, and Liji 禮記. Liushu 六書, the six categories into which Chinese characters can be classified. YWCT, 429.
[5] Chang Tai 長泰 and Changxiu (d. 1810) might be the same person. YWCT, 950; QDZG, 3182.
[6] Shen Chu 沈初 (b. 1735). JXLNP, 214, 223; QDZG, 250–252; QSLZ, 28. The date of birth given for Shen Chu is different from the one given in the biji, though.
NOTES
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[1] See RS: 7, RS: 161, HX: 177, and GW: 114. Gu Demao also claims that he was later demoted to the position of local God of Earth because of his talkativeness concerning the affairs of the netherworld. YWCT, 715; see also Chan 1998, 285–286.
[2] See Biography of Ji Yun
[3] 'As could be expected, the realm of the dead naturally was not a very friendly place. It was flooded with regret and lamentation, rivalry, revenge, and intrigues. Even worse, the ghosts were obsessed to get involved in never ending lawsuits.' Strickmann 1985, 194.
[4] The “Three Canons of Rites”, the Zhouli 周禮, Yili 儀禮, and Liji 禮記. Liushu 六書, the six categories into which Chinese characters can be classified. YWCT, 429.
[5] Chang Tai 長泰 and Changxiu (d. 1810) might be the same person. YWCT, 950; QDZG, 3182.
[6] Shen Chu 沈初 (b. 1735). JXLNP, 214, 223; QDZG, 250–252; QSLZ, 28. The date of birth given for Shen Chu is different from the one given in the biji, though.
Examples
灤陽消夏錄 (LY)
LY I.32 Underworld punishes through rebirth, Ji Runchu 汲潤礎 overhears stablemen reborn as horses.
LY IV.7 Sun Eshan 孫峨山, Meng Jianxi 夢鑒溪, and Tu Shiquan 圖時泉 talk about their experiences of rebirth.
LY V.14 Underworld official convinces An Tianshi 安天石 of rebirth.
LY V.39 Ji Rongshu’s 紀容舒 (1686–1764) chef argues successfully with ghosts about his time of death.
LY V.40 Ji Yun's devious servant is reborn as loyal dog.
LY VI.28 Ji Tongren 紀同仁 (d. 1637) is summoned too early and later punished for practicing Daoist magic.
LY VI.46 Dai Lin 戴臨 dreams of the underworld and Qiu Yuexiu 裘曰修 (1712–1773) interprets the prophetic dream correctly.
如是我聞 (RS)
RS I.7 Critical questions concerning the afterlife, which even Gu Demao 顧德懋 can not answer
RS III.5 Woman is rewarded for deficient life by reborn child, who is Shen Chu 沈初 (b. 1735).
RS III.25 As a boy, Ren Dachun 任大椿 (1738–1789) was summoned to the Underworld to stand trial for inconsiderate joke with fatal consequences.
RS III.39 The prefect Cai Bichang 蔡必昌 (fl. 1778) claims to be underworld judge.
RS IV.3 Official of the Underworld explains to Bayanbi 巴彥弼 (fl. 1770) how the other world estimates the moral of dead soldiers.
槐西雜志 (HX)
HX III.33 Thoughts on the underworld judges Cai Bichang 蔡必昌 and Gu Demao 顧德懋.
HX IV.10 Yuan Shoudong 袁守侗 (1723–1783) tells Ji Yun of his childhood memories concerning his previous existence.
姑妄聽之 (GW)
GW II.41 Underworld, rebirth, punishment; reincarnated official is shattered when he wakes up as servant’s wife.
GW III.3 The underworld judge Gu Demao 顧德懋 tells of a trial he won.
灤陽續錄 (LX)
LX III.1 Heng Lantai's 恒蘭臺 (18th c) uncle is proof for reincarnation.