China's most mysterious culture - ghosts

China's most mysterious culture - ghosts

Ghosts, according to the traditional Chinese interpretation, are a form of human beings after death. Shuowenjiezi says that people become ghosts. The concept of ghosts comes from the idea of immortal souls in ancient times.

According to archaeologists' investigation of the tombs of the Upper Cave Man in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, at least 25,000 to 50,000 years ago, people had obvious ghost concepts and various ideas that the soul can continue to live after death, so ghost worship began to become a major category in primitive beliefs. This has been confirmed in the tombs discovered by archaeology.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, a relatively complete theory of ghosts had already appeared. In the Shang Dynasty, people generally worshipped ghosts and gods, which was recorded in the "Book of Rites". People become ghosts after death. For grievances in the world, you can repay them.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the status of people rose, and the concept of ghosts and gods gradually faded. The thinker Xunzi took a negative attitude towards ghosts. He talked about the reason why people saw ghosts from a visual perspective, and believed that ghosts were just illusions caused by illusions.

Among the various schools of thought, the founder of Mohism was a firm believer in the theory of ghosts. In the chapter "Ming Gui", he listed a large number of facts to prove the existence of ghosts and gods. He believed that ghosts and gods have superhuman abilities to reward good and punish evil. The ghosts that Mozi talked about are good ghosts, the embodiment of the power of justice, and this kind of ghost is actually not much different from gods.

In the concept of the ancients, there is also a kind of evil ghost, that is, a hostile ghost that harms people. Most of these ghosts should not die or die unjustly.

After the Western Han Dynasty, more and more people believed in the existence of ghosts, especially the founding of Taoism and the introduction of Buddhism, which made the concept of ghosts deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Ghosts and ghost stories have become an indispensable part of China's mysterious culture and folk customs.

There are many names for ghosts in China's traditional aesthetic culture. Generally speaking, there are ghosts characterized by the state of death, such as hanged ghosts and starving ghosts. There are ghosts characterized by appearance, big-headed ghosts and long-tongued ghosts. There are ghosts with personality characteristics, stingy ghosts and wicked ghosts. There are ghosts characterized by occupations, such as ghosts that urge death and ghosts that collect debts, etc.

After death, people become ghosts, so there are the rulers of the underworld and the so-called ghost capital. The ruler of the underworld believed by the Chinese people was originally the Lord of Mount Tai, that is, the God of Mount Tai. This saying was popular in the Han Dynasty and was recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Since the God of Mount Tai holds the power of life and death, the earliest ghosts in China are all in Haoli Mountain next to Mount Tai.

With ghosts, there are all kinds of witchcraft to summon, worship and exorcise ghosts. After the death of Lady Li, the beloved concubine of Emperor Wu of Han, he missed her very much and asked someone to summon ghosts. Exorcising ghosts is a way to prevent ghosts from causing trouble.

There are all kinds of exorcism techniques in Chinese history. For example, wearing jade, which is considered to be auspicious and containing essence, and wearing jade can prevent all evil; hanging ancient coins, hanging the ancient square-holed Tongbao around the neck, because the ancient coins have been in the hands of thousands of people, it is said that they can gather the yang energy of everyone and resist the ghosts in the underworld.

There are more ways to drive away ghosts at home, such as turning the broom upside down, hanging the image of Zhong Kui, hanging the Bagua map, cutting off the head of a chicken and throwing it over the roof, hanging tiger teeth, etc. Other commonly used objects to drive away ghosts include feces, dog blood, etc. In case of emergency, you can also cut your own fingers and sprinkle blood on the ghosts, or ask witches to perform magic, or ask Taoist priests to catch ghosts.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that setting off firecrackers, pasting Spring Festival couplets, hanging door gods, etc., all originally meant to drive away ghosts, and later developed into a festive folk custom.