冥界游行(上)

Abstract

In ancient times the Chinese believed that, on the death of the individual, the soul ascended to heaven or went down under the ground. If the soul went to dwell in the heavenly world, it would be ruled by a god known as T'ien-ti 天帝, while if it lived in the underworld it would be ruled by a deity called T'ai-shan fu-chün 泰山府君 or "Governor of Mt. T'ai, " whose office was situated in the depths of Mt. T'ai in a place called Hao-li 蒿里. We may find many tales dating from the Six Dynasties period which deal with journeys to the other world, either to heaven or to the underworld. These may be regarded as a kind of vision literature in which a person is arrested by subordinate officials and taken to a government office-the office of T'ien-ti or T'ai-shan füchiln-where, after viewing the land of the dead, he is given permission to return to this world. Analyzing the plots of such stories, we may point out the following facts : 1. With the passage of time, belief in the other world was influenced by Buddhism, so that people pictured it as similar to a court and prison where the ruler decided the lifetime guilt of ghosts and punished them. 2. Along with this development the other world came to be conceived of as a very gloomy place, while in early times people believed that one could visit there and associate with the ruler without great difficulty. 3. The court of the other world was believed to have the same organization as a court of this world, and its government officials to be characterized by the same traits. This first part deals with the history of this type of story up until the middle of the Six Dynasties period. Part II will discuss the genre in later centuries.