｢遺骸思葬｣ --『夷堅志』における埋骨の物語--

Abstract

Hong Mai 洪邁, courtesy name Jinglu 景盧, art names Yechu 野處 and Rongzhai 容齋, posthumous name Wenmin 文敏, was born in Poyang 鄱陽, and served during the reigns of four emperors of the Southern Song dynasty: Gaozong (r. 1127-1162), Xiaozong (r. 1162-1189), Guangzong (r. 1189-1194), and Ningzong (r. 1194-1224). His work Yijianzhi 夷堅志 is the most voluminous individual anthology of strange tales in China. A story titled “Xie Sanniang” 解三娘 in volume seventeen of the first section of Yijianzhi is about the ghost of a woman named Xie Sanniang who had wandered around her own corpse for thirty years, and was finally able to be reincarnated because of a man named Zhao Feng 趙豐. While the story is very rich in content and contains many issues worthy of discussion, this paper focuses on the burial of the corpse. Cruelly killed and having become a ghost, Xie Sanniang sought only that her own body would be properly buried, which was a precondition for reincarnation. Two questions can be considered here. First, what does the corpse mean for a ghost? The ghost of Xie Sanniang wandering around her own corpse suggests that ghosts are tied to their corpses. Second, what is the meaning of burial? Xie Sanniang asked to be buried properly, only after which her ghost could be reincarnated. This paper draws the following conclusions. First, there is a very deep connection between ghosts and their corpses. Ghosts are dependent on their corpses so they cannot travel far from them. The various stories of haunted houses also derive from the fact that ghosts wander near their corpses. The phenomenon of ghosts following after their corpses shows the close relationship between them as well. Second, what ghosts seek is the integrity of their bodies. Third, people during the Song era attached great importance to the burial of corpses, which is suggested by the establishment of Louzeyuan 漏澤園, and the obsession of people with the choice of burial sites. Through the stories of ghosts demanding interment of their bodies, the people in the Song era revealed the fact that many corpses were not properly buried, and criticized the act of placing corpses in temples.