中世 中國 生死觀의 一面과 道敎 ― 殃禍의 觀念을 중심으로 ― (Popular Conception of Death and the Netherworld in early Medieval China : in relation to the growth of Daoism)

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초록

This paper explores one particular aspect of death and the related rituals in early medieval China - the fear of the dead. A number of anomaly accounts(zhiguai 志怪) inform that it was a widespread practice in medieval China for the mourning family to escape from the house on a particular day so as to avoid demons called killer(sha 殺/煞) or harmer(yang 殃) when there was a death or funeral in the family or neighbourhood. To know when to escape, people consulted a diviner or a medium. But it does not mean that this belief and practice had any effect on the prescriptive text for funerary rituals which was based on the Confucian ritual classics. This practice was observed outside the framework of the standard form of funerary ritual, which explains why it is rarely mentioned in written sources except when Confucian-oriented scholars criticize such a practice.
As Daoist ritual texts, in particular the petition forms collected in the Petition Almanac of Master Red Pine (Chisongzi zhangli 赤松子章曆) more clearly show, these killer- or harmer-demons are none other than the deceased. To be precise, they are what the souls of the deceased transformed into. These demonized souls of the dead are pointed to as the sources of diseases which were most commonly manifested as infusion-diseases(zhu 注), subsequent deaths, and other misfortunes happening in the family. The deceased, even without resentment or any particular reason, were believed to indiscriminately attack the living. Those who died with resentment or other unsettled issues, could file a lawsuit in the netherworld, the result of which would soon affect the living. The Declaration of the Perfected, (Zhengao 眞誥) the record of Shangqing 上淸 revelation in the early fourth century, provides examples of such a belief that the dead could implicate the living, ie. their descendents, in an attempt to be released from, or reduce the sufferings in the netherworld.
A similar belief, though in much simpler form, can be found in tomb-securing writs of Eastern Han period. They generally emphasizes that the living and the dead should be permanently separated and the latter should not disturb the former. In this light, tomb-securing writs and the involved rituals, if any, could be seen exorcistic in nature. Daoism, in the very early stage, seems to have inherited this belief and offered a more effective means of achieving the same goal through petitioning ritual which was modelled on the administrative procedure of the world of the living.
By exploring the demonology of killer- and harmer-demons and analyzing the troubles they were believed to cause, this paper reveals another layer of belief about death concealed in textual sources by comparing it with excavated materials. By doing so, this paper also provides a better understanding of what kind of religious culture Daoism grew out of, and offers a glimpse into the religious atmosphere of early medieval China.

영어초록

This paper explores one particular aspect of death and the related rituals in early medieval China - the fear of the dead. A number of anomaly accounts(zhiguai 志怪) inform that it was a widespread practice in medieval China for the mourning family to escape from the house on a particular day so as to avoid demons called killer(sha 殺/煞) or harmer(yang 殃) when there was a death or funeral in the family or neighbourhood. To know when to escape, people consulted a diviner or a medium. But it does not mean that this belief and practice had any effect on the prescriptive text for funerary rituals which was based on the Confucian ritual classics. This practice was observed outside the framework of the standard form of funerary ritual, which explains why it is rarely mentioned in written sources except when Confucian-oriented scholars criticize such a practice.
As Daoist ritual texts, in particular the petition forms collected in the Petition Almanac of Master Red Pine (Chisongzi zhangli 赤松子章曆) more clearly show, these killer- or harmer-demons are none other than the deceased. To be precise, they are what the souls of the deceased transformed into. These demonized souls of the dead are pointed to as the sources of diseases which were most commonly manifested as infusion-diseases(zhu 注), subsequent deaths, and other misfortunes happening in the family. The deceased, even without resentment or any particular reason, were believed to indiscriminately attack the living. Those who died with resentment or other unsettled issues, could file a lawsuit in the netherworld, the result of which would soon affect the living. The Declaration of the Perfected, (Zhengao 眞誥) the record of Shangqing 上淸 revelation in the early fourth century, provides examples of such a belief that the dead could implicate the living, ie. their descendents, in an attempt to be released from, or reduce the sufferings in the netherworld.
A similar belief, though in much simpler form, can be found in tomb-securing writs of Eastern Han period. They generally emphasizes that the living and the dead should be permanently separated and the latter should not disturb the former. In this light, tomb-securing writs and the involved rituals, if any, could be seen exorcistic in nature. Daoism, in the very early stage, seems to have inherited this belief and offered a more effective means of achieving the same goal through petitioning ritual which was modelled on the administrative procedure of the world of the living.
By exploring the demonology of killer- and harmer-demons and analyzing the troubles they were believed to cause, this paper reveals another layer of belief about death concealed in textual sources by comparing it with excavated materials. By doing so, this paper also provides a better understanding of what kind of religious culture Daoism grew out of, and offers a glimpse into the religious atmosphere of early medieval China.

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