The Buddhist scripture paper comparatively expounds the imagination of the underground world in China, Indian and Western Regions, and points out that the travel stories of hades told by people in the Western Regions have had an extremely important influence on the formation and development of ghost stories in China, and quickly replaced China's original stories of hades with novel ideas, magical plot effects and popular concepts, which has become an important paradigm in China's traditional novels. [ 1]

Keywords:: Western Regions, hades, hell world, Buddhist travel

Ghost story is one of the most common and important types in China's novels, which occupies a large proportion in China's novels. To sum up, its basic plot mode is: temporary death-entering ghosts-ghost officials adjudicating cases-going to hell-explaining the cause and effect-resurrection. This plot pattern is formed by combining the imagination of the underworld in China, India and the Western Regions. Among them, the story of the trip to hades told by people in the western regions is particularly important, and it is a bridge between Indian mythology and the myth of ghosts and gods in China. The myth of ghosts and gods in the western regions (probably created by westerners in China) has greatly influenced the development of ghost stories in China, which can be said to fundamentally change the function and structure of the myth of ghosts and gods. Let's analyze this process.

one

To sum up, the early ghost imagination in Middle-earth has the following characteristics: 1, without hierarchy. Different from the ancient concept that heaven is multi-layered, the concept of multi-layered hell did not appear in the pre-Qin period. There was a saying of "Jiuyuan" in the pre-Qin period, but it was a real place name. It used to be the cemetery of doctor Qing in the state of Jin, and later became the general name of the cemetery. The name has no multiple underground meanings. Jiuquan and Jiuyuan were named after the Han and Wei Dynasties. Ruan Yu's "Seven Mournings" says: "Jiuquan Room has a long night." The Book of Jin, Biography of Huangfu Mi, quoted the Book of Interpretation, saying: "Longqian Jiuquan, Zhai Ran Gao." Obviously, this is the product of the influence of Buddhist hell theory.

2. In some cases, the underworld is terrible. The description of "swimming" in "Evocation of Songs of the South" may be the earliest hell record in China, and its cloud:

The soul is back! Quiet without you! Tubo nine, the angle is slightly smaller. Don't kill the thumb, kill everyone one by one. If you look at the head of a tiger, you will feel better. It's all sweet. Come back, come back! Afraid of self-destruction

Wang Yi notes: "Youdu is also governed by underground soil. Underground ghosts, so they are called Youdu. " But because evocation is a special style, we must render the sinister and horrible of all parties. Therefore, it is doubtful whether the secluded capital described here reflects the ancient people's imagination of the nether world.

More commonly, especially in the north, the ancients imagined the world of the underworld according to the present situation of secular society. Numerous unearthed tombs reflect this point: the world after death is basically the same as before, so a lot of daily necessities are needed to be buried with him. This kind of burial is not a purely emotional need, but also a need of imaginary real life after death. Not only is the way of life after death the same as before, but the social organization of the ghost is also consistent with the previous society. This is reflected in the underground documents of underground officials in the constantly discovered ancient tombs. 1975, there was a bamboo slip with a length of 23.2 cm and a width of 4. 1-4.4 cm in the Han TombNo. 168 excavated in Fenghuangshan, jiangling county, Hubei. The words on the bamboo slips read:

At the end of May of 13th year, Jiangling Cheng dared to tell Underground Cheng: Shiyangyou, Da Nuliang and other 28 people, big maid Yi 18 people, two chariots, Niu Yi two, four horses, two horses and four horses. Can let officials do it. Dare to tell the Lord. [2]

Obviously, this paper was written on May 13th, 13th year of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty (BC 167), and it was a letter of introduction from Cheng of Jiangling County to the underground world for the tomb owner. It is a copy of the popular pass certificate "Chuan" or "Guo Suo" in the Han Dynasty, and it is a pass for the dead to use in the underground world. There are several similar underworld documents. For example, in the fourth year (before 153), the underworld documents unearthed from the No.10 tomb of Fenghuang Mountain in jiangling county, Hubei Province, the underground characters unearthed from the No.3 tomb of Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan Province in the twelfth year (before 168), and the underground characters unearthed from the No.5 tomb of Huchang in Hanjiang County, Jiangsu Province in the third year (before 7/kloc-0). [3] According to social bureaucrats, people imagine that underground officials will move books underground when they are buried, hoping to let the deceased pass the underground interrogation smoothly.

4. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the legend of "Mount Tai governing ghosts" began to appear in northern China, and Mount Tai became a haunted house. The view that Mount Tai is a haunted house seems to have first appeared in Shu Wei. "Natural History" volume 1 quoted "Filial Piety to Help the Gods" saying: "Mount Tai is called the heavenly grandson, and it is called the heavenly emperor grandson. The Lord calls the soul. Everything in the East begins, and people's longevity is known. " "The Biography of Wu Huan in the Later Han Dynasty" said: "(Wu Huan) The god of the dead belongs to Chishan. Chishan is thousands of miles northwest of Liaodong. For example, the soul of the dead in China belongs to Daishan. " In the same book "Biography of Fangshu", there is a cloud: "(Xu Jun) has not been ill for three years, but only seeks Mount Tai." The reflection of Shu Wei and Guan Ju said to his younger brother Chen, "But I'm afraid of ghosts to heal strangers. How about it! " The folk imagination of the ghost world is an important source of the novel, and the imagination of Mount Tai ghost house in the novel is also the most plentiful. "Financial Wisdom" in Biography;

Cai Zhizhe in Linzi is a county official. Will be ordered to pay homage to the satrap, suddenly lost, to the foot of Daizong Mountain, see like a castle, then entered the imperial edict. See an official, the guard is very strict, like a satrap. Naisheng set up wine and food, paid the book when he finished, and said, "Give this book to my grandson for me." The official replied, "Who is the grandson of the Ming government?" A: "I am also a mountain god, and my grandson is also the Emperor of Heaven." Officials are surprised, but what they know is not the human ear.

The article "Hu Muban" in the same book is similar to this, but it is extremely short, with only more than 20 words. In Su Ji Shen, this story has a relatively complete record:

Hu Muban is a friend of Ji and a native of Taishan. Once on the edge of Mount Tai, I suddenly met a crimson coat among the trees and shouted, "Mount Tai is coming, you are coming." The whole class was stunned and hesitated to answer. If there is another one, just call. So he followed dozens of steps and asked the class to wait for a while. After a while, I saw the palace with strict dignity. Ban Nai entered the cabinet to offer condolences. God provides food, ...

After Hu Muban completed the task, a few years later, Fu Taishan reported to Taishan the process of winning the trust of Fu Jun:

Begging in class and going to the toilet. Suddenly I saw that his father is a mechanic, and there are hundreds of people in this generation. Kimben bowed with tears and asked, "Why is your Excellency here?" Father said, "I died unfortunately." It's been three years since I sent it away. I am very distressed. Knowing that you are known by the Ming government today, you can make an apology for me, and you want to get rid of this battle to win the hearts of the people. " Ban Nai Yi teaches, kowtows and begs. Jun Fu said: "Life and death are different roads, so we can't get close. We have no regrets." Please study hard and try to do it. So I resigned and went home. At the age of 20, my son died slightly. Ben was afraid, so he went back to Mount Tai and asked for an audience with the tree. Yesterday, I welcomed him. Ben said to himself, "I used to be clumsy. When I got home, my son died to the end. I'm afraid the disaster is not over yet, so I need to come to the White House. Fortunately, I was saved. " Jun Fu clapped his hands and laughed and said, "It used to be said that if you are dead and alive, you can't get close." That is to say, calling Ben's father outside. After a while, he went to the court and asked him, "In the past, if you wanted to return to the Li community, you should be a blessing to the family, but you died." Why? " Answer: "I am very happy to come back from my hometown after a long separation. I really miss my grandchildren and call them." So instead. Father burst into tears. The class is back. After all, the child is safe.

As can be seen from the above, the ghost house in China is not a punitive place, but the seat of the government in the underworld, which is actually the projection of state capital on earth. Its humanity is so strong that Cai Zhi doesn't even know that he has reached the underworld. Like other officials, only those who have been convicted are forced to work here, while the general dead return to their villages to enjoy the wine, food and incense provided by their children.

The story of Jiang Ji's death in the same volume 16 can better illustrate this point:

(Jiang Ji) The wife dreamed of her son's death and cried, "Death is another way. I was a descendant of Qing Xiang when I was born, and now I am an underground person in Wu Bo, Mount Tai. I am haggard and miserable, and I can't say anything more. The scholar in the west of the ancestral temple, when he saw it, called it Taishan stage. May his mother be Baihou, who belongs to Ah, and his stage will be changed to my liking. " When I finished, my mother was suddenly surprised. Tomorrow is meaningless. Ji said, "No wonder dreams are full of empty ears." At dusk, I dreamed again and said, "I'm here to meet the new king. I'm going to stop at the temple." It will return temporarily before sending. In the middle of tomorrow, the new king will come, and there will be many things on the surface, and he will never return, so he will resign forever. Hou Qi was strong and difficult to understand, so he sued his mother. I am willing to restart Hou, why not take the test? " The shape of the tunnel is well known. At dawn, my mother restarted the economy: "Yunmeng is not strange, but it is too suitable. Why not test it? " Ji Nai sent someone to the ancestral temple to ask Sun Ah, and he got the result, and his shape was verified, just like a child's words. Ji Li cried and said, "I owe my son a lot." So I met Sun, and I have something to say. O is not afraid of death, but he is glad that he is the top of Mount Tai, for fear that others will not believe his economic words. He said, "If you say so, I hope so. I wonder what position the fairy wants? " Ji said, "Follow the underground musicians." ..... The morning passed, the heartache passed, the third time passed, the drama passed, the day passed, and death passed. Ji said, "Although I am sad for my son's misfortune, I know people who are happy to die." After a month, my son came back and said, "It's time to be a clerk."

Jiang Ji, there is a legend in the History of the Three Kingdoms, which says, "Wang Qi (Cao Fang) ascended the throne, moved to be the leading general, and joined the Jue Changling Pavilion." Therefore, in the story, his son claimed to be his descendant and called his father "Hou" On the one hand, this story reflects the darkness of real life at that time. Just because Jiang Ji's wife had a dream, Jiang Ji could force a priest in the ancestral temple to die immediately by means. On the other hand, there is no difference in the organizational structure and behavior of the underworld in people's imagination. People can also establish relationships with those in power through bribery and other means, thus improving their living conditions.

5. Roughly similar to or a little later than the rise of Mount Tai's hades, a ghost country with abundant capital appeared in Shu. The Book of the Yellow Emperor, Dushuo Mountain in Ceng Yun, Shentu and Leiyu are ghosts of the world. The "Five Mi Dou Daoism" of "teaching people with ghosts" in Sichuan fictionalized the exorcism, forming a pattern that people and ghosts were divided and ruled. Ge Hong's Biography of Immortals Volume 5 Zhang Daoling Cloud:

At first, there were tens of thousands of demons in Shu, who were good at daytime plague and made the people suffer for a long time. Zhang Daoling, the heavenly master, fought demons for six days, took twenty-four treatments, renamed Fu Ting, demoted the handsome man to a Yin official, denounced his ghost, and scattered it in the barren land of northwest China, swearing with him: "People take care of the day, ghosts walk at night, yin and yang are different, and they do their jobs." Once there is a law, offenders will be punished. "So ghosts in foreign countries, people and ghosts are different. Today, there is a ghost market in Qingcheng, West Shu. Shi Tian swears that ghost monuments, heaven and earth stones, the sun and the moon all exist.

During the Qi and Liang Dynasties, Tao Hongjing systematized it and built a ghost prison in Fengdu. The map of true spiritual position arranges many true immortals from the first place to the seventh place. The seventh place is full of ghost officials, 75 places, 1 19 people have names, and the central god is Fengdu Beiyin Emperor. Yin Bei, the emperor of Fengdu, is the "Sect of ghosts and gods on earth, ruling the Luofeng Mountain". In Volume XV of True Letters Patent, the First Interpretation of Ambiguity says: "Luofeng Mountain is in the north of the country, 2,600 miles high, and returns to Wan Li every Wednesday. There is a cave at the foot of the mountain. At the mouth of Shan Ye, dating back to 15,000 miles a week, there are ghost palaces up and down. Six palaces on the mountain and six palaces in the cave. It takes several weeks to go to Wan Li Road, which is also a six-day visit to the Ghost Palace. The mountain is the outer palace, along the middle is the inner palace, and the system is equal. The first palace is called Forbidden Yin Palace, and it goes eastward. The second palace is called Silly Palace, the third palace is called Wucheng Palace to resist tomorrow's crime, the fourth palace is called Celestial Xinhe Qi Palace, the fifth palace is called Palace, the sixth palace is called Dare to Wander Palace, and the sixth palace is all for the six-day rule of ghosts and gods. The six heavenly palaces in the cave also have the same name, which looks like one. " There is a cloud in the same book: the six heavenly palaces side by side from west to east in Fengdu Mountain have their own division of labor, that is, the first heavenly palace is the hell where people die first; The second heaven is a hell where all evil spirits will go. Santiangong is a hell where sages go to suffer after death; The fourth heavenly palace is a hell ruled by the ghost official Beidou Jun, who decides good or bad luck and continues to commit crimes. The functions of the fifth and sixth houses are unknown. Before the Six Dynasties, China's imagination and description of the nether world can be roughly divided into these two systems. [4]

Second,

Comparatively speaking, the structure of hell in Buddhism is much more complicated. There are dozens of kinds of hell recorded in different Buddhist scriptures. The word hell was originally called Niraja in Sanskrit and niraya in Pali, transliterated as "mud plow" or "mud plow" and "mud Ye Luo". Its original meaning is nothing, which means no joy. People fall here to suffer after death, and there is no joy at all, so it is a cloud mud plow.

From the first time he came to China to translate the classic An Shigao, he emphasized the concept of karma. The propaganda of suffering from hell because of bad karma occupies an extremely important position in the view of bad karma. Therefore, in An Shigao's early translations, such as Eighteen Mud Pears Sutra, Evil karma enlightens hell Sutra, the description of hell has been quite detailed. Later, when mourning and offering sacrifices, there were "mud plows" in Dao Hang Prajna Sutra translated by Zhilou Gao Jia, and "Ask Hell Sutra" translated by Kang Ju, and so on.

Although the theory of "eighteen layers of hell" is deeply rooted in people's hearts, a closer look at An Shigao's scriptures only chooses eighteen kinds of seeds to answer what kind of hell they will be punished. It is not that hell is divided into eighteen layers, but in most Buddhist scriptures, hell is not divided into eighteen layers. [5] Different Buddhist classics have different descriptions of dungeons. Among the Pali classics, ten hell names are mentioned in the classic collection Zhilian Ye Li Jing: Shuipao, Shuipao, Grandma, Akuhe, Aya, Bailian, Shuilian, Youbolo, Fentoli and Lotus. When describing the painful situation of hell in detail, I mentioned two names of hell: barking Doroni and Ma Yelin. There are six kinds of hell names mentioned in the classic of angels in central Nigeria (No.130): big hell, dung hell, hot ash hell, grove hell, knife grove hell and alkali river hell. The Great Hell, also known as Av and Ci, is also translated as endless hell, and Ab Hell has become the most famous hell in Buddhist scriptures. In the Buddhist scriptures published relatively late, for example, the 530th volume of Bunsen, Shangjigai Bunsen, mentioned eight hell: equal hell, black rope hell, all hell, shouting hell, screaming hell, scorching hell, burning hell and nasal hell. [6] In the classic Chinese translation, Wei Yuan's "Mindfulness of the Sutra" [7] used ten volumes and eleven articles to describe hell in a more systematic and detailed way, such as "What is the name of hell?" What have all beings done? Where did you fall? What punishment will be imposed, and so on. In this classic description, first of all, hell is divided into seven layers, namely: living hell, black rope hell, combination hell, screaming hell, scorching hell and Abby hell. Each layer of hell is roughly divided into sixteen places to receive undead who have committed different evil deeds. For example, there are 16 places of the damned, the first place is excrement and mud, the second place is knife wheel, the third place is urn cooked, the fourth place is bitter, the fifth place is dark, the sixth place is unhappy, the seventh place is extremely bitter, the eighth place is all diseases, the ninth place is iron, the tenth place is evil staff, and the eleventh place is black rat wolf. The 12th is paranormal, the 13th is suffering, the 14th is Potou Moman, the 15th is pit and pond, and the 16th is suffering in the air. In this living hell, fifty years is a day and night, and their lives are divided into upper and lower levels. Some people suffer only in one place, while others suffer separately in sixteen places. The situation in the following layers of hell is similar to this.

In fact, the hungry ghost road in the five aggregates can also be regarded as a part of the nether world. In Zhengze Nian Chu Jing, ghosts are first divided into two categories: human ghosts and hungry officials. The so-called ghost is a ghost living in the world of Yang. "If people walk at night, someone will see them." The hungry ghost world in Jambu-Di^pa, 500 days away, is as long as 36,000 days. Hungry ghosts can be divided into 36 types, which are reported against industries such as greed and jealousy. Thirty-six kinds of hungry ghosts, the situation is different. Just looking at the name is dazzling, and the author has to design different punishments for different hell and hungry ghosts. In this Buddhist sutra, the author describes at least 98 different punishments in different hells and 36 different situations of hungry ghosts. Although there is overlap, the description is concrete and the imagination is amazing, reaching an amazing level. More importantly, Indian hell is a place of punishment, and all kinds of punishments are the culmination of human torture, without the secularity and human touch of China's hades.

Yan Luowang, the director of Hell, is a transliteration of Sanskrit Maya Raja. He was originally one of the gods of Brahmanism and was later adopted by Buddhism. He recorded Yan Luowang's life experience in Different Classics (Volume 49), Asking the Hell Classics, Yan Luowang and others as prison officers, and Samadhi Classics of Du Jing. He was originally a king. In a war, he was arrested. [8] According to "Long Agama" Volume 19 "Four Records on Earth and Four Classics of Hell", when a person dies, he will be brought to the face of the Yan for trial. A similar plot can also be found in the fourth volume of Yijing translated by Yue.

three

If China's local imagination of the underworld and Buddhist scriptures' description of the hell world are at almost incompatible poles, then it is because of them that Westerners' concept of the underground world in this period has built an underworld that can be completely accepted by Chinese people but has a strong Buddhist color.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the travel notes of hades were full of various documents, especially the stories of Kang 'ad and Shi Changhe in Volume V of You, and the stories of Zhi Faheng and Shi Huida in Xiang Ming Ji [9]. Judging from the names of the protagonists, Kang 'ad and Shi Changhe are undoubtedly from the Western Regions. Zhifuheng is a shaman, and his surname is probably that of his teacher, so he can't be defined as a native of the Western Regions, but he is at least a China native deeply influenced by the Western Regions. As for Shi Huida as the semi-final of the conference, there is a clear record. Volume 378 of Tai Ping Guang Ji quoted Ta Si Ji as saying: "In the ninth year of Jin Taiyuan, Liu Xue, a barbarian, died suddenly in Lishi County, Xihe, and his heart was still warm, so his family did not dare to mourn. Seven days after Su, it is said that at first two officials recorded ... going to eighteen levels of hell ... his dharma name was Huida. " In addition, the surname "Suo" in the story of Suo Luzhen in You is also suspected of being Hu. To sum up, the story of travel to hades with the western regions as the protagonist was very common at that time. Below, we will take the stories of Kang 'ad and Shi Changhe as examples to analyze the changes brought by ghost stories in the western regions to the traditional ghost stories in China.

Conad died for three days and went back to Sue. It is said that when they died, they were both holding their armpits and were driven away by White Horse officials. I don't know how many miles it is, but I see the dark door facing north; Entering the south gate, see the east gate black; Look at the south black gate in the west; Entering the north, I saw more than ten tile houses between the beams. Some people take the cage crown with soap, and there are thirty officials on the side, all of whom are officials, and there are forty or fifty officials in the southwest. Ed stepped forward to worship the government. Fu Jun asked, "What do you take?" He said, "I have a family in Fotuta Temple and support Taoist priests." Fu Jun said, "You are blessed." Ask the messenger: "Is this life evil?" I saw a book lying on the ground, and its handwriting was very thin. Said, "The remaining thirty-five years." Fu Jun was furious and said, "How dare a small official take someone's life!" He tied a white horse to a post, fined him a hundred, and all his blood flowed out. Q: "Do you want to go back?" He said, "Uh." The official said, "Send your mother home now, or send her to hell if you like." That is, for a horse and an attendant. From the northeast, I don't know how many miles I walked, but I saw a place, dozens of miles away, full of adobe houses. My uncle, aunt, uncle and aunt who died before I saw the Buddha were all armed to the teeth, their clothes were broken and covered in blood. Further on, I saw a city where someone was lying on an iron bed, and the bed was burning red. See ten prisons, each has his own poison. The name of the prison is "red sand", "yellow sand" and "white sand", so there are seven sands. There are swords and trees, holding red copper pillars. So I returned it. Once again, I saw the 78-beam tile house, with trees planted on both sides, called "Fushe", where the disciples of the Buddhas lived. Blessed people live in heaven, and blessed people live in this house. Far away, I saw more than 20 beams in the main hall. Two men and two women came down from the hall. They were their uncles and aunts after the death of Buddha. After a while, a man came up and asked, "Do you know me?" He said, "I don't know." "Why don't you know me? I * * * You are the Buddha. " So I remembered. Back to the mansion, that is, sending the first two people back, they will live in one fell swoop.

Stone often died, four days Jesus. He said that when he died in the early days, he walked to the southeast and saw that the two men ruled the road. He went straight ahead, fifty steps, drove straight and sprinted. Thorns on both sides of the road are like talons. See people walk in small groups, such as expulsion, physical destruction, blood coagulation. People in the spine are good at walking the flat road alone, sighing, "Buddhist disciples enjoy it alone and have to walk in the middle."

Go ahead, and you will see 70-80 beams and tile houses. There are more than 10 beams in the pavilion, and there are windows on the top. Some people are three feet square, wearing soap robes and four vertical pleats, sitting next to them, just above their skirts. The dragon suddenly worshipped again. The man said, "The sage of stone will come. For more than twenty years. " He said, "Uh." If you remember this time, you will remember it. Feng and Meng Cheng died first, and the people in the pavilion said, "What does the sage know?" Changhe said, "Knowledge." The people in the pavilion said, "Meng Chengsheng was not diligent when he was born, but he always sweeps the floor for me today. I am diligent in my wife and have no official duties. " He pointed to a room in the southwest and said, "Meng Cheng's wife is here now." The wife opened the window and asked, "When will Shixian come?" I asked his children's names, "Is it safe? It's too late because of a book. " Sisu saw Brother Cheng coming from the west, holding a broom and dustpan in one hand and a crutch in the other, asking for news from home. The man in the pavilion said, "I heard that the ichthyosaur was superior and diligent. Do you believe it?" Where did you practice? " Changhe said: "Don't eat fish, don't drink wine in your mouth, and always respect the classics to save all diseases." The man in the pavilion said, "Don't be ridiculous." On the pavilion, I asked the owner of the record: "Is the life of Shi Xian over?" Take his life for nothing? "The shopkeeper reported," According to records, it has been more than forty years. "The people in the pavilion urged the master:" Take a calf cart, ride two chariots and send two officials to Shixian. "After a while, there will be some riders from the East. Dragon and farewell, get on the bus and return. There are stalls, officials, beds and food on the roadside. I came home suddenly and saw my parents sitting next to the body. See a corpse the size of an ox, and smell it. Don't want to go in, walk around the body three times, sigh long, in front of the body. Seeing his dead sister pushing him from behind, he found himself on the body because it was Jesus.

First of all, in China local mythology, there are two main ways to go to the nether world. The first is to invite strangers. Tiger wood, for example, came to hades at the request of the Lord of Mount Tai, and had nothing to do with life and death. The second kind is that the deceased holds a dream, such as Jiang Ji's son holding a dream and telling his mother about his recent situation in the underworld. In both cases, the narrator is a living person. In China's cultural background, which attaches great importance to textual research, the authenticity of his narrative is doubtful. In the stories of hades told by people in the western regions, the way to go to the underworld is mainly to come back from the underworld and experience the underworld in the most credible way, which greatly increases the authenticity of the story. Since then, this method has been widely accepted by China people and has become the most commonly used mode in ghost stories in past dynasties.

It is precisely because of the establishment of the model of resurrection after death that it is often an indispensable plot for ghost officials to take away their lives in vain and then be corrected by the government. For example, "Kang 'ade" said, "The imperial court asked the messengers:' Is this life evil? I saw a book lying on the ground, and its handwriting was very thin. You said,' The rest is thirty-five years. The government was furious and said,' How dare a small official kill someone! He tied a white horse to a post, fined him a hundred, and all his blood flowed out. Q:' Do you want to go home? He said, "Uh. The official said,' Send your mother home now, or send her to hell if you want. It is recorded in Shi Changhe: "On the pavilion, I asked all the people who recorded the master:' Is the stone sage dying? "Take his life for nothing?" The newspaper of the Lord says that it has been recorded for more than forty years. The people in the pavilion urged the host to say,' Take a calf cart, take two chariots and send two officials to Shixian.' This plot is an important basis for resurrection after death, and it is also an excellent carrier to promote "retribution". In the ghost novels of later generations, although the details are ever-changing, this fundamental plot is difficult to change.

Secondly, in China's myth of the underworld, although there is a plot of being sent away after death, it has little to do with what he did before his death, and the relationship with the officials of the underworld is not very close and harmonious. If his relationship with the master improves, his situation will improve immediately. Therefore, such a plot is obviously not set up to promote karma, but just an intuitive reflection of the above-ground world. The nether world is also a society lacking justice and justice. In the myth of the western regions, preaching karma has become the most important function of this kind of story. Whether your social status before your death or your personal relationship with the head of the underworld depends only on your belief in Buddhism. Postmortem judgment has become a very important plot, and it is also an indispensable plot to promote karma. In Kang 'ade's story, there is such a plot: in Kang 'ade's story, uncles, aunts and uncles who didn't worship Buddha were all "armed to the teeth, ragged and covered in blood", while the four who worshipped Buddha lived in "Fushe". Strangely, in hell, it's not a general ledger, but a subsection calculation. In the story of Shi Changhe, the people in the pavilion who believed in Buddhism became the masters of hades, which extended the life span of Shi Changhe who also believed in Buddhism, while Feng Muyi Mengcheng, who was not diligent, could only sweep the floor for the people in the pavilion. In this way, a relatively just world of ghosts has been established, and the helpless lower classes have high hopes for ghosts, and believing in Buddhism is the easiest way to change their class status.

Third, there is no description of the hell world in China's ghost stories. However, in the ghost stories of the western regions, the description of the suffering people in the hell world is an indispensable plot. In the article "Kang 'ade", he said: "Look at a city where people are lying on iron beds and burning naked. See ten prisons, each has his own poison. The names of prisons are red sand, yellow sand and white sand, so there are seven sands. There are swords and trees, holding red copper pillars. "In Shi Changhe, the description of the hell world is relatively simple: it only depicts the process of first arriving in hades," and there are thorns like eagle claws on both sides of the road. Seeing a large group of people walking in the spine, if they are expelled, their bodies will be destroyed and blood will condense underground. "The depiction of hell is one of the two sharp tools to attract people to believe in religion-intimidation and inducement. However, compared with Buddhist scriptures, it greatly simplifies the description of the hell world without exaggerating some excessively horrible punishments, which is also to cater to the acceptance psychology of Chinese people.

If the theme of Kang 'ade and Shi Changhe's stories is aroused and heard through the magical feeling of the plot of resurrection from the dead, and the trial function of hell is involved but not detailed enough, then in Hades' later stories, such as the story of Huida and Zhao Tai, the plot of Hades' trial is rendered and strengthened, and the function of Hades as a trial institution is strengthened. The article "Huida" in Ghost Ji Xiang contains:

Out of the south street ... there is a high seat on the side of the road, dozens of feet high, and a shaman sits on it. ..... A man with a pen stood in the north and said, "Why did you kill deer in Xiangyang?" He knelt down and replied, "if someone kills a deer, I will hurt my ears, but I won't spit meat." Why reward me? " At that time, I saw Xiangyang killing deer, grass and trees, and suddenly it was everywhere. Dark horses can't talk. Know the date of killing deer in Holland. There is nothing wrong with fear. After a while, someone stepped over it and threw it into the iron pot soup. I looked at my whole body, all broken, the wind blowing me, I gathered on the small shore, and suddenly felt that I was still intact.

The story of "Zhao Tai" in the same book is obviously fabricated by China Buddhists imitating the story of traveling to the underworld in the western regions. Compared with the stories of the western regions, it greatly enriches the description of judgment, retribution, hell and heaven.

(Thai) For a big city, Cui Wei is high and steep. The city is black and blue and is made of tin. Entering Thailand to the city gate, through the double doors, there are thousands of tile houses, men and women, and thousands of people line up. There are five or six officials in soap clothes, and their surnames are few. They said, "Let's show science to the government." Thai sentences are at thirty. In a short time, Jiang Taihe and thousands of men and women moved forward at the same time. Jun Fu sat to the west, briefly looked at the name book, and then sent Tainan to the Black Gate. Someone dressed in scarlet, sitting under the big house, called him by his first name and asked, "What happened when he was born? What crime? All right, Fu Shan? Sincerely, what you said is true. This kind of constant dispatch of six messengers is common in the world, and good and evil are clear. It is a bar and cannot be empty. Taitai said, "My father and brother are both officials, and they are all two thousand stones. I seldom stay at home, I just study, I have nothing to do and I don't commit crimes. " So he sent Taitai as the messenger of the water official to transport more than 2,000 people to the seaside and work day and night.

I once said that Buddhist thought, especially the thought of karma, is more realistic and important for businessmen in the western regions who travel far away to do business because of the sinister living environment they face. Therefore, merchants in the western regions are often an indispensable force in the popularization of Buddhism. [10] They can often make good use of local cultural resources when propagating Buddhism. The story of people from the western regions going to hades fully illustrates this point. This kind of story uses the imagination of middle-earth hades, and on this basis, it combines the concept of hell in Buddhism, with the main purpose of promoting the idea of karma. With its novel conception, magical plot effect and popular ideas, it quickly replaced the original story of Middle-earth Hell and became an important paradigm of China's traditional novels.

2003-07-07

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[1] This article is part of the project "Medieval Novels Influenced by Western Culture" sponsored by Fok Ying-tung Youth Fund.

[2] Li See Ming Jun and He Shuangquan, Unearthed Documents in Qin, Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties: Simple Redemption Collection, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1990, p. 77.

[3] See Jiang Yuxiang's "Study on the Southwest Silk Road-A Probe into the Ten Halls of Hell in China", Sichuan University Press 1995, p. 164- 165.

[4] For the development and changes of China people's underworld concept from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, please refer to the second chapter of Naoko Maeno's History of China's Novels, The March of the Underworld, Akiyama Bookstore, 1975, p.1149.

[5] There are different opinions about the number of hell in Buddhist scriptures. Generally speaking, there are four, six, eight, ten, eighteen, thirty, sixty-four, or even unlimited. See Xiao's "The Hell of Buddhism in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties" (Part II), No.3, Volume 22, Oriental Magazine, pp. 23-29.

[6] See Guo Liangzhu's Buddhism and Primitive Buddhist Thought, China Social Sciences Press, 2000, p. 162- 164.

[7] contains "Da Zheng Cang" Volume 17.

[8] See also Asking Hell Sutra and Pure Samadha Sutra cited in Volume VII of Farin.

[9] Shi Changhe's story is also contained in "Xiang Ming Ji". Shi Huida's story was very famous at that time, and it was also contained in "Biography of Eminent Monks" and other documents.

[10] See my book Trade in the Western Regions as Seen in the Literature of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, No.2, 2003, p.79. ..

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