The Spiritual Concept of Oriental Ghosts

The eastern concept of soul has always believed that the dead must rest in peace before they can enter the next reincarnation. Therefore, those who have not passed away smoothly either cannot find someone to be reborn and become wandering ghosts, or become ghosts who die with hatred, or ghosts who are attached to this world. This outlook on life and death, which originated from Buddhism and Taoism, has influenced eastern countries, including Chinese mainland, Hongkong, Taiwan Province Province, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries. People always fear the dead. Ancestors' memorial tablets, grave placement, repair and regular grave sweeping must not be saved, otherwise losing the protection of ancestors will not only bring wealth, but also bring bad luck. People in China attach great importance to the theory of geomantic omen, and even the Yin House (where the dead live) also talks about geomantic omen. If you are unlucky and haunted by ghosts, you will often ask Mr. Feng Shui for help, and then ask the Taoist priest to drive away the unclean things. China people believe that pure-hearted people can't see ghosts. If they recite Wen Tianxiang's righteous songs and have nothing to hide, ghosts will not bother them. "Don't do bad things, not afraid of ghosts knocking at the door. It is for this reason that in Japanese society, people dare not speak ill of the deceased casually. In addition to pure awe, this idea probably stems from the inherent tradition of "hatred and fear" in Japan. There are many temples in Japan, which are specially built for people who hate death. In the Japanese concept, if the grievances of the deceased are not well comforted, their souls will retaliate against the living society.

The famous resentful spirit in Japanese history should be the first to promote Prince Lin. Prince Haruka is the younger brother of the 50th Japanese Emperor Emperor Kanmu (reigned 78 1-806). He was once appointed as the Crown Prince, but was deposed because of his participation in the assassination of Fujiwara, CEO of Nagaoka Kyoko Palace. Prince Zao Liang insisted on his innocence and died of hunger strike. After the death of Prince Zaoliang, Emperor Kanmu named his son Prince Andian as the Prince. However, since then, Emperor Kanmu's family suffered from constant disasters, the Empress Dowager and the Empress passed away one after another, and Prince Andian was also terminally ill. The fortune teller asked Zhan, who said it was the resentment of Prince Zaoliang, so he built a temple for Prince Zaoliang and named him a Taoist.

In addition, famous ghosts in Japanese history include Sugawara no michizane and Akihito. Sugawara Dao was a real scholar, politician and official minister in the early period of Heian. 90 1 year, was transferred to Taizai prefecture, and died of depression two years later. Legend has it that after his death, the demons showed their magical powers, which made the ruling and opposition parties restless. Later, people built the Kitano Tianman Palace for him to comfort the soul of heaven. Now there are full palaces all over Japan, and he is regarded as a learning god by the Japanese.

Akihito was originally the 75th Japanese Emperor, and he ascended the throne at the age of 5. At the age of 23, Emperor Bird Feather was forced to abdicate as his nominal father (in fact, he was born in Daixian Academy and was the wife of his grandfather, Emperor Lily and Emperor Bird Feather). Later, he and the left minister Lai Changhe Fujiwara jointly launched a coup, which was the famous "Baoyuan Rebellion" in Japanese history. After his failure, he was exiled to Zanqi, where he copied five Mahayana Buddhist classics and asked to be sent to Yu Na Temple in Kyoto, but the imperial court refused. Emperor Chongde was so angry that he bit his finger and wrote an oath. He wants to be the fate of Japan's great demon, "taking the emperor as the people and the people as the emperor." People believe that his curse has really come true. After the death of Emperor Chongde, Pingjia usurped government over the royal family, and then began the puppet politics of Wu family, which regarded the royal family as a doll for nearly 700 years.

Akihito's anger, known as "the first Japanese demon king", is frightening. Before Emperor Meiji ascended the throne, he specially sent envoys to praise the worship of Emperor Dede's Baifeng Mausoleum, and brought the gods who worshipped Emperor Dede to the Baifeng Shrine in Kyoto for worship. This long-standing "fear of injustice" in Japanese history has made most Japanese keep their mouths shut about the bad words of the deceased. This kind of consciousness permeates all levels of Japanese culture and even the laws that control the modern social order.

For example, the newspaper once reported that a couple rented a house somewhere through a real estate agent, but not long after they moved in, their wife was often harassed by ghosts. To find out the cause and effect, it turned out that a chess player committed suicide in this house, but the real estate agent didn't tell them about it. Therefore, the couple want to take the housing agency to court, I wonder if it is legal. The lawyer who was invited to prepare this lawsuit firmly said to the couple, "It won't work. Because death is dignified, no matter what kind of death is dignified. " Even debt collection companies don't like to collect debts from the families of the deceased, because they are afraid that disturbing the peace of the deceased may lead to bad luck.

Even the deceased, we living people, still have to respect him for three points. Therefore, in Japanese cultural psychology, death is not "lighter than a feather, heavier than Mount Tai" as China people say. For the Japanese, death is an all-round affirmation, giving the dead a completely positive dignity. Take "Seven Nights in a Mystery", the initiator of a new wave of horror movies in recent years, as an example. Because Sadako's mother has a special function (extrasensory perception for short), she is conducting an experiment of reading and writing (developing the projection of mind and thoughts on negative films), which was regarded as heresy at that time. Sadako, who died with hatred, took revenge on her mother and her own resentment through the copying and dissemination of the video. The release of the film was well received, which revealed that the audience still had extreme fear of the fact that grievances could be spread through mass media (for example, Zhenzi climbed out of the TV set).

"The description of death is often used to project the existence of the living. For example, the ghosts brought out by death have just inherited the tradition since Sigu lost track, turning the wronged people into ghosts, thus accumulating the magical power to stay in the world and never giving up until the grievances are resolved. For example, in 1959, Kenji Sanyu's well-known "Four Valley Wonders" (from 1949 to 1969, there are five movie versions of "Four Valley Wonders"), iemon repeatedly asked A Yan to become a Buddha, but the female ghost ignored it until iemon avenged her and killed the person who poisoned her. The basic logic of The Mystery of Seven Nights is basically the same. Asakawa and Ryuji's pursuit of truth is also centered on relieving Sadako's resentment, so when Asakawa embraced Sadako's bones at the bottom of the well, the public thought it would be safe to lift the spell. " "Seven Nights in a Mystery" only uses the tradition of resentful spirits as an introduction, bringing a modern fable of doom to the living, criticizing the selfishness and indifference of modern people by rebirthing them, and reminding them of the seriousness of recklessness (Asakawa saved his son with his mother's life, showing hidden blame). "(Note 6)

Note 1 from the monster picture book. Taipei: Yolanda Publishing House.

Note 2: Please refer to the picture scroll of Ghost Nighttalk.

Note 3. Cherry study is sold by Annan Villagers' Belief in Human Culture Society (Banqiao Regional Art Museum).

Note 4 In other worlds (Buddhism), where people die after death, ghosts that live in that world will also appear in the world we live in; In addition, "alien world" refers to the place where human beings live. There is an invisible and unrealistic space where monsters inhabit, and ancient wells are often used as the entrance to "different worlds". For example, Haruki Murakami, a Japanese writer, often regards the well as an image, which runs through his works.

Note 5 See China Herald and Zhang Shisuo's Japanese Fear of Ghosts.

Note 6 is taken from Hong Kong critic Tang's For the Death of the Living-The Image of Death in japanese theatre.