Hun and po

hun
Chinese	Hồn
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin hún Wade–Giles hun Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *[m.]qʷˤə[n]

po
Chinese	Phách
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin pò Wade–Giles p'o Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *pʰˤrak

Hunandpoare types ofsoulsinChinese philosophyandtraditional religion.Within this ancientsoul dualismtradition, every living human has both ahunspiritual, ethereal,yangsoul which leaves the body after death, and also apocorporeal, substantive,yinsoul which remains with the corpse of the deceased. Some controversy exists over the number of souls in a person; for instance, one of the traditions withinDaoismproposes a soul structure ofsanhunqipo(Ba hồn bảy phách), i.e., "threehunand sevenpo".The historianYü Ying-shihdescribeshunandpoas "two pivotal concepts that have been, and remain today, the key to understanding Chinese views of the human soul and the afterlife".

Characters

ChineseBronze scriptforpoPháchorBá"lunar brightness"

ChineseSeal scriptforpoPhách"soul"

ChineseSeal scriptforhunHồn"soul"

Like manyChinese characters,HồnandPháchare"phono-semantic" or "radical-phonetic" graphscombining asemanticradicalshowing the rough meaning of the character with aphoneticguide to its formerpronunciationinAncient Chinese.Hồnand its variant䰟combine the "ghost radical"Quỷ,apictogramoriginallyshowing a figure with an odd face and tail that is used independently as a word forChinese ghostsanddemons,with the characterVân,a pictogram originally showing acloudandbelieved to have been pronounced/*[ɢ]ʷə[r]/ or /*ɢun/ in Ancient Chinese.Pháchcombines the same radical with the characterBạchof uncertain origin (possibly a pictogram of an acorn to represent its inner color) but believed to have been pronounced /*bˤrak/ or /*braːɡ/ in Ancient Chinese.

Besides the common meaning of "a soul",poPháchwas avariant Chinese characterforpoBá"alunar phase"andpoPhách"dregs". TheBook of DocumentsusedpoPháchas a graphic variant forpoBá"dark aspect of the moon" – this character usually meansbaBá"overlord; hegemon". For example, "On the third month, when (the growth phase,Sinh phách) of the moon began to wane, the duke of Chow [i.e.,Duke of Zhou] commenced the foundations, and proceeded to build the new great city of Lǒ ".TheZhuangzi"[Writings of] Master Zhuang" wrotezaopoBã(lit. "rotten dregs" ) "worthless; unwanted; waste matter" with apoPháchvariant. A wheelwright seesDuke Huan of Qiwith books by dead sages and says, "what you are reading there is nothing but the [Tao phách] chaff and dregs of the men of old! ".

In thehistory of Chinese writing,characters forpoPhách / bá"lunar brightness" appeared before those forhunHồn"soul; spirit". The spiritualhunHồnandpoPhách"dual souls" are first recorded inWarring States period(475–221 BCE)seal scriptcharacters. The lunarpoPháchorBá"moon's brightness" appears in bothZhou dynasty(1045–256 BCE)Bronzeware scriptandoracle bone script,but not inShang dynasty(ca. 1600–1046 BCE) oracle inscriptions. The earliest form of this "lunar brightness" character was found on a (c. 11th century BCE) Zhou oracle bone inscription.

Etymologies

Theposoul'setymologyis better understood than thehunsoul's. SchuesslerreconstructshunHồn"'spiritual soul' which makes a human personality" andpoPhách"vegetative or animal soul... which accounts for growth and physiological functions" asMiddle ChineseγuənandpʰakfromOld Chinese*wûnand *phrâk.

The (c. 80 CE)Baihu TangBạch Hổ đườnggave pseudo-etymologies forhunandpothrough Chinese character puns. It explainshunHồnwithzhuanTruyền"deliver; pass on; impart; spread" andyunVân"rue(used to keep insects out of books); to weed ", andpoPháchwithpoBách"compel; force; coerce; urgent" andbaiBạch"white; bright".

What do the wordshunand [po] mean?Hunexpresses the idea of continuous propagation ([zhuan]Truyền), unresting flight; it is theqiof the Lesser Yang, working in man in an external direction, and it governs the nature (or the instincts, [Xing]Tính). [Po] expresses the idea of a continuous pressing urge ([po]Bách) on man; it is the [qi] of the Lesser Yin, and works in him, governing the emotions ([qing]Tình).Hunis connected with the idea of weeding ([yun]Vân), for with the instincts the evil weeds (in man's nature) are removed. [Po] is connected with the idea of brightening ([bai]Bạch), for with the emotions the interior (of the personality) is governed.

Etymologically, Schuessler sayspòPhách"animal soul" "is the same word as"pòBá"alunar phase".He cites theZuozhuan(534 BCE, see below) using the lunarjishengpoĐã sinh pháchto mean "With the first development of a fetus grows the vegetative soul".

Pò,the soul responsible for growth, is the same aspòthe wa xing and waning of the moon ". The meaning 'soul' has probably been transferred from the moon since men must have been aware of lunar phases long before they had developed theories on the soul. This is supported by the etymology 'bright', and by the inverted word order which can only have originated with meteorological expressions... The association with the moon explains perhaps why thepòsoul is classified as Yin... in spite of the etymology 'bright' (which should be Yang), hun's Yang classification may be due to the association with clouds and by extension sky, even though the word invokes 'dark'. 'Soul' and 'moon' are related in other cultures, by cognation or convergence, as inTibeto-Burmanand Proto-Lolo–Burmese*s/ʼ-la"moon; soul; spirit",Written Tibetancognatesbla"soul" andzla"moon", and Proto-Miao–Yao*bla"spirit; soul; moon".

Lunar associations ofpoare evident in theClassical ChinesetermschanpoThiềm phách"the moon" (with "toad;toad in the moon;moon ") andhaopoHạo phách"moon; moonlight" (with "white; bright; luminous" ).

The semantics ofpoPhách"white soul" probably originated withBá"lunar whiteness". Zhou bronze inscriptions commonly recorded lunar phases with the termsjishengpoĐã sinh phách"after the brightness has grown" andjisipoĐã chết phách"after the brightness has died", which Schuessler explains as "second quarter of the lunar month" and "last quarter of the lunar month". Chinese scholars have variously interpreted these two terms as lunar quarters or fixed days, andWang Guowei's lunar-quarter analysis the most likely. Thus,jishengpois from the 7th/8th to the 14th/15th days of the lunar month andjisipois from the 23rd/24th to the end of the month. Yü translates them as "after the birth of the crescent" and "after the death of the crescent".Etymologically, lunar and spiritualpo<pʰak< *phrâkPháchare cognate withbai<bɐk< *brâkBạch"white".According toHu Shih,poetymologically means "white, whiteness, and bright light"; "The primitive Chinese seem to have regarded the changing phases of the moon as periodic birth and death of its [po], its 'white light' or soul. "Yü says this ancient association between theposoul and the "growing light of the new moon is of tremendous importance to our understanding of certain myths related to the seventh day of the months."Two celebrated examples inChinese mythologyareXi Wangmu and Emperor Wumeeting on the seventh day of the first lunar month andThe Princess and the CowherdorQixi Festivalheld on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

The etymology ofhun<γuən< *wûnHồnis comparatively less certain. Hu said, "The wordhunis etymologically the same as the wordyun,meaning "clouds."The clouds float about and seem more free and more active than the cold, white-lighted portion of the growing and waning moon. "Schuessler cites two possibilities.

Sincepòis the 'bright' soul,húnis the 'dark' soul and therefore cognate toyúnVân'cloud',perhaps in the sense of 'shadowy' because some believe that thehúnsoul will live after death in a world of shadows.

Semantics

The correlative "soul" wordshunHồnandpoPháchhave several meanings in Chinese plus many translations and explanations in English. The table below shows translation equivalents from some majorChinese-English dictionaries.

Chinese-English dictionary translations ofhunandpo

Dictionary	HunHồn	PoPhách
Giles	The soul, that part of the soul (as opp. toPhách) which goes to heaven and is able to leave the body, carrying with it an appearance of physical form; the subliminal self, expl. asNgười dương thần.The mind; wits; faculties.	The soul; that part of the soul (as opposed toHồn) which is indissolubly attached to the body, and goes down to earth with it at death; the supraliminal self, expl. asNgười âm thần.Form; shape. The disc or substance of the moon from the time it begins to wane to new moon.
Mathews	The soul, the spiritual part of man that ascends to heaven, as contrasted withPhách.The wits; the spiritual faculties.	The animal or inferior soul; the animal or sentient life which inheres in the body – the body in this sense; the animals spirits; this soul goes to the earth with the body.
Chaoand Yang	the soul (of a living person or of the dead)	the physical side of the soul
Karlgren	spiritual soul (as opp. toPhách)	the animal soul of man (as opp. toHồn)
Lin	Soul; the finer spirits of man as dist.Phách,the baser spirits or animal forces	(Taoism) the baser animal spirits of man, contrasted with finer elementsHồn ( ba hồn bảy pháchthree finer spirits and seven animal spirits), the two together conceived as animating the human body
Liang	a soul; a spirit.	1. (Taoism) vigor; animation; life. 2. form; shape; body. 3. the dark part of the moon.
Wu	① soul ② mood; spirit ③ the lofty spirit of a nation	① soul ② vigour; spirit
Ling et al.	① same asLinh hồn... soul; believed by the superstitious to be an immaterial spiritual entity distinguished from but coexistent with the physical body of a person and a dominant spiritual force, and which leaves upon the person's death. ② spirit; mood. ③ lofty spirit.	① soul; spiritual matter believed by religious people as dependent on human's body. ② vigour; spirit.
DeFrancis	soul, spirit; mood	① soul; ② vigor; spirit

Both Chinesehunandpoare translatable as English "soul"or" spirit ", and both are basic components in" soul "compounds.In the following examples, all Chinese-English translation equivalents are from DeFrancis.

• hunpoHồn phách"soul; psyche"
• linghunLinh hồn"soul; spirit"
• hunlingHồn linh"(colloquial) soul; ghost"
• yinhunÂm hồn"soul; spirit; apparition"
• sanhunqipoBa hồn bảy phách"soul; three finer spirits and several baser instincts that motivate a human being"
• xinpoTâm hồn"soul"

Hunpoandlinghunare the most frequently used among these "soul" words.

Joseph NeedhamandLu Gwei-djen,eminenthistorians of science and technology in China,definehunandpoin modern terms. "Peering as far as one can into these ancient psycho-physiological ideas, one gains the impression that the distinction was something like that between what we would call motor and sensory activity on the one hand, and also voluntary as against vegetative processes on the other."

Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein cautions abouthunandpotranslations: "Although the term" souls "is often used to refer to them, they are better seen as two types of vital entities, the source of life in every individual. Thehunis Yang, luminous, and volatile, while thepois Yin, somber, and heavy. "

History

Origin of terms

Based onZuozhuanusages ofhunandpoin four historical contexts, Yü extrapolates thatpowas the original name for a human soul, and the dualistic conception ofhunandpo"began to gain currency in the middle of the sixth century" BCE.

Two earlier 6th century contexts used theposoul alone. Both describeTianThiên"heaven; god"duoĐoạt"seizing; taking away" a person'spo,which resulted in a loss of mental faculties. In 593 BCE (Duke Xuan 15th year),after Zhao TongTriệu cùngbehaved inappropriately at the Zhou court, an observer predicted: "In less than ten years [Zhao Tong] will be sure to meet with great calamity. Heaven has taken his [Phách] wits away from him. "In 543 BCE (Duke Xiang 29th year),BoyouBá cófrom the state ofZhengacted irrationally, which an official interpreted as: "Heaven is destroying [Boyou], and has taken away his [Phách] reason. "Boyou's political enemies subsequently arranged to take away his hereditary position and assassinate him.

Two later sixth-centuryZuozhuancontexts usedpotogether with thehunsoul. In 534 BCE, the ghost of BoyouBá có(above) was seeking revenge on his murderers, and terrifying the people of Zheng (Duke Zhao, Year &).The philosopher and statesmanZi Chan,realizing that Boyou's loss of hereditary office had caused his spirit to be deprived of sacrifices, reinstated his son to the family position, and the ghost disappeared. When a friend asked Zi Chan to explain ghosts, he gave what Yu calls "thelocus classicuson the subject of the human soul in the Chinese tradition ".

When a man is born, (we see) in his first movements what is called the [Phách] animal soul. [Đã sinh phách] After this has been produced, it is developed into what is called the [Hồn] spirit. By the use of things the subtle elements are multiplied, and the [Hồn phách] soul and spirit become strong. They go on in this way, growing in etherealness and brightness, till they become (thoroughly) spiritual and intelligent. When an ordinary man or woman dies a violent death, the [Hồn phách] soul and spirit are still able to keep hanging about men in the shape of an evil apparition; how much more might this be expected in the case of [Boyou].... Belonging to a family which had held for three generations the handle of government, his use of things had been extensive, the subtle essences which he had imbibed had been many. His clan also was a great one, and his connexions [sic] were distinguished. Is it not entirely reasonable that, having died a violent death, he should be a [Quỷ] ghost?

Compare the translation of Needham and Lu, who interpret this as an early Chinese discourse on embryology.

When a foetus begins to develop, it is (due to) the [po]. (When this soul has given it a form) then comes the Yang part, calledhun.The essences ([qing]Tình) of many things (wuVật) then give strength to these (two souls), and so they acquire the vitality, animation and good cheer (shuangSảng) of these essences. Thus eventually there arises spirituality and intelligence (shen mingThần minh).

In 516 BCE (Duke Zhao, Year 20), the Duke ofSongand a guest named ShusunThúc tônwere both seen weeping during a supposedly joyful gathering. Yue QiNhạc Kỳ,a Song court official, said:

This year both our ruler and [Shusun] are likely to die. I have heard that joy in the midst of grief and grief in the midst of joy are signs of a loss of [xinTâm] mind. The essential vigor and brightness of the mind is what we call the [hun] and the [po]. When these leave it, how can the man continue long?

Hu proposed, "The idea of ahunmay have been a contribution from the southern peoples "(who originatedZhao Hunrituals) and then spread to the north sometime during the sixth century BCE.Calling this southern hypothesis "quite possible", Yü cites theChuci,associated with the southern state ofChu,demonstrating "there can be little doubt that in the southern tradition thehunwas regarded as a more active and vital soul than thep'o.TheChuciuseshun65 times andpo5 times (4 inhunpo,which theChuciuses interchangeably withhun).

Relation to yin-yang

The identification of theyin-yangprinciple with thehunandposouls evidently occurred in the late fourth and early third centuries BCE,and by "the second century at the latest, the Chinese dualistic conception of soul had reached its definitive formulation." TheLiji(11), compoundshunandpowithqi"breath; life force" andXing"form; shape; body" inhunqiHồn khíandXing poHình phách."The [Hồn khí] intelligent spirit returns to heaven the [Hình phách] body and the animal soul return to the earth; and hence arose the idea of seeking (for the deceased) in sacrifice in the unseen darkness and in the bright region above. "Compare this modern translation,"The breath-soul (hun-ch'IHồn khí) returns to heaven; the bodily soul (hsing-p'oHình phách) returns to earth. Therefore, in sacrificial-offering one should seek the meaning in theyin-yangÂm dươngprinciple. "Yü summarizeshun/podualism.

Ancient Chinese generally believed that the individual human life consists of a bodily part as well as a spiritual part. The physical body relies for its existence on food and drink produced by the earth. The spirit depends for its existence on the invisible life force calledch'i,which comes into the body from heaven. In other words, breathing and eating are the two basic activities by which a man continually maintains his life. But the body and the spirit are each governed by a soul, namely, thep'oand thehun.It is for this reason that they are referred to in the passage just quoted above as the bodily-soul (hsing-p'o) and the breath-soul (hun-ch'i) respectively.

Loewe explains with a candle metaphor; the physicalXingis the "wick and substance of a candle", the spiritualpoandhunare the "force that keeps the candle alight" and "light that emanates from the candle".

Traditional medical beliefs

The Yinpoand Yanghunwere correlated with Chinese spiritual and medical beliefs.HunHồnis associated withshenThần"spirit; god" andpoPháchwithguiQuỷ"ghost; demon; devil".The (c. 1st century BCE)Lingshu Jingmedical text spiritually appliesWu Xing"Five Phases" theory to theZang-fu"organs", associating thehunsoul with "liver"and blood, and theposoul with "lung"and breath.

The liver stores the blood, and the blood houses thehun.When the vital energies of the liver are depleted, this results in fear; when repleted, this results in anger.... The lungs store the breath, and the breath houses thepo.When the vital energies of the lungs are depleted, then the nose becomes blocked and useless, and so there is diminished breath; when they are repleted, there is panting, a full chest, and one must elevate the head to breathe.

TheLingshu Jingalso records that thehunandposouls taking flight can cause restless dreaming, and eye disorders can scatter the souls causing mental confusion. Han medical texts reveal thathunandpodeparting from the body does not necessarily cause death but rather distress and sickness. Brashier parallels the translation ofhunandpo,"If one were to put an English word to them, they are our 'wits', our ability to demarcate clearly, and like the English concept of" wits, "they can be scared out of us or can dissipate in old age."

Jade burial suitswere believed to delay the bodilyposoul's decomposition.

Burial customs

During theHan Dynasty,the belief inhunandporemained prominent, although there was a great diversity of different, sometimes contradictory, beliefs about the afterlife.Han burial customs provided nourishment and comfort for thepowith the placement ofgrave goods,including food, commodities, and evenmoneywithin the tomb of the deceased.Chinese jadewas believed to delay the decomposition of a body. Pieces of jade were commonly placed in bodily orifices, or rarely crafted intojade burial suits.

Separation at death

Generations of sinologists have repeatedly asserted that Han-era people commonly believed the heavenlyhunand earthlyposouls separated at death, but recent scholarship and archeology suggest thathunpodualism was more an academic theory than a popular faith.Anna Seidelanalyzed funerary texts discovered in Han tombs, which mention not onlyposouls but alsohunremaining with entombed corpses, and wrote, "Indeed, a clear separation of ap'o,appeased with the wealth included in the tomb, from ahundeparted to heavenly realms is not possible. "Seidel later called for reappraising Han abstract notions ofhunandpo,which "do not seem to have had as wide a currency as we assumed up to now."Pu Muzhou surveyed usages of the wordshunandpoon Han DynastybeiBia"stele"erected at graves and shrines, and concluded," The thinking of ordinary people seems to have been quite hazy on the matter of what distinguished thehunfrom thepo."These stele texts contrasted souls between a corporealhunorhunpoat the cemetery and a spiritualshenat the family shrine. Kenneth Brashier reexamined the evidence forhunpodualism and relegated it "to the realm of scholasticism rather than general beliefs on death."Brashier cited several Han sources (grave deeds,Book of the Later Han,andJiaoshi Yilin) attesting beliefs that "thehunremains in the grave instead of flying up to heaven ", and suggested it" was sealed into the grave to prevent its escape. "Another Han text, theFengsu Tongyisays, "The vital energy of thehunof a dead person floats away; therefore a mask is made in order to retain it. "

Hunandposouls, explains Yü, "are regarded as the very essence of the mind, the source of knowledge and intelligence. Death is thought to follow inevitably when thehunand thep'oleave the body. We have reason to believe that around this time the idea ofhunwas still relatively new. "

Silk painting found in the tomb ofLady DaiatMawangduidated to 168 BCE, interpreted as depicting herhunsoul ascending to heaven and her family performing thezhaohun"summoning the soul"ritual below.

Soon after death, it was believed that a person'shunandpocould be temporarily reunited through a ritual called thefuPhục"recall; return",zhaohunChiêu hồn"summon thehunsoul ", orzhaohun fupoChiêu hồn phục phách"to summon thehun-soul to reunite with thepo-soul ". The earliest known account of this ritual is found in the (3rd century BCE)ChucipoemsZhao HunChiêu hồn"Summons of the Soul" andDazhaoĐại chiêu"The Great Summons".For example, thewuYang (Vu dương) summons a man's soul in the "Zhao Hun".

O soul, come back! Why have you left your old abode and sped to the earth's far corners, deserting the place of your delight to meet all those things of evil omen?

O soul, come back! In the east you cannot abide. There are giants there a thousand fathoms tall, who seek only for souls to catch, and ten suns that come out together, melting metal, dissolving stone...

O soul, come back! In the south you cannot stay. There the people have tattooed faces and blackened teeth, they sacrifice flesh of men, and pound their bones to paste...

O soul, come back! For the west holds many perils: The Moving Sands stretch on for a hundred leagues. You will be swept into the Thunder's Chasm and dashed in pieces, unable to help yourself...

O soul, come back! In the north you may not stay. There the layered ice rises high, and the snowflakes fly for a hundred leagues and more...

O soul, come back! Climb not to heaven above. For tigers and leopards guard the gates, with jaws ever ready to rend up mortal men...

O soul, come back! Go not down to the Land of Darkness, where the Earth God lies, nine-coiled, with dreadful horns on his forehead, and a great humped back and bloody thumbs, pursuing men, swift-footed...

Daoism

TheHunandPoSouls hồn phách đồ, 1615Xingming guizhi

HunHồnandpoPháchspiritual concepts were important in severalDaoisttraditions. For instance, "Since the volatilehunis fond of wandering and leaving the body during sleep, techniques were devised to restrain it, one of which entailed a method of staying constantly awake. "

ThesanhunqipoBa hồn bảy phách"threehunand sevenpo"were anthropomorphized and visualized.Ge Hong's (c. 320 CE)Baopuzifrequently mentions thehunandpo"ethereal and gross souls". The "Genii" Chapter argues that the departing of these dual souls cause illness and death.

All men, wise or foolish, know that their bodies contain ethereal as well as gross breaths, and that when some of them quit the body, illness ensues; when they all leave him, a man dies. In the former case, the magicians have amulets for restraining them; in the latter case,The Rites[i.e.,Yili] provide ceremonials for summoning them back. These breaths are most intimately bound up with us, for they are born when we are, but over a whole lifetime probably nobody actually hears or sees them. Would one conclude that they do not exist because they are neither seen nor heard? (2)

This "magicians" translatesfangshiPhương sĩ"doctor; diviner' magician". BothfangshianddaoshiĐạo sĩ"Daoist priests" developed methods and rituals to summonhunandpoback into a person's body. The "Gold and Cinnabar" chapter records aDaoist alchemicalreanimation pill that can return thehunandposouls to a recent corpse:Taiyi zhaohunpo dan faThái Ất chiêu hồn phách đan pháp"The Great One's Elixir Method for Summoning Souls".

In T'ai-i's elixir for Summoning Gross and Ethereal Breaths the five minerals [i.e.,cinnabar,realgar,arsenolite,malachite,andmagnetite] are used and sealed with Six-One lute as in the Nine-crucible cinnabars. It is particularly effective for raising those who have died of a stroke. In cases where the corpse has been dead less than four days, force open the corpse's mouth and insert a pill of this elixir and one of sulphur, washing them down its gullet with water. The corpse will immediately come to life. In every case the resurrected remark that they have seen a messenger with a baton of authority summoning them. (4)

For visualizing the ten souls, theBaopuzi"Truth on Earth" chapter recommends takingdayaoĐại dược"great medicines" and practicing afen xing"divide/multiply the body"multilocationtechnique.

My teacher used to say that to preserve Unity was to practice jointly Bright Mirror, and that on becoming successful in the mirror procedure a man would be able to multiply his body to several dozen all with the same dress and facial expression. My teacher also used to say that you should take the great medicines diligently if you wished to enjoy Fullness of Life, and that you should use metal solutions and a multiplication of your person if you wished to communicate with the gods. By multiplying the body, the threeHunand the sevenPoare automatically seen within the body, and in addition it becomes possible to meet and visit the powers of heaven and the deities of earth and to have all the gods of the mountains and rivers in one's service. (18)

The DaoistShangqing Schoolhas several meditation techniques for visualizing thehunandpo.In ShangqingNeidan"Internal Alchemy", Baldrian-Hussein says,

thepoplays a particularly somber role as it represents the passions that dominate thehun.This causes the vital force to decay, especially during sexual activity, and eventually leads to death. The inner alchemical practice seeks to concentrate the vital forces within the body by reversing the respective roles ofhunandpo,so that thehun(Yang) controls thepo(Yin).

Number of souls

The number of human "souls" has been a long-standing source of controversy among Chinese religious traditions. Stevan Harrell concludes, "Almost every number from one to a dozen has at one time or another been proposed as the correct one."The most commonly believed numbers of "souls" in a person are one, two, three, and ten.

One "soul" orlinghunLinh hồnis the simplest idea. Harrell gives a fieldwork example.

When rural Taiwanese perform ancestral sacrifices at home, they naturally think of theling-hunin the tablet; when they take offerings to the cemetery, they think of it in the grave; and when they go on shamanistic trips, they think of it in theyinworld. Because the contexts are separate, there is little conflict and little need for abstract reasoning about a nonexistent problem.

Two "souls" is a common folk belief, and reinforced byyin-yangtheory. These paired souls can be calledhunandpo,hunpoandshen,orlinghunandshen.

Three "souls"comes from widespread beliefs that the soul of a dead person can exist in the multiple locations. The missionaryJustus Doolittlerecorded that Chinese people inFuzhou

Believe each person hasthree distinctsouls while living. These souls separate at the death of the adult to whom they belong. One resides in the ancestral tablet erected to his memory, if the head of a family; another lurks in the coffin or the grave, and the third departs to the infernal regions to undergo its merited punishment.

Ten "souls" ofsanhunqipoBa hồn bảy phách"threehunand sevenpo"is not only Daoist;" Some authorities would maintain that the three-seven "soul" is basic to all Chinese religion ".During the Later Han period, Daoists fixed the number ofhunsouls at three and the number ofposouls at seven. A newly deceased person may return (Hồi hồn) to his home at some nights, sometimes one week (Đầu thất) after his death and the seven po would disappear one by one every 7 days after death. According to Needham and Lu, "It is a little difficult to ascertain the reason for this, since fives and sixes (if they corresponded to the viscera) would have rather been expected."Threehunmay stand for thesangangTam cương"three principles of social order: relationships between ruler-subject, father-child, and husband-wife".Sevenpomay stand for theqiqiaoThất khiếu"seven apertures (in the head, eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth)" or theqiqingThất tình"seven emotions (joy, anger, sorrow, fear, worry, grief, fright)" intraditional Chinese medicine.Sanhunqipo also stand for other names.

See also

• Soul dualism,similar beliefs in other animism belief systems.
• Mitama
• Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the soul,in which the soul has many parts
• Baci,a religious ceremony in Laos practiced to synchronize the effects of the 32 souls of an individual person, known askwan.
• Diyu,the Chinese underworld, eventually understood as a form of Hell
• Heaven,known in modern Chinese asTiantang
• "Hymn to the Fallen"a piece fromChuci,featuringhunpobeing steadfast and acting as hero-ghosts (Hồn phách nghị... Vì quỷ hùng).
• Mingqi,traditional Chinese grave goods
• "The Great Summons"aChucipiece focused on thehun.
• Ti bon angeand thegros bon angein Haitian Vodou;Soul dualisminHaitian Vodou.
• "Zhao Hun",aChucipoem focused on thehun.

References

• Baldrian-Hussein, Farzeen (2008). "HunandpoHồn • pháchYang soul(s) and Yin soul(s); celestial soul(s) and earthly soul(s) ". In Pregadio, Fabrizio (ed.).The Encyclopedia of Taoism.Routledge. pp. 521–523.ISBN9780700712007.
• Brashier, Kenneth E. (1996). "Han Thanatology and the Division of" Souls "".Early China.21:125–158.doi:10.1017/S0362502800003424.S2CID146161610.
• Carr, Michael (1985). "Personation of the Dead in Ancient China".Computational Analysis of Asian & African Languages.24:1–107.
• Csikszentmihalyi, Mark (2006).Readings in Han Chinese Thought.Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing.ISBN9781603843485.
• Harrell, Stevan (1979)."The Concept of Soul in Chinese Folk Religion".The Journal of Asian Studies.38(3): 519–528.doi:10.2307/2053785.JSTOR2053785.S2CID162507447.
• Hu, Shih(1946). "The Concept of Immortality in Chinese Thought".Harvard Divinity School Bulletin (1945–1946):26–43.
• The Chinese Classics, Vol. V, The Ch'un Ts'ew with the Tso Chuen.Translated byLegge, James.Oxford University Press.1872.
• Needham, Joseph;Lu, Gwei-djen(1974).Science and Civilisation in China.Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 2, Spagyrical Discovery and Inventions: Magisteries of Gold and Immortality.Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521085717.Review atOxford Academic.
• Schuessler, Axel (2007).ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese.HonoluluHI:University of Hawai'i Press.ISBN9780824829759.
• Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320: TheNei PienofKo Hung.Translated by Ware, James R.MIT Press.1966.ISBN9780262230223.
• Yü, Ying-shih (1981). "New Evidence on the Early Chinese Conception of Afterlife: A Review Article".The Journal of Asian Studies.41(1): 81–85.doi:10.2307/2055604.JSTOR2055604.S2CID163220003.
• Yü, Ying-Shih (1987). "O Soul, Come Back! A Study in the Changing Conceptions of the Soul and Afterlife in Pre-Buddhist China".Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies.47(2): 363–395.doi:10.2307/2719187.JSTOR2719187.

Footnotes

Further reading

• Schafer, Edward H. (1977).Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars.University of California Press.

External links

• page 1461,Kangxi Dictionaryentries forhunandpo
• What Is Shen (Spirit)?,Appendix: Hun and Po
• The Indigenous Chinese Concepts of Hun and P'o Souls,Singapore Paranormal Investigators – link obsolete –Internet Archive copy,Singapore Paranormal Investigators – link obsolete –Internet Archive copy
• Phật nói Địa Tạng Bồ Tát phát tâm nhân duyên mười vương kinh,Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association(in Chinese)