Page 345 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 338

Spirits
ts shen

Like gods (who are also shen), spirits are always concrete and palpable manifestations –
whether we are thinking of the souls of dead ancestors, the patron gods who look
after the fields and roads and bridges (the so-called ‘tree and stone’ deities), the
river-gods hungry for a human sacrifice, or the Immortals. In Chinese thinking, the
boundary between this world and the world beyond is much more elastic than it is for us,
and belief in ghosts and spirits is taken more seriously.
The basic distinction here is that between shen and gui. Shen are benevolent spirits:
they include the spirits of male ancestors in the direct line who will do good as long as
they are well treated. Gui are spirits who are helpful to their own families (i.e. they
behave as shen) but may be the very opposite (i.e. behave as evil ghosts to non-
family).
The spirits of the dead come in for special veneration at the feast-day of the ‘Pure
Lucidity’ (qing-ming). In earlier times, the whole family went out to the ancestral graves,
tidied them up, and placed small offerings to the spirits on them. It was believed that,
immediately after death, the hun-soul was already a good part of the way from the house
to the grave. It was for this reason

‘Letters’ to the spirits