Page 109 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

OV E RVI EW

of the external world, they journey within themselves to address the deities
of the cosmos and to lay documents before celestial officials.

Amy Lynn MILLER
III Bokenkamp 1989; Lagerwey 1981b, 87-104; U~vi 1989a; Maspero 1981,
75-195, 263-430; Needham 1974, 93-II3; Nickerson 1994; Robinet 1997b, 62- 65;
Seidel 1978a; Seidel 1987a; Seidel 1987C; Seidel w87e; Seidel 1989-90, 254- 58;
Yii Ying-shih 1981

* DEATH AND AFTERLIFE; DEITIES: THE PANTHEON; HELL; TAOISM AND CHINESE
MYTHOLOGY

Hell

In the Western world, hell typically refers to a place of eternal punishment
where people are sent as retribution for their sins. In Taoism, the same sort
of realm exists as a counterpart to celestial spheres; however, Taoist hell is
usually a temporary abode, not necessarily for those who are damned but
for those who are not yet part of the celestial hierarchy. The inhabitants can
escape from this netherworld, in which they mayor may not endure bodily
punishments, either by working their way up the ranks of the otherworldly
bureaucracy or through the merit of their living descendants.
Early Chinese ideas of the otherworld. Many features of the Taoist hell have their
roots in earlier Chinese ideas. During the Shang dynasty, the otherworld was
composed of deceased members of the royal family (Keightley 1978b). This royal
image continued into the Zhou period, when the heavens were administered
by a celestial ruler surrounded by a court of nobles. This paradise was paired
with a subterranean realm, usually called the Yellow Springs (huangquan Jtt
~), where, one supposes, commoners went to labor on waterworks as they
had in this world.
According to Han dynasty tomb texts, by the second century BCE the oth-
erworld was fully bureaucratized and replete with tax offices, tribunals, and
prisons, a virtual mirror of the government in this world. As in the Yellow
Springs, the dead were locked away with the help of jailors (yushi ~{~) beneath
the sacred mountains, particularly Mount Tai (*Taishan, Shandong), to keep
them from harming the living. A celestial ruler and administration governed
these subterranean offices, recalling the Zhou dynasty dichotomy between
celestial and subterranean realms. Registers (*LU) recorded one's life span as
well as good and bad deeds committed. The use of the termjie ffl¥ (to release
from culpability) in these documents indicates that the *hun and po souls of