Page 110 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

70 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I

the dead were imprisoned for misdeeds, though punishments are not made
explicit. The roots of a bureaucratic otherworld where the dead were judged
was coalescing.

Taoist views. In addition to inheriting the idea of a celestial bureaucracy and
the image of a bureaucratized subterranean world filled with interrogations,
judgements, and imprisonment, Taoism also retained the dichotomy between
celestial and terrestrial realms and the belief that the dead could physically
harm the living.
In the *Taipingjing (Scripture of Great Peace), a text of the second cen-
tury CE, there are four celestial judicial departments (cao ',lIn where deeds
are monitored and registers kept, reminiscent of the Four Palaces (sigong [9
'§) or Four Guardians (sishou VLJ q) mentioned in the *Huainan zi (Major
I993, 68, 80, 296). Those who commit evil deeds are afflicted by disease, have
their life spans shortened, and after death face torture under interrogation,
reflecting Han dynasty penal practices; the Celestial Masters (*Tianshi dao)
tradition similarly stressed longevity and often saw disease as a punishment
for misdeeds. The Three Offices (* sanguan, of Heaven, Earth, and Water) in
the otherworld judge the affairs of the living and send * gui (low-ranking de-
monic officials) to afflict them with illness, recalling earlier ideas of the dead
harming the living. These gui dwell in the Six Heavens (liutian), an abode for
non-initiates, in contrast to Taoists who inhabit the Three Heavens (santian;
see *santian and liutian).
The *Shangqing tradition adopted and elaborated on this administrative
structure of the otherworld. In their systematization, the Six Heavens are
situated beneath Mount Luofeng ~ ~!I), also called *Fengdu (the name of the
Zhou dynasty capital). This subterranean realm is home to souls who have
acquired merit through moral behavior or meditational techniques, but not
in sufficient quantity to enter the ranks of the celestial hierarchy. They are
interrogated and judged by the Three Offices, which either assign them to
minor bureaucratic posts as gui or condemn them to corvee labor.
Buddhist influence. In the mid-second century CE, when Buddhist sutras began
to be translated into Chinese, the ideas of karma and reincarnation found their
way into the Taoist conception of the otherworld. Although by this time the
Chinese had a well-developed idea of the otherworld as a bureaucratic realm
and a prison, conceptualizations focused on administrative procedures and
the process of interrogation and torture. The living were often punished with
disease; post-mortem punishments were not described in detail. Buddhism
introduced a systematic structure of hells and elaborate tortures that led to
vivid descriptions of the punishments and sufferings endured in Taoist texts,
particularly those of the early *Lingbao tradition (ca. 400 CE).