Page 562 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

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Fig. 42, The three hun and seven po. Chu sanshi jiuchong baoshengjing ~ .=:c: P :h.IH'f: 1: *lJl (Scripture
on Expelling the Three Corpses and Nine Worms to Protect Life; CT 871), la and 3a-b,
ity of their descendants, The demonic po instead was appeased by elaborate
funerals, sumptuous tombs, and sacrifices to prevent it from returning as a
malevolent revenant (Loewe 1982, II4-26), Before these rituals were performed,
an attempt was made to reanimate the deceased by "summoning the hun"
(zhaohun t{l ~), a rite with traces of early shamanic practices described in the
Zhaohun poem (ca, 240 BeE) of the Chuci ~ ~ (Songs of Chu; trans, Hawkes
1985, 219-31),
This system of beliefs eventually widened to include non-nobility as welL
During the Later Han period, moreover, the number of the hun was fixed at
three, and the number of the po at seven. Why these numbers were chosen
is a matter of speculation, but the former figure may stand for the sangang _ -:
it!Ml, the three relationships between emperor and subject, father and son, and
husband and wife (Needham 1974, 88-89), whereas the latter possibly denotes
the seven openings of the human body and the seven emotions,
These ideas play an important role in several Taoist traditions, Since the
volatile hun is fond of wandering and leaving the body during sleep, techniques
were devised to restrain it, one of which entailed a method of staying con-