"Daoism, Death, and Bureaucracy"

p. 119 poem "Summons of the Soul" by shaman Yan, in Songs of the South

in the cardinal directions (east, south, west, north)

"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."

[below, nadir] "the Land of Darkness,

Where the Earth God [T'u po ..., the Lord of the Soil] lies, nine-coiled, with dreadful horns on his forehead, ... pursuing men ...: Three eyes he has in his tiger's head, and his body is like a bull's."

afterdeath-deities (sequential)

p. 146

pp. 234 + 240

p. 298

p. 639

"GSW"

BRRPS

"IO"

GPSP

rulers ... of the 5 tombs

General of the 5 Paths

General of Assistance & Protection

General of Assistance & Protection

 

[2000 Bushel Officials beneath the soil]

[2000 Bushel Officials]

[2000 Bushel Officials]

Assistant of the Sepulchre

Assistant of An-tu

   

Director of the Sepulchre

King of Wu-I

   

Director of the Office That Ruleth Sepulchres

Real Officials of Village & City

[24 Prisons of Mt. T>ai]

[24 Prisons of Mt. T>ai]

 

Water Office of the Sire of the River

   

Hostel-Chief of the Gate of the Hun-Soul

Inspector of the Gate of the Hun-Soul

   

Attack-Patrol of the Sepulchre

Hostel-Chief of the Tomb-Gate

   
 

Commandant of the Mountains, Rivers, & Marshes

[Officials & Chiefs in the Earth]

[Officials & Chiefs in the Earth]

 

Envoys in Charge of Talismans

   

Assistant of the Mound

Assistant of the Mound

Assistant of the Mound

Assistant of the Mound

Sire of the Tomb

Sire of the Tomb

Sire of the Tomb

Sire of the Tomb

Subterrestrial 2000 Bushel Officials

Subterrestrial 2000 Bushel Officials

[Lord of Ts>an-lin; Lord of Wu-I]

[Lord of Ts>an-lin; Lord of Wu-I]

Marksman of the East of the Sepulchre

[Envoy Who Descendeth to the Corpse]

Marksman of the Sepulchre of Left

Marksman of the Sepulchre of Left

Sire of the West of the Sepulchre

 

and of Right

and of Right

 

[Lords & Clerks in Charge of Funerals]

 

Director of Boundaries in the Earth

Special Minister for Subterrestrial Attacks

 

Grave Minister's Official of tbe Right

Grave Minister's Official of tbe Right

Squad-Chiefs of Hao-li

in Hao-li

Elders of Hao-li

Elders of Hao-li

   

powers of all earth-regions

powers of all earth-regions

"GSW" = "grave-securing writ" of the Latter Han dynasty

BRRPS = Breviary of Rules, Ritual, Praecepts, and Statutes Essential to Practice, by C^u Fa-man (CT 463, 15:14)

"IO" = "Invocation of Officials" by C^an Tao-lin, anthologized in the Concealed Instructions for Ascent to Perfection of T>ao Hun-c^in (5:21b)

GPSP = Great Petition for Sepulchral Plaints

astral deities of afterdeath realm (sequential)

p. 234

p. 308, fn. 68

p. 638

BRRPS

MRPA

GPSP

 

Generals of Great Yan

 
 

and Great Year

 

Heavenly One; Earthly Two

head of the god; feet of the god

 

first, middle, and last [months in each season]

Annual Motion

Motion of the Year

 

Original Destiny

Original Destiny

 

Greater Emptiness

Great Year

 

Lesser Impoverishment

 
 

Killer of Catastrophes

 
 

Killers of Kalpa-s

 
 

Hooked Array

 
 

White Tiger [star]

 
 

Gods of the Twelve Hours

 
 

Numina of the Soil

Kings of the Soil

 

Killers of the Soil

 

MRPA = Master Red-Pine's Almanac (C^an-li 3:28)

poison-birds

p. 319 (C^an-li 6:19)

comparative

eyen of the living are s^en-tsun "life-ancestors"; eyen of the dead become daimones:

cf. [Hellenic] the Harpuiai of the blind Phineus

"They have feathers and can fly, and their wings and feet bear poison.

[Skt.] vis. "poison", cf. vis. "bird"

When they move they emit rays of light from the metal they hold in their mouths. ...

[Mosan & Siberian] Raven-god used to keep the sun in his mouth

East to west they follow the woof; north to south they ride the warp."

[Norse] "weaving of the Valkyrja", by flying. Is [Hellenic] HARPuiai cognate with WARP?

{Relatable is the belief in Borneo of the evil eyen of mourning spouses of the recently dead.}

Peter Samuel Nickerson: Taoism, Death, and Bureaucracy in Early Medieval China. PhD diss, U. of CA, 1996.