The culture of ghost in the Sinosphere countries
The matter of life and death has always accompanied human race since the dawn of time, ensued by the early advents of various related concepts such as spirit, reincarnation and ghosts. With the establishment of local creeds and the introduction of foreign religions, the culture of ghost has greatly diverged from regions to regions.
Art by Minh Phuong from The Devil's Nostalgia
1. The influence of folk creeds and religion
The four Sinosphere countries are under the universal influence from Buddhism. This religion reinforces the belief in the eternity of spirits, in the underworld or hell. Yet, each nation, depending on the cultural contexts, has different contributing factors to the belief in ghosts.
Vietnam and China has a common feature regarding the cult of ancestor worship, which profoundly affects the conception of ghosts. As a matter of fact, the faith in the blessing of ancestral spirits does exist in all of the four countries but only in Vietnam and China does the practice of this cult happens much more vigorously.
The people of Korea are impacted by Shamanism – an ancient folk religion which nurtures the belief in the spirit world, while the Japanese people created a religion which involves ghosts – Goryo Shinko.
2. Coping with the terror
Ghosts and Evils are just ways of explanation for natural entities which frighten humans. When it comes to dealing with the fear, each of the four has distinct tactics.
The Chinese “negotiate” with ghosts by satisfying their desires. The cult of ancestor worship, by nature, is just an act of slaking the needs of the deceased. Besides, with the introduction of the concept of “hungry ghosts” from Buddhism, the Chinese are also keen on bringing offerings to the spirits deserted by their offspring, especially in the month of ghosts – the seventh month in a lunar year.
Apart from sharing those aforementioned approaches with the Chinese, Vietnamese people also choose to negotiate by worshipping ghosts. With the superstition and the preference for religious worship, the people of Vietnam worship not only their ancestors but also those who die in a holy way, which means dying in a special way or at an holy hour, even though they may come from the bottom of the society : a beggar, a thief or a widow… The spirits of these people would be worshipped in a temple or pavilion; sometimes, they are even canonized as the guardian the village.
The tactics of the Japanese are to redeem the ghosts. Japanese people believe that Yurei( the ghosts), when filled with grudge , can become wrathful with the power of causing natural catastrophe such as earthquake, storms, flooding,… Accordingly, they choose to relieve grudge within these lost spirits and give them some holy titles so they become the guardians . At this point, the Japanese and the Vietnamese share some similarity.
The Korean, on the other other hand, try to banish the evil spririts by performing rituals and magic.
3. The paradox of local creeds and religion.
Buddism and the cult of ancestor worship both support the existence of spirits; nonetheless, there exist some conflicts between them. In the doctrine of Buddism, life is a vicious circle of reincarnation, so spirits are just interim form of life waiting for the rebirth in another life form. However, the cult of ancestor worship backs the faith in an eternal afterlife realm of the deceased where their spirits linger for good to bless their offspring.
So why do people still approve of this contradiction? This is due to the co-existence and harmony of different religions and creeds in Sinosphere countries, where people choose to follow multiple religious beliefs in order to serve the practical purpose of worshipping, which is to seek the blessing from the devine beings, or, to put it another way, to seek the inner peace and a sense of being protected.
Written by Vu Cuong
References
http://mantico.hatvan.vn/topmenu/lan-man- ve-truyen- thong-hon- dung-tin- nguong-cua- nguoi-viet-
http://www.ancient.eu/article/892/
http://broom02.revolvy.com/main/index.php…
http://www.faena.com/aleph/articles/goryo-shinko- japans-religion- of-ghosts/
https://electricliterature.com/y%C5%ABrei-the- ghosts-of- japan-a163dad918c0#.ojmuhthkt
