by Alexius Tan

Created on: July 05, 2010   Last Updated: July 06, 2010

Chinese Beliefs about Death

Sheng1-lao3-bing4-si3 (in Hhanyupinyin), literally meaning birth-age-ail-death, is commonly used in the Chinese language to summarize life. Death in the Chinese context can mean an end to a life, and at the same time, the beginning of another. This is due to the cyclic nature of the Chinese beliefs – the 12 Chinese zodiacs, 4 seasons, etcetera.

THREE SPIRITS & SEVEN ENERGIES

The mortal human is said to be made up of three hun2 (loosely translated as spirits) and seven po4 (loosely translated as energies.) When a person dies, one of these hun2 will stay at the site of death, and one would stay within the corpse, and the last one will make its way to the di4fu3 (literally as the “court underground”, which is what we would call “hell.”) All the seven po4 will stay with the corpse.

One of the seven po4 will depart the body every 7 days. So there was a belief that the dead may be revived within the first 7 days of his or her death since all the po4 are still within the body, and the hun2 may be summoned back to the body if the Judge Chui from hell deems that the person's time in the mortal world is not up yet.

SEVENTH DAY

The seventh day of death is the day when the hun2 that has reported to hell to come back to earth to fetch the other two hun2 for judgment back in hell. This is the day when the deceased come back to earth as a ghost to see his family for the last time. This is also the day the first po4 departs the body. After the seventh day of death, a revival is no longer possible, and the family may bury the body.

FORTY-NINTH DAY

By the forty-ninth day, all the seven po4 of the deceased would have left the body, and the deceased can be said to have left the mortal world completely. The ghost would have been judged in hell and would either be suffering in hell to redeem him- or herself of the sins committed, or is sent for reincarnation back to the mortal world.

OTHER BELIEFS

It was inevitable that the ancient Chinese beliefs could be somehow related to some religious beliefs as well. It was said that one who died in an accident or suicide would be rejected from hell as the time planned for him or her in the mortal world is not up yet. The hun2 at the site of death would have to “die” the same way every day at the same time until his actual age of death as stipulated in the sheng1si2bu4 (record book of birth and death.)

There are many taboos related to death in many cultures, and it is evident in the Chinese culture too; so much that even the word for “to die” is avoided when mentioning death. Yet at the same time, death is taught as something not to be feared.

The various teachings about death in the Chinese culture are to ensure that the Chinese live with the correct mentality to accept death as part of the journey as a living thing, yet not to seek death as a means to an end.

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