A RECORD OF ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVEN
As gathered from the oldest accounts that remain
PROLOGUE — CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
On the Matter of the Ghost Festival — 中元節 — Zhongyuan Jie
It is called Zhongyuan Jie — 中元節.
Zhong — 中 — means middle.
Yuan — 元 — means origin. Element. The primary force.
Jie — 節 — means festival. Seasonal observance.
Together — 中元節 — the Festival of the Middle Origin.
It is also called the Hungry Ghost Festival — 餓鬼節 — E Gui Jie.
It is also called the Yulanpen Festival — 盂蘭盆節 — Yulanpen Jie — in Buddhism.
It is also called Ghost Day — 鬼節 — Gui Jie.
It falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month — 七月十五 — qi yue shi wu.
In some parts of southern China it falls on the fourteenth day — 七月十四 — qi yue shi si.
The seventh lunar month itself is called Ghost Month — 鬼月 — Gui Yue.
On the first day of Ghost Month the gates of hell open.
On the last day the gates close.
For thirty days the dead walk among the living.
---
On the two origins.
The Ghost Festival has two distinct origins.
The first comes from Taoist doctrine. The second comes from Buddhist scripture.
Both origins are recorded here.
Neither is declared superior.
Both have been observed in China since the Tang dynasty — 唐朝 — Tang Chao.
---
On the Taoist origin. The Three Yuan — 三元 — San Yuan.
The Taoist doctrine holds that the three basic elements that generate everything in the universe are heaven, earth and water — San Yuan — 三元 — three elements — also known as San Guan — 三官 — Three Officials.
They are manifested as the Three Great Official Emperors — 三官大帝 — San Guan Da Di.
The first is the Official of Heaven — 天官 — Tian Guan.
His birthday is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month — 正月十五 — zheng yue shi wu.
This day is the Shangyuan Festival — 上元節 — Shangyuan Jie.
It is also called the Lantern Festival — 元宵節 — Yuanxiao Jie.
He grants blessings — 賜福 — ci fu.
The second is the Official of Earth — 地官 — Di Guan.
His birthday is the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month — 七月十五 — qi yue shi wu.
This day is the Zhongyuan Festival — 中元節 — Zhongyuan Jie.
He pardons sins — 赦罪 — she zui.
The third is the Official of Water — 水官 — Shui Guan.
His birthday is the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month — 十月十五 — shi yue shi wu.
This day is the Xiayuan Festival — 下元節 — Xiayuan Jie.
He resolves misfortune — 解厄 — jie e.
Together the three festivals mark the three turning points of the year.
Spring. Summer. Autumn.
Blessing. Pardon. Resolution.
The Zhongyuan Festival is the middle one.
The pardon.
On the birthday of the Official of Earth — the one who oversees all the spirits of the dead — the gates of the underworld open.
The sins of the dead are reviewed.
Those who qualify for early release are permitted to return temporarily to the mortal world.
---
On the Buddhist origin. Maudgalyayana — 目犍連 — Mu Jian Lian.
The Buddhist name for the festival is Yulanpen Jie — 盂蘭盆節.
Yulan — 盂蘭 — is a transliteration from Sanskrit meaning relief from suffering.
Pen — 盆 — refers to the vessel used for offerings.
The festival derives from the Yulanpen Sutra — 盂蘭盆經 — Yulanpen Jing — also called the Ullambana Sutra.
The sutra is claimed to have been translated into Chinese from Indian sources in the third or fourth century of the common era.
The sutra records the story of Maudgalyayana — 目犍連 — Mu Jian Lian.
Maudgalyayana was one of the ten chief disciples of the Buddha — 佛陀 — Fotuo.
He was foremost among all disciples in supernatural powers — 神通第一 — shentong di yi.
He used his powers to search for his deceased mother.
He discovered that his deceased mother was reborn into the preta — hungry ghost — realm.
She was in a wasted condition.
Maudgalyayana tried to help her by giving her a bowl of rice.
As a preta she was unable to eat the rice as it transformed into burning coal before reaching her.
He was unable to help her through his own power.
He went to the Buddha.
The Buddha said: for such attempts at rescuing the deceased who are suffering greatly, the whole sangha — the Buddhist community of monastics and laity — would need to come together.
The Buddha told him: on the fifteenth day of the seventh month — when monks emerge from the summer retreat — assemble offerings for five hundred monks.
Through the collective merit of the assembled sangha — 僧伽 — sengjia — the suffering of his mother could be alleviated.
Maudgalyayana followed this instruction.
His mother was released from the hungry ghost realm.
She gained a human birth.
The Buddha declared: on this day every year let offerings be made to the monastic community.
Through these offerings the merit can be transferred to suffering souls.
This is the Buddhist origin of the Ghost Festival.
---
On the hungry ghost — 餓鬼 — E Gui.
E — 餓 — means hungry. Starving.
Gui — 鬼 — means ghost. Spirit of the dead.
Together — 餓鬼 — the Hungry Ghost.
In Buddhist cosmology the hungry ghost realm — 餓鬼道 — E Gui Dao — is one of the Six Paths of Reincarnation — 六道 — Liu Dao.
The souls reborn in this realm consumed by greed in their previous lives.
They are reborn with enormous mouths — 大口 — da kou.
They are reborn with narrow throats — 細喉嚨 — xi houlong — that cannot pass food.
Everything they attempt to consume transforms into burning coal — 燃燒的煤 — ranshao de mei — or putrid filth — 腐爛的污穢 — fulan de wuhui — before it reaches them.
They cannot be satisfied.
They starve eternally.
They are not evil.
They are the result of their own greed.
During Ghost Month they are released temporarily.
They wander the mortal world searching for offerings.
If no offerings are made for them they may cause harm out of desperation.
This is why offerings are left not only for ancestors — 祖先 — zuxian — but also for all wandering souls — 遊魂 — you hun — who have no living family to remember them.
---
On the opening of the Ghost Gate — 鬼門關 — Gui Men Guan.
The Ghost Gate first opens on the first day of the seventh lunar month.
On the night of the fourteenth day at midnight — early morning of the fifteenth day — the Ghost Gate is considered fully open.
On the first day — the gate opens a crack.
A few wild souls — 野鬼 — ye gui — slip through.
By the fifteenth day — Ghost Day — the gate is fully open.
All souls who have been granted temporary release may walk freely.
The boundary between the living world — 陽間 — yangjian — and the dead world — 陰間 — yinjian — becomes thin.
The living can sometimes feel the dead.
The dead can sometimes reach the living.
On the last day of the seventh month the gates close.
The souls return.
Heibai Wuchang enforce the return.
Any soul that refuses is captured and brought back by the Soul Hook Lock — 勾魂鎖 — gou hun suo.
---
On the rituals.
The primary ritual is the offering — 祭祀 — jisi.
Food offerings — 食物供品 — shiwu gongpin — are placed outside the home in the evening.
The offerings are placed outside.
Not inside.
The wandering souls who have no family are outside.
They cannot enter homes that are not theirs.
The food is left at the threshold — 門檻 — menkan.
It is left for any soul who passes.
Named and unnamed.
Known and unknown.
Incense is burned — 燒香 — shao xiang.
The smoke carries the prayers upward.
The smoke marks the offering as sacred.
The smoke is the communication between the living and the dead.
Joss paper is burned — 燒紙 — shao zhi.
Paper money — 紙錢 — zhi qian.
Paper houses — 紙房子 — zhi fangzi.
Paper clothes — 紙衣服 — zhi yifu.
Paper servants — 紙僕人 — zhi puren.
Paper cars — 紙汽車 — zhi qiche — in the modern era.
Paper phones — 紙手機 — zhi shouji — in the modern era.
The smoke carries the paper objects to the dead world.
They arrive as real objects in the hands of the ancestors.
This is the belief.
This is what the families do.
Elaborate meals — often vegetarian — are served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family, treating the deceased as if they are still living.
The empty seat is the most important seat at the table.
It is set.
It is not sat in.
It belongs to whoever is being remembered.
---
On the Pudu ceremony — 普渡 — Pudu.
Pudu — 普渡 — means universal salvation.
Pu — 普 — means universal. All-encompassing.
Du — 渡 — means to ferry across. To save. To bring to the other shore.
Together — 普渡 — to ferry all souls to salvation.
The Pudu ceremony is the grand communal offering held on the fifteenth day.
A sacrificial altar and chair are built for the Buddhist priest outside the temple.
A statue of Ksitigarbha — 地藏菩薩 — sits in front of the chair on a plate made of rice flour and covered in peaches.
Three spirit tablets and three funeral banners are placed on the altar.
During the ritual solemn music plays and the monks sing incantations.
The priest then throws rice and peaches into the air to distribute them to the ghosts.
The throwing of rice — 撒米 — sa mi — in all directions ensures that every ghost in every direction receives something.
Not just the ghosts who have family.
Not just the ghosts who are remembered.
All of them.
This is the principle of universal salvation.
No soul left unfed.
---
On the river lanterns — 河燈 — He Deng.
Families make lanterns from wood and paper.
They write their ancestors' names on the lanterns.
They place candles inside.
They float the lanterns on rivers.
The ghosts are believed to follow the floating river lanterns away.
The light guides the ancestral souls back to the underworld when Ghost Month ends.
A soul that follows its family's lantern does not get lost.
A soul without a lantern — a soul no one remembered — wanders.
This is why offerings are made for all wandering souls.
So no soul wanders without light.
---
On the taboos of Ghost Month.
During Ghost Month people observe a number of taboos designed to safeguard the living from restless spirits.
Swimming is avoided as waters are believed to conceal ghosts that might pull the unsuspecting beneath the surface.
This connects to the water ghost — 水鬼 — shui gui — recorded in the chapter on the Ninth Court of Hell.
Major life events such as weddings, moving house, or launching new ventures are postponed since the seventh lunar month is thought to bring misfortune.
Clothes are not left hanging outside at night.
Whistling after dark is discouraged.
One must never answer if an unfamiliar voice calls in the shadows.
Chopsticks are not placed upright in rice bowls.
Sticking chopsticks upright in rice bowls may cause them to be mistaken for offerings and attract greedy spirits.
One does not look back if one feels a tap on the shoulder at night.
One does not stand in doorways.
Doorways are the boundary between inside and outside.
Between the living world and the wandering world.
During Ghost Month doorways belong to both.
Standing in them invites confusion about which side one belongs to.
---
On the Ksitigarbha connection.
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's birthday falls on the thirtieth of the seventh lunar month — the last day of the Ghost Festival.
The Ghost Festival ends on his birthday.
The gates close on the day the Bodhisattva who vowed to empty hell was born.
This is not coincidence in the tradition.
The closing of the gates is connected to him.
The souls are released for thirty days.
On his birthday the accounting is done.
Those who have been sufficiently served by the prayers and offerings of the living are advanced in their journey.
Those who have not yet accumulated enough merit wait for the next year.
The gates close.
He remains.
He always remains.
---
On the Recitation of the Ksitigarbha Sutra — 地藏經 — Dizang Jing.
The most important Buddhist practice during Ghost Month is the recitation of the Ksitigarbha Sutra — 地藏經 — Dizang Jing.
It is recited daily.
In temples.
In homes.
At grave sites.
The sutra describes the power of Ksitigarbha to relieve souls from suffering.
Each recitation generates merit — 功德 — gongde.
The merit is dedicated to specific ancestors.
Or to all suffering souls without specification.
The accumulated merit reduces the time a soul spends in the courts of hell.
This is the most practical act a living person can perform for a dead one.
Not burning paper.
Not floating lanterns.
Not leaving food.
Reading.
Reading the words of a Bodhisattva who chose to stay in the worst place until the last soul is free.
Reading those words for the ones who cannot read them for themselves.
---
On the festival in Southeast Asia.
The Ghost Festival is observed throughout Southeast Asia — 東南亞 — Dongnan Ya — wherever the Chinese diaspora — 華人離散社群 — huaren lisan shequ — settled.
In Malaysia — 馬來西亞 — Malaixiya — the festival is called Hungry Ghost Festival.
Large stages — 大台 — da tai — are built in public spaces.
Opera performances — 戲曲 — xiqu — are staged.
The front row of seats is always left empty.
The front row belongs to the ghost audience.
The living sit behind.
In Singapore — 新加坡 — Xinjiapo — the same tradition is observed.
In Indonesia — 印度尼西亞 — Yindunixiya — the Hokkien Chinese communities observe the festival with offerings and ceremony.
The Hokkien name for the festival is Phor Thor — 普渡 — universal salvation.
The same Pudu ceremony.
The same empty seats.
The same paper money burning.
The same river lanterns.
Carried across the sea from Fujian province — 福建省 — Fujian Sheng — by the same people who carried Mazu and Tua Pek Kong and Heibai Wuchang.
Everything that mattered.
Carried.
Planted in new soil.
Still growing.
---
On the Japanese and Vietnamese versions.
In Japan the Buddhist version of the Ghost Festival is called Obon — 盂蘭盆 — Urabon'e.
It has since been transformed into a family reunion holiday during which people from the big cities return to their home towns and visit and clean their ancestors' graves.
In Vietnam the festival is called Vu Lan — the Vietnamese transliteration for Ullambana.
In modern times Vu Lan is also seen as Parents' Day.
People with living parents bear a red rose and give thanks.
Those without living parents bear a white rose.
The red rose for the living parent.
The white rose for the parent who has crossed the bridge.
This is the Vietnamese adaptation.
It is gentle.
It acknowledges both.
It does not pretend the white rose is not heavier than the red.
---
On what the festival represents.
It represents the persistence of love across the boundary of death — 死亡邊界 — siwang bianjie.
The living do not forget.
The dead are not abandoned.
The food is left.
The lanterns are floated.
The sutras are read.
Not because anyone can prove it reaches them.
But because the alternative — forgetting — is worse than the uncertainty.
The festival is the refusal to forget.
It is the insistence that the relationship between the living and the dead is not ended by death.
Only changed.
Thinned.
Made to pass through smoke and paper and floating light and the words of a Bodhisattva who chose to stay.
END OF CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO