Saturday, July 17, 2010

How do you get rid of ghosts?

How do you get rid of ghosts? Here is a surprising way that I found in a book called Chinese Magical Medicine by Michel Strickmann.

“A secular tale set toward the end of the eighth century describes the experience of a fearless hunter who was once benighted while crossing the capital. He sought lodging from people who were evacuating their house because, as they told him, a killer-ghost was due to arrive that very night. The stalwart was not dismayed by this prospect and asked to sleep there anyway. The family decamped, and the hunter sat up in the main hall, bow and arrows at the ready. Toward the end of the third watch, a luminous object, like a big plate, flew down out of the air through the gate in the courtyard, gleaming like fire. From his dark hiding-place the hunter shot three arrows into it, until its light dimmed and it remained motionless. He got up, went over to it, plucked out the arrows, and the object fell to the ground. He called his servant, who brought a lamp; it proved to be a lump of flesh, with eyes all around-the motion of the eyes had caused the light. ‘So it’s really true what they say about killer-ghosts!’ he exclaimed with delight. Faithful to his hunter’s custom, he had his servant boil it, and it proved to be utterly delicious.”(Strickmann 75)

That is amazing you can get rid of them by shooting them with your arrow and eating them. Wow! I’ve never eaten a ghost before. That would be different. I would be a little afraid of being possessed by one, but maybe the stomach acid destroys them.

Strickmann goes on to say that “(f)rom ancient times to the present day, cooking and eating troublesome demons has been a practical solution to the problem; there are directions for cooking a wolf-demon in the third century B.C.E. demonological manuscript mentioned earlier, and a similar approach to other demonic troublemakers is recommended in an instructive collection of ghost stories published in Peking in 1962, ‘Stories About Not Being Afraid of Ghosts’ (Pu-p’a kuei-te ku-shih).” (75)

I highly recommend Stickmann’s book. I learn about a lot of stuff that I had never heard of before. A great book.

I hope that you liked what I just wrote. I plan to write some more things about Chinese and Japanese ghosts, demons and magic. It is a subject that deeply interests me. I’m always looking for a new book or movie that can tell me something new.

Works Cited

Strickmann, Michel. Chinese Magical Medicine. Stanford; Stanford UP, 2002.

No comments:

Post a Comment