The Underworld in Shamanism (Primitive Witchcraft)

　 The underworld, commonly known as the netherworld in folk custom, has different names among the various ethnic minorities in the north. In the shamanic survey materials of the Manchu-Tungusic language family, common names include Buni, Yimukan, and others. 　　The concept of the underworld is a companion to the concept of the soul of the deceased, and the underworld is the world where the dead live. In the more ancient shamanic concept of the soul, there was no dedicated underworld or netherworld for the destination of the dead. On the contrary, under the constraints of the clan-based social structure, the destinations of the dead were multiple and varied due to clan limitations—some in the starry realm of the sky, some on the clan tree in the sacred mountain of fertility spirits, some in the sacred mountains where ancestral spirits reside, and so on. 　　For example, the Wuhuan people worshipped Chishan (Red Mountain), located "several thousand li northeast of Liaodong," and regarded it as a sacred place. According to Wuhuan customs, when a person died, a fat dog was necessarily led along, with singing and dancing to escort the deceased, the dog serving as a guard, "to protect the deceased's spirit in returning to Chishan," to prevent evil ghosts on the way from obstructing the soul's passage. Upon reaching Chishan, the dog and the horse ridden by the deceased were killed and burned together with clothing to send off the deceased. The "History of Liao" also records that the Khitan people sacrificed to mountains, especially emphasizing Muye Mountain and Black Mountain. It is said that Muye Mountain was the location of the ancestral temple, while the Black Mountain deity governed the souls of the Khitan people. Since they believed in the two realms of yin and yang and regarded Black Mountain as the destination of souls, they "held it in great awe, and did not dare approach the mountain except for sacrifices [①]. The formation and spread of a common underworld belief within the shamanic region had its own reasons in the professionalization of shamanism, as well as influence from Buddhism. 　　To this day, in folk belief, shamans who can "cross to the underworld"—that is, to send the dead or retrieve the souls of the sick from the underworld—are regarded as shamans with greater magical power among all types of shamans. When people of various ethnic groups discuss the most renowned shamanic achievements of their own people, they most enjoy talking about their experiences of crossing to the underworld. Crossing to the underworld is, in folk belief, the most important professional hallmark of a shaman. According to shamanic oral tradition, the gate to another world—the realm of the dead—is opened by shamans. Legend has it that when death appeared on earth and many corpses piled up, no one buried them because there were no shamans yet. An old man named Huodai had a dream in which a terrifying Xewo (spirit) came to him and said: "I want you to become a shaman, so that you can hold funeral rites for people and send them to the underworld. Go into the forest and find a shaman tree growing with Toli (bronze mirrors), bells, and horns. Choose some of these things you want, and you will become a shaman." In the morning, old Huodai went to the forest and soon found the aforementioned shaman tree. He picked out many Toli, bells, and horns, put them in a bag, and brought them home. But at night, all these items rang out and spoke: "How could you take us alone? You alone use too many." And when old Huodai untied the cloth bag, the shamanic implements flew out of the bag with a whistle, scattering in all directions to different clans—Yukaminka, Udikan, Bierda, Wuzhala, and other clans—to those who could become shamans. In this way, many shamans appeared at once. Thus, old Huodai, together with them, began to hold funerals for the dead and ferry their souls to the underworld [②]. Shamanism, in the form of legend, explains that commemorating the dead is an important and basic religious function of shamans, and also explains the close connection between shamanism and the origin of death. This legend has significant cultural value. 　　In shamanism and religious belief, it is not only the souls of the dead that go to the underworld, but also the souls of the sick. The reason why shamans' crossing to the underworld is so eagerly discussed is most importantly that they are not only living people who can go to the underworld, but can also retrieve the souls of the sick who have gone to the underworld for various reasons. According to folk oral imagination, some of these sick people are already dead or dying, so a shaman's ability to cross to the underworld means the ability to bring the dead back to life. 　　In the "Survey of Oroqen Shamanism" written by Guan Xiaoyun and Wang Honggang, through the oral accounts of shamans themselves or their relatives, we see a batch of fresh materials about the underworld. According to Oroqen woman Guan Koujie: She was born frail and sickly, and after prolonged treatment failed, the female shaman Ding at the time was invited to perform soul-summoning. The shaman went to "Buni" to find her soul, swallowed it into her own belly, returned to the living world, and then tied a bell from the shaman's robe to her back. This sacred bell could protect her from evil influences until she was 13 years old, when the shaman finally returned the soul to her body. At that time, the shaman kept hiccuping. It is said that the child's soul was spat out from the belly, then spat onto the drum surface, and a small white fireball appeared at the edge of the drum hoop—this was the soul. The small fireball moved along the drum hoop, and the shaman pressed the drum surface against the child's head, meaning the soul was sent back into the child's body. From then on, the child was completely cured, and the shaman removed the copper bell from her back. According to Oroqen shaman Meng Jinfu, soul-summoning is needed because when someone in the family dies, the deceased's soul takes the child's soul away with it. Therefore, the shaman must rush to the underworld to demand the soul back. Soul-summoning is not something ordinary shamans can do; only great shamans with superb magical skills are qualified. When the shaman spat out the soul, the child's soul spat from the belly onto the drum surface was a white glowing mist mass that would silently walk along the edge of the drum hoop. According to Meng Xiuchun's introduction, during soul-summoning, the shaman begins with the same dance steps as ordinary shamanic dancing. At the climax, the shaman says "I am going to summon the soul," then lies motionless on the ground, neither eating nor drinking, nor urinating or defecating. The shaman's relatives knock stones three times a day on the shaman's head and limbs, and only then does the shaman move slightly. The family prays that he will quickly find the soul and return safely. After several days like this, the shaman's body slowly begins to tremble, and the sacred bells and bronze mirrors on his body ring accordingly. The family helps him up, and after he dances another shamanic dance, it is concluded. 　　Regarding the scene and process of the shaman's journey to the underworld, many investigators have provided vivid descriptions; here is just one example. According to one investigator, when the shaman enters a coma, he mumbles words that people cannot understand. The shaman is flying to the underworld, and the Shewo spirit helps him on this difficult journey. He encounters many hardships along the way: getting lost in the mountains, sinking into swamps, passing through forests in thick fog, sometimes wading across rivers, sometimes encountering tigers and leopards, and so on. The shaman's eyes are tightly closed, his face covered in sweat, looking utterly exhausted. But he finally arrives at the underworld. His chanting becomes soft and sorrowful. At this point, the shaman suddenly kneels down and is silent for a moment. Those present are told that the shaman is about to search for the shadow. Before him are many shadows—these are the souls of the dead. They look very much alike, but some retain the external injuries they had while alive, and these are still preserved in the underworld. The shaman should use these to find the lost soul of the sick person. Suddenly, he speaks: "The patient cut his foot 10 years ago; there is a scar on the sole of his right foot." The relatives present did not confirm this. "He has a birthmark on his right shoulder." The mother replied: "That's wrong." "The little toe of his left foot was frostbitten before." The father said: "That's right, it was so." "Once a bear clawed him during a hunt, leaving claw marks on the left side of his thigh." "That's also right." "He injured his knee when he was a child," and so on. Based on these characteristics, the shaman finds the patient's soul.At this moment, the shaman stood up, dancing and twisting as he approached the patient. The patient became frantic. His whole body trembled. He groaned incessantly and clawed at his chest, but still lay on the ground. Then the shaman held the sacred drum over the fire to warm it. Suddenly, I saw a small black animal on the drum, like a mouse. It ran swiftly around the rim of the drum, and although the shaman tilted the drum, the small animal still clung tightly to the drumhead, climbed up the hoop, and did not fall to the ground. Then the shaman walked over to the mentally ill patient and suddenly threw the black animal into the madman's open arms. The women immediately covered it with a robe. Then the shaman picked up a branch, tied a piece of birch bark smeared with soot to it, chanted incantations, and used this birch bark to brush over the body of the patient lying on the ground, from head to toe, back and forth several times. At this point, the shamanic ritual ended — the shadow had been found and reattached to the patient [③]. Based on general observations of descriptions of the underworld among various ethnic groups, we find that in shamanism, the underworld mainly exists as a concept of the destination for the souls of the dead. People, drawing on the imagination that real life can inspire, describe the underworld as another living space where people reside after death. People believe that shamans can see deceased relatives and familiar people in the underworld. On August 9, 1956, Ding Xibu Kouqian, a 57-year-old female shaman from Shibazhan in northern Heilongjiang Province, told investigators: When a shaman treats illness, he can go to the place of the dead, that is, to Yinmukan. I myself have been to Yinmukan. Guan Baibao's father was sick and about to die, so I went to Yinmukan to find him. There I saw that Guan Baibao's father had already arrived there, but Yinmukan would not let me enter the main gate, no matter what I said. So I summoned the Great Eagle Spirit and had him grab Guan Baibao's father and bring him out. In this way, the sick person recovered. But when I was bringing him back, Baibao's uncle grabbed him once in Yinmukan, so after recovering, Baibao's father only lived for three more years. If Baibao's uncle had not grabbed him, he could have lived longer. My former husband (note: the female shaman Ding Xibu Kouqian's ex-husband) was about to die, so I went to Yinmukan once more. There I saw a very fat woman attending to my husband. My child was still alive, but I also saw him there. Everything we have on earth exists there too. I asked to take them back, but the fat woman said: "Do not ask; he is needed here to serve as a soldier." She told me to go back. I said, "If my husband cannot return, at least let me take the child back," but she drove me away. After I returned, my husband indeed died. The content of life in the underworld is the same as that in the world of the living. According to shamans who claim to have descended to the underworld, life there is the same as that of the living. The courtyards are very spacious, the fences are very tall, like the houses of an emperor. In Yinmukan, everything exists — the fine clothes people wore when they died, the horses killed at death, the saddles placed there, and also the wine and meat offered at funerals after death. The burning coals and ashes from the living are also there. The clothing there can last a lifetime. Whatever is on the side of the living is the same on the side of the dead. If a horse on the living side was thin, it is also thin there. Some also believe that the world the souls of the dead go to is opposite to the human world. Among many ethnic groups in the Heilongjiang River basin, some believe that the place the souls go to is "another world" similar to the human world. This world is like the earthly world, with various races and ethnic groups, also living in families and households. There are also a sun, stars, and moon, the Heilongjiang River flowing, mountains, forests, and various animals. However, there is one characteristic completely opposite to the human world: this world is exactly reversed in terms of day and night and seasons. When it is day in the human world, it is night there; when it is summer in the human world, it is winter there. If there is an abundance of game in that world, there is little game in the human world, and vice versa. This concept of viewing the place where souls go as having an inverse relationship with the human world is relatively common. Therefore, during funerals, everything is done in reverse. This is done so that after the soul arrives in the underworld, everything can be correctly used in reverse. According to Professor Wu Bing'an's introduction in "The Mysterious Shamanic World," because the day and night of the soul's realm are exactly reversed from the human world, when humans sleep at night, the soul begins its daytime activities, so humans can only offer sacrifices to the soul at night. Due to the same reverse thinking, many ethnic groups believe that in the world where souls reside, the direction of the rising and setting of the sun and moon is exactly opposite to that of the human world — the sun and moon both rise from the west and set in the east. Some even believe that in the place where the souls reside, rivers flow backward, boots and shoes are worn backward, with toes pointing back and heels forward, and saddles are placed on horses in the opposite direction from the human world. This shamanic concept of the place where the dead go being inverse to the human world is also expressed in the inversion of upper and lower directions. Among burial goods, all eating utensils and vessels are placed upside down in the grave with their openings facing downward. Because in some shamanic legends, in the world of the dead, the soles of the dead face the soles of the living, but their heads hang downward below; the trees and tent tops in that world also seem to hang in the opposite direction from the human world. All the scenery there is like an inverted reflection in water. Many ethnic oral traditions particularly emphasize the topography and landforms of the underworld, treating them as markers of a shaman's professional experience. Some shamans say that to go to Yinmukan, one must pass through eighteen mountain ridges. In the middle of the eighteen ridges, there is something like a fish weir (referring to a tall pole rack for catching fish in the river), as tall as the sky. On this side is a dog, and on the other side of the weir is another dog; if you do not give them something, they will not let you pass. Therefore, to go to Yinmukan, one must also bring meat from deer, elk, swans, or other birds and animals. Others say that to get there, one must cross several mountain ridges, which are especially dark. Near the place approaching Yinmukan, there is a very large river with two kinds of water: on this side of the river, the water is yellow, and on the other side, the water is red. Ge Chujie, an Oroqen shaman, said that on his soul's journey to the underworld, he had to cross nine mountains and nine rivers and also fight with little ghosts. Professor Wu Bing'an summarized in "The Mysterious Shamanic World" that the Hezhen people call the underworld of the underground kingdom "Buni," and the souls of the dead must pass through many places on the road to "Buni." First, they walk on a single road, and as they continue forward, it divides into many forks, which are small paths set up according to the different surnames of the deceased. The soul walks on the path of its own clan and must cross a river, where there are many white bones. With the shaman performing rituals, it is said that one can cross the river safely. Soon, one can see broken branches, split trees, wood chips, and footprints, and also see signs that seem like someone lives there, as if the place where the souls reside is right before one's eyes. It is said that at this time, the soul begins to hear dogs barking and gradually sees cooking smoke, small houses, and domesticated reindeer. It is also said that the journey of the soul to the lower world is long and dangerous, with dense mountain forests and bottomless swamps. Some souls departing for the underworld lead dogs by hand, while others ride on reindeer. Xibe shamans have a ritual of passing through eighteen karun (checkpoints), usually held at the disciple's home at night. At the beginning of the ritual, the master and disciple sit facing each other on the north kang in a pitch-black room, and the master prays to the spirits about the disciple's situation, roughly as follows: The descendant of such-and-such a clan with the same zodiac sign has inherited the revered spirits of his ancestors and has been selected as a shaman. Now he is walking out of this humble room, and still staggering forward, the shaman toPraying to the many gods above, asking them to show him the way forward. Then, the disciple recited the well-memorized "Shaman's Song of Passing Through the Eighteen Karon," and through a question-and-answer between master and disciple, the master "led" the disciple "through" the "Eighteen Karon," each guarded by its own deity. Finally, they arrived at the founding ancestor of Xibe shamanism—Isanzhu Mama—to "report," and she issued her "decree," "sending" the disciple "back" to the human world [④]. The above descriptions emphasize, from various aspects, the hardship and difficulty of the shaman's descent into the underworld. The path to the netherworld is fraught with obstacles—one must cross mountain after mountain and river after river; there are difficult passes and confusing forks in the road; it is dark and perilous, with animals, spirits, and acquaintances blocking the way, and sudden soul-snatchers, and so on. In such an environment, the shaman's actions are naturally an adventure; he must be brave, alert, and clever. The shaman must use the help of spirits to overcome the guardians at each pass, needs wisdom to identify the soul he seeks, must act decisively to shake off or avoid interference from other dead souls, and must skillfully use offerings to appease the guards to ease his journey, and so forth. Thus, the legend of the descent into the underworld provides the knowledge about the afterlife that shamanism requires and offers proof of the standards of shamanic ability and skill. In "Primitive Culture," Tylor proposed two types of conceptions of the afterlife in various peoples, namely the "theory of continued existence" and the "theory of retribution." The former describes the future life as a reflection of the present life, while the latter views the future life as a reward for the present life, where a person's fate is the result of their earthly life—more precisely, a reward or punishment for their earthly deeds. Shamanism and the afterlife are basically expressions of the "theory of continued existence." Some legends that turn the sociological basis of shamanic belief into ethical evidence explain the principle of karmic retribution through the joys and sufferings of the afterlife, and some Buni worlds resembling Buddhist depictions of hell have appeared. This is clearly influenced by Buddhism. The Manchu handwritten manuscript "The Tale of the Nisan Shaman," translated in many countries, tells the story of a great shaman descending into the underworld to retrieve a soul. It extensively describes the scenes of the City of Yama, where many souls who did good deeds enjoy pleasures in the afterlife, and many more who did evil deeds are punished. The Oroqen people have a story called "Enduri Shaman," meaning the almighty female shaman. Some episodes of this story are somewhat similar to those in "Nisan Shaman." The story recounts what Enduri Shaman saw and heard in the "underworld": As soon as Enduri Shaman entered a village, she saw a woman with an iron ring pierced through her tongue, with two people pulling it. Enduri Shaman asked, "Why are you treating her this way?" The two replied, "In the world of the living, she only spoke ill of others and harmed others for her own benefit, so she is punished this way." Enduri Shaman continued forward and saw ahead a woman with a large earring on her ear, to which a rope was tied, and several people were pulling hard, causing the woman to cry out in pain. Enduri Shaman asked, "What crime has she committed to be punished this way?" Those people said, "When she was in the human world, she was mischievous and never listened to the elders, so now she is punished this way." Enduri Shaman walked further ahead and saw from a distance a woman eating leftover food beside a garbage heap, with flies buzzing around her. When Enduri Shaman inquired, it turned out that this person had recklessly thrown away food in the world of the living, so now she is made to eat what she discarded. After narrating the above episodes, the story ends like this: Just as Enduri Shaman was about to turn back, she saw a white-haired old woman call her over, spoke with her for a while, and finally earnestly instructed her, saying, "When you return, you must clearly tell the people of the living world everything you have seen here, so that they may learn to do good and avoid suffering in the afterlife." [⑤] Although legends that use the doctrine of rewards and punishments in the netherworld to reinforce people's social morality have already appeared in shamanic regions, judging from the "Nisan Shaman" stories circulated among various peoples, people are still more interested in the first half of the story. Many variants describe in detail the episodes of the patient losing his soul, the family inviting the shaman, the shaman descending into the underworld, and the patient recovering, while the depictions of hell's rewards and punishments are simplified and altered arbitrarily. This shows that for the northern peoples, the system of rewards and punishments in hell was not yet stable, and it was still very difficult to integrate it into their own beliefs and behaviors. Moreover, in such stories, the image of King Yama is not particularly prominent or universal. The ruler of the underworld is not clearly defined in shamanism; sometimes the one who exhorts good is a "white-haired old woman," sometimes the "Grandmother Fortune Goddess," and sometimes even the ancient Umai goddess in charge of fertility. In the legend of "Nisan Shaman" collected by Fu Yuguang, the Umai deity appears in the underworld. The story goes: After Nisan Shaman obtained the soul of the patient Serigudai Fiyanggu and held his hand to walk back along the original path, she noticed a majestic and ornate pavilion appearing by the roadside, surrounded by five-colored auspicious clouds, with two divine generals wearing golden helmets and golden armor and holding iron staffs guarding the gate. Upon inquiry, she learned that inside the pavilion lived Umai Mama, who could make buds bloom and roots and branches flourish. When Nisan Shaman entered the great hall, she looked up and saw an old woman sitting in the center, with hair as white as lard, drooping eyelids, a long face with a large mouth, a protruding chin, and all her teeth gone. On either side of her stood more than twenty women, some carrying children on their backs, some holding children in their arms, some threading children with silk thread, some stuffing children into sacks—carrying them on shoulders, hauling them—none idle. They all walked out through the door facing the sunrise. The Umai deity ordered Nisan Shaman to tour the various places, and she followed a guide woman to look around. She saw a grove of trees with beautiful scenery, suffused with five-colored auspicious radiance. The guide woman told her, "These are the clean willow branches that you people in the human world have dedicated to Umai Mama, so their roots are strong and leaves lush, and children's smallpox can be cured. That grove over there, scattered and withered with broken branches and dried leaves, is because you people in the human world have sent willow branches that were gnawed and trampled by cattle and horses to Umai Mama, so children's smallpox will not be cured. This is divine punishment—look carefully." Umai Mama prepared for her a divinely powerful spirit hat, tied waist bells, and a hand-held spirit drum. And she gave her instructions for teaching: "Since you have come here, it is fitting that you see the good fruits and evil retributions I have decreed for the people of the world, so that when you return, you may tell them to the world." Indeed, shamans, scholars, servants, nobles, and commoners—each distinct; promotion to prominence, disorderly conduct, poverty and wealth, thieves and robbers, officials, beggars, drunkenness, gambling, women's greed and lust, and all kinds of good and evil—are all judged here. Here, Umai Mama is both the executor of good and evil and the one who presides over the reincarnation of living beings. The underworld is like the sacred mountain of souls where Umai Mama resides; she still distributes and guards souls. The monistic view of the soul's coming and going in shamanism and the Buddhist concept of hell here form a not entirely harmonious union. The King of the Underworld and hell—the kingdom of demons and the demon king—some scholars in academia tend to equate the two. Although there is some basis for this, they do not originate from the same conceptual domain; one belongs to the Buddhist concept of hellish punishment and the ruler of the underworld, while the other belongs to the realm of the demonic kingdom and demons in shamanism's dualistic view of good and evil. The two areBetween them, from the perspective of the development of concepts and ideas, there is a possibility of mutual integration, but most materials indicate that the differences between the two are obvious and primary. Notes: [1] See Liu Xiaomeng and Ding Yizhuang, "Shamanism and the Ethnic Groups of Northeast China," p. 19, Jilin Education Press, 1990. [2] "Studies on Shamanic Culture," Vol. 1, p. 73, Jilin People's Publishing House, 1988. [3] Guo Yanshun, Sun Yunlai, et al., "Collected Ethnic Translations," Vol. 1, p. 318, Jilin Academy of Social Sciences. [4] Edited by Tong Keli, "History and Culture of the Xibe People," p. 210, Xinjiang People's Publishing House, 1989. [5] Published in "Conditions of the Oroqen Ethnic Township in Shibazhan, Huma County, Heilongjiang Province" (Oroqen Ethnic Survey Materials, No. 4), compiled by the Inner Mongolia Ethnic Minority Social History Survey Group, 1959.