INFERNAL AFFAIRS OF BAIYUE:Textual Research for Origin of Blood Lake Belief of Taoism
The Blood Lake is a hell specially set up for departed souls of women by Taoism,who believes that women's departed souls fall into the Blood Lake after their death because of blood pollution caused by menstruation or delivery lochia,so that a ceremony of"breaking the Blood Lake"should be held during funeral to save their souls.Almost all previous researches agree that this opinion of Taoism comes from Buddhism,but the article ques-tions about it.The author observes the ceremony rites of Breaking Blood Lake in south China and summarizes their common points,as well as excavates their origins in combination of materials about funeral ethnography of Zhuang and Dong-speaking ethnic groups,archaeological materials unearthed in the area around the South China Sea and myths.Finally,it turns out that the Blood Lake belief of Taoism originates from the concept of funeral customs of Baiyue ethnic group,which illustrates the importance and necessity of the ethnic minority perspective to the reli-gious research in China.
BaiyueFuneral customs and conceptBlood Lake BeliefTaoism
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