#hes inspired from buddhist and chinese judge of hell

[arsenart]

here jashblr have my mori design but he's preferred being called yama more

[ryin-silverfish]

Local FSYY blogger here, giving my two cents.

General Thoughts:

-You are right that Ming Shenmo novels pretty much inspired most of the "Chinese Mythos" in popular culture. However, some Chinese Mythology scholars don't count any of the vernacular novels as proper "Mythology", presumably because there's too much folk religion and Buddhist-Daoist influences?

-Yuan Ke certainly is of the opinion that works like JTTW or White Snake should be considered "New Mythology", in contrast to the classical myths of Shanhai Jing and Qin-Han era works.

-I personally see FSYY as a "pantheon-building" project with HUGE influence on the Shenmo novels that come after, as well as IRL folk religion iconography. 

The Main Body of the Article:

-The Haotian/JE divide is a pretty ambiguous thing in the novel too.

-"Jade Emperor" is only used in Chapter 12 and 13, during Nezha's origin story, to refer to the Big Honcho in Heaven, while Haotian is used everywhere else in the book, which has caused some scholars to theorize that the Nezha story is an independent tale inserted into the FSYY story cycle by the author-compiler.

-However, based on the little context we have, I lean more towards the interpretation that Haotian and JE are used interchangeably by the author-compiler.

-The Three Pure Ones brought up in this post are the highest deities of the Institutional Daoist Pantheon, but, being a pantheon-building project that takes most of its inspiration from folk religion, FSYY has its own divine hierarchy.

-Basically: Hongjun, the FSYY original character, is the highest and oldest immortal master. He teaches the Way to three disciples: Yuanshi, Tongtian, and Laozi.

-Though people like to headcanon Tongtian as Lingbao Tianzun, there is no evidence supporting that in the novel, and Chan & Jie are just...original Daoist sects.

-Speaking about their names: 阐教 is a term used in Ming sources outside of the novel, basically a shorthand for "Righteous Religion". Jie is more ambiguous, but I like Li Yihui's theory that it comes from 海外有截, a line from the Book of Poems that's taken literally as "There's a Jie Sect overseas."

(Also, the 阐 of Chan Sect is not the 禅 of Chan Buddhism.)

-There is, however, Laozi's special attack in Chapter 77, the "Three Purity in One Breath", where he basically created 3 clones based on the iconography and title of the Three Pure Ones during his fight against Tongtian.

-Also, there is a single line in Chapter 15 about the origin of the Investiture: when the Heavenly Emperor was looking for recruits, he actually ordered the "12 head immortals" to become his officials.

-In response to that, the "Three Religions", Chan, Jie, and the "Human Way" get together to create the Investiture——the list of folks who'll die in the upcoming Peril of the Shang-Zhou conflict and be recruited into the Celestial Bureaucracy as new gods.

-Judging from context, these 12 immortals likely refer to the 12 disciples of Yuanshi Tianzun (there are no other groups of 12 in the novel, really…). But wait, what the hell is the "Human Way"?

-Well…though Laozi is very much allied with Yuanshi Tianzun, he also has his own Eight View Palace at Xuandu Cave, instead of Jade Emptiness Palace of Mt. Kunlun, the Chan Sect headquarter.

(Maybe he's Chan Sect's associate professor or something.)

-And he's involved in the drafting of the Investiture, so maaaaybe he represents the "Human Way". The "Three Religions" sure don't stay consistent in this novel, especially when you take Sage Zhunti and Jieyin of the Western Sect into account.

-Who are the Western Sect? Basically, FSYY's Buddhism expy in Daoist trenchcoats.

-Probably because it is known, even in popular history, that Buddhism definitely wasn't a thing in Shang dynasty China, the author-compiler decides to create a Proto-Buddhist faction called the Western Sect (西方教).

-Sage Zhunti is based on Bodhisattva Cundi, while Jieyin is based on Amitabha. They basically serve 2 roles in the story: 1) Be a Deus Ex Machina who shows up to help the Chan Sect get rid of a giant roadblock, and 2) whisk away Jie disciples who are "destined for the Western Lands" like Pokemons.

-Some Chan immortals, like Sage Randeng and 4 of the Chan 12, also end up as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas way after the Investiture War.

"His sect is called the 截教 or Jie Sect. His sect takes in all manners of people under the sun and is less proper, but also smaller than the Chan Sect."

-Yes, Patriarch Tongtian is very much a guy for universal education, who'll take in yaoguai disciples, women, demonic-looking guys, and the occasional cannibal. However, Jie Sect is also huge as a result and NOT smaller than the Chan.

-To show the size discrepancy, let's tally up all the named Chan members and associates in the FSYY novel.

Sect Leaders: Yuanshi Tianzun, Laozi (arguably)

Yuanshi's direct disciples: Old Man of the South Pole, Jiang Ziya, Shen Gongbao

Laozi's disciple: Grand Daoist Master of Xuandu

Senior Disciples and notable allies: Sage Randeng, Chan 12, Yunzhong Zi, Sage Du'E, Lu Ya

Junior Disciples (students who studied directly under the Chan 12 and JZY): Nezha, Yang Jian, Tu Xingsun, Huang Tianhua, Jinzha & Muzha, Yin Jiao & Yin Hong, Wei Hu, Yang Ren, Han Dulong & Xue E Hu, Dragon-bearded Tiger, Wu Ji

Acolytes: White Crane Boy, Golden Ray Boy, White Cloud Boy, the 2 Golden Hair Boys Yang Jian picked up during his weird sidequest

The Redshirt NPCs from the Ten Formations, who refer to themselves as disciples of the Jade Emptiness Palace instead of “unaligned immortals” (散人): Deng Hua, Xiao Zhen 

Disciples of Chan allies: Leizhen Zi, Zheng Lun, Li Jing

-I'm sure I'm missing someone, but that's a total of 46 people, and I'm already being pretty generous with my definition by including some allied Daoists.

-For comparison, in Chapter 84, even after most of the Jie Sect have been decimated during the Ten Thousand Immortal Formation, Patriarch Tongtian was still said to have 200-300 students left at his side.

-You know, if my sect only has 40+ important people and the Heavenly Emperor wants to recruit over a fourth of my entire student population, I may just drag the much larger rival sect into Ancient China's Bloodiest Pantheon Recruitment Program to even out the quota too. 

-Anyways, a bit of additional detail about the Simp Poem Incident: summoning the Three Demonesses of Xuanyuan Tomb is actually not Nvwa's first choice.

She'd have gone and smited King Zhou herself, but was blocked by two red beams emitted by King Zhou's princes, marking them as Fate's Essential NPCs and telling her that the Shang still had 28 years of lifespan left.

-Only the Jade Pipa Demoness gets discovered and burned by Jiang Ziya, but he doesn't do the job thoroughly, and Daji finds a way to nurse her back to health. The Three Demonesses were executed together at the end of FSYY.

-Regarding Daji the Girl: in FSYY proper, Su Hu actually rebelled against King Zhou at the beginning of the novel when ordered to give up his daughter, Daji, as a concubine. A battle was fought, before Su Hu was persuaded by King Wen to give up Daji.

-However, while on their way to the capital, the Nine-tailed Fox consumes Daji the Girl's soul and possesses her empty body. She doesn't kill herself in either FSYY or the novel's predecessor, Wuwang Fazhou Pinghua.

"The two sects both don't want their disciples to die and leave their sect weakened in comparison, so they go home to tell their disciples, listen up and don't cause any trouble."

-Only true for the Jie Sect. Patriarch Tongtian puts up a notice at Biyou Palace, basically telling his students "Don't go outside, you will be Investiture'd." Let's just say…they don't take the warning seriously.

-In contrast, the Chan 12 know they are Fated to participate in the Investiture War. It is part of their Peril, the consequences for failing to "Severe the Three Corpses" and breaking prohibitions against killing, and only by surviving this Peril can they progress further in their cultivation.

"However, there's this one dude: his name is 申公豹 Shen Gong Bao (Panther Elder Shen, where Shen is just his last name) and he got kicked out of the Chan sect for being an asshole. He's also a panther spirit. "

-Not true. Shen Gongbao is always referred to as a (traitorous) Chan disciple, despite being on oddly good terms with Jie immortals. He is also never said to be anything other than a human in the FSYY novel, despite the "leopard/panther" in his name, and his steed isn't even a leopard, but a tiger.

-And yeah, he's also never kicked out officially by the Chan Sect, even though they really should. When he first shows up, he nearly convinces Jiang Ziya to burn the Investiture and aid the Shang instead of Zhou via the magical trick of cutting his head off and staying alive.

-However, Old Man of the South Pole shows up and orders White Crane Boy to snatch his head away. He would have died if Jiang Ziya didn't plead for mercy on his behalf, and he repaid the guy by starting a personal campaign of spite against JZY and sending 36 armies in Xi Qi's way.

"He decides he's going to get some revenge on the Chan sect, so he tells everyone in the Jie sect that working for the King of Shang (remember, asshole dictator) is great: he treats all his subordinates really well, and that his bad reputation is just the Chan sect being stuffy old dudes. He wants the Jie sect to go fight for the asshole King of Shang against the Chan sect."

-Mostly True: though Shen Gongbao certainly dragged a lot of Jie immortals into the war and turned a few Chan disciples against their masters, Grand Tutor Wen, very important and respected Shang minister and Jie disciple, is actually the first character to get his sectmates on Nine Dragons Island involved.

-Which triggered a whole chain of events that set the Cycle of Revenge in motion.

"I'm assuming Tongtian Jiaozhu is really fucking mad that his disciples are all idiots, but now 90% of his sect is super, super dead and working depressing government cubicle jobs (the ones that are better trained are doing special ops work)."

-Oh, he certainly is. When Guangcheng Zi shows up to return the treasure of a Jie disciple he slew to the Jie Sect headquarter, he nearly gets mobbed by their angry disciples three times, despite Tongtian being like "You only have yourself to blame! Let the guy go, FFS!"

-That said…immediately after Guangcheng Zi finally left Biyou Palace, he had a lapse in judgement.

Patriarch Tongtian: "I told y'all not to go outside, why won't you bloody listen” Sage Duobao: "But Guangcheng Zi talked shit about us" Patriarch Tongtian: "BITCH"

-No kidding, that's pretty much how the scene has gone.

-As a Jie Sect liker: Tongtian, I love your commitment to universal education, but frankly, you buying into Duobao's lies and proceeding to try to get even with the Chan Sect through the Immortal Killing Formation and Ten Thousand Immortal Formation has probably gotten more of your students killed than Grand Tutor Wen and Shen Gongbao combined.

Chinese Mythology: Investiture of the Gods and the Heavenly Court

If there is one piece of literature that can define the mythology of an entire culture, what would that be? The Bible? The Homeric Epics? The Vedas?

None of these works can encompass an entire pantheon or mythological universe. Similarly, Chinese mythology does not rely purely on Journey to the West. Two other pillars of mythology are the 封神演义

and the 山海经 (the Classic of Mountains and Seas), an old National Geography magazine with lots of myths thrown in.

There are many, many more ancient and famous works, but these three are generally very widely-known. 

I’ll be focusing on the Fengshen Yanyi (Romance of the Investiture of the Gods, or just Investiture of the Gods in general). BTW, investiture means something like inauguration, deification or promotion in case it’s an unfamiliar word.

The Fengshen Yanyi

I covered this one very briefly in my Ne Zha post, linked here, but Fengshen Yanyi was a novel written in the 16th century by Xu Zhonglin.

It chronicled (in a fantastical manner, of course) the war between the King of Shang

and the eventual King of Zhou

It’s treated very much like the Trojan War, in which different gods assist in the battle, and incorporates many classic Chinese heroes.

Since it was written fairly recently by Chinese standards (only a few hundred years ago as opposed to a few thousand years ago), it’s become one of the main sources of information on mythology and the characters within it. 

The Zhou/Shang battle itself occurred over 3000 years ago, in 1056 BCE, and lasted some fifty years. 

It’s fairly impossible to cover the events of the novel in a single post since that would be the longest post in Tumblr history, but I will only cover its premise, not its plot. Honestly, I’m not even clear on the exact details of the plot of Fengshen myself, since it’s so long and complicated.

Chinese mythology is incredibly complicated. Even the most widely-accepted versions of myths are almost guaranteed to be inaccurate to their original versions thousands of years ago. Dates, times and who’s who are impossible to determine. As such, take what I say with a grain of salt, and do your own research, as painful as it may be. This is only meant to give an idea of what’s going on.

Additionally, the Fengshen Yanyi (also called the Fengshen Bang, or Deification List/Plaque), is just a novel. Think of it as a historical fantasy novel, or the Lord of the Rings Plus. It may be very foundational today, but it’s not the end-all-be-all of mythology. This is also true for Journey to the West, which is a fictional tale!

After all that preamble, let’s begin.

___

So, the highest official is the Haotian Emperor 昊天大帝. He’s the head honcho of the Heavenly Court.

I couldn't find any pictures of the Haotian Emperor (in popular culture he's usually depicted as young and hot, unlike the Jade Emperor, who's usually depicted as an old dude). As I mentioned in my Ne Zha post, it's debated whether or not the Haotian Emperor and the Jade Emperor are the same person.

I will assume them to be different people even though it's like 60% sure they're the same person, since I already referred to the Emperor in my Ne Zha post as the Jade Emperor. As such, Haotian Emperor is higher-ranked than the Jade Emperor, who works for Haotian.

Again! Time for a SUPER LONG backstory that is essential but also not ENTIRELY relevant to the actual plot of Fengshen. Think of this as a description of how the Fengshen Yanyi happened, or like historical background behind a war.

The Heavenly Court, rather than being a loose collection of gods with one ruler like in Greco-Roman mythology, is a proper government, with bureaus, supervisors, and minimum wage office workers. As such, it’s not exactly super desirable to work for the Heavenly Court.

Sure, you get to be a god, but it’s also the equivalent of working a cubicle job for eternity. You’re also a very lowly god: most heavenly officials aren’t powerful, just old: you could even get your ass kicked by a random monkey (foreshadowing). 

Not fun.

The Haotian Emperor is feeling a little lonely and overworked. He thinks there’s not enough workers in the Heavenly Court, so he wants to do some hiring (more on this later! Keep this part in mind.)

Who’s currently up in Heaven? Well, in Daoist mythology, the Dao created one, one created two, two created three, and three created everything (道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物). What this means is that the Dao created the foundations of the world: the Three Pure Ones, three super-old super-powerful immortals.

These three super powerful immortals are as follows:

元始天尊 Yuanshi Tianzun, or Primordial Heavenly Lord

This is him in Ne Zha 1 (2019).

After he was created, he oversaw and supervised the creation of everything else. 

灵宝天尊 Lingbao Tianzun, or Treasured Heavenly Lord

Lingbao Tianzun was created from Yuanshi Tianzun. 

道德天尊/太上老君 Daode Tianzun (Virtuous Lawful Heavenly Lord) or Taishang Laojun (High Elder Lord)

The reason he has two names is because it’s unknown if Taishang Laojun and Daode Tianzun are the same person by different names: the answer is probably, but not 100%. He is the oldest, most powerful one. He is also considered to be Lao Zi (Lao Tsu), the founder of Daoism (I sometimes switch between Daoism and Taoism, but they’re the same thing).

In the above picture, Daode Tianzun is on the left, Yuanshi Tianzun is in the middle, Lingbao Tianzun is on the right. Yuanshi and Lingbao look very similar, but you can always identify Daode since he's the oldest one so he's the only one with white hair.

However, these three, despite being at the centre of everything, are not the most powerful. Chinese mythology and Daoism are messy. Stay with me: I promise I’m getting to the actual explanation of the Fengshen Yanyi soon.

The Creation Spirit created more beings before these three pure ones. One of these beings is called 鸿钧老祖 Hongjun Laozu, or Grandmaster of Eternal Balance

Could not find a picture of him, so just imagine a super old guy with big fancy robes.

(There is another one of these beings called Nuwa, the mother of all: she essentially sculpted humans out of clay. Keep her in mind, she’s important).

This is Nuwa! Technically her name is Nüwa, it's pronounced Nyoo Wah.

He takes three disciples: the Three Pure Ones, Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun, and Daode Tianzun. 

Sometimes, these three disciples are Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun, and another guy called 通天教主 Tongtian Jiaozhu (Teacher of All Through Heaven, or Grandmaster of Heaven). Tongtian Jiaozhu is the one that appears in Investiture of the Gods.

Yuanshi Tianzun and Daode Tianzun (Lao Zi) create the 阐教, or the Chan Sect to teach Taoism their way. The features of the Chan Sect are that there is no one leader- Yuanshi Tianzun and Lao Zi both teach the sect, they pick their disciples very strictly and only choose the best of the best, and every single disciple must follow strict rules and live very properly.

Fun fact: I’m sure you’ve heard of the concept of Zen. Zen is just the Japanese pronunciation of Chan: Chan Buddhism (or Zen) is the most widely-practised version today.

However, Tongtian Jiaozhu creates his own sect instead of the Chan Sect because he doesn’t like the prim and proper way they do things. His sect is called the 截教 or Jie Sect. His sect takes in all manners of people under the sun and is less proper, but also smaller than the Chan Sect. 

Why do I even mention these 2 sects? Well, in Investiture of the Gods, the main conflict is between King of Shang and King of Zhou (who wants to overthrow him since King Shang is a tyrannical brutal ruler), right?

Nope! In fact, it’s really more of a conflict between the Jie and Chan sects. The Zhou/Shang war is more of an excuse to go to war. The Jie fight for the King of Shang, and the Chan fight for the rebellion (for the eventual King of Zhou).

Why use the Zhou/Shang war? Well, the King of Shang kind of sucks, so people want a way to get rid of him. Remember Nuwa, the mother goddess who created humans? She also, by the way, made pillars to hold up heaven, so she’s a big deal.

Well, the King of Shang goes to her temple to worship but gets sloppy drunk and hits on a statue of her. This is like the equivalent of Trump (or *Insert World Leader*, I guess, depends on your politics) sending a tweet saying he’s going to fuck the Virgin Mary. The King of Shang leaves a sex poem about Nuwa on the wall of her temple.

Nuwa sees this and gets super mad. She summons a 1000-year-old nine-tailed fox spirit. Fox spirits are generally seen as promiscuous sexual spirits, who disguise themselves as beautiful women and bewitch men to bring about the downfall of dynasties.

Nuwa tells the fox spirit that if she can bring down the Shang dynasty, she’ll make her immortal. (In the novel she sends two other spirits as well, one a spirit of a pipa, which is an instrument, and the other a spirit of a nine-headed pheasant, but these two aren’t as important as Daji, and they both get discovered and executed anyway).

This is the Zhiji Jing (Pheasant Spirit)

This is the Pipa Jing (Pipa Spirit), ignore the watermark, I copied this from Google. Pipa is almost like a Chinese cross between a guitar and violin. It's a very elegant and beautiful sounding instrument.

This is Daji, accompanied by a photo of the actress who plays Daji in the recent Fengshen movie series. The movies are a solid 7.5/10, pretty good but not SPECTACULAR, but Na Ran's acting as Daji is amazing. She also happens to be gorgeous!

Sweet deal! The fox agrees and disguises herself as a gorgeous war prize taken by the King of Shang. The body she inhabits is called Su Daji, who is the daughter of one of the regional lords conquered by the King of Shang. 

In the original tale, Su Daji’s father (this story is a little muddled, so read this part with a big maybe) gifts her to the King of Shang to appease him. Asshole dad. 

Another version is that Su Daji is sent away by her father for her safety and kills herself to avoid being taken as a concubine by the King of Shang- very unfortunately for her, the fox spirit inserts herself into her body to bewitch the King. (Fox spirits are generally cruel, and it’s a huge dick move to have someone use your body to sleep with your biggest opp).

When Daji arrives, she immediately catches King of Shang’s attention. He becomes absolutely bewitched by her, and spends so much time, money and thought on her that he neglects his state and begins ruling with a tyrannical iron fist. Daji, since she’s really a fox spirit, is cruel and sadistic, and invents a number of scary torture devices to torture King of Shang’s opps. 

You can Google these devices yourself. A little gruesome to repeat.

One of the most famous parts of the Fengshen Yanyi is what’s called the Deer Pavilion 鹿台, which is an example of the ostentatious and luxurious nature of the acts King of Shang did for Daji.

In the Deer Pavilion, the King of Shang builds a lake filled with good wine and constructs a forest of meat for him and Daji to lounge in. Wine pool meat forest 酒池肉林 (jiu chi rou lin) is now a Chinese saying for excessive extravagance.

The entire nation is super, super mad at the King of Shang and Daji, and decides to revolt against them. This rebellion is led by Ji Fa (the eventual King of Zhou) and Jiang Ziya, his tactician (think of Jiang Ziya as Odysseus: the clever, capable and clear-headed strategist). BTW Jiang Ziya is Ji Fa’s father-in-law, so it’s not exactly an Agamemnon-Odysseus relationship.

OKAY!!!

Remember when I said the Haotian Emperor was feeling a little lonely up in heaven and wanted some workers? Feels like a century ago. 

The three immortals in charge of the Chan and Jie sects (Yuanshi Tianzun and Lao Zi for the Chan sect, and Tongtian Jiaozhu for the Jie sect) decide they’re going to make what���s called a Fengshen Bang. 

Roll credits!

Just kidding. You wish.

As I said, Fengshen Bang means Deification Plaque, or a less proper translation is just List of Gods to Promote. What are the contents of this Fengshen Bang?

Remember when I said working for the Haotian Emperor isn’t exactly a good thing? In fact, it kind of sucks. The prerequisite for getting more workers in heaven is that whoever goes to work for the emperor has to die first and spend the rest of eternity working a cubicle job if they suck and if they’re powerful they end up like a special ops force, just with no glory or money. Who TF wants to do that?

Think of the Fengshen Bang as the Death Note of ancient China. The Haotian Emperor and the three immortal sect masters can tell that a bunch of people are going to die in the upcoming Zhou/Shang war, so they decide that whoever dies in the war will get their name put on the Fengshen Bang and die. 

There’s another interpretation that they just put a whole bunch of names on the Fengshen Bang before the war and whoever manages to not die gets their name taken off.

It can also be interpreted as Santa Yagami’s naughty list: whoever misbehaves gets their name put on as well.

Either way, it’s functionally the same: no one wants their name written down on that list!!

The two sects both don’t want their disciples to die and leave their sect weakened in comparison, so they go home to tell their disciples, listen up and don’t cause any trouble.

The war isn’t that long compared to the life of a cultivator (functionally immortal compared to only 50 years of war) so as long as you keep your head down and manage to survive you’ll be okay.

However, there’s this one dude: his name is 申公豹 Shen Gong Bao (Panther Elder Shen, where Shen is just his last name) and he got kicked out of the Chan sect for being an asshole. He’s also a panther spirit. (You may remember him from Ne Zha 1 and 2 if you watched it!)

This is a carving of Shen Gong Bao as well as his appearance in Ne Zha 1 and 2 (2019 and 2025 movies).

He decides he’s going to get some revenge on the Chan sect, so he tells everyone in the Jie sect that working for the King of Shang (remember, asshole dictator) is great: he treats all his subordinates really well, and that his bad reputation is just the Chan sect being stuffy old dudes. He wants the Jie sect to go fight for the asshole King of Shang against the Chan sect.

About half of the Jie disciples are dumb, and think that sounds great! So they descend from their halls and go to find the King of Shang.

Jiang Ziya, the rebellion tactician, anticipated this, and dispatched half the Chan forces to go help fight. The Jie disciples get their asses beat and all die.

This is a painting of Jiang Ziya. Don't question why his forehead is bulging out Megamind-style: that's just his big brain.

This is Jiang Ziya in the Jiang Ziya animated movie (2020) set in the same cinematic universe as the two Ne Zha movies. This movie kind of flopped, but I like the character design at least.

The other half of the Jie sect is like, how dare you try to beat us up! They all go down from their halls to go fight the Chan sect for revenge. Jiang Ziya prepares his troops very well, so the other half of the Jie sect gets their asses beat as well.

Oops! Now the Jie sect ends up functionally all on the Fengshen Bang. Since the Chan sect suffered losses as well, about a third of their newest group of disciples all die as well. 

The Haotian Emperor is happy to have an army of minions, everyone else is not happy. 

I’m assuming Tongtian Jiaozhu is really fucking mad that his disciples are all idiots, but now 90% of his sect is super, super dead and working depressing government cubicle jobs (the ones that are better trained are doing special ops work).

By the way, remember Ne Zha? After he killed himself graphically and was revived, he survived the entire time and ascended to an immortal to work as a marshall in Heaven.

Working in Heaven is bad if you’re forced to through dying: if you ascend to immortality through cultivation, you’re super powerful and it’s actually a great job.

So Ne Zha is having a great time absolutely smashing up the Jie sect and King of Shang’s forces. Also in Heaven working cushy great jobs are Ne Zha’s asshole dad Li Jing (now ascended to a deity, the Pagoda-Bearing Lord), Ne Zha’s two brothers Jin Zha and Mu Zha, and Erlang Shen (who I will cover in a different post).

These are all “good guys” on the side of the Chan, so they fight against the dictator King of Shang.

Essentially, the story of the Fengshen Yanyi is about a bunch of guys trying very hard not to catch Heavenly Lord Yagami’s attention and end up on the Death Note. However, since most of them are dumb, they fail anyway.

[ridgid62]

How to get to heaven - what are the ideas from the different religions?

By gotquestions.org

There appear to be five major categories regarding how to get to heaven in the world’s religions. Most believe that hard work and wisdom will lead to ultimate fulfillment, whether that is unity with god (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Baha’i) or freedom and independence (Scientology, Jainism). Others, like Unitarianism and Wicca, teach the afterlife is whatever you want it to be, and salvation is a non-issue because the sin nature doesn’t exist. A few believe either the afterlife doesn’t exist or it’s too unknowable to consider.

Derivatives of the worship of the Christian-Judeo God generally hold that faith in God and/or Jesus and the accomplishment of various deeds, including baptism or door-to-door evangelism, will ensure the worshiper will go to heaven. Only Christianity teaches that salvation is a free gift of God through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9), and no amount of work or effort is necessary or possible to get to heaven.

Atheism: Most atheists believe there is no heaven—no afterlife at all. Upon death, people simply cease to exist. Others attempt to define the afterlife using quantum mechanics and other scientific methods.

Baha’i: Like many other religions, Baha’i doesn’t teach that man was born with a sin nature or that man needs saving from evil. Man simply needs saving from his erroneous beliefs of how the world works and how he is to interact with the world. God sent messengers to explain to people how to come to this knowledge: Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and Baha’u’llah. These prophets progressively revealed the nature of God to the world. Upon death, a person’s soul continues its spiritual journey, perhaps through the states known as heaven and hell, until it comes to a final resting point, united with god.

Buddhism: Buddhism also believes that heaven, or “Nirvana,” is to be rejoined in spirit with god. Reaching Nirvana, a transcendental, blissful, spiritual state, requires following the Eightfold Path. This includes understanding the universe, and acting, speaking, and living in the right manner and with the right intentions. Mastering these and the other of the eight paths will return a worshipper’s spirit to god.

Chinese Religion: Chinese Religion is not an organized church, but an amalgamation of different religions and beliefs including Taoism and Buddhism. Upon death, worshipers are judged. The good are sent either to a Buddhist paradise or a Tao dwelling place. The bad are sent to hell for a period of time and then reincarnated.

Christianity: Christianity is the only religion that teaches man can do nothing to earn or pay his way into heaven. Man, a slave to the sin nature he was born with, must completely rely on the grace of God in applying Jesus Christ’s sacrifice to the sins of the believer. People are saved by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. Upon death, the spirits of Christians go to heaven, while the spirits of unbelievers go to a temporary holding place called hell. At the final judgment, unbelievers are separated from God for eternity in the lake of fire.

Confucianism: Confucianism concentrates on appropriate behavior in life, not a future heaven. The afterlife is unknowable, so all effort should be made to make this life the best it can be, to honor ancestors, and to respect elders.

Eastern Orthodox: Orthodoxy is a Christian-Judeo derivative that reinterprets key Scripture verses in such a way that works become essential to reach heaven. Orthodoxy teaches that faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation, but where Christianity teaches that becoming more Christlike is the result of Christ’s influence in a believer’s life, Orthodoxy teaches that it is a part of the salvation process. If that process (called theosis) is not performed appropriately, a worshiper can lose his/her salvation. After death, the devout live in an intermediate state where this theosis can be completed. Those who have belief but did not accomplish sufficient progress in theosis are sent to a temporary “direful condition” and will go to hell unless the living devout pray and complete acts of mercy on their behalf. After final judgment, the devout are sent to heaven and the others to hell. Heaven and hell are not locations, but reactions to being in the presence of God, as there is nowhere that He is not present. For Christ-followers, God’s presence is paradise, but for the unsaved, being with God is eternal torment.

Hinduism: Hinduism is similar to Buddhism in some ways. Salvation (or moksha) is reached when the worshiper is freed from the cycle of reincarnation, and his spirit becomes one with god. One becomes free by ridding oneself of bad karma—the effect of evil action or evil intent. This can be done in three different ways: through selfless devotion to and service of a particular god, through understanding the nature of the universe, or by mastering the actions needed to fully appease the gods.

In Hinduism, with over a million different gods, there are differences of opinion regarding the nature of salvation. The Advaita school teaches salvation occurs when one can strip away the false self and make the soul indistinguishable from that of god. The dualist insists that one’s soul always retains its own identity even as it is joined with god.

Islam: Islam is a take-off on the Christian/Judeo God. Muslims believe salvation comes to those who obey Allah sufficiently that good deeds outweigh the bad. Muslims hope that repeating what Muhammad did and said will be enough to get to heaven, but they also recite extra prayers, fast, go on pilgrimages, and perform good works in hope of tipping the scales. Martyrdom in service to Allah is the only work guaranteed to send a worshiper to paradise.

Jainism: Jainism came to be in India about the same time as Hinduism and is very similar. One must hold the right belief, have the right knowledge, and act in the right manner. Only then can a soul be cleansed of karma. But in Jainism, there is no creator. There is no higher god to reach or lend aid. Salvation is man as master of his own destiny, liberated and perfect, filled with infinite perception, knowledge, bliss, and power.

Jehovah’s Witnesses: The teachings of the Watchtower Society lead us to categorize the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a cult of Christianity that misinterprets the book of Revelation. Similar to Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses teach different levels of heaven. The anointed are 144,000 who receive salvation by the blood of Christ and will rule with Him in paradise. They are the bride of Christ. For all others, Jesus’ sacrifice only freed them from Adam’s curse of original sin, and “faith” is merely the opportunity to earn their way to heaven. They must learn about Kingdom history, keep the laws of Jehovah, and be loyal to “God’s government”—the 144,000 leaders, 9,000 of whom are currently on the earth. They must also spread the news about the Kingdom, including door-to-door proselytizing. Upon death, they will be resurrected during the millennial kingdom where they must continue a devout life. Only afterwards are they given the opportunity to formally accept Christ and live for eternity under the rule of the 144,000.

Judaism: Jews believe that, as individuals and as a nation, they can be reconciled to God. Through sin (individually or collectively) they can lose their salvation, but they can also earn it back through repentance, good deeds, and a life of devotion.

Mormonism: Mormons believe their religion to be a derivative of Judeo/Christianity, but their reliance on extra-grace works belies this. They also have a different view of heaven. To reach the second heaven under “general salvation,” one must accept Christ (either in this life or the next) and be baptized or be baptized by proxy through a living relative. To reach the highest heaven, one must believe in God and Jesus, repent of sins, be baptized in the church, be a member of the LDS church, receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, obey the Mormon “Word of Wisdom” and all God’s commandments, and complete certain temple rituals including marriage. This “individual salvation” leads to the worshiper and his/her spouse becoming gods and giving birth to spirit children who return to Earth as the souls of the living.

Roman Catholicism: Roman Catholics originally believed only those in the Roman Catholic Church could be saved. Joining the church was a long process of classes, rituals, and baptism. People who had already been baptized but were not members of the Roman Catholic Church had different requirements and may even already be considered Christians. Baptism is “normatively” required for salvation, but this can include “baptism of blood” (i.e.: martyrdom) or “baptism of desire” (wanting to be baptized really badly). From the catechism: “Those who die for the faith, those who are catechumens, and all those who, without knowing of the Church but acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill his will, are saved even if they have not been baptized.” Despite the changes through the years, baptism (or the desire for baptism) is still required for salvation.

According to Catholicism, upon death, the souls of those who rejected Christ are sent to hell. The souls of those who accepted Christ and performed sufficient acts to be purified of sin go to heaven. Those who died in faith but did not complete the steps to be purified are sent to purgatory where they undergo temporary, painful punishment until their souls are cleansed. Purification by torment may be lessened by suffering during life and the offerings and prayers of others on the sinner’s behalf. Once purification is complete, the soul may go to heaven.

Scientology: Scientology is similar to Eastern religions in that salvation is achieved through knowledge of self and the universe. The “thetan” (Scientology’s answer to the soul) travels through several different lifetimes, attempting to expel painful and traumatic images that cause a person to act fearfully and irrationally. Once a Scientologist is “cleared” of these harmful images and becomes an “operating thetan,” he/she is able to control thought, life, matter, energy, space, and time.

Shinto: The afterlife in Shinto was originally a dire, Hades-like realm. Matters of the afterlife have now been transferred to Buddhism. This salvation is dependent on penance and avoiding impurity or pollution of the soul. Then one’s soul can join those of its ancestors.

Sikhism: Sikhism was created in reaction to the conflict between Hinduism and Islam, and carries on many of Hinduism’s influences—although Sikhs are monotheistic. “Evil” is merely human selfishness. Salvation is attained by living an honest life and meditating on god. If good works are performed sufficiently, the worshipper is released from the cycle of reincarnation and becomes one with god.

Taoism: Like several other Eastern religions (Shinto, Chinese folk religions, Sikhism), Taoism adopted many of its afterlife principles from Buddhism. Initially, Taoists didn’t concern themselves with worries of the afterlife and, instead, concentrated on creating a utopian society. Salvation was reached by aligning with the cosmos and receiving aid from supernatural immortals who resided on mountains, islands, and other places on Earth. The result was immortality. Eventually, Taoists abandoned the quest for immortality and took on the afterlife teachings of Buddhism.

Unitarian-Universalism: Unitarians are allowed to and encouraged to believe anything they like about the afterlife and how to get there. Although, in general, they believe people should seek enlightenment in this life and not worry too much about the afterlife.

Wicca: Wiccans believe many different things about the afterlife, but most seem to agree that there is no need for salvation. People either live in harmony with the Goddess by caring for her physical manifestation—the earth—or they don’t, and their bad karma is returned to them three-fold. Some believe souls are reincarnated until they learn all their life lessons and become one with the Goddess. Some are so committed to following one’s individual path that they believe individuals determine what will happen when they die; if worshippers think they’re going to be reincarnated or sent to hell or joined with the goddess, they will be. Others refuse to contemplate the afterlife at all. Either way, they don’t believe in sin or anything they need saving from.

Zoroastrianism: Zoroastrianism may be the first religion that stated that the afterlife was dependent upon one’s actions in life. There is no reincarnation, just a simple judgment four days after death. After a sufficient amount of time in hell, however, even the condemned can go to heaven. To be judged righteous, one can use knowledge or devotion, but the most effective way is through action.

Want to learn the truth about going to heaven?

[melissafoxmedia]

Gender roles, witches, demons and Hereditary. A film essay and review.

An opinionated and biased essay ahead, perfectly imperfect. This writer is aware of said bias's and welcomes your ideas respectuflly. Proceed. 

Halfway through his movie, I turned to my husband and said, “I think we might need therapy when this is all over.” I’d like to start with a caveat that we are a household that loves horror movies. In my opinion, horror is an under-appreciated genre. I'm not talking about franchise horror films, of which we are not a fan, with the exception of Insidious. I'm talking, The Shining, Blair Witch Project, Suspiria, Mommy, Let The Right One In, Babbadook. Classic horror tales and the like. Greek tragedies, even Shakespear. I have a lot to say about this one. So fair warning, this essay is long. 

A QUICK BACKGROUND

I grew up reading Steven King, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelly, Edgar Allen Poe, Anne Rice and Mark Danielewski. I would argue that even my favorite fantasy and science fiction writers like Tolkien and George R.R. Martin borrow from the horror genre. 

What solidified my interest in horror was actually a class in Chinese and Japanese cinema and art history. I enjoyed studying the nuances of the culture through the stories they told. Most of which were ghost stories. Ancestral worship is part of their culture. When visiting someones home, you might find a shrine to their passed loved ones. Ghosts are a normal, everyday part of their spiritual life. So too are their ghost stories. 

This connection to the dead is apparent in many cultures. The Celtic festival of Samhain, The Buddhist Obon, Dia De Los Muertos, Chuseok in Korea and Gai Jatra in Nepal. All have ceremonies and celebrations that honor ancestral spirits. Essentially, the ghosts of your family. I joke that even the Bible is one long ghost story. Full of death, rebirth, angels, demons, spirits, voices and apocalyptic visions. But where eastern religions and ancient cultures differ is around the premise of fear. Specifically spirits.

Take, for instance, the Buddhist Obon and Del Dia De Los Muertos. Celebrations designed to honor the people who came before you. Essentially, one envokes the spirits of your ancestors come back to visit the living. One would light lanterns or lay a path of flowers to guide those spirits back to earth for the celebration. You are literally inviting ghosts to come and have dinner with you. These rituals are not fear based spiritual practices. You will find no children running away in horror from the ghosts of great granddad. They are beautiful rituals full of dancing, prayer, and community.  

I grew up going to Church for a large part of my life, so my religious experiences of adolescence are based on my experiences with the Chrisitan church. Here notes my personal bias. I have no such memories of honoring my ancestors in a such a way from the Church. In fact, anything involving something seance-like would have been viewed as the devil. The dead are mourned in quiet reverence but one must be careful in creating any false idols. The only ghost that is ok to envoke, is the holy ghost. It's still very old testement thinking when it comes to this one. 

I have a vivid memory of sitting on a picnic bench at Jesus camp, 13 years old, sobbing uncontrollably. I just listened to a fiery sermon about hell and I was truly conflicted. I was already "saved," having said the prayer and done the ritual at 8 years old. But my father was not. He was an atheist. I didn't want him to go to hell. I was terrified and felt guilty. My counselor at the time kept pressing me to call him. She wanted me to "get him saved," right now. 

As an adult, I see how flawed that moment was. I did not call my father that night. I couldn't understand how my Christian peers thought less of me for doing so. I thought for sure that God would understand my compassion. My father and I had already discussed his feelings. He always respected my right to choose a religion, and I liked that, so I respected his. But that is not how I was treated by members of the Church. Needless to say, my relationship with the Church ended shortly thereafter and became an agnostic in my adult life. 

I could give many instances of examples of why I feel that Christianity is a fear based religion, but I am not defending that point for this essay. Let's assume that it is. 

I think it's interesting that our writer for Hereditary uses Goetia as it's religious influence. Goetia, an ancient Greek word that literally means sorcerer, get's its roots from the 16th century. Later, during the Renaissance, it became dubbed "black magic." The backdrop for the ending of the film and it's 17th-century Greek influence, we will explore later. But culturally, I think it's worth looking at this film through an American lens, of which, most of the population is Christian, making the comparisons I make relevant. Hereditary is an American film, written by an American writer. So I don't think he is trying to say anything specific about religion, other than to use it as a horror construct. This writer is obviously aware of his audience and is using that within his film. 

We like horror films about evil, possession and ghosts almost as much as we like superhero movies. That classic good versus evil fight. We love it when the lines are drawn in the sand and the tension is clear. We don't get that kind of clarity in life. In fact, life is made up of many unknowns and gray areas. Those two, a cause of our fear and anxiety. 

Hereditary doesn't put this idea front and center. Which is why I love it. The supernatural takes a back seat up until the second act. It dives headfirst into the gray areas to establish our characters and keeps us in the deepend with our worst fears. 

ABOUT HEREDITARY - NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Hereditary is brilliantly written and performed. If I were awarding Oscars, I would give one to the writer and one to the lead actress. The writing and specifically her performance is award worthy. It is visually stunning and draws from some of the best ancient storytelling techniques of the ages. Its greek tragedy influence is what makes the whole story so strong. The best moments are the long takes, the timing of the edit, the absence of music and truly breathless performances. 

But I would argue that the best thing about Hereditary is what it doesn’t explicitly say. Like a Greek Tragedy, it’s about the things that take place in-between the lines that make it so terrifying. It’s a spiritual horror film that speaks to our fears of inheriting the tragedies and traits of our ancestors. It’s about secrets between parents and children. Grief and it’s emotional manifestations. How tragedy can transform a person. It’s about the unspeakable terror that leads to more questions than answers. If you are looking for a nice bow-tie ending, you won’t get it. You are more likely to walk away going, “huh?” I loved the ending, but I think it will turn a lot of people off. It’s not what you are used to these days. 

The best thing about the movie, in my opinion, is about women, spirituality, possession, and emotion. Which leads us to the essay below. I won’t be diving into Greek Tragedy or deconstruction of its uses in horror films. That’s for another day. I think it’s been widely documented in reviews thus far. I’d like to take a look at Gender, Christianity, Religion and how this film plays with those larger social constructs. 

GENDER ROLES IN HORROR FILMS 

Gender roles in horror films are one of my favorite things to pick apart culturally. If you want to dive in more, this is an excellent place to start. Women in horror films have a long history of being gas-lighted by the male characters they interact within the plot. They are scorned with male “logic,” that the things they are experiencing aren’t real. Usually, they are tortured, shallow characters that look pretty and scream on cue. Often viewed as “crazy,” and spend most of the plot running from danger. This isn't always the case, there are a few standouts. But for the most part, I think the above is true. Women are either victims or "witches," in the majority of horror films. I also think it's interesting how we treat women who are having spiritual experiences. In our stories, we are uncomfortable with female emotion. Therefore, if someone is having an extremely emotional experience, we are likely to view them as scary.

We are at our roots a Puritan nation. One whose fear of “the devil,” allowed us to pillage “savage Indians,” in the name of that fear. Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries persecuted thousands of witches. Whole villages of Swiss women were wiped out in the hysteria.

In America, we have the Salem witch trials. 

I recently got to visit Salem Massachusetts. I read this fantastic book before I went called, “A Delusion Of Satan, The full story of the Salem witch trials.” Which outlines in more context the conditions and beliefs that lead to the "witch hysteria.” Today, those Puritans have received their Karma. Salem is a joke. It’s become a tourist Halloween town. Complete with haunted houses, tarot readers, and hippie spiritualists. The “devil,” they so fought to destroy has won. I laughed thinking about the righteous judges jumping through time to see children running around in witch costumes pretending to put spells on each other in their beloved village.  

The story of Salem became a cautionary tale of the dangers of religious belief. But the book attempts to take it one step further in outlining the gender roles of women, power dynamics between men and women and femininity, creativity and inspiration. Unlike the modern telling of the story like “The Crucible,” the book deliciously researches connections from historical records. The trials were meticulously documented. Which may be why the story has been passed down to new generations and became taught in schools. But the book makes some connections for me that my 5th-grade classroom reading of The Crucible didn’t. 

Life was hard as a puritan and men made all the rules. Imagination was stifled among children. Art was functional. Creativity was not encouraged, survival was. Sexuality was almost exclusively prohibited as a sin of the flesh with the exception of procreation. Pleasure was not allowed. Expression among women was silenced. These are all feminine values. Women who express extreme emotion are “crazy,” while men who express themselves in extreme ways are “passionate.” Soon “crazy,” became “a witch.” Any outburst of extreme emotion and a woman could be accused of being possessed by the devil. Witch hunting thus became inherently female and while anyone a could be accused of being a witch, most of the persecution was of women. 

As a little girl, I played a lot in an imaginative space. I experimented with all kinds of storytelling and play acting. As a teenager, I was emotional and dramatic. I guarantee if I had been observed by a Puritan priest, they would have convinced the town that I was possessed. I think most artists would have been accused of witchcraft in that era.

These tropes still exist today. We still silence women. We write stories where they are silenced by others. In a large majority of our horror films, women are either the victims or for lack of a better term, "witches." As time moved on, we stopped persecuting witches and started locking women up in asylums for misbehaving.  Thus replacing "witch," with "crazy."

I’m sure at some point, we have all thought our mothers to be “crazy,” through this lens too. Extreme imaginative outbursts or expressions of emotion are squashed in our society. We can barely handle a crying baby on an airplane let alone a woman who cries in public. 

And here marks the line of spoilers people. If you wish to continue, do so at your own risk. I am about to talk about the details of the story. 

GENDER, DEMONS AND WITCHES IN HEREDITARY

 Hereditary begins with our main character, Annie, in the midst of working on her art. She creates model dioramas. It is implied as the story chugs along that these dioramas are her emotional outlet. This is how she processes grief, anger, and fear. The tension between imagination, memory, and reality play nicely here. Why in the world would someone make a miniaturized model of the death of her mother? 

I enjoyed the duality of the models with life. The idea that I could take memories and tragedies out of my head and examine them as real-life objects. To see if I could make sense of them, process them differently. This process apears painstaking in the film. The details are fussed over, out main character possessed with the idea of recreation. A rebirth of her pain. Nicely done. 

Next, we meet Charlie. Charlie is different. She makes you uncomfortable but we trust her slightly more because we assume it’s a mental disorder. The play on gender here is masterfully done. Our young actress is phenomenal but I question the casting choice. We love to put our humanly different in horror films and this borders exploitation for me. It's akin to pointing at her and calling her "freak." I get that we are establishing a long line of mental health issues for our characters, so I'll leave this one be. But do better next time. 

Next, the shocking tragedy that propels our characters into some of the best moments of the film. Personally, I did not see that one coming. The car accident begins our true emotional terror. 

Annie experiences real grief for the first time in the loss of her daughter. She was relieved when her own mother died, having been released from the burden of that relationship only to be thrust forward into the guilt of playing a part in her own daughter's death. Grief is not handled lightly here. Our main character moves through hysteric fits. She retreats. She creates twisted dioramas of the accident. All the while her husband grows more and more suspicious of her behavior. Her husband literally acts as men have throughout history. Questioning the intensity of her emotions and wondering if he should send her away. If we are sticking with our horror metaphors, Annie is possessed by grief. 

My favorite scene to illustrate this concept is at the dinner table. Tensions mount in the household to an emotional breaking point. Our male characters confront our female lead and claim that she isn’t being truthful about her feelings. They invite her to express herself. 

She does. This eruption is the best scene in the film. Rarely do we get to experience female emotional flow on the screen. The sight of a woman in full emotional and visual expression makes our male characters physically retreat from the scene. The very thing they invited her to express is the very thing they can not handle and rather than applaud her completion of this expression, they squash it. The men refuse to join her and instead they persecute her almost as if saying, "burn the witch.’ The refreshing length of the shot and the stellar performance by the actress is noteworthy. They do not shy away from the complexities of extreme emotions. 

I think all of us are afraid that if we let go on some level, what comes forth would be bad. Tapping into our emotional flow is scary. So scary that as a society we can’t handle people doing it in front of us. We tell each other, “don’t cry,” when comforting one another. We tell our men, “crying isn’t manly.” And when we see our lead actress express herself on screen, we too as an audience are scared. We question her sanity, if only for a moment. Can we pause for a moment to admire the cinematography choice here? It's like an 18th century painting. 

I mean, look at that still shot above. Gorgeous terrifying women in full power feeling herself fully. Just hand Tonni Collect the Oscar, please. This scene is fucking amazing. I applauded Annie's capacity to let go and laughed when the men wouldn't join her. Granted, it has taken me a long time to be ok with my own extremities of emotions but now that I am, I was praising this goddess on screen. I honestly can't think of another on screen performance that accomplishes this as well as Hereditary does. 

Emotoins escalate as the film begins introducing the supernatural to the plot. Annie, meets with a new friend in her grief group, this friend conducts a saence to bring back the spirit of her grandchild. It seems to work and despite her reservations, she tries it. This triggers the climax of our film and leads to its ultimate resolution after discovering that her mother had a secret spiritual life. Spirituality “literally," kept in a box and hidden away until the very end of the film. I think spirituality is what our writer wants you to infer as the "hereditary trait." It’s the thing that our lead character doesn’t want to inherit from her mother. Her secret life. Her mental illness. Her spirituality. One might even say, she demonizes her mother. 😉 

 CHARLIE

The gender play with Charlie is also worth noting. At the conclusion of the film, we learn that Charlie is a male demon reincarnated into a female body. His name is Paimon. His rencarnation into Charlie was a mistake, as we learn at the conclusion of the film. The whole film is a plot to correct this mistake. Charlie referenced as she presents more like a tomboy with an androgynous name. While women are often “Witches,” in our scary stories so to men are painted as “Demons.” 

I always wondered why this trope existed in our storytelling. Sometimes I think it's about dominance and submission, Witches serve Demons. Men subservient to women. Demons are usually powerful creatures in our stories. Females are usually the victims of demon possession, either used for literal possession or for impregnation. But it wasn’t always that way. 

In the pre-Christian era, demons were both male and female. Much like the ancient polytheistic religions that had many gods and goddesses, so too was the gender spectrum of demons. It’s Christianity that spun the gender roles and made them sexless. Technically, Christian demons are fallen angels, as referenced in the Bible. They are sexless beings whose purpose is to test human beings on their faith in God and lead them to sin. 

 "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” —2 Corinthians 11:13–15

 I always wondered, why then do we paint demons as masculine throughout history? See that winged creature demon up there - - - what sex do you infer when observing it? For context, the above painting is Dante and Virgil in Hell - William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1850. It’s a scene from Dante’s inferno, in which there are several biblical references used to describe the journey into hell. This painting is terrifying in person btw. It’s the size of a billboard and you can see the demons eyes staring at you from all angles. Notice the color palet and the lighting on the main figures in the foregroud. Remind you of any shot from before? 

Back to Hereditary … 

Why does Paimon need a male body? Why is he unhappy in a female body? Paimon is supposed to be a Prince not a Princess. If you don’t know who Paimon is … you aren’t alone. I had to look it up too. He’s one of the kings of hell with Goetic orgins, also referenced in Persian and Iranian stories. The “King," denotes man right? 

Paimon is referenced in a demonology spell book called Lesser Key Of Solomon. Therein lists 72 demons of which, one is Paimon. Each demon has a symbol, which was a clue in the film. Annie wears one around her neck. Guess she should have googled the symbol before wearing it. 

 So essencially our demon "man-king," is pissed because he was born a woman and his followers work to correct the issue. Wow. Talk about some gender issues right? The wiki page for Paimon also gives us a hint at a sequel btw… go read it if you like.

SO have you made it this far? 

If you have, cheers to you. Welcome to my geekery. I spent a lot of money on my education in art history, English and film critique. Literally wrote a paper a day for 4 years. I’m still paying off the bill. Blogs are more refreshing though, I don’t have to worry about being perfect or getting graded. I can just share my passion for picking apart social and cultural references in storytelling. 

That said, if Hereditary made me spawn a long essay like this, imagine what it might do for you. I will warn you, my husband is still having nightmares from the visuals. Which I didn’t even get a chance to geek out about here. That said, I do think that our tales of horror are the most interesting things to look at in society. Our relationship to fear or lack thereof is still taboo. Last year marked the first time a horror film was nominated for an Oscar, and I think to Get Out was nominated more for its cultural relevance and discussion of race in our time. I’d love to see more from this writer. I was seriously impressed. It’s well researched and smart with an excellent understanding of pace and emotional landscapes. 

So just like our movie, here ends my essay. I’m not going to neatly tie this up.

What did you think of the film? 

[entergamingxp]

the Chinese underworld • Eurogamer.net

As a Chinese kid growing up in Singapore, visiting Haw Par Villa – a cultural theme park and national treasure – is a rite of passage, both anticipated and feared, because of its infamously graphic dioramas depicting Diyu, or the Chinese underworld. Built in 1937 by the founder of Tiger Balm, Aw Boon Haw, the park celebrates Chinese mythology in all its gory glory. Its crown attraction – The Ten Courts of Hell – lay out a dramatic timeline of judgment, penance, and redemption through its aging statuary.

Diyu is bloody. It’s weird. It’s got clear performance metrics, and a coveted outcome: positive reincarnation. If you mess up, you’ll probably end up as a cockroach. In short, it lends itself perfectly to a video game.

Like most cultural representations of hell, Diyu is not a fun place. Depending on just how good or bad you’ve been in your lifetime, you undergo various “treatments” (spoiler: mostly torture) and perform different tasks before reincarnation even happens. Level design would be fun, too – the whole thing is an enormous maze made up of different circles or courts that escalate by crime and punishment.

Diyu is ultimately a spectacular combination of mundane bureaucracy with soul-searing, skin-flaying body horror. In an extremely Chinese way, it has exactingly specific punishments for exactingly specific moral crimes: sibling disrespect, encouraging riots, and even rent evasion, which wouldn’t sit well in a post-coronavirus world. People who waste food get sawn into half; people who cheat on tests get disemboweled. It’s a folkloric vision of purgatory fuelled by syncretistic Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, which usually – hopefully – ends in a newly reincarnated life for the wayward soul.

A dead soul first meets Diyu’s two guardians, Ox Head and Horse Face, who bring newcomers to Yanluo Wang, the god-king of hell, who rules over the fifth court. Yanluo Wang is literally a judge, who, depending on mythological variations, can be absolutely terrifying or relatively reasonable. He’s the guy who evaluates you on your entire life and determines when you can leave – a great setup for character creation along the lines of the Souls games, but hopefully, unlike Bloodborne’s realest option, you don’t start off as a “waste of skin.”

The ten courts of hell (some interpretations claim there are 18, but hey, who’s counting when you’re having a good time) is a sprawling metropolis under the ground, filled with tortured souls that feel pain just as they did in corporeal life. Each is presided over by a judge-king who answers to Yanluo Wang, and besides these main courts, there are thousands of smaller, lesser hells, too – the potential number of side quests and expansions are mind-boggling. There’s even a preexisting currency that could be retconned into an RPG – joss paper (often called “hell money” in the west), a relatively modern invention traditionally burned as offerings to the dearly departed.

Most famously, Taiwan’s Red Candle Games incorporated elements of Diyu into their critically acclaimed indie title Devotion, borrowing narrative elements from hell to craft their own distinctly Taiwanese story. But there’s still room for so many more interpretations of this singularly over-the-top underworld, with a wealth of scholarly articles and popular legends to draw from. It would be riveting to see more literal, traditional versions of Diyu, perhaps even as an MMO, where suffering souls can band together like a 21st-century media union.

If you’re reading this and feel inspired to make a Cronenbergian horror world powered by a multicultural symphony of different but equally rigid moral doctrines, please – on pain of punishment in the afterlife – consult a Chinese person on it.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/the-chinese-underworld-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-chinese-underworld-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[blackkudos]

Charles R. Johnson

Charles Richard Johnson (born April 23, 1948) is an African-American scholar and the author of novels, short stories, screen-and-teleplays, and essays, most often with a philosophical orientation. Johnson has directly addressed the issues of black life in America in novels such as Dreamer and Middle Passage. Johnson was born in 1948 in Evanston, Illinois, and spent most of his career at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English says that Johnson's works "combine historical accuracy, parable, and elements of the fantastic in rendering the experience of African Americans."

Career

Political Cartooning

He first came to prominence in the 1960s as a political cartoonist and illustrator. At the age of 15 he was a student of cartoonist/mystery writer Lawrence Lariar. After a two-year correspondence course with Lariar, Johnson began publishing his artwork professionally in 1965, drawing illustrations for the catalog of a magic company in Chicago, and publishing three stories in his high school's newspaper as well as panel cartoons and a comic strip that in 1966 took two second place awards in the sports and humor divisions of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's cartoon contest. He continued drawing and publishing prolifically during his years as an undergraduate journalism major at Southern Illinois University, which in 1977 awarded him the Delta Award "for significant contribution to intellectual commerce of our time" (sponsored by Friends of Morris Library) and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 1995.

In his first career as a cartoonist (1965–72), Johnson churned out hundreds of drawings, comic strips, panel cartoons and illustrations for the student paper The Daily Egyptian, regular editorial cartoons for The Southern Illinoisan, illustrations for The Chicago Tribune, national African-American publications including Black World (formerly Negro Digest), Ebony, and Players, one-page comic book scripts for the now defunct Charlton Comics, and taught cartooning in SIU's "Free School." One of his earliest published articles is "Creating the Political Cartoon," published in Scholastic/Editor/Communicationsand Graphics (March 1973).

Inspired by a lecture he heard in 1969 by Amiri Baraka (né Leroi Jones), Johnson drew the collection of racial satire titled Black Humor (Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1970). A second collection of political satire appeared in 1972, Half-Past Nation-Time (Aware Press, California).

In 1970, he created, hosted, and co-produced at WSIU-TV Charlie's Pad, an early PBS how-to-draw series broadcast nationally. It consisted of 52, 15-minute lessons in cartooning based on his earlier two years of lessons with Lawrence Lariar. Today only three episodes of this series have survived.

Higher education and early novels

Johnson received his B.S. in journalism and M.A. in philosophy from Southern Illinois University in 1971 and 1973 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Stony Brook University in 1988. In 2013, Johnson was awarded by his old philosophy department the first "Don Ihde Distinguished Alumni Award", 78-year-old Ihde being one of America's preeminent phenomenologists, and the director for Johnson's dissertation, Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970 (1988), a literary manifesto published by Indiana University Press that used the methods of Continental philosophy to examine African-American literature and create an aesthetic position. After writing six of what he calls "apprentice novels" between 1970 and 1972 (one of these was an early draft of Middle Passage), which were not published, Johnson wrote his seventh and first philosophical novel, Faith and the Good Thing, in nine months with his mentor, the late John Gardner, providing him with feedback. This novel was published in 1974 by Viking Press, and Johnson stated then, as he would over the years, that his goal was to contribute to and enrich the tradition of "African-American philosophical fiction". He identified early practitioners of this genre as being Jean Toomer, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison.

Early in his writing career, Johnson's mentor was the novelist John Gardner.

University of Washington

In 1976, he was hired to teach at the University of Washington, Seattle (UW). He received early tenure in three years at UW, then early full professorship after another three years, following the publication of his second novel, Oxherding Tale (1982), a slave narrative steeped in Eastern thought, and referring to the classic 10 Oxherding Pictures of 16th-century artist Kakuan Shien. A student of Buddhism and Eastern thought all his life, as well as a student of Sanskrit since 1998, Johnson took formal vows on November 14, 2007, in the Soto Zen tradition (the 10 Precepts) with mendicant monk Claude AnShin Thomas, author of At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey From War to Peace (2004). Johnson is a contributing writer for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and publishes regularly in Shambhala Sun, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, and has contributed to Turning Wheel: The Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism. A collection of these writings appeared in Turning the Wheel: Essays on Buddhism and Writing (Scribner, 2003), and will be followed by a sequel from Shambhala Publications in November 2014, Taming the Ox: Buddhist Stories, and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture, and Spiritual Practice.

In 1986, Johnson's first story collection, The Sorcerer's Apprentice was short-listed for the PEN/Faulkner, and he was identified in a survey conducted at UCLA as one of the ten best short story writers in America. His other story collections include Soulcatcher and Other Stories (2001), which were 12 fictions written to dramatize the historical record in the companion book to the PBS series Africans in America, broadcast in 1998 (these are the only stories a writer has been commissioned to do for a history book). His second collection is Dr. King's Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories (half of the stories in this collection were written for Humanities Washington's yearly "Bedtime Stories" literary gala). His short stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories (1982, 1995), O. Henry Prize Stories (1993), Playboy Stories: The Best of Forty Years of Short Fiction (1994), Best Buddhist Writing (2006, 2007, 2008), Best Spiritual Writing (2010), and, like his novels, have been translated into several languages like Russian, Italian, Spanish, South Korean, and Chinese. Two of his stories, "Menagerie: A Child's Fable" and "A Soldier for the Crown" were dramatized by actors for National Public Radio's Symphony Space "Selected Shorts."

For the U.S. Information Agency (now the State Department) he has lectured in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Portugal, France, Indonesia, Japan, and Spain.

For 20 years, and after his series Charlie's Pad, Johnson wrote approximately 20 screen and teleplays. The first was Charlie Smith and the Fritter Tree (1978), which was about the at the time the oldest living American, 136-year-old Charlie Smith. With John Allman he shares credit for Booker (1985), a story about the childhood of Booker T. Washington that received a Writers Guild Award for being the "outstanding script in 1985 in the category of Television Children's Shows, and many other awards. In 1981, he served as one of two writer-producers for the second season of the PBS series Up and Coming.

As a book reviewer, he published over 50 book reviews in numerous publications, including The New York Times Book Review, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post Book World, The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, The Times(London), Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and Shambhala Sun. For 20 years, between 1978 and 1998, he was fiction editor of the Seattle Review. He has served as a judge for many literary prizes, among them the Pulitzer Prize in fiction (1992, 1995, 2010) and National Book Award in fiction (1988, 1999, and 2009), twice chairing the fiction panel for the latter. He sponsors the for a writing student at Evanston Township High School, and the Charles Johnson Fiction Award at Southern Illinois University, a national competition open to all college students.

Johnson has been a practicing martial artist since 1967 when he trained at Chi Tao Chuan of the Monastery in Chicago. Since 1981, he has been a practitioner and sometimes teacher in the Choy Li Fut kung-fu lineage of grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong in San Francisco.

Until his retirement in 2009, Johnson was the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Endowed Professor of English at the University of Washington.

Awards, acknowledgments, and response

Middle Passage won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1990, making him the second African-American man to receive this prize after Ralph Ellison in 1953. Johnson's acceptance speech was a tribute to Ellison. Johnson received a MacArthur Fellowship or "Genius Grant" in 1998. He is also the recipient of National Endowment For The Arts and Guggenheim Fellowships, and many other prizes such as a 2002 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his most recent award is The Humanities Washington Award 2013 for creating and contributing for 15 years a new, original short story to a literary event called "Bedtime Stories," which since 1998 has raised a million dollars for the literacy programs of the non-profit organization Humanities Washington.

In 2003, the Charles Johnson Society was inaugurated at the American Literature Association. This is a literary society devoted to scholarly papers and articles on Johnson's work and the genre of philosophical fiction in general. Several literary studies of his work have been published, among these are Charles Johnson's Spiritual Imagination by Jonathan Little (University of Missouri Press, 1997); Charles Johnson's Novels: Writing the American Palimpsest by the late Rudolph P. Byrd (Indiana University Press, 2005); Charles Johnson's Fiction by William R. Nash (University of Illinois Press, 2003); Understanding Charles Johnson, by the late Gary Storhoff (University of South Carolina Press, 2004); Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher, edited by Marc C. Conner and William R. Nash (University Press of Mississippi, 2007); and Charles Johnson in Context by Linda Furgerson Selzer (University of Massachusetts Press, 2009). After Johnson's retirement from teaching, a festschrift book celebrating the author's work was published in India, Charles Johnson: Embracing the World, edited by Nibir K. Ghosh and American poet E. Ethelbert Miller (Authorspress, 2011).

Bibliography

Fiction

Faith and the Good Thing (1974)Oxherding Tale (1982)The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1986)Middle Passage (1990)Dreamer(1998)Soulcatcher and Other Stories (2000)The Adventures of Emery Jones, Boy Science Wonder: Bending Time (with Elisheba Johnson, illustrated by Charles Johnson, 2013)

Philosophy

Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970 (1988, ISBN 0-253-31165-9)Philosophy: An Innovative Introduction: Fictive Narrative, Primary Texts, and Responsive Writing (with Michael Boylan, 2010)

Non-fiction

The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling (Scribner, 2016)Taming the Ox: Buddhist Stories, and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture, and Spiritual Practice (Shambhala Publications, 2014) Black Men Speaking(with John McCluskey Jr., 1997)Africans in America (with Patricia Smith, 1998)I Call Myself an Artist: Writings by and about Charles Johnson (edited by Rudolph Byrd, 1999)King: The Photobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. (with Bob Adelman, 2000)Turning the Wheel: Essays on Buddhism and Writing (2003)Passing the Three Gates: Interviews with Charles Johnson (edited by James McWilliams, 2004)The Words and Wisdom of Charles Johnson (Dzanc Books, January 2015)

Cartoon Collections

Black Humor (1970)

Half-Past Nation Time (1972)

[newstfionline]

Easter Week Around the World

By Yonette Joseph, NY Times, March 30, 2018

For Christians around the world, Easter is a revered religious holiday: a deep mediation on the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ.

From South Africa to India to Israel to Indonesia, the faithful held solemn ceremonies and processions, re-enacted Christ’s suffering on the cross and prayed for loved ones.

The Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday--also called Pascha and Resurrection Sunday--took various forms.

Gift of Wafers to Venezuela: Ahead of Easter celebrations, a church in Colombia donated 250,000 wafers to Venezuela’s Catholic Church, which has struggled to buy its own because a shortage of flour, according to news reports.

“It is important to attend to the needs that afflict the faith as a result of this time of border crisis,” according to a statement from the diocese, in the city of Cúcuta. “At this time of the week, the central mysteries of the Christian faith can be celebrated.”

The BBC said the wafers were handed over on a bridge between the two countries.

Uneasy Celebration in a Chinese Parish: Good Friday celebrations in the parish of Saiqi, China, went on with a conspicuous absence: the worshipers’ bishop had been whisked away by the government a day earlier.

Bishop Guo Xijin, 59, of the Mindong diocese in central-eastern China, has been at the center of a tug of war between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities over who can appoint bishops in China and how to unite the country’s Catholics. He was detained on Monday after refusing to celebrate the Easter Mass with a government-approved bishop. But he was allowed to return home on Wednesday.

At a pre-dawn Mass on Thursday, the bishop urged congregants at the Saiqi church to be brave and keep the faith. “Full of comfort and hope, we are inspired to more bravely face struggles and offer our love to God,” he told them.

Not long after, government agents took him away for what they described as a “vacation”--a euphemism in China for an enforced disappearance, according to The Associated Press.

Does Hell Exist? On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis washed the feet of prisoners at an all-male prison in Rome, Regina Coeli--including two Muslims, an Orthodox Christian and a Buddhist. “Everyone always has the opportunity to change life and one cannot judge,” Francis told the prisoners.

It was the fourth time in his five-year papacy that Francis has celebrated Mass in an Italian jail. But it took place alongside an eye-popping controversy, after the Rome newspaper La Repubblica quoted the pope as saying “A hell does not exist.”

Eugenio Scalfari, 93, one of the newspaper’s founders, said Francis had told him that bad souls are “not punished,” and that the souls of repentant sinners “obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear,” according to one translation.

The reported remarks were seized upon by the pope’s conservative critics, and the Vatican scrambled to tamp down the brewing controversy, issuing a statement that said the conversation had been private and that the article should not be “considered a faithful transcription of the Holy Father’s words.”

Mr. Scalfari is known for not taking notes and for reconstructing lengthy conversations with prominent figures from memory. An outspoken atheist, he has been granted several interviews by Francis, many of them followed by Vatican objections.

A Passion Play on a Grand Scale in Brazil: The Paixão do Cristo (Passion of Christ) is a theatrical production in Pernambuco, Brazil, that is based on the life of Christ and is considered to be the largest open-air theater in the world.

The play runs for one week during Easter and is watched by about 6,000 to 10,000 people each night.

Maundy Thursday in Britain: At a traditional Easter church service at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, England, Queen Elizabeth II gave out purses containing commemorative coins to mark Maundy Thursday, when almsgiving and washing of feet traditionally start the celebrations for Easter.

In a televised message on Good Friday, Prince Charles spoke of the persecution of Christians around the world and said he had been “deeply moved” by those who had the courage to forgive their tormentors.

Easter in Africa: In Durban, South Africa, priests and nuns silently marched through the streets with wooden crosses on their shoulders on Good Friday, and throngs placed flowers on a wooden cross.

In Nairobi, Kenya, many Christians spent Good Friday fasting or in prayer, repentance and meditation on the agony and suffering of Christ.

In Ethiopia, Easter is generally celebrated after 55 days of fasting, with followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church offering daily prayers at the church and tending not to eat until 3 p.m., except on Saturday and Sunday, when prayers are conducted early in the morning.

In Spain, the Dance of Death: Villages and towns in Spain celebrated Semana Santa, or Holy Week, in their own way. In Verges, a village in Catalonia near the Costa Brava, the faithful wore skull masks and skeleton outfits while carrying scythes, ashes and clocks to perform an ancient “dance of death” to the beat of drums.

The tradition is said to symbolize the final judgment after death to decide if a soul goes to heaven, to purgatory to hell.

Others took part in flamboyant parades or extravagant penitents’ processions, carrying crosses on their backs to commemorate Jesus’ suffering.

Nailed to the Cross in the Philippines: Roman Catholic devotees wearing crowns of twigs, including a woman, were nailed to wooden crosses by Filipinos dressed as Roman centurions in a Good Friday re-enactment of Jesus Christ’s sufferings.

The ritual in the village of San Pedro Cutud merged church traditions with folk practices in which penitents attempt to atone for sins, pray for the sick or a better life, or give thanks for what they believe were miracles.

The spectacle was watched by thousands of spectators but frowned upon by church leaders in the Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation. Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement: “Instead of spilling your blood on the streets, why not walk into a Red Cross office and donate blood? Choose to share life. Share your blood.”

In the Heart of Indonesian Catholicism: In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, an estimated 6,000 Catholic pilgrims visited Larantuka--in the far east of the archipelago--for ceremonies around Holy Week.

The festival there is centered on the legend of three religious statues that reportedly washed up on the shores in the 1500s.

Locals pray for deceased relatives, there are religious processions by boat and on the streets, and worshipers crawl from the entrance of a church toward an altar where they pay homage to a shrine of religious relics, among other ceremonies.

A New Freedom in Ireland: In Ireland, the holiday this year marked the advent of a new law.

For almost a century, selling alcohol in Ireland on Good Friday had been banned--a legacy of the country’s deeply rooted Christian traditions. But after the Parliament passed new legislation in January, pubs in Ireland lifted the ban on alcohol for Good Friday.

The move is seen as a boon for tourists and for businesses. It could generate as much as 40 million euros ($49 million) in sales.

“The Good Friday ban is from a different era,” Padraig Cribben, chief executive of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, told the BBC. “Like all other businesses who were never subject to a ban, publicans now have a choice to open.”