. the netherworld and modifications of karma 247
During the late Warring States period, Mount Tai in Shandong,
ruled over by the Lord of Mount Tai, increasingly became the pre-
eminent destination for the dead. An alternate netherworld mentioned
in the poem “Recalling the Soul” Zhaohun , in the Chuci
(Songs of the South), is the Dark City , which is controlled by
Tubo or the Earl of the Earth.^9 Another location developed dur-
ing the Han and post-Han era is Fengdu (or Mount Luofeng
), which offered another realm in the south.^10 While Mount
Tai and Mount Luofeng were both entries for the deceased into the
afterlife with record-keeping facilities, all these realms are character-
ized by their subterranean location, bureaucratic government, and
their rather neutral moral stance—they were not specifically places of
punishment.
The understanding of the afterlife as realms dominated by govern-
ment officials and bureaucratic control developed from the late War-
ring States period onward.^11 These changes were most clearly manifest
in the transformation of tombs from the fifth century B.C.E. on to
resemble the household, complete with real and mock household
goods, partitioned domestic spaces, and attendants.^12 The dead were no
longer encountered in the ritual commensality, as in the early Zhou,
but instead shunned and segregated. This change may well reflect
the profound political changes occurring as the Zhou ruling families
lost control, diverse centers of power came to the fore, and the state
became increasingly organized through bureaucratic measures.^13 Thus,
underground tombs became primarily abodes of the dead, where they
were to remain confined by the trappings of domesticity and bureau-
cratic imperatives.
Textual evidence of the netherworld as a bureaucratic realm appears
anecdotally in the resurrection narrative of a man named Dan , dat-
ing from the late third century B.C.E., found in tomb 1 at Fangmatan
(^9) Hawkes 1986, 225–226. Yü 1987, 369–78, examines this poem at length. See the
discussion below.
(^10) For studies of Mount Tai, see Chavannes 1910, Sakai 1937, and Ono Shihei 1963.
Fengdu is examined by Nickerson 1996, Chenivesse 1995, 1997, Mollier 1997 and
Matsumura 1999. 11
On the otherworldly bureaucracy in the Warring States, see Riegel 1989–1990.
(^12) Wu 1988, 1995 argues that a significant shift away from the lineage temple to
family tomb occurred during the late Warring States period and the Han period.
(^13) See Poo 1989 and von Falkenhausen 1994.