So how do people in China explain what happened after death? When did hell begin to rise? In the early days, China people believed in witchcraft, and after death, people were sacrificed by their descendants. The ancients of that period believed that they could become gods and achieve eternal life through sacrifice.
The only thing close to hell is a passage about "the capital of the nether world" recorded in Shan Hai Jing: "Within the North Sea, there are mountains, which are called the mountains of the secluded capital. Black water emerged with mysterious birds, snakes, leopards, tigers and foxes. There is a very mysterious mountain and a group of mysterious people. " There are secluded villages and barefoot people. "It seems different from the hell we know now! The capital of the underworld seems to belong to a world that exists in reality. Located in the north, it is full of black water and has its own country. People's skin is red, too, and their calves are bare on weekdays!
According to the records here, the so-called ghosts are probably Siberia now, because it is pointed out that it is the north first, and black water may refer to oil. Moreover, most foreigners' hair belongs to golden or red, which did not evolve so thoroughly thousands of years ago, so it is understandable to be recorded as red skin color. In that case, the capital of the underworld and hell are two different things.
The hell recorded in "The Songs of Chu Evocation" is similar to the hell in modern legends. "Soul xi return! It's quieter without you. Tubo nine, the angle is slightly smaller. Don't kill your thumb, kill one by one. " If you look at the head of a tiger, it looks like a cow. "This time, hell and hell are still very different. The owner here is Empress Houtu, and Tubo is the task of the guards, but he didn't introduce anything else about Youdu. It was not until the Qin and Han Dynasties that people had a detailed concept of heaven, earth and man, and the legendary hell was born.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhism also ushered in the most brilliant moment. Under the spread of monks, the characters in hell began to become more and more abundant. Among them, in a very popular book "Ghost Newspaper", hell is described as a world like a yamen, where people can not only complain, but also pay money to bribe Yan, thus making believers more willing to burn incense and make wishes! Therefore, the perfection of the legend of hell has its social reality and development inevitability.