Gu or
jincan was a
venomVenom is any of a variety of toxins used by certain types of animals. Generally, venom is injected by such means as a bite or a sting.-The distinction between venom and poison:...
-based
poisonIn the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism...
associated with cultures of south
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, particularly
NanyueNanyue was an ancient kingdom that consisted of parts of the modern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and much of modern northern Vietnam. The kingdom was established by the Chinese general Zhao Tuo of the Qin dynasty who assimilated the customs of the Yue peoples and central China...
. The traditional preparation of
gu poison involved sealing several venomous creatures (e.g.,
centipedeCentipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda and the Subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. A key trait uniting this group is a pair of venom claws or forcipules formed from a modified first appendage...
,
snakeSnakes are elongate legless carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
,
scorpionScorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. There are about 2,000 species of scorpions, found widely distributed south of about 49° N, except New Zealand and Antarctica...
) into a closed utensil, where they devoured one another and allegedly concentrated their toxins into a single survivor.
Gu was used in
black magicBlack magic or dark magic is a form of sorcery that draws on assumed malevolent powers. This type of magic would be invoked to kill, to steal, to injure, to cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences to others. As a term, "black magic" is normally...
practices such as manipulating sexual partners, creating malignant diseases, and causing death. According to
Chinese folkloreChinese folklore includes songs, dances, puppetry, and tales. It often tells stories of human nature, historical or legendary events, love, and the supernatural, or stories explaining natural phenomena and distinctive landmarks.-Folktales:...
, a
gu spirit could transform into various animals, typically a worm, caterpillar, snake, frog, dog, or pig.
Names
Circa 14th-century BCE
Shang DynastyThe Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia Dynasty. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper", in the Yellow River valley...
oracle inscriptions recorded the name
gu, while 7th-century CE
Tang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
texts first used
jincan "gold silkworm".
Gu
The term
gu 蠱, says Loewe (1990:191), "can be traced from the oracle bones until modern times, and has acquired a large number of meanings or connotations". Before discussing
gu, it is necessary to introduce the related word
chong 蟲 "wug".
Chong 虫 or 蟲 (originally a "snake; worm"
pictogramA pictograph is an ideogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Earliest examples of pictographs include ancient or prehistoric drawings or paintings found on rock walls...
) "insect; bug; pest; worm; spider; amphibian; reptile; dragon; etc." denotes a Chinese
folk taxonomyA folk taxonomy is a vernacular naming system, and can be contrasted with scientific taxonomy. Folk biological classification is the way peoples make sense of and organize their natural surroundings/the world around them, typically making generous use of form taxa like "shrubs", "bugs", "ducks",...
lacking an adequate English
translationTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
equivalent. Carr (1983:7) proposes translating
chong as "
wug" – Brown's (1979)
portmanteau wordA portmanteau or portmanteau word is used broadly to mean a blend of two words and their meanings into one, and narrowly in linguistics fields to mean only a blend of two or more function words.-Meaning:...
(from
worm +
bug) bridging the
lexical gapA lexical gap or lacuna is an absence of a word in a particular language. Several types of lexical gaps are possible, such as untranslatability, missing inflections, or nonsense words.-Translatability:...
for the linguistically-widespread "class of miscellaneous animals including insects, spiders, and small reptiles and amphibians". Contrast the
Wug testThe wug test is an experiment in linguistics, created by Jean Berko Gleason in 1958. It was designed as a way to investigate the acquisition of the plural and other inflectional morphemes in English-speaking children....
for investigating
language acquisitionLanguage acquisition is the study of the processes through which humans acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, whereas second language acquisition deals with acquisition of additional...
of plurals in English
morphologyMorphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of words . While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules...
. Note that "wug" will translate
chong below.
The Traditional
Chinese characterA Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese , Japanese , less frequently Korean , and formerly Vietnamese , and other languages...
蠱 and the Simplified 蛊 for
gu "demonic poison" are "wugs inside in a container"
ideogramAn ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms.Examples of...
s that combine
chong 蟲 or 虫 "wug" and
min 皿 "jar; cup; dish; utensil". Early written forms of
gu 蠱 range from (ca. 14th-11th centuries BCE)
Oracle bone scriptOracle bone script refers to incised ancient Chinese characters found on oracle bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in Bronze Age China...
to (ca. 3rd century BCE)
Seal scriptSeal script is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. It evolved organically out of the Zhōu dynasty script , arising in the Warring State of Qin...
characters. The Oracle characters had two or one 虫 "wug" elements inside a container, while the Seal characters had three. Shima's (1958:386) concordance of
oracle boneOracle bones are pieces of bone or turtle plastron bearing the answers to divination chiefly during the late Shang Dynasty. They were heated and cracked, then typically inscribed using a bronze pin in what is known as oracle bone script...
inscriptions lists 23 occurrences of
gu written with two wugs and 4 with one; many contexts are divinations about sickness. Marshall (2001:129) concludes, "The oracle-bone character of
gu is used to refer to the evil power of the ancestors to cause illness in the living."
Jincan
Jincan 金蠶 "gold silkworm/caterpillar" is a
gu synonymSynonyms are different words with identical or very similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
first recorded in the
Tang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
. Li Xian's (7th century) commentary to the
Hou Han Shu uses
jincan as the name of a funerary decoration cast from gold, and the (9th century) author Su E 蘇鶚 describes it as a legendary golden-color caterpillar from Kashmir.
Eberhard (1968:149-150, cf. 153) connects
gu,
jincan, and other love charms with the Duanwu Festival that occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month in the
Chinese calendarThe Chinese calendar is lunisolar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. It is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures. It is often referred to as the Chinese calendar because it was first perfected by the Chinese around 500 BCE...
, which is "the theoretical apogee of summer heat" (Groot 1910 5:851).
Among the Miao on the fifth of the fifth month poisonous animals were put into a pot and allowed to devour each other, and they were called 'gold-silkworms'. The more people were killed by the ku, the richer the kus owner became. In our time the normal term for ku has been 'gold-silkworm'. These animals can make gold. It was typical for the gold-silkworm that people continued to feed this animal in the pot, that humans had to be sacrificed to it, that the animal kept the house clean and worked for its master like a brownie, but that it caused harm to its master if he did not provide proper sacrifices.
"For centuries, the Miao, particularly Miao women", writes Schein (2000:50-51), "have been feared for their mastery of the so-called
gu poison, which is said to inflict death from a distance with excruciating slowness."
Groot (1910 5:854) quotes a
Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
description.
a gold caterpillar is a caterpillar with a gold colour, which is fed with silk from Shuh (Szĕ-ch‘wen). Its ordure, put in food or drink, poisons those who take it, causing certain death. It can draw towards a man the possessions of such victims, and thus make him enormously rich. It is extremely difficult to get rid of it, for even water, fire, weapons or swords can do it no harm. Usually the owner for this purpose puts some gold or silver into a basket, places the caterpillar also therein, and throws the basket away in a corner of the street, where someone may pick it up and take it with him. He is then said to have given his gold caterpillar in marriage.
The
Bencao Gangmu (tr. Groot 1910 5:850-851) quotes Cai Dao 蔡絛's (12th century)
Tieweishan congtan 鐵圍山叢談 that "gold caterpillars first existed" in the
ShuShu was an ancient state in what is now Sichuan, China. Shu derived its power from the Chengdu Plain, with its territory primarily in the central and western Sichuan basin, as well as in the upper Han River valley. Shu was conquered by Qin in 316 BC...
region (present-day
Sichuan' is a province in Southwestern China with its capital in Chengdu. The current name of the province, 四川 , is an abbreviation of 四川路 , or "Four circuits of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from 川峡四路 , or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the...
), and "only in recent times did they find their way into"
Hubei' is a central province of the People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is 鄂 , an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the Qin Dynasty. The name Hubei means "north of the lake", referring to Hubei's position north of Lake Dongting...
,
Hunan' is a province of China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
,
Fujian' is a province on the southeast coast of China. Fujian borders Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
,
GuangdongGuangdong is a province on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, and
GuanxiGuanxi describes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence, and is a central concept in Chinese society. In Western media, the pinyin romanization of this Chinese word is becoming more widely used instead of the two common translations—"connections" and "relationships"—as neither of...
. It also quotes (tr. Groot 1910 5:853-854) the
Tang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
pharmacologist Chen Cangqi (713-741 CE) that:
ashes of old flowered silk are a cure for poison of ku of insects or reptiles which eat such silk. His commentator adds, that those insects are coiled up like a finger-ring, and eat old red silk and flowered silk, just as caterpillars eat leaves; hence, considered in the light of the present day, those insects are gold caterpillars.
Gu Meanings
The
Hanyu Da ZidianThe Hanyu Da Zidian is one of the best available reference works on Chinese characters. A group of more than 400 editors and lexicographers began compilation in 1979, and it was published in eight volumes from 1986 to 1989. A separate volume of essays documents the lexicographical complexities...
dictionary defines 9
gu 蠱 meanings, plus the rare reading
ye 蠱 "bewitchingly pretty; seductive; coquettish" [妖艳].
- (1) Poisoning from an abdominal wug [腹內中虫食之毒]
- (2) In ancient books, a type of artificially-cultured poisonous wug [古籍中一种人工培养的毒虫]
- (3) Ghost of a person [convicted of gu-magic] whose decapitated head was impaled on a stake [臬磔死之鬼]
- (4) Evil heat and noxious qi
In traditional Chinese culture, qi is an active principle forming part of any living thing....
that harms humans [伤害人的热毒恶气]
- (5) Wug pest that eats grain. [蛀虫]
- (6) Sorcery that harms humans [害人的邪术]
- (7) Seduce; tempt; confuse; mislead [蛊惑, 诱惑, 迷惑]
- (8) Affair; assignment [事]
- (9) One of the 64 hexagrams. It is formed from [the trigrams] Gen 艮 [☶ Mountain]) over Xun 巽 [☴ Wind) [六十四卦之一. 卦形为…艮上巽下]
The (early 4th century BCE)
Zuozhuan commentary to the (ca. 6th-5th centuries BCE)
Chunqiu history provides an ancient example of 蠱's
polysemyPolysemy is the capacity for a sign or signs to have multiple meanings , i.e., a large semantic field. This is a pivotal concept within social sciences, such as media studies and linguistics.-Polysemes:A polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple, related meanings...
. It records four
gu meanings – 2.5 "grain which (molders and) flies away", 2.6 "insanity", 2.7 "delusion and disorder", and 2.9 "same [hexagram] name" – in a 541 BCE story (昭公1, tr. Legge 1872:580-581) about a physician named He 和"Harmony" from
QinQín or Ch'in , was a state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods of China. It eventually grew to dominate the country and unite it in 221 BC, after which it is referred to as the Qin Dynasty...
explaining
gu to the ruler of
JinJin was one of the most powerful states in the Spring and Autumn Period, based in Shanxi, China. Jin was founded by Tang Shuyu, a descendant of the Zhou royal family. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Jin was split into three states: Han, Zhao and Wei...
.
The marquis of [Jin] asked the help of a physician from [Qin], and the earl sent one [He] to see him, who said, "The disease cannot be cured, according to the saying that when women are approached, the chamber disease becomes like insanity. It is not caused by Spirits nor by food; it is that delusion which has destroyed the mind. Your good minister will [also] die; it is not the will of Heaven to preserve him." The marquis said, "May women (then) not be approached?" The physician replied, "Intercourse with them must be regulated." … [Zhao Meng] (further) asked what he meant by ‘insanity’; and (the physician) replied, “I mean that which is produced by the delusion and disorder of excessive sensual indulgence. Look at the character; – it is formed by the characters for a vessel and for insects (蠱 = 皿 and 蟲). It is also used of grain which (molders and) flies away. In the [Yijing], (the symbols of) a woman deluding a young man, (of) wind throwing down (the trees of) a mountain, go by the same name (蠱; ☶ under ☴): all these point to the same signification." [Zhao Meng] pronounced him a good physician, gave him large gifts, and sent him back to [Qin].
Abdominal wug poisoning
The "poisoning from abdominal wugs" or "abdominal parasites" meaning 2.1 first appears in the (121 CE)
Shuowen JieziThe Shuōwén Jiězì was an early 2nd century CE Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty...
dictionary, cf. 2.3 below. It defines
gu 蠱 as 腹中蟲也, literally "stomach middle wug", (tr. Loewe 1970:192) "insects within the stomach". However,
Duan YucaiDuan Yucai , courtesy name Ruoying was a Chinese philologist of the Qing Dynasty. He made great contributions to the study of Historical Chinese phonology, and is known for his annotated edition of Shuowen Jiezi....
's (1815 CE) commentary construes this definition as "afflicted by abdominal wugs"; and explains that instead of the usual readings
zhōng 中 "middle; center; interior" and
chóng 蟲 "wug", both terms should be read in
entering toneA checked tone, commonly known by its Chinese calque entering tone is one of four syllable types in the phonology in Middle Chinese which are commonly translated as "tone". However, it is not a tone in the phonetic sense, but rather describes a syllable which ends in a stop consonant, such as p,...
, namely
zhòng 中 "hit (a target); be hit by" and
zhòng 蟲 "wug bites".
Cultivated poisonous wug
The second
gu meaning "anciently recorded type of artificially-cultured poisonous wug" names the survivor of several venomous creatures enclosed in a container, and transformed into a type of demon or spirit.
The
Zhouli ritual text (秋官司寇, tr. Groot 1910 5:826) describes a Shushi 庶氏 official who, "was charged with the duty of exterminating poisonous
ku, attacking this with spells and thus exorcising it, as also with the duty of attacking it with efficacious herbs; all persons able to fight
ku he was to employ according to their capacities."
Zheng XuanZheng Xuan , courtesy name Kangcheng , was an influential commentator and Confucian scholar of the Han Dynasty. He was born in modern Weifang, Shandong, and a student of Ma Rong.-References:...
's commentary explains
dugu 毒蠱 "poisonous
gu" as "wugs that cause sickness in people".
Dismembered sorcerer's ghost
Gu meaning 2.3 "ghost of a person whose decapitated head was impaled on a stake" refers to the severe
Han DynastyThe Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
"
dismembermentDismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism...
(as tortuous capital punishment)" for criminals convicted of practicing
gu-sorcery (see 2.6). Groot (1910 5:840) "Plate VI, Punishment of Cutting Asunder" provides a gruesome illustration. The
Zhouli commentary of Zheng Xuan (cf. 2.2, tr. Loewe 1970:195) notes, "Those who dare to poison people with
ku or teach others to do it will be publicly executed".
Eberhard (1968:152) says
gu, "was also the soul of a dead person whose head had been pitted on a pole. This, too, fits later reports, in so far as the souls of
ku victims often are mentioned as servants of the master of
ku, if not
ku itself served the master."
The
Shuowen Jiezi (cf. 2.1 above, tr. Loewe 1970:195) also defines
gu as "the spirits of convicted criminals whose heads had been exposed on stakes." This specialized torture term
niejie 臬磔 combines
nie "target" (which pictures a person's 自 "nose" on a 木 "tree; wooden stand") and
jie 磔 "dismemberment". Compare the character for
xian 縣 "county; district" that originated as a "place where dismembered criminals were publicly displayed" pictograph of an upside-down 首 "head" hanging on a 系 "rope" tied to a 木 "tree".
Groot (1910 5:828) suggests this meaning of
gu, "seems to reveal to us a belief that such a soul, roaming restlessly about because of its corpse being mutilated, must be avenging itself on the living by settling in their intestines in the shape of the same maggots and grubs which gnaw away its decaying head."
Unschuld (1985:49-50) provides historical perspective.
As the legal measures of individual dynasties demonstrate, administrative officials viewed ku as a reality, as late as the nineteenth century. The primary host was considered a criminal; a person guilty of the despicable act of preparing and administering ku poison was executed, occasionally with his entire family, in a gruesome manner. In addition to the obvious desire to punish severely criminal practices that could result in the death of the victim, it is possible that Confucian distaste for the accumulation of material goods, and above all for the resulting social mobility, contributed to this attitude. Indeed, the penalties of the use of ku poison appear to have been more severe than those for other forms of murder.
Heat miasma
The fourth meaning of "evil heat and noxious
qiIn traditional Chinese culture, qi is an active principle forming part of any living thing....
that harms humans" refers to allegedly sickness-causing emanations of tropical
miasmaThe miasmatic theory of disease held that diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a miasma , a noxious form of "bad air". This concept has been supplanted by the germ theory of disease....
. "There was also an ancient belief that
ku diseases were induced by some sort of noxious mist or exhalation", writes Schafer (1967:102), "just as it was also believed that certain airs and winds could generate worms".
The
Shiji (秦本紀, tr. Groot 1910 5:827) records that in 675 BCE, Duke De 德公 of Qin "suppressed
ku at the commencement of the hottest summer-period by means of dogs. According to commentators, these animals were for the purpose butchered and affixed to the four gates of the capital." The Tang Dynasty commentary of Zhang Shoujie 張守節 explains
gu as "hot, poisonous, evil, noxious
qi that harms people". Displaying
gu dogs at city gates reflects meaning 2.3 above.
Besides
shapeshiftingShapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is when a being undergoes a transformation. Commonly the transformation is purposeful, and not a curse or spell...
gu spirits usually appearing as wugs, classical texts record other animal forms. The (ca. 350 CE)
Soushenji "In Search of the Supernatural" (tr. Groot 1910 5:846-847) says,
In P‘o-yang (in the north of the present Kiangsi pr.) one Chao Shen kept canine ku. Once, when he was called on by Ch‘en Ch‘en, six or seven big yellow dogs rushed out at this man, all at once barking at him. And when my paternal uncle, on coming home, had a meal with Chao Sheu’s wife, he spit blood, and was saved from death in the nick of time by a drink prepared from minced stalks of an orange-tree. Ku contains spectral beings or spectres, which change their spectral shapes into those of beings of various kinds, such as dogs or swine, insects or snakes, their victims thus never being able to know what are their real forms. When they are put into operation against people, those whom they hit or touch all perish. Tsiang Shi, the husband of my wife’s sister, had a hired work-man in employ, who fell sick and passed blood. The physician opined that he was stricken by ku, and secretly, without informing him of it, strewed some jang-ho root under his sleeping-mat. The patient then madly exclaimed: "The ku which devours me is ceasing to spread"; and then he cried: "It vanishes little by little." The present generations often make use of jang-ho root to conquer ku, and now and then it has a good effect. Some think it is ‘the efficacious herb’, mentioned in the Cheu li
This
ranghe 蘘荷 "
myogaMyōga or myoga ginger is an herbaceous, deciduous, perennial native to Japan that is grown for its edible flower buds and flavorful shoots...
ginger" is a renowned antidote to
gu poisoning, see below.
The
Shanhaijing (南山經, tr. Birrell 2000:4) says the meat of a mythical creature on Mount Greenmound prevents miasmic
gu poisoning, "There is an animal on this mountain that looks like a fox, but has nine tails. It makes a noise like a baby. It can devour humans. Whoever eats it will not be affected by malign forces." The commentary of Guo Pu notes this creature's meat will make a person immune to the affects of supernatural
qi.
A Tang Dynasty account of Nanyue people (tr. Schafer 1967:102) describes
gu miasma:
The majority are diseased, and ku forms in their bloated bellies. There is a vulgar tradition of making ku from a concentration of the hundred kinds of crawling creatures, for the purpose of poisoning men. But probably it is the poisonous crawlers of that hot and humid land which produce it – not just the cruel and baleful nature of the householders beyond the mountain passes.
Wug pest
The "wug pest that eats grain" or "grain that transforms into wugs" meaning 2.5 is seen above in the
Zuozhuan explanation of
gu as "grain which (molders and) flies away". The (ca. 3rd century BCE)
EryaThe Erya is the oldest extant Chinese dictionary or Chinese encyclopedia. Bernhard Karlgren concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from" the 3rd century BC....
dictionary (6/21) defines
gu 蠱 as pests in
kang 糠 "chaff", written with the phonetic loan character
kang 康 "healthy". The (ca. 543 CE)
YupianThe Yupian is a circa 543 CE Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang during the Liang Dynasty. It arranges 12,158 character entries under 542 radicals, which differ somewhat from the original 540 in the Shuowen Jiezi...
dictionary defines
gu as "longstanding grain that transforms into flying insects".
Groot (1910 5:827) connects this
gu "grain pest" meaning with 2.1 "internal parasites" and 2.7 "debauchery".
Thus the term ku also included the use of philtre-maggots by women desirous of exciting the lusts of men and attracting them into debauchery. And, evidently, ku was also used to destroy crops or food-stores, or, as the learned physician expressed it, to make the corn fly away, perhaps in the form of winged insects born therein; indeed, the character for ku is regularly used in literature to denote devastating grubs and insects, including internal parasites of the human body, which exercise a destructive influence like poison.
Sorcery
Gu meaning 2.6 "sorcery that harms humans" or "cast damaging spells" is exemplified in the Modern
Standard MandarinStandard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, known by various names to native speakers, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan, and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
words
wugu 巫蠱 (with "shaman") "sorcery; art of casting spells" and
gudu 蠱毒 (with "poison") "a venomous poison (used in
Traditional Chinese medicineTraditional Chinese Medicine, also known as TCM , includes a range of traditional medical practices originating in China. Although well accepted in the mainstream of medical care throughout East Asia, it is considered an alternative medical system in much of the western world.TCM practices include...
); enchant and injure; cast a harmful spell over".
Gu-sorcery allegedly resulted in a debilitating psychological condition, often involving hallucinations. The
Zuozhuan (宣公8, tr. Legge 1872:302) records that in 601 BCE, Xu Ke 胥克 of Jin was discharged from office because he had
gu, "an illness which unsettled his mind". The
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
philologist Yu Yue 俞樾 etymologically connects this meaning of
gu 蠱 with
gu 痼 "chronic, protracted (illness)".
Guji 蠱疾 "insanity; derangement; condition caused by excessive sexual activities" is a comparable word.
The
Hanshu provides details of
wugu-sorcery scandals and dynastic rivalries in the court of
Emperor WuEmperor Wu of Han , , personal name Liu Che , was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty in modern day mainland China, ruling from 141 BC to 87 BC. Emperor Wu is best remembered for the vast territorial expansion that occurred under his reign, as well as the strong and centralized Confucian state...
(r. 141-87 BCE), which Schafer (1967:103) calls "notorious dramas of love and death".
This early Chinese history (tr. Loewe 1970:169) records that in 130 BCE, a daughter of
Empress Chen JiaoEmpress Chen Jiao was an empress during Han Dynasty. She was the first wife of Emperor Wu of Han, but was deposed in 130 BCE. Her father was Chen Wu , the Marquess of Tangyi. Her mother was Emperor Wu's aunt Princess Liu Piao , making her and her husband cousins...
(who was unable to bear a son) was accused of practicing
wugu and
maigu 埋蠱 "bury a witchcraft charm [under a victim's path or dwelling]" (cf. voodoo doll). The "empress was dismissed from her position and a total of 300 persons who were involved in the case were executed"; specifically (tr. Groot 1910 5:828) "their heads were all exposed on stakes" (cf. 2.3). This history claims
wuWu were spirit mediums who practiced divination, prayer, astrology, and healing in ancient China.-The word wu:The Chinese word wu 巫 "spirit medium; shaman; shamaness; sorcerer; doctor; proper names" was first recorded during the Shang Dynasty , when a wu could be either sex...
巫 "shamans" from Yue conducted the
gu magic, which Eberhard (1968:152) notes, "seems to have consisted, at least in part, of magic human figures buried under the road which the emperor, the intended victim, was supposed to take".
Accusations of practicing
wugu-magic were central to the 91 BCE (
Wugu zhi huo 巫蠱之禍) attempted coup against crown prince
Liu JuLiu Ju , formally Crown Prince Li was crown prince during the reign of his father, Emperor Wu of Han, during China's Han Dynasty...
by Jiang Chong 江充 and Su Wen 蘇文. The
Hanshu (tr. Groot 1910 5:836) claims that, "no less than nine long months of bloody terrorism, ending in a tremendous slaughter, cost some tens of thousands their lives!"
Traditional Chinese lawTraditional Chinese law refers to the laws, regulations and rules used in China up to 1911, when the last imperial dynasty fell. It has undergone continuous development since at least the 11th century BC. This legal tradition is distinct from the common law and civil law traditions of the West, and...
strictly prohibited practicing
gu-sorcery. For instance, during the reign of Tang Empress
Wu ZetianWu Zetian , personal name Wu Zhao , often referred to as Tian Hou during Tang Dynasty and Empress Consort Wu in later times, was the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Empress Regnant...
, Schafer (1967:103) says,
the possession of ku poison, like the casting of horoscopes, was cause for official suspicion and action: At that time many tyrannical office holders would orders robbers to bury ku or to leave prophecies in a man's household by night. Then, after the passage of a month, they would secretly confiscate it.
Seduce
This
gu meaning 2.7 of "seduce; bewitch; attract; confuse; mislead; bewilder" is evident in the Standard Mandarin words
yaogu 妖蠱 "bewitch by seductive charms",
gumei 蠱媚 "bewitch/charm by sensual appeal", and
guhuo 蠱惑 "confuse by magic; enchant; seduce into wrongdoing". "
Ku-poisoning was also associated with demoniac sexual appetite – an idea traceable back to Chou times", says Schafer (1967:103), "This notion evidently had its origins in stories of ambiguous love potions prepared by the aboriginal women of the south.
The
Zuozhuan (莊公28, tr. Legge 1872:115) uses
gu in a story that in the 7th century BCE, Ziyuan 子元, the chief minister of
ChuChǔ was a kingdom in what is now central and southern China during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States Period . Its ruling house had the surname mi , and clan name xiong , and originally was of the noble rank of zi, roughly comparable to a viscount.It was originally known as Jing and...
, "wished to seduce the widow" of his brother
King Wen of ZhouKing Wen of Zhou named Ji Chang was the founder of the Zhou Dynasty. He was the son of King Ji of Zhou, the third son of King Tai of Zhou, and the favored grandson of his grandfather...
. The
Mozi (非儒下, tr. Mei 1929:208) uses
gu to criticize
ConfuciusConfucius , lit. "Master Kong," was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese thought and life....
, who "dresses elaborately and puts on adornments to mislead the people." The
Erya (1B/49, cf. 2.5 above) defines
gu 蠱,
chan 諂 "doubt; flatter", and
er 貳 "double-hearted; doubtful" as
yi 疑 "doubt; suspect; fear; hesitate".
Guo PuGuo Pu , courtesy name Jingchun , born in Yuncheng, Shanxi, was a noted natural historian and also a versatile and prolific writer of the Jin Dynasty. He wrote The Book of Burial, an early source of fengshui doctrine...
's commentary suggests this refers to
gu meaning "deceive; seduce".
Many later accounts specify women as
gu-magic practitioners. Eberhard (1968:149) explains,
We know that among many aborigines of the south women know how to prepare love charms which were effective even at a distance. In these reports it was almost invariably stated that the love charm had a fatal effect if the man, to whom the charm was directed, did not return to the woman at a specified time.
Affair
The least-attested
gu 蠱 meaning 2.8 of "affair; event" first appears in the (3rd century CE)
GuangyaThe Guangya was an early 3rd century CE Chinese dictionary, edited by Zhang Yi during the Three Kingdoms period...
dictionary, which defines
gu as
shi 事 "assignment; affair; event; thing; matter; trouble".
The
Yijing Gu hexagram (see 2.9) "Line Variations" repeatedly refer to parental
gu with the enigmatic phrases 幹父之蠱 "
gan-father's
gu" and 幹母之蠱 "
gan-mother's
gu".
Wang NiansunWang Niansun , courtesy name: Huaizu was a Chinese scholar of the Qing Dynasty.A native of Gaoyou, Jiangsu, he worked as a government official specializing in channelization before retiring to devote himself to his studies...
quotes an
Yijing commentary that
gu means
shi, and proposes
gu 蠱 is a phonetic loan character for
gu 故 "reason; cause; event; incident". Commentarial tradition takes
gan 幹 "trunk; framework; do; work" to mean
chi 飭 "put in order", and
Richard WilhelmRichard Wilhelm was a German translator. He translated many philosophical works from Chinese into German that in turn have been translated into other major languages of the world, including English...
(1967:75) translates "Setting right what has been spoiled by the father" and "Setting right what has been spoiled by the mother".
Arthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was a noted English Orientalist and Sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss. Of Jewish heritage, he changed his surname to his paternal grandmother's maiden name, Waley, in...
(1933:132) follows an ancient interpretation that
gan 幹 is a
variant Chinese characterVariant Chinese characters are Chinese characters that can be used interchangeably. They are allographs, having the same pronunciation and meaning, but being different in appearance...
for
gan 干 "stem; Celestial stem; day of the (10-day) week; involve", translating "stem-father's maggots" and "stem-mother's maggots", explaining
it is surely obvious that the maggots referred to are those which appeared in the flesh of animals sacrificed to the spirits of dead parents, who after their death were, for reasons of taboo, only known by the name of the day upon which they were born, being merely a fuller way of writing 'stem', 'day of the week'.
Hexagram 18
thumb
Gu 蠱 names the
Yì-JīngThe I Ching , “Yì Jīng” , Classic of Changes or Book of Changes; also called Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. The book contains a divination system comparable to Western geomancy or the West African Ifá system...
HexagramThe I Ching book consists of 64 hexagrams.
A hexagram is a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines , where each line is either Yang , or Yin . The hexagram lines are traditionally counted from the bottom up, so the lowest line is considered line 1 while the top line is line 6...
18, which is translated as "Destruction" (Z.D. Sung 1935), "Work on What Has Been Spoiled [Decay]" (Richard Wilhelm 1967), "Decay" (
John BlofeldJohn Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld was a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism.-Early life:Blofeld was born in London in 1913...
1965), "Degeneration" (
Thomas ClearyThomas Cleary is a prolific author and translator of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian and Muslim classics, and of the Chinese Art of War tradition of strategy and statecraft...
1986), "Poison, Destruction" (Wu Jing-Nuan 1991), and "Ills to Be Cured" (Richard John Lynn 1994). Wilhelm (1967:75) explains translating "decay" for 蠱.
The Chinese character ku represents a bowl in whose contents worms are breeding. This means decay. It is come about because the gentle indifference in the lower trigram has come together with the rigid inertia of the upper, and the result is stagnation. Since this implies guilt, the conditions embody a demand for removal of the cause. Hence the meaning of the hexagram is not simply "what has been spoiled" but "work on what has been spoiled."
"The Judgment" (tr. Wilhelm 1967:75): "WORK ON WHAT HAS BEEN SPOILED Has supreme success. It furthers one to cross the great water. Before the starting point, three days. After the starting point, three days." "The Image" (tr. Wilhelm 1967:76) reads: "The wind blows low on the mountain: The image of DECAY. Thus the superior man stirs up the people, And strengthens their spirit."
In the
Zuozhuan (僖公15, tr. Legge 1872:167), divination of this Gu hexagram foretells Qin conquering Jin, "A lucky response; cross the Ho; the prince's chariots are defeated."
Gu techniques
According to ancient
gu traditions, explain
Joseph NeedhamNoel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA , also known as Li Yuese , was a British academic and sinologist known for his research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941; and he was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1971...
and
Wang LingWang Ling was a Chinese and Australian historian and educator known for his collaboration with Joseph Needham on the history of science and technology in China.-Biography:...
(1956:136), "the poison was prepared by placing many toxic insects in a closed vessel and allowing them to remain there until one had eaten all the rest – the toxin was then extracted from the survivor." They note, "It is strange to think that this same method has been successfully employed in our own times for the isolation of strains of soil bacteria capable of attacking the tuberculosis bacillus".
Feng and Shryock (1935:1) describe contemporary practices of
gu.
At present, ku is used primarily as a means of acquiring wealth; secondarily as a means of revenge. The method is to place poisonous snakes and insects together in a vessel until there is but one survivor, which is called the ku. The poison secured from this ku is administered to the victim, who becomes sick and dies. The ideas associated with ku vary, but the ku is generally regarded as a spirit, which secures the wealth of the victim for the sorcerer.
Eberhard (1968:152) summarizes
gu practices.
The essence of ku, then, was the magic charm that could be prepared out of the surviving animal in the pot. It could be used as a love charm with the object of forcing the loved male to come back to the woman. The ku could be used also as an evil magic with the object of obtaining subservient spirits. This was done by feeding it to unrelated persons who would either spit blood or whose stomachs would swell because of the food they had taken would become alive in their insides, and who would die as a result; similar to the gold-silkworms, their souls had to be servants of the owner of the ku.
The 4th-century
Soushenji (cf. 2.4, tr. Feng and Shryock 1935:7) records that
gu breeding was a profitable but dangerous profession in the Honan region.
In the province of Yung-yang, there was a family by the name of Liao. For several generations they manufactured ku, becoming rich from it. Later one of the family married, but they kept the secret from the bride. On one occasion, everyone went out except the bride, who was left in charge of the house. Suddenly she noticed a large cauldron in the house, and on opening it, perceived a big snake inside. She poured boiling water into the cauldron and killed the snake. When the rest of the family returned she told them what she had done, to their great alarm. Not long after, the entire family died of the plague.
Feng and Shryock (1935:11-12) describe how 20th-century Zhuang women in
GuangxiThis article is about a region of China. For the sociological concept, see Guānxi.Guangxi is a Zhuang autonomous region of the People's Republic of China....
elaborately produced
gu during the Duanwu Festival (see
jincan above).
Ku poison is not found generally among the people (i.e., the Chinese), but is used by the T'ung women. It is said that on the fifth day of the fifth month, they go to a mountain stream and spread new clothes and headgear on the ground, with a bowl of water beside them. The women dance and sing naked, inviting a visit from the King of Medicine (a tutelary spirit). They wait until snakes, lizards, and poisonous insects come to bathe in the bowl. They pour the water out in a shadowy, dark place. Then they gather the fungus which grows there, which they make into a paste. They put this into goose-feather tubes and hide them in their hair. The heat of their bodies causes worms to generate, which resemble newly-hatched silk-worms. Thus ku is produced. It is often concealed in a warm, dark place in the kitchen. The newly made ku is not yet poisonous. It is used as a love potion, administered in food and drink and called "love-medicine." Gradually the ku becomes poisonous. As the poison develops, the woman's body itches until she has poisoned someone. If there is no other opportunity, she will poison even her husband or her sons. But she possesses antidotes. It is believed that those who produce ku themselves become ku after death. The ghosts of those who have died from the poison become their servants.
Gu remedies
Groot (1910 5:861-869) and Eberhard (1968:152-3) detail numerous Chinese antidotes and cures for
gu poison-magic. For instance (see 2.4), the
Shanhaijing claimed eating a legendary creature's meat would prevent
gu and the
Soushenji prescribed
ranghe 蘘荷 "myoga ginger". Unschuld (1985:47) says
Prescription literature was filled with antidotes. All known Chinese conceptual systems of healing dealt with the ku phenomenon and developed therapeutic strategies that were in accord with their basic principles. The Buddhists recommended prayers and conjurations, thus utilizing the same methods as practitioners of demonic medicine. In pharmaceutical literature, drugs of a plant, animal, or mineral origin were described as effective against ku poisoning. Adherents of homeopathic magic recommended the taking of centipedes, since it was known that centipedes consume worms.
The
Zhou houbei jifang 肘後備急方 (tr. Groot 1910 5:862), which is attributed to
Ge HongGe Hong , courtesy name Zhichuan , was a minor southern official during the Jìn Dynasty , best known for his interest in Daoism, alchemy, and techniques of longevity...
, describes
gu diagnosis and cure with
ranghe:
A patient hurt by ku gets cutting pains at his heart and belly as if some living thing is gnawing there; sometimes he has a discharge of blood through the mouth or the anus. If he is not forthwith medically treated, it devours his five viscera, which entails his death. To discover whether it is ku or not, let the patient spit into water; if the spittle sinks, it is ku; if it floats, it is not. The recipe for discovering the name of the owner of the ku poison is as follows: take the skin of a drum, burn it, a small piece at a time, pulverize the ashes, and let the patient drink them with water; he will then forthwith mention the name; then bid this owner forthwith to remove the ku, and the patient will recover immediately. Again place some jang-ho leaves secretly under the mattress of the patient; he will then of his own accord immediately mention the name of the owner of the ku
Many
gu-poison antidotes are homeopathic, in Western terms. The 8th-century pharmacologist Chen Cangqi (tr. Groot 1910 5:866) explains using venomous creatures both to produce and cure
gu-poison.
In general reptiles and insects, which are used to make ku, are cures for ku; therefore, if we know what ku is at work, we may remedy its effects. Against ku of snakes that of centipedes should be used, against ku of centipedes that of frogs, against ku of frogs that of snakes, and so on. Those varieties of ku, having the power of subduing each other, may also have a curative effect .
Needham and Wang (1956:136) say prescribing
gu poison as a cure or preventive suggests "that someone had stumbled on an immunisation process", and suggest scorpion-venom and centipede-venom as possible toxins.
Chen (tr. Schafer 1967:102, cf. Groot 1910 5:847) further describes catching and preparing medicine from the shapeshifting
gu creature that,
… can conceal its form, and seem to be a ghost or spirit, and make misfortune for men. But after all it is only a reptile ghost. If one of them has bitten a person to death, it will sometimes emerge from one of that man's apertures. Watch and wait to catch it and dry it in the warmth of the sun; then, when someone is afflicted by the ku, burn it to ashes and give him a dose of it. Being akin, to it, the one quite naturally subdues the other.
Besides such homeopathic remedies, Schafer (1967:103) says one could,
give ku derived from particularly venomous creatures to overcome that taken from less lethal creatures. Thus centipede ku could be overcome by frog ku; serpent ku would prevail over frog ku, and so on. There were also soberer, though almost as powerful remedies: asafetida, python bile, civet, and a white substance taken from cock's dung were all used. It is not certain what real maladies these repellent drugs, cured, or seemed to cure. Probably they ranged from the psychosomatic to the virus-born. Many oedematous conditions were called ku, and it has been plausibly suggested that some cases were caused by intestinal parasites (hence the constant worm motif). Others are attributable to fish poisons and arrow poisons concocted by the forest dwellers.
Chinese folklore claims the definitive cure for
gu-magic is passing it on to a greedy person. Eberhard (1968:153) says,
The most common way to get rid of the ku (just as of brownies and the golden-silkworm) was to give it away as a present. The actions of a man in Chang-chou (Fukien) are rather uncommon. He found on the ground a package containing three large silver bars wrapped in silk and in addition a ku which looked like a frog (ha-ma); in spite of the danger he took it; at night two large frogs appeared which he cooked and ate; on the next night more than ten smaller frogs appeared which he also ate up; and he continued consuming all frogs that kept appearing until the magic was cast off; in this fashion the man suffered no ill effects from the ku poison.
From descriptions of
gu poisoning such involving "swollen abdomen, emaciation, and the presence of worms in the body orifices of the dead or living", Unschuld (1985:48) reasons, "Such symptoms allow a great number of possible explanations and interpretations". He suggests attitudes toward
gu were based upon fear of others, envy, and greed. "But the concept of ku is unknown outside of China. Instead, one finds what may be its conceptual equivalent, the "evil eye", present in all "envy societies"."
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