Read "Corpse" in Early China: Corpse/Corpse Ritual by Michael Carr
If you hear the word "corpse", the first thing that comes to your mind is probably corpse.
But in early Chinese rituals, shi corpse also had a more bizarre meaning: during ancestor worship, a living person would sit in the seat of the deceased ancestor, receive food and drink, representing the presence of the ancestor, and may even convey words to the deceased.
This person is often translated as personator in English studies. In Chinese, it can be called "corpse substitute" or "ancestral soul substitute".
The really interesting thing about Michael Carr's article is here: he does not treat corpse rituals as weird superstitions, but puts them into a longer historical clue. The body of the deceased, the voice of the ancestors, the living substitute, and the later tablets may all belong to the same issue
How do ancestors continue to be "present"?
ritual scene
Give conclusion first
Carr's core judgment can be summarized in one sentence
"Corpse" is not a word that simply means corpse, but a historical hub that connects the body of the deceased, ritual roles, ancestors' voices and the tablets of gods and masters.
This article can be read in four steps
Reading map
1. "Corpse" is not just a corpse
In modern Chinese, "corpse" almost only makes people think of corpses. But Carr reminds us that corpse in early texts has at least several meanings
The first level is the most intuitive "corpse and remains".
The second level is the "corpse substitute" during ancestor worship: a living person temporarily occupies the position of the deceased ancestor and accepts sacrifices for the deceased.
The third level is the later "divine master, wooden master, and ancestor tablets": the ancestor spirits are no longer summoned through living people, but are placed on a symbol that can be displayed and worshipped.
What Carr wants to trace is how these meanings are connected step by step.
This semantic chain is critical. It shows that "corpse" is not a dead word, but a changing institutional word: it starts from the body, passes through the role, and finally enters the ritual and symbolic system.
2. What happened at the corpse ceremony?
According to the "Book of Songs", "Book of Rites", "Book of Rites" and other materials, the corpse ceremony can be understood as follows
In ancestor worship, a descendant, ideally often a grandchild, is seated in the ancestor's place. He receives food and drink, participates in rituals, and becomes a visible presence in the presence of the deceased ancestor.
Ritual Relationship Diagram
The most common misunderstanding here is that the corpse substitute is not an "actor" in the modern sense.
The actor plays a role on the stage; the corpse substitute assumes a ceremonial position in the ancestral temple. This position has a real effect: the officiant salutes him, offers him food and wine, and focuses on him the respect for the deceased ancestor.
So what's really unusual about the corpse ritual is this: it temporarily reverses the family hierarchy.
family class reversal
In daily life, fathers are higher than sons, and elders are higher than younger generations.
But if the grandson serves as the surrogate for the grandfather, then the father must salute his son at the moment of sacrifice. It is not the child himself who is respected, but the ancestral position he occupies.
This is exactly the issue that Mencius and the Book of Rites touch upon repeatedly when discussing corpse rituals: "position" in rituals can temporarily override everyday identities.
3. What clues are left in the literature?
Carr's article covers a wide range of material and does not rely on a single story. He looked at the glyphs, classics, ritual books, commentaries and semantic changes together.
In order to avoid being confused by the name of the dynasty, you can first put the corpse ceremony on this timeline
Corpse Ritual Timeline
Among them, the Book of Songs is particularly important.
The "Book of Songs" appears many times with corpse corpses, often associated with wine, food, blessings from ancestral spirits, drunkenness, and speeches. In other words, the corpse ceremony is not an abstract "commemorative ceremony", but a way of being present with food, wine, body, and voice.
These elements put together are very intriguing
Wine and food make ancestors not just "remembered" but seem to be participating in the feast together.
The corpse substitute allows the ancestors to not only be "in heaven", but also have a visible place in the ancestral temple.
Words and blessings make the ancestors not only "worshiped", but also seem to be able to respond to future generations.
This advances the corpse ceremony from an ethical ritual to a deeper question: Do the ancients really believe that their ancestors will speak in a certain way?
4. Why is Jaynes' "two-minded mind" involved?
Carr's article is included in a collection discussing Julian Jaynes. Jaynes's most famous idea is the "dichotomous mind" hypothesis.
Simply put, Jaynes believes that subjective introspective consciousness in the modern sense does not exist fully from the beginning of human beings. In earlier cultural stages, when people faced pressure, orders, and major choices, they may experience certain internal psychological processes as voices from external authorities: the voice of gods, the voice of kings, and the voices of ancestors.
dichotomous mental model
This is certainly a highly controversial theory.
But Carr believes that corpse rituals provide an entry point in Chinese material for this theory.
If it was once easier for early societies to experience inner voices as those of ancestors or gods, then corpse rituals may record a transitional process
From sound to tablet
At the earliest times, ancestors' voices may have been directly heard or thought to be directly communicated.
Later, society needed a more stable ritual role to carry ancestors, so corpse-carvers appeared.
Later, when people became less and less convinced that ancestral spirits really spoke through living people, rituals became further institutionalized, and the presence of ancestors turned to wooden owners, gods, and tablets.
In other words
Ancestors have not disappeared from the ritual system, but the way of "presence" has changed.
If you continue reading this book
Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness is not an easy read. It is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that revolves around Jaynes's theory of two-minded minds and unfolds from the perspectives of auditory hallucinations, language, self, oracles, ancient civilizations, etc.
If you just want to grab the main thread, you can read in this order
If your interest focuses on Chinese material, Chapters 12 and 13 are worth reading in succession: Chapter 12 on Shang Dynasty dragon patterns and hidden faces, and Chapter 13 on corpse rituals. Both are asking the same question
Do ancient images, rituals, and texts preserve some kind of mental structure that is different from modern inner experience?
Ending: The truly fascinating part of Corpse Ritual
The most fascinating thing about corpse rituals is not that they are strange.
Rather, it makes an abstract problem very concrete
How can one continue to have a place in the family after death?
How do people preserve the voice of their ancestor after he stops speaking?
When a living person sits in the place of the deceased, is he performing, representing, or carrying a real presence?
When we look at the tablets of our ancestors today, we may only think that they are a wooden tablet or a symbol.
But if you look back along Carr's clues, it may have been connected to something more ancient: corpses, sounds, wine and food, ancestral temples, descendants, and the way humans understand "the dead are still there."
This is what makes the word "corpse" most worthy of re-reading.
Reference
Michael Carr, "The Shi 'Corpse/Personator' Ceremony in Early China," in Marcel Kuijsten ed., Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited.