Tuesday, January 22, 2008

"Demonic Child"


The Chinese had a very intricate way of viewing life after death. For them, Heaven is not an easy path to go into, since it's not solely based on whether one was "good" during their living days. When one dies, even the circumstance they died under are taken into consideration of where they will roam in their afterlife. If a married women died while pregnant, she would wander in The Bloody Lake, which would take her 857,000 days for her to cross and having to encounter numerous tortures and demons. However, if the dead women's family did the right rituals, and PAID a hefty sum for it, she would have a easier time crossing this temporary Hell. Also the root of her death is believed to be the fault of her child, for it would have been considered as the demon that caused her death. Before burial and cermonies, this unborn child would be cut from the womb and toshed in the trash to make sure the demon doesn't get reborned into another unfortunate sould again.

This connects with the previous book I read on Adeline, for she was considered as the "black star" (a chinese saying of bad luck) that killed her mother during birth. Adeline in this case would be the demon child that accomplished her goal of killing her mother and surviving herself, and causing misfortune to the family. Yet, this is all just superstitions, because the outcome of Adeline's life was far from this bogus belief.


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