Death in vain

In the Sinosphere, a death in vain (枉死 wangsi,[1] 冤死 yuansi,[2] 屈死 qusi[3]) is a death that is not a death of natural causes, such as a suicide, homicide, or an accident, which is an unjust death.[4] For example, in Journey to the West: "Those people are the ghosts of the 64 places of smoke, the 72 places of grass, the princes and the chiefs, all of whom died in vain, and have no money and no control, and cannot be reborn, and are all lonely and hungry."[5] In the Travels of Lao Can: "I can go, but it is not useful to the business, but to add one more wrongful death in the cage."[6]

Chinese people often set up temples for people who died in accidents, called Yin miao, hoping that after these people died in vain, they would be placated with jisi (offerings) and not disturb the human world.[7][8][9]

  1. ^ 教育部,卡米爾. "教育百科 | 教育雲線上字典". pedia.cloud.edu.tw (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  2. ^ ""冤死"字的解释 | 汉典". www.zdic.net (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  3. ^ "屈死的意思|屈死的解释". m.d1xx.com. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  4. ^ 第3版, 中日辞典. "枉死(中国語)の日本語訳、読み方は - コトバンク 中日辞典". コトバンク (in Japanese). Retrieved 2022-08-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Journey to the West
  6. ^ 劉鶚 (2020). 老殘遊記 = The travels of Lao-Can. ISBN 978-986-429-562-3. OCLC 1335891976.
  7. ^ "有應公". National Religion Information Network (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  8. ^ 陳弋 (18 January 2020). "大家樂年代風行一時的「陰廟」 背後隱藏無數先民血淚史！" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). SET Taiwan. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  9. ^ 蔡佳妘 (14 August 2019). "為何長輩總說「路邊小廟別亂拜」？有應公、大眾爺是孤魂野鬼？揭台灣神祕陰廟信仰". The Storm Media (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 17 November 2020.