>
So what the hell is Hell Money? To begin with, the Chinese don't really have a "hell". The story goes that when the Christian missionaries arrived in China with their dire warnings of non-believers heading for hell after death, the Chinese understood hell as the English word for their own afterlife.
There is archaeological evidence of money for the dead from long before the Europeans showed up. Various known forms of exchange - cowrie shells, stones, bones - have been found in tombs dating back to 1000 BC.
Because the Chinese believe that their dead will be living life somewhat as they did before they died, they assume the dead will be needing money and many other items that they used when alive in the afterlife. The relatives of the deceased create paper replicas of what they think their ancestors will be able to use, thus ensuring a happy and prosperous life after death.
During funeral processions, these paper articles are released into the wind, and later the gifts may be left on graves. But the best way to get these symbolic gifts to the dead is to burn them, since through the fire the items become a bridge between the real and spirit worlds, and are transformed from the tangible to the spiritual.
Burning paper money also distracts the evil spirits who would steal the other gifts for themselves. During the Hungry Ghost Festival, spirit money is burned to keep away the ghosts who have no families of their own and who are out to create mischief.
Spirit money will not only be useful in the afterlife, but it is thought of as a payment of debts run up by the deceased. During a person's lifetime, they make their own offerings to the gods, but their wrongdoings always outweigh their offerings, so these debts are expected to be paid by their descendants. Burning hell money is also a symbol of transformation and purification, and can act as an aid to fertility.
The burning of spirit money can also act as a charm to rid the living of illness or other problems they may be encountering in their lives. This ritual must be performed by a hoat-su, a hired professional who is practiced in expelling evil spirits. The hoat-su stamps the paper money with characters which describe the problem, burns it, and stirs the ashes into a cup of water. He then takes a sip of the water and spits it out, thus disposing of the trouble.
The banknotes come in various sizes, paper thicknesses and denominations. The bigger the monetary value, the more effective the offering will be. One has to wonder if the smaller denominations are used for token gifts - those one has to present when one doesn't really want to.
Usually there is a picture of a man in a flat hat with beads hanging from the front and back of it on the face of the note. This is Yeng Wang Yeh, the Lord of Judgement and the greatest of the Lords of Death. He is said to have once been a living Chinese emperor who earned his position in the afterlife as a reward for his leadership skills.
Many of the bills have an image of a pagoda on the reverse, which in some cases depicts the Bank of Hell. Other images found on these notes include fu dogs, lotus blossoms, the phoenix, turtles or carp, all symbols of luck and good fortune. Most of these will be depicted in pairs. The reverse of the hell note illustrating this article, which you can see by clicking on the image, has what looks to be a diagram of the Forbidden City.
Sources:
Hell Money
Hell Bank Notes
Ghost Money
Hell Money scans by Feiyan Zhou
|
|
