223
NOTES AND QUERIES
TRACES OF HOUTU'S (后土) CULT IN HONG KONG
CAROLE MORGAN
I first became aware of Houtu stones in the course of my research on geomancy at the Aberdeen and Diamond Hill cemeteries. One of the earliest references to Houtu is found in the Zuozhuan, a work compiled in the III century BC. Under the 29th Year of Duke Zhao (昭), a commentary states that Earth is the ruler of all things, that his divine persona is generally called Houtu, and that his spirit is named Dragon Gouji. During the Han dynasty, the skeptic Wang Chong (王充) (-27c - 100 AD) amplified this definition by remarking that: “The digging of graves disturbs the Earth... [hence] the Earth god must be propitiated with offerings of millet, rice-cakes and soup”. (A Forke, 1925, vol II, p. 400 & 510). I was therefore not surprised to find traces of this once powerful deity in the cemeteries I visited.
Yet these traces were puzzling. Almost every grave featured a small stone with an inscription which stated “X family's Houtu shan (山)”. Given that in this context shan means "burial site”, the text appeared to imply that Houtu should not be read as the name of the deity, but as two words hou tu (土) meaning "[boundary of the] land behind the grave", even though many stones were aligned with the grave's headstone. It could be argued that this contradiction represents an unavoidable concession to the non-standard size of certain plots, and should not detract from the stones' boundary marker function. The accuracy of this impression was confirmed by two grave diggers, who indicated that the stones were meant to prevent one grave from encroaching on the plot of another. When I questioned these men on the use of the graph 后 for "at the back of" instead of the more common 後, they replied that it was a matter of convenience, the first graph being easier to carve than the second. Though the explanation sounded plausible, I found it unconvincing. By then I had noticed that in front of almost every stone, small metal tubes had been permanently fixed to serve as incense stick holders. At the very least, the presence of these tubes suggested the performance of some kind of ritual.
223
NOTES AND QUERIES
TRACES OF HOUTU'S (±) CULT IN HONG KONG
CAROLE MORGAN
I first became aware of Houtu stones in the course of my research on geomancy at the Aberdeen and Diamond Hill cemeteries One of the earliest references to Houtu is found in the Zuozhuan, a work compiled in the III century BC Under the 29th Year of Duke Zhao IKI, a commentary states that Earth is the ruler of all things, that his divine persona is generally called Houtu, and that his sprit is named Dragon Gouji. During the Han dynasty, the skeptic Wang Chong (-27c - 100 AD) amplified this definition by remarking that: “The digging of graves disturbs the Earth... [hence] the Earth god must he propitiated with offering of millet, rice-cakes and soup”.(A Forke, 1925, vol II, p. 400 & 510 ) I was therefore not surprised to find traces of this once powerful deity in the cemeteries I visited.
Yet these traces were puzzling Almost every grave featured a small stone with an inscription which stated “X family's Houtu shan (l )”. Given that in this context shan mean "burial site”, the text appeared to imply that Houtu should not be read as the name of the deity, but as two words hou tu (:) meaning "[boundary of the] land behind the grave", even though many stones were aligned with the grave's headstone. It could be argued that this contradiction represents an unavoidable concession to the non standard size of certain plots, and should not detract from the stones' boundary marker function. The accuracy of this impression was confirmed by two grave diggers, who indicated that the stones were meant to prevent one grave from encroaching on the plot of another When I questioned these men on the use of the graph for "at the back of" instead of the more common they replied that it was a matter of convenience, the first graph being easier to carve than the second Though the explanation sounded plausible I found it unconvincing. By then I had noticed that in front of almost every stone small metal tubes had been permanently fixed to serve as incense stick holders. At the very least, the presence of these tubes, suggested the performance of some kind of ritual.
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