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墨書 Inktalez
The elders say that a person's soul can be lost.
In times of scarcity, life in the countryside during our parents' youth was particularly harsh. Neighbor Grandma Niu recounted a year of severe drought when the poor relied on the heavens for their crops, but nearly all were left with nothing. One family, desperate and out of options, sent a woman out early one morning with a tattered basket to gather leftover wheat ears from the fields of wealthier households after the harvest. However, in such a year of famine, the stubble fields had already been scoured countless times by others driven by hunger.
As the woman walked and searched, her harvest was meager, leaving her exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. She had no idea how many villages she had passed or how far she had traveled. Finally, unable to continue, she rested beneath a grass shed by a dry well. Just then, the weather turned ominous; dark clouds rolled in, and a fierce wind arose. Heavy rain mixed with hail poured down, and the small grass shed was quickly flattened by the storm. With nowhere to hide and no way to escape, the woman was drenched and lost consciousness from the cold.
It wasn't until dusk that her family found her, unconscious and unresponsive after searching for her. The man carried her home and fed her a large bowl of ginger soup, which finally brought her back to awareness, but she kept crying out, "I'm cold! The water is almost up to my neck! Pull me up!"
Her family was at a loss as to what to do and called for a doctor, who also claimed he could do nothing for her condition. In desperation, they sought out a "master." The master asked detailed questions about the situation and requested that they borrow livestock to pull a cart to the spot where the woman had fainted. After examining the area, he declared that the woman's "soul had been lost." The storm had knocked her unconscious, causing her soul to slip away and fall into the nearby dry well. However, due to the heavy rain, the well had filled with water; while her body was at home, her soul was still struggling in the well.
This explained her delirious cries: "I'm cold! The water is almost up to my neck! Pull me up!" Her family pleaded with the master and promised him rewards for his help. Finally willing to perform a ritual, he cut off a lock of the woman's hair and placed it in the man's arms while calling out her name: "XX, come home! XX, come home!"
They could not look back or stop during this process.
After some time following this ritual, the woman finally returned to herself and stopped shouting about being cold.
Later on, when she fully regained consciousness, she recounted that during the storm she felt as if she were flying. She saw her body lying motionless in the heavy rain but felt herself uncontrollably falling into the well. As the rain continued to pour down outside, the water in the well rose first to her waist, then to her chest, and finally to her neck... She screamed and struggled desperately but received no response and could not climb back up! It was only when she heard the man calling her name that she agreed to "float out" from the endless darkness and coldness, following his voice back home until she reunited with her physical body under the covers on their bed.
Even today in rural areas, if a child suddenly cries inconsolably for no apparent reason, village elders will still say: "The child's soul is lost."
They won't rush; instead, they will grasp one of the child's ears while chanting: "Pulling XX's ear (XX being the child's name), calling XX's soul..." This chant is repeated several times with an affectionate tone... Whether or not the child's soul is truly lost or has been called back remains uncertain; however, generally speaking, they will quiet down and stop crying.
In many rural communities, there are numerous taboos.
For instance, when eating rice with chopsticks, they must be laid flat side by side on top of the bowl rather than inserted directly into it—especially not standing upright—because elders say that rice eaten with chopsticks stuck upright is meant for spirits: it resembles incense offered to ghosts.
Legend has it that there was once a troublemaker child in the village who ignored this wisdom and constantly stuck his chopsticks into his bowl. Over time he complained repeatedly that his rice was cold and tasteless while visibly growing thinner day by day.
His family called in a master for help. The master explained that because his chopsticks were always stuck in his bowl, wandering spirits thought it was food meant for them and rushed to eat it first... Eventually, whenever his family saw him inserting chopsticks into his bowl again, they would give him a slap on his head. The child soon corrected this habit and gradually regained his health.
Some taboos are even more frightening; for example, when an elder passes away in any household—regardless of how sad or angry their descendants may feel—they must not let tears fall upon the deceased!
Elders warn: until seven days have passed since death (the mourning period), if tears from loved ones fall on the deceased's body, it will cause their spirit to cling to familial ties and worldly affairs. Since humans and spirits are on different paths, if spirits do not depart it will disrupt those living’s fortunes and disturb peace within their homes.
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