👻 The Three Spirits of Christmas

All this year you may have thought that Santa Claus has been watching to see if you've been naughty or nice, but here's a creepy Daoist story about the Three Death-Bringers...

Three Corpse Possession Disorder

So this whole thing started when I was researching the point BL-42. This is on the outer Shu line, level with BL-13, so it has a lot of indications pertaining to the Lung.

However, at the very end, Deadman lists a very interesting indication for this point: three corpse possession disorder.

The explanation for this was very brief:

'Three corpse possession disorder' is a Daoist concept that refers to some form of 'possession' and is divided into 'upper corpse' which attacks the eyes, 'middle corpse' which attacks the five zang, and 'lower corpse' which attacks human life itself.

And that's it. He doesn't really elaborate on what symptoms might be associated with this specific condition, but he does say that the point in general is for consumptive diseases of the Lung, so maybe that's related to the three corpses.

(Maciocia translates the term as "three corpses flowing" and relates it to suicidal thoughts.)

Anyway, this led me down a whole rabbit hole of researching the "three corpses"...

According to the Wikipedia article, the Three Corpses (三尸 sān shī) or Three Worms (三蟲 sān chóng) refer to a Daoist belief that demonic creatures live inside the human body and seek to hasten the death of their host.

These three supernatural parasites enter the person at birth and reside in each of the three dāntián (head, chest, abdomen). When their human host dies, the three corpses are freed from the body and become malevolent ghosts.

(Apparently "corpse" is kind of a difficult translation here. It's not meant to refer to literal corpses or dead bodies within the human body. It's more like, they cause someone to become a corpse. So maybe a better translation is the "Three Death-bringers".)

The pernicious Three Corpses/Worms/Deathbringers work to harm their host's health and fate. They initiate sickness, invite other disease-causing agents into the body, and report on their host's transgressions to the gods.

The Three corpses keep records of their host's misdeeds. Then, every 60 days, they ascend to heaven while the host is sleeping and file a report with the "Director of Destinies" (司命 sī mìng). This Director will then deduct a certain number of days from the person's life for each misdeed.

One way of avoiding this bureaucratic snitching is to stay awake for the entire day and night, thus preventing the Three Corpses from leaving one's body.

For a Daoist to achieve immortality, it is necessary to expel the Three Corpses from the body. Because these evil spirits feed on the decaying matter produced by grains, the first step is to adopt a diet that abstains from grains and cereals (a practice called bìgǔ 辟谷 -- "avoiding grain").

But a grain-free diet is not enough to kill them; it only weakens them. After that, the Daoist must take certain waidan potions (like cinnabar) to kill them, then practice neidan qigong techniques to eliminate them.

So maybe Santa Claus is watching you to see if you've been naughty or nice. Or maybe his evil twin Krampus is coming to punish misbehaving children.

Or maybe you have three evil spirits residing in your dan tian that snitch on you when you're being bad and will eventually hasten your death because you ate too many carbs.

Happy Holidays!