Worship of Tian, Transgressive Rites, and Judged Ghosts: The Religious Transformation of Hamlet in Peking Opera
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. The Multiple Manifestations of the Worship of Tian
2.1. From “God-a-Mercy” to Merciful “Tian”
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet,Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,Nor thine on me.(5.2.313–315)
2.2. From “I Cannot Repent” to “Please Be Merciful”
My fault is past. But O, what form of prayerCan serve my turn: ‘Forgive me my foul murder’?That cannot be, since I am still possessedOf those effects for which I did the murder,My crown, mine own ambition and my Queen.(3.3.51–55)
Try what repentance can—what can it not?—Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?O wretched state, O bosom black as death,O limed soul that struggling to be freeArt more engaged. Help, angels, make assay.(3.3.65–69)
Shangtian, can you still forgive me?I repent.With utmost reverence and fear, I come to confess.Shangtian,May you show mercy and forgive my sins.上天, 你還能寬恕我麼?/我悔/誠惶誠恐來悔懺/上天哪/但願你慈悲為懷恕罪衍(Shi 2008)
2.3. The Mandate of Revenge: Tianming’s Command
Let me draft letters to neighboring kings.By the bonds of our longstanding friendship,That they might rid me of Zi Dan—this calamity within my bosom.待我修書各國君主/看在我等多年交好的份上/替我殺了子丹這個心腹之患(Shi 2008)
Here, thou incestuous, damned Dane!Drink of this potion. Is the union here?Follow my mother.(5.2.309–311)
3. The Collapse of Order: The Exorcism, “Maimed” Funeral Rites, and Divine Punishment
3.1. The Exorcism: The Disguise of Yong Shu’s Personal Moral Disorder
Tonight’s affair,Clearly, it was Zi Dan who intended to test me.Why should I be afraid?今晚之事/分明是子丹有意試探於我/我怎麼害怕起來了(Shi 2008)
Hold! Wait!My murder of Yong Bo was unknown neither to gods nor ghosts.How could he recount itAs if he witnessed it?哎呀且住/我謀害兄王之事神鬼不知/怎麼他演示得/如同親眼得見地一般(Shi 2008)
Could vengeful ghosts truly exist in this world?Exorcise the Ghost, exorcise it, come quickly.Fill this Forbidden City with torchesAnd light up the darkness for me莫非世上真有冤魂復仇之事麼/打鬼, 打鬼, 來呀/禁城之內與我遍插松明火把/替寡人照亮這夜幕黑天(Shi 2008)
3.2. “Such Maimed Rites”: The Disruption of Confucian Funeral Rites
But soft, but soft awhile, here comes the King,The Queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow?And with such maimed rites? This doth betokenThe corpse they follow did with desperate handFordo it own life. ‘Twas of some estate.(5.1.206–210)
Her obsequies have been as far enlargedAs we have warranty. Her death was doubtful;And but that great command o’ersways the orderShe should in ground unsanctified been lodgedTill the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,Flints and pebbles should be thrown on her.(5.1.215–220)
3.3. The Divine Punishment: Yin Energy and the Collage Long Image
Dark clouds veil the waning moon. The air is cold with frost and fog.Softly we tread, winding through palace paths.A nighthawk’s mournful cry pierces the darknessEchoing like the wails of wandering ghosts.The night is heavy, the cold presses,And the howling wind cuts to the bone墨雲滾遮殘月霜寒霧冷/步悄然繞宮闕穿小徑/又聽得夜鷹悲啼/恰似那孤魂野鬼哀鳴聲聲/夜色沉沉寒氣緊/罡風獵獵刺骨疼(Shi 2008)
4. Ritualizing the Unseen: The Judged Ghost and the “Discovered” Underworld
4.1. From Doubt to Certainty: Identifying the Ghost Through Visual Reconstruction
As thou art to thyself.Such was the very armour he had onWhen he the ambitious Norway combated.So frowned he once, when in an angry parleHe smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.(1.1.58–62)
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,Be thy intents wicked or charitable,Thou com’st in such a questionable shapeThat I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,King, father, royal Dane.(1.4.40–45)
The spirit that I have seenMay be a de’il, and the de’il hath powerT’assume a pleasing shape. Yea, and perhapsOut of my weakness and my melancholy,As he is very potent with such spirits,Abuses me to damn me!(2.2.533–538)
4.2. The Judged Ghost and the Judicialized Afterlife
I am Panguan of the underworld.Yong Bo, the ruler of the Red City, was secretly murdered.Because of unresolved sins in his life,I hereby condemn him to be burned by the flames of the underworld in the daytimeAnd to wander in the world of the living at night.Ghost soldiers,Escort the soul of Yong Bo to the court.吾乃幽冥判官是也/今有赤城國君雍伯被人暗害/只因他生前孽緣未盡, 為此判他/白日身受地獄烈焰焚燒/夜晚在人間遊蕩/鬼卒們/將雍伯的靈魂押了上來(Shi 2008)
4.3. From “Undiscovered Country” to Zi Dan’s Dilemma: Dream or Nightmare After Death
But even then the morning cock crew loudAnd at the sound it shrunk in haste awayAnd vanished from our sight.(1.2.217–219)
Devoutly to be wished—to die: to sleep—To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,For in that sleep of death what dreams may comeWhen we have shuffled off this mortal coilMust give us pause: there’s the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.(3.1.63–68)
Once asleep, one begins to dream.But what kind of dream will it be?A sweet dream or a nightmare? It is hard to know.It is this fear of dreams beyond death that makes us hesitate.睡著了就會做夢/做的是什麼夢呢?/是美夢還是噩夢令人難以猜透/世人畏懼這死後的夢境而躊躇顧慮(Shi 2008)
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
1 | The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan 王子復仇記, performed by Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company 上海京劇院 in Shanghai in 2005, was released on DVD by Beauty Media Inc. 俏佳人文化傳播有限公司 in Guangzhou in 2008. This play takes Zhu Shenghao’s 朱生豪 Chinese translation of Hamlet as its foundational text, with additional creative adaptations by script writer Feng Gang 馮鋼. It was directed by Shi Yu-kun 石玉昆, and the principal cast includes Fu Xi-ru 傅希如 as Zi Dan (Hamlet), Guo Rui-yue 郭睿玥 as Jiang Rong (Gertrude), Zhao Huan 趙歡 as Yin Li (Ophelia), Chen Yu 陳宇 as Yong Shu (Claudius), Yan Qing-gu 嚴慶穀 as Yin Fu (Polonius), and Liu Da-ke 劉大可 as Yin Ze (Laertes). |
2 | See Fung Yu-Lan’s History of Chinese Philosophy (Zhongguo Zhexue Shi 中國哲學史), in which he divides tian into five distinct but interrelated dimensions: “Tian of matter” 物质之天, “Tian of sovereignty” 主宰之天, “Tian of fate” 运命之天, “Tian of nature” 自然之天, and “Tian of moral principle” 义理之天. |
3 | In this article, we use “worship of tian” instead of “worship of Heaven” to avoid confusion and ambiguity in terminology when analyzing the replacement of “tian” in Revenge with “Heaven” and “God” in Hamlet. It should be noted that the concepts of “Tian” and “God” discussed in this article are not equivalent. In traditional Chinese culture, “Tian” is not necessarily conceived as an anthropomorphic deity, a characteristic that distinguishes it from the concept of “God”. For further exploration of the differences surrounding these concepts, see Zhu (2023, pp. 28–36) and Yingying Zhang (2020, pp. 124–31). |
4 | All quotations from Hamlet in this article are taken from the Arden Shakespeare Third Series edition (Shakespeare 2016). |
5 | All Chinese quotations from Revenge and other texts appearing in this article were translated into English by the authors. |
6 | Zui Ji Zhao 罪己詔 (edict of self-reproach) refers to a ritual document through which rulers publicly acknowledged their failures in governance, often issued in response to natural disasters or political crises, aiming to legitimize their rule by aligning with tianyi 天意. |
7 | A traditional Chinese folding screen, typically made of wood or other materials, with decorative panels often featuring intricate designs, paintings, or calligraphy. It was historically used not only as a room divider but also for privacy, decoration, and to shield against drafts or cold. |
8 | For research on the differences among retribution, karma, and chengfu 承負 (inherited burden), see Y. Wang (1998, pp. 60–67); X. Chen (2004, pp. 67–69); M. Xu (2008, pp. 10–14); Qu and Chen (2016, pp. 75–81). |
9 | The term nuo 儺 refers to a ritual for exorcising evil spirits. |
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Xu, J.; Qian, H. Worship of Tian, Transgressive Rites, and Judged Ghosts: The Religious Transformation of Hamlet in Peking Opera. Religions 2025, 16, 1022. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081022
Xu J, Qian H. Worship of Tian, Transgressive Rites, and Judged Ghosts: The Religious Transformation of Hamlet in Peking Opera. Religions. 2025; 16(8):1022. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081022
Chicago/Turabian StyleXu, Jia, and Huping Qian. 2025. "Worship of Tian, Transgressive Rites, and Judged Ghosts: The Religious Transformation of Hamlet in Peking Opera" Religions 16, no. 8: 1022. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081022
APA StyleXu, J., & Qian, H. (2025). Worship of Tian, Transgressive Rites, and Judged Ghosts: The Religious Transformation of Hamlet in Peking Opera. Religions, 16(8), 1022. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081022