hello, i was reading Yuyuko's info and i am troubled by the language in her profile for PCB. there are also some inconsistencies regarding whether it were Yuyuko's body AND her soul that were used as the main component as the seal for the sakura tree ayakashi, or just her body.
it goes: -Yuyuko feared her power of death and committed suicide -someone who wants Yuyuko to live as a ghost (i.e. soul) peacefully in Hakugyokurou for eternity sealed her CORPSE and the tree's sakura together. -from the old book in the library Yuyuko visits, it says that removing the seal on the tree will resurrect the human. but "Once the boundary is breached, the time that was frozen will continue to flow, resulting in her death again." -if Yuyuko's corpse, which is dead by medical standards, frozen in time, how will defrosting the time on the corpse lead to Yuyuko's death again when she's already dead? -or is 'dead' meant in regards to Yuyuko's ghost? if this is the case then there will be another inconsistency. in terms of time flow, for Yuyuko to be resurrected just as the book had said, the corpse's time flow should be reversed. but 'continue' to flow implies that the time will move forward.
-also, is 'soul' and 'ghost' used interchangeably in the Touhou Universe? -in Taoism, if a human has lost any of his/her soul components(i.e. Kon and Paku - mentioned in Youmu's info page), he/she might not be able to reincarnate. -if this is true in the Touhou Universe, this suggests why Yuyuko cannot reincarnate or vanish. because part or all of her soul is sealed with her body in the tree -which in turn proves that both Yuyuko's soul and body were are sealed. -and once again, it in turn proves that 'soul' (Kon,paku)and 'ghost' cannot be used interchangeably. because Yuyuko exist now as a ghost while her soul along with her body are existing elsewhere too. -if this is so, are the dead who are waiting for Yama's judgement souls... or ghosts? ... or spirits?
-as for Youmu Konpaku: what is the sources for the below passage - Although both "Kon" (魂) and "Paku" (魄) are "soul", their elements are different. "Kon" stands for a mental soul, which is separated from a body as soon as human dies and ascends to Heaven; "Paku" is a physical soul, which remains in the body a few days and goes back to the Earth. In this case, "Kon" is Youmu's phantom half, and "Paku" is the human half.
can ghosts be killed? according to the Bohemian Archive, i think, they can't be. so in SWR, why did the shinigami say the number of ghosts crossing the river decreased? - as in the ghosts 'died' before reaching the river.
ghosts are deceased people who have earthly attachments. do the deceased become ghosts before or after yama's judgement? - since there are a lot of ghosts in netherworld.
- I'll answer these question as my first forum reply test... with a wall of texts :P
- First of all ..I'll stick to the word translations this wiki has been using.
- (魂) as souls, (幽霊) as spirits/phantom, and (亡霊) as ghosts.
- The soul is your core identity,history and personality. Spirit and ghosts are more like the status/condition of
- that soul. Souls that are tied down away from ascension (or the continous cycle of life and death) are called
- ghosts. They could be tied down due to several reason such as...not realizing he/she is dead, the strong will
- and denial against death. They are imprints of these pure human emotion (which is why they actually look human as well). A living person who decides to stay in the netherworld/hell for far too long would also be cut off from the cycle of life and death...which would directly convert that person into a status of "ghost".
- Yuyuko remains trapped as a ghost since a part of her (physical form) is still on active duty of keeping the
- saigyou ayakashi sealed from within. Breaking the seal means frozen time would catch up (1000years or so)
- to the sleeping human within. The human released from the seal would end up really ..really old...and
- most likely dead. With her body relieved of her duty...that means no more tether, no more reason for
- existence, and poof goes ghost yuyuko onward to ascension.
- Spirits..are projections of our raw temperament. Its what converts our 5 senses into experience and emotion.
- Spirits are not necessarily produced by death (Some spirits can be born as a spirit and fade away as a spirit.
- Multiple spirits may be produced from a single person). Unless you have the will to become a ghost, our soul
- in the form of these basic instinct (spirit) are what's left after we die. To answer your question, it is
- the "spiritual soul" who waits for Yama's judgement. Ghosts, who defies the natural cycle (like hermits and
- hourais), are usally frowned upon by the reapers.
- The source of the ["Kon" (魂) and "Paku" (魄)] paragraph is most likely a direct translation from an article
- of 東方元ネタWiki. Either way 魂魄 is an actual japanese word related to taoism.
- In SWR, there were several spirits "killed" by Tenshi. I'll need to explain the mechanism of her sword first.
- In japanese, the world "weather" is written 天気 which literally means "sky's temperament". The sword first
- converts the opponents' personal temperaments into a visible "sky's temperament"...and then identifies that
- person's weakness by analyzing the resulting visible temperament around that person. This sword's effect was
- spread globally around gensokyo. Many free roaming spirits were converted into these "weather" as well.
- The result is the scarlet cloud ,which Iku mistook as a sign of an upcoming earthquake. Spirits gets
- evaporated into a scarlet cloud...Yukari gets pissed off at Komachi since there would've been fewer
- "casualties" if Komachi had swifly shipped the spirits outside gensokyo.
- On a bonus note, Youmu has been accidently "killing" spirits in PoFV as well. By chopping away at the
- flowers, which were free roaming spirits in its physical form, she forcefully made the spirits reach
- ascension with the power of her sword. (to eliminate a spirits confusion means relieving it of its earthly
- attachment). They are sent to nirvana directly...and skipping the yama means they are cut off from the
- cycle of life/death. Now we got random dead people from outside gensokyo chilling out in nirvana with the
- celestials for all eternity thanks to youmu.
- all facts from ingame scenario, .txt file, and touhou gumonshiki
- Llerell 01:31, August 16, 2011 (UTC)