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The ''sanshi'' 三尸 "Three Corpses" or ''sanchong'' 三蟲 "Three Worms" are a Daoist physiological belief that demonic creatures live inside the human body, and they seek to hasten the death of their host. These three supernatural parasites allegedly enter the person at birth, and reside in the three ''dantian'' "energy centers", respectively located within the head, chest, and abdomen. After their human host dies, they are freed from the body and become malevolent ghosts. The pernicious Three Corpses/Worms work to harm their host's health and fate by initiating sicknesses, inviting other disease-causing agents into the body, and reporting their host's transgressions to the gods. The Three Corpses are supposed to keep records of their host's misdeeds, ascend to tian "heaven" bimonthly on the night of Chinese sexagenary ''gengshen'' 庚申 "57th of the 60-day cycle" while the host is sleeping, and file reports to the Siming 司命 "Director of Destinies" who deducts 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 ''gengshen'' day and night, thus preventing the Three Corpses from leaving one's body (a belief later assimilated into the Japanese Kōshin 庚申 tradition). For a Daoist adept to achieve the longevity of a ''xian'' "transcendent; immortal", it was necessary to expel the Three Corpses from the body. Since these evil spirits feed upon decaying matter produced by grains being digested in the intestines, the practice of ''bigu'' "abstinence from grains and cereals" is the first step towards expelling them. ''Bigu'' alone will not eliminate the Three Corpses, but weakens them to the point where they can be killed with ''waidan'' alchemical drugs such as cinnabar, and ultimately eliminated through ''neidan'' meditation techniques. ==Terminology== The Chinese terms ''sānshī'' and ''sānchóng'' compound ''sān'' 三 meaning "three, 3; several, many" with ''shī'' 尸 or 屍 "corpse, dead body; ritual personator representing a dead relative during Chinese ancestral sacrifices" and ''chóng'' 蟲 or 虫 "insect; worm; bug". The usual English translation of ''sanshi'' is "three corpses" or "Three Corpses". However, this Daoist term does not literally refer to "corpses; dead bodies" within the human body, but is linguistically causative meaning the eventual "death; mortality" produced by these demonic agents (Arthur 2013). Compare the English slang verb ''corpse'' meaning "to make a corpse of, to kill" (''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2009). More accurate translations of ''sanshi'' are "Three Deathbringers" (Kohn 1993), "Three Death-bringers" (Komjathy 2007) (the video game Death Bringer ), "three corpse-demons" (Strickmann 2002), or "three corpse ()" (Zhang & Unschuld 2014). Synonyms for ''sanshi'' include ''fúshī'' 伏尸 "hidden corpse", ''shīchóng'' 尸虫 "corpse worms", ''shīguǐ'' 尸鬼 "corpse ghosts", and in reference to the three corpses named Peng (see ''Baoshengjing'' below), ''shīpéng'' 尸彭 "corpse Pengs" or ''sānpéng'' 三彭 "three Pengs". ''Sānshīshén'' 三尸神 "Lord Three Corpses" is an honorific alternate with ''shen'' "spirit; god; deity'' ''Sanchong'', which the ''Lunheng'' (see below) used to mean "intestinal parasites", is normally translated as "three worms" or "Three Worms"; "Three Cadavers" is another version (Schipper 1993). Owing to the semantic polysemy of ''chong'', the term is also translatable as "three pests" (Needham and Lu 1986) or "three bugs" (Zhang and Unschuld 2014). The expressions Three Corpses and Three Worms are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Zhang and Unschuld (2014: 414) translate ''sanchong'' 三蟲 as "three bugs; three worms" and define two meanings: "Etiological Agent of all microorganisms in the body that bring forth disease", citing Li Shizhen's (1578) ''Bencao Gangmu'' (''chongbu'' 蟲部 "bugs/worms section") that, "Bugs/worms are small organisms. There are very many types. This is the meaning of 'three bugs/worms'"; and "Combined Designation of ''huichong'' 蛔蟲, roundworms, ''chichong'' 赤蟲, red worms, and ''naochong'' 蟯蟲, pinworms", citing the (c. 610) ''Zhubing yuanhou zonglun'' 諸病源候總論 "General Treatise of Causes and Symptoms of Illnesses", "The three worms include long worms, red worms, and pinworms". They give ''sanshi'' 三尸 "three corpse ()" as an Alternative Name for ''shichong'' 屍蟲 "corpse bugs/worms", and define it as the "Etiological Agent of microorganisms that can bring forth all types of ''shibing'' 屍病 "corpse () disease", citing the ''Zhubing yuanhou zonglun'' again that, "Inside the human body there are from the beginning all the three corpse (). They come to life together with man, but they are most malicious. They are able to communicate with demons and the numinous, and they regularly invite evil () from outside, thereby causing human suffering". Demonic possession and demonic medicine are ancient Chinese beliefs (Unschuld 1986: 29-46). For example, the ''Bencao gangmu'' chapter (52) on medicines derived from the human body says "bregma; skull bone" is good for treating tuberculosis-like consumptive diseases that are supposedly caused by evil spirits, such as ''chuánshī'' 傳尸, which is translated as "cadaver vector disease" (Cooper & Sivin 1973), "consumptive and infectious disease" (Luo 2003), and "corpse () transmission" (Zhang & Unschuld 2014). Since the Chinese notion of "Three Corpses" within the human body is unfamiliar to most Westerners, meaningful English descriptions are problematic. Scholars have termed them as gods ("transcendental beings" Fischer-Schreiber 1996, "supernatural beings with physical and ephemeral spirit components" Arthur 2013, "internal gods" Benn 2001); demons ("a sort of demon" Pas 1988, "maleficent demons" Maspero 1981, "malevolent beings in the body" Eskildsen 1998, "demonic supernatural creatures" Kohn 1993); or both ("semi-divine, semi-demonic agents" Campany 2005); parasites ("biospiritual parasites" Campany 2002, "body parasites" Yamada 1989, "parasites said to live inside the human body" Cook 2008); and other terms ("factors in the human body" Needham and Lu 1986). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Three Corpses」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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