From hero to ancestor, god, and ghost: The posthumous career of Han Shizong

Abstract

Han Shizhong (1089-1151) was one of the generals who played a key role in the establishment of the Southern Song dynasty, after the conquest of the north by Jurchen forces in 1126. After he died, he was commemorated by his family as an ancestor, but he was also worshipped as a god in and around the city of Suzhou, the site of his retirement home. Eventually he even became a ghost, after his grave was disturbed in the eighteenth century. As a result, Han Shizhong is one of the rare individuals whose posthumous career encompasses all three possible fates for the dead. This paper explores the processes which determined the fate after death of an individual in the second half of the imperial era. This includes a consideration of the conflicts over how the deeply controversial events in which he took part should be represented to later generations, and discusses the reasons for the failure of the deification of Han Shizhong, in the context of the dominant representation of Suzhou as a centre for literati culture throughout the imperial era.