Chinese legends: 孟婆湯 (Meng Po Soup)

鬼月 (Ghost Month) is coming.

This year's 鬼月 runs from August 4 to September 2.

I hope you remember that 鬼月 is the month when ghosts return to the living world. 

In today's video, I'd like to talk about a story that is opposite, the story of 陰間 Underworld , more specifically the story of 孟婆湯(Meng Po Soup).

But there is one person or ghost? we need to know first. 

閻羅王(King Yanluo)

Chinese religious culture believes that when people die, they will be judged by the King of Hell 閻羅 (King Yanluo). 閻羅王 is the judge of the underworld and judges all the dead according to their behavior in the living world.

If you are meritorious, you will be rewarded in heaven; if you are evil-doers, you will be condemned to suffering in hell. If you are not good enough to go to heaven, or not bad enough to go to hell, you will be condemned to reincarnation輪迴轉世.  輪迴轉世 is the belief that the spirit of a dead person transmigrates into a newborn baby and begins a new life.

So when you are condemned to 輪迴轉世, you will be taken to 奈河, and according to the legend, you will have to cross 奈何橋(Naihe Bridge) to go to the afterlife.

孟婆 and 孟婆湯

On the 奈何橋, an old lady is holding a bowl of soup waiting for you.

She is 孟婆, and the soup she makes is called 孟婆湯. Don't know what secret recipes are in the soup, but people said the soup tastes sweet but bitter, a little spicy with sour, and so salty it makes people cry. The taste is like various things you have to face in your life. We use 五味雜陳 to describe the jumble of feelings.

五味 means five flavors, They are 酸sour, 甜sweet, 苦bitter , 辣spicy, and 鹹salty

After drinking the soup, you will forget everything, whether your family or friends, all your successes and setbacks will be forgotten forever. In your afterlife, you will have a new beginning.

The mysterious lady 孟婆, her origin is unknown. Most people believe she looks like a 75-year-old woman.

Some say she focuses only on the present, cares not about other people's past, and does not look at other people's futures. She just holds a bowl and waits at the entrance of the bridge, she believes that no matter who, all deserve to have a new beginning in the afterlife. 

Others say she's waiting for someone. She had painful experiences, so she prayed for God's help. God gave her this soup so that she could forget everything and have a new start in the afterlife.

But there is one person she doesn't want to forget, who is the only good in her life.

God told her that only when everything ends can there be a new beginning. She can only choose: Drink the soup and forget everything, or take the memory with her into the afterlife.

She wanted to see the person so much that she stayed at the entrance of the bridge, holding the soup in her hand and hoping that the miracle would happen.

Day after day, year after year. She begins to share the soup with everyone who passes by, telling them that only by forgetting everything will they be able to make a new start in the afterlife.

So when you hear someone say that they want to drink 孟婆湯, it means that they have something that want to forget, and it must be a bad thing.