Soul Summoning of a Political Dissident

by C.J. Anderson-Wu

We don’t know where you ended up. Are you in the river where “insurgents” were drowned, in the mass graves where “national traitors” were shot, or in the ocean where “social harmony obstructionists” were dumped?

Following the Taoist priest's instructions, we prepare a dark green shirt of yours, a black umbrella, and a red thread, having the ceremony where you were last seen. Holding a yellow banner in his right hand and a handbell in his left, the priest chants:

A fleeting dream of life, alas, is short and transient.

There is life and death, both destined;

Where has your soul wandered?

Clear your mind to gaze in the direction of your hometown.

Toward nihility, we stretch our arms to take you back.

Follow the banner and return to your family’s ancestral hall.

Do not linger on your unfulfilled wishes.

Along the path to the other world, you are helped to collect adrift mortal and immortal forms.

Once you answer our summoning, we'll carry you under the umbrella and take you home. After burning your shirt with the paper money you would need in the other world, you shall be left in peace.

Along the path to the other world, you are helped to collect adrift mortal and immortal forms.

Do not continue carrying the burden you had in this life.

Follow the banner and return to your family’s ancestral hall.

Toward nihility, we stretch our arms to take you back.

Purify your heart to gaze in the direction of your hometown.

Where has your soul wandered?

There is neither success nor failure, both are impermanent.

A fleeting dream of life, alas, is short and transient.

May the smoke blow away frightening memories of the brutal police raids, the unwarranted late-night searches, the fabricated charges, and the unlawful arrests. May history redress you and judge the regime that killed you. May your beliefs in freedom and equality haunt our oppressors and your murderers like ghosts, and never recede.