I stumbled upon an online discussion criticizing Fabrizio Pregadio’s translation of gui 鬼 to “demon, devil” [in Encyclopedia of Taoism (2008)], calling this translation inaccurate and problematic. The commenters in that discussion thread preferred the translation of gui to “ghost,” emphatically declaring that gui as ghost is the right approach, and that equating gui to demon or devil is wrong.

The rationale was that demon and devil have a connotation of evil in the West, which the term gui does not have. The term “ghost” is a bit more neutral – they say – and so gui as ghost is the better translation.

Likewise, there was issue with translating shen 神 to “god, spirit” because when Westerners were attempting to teach tai chi to Westerners and made reference to shen, it was interpreted by Christians as becoming possessed by literal spirits and personal gods within the body, which then led them to believe these spirits/gods were demons, and therefore practicing tai chi causes one to become possessed by the devil.

Therefore – concludes these tai chi teachers in the West – don’t translate shen to “god, spirit.” Instead, shen ought to be translated to “consciousness” and/or “mindfulness.”

A part of me sympathizes with that perspective. And a part of me wants to say no, the demon/god translations are not wrong. The problem is with those Christians and also, modernity’s determination to segregate consciousness-mindfulness from the cultural conceptions of demons and gods. Why should I or anyone white-wash and dilute explanation of these concepts just so they’re palatable to a Christianized Western society?

If you’re asking me – and dare I say, most native practitioners – gui does mean demon, devil and it also means ghost. However, our cultural perspective of what is implied by “demon, devil” is fundamentally different from the Christian perspective of “demon, devil.”

I mean heck, in everyday colloquial speech, gui is used to reference anyone considered “not us.” Outsiders, foreigners, anyone and anything we don’t understand and/or we fear gets called gui. Also, let’s not even get into the complexity of how a layperson’s conception of gui and demons is significantly different from a practitioner’s conception of gui and demons.

I have never thought of demons as “evil” in that good vs. evil sense. If we must personify and anthropomorphize, then at most I’d say demons and humans do not generally coexist well with one another. Some humans, however, notably the ones we refer to as practitioners, are adept at mediating between demons and humans so that the two might coexist in peace.

When I say “demon” in English, my mind does not think “evil devilish creature thing from a fire and brimstone sort of hell.” When I hear “demon” or “devil,” my mind thinks “English translation of gui” and then I assign it the meaning for gui that I am familiar with.

And so to me, demon as gui means a yin-dominant sentient but non-physical life force that can potentially influence the physical world. Whereas shen means a yang-dominant sentient but non-physical life force that can potentially influence the physical world.

And yes, we also have a term gui shen 鬼神 in effect combining both terms, which can mean the complete spectrum of demons, devils to gods, spirits, or gui shen in and of itself is a type of spirit entity, defined as one that is trapped here on earth but is not native to earth, and therefore does not belong on this plane. Although Taoism uses the designations of yin and yang, gui in contrast to shen, it’s not a mutually exclusive binary; it’s a spectrum, and at least according to mythology, fluid. In many of the legends we grow up with, gui become shen, and shen become gui.

If we want to get more accurate, the historical and traditional reference to the spectrum of demonology would be four classifications: Yao 妖 Mo魔 Gui 鬼 Guai 怪. And then we often pair 2 of those 4 designations to identify very specific identities of yin spirits, like Yao Gui 妖鬼, or Mo Gui 魔鬼, Yao Mo 妖魔, and Yao Guai 妖怪.

Does shen mean god, spirit, but also consciousness and arguably stretched to encompass transcendent mindfulness? Sure, yes. All of the above.

So I don’t think anybody is wrong. What I take issue with is the act of accusing another of being wrong and self-proclaiming one’s own definition as right.

If I translate gui to demon and then talk about the mystical system of ritualized practices related to gui as demonology and Christians then construe that to mean I’m in cahoots with their Biblical Satan and his evil demonic minions, well, that’s on them, not me. Why accommodate to their world view when I’m not even talking about Christianity?

Which is to say two different traditions speaking English use the word “demon” differently. I’m not Christian, so when I say “demon,” I mean gui. And to me, a gui is not evil and may or may not come from a spirit realm otherwise known as hell. To assume I mean an evil red spirit with devil horns and a pointy tail every time I say gui or demon is to impose a Christian world view where such a world view does not belong.

So that’s my rant for the day, especially as we near Ghost Month, the seventh lunar month of the year, which this year 2024 coincides with August.

The eve of the full moon in August 2024 will be the Ghost Festival. And though it’s translated to English as Ghost Month, it’s not just ghosts the way Westerners might define ghosts. It’s a month when the gates of hell open, so the gui from hell, in addition to what we call hungry ghosts, walk the earth.

I like the way my mom once described gui from Taoist/Buddhist hells to me — it’s not that they’re evil the way Christians describe demons, but they are probably like sociopaths. Gui are no worse than some humans we know. =)