Menstruation taboo in Rome, Judaism, and China

Ancient Rome

Menstruation taboo is popularly held throughout history. Here's a selection of quotes.

Pliny the Elder, the most famous naturalist of ancient Rome, stated that:

Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with an incurable poison.

-- Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 7, Chapter 13

Basically, menstruation blood causes rabies in dogs. Not to worry though, later in Book 28, Chapter 28, Pliny stated that a strip of cloth dipped in menstrual blood can cure rabies in humans... because homeopathy! In the same chapter, he also quoted (without agreeing) other magical beliefs about menstruation:

hailstorms, they say, whirlwinds, and lightning even, will be scared away by a woman uncovering her body while her monthly courses are upon her. The same, too, with all other kinds of tempestuous weather; and out at sea, a storm may be lulled by a woman uncovering her body merely, even though not menstruating at the time... If the menstrual discharge coincides with an eclipse of the moon or sun, the evils resulting from it are irremediable... if a woman strips herself naked while she is menstruating, and walks round a field of wheat, the caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin, will fall from off the ears of corn... this is not done at sun-rise, for if so, the crop will wither and dry up. Young vines, too, it is said, are injured irremediably by the touch of a woman in this state; and both rue and ivy, plants possessed of highly medicinal virtues, will die instantly upon being touched by her.

Suicide notes of Yutaka Taniyama and his fiancée

Yutaka Taniyama (1927--1958) is a Japanese mathematician who proposed the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture, which was an important step in the solution of Fermat's Last Theorem. He committed suicide at the age of 31. His suicide note is as follows, taken from the Japanese Wikipedia:

昨日まで、自殺しようという明確な意思があったわけではない。 ただ、最近僕がかなり疲れて居、 また神経もかなり参っていることに気付いていた人は少なくないと思う。 自殺の原因について、明確なことは自分でもよくわからないが、 何かある特定の事件乃至事柄の結果ではない。 ただ気分的に云えることは、将来に対する自信を失ったということ。 僕の自殺が、或る程度の迷惑あるいは打撃となるような人も居るかもしれない。 このことが、その将来に暗いかげを落とすことにならないようにと、心から願うほかない。 いずれにせよ、これが一種の背信行為であることは否定できないが、 今までわがままを通してきたついでに、最後のわがままとして許してほしい。

Until yesterday I had no definite intention of killing myself. But more than a few must have noticed that lately I have been tired both physically and mentally. As to the cause of my suicide, I don't quite understand it myself, but it is not the result of a particular incident, nor of a specific matter. Merely may I say, I am in the frame of mind that I lost confidence in my future. There may be someone to whom my suicide will be troubling or a blow to a certain degree. I sincerely hope that this incident will cast no dark shadow over the future of that person. At any rate, I cannot deny that this is a kind of betrayal, but please excuse it as my last act in my own way, as I have been doing my own way all my life.

Suicide notes of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke

The suicide note of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, "A Note to a Certain Old Friend", is just one of several notes he wrote before suicide. I translated them by referring to a Chinese translation, a Japanese transcription, and an extremely detailed study of the manuscripts, which contains way too much information.

Overview of the documents

From 芥川龍之介から妻・芥川文子宛ての遺書 Suicide note from Ryunosuke Akutagawa to Fumiko Akutagawa (2010)

芥川龍之介は1927（昭和2）年7月24日日曜日早朝に自殺した。つぎのとおり複数の「遺書」を残している。 

Ryunosuke Akutagawa committed suicide early in the morning on Sunday, July 24, 1927. I have left several "wills" as follows.

　　　a. 妻・芥川文子 宛て（原稿用紙2枚）
　　　b. 妻・芥川文子宛て断片1（同1枚）
　　　c. 妻・芥川文子宛て断片2（同1枚）
　　　d. 「わが子等に」 比呂志・多加志・也寸志 の息子3人がいた（同3枚）
　　　e. 友人・菊池寛 宛て（同2枚）
　　　f. 友人・小穴隆一 宛て（同5枚） そして
　　　g. 「或旧友へ送る手記」（友人・久米正雄 宛てだとされる）

a. To wife, Akutagawa Fumiko (2 Japanese manuscript sheets)
b. Fragment 1, addressed to wife Akutagawa Fumiko (1 sheet)
c. Fragment 2, addressed to wife and Fumiko Akutagawa (1 sheet)
d. "For my children", addressed to his three sons, Hiroshi, Takashi, and Yasushi (3 sheets)
e. To friend, Hiroshi Kikuchi (2 sheets)
f. To friend, Oana Ryuichi (5 sheets)
g. "A Note to a Certain Old Friend" (Likely addressed to a friend, Masao Kume)

The Poetry of Suffering in Buddhist Stories of Hells

Buddhist cosmology is fascinating. Its description of hell, for example, is extremely precise in its time-duration. Today we will measure the length, size, and the pain of hell.

Naraka is the hell in Buddhist cosmology. It differs from the hell of Christianity in two respects: firstly, beings are not sent to Naraka as the result of a divine judgment or punishment, but merely as a result of the evils (bad karmas) accumulated from previous lives; and secondly, the length of a being's stay in a Naraka is not eternal. After a creature's karma is used up, they will be reborn in one of the higher worlds.

Physically, Narakas are thought of as a series of cavernous layers which extend below Jambudvīpa (the ordinary human world) into the earth.

There are 8 hot narakas and 8 cold narakas.

Death Poems from Samurais

I played the game Seppuku Jisei. Slashing enemies was meditative. I aimed for the zen of one slash, one death, to lose myself in the flow of the kill. I stood in the middle of a mound of blood and limbs.

After the game, I saw some death poems here, and decided to investigate them. Thanks to my passable Japanese skills, I found their originals, and their contexts.

Death kept her distance.

But I reached for her hoof 

Just one touch...

I shivered from her love.

Philosophical sketch: Reducing a person to a will, with implications on morality

The Japanese religion of Shinto (神道) believes in Kegare (汚れ), meaning a religious state of pollution. It can be caused by many kinds of things, but usually those that are too... "bodily". Things like childbirth, touching dead bodies, etc.

In the West we have the saying that 'cleanliness is next to godliness' but the Japanese conception may be closer to 'cleanliness is not distinct from godliness'. ---- Brandon Toropov and Luke Buckles O.P.

As an example of how serious it is, after the Battle of Miyajima, which took place on a sacred island, the victorious army removed all the corpses, and then cleaned the entire battlefield of blood, to the point that buildings were scrubbed, and blood-soaked soil was removed from the island.