鬼,来无影,去无踪,要想探知其源流委实是比较困难的。不过,笔者在近日翻阅古籍时却偶然觅见了它的一些端倪。据我国汉代文字学家许慎的《说文解字》所载,对鬼字的解释为:人所归为鬼。人去世后,归往何处?按迷信者说,一般有两个去向:一为天堂,二是地狱。天堂诚然是生前为善者所进,地狱自然就是生前作恶者所入了。去世之人能进入到上述之地的毕竟是少数,因为人间大部分是平庸之辈,这些人的鬼魂当然只好滞留人间混碗饭吃了。然而,这正好给巫婆、神汉和其他装神弄鬼者提供藉以吓人的依 Ghosts, come without a shadow, go without a trace, in order to ascertain its origins is really difficult. However, I recently read the ancient books but occasionally found some of its clues. According to Xu Shen, a Han Dynasty-based literary scholar, “Explain Word”, the interpretation of the ghost word: people are ghosts. After the death of people, where to go? According to superstition, there are two general directions: one for heaven and the second is hell. It is true that paradise is a lifetime for those who are good, hell naturally is a lifetime evil into it. After all, those who passed away were able to enter the above-mentioned places, after all, because they were mostly mediocre people. Of course, the ghosts of these people had to stay in the world for a bowl of rice. However, this is exactly to provide witches, deities and other ghost-assassins with a scary basis