Mengpo is the goddess deity in the Taoist underworld system who is in charge of the Anhe Bridge and is responsible for erasing the memories of the deceased souls. She belongs to the Fengdu Emperor and the Ten Daimons of Hell. She is the guardian of the final checkpoint before the souls’ reincarnation and transmigration. Her core function is to prepare and distribute Mengpo Soup, which allows the deceased souls to forget all their memories and grievances from their previous lives and enter the next cycle of reincarnation peacefully.
Regarding Mengpo’s origin, there are various legends in folk and Taoist scriptures. The most widely circulated ones are three: The first is the legend of an ancient deity, claiming that she existed since the beginning of the universe and the division of heaven and earth. She is well-versed in the cycle of yin and yang and was ordered by the Heavenly Emperor to reside in the underworld, specifically responsible for erasing the memories of the deceased souls. The second is the Meng Jiangnu legend, which tells that after Meng Jiangnu broke the Great Wall, she saw the excessive sorrow and pain in the world and vowed to stay in the underworld. She prepared the Forgetful Joy Soup to help the deceased souls forget their past sorrows and enter the next cycle of reincarnation. The third is the legend of a commoner woman named Meng. She was a kind-hearted old woman in the mortal world who accumulated good deeds throughout her life. After her death, she was enshrined as a celestial official in the underworld and was responsible for preparing the Forgetful Soul Soup.
Mengpo is mostly depicted as a kind old woman wearing a gray robe or plain clothing, with a gentle face, simple hairstyle, holding a soup spoon and a soup bowl, and beside her is a large pot for boiling soup. The ingredients in the pot are taken from the Anche River, the Other Shore Flowers, and the Broken Heart Grass, which have the effect of “forgetting joy”. The prepared Mengpo Soup is clear and flavorless, but it can completely erase the memories of the deceased souls. She usually resides by the Anhe Bridge. One end of the bridge connects the underworld’s Yellow River Road, and the other end leads to the Reincarnation Path. Every deceased soul passing the Anhe Bridge must drink a bowl of soup handed to them by Mengpo. If a soul resists drinking the soup, they will be forcibly forced to do so by the ghost chasers or suffer additional punishments in the underworld.
Mengpo’s core functions include not only preparing the Forgetful Soul Soup but also verifying the reincarnation qualifications of the deceased souls – only those who have completed the judgment of the Ten Daimons of Hell and determined their destination of reincarnation can receive the Mengpo Soup. At the same time, she also comforts the emotions of the deceased souls and alleviates their attachments to their past lives, preventing them from reincarnating with resentment and disrupting the order of the mortal world.
In folk beliefs and literary works, Mengpo is one of the most tender deities in the underworld. Unlike the sternness of the judges and the ferocity of the ghost chasers, her existence symbolizes “letting go” and “new life”, maintaining the stability of the underworld’s reincarnation order and also embodying the people’s beautiful expectations of “settling past affairs and starting anew”.
