Hun and po are types of souls in Chinese philosophy and traditional religion. Within this ancient soul dualism tradition, every living human has both a hun spiritual, ethereal, yang soul which leaves the body after death, and also a po corporeal, substantive, yin soul which remains with the corpse of the deceased. Some controversy exists over the number of souls in a person; for instance, one of the traditions within Daoism proposes a soul structure of sanhunqipo (三魂七魄), i.e., "three hun and seven po". The historian Yü Ying-shih describes hun and po as "two pivotal concepts that have been, and remain today, the key to understanding Chinese views of the human soul and the afterlife".
Jade burial suits were believed to delay the bodily po soul's decomposition.
Silk painting found in the tomb of Lady Dai at Mawangdui dated to 168 BCE, interpreted as depicting her hun soul ascending to heaven and her family performing the zhaohun "summoning the soul" ritual below.
In many religious and philosophical traditions, the soul is the non-material essence of a person, which includes one's identity, personality, and memories, an immaterial aspect or essence of a living being that is believed to be able to survive physical death. The concept of the soul is generally applied to humans, although it can also be applied to other living or even non-living entities, as in animism.
Artist’s depiction of a human soul leaving the body
The souls of Pe and Nekhen towing the royal barge on a relief of Ramesses II's temple in Abydos
Depiction of a soul being carried to heaven by two angels by William Bouguereau
Depiction of the soul on a 17th century tombstone at the cemetery of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow
