There are claims that Death Note is the oldest such book in China. Similarly to how the Egyptian Book of the Dead was used to “guide its users to the afterlife,” the Chinese Death Note was said to provide information on the rules and spells of the afterlife.
Legends from ancient China speak of a book that will “serve as a guide to the hereafter to individuals whose names are recorded in it.” Although its beginnings are murky, scholars agree that “Death Note” was written in ancient China:
In the Yellow River Valley, where the Chinese language and imperial system are said to have originated 5,000 years ago, there is ample evidence of early cultures.
As a means of enforcing the new imperial system, legend has it that the Yellow Emperor penned a specific notebook of death.
The “Death Note” eventually made its way from ruler to ruler. Even though most academics agree that the “notebook of death” mentioned in a number of texts is nothing more than a regular book, some have speculated that in the past, when people were still very superstitious, those who possessed the Death Note could strike fear into the hearts of their subjects and opponents.
Death Note has left its mark on a wide variety of Chinese writings and historical documents. A poem about Qin Shi Huang’s quest for immortality makes reference to a “notebook of death.”
During the Three Kingdoms period (220-280), the legend goes, the Shu strategist Zhuge Liang utilised a specific notebook to throw off the plans of the opposing Wei armies and their leader, Sima Yi.
The lack of physical evidence of a “Death Note” in modern-day China has frustrated many experts; some say such a notebook was just another superstition passed down from the older generation, while others believe that it was destroyed or lost during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), when countless ancient artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings were destroyed by Red Guards.
Source: Uncyclopedia
