Not long ago in Zhengzhou, Henan province there was a new creepy tourist attraction. An old scary lady with a magical cauldron was spotted in the local food district. The old lady was serving the Soup of oblivion, which was meant to make people relieve stress and forget grieves, a bowl of the soup cost 10 yuan. Soon the lady was surrounded by a crowd of curious people, the bravest of whom even tried the soup. What does the creepy lady with the soup symbolize?

The old woman with the soup is a character of Chinese mythology. According to one of the myth’s versions, a long time ago there was a beautiful young woman called Meng. Her husband was sent to the construction of the Great Wall. After waiting for him for many years, Meng decided to find him. When she got to the site, she saw thousands of corpses. There were so many of them so that she couldn’t find the body of her husband. To forget about her grief, Meng made a special soup, drank it, and lost all of her memories. Time passed by, and once beautiful young woman turned into an old lady, and people started calling her Meng Po – Auntie Meng.

Since then, Meng Po greets the souls of dead people near the Bridge of Life and Death. She serves them her soup from the cauldron, and after the souls drink it, they forget everything. The souls cross the bridge between the world and reincarnate without the burden of good and bad memories. That’s why people don’t remember anything about their previous lives.

Meng Po myth sounds a little bit similar to Greek mythology. In Hades, the underworld, there are five rivers. One of them is called Lethe. When people die and appear in the underworld, they drink of the waters of Lethe and forget all their memories. For Ancient Greeks, a dead person is a person without memories. The word “lethargic” originated from the same word as Lethe (“oblivion”), meaning a person who is tired, lacks drive and motivation.

Okay, so we’ve identified that strange serving soup lady in Zhengzhou, Henan. So what about the taste of her 10-yuan soup? Netizens say it tastes like Chinese traditional medicine – not so pleasant, but probably good for health. According to one commentator, Meng Po soup was sweet, and it means that the next life after the reincarnation wouldn’t be as bitter as the current one.