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Ghosts in Ancient China

Ghost stories were the earliest form of literature in ancient China. They were almost certainly part of a very old oral tradition before writing developed during the Shang Dynasty (1600 - 1046 BCE) and they continue to be popular in China today. Ghosts were taken very seriously by the ancient Chinese.

In modern-day China, ghosts only have power to harm if one believes in them, but in ancient China, they were a reality whether one believed in them or laughed them off. When a person died their soul journeyed across a bridge to the afterlife. They were judged as worthy or unworthy on this crossing; if they had lived a good life, they continued on, or if they had done evil, they fell from the bridge into hell.

If they reached the other side, they were either reincarnated or went on to live with the gods depending on one's beliefs. Buddhists, for example, believed that people were more often reincarnated while Confucians believed that the ancestors dwelt with the gods and could be prayed to for assistance or protection. The first step in this journey after death was one's burial and funeral service, and if this was not done right, the soul of the deceased would return to earth to haunt the living.

The Importance of Proper Burial

In China, the ground under the earth was considered the property of the gods. Cemeteries were located outside of towns and cities in rural areas and there were earth spirits there known as Tudi Gong as there were anywhere else. One could not just go and dig a grave without first honoring the gods and local spirits and purchasing the land from them.

The relatives of the deceased would choose a spot and then write up a legal contract purchasing that plot from the gods and spirits. This contract cited "the dead person's name, titles, and date of death; the exact dimensions of the plot, the price paid for the land...and signatures of witnesses" (Benn, 271). They placed the document in the grave and then honored it by paying a certain amount of cash. Since physical currency was of no use in the afterlife, people would purchase sheets of paper, cut out a certain amount of "bills" from it, write denominations on them, and burn them at the grave. Once all this was accomplished and signs were received that it was acceptable, the person could be buried.

Since it was hoped the dead person's soul would pass over the bridge to the land of the gods, grave goods were included in the burial, which consisted of favorite objects and food. The dead then had to be mourned for an appropriate amount of time. For parents and grandparents the minimum was three years during which one had to wear special mourning clothing, could not attend parties, listen to or play music, and, in the case of government positions, go to work. Government officials had to resign for three years when a parent or grandparent died, and failure to report a death to the authorities carried a penalty of exile or hard labor. These rules and many others applied to royalty as well as to the peasant class and if any of these steps was not done properly, or was ignored, the soul of the deceased would return to earth.

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