While gods, ghosts, and ancestors are all former living persons who have “passed into one spirit status or another after death,” the living maintain different relationships with the spirits in those characters and the path from ancestor to ghost to god is long and varied.
Ancestor worship is the central feature of Chinese popular religion. Ancestors were worshipped so that the succeeding generations would be protected from the ills of the world while receiving its rewards and benefits. Ancestors were deceased the grandparents, parents, and other relatives from the father’s line that descendants prayed to. Ancestor worship in traditional China was exclusively patrilineal. Ancestor worship was also intended to helpfully guide ancestors the courts …show more content…
The heirless ghosts with existing kin have options. Surviving kin who arrange posthumous marriages and adoptions that make them into ancestors entitled to regular offerings. Referred to as ghost marriages, these marriages are arranged by the deceased parents to provide them with an heir or a place for their ancestor tablet. Unmarried, heirless female ghosts put in spirit marriages are referred to as spirit brides. Their marriages were typically arranged when the girl who had died in childhood appeared to her family in a dream some years later and asked to be married. The family would then try bait a young man into agreeing to marry their dead daughter’s spirit. This was typically done by laying "bait" in the middle of a road, usually in the form of a red envelope, to attract a potential groom. Sooner or later, an unsuspecting male would pick up the envelope and immediately the family of the spirit come out of hiding beside the road and announce to the young man that he is the chosen bridegroom. If he refused, he would of course be in danger of vengeance by the ghost, but his enthusiasm for the venture could be increased by an offer of a large dowry if necessary. In another form of spirit marriage, two families would arrange a marriage between their deceased son and daughter and assign an heir to worship them. In another form, some young women, as a form of marriage resistance in the Canton Delta, willingly entered into spirit marriages to avoid having to enter into traditional major
Ancestor worship is the central feature of Chinese popular religion. Ancestors were worshipped so that the succeeding generations would be protected from the ills of the world while receiving its rewards and benefits. Ancestors were deceased the grandparents, parents, and other relatives from the father’s line that descendants prayed to. Ancestor worship in traditional China was exclusively patrilineal. Ancestor worship was also intended to helpfully guide ancestors the courts …show more content…
The heirless ghosts with existing kin have options. Surviving kin who arrange posthumous marriages and adoptions that make them into ancestors entitled to regular offerings. Referred to as ghost marriages, these marriages are arranged by the deceased parents to provide them with an heir or a place for their ancestor tablet. Unmarried, heirless female ghosts put in spirit marriages are referred to as spirit brides. Their marriages were typically arranged when the girl who had died in childhood appeared to her family in a dream some years later and asked to be married. The family would then try bait a young man into agreeing to marry their dead daughter’s spirit. This was typically done by laying "bait" in the middle of a road, usually in the form of a red envelope, to attract a potential groom. Sooner or later, an unsuspecting male would pick up the envelope and immediately the family of the spirit come out of hiding beside the road and announce to the young man that he is the chosen bridegroom. If he refused, he would of course be in danger of vengeance by the ghost, but his enthusiasm for the venture could be increased by an offer of a large dowry if necessary. In another form of spirit marriage, two families would arrange a marriage between their deceased son and daughter and assign an heir to worship them. In another form, some young women, as a form of marriage resistance in the Canton Delta, willingly entered into spirit marriages to avoid having to enter into traditional major