Chinese Views of the Afterlife

Question 1

What are the concepts of the afterlife in Chinese Religious Traditions?

Answer 1

• Making offerings of food, drinks, paper money, and other material goods, and burning incense are a regular part of ancestor veneration
• Visit the family members grave 3 times a year
• Belief in supernatural beings including deities/gods and ghosts
• Burning incense is understood to open a gateway of communication with these gods
• Making offerings appeases the ghosts
• Supernatural forces affect your life and afterlife

Question 2

What are ghost marriages?

Answer 2

• can involve a marriage ceremony between either two dead people or one dead and one living person
• originated as a practice among the very wealthy but over time, extended to everyone
• tied to the belief in Yin Yang and maintaining harmony/balance in the afterlife
• if someone died unwed, their spirit would remain lonely and unhappy for all eternity
• must be buried next to a partner in order to achieve harmony in the afterlife

Question 3

What are the death rituals in Chinese religious traditions?

Answer 3

The death rituals mostly pertain to worship and appease of the ghosts/spirits in their afterlife.
- Making sure that they have everything they could need in the afterlife, such as money, food, drink, etc.., to keep their family members happy and content