Chinese Ghost Marriages 1

CHINESE GHOST MARRIAGE

Mahima Subramanian, Munira Sevideen, Sana Fathima. J, Sanjana Karkada, Sidhitha .S. Deepu

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Manipal University

IDC 211: Social Anthropology

Richa Arora

October 8 ,2023
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Chinese Ghost Marriage:

A Spiritual Union After Death

History and Practice:

Marriage vows are often set in stone with the phrase “Till death do us part”. However, for

some cultures, death is but the beginning. This is seen particularly in the Chinese cultural

practice of ghost marriage or mínghūn.

A Chinese ghost marriage or mínghūn is a union in which one or both partners have

passed away. Chinese people have been engaging in ghost marriages as a part of their culture and

religious traditions since the beginning of time. It is typically organized by the deceased person's

family and carried out for a variety of reasons, such as the death of an engaged person prior to

the wedding, the incorporation of an unmarried lady into a patrilineage and for the approval of a

younger brother's marriage. In China, it's common practice to do this in order to preserve the

family line or to ensure that an unmarried man is not left alone in the afterlife.

Mínghūn which literally translates to ‘spirit marriage’ has a history spanning over 3000

years and is still practiced today in northern and central China, in areas such as Shanxi, Shaanxi

and Henan provinces despite being banned by the Chinese communist government in 1949. What
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started off as a proper way to bury the dead has however turned into a means of profit for crime

networks which steal and sell female corpses for the same, leaving the dead in unrest.

At the center of this practice lies the concept of ‘xiao’ or filial piety which is a recurrent

theme in Asian collectivistic culture. Unfilial behavior was considered punishable by the law till

recently. Another concept is that of the ‘yuan’ or structural completeness which in context refers

to the structure of an ideal family, one which consists of a husband who lives in the paternal

home and a wife who is completely assimilated into their husband’s paternal home.

The couple’s sons should continue to stay in the paternal home and rear their sons there.

Daughters, however, are considered to be only temporary members of the natal families and are

considered to be complete members of the family they marry into [the affinal family]. Because of

this, having unwed daughters in a family is considered shameful to the parents. Ghost marriages

are often performed to avoid this situation.

The practice of ghost marriages was deeply intertwined with the social, cultural and

religious beliefs of Ancient China, some of which exist even today. Since the practice is

influenced by Chinese folk religions like Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, ghost marriages

are done for a multitude of reasons.

A bride had the option of continuing the wedding after her fiancé passed away; the groom

was symbolized by a white cockerel during the ceremony. However, because this type of ghost

marriage required her to immediately move in with his family, sign a vow of celibacy, participate

in the burial rite, and observe rigorous dress and behavior requirements throughout the mourning

period, several women were apprehensive. Although there are no records of such marriages, a

groom had the option of marrying his deceased fiancée.

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Ghost marriages were considered especially advantageous for living, unmarried women

who wanted to stay unmarried. Ancient Chinese customs considered unmarried women a threat

and source of embarrassment for the family. They were often assumed to have psychological

problems as people at the time believed no normal person would voluntarily choose to stay

unmarried. Ghost marriages helped women stay single while being integrated into a lineage.

Being integrated into a lineage was important for women, both living and dead due to

Chinese death customs. Traditionally, spirit or ancestral tablets [ wooden tablets inscribed with

the name, title, birth and death dates of the deceased, used to symbolize the spirit of the dead] of

parents are placed in the central room of the household, on the ancestral altar. Offerings will be

made by children on death anniversaries here.

No one who is not a bona fide member of the patrilineage can have their ancestral tablet

on the altar. As women were considered a complete part of their affinal family rather than their

natal one, their ancestral tablets were placed in the ancestral altar of her husband’s family. Ghost

marriages helped deceased, unmarried women to acquire a patrilineage which was necessary as

their spirit were not allowed on the altar of their natal families. The fear of enraging past

ancestors into haunting them was prevalent.

If, however, a son passed away before getting married, his parents would arrange a ghost

marriage to provide him descendants to carry on the family line. In China, a man marries more

for the family's benefit than for his own: to uphold the family name, to produce children who

would continue ancestral devotion, and to offer his mother a daughter-in-law who will serve her

and act as a daughter to her in general. Rarely, but occasionally, a live lady is taken in as a wife

for a deceased man.

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The family may adopt an heir or a grandchild to carry on the family line once the

deceased son had a wife. The daughter-in-law's role was to live a chaste life and not to have

children; instead, she served as the "social instrument" that allowed the family to adopt. The

family typically adopted patrilineal related male relations by designating one of the brother's own

kids to the deceased person's lineage.

Ghost marriages are also often arranged at the request of the departed person's spirit,

who, upon "finding itself without a spouse in the other world," made the request. That is, a ghost

can ask a family member in a dream for a spouse. The family seeks guidance from a medium and

discovers the ghost's situation during a séance.

Ghost marriage might benefit the family by giving them the benefit of having a daughter-

in-law if they were sufficiently wealthy to tempt a living girl. The wife of a deceased son would

benefit her husband's family by providing care in their home because a daughter is not regarded

as "a potential contributor to the lineage into which she is born," but rather "it is expected that

she will give the children she bears and her adult labor to the family of her husband."

Another instance where a ghost marriage is performed is when the older unmarried

brother in a family is deceased. The ghost marriage is held right before the marriage of the

living, younger brother as custom dictates that the younger brother should not marry before the

older brother. The ghost marriage is performed to avoid invoking the wrath of the deceased

brother’s ghost.

A ghost marriage involves many rituals customary to the wedding of the living. However,

while one or more of the participants have already passed away, they are nonetheless

represented, most frequently by effigies constructed of paper, bamboo, or cloth. a ghost couple at
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their wedding feast might be made with paper bodies over a bamboo frame and papier-mâché

heads for the bride and groom. Their respective paper slaves are positioned on either side of

them, and the room is filled with numerous additional paper representations of household items

they could use, including a dressing table with a mirror, a table and six stools, a money safe, a

refrigerator, and trunks of paper clothing and fabric. All of the couple's paper possessions are

burned after the wedding ceremony so they can be used in the afterlife.

Similar idols were used in another wedding where a living groom wedded a ghost bride,

but these ones were fashioned with a wooden backbone, newspaper arms, and the head of "a

smiling young girl clipped from a wall calendar." Like that, the dummy is burned following the

wedding ceremonies. In both instances, the effigies wore actual attire, much like what is

commonly worn during wedding ceremonies. This consists of a pair of pants, a white skirt, a red

dress, and an outer garment with lace.

To arrange a ghost marriage, a matchmaker is often consulted to find a suitable spouse.

Sometimes, the family themselves have to seek out a spouse, if the request for the marriage was

received through a dream or a séance.An interesting case is that of the ghost bride, where the

woman’s family lays a red envelope [usually used for gifts of money] in the middle of the road

and goes into hiding, waiting until a male passer-by picks it up. They then come out and

announce his status as the chosen bridegroom. A refusal is considered to bring bad luck. The

man can marry a living person later on in life, but the ghost bride is considered his first and

primary wife.

Most of the marriage ceremonies and rites in a ghost marriage are similar to that of a

typical Chinese marriage. There is a feast for the two families and dowry is given in the form of
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paper money and objects which are burned to bring it to the afterlife if both parties in the

marriage are deceased. The bride is always treated as if she was alive and participating in the

proceedings. The similarities with a typical marriage end here.

The ancestral tablet of the deceased bride is placed inside the female effigy and then

placed in the groom’s ancestral altar at the end of the marriage festivities. If both the bride and

the groom are deceased, their corpses are dug up and buried together in a grave for the rest of

time.

Initial reactions from an ethnocentric perspective:

Ethnocentrism involves viewing and evaluating another culture while using one’s own

culture as a reference point. When I first came across Chinese Ghost Marriages, I compared the

practice with how the concept of marriage and the afterlife are thought of in India. In India,

people’s thoughts on the afterlife are mostly influenced by their religious beliefs. Indians both

cremate and bury their dead. There are Indians who do not believe in reincarnation and there are

those who do.

For people who believe in reincarnation, the idea of marrying two deceased individuals

with each other, or marrying a living person with someone who has moved on into their afterlife,

may seem superfluous and may not make sense to them, since the soul of the deceased individual

has already passed onto the next life.

Indians from cultures where the dead are buried consider it disrespectful and unethical to

exhume a grave and perform rituals on the corpse.

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In most Indian cultures, for a marriage to take place and to be considered valid, both the

groom and the bride should give their consent. If a marriage is done forcefully it is considered

invalid. In the case of the dead, the ghosts can not advocate for themselves.

Before doing any research on Mínghūn, I did not see any practicality in the arrangement.

When marriages are done among the living, they are done for reasons like love, obtaining

progeny, or maintaining general wealth. Mínghūn seemed purely sentimental.

Biases or stereotypes that we held before research:

Because of her previous knowledge of the way Chinese society has been structured

historically, one of our team members expected Mínghūn to be a practice that is misogynistic to

a certain degree. This is because ghost marriages are often performed to avoid a situation in

which a family has to endure the shame of having unwed daughters. She felt that most practices

like these are rooted in archaic beliefs about marriage and gender roles that do not personally

resonate with her. She deems the principles that Minghun is based on, such as souls and

afterlives, to be superstitious.

How ethnocentrism can lead to misunderstandings or misjudgments about this practice:

An ethnocentric perspective disregards the unique cultural significance that Mínghūn

holds in Chinese culture. Different cultures view the afterlife in their own way, and their views

must be respected. It is easy to write off Mínghūn as an archaic practice, but this should not be

done. It should be recognized that the practice has been shaped by a variety of factors, including

history, social norms and geography.

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Cultural Relativism- Understanding the Practice:

Cultural relativism is a principle introduced by Franz Boas which states that the beliefs,

values, and practices of a culture should be understood and respected from the perspective of that

culture itself, and not judged by the standards of another culture. It is the idea that a person's

beliefs and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture.

In the case of Chinese ghost marriages, they are followed and practiced due to the beliefs

held by the people in China. There are several reasons behind this practice, which are rooted in

cultural, social, and religious beliefs. Some reasons as to why ghost marriages are followed and

practiced in the Chinese culture are mentioned below-

1. GRIEF OF PARENTS – One of the most important reasons for the practice of

child marriage is to console the parents of their grief. Marriage is considered to be one of the

most important events in one’s life, according to traditional family ethics. As parents, it is natural

for them to feel that their child has died early and missed out on the life they were supposed to

live. So, by arranging a ghost marriage for the dead they can feel a bit at ease by believing that

their deceased child is happily married in the afterlife.

2. LONELINESS – It is believed in the Chinese tradition that once somebody dies,

their soul enters the afterlife and continues living their life from where they ended it. In the case

of the unmarried deceased, they might be lonely in the afterlife without a spouse. Ghost

marriages take place to ensure that the dead do not feel lonely in the afterlife and to bring them

happiness.
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3. FEAR- It is believed in Chinese culture that if a person dies unmarried their

wishes would remain unfulfilled. This may cause the deceased to haunt their family and cause

misfortune, hurting the living. It is also considered bad luck to have an unwed daughter of

marriageable age in the family. Ghost marriages are hence done between the unwed deceased, to

appease their spirits and bring good luck to their families.

4. ANCESTORS - In Chinese culture, ancestors are considered humans who have

become godly beings, beings who keep their individual identities. If any of the deceased relatives

are unmarried, it is believed that they are unhappy and hence may bring misfortune to the family.

On the other hand, it is believed that happy ancestors bring blessings and good luck to the family

household. It was seen as the duty of the descendants to ensure their ancestors’ happiness, and it

was also a way of showing love and care for them.

5. LINEAGE- Ghost marriage allows patrilineal lines to be continued. In Chinese

tradition, it is considered very shameful and unfilial when a man dies without a child. Hence,

when an unmarried man dies, a ghost marriage is performed in order to enable the living family

to adopt a child who will pose as an heir to the family (heir to the deceased groom). Usually in

such cases, a child will be adopted from the groom’s relatives who share the same surname as

him – such as his brother’s child.

That child will inherit all that the deceased has left behind and in turn, should perform

rites, look after and worship the deceased parent, according to the traditional Chinese beliefs.
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6. ALTARS – Inscribing the names of the dead on spirit tablets and placing it on

family altars is a Chinese practice. It is shown as a way of respecting the ancestors and the living

are expected to make offerings for them at the altars on their birth and death anniversaries. In

Chinese culture, one must be placed on the family altar after death in order to become an

ancestor. The Chinese do not place the spirit tablets of their unmarried deceased children on the

family altars as it is considered disrespectful to the ancestral deceased.

A point to be noted is that females cannot be placed in the family altar of their birthplace.

Since the Chinese traditions and beliefs focus on patrilineal lineage, having the spirit tablet of the

unwed, deceased daughter of the household placed in the family altar is prohibited and frowned

upon. Usually, the spirit tablet is placed in her husband’s family altar. In the case of an

unmarried female, she will not have a place to keep her spirit tablet in order for her descendants

to make their offerings to her.

So, after the death of an unmarried woman, a ghost marriage will be arranged to ensure

that her spirit tablet is placed in the husband’s family altar.

7. MARRIAGE BEFORE OLDER BROTHER- The Chinese practice a custom which

follows the rule that younger brothers cannot be married before their older brothers. In a case

where the older brother is dead without being married it is believed that his ghost takes revenge

on the family. Hence, ghost marriages are done in order to appease the spirit of the dead older

brother so that the younger brother may get married without facing any issues.

8. BURIAL- The Chinese believe that an unmarried male cannot be buried in the

family grave after he dies as it would bring bad luck to the family. In case of unmarried women

who die, a proper funeral or a proper burial ceremony cannot be held due to the belief that
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women should be buried in the family grave of their husbands. In such cases a ghost marriage is

arranged so that both the deceased bride and groom can have a proper burial.

The above-mentioned reasons for ghost marriage includes ghost marriage between the

dead as well as between the living and the dead. But besides the reasons mentioned above there

are specific reasons as to why the ghost marriage takes place between the living and the dead

1. HEIRS – Continuing the family lineage is seen as very important in Chinese culture.

Thus, sometimes, ghost marriages are done between a living woman with children to a dead

groom so that her child can become the dead man’s heir.

2. DOMESTIC TASKS- Ghost marriage is done between a living woman and a

deceased man so that the family of the dead man can have a daughter- in – law to do the

household chores and help around the house.

3. LOVE – Some people marry the dead to show and prove the love for their deceased

lover and live a happy married life.

Cultural relativism emphasizes that the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture should

be understood and interpreted within the context of that specific culture. It is important that each

culture is understood within its specific context so that there are no misjudgments, and nobody is

looked down on for the beliefs they hold. It encourages people to understand why they do what

they do. In the case of Chinese ghost marriages, they are performed due to the religious beliefs

held by the Chinese that the spirits of the deceased have needs and desires similar to those of the

living and they need to be fulfilled so that the ancestors can send blessings to their descendants.
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It is important to understand the culture, reason, and the history behind it so that the culture

won’t be lost over time or that it is mistaken to be something bad.

Reflections:

In this part of the essay, I will be reflecting on my personal growth and understanding as

a result of this assignment.

I could not help my initial thoughts when I read about the Chinese ghost marriage

tradition. I found it unsettling and deeply uncomfortable. It challenged my religious and cultural

values regarding life, death and marriage. I was skeptical of ever being able to reconcile such a

practice with my personal values.

Looking back, it is ironic, because when first undertaking the assignment, I was

determined to approach the task at hand without succumbing to any tendencies of ethnocentric

judgment.

I believed that getting to learn about ethnocentrism and superficial analysis and how

detrimental it is to cultural anthropology and people’s understanding of cultures and cultural

practices, would equip me with the knowledge and awareness to guard against these pitfalls.

Coupled with that, I had a burning desire to explore and absorb diversity in the form of unique

traditions.

I think I may have harbored a false sense of confidence, thinking that I was far too open-

minded and not held back by my own cultural upbringing to judge another culture’s beliefs and

practices. This led me to underestimate the potential of me falling into the trap of ethnocentrism

entirely.
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However, over time, and with a lot of research into the subject matter at hand, I gradually

began to shift my viewpoint from the narrow prism of my own cultural norms to that of a broader

perspective.

I believe applying the principles of cultural relativism is what helped me overcome my

initial tendency to label this tradition as macabre, superstitious (and therefore irrational

according to me) and archaic. I began to shift my focus on the rich cultural context and historical

significance behind it. This in turn, led me to appreciate the deeply rooted chinese values such as

filial piety, customs and beliefs about the afterlife, ancestor veneration, kinship, respecting the

deceased, immortality of the soul etc. These contexts may not be so obvious to the

anthropologically untrained eye. It inculcated in me an appreciation for the culture. The more I

approached my research with a sense of genuine curiosity and fascination, rather than a skewed

viewpoint, the more I was able to grasp and understand how this practice helped the particular

culture’s families in dealing with bereavement.

However, there are some challenges I encountered while researching the practice. There

have been a rising number of instances of criminal associations of body snatching associated

with ghost marriage. This is particularly prominent in mainland China, or the more rural areas

and villages. It has become a business opportunity for criminals, driving them to “kidnap and

murder women, raid tombs, steal and sell female corpses, and be involved in morgue robberies.”

(Ghost Marriage and Corpse Trading Crime in Rural China – College of Liberal Arts and Social

Sciences, Cityu-research, 2023)

However, there is very little to no academic research on crime related to ghost brides. In

order to combat this, Prof LO Tit-wing of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural
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Sciences led a research project to investigate the criminal business processes in this emerging

economic market. The study attempts to investigate ghost bride-induced crime while looking into

it from an economic perspective. The custom of the ghost marriage naturally favors the male,

according to the ancestral tribute and property inheritance system of the culture, and hence the

majority of the victims are female. This indicates the gender equality and income equality behind

the ghost bride market.

In conclusion, this assignment evoked a lot of introspection, and challenged my

understanding of not only other cultures, but myself. It was a journey of self discovery. Though I

may never be free from the shackles of bias due to my own cultural and religious background, I

have noticed an increase in my sensitivity towards other cultures, and a sense of humility and

appreciation towards understanding the richness and complexity of human cultures, beliefs, and

traditions. It has also shed light on the importance of approaching new or unfamiliar practices

from a place of curiosity, not judgment. I also came to realize that humans are much more

fundamentally similar than they are different. I believe this in an important mindset shift that will

impact the way I approach people from different cultures in the future and in fostering my

relationships with them. I believe it will enrich our interactions and bring about cross cultural

cooperation amongst our communities. This may lead to new innovations, new traditions and

above all, respect and appreciation for each other. In a world filled with turmoil and wars being

fought over cultural differences, I believe that this will bring us harmony above all else.

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