Question 1

How do you say ghost in Chinese?

Accepted Answer

鬼 (guǐ), or 鬼魂 (guǐhún), a dead person’s spirit; 幽灵 (yōulíng) is closer to a Western phantom. A haunted house is a 鬼屋 (guǐwū), to be haunted is 闹鬼 (nàoguǐ), and a ghost story is a 鬼故事 (guǐ gùshi). 鬼 is also in everyday words: a 胆小鬼 (dǎnxiǎoguǐ) is a coward, a 酒鬼 (jiǔguǐ) a drunk, and 见鬼 (jiànguǐ), to see a ghost, means “damn it!”

Question 2

What is a jiangshi, the Chinese hopping vampire?

Accepted Answer

僵尸 (jiāngshī), a stiff corpse. Too stiff to walk, it hops with its arms held out, in the robe and hat of a Qing dynasty official, and kills the living to take their 气 (qì), their life force. A Taoist priest, 道士 (dàoshì), stops it with a yellow paper talisman, 符 (fú), stuck on its forehead. The legend says priests once led the dead home to be buried, hopping in a line; Hong Kong films of the 1980s, like Mr. Vampire, made it famous. In Chinese today 僵尸 also means a zombie.

Question 3

Where do the dead go in Chinese belief?

Accepted Answer

To the underworld, 阴间 (yīnjiān), through the gate of the dead, 鬼门关 (guǐménguān). The King of Hell, 阎王 (Yánwáng), and his judges, 判官 (pànguān), weigh each life, and the wicked are punished in the eighteen levels of hell, 十八层地狱 (shíbā céng dìyù). Then the soul crosses the Bridge of Helplessness, 奈何桥 (Nàihé Qiáo), where 孟婆 (Mèng Pó) gives it a soup to forget its past life, 孟婆汤 (Mèng Pó tāng), and it is reborn, 投胎 (tóutāi).

Question 4

What is the Chinese Ghost Festival?

Accepted Answer

中元节 (Zhōngyuán Jié), or 鬼节 (Guǐ Jié), on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, the middle of Ghost Month, when the gates of the underworld open and ghosts roam. The next one falls on Monday, August 16, 2027. Families burn paper money, 纸钱 (zhǐqián), and set out food for their ancestors and for hungry ghosts with no one to feed them; the front row at shows is left empty for the ghosts. Many people avoid swimming, staying out late at night and moving house that month. Our superstitions guide has the rest.

Question 5

Why do Chinese ghosts wear red?

Accepted Answer

Red is the colour of luck and life, and of weddings, so it is never worn to a funeral. In ghost stories the reverse holds: someone who dies in red, or is buried in red, is said to come back as a vengeful ghost, 厉鬼 (lìguǐ), stronger than any other. That is why the woman in a red dress is the most frightening ghost in Chinese horror.

Question 6

What is a Chinese ghost marriage?

Accepted Answer

冥婚 (mínghūn): a wedding for someone who died unmarried, so their soul is not alone and has family to make offerings to it. Usually two dead people are married, or the dead are married to a living person in a ceremony with a paper effigy. It is an old custom, now rare and in places against the law.

Question 7

Can’t hear it?

Accepted Answer

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	In Chinese	How to know it
Hopping corpse	僵尸 jiāngshī	Stiff, in a Qing official’s robe and hat, hopping with arms held out; a yellow paper talisman on its forehead stops it
Female ghost	女鬼 nǚguǐ	White robe, long black hair over the face; usually a woman who was wronged
Vengeful ghost	厉鬼 lìguǐ	Comes back for revenge; someone who dies in red is said to return as one, so the ghost in a red dress is the most feared
Hanged ghost	吊死鬼 diàosǐguǐ	A long tongue hanging down to its chest
Water ghost	水鬼 shuǐguǐ	A drowned soul that pulls swimmers under, to be free by taking their place
Hungry ghost	饿鬼 èguǐ	A huge belly and a neck as thin as a needle, so it can never eat its fill; fed at the Ghost Festival
Fox spirit	狐狸精 húlijīng	A fox that turns into a beautiful woman to lead men astray
White and Black Impermanence	白无常 · 黑无常 Bái Wúcháng · Hēi Wúcháng	Two guards in tall hats who come for the dead: the white one with a long tongue, 一见生财 on his hat; the black one, 天下太平
Ox-Head and Horse-Face	牛头马面 Niútóu Mǎmiàn	The underworld’s guards, a man’s body with an ox’s or a horse’s head

Chinese ghosts and spirits

Kinds of Chinese ghost, and how to know them

Ghosts

Monsters and spirits

The underworld

Souls and rebirth

The Ghost Festival

Keeping ghosts away

Everyday words with 鬼