ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the ethnographic account in the historical background. It traces the historical origins and transformations of contemporary visions and customs related to the dead and the yin world in Chaling’s village life and religious practices. In the long historical development of Chinese view of afterlife and the yin world, though dramatized and complicated by Buddhism ideas of hell and reincarnation, what remains unchanged is the communication between the yang and the yin where ancestors dwell for a certain period of time and lead a life that is similar to the yang world. Regular communications between ancestors and descendants take place during this period, within which the deceased function effectively as ancestors, relying on paper-made money and objects delivered by fire. This communication is the starting point to understand the rich and diverse pantheon of Chinese popular religion.
