Chinese ghost marriage

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on the
Anthropology of kinship
Basic concepts Family Lineage Affinity Consanguinity Marriage Incest taboo Endogamy Exogamy Moiety Monogamy Polygyny Polygamy Concubinage Polyandry Bride price Bride service Dowry Parallel / cross cousins Cousin marriage Levirate Sororate Posthumous marriage Joking relationship Clan Cohabitation Fictive / Milk / Nurture kinship Descent Cognatic / Bilateral Matrilateral Lineal Collateral House society Avunculate Linealities Ambilineality Unilineality Matrilineality Patrilineality Household forms and residence Extended Matrifocal Matrilocal Neolocal Nuclear Patrilocal
Terminology Kinship terminology Classificatory terminologies By group Iroquois Crow Omaha Eskimo (Inuit) Hawaiian Sudanese Dravidian (debated)
Case studies Australian Aboriginal Burmese Chinese Philippine Polyandry in Tibet / in India Feminist Chambri Mosuo Sexuality Coming of Age in Samoa
Major theorists Diane Bell Tom Boellstorff Jack Goody W. D. Hamilton Gilbert Herdt Don Kulick Roger Lancaster Louise Lamphere Eleanor Leacock Claude Lévi-Strauss Bronisław Malinowski Margaret Mead Henrietta Moore Lewis H. Morgan Stephen O. Murray Michelle Rosaldo Gayle Rubin David M. Schneider Marilyn Strathern
Related articles Alliance theory Matrilineal / matrilocal societies Feminist anthropology Sex and Repression in Savage Society Social Bonding and Nurture Kinship "The Traffic in Women"
Social anthropology Cultural anthropology
v t e

In Chinese tradition, a ghost marriage (Chinese: 冥婚; pinyin: mínghūn; lit. 'spirit marriage') refers to a marriage in which one or both parties are deceased.^[1]

The practice can be traced back to the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), with its participants being wealthy. Its origins stem from the yin and yang philosophy, where the yin has to merge with the yang in order to achieve harmony; and the philosophy of life after death. It was believed that if a person had died as a bachelor or bachelorette, his or her spirit would feel lonely in the afterlife. As these spirits are unable to find harmony, they would return to cause harm to living family members and their descendants. Due to this belief, living family members would seek out deceased individuals of the opposite sex to accompany their deceased bachelor or bachelorette during burial.

Today, many consider the real purpose of ghost marriages to be the appeasement of the minds of the living. It is a form of bereavement therapy practiced in ancient times that is kept alive by various Chinese communities today.^[2] Despite its long history and unique practices, the original purposes of ghost marriages remain largely unknown. Even so, ghost marriages are often stigmatized and surrounded with superstitions.

Worldwide, other forms of ghost marriages are also practiced, for example in France since 1959 (see posthumous marriage; compare levirate marriage and ghost marriage in South Sudan).