NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM I23 



The veneration and offerings of the living descendants are abso- 

 lutely necessary for the happiness and comfort of the deceased ances- 

 tors. After death they are regarded as in a very real sense alive, and 

 as needing food, clothing, money, and many other things that they 

 had used before death. Since only male descendants can perform 

 these ceremonies, it is essential that in each family sons be born to 

 continue the family line and the ancestral worship. It is therefore 

 considered unfilial in the extreme for a son not to have sons to con- 

 tinue the family line and the ancestral worship. 



It is believed that many of life's blessings are given to the living 

 descendants by their deceased ancestors. These blessings include 

 success, happiness, and prosperity of every kind. If neglected, the 

 ancestors can inflict severe punishments upon unfilial descendants. 

 For these reasons the ancestors are even more powerful after death 

 than they were before. 



DEMONS 



We have seen that if the offerings to, and worship of, the dead 

 ancestors are discontinued because the living descendants are unfilial 

 or because there are no more descendants, then the deceased ances- 

 tors become hungry and angry, and vengeful, and inflict much pain 

 and harm upon the descendants and on other people. In short, they 

 become demons. 



Another kind of a demon is the soul of a person who has died a 

 violent or unnatural death. This includes the souls of people who 

 have been killed by falling over a cliff, who have been stabbed or shot 

 so that they bleed to death, whose throats have been cut, who have 

 been drowned, who died by hanging, or of women who died during 

 childbirth. The only way that the demon of a person who has died a 

 violent death can escape the undesirable demon condition and be re- 

 born as a human being is to cause some other person to die the same 

 way that he did. There are many stories of demons trying to cause 

 the deaths of other people. 



A tiao chin kuei is a demon who died by hanging and who seeks 

 to be reborn as a human being by causing some other person to die 

 by hanging, generally by committing suicide. A 1110 chin kuei is a 

 demon who died by cutting his throat or having his throat cut, and 

 who endeavors to cause others to die a similar death. A water demon 

 is one who drowned in a river, stream, or lake and now tries to drown 

 other people. The rescue of a drowning person may anger the demon 

 who is trying to drown that person, and the demon mav then drown 



