Robyn Lebron Ancestral souls for whom no one cared would become “hungry ghosts,” which might attack anyone in the community While the intent of all these rites was clear—to comfort ancestors rather than to suffer their wrath—the nature of ancestral existence was relatively undefined Generally speaking, the world of the ancestors was conceived as a murky, dark realm, a “yin” space ( ) While not clear on the exact details, Chinese considered the world of departed spirits similar to the world of the living in key ways They believed residents of the other realm need money and sustenance, must deal with bureaucrats, and should work (with the help of the living) to improve their fate After the arrival of Buddhism in the early centuries of the Common Era, it contributed more specific ideas about the realm of the dead as well as more exact conceptions of the relationship between one’s deeds while alive and one’s fate afterward While burial customs were more subject to local variation than funeral rites as such, throughout China there was a preference for burial over alternative means of dealing with the corpse For example, few Chinese opted for Buddhism’s custom of cremation Chinese typically saw the body as a valued gift from the ancestors that one should place whole under the soil near one’s ancestral village In addition to observing mourning customs, relatives of the deceased were obliged to care for his or her soul(s) at the home altar and at the clan ancestral hall, if one existed At the home altar the family remembered a recently deceased relative through highly personalized offerings of favorite foods and other items They remembered more distant relatives as a group in generic ancestral rites, such as those which occurred prior to family feasts at the New Year, mid-Autumn, and other festivals Indeed, one of the most significant symbolic reminders that ancestors were still part of the family was their inclusion as honored guests at holiday meals.14 Families throughout Han China made ritual sacrifices of animals and foodstuffs to deities, spirits, and ancestors at temples and shrines, in the belief that these items could be utilized by those in the spiritual realm It was thought that each person had a two-part soul: the spirit2