[Contents]
About This Book
A compendium of articles examines Chinese popular beliefs and customs, collecting superstitions, rituals, and folk narratives associated with birth, marriage, death, household worship, festivals, ghosts, spirits, dragons, and omens. The material ranges from practical ceremonies and commonplace taboos to mythic origin-stories and popular sayings, with notes on regional variations and textual sources. The author systematically compares motifs and customs to those found among Aryan and Semitic traditions, suggesting linguistic and cultural affinities, and organizes the material thematically to serve as a reference for students of comparative folklore and anthropology.