Chinese ghosts love good food!,

[fireball9261]

How ancient Chinese called back spirits of loved ones?

These were the food that people of Chu used to entice the spirits of their dead loved ones to come back: (recorded from the poems Zhao Hun2 and Da4 Zhao by the poet Qu Yuan2 of kingdom of Chu in the Warring States period)

(From Zhao Hun)

There are rice, new wheat, millet, and the rice cooked with sorghum. The seasonings are pickled black bean, salt, vinegar, Chinese pepper, ginger, and honey. There is stewed fatty beef shank, tender and fragrant. The local Wu’s soup is seasoned with Chinese pepper and ginger. There are boiled turtle, roasted lamb, as well as the juice of sugar cane. There are cranes with vinegar and wild ducks with little sauce. There are pan fried wild geese and wood-pigeon. There are big turtle soup (without the vegetable) and wild chicken, and they are fragrant and flavorful. There are donuts made of rice flour and honey as well as honey cakes and sweet meats. The cups are filled with milky colored wine and honey mead. When one drinks the purified clear wine with the ice, the drink is cooling and comforting. Resplendent wine cups are filled with luxurious jade-colored wine.

(From Da Zhao)

There are various grains cooked and seasoned well. There are fat whit-headed cranes, pigeons, yellow cranes, and the soup with coyote. Fresh big turtles and sweet wild chickens mixed with Chu’s cheese and ground port sauce. There are dogs with Chinese pepper and ginger, added with a little mioga ginger. There are wile vegetable蒌蒿 (hao lou2 – looks like string beans but less dense) seasoned with special Wu vinegar. All of these will not let one feel that there are too much sauce or tasteless. Spreads out here are the roasted white-headed cranes, steamed wild ducks, and the soup of quails. Fried silver carps and stewed sparrow all come to you.

I remembered that first time when I was reading these passages. It was in a weekend morning. After reading them, I quickly went to find something good to eat.

[YuehanHao]

I have it (albeit from a lesser authority) that more modern Chinese ghosts like to eat 米饭，面，豆腐，和饺子，and that they like to drink 酒，可乐，和水。How far even the ghosts have fallen in this age...

约翰好！

[fireball9261]

As long as they don't start eating hambergers and steaks. It's still OK.

Oh, they also drive BMW and watch flat screen TV. I wonder whether their concubines now wear bikinis or not.

[cdn_in_bj]

Oh, they also drive BMW and watch flat screen TV. I wonder whether their concubines now wear bikinis or not.

I can't wait to die! Oh wait, does this also apply to "lao wai" ghosts??

[LiYuanXi]

Hahaha...over here we got extreme paper goods like CREDIT cards, underwear, rolex, colour handphones, computers.. whatever you can think of!

[fireball9261]

As long as you die on the Chinese lands.