After her adult son’s untimely death, a grieving mother seeks out a bride to die for so she can give him the perfect Chinese ghost wedding.

The term “ghost marriage” is a loose translation for a Chinese phrase which literally means “netherworld marriage” (冥婚,minghun). It is the marriage which involves at lease one deceased. It has many similarities to an ordinary marriage and yet is fundamentally different. In this thesis, an inscription from an ancient Chinese tomb is transcribed and translated, followed by a discussion on several key terms in the text. Through the examination of the inscription, the vision of the afterlife in ancient China is found to be both a continuation and a separation from this world.