The Ghost Brides Of Shandong Poem by David Lewis Paget

When the Gao Gao clan lost its favourite son
In a coal disaster in the mines of Shandong,
He could not be buried in the family plot
For he died unmarried, with his lifeline cut.

So they wept and they wailed for a cold ghost bride
And they searched in the village and the countryside
For a girl to carry his descendant line,
But the girls were rare, and there wasn't much time.

The corpses of long dead buried are ‘dry',
Taken from the grave beneath a star filled sky,
But the clan insisted on a corpse that was ‘wet',
A girl too recent to be dried out yet.

A farmer had bought himself a girl he could sell
For a true life marriage, but the girl wasn't well,
He could get more money for a ghost, they said,
So he strangled the girl, and he sold her, dead.

The Gao Gao's bought her and dressed her in red
And they laid her beside the son that was dead,
They carried out the ‘minghun' ceremony
That would bind them together for eternity.

Then they both were buried in the family plot,
And the brother gave them both a son he had got
Who carried on the line distinct for the dead.
So the dead son's spirit wouldn't rise, it's said.

In the Northern Provinces where coal holds sway
In Shaanxi, Shandong, and even Hebei,
When the miners die from a coalface fall
There are ghost brides buried who will marry them all.

19 December 2012