Chapter 4 deals with the afterlife and the cult of the dead, according to both Confucian and Vietnamese folk Buddhist practices. It begins with an overview of traditional Vietnamese anthropology and its influence on ancestral worship: outlining several characteristics that are the basis of ancestor worship, the discussion then turns to how the Confucian tradition linked rituals honoring the dead with filial piety, and to traditional conceptions of the soul and the afterlife in Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Then the chapter proceeds to a detailed description of the traditional funeral rites and ancestral veneration, including an account of practices surrounding the burial, as well as folk Buddhism and the afterlife. The chapter ends with a Christian evaluation of these practices.
