The ancient forms, evolution, history and present aspect, manners, customs and social institutions connected with the religious system of China. This volume contains Part I (Soul in philosophy and folk-conception) of Book II (On the soul and ancestral worship). Contents: Psychological philosophy; Cosmo-psychological philosophy, and Taoism; On the multiplicity or divisibility of the souls of man; On the parts of the body in which the soul specially dwells; Animistic ideas as suggested by shadows; On disease of the soul, its debility and derangements; On absence of the soul from living man; On reanimation after death; On the reincarnation of souls through birth; On Zoanthropy; On the descent of men from animals; On plant-spirits; On the animation of lifeless matter; On food and medicines prepared from animals and men; On apparitions, and their influence upon the fate of man; On retributive justice exercised by spirits.

高延（J.J.M.de Groot，1854-1921）

荷蘭萊頓大學漢學教授。是荷蘭籍漢學傢、進化論人類學傢，歐洲最早研究中國宗教的學者，中國宗教田野研究方麵的先驅者。不僅以他對中國宗教的開拓性研究著稱於世，而且也以他對漢人社會所做的最早的人類學研究而聞名於西方學術 界。被認為是西方到中國的第一個真正的民族學學者。本書是其漢學研究代錶作之一。

本書譯者芮傳明 等均為國內目前宗教文化、民俗學、人類學等研究領域內的佼佼者，有的更是相關研究機構及其學科的帶頭人，他們為本項目的實施提供瞭高學術專業水準的保障。