Hell money

Hell money (Chinese: 冥鈔; pinyin: míngchāo) is a modernized form of joss paper printed to resemble legal tender bank notes.

People believe that even in the earthly court, spirits need to use money, whether to bribe officials of the afterlife or to supplement the offerings the dead person have made while they were alive, to atone for their sins.

[citation needed] Earlier examples of these notes were issued in denominations of 5 and 10 yuan and upwards, with such amounts being considered adequate until inflation took hold within China from 1944.

The obverse usually bears an effigy of the Jade Emperor, the presiding monarch of heaven in Taoism, and the countersignature of Yanluo, King of Hell (閻羅) as the "bank's gabenour".

Some notes from Vietnam even portray famous people who are deceased, such as USSR leader Joseph Stalin, US President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe,[3] though these were created as jokes and are not meant to be used as real joss money.

Alternatively, in some customs, each bank note may be folded in a specific way before being tossed into the fire due to the belief that burning real money brings bad luck.

According to the Ministry, the ban on offerings such as paper "luxury villas, sedan cars, mistresses, and other messy sacrificial items" was part of an effort to eradicate "feudal" and superstitious behavior.