A closer look
You can't take your money with you when you die, but the Ming Dynasty figured out a way to take the bureaucracy. Wealthy Chinese elites were so obsessed with property rights that they literally buried themselves with legally binding land deeds for the afterlife. These stone or clay contracts officially bought their grave plots from underground deities, ensuring that no squatter ghosts or bureaucratic demons could evict their spirits. Even in the underworld, the housing market was tightly regulated.
