‘Guǐ hún’ literally combines ‘guǐ’ (ghost, spirit of the dead) and ‘hún’ (soul, vital essence), referring specifically to the soul or spirit of a deceased person—often imagined as lingering after death. Unlike ‘línghún’ (spirit/soul), which can be neutral or even positive (e.g., in philosophical or poetic contexts), ‘guǐ hún’ carries strong connotations of the supernatural, the eerie, or the unresolved, and appears frequently in folklore, horror stories, and traditional beliefs about the afterlife.

This term is rarely used in scientific, medical, or formal religious discourse; instead, it belongs to literary, colloquial, and folkloric registers. It implies an active, sometimes sentient presence—not just an abstract concept of life force, but a recognizable, often haunting entity. While ‘guǐ’ alone can mean ‘ghost’ or ‘devil’ (sometimes figuratively, as in ‘小鬼’ for ‘kid’), adding ‘hún’ emphasizes the spiritual, non-corporeal nature of the being.