Legend had it that the living walked the paths of the living, while ghosts traveled the paths of ghosts.
By day, the living moved among heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers; beneath the sun, all evil things scattered.
Once night fell and the sun set, yin energy gradually thickened. The living retreated, and a hundred ghosts emerged.
If people wished to contend with ghosts and monsters for time at night, they might as well light a lantern.
With light, they could see people, objects, and roads clearly.
People carried lanterns for illumination; ghosts carried lanterns too, to guide the way.
The wandering souls of those who died far from home had to follow the soul-summoning calls of family and friends back home; the unjustly deceased souls roaming the mortal world had to be chained and led into the netherworld by underworld officials and ghost generals.
Some had to reincarnate, while others had to return to their bodies. They came and went along the ghost path, crowded shoulder to shoulder, and needed a green lamp at the front to guide them so they would not take the wrong road.
Those guiding green lamps were what people commonly called ghost lights, glimmering and drifting through the darkness with the wind.
Travelers hurrying along at night had to ask ghosts to yield the road, and they also had to take care not to offend ghosts on their way. Otherwise, they might unknowingly stray onto a forked path and become hopelessly disoriented.
An overly bright flame was itself a kind of "offense." If the lamp was brighter than the ghost light guiding the way, muddleheaded ghosts would no longer be able to see the ghost light. All they would see was the lamp lit by a human.
They would follow the lamp without knowing where