We present to the domestic reader one of the volumes of the fundamental work of the outstanding sinologist Jan Jakob Maria de Groot, “The Religious System of China,” dedicated to the demonology of ancient China. In terms of its subject matter, this study is directly related to the Chinese views on the soul and spirit, on their posthumous existence. De Groot believes that the main feature of Chinese religiosity is “universalist animism,” where universalism is evidenced by the general paradigm of folk beliefs, rites and rituals and the ritual side of the state cult of imperial China, and animism extends up to animatism. The undoubted merits of de Groot's work include an extensive source base, simply fantastic in its volume and scope, as well as the fact that the outstanding Dutch scientist managed to touch the living folk tradition of beliefs and ideas about the soul, which had not yet been emasculated by either Chinese Marxism or cultural revolution. The book is written in a transparent and pure language, and the ancient Chinese stories simply fascinate with their fantasticality and extravagance, which allows us to recommend it not only to sinologists, but also to a wide range of readers.