The present paper studies cataphora in natural conversation from the perspective of epistemics. It is found that the imbalanced epistemic status towards the referent of cataphor prompts the interactants to make referential negotiation, thus touching off cataphora. Typically, it is the speaker (K+)who provides the postcedent, while there are cases where the recipient (K-)seeks confirmation by providing a candidate postcedent based on common ground, shared knowledge or contextualization cues. In so doing,the interactants achieve epistemic balance and the conversation moves forward after achieving intersubjectivity. As for the referential negotiation, four types are identified:(1)The postcedent is provided by the speaker in the same turn;(2)The postcedent is produced by the speaker after the next turn;(3)The postcedent is given by the speaker after multi-turns;(4)Sometimes the recipient provides the postcedent in the next turn.