In the early days of primitive society, people were not buried after death. Later, people gradually began to bury their bodies because they couldn't bear to be hurt by wild animals and mosquitoes and flies. Funeral etiquette appeared in the late Paleolithic period, and the funeral etiquette in China was basically established in the Western Zhou Dynasty. There is a whole set of funeral etiquette in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which is called fierce ceremony, and it is one of the five rites in the Zhou Dynasty. This point is recorded in detail in Mourning, Official Funeral, Evening Ceremony, Official Ceremony, Zhou Ceremony and Book of Rites. In the Zhou Dynasty, which advocated etiquette, funeral etiquette was a symbol of civilization, and funeral customs such as three-day burial, metric system, coffin system and funerary ware system had been formed. The funeral etiquette in Qin and Han dynasties can be roughly divided into three stages: first, the pre-burial ceremony, including funeral, evocation, bathing, eating, mourning, mourning and so on; The second is funeral, including farewell memorial service, funeral and disembarkation; The third is the memorial ceremony after burial. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, funeral was further institutionalized. Funeral etiquette in Ming Dynasty was developed on the basis of The Scholars, Kai Yuan Li and Zhu Zi Jia Li. The Qing dynasty followed the funeral etiquette of the Ming dynasty with a slight change.
Funeral etiquette generally has the following procedures:
Dead. Death is the end of the journey. China's traditional funeral culture is very particular about death. Before the death of the deceased, relatives will move him to the coffin bed in the main room to protect him at the last moment of his life. When the deceased dies, relatives must prepare a shroud for him. Generally, the shroud has no buttons but is tied with a belt, indicating that there are successors. After the bathing and dressing ceremony, there will be a meal-containing ceremony, which is a legacy of the ancient custom of "jade-containing" in China. Later generations developed into copper coins. After the death of Manchus in Northeast China, most of them contain Qianlong to make money, while Lahu people contain silver or silver dollars.
Sending a funeral report to the family members of the deceased to visit their relatives and friends in person or send someone to tell them the news of someone's death and inform them to attend the funeral at a certain time on a certain day. This is called mourning. Modern distant relatives and friends also express their condolences by letter or telephone. In some places, the custom of mourning is very strict. If a person dies, Fang's nephew must go to a relative's house to pay his respects. If a woman dies, her son and daughter must go to grandma's house to pay their respects.
According to the ancient custom, the relatives of the deceased will go to the house to summon spirits, holding a shroud in their hands and calling to the north. There were three long sounds, indicating that the soul returned to the clothes, and then went out to dress the dead. Recently, influenced by Buddhism, some people call the west, mostly for their children to call their parents, and the words are mostly "taking the western road". Pray to the Buddha that the deceased will achieve positive results. Evocation is an ancient custom, which has been omitted now.
The funeral should be arranged first. In the mourning hall, elegiac couplets sent by family members or relatives and friends are hung, wreaths are placed, and an altar is placed in front of the mourning hall, on which offerings, incense burners, candlesticks and ever-burning lamps are placed. Before you die, the ever-burning lamp should be on day and night and cannot be put out. The children of the deceased knelt on both sides of the coffin in the order of generations, and the guests mourned, and the host cried in return. During the mourning period, relatives and friends have many taboos. Don't talk about funerals at ordinary times, and don't wash your face and avoid powder to show your grief. Mourning is the key ceremony in the funeral.
There are different ways to bury death. Small burial refers to putting a shroud on the coffin for the dead, usually the day after death. A funeral ceremony was held immediately after the funeral, and the owner personally carried the body into the coffin with the help of the deacon. The funeral time is the second day of the funeral, that is, the third day after death. The bottom of the coffin should be covered with a layer of straw and then with a layer of yellow paper, indicating that the soul of the deceased can ascend to heaven. Before closing the coffin, some funerary objects should be put into the coffin, such as copper coins and silver coins under the deceased, and some things that the deceased loved before his death should also be put into the coffin. The number of nails used to nail the coffin lid is also exquisite, generally five, with a long red cloth nail at each corner and a small five-color cloth nail in the middle of the coffin head, commonly known as "descendants nail". After sealing the nail, the eldest son of the deceased got up and bit the nail with his teeth, which is called "nailing (ding)". This nail can't be abandoned unless it works, which means that he hopes that his family will "nail out" in the future and future generations will prosper.
Hanging coffins for funerals. Funeral refers to the process of sending the coffin to the cemetery. Before the funeral, no matter how rich or poor, people should ask Mr. Feng Shui to choose a "land of Feng Shui" for future generations to develop. Then, choose a funeral day to help bury the coffin. The funeral was carried out in an orderly manner according to the custom. Younger generations who are closely related to the deceased, such as nephews and nephews, one carries the photos of the deceased and the other carries the throne, walking in front, followed by the coffin, followed by the children and daughter-in-law of the deceased, followed by the undertaker. The dutiful son Pima Dai Xiao, holding a funeral stick (bamboo stick), and two others, one holding a lantern, pointed out the way to the underworld for the deceased; When a person loses paper money, it means leaving money for the dead to buy a road. At the end of the cemetery, the general guests return with the thanks of the dutiful son, who wakes up after leaving the guest and goes to the cemetery.
Bury. Burying refers to the process of putting a coffin into a grave or burying it. At the auspicious moment of burial, put the coffin slowly into the grave with a big rope. At this time, the dutiful son knelt down and played the funeral drum. Before burial in Shandong, the dutiful son will also hoard grain made of grass or branches (put the grain inside and cover it with pancakes) in the grave. At the other end of the tomb, there is also a clay pot with a soybean oil lamp as a ever-burning lamp, and some have a bronze mirror embedded in the tomb to symbolize the sun. When the coffin is buried, the eldest son will take out cereal pancakes and every relative will eat a little. After the coffin entered the cave. Relatives should each grab three handfuls of soil, sprinkle it on the coffin lid, and then cover the civil grave. After the funeral, I would like to thank the trumpeter and other relatives and hold a mourning ceremony.
After the coffin is buried, although the funeral has come to an end, in fact, the whole funeral etiquette has not really ended, and there is usually a period of mourning. Seven days after death, the ceremony of "doing seven" was held every seven days, and the "July 7" ended 49 days later. On the forty-ninth day, a ceremony of "Breaking Seven" was held, and Taoist priests and monks were invited to do Dojo, which was called "keeping peace". After chanting and confessing, children can take off their burial clothes and put on their uniforms. The longest period of filial piety is generally three years, in order to repay the "hug" of parents for three years. After the mourning period, people still have to sacrifice to the mourners on Qingming and New Year's Eve every year.
Traditional funeral procedures are complicated and burial methods are varied. The ancients believed that "it is safe to be buried in the earth", and the earth burial was the most common and earliest burial style. In addition, there are many burial methods, such as cremation, water burial, tree burial, cliff burial and celestial burial.
Burying is a form of burying the dead directly or putting them in a coffin. Cremation is also called cremation and cooked burial. This is a way of funeral in which the body is burned by fire. In China, cremation has a long history. According to archaeological findings, cremation existed in the Neolithic Age. In modern times, burial occupied and wasted land, so the government strongly advocated cremation and prohibited burial.
Cliff burial has hanging coffin burial, which is popular in the south. Some use natural platforms and stone piers on the precipice, and some put wooden coffins on the precipice by drilling holes and nailing stakes. The higher the hanging coffin is, it shows respect for the dead. The cliff burial handed down from ancient times is related to the caves where early people lived. After Taoism came into being, it was believed that people died, and the cliff tomb was above the ground, which was the place where they became immortals, so cliff burial was popular.
There are also some ethnic minorities who are popular with celestial burial.
Tree burial is a kind of burial method in which the body of the deceased is put on a big tree or a special wooden frame in the wild to dry or decompose before burying the bone, or the body is directly or cremated and filled into a tree hole. Tree burial is a primitive burial custom, which originated very early and is mainly popular among ethnic minorities in Northeast and Southwest China.
Water burial is a kind of burial method in which the deceased or his ashes are thrown into rivers, lakes and seas and let them drift with the tide. There are usually two forms: one is to throw the body of the deceased into the river, which belongs to direct water burial; One way is to sprinkle cremated ashes into the water, or throw them into the water together with the utensils containing the ashes. This way is called indirect water burial. In areas where water burial is generally carried out, there are also many burial methods. People with sudden illness, sudden death, sudden death or poverty are buried in water, while the rich and normal dead are buried in soil and cremation.