Does anyone know the exact process of Han funeral customs?

Burial is the last rite of human life. The so-called funeral rites and customs are the rites and customs of handling the dead when they are buried. In traditional Chinese culture, funeral rites and customs have an important role. It is not only in order to avoid the body of the deceased to avoid decomposition and burying activities, not only the living to express sadness for the dead rituals and customs, Confucianism through the funeral rituals to promote and implement the filial piety of the "prudent", the ruler through the funeral system to emphasize and maintain social hierarchies, and achieve the purpose of social control. Therefore, the Chinese funeral system has an extremely rich content. With the passage of time, the complicated funeral system has been simplified. What we are introducing here is mainly the funeral system in modern Jiangsu Province.

1. Lead the way. The patient or the old man will die, in advance to invite nuns to the bed in front of the reading of the lead scripture. From the bedroom to the door all the way to insert candles. Before the death of a person must take up their bed mosquito netting, otherwise it is thought that people will fall into the "net corpse city". Put a small piece of silver in the mouth of the deceased, known as the "mouth silver", it is said to be afraid of in the netherworld because of drinking Mengbo soup and lost heart. The dead should be moved to the mortuary bed in the house, head south and feet north facing the sky, and the door of the house is opened wide to facilitate the departure of the soul of the dead. Children burn tin foil paper before and after the old man's death, which is called "guide money". Burning paper sedan chair, straw shoes, the court burned ingot library and the dead clothes several pieces of life (but to remove the leather, otherwise the deceased will become a dog and horse in the next life).

2. In Wu, after death to wipe the body with water, the rich to silk damask thirteen pieces, the poor to cloth seven pieces of clothing to the dead to wear, are buttoned and no buttons. In northern Jiangsu Province, such as Gaoyou, is in the deceased stopped breathing before wearing a life jacket, also known as the old clothes. Life jacket is "five collar three waist". "Five collar" for five pieces of clothing, namely, lining, cotton jacket, cotton robe, smock, waistcoat; "three waist" for three pants, namely, lining pants, cotton pants, smocked pants. Women's mourning to change the cotton robe, horse coat for the coat, jacket, change the hooded pants for the skirt. There are family members to keep watch. Before the head of the deceased for a bowl of raw rice, called "head down rice". In front of the head and feet each lit an oil lamp, called "guiding lamp" (in Wu culture areas such as Kunshan, the deceased feet lit lamps called "long bright lamp" or "ghostly bright lamp"). The dead face covered with yellow paper, called masking paper. At night, monks and nuns are invited to do penance, which is called "turning to the convergence".

3. Funeral clothes. The death of the upper generation or generation of people to wear mourning, the death of the next generation do not wear mourning. Sons wearing hemp mourning: head linen cap (some cap hanging linen silk), cap left and right corners of the hanging cotton balls, made of white cloth robe to wear on the body for the mourning clothes, shoes covered with linen, waist tie a counter-rolling into the straw rope. Daughters and daughters-in-law in hair and hemp, wearing white cloth shirt and skirt, footsteps hemp cloth covered shoes. Grandchildren cap sewn on a small piece of red cloth. The deceased with the clan each issued a mourning cap, female mourning scarf, called "scattered mourning". The family has a funeral to "white", clothing and furniture objects where the red, all move away or use white paper covered. Two white paper strips about ten centimeters wide are pasted on the door for obituaries.

4. "Eat the head down rice". Filial piety to entertain friends and relatives all vegetarian, called "eat head down rice" (Wu called "eat tofu rice"). The deceased is old, and ate meat, after the funeral, the last meal with wine, called "thank you red".

5. Lead the way to the flame mouth. Funeral shall be arranged in accordance with Mr. Feng Shui. Family members to invite monks to overthrow the dead, called "lead the way Yankou". Some invited Taoist priests to do the dojo to drive away evil spirits and catch monsters.

6. large and small coffins. Large and small coffins and no big difference, just small coffins do not nail the tail, do not fit the coffin seam. Coffin by the matriarch and filial son of the maternal uncle coffins, get its consent before the coffin. Embalming should be determined by the moment of Mr. Feng Shui, taboo phases of the people in the coffin must be avoided. Large coffins in two or three days after the death of a small coffin in advance. The coffin is lined with lime. The corpse will be in the coffin, the first check the corpse clothes of the beads and jade, and then by the filial son of the head into the head, wipe the corpse face with water, and sprinkle wine corpse mouth. The body with a red line in the coffin, under the body pad with copper money (some with paper money), accompanied by the deceased's beloved objects for the funeral crystal. After the coffin, children and friends around the coffin for a week to the deceased to see the last glance. Then set the ascending bier, by the filial son kowtow "four sides of the head". In northern Jiangsu, cover the coffin, coffin nails with children and grandchildren daughter-in-law hair winding, with the nails into the coffin, called "pulling nails". "Seal nail", male mourning by the matriarch of the axe, female mourning by the maternal uncle fuck Ke. Filial piety must give the handle to the colorful silk or seal nail gift money.

7. Do seven. Every seven days after death, monks and Taoist priests are invited to confess and recite sutras, *** seven times, known as "do seven".

8. Back to the brake. Back to the brake commonly known as cataract, also known as skimming the green, more than ten days after death. On this day, the first room will be laid to restore the day of the dead when the original state of the gas, and then the dead clothes in the bed, neat clothes, illusion of human form. Inside the house, the cataract god with a sharp beak and claws and a horrible shape is hung on the side of the cataract, and three animals are set up to sacrifice to it.

9. Funeral. Funeral has three forms, one is the bier three years after the funeral, the second is set aside "six seven" that is, after the death of the forty-second day of the funeral, the third is buried immediately after the funeral. General burial within three days after the coffin. Funeral time, location determined by Mr. Feng Shui. Friends and relatives of children with the coffin burial. Children holding "wailing stick" (feet long willow stick). On the way to the funeral, they throw "road money" all the way. A rectangular pit is dug, and straw is burned in the pit, called "warming the pit"; then copper or paper money is placed in the corners and the center of the pit, and then the coffin is placed in the pit, called "mounting". The children, grandchildren and daughters-in-law use the lapel to put some soil on the coffin, called "skirt pocket soil"; then spade filling, made into a cone-like mound, some set up a monument in front of the tomb. The filial son will be in the hands of the wailing stick planted in front of the grave, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, each planted a row. Soon, the wailing sticks made of willow stumps will sprout and spit out branches, and if the branches flourish, it symbolizes the prosperity of the descendants and the family business. These trees are not to be cut down by future generations. After the funeral, in front of and behind the tomb, burn some paper money to the wild ghosts, called "and neighbor paper"; and then for the deceased to burn "place paper", and finally set off firecrackers. Do not look back on the way home, avoid backtracking. In front of the house, the mourners from the lit paper money jumped over.

10. burn seven. After death every seven days to raise a sacrifice, called "burn seven" or "do seven", *** seven times. On the seventh, the whole family gathered in front of the spirit, set up food offerings, or invited monks and Taoists chanting. "Six or seven", friends and relatives come to memorial, filial son of monks and nuns to do the Buddhist ceremony, or invite Taoist priests to fasting, burning paper to make a room for the dead and utensils. Married daughters make meals for the dead, called "rice exchange". The day following the seventh period of the seventh, seventeenth and twenty-seventh on the lunar calendar, then this day for the "crime of seven", the family thought that the soul of the deceased to return to the soup cans, water tanks, empty altar of the mouth of the whole cover for fear of falling into the; and will be woven woven mattresses laid out for their consumption, so-called "closed the disaster". Want to do wedding home need to hurry in the "six seven" within the marriage, called "seven within the recruitment", otherwise must be three years before the wedding.

11. Hundred sacrifice day. A hundred days after the death of the deceased held a memorial service called "Hundred Sacrifice Day", a year after the death of a memorial service called "to do the head of the anniversary", and every year thereafter, called the anniversary of the "burning anniversary". The first year of the mourning home spring couplets for white paper, the second year for green paper, the third year for yellow paper.

In summary, we can see that the concepts that influence and dominate the folk funeral customs are mainly two aspects: one is the concept of immortality of the soul and ancestor worship, and among them, Buddhism and Taoism in the netherworld and the afterlife imagined that many of the customs in the funeral have a profound impact; the second is the concept of filial piety advocated by the Confucianism, which is unique to China's Confucian ethical thinking in the funeral is the reflection of the above mentioned elaborate funeral rituals, many of which are feudalistic, but not all of them have the same meaning. rituals and customs, which has a lot of feudal superstitious colors.