Why is white used in funerals? What was the color worship of the ancients?

We know that in China, red and white represent different meanings, and red must be used to do happy events, while the funeral will definitely have white, mainly white, and sometimes black. But how did the custom of dividing things by color come about? Why the white color must represent the funeral, and how the funeral and the white color together? Let's take a look at it.

China's history of traditional mourning clothes also use white. In Chinese funerals, the relatives and friends of the deceased usually also arm black veil, chest pinned with small white flowers, as a way to express their condolences and respect for their dead relatives.

White, often reminiscent of ice and snow, white clouds, giving a person bright and clean, smooth, simple, elegant and chaste feeling. In Europe, white always symbolizes the purity of friendship and love. Westerners hold a wedding, the bride's wedding dress must be white. In China, the ancient literati often used plain clothes to symbolize their purity, and people of status usually wore white - "Guanzi - Young Officials": "Nine and the season, the king dresses in white."

Strangely enough, traditional Chinese funeral clothes also use white. At Chinese funerals, relatives and friends of the deceased usually also wear black veils on their arms and small white flowers on their lapels as a sign of mourning and respect for their dead loved ones. In most countries around the world, the color of the funeral dress is usually black, with black to express sadness, and white to express joy and happiness. Why are the differences between ethnic groups so different?

The use of white color for Chinese funeral clothes (plain clothes, plain clothes, plain clothes, plain crowns, etc.) began in the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty produced a five-service system, that is, according to the mourning heavy and light, workmanship thickness, cycle length, divided into five classes: Chopping bad, Qi Decay, big work, small work, fine linen. In the funeral rites, the mourning clothes are white, and it is forbidden to wear black clothes and black hats, which is called "Lamb Qiu Xuan Guan not to hang" ("Lun Yu - Xiang Party"). "Lamb's fur" is black sheepskin with the fur facing outward. The color of the mourning clothes is mainly white, which has become customized. This system, has continued to the Qing Dynasty. Widows in the Qing Dynasty, although black dress, but still need to wear white mourning clothes in the funeral.

Chinese funeral dress "white", based on traditional culture and psychological awareness of the reasons, mainly three aspects:

First, the original taboos

Color symbols and symbolism, reflecting the national cultural mentality. The color symbols of Chinese culture, built on the basis of China's early political, cultural and educational conditions, have a certain tendency to politicization and mystification. Our ancestors were unable to resist the attacks of fierce beasts because of their weakness, and their mentality is still exposed in the daylight. Faced with the danger of becoming victims of the beasts, there was an instinctive fear of the color white. Thus, white became a color taboo in Chinese culture.

"After the Han Book - Dongping Xian Wang Cang biography" contains: "is to read the old clothes of the Queen Yin, pathos, is ordered to stay in the five times clothes each one." "five time clothes", is the dress for five colors, the son of heaven at different times of the year, respectively, wearing different colors of clothing. Its colors are: spring green, summer Zhu, seasonal summer yellow, autumn white, winter black.

The white color in the "Five Seasons of Clothing" corresponds to the autumn season. Autumn is the time of nature's killing energy. The white color of mourning clothes is not only a kind of ancient and ancestor remembrance of the sacrificial clothes, but also the murderous color of mourning the dead.

In the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties, the emperor ordered all the officials to wear the "five times clothes" dress "to meet the gas five suburbs". Ming and Qing dynasties, "five times clothes" popular in the folk. Western culture, color symbolism less mysterious, white symbolism mainly from the white itself, such as snow, white flowers, etc., white only implies elegant and pure, black is the taboo color in Western culture, symbolizing death, disaster.

Second, the reverence for ancestors

China's funeral dress "still white" ritual, reflecting the people of the ancestors of the "reverence". The Historical Records - Book of Rites" cloud: "heaven and earth, the birth of this also; ancestor, the class of this also; the teacher of the ruler, the rule of this also. No heaven and earth evil birth? No ancestor evil out? Without the master of the evil rule? The three partial death, there is no peace. Therefore, the rites of the three foundations of the rites are to serve heaven above, to serve earth below, to honor the ancestors, and to promote the ruler." The Da Dai Li Ji - The Three Books of Rites also says: "There are three books of rites: Heaven and Earth, the book of birth; ancestors, the book of class; and masters, the book of governance. There is no heaven and earth, no ancestor, no master, no ruler, no one can be safe without the three. Therefore, the gift of heaven, down to the earth, in the ancestor and favor the master, is the gift of the three also."

"Honor the ancestors" is one of the "three rituals". Chinese people's earliest clothing materials taken from hemp, China's Central Plains region in ancient times did not produce cotton, in addition to animal fur, feathers from nature, the first is to Ge, hemp, silk for clothing materials. Clear hemp degumming and silk bleaching practice, naturally white, white naturally became the earliest color of the Chinese people's clothing. White is the invention of the ancestors, white mourning clothes reflect the reverence for the ancestors.

Third, the expression of piety

China's mourning clothes to white, but also reflects the ritual of "sincerity". The principle of choice of raw materials for funeral clothing is to honor the original, simple and natural. Rituals - Funeral Clothing": "funeral clothes, chopped bad clothes, tho hempen staff"; "sparse bad clothes Qi"; "not staff, hemp sandals"; "Dagong cloth bad clothes, oyma The "big work of the cloth, tasseled on the hempen, cloth belt, March, subject to a small work of decline, that is, Ge"; "small work of the cloth, hempen, bath linen belt hempen, May"; "fine linen, March".

The roughness of the raw materials, the ancients will be linked to the level of funeral rites. Ancient Chinese people on the five kinds of funeral clothing production requirements are different: Chopping down is the highest level of five clothing, on the decline of the lower garment are the most coarse linen, only cut and not sewn edge, no modification; Qi decline is second only to chopping down, wearing clothes made of coarse linen, sewing edge, so called Qi decline; Dagong, wearing clothes made of cooked linen, linen fine than Qi decline and coarse than the small work; small work, wearing clothes made of fine linen than the Dagong; linen is the five services in the The lightest one, wearing clothes made of fine linen. The more close to the deceased's funeral clothes, the more simple the processing of the latter, so that the raw material of the chopped down is raw linen.

Shiji - Book of Music, Second: "Poor knowledge of the changes, the feelings of music; the sincerity to go to the pseudo, the rites of the scripture." (Tang) Zhang Shoujie justice: "The, Ming also. The scripture is also a constant. To be clear and honest, and to be free of falsehoods, is the constant practice of etiquette." The common practice of etiquette lies in sincerity and in the removal of falsehoods. So "cloth feast, Chen bottle and altar, list fruits and beans, to lift for the rites, the end of the rites, so the Secretary in charge of the" ("Historical Records - Book of Music, the second"). Zheng Xuan note: "said the rites and music of the original by the ruler also. Rites of the original Cheng to go pseudo, music of the original poor know the change."

The inevitability of the choice of white as the color of mourning clothes, these are very well illustrated: "The gentleman is not hungry for blue silk, red and purple do not think of profane clothes", the reason is that the acquired color is usually considered a "pseudo", for the end of the rite. Using the original color of hemp (white) as the color of mourning clothes embodies the spirit of "sincerity and falsity", which is the basis of the rite of passage. And "wearing hemp and mourning" became a widespread folk custom. Then slowly evolved into today's form, all use white.

It turned out that the choice of color has so much to say, in the ancient times of technological underdevelopment, there is a kind of reverence for all things in the natural world. So the various customs used have their unique connotations. It is also such a historical background, creating today's colorful traditional culture.