Seek the development history of ancient funeral in China.

In the primitive society of China, the religious superstition of immortality of the soul gradually appeared. There was no habit of burying relatives after death. After the concept of immortality, there was the custom of burying relatives. Tang Du's "General Code" said that in ancient times, people buried in ancient times were buried in the middle of the field with thick clothes, and there were countless mourning periods so that later saints could change coffins. In the tombstone of Banpo site, most of the buried dead face the west, which means that the soul is entrusted to the west. This concept of religious belief and ancestor worship came into being in our matriarchal clan.

In Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, funeral etiquette has developed in a systematic and procedural direction. According to records, the funeral etiquette at that time had begun to take shape, and the system of coffins, coffins and funerary wares had appeared.

By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, funeral etiquette had basically reached a gestalt: when people died, a memorial ceremony would be held, and relatives climbed onto the roof to summon the spirits of the deceased, which was called "memorial service". After the ceremony, I cried. Crying is the mourning of relatives for the deceased, and it is also a kind of etiquette. Followed by the bathing ceremony of the deceased. When taking a bath, take off the clothes of the deceased, fill the basin with water, scoop up the water with a spoon and pour it on your body, and then wash it with a thin towel made of pueraria lobata. After bathing, there will be a "get together" ceremony. "Convergence", also called "burial", is to wrap up the body and put it under the coffin. After death, the deceased is not buried immediately, but often has to wait for a period of time. This is the so-called "funeral". The time to stop the funeral is long and short. Sending the coffin to the burial place is called "mourning", which is usually called funeral. These funeral customs in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period had a great influence on later generations, and some customs have even been passed down to this day.

The funeral etiquette in the Qin and Han dynasties generally inherited the funeral etiquette system in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and further became grand. Etiquette in the funeral era of Han dynasty can be roughly divided into three stages: first, pre-burial ceremony. This stage includes evocation, bathing, eating, funeral, mourning and morgue. The second stage is the funeral, including farewell ceremony, funeral and disembarkation. The third is the memorial ceremony after burial. Burial objects include money, jewelry, tableware, seals, weapons, musical instruments, funerary wares, etc. "All utensils used by strangers should not be used for burial."

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the funeral etiquette was basically the same as that of the Han Dynasty, but the funerary funerary wares were very popular in the Han Dynasty and declined in the Wei, Jin and Southern Dynasties. But at this time, a new phenomenon of "thirst for burial" appeared in funeral etiquette. The so-called thirsty burial is to bury ahead of time without following the traditional funeral interest time procedure. "It's time to bury it at night and speed up." This is mainly because during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the whole society was in turmoil, wars continued, and the lives of ordinary people were difficult. Under this historical background, ordinary people will naturally welcome the way of thirsty burial from time to time.

In the Tang Dynasty, funeral etiquette was more inclined to the model advocated by Zhou Li. Li Shimin, a great master of the Tang Dynasty, adopted a policy of light tax and lenient to the people, which led to the grand occasion of social stability and unification of the world. "Only when you have enough food and clothing can you know the etiquette". Only when the people in the world live a well-fed life will they advocate the etiquette system in all aspects of life more consciously. Funeral etiquette in Tang Dynasty is more systematic and procedural on the basis of learning from Zhou rites. At that time, there were 66 ceremonies and red tape from the death of the deceased to the burial and foundation laying. But on the other hand, it also reflects the prosperous times of the Tang Dynasty from a specific angle.

Song people also attached great importance to funeral etiquette. In order to rectify the customs, the Song government issued many new funeral documents, which were banned by Li Yan, among which Zheng He and Li had the greatest influence. Many famous scholar-officials in the Northern Song Dynasty also wrote books about neat etiquette and talked about their own views. For example, Sima Guang of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote Sima Yi according to the Book of Rites and referring to the funeral etiquette that was feasible at that time. Although his funeral procedures were still basically the same as those of the previous generation, they were revised according to the customs of civil society at that time, and most of them were followed by literati at that time. In addition, Zhu, a master of Confucianism in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote Zhu Zi Jia Li on the basis of the Book of Rites written by Sima, adding and subtracting according to the ancient and modern systems.

Funeral etiquette in Ming and Qing Dynasties was mainly based on The Scholars and Zhu Zi Jia Li, which formed a grand and complicated funeral etiquette.