Folk Coffin Burial Customs

Earth burial is a common form of burial in ancient times in China, not only the Han Chinese are mainly buried in the earth, but also the ancient Xiongnu, Turkic, Huihe and other ethnic groups are also buried in the earth as the main form of burial. The method is to use the coffin to hold the body, dig the burial hole, bury the coffin deep in the soil, and mark it with a mound. Burial caves are of various shapes, the most common being rectangular pits, but there are also those in the shape of a "sub", with a waist pit for the martyrs and burial goods. Underground chambered tombs were mostly used by the royal court and nobles, and coffins were placed in the chamber. Earth burials are related to the development of agriculture, and the progress of agriculture and the related consciousness of being close to the earth, loving the earth, and being at peace with the earth supported and promoted the development of earth burials, which became the representative burial method of the Han Chinese people. In ancient China, there is a myth and legend that Nuwa held the yellow earth and created man, and it is widely believed that man is made from the earth and should return to the earth after death. The folklore of the underworld is also consistent with earth burial. Miao people have many times to take "re-burial" method, that is, a burial after the coffin to wait for the coffin rotten and then prepare a new coffin, installed the bones of the re-burial, commonly known as "turning the body", until the bones are not picked up so far. Hui people in accordance with religious rites and customs, and still follow the earth burial. To the Hakka people living in the Meixian area traveling outsiders, often built in the hillside or built in the field of a peculiarly shaped graveyard attracted. Among the Han Chinese, the Hakka people's funeral customs and cemetery construction are very distinctive, and they practiced secondary bone burial. The Hakka people have a tradition of emphasizing filial piety and honoring ancestors. They pay special attention to the custom of mourning and burial. When an old man who has passed his prime is still in good health, the younger generation will prepare for his death by wearing birthday clothes, supplies and a coffin. When the elderly look at the coffin made of large cedar wood, they are happy that they have a place to sleep and a place to go to after they pass away. When they are happy, their spirits become stronger and their bodies more robust. However, old age, sickness and death are irresistible laws of nature. When the old man is critically ill, children and grandchildren should be customary to carry him to the hall, placed on a temporary support of the wooden bed, laying a pillow, day and night guarding and waiting. When the old man breathed his last (Hakka people commonly known as "over the body"), the survivors immediately kneel down and cry, and from the river back to the water for the face, wipe the body, put on the birthday suit, in the clan's help, the survivors set up a hearth in the upper hall, and the four out of the family and friends to report the funeral. The relatives and friends immediately came to offer their condolences, and the bereaved family held a grand family funeral. Finally, an auspicious day was chosen for the funeral and burial, amidst the sound of the drummers' mournful music and the fluttering flags and hanging scrolls. Four strong men carry the coffin and send it to the nearby hill to be buried in a pre-dug grave. Because the Hakka people live in mountainous areas, the dead are buried in the mountains, so it is commonly known as "returning the dead to the mountains". And other places to bury the dead to pile up graves, set up tombstones different, the Hakka people for the first time just hastily buried the dead, neither up tombs, nor erect tombstones, but in three years, five years or more time, and then held a grand reburial ceremony. That is what folklorists call "the second pick up the bones of the funeral," or the day of the "second funeral". After choosing a feng shui place for reburial, the family will invite the master of burial on the first day of August in the lunar calendar (around the time of the Great Cold in some areas of Fujian), and then dig the grave and open the coffin after burning incense and paying tribute. If you see the soil color black and wet, the remains will be destroyed, that is, under the cover of the oil paper umbrella, one by one to pick up the bones, and wipe clean with camellia oil. This is called the long sleep underground ancestors "hold up". Subsequently, the bones according to the structure of the human body, bent limbs loaded with people commonly known as "gold ounce" in the cylinder-shaped pottery urn. This is called "picking up gold". Finally, will be written with the name of the deceased, the birth and death of the basin-shaped round cover, reverse buckle in the gold ounce, with bricks, triple soil and other permanent cemetery, the Hakka people call it "to do the ground". Hakka graveyard, most of the mountain slopes and build, after the high front low, before and after the enclosure, the shape is like a circle-shaped backrest chair. In this regard, some people believe that the deceased will be buried in it, like letting the ancestors sit on the sunny and windy chair, very peaceful and stable. Some people believe that the construction of the Hakka cemetery, similar to the Hakka houses around the Dragon House: behind the monument buried "gold ounce" of the dome-shaped burial chamber, around the Dragon House "on the hall"; monument in front of the monument and the monument side of the left and right to build the incense burning candles of the candle nunnery, like around the Dragon House of left and right "horizontal house"; the altar in front of the monument where offerings are placed is like the "sunbathing" in front of the dragon house; the semi-circular grave pond dug and built in front of the grave is like the pond in front of the dragon house; and the semi-circular head of the grave built after the grave is just like the "Houlong Mountain" behind the dragon house. The semi-circular grave head built behind the grave is like the "Dragon Mountain" behind the Dragon House, symbolizing the place where the "Dragon Vein" is taken over. It can be seen that the Hakka people have inherited the ancient concept of "the soul of a dead person is present, and the death of a person is like the life of a person", and therefore they have taken great pains to design a graveyard for the ancestors who have long been lying in the ground in the shape of a dragon house, which is similar to the one where the ancestors lived during their lifetime. It is also worth mentioning the posthumous name of the monument. It is customary to call the male grave owner "Gong", while the female grave owner is honored as "Ru Ren". Ruoren is the ancient honorary title for the doctor, the mother or wife of the official, and the Hakka women, rich or poor, no matter how lowly, after death are called Ruoren. It is said that, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, when the Yuan soldiers were chasing the young emperor Zhao Hao, a group of Hakka women who were fetching firewood wisely saved Zhao Hao. In recognition of this "merit", the Hakka women were granted a posthumous title of "Ru Ren" after their death. About the origin of the Hakka people's second bone burial, some people believe that this is related to the Hakka people were originally residents of the Central Plains, and then constantly moved south to avoid the war. No matter where they move to, the man must be loaded with the bones of ancestors with the same pot, to be settled and then choose another place to be buried, so as not to migrate far away, can not return to his hometown to sacrifice the grave. In fact, the second bone burial is one of the ancient burial customs of the Chinese people. The Warring States period of "Liezi" and "Sui book" and other historical books, have recorded the ancient Jingchu region of some of the second pick up bone burial customs. Since modern times, the northeast Ewenke, Daur, Hezhe some hunters from the death and shaman, commonly used birch bark or reed mat wrapped remains, placed in a wooden frame or high branches, to be two or three years later, the body decayed, and then pick up the bones, casket burial. And the south of Guangxi Zhuang, Guangdong, Guangxi Yao, Yunnan Miao and Fujian, Zhejiang She, have a second bone burial customs. First coffin earth burial of the dead, after three years, five years or more time, digging graves and open coffins, first from the foot bones in order to pick up the bones, and the order of the ceramic urns, covered with a round lid, and then repair the permanent gravesite burial. As for the use of ceramic pots and urns for the burial of the dead, its history is more ancient. Archaeological excavations show that more than 6,000 years ago, Xi'an half slope people, has been used to bury the underage dead pottery urns. The Hakka people, who are residents of the Central Plains, have inherited the ancient burial customs of 6,000 years ago. The Hakka people also emphasize on whether they can find a good feng shui site for their ancestors' graves when they perform the second burial, and believe that it has a great relationship with the prosperity of the future generations. The so-called feng shui land, it is said that the importance of three: one is to have the dragon potential, that is, the veins of the mountain range, hair veins strong, rushing momentum, fall neck handsome and flexible, solid foundation, spacious. Dragon potential Lord prosperous people. The second is to have a bureau, that is, the landscape lists the peaks, the Bay ring back to support, or flag or drum, or seal or case, should be used for the base. Bureau of the Lord's fame. Third, there should be water, that is, in front of the base of the river against the river, but the river is not straight to the base, but the water back to the mouth of the ring with water. Water main wealth. For this reason, from the front row of the second burial, will be first into the bones into the gold ounce, if you can't find the auspicious place, the gold ounce will be placed in the mountain caves or fields, to be buried later. This temporary deposit "gold ounce", commonly known as "send rock". The Hakka people's second burial, social sages and insightful people, has long been criticized. Today, the Hakka people who live and work in peace and happiness, no longer migrate. To this end, the old customs, the implementation of cremation and other funeral reform is very important.

Cremation, is the body after the coffin, with fire incineration, save the ashes. This burial method is preceded by ethnic minorities. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "the death of the Qiang people burned their corpses". The Southern History - Lin Yi Chuan records: "The dead are burned in the middle of the field, which is called cremation". The Sui book of the "red earth biography", "stone country biography" have arson and burn the body of the custom of the record. After the introduction of Buddhism into our country, the Buddhist migration practice cremation, the impact on the Han Chinese, the Han Chinese in the Song Dynasty has been the practice of cremation, "Song Dynasty - Rites of Passage" has been recorded. Some places in the south of the Yangtze River have built a "human pavilion", specifically for cremation. Yuan Dynasty, cremation is more prevalent. According to "Marco Polo Travels", Beijing, Hebei, Jin, Jiang, Zhejiang, Ba Shu, etc. have "people die and burn their bodies" custom. Because of the cremation and Confucian rituals do not agree, so the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have prohibited the Han cremation decree. The ban on cremation is relatively rare among the Han Chinese, and is only practiced among the ethnic minorities. Until now, although the government advocates cremation, the people are still not accustomed to it and always think that earth burial is peaceful. The city's burial customs have been completely changed, most of them practicing cremation. This is due to the effect of governmental decrees, environmental constraints, as well as a change in people's beliefs and customs. In the countryside, especially in economically backward places, there is still a process for the complete implementation of cremation. on April 27, 1956, the Central Committee held a meeting in Huairen Hall, Zhongnanhai, and during a break in the meeting, the secretary handed Chairman Mao Zedong a folding paper, the content of which was to advocate the implementation of cremation. Initiative said: "the implementation of cremation does not take up arable land, do not need to use coffins, can save coffins and burial costs ......" The initiative proposed that state organs such as those in favor of cremation can be signed at the back. Mao Zedong read the fold, even said good, and the first signed. When the meeting was attended by 15 people signed.In February 1958, after the death of Huang Jing, who was the Minister of the First Ministry of Machinery Industry, he practiced cremation according to his own wishes. He was the first senior cadre to be cremated, and on June 1, 1960, national leader Lin Boqu (a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and vice-chairman of the National People's Congress) was the first to be cremated. Party and state leaders and senior cadres took the lead in practicing cremation, making it possible to implement cremation throughout the city.

Water burial, which is not common in China, is practiced in Kham and Tibet. After the death of a person, by the lama chanting, and then put into the river, but also in a wooden box, to the river rapids to break the wooden box, sunken body in the river. Coastal areas will be placed on the beach, the use of the rising tide into the sea and water burial. Water burial is also used to deal with special deaths, such as the Han Chinese along the Dadu River in Sichuan, the past to get infectious diseases and the death of people practicing water burial. The Dai of Yunnan Province practiced water burial for those who died of violent deaths, difficult labor, and murder. Because water burials pollute the waters, all dynasties have sought to eliminate them. Since the reform and opening up, people's thinking, concepts have changed a lot. April 26, 1988, Guangdong was the first to hold a sea burial ceremony, a large ship carrying 420 boxes of ashes of the deceased, guided by the navigation wheel, naval warships escorted to the Pearl River estuary outside the sea, in the sound of music in the family members of the ashes scattered into the sea. The whole ceremony was solemn. The new-style sea burials have been gradually popularized in cities, especially coastal cities, due to their economic, hygienic, convenient and disciplinary significance.

The sky burial, also known as open-air burial, bird burial, wind burial. This kind of burial method is the most popular among the ethnic minorities. In the Sui Book - Khitan Biography, it is written: "When parents die, they put their bodies on a small tree, and after three years, they take their bones and burn them". Tang book - suxin biography" has "dead in autumn and winter, or with its corpse to catch sable, sable eating its meat, more than the" records. The Tibetans practiced sky burial, after the death of a person, ask the lama to read scriptures, choose the date of burial. Funeral, with a cow pack body to the sky burial ground, first put the body on the funeral platform, and then in the funeral platform near the burning pine and cypress incense pile, smoke rises, notify the arrival of eagles, eagles are accustomed to see the smoke to fly to seek food. At this point, the conductor of the sky burial will be the body from the back of the cut open. If the deceased is a monk migrant, under the knife, first in the back of the meat of a religious significance of the pattern. Next, the belly is cut open, the internal organs are removed, the meat is cut, the scalp is peeled off, the head is cut off, the meat is cut into small pieces and piled up, and then the bones are crushed, blocked with tsampa, and pinched into a ball. The bones are then fed to the vulture first, and then the meat. If the bones were not fed to the family, they had to be picked up again without a single piece left, burned to ashes, and scattered in all directions. In short, the dead are disposed of in a single piece, so that the dead will "ascend to heaven". Vulture in the mountains around the sky burial ground, in addition to eating corpses, do not hurt any young animals, called "God bird", by the Tibetan protection, hunters can not be killed. Tibetans feed the bones to the bird of God, the bird of God after eating to the top of the mountain to defecate, so that the dead can be reincarnated into the noble family.

Tree burial, also known as wind burial. Northeast Ewenki people practiced tree burial, after death, the body will be wrapped and hung on the tree or put on a wooden frame, let the wind and sun, to be rotten flesh and pick up the bones after burial.

Cliff burial, also known as rock burial, is popular among ethnic minorities in the southwest. This burial method is to place the coffin in a ventilated cavern, some placed in the hole on the wooden frame, the hole with grass and trees to cover. Hanging-coffin burials make use of natural cliff caves or platforms on the cliffs, some of which have holes and piles cut into the cliffs, on which the coffins are placed. County coffin burials were popular among ethnic minorities in Fujian, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. It is commonly known as "hanging rock". Hanging coffins burial is the burial customs of some ancient Chinese southern ethnic groups, including Fujian hanging coffins burial of the longest period of time, about before the Xia Dynasty, more than 3,000 years ago. Due to the age of the hanging coffins left behind has not seen much, only in the Wuyi Mountains on the thousand-foot wall can still see a rainbow bridge board. The largest number of hanging coffins is found in the Sugar Dam in Gongxian County, Sichuan Province. The creation and formation of this funeral rite is inseparable from the local people's belief in the soul and ancestor worship. The use of hanging coffins to bury the dead is to protect the dead from encroachment. By burying the dead on a wall near the river, the dead could continue to protect and watch over his descendants and subjects with his wisdom and authority.

Complex burials are burial rites that use multiple forms. The Northern History - Gao Dong Zhuan (北史-高东传) recorded that the lower half of the body of the deceased was buried in the ground, while the upper half was not covered, a combination of wind burial and earth burial. The Biography of Lin Yi in the Northern History records the burial ritual of cremation followed by water burial. Some ethnic groups and regions use cremation, mostly cremation followed by earth burial, such as the Turks, Tibetans, etc., mostly use this compound burial method.

In addition, there are loved ones to share the body of the abdominal burial, do not give the deceased clothing naked burial, as well as drugs to store the body. Drugs to store the body should not be said to belong to the burial method, but the ancient method of disposal of the body. Egyptian mummies that is, our country Tibetan monks use this method, that is, with special spices coated body, stored in an urn, commonly known as the flesh Lama.