In a civilization where death was not perceived as a traumatic experience but as an ineluctable and temporary phase of life, as it was in ancient China, most of the religious activities occurred in the places of death. The places of the dead offered opportunities for aggregation within the community and the establishment of power. In their spiritual capacity as ancestors, the dead were the main object of devotion and cult. Funerary rites and burial practices were meant to establish a communication with the dead and a point of convergence between the sphere of life and the sphere of death in a complex cosmology where the places and time of power were well defined. Just after a biological destruction had occurred, a cultural reconstruction had started, by putting together and ordering the mortal remains, through the rituals of dressing, the making of the coffins, the preparation of the mortuary chamber, the worship of the dead as ancestor, and the rituals to accompany him in the afterlife. Therefore, all the complex ritual phase, which began before death and continued for the period of mourning, must be considered as a constructive process, meant to reconstruct man’s body, delay its decomposition and bring it back to its natural habitat, together with man’s personal belongings, his family, followers and servants, sacrificed for him. In such a way he was provided with a new identity and social status and his presence and role in the world of the dead was defined. The article explores the rituals preceding the burial of the death, starting from some chapters of the Yili (for instance Tan Gong) and of the Liji (Sang Daji, The Greater Record of Mourning Rites). A few rituals described in these sources are examined: The Zhaofu ritual (summoning of the Departed Soul), an attempt to recall the hun soul back to its body; the Lian ceremony, which consists in wrapping the corpse (xiaolian) in shrouds (the higher the rank, the more numerous the shrouds) and in putting the corpse in the coffin. The shroud used to wrap the corpse during the Lian ceremony, known as lianqin, was identified with the feiyi (flying garment), listed in the inventories of funeral furnishings.

Zhongguo xian Qin shiqi de zang lisu, Liji he Liyi de bufen jilu (Mortuary Practices in Ancient China: Some Records form the Liji and the Liyi)

LIPPIELLO, Tiziana
2013-01-01

Abstract

In a civilization where death was not perceived as a traumatic experience but as an ineluctable and temporary phase of life, as it was in ancient China, most of the religious activities occurred in the places of death. The places of the dead offered opportunities for aggregation within the community and the establishment of power. In their spiritual capacity as ancestors, the dead were the main object of devotion and cult. Funerary rites and burial practices were meant to establish a communication with the dead and a point of convergence between the sphere of life and the sphere of death in a complex cosmology where the places and time of power were well defined. Just after a biological destruction had occurred, a cultural reconstruction had started, by putting together and ordering the mortal remains, through the rituals of dressing, the making of the coffins, the preparation of the mortuary chamber, the worship of the dead as ancestor, and the rituals to accompany him in the afterlife. Therefore, all the complex ritual phase, which began before death and continued for the period of mourning, must be considered as a constructive process, meant to reconstruct man’s body, delay its decomposition and bring it back to its natural habitat, together with man’s personal belongings, his family, followers and servants, sacrificed for him. In such a way he was provided with a new identity and social status and his presence and role in the world of the dead was defined. The article explores the rituals preceding the burial of the death, starting from some chapters of the Yili (for instance Tan Gong) and of the Liji (Sang Daji, The Greater Record of Mourning Rites). A few rituals described in these sources are examined: The Zhaofu ritual (summoning of the Departed Soul), an attempt to recall the hun soul back to its body; the Lian ceremony, which consists in wrapping the corpse (xiaolian) in shrouds (the higher the rank, the more numerous the shrouds) and in putting the corpse in the coffin. The shroud used to wrap the corpse during the Lian ceremony, known as lianqin, was identified with the feiyi (flying garment), listed in the inventories of funeral furnishings.
2013
Shijie Hanxue (World Sinology)
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/38294
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