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THE
RELIGIOUS SYSTEM
OF
CHINA.
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PI Zll.
(Frontispiece.)
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THE
RELIGIOUS SYSTEM
OF
CHINA,
Its AmiENT Forms, Eyolvtwv, Histohy and Present Aspect.
Manners, Customs and Social Institutions connected therewith.
BY
J. J. M. DE GROOT, PH. D.
PUBLISHED WITH A SUBVENTION FROM THE DUTCH
COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
VOLUME II.
BOOK I
DISPOSAL OP THE DEAD,
Part III. The G-rave fl^rst UalfJ.
LEYDEN,
B. J. BRILL.
i894.
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All rights resoryed.
PBIMTED BT K. J. BRILL, AX LBYDSM.
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109163
AUG 3 1907
2.
CONTENTS
OF
VOLUME 11.
J Page
I Book L Disposal of the Dead.
I *
} Part III. The Grave.
{ Chapter I. The Genesis of the Grave 361.
» //. The Grave as the Dwelling of the Soul . 378.
I » ///. Placing Food and Drink in the Grave.
1 Sacrificing on the Tombs. Grave Altars
I and Grave Temples 382.
! » IV, Placing Valuables, Requisites of Life, Animals
etc. in the Grave 390.
» V, (>)ncerning lai*ge Tombs, big Tumuli, and
Grave Trees 418.
» VI , On Mourning Customs.
1. The Origin of Mourning and Fasting
for the Dead 474.
2. Renouncing the Dwelling and its
Furniture as a token of Mourning . 479.
3. Mourning as a Social and Political
Institution in Ancient and Modern
China 488.
I 4. Music prohibited during Mourning . . 605.
5. Abstaining from Sexual Intercourse and
Marriage while in Mourning . . . 608.
6. It is forbidden to separate one's self
from the Clan and divide the
Patnmony while in Mourning. . . 618.
7. Mourning observed for Rulers .... 623.
8. Mourning for Teachers 638.
9. Contact with Mourning is huilful to
Men and Gods 640.
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VIII (X)NTENTS.
Page
Part III. The Grave (Continued).
Chapter VII. Fasting for the Dead 646.
» VJII. Reaction against the Waste of Wealth in
burying the Dead 659.
Sacrificing valueless Counterfeits to the Dead 706
» IX, Concerning the Saciifice of Human Beings at
Burials, and Usages connected therewith.
l.^The Sacrifice of Human Beings at
Burials 721.
2. On the Custom of Dwelling upon Tombs. 794.
3. On Burying Deceased Wives in the
Tombs of their Pre- deceased Hus-
bands. Marriages after Death . . . 800.
4. On Burying Human Effigies with the
Dead and Placing Stone Images upon
the Tombs 806.
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PART III.
THE GRAVE.
CHAPTER I.
THE GENESIS OF THE GRAVE.
Burial underneath a layer of earth, in coffins, is the usual way
in which the Chinese dispose of their dead throughout their
Empire. Other methods, to be reviewed in the last chapter of this
Volume, are exceptional.
Our dissertation on Coffins and Grave Vaults, inserted on pages
280 sqq,, has sufficiently shown that such burial of the dead has
generally obtained in China since the remotest times into which
written documents of the Empire allow us to penetrate. Whenever
I record is made of the disposal of the bodies of sovereigns and
{ rulers, even of fabulous or pre-historic ages, it is stated that they
I were buried. From the oldest times, the written character generally
j used in the native literature to denote burial is ^, pronounced
! t sang, or whatever the local pronunciation may be in the different
i parts of the realm. In Amoy the pronunciation is tabnff. On ana-
! lyzing this character , we find that it designates a dead person ( ^ )
placed upon grass and shrubs ("f+) and with grass and shrubs
over him; indeed, as we shall forthwith demonstrate, there are
j grounds for believing that, in the dark mist of ages, burial con-
j sisted of a simple covering up of the dead with brambles over
! which some clay was laid. In ages less remote, the character for
I tsang more commonly occurs in this shape ^, the element grass
J at the foot being replaced by Jh, » earth'*.
In the eleventh chapter of the Li ki (1. 29) we read that a grandee
of the state of Ts^i who bore the name of »Kwoh Tszg-kao said
»that the word tsang meant hiding away (^\ and that such
?» hiding away arose from a desire that men should not see the
24
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362 THE GRAVE.
A> corpse"^. In fact, the word abiding away", represented by the
above character, is also pronounced tsang. On this ground Chinese
vocabularists in general agree with Kwoh TszS-kao in supposing
that the two words are synonymous. We need not lose ourselves in
the question as. to whether those writers are right, or whether
we have simply to do with an absurd play on homonymous
words, such as Chinese philologists have, especially during the
Han djmasty, always frivolously indulged in to explain not only
characters and sounds, but even social and physical phenomena.
We need only call attention to the fact that Kwoh Tszg-kao's
opinion as to the meaning of the character for burial, enunciated
in times so far distant, seems also to indicate that burial was not
originally a deep burial in the ground, but rather a superficial
concealing of the corpse, in a word, a mode of dealing with the
dead in such a way as is graphically depicted by the character ^ . ^
Besides the word tsang and its various local forms, the languages
of China contain other terms denoting burial. Of these we shall men-
tion only mai ', locally pronounced tdi or bdi at Amoy and generally
used there in combination with tsonff, as bdi-tsbng and tdi-tsbnff.
Mai, tdi and bdi sound, however, rather crude to native ears,
because, as the Shih minff said already about a score of centuries
ago, » burying without observance of the customary rites is called
»mai, this word being synonymous with mei (»to disappear,
»to do away with") and signifying a hasty delivery of the body
»to interment and decay*. In Amoy, only the very poorest
burials are sometimes denoted by the word bdi or tdi, but in all
other cases people prefer to use the word aiu ^ which means » to
put by, to clear away" and is almost synonymous with tsbng. In
the compound siu-bdi, which is likewise in general use to denote
burying, the element siu totally does away with the disagreeable
impression aroused by the word bdi when it stands alone.
^ jj^ . Section ^ ^ , I, 3.
2 If the Chinese are right in asserting that tsang, » burial", and tsang,
» to hide'*, are synonymous , then the origin of the former word is similar to that of
our own word »bury'', this being derived from the Anglo-Saxon birgan, »to hide,
to conceal", which survives in the German and in the Dutch languages as bergen,
P JK fl5 a ifc Ch. *, § 27. b ^.
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HOUSE-BURIAL IN ANCIENT TIMES. 363
Burial having been practised in China since semi-historical and
even legendary times, it would appear at first sight a rather
hopeless task to try to find out how it came into existence. But
a careful examination of the ancient writings acquaints us with
some curious customs of historical China, which were evidently
survivals of times more ancient , and these enable us to build up a
theory on the subject , especially if we consider them in their con-
nection with the ancient belief in a resurrection of the dead.
Knowing as we do from Chapt. II of the second part of this Book
(pages 263 sqg.) that the ancient Chinese, as we have learnt from
their oldest records, systematically delayed the dressing, coffining
and burying of their dead for a considerable time , in hopes that the
corpse might revive, we are certainly not going too far when we
suggest that in the very deepest night of barbarous ages they may
have kept their dead unburied for even a much longer time. Families
in which a case of death occurred may then have shrunk altogether
from removing the corpse out of their dwelling, den or cavern, and
have abandoned the latter to the deceased, taking up their dwelling
elsewhere.
This theory vrill appear more probable on learning that such a
line of conduct was pursued in the historical period when the
royal house of Cheu was seated on the throne. The / It has :
»The sacrificial articles set out on the east are the following:
y> — Two earthen jars, holding must and spirits. Round wine
»cups with a handle, and similar cups without a handle. Wooden
» spoons. A couple of white pots filled with uncut kwei pickles \
y> taro , and pickled meat of snails. Two baskets without strings (to
» fasten the covers), but with pieces of linen (to place over them) ,
» the one containing chestnuts , unselected , and the other four
» slices of dried meat. Mats to place the offerings on stand on the
» north side of the articles , and mats to stretch the corpse upon
)> while it is being dressed stand on their east.
»The pit for storing away the coffin is now dug, but only
»so deep as to leave the pegs which fasten the lid to the case
» visible" ^ The Li Id (ch. 10, 1. 25) states: » Confucius said: 'Under
i The name kwei denotes quite a number ot plants. But it is not known to
which it refers in this case.
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864 THE GRAVE.
y> the sovereigns of the Hia dynasty the coffin was stored away at
» the top of the eastern steps. The people of Yin stored it away
» between the two pillars, but those of Cheu do so at the top
» of the western steps" ^.
»When the coffin is brought in through the gate", thus the
I li continues , » the principal mourners do not wail. It is taken
»up the steps by means of a bier-carriage, and the lid is at that
y> moment placed underneath the case" •. According to Ngao Ki-kung
and the editors of the Khienlung edition, it was forthwith placed
in the above-mentioned pit.
» On the south side of the western stand of earth ' they place
» scorched com, to wit, two baskets of millet and two with panicled
» millet, each containing also dried fish and dried meat. And
» outside the gate they arrange three caldrons , the principal one to
»the north of the others. (They contain respectively:) a pig, being
»a full set of joints; nine fishes belonging to the chwen and fu
» kinds; dried meat, namely the left side (of a pig), without the
» ham. For the rest everything is the same as on the previous
» occasion"*, that is to say, as at the sacrifice of the slighter
dressing, a description of which has been given on page 84.
Now the I li describes the fuller dressing. We have already
reproduced on page 338 what it says on this point. Thereupon it
continues as follows:
»The principal mourners support the corpse while (the strong
» men) deposit it in the coffin. They stamp their feet in the same
» manner as they have done before, and the lid is fixed on. The
A» scorched com having been arranged on the spot, one basket (of
H ^ ^ ^ • Chapt. 28, 1. 2 *gg.
nzm.mAmMm^z±'^^mn^'^^
3 Our readers are reminded that for the better understanding of the ancient
rites Plate I is a plan of an ancient Chinese mansion. It shows where the two
earthen stands or tables were placed.
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BURIAL IN THE HOUSE. 865
» each kind) on either side , the coffin is covered (or plastered over)
» with clay , virhile the bystanders stamp their feet a number of
y> times not subject to any fixed rules" ^ Chapter 58 of the lA ki
(1. 88) says : » In the case of a ruler of a state they use eight
» baskets of scorched grain, containing four different kinds; for a
•»> Great officer six baskets are used, containing three kinds, and
» for an ordinary officer four baskets of two kinds. Besides, fish
» and dried meat are put in them" *.
The Li ki supplies us with some further information about this
custom of storing away the coffin in the hall of the dwelling. » In
storing away the corpse of a Son of Heaven", says its eleventh
chapter (1. 50), »they place pieces, of wood around the hearse,
» which is painted with dragons , and plaster these pieces over with
»clay, so that the coffin is covered with a vault. Over this vault
» they spread out a pall on which axe-heads are depicted, whereupon
»they contrive around the whole a houselet (of wood) plastered
» over with clay. This is a custom to be observed in the case of
»a Son of Heaven"'. And chapter 58 (1. 37) adds: »0n storing
» away the body of a feudal ruler , they use a hearse and pile up
» pieces of wood to its very top, finally constructing a plastered
» shed around it. For a Great officer they use (no hearse , but only)
»a pall, piling up the wood against the western wall (that is to
»8ay, around three sides of the coffin, this being placed at the
» foot of that wall), and they do not allow the plaster to touch the
y> coffin. In the case of an ordinary officer, the coffin is inhumed
» only so far as to leave the pegs which fasten the lid to the case
» visible, and they cover the lid over with clay. (In each of these
y> cases given) the spot is curtained off" *.
-^ . 7^ ^ . J® «l ^ . Cb. 28, 1. 16 and i8.
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366 THE GRAVE.
»The plastering with clay being accomplished", says the / It,
y> the Invoker fetches the Inscription and places it on the spot where
» the coffin is stored away. This done, the offerings (enumerated on
» pages 363 and 364) are set out. A torchbearer ascends the eastern
» steps, followed by the Invoker, who holds the napkins and mats.
» They depose the objects which they bear in the south-west comer
»of the back chamber, with the frontsides towards the east. The
» torchbearer then retires and descends the steps, while the
x> attendants take up the sacrificial articles, and the strong men,
» having washed their hands , carry the caldrons in through the
»gate. Having placed them, as on the previous occasion (see page
» 84), with the frontsides turned to the west, and the principal one
»to the north of the others, they transfer the contents to stands,
» laying the fishes with their heads on the left side, in such wise
» that the dorsal fins are turned inside, and arranging them in
» three portions (of three fishes each). Of the dried meat the joints
» of the bones are made to stick out. Now the Invoker takes the
» must in his hands, as on the previous occasion (see page 85).
» Followed by the attendants with the spirits, the pots (with kwei
» pickles etc.), the baskets (with chestnuts and dried meat) and
» the stands , he ascends the eastern steps , the grown-up males
»then stamping their feet, while the Overseers of the Waste and
y> Cultivated Grounds carry the caldrons away. Having past behind
» the pillars , the attendants with the sacrificial articles enter the
»back chamber, where the bearers of the must and the spirits
» take up their station with their faces northward. The others put
»down the pots, placing on the right side those which contain the
» pickles, and the chestnuts to the south of the latter. The dried
» meat is placed to the east of the chestnuts , the pork is placed
» near the pots , the fishes follow next , and the dried pork is
» arranged on the north of the stand. The must and the spirits
» are placed on the south side of the baskets and the (abovesaid)
A> napkins spread out over the latter, as on the previous occasion.
» When everything has been put in its place, the attendants leave
» the back chamber and station themselves on the west side of its
» door, each one higher in rank standing to the west of him who
»is lower in rank. The Invoker is the last to leave the chamber.
» Having closed the door, he places himself at the head of the attend-
»ants, and all pass on the west side of the pillars, descending by
» the western steps. At this moment the women stamp their feet.
»And when the men pass along the Double (see p. 85) by its
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BURIAL IN THE HOUSE. 867
)> south side, moving in an easterly direction, the grown-up male
» mourners stamp their feet.
»The guests now leave, on which the women stamp their feet.
»The principal mourner bowingly sees them off outside the gate,
>> re-enters, and then joins the brothers, to wail with them near
» the spot where the coffin is stored away, their faces being turned
»to the north. This done, the brothers leave the gate and are
» likewise seen off outside the gate by the principal mourner, who
» salutes them with bows. And in the end the chief mourners leave
)> the gate , which puts a stop to the wailing. All of them station
» themselves on the eastern side, turning their faces to the west;
»the gate is then closed, and the principal mourner having made
» bows with his hands joined together, he retires into his mourning
In the interesting practices thus revealed to us by the two
most important literary relics of ancient China we easily re-
cognize survivals of a much higher antiquity, nay, of barbarous
times. They show us how the savage Chinese, unable as yet
to understand the reality of death by clearly distinguishing it
fipom sleep or swoon, kept the bodies of their dead in their dens,
hoping that they would revive. From other customs, obviously
likewise survivals of barbarous times, we have learned that they
±ss.mmA. B§®4fc±^^> mMi.-^m^.
mh.mAm.±Anm=ff^^.A.nytf^
itm^m. iimffi> ±A^^TP1^^. m±a
mf^.^it.wmm^M:^.mf^.±Amwt^,
Ch. 28, 1. 18 sqq.
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368 THE GRAVE.
tried to resuscitate their dead by calling to them, by screaming
and howling (pages 243 sqq.), by pulling their limbs and shaking
them (page 257), that they stuffed their mouths with morsels of
food and placed the same at their side (pp. 356 sqq.); we find now
that in the end, when decay set in, compelling the living to keep
themselves at a distance, they cast a layer of branches or brambles
over the corpse, covering these with clay, to prevent such animals
as might be attracted by the smell from destroying the corpse.
Bearing in mind that in Central and Northern China the soil consists
mainly of clay or loess ; considering moreover that, as in the case of
nearly all barbarous peoples, the savage Chinese undoubtedly dwelt
chiefly along the sides of rivers and these, as a matter of course,
mostly flow through clay deposits, and that in those times the
soil was covered with vast woods and thickets, — then we see
that branches and brambles together with clay were the materials
assigned by nature for covering the dead, nay, the only materials
that could be found serviceable for the purpose. But before thus
withdrawing the dead from the teeth and claws of wild animals, the
living placed a provision of eatables at their side: grain deprived
of its germinating power by the process of scorching, dried fish
and dried meat — food indeed which keeps good for a long
time and would thus be fit for use at any moment, should the
expected revival occur. Neither was the soul, hovering outside the
wood and clay, forgotten: it was fed by means of a special set of
provisions, arranged in a separate part of the den, well closed in,
so that it might likewise be out of the reach of wild animals. All
these preparations made, the living wailingly called to the corpse
for the last time, in order to bring life back into it, and then
withdrew, closing the entrance of the den and taking up their
abode in a temporary shed, with the intention of returning to the
old quarters as soon as the revival should have taken place.
The Inscription spoken of in the above extracts from the / li
was a seat for the soul, the prototjrpe of the modern soul banner
which has been the object of our attention on pages 174 sqq.
Though the custom of placing it near the spot where the corpse was
stored away may have arisen in a more advanced state of civiliza-
tion, this nevertheless strengthens our theory of burial inside the
dwelling being closely connected with the hopes of the living, that
the body might be repossessed by the soul and thus return to
life. Ngao Ki-kung says: »The encoflSned body having been covered
» with clay on the spot where it was stored away , the filial sons
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MOURNING SHEDS. 369
» mournfully bore in mind that the soul might be in doubt
» whether it had to do with its own body or not , and therefore
» erected the Inscription on the spot, to give the soul cognizance
»>of the place where the body had been deposited. They did this
» out of love and respect" *.
When, says the / /t, the deceased was properly stored away in
the house underneath a layer of wood and clay, and the nearest
kindred had retired, closing the gate behind them, they took up
their abode in mourning sheds. It was indeed an established custom
in the pre-Christian epoch for such relations, whenever a case of
death occurred, to retire to such sheds, rudely built of wood and
clay. This had then even become more than a custom , being con-
sidered by the nation as a sacred rite; and as such it has been
observed through all ages down to the present day, though now in
the modified shape described on page 27. In the sixth chapter of
this Volume, which will be specially devoted to the usages connected
with the period of mourning, this subject will be dealt with more
in detail.
In the historical antiquity of China as it is revealed to us by the
/ li and the Li ki, the storing away of the dead in the hall of the
house was not a final burial, as we believe it to have been in times
still more remote. After a certain lapse of time which, as we have
seen on page 264, varied in length according to the dignity and
rank of the deceased, it was then followed by a burial outside
the house. However, there are faint traces of final home-burial
discoverable as late as the post-Christian era. The Kai yu tiung
khao *, a very valuable collection of notes on miscellaneous subjects ,
published at the close of the last century by Ch^'ao Yih \ says :
» Among the customs of the people there is one of storing away
» encoflSned corpses in the dwelling house , thus converting this
» into a burial place. In former times such proceedings were called
y> mock burials. In the T^ung tien (see page 236) mention is made
» of such a mock burial which brought good luck after three years.
y> It discusses the case of one Khih Shen who , at the death of his
y> mother having deposited her coffin outside the northern wall of
ELhienlung edition of the i /t, ch. 28, 1. 19.
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370 THE GRAVE.
» the hall of his house, was favoured with good fortune after three
» years. Wei Kwan held that he ought not to lay aside his mourning,
»and while discussing this question with him, Shen said: 'This
» country is low and wet , and high only inside the city. Therefore
» I buried her in the house in which she lived , and sacrifice
»to her in the same hall wherein she took her meals; and I do
» not see why this should not be allowed' " ^.
The Books of the Tsin Dynasty relate this episode somewhat
differently. According to them, Khih Shen lived in the third
century of our era. » When his mother was at the worst , he had
» no cart, nor did he, when she had breathed her last, ask for
y> one on which to place her encoffined corpse. His family was so
» poor that they had nothing wherewith to purchase horses ; so he
» gave the woman a mock burial outside the northern wall of the
» hall of his dwelling. Opening the door every morning and every
» evening, he worshipped her on the spot and wailed. By breeding
» fowls and cultivating garlic , and by all possible means which he
» could think of, he succeeded three years after her decease in
» procuring eight horses. Then placing the coffin on a cart, he
» conveyed it to the tomb, and carried the earth for the tumulus
»on his own back. He had scarcely finished this work, when the
» Emperor appointed him Military Commander for the subjection
»of the east. He afterwards obtained the dignity of President of
» a Board instead thereof" *.
The Kai yu ta^ung khao moreover relates : » The San liu hien
» taah , written by Ch^'ing Khi (during the Sung dynasty), says
Chapter 32.
^WW^' Ch- 52, 1. 5.
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HOUSE-BURIAL IN MODERN TIMES. 371
»that Hu Khiai having purchased a house, whilst repairing it
» found between two walls standing close each other an old hall
» with a stored-away corpse. The corpse was lying down as if it were
» alive, but on touching it it crumbled to dust. Having informed
» the authorities of the case , he transferred those remains elsewhere
» for burial" ^
Home-burial may now be supposed to have disappeared from
amongst the customs of the nation. But the temporary storing
away of coffins at home until a suitable burial site has been
procured beyond the precincts of the quarters of the living, sur-
vives, as we have had occasion to state on pages 105 seq,, and also
on page 268. That the ancient custom of covering such coffins, while
in the hall, with wood and clay has quite died out, we may
conclude from our own investigations in China and from the absence
of all reference to it in the native literature. The Khai yuen
C!odex alone gives it amongst its prescriptions. »One basket of
» scorched corn shall be placed at the head of the coffin , one
» basket at the foot, two baskets on the left, and two on the
)> right; but for officials of the sixth degree and for persons of
» still lower rank there shall be on either side only one basket.
» Subsequently the coffin must be covered with wood; this wood
» shall be plastered with clay, and over the coffin thus stored
y> away shall come a tent or awning as a protection from dust.
» An Invoker must take the Inscription and place it on the spot ,
» but for persons of the sixth degree and still lower in rank a soul
» tablet must be placed there after the storing away, on the east
y> side" •. The Rituals for Family Life contain only this rescript
relative to the Inscription, so that there is reason to conclude
that the other aforesaid practices mentioned in the Khai yuen
Codex had already fallen into disuse in the twelfth century.
Szg-ma Kwang leaves the plastering at the option of the individual.
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372 THE GHAVB.
The Ta TsHnff fung li does not say a single word about the
matter in question , from which we venture to infer that the ancient
semi-burial in the hall of the dwelling has been totally abolished
as an official rite since a couple of centuries.
Taking now for granted that in very ancient times the dwellings
of the living were used in China as graves, it is easy to see
how burial in the earth has there become the prevalent method of
disposing of the dead; for we may presume that the ancient
Chinese lived in caverns excavated in the clay. »In early times",
says chapter 30 of the lA U (1. 22), »the sovereigns, our ancestors,
»had no palaces, nor dwellings; but in winter they lived in
» artificial caverns, and during the summer in nests (huts?) made
»of branches"*. The Yik king (ch. 16) has: »In remote antiquity
men dwelt in caverns and lived in the wilderness" *, and Liu
Ngan wrote in the second century before our era: » There were
» amongst the peoples of antiquity men who lived in caves of
» declivities, and yet were not forsaken by the spirits" *. Now seeing
that in the northern provinces of China the soil consists chiefly
of loe%% clay, the conclusion becomes obvious that by those » caves
in declivities" are meant caves dug out in the steep banks formed
by rivers and riverlets washing out their courses through the loe%%;
for, there is no reason to doubt that the savage Chinese generally
lived on the banks of streams, this being a phenomenon amongst
uncivilized races all over the globe. Such cave-dwellings still exist
as abodes for millions of people. This is well known from the
descriptions given by travellers, especially from those supplied by
Dr. Von Richthofen*.
In process of time, culture advancing, the dwellings excavated
in steep banks of clay may have gradually given way to small huts
of clay. As big forests most likely covered the loe%% plains in
primeval times, branches of trees may have entered into the
construction of these huts; people may even have constructed
huts of branches and covered them over with a layer of clay.
Such dwellings, so easily erected from the materials which the soil
It ^. Sect. |g^. I.
4 China, I, ch. 2.
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ANCIENT AND MODERN CLAY DWELLINGS. 878
sapplied, constituted the common abodes of the living in semi-
historical times, being clearly defined in the SAi Idng , in an ode
generally believed to date from the twelfth century before our era.
Celebrating some of the exploits of Tan-fu , an ancestor of the royal
house of Cheu, who about the year 1825 B. C. migrated with
his clan from the present Shensi province to the country of Ki and
there founded a colony which afterwards became the principality
of Cheu, this ode says: »They made for themselves dwellings of
» clay along the rivers Ts^ii and Ts%. Their old chiefs and Tan-fu
» dwelt in sheds and caves resembling potter's kilns, for there
» were no houses then. Arrived at the foot of mount Ki . . . . he
» called his overseers of works and the chieftains of the people,
»and ordered them to erect houses. The strings were stretched,
»the boards tied together and filled up, and so the temples
» for the dead were made , grand and beautiful" ^ Even now-a-
days the walls of countless houses are thus constructed in China.
Building frames of parallel boards are filled up with clay mixed
with lime; this mixture is well rammed together, and then the
frames are raised, the lower boards being removed and placed
above; and so the process is continued till the walls are completed.
It is not unlikely that this method has developed itself from the
more primitive way of constructing huts of clay »in the shape of
potter's kilns". Such habitations are still to be found in China at
the present day by tens of thousands; and when we say that in
northern China nine tenths of all the dwelling houses are built
of clay, we certainly do not exaggerate. Reeds and rushes are
used to strengthen them, branches and wood having become
everywhere extremely scarce in consequence of the destruction of
the forests. Many of these huts are square and have flat roofs;
very numerous also are those of a round shape with vaulted
roofs. The latter at first sight are hardly distinguishable from
potter's kilns or brick-kilns such as are built in China at the
present day. At this day we may indeed compare the dwellings
of the bulk of the people to such kilns, just as did the unknown
ancient poet whose lines we have quoted.
Considering now that in primeval times the dwellings of the
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374 THE GRAVE.
living were caves excavated in the clay,, or hollow heaps of clay
strengthened inside by means of branches or rude pieces of wood;
admitting also that the ancient Chinese, when a case of death
occurred, left the corpse alone in such a dwelling, covering it up with
branches or pieces of wood over which they put some clay — then we
have not only an answer to the question how the custom of burial
arose, but also a fair idea of the shape of the oldest graves.
As civilisation advanced , improved methods of house-building arose,
such as we are introduced to by the ode of the Shi kiny, and
the houses gradually became too valuable among the well-to-do to
be deserted for the sake of the dead. Then the custom will have arisen
of depositing the latter elsewhere, in a hut constructed after the more
ancient and cheaper fashion; and it is remarkable that during the
Cheu dynasty and that of Han this is still recognizable in the graves
in so far as we know them from the ancient descriptions. Indeed,
at the temporary burial inside the dwelling (comp. page 366) pieces
of wood were piled up around the coffin and a wooden shed plastered
over with clay was constructed around these, and this was done as
late as the Han dynasty at the final burial in the grave, a wooden
vault taking, however, the place of the shed (see pages 290 and
800). But further , even at the present day the graves in the central
and northern provinces of the Empire resemble the huts of the
living in ancient times, being round heaps of clay, either vaulted
on the top I I , or semi-globular I 1 or conical / \ in
shape; the coffin inside is in many cases not sunk deep beneath
the level of the soil around, and people hardly ever neglect to
cover it with reeds, rushes or mats before piling the earth over
it. It is remarkable also that at such tumuli of the better class
there often is a stone standing in front, inserted in the clay, about
one foot in size, and cut so as to represent a closed door, like
M\IE
these figures: H T \\ If T W . No practical object being connected
with this stone, we can scarcely doubt that it represents the
entrance to the dwellings of clay in which, in times past, the
living left the dead behind. It will be seen from Chapter V that in
former centuries many of the large grave hills, such as were thrown
up for kings and grandees, possessed a sort of tunnel denoted
in the books by the character ^, being evidently nothing more
than a modification of the door of graves of humbler size. Such
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FAMILY GRAVE-OBOCNDS.
876
tunnels, now>a-days constructed exclusively for imperial tombs,
will be mentioned in our description of the Mausolea of the
S
6
r
i
monarchs of the late Ming dynasty (Ch. XIV). In that part of our
work it will also be shown that in the province of Fuhkien
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376 THE GEAVB.
people are still in the habit of constructing in front of graves of
the better sort premises exactly corresponding to the premises of
the dwellings of the living and denoted by the same names;
moreover we may state here that graves of bygone ages having
roo£3 of granite built over them like houses in miniature are extant
to this day.
Among savage and semi-civilized peoples in general, families do
not separate when their numbers are increased by birth. They
remain together for many generations, thus forming a clan or
tribe, the members of which display great mutual coherence. Such
is still the actual state of affairs in the Chinese Empire, and has
undoubtedly been handed down from antiquity. Under these
circumstances, the custom of burying the dead in their houses
must, in primeval times, naturally have called into existence
a village of the dead in or near each settlement of the living.
Family grave-yards or clan grave-grounds, as we might call
them, still abound in China at the present day, though they are
exclusively laid out by the well-to-do who can afford to procure
a plot of ground required for the purpose. Fig. 24 represents one
of the most common kind, as they are found in the province of
Chihli. The grave of the oldest ancestor is placed in the centre.
It is the largest of all, and those of younger date gradually
decrease in size, it being customary to add some clay to every
tumulus once a year, at a great festival devoted to the reparation of
tombs. The aspect of such grave-yards vividly reminds one of villages
of clay huts » resembling potter's kilns*', and the inexperienced eye
cannot at first sight distinguish them from ordinary hamlets. Anciently
every village was, no doubt, protected against inimical neighbours
by a wall of clay. This wall is in many cases still retained for
burial grounds such as the above. It sometimes runs only along
the back of the ground, but in most instances encloses three
sides, leaving the front open, where the entrance to the village
must have been. For family graves of the nobility and of the
Imperial kindred these primitive walls have become walls of bricks ,
high and strong, with a large gate in front, as the reader will
learn from Chapter XIV.
The ancient method of burying the dead in the houses under
brambles and wood over which came a layer of clay, may perhaps
render it clear how it happened that, as the ancient tradition repro-
duced on page 282 asserts, coffins or vaults of earthenware came
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COFFINS AND VAULTS OF BURNT CLAY. 377
into vogue even before coffins and vaults of wood were generally
used. The art of burning clay must have been known at a very
early date, as it may be supposed that human dwellings, when
filled with provisions of dry wood or other combustible matter,
often fell an easy prey to conflagrations which turned the clay into
one solid mass. And so it naturally occurred to the people to
discontinue the use of unbumt clay for covering up the dead at
home, and to use burnt clay instead thereof. Yet the ancient
method was not so soon entirely supplanted by the new, as is seen
from the fact that unbumt clay was still in vogue for the home-
burial during the Cheu dynasty.
25
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CHAPTER II.
THE QRAVE AS THE DWEIiLING OF THE SOUL.
In the preceding chapter the reader has been introduced to the
primeval times when the living left their dead in their dwellings, in
expectation that they might revive, and set out food and drink by
their side, in order that the manes, hovering about the body and
expected to return therein, might at any time satisfy their hunger
and thirst. These customs prove that the primeval grave was believed
to be occupied by the disembodied soul, either for all time, or
occasionally. And this belief we may suppose to have been cherished
also in later ages with regard to the huts which were then built
on purpose to store away the dead, and which have ever since been
constructed under the name of graves.
A belief in the cohabitation of the body and the soul after
the former has been deposed in its last resting place is traceable,
by means of Chinese literary remains, to very high antiquity.
In chapter VI of the second part of this Book (page 348) we
have drawn attention to it, and stated that modem burial
customs prove it to be still strongly entertained at the present
day. As likewise set forth in the same part of our work,
it lies at the bottom of a very large category of conceptions and
practices relative to the tomb, the treatment of the body which
lies therein and the worship of the soul residing on the spot — a
category so comprehensive that the description thereof will occupy
almost the whole of the present Volume and a great part of the
next Book. The belief holds so prominent a place in the Religion
of the Dead, that it may be useful to dwell for a few moments
upon it now and to insert , as a kind of introduction to this part of
our work , some extracts from the native literature showing what it
has been since ancient times, through the mediaeval ages down to
the present day.
The Li ki (chapter 30, 1. 20) has bequeathed an allocution of
Confucius to his disciples, in which the following passage occurs:
»When ceremonial usages were coming into existence, people, in
» case of death , went up to the housetop and there exclaimed :
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THE SOUL INHABITING THE GRAVE. 379
» 'Ho . . . So-and-so , come back !' After this , they filled the mouth
»oi the dead with uncooked rice and placed cooked food upon
» stands. They looked up to heaven and hid the corpse on the
» ground; the soul connected with the body descended, while
y> the sentient afflatus remained on high" \ This extract shows
that Confucius cherished the conviction that the belief in the soul's
abiding at the grave had existed from times immemorial, as also
that the human manes were thought to consist of two parts which
separated after death. This theory will be amply treated of in the
firet chapter of the next Book.
The prevalence in pre-Christian times of a belief in the presence
of the soul in the grave is also evidenced by the 27th. chapter of
the Li ki. This relates (1. 29) that Confucius, on being asked by
Tseng-tszg what the son of a concubine must do when his eldest
brother by the principal wife happened to die in a foreign coun-
try, answered: » When such an heir-son dies, the other shall an-
nounce it at the graves of the ancestors" *. Perusing the Wu Yueh
ch^un IsHu ' or » Annals of the states of Wu and Yueh" which
existed during the Cheu dynasty in the present provinces of Kiangsu
and Ch^ehkiang , we come across the following episode : » Wu once
y> more harbouring plans to attack Ts'i , the ruler of this state sent
»his daughter to Wu as a hostage. The result was that the king
» ot Wu {viz, Hoh Lu, mentioned on page 290) betrothed his eldest
»8on Po to the maiden. But, being hardly more than a child,
»she could not banish her native country from her thoughts; she
» wept and cried by day and by night, and fell ill. Hoh Lu thereupon
» built a gate in the north, gave it the name of 'Gate facing
»Ts^*, and sent the girl to the spot, that she might stroll about
» on the top of it. And still she did not turn her thoughts away
» from home. She grew worse and worse every day , and when her
»end drew near she said: *The dead have consciousness; therefore
»be sure to bury me on the top of the Yii mountains, that I
» may from thence look out upon the kingdom of Ts^i '. As Hoh
^ ^^"^n. ^i^m sect. -g^^ffi.II.
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880 THE GEAVE.
»Lu felt compassion for her, he complied with her desire to the
» letter; and she was buried on the top of the Yii mountains" '.
Although this episode savours of romantic invention, and the
historical work firom which it is quoted contains many anecdotes
of a similar unauthentic character, yet it shows at any rate that
the presence of the soul in the grave was a prevalent article of
faith in the first century of our era , when Ch^'ao Tih *, who is
unanimously stated to be the author of the book, lived and wrote.
Of a certain Yii Kwun », a standard example of filial piety who
lived in the third century, we read in the Authentic Histories:
y> His father having admonished him beforehand to beware of wine-
» drinking, he expostulated with himself whenever he had passed
»the bounds of sobriety, saying: *I have paid no heed to my
» father's exhortations; why has he given lessons to his people?*
»Then he gave himself thirty blows with a stick at his fathers
» grave'' ^. Of another man of the third century, a high dignitary
of the name of T^ien Yu *, the following is related : » Sickness
» having brought him to the verge of death , he said to his wife
»and children: 'When you bury me, be sure to lay me by the
»side of Si Men-pao*. But they objected to this, saying: 'How
»can we do so? Si Men-pao was a divine person in bygone ages!'
» Whereupon Thien Yii replied : 'His course of conduct was in
» exact contrast to mine; if the dead have influence, then he will
» certainly endow me with virtues'. His wife and children complied
»with his desire" ^
"^^mmiK. iK^j^m. n^mit. my^^m.
zm.-^M\^mK. :^i*itm#i^H+. Books
of the Tsin Dynasty, ch. 88, 1. 9. ^ EB f|^«
6 A renowned grandee of the fifth century before our era. Some particulars
about him and about his career are on record in ch. 126 of the Shi At, I. 12 sqq.
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PRESENCB OF THE SOUL IN THE GRAVE. 381
Many more extracts might be quoted &om literature to illustrate
the belief that the grave is inhabited by the soul of the dead
man who lies therein. But it would be superfluous to do so,
since the customs and practices to the description of which this
Volume and a gre€rt part of the next Book are devoted form one
long series of such illustrations. One point we cannot here pass
unnoticed. The Chinese not only think that the soul of a dead
man intimately coheres with the coffin in which his body is
inclosed, provided such a coffin be properly made of wood imbued
with Yang afflatus (page 348): — they extend this belief also to
the grave, feeling convinced that the manes thoroughly pervade the
earth which envelops the coffin. This conception is closely connected
with the doctrine preached by the fung shui system and to
which we shall have to revert especially in the twelfth chapter of this
Volume, that a grave works efficaciously upon the prosperity of the
of&pring in case it is placed on such a spot and in such a posi-
tion that the life-emanating influences of the heavens or the Yang
principle can freely concentrate upon it and pervade it in all its
parts. The following extract may show the firm hold it had upon
the people in times gone by. » According to the Memoirs of Wu,
»Ching Tsuen, whose title was Wen-yuen, was a wine bibber
»who, when his death was imminent, said to his comrades:
» 'Bury me in the immediate neighbourhood of a potter's kiln , in
» order that, when my person has been converted into earth after
»a hundred years, I may be lucky enough to be made a wine-
»pot of; this would really steal my heart'" \ Although this story
be no more than a joke of a whimsical drunkard, yet it may
serve as a proof that Ching Tsuen believed his sentient entity
could possibly inhabit the clay of his tomb even after it had
passed through the blazing heat of a potter's fire.
^ ^ ^ "T* "fjlL ^ ' ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^® Three Kingdoms ; Memoirs of Wei ,
1^ S \ H ^ ^ ^' ^^^^ ^^ ^ ^^' ^^' ^^^' ^' ^'
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CHAPTER III.
PIACING FOOD AND DRINK IN THE GRAVE.
SACRIFICING ON THE TOMBS.
GRAVE ALTARS AND GRAVE TEMPLES.
In the last chapter of the First Volume (p. 356) we have described
how the Chinese, in the most ancient times on record, filled the
mouth of the dead with rice, and set eatables by the side of
the corpse, that it might have food ready at hand at the moment
of revival. And in the first chapter of the present Volume we have
stated that they placed scorched grain with dried fish and meat
near the corpse when it was temporarily buried inside the dwelling.
No wonder then that they observed this same custom also on
depositing the corpse in the grave, graves being, according to our
theory set forth in the first chapter, originally the common human
dwellings of clay wherein the living left the dead alone in expect-
ation of their return to life.
Burying food with the dead was a custom of wide prevalence
during the Cheu dynasty, as may be inferred from the fact that
it was then an established rite of generally acknowledged import.
In those times, as may be seen from passages quoted from the
/ li on our page 198 , sacrificial meat which had done service at
the farewell sacrifice was carried to the tomb in baskets placed in
carts specially assigned for this purpose, and concealed inside the
vault by the side of the coflSin. The same work sums up the
articles of consumption destined for the grave in the case of
ordinary officers and their nearest relations as follows : » Two baskets
»(for the meat). Three hampers, holding respectively millet, panicled
» millet, and wheat \ These hampers are made of kien grass, and
» their contents are all washed clean \ Three earthen pots with
» pickled meat, preserved meat and sliced food; they are covered
>> with coarse linen. Two earthen jars with must and spirits, covered
i l;Zl. ^H. ^. ^, ^. Chapt. 29. I. 34.
2 WWH. ^W^Vi-Ch. 31,1.45.
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PLACING FOOD AND SPIRITS IN THE GRAVE. 383
» with linen of fine texture. All these articles are placed on
y> wooden trays" \ »The must", adds chapter 54 of the Li ki (1. 16),
» is distilled from rice. The wooden trays containing the pots , jars
»and hampers having been placed inside the visible part {i, e, the
» vault), the wooden frame (see page 290) is inserted in the pit" ^.
The quantity of victuals placed in the grave was proportioned to
the position of the deceased. This is proved by the extract from the
lA At, reproduced on page 198, and by a passage from the same
Classic (chapter 12, 1. 1), which reads: »When the eldest son of a
» Ruler by his principal wife dies between sixteen and nineteen
» years of age, there are three carts; when his son by a concubine
»dies at that age, there is only one cart, and there is one also
» at the burial of the eldest son of a Great officer by his principal
» wife, if he is between sixteen and nineteen years old" *.
It appears that in C!onfucius' time the quantity of edibles
placed in the grave in case of members of princely families was
sometimes excessively great. » When Siang, the Ruler of the state
»of Sung, committed his consort to the earth, there were", it is
stated in the eleventh chapter of the Li ki (1. 24), » one hundred
»pots of pickled and preserved meat. Tseng-tsz6 said: 'They call
»such things articles for the use of the soul, and yet he filled
» them !' " *. This disapprobation pronounced by the principal disciple
of (]!onfricius shows that in those times the victuals placed in the
tomb were no longer regarded as being destined for the body, but
were rather believed to constitute a sacrifice to the manes which,
according to the prevailing opinions, dwelt with the corpse in the
grave. The passage furthermore seems to indicate that it had then
become habitual not to fill the pots, which signifies a decline of
the ancient custom bordering on extinction. And finally, we learn
from it that ethical philosophy at that time had raised its voice
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884 THB GEAYE.
in favour of simplicity in regard to the custom. Exaggerated
simplicity was nevertheless decried as sinful, for in chapter 13 ot
the Li ki (1. 5) we read: >>Yiu Joh (a disciple of Confucius) said:
»*Ngan-tszg, who wore the same robe of fox fur for thirty years,
»had only one cart of victuals sent off, and this, on arriving at
» the grave , was sent back home. The Ruler of a state has seven
» victims, and seven carts for sending them to the tomb; a Great
»oflSicer has five victims and five such carts; how can Ngan-tsz6,
» (whose father was a Great oflBcer) be said to know well the
» established rites?' " \
By the way it may be noted that carts for convejring articles
of food to the grave at burials are mentioned also in the Cheu li.
»At Great funerals'', says this book, »the Decorator of Carts
» decorates the carts which are sent away to the grave, subsequently
» arranging them in order and starting them" *.
As stated above, it had become an established notion already
in the time of Confucius that the victuals placed in the grave were
destined for the soul. In later ages, this notion gradually induced
people to replace such offerings by sacrifices upon the tomb it
being more convenient for the living to present them in this wise,
while on the other hand the soul could partake of them just as
easily. Moreover, such victuals could be renewed from time to time,
and thus answer the purpose of refreshing the disembodied soul better.
As a matter of fact the books of the pre-Christian epoch contain but
very scanty references to sacrifices upon the graves, while in later
times the practice of placing food inside the grave has become
entirely obsolete. Neither do the said books say a single word about
sacrifices on the tomb at the time of burial; and from the fact that
the / it is silent about such a ceremony, notwithstanding, as has
been shown on pages 83, 118, 151 and 363, it contains elaborate
descriptions of several sacrifices connected with other funeral cus-
toms, we may conclude that sacrificing on the tombs was, in the
age of Cheu , by no means an integrate part of the rites connected
with deaths.
As to the scanty references of the ancient books to sacrifices
1 ^^B> ^'f'-um^-i'^.mm-m.n
ami. ^Tl^H-Sect. ^^.11.2.
2 riifLAHIilil;*. ^J^^«:tch-27.i.i7.
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SACEIPICINQ ON THE TOMBS. 886
upon the tombs — we have seen on page 283 how the SAi ki
relates that in the twelfth century before our era the loyal Fei-Uen ,
in fulfilling his duty towards his monarch Cheu^ erected an altar
on his grave. This naturally suggests that sacrifices on tombs
were in vogue at that time. And although little credit is to be given
to this Fei-lien episode, which rests perhaps on no historical base,
yet it proves unmistakably that in the second century before our
era, when the SAi ki was composed, there either prevailed, or had
prevailed, a belief that grave altars existed in very ancient times.
The CAeu li has: »The Officer for the Graves acts as a substitute
for the deceased at every sacrifice on the tombs" \ This passage
indicates that during the Cheu dynasty such sacrifices were even an
acknowledged institution of the State. Searching the Li ki, we find
(chapter 27, 1. 29) that Confucius, on being asked by Tseng-tszg in
what wise the son of a concubine ought to present the sacrifices
to his father when the eldest son by the principal wife was abroad,
answered: » He shall erect an altar in front of the grave, and
sacrifice there at each of the four seasons" ^.
Evidence of the existence of sacrifices of food upon the graves in
the pre-Christian epoch is afforded also by the works of Mencius.
There we read : » A man of Ts^i had a wife and a concubine living
» with him in the same house. Whenever the good man went out,
»he returned, satiated with spirits and meat, and when his wife
)> asked him with whom he had been eating and drinking, he
y> declared the people were- all rich and honourable men. The wife
y> thereupon said to the concubine : *I asked him with whom he is
y> always eating and drinking; they are all rich and honourable people,
» and yet no man of distinction has ever made his appearance here :
» — I will spy out where the good man goes*. Early the next mom-
»ing she rose and secretly followed wherever the good man went.
y> Nobody stopped him on his way through the town to talk with him,
» but at last he came to some people offering sacrifices among the
» graves beyond the eastern wall of the city , of whom he begged
» the leavings. Not being satisfied , he looked about and found an-
» other party ; and this was the way in which he satiated himself' ^.
2 il ^ fl5 1S« Ait 1^^. Sect, ^^ra^n
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386 THE GRAVE.
After having supplanted the ancient custom of placing provisions
inside the grave, sacrifices upon the tomb have maintained
themselves as an integral part of the Religion of the Dead down
to the present day. The sacrifice which is offered at the time
of interment has been described in its modem form on pages
225 seq.; those offered at regular periods after the burial for a
series of years, nay, in many cases for ages, will be passed in
review in our Second Book, which treats of the Soul and its
Worship.
The propensity inherent to the whole Chinese nation of main-
taining customs simply because they are ancient, has caused the
victualing of the graves to remain an institution of the State for
ages. It was strictly upheld as such at the imperial burials of the
Han dynasty, as may be seen from some clauses quoted on page
402, and as late as the eighth century the following rescript was
laid down in the Khai yuen Codex: »As for the carts sent to
y> the grave : when the sacrifice at the sending away of the dead
»(see page 152) is finished, the assistants take the baskets of
» Calamus rushes and fill seven of them with pieces cut from the
» lower parts of the sacrificial victims. In the case of official persons
»of the fourth or the fifth degree however, the number of
» baskets is five; for those of the sixth degree and all those of
» lower rank there are two baskets. The five kinds of cereals and
»the uncooked rice are put in five hampers, each holding one
y> peck and three pints ; covers of plain linen are spread out over
» these. And the spirits are in jars of five pints each , covered
»with linen of fine texture; the preserved meat is in two earthen
» pots , each holding two pints and covered with plain linen" \
^fi^Kz^z,m^^mm±m^.^zMM
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VICTUALING THB GRAVES IN LATER TIMES. 887
Amongst its rules for interment the same Codex carefully prescribes
in which way all these things must be arranged around the coffin
in the grave, and where the seating dishes''^, which are to be
buried at the same time, must be placed.
It is prescribed also in Chu Hi's Rituals for Family life that,
y> when the pit has been filled up halfway with earth , the articles
» destined for the manes must be placed inside and covered with a
» cloth, after which come the baskets , hampers and pots , which are
» stowed away in a little room at the side , the opening to which
» is subsequently closed with boards" *. A sacrifice upon the grave
at the time of burial was prescribed by both the Khai yuen
CJodex and the Rituals of Chu Hi ; they say namely that offerings
must be arranged in front of the cart with the soul tablet, when
this has arrived on the spot. Among the official regulations laid
down in the Collective Statutes of the Great House of Ming for
the funerals of deceased servants of the State, there was one to
this effect that uncooked rice, spirits, dried meat, preserved meat
and pickled meat should be placed in the pit, together with eating
implements ; but for the common people the work prescribed nothing
of the kind.
The d3niasty which now bears sway in China has abolished the
burial of victuals as an official rite, at least the Ta Titing fung li
does not give any precepts on this head. This work orders, however,
that at burials of members of the Imperial family offerings and
libations shall, with the accompaniment of the wailing voices of all
those attending, be made upon the tomb by the principal mourner,
while at those of the nobility, the official classes and the common
people such sacrifices shaU be set out on the spot in front of the
soul tablet. The actual state of matters seems to be in conformity
with these precepts, for we have never seen or heard anything of a
still prevailing custom of placing food in the graves, while, on
the other hand, offerings upon the tombs, both at the burial and
afterwards, are very general.
It has been shown by some of the extracts quoted in this chap-
ter that the sacrifices offered upon the graves gave rise to grave
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388 THE GRAVE.
altars already at an early date. Temples being in fact only altars
constructed on an enlarged and improved scale, we need not wonder
that such buildings were erected on imperial tombs in pre-Christian
times. » Anciently", thus we read, » there was no sacrificing on
»the tombs, but during the dynasty of Han a park with a
» temple was added as an appendage to each of the imperial
» mausolea , in imitation of the House of TsHn" ^. Elsewhere we
read: »In ancient times there was no sacrificing on the tombs, but
» Shi Hwang of the House of Ts^'in erected a temple at the side
)>of his tomb, and this was imitated by the Han dynasty and
»has not since been abolished"*. It may be asked, however,
whether it is not somewhat improbable that such buildings should
have come into vogue so suddenly, and whether it would not be
more natural to consider them as products of a gradual development
of the altars which were erected on the graves in far earlier
times. The truth may be that Shi Hwang, having subjected the
whole Empire and thus covered himself with an aureole of fame
hitherto unparalleled, was the first to have a temple erected on
his grave ground in a style so grand as to attract the attention of
historians; at any rate it is certain he bestowed more labour upon
his mausoleum than ever any Chinese monarch had done before.
More particulars on this head will be found on pages 399 seq.
Sacrificial temples erected on graves of grandees are oftentimes
cursorily mentioned in the literature of subsequent ages. The General
Memoirs of Shantung Province ^ say that a temple stood on the grave
of Tseng-tszS, the principal disciple of Confucius, and that long
before A. D. 1037 there was one on the tomb of Mencius also. It
seems to have always been customary with the emperors, in the
case of deserving statesmen to allow the costs connected with
the erection of such buildings, and also those of the grave itself,
to be defrayed either partly or wholly by the oflBcial treasury.
For it is stated in the Collective Statutes of the Great House of
Ming that the first sovereign of this dynasty »in the 26th. year
1 *:fjm^. mmmw^mm. ^mmi^^-
Books of the Later Han Dynasty, cb. 19, 1. 6.
» Rules of the Han Dynasty for Official Dignitaries** |^ ^ "^ « ^P* ^o^^^ of
the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 2, 1. 4.
^ LU ^L I£ ^^ ^P' ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ cKingy sect. jgJA fi^i, ch. 134.
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TEMPLES BUILT ON GRAVES. 889
» of the Hung wu period (A. D. 1393) issued an edict, stating
y>thBt from that moment no more sacrificial halls might be built
»at the decease of officials of merit; that the burial ground and
y> the requisites of the obsequies should be entirely provided by
» themselves, and that the outlay was to be defrayed by the
» government only in case the individual in question had perished
» on the field of battle" \
The dynasty now seated on the throne of the Empire allows
the erection of grave temples exclusively for certain members of
the Imperial family. This will be set forth in our Fifth Chapter,
which, together with the Fourteenth, contains also some particulars
about such buildings.
kin t'u 8hu isih ch'ing^ sect. JA M., ch. 133.
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CHAPTER IV.
PliAClNQ VALUABLES, RIfiaUISITES OF LIFE, ANIMALS ETC.
IN THE GRAVE.
If the soul really inhabits the grave, will it not then want
other things besides food and drink? Uncivilized man naturally
answered this question in the aflSirmative. The Chinese of antiquity
satisfied the imaginary wants of their dead with a lavish hand,
and few things afford stronger proof of the veneration in which
they held them than the treasures and valuables, which they have
buried in their tombs until comparatively recent times.
Considering that by far the most savage tribes, in whatever part
of the globe they are living, are in the habit of deposing in the
graves articles of daily use, and that the same custom widely
prevailed among the Chinese in ancient historical times, it can
scarcely be doubted that the articles buried with the dead by
the prehistoric Chinese must have been exceedingly numerous.
And after having had a mighty hold upon the people for a long
series of ages, the custom, though it waned away in process of
time, had retained a character for sacredness even in the Confucian
epoch. It is recorded in the Li ki (ch. 9, 1. 18) that a disciple of
this sage, »T8zg-sz6, said: 'When on the third day after the decease
»the body is coffined, then be sure to act sincerely and honestly
» with regard to whatever is deposited near the corpse , lest you
» should repent ! And be sure to be sincere and honest also with
» regard to the placing of articles by the coffin at the interment
»in the third month, lest you should repent!'" ^ This menace
shows that it was a prevailing conviction in those times that evil
might easily overtake those who fell short in richly equipping the
dead in their tomb; and doubtless such evil was regarded as being
inflicted by the revengeful soul itself.
^1i .^ :^^'KI ii :? ^- sect. =^ ^. I. i.
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PLACING PIfiCES OF SILK IN THE GRAVE. 391
Among the articles the placing of which in the tomb had become
an established rite during the Chen dynasty, silken stuffs, such
as were probably used in making clothes, first claim our atten-
tion. Already on pages 168 seq, it has been shown by quotations
from the / It that it was then customary for princes and dignitaries
to present such articles to deceased servants of the state, that
friends gave them to their friends, and acquaintances to their
acquaintances. Silks were even offered to the dead while the funeral
procession was on its way to the burial ground, the / li stating
in its description of the rules to be observed at the obsequies of
ordinary officers and their principal kinsmen: » Arriving at the
»gate of the city, a steward deputed by the Ruler presents a
» parcel of black and scarlet silk to the deceased. The principal
» mourner, laying his mourning staff aside and putting a stop to his
» wailing, remains on the left side of the coffin while listening to the
» message, and after the bearer has delivered this from the right
»side, wails and bows, knocking his forehead against the ground.
y> The messenger then ascends the bier to place the silk underneath
»the catafalque. This done, he descends; the principal mourner
y> bowingly sees him off, returns to his place in the procession
»and takes his staff in his hand, the escort of death thereupon
» continuing its way. The coffin having been let down into the
» grave, the gifts that have been bestowed upon the dead are
» presented , viz., parcels of black and scarlet silk in pieces eighteen
»feet long; and having made some bows, the principal mourner
y> knocks his head against the ground and stamps his feet as
y> before" \
The custom of burying silks with the dead is mentioned also a
couple of times in the Li hi. In its 54th chapter (1. 27) this book
has : y> Among the people of the state of Lu the gifts consisted of
V three pieces of black silk and two pieces of red, each piece
» bemg one foot broad and as long as a piece of full length" *.
f.Btffl«#i:il^>^^^.fil*I^Ch. 30, 1.34-38.
lea 2.
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892 THE GRAVE.
And in chapter 12 (1. 34) we read: » After the coflSn has been let
down into the grave , the principal mourner offers the gifts" \
On pages 34 seq. and 340 seq. has been described how in
ancient times zealous superiors, relations and friends used to
contribute large numbers of grave garments to notable persons.
As already suggested on page 341, it seems not improbable that
those garments, inasmuch as they could not be used for dressing
the corpse, were placed in the grave, or that at least it was so in
the earliest ages. During the Cheu dynasty, burying clothes with the
dead did not occupy, however, a place amongst the prescribed rites,
if we are allowed to draw this conclusion from the fact that
nowhere in the Three Rituals do we find any clear reference to it.
Nevertheless the matter was then by no means obsolete, for, an
extract from the Si-king tsah ki, given on page 398, says that
during the reign of the House of Han decayed remains of a large
number of clothes were discovered in the tomb of a feudal prince
of the third century before our era. During the Han dynasty
burying clothes and sacrificial garments was an established rite
connected with imperial obsequies, as will be shown on page 403.
Besides clothes, or material to make clothes of, articles of all
kinds and descriptions were in the pre-Christian epoch buried vrith
the dead. For people of rank, the side curtains of the catafalque
which had served to convey the corpse to the tomb were placed
inside the grave, as also the boards exhibiting the rank of the
deceased; this may be seen in an extract from the lA ki, quoted
on page 282. This custom was still maintained as late as the
T^ang djniasty, the Codex of the Khai yuen period prescribing
its observance for officials of the three highest classes, while those
of the fourth class and of lower rank were to have the boards
only placed inside the grave.
During the Cheu dynasty, at burials of royal personages the
musical instruments which had been played by the court-musicians
during the interment, went the same way, as appears by three
quotations from the CAeu li cited on page 159. Even the shields,
plumes and flutes which had done service at the dances executed
during the funeral were buried, as it is stated in the CAeu li
vthat the Officers of the Shields at Great Funerals arrange
»the implements used at the execution of dances, and at the
^.± ABi-Sect. ®^.n,i.
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ARTICLES BURIED WITH THE DEAD. 393
» interment take them up, to store them away in the grave" ^
Objects of every kind which were believed to be useful to the dead
and which were placed in the grave with them, are very often
denoted in the Three Rituals as » implements or utensils of death"
^ :^ , or » implements for the manes" ^ ^ . These terms may
include also dishes and bowls, such articles being likewise
denoted in Chinese by the character ^. In the CAeu It we
read that » the Officer for the Graves, after the coffin has been
» placed in the grave, enters, in order to store away therein the
» implements of death" '. And in its 46th. chapter (1. 41) the
Li ki says : » As to the course of conduct to be followed with
» regard to the articles for the manes — even though a large
» number of these be exposed , it is allowed to place a small num-
» ber in the grave ; and it is permitted also to bury them all with
» the dead when only a small quantity are displayed" \ Ching
Khang-ch*ing and Khung Ying-tah both think that this passage
refers to a custom, then prevalent among friends and relatives,
of contributing articles for the tomb, and that many of these
were only presented and exhibited for the sake of show *. If they
are right, then this custom may be ranked side by side with that
of presenting grave clothes, these being likewise displayed during
the preparation of the dead for the graVe (see pages 334 seq., 337,
340 sqq.) and buried along with him.
Such exhibitions of articles for the grave took place j&rst at
home, before the deceased was carried away for burial, and
afterwards once more, near the burial ground. This appears by the
following extract from the / li, which is also interesting as showing
what sort of things used to be buried with ordinary officers. »The
» implements for the manes are exhibited on the west side of the
» driving cars'. They consist of objects of use, to wit, bows and
» arrows, ploughshares, a couple of vases, a couple of bathing
»tubs, and a washbasin in which a ewer is placed; this ewer is
i^ «^ :2: "^ ifc • Sect. 3|Jf yMB. II.
4 See the Khieolung edition of the Li ki^ loc, cit.
26
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394 THE GRAVE.
» placed in such a way that its spout is on the south side. Sacrificial
» utensils there are none, but there may be instruments of music,
» such as are used when celebrating festive meals. Of instruments
» of war there are coats of mail , helmets , shields and quivers ;
»and as to articles for use when at leisure, there are staffs,
» parasols of bamboo,' and fans^. Arrived at the burial pit, the
» implements are arranged on the east side of the road, the
» principal being placed on the north-west side The coffin is
» let down into the grave .... the utensils are stored up at the
»side of it, and then the screens and the roof of the catafalque
»are placed over them, the baskets with sacrificial meat and the
» hampers being stored away at the side" *.
Elsewhere in the / /* particulars are given concerning these
bows and arrows and their appurtenances. » They are new , but of
» a coarse construction , tipped at both ends and ornamented. They
» may also be flexible. There are furthermore pieces of bamboo to
» tie on the inside of bows when unstrung, lest they should lose
» their good qualities. On the spot are laid out pieces of leather
» to wrap around the strings, and pieces for the centre of the bows,
» through which the arrows, when shot off, may slip away. Further
» there are quivers \Jb keep the bows in. There is one set of four
» waiting arrows *; they have heads of bone and short feathers. Also
» one set of four training arrows, the centre of gravity of which lies
» in the middle and which have likewise short feathers" *.
Note that arrows with heads of bone were buried with the dead
even in times when the use of iron was common. This introduces
us to the survival of a custom of pre-historic ages, maintaining
itself by religious conservatism, and which may be classed among
t^^. MM.. li^W J^ 5^- C'' 30,1.36-40.
3 So called because they were used when Ijdng in wait to surprise an enemy,
or an animal.
*^^^ff. ft&^.W 51161. *5I Wife. ^
^ — m > if li Jl' . :^ M tr- C^- 31, 1. 53-55.
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WEAPONS, HORSES AND JADE BURIED WITH THE DEAD. 896
instances of similar survivals given on pages 287 and 397. Ching
Khang-ch'ing says: A>That these arrows had heads of bone and
» short feathers shows that they were unj&t for use, since the
» arrows in use among the living were well-feathered and had heads
y> of metal" *.
The sovereigns of the house of Cheu had also horses interred
with them. »At Great funerals", the CAeu li says, »the Great
» Marshal presents horses as victims at the funeral sacrifice, an-
» nouncing this to the deceased" '. » These horses were led to
»the grave and stored away therein, while an announcement
» thereof was made to the dead" ^ adds Ching Khang-ch^'ing. This
assertion seems to be based upon another passage in the Cheu li,
to this effect: »At Great funerals, the Officer for the Horse-pens
» decorates the horses of the carriages which are sent to the tomb ,
y> and buries them at the interment" *. It does not appear from
these passages whether such horses were buried alive or whether
they were first immolated.
Jade stone, so valuable to the ancient Chinese, was likewise
interred with their sovereigns and feudal lords. The Cheu li says:
»At Great funerals, the First Minister of State is to assist when
» jade is bestowed upop the defunct and when jade is placed in his
» mouth '. And the Manager of the Signets of Jade provides , at
» Great funerals, the bruised jade which is to be mixed up with the
»rice for the mouth of the dead; further he provides the pieces
»of jade for the mouth, and the jade which is to be presented to
» the deceased in the grave" •. From our dissertation on the placing
of precious objects in the mouth of the dead (p. 269 sqq,) the
reader is aware that, in ancient times, jade used to be placed
both upon and inside corpses because of a prevailing conviction
that the precious stone could prevent corruption and facilitate
revival. No doubt this conviction also prompted the placing of
edition of the I li, ch. 31, 1. 55.
2 :A: Bj H :^ H H ^^ 13 H #. ch. 29, 1. 46.
6 J»i«:A:l|^m3S.-^3S.«i3Ech.2o.i.46.
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396 THE GRAVE.
ornaments of jade in the grave outside the coffin. Similar ideas
having, as shown in the same dissertation , obtained in regard of
pearls, gold and cowries, we may well suppose that during the
Cheu dynasty and subsequent Royal houses these and similar
valuables played an important part in the equipment of the dead.
Thao Hung-king in the fifth or sixth century declared explicitly
that » it was an established rule with the Han dynasty to bury
» every Imperial prince with clothes adorned with pearls and with
» boxes bf jade , in order to prevent putrefaction" ^.
Turning over the leaves of the Yueh tsueh shuy we find the
following notice about the mausoleum of Hoh Lu, the monarch
mentioned on pages 290 and 379, who wielded the sceptre over the
kingdom of Wu between the dates 514 and 496 before our era. »The
» mausoleum of Hoh Lu is situated outside the Ch^'ang gate.
» It was called the Tiger's Hill. The lower tank was sixty pu
» broad and fifteen feet deep. The copper grave vault was composed
» of three layers. Near the tumulus there was a tank six feet deep,
»and also a brook, called the Jade Mallards* stream. The grave
» contained three thousand swords of the p^ien-chu kind, three
» thousand square and round objects, and also shi-hao swords
»and yii-ch^'ang sabres. Thousands and tens of thousands of
» people were employed in building this monument*. The earth
» required for it was obtained from the lakes. On the third day
» after it was finished a white tiger settled on the summit, and
» therefore it was called the Tiger's Hill" '.
Though this extract is not to be accepted as gospel truth in
every respect, because the historical value of many pages of the
Yueh tsueh shu is detracted from by romantic anecdotes, yet we
have no reason to refuse credence to the cardinal points contained
Isao hang muh^ ch. 8.
2 Another version of this exti'act inserted in ch. 31 of the Shi ki (1. 15) gives:
"X^. -4-* ^^ jS A , » over a hundred thousand serfe*'.
mmzM^^. :*ria^PH^. ^w^mzM
;tJg±. 4fi: SI ;^^- Chapter 2.
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OBJECTS BURIED WITH THE DEAD. 397
in it. Another work of a similar character, the Miscellanies about
the Western Metropolis, relates, as stated on page 289, how a
prince of Kwang-chVen had, daring the Han dynasty, several
ancient tombs broken up and what was discovered therein, giving
the following particulars about the mausolea of king Siang and his
son Ngai, who ruled the state of Wei, which comprised the
southern part of the present province of Shensi and the north of
Honan, between the dates 334 and 286 before our era:
» In the grave of king Siang of Wei the vault was entirely of
» veined stone and over eight feet high. There was room enough
» in it to hold forty people. To the hand it felt smooth and chilly,
» as if it were new. Inside there was a couch of stone and a
» screen of the same material , elegantly finished on all sides ; but
» there was no trace of a coffin, nor of implements for the use of
» the manes. On the couch stood nothing but a spittoon of jade ,
y> with two swords of copper ^ and sundry instruments of gold and
»jade, all as good as new. The prince took these for his own
» private use"^
» Over the tumulus of king Ngai molten iron had been poured ,
y> and it was not opened until after three days had been spent in
» boring and chiselling. A yellowish mist inside so disagreeably
» affected the nose and eyes as to render it impossible to enter.
y> Therefore the grave was left to the care of a guard of soldiers ,
» and after seven days the mist had cleared away. Then first a door
» which had neither rings nor bolts was found, and subsequently
y> a couch of granite , four feet square. On this couch stood a stool
» of stone , on both the right and the left side of which there were
»in attendance three stone images in a standing attitude, all
» wearing military caps, girdles and swords. Then came a second
» stone door of one leaf only, well provided with bars and bolts.
» Having broken it open, the eye fell upon a coffin, the black
» colour of which was so bright that it cast a glare over the men.
» Sword-strokes had no effect upon it; but when they attacked it
1 Do these archaic swords suggest survivals of a bronze period preceding the iron?
J^ ^. Si'king isah ki, chapter 6.
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898 THE GRAVE.
» with heated saws , they found it to consist of sundry varnished
» rhinoceros hides ; it was several inches thick , and the hides were
» placed over one another in more than ten layers. Their exertions
)>to break it open proving fruitless, they desisted from all ftirther
» attempts.
» Again they passed through a stone door of one leaf, pro-
»tected by bolts and bars. A couch of stone was then discovered,
y> seven feet square ; also a stone screen , and a set of copper
» curtain-hooks , some of which lay scattered about in disorder on
»the couch and on the floor; obviously the ribbons, by means of
» which these curtains had been fastened , had decayed , and the
» copper hooks dropped out in consequence. On the couch there
»was one stone pillow and, moreover, dust in very high convex
» heaps , evidently the remains of clothes and ceremonial garments.
»And on the right and left, stone figures of women, twenty
»on each side, were standing near the couch in attendance, some
y> holding imitations of towels and combs ^ mirrors and hairpins in
» their hands, others dishes, as if they were serving up a meal. No
» other curious things were detected, except iron mirrors, several
» hundreds in number" ^
This discovery of clothes crumbled to dust in consequence of
1 still now-a-days a concubine is called in literary style »a towel and comb in
attendance" "^ ffl :|$.
^mm. -i&^WiSliillW^fc. Chapter 6.
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CIOTHBS AND BnRRORS BURIED WITH THE DEAD. 399
their having passed so many ages under the ground , confirms
our supposition expressed on page 342, that the clothes which
used to be presented in such large quantities by superiors, family
members and friends at the death of persons of note during the
Cheu dynasty, were sent to the tomb along with the defunct.
But what are we to think of those hundreds of mirrors placed
in the graves? Considering that uncivilized or semi-civilized man
has no rational notions about the reflection of light, and easily
confounds this with light itself, there scarcely remains a doubt
that the ancient Chinese placed such smooth objects in the tombs
under the supposition that, as in an apartment dimly lighted
they would produce light, so here they would enable the soul to
distinguish the images, treasures and implements stored up in
the crypt. All really luminiferous matter, experience told them,
can give light for a short time only; mirrors, however, can
do so for ages. To this day, a » mirror to light the corpse"
is in Fuhkien province placed in the coffin with the dead (see
page 93): a weak survival, indeed, of an ancient usage vddely
prevalent, which wiU be illustrated by other instances in the present
chapter. The Kwei sin tsaA sAiA \ a collection of miscellanies writ-
ten by Cheu Mih * in the earlier part of the fourteenth century,
says: »The present generation when coffining a body suspend a
» mirror against the lid of the coffin to shed light upon the corpse,
» and now and then they aver that the object of this is to break
» the darkness by means of light" ^
That in former ages of the Chinese Empire the great of this earth
did not neglect to do whatever was within the limits of human
power to light up the cave of death, is proved by the interesting
account which the Historical Records give of the mausoleum and
the obsequies of the martial Shi Hwang, the famous monarch of
the dynasty of Ts^in, already mentioned on page 290. »In the
)> ninth month they buried Shi Hwang in mount Li. Not long
)» after his accession to the throne this monarch had that moun-
» tain excavated and prepared, and when he had reduced the whole
» Empire to subjection, people were transferred from all parts of it
# M ^ 3t 19 l8t B& ^ II- ^^ ^''^ ^'^ ^^^ ^^ ^^*^"^' ^^- 18 ^'
chapter 103.
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400 THE GRAVE.
»to this spot, and to the number of over seven hundred thousand
>> excavated the ground underneath three wells of groundwater.
» Of copper they then made a crypt \ and all the rare articles
»and precious curiosities of the palaces and the sundry offices
y> were conveyed thither , and hoarded up inside till the crypt was
»fulL Mechanicians were then ordered to make balistic machines
» which , whenever any one ventured too near the spot , would
» suddenly discharge arrows. Of water limpid like silver * they made
» numerous brooks converging into a river and a great lake, and
» machines revolved in them , throwing out the water from one
» to the other. Above they arrayed the stars and asterisms , and
» below, the configurations of the earth; they made torches of the
»fat of the man's fish, which were calculated to bum for a long
» time. 'Rh-shi (Shi Hwang's son and successor) commanded : 'It shall
» not be allowed to such of the inmates of the late Emperor's sera-
» glib as have no sons , to leave the gates of the mausoleum', and
»they were all made to follow him in death. Those destroyed in
A>this wise were very numerous.
» When the coffin had been deposed in the grave, some one
y> suggested that , whereas the workmen and mechanicians who had
» made the machines and concealed the valuables knew all about
» the same , the buried treasures might forthwith be scattered in all
)> directions. So, when the great ceremony (i. e. the burial) was
» finished and the valuables had been stored away, the interior
»gate of the road leading to the tomb was closed, and the
» lower and exterior gates of that road were both shut too, so
>>that none ot the workmen, artisans or men who had been
1 According to Stt Kwang ^ ^ , a famous scholai* who lived A. D. 352—425,
the character ^, » copper'*, occurring in the Chinese text, might stand for ^,
Dto stop up by means of molten metal". The above sentence v^ould in this case
run: »They dug up three wells of groundwater, stopped these up by means of
molten metal, and constructed a grave-vault'\ Compare page 290.
2 The text has jjj^ ^ , lit. » water-silver", a term which appears in literature
generally in the sense of mercury. But it is haixl to believe that Sz^-ma Ts'ien,
the compiler of the Records, can have meant this metal , it being doubtful whether
it was known in his time. Mr. Kingsmill, touching upon Shi Hwang's burial in the
China Review (V, p. 360) did not venture upon a translation of the extract in
its entirety, and the editor of that periodical, trying to rectify his renderings in
a note, translated the above passage by: » quicksilver poured into She Hwang's
coffin like .a hundi*ed streams of rivers, or rather a great ocean". I wonder whether
any other Sinologist would be able to distil such nonsense out of the text.
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BQUIPPING IlfPSKlAL GBAYES DURING THB HAN DTNASTT. 401
» employed in storing away the treasures ever came out again. Trees
A>and shrubs were planted about the spot, to give it the appearance
» of a natural mountain" \
The Han dynasty scarcely fell short of the house of Ts'in in
richly equipping deceased monarchs. About the articles of jade com-
mitted to their graves , chiefly with the object of counteracting the
putref)EU)tion of the corpse, something has been already said on
page 274. The Si-kinff tsah M says on this head: »The sovereigns
» of the Han dynasty were in the habit of sending their dead into
» the tomb with robes adorned with pearls , and with boxes of
»jade stone. These boxes looked like coats of mail, chains being
>> carved out upon them and inlaid with gold. The boxes used in
»the case of the Emperor Wu (140 — 87 B. C.) were all inlaid
y> on the lid with figures of dragons, phenixes and tortoise-dragons.
» Hence they were called at that time 'dragon-boxes of jade' " \
In the Books of the Later Han Dynasty we find it prescribed
that at imperial burials, when the procession, headed by the
Rescuer of the Country (page 162), with standards and banners,
and escorted by the highest officers in mourning dress, arrived
at the Mausoleum and arrayed itself there on the east side of
the road leading to the grave hill, the new Son of Heaven had to
retire into a tent of plain white linen, divested of all ornamentation.
»The Great Invoker", thus the oflBcial rescripts in those times
mWL^TiSLm.:xLm.%mn^^z.nmm
« ^ ^ =ei ffi * o ^ m ;<^ JS< m lU • S''* *» . «=»> 6' 1 29 ..g.
l^iRllBEia. Chapter I.
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402 THS GRAVE.
ran, » shall then bring forward the must, and offer it to the
» defunct with observance of the customary ritual. The Minister of
» the Revenues, felling upon his knees, then says: 'Great funeral
»cart, stand still, if you please', and the Great Annalist, stand-
»ing on the south side of the bier, reads, with his face to the
» north, the mourning address, during which those in charge of
» the obsequies keep behind him. The recital finished, he wails. The
» Grandmaster of the Sacrifices kneels down, exclaiming: 'Wail!',
»and the Minister for the State Ceremonial having repeated this
» order, it is obeyed (by everybody present) with the observance
» of the customary ritual. Then kneeling down again , the Mi-
y> nister of the Revenues says : 'I request you to repair to the lower
» place', which is a sign for the military officials of the Eastern
»Park to take the coffin down and place it on the bier. Now the
» same Minister says , in a kneeling attitude : 'I request you to
» descend into the crypt', and every one escorts the military officials
»with the bier into the crypt, the Minister of the Revenues and
»the Great Annalist carrying respectively the panegyric and the
» mourning address \
» The retainers of the military officials of the Bastem Park now
»put down the implements for the manes. These are: eight ham-
» pers, full, holding three pints each ; they contain respectively millet,
»panicled millet, wheat, spiked millet, rice, hemp seed, pulse,
»and small pease. Three eetrthen pots of three pints, holding
» respectively pickled meat, preserved meat, and sliced food. Cakes
» of millet. All these things are placed upon wooden trays and
» covered with coarse linen. Two earthen liquor jars of three pints ,
» filled with must and spirits, which are placed likewise upon
» wooden trays and covered with linen of fine texture •.
y> One candlestick of earthenware.
A>Four red arrows, having their centre of gravity in the middle
y> and with short feathers. Four red arrows of bone , with short
» feathers. One red bow\
1 The commentary says that during the period of the House of Tsin such a
document having heen extracted from the grave of Ming, an emperor of the Han
dynasty who reigned hetween A. D. 58 and 75, it proved to be of bamboo engraved
with characters.
2 Compare this enumeration with that of the food and drink stored up in the
graves of notables in still earlier times (Pages 382 seq.).
3 See the particulars supplied by the I li about the bows and arrows placed
in the graves of officers during the Cheu dynasty (page 394).
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EaUIPPlNG IMPERIAL GRAVES DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 408
» Eight goblpts, eight tureens, eight pots, eight square baskets,
» eight wine jars, one wash basin with a ewer.
»One staflF, one stool, and one canopy.
» Sixteen bells, four large bells, and sixteen sonorous stones,
^all without stands to suspend them from. One occarino, four
» flutes, one reed organ, one flute with seven holes, one clapper
» to start the orchestra and one signal-giver to stop it , six lutes ,
»one cithern, one mouth organ, one harp, one lute with holes.
»One shield and one lance, one quiver, one coat of mail, and
»one helmet.
» Nine carriages , and thirty-six straw images of men and horses.
»Two cooking stoves, two kettles, one rice steamer, and twelve
» caldrons of five pints — everything of earthenware. One laddie
» made of a gourd and holding one pint.
»Nine tables of earthenware, sixteen large cups of three pints
» and twenty smaller ones of two pints — all of earthenware. Ten
» rice dishes of earthenware , two winepots of earthenware holding
»five pints, and two gourd spoons of one pint.
» Sacrificial garments and clothes \
' is: §imm. minim. n^mm.i^'Mm^.is:
ft. m®^±^T#o nmmB.mwtTm. «5
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404 THS GRAVE.
» All these articles having been given to the defunct , the work-
y> men of the Eastern Park declare that it is allowed to howl , upon
» which all those present in the crypt pour forth their lamenta-
»tions, until the Grandmaster of the Sacrifices and the Minister
»for the State .Ceremonial request them with observance of the
» customary ceremonial to stop. Then the Minister of the Revenues
» says: 'The duties of all the officers are now fulfilled; so I request
» you to perform nothing more and to follow me\ which is a sign
»for all those who are in the crypt to make bows and to repair
»to their assigned places outside the crypt.
y> Now the Grandmaster of the Sacrifices leads the Emperor
» towards the place where he is to offer the presents to the de-
»funct. The Minister of the Revenues throws himself upon his
» knees and says : 'I request that the presents be brought forward'.
»Upon this, a Chamberlain brings the sceptre ot jade, which is to
» be presented in the profound cave ; this object has a length of one
» foot four inches and is presented along with a piece of red cloth
»> which is three inches square and hemmed on all sides with scarlet
» silk with a red lining. (The same official brings also) the silk which
» is to be presented to the deceased, to wit, three black pieces
»and two scarlet pieces, each one foot two inches long and having
» the breadth of a full piece. The Emperor stepping forward, kneels
» down , then repairs to the door of the crypt which opens on the
» road that leads to the grave hill, and turning his face to the west,
» with his own hands drops the presents into the profound cave
»in three separate portions; the workmen of the Eastern Park
»pick them up, take them inside the cr3rpt, and store them away.
y> Subsequently the Grandmaster of the S^mfices in a kneeling posi-
» tion requests the Emperor to make reverent prostrations , and
» orders those present to howl, which order is re-echoed by the
» Minister for the State Ceremonial in accordance with the estab-
»lished ritual; and in the end, the Grandmaster of the Sacrifices
» having said kneelingly : 'The presentation of articles is completed',
» the Emperor immediately returns to his place .... The Emperor,
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IMPERIAL QRAYES. DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 405
)> the Empress , and all those of lower rank put off their coarse
» garments and dress themselves in a bright red attire , after which
» they return to the Palace" ^.
In the same chapter of the Books of the Later Han Dynasty a
note is inserted of the following contents:
» The Old Ritual of the House of Han *, describing the mausolea
»o{ the emperors of the Early Han dynasty, says: 'In the year
»next following the accession to the Throne, the Great Architect,
» Chief Overseer of the Works, measured out the ground for the
» imperial mausoleum. Seven khiung of ground were assigned
»ior it. The central square had a surface of one khiung and
»was thirteen chang of ten feet deep; the hall with the sacrificial
» altar was thirty, and the grave hill one hundred and twenty
»feet high; but the mound of the Emperor Wu measured two
^hundred' feet. The interior part for the manes (the crypt) was
» seventeen feet high and twenty feet square; it contained the
» coffin of Rottlera wood, and around this a pile of the yellow
» intestines of cypress trees (see page 301). The valuables acquired
»fTom the sundry offices having been stored up in it, the articles
» arranged at the four gates of the roads le^ing to the grave
»hill, and also the state-carriages with six horses stationed in
» those gates were placed in the tomb altogether.
» The attendants thereupon ranging themselves beyond the paved
^^.mm0hmmmomm.^^m=:^.^MRr.
^i^M^^. Mm%mmAmm^ois:i^s^B
*. Ji :*: Jjd:. Ji ^- Chapt le, l. 5 sqq.
2 This work in four chapters, mentioned already on page 266, is believed to
liave been written by one Wei King-chung ||^ ^j^ ^ , who probably lived during
the Liang dynasty.
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406 THE GRAVE.
» carriage-road outside the interior square, the sword-door was
» closed first. Ye-lung sabres, muh-sje swords and hidden
» balistic machines were contrived upon it , as also secret fire.
» After this, the remaining ground of the mausoleum was converted
» into a western park ; on the mausoleum of an empress it was
» used for the construction of abodes for lady-chieftains of the
» seraglio and ladies of lower rank, these abodes being assigned as
»a mark of favour to (female) dignitaries of merit among her
» kinsfolk and relatives ^.
»And the Imperial Mirror* says:
» As for the burial places of the House of Han, their central
» squares were of a size of one hundred p u. After the square
»had been dug out and a square rampart raised around it,
» four gates were constructed therein (one in the middle of each
» front) and four roads made, broad enough to allow six horses to
» pass abreast. Afterwards various articles were deposited on the
»spot: weapons, lackerware, heavy silks and light siUts, gold, valu-
»ables, rice, and com. They also buried carriages, horses, tigers,
» leopards, and other quadrupeds. Warriors and serfs were levied
»from the neighbouring districts, and of these guardians a special
» Commander-in-chief was appointed; moreover, the highest ladies
»of the back palace and those who had stood most in favour
» with the monarch , all settled there as warders of the park and
» the grave hill. At the obsequies of the Emperor Yuen , neither
» carriages nor horses, nor animals, nor any such kind of things were
2 A voluminous work of this name, containing 120 chaptere, existed in the
time of the Sui dynasty. It was then supposed to have heen written by one Miao
Poh j^ |> and some collaborators. Other works bearing the same title existed
prior to the Sui dynasty. See Books of the Sui Dynasty, ch. 34, I. 9.
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SaUIPPINO IMPERIAL GRAVES DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 407
y> used for the tomb" ^ This last assertion seems to rest upon the
authority of the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, which say: »In
the first year of the period King ning (33 B. C.)> in the fifth
» month, the Emperor Yuen breathed his last. In the sixth month
» it was officially demonstrated that the use of carriages and carts ,
^oxen, horses and animals was entirely inconsistent with the rites,
»so that it was not proper to use them for interments. This
» memorial was fevourably received" •.
Enormous indeed must have been the treasures hoarded up in
the imperial mausolea of the House of Han, if we may give cre-
dence to the foUowing narrative which is recorded in the Books of
the Tsin Dynasty in a biography of the martial statesman Soh
Ch*^en *, who lived in the third and the fourth century of our era.
»At that time, several thousand families of San-t8% under com-
y> maud of Yin Hwan, Baai Wu etc. pillaged the Pa mausoleum and
»the Tu mausoleum of the House of Han*, carrying off a large
» quantity of valuables and treasures. The Emperor then asked Ch^'en :
» 'How can so much have been hidden in the mausolea of the Han
» djrnasty ?' — 'The Sons of Heaven of that House', replied the other,
y> 'had their mausolea constructed already in the year next after their
» accession to the throne. The whole of the tribute and the taxes of
»the Empire were divided into three portions, one portion being
»used for the temples of the imperial ancestors, another for the
» entertainment of visitors, and a third for filling the mausoleum. The
» Emperor Wu enjoyed a long life, and when his end drew near
»(87 B. C.) nothing more could be placed in his Meu mausoleum,
» and the trees on the spot were then already so thick that both arms
» were needed to embrace them. The Vermilion Eyebrow insurgents
i^^7*flfJ^'$iS^il^^ #^- Books of the Later Han Dynasty,
toe. cit. ^ — ^ y
^ Pj". Chapt 40, 1. 2.
B. C.) and Suen
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408 THE GRAVE.
» rifling the contents of this mausoleum , were not able to carry oflf
» the half thereof; and now-a-days rotten silks in piles and heaps
y>Bie still to be found on the spot, neither are the pearls and
» articles of jade as yet exhausted. But the other two grave hills
»(Pa and Tu) were equipped with economy, and so they have
» become a good lesson for hundreds of generations" ^.
These mausolea, which in the first century of our era had escaped
the violating hands of rapacious rebels because they were equipped
less richly than the others, were deemed worthy of ransacking about
three centuries later, and the robbers found themselves amply
rewarded for their pains, although a part of the contents had
rotted away or become valueless in the course of three hundred
years. From this we may judge of the contents of such of the
imperial graves as were richly equipped according to the ideas of
those times! The said depredations of the Vermilion Eyebrows in
the burial grounds of the House of Han are recorded in the Books
of the Early Han Dynasty. »In the summer of the next year
» (A. D. 24)", they say, » the Vermilion Eyebrow rebel Fan Cheung
» with several hundr^ thousands of followers flocked through the
»Pass. Burning down palaces, markets and wards in Ch^'ang-ngan
»city, they worked so much mischief that the people of the Keng
»shi period devoured one another from hunger and several hun-
» dreds of thousands of them perished. Ch^ang-ngan was converted
»into a desert, and inside the city-walls not a soul was to be seen.
» The imperial ancestral temples were all forced open and the mau-
»solea dug up, and only those of Pa and Tu remained entire"*.
J^. Ch. 60, 1. 21.
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EaUIPPINO GRAVES DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 409
As stated in the above extract from the Books of the Tsin
Dynasty, not one of all the graves of the Han family was equipped
like that of the emperor Wu. The grave hill of this prominent
figure of the second century before our era was considerably
higher than that of the other sovereigns of the same dynasty, it
being stated by the Old Ritual of the House of Han that it
measured two hundred feet, while the other mausolea were no
higher than one hundred and twenty feet (see page 406). During
the reign of the emperor Yuen (48 — 33 B. C,), the statesman
Rung Yu ^ memorialized the Throne to protest against the prodi-
gality displayed by the CJourt in cases of death; this address,
which has been preserved in the Books of the Early Han dynasty,
contained the following passage: »When the Emperor Wu died
» (87 B. C), the Emperor Chao was still young and weak. Hwoh
»Ewang (see page 239) then assumed authority, but he did not
»know the right way of observing the ceremonial rescripts. He
» recklessly concealed in the tomb large quantities of gold , money ,
» valuables, birds, animals, fishes, tortoises, cows, horses, tigers
)»and leopards, burying no less than one hundred and ninety live
» animals in all. And all the ladies of the back palace he rele-
^ gated to the mausoleum and its park. In this he sinned heavily
» against the rites and revolted against the natural feelings; more-
»over, it has till now not been made out whether his pro-
» ceedings were in accordance with the will of our Emperor Wu
» himself' •.
The Books of the Later Han Dynasty, too, contain some
particulars about the valuables which in those times used to be
placed in the graves of grandees of the highest rank and of female
members of the Imperial family. »At the decease of an Imperial
» prince of the highest rank, an Imperial prince of lower rank , an
» Imperial concubine who had lately been appointed as such, or an
H . ti ^ l^*t 1^ ^ • Chapter 99. ra, 1. 33.
27
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410 THE GRAVE.
>> Imperial princess, orders are given to bestow upon the defunct
»in the grave official seak of jade, boxes of jade, and articles
» worked with silver thread. In the case of a principal concubine
»or of the eldest among the Imperial princesses, there shall be
» articles worked with copper thread. The Imperial princes of the
» highest rank, the concubines, the Imperial princesses, the princes
»of the second and third rank, and the high dignitaries with
» titulary rank shall present articles to the defunct, and from the
» palace there shall be taken twenty-four articles for the same
» purpose. Emissaries (of the Court) shall regulate the funeral and
» construct the vault of cypress wood , and the sundry officers shall
» in a body accompany the corpse to the grave , in obedience to the
» ancient customs" ^.
And in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty it is stated about
Hwoh Kwang, the famous minister just mentioned on page 409,
that the Emperor » bestowed upon his corpse presents of gold and
» money, silk and satin, one hundred embroidered outer garments,
» fifty boxes of clothing, insignia of rank made of jade stone,
y> pearls and emeralds , and clothes adorned with jade. Furthermore
» he received a coffin of Rottlera wood , a side-apartment (to store
» the articles in) , and a set of. accumulated yellow intestines (see
» page 300) , and outside these pieces of cypress wood came the
» fifteen articles destined to be placed in the wooden vault. He was
» also provided with smooth lamps from the Eastern Park *. The
» warriors stood in array as far as the Meu mausoleum (of the
» Emperor Wu) to see him to the tomb; he received the post-
» humous title of Prince of Thorough Perfection, and serfs were
» levied from San-ho to excavate and raise the earth , to construct
^n.^m^-^n \.^^±mmMm^.^ X.St
2 Fuh Rhien HB ^^ , an author who liyed in the later part of the second century,
says: » These articles from the Eastern Park looked like square varnished tubs. On
»one side, which was open, they were varnished and painted; a mirror was placed
» inside, and so they were suspended over the corpse; at the 'fuller dressing' they were
.indosed also in the coffin": :|t S ^ tt IS ?^ ^ JST 8^ lio II —
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LIANO SHANO'S LAST DISPOSITIONS. 411
^the mound with the sacrificial temple, and to erect ramparts
» around the park. The chieftains of three hundred families were
)» charged with the care of the spot, in accordance with the usages
» of former times ^.
Concerning Liang Shang, a high magnate mentioned on page 815,
we read: »In the sixth year of the Yung hwo period (A. D. 141),
»m autumn, whilst lying dangerously ill, he gave the following
)> instructions to Ki and his other sons: 'By neglecting to practice
» virtue I have enjoyed much prosperity, and though in this life
»I did nothing to support the Throne and to be of use to it,
»jet they will no doubt squander away their treasures and pos-
» sessions upon me after my death. But what profit can my rotten
» bones derive from clothes and shrouds , from food and jade in the
» mouth, firom boxes of jade, firom pearls, precious cowries, and
»the like? The whole host of officers will take the trouble of
» beautifying the aspect of the roads by their numbers, making
» piles of dust and dirt; but though they may pretend that such
>> things are prescribed by the ceremonial institutions, yet there are
)> times at which it is better to abstain from bringing the same
>>into practice. Such is the case at present, for, peace does not
y> reign on the frontiers, the insurgents not yet having been subdued
j» there; how then can it be proper to impose heavy losses upon
»the realm (by performing expensive burials)? When I have given
)»up the ghost, you must convey me to a shed on the burial
» ground and encoffin me there without delay, dressing me in
»ikoue but old everyday clothes, without refitting any of them.
y> And when the coffining is finished, dig the grave, and when the
» grave is ready, bury me immediately therein. Sacrifice to me
» edibles of the kind I was wont to eat during my life, but do
» not make use of the three sacrificial victims. Filial sons distinguish
>> themselves by executing their father's will, and therefore you
»must not disregard mine'.
»At his death, the Emperor personally attended the mourning
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412 THE GRAVE.
»ntes^. The sons wished to carry out their fether's instructions,
» but the CJourt would not allow them to do so. The Emperor
»gave a vermilion longevity receptacle (coffin) from the Eastern
»Park, silver works, yellow intestines, boxes of jade, and twenty-
» eight kinds of miscellaneous objects, together with two millions
» of candareens and three thousand pieces of cloth. The Empress
»made a donation of five million candareens and ten thousand
» pieces of cloth. And for the obsequies the Emperor gave light
»war chariots and hamassed soldiers; the posthumous title of
» Faithful Prince was conferred upon the defunct, and the inmates
» of the interior palace attended the burial in person. The Emperor
» repaired to the balcony of the Gate of Universal Sunlight , for
» the purpose of regarding the carts and horsemen" •.
The monarchs of the Han dynasty, in bestowing upon deserving
statesmen coffins and all sorts of things required for a proper
equipment of the corpse, ordering out their troops to do honour
to the obsequies, and levying serfe to work at the grave, were
obviously acting according to precedent, for, as has been pointed
out on pages 34, 168 sqq. and 840 seq., donations for the funeral
and the burial of noblemen and officers had been in vogue in
earlier ages. Their behaviour in this respect, which might be
1 Herefrom we see that the custom of the Cheu dynasty revealed hy the extracts
from the / li and the Li ki reproduced on pages 35 sqq,^ was still maintained in
some cases hy the sovereigns of the House of Han.
^ # It II 3|C If ^ ]^ H . Ch. 64, 1. 10.
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IMPERIAL FUNERAL PRESENTS MADE TO STATESMEN. 413
illustrated by many more instances recorded in the Annals of those
times, reminds us of the French practice of interring statesmen of
high merit at the expense of the State. And although the Han
dynasty hardly falls short of the famous tyrant of the House of
Ts'in in wasting wealth on the equipment of the abodes of their
dead, yet this practice evidently was considerably on the wane
during its rule, for, horses of straw were then buried instead of
real horses (see page 403), and even an emperor's father-in-law,
viz. Liang Shang, objected to having valuables with him in the grave.
This process of deterioration was not at all of recent date even then.
It was in full force already in the C!onfucian age and has been
slowly making progress ever since, in constant strife with the
religious conservatism of the sacred observances of antiquity. This
contest will be analyzed in Chapter VIH, a direct continuation of
the present chapter, in which will be discussed some other customs
directly evolved from the ancient practice of burying treasures and
the requisites of life with the dead.
Discoveries of ancient tombs in which large quantities of valuables
had been hoarded up, are often recorded by Chinese authors, even
by some of times relatively modern. In the History of the Southern
Part of the Realm we have: »In those times (viz. between A. D.
» 483 and 493) people dug up the grave of the daughter of Hwan
» Wen (a fEimous warrior and grandee who had lived nearly a
» century earlier), and they found scarfs and boxes of gold, and
j!^ magnificent objects made of splints interwoven with gold. There
» was, moreover, in that tomb a very large quantity of golden silk-
» worms, seals of silver, and such like things" \ The same work
relates that, when Kien, a son of the emperor Kao^ of the Ts^i
dynasty , was Governor of Yih-cheu * in the present province of
Szg-chVen, » there was discovered in a garden of that district
»an old grave. Nothing was placed over the coffin except a stone
» vault, which contained over ten different sorts of copper articles,
» three old-£ELshioned signets of jade , and a very large quantity of
)> precious objects, a part of which were not recognizable. There
»were also several pecks of gold and silver objects shaped like
)» silk-worms and snakes; besides, a mound had been made of
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414 THE GRAVE.
»red sand and a tank of silvery water. Kien was urged by all
» those around him to take possession of these things, but he said:
»*Sonie time ago, people in the country of Yung (part of the
)» present Shensi province) having dug up an ancient grave and
» found therein mirrors of jade with screens and boxes of the same
» precious material, the Imperial Heir Apparent returned with those
» things to the capital; but I have always cherished opinions different
»from his*. He then deputed his meritorious officer Ho Ch^i to
» the spot to make a mound for that grave , in order to protect
» the valuables from violating hands" ^
We might quote more cases of this kind, which would occupy
space only, without shedding any new light upon our subject. We
cannot, however, conclude this chapter without making mention of
the fact that, in the earlier centuries SI our era, it was not
unusual to place also books or other written documents in the
graves of the dead.
Many instances hereof are on record. To quote only a few: —
Cheu Fan*, a grandee of renown who lived in the earlier part
of the second century, ordered his sons to bury him in a simple
style, »to line together tablets of bamboo, two feet and four
finches long, to write out upon these the Canon of Yao (the
» first part of the SAu Ung) , and to place them in front of his
» coffin together with a knife and a pencil, as a token that he
» did not forget the principles of the Holy Ones" *. Yii Fan *, who
in the third century of our era wrote a commentary upon Lao-tszS's
Tao teh Mng^, the £Etmous bible of Taoism*, )>gave orders that he
^ ^. Chapter 43, I. 8. 2 ^ ^.
Stifif^ ^^ife^^- ^^^ ^^ *^® ^^^ ^^^ Dynasty, ch. 69, 1. 15.
6 See the Memoirs of the Three Kingdoms, Memoirs of Wu, chapter 12, 1. 5.
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BURYING BOOKS WITH THE DEAD. 415
y> should be buried with economy, and with nothing else about him
» but the two chapters of Lao-tszS's work , as a proof that he
»held in high veneration the tao teh or benefits of the Universal
» order of Nature'* ^. And Hwang-fu Mih •, an author and states-
man of high repute who died in A. D. 282, declared in his last
will that he desired to be buried without a coffin and without
being washed for the grave, and that there should be placed along
with him in the earth » nothing but a copy of the Classic of
A> Filial Devotion (see page 307), as a proof that he never had lost
» sight of the laws of filial conduct" '.
The above quotations deserve peculiar attention, because they
render it highly probable that the traditions on record about the
disoovery of ancient works of note in some of the tombs of grandees
of the Cheu dynasty are not quite so untrustworthy as they may
perhaps at first sight appear to be. Seeing that in the earlier
centuries of our era men of high moral standing were so often
desirous of being laid in their graves with such books as they had
tried to frame their conduct upon during life, it is not beyond
the bounds of reason to suppose that, in times still more ancient,
monarchs and princes were entombed with the annals and historical
records, which had regulated their conduct in matters of government
by placing before their eyes the glorious feats of the ancestors
as examples worthy of imitation, and their odious deeds to serve as
warning examples.
An important discovery of books in a tomb is recorded in the Books
of the liin Dynasty in the following words : » In the second year
»of the T^ai khang period (A. D. 281) some lawless parties in
» the department of Kih broke open the grave of king Siang of Wei*,
»or, according to others, that of king Ngan Li (who died in 243
» B. C), and discovered some tens of cart-loads of inscribed bamboo
)> tablets^. Among these there was a set of Annals in thirteen
Yyum kien lei han, chapter 181, 1. 22. ^ M W i£*
^PiSI#i5— *#. ^^l&^M.' ^^^ of the Tsin Dynasty,
chapter 51, 1. 10.
4 According to the Si-king Uah ki this tomb had been ransacked before that
time by a prince of Rwang-ch'wen (see page 397). Thus magnate seems therefore
not to have done his work thoroughly.
5 According to chapter 3 of the Books of the Tsin Dynasty (1. 18), the discovery
took place in the year 479, and the tablets contained more than a hundred thousand
words vnitten in the small seal character.
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416 THE ORAVE.
» chapters, beginning with the Hia dynasty and extending down
y> to the overthrow of king Yiu of the Cheu dynasty by the Dog
» Barbarians (771 B. C), the matters therein recorded thus embrac-
»ing three Houses of sovereigns. The tablets treated, moreover,
» of matters relating to the realm of Wei down to the 20th. year
» of the reign of king Ngan Id, so that they constituted an historical
» book of that state. Generally speaking, they agree on most points
» with what is recorded in the C/i'un tsHu , but in many places
» they deviate considerably fix)m the traditions contained in the
» Classics Those who broke open the grave had set fire to the
» tablets , to light them to their work of robbery. Hence , when
» the officers laid hold of the tablets , many had been burned
;t>or displaced, so that the inscriptions had sustained injury and
» mutilation, and could no longer be deciphered. The Emperor Wu
» transferred these documents to his private library, to have them
» collated and arranged , and there they were examined successively,
» each being assigned its proper place , after which they were tran-
» scribed in modem characters" ^
The Annals in thirteen chapters, mentioned in this extract, are
now extant under the title of »The Annals of the Bamboo Books" *.
Among the works recovered were also, according to some, »The
Books of Cheu" ^ which since the Sui dynasty and that of T'ang
have been entitled, »The Books of Cheu obtained from the tomb
in Kih" ^. But this assertion appears to be destitute of credible
foundation , a work bearing the title of » Books of Cheu in seventy-
one articles" * being mentioned already in the catalogue of works
given in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty (chapter 30, 1. 4).
1
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DISCOVERT OF BAMBOO BOOKS IN GRAVES. 417
Another large discovery of literary treasures in an ancient tomb
is made mention of in the Books of the Southern Ts^i Dynasty.
» At that time (viz. between A. D. 466 and 472), a gang of robbers
» in Siang-yang (province of Hukwang) dug up a tomb of ancient
»date, which tradition asserted to be that of a king of Ch^u.
»They possessed themselves of a large quantity of valuables, shoes
»and screens of jade, and inscribed tablets of bamboo, strung
Altogether with blue silk. These tablets were a few inches broad
»and two feet long; the bark and the nodes looked as if they
»were new. The robbers bundled them together into torches, in
)> order to obtain light. Afterwards some one came into possession
»of more than ten of these tablets and informed the military
» governor Wang Sang-khien of the fact; this grandee declared
» them to be the » Artificer's Record", a missing part of the Official
y> Book of Cheu (». e. the CAeu It), written in frog-shaped characters.
»The authorities then deputed a commission to make further
)> inquiries; and as this commission discovered more of such relics,
» their identity with or difference from other copies became a topic
» of discussion for some time'^ ^.
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CHAPTER V.
CONGERNINO LARGE TOMBS, BIG TUMULI, AND GRAVE TREES.
As has been shown in the foregoing chapter, the style in which
the dead were anciently equipped for the grave in China was
regulated by the position and wealth of the deceased. Taking this
fact into consideration, it may readily be suggested, without docu-
mentary evidence, that the dimensions of the graves and the mode
of constructing them were likewise proportioned to the social standing
of the occupants and to their pecuniary circumstances in life. This
is in point of fact the case. At the outset the clay dwellings of the
living became their graves; and as the better classes naturally im-
proved their dwellings under the influence of steadily advancing
civilisation, so they began to pay more attention to their graves.
Indeed, some tumuli which tradition pointed out as having
covered the remains of sovereigns of China in mythical times, were
of considerable size. » According to the Memoirs of the Department
» of P^g-yang (a part of the province of Shansi), the mausoleum
» of the monarch Nii Kwa (28th. century B. C), situated near the
» village of Heu-ts^un in the district of Chao-ch^g , contained two
» grave mounds, east and west of each other with a distance of
» forty-nine pu (of six feet?) between them; each of these mounds
»was two chang (of ten feet) high and had a circumference of
» forty-eight chang. The ancient mausoleum of T'ao T'ang (i.e.
» Yao, 23rd. century B. C.) was at a distance of seventy miles to the
»east of the capital of the (P^ng-yang) department; the hill was
A>one hundred and fifty feet high and over two hundred pu broad.
» And the mausoleum of Shun of Yii (23rd. century B. C.) was
» twenty miles to the west of the district city of Ngan-yih ; the
»hill was three chang high and begirt with bricks, and on every
»side it was over forty pu broad. The demains belonging to it
» inside and outside covered an area of more than a hundred meu,
)>and all the old cypresses on the spot had a circumference of
» about ten spans" ^
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I4ABGE GRAVES IN THE TIME OF CHEU. 419
So far for the alleged tumuli of monarchs of a fEibulous
or semi-fiEibulous antiquity, mounds which perhaps covered the
remains of grandees who lived at a more recent period, but about
whom no reminiscences have been preserved. More historical value
is to be attached to the statement already inserted on page 396,
according to which the mausoleum of king Hoh Lii was of a size
so enormous as to have required the labour of tens of thousands of
serfs to build it; this mausoleum may have still existed in the
time when the Yueh tsueh shu, which records the statement, was
written. The same book also contains the following description of
the mausoleum of Hoh Lii's daughter, which shows that her grave
covered a large area of ground : » The grave of Hoh Lii's daughter
» was situated outside the Chiang gate (of the capital^), on the
» north side of the road. Its lower square tank was forty-eight
»pu wide and had a water depth of twenty-five feet. The other
»tBiXjk measured sixty pu, with a depth of ten feet five inches.
» The grave tunnel opened upon the road which led to the temple
»and which ran further in a southern direction through the Ku-
» sii gate. The whole ground had a circumference of six miles.
» Playing with cranes in the market-streets of Wu, they killed
A> living people to make them accompany the defunct"*.
The mausoleum of king Siang was undoubtedly very large, since
the crypt alone could hold forty people (see pages 289 and 897).
The grave of the ruler Ngai must likewise have been of respectable
dimensions, for it is recorded (see pages 397 seq.) that Kii-tsih
ch'ing, sect, j:^ fl^., chapter 129.
i This hore the name of Wu ^ , and was situated on the site now occupied
bj the city of Su-cheu j|^ 4JJ in Kiangsu province.
^rtr^^mai^. Chapter II.
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420 THE GRAVE.
discovered therein not only an underground passage which contained
stone images representing a military guard, but also a crypt containing
the coffin, and another crypt, evidently designed to be a dormitory
for the soul. During the Hjin dynasty, or somewhat later, the
tumulus of Confucius and its demesnes also covered a large plot of
ground, it being stated by the Imperial Mirror that »the ground
»for his grave covered an area of one hundred meu; the grave
» measured ten p u from north to south , and thirteen from east to
»west, and was twelve feet high" \
After all, we see that there are no reasons to mistrust the lA ki,
when it says with reference to the pre-Christian epoch (ch. 84,
1. 24): »The size of things sometimes is a mark of rank and
» position. The dimensions of palaces and houses , the measurements
»of utensils and dishes, the thickness of coffins and grave vaults,
»and the size of grave hills and grave mounds, are a mark of
»rank and position"^. In other words, just as the dwellings
which people occupy during life signalize by their dimensions
their social standing, so after death do their graves. The Li ki
says besides (ch. 25, 1. 15): »The rules of mourning are revised
»in the first month of winter, the distinctions of the grave
» garments are then defined, and an enquiry is held as to how
» thick or how thin coffins and funeral vaults should be, and
» how large or how small the graves and tumuli. The height (of
»the mounds) and the thickness (of the coffins and vaults) are
» proportioned to the degree or rank of high and low"'. That the
cold season was appointed for such business is most reasonable.
For, winter is the period of death, the vitalizing power of Nature
being then reduced to a minimum. We shall often have occasion
to show that it has always been a principle of Chinese monarchs
and feudal lords in ancient times to conform to the course of
Nature in the administration of their realms and appanages.
"j^ — • Aj(^ ^ ^ . Ehienlung edition of the Shi kiy chapter 47, 1. 28.
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ROYAL GRAVE GROUNDS DURING THE CHEU DYNASTY. 421
That during the Cheu dynasty large graves pertained to people
of high position and merit, smaller ones to men of lower rank
and less merit, is confirmed by a page of the Cheu It, which
contains the instructions to a certain Officer for the Orave Mounds,
a functionary of high standing , as may be seen from the fact that
» he was placed at the head of a staflf consisting of two Great officers
» of secondary rank, four ordinary officers of medium rank, two store-
y> house keepers, four clerks, twelve assistants, and one hundred and
j!> twenty followers" ^ »He has charge of the Ruler's grave ground;
)>\ie must appoint the place where it is to be made, and map it
»out. The grave of the first sovereign is situated in the middle,
» the line of his posterity forming the right and left flank. The
» feudal lords are also to the right and left, but in front; the high
y> nobles. Great officers and ordinary officers are arranged towards the
»back (in a corresponding manner). Each one is placed according
)> to his rank in the family hierarchy. Those who have been killed
»by arms do not enter this buried ground. All persons of merit
\9!^ lie in front. The dimensions of the mounds must correspond with
» the rank of nobility, and so must the number of the trees.
J* At Great Funerals, when they proceed to construct the burial
» cave, he gives the measurements for the hill and the tunnel (see page
» 374), and provides the funereal objects which will be required when
» the corpse is placed in the grave. He assigns a place for each grave,
» keeps people away from the ground, and guards the limits of the
» tombs. Whenever a feudal lord or a minister is buried, the Officer
» of the Grave Mounds assigns by divination the place for the grave,
)> keeps encroachers away from it, and assigns the limits thereof*.
A.W + ^::iAvaW^:=. + A- Chapter 1 7. 1. 12.
^zmMf^. mmmi^^^. }im^M±^i^
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422 THE GRAVE.
Commentators unanimously agree that the feudal lords, Oreat
officers and other grandees referred to in this extract, were mem-
bers of the Ruler's family. Consequently, the royal burial grounds
at those times were actually family grave-yards in which the tombs
were arranged in two sets of parallel rows, diverging to the right
and left from a central point occupied by the grave of the common
ancestor. Hence, in respect of the arrangement of the graves, these
burial grounds did not essentially differ from the grave-yards of
distinguished families still to be found in the northern provinces at the
present day, and about which something has been said on page 376.
The custom of erecting graves of large dimensions for monarchs
seems to have reached its culminating point in the case of Shi
Hwang. The historical particulars extant about the construction
of his mausoleum have been reproduced already on pages 399 sey.;
though hazy and uncertain, they fully entitle us to draw the con-
clusion that this funereal monument was of a size really gigantic.
Pei Yin ^, the learned commentator on the Historical Records who
lived in the fifth century, says: » According to the Imperial Mirror,
)>the grave mound was over fifiy chang high and had a circum-
» ference of over five miles" *. This statement is confirmed by the
PoA wuh chi *, a little work probably composed in the third century,
when, as this book states, the mound was still extant. Jt^The
» grave hill of Shi Hwang", it says, »is to the north of mount Li.
» It is several tens of chang high and has a circumference of six
» or seven miles. Now it is situated on the borders of the Yin-p^an
» district, in the north"*.
It is certainly to be regretted that Chinese literature does not
contain more noteworthy particulars about that mausoleum, which
doubtless was one of the largest ever constructed by the hand
of man. That a temple was built within its precincts we may con-
clude from the passage quoted on page 388 ; but the rest is left to
our own imagination. More ample information the native books
contain about the mausolea of the sovereigns of the Han dynasty.
lung edition of the Shi kiy chapter 6, 1. 30.
^ iS ^ ^ f written by Chang Hwa ^ i£ , a Minister of State.
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mPEBIAIi MAUSOLEA DURING THE HAN DYNASTT. 423
infonnation which is sufficient for us to draw up a very &ir picture
of the way in which these monuments were laid out, and to
ascertain their dimensions. If we glean the data and combine them
with some circumspection, we arrive at the following conclusion.
Every emperor had his own mausoleum. The construction was com-
menced immediately after his accession to the throne, as stated by
the Old Ritual of the House of Han, quoted on page 405. According
to short notices interpolated by commentators in the biographies of
emperors, which are to be found in the Historical Records (chapters
8 to 12) and in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty (chapters 1
to 12), the mausolea of the first eleven sovereigns of the House of
Han were situated for the greater part to the north, north-east and
north-west of the metropolis Ch'^ang-ngan ^, at distances varying from
thirty-five to eighty Chinese miles; only one was to the south of the
metropolis, fifty miles distant, and one to the south-east, distant
seventy miles. They are denoted in the books by the general term
ling^ » hillocks", but each in particular had a name of its own,
composed of the word ling with a monosyllabic prefix which was
derived, in some cases, from the name of a village or mountain in
the neighbourhood, in others, from some river flowing by the spot,
or from some peculiarity of the surrounding country.
The name ling was applied to these mausolea because an arti-
ficial hillock , thrown up by the hand of man , covered the imperial
remains. Only the Pa ling', the one situated south-east of the
capital and covering the corpse of Wen ^, the third emperor of the
dynasty, who died in the year 157 B. C, is stated by Ying Shao*,
an author of renown who lived in the second century, »to have
3»had no artificial mound, the place for hiding the corpse having
>>been constructed in a natural mountain"*.
As for the dimensions of these grave hills, only with regard to
four of them are there figures on record. Hwang-fu Mih, the cele-
brated expositor of the ancient writings mentioned on page 415, wrote
in the third century that the Chiang ling^ the hiU of Kao Tsu',
i ^ ^, near the modem 8i-ngan-fii |§ ^ j^ in the province of Shensi.
2 1^. 3 ^ 1^. It was mentioned already on pages 407 seq.
^ Bilil^m^ >5lEI^^- Khienlung edition of the Shi ki, chap-
ter 10, 1. 18.
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424 THB GRAVE.
the first emperor of the dynasty, was thirteen chang of ten feet
high and one hundred and twenty chang (or pu?) broad from
east to west*; the Yang ling* of King ^ the fourth Emperor,
measured, according to the same authority, fourteen chang and
one hundred and twenty pu*. Of the Ngan ling* of Hwui',
the second emperor, the dimensions were, according to the Imperial
Mirror, thirty-two chang and one hundred and twenty pu, the
hill covering an area of sixty meu'^; and finally, the Meu ling*
or tumulus of Wu®, the fifth monarch, was fourteen chang
high and measured one hundred pu. This last statement we owe
to the San-fu hwang fu ^^ or » Map of the Imperial Private Pos-
sessions in San-fu", an ancient collection of topographical particulars
concerning Ch'^ang-ngan and its environs which were known during
the Han dynasty as the San-fu country; it is from an unknown
hand and gives descriptions of buildings, temples, altars, graves,
bridges, and so forth. Figures about the other mounds of the Early
Han dynasty we have not found in print.
The above statement that the hill of Hwui was thirty-two chang
high must be accepted with great reserve. Hwui was a monarch
of no significance whatever, who reigned only about six years
under the tutelage of his mother. There is probably a misprint in
this case and we ought to read twelve , instead of thirty-two. Had
the hill actually been so enormous, special mention would certainly
have been made of it in the Kwan chung ^* " or » Description of
the Country inside the Mountain passes" (t. e. Ch^'ang-ngan and
its environs); but this work says: »The grave hills of the Han
jt^ dynasty were all twelve chang high and one hundred and twenty
»pu square, and the Meu ling alone was fourteen chang by
» one hundred and forty p u" ".
The burial ceremonies of the emperors of the House of Han , as
reproduced on pages 401 %qq. of this work , show that the imperial
1 Historical Records, chapter 8, 1. 37.
•^^m-
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4 Historical Records, chapter li, 1. 6.
^^m-
«!•
7 Historical Records, chapter 9, 1. 4.
. ^nm-
9 ^.
ioHiiMia.
" H ff IE-
1^ ^ — -p Pg 5t: , 3^ — ^ Pg -|- ^. ^u Am fu »Au totA cKing,
sect. ^ ^, chapter 129.
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CHAMBERED TUMULI, AND GRAVE TUNNELS. 425
remains were deposited underneath the mound, inside a crypt called
fang* or » apartment", eommunicating with the outside by a
hung-tung* or » profound cave" which was closed by a door.
This door opened on a road called yen or yen-tao^ No doubt
the » profound cave" was something like a tunnel or underground
passage, and may have been lined with wood, stone or bricks;
although this is nowhere expressly stated. It is, however, tolerably
certain that the crypt itselif was vaulted, funeral vaults of wood
and stone having been of common prevalence in ancient China, as
is shown on pages 288 %qq. The San-fu hwang fu states indeed,
that in the P^ing mausoleum* of the emperor Chao* »the stone
vault was twelve feet broad and twenty-five feet long"'. Moreover,
as the protection of the illustrious dead from injuries was one of the
main objects connected with big grave mounds, it is scarcely to be
supposed that emperors would be buried in unvaulted caves, liable
at any moment to give way under a weight of earth, which would
crush the coffin. According to the Old Ritual of the Han Dynasty, the
crypts were seventeen feet high and twenty square; a great amount of
valuables, implements and other things were stored away there
for the use of the defunct, and the coffin was covered with a pile
of wood cut from the core of cypress trees (see page 405).
Grave tunnels like those mentioned above were constructed in
the tumuli of the sovereigns of the Cheu dynasty, as shown by
the passage in the Cheu li quoted on page 421. They are denoted
in that work, and also elsewhere, by a special graphic sign, viz.
m or in, pronounced sui. It seems that in the age of Cheu only
monarchs were entitled to have them, as it is written in the T%o
ck^wen : » The feudal lord of Tsin was granted an audience by the
» king (of Cheu) and asked that the privilege of having a tunnel
» might be granted to him ; but the king refused , saying that this
»was a distinction reserved for kings''^. That such subterranean
passages were probably only a transformation of the entrances of the
clay dwellings of the living has been demonstrated on page 374.
For farther particulars about the mausolea of the Han dynasty
we are thrown back upon the Old Ritual of that House and upon
'#^m»illll>^Si=0.I*ifc- Twenty-fifth year
of the Rnler Hi.
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426 THE GRAVE.
the Imperial Mirror. What these works contain on the subject has
been reproduced on pages 405 seq,^ so that we have now only to
compile the data for the convenience of the reader. The tumulus
was situated within a square plot of ground called the » square
central part"\ This had a superficies of one khiung of a hundred
meu, which, supposing the superficial measures of those times to
be the same as the present, would give about six hectares, or a
length of two hundred and forty-five metres on every side; — the
ancient khiung may, however, have been considerably smaller, or
even larger. The Imperial Mirror says that the square measured
one hundred pu or six hundred Chinese feet on every side. It
was excavated to a depth of thirteen chang. Hence it must have
looked like an immense pit, out of which the huge hill raised its
stately summit aloft.
We may surmise that the earth dug out &om the square was used
for throwing up the hill. It may, however, have served also for the
constrilction of the wall which surrounded the square (see page 406);
although it is nowhere explicitly stated that this wall was of earth, and
it may have been of bricks or stone. On one side of the wall there
were four broad gates, through which six horses could pass abreast;
prob&bly, as is the case in such structures of the present day, they
formed one single gateway with four openings placed side by side
in a row. From these gates a stone-paved road, the yen-tao, led
up to the tunnel. There may have been gates also on each of the
other three fafades of the square, but the Imperial Mirror does not
express itself clearly on this point. A plot of ground, six times as
large as the central square, was subjoined to the mausoleum by
way of demesnes, and by being partly or entirely planted with trees,
was converted into a park. The San-fu hwang fu states that »the
Ngan mausoleum possessed orchards and a deer park" '•
Buildings serving for sundry purposes were erected in the mau-
soleum-grounds. In the first place, there was a hall, thirty feet
high, probably containing an altar assigned for sacrificing to the
manes of the occupant of the tomb. The fact that this building
is mentioned by the Old Ritual of the Han Dynasty in the same
breath with the hill and the inner square (see page 405) renders
it probable that it was situated inside the latter and not far fix)m
the hill; perhaps it stood right in front of the tunnel, between this
and the quadruple gate mentioned above. The square contained also
:k^ ^ ^mM^^un^'^^^^^
r 6.
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BUILDINGS IN THE IMPERIAL MAUSOLEUM GROUNDS. 427
some abodes for such ladies of the harem as were of high rank,
or had stood in high favour with the deceased monarch and
were therefore deemed worthy to dwell near his grave as guard-
ians. The San-fu hwang fu says: »The wall circumvallating
»the Ch^'ang ling had a circumference of seven miles and
>^one hundred and eighty pu. It formed also an enclosure for
»the temple. The gate had four outlets. In the central square
)^ there were side halls, side apartments with court-yards, and
» mansions for officers" ^ The enormous size of this wall leads us
to believe that it embraced the circumjacent demesnes of the mauso-
leum, and that the hill was in consequence surrounded by two
distinct ramparts, constructed at a considerable distance from each
other. According to the Books of the Early Han Djmasty * the
outer wall was erected five years after the demise of the emperor
Kao Tsu, who lay buried there.
Warriors and serfs, continues the Imperial Mirror, were levied
from the neighbouring districts for the protection of the mausolea,
and placed under command of a military chi^f specially appointed
to this office (page 406). Thus garrisoned, the imperial burial
places in those times were strongholds in the true sense of the
word, being surrounded either by a single or by a double' wall,
whilst the entrance to the hill was defended by a sword-gate,
hidden ballistic machines, and secret fire. Bands of robbers and hosts
of rebels might otherwise invade the sacred grounds and pillage
the treasures hoarded up in the crypt, and any harm done to the
remains or the spirit would entail the downfall of the Throne, nay,
the death of the imperial offspring, according to the fung-shui
doctrines which will be explained in Chapter XII.
With a view to emergencies of this sort, the emperors in some
cases went so far as to found a walled city in the neighbourhood,
and to render it incumbent upon the inhabitants to defend the
mausoleum for the protection of which it was built. The first
monarch of the House of Han had already done this for his father,
although the latter had never been seated on the throne. The
» emperor Kao", says the San^fu hwang fu^ » after having buried
»his imperial fether in the high and level grounds to the north
y>oi lih-yang, founded the district city of Wan-nien inside the
»«8S:.mii>IS1f#W«4'- Chapter 6. 2 Chapter 3, 1. 3.
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428 THB GRAVE.
» great walls of lih-jang , as a place to be intrusted with the care
» of the fortifications of the mausoleum" \ The name he gave to
that city is characteristic. It means >>Ten thousand Years", and
would, he hoped, ensure to the mausoleum, and consequently to
his family, an existence of hundreds of centuries.
Of Kao's own burial place it is on record that » to the north of
»it was the city of Siao, which had been built by (his prime
» minister) Siao Ho for the defence of the Chiang mausoleum. At
» the outset of the rule of the Han dynasty, the warlike fEimilies
» living to the east of the Passes were transferred to the spot, that
» they might be entrusted with the care of the fortifications of the
» monument. Ten thousand families were appointed for the Chiang
)> mausoleum and the same number for the Meu mausoleum,
» these families being placed under tlie control of the Board of
V Sacrifices, and not under the local prefect"*. Such draconical
measures, compelling thousands of people to shift their place of
abode, were doubtlessly enforced at the cost of numberless human
lives and unheard-of misery.
It seems that seven mausolea were provided in this wise with
defenders, for it is stated in the Ktoan ckunff ki that )»a trans-
y> ferenpe of the people and foundation of a district city has occurred
» seven times. In the case of the Ch'^ang mausoleum and the
» Meu mausoleum over ten thousand families were transferred, and
» in each of the other five cases five thousand" '. These seven
mausolea were probably those of the first seven emperors of the
dynasty, it being on record that the eighth emperor, Yuen*,
mentioned on pages 406 seq.j forbade the building of a district city
in the neighbourhood of his own burial place, which, in accord-
ance with the prevailing usage of those times, was being laid
mmi^^^.\^%^m^' Chapter e.
^ ^. The 9 General Memoirs of Shend province" |l^ |§ |^ j^, ap, Ku kin
t*u shu tsih cKing^ sect, jglfi ^, chapter 129.
^^ 6 . Ku kin fu shu tsih cKing^ the same section and the same chapter.
*7C
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GARRISONING THE IMPERIAL MAUSOLEA. 429
out in his lifetime. »In the fourth year of the Yung kwang
» period" (40 B. C), so we read in the Standard Histories, »he
?» promulgated an edict of the following contents. 'To live quietly
?»on their native soil and to have an aversion from migrating,
»such is the character of the people, and their natural feelings
» make them yearn to live together with those of their own flesh
)>and bone for mutual support. Erewhile an officer, acting under
» the impulse of the duties of ministers and sons (towards their
» sovereigns and their fathers), presented a memorial to Us, proposing
» that the population of the departments and the capital might be
» transplanted, to be entrusted with the care of Our mausoleum and
»its park-grounds. But such a measure would compel these same
x^ people to leave far behind them the tombs of their ancestors; it
y> would interrupt their professions and vocations, and cause them to
>^lose their property; it would separate relatives connected by ties
»of blood, and so cause the people to cherish hankering affections,
y> and their families to harbour feelings of uneasiness. Consequently,
>^if such a useless and money-devouring calamity be brought over
>^them by their chie&, there will be inside the Mountain passes
»no people who can be relied upon; hence the measure proposed
y>\a not fitted to ensure a long existence to the Throne. No
3» fortified district city must be founded for the mausoleum which
»is now being built, in order that everybody in the Empire may
>^live quietly upon his own grounds and take pleasure in the
;» exercise of his vocation, without harbouring the intention of
» creating disturbances. Promulgate this throughout the Realm , and
»let it be clearly and plainly taken cognizance of. The Emperor
A^also abolished the guards for the grave walls of the father and
» mother of the deceased Empress" \
^
\
m}^j!iLw^%^nzm.m^^mmz^.f^^
^zn^>^W(%mm^^m.%^.^%y^
^. 5L^^^ SL^^^' ^^^^ ^^ *^® *^'y ^^^ Dynasty, chapter
9, L 10 9eq.
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430 THE GRAVE.
The forced removal of so many thousands of people &om
their homesteads at the same time furnished the manual labour
required for the building of the mausoleum. Hence it took place as
soon as the works were begun. Tens of thousands had been consigned
in this way to the mausolea of Hoh Lii and Shi Hwang, as stated on
pages 396 and 400, and the emperors of the Han dynasty did not fall
much behind of these monarchs in this respect. It is stated in the
General Memoirs of Shensi that, when the mausoleum of Hwui, the
second emperor of that dynasty, was being constructed, his mother,
» the empress Lii , removed from the country east of the Mountain
» passes five thousand families of singers, actors and musicians, and
» made them build the hill and the fortifications. As these people
» were versed in jesting and joking, that monument obtained the
» name of the mausoleum of female jesting" \ The empress was
probably aware that it would be no great detriment to the
welfare of the country to rid it of such a useless element. In
the San-fu hwang fu we read that, )> according to another work
» called San-fu kiu ahi or 'Antiquities of San-fii', the emperor Wu
» sent sixteen thousand families to the village of Meu in the Kwei-li
» district, to build the Meu mausoleum"*.
The Histories of those times contain some interesting particulars
relating to a mausoleum styled Ch^'ang ling*, which ChHng*,
the ninth monarch of the Han dynasty, undertook to build for
himself, but never completed, particulars well worth reproducing
because they show what the burdens were which the construction ot
such a funereal monument imposed upon the people and the public
treasuries. »In the first year of the Hung kia period (20 B.C.)
» he travelled to his mausoleum , which then bore no definitive
»name, and proclaimed an ajnnesty for the serfs at work there*.
» And in the summer of the next year he sent to the spot the
» warlike characters from amongst the people of the departments ,
»paid more than .five hundred times ten thousand coins for the
i^ iji^ ^ > '^ p^ ic «5iS 1^- ^« *"» '"" *'"* *^^ *'''*"fl'' ^' i»l> H.
chapter 129.
i^ \ ISfi^ "f^ '^ ' Books of the Eaily Han Dynasty, chapter 10, 1. 9.
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BUILDING IMPERIAL MAUSOLEA DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 481
)^ Chiang mausoleum, and relegated anew five thousand families
»to it*. In the first year of the period Yung shi (16 B.C.) he
y promulgated an edict of the following tenor. 'We have heard that
;j>the Superintendant of Works and Great Architect (Kiai) Wan-
3»nien pretended that the Chiang mausoleum could be finished in
» three years. But they have been at work there now for five years
)» already, and yet they have not begun at the parts within the
3» gate of the Marshal's Hall. The Realm is being ruined by useless
)^ outlays, the people are weary of the labours imposed upon
)>them, and carry the earth to the spot from afar in a careless
» manner and with aversion, so that it will not be possible ever to
» finish the work. Reflecting on the hardships they have to sus-
» tain , We labour under affliction and commiseration. Errors which
»are not amended, such errors indeed deserve the name of errors;
)» therefore We stop the works of that mausoleum and interdict the
)» transportation of people to such monuments of former times, lest
» there should arise in the Empire a spirit of agitation' ^.
y> And in the next year an Imperial edict was issued , running
»as follows: 'Some time ago, the Superintendant of Works and
» Great Architect Wan-nien, although he was aware that the
»Ch'^ang mausoleum was situated on low grounds and therefore
» could not serve as an abode for an Emperor, requested the
» Throne nevertheless to lay out, to build and to found fortifications
)>on the spot. Under pretence of being a capable man, he has
»in a wrong wise piled up the earth and erected heights,
y> drawing together for that purpose multitudes of serfe ; and he
>^has committed such precipitate and cruel acts, that the deaths
)> entailed by the sudden misery which has befallen these serfs,
» have followed each other in an unbroken ^uence. The people are
» utterly exhausted, the Imperial treasuries empty. (Wang) Hiung,
^ g 1^. Op. ci cap. ciU, 1. 10.
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432 THE GRAVE.
»Oar Minister attending the Court in constant service , has^ while
» still a Minister in the Board of Revenues, frequently advised the
>^ Throne not to finish the Chiang mausoleum; and Chiang, Our
» Chamberlain and Commander of the officers of the Body Ouard ,
»ha8 often demonstrated that it would be preferable to put a
)>stop to the works at once, and to send the families, who
)»have been consigned to the spot, back to their former homes.
» We have now laid Ch'^ang's demonstrations under the me-
»morial of Hiung, and thereupon the high nobility, discussing
3» the matter , have unanimously expressed their adhesion to the
)> proposal of Ch^'ang. So We place this excellent project ahead,
»and enact it. Hiung, Our Treasurer, will rid Us of these great
)> outlays, and the people thereby enjoy rest and peace. The dignity
» of Nobleman inside the Mountain passes has already been conferred
» upon Hiung, and a donation of a hundred pounds of gold bestowed
» upon him. As to Chiang , he is hereby invested with the same
y> dignity ; a domain of a thousand families is assigned to him , and
» another of five hundred to Hiung. But Wan-nien, the venom ot
)> whose treachery, depravity and disloyalty is flowing forth all
)> around amongst the people, and upon whom looks of hate are
»cast at the present day on all sides between the seas, may abide
)»no longer in the metropolis, although We cast a veil over his
^crimes and forgive him. We banish him to the department of
» Tun-hwang" ^ (in the far North-west of the Empire).
In addition to the above let it be stated that, according to
chapter 70 (1. 18) of the same Books of the Early Han Dynasty,
^ ^ ^ # il: ^ iB • ^- *"«p- "'•' '• " *«9-
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BUILDING mPEBIAL MAU80LEA DURING THB HAN DYNASTY. 433
the emperor Ch'lng had, at the instigation of Wan-nien, founded also
a district city near the Ch^'ang mausoleum, to which he consigned
the people of the inner departments. Furthermore it is recorded
that there had been much opposition to the plans of that Great
Architect on the part of other officers. They objected to the crypt
as not being constructed beneath the level of the surrounding
ground, but covered by clay and mould obtained from elsewhere,
so that the mound could never afford a proper shelter for the
imperial manes ; moreover, they had calculated that the earth
for the hill had to be carried from such a distance that it cost
nearly as much as a like quantity of com , so that the works must
inevitably drain the treasuries. Strong arguments had also come
from Liu Hiang\ the most distinguished statesman, scholar and
historiographer of his time. The lengthy protest entered by him,
in which he appeals to almost all the instances, on record in Chinese
history, of famous men who had been buried in plain graves of
small dimensions, is reproduced, probably unabridged, in chapter
36 of the Books of the Early Han Dynasty (1. 22 aqq.).
In thus disposing arbitrarily of the persons and the labour of
their subjects, the emperors of the Ts^in dynasty and the Han dynasty
evidently started from the principle, always recognized in China as
the leading article of public law, that » everything underneath the
heavens belongs to the Son of Heaven as his personal property" ^,
not even excepting the bodies of his subjects, who are his slaves
in the most absolute sense of the word. There can scarcely be a
doubt that the same principle prevailed in times prior to Shi Hwang,
and that in those ages the princely mausolea, like most government
buildings , were constructed by means of forced labour. The extract
relative to the mausoleum of Hoh Lii, inserted on page 396, tends
to confirm this supposition. In the long series of centuries which
lie between the Haii dynasty and the present day, matters have
not much changed; so e,ff. it is explicitly stated in the History of
the Sung Dynasty that »the Emperor Jen Tsung having died in
»1056, Ying Tsung (his successor) laid down the rules for the
j» mourning dress to be worn for the Emperor, and had the Yung-
>^ chao mausoleum made ready and delivered up, both matters being
» regulated with observance of what had been done previously in
»the case of the Ting mausoleum (of Jen Tsung's predecessor).
25e^^^f-
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434 THE GRAVE.
A^He relegated 46,700 serfs to the spot from sundry parts of the
V Empire, to work at it" ^. Such a measure was not desisted from,
even though the deceased monarch had explicitly declared in his
last will that economy and moderation should be observed with
regard to the style and dimensions of his burial place '.
The tendency displayed by the emperors of the latter part
of the Early Han dynasty to have their mausolea laid out with
more simplicity and at less cost of human labour, seems to
have influenced the monarchs of the Later Han dynasty. Kwang
Wu^ the first of this line, did not start the works for his own
mausoleum until he had occupied the throne for twenty-six years,
viz. in A. D. 50, and » ordered that not more than two or
three khiung of ground should be taken for it"^. Nevertheless
his grave mound was 323 pu square and 66 Chinese feet high,
while the fields subjoined to the place as demesnes covered not
less than 20 khiung, 57 meu, 85 pu. The hill for Ming^
his successor, had about the same size at the base, but was
considerably higher, although this monarch too had ordered before
his death that the utmost simplicity should be observed in con-
structing it*. A long note contained in chapter 16 of the Books
of the Later Han Dynasty (1. 7 seq.), compiled from the Ku kin
chu, a work quoted already on page 57, and from the Ti wang
shi W or » Genealogical Register of Emperors and Princes" who
have lived from the most remote times, a work by Hwang-fu
Mih (page 415), gives the dimensions of all the imperial grave
hills of the Later Han dynasty, with the superficies of the demesnes
of each mausoleum. The height of the hills varied from 46 to 150
feet, and the breadth at the base from 136 to 380 pu; one mauso-
leum possessed 74 khiung of demesnes, another not more than five,
and all the rest varied from 12 to 31 khiung. Excepting that of
W A yp ^ • ^*^p*®^ ^^» ^- ^•
2 History of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 12, I. 18.
^ ^]^W^>5i&^^^' ^^^^ ^^ ^^® ^^^ ^^" Dynasty,
chapter 1, second part, l 19. ^ '^ -
6 Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 2, 1. 20. "^ l^" £ iSl ilC •
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IMPERIAL MAUSOLEA DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 435
Hien^, the last Emperor, they were all situated in the environs of
the then metropolis Loh-yang*, in the present province of Honan.
In the same note it is stated that many of these mausolea
had no » surrounding wall"', which evidently means, no outer
wall enclosing the parks. Further we are informed that there was
a fourfold entrance , inside which stood the temple and the mansions
for officers and petty functionaries, which facts warrant the con-
clusion that these mausolea were built after the pattern of those of
the Early Han dynasty. Inside the gates there was a chung
khii ^, t. e. a post or support with a bell suspended upon it.
The circumjacent grounds annexed to each mausoleum were un-
doubtedly reserved, either partly or entirely, for the maintenance
of the serfs settled on the spot; probably these men obtained a
livelihood by tilling them. After the beginning of our era, cities
for the defence of the mausolea, it would appear, ceased to be
founded. It is indeed on record that Chang*, the emperor who
reigned from A. D. 76 — 89 , » had the intention to erect a
» district city for the Yuen mausoleum of (his grandfather)
»Kwang Wu, and for the Hien-tsieh mausoleum of (his fisither)
»Ming; but when prince Ts'^ang heard of this, he promptly
» presented a memorial to the Throne, in which he rebuked the
» Emperor .... who followed his advice and gave up his plan" •.
After this we never again read of anything of the kind , the future
monarchs being, it would seem, daunted by the dangers created by
such extravagant and cruel pursuits. It may, however, be taken for
granted that the mausolea in all subsequent ages were built by forced
labour just the same as before, the arbitrary disposal of their subjects
never having ceased to be an undisputed right of Chinese sovereigns,
a right of the first order in the fundamental principles of public law.
The custom of relegating people to the imperial burial grounds
for the defence and protection of the same was not allowed to fall
into disuse without an equivalent. Henceforth each mausoleum received
a regular garrison 6f soldiers, and also a restricted number of persons
to keep it in good order and watch over it. Already of Ming , the
second emperor of the Later Han dynasty, it is stated that, ;»when
*j»- 2^it- 3^a- ^mm-
chapter 72, 1. 12 and 13.
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436 THE GUAVE.
» he had his mausoleum made , he ordered that a certain number of
y> menial servants and soldiers should be assigned to watch over it and
» to water and sweep the grounds" *. This institution was probably
never abolished by any succeeding dynasty. During the reign of
the House of T^ang, »it was a general rule to appoint for every
» mausoleum a guard, which must settle for good in the place;
^ and the military chiefe made tours of inspection with the Intend-
» ant of the mausoleum" *. During the Ming dynasty, » there was
» appointed for each mausoleum an Inspector of the Palace of the
» Manes, and a garrison"*. The now reigning House has each of
its mausolea garrisoned by Manchu Bannermen , of whom there are
eighty for each of the earlier ancestors, and forty in the burial
grounds of their consorts *.
Before quitting the subject of the mausolea of the Imperial
house of Han, we must note that it is formally stated in the
books that some of them had a brook , rivulet or tank within their
precincts. »When the emperor Chao (86 — 74 B. C.) started the
» works for his burial ground, he ordered that there should merely
» be running water on the spot" *. And Kwang Wu , » on com-
y> mencing the works for his mausoleum in the 26th. year of his
3» reign (A.* D. 50), prescribed that the pond on the spot should
» merely be cut so as to convert it into running water" •. Finally,
»Ming, when he began the works for his mausoleum, ordered
»that there should only be running water on the spot and that
»the crypt of stone should be twelve feet by twenty-five"^. The
of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 2, 1. 20.
hien fung khaoy chapter 125, 1. 15.
^ ^I^#l9f|l|»^^#li-See chapter 133, 1. 10, of the Suh
wen hien fung khao j9| "^ jM^ ^ ^ or ^Supplement to the Wen hien fung
khao^\ compiled and published in the 16th. century by Wang Khi ^ jUr,and
revised and re -edited by imperial command in the Khienlung period (A. D. 1736 — ^1795).
4 Ta TsHng hwui tien^ abridged edition, chapter 96.
5^^^#im»^l^;JCB5B. San.fu hwang fu, chapter 6.
Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 1, second part, 1. 18 seq.
ZL f^^ ^Zlpt3L/i«The same work, chapter 2, I. 20.
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IMPERIAL BURIALS DURING THE YUEN DYNASTY. 437
descriptions given by native books of the burial places of Hoh Lii
and his daughter (see pages 396 and 419) and of Shi Hwang (page
400) both show that grave tanks and grave brooks dated from
times still earlier. Their object and destination will be expounded
and accounted for in Chapter XII.
Of the mausolea of the dynasties following that of Han in an
mibroken line on the throne of the Empire no elaborate descriptions
occur in Chinese books, neither are the notices and data^ which
those works supply about such monuments, sufficiently clear and
numerous to enable us to draw up a distinct picture of them. But,
taking into consideration that a most rigid spirit of conservatism
in regard to what has been established by the forefathers of the
nation has always reigned supreme in Chinese State religion and in
whatever is connected with it, we may be pretty sure that in all
material points these mausolea have always closely resembled those
of the Han dynasty. Short notes scattered about in the books tend
to confirm this. So it is stated that, »when the emperor E^ Tsu
)>died (A. D. 626), an imperial decree was issued, to the effect
)»that, as to the style and dimensions of his burial place, the
)> Chiang mausoleum of the Han dynasty should be taken as a
)> pattern, and that the number of people to be summoned to work
)> at it should be fixed in a liberal spirit" ^.
No doubt the splendour and dimensions of all these mausolea
varied considerably. Some are said to have had no hill at all: such
was the case with those of the Mongol Yuen djrnasty, if credit
may be given to the ClCun ming mung yu luh *, which says tlmt
» the House of Yuen had no grave hills" ^. The first Supplement
to Ma Twan-Un's Wen hien fung khao reports: » There are no
» means of examining into the funeral rites of the Yuen dynasty,
y> (as documentary evidence fails). In the main they followed the
» customs of their own realm (Mongolia). The corpse was dressed in
»dk coat of sable fiir, a cap of leather, leather boots, and covering
)>for the legs of the same material, and a bowl (a P4tra or alms
)»bowl of a Buddhist mendicant monk?) was tied to the waist. In
^ every case a white-powdered skin (a woman?) was buried along
1^ J^ ^ ^. Old Books of the Tang Dynasty, chapter 72, 1. 4.
3 7C 'f^ ^ |^« ^^ ^^^ ^*^ ^^^ ^^ chHng, sect J:^ ^, chapter 130.
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438 THE GRAVE.
» with the dead^ as also a couple of metal jars and jugs, one saucer,
»an eating bowl, a platter, a spoon, and a chopstick. After the
» dressing , four belts of gold were tied round the corpse. The
» funeral car was of white felt and had curtains of blue and green
)>nah-shih-shih(P), and the coffin too was covered with such
)> material. A Mongol female exorcist, dressed in new attire, rode
» on horseback at the head of the procession , and one single horse
A>was led by hand in it, the saddle of which was ornamented
»with gold. The box of the car was ornamented with nah-shih-
» shih. The horse was called *the golden steed for the manes'.
x>And according to the Book of Plants, Trees and Seeds, the
» coffin was made of two logs from a Nan tree. Excavations
y> of the shape and size of a human body were chiseled out therein,
»and the two pieces, fitted together, formed the coffin, in which
A>the corpse was placed. Having been carried to the grounds ot
»the park-temples, situated due north, it was buried deep in the
» ground, and the place was trampled by the hoofs of ten thousand
» horses. Consequently, when the grass had become green , the spot
» resembled the plain , and no trace of it could be discovered or
» kept in mind any more" ^.
Probably all the mausolea of the Tung dynasty had a grave
mound. They embraced, moreover, buildings and mansions in great
numbers, for it is on record that in the fourteenth year of the period
Ching yuen (A. D. 798) an imperial decree was issued to erect
or rebuild around each of the five imperial mausolea no less than
378 buildings, and around some other mausolea also a great number
^ ^ ^ ^ # ^ jS III' • '^'' "*** '•'^ ''***^ *'^' '^^"P**'" *^*' '• ®-
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IMPERIAL MAU80LEA DURING THE T'^ANO DTKASTT. 439
of edifices \ The same faot is confirmed by the following episode
bom the life of Wen T*ao', a turbulent chieftain who played a
prominent part at the time of the troubles, warfare and bloodshed,
intervening between the Sung dynasty and the "Fang. »When he
» had resided in his dominion for seven years , he broke open such
)>mausolea of the "Fang dynasty as were situated within the
)> borders of his territory, and appropriated to his own use all the
^gold and valuables stored up there. But the Chao mausoleum
» (of the emperor "Fai Tsung) was stronger than the others. From
»the road which led to the hill Fao saw that the buildings and
» mansions were grand and beautiful, both in regard to architecture
)>and size, but that they did not differ in style from human
^> dwellings. Inside there was a central temple; couches of stone
»were arranged in rows in the side rooms on the east and west,
»and upon those couches stood receptacles of the same material,
»'m which were iron boxes entirely filled with antique cards and
y> manuscripts, bells, royal handwritings, paper and ink, all looking
» quite new. Fao took everything away, and so these relics found
» their way among the people" *.
Sacrificial temples are mentioned often enough in connection
with the imperial mausolea both of mediaeval and modem times
to justify the conclusion that they were hardly ever wanting. That
they were extremely beautiful in many cases is sufficiently proved
by the following description of such an edifice, which stood on an
imperial mausoleum of the fifth century, belonging to the Wei
dynasty: »The Yung-ku mausoleum is situate on the peak of
» mount Fang. The mound of the Imperial grandmother Wen-
» ming is there also , and to the east of it is seen that of the
>^ emperor Kao Tsu. South of these two stands the Yung-ku hall.
» The rows of embrasures in the comers of the wall which surrounds
»this building, as also the steps which lead up to the terrace,
1 Wen hien fung khao^ chapter 125, 1. 27.
i^ at «ft M *I ^ . $S «t «t ^ . ^ If A ra • N«« H^'^'^ of
the Five Dynasties, chapter 40, 1. 14.
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440 THE GRAVE.
» farther the railings and the doors, the lintels, the walls, the
» rafters of the roof and the tiles , are all of veined stone. In front
» of the eaves there are four decorated pillars of black stone obtained
)»&om the valleys on the eight sides of Loh-yang. Figures are
» carved on them , the sunken parts are embossed with gilding and
» silver, and the clouds and pheasants which are interspersed look
» as if they had been embroidered. Inside and outside the hall , on
^> each of the four sides, a couple of stone instruments are fixed for
» the support of curtains ; here is also a screen of blue stone with
» edges of veined stone ,^ and the sunken parts of this screen are
y> carved with scenes displaying instances of loyalty and filial sub-
» mission. On a board over the 'entrance of the hall is carved the
» name Ching-shun (The Chaste and Obedient), and in front of the
» temple there are inscribed slabs and animals , cut out of stone.
» Similar stone tablets are - also arranged to the right and left of
»the grave mound, and the -rows of cypress trees on the four sides
y> allure the birds and shade it from the sun" \
That as late as the Sung dynasty the hills over the imperial
mausolea had a very spacious tunnel or subterranean entrance
leading into the crypt, is proved by the books of history, which
inform us that in A. D. 964, » while the Ngan mausoleum was
;i> being built, the tunnel fell in, crushing to death two hundred
y> serfs and soldiers" *. We note in conclusion that it seems to have
been customary already at an early date to erect large figures of
animals and men, cut out of stone , in the imperial burial grounds;
but this curious usage will be specially discussed in Chapter IX.
^^m. mmm^^^M,^z^^mmi^m
^i^m. ^^mm.m^^i^m.'^mM&^z
m.mmjkmz^.mikm^^nm.n^mm
^^ ^ M^^ M^^^ B- ''^^^ ^"^"^ Memoirs of Shansi,
l|l p^ m J^, ap. Ku kin fu shu tsih eh'ing, sect, jjjji ^, chapter 130.
SuDg Dynasty, chapter i, 1. 16.
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IMPERIAL MAUSOLEA OF THE UISQ DYNASTY. 441
The information which the native literature affords about the
numerous magnificent mausolea of the dynasties which occupied the
throne of China in unbroken sequence down to the House of Ming,
is of so little interest that we will not weary the reader with it.
It would be in vain to hope that foreign exploration on the spots
where these mausolea once embellished the country could do
anything to supply what is lacking in the books. Dynasty after
dynasty has been overthrown and annihilated, and, judging by
the numerous cases on record in Chinese history, such revolutions
were always followed by long periods of bloodshed and war,
bands of insurgents arising on all sides to lay waste the country.
In times of anarchy the imperial mausolea scarcely ever escaped
destruction. They were broken open, plundered of the treasures
hoarded up therein, and the entombed corpses were mangled and
destroyed, with the object of bringing ruin on the imperial descend-
ant seated on the tottering throne. A long time generally elapsed
before order could be restored again. So the people had free scope
to gradually demolish the temples, mansions, walls and other build-
ings on the mausoleum grounds, in order to appropriate the pre-
9ious building materials; no fear of punishment now withheld them
from cutting down the trees for timber and fuel, or from converting
the park-grounds into fields for their own use. In a few score
years nothing remained of the whole monument but heaps of
useless rubbish, the basements of the buildings, and a bare hillock
of earth, which it had not been found worth while demolishing.
The last in the series of imperial burial places destroyed in
this way, is that of T^ai Tsu \ founder of the Ming dynasty,
which is situated in the close vicinity of Nanking. It is almost
entirely in ruins and irreparably lost for ever. Hence there is
reason for satisfaction that those of the other emperors of the
same family, who were the last monarchs of Chinese blood that
wielded the sceptre over the Empire, have escaped the destroying
hand of man and the tooth of time. They occupy a first place
among China's most interesting relics of bygone ages. Being
evidently built after the plan followed for the mausolea of the
ancient House of Han , and the same being undoubtedly the case
with those of all the intermediate dynasties, they enable us to form
a &ir idea of the Chinese imperial mausolea of all periods. On this
29
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442 THE GRAVE.
account their great value for science is incontestable. An elaborate
description, drawn up from a personal investigation on the spot,
will be found in Chapter XIV of this Volume.
It now remains for us to review the burial places of other per-
sons of imperial blood, and those of the grandees of the Empire.
That grave mounds of respectable dimensions must have been
pretty common already in pre-Christian times, is evident from the
fact that most of the terms used in the books of those ages to
denote burial places also signify a height or eminence. In the first
place we have the character ^, ch^ung, which occurs frequently
in this sense in the Shu king^ and in this book also means )» large".
The ancient ^Bh ya moreover says that »it signifies a mountain-
top"*, which is its meaning also in the 8M king, y>k ch^ung is
a high grave mound"*, says the Shwoh wen. Further there is the
word khiu J^. In the Shu king, the Shi king and other ancient
works this word generally occurs in the sense of a hillock or knoll ,
and the ^Bh ya says: »It means an eminence not constructed
by the hand of man'^'. Other ancient terms, which at the same
time denote both an eminence and a grave, are leu ;^, lung |^/
and especially ling |^, which term, as we have seen on page
423, was used during the Han dynasty to denote more especially
the grave hill of an emperor. It does not clearly appear from the
books whether it was applied to the graves of monarchs already
during the Cheu dynasty. In both the Shu king and the Shi king
it is used exclusively in the sense of a mountain or hill, and the
'Bh ya says: »A large hill is called ling"*. *
The passage in the Cheu li, reproduced on page 421, shows that
during the Cheu dynasty sovereigns and persons of royal descent
were generally buried together in one plot of ground, and that
their tombs were laid out after a regular plan. Considering that
these tombs were often very large, such family grave-yards must
undoubtedly have covered an enormous area. Queens were pro-
bably buried there also, it having always been a fundamental
principle of Chinese social life that a woman, on marrying, be-
comes in the fullest sense a member of the family into which she is
received, breaking off the ties which bind her to the family in
* OITS^. Chapter ii. ^^l^^ifc.
^ ^ AIS^ J^-^^P^*"**^- 4 ^^0|||. Chapter 9.
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BURTINO EMPRESSES AND IMPERIAL CONCUBINES. 448
which she was born. Documentary evidence supports the fact of
such burials. It is stated in the Historical Records that »king Chao
» Siang (of Ts^n) having died in the autumn of the fifty-sixth year
»oi his reign (251 B. C), his son, king Hiao Wen, ascending the
«> throne, paid honour to T^ang Pah-tszS as Queen Dowager, and
V placed hdr in the same grave with the deceased king"^ This
case is probably not a single exception in ancient history.
During the Han dynasty and in subsequent ages, burying em-
presses and imperial concubines in the mausolea of their consorts
was, according to the Standard Histories, very general. It is usually
denoted in those works by the term hoh tsang^ »to bury
unitedly", or »to unite in the same grave". This expression does
not necessarily imply that the corpses were deposited in the same
crypt, but means a burial in the same mausoleum ground, or inside
the same hill. Thus the San-fu hwang fu states that Lady Li, the
favourite concubine of Wu of the Han dynasty, »had her grave,
y> which measured fifty p u from east to west, and sixty from north
)»to south with a height of eight chang, to the north-west of the
»Meu mausoleum (of her consort), at a distance of one mile" ^
Also during the T^ang dynasty the ladies of the imperial seraglio
were, in many cases, buried in their consorts' mausoleum. Moreover,
it was an established custom during that epoch to bury princes
and princesses of imperial blood and distinguished public servants
near the imperial mausoleum, the civil to the left, and the military
to the right. This was oflficially styled p^ei tsang* or fu tsang*,
» to bury together". Several persons on whom this honour was con-
ferred are enumerated by Ma Twan-Un in his Wen hien fungkhao^\
they were especially numerous in the time of TaiTsung^, the second
sovereign of the dynasty. The same work contains also T^ai Tsung's
rescript of the year 644, in which the rules for this institution were
laid down, and we are therein told that it had been customary already
^%miSi'^. B5 -^ ^ ^ J^ :fe I Chapter 5, 1. 32.
2 ^
^ :5II^ ffi 41i — M- Chapter 6.
6 Oupter i25, I. 15 «gg. 7 ^ ^ .
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444 THE GRAVE.
during the Han dynasty to bury high ministers in the mausolea of
their sovereigns; however, there is no such statement known to
us in any of the books of those times. Still if this be the truth, then
we may assume that the practice was inherited by the Han dynasty
from the dynasty of Cheu, which, as stated above, had adopted the
custom in so far as grandees of royal lineage were concerned.
Under the Sung dynasty it was the usual thing to bury em-
presses and other inmates of the harem in the imperial mausolea.
Biographical notices about some of these women, inserted in the
Standard Histories of that epoch, say that the honour of being
entombed underneath the emperor's grave hill was specially reserved
for the principal consort or empress proper, and for her among
the secondary vrives who had given birth to the successor to the
Throne. Other consorts were interred somewhere near the hill, some
even in the neighbourhood of the mounds of former monarchst of
the dynasty, a great many probably elsewhere. K thus entombed
apart, their mausolea were called yuen ling* or » park-hills", in
distinction to those of the emperors themselves, which were styled
shan ling*, » hill-mounds". Judging from certain figures given
in the short descriptions of some of these female burial places in
chapter 123 of the History of the Sung Dynasty, they were of a
large size; for the rest these descriptions are highly uninteresting,
as they do not even give us a superficial idea of those graves. The
mausolea of imperial princes were styled yuen miao^ » park-
temples". We note by the way that all the above terms are em-
ployed by the present dynasty, which denotes, moreover, the mau-
solea of imperial concubines, as well as those of princes of imperial
lineage, by the term yuen tsMn*, i. e. » park-temples" or, more
literally, »back chambers situated in the park-grounds".
Burying empresses in the tombs of their consorts was also an
established custom with the Kin dynasty, instances thereof being
regularly mentioned in the Statute Histories of that House. The
state of matters in this respect during the Yuen dynasty appears
sufficiently by what has been said on page 438; more particulars
we have not found in our researches. During the reign of the House
of Ming, some two or three consorts were entombed in grave
hills of emperors. The earlier sovereigns of this dynasty were pro-
bably accompanied into the tomb by all or nearly all their concubines;
2 mm.
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MAUSObEA OF MAGNATES AND GRANDEES. 445
whether they were first immolated^ or simply shut up alive in the
imperial crypt, is not stated. And when about the middle of the
fifteenth century this savage custom was discontinued by Ying
Tsung ^, it became customary to bury most of them either in the
T^ien-sheu shan^ a mountain range which now girds the back of
thirteen imperial mausolea of the dynasty, or in another range,
called Kin shan *, in which some empresses and concubines of
the earlier monarchs of the same House had been entombed;
a few were buried in other places. Thenceforth those who had been
married iii common to one emperor were, as a rule, entombed in
one and the same burial ground containing only one sacrificial
temple for them all, and each of such plots of ground contained
nine graves, corresponding to the number of concubines whom,
since 1551, it had become the official rule for the emperors to
keep in their harems^.
To mention now such scions of the Imperial family and high
officers who did not share the honour of being committed to
the earth in close vicinity to their deceased sovereign. We need
hardly say that, throughout all ages, by fax the greatest number
of those grandees were buried in the provinces where they had
spent their lives as feudal lords or in the service of the State.
Documentary evidence such as would enable us to judge about
the manner in which their grave grounds were generally laid out,
is very scarce. Prior to the Han dynasty nothing is recorded,
but of the mausolea erected during the reign of this family some
data may be found. That of Hwoh Kwang (see page 411) was
circumvallated and had a sacrificial temple within its precincts.
The SAui iiny chu^ or » Water Classic Commentary", a large col-
lection of annotations by several authorities upon the Shut Tdng^ or
» Water Classic", which describes the water courses in China and
was published probably during the Han dynasty, says : » Winding its
»way in a south-eastern direction, the river Sui (in the present
>^Honan province) flows by the grave of Chang Poh-nga, during
» the Han dynasty a governor of Hiung-lung. Around the four sides
3> of the grave ground has been built a wall of accumulated stones,
» towards which the banks of an inlet of the river slope down, and
4 The above information is drawn from the iSu/i toen hien fung khao^ chapt 133.
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446 THE GRAVB.
» which runs along the north-westem side of the waters of the
» Sui. The outer gate consists of two paved entrances , constructed
» close to each other like a pair, and before these entrances
9 there are animals in stone; a sacrificial temple of the same
» material stands in front of the mound. On this spot three stone
» tablets are erected in a row, and one of these bears the following
» inscription : 'Teh, who bore the title Poh-nga, a native of Mih,
»'m Honan'. Two human images of stone flank these tablets, and
» furthermore there are several stone pillars, as well as animals
» in stone. In former times , the waters of the Sui were conducted
» by the south side into the enclosed grounds , where they flowed
» into a tank and into a pond , the latter being to the N. N. £.
» Both the tank and the pond were ornamented with toads vomiting
» forth water, which water flowed. off into a stone moat. On the
» south of the tank was constructed a storied building of stone,
;»and in front of the stone temple there were again some animals,
» ranged on both sides; but in the time of Wuh sie(?) they had
» Men into ruin and had sustained so much injury as to have
» almost disappeared" \
Another description of a mausoleum of a high grandee of the
Han dynasty, given in the same work, runs as follows: »The waters
Ji>of Feng (in Honan) flow by the north-west of that place along the
» eastern side of the tomb of Yin Lien , during the Han dynasty a
» chief of Ngan-yih. On the west of the mound there is a stone
» temple and in front of this temple a gate with two paved thorough-
» fares; a tablet of stone is erected on the east side of these, and
»to the south there are two lions facing each other, while still
» further southward there are two pillars of stone, and to the
» south-west of the pillars two stone sheep, erected in the fourth
Wif^i^mm^^- ci»pt«r 22, 1. 10.
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MAUSOLEA OF GRANDEES DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 447
»year of the period Chung p^'ing (A. D. 187)" ^ These details,
though somewhat vague, when placed side by side with those
supplied by the foregoing extract from the same work suffice to
show that both mausolea were laid out in the same style. Recapit-
ulating*. — an avenue with stone animals, stone images of men and
stone pillars on each side, led to a gate which had two openings,
overhung, perhaps, by one roof, just as is the case in so many
Chinese gates of the present day. This gate opened upon a square
court-yard, surrounded on all sides by a wall and having, just
opposite the double gate, a temple, the road towards which was
likevrise ornamented with animals in stone. The grave mound was
probably behind the temple. Finally there were, within the walled
square, tanks or moats of running water. Now the reader will
clearly perceive that such grave grounds of grandees of the Han
dynasty were miniature copies of the then imperial mausolea which
we have endeavoured to depict in these pages. In Chapter XIV it
will be shovni that still at the present day the tombs of magnates
are laid out in a style corresponding almost exactly with the above
description, so that we have reason to suppose that the same has
been the case in all ages.
The extract reproduced on page 410 relating to the obsequies
of Hwoh Kwang shows that there are instances of mausolea of
grandees having been constructed, during the Han dynasty, by
statute labour, the people being relegated to the spot by imperial
decree, just as in the case of a mausoleum of an emperor. The
same extract teaches us also that a certain number of fEuniUes
were officially appointed to dwell on or around such grounds and
take constant care of them, and it further says explicitly that
»this was in accordance with the usage of former times". Indeed,
similar measures had been taken already by the very first em-
peror of the Han dynasty with regard to the graves of feudal
princes of former epochs, history stating that, »m the twelfth year
»of his reign (195 B. C.) this monarch decreed that, whereas the
» emperors of the Ts*in dynasty, and king Yin of the state of Ch^u,
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448 THE GRAVB.
» king Ngan Li of Wei , king Min of Ts^'i, and king Tao Siang of Chao ^
» had no posterity at all, twenty families were assigned to keep watch
» over the grave of the emperor Shi Hwang of Ts^'in, ten families to
» each of the said graves of the states of Ch^'u, Wei and Ts^ , and
» five to that of Chao, as also to that of Wang-ki, the son of the feudal
» lord of Wei. These people were ordered to look after these mounds
» regularly, and were not charged with any other occupation" *.
Establishing people upon graves of persons of imperial lineage
and grandees of the Empire no doubt took place so frequently in
the centuries between the Han dynasty and that of Ming, that
in the end it became an established institution of the State. In
fact, under the Ming dynasty it was an officially recognized pre-
rogative of the scions of the Imperial family and of the governing
classes to have a certain number of families placed upon their
graves, which number varied in accordance with the rank of
the defunct. The Collective Statutes of the Great House of Ming
say that »in the third year of the Hung wu period (A. D.
y> 1370) the number of families guarding the graves of merit-
» orious servants of the State was fixed in such wise as in each
y> case to be in proportion to the grade of nobility conferred upon
» the person concerned , or to his official rank" \ The same rule
has been adopted by the present dynasty, which prescribes in the
Ta Tiing Cung li that »for the kung, heu, and poh, or
» members of the three highest classes of nobility, there shall be
» appointed four families to guard their graves , for officers of the
» first and second rank two, for those of the third , fourth and
» fifth rank one family, and for those of the sixth and seventh
» rank two persons only" *.
i All these princes died in the third century before our era.
it . ^ H ^ ^ > H tr H :5K ^- B""'" of t^"" Early Han Dynarty,
chapter i, second part, 1. 20. Also the Histoncal Elecords, chapter 8, 1. 35.
^ ^ i^ ^ • ^^ ^^^ *'" ^^^ ^^ cKing, sect. ^ ^, chapter 433.
iJfc « ± ^^ - >^>:^lftiaT^ 11 -A Chapter 52.U1.
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OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS REQARDING TOMBS AND MAUSOLEA. 449
At the outset of this chapter we have set forth that^ from ancient
times, the dimensions of graves, their style, and the expense laid
' oat upon them must have kept regular pace with the social standing
and the wealth of the occupant. That such was a matter of fact
under the Cheu dynasty, at least in regard to the grave mounds,
we have proved from documentary evidence on page 420; and the
Han dynasty simply changed this custom into a law. Ching Khang-
ch^ing, who, as the reader knows, lived under that House, states
that , » according to the laws of the Han dynasty, the grave mounds
»of Imperial princes were four chang high, while those of the
>> princes inside the Mountain passes and of the nobles still lower
» in rank down to the people all varied in size" *.
Succeeding dynasties enacted similar rescripts, which extended even
to the superficies of the grave grounds. Thus, under the House of T^ang
it was decreed that the area of ground for officers of the first rank ,
which had been theretofore ninety pu, should be reduced to seventy,
and the height of the mound from eighteen feet to sixteen. For officers
of the second rank the size was reduced from eighty to sixty pu,
and the height from sixteen to fourteen feet, and so on, in a regular
sequence, down to the sixth rank, whose graves and the graves of
those of lower rank might be of the size of fifteen pu and have
mounds of seven feet only. Finally the same decree allowed the com-
mon people, about whose graves no written prescriptions had hitherto
existed , to have graves of seven p u and mounds of four feet *.
The Ming dynasty manifested still greater anxiety in regulating
by minute rescripts not only the size of the burial grounds of
grandees, but also the measurements of the various parts of their
tombs. As these regulations afford some useful data firom which
we may learn what sort of things and structures were to be
found within such grounds, a short digest of them will not be
out of place here. In 1410 it was enacted that the mausoleum of
an Imperial prince of the first rank ' might have a sacrificial
hall* of seven apartments, 19 Va Chinese feet broad, 43 Va long,
^ ^k . Khienlung edition of the Cheu liy chapter 21, 1. 45.
2 Ku kin fu shu tsih chHng , sect, ifi ^IL , chapter 56.
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450 THE GRAVE.
and 29 high. It might also have an inner gate and an outer
gate, each with three openings or thorough£Eures; the length of
these structures was fixed respectively at about 45 and 43 feet,
the depth and height of both at 25 Vt and 21 feet respectively.
Further there might be a kitchen for the preparation of sacrificial
viands, having five apartments and being 677$ feet broad, IVU
deep and 16 high; — a butchery for the sacrificial victims with
three apartments, which building might be 41 feet broad and as
deep and high as the kitchen; — one furnace for burning silks,
7 feet square and 11 high; — one pavilion for storing up the
sacrificial utensils, 8 feet square and 11 high; — finally, a pavilion
containing an inscribed stone, which building was allowed to be 21
feet square, and 3479 high. The stone wall encircling the ground
might be 290 chang long, and it was lawful to erect outside
this wall buildings for sacrificial proceedings, and other apart-
ments, to the number of twelve *. To judge fix>m corresponding
mausolea of the present dynasty, which has adopted the institu-
tions of the House of Ming almost unaltered, the mound, the
temple, the inner gate and the outer gate were situated in the
same order in which they are here mentioned, in a line which
formed the central axis of the walled square, the outer gate
being exactly in the middle of the front wall. The butchery,
the kitchen etc. fianked, no doubt, the court-yard in front of
the temple, but the pavilion with the inscribed stone stood in
the open yard outside, straight in front of the outer gate. In 1448
the size of the mausoleum grounds was, in case of Princes of
the first rank, fixed by Imperial rescript at 50 men, and the
number of apartments at 15; for Princes of the second rank' these
figures were fixed respectively at 30 and 9, and for their sons at
20 and 3, while for the daughters of both ranks of Princes they
were set down at 10 and 3 *.
In such a mausoleum the consort of the grandee for whom it
was erected was also buried, and the same sacrificial temple had
to serve for them both ♦. The male issue of Princes of imperial
lineage were buried on the right and left of the grave of their
first ancestor in regular order of descent; but a daughter of
1 Ta Ming hvmi tien; ap. Ku kin fu shu tsih chHng^ seel, i^ ^, chapt. 433,
3 Op, et loc cit.
A Regulations of A. D. 1458. Op, et loc, cit.
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OFFICIAL RSSCBIPTS REGARDING MAUSOLEA AND TOMBS. 451
such a Prince was entombed in the burial ground of the first
ancestor of the fiEtmily into which she had married^. Consequently^
the ancient system of having family grave-yards, which can be
proved by documentary evidence to have been already in vogue
among the royal families of the Cheu dynasty (see page 421),
was officially adopted by the dynasty of Ming. The House of
Ts^g has followed the same custom, as will appear hereafter, in
Chapter XIV.
Not only for Princes of imperial lineage, their consorts and
descendants, but also for persons in possession of a rank of here-
ditary nobility, or on whom an official dignity had been bestowed,
regulations were laid down by the Ming dynasty as to the style
and dimensions of their graves. For the first and second rank
of nobility (kung and heu) the circumference of the burial
ground was fixed at a hundred pu, the height of the mound at
two chang, and that of the wall at one chang*. Rules for
the burial places of the mandarinate were made already in the
first year of the reign of the first monarch of this dynasty (1368),
which is a proof that these rules were considered of so high im-
portance to the State that their enactment could brook no delay.
The following table contains a survey of them*:
Distance from
the centre to the
Height of
Numher
of animals
in stone.
Inscribed stone
horders of the
grave ground.
the mound.
tablet, etc.
Mandaiintf of
90 pu.
48 feet.
6
Erected on a stone
the 1st. rank.
tortoise, and the top-
most part carved with
a hornless dragon.
Of the 2nd. rank.
80 »
14 y>
6
id.
» 3rd. »
70 »
12 »
6
id.
» 4th. »
60 »
8 »
4
id.
» 5th. »
50 »
8 »
4
id.
» 6th. »
40 »
6 »
None.
Pillar vnth a square
base and round top.
» 7th. »
30 »
6 »
id.
id.
The people.
9 »
~
id.
Inscribed stone inside
the grave pit.
1 Rescript of 1-492. Op, et loc. ciU
2 Regulations of 1396. Op, et cap, cit.
3 Op. et cap, cit.
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452
THS GRAVE.
Twenty-nine years afterwards some of the figures above were
slightly modified by the same monarch, and the dimensions of the
stone tablets, their top-pieces and pedestals minutely circumscribed
for each class of officers; but it is not necessary to reproduce such
figures here. Suffice it to give the rescripts which the same edict
contained with regard to the stone images, pillars and tablet, that
noblemen and officers were entitled to have over their graves ^ :
Stone images, etc
Stone tablet.
Nobles ofthe first and
second rank
Two men, two horses,
two tigers, two sheep
and two pillars.
On the back of a stone tortoise ,
and the topmost part carved with
a hornless dragon.
id.
id.
» > » 2nd.
»
id.
On the back of a stone tortoise,
and the topmost part carved with
a unicorn.
» » B 3rd.
B
Two horses, two
tigers, two sheep and
two piUars.
On the back of a tortoise, and the
topmost part carved with the non-
descript animals t*ien-luh and
pih-si6.
» T> » 4th.
n .
Two horses, two
tigers and two piUars.
On a square pedestal and with
a round top.
» » » 5th.
»
Two horses, two
sheep and two pillars.
id.
» » » 6th.
9
None.
id.
» » » 7th.
7>
id.
id.
The above institutions of the Ming dynasty were adopted almost
unaltered by the present reigning House, which has succeeded it on
the throne. A very few figures only were slightly modified, too
slightly, however, to deserve notice. Such of the rescripts of the
House of Ming as have been summarized in the first of the above
tables are to be found literally in the Ta Tiing luh li^, and
those of the second in the Ta TaHng fung li^. This last named
codex ^ as also the Ta TsHng Atom Hen*, contains moreover some
regulations for the graves of Princes and Princesses of imperial
lineage, which we here append in a tabular form:
1 Op, et loc, cit.
3 Chapter 52, 1. 41.
5 Chapter 76 of the abridged edition.
2 Chapter 17, 1. 14.
4 In chapter 51, 1. 5.
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PL XIII.
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OFFICIAL R1BSCRIPT8 REGARDING MAUSOLEA AND TOMBS.
458
Gate in the front or
the south side.
11
O A
1-9 I
z|3
M
i5
Imperial prince of the 1st.
order, HJ.
Son of an Imperial prince , . , . - xi_
r i_ J ^ 111. ^ Imperial pnncess of the
of the Ist. order, -IH: ^, ^^t. rank (daughter of an
*"*^ Empress Consort), fgl >(i^
Imperial prince of the 2nd. jtt -1* •— * iww
onler^BPi. ^^'
Imperial princess of the
2nd. rank (daughter of an
Impeml prince of the 3rd. .^^^^ ^^^^ ^^
and
and
id. of the 4th. order, S -7* • daughter of an Imperial
prince of the 1st. order.
daughter of an Imperial
Imperial princes of the 5th., p^^^ ^f ^^e 2nd., 3rd. and
6th., 7th. and 8th. order, g ^^^ ^^^^^ jR ± . SB
hnperial prince of the 9th.
and
id. of the 10th. order, M
Imperial prince of the 11th.
and
id. of the 12th. order, W
100.
80.
70.
60.
35.
30.
Three openings. Paint-
ed and gilded. Covered
with green glazed tiles.
Three openings. Paint-
ed with five colours.
Covered with green
glazed tiles.
One opening. Plain
red. Covered with
tuhelar tiles.
id.
id.
5.
10.
8.
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454
THE GRAVE.
The conclusion at which one naturally arrives after studying the
facts compiled on the preceding pages of this chapter is, that the
Fig. 25.
Stone Tablet on the Orave of Confacius.
Chinese, in raising grave mOunds and building tombs for their
dead of rank and birth, have fix)m high antiquity followed the
same line of conduct as the oldest nations of Europe and many
other ancient peoples. The tumuli of prehistoric times, of which,
as Sir John Lubbock says ^, the remains may be seen on nearly
eveiy hill in England and which are found everywhere in Europe
from the Atlantic to the Ural mountains, and in Asia from the
i Prehistoric Times, chapter V.
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THE OBJECT OF HIGH GRAVE MOUNDS. 465
borders of Russia unto the Pacific, which are counted in America
by thousands and tens of thousands , and in Egypt are still admired
in the gigantic pyramids, prove by the immense amount of labour
bestowed upon them, that they can only have been erected in
honour of chieftains and grandees. Achilles erected a tumulus of
more than a hundred feet in diameter over the remains of his
friend Patrocles. The hill supposed by Xenephon to contain the
body of Alyattes, father of (>cbsus, king of Lydia, was built of
earth and stones, and was more than a quarter of a league in cir-
cumference. Alexander the Great had a tumulus erected over the
corpse of his friend Hephsestion, at a cost of 1200 talents, a
sum equivalent to no less than £ 232,600 sterling ^ The ancient
Romans had burial grounds covering an acre of 28,000 square feet,
and even larger ones, around which parks and gardens were laid
out; the costs, which are in many cases engraved on the monu-
ment, sometimes amounted to from 200 to 100,000 sesterces.
In the second part of this Book we have shown that , in ancient
China, numerous attempts were made at calling back the dead to life
and preserving their bodies against decay, in order that these latter
might at any time be fit to receive the soul again and to revive in
consequence thereof. It has also been pointed out that such attempts
were made with special energy in the case of the great ones of the
earth, whose lives were more valuable than those of the common
people, and that, as a direct consequence, the number of the coffins
and the thickness of the boards were increased in proportion to the
position and rank of the deceased to be enclosed therein. Official
rules r^ulating these affairs were laid down as early as the Cheu
dynasty (comp. page 285). K now we take into consideration that, at
the same epoch , the dimensions of the grave mounds were likewise
r^^ted in such wise as to bring them into direct proportion with the
rank of the dead (see page 420), we come to the conclusion that, just
as the coffins, so those mounds were intended to preserve the corpses
from the reach of destructive influences. Indeed, by preserving the
body well by covering it with a big pile of earth, great service was
rendered to the soul, which in this way remained in constant pos-
session of a natural support, by clinging to which it escaped evapora-
tion and annihilation (see p. 348). And the more illustrious and power-
ful a dead man had been during his life, the greater the desire of his
1 Ten Years' Digging? in the Celtic and Saxon Gravehills, ap. Lubbock, op, et
cap. cit.
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456 THE GRAVE.
offspring and subjects to serve and propitiate him in this way; for
since times immemorial the dead have ever been looked ujp to
as natural protectors and patron divinities.
Such being the considerations which regulated the conduct of
the ancient Chinese with regard to the grave mounds, we need
seek for no further explanation as to the covering of the tumulus of
king Ngai with iron or some iron-like substance, which rendered it
almost impossible to force a way into the crypt (p. 897). A similar
instance of a grave having been rendered inaccessible by means of
some solid material is recorded in the » Memoirs of the District of
Pxi-fien''^ a part of the province of Fuhkien. »Not long ago, a
» farmer, while ploughing a field in bxmt of the Buddhist temple
» of the Lung mountain , discovered a cave which contained a great
»many objects of gold and jade, pots, cups, and such like things,
» which were all carried off by the people. In the end , when there
» was nothing more worth taking, the villagers began to accompany
»one another to the tomb, to inspect it more closely. As they
y> knocked against the back part with their hoes and axes, a hollow
» sound was heard; but the &pot was perfectly hard, solid and
» immovable , and it was supposed that molten copper or iron must
» have been used to form such a covering" ".
We can hardly doubt that the custom of hiding the possessions
of the dead along with them in the tombs has been as much the
cause of the erection of large grave mounds as all other considera-
tions put together. An immense mound of earth rendered the
disinterring of such treasures difficult, nay, almost impossible.
Hence it is quite natural that under the dynasties of Ts^in and
Han , when , as has been shown in the preceding chapter , the said
custom took vast proportions in the case of emperors and magnates ,
the imperial grave hills increased to a size bordering on the
gigantic. But, for the protection of the treasures and the sacred
corpse against rapacious attacks much more was done in those times.
1 :||p m iK ^.
a^. las 01^ wii. 3Si:i^^^/fJi-^- *•»''« »'""^
ch'ing^ sect, j;^ fl^, chapter 140.
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CHILDREN MAKING TUMUU FOR THEIR PARENTS. 457
We have stated that ramparts or walls were constracted around such
mausolea, and that these monuments were further strengthened bj
means of balistic engines contrived on the gates, and by hidden fire;
in a word, they were converted into real strongholds and, moreover,
permanently garrisoned by troops and placed under the protection
of a city built near the spot for this purpose.
Whereas people, in throwing up big grave hills, were pursuing
the double purpose of glorifying the memory of the dead and of
protecting their bodies and manes from destruction, it is also
quite evident that in this same Empire of the Midst, where
devotion to parents has ever been the first duty of a child ,
it has always been considered a mark of a high sense of duty to
raise with one's own hands a grave mound as big and high as
possible over the remains of a father or mother. Instances of children
who have fulfilled their duty in this wise abound in the historical
books from the Han dynasty downwards, and a selection of such
cases, arranged in chronological order, will be found on pages 464
et sqq. Here we quote only a few of such examples as reveal better
than any others the true spirit dominating the custom, and the
principle which lies at the bottom of it.
»Hu Tsz6, bearing the title of Ki-i, was a native of Wu-ning
» in Tung-yang (province of Honan). Both his parents having died
» suddenly, he made them a grave on the eastern mountain of the
» district, carrying the earth himself to the spot and declining all
» assistance offered him by the villagers. Some persons, moved with
» compassion on beholding his weakness, grief and suffering, asked
»his permission to lend him a helping hand, and TszS did not
» object to their assisting him during the daytime; but in the night
»h€ demolished their work again' '. This case occurred in the third
century. In the History of the Sung Dynasty we read of Hoh
Yin*: » Before he had reached his native place, Ts^ao (his father,
y> who was travelling with him) died. He then made a tomb for
»him by carrying the earth himself in baskets to the spot, and
y> when other people would help him , he made them pile up earth
of the Tsin Dynasty, chapter 88, 1. 7.
80
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458 THE GRAVE.
»upon the mound; bui no sooner were they gone^ than he scattered
» the earth again *. When Li Pi's mother died , he gave up his
» fields to his younger brother Kien and settled in a shed upon
» the grave, howling and weeping there by day and by night, and
» bearing the earth to the spot till the mound had reached a
» height of over a chang. The original graves of the preceding
» generation of his ancestors (paternal grandparents), and those of
y> the male and female elders of his tribe , he built up with the
» observance of the proper ceremonial in all its details ; and ere
» three years had elapsed, he had constructed in this manner six
» tumuli, all over a chang in height"*.
»Ch%n Suen, a native of Liang in Jii-cheu (the present pro-
r> vince of Honan), having lost his mother, did not close the entrance
» to her tomb for thirty-six months after her burial. In the daytime
» he bore the earth to the spot , and during the night he slept
» with his arms around the coffin ; the grave mound he made a
» hundred feet broad" \ Finally to quote a couple of instances from
the History of the Yuen Dynasty: »Khang Ts^'uen, a native of
» Luh-yih in Poh-cheu (N. W. of Nganhwui province) gave his father,
» who was taken ill, some flesh to eat, which he had cut frt)m his
»own buttocks, thereby curing him. Afterwards, when his father
» died , the dutiful son dwelt on the left side of the grave in a
» shed and carried the earth for the tumulus himself, sixty picals
» every day. In three years' time he had raised the mound, which
» then covered a superficies of one men to over three chang
» high. And Ch^en Khih-'rh , a man of Hia-yih in Kwei-teh (pro-
» vince of Honan), was plunged into the deepest sorrow by the
» death of his mother when he was nine years old. Carrying the
» earth to the spot himself, he raised the tumulus to a height of
»one chang and a breadth of sixteen pu, and when people out
®ll±^±.*lW^1S[:t- Chapter 456, I. 19.
H P ^ ^ IS ^ ^> H, H #^:^«^5t ^- Chapte.
456, I. 11.
:^>g. it «±. ^tl^llflBB^. «^SWK History
of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 456, 1. 20.
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THE PEOPLE MAKING TUMULI FOR THEIR MANDARINS. 459
»of sympathy for his youth wished to help him, he weepingly
» made reverences to them , but declined their assistance" '.
We do not know whether cases like the above still occur at the
present day. At any rate it may be taken for granted that the
custom, mentioned on page 212, of dropping some earth out of the
lap of one^s garment upon the coffin of a parent just lowered into
the burial pit, owes its origin to the ancient conception that it is
highly becoming in children to erect a grave mound themselves
over the remains of a father or mother. The mountaineers of Scot-
land say, by way of compliment: 'Curri mi clach er do cuim',
» I will add a stone to the heap that will cover your tomb" ".
The patriarchal theory which has ever borne supreme sway in
the Chinese Empire, although it regulates in the first place the
relations between parents and children, also teaches that the same
hiao or absolute subjection and devotion which every son of
man owes to the author of his days (see p. 120), every subject
owes to the authorities who have been appointed by the Son of
Heaven to administer the Empire. Cold practice may to a certain
extent render this theory a dead letter, yet the theory remains
unshaken, and so it is perfectly natural we should find instances
on record of people who, of their own free will, have erected
grave mounds over those deceased mandarins who by their conduct
had obtained the love and respect ot the community. Tao ', a
nephew of the founder of the Cheu dynasty, having died in A. D.
554 in Shang-kwei, in the present provinces of Kansuh and Shensi,
» was buried to the west of that city. When he was carried out
»for burial, over ten thousand people offered sacrifices to him
» along the road ; their piteous wailings filled the plains, and every-
»body exclaimed: 'Does our Governor abandon us?' Old and young
y> conducted each other to the spot to carry earth for the tumulus ,
» which they raised to a height of over fifty feet , covering a circum-
>>ference of over eighty pu; and when the authorities put a stop
I^^W^^Z.^ItnMM Chapter 197, 1. 6 et seq.
2 Wilson , Pre-historic Annals of Scotland , vol. I, p. 86.
3^.
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460 THE GRAYS.
» to this , they weepingly took leave of the grave and retired. Such
» was the beloved memoiy in which he was held" '.
This rule with regard to the subjection, respect and devotion
due to parents, superiors and mandarins, naturally extends to the
Son of Heaven, himself the Father and Mother of his people and
the highest mandarin of the Empire. Hence all his subjects are in
duty bound to work at his mausoleum with the same zeal they
would display at the grave of their own parents. This theory places
the fact of the Chinese monarchs of all ages having regularly had
their funereal monuments erected by statute labour, in a new light,
and proves that the absolute right of the emperors to dispose with-
out any restriction of the labour of their subjects (see page 433),
and the duty of the latter to submit without demur to being
driven in flocks to the imperial mausolea to do unpaid work there
for years, are quite in harmony.
Sepulchral Trees,
We now come to a subject closely connected with that which
has been the topic of this chapter so far, viz. the planting of trees
upon burial grounds. Like the construction of big hills, ramparts
and battlements over and around the remains of the distinguished
dead, and the establishing of garrisons and guards on the spot, so
the planting of these trees had for its original object the protection
of the corpses from destruction; they rendered the graves undis-
tinguishable at first sight from the surrounding knolls and forest-
grounds, and so caused them to escape the attention of rebels and
banditti raiding the country. This explains why it is so explicitly
stated in the account of Shi Hwang's burial , reproduced on page
401, that trees were planted upon his grave to give it the aspect
of a natural hill.
If there be truth in the theory developed in our First Chapter,
that, in China, graves were at the outset the clay dwellings of the
living, it necessarily follows that the planting of grave trees came
into vogue at a later period. This is confirmed by the Yih kingy
*/fe S? B5 *o ^ fi H ^ JB *l llfc- B?ok8 of the Cheu Dynasty,
chapter 10, I. 3.
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THE OBJECT CONNECTED WITH SEPULCHRAL TREES. 461
which avers that in the highest antiquity no trees were planted
upon the graves (see page 281). But whatever may have been the
state of matters in this respect in the mist of ages , it is a fact
that sepulchral trees are mentioned in Chinese literature at a very
early date, the Cheu li stating that ;» the Officer for the Grave
» Mounds (see p. 421) fixes the dimensions of the hills and
)» mounds, and also the number of the trees, in accordance with
»the rank of nobility" *. Besides, the Li H (ch. 17, 1. 2) says that
»ior the common people no grave mounds are made, nor trees
>» planted"'. Accordingly, already many ages before our era the
size of tumuli kept regular pace with the number of trees planted
about them, and both were equally proportionate to the rank of
the dead or his kindred; which facts are clear evidence in favour
of the correctness of our assertion that such trees served just the
same purpose as the mounds « viz. that of protecting the corpse
from destruction. No wonder then that it was prescribed they should
be especially numerous in the case of the dead of rank and position,
just as the tumuli of such people were to be bigger than those of
individuals of lower stamp.
The important purpose which grave trees were expected to
answer in ancient times, naturally caused them to hold the place
of objects of special sacredness in the Religion of the Dead. » When
» building a palace or dwelling", says the Li ki (chapter 6 , 1. 25),
y> men pre-eminent do not hew down any of the trees of their
» grave hills" '. Moreover, the native literature of subsequent ages
shows it has always been ranked among the duties of virtuous
children and wives to plant and nurse with their own hands trees
upon the graves of their parents and husbands, just as they were
morally obliged by the laws of filial devotion and subjection, them-
selves to throw up mounds over the mortal remains of the
honoured dead. Whosoever fulfilled the latter duty never neglected
to fulfil the former, as will be seen from a choice collection of
extracts from Chinese books to be inserted on pages 464 et aqq.
They afford another proof that the object connected with the erection
of grave mounds and that of the planting of trees thereon, were
substantially analoirous.
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462 THE GRAVE.
We must still call attention to another motive prompting the
planting of trees upon tombs. From pages 294 et sqq. the reader
has learned that, since very ancient times, pines and cypresses
have played a prominent part as producers of timber for coffins,
and that this was the case because these trees, being believed to
be imbued with great vitality, might counteract the putrefiaction
of the mortal remains. It has been stated, moreover, on page 848
that, according to the popular conception, such vitality, called
shen and emanating from the Yang part of the Universe, is also
the principal material of which the human manes are composed,
so that a dead body, if properly circumvested with wood of pines
and cypresses, may be a seat for the manes for ever, as they are
greatly strengthened and intensified by the vitality communicated
to them by the wood. These ideas fully account for the fact, to
which we now wish to draw special attention, that since very
ancient times pines and cypresses were planted upon tombs in
preference to any other sort of trees, and this was done in the
expectation that they might (1) counteract the putrefaction of the
corpse and thus facilitate its resurrection, and (2) sustaia the
manes still cohabiting with the soul, so that a mystic relation
between the trees and those manes naturally rooted itself in the
mind of the people, nay, both were identified and assimilated with
each other, thus creating a second reason why the living should
regard sepulchral trees with awe and respect.
Let us now by means of extracts from the native literature
ancient and modem, verify the correctness of what we have set
forth. In strict accordance with the usual method followed in this
work we shall arrange them in chronological order. According
to the Shuh i ki, cjrpress trees were already planted in the burial
grounds of the ancient princes of Lu; and if this statement, which
has been reproduced on page 296, may be credited, it is the
oldest reference on record about the cypress as a sepulchral tree,
for it carries us back far into the epoch covered by the rule of
the Cheu dynasty. There is reason for believing that, at that time,
the Rottlera too, which (see p. 294) likewise played an important
part in the manufacture of coffins, used to be planted upon graves,
it being related in the Historical Records that Wu TszS-sii ^ or
Wu Yuen *, an illustrious statesman of the kingdom of Wu in the
1 He has been mentioned on page 349. 2 ^^ 3
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PINES AND CTPRBSSES AS GRAVE TREES. 463
sixth and fifth centuries B. C, was condemned by his sovereign,
with whom he had fallen into disgrace, to commit suicide and,
being fully convinced of the approaching conquest of Wu by
the neighbouring kingdom of Yueh, »said to his steward: 'Be
)»sure to plant trees upon my grave, but take Rottleras, that
» coffins may be made from them. And put out my eyes, and
» hang them up over the eastern gate of Wu, that I may see the
» enemies from Yueh march into the city to destroy it'. Upon this
» he cut his throat" ^. In another version of the same episode, inserted
in the Tso cH'wen^, it is stated that he ordered Kia trees to be
planted upon his grave, and these trees, if not simply a variety
of the Rottlera, were also used on a large scale in those ages for
making coffins (comp. page 802).
During the Han dynasty, and ever since, pines and cypresses are
mentioned in the books as sepulchral trees almost to the exclusion
of all others. During the reign of that House, says the » Descrip-
tion of the Sepulchral Grounds of the Holy ones and the Sages" ^,
»the king of Tung-p'ing having been back in the Realm for a
» time , did not get the capital out of his head. Afterwards he died
»and was buried in Tung-p'ing, and the pines and cypresses upon
» his tomb all spread forth their branches unto the west" *, that is
to say, in the direction of the capital, the then Tung-p^'ing being
a part of the present Shantung province. In this legend we have
the first instance of the aforesaid mysterious connection between
sepulchral trees and the manes of the dead buried underneath
them. That during the same period such trees were looked upon
as objects of the greatest importance, may be inferred from the
following extract: » During the Han dynasty the mausolea were all
» under the control of the Grand-master of Sacrifices , and not under
»that of the local administration of the department or the dis-
»trict; any one who stole cypresses there was publicly punished
1 7j^^-^A0.^m#m±vi^#.^wmis
^ ifao -^ i *l 5B- Chapter 66, 1. 8.
2 Eleventh year of the Ruler Ngai.
3
}||^ -^ |g 0 . jBTu /Etn fw 8hu tsih cKing, sect. '^ ^ , chapter 201.
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464 THB GRAVE.
» with death by the sword, and had his right foot chopped off" *.
Instances of children who not only raised with their own hands
grave mounds for their parents, but moreover planted and nursed
the trees themselves, begin to occur also during the reign of the
House of Han. » During the Later Han dynasty. Pang Chu, a
» native of Tan-yang (in the present province of Kiangsu), having
>^lost his mother, carried the earth for the tumulus to the spot
y> and sowed pines and cypresses there , in the boughs of which
»phenixes perched themselves, and about the roots thereof white
)> rabbits hopped and skipped" ^ And Li Siiin, a high dignitary of
the same period, )> having lost both his parents, for six years carried
earth, planted cypresses, and constantly dwelt upon the grave'' ^
Similar instances become more numerous in the works of sub-
sequent ages. The » Traditions about Eminent People of former
times in Kwang-cheu" *, relate that »Tun Khi's filial devotion was
y> exceedingly great. At the death of his mother he raised a grave
» mound, which it took him more than a year to finish; he also
» observed mourning longer than was prescribed by the existing
» rules , and sowed a complete row of pines and cypresses" •. The
Official Histories of that epoch much exalt a certain Shan T^ao*,
one of the highest dignitaries of the Empire in the third century
of our era, relating of him that, »when the death of his mother
» befell him, he returned to his native place, made the tumulus
» by carrying the earth himself to the spot, and planted pines and
ft . Antiquities of San-fu, ap, Ku kin fu shu tsih ch'ing^ sect. ^^ ^ , chapter 204.
kin fu shu tsih chHng, sect. ^ jfc , chapters 201 and 204.
J^ . Tung-kwan Han ki W ffi ]^ gj or ^Records of the Han Dynasty from
the Tung-kwan Pavilion", completed in the second century; ap. Ku kin Cu shu
tsih chHng, sect. ^^ j^, chapter 204.
;|^ iij^ J^ ^ . Au /fin fu shu tsih ch'ing^ sect. ^^ ^ , chapters 201 and 204.
6 lij«|-
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PLANTING TREES UPON GRAVES. 465
» cypresses there with his own hands" ^. And Yii Kwon *, an uncle
of the consort of the emperor Muh ^ who reigned in the early part
of the fourth century, » on the death of his mother settled at the
A^side of her tomb, dressed in mourning. It happened that some
)>one cut the cypress trees which grew upon the tomb^ and as
>» nobody knew who had done it, he convoked the neighbours to
)>the spot and accused himself before his ancestors, exclaiming
» under a flood of tears , while knocking his forehead against the
» ground : 'So negligent am I in practising virtue , that I have not
»been able to protect the trees of my ancestors; it is my fault P.
» All the elders too were moved to tears , and thenceforth no violat-
viDg hand ever touched the trees"*.
Passing over a few centuries, in order to shorten our list of
instances, we meet with the following episode relating to the
grandee Chen Ch^'en % who was invested in the fifth and sixth
century with the highest dignities of the Empire. »8ti\l ere the
» period of mourning for his mother had elapsed , he lost his father.
)» With his own hands he sowed pines and cypresses in their
» sepulchral grounds , and in the rigorous months of winter he
» carried water thither and worked the earth. The elders of the
» village lent him a helping hand out of compassion; the tumulus
»was finished before ten and more years had elapsed, and the
» trees then grew luxuriantly. With his younger brother Seng-lin
» he made a solemn oath that they should settle on the spot" *.
^ #li#«.^il5M>^±^« >^«##. Books
of the Tsia Dynasty, chapter 43, 1. 2.
2 He has been mentioned already on page 380.
3
Dynasty, chapter 88, 1. 9.
« St # « * 18 =g[ Ji ^ . ^ *^ II ^is ^ ft ^ « 1*
Wd Dynasty, chapter 68, 1. 5.
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466 THE OBAYE.
Elsewhere we read: »In Pa^5h*'mg, the elder sister of Wang
)>Chmg had been married as a principal consort to Wei King-yu;
» but as this man died when she was only sixteen years of age ,
» her own parents and parents-in-law unanimously resolved to marry
»her a second time. The young widow, however, took an oath
» that she would never consent to this , and confirmed this oath
» by cutting off her ears and placing them in a dish , whereupon
»they gave up their project. She then sowed with her own hands
» several hundreds of trees for her deceased husband , and the
» cypresses just in front of the grave suddenly intertwined their
» branches completely, untwining them again after more than a
» year'' \ Here we have another illustration of the intimate relation
established by popular fancy between grave trees and the manes in
behalf of which devoted kinsmen have planted them.
The Standard Histories of the T^ang dynasty too afford interesting
passages illustrative of the part which sepulchral trees used to
perform in the Religion of the Dead. The illustrious statesman Tih
Jen-kieh*, who lived in the eighth century, having reproved his
sovereign for condemning to death a man who had by a mistake cut
down cypresses on the mausoleum of a former monarch of the dynasty,
the emperor retorted angrily: »So you order me to be an unfilial
son!"*, »The maiden Id, a native of Pien (the present Khai-fung
»fu* in the province of Honan), outdid all others in lamenting
» during the period of mourning for her mother. She prepared
» herself the requisites for the burial , and over a thousand inha-
» bitants of the district and the village saw the deceased off to
»the tomb. Having settled in a shed upon the grave, she car-
» ried thither the earth for finishing off the burial ground , with
» dishevelled hair and barefooted, and planted hundreds of pine
is ig^ i^ J^ S 3i .—# tt^ ii =g ^ ^. ffi«to'7 of the Southern
part of the Realm , chapter 74, 1. 8.
^ >S'fi5^1S^-^"y*- ^®^ ^^^ ^^ *^® '^^^ Dynasty, chapter
415, 1. 1.
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PLANTING TREES UPON GRAVES. 467
trees there" K And Ch^u Wu-liang *, a grandee of very higfi rank
in the eighth century, after the death of his mother » settled in
» a shed on the left side of her grave. The deer damaged the pines
y> and cypresses he had planted there, but having called unto them:
y> 'There are still plenty of forests in the mountains, how can I then
» allow you to injure the trees on this grave of mine?' they weaned
» themselves of their importunity and butted the trees over no more" '.
The literature of the Sung dynasty also furnishes instances of
children and wives giving vent to their filial and conjugal devotion
in a similar wise to that described above. Yih Yen-khing * was the
son of a famous military commander, and himself an official person
of high position. *>In the last year of the period Khien teh
» (A. D. 967), Yun (his father) died and was buried in Lin-hwai
»(in the present province of Nganhwui). Yen-khing then settled
»in a shed by the side of the grave, and planted there with his
» own hands several hundreds of pines and cypresses. He resorted
» to the spot in the morning to take care of the grave , but in
» the evening he returned home to comfort his mother. And when
y> she too breathed her last , he settled again in a shed at the side
»of the grave for several years. During her life his mother had
)> cherished a predilection for chestnuts; so Yen-khing planted two
» chestnut trees at the side of the grave, and the branches of
» these intertwined" *. This was a proof in the eyes of the people
that the souls of husband and wife, who were buried together
in that tomb in accordance with an established custom of those
^m^mA.mii'M.mms^m^±m^mm.
li^^Wi-lS ' ^°^ ^^^^^ ®' ^^^ "^^S Dynasty, chapter 205, 1. 5.
New Books of the Tang Dynasty, chapter 200, 1. 2.
^. History of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 456, 1. 7 8eq.
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468 THE GRAVE.
times, had assimilated themselves each with one of those trees.
From the Sung dynasty onwards such episodes relative to
sepulchral trees are seldom recorded in the books. But it is by no
means necessary to have recourse to written documents to learn
that the important position of those trees in social and religious
life is still maintained in modem China. Graves dating from the
last five centuries are extant in sufficient numbers to clear away
any doubt on this head. Fines and cypresses play a principal
part as grave trees in nearly all cases, and in the , southern
provinces a prominent place is given to the San, which, as the
reader has been told on page 324, is widely made use of also
in the construction of coffins. The )» Interesting Book on the Art
of becoming rich" ^ says that » in Wu (Chehkiang province) this
tree is planted exclusively in grave parks and grave gardens" ^. All
this does not, however, shut out the fact that, especially in the
south-eastern provinces, many graves are found planted with quite
other trees, beside countless numbers without any trees at all; but
particulars on this point are reserved for Chapter XIY. In the
literature of the Sung dynasty the bamboo is sometimes mentioned
as a sepulchral plant.
Our premises set forth at the commencement as to the position
occupied by grave trees in the Religion of the Dead have now
been sufficiently verified by documentary evidence. But there still
remains something to be said about the part those trees play in
protecting buried corpses from decay, and concerning their close
connection with the manes of the dead imbedded at their roots.
Ancient mythology is the sole source from which any written
evidence can be derived concerning the popular ideas prevailing
on the first point. A tradition preserved in the SAuA i ki, which
work was probably written in the sixth century (see p. 296), says:
»In the time of Muh, a feudal lord of Ts*in (seventh century
» B. C), some one in Ch'^en-ts'^ang (in the present province of
» Shensi), while digging in the earth , had found a beast resem-
»bling a sheep or a pig; but it was neither of these animals. On
» the road the said ruler came across two lads , who said to him :
»*This beast is called ngao; in the earth it devours the brains
»oi the dead, but if its head be pierced by means of pines and
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A FABTJIX)n8 NECROPHAGOUS ANIMAL. 469
» cypresses, it dies'. Hence cfrpresses are now-a-days planted upon
» the tombs, to prevent it from doing mischief" ^. This l^end was
set down already in the )» Geographical Memoirs of the T^'ai-
khang period of the Tsin Dynasty"*, which lies between the years
280 and 289 of our era, and has found its way from thence into
the commentaries of the Historical Records'; in this version,
however, the beast is called wei* and the occurrence itself is
placed in the reign of the ruler Wen * of the same state of Ts^n ,
who wielded the sceptre in the eighth century before our era.
Here we have before us a people in a low state of culture, who,
having but very vague ideas about the natural decomposition of
animal matter in the earth, ascribe it, in the puerile way natural
to semi-civilisation , to the action of an unseen voracious animal ,
which is to be extirpated by the operation of grave trees. The line
of demarcation between myth and history has always been extremely
fidnt in China, and many an author has sharped his brains upon
a solution of the question what sort of a being this non-descript
necrophagous monster can possibly have been; some wise men have
arrived at the conclusion that it was akin to the fang -Hang
spectres which, as shown on page 162, were expelled from the
burial pit at royal funerals by specially appointed Rescuers of the
Country, so that this office was created for the express purpose of
warding off dissolution from the dead in their graves. This matter
however is not of sufficient importance to occupy more of our space.
To pass now to the second point: the identification of sepulchral
trees with the manes residing in the grave. Among the extracts
inserted above there are three which refer explicitly to such identi-
fication, but none of them so directly as the following episode.
y> On mount Poh-mang there is the grave of the chaste woman Li.
» Her husband having departed this Ufe, she buried him and planted
» a couple of cypresses in front of the tom*b. After a while a cow
» bit off five inches from the top of the left tree , and when the
3 Chapter V, 1. 6. * ^- ^ ^•
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470 THE GRAVE.
» woman was informed of this, she exclaimed: *The left one (i.e.
»that on the principal side) is my husband^ and she ran to the
» grave. Wailing so bitterly that it was painful to behold, she
» caressed the cjrpress, and ere the night was gone it had grown
^up again as high as the tree on the right hand side. After her
» death she was buried in the same grave" '.
Chinese mythologists trace back the conceptions now under notice
far into pre-Christian times. This is by no means to be accepted
as a proof that they are so old in point of fact. The Sieu ahen ki ',
written by Yii Pao * in the fourth century, one of the most cele-
brated collections of myths and legends the Chinese possess, which
will be of great service to us in composing the Second Book of
this work, contains the following tragic episode, said to have occur-
red about the end of the fourth or in the beginning of the third
century before our era:
»Han Fing, a steward of king Khang of the state of Sung, had
y> married a wife of the family Ho. As she was a good looking
» woman, the king abducted her, casting Han P^ing, who felt
» offended at this act of his sovereign, into a dungeon, to be
» brought up for trial as a rebel. The next morning his wife secretly
» forwarded a note to him, written in the following covert terms:
»* There falls plenty of rain; the river is swollen and its waters
» are deep; the sunrise is like my heart'. This note was immediately
» handed to the king, who showed it to those around him. None
»of them could tell him what it meant, except the minister Su
»Ho, who explained: >>*There Mis plenty of rain^ means that she
»is overwhelmed with grief and fiU^ with anxious thoughts; *the
» river is swollen and its waters are deep' signifies that she cannot
» have intercourse with him, and *the sunrise is like my heart' is
»an allusion to her purpose to die (t. e. to keep herself chaste
» and pure like the morning)". Han Fing now suddenly committed
» suicide. His wife then secretly rendered her clothes fragile, and
$ ^ ^ ^' 'Memoirs of the district of Hwang-mei*' ^if^H^J^i ^^
Hukwang province ; ap. Ku kin t'u shu tsih chHng , sect. [^ "^C , chapter 204.
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THE GRAVE TEEES OP HAN P'TNG AND HIS WIFE. 471
» when the king had ascended the terrace with her, she cast herself
»down from the height. The bystanders managed to grasp her,
>y but her dress gave way in their hands. Thus she perished.
»A letter was found in her girdle, which ran as follows: *Your
» Majesty bestowed favours upon him during his life, and myself
» have done something for him after his death ; so I hope that my
it> remains may be awarded to PHng, and entombed with him in
y> the same grave\ But the enraged - monarch would not comply
»with this request, and ordered the people of the ward to bury
» her anywhere. The graves were opposite to each other, and the
»king said: ^You, man and wife, loved one another so much; well,
» cause your graves to become united in one , if you can , and I
» will not prevent it\ Before one night had passed , a large Rottlera
»tree grew up in the centre of each grave, and after ten days they
»were so big that they could no longer be embraced by both
»arm8. The trunks inclined towards each other; below, the roots
»grew together; above, the branches intertwined, and a couple of
» mandarin ducks, a male and a female, perched continuously in
» those trees, never leaving the place from morning till night. With
)» their necks twisted around each other, they sent forth plaintive
» cries, which filled the people with emotion. The inhabitants of
)»Sung felt compassion with the couple and called the trees 'The
» Trees of Mutual Remembrance^ ; in the South the people pretend
» that those birds were the manes of Han Fing and his wife" *.
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472 THE GRAVE.
Another legend of the same tenor is given by the Shuh i Id.
» During the rule of the Wu dynasty there lived in the Hwang
»lung period (A. D. 229 — 231) in Hai-yen, the capital of Wu
» (Chehkiang province), the wife of Luh Tung-mi, whose own family
»name was Chu. She was nice looking, and husband and wife
» cared for nobody but each other, never allowing the distance of an
» inch or a pace to separate them. People at that time called them
»the couple who kept their shoulders always against each other,
»and held that it was doubtful whether the pi-yih of ancient
» times ^ could have surpassed them. After a time the wife died, and
» Tung-mi sought death by starvation. Moved with compassion, their
x> relatives buried them in the same grave; and within a year Rottleras
» sprouted forth from the tomb , having one set of roots j but two
» stems, which embraced each other in such a wise as to form one single
» tree. A couple of swans came regularly to sleep therein, and when
» Sun Khuen (the then reigning emperor) heard of this, he uttered
» sighs of admiration and bestowed upon that locality the name of
»' 'the grave of those who always had their shoulders against each
» other*. The place is also designated as 'The Pair of Rottleras'"'.
These myths may be said to sufficiently illustrate the close rela-
tionship which the Chinese of all times have believed to exist
between sepulchral trees and the manes of the dead. Let it be
noted in conclusion that this relation also explains why T'ao Hung-
king, the renowned physician of the fifth century already mentioned
Jft ^ ia ^ «l ^ «i :S *l 5fe- Cl-apter ^-
1 A species of bird exalted by poets as pai*agons of conjugal attachment. The
name seems to signify » birds with joined wings".
fu shu tsih chHng, sect. "& ^ , chapter 240.
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GRAVE TREES ARE NOT USED AS DRUQS. 473
on page 274, wrote in his Ming i pieh luh that » cypresses are
» everywhere to be found, but those of mount 'Fai (in Shantung)
» must be deemed to be the best , and every one avoids the use
»of those which grow upon burial grounds" \ Indeed, considering
that the medical art in China has ever been in the main an art
for neutralizing life-destroying influences by the aid of benevolent
souls, it needs no demonstration to prove that good effects cannot
be expected from medecines acquired from grave trees to the de-
triment of souls. Such drugs would have quite the opposite effect,
as the souls thus deprived would cool their wrath upon the person
who ventured to use them.
^ , Pen-ts'ao kang muh^ chapter 34.
81
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CHAPTER VI.
ON MOUaNINa CUSTOMS.
1. The Origin of Mourning and Fasting for the Dead.
Perhaps it may at first sight appear strange to our readers
that the subject announced by this heading is placed amongst
matters connected with the Grave. A perusal of the following
pages will show, however, that there are weighty reasons to
justify our allotting to mourning and fasting a place in this part
of our work.
Several passages quoted in Chapters III and IV from ancient
works treating of the epoch during which the Empire was ruled
by the dynasties of Cheu and Han, afford evidence that, in
those times, the dead were bounteously provided in their subter-
ranean abodes with all kinds of articles , among which clothing
and food took a chief place. Seeing that even in those historical
times, when culture had already made considerable progress, the
said custom had as firm a hold upon Chinese life as those
passages lead us to believe, we may certainly infer that it had
been more rigorous in preceding ages, when manners and customs
were still more strongly dominated by barbarism or semi-savagery.
In other words, we feel no hesitation in stating, that there was
a period when death in China entailed the total ruin of the family
of the defunct.
Afterwards, under the constant influence of advancing culture,
the custom of burying valuables along with the dead gradually
fell into disuse, but without entirely dpng away. At the same
time, the original doctrine that it is a sacred duty on the part
of children to give up their property for the sake of the deceased
authors of their being, and to remain behind in a state of the
direst poverty, was prevented from dying out by the theory of the
hiao, which commands unbounded devotion to parents even after
their departure of this life. This theory, having obtained greater hold
as civilisation advanced, led to the inevitable result that children.
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THE ORIGIN OP MOURNING AND FASTING. 475
though discontiDuing the actual renunciation of their property, kept
up with all the more ardour the outward appearances of faithfully
observing it, dressing for this purpose in the cheapest possible
garments and contenting themselves with the simplest possible
food. Thus wearing mourning and fasting became a dual rite^
thenceforth as inseparably connected with death as the rich equip-
ment of the dead with clothes and food had formerly been.
That in the time of Confucius mourning and fasting held such
a place in point of fact, can be proved by documentary evidence.
Both rites were then declared by wise men to be amongst the
chief things to be observed in case of death by all classes of
society, and as such to take rank with howling or calling back
the soul, which, as we have pointed out on pages 243 et sgq.,
then occupied a position of the very highest importance among the
funeral rites. We read in the Li ki (chapter 9, 1. 28): »The mother
y>oi the ruler Muh having died, the latter sent a man to ask
»Tseng-tsz& how he ought to act, and Tseng-tszS answered: 'I,
»Shen, have heard from my father that the sorrow expressed by
» the wailing and weeping, the feelings manifested by hemmed and
)» frayed mourning garments, and the eating of rice-porridge extend
» from the Son of Heaven downward to all" *.
The wearing of mourning has since very ancient times been main-
tained in Chinese society as an institution of undisputed weight , and
has never suffered any significant decline. Not only in domestic and
social life, but even in legislation, it has always played a part of
great importance , a part curious and interesting , and highly charac-
teristic of the Chinese nation. This is not the case with the custom
of fiasting, which as a funeral rite has been gradually dying away,
without, however, having entirely disappeared.
In dealing with the subject of mourning, as we shall henceforth
briefly denominate the custom of wearing mourning dress, we
must in the first place draw upon the native literature to confirm
our theory about its origin.
That at the outset it really consisted in ceding one's own
raiment to the dead, is confirmed by the fact that in the age
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476 THB GEAVE.
of Confucius it was customary for the mourners to throw oft
their own clothes as far as. decency allowed, when the corpse was
being dressed. Chapter 10 of the Li hi (1. 54) relates that., »when
»at the death of the mother of Shuh-sun-wu-shuh the slighter
» dressing had been completed , and the men who had lifted up the
» corpse had gone out at the door of the back ohamber j he went
» out at this door himself, bared the upper part of his body and
» flung away his cap , tpng his hair in a knot. Tszg-pu (a disciple
» of Confucius) said of him : ' He knows the rites' " *. Indeed , to
behave like Shuh-sun-wu-shuh was prescribed as a good custom at
that time , for the / li says , immediately after the rescripts on the
slighter dressing, which we have reproduced in full on page 337:
» The principal mourner ties his hair together and bares the upper
» part of his body ; the other principal mourners tie up their hair
» with a lace in the apartments , and the women coil up theirs in
» the back chamber" *. Similar rescripts occur in the 57th. chapter
of the Li hi (1. 17).
But more proofs of the correctness of our theory can be produced.
The / li informs us that, when afier the slighter dressing the
corpse had been transferred to a couch in the back chamber, the
mourners resorted to the court-yard, where hempen headbands,
waistropes and girdles had been duly laid out for them, and that
there »they re-adjusted their dress on the upper part of the body
and put on the headbands near the wall on the east'''. The same
work says further, that on the third day this partial mourning
was laid aside and A>full mourning dress with the staff was then
assumed" *, and this was the first act of importance after the full
dressing of the corpse, which took place on the day before and, as has
been stated on page 364, was immediately connected with the cofSning
and the temporary burial. The Li hi (ch. 57, 1. 32) also says: »At
y> the funeral rites for an ordinary oflBcer they store away the coflSn
» in the hall on the second day ; and in the morning of the third
»the principal mourners assume the staff, and the chief female
Chapter 27, 1. 41 and 44.
3 ± A ll>JiiT^jK- Chapter 27, 1.47.
* = 0 J^ Jfi » :fet- ^'"'P^' 28, 1. 35.
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THB ORIGIN OF MOURNING. 477
mourners do so too" *. Still now-a-days it is a legal rescript laid
down in the Ta TsHng fung li^, that amongst the oflBcial classes
of the Empire complete mourning is to be assumed on the self-
same day on which the dead are dressed.
On pages 36, 336 and 338 of this work citations are given from
the Li hi and the / A', which fully confirm that it was a general
custom under the Cheu dynasty to bare the upper part of the
body during the dressing of the dead, both for the principal
mourners and all those who took an active part in this ceremony.
Moreover, the baring of the chest and shoulders is mentioned
more than once in the / li in direct connection with interment.
This too is quite a matter of course, as clothing material offered
to the dead used for the greater part to be placed in the grave
along with the coffin. From the citation inserted on page 168
we learn that the principal mourners bared their breasts when
messengers, despatched by the Ruler on the day before the burial,
arrived to present material for clothes and other articles to the
defunct. Further we see from an extract reproduced on page 177
that the same was done by the Invoker, when he entered upon
his functions at the commencement of the immediate preparations
for the interment, and that this sacerdotal functionary then moreover
bared his head. Finally it is stated in the passage quoted on
page 196 that the principal mourner bared the upper part of his
body when parcels of black and scarlet silk were deposited in the
grave by the side or on the lid of the coffin. To this we may
add that it was customary in those times for officials to be partly
undressed when following in the funeral procession of their sove-
reign ; for we read in the Tso ch^wen * that the ruler of the state
of Lai^, on being attacked by the united armies of some con-
federated states, in token of his absolute submission to their arms,
repaired to their head-quarters, his hands tied together, his mouth
holding a piece of jade as if he were a corpse, and followed by a
coffin, and by his officers who had bared the upper part of their
bodies.
That the wearing of mourning virtually stands in the closest
2 Chapter 52, 1. 3.
3 The fourth year of the Ruler Ghao's reign. 4 ^ .
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478 THE GRAVE.
connection with interment, is furthermore proved by the circum-
stance that, during the Cheu dynasty, the nearest relatives used
to put it on again at the burial when this took place so late that
the customaiy period of mourning had already elapsed. This was
done even in the case of brothers, the Li Id stating (ch. 46, 1. 50):
» When the interment of an elder or a younger brother takes place
y> after the mourning for him has been cast off, then the mourning
» dress which is prescribed for a brother must be put on again" ^.
Still at the present day it is an established social custom for any
one who follows the dead to the grave, to dress in the very deepest
mourning prescribed for the d^ee of relationship in which he stands
to the defunct, no matter how long a time intervenes between the
ceremony and the termination of the period of mourning.
During the Cheu dynasty, stripping the upper part of the body
was, however, by no means exclusively confined to the period of
the dressing and the burial of the dead. The principal mourner
did the same while stufSng the mouth of the deceased with rice
and cowries (page 275 ^eq^, although in this case be might have
done so to prevent the sleeves from incommoding him in the per-
formance of his function. Further, according to a rescript attri-
buted to Confucius, a newly bom successor to the Throne had to
be introduced to the manes of his deceased father undressed, and
thereupon to be attired in a coat of sackcloth, all the attending
oflScers, from the highest to the lowest, baring the upper part of
their bodies at the same time (page 350 et seq.). The Li ki more-
over says (ch. 46, 1. 63): » Hastening to the spot on his father's
» death, a son gathers his hair together in a knot inside the hall,
» bares the upper part of his body, goes down the steps, stamps
y> his feet , puts on his clothes and ties on a waistrope on the
» eastern side (of the court-yard). Hurrying to the funeral rites of
» his mother, he does not bind his hair into a knot, but bares
» his body likewise inside the hall ; thereupon he descends into the
^court-yard and, having stamped his feet, redresses there on the
» eastern side , binding his hair with a lace , and then putting on
»a waistrope. Then he proceeds to his appointed place, performs
»a complete stamping of the feet, and goes out from the gate,
» whereupon the wailing ceases. In the course of three days there
^ ^ it 1^ iE ^HQ, 2^^ ^ifc^«^» section
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BARING THB BREAST AS A SIGN OF MOURNING. 479
» are five periods of wailing , and the upper part of the body is
» bared three times" ^.
This theory of the origin of baring the upper part of the
body and doing away with the headgear as a token of mourn-
ing does not exclude the possibility that this custom may have
been greatly influenced, nay even initiated, by the practice,
peculiar to savage life, of tearing one's hair and rending one's
clothes in case of death, as a token of despair. We have, indeed,
every reason to believe that in ancient China mourners were much
addicted to such showy signs of grief, for, as we have demon-
strated on pages 254 sgg., they also screamed and wailed, stamped
their feet and beat their breasts in mad infatuation, probably even
going so far as to lacerate their flesh.
2. Benounoing the Dwelling and its Furniture
as a token of Mourning.
The correctness of our theory that fasting and wearing mourning
originated in the practice of abandoning everything to the dead,
is strongly confirmed by the fact that, in ancient historic China,
it was an established mourning custom to give up to the defunct
even the dwelling in which he had lived and breathed his last,
with all its belongings, the children removing elsewhere, to miser-
able huts of clay, destitute of all bedding and furniture. The reader
will remember our statements on pages 363 ei aqq, that, even as
late as the era of Cheu, it was customary amongst the higher classes
to bury their dead in the house for a time , the descendants retiring
into mourning sheds specially built for the purpose.
This interesting custom now demands our particular attention.
In the lA M it is mentioned in the same sentence with fasting and
wearing mourning apparel, which is another proof that the three
things were connected together by the closest ties. »A large wound",
says that book (chapter 71, 1. 22), » remains long, and sharp pain
^passes tardily away. The shabby coat with its edges roughly cut
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480 THE GRAVE.
» off and the mourning staff; dwelling in a shed reared against the
»wall; eating rice-gruel there and sleeping on straw or matting
» with a clod of earth for a pillow — these things are the outward
» signs of the deepest grief" \
Dwelling for a time in such mourning sheds is mentioned already
in ancient records treating of the epoch covered by the house of
Yin. Speaking of Kao Tsung ', a monarch also known by the name
of Wu Ting *, who was seated on the throne fourteen centuries
before our era, the SAu king says: »When the sovereign was in
» mourning, he dwelt in a liang-ngan until the three sacrifices^
»had been offered, and he did not speak until he was entirely
» discharged from mourning"*. This term liang-ngan, ^ ^,
which seems to mean »shed of meditation" or »shed of enlighten-
ment", is written differently in other ancient works. So, in a pas-
sage in the Lun yu^, which states that, according to Confucius,
all the sovereigns of antiquity had lived in mourning sheds, it
occurs in the shape of ^ ^, and in another version of the same
passage, to be found in chapter 77 of the Li ki (1. 14), it is written
^ ^ ; nevertheless both forms have probably quite the same mean-
ing as the expression used in the SAu king, for they are also pro-
nounced liang-ngan.
Elsewhere we find the word liang-ngan written |^ ^, which
characters signify »a hut of beams". This expression may owe its
origin to the circumstance that some substantial pieces of wood
were used in its construction. The lA ki (chapt. 58, 1. 18) says:
»When a father or mother dies, the children dwell in sheds
» reared against the wall. These are not plastered with clay, and
y> they sleep therein on straw or matting , with a clod of earth
» for a pillow. They do not speak there , except on matters con-
» ceming death. When such a shed is made by a Ruler, it is fenced
» around , but no fence is made when it is erected by a Great
» officer or an ordinary officer. After the burial, posts and lintels
H#ra. 2^^. 3BeT-
4 See note i on page 482.
I. A repetition of this statement occurs in the section entitled ^ ^^ .
6 Chapter XIV, 43.
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DWELLING IN MOURNING SHEDS. 481
» are inserted , and the sheds are plastered , but not on the visible
» outside; then they are also fenced, if they be intended for the occu-
y> pancy of a Ruler , a Great officer , or an ordinary officer. All the
»sons but the eldest by the principal wife have sheds made for
» themselves before the burial, in out-of-the-way places" ^
As this passage gives us so much information about the mourning
sheds , it is well worth while to analyze it thoroughly. First of all
it shows that the principal among the sons, the Continuator of the
family, and as such the chief mourner, was not allowed to have
a shed before the burial; even the most miserable mourning hut
was deemed too good for him during those days when, in theory
at least, the offspring might retain absolutely nothing for themselves.
Further we learn, that only if occupied by the chief of a state
was it allowed to improve the shed a little by constructing a fence
around it, but that in every other case it was left entirely exposed
to the view of the inmates of the house. When the burial was
completed, some slight improvements were made to the sheds by
strengthening them with pieces of wood and by roughly plastering
the walls with clay on the inside, to keep out the cold and rain;
indeed, it being considered that by that time the dead had carried
off unto the realm of shades everything worth havbg, the survivors
might again commence to possess some few things and to indulge
in a shade more of comfort and luxury. Afterwards, at regular
intervals, they were allowed to make further improvements in the
sheds. »When" says the Li ki (ch. 71. 1. 7), )>at the death of a
» father or mother the great sacrifice which follows on the burial
» has been celebrated and the period of wailing is concluded , posts
»and lintels are fitted in, and the walls are clipped (to remove
»the superfluous straw); the mats of Hu rushes also are then
y> clipped , but their edges not bent over to the inside. Subsequently,
» after a year, when the Lesser Sacrifice of Felicity has been
» offered, the mourners occupy unplastered rooms and sleep there on
»mats; at the end of another year, when the Great Sacrifice of
» Felicity has been presented, they re-occupy their bedrooms, and
» after one month more, when the sacrifice which concludes the
© * P Jgi :5^ 1 *1SiJi. Sect. ^:^ IE. n.
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482 THE GRAVE.
y> mourning ^ has been offered , they may make use of their beds
» again" *. Accordingly, the unplastered rooms served as the transition
from the sheds to the usual dwelling; in them they passed what
may be called the period of slighter mourning or semi-mourning.
Only for the male members of the family of the dead was it
obligatory to dwell in mourning sheds. » Women'*, says the Li ki
(chapter 58, 1. "22), )>do not dwell in mourning sheds, nor do
they sleep on straw or matting" '. How matters stood with respect
to more removed relatives, is stated by the Li ki (chapter 71, 1. 6)
in the following explicit terms: »At the death of a father or
» mother , the sons occupy mourning sheds built against the wall ,
»and sleep there on straw or matting, with a clod of earth for
»a pillow; they do not even take off their hempen waistrope,
»nor their mourning girdle. The relatives who have to mourn in
» the second degree occupy unplastered rooms with mats of H u
» rushes that are clipped, but the edges of which are not bent
» over to the inside. Those of the third degrfee (which lasts nine
» months) have mats to sleep on ; and those of the fourth dtsgree
» and the fifth (which last five and three months respectively) are
» allowed to use their own beds" *. In other words , the severity of
the obligation to renounce the use of one's dwelling and furniture
on behalf of the dead was in direct proportion to the nearness of
kinship existing between the individual concerned and the defunct.
The regimen to be observed by the mourners while occupying
the sheds or the unplastered rooms was likewise minutely regulated
by customary laws. » Those", says the Li ki (ch. 55, 1. 15), A>who
» are in the (deepest) mourning which lasts into the third year ,
» speak, but do not discourse; they give answers, but do not ask
» questions. In the sheds or the unplastered rooms they do not sit
1 The three last-named sacrifices are the same as are mentioned in the extract
from the Shu king on page 480.
^«a«l*l^^ifc. section M^.
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THE REGIMEN OBSERVED IN THE MOURNING SHEDS. 483
»down in company with other people. While occupying the un-
» plastered rooms, they may not, when they visit their mother
»at unfixed times, enter the house through the gate. Those who
» wear slighter mourning dwell in unplastered rooms all the time ,
»and not in mourning sheds, as the latter represent the severest
» form of mourning" *. This statement that the wearing of deep
mourning dress was intimately connected with the deep mourning
shed, and slight mourning dress with a slight mourning room,
proves how fully Chinese documents testify that wearing mourning
and living in mourning apartments were two customs linked together
by the closest ties. Furthermore we have in the Li hi (ch. 70, 1. 33) :
»0n returning home after having completed the ceremonies at the
» grave, (a son) dares not enter the rooms of the dwelling, but
» dwells in a shed reared against the wall , for grief that his parent
»i8 now outside. He sleeps on straw or matting, with a clod of
» earth for a pillow, for grief that his parent is now in the earth.
» Therefore also he wails and weeps without regard to times,
» enduring the toil of mourning until the third year ; for it is the
)» inclination of a filial son and, moreover, the true instinct of
» human nature , to aflFectionately remember the dead" *.
Prom the above citations it will be seen that the deep mourning
sheds are generally denoted in the Li U by the character ]|^ . Some-
times, however, this Classic designates them by 5^, e.ff, in the
70th. chapter'; they are likewise designated by this character in
the I liy as may be seen from the extracts given on page 118 and
page 367. From these two characters a couple of expressions have
been formed, which frequently occur in Chinese books , viz. ^ ^ ,
» shed of mourning", and j£ ^ > » mourning shed" or » to dwell
in a mourning shed".
1^. J» lai H #. S it ^ A!!^ # f- :t ;t.ifc . Ali :^
If ^.Section ran.
3 Section ^ ^ .
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484 THE GRAVE.
The same spirit of conservatism , which , as we have several times
had occasion to remark in this work, has uninterruptedly induced
succeeding dynasties to elevate customs and usages, mentioned by
the ancient works , to the rank of official rites , has also caused the
dwelling in mourning sheds to be received amongst ther^ormal
institutions of the State. In the Khai yuen Codex it is prescribed
for all classes of society. »When (after the coffining) complete
y> mourning is about to be assumed , the managers of the funeral
» rites first construct sheds on the east side of the hall where
» the coffin is stored away. These sheds are built in the side
» colonnade, but for officers of the sixth degree and those still
» lower in rank they are made underneath the window. They are
» placed towards the south and have the entrance on the north.
» Inside there is straw or matting , and a clod of earth. Each ot
» the sons of the dead has one shed for his own use. For officers
» of the first degree down to the fifth the sheds are fenced.
ȴoT those who have to mourn in the second degree, unplastered
» apartments of accumulated clay are constructed on the south side
» of the mourning sheds. All of which have their entrances on the
» north. The mats indide are of clipped Calamus rushes, and un-
» hemmed.
»The father and the elder brothers of the dead do not occupy
» sheds in the locality where the coffin is stored away, but each
» of them has either his shed or his unplastered apartment on the
» east side of the back chamber. A grandfather at the death of
» his grandson who is the Continuator of the family ^ occupies
»an unplastered apartment which contains a bedstead. All these
» apartments front to the south, but have their entrances on the
» west side.
y> A &ther does not dwell in a shed outside the house for his
» sons , except for the eldest by the principal wife (the Continuator).
» On the death of a son by a concubine he may act as he thinks
»fit, for instance sleep in a bedroom.
. »The mourners of the third degree have in their unplastered
» rooms curtains on the south side, and mats of Calamus rushes.
» Those of the fourth or fifth degree set up their beds at the
» south side of the mourners of the third degree, and also have
» Calamus mats to sleep on. As to the women — they dwell in
» sheds erected in the western apartment, and after the coffining
1 What is to be understood by such a grandson is explained on page 5i7.
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DWELLING IN MOURNING SHEDS. 485
»they place their beds in the hall where the coffin is kept. If there
)>are no apartments, they reside in the back part of the house,
» or in some other room" ^
The Rituals for Family Life too give rescripts with regard to
the dwelling in mourning apartments. » Outside the central gate
»one must select apartments great and small, for making sheds
» therein for the up-grown male mourners. Those who wear the
» mourning of the first degree sleep in those sheds on mats or
y> straw, with a clod of earth for a pillow , not even putting off
» their mourning band from the head, nor their hempen girdle;
vthey do not sit down there in company with others, and when
»they visit their father or mother at unfixed times, do not
» enter by the central gate. The relatives of the second degree
»of mourning sleep on mats; those of the third, the fourth and
»the fifth, in case they live in another house, return home after
)>the coffining and then dwell and sleep outside their*own houses,
)> making use of their bedrooms again in the third month. And
»as for the women — they either abide in sheds erected in the
y> side rooms within the central gate, or dwell by the side of the
» coffin. They remove all ornamentation from their curtains, cover-
y> lets and mattrasses , and are not allowed to resort freely to the
y> mourning sheds of the males" '.
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486 THB GRAVE.
Apart firom all these official and semi-official rescripts, we find
in the Histories of the Empire numerous instances of children
and wives having dwelt in sheds on the graves of their parents
and husbands. Some examples have been placed before the reader on
pages 464 et aqq.) others will be given in the second section of
chapter IX, where we shall try, moreover, to demonstrate that the
practice must be considered as a partial modification of another ancient
custom observed by faithful wives, daughters, slaves and ministers,
namely that of immolating themselves to follow a husband , parent ,
master or sovereign into the grave, to continue their services in
the next world.
Dwelling in a shed upon the grave has perhaps been entirely
discontinued now-a-days , at least we never saw , heard , or even read
of a case having actually occurred of late years. But the custom ot
renouncing the dwelling and its furniture as a token of mourning
is far from having disappeared. It has been mentioned in the
first part of this Book. There we have seen (page 27) that, in
Amoy, the wife, sons, daughters, daughters-in-law and the eldest
grandson pass the nights by the side of the corpse on mats or on
straw spread out on the floor, and that (see page 114) this usage
is, in some cases, kept up till the first or second day after the
burial. Further we have stated on page 25 that the furniture,
inclusive the altar with the ancestral tablets and the images of
the gods, is removed from the hall, and that all ornamentation of
the walls is taken away. To this we may add that in the same
part of the Empire, during the great Buddhist mass celebrated in
the liouse of mourning and lasting amongst the well-to-do for a
long series of days, sheds of curtains, popularly styled kao tiad^ or
» dog-kennels", are construed in the hall for the occupancy of the
mourners. These will be referred to again in our description of that
mass, to which a part of our Book on Buddhism will be devoted.
Not only the people, however, conform to the ancient custom.
The Imperial family does so too. It is prescribed in the Ta TaHng
V'ung li that, at the death of an Emperor, the new sovereign must
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AVOIDING THE PRIVATE ROOMS OF THE DEAD. 487
dwell in a ;!>side room" \ and his sons and grandsons in )> other
apartments of the palace than those they are accustomed to live
in"*; farther, at the death of his mother, the Son of Heaven
must likewise take up his abode in a side room ^ and the Imperial
princes of sundry d^rees must, when the Emperor is dead, dwell
in ;!> a room of abstinence , each in his private mansion" *. Similar
rules have been laid down in the same work for observance on the
death of other members of the Imperial family. It prescribes, moreover,
that in cases of death of officers and of members of the gentry
»the sons shall dwell in sheds outside the central gate of the
» house, and sleep there on straw or matting, with a clod of earth
»for a pillow, not then even putting off their mourning band from
» the head , or their hempen girdle. The wife and daughters must
» dwell in sheds constructed inside the central gate; they must use
)> curtains, pillows and coverlets of plain linen, and wail by day
»and by night without regard to times, whenever their grief
» reaches its highest pitch"*. And as to the common people, with
them the sons, wife and daughters have to behave in the same
manner, but »the sons must dwell at the side of the coffin, the
others in other apartments than those they usually abide in"'.
Chinese books acquaint us with still another curious custom
evidently engendered by the practice of giving up one's dwelling and
furniture to the dead to whom it belonged when alive, viz. that
of abstaining from entering the private apartments of a deceased
parent or parent-in-law. In the » Domestic Instructions by Mr. Yen",
which, as stated on page 43, date from the sixth century, we
read: » After the death of their parents, the sons and their wives
Ji» cannot find it in their hearts to enter the private apartments
»and bedrooms which were occupied by the deceased. Under the
» Northern Djmasties (fifth and sixth centuries), Li Keu, an inhab-
2 ^ ifl j|lj 1^ . See chapter 47, I. 2 and 3.
3 Chapter 48, 1. 1.
*#*L^^^- Chapter 47, 1.3.
M 94 ^ S ^ ^ ^ • C^P^'' ^^> 1- ^ ^°(> 3, and 1. -19.
6i|^"'jg^iB!!.i?iiiC^#lg:3^Chapter52,L23.
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488 THB GRAVE.
» itant of Tun-khiu , after the death of his mother , Madam Liu ,
» kept the hall in which she had been wont to dwell locked and
» closed to the end of his life , not suffering himself to open or
» enter it" ^ Other passages of this kind we have not come across
in the native literature, which, however, is no proof that the custom
was not widely spread and may even prevail in these days.
Seeing it is explicitly stated by the author of the Domestic In-
structions that it was practised only by the sons and their wives,
that is to say, by the nearest relations who had to observe the
deepest mourning, we cannot suppose that it was based merely
upon a fear of the soul of the defunct, which may have been
thought to hover about in the apartments. If such were the case,
the said author would probably have stated that the apartments
were avoided by everybody without exception.
3. Mourning as a Social and Political Institution in Ancient
and Modem China.
Having so far traced the origin of the principal Chinese mourn-
ing customs , we must now subject to closer examination the wearing
of mourning dress as practised in China anciently, and sketch the
influence thereby exercised in that country upon the mourning of
after ages and modern times.
If it be correct that wearing mourning originated in China in
the custom of sacrificing to the dead even the clothes on one^s
own back, it is natural that, in such ancient times as the native
literature makes us acquainted with, mourning dress must have
been characterized by a total absence of ornaments. These being
among the last of the necessities of life, the survivors might give
them up to the defunct first of all. »The removal of finery", says
»the Li ki (ch. 12, 1. 28), » means doing away with an attractive
» appearance, and the utmost one can do in removing finery is to bare
» the upper part of the body and to tie the hair in a knot"*; indeed,
»it would have been difficult to do more than thus to surrender
m^.^MmA^' S«th section.
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GIRDLE-PENDANTS ARE NOT WORN WITH MOURNING. 489
to the dead even one's last piece of clothing and headgear.
Further the Li hi has (ch. 13, 1. 26): j^Shih Tai-chung^ died,
» leaving no son by his principal wife , but six by concubines. The
» tortoise-shell being consulted as to which of them was to be the
» successor of his father, the oracle declared that this would be
» indicated by the way in which they should wash their heads and
» bodies and wear the articles of jade from their girdles. Five of
»them accordingly washed their heads and bodies, and suspended
x>the objects of jade from theii* girdles; but Shih Khi-tszS said:
» 'Whoever, being in mourning for his father or mother, washed
vhis head or his body and wore girdle-pendants of jade?' — and
»he refused to do either, and thus was indicated by the oracle as
» the right man. The people of Wei opined that the tortoise had
» shown wisdom" *.
This removing the ornaments from the body in times of mourn-
ing is the more significant, if we keep in view that in those
ages it was implicitly prescribed by the laws of morals that such
things should be worn from the girdle when not in mourning.
^Without some good cause", says the Li /d (ch. 6, 1. 40), »the
y> ruler of a state does not remove the objects of jade from his
» body * . . . And (ch. 43, 1. 6 and 13) anciently, men of rank did
^ not neglect the wearing of objects of jade as girdle-pendants ....
» it being an established rule to have objects of jade hanging from
y> the girdle , except only during the time of mourning . . . Men of
» rank never remove the objects of jade from their body without
» some good cause" *. In the Lun yu we find it stated as one of the
characteristics of the holy Confucius that »this noble man, when
»he put off mourning, wore again the appendages of the girdle,
)^none excepted" *.
1 Seventh century before our era.
n,2.
3 # «l *l: .5 :?: * #. Sect, ft |g, n, 1.
32
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490 THE GEAVE.
Entire self-denudation for the benefit of one's parents having
once attained to the highest possible form of devotion and respect,
we can easily understand why it has become customary in China
for those who have to appear before superiors, to wear plain and
inexpensive garments as symbolizing such self-denudation. » In some
» ceremonial usages", says the lA ki (ch. 34, 1. 32), » plainness is the
»sign of dignity. The deepest respect admits of no ornaments" \ As a
proof that this is not an idle maxim without influence upon China's
religious system, we note the fact that, from the most ancient times
down to the present day, the emperors are always dressed in an
unembroidered fur gown of a plain dark colour * while performing
the sublimest religious ceremony of the State, viz. the sacrifice to
Heaven, the highest divinity of the Pantheon.
Prom the Han dynasty downward, the entire mourning system
of China, inclusive of the mourning dresses, has always been
regulated by rescripts and information contained in the / li and
the Li ki, and, to a very small extent, by some other Classics.
The two first mentioned works in particular abound with rescripts
. to such an extent that a simple compilation thereof would fiH a
volume; and this fact alone is a sufficient proof that wearing
mourning was one of the most important institutions of social
life during the Cheu dynasty. No other subject is treated in
these works with a like minuteness of detail. In the / li the
data are arranged quite systematically, so as to form a special
section, entitled: On Mourning Dress ^ subdivided into four chap-
ters, the 22nd., 23rd., 24th. and 25th. of the Khienlung edition.
In the Li ki, however, they are scattered over the work in bits
and fragments, which renders some of them totally valueless, as
it is impossible to arrange them in their proper sequence; most
of them are found in the section T'^an kung*, in the Record
of Smaller Matters in Mourning Dress*, in the second part of
the Miscellaneous Records', in the Questions about Mourning
2 A so-called khiu ^.
3 3IIR.
4 ^ ^ 1 ^^>s comprises chapters 9 to 14 of the Khienlung edition.
5 ^ HI ^ fQ 1 embracing chapters 45 and 46 of the Khienlung edition.
6 ^ m , chapters 55 and 56 of the Kh. edition.
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THE FIVE DEGREES OF MOURNING IN ANCIENT CHINA. 491
Dress ^, in the Intercalated Traditions ^, and in the Four Principles
underljdng Mourning Dress ^ The data supplied by each of the
two works are similar on many points , even to the wording ; we are
almost tempted to suppose that the / li has cast into a systematical
digest what is distributed in a disorderly manner over several chapters
of the Li ki. In our exposition of the mourning system of ancient
China we shall therefore take as our principal guide the aforesaid
chapters of the / /t, and further select such extracts from the Li ki
as may serve to throw light on our subject.
Seeing that, in ancient China, mourning was in point of fact a
renunciation of all property for the benefit of the dead and that
such renunciation was not carried out with a like degree of rigidity
for every deceased kinsman, it naturally follows that mourning
dress was deepest for the nearest relations, and less so for kinsmen
more removed. It was subdivided into five degrees, denoted by
the following names, generally used with the same meaning in all
the works of both ancient and modem literature:
The first or highest degree, for the nearest relatives, is called ^ ^ ,
chan-ts*ui, »the shabby coat which is cut off roughly"; it
might therefore be styled »the shabby coat with ravelled edges".
The second degree is called ^^> tsi-ts^ui, »the shabby coat
the edges of which are cut even".
The third degree ^^, ta-kung, » material of coarse fabric".
The fourth degree j\\ ^, siao-kung, » material of finer fabric".
The fifth degree ^^, szg-ma, ^finespun hemp".
Particulars about these 3l ^> >>five sorts of dressing", as they
are generally styled both in books and in ordinary, life, will be
given in this section of this chapter, under separate headings. In
point of fact there always existed a few other degrees; but they were
only regarded as subdivisions of the five. »Mourning", says the Li
U (ch. 70, 1. 62), » consists of many things, but the mourning dress
consists of five degrees" *.
1 ^ ^ , forming a part of the 70th. chapter of the Kh. edition.
^ M "M ' ^ part of the 70th. chapter of the Kh. edition.
3 ^ ^ ^ M . t^e 77th. or last chapter of the Classic.
^%$^m »3L.Sect. mBQ.
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402 THE GRAVE.
As their names indicate, each of these d^rees was connected
with a special dress, which was the poorer in proportion as the
relationship to the defunct was closer. Moreover, there was prescribed
for each d^ree a certain mode of dwelling, the poorness of
which was similarly graduated; we have seen this already on page
482, from a passage quoted from the Li ki. In a corresponding
manner there was prescribed for each of the five d^rees a special
regimen of fasting: »In mourning for a father or mother", says
the lA ki (ch. 71, 1. 5), » when the coflBn has been stored away
»in the hall, the mourners eat rice gruel made of a handful of
» rice in the morning , and the same quantity in the evening. In
» the second degree the mourners take their food at long intervals
» and drink water , not touching vegetables or fruit. In the third
» degree they (may take vegetables and firuit, but) must abstain
y> from pickled food ; in the fourth degree and in the fifth they
y> do not drink must or spirits. These are the manifestations ot
» sorrow in drinking and eating"^. Furthermore, for each degree
of mourning there was prescribed a peculiar mode of speaking and
conversing, >>In the first degree of mourning", we are told in the
same chapter of the Li ki (1. 4), » the mourner merely shows that
» he has heard what is said to him , but does not answer in words.
y> In the second d^ree he answers , but does not enter upon a
» conversation. In the third degree he converses, but without dis-
» cussing. When mourning in the fourth or fifth d^ree, he may
» discuss , but not take pleasure therein. These are the manifest-
» ations of sorrow in speech" *. Finally we may add that the death-
howl also had to be ejaculated in five different ways, the one
more , the other less piteous , according to the degree of mourning
of the howler; a passage of the Li ki showing this has been inserted
on page 269. That such gradations in each of the principal mourning
usages were for the greater part merely theoretical, is self-evident;
2 if i[ Pi B5 ::?c S^ . ^ g IN- B5 :^ # . A Kr t ro ^
■Ifc • Sect. ^ j|i . Also in chapter 77, 1. 15; sect. |||||!9 ^ .
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l
THE MOURNING DRESS OF THE FIRST DEGREE. 493
yet the fact of their being formally prescribed by Chinese moralists
clearly proves that they considered all these forms of self-denial
and abstinence to be most intimately linked together.
We will now subject the five degrees of mourning, as they were
observed in ancient China, to a closer inspection.
The first degree.
An explanation of the name » shabby coat which is cut off roughly",
by which, as we have seen, this degree of mourning is generally
denoted, is given by the / /t. The so-called Traditions \ being
passages interspersed by way of explanatory notes betwixt the text
of the section on Mourning Dress in that book*, say: »What is
» the meaning of the term cut off roughly? It means that the dress
» has no hems" K That is to say, the breadths of which the coat
was made were ravelled along the edges, or, as Ngao Ki-kung
expresses it in the commentary, » were not trimmed or cut even*' *.
Of what the dress of the highest degree of mourning consisted
is fully set forth by the / It in the following words: »A shabby
;»coat and skirt, both roughly cut off; a headband and waistrope
» of the female hempen plant and a staff adorned with female hemp ;
»a twisted girdle; a cap with a rope for a tassel; shoes of kien
2 These Traditions, which we shall often have to refer to in this chapter,
are for the greater part as iraluable for obtaining a knowledge of ancient China as
the text of the l^li itself. Kia Kung-yen says, it is uncertain to whom the author-
ship must be attributed, but that in his time it was generally believed they wei*e
from the hand of Tszd-hia , one of the piincipal contemporary disciples of Confucius ,
mentioned on page 258. No other section of the / li possesses such Traditions.
Ngao Ki-kung calls attention to the flEict that they are also interpolated between
the several passages of the » Records" ^R , which form the last part of the 25th.
chapter of the / li^ and that therefore they are probably of a younger date than
these Records, so that, as the latter are generally attnbuted to the later disciples
of Gonfudus, the theory that Tsz^hia wrote the Traditions necessarily falls to the
ground. Without a doubt, continues Ngao, they once formed a separate work and
were split up for distribution in the / li by some scholar of a more modem period ;
perhaps Ching Khang-ch'ing may have been the man (see the introductory notice
to chapter 22 of the Khienlung edition of the I li). We may further note that
such Traditions are inserted also in the 70th. chapter of the Li kiy in the section
entitled: Questions about Mourning Dress, jffi ^ ,
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404 THE 6RAYB.
» grass" ^ The Traditions add to this the following explanations:
»The headband and the waistrope of the female hempen plant
» are of the hempen plant which bears seed. That headband is so
» thick that it can scarcely be grasped by the hand ; on the left
» side the roots of the plant hang down. The waistrope is made
»of a quantity of hemp which is by one fifth smaller than that
»of the headband"*. The reason why the hemp for the headband
and the waistrope was taken from the female stalks , is undoubtedly
to be found in the circumstance that these stalks give broader and
coarser strips of fibre than the slender male stalks , for the articles for
the deepest mourning had to be of the coarsest possible make. It is by
no means clear from the above description how the headband looked,
and the fact that the Khienlung editors give three different pictures
of it, respectively in the / li, the Li ki and the Cheu /t, is a
sufficient proof that they were far from sure of its shape.
»The staff adorned with female hemp", so the Traditions con-
tinue, »is of bamboo; the staff (carried in the second degree of
» mourning) which is scraped smooth, is of the wood of the T^'ung
y> tree (see page 802). Each is so long as to be on a level with
» the heart, and is carried with the root downward. Who carry
» staffs (in ordinary circumstances of life)? High dignitaries. And
»who that are not such dignitaries nevertheless carry a staff?
» Those on whom a leadership is incumbent. And who, although
»no leaders, carry a staff? Those who support themselves because
» of sickness or infirmity. Why does not a boy carry a staff? Be-
» cause he is incapable of making himself ill. And why do not
» women carry a staff? Also because they cannot make themselves
» ill" ^. It is likewise said in the lA ki (ch. 77, 1. 9) : » Women
» and boys do not carry a staff because they are not able to make
22 , 1. 6.
•i- i ^ — Jtii ^ ^. Chapter 22, 1. 10.
Alr0:^^>^^il^-tfe- Chapter 22, 1. 11 and 13.
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THE MOURNING STAFF ETC. 495
» themselves ill" *. These passages explain the object connected with
carrying mourning staffs so well, that it is quite superfluous to
refer to the lA ki, which says (ch. 70, I. 37): » When some one
»asks: *What does a person who carries a staff do with it?' the
>^ answer is: 'When a filial son loses his father, he howls and
)> weeps without regard to times or numbers, and in mourning
» exercises himself till in the third year; his body becomes ill
» thereby and emaciated , so that he makes use of a staff to support
» his infirmity" *. Consequently , the staff stood in close connection
with the rigid fasting which we have shown was imperatively
prescribed for mourners in those ancient times.
The Traditions continue as follows: »The twisted girdle is a girdle
» in the shape of a rope. The rope-like tassel of the cap is a single
» piece of rope affixed to the cap ; it is sewed on at the right side.
»The material of which the cap is made is of six shing of
)> threads; its lower border is folded upwards, so as to come against
» the outside , and the material is washed , but not with ashes" ^.
Commentators say that the rope of the cap served to fix the
latter on the head by winding it over or around it in some way
or other. The meaning of the term shing will be explained on
page 498. Finally the Traditions say: vAs to the shoes of Kien
» grass — the Kien is the Fei; the ends of the stalks are bent
»over against the outside and inserted in the shoes (?)"*. We
do not believe that the Kien or Fei have ever been determined
with certainty by European botanists.
Female mourners wore »a linen band in their hair and a pin of
»the arrow-bamboo, and they coiled their hair up into a knot. The
)> Traditions say this band was made of six shing of threads
»and was six inches long, and that the hairpin had a length of one
» foot , while the hairpins usually worn were two inches longer" *.
4fF # % is fl5 ^ K- Chapter 22, I. 15 and 16.
*W)i^W^ifc»^^- ^"P**"^ 22, 1. 19.
■g /^ ^ ^ ^ X H -^f . Chapter 22, 1. 47 and 49.
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496 THE GRAYS.
Scarcely any particulars are given in this part of the / li about
the principal articles of mourning attire, viz. the shabby coat and
the skirt. The Records, however, supply us with the following
details.
» As for the shabby coat , the edges of the breadths of which it
»is made as a rule peep out on the outside (from the seams);
»on the skirt, however, they peep out on the inside. Bach
» breadth of the skirt has three folds (converging upon the
» middle of the body)" ^ Taking notice now of what has been
adduced concerning those garments on page 498, it follows that
the edges of each breadth were visible everywhere in the coat, not
only along all the borders, but also along the seams; in the skirt,
however, they were visible along the borders only, and not along
the seams, unless the garment were turned inside out. The vertical
folds made in the skirt had evidently no other object than to make
it fit around the waist. Khiu Siiin *, who liv^ in the fifteenth
century, held that the front part of the skirt consisted of three
long widths sewed together, the back part, however, of four
widths connected with one another in like manner, but that the
two pieces, formed in this way, were not sewed together on the
♦sides of the body.
» The extra piece of cloth", continues the / ti, v which is afl^ed
» (under the neck) upon the back , is only so broad as to remain
»at a distance of one inch from the pieces which are affixed on
»the shoulders. These shoulder-pieces are four inches broad, and
» do not reach unto the piece which is sewn on the breast ;
»this piece is six inches long by a breadth of four inches. The
» part of the coat that comes below the waistrope is one foot (of
»ten inches) long; that which is above the waistrope is two feet
»and two inches. The sleeves are as broad as a full width of cloth,
» and the cuflfs are one foot two inches wide. The pieces hanging
» down from the sides of the body measure two feet five inches" '.
These pieces were, according to Ching Eiang-ch'ing, hung over
^ ;iS^tl|*i.^ft tl|*So lliH^. Chapter 25, 1.53.
l|jg,^K — ^o® — K^aLTJ-. Chapter 25, I. 54-62.
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THE MATERIAL FOR MOURNING GARMENTS. 497
the splits which , as we have seen , were left in the skirt at the sides
of the legs; it is not impossible, however, that the lapel of the
ooat folding over the breast is meant , the pieces being denoted
by the character ^, jen, which, as has been said already on
page 286, also signifies a lapel.
Although the above description, if read carefully, vrill suffice
to convey to the reader a tolerably fair idea of the deepest mourning
costume of ancient China, yet it will no doubt be much better
understood after a perusal of the description, inserted in the latter
part of this section of this chapter, of the mourning dress as it is
woru in China at the present day, the people still fashioning it
after that of antiquity. It is now incumbent upon us to look for
information regarding the material of which the deep mourning
garments were anciently made.
On page 493 it has been stated that the bark of the female
hempen plant was specially designated for making the headband
and the waistrope. The same product was also used for making the
deep mouriiing clothes; for in the Li H (chapter 71, 1. 1) we have
this passage: »Why do people who are in the mourning of the
y> shabby coat vrith ravelled edges wear a dress of hemp of the female
A> plant? Because this hemp has an unpleasant appearance, so that
»it places the inner feelings in the foreground and renders them
y> outwardly visible. The appearance of mourners in the first degree
»is like that of this hemp; that of mourners who wear a shabby
»coat of which the edges are not ravelled is, however, like that
» of the male hemp" ^ Fang Kioh *, a renowned scholar who lived
during the Sung dynasty, says that fi-om this last clause we may
infer that the dresses for all the four lower degrees of mourning
were made of male hemp, none of them having ravelled edges.
There is nothing in the ancient books to contradict this view, and
even the slightest mourning was, as shown on page 491, called
that <rf » finespun hemf'\
The same chapter of the lA ki (1. 8) gives also some particulars
about the texture of the material of which mourning clothes were
made. »That for the first degree was of three shing of threads, that
» for the second of four, five and six; that for the third was of seven.
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498 THE OHAVE.
» eight and nine, that for the fourth of ten, eleven and twelve, and
»that for the fifth of fifteen shing less the half"^. Commentators
say unanimously that a shing contained eighly-one weaving
threads, which assertion of itself does not make us much wiser;
but, fortunately, the Li ki (ch. 64, 1. 6) states that ;» court robes
were made of fifteen shing of threads"*, and whereas such
garments may be supposed to have been well spun and of a fine
texture, the inference is obvious that the material for the first
degree of mourning, which was made of three shing only, must
either have been woven from very thick threads, too thick in fact
to produce a textile fit for use as clothing, or, which is more
probable, must have been made of threads placed so far apart
that it looked like a coarse sort of hempen gauze, such as is
now still widely used all over China for sacks of the cheapest
kind. The name sack-cloth being thus peculiarly appropriate to it,
we shall henceforth often make use of this term.
The Li ki itself does not give any reason why there were prescribed
three separate numbers of shing for the material for the second,
third and fourth degrees of mourning. Probably this, as Ngao Ki-kung
demonstrates, was connected with the changes made in the dresses
of those degrees at fixed times, as will be explained hereafter, and
also with the fact that in some of the degrees the material for
the coat and the cap was different; besides, the material may have
varied also for different individuals in the same degree or sub-
degree, and so on. But this matter is of too little importance to
entitle us to follow Ngao Ki-kung in his hair-splitting disquisitions.
The deepest mourning is also denoted in Chinese works by the
name of » three years' mourning" *. This term does not imply that
it lasted exactly three years, but means a mourning lasting till
into the third year after death. »The three years' mourning elapses
after twenty-five months"*, says the Li ki (ch. 71, L 22). It was
divided in four periods, respectively characterized by a change
2 D!* + s:^.sect. HIE, I, 2.
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THE DEEP MOURNING TIME DIVIDED IN FOUR PERIODS. 499
made in the attire, a change which was a real improvement. The
same chapter of the Li H (1. 11) says on this head: »When (after
»the great sacrifice which follows after the burial) the hempen
» attire (described in the above pages) is put off, the mourners dress
)>in garments made of the DoUchos plant, wearing also a triple
» girdle of the same material. At the end of one year (after death), when
» the Lesser Sacrifice of Felicity has been offered , they put on a
» cap of well finished silk and wear an (inner) garment with hems
»of pale fed silk, retaining, however, the waistrope. When another
»year has elapsed and the Great Sacrifice of Felicity has been
» performed ^, they wear (a cap of) plain undyed silk and put on
»a hempen gown. After an interjacent month comes the sacrifice
» which concludes the mourning , and after this occasion neater
» garments are worn with all the customary appendages of the
» girdle"'.
About the slighter mourning which, as this extract shows, was
assumed when the burial was completed, the Li ki still has in the
same chapter (L 11): »The deep mourning dress of the first degree
»i8 made of three shing of threads, but when the great sacrifice
» which follows after the burial has been performed and the period
» of wailing is ended , it is exchanged for a better finished material
»made of six shing, while the cap is then of a material of
» seven shing" '. The / li too says: »The shabby coat is made of
» three shing or three shing and a half, the cap of six shing;
» they replace the material of the coat by that of the cap , and
» exchange that of the cap for one of seven shing"*. And as to
the dress assumed at the end of one year, the Li ki (ch. 11, 1. 42)
says : » When well finished silk is assumed , the (inner) garment is
» likewise of such silk and has a yellow lining and hems of pale
)>red silk; the waistrope is then of Dolichos, the shoes are fastened
i For these sacrifices comp. page 481.
The same section.
^^-t:^-C»«»P*<"^25, 1. 63.
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500 THE GRAVE.
y> by hempen cords, but without strings at the points, and the ear-
» plugs are of horn"*. »The cap of well finished silk, which
» plays a part in the three years^ mourning" , adds another
chapter (54, 1. 5), »has also a rope affixed to it (Uke the cap
»wom before that time, comp. page 495), which is sewed on at
» the right side" *.
The three years^ mourning is generally estimated in China to
embrace a period of twenty-seven months, or, more exactly speaking,
to last till into the twenty-seventh month after death. To understand
this well, it should be kept in view that it is a general custom
amongst the Chinese people to include in the number of hours,
days, months or years which have elapsed since a certain event,
also the hour, day, month or year wherein or whereupon the event
has occurred. Hence , according to this method , the second anniversary
of death falls in the twenty-fifth month; as — we have seen on
the last page by an extract from the Li M — there lay between
this day and the final close of the mourning an entire month , that
is to say, the full period falling between one new moon and the
next ^ the ultimate term of mourning must necessarily fall in
the twenty-seventh month. That entire month, we have likewise
seen on the last page, is called by the Li ^ 4* >^» Jt> interjacent
month". But this terln may, without doing any violence to the
language, be considered to mean also a lunar period of twenty-nine or
thirty days not necessarily beginning with a new moon. Hence the
end of the mourning might be twenty-five months from the date
of the decease, and this explains why (see page 498) the Li hi
also says that the three years' mourning elapses after twenty-
five months. The question which of the two readings ought to be
accepted as the right one has been a^ matter of controversy between
scholars and literati since very early times. We learn from the Books
of the Sung Dynasty * that this was abeady the case when the
first emperor of that House ascended the throne in the year of
our Lord 420, and it has cropped up again very frequently in suc-
ceeding ages. As a rule, however, the opinion that the deepest
' m.m^'^mmm.^W:U.mmumsikn'
^x. ^^^, I, 3.
2 H#;^$fi^:^^ Ji. 7&«i. Sect. lilB, 1.2.
3 A Chinese month always begins on the first day of the new moon,
4 Chapter 15, 1. 15.
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THE MOURNING OF THREE YEARS. 501
mourning should last twenty-seven months has prevailed, so that
the present legislators of the Empire have officially adopted it as
the right one and prescribed the said period in the Codices of Laws
and Rites as the correct time.
Of course one might ask for what reason the deep mourning
should embrace either twenty-five or twenty-seven months. Nowhere
do Chinese books give any satisfactory answer to this question. In
the 71st. chapter of the Li ki (1. 26 and 26) we come across a
passage which looks like a faint attempt at solving the riddle; it
runs as follows: )>This being the case, how is it that one has
» arrived at the mourning period of one year? The answer is: Be-
» cause the closest relationship is broken off after one year. How is
»thisP Heaven and Earth have then undergone one metamorphosis,
y> the four seasons having run through their changes ; those who
»live betwixt Heaven and Earth, no person excepted, begin their
» existence anew, and the mourning is made to resemble this. This
» being the case, how is it that a mourning of three years has been
» instituted? The answer is: From a wish to exalt the dead still
» higher the time has been doubled, so as to embrace two years''^.
This sort of argument cannot be said to be very persuasive, as it
leaves us entirely at a loss concerning the additional month. The
pathetic, but rather frivolous explanation reported by the Li ki (chapt.
71, 1. 29) to have been given by Confucius, is equally worthless:
»k child quits the bosom of its parents in the third year after
» its birth , and therefore the three years' mourning is a mourning
» universally observed under the heavens'* *. The wisest answer
to this question is, we think, that given by one of the many
unknown authors of the Li ki, who said (ch. 71, 1. 28): »The
» three years' mourning is the greatest ornament of human behaviour
» and may accordingly be called the most pre-eminent of acts; all
» the sovereigns have followed one and the same line of conduct
Sect r^ ^ ^ .
5^ T ^ M H ifc • ^*- H ^ ffi • See also the Lun yu, XVII, 21.
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502 THE GRAVE.
y> in regard to it , and both the ancients and the modems have done
» so too; but to this day no one knows its origin" ^
The two last quotations fully entitle us to conclude that, in
ancient China, the three years' mourning occupied a very important
place amongst the institutions of social life. This is confirmed by
sundry other passages in classic works, a couple of which we will
place before our readers. » Tsai Ngo (a disciple of Confucius), asking
» about the three years' mourning , said : 'One round year is long
» enough, for, if a man of higher order abstain from all ceremonial
» observances during three years , those observances are certainly
» cancelled, and if he abstains from music during so long a period,
>> it is inevitably a ruin to music ; therefore one ought to be allowed
» to cease mourning at the end of a year'. Whereupon the Sage
» retorted: 'K (at the end of that time) you were to eat (good)
»rice and to wear embroidered clothes, would you feel at ease?'
»*Yes', rejoined the othen 'If you can feel at ease', replied
» Confucius , 'do so' . ; . . Tsai Ngo then going out , the Sage said :
»'This shows Yfl's (t. e. Tsai Ngo's) lack of human feeling. A
» child does not quit its parents' bosom until in the third year of
»its age, and therefore the three years' mourning is a mourning
» prevailing everywhere under heaven ; and has not Yii too enjoyed
» three years of affection on the part of his parents?' " *.
Confucius stood by no means alone in his doctrines on the
importance of mourning. The crown-prince of the state of Ting '
having at his father's death sent a messenger to Mencius, to
ask his advice with regard to the mourning duties he ought
to observe, this philosopher told the emissary: »I have heard
nfn^^nz'Uk.^^^zn^i^z^n^.
^ ifc ^ H # :;2: ^ J^ ^ ^ # ^- ^«« J'"' ^^' 21-
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DWELLING IN MOimNING SHEDS. 503
)>that the mourning of three years and the trimoied plain gar-
» ments (of the four lower degrees), as also the eating of rice
» gruel, are observed by every one, from the Son of Heaven
»Jown to the common people, and that these things have all
»been observed during the three dynasties (of Hia, Shang and
» Cheu)" ^. In conclusion we may quote here a passage of the lA ki
(chapt. 77, I. 18) which is to this effect: »A8 for that three years'
» mourning, the sages did not exceed that period, and those who
» were no match for the sages were not allowed to fall short of it.
» The said period being the proper and invariable time for these
» rites , the ancient sovereigns have always maintained it as such" *.
That the mourners of the first degree had to live in abodes of
a most miserable description, has been set forth already on page
482. It is there also stated that, at the end of each of the
four periods into which their time of mourning was subdivided,
those abodes might be gradually improved, just as in the case
of the garments. The rescripts on such mourning sheds, con-
tained in the Li ki, which have been cited on pages 482 seq.,
are not the only ones that occur in the ancient books. The
/ li also has: »»They dwell in sheds reared against the wall,
» sleeping on straw or matting , with a clod 6f earth for a pillow.
»They wail there during the day and the night without regard
» to times , slubber rice gruel made of a handful of rice in the
» morning and of a like quantity in the evening , and do not
» put off their headband and waistrope while sleeping" ^. Neither ,
says Kia Kung-yen , did they then put off their mourning cap and
mourning clothes, these being worn underneath that headband and
waistrope. » After the great sacrifice which follows immediately upon
»the burial, the walls are clipped and posts and lintels fitted in
»the sheds; the mourners then have mats to sleep on, eat coarse
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504 THE GRAVE.
»food and drink water, wailing once only in the morning and
» once in the evening. And when (on the completion of the first
» year) well finished silk is assumed , they take up their abodes in
» the outer back apartments, commencing then to eat v^etables and
» fruit, taking plain food, and wailing without regard to times" ^
Mention must still be made in a few* words of a mourning
custom prevalent in ancient China, viz. that of abstaining &om
cleansing the head and the body until the third month, including
that in which the death had taken place. This being also a form
of abstinence implying renunciation of comfort and ease, it took a
first rank among the mourning usages already described in the
present chapter. On page 489, in giving the episode concerning
the selection of Shih Tai-chung's successor as chief of the family,
it was touched upon; moreover, it is mentioned twice in the 77th.
chapter of the Li ki (1. 5 and 16) as ^a washing of the head
after three months" *, and the 55th. chapter of the same Classic
(1. 85) says: » During the mourning of the four highest degrees
»one neither washes the head, nor the body, except for the sacri-
)» fice which follows immediately after the burial , for placing the
» tablet in the shrine, and for the Sacrifice of Felicity when well
» finished silk is assumed" *. Combing the hair was still forbidden on
the first of these three occasions, it being said in the / lii »At the
» sacrifice which follows upon the burial, the mourners bathe, but
»do not comb their hair"*. Finally the Li ki has (ch. 4, 1. 29):
»The ceremonies to be observed when in mourning require that,
» if a man have a wound on his head , he should wash his head ,
» and if he have a sore on his body, he should bathe his body" *,
which doctrine is preached a second time elsewhere in the same
^ ^ ^ ^ . Chapter 22, 1. 22 and 23.
^,11.1.
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CONDOLING WITH OTHERS WHILE IN DEEP MOURNING. 505
work ^ in the shape of a rescript of Confucius , by which this
Sage tried to deter mourners from aggravating their voluntary ema-
ciation and uncleanliness to such a pitch that sickness or death
might ensue.
It is here the proper place to note also, that Confucius objected
to mourners of the first degree paying visits of condolence to other
people who, like themselves, had sustained a loss by death. In
chapter 27 of the Li ki (1. 10) we read: »Tseng-tszg asked: 'May
y> one go to condole with others while wearing the three years'
» mourning?' To which Confucius answered: 'In that mourning it
»is not allowed to stand with others or to move in a crowd
»even after the well finished silk has been assumed, for superior
» people observe the ceremonial usages in order to give expression
»to their feelings in a correct manner. Besides, would not condol-
» ing with others while in the three years' mourning be an empty
»form?'"*. In truth, as Ching Khang-ch'ing remarks, » if such
» a mourner makes visits of condolence , he laments for others and
» consequently does not devote himself exclusively to his own deceased
» parent, while, on the other hand, if he really laments his parent,
y> condoling with others becomes insincere" *. The Li ki says ,
however, in another place (ch. 55, 1. 29) that »in the three years'
)» mourning it is permitted to condole with others when the well
y> finished silk has been assumed" S that is , as the reader knows ,
at the end of one year.
One chief point has still to be stated: — for which relations
had the mourning of the first degree to be worn anciently? The
best answer to this question is a translation of a list of kinsmen
from the 22nd. chapter of the / li, and a reproduction of some
of the explanatory notes interpolated in that list under the name
of Traditions:
1 Chapter 55, 1. 35, being the section |^ 0g, II, 1.
^fl5 ^ 5^::?^^ ft ^. sect, f- :y^ ra, II.
4 = # ;S HH M!| ^ . Sect 1^ IE . U. 1 .
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506 THE GRAVE.
1. »For a father. The Traditions say: Why is the mourning dress
»of the first degree worn for a father? Because a father is the
» highest person in authority.
2. »The feudal lords wear it for the Son of Heaven. The Traditions
» say : The Son of Heaven is the highest authority.
3. » For a feudal ruler. The Traditions say : Because a ruler is the
» highest person in authority.
4. »By a father, for his eldest son by the principal wife (the
» Continuator of his family).
5. » An adopted Continuator of the family (wears it for his adoptive
» father). The Traditions say he must do so also for the parents
»and the principal wife of his adoptive father, and for that
» wife's parents ^ brothers and brothers^ sons ^ just as if he
» were a son by blood" ; but this clause has incunred the severe
criticisms of Kia Kung-yen as putting some members of another
clan on the same level as those of one's own, and subsequent
scholars have steadily rejected its authenticity. It is probably
not arranged in its proper place in the / It.
6. »The principal wife wears it for her husband. The Traditions
»say: Her husband is for her the highest authority.
7. »A concubine wears it for her master. The Traditions say.
» Because her master is for her the highest authority.
8. » A daughter still living in the paternal home wears it for her
» father.
9. ^A daughter who, after having been married out, has been
» divorced and dwells in her paternal home must wear the
V three years' mourning for her father" K
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ORGANIZATION OP THE FAMILY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 507
For those who wish to obtain some knowledge of domestic life
in ancient China the above list is unquestionably of great import-
ance and interest. It affords a clear insight into the organization
of the family in those bygone days , revealing also some chief prin-
ciples and customary laws which obtained therein. Let us try to
sift out its full meaning on this point.
At the head of the family stood the father, the paterfamilias ,
»the highest person in authority". For him in the first place all
the children living in the house had to wear the highest degree of
mourning, that is to say, they had theoretically to sacrifice everything
to him , and to manifest in this way the highest feelings of devotion
and submission that could be shown towards an elder. Daughters,
however, if married out, were exempt from such marks of filial
affection, for, according to a rule already strictly enforced in those
times, people belonging to the same clan were forbidden to inter-
marry, and hence a daughter who left the paternal home to settle
in the clan of her husband, ceased to be considered a member
of the family in which she had been born. As in pre-Christian
Rome, so in ancient China mulier eat finis familia; this rule still
holds good there to the present day. But immediately a woman was
repudiated by her husband and had returned to her former home,
she came again under the full authority of her father and, in con-
sequence thereof, had to mourn for him in the highest degree, the same
as her brothers and unmarried sisters. No such distinction between
the married and unmarried sons was necessary. Indeed, their mar-
riage did not withdraw them from the paternal authority, as it
did not separate them from the ancestral home: they remained
settled in the same place with their wives, to assist in forming
the family into a powerful clan, able to protect its members against
all the dangers and emergencies of life. » Father and sons", say the
Traditions, »are one body, and so are husband and wife, elder
» brothers and younger brothers. Consequently, the father and his
^ sons form the head and the feet (of the family) , husband and
»> wife the two halves united , and the brothers the four limbs.
» And on this account it is the duly on the part of brothers not
y> to separate from one another" \
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508 THS GRAVE.
Not only the sons, and all the daughters living in the house,
but also the one principal wife and the concubines of the pater-
familias had to observe the highest degree of submission and
devotion towards him, he being for them likewise, as the Tradi-
tions say, »the highest authority" naturally to be mourned for at
his death in the first degree. This order of things confirms the
conclusion that the rescripts on mourning were brought into exist-
ence in the first place with a view to giving solidity to the
doctrine of absolute submission to the highest chief of the family,
and were affected only in a secondary degree by kinship and
reciprocity; indeed, a husband was bound to mourn for his wife
only in the second degree (see page 515, no. 6), and for a con-
cubine not at all.
This submission and devotion due to those in authority in the
family, is the renowned hiao, a sacred duty incumbent upon
everybody, to which we have already repeatedly referred in this
work. The written form of the word is :^, and may originally
have been intended to represent a child or youth ( -^ ) underneath
an elder {^ or ^). It did not imply in ancient China the ob-
servance of duties to parents alone, but denoted also obedience and
devotion towards the chief of the state. »'If, in serving his Ruler,
»a man be not loyal, or if, holding an official position, he be not
» respectful towards his superiors, he is not possessed of hiao', said
» Tseng-tzg" \ according to the Li ki (ch. 61, I 28). This Classic
also states (ch. 65, 1. 32) that, on a certain occasion, )9Confucius
»said: 'The Ruler is served with observance of hiao, and elders
» are served with such submission as is due from a younger brother
» to his elder brothers, which shows that the people should make
» no distinction' " *. Finally, we read in the last chapter (1. 4) of the
Li Ml »The same readiness with which we serve our father we
» should employ in serving our Ruler, and the reverence must be the
» same for both. To honour those who are in a high position
»and to respect those who are in authority is our first duty; and
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POSITION OF THE CONTINUATOR IN THE FAMILY. 509
» therefore the mourning of the highest degree is worn also for a
» Ruler until the third year" *.
It has, in fact, always been a political principle in China that
every state, and above all the Empire itself, is to be regarded as
the extension of one fEimily, and the authority of its ruler as the
extension of the authority of a paterfamilias. This tenet is generally
expressed by the formula 5^ "7^ ^ — • ^, »the whole world is
one single family". Now it needs no demonstration that, as the
list in the / li informs us, the highest form of mourning was
to be worn in ancient China by feudal princes for the Son of
Heaven, their supreme liege-lord, and that for these lieges it had
to be assumed by their ministers. As a paterfamilias in his
domestic circle, so a liege-lord in the midst of his liegemen,
and a li^e-man in the midst of his officers was ^the highest
authority", as the Traditions express it; and hence the / li is
perfectly correct in allotting to the Son of Heaven and the feudal
lords a place immediately after the father, in its list of persons to
be mourned for in the highest degree.
This list discovers much more that is highly instructive in refer-
ence to ancient Chinese family life. In the first place it shows
that a pre-eminent position was held by the eldest son of the prin-
cipal wife, a position so high that even his own father had to
mourn for him at his death in the selfsame degree in which
the son was bound to mourn for his father, while for the other
sons by the principal wife the father mourned only in the second
degree, as may be seen on page 517 (no. 18). The reason of this
is fully explained by the Traditions. »Why is the three years'
» mourning worn for him? He is the lineal embodiment of
»the ancestors upwards and, moreover, the man on whom the
)» important charge (viz. the worship of the ancestors) will devolve.
» A man who is not himself an eldest son by the principal wife
»does not observe the three years' mourning for his eldest son by
»the principal wife, because this son is not the Continuator of
» the ancestral line" ^. Accordingly, any man who was a chief
^ ft *^ » ^ 0 * #fl5 «t ^, nil-it :t H :^ A
fiifc. ^.^%%%^'^^^. :f^|»|ft-&. Chapter 22,
L 36.
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510 THE GRAVE.
lineal heir-son regarded his own eldest heir-son as the embodiment
of his own parents, and wore for him on this account the same
highest degree of mourning as he would wear for them. And his
consort too had to mourn for that son for three years, as shown
in the fourth clause of the list given on page 513.
Seeing that through such a chief lineal heir-son the soul and
spirit of the ancestors could be made to settle in the home from
generation to generation ; — seeing , moreover, that he was deemed
an indispensable link in the chain of descendants through which an
everlasting continuation of sacrifices was to be secur^ on behalf
of those ancestors, the good will and protection of whom the family
could never dispense with, and that his own father and mother
also reckoned upon enjoying those sacrifices after their death — then
it is certainly not to be wondered at that such a Continuator, as we
shall henceforth style him for brevity's sake, was esteemed by the
family as a treasure that could not be too highly prized. The
importance of having a Continuator in the family being gene-
rally recognized, it naturally gave rise to a system of adopting
one in case the principal virife had no son; such an adopted
Continuator is formally admitted by the / It in the list of
mourners of the first degree (no. 5). He having to mourn for
his adoptive father in the highest degree, just as if he were a
son of his own flesh and blood , his place in the family in r^ard
to the duties of submission and devotion was entirely that of a
genuine child.
The adoption of a Continuator was determined by a few rescripts,
which have been incorporated with the text of the I li as Tradi-
tions, They run as follows. )>What conditions must he fulfil to
)>be adopted as a Continuator? He may be adopted as such
»if he belongs to the same clan. And what conditions must
)>he fulfil to be given to another in adoption as a Continu-
»ator? He must be a son of a side branch in his family"^ —
in other words, he must on no account be an eldest son by the
principal wife, such a Continuator being so indispensable to his own
family and their ancestors that nothing could ever justify his being
given away to others. That he should belong to the same clan
means , that both he and his adoptive father should be able to trace
Wi^1^A#. i^Wifa- Chapter 22, 1. 40 and 41.
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THE MOURNING DRESS OF THE SECOND DEGREE. 511
their line of ancestors to one common progenitor whose worship
has not yet been discontinued; for by a clan or tsung (^) is to be
understood an agglomeration of households, including both the
deceased and the living generations , which derive their origin from
one common ancestor.
The second degree.
We must now turn our attention for a few moments to the
second degree of mourning observed in ancient China, and to the
persons who had to wear it, which will afford us an opportunity
of learning further particulars about the organization of the family
in those times.
According to the / li, the attire must consist of the following
articles. »K shabby coat and skirt, both of plain coarse material,
» the edges of which are cut off even (comp. page 493) ; a headband
»of the male hempen plant; a cap with a tassel of linen; a staff
» scraped smooth; a girdle of linen; shoes of plain and coarse
» material. The Traditions say: The headband of male hemp has
» the roots of the plant upwards on the right side ; the cap is of
» coarse fabric, and the plain coarse shoes are of Piao and
»Khwai rushes" *.
That the hemp of which the dress for this degree of mourning was
made was produced by the male stalks of the plant and that the
texture contained four, five or six shing of threads, has been
stated already on page 497. The texture having thus about one
fourth or one third of the number of threads that were woven into
material used for court robes (comp. page 498), it must, like the
cloth for the first degree, have been open- worked, gauze-like sack-
cloth, though of a better quality. The / li further says that, »when
the edges of mourning clothes are cut even" (which was, as has
been set forth on page 497, the case in each of the four lower
degrees), » the edges peep out of the seams on the inside of the
skirt, and, on the coat, on the outside" *. For the rest, the cut and
make did not probably differ from the garments for the first degree.
1 . # 0 . *t m i@ ;& 2|s: « ± , ^ ^ te ^ ifc . Jlll
^ l9^ ^ '^ ^ lb ■ ^>>^p^'' ^^> '• ^ ^°<^ ^^-
^^"^M^M^- "^^^^"^ 25, I. 54.
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512 THE QBAVE.
nothing particular on this head being recorded in the books. The
cap was of a better material than the other parts of the attire , for
the 1 1% states that »the coat with even edges was made with
» four shing of threads, but the cap belonging to it of a material
» of seven shing" ^.
The hempen ropes worn respectively around the head and the
waist were subjected to a regular reduction of one fifth of their
volume for each lower degree. »The headband worn with the dress
» of even-cut edges", says the / It , » is as thick as the waistrope
»of the first degree, and the waistrope worn with it has four
» fifths of the volume of the headband. In the third degree , the
» headband has the same volume as the waistrope of the second
» degree, and the waistrope is then one fifth thinner than the
» headband. In the fourth degree, the headband has the volume
»of the waistrope of the third, and the waistrope is one fifth
» thinner than the headband. And in the fifth degree, the head-
»band is just as thick as the waistrope of the fourth, and the
» waistrope then has the same volume as the headband , less one
» fifth" ^
To the mourning attire of the second degree belonged also a
staff of T^'ung wood, scraped smooth, but boys and women were
exempt from carrying it. This has been said already on page 494.
Apart from boys and women, many mourners in the second degree,
a list of whom will be found on pages 517 et sqq., had to abstain
firom its use.
That the mourners in this degree had to dwell in unplastered
apartments we need only cursorily mention here, this matter having
been dealt with already on page 482.
According to the / li ^, the mourning thus described had to
be worn till in the third year, that is to say, for the same twenty-
seven months as were prescribed for the first d^ee, for the following
relatives :
^SPEra^.*^-4i^- ^*^^P*^^ 25, 1. 64.
^:2:^tfe.*3L^ — J[$tlS^. Chapter 22, 1. 11.
3 Chapter 22, 1. 60 e% aqq.
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THE MOURNING OF THE SECOND DEGREE. 513
!• »For a mother, if the father had pre-deceased her.
2. »For a step-mother, the same as for one's own mother.
8. »For a foster-mother, the same as for one's own mother.
4. »A mother (who is the principal wife of her husband) must
;^wear it for the Continuator" *.
This short list, when properly analyzed, will also be found to
contain valuable contributions to our knowledge of ancient Chinese
family life, as depicted in its principal features on pages 507
et sqq. The reader knows (see page 508) that both the principal
wife and the concubines had to show to the paterfamilias the
highest degree of submission and devotion , the same as the children
living under the paternal roof. Which fact might easily lead one
to suppose that they stood on a footing of equality with the children
in the hierarchy of the family, if the above list did not afford proof
that such was far from being the case; indeed, it teaches us that
each child had to mourn for its mother just as long as for ihQ pater-
familias if the latter had pre-deceased her, that is to say, if his
patria potestas had devolved upon her. Yet the mourning dress was
slighter by one degree, which indicates that the maternal rights were
considered as standing one degree lower than the paternal rights,
though next to them. In the event of the mother dying prior to her
husband, her children had to mourn for her in one stage lower of
the same degree, as may be seen on page 515, sub no. 5.
Let us note by the way that the institutions of ancient China
allowed a man to have only one wife proper, but as many concu-
bines as he thought fit^ and that this continues to be the rule to
the present day. The word wife or consort will henceforth be used
by us in the sense of wife proper, who may also be styled the
principal wife, or the mater familias.
That the mourning rescripts wei:e based in the first place upon
the duty of being submissive to the chiefe of the family , and that
the ideas about ties of blood played merely a secondary part in
them , is rendered specially conspicuous by the precept that a child
must mourn for its step-mother in just the same degree as for its
own mother. Such a woman having been raised by the father to
the rank of materfamilias in the place of his deceased or divorced
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514 THE ORAVE.
wife, the children of the latter had to acquiesce in the change.
They had no right to enquire whether they had ever enjoyed her
love and affection , nor whether she were older than themselves.
They had simply to manifest towards her the highest degree of
submission, obedience, respect and devotion , the same as was due
from them to the very authoress of their being, while on the other
hand they might mourn for their own divorced mother merely for
one year, or not at all (^e page 616, no. 7), because she had gone
back to her own clan and consequently no longer exercised any
authority over her children. »The Traditions say: Why is a step-
smother mourned for like a mother proper? Whereas his step-
» mother is married to his father on the same footing as his
» mother was, a son who understands his duty of manifesting hiao
» will not dare to make any distinction" ^.
We must now for a moment devote our attention to the third
clause in the list. It informs us that, in case a motherless child
by a concubine were adopted by another concubine of the same
faterfamilias, the last named woman acquired full maternal power
over the child. »The Traditions say: If a father who has a
» childless concubine and also a motherless child by a concubine,
» commands the concubine, saying: 'Consider this child as thy
y> own', and the son , saying : 'Consider this woman as thy mother',
)>then the son must, until she dies, take the same care of her
» during his life as if she were his own mother, and must
» mourn for her after her death till in the third year, as if she
» were his own mother — out of respect for his father's commands" *.
From this passage we also see that the authority of a paterfamilias
extended so far as to empower him to appoint to any of his
childless concubines the son of another concubine for her main-
tenance, unless the child's own mother were alive to countermand
herself being dispossessed in such wise of her maternal rights.
^ ^ -^ :y; tj[ |J|C -&. chapter 22, 1. 63.
zm%^^n.nnmz^^txin.niitz^
^ . Chapter 22, 1. 63 and 64.
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PERSONS ANCIBNTLT MOURNED FOR IN THE SECOND DEGREE. 615
In by far the majority of oases the mourning of the second degree
lasted no longer than a year. As in the first degree, the attire was then
improved after a time: ;^In the one year's mourning", says the
Li ki (ch. 55, 1. 28), » well finished silk is assumed in the eleventh
month" ^. Probably this change of dress was similar to that which
took place at the end of a year in the mourning of the highest
degree (see page 499).
In this mourning, it was allowed to pay visits of condolence to
other people who had sustained a loss by death, for it is written
in the Li ki (chapter 55, 1. 30): »When any one who is in
»the one year's mourning goes to offer condolence to a fellow
» villager yet ere his own dead has been committed to the grave,
» he retires after having gone through the wailing, without waiting
»for the other proceedings"*. From this we may almost conclude
with certainty that visits of condolence were not subject to any
restriction in the four lower degrees of mourning.
The following list, borrowed firom chapter 23 of the / /t, shows
which were the persons for whom the mourning of the second
degree was worn till the end of one year:
5. »For a mother, when the fether is still alive"*. The reason
why she was not mourned for in the first degree, like a
father , is given by the Li ki (chapter 77, 1. 5) in the following
words: » There are not two suns in the sky, nor two sovereigns
»in a country, nor two rulers in a state, nor two highest
» authorities in a family. Only one person rules the family;
» hence, while the father is alive, the mourning of the
» second degree is worn for the mother during one year, in
» order to show that there are no two highest authorities in
)» a family" *.
6. »For the wife" •. A proof that such a relation was really mourned
5(6) S.
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516 THE GRAVE.
for in the second degree is afforded by the following episode
related in chapter 14 (1. 4) of the Li ki: » After the death
»of the mother of (his son who became) the ruler Tao, the
» ruler Ngai wore for her the mourning of the second degree.
»Yiu-joh asked him whether it was consistent with the rites
»to wear such mourning for a concubine, upon which the
» other retorted: 'Can I help it? The people of Lu consider
» her to have lived with me on the footing of a wife" ^.
7. »Sons by the wife, if she has been divorced, have to
» wear it for their mother , but he who is the Continuator
y> does not wear any mourning for her. The Traditions say :
»Such sons wear the one year's mourning for their mother,
» but no mourning at all for her parents ; for no mourning
»is worn for people who belong to a clan with which con-
» nections have been broken off, except for her with whom
» one is intimately connected by ties of blood. (The Continuator,
» however), being one and the same body with the chiefs of
» his family, may not venture to wear mourning for his own
» mother.
8. » When after its father's death a child's step-mother re-marries,
» and the child follows her into her new home , it has to
» wear this mourning for her. The Traditions say : Why does
»it then wear the one year's mourning? Because it has to
» appreciate the favour of having been allowed to dwell to-
)>gether with her to the end"*.
The same mourning dress, but » without a staff, and with
hempen shoes" ', had to be worn in the following cases:
H ^ # ^ - H ^ ft Ji ^ JPI SI ifc. Ch. 23.l.i0-4^
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PERSONS ANCIENTLY MOURNED FOR IN THE SECOND DEGREE. 617
9. ȴoT paternal grandparents.
10. »For paternal uncles and their wives.
11. » The Continuator of a Great officer wears this mourning for
» his wife (if his father is still alive).
12. »For a brother, either older or younger than one's self.
18. » For all one's sons by either wife or concubines, excepting the
y> Continuator, (he having to be mourned for in the first degree,
see page 506, no. 4).
14. » For the son of a brother" K In chapter 10 of the Likti}. 60)
it is said: »The mourning dress for the son of a brother is
the same as that which is worn for one's own son" *.
15. »A Great officer's sons both by wife and concubines wear
y>tlm mourning for their brother who is the Continuator of
» the family,
16. » For a grandson who is the Continuator of his family. The
» Traditions say: He whose Continuator is still living has no
)> grandson who is a Continuator" — which means that, as
long as the eldest son by the wife proper was aUve, his eldest
son by the wife proper had not yet attained to the rank of
Continuator. For it was a social law that, in case a Continu-
ator pre-deceased his father, his next brother was appointed
in his stead and was succeeded at his death by his eldest son
by the wife proper.
17. »A son who has been given in adoption to another family
)>a8 Continuator has to wear this mourning for his own
» parents *.
18. »A woman who has been married out as a wife has to wear
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518 THE GRAVE.
»it for her own father and mother, and for her brother
»who is her father's Continuator.
19. » For one's step-father, if living in his house.
20. »For the Ruler in whose service one's husband is.
21. ^For each paternal aunt, sister or daughter who has been
» married out as wife, but who possesses no descendants to
» worship her soul. Such aunts and sisters wear the same
» mourning reciprocally (for their nephews and brothers)". So
this was merely a mourning out of commiseration. When the
deceased aunt or sister left a son or grandson, mourning was
then worn for her in the third degree (see page 523, no. 8).
22. »(By ministers), for the parents, the wife, the Continuator
» and the paternal grandparents of their Ruler.
23. » A concubine must wear this mourning for her master's wife,
24. x>and a married woman for her husband's parents.
25. » For a son of one's husband's brother.
26. » A concubine of a feudal ruler or of a Great officer has to
» wear it for her sons.
27. » A female (either married or unmarried) must wear this mourn-
X* ing for her paternal grandparents K
28. »The son of a Great officer has to wear it for all his pa-
» temal uncles and their wives and sons ; further for his own
» brothers and their sons; for his paternal aunts, sisters, or
» daughters in so far as they have no descendants to sacrifice
»to their soul, or are the wives of Great officers. The said
M18) ic T- ^ « A #> :S ^ ^ #. a m :2:^^
(20) ^^^#.
(22) 1S# :2:^# . ^ . :M ^ . jift^#.
(2*)ii.^»«*.
(26)<&^.A*:^^>1S^^.
(2')icf-^.^^jiaii:#.
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PERSONS ANCIENTLT MOURNED FOR IN TUB SECOND DEGREE. 519
y> sons excepted, they must all wear the same mourning for him
» reciprocally. The Traditions say: By a Great officer is here to
» be understood such a one whose son is a Great officer too.
29. » A Great officer has to wear it for his paternal grandparents,
^and for his eldest grandson by the wife proper if he be an
» ordinary officer". In the first case it is tacitly understood
that the mourner's father is stiU alive, and in the second,
that his sons by the wife are dead: comp. no. 16.
80. » The concubines of a feudal ruler and of a magnate down to
y> the rank of an ordinary officer wear this mourning for their
» own parents" *.
The same mourning was in the following cases worn for three
months only:
81. »Bj B, ruler, for his host with whom he has found a shelter.
»The Traditions say: What is to be understood by such a
» ruler? A ruler who has lost his terrritory".
82. »By each married man and woman, for the clan-son and for
» the mother and wife of the same". A clan-son was the oldest
lineal descendant of the eldest son by the wife proper. »Why
»ia the mourning of the second degree worn for him for
» three months? the Traditions ask. To honour the ancestors
» (whose embodiment he is, comp. page 509). While his
» mother is still alive, no mourning is worn for his wife K
83. »For the ruler in whose service one formerly was, and for
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520 THE GRAVE.
»the mother and the consort of the ruler in whose service
»one actually is.
84. » By the people , for the ruler of the state.
35. » When a Great officer dwells abroad, his consort and his
y> Continuator wear this mourning for the ruler of the state in
» which he used to live.
36. » For one's step-father , if not living with him in the same
y> dwelling (comp. no. 19).
37. » For paternal great-grandparents.
38. »By a Great officer, for the clan-son,
39. »and for the ruler in whose service he has been (in case he
» has honourably retired from office) ; further, like the common
» people , for his paternal great-grandfather and great-grand-
» moUner, if the former was an ordinary official ;
40. »and by his daughter, whether or not yet married (to a
» Great officer), for her paternal great-grandparents" *•
Besides giving a fair insight into what was understood in ancient
China to be parentage in the second degree , the above list embraces
many particidars concerning family life, which may be sifted with
advantage by the student whose special branch it is , but the details
hereof would carry us too far away from our subject. As an instance
of what we may learn from this list, let us take the 19th. and
the 36th. clauses. These show that it was not unlawful, nor by
any means unusual, in those times for widows to re-marry. »The
» Traditions say: In case a married man dies, leaving a widow
»who is still young and, besides, a son under age who has no
» relatives for whom he has to mourn in the third degree — if
» then this son move with his mother to the home of some one who
)>also possesses no such relatives, then this man must erect at
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8TEP-PATHBR AND STEP-SON. 521
^his own expense a domestic temple for the lad and make him
)» sacrifice there (to his father's manes) every year regularly in
»the seasons. The wife, however, shall not venture to take part
»m these sacrifices (she being incorporated with the new family
and consequently obliged to worship exclusively the ancestors
thereof). »If matters be arranged in this way, the step-father
» performs his duty, and the lad who lives with him must then
»wear for him the coat with even edges for one year; but if
»the kd dwell apart from him, though he may have lived in his
» step-father's house before he settled down elsewhere at a later
» period, he then wears the said coat for three months only" \ From
this passage we may draw still another conclusion, namely, that
in the event of such a boy possessing kinsmen so nearly related to
him that he would have had to mourn for them in the third or a
higher degree, it was unusual to permit him to go with his widowed
mother to a new home. Custom then required those relations to educate
him in their own circle. Further it teaches us that any step-father
who possessed such relations was forbidden, probably by the spirit
of communism of wealth obtaining in clan-life, to dispose of his
possessions for the benefit of the ancestral worship of his step-son. The
rule that a step-son had to mourn for his step-father in whose house
he dwelt in the same degree as for his own mother, decidedly
proves that subjection to the chief of the family, under whose
authority one lived, played no less important a part in mourning than
did the ties of blood. The lad not being his adopted Continuator,
the step-father did not exercise the full authority of a paterfamilias
over him, otherwise the former would have had to mourn for him
in the first degree (page 506, no. 5); but he could only claim
secondary rights in this case.
Many more proofs could be obtained from this list, and from those
which are still to follow, showing that the maintenance of discipline
in the family circle and the clan was the principal object aimed
at by these mounting customs, and that relationship and ties of
mA.\fammm^mit^zm..^]irm^B^^
Wii^zm'sm.mmmzmM,m:^nmwi,^
m.9AmiiLZ^%.n^mmmmm.M^mm
»fe H.g .iJMi ^ .g.i?|? #^ ^.g. Chapter 23.1.47and 48.
84
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522 THE OBAVE.
blood were only of secondary importance. But our subject does
not allow of our entering into these questions too minutely. Let
us not, however, too quickly conclude that the mourning rescripts
were excluaively governed by the prevailing doctrines about sub-
mission and devotion to superiors. The list shows that mourning in
the same degree was in some cases observed between relatives who
stood by no means on the same level in the family hierarchy; for
instance, there existed such reciprocity between a married woman
and the sons of her husband's brother (nos. 26 and 10); further,
between nephews and their paternal uncles (nos. 10 and 14), which
is confirmed by the Li it, in which we read (chapt. 11, 1. 15):
»Hien TszS-so said: 'Wen, the feudal lord of T^'ing (in the 4th.
;^cent. B. C), wore the mourning of the second degree for Ming
»Hu, who was his father's younger brother, and the same for
» Ming P^'i , of whose father he was a younger brother" K Such
» reciprocity" « of mourning, as the / li calls it, has been almost
entirely abolished in modem China, as we shall, have occasion
to show anon.
TAe third degree.
As has been stated already (page 497), the coat and skirt which
were prescribed for this degree of mourning were made of a ma-
terial of male hemp containing seven, eight or nine shing of
threads. The textile consequently was coarse enough to fully justify
the name coarse fabric, which was, as has been said on page 491,
given to this degree. How thick the headband and the waistrope
were may be seen on page 512.
The mourning of the third degree was, according to chapter 24
of the / liy worn in the following cases:
1. » For a son or daughter who died between twelve and nineteen
» years of age. The Traditions say: Those who do not live to
» full eight years are considered to have died an untimely
y> death for which no mourning is worn '.
^a&^^^.^*«^ifc- Sect 11^,1,3.
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RELATIONS ANCIENTLY MOURNED FOR IN THE THIRD DEGREE. 523
2. »For each of the following relations, when carried off by
» death between twelve and nineteen : — a father's younger
y> brother ; a father's (unmarried) sister and one's own sister or
A> brother; a son or (unmarried) daughter of one's husband's
;^ brother; a grandson who is the Continuator of the family;
^further, by all the sons of a Great officer for their brother
»who is the Continuator, and by a feudal ruler or a Oreat
j» officer for his Continuator.
» If any person mentioned in the two clauses above dies between
» sixteen and nineteen years of age , the mourning is worn for nine
» months and a headband with tassel added to the costume; but
»if death occurs between twelve and fifteen, it is worn for seven
» months only , without such a headband being added.
» In the following cases, the coat and skirt of coarse fabric, to-
j^gether with the headband of male hemp with tassel, and a
;» linen girdle, were worn till in the third month, and then ex-
;» changed till in the ninth month for a coat of the finer fabric
» such as was worn in the fourth degree of mourning, and (a head-
»band and girdle of) the Dolichos plant:
3. »'FoT a married paternal aunt, a married sister, or a married
;^ daughter (comp. page 618, no. 21),
4. » For a son of a paternal uncle.
B. »Bj an adopted Continuator, for his own brothers.
6. » For all one's grandsons, except the one who is the Continuator" ^
^m^m.m%z^^^m.^^zB.=f
nm^mzmm^m.^i^m'f-zmm
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524 THE GRAVB.
he being mourned for in the second degree (page 517, no. 16).
7. » For the wife of one's Continuator.
8. »Bj a. married woman, for her brothers, except the Con-
y> tinuator ,
9. »and for her nephews or nieces.
10. »For one's husband^s paternal grandparents, and for his pa-
»ternal uncles and their wives.
11. ;^By a Great officer, for his paternal uncles and their wives,
» further for his own sons (except the Continuator), for his own
» brothers and brothers^ sons, if the deceased was an ordinary
»» officer.
12. » By. all the brothers born of a feudal ruler (who was dead), as
» also by all the sons of a Great officer except the Continuator,
)>for their mother, their wives and their brothers.
13. »By all the persons (mentioned sub 11 and 12), for any
» paternal uncle's son who was a Great officer.
14. » For the married daughters of one's husband's brothers.
15. »By the concubines of a Great officer, for all the sons of
» their master, except the Continuator.
16. »By a woman, either married (as a concubine to a Great
» officer) or not married, for her paternal uncles and their
» wives, her paternal aunts, and her own sisters ^
17. » By a Great officer, his wife or sons, and also by the brothers
»of a feudal ruler, for a paternal aunt, a sister or daughter.
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THE MOUENING OF THE FOURTH DEGREE. 525
»in case the deceased was married to a Great officer.
18. »By the ruler of a state, for a paternal aunt, sister or
» daughter, if the deceased was married to a ruler" *.
Between the third degree and the next the / li mentions an
extra attire, consisting of »a coat and skirt of loose texture and a
» headband of the male hempen plant, to be put off when the
» burial was completed. It was incumbent upon the Great officers
» of a feudal ruler to wear it for the Son of Heaven" ^ that is to
say, for seven months, the supreme lords of the Empire being
committed to the earth in the seventh month after their demise
(see page 264). »The material for this coat was, as the Traditions
» assert, a loose texture of finer fabric, such as was used for the
» fourth degree of mourning" *, and , the Records add , » the coat
»made of it was of 4V« shing of threads, but the cap was of
>> eight shing"*.
The fourth degree.
The dress for this degree of mourning consisted, as the / li says,
of »a coat and a skirt made of a textile of finer fabric, with a
waistrope and a headband of cleansed hemp" ^ That this textile
was woven from hemp obtained from the male stalks and contained
ten, eleven or twelve shing of threads, as also that the volume
of the headband and waistrope was three fifths and two fifths only of
that of the corresponding articles belonging to the attire of the first
degree, has been stated already on pages 498 and 512 respectively.
According to the 24th. chapter of the / li it was worn for five
months :
1. » For a father's younger brothers, for a grandson who was the
;«> Continuator of the family, and for a brother — in case
^ ^ ^. Chapter 24, 1. 45 and 46.
*iji;ie Pgff-^^.^^A^- Chapter 25, 1. 65.
5 /h^ ^fe ^. ^Ift^i^- C^^P^' 24. 1.48.
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f ■
526 THB GRAVE.
)>the deceased had died between eight and eleven years of
» age. Further, by the sons of a Great otBcer, for their broths
;t>who was the Continuator, for their paternal aunts, and for
» their sisters and daughters, likewise if they had been carried
y> off by death between eight and eleven years of age.
2. )>By an adopted Continuator, for his own brothers and p&-
» temal uncles' sons , taken off by death between sixteen and
» nineteen.
3. )»For a younger brother of one's husband's father, if he had
»died between sixteen and nineteen.
4. » For a son or daughter of one's brothers or of one's husband's
» brothers, if the dead had departed this life between sixteen
» and nineteen.
6. » For a brother's grandsons or granddaughters , who died be*
j^tween sixteen and nineteeii.
6. » By a Great officer , a brother of a feudal ruler , and a Great
;i> officer's son, for a brother, and furthermore for a son who
»was not the Continuator, for a paternal aunt, a sister, or a
» daughter, in case the deceased had reached an age between
» sixteen and nineteen.
7. )»By concubines of a Great officer, for each of their master's
»sons except the Continuator, if the dead had breathed his
» last at an age of from sixteen to nineteen" *.
For the following category of relations a headband and girdle of
the Dolichos plant were assumed in the third month:
^^)%^Z^1lZ^^-
^^)%n^.mit^mKZ^^-
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RELATIONS ANCIENTLY MOURNED FOR IN THE FOURTH DEGREE. 527
8. » For one's paternal grandfather's brothers and their wives, as
» also for the sons of such brothers , and for their wives.
9. » For a grandson of one's paternal grandfather's brothers.
10. »For a married daughter of one's paternal uncles, and for
;!> one's own married granddaughters.
11. i>By an adopted Continuator, for his married sisters.
12. A>For maternal grandparents.
13. » For a maternal aunt and her husband.
14. »For the paternal aunts and sisters of one's husband. The
» wives of brothers wear this mourning for each other.
15. »A Great officer and his sons, and also the brothers of a feudal
» ruler wear this mourning for the sons of their paternal uncles
» and for their own grandsons except the Continuator (if the
» deceased were an ordinary officer) ; they wear it also for their
» paternal aunts and their own sisters and daughters, in case
» the deceased wonjan had been married to an ordinary officer.
16. » Concubines of a Great officer wear it for their masters' mar-
»ried daughters by other concubines.
17. »For daughters-in-law, except the wife of the Continuator",
who was mourned for in the third degree, see page 524, no. 7.
18. » For the parents and sisters of one's father's principal wife.
19. »A ruler's son (if born of the consort) wears this mourning
» for his father's concubine who has fostered him" ^.
(9)«gjiB.a^.
(^2):)S^jia:$t#.
(i«):^^;2:^>:@ji-f-iiA^-
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528 THE GRAVE.
The fifth degree.
For this last and slightest degree of mourning the dress was,
as its name given on page 491 indicates, made of fine-spun
hemp. It was worn for three months only. » Fine-spun fabric, the
» Traditions say, is a febric of fifteen shing, of which half
»the number of the weaving threads are pulled out. It means
»al80 a fabric the threads of which have been manipulated, but
»upon which no such operation has been performed after the
» weaving" \ Consequently, whereas a tissue of fifteen shing of
threads was used for clothing of good quality (see page 498), the
dress for this mourning was of a material of the same sort, but in
which the well spun threads stood apart fix)m one another, so as
to form a gauze-like, transparent fabric. It accordingly formed a
kind of transition from the mourning garments to the dress of
ordinary life.
This mourning of the lowest degree was, as the Li ki asserts
(ch. 47, 1. 25), »wom also for relations of the fourth collateral
» branch and was the final mourning dress. For the fifth collateral
» branch they only bared the upper part of the body and tied
» up the hair with a lace , such kinsmen being regarded merely
» as people bearing the same family name ; and in the sixth branch
» the ties of kinship were considered at an end" V This passage
satisfactorily solves the question why five degrees of mourning were
instituted, neither more, nor less. Indeed, as the lists for the five
degrees show, the typical kinsman for whom the mourning of
the first degree was worn, was the father (no. 1); that of the
second degree was the brother (no. 12), or principal kinsman in
the nearest collateral branch descended from the father; that of
the third degree was the cousin by the paternal uncle (no. 4),
chief kinsman in the second collateral branch issue of the grand-
father; that of the fourth was the cousin once removed (no. 9), the
kinsman of the third collateral branch issue, of the great-grandfather;
and that of the fifth degree was the cousin twice removed (no. 1),
^ -fjj 0 iiB« I ^^ chapter 25, 1. 1. Also chapter 71 of the Li ki, 1. 8, being
the section ^ 'jSL.
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THE FIFTH DEGREE OE MOURNING.
529
or the relation of the fourth collateral branch descending from
the great-great-grandfather. The annexed table will elucidate this.
6reat-gi*eat-grandfather
Great-grandfather
Great-grandfether's Brother
Grandfather
Grandfather's Brother Son of the above
Father
Uncle
Son of the above
Grandson of Great-
grandfather's Brother
SELF Brother Cousin Cousin once removed Cousin twice removed
Pint collateral branch Second coll. branch Third coll. branch Fourth colL branch
Second degree Thizd degree Fourth degree Fifth degree
Only a great-great-grandfather could in the course of nature live
long enough to unite these four branches under his patriarchal
sway; but that he should live to behold the faces of one gene-
ration more was not to be expected, nature having fixed a limit
to human life. »Some say", the Id M states (ch. 10, 1. 67), )»that
V those who still eat from the same fire-place wear the last degree
» of mourning for each other" ^.
The list of relations for whom the mourning of this degree was
worn, is given by chapter 25 of the / U as follows:
1. y> For one's paternal great-grandfather's brothers and their wives;
y> for the sons and grandsons of such brothers and the wife of
»each of them, as also for their great-grandsons,
2. » For the wife of any grandson , except of him who is the
» Continuator.
8. »For any grandson but the one who is the Continuator, in
»case death had taken him off between twelve and fifteen*.
a^.
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580 THE GRAVE.
4. vFor married daughters and married granddaughters of a
?> paternal grandfather's brother.
6. y> For any son and grandson of a paternal grand&ther's brother,
» who died between sixteen and nineteen years of age.
6. » For a son of a daughter.
7. »For a son of a paternal uncle, and (by a woman) for her
» brother^s sons , in both cases if death had occurred between
j^ eight and eleven years,
8. » For a younger brother of one's husband's father, if he had
y> died between eight and fifteen years of age.
9. » For a maternal aunt who had been taken off by death between
» sixteen and nineteen years of age.
10. »The son of a concubine, who had been raised to the rank
» of Continuator, wore it for his own mother.
11. » An ordinary officer wore it for every concubine of his father's,
y> who was not childless.
12. » For a minister of rank and a concubine of rank". It is not
stated who the mourning parties were ; probably they were the
ordinary officers of a ruler. And the parties mourned for were
perhaps the ministers or the concubines of such a ruler.
13. » For one's wet nurse.
14. » For the great-grandsons of a paternal grandfather's brother.
15. »For great-grandsons in the male line.
16. »For a paternal grand&ther's sisters ^
(6) ^^.
06) SLzn
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RELATIONS ANCIENTLY MOURNED FOR IN THE FIFTH DEGREE. 681
17. j»For the sons of a maternal aunt.
18. ȴoT a sister's sons.
19. » For sons-in-law.
20. »For one's wife's parents.
21. 3»For the sons of a paternal aunt.
22. »FoT maternal uncles and for their sons.
23. »VoT the paternal aunts and sisters of one's husband, if they
» had died between sixteen and nineteen years of age.
24. y> For the brothers of one's husband's paternal grandfather, as
»also for their wives, and for their sons by the principal wife.
25. » (By the sons of a concubine), for the brothers of their father's
» principal wife.
26. » For the grandsons of a paternal uncle , if death had occurred
»Bi an age between sixteen and nineteen years, and, in the
;i>same case, for a brother's grandsons in the male line.
27. » For the wives of the sons of one's husband's paternal uncles" ^.
Apart from the five categories of mourning, some exceptional
attires were in vogue in ancient China for special grandees who
were exempt from the ordinary mourning on account of their high
position or dignity, and for some relations and circumstances
not specified in these lists. It is of no use to place all these
cases before our readers. A few will suffice. According to the Re-
cords of the / /f, )>the sons of the ruler of a state (the Con-
» tinuator excepted), wore for their mother a cap of well finished
(18) g|.
m if.
(25) ^-^ ;2 %^-
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682 THS GRAVE.
)»silk, a headband and waistrope of such hemp as was used for
)> mourning garments of the fifth degree^ and a dress of that hemp,
x^ adorned with pink hemmings. For their consorts they wore a
)> cap of well finished silk ^ a headband and waistrope of Dolichos,
»and a hempen dress like the aforesaid, with pink hemmings. In
» both cases the attire was put off* when the burial was over" *.
» Friends abiding together in another state mourned for one an-
» other by baring the upper part of the body and tying their hair
j^with a lace; but when they had returned to their native country,
y> they gave this up. The hempen attire of the fifth degree was
» worn for a Mend *, and also while transferring a buried corpse
» to another grave" *.
There are still in • the / li and the Bi hi many extra rescripts
about mourning, which, however, we shall not reproduce, most of
them being too trifling and frivolous for us to waste time and
space upon them. The following we mention here as the most
important. »When brethem abide together in another state, they
praise the ordinary mourning for each other by one degree. And
»for one who has never known his father and mother and has
» lived with his brethem, the latter increase their mourning by
» one degree. According to the Traditions , by such brethem were
» understood all the relatives mourned for in the fourth or the
» fifth degree" *. Furthermore we read in the Li ki (ch. 10, 1. 19)
that everybody was to consider the rescripts on the mourning dress
to be so stringent »that it was better to wear no mourning at
»all than not have it of the proper materials" •. »At eighty years
»of age", says the same Classic (ch. 40, 1. 1, and ch. 19, 1. 11),
1 According to Ngao Ki-kung, there is here a misprint in the text; instead ot
J&p, i|b should he read.
3Ji^W^t.^|a^.^MB.Ji^il- Chapter 25,
1. 35 and 37.
4 ^ ^ j|g. Same chapter, 1. 44.
^ Jg , ftn - # . If 0 . /j> ^ m T ^ it fj • 8«- '^'"'p^ .
1. 33 and 34.
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THE UTILITY OP THiB ANCIENT MOURNING LISTS. 533
y>Gne is exempted from fasting and other rites connected with
» mourning" \
Rescripts which we may not pass over in silence are those which
prohibited music, marriage and sexual intercourse for the mourner;
further, such as rendered it incumbent upon students and disciples
to mourn for their teachers. For regularity's sake we reserve these
subjects for a later part of this chapter, to be treated of under
separate headings in the third, fourth and sixth sections.
No doubt our readers will have had the question on their lips:
Why weary us with these tedious mourning lists of the ancients?
Why fill up so many pages with such uninteresting stuff?
We can adduce many reasons. In the first place, the plan
followed in this work from the beginning, has been to attempt
an exhaustive historical treatment of each subject taken in hand,
so that it might form a depository of data, combining everything
furnished by native literature and personal investigations in ioco,
which could be useful to science in any respect. And how could
we treat of the mourning customs of the Chinese in accordance
with this plan, without making a more than cursorily mention of those
lists as mere curiosities? In the second place, the lists are a most
valuable source of knowledge for the terms anciently used to denote
the several relations and degrees of kinship, a source all the more
valuable because in most vocabularies, both native' and foreign,
these terms are for the greater part either conspicuous by their
absence, or very inaccurately defined. Furthermore, it is scarcely
possible to make a proper study of ancient Chinese family
life without taking into account these lists which, as we have
demonstrated, are most intimately connected, nay, absolutely bound
up with it; and that study may perhaps be fiui;hered and stimul-
ated if Sinologists have the liste before them in their entirety '.
1 A+»l|;C:*|R3^ifcS«t.ftSi|.n,and8ect.^«,V.
2 A translation of the lists in question has been given by De Harlez in his
»I-li, G^r6monial de la Chine antique, traduit pour la premi^ fois". Much
gratified should we have felt could we have simply referred our readers thereto,
and thus spared oui'selves much labour. But, to our great regret, we found
scarcely a line of that work to be depended on. Correctly speaking , it is no trans-
lation, but merely a paraphrase of the i li in French, in which the text proper
18 not reproduced separately, but strangely mixed up vfith extracts from comment-
aries written at different periods, some even as late as the Ming dynasty. In
concocting this hash , the Louvain professor has allowed himself the ftdlest liberty
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534 THB GRAYS.
Bat the last and chief reason, outweighing by £Etr all the others,
is that the moaming codex of the I li, as we may call the con-
catenation of rescripts contained in this book , has through all ages
exercised a mighty influence upon Chinese society and its organ-
ization, because, with modifications and revisions of more or less
importance, it has always been used by legislators in assigning to
each individual a fixed place in the circle of his family. We now
proceed to place this matter in a fuller light.
Our opinion, already stated several times, that mourning rescripts
were created in ancient China chiefly to enforce the great principle
that subjection and mutual devotion should prevail in the family
circle and the clan, is perfectly justified by the register of persons to be
mourned for in the five degrees, as given by the / li. Indeed, we
at once see from it that it mentions chiefly such relatives as were
members of the mourner's own clan , either by birth , or by adoption
through, the act of marriage; this fiELCt will be clear enough horn
in skipping over characters, or combinations of characters in the original text,
filling up the blank in many cases with interpolations evidently spun out of his
own brain. Add to this that everything is printed in one and the same type,
and that no indication is given as to where the text ends and the commentaries
begin, or where M. De Harlez himself is speaking, and the reader will easily
understand that we could by no means draw upon his book in compiling this woric.
It may hardly«ound credible, but it is nevertheless a £Etct, that of the eighty-six clauses
contained in the mourning registers of the four highest degrees, no less than thirty-six
are entirely mistranslated by De Harlez, not to mention countless errors and omissions in
the remaining fifty. Mistranslations are, moreover, scattered broadcast throughout his
book, many parts of it consequently being remarkably ambiguous, confused and incom-
prehensible. Let any one decipher, if he can, the abstruse lines on page 247, and then
compare them vnth the interesting clauses i*eproduced on pages 509 et sqq, of this
work, relating to the position of sons , C!ontiDuators and adopted Continuators in the
fiunily. Many salient teims which form the centre of gravity as it were of the
.passages relating to this subject, such as : ^S A i^ , » to be made another man s
successor'*, that is to say, to become an adopted Continuator; ^ ^^, »to bear
the important charge*', viz. the ancestral worship, etc. have been entirely misun-
derstood by De Harlez, or, more correctly speaking, not understood at all, although
the commentators upon the Imperial edition have furnished good explanations.
Not being characterized by such a painstaking study of texts and commentaries
as a good elaboration of Chinese books requires, De Harlez' work must certainly be
regarded as a scientific fsdlure. It is fsir from deserving a place by the side of
Legge's translation of the Li ki^ or even of Biot's Mni attempt to give the world
a good translation of the Cheu li\ and its publication has not in the least degree
rendered less urgent the demand of the eminent professor of Oxford : » Is there no
SinologLst who will now undertake a complete translation of the I li?" (See Sacred
Books of the East, vol. 27, page 5).
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MOURNING WAS CHIEPLY WORN FOR ONES OWN CLAN.
535
the following Table, in which those clansmen are systematically
grouped in the form of a genealogical tree. We have indicated
therein by Roman numerals the degree of mourning to be worn
for each relation , and by Arabian figures the clause of the register
referred to.
Great-grandfather
His Wife
I II 37.
6reat-grand&ther*s Bix>ther8 ) ^ .
Their Wives \^ ^'
Srw£'"!««.27.
Grandfather's Brothers ) nr q Sons of the ahove ) ^ .
Their Wives ^ ^ ®* Their Wives | ^ ^•
Grandfather's Sisters, V 16.
Father, H,n 17.
Mother, n lor II 5, 17.
Step-mother, n 2 or II 8.
Foster-mother, n 3.
Uncles, II 10, III 2, 16, IV 1 . Sons of Grandfather's Grandsons of Great-
Their Wives, II 10, III 16. Brothers, IV 8, V 5. grandfather's
Aunts, m 2, 16. Their Wives, IV 8. Brothers )
Their Wives J
VI.
SELF. Brothers, n 12, III 2, IV 1. Uncles' Sons, in 4, V 7. Grandsons of Grand- Great-grandsons of
Wife, US. Sisters, in 2, 16. father's BiX)thers, IV 9, V 5. Great-grandfether's
I Brothers, VI.
The Continnator, 1 4, n 4. Brothers' Sons, n 14, Uncles' Grandsons, V 26. Great-grandsons ot
His Wife, m 7. IV 4. Grandfather's Brothers, V 14
Other Sons, II 13, 101 . Brothers' Daughters, IV 4.
Their Wives, IV 17.
Daughters, mi.
Grandson, being the Brothers' Grandsons, IV 5, V 26.
Continuator, n 16, III 2, Brothers' Granddaughters, IV 5.
rvi.
Other Grandsons, m 6, V 3.
Their Wives, V 2.
Great-grandsons, V 15.
Moarning anciently worn for the Members of Father's Clan, as also by the Women living therein.
On the other hand, mourning for kinsfolk living in another
clan, however close their parentage by blood or affinity might
be, counted for next to nothing in comparison with that which
was to be worn for one's own clan's people. The following Table
shows how very little mourning was worn for women who had
seceded from the clan in consequence of marriage or divorce, and
for their o&pring:
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636
THE GRAVE.
Re-married Step-mother, II 8.
Divorced Mother who was
the principal Wife, II 7,
or no mourning at all.
Paternal Qrand&ther's Brothers.
Paternal Aunts, II 21, HI 3. Daughters of the above, V 4.
SELF.
Daughters, 1121,1113.
[Their Husbands,V 19.
Sisters, II 21 , DI 3. Daughters of Paternal Granddaughters of Pa-
Uncles, IV 10. temal Grandfather's
Sons of Paternal Aunts, V 21 . Brothers, V 4.
Sisters' Sons, V 18.
Daughters' Sons, V 6.
Granddaughters, IV 10.
Moaming worn in Ancient Times for fonner Fem&le Members of the Clan, received
into other Clans, and for their Offspring.
We see from this that even for its mother a child mourned only
one year, or not at all, if she had been divorced from its father,
while otherwise it must do so for twenty-seven months. Parents-
in-law and their sons-in-law, though most closely connected by
affinity, mourned for each other only in the very lowest degree
(nos. 19 and 20), not being connected by bonds of clanship. The
two following Tables will enable the reader to see at a glance
that, on her marriage, a woman ceased almost entirely to mourn
for her father's kinsfolks, she renouncing these for her hus-
band's clansmen, whom she had henceforth to consider as her own:
Great-grandfather and his Wife, 11 40.
Grandfather and his V^ife, n 27.
Parents, n 18.
Uncles and their Wives, HI 16.
Aunts, m 16.
SELF.
(Married Woman).
Brother, heing his &thei's
Continuator, II 18.
Other Brothers, III 8.
Sisters, m 16.
Brothers' Sons and Daughters, DI 9.
Moaming of a Married Woman for the Members of her Father's Clan •
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MOURNING WAS CHIEFLY WORN FOR ONES OWN CLAN.
537
Husband's Paternal
Grandfather
His Wife
UHO.
Brothel's of Husband's
Paternal Grandfether 1
Their Wives
V24.
Husband's Parents, H 24.
Husband, 1 6.
SELF.
Husband's Paternal Uncles, Sons of theabove, V 24.
m 10, IV 3, V 8.
Their Wives, m 10.
Husband's Paternal Aunts,
IV 14, V 23.
I
Husband's Brothers. Sons of Husband's
Their Wives, IV 14. Paternal Uncles.
Husband's Sistera, Their Wives, V 27.
IV 14, V 23.
Continuator, II 4.
Sons of Husband's Brothers,
n 25, m 2, IV 4.
Daughters of Husband's
Brothers, HI 2, IV 4.
Ifmarried,IlI14.|
A Woman's Monming for the Members of her Husband's Clan.
The stroDgest of all the clauses, that by which the wife is commanded
to wear for her husband's parents, of whom she is no blood relation ,
just the same mourning as for her own parents, tells in favour
of our theory as to the chief principle underlying the mourning
rescripts.
So again, scarcely any mourning was worn for his father's kins-
folks by a man who had been adopted as Continuator by another
family, as the following Table shows. Indeed, having left his
Own Pai'ents, II 17.
Paternal Uncles.
SELF.
(Son given in adoption).
Own Brothers, III 5, IV 2. Sons of Paternal Uncles, IV 2.
An Adopted Mourning Son's for the Members of his own Family.
own family for good, the members thereof had yielded up their
authority over him and he need no longer show them any special
subjection; but henceforth, as a token of submission and devotion,
he had to mourn especially for the family into which he had been
received, and which now entirely occupied the place of the family
in which he had been born. Finally we insert a Table, in order
that the reader may likewise see at a glance that a child was
35
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638 THE GRAVE.
scarcely required to mourn for its mother's kinsfolk, since they
belonged to another clan in consequence of the ancient rule that no
marriages might be concluded between people bearing the same
clan-name; its mourning for them never extended beyond the two
lowest degrees:
Maternal Grandparents, lY 12.
Mother. Maternal Uncles, V 22.
Maternal Aunts, IV 13, V 9.
Their Husbands, IV 13.
I
SELF. Sons of Maternal Uncles, V 22.
Sons of Maternal Aunts, V 17.
Moanung anciently worn for Members of the Clan in which the Mother was bom.
Now we understand Confucius better, who on a certain occasion,
»when his disciple TszSkung asked him about mourning, said:
» 'It is governed in the first place by respect) grief comes next to
» this , and emaciation is the last' " \ It is also perfectly clear
that the register of the / /t, teaching, as it did, each one
the adequate measure of subjection and devotion he was to
observe towards his relations, was perfectly calculated as a means
of defining the place of each in the hierarchy of his clan and the
distance mutually separating clanspeople. In point of fact it has
been used for this purpose in China from early times, and
has occupied a prominent place among the institutions of social
life for centuries, a place which it still maintains even at the
present day.
We have no means of ascertaining whether the mourning rules
formed already during the Cheu dynasty a regular compilation, fit to
serve as a formal codex for family life. They may perhaps not have
been cast into this form until the epoch of the Han dynasty, when, as
stated on page 6 , the / li was compiled , or re-compiled , from an-
cient materials. But this does not exclude the probability that under
the Cheu dynasty they played an important part in social life as
customary rules, strictly adhered to, more strictly perhaps, than
written law; otherwise, it would seem impossible to account for
Li hi, chapter 55, 1. 12, or section ^ gQ) n, 1.
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THE MOURNING RESCRIPTS IN ANCIENT LEGISLATURE. 539
the fact that they are distributed in such considerable numbers
throughout the Li ki and are therein so often made the topic
of minute and even frivolous discussions by the wisest men of the
Realm, Confucius among the foremost. From a couple of passages
occurring in the Li ki it may even be inferred that these rules then
held a place amongst the political laws of the State. In its 26th.
chapter (1. 40) we read that, while discussing with his disciple
TszS-yiu the mourning for a foster-mother, Confucius declared that
a certain officer of Lu had said to the ruler of this state : » Accord-
» ing to the ancient rules , no mourning is worn for a foster-mother.
» If Thou, a Ruler, wearest it. Thou wilt act contrary to that ancient
»rule and consequently introduce confusion into the laws of the
» State" \ And in chapter 71 (1. 26) it is written that » the
V sovereigns of former times determined the proper medium for
» mourning and decreed the periods for it" ^.
But even if we take for granted that the rules on mourning were
not codified until the Han dynasty, the fact remains that they
were then codified; and this proves that the need of having them
cast into the shape of a written law for use in social life was
then seriously felt. Whence arose this need ? An explanation of the
organization of Chinese society will help us to a solution of this
problem.
It has been set forth already on pages 507 sqq. that the social
organization of the Chinese Empire has, since very early times,
been based upon the principle that each family should form one single
body governed by the patriarch, its highest chief, and that the
State should resemble one immense family, with the Son of Heaven
at its head as chief patriarch. Under the influence of this doctrine,
families, not men individually, came to be regarded, from the Go-
vernment's point of view, as the smallest particles, the molecules of
the nation , each individual being swallowed up in the circle of his
kinsfolk and immovably fixed therein and kept in his place by
those above and below him in the family hierarchy.
Such a state of affairs probably prevailed already in the earliest
times of the Cheu dynasty, for we read in the Li ki that Wu, the
first sovereign of this House, enacted regulations for fixing each
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540 THE GRAVE.
one's place within his clan. One of the most interesting sections
of that work, entitled: The Great Tradition *, which gives the
outlines of the leading principles of government prevalent in
those ancient times, has: »In the ascending line he regulated the
» relationship to grandfathers and ancestors , in order to cause
» respect to be observed towards those who are in authority. In
» the descending line he acted likewise with regard to children and
» grandchildren , in order that the duties towards near relatives
» by blood should be properly observed. And in the collateral lines
» also he regulated the bonds of kinship by making all the living
» members of the clan take their meals together. In this wise a
» place was assigned in the clan to each of its members in accord-
» ance with his rank of kinship , and each one was distinguished
» from his fellow clansmen by the measure of respect he had to
» pay , and the duties he had to fulfil. In consequence of this , the
» path in which mankind had to walk was faithfully trodden to
» its very end" *.
Furthermore, the same section of the Li ki has:
» When a wise man sits (on the throne) with his face to the
» South , having all the affairs of the world placed before him ,
» there are five things which occupy his attention in the first place ;
» but the matters which regard his subjects directly are not amongst
» the number. The first thing is , the regulating of the relations
» between family members reciprocally ; the second , the rewarding
» of meritorious officers of the State ; the third , the raising of learned
» men to office ; the fourth , the taking into his service of the able
»and influential; the fifth, the appreciation of those who manifest
» love towards mankind. When these five things have had full
» justice done to them in this world, every one amongst the people
» has his necessities provided for and all his wants supplied ; but ,
» if the realization of any of the five be incomplete , the people have
» no chance of living till they die a natural death of old age.
» Verily, a wise man who governs the world with his face to
» the South , takes the path in which mankind have to walk (the
1 ^ "^ . It forms the 47th. chapter in the Khienlung edition.
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THE ANCIENT SYSTEM OP GOVERNMENT. 541
» regulation of the family , see above) as his starting point" \
In other words, a wise sovereign abstains from interfering
directly with the people. He confines himself strictly to issuing
rescripts for regulating the relations between high and low in the
several tribes into which the population is divided : herein lies the
main point, the centre of gravity of his policy. For the rest he
contents himself with giving his best attention to his body of officers
and recruiting it from amongst the most able and influential of his
subjects. In short, the Empire must be. and most probably was in
ancient times, an agglomeration of tribes, each enjoying patriarchal
self-government constituted of the elders, every one of whom must
be a paterfamilias; and over all these tribes the sceptre is to be
wielded by a supreme government, which simply maintains peace
and order amongst them, without, however, interfering with their
internal affairs. These do not concern the Throne and are allowed
to take their own course under the direction of the elders, who are
held entirely responsible for peace and order among themselves.
Statesmen anciently saw in the above policy a wise expedient
for considerably reducing the difficulties of the supreme Government
in maintaining its own sway, which then was, of course, as in every
other despotic country , the first object of all its endeavours. Not
only did that policy throw a great part of the duties of adminis-
tration upon the shoulders of the people; but it screwed each
atom of the tribe firmly into its place by means of laws fixing
the relationship among its members and the duties to be observed
by each towards all. Friction between individuals was thereby reduced
to a minimum, internal peace and concord were in a high measure
insured, and subjection to seniors and governors was constantly
inculcated. No wonder then that this policy, which we may truly
say is the Chinese system of government in a nut-shell, has always
met with the fullest approval by those who held the reins of power
in the State, nor that The Great Tradition is still at the present day
fully recognized as one of the chief fundamental laws of the Empire.
1 mKnmr^m%T.^^it^^M^mm>
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542 THE GEAVB.
Many a thing, says this document, may be modified and altered
in the government of the State in accordance with the requirements
of the time, and even arbitrarily ; but » there are also matters which
»can never be changed, to wit, the fulfilment of one's duties
» towards near relatives by blood , the paying of such respect to
» those in authority as is due to them, the giving proper honours
» to one's elders , and the maintenance of the difference in rank
» which exists between the sexes. In regard of these matters no
» changes can be enjoined upon the people" ^. How could such
subjection, reverence and dutifulness be ensured in the bosom ot
the clan, and the chief duty of the government be thereby fulfilled?
The answer given to this question by ancient statesmanbhip was:
It can be best ensured by pointing out to each individual his exact
position among his clanspeople, and constantly reminding him of his
place by compelling him to observe mourning in an adequate degree
for each of them , especially the seniors. Herein lies the solution of
the question why the rules of mourning occupied a place of the
highest importance in ancient Chinese life and were probably even
then a subject of legislation; and also why during the Han dy-
nasty, if not at a much earlier epoch, they were formally codified by
scholars working under the special patronage of Government, and
were laid down in this form in the / li. They became a natural com-
plement of The Great Tradition in its quality of fundamental law ot
the Empire. This document itself is not silent on mourning. It gives
some outlines for it, part of which have been reproduced already
on page 528; others run as follows: »The matters which r^ulate
» the wearing of mourning are six : 1st. the duties towards the
» near relations by blood ; 2ndly the respect due to those in autho-
» rity ; 3rdly the names (used to indicate persons who are received
» in the clan by marriage) ; 4thly the cases of persons who have left
» the clan (on marriage) or have not left it ; 5thly distinction between
» relatives dying as majors or as minors; 6thly aflSnity" '. Each of
these elements has indeed entered into the composition of the mourn-
ing register of the I li, as the careful reader will have observed.
Leaf 16.
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MOURNING AS A POLITICAL INSTITUTION. 543
The salutary results which a system of government such as the
above was deemed to produce for the State and its people, are
depicted by The Great Tradition in a concatenation of sentences
which, though here and there devoid of a logical sequence of
thought, are of sufficient interest to be reproduced here. »From
» fulfilling the duties towards the nearest kinsmen arises the hon-
» curing of the lines of ancestry. From honouring the lines of
» ancestors arises respect for the whole clan, including both its
» living add dead members. In consequence of such respect the
» clansmen are firmly bound together. Through their being bound
» together the ancestral temple of the clan is surrounded with
» glory, and when glory surrounds this temple, importance is attached
» to the gods of the land and Grain. Importance being attached to
» these divinities , love will reign among the clans. If love prevails
» among them , penal laws are not ineflfectual , and in consequence
» of their not being without good effect, the people enjoy rest and peace.
» Where rest and peace prevail among the people , they have suffi-
»cient wealth to provide for all their wants, and when they have
» enough for their wants, all their desires are realized. This reali-
» zation of their wishes entails the perfection of ceremonial usages
»and good customs, and where these are perfect, happiness and
» joy follow in their train" *.
Having now finished our sketch of the important position which
mourning occupied in ancient China both as a social and a political
institution , we will now proceed to examine whether it has played
a like part in later times.
It is a well known fact that each dynasty which has established its
sway over the Middle Kingdom, has adopted more or less faithfully the
constitution and the institutions of the sovereigns which had preceded
it on the throne , adhering tenaciously to the principles of the art of
governing laid down in the ancient Classics. Such a line of conduct
has also been followed by each dynasty in respect of the family and
the tribe and of their internal organization ; and , as a natural conse-
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544 THE GRAVE.
quence, the ancient mourning institutions have been regulated in
all ages by special official rescripts drawn up with studious care,
and enforced upon the people by rigid laws threatening with severe
punishments those who neglected to mourn for their kinsmen.
The learned class having, as is well known, always stood in
close connection with Government because of its producing the
graduates from whom the official class is steadily recruited, it
is quite natural that the mourning rescripts laid down in the / li
and the Li ki have, ever since the Han dynasty, been an object
of serious study for scholars. These latter have anatomized the
rescripts in every sense of the word ; they have laid bare what was
hidden in them and scarcely discernable for a layman ; they have
discussed them with hair-splitting differences, and suggested new
rescripts to fill up any blanks discovered. Foremost amongst those who
have devoted themselves to this work, are Ching Khang-ch^ing, Kia
Kung-yen, Khung Ying-tah and Ngao Ki-kung, all well known to
our readers. The writings of these men supplied ample material
for the compilation of the splendid imperial edition of the / li and
the Li ki, which was published in the Khienlung period. Well
selected extracts from their works are interpolated so profusely in
that edition between the text, as to supply every native scholar or
statesman with any information he may desire in regard of the
two works. The chapters on Mourning Dress contained in the
Khienlung edition of the / li are consequently no mere archaic
curiosities in the field of literature or ethnography. They are in
fact state-papers of the highest importance, a study of which can
not be neglected by any one who desires to acquire a fair knowledge
of the Chinese State machinery and the way in which it is worked.
The Standard Histories afford ample evidence that the regulation
of mourning was always placed foremost among the great affairs
of state. Already in the Books of such an early period as the Tsin
dynasty ^ we read that , in the year 280 of our chronology, the
statesman Chi Yii ^ advocated in a memorial addressed to the
Throne the necessity of a proper revision and re-compilation of the
rescripts on the wearing of mourning, as in the old writings these
were far from agreeing on every point. He proposed that the Li ki
should be taken as the basis tor the new rescripts which he desired
to see issued on this head, and that these should be completed
by borrowing from traditions; he also submitted to the Throne
1 Chapter 19, 1. 3.
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MOUBNIKG INSTITUTIONS OP SUCCESSIVE DYNASTIES. 545
a project for a new code of mourning and rituals, which, having
received the imperial approbation, was formally decreed law. The
Standard Histories inform us that the rescripts on mourning have
never ceased to arouse controversies and disputes between statesmen
and scholars; memorials proposing improvements of the same were
frequently placed before the Sons of Heaven during every dynasty,
and many of these documents entailed the introduction of modifi-
cations of more or less significance. That such endless differences of
opinion naturally gave rise to numerous books and treatises on
the subject, we need scarcely say. In the Catalogue of Literature
inserted in the Books of the Sui Dynasty * nearly fifty , most of
them provided with a commentary, are mentioned by name, and
it is very probable that a large number existed which were deemed
unworthy of a place in the Catalogue, or escaped the notice
of the compilers. To convey an idea to our readers of the amount
of labour, time and paper wasted on this subject, we need only
mention that a compilation of the views and opinions expressed
on the rules of mourning by men of authority from the Han
dynasty till that of T'ang , as made by Tu Yiu for his T'ung Hen ,
covers in the Ku kin fu sAu tsiA cAHnff , in which it is repro-
duced *, no less than one hundred and fifty pages of very compact
print, which, if translated into English, would make a volume of
respectable size.
The oldest official mourning codex that has been preserved
entire, forms a part of the great compilation of statutory rites
of the Khai yuen period. Tu Yiu gave it a place in his T^'unfi
Hen, and from this thesaurus it found its way into the gigantic
Ku kin fu sAu tsiA chHng ^. On examination it turns out to be
no more than a copy of the mourning rescripts as systematically
arranged in the / /i, vdth a few modifications and additions of
little interest. This feet gives us a right to conclude , that the / li
was the acknowledged lex acripta for matters relating to mourning
and mourning dress during the whole period extending from the
Han to the T'ang dynasty.
The Sung dynasty adopted the mourning institutions of the
House of T^ang in their entirety, introducing, however, in the
register of relatives to be mourned for in the five degrees some
alterations which are mostly recorded with the whys and where-
1 See chapter 32. 2 Section |g ^, chapters 87—91.
3 The same section, chapter 53.
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546 THE GRAVE.
fores in the 125th. chapter of the History of the Sung Dynasty.
From the Sung dynasty the register was taken over by the house
of Ming, which assigned it a place among its Collective Statutes.
Those who have not this rare work at their disposal may find the
register entire in the History of the Ming Dynasty ' , and also in
the Ku kin fu ahu tsiA cluing *. Down to the present day no other
changes have been made in it, the sovereigns of the dynasty of
Ts'^ing, now the reigning House, having adopted it in the shape in
which they found it at their conquest of the Empire. They have
given it a place in the Ta Tiing Awui Hen and in the Ta TsHng
fung li^, as also in the Code of Laws known as Ta Td'ing luh li,
in which last work it appears as an introductory part, for reasons
which will be set forth on page 568.
Our chief object in describing the institutions of China being to
consider them in their modem form, we cannot pass over this
register, which was definitively ratified by the present dynasty, in
silence. For, as the register of the / H was for ancient China, so this is
a perfect source for our knowledge of the constitution of the family
and the clan as they now-a-days exist and as they existed during
the House of Ming; moreover, it is highly useful in drawing a
comparison between ancient and modem family law, shedding light
upon those changes which the ideas regarding the submission and
devotion due by kinsfolk to one another have undergone in the space
of fifteen centuries or more.
like the dynasties of T^'ang, Sung, Ming, and probably all those
which have bome sway over the Chinese Empire, that of Ts'ing
recognizes five degrees of mourning, generally styled wu fuh*,
»five attires or dresses". It distinguishes them by the same names
as are used in the Li ki and the / /t, and which have been inserted
on page 491. Rescripts on the cut and make of the dresses are given
by the Ta Tiding luh li^ in its second chapter. On closer examination
these rescripts are found to be for the greater part a compendium
of extracts from the Rituals for Family Life, copied almost verbatim,
though with considerable abbreviations and omissions of detail.
The particulars about the dresses, given in the following pages at
the head of the five registers of relatives to be mourned for, are
drawn from the Code of Laws, as are those registers themselves.
1 Chapter 60, 1. 23 ei sqq. 2 Section |g ^ , chapter 65.
3 Chapter 52, 1. 3 sqq, ^ £ M •
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THE MODERN MOURNING DRESS OF THE FIRST DEGREE. 547
The first degree.
The rescripts concerning the coat and the skirt to be worn for
this degree are mere reprints of what the / li prescribes with regard
to these articles of dress; only the wording is somewhat diflferent.
We may therefore refer the reader to pages 493 et aqq. The dress is,
says the Code of Laws, »of the very coarsest textile of unprepared
hemp" ^ Its rescripts for the cap and headband , which articles
of dress the / li describes in a manner neither satisfactory, nor
intelligible (comp. page 495), run as follows: »The material for
» the cap is paper and starch. It is one foot wide, and has three
» small vertical plaita, all folded over to the right side, and of
)>such folds it has three sets. A (double) hempen rope, passing
»from the forehead over the skull, is fastened to it; it goes then
»from the back part of the head (in both directions) towards the
» front, and at each ear one end is fastened by means of a
» knot , a kind of military helmet being formed in this wise. The
» remaining ends of the rope hang downwards (one over each ear) ,
» forming strings which are knotted underneath the chin" *. This head-
gear represents the cap as it was worn in ancient times, according
to the ambiguous description of the / /«, reproduced on page 495,
and also according to some commentators on that work, whose
opinions have been inserted in the Khienlung edition.
lake the 1 li, the Ta TaHng luh li prescribes sandals of Kien
grass for this degree of mourning.
»The howling staflF", so] the Code goes on, »is of bamboo,
» when carried for a father. This is on account of its having the
» nodes on the outside" \ Indeed,, the word and the character denot-
ing a bamboo node are tsieh ^ , and mean at the same time
chastity, purity of conduct, of which virtues the father is supposed
to have made a great display before the eyes of the outside world,
ere he left it for the next. »The father", says the Code, »is unto
»his son the celestial sphere, and bamboo, being round, represents
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548 THE GRAVE.
» that sphere. And a bamboo stem does not change its aspect in
» any of the four seasons (because it is an evergreen) ; so, likewise ,
y> the grief and sorrow felt by a son for his deceased father remain
» unaltered , even though they may pass through cold weather and heat.
» When carried in mourning for a mother , the staflF is of T ^u n g
»wood (comp. p. 494), for T'^ungCl^) means »similar"(t'ung ^)»
»and the feelings of a son for his mother are the same as those
» which he cherishes for his father. Moreover, such a staff has no
» nodes on the outside, and thereby implies that the mother has
» cultivated chastity inside the dwelling. The upper half of this
» staff is round , to represent the Heavens ; but the lower half is cut
» square, so as to symbolize the Earth \ In carrying it, the part which
» was nearest the root of the plant is held downwards, both in the case
»of the staff of bamboo and of T^'ung wood. The staff is so long
»as to be on a level with the heart; for, whilst a dutiful son is howling
»and weeping without any regard to times, the corporal weakness and
» illness which result therefrom arise from his heart , and hence the
» length of the staff is determined by the place where his heart is" *.
Excepting that the staff of T'ung wood should be partly round
and partly square, all the other rescripts are copied directly from
the I /i, as may be verified by consulting page 494. The whys and
wherefores, however, are borrowed almost verbatim from Khung
Ying-tah, Kia Kung-yen and Ch'en Hao, whose dilations on the
staves may be found in the Khienlung edition of the Li ki^.
Though everybody may attach as little value to their explanations
as he thinks fit, their far-fetched sophistical reasonings show most
clearly that even the most famous scholars of the Empire, as well
as the modern legislators who faithfully re-echo their words, are
not one wit less frivolous in their ways of thinking than the common
people, who indulge in similar aberrations from common sense in
giving explanations of their customs.
1 According to pure and ancient Chinese orthodox philo5ophy, the Eartli is square.
3 Chapter 45, I. 8, and chapter 70, 1. 37.
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KINSMEN MOURNED FOR NOW-A-BATS IN THE FIRST DEGREE. 549 -
The Code of Laws contains no rescripts whatever concerning
changes to be made in the mourning dress at fixed periods, so
that the regulations which the ancients made' on this head (see
page 499 seq.) have not been received by the present dynasty
among the institutions of the State. The same is the case with
respect to the second degree; consequently the rules of mourning
have undergone a considerable simplification in the hands of modern
legislators.
The mourning of the first degree is to be worn for twenty-seven
months in the following cases: —
1. »By a son — for his father and mother.
2. »By a daughter living in the paternal house, even if she is
» betrothed or, after having been married out and divorced,
» has returned to the paternal home — for her father and mother.
3. »By a son's wife — for his father and mother.
4. »By a son — for his step-mother, his foster-mother, and his
» adoptive mother \ His wife has to mourn for each of these
» persons in this same degree.
6. »By a son of a concubine — for his own mother, and for
»his father's wife proper. His wife too has to mourn for these
» persons in this degree.
8. »By a son adopted as a Continuator — for the father and the
» mother who have adopted him. His wife has to mourn in this
» same degree for them *.
7. »By a grandson who is the Continuator of the family (his father
» being dead, see page 517, no. 16) — for his paternal grand-
» father and the wife of the same; also for his paternal great-
» grandparents (if his father and paternal grandfather are dead),
»and for his paternal grieat-great-grandparents (if parents, pater-
»nal grandfather and great-grandfather are dead). The wife of
1 Comp. pages 513 seq.
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550 THE GRAVE.
)»such a Continuator who bears the important charge mourns
»for those persons in this same degree.
8. » By the wife — for her husband ; and by a concubine — for
»her master" ^
K we compare this list with the mourners of the first and the
second degree as they are registered in the / It (pp. 506, 518, 515),
we find that, since the first ages of the Empire, the family law has
undergone important modifications. The principal amongst these is ,
that the mourning duties for a mother, whether she has died before
her husband or after him, have been raised for her children to
the same high level as those which they have to observe for their
father, so that the maternal rights, contemplated from the stand-point
of the children, are officially decreed not to stand behind the
paternal rights in any respect. Evidently the modem legislator, in
ratifying this deviation from the ancient mourning codex, has acted
on the principle that »the same expertness one shows in serving his
» father should be employed in serving his mother, and the love
y> should be the same for both" *. But by carrying out this maxim ,
preached by the Li ki, to its fullest extent, he has had to totally
set aside another maxim announced in the same passage of that
work, according to which mourning for both father and mother,
iis by no means the same, because there can no more be two highest
authorities in one family than there are two suns in the sky (see
page 515, no. 5).
The position of a woman towards her husband, however, has
been left unaltered : whether she be the materfamilias or a concubine,
she owes him the same absolute subjection of a child , as formerly.
We further perceive that the principle that the paterfamilias should
reign supreme in the family, is now-a-days carried to its highest
pitch also in this respect, that even the privileged position of the
Continuator, which anciently was such as to place him on a par
with his father, has been totally abolished, the mourning to be
worn for him by his parents having been made the same as that
for ordinary sons (see page 552, no. 6). In accordance vdth the
same principle, each daughter-in-law has now to mourn for the
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KINSMEN NOW MOURNED FOR IN THE SECOND DEGREE. 551
parents of her husband in the highest degree, instead of in
the second, as formerly, her absolute incorporation with the
family of her husband naturally placing her as much under the
authority of his paterfamilias and nuiterfamilias as if she were their
own child.
The second degree.
»The costume for this degree of mourning", says the Code of
Laws, »is similar to that for the first degree; but it is made of
» cloth of coarse , unprepared hemp of a quality next to the worst,
» and the edges (of the pieces whereof the dress is composed), as
»also the lower borders, are hemmed. The cap consists of a helmet
» with pendant ropes, made of hempen cloth. The staff is of T^'ung
»wood. The shoes are either of coarse grass or straw, or of
» hemp" ^
In a few cases enumerated on page 518, this dress was anciently
worn for twenty seven months. But, as shown above, three ol
these cases have been transferred by the modem legislator into the
highest class, and the fourth has been abolished.
»This mourning with the coat with even-cut edges, during
» which a staff is carried , is worn", says the Code , » for one year
»in the following cases:
1 . » By any son born by the wife proper, and also by his wife —
» for the concubines of his father who are not childless.
2. » By a son — for his mother who has re-married after his father's
» death.
3. »By a son — for his divorced mother*.
That the mourning is reduced by one full degree for a mother when she
re-marries or is divorced, is, of course, in consequence of the feet that the observ-
ance of the highest measure of subjection and devotion to her then becomes of
less importance on the part of her children, because of her having seceded from
the femily and consequently renounced the exercise of any authority thereover.
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552 THE GRAVE.
4. »Bj a, husband — for his wife. If his own parents are alive ,
» he does not cany the staff.
»The same mourning, but vdthout the staff, is worn:
5. » By a paternal grandfather — for his grandson who is the
» Continuator of the family.
6. » By a father or mother — for their Continuator and his principal
» wife , as also for any other son , and for any daughter living
»in the paternal home; further, for an adopted Continuator.
7. » By a step-mother (who is her husband's wife proper) — for
» any son of the former wife proper of her husband.
8. » By a step-son — for his step-mother, in case she , having become
»a widow y has re-married and taken him along with her to
» dwell in her second husband's house.
9. » By a nephew — for each paternal uncle and his wife ; as
» also for his paternal aunts and sisters living in the paternal
» house.
10. »For one's own brothers and brothers' sons, and also for
» brothers' daughters who live in the paternal house.
11. »By grandsons, and granddaughters who either live in the pa-
» temal house or are married — for their paternal grandparents.
12. » By an adopted Continuator — for his own parents.
13. » By a married daughter — for her parents \
14. »By a woman who lives in the paternal house, as also by a
» childless widow — for her brothers, sisters, brothers' sons, and
(")#.:)$ jift ^ #.# ^ ^ ^ ffi ^ ^ .
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KINSFOLK NOW MOURNED FOR IN THE SECOND DEGREE. 553
» such of her brothers' daughters as live in the paternal house.
15. »By a married daughter — for her father's Continuator.
16. »By a woman — for the sons of her husband's brothers, as
y> also for such daughters of her brothers-in-law as dwell in the
» paternal home.
17. »By a concubine — for her master's wife proper.
18. » By a concubine — for her master's father and mother.
19. » By a concubine — for all the sons of her master bom of
»the wife proper, and for their sons.
20. »For a step-father in whose house one dwells, in case neither
»he, nor the mourner, possess any relatives for whom moum-
»ing is to be worn in the third or in a higher degree.
»The same mourning is worn for five months:
21. »By great-grandsons and great-granddaughters — for their
» great-grandparents on the father's side".
This subdivision is not to be found in the / li, which
places the mourning for great-grandparents in the next cate-
gory (see page 520, no. 37). It was created by the compilers
of the Khai yuen Codex, who deemed the mourning of
three months too slight for soch near kinspeople.
» The mourning of the second degree is worn for three months :
22. » By every great-great-grandson and great-great-granddaughter —
» for their great-great-grandparents on the father's side K
86
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554 THE GRAVE.
23. y> For a step-father in whose house one lives , in case both
» he and his step-son possess kinsmen for whom mourning of
» the third or a higher degree is to be worn (comp. no. 20).
24. »For a step-father in whose house one has once dwelt, but
» does not dwell anymore. If the step-child has never lived with
»him from the beginning, no mourning is worn for him" '.
Tie third decree,
»>This mourning of the Coarse Fabric", says the Code, ^is
» indicated by this name because coarse material is used for it
»upon which, however, some labour has been spent It is worn
» for nine months , because such a lapse of time marks the dying
» away of living nature" *.
It must be worn in the following cases*.
1. »By a paternal grandfather — for his grandsons bom of their
» father's wife proper, as also for such granddaughters , if they
»are still living in their father's house.
2. »By a paternal grandmother — for all her grandsons, includ-
»ing the Continuator.
3. » By parents — for the wife of each of their sons , as also for
» their married daughters.
4. » By a paternal uncle and his wife — for the wives of that
» uncle's nephews, as also for that uncle's married female nieces.
5. »By a woman — for her husband's paternal grandparents.
6. »By a woman — for her husband's paternal uncles, and for
» the wife of each of them *.
^ (23) i^m^m^ji.^m^i^^iii±u^'
(2*) ^ ^ ^. :5fe't ^ ^. 4 T> ^ Jg *. g * :5
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RELATIVES NOW MOURNED FOR IN THE THIRD DEGREE. 555
7. » By an adopted Continuator — for his own brothers , and also
» for his own paternal aunts and sisters who live in the paternal
y> dwelling.
8. » By the wife of an adopted Continuator — for her husband's
»own parents.
9. »For the sons of paternal uncles, as also for such of their
y> daughters as live in the paternal house.
10. »For married paternal aunts, and for married sisters.
11. »For a brothers son who has been adopted by others as a
» Continuator.
12. » By a married woman — for her own paternal uncles and
» their wives.
18. » By a married woman — for her own brothers and their sons.
14. »By a married woman — for such of her own paternal aunts,
» sisters and brothers' daughters as are living in the paternal
» dwelling" ^
The fourth degree,
vFor this mourning is to be used the Fine Fabric cloth which
» is of finer texture and upon which labour has been bestowed.
»It is to be worn for five months in the following cases:
1. »For paternal grandfather's brothers, and their wives*.
The mourning for the members of the family in ^hich he was born is
accordingly reduced by one degree in consequence of his adoption by others: comp.
the present clause with nos. 9 and 10 of the second degree, and no. 12 of the
second degree with no. 1 ,of the first.
(9) IS a :^ ^ ^ >t ^ . ^^ IE ^ #.
(") Hi ^ ic. ^ * ^ ji ^ 2i^ ji ^ :t ^ .
^*
2 /j> ^ ^ ^ ;fl5 ^ ^ jgffl /h . /j> ^ i ^ :
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556 THB GRAVE.
2. »For a son of a paternal grandfather's brother, and for the
» wife of such a son.
3. »For a grandson of a paternal grandfather's brother, as also
»for a granddaughter of the latter, if she lives in the paternal
y> domicile.
4. » For a married daughter of a paternal uncle (comp. p. 555, no. 9).
5. »For the grandsons of a paternal uncle, and for each of his
» granddaughters who live in the paternal home.
6. » For a paternal grandfather's sisters who live in the paternal
» house.
7. »For a daughter of a paternal grandfather's brother, if she
» lives in the paternal house.
8. » For the wife of a brother.
9. » By a paternal grandfather — for the wife of his grandson
» who is the Continuator.
10. »For brothers' grandsons, as also for brothers' granddaughters
» who live in the paternal home.
11. »For maternal grandparents.
12. » For the parents of one's step-mother, if she lives in the clan.
13. » By sons of concubines — for the parents of the wife proper,
» if she is still alive.
14. » By sons of concubines — for the parents of their step-mother,
» if she has not left the clan ^.
4
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RBLATIVES NOW MOURNED FOB IN THE FOURTH DEGREE. 557
15. » By a son of a concubine — for the parents of his own mother,
» unless he has been appointed by his father to be the Con-
» tinuator of the family.
16. » By an adopted Continuator — for the parents of his adoptive
» mother.
17. » The said maternal grandparents mourn in return in this degree.
18. » Brothers and sisters of any mother mentioned in the above
» clauses (nos. 12 — 16) are mourned for, and mourn in return ,
»in the same way as if they were brothers and sisters of one's
»own mother by blood (oomp. no. 21).
19. y> An adopted Continuator reduces the mourning for his own
» mother's relatives by one degree.
20. »For brothers and sisters of one's mother.
21. )>For a sister's sons; and for a sister's daughters living in the
y> paternal house.
22. » By a woman — for each grandson of her husband's brothers ,
vand also for every granddaughter of her husband's brothers
»who lives in the paternal home.
23. » By a woman — for her husband's paternal aunts and for his
y> sisters , whether living in the paternal home or married.
24. » By a woman — for her husband's brothers and their wives.
25. » By a woman — for each grandson of her husband's paternal
)» uncles, and for such of their granddaughters as live in the
)> paternal home\
i^)m.i^^}if^.i^^}tf^zm
i^)m.i^^n^yLf^z^.^i^^m^
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558 THE GRAVE.
26. » By a married woman — for the sons of her own paternal
» ancles , and for such daughters of the latter as live in the
» paternal house.
27. » By an adopted Continuator — for his married paternal aunts
» and married sisters.
28. » By a grandson , even though he be the C!ontinuator , and
» by a granddaughter living in the paternal home — for such
» of their paternal grandfather's concubines as have given birth
» to children.
29. » By a concubine who has given birth to a son or a daughter
» still alive — for the paternal grandparents of her master" *.
The fifth degree.
This mourning is »of silky hemp, the weaving threads of which
» are worked and are just as fine as silk threads. It is worn for
» three months , this being the duration of one season" ^
The cases in which it is to be worn are the following:
1. » By a paternal grandfather — for the wife of each grandson,
» excepted that of the Continuator (comp. page 556, no. 9).
2. » By a paternal great-grandfather and his wife — for each great-
» grandson and each great-granddaughter, and also for every
» son or daughter of a great-grandson.
3. » By a paternal grandmother — for the wife of each grandson,
» whether he be the Continuator or not.
4. » For one's wet nurse '.
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RELATIVES NOW MOURNED FOR IN THE FIFTH DEGREE. 559
5. »For a paternal great-grandfather's brother, and for his wife.
6. » For a paternal great-grandfather's sister , if she lives in the
» paternal house.
7. » For the sons of a paternal great-grandfeither's brother, and for
» their wives.
8. » For every daughter of a paternal great-grandfather's brother,
» who lives in the paternal home.
9. »For the grandsons of a paternal great-grandfather's brother,
»and for their wives.
10. y> For a granddaughter of a paternal great-grandfather's brother,
>> if she lives in the paternal house.
11. »For the great-grandsons of a paternal great-grandfather's
» brother, and also for such great-granddaughters of the same
»a8 live in the paternal house.
12. »For a brother's married granddaughters.
13. »For a brother's great-grandsons; and for such of his great-
» granddaughters as live in the paternal house.
14. »For the great-grandsons of a paternal uncle; also for the
» great-granddaughters of a paternal uncle who live in the
» paternal house.
15. »For every great-grandson of paternal grandfather's brothers,
»and also for every great-granddaughter of the latter who
» lives in the paternal home\
1
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560 THB OEAVB.
16. »For a paternal grandfather's married sisters; also forthemar-
» ried daughters and married granddaughters of a paternal grand-
» father's brother.
17. »For the married granddaughters of a paternal uncle.
18. »For the sons of a paternal aunt.
19. » For the sons of a maternal uncle.
20. » For the sons of a mother's elder or younger sisters.
21. » For the parents of one's wife.
22. »For a daughter's husband.
28. » For a daughter's sons and daughters.
24. » For the wives of a brother's grandsons.
25. » For the wives of the grandsons of a paternal uncle.
26. » For the wives of the sons of a paternal uncle.
A woman has to wear this mourning for the following kinsmen
of her husband:
27. » For his paternal great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather,
»and for their wives.
28. »For his paternal grandfather's brothers and their wives;
»also for his grandfather's sisters who live in the paternal
» house ^.
29. »For the sons of his grandfather's brothers, and for the wives
mi^mziit-^'
(22)^^.
(23) ^^l^:^, ^ix:n'
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KINSFOLK NOW MOURNED FOR IN THE FIFTH DEGREE. 561
»of those SODS; also for such daughters of his grandfather's
» brothers as live in the paternal home.
30. »For the sons and daughters of his paternal uncles, and for
» the wives of those sons.
31. » For every great-grandson of his grandfather's brothers, and
» for their great-granddaughters who live in the paternal house.
32. » For the married granddaughters of his paternal uncles.
33. » For the wife of each grandson of his paternal uncles.
34. » For every great-grandson of his paternal uncles, and for their
» great-granddaughters who dwell in the paternal house.
35. » For the wives of his brothers' grandsons.
36. » For the married granddaughters of his brothers.
37. » For his great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons ; also for
» each of his great-granddaughters and great-great-granddaugh-
» ters who live in the paternal home.
38. » For his brothers' great-grandsons and great-granddaughters.
39. »For all his relations belonging to another tribe, for whom
» he has to wear the mourning of the fourth degree" \
A woman who has seceded from her clan by marriage has to wear
the fifth degree of mourning for the following members of this clan :
zm-
<:'^)m.i^^ni&}tf^Z'f'.iK^mn-
(^^)m.i^^n'^}if^'f'Zm-
(^)m.i^^n'^yt^zm.i^m±z^mm-
(^)m.i^^}if^mzm-
^^')m.i^^)tf^z^:k\nm^
<^'^m.i^iiZtm'itm.i^^m^7tm±
(^)m.i^^)tf^z^m.^m^n-
(^)m.i^^z^h^m^m^m'
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562 THE GRAVE.
40. »For her paternal grandfather's brothers and their wives, and
»also for her paternal grandfather's sisters who live in the
» paternal dwelling.
41. »For the sons of her paternal grandfather's brothers, and for
» the wife of each of them ; also for such daughters of her
» paternal grandfather's brothers as live in the paternal home.
42. »For each grandson of her paternal uncles, and for each of
» their granddaughters who dwells in the paternal house" ^.
Besides the five degrees, the Ta Tiing luh 1% mentions an extra
mourning, consisting in » bearing the breast and wearing a tape of
linen around the head"*. It is to be worn for kinsfolk who do not
fall within the five degrees. When attending the burial of such people,
» a plain dress" ^ ought to be worn therewith. The Code also quotes
a rescript from the Ta Tiing hwui Hen, to this eflFect: »If a man
» attends funeral rites, he removes the red tassels from his cere-
» monial cap , and a female then puts oflF her ear-rings" *.
The registers of the relatives that are to be mourned for in the
five degrees embrace in the first place what the Chinese consider
to be a clan with the exclusion of the dead, viz. a tsuh (^),
which the reader must not confound with a tsung, mentioned on
p. 511. The word tsuh seems to have a plural sense, and to mean the
generations which compose a clan; indeed, the Ta TsUng luh It, like
Chinese works in general, when speaking of a clan, often calls it » the
nine tsuh"', meaning thereby all the generations from paternal
great-great-grandparents down to great-great-grandchildren, as they
are arranged in the Table on the opposite page. In order to facilitate
comparison with the Table which we have placed before our readers
on page 535, both are drawn up in the same manner.
2 %^ ^ . It is mentioned also in the Li ki (see page 528), and in the / li
(see page 532, note 3).
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MOURNING WORN FOR THE MEMBERS OF FATHEr's CLAN. 563
Great-great-Grand&ther ) „ cia
His Wife l"^^-
By the Continuator, 1 7.
Orealrgrand&ther, J „ ^a
His Wife, j"^^-
By the Continuator, I 7.
Great-grand&ther's Brothers ) ^ (.
Their Wives. { ^ ^*
Great-grandfather's Sisters, V 6.
Grandfather),, ..
His Wife j"^^'
By the Continuator, 1 7.
Grandfather's Concubines, IV 28.
Grandfather's Brothers ) j^ m Sons of Great-grandfather's
Their Wives S Brothers 1^„
Grandfather's Sisters, IV 6. Their Wives ( ^ ''
Daughters of Great-grandfather's
Brothers, V 8.
Parents, I i.
Step-mother j
Foster-mother j 1 4.
Adoptive Mother)
Father's Concubines who
are not childless, ni.
Uncles )^g
Their Wives J "^•
Aunts, n 9.
|V9.
Sons of Grandfather's Grandsons of Great-grand-
Brothers I TV 9 father's Brothers
Their Wives J Their Wives i
Daughters of Grandfather's Granddaughters of Great-
Brothers, IV 7. grandfather's Brothers,
V10.
SELF. Brothers, HI 0,1 4. Uncles' Sons, IE 9. Grandsons and Grand- Great-grandsons and Great-
Wife, n 4. Their Wives, IV 8. Their Wives, V 26. daughters of Grand- granddaughters of Great-
Sisters, II 9, 14. Uncles' Daughters, IH 9. father's Brothers, IV3. grandfather's Brothers, Vii.
The Continuator ( „ ^ Brothers' Sons, U 10, Uncles' Grandsons, IV 5. Great-grandsons and
His Wife { " "• 14 ; HI 11 . Their Wives, V 25. Great-granddaughters
Other Sons, H 6. Their Wives, HI 4. Uncles' Granddaughters, IV 5. of Grandfathers' Brothers, V 15.
Their Wives, HI 3. Brothei-s' Daughters,
Daughters, n 6. 1110,14.
Grandson, being the Brothers' Grandsons, IV 10. Uncles' Great-grandsons (
Continuator, U 5. Their Wives, V 24. Uncles' Great-granddaughters J
His Wife, IV 9, V 3. Brothers' Granddaughters, IV 10.
Other Grandsons, IH 1, 2.
Their Wives, V 1, 3.
Granddaughters, HI 1.
V14.
Great-grandsons )^^ Brothers' Great-Grandsons \v ao
eisj * *• Brothers' Great-Granddaughters) ^ ^'
Great-granddaughtei i
Great-great-grandsons | „ <.
Great-great-granddaughters)
Monming now-a-days worn for the Members of Father's Clan, also by Women who live therein.
The aim of the official rescripts on mourning being in the first place
to foster in the tsuh subjection to parents and elders, and also
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564
THE GRAVE.
coherence and mutual devotion between its members, it is natural
that the registers should contain but few kinsmen who are mem-
bers of other clans. In order to enable our readers to convince
themselves of this at a glance, and to see that such kinsmen were
to be mourned for only in the lower degrees, we insert here a
table of the mourning to be worn for former clan-members received
into other clans, and for their descendants; it offers a strong con-
trast with the table on page 563.
Paternal Grandfather*s Sisters, V 16.
Re-manied Step-mother, 11 8.
Widowed Mother, re-married, II 2.
Divorced Mother, II 3.
Paternal Aunts, III 1 0. Daughters of Paternal
Grandfather's Brothers, V 46.
SELF. Sisters, III 10. Sons of the Above, V 1 8. Granddaughters of Paternal
Daughters of Paternal Uncles, IV 4. Grandfather s Brothers, V 16.
Daughters, III 3. Sisters'Sons, IV 18, 21. Granddaughters of
Daughters* Husbands, V22. Sisters' Daughters; IV 21 . Paternal Uncles, V 1 7.
I Brothers' Daughters, III 4.
Daughters' Sons ) ^ oo Brothers' Granddaughters, V 12.
Daughters' Daughters (
Moarning worn for former female Clan-members received into other Clans, and for their Oispring.
The samei may be said of the following Table, in which are
arranged the few members of mother's clan that are to be mourned for.
Maternal Grandparents, lY 11, 15, 16.
Step-mother's Parents, IV 12, 14.
Sons of Concubines, for the Parents of
their Father's Principal Wife, IV 13.
I Mother
Step-mother
Maternal Uncles and Aunts, IV 18, 20.
SELF Sons of the above, V 19, 20.
Mourning worn for Members of the Clan in which Mother was bom.
This matter is furthermore brought out in the clearest light by
the two following Tables, which show the great difference existing
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MOURNING IS ESPECIALLY WORN FOR ONE S OWN CLAN.
565
between the mourning a married woman must observe for her
•husband's clan, which has become her own in consequence of her
marriage, and that which she has to wear for her fether's ckn, of
which she was formerly a member.
Great-great-grandfather and his Wife, V 27.
If the Husband is the Continuator, I 7.
Great-grandfather and his Wife, V 27.
If the Husband is the Gontinuator, I 7.
Grandfather and his Wife, III 5, IV 29.
If the Husband is the Gontinuator, I 7.
Parents, 1 3, n 18, m 8.
Step-mother |
Foster-mother j 1 4.
Adoptive Mother )
Father's Concubines who
are not childless, n 1.
Grandfather's Brothers j
Their Wives j V 28.
Grand&ther's Sisters )
Uncles and their Wives, III 6. Sons of Grandfather's Brothers ]
Aunts, IV 23. Their Wives I ^ qq
Daughters of Grandfather's/
Brothers )
Husband, 1 8. Brothers and their Wives, IV 24. Uncles' Sons
By a Concubine, for her Sisters, I V 23. Their Wives } V 30.
Husband's Wife, U 1 7. Uncles' Daughters 1
SELF.
The Gontinuator and
his Wife, n 6.
Other Sons, II 6.
Their Wives, HI 3.
Daughters, H 6.
By Concubines, for the sons
of the Wife and their own, H 19
No mourning.
Brothers' Sons 1116.
Their Wives, 111 4
Brothers' Daughters, II 16.
jlCmanied, ni4.|
Uncles' Grandsons, IV 25. Great-grandsons and Gi'eat-
Their Wives, V 33. granddaughtei-s of Grand-
Uncles' Granddaughtei's, IV 25. father's Brothers, V 31 .
Ifmarried,V32.|
Grandsons, EI 2.
Their Wives, V 3.
Great-grandsons and Brothers' Great-grandsons and
Great-granddaughters, V 37. Great-granddaughters, V 38.
Brothei*s' Gmndsons, IV 22. Uncles' Gi*eat-gi*andsons and
Their Wives, V 35. Great-granddaughtei-s, V 34.
Brothers' Granddaughters, IV 22.
I If married, V 36. 1
Great-great-grandsons and
Greatrgreat-granddaughters, V 37.
A Woman's Mounung for the Members of her Husband's Clan.
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566
THE GRAVE.
Great-great-grandparents, 11 22.
Great-grandparents, II 21 .
Grandparents, II 11.
Parents, II 13. Uncles and their Wives, m 12.
Aunts, in 14.
Grand&ther*8 Brothers J
Their Wives | V 40.
Grand&ther's Sisters )
Sons of Grandfather's Brothers
Their Wives
Daughters of Grandfather's Brothers
V41.
SELF Brothers, in 13.
Father's Continuator,
U15.
Sisters, m 14.
I
Brothers' Sons, m 13.
Brothers' Daughters, in 14.
Uncles' Sons and
Daughters, IV 26.
Uncles' Grandsons and
Granddaughters, V 42.
A Married -Woman's Monming for the Members of her Father's Clan.
All the above Tables, when compared with those given on pages
535 et sqq.y place it beyond a doubt that the cardinal political prin-
ciple underlying mourning in ancient times not only remains intact
in the modern rescripts , but has even been carried by modern legis-
lators to its utmost limits. Considerable modifications have, however,
been made in the registers, which have been partly pointed out on
page 550. We will not enter into all these particulars, as we are
not here making a comparative study of family life in ancient and
modern China; but shall confine ourselves to noting that the special
clauses which the mourning registers of the / li contain for grandees
and officials, are entirely wanting in the lists of the Ta TsHnff luh li,
so that these lists are evidently intended for all classes of society,
high or low. The said clauses were also wanting in the Codex of the
Khai yuen period. We likewise search the lists of the present
dynasty, and those of the House of Ming, in vain for any special
clauses regarding those who die under age, although they were still
retained in the Khai yuen Codex. Considering that it is not
customary now-a-days to wear regular mourning for such minors,
the silence of the actual books of law on this subject justifies the
conclusion that no mourning is required for them by Government.
In describing the place mourning occupies in China as an insti-
tution of the State, we must also refer to the part it plays in the
official administration of punishments for crimes. In strict accord-
ance with the great political principle that the distinctions of
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PUNISHMENTS FOR CRIMES, REGULATED BY MOURNING.
567
rank between high and low in the clan must be maintained to
their utmost limits, legislators have adopted as a fixed rule that
for one and the same crime there must be different punishments,
varying in severity according to the mourning the perpetrator has
to observe for the victim. When the latter fells in a higher class,
the punishment must be increased proportionally, and if in a lower,
it must be diminished. It will be useful to illustrate this by exam-
ples. Let us take some cases of beating or kicking with hands or feet,
stated in the 27th. and 28th. chapter of the Ta Tiing luh li. If
this crime is committed by a wife or a concubine against her hus-
band, the punishment is fixed respectively at one hundred or ninety
blows with the long stick, and if the husband has incurred a fract-
ure or wound in the quarrel, the punishment shall be three degrees
heavier than if the woman had treated in the same way a person
who is no kinsman of hers. But if, on the contrary, the husband
beats his wife or concubine, without inflicting fractures or wounds, the
assault is not punishable at all , and if he causes fractures or wounds,
his punishment shaU be either two or four degrees lighter than in
the case of the same injuries having been afflicted by him on a person
not belonging to his kinsfolk ^. Beating or kicking grandparents or
husband's grandparents or parents is punished with decapitation;
but for the same offence committed against grandchildren, children
or daughters-in-law, no punishment is demanded by the law. The
Code further devotes two sections to an enumeration of the pun-
ishments to be inflicted for beating or kicking such relatives in
the four lower degrees of mourning as stand on a higher level
in the hierarchy of the family than the perpetrator of the deed
i Whereas, in making quotations ih>m the Ta Tsing luh liy we shall many a
time have to refer to its several degrees of punishment, we insert here once for all
a summary of them, as given at the head of the Code, in the 2nd. and 4th. chapters :
ist degree
10 blows with
11th.
degree
): 60 blovi^ with the long stick and one
the short bamboo stick.
year's banishment.
2nd. degree
: 20 such blows.
12th.
»
70 such blovi^ and 1 Vs years* banishment.
3rd.
»
30 » »
13th.
»
80 » 9 » 2 » »
4th.
»
40 » »
14th.
»
90 » » » 2V« » »
5th.
»
50 » »
15th.
»
100 » » » 3 » »
6th.
9
60 blows with
the long stick.
16th.
»
100 » » 9 transportation for life
to a country 2000 miles distant.
7th.
»
70 such blows.
100 such, blows and transportation to a
8th.
»
80 » »
distance of 2500 miles.
0th.
»
90 » »
100 such blovi^ and transportation to a
iOth.
»
100 » »
distance of 3000 miles.
17th.
»
strangulation or decapitation.
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568 THE QBAV£.
himself; but it has no punishments for those who beat or kick
inferior kinsmen in those degi*ees, notwithstanding it threatens with
twenty blows all persons who beat or kick people who are not mem-
bers of the family. The punishments for all sorts of crimes being
regulated in a corresponding manner, the list of relatives who are
to be mourned for in the five degrees forms an indispensable vade-
mecum for every mandarin who has to give judgment; and there-
fore for very good reasons it is placed at the head of etich edition
of the Ta TaHng luh li by way of introductory chapter.
As a matter of course , the governors of the Chinese nation fully
conceived from the beginning that the realization of their great
object to regulate the relations of clanship would not be secured
by simply telling the people which mourning dresses to wear, and
which persons they were to mourn for in the several d^rees. They
had to take more effective measures in order to force the people into
a proper observance of mourning. In the first place, penal laws were
enacted, threatening with punishments those who neglect mourning,
and furthermore, the governing classes were obliged to observe the
rules of mourning most faithfully, thus silently inducing the people
to follow their example.
The Ta TsHng luh li has:
» When one knows that his father or mother has died , or when
» a grandson who is the Continuator of his family is acquainted
» with the decease of one of his paternal grandparents , or a woman
» (wife or concubine) with that of her husband — if then such a
» person keeps the fact a secret and shows no signs of distress,
»a punishment of sixty blows with the long stick, followed by
» banishment for one year, shall be inflicted. And if, ere the
» rescripts of mourning have l)een observed to the end , such a per-
» son puts off the mourning dress and behaves as if not in mourning,
» forgetting grief, making music, clubbing together with others for
» amusement and enjoyment of festive meals — eighty blows with
» the long stick shall be administered" ^. The oflBcial commentary
adds, that a woman also subjects herself to this law if she violates
in any of the above ways the mourning for her husband's parents.
4
® T^ Ji: ^ *. tit >^ + ^-^. ^n «d*«?> ^
Chapter 17, § |i|^#^||.
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LAWS AGAINST NEGLECTING MOURNING. 569
» A punishment of eighty blows shall likewise be inflicted upon
»any one who, knowing of the death of a relative who ranks
» higher in the hierarchy of the family than he (or she) does and
»for whom he (or she) has to observe mourning for one year,
» keeps the case secret and shows no signs of grief. And the
» punishment shall be sixty blows for whomsoever has, in such a
»case, put off his mourning dress before having observed the
» rescripts on mourning to the end , and has thereupon behaved as
» if not in mourning" ^
The fact that the Code of Laws demands no punishment at all
for people who neglect mourning for their kinsmen whose rank in
the clan is lower than their own (that is to say, for sons and
daughters, younger brothers and sisters, younger cousins, younger
cousins once and twice removed, and the descendants of any of
these) is a decisive proof that the chief object which the Government
has in view in enforcing a faithful observance of the rescripts
on mourning by its laws, is the maintenance of the submission
and devotion to those who are invested with authority in the clan.
In the parts of China which have formed the field of our re-
searches, scarcely any one would think of wearing a mourning coat
for a kinsman one generation lower in rank : no parent does so for
his child, no uncle for his nephew. But an elder brother mourns
for a younger, a brother for his unmarried sister, an elder cousin
for a younger one, and so forth, because such relations stand on
the same level in the family genealogical table.
We have no means of ascertaining whether similar articles also
existed in the laws of previous dynasties, as none of the codices
issued by them have ever come under our eyes. But we may with-
out much hesitation presume this to have been the case, consider-
ing that all the dynasties have displayed great anxiety in codifying
the mourning rescripts, in order to their faithful observance by
the people, and adding to this the fact that the present dynasty
has copied nearly all its laws and institutions from bygone ages.
But more effectually than by written laws have succeeding dynasties
endeavoured to further a proper observance of the rules of mourning
by obliging the governing classes to set a good example in this
respect The Sons of Heaven in the first place set themselves up
87
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6tO tH» GEAvfe.
as paragons. Already in the most ancient times of the Empire , we
have seen on page 480 , Wu Ting secluded himself in a mourning
shed till in the third year, without indulging in conversation with
others, which, according to commentators, implies that he did not
occupy himself even with the affiiirs of state. Such abjuration of the
government seems to have been established as a rule , for the Li ki
(chapter 13, 1. 20) states: » Confucius declared that in ancient
» times , when a Son of Heaven died , the heir-son left the admin-
» istration to his prime Minister till in the third year" ^. By thus
refusing to accept the reins of government immediately after their
father's death, or — which is exactly the same thing in des-
potic China — to take possession of the Empire as their private
property, the emperors evidently acted in obedience to the doctrine
that everything which a man possesses while alive, continues to
be his property after his death. And mourning being, moreover,
in point of fact nothing else but a renunciation of wealth in behalf
of the defunct, an imperial heir-son who properly observed mourn-
ing could not do otherwise than decline the great patrimony, until
the mourning period, the time of renunciation of all wealth, was
entirely past.
During the Cheu dynasty such a line of conduct was followed also
by feudal rulers. In the Li ki (chapter 68, 1. 20 and 21) we read:
» After the burial a feudal prince may speak of the affairs of his
» sovereign liege-lord , but not of those of his own principality. He
» does not deliberate about the administration of his state until silk
» has been assumed by him at the end of one year" *. According
to the Historical Records, »the ruler Chao of the feudal kingdom
» of Wei named the year in which his three years' mourning was
» completed (295 B. C.), the first of his reign" *.
Still now-a-days it is officially prescribed in the Statute rituals
of the Empire that the Son of Heaven should mourn in a proper
manner for his deceased parents. As soon as an Emperor has breathed
his last, the Crown Prince and his consort, the Empress Dowager,
Section ^^,11, 2.
Section Jl ;^ IE » "'
mentary.
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Mourning duties o^ thb imperial family. 571
the Concubines, and others immediately remove the ornaments from
their heads, and after the fuller dressing of the corpse assume complete
mourning attire of white linen , the same being done by all the
imperial children and grandchildren. Every one of them has his
hair cut off previously. At the death of his father or mother, the
Emperor mourns till in the third year and dwells in a shed of
mate erected in a side-room; he does not bestow any care on his
hair until the hundredth day, when he also changes his dress for
a better suit. But he does not defer his ascension to the throne.
This ceremony is solemnized without delay on a lucky day \
During the epoch of Cheu it was not only the feudal rulers
who gave up administering their domains when in mourning. A
similar line of conduct was followed by the officers of the State.
This will appear quite natural if we take into consideration that
the position of an officer in his province did not virtually differ
from that of a vassal. He probably exercised therein an authority
almost unlimited, being entitled, as is still the case at present, to
squeeze as much income out of ite inhabitante as he could. And
this income had to be devoutly renounced by him, when in
mourning, like all other personal property.
In the Li ki (ch. 27, 1. 46) we read: » Confucius said: * During
» the reign of the House of Hia , those who had to mourn till in
»the third year resigned their public duties when the temporary
» burial in the dwelling had been completed. Under the dynasty of
y> Yin they did so after the final burial. Is not this in accordance
»with what the Records say: *A superior man does not take from
» men their devotion for their parente, nor may men divest themselves
» thereof" *. This concluding sentence shows that the matter in question
was regulated by this double moral principle: a sovereign might not
prevent any officer of his from resigning his office at the death of
a parent, and the dignitary himself was bound by the laws of
morals to resign in such a case.
The obligation to resign public duties in order to. observe the
best possible forms of mourning, extended in ancient China to all
the relatives of the five degrees. The lA ki (chapter 19, 1. 21) has:
i See the Ta Tsing fung li, chapters 47 and 48.
^^ifc > lit :S H ^. Section -§• ^ Pg, 11.
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572 THE GRAVE.
» Those who moum for their father or mother do not execute their
» duties in the government service for three years , and those who
» moum in the second degree , or in the third , do not do so for
» three months"*. And as to lower officials, the same work says
(chapter 55, 1. 87): » Those who are in the three years* mourning
» execute the duties of government when the Sacrifice of Felicity
»ha8 been offered. Those who moum for a year do so when the
» period of wailing is closed , those mourning for nine months ,
» after the burial , and those mourning in the two lower degrees ,
» after the temporary burial in the house"*.
Of all customs created by holy ancestry not one perhaps has
been transmitted so carefully, and maintained so devoutly in
spite of the tooth of time, as the one which now occupies our
attention. During the Han djmasty it was observed so scrupulously
that emperors found themselves obliged to reduce the length of
the mouming periods for officers, lest the administration of the
Realm should suffer too much under the general mouming zeal.
We infer this from some passages in the Standard Annals of
that epoch. Turning over the leaves of the biography of Tih
Fang-tsin ', a statesman of high repute who lived in the latter
half of the last century before our era, we read that )>at the
» death of his step-mother he put off his mourning attire thirty-
» six days after her burial , and then re-commenced attending to
»the duties of his office; for he conceived that he might not in
» his quality of prime Minister to the House of Han himself pre-
» sume to transgress the rescripts of the Empire" *. What these
rescripts were is told us by Yen Shi-ku ^ the chief commentator
on those annals : » Ever since the testamentary dispositions of the
^#iil:- Section i^,V.
nzmwcmm^^.A-^mznwcnm^^^
Section j^ Ig, H, 1.
^ # H H « . :?» tit It SB ^ :t «d- Books of the Eariy Han
Dynasty, chapter 84, 1. 5.
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MANDARINS RESIGN THEIR OFFICE WHEN IN MOURNING. 578
» Emperor Wen were carried out, these dispositions had been
» adopted for the whole Empire as statute rules, so that the moum-
» ing of the third, fourth and last degree had lasted fifteen, fourteen
» and seven days respectively'* ^. Turning now to the chapters of the
same work which contain the biography of the said sovereign, we
learn that before his demise, which took place in the year 157
before our era, he decreed that » mourning for him should be
»put off after there had been worn for him, since his interment,
» a dress of a deep-red (brown) colour for fifteen days, a pink attire
»for fourteen days, and a silk one for seven"* — which makes a
mourning of thirty-six days in all.
The above episode in the life of Tih Fang-tsin is interesting in
another respect. The period of mourning for parents having been
reduced so considerably for officials for nearly one century and a
half —7 the time between the emperor Wen and Fih Fang-tsin —
and this simply on account of a regulation which an emperor had
enacted with a view to himself alone, we see that in those times it
was deemed unseemly and arrogant on the part of servants of the
State to mourn for their parents longer than was allowed for the Son of
Heaven. Consequently, mourning for emperors was esteemed of higher
importance to them than that for their own father or mother.
Resigning public duties when in mourning was the order of the
day not only during the Han dynasty, but also during all succeed-
ing Houses. The Standard Histories give numerous instances of such
resignations, even on the death of brothers and sisters, though
younger than the mourner, of grandparents, paternal uncles, nay
of brothers' sons, and teachers. It would be monotonous and tedious
to the reader if evidence of this assertion were placed before him
in the shape of extracts. Hence we shall confine ourselves to refer-
ring merely to the JiA cki luh ^ a very large collection of jottings
gleaned from authoritative works and cast into the shape of
dissertations which are highly useful for our knowledge of China
ancient and modem. This work contains in its fifteenth chapter a
3|S HB , The same work, chapter 4, 1. 19. See also the Historical Records, chapter
10 1. 17 and 18.
3 0^^.
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574 THE GRAVE.
choice collection of such extracts from historical sources, under the
heading : » Resigning office in the mourning of the second and third
degree" ^
The Books of the Later Han Dynasty show that already as
early as the first century of the Christian era the emperors
took measures with a view to restraining the carrying of this
ancient usage to an exaggerated pitch. They inform us that
the governor Chao Hi*, having in A. D. 65 »lost his mother,
» presented a petition to the Throne, praying that he might be
» allowed to perform in his own person the mourning rites. But
» the Emperor Hien Tsung would not grant this, and sent an emis-
» sary to him , to make him put off the mourning" ^. We see from
this that duties towards the State, or, which is the same thing in
China, towards the Son of Heaven, were then placed above those
towards parents. How matters stood in those times is still more
clearly depicted by the following episode , related in the same work :
»In the second year of the period Yuen ch^'u (A. D. 115) Liu
»Khai replaced Hia Khin as Minister of Revenues, From old
» the rescripts forbade high ministers, and the governors in the
y> several parts of the Empire who had an income of two thousand
» stones of rice, to celebrate the three years' mourning for their
» parents, and this had led to the officers both in the metropolis and
y> the provinces no longer observing any mourning at all. Therefore,
»the Empress Dowager Teng in the said Yuen ch^u period issued
» a decree to this effect , that high dignitaries and officers of lower
»rank who should neglect the mourning for their parents, should
»not come into consideration for an appointment as commander
» of a city, nor for promotion in rank.
)> About that time a memorial was presented to the Throne,
» advocating that the said decree should be declared of force also
» for the governors in the several parts of the Empire. This matter
» was referred to the high Ministers. After deliberation, they arrived
»at the conclusion that such a measure would not tend to facili-
»tate government, and Khai stood alone among them, with the
» following argument. 'Rescripts r^ulating the wearing of mourning
^^^MW^' Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 56, 1. 18.
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MANDARINS RESIGN OFFICE WHEN IN MOURNING. 575
»are called into existence by imperial written ordinances with
y> the object of raising the nation to a higher stage of perfection
» and of disciplining the customs , in order that a great expansion
y> may be given to the principles of subjection and devotion (hiao).
»A governor is placed in his province to stand as a model to
»the whole country; leaders of the people, who enjoy an income
» of two thousand stones of rice and are invested with authority
»over a thousand miles of territory, are officially bound to cri-
» ticise the conduct of the people and to improve it , in order to
» beautify manners and customs in every respect. Consequently, it
»is they in the first place who should stand as paragons to the
» people in respecting and observing the statute rites. The magnates,
» discussing the matter in question, have not gone to the bottom
» of the principles underlying it. They have declared that the decree
» ought not to be extended unto the governors ; but this is like pol-
» luting the springs of a stream , in hopes of rendering limpid that
y> stream itself, or like bending a thing, in order to make it assume
» a straight shape : — acting thus , th6 object is missed'. The Em-
» press Dowager acted in conformity with this advice"*.
The highest officers of the Realm were thus again obliged to
resign their posts when in mourning for their parents. Yet this
r^ulation lasted only a few years, as »the emperor Ngan in the
» first year of the Kien k wang period (A. D. 121) prohibited high
» ministers, and officers with an income of two thousand and more
^:5 jW ^ ^ # tf H # 51. *;i ft ^F^it^lS
31 jfi. 7C ^ 4» 11*0 ^. ;^ 1^ « T :?^^^17 Ji
^ iS . ^ W # ife . iC j^ ^ :^ • Bo"'^ •'f ^l"" La*«' Han Dynasty,
diapter 69, 1. 12.
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576 THE GRAVE.
» stones of rice from wearing the three years' mourning"'. »But
» in the second year of the period Yung hing (A. D. 154) the
» emperor Hwan again allowed governors and officers with an in-
» come of two thousand stones of rice to observe the mourning of
» three years .... yet in the second year of the period Yen hi
» A. D. 159) he forbade such servants of the State to do so" *. It
seems that during the Tsin dynasty there came a decided turn in
the irresoluteness of the Sons of Heaven in this matter ; at least we
read in the historic sof that period: »Ching Moh lost his mother.
»0f old the laws prescribed that one should resume his official
» duties when the burial was completed; but Moh personally pleaded
» and begged so earnestly, that after a considerable time he ob-
» tained the desired permission. Thereupon the law was altered and
» a rescript made of the matter ; and hence , since Moh's time , it
»has been lawful for high officers to celebrate their mourning
» rites to the end" \
That the stress laid upon the obligation of servants of the State
to mourn properly for their deceased relations was far from trifling
in China, is proved by the fact that there are instances on record
of officers having been punished most rigorously by the imperial
hand for not having resigned their posts at a parent's death. Suffice
it to quote the following episode, which speaks volumes. »In the
» third year of the T^'ien chMng period (A. D. 928) one Ming
»Shing, archivist in Hwah-cheu, kept secret his mourning for his
» mother. The High Court of Justice condemned him to immediate
» transportation for life ; but a special imperial edict decided
» that he should commit suicide , and that such of the officers of
» investigation as had made the enquiry, and also the judges,
» recorders and secretaries who had been negligent in examining
^ |ft . Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 5, 1. 18.
m . . . ^ Ji - ^ =Sf ilT $1] A - ^ ^ ft H # 51 . The
same work, chapter 7, 1. 7 and 10.
Books of the Tsin Dynasty, chapter 44, 1. 4.
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MANDARINS ARE PUNISHED FOR NEGLECTING MOURNING. 577
» into the matter^ should all undergo palace-punishments" ^. j» Having
» inherited the Throne", thus the edict ran, »We cling to the
» Imperial plan of government; that is to say, in administering
y> the Realm We resolutely explore the very sources whence all
» moral improvement springs and , in tracing out Our line of con-
»duct, always give precedence to the roots from which all virtue
» grows. Much importance do We attach to a vindication of the
»laws of the Empire, in order properly to regulate the relations
» which exist among mankind. Ming Shing wore the gown and
» cap of the official class and of the . learned ; nevertheless he
» entirely neglected the cultivation of virtue. Coveting fame and
» official revenues, he kept the mourning for his mother a secret
» and observed it not — how can a son of man tolerate such a
» thing! He has become a blot on the morals of the time and done
» injury to the doctrines of the illustrious Sages. The five punish-
» ments are heavy indeed , and it is difficult to be lenient to the
» ten heinous offences. It has been proposed to cast him out into the
» wilderness; but the best thing he can do is to leave this world.
» Therefore We allow him (i. e. order him) to commit suicide" *.
During the dynasties which occupied the Throne subsequently,
matters remained in the same state, that is to say, it continued
to be lawful, nay obligatory, for officials to resign their posts
when in mourning; but at times the emperors forbade their doing
so. Thus we read that Wang Yen-seu *, who lived in the eleventh cent-
ury, while in function as a magistrate of King-cheu*, »was informed
» of the death of his younger brother two months after the event.
I»* #$:^^l+^.# ft mi- Old History of the Five Dy-
nastiee, chapter 39, 1. 10.
=i «: ^ > il *i * Ifl: . flT ^ i ^ • •^»'' *"• ^"^ ' '•'"p*'"' *^
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578 THB GRAVE.
j^and then resigned his post to return to his native place" ^ During
the Yuen dynasty, in the year 1275, »Ch*^en Yen, governor of
» Hwai-tung, requested to be relieved of his official functions, that
»he might complete the three years' mourning; but no such per-
» mission was granted him*. In the fourth year of the Yen yiu
» period (A. D. 1317) the Censorate reported that, when officials
» started for home when in mourning for a kinsman, the people
» became thereby disquieted and disturbed. It therefore proposed that
» this should be prohibited , in order to put an end to matters
» taking their own course; however, the prohibition should not
» extend to aged and veteran officials at Court, to whom a special
y> imperial permission might be granted to leave for home. This
» proposal was adopted by imperial edict *. And in the third year of
*>the period Chi chi (A. D. 1323), it was ordained by the Emperor
» that medical functionaries and the officers charged with divination
»and the direction of the workmen, should not leave their posts
» when in mourning" *.
When the House of Ming ascended the throne, it was customary
for mandarins to resign their posts at the death of relations who
had to be mourned for only in the second degree. Giving ear to
his Board of Civil Office, T*^ai Tsu, the founder of the dynasty,
restricted a custom so detrimental to good administration in the
Realm. In the Standard History of that epoch we read: »In the
» twenty-sixth year of the Hung wu period (A. D. 1398), the
» rescript according to which one should hurry to the mourning of
» relatives of the second degree for one year, was abolished. Up to that
» date, all the mandarins were allowed to hurry off on receiving intel-
» ligence of the death of a grandparent , a paternal uncle , or an
» elder or younger brother; but at this time the Board of Civil
» Office memorialized the Emperor as follows: 'It being permitted
'ISmM^^M.mtM^' History of the Sung Dynasty,
chapter 342, 1. 5.
the Yuen Dynasty, chapter 8, 1. 23.
^^f^^SEMIWo^HPT-'^® ^™® "^^^^' chapter 26, I. 4.
same work, chapter 28, 1. 42.
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ON MANDARINS RESIGNING OFFICE WHEN IN MOURNING. 579
^ to hurry to the mourning of all the relations for whom the one
» year's mourning is to - be worn , in order to observe the pre-
)>cepts» it sometimes occurs that mourning has to be worn by one,
» and the same person for five or six years in succession , and more-
» over , several thousands of miles have to be travelled by him. Con-
» sequently, the number of (officials in active service is daily decreased,
)> alterations and changes are numerous, and the service is neglected
)»in many vacant posts. Henceforth, except in cases of mourning
»for parents, or for grandparents of whom one is the Continuator,
y> it must not be permitted to hurry to the spot in any case of
)> mourning for one year, and the party concerned must simply
)>send an emissary to present sacrifices to the defunct'. This pro-
y> posal was assented to" ^
Although he checked the mourning zeal of his mandarins, T^ai
Tsu manifested a great deal of sympathy with officials who had to
resign office on the death of their father or mother. »In the ele-
»venth year of the Hung wu period (A. D. 1378), Tsang Cheh,
» Civil Governor of Kwangsi province, resigned his post because of
» his mother's death. The Emperor remembered him , and sent to him
» a special envoy with a gift of sixty stones of rice and twenty-five
» ingots of paper money. Thenceforth every official who resigned
» at the death of a parent to settle at home , was rewarded with
» presents. In the first month of the seventeenth year of the same
» period (A. D. 1384) he ordered the Board of Civil Office to
» allot to any mandarin in mourning who had served five years, half
» the salary pertaining to his title and rank, if he had shown himself
.V disinterest^ and active, had not enriched himself and was with-
»o\ii private shortcomings and transgressions; further, mandarins
y> who had been in service three years were to be paid their full
» salary for three months" *.
Wi^o i&^' ^^ry of the Ming Dynasty, chapter 60, 1. 24.
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580 THE GRAVE.
Finally we come to the dynasty now seated on the throne of
China. Its view in regard to the matter which now occupies our
attention will be best understood from the laws and ordinances
it has called into existence on the subject.
» When an officer in the provinces receives intelligence that he
»has come under the obligation of the three years' mourning, he
y> howls on the arrival of the message of death. Then addressing
» the messenger , he enquires after the cause of death and wails
»anew, giving the fullest vent to his grief; and this done, he
» changes his dress for a mourning suit , in accordance with the
» rules of mourning expounded above. After having informed the
» other magistrates of the death , he hurries off without delay.
» He sets out (every morning) while the stars still shine over his
» head , and does not interrupt his journey until the stars again
y> become visible. On the road he wails whenever grief overcomes
» him , but he represses his wailing in market-places and towns.
» He likewise wails when , about to arrive, his eyes espy the country,
»the walls of the capital of the province, department or district,
»and his native place.
)»0n reaching the dwelling he wails again. After having passed
» through the gate he ascends the western steps, leans on the
» coffin with his face turned to the west, howls, and stamps his
»feet. The women, their faces turned eastward (standing on the
mother side of the coffin), wail and stamp an unlimited number
y> of times , and after a short time the superiors and inferiors amongst
» the family members also face each other and pour out their
» lamentations. This done , he enquires in detail about the causes
y> of the illness and death , and thereupon wails again , after which
»he unbraids his hair and bares his feet. The women, however,
» do not bare their feet. On the next day he assumes full mourn*
»ing dress and ties up his hair in a knot, the women coiling up
» theirs, and all affix the hempen headband thereover" \
"^ ^ ^ ^ "^ ^ ^jj^. Jih chi luh, chapter 45.
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ON MANDARINS HURRYING HOME ON THEIR PARENTS* DEATH. 581
The above rescripts contained in the Ta T'sing fung li have been
copied almost verbatim from the lA ki, the book vsrhich, as our
readers know, has served the present dynasty as a groundwork for
most of its rites and ceremonial institutions. A whole section therein,
forming the great part of the 70th. chapter of the Khienlung edition ,
is entitled : Hurrying to Mourning Rites \ and gives elaborate rules
of conduct for those who are hastening to the obsequies of parents,
husbands and kinsmen further removed, with detailed rescripts as
to the demeanour to be observed by the mourner in the event of
his arriving before the burial, after the burial, and after the mourn-
ing rites have been completed. We deem it superfluous to repro-
duce this chapter , as Legge's complete translation of the Li ki is
within the reach of those readers who may desire to acquaint
themselves therewith.
The T^ung li further prescribes that » mandarins in active service
)»who lose a relation other than father or the mother that gave
» birth to them , and therefore have not to hurry to the scene of
y> death , shall , on receiving the intelligence , change their dress for a
» plain mourning attire, prepare a tablet for the soul of the defunct,
» and perform the wailing. Each of them shall wear in his private
» dwelling such mourning as is prescribed in his case; but, when
» he enters the gates of an official building or performs the duties
»of his office, he shall wear his ordinary dress. Those who mourn
» for a year shall not take part in any official audience or sacrifice
y> until the end of that period , and on the last day thereof they
» shall put off mourning in their private dwelling, after having
» wailed there before a soul-tablet of the dead" *.
fSi^^.WiAM.WtKiBB- rar»tnfff««ffK. chapter 52, 1.10.
1 ^ A,
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68^ tHE GRAV*.
Mandarins as well as the common people are threatened with punish-
ments by the laws of the Empire if they venture to neglect the mourn-
ing for their parents. The Ta T(ting luh 1% has the following articles * :
» Mandarins at the death of their father or mother must (resign
» office and) perform the mourning. Should one of them falsely pre-
)>tend that it is only a case of death of a grandparent, paternal
» uncle or aunt, elder brother or elder sister, and not go and
» perform the mourning, he shall receive one hundred blows with
» the long stick and be dismissed from his office , never more
» to be employed in the service of the State.
»If a mandarin who has no such mourning to perform, his
» father or mother being still alive, falsely pretends that such a
» mourning has befallen him , or falsely represents a long past case ot
» death of his already encoffined father or mother' to be a fresh
» case , he shall be punished in the same way as if he had ne-
» glected to perform the mourning for such a relative" '. The para-
phrase says : » If in such a case he charges himself with mourning
»and abandons his post, he is unfaithful to his Sovereign, and
» this is equally as bad as a want of hiao for his parents*. There-
» fore the punishment is the same in both instances" ^.
»If a mandarin violates the (above) laws for any other reason,
» the heaviest of the penalties to which he would then be liable
» shall be inflicted upon him" •. This means, according to the
commentaries: if he lies under an accusation of having committed
malversations with regard to the public funds and therefore does
\ Chapter 17, § ^%^ ^%.
2 The reader will no doubt remember that, among the richer clasaes, enco£Bned
coi-pses are very often kept unburied for a very long time; see pages 105 et sgg.
4 Gomp. page 508.
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LAWS AGAINST MANDARINS l^EGLEGTI^G MOURNIllG. 583
not set off to perform his moarning , desiring first to have the
matter cleared up; or if, expecting difficulties because of having
rendered himself guilty of such malversations, or because of incom-
petent management of public affairs, he absconds under the pre-
text of having lost his father or mother — in these and such
like cases he shall be subjected to the punishment incurred by
the crime which induced him not to start for the mourning or
to start under a false pretext, if this punishment be heavier than
that incurred according to the two above clauses of the Law. Other-
wise he shall receive the hundred blows and be dismissed.
»Any mandarin who, indifferent to grief, resumes the duties of
»hi8 office ere the mourning rescripts have been observed by him
»to the end («. e. before the twenty-seven months have elapsed),
» shall receive eighty blows with the long stick and also be dismissed
;»from his office.
» The colleagues of any mandarin in the (three) instances above, who,
y> knowing the circumstences of the case, have allowed him to have his
»own way, shall all undergo the same punishment; but they shall
» not be punished if they were not aware of the circumstances.
y> Mandarins administering distant regions shall begin their moum-
)^ing in the very month and on the very day the intelligence
»of. death reaches them. They do not, however, come under the
» above articles of the law as to repressing grief or leaving for
» the homestead, (they having to wait for a special imperial permission
» to go home)" \
The above articles are followed in the Code by a series of bye-
laws or sub-ordinances, of which -we here insert a short digest A
letter of leave must be issued to every mandarin who leaves his
post, by the Provincial Gtovemment or, if he serves within the
precincts of the Metropolis, by the Board to which he belongs. —
A &therless mandarin is obliged to retire from office on the death
of his grandfather or grandmother {materfamilias) if he is their
Continuator, as persons in this quality have, as our readers know (see
p. 549 no. 7), to observe towards their grandparents the same degree
of devotion as towards their parents. — An adopted Continuator must
^ ^%m^m.mM^^^.^A^^'^^^^^
1li^'^m'nn^mmn.^%nn.^^^^^'
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584 THE GRAVE.
leave on the demise of the parents who have adopted him. — When
the twenty-seven months have elapsed, the mourner must return
to his post without delay. Should he not do so, but remain quietly
at home, he shall be delivered up for punishment to the Board
to which he belongs. — A mandarin who is fatherless may leave
on the death of the mother who bore his father, further on the
death of a fatherless uterine brother of his father , and on that of a
fatherless son of his paternal grandfather's brother ^. — An adopted
Continuator must leave on the death of his own father and mother.
In all these cases the mourner must return to his post at the end of
one year, the time of the journey not included. — If a mandarin
in any of these cases of death neglects to report it, or retires
from office under a false pretext of having sustained a loss of
that kind, he shall be dismissed. — In order to prevent or, at
least, easily discover any transgression of these rescripts, every
mandarin who has been adopted by another family, must register
at the Board to which he belongs the names of the members of
the family in which he was bom, for three generations upward,
and state accurately which members are dead and which are
alive. — Finally, the bye-laws forbid all students for civil and
military appointments to compete at the great examinations for the
public service when they are in mourning for their own parents
or grandparents, until one year has elapsed since the demise.
If they do so, and the matter is discovered after they have been
successful , they shall be punished with the same degree of punish-
ment as the Law prescribes for keeping secret the mourning for
parents.
It is worthy of notice that the Code of Laws is by no means
so severe on military officers of the Realm in enforcing the above
stipulations as on their civil colleagues. Only those above the rank
of Ts^'an-tsiang* — a degree corresponding to that of Lieu-
tenant Colonel — are bound to conform to them ; all those of lower
rank are granted leave of absence for six months only, or, if the
mortuary house be far away, for eight months^. The reason for this
difference is obvious: the chief duty of a lower military officer is to
keep the people in subjection by brute force; he has not, like a civil
1 It will be easily seen with the help of the Table on page 563, that the said persons
are the highest family authorities for a man whose Neither and grand&ther are dead.
3 See the commentary on the same section of the Code of Laws.
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ON MILITARY MANDARINS RESIGNING OFFICE WHEN IN MOURNING. 585
mandarin, to attend to the moral education of the people by setting
an example of filial subjection and devotion. Another reason is , that
in the good old times military servants of the State were allowed
only a short mourning furlough, sometimes none at all. In the
Chen It we read: »When an ordinary official is entrusted with a
» military post, the Controller of such officials takes care that he shall
» perform the wailing for his dead; but none of them may leave his
»post"^ And the Li ki says (ch. 27, 1. 46 and 47): »Tszg-hia
» asked: *In the three years' mourning no one resigns his military
» duties when the period of wailing is past; is this in conformity
»with the rites, or not?' Confucius answered: *I have heard
»Lao Tan say that Poh-khin, the ruler of Lu, engaged in such
^service at a time when there was a reason for his doing so,
» (his throne and realm being seriously endangered by enemies) ;
» but I do not know whether now-a-days it is allowed to act
»fhus in the three years' mourning, even though an advantage
» might be gained thereby' " *. The Master by his manner of
speaking not having decidedly forbidden active military service while
in deep mourning, it is — then such is the reasoning — perfectly
lawful to engage in it.
The modern mourning attire at Amoy,
At the risk of wearying our readers with a tedious subject, we
must, in using our best endeavours to attain completeness of
description , devote a few pages to the mourning dress of the modem
Chinese, for which purpose we have chosen Amoy and its environs
as our model. This dress to a certain extent constitutes a good
commentary upon the ancient attire, being designed from the
latter in so far as the people are capable of imitating it by the aid
of the details in the / li and the Li ki, which are, however, as
our readers have seen, extremely ambiguous on many points. The
descriptions of the ancient dress, reproduced on pages 493 et aqq,,
will be much better understood if the following pages be read
with attention.
1 n ±>ii±:t^^^^9^.Dll*^Chapter31,M4.
^^% ^ ifc. Section -g- ^ pg, II.
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586 THE GRAVE.
Our description of the present mourning attire will show that,
in this respect, the inveterate conserYatism of the Chinese race
abnegates itself in no small degree. The nation's idiosyncrasy of
closely imitating everything bequeathed to posterity by the holy
ancients has indeed not been strong enough to prevent the people
of the present day from indulging in considerable deviations from the
mourning dress of olden times, which cannot be properly ascribed to
a wrong understanding of the ancient works.
Mourning having always been regulated by devotion , respect and
submission to parents and elders, which virtues the nation expresses
by the word hiao, pronounced ha in Amoy, mourning attire is
there denoted by the terms ha «a**\ »hiao clothes", ^xAhahok^^
>>hiao attire", and the wearing thereof by uha^, »to have hiao",
or tod hd^y »to wear hiao around the waist". These terms show
that mourning and hiao have become almost synonymous.
The deepest mourning dress, supposed to be designed also from
that which is prescribed by the Code of Laws for the mourners of the
first degree (comp. page 547) , is made of the fibres obtained by tearing
hempskin asunder very rudely, or by combing it very insuffici-
ently. The weaving threads prepared from these fibres are twisted
but little, sometimes not at all, and cannot be said to have been
spun. Both in the warp and the weft of the textile the threads are
so far separated from each other that the cloth could not serve for
musquito-curtains, there being no more than four to a centimetre.
Being unbleached, it retains the natural dirty-brown colour of the
rough hempskin. It is the coarsest textile the Chinese possess
and, except for mourning clothes, is used exclusively for bags des-
tined to hold things of inconsiderable weight. Hence comes the
name of sack-cloth , by which many European authors have designated
it. Amoy people call it mod^, »hemp", or modpq^, >> hempen textile".
These names are given also to grass-cloth, when, as is often the
case, it is used for mourning garments.
The principal article of this attire is a coat or cloak of sack-
cloth, called mod sa^'' or » hempen coat", which reaches to just
below the knees and has very wide sleeves (See PL XIV, a). On
the breast is a large flap, which is fastened under the right arm
by one or two sets of hempen strings, roughly twisted; for buttons
i^#. 2^ji. ^^#- ^^#.
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PI -XIV'
.Articles of deep Mourning Dress.
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THS DEEPEST MOURNING DRESS AS WORN IN AMOY. 587
of even the poorest kind would be too good for this dress. The seams
are basted in the roughest manner with large stitches. The edges of
the pieces, which form the seams that run down the middle
of the back and breast , peep out when both parents of the wearer
are dead; but if the coat is worn for a father or mother whilst
the other parent is still living, they peep out, in the former
case, on the breast and, in the latter, on the back only. Below,
all around the edge, the coat is unhemmed, and ravelled on
purpose, a few threads of the weft having been pulled out; but,
in order to prevent its ravelling out too much, a fold is basted
all along the edge, at the distance of about a finger's breadth. To
the collar, which is simply a broad fold basted around the neck,
is sewn on each side a square sheet of sack-cloth, measuring two
decimetres by two and a half, which falls loose on the shoulders.
These pieces, however, are wanting when the coat is worn by a
female mourner , or by a male mourner under age. Excepting this ,
the coat is the same for any mourner of both sexes in the first degree.
On comparing this cloak with the shabby coat of ancient
China as reproduced according to the rescripts on pages 493 and
496, we perceive at a glance that it is to a considerable extent
an imitation of the latter, both with respect to the material and the
make. Only the piece on the breast and that on the back are wanting.
The jen, or sheets anciently hanging down from the sides of the
body to cover the splits then made in the skirt on the right
and left, are no longer worn on the present day. The same is the
case with the waistrope and the twisted girdle (see pp. 494 and 495),
these being replaced by a broad strip of hempskin freshly torn
from the stalks and not subjected to any manipulation. When tied
around the waist, this strip has the knot either in front or behind,
with the ends hanging down loosely, mostly as low as to the heels ,
because it is written in the Li ki (ch. 54, 1. 5): »In the third
» degree of mourning and the higher degrees, a girdle is worn which
» hangs down loosely" ^.
Male mourners wear with this coat a so-called » hempen helmet",
mod khoe^ (PI. XIV, c and d), the military helmet of the Code of
Laws (see p. 547). To get a fair idea of it, the reader must picture
to himself a small square bag of sack-cloth , placed upon the head in
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588
THE GRAVE.
Fig. 26.
such wise that the corners stand up on the right and left; further,
let him imagine that all around the edge of this cap, where it
fits close to the head, there runs a rather thick rope of straw or
twisted hempskin, which is covered with sack-cloth, and that this
so-called mod taod ^ or
»hempen snake" is fasten-
ed to the cap; finally, that
a similar piece of rope
passes over the middle
of the cap from the front
to the back of the head,
being fastened in these
two places to the other
piece, and that it presses
the cap a little down-
wards between the two
upright comers. From
the rope which goes
around the head there
hangs down over each
ear, and also in front
and at the back, a square,
unhemmed piece of sack-
cloth, measuring only a
couple of inches. These
four pieces obviously
represent much larger
sheets which were intend-
ed to hide the entire
face and the ears of the
mourner, so as to render
him inaccessible to any
kind of impression from
without; for it beseems
not the mourner to have
eyes or ears for anything but the loss he has sustained. Whether
these sheets really had a greater length in bygone ages, we have no
means of ascertaining. In order to stop their ears more completely
(in theory), the mourners, if nubile or married, have on each
Male Mourner of the First Degree, with Soul Streamer
and Mourning Staff.
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THE ATTIEE OP THE DEEPEST MOURNING AT AMOY. 589
side of the helmet a pellet of sack-cloth hanging down by a thread.
These instruments bear the name of hl-d fat \ » ear-plugs". Though
they are not prescribed by the Code of Laws as necessary append-
ages of the mourning cap , they are mentioned therein in the fol-
lowing words: »The people of the present generation wear three
» pellets of cotton; but it is not known upon what this custom
» rests. Some say, they serve to prevent the ears from hearing and
» the eyes from seeing" *. Ear-plugs are mentioned also by the Li hi
as forming a part of the semi-mourning of the first degree in an-
cient China (comp. p. 500).
A pair of ordinary straw sandals, such as farmers, coolies and
such like people of the poorest classes wear when at work,
complete this deep mourning costume (PL XIV, / and g). They are
tied to the feet with ordinary hempen strings. The feet ought to
be bare, but fashionable people are seldom orthodox enough to obey
this rule. They do not feel any qualms of conscience in wearing
their ordinary stockings, but cover them on the top of the feet
with a small shred of sack-cloth, as if to change them in this way
into stockings of that material.
The dress of female mourners of the first degree is as follows.
Their coat is exactly similar to the one described above, with-
out the shoulder-pieces. Further they wear a so-called » hempen
skirt", mod kun ' (PI. XIV, b), which represents that of antiquity
described on page 496. It is of the same sack-cloth of which the
coat is made , and the edges of the pieces of which it is composed
peep out from the perpendicular seams on the inside of the skirt,
evidently in obedience to the rule set forth by the / li (see page
496). The lower border is ravelled out, as in the case of the coat.
Properly speaking, this skirt is little more than an oblong sheet,
sewn on to a broad doubled band of sack-cloth, which is tied
round the waist by means of a couple of hempen strings at the two
top comers. That it now forms no part of the male mourning dress
seems to be a deviation from ancient custom, for it is nowhere
said in the ancient books that the skirt was a special article of
dress for women.
•^ B 3j5 'fii ifc • ^^ T^'tngr luh li, chapter H, 1. 35.
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500 THE ORAYE.
Instead of the )>hempen helmet", females wear what people
call a » hempen cover'*, mod kdm ^, or » cover for the head",
kdm fdo • (PL XIV, e). This consists of two oblong pieces of sack-
cloth of the same breadth, but of difiFerent lengths; a long and a
short side of one piece are stitched to the corresponding sides of the
other, in such a manner that the edges in the two seams remain
visible on the outside. The other two edges of each piece are not
hemmed, and consequently ravel freely. This cowl is so large
that, when placed upon the head, it renders this part of the
body entirely invisible and even hides the face; on the back it
reaches nearly to the waist, and the comer stands erect upon
the skull. It is evident that, just as in the case of the hempen
helmet, it is intended to embody the idea that the person who
wears it is so full of sorrow as to be perfectly deaf and blind to
everything around.
The shoes which the women wear with this costume, do not differ
from those they wear in ordinary times, except thai a narrow piece
of sack-cloth is fastened to the edge of the shoe where it fits around
the ankle.
The staff, which played such a prominent part in mourning an-
ciently and is still an object of much attention with the modern
legislator, has been reduced by the people to a mere shade of
what it was originally. It is no more than a thin stick of bamboo ,
rattan or wood, of scarcely an arm's length, pasted all over with
thin curls of white paper, which are perhaps intended to repre-
sent the female hemp wherewith it was adorned in ancient China
(see page 404). Its name is ha CHg ', » mourning staff", but the
people generally call it ford be^, » rabbit's tail", a term originally
given to it in jest, probably because of its being so ridiculously
short. It is now used exclusively at interments, and may then be
seen in the hands of every son who follows in the funeral proces-
sion (see p. 103). After the coffin has been lowered into the pit,
they all throw away their staves, upon which somebody sticks
them in the ground, in a row, at the head of the pit. Here
they remain, until decayed away by rain and weather (page 211).
It is not improbable that this custom has something to do with
the following rather ambiguous passage in the Li H (ch. 57, 1, 32):
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THE ATTIEB OP THE DEEPEST MOURNING AT AMOY. 591
»A11 the sons carry the stafiF.. . Those who cast it away break
» it and fling it forth in some unfrequented spot" ^
It would be a waste of time and space to point out in how far
the modern Chinese deviate with regard to their deepest mourning
attire from the rescripts dictated on the subject by the Code of Laws.
These rescripts having been reproduced on page 547, the reader can
make the comparison for himself. But we must not omit stating
the fact that the wearing of that 7nod h6h ^ or » hempen dress", as
it is commonly called in the popular tongue, is restricted to a few
occasions only. These are:
1. When fetching water for washing the dead, and collecting ashes
at the neighbours* doors, which two ceremonies have been
respectively treated of on page 14 and page 24.
2. When the mourners go out to meet the empty coflSn in the
street, as has been described on page 88. The male mourners
then have their hair flowing dishevelled down their backs, and
the women have no ornaments or pins of any kind in their
coiffure.
3. During the burial, when even very young babes are wrapped
up in sack-cloth garments (page 193 aeq^. The hair is then
worn as in the foregoing case.
4. On the third day after the burial, when the nearest relations
visit the grave, there to perform certain ceremonies which will
be described in our Second Book.
5. During the great sacrificial 'mass interspersed with Buddhistic
ceremonies, already referred to several times in this work and
which we shall describe in detail in our Book on Buddhism.
The dress in question is then put on each time the sacrifices
are to be presented to the deeid.
Thus the deep mourning dress being by no means constantly
worn until the close of the mourning period, it is a ceremonial
attire in the true sense of the word. As a natural consequence
of its having to be put on so seldom, by far the greater number
of people do not possess it. Some well-to-do families excepted, it
is simply hired for a few coppers at the undertaker's shops men-
tioned on page 13, whenever wanted.
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592 THE GRAVE.
The reader must not suppose that this shabby attire of deep
mourning is worn next to the skin. This may have been the
case originally, in very ancient times, when people were still
on the borders of savage life and the principle of denudation under-
lying mourning was carried out to the letter. Now-a-days the
mourners always wear their ordinary body-clothing underneath it.
As may be seen from page 499 , the sack-cloth attire was during
the Cheu dynasty replaced after the burial by a dress of finer
quality, made of the fibres of the Dolichos plant, which was pro-
bably worn thenceforth as an everyday dress till the first anni-
versary of the demise. A corresponding dress survives at the present
day. It is, however, mostly of good linen or cotton which, being
neither bleached nor dyed, has the light yellowish-brown colour
nature lent it, and consequently represents an absence of all em-
bellishment, which is one of the first requisites of mourning.
It turns quite white after having been washed a couple of times;
but this is by no means a reason for the mourner to discontinue
wearing it.
The cut and make of the coat of this attire are perfectly like
those of the sack-cloth coat. It has, however, no shoulder-pieces , and the
sewing is better done, almost as well as for non-mourning dresses.
Mopeover, it has gOod cloth buttons and loop-holes, like those de-
scribed on page 49; but custom forbids its having buttons of
metal, these being considered too costly for a mourning dress.
Amongst the fashionable classes it is longer than the coat of sack-
cloth, being as long as the »long cloakV described on page 48;
with the middle and lower class, however, it does not reach fur-
ther than halfway down the thighs. Like the sack-cloth coat, it is
ravelled out along the lower border, and the edges of the pieces
peep out from the seam either on the breast or the back, or on
both , which explains why it is popularly called satn pq sa^ ^, » coat
with jagged seams".
With this coat, the people say, ought to be worn a pair of
breeches of the same material. In reality , however , everybody wears
with it any breeches he likes, provided they be not of silk, nor
of such bright colours as at other times in general the Chinese
are particularly fond of wearing; red in the first place custom
peremptorily forbids. The shoes are shaped like those worn by
«>•
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THE EVERYDAY DRESS OP MOURNERS OP THE PIR8T DEGREE. 593
non-mouraers, but they are of the same or a similar material
to the coat. And as for the head-gear: — if a skull-cap (see
page 48) is worn, it must be of an ashy colour, and the bunch
of cords on the top must be white. Other caps or hats are
not in general changed, a tape or strip of white linen or cotton
being simply wound round them. The threads braided in the cue
are likewise of white linen or cotton.
Female mourners of the first degree wear a sam p6 sa^ similar
to that of the men, and add a dark-coloured skirt, with shoes of
Unen or cotton. They dress their hair as in ordinary times, care-
fully avoiding , however , golden , gilded or coloured ornaments , and
confining themselves to the use of hair-pins of bone or silver of very
simple make. Customary law also forbids their wearing natural
flowers in their hair, for it is a prevalent opinion that any mourner
of the first degree who picks a flower before the twenty-seven
months have elapsed, thereby furthers the decay of the corpse in the
grave. No doubt this superstition is owing to the belief in the
mysterious connection between the dead and trees or plants, of
which we have spoken on pages 469 et sqq. Artificial flowers which
are not red , reddish , or pink , are not forbidden by custom.
The above-described attire, in which silk may under no pretext
whatever be worn, either by the men or by the women, is the every-
day dress for mourners of the first degree, and is worn as such
until the end of the twenty-seven months.
It is needless to say that the sam p6 sa^ is another form of the
sack-cloth coat, from which, as we have seen, it scarcely differs,
either in cut or in shape. Probably sack-cloth was originally the
exclusive attire for mourners, being afterwards replaced by such
better material as was found to harmonize with the refinements of
civilisation, but which was put on only at times when there were no
ceremonies to be performed for the dead. It is perhaps to be attri-
buted to this close relationship between the two coats in question
that even now many orthodox mourners have a square piece of sack-
cloth sewn inside the breast of the sdm pq sa^ , a sheet representing
the breast-piece of the sack-cloth coat of ancient times (see p. 496)
and being also prescribed by the Ta T^Hng luh It.
Whenever a Chinese of the fashionable classes appears in sack-cloth
attire, he wears a sdm pd aa^ underneath it. He then also wears a so-
called fdo-peh ^ or A>head- kerchief", which is a piece of unbleached Imen
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594 THE GRAVE.
or cotton, unhemmed, folded up diagonally a couple of times, so
that it resembles a swaddling-band about six centimetres broad, from
which a triangular point peeps out in the middle. In front of this
point a small scrap of sack-cloth is inserted between the folds,
and the kerchief is fastened around the head in such a way,
that the said point stands erect over the forehead. For this reason
the kerchief is called sam-kah kun \ » kerchief with a triangle".
When worn, it is scarcely visible, the » hempen helmet" being
put on over it. It passes for a most important article in the
mourning attire, its use being traceable to high antiquity, for
the Li ki says (chapter 12, 1. 29): »Dolichos cloth is worn as a
» headband with the helmet , and thus they proceed to the funeral
»of the dead; for this is the right way to keep up intercourse
» with the soul , and a proof that feelings of reverence are enter-
» tained" •. Female mourners wear no such headband , but instead
of it put on, underneath their hempen cowl, an inner cowl of
unbleached linen or cotton. This is of similar cut and shape, except-
ing that the two pieces of which it is composed are not of different
lengths.
As has been set forth on page 499, during the CJheu dynasty the
deepest mourning dress was replaced by a slighter mourning attire
at the end of one year after the decease, and again by a still slighter
one at the end of two years. This rule still prevails now-a-days.
When on the first anniversary of the demise the usual sacrifice
has been presented in the house of mourning to the tablet wherein
the soul resides — a ceremony in which all the principal mourners
take an active part — the white threads braided in the cues are
changed for blue ones, and the skull-caps or hats, and also the
shoes , are replaced by others of a slightly coloured material, mostly
by light blue ones, though other tints are allowed, red and red-
dish excepted. Also the women change their head-gear on this
occasion , observing corresponding rules. Gaudery, and love of show
and tinsel, which are features pre-dominating in the character of
the well-to-do Chinese, have now full scope. The mourner has shoes
made in which white, grey, blue, and other sedate colours are
tastefully and harmoniously blended. He purchases some skull-caps
2 #)^ :l ifS ^ . H «ljl ^ ;^i:ifc , ^JRAi^ ii- Section
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THE DRESS OP SEMI-MOURNING. 595
of any sedate colours he thinks will be pleasing in the eyes of his
fellow townsmen, giving a preference to those which are adorned
with a black or white trimming stitched along the border, and for
the sake of show he frequently changes his cap for one of another
colour. And in winter, when overcoats cannot be dispensed with,
he will have such a coat made of some good , dark coloured linen ,
cotton or woollen textile produced in his own Flowery Fatherland
or in the countries of the barbarians beyond the seas. Chest-
nut colour is specially fancied, light blue, red and bright colours
being still severely prohibited by custom. The coarse sam pq sa^
ought to be worn underneath the overcoat, for, theory says, it should
not be put ofiF before the twenty-seven months have elapsed; but
most mourners do not put it on, as the overcoat would hide it
entirely from view. In short, the fundamental principle of mourning,
according to which it should consist in wearing the coarsest and
poorest possible clothing, is much abused now-a-days.
And when another sacrifice is presented to the soul on the
second anniversary of the demise, black strings are braided in the
cues, and the everyday dresses of ordinary times are once more assumed,
but silken stuffs and red colours are still prohibited. The women
may now begin to wear in their hair artificial flowers of a pink
or rosy colour, in lieu of the soft blue ones with which they have
ornamented it in the preceding year.
Finally comes a sacrifice in the course of the twenty-seventh
month, on an auspicious day fixed by the almanac or a » day-
professor". On this occasion all mourning is put off for good
and replaced by a dress of silk, that is to say, by such people as
can afford to wear such costly material. The threads in the cue
are then exchanged for red silk in those parts of the country where
it is customary to wear red in the cue in ordinary times. Up to
this date, wearing silk in any form whatever is systematically
avoided, even in spite of the fact that during the good old Cheu
djmasty the use of such material was allowed at the end of the
first year (see p. 499). This does not, however, necessarily imply
that the mourning rescripts are severer now than they were at that
time. For, the choice of clothing material was much more restricted
in pre-Christian ages than at present, woollen textiles, broadcloth
etc., now imported in enormous quantities from abroad , being
then entirely unknown in China.
As shown on pages 488 aeq,, wearing ornaments on the body during
the period of mourning was anciently severely forbidden by custom.
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696
THE GRAVE.
So it is now-a-days. Armlets and finger-rings wherewith so many
men and women adorn themselves under ordinary circumstances,
are scrupulously laid aside; but this rule does not extend to objects
which pass for amulets and preservatives against the attacks of
invisible malicious beings and are usually worn by the men
upon their breasts, and by the women suspended from the heads
of their hair-pins, or from their bracelets and anklets. In many
cases such charms are of
^^' * silver, being designed to
serve at the same time as
ornaments; yet this does
not oblige the wearers to put
them ofiF when in mourn-
ing. For, the colour of silver,
though bright and joyful,
is not considered incon-
sistent with the simplicity
of mourning, and besides
— would it really not be
demanding too much of
good people who have sus-
tained a loss by death, that
they should increase their
misery by exposing them-
selves defenceless to the at-
tacks of the invisible powers
of evil?
We now come to the
dress for mourners of the
second degree.
It consists for both sexes
of a coat shaped like the
hempen coat of the first
degree, but the threads of
the textile it is made of are
Male Mourner of the Second Degree.
not so far distant from each other, there being both in the weft
and the warp from six to eight threads to the centimetre. The name
of this stuff is dzl mod^, »hemp of the second quality", and
^nm-
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THE DRESS OP THE SECOND DEGREE OF MOURNING. 597
the coat is popularly called dzi mod sa^^, »coat of second-rate
hemp". The coat furthermore differs from the hempen coat of
the first degree in this respect that it has no shoulder-pieces and
has the whole lower border hemmed; moreover, the edges of the
pieces which meet in the seams, all peep out therefrom on the
inside of the garment. This is so in obedience to the ancient rule
that mourning garments of the second degree should be trimmed
(see page 511). The coat is worn exclusively on those occasions
when mourners of the first degree appear in hemp (page 591),
and a gown of unbleached cotton or linen is then invariably put
on underneath it. This gown, called peA pb sa^^, » cloak of white
Unen or cotton cloth", is of the same shape as the blue gown or
thff «a« worn by non-moumers, which we have had occasion to
describe on page 48. Notable persons and fashionable people of
the middle class generally have such a garment in store in their
wardrobe, because they all have to use it often for paying visits of
condolence, or when following more distant relatives, acquaintances
and friends to the grave, or when they have to lend a helping
hand in preparing dead bodies of such persons for the grave. The
peA pb sa^ of female mourners is shorter, has very short, though
spacious sleeves, and is, moreover, of a somewhat different make
in front, in order that it may bear a resemblance to the jackets in
fashion with women when not in mourning. A woman who wears
the dzi mod «a« generally has on also a petticoat of the same kind
of sack-cloth. This is in shape perfectly like the corresponding
garment of the first degree, but hemmed along the lower border.
As to the head-gear belonging to this dress — for the men it
is a cap of dzi ?nod, shaped like a little square bag, the corners
of which stand up to the right and left when it is placed upon
the head. A kerchief of unbleached cotton or linen , folded up into
a scarf of about a hand's breadth, then goes around the head
over the place where the cap fits, and is knotted behind in such
a wise that the two ends hang down a little over the neck.
Cap and scarf together constitute what people call a lao-pao *, which
seems to mean »an envelope" or » enwrapping". It does not form
a part of the mourning attire for women. They wear an outer
cowl of dzi mod, with an inner cowl of unbleached cotton or
linen , both shaped like the corresponding articles for the first degree
1 MJft#- 2^1^#- 3>^>^.
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698 THE GRAVE.
of mourning; but they are hemmed, and the edges of the two
pieces of which the cowls are made, protrude from the seams on
the inside.
Straw sandals are not seldom worn with this attire. Custom
permits, however, of their being replaced by shoes of the ordi-
nary shape , made of yellowish unbleached linen and with bindings
of bleached material.
The occasions on which this costume is worn complete are the
four last of those enumerated on page 591. Many a woman on
visiting the house of death before the burial , wears the pih ph m^
alone, but male mourners scarcely ever do so.
The rule dictated by the / li and the Ta TsHng luh li that a
staff must be carried for certain relatives who fall within the
second degree of mourning, is practically conformed to only by
husbands, for their wife, and alone when her corpse is being
conveyed to the grave. The widowed husband then walks in front
of the coffin (see page 195), carrying a rough, plain stick, pasted
all over with white paper. Any sort of wood or bamboo is
deemed suitable for it and often the first stick or object resem-
bling a stick, that can be laid hold of, is taken; sometimes it is
longer than the man who carries it, at other times it is shorter.
The reader may see from this that no regard is paid to the ancient
rescripts which have been reproduced on pages 494 and 512. The
staff is styled in the popular tongue khok Ban tiong \ » howling and
mourning staff". In conformity with the Ta Ta^'ingluh It (see p. 552,
no. 4) , widowers abstain from carrying it if either their father or
mother be still alive. This rule owes its existence to the Li ki, which
says (ch. 54 , 1. 3) : » No staff is carried for a wife if either father
»or mother be still alive, nor is respect shown her by bowing the
»head to the ground" *. Another chapter of the same work (70, 1. 37)
» has : While one's father is still alive, one does not presume to use a
» staff, because there is a person still living who has authority over
» him" ^ Indeed , as has been shown on page 494 by an extract
from the / li , the staff was anciently a badge of authority, which
might be carried by high dignitaries and leaders only, and accord-
ingly also by parents in their quality of »highest persons in autho-
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DRESSES WORN IN THE LOWER DEGREES OF MOURNING. 599
rity" in the family. Before the death of his parents no authority
whatever could be exercised by a son; hiao or absolute submission
was still his highest duty, and hence his carrying a staff would be
naturally interpreted as revolting against the hiao.
Excepting on the few occasions, mentioned above, when this attire
is worn complete, mourners of the second degree are allowed to
dress in whatever garments they please, provided no silk, red,
or other bright and conspicuous colour be worn. Their shoes, cue-
threads, and the bunch on the skull-cap must be blue. Correspond-
ing rules obtain for women. After one hundred days it is no
longer necessary to conform to these rescripts dictated by custom,
and everybody re-assumes his usual attire, still avoiding, however,
red previous to the sacrifice on the first anniversary of the demise ,
the celebration of which the mourners of the second degree as a
rule attend m person, at which time they put off their mourning
for good on the spot.
Very little remains to be said about the mourning costumes
for the third, fourth and fifth degree. Practically these do not
differ from each other in any respect worthy of notice. All three
are similar to the dress of the second degree, except that the
sack-cloth is replaced by the so-called toe p^ ^, which is a gauze-
like, yellowish-grey textile of flax or grass-cloth, unbleached and
undyed, and so thin and loosely woven that one can easily
see through a fourfold layer of it; further, the peA pb 8a^, the
scarf of the lao-pao, and the inner cowl of the female dress are
all of bleached linen or cotton, and straw sandals are not worn.
When they do not wear this mourning on the specific occasions
mentioned on page 591, the mourners of the three lower degrees
can be distinguished outwardly from non-mourners only by a blue
bunch of cords on the skuU-cap, worn instead of the ordinary
red bunch.
Sons-in-law, in mourning for their parents-in-law in the fifth
degree (page 560, no. 21) wear a special gown of unbleached
linen or cotton, in cut and shape exactly like the » inner cloak"
with horse-hoof shaped sleeves, which forms a part of the ceremo-
nial attire of the fashionable classes and which has been described
on page 49. It is fastened round the waist by a broad strip of
the same material of which the gown is made , and in this sash a
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600 THE GRAVB.
small scrap of red material is stuck on the frontside of the body.
The head is covered as in the second degree of mourning , the cap
being , however , of toe pd and the headband of unbleached linen
or cotton; the ends of the latter, which hang down from the knot
at the back of the head, reach nearly to the waist.
Although not required by either law or custom to mourn for
his wife's grandparents, a married man will assume for them at
the burial and the other important funeral rites a costume of quite
the same make as that which he wears for his wife's parents.
The gown is, however, of toe pd, and the sash and headband are ot
bleached linen or cotton.
Apart from the sundry costumes for the five degrees, custom
has brought into existence a special attire for married men who
attend the important funeral ceremonies of their wife's nearest re-
latives for whom neither the / li , nor the Ta TisHng luk It prescribe
any mourning, such as her brothers and sisters, paternal uncles,
and so forth. It consists of a gown of bleached cotton or linen , cut
and made exactly like the peA ph sa"^ of the second degree, and
further of a cap of the same material, shaped like a small square
bag and having parallel perpendicular folds both at the front and
the back. The lower border of this cap is folded upward and
fastened, so that it runs round the border like a hem of about
two fingers' breadth, and a narrow piece of bright red stuff is
inserted therein in such a wise, that it peeps out a little over
the whole frontside. This red stuff intimates that the wearer of this
dress is not virtually in mourning, red being, as our readers
know, excluded from mourning in all the five degrees. The same
gown is worn for a friend who is not a kinsman ; the cap , however,
is then of unbleached material and has no red in it.
Herewith ends our description of the modem mourning dress,
although we could give many minor details. It is scarcely necessary
to add that many deviations are to be found throughout the Empire,
fashion influencing it every where. Yet, in the main, the Amoy dress may
be fairly considered as typical of the whole Realm, the rules dictated
by antiquity and by the present Code of Laws probably being
acted upon everywhere to a great extent. Let the reader, however,
not suppose that all classes of society observe the standard rules in
respect of mourning attire with the same degree of care and ac-
curacy. The common peasantry, coolies and such like people do not
bother their minds at all about it, unless they have to take part
in such ceremonies as are mentioned on page 591 ; they continue
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ON THE COLOUR OP MOURNING [N CHINA. 601
to wear their ordinary blue garb , changing nothing but the threads
in their cue, for which they substitute white ones on the death of
their father or mother. Perhaps they soothe their consciences by the
consideration that, whereas they never in their lives wear anything
else but cheap clothing of linen or cotton, they are, so to say,
clad in mourning continuously, and consequently need no special
mourning dress. Besides, it would ill suit them to wear undyed
garments, as the rough labour by which they gain their livelihood
always renders them liable to dirt. In some parts of the country,
mourners of this class of people are wont to sew a square scrap
of white linen or cotton, about a couple of centimetres in breadth,
on their sleeve or their breast , and to wear a narrow ribbon of the
same material around their hat.
From what has been adduced in the above pages it is perfectly
evident that the opinion , generally prevailing among Europeans and
pronounced by many an author on China , that white is the colour
of mourning in the Middle Kingdom, is totally false. The truth
is, that the mourning colour there consists in the absence of any
artificial tint , in other words , it is the original colour which nature
has lent to hempen and other textiles. Even the white colour pro-
duced by simply bleaching the material is, as the reader has seen,
excluded from deep mourning and allowed only in slighter mourning;
hence it takes the part of what we might call semi-mourning. White
is not even mentioned by name in any mourning rescript of the
/ /t, the Li Jci or other works consulted by us, but they all indi-
cate mourning dress very often by the term ^ ^ , which means
properly a dress of plain material, unbleached and undyed. The
term ^ Z^y » white dress", is never used in China in any other
sense than that of the dress of the laity , in contra-distinction to that
of the Buddhist clergy, who wear no imdyed garments. It probably
owes its existence to the fact that, during summer, nearly the
whole of the higher and middle class in China dress in white; and this
would certainly not be the case were white the colour of mourning ,
every Chinaman being thoroughly convinced that mourning clothes
exercise a disastrous, nay, a deadly influence on whomsoever and
whatsoever they come in contact with. A special word will be
devoted to this superstition on pages 640 et aqq.
After white, or, correctly speaking, the colour of bleached linen
or cotton, light blue plays a part in semi-mourning, as the reader
has seen. The reason is obvious: light blue is a colour produced
by a slight quantity of indigo, which is the commonest tincture
89
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602 THE GRAVE.
for clothes the Chinese possess, and wearing garments of this hue
therefore is naturally considered as a first step from undyed gar-
ments to brightly coloured materials.
•
The hair and coiffure in the time of mourning.
In several places of this chapter it has been shown that, both
in ancient and modem times, the treatment of the hair during the
period of mourning was in China subject to certain rules. We have
now to direct the reader's attention to the details of this matter.
Now-a-days, in a case of death, the principal mourners of the
male sex remove the braiding threads from their cues when th^
go out into the street to receive the empty coffin, and also during
the burial, on both of which occasions they wear also the very
deepest mourning attire (see p. 591). The long hair, quite dishevelled,
flows down over the back in disorder. After the burial the cue
is always braided up, even on occasions when the sack-cloth is
put on; but the threads used may not be of silk until the end of
twenty-seven months. They are of white linen or cotton during the
first year, and of blue during the second (pages 593 and 594).
There cannot be a doubt that wearing the hair quite loose
on the two most important occasions of mourning betokens a
sacrificing to the deceased all one's articles of dress to the very
last, including even the head-gear. Anciently, we have seen on page
476, it was customary to divest one's self of cap and other things
serving to keep the hair together, and simply to coil it up on
the top of the head. Considering the matter from this point of
view, it is quite clear why the unbraided hair ceases after the
burial. Originally, everything, including the clothing, was offered
to the dead in the last instance at his burial, having to be enclosed
with him in the grave; but after the interment this self-bereave-
ment was gradually relaxed, and it ended at the close of the
mourning period (comp. page 481).
That mourners wear no silk for braiding up their cues must, it
seems, be ascribed to the lA ki, which has (ch. 45, 1. 2): »In
» the mourning of the first degree the hair is tied up with hemp,
»and this material is used also for binding it together when in
» mourning for a mother" ^
From the moment life has passed away, the sons and the other
IE. I-
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THE HAIR AND COIPFUEB IN THE TIME OP MOURNING. 603
male mourners of the highest degree may not have their heads or
faces shaved, but it is not necessary for them to abstain from the regular
unbraiding of the cue by the barber for the purpose of combing
dandruff, dust and insects out of it. As a consequence, the black
hairs grow up like bristles around the long hairs of the crown
which form the cue, giving to a man in mourning a rather unsightly,
sometimes a repulsive appearance, which is not improved by the
stray black hairs which show themselves on his cheeks and chin.
This neglecting of the hair and face extends until the hundredth
day. Many people, however, get shaved immediately after the
burial, and then abstain from the use of the razor for one
hundred days.
This abjuration of all the comforts of the tonsorial art is likewise
rooted in antiquity. As the episode relating to the appointment of
a successor to Shih Tai-chung from among his sons (see page 489)
proves, mourners were imperatively commanded in the seventh cent-
ury before our era to abstain from washing their heads and bathing
their bodies; other passages relative to this rescript have been re-
produced on page 504. These show that cleansing the head and body
was anciently prohibited for about three months. Nevertheless this
period has been prolonged by posterity to one hundred days, for some
reason for which we . cannot account. The Ta Tiing fung li has :
»A11 those who are in the three years' mourning have their hair
» shaven after a hundred days; those who mourn for a year, after
»two months; those who mourn for nine or five months, after one
)» month; and those who mourn for three months, after ten days"\
Abstaining from washing the body has, it seems, fallen entirely
into disuse, nothing of the kind being, as far as we are aware,
required now-a-days from mourners, either by written law, or by
custom.
As to female mourners of the first degree — until the comple-
tion of the burial , or , if this be deferred for a considerable time ,
till the coffin is stored away in the house or in some spot
out of doors (see pages 106, and 127 9qq\ their neglect of the
coiffure consists in the first place in not using ornamentation of
any kind for the head, including hair-pins and ear-rings of even
the simplest description. During the whole of that time they
>g 3l .g * 1® >g 5!i ^ . H >g ^ 1^ -61 5i #. Chapter52,1.6.
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604 THE GEAVB.
dispense, moreover, with cosmetics, fece-powder and other ingre-
dients for painting and rouging. When the burial, or the storing
away of the coflBn, is over, hair-pins and similar instruments begin
to play their part once more, though under the restrictions already
mentioned on page 593.
For the same hundred days during which the men are not shaven,
the women under no pretext whatever subject themselves to a so-
called » plucking the face", ban bin ^, an operation which girls and
coquettish young wives are wont to undergo from time to time.
It has for its object the removal of the downy hairs from their
faces. As a rule it is performed by professional old damsels, whose
skill chiefly consists in extricating these hairs one by one with
a running noose made in a thread; one end of this thread the
performer holds between her teeth, the other end in her right
hand, and the noose in her left. The process is facilitated by
powdering the face and moistening the thread. The razor would
do the work in a less painful way; but it is not considered so
efficacious by the women because it cannot prevent the down from
growing up anew, and renders it even more stubby.
The rescript of the Ta Tiing t^ung li, reproduced on the fore-
going page, forbids mourners of the four lower degrees to shave
their heads before a certain lapse of time. Yet this is seldom con-
formed to by mourners of the second and third degree , and hardly
ever by the rest. Without any qualms of conscience they all
apply to the barber as soon as they think fit, and they are
speciaUy quick to do so when their profession or social standing
obliges them to appear in society neat and clean. Some strictly
abstain from having the skull shaved, but allow the barber to
do his work regularly upon their faces as if nothing had happened.
Others have the stubble on their heads trimmed with scissors, this
not being forbidden by the letter of the law.
The mourning of mortuary houses.
Popular custom at Amoy requires the house in which a father
or mother has died, to be draped with badges of mourning, as
long as the children have to wear mourning dress.
The last breath is scarcely drawn , when the three long strips of
red paper, which are affixed horizontally at nearly every housedoor
over the lintel and vertically along the posts, mostly displaying
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THE MOURNING OP MORTUARY HOUSES. 605
inscriptions which betoken bliss and happiness , are each pasted over
with a sheet of unwritten paper of a white or black colour, so
that they are entirely, or almost entirely, hidden from view. And the
inscriptions or human figures , which are painted or, drawn on paper,
pasted on each door-leaf of the main entrance at the houses of the
moneyed and fashionable class, are dealt with in a similar way. After
a year, when, as our readers know, the family assume the slighter
mourning, they post up new inscribed strips on the old spots,
using blue paper in case it is the father of the family who has
departed this life, and yellow, in case it is his wife proper. And
at the end of the second year, when the mourning is again reduced,
the strips are replaced by others of a pink hue, which are finally
exchanged for red ones, such as are in use in ordinary times,
on the day when the sacrifice which concludes the mourning is
solemnly presented to the dead at the domestic altar. A similar
course is followed by many in regard of the big globular paper
lanterns, which are suspended under the roof on the premises of
fashionable Chinese houses.
4. Music prohibited during Mourning.
A few matters relating to mourning ancient and modem have
still to be passed in review. In the first place, some forms of ab-
stinence which, to avoid confusion, we have deferred to the latter
part of this chapter.
Already in the most ancient times on record in native literature,
music was forbidden to mourners. Mourning being in point of
fact a renunciation of all superfluous luxury, it is but natural
that music, a means of merry-making for the living, should before
all things be vetoed by customary law. Moreover, in the darkest
mist of ages, when nearly everything the dead man left behind
was placed in his grave, the rude instruments of music in the
possession of the family followed to the same place, as they could
be dispensed with by the survivers better than anything else. Does
not this explain why, as has been stated on pp. 392, 894 and 403,
musical instruments were interred with emperors and grandees
during the dynasties of Cheu and Han in such large quantities?
It is recorded of Yao \ an emperor who, according to Chi-
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606 THE GRAVE.
nese chronologists , lived more than twenty-three centuries before
our era, that »in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, when he
» died and the whole people mourned for him for three years as for
»a father or a mother, the musicjal instruments between the four
» seas were stopped and stored away" \ In the Li ki the prohibitions
against having music while in mourning are pretty numerous. Its
sixth chapter (1. 20) says: » When in mourning, one does not talk
of music"', and in the eleventh chapter (1. 55) we read: » After
» the Sacrifice of Felicity (at the end of the second year) a cap
»of plain undyed silk is assumed'; in the month which follows
» thereon comes the sacrifice which concludes the mourning, and
» in the ensuing month the mourners may take to their music" *.
This rescript is corroborated by the following episode, likewise
recorded in the Li Id (ch. 9, 1. 44): »When Ming Hien-tszg had
y> presented the sacrifice which concluded his mourning , he had
» the instruments of music suspended from their stands , but did
» not play them , and though he might have approached his wife
»and concubines, he did not enter their apartments. The Sage
» said : *Hien-tsz6 excels other men by one degree' " *. Of Confucius
we read in the same work (chapter 9, 1. 48) that » after the Sacri-
» fice of Felicity he began to handle his cithern during five days ,
» without, however, producing perfect sounds out of it; and ten
»day8 later he played the Pandean pipe and sang"*.
People mourning in the second and in the third degree had also
to abstain from music, but, as was the case with all other forms
of abstinence dictated by the rules of mourning, this rescript was
not pushed so far in their case as in that of mourners of the first
degree. »When a father wears mourning", says the Li M (ch. 56,
1. 8), »his son, if he lives in the same house with him, keeps
1 zL-YM Am.'^7^um.'^n.txifk^m=.m.
3 1^ >i S& A #• *'•« *»«?' *•=*'<"» ^ ^^
2 >g||:yJ#|^. Section ft Jr|, H, 1.
3 Comp. page 499.
'^mmm.^nn.^nm- «-«- ^ ^ . i, 3.
^■T-1!W *^ A — ^^- Section H ^, I, 1.
I ^.Section ^ ^,1, 1.
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MUSIC PROHIBITED DURING MOURNING. 607
»away from all music. And when a mother wears mourning, her
»son may listen to the tones of music, but not play himself.
»When a wife wears mourning, her husband does not make music
y> by her side. When an occasion for wearing the mourning of the
» third degree is about to occur, the citherns and lutes are laid
» aside; but if it be merely an occasion for mourning of the fourth
» degree , music is not discontinued" ^.
But the customs of social life went even further than forbidding
music in cases of death to mourners only. This is taught us by
the following passages in chapter 4 (1. 36) and chapter 9 (1. 23) of
the Id Ml »When there are mourning rites in his neighbourhood,
)>one should not accompany his pestle with his voice. And when
» there is a corpse in his village temporarily buried, one should
»not •sing in the streets"*. Still another chapter of the Li Jd
(12, 1. 8) says: »When one pays a visit of condolence, he does
not make any music on the same day" '.
All those rescripts evidently referred to such music only as was
made for the amusement of the living. Music performed for edi-
fying or worshipping the soul of the deceased was not forbidden,
for, as the reader has seen on pages 158 seq. from a series of cita-
tions, it occupied an important part at the burial, though this
constituted the most mournful event in the whole mourning period.
Still at the present day musicians appear in every burial procession ,
as we have stated on page 158. Moreover, they are employed when
the empty coffin is carried to the mortuary house and the corpse
is solemnly inclosed therein (pages 87 seq.) ; during the rites for the
salvation of the soul, which in many cases are celebrated before the
burial (page 124); finally, during the great requiem mass and other
sacrificial ceremonies of import, which will be described in other
volumes of this work. *
To have music during mourning is still forbidden now-a-days not
only by custom, but also by the laws and statutes of the Empire.
I, 4, and section Jj^ ^ , I, 1.
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608 THE GEAVE.
It is, however, not so much the music itself that is strack at,
as the festivities at which music is employed. The Ta TaHng
fung li has : » Those who are in mourning abstain altogether from
participating in festive meals or musical entertainments" ^. And
the Code of Laws has heavy penalties in store for those who violate
this rescript. The reader knows this from an article reproduced on
page 568, but the Code contains also the following clause : » Should
» such individuals among the people as are in mourning or have a
» burial to perform , club together and have theatricals or miscel-
» laneous pieces played , or other representations of the kind ; or
» should they have Buddhistic theatricals performed and sung,
» with accompaniment of bamboo flutes and silken strings, the local
» officers shall interfere with severity, and put a stop to it. Should
» these officers disobey this rescript, they shall be punished according to
» the articles which provide against transgressions of the laws" *.
Now-a-days, at Amoy and in its environs, any person who is
recognizable as a mourner by his dress avoids all occasions of
merry-making at which music is made, also theatricals and punch-
and-judy shows, these being invariably accompanied with music
and singing. Popular odium would attach to any one behaving
otherwise, at least there would be plenty of tongues to criticize
such conduct in an unfriendly spirit. Devotion to the memory of
the deceased kinsman or kinswoman has not much to do with this
matter, nor has the fear of the law, this being not so much di-
rected against mourners who attend the festivities of others, as
against mourners who might be shameless enough to organize for
themselves occasions for amusement.
6. Abstaining firom Sexual Intercourfie and Marriage
while in Moummg.
Mourning in ancient China meant expropriating one's self tempo-
rarily of all one's possessions. As a natural consequence custom then
^ :^ H Jj^ :f H 3^ ||. Chapter 52, 1. 6.
2 S ra H ^ ^ * il W ^ ^ M fti^ 2i^ ^^MiiJW
tf ^Ito €*flfl€«0#;^P- ^« ^^'^^ ^^^ K, chapter 17,
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NO MARRIAGES ALLOWED WHILE IN MOURNING. 609
required mourners to divest themselves for a time also of their wives
and concubines, who constituted mere objects of wealth, as is nearly
always the case among uncivilized and semi-barbarian peoples.
It is therefore not surprising to read in the lA ki that Ming
Hien-tszg did not indulge in intercourse with his women until the
seven-and-twenty months of his mourning were past, and that he
earned Confucius's praise for this commendable conduct (see p. 606).
Just as little can we be amazed to find in the same work the
following passage (ch. 58, 1. 22) : » After the sacrifice which concludes
»the mourning of twenty-seven months, the mourner re-occupies
» himself with his wives. And if he occupies the shed in the one
» year's mourning ^ he has no intercourse with the women in his
» inner apartments until the end of the mourning , if this is for
» his mother while his father is still alive. But if he wears the
»one year's mourning of the coat with trimmed edges for his
» wife *, or the coat of coarse stuff for nine months , he then
» abstains from intercourse with the inmates of his inner apartments
» for three months'* *.
Sexual intercourse during mourning being prohibited by the law
of custom, it is quite natural that marriages during that period
should also be prohibited. No doubt a second consideration then
entered into the matter: — marriage being the happiest event in
one's life, and as such connected exclusively with festivity and mer-
riment, it could not be combined with mourning, which repre-
sented the greatest adversity. To express this in the Chinese way:
kih ** and hiung ^, which represent respectively felicity and
adversity, can never meet in harmony, but must always exercise a
detrimental effect upon each other, nay even neutralize one another;
and to neutralize mourning in the least, which is created by
adversity, is a sin against hiao.
» A woman", says the Li ki (ch. 40, 1. 48), » is married out in her
» twentieth year, but she is married in her twenty-third if a case of
» death has befallen her" *. Confucius went so far as to order that wed-
1 That is to say, at the death of his mother. Comp. page 482, and 515 no. 5.
2 See page 515, no. 6.
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610 THE GRAVE.
dings which were on the point of being consummated, should be
postponed at the last moment, if the father or mother of one of
the parties died suddenly. »When", says the Li M (ch. 26, 1. 25
et sqq,), »Tseng-tsz6 asked: 'Suppose that, after the betrothal money
» has been received and an auspicious day has been fixed in acoord-
»ance with the rules of marriages, the father or the mother of
»the girl die, what course should then be adopted?' — the Sage
» replied :
» *The son-in-law shall send some one to condole. And if it be
^ his own father or mother who has died , the family of the girl
V shall in the same way send some one to present their condolences.
» And when the son-in-law has buried his dead , his father's elder
» brother shall send a message to the family of the girl, saying:
» 'The son of So-and-so, being occupied with the mourning for his
» father or mother, cannot become a brother to you; through me
» So-and-so, he conveys this message to you'. The girl's family then
» acquiesce in this message and do not presume to have the mar-
» riage solemnized. This is the rule prescribed by good custom.
» 'And when the son-in-law is discharged from his mourning ,
» the parents of the girl shall send a messenger to him , to request
» him to fulfil his engagement. He shall then not come immedia-
»tely to fetch her to his house, but she shall be married to him
» after some time. This is a rule prescribed by good custom. A
» similar course shall be followed by the son-in-law in case the father
» or mother of the girl be carried off by death'.
» 'But', asked Tseng-tszS again , 'if the bridegroom has already
» fetched the bride from her home, and his father or mother die
» while she is on the way with him, what shall be done?'
» Confucius said: 'The lady shall then change her dress, and with
» the long linen robe on , and the white band around her hair ,
» shall hasten to the scene of mourning. If, while she is on the
» way, it be her own father or mother who has died , she shall
» return home'"\
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NO SEXUAL INTERCOURSE ALLOWED WHILE IN MOURNING. 611
It seems that during the Han dynasty the procreation of children
while in mourning for a father or mother was severely condemned
by the orthodox , though by no means considered wrong by the bulk
of the people. This conclusion is forced upon us by the following
tale of the second century of our era, recorded in the Standard
Annals of that time: » Among the people there was one Chao
»Suen, who, after having buried his parents, did not close the
» passage which formed the entrance to their grave, but settled
» therein, observing mourning for more than one score years. As
» his fellow townsmen spoke in high terms of his filial devotion , the
» magistrates of the district frequently sent to him ceremonious in-
»vitations. Some parties in the district having recommended him
»to Ch^'en Fan (the Governor), this grandee paid him a visit and
>> asked him about his wife and sons; and on learning that his
»five sons had all been begotten by him while he was in mourn-
»ing, he exclaimed with deep indignation: 'And such a man sleeps
»in the grave and therein brings about pregnancy and childbirth!
»how he has deceived his contemporaries, led astray the masses,
» soiled the manes of the dead!' He thereupon brought Chao
y> Suen to justice for that oflfence" ^.
^mm\^mn.-k^^m±zimn.n-kK.
Section ^^^,1
From this exti*act we must deduce the fact that , in those times , the completiou of
a marriage was the progress of the bride from the home of her parents. Indeed, her
having to put on mourning dress immediately and to hurry to the house of her
parents-in-law in case one of these happened to die wliilst she was on the way, shows
convincingly that the most sacred duty of a daughter-in-law, viz. to mourn for her
husband's parents, was deemed then already to be incumbent on her to its fullest
extent. Her duty to return to her own home if her own father or mother died,
does not refute this, as there is nothing in the text which justifies the inference
that her marriage was not considered fully consummated when on the way to
the bridegroom's home. Sii shi-tseng ^^ j^jg ^ , an author of the Ming dynasty,
writes that » she would then live at the house of the son-in-law" "^ J§ jS ^^ .
See the Khienlung edition of the Li ki, in loc. cii.
^■vm^.m^m^.^nWii^mzMf^i^m
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612 THE GEAVE.
In the books of later ages we have not found anymore of such pas-
sages justifying the conclusion that conception and procreation during
mourning were stigmatized as crimes. Probably this is to be attri-
buted to the circumstance that another tenet, teaching that every
one is in duty bound to procure a numerous progeny with a view
to the perpetuation of ancestral worship , has imposed silence upon
all opposite considerations of whatever sort or kind. This tenet
was advocated with special ardour by Mencius, who is recorded to
have exclaimed: » There are three things which are unfilial, and
to have no offspring is the greatest of these" ^. Still now-a-days
it stands foremost among the maxims of social life, and is the
main incentive to the system of adoption , which has been borrowed
almost unmodified from the ancients.
Hence it is that successive dynasties have not troubled them-
selves very much about forbidding marriage during mourning.
However, prohibitions of this kind have not been expunged for good
from amongst the matters which claim the attention of the legis-
lator. We read e, g, that Shih lih *, a warlike adventurer, who
having assumed in A. D. 319 the sovereignty of the realm of
Chao^ which extended over the present provinces of Shantung,
Chihli and Shansi, spared no pains to imitate the lawful impe-
rial government by copying a good many of its institutions, and he
y> issued a decree which forbade the people of his realm to marry
» while in mourning" *. And of the emperor Chang Tsung* of the Kin
dynasty it is recorded: »ln the fifth year of the period ChMng
»ngan (A. D. 1200), in the third month, he decreed that, in
» regard of the consummation of marriages while in mourning for
»a deceased wife, it should be lawful to set aside the prevailing
» rescripts. And in the seventh month of the same year he or-
» dained that it should henceforth be permitted to disregard the
1^ . ^ :^ » iE f^ Jl «* ^. ^ i^ ^ H- S'^'ks of the Later Han
Dynasty, chapter 96, 1. \ seq.
1 l^^'^H^^^^ -^ .The Works of Mencius, section m j| , I.
* T # # S A ^ ^ IE H it ^. Books of the Tsin Dynasty,
chapter 105, 1. 2.
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MARBIAGB DURING MOURNING IS FORBIDDEN BY THE LAW. 613
;^law in cases of marriage concluded by those in mourning for a
» grandfather or his wife" \ Finally we find that marrying while
in mourning was oflScially forbidden during the Ming dynasty.
It is stated that Kih-shun*, a prince of imperial blood, in
the year of our Lord 1459 requested the Son of Heaven to
grant him permission to marry a concubine, and at the same
time to allow his sister to be married out, in spite of their mourn-
ing for their father. Soothsayers had declared that in the year
following after the close of their mourning there was not a
single auspicious day suitable for the solemnization of their wed-
dings. But the President of the Board of Rites protested , declaring
that not only the ritual institutions were opposed to such a thing ,
but that also »the Law contained clauses, clearly and plainly forbid-
ding the solemnization of marriages while in mourning" ^ A few more
such extracts lie before us; but it is needless to reproduce them.
The Ts^'ing djmasty at present seated on the throne, carrying
to its ultimate consequences the great principle that good govern-
ment consists in moulding all institutions carefully upon those of
ancient China, has revived the rescripts of the Li ki concerning
sexual intercourse and marriage during mourning by re-casting them
into an article for its T'unff li, and by inserting at the same time in
its Code of Laws some clauses which threaten with severe punishments
those who venture to solemnize such marriages. In the first men-
tioned work we read: » Those who are in the three years' mourning
» may not abide in the inner apartments (reserved for the women),
» and those who mourn for one year shall not marry so long as their
y> mourning lasts" *. For the three lower degrees of mourning this
work contains no such prohibitions. And the Code of Laws has:
» If a man or woman who is in mourning for his or her father or
» mother, or a wife or concubine who is in mourning for her hus-
»band, marry, or marry herself out, disposing of himself (or herself)
» in his (or her) marriage , a punishment of one hundred blows with
M^. ^miiCn^i^^mm^' ^^^^y of the Km Dynasty,
chapter ii, 1. 7.
^ li ft J^ ^ # W 99 3^- •^''* "'"" '"'•' "^^^p*®"" ^^' '• ^•
ter 52, I. 6.
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614 THE GRAVE.
»tbe long stick shall be administered. If, while in such mourning,
» a man marries a concubine , or a woman marries herself out as
» a concubine , the punishment shall be abated by two degrees. In
» each of the above cases the parties shall be divorced.
» Masters of the marriage (see the next page) on both sides, who
» have had a hand in such a forbidden marriage , shall be punished
» five degrees less severely if they knew that one of the parties con-
» cerned was in mourning , and the betrothal money * and the pre-
»sents shall then be confiscated. Were they, however, ignorant of
»the said circumstance, then they shall not be punished, and the
» money and presents shall be restituted, though the divorce shall
»take place all the same.
»Any person who, while in mourning for his (or her) paternal
» grandfather or his wife, or for a paternal uncle or his wife, or
» for a paternal aunt (living in the paternal home), or for an elder
» brother, or for an elder sister (living in the paternal home),
» marries , or marries herself out , shall receive eighty blows with
»the long stick, but the parties shall not have to be divorced. If
» in such mourning a man marries a concubine, or a woman marries
» herself out as a concubine, the matter shall not be prosecuted.
»This clause does not apply to grandsons who have inherited the
» important charge" ^ that is to say, to any man who has become
the Continuator of his ancestors by reason of his father's death,
for, having to mourn for his paternal grandparents in the firat
degree , he comes ujider the first clause of this article if he marries
during such mourning.
i Purchase-money paid for the bride by the family of the biidegroom to the
80-called v masters of her marriage**, being her near relations who have a right to
dispose of her in marriage. C!ompare the next page.
mmm-
^ 1i ^ H ffiJ ^ ^ it j© ^ ± it A #^3L#.
luh Zt, chapter 10, § JS
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MARRIAGE DURING MOURNING IS FORBIDDEN BY THE LAW. 615
»Any person who, being in mourning for his (or her) father or
» mother, or for her husband's father or mother, or for her hus-
» band , marries out a person of whom he (or she) has the right to
» dispose in marriage, shall receive eighty blows with the long
» stick, even though there may be no other lawful impediment
»to the marriage" \
The above articles refer to persons who marry of their own free
will, disposing of themselves in marriage. In by far the most cases,
however, young people are wedded by their so-called chu-hwun*,
» those who are the masters of their marriage", relations who, as
the word indicates, in ordinary circumstances have an unlimited
right to assign them to such a bride or bride-groom as they deem
to be a suitable match, and whose dispositions in this respect must
be implicitly obeyed. Those masters are, in the first place, the
parents, and these failing, the paternal grandparents, and subse-
quently the paternal uncles, beginning from the eldest, and so on,
as set forth in the next paragraph. Whenever a marriage of this
sort is solemnized during mourning, it faUs under another article
of the Code, which runs as follows:
»0n any transgression of the laws in matters of marriage
»the punishments demanded shall be inflicted upon the mas-
»ters of the marriage alone, and not upon the bridegroom and
» bride, in case it was arranged by the paternal grandparents, or
^hj the parents, or by the paternal uncles and their wives, or by
» (unmarried) paternal aunts, or by elder brothers or (unmarried)
» elder sisters, or by the grandparents on the mother's side. If
jt> other kinsmen have arranged it [that is to say, the inferiors and
;» juniors among those that are to be mourned for during one year, or
» superiors and inferiors, seniors and juniors who must be mourned
»for in the third, the fourth or the fifth degree], then the
» masters shall be considered as the chief culprits if they have
» been the authors of the offence , and the married couple shall be
» dealt with as accomplices, and as such undergo a punishment
» which is one degree lighter. If, however, the married parties
;» themselves were the authors of the offence, then they shall be
»> considered the chief culprits, and the masters of the marriage
^ > ^ A +• ^- «' ^- <^'-
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616 THE GRAVE.
» shall be punished one degree less severely, in the quality of accom-
» plices.
» The oflfence shall not be considered to have been committed
» by the married parties if they have been constrained to it by
» intimidation and compulsion on the part of the masters of their
» marriage. In this case, punishment shall be inflicted upon the
» masters of the marriage alone , and not upon the married couple ;
» so also if, without the masters having made use of intimidation
» or compulsion^ the bridegroom were under twenty years of age
» and the bride were living in her paternal home" ^.
Besides showing that the authority over a child devolves at the death
of its parents upon the other kinsmen in conformity with the degrees
of relationship as fixed by the oflScial registers of mourning, the above
two paragraphs of the law are interesting as testifying to the stress
laid by modem legislators upon submission to the elders of the clan.
Even in matters of their own marriage, every one, both man and
woman , must submit implicitly to the will of him or her for whom
they have to mourn in the first degree, or to the superiors and
seniors of the second degree , and are therefore not punishable even
though the marriage be in the most flagrant opposition to sacred
custom and written Imperial law. Only against kinsmen more removed
may the parties oppose their will, should attempts be made to unite
them in a marriage forbidden by the law. They must then oppose
until subjected by main force, in order to escape being treated as
accomplices, unless the bridegroom can plead infancy (being under
twenty), and the bride that she lived in the circle of her clans-
people and was therefore under their absolute power.
In spite of official rescripts and the written law, many a man in
M :k^ :^ ^- The same chapter. § ^|g^ ^iil^ ^ p.
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MARRIAGES CONSUMMATED IN THE TIME OF MOURNING. 617
Amoy does not refrain from marrying a wife, while in mourning
even for his father or mother. There is, however, then no festive
celebration, no music, no merry-making of any kind. The woman
is not transferred to the home of the partner of her future joys and
sorrows in the usual bridal palankeen, adorned with gaudy colours,
richly gilt, and ornamented with wood cuttings and all those things
which are supposed to be efficacious in expelling evil spirits and
the misfortunes caused thereby. But she is then seated in an ordi-
nary sedan-chair, which is devoid of all ornamentation. Such a clan-
destine wedding is styled a sun ha tioci *, or » marriage with observa-
tion of filial duty", that is to say, a marriage with such abstinence
fix)m music and gaudery as is required by the rules of mourning,
imposed by the laws of hiao. No voice is raised by the people
against this violation of the ancient orthodox rescripts. On the con-
trary, such marriages are openly defended as being in perfect harmony
with the maxim of Mencius, re-echoed by the whole nation, that it
is a heavy sin against hiao to have no sons, as this would doom
father, mother, and the whole ancestry in the Nether-world to a
pitiable existence without descendants and subjects enough to serve
them properly (comp. page 612). Is it not clear — such is the
reasoning — that this doctrine imposes on every one the duty of
procreating children not only in the greatest possible numbers, but
also as early as possible? Consequently, is it not sinful in a son to
defer his marriage? Moreover, it cannot be otherwise than gratify-
ing to the defunct to be enriched without delay with a daughter-
in-law, anxious to improve his condition beyond the grave by
wailing and howling fervently, and by sacrificing to him during the
mourning period with as much zeal and devotion as could ever be
displayed by a daughter of his own flesh and bones.
Provided such marriages be solemnized privately, the magistrates
generally shut their eyes to these flagrant transgressions of the
Code. It is, however, unanimously asserted by the Chinese, that
those same grandees would not themselves venture to take a wife
during mourning, and that graduates, men of letters, dare not do so
either, for fear of the matter being betrayed to the higher autho-
rities by enemies and jealous rivals, which would entail dismissal
from office, degradation, and even corporal chastisements. It being,
indeed, the highest calling of official dignitaries to teach the
people by their own exemplary life the duty of cultivating good
40
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618 THE GRAVE.
customs by conforming strictly to the orthodox principles of ancient
society, the supreme Grovemment can scarcely treat them with lenity,
when their conduct tends to teach the people just the contrary.
6. It is forbidden to separate one's self firom the Clan and diride
the Patrimony while in Mourning.
Among the articles relating to mourning, which the Code of
Laws contains, there is one which claims our attention in a double
measure. It reads:
» If grandsons or sons, of whom a paternal grandparent or parent is
» still alive, separate themselves from their home to settle elsewhere,
» or detach parts of the family possessions , they shall be punished
»with one hundred blows with the long stick. For the infliction
»of this punishment it is, however, required that the complaint
»be lodged by a paternal grandparent or parent.
»And if brothers, while in mourning for one of their parents,
» separate themselves from the home to fix their domicile in another
» locality, or detach parts of the patrimony, eighty blows with the
»long stick shall be inflicted upon them. It is, however, required
)>that a complaint be first lodged by a superior- or senior from
» among the relations who are to be mourned for during one year
» or longer. Should such separation from the family or division of
» the patrimony have taken place in obedience to the testamentary
» dispositions (of a paternal grandparent or parent), it does not Ml
» under this law"\
A bye-law to this adds : » During the life of their paternal grand-
» parents or parents, no sons or grandsons shall be allowed to
^ divide the family possessions or to dwell apart. But they may split
» up their possessions if their parents approve thereof, or order them
» to do so" *.
:??|E |fk#. Chapter 8, §jj|jgf^gj.
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SEPARATING PERSONS OR GOODS FROM THE CLAN IS DISALLOWED. 619
After all that has been stated in this chapter on the subject of
the chief principles of family life and mourning in China, we can
easily account for the presence of these curious articles in the
great Code of Laws of the Empire. The patriarchal power almost
unlimited , which institutions ancient and modem place in the hands
of the paterfamilias and the maierfamilias and, by extension , in those
of the parents of the former, naturally reduces sons and grandsons
to the position of absolute slaves of their will. As such they
cannot be permitted to leave the ancestral home unless these
» highest persons in authority" grant them their full permission,
their bodies being the undisputed property of the persons from
whom they have received them.
There exists, moreover, another important reason why the Govern-
ment of the Empire should by its laws back the chieftains of the
family in imposing their will in this direction. Has it not been from
times of yore one of its chief principles to fix every individual
firmly in his clan, that he may live under the constant pressure
of his duties towards all its members? And does not Government
consequently serve its own high policy by checking every arbitrary
withdrawal of individuals from the authority of their clan?
Whereas neither sons nor grandsons are masters of their own person
so long as either their parents or paternal grandparents are alive, they
are just as little so of their own possessions. Properly speaking, they
cannot own anything. Whatever a child earns, his parents have the
ftiUest right to dispose of at their pleasure, because the doctrine of hiao
demands that he should implicitly submit in all circumstances of
life to their will and pleasure. Any attempt to detach a part of the
family possessions without the approval of the parents and the grand-
parents is therefore regarded as a theft from the highest chiefs of
the family, the legal owners. As by separating their persons from
the clan , so by separating their wealth therefrom childern commit a
revolting sin against hiao, which the Law cannot leave unpunished.
y> So long as one of their paternal grandparents or parents is living ,
y> neither sons nor grandsons can possess any private property ; this
» is a social standard rule" ^ : with these words commences the oflScial
paraphrase inserted in the Code immediately after the above article,
the legislator thereby showing that the fundamental principle to which
the article owes its origin, is really that which we have stated.
This principle is by no means of modem date, like nearly all the
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620 THE GRAVE.
leading tenets of Chinese social and domestic life , it is borrowed from
remote pre-Christian times. The Li ki already says (ch. 65, 1. 32):
» So long as his father or mother is alive , a man does not presume
y> to be the owner of his own body, nor to consider his wealth to
» be his own \ And (ch. 2, 1. 21) a filial son during the life of his
» father or mother does not promise his friend to die for him,
» (for he has not then the free disposition of his body), nor
» has he wealth of his own" '. Further we read in the same work
(ch. 39, 1. 25) : » A son and his wife have no private wealth , nor
» animals and utensils of their own. They do not presume to
» borrow from, or to give anything to another person. Should anybody
» give to the wife something to eat or to drink , or an article of
» dress, a piece of cloth or silk, something to wear in her girdle,
»a handkerchief, an iris or orchid, she ought, after having re-
»ceived it, to ojffer it to her parents-in-law ; and if they accept it,
» she shall be just as glad as she was when she received the gift.
y> If they return it to her, she shall decline it , and if they do not
» approve of her doing so, she shall take it as if it were a new
y> present, and lay it by till they may need it" ^
The doctrine that sons should not separate themselves from the
'' i^n^.:^mMiiin.^^Mm- section ^ n.u.
m.W\^tia^mMti.Mt^^Z9AU.im^^mo
Section pb ^|| , I.
That the doctrine in question is not mere theoiy, but plays an active part
still in the Chinese life of to-day, we had occasion to note in 1888 from the
following incident. A Chinaman, whom we had known in Java as a schoolmaster,
we met again in Amoy, where he had re-settled with his earnings. One day he
called on us and told us that he had resolved to steal away to Java again.
On being asked the reason, for we knew he had laid by enough in the colonies to
lead an easy life in his ancestral home, the poor fellow confessed that his sayings
were nearly gone, as his father had eased him of almost all he possessed, and was
now trying to squeeze out of him the rest by continually threatening to put in force the
punishments of the mandarins against him, if he did not give it up. The old man ,
he added, was acting chiefly under the pressure of his other sons, who desired no
better than to make good cheer with their rich brother's money. The latter started
off shortly afterwards, leaving among those who knew him the ill repute of being
extremely put hdo "^ :^ ^ » unfilial".
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SEPARATING PERSONS OR GOODS PROM THE CLAN IS DISALLOWED. 621
ancestral home and that the family possessions must remain undivided,
is likewise as old as the Cheu dynasty. The / li formulates it in the
following terms: » Father and son are only one body, and so are
» husband and wife, and elder and younger brothers. Hence, the
» father and his sons form the head and the feet, husband and
» wife the two halves united , and the brothers the four limbs.
» On this account it is the duty on the part of brothers not to
» separate from one another. If one separates from the others, he sets
» aside the personal devotion which a son ought to show to (his
» father), and a son who does not devote himself exclusively to
» his father does not fulfil perfectly the duties of a son. Hence
»it is that, though the mansion be divided into eastern, western,
» southern and northern buildings , and the members of the family
» dwell therein apart from each other, the possessions are held
»in common. If one has an overplus, it comes to the benefit of the
»tsung, and when others have not enough for their wants, they
» receive gifts from the tsung" \ We see from this, that the theory
in ancient China was that the possessions of the living were the
common property of the clan and its ancestors, a tsung being,
as our readers Imow from pages 511 and 562, a clan inclusive of
its deceased members.
When this rule that brothers ought not to separate themselves
from their clan is strictly observed, the natural result is that no
male member in any of the generations descended from the clan
ever leaves it. Through all ages such a state of affairs has been
hallowed by Chinese politicians as an ideal condition, the which
to approach as much as possible was one of the main objects
of the chiefs of the nation. We have before us a long series of
extracts from the Standard Annals, showing that, ever since the Han
dynasty, numerous families who have lived together during many
generations vrithout any of thefr members separating themselves
from the common stock , have been deemed worth a place among the
*^^-^ifc. ^^-fiifc. ^^-fiifc. A^
J^ ^ . Chapter 23, 1. 22.
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622 THE 6RAVB.
immortals of history. This fact of itself is a sufficient proof of the
great importance which has always been attached by the nation to
compactness of clan life. In the Books of the 'Fang Dynasty alone
we find no less than some dozens of such »dutiful families" ' on
record. In numerous cases they earned the highest possible public
applause, being awarded by the Sonof Heaven himself with honorary
titles panegyrizing their meritorious conduct , which titles might be
exhibited for ever over the house-door and the gate of their village.
Some extracts relating to such occurrences are inserted in Chapter
IX, to which we beg to refer our readers.
This long digression will help the reader to understand why the
modern Law also forbids people in mourning for their parents or pater-
nal grandparents to separate themselves from their clan, and to divide
the property ere such mourning is ended. Death does not sever
a man from his family. Though his body be no more, he remains
in a spiritual shape the lord and master of his offspring, and
therefore continues to be the rightful proprietor of their bodies
and wealth. And the Law is bound to protect his ownership,
just as it did when he was alive. But its interference terminates
at the end of the mourning. To properly understand the reason for
this, we should recollect that mourning is the time devoted to the
giving up of all property to the deceased parents, and that this
renunciation ceases when the mourning period is over. Further we
must observe that the Law could never permit a dead man's
descendants to desert his altar during the period of mourning,
because it must maintain in every respect and by all possible
means the sacred hiao, which requires by the mouth of scholars
and sages of all times that every one should in that period in
particular devote himself to serving the deceased authors of his
days and to observing whatever duties are imposed upon a child
for ensuring their happiness in the next life.
It is scarcely necessary now to state that this prohibition to
dispose of the inheritance ere the time of mourning has expired
is most closely connected with the rule, which anciently obtained
for rulers , not to take possession of the throne before the mourning
for their father was ended (see page 670). Still another custom is
linked with it, namely that of leaving everything which had be-
longed to the parents, untouched after their death. The existence
of this custom in ancient China is revealed to us by the Li H
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ON MOURNING OBSERVED FOR RULERS. 623
(chapter 43^ 1. 29): )»Wheii his father is no more^ a son cannot
» bear to read his books , for, the wet touch of his hand is
^ still upon them. And when a mother has died, her son cannot
»bear to drink from her cup or vessel, as the wet breath of
» her mouth still sticks to it*' ^ That in still later ages children
refrained from occupying the dwelling of their defunct parents,
and especially avoided the use of their private apartments, has
been set forth already on pages 487 8eg.
7. Mourning observed for Bulers.
Of the extracts from Chinese books, which are inserted in this
chapter, many have afforded proof that, anciently, mourning had to
be worn in the Middle Kingdom also for rulers. It is quite natural
that this should be so. In the lowest stage of culture there existed
in China no sovereign but the paterfamilias, and in stages more
advanced, no other rulers than the chiefs or elders of the clans,
patriarchs who by extension could become chiefs of districts, each
inhabited by several clans descended from one common stock.
Such a petty ruler was naturally looked upon by his people as the
fether of them all, though more especially so by his immediate
attendants who assisted him in the discharge of his public duties,
they being , as a matter of course , in the first place his own nearest
offspring. Under such an effective patriarchal system, the doctrine
that nobody could possess wealth of his own as long as his father
lived (see pp. 619 and 620) we may be sure was strictly observed.
Co-existing vidth the tenet that a man's property remains his own
even after his death, it naturally created the duty of ceding one's
raiment also to the common father of the clan or district, i. e.
wearing mourning for him, which obligation was especially incum-
bent upon his nearest kindred who assisted him in administering
the community.
In this wise, mourning for rulers, to be observed specially by
their ministers, probably came into existence in China. It grew into
a State institution when the clans became united into sundry petty
kingdoms, a process which was fully accomplished in the time of
Cheu, about which period the ancient books teach us so many
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624 THE GRAVE.
matters of interest. The rulers of all those states were then regarded
as possessing their territory from one common liege-lord, the sove-
reign of the realm of Cheu, who himself held the whole Empire
as a liege from Heaven, whose sole lawful Vice-regent he was
and of whom he styled himself the Son. Those feudal states were
again split into numerous smaller fiefs. In each of these larger and
smaller territories it was incumbent upon ministers to mourn for
the ruler in the same degree in which sons mourned for their
father. From the mourning registers of the / It we see indeed that
every feudal ruler was to observe such mourning for the Son of
Heaven, and was himself mourned for in like manner by his
ministers (page 506, nos. 2 and 3).
And the Li ki (chapter 65, 1. 32) says : » Mourning for a father
» lasts till in the third year, and that for a ruler the same length
» of time" ^ The Cheu It has : » For the Celestial Sovereign (i. e.
» the Son of Heaven) the dress of the first degree of mourning is
» worn , and for his consort that of the second*' *. This passage
shows that the position occupied by an empress or queen with
regard to the ministers was just the same as that held in the
circle of the family by the materfamilias with regard to the child-
ren, these having, as is shown on page 513, to mourn for her like-
wise in the second degree.
The circumstance that a minister had to mourn for his ruler,
and a feudal prince for his liege-lord, just as deeply as a child
for his father, is another proof that the organisation of the State
was to a great extent a copy of that of the family, in other
words, that the whole world was considered as constituting one
single family (comp. page 509). As the patriarch of a family or
clan, in governing its members, was assisted in the first instance
by his sons, so the ruler of a state used to raise in the first place
his own sons and grandsons to high official dignities and to endow
them with fiefs. Thus the duties towards father and sovereign
remained naturally assimilated; the hiao was the same for both,
and consequently mourning too. A few passages from the ancient
works alluding to this state of matters have been placed before our
readers on page 508.
But, considering that mourning is based upon the principle that
1 ^3^H#. !!# = #. Section J^ IB.
2^^aEffi[.:)Sili^^- Chapter 21, I. 21.
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A minister's wealth is the property op his ruler. 625
a child's wealth is the property of its parents and as such was to
be sacrificed to them on their death, the question now is whether
also, in ancient China, a minister's wealth was deemed to be
the property of his ruler, and whether as such it was ceded, or
partly ceded to him on his demise. This point must first be
settled, before our theory on the origin of the mourning for rulers
can be considered fully proved. We shall show by a few extracts
that the answer must be in the affirmative.
In the Li ki (ch. 65, 1. 32) we read:
» While either its father or mother is alive, a child does not
» presume to be the owner of its own body, nor to consider its
» wealth its own. This principle shows the people that there exist
» for them superiors and inferiors. On the same principle , the Son
»of Heaven can nowhere within the four seas be received with
» the ceremonies observed towards a guest, and no one may presume
» to be his host (as the Son of Heaven is the rightful owner of
» everything, wherever he comes). And likewise on the same
» grounds, when a ruler resorts to his minister's mansion he goes
» up to the hall by the steps on the east (which are the principal),
» and proceeds to the main seat in the hall (or principal apartment),
» which shows that the people should not dare to consider their
» dwelling their own" \
So far for the first part of the query, which may be considered
settled by this all-convincing extract. That grandees and officers
used in fact to make sacrifice of their wealth on their ruler's death
is likewise proved by the Li hij which has (ch. 48, U. 5 and 6):
»When a minister sends grave clothes for his ruler, he says:
» 1 send these laid-aside garments to the Valuers' ^. And when he
» contributes articles or valuables to his ruler for the funeral of the
» former ruler, he says: 'I place these products of my fields in the
» hands of your officers' " ^ The clothes thus offered were the so-
^ ^ife. Section J55f IB.
2 A certain class of officials mentioned in the Cheu li (chapter i, 1. 25). They
were attached to the Manager of the Treasury of Jade, mentioned on pp. 269 and 271.
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626 THB GRAVE.
called A> clothes that follow the deceased^', which were, as has been
demonstrated on page 341, placed in the grave. It is significant
that they were laid-aside garments, that is to say, not made on
purpose for this occasion, but taken out of the wardrobe of th
very man who had to undo himself of his wealth on behalf of
his defunct prince.
Particulars about the mourning which was observed for rulers
anciently, are tolerably abundant in the Three Rituals. »A feudal
» ruler*', says the lA ki (ch. 70, 1. 54 — 56), » mourns for the Son
» of Heaven till in the third year, and his consort then mourns in
» the same way in which a feudal ruler is mourned for by the clan
y> of his wife or mother ; but his Continuator does not wear mourning
» for the Son of Heaven. The Continuator of a Great oflScer wears
» the mourning dress of an ordinary officer for the ruler and the
» ruler's consort and eldest son" ^. Another passage of the same
Classic (ch. 14, 1. 22) reads : » When the Son of Heaven dies , within
» three days the Invokers are the first to assume mourning. The
» officers and grandees assume it before the fifth day, men and
» women within the precincts of the capital before the seventh
»day, and everybody in the Empire before three months have
» elapsed" *.
An officer's consort too had to mourn for the sovereign, namely
in the second degree (see page 518, no. 20). It may be surmised
that each class of officials, in mourning for the ruler, was bound
to a peculiar dress; but the details which the books contain on
this head are extremely scanty. A few, laid down in the / /t,
have been reproduced on page 525; the same work states further:
» The sundry ministers of the high nobles ' and Great officers wear
»for their feudal ruler (besides the ordinary attire of the first
» degree) a linen girdle and shoes with strings" *.
Mourners for their ruler had also to dwell in mourning sheds.
1 #^^^H^.^A*R^^:S^#ife>iH:^'
Jf. Section JJIPg.
3 The character -J^ in the text is evidently a misprint of dip.
* ^ ± :^ ^ :^ ^ £ ^ ^ # ^ J^jflll Ji.Chapt««-22.I.54.
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OFFICERS OBSERVE MOURNING FOR THEIR FORMER RULER. 627
»The Intendant of the Pakce", thus we read, »at a Great
» funeral provides the mourning sheds and the (unplastered) apart-
» ments , and points out in which way the near and distant
» rektives and the superiors and inferiors shall dwell therein *.
»And the Intendant of the Archers on such occasions sees that
)>the high nobles and Great officers fulfil the duties that are in-
» cumbent on each of them respectively. He sees that the mourning
» sheds, which these notables occupy, are in accordance with their
»rank, and reproves and punishes those who are not respectful"*.
The high importance attached to the mourning for rulers is
clearly to be seen fix)m the circumstance that those who wore
it had to give it precedence of all other mourning. It is on
record in the Li ki (ch. 27, 1. 11) that Confucius said to Tseng-
tsz6: »When a Great officer or an ordinary official wears mourning
for his Ruler, he does not presume to wear private mourning" ^
That this maxim obtained also during the Han dynasty we have
had occasion to point out on page 573. The important place held
in ancient Chinese society by the mourning for rulers, is further-
more evident from the fact that it was worn by ministers and officers
even after they had retired from office, as the mourning list of
the / li shows (see p. 619 seq., nos. 33 and 39). It seems, however,
that this custom was falling into disuse already during the Cheu
dynasty, for the Li ki (ch. 13, 1. 1) relates: »The ruler Muh (of
y> the state of Lu , who reigned 409 — 376 B. C.) asked Tszg-sz8
» (a disciple of Confucius) : 'Was it the custom of antiquity for an
» officer to return to his old ruler, in order to mourn for him?' —
» 'Rulers of antiquity', answered the other, 'appointed men to office
» and dismissed them in both cases according to the rules of pro-
» priety, and hence the custom existed of returning to an old ruler
»to mourn for him. But, at present, rulers appoint men as if they
)»were going to take them on their knees, and dismiss them as
»if they were going to push them into an abyss; is it not there-
y> fore only virtue on their part if they do not head rebellions ?
li^ chapter 4, 1. 8.
•^ ;^. Cheu li, chapter 30, 1. 42.
RB.n.
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628 THE GRAVE.
» How then should there exist a rule for them to return to old
» rulers, in order to mourn for them?'" \
In addition to the ruler himself, mourning had to be worn for his
parents, paternal grandparents, wife, and Continuator. This may
be seen from the mourning list of the / li (pages 518 seq., nos.
22 and 33), which shows at the same time that the dress of the
second degree was prescribed for these princely personages.
As is set forth in a passage quoted from the Li ki on page 626
of this work, even the entire people had to assume mourning in ancient
China for their defunct sovereign. The existence of rescripts to this
effect is indicated also by the register of the / li (page 520, no. 34),
which at the same time teaches that the mourning in question was of
the second degree and ended in the third month. In those times already
this form of mourning could boast of respectable antiquity, so at
least if trust may be placed in a passage of the Shu king reproduced
on page 606, according to which the emperor Yao was mourned
for by all his subjects till in the third year, as if he were their
father and mother, and nobody had any music during that time.
Down to this day it is obligatory on the whole nation to abstain
from music while in mourning for the emperor, as will be seen anon.
During the Han dynasty, mourning for the ruler was likewise
a recognized institution of the State. As has been stated on page
573, Wen, one of the first sovereigns of that House, ordained
that thirty-six days of mourning should be observed for him. He
thus curtailed the more ancient period of three months considerably.
His testamentary dispositions said that ;^it should not be forbid-
»den to take wives or to give daughters in marriage, or to
» sacrifice , or to drink spirits and eat meat" *, which indicates that ,
up to that date, weddings were forbidden during the mourning
for a sovereign. There is, however, as far as we know, nothing to
be found in the ancient works which gives us a right to conclude
■^ 7^ , Section ^ ^ , II, 2.
2 ^^5tii> ^ic> ^ifi. lfcYS> -k^- Boo''^ of th«
Early Han Dynasty, chapter 4, 1. 19; also the Historical Records, chapter 10,1. 17.
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THE MOURNING FOR EMPERORS DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 829
that such prohibition prevailed in ages prior to the Han dynasty.
While this family ruled the Empire, the observance of mourning
for the Son of Heaven was forced upon ministers and grandees
with a vigorous hand. The following episode is a clear proof of
this. In the sixth year before the Christian era, Kiai Kwang *
presented a memorial to the Throne, in which he vehemently
censured the character and conduct of Wang Ken ^ prince of
Khiih-yang^ a near relative of the then late emperor ChHng*
and, moreover, a high minister. »He has" — thus the document
stated — »not harboured any sad or mournful thoughts on
»the demise of his late Sovereign. Ere the grave mound was
» completed he has publicly and openly taken unto him female
» musicians out of the deceased's side-halls. And the Fifth Officials •
»Yin Yen, Wang Fei-kiun and others have set out spirits and
» indulged in the pleasures of singing and dancing , thus banishing
»from their memory the great favours which His late Majesty had
)» bestowed upon them , and turning their backs upon the filial
» devotion which ministers owe to their ruler. And Hwang, the
» prince of Ch^ng-tu, a son of Wang Ken's elder brother, who
» enjoys the good fortune of being an Imperial cognate • and whose
» step-father holds the dignity of Imperial prince and immediate
» Chamberlain to the Throne, this Hwang has troubled his mind
»as little as the others about showing gratitude for all the high
» favours bestowed upon him, nay he has likewise taken a wife
»from among the ladies of the side-halls of the deceased Sovereign.
» They are all devoid of the moral qualities which ministers ought
»to possess. They have displayed the greatest irreverence and
» given proof that they do not move in the correct path'.
» Upon this, the Son of Heaven pronounced the following decision.
» 'His late Majesty has treated Ken , Hwang and the father of the
» latter with the utmost generosity. Yet they have abnegated the
» obligations which should flow forth from His favours , and eflFaced
»them from their memory. Considering, however, that Ken has
» projected the erection of Our altars of the Grods of Land and
» Grain (i. e. has helped us to the Throne), We merely banish him
^ J^ ^ • ^ ^ certain class of functionaries.
6 His grandfather was bom of the same mother as the consort of the emperor
Tuen ^ ^, who reigned from 48 to 33 B. C.
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630 THE GRAVE.
»to his principality. And Hwang We do not wish to employ
»any longer; he is herewith degraded to the rank of a commoner,
>>and sent back to the district where he lived before. And all
y> those who have heretofore been raised to official dignities on the
» recommendation of Ken and Hwang's father, are dismissed" ^
Similar episodes are on record also in the historical books of
later dynasties. In those of the House of Tsin we read : » When the
» Emperor Ming had died (A. D. 325), Chung Nga was appointed
» Censor. It occurred about this time that the minister Mei Tao
» employed singing women and dancing girls to perform before him
»in private, ere the mourning for the Emperor was yet ended,
» which induced Chung Nga to , denounce him to the Emperor in
»a memorial. 'I have', thus this document ran, 'learned that at
» the demise of Fang Hiun («. e. the ancient sovereign Yao) the
» musical instruments were stopped and stored away, and that even
» the common people were then capable of keeping a three years'
» mourning (comp. page 606). Ever since that time matters have
» continued in this way through all dynasties, down to this date,
» and so , during the months which have now expired of the year
» wherein Emperor Ming, the Venerable Ancestor, passed away
» and forsook His numberless realms , Your Majesty, our Holy Lord,
» himself has worn the cap of plain undyed silk and plain undyed
» garments, weeping tears of blood while holding Your court. All
» the officers too have felt grief and sorrow and refrained from
» displaying on their countenances any signs of joy; but Mei Tao,
y> devoid of the purity of conduct which is an essential part of the
» faith and loyalty that should exist in a high minister, has indulged
»in lavishness at home. Voices of singing women have mingled
' it%m%T. ^^^m'^BWi-. aiii5ie;^.<&
^ W ^ * ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Dynasty, chapter 98, 1. 13.
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THE MOURNING FOR EMPERORS UNDER LATER DYNASTIES. 631
» together there, and music of stringed and bamboo instruments has
» emerged from theqce, so that it could be heard in the street. He
» deserves to be dismissed from oflBce, in order that the Supreme
» Government may thereby be re-conducted into the proper path" *.
The orthodox Censor did not, however, effect his purpose.
During the Wei dynasty, magistrates who did not keep the
mourning for the emperor in a proper manner were likewise severely
dealt with. At least we read : » When Shi Tsung had died (A. D.
»515), but was not yet buried, Ch^'en Kiai had, in company with
» Chang Fu-hwui, who was governor of Uonan, and others, in-
»dulged in a revelry at which theatricals were performed. They
» were on this account dismissed from their dignities" *.
K we may believe the Khienlung editors of the / /e, the Wei
dynasty had, prior to the above event, introduced a considerable
modification in the duration of the mourning for emperors. They
aver that » under the reign of the emperor Wu it was
» ordained for the first time that this mourning should be put
» off when the burial was completed" '. They state also that in
the eighth century » the mourning for the emperors Ming and Suh
» Tsung of the T%ng dynasty was again abridged, the old number
» of thirty-six days being reduced to twenty-seven" *. It is easy to
see how the then Government came to fix the imperial mourning
at this duration. Twenty-seven simply represented the number of
]i&.lCJ!|Bjft:§5l|J[ii$HM- ^°*>''« "^ *''•' "^"^ Dynasty, chapter 70,
1. 22.
fti^ • >%i W ■ ^°°^ °^ ^■^^ ^°* Dynasty, chapter 68, 1. 10.
3 Mil I^^^^H^I^. Chapter 22, 1.32.
Q . Chapter 22, 1. 33.
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632 THS GRAVE.
months which that mourning lasted at the outset^ the three years'
mourning ending, as our readers know from page 500, in the
twenty-seventh month.
It is quite natural that the present dynasty, which never belies
its principle that good government chiefly consists in imitating as
closely as possible the institutions of antiquity, has assigned to the
mourning for the Emperor an important place amongst its own
institutions. Minute regulations have been drawn up by it on this
subject and laid down in the Ta TsHng fung It; of the greater
part of these we here present a translation to the reader.
y> At the demise of the Emperor, the princes and ministers
» forthwith remove the ornaments from their caps, and all the
» inmates of the inner apartments of the Palace, from the Empress
» Dowager, the new Empress and the deceased's concubines of all
» ranks down to the lowest , all do the same with regard to their
» head-gear ^ And when the dressing and coffining have taken place"
— in presence of the Imperial heir who has properly wailed at
it and stamped his feet at fixed times — »this heir and the
» other princes with their sons , and all the officials and servants
» connected with the Imperial household clip their cues and
» assume complete mourning dress , the same being done by the
» Empress Dowager, the Empress, the defunct's concubines of all
» ranks down to the lowest, his daughters, the consorts of the princes
» and of their sons , and all the ladies connected with the Imperial
» household. Mourning garments of white linen are provided to
» this end for the princes of the rank of Wang or Eung^
»and for the several officers, as also for the Imperial clansmen
» descended from the recognized founder of the dynasty, and for
» those who trace their descent from its early ancestors * ; and
» further for the princesses , for the wives of the Imperial princes
»and those below them to the third degree, for the wives of
» the members of the Department of the Body guard , and those
» higher in rank*.
2 So-called Gioro.
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MOURNING NOW-A-DAYS OBSERVED FOR AN EMPEROR. 633
»The Emperor wears mourning till in the third year. He resides
»in a side-apartment, and wears for a hundred days (a cap of)
» plain undyed silk and plain undyed mourning garments. He
» signs His decrees and dispositions with blue ink. When the hun-
»dred days have elapsed. He is requested to bestow care on His
» hair again and to change His mourning for another plain dress ,
» but whenever He appears before the sacrificial altar (of the soul
» of the defunct), He re-assumes the old mourning. The plain dress
» is put off by Him for good in the twenty-seventh month \
» The Empress Dowager too puts oft deep mourning at the end
»of a hundred days, and then wears a plain dress till in the
» twenty-seventh month. The Empress during the first hundred days
» wears the same mourning as her Consort , then changing it for
» another plain dress, but She re-assumes the former mourning
» whenever She appears before the altar of the manes of the
» defunct. The plain dress She lays off in the twenty-seventh month.
» The concubines of the four highest ranks lay off their mourning
» after twenty-seven days, and so do the Imperial sons and grand-
»8ons, who abide, moreover, in another apartment of the Palace
» than that in which they usually reside. The Imperial princesses,
»the wives of the princes and those below them in rank, further
»the consorts of the members of the Department of the Body
» guard with the ladies of higher rank and those connected with
»the Imperial household — all likewise wear mourning during
» twenty-seven days*.
41
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634 THE GRAVE.
»The princes and ministers who have to direct the funeral cere-
» monies, the guards of the hall where the coffin is stored away,
» and all those who are in office there, lay off their mourning at
» the end of a hundred days ^.
» As for the princes of the Imperial family invested with the rank
»of Wang or Kung, they have to retire into a chamber of ab-
»stinence, each in his private mansion. The officials attached to
» the Boards and the Supreme Courts have to keep their abode in
» their official buildings, and so have the officers of the eight
» Manchu Banners and of the unemployed or unpaid bannermen.
»They lay off mourning after twenty-seven days, do not have their
» heads shaved for a hundred days , and wear plain garments till
»in the twenty-seventh month. During twenty-seven days they
» stamp their memorials to the Throne and official despatches with
V blue ink *.
y> Such of the Imperial clansmen as belong to collateral branches
» which are the issue of ancestors of a recent period may not
» solemnize any marriage in their family during twenty-seven months.
» This prohibition is in force during one year only for clansmen of
» branches sprung from remote ancestors, and for such Wang,
»Kung and officers as reside in the Metropolis'.
» Festive meetings are forbidden to all the dignitaries mentioned
» for twenty-seven months , and singing and music must cease for
» the whole of this time" *.
The duty of mourning for the Sovereign also extends to the whole
people. The citizens of the Metropolis have to put on mourning as
soon as the death has been publicly promulgated at the Palace,
which takes place in the following wise, mostly on the day succeeding
that on which the defunct has been coffined and mourning assumed
^ g . Leaf 3.
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PROMULGATION OF THE DBATH OF AN EMPEROR. 685
by the Court. The announcement having been committed to paper
by the Nei koh^ or >> Inner Cabinet", the Grand Secretaries^ of
this Imperial Chancery, accompanied by other officials attached thereto,
take it in solemn procession into the hall where the soul-tablet of
the defunct is set up , and there hand it over to the heir to the
Throne, who deposes it upon a yellow table set out on the spot.
All thereupon leave the hall, after having knelt down and bowed
their foreheads three times to the ground, and remain waiting out-
side the gate of this part of the Palace. Now the Secretaries alone
re-enter the hall, make a prostration before the table, knock their
heads against the floor three times, and carry the announcement
oflF, passing by the kneeling Emperor, who subsequently leaves the
hall and retires into his mourning apartment.
Outside the Khien ts^ing gate^ which forms the southern
entrance to the court-yard extending before a hall of the same
name, the Secretaries tomd the document to the Presidents of the
Board of Rites, who receive it kneeling, after having knocked their
heads three times against the ground. A sacrificial officer attached
to the same Board thereupon carries it to the T4 en ngan gate\
the lofty, yellow-tiled roof of which rises in the middle of the
long wall stretching from east to west before the series of par-
allel buildings which constitute the inner Palace. Having ascended
the pavilion which towers above this gate, he solemnly reads the
announcement to an assembly of Wang, Kung, and officers,
who, at the head of the warriors and citizens, lie prostrate in
mourning attire on the other side of a bridge of marble-like
dolomite stone, built over The Golden Water ^ a brook that
flows past the outer facade of the said gate. The recital finished,
the whole assembly burst out in a loud wailing and throw them-
selves on their knees three times in succession, at each prostration
bowing their heads three times to the ground.
At the Board of Rites printed copies are now made of the docu-
ment, for distribution throughout the length and breadth of the
Empire. The first to receive a copy is the Prefect of the Shun-t*ien
department •, of which Peking is the capital. Dressed in mourning,
this magistrate, lying in a prostrate attitude with a retinue of officers
1 p^m- ^i^^±
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686 THE GEAVB.
and retainers, receives it at his Yam en in the Metropolis, and has
it read aloud to an assembly ot officials, literary graduates and nota-
bles. At each provincial capital, the Governor General and the Gro-
vemor receive it in like manner outside the city- walls, where they
resort in state with a long train of civil and military authorities, the
gentry, notables and elders, all dressed in plain garments. The read-
ing takes place at their respective Yam en, immediately after the
procession has entered. Finally, a like solemn reception is prepared
for the document at the capital of each department and district,
and also at such other towns as are the seats of high officers
charged with the administration of any subdivision of the Empire ^
In this manner the news of death finds its way to every part
of the Imperial territory. Wherever it is officially proclaimed, the
authorities »are all bound to change their dress for mourning
» attire, and to make ceremonious prostrations with their faces to
» the north" in honour of the deceased Son of Heaven. » Until the
» third day they must perform a howling in the morning and
» evening. They must wear mourning attire for seven and twenty
»days; their heads must remain unshaven and marriages be post-
»poned in their families till the hundredth day, and they must
» not have any music for a year. And the soldiers and the people,
»both in the Metropolis and the provinces, have for twenty-seven
» days to remove the ornaments from their caps, and the women
» from their heads, and both sexes have to wear plain garments until
»the end of this period; moreover, all have to discontinue shaving
»and music for a hundred days. In the Metropolis, marriages
»are interdicted to soldiers and citizens for a hundred days, and
» in the provinces for a month" ^.
These regulations are not at all irksome to the people. Everybody
wears his ordinary clothes, as if nothing had happened, for the
term » plain garments" admits of sundry explanations. Ornaments
on caps or hats are easily dispensed with , on account of the simple
4 See the Ta Tsing fung li, chapter 47, 11. 5 and 6.
^ w B > It -ir n s ifc # ^ — >9 • ''« ^***««"'««ff «' ^^f*^
47, U. 5 and 6.
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NATIONAL MOURNING OBSERVED FOR EMPRESSES. 687
fact that scarcely any one wears them ; the small bunch of braided
red cords on the top of the skull-cap is simply replaced by another
of a black or dark colour, and no red tassels are worn on the
ceremonial caps described on page 50 and depicted in Plate 11.
Weddings can be deferred without very much inconvenience, and
what does it matter about shaving, when everybody may have his
hair combed and cleansed as often as he Ukes? This work too
appertaining to the office of the barbers* guilds, their members are
not altogether doomed to idleness and starvation, though some of
them perhaps have a hard time of it. The only real sufferers are the
play-actors. As there are no dramatic performances in China without
music, these men have to give up their business for the time being;
but their losses are compensated to a certain extent by an increase
of work and income when the mourning period is past, as the people
are then eager to enjoy themselves in a double measure, after so
long an abstention from the most beloved of their amusements.
That the people are reminded of their duty to assume mourning
for the Son of Heaven by means of notifications posted up all
around by the authorities, need scarcely be said.
National mourning must also be observed for an Empress Dow-
ager. In principle this mourning is similar to that prescribed for an
Emperor, saving that in the Metropolis the Wang, Kung and
other grandees are not required to retire into their mansions or
offices and may put off their plain garments already at the end of a
hundred days; moreover, all the officers of the fourth rank and
lower, who reside there, have to postpone their marriages for only a
hundred days, and to keep away from festive meetings and music
for one year only \ The national mourning for an Empress, not a
widow, is somewhat slighter still. Wherever in her case the official
tidings of the demise have been promulgated in the Metropolis
and the provinces, which takes place in th^ same way as at the
death of an Emperor or an Empress Dowager, » the civil and military
» authorities must remove the ornaments from thehr caps and put
)»on mourning clothes; they must congregate in their mansions to
»howl for three days, and after twenty-seven days put off their
» mourning; they may not have themselves shaved for a hundred days.
» Both among the soldiers and the people , men and women must
y> remove the ornaments from their hats and heads, and wear a plain
» mourning dress for seven days. And everybody, from the officials
1 See the Ta TsHng fung li^ chapter 48, Jl. 4 and 2.
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638 THE GRAVE.
»of the seven degrees down to the common people, must discon-
y> tinue music and consummate no marriage so lung as he wears
» the mourning dress" '.
8. Moomlng for Teachers.
Besides one's own kinsfolk and the ruler with his nearest relations,
still a third category of persons had to be mourned for in ancient
China, namely teachers. This fact itself suggests that custom had
invested these men with great authority over their pupils, and that
the latter had to show them a submissive devotion adequately pro-
portionate. That this authority on one side, and this submissive devo-
tion on the other were very great in pre-Christian times , is tolerably
certain, for the Li ki places teachers unreservedly on a par with
parents and rulers. We read in this work (ch. 9, 1. 4): » In serving
» their parents , children should conceal (their faults), and not blame
»them openly therefor. They ought to keep continuously at their
» side to nourish them , without being tied on this head to definite
» rules ; they should serve them submissively and laboriously till their
» death, and then observe a strict mourning for them till in the
» third year. — In serving their ruler, ministers should blame him
» openly for his faults and make no concealment of them. They should
»keep at his side to nourish him, though according to definite
» rules ; they must serve him laboriously and with submission till his
» death , and then wear mourning for him till in the third year. —
» And in serving his teacher, a disciple should not blame him openly
y> for his faults, but should make no concealment of them. He must
» keep at his side to nourish him, without being tied to definite rules,
y> serve him submissively and laboriously till his death , and then
» observe for him a mourning of the heart till in the third year" *.
^tXi^WS^ZB-^ «'•' -chapter 48, 1. 41.
I* # il j^ > « il M ^ . id^ 31 = ^ . Section ^ ^ , I, 1 ,
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MOUBNING OBSERVBD FOB TEACHERS. 639
The fact, revealed by this rescript, that mourning for a teacher
used to be observed only in mind and was not marked by a special
dress, is corroborated by the following passage firom the same
Classic (chapter 10, 11. 29 and 35): »0n the death of Confucius, his
» disciples stood in doubt as to the sort of mourning they should
»wear; whereupon Tszg-kung said: 'I respectfully propose that we
» shall mourn for our Master as we mourn for a father, but without
» wearing a mourning dress'. . . . Accordingly all the disciples merely
»wore a headband, when out-of-doors" ^
During . the Han dynasty, the duty of wearing mourning for a
teacher was evidently regarded by the nation as a very sacred
one. Such a conclusion necessarily follows from the circumstance
that there are cases on record of mandarins who went so far as
to resign their office on the death of the master who had taught
them. So we read that Yen Tuh *, who lived in the second
century, » resigned his office because of the death of his teacher,
and hurried to the mourning rites" ^ and that Khung Yuh *, one
of his contemporaries , » having been invested with the governorship
»of Loh-yang (the then metropolis of the Empire), resigned his
i» office because of the death of his teacher, and thereupon breathed
» his last in his paternal domicile" ^. Also concerning the statesman
Liu Yen*, who died in A. D. 194, it is on record that » after he
»had been appointed a Chamberlain to the Imperial family, he
» resigned this office on account of the death of his teacher" ^. It
seems, however, that such an exaggerated form of mourning had
fidlen into disuse already at the end of the Han djmasty, or very
soon after, for we have not come across any instances such as the
above in the native historical records of later ages.
31 :$t flS S m... IL ^ :2: H II = ^ ^ iJS B5 |i|. The
same section, I, 2.
^ 1^ 0i6 $^ ^1 1^ ^^ iSl ' ^^^^ ^^ ^^® Later Han Dynasty, chapter 94, 1.4.
SfS^ir^, JtitftBllilW^ ^T^- The same wk,
chapter 97, I. 24.
' iii^^n^M. #0 0iIJ II* It Memoirs of the Three
Kingdoms; Memoirs of Shuh, chapter 1, 1. 1.
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640 THE GRAVE.
The Chinese of to-day, in faithful obedience to the doctrines of
antiquity, continue to recognize teachers as persons of high im-
portance in social life. Schoolmasters are very influential everywhere,
chiefly in consequence of the fact that in most parts of the Empire,
with the exception of the mandarinate they alone understand the
art of reading sufficiently well to obtain some knowledge of ancient
books and to inculcate the lessons and rescripts thereof on the
rising generation. In Amoy this saying is continuously on the lips of
the educated classes, as a standard proverb: »This world consists
of the Ruler, parents and teachers", fien-ha kun chHn su \ which
is as much as to say that these three, and these three alone, are
the chief upholders of social order, the teacher being the man who
by his lessons maintains the subjection , respect and devotion which
are due to ruler and parents; in other words, he is the grand
herald of the indispensable hiao, which virtue alone can cement the
nation into one single body, and without which society would
inevitably go to ruin. No wonder then that pupils and schoolboys
in Amoy should observe mourning for such important personages.
In obedience to the Li At, it is a mourning in their hearts, a
mourning which, in imitation of the disciples of the great national
Sage, they only display outwardly by signs on their heads. They
change the red bunch on the top of their skull-caps for a blue
or black one, and have not their heads shaved for a hundred
days; but this is all they do. Nobody, however, mourns for a
teacher who taught him formerly; but there may be exceptions to
this rule.
9. Contact with Mouming is hortfttl to Men and Gkxls.
Numerous passages in the ancient Chinese books indicate that,
in pre-Christian times, it was a prevailing conception in the Empire
of the Midst that people dressed in mouming ought to avoid
contact with others. It is difficult to attribute this to anything
but a fear that the misfortune by which the mourner had been
struck, and the influences of death still sticking to his person and
dwelling, might pass over to others Uke a contagion, and thus
entail new disasters or new cases of illness and decease.
' %T^Mm-
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CONTACT WITH MOURNING IS HURTFUL. 641
We cannot otherwise account for the following passage in the
Cheu Hi »In mourning dress or with funereal implements no one
is permitted to enter the Palace" ^. A similar rescript occurs in
the Li M (chapter 6, 1. 21), but with more particulars of detail:
»No one is allowed to enter the Ruler's gate either with a
» tortoise shell or divining stalks, or with a stool or staff (as this
y> would be assuming the forbidden airs of an old man or a person
»in authority), or with mats and awnings (such things being used
»for funeral cars), or having his upper and lower garments both
»of plain (mourning) material, or in a single robe of fine or
» coarse hemp. Not should one enter it in (mourning) sandals of
y> straw, or with the skirts of the garment tucked in at the waist
» (which is a token of deep mourning ^), or with a mourning cap
»on. Nor, unless announcement thereof has been previously made
» (and permission granted), can any one bring in inscribed boards
» (that is to say, lists of articles presented for a funeral), moum-
» ing coats either of the first or second degree , nor any funereal
» implements" *.
Elsewhere still in the Li hi we read (chapter 12, 1. 5): »Ki Wu-
»tszg (the grandee mentioned on page 262) was lying ill in his
» room , when Kiao Ku entered it to see him , without putting off
» the mourning with even edges which he was wearing. 'This line
»of conduct followed by me', said the visitor, 'is the right one,
» although it has almost fallen into disuse. It is only at the gate
» of his Ruler that an officer takes off his mourning with even
» edges" *. These words show that in Confucius* time it had become
quite a rule for people in mourning also to avoid entering other
mansions than those of the Chief of the State.
^ Slflft W ^ ^ A if- c»^^P^^* 7' *• ^»-
2 We read in the seventieth chapter of the Li ki (1. 29): » Immediately
» after his parent's death, a child tucks up the skirts of his dress and inserts them
• in his girdle" ^ $& ^ ^J Jl ^ (section P^ ||). Doubtless this act,
like baring the bead and the upper part of the body, was intended to represent
an undressing, the lower limbs being thereby uncovered.
^.^0^.:?IA^P1. Section ftli.n,!.
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642 THE GRAVE.
There is evidence on record in the Standard Histories that the
ancient rule, which prohibited any one's entering a ruler's palace
in mourning attire, obtained in ensuing ages. We read for instance,
that during the reign of Wen Tsung ^ of the T^ang dynasty (827 —
836) )>the emperor ordered Li Hiun to put on garments of a glossy
y> material , because it was difficult to permit him to enter the
» inner Palace in the coarse dress with jagged edges, which
» he was wearing" *. And in the biography of a certain scholar
and statesman Ts'ai Ting^ who lived in the eleventh century, it
is recorded that »the emperor Jen Tsung, wishing to be informed
» about the Elitan Tatars, sent for him and consulted him in a
» private apartment. At that time, this grandee was in mourning
» for his father, and hence he was allowed to enter the Palace in
» an everyday dress and with an ordinary hat on" *. To this day
matters have remained unaltered in this respect, it being prescribed
in the Ta Td^ing fung li that »none of those who are in the
three years' mourning shall enter the gate of the Ruler"*, by
which term is understood not only the Imperial Palace, but also
any public building, fortress or other important structure belonging
to Government.
The conviction that contact with people in mourning can entail
evil consequences has equally imbued the mind of the Chinese of
all classes. The evil is deemed to keep pace with the depth of the
mourning; hence sack-cloth garments are feared most of all. Their
influence is even supposed to be of a killing nature. In Amoy, no-
body would be so hard-hearted as to enter the house of another with
such garments on. Such a deed would call for vengeance. For the
same reason, sack-cloth garments are never kept at home ready
made (see page 14).
To a certain extent the same apprehension is manifested at
Amoy in respect of the mm pd 8a^ (see page 592). In this garment
nobody would venture to pass the threshold of a house where the
4 ^^.
2 m^m ^ ^ n A ^ »i^ . ^ ^ fii5ft «. Old Books
of the T*ang Dynasty, chapter 169, 1. 4.
'mm-
^ J[ii ^ Ipi A • H'»^''y °f the Sung Dynasty, chapter 328, I. 14.
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SPECIAL YISITINQ CARDS USED IN MOURNING. 643
inmates were celebrating a marriage, a birthday, or any other
great festivity, it being of the utmost importance at such times to
keep the parties rejoicing free from all inauspicious influences, lest
these should destroy for good their future happiness. His near
relatives or intimate friends do not fear so great danger from a
mourner as other people do, and they make little objection to
his entering their houses. Still many a wise old man or pru-
dent matron, who takes the domestic felicity seriously to heart,
wiU throw some salt and uncooked rice, properly mixed together,
after such a visitor, to expel in this wise the evil influences
which he has introduced. But this must always be done after he
has left, for fear of an outburst of fury on his part, as the pro-
ceeding is considered very insulting to the person who is made the
object of it.
Even persons whose first year of mourning has elapsed and by whom
the sdm p6 zcc^ is virtually no longer worn (see p. 595) are in general
very unwillingly received in their houses by most people. This has
given rise to the use of special visiting cards , from which can be seen
at a glance whether the person whose name they bear is in mourn-
ing or not, and which enable people to decide whether they shall
decline his call. Under ordinary circumstances, visiting cards are
oblong sheets of red paper, inscribed with the name. Mourners of the
first degree use no cards for a year, then yellow ones during the
second year, pasted upon an extra piece of red paper of a some-
what larger size , so that they look as if framed in red. This yellow
colour represents the natural tint of unbleached bamboo paper,
and therefore betokens the same abstaining from the use of dye
which characterizes also the mourning dress (see page 601). And
when the second year has elapsed, red paper alone is used, now
bearing, besides the name, the character {|||, which signifies
>> rules", but points in this case to the rules of mourning, the
observance of which is still incumbent on the owner of the cards.
Cards such as the latter are used also by mourners of the second
degree, till the end of their mourning.
As a consequence of the general fear of the pernicious influence
of mourning clothes, a married woman is not allowed by custom
to wear mourning in her husband's home for her own father or
mother, nor for any other near relative belonging to her father's
clan. She is, however, not forbidden to put on her mourning at home
when about to resort to the house of death, because this is like
carrying mourning out of the house, which constitutes no danger;
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644 THB GRAVE.
but it would be quite another thing if she were to return in her
mourning clothes, and thus as it were bring mourning into the
house. Under no pretext whatever wmild this be allowed, and she is
always obliged to put off her mourning in the mortuary house
before returning to her husband's home.
As a proof how firmly the fear of contact in cases of death
sways the minds of the nation, we may instance the fact that
even an ordinary messenger who delivers tidings of death strictly
abstains from passing the threshold of the houses at which he
knocks, unless urgently requested by the inmates to walk in. Those
who do not refrain from calling him in are the happy few who
enjoy so much good fortune in this life, that they feel perfectly
persuaded the stronghold of their happiness can gloriously repel
any attack made upon it by the disastrous influences of death.
If mourning be offensive to man, must it not then be more so
to the gods? And must it not on this account be kept at a distance
from them as well? No Chinaman has ever hesitated to answer
these questions in the affirmative.
Already in ancient China this conception prevailed, even with
regard to Heaven and Earth, the two highest divinities of the
Pantheon. These were solemnly sacrificed to yearly for the welfeire
of the country, on fixed days , by every Son of Heaven in the sub-
urbs of his capital, and mourning dress was banished to a distance
fi:om the spot on such occasions by severe laws. How, indeed,
could divinities be propitiated, if they were outraged and irritated
at the same time on their own altars by the presence of unpro-
pitious mourning?
» At the sacrifices in the suburbs", says the Li ki (ch. 60, 1. 27),
» those who have sustained a loss by death do not presume to
» wail , nor do they who wear inauspicious mourning garments ven-
» ture to enter the gates of the capital then. This constitutes the
» highest degree of reverence \ And (ch. 37, 1. 11) during the day
» of the sacrifice , those who have been visited with a case of death
»do not howl, neither do they venture to wear the inauspicious
» mourning dress" *. Howling too was accordingly deemed to work
IR:2: M-&. Section ^^, I.
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CONTACT WITH MOURNINQ IS OFFENSIVE TO THE GODS. 645
mischief. But this conception has been discussed already in this
work ^
Still in our days it is an official rescript that »all those who
»are in the three years' mourning shall not take part in any
» proceeding which has for its object the promotion of happi-
» ness" ^. Among such proceedings are understood in the first place
numerous sacrifices which are presented annually by the Emperor
and his mandarins in the Metropolis and in the provinces to the
several divinities of the State, with a view to promoting thereby
the welfare of the Empire and its several subdivisions. Where the
authorities up to the highest set the example, the people naturally
follow, and keep those who are in mourning away fix>m their
gods as far as possible. They carry this so far as not even to
allow mourners to contribute with the other inhabitants of their
ward or village towards the celebration of festivals which are
intended for the propitiation of the local tutelary divinities. No
names of such persons may appear in the subscription lists circu-
lated for this purpose, as it cannot be doubted that their names,
not less than their money, would greatly neutralize the good eflFects
the feast is intended to produce in the shape of blessings from the
gods. For the same reason contributions and subscriptions from
mourners are refused when money is being collected for the con-
struction or restoration of a temple.
1 Pages ^64 seq,
2 Ji^H^^^PH'^^.^^ ^«'*^S^ ^'^^fl' ". chapter 52, 1. 6.
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CHAPTER Vn.
FASTING FOR THE DEAD.
Among the religious observances which play a part in human
life, none perhaps so generally obtains as fasting, among peoples
in all stages of culture. Nor is this to be looked for in vain in the
religious system of the Chinese. It plays a part among them chiefly
as a rite connected with the worship of the dead , in which respect
it now falls under our attention.
If our premises are correct that the religion of the Chinese people
commenced with the worship of the dead^ it is highly probable
that the most ancient and , perhaps , the original form of all fasting
was fasting on behalf of the dead. As a matter of fact, in the
oldest relics of the native literature which afford data on religious
subjects, we find it so intimately, not to say inseparably coupled
with mourning , that it would seem as if a proper observance thereof
could not exist without mourning; and if we take into consi-
deration that the origin of mourning is doubtlessly rooted in the
very dawn of Chinese life and religion, as the foregoing chapter
sufficiently proves, the natural conclusion is, that the origin of fasting
must likewise be traced back to the same stage. Nothing is found
by us in the ancient books which refutes this conclusion.
At the outset of the last chapter (page 475) we have stated that
mourning and fasting are to be considered as twin customs bom
of the same mother, viz. of the practice of sacrificing everything
to the deceased, so that the living kept only the poorest clothes for
themselves to wear, and bad and insufficient food to eat. In ancient
historical China, sacrificing food to the dead under different forms was,
indeed, widely prevalent. They put food into a corpse's mouth after
the last breath was drawn; they placed some at its side while it
was lying on the death-bed or concealed in the principal apart-
ment of the house under a pile of wood and clay; they also stored
up large quantities of victuals in the grave ^ And though in those
1 Pages 357 et sqq., 363 et sqq., 382 et sqq.
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FASTING FOR THE DEAD IN ANCIENT CHINA. 647
early historical times it was no longer customary for children to give
the dead all, or nearly all the food they possessed, yet fasting was
not thereby divested of its reality, since it had then assumed the
shape of a time-honoured religious rite, the observance of which
was imperiously demanded by the hiao, a virtue which, as our
readers know, claimed just as much sacrificial devotion for defunct
as for living parents.
We must now try to expound by means of extracts from native
books the place which fasting has occupied in the religious life of
ancient and modem China. As the sacrificing of food to the dead
in various ways anciently commenced immediately after life was
extinct, fasting, being a natural result of such sacrifices, began at
the same moment. We read indeed in the Li ki (ch. 70, 1. 29) :
» Immediately after the death of their father or mother, the child-
»ren tie their hair with a head-scarf and fasten it with a pin;
» they then go barefoot , have the skirts of their coat tucked up and
» inserted in their girdle \ and howl, their hands folded on their
» breast. Their grief and distress, their painful and bitter thoughts
» injure their kidneys, dry up their Uver, and scorch their lungs.
» Water or moist food does not enter their mouths, and for three
» days no fire is kindled (to cook food); hence the neighbours pre-
» pare rice gruel to feed them and to quench their thirst. Internal
» grief and distress produce a change in their outward countenance;
;» because pain and affliction dwell in their hearts their mouths
>^do not relish any savoury food, nor do their bodies find rest
» upon anything which is of good quality" *.
Let it be noted by the way that the custom, revealed by this
extract, of having no fire in the dwelling for some days after the
decease, must in course of time have given rise to the custom,
described on page 24, of begging in the street for the ashes that are
required for the coffining of the corpse. Already on page 27 we have
directed the reader's attention to the origin of this curious custom.
Fervent mourners sometimes kept up their devote self-starvation
1 Compare page 641, note 2.
il' ^ If ^ifc. Section ffiH.
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648 THE GRAVE.
for an exceedingly long time. The lA ki (chapter 14, 1. 43) states that ,
» when Yoh Ching , the mother of (Tseng-tszg 's disciple) TszS-ch^un ,
» had died, even when five days had elapsed he did not yet eat" ^
Elsewhere (chapter 10, 1. 8) the same Classic relates: »Tseng-tsz8
»said to Tszg-szS: 'Kih, when I was engaged in the funeral of
» my parents , no water or moist food entered my mouth for seven
» days'. Upon this the other retorted: 'As to the ceremonies and
» rites prescribed by the ancient sovereigns, those who would go
» beyond them must stoop down and thus approach the rescripts ,
» and those who do not reach them should stand on tip-toe , in
» order to arrive so fer. On this account, a superior man, when
» engaged in the mourning for his father or mother does not take
»m his mouth any water or moist food for three days only, and
» though he uses a staff, he is still able to rise to his feet at the
» end of that time' " *.
From this we see that still as late as in the Confucian age there
prevailed among the highest in the nation, to which we are justi-
fied in supposing the Master's principal disciple Tszeng-tszg be-
longed, a strong tendency to overexaggerate the fasting for the
dead , and that the ethical leaders of the nation deemed themselves
constrained to check this by admonitions and moral rescripts. Some
of these have found their way into the Li ki. » During the time
» of mourning no one should be concerned about his abode , but
» in extenuating himself should not do so to the endangering of
» his life , lest he should leave no issue '. — Though the food be
» bad during mourning , yet the mourner must satisfy his hunger
» with it, for, if from hunger he neglects anything connected
» with his mourning, he commits a sin against the rites. On the
^ ^^^^Z^n.m.}A B5:f»:^. Section ^^,11,3.
section ijS S , II, 3. Ck)mpare what has been stated on pp. 612 and 617 about its
being everybody's duty to have male posterity, with a view to the perpetuation of
the ancestral worship.
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PASTING FOR THB DEAD IN ANCIENT CHINA. 649
» other hand , it is just as much against the rites should he forget
» his sorrow through satiety. It is a matter of distress for superior
» men to think that a mourner should not see or hear distinctly
» or should not walk straight , and thus be unconscious of his
» sorrow. Hence, if a mourner be ill, he must drink spirits and
»eat flesh; if he be fifty years, he ought not to carry his extenua-
)>tions to a high pitch; at sixty he must not emaciate himself
»at all, and at seventy he should not abstain from spirits and
» fleshy all to prevent himself from dying CJonfucius spoke thus :
»'\i he have sores on his body, he should bathe; if he have a
y> wound on his head , he should wash it (comp. page 504) ; if he
»be ill, he should drink spirits and eat flesh. Extenuating and
» emaciating himself to such a degree that illness ensues , this is
» what a superior man does not do. If one die from such emaciaton,
» superior men will name him a person who has not fulfilled his
» duty as a son" *.
Elsewhere again (chapter 4, 11. 28 — 30) the Li ki has: » According
» to the rules for those who are in mourning, extenuation and emacia-
» tion should not depict themselves on their outward countenance,
» nor should their seeing and hearing faculties be weakened thereby.
» According to the same rules , if the mourner have a wound on
»hi8 head he should wash it, and if he have sores on his body
» he should bathe ; if he be ill , he should drink spirits and eat
» meat , returning to his former abstinence when he has recovered,
»for not to fulfil the duties of mourning in the best possible
» way is to be on the verge of want of affection and filial devo-
»tion. At fifty, mourners should no more carry their extenuation
»to a high pitch, nor should they, when sixty years old, ema-
»ciB.td themselves at all; at seventy they should merely wear the
» shabby coat of hemp, drinking , however, spirits , eating flesh and
IS ^ # ^ IB ^ ifcois B5 5B. # ^ ii ;2: ii ^ci^pterBB,
U. 33 and 35; or section ^ |g, 11, 1.
48
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650 THE GRAYS.
»dweUing inside the house"*. » Matters relating to fasting and
» mourning", adds another chapter (19, 1. 11), j^do not extend to
» octogenarians" *.
The staff which the starvelings of mourning were originally
obliged to carry, lest their tottering emaciated bodies should fall
to the ground, has been sufficiently dilated on in the foregoing
chapter (pages 494 and 547). We have also seen there that it has
become in later ages a mere badge of mourning, an emblem of the
privations to which, anciently, the children devoutly submitted in
order to benefit their beloved dead as much as possible. At present it
plays absolutely no other part than that of a badge (see p. 590).
Fasting and wearing mourning being really one and the same
thing, namely abstaining from even the first requirements of life
on behalf of the dead, as a matter of course we find that,
like the last-named custom (see pp. 491 seg,), fasting became less
rigorous in proportion as the relationship to the deceased was more
removed. » Those who mourn in the first degree", says the Li ki
(chapter 71, 1. 5), »do not eat for three days; in the second
>^ degree, mourners do not take food during two days; in the third
» degree, they abstain from three meals, in the fourth or fifth from
» two. Should an ordinary officer take part in the dressing of a
y> corpse , he abstains from one meal. Hence , at the demise of their
» father or mother, the mourners, when the coffin is stored away
7> in the hall of the dwelling , confine themselves in the morning to
»rice gruel made of one handful of rice, and the same quantity in
» the evening. Mourners of the second degree take food at long inter-
» vals and drink water, but must abstain from vegetables and fruit.
j<>In the third degree they take no pickled meat or liquid food,
»and in the fourth or fifth degree they drink no must or spirits.
» In this manner grief is manifested in drinking and eating" ^.
Section ^ jjg, I, 4.
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ABSTAINING PROM MEAT, MUST AND SPIRITS. 651
And, again, just as in wearing mourning dress (see page 499), the
austerity in fasting gradually decreased in proportion to the time which
had elapsed since the decease. »In the mourning for their father or
mother", so the same chapter of the lA ki continues, »when the great
» sacrifice which follows upon the burial has been presented and the
» period of wailing is closed , the mourners eat at long intervals
» and drink water, but still abstain from vegetables and fruit. When
» one year has elapsed and the Lesser Sacrifice of Felicity has been
» oflfered , they may take vegetables and fruit ^ And at the end of
»the second year, when the Great Sacrifice of Felicity has been
» presented to the dead, they eat pickled meat and liquid food,
»and one month thereafter, the sacrifice which concludes the
» mourning having been oflfered, they may drink must and spirits.
>>When they begin to drink spirits, they take must first; and
» when they begin to eat meat , they first eat' dried meat" *.
Seeing from the above extracts that meat , must and spirits were
forbidden even in the last month of the deepest mourning, when
other sorts of food had long been allowed already; seeing moreover,
that must and spirits were not permitted to mourners of even
the two lowest degrees and that moralists had to give implicit
orders to sick and aged mourners not to abstain from such liquors
or from flesh — the conclusion is forced upon us that the three
articles in question stood quite foremost in the list of foods which
mourners were not allowed to touch. This fact coincides with the
circumstance that it was just the same three things which in ancient
China played the principal part at every sacrifice that was oflfered
to the dead , as may be seen from the account which the / li
gives of the sacrifices that were connected with the dressing of the
dead (see pp. 83 seq.), with the coflBning (pp. 363 seq,), with the
ceremonious howling in the morning and evening after the temporary
mm^^mm.iaLMZ^n^^^^-^ wit-
1 Comp. pages 503 aeq,^ where what the I li says on this head has been quoted.
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652 THE GRAVK.
burial in the hall (p. 118), and with the obsequies (p. 151). Their part
as such will moreover be referred to in several chapters in our Second
Book, devoted to a systematic treatment of the worship of disem-
bodied souls. Consequently, the correctness of our theory that fasting
was in the beginning an abstaining from food and drink in order to
supply the dead with all the more for themselves, is hereby fully
confirmed. We may also remind our readers that, as stated on pages
198 and 383, it was customary during the Cheu dynasty to send to
the tomb whole cart-loads of sacrificial meat and spirits, and to
inter the same with the dead, and that, though rice was also
sent thither, such was explicitly declared by a disciple of CJonfucius
to be in disharmony with time-honoured orthodox custom.
Before finishing our sketch of the important place fasting anciently
occupied in China in the Religion of the Dead, we must still
mention that the law of custom during the Cheu dynasty went so
far as to make fasting incumbent upon those who dressed a corpse
or went to condole with people who had sustained a loss by
death. »It is a rule", says the Li ki (ch. 58, 1. 10), »that those
» who dress a corpse shall wail when they have finished their work.
» An ordinary officer who has a dead body dressed by his retainers ,
» after the work is done abstains from one meal on its behalf' ^.
y> In the course of the day on which one goes to pay a visit ot
» condolence", says another clause (ch. 12, 1. 9), »he drinks no
» spirits and eats no meat" *. It is worthy of notice also that it
was prescribed (ch. 11, 1. 1) that » people eating by the side of
a mourner might not eat their fill" *, a precept which , if the Lun
yU^ may be believed, was complied with by Confucius himself,
who was the embodiment of perfection and excellence. That for
the rest moralists declared it was everybody's duty, firom the Son of
Heaven down to the meanest of the people, to fast for the dead,
has been seen from the words of Tseng-tsz8 and Mencius, quoted
respectively on pages 475 and 503.
Once firmly rooted in the ancient Chinese nation as an indis-
pensable religious rite, fasting for the dead naturally maintained
3 ^i^^ 31^ ^1B!l*«i|&ife. section ^^,1.3.
4 Chapter VU, 9.
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FASTING FOR THE DEAD IN LATER TIMES. 653
itself as a sacred castum during a long series of ages. Many passages
might be quoted fix)m the Standard Histories and other high
authorities in proof hereof; but we will not waste space and
time by quoting more than a few. In the second century of our
era, »one Shen Tu-p^n lost his father, when he was a mere lad
»of nine years. His sorrow was more intense and his emaciation
» greater than the law of morals demanded. Even after he had
y> put off mourning, neither spirits nor meat entered his mouth for
>>over ten years, and on each anniversary of the demise he did
»not touch food for three days"\ Passing over a couple of cent-
uries, we find it recorded of a certain grandee Sie Hung-wei*
who lived from A. D. 391 to 433 : » Being in mourning for his
» mother, he resigned his office, and was spoken of in lofty strains
» because of the filial devotion which he displayed during the
» time of mourning. Even after this had elapsed , he continued to
y> restrict himself to vegetables and plain food for a time And
>>when his brother died in the service of the government, his
y> grief and sorrow exceeded what is required by the law of morals,
» and even after he had put off his mourning dress he neither took
» fish nor flesh" '. A contemporary of his, Mu-yung Hi *, who be-
tween the years 401 and 407 ruled the kingdom of Yen *, situated
in the present province of Chihli, »on the death of lady Fu (his
» concubine) wore the mourning of the first degree and ate rice
» gruel" •. In the next century, the grandee Pei Chi-li ^, governor of
western Yii-cheu •, a part of the present province of Honan , y> ate
nothing but wheat and rice during the mourning for his mother" •.
+ ^#»#/&BiSlH0^^- B'»»1'8 of the Later Han Dynasty,
chapter 83, 1. 9.
Southern Part of the Realm, chapter 20, 1. 3.
^^V^yi^%MW\^^^' ^""''* "^ ***** '^'''° Dynasty, chapter
124, 1. 15.
^ #§JS^Pft^^lR- ^s^"7 ^^ ^^^ Southern Part of the Realm,
chapter 58, 1. i5.
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654 THS GEAVE.
When the T^ang dynasty was seated on the throne, fasting for the
dead ranked amongst the political institutions of the State. As sach
it received a place among the statutory rituals laid down in the Codex
of the period Khai yuen. »Not until three days have passed",
thus we read therein, »do mourners take food again. And when their
» father or mother has been buried, the children may take rice gruel,
V which in the morning is made of four times as much rice as the
}> hand can scoop up, and in the evening of the same quantity.
»If they cannot eat such gruel, they may cook the rice dry, and
» this latter way of preparing it is allowed to all the women*' ^.
It is no wonder that a dynasty which adopted fasting for the
dead among its written laws, should have in store severe punish-
ments for those who, while in mourning, indulged in banquets
and revelries. »In the twelfth year of the period Yuen hwo
»(A. D. 817), Yii Ki-yiu, a grandee invested with the title ot
» Military Intendant of the Emperor's horses, was in mourning for
» his father's principal consort , and yet he took part in a joyous
» entertainment and nocturnal drinking party in company with Liu
»Shi-fuh, a literary graduate of the highest degree. For this he
»was divested of his offices and dignities, chastised with forty
» blows with the bamboo stick, and banished to Chung-cheu. The
» graduate received the same number of blows and was condemned
»to be relegated in banishment to lien-cheu; and Yii Tih (Yu
» Ki-yiu's father) was also deprived of his rank , because he had
» shown himself incapable of giving his son a proper education" *.
New life having thus been infused into it by the official
rescripts of the House of l^ang, the. mourning-fast was in
full vigour when the Sung dynasty occupied the throne. It is
recorded that the magnate Chang Ts*i-hien ', who stood in high
favour at Court , when his mother died in A. D. 993 » did not
» allow any water or liquid food to pass his lips for seven days
■7* -M Bg^. Old Books of the T'ang Dynasty, chapter 15, 1. 20.
3 mm^.
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CHU Hi's RESCRIPTS CONCERNING PASTING FOR THE DEAD. 655
»and, when this time had elapsed, restricted himself to one bowl
»oi gruel a day, abstaining from spirits, meat, vegetables and
» fruit till the end of the mourning period" \ It was also during
the rule of the Sung dynasty that fasting for the dead found a
place among the Rituals for Family Life, compiled by Chu Hi.
»The sons", this philosopher said, »must abstain from food for
» three days. Those who are in mourning for one year or nine
» months must give up three meals, and those who have to mourn
» for five or three months must abstain from two meals. The kinsmen
» and neighbours prepare rice gruel to feed them , and the super-
» iors and elders of the family may compel them to eat a little
» of it" *. The reader will see at a glance that much in this clause
is borrowed from the Li ki (comp. pp. 648 and 650).
In spite of Chu Hi's rescripts, fasting on behalf of the dead was
slipping into abeyance in his time in some out-of-the-way comers
of Uie Empire, for in the Ling wai tai tah, which dates from the
eleventh century (see page 16), we read that in the far South-west
of the province of Kwangtung people openly evaded it by the aid
of deep-fetched subterfuges. »When among the people of Khin
»a father or mother dies, the children touch no meat or fish,
»but they freely consume sea-crabs, large shell-fish, oysters, uni-
» valves and the like, pretending in this way to fast and to eat
y> plain food, because these animals have no blood. The aborigines of
» Hainan, instead of feeding on gruel and rice on their parents' death,
» then drink spirits and devour raw beef, considering supreme filial
» devotion to lie therein" '. This contrast oflFered by the savage
non-Chinese inhabitants of the said island, is interesting. The extract
suggests that, with them, a frequent sacrificing of food and drink
to the dead has given rise to a systematical feasting upon the
leavings, and much eating and drinking has become a mark of
>P ^ ?S 0^ ^ ^ . History of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 265, 1. 20.
^^Km.n.:^^'^^m^i^m%iik^%z
m.mzmi^.\^i^mk.%>mm^Km.M:^^
5l5m. Pi fi:iB:^^4-0^.i5«lSM#:aE;i- Chapter 6.
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656 THE GRAVE.
devotion to the dead by reason of its proving that many head of
cattle have been killed on their behalf, and large supplies of spirits
been set out for their manes. Ethnographical science has sufficiently
established the fact that funeral bacchanals are very common among
savage peoples, and that they prevail widely among the less civilized
tribes of the great Polynesian stock, of which the Hainanese are
•most likely a branch.
Fasting for the dead has now almost entirely disappeared from the
list of customs of the people of southern Fuhkien. In a case of
death there, the inmates of the mortuary house are accustomed to
bestow little care on their cooking, as the disposal of the corpse
claims nearly all their attention and time; but this cannot be called
systematic fasting. Clearer vestiges of a former methodical abstinence
from forbidden food and drink still survive. In Amoy, mourners
never give festive entertainments , nor do they attend those of others,
because meat, duly washed down with spirits distilled from rice,
is an indispensable dish at every banquet. That the Ta Tiing fang
li formally prescribes that »mourners shall all abstain from parti-
cipating in festive meals" has been stated already on page 608.
Elsewhere in this Volume (page 568) the reader has seen that the
Ta Tiing luh li threatens with eighty blows those who violate this
rescript; but this Code moreover contains the following article:
» If in a family which is in mourning the men and women mix
» together disorderly during the celebration of Buddhistic religious
j^ rites or Taoistic sacrificial masses, drinking spirits or eating flesh ,
» the seniors of the family shall receive eighty blows with the long
» stick ; the Buddhist or Taoist clergymen shall be punished in the
)> same manner, and be reduced to laymen again" ^
Considering that fasting was at the outset abstaining from food
with a view to being able to sacrifice so much the more to the
dead, it is a natural consequence that the ancient Chinese likewise
observed a special fast as an introductory rite to the sacrifices which
custom required to be offered to the manes of the dead at regular
periods after the demise, and even after the close of the mourning. In
course of time, such' sacrificial fasting, as we may call it, was gradu-
ally disconnected from its original material base. Ceasing to be
considered as an auxiliary expedient for feeding the soul the better.
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FASTING FOR THE RUTiER. 657
it became a means of raising the mind up to the soul, a means
to enable the sacrificer to perform in a more perfect way the acts
of worship incumbent upon him, by bringing about a closer con-
tact between himself and the soul. We cannot, however, now
discuss fasting in this later stage of development, but must defer
it for our disquisitions on the sacrificial worship of human manes,
which will find a place in the Second Book.
Fasting for the Buler.
Having seen that, since ancient times, fasting for the dead in
China was inseparably connected with mourning, it can surprise
nobody to find, that once it formed a part of the mourning to
be observed by grandees on the demise of their Ruler. »0n the
» death of the feudal Ruler Tao (of the state of Lu)", thus the Li
ki states (chapter 13, 1. 3), »Ki Chao-tsz6 asked Ming King-tsz6
» what sort of food ought to be taken for a deceased prince. The
» answer ran : 'To eat gruel for him is the general rule for the whole
» Empire'. 'But', retorted the other, 'nobody throughout the four
j>> quarters of the world is ignorant of the fact that we, three
» ministers , have not been able to live (in harmony) with the royal
» family. I could by an effort emaciate myself, but would it not
»make men doubt whether I was doing so in sincerity? I will
» continue taking my usual food'"^ Accordingly, fasting for a
ruler was even severe enough to entail bodily emaciation ; and hence
it is quite natural to read in the Li ki (chapter 12, 1. 3): »0n
)>the demise of a feudal lord, the seniors of the whole body of
» officers have to carry a staff"*.
Elsewhere the Li ki gives some details about such official fasting
(ch. 57, 11. 39 and 41), though not in a way which is marked by an ex-
cess of lucidity. » On the death of a feudal lord, his eldest son. Great
;«> officers, other sons and sundry officials ate nothing for three days,
» but restricted themselves to rice gruel. After this they received
ffiAi^^^P^M^^^^^. II M^:^- section
® ^ , n, 2.
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658 THE GRAYS.
jt>an allowance of rice, one handful in the morning and the same
» quantity in the evening, of which they ate as many times as they
jt> deemed fit. The ordinary officers (not living at the CSourt?) took
» their meals at long intervals and drank nothing but water, eating
» without any regard to fixed times ; and the same line of conduct
» was pursued by the ladies , viz. by the ruler's principal consort
» and the wives of the Great officers and ordinary officers" ^.
As a curiosity we may add that rulers in those times were
obviously in the habit of fasting a little for their grandees. » At
»the burial of a high noble or Great officer", says the Li ki
(ch. 56, 1. 17), »the ruler does not eat meat, and^when the period
»of wailing is being closed, he has no music. Nor does he have
» music when an ordinary officer is being temporarily buried in
» his bouse" *.
That fasting on the death of sovereigns was binding during the
Han dynasty is sufficiently proved by the fact, annotated on page
628, that the emperor Wen himself ordained that on his death
there should be no abstinence from spirits and meat observed for
him. We have not come across any distinct reference to the subject
in the annals of ensuing ages; so we are inclined to believe that,
since the Han dynasty, fasting for the Sons of Heaven has never
been imposed upon the nation by official rescripts. Doubtless this
may be ascribed in the first place to the circumstance that the
precepts relating to it, which the ancient books of rites contain,
are extremely vague and are nowhere stated to have applied to
the nation in general.
:2 ># :A: ^ ± — ifc- Section ^ ;^ IB, I.
± Jt If ^ H 1^- ««=«<>" H IE. n, 2.
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CHAPTER Vm.
RBACnON AGAINST THE WASTE OP WEALTH IN BUEYINQ THE DEAD.
After all that has been stated in the several chapters of this
work, the undisputed fact remains that a proper disposal of the
dead wets one of the main features in the social and religious life
of the ancient Chinese. We have described with how much care
they were accustomed to wash and dress their deceased next-of-kin,
how much attention they paid to coffins and grave vaults, how
they fitted out the graves with all sorts of valuables and requisites
of life, with what an enormous sacrifice of wealth they raised
tombs broad and high for the great of this world, for the double
purpose of honouring them and placing their bodies beyond the
reach of the pilfering and destroying hand of man. Seeing that the
whole nation thus was enslaved by the conviction that a proper
disposal of the dead is one of the most sacred duties incumbent
upon man , is it not quite natural that ethic philosophers, the moral
leaders of the people, should put themselves forward as ardent ad-
vocates thereof?
>>The unrestrained devoted subjection which ought to reign all
» around", says the Li ki (chapter 33, 1. 32), »i8 the imperishable
»and unalterable element which causes the living to be nourished
>> properly, the dead to be committed to the earth in a proper
» way, apd their manes to be properly served" \ Confucius too
connected the disposal of the dead immediately with the great
virtue of submission and devotion to superiors , for it is stated
that, on being asked what hiao is, he answered: »lt consists in
» serving the parents during their life with observance of what the
y> established rites demand , and of burying them after their death
»and then sacrificing to their manes, likewise with observation of
» what the rites demand" *. We need not quote further citations of
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660 THE GRAVK.
this kind, because our readers have learned sufficiently from this
work that the three ancient books of rites contain an astounding
number of rules and rescripts concerning the way in which the
dead ought to be treated.
It is not unnatural that public opinion in ancient China inter-
preted the duty of consigning the dead to their graves in a proper
way in the sense of conducting their obsequies with very great waste
of wealth. Orthodox conservatism upheld in this respect the customs
of primeval times, during which, as we may suppose, almost the whole
of the property of the surviving relatives accompanied their dead into
the grave; indeed, in Chapter IV it has been shown that still during
the Cheu dynasty the dead were placed in their graves with enormous
quantities of articles of value and for daily use. This chapter shows
likewise that in those times a strong reaction against such practices
was already at work. Advancing culture could, of course, feel no
satisfaction in such barbarous destruction of wealth. Thus an op-
position school arose against the old conservatism, that in its turn
gave rise to another school which defended the maintenance of
expensive funerals, fearing their abolition would necessarily entail
a decline of the hiao. This last-named school stood its ground
for centuries; but, though displaying great tenacity of existence,
it has been unable to maintain its cause in the long run. It dis-
appeared entirely from the scenes after a hard struggle, in which
the first school gained an absolute ascendency over it in mediaeval
and modern times. To draw up an account of this struggle with
the help of data given by native books, is the object of the present
chapter.
The oldest documentary evidence now extant concerning a spirit
of reaction against waste of wealth in disposing of the dead, is
probably the following episode, relating to the renowned statesman
Kwan Chung* or Kwan I-wu *, who died B. C. 645. »ln the
» kingdom of Ts^'i the people were bent upon burying the dead in an
» expensive style. All woven stuflfs were used up for grave clothes
»and shrouds, all the timber for coffins and grave vaults. Hwan,
»the ruler, feeling grieved at this, spoke with Kwan Chung
» about the matter. 'If, said he, all woven fabrics are used in
» that way, none of my subjects will in the end have anything
» to cover himself with , and if all the timber is wasted, there will
»be nothing left them wherewith to construct dwellings; and yet
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ANCIENT PARTISANS OP ECONOMY IN FUNERALS. 66 J
» the people do not cease from burying the dead at such great
» expense. What is your opinion about taking measures against
»it?' To which Kwan Chung replied: 'In general, human acts
»are performed from a desire to obtain a good reputation or to
»gain profit'; — and hereupon a decree was issued to the effect
» that , whenever a coffin or vault exceeded certain dimensions, the
» corpse should be mangled and punishment be inflicted on the
» mourners. In fact, no reputation could be earned by the sur-
» vivors by a mutilation of their dead , nor could family chiefs reap
» profit by incurring caatigation; what reasons could there be under
;«>such circumstances to maintain the expensive burials?"^
The invaluable Li ki, to which we so rarely apply in vain for
information on any subject of antiquity, also introduces us to a
partisan of the school of economy in the person of Kwoh TszS-kao
or Ch^ing Tsz6-kao, whose acquaintance our readers have made
already on page 361. » Burying", said this scholar, » means hiding
» away, and this hiding away arises from a desire that men should
»not see the corpse. Hence the grave garments ought just to
» suffice to dress the corpse decently, the coffin should surround
»the clothes, the vault embrace the coffin on all sides, and the
» earth embrace the vault in the same wise. And shall we then
» raise a tumulus over the grave, and plant it with trees?' —
» When Ch^ing TszS-kao was laid up ill , Khing-i entered and
y> politely asked him : 'Your disease , Master, is severe ; what are
» we to do if it should prove to be the great illness {i, e. death) ?'
»Upon this, TszS-kao replied: 'I have been taught that, during
»life, we should be useful to others, and in death should do
» them no harm. I have never been of any use to others during
;t>my life, and may I then do them harm by my death? When I
^.i^m.nm^.^'^m^mM.K^Wi^z^-
Han Fei tsz^ ^^ ^k, -7*, the Works of the Philosopher Han Fei, who lived in the
third century before our era; chapter IX; or § 30, 5b ^ ^, I.
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662 TEDB GRAVE.
»die, select a plot of ground which does not produce any food,
» and bury me there' " *.
In the struggle against the orthodox lavishness in burying the
dead Confucius decidedly sided with the party of the golden mean.
Yet he was far from enforcing upon others his views in this respect,
for we read that, »when his disciples wished to give (their fellow
» disciple) Yen Yuen a rich burial at his death , and the Master ad-
» vised them not to do any such thing , yet they buried him in rich
» style" *. Had the Sage ever shown himself to his disciples other-
wise than a mere lukewarm partisan of economy in burying the dead,
they would not have thus ventured to act in opposition to his views;
hence the conclusion is obvious that his objection to burying Yen
Yuen in an expensive style amounted only to a mild exhortation.
Another proof that the Sage only advocated moderation in the mat-
ter, we have in the fact that the Ja ki states (chapter 11, 1. 21) : >>The
» Philosopher said: 'Where there are means, the established rites
» should not be exceeded. And if there are no means , then let the
» body be dressed from head to foot and be buried without delay,
» the coffin being let down by means of ropes and covered with a
» tumulus. How can man find fault with such a procedure?'. If
»you wrap the body round from head to foot, and quickly bury it
» without using a vault , this being suitable to your means , you
r> may be said to act in accordance with the established rites' " *.
On another occasion »he said: 'Yen-ling Ki-tszg was a man of
nkx^^^.nnnm^MZ^Mm^M'^^^^
11, U. 29 and 27; or section ^ ^ , Ii 3-
^mnn.f^K^mmz.f'B^^.f^Kn
^ ^. Lun yu, XI, 10.
4 See page 291.
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CONPUCIUS ADVOCATES BOONOMY IN BURYING THE DEAD. 663
* Wu versed in the rites. When I went there , I saw him bury
y^ one of his dead. The pit was not so deep as to reach the ground-
;i^ water; he had clothed the dead man in garments which he
»had worn in ordinary times, and after the interment he merely
» raised such a tumulus as was just big enough to cover the
y> pit on all sides , and just so high that the hand could be
» easily placed upon it \ . . . Confucius said : 'Was not therefore
» this Yen-ling Ki-tszg, observing the rites, in accordance with the
;t>8ame?'"i
The party which Confucius had joined is found to appeal very
often to an utterly unreliable tradition recorded in the Yik Ung
and reproduced and criticized on page 281, to the effect that no
tumuli were raised over graves in very ancient times , nor trees
planted on the spot, and that in subsequent ages the sages deemed
it sufficient for a proper burial to use only coffins and grave vaults.
An instance of such appeals has been quoted on page 311. The
highest happiness and perfection of mankind has, indeed, always
been considered by the wise men of China to lie in a return to
those excellent olden times when all customs and usages were, as
they thought, characterized by a most exemplary simplicity. Con-
fucius himself, it is stated, imposed the simplicity of burials, of
which the Yih king speaks, upon the people of Chung-tu while he
administered that country as Governor (see page 303); yet his
private conduct when he had to commit his own parents to the
earth, was not in harmony with his official measures. »When he
» had found the opportunity to bury both his parents in one grave at
y> Pang , he said : 'I have heard that anciently the dead were buried
»in graves over which no mounds were raised; but now-a-days
» there are members of our family Khiu living to the east, west,
)» south and north, so that there must be something to render
» the spot recognizable'. On this he raised a mound over the grave,
»four feet high. He returned home first, his disciples remaining
» behind. Then a heavy rain fell. When they rejoined their Master,
»he asked them-. 'Why are you so late?' — *The grave at Fang gave
» way', they answered. Confucius did not reply; but when they
#. glfe#l«C.^^W life oco,^^ 0.^11^^
^J^jS-tfc^-^^^-^' «, chapter i4, 1. 16; or section ^ ^ H, 3.
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664 THE GRAVE.
j^had told him thrice, he melt into tears, and said: 'And yet it
» was known to me that the ancients never needed to repair their
» graves!'"'. This outburst of grief shows the remorse he felt at
not having imitated the holy ancients by raising a mound over
the grave.
Considering the almost unbounded influence which Confucius has
exercised over the Chinese nation both by his doctrines and per-
sonal conduct, we may well believe that by his hesitation, when the
burial of his own parents took place, to stand firm by the princi-
ples of the school which preached a thorough restoration of the an-
cient simplicity, he has had a great share in maintaining during all
subsequent ages the use of substantial and expensive coffins, the
construction of pompous mausolea and large graves for the dead of
distinction and wealth, and the planting of beautiful and lofty
trees thereon. The wealth spent upon these things since his time
may truly be said to be enormous and to defy all calculation, as
our readers can judge from Chapter IV of the second Part of this
Book, and from Chapters V and XIV of the present Part.
The school of economy in the disposing of the dead, in vogue
in the time of Confucius, seems to have developed its energies
especially in the fifth and fourth century before our era under
the influence of Mih-tszg*, a most remarkable figure among the
philosophers of ancient China. Our Western world learned for
the first time something more about this man than his name in
1859, when Dr. Edkins published a short biography of him, with
some jottings about the writings which bear his name *. Afterwards
Dr. Legge produced a literal translation of the sage's doctrines on
Universal Love * ; but both Sinologists have left his disquisitions against
prodigality in funeral matters almost untouched. We will therefore
avail ourselves of the present occasion to place them before our
H.IL^ y^^ 0fe^ H .# Pi :2: * ^it S- ^* **."^'«'p»-
9, 1. 14; or section ij^ 3 , I, 1.
3 In the Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, I, p. 165.
4 In his Chinese Classics, irol. U, Prolegomena*
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THE PHII-OSOPHER MIH-TIH. 665
readers; but first a word must be said about that boldest thinker
of his time and about his school.
Little is known of him. His real name was Mih Tih \ but he is
commonly designated as Mih-tszS, » The philosopher Mih". The only
notice of him which has any historical value, occurs in the Historical
Records, and runs as follows : » Mih Tih was a Great officer in the state
» of Sung. He displayed great skill in defending (the capital of ) that
» state and also in retrenching outlay in administering the people.
» Some say he was a contemporary of Confucius , but others main-
» tain that he lived after him" *. Szg-ma Ching •, a distinguished
scholar of the eighth century , says in his celebrated » Elucidation of
the Historical Records"*: »In the writings which bear Mih-tszS's
»name, mention is made of one Wen-tszg, a disciple of Tsz6-hia,
» who interrogated Mih-tsz6. Consequently, Mih-tsz6 must have lived
» later than the seventy disciples of Confucius"^ — Tszg-hia being
one of them.
We may note here that Mih-tsz6 is also the reputed inventor of
the flying kite. The philosopher Liu Ngan has recorded that »Mih-
» tsz6 made a wooden kite , which he caused to fly for three days
» without allowing it to take rest" ® ; but there is no evidence to
prove that this statement rests on historical foundation.
In the Catalogue of Literature contained in the Books of the Early
Han Dynasty^ the Mihist writers are arranged under a separate
class or school. Six are mentioned, inclusive of Mih-tsz6 himself;
three of these are stated to have been his disciples, and the two
others to have belonged to an earlier period , the life of one of
them, named Yin Yih', being placed as far back as the sovereigns
Ch^ng • and Khang ^® of the Cheu dynasty, who are supposed to have
ruled the Empire in the twelfth century before Christ. According
f^ , iSiB ^ ^ #• ^^"^^^^^ 74, 11. 6 and 7
^ Ilk M!| M -^ ^ ffi -b + "T- # ifc • See the Khienlung edition of
the Historical Recoi'ds, ch. 74, 1. 7.
6 M -f- A51 ?i^ ^ ;i fl5 fil :2: H B ;?; ^. if«"!/ i^'* '»«•.
chapter 41. 7 Chapter 30.
48
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666 THK GRAVE.
to the same Catalogue, Yin Yih's writings embraced two books
(p*^ien) which, so far as we know, are irretrievably lost; it is
also unknown whether they treated of economy in disposing of
the dead. Hence Mih-tszS is the most ancient author of the
school, whose opinions on the subject are still extant in a written
shape. It is doubtless owing to the stem opposition which, as we
shall show on page 684, Mencius offered to him, that the atten-
tion of scholars has never been entirely withdrawn from his doc-
trines, which have thus escaped total oblivion and perdition. But
they have come down to us in a very mutilated shape. According
to the above mentioned Catalogue of books, they consisted of
seventy-one chapters. Eighteen of these have since been lost, among
which two treating of ;> Simplicity in burials" *. Of the remaining
one we now offer a translation to our readers, taking the liberty
to skip a few passages which have no reference to our subject.
The style is prolix and tedious, and spoilt by numerous super-
fluous repetitions. The frequent recurrence of the phrase: »Oui
Master Mih-tszS said" places it beyond doubt that the piece was
not committed to writing by Mih-tszg himself, but by some un-
known disciple of his. The copy from which we have prepared our
translation was edited and annotated in 1781 by Pi Yuen •, Governor
of the province of Shensi.
»When the holy sovereigns of the first three dynasties* had
» passed away, the world lost its moral rectitude. During subsequent
» generations of men, some amongst the magnates became convinced
»that burying the dead in rich style and mourning long for
» them were things identical with humanity, rectitude and the
» devotion of filial sons , while others cherished a contrary opinion.
y> Hence there arose two schools of philosophy, the doctrines of which
» were conflicting and the rules of conduct of which were diametric-
»ally opposite. Both schools said: 'Our first founders have based
» their tenets upon precedents set by Yao*, Shun', Yu% T^ang^
» Wen and Wu' •; and yet their doctrines were conflicting and they
3 Those of Hia, Shang and Yin.
4 The ancient paragon of sovereigns, mentioned on page 605.
5 Hiao's successor on the throne, mentioned on page 418.
6 The founder of the Hia dynasty.
7 The reputed founder of the Shang dynasty.
8 The founder of the Cheu dynasty, and his &ther.
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MIH-TIh's doctrine on BURIAIi AND MOURNING. 667
» followed opposite rules of conduct. Is it amazing therefore that great
»men of later generations have vacillated between the doctrines of
» those two schools? But why then are those doctrines nevertheless
» transmitted with indulgence and even converted into official rescripts,
»so that the nation, on seeing this, naturally arrives at the conclu-
y> sion that rich burials and long mourning really stand in the closest
» relationship to the aforesaid three good things (humanity, moral
» rectitude, filial devotion)?^
» I state it as my opinion that , if by burying the dead in a rich
» style and mourning long for them in obedience to the doctrines of
» the said school and in conformity with its views, the poor can really
»be enriched, a sparse population be increased, dangers be removed
» (firom the Throne) and disorder converted into good rule, then in
y> this case such burials and such mourning do constitute in point of
ȣEU)t humanity, moral rectitude and filial devotion. Then propa-
» ganda should certainly be made of them by those who work for
vthe good of mankind, then no philanthropist who strives to
x> place at the head of this world men who hold the reins of
» government with a firm hand • and to make the people ap-
» predate such men , should ever neglect the observance of such
» burials and" such mourning. But, on the other hand my opinion
» is that humanity, moral rectitude* and filial devotion do not con-
»sist in performing rich burials and observing long mourning pe-
)»riods in obedience to the doctrines of that school and in con-
»formity with its views, in case such burials and such mourning
» do not enrich the poor, nor increase the population , nor remove
» dangers, nor convert anarchy into good rule. Then, in this case,
» those who work for man's welfare should not scruple to interfere
»with such matters, and every philanthropist who is anxious to
mtiamz.mmm^^mnit^m^,
2 Here the text has the character W , which is probably a misprint for ^.
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668 THE GRAVE.
» prevent acts which are ruinous to the world and to induce the
» people to refrain from such acts, must during the whole of his life
» abstain from such burials and such mourning. From most ancient
» times down to the present day it has never happened that the
» nation became unruly, at a time when the material interests of the
» world were being promoted and things hurtful to man's advantage
»were being removed. How do we know this?^
(No answer b given to this question. Hence we must suppose that either there
is a gap in the text> or that the question itself is out of place).
»It was on account of the fact that even now-a-days many of
» the officers and grandees in this world are living in doubt whether
»rich burials and long mourning are good, proper and harmless,
» that our Master Mih-tszg said :
»Well, let us then patiently put the matter to the test. Those
»who, however versed in* matters of legislation they may be,
» adhere to rich burials and long mourning, because they deem these
» to be useful for the nation, such men pretend that, when sovereigns,
y> feudal rulers and grandees have sustained a loss by death , the coffin
»and the vault must be heavy and substantial, the interment accom-
»panied by profuse expenditure, the clothes and shrouds numerous,
» ornamentation and embroidery abundant , and the tumulus big.
» They further pretend that , in a case of death among warriors *
» or commoners, these ought to squander away almost everything, even
^mm^ii^z:^'^^.^i^:ist^^mz^^.
2 The character ffi in the text evidently stands for 4®, or for the homo-
phonous ^.
3 Instead of jj^ ^ we ought to read ij£ ^ .
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mih-tih's doctrine on burial and mourning. 669
» to their dwelling houses. Feudal lords, they say, should empty their
» ooach-houses , place their gold , jade , pearls and emeralds upon the
» corpse, and hide bands and cords of silk in the grave, with their
V savings , carts and horses ; they should provide much household fur-
»niture, such as curtains, caldrons, stools of earthen ware and of other
» material, mats, pots and ice-cans, spears, swords, feathers, yak-
,*> tails, objects of tooth-bone and leather, and bury as many of
» all these things as they plea^. And as to the attendants to be sent
»into the tomb along with the dead, they teach that the maximum
» number to be killed and buried in the case of a Son of Heaven must
)» amount to several hundreds, and the minimum to several times
»ten, and that that for a prince or a Great officer the number ought
» not to exceed several times ten , but may not be less than a cer-
» tain cipher. And what do they make of the laws of mourning? *
» Mourners, they say, must wail and weep without regulating
y> the modulation of their voices. If a senior of the familv has died,
» they should shed their tears with a shabby coat on and with a
»band around their heads; they must dwell in mourning sheds
» and sleep therein upon straw or matting , with a clod of earth
»for a pillow. They must encourage, nay compel one another to
» suffer hunger by abstaining from food, and to suffer cold by
» wearing thin clothes, so that their faces become sharp and bony*,
» their eyes sink in their sockets, their countenances turn black and
» blue , their ears and eyes become unable to distinguish sounds or
w-^j^^m. mm^j^^m. ^^^i^^. ^aa^^n. ^m
n^mK.&nzmm^^^,
2 The character BSr , which stands here in the text, is not given in the Khanghi
Dictionary. We have translated as if there stood ffljl or RS,
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670 THE GUAVK.
» objects , their hands and feet lose their strength and become unfit
»for use. High officers, they say further , while in mourning, ought
» not to be able to rise to their feet unless supported by others,
»nor ought they to be able to walk without a staff. And all this
» should be continued in this way for three years I ^
» But if such things are prescribed institutions , if they are taught
» by word and example and considered to constitute correct behav-
» iour, then sovereigns , feudal rulers and grandees who practise
»them become unfit to attend regularly every morning to the ad-
» ministration of their states , and their several officers incapable of
» bestowing their attention upon agricultural pursuits and the filling
» of the granaries. And if husbandmen practise them , they certainly
» must grow unable to remain outside their houses from mom
»to eve, in order to plough, sow, plant and cultivate trees. If
» workmen practise them , they are rendered unable to repair ships
)>and carts or to make implements and vessels; and if women do
» the like, they cannot rise early to spin and weave, and then
» retire late. A mature consideration of the matter convinces us
» that rich burials are identical with burying produced wealth on
» a large scale , and that mourning for a long time amounts to the
»same thing as forbidding the people to exercise their professions
»for that length of time. To endeavour to enrich the people by
whelping those who have accumulated a little wealth to bury it
» in the ground, and then to prevent those who are anxious to pro-
» duce wealth from executing their purpose for a length of time , is
» the same thing as trying to produce harvests by forbidding all plough-
» ing. Nothing therefore that is signified by the word » enriching" is
» attained by rich burials and long mourning. And hence it is that
» all endeavours to create rich families have hitherto proved a failure '»
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mih-tih's doctbins on burial and mourning. 671
)>But has the man desirous of making rich burials and long
» mourning subservient to the increase of the population, any chance
jk>to succeed therein? The answer must again be in the negative.
» Let us now see why in this respect there is no reason whatever to
» consider rich burials and long mourning as consistent with good
» government ^
»A ruler, a father or mother, a wife, and a continuator of a
» family, five in all, are all mourned for after their death till in
» the third year. Then we have other clansfolk , as paternal uncles ,
» brothers, and sons by concubines, who are mourned for during
»five months, while the mourning for paternal aunts, elder sisters,
)> sisters' sons, and maternal uncles lasts for some months. Ac-
»cordingly the extenuation and emaciation of mourning are de-
;»cidedly subject to fixed rules. But it is required that the hce
»must become sharp and bony, the eyes should sink in the
)>head, the countenance must turn black and blue, the ears and
»ejea ought to grow unfit for hearing and seeing distinctly, arms
» and legs should lose their strength and become of no use. Still
» further, it is ordered that high functionaries, when in mourning ,
)> should only be able to stand on their legs when supported by
)» others, and that they should be incapable of walking without the
» use of a staff, and that they must remain in such a condition for
ji> three years. If, however, such things are prescribed institutions,
» if they are taught by Nvord and example and considered to con-
»stitute perfect behaviour, and if the required starvation and ab-
» stinence are so severe , then the people can neither bear the winter
j^cold, nor the heat of summer, but must fall sick and perish
» in countless numbers , and the prevention of much sexual inter-
» course must be the consequence hereof. To employ this method
»of causing the people to multiply, may bg compared to an at-
» tempt to increase their chances of a long life by ordering them
mm^mmisi-m^.'uzm.m'^nm.mik^
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672 THE QRAVB.
»to carry swords on their backs. Nothing therefore that is ex-
» pressed by the term » increase of population" is attained by rich
» burials and long mourning , which explains why all endeavours to
» thereby increase the population have utterly failed in times gone by ^.
»But may a man hope for success who desires rich burials and
»long mourning to serve as a means to ensure good government?
» Once again the answer must be : No. Let us now see why in this
» respect there is no reason to consider rich burials and long moum-
»ing as consistent with good government*.
» When a state is really poor and its population sparse , its
» government inevitably labours under disorders. If rich burials
» and long mourning are prescribed institutions , if they are taught
» by word and example and considered to constitute correct behav-
» iour , then the higher classes by practising them become incapable
»of administering justice and ruling the people, while the lower
» classes by practising them become unfit for attending to their labour.
» Now, if the higher classes fail in administering justice and ruling
» the people , it is self-evident that the government will be thrown
» into confusion. And if the lower classes do not attend to their work,
y> their means of procuring food and raiment will undoubtedly become
» insufficient to meet their needs. In consequence hereof, younger broth-
» ers, on applying in vain to their elder brothers for succour, lose the
» devotion they owe to the latter , and even conceive a hatred against
» them. Sons likewise having recourse to their parents fruitlessly for
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liXH-TIH's DOCTRINE ON BURIAL AND MOURNING. 673
»help, sink their filial devotion and submission, and conceive a
y> grudge against the authors of their being. And ministers , on finding
» the succour which they demand from their ruler not granted them ,
» cast ofP their loyalty and revolt against their lord. As a natural
» consequence , a depraved people , ill behaved , without raiment to
» cover them outside their houses, without food to eat in-doors,
» pouring forth continuous yells of woe from their dwellings, as
»one man indulge in licentious and cruel acts; and as there is
y> nothing to keep them within bounds , robbers and rebels increase
» in numbers , but orderly people become scarce. All endeavours to
» establish good government by first multiplying robbers and rebels
y> and decreasing the orderly population , we may compare to order-
y> ing a man to turn round ^ three times without once turning his
»back to us. Nothing therefore that is implied in the term »good
A^ government" is attained by rich burials and long mourning; and
» hence it is that attempts to thereby promote good government
» have not been crowned with success hitherto *.
3»But may the man who wishes to cause rich burials and long
» mourning to serve as a means of preventing large states from at-
y> tacking small states expect good results ? This time again the answer
» must be in the negative. Generally speaking , large states for the
y> following reasons refrain from attacking a small one : if the latter
» has laid up large stores of provisions , if it has its city-walls in
»good repair and harmony reigns among its chiefs and their sub-
1 The text has ^^ , which is meaningless. We translate as if there stood j6 .
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674 THS GRAYS.
Injects, no great states find pleasure in attacking it. But they do
)» attack it when it has no provisions in store, when it has not its
» cities in good repair, when its chiefs do not live in harmony
» with their subjects. Let us now see why there are also in respect
» of the point in question no reasons to consider rich burials and
» long mourning as conducive to good government. Rich burials and
»long mourning inevitably impoverish a nation, decimate its popu*
» lation, and cause its government to fall into confusion. Now then,
»an impoverished realm is devoid of means to lay up provisions;
>>if its population is sparse, its fortified cities, moats and canals
3»are few, and when its government is in a state of confusion,
>>it cannot, on marching out to wage a war, gain any victories,
»noT stand firm when it retires to defend its territory. Here we
» have it explained why all efforts to prevent large states fix>m
» attacking petty kingdoms have necessarily remained unsuccessful
» hitherto \
»But may he who desires by means of rich burials and long
» mourning to insure the blessing of the High Emperor (t. e. Heaven)
»and of the spiritual beings in general, expect to succeed therein?
» Again we must answer : No. Let us now see why on this head
» there is no reason to consider rich burials and long mourning as
» consistent with good government *.
» We have seen that they must impoverish the state , reduce the
» population , and disorganize the government. If the state is poor, the
y> sacrificial millet vessels and the sacrificial must and spirits become
» unclean; if its population is sparse, there are but a small num-
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mih-tih's doctrine on burial and mourning. 675
» ber of worshippers of the High Emperor and the spiritual beings;
y> if i^narchy reigns within its borders , no regular sacrifices are pre-
^sented to those powers at fixed periods assigned therefor. When
» official measures are taken which thus frustrate the worship of the
y> High Emperor and the spiritual beings, then these descend forthwith
» from the spheres above to lay their hands upon the ruler, saying:
»' Shall we keep this man in our service, or not?' And they will
» decree: *It does not matter whether we keep him or not*;
» immediately they will send down punishments over him and
» crush him down under all sorts of calamities ; and thus having
» chastised him, they will cast him out. Why then should not
» mankind, having such a prospect before them, resume a proper
» line of conduct ? *
»Por all these reasons, the perfect sovereigns of antiquity regu-*
» lated burials by rescripts. They held that coffins should be three
» inches thick, this being sufficient with a view to the decompo-
»sition of the body; that the articles to clothe and enshroud the
9» corpse should not exceed the number of three, this being quite
» sufficient to hide the shocking effects of death ; at the interment the
» bottom of the coffin must not reach the ground-water, nor should
»any smell escape from the lid, and the grave mound ought
» to be so low as not to be distinguishable from the fields that
» have been ploughed a couple of times. No more than this oi^ht
»to be done for the dead. And after the interment of the defunct,
>^none among the survivors might howl so long as to Ml sick, but
» everybody must attend to his daily business, so that people could
9» continue to produce things according to their abilities, and be of
» service to one another by bartering the same. Such were the laws
» of those holy monarchs. And nevertheless, the partisans of the system
1 The text of the last sentence is so ambiguous that we give our translation under
some reserve. We suppose some of the characters in it have either been transposed ,
omitted or mutilated.
A^nmmA^mm^. mm±i^$Lm9^z
n.mzm.Mmmz.mm:^:^R^m^.
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676 THB GBAVE.
» of burying the dead with much waste of wealth and mourning for
»them a long time say: 'Taking for granted that such burials and
» such mourning neither enrich the poor , nor increase the popu-
» lation , nor remove dangers (from the Throne), nor convert anarchy
^into good rule, yet the fact remains that the sel&ame most per-
» feet sovereigns did practise them'. To this our Master Mih-tszS gave
>^ answer: *
j^'This is not true. In ancient times, when Yao died on an
» expedition which he had undertaken to discipline the eight savage
y> tribes in the North , and was buried on the northern slope of
» mount Khiung, he was only enveloped in three dresses and
» shrouds. His coffin was made of wood of the Kioh tree, and Do-
»lichos creepers were tied around it, and when it was placed in
»the grave* they wailed for him, filled the pit with earth, but
» raised no mound over it, so that cows and horses rambled over
»the spot when the burial was over. When Shun had died by
» the way while reducing to order the seven tribes of barbarians
»in the West, and was buried in the market town of Nan-ki,
» his grave clothes and shrouds likewise consisted of no more than
» three; his coffin too was of Kioh wood and wound round
»with Dolichos creepers, and when his interment was completed,
» the people of that town freely moved over his grave ^. And
» when Yii, while travelling abroad to discipline the nine tribes of
» barbarians in the East , had passed away and was buried in the
» mountains of Hwui-khi , no more than three dresses and shrouds
» were placed around his body; his coffin of T^ung wood was only
» three inches thick, and the Dolichos creepers that were tied
2 Here the text has the character "^R, which obviously stands for the homo-
phonous ^?.
3 Compare herewith what has been stated on page 418 about the alleged graves
of Yao and Shun.
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mih-tih's doctrinb on burial and mourning. 677
» around it were twisted so loosely, that they did not even cause
»the boards to fit tight together. And on making the grave, they
» did not dig deep into the bowels of the earthy but contented
» themselves with interring the coffin so that the bottom did not
» reach the ground- water and no bad smell escaped at the top ; and
» when the burial was over, they placed the rest of the earth upon
» the grave in such a wise that it could not be distinguished from
» the cultivated fields around. No more than this was done for those
» rulers. Such a line of conduct having been followed with regard to
y> these three most perfect monarchs , it is clear that rich burials and
» long mourning were certainly not practised by the holy sovereigns
»in general. And considering that they occupied a high position
» in their quality of Sons of Heaven , and that they were wealthy
» as owners of the Empire, it is inadmissible that they were buried
»in such a plain manner because labouring under a want of
» means ^.
»At present, the way in which sovereigns, feudal rulers and
» grandees are buried differs totally from the above. Large coffins
» and inner coffins are invariably used for them , as also ornamented
» leather and threefold pieces of worked silk ', a set of jade badges,
» spears, swords, caldrons, earthenware stools, jars, ice-cans, em-
» broidered and unomamented silk , large halters , countless gar-
»ments, carts and horses, a complete set of* musical instruments
»for ladies. And people say, the clay must be rammed down so
m.mn.^mm^MnzMmm^'t^M,n.
mmi^Amz.^MWc^iinMin.m^mz
\u.^^^m.,m^^^.Mm^z.mz^^o
mz^m±mz'^.T»n^.±9mM.Wcm
^^m^±.m^^mzaiKom]t^o^}^itM'
^m^^mz.mmm^nmwm^z^,iik
^^^wni^^'f'.t^^T.mmmmz^
j^mmi^imitmmzm.
2 The text has ]j||[ ^ :^ ^|||^ , which, according to the editor, must be read
' '"'** ^^ JH^. We cannot say what kind of things these really were.
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678 THE ORAVB.
» well , that the difference in appearance between the mound ^ and
» a natural hillock is entirely done away with. But this is precisely
»the way to prevent the people from properly exercising their
y> professions and to destroy their wealth to an amount incalcul-
»able! Such useless proceedings being indulged in, our Master
» Mih-tszS has told us : '
»At the outset I have declared' it as my opinion that, if
y> by burying the dead in a rich style and mourning long for
» them in accordance with the doctrines and views of the sages
»who advocate such things, the poor can indeed be enriched,
» the population be increased , dangers be removed from the Throne,
»and anarchy be converted into good rule, that then indeed such
» burials and such mourning constitute humanity, moral rectitude
3»and filial devotion, and in this case should certainly be encou-
» raged by those who work for man's welfare. I have also declared
»it as my opinion that rich burials and long mourning do not
3» constitute humanity, righteousness and filial devotion if they
9 cannot produce the said good effects, and that, in this case,
y^ the people certainly must be withheld therefrom by those who
» try to promote the good of mankind. I have furthermore stated
>^that, in consequence of such burials and such mourning, all
>> efforts to enrich the State have no other results than to create
»dire poverty, all endeavours to increase the population have the
» effect of decreasing it, all attempts at establishing good government
» create the greatest disorder; further that it has hitherto proved
» useless to try by rich burials and long mourning to prevent large
» states from attacking small ones, and that misfortunes Ml to the lot
» of those who desire to secure thereby the blessings of the High Em-
» peror and the spiritual beings. I have shown above that Yao, Shun,
» Yii, T%ng, Wen and Wu acted on principle in frustrating the bu-
» rials and mourning in question, and I will prove anon that even the
i The character A|| in the text is doubtless a mispriBt for J9||.
3 See page 667.
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MIH«TIh's DOCTRINB ON BURIAL AND MOURNING. 679
» measures of Kieh and Cheu ^ Yiu and Li * were directed to insuring
» economy in these matters*, from which we must conclude that
y> rich burials and long mourning were not practised by the holy
» soTereigns. And yet the adherents of rich burials and long mourning
» say : 'Admitting that it is true they were not practised by the
» sovereigns of ancient times , what do you say then to the fact that
»the patricians in our Middle Kingdom do not discontinue those
» usages, but maintain them, instead of giving them upp' To this
» our Master Mih-tszS answers : ^
»\ simply call this: mere acquiescing in habits once established,
» and the consequence of a tendency to raise to the rank of a duty
» the observance of whatever has grown into a custom. In former
)> times there existed to the east of Yueh a state, called Khai-muh.
^ There it was customary to kill^ and devour the eldest son alive,
» and nevertheless his younger brothers were said to very well know
1 The sovereigns mentioned on page 116. They ara generally detested by Chinese
historians.
2 Two princes of the Cheu dynasty, said to have reigned respectively in the eighth
and ninth century B. C. They too never stood in high repute with native historians.
3 The fact is, that not even the names of these four monarchs are mentioned
in this treatise.
^f¥m^ZML^o4^mmm^nmwB.mm
5 The character jB| which stands here in the text , obviously ought to be replaced
by some other. In Lieh-tszS*s works (see next note) we find instead of it jill ,
said in a note to mean a premature death.
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680 THE GRAVE.
y> their duties towards him. And children at the death of their father
y> took their mother on their back and cast her out, saying that the
» wife of a disembodied soul might not dwell together with them.
» The ruling classes there considered such things as consistent with
» good government, and the people deemed them to be good customs,
»so that they were not discontinued, but maintained instead of
» being given up; and yet how could they possibly coincide with the
» principles of humanity and moral rectitude? Here we have good
» instances of acquiescing in habits once established, and raising
» to the rank of a duty the observance of whatsoever has grown into
» a custom. The inhabitants of the state of Yen-jen, which was situated
» to the south of Ch'^u , were wont to cast away the bodies of their
» deceased relatives as soon as decomposition set in , not bur^dng
» the bones until a certain time had elapsed ; and such proceedings
» qualified them for the name of filial sons. And the people of I-khii ,
» a state to the west of TsHn , at the death of a relative piled up
»fuel and brambles, and converted the body into ashes, sajdng,
» when the smoke whirled up , that the deceased was ascending to
)> distant regions; and they did not become fully qualified for the
» title of filial sons ere they had done this ^ Such things were
» there considered by the ruling classes to be consistent vnth good
» government, and the subjects deemed them to be good customs,
^ so that they were not discontinued , but maintained , instead of
» being given up; and yet, how could they coincide with the prin-
»ciples of humanity and moral rectitude? Here again we have good
y> instances of acquiescing in habits once established , and raising to
» the rank of duty whatever has grown into a custom ^.
1 These notes about those three realms, which perhaps never existed, except
in the imagination of Chinese authors, occur also in the fifth chapter of a treatise
entitled Lieh-tsz^ ^J -5^, »The Philosopher Lieh", which contains, partly in the
form of dialogues between remarkable persons, the disquisitions of one Lieh Yii-kheu
^1 ^M ^^ . Nothing is really known of this man. Some native authors say he
lived about one century before (Donfucius, but others put him later, viz. in the
first century before our era, while other critics assert that he never existed at all,
but was merely an invention of Ch wang-tsz5 , who made use of him in his Nan hwa
chen king as a figure endowed with supernatural power, magic and other qualities.
The treatise which bears Lieh-tszS's name seems not to have been edited until the
fburth centui7 of our era, and may be a forgery.
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MIH-TIh's DOCTBINB ABOUT BURIAL AND MOURNING. 681
j^From the above we see that the people in those three states
» did too little for their dead , but that the patricians in the Middle
» Kingdom do too much for them. The former having done too little,
» and the latter doing too much , it is clear that moderation should
y> prevail with respect to burials. It is indeed appreciated when
» moderation is observed with regard to the raiment and food
39 which are of use to the living; why then should no moderation
» prevail with respect to burials which are of service to the
»dead?*
;*The rescripts which our Master Mih-tszS has given for burying
» the dead, run as follows. The coffin must be three inches thick, this
» being quite sufficient with a view to the decomposition of the bones;
y> the clothes and shrouds must not exceed the number of three, this
;^ being enough for the putrefaction of the flesh; further, the pit
» mudt not be so deep that ground-water filters through at the bottom,
y> and yet deep enough to prevent the escape of any smell from
» the top; finally, the tumulus must be just big enough to mark the
» spot. This is all that ought to be done. The mourilers must wail
» on their way to the grave and back; but on returning home, they
3» must resume their business, in order to earn the means of pro-
» curing raiment, food and the requirements ^ for the sacrifices they
:^m. 9Aitmni::mZM:moit^)rm^^'^m
^ ^mit^^m^mz.mifmm^.^^m
zm'f-mz.m^m^^oimmmiKm.iiaitm
i<m. Bmmmz^n^oiiicti^mAZ^m
^.BRmn^n^mm^Aznm^.^^m
2 Here we have in the text an unusual character ^f^, most likely a misprint
for i^.
44
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682 THB OaAYS.
»have to offer, that they may observe the highest amount of devo-
» tion to their parents. And now we say : Such are the rescripts of
»our Master Mih-tszS, which neither injure the interests of the dead,
y>noT those of the living. It is for the above reasons that he has
»said: 'Those among the officers and patricians in this world, who
» sincerely wish to become first-rate servants of the State by culti-
» vating humanity and moral rectitude with the object of conforming
» to the conduct of the holy sovereigns and of insuring the welfEure
)>of their nation, must take such official measures as agree with
»the principles of economy in the disposal of the dead, and may
» not n^lect the closest attention to those principles' " ^
It would be superfluous to dwell upon this treatise. Apart from
the numerous mutilations and corruptions of the text, the style is
much inferior to that of the ancient philosophical works in general,
and it teems with useless particles and repetitions , both in word and
phrase. The first thing which strikes our attention , is that Mih-tszS's
purpose in confuting the extravagant waste of wealth in which his
contemporaries were accustomed to indulge when burying their dead
and when mourning for them, bears quite a political character. His
ideal is, to behold a laborious, wealthy people, living happily in a
densely populated empire, and holding in aversion every attempt at op-
position to the salutary authority of governors, who know how to
command their respect in every sense of the word — a nation, the
chiefs and the people of which understand how to ensure everlasting
blessings from above, by propitiating, in a proper way and at the
proper seasons. Heaven and the inferior divinities, by means of
bounteous sacrifices. He thus shows himself a true disciple of the
Chinese schools of philosophy in general , most of which preach the
most decided realism and materialism. He was not a solitary thinker.
B. ^^Tz±m'F^mmwi%t:m^%±
±.±m^m^ZM:.Tmf^mm^nzm.iic
n^nnz%i^.m:f^^:fm^^^.
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THE DOCTRINES OP MIH-TIH ABOUT BURIAL AND MOURNING. 683
Dot a man who lived secluded from the world, pondering over a
system of ethics built upon some metaphysical or transcendental
substratum. He was a thorough man of the world, a statesman,
a brave warrior and strategist; and having .been bred in the school
of politics, no other ideal occurred to his mind than that which is
expressed by the words: good government. The suggestion that the
ambition of his life was chiefly directed to the material welfare of
the State, and that pure ethics and morality occupied a very
subordinate position in his mind, may explain to a certain extent
why his reasonings are weak, so weak as even to compel him
to have recourse to arguments that only raise a smile. When he
recounts, for instance (see page 676), that Yao, Shun and Yii, who
lived — if they ever lived at all — eighteen and more centuries
before him, and of whom he can scarcely have possessed even a
superficial knowledge, died under uniform circumstances, were pre-
pared for the grave and buried in the same way; and, moreover,
when he pretends to know everything about their coffins and coffin-
ties, their grave clothes and the construction of their graves — then
we cannot help concluding that he is serving up nursery tales, and
that these appeals to China's venerated paragons of antiquity are little
better than inventions of his own brain , forged without any regard
to veracity, in his ardour to convert his contemporaries to his views.
According to himself, it was an established opinion in his time
that those ancient sovereigns had actually buried their dead with
much waste of wealth and had been in the habit of mourning for
them a long time. And seeing that he had no better arguments than
the above, wherewith to controvert this opinion, we are almost tempts
to conclude that not he, but the public were right in the matter.
After all, it cannot surprise us that Mih-tszS's teachings, grounded
on so slender a philosophical basis and sustained by such feeble argu-
ments, did not eradicate a custom so firmly rooted in Chinese social
life since the dawn of ages, but lost their hold on the people for a
time under the denunciations, more enthusiastic than convincing, of
Mencius. Still there were weighty reasons to prop up his theories.
In the first place, they were possessed of practical common sense,
which may be pushed into the background for a while, but not
for ever. On the other hand, Mih-tz6 borrowed authority from
Confucius, this idol of the nation having, as shown on pp. 662 aeq.^
likewise been imbued with Mihistic leanings. As a consequence,
the school of Mih-tszS has ever had its votaries in all succeeding
ages, and its tenets have, as the reader will see anon, even come
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684 THE GRAVE.
out in the end victorious in the struggle against burying wealth
and treasures with the dead.
It appears that already during his life-time Mih-tszS could point to
numerous partisans, as Mencius himself is recorded to have exclaimed:
»The teachings of Yang Chu and Mih Tih fill the Empire
»Whosoever can controvert these men is a disciple of the perfect
y> Sages .... The Mihists preach love equally to all men/ but this is
»abn^ating the peculiar devotion due to a father; and to acknow-
» ledge neither father nor king is to be in the state of a beast" ^.
A man who thus anathemized general love of mankind , simply from
fear that man's particular devotion to his parents might suffer by
it, could certainly not be lenient to children who derogated from his
darling hiao in as much as they did not squander away their pos-
sessions on their parents' death on behalf of the manes. As this hiao
has ever played the chief part in the ethics and moral philosophy
of the nation , and Mencius y its great prophet j has exercised a sway
over the minds of the people almost as powerful as that of Confucius
himself,^ we have the clue in hand why Mih-tszS's doctrines, once
having been held up to the nation^s scorn by him as inconsistent with
the holiest duty of man , have ever since been stigmatized as wicked
and heterodox. Down to this day , most well-bred scholars scornfully
disdain to cast a look into his writings; and that a part of them has
escaped perdition may be regarded as pure accident.
In Mencius' works we read : » The Mihist I Chi sought through
» Sii Pih to interview Mencius, but Mencius answered : 'I have been
» informed that he is a Mihist. Now Mih-tszg holds that , in regu-
»lating funeral matters, bare simplicity is the right principle that
» ought to prevail, and l-tszg (I Chi) thinks to bring about a change
» in the Empire by this doctrine ; how comes it then that he him-
» self considers this doctrine to be wrong and does not hold it in high
» esteem P He has indeed buried his parents with an unsparing
» hand , and thus served them in a way that he himself scornfully
» condemns^ " *. Prom this statement we may judge how heavily the
4
Sit ifc • The Works of Mencius, section J^ ^ ^ , H.
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THE SCHOOLS OF MIH-TIH AND MENCIUS. 685
duty of fitting out the graves sumptuously, and the aversion from
burying the dead with unthriftiness, weighed upon the nation in
those times, since even an ardent partisan of the school which
revolted against such extravagance, indulged in it when his own
parents were concerned. The tenets of Mencius on this head, which
doubtless did much at the time to check the progress of the Mihist
school, are summarized in this passage, still to be found in the
work bearing his naine: »The nourishment (of parents) when they
»are alive does not suffice to attain to the great thing (the hiao);
*>but we attain to it only by the way in which we see them to
» their graves" \
The struggle between the two schools did not abate in the epoch
which immediately followed that in which Mencius and Mih-tszS
lived, growing, however, weaker and weaker, as the party which
preached prodigality lost ground. In the third century before our
era we find amongst the opponents of the latter party the i&ost
remarkable and influential man of his time, Lii Puh-wei', the
putative father of no less a personage than the famous monarch Shi
Hwang, during whose minority he was the highest magnate, and
who virtually founded the fortunes of the Ts^n djoiasty. In the
Lu-^ii ch^n-tsHu ^ or )> Annals of Lii", either written by him or com-
piled under his direction, we find two sections, entitled respectively :
» On economy in funeral matters" ^ and » On setting the dead at rest
in the tomb" ^, in which bare simplicity in burials and funerals is
energetically advocated; no new arguments, however, are adduced,
except this one, viz. that richly equipped graves are often plundered by
thieves and robbers. It deserves notice also that, side by side with
both schools, there flourished a third, still more radical than the
Mihist, which deemed it superfluous to dress, encoffin and bury the
dead. As prominent figures of this school we have mentioned already
Chwang-tszg, Yang Wang-sun, and Lu Chih (pages 805 ^/ ^j'j'.). To
^ ^ ^ J? . M9 3i A5t ^ ^ * ^ ife . The Worka of Mendus, section
The Works of Mencius, section ^ ^ , II.
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686 THS GRAVB.
these names may be added that of the learned Hwang-fa Mih,
who has been mentioned on page 415, and who proves that the
carious conceptions in question stUL held sway over superior minds
in the third century. In his last will, which the Standard Histories
of the dynasty \mder which he lived, have preserved from oblivion,
we read: »I desire to be buried the same evening if I die in the
)» morning, and the next morning if I die in the evening. No
» coffin or vault shall be used for me, no swathings be woimd around
» my body, nor am I to be washed, nor are new clothes to be made
»for me. The use of any articles whatever for provisory burial
» or for staffing my mouth must be dispensed with. It is my special
» desire to be laid in the pit quite naked , that my body may come
» into immediate contact with the earth. When I have breathed my
»last, place forthwith a piece of cloth of one width around my
»body, and some old garments; then enwrap me in a coarse mat,
» add bind up the two ends of this mat with hemp ; place me upon
»2l bier, select an uncultivated plot of ground, there dig a pit of ten
» feet in depth , fifteen long and six broad , and when this is ready ,
» carry the bier to the spot. This done, remove the bier, lower
» my corpse into the pit , and do not have it followed therein by
» any articles of daily use , except one copy of the Classic of Filial
» Devotion, in token of my never having lost sight of the laws of
»hiao. Let the earth come into immediate contact with the out-
»side of my mat, the clay be made level with the soil around,
»and the old grass sods be replaced in their former position, so
» that they may grow over the grave afresh; but do not plant any
» trees on the spot. Thus may my flesh and bones become one with the
» earth, and my volatile manes be blended with the primary etheric
» principle : this is the highest ideal I aspire to' In the third
»year of the T^ai khang period (A. D. 282) he died at the age
»of sixty-eight, and Tung-ling, Fang-hwui and his other sons
» executed these his behests" ^.
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ECONOMY IN FUNERAL MATTERS UNDER THE HAN DYNASTY. 687
During the Han dynasty, the principles of the school of economy
in funeral matters had so far gained ground that even the highest
classes were imbued with them, the Sons of Heaven and their
kindred not excepted. Already the third sovereign of that House,
Wen, who occupied the throne from 179 to 157 B.C., formally
decreed that bare simplicity should be observed with regard to his
funeral; which is, so far as we can trace, the first case of a
monarch about whom a statement of this kind is on record. His
last will, well worth reading, is preserved in the Books of the
Later Han Dynasty * and in the Historical Records *; but it is
not certain whether we have it there in its complete form, or in
an abridged shape. According to this document, the chief motive
which prompted the emperor to make such a disposition, was his
conviction that he was &r from having bestowed sufficient blessings
upon his people to entitle him to much waste of wealth and bur-
densome mourning. As shown already on pages 573 and 628, he
considerably curtailed by his last will the mourning which had been
in vogue for emperors up to that date. But his will, as we now
possess it, is perfectly silent about the old custom of making impe-
rial tombs real store-houses of valuables and requirements for daily
life. Hence we need not feel any surprise on reading that his
own grave hill, although fitted out less richly than those of other
monarchs of his house, and although constructed in a natural knoll ,
instead of being raised artificially at an immense cost of labour
(see page 428), was filled up with wealth enough to yield a large
amount of plunder to robbers, four centuries afterwards. An account
of the sad fate which then befell it, has been given on pages 407
seq. There we have also stated that the Tu mausoleum was like-
wise equipped with what was called economy in those times. Hence
we may suppose that the sovereign who was buried therein, namely
Suen, who ruled from 78 to 48 before our era, was also an op-
ponent of excessive waste of wealth in burying the dead.
M ^ M '^^ Books of the Tsin Dynasty, chapter 51, 11. 9 and 10.
1 Chapter 4, 11. 18 and 19.
2 Chapter 10, 11. 17 and 18.
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688 THS GRAYS.
That Suen^s successor, Yuen , was imbued with the same spirit, is
manifest from the fact, stated on page 428, that he forbade the
erection of a walled town for the protection and defence of his burial
place, and that, as annotated on pages 406 and 407, no carts, oxen,
horses or other animals were buried in his crypt. As shown on page
409, it was also during his reign that a statesman, in a memorial to
the Throne, was bold enough to remonstrate in strong terms against
the extravagance with which the equipment of the grave of the
emperor Wu had been conducted by his minister Hwoh Kwang.
Kwang Wu *, the first monarch of the Later Han dynasty, fully
embraced the views of the more enlightened among his ancestors.
We read in the Standard History of his reign that Fan Hung *,
a certain grandee who died in the year 51 of our era, »left behind
» a disposition to this effect that he must be committed to the earth
» in a poor style and no outlay at all was to be made for him.
» His coffin should be considered as a mere instrument to conceal
)>his body from view, it not being suitable to look upon his
y> remains , because , if in a state of decomposition , they would
» shock the feelings of his filial sons; and he was to be placed
» with his wife under one tumulus, but in a pit separate from
y> hers. His Majesty admired these dispositions so much that He had
» a written copy thereof sent to all His officers, declaring: 'It is- Our
» will that even after Our reign is ended they shall serve as standard
» models'. He gave ten million coins as a funeral present , and ten
» thousand pieces of cloth ; He conferred the posthumous title of
» Reverend Prince upon the deceased, gave His seals, carts and
y> horses for the funeral , and attended it Himself in person" ^. On
page 434 the reader has seen that Kwang Wu also ordered that
his own mausoleum should cover only a relatively small plot of
ground. We may add that he is the first emperor on record
who tried to induce his people by a formal edict to practise econ-
omy in burying the dead. To judge from the shape in which we
^i^$^>^^^* ^^^^ ^^ ^^® ^^^^ ^^ Dynasty, chapter 62, 1. 3.
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THE DISaUISinONS OF WANG HU. 689
possess this edict in the Histories ^ it was no more than a pathetic
admonition of some dozen words, which we may suppose exercised
the same amount of influence upon the nation as imperial decrees
in China generally do; that is to say, it had no practical effect.
Kwang Wu's son and successor, Ming', inherited his fether's
views on the subject, for he ordered his mandarins in A. D. 69 to
prohibit expensive burials '. Still another emperor of the same family,
viz. Ngan*, shared his views and trod in his footsteps, it being
on record that in A. D. 114 he ordered all the old rescripts, bearing
on the subject, to be promulgated afresh*.
Apart from Liang Shang, who, as shown on page 411, energet-
ically protested against bqing buried in an expensive style, the
special advocate for bare simplicity in burials was Wang Hu, the
same man who, as our readers know from pages 310 ^^ ^^^., raised
his voice against the prodigality which people in his time were
wont to indulge in procuring expensive coffins for the dead. His
philippic against expensive burials sheds so much light upon the
customs and ideas of his time, that it entitles us to place a trans-
lation thereof before our readers*.
>>In times of yore, people buried their dead in graves; but these
»were not high. When Confucius had lost his mother, her tumu-
y>\\XB was not more than four feet high; there came a shower, the
y> earth slipped away, and the disciples entreated the Sage ta bestow
»his care upon it; but he said, his eyes filling with tears: 'Estab-
» lished usage prescribes no repair of tombs' •. And when (his son)
yylA died, he was buried in a coffin only, and not in a vault ^.
» Neither pearls, nor other precious substances were interred with
»the emperor Wen, when he was committed to the earth in the
»Mang-tang mountain, nor with Ming, when he was buried in
» Loh-yang. No temples were built upon their tombs, nor were grave
>> hills thrown up over them*; and yet, although their funeral monu-
1 Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 1, second part, 1. 3.
2 V^.
3 Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 2, 1. 14.
5 Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 5, 1. 3.
6 Ck)mpare page 663.
7 See page 291.
8 This does not agree with what has heen stated on page 434. From theJSTu kin
chu we learn that Ming had a grave mound of eighty feet. See the Books of the
Later Han Dynasty, ch. 16, 1. 8.
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690 THE GRAVE.
Ji^ments were thus low and level, the earth piled up over their
» bodies formed a layer of sufficient height.
^Now-a-days, however, notable families in the capital and in-
)>fluential people in the provinces do not exert themselves to the
» utmost for nourishing the living ; but they make very much of
» burying the dead. Some go so far as to use the wood of cedars
»for coffins, of Rottlera trees, P^ien trees and Nan trees, carv-
»ing guilded figures thereon, and inlaying it with jade; and when
» people of the middle class build a tomb , or bury a dead body
» in the yellow clay, they often hide therein at the same time costly
» and precious things , human images , carts and horses. Not con-
» tenting themselves with raising huge grave mounds and planting
» pines and cypresses broadcast about the spot, they erect in those
» grounds booths and sacrificial halls, thus indulging exceedingly the
y> waste of wealth and assuming the privileges which pertain to the
» highest classes.l And whenever a notable family which counts a high
» officer among its members , or an old family in the provinces, has
» a dead body to commit to the grave , the officers in the Metro-
» polls, or the magistrates of the district concerned, have to des-
» patch an official to offer presents of carts and horses, curtains
» and canopies; all sorts of things required for the entertainment of
» guests are then lent and borrowed, and the party concerned tries
y> to outvie all others in making a show. Such practices neither
» further the worship of the dead , nor do they develop filial be-
»haviour; they are simply detrimental to both the magistracy and
» the people by giving rise to troubles and disturbances ^.
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THE DISaUISITTONS O? WANG HU. 691
»A8 for the environs of Kao and Pih, where the graves of Wen
» and Wu * are located , and the mounts of Nan-ch*ing, where the
»tomb of Tseng Cheh (Tseng-tszg's father) lies: — the Prince of
» Cheu (Wen's son and Wu's younger brother) was not devoid of
» loyalty, nor was Tseng-tszS without filial devotion, and yet the
» former was of opinion that exalting his sovereign and glorifying
» his father did not consist in hoarding up precious things in their
» graves, while the latter understood that to render illustrious a dead
y> man's name and shed glory upon his ancestry was not to be at-
» tained by the use of carts and horses (at his funeral). Confucius
y> has said : 'Much wealth is injurious to virtue ; it is a ruin to good
» rules of conduct, and death to proper rites and ceremonies' *.
»Ling, the ruler of Tsin (619 — 606 B.C.), imposed heavy taxes
)»upon his people, to collect the means for adorning the walls of
»his palace with carvings, and the CA%n tsHu on this account
» stigmatizes him as a bad ruler ^ And the same work denounces
y> Hwa-yuen and Loh-lii as undutiful ministers for having buried
» their ruler Wen in a rich style*; but ought not then inferior
» officers, members of the gentry and commoners, who, by arrogantly
» surpassing the chiefs of the state in prodigality, venture to trans-
» gress the limits traced out by the principles of nature, to be much
»more severely condemned by such verdicts? During the reign of the
» emperor Bang (B. C. 156—141), Wei Puh-hai, prince of Yuen,
» was dispossessed of his domains for having buried his dead in a
» more pompous style than the laws allowed him to do ; and under
»the emperor Ming (A. D. 58 — 77) the prince of ChVang-yang,
»a native of Sang, was punished by having his head shaved, be-
» cause he had made a tumulus of larger dimensions than he was
» entitled to. And yet the deviations from the standard principles ,
» of which the whole nation now renders itself guilty by prodigality.
4 The founders of the Cheu dynasty. See page 666.
3 This is not stated in the Ch'un ts't'u, hut in the T^socTi'toen, under the heading:
Second year of the Ruler Hwan*s reign.
4 This Wen was a ruler of the state of Sung. Neither is this event mentioned
in the Ch'un tsHu, but in the Tso ch'ioen^ Second year of the Ruler Gh*ing's reign,
t. e. B. C. 588. Compare page 725.
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692 THE GRAVE.
» and its arrogant waste of wealth , which even surpasses that of the
y> emperors, are still worse than the transgressions of those grandees.
» It is not by any means the character of the people which I blame
» and criticize. It is the men I blame, who lead the people to this by
» doing all that lies in their power to outvie others in converting good
» rule into disorder, and as little as possible to improve the nation.
» them. Any monarch who, at the head of the world, looks down upon
» his subjects, can modify their manners and customs by instructing
» them properly, and in this way create universal peace" *.
In the third century of our era, when China was swayed suc-
cessively by the dynasties of Wei , Wu , and Shuh , some monarchs
continued to show themselves partisans of the doctrine that there
should not be any great waste of wealth connected with burials.
The famous and warlike Ts^ao Ts^^, having assumed supreme
authority and founded the dynasty of Wei, which is acknowledged
by most Chinese historians to be the legitimate continuation of the
imperial power, gave orders before his death, which took place in
A. D. 220, that »all his subjects should lay off mourning as soon as
*>his funeral was over; that he himself should be dressed for the
» tomb in everyday clothes , and no gold or jade , nor any other
» precious thing should be concealed in his grave" *. Wen *, his
son and successor, faithfully followed his good example. His will
stated that he was to be buried in a plot of waste ground, in
order that later generations might be unable to find the spot;
no articles of gold, silver, copper or iron were to be buried with
him, but imitations of burnt clay were to be laid in his grave
WL ^ ^.Ts'ien fu lun, chapter 3, § 42.
of the Three Kingdoms; Memoirs of Wei, chapter 1, 1. 44.
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ECONOMICAL BURIALS IN THE THIRD CENTURY. 693
instead thereof; neither might jade, nor pearls be put into his
mouth , nor his body be dressed in costly garments. Apart from the
common-place arguments that Yao and Shun had been interred in
graves of the simplest description, his principal reasons were Ihat,
since the highest antiquity, no tomb had ever escaped the hands
of robbers, and that the richly equipped mausolea of the Han
dynasty had fallen a prey to such violation even before the dynasty
was dethroned *. This was indeed true : — the Vermilion Eyebrow
insurgents had ransacked the mausoleum of Wu , as stated on page
408, and a spoliation on a much larger scale had taken place in
A. D. 190. In this year, the generalissimo Tung Choh ^ who wielded
supreme power in the name of the youthful emperor Hien *, trans-
ferred the Court from Loh-yang to Ch^ang-ngan, hoping thus to
secure the Imperial family from the hosts of rebels that openly
stood in arms against his authority. By his orders, Loh-yang was
given to the flames and destroyed; moreover, »he ordered Lu Pu
»to force open the imperial mausolea, as. also the tombs of the
» nobles, from the highest to the lowest, and he appropriated the
» valuables hoarded up therein" *.
Shih Pao', a magnate of high rank, died in A. D. 272, and
was presented by the Son of Heaven with a coffin, grave clothes,
money and other valuables, further with a retinue of attendants,
and other requisites for a splendid funeral procession. Nevertheless,
)>he had made the following last dispositions: 'Yen-ling was con-
)>sidered by Confucius to be thoroughly versed in the rites, be-
» cause he buried his dead in a plain style ; but Hwa-yuen is de-
)>clared in the CA^'un tsHu not to have been a dutiful minister, as
» he committed his ruler to the earth with expenditure of wealth •.
» Seeing such a spirit betrayed by the enlightened principles of. the
;i^ ancients, it behoves us henceforth to dress the dead in everyday
>> garments, without using any layers; nor ought we to place rice
» or valuables in their mouths. Such things are done to please the
» stupid mob. Neither should we use bed-curtains, nor implements
1 Op, cit., chapter 2, U. 20 seq,
2 ftp ^^ ^ 3 Ak
^ ^f . Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 102, 1. 8. The matter is recorded
also in the Memoirs of V^Tei, chapter 6, 1. 5.
6 See page 663, and page 691.
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604 THE GRAVB.
» for the manes. After the coffin is firmly fixed in the earth , clay
» must be placed over it till the pit is full; but no tumulus may
» be raised over it under any pretext whatever, nor trees be planted
» on the spot* " *.
Exactly ninety years later, » when the emperor Muh died , it was
» the intention to place precious things and implements in his grave ;
»but (Kiang) Yiu entered a protest, couched in the following
;» terms: 'Ere now, the harem of Khang, (Muh's predecessor on the
» throne), has commenced using precious swords and golden shoes
»for the tombs. Doubtless this proves unselfishness on the part
»o{ the imperial consorts, but it is positively contrary to the de-
»cea8ed^s own will, and against the rescripts of a whole series of
» dynasties. There exists a tendency to consider such modem heter-
» odox practices as a legacy of the anciente ; but I humbly insist
)>upon the will of our deceased monarch being done, and upon
» the two sorts of articles (viz. valuables and implements) not being
» used in this case'. The memorialist was honoured with a written
» reply, stating that his request would be granted" *.
That in ensuing ages the strife of reaction against expensive fu-
nerals was no battling with wind-mills, may be inferred from the
following episode, recorded as an historical fact by Ma Twan-lin.
»Ch^g-hi, crown-prince of the Tsl dynasty, buried the emperor
» Shen Wu on the western bank of the Chang (A. D. 547). He
» had the mount Ku in Ch^ing-ngan (in Honan province) carefully
»cut out; in a Buddha-pate apartment (?), made in a cave in the
» rocks , another cave was constructed , and the encoffined body
» being deposited therein, the entrance was stopped up. All the
» workmen were then put to death ; but when the Ts^ dynasty
^ ^ — '7^^^^^- ^^^ ^^ ^^® '^^^^ Dynasty, chapter 33, 1.47.
M ^i^ it ^ ^o^ M at Z' ^'^^^ »f ^^^ Tdn Dynasty, chapter 83, 1. H.
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OPULENT BURIALS FORBIDDEN UNDER THE T^^ANG DYNASTY. 695
» was overthrown (thirty years afterwards), a son of one of the
;i^ victims, acquainted with the spot, broke open the rock, laid
» hold of the gold which was deposited therein , and fled" ^.
Although the persistency with which the higher and better classes
of the nation clung to the time-hallowed custom of burying wealth
or costly articles with the dead, grew considerably weaker under the
constant blows dealt out by the party of economy and the frequent
denunciations of emperors, still even during the T^mg dynasty
the government found it necessary to take official measures against
it. We read e,g. that Kao Tsung, the third emperor, »in order to
» bring about a retrenchment of expenditure after the famine which
» had visited the country for a series of years, sent an order of the
» following tenor to Li I-ch^en, (since A. D. 682) governor of Yung-
»cheu: 'Our subjects among the common people, the tradesmen,
»and the masses in general vie with each other in burying their
»dead so opulently, that they exceed the rules laid down by the
y> established rites. Let the chieftains of the several districts in Yung-
»cheu take measures all around against such extravagance, and
y> do you yourself severely counteract them , lest they be indulged
» in again' " *. It deserves notice that Kao Tsung's mother, the
empress Wen-teh *, had ordained during her life »not to be buried
» in a rich style , because she had done no good to her contempo-
)^raries; that her grave should be left without a tumulus, and
^merely be constructed in such wise as best suited the shape and
» situation of the mountains ; that no coffin or vault should be
»used for her; that the implements for her manes should be of
» burnt clay and wood, and her funeral be conducted with re-
»trenchment of outlay"*. »In the twenty-ninth year of the Khai
^. Wen hien fung khao^ chapter 425, 1. 42.
^. KZ^'^^mmm'^nm%mmB..mnn
mz^nijy^9A.m%m^Miii^m^'^^^^
lei han^ chapter 484, 1. 44.
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696 THE GRAVE.
»yuen period (A. D. 741) it was stated by Imperial rescript that ,
r> whereas the spirit of economy in seeing the dead to the tomb
f> had been much appreciated in ancient times , the implements for
»the manes, the surfiw^e of grave grounds, etc. were now reduced
» within figures smaller than those which had been in vogue of old.
»For officers of the first, second and third class, the implements for
»the manes, which had been hitherto used for them to a number
» of ninety, seventy and forty articles respectively, were reduced to
» seventy, forty and twenty; and for the common people, for whom
»they had not been fixed by rescripts hitherto, the number was
» limited to fifteen. All such implements were to be made of plain
» stoneware or burnt clay, and might not be of wood, gold, silver,
» copper or thin. No silk gauze, embroidery or dyed stufi^ might
»be used for clothes; neither buildings, nor structures might be
»made on a large scale in the sepulchral grounds, nor a large
» number of (stone) attendants be arrayed there". , . . ^.
Even three centuries later, the custom of burying considerable
amounts of valuables in graves had not died out. ^In the first
»year of the Yuen fu period (A. D. 1098), Cheu Shang (a grandee
» of very high position) memorialized the Throne as follows :
r> 'Nothing but earthen and metal articles , clothes and ornaments
y> used to be employed for the mausolea of the Imperial ancestry,
»both pearls and jade being excluded, simplicity having been cult-
» ivated to serve as a lesson to mankind. But since the inauguration
»of the (Yung)-yu mausoleum (of the late Emperor) up to that
» of the temple for the worship of the soul of the (last) Empress
y> Suen-jen , gifts of gold and pearls have come into vogue again. I
»hope that these valuables may be stored up in the King-ling
» hall , in obedience to the lessons left by former monarchs*. Upon
«l^=*[,ilffllir^,l&«R7K.)^«^i^.New Books
of the Tang Dynasty, chapter 76, 1. 5.
«. SS%:f#fi^l^^. ^^J#|3J. The run, «en.
quoted m the Ku kin fu shu tsih chHng , section ifi ^ , chapter 56.
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PLAIN BURIAI^ PRESCRIBED BY CHU HI. 697
» this, the Emperor ordered the things to be deposited in the f ung-
»chin treasuries"^. In proof of the point in question , the following
episode referring to the same century also deserves to be quoted.
y> The Wen kien lah of Chao Kai narrates that , during the Sung
» dynasty, the Chamberlain Chang Khi left a disposition at his
» death, to the^eflFect that he was to be buried in rich style, and
» that the minister Ngan Shu ordained in his will that he was to
»be buried in a plain way. Both magnates, interred in Yang-tih,
» were simultaneously unearthed by robbers in the Yuen yiu
y> period (A. D. 1086 — 1093). The Chamberlain's grave being stowed
» full with gold , jade and costly pearls , the robbers , over-contented
» with their booty, did not retire before having placed themselves in
» a file close in front of the coffin, to make courtesies. But the grave
» of the other grandee contained only some ten earthenware imple-
» ments. Enraged because this did not repay their labour, the
» robbers cleft open the coffin, in order to st^ the gold belt; but
» finding this was of wood , they grasped their axes and chopped
» the corpse to pieces. The rich burial thus warded oflF calamities
» from the dead , but the poor burial attracted them. Therefore ,
» the argumentation of Yang Wang-sun * contains some gaps" ^
It may be noted also that, about a century later, Chu Hi deemed
it necessary to insert a clause in his Rj^tuals for Family Life to this
eflFect that, though some pieces of silk ought to be buried with the
dead in obedience to the precedent set by the Li ki and the / ii
(see page 391), »for the rest no articles of gold or jade, nor any
» valuable trinkets were to be placed in the graves as a store for
MMMLnSW-^^UW" ^'"^^ "^ ^^"^ ^""*= Dynasty, ch. 356, 1. 22.
2 Compare pages 306 el sqq.
^mwmmo =:.>^^:^mm. Ttm^n^^-mfjr
kien lei han^ chapter 181, 1. 23.
46
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698 THE GRAVE.
» the deceased" \ The Tatar dynasty of liao, which exercised sway
over a part of the northern provinces in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, likewise had among its monarchs one who considered it
his duty to forbid the burial of precious articles in the tombs. The
Official Annals of this House state that >>in the tenth year of the
»T^ung hwo period (A. D. 992) the killing of horses for funeral
» and burial rites was interdicted , as also the putting into the tombs
» of coats of mail , helmets , and articles and trinkets of gold and
» silver" *.
The Imperial House of Ming imitated the T^ang dynasty in
restricting by official rescripts the quantity of the articles that might
be buried with the dead. But it went further, even prescribing
the sorts of things the equipment of the dead was to be com-
posed of. In 1372 it was decreed by the first monarch of the
dynasty that officers of the three highest classes might be dressed
in three suits of body clothes, those of the fourth and fifth class
in two suits , and those of the sixth and still lower classes in only
one suit, and that they all might have on , besides, one suit of official
garments and ten suits of everyday clothes, and be covered with
ten shrouds. Members of the two highest classes of nobility might
have in their tombs six shah * and ninety implements for the manes,
officers of the two highest degrees four shah and eighty imple-
ments, those of the third degree four shah and seventy imple-
ments. For the fourth and fifth degree the ciphers were fixed at
seventy-two and sixty-two ; to the sixth and seventh degree no
shah, but thirty implements were allowed, and to the two lowest
degrees twenty. It was expressly decreed on the same occasion that
the ninety implements should be the same as those that had been
granted by the emperor in 1369 — the year after the official com-
mencement of his reign — to Shang Yii-ch^un *, one of the most de-
serving military commanders, who was then buried near Nanking,
in the Chung mountains*. We find those articles summed up in
the Record of Rites of the History of the Ming dynasty. As it
may interest our readers to know something about the lumber
i
^. History of the Liao Dynasty, chapter 43, 1. 3.
3 See pages 184 et sqq.
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ARTICLES BURIED WITH GRANDEES UNDER THE MING DYNASTY. 699
which used to be put in the graves of high grandees during the
^ Ming epoch , we insert a reproduction of the list :
Two cymbals, four drums, two red flags, two musquito-flappers.
One canopy of red silk, one saddle, one basket, two bows and
three arrows. One furnace-kettle and a furnace, both of wood. A
water-pitcher, a coat of mail, a helmet, a saucer with a stand, a
laddie, a pot or vase, an earthen wine-pot, a spittoon, a water-
basin. An incense-burner/ two candle-sticks, an incense-box, a
spoon for scooping up incense-ashes, two small staves to remove
the handles of burnt-up incense-sticks from the ashes, and a tube
to keep that spoon and those staves in. A tea-cup, a tea-saucer,
two chopsticks, two spoons, and a tube for those chopsticks and
spoons. Two wooden bowls, twelve wooden platters and two belt-
pockets, encased in tin. One sword, one weapon of ivory, two
standing cucumbers (a sort of weapon) encased in metal, two
kwuh-t^o^ two halberds, and two hiang-tsieh*. A chair,
a foot-stool, a trestle-shaped bench, six tan-ma*. A spear, a
sword , an axe and a cross-bow. A dinner table , a couch , a screen ,
a staff, a chest, a bed , a table to bum incense upon , two benches —
all of wood. Sixteen musicians , twenty-four armed life-guards , six
bearers, ten female attendants; the spirits known as the Azure
Dragon, the White Tiger, the Red Bird, and the Black Warrior*;
the two Spirits of the Doorway, and ten warriors — all made of
wood and one foot high. Various things, six shah, one signet ot
jade, a basket, a trunk, a clothes-horse, a lapelled gown, a bag
of leather, two baskets, two hampers, two pots for gruel, one oil-
can, a gauze safe, a summer-curtain, three pieces of blue silk and
two of red silk , each eighteen feet long *.
These rules, enacted for the nobility and the mandarinate, were
not, however, declared valid for the common people. They, it was
decreed in 1372, might dress their dead in no more than one suit,
consisting of a long gown, one girdle, one pair of shoes, and a
skirt, coat) trousers and stockings such as they had been wont to
4 »^ S^ Bone fruits? A sort of weapon.
2 IK ^ . We do not know what kind of thing is meant by this word. Sonorous
pieces of bamboo, perhaps?
3 ^j[ ^ . Probably a kind of seat or trestle.
4 Ck)mpare hei*ewith what has been said on page 317.
5 All the above particulars are taken from the History of the Ming Dynasty ,
chapter 60, 11. 15 e^ seq.
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700 THE GRAVE.
wear in ordinary life. Moreover, no more than one kind of im-
plements might be used for their manes ^.
As shown on pages 339 %eq,^ the dynasty at present seated on
the Chinese throne has laid down in its T'ung li some rules for
the garments in which servants of the State ought to be dressed
for the tomb. No regular rescripts are found, however, in that
Codex concerning the quantity or quality of other articles to be
buried with the dead. In the rules it gives for the preparation ot
the graves of grandees and commoners, it barely mentions » imple-
ments for the manes" by name, adding in a note that, »in regard
»of such implements, which are sometimes made of wet clay, and
»in other instances of bamboo, wood or paper, the prevailing cus-
» toms may be followed in any case of death" *. All this suggests
that legislators deem the matter to have become of too little import-
ance to claim their attention , burying objects of value with the dead
having almost entirely ceased as a custom, and no longep entailing such
an alarming waste of wealth as to require their interference. In fact,
in that part of the Empire where we made our studies in Chinese
social life , people no longer trouble their minds about furnishing the
graves with valuables or requisites of life, with the exception of
such small articles and trifles as we have mentioned on pages 92 and
93. They sacrifice, in addition thereto, some things which the dead
man was wont to use regularly, such as his last clothes, his bed
with its appurtenances, his lamp, stoneware, tobacco-pipes, etc.,
by throwing them away or giving them away, as stated on pages
69 and 97. Nevertheless, Mencius's doctrine, that the hiao is
especially evident from the way in which the dead are seen to the
tomb (page 685) is literally conformed to by them, much wealth
being spent upon funeral processions. Pompous and long corteges
of death have in their opinion a threefold advantage. First of all ,
a dead man who is seen out of this world with show, rises higher in
the estimation of the public , so that children who bury their parents
opulently make sure of fulfilling a sacred duty imposed upon man-
kind by both ancient and modem moral law, viz. that of » glorifying
and exalting their ancestry" *. In the second place , such burials
cause the offspring to enjoy the satisfaction that everybody will
1 Chapter 60, 11. 2i seq.
Chapter 52, 1. 12.
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EQUIPPING THE DEAD AT AMOY. 701
praise their filial conduct in lofty strains, and sink down in silent
admiration before the eminent social position which permits them
to afford such outlay. And, last not least, such good children escape
the risk of violating an ancient rescript which forbids men to
mourn for their dead in silence. It is namely recorded in the Li ki
(chapter 10, 1. 15) that Tseng-tsz6, when blaming Tszg-hia for
having wept so bitterly at the loss of his son as to cause the loss of
his eyesight (see page 258), also said to him : » When you mourned
» for your parents, you did it in such a way that the people heard
» nothing of it : this was your second offence" \
The rich equipment of the dead in their graves has suffered the
least decline in the dressing. As shown in our dissertation on grave
clothes (pages 46 et sqq.), expensive silk garments are still lavishly used
at Amoy for dressing the dead of both sexes among the well-to-do. In
cases of females especially , the ladies are bent on adorning the corpse
with jewels, pearls, hair-pins, rings, anklets, bracelets and amulets
of costly metal, and all sorts of valuable trinkets. Many women of
wealthy families go so far as to lay up for themselves a whole col-
lection of such body ornaments, strictly adjuring their children
to fit out their bodies therewith before sending them away to the
tomb. It also very often occurs at the death of a woman that mem-
bers of her father's clan interfere, in order to compel her husband
and children to fit out her body with a large quantity of ornaments
and precious clothes. They would, no doubt, not display so much
activity, if some of the deceased's property could fall to their
share; but law and custom forbid any 'goods passing over into
the possession of another clan by inheritance. Their intervention
often leads to unedifying family scenes. Not confining themselves
to vociferating , yelling , and fulminating threats against the widower
and his children if the latter do not forthwith comply with their
demands, they come to blows, or accuse the mourners of having
poisoned or murdered the deceased for the purpose of obtaining
possession of her private effects, threatening to denounce them to
the authorities. Cases have come under our notice oftheir having run
out of doors with the coffin-lid, which they detained until full satis-
fection was given them. Such things occur more especially when the
bereaved family \& less numerous or less influential than the clan in
which the deceased woman was born, in which case the quarrel
1,2.
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702 THB GEAVB.
always ends in their having to acquiesce in the demands of the
stronger party.
It is not difficult to understand why a sumptuous dressing of
the dead has outlived all other forms of equipping them richly in
their graves. In the first place, the ancient beUef of the people
in the co-habitation of body and soul after death has never waned,
and thus the conviction that the body ought to be dressed in a
way worthy of the manes, continues. Besides, the same belief must,
since the dawn of time, have caused every deceased body with
the soul that had dwelt therein to be continuously blended together
in the memory of the surviving relatives, who have consequently
ever figured to themselves the soul in the shape of the corpse in
the grave , and in the same dress *. With such ideas but one
step was wanting to lead men to the custom of clothing the dead
in such good and costly attire as their souls were thought to r^uire
in the next life. Hence the custom, prevalent in ancient China,
of dressing the dead in accordance with their rank and position.
Hence the fact, that dressing them thus is still officially prescribed
by the present dynasty in the Ta Tsing fung li (see p. 339) ; hence
also the fear, expressed by Khi Heu, that his friend Yang Wang-
sun would appear naked before his ancestors if he were buried with-
out clothes (see page 307), and the aversion manifested by the
present Amoy people against burying their dead in shoes with
leather soles, lest the soul should hav« to suffer for it in the next
world (see page 66). Among the same category of conceptions and
usages we may place this , viz. at Amoy, persons who commit suicide,
generally dress themselves in their best clothes before taking the
fatal step which conducts to the region of shades. The author of
this work remembers that in 1886 a youth of loose morals, who
had lost his heart to a young courtesan in that town when his
parents had decided upon his marrying a girl of respectable family,
was found dead in his sweetheart's chamber by the side of her
corpse: — they had poisoned themselves with opium pills, after
having properly washed, combed their hair and donned their
best attire. In the Memoirs of Amoy', a work abounding with
valuable information about that town and the island on which it
. is situated , we read : » On the Tiger-head mountain there is a
» certain Tomb of the Three Genii. Formerly there lived a wo-
i Compare herewith what has been stated on page B55.
2 M n M
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DRESSING THE DEAD IN FUHKIEN PROVINCE. 703
y>mB,n, who cherished an ardent devotion for her husband. This
9 man having mined his family by gambling, she began to fear
»he would sell her. Therefore, having sold her furniture a few
»day8 before, to pay off her debts with the proceeds, sAe setoed
y> chlhes and shoes for herself, jumped into the sea together with
»her son, and perished. Her husband being apprized of her
»fate, he too cast himself into the billows. The next day the
» bodies rose to the surface, and her apparel wai) found to
»have retained its original condition. Their fellow villagers, de-
» ploring their sad lot, buried them in the said Tomb of the Three
» Genii"*.
Nevertheless, dressing the dead richly for the grave is consi-
derably on the wane. In our First Volume (pages 46 and 65) we
have stated that grave garments- are often sewed very carelessly
and made of very poor material , especially among the indigent class ,
who are only anxious to comply with the time-honoured custom of
sending their dead into the next life with a great number of suits
on. Matters have arrived at this pitch that, at Amoy, the use of
precious grave garments has become matter of public derision,
which is vented in the following popular quatrain:
Hok'kien aa^ hang chH: TivrtoHn hah st-si,
Boe ts^u ke It-jt, Tsi png Idi clil ti *:
>^The Fuhkienese show their silliness in three ways:
»They even sell their house when they marry out a daughter',
A^They dress dead bodies in silk and satin,
» And cook their rice for the pigs" *.
HilllS- Chapter 2.
3 That is to say, parents celebrate such a marriage with so much superfluous
pomp as almost entirely to ruin themselves.
4 It is customary in Fuhkien province to cook the rice — the principal food of the
people — in a large quantity of water , then to scoop out the mallow grains with a
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704 THE GRAVE.
In the northern parts of the province of Fuhkien, a great part
of the inHigent class even go so far as to dress their dead in paper
garments. As Doolittle says: —
» There are shops where ready-made grave clothes can be had.
» These are patronised principally by the poor, who cannot afford
» to buy good material and have it made up by tailors. What is
» strange and singular about these establishments is, that the caps
»and boots offered for sale, to be worn by the dead, are usually
» made of paper, or of the very poorest silk or satin , and simply
» pasted together. At a short distance , and unless closely examined ,
» they look quite well. The boots have soles nearly an inch thick,
» which are made very white by a kind of wash. The coats , pan-
»taloons, skirts, etc. are also sometimes pasted together, or, at
»the best, are but slightly basted together"'.
The conviction that expensive clothes and ornaments may offer a
temptation to robbers and thieves, and thus entail desecration of
the graves, has done much in deterring the well-to-do from dres-
sing their dead in expensive attire. The penal laws threaten with very
severe punishment those who violate the abodes of the dead ^; and
yet, such crimes are apparently of frequent occurrence, owing chiefly
to the fact that graves are not concentrated in special burial grounds,
well guarded and looked after, but are scattered about in the
mountains, especially on unfrequented slopes and in out-of-the-way
recesses. The same argument which, more than two thousand years
ago , prompted Lii Puh-wei ^, and after him many other moral
leaders and governors of the nation, to protest against rich equip-
ment of the dead, is consequently valid at the present day. In the
Memoirs of Amoy we read:
»The law against opening other people's graves contains some
» explicit articles, according to which sundry punishments, such as
» decapitation , strangulation and deportation for life , are to be
» inflicted upon those who have opened a coffin and rendered visible
» the corpse , accordingly as they have acted in the capacity of chief
» culprits or accomplices^. Nevertheless, such crimes, unheard of
laddie-like sieve, and to throw the water, in spite of the nutritious suhstance it
still contains, to the pigs.
1 The Social Life of the Chinese , chapter VII.
2 See the articles quoted from the Ta TsHng luh li in Chapter XI of the
next Volume.
3 See page 685.
4 For those articles, see the next Volume, Chapter XL
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DESECRATING AND PLUNDIRING OP GRAVES. 705
» at Amoy in former times , have been on the increase since the last
» twenty years. The damaged party generally remain unaware of
» what has happened , until they are about to transfer the remains
»to another grave, on which occasion they often perceive that the
y> bones of the skeleton have been disturbed and not a single hair-
»pin, bracelet or ear-pendant has been left on the corpse. Sometimes
» even the arms are cut off from newly buried corpses, if it is found
» impossible to pull off the golden bracelets. In the main it is the
*> graves of women which are thus desecrated.
»This state of affairs owes its rise to the circumstance that the
» people in the country of Amoy consider filial devotion to consist
»in giving expensive burials to their nearest relatives. They will
»not understand that by such burials they draw upon themselves
» these calamities! When a young woman dies in her bloom, the
y> members of her father's clan in a hundred ways emphatically insist
» upon her being buried by her family in a rich style; but this
» very anxiety to prove their love for her is fatal to her. Formerly,
»the Governor of the province of Kwangtung, Han Fung^ decreed
»that the well-to-do should bury their dead with hair-pins and
y> rings of fragrant wood , and that the poor people should use for
»the purpose similar articles of other kinds of wood, and further,
» that the caps used for the deceased should be of paper , orna-
» mented with gold foil. Verily, if there were nothing in the graves
» worth coveting, the bad practices in question must naturally
»be discontinued. If we consider attentively the plain way in
» which the ancients committed their dead to the earth , we shall
» find that the implements which they set out for the manes ,
» were tolerably in accordance with the established rescripts of
»the ritual; and, notwithstanding, the love they cherished for their
» parents was so great as to extend everywhere. The Id ki only
»says on this head: 'Beware, lest thou shouldst feel remorse
» about what thou hast placed near the corpse and the coffin!'*.
» Can it therefore be tolerated that the dressing of the dead is con-
» ducted with so much waste of wealth as must lead to their being
» cruelly laid bare ? Ijet us hope that the people of this island will
» take these our admonitions to heart !" '
1 Probably in the beginning of this century.
2 See ante, page 390.
li*^P^^. S PliH ft* Piib. -+#*!«:
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706 THB GRAVE.
Saorifloiiig Talneless Counterfeits to the BeacL
Religious rites and usages are marked everywhere in this worid
by a strong tenacity of existence. A never ceasing progress and
revolution of ideas may change the minds and habits of men,
yet religious customs display a tendency to remain unaltered
from age to age, any attempt at modifying them being stigmatized
by their votaries as a sacrilegious attack on what has been con-
sidered sacred from time immemorial. The usages of the Chinese
with regard to their dead are no exception to this rule. The
reader has seen what a long and difficult war had to be waged
in the heart of the nation against the wanton destruction of
property in sending the dead into the unseen world. He will
therefore not be surprised to find that the people, in their
anxiety to defend this time-hallowed custom inch by inch, have
been slowly reducing their grave offerings by making use of less
costly articles, without, however, diminishing the quantity, and
in course of time have given the preference to articles of no real
value.
The ancient books afford sufficient proof that this process of sub-
stitution was at work already during the Cheu dynasty. On pages 394
and 395 we have stated that at that time, according to the / It, the
^mmi^^is. mn^m^w^. itm.n:^m^
m.mm-^Ammzm.m^zmmmm^.A
m^.^m.^^Wim.mm^mzmm.m^^
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BURYING VALUELESS OBJECTS WITH THE DEAD. 707
bows and arrows , interred with ordinary servants of the State , were of
coarse make, and that those arrows were unfit for use, the feathers
being too short. Besides, we read in the Li ki (chapter 11, 1. 2):
» Confucius said : 'If we were to deal with our dead as if life were
» really extinct in them, we should be inhumane, and therefore we
» ought not to do SO; but if we were to treat them as if they were
» quite alive, we should betray great ignorance, and therefore neither
y> may we do so. For this reason , the bamboo instruments are not
» quite fit for use, those of stoneware cannot be well washed, nor
» can those of wood be carved. The citherns and lutes are strung, but
» not tuned ; the mouth-organs and Pandean pipes are in good order,
» but not attuned to the same key ; there are also bells and sonorous
» stones , but no stands to suspend them from. These things are called
» instruments for the manes , because they are for the use of liuman
» souls'" \ And a disciple of Confucius, » Chung Hien by name,
»said to Tseng-tszg: 'During the rule of the House of Hia they
» used implements for the manes , in order to show the people that
y> the dead have no consciousness. The people of the Yin dynasty
x>used sacrificial implements, to intimate to mankind that the dead
» do possess consciousness. But under the present Cheu dynasty we
» use both , to show the people that the matter is doubtful*. Upon
» which Tseng-tszg replied: 'It is not so, it is not so! Implements
»for the manes are implements fit for use among disembodied souls ,
»just as sacrificial implements are implements fit for use among
» living men; how can you possibly infer from those facts that the
» ancients treated their (deceased) parents as if they were really
» devoid of life?'" «
As Confucius had sided with the party of economy in funeral
:^m.Miskmmmikm,^Bm^.mmz^-
Section ^ ^ , I, 3.
^^.^mK^^.^-^z\m%mni^m,^-
The same chapter, 1. 9.
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708 THE OBAVE.
matters (see page 662), he and his principal disciple acted quite
logically in thus advocating burying articles which represented but
little value. According to the Li ki (chapter 12, 1. 48), » CSonfucius
»also said: 'Those who make such implements for the manes of the
» dead show they are acquainted with the right method of con-
» ducting funeral rites; for those implements, though ready at hand ,
» are unfit for actual use. The carts of clay and straw images of
» men and horses , which have been in vogue since ancient times , are
» founded on the same principle as the implements for the manes' " '.
From this extract we learn , that already in the sixth century before
our era it was an established usage to replace the carts and horses,
which, as stated on page 305, used to be buried with persons of
royal blood, by valueless substitutes.
A considerable expansion was given to this process of substitu-
tion during the Han dynasty. We see that the rights of substitution
were then fully acknowledged even by the supreme governors ot
the nation , for the then oflScial rescripts concerning imperial burials
prescribed the use of candlesticks of earthenware, useless short-
feathered arrows, bells and sonorous stones without stands from
which to suspend them, straw images of men and horses, stoves,
kettles, rice-steamers, caldrons and tables of burnt clay (see pp.
402 and 403). This is perfectly in accordance with the fact, ex-
pounded in this chapter, that in those times many Sons of Heaven
and many eminent men openly sided with the party of economy in
funeral matters. It must also to some extent be ascribed to the in-
fluence of the / li and the Li ki, which, as stated on page 394
and in the citations on this and the foregoing page , prescribed the use
of such objects ; indeed , the recovery and study of these and other
Classical works then occupied the entire attention of the literary
world. But the burying of real and genuine objects of value was
by no means entirely discontinued at that time. The extracts from
some books, which have been reproduced on pages 402 — 413,
sufficiently prove this. Not even the custom of placing horses
and carts in princely mausolea was given up, instances of which
are given on pages 405, 406 and 409. It prevailed to the very
end of the dynasty, for it is recorded that »the emperor Ling,
» when he buried his concubine Ma , placed in her tomb , under-
II, 1.
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SACRIFICING HORSES OF WOOD TO THE DEAD. 709
»neath her coffin, a team of four horses, in addition to a canopy
» of blue feathers" \
But, just as the placing of victuals in the graves was at an
early date changed into sacrifices of food outside the graves (see
p. 384), so burying horses with the dead was also modified under
the Han dynasty into presenting them to the dead without in-
terring them, and valueless counterfeits were on such occasions
substituted for the real animals. The Historical Records state: »In
»the next year (103 B. C), some officers memorialized the Throne,
» stating that no horned cattle were presented on the five altars
» of the most ancient sovereigns , which were situated in Yung (the
» circuit embracing the Metropolis Ch*^ang-ngan and surrounding
» districts), so that all the sacrificial savours were not produced
» there. Orders were now issued to the officers entrusted with the
» sacrificial service, to deliver in the sacrificial bulls required for those
y> places of worship , as also the best of everything that was to be
»had in articles of food, but to substitute for the colts wooden
» images of horses , as real horses were to be sacrificed henceforth
»only in the fifth month, or when the Emperor, while travelling
»past the spot, should present a sacrifice there in his own person.
» And with regard to the spirits of famous mountains and streams ,
» the sacrificial colts were always to be replaced by wooden images of
» horses, except when the Emperor himself should cross the spot" *.
The replacing of articles, buried with the dead, by valueless
counterfeits apparently gained ground in the ages subsequent to the
Han dynasty, the historical works of those times containing many
instances of persons who gave explicit orders that they were to
be interred with mere imitations in burnt clay or earthen \v are. An
instance of this, in connection with the emperor Wen of the Wei
dynasty, has been given on page 692; besides, we read that one
Pei Ts'ien ' a grandee who died in A. D. 244 , » prescribed in
Later Han Dynasty, chapter 16, 1. 10.
)\\mm^^^:^^^^. It ^:^ffll^- Chapter 28,1.
36. See also the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, chapter 25 II, 1. 4.
3 Mm.
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710 THE GRAYS.
»his last will that he was to be buried with bare simplicity, and
» that absolutely nothing should be deposited in his grave except a
» set of a certain number of stoneware articles" ^. The learned Su
Miao ', y> who died in A. D. 302 , ordained in his testamentary
A^ dispositions that there must be nothing used (for the disposal of
y> his body) but pieces of washed cloth , washed garments , a coffin
»of elm woody bricks of sundry kinds, an open cart for his
» corpse , mats of water-rushes , and implements of earthenware or
» burnt clay" '. We have seen on page 696 that even an empress
of the great Tang dynasty, viz. Wen-teh, consort of the second
monarch of that House, formally declared it to be her wish that
only things of burnt clay and wood should be laid in her grave.
That the exclusive use of articles of clay for the grave was made
obligatory by Imperial rescript under the same djmasty has been
stated on page 696.
During the Sung dynasty, the principal moral leaders of the
nation likewise held that it was the duly of every one to make
use of counterfeits of a^ implements for the manes". We read in
the Rituals for Family Life: » Wooden carts and horses; serv-
»ants, followers and female attendants, all of them handing up
)> articles for use and food; they must resemble living beings, but
9 be of smaller dimensions. Thirty-seven are allowed for officers of
» the fifth and sixth degree , twenty for those of the seventh and
» eighth rank , and fifteen for such people as have not been raised
» to the dignity of official servant of the dynasty ... Six pieces
y>o{ black silk and four of scarlet silk, each eighteen feet long,
»are brought forward by the principal mourner and deposited
»at the side of the coffin; he then knocks his head against the
)> ground twice, while those who stand around in their assigned
» places all howl till their grief is up *. If the family is too poor
» to affi)rd the said quantity of silk , they may restrict it to one
» piece of each colour. For the rest, no articles of gold or jade,
y> nor any valuable trinkets , may be placed in the grave pit with
m ]^ i9?' ^®°^^^ ^^ ^^® 'lYitQQ Kingdoms, Memoirs of Wei, chapter 23, 1. 18.
$.<{>P»5JSS»K^S5B- ^'^ »f/>»« Tsin Dynasty, chapter 91, 1. 7.
4 Rescript based upon the I li; see page 391.
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SACRIFICING MOCK MONET AND MOCK CLOTHES. 711
i^ the object of leaving them stored up therein for the deceased . . .
» When the pit is half filled up with earth , the articles destined for
» the manes are placed inside it" \
From the foregoing we arrive at the conclusion that the more
costly among the articles which were anciently buried with the
dead, viz. horses, valuables and expensive garments, probably first
of all ceased to be generally buried as » articles for the manes",
and that cheap household furniture and the requisites of life, either
in their genuine shape, or as valueless counterfeits, were used the
longest. Indeed, as late as the fourteenth century, the quaUty and
quantity of these things were officially fixed by the Ming dynasty
(see pages 698 seq.). We have learned (page 709) that the burying
of horses with monarchs and magnates was modified into sacrificing
horses, or counterfeits thereof, on special altars devoted to the
worship of their manes, or somewhere else, a practice which, as
may be seen on page 698, was still in vogue under the Liao
dynasty. This modification having begun during the Han dynasty,
we may suppose that it attained its full development in the centuries
succeeding that epoch. Now it was just at this period that a similar
process in respect of valuables and precious clothing was gaining
ground, that is to say, burying them with the dead died away
as a custom, and valueless counterfeits, especially mock money,
were sacrificed to the dead outside their graves.
This process went on, of course, slowly, insensibly almost. Hence it
is impossible to fix the exact date at which people began thus to
endow their deceased ancestors with mock riches. It is a positive
fact that burying real money with the dead was still common
during the Han dynasty, for we have learnt from Chapter IV how
richly the tombs of sovereigns and magnates were then equipped ,
and what large sums of money were frequently bestowed by the
emperors as funeral presents upon deceased statesmen of merit.
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712 THE GRAVE.
This information renders it superfluous to quote direct evidence
from the Standard Histories of that epoch, which tell us that, in
the first century before our era, »some robbers among the people
» dug out the money which was interred in the mausoleum park
y> of Hiao Wen" ', who had reigned two centuries previously. Nor
had this custom entirely slipped into abeyance in the ensuing ages,
as the Histories tell us of one Wu Pao^ a learned Taoist and
Buddhist who died in the sixth century: )>He always had a jar
» with him. One day he said to his disciples: 'This evening I
» must die. The thousand big coins which this jar contains must
» serve me to clear my way through the Nine Streams (of the
» Nether- world), and this wax taper must light my dead body of
» seven feet'. When evening came, he breathed his last"'.
The information which the native literature gives about the trans-
formation of the custom of burying money and clothes with the
dead into that of sacrificing mock money and inock clothes outside
the tombs , is very scanty. In a biography of a certain Wang Yii *,
Grandmaster of Sacrifices and Censor under the emperors Huen
Tsung and Suh Tsung » in the eighth century, we read : » His exor-
)>cisms and observances to ward off evil were, generally speaking,
»of the same stamp as the practices of spiritist mediums. During
» the Han dynasty and in subsequent times money had been placed
» in the tombs at every burial . and in later ages the country people
» had gradually replaced such money by paper in worshipping the
» manes of the dead ; and now Yii was the first to use it (in the
» sacrifices intrusted to him)" •. This assertion has since been re-
* #A^^^^^I^^^- Historical Recoi-ds, chapter 422, 1.
9; also the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, chapter 59, 1. 6.
-{^/^;2r/'^3g^[^"|^. History of the Southern Part of the Realm ,
chapter 76, 1. 2.
^. New Books of the Tang Dynasty, chapter 109, 1. 43.
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THE ORIGIN OP SACRIFICING PAPER MOCK MONEY. 713
ceived as fully warranted historical truth by several writers of
good authority, e. g, by Ch^en Yuen-tsing ^ of the Sung dynasty,
author of the Shi lin ktoang M *, and by Yeh N. N. ^ author of
the Ngai jih chat W'ung cliao *, who lived towards the end of the
same dynasty * ; — it was also subscribed to by Wang Ying-lin •,
a scholar of high repute in the thirteenth century, in his Kwun
hioh ki wen''. Chao Yih, the able author and critic mentioned on
page 369, wrote in the last centur/: »Fung has averred in his Wen
y> kien ki that paper money has existed already since the dynasty
»of Wei and that of Tsin (3rd. and 4th. centuries), and that at
»the time in which he lived there was nobody who did not use
»it, from the Imperial princes down to the petty oflBcials and
» commoners. He lived under Teh Tsung (A. D. 780—805) of the
»Tang dynasty, that is to say, not long after the Six D3masties
V (between the Han and the Sui), and what he saw with his own
» eyes is certainly not unworthy of belief. Hence there is no reason
>>for doubting that paper money came into vogue during the dy-
» nasties of Wei and Tsin" •.
Scholars who have discussed the subject are wont to refer to a work
of a certain Hung Khing-shen •, entitled Tu shi pien ching ^^i » Cri-
ticisms on the poetry of Tu", viz. of a famous Tu Fu " of the
eighth century, it being therein stated that paper money »had been
^ HtTClift-
3 3£ Q Q . His personal name is unknown.
5 See the Ku kin Cu shu tsih chHng^ section jjfA S., chapter 310.
7 ^ ^ ^ 1^ . 3^ ^^3 -^ai y^ ts'ung khao, chapter 30, 1. 18.
« ^ ^ K ^ IE n . ^ « ii w m * a :t ^ . 4 i
Wk ^Sik * ^^^ ^^ ts*ung khao^ chapter 30, 1. 18.
46
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714 THE GRAVE.
»in use since Tung Hwun of the TsH dynasty (circa A. D. 500).
» This emperor being fond of indulging in artifices with regard to
» ghosts and spirits , cut money out of paper with scissors , to use
A> it as a substitute for woven stuflGs" ^ Upon the trustworthiness of
this statement we do not venture to pronounce an opinion, as
there is not a single word on the subject to be found in the
Authentic Histories of the House of Ts^'i.
In the seventh century of our era, the paper money used in the
worship of the dead had probably taken the shape which it pos-
sesses at the present day , that is to say, it consisted of paper sheets
upon which tin-foil was pasted, and this was converted into mock
gold by giving it a yellow colour (comp. pages 25 and 26). We
venture to draw this conclusion from the Fah yuen chu lin ^ or
» Forest of Pearls in the Garden of the Dharma", a very valuable
account of the Buddhist religious system, which was published in
that century. In one of the ghost stories it contains, we are told
that a certain man who held intercourse with disembodied souls and
derived considerable knowledge from them about the spirit-world,
recounted : » Everjrthing of which spirits avail themselves diflFers from
>>the things that are used by the living. Gold and silks alone can
» be generally current among them , but are of special utility to
»them if counterfeited. Hence we must make gold by daubing Large
» sheets of tin with yellow paint , and manufacture pieces of silk
»stuflF out of paper, such articles being more appreciated by them
» than anything else" ^.
That the sacrificing of mock money and mock clothes to the dead
had a hard struggle against orthodoxy, which, as a matter of course ,
obstinately refused approval of things unknown to the holy ancients ,
appears from the fact stated on page 712, that it lasted until the eighth
century of our era before it was admitted, through the interme-
dium of Wang Yii, in the religious worship observed by the Court.
^ ^ . Kai yu tsung khao , loc, ciU; also the Ku kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing^ section
f^ ^, chapter 310.
^.^^*±- Chapter 6, 1.18.
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MOCK MONEY IN THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD. 715
Cases are, moreover, quoted by Chinese authors of grandees who
disdained using it at that time ^ It is not improbable that the
counterfeits were burned from the time they came into use, being
thus sent to the manes through flame and smoke. This conclusion
is naturally arrived at when we consider that real clothes and
valuables were destroyed in this way even as late as the T^'ang
dynasty. It is namely recorded that during the reign of Huen
Tsung, »in the second year of the Khai yuen period (A.D. 714),
» embroidered stuffs, pearls and jade were burnt in the foremost
» hall of the Imperial palace in the seventh month" *, which season
of the year has, since very early times, been devoted in China to
the worship of disembodied souls in general. About a couple of
centuries later, the emperor Chuh' of the Later Tsin dynasty »com-
» mitted to the flames imperial robes and paper money, while sacri-
»ficing on the Hien mausoleum at Nan-chwang on the day of
»the full moon of the period of Cold Fare, in the eighth year of
»his reign (A.D. 943)"*.
The Confucian school of philosophy, which flourished during
the Sung dynasty and has exercised a considerable influence over
the minds of all succeeding generations , sanctioned the use of paper
money in the worship of the dead. Concerning Shao Yung *, better
known by his other names Yao-fu • and Khang-tsieh ^y who lived
in the eleventh century, we read: » Master Khang-tsieh performed
;^the sacrifices (to his ancestors) in spring and autumn with observ-
»ance of both the ancient and modem ceremonial, inclusive of the
» burning of paper money. Ch^ing I-ch Ven « felt amazed at it ,
»and asked him why he did so; whereupon he retorted: 'The
» matter is based upon the same principle which underlies the use
4 See e. gf. the Kai yu is' ting khao^ chapter 30, 1. 19.
the Tang Dynasty, chapter 5, 1. 8.
3 ffi.
of the Five Dynasties, chapter 9, 1. 2.
8 A renowned contemporary of Shao "Yung, known also by his other name Gh'ing I
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716 THE GRAVE.
» of implements for the manes. If there were anything wrong in
» it , would then filial sons and compassionate grandsons have recourse
» to it to give vent to their feelings?' " ' The ultra orthodox Chu
Hi, however, was quite of another opinion. » Being asked what
» he thought about burning material for clothing at sacrifices , he
y> answered : 'At sacrifices to celestial spirits such material may be
A> burnt; but when it is presented to human manes, it ought be
» buried in the grave. Nor is there any documentary evidence
^ which justifies the conclusion that burning material for clothing
» should form a necessary part of the ritual connected with do-
jt>mestic sacrifices. If the custom in question were a good one,
5>and the vulgar method of setting fire to real clothes and things
» of this sort were justified, then the people ought not only to bum
»real clothing, but to fabricate all sorts of things to be burnt —
» a proceeding which would have neither sense , nor meaning' ....
y> At each sacrifice he presented , the Master abstained firom burn-
»ing paper, and he never used material for clothing on such oc-
» casions. Nor did he make use of mock paper money in his do-
» mestic sacrifices" *.
The great sway which Chu Hi's writings exercise over the na-
tion even to this day, all scholars and literati swearing by him ,
has not proved sufficient to conjure away the general use of mock
money and mock clothes in the worship of the dead. Rolls ot
dyed silk, being in reality nothing more than small, hollow cylin-
ders of paper, covered over with a single sheet of the poorest and
cheapest sUk gauze, are burnt at every ancestral sacrifice of any
importance; besides, tinned paper sheets of every kind, often
folded in the shape of ingots, and also mere untinned sheets,
^^, quoted in the Ku kin fu shu tsih ch'ing^ section Jjfy .S, chapter 310.
^mmm. Am^mzm^^m^^mm^^.
^m. ^m'^^m^zmnm. im^'Bh^m
tsih chHng^ he. cit
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ON BURNING COUNTERFEITS OF ARTICLES FOR THE DEAD. 717
«
then, and on sundry other occasions daring the disposal of the dead,
are substituted for real silver and gold, bullion and hard cash,
and set fire to in enormous quantities *. The produce of the
labours of inestimable numbers of workmen is thus regularly
destroyed, and a great part of the earnings of the people and
the wealth of the nation cast into the flames. Such burnt sacri-
fices are especially numerous and bountiful during the great mass
for the salvation of the soul , of which a description will be given
in our Book on Buddhism. Apart from all this, large quantities
of paper money, or the ashes thereof, are stowed away now-a-days
in coflSns or graves, as shown on pages 82 and 92 seq,, a fact which
confirms the unanimous statement of Chinese writers of authority,
that the use of mock money in the ancestral worship has its origin in
the ancient custom of burying real money or bullion with the dead.
And, likewise in spite of Chu Hi's argument, counterfeits of
all imaginable articles of furniture and things which may be useful
in the next world, are burnt now-adays in ancestral sacrifices
of importance. In general they consist of small square sheets of
cheap paper, upon which the articles are stamped by means of
a piece of wood, rudely carved: houses, tables, chairs; implements
for cooking, writing and the toilette; carts and horses, sedan-chairs,
attendants and servants, slaves male and female, cattle, etc. etc. In
many cases the counterfeits are made of thin bamboo splints and
very bad and cheap paper gf various colours , sometimes of the full
natural size, but also much smaller, men and animals being often
less in size than one's finger. Sedan-chairs and bearers of this de-
scription, as the reader knows from pages 28 and 98, are used in
the disposal of the dead before the burial; they are evidently a
faint survival of the conveyances and horses which were anciently
buried in the tombs.
AVhether such paper-and-bamboo dwelling houses represent a
like survival, is questionable, as no real houses, so far as we
know, were sent with the dead into the next life in ancient
times. The sole passage referring to anything of the kind, which
we have come across in Chinese books, is the following: »Ts''ui
» Hung's Annals of the Thirty States * mention in their account of
4 See our First Volume, pages 25, 78, 126, 145, 226, etc.
2 Two works bearing this name, in thirty chapters and one hundred and
two respectively, are mentioned in the Old Books of the Tang Dynasty , chapter 46 ,
1. 26, and in the New Books of that House , chapter 58, 1. 6, and said to have been
written , the former by Siao Fang ^ Hb* , and the latter by Wu Min j|^ ^St . It is
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718 THE GRAVE.
» Hia ^ that Puh, the father of Hoh-lien Ch'^ang, having wandered to
» the north as far as Khi-wu , there climbed a hillock , and sighingly
» said : 'How splendid is the mountain-scenery here ! Where it dis-
» solves into the vast, watered plains, it girds a limpid stream.
»1 have visited many a country, but nowhere have I found such
» beautiful scenery'. Ch%ng (his son), fulfilling the desire expressed
y> by Puh during his life, buried him to the west of the town, fifteen
» miles from the walls. He erected a lodging house on the spot ,
» with the inscription: » Palace of T\ing-wan" * over the entrance,
y> decorated it with gold , silver, pearls and emeralds , and after the
» burial set fire to it" ^.
The burning of counterfeits, after it had come into general prEictice,
by no means did away with the older forms. Bonfires of genuine
articles and valuables continued for a long time to hold a place
side by side with bonfires of counterfeits. We read e.g. that at
the demise of the emperor Shing Tsung * of the liao dynasty
(A. D. 1030), the departure of. the cortege of death from the
Palace was marked by a sacrifice, at which »they took clothes,
» bows and arrows , saddles , bridles , pictures of horses , of camels ,
» life-guards and similar things, which were all committed to the
probably to one of these works that the encyclopaedist refers. But Ts'ui Hung, who
lived in the sixth centuiy of our era , wrote a dissei*tation on sixteen kingdoms which
existed in the fourth and fifth century, entitled »Anna1s of the Sixteen States''
"f^ !a> B ^ W< (^^ ^^® Books of the Wei Dynasty, chapter 67, 1. 47, and the
History of the Northern Part of the Realm, chapter 44, I. 12). In this work, a
copy of which is in our possession, the above episode does not occur in the section
which treats of Hia. Without doubt we have here a good instance of the careless
way in which Chinese encyclopaedists, even the best, quote their authorities.
1 A petty state, existing in the beginning of the fifth century in the present
province of Kansuh. Its two princes mentioned in the above extract, viz. Hoh-lien
Puh-puh and Hoh-lien Ch'ang, were scions of the Hiung-nU tribe. A biography ol
Puh-puh, who died in A. D. 425, is to be found in chapter 430 of the Books of the
Tsin Dynasty.
2 Tung- wan was the name of Chiang's capital.
JS. iH iit ^ ^ ^^. W^lil^ Z The encyclopaedia y«er, *ien
lei han^ chapter 184, 1. 44.
d mi *=^
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ON THE USE OF MOCK MONEY IN THE NEXT LIFE. 719
»flame8" ^. Before that time , the new emperor had , on visiting the
place where the encoffined corpse was stored away awaiting burial,
» reduced to ashes the bows and arrows which the deceased monarch
y> had been wont to handle himself' ^ ; and on a similar occasion
» he had the deceased's dresses and imperial trinkets and valuables
» taken outside , and burnt" *.
It would be a great mistake to suppose, that sending mock
articles of paper to the next world through the agency of flames was
ever considered in China as only an expression of the good will of
the survivors to enrich the dead on yonder side of the grave.
Numerous exhortations, addressed to the people in sundry books,
never to neglect such sacrifices because they really do enrich the
dead, point unmistakably to the contrary. Moreover, many legends
occur in the books and are current in the mouths of the people,
concerning human spirits which have begged paper money from
the living, or have expressed their gratitude to those people who
had generously endowed them with it. Further they contain stories
of spirits who, assuming a visible shape, have spent money which
turned into paper or ashes immediately afterwards. Instead of being
considered as legendary, such tales are generally received by the
people as records of actual events, about the truth of which not a
shadow of doubt ever crosses their minds. It would be an easy
task to place before our readers a choice selection of such tales,
taken from the native books in our possession. Let one suflBce, as
characteristic of the rest:
»The Mao Cing khoh hwa relates: — Sun Chi-wei, also named
»T^ai ku, a member of the local gentry, was a denizen of Ku-
»shan, which is situated in Mi-cheu (in the present province of
» Szg-chVen), and a painter by profession. In the district of Tao-
» kiang there lived a female medium between men and spirits , who
y> understood the art of prophecy about human affairs. Chi-wei ,
» who up to that date had felt much attracted by the strange and
» marvellous, asked her what was the shape of disembodied human
» spirits , as he desired to take advantage of this in connection with
» a painting of his. The woman conjured up for him a ghost named
^. History of the Liao Dynasty, chapter 50, 1. 4.
2^-^^]^:j^ ^^.The same work, chapter 18, 1. 2.
3 ffi :*: ff M 1^ Ift ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ • ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ' '' ^-
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720 THE GRAYS. ^
» Wang San-Iang, who gave him every information on the point
» in question. Chi-wei then said to this being: 'I now wish to reward
»jo\i; tell me what you desire to have'. *I hope you will kindly
» assist me with some hundreds of strings of thousands cash',
» was the reply. Finding the other politely refused to give this sum,
»the spectre continued: 'What I desire is no wordly goods made
»of copper or iron, but treasures of paper \ whereupon Chi-wei
» promised him he would furnish them. 'When you set the money
» on fire', added the ghost , 'you must not let it touch the ground ,
» but place it upon a layer of brambles and shrubs ; and wherever
y> the fire has consumed it you must not stir the ashes , nor poke
» therein , lest the cash be broken or pulverized ; and so the money
y> will come into my possession in entire pieces'. The painter now
» burnt some thousands of strings of one hundred sheets of paper
» money, observing the indications he had received" \
B.4^iskmn.nisK^m^f^.mB.mnmn
^ ^ ^Wi^ ^ ^* ^^ Atn fu shu tsih ch'ing, section Jjjjjl M,
chapter 340.
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CHAPTER IX.
CONCERNING THE SACRIFICE OF HUMAN BEINGS AT BURIAU3,
AND USAGES CONNECTED THEREWITH.
In continuation of the chapters on the custom of burying with
the dead articles of value and their movable property, we have
now to expatiate on the practice of placing their wives, concubines
and slaves in their graves, these persons being also regarded as
their property. Considering the great assiduity which the Chinese
of all ages have displayed to benefit and enrich their ancestors in
the next world, we can scarcely feel any surprise at finding that
this practice has obtained amongst them since times of old ; and it
becomes the more explicable when we are reminded that it has
prevailed, and still prevails among peoples in a low stage of culture,
nearly all over the world.
Just as the burying with the dead of lifeless property, the immo-
lation of living beings on their behalf doubtless dates in China
from the darkest mist of ages. Yet the cases on record in the
native books are of relatively modem date, which, we think,
must be ascribed to the circumstance that in high antiquity they
were so common , that it did not occur to the annalists and chron-
iclers to set down such everyday matters as anything remark-
able. The oldest case on record we owe to the pen of Sz6-ma
Ts^en. »In the twentieth year of his reign (B. C. 677) the ruler
» Wu (of the state of Ts^in) died , and was interred at P'ing-yang ^
» in Yung. Then for the first time people were made to follow the
» dead into the next world. The number of those who followed
» the deceased was sixty-six" *. We must not, it is evident, take this
expression vfor the first time" in its literal meaning. It is indeed
hardly admissible that such a barbarous practice could then have
sprung up all of a sudden, without precedents to legalize it, or that
it should have been inaugurated as a new custom by the immo-
1 The present Fung-ts'iang S ^tt , a department in the province of Shend.
^ A^ "f* A% ^ • ^'storical Records , chapter 5, 1. 8.
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722 THE GRAVE.
lation of so many victims. The passage more probably implies that
Wu was the first sovereign of his House for v«rhom victims were
immolated, or the first sovereign for whom so large a number of
victims were sent to the realms of Death. Indeed, if we peruse the
historical treatise on the kingdom of Ts^'in, from which it is drawn,
we learn that Wu was the first monarch of significance who ruled
that country, having greatly extended it by successful wars ; all his
predecessors on the throne had been mere ciphers, or princes of
no repute at all, and it is natural therefore that he should be sent
into the next world with exceptional wealth and attendance. Nor
is mention made of human sacrifices at the burial of any of the
three rulers who were seated on the throne after Wu, but they
were also sovereigns of no significance; again, however, record of
such sacrifices is made in the case of Muh, Wu's brother's son,
whose reign, which lasted thirty-nine years, was also marked by
a large conquest of territory. »In the thirty-ninth year of his
» reign (619 B. C.) the ruler Muh died and was buried in Yung.
» Those who followed the defunct to the next world were one
» hundred and seventy-seven in number. Amongst them were three
» exquisite ministers of Ts^in , members of the family Tszg-yii, named
» Yen-sih , Chung-hang and Ch^en-hu. The people of Ts*in , deplor-
»ing their fate, composed and sung The Lay of the Yellow
» Birds" ^ The Shi king has preserved it from perdition. » The
» yellow birds, crowded together, perch upon the jujube trees.
» Who is the man that follows our ruler Muh ? It is Tszg-yii
» Yen-sih, a model worth a hundred officers. At his descending into
» the pit we are struck with dismay on beholding his anguish.
» Thou Azure Heaven , they are slaughtering our exquisite man ! If
»he may be ransomed, a hundred of ours for his person!"*. Then
follows a similar stanza for Chung-hang, and one for Ch^en-hu.
Historical Records, chapter 5, 11. 16 and 17. This episode is recorded also in the
Tso ch'wen^ Seventh year of the Ruler Wen's reign.
ife H ^ A . *l W W ^ > A W ^ :!'• The Odes of Tsin, secUon
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BURYING HUMAN BEINGS AJJVE WITH THE DEAD. 723
If we may believe Ying Shao \ an author who in the second
century of our era wrote the Fung-auh fung % (see page 218), the
immolation of those three ministers was an act of voluntary self-
sacrifice. »The ruler Muh of Ts^in", he writes somewhere, »having
» assembled his ministers around him for a drinking party, said to
»them: 'These pleasures we share in this life, but we must also
» share our woes after death'. On this, Yen-sih, Chung-hang and
» Ch^'en-hu answered they would do so. And when the ruler had
» breathed his last , they all followed him to the next world" *. In
connection with this passage, attention must be called to the fact
that the character ^, which is used in the ancient writings to
denote burying human beings with the dead , has in the Bhu king '
also the meaning of »to desire, to seek'\ Is this mere accident?
Or does it confirm the belief that, in ancient China, to be buried
with the dead was sought after as a favour?*
In the » Journal Asiatique" of 1843 Edouard Biot has set it forth
as his opinion that the sacrificing of human lives to the manes of
king Wu had been recently adopted from the Tatars. And Yen
Ts^an*, who lived during the Sung djmasty, avers that the state
of Ts'in had brought with it the manners of the barbarous tribes
among which its people had long dwelt •. It was , in fact , situated
in the remote North-west of the Empire. But both suppositions are
4jt 7F. The Khienlung edition of the Historical Records, chapter 5, 1. 17.
3 Section -^ |f|| .
4 Herbert Spencer says with reference to the same custom: »The intensity of
» the faith prompting such customs we shall the better conceive on finding proof
» that the victims are often willing , and occasionally anxious , to die. Gardlasso says
» that a dead Ynca's wives 'volunteered to be killed , and their number was often
» such that the officers were obliged to interfere , saying that enough had gone at
» present' ; and according to Cieza , *some of the women , in order that their faithful
» service might be held in more esteem , finding that there was delay in completing
» the tomb, would hang themselves up by their own hair, and so kill themselves*.
» Similarly of the Chibchas , Simon tells us that with a corpse *they interred the
» wives and slaves who most wished it'. In Africa it is the same. Among the Yoi-u-
»bans, at the funeral of a great man, not only are slaves slain, but 'many of his
» finends swallow poison', and are entombed with him" .... etc. The Principles of
Sociology, chapter 44, § 404.
5 j|^ &. 6 Legge, The Chinese Classics, IV, prolegomena, page 141.
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724 THE GEAVE.
debatable, as there can be no doubt that the practice in question
existed of old among the Chinese proper. It is difficult to believe
that the people of Ts^in, which had, reached a rather advanced stage
of culture, should have borrowed from tribes standing on a much
lower level an institution which, if it were foreign to them, must
have appeared extremely repulsive to them because of its ferocity.
Grafting foreign manners and customs upon a people is generally
a very difficult process , the more so when such manners and customs
are revolting and detestable by their very savageness. If, besides, we
consider that immolating living people at the death of persons ot note
obtains, or has obtained, in all parts of the world in the lower
stages of culture, it is hardly imaginable that the Chinese, who
have signalized themselves from the most ancient times by a fanatical
care for their dead, should have formed an exception to the rule.
Indeed, their own books contain many passages which place it
beyond all doubt that the practice was anciently quite indigenous
in their country. Those which have come under our notice we
will now place before our readers in chronological order, and then
continue our research in the same direction through books of later
date, thus tracing the prevalence of burials of living beings with
the dead down to the fourteenth century of our era, when it was
abolished even f6r Emperors and members of the Imperial family.
Four cases of burying living persons with grandees of rank in the
sixth century before Christ, are on record in the Tao ch^wen. »Wei
»Wu-tsz6 had a favourite concubine, by whom he had no children.
»When he fell ill, he ordered (his son) Kho to provide her with
» another husband; but as he grew worse, he told him to place
»her with him in the grave. After his father's death, Kho married
»the woman to somebody, saying: 'When my father was very ill, he
» was in an abnormal state of mind ; I obey the charge he gave when
» his mind was sound'. At the battle of Fu-shi (593 B. C), Kho
» (who was then in command of the army of Tsin) saw an old man
» placing ropes of grass in the way of Tu Hwui (a gigantic warrior
»in the hostile army), so that he stumbled and fell to the ground,
» and was taken prisoner. In the night that same old man appeared
» to Kho in a dream , and Wd : 'I am the father of the woman
»whom you have married out. Because you followed the charge
» which your deceased father gave you when he was of a sound
» mind , I have thus rewarded you' " \
iffii^^^^^.mf-.5eT!^>^P0>^
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BURYING LIVING PERSONS WITH THE DEAD. 725
» In the eighth month (of the year 537 B. C), Wen , the ruler
» of Sung *, died. He was the first who was buried with much
» waste of wealth. (For his grave) they used lime of clams,
»thej employed carts and horses in increased numbers, and for
» the first time interred living persons with the dead" *. Seven
years later, the ruler of Tsin fell into a privy and perished. »An
»oflBcial of lower rank had dreamt that very morning that he
» carried the ruler on his back up to heaven. At noon he bore the
» ruler out of the privy, and was subsequently buried with him" '.
The fourth case refers to ChVen *, a feudal ruler of Chu *. In the
year 506 before our era »he threw himself down on a couch (in a
» fit of rage), fell upon a furnace of charcoal , was burnt , and died.
» Before he was placed in his grave , five carts and five living men
»were buried"'.
Mention is also made in the Tso cK-wen of a man who interred
two daughters of his own with his deceased sovereign, as a mark
of gratitude for his having, on a certain occasion, shown clemency
to his father. In 527 before our era, a rebellion broke out in the
town of Khien-khi^ in the kingdom of Ch^'u', which compelled
the ruler Ling® to flee. »Shen-hai, the son of Wu-yii, said:
» 'Twice my father has violated the king's orders, and yet the king
^& . Fifteenth year of the Ruler Suen*s reign.
1 He has been mentioned on page 691.
ffl 1^ . Second year of the Ruler ChMng's reign.
Mf S3 » ^ Ait j§ ^- '^®°**' y®" **^ *^® ^"^®'' Ch'ing'8 reign.
4 ^.
fH ^ ^ 3l a • '^*'^ y®*^ ^^ *^® ^\i\sx Ting's reign.
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726 THE GRAVE.
»has spared his life; what clemency could exceed this? The fate
» of a ruler may not be met with indifference , nor a merciful man
» be rejected ; I will go where he has gone\ Accordingly he sought
»for the king, and finding him at the Kih gate, took him
»home with him. In summer, in the fifth month, on the day
»kwei-hai, the king strangled himself in the house of the officer
»(Wu-)yu and Shen-hai, and the latter buried him, placing his
y> own two daughters with him in the grave" ^
All the above cases took place in the same age in which Con-
fucius lived, two even during his life. The Sage was already over
forty years old when Hoh Lii, the monarch of Wu, well known
to our readers, perpetrated an act of cruelty of the kind which
casts into the shade the savagery of the Dahoman princes. In the
fourth year of his reign (^D. 510) »his daughter committed sui-
» cide, which cast deep sorrow over Hoh Lii 's soul. She was buried
» outside the Chiang gate, to the west of his capital. Tanks were
»dug, and the earth piled up (for a tumulus); a crypt of veined
» stone was built and an accumulation of wood constructed therein,
» and gold tripods , cups of jade , silver goblets , and most precious
» clothes stitched with pearls were sent along with the maiden into
» her second life. Thereupon they played with white cranes in the
» shop-streets of Wu, so that the crowd followed to look at them;
» and then receding , they caused men and women to pass with
y> the cranes through the gate which opened upon the road which
» led unto the crypt. Engines, now suddenly set at work, shut the
» gate upon them. This slaughter of living persons to make them
» accompany the deceased was disapproved of by the denizens" *.
^. ^^\iX^^:k^\f(if^ti- Thirteenth year of the Ruler
Chao's reign. The same episode is related in the Historical Records, chapter 40, 1. 13.
mwiz.m.n^±mn^Amf^M^m\iX^
^o^^llii^^BA^^-'^^® ^'^"^^^ ^^ ^" *°^ ^"®*'' chapter
2. This episode has been touched upon already on page 449.
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AVERSION OF HUMAN SACRIFICES AT BURIALS. 727
That human sacrifices at burials were far from generally popular
in those ancient times, we have seen from the fact that people
expressed their aversion of them by the Lay of the Yellow Birds,
and from the case of Wei Wu-tszS. Further proof is adduced by
the following episodes, recorded in the Li ki (ch. 13, 11. 27 and 31):
» Ch^'en Tszg-kii (a grandee of the kingdom of Ts'i) having died in
y> Wei, his wife and his major domo planned together to place some
» living people with him in the grave. When they had decided upon
» doing so , Ch^'en TszS-khang (a younger brother of the defunct and
» a disciple of Confucius) arrived , and they spoke to him about the
» matter in the following words: 'When our Master falls ill, he
» will have nobody in the Nether-world to provide for his wants ;
» therefore we beg that some person may be buried along with
»him'. But Tszg-khang said: 'Burying living people with the
y> dead is no good rite ; nevertheless , if he falls ill on yonder side the
» grave and wants anybody to wait upon him , who could be more
» fitted for the task than his own wife and his major domo? If the
» thing can be dispensed with, I desire that it shall be dispensed
» with; but if it must be done, 1 wish you two to be the persons'.
» On this , the project was not carried into efifect" \ — » Ch^en
» Khien-sih , being laid up ill , called his brothers together and gave
» the following order to his son Tsun-ki : If I die , you must make
»my coffin large and spacious, and make my two slave-girls lie
» in it with me , one on each side'. When he had expired , his son
» said : *It is not a good rite to bury the living with the dead ;
vhow much worse must it be to lay them in the same coffin!'
» Accordingly he did not perpetrate the murder" *.
mB^m.'f'%B.m^mwm^Mmmmm
hoc. cit.
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728 THE GRAVE.
The native literature affords sufficient evidence that also after
Confucius's time entombments of living persons with the dead
were far from exceptional in the cases of princes and magnates.
According to Mih-tszg, it was in his time a prevalent opinion
that »in the case of a Son of Heaven, the maximum number to
» be killed and buried should vary between several hundreds and
» several times ten , and , in that of a Prince or a Great officer,
» between several times ten and a certain minimum" \ Though
this statement be, perhaps, exaggerated, it corroborates what the
Miscellanies about the Western Metropolis relate concerning a
discovery made by the prince of Kwang-chVen (see page 897)
in the tomb of one of the first princes of the kingdom of Wei:
»The tumulus of the ruler Yiu was very high and large. After
»the gate leading to the crypt was opened, they found the way
» entirely barred by a wall of stone , which they broke down , after
» which , having descended to a depth of over ten feet , they found
» a* screen , adorned with mother-of-pearl. Thereupon descending
»over one foot further, they beheld more than a hundred dead
y> bodies , stretched crosswise and athwart each other. Not one was
»in a state of decay. Only one lad was among them; all the
» others were young women. Some were sitting, others were lying
y> on the ground , or seemed to stand erect. In dress and shape
» they did not differ from living persons" *. Those females at the
time they were enclosed in that tomb were doubtlessly intended
to serve the deceased as a harem in his second life.
No mention is made of human bodies being found in the graves,
opened by the said prince, of Siang and Ngai, who ruled the
same state of Wei between, the years 334 and 296 before our era
(see pp. 397 ei aeq.). But concerning the grave of Ngai's son, which
he ransacked like the others, we read in the same Miscellanies:
»The tomb of Tsie-khu, a son of the king of Wei, was very
» shallow and narrow. It contained no coffin , but only a couch of
» stone , six feet broad by ten long , and a screen of stone. The
)> lower parts of that couch were entirely adorned with mother-of-
1 See page 669.
^ A ^ . ^ J» ?^ fe :?J ^ ^ A • ch'^pt^' 6.
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BURYING LIVING PERSONS WITH THE DEAD. 729
y> pearl. Two corpses , one of the male and the other of the female
» sex , were found upon it , both over twenty years of age. They
» had their heads turned to the east , were undressed , and not
» covered with shrouds. Their flesh , skin and complexion were like
» those of the liviirg ; so were their hair , teeth and nails. The king
» was too much afiaid to approach ; he retraced his steps , and had
» the tomb closed up again" \ Can we suppose that the youthful
couple had been laid down there the one dead, and the other alive?
The royal house of Ts'in, to which, as we have seen, the most
ancient cases of burjring living people with the dead are set down
by Chinese books, faithfully kept up this institution to the end
of its sway. It is stated that »the rider Hien abolished it in the
first year of his reign (383 B. C.)" *; but concerning the consort of
king Hwui-wen ^ who reigned between the years 336 and 309
before our era, we read: »Suen, Queen Dowager in Ts'in, fell in
»love with Wei Kwei. Becoming so ill that she was on the point
» of death , she gave this order : 'At my burial , Wei-tszg must be
» placed with me in the grave'. This filled Wei-tszg with dismay. On
»his behalf Yung-jui said to the Queen Dowager: 'Do you believe
»that the dead have knowledge?' 'They are unconscious^ was the
» reply. 'If, rejoined the other, 'your intelligence is so clear as to
» understand that the dead have no knowledge, why then should you
» commit the idle act of burying a living minion of yours at the side
»of a dead person who has no knowledge of it?' 'You are right',
» the Queen Dowager answered , and she withdrew her order" *.
^ jSj-^TC^Pit^^- Historical Records , chapter 5, 1. 21 .
47
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730 THE GRAVE.'
But the practice was carried to its highest pitch by the same
House on the death of Shi Hwang, who about two hundred and
twenty years before the beginning of the Christian era had suc-
ceeded by force of arms in incorporating with his own realm all
the feudal states into which China had hitherto been divided. We
have related on page 400 how his son and successor 'Rh-shi,
besides unsparingly dooming to death all the men who' had assisted
in hoarding up treasures in the mausoleum , had all the inmates c^
his father's harem, who had borne him no sons, shut up therein.
From the absence of references to the practice in contemporary
records, we are almost tempted to conclude that under the Han
dynasty, and during the time of the Three Kingdoms, the immo-
lation of living persons to the dead was of rare occurrence. Our
studies of the Standard Histories of that epoch have not acquainted
us with a single case of such human sacrifices, nor do the biographies
of empresses and imperial concubines contained therein , mention a
single instance of a woman having been immolated to the manes
of her consort However, some cases on record may have escaped us,
and some allowance must be made for the supposition that slaves
and concubines continued to be immolated without the annalists
and official historiographers deeming it worth their while to put on
record such common-place occurrences. This supposition almost forces
itself upon us when we take into consideration, on the one hand,
that such practices were so deeply rooted in the institutions of
ancient China as to be in very active force under 'Rh-shi, whose
reign immediately preceded that of the Han dynasty, and, on
the other hand, that history proves its prevalence at the begin-
ning of the fourth century, that is, more than a hundred years
after the period of the Three Kingdoms. We read of Mu-yung
Hi , the ruler of the state of Yen mentioned on page 653 :
» When Madam Fu (his concubine) died. Hi wailed and howled bit-
»terly, beat his breast and stamped his feet, as if he had lost his
» father or his mother. After the coffining he had the lid taken
»off again, and attempted sexual intercourse with her. Wearing
» the mourning of the highest degree , he confined himself to rice
» gruel, and decreed that all his officers should howlingly appear
IV of the Chen kwoh U'eh ^^ f^ ^^ » Records of the Contending States*',
treating of the epoch immediately preceding the Ts*in dynasty. This hook is stated
to have heen extant ah-eady under the Han dynasty.
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BURYING LIVING PERSONS WITH THE DEAD. 781
» before her manes in the Palace. The Shamans also were ordered by
» him tx) wear plain mourning attire. He charged some of his officers
» to judicially investigate whether those who had howled for the lady
» had given proper marks of loyalty and subjection to his will by
» shedding tears , and he punished those whose cheeks had remained
» dry. This caused all his ministers to tremble with fear, and every
y> one of them took some acrid or peppery substance in his mouth ,
»to cause his tears to flow.
» The consort of Mu-yung Lung , a woman bom of the family
» Chang, Hi's own sister-in-law, who was possessed of a handsome
» gait , a beautiful countenance and much wit , was singled out by
)>Hi as a victim to be buried along with Madam Fu. Seeking
»to impute some crime to her, that he might doom her to death,
» he tore up the garments which were destined to be placed with
» the deceased in her grave , and discovering felt of inferior quality
A> inside the boots, he condemned her to die by her own hands.
» Her three daughters came to implore his mercy, knocking their
» heads against the floor; but he remained inexorable. From the
>^ highest nobles down to the common people, all were ordered by
» him to assemble families to build the sepulchre; the whole contents
» of his treasuries were spent upon it , and he had three wells of
» ground-water stopped up with molten metal. This sepulchre
j> measured several miles in circumference. Inside it they depicted
»the eight tso (?) of the SAu king^ and Hi said: 'The men who
y> have done this work so cleverly. We shall send along with the
» Empress into this grave hill'. Those who knew this regarded those
»men as sons of misfortune. Wei Khui, the Imperial Charioteer
»of the Right Hand, and some others, fearing they too would
» have to follow the defunct into the tomb , washed their hair and
» bathed their bodies, and awaited their death" ^.
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732 THE GRAVE.
In ensuing ages, the native books are generally silent upon im-
molations of human beings on behalf of the dead. This might lead
us to the conclusion that such immolations then fell into disuse, did
not some references here and there point to the contrary. T'ai Tsu *,
the founder of the short-lived dynasty of Cheu, who died in 953,
is stated in the Standard Histories of that period to have ordained
that »no human lives under any pretext whatever should be
destroyed when his corpse was consigned to the grave'' ?. During
the Sung dynasty, »one Tung Tao-ming, a native of Pao-sin in Ts^'ai-
» cheu , when his deceased mother was buried concealed himself in
» her grave , and was thus buried along with her. After three days
»had elapsed, his family opened the grave and took him out of
»it, quite hale and healthy. He thereupon settled at the side of
»the grave in a shed, till the end of his life" \
The practice of burying living people with the dead seems to
have been maintained specially by the Tatar family of Liao, who
during the Sung dynasty ruled over modem Manchuria and part of
Kirin, often extending its sway also over adjacent portions of Northern
China. Of Shun-khin ^, the consort of T^ai Tsu % the first emperor,
it is stated that , » when he breathed his last (in A. D. 925), she
» declared she would have herself buried at his funeral. Her kinsmen
»and several officers energetically protested against this plan, and
» therefore she merely cut off her right hand and placed it in the
'^^^.^^jajEti^^.r^CV^ffi^^Ji. Books of the
Tsin Dynasty, chapter 124, 1. 15. This episode is narrated also in the Annals of the
Sixteen States, section ^ ^^ ^^.
* :fc:jiia.
chapter H3, 1. 7.
jS' i^ "f S IM • ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ S"°8 Dynasty, chapter 456, I. 8.
5 :*:!&.
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BURYING LIVING PERSONS WITH THE DEAD. 733
» coffin"*. The same work narrates: »In the first year of the
» period T'ung hwo (A. D. 983), Kiai-li, who in the Puh-hai
» region held the office of Tah-ma, asked permission to be inter-
»red with the deceased emperor (King Tsung), having received so
»many favours from him. The new emperor did not, however,
» allow this, but sent him some presents as a mark of distinction ....
»When King Tsung was buried in the Khien mausoleum, his.
y> intimate favourite Tah-lu was enclosed with him in the tomb" *.
That during the Mongol dynasty of Yuen women used to be buried
along with deceased monarchs, has been stated already on page
437, in an extract from the Suk wen Men fung khao.
An almost certain proof that immolation of human beings at
Imperial burials must have been continued uninterruptedly in China,
is the fact that it was done on an extensive scale during the first
hundred years of the Ming dynasty. It is difficult to believe that
it could then have cropped up anew all of a sudden, if it had
really been allowed to slip into abeyance during a series of ages.
It is stated in the Official Annals of the House of Ming that the
emperor Ying Tsung ' in the first year of his reign (A. D. 1436)
bestowed posthumous honorary titles upon ten women »who had
»been Palace concubines of (his father) Suen Tsung, buried along
»with this monarch. When Tai Tsu (the first emperor of the
» dynasty) died (A. D. 1398), ladies of the Palace followed him to
» death in great numbers. For (the third , fourth and fifth emperors)
» Ch'ing Tsu, Jen Tsung and Suen Tsung such immolations also took
» place , and the same rule was followed again in the case of the
» emperor King, who died in the quality of Prince of Ch^g, for, at that
»time it was usual to act similarly in the case of every prince of im-
» perial lineage. The practice was only abolished when Ying Tsung
» prohibited it by his testamentary behests" V This last statement
H ^ >& ^ ^ ^ ^ IS- History of the Liao Dynasty, chapter 74, 1. 4.
]^ ^ ^ 1^ ^ ^ ^ . History of the Liao Dynasty, chapter 10, 1. 2.
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734 THE GRAVE.
is corroborated elsewhere in the same historical work, in the fol-
lowing words: »At the demise of the emperor King, (his brother
»and successor) Ying Tsung buried with him the lady T'ang and
» other inmates of the back palace , and contemplated letting the
» empress share the same fate. But he no further insisted upon
»it when Li Hien had told him to take into consideration that
»thi8 consort had been sent into retirement by the defunct and
;* repudiated , and that her immolation would be the more deplor-
» able as her two daughters were of a tender age \ Ying Tsung
» forbade by his last will the immolation of Palace concubines" *.
The Suk wen Men fung khao ' informs us how many in number
the women were, who fell victims to the practice on the death
of the first, the third, the fourth and the fifth monarchs of the dy-
nasty. T'^ai Tsu was followed to death by no less than thirty-eight
of his forty concubines, Ch^'ing Tsu by all his, sixteen in number,
Jen Tsung by four of the seven, and Suen Tsung by seven out
of eight.
The dynasty of Manchu origin, which now rules the Empire,
at the commencement likewise sacrificed human lives at burials.
They did so, at least, if we may trust De Guignes, who, without
mentioning the source of his information, states: » L'empereur Chun-
»tchy, dont le regne finit en 1661, ordonna, a la mort d'une
)>de ses femmes, que Ton immolat trente personnes aux mante
» de cette princesse , et que son corps fut depose dans un cercueil
»precieux, et brule (??) avec uneprodigieusequantited'or, d'argent,
» de soieries et de meubles. A la mort de la mere de Kang-hy (en
» 1718), quatre jeunes filles voulurent s'immoler sur la tombe de
»leur maitresse; mais Tempereur ne voulut pas le permettre, et de-
» fendit de bruler desormais des e toffies, des meubles ou des esclaves" *.
» We cannot say whether such immolations have taken place under
the more recent sovereigns, as both trustworthy native and foreign
evidence on this point is wanting. But it is perfectly certain that
History of the Ming Dynasty, chapter 413, U. 12 seq.
Chapter 113, 1. 16.
3 Chapter 133, 1. 14.
4 Voyages, vol. II, page 304.
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STJTTEEISM. 785
they are not a recognized institution of the State, not being men-
tioned as such in the dynastic Codices of Rites.
Sutteeism. Widowhood.
Though burying living people with the dead has been gradually
obliterated from the customs of the Chinese people by advancing
culture, yet it has struggled hard in its decline and insensibly
assumed a modified shape, under which it still maintains itself.
Daughters, daughters-in-law and widows especially, being imbued
with the doctrine that they are the property of their dead parents ,
parents-in-law and husbands and accordingly owe them the highest
degree of submissive devotion, often take their own lives, in order
to follow them into the next world. Numerous cases of such sui-
cides are mentioned already in the works of the Han dynasty, and
are found in the books of subsequent ages in gradually increasing
numbers, which is quite natural, seeing they slowly took the place
of immolations at burials.
The instances of such suicides, on record, are so exceedingly
numerous and so much resemble each other, that we are compelled to
abstain from our usual custom of placing instances before the reader.
We shall therefore confine ourselves to noting their general tendency.
First of all, we see that self-immolation on behalf of the dead
is chiefly confined to the women kind> The reasons are obvious:
— as a son, a man was never entitled by any moral law to
destroy himself, his highest duty being to preserve his body for
the perpetuation of his family and the maintenance of the ancestral
worship; and, as a husband or a father, a man could never become
the slave or property of his vrife or child.
Generally, self-destruction on behalf of the dead is denoted in the
books by the character ^, which, as stated on page 723, is constantly
used in ancient and modem works to express the burial of living
people with the dead. This fact of itself alone clearly sets forth the
intimate connection between the two subjects; and the circumstance
that, in many recorded cases, suttees first requested to be placed with
the object of their devotion in the same tomb , serves to confirm the
same. Many were even placed in the same coffin. We read further-
more of suttees hanging, starving, or otherwise killing themselves
on the grave of their parents, husbands, or parents-in-law, or im-
molating themselves there by swallowing the earth of the tumulus;
and we have come across instances of women who, after having
thrown themselves into the grave pit at the burial and being
^y
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736 THE GRAYB.
dragged out of it by the attendants, have taken their own lives.
The manner of committing self-destruction has always varied
considerably. By far the greater number of victims are reported to
have simply hung themselves, or cut their own throats, starved or
drowned themselves; it is, however, recorded of a great number
of women that they took poison , threw themselves down from some
high building or into an abyss, or asphyxiated themselves in a
well, or even a privy. We read frequently of one suicide entailing
others, as when devout wives were voluntarily followed to death
by their women slaves. Many d^troyed their children's lives along
with their own; some took their own lives while holding the soul
tablet of their deceased husband in their hands , or strangled them-
selves with the remnants of the linen used to swathe his corpse,
or accomplished the deed in the temple devoted to the worship of
their ancestors, or at the side of the coffined or uncoffined corpse.
It is stated in many instances that the suttee formally invoked her
ancestors beforehand, praying them to gracefully receive her soul,
and that she donned her best clothes, in order to appear before
them neat and tidy in the next world (comp. page 702).
The deliberateness thus displayed in thousands of cases, is a proof
that suicide was far from being always provoked by unreasoning
grief, or by a sudden fit of despair, or by the fear that dire
poverty would be the woman's future fate. Otherwise, numerous
acts of self-destruction, now on record, would certainly not have
been so faithfully committed to paper by historians and chroniclers
as deeds worthy of the highest praise of the nation. That suttees\
were accustomed to pre-meditate the act, is no less obvious from the/
fact that a very great number are stated not to have taken their lives
until they had properly conducted the dressing , coffining and burial ■
of the defunct for whose sake they intended to throw away theii<
lives. Sometimes they waited till the funeral was completed, and even
observed the three years' mourning to the end. The books extol
in numerous cases suttees who did not take their lives until they
had, in strict accordance with the laws of filial devotion, provided
for their parents or husband's parents to the end of their days.
Sutteeism performed by fire, as in India, can never have
flourished in China to any great extent, where cremation of the
dead has never been practised otherwise than exceptionally. Still,
instances of it are found in native books, and some are interesting
enough to deserve reproduction. » In the seventeenth year of the
»Chi yuen period (A. D. 1351), -Ch'en Tiao-yen revolted, a,nd
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8UTTEEI8M BY FIRE. 737
» attacked Chang-cheu (in the province of Fuhkien). Khan Wen-
» hing placed himself at the head of some troops and gave him
» battle , but perished in the engagement. Madam Wang (his wife)
y> consequently fell into the hands of the rebels , but proved herself
»a dutiful wife, unwilling to yield to violation. She deceived
» the rebels by saying : *If you will have patience with me until
» I have buried my husband , I will do what you desire'. To this
y> they assented ; the lady fetched the corpse , carried it home upon
»her back, and raised a pile of fuel, which she set on fire. When
»it was in a blaze of fire, she cast herself into the flames, and
» perished" '. — » Madam Pan Miao, the wife of Su Yun-jang, dwelt
» upon the northern slope of mount Yuen. In the nineteenth year of
»the period Chi ching (A. D. 1359), herself and her husband
» with the father of the latter fled before the soldiery. In a certain
» valley her father-in-law was taken prisoner. Her husband, burst-
»ing into tears, rushed to his rescue and succeeded in effecting
» the old man's escape , but not without being himself killed by
»the soldiers. The latter then prepared to violate Madam Pan by
» force; but she misled them by saying: 'As my husband is now
»dead, I do not in the least object to submit to your will>
» provided you will only bum his corpse, that I may no longer
»have near me an object which causes me sorrow. Mistrusting
»not her words, the soldiers gathered fuel to bum her husband;
» and when the fire flamed up she alternately wept and harangued
» the dead , then threw herself into the fire , and perished" *.
W^^Z, ifCJ^^iH !^1SL*X^ ^.History of the Yuen Dy-
nasty, chapter 200, 1. 3. Also j»The Memoirs of Chang-cheu-fu" |^ Wj Ijfip ^,
chapter 24, 1. 30.
^^z.mw^^^^.!KWcm^^M.^&Rm.
^ © !/C JSi 3^* H^^'T ®^ *^® ^^^^ Dynasty, chapter 201, 11. 8 and 9.
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738 THE GRAVE.
The following case of Sutteeism by fire, likewise dating from
the first half of the fourteenth century, is stated to have occurred
in Jao-cheu-fu S a department of the province of Kiangsi. » Madam
»Tung, the wife of one "Fan Yiu, was a beautiful woman. During
» the revolt of the Red Headkerchiefs her husband with his parents
» and brothers all perished , and it was she who buried them. She
» thereupon returned to her paternal home in Liang-shan ; but
» there a cuirassier frequently came to her house, with the object
» of depriving her of her chastity. * The defunct members of my
» family', she said, *have fulfilled their duties and never disgraced
» themselves; if you, headman, decidedly desire to possess me,
» then select an auspicious day for the celebration of the wed-
»ding, and I will not object'. At that time, the unburied
;* coffin with her mother's corpse stood in the principal room of
/>her house. The next day, after she had performed the sacrifice
»to the manes of the defunct, she piled up fuel around the cof-
»fin, kindled it, and thus set fire to the house. While the flames
» were blazing up , she wailingly exclaimed : 'Under these azure
» heavens there was no room for my kinsfolk to live; on this vast
» earth there is no place to contain me ; — there being neither room
»nor place for us, I intrust myself to these flames, to follow them'.
» Taking her two daughters by the hand, she leapt with them
»into the glowing fire, and perished" ^ To quote one instance
more, from the time of the Ming dynasty: » Madam Kao, a
» native of Kia-ting, was the wife of Tih 0-sien. One month after
» the consummation of their marriage , her husband had a severe
» abscess, and died. The widow, her arms clasped around the corpse,
» wailed most piteously for three days. As her family belonged to
# ^ . ^ ^ ^ — ^ ^ A ^!l !lSS ^- »''^« Memoirs of the Depart-
ment of Jao-cheu" ^k JJJ ^ ^ , ap. Ku kin fu shu Uih ch'ing, section ^j
chapter 47.
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SUTTEBISM BY PIBE. 739
»the indigent class, the corpse was burnt. When the pyre was
y> burning fiercely, she leapt into the flames ; but her mother-in-law
» rushed to her rescue and dragged her back. Annoyed at thus
» being prevented from following her husband into death, she hastily
» chewed up and swallowed his bones, and that same evening
»hung herself " ^ This case occurred in Su-cheu-fu, a department
of the province of Kiangsu, where, as will be found in Chapter
XVI, cremation was for a time more generally practised than
anywhere else in China.
Almost on a par with these and similar cases of Sutteeism by fire
are those of women who have thrown themselves into a fire which
had been kindled to bum up the clothes and other possessions
of the dead, in the hope of thus reaching, through flames and
smoke, the defunct in the next world, together with these articles.
We read of one 0-nan *, a woman of T^ai-hwo ^ in Yunnan province :
»In the period Yuen fung (110 — 105 B.C.) her husband was
» killed by Kwoh Shi-chung, a lieutenant general of the Han
V dynasty. This man desired her for his wife, but she said: 'Will
»you grant me three things? In the first place, let me make a
» tent and sacrifice therein to my deceased husband ; then let me
» bum all his clothes and replace them by new ones provided
» by yourself; and finally, inform all the people of this country
» that I am going to be re-married with the observance of the
» proper rites'. The general assented, and assembled the inhabitants
» of the country on the spot on the 25th. day of the sixth month.
» A tent of pine wood was erected , a fire kindled in it , and
» 0-nan with a drawn sword came forth from it , to let the fire
» blaze up high and fierce. She now cast her husband's garments
»into the flames, ripped up her own body with the sword, and
» fell down upon the fire. Henceforth , to show their sympathy for
» her, the people annually on the same day assembled on the spot
» with burning torches , to appease her manes. Afterwards they called
^ ^ ^^^' '''^^® Memoirs of the Department of Su-cheu" ^ JW Jf^
J^, ap, Ku kin Cu shu isih chHng ^ section S9 j|©, chapter 54.
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740 THE QRAYE.
» this the time of the return of the stars" *. We cannot unreservedly
attach historical value to this episode. It savours strongly of a
mere legend , invented to • account for the existence of an old
popular fire-feast or light-festival of unknown origin, evidently
connected with star-worship. More trust may be placed in the
following statement relating to Wen-ming *, the consort of Wen-
ching, the fourth monarch of the Wei dynasty: » When this sove-
» reign had died , his imperial robes , effects and requisites were all
» burnt three days afterwards , in conformity with a custom observed of
y> old at Great Funerals in the Empire. The whole body of oflScers
»and all the inmates of the inner palace attended this rite, wailing
»and weeping. The empress, calling to the defunct in a heart-
» rending tone of voice, jumped into the fire, but was saved by
»the bystanders; yet it lasted long before she resumed conscious-
» ness" *. Such cases are also recorded as having occurred among
the people. We read that during the Ming dynasty, » Madam Chang,
» the wife of Muh-yin who had married her when she was nineteen
» years old, lost him in the next year, and, while burning the
» clothes which the defunct had formerly worn, she suddenly cast
» herself into the glowing flames. She was , however , saved from
» them. When the coffin was closed , she desired to be placed in
»it with the dead, but was prevented from executing her purpose.
» Upon this , she abstained from food and died after a lapse of ten
»days, standing against the coffin. The case having been reported
W.M:kM=:^-i'm,BmmAom^m.R!K^T.
A ^1^ M HI 0 • "The General Memoirs of Yunnan" ^ ^ Hi ;^,
ap. Ku kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing, section ^S j^, chapter 45.
Realm, chapter 13, 1. lO; also the Books of the Wei Dynasty, chapter 13, 1. 6.
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THE 8UTTEEI8M OF AFFIANCED BRIDES. 741
;^to the Throne, a public mark of distinction was conferred upon
» her" \
Promises of marriage, generally made in China by the nearest re-
latives of the parties concerned in their capacity of chu-hwun (see
page 615), have apparently always been considered as strictly bind-
ing covenants, especially when ratified by the payment of the be-
trothal money and the customary presents to the family of the bride.
A maiden, affianced in this manner, must accordingly consider
herself as fully the property of her betrothed and his parents, as
if the marriage had been already solemnized and consummated. As
a consequence , we find in the books many instances of brides having
taken their own lives on the death of their affianced husbands.
This class of suicides is very old. We read that, during the Han
dynasty, » the woman Li N. N., daughter of the denizen li Ching-
»ying, was promised in marriage to a son of the family Nieh.
»Thi8 man died a violent death, upon which the girl, on being
» apprized of the event, was overwhelmed by grief, and subsequently
» hanged herself"*. There may be older cases on record, but we
do not know of them.
It is perfectly natural that the duty of accompanying near
relations into the life hereafter should push itself into the fore-
ground when they perish by a fatal accident or suffer a violent
death; commiseration with their sad fate then in unison with self-
sacrificing attachment prompts one to suicide. In fact we find a
very great number of women mentioned in the records, who
killed themselves when their parents, parents-in-law or husbands
had been butchered by robbers or rebels, had been drowned,
had perished in a conflagration or in consequence of some other
incident. One of the earliest and most illustrative instances of
this sort is that of »the filial maid Ts^'ao Ngo, a native of
moirs of the Department of Sung-kiang" jj^ J^J^ iSp J^ , ap. Ku kin Vu shu tsih
cKing^ section S9 f©, chapter 62.
icKiM|^»|giSS^-»The General Memoii-s of Sz6chwen» ^ )\\
jjtt ^, ap, Ku kin Cu shu tsih cKing, section SS jj^, chapter 45.
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742 THE QUAVE.
;«>Shang-yu in Hwui-khi (province of Chehkiang). Her father, who
» bore the name of Hii , a man versed in the art of evoking and
» invoking spirits by means of songs accompanied by the music of
» stringed instruments, on the fifth day of the fifth month in the second
»year of the Han ngan period (A. D. 143) braved the waves of
» the river in his district , in order to meet a certain dancing spirit;
» but he was drowned. His corpse not being recovered , Ngo , then
» fourteen years old, ran up and down along the bank of the river,
» howling and wailing incessantly by day and by night. After seven-
»teen days she jumped into the river, and found her death in the
» waters" *. We place this episode before our readers especially with
a view to the £Eict that a large number of similar suicides, com-
mitted under like circumstances, occur in the books of subsequent
ages, so that we may consider Ts^o Ngo*s example, ever extolled
to the skies by moralists and the public, as having stimulated the
fair sex of her nation to constant imitation.
Quite on a par with this peculiar aquatic Sutteeism of Ts^ao
Ngo stand the cases, no less numerous, of persons who have thrown
themselves into burning houses whence their parents, husbands or
parents-in-law were unable to escape, in order to perish in the
flames along with them. But, however highly such noble deeds
have been appreciated by writers and moralists of all times, they
have not been applauded one wit more than the behaviour of the many
dutiful children, wives or daughters-in-law, who have immolated
themselves in the flames or in the waves which destroyed the un-
buried corpse of the object of their devotion. Such self-sacrifices are
characteristic enough to justify our giving a couple of instances fix)m
the native literature. In the first century of our era, »Ts'ai Shim,
y> also named Kiiin-chung , enjoyed a great reputation for his very
» filial devotion. He was still young when he lost his father, but
» even then he could provide for the subsistence of his mother.
» Her life was cut short when she reached her ninetieth year. Be-
» fore her son could commit her to the earth, a conflagration broke
»out in the village. The fire menacing his hut with destruction.
Dynasty chapter 144, 1. 44.
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r
SOME CURIOUS CASES OF SELF-IMMOLATION. 743
y> he threw himself upon the coffin , clasping his arms around
»it, and wailingly cried to Heaven. The fire passed by, burning
»down the houses and dwellings around, and sparing his alone" i.
About five centuries later, a certain grandee of the name of Yuen
Ang^, » having lost the mother who had given birth to him, re-
» signed his office, in order to convey the deceased to his native
» place. While travelling on the river, a gale arose, which swept up
>the waves. By means of his clothes Ang tied himself to the
» coffin , taking an oath that he would allow himself to be swal-
» lowed up with it by the waters; and when the wind had gone
» down all the other ships had sunk , except his own , which alone
» escaped. Every one ascribed this to his sincere piety" ^. — »Madam
»Lu was the wife of Ch^'en Wen-hien. In the thirty-eighth year
»of the period Kia tsing (A. D. 1559) her neighbour's house
» caught fire, and the flames reached hers. The encoffined body
»of her mother-in-law stood in the principal apartment. With
y> marks of deep affiiction she caressed it, swearing she would suffer
» herself to be burnt along with it; and contrary to all expectation
» the fire took a turn the other way, devouring the houses already
y> attacked , but doing no further damage. The people believed this
»to have been caused by the influence of her hiao"*.
These examples, of which we could easily multiply the number,
shed light on the popular ideas concerning the attitude which the in-
:^ ^B , Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 69, 1. 45.
^ ^;f He JI& ^ ^ . i^ ii ^ Hit ^;f i^ • ^'''^ of »'"' I^°« Dynasty,
chapter 31, J. 2.
of the District of Nan-tsing" ]^ j^ ^ ^ , ap, Ku kin Cu shu tsih chHng, section
, chapter 33.
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744 THE GRAYS.
visible powers adopt in respect of Sutteeism. Those powers, it is
believed, regard with special favour such fanatic devotion .towards
the highest authorities in the family, and even work miracles in
its behalf by disarming the elements; consequently, the hiao is
no less sacred in the eyes of the gods than it is in those of men.
It is scarcely necessary to add that the instances quoted will be
better understood when considered in the light of the prevailing
notions about the cohabitation of soul and body after death , notions
which have already been treated of at length in this work.
We have seen that Sutteeism in China occurs under a variety
of circumstances, which readily allow of being divided into classes.
The most numerous class is that which comprises the suicides perpe-
trated by widows wishing to escape the chance of being re-married
or of being in some other way deprived of their chastity. Indeed,
being the property of her husband even after his death , a widow of
good principles cannot but consider it an act of the highest injustice
towards his manes, nay, of theft, to surrender herself up to another;
neither may she encroach upon her husband's ownership by allow-
ing herself to be stained, and so rejoin him in the life hereafter in
a state less pure than that in which he had left her behind. These
considerations are obviously very old, being traceable to a certain
tribe, referred to by Mih-tszg and by the work called LieA-tsz^,
which was in the habit of casting out many a widowed wife into
the wilderness, because she was now wife to a spirit (see page 680),
treating her in fact as the Chinese of the present day generally do
the inanimate personal effects of the deceased (see page 700).
Every dynastic period has produced a very large number of women
who, falling into the hands of robbers and rebels, preferred death
to violation or abduction as wives or concubines. They broke their
heads against rocks, trees, walls, or against the ground, threw
themselves into abysses and rivers, or into houses set on fire by
the robbers, or killed themselves by any means that offered; most
of them, however, met their death vehemently scolding and
calling down curses on the heads of the murderers of their
husbands, and were despatched at once, to put an end to their
railing. Two instances reproduced on page 737 belong to this
class. No less numerous are the cases of self-destruction in times
of peace and quiet committed by devout widows in order to
escape a second marriage. Already during the Cheu dynasty the
moral law forced widows to remain single for the rest of their
lives, as we read in the Li M (ch. 88, 1. 11): »To keep her word
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SUTTEEISM OP WIDOWED WIVES AND BRIDES. 745
»i8 also a virtue in woman. Once mated with her husband, she
» remains so for her whole life, and therefore she may not marry
» again after her husband's death" ^. The episode of Han Fing
(see pages 470 and 471), if it is based on a real event, proves that
already in the fourth century before our era Chinese women were
perfectly aware that it was their duty to follow their husbands into
the grave, rather than to wrong them in their matrimonial rights.
Some episodes of a similar sort are recorded as having taken place in
the same early period, in the » Traditions about Sundry Women"*,
a work attributed to Liu Hiang, the statesman and scholar with
whom our readers have made acquaintance on page 433 ; but these
savour too much of the legendary to call for much attention.
Since the beginning of our era , cases of widows destroying them-
selves in order to avoid being re-married, appear in the books
in gradually increasing numbers. Evidently, from that time forth,
the maxim, now-a-days generally received as gospel, viz: »As a
faithful minister does not serve two lords, neither may a faithful
woman marry a second husband"^, has been a predominant prin-
ciple of life. The astounding number of instances of such Sutteeism
are regularly interspersed with others of betrothed girls, who took
their lives to preserve their chastity on behalf of deceased future
husbands with whom they had never enjoyed the pleasures of matri-
monial life, nay, whose faces they had never yet beheld. Such self-
destruction of wives and brides, and in general all other kinds of
Sutteeism mentioned in this chapter, have always been greatly en-
couraged by public opinion. Moralists vied with each other in ex-
tolling such women to the skies. Liu Hiang in the first century
before our era recorded in his above-mentioned Traditions a great
number of instances for the edification of the nation, and Hwang-fu
Mih (see page 415) three centuries afterwards did so too in a treatise
ever since current under the same title. Imperial historiographers
since the Han dynasty have never ceased to perpetuate the memory
of many such heroic women in the Standard Histories in separate
chapters, entitled: » Traditions about Filial and Dutiful Persons"* or
;^ Traditions concerning Sundry Women"*, and local chroniclers have
4d
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746 THE GRAVE.
exercised still greater influence, by continually holding up Sutteeism
to public admiration by noting down many hundreds and hundreds
of cases in the so-called » Memoirs" \ which are separate accounts
for each province, department or district, forming voluminous the-
sauri of topographical, historical and statistical data of great value
and interest, well deserving the attention of the foreign student. But
this is not all. In all ages suttee temples have been erected by the
people and the mandarinate^ and the manes, thus properly sheltered,
have been worshipped as local idols; nay, the greatest distinction that
can be conferred on mortal man in China , viz. rewards and honours
from the Son of Heaven himself, have been bestowed upon many
suttees. We read of imperial emissjiries being commissioned to wor-
ship the suttee woman in her house or upon her tomb, or to hand
over to her family a pecuniary subvention for defraying the expenses
of her burial and the mourning ceremonies. But sitce the fifth century
it has become more especially customary for emperors to glorify sut-
teeites by conferring upon them an honorary inscription, to be written
or engraved upon a tablet suspended over the door of their dwelling
or the gate of their village; and from this arose the custom of erecting
special gates for the exhibition of such tablets (see PI. XV). This
imperial method of publicly commemorating pre-eminent conjugal
devotion will be treated of more in detail on pages 769 ef aqq.
No wonder that, prompted by such powerful incentives, Sutteeism
has always been in high favour with the people. The family being
considered in China as the foster-mother of every good or bad act
perfornjied by its members, and consequently as sharing in the merits
or demerits thereof, the honour of obtaining the aforesaid laurels was
eagerly sought after by each family or clan. Hence the fact is not sur-
prising that the recorded cases of Sutteeism are constantly increasing
from age to age. Under the Yuen dynasty and that of Ming they reach
their maximum. A collection of those that occurred during the rule
of the last-named family of sovereigns embraces in the Ku kin l^u
sAu tsih chHng no less than forty-five chapters *, and doubtless large
numbers of cases have never found their way into the books. When
the present dynasty ascended the throne, matters continued in just
the same way, as is proved by the numerous cases recorded in the
Memoirs of provinces, departments and districts. Matters finally
became so bad that the emperor Shi Tsung' in 1729 found him-
self obliged to check Sutteeism by publicly decreeing that he would
1 ;g. 2 In the section g jg, chapters 50-94. ^ -[g; ^.
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PI XV.
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SUTTEBT8M OF WIDOWED WIVES AND BRIDES. 747
no longer confer honours upon its victims. An edict which he
issued to this effect, contained the following passages*.
»That a woman should cleave to one husband during her life
y> and not marry again is the admitted doctrine of the Empire ; but
» in so doing there is a great difference between the chaste widow
^and the suttee. The suttee on her husband's death fearlessly fol-
»lows him into the grave, and though her lot may be hard, harder
» indeed is that of the chaste. The suttee has no further trouble to
» bear, but the widow endures troubles for years; the one sacrifices
» her life to escape hardships , the other bears up against them
» with fortitude. Nor are the motives of the suttee for sacrificing
»her life always the same: sometimes it is fear of poverty or
y> inability to provide for herself; or in her intense grief no thought
)>is given to the future, so that she forgets that after her husband's
» death the duties of a wife become two-fold greater. Farthest from
y> her are the aged parents of her husband , whom she should nurse
» and care for on behalf of their son ; nearest to her are his children
»who must be taught and instructed as the father would wish;
» besides there are household duties too many for enumeration. Can
»it now for an instant be said that, after a husband's death, all
»the wife's responsibilities are ended?
»For this reason, distinctions of honour for widows are men-
»tioned in the Canonical Laws, but nothing is said of the suttee.
» The folly of sutteeism is on a parallel with that of cutting out
» one's liver ^, and supposing that such examples were to encou-
»rage others to a reckless destruction of their lives. We should
» be greatly grieved. As no law against conferring tablets has
thitherto been promulgated, We accordingly issue this decree.
»Let the magistracy distribute it throughout the Empire and to
» every hamlet , that the ignorant may learn true filiality and widows
y> be taught that it is their duty to preserve their lives. K after
»the issue of this decree people still continue the practice. We
)> shall confer no distinction of honor; their families shall increase,
» and the feelings of the people be roused to discontinue this practice" *.
In spite of this edict, and though it may have been followed
by others of subsequent monarchs , Sutteeism of widowed wives and
brides has continued to flourish in China down to this day. Now
1 To give it to one's sick parents or husband's parents to eat as a medicine.
2 Notes and Queries on China and Japan, II, page 4. Not having been able to
find the Chinese text of this decree, we copy from this periodical the translation,
ivithout guaranteeing its correctness.
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748 THE QRAVE.
as ever it meets with the same public applause ; the aureola which
covers the victim and her family is as eagerly coveted as it was in
former ages. Hence, no doubt, many a woman is prevailed upon,
nay compelled, by her own relations to become a suttee. There are
but few Chinamen who cannot relate some case which has occurred
of late years in their neighbourhood. In October 1886 an instance
occurred at less than fifty paces from our own house in the
island of Kulangsu, opposite Amoy: a secretary of the Taotai's
deputy for the administration of matters relating to the intercourse
with foreigners having died, his wife drowned herself in the well
of her house, and a few days afterwards we witnessed the trans-
portation of the two coffins to a steamer which was to take them
to the dead man's place of birth.
The modes in which suttees despatch themselves seem to be much
the same as in former ages. Some drown, hang or strangle them-
selves; the greater number, however, take poison, mostly opium,
which is within everybody's reach, and lie down by the side oi
their husband's corpse , to die. But the height of fashion is attained
when the bereaved wife, concubine or bride hangs herself in public.
Such a suicide entails so much expense that only rich families can
afford it. Indeed, in order that it may have the intended effect,
that is to say, bring glory and fame to the family concerned by
being officially reported to the Throne and rewarded with an ho-
norary tablet or gate, it is requisite that the high local authorities
should be fully interested in the case and honour the suicide with
their presence. Such a condescension on their part must be purchased
by presents, and these can only reach them by the intervention
of very notable and influential persons, whose services must be
dearly paid for, or acknowledged by expensive attentions. The
rules of etiquette require that the direction of the affair should
forthwith devolve upon the highest mandarin who promises to
attend, and it is he who fixes for the ceremony a day and an hour
which suit him best. The date is announced to the community
by placards posted up all around , which carefully state the names
of the two families, the ward and the street.
Pending the arrival of the great day, the principal actress in
the drama dons her finest garments and, seated in a palankeen,
makes a round of calls on her family, friends and acquaintances,
allowing them to regale her sumptuously. She is much congratulated
by all, and extolled to the skies. By order of the authorities, but
at the expense of the family, a platform is raised in due time on
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SUICIDES COBiMITTED BY WIDOWS IN PUBUC. 749
the chosen spot, and beautifully decorated with flowery canvass and
lanterns. Each mandarin who arrives at this place with his usual
escort of underlings, is received with the customary honours due
to his dignity. Forthwith kneeling down, he knocks his head a
few times against the ground before the suttee who, seated on a
chair upon or near the platform in her choicest costume which she
desires to wear in the grave and in the Realm of Shades, receives
motionlessly this highest homage ever paid in China by proxies of
the Son of Heaven to commoners.
When all are assembled and tea and dainties have been served,
the highest mandarin present gives the signal for the woman to
ascend the platform. In a few moments she adjusts the fatal noose
around her neck, and launches herself into eternity by kicking away
a stool upon which she stands; the mandarins then leave, and the
large crowd of spectators, attracted by the scene, disperse. A number
of notables from the environs, who have arrived in palankeens to
shed lustre over the heroic suicide by their presence, throng round
the family to offer their congratulations, flattering them about the
imperial distinctions of honour which are to be expected. Many of
these notables, and also the mandarins, are afterwards presented with
money sent them by the family, which is not only to serve as a mark
of gratitude for their having honoured the ceremony by their presence,
but also to indemnify them for their outlay for palankeen-bearers
and attendants. And during several days these worthies are in turn
invited to festive repasts, which more than anything else helps to
drain the coffers of the family. But what does this matter, seeing they
have covered themselves with feme and glory for good and ever?
Although by no means of everyday occurrence, these public
suicides are not at all rare. Doolittle * mentions a young widow who
publicly hanged herself in Fuh-cheu-fu, the capital of Fuhkien,
about I860; and towards the end of 1879 the foreign newspapers
reported a similar suicide, which had taken place in November
under the eyes of a crowd of friends and admirers in a village near
Pagode Anchorage, the roadstead for foreign ships which call at
Fuh-cheu-fu. That the authorities do not refrain from honouring
such scenes by their presence , is a proof that the self-destruction of
devout vridows still enjoys the official approbation of the Govern-
ment. It is even sometimes rewarded with Imperial honours. These
are the same as have been in vogue for many ages, viz. the
1 The Social Life of the Chinese, chapter III.
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750 THE GRAVE.
permission to have an honorary inscription over the lintel of the
dwelling, and to erect a gate somewhere in the neighbourhood,
for the special purpose of displaying that inscription publicly. In
most cases it is composed of the two characters ^ J{(, »The ardour
of chastity", or J^ ^, »The ardour of fidelity or attachment".
Suttees who are honoured with such glorious marks of Imperial
approbation may also be awarded a place in special temples which, in
obedience to the Statutory Ordinances of the Empire, are erected
under the care of the authorities in the capital of each province,
department and district for the special worship of wives and girls
who have excelled in chastity and filial conduct. In these so-called
» Temples for the Chaste and Filial" * each woman is represented by
a tablet inscribed with her name , titles , and such other particulars
as her family deem fit to engrave upon it; like the ordinary
soul tablets made for the dead , it is considered virtually to harbour
the manes. Such an edifice of the State is generally located in the
proiimity of the temple dedicated to the worship of Confucius and
his disciples. Twice every year, viz. in the second and eighth
months which are the middle of spring and autumn, on the first
day denoted by the cyclical character ting (comp. page 103), the
authorities are bound by the duties of their oflRce to make to all
those tablets a sacrifice of a goat , a pig and sundry other things
prescribed by the official rescripts. To this end they dispatch an emis-
sary to the temple, who finds everything properly arranged under
the care of the keeper or custodian in front of the open tabernacles
which contain the tablets , and he presents the articles to the souls ,
offering incense, making a prescribed number of prostrations, and
reciting a sacrificial prayer. Being qualified to such honours, the
women represented by those tablets stand on a par with the divinities
of the State. To render them greater honour still, their names are
all engraved upon one or more honorary gates, built, in obedience
to the Statutory Ordinances, under the auspices of the mandarins on
the premises or in the environs of the temple , sometimes , however ,
a good way off, in an open place where they stand conspicuous.
On both facades these monuments bear over the lintel the
inscription fjf :^, »For Chastity and Filial Conduct", and they
are accordingly denoted , both in speech and writing , by the term :
» Honorary Gates for Chastity and Filial Behaviour" *.
^W^M' ^W^^-
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OFFICIAL HONOURS CONFEEEED UPON SUTTEES. 751
To such distinctions suttees are, in theory, only admitted under
considerable restrictions. The Ta TsHnff hwui Hen has : » Any case of
»a married or unmarried woman who, in times of brigandage or
» rebellion , has perished to save her chastity, may, even though the
» event occurred long ago , be taken up when it has been duly in-
» vestigated apd verified , and a request may be made , that money
» be awarded for the erection of an honorary gate. If there no longer
» exist any members of her family, the authorities themselves shall
» build the gate in front of her grave , and erect a tablet for her
»in the Temple for the Chaste and Filial — When a married
y> or unmarried woman has met her death in consequence of her
» refusing to yield to forcible violation, or has taken her own life
» because she was insulted , both the Board of Punishments and the
» Board of Rites shall, in case the woman was never married a
» second time , apply for the Imperial permission to erect an honorary
»gate for her in accordance with the existing ordinances. But if,
» unawares falling a victim to violence, she has been defiled or
» maltreated, or has been wounded after being defiled, and has then
»cast away her own life, the subsidy awarded for honorary gates
» shall in her case be reduced by the half, and no tablet shall be
» erected for her in the Temple.
»In case a chaste widow has perished because her family
» compelled her to re-marry, public marks of distinction shall be
» awarded her in accordance with the existing ordinances. If it
» were the parents of her (deceased) husband who compelled her,
» (not they , but) another elder of the family shall be appointed to
» receive the subvention granted for her honorary gate, and to see
»to its erection \
» Filial sons who injure their lives by cutting flesh from their
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752 THB GRAVE.
» own thigh (and giving it to their sick parents to eat as a medi-
» cine) , and ardent wives who , on the death of their husbands ,
» preserve their chastity by suddenly taking their lives without being
» forced to such a step , are not awarded a public mark of distinc-
» tion by the existing ordinances.
y> In every province, the cases must be put into writing by order
» of the Grovernor General and the Governor, in conjunction with the
» Literary Chancellor, and the necessary documents be forwarded
» to the Board (of Rites) for investigation. And if a petition be
» presented direct to this Board , it must be forwarded for examina-
» tion to the Governor General and the Governor of the province
» (in which the case has occurred) , in order that these authorities
y> may report upon it to the Board , after due enquiries into the facts
» and circumstances. After the request has been granted , the local
» oflScers are charged to pay out thirty taels of silver for the erection of
» a gate. If the parties concerned are awarded a board with a verse
» or inscription bestowed by His Majesty, a piece of silk cloth shall
» be hung over it , and it shall be delivered thus by the Imperial
» Chancery (Nei koh) to the Board, which will then despatch it
y> by Courier-post to the Governor General or the Governor of the
» province for transmission to the local oflRcers, by whom it is to
» be handed to the family for which it is destined" ^
To understand these regulations aright, it is necessary to know
that not only female chastity on behalf of a deceased or still living
husband is thus officially encouraged. Chastity for its own sake,
when defended by a woman at the expense of her life, meets
with an equal reward at the hands of the Government. »If a wo-
»man", thus the Ordinances run, »be compelled by her husband
» to prostitute herself for money , and takes her own life in order
j^b ^ 1^ ^ ^ . See the 3rd. chapter of the Wu hioh luh ^ ^ ^, or
» Record of my Studies". This is a useful work on the ordinances and statutes of
the reigning dynasty, illustrated by historical and explanatory notes. It was published
in 1832 by Wu Yung-kwang ^ fi| ^ , a Governor General of Hukwang province.
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HONOURS CONFERRED UPON THE CHASTE WHO COMMIT SUICIDE. 763
» to preserve her chastity, or if an unmarried virgin loses her life in
» defending herself against violation, an honorary gate shall be erected
» in each case near the door of the paternal dwelling. When a woman
» slave or slave girl, or a Buddhist or Taoist nun, dies in defending
» herself against violation , an honorary gate shall be erected in front
» of her grave, but no tablet shall be set up for her in the Temple" \
In spite of the above rescripts, the road leading to such oflRcial laurels
is by no means open to people of all classes. The mandarins usually
turn a deaf ear to petitioners, unless they are their own colleagues,
or persons who have bought ah official dignity or title, or members
of the highly privileged class of men who have won a degree at
the competitive literary examinations of the State, which open the
way to official posts; or, unless the sweet tone of the petition be
accompanied by the still sweeter sound of silver coin. The much
coveted honour therefore lies beyond the reach of the lower class.
They must wait patiently until a later generation of their family
happens to produce a rich or distinguished man who, anxious to
fulfil the ancient classical duty of glorifying one's ancestry, will take
the matter up; or until some newly appointed Provincial Governor,
desirous of promoting in his province the cultivation of the chief of
female virtues, be pleased to announce publicly that any one may
now apply gratuitously for the honours in question. At times, the pre-
sentation of such requests is facilitated in another wise. In 1888 the
directors of the Yuh p^'ing college* in Amoy, high literary gradu-
ates of great influence, distributed printed notifications, stating that
they volunteered to receive applications, to draw up petitions in the
form required and to place them before the authorities, all this
gratuitously. It is not improbable that measures like these are fre-
quently taken in the Empire, for such colleges or shu-yuen*,
which serve to encourage literary studies by affording the educated
citizens from time to time an opportunity of competing for pecuniary
rewards by making compositions , exist in every city and every town.
# > ^ J^ )i^ ft 19! 'fe • The same work, loc. cit.
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764 THE GRAVE.
Both in written style and in speech, suttees are generally denoted
by the terms: » Wives or girls who manifest the ardour of chastity" \
» Wives or maidens manifesting ardour of self-sacrificing attachment" *
and » Wives or girls of ardent fidelity" *. Frequently these expressions
are abridged to » Wives or virgins displaying ardour" *. Another term
is : » Self-destroying chaste wives or maidens" *, besides some others
of less frequent usage.
No doubt the self-destruction of widows and aflSanced girls when
there is no danger of their being bereft of their chastity, has greatly
decreased since the enactment of the rescript , reproduced on page 752 ,
that no official distinctions shall be awarded to such suttees. The
Statutory Ordinances still further discourage suicide by granting
just the same honours to widowed wives, concubines and brides
who, instead of destroying themselves, simply abjure matrimonial
life for good. By doing this, a woman more completely fulfils
everything the law of morals requires of her, than by directly
following her husband into the grave. Without deviating an inch
from the great duty that she should remain the undefiled property
of her defunct husband or bridegroom , she can devote herself in the
most perfect way to the service of his soul by faithfully sacrificing
to it food, drink, mock money and other necessities in the life
hereafter; at the same time she can take good care of his children,
and thereby ensure him a line of descendants who, as is hoped,
will offer similar sacrifices to his manes for ever. Besides, she may
during many years to come distinguish herself in serving her hus-
band's parents till they die, showing them the same implicit submis-
sion and devotion which children owe to their parents; for it is an
ancient social law, already laid down in the Li H (ch. 39, 1. 5), that »a
» woman shall serve her parents-in-law as if they were her own pa-
» rents" ^. This principle, referred to on page 561, naturally follows fix>m
the doctrine laid down on page 619, that a son's property belongs
to his parents , so that his wife , being a part thereof, is their slave.
The Imperial rescripts regulating the conferring of official honoure
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OFFICIAL HONOURS CONFERRED UPON CHASTE WIDOWS. 756
upon chaste widowed wives, concubines and brides who do not
destroy themselves, run as follows:
» Any wife or concubine who (after her husband's death) has
»from her thirtieth year, or from before that age, remained chaste
» until her fiftieth , or any such woman who , dying before her
» fiftieth year, has preserved her chastity during fifteen years ^, shall
» be granted a public distinction , if her filial conduct and sense of
»duty have both been perfect, or the hardship and misery which
»she has sustained have been such as to deserve commiseration.
» K she has kept herself chaste during the stated number of years
»with observance of her duties, a tablet bearing the inscription:
y> 'Signalized by the Ts^'ing dynasty by means of a vermilion {i, e.
» Imperial) pencil' shall be awarded as an ornament for the door-
» lintel of her house, and a commemorative stone engraved with her
»name shall, moreover, be erected in the Temple for the Chaste
»and Filial; but no soul tablet of her shall be placed therein,
» neither shall a subsidy be granted for an honorary gate" *. The
Wu hioh luh adds: )!> According to the regulations at present in
» force, thirty taels of silver must be paid in every department or
» district by the authorities for the erection of an honorary gate for
» all the chaste wives and girls of the locality who have been fre-
» quently recommended for public distinction" *.
» For unmarried women who have remained chaste (for the sake of
» their deceased bridegrooms) during the stated number of years ,
» the same regulations are valid as for chaste married wives. If the
» widow has until her death preserved her purity in the house of her
» husband (or bridegroom), a public distinction shall be bestowed
1 A note in the Ta Tsing luh li (chapter 10, I. 16) informs us that this period
was in 1824 reduced to ten years. In 1886 we were told hy several Chinese that
the legal period at that time was only six years; hut wo cannot vouch for the
correctness of their statement.
See Wu hioh luh, chapter 3, 1. 10.
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766 TBE GRAVE.
» upon her , also if she die before the number of years required
» by the Ordinances have elapsed.
» If an affianced couple by leading a wandering life before their
» marriage become separated from each other, and the woman remains
» chaste until they are united in marriage at an advanced age; a
» public distinction shall be awarded and an honorary gate erected ,
» displaying the inscription : ^Faithful and dutiful Family' " ^.
Similar regulations, whether or not officially enacted, doubtless
obtained under former dynasties; for in the Standard Histories and
Memoirs thousands of widows and brides are placed on record as
having gained such official laurels, after having given in the pre-
scribed way fiill testimony of their filial piety and dutifulness. Besides,
a great number are mentioned in those works without its being
stated whether they were rewarded in the same wise. All such
women are generally denoted by the terms » Women or maids of
self-sacrificing attachment"*, » Chaste wives or girls" ^ v Dutiful
vrives or girls" *, terms still in common use at the present day.
Among the instances recorded in the books, there are many of noble
females who, in order to avoid the danger of being married again,
disfigured or maimed themselves , as did the wife of Wei King-joi ,
mentioned on page 466. No small number took vows as Buddhist
nuns and retired into convents; this was even done by an imperial
concubine, named Ch^'en % married to Wu ® of the Posterior T^ang dy-
nasty: »As my body cannot be buried with you", she exclaimed beside
his death-bed (A. D. 923), »I will have my head shaven and become
a nun" ^. It is owing to the admission of the tablets of widowed
wives and brides who have devoted their lives to the service of their
H j!^^. m^^ A^Zf^^M' Wuhiohluh, churns,
U. 10 and H.
5 Hi- 6 1^.
' WC^ m)^^1^^. 0 ^^;;g IB,. O'd History oftheFive
Dynasties, chapter 49, 1. 3.
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THE DUTIES AxVD PRIVILEGES OP CHASTE WIDOWS. 757
parents-in-law, in the aforesaid temples, that these edifices and the
appurtenant honorary gates are, as stated on page 750, denominated
Temples and Gates for the Chaste and Filial.
As stated on page 621, it is very common, nay it is the rule
in China , for sons , when married , to remain settled in their paternal
home, or, at any rate, to occupy a dwelling in the neighbourhood,
which is then considered to form a dependance of the original family
seat. There also their widowed wives are required by custom to
stay. Indeed, a widow being the property of her husband's manes
and, moreover, of his parents, she has no right to remove else-
where, except with the full approval of the latter. Besides, the ancestors
of her husband having been accepted by her as her own on her mar-
riage, she must devote herself to their worship and to that of her
husband for ever, with all the devotion and ardour she is possessed
of; indeed , she must conform her conduct in this respect to that of
king Wu and his brother, the Prince of Cheu, the holy founders
of the Cheu dynasty, who were held up by Confucius as paragons
for all time, because »they carried their hiao to the highest pitch
» by serving their dead as they had served them when alive , and
» the departed as they would have served them had they still con-
» tinned among them" ^ On the other hand , the parents of the
widow cannot reclaim her , their power over her having been formally
transferred by themselves to her parents-in-law at her marriage, in
exchange for betrothal money and marriage presents.
It is scarcely necessary to say that many families are much
gratified by having among them a widow who steadfastly refuses
to marry again. Her resolution to live a life of chastity and of
filial devotion to her parents-in-law reflects great honour upon all
her relations and surrounds them with an aureola of so-called » door
fame or house reputation" * of which every Chinaman is extremely
sensible. She is treated with much more affability than the other
women in the house, and in this wise encouraged to persist in
her purpose; indeed, the family know perfectly well that, should
she change her mind and not live up to her original vow, they
would be greatly dishonoured and exposed to public ridicule.
Should she have borne the deceased no son, her parents-in-law
without loss of time adopt one for her, that he may provide for
^ *^^*^. %tl^%^. #:^ilifc.cAun^
1/ungr, XIX.
2 m B.
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758 THE 6BAVB.
her until death, assisting her also in the discharge of her sacrificial
duties. On her demise, it becomes incumbent upon this son to
worship her soul in conjunction with that of her husband, just
as if they had been the real authors of his being , i. e, , as the Chi-
nese express it, he » inherits the important charge" (see page 534) in
the capacity of Continuator of their line of posterity. As such he
must properly worship the whole line of his adoptive parents' an-
cestry and bequeath this religious duty on his death to his own
Continuator, and so on, through an endless series of generations.
A widow who survives her parents-in-law, generally finds her
maintenance secured by the legal portion of the patrimony which
appertained to her deceased husband, and this so-called » widow's
capital" * on her death devolves upon her sons or her adopted
Continuator.
Among the lower classes, chaste widows by no means experience
the same amount of encouragement in the circle of their kinsfolk
as among the rich. People who have to work hard for their
daily bread cannot afford the luxury of a » house reputation" at
the expense' of the sustenance of a drone in their hive. Apart from
this, they have no graduated or influential clansmen to do justice
to the case by trumpeting it abroad and so redeeming it from the
obUvion of the poorer quarters; nor can they expect that such a
work will be taken in hand by others, in a country where clan-
feUowship so strongly prevails as to cause every one to look upon
people not belonging to his clan, if not as enemies, at least as
strangers who do not concern him. To have a chaste widow living
among them would also be particulary undesirable for the poor
because of the anxiety they would constantly suffer, lest she should
prove unsteadfast to her purpose, grow weary of her poverty and
resolve to free herself from it by re-marrying, which would bring
down the derision of the whole ward upon her kinsfolk. No wonder
then that poor parents-in-law generally try to avoid these difl5culties
by prevailing upon the widow to take a second husband. Her second
marriage has, moreover, the advantage of enriching them with long
strings of copper coins or weighty pieces of silver, which betrothal
money either the new bridegroom or his family must pay them in
recognition of their relaxing the parental power.
In spite of the little sympathy shown them by their own kinsfolk ,
there are, as the Chinese generally aver^ in almost every town
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THE POSITION OP WIDOWS IN THEIR PAMUiY. 759
among the poorer classes a goodly number of widows who never
re-marry, but live alone in miserable huts, earning their own scanty
livelihood by embroidery and other kinds of needle-work. No doubt
the number would be greatly reduced did not corporations, or-
ganized on purpose to assist such noble devotees of conjugal fidelity,
allow them to apply at fixed times for a small gift in money or
food. Such charitable societies as a rule merely support a limited
number of widows, admitting new ones only when a vacancy occurs.
It is hardly necessary to say that such assistance barely suffices to
keep these poor women out of the clutches of hunger, in a country
where cold indifference and egotism rival each other for pre-eminence.
What wonder then that many a widow who has to maintain her-
self through life , if she has children at her charge, should some fine
day bid farewell to chastity, in order, as the exculpatory expression
runs, »to procure food for her children by calling in a husband
unto her" \
Only when imperial marks of distinction have been awarded them,
is any support granted by the authorities to chaste paragons of
female virtue. The Ta TaHnff hwui Hen states: »If among the chaste
»and filial women to whom a public distinction has been granted,
» there are one or two living in poverty who can hardly provide
»for themselves, orders shall be given to the Grovernor General and
» the Governor of the province to prescribe to the authorities of the
» department or district to which those women belong, to inquire
^into their condition and then to induce the neighbours and
)> clansmen, and also the administrative authorities, to unite and
» decide upon giving them an allowance of food , that they may
»be supported in providing for themselves and not be forced to
» give up their situation in life" *.
Among the better classes, a widow who re-marries seldom takes
her sons along with her to her second home. People are generally
too averse from weakening their family in its struggle for existence
by permitting any of its male members to secede firom it; besides,
grandparents would put their Veto on the matter, being so partial
^^fj\. Wu hioh luh, chapter 2, 1. 13.
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760 THE GRAVE.
to have around them as large a male issue as possible with a
view to the perpetuation of the ancestral worship, of which they
themselves hope to reap the advantages after death. Neither can
their power over their fatherless grandchildren be neutralized by the
widow's maternal rights. Though she is just as much the owner of
her children as her husband was , a child having to observe the same
measure of hiao and to wear the same mourning for both (see
page 550) , her rights fall far behind those of her husband's manes
which abide in his ancestral home upon the domestic altar, and
consequently are also secondary to those of his parents, in accord-
ance with the great social principle that, a child can possess nothing
so long as its parents or grandparents are alive. Therefore a widow
who does not desire to live apart from her sons, has generaUy no
choice but to remain in the house of her parents-in-law. Cases are,
however, frequent in which permission is granted to widows re-
marrying to take their sons to their new home, a condition usually
being made that the latter shall come back at stated times to wor-
ship the manes of their father and their ancestors, and shall settle
for good in their own family on attaining the age of manhood. We
may note here that cases of widows taking their children along
with them to the home of a second husband also occurred in
ancient China, as is proved by the then prevailing moral rescripts
reproduced on page 518 (no. 19) and on pages 520 eeq.
That widowed wives and concubines are forbidden by a law of
the State to marry again before the twenty-seven months of mourn-
ing for their consort have expired, has been stated on pages 613
seq. The lower classes, among whom such second marriages chiefly
occur, take little notice of this law. Transgressors of obscure condition
easily escape the notice of the mandarins and generally remain
unpunished, as no detectives or petty officials care about prosecuting
people out of whom no money is to be squeezed.
Parents-in-law in fashionable circles as a rule refuse to have
anything to do with the second marriages of their daughters-in-law.
Although entitled, as owners of her person, to dispose of the
vndow in marriage in their capacity of chu-hwun (see page
615), they generally prefer to renounce this right, from a dislike to
violating the ownership of their deceased son; nay, in order to
evade the appearances of co-operating in the outrage done to his
manes by the second marriage, they often go so far as to refuse
the betrothal money which the new husband or his parents have
to pay, so that this money finds its way into the coffers of the
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MARRIAGE OP WIDOWS. 761
parents of the widow, or, failing these, into those of sorae other
member of her father's clan who is entitled to act as her chu-hwun.
The odium attaching to second marriages of women is best il-
lustrated by the manner in which they are consummated.
In the south-eastern districts of the province of Fuhkien , scarce-
ly any one is inclined to accept a widow for a young man for
whom he is seeking a wife. Such a woman, it is believed, must
bring bad luck to her second husband and his clan , because of the
revengeful manes of her first husband, which, offended at the
infringement upon his ownership, will hover over them all. Con-
sequently, a second husband is almost always either a widower,
or a man of middle age, no longer under the control of others in
respect of his choice of a wife, and, moreover, a man of small
means who cannot pay the large sum of betrothal money which is
generally demanded for a virgin. Male or female match-makers,
indispensable at every Chinese marriage, are easily found ; for even at
a widow's wedding their services are well paid for by presents of mo-
ney and various articles. But these go-betweens do not now arrange
everything, as at ordinary marriages, when their intervention is
generally carried so far that the bride and bridegroom do not even
see each other before the consummation of the marriage. The parties
themselves now settle most of the preliminaries. For this purpose
they have from time to time an interview in some place ^eed
upon by the matchmaker, or in a temple, under pretext of going
there to worship the gods, and at one of these interviews the bride-
groom hands the betrothal money to the widow, leaving her entirely
free either to deliver it up to her parents , or to hand it over to her
parents-in-law, in case they should claim it. The money is, however,
often paid away through the intervention of the go-between , accord-
ing to circumstances. Quite a different course of conduct is followed
at ordinary weddings. The money and the presents are then taken
to the house of the bride by a festive procession, and there handed
over in presence of almost the whole family, assembled in their best
clothes to attend the celebration of an event which is considered as
one of the most important in the series of the wedding festivities,
because it binds the two families for good to the consummation of
the marriage.
It is also an indispensable rite to exchange on the same occasion
written covenants, by which the legal chu-hwun on both sides
declare their approval of the wedding and bind themselves not to
break the engagement. Custom requires these two important docu-
49
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762 THE GRAVE.
ments to be written out in a swollen, bombastic style, properly
interspersed with ambiguous allusions and classical phrases, in a
style, in short, regarded as the best the literary world can pro-
duce. But no man of letters who has any respect for himself
would deign to waste his abilities upon such » wedding letters" *
in the case of a widow. Perfectly aware that holy antiquity con-
demns second marriages of women by the word of the Li ki (see
page 745), he feels sure that, should he presume to write such
documents, the gods, and the spirit of the first husband in
particular, would send down punishments upon him and frustrate
all his future endeavours to obtain a degree at the examinations
of the State; for, any man who willingly and wittingly be-
comes an accomplice in a violation of the sacred rescripts of the
Li ki, must by all the unseen powers be adjudged unworthy of
a place in the national Confucian school of the mandarinate and
the learned, whose fundamental principles are to maintain whatever
is preached by the Classics. Only some old or pettifogging stu-
dent who has lost all hope of ever taking a degree and obtaining
a place in the service of the State, attracted by the pecuniary
reward, can be found to do such debasing work. He must draw
up the contracts in the open field; for, were they written in a
house, great misfortune might befall the inmates. And on the spot
where the rest of the water with which he has rubbed the ink , is
poured away, no blade of grass , or moss , or weed , will ever grow.
Such is the curse that sticks to a widow's marriage contract.
When the day assigned by the fortune-teller as suitable for the
consummation of the marriage has arrived, the widow is carried
in an ordinary sedan-chair to her new home. She is not escorted
by a festive bridal procession, nor by music, or by the show and
merriment which accompanies the bridal procession of a virgin.
The whole ceremony resembles the clandestine weddings mentioned
on page 617, which are sometimes celebrated during the time of
mourning. No presents are sent by relations and friends, nor are
congratulatory visits paid.
Marriages of widows with widowers are of frequent occurrence
when both are blessed with offspring. They are generally con-
cluded with the object of making the step-children intermarry
afterwards, and thus the difficulty of being unable to buy wives
for the sons for want of betrothal money is overcome. The payment
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WIDOWED BRIDES RENOUNCING MARRIAGE. 763
of such purchase money for brides is, indeed, a great impediment
to marriages among the poor classes, and dooms many men of small
means to long or perpetual bachelorhood.
However great the reputation of chaste widows in Chinese society
may be, their fame is not on a par with that of the affianced
bride who, on the death of her betrothed, renounces matrimony for
ever ere she has shared with him the pleasures of conjugal life,
or even beheld his face. Such chaste virgins, though they are, as
stated on page 755, also rewarded with honorary gates, are very
scarce in the Flowery Empire, owing especially to the fact that
the parents on both sides discourage any such intention from a
fear that the girl might afterwards change her mind and entertain
a pardonable desire to marry, which would turn the halo with
which her noble intention had first surrounded both families, into
an object of public derision. The very few chaste virgins of this
sort who become now and then the talk of society, are almost
exclusively the brides of mandarins or literary graduates, or belong
to very notable families who, coveting still more distinction than
they already enjoy, do not even recoil from compelling the girl to
abjure the married state.
When a widowed bride has acquired the consent of her own
parents and those of her deceased bridegroom to renounce conjugal
life for ever, she is as a rule allowed to settle for good in the mortuary
house, and is then formally united with the dead in marriage. The
chHu^'fdo ceremonies, mentioned on page 47, having been properly
celebrated at her paternal home, she dons a gaudy bridal attire,
such as has been described on pages 53 en 54, and, seated in a
palankeen , is escorted by the customary bridal procession to her new
home. Here she is definitively united to the dead man at the side
of his coffin by being made to partake of certain food and spirits
at a so-called » table at which the marriage is sealed by means of
rice-spirits" \ This ceremony is attended by the deceased, either in
his invisible shape, or in that of his wooden soul tablet. Finally she
is initiated in the family by worshipping its ancestral tablets, domestic
divinities, parents and elders. She then changes her costly bridal
dress for the mourning costume prescribed for widows, weeps and
laments at the side of the coffin , and goes through all the mourning
ceremonies which are incumbent on a widow, pledging herself for
ever at the altar of her bridegroom's manes and waiting on his
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764 THE GRAVE.
parents as if she were actually their daughter-in-law. Afterwards a
Continuator is adopted for her and her defunct husband. The news
of her heroic deed quickly spreads abroad and, making a triumphal
march through the country, it is soon on the lips of the whole
population, especially on those of the educated and the literary,
who are more thoroughly imbued than others with veneration for
the ancient classical doctrine on female chastity.
As the Government appreciates the chastity of widows to such
a degree that it confers not only high public honours upon them,
but also raises them to the dignity of State divinities, it logically
follows that it has laws for the protection of such virtue. We find
in the Code of Laws the following fundamental article:
» If a wife or concubine after the expiration of the mourning for
» her husband earnestly desires to remain chaste , and yet is com-
» pulsorily married out by her own paternal grandparents or parents,
» or by those of her husband , they shall receive eighty blows with
»the long stick. If the marriage has been enforced upon her by
» relations for whom she must mourn for a year, the said punish-
» ment shall be increased by one degree (ten blows), and again by
»one degree if the culprits are her relations of the third, fourth
» or fifth degree of mourning. Neither she , nor the man who has
» taken her in marriage, shall be punished. In case the consumma-
»tion of the marriage has not yet taken place, the widow shall
» return to her first husband's home and there be suffered to exe-
» cute her purpose to remain chaste ^ and the betrothal money with
» the wedding presents shall be restituted to the original owners.
»But in the contrary case she shall be given to the second hus-
»band, to cohabit with him*; yet the betrothal money and the
» presents shall then be confiscated" ^. We see from this article that
1 Her fate will probably not be a very enviable one, under the authority of
parents-in-law who have been so severely flogged on her account!
2 Her chastity is then irreparably lost. When the horse is stolen, it is useless
to lock the stable door.
K, chapter 10, § jg^^^.
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LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OP CHASTE WIDOWHOOD. 765
even the unrestrained paternal or maternal authority, although it is
the very substratum of the Chinese social and legal fabric and
generally entitles parents to dispose arbitrarily of their children in
marriage, must give way in case of a widow's chastity.
It is deserving of notice that brides who wish to remain unmar-
ried after the death of their affianced husbands, are entirely past
over in silence in this law. Its projectors apparently considered that
such husbands had not yet acquired any positive right of ownership
in the girl, and imaginary rights could not legally be taken under
protection against the authority of her parents or chu-hwun.
The above fundamental article is followed in the Code of Laws
by the following supplementary article:
» If violent hands be laid on a widow who desires to live a life
» of chastity, by the members of the clan in which she was born ,
» or by those of her (deceased) husband's clan , and she be compelled
»to marry again and thereby be defiled, her own grandparents or
» parents, or those of her husband, shall receive eighty blows with
» the long stick. If the culprits are her superior or senior relations
» for whom she must mourn for one year, they shall receive seventy
» such blows and be banished for one year and a half, and if they
» are her superior or senior relations of the three lowest degrees
»of mourning, they shall be punished with eighty blows and ba-
»nishment for two years; but, if they are inferior or junior re-
»lations for whom she must mourn in the second degree, the
» punishment shall be one hundred blows and three years banish-
»ment; and if they are inferior or junior relations for whom she
» must mourn in the three lowest degrees , they shall receive ninety
» blows and be banished for two years and a half. The chu-
» h w u n of the new husband shall go unpunished if they were not
» acquainted with the circumstances of the case; but if they were
» aware thereof and nevertheless took part in the act of violence ,
» they shall receive the fifty blows with the short bamboo stick which
» the fundamental law providing against the marrying of women under
» compulsion demands, and this punishment must be increased by
» three degrees, carrying it up to eighty blows with the long stick.
» — If the widow has not been defiled , her parents , parents-in-law,
» agnates or cognates, and the chu-hwun of the man who mar-
» ried her shall be punished one degree less severely, and in this case
»she shall be allowed to return to her home and there to remain
» chaste. Should she prefer, however, to live with her new husband,
» she may do so , in accordance with the fundamental article , and
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766 THE GRAVE.
»in this case the betrothal money and presents shall be forfeited
» to the profit of the magistrates , and the culpable relations severally
» receive the blows mentioned in the fundamental article.
» If the widow did not voluntarily yield up her chastity , but
» committed suicide , it shall not be enquired into whether she was
» defiled or not. The culprits shall be punished with one hundred
» blows and banishment for three years , if they are her own or her
» husband's parents or grandparents ; with a hundred blows and
» transportation for life to a country 2000 miles distant if they are
» superior or senior relations for whom she must mourn for one
»year; with a hundred blows and lifelong banishment to a distance
»of 2500 miles, if they are kinsfolk for whom she must moum
»in the third or fourth degree; and with a hundred blows and
» lifelong banishment to a country 3000 miles distant , if they
» are her superior or senior relations of the fifth degree. And if
» they are her inferior or junior relations , they shall be sent into
» lifelong banishment in a distant province if they belong to those
» that must be mourned for in the fifth degree, and to a most
» distant province if they belong to the fourth degree of moum-
» ing or to the third ; but if they are inferior or junior relations
» to be mourned for during one year , they shall be condemned to
» strangulation and be kept in prison to await the confirmation of
» their sentence by the higher authorities. The chu-hwun of
» the new husband , if they were acquainted with the circumstances
» or took a part in the act of violence , thus causing the death
» of the widow , shall be brought to justice as accomplices , and be
» punished one degree less severely than the culpable relations.
» If a woman desiring to remain chaste and having no other c h u -
» h w u n than herself, might become the object of the compulsory
» attempts of some person who wishes to marry her or be compelled
» by him to accept the betrothal money and should commit sui-
» cide, the man in question shall be sent into lifelong banishment to
>>a near province and, moreover, pay the expenses of her burial" \
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LAW AGAINST THB MABRIAGB OP TITLBD WIDOWS. 767
Though the Chinese Government does not formally forbid seconp
marriages of widows, yet it regards them with great disfavour, as
is proved by the fact of its declaring that » twice-married women
cannot receive honorary titles"^ from the Emperor; moreover, it
severely punishes widows who, when in possession of such a
title, desecrate it by taking a second husband. For the better
understanding hereof the reader must know that the ordinary
Imperial method of rewarding officers for merit or services is by
conferring titles of honour upon them. These are eighteen in num-
ber, constituting nine separate ranks, each with two titles. Whenever
such a title is conferred upon a servant of the State, an honorary
title is, as a rule, bestowed at the same time upon his consort
and may also be granted to his parents or grandparents; the female
titles are nine in number, corresponding to the said nine male ranks.
The ladies who bear them, are styled » Women of authority"*, or
» Women invested with authority" ^ or » Women on whom authority
is conferred" *. »If such a woman marries again after the death of
» her husband", says the Code of Laws, »she shall be sentenced as
B H ^
iD^mmmm- Chapter lo. § ^ ^ ^ ^ .
1 ^j$,Z^^%^1^'1'<* r»'tngr luh li, chapter 10, I. i%
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768 THE GRAVE.
» a wife would be who married again during the time of mourning
»for her husband", in other words, she shall receive either one
hundred blows with the long stick, or eighty blows, according as she
becomes a wife or a concubine (comp. page 613 seg.). »Further, the
» patent by which the title was conferred upon her shall be can-
» celled, and she shall be divorced from the new husband. K such a
» marriage has been arranged by chu-hwun, they shall receive
» the same chastisement reduced by five degrees , if they knew that
» the woman was a titled lady , and the betrothal money with the
» presents shall be confiscated. But if (the chu-hwun of the hus-
» band) were ignorant of this circumstance, they shall not be punished,
» and the money and presents shall be restituted to them ; but the
» married woman shall be divorced in this case all the same" ^
The Law thus making it obligatory on widows of mandarins never
to marry again , it is quite in keeping that the Government should
award no honorary gates or other public distinctions to them as
rewards for chastity after their husband's death. » Married women",
says the Ta TsHny hwui Hen , » who have received a title of honour
» from the Grovernment because of the merits of their sons , may be
» awarded such public distinctions, but not so chaste women on whom
» such a title has been bestowed because of their husbands' merits" *.
The class of the literati, the gentry of the nation, from which
the matidarins are continually being recruited and who in conse-
quence consider themselves intimately connected with them, use
to deem second marriages of women belonging to their caste
particularly disgraceful, although the laws do not prohibit them.
Should the wife of one of them venture to accept a second husband,
a unanimous cry of indignation would at once go forth because
of the » cruel insult offered to a man of letters" ', and they
would stand together as one man against a crime so defamatory
and injurious to the memory of one of them. Nor would the de-
^ ?^ j^ ^- ^** ^^^ ^**^' chapter 3, 1. 10.
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HONORARY GATES. 769
ceased himself leave the perpetration of such a deed unavenged, the
prevailing notions attributing to the inhabitants of the Land of Shades
the possession of an amount of power quite equal to that which
their position caused them to enjoy in the present world. Fortuna-
tely, marriage to such widows, being dangerous to the second hus-
band and his family in more respects than one, seldom takes place.
Honorary Gatea.
Having so often referred to honorary gates in the foregoing pages ,
we must now give some explanation concerning these monuments,
tracing their origin and history.
like most Chinese institutions, the method of rewarding and
commemorating meritorious and virtuous subjects by conferring upon
them such gates as marks of public distinction, may be traced far
back into antiquity. We read in the Historical Records that Wu,
the founder of the Cheu dynasty, after having achieved the con-
quest of the Empire by the renowned battle in the plains of
Muh (see page 116), » ordered the ruler of the principality of Pih
» to liberate the prisoners among the people and to affix a mark of
» distinction to the gate of Shang-yung's village" \ This Shang-yung
seems to have been a worthy of high repute, for we read in the
Shu king that Wu himself did honour to him » by making bows
at the gate of his village" *; but there is nothing else on record
about him. The word piao ^, used in the above passage to
denote the awarding of the distinction in question, is still now-
a-days used in official documentary stj'^le with the same meaning.
This fact is brought out several times by the extracts from the Ta
Tiing hwui Hen, given on pages 751 seq. and 755 seq,
Khang ^ the third monarch of the Cheu dynasty , who ascended
the throne scarcely forty-five years after the battle of Muh , is stated
to have dictated the following mandate to one of his ministers,
who likewise bore the title of Ruler of Pih: »0! fatherly tutor,
»I now reverently charge you with the work of the Prince of
» Cheu *. Go ! signalize the pure and single them out from the de-
» praved ; attach marks of distinction to their dwellings and villages ,
i ^m4^^Wi*^0. ^^#:eH.Chapter4,l.l2.
4 A younger brother of the founder of the dynasty, a statesman of great repute
for his virtues and wisdom. He has been mentioned aheady on pages 691 and 757.
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770 THE GRAVE.
»thu8 glorifying the good openly and making it ill for the
» wicked , and establish in this way their influential reputation" K
This extract, drawn from the SAu Ung , shows that in the most
ancient book of the Empire the awarding of oflBcial marks of dis-
tinction was denominated by the same two terms piao (see above)
and tsing j^ which have ever since been used officially with
the same meaning by all dynasties, including the present reigning
House. The first term may, we think, be translated by: »to affix
marks of distinction", vjiz. to house-doors or gates of villages; the other
by »to signalize". We mostly find in the books and in official docu-
ments the two characters united into the binomium j^^> »'to
affix signalizing marks of distinction". According to the vocabular-
ies, the proper meaning of tsing is a signal flag; but it is doubt-
ful whether this entitles us to suppose that the distinctions in ques-
tion originally consisted of flags or banners, as Chinese written
evidence nowhere vouches for this. Perhaps the two flag-poles which
literary graduates of the two highest ranks are now entitled to erect
in front of their houses, may have had something to do with it;
but this point does not come within our present scope.
It is easy to explain why, anciently, the marks of distinction
— most probably consisting, as at present, of eulogic expressions —
were also affixed over the village-gates. On pp. 619 %qq. we have
stated that the Chinese greatly disapprove of people separating from
their family seat. As a consequence hereof, families grow into
clans and even into village-communities, with the regulation of the
internal affairs of which the Government scarcely ever interferes,
having voluntarily bound its own hands in this respect by the fund-
amental principle that vast patriarchal powers ought to be en-
trusted to parents and elders (comp. page 541). Where such a
system prevails, it is quite natural that the elders are responsible
to the Government for all the concerns of the community and
consequently share in the merits or demerits of their juniors. The
blame for bad actions extends to the elders, who also share in
the rewards for good deeds. Hence it is quite logical that the lauda-
tory inscriptions in question should ornament a door which is at the
same time theirs, viz. the village-gate. Apart from this, it was the
kimj , section S. -^ .
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HONORARY INSCRIPTIONS OVER VILLAGE GATES. 771
professed object of the Government thus to blazon abroad merits
and virtues, >>in order to make it ill for the evil-doers and to
endow the good with an influential reputation"; and this object
could be better realized by placing the eulogies over village-gates
than by merely affixing them in less frequented lanes and alleys
over the doors of private houses.
The custom of ornamenting village-gates with honorary inscrip-
tions having now been traced to its origin, the question arises at
what period the nation began to erect special gates for the pur-
pose of exhibiting such inscriptions; in other words, when the
honorary gates assumed their present character. That period doubt-
lessly coincides with the dismantling of the villages in conse-
quence of the consolidation of the internal peace and quiet of the
Empire during the long-lived dynasties of T%ng and Sung. Under
the rule of these Houses, which covers a period of over six and
a half centuries, the nation breathed more freely after ages of
unintermittent warfare and depredations of the- soldiery and the
banditti, by which it had been harrassed under fifteen recognized
and as many more non-recognized dynasties which had been contend-
ing with one another in perpetual succession, ever since the over-
throw of the House of Han. Now-a-days, fortified villages surrounded
by moats or walls are the exception in China, and only to be found
in those parts of the Realm where feuds and strifes are rife be-
tween different clans (comp. Plate XVI). The consolidation of in-
ternal peace under the two aforesaid dynasties greatly favoured an
increase of population. This increase again promoted the agglomer-
ation of villages into towns and cities, in which the villages con-
nected together were reduced to the position of what we should
call wards; and as these wards seldom were possessed of gates
of their own, the towns themselves being entirely protected by
fortifications, official commendations of the virtuous among the
inhabitants could no longer be properly displayed unless gates were
erected for the purpose on the confines of the wards; where they
are to be found to this day.
Our supposition as to the period at which the erection of special
honorary gates was commenced , is fully corroborated by document-
ary evidence. Nowhere are such gates mentioned in books previous
to the T^ang dynasty, though marks of distinction affixed in those
times to village-gates are on record in considerable numbers. A
few instances gleaned from the Standard Histories may be quoted
here from the many which lie before us» »In the seventh year of
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772 THE GRAVE.
»the period Yuen kia (A. D. 430), the authorities in southern
» Yii-cheu recommended the family of Tung Yang, living under their
» supervision in the district of Si-yang (province of Hupeh), to the
» Throne for having lived together during three generations without
» possessing separate doors leading out of the house or separate
» cooking places inside the house. By an Imperial order a board
» was placed over their gate , bearing the inscription : 'Village of
» the family Tung who live in harmony and concord' ^ — Shi
»Ying-cheu from Yung-yang (province of Honan) had married a
y> daughter out of the family Keng of the same department. In the
» twenty-third year of the period T*^ai hwo (A. D. 499) he died,
» upon which his wife , fearing that her parents might bereave her
»of her chastity (by re-marrying her), wailed so bitterly at the
» burial that she died. By Imperial mandate an honorary board
» was exhibited over the door of her house and over the gate of
» her village *. — Madam Ch^'en , the wife of Sun Shen , was a
» native of the department of Ho-poh (province of Shansi). Her
» husband having been sent to a post on the frontiers , died there
» soon after. When his coffin was brought home , his wife was so
» overwhelmed with grief on beholding it, that she died after a
y> vehement outburst of wailing. The emperor Wen (A. D. 535 —
» 551) granted a mark of distinction for the gate of her village" ^ —
Under the Liang dynasty (A. D. 502 — 556) » there lived in Yuen-
»ling, in the Suen-ch^ng country (province of Nganhwui) a
y> girl , who occupied the same bed with her mother. The latter
» being attacked by a ferocious tiger , the daughter with a yell
» grasped the monster with her hands so firmly that its hair was
» scattered over the ground , and at a distance of over ten miles it
» dropped its victim. The maiden then clasped her mother in her
^ ^ ;^ M . History of the Southera Part of the Realm , chapter 73, 1. 3.
^ o is ^ )I5| P^ K • ^^^^ ^^ *^® ^®^ Dynasty, chapter 92, L 6.
History of the Northern Part of the Realm, chapter 91, 1. 9.
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WHEN HONORAflY GATES WERE FIRST BUILT. 773
»arm8 and carried her home; the old woman was still breathing,
» but expired after an hour. The prefect Siao Ch^en assisted the
*> girl in the burial expenses and reported the matter to the Throne.
» Thereupon a mark of distinction was aflSxed to her door and to
» the gate of her village by order of the Emperor" \
Even during the T'ang dynasty such official commendations of
the virtuous were affixed to village-gates. We read e, g. that » Kao
» Ch^'ung- wen's ancestors , who had removed from Puh-hai to Yiu-
»cheu (province of Chihli), had not for seven generations lived
»in separate dwellings, and their village-gate had therefore been
» decorated more than once with a mark of distinction during the
»Khai yuen period (713 — 741)" ^ That, however, in the T^ang
epoch special gates were built for displaying such decorations, fol-
lows from the following extract, which explicitly states that in
the tenth century the erection of such monuments was considered
an old institution. »ln the first month of the fourth year of the
» period T'ien fuh (A. D. 939), the Presidents of the Board of
» Revenues memorialized the Throne because six generations of the
» family of one Li Tsz6-lun , who was a Secretary charged with the
» control of public works in Shen-cheu (province of Chihli), all
» dwelt together. . . The Emperor (Kao Tsu) decided that the village
»Fei-t*'o, where they lived, should henceforth be called: The Vil-
»lage of Filial Devotion and Dutifulness, and that the name of
» the ward in question, Kwang-shing, should be changed into Ward
»of Humanity and Concord; moreover he granted a public mark
» of distinction for their door and for the gates of their village.
»In the ninth month, the said Board once more presented a
» petition, of the following tenor: *Ere now, when six generations
» of Wang Chung-chao's dutiful family had dwelt together in Teng-
»cheu, the public mark of distinction awarded to them was of the
» following description: in front of the balustrades of their audience-
» hall screaning trees were arrayed ; then came a gate just in the
^W^fti^.'^^JI^^PIH- ^°*'"' ^'^ ""^ ^""8 Dynasty, chapter
Ti; dl M ^ ^ ^ . New Books of the Tang Dynasty, chapter 170, 1. 1.
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774 THK GRAVE.
» middle, adorned with heads of ravens, with a door of two
» leaves; at a distance of twelve feet from the trees came two pillars
» decorated with heads of ravens and with tubs of baked clay on
»the top; a gate with two entrances, one chang of ten feet
y> broad , was erected , and at a distance of thirty-seven feet to
»the south of the heads of the ravens Hwai trees and willows
» were planted over a space of fifteen p u ; — we humbly propose
» that the same arrangements may be made in the present case (of
»Li Tszg-lun)'. But the Emperor decided as follows: * Though
» things were thus arranged in olden times, the regulations which
» are now in force take no note of them. In the grounds measured
» out for the purpose the outer gate shall be built up to a greater
» height , and on the right and the left of the wide-apart pillars on
» which it rests a terrace shall be made, twelve feet high and square
»in form, the length and breadth being equal. The two terraces
» shall be covered with white plaster, and the four corners be red ,
»in order that those who are unfilial and undutiful may turn to
>> righteousness on beholding it, and change their conduct'" ^.
The Standard Histories of the Sung dynasty afford sufficient
evidence that during the rule of this House it was quite customary
to erect honorary gates for glorifying the virtuous. We read e. g.\
»Kwoh I, a military man from Hing-hwa, when over forty years
» old sojourned at TsHen-f'ang (in the province of Chehkiang).
» Receiving the news that his mother had died, he hurried barefooted
» to her mourning rites , vomiting blood at every fit of sorrow that
» overcame him. As his family was extremely poor, some old friends
fl5 ^ tr i^* H^*'<^''y ^f ^^^ ^'^® Dynasties, chapter 34, 11. 4 and 5.
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HONORARY GATES DURING THE SUNG DYNASTY. 776
»sent gifts to him; but he would accept nothing. He himself
» collected the earth he needed for the grave hill, planted pines and
» bamboo on the spot with his own hands, and lived in a shed
»at the side of the grave. Mild dew trickled down upon the tomb,
» and crows and magpies swarmed there without any signs of fear.
»The prefect reported the matter to the Throne, upon which the
»gate of his village was decorated with a mark of distinction
» by Imperial order. In front of his dwelling an earthen terrace
» was raised both to the right and the left of the wide-apart sup-
» porting pillars (of the honorary gate); these terraces were twelve
»feet high, square in shape and broader at the base than at
» the top, and everything was embellished with white colours,
» intermixed with red. The grounds were planted with such trees
» as were deemed proper for the purpose" '. The following instance
concerns one P^'ang T^en-yiu*, a native of Kiang-ling^ or the
present King-cheu * in the province of Hupeh. Out of pure filial
devotion he cut a piece of flesh out of his thigh and gave it to
his sick father to eat as a medicine, and after the old man's death
he himself carried the earth for the grave and settled there in a
shed. In recognition of his filial conduct, »his house-door and the
» gates of his village were decorated by Imperial decree with a
» public distinction. His family not being so rich as to possess one
»pecul of rice in their house and living, moreover, in a poor
» lane , Yao-tszg (the magistrate who had proposed him to the
» Throne for a reward) made him remove to the right side of the
» village-gate , erected there a gate and affixed the mark of
» distinction to it" ^.
t^^^mM-mumk..mnwMA^^)rm.
the Sung Dynasty, chapter 456, 1. 22.
chapter 456, I. 10.
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776 THE GRAVE.
The extracts quoted seem to indicate that the erection of honor-
ary gates was from the outset subject to imperial authorisation. But
we have obtained no certainty about this from the native books
at our disposal; moreover,- decorations of doors and gates with
laudatory inscriptions have, according to the books, even such
as refer to the present dynasty, been conferred so often by provin-
cial governors and prefects of departments or districts, that we
have no reason to doubt that such rewarding of the meritorious
and virtuous has always formed a part of the duties of their office.
It is indeed highly probable that the emperors have always re-
garded themselves as morally obliged to entrust their stadtholders
with the bestowal of such honorable distinctions, their great and
holy ancestor Wu having set the example in respect of his minister,
the ruler of Pih (see page 769). Now-a-days honorary gates can
only be erected by a special order of the Son of Heaven. This
rule seems to have come into force definitively during the reign
of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, for we read: »In the
» twenty-first year of the Hung wu period (1388), Jen Hung-fai
» and others were placed at thQ top of the list of those who had
» won the highest literary degree (tsin-shi) at the examinations
»held at the Imperial Palace. He having distinguished himsell
» above all the others who obtained this degree, the Emperor
» ordered the magistracy to commend him publicly by means of an
» honorary chung-yuen gate\ From this case dates the erection
» of honorary gates by Imperial decree" *.
Honorary gates are denoted in the books by the character j^ , fang.
This word had originally the meaning of locality, place or ward,
the component parts of its written form being ^ »land, ground,
country", and 3J^ »a region, a place". The signification of honorary
gate it has probably obtained because it so frequently enters into
the composition of the honorary inscriptions affixed over house-doors
or village-gates. We read e. g. of the learned Chang Chi-hwo ^ who
i A chung-yuen is the primus of the successful candidates at the examina-
tions for the rank of tsin-shi. Comp. page 792.
2 >^ :^ n -h - ^ S ^ it ± ^^i -f ^# 2i^:^ .
^,© iK^ ^, See »The General Account of the Ming period'* 1^ |£ ^,
ap. Ku kin fu shu tsih ch'ing, section ^^ J[2 > chapter 74.
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- .-** * fc-^iB -*9^-^^Mr
Honorary Gate for a Literary Graduate
of the Highest Rank.
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DESCRIPTION OP HONORARY GATES. 777
lived in the eighth century, that the authorities >► decorated his
» dwelling with the honorary inscription: * Place (fang) of the Pri-
» mary Principle' ^ and his door being narrow , some ground was
» purchased in order to widen the entrance" \ It is stated also of
one Lang Kien • that in the eleventh century » the gate of his
» village was decorated by Sun Mien , the governor of Hang-cheu
» (province of Chehkiang), with a board, bearing the inscription:
» 'Place (fang) where a virtuous long life is being lived'"*. A few
score years later, the residence of Fan Ching-plng' was signalized
by the authorities as » Place (fang) of fidelity and straightforward-
ness"*, and so forth. The name Jfang, applied at first to localities
having a gate over which an honorary inscription was affixed,
was transferred in course of time to the gates themselves, when
it had become the custom to erect them as special commemorative
monuments. This will appear still more natural when we state that
it is a peculiarity of the Chinese language to assimilate doors with
dwellings, and gates with settlements. Indeed, f^ and J^ mean a
door as well as a house or family, and ^ a village-gate as well
as a village or hamlet.
In describing the honorary gates as they are at present to be
seen by hundreds, nay thousands, throughout the Empire, we may
be short, as the Plates XII (Frontispiece), XV, XVII and XIX will
undoubtedly convey a better idea of them to our readers than any
amount of writing could do. In the mountainous southern provinces
by far the greater number are made entirely of granite-like solid
stone, which is there very abundant and consequently comparatively
cheap. But in the North, wherever natural stone is dear, they are
often made of wood and do not look anything like so nice and
attractive as those in the South , owing chieflly to the circumstance
that wood is liable to decay quickly and the Chinese never keep
i He had wntten a famous treatise, entitled jr* ft -5^, »Tho Philosopher
of the Primary Principle".
Books of the Tang Dynasty, chapter 196, 1. 14.
3 MM-
* ^n ^^t^^^MPl.Hli ^W- "'•^O'^ of the
Sung Dynasty, chapter 299, 1. 3.
6 J^ ig Jbjf . History of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 314, 1. 29.
50
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778
THE GRAVE.
their edifices and buildings j in good repair. Such a wooden mo-
nument is represented by Fig. 28. Stone being more durable
than wood, it is self-evident that the greatest number of honorary
Fig. 28.
Honorary Gate of Wood at Peking.
gates, as well as the oldest, are to be found in the South. Many
towns and their suburbs in the province of Fuhkien are literally
studded with them.
As to their dimension, their height is on an average between
that of a one-storied and a two-storied European house. Most
of them consequently stand out considerably above the majority
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DESCRIPTION OP HONORARY QATES.
779
of the surrounding dwellings. They are adorned with sundry figures,
as with dragons sculptured in mezzo-relievo or alto-relievo on the
cross-pieces which form the lintels; with lions squatted down on the
tops of the low pillars which serve to strengthen the basement;
on the roofs with images of men, and wide-mouthed gaping fishes
curling their tails upwards. A gourd often crowns the top. Some
monuments also display on the frieze relief figures, representing
episodes in the life of the person commemorated, and in many
cases these figures are open-worked, being cut right .through the
stone. Honorary gates cannot properly be said to have a reverse
Fig. 29.
Decorative Street Gate.
side, both facades being similarly worked. The roofs of those of
stone consist of single solid blocks, carved out on the top to repre-
sent a layer of tiles.
A mere glance at our Plates will be sufficient to show that
these commemorative structures have retained their character of
gates in every respect. Gates in China are generally roofed and in
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780
THE GRAVE.
many cases have a smaller second roof, and sometimes even a
third, smaller than the second, which gives to the whole a pagoda-
like appearance; our readers may see this from Fig. 29, which is
taken from a little decorative street-gate placed at the entrance
of an open square in a town, and from Fig. 30, which is a*
Fig. 30.
sketch of an ordinary city-gate. The same is the case with honor-
ary gates. The similarity between the two categories of buildings
is not less brought out by the fact that many of the largest
and finest honorary monuments are raised upon twelve pillars
arranged in three parallel rows of four each , in the same way as
roofed gates are built. In such cases, the pillars of the two outer
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DECORATIVE GATES.
781
rows are generally thinner than the four middlemost pillars, which
have to bear the greatest weight.
Fig. 81.
Decorative Gate of a Shop at Peking.
The similarity between honorary gates and gates proper appears
even more striking, when we note that the latter, if built at the
entrance to public edifices or large temples, generally have three
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782
THE GRAVE.
thoroughfares y viz. a large one in the middle, and two smaller ones
to the right and left. The decorative gates of wood forming the
front of large houses in Peking also resemble honorary gates so
strikingly that they are easily mistaken for such monuments (comp.
Fig. 31).
Fig. 82.
Honorary Gate in Front of a House.
No less than their form, do the places on which honorary gates
are erected evince their ancient character of gates of mansions
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LOCATION OF HONORARY GATES.
783
and villages. In the first place, they often stand right in front
of the dwellings of the persons whose conduct they are to blazon
abroad, or are built into the front wall of the court-yard, thus
virtually forming the chief entrance-gate to the premises (Fig. 32 ,
and Plate XII). In the same position they adorn the approaches
Fig. 88.
J.MAl^AliX £C
Honorary Gates on the Highroad near a Town.
to some ancestral temples. In towns and large villages they gener-
ally stand conspicuously across the streets, compelling the pedes-
trian to pass between the pillars (see Plate XVII), thus by their
location perfectly corresponding with certain gates * that mark the
\ Called
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784 THE GOAVE.
boundaries of wards and are shat and guarded during the night
to keep out thieves and robbers. Their ancient character of village-
gates is also manifested by the fact that the approaches to towns
and villages have always been looked upon as choice places on
which to erect them. The suburbs of many a walled city are
in the literal sense of the word studded with them, especially the
road conducting to the gate; not unfrequently great numbers of
them adorn the country outside the suburbs for a considerable
distance, where they are either placed across the high road, or in
the fields on both sides of it, so as to render them as conspicuous
as possible to the passer-by.
It is a general custom in China to suspend over house-doors and
gates a wooden board, carved with characters which designate the
locality. Such sign boards are invariably affixed over the lintel of
the middlemost or main thoroughfare. In quite a similar manner
the honorary gates display a horizontal tablet, firmly inserted in
the pillars and cross-pieces, and upon it a few big characters are
carved, signifying the qualities or virtues for which the monument
was raised, or somis poetical allusion made thereto. It is on ac-
count of this board that the gates are generally styled p^'ai-leu^
» storied edifices with an inscribed board", or p^ai-fang*: » ho-
norary gates with an inscribed board". Over this inscription, a
second tablet, placed perpendicularly underneath the highest roof,
displays the characters ^ ^ : » By Imperial Decree", or |g ^ :
»By Decree of the Hdy One". This tablet, which is supported by a
couple of carved dragons, the symbols of the blessed reign of the
Son of Heaven, constitutes the real aureola of the monument, its core
and focus, the pride and glory of the family. On gates erected for
literary graduates it generally bears the characters J§1 ^ : » Glory
conferred by (Imperial) favour". A third tablet, inserted horizontally
over the dragon-carved lintel of the central thoroughfare, displays
the names and titles of the person for whom the monument was
erected and, in many instances, those of his sons and grandsons
who built it for him; in the case of a woman, the names and
titles of her husband are carved upon it as well as her own. It
also sometimes bears the date of the erection. But all these parti-
culars, and many more, are sometimes engraved on a separate
vertical slab of granite, which is set up in a socket of the same
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HONORARY GATES WITH TWO PILLARS.
785
material at the foot of the monument. The inscriptions are placed
on both facades of the gate, as well as the figures and ornaments.
On both facades likewise, the two inner perpendicular pillars bear
a eulogistic distich , a line on each pillar, and another distich (adorns
Fig. 34.
Honorary Gate with two Pillars.
in a corresponding manner the two outer pillars. This poetry is
mostly supplied to the family by the magistrates, sometimes even
by the Governor of the province, and has to be paid for dearly in
expensive presents. But such outlay is considered insignificant as
compared with the honour of being able to boast for centuries
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786 THE GRAVE.
of those great men who have by their own hands and pencils assisted
in the glorification of the family; their names and titles are carved
in the stone under the distichs for that very purpose.
Not all honorary gates are raised on twelve or even four pillars.
A good many have no more than two and, possessing only one or
two stories, do not stand out above the surrounding dwellings.
One of the simplest construction is represented by Fig. 84. It dates
from 1680 or thereabout, and was seen by us in 1887 in the south
of Fuhkien within the walls of the city of Chang-cheu-fu , in a
vast plot covered with the ruins of one quarter of the town which
was entirely laid waste either on the capture of the place by the
T'^ai p^ing rebels in October 1864, or on its re-capture by the
Imperial troops in May of the following year, — the only structure
which escaped destruction.
Both the size and beauty of an honorary gate depend as a rule
upon the wealth of the family of the person for whom it is erected.
The thirty taels of silver awarded for it out of the treasury form but
a meagre subvention, hardly sufficient to pay for the foundation
stone; this money is probably regarded merely as a subsidy for the
stone tablet which bears the laudatory inscription. The costs of the
monument have virtually to be borne by the family. If they are
well-to-do, they are sure to spend much on its size and beauty
and to inaugurate it with great solemnity. Mandarins are prevailed
upon to honour the ceremony by their presence. These grandees
assemble at the spot on an auspicious day carefully selected for
the purpose and , in the presence of a large concourse of notables
and kinsmen dressed in ceremonial attire, make prostrations be-
fore the monument, their condescension being afterwards rewarded
by the family with rich presents which are sent to their mansions,
and by festive meals to which they are invited with all the ob-
servances of etiquette.
Our readers will understand that the honorary gates have now
become mere decorative gates, having positively lost their original
character of barriers. It is highly probable that this change has
to a great extent been wrought by the influence of a custom rather
prevalent under the present dynasty, under the Ming dynasty, and
perhaps under Houses even of earlier date, viz. that of erecting
gates for mere decorative purposes at the entrance to public or
official edifices and altars. Grates of this kind are likewise designated
by the names of p^'ai-leu and p'^ai-fang, because they have
over the middlemost thoroughfare a p^'ai or tablet displaying the
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PI. XVIII.
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DECORATIVE GATES IN PEKING. 787
name of the edifice at the approach to which tbey are located,
or the name of the approach itself. In the Imperial Metropolis in
particular such decorative gates are numerous and well built. As a
rule they are much larger and prettier than the honorary gates.
A splendid specimen in wood, painted in variegated colours, with
roofs of blue glazed tiles , forms the entrance to the y> Street of the
Gloriously Rising" ^ an avenue leading to the large Imperial altar
of the Sun which is located outside the east gate of the Tatar
city. It bears over the lintel the name of that street in Chinese
and Manchu. Quite a similar structure stands in a corresponding
position across the » Street of the Waxing Brightness'* * or approach
to the Imperial Moon-altar near the west gate of the saiiie city.
Such decorative gates also mark the outer limits of the five
principal approaches to the southern court-yard of the Imperial
Palace. Two of them, each with three thoroughfares, stand re-
spectively to the east and west in the Ch'^ang ngan street' which
runs along the southern fix)nt wall of the Palace; two others of the
same description stand in a corresponding position in the street
which runs more to the south, parallel to the above, right past
the T'ai ts^ing gate* or the southern gate of the court-yard;
and the fifth, with five thoroughfares, is located just in front of
the » Gate which faces due South" *, that forms the central southern
gate of the Tatar city and at the same time the extreme southern
entrance to the Palace. In a similar way decorative gates are built
over the street which runs past the temple of Confucius, and over
that which passes the » Temple for the Worship of the Emperors and
Kings of past Dynasties" *. Such a gate bears as a rule on its sign-
board the name of the street over which it is built, or that of which
it defines the limits. One of the most beautiful to be seen in China
is that which stands in the court-yard of the famous Hall of the Clas-
sics in the north-eastern angle of the Tatar city (see PI. XVIII). Its
base and three archivaults are of raagnesian limestone, beautifully
carved; the whole of the upper part is made of yellow and blue
glazed bricks, nicely moulded into the shape of square and round
ornaments and forming a harmonious mixture of colours. Both fapades
are built and elaborated alike, which, as our readers know, is the
case with p^ai-fang in general.
'Mi\-m- ^^mm- ^m^m-
*is:mf^- ^iEi^P^. «S^i^I
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788
THE GRAVE.
A very large decorative gate, dating from the year 1540, is located
at the beginning of the avenue which leads to the maiisolea of
the emperors of the Ming dynasty. A picture of this monument,
which is probably the most exquisite p^'ai-fang now extant in
China, illuminates the next Volume, where a description of it
is given in our account of those mausolea. Of a similar monument
which serves to decorate the sepulchre of Confucius, a sketch is
given in Fig. 35. P%i-fang are consequently funereal monuments
Fig. 85.
Gate decorating the Mausoleum of Confucius.
as well , thus serving the double purpose of decorating the entrance
to the tombs of persons of distinction , and of exalting their memory.
Now-a-days they may be erected over the graves of certain female
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PL XIX.
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PERSONS FOR WHOM HONORARY GATES MAY BE BUILT. 789
slaves and nuns who have fallen victims to their chastity, as our
readers know from the Ordinances reproduced on pages 751 and
753. We have seen them sometimes over the graves of persons
whom the Emperor, had greatly distinguished by sending an emis-
sary to present a sacrifice to their manes. They bore the inscrip-
tion: » Burial Sacrifice conferred by the Emperor"*. Of one of
these, located in the hills around the town of Amoy, a reproduction
is given in Plate XIX. Permission to erect such honorary gates over
graves was evidently a matter of frequent occurrence during the
Ming djmasty, numerous instances of so-called » awarding public
distinctions to tombs"* being recorded in the Standard Histories
and local Memoirs of that period. The Histories inform us also that
as early as the Wei dynasty, ere honorary gates had come into
vogue, graves were decorated with honorary inscriptions by Impe-
rial order, a case of this kind in connection with a certain chaste
virgin of the name of Szg-sien ^ being therein recorded •.
We must now define more precisely the position occupied in China
by women glorified and commemorated by an honorary gate and a
place in a sacrificial temple, by stating what other individuals are
honoured in a similar manner by the now reigning djmasty. They
may be conveniently arranged in the following order:
I. The so-called » Loyal Servants of the State"* who, together
with their families, have fallen victims to the Imperial cause in
times of war or rebellion. For such a group of persons one gate
may be erected, exhibiting the names of them all, both males and
females, and thirty taels of silver must be contributed for this
purpose out of the public treasury. Soul tablets may also be put
up for them in the official sanctuaries, those of the females in the
local Temple for the Chaste and Filial Women mentioned on page
760, and those of the males in another edifice of a similar charac-
ter, likewise located within the precincts of the Confucian temple
and bearing the name of » Sacrificial Temple for those who have
displayed Loyalty, Dutifulhess, Filial Conduct, and Devotion and
Submission to their Elder Brothers" •. Such a temple exists in thel
capital of every province, department and district, under the care
4 Books of the Wei Dynasty, chapter 92, I. 5.
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790 THE GRAVE.
of the authorities, who worship there on the same days and in
the same manner as in the Temple for Chaste and Filial Women
(comp. page 750). Soul tablets may be placed therein for man-
darins also who have perished in the cause of the Throne, in case
they have been esteemed worthy of admission as objects of worship
to a certain government temple in Peking, called: » Sacrificial Temple
for Loyalty manifested" '; further still for so-called >> Dutiful Not-
ables" *: members of the gentry or commoners who have sacrificed
their lives in times of rebellion in the cause of the lawful govern-
ment; finally for every male person who has excelled by filial con-
duct towards his parents and grandparents, and by submission and
devotion to his elder brothers. For all women of whatever age or
state who perish in times of war or trouble, one gate bearing the
names of them all must be erected , by order of the Provincial Go-
vernor, in the district by the local magistracy, and be supported
with thirty taels; and their soul tablets may be placed for worship
in the Temple for Chaste and Filial Women.
II. » Officers of Repute" ^ who have deserved well of the people
in their province; and
III. » Local Worthies" *, viz. notables who have distinguished
themselves by virtue and learning. Two temples dedicated to these
two categories, officially and popularly styled » Temple for Officers
of Repute"* and » Temple for Local Worthies"*, exist under the
care of the authorities in the capital of each province, department
and district, likewise in the vicinity of the temple dedicated to
Confucius. Worship is performed there officially on the same days
and in the same wise as in the two temples before-mentioned.
Candidates for admission must be proposed to the Board of Rites by
the highest provincial authorities, and by this Board to the Throne,
just as in the case of chaste and filial women (see page 752).
Honorary gates are not awarded to persons falling under these two
categories.
IV. » Those who have found pleasure in works of benevolence and
taken delight in distributing gifts" ^, to wit, notables or commoners
who have bestowed food and alms upon widows, orphans and
paupers, or contributed considerable sums to the support of their
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PERSONS TO WHOM HONORARY GATES ARE GRANTED. 791
clansmen and modest poor people, or have subsidized the repair or
renewal of public buildings , bridges , roads or graves , as also those
who have provided a decent burial for large numbers of human
remains; and so forth. The souls of such benefactors of mankind
are not admitted into any official temples, but honorary gates can
be awarded them by Imperial decree with a subsidy of thirty taels,
if the sum spent in deeds of charity has amounted to a thousand
taels or more. If the sum was not so large as this, a board bearing
the inscription: »For finding pleasure in good works and taking
delight in distributing gifts" ^ is granted by the Emperor, to be
exhibited over the door of their house.
V. An honorary gate can be granted to any family the mem-
bers of which have lived in perfect harmony for a certain number
of generations — generally four or five — without any of them
having seceded from the common stock. Their names may be re-
corded also on a large stone slab in the Temple for the Loyal ^
Dutiful, Filial and Fraternal (see sub I), which exhibits the names
of all those worshipped in the building. The Emperor may also
confer upon such families the tablet with a laudatory inscription,
which is to be placed over the honorary gate or over the house-
door. On page 772 it has been stated that such inscriptions used
to be awarded to excellent families of this kind already more than
fourteen hundred years ago.
VI. Persons who have reached a hundred years of age and
upwards, are also entitled to an honorary gate and to a model
for a eulogistic inscription. The usual subvention of thirty taels is
doubled for persons of one hundred and ten years, and tripled for
those of one hundred and twenty; for a higher age it is fixed
by the Emperor by special decree *. If such an old man or woman
2 Gases are officially reported of such extra gifts having been awarded at incred-
ible ages. In the Code of Laws (chapter 8, 1. 50) we read of one Tang Yun-
shan "& ^& ijj in the district of Kiang-hia y^ H in Hupeh, who in 1736 was
granted a sum of 120 taels at the age of one hundred and thirty-one, with an
additional present of ten taels and a piece of silk cloth. Ten years afterwards he
was still alive and received by Imperial command another fifty taels and five pieces
of silk. The Ww hioh luh (chapter 3, 1. 16) makes mention of a certain Lan Siang
^ jfk of the district of I*shan j|[ |i| in Kwangsi province, who was endowed
in 1810, at the age of one hundred and forty-two years, with two hundred taels,
five pieces of silk , a laudatory vei*8e to be exhibited on an honorary board , and the
titulary dignity of mandarin of the sixth rank.
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792 THE GRAVE.
have lived with five generations of descendants, an extra gift ot
ten taels with a piece of silk is awarded ^
VII. Honorary gates may be erected also for literary graduates
of the third or highest rank, or so-called tsin-shi* (see Plate
XVII). This degree is obtained at Peking, at triennial competitive
examinations, by a few hundreds of graduates of the second de-
gree, or so-called kii-jen', many thousands of whom assemble for
that purpose from all the provinces. We have also seen many gates
which had been raised in honour of ku-jen. But the erection of
such monuments has probably been subject to many restrictions,
otherwise the soil of the Empire would be literally studded with
them in all directions, as each province produces large numbers of
such graduates once every three years at the examinations held
in the provincial capitals. In various parts of the Realm are to be
seen also gates for tsin-shi and kii-jen of the Ming dynasty
in considerable numbers. The local Memoirs even mention gates
erected for literati of the two highest ranks during the Sung dynasty;
and if we take into consideration that already under the House
of T^ang it was customary for the authorities to decorate the house-
doors of scholars of renown, the case of Chang Chi-hwo, mentioned
on page 777, exemplifying this, we may conclude that honorary
gates for learned men have existed in China ever since the erection
of such commemorative structures came into vogue.
If, after this enumeration, we consider that widowed wives and
brides who have lost their lives in preserving their chastity, are,
in the cases specified on page 751, entitled to both an honorary
gate and a place in a temple of the State as an object of worship ,
we arrive at the conclusion that they are on a parallel in Govern-
ment estimation with mandarins, mandarins' kinspeople and ordinary
women , who have perished in the cause of the Throne (comp. I),
and also on a par with such high literary graduates (comp. VII)
as have obtained a place in a Temple for Officers of Repute or
for Local Worthies mentioned sub II and III, as is undoubtedly
the case with many, if not all of them. All the other categories
come after such women. It is remarkable that this is also the case
i The above particulars have been carefully gleaned, nay copied almost verbally,
from the Wti hioh luh^ chapter III, J. 42 sqq.^ which work borrowed them from
the Ta Taking hwui tieti. The information contained sub VI is also to be found in
the Code of Laws, chapter 8, 11. 50 and 51.
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HONORARY GATES AWARDED FOR FILIAL CONDUCT. 793
with the devotees of filial devotion, notwithstanding this virtue is
recognized by the present dynasty, as well as by all previously
seated on the throne, as being the sublimest duty of the nation.
No honorary gate is awarded for it, only a place in a Temple
for Loyalty, Dutifulness, Filial Conduct, and Submission and
Devotion to Elder Brothers, or, in the case of a woman, in a
Temple for the Chaste and Filial. This compels us to the con-
clusion that the Government considers hiao to be a virtue so
instinctively bound up with human nature, that its observance
becomes a matter of course, and does not require rewards of the
highest order. Its non-observance is a serious crime, and its observ-
ance a natural duty. Even the female sex who combine hiao with
life-long virginity, receive no higher reward. The Statutory Ordinances
have: »When a filial daughter whose parents have neither son nor
» grandson, serves them till their death, remaining unmarried for
»that purpose, she shall come under the ordinances which refer
»to filial sons" ^
Under previous dyiiasties, however, the magnifying of filial devo-
tion by means of honorary gates was of firequent occurrence. We find
numerous instances on record of such monuments being awarded
to children who had saved their father or mother from a great
danger at the peril or the cost of their own lives; — to spinsters
and widows who worked hard for the maintenance of their parents
or parents-in-law, obstinately refusing to marry or re-marry, lest
they should be compelled to abandon those relations, going so far
even as to cut off their hair, in order to avoid all .marriage-pro-
posals; — to children who, in order to cure their sick parents or
parents-in-law, gave them to eat, properly roasted, boiled, or other-
wise prepared , a piece of their own flesh from the thigh , buttock ,
breast or arm, or a finger, or a dose of their blood, etc. etc.
Such fanatic self-mutilation was publicly discountenanced in 1729
by an emperor of the present dynasty (see page 747), and is ex-
pressly declared by the present institutions of the State not to
entitle anybody to a public distinction (page 761). Still it is not
improbable that honorary gates are awarded now and then to
pre-eminent models of perfection among the devotees of the great
national virtue.
^^i^' Wu hioh luhy chapter 3, L 10.
51
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794 THB GRAVE.
In conclusion , we must call attention to the fact that the method
of glorifying the meritorious and virtuous by honorary gates and
admission into official temples, is immediately connected with the
fundamental principles of government which were anciently preached
by The Great Tradition and still form at the present day the sub-
stratum of the Imperial policy. That part of this interesting docu-
ment in which those principles are summarized, has been repro-
duced on page 540. On perusing it, we see that the distinctions
awarded to chaste and devoted wives and to persons who have
displayed submission and devotion to their chief senior relatives,
correspond with the first and greatest principle, viz. »the regu-
lating of the relationship to grandparents and ancestors and be-
tween family-members reciprocally". Those granted to clans who
live together for many generations, serve to realize the second prin-
ciple, namely » regulating the bonds of kinship by making all the
living members of the clan take their meals together". The public
distinctions awarded to mandarins of merit and to graduates who,
by winning the highest literary degrees, prove themselves fit to be
called to high offices, are allied with the principle of » rewarding
meritorious servants of the State, raising capable men to office and
appointing for the public service the able and influential". Finally,
the honorary gates granted to philanthropists for their good works
to the people answer to the principle of » showing appreciation ot
those who manifest love towards mankind".
2. On the Oustom of Dwelling upon Tombs.
The ancient Chinese principle that women , children , subjects and
slaves, as being the absolute property of their husbands, parents
and masters, ought not to be separated from them at death, has
powerfully operated upon the nation in many respects. It created
and long maintained the immolation of human beings at burials ,
and when this barbarous practice gradually disappeared under the
influence of growing culture, upheld for a long series of ages a
systematic suicidism, highly approved of by the people and pub-
licly panegyrized by the Government. Still, step by step its power
over the people relaxed, and the principle would have tottered to
its downfall, had it not assumed a milder form, less repulsive to
the softened habits of the nation. It no longer forced the nearest
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DWELLING UPON THE TOMB OP CONFUCIUS. 795
relations and slaves to enter the grave with the dead, but suf-
fered them simply to settle on the tombs, there to sacrifice re-
gularly to the manes and, in the case of women, to avoid be-
coming the property of another by second marriage. This modified
form of the ancient immolations — we may call it semi-sutteeism
— must now be reviewed with the help of extracts from the native
literature.
As the immediate consequence of the reaction against placing human
victims in the graves , dwelling upon tombs is first mentioned in the
native books after that reaction had gained a considerable footing.
Indeed, the first instance on record dates from the fifth century
before our era, and bears reference to Confucius, who, as our readers
will see from pp. 807 and 808, was a great antagonist of human im-
molations, js^ Formerly", thus Mencius relates, »when Confticius had
»died and the three years of mourning were elapsed, his disciples
» packed up their luggage, intending to go home. On entering to
» take leave of TszS-kung (their fellow disciple), they faced each other
» and wailed till all of them had lost their voices, and thereupon
V returned to their several homes. Tsz6-kung, however, returned (to the
»tomb) and built a dwelling v^ithin its precincts, where he lived
» alone for another three years before returning home" ^. Comment-
ators generally infer from this extract that the disciples had lived
on the grave for three years when Tszg-kung, who had conducted
the mourning observances as master of ceremonies, settled there
once more for the same length of time. In another book of more
recent date the same episode is related in the following words:
j^The disciples all housed upon the tomb, observing there the cere-
» monies connected v^ith the mourning of the heart .... When
» twenty-three of the disciples had finished their three years' moum-
»ing for the Sage, some of them still remained on the spot, but
» others left it, and the only one who dwelt on the tomb for six
A^ years was TszS-kung. Since that time, the disciples and natives of
»the state of Lu who have established themselves on the grave
»as if it were their homestead, have increased to over one hundred
H^ *^ #. «MH#.^=^ii. The Works of Mendus. section
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796 THE GRAVE.
» families , and hence that settlement bears the name of the ViUage
» of the family Khung" *.
During the Han dynasty, the custom of dwelling upon the graves
extended to considerable proportions. This coincides remarkably with
the circumstance that, as stated on page 730, human sacrifices at
burials were then greatly reduced in numbers, no cases being
mentioned in the contemporary records. When an emperor was com-
mitted to his grave, thus say the Standard Annals of those- times,
the highest ladies of the back palace and those who stood most
in favour with the monarch, all settled in his mausoleum-grounds
as warders of the park and the grave hill. And on the mausoleum
of an empress there were abodes for lady-chieftains of the seraglio
and for ladies of lower rank, which were assigned as a mark of
favour to female dignitaries of merit among the relatives of the
defunct (see page 406). Accordingly, it was a distinction to be
allowed to live there, just as it had formerly been looked upon as
a favour and an honour to follow one's sovereign into his grave. An
other direct reference to the custom in question we find in the
Histories of that epoch in the following words : » In the fourth year
»of the period Yung shi (13 B. C.) the Emperor caused those
» wives who had borne no children to leave the Tu mausoleum
» (of the emperor Suen who had died twenty-five years before), and
*> sent them home" *.
Under the same dynasty, the custom also prevailed in the case
of magnates and grandees. We read that on the death of Hwoh
Kwang, the minister mentioned on page 410, » freemen, slave-
» women and concubines were concealed in his grave-grounds, in
» order to take care of it"\ In the Standard Histories of those times
numerous cases are recorded of people of good family and members
of the lower classes who voluntarily settled on the graves of their
parents or husbands. Li Siiin in the first century of our era lived on a
grave for many years (page 464); in the second century, Chao Suen
^ ^ ^. The Domestic Discourses of CJonfucius, chapter 9, § j^ |E ^-
Early Han Dynasty, chapter iO, 1. 13.
^ tfli^^A^^^^-'^® ^™® ^^^^' chapter 68, I. 14.
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DWELLING UPON THE TOMB OF ONE's PARENTS. 797
made his dwelling in the passage which formed the entrance to the
grave of his parents (page 611), thus burying himself with them
without sacrificing his life; and Cheu P^'an, the man mentioned
on page 414, about the same time » lived in a shed at the side
»of the grave when his mother had died, even after the time of
;^ mourning had elapsed"*. Many other examples of this kind lie
before us; but it is unnecessary to quote more.
In the four centuries which lie between the Han djmasty and
that of "Fang, cases of devout relatives dwelling upon the tombs
of their parents or husbands continue to abound in the books. On
page 465 our readers have already had one instance concerning
the grandee Yii Kwun. Of the filial Hii Tsz6, mentioned on page
457, we read: »When he had finished the great work (viz. the
)>tomb of his parents) ^ he abandoned his wife, settled on the
» grave to watch and guard it, and planted rows of pines and
» cypresses thereon. After more than twenty years he married
» again, built a house on the grave and served his dead parents
» with great ardour morning and evening , as he would have done
» had they been alive" *. Wang P^eu ^, said to have been a giant of
eight feet four, » lived in a hut close to (his father's) grave and
» resorted to the tomb regularly every morning and evening to
» make bows and prostrations; pressing the cypresses to his bosom,
» he wailed so bitterly that the tears which trickled down upon
» those trees caused them to wither. , . . And Hia Fang , otherwise
» called Wen-ching , a native of Yung-hing in Hwui-khi (Chehkiang
y> province), lost his parents and paternal uncles successively, thirteen
» persons in all, in consequence of an epidemic, when he was in
vthe fourteenth year of his age. His nights he spent in wailing
» and lamenting , his days in carrying earth , seventeen shoulder-
» loads daily; and when he had accomplished the burials he settled
» in a shed on the border of the sepulchral ground and planted pines
» and cypresses upon it" *. Towards the end of the fifth century, » a
chapter 69, 1. 15.
// ^ 1^ ^ ;fe . Books of the Tsin Dynasty, chapter 88, 1. 7.
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798 THE GRAVE.
»man bearing the surname Ch^en, who lived in Hwui-khi, had
»onlj three daughters, but no sons. Their grandparents having
j»died suddenly one after another, the girls themselves made their
» bodies ready for the grave and buried them , after v^hich they
y> built a shed on the boundaries of the spot and established them-
» selves therein" '. The case of the magnate Chen Ch'^en, virho in
the sixth century settled upon his father's grave together with his
brother, has been mentioned abeady on page 465.
The practices thus exemplified by these many instances taken
from the best historical sources, instances which might be doubled
did space permit, have by no means fallen into disuse in later
times. Many cases are on record in works dealing with the period
when the T'ang dynasty ruled the Empire. Two of these, relating
to the maiden Li and the grandee Ch'u Wu-liang respectively, have
been given on pages 466 and 467. We read also that the >»con-
» cubine Wei-hien of the emperor Teh Tsung on the death of the
» latter requested to be allowed to spend the period of mourning in
» his Ch^ing mausoleum, and there waited upon his manes in the
» park of the soul temple" *. In the tenth century, the emperor T^ai
Tsu of the Later Cheu dynasty explicitly declared in his last will that
» he desired no inmates of the Palace to live upon his mausoleum as
warders" \ In spite of the good example thus set by him , empress-
dowagers during the Sung dynasty were permitted to devote them-
selves on the mausolea to the manes of their consorts, it being on
record that the empress Ch^en Khin-tszS * » on the death of the
# H . 0 fi ^ MM .MU^^'^- «'•. <^'>»Pt«r 88, 1. 5.
H^ g iF^iP.lS^^SiBJ-^'" of the Southern Tsi Dy.
nasty, chapter 55, 1. 4.
>^ ^ ^ g. Old Books of the Tang Dynasty, chapter 52, 1. 12.
3 ^^^^1^ \.0\d History of the Five Dynasties, chapter 113,
1. 7. Compare pp. 732 and 815.
4 m^m.
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DWELLING UPON TOMBS. 799
» emperor charged herself with the care of his temple and mauso-
)»leum, and grew so lean and emaciated by pondering upon the
» favours he had formerly bestowed upon her, that her bones be-
»came visible. Her attendants brought her rice gruel and medicine,
» but she declined these things and ordered them to go away, saying:
)> 'To be allowed to attend upon the wishes and desires of the late
» Emperor is enough for me'. Shortly afterwards she breathed her
;^la8t, at the age of thirty-two" '. In a collection of miscellaneous
jottings, entitled Lan chen taz^^ and written in the twelfth century by
Ma Yung-khing*, it is stated that the dwelling of widowed consorts
upon the imperial mausolea »had been imitated (since the Han
» dynasty) by succeeding generations without modification , and that
» there existed a piece of poetry by Poh Loh-t^ien on the subject
y>oi the concubines of the mausolea, which touched the heart of
j^the reader"*.
Dwelling upon the tombs of parents and hus^nds was as much
in vogue during the Sung dynasty as it had ever been. The works
of the time contain numerous cases; in the Official Histories of
the dynasty alone we have found a dozen, and several may have
escaped our notice. Three have been quoted in this work on
page 458; the last, relating to Ch'^en Suen, is especially worthy
of attention, as showing us a man who dwelt inside his mother's
grave, being himself partly buried with her, thus setting an
example of semi-sutteeism , like Chao Suen of the Han dynasty
(page 797). Many instances represent such devotees to the manes
of their dead as capable of defying the colds and snows of winter ,
robbers, tigers and wolves. It is related how wild beasts, held in
restraint by the unseen powers, or over-awed by such a display of
virtue, refrained from doing them any harm. Residing upon the
graves seems to have been, as a rule, extended to the end of the
'^ -4- ^. History of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 243, 1. 3.
3 Eg 3u Ah].
^ 'fit ^ . -Km kin Vu shu isih cKing^ section jj||^ &L , chapter 103.
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800 THE GRAVE.
three years* mourning, and the time was, as our readers know
from the quotations, in many cases chiefly spent in personally rais-
ing the tumulus.
A goodly number of persons who dwelt upon the graves of their
parents or husbands are on record also in the works of the Yuen
djmasty; suffice it to refer our readers to Khung Ts^uen, mentioned
on page 458. Under the rule of the House of Ming there are still
numerous instances. A perusal of the j^ Traditions on Filial and
Dutiful Persons" ^ contained in chapters 296 and 297 of the Official
History of that dynasty, teaches us that such exemplary children
and wives were then very often rewarded by the authorities, and
even by the Emperor, with laudatory inscriptions for their house-doors
or with honorary gates.
Whether the custom of dwelling upon graves still obtains at the
present day, we cannot vouch for. Considering how deeply it has
rooted itself into the habits of the nation from early ages, we may
venture to presume it has not yet died out; but during our
long stay in China we have never met with a single instance,
nor even heard of such an occurrence. It may possibly have
been superseded by the custom, treated of on pages 27 and
114, of sleeping or keeping watch by the side of the corpse or
the coffin in the house , previous to the burial. This custom is
mentioned already in works of the Ming dynasty among the meri-
torious practices observed by devotees of filial piety and conjugal
attachment.
d. On Burying Deceased Wives in the Tombs of their Pre-deceased
Husbands. — Marriages after Death.
The reaction created in China by advancing civilisation against
the vestiges of ancient barbarism, has modified the old custom of
immolating human victims at burials in another respect. It has
induced the people to postpone the burying of women in the
tombs of their husbands until these women themselves have lived
out their natural lives. Little sophistry was needed to connnce
the people that, by thus modifying the human immolations, the
interests of the dead would be but little affected. They would only
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BURYING HUSBAND AND WIFE IN ONE GRAVE. 801
have to wait somewhat longer for the delivery of their property in
the next world. The modified custom met with the full approval
of sages and philosophers, nearly all of whom had joined the
antagonists of the ancient immolations, and it became unnecessary
to discard the time-honoured custom when divested of its original
cruelty.
The burying of women after their death by the side of their
pre-deceased husbands obtained as a custom already in the most
ancient times of which Chinese writings make mention. The Shi king
contains a piece of poetry, generally believed to date from the eighth
century before our era, which calls up before us a woman yearn-
ing for the return of the goodman of her heart and pouring out
her feelings in the following words: »In life I dwell in a different
house , but in death we shall share the same grave" ^. In the
same ancient work there is the following funeral dirge of a woman
bewailing her husband: »0! should it be after a hundred years
»with their long winter-nights and their lengthy summer-days, yet
y> in the end I shall be moved to his (underground) dwelling place" *.
It is reported that CSonfiicius buried his mother in the same grave
to which his father had formerly been committed: »As CSonfucius
» was still young when his father died", thus we read in the Li M
(ch. 9, 1. 21), »he did not know where the grave was. When he
» was performing in the streets of Wu-fu his mother's temporary
» burial (in the house), the people who witnessed his doings all
» thought he was definitively placing her in her grave , such was the
j^care he bestowed upon the work; and yet it was only the pro-
)> visory burial. After having obtained some information in Liao from
y> the mother of a certain Man-fu , he discovered the grave (of his
» father), aftd then buried his mother ako therein , at Fang" ^ Else-
where in the same work (ch. 14, 1. 46) CSonfucius is stated to have
said : » The people of Wei , when burying husband and wife in the
y> same grave, leave a space between the corpses; but the best manner
^ Wi9AM^^Mmn!rit^ ^^^^^ i ^, ode 9.
^^, ode 11.
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802 THE grave;
» is to lay them close together , as the inhabitants of the state of
» Lu are wont to do" ^
This last citation shows that the practice in question was denoted
in pre-Christian ages by a special graphic sign, viz. ^. This in
itself is a proof that burying wives in the graves of their husbands
was widely extended in those times. The said character has been used
with the same meaning ever since in the books, though frequently
with the affix ^, tsang, which means »to bury" (see page
361). The binomium hoh tsang, »to bury unitedly", which is
used in the above citation referring to the parents of CSonfucius,
is of no less frequent occurrence in the native literature of all ages
(comp. page 443).
The books of the Empire literally abound with passages which
show that re-uniting women with their pre-deceased husbands in
the grave has constantly prevailed in China as a regular custom.
We shall therefore refrain from quoting citations to prove this fact.
That burying empresses and other inmates of the seraglio in the
imperial mausolea has likewise been in vogue under all the principal
dynasties, has been stated on pages 443 et sqq. Now-a-days the
custom of burying wives at the side of their husbands is generally
prevalent among the well-to-do who can afford to buy ground
for double graves; but particulars on this head we reserve for
chapter XIV.
Human immolations at burials naturally imply the prevalence of
a conception that it is urgently necessary to be accompanied into
the next life by a wife or concubines, to prevent one's being
doomed there to the dreary life of a solitary widower. Consequently,
it is only natural that in ancient China there existed the curious
custom of placing deceased females in the tombs of lads who died
before* they were married. The prevalence in those times of such
post-mortem weddings for the next world is revealed to us by the
following passage in the Ckeu li: »The Officer charged with the
» Preparation of Marriages is to prevent women already buried
» from being transferred to other tombs , to be thus given in mar-
»riage to deceased minor youths"*. The legislators of the time,
disliking the sacrilegious removal of women from their graves, deemed"
^ 4;^. The same section, II, 3.
2 it^^^^#ll^^#- Chapter 13. 1.46.
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MARRIAGE BETWEEN DECEASED PERSONS. 803
themselves in duty bound to forbid the practice in question; but
they do not appear to have included in their Veto such marrying
of deceased women at the time ot their burial. The ktter weddings
may a fortiori be supposed to have been very conmon; and that
they were firmly rooted in the then customs and manners of the
people may be inferred from the fact that they have prevailed ever
since, being frequently mentioned in the books of all ages. This
point is of sufficient interest to deserve illustration by a short
series of quotations.
In the Memoirs of the Three Kingdoms we read : » The daughter
»of Ping Yuen died when still young, at the same time as Ts'ang-
»shu, the favourite son of the emperor Tai Tsu (A. D. 220 — 227),
>> breathed his last. The Emperor tried to have them buried in
»the same grave, but Yuen refused his consent, saying that such
» burials were not recognized by the laws of morals ^. Therefore the
» prince was betrothed to a deceased daughter of the family Chen,
)> and she was placed with him in the same grave. And when Shuh ,
» the young daughter of the emperor Ming of the same dynasty
» (A. D. 227 — 239), had died, he buried together with her one Hwang,
va grandson of the brother of the empress Chen, conferred the
» posthumous title of Imperial Prince upon him , and appointed for
» him a Continuator with the hereditary rank of a noble" \ This
event becomes all the more curious when we are told that this Hwang
was a mere baby. It is in fact stated in the Standard Annals of
that time that the magnate Ch^'en Khiiin * rebuked the emperor for
having the obsequies of this child, though not a year old, conducted
with the same ceremonies as appertained to up-grown people*.
Post-mortem marriages in those times being concluded even in the
Imperial family, and between infants so very young, we may safely
draw the conclusion that they were the order of the day between
adults among the people.
^-^^.j^iS^H.-^^l^jS-lfe.The Memoirs of Wei, chapter
11, 11. 17 and 18.
S ^ Si ^* ^^^ y^ ts'ung khao^ chapter 31, 1. 5.
4 See the Memoirs of Wei, chapter 22, 1. 5.
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804 THE GRAVE.
To convince our readers that such marriages were of frequent
occurrence in ensuing ages, we need not make a large number of
quotations. A couple of instances, drawn from the Imperial court-
life, will suffice. »Fing-ch^ng, son of Muh Ch'^ung, died when
» he was still young. During the reign of Hiao Wen (A. D. 471 —
»499), the Imperial princess Shi-p^ing died in the Palace. The
» posthumous dignity of Prince Consort was then conferred upon
^P^'ing-chHng, and he was united with the princess in marriage
» for the World of Shades" ^. Three centuries afterwards , » the
» Imperial concubine Wei caused her deceased younger brother
j^Siiin, after the dignity of Prince of Jii-nan had been conferred
» upon him , to be united in marriage for the next life with a
» deceased daughter of (Siao) Chi-chung, and she had them buried
y> together in one grave. But after this lady Wei had been defeated
»(in an attempt to usurp the throne), Chi-chung opened the grave,
» took his daughter's coffin out of it and brought it home" *, thus
showing that the ties of relationship with a traitress to the cause
of lawful government were cut off by him.
An interesting account of the manner in which such post-mortem
marriages were concluded at the period when the Sung dynasty
governed the Empire, is given by a contemporary work in the
following words: »In the northern parts of the Realm it is cus-
» tomary, when an unmarried youth and an unmarried girl breathe
» their last, that the two families each charge a match-maker to
» demand the other party in marriage. Such go-betweens are called :
» match-makers for disembodied souls. They acquaint the two fami-
»lies with each other's circumstances, and then cast lots for the
» marriage by order of the parents on both sides. If they augur
» that the union will be a happy one, (wedding) garments for the
» next world are cut out and the match-makers repair to the grave
» of the lad, there to set out wine and fruit for the consummation
» of the marriage. Two seats are placed side by side , and a small
» streamer is set up near each seat. If these streamers move a
aii^^lKt.il5iI'.ll<&±^i&- S«*<"-y -f *•"» Northern
Part of the Realm, chapter 20, 1. 15.
Old Books of the T'ang Dynasty, chapter 92, 1. 27. Also the New Books of the
Tang Dynasty, chapter 123, 1. 6.
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MARRIAGE BETWEEN DECEASED PERSONS. 805
» little after the libation has been performed, the souls are be-
»lieved to approach each other; but if one of them does not
»move, the party represented thereby is considered to disapprove
»of the marriage. Each family has to reward its match-maker with
» a present of woven stuffs. Such go-betweens make a regular liveli-
» hood out of these proceedings" ^. Concerning wedding tables for
the living we refer our readers to page 763, and streamers and
banners which harbour human souls have been described on pages
125 and 174.
The following instance of a marriage between deceased persons,
which occurred in the fourteenth century, must not be passed
unnoticed, because it proves more clearly than any other case on
record that in times relatively modem the old conception still
obtained that a wife's place is at the side of her deceased husband
in the life hereafter, and that she may not suffer another woman
to occupy her place there. » Madam Yang was a native of Sii-ch^ing
»in Tung-p4ng (province of Shantung). Her husband Kwoh San
» marched off for Siang-yang with the army, and she , being left
» behind , served her parents-in-law so perfectly that she obtained
y> a great repute for filial devotion. In the sixth year of the period
»Chi yuen (A. D. 1340) her husband died in his garrison. Then
» her own mother laid schemes for taking her home and marrying
»her again, but, bitterly wailing, she took such an oath that
» these schemes were not carried out. After some time, when the
» mortal remains of her husband were brought home, her father-
-in-law said: 'She, having been married to him only a short
» time and being still young, will certainly marry again in the
»end; ought I to leave my son under the ground in a state of
» loneliness?' But when he was on the point of requesting a fellow
» villager to give him the bones of his deceased daughter, that he
» might bury them in the same grave with his son. Madam Yang
1^ ^ IH: i ^- The r«,A mung luh, f$ ^ ^, hj Khang YO-chi J^
; ap, Kai yu ts'ung khao^ chapter 31, 1. 6.
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806 THB GRAVE.
j» being informed of his project became still more overwhelmed by
» grief, and refused all food. Five days afterwards she hung herself,
» upon which she was buried with her husband in the same grave" *.
Such posthumous marriages are peculiarly interesting as showing
that the almost unlimited power of parents in choosing wives or
husbands for their children does not cease to exist even when the
latter have been removed to the Realms of Death, so that in fiEtct
children are there subject to the will of their parents. They further
prove how faint the line of demarcation between the living and the
dead is in China, even if it exist at all.
Yang Yung-siu *, an author who lived under the Ming dynasty,
asserts that the custom of uniting dead persons in marriage was
prevalent in his time. »Now-a-days", he writes, »it is still prac-
»tised among the people, and it is not forbidden by anybody or
» anything. Consequently, such marriages must have prevailed under
» former dynasties" '. Whether the custom still exists at the present
time we are not able to say, as no case has come under our notice
whilst in China. But, considering that it has flourished for so many
ages, we can scarcely believe it has entirely died out even now.
4. On Burying Human Bffigies with the Dead and
Placing Stone Images upon the Tombs.
As our readers know, the Chinese at an early period of their history
replaced the articles of value and domestic appliances which they
had been accustomed to bury with the dead, by less valuable and
even worthless things (pp. 706 et sqq,). From the same early times
iJJS^.^M^^Pil- ^^""^ <>*■ t'"' ^"«° Dynasty, chapter
200, 1. 3.
^ ^. Tan yuen luh ^ ^ ^j ap. Kai yu U'ung khao, cb^ter 31, 1. 6.
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IMAGES OP STRAW AND WOOD INTERRED WITH THE DEAD. 807
they have placed images in the tombs as substitutes for human
victims, which change of custom was likewise caused by the
progress of civilisation and still plays a part in Chinese life to
this day.
The burying of images instead of human victims has obviously been
in vogue since the time when cases of human sacrifices at burials
are first mentioned by native authors. This is perfectly explicable,
for, such immolations were probably not entered in the annals
and chronicles until a growing aversion to them had, under the
impulse of advancing culture, gained considerable ground. Indeed, it
may be admitted that they were not deemed worthy of note so
long as no one was shocked by them or pronounced his aversion
to them. Already the Cheu li makes mention of the use of human
effigies at burials. It has : » At interments , the Officer of the Grave
» Mounds addresses the human images which are placed upon the
» cars adorned with phenixes" \ No doubt these images were regarded
as animate , as there would be no sense in making speeches to lifeless
puppets.
Confucius is stated by the Li H (chapter 12, 1. 48 seq.) »to
»have said: 'Those who make (valueless) implements for the manes
V of the dead show that they are acquainted with the proper method
»of celebrating obsequies, for, though such implements be ready
» at hand , they are unfit for real use. Why, if implements of the
» living were used for fitting out the dead, would there not be a
» risk of this leading to the burying of human beings with the
» dead? . . . Vehicles of clay and souls of straw have been in vogue
» since olden times, and their use is based upon the same principle
» as the use of implements for the manes' . . . Confucius declared
»that those who made straw souls were virtuous, but those who
y> made wooden puppets were inhumane , for was there not a danger
» of their leading to the use of living victims ?" ^
Those straw substitutes for human victims, thus warmly com-
* ^A^^W«l$I^A-Chapter21,1.46.
Section |^ ^ , D, 1.
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808 THE GRAVE.
mended by China's great philosopher, were, like the images of
which the Cheu li speaks, regarded as being inhabited by human
manes, as their name »soul8 of straw" indicates. They seem to
have co-existed with the wooden burial puppets the use of which
CSonfucius stigmatized as capable of leading to the burying of living
persons ; according to the general opinion of Chinese authors , these
dangerous objects were a kind of automata with movable limbs,
more closely resembling human beings than did the souls of
straw. According to Mencius, » Confucius also said: 'Did not
j»he who first made wooden puppets remain without offipring
» because of his having manufactured and used counterfeits of
»men?'"^ Chinese authors have never revealed to posterity the
name of the individual thus chastised by the unseen powers for his
execrable invention.
The national Sage having pronounced his anathema against the
immolation of human beings at burials and earnestly pleaded for the
use of substitutes, these latter have, thanks to the mighty influence
of his doctrines and followers, ever been considered as requisites
for the equipment of graves. As stated on page 403, it was
customary during the Han dynasty to place straw puppets in great
numbers in the imperial graves; but counterfeits of another make
were at the time used as well. It is recorded that the emperor
Kwang Wu, who reigned in the first century of our era, said on
a certain occasion, that » anciently, at every burial of an emperor
»or king, human itnages of stoneware, implements of baked clay,
» wooden cars and straw horses were used , in order that later gene-
» rations might take no notice of the sepulchral place" '. Wang Hu
refers in his THHen fu lun to the use of human counterfeits at
burials of the higher classes (page 690). In the books of ensuing
ages frequent mention is also made of them. The Yiu-yang hah tsu,
written in the eighth century, has: » Houses and sheds, cars and
» horses, male and female slaves,* homed cattle and so forth are
»made of wood. Before the dynasty of Cheu ruled the Empire,
» cars of clay and souls of straw were in vogue ; after that dynasty
j^ ifc • "^^^ works of Mencius , section W^ S ^E i ^' ^'
^^^ A-^^^^' ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ Dynasty, chapter 1,
second part, 1. 19.
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COUNTERFEITS OP MEN AND ANIMALS REGARDED AS ANIMATE. 809
» wooden puppets were used" ^ Under the Sung dynasty, Chu Hi
taught in his Ritual for Family Life the custom of burying the dead
with a good many wooden servants, followers and female attendants ,
all holding in their hands articles for use and food (see page 710);
and during the rule of the House of Ming sixteen musicians,
twenty-four armed body-guards, six bearers, ten female attendants
and ten warriors, all made of wood and one foot in size, took
rank among the things which were officially allowed by the statute
rules to be placed in the tombs of grandees (see page 699).
Seeing that burying the dead with counterfeits of men was a sub-
ject of the close attention of moral leaders of the highest order and
even of the legislators of the nation, the conclusion is forced upon
us that such counterfeits have always been considered as having a
virtual existence in the next world as living servitors, wives and
concubines. In support of this inference we place before our readers
the following tale, which, like everything committed to writing,
is believed by the people to have really occurred:
» During one of the last generations there lived a man, who
»used to travel the country as an itinerant trader in the environs
»of the place where his family was settled. Having been accom-
» panied on one of his his excursions for several days by a certain
» man , the latter unexpectedly said : * I am a ghost. Every day and
» every night I am obliged to fight and quarrel with the objects
» buried in my tomb for the use of my manes, because they oppose
» my will. I hope you will not refuse to speak a few words for
»> me , to help me out of this calamitous state of disorder. What will
»you do in this case?' — 'If a good result be attainable', replied
»the trader, 1 dare undertake anything'. About twilight they came
» to a large tomb , located on the left side of the road. Pointing
» to it, the ghost said : ' This is my grave. Stand in front of it and
» exclaim: 'By Imperial order! behead thy gold and silver sub-
ejects!' and all will be over'. Hereupon the ghost entered the grave.
)>The pedlar shouted out the order, and during some moments
»he heard a noise like that produced by an executioner's sword.
» After a while the ghost came forth from the tomb , his hands
» filled with several decapitated men and horses of gold and silver.
y> 'Accept these things', he said ; 'they will sufficiently ensure your
^^^m.^B^m^' Chapter 13.
52
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810 THE GRAVE.
>>felicity for the whole of your life; take them as a reward for
» what you have done for me'.
»When our pedlar reached the Western Metropolis, he was de-
» nounced to the prefect of the district by a detective irom Ch^ng-
» ngan city , who held that such antique objects could only have
» been obtained from a grave broken open. The man gave the pre-
»fect a veracious account of what had happened, and this ma-
^gistrate reported the matter to the higher authorities, who sent
» it on to the Throne. Some persons were dispatched to the grave
» with the pedlar. They opened the grave, and found therein
» several hundreds of gold and silver images of men and horses
» with their heads severed from their bodies" \
Among the people of Amoy, only a faint vestige of the practice
of burying human beings in effigy with the dead survives at the
present day. As stated on pp. 24 and 93, they are accustomed to
pkuje a pair of so-called feet-slaves upon the couch on which the
corpse is stretched, and encoffin them with the dead. While tra-
velUng through the province of Kiangsu, we have often witnessed
burials at which some handfuls of straw were set on fire while
the coffin was being lowered into the pit. Can this practice be a
survival of the sacrificing of souls of straw, so fervently commended
by Confucius? The present custom, mentioned on page 717, of
burning for the dead counterfeits of attendants and servants and
Kwang i ki ^ B, gg, a work probably written in the tenth century; ap,
Ku kin fu shu tsih chHng, section jA 3^^ chapter 140.
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STONE IMAGES PLACED iNSlDE GRAVES. 811
of male and female slaves, must be ranked likewise among the
survivals of burying living persons with the dead, it being quite
analogous with the burning of counterfeits of animals and lifeless
property, which custom, as stated in our dissertation inserted on
pp. 706 aqq,, doubtlessly owes its origin to the placing of real
animals, valuables and articles of domestic use in the graves.
Stone Images placed inside and upon the Tombs.
The buiying of living persons with the dead gave rise in times
relatively ancient to a custom of erecting human figures of stone
in the burial crypts. The oldest reference hereto is contained in the
Miscellanies about the Western Metropolis. In describing the exploits
of prince Khii-tsih (see page 289) in ransacking the mausolea of
ancient sovereigns and magnates, this work relates: »The tomb of
»Ling, a ruler of Tsin (between the years 619 and 605 before
»our era) was gorgeous and imposing. Gibbons, hounds and torch-
» bearers in stone were placed at the four comers, and further there
y> were over forty stone statues of males and females in waiting" ^
As was stated on pages 397 and 398, half a dozen stone body-
guards in full armour stood, according to the same work, arrayed
in the sepulchral chamber of Ngai , the king of Wei ; besides , there
were forty stone women, quite a harem, enclosed in the back part
of his crypt, in an apartment which was evidently intended to
serve his manes as a bedroom.
Erecting stone statues in the graves seems to have been un-
usual during the Han dynasty, no mention of the custom being made
in the books of that period. Full-sized or miniature human images
in stoneware or of straw continued, however, to be buried with the
dead, as was stated on page 808; there are also on record a few
cases of copper images being placed in graves of persons of note.
The Sheu shen ki makes mention of a grave in Kwang-ling *, in
the present province of Kiangsu, which, when opened in the third
century, was found to contain » several human images cast in copper,
five feet in size" *. We read also that Wang Yuen-siang *, a magi-
' mm-
section ^ M, chapter 138. '^ £ ^ 1^-
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812 THE GRAVE.
strate of Hia-p*ei ' in the province of Kiangsu, in the fifth century,
on opening the mausoleum of a certain princely magnate, » found
» therein more than a hundred pieces of gold in the shape of
» silkworms, and human images in copper'^*. But it became a
general rule during the Han dynasty to erect stone statues upon
the graves. This fact, no doubt, is connected with the circum-
stance that, as stated on page 796, in the same period it became
an established rule on the death of an emperor or magnate to
relegate the ladies of his seraglio to his sepulchral grounds and to
make them settle there, which custom owed its origin to the
ancient practice of interring them alive in the crypt. It also coinci-
des with the commencement of the custom of stationing military
guards upon such mausolea (comp. pages 485 and 436). We may
presume that, in high antiquity, men of arms were often buried in
the tombs of illustrious dead to serve them as life-guards in their
future life, and we have stated above that guards in stone were
arrayed inside the crypt in historical antiquity. Putting these facts
together, it becomes obvious why, down to the present day, stone
effigies of military men are found upon graves, keeping alive the
memory of loyal ministers such as Yen-sih, Chung-hang and Ch^'en-
hu, who, in the dawn of history, followed their royal master into
death as his faithful servitors and slaves (comp. page 722).
The oldest reference to statues erected upon graves is found in the
Books of the Early Han Dynasty, where it is stated that »many grave-
statues were made and arrayed in the mountains" ^ for Hwoh Khii-
ping*, a celebrated magnate who died in the year 117 before our
era. »This means", adds the commentator Yen Shi-ku, »that in
front of the grave there were placed men and horses in stone" '.
We may regard those horses as the substitutes of the living steeds
that used to be concealed in the graves during the Cheu dynasty
and even during that of Han (see pages 395 and 406). But the
reader will remember that tigers, leopards, cows and various other
animals used also to be placed in the mausolea of the Han emperors
(see pages 406 and 409). This usage undoubtedly arose from the
^ W^^^AiiilWl^- ^^^^ ^^ ^^® southern Part of the Empire,
chapter 16, 1. 15.
3 ^^1^ JPMlil-C»'apter55.l.l4.
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STONE IMAGES ERECTED ON TOMBS. 813
conception that the best of a defunct emperor's possessions ought
to be sent with him to the next world, and that amongst these
the rare and precious animals, sent from all parts of the Empire
and its dependencies as tribute to the crown and kept by the
monarch as curiosities, occupied a first place, thus naturally leading
to the erection of images of such animals in his sepulchral grounds.
To this day, figures in stone of lions or animals resembling the
lion, of camels, elephants, sheep, unicorns (ki-lin) and other non-
descript animals, are found in those places, arrayed on both sides
of the avenue leading to the tumulus, in company with effigies of
horses and civil and military officers.
References to such grave statues are sufficiently numerous to justify
the conclusion that they have been in vogue ever since the Han
dynasty. The Water Classic Commentary makes mention of them
in connection with the mausolea of Chang Poh-nga and Yin Lien,
two grandees of the Han dynasty (see page 446); besides it describes
some other graves of the same period, which were likewise adorned
with such statues; but we pass these by in silence. The Shuh i hi
says: »In the Ta-ku mausoleum at Tan-yang there are to the
» north two stone unicorns (ki-lin) of unknown date. Tradition
» asserts it is the tomb of a high nobleman who lived under the
» dynasties of Ts'^in and Han , at which time evil was warded off
»from the graves by means of stone figures representing such
» animals" ^ In the Books of the Sung Dynasty we read : » Since
»the reign of the Han dynasty the dead throughout the Empire
y> have been sent to their tombs with extravagant prodigality. Stone
» buildings and animals in stone, slabs of stone carved with cha-
)»racters, and similar ornamentations have been made for them
»on a large scale.... In the fourth year of the period Hien
»ning (A. D. 278) the emperor Wu of the Tsin dynasty issued
» a decree , stating that such stone animals and honorary memo-
»rial stones, inasmuch as they served for underhand glorification
» and for the exalting of insignificant acts of no essential merit ,
»were more injurious to the people than anything else in ex-
»hausting their wealth, and therefore were entirely forbidden
»and abolished by him" 2. Stone figures of animals adorned also
1
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814 THE GRAVE.
the mausoleum of the fifth century of which a description has
been given on page 440 {g. v.). The grandee Chao Siu ^ who lived
in the first half of the sixth century, is recorded to have erected
such figures, together with inscribed commemorative stones and
pillars of the same material, in his father's supulchral grounds*.
We read also that »in the sixth year of the TMen kien period
y> (A. D. 607) the rules of burial were officially expounded in this
» sense that no stone images of men or animals, nor inscribed
» slabs of stone might be made on ordinary graves; but only
» stone pillars, and a tablet bearing the name of the defunct"*.
And »The Memoirs of the district of Shang-yuen"* in the present
province of Kiangsu, speaking of the mausoleum of the emperor
Wu ' of the Ch^en dynasty, who died in A. D. 569, make mention
of » stone animals still extant on the spot, which was at that time
called the Stone Horses Avenue"*.
The edict of the period T^ien kien, referred to above, proves
that the placing of stone figures upon graves had before the T^ang
dynasty already been consolidated into a formal institution of the
State and had been enrolled among the prerogatives pertaining to
emperors and magnates exclusively. This state of affairs has con-
tinued unaltered in ensuing ages.
It can scarcely be doubted that during the T^ang dynasty stone
figures were also included among the appurtenances of the Imperial
mausolea, for we learn that T^ai Tsu^, the founder of the Cheu
dynasty or the last of the five Houses which occupied the Throne
during the half century between the downfall of the T'ang dynasty
^ ^ ^ • Chapter 15, 1. 30.
2 Books of the Wei Dynasty, chapter 93, I. 12; and History of the Northern
Part of the Realm, chapter 92, 1. 7.
Pi^ft^ttlB^'feflB Be ^'^^^ ^^ ^-^^ S"» Dynasty, chapter 8, 1. 3.
® ^ W^^ -^ ^ '^ ^^ M ® • ^" *•'* '"** "'"* '**'' ch'ing, section
jUiJH ^, chapter 13U.
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TESTAMEMTART BEHESTS OP T^AI T8U. 815
and the rise of the Sung, forbade their erection for himself. )>He
» repeatedly admonished the Prince of Tsin (his Heir Apparent),
» sajdng: 'If I do not rise from this sick-bed, you must quickly get
» my mausoleum in readiness , lest I should be kept long unburied
» in the Palace. Practise economy and simplicity in regard of my
y> mausoleum and its requirements , and lay it out as best suits
» the mounts and hillocks themselves. The workmen and artisans
» must all be employed of their own free will , and you may not
» increase their numbers by transferring people to the spot from far
»or near. Do not waste any manual labour in erecting stone
» pillars on the mausoleum , but make pillars of masonry instead.
» Put my corpse into a coffin of baked clay and wrap it in paper
» clothes; and from the moment it is transferred to the mausoleum,
» consign thirty families of the tax-pajdng people in the vicinity,
»to watch over the grave hill. Before coffining me, you must
»open the coffin of baked clay, and examine it thoroughly. And
» when my corpse is being conveyed to the mausoleum , no human
» lives may be destroyed under any pretext whatever, neither may
»the sepulchral chamber be fitted out expensively. I do not want
*>any ladies of the Palace to dwell on my grave as warders.
»No stone effigies of men, nor stone animals may be used for
»me, but let there be erected one stone only, with the following
» inscription upon it: *The Son of Heaven of the Great Cheu
» dynasty; — when the evening of his life broke, he covenanted with
» the Heir Apparent that he should be buried in a coffin of baked
»clay and in grave clothes of paper, for during his life he highly
» appreciated frugality and simplicity'. If you deviate from these my
» behests , my manes will not assist you from the Land of Shades'.
»And he said further: 'When I was subduing the districts along
» the Hwang-ho , I saw that the mausoleum parks of the eighteen
» emperors of the family Li (t. e. of the Tang dynasty), upon which
» so much money, wealth and human labour had been wasted , had
»all been forced open. Have you never heard that the emperor
» Wen of the Han dynasty was buried with economy and in a
» plain style in the Pa mausoleum, and that this sepulchral monu-
» ment exists to this day? (comp. pages 407 and 408)' "^
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816 THE OUAVE.
The placing of stone figures upon tombs is but rarely referred
to in the native literature of later ages. This must certainly be
ascribed chiefly to the circumstance that the custom has sprung up
in times relatively modern^ and Chinese authors hardly deign to
write upon subjects that are not mentioned in the old classic works.
It is, however, perfectly superfluous to refer to the books for
proofs of its having been widely prevalent during the two great
dynasties of Sung and Ming, relics of those periods being suffi-
ciently numerous to place this beyond all doubt. Archdeacon Gray
relates that in the vicinity of Hang-cheu-fu, the capital of the
province of Chehkiang, he saw the grave of Yoh Fei ^ a cele-
brated military commander of the twelfth century of whom our
readers will find more particulars on page 826; the statues, he
says, which form the approach, represent two ministers of state,
four warriors, two horses, two rams, and two ki-lin or unicorns*.
Many graves adorned in a corresponding manner we have our-
selves seen on our journeys through the South-eastern provinces of
the Empire; by far the most of them date from the Ming dynasty.
This House regulated the number of images by the rescripts re-
produced on page 452. In general the following rules have been
observed with regard to their construction and arrangement. Th^
are placed in two parallel rows, on either side of the avenue lead-
ing to the tumulus. Every two images placed opposite each other
form a pair, being perfectly alike, both in size and attitude. In ge-
neral they face the road , but in many cases their faces or heads are
turned to the beginning of the avenue , and their backs or tails to
mm^mm.x^.mik'\xmmm.M.^m-^A
^mm.^^iik^A:fj.idLmmi^.m^mm>i:
i^i^l^B^M^M.^^^^-^^^ "«tory of the Five Dy-
nasties, chapter 113, I. 10.
2 China, chapter 12, page 310.
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STONE FIGUBES ON THE MAUSOLEA OP THE MING DYNASTY. 817
the grave. A uniform distance separates each pair from the next,
but these distances diflfer for each grave, being in proportion to
the superficies of the sepulchral grounds and the number of images,
which two elements in their turn depend upon the rank and
position of the occupant of the grave. The images are of granite
or other natural stone, and each is cut out of onesolid block. The
human statues always stand upright, which is quite natural, as the
laws of etiquette in China forbid any one to sit down when in
attendance upon a superior. They are placed either at the begin-
ning or the end of the rows, or partly at the beginning and partly
at the end. They represent unarmed civil mandarins, dressed in
long gowns with wide sleeves, and military officers, clad in armour
and helmet. The former are always nearer the grave than the
military, these either following next to them, or being placed at
the beginning of the rows. They often carry a sheated sword
on the left side, or have both hands resting upon the hilt of
a sword placed on the ground between their feet. And as for
the animals, they are either recumbent on their bellies or on their
hind legs, or they are standing, the animals of each pair being
in the same position. The horses are sometimes without harness,
sometimes saddled.
In general the images are somewhat above life-size. The largest
known by us to exist in China, viz. those which are placed along
the approach to the Imperial mausolea of the Ming dynasty (see Plate
XIII, opposite p. 452) are fully double the natural size. Sculpture
has never developed into an art of high order in China. Consequently
the grave statues are roughly carved, the features and attitude being
devoid of life and expression , and exhibiting no idea of art on the
part of the sculptor. On a few occasions we have met with images
rudely cut from flat slabs of granite, probably in imitation of painted
figures. It need scarcely be said that in most instances time and
weather have done much in effacing the lines and features, especially
in the southern provinces, where many of them have become no better
than defaced and formless blocks of stone. Sometimes the avenue
describes a curve, because the art of constructing graves to bring
a maximum of prosperity to the ofispring of the occupant objects
to straight lines, as being extremely injurious when they terminate
at a tumulus. In some cases, a little roofed wall, with either one
or three gate-like entrances, opens upon the avenue and has over
the middle entrance a wooden board, upon which a few large
characters exhibit the name and dignity of the occupant of the
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818 THE GRAVE.
tomb. When kept in good repair by the descendants, such grave-
grounds are sometimes surrounded on all sides by trees and thickets ,
inclosed by a wall.
The most beautiful avenue of the kind now extant in China is
that forming the approach to the mausolea of the emperors of the
late Ming dynasty, situated to the north of Peking. The figures,
all of white, marble-like magnesian limestone S are about twice
the natural size, though the biggest animals, viz. the elephants
and camels, are not quite so large. Each figure with its flat,
square pedestal, the base of which is sunk in the ground, is cut out
of one single block of stone. Though not a single one of these stone
men or animals deserves praise as being of high class workmanship ,
yet the latter resemble live animals sufficiently close to cause horses,
not accustomed to the sight, to startle and even render it difficult
for the rider to pass. Though many centuries old, they have all
withstood remarkably well the influence of the atmosphere, to
which they are exposed without any protection. Some of the ele-
phants and camels have a few cracks, probably ascribable to the
freezing of rain-water filtered into the pores.
These figures are arrayed along either side of the avenue, the several
pairs facing each other. The distance between the two rows, or the
breadth of the avenue, exceeds ten metres, and from each pair to
the next the distance is over fifty-five paces, or about forty-three
metres. The sequence is as follows. A pair of lions, squatted on
their hind legs, each with a collar around its neck. A pair of the
same animals, standing on four clumsy l^s as shapeless as columns,
all placed straight under them. Two pairs of non-descript monsters,
with heads and manes like the lion and elephant-like feet; one
pair are cowered down upon their haunches, the other are standing
in the same attitude as the lions (see the second figure of Plate
XX). Two camels couchant and two standing. Two elephants
recumbent, with very long tusks, the forelegs below the knee
stretched forward upon the ground, and their hind legs similarly
stretched backward. Two elephants standing, their trunks hanging
1 This stone, obviously of the same kind sis has been used in immense quanti-
ties for the construction of public edifices in the Metropolis, including the Palace,
the several State Temples and the gigantic Imperial altars devoted to the worship
of Heaven , Earth , the Sun , Moon etc. , has often been called marble by European
writers. Some fragments taken by us out of a crack in one of the elephants turned
out, however, on a careful analysis, to be magnesian limestone of the formula
3CaCO,2MgC03.
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PL XX.
Stone Animals along the Approach to the ImDerlal Mausolaa
of the Ming Dynasty. digitized by v:.^^gle
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STONE FIGURES ON THE MAU80LEA OP THE MING DYNASTY. 8] 9
down to the ground. Four scaled quadrupeds, viz. one pair squatted
down on their hind legs, the next pair in a standing position;
they have split hoofs, a stiff, scaled dorsal fin, heads reminding
one of no other animal in existence, with a pair of straight horns
bent backward, and hair pointing upwards as if fluttering in the
wind. They represent the so-called ki-lin, as may be easily
ascertained by comparing the first figure on Plate XX with Fig. 36,
which is a picture of that fabulous animal reproduced from the
Fig. 36.
A Ki-lin.
Ku kin fu ahu taiA cK^ing \ Finally come two recumbent horses and
two standing horses, and six pairs of human statues, all in a
standing attitude (see Plate XXI).
Of these human statues, the two first pairs are military officers having
their heads covered with a helmet, and clad in armour which reminds
one of a coat of mail, or of leather or wadded clothing studded all
1 Section
I, chapter 56.
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820 THE GRAVE.
over with small metal plates. A sash encircles the waist, and a sheathed
sword hangs down on the left side. Two of these statues hold in
their right hand a thin cylindric object resembling a short club,
which rests upon the shoulder, and they have their left hand on
the hilt of their swords; the next couple have both hands folded
upon their breasts. Beyond them follow four couples of civilians,
dressed in a long gown with sleeves so spacious that they hang
down almost to the ground. In their hands, which are folded upon
their breasts, they hold a so-called hwuh *, a kind of tabula for
taking down notes upon, which, since very ancient times, officers
have been in the habit of carrying in their hands on appearing before
their sovereign. »When a man of higher order shall go to his Ruler's
y> mansion", says the Liki (chapter 41, 1. 33), )>he passes the night
» in fasting and abstinence , occupies a back room outside the main
» part of his house, washes his head and bathes his body. His secretary
» brings his hwuh of ivory, that he may write down upon it what
» he intends to communicate to his master , and how he shall answer
>> orders he may receive from the latter"*. »The Son of Heaven",
says another chapter of the same Classic (42, pp. 25 — 28), »uses
»a hwuh of fine jade, feudal rulers use one of ivory, and Great
» oflBcers one of bamboo adorned with figures of the cirri of fiishes ;
>> ordinary oflBcers may use one of bamboo with the lower part of
» ivory. When appearing before the Son of Heaven and at trials of
» archery the hwuh is not laid aside. It is used also whenever
» one has to point out anything to the Ruler, or to draw anything
» before him. On visiting him to receive his orders, one writes
)>them on the hwuh. This tablet is two feet six inches (in length).
»Its breadth is three inches in the middle, and it tapers away
» one sixth at both ends" \
A similar avenue of stone figures adorns the approach to the
ruined mausoleum of the founder of the Ming dynasty. Of this
same Section, II.
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STONE IMAGES PLACED ON TOMBS. 821
gigantic sepulchre to which attention has already been drawn on
page 441, once the largest and most gorgeous perhaps ever built in
China, the avenue alone is in good preservation. The statues are
about the same in size as those of the Peking mausolea. They are
of a kind of stone resembling granite, and many have a rather
elevated square pedestal. The two rows are only four paces distant
from each other. The arrangement of the statues is as follows.
One pair of lions squatted down on their hind legs, and one
pair of standing lions. One pair of unicorns squatted down, and
one pair standing. Two recumbent and two standing camels. Two
elephants recumbent and two standing. Two pairs of unicorns, like
the preceding. One pair of horses recumbent and one pair standing.
Two pairs of military officers with sheathed swords on the left
side, holding up before their breasts with both hands a club v*rith
a globular head, which rests against the right shoulder. Two pairs
of civil mandarins, holding a hwuh before their breasts with
both hands.
It is well known that there exists also an avenue of stone
figures in the mausolea of the emperors of the present dynasty.
The Ta TsHng hwui Hen states that » there must be arrayed
» to the right and left stone figures of civil ministers and
» military officers, of unicorns, lions, elephants, horses, camels
»and so forth" ^ No detailed description can be given either of
those statuary works or of other parts of the sepulchral grounds,
as they are not open to public view, being jealously guarded by
Manchu Bannermen against foreign and native intruders (comp.
page 436).
In imitation of previous dynasties, the one now seated on the
throne of China has made the decoration of tombs by an avenue
of stone figures the exclusive privilege of the high nobility and the
mandarinate. Such statuary works are never to be found on the
tombs of commoners, however wealthy or distinguished they may
be. The Imperial ordinance in force on this head runs as follows:
» As to the erection of stone figures : for men of the first order of
» nobility (kung) down to mandarins of the second rank there may
» be two human figures of stone, two horses, two tigers, two sheep,
»and two pillars. For mandarins of the third rank the human
^] . Chapter 76, 1. 2.
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822 THE GRAVE.
» figures shall be omitted; for the fourth rank the human figures
»aDd the sheep shall be omitted; for the fifth rank the human
» figures and the tigers shall be omitted" \ If we now refer to the
Table given on page 45:2, we see that a regulation precisely similar
was in force under the Ming dynasty. But these prerogatives warranted
by the institutions of the State are seldom made use of by those for
whose sake they were created. Not one out of the many graves with
statues and figures , which we have seen in various provinces of the
Empire, belonged to the present dynasty. We shall attempt to trace
the reasons for this in Chapter XII.
Considering that the Sons of Heaven, in framing rules for their
own funeral observances and those of their subjects, have always
acted on precedents set by former dynasties, and taking into account
the above gleanings from the native literature and our own researches
in China, we may say for a fact that, since the Han dynasty, the
animals placed in effigy on tombs have been chiefly horses, sheep,
tigers, lions, camels, elephants and ki-lin. The horses and sheep
represent the live stock buried with the dead in ancient times; the
other animals must have some other signification, as they either repre-
sent wild beasts, or animals not indigenous to China. Doubtless we
must consider them as representing the living articles of tribute
from remote provinces or foreign dependencies, which the emperors
in ancient times were in the habit of keeping in their parks or
pleasure grounds as zoological curiosities or animals of state, and
which they carried with them into their tombs as highly appre-
ciated articles of their property. But this supposition has been set forth
already on page 813. The ki-lin too, though generally believed
by Europeans to be fabulous animals, may have been some rare
kind of quadruped now entirely extinct, a quadruped seen so
seldom in ancient China as to have given rise at a very early date
to extravagant accounts bewildering to the nation's mind, and
thus gradually assuming the shape of a zoological caricature.
It is mentioned already in the S/ii king * and in the lA hi ^ under
iS& j)^ 5 A 5 j^- ^'« ^^'^^fl' ^*^«s^ ^^ <^^ap**r 52, 1. 11.
2 Section ^ ^, ode 11.
3 Chapter 32, 1. 29, being the Section ijg !£, III.
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THE KI-LIN OB UNICORN. 823
the name of lin^ but neither of these works gives a description
of it. The 'Rh ya says »it has the body of an antelope, a tail like
that of an ox , and one horn" ^, and the author of the Shwoh wen
wrote in the first century of our era: )>The ki-lin is an animal
» possessed of humanity. It has the body of a horse, a tail like an
» ox , and horns of flesh" ^. Nowhere in books do we find any better
account which could lead us to identify the animal. That it had
but one horn is contradicted by later writers. And that it is gener-
ally described and depicted as covered with scales may, we think,
be attributed to the circumstance that there exists in the Chinese
language another word 1 i n, which means fish-scales. Anciently, when
the use of radicals in writing was unusual, both this word and the
name of the animal, now respectively written ^ and |||, were
depicted by the phonetic element ^ only.
If we may place trust in the statement of the 8huh i ki, cited
on page 813, it follows that the erection of stone unicorns on the
graves of grandees dates from very early times, even from before
the Han dynasty. In the Miscellanies about the Western Metropolis
there is a passage which confirms this. »Near the Palace of the
» five Tsoh trees grow five Tsoh trees; to the west of that edifice
» there is a look-out with a green Wu tree, and in front of this
>? stand three Sterculia trees , which overshadow two unicorns in
» stone. On the flanks of these animals characters are engraved.
»They have stood upon the tomb in mount Li, wherein the em-
» peror Shi Hwang of the Ts*in dynasty was buried. Their heads are
» thirteen feet from the ground. The left foreleg of the animal on
» the east side is broken off, and the fracture secretes a red blood-
» like stuff which the elders say possesses supernatural power. It
» is taken by everybody as a tonic" *.
Considering that unicorns have always occupied a peculiar
2 f ^:t.4=-^.— :SSectionl8.
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824 THB GRAVE.
position in the opinion of the people as animals of good omen,
we arrive at another reason for their being erected upon mausolea
and tombs. They have, indeed, always been believed to forebode
the appearance in this world of excellent princes and leaders who
would render the nation prosperous and happy by uniting them
peacefully under the benevolent sway of perfect political and moral
rescripts. There is an old legend, already touched upon on page
181, that a unicorn made its appearance at the birth of Confucius,
and numerous instances of its having been beheld in various parts
of the Empire are recorded as fcatunate events in historical and
other treatises , including the Standard Histories. In a work entitled
Khung Tiung4%z^^ or »The Philosopher Khung Ts^'ung", which
is a collection of the sayings and doings of Confucius and some
of his posterity by the hand of one Khung Fu*, a descendant
of the Sage, who held a high official position during the reign of
Shi Hwang, we read that Confucius, on being consulted about a
newly captured unicorn, said: »When benefits shall be distributed
» over mankind by a Son of Heaven and universal peace shall ob-
»tain through him, unicorns, phenixes, tortoises or dragons are the
» harbingers of it" ^. The Shwoh wen signalized, as stated above,
the unicorn as a symbol of love for mankind. No doubt those and
similar conceptions have had great influence upon the erection of
unicorns in stone upon the tombs of emperors and governors. Their
presence on a grave must, moreover, have been esteemed a great
boon to the soul dwelling thereunder, in view of the fact that
peace and happiness were expected to prevail wherever they made
their appearance.
The creation of happiness being identical with the neutralisation
of misfortune, unicorns have from a very early age been entrusted
with the guardianship of tombs from unseen evil influences. The
Shuh i ki states indeed that under the dynasties of Ts^n and Han
evil was warded off" from graves of the high nobility by such
animals in stone (see page 813). It is not improbable that the
other grave-animals were equally connected with superstitions
relating to the invisible powers of evil and the means of counter-
§5. lEffi.
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GRAVE- STATUES AS COUNTER- ACTORS OF EVIL POWERS. 826
acting them. For, these animals standing, as they do, in the same
position in front ot the graves as the ki-lin and the human sta-
tues which symbolize the living victims formerly buried with the
dead and supposed to hover in a spiritual state about the spot like
life-guards and servitors for the protection of the manes of the per-
son interred, would naturally in process of time also get to be
regarded as guardians of the tomb.
Their position of counter-actors of evil powers was evidently in
the mind of the author of the Wu hioh luh, when he wrote: »The
» Fufiff'Suh fang i says: 'The mang-siang are addicted to devouring
» the liver and brains of the dead. Hence it is that Rescuers of
» the Country were employed on the day of interment to descend
» into the grave pit and to drive out those beings. Such Rescuers
» were , moreover , erected at the side of the graves ; and as the
» mang-siang fear cypresses and tigers, cypresses were planted
»in front of the tombs and tigers erected thereon. The Chih
»kuh tszS^ says that since the dynasties of Ts^n and Han stone
» images of men, sheep and tigers, and pillars of stone have been
» erected on tombs to represent the body-guard maintained by the
» deceased during his life. It is to this that the present men, animals
» and pillars in stone owe their origin. Such statues of men are
» sometimes called wang-chung, and such stone pillars Signal-
» izers of Glory" *.
We must, however, demur to the assertions contained in this
extract. Setting aside the fact that the passage in the Fung-mh
fungi, to which the author alludes, is not to be found in the copies
which we have seen of this book, we have never found in any
other Chinese work but his a single word as to Rescuers of the
Country having been taken as models for grave-statues, nor have
we ever seen an image of them on a tomb. The part those individ-
uals played in ancient China as expellers of disastrous influences
caused by fang-liang or mang-siang and other evil spirits,
1 A work of one Wang Jui 3E ^ ' ^^® *^^®** under the T'ang dynasty.
ff(lS3^%, ^A-^##.^5^-^i|^- Chapter
17, I. 3.
53
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826 THB GRAVE.
has been explained on pages 161 and 162, and on page 469. Had
their effigies ever been erected in ancient China on places of sepulchre,
the conservatism of the nation warrants us in saying they would
have been set up there in modern times. As to the name wang-
chung, it seems that, anciently, it was pretty common to denote
human images by it; but no Chinese author has as yet succeeded
in giving a plausible explanation of the origin of this word.
There is sufficient reason to believe that grave-images were some-
times made for the purpose of glorifying the dead by representing
their brilliant exploits or some important event in their lives. We
read e. g, concerning the mausoleum of Tai Tsung ^ the second
monarch of the T^ang dynasty, that » images of Hieh Li and other
>> foreign princes and chieftains whom he had captured and subdued,
» fourteen in all, were cut in stone in the Ching kwan period
y> (A. D. 627 — 649) and arrayed (in his mausoleum) inside the north-
»ern Marshall's Gate"'. »And the Useful Mirror for the Western
y> Lake informs us that the iron statues on the grave of Yoh (Pei)
» were cast in copper by Li Lung , governor of the capital , in the
>> eighth year of the period Ching teh of the Ming dynasty (A.
j^D. 1513). They were three in number, representing Ts^'in Kwei,
» Madam Wang and Wan Sz6-li , lying prostrate in front of the
» tomb , with their hands on their backs. Wanderers visiting the
*>spot had cudgelled them for a long time, when Fan Chu, an
» Assistant Provincial Supreme Judge , had new iron images cast
vin the period Wan lih (1573 — 1619), adding to their number
»one of Chang Tsun. Those of Madam Wang and Chang Tsun
»have now, alas, disappeared"^. Yoh Fei was a celebrated military
Commander-in-Chief in the twelfth century, a leading person in the
^ ^ > ^J ^ 4tJ BJ ,B| P^ ft . Memoirs of the District of Li-ts'uen,
ra! ^ jp^ ^ ' l''^^^ i*^ ^^^ ^^ ^*'* ^^ ^'"^ ^*'^ ch'ing, section i^ 6^ ,
chapter 130.
^^ ^. Kai yii ts'ung khao, chapter 41, 1. 11.
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STATUES ON THE TOMB OF YOH FEI. 827
struggle of Kao Tsung ^ of the Sung dynasty against the Kin
Tatars who, having conquered the northern half of the Empire , had
forced the Court to remove to Hang-cheu-f u , at present the pro-
vincial capital of Chehkiang. Ts^'in Kwei was a minister of the same
monarch, through whose machinations Yoh Pei was disgraced and
put to death; and Chang Tsun and Wan Sz6-li, respectively a high
military officer and a civil grandee, in combination with Madam
Wang had played a leading part in the complot. Ever since, Yoh
Fei has been the hero of historians who have held him up as a
paragon of loyalty to the Throne; whilst the others have always
been regarded by the nation as vile intriguers and traitors to the
good cause of the Empire. The four images are still on the spot
at the present day, for Gray reports having seen them*. The same
writer states that there are also stone images of men and animals
on the grave (see page 816), so that it is quite clear the metal
statues are exceptional, having no connection with the rest of the
ornamentation.
2 China, chapter 12, page 312.
' f^^
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