About Funerals and the Influence of Traditional Ideas of Death

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is distinctively different from the general idea in China.

Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates regarded death as happiness and freedom, and a Roman poet Lucretius, as a materialist, believed that death is only a inevitably natural process. Confucius, the famous philosopher in Chinese history, would rather talk about living people than death, that is, he paid more attention on the society and the reality than something illusory. Mozi, also a famous Chinese philosopher, proposed that elaborate funerals were unnecessary. Zhuangzi, however, deemed that there is no difference between living and death.

The differences in ideas about death are showed mostly in the differences in funeral customs. Though every region possesses its own funeral custom, they can still be roughly divided into two kinds, namely, the western funeral and the Chinese funeral.


II. Comparison between Traditional Chinese Funeral and Traditional Western Funeral

Though different in many aspects, there are ...

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emperors in the history encouraged people to simplify the funeral and indeed had some positive effects, the general situation did not change. And with the development of feudalism and royal authority, the funeral customs had formed a system and involved a series of rules and manners which had had a great influence on the society for a long time.

The ancient Chinese would usually purchase a place for tomb long before their death, and the rich would even build a magnificent mausoleum. Ahead of construction, a feng shui master would be hired to practice geomancy and choose a lucky day to start the construction.

After the one deceased, there were ten rituals to be conducted. ...

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