Research Of Funeral Etiquette In Ming Dynasty

Funeral was one of the most important ceremony in ancient society.The mourning apparel reflect the view of grade and patriarchal clan system;the mourning system embodies filial piety,and even becomes part of daily life;the burial system gives expression to the economy,politics and culture of ancient society,provides valuable entity data scholar who study ancient life.After Yuan dynasty with the collapse of its ritual,Ming dynasty changes the disadvantage of neglect of rite and discipline.During thirty years when Zhu Yuan zhang was the emperor,more than ten books refer to etiquette were revised.Among these books,Ming Ji Li summarized all achievement which were made in the first three years of Ming dynasty,offers standard for the etiquette behavior of officials and plebs in later years.Etiquette of emperor lacks record in ancient days,which was inferred from the etiquette of officials.As a result,books refer to etiquette seldom exist all-round recordation of emperor funeral.The funeral of emperor was hold conform to testament and the decision made by the ministry of rites.The research on etiquette mainly depend on the carding on Ming Shi Lu and Ming Ji Li,on the purpose of testifying its existence or inexistence.Then according to the order of official funeral written in Ming Ji Li,elucidate the etiquette of emperor funeral.Concerning the official funeral,it was formulated from Kai Yuan Li and Jia Li.By collecting the material in corpus and notes,finding out the similarities and differences between the regulation and practical performance.When it comes to plebs funeral,different places show diverse customs.In this part,we put particular emphasis on the situations that go against the traditional ritual.Comparing the etiquette in three stratum,we find out that the royalty had the grandest funeral,as well as the most etiquette and particular etiquettes.Most of the time,official hold the funeral as regulation,their etiquettes present integrality and stabilization.However,some of the etiquette were influenced by the customs from plebs.At last,plebs funeral was limited by their condition of economy and status degree,some of the etiquettes were simplified.Meanwhile,the plebs hold funeral in defiance of traditional ritual and follow customs.Besides the carding on the funeral etiquette in Ming dynasty,there are issues such as cremation,be buried alive with the dead,tombs of officials and so on.They are geared to some etiquettes mentioned in the preceding part of the text,nevertheless limited by the length of section,they are placed in the end of paper.With the research of these issues,the general picture of ritual in Ming dynasty appears more distinct.