A Study Of The Funeral Views Of The Tang Dynasty

People of all ranks regard funeral as crucial rite through the ancient China.It plays an inevitable role in society and connects each aspect of social life.Action is subject to concept.Funeral concepts concentrate on knowledge,ideas and believes of corresponding times.Studying the funeral concepts of Tang Dynasty could understand the outlooks and activities of the people who lived at that time.it is conductive to explain the thoughts of Tang Dynasty in a specific view.The present research situation is not good enough the importance of funeral concepts of Tang Dynasty.panoramic research results for the funeral concepts of Tang Dynasty do not appear till now.In this way,the author conduct a systematic research of the funeral concepts of Tang Dynasty.This article bases on the study of previous scholars.It consists of three parts(totally eight chapters).The first part is the origins of the funeral concepts of Tang Dynasty.It first chapter is funeral concepts before Tang Dynasty and the second chapter is death concept and burial customs of people in Tang Dynasty.The first chapter demonstrates the funeral concepts before Tang Dynasty.The primitive believe spirit never die.This concept inspire the consciousness and habits for burying the dead.Smearing vermilion,secondary burial and the unanimous head direction of the dead in the same tribe show people wish the dead could enter afterworld smoothly,reunite with clansmen and achieve eternal life.People in Xia,Shang and West Zhou Dynasty have keen sense ghosts and gods.They bury the dead relatives with generous wealth,so they think the dead could enjoy rich lives in afterworld and people alive can be blessed by them.The hundred schools of thought represent the funeral concepts of the Spring and Autumn Period and warring states time.The funeral concepts of the Confucian school,Taoist school and Mohist school are relatively intensive and systematic.Confucian school does not to touch on the question of ghosts and gods.Confucius does not encourage luxurious burial and advocates that hold funerals with rites,however,his inheritors Mencius and Xuncius take reverse proposition.Mohist school promote thrift burial and value the ghosts,their paradox concepts promote luxurious burial.Taoist school's thrift burial concepts base on the optimistic points to death,but these points are unreasonable.In the later years the Taoists who stand for thrift burial discard the irrational opinion and develop this proposal.The death concepts of Han Dynasty,Three Kingdom period,Jin Dynasty and Southern and Northern Dynasties are systemic and diverse.People carry out their concept by the ornaments and funerary objects of grave.The second chapter analyses the death concepts and burial custom in Tang Dynasty.There are mainly two kinds of death concepts in this period.Some people think the dead have consciousness.The other think the dead do not have consciousness.The first group intend to hod luxurious burials.It shows in grand imperial mausoleums,perfect funeral rites.Each ranks hold luxurious burials.There are many expensive burial objects in many tombs.Though the voice for thrift burial is weak,it does not cease during this time.The motives of thrift burials are different.It reflects that some people think the dead is unconsciousness.The second concept is common and deep.Funeral concepts of Tang Dynasty the historical result developed by previous people and show the death concept in funeral.The funeral concepts of Tang Dynasty is inspired by previous time.The death concepts of Tang Dynasty is the reality origin of the funeral concepts.The second part is the contents of the funeral concepts in Tang Dynasty and it has three chapters.The third chapter is Beimang,the reasonable burial ground of the people in Tang Dynasty.The fourth chapter is go up to heaven and become immortal,the afterworld of grave frescoes in Tang Dynasty.The fifth chapter is fall into hell and become ghost,The anchor of underworld in people's concept for Tang Dynasty.The funeral concepts in Tang Dynasty not only base on the human world but consider the heaven and underworld.These concepts come from the three worlds of heaven,ground and hell in Han Dynasty.These show universal concept in funeral.People in Tang Dynasty pay much attention to the position of grave.They adore Beimang for the ideal burial ground.Beimang establishes the holy burial ground in Tang Dynasty and becomes the common name of burial ground.An important reason for this action come from people's ideas that burial ground with good fengshui could insure body keep from rotting.The people think only the dead without rotting can live enjoy the afterworld.Some people in Tang Dynasty think the dead could go up to heaven and become immortal.Many grave frescoes in Tang Dynasty illustrated these ideas.This article discusses frescoes such as carriage in clouds,the old man beneath the tree,cranes,four gods and watchtowers to understand the heaven life imagination of people in Tang Dynasty.Some people think the dead will fall into hell and become ghost.The ghosts live in underworld and the superior governor of this world is underworld King.Two main underworld Kings are the governor of mount Taishan and Yama.There are some unknown underworld Kings such as god of mount Huashan,duke of East sea and town god.The underground of Tang Dynasty is diverse because there are many kings.For the graves in Tang Dynasty which have heaven painting,the image is multiple.The diverse underworld shows in the epigraph.Both heaven and hell image could appear in one grave.The way to go up to heaven is diverse and the pass to hell is multidimensional.In order to cater to the owner of grave,the designer make multiple plans so the owner can choose the lifestyle in the afterworld.The third part is externalization of the funeral concepts in Tang Dynasty.It researches underworld marriage,evocation funeral and back-home funeral.Through these rites,the dead could reunite to the ancestors in the afterworld and be worshiped by descendants.Both people alive and dead could be comforted through these rites.These three rites show that the people in Tang Dynasty could not understand the world completely.As final efforts to perfect life,the living people make up the regret of the dead.These reflect the philosophy,life outlook,custom and rite at that time.It response people;s feeling to hometown and the afterworld.For the funeral rite through ancient China,the funeral rite which approved by authority and carried out by folk is big tradition.The rite followed by folk spontaneously is small tradition.Underworld marriage,evocation funeral are not approved by authority,so they are small traditions.However these rites are carried out in all ranks from royal household to the common people.As small traditions,underworld marriage,evocation funeral absorb some content of big tradition,and big traditions accept and contain some content of the small ones.Both kind of traditions are interactive.back-home funeral belongs to big traditions and followed by folks.From government to folks,all classes take back-home funeral as an important rite.The forming of funeral custom is developed through the exchanging between big traditions and small traditions.