A Study On The He’s Ritual Group Funeral Rites In Macheng Town, Xuyong County

The funeral rites is a product of history development. It is a creation and inheritance of geographical cultural variety. This thesis, taking folklore and anthropology as the study perspective, field research, philological identification and historical comparison as the methodology, records in detail and analyze objectively the funeral rites practiced by the He’s Ritual Group in Macheng Town, Xuyong County, and try to interpret the ritual books, most of which are handwriting copies, describe the ritual process, in the beginning of which is inviting gods, and then redemption the soul of the dead from sin and suffering, and finally the covering of the coffin and the burial.The first part of this thesis is a survey of the implementer of the funeral rites--the He’s Ritual Group, including its business scale, financial situation and the inheritance;The second part is the classification and analysis of the ritual books, based on the material collected, discussing the general condition, the ways of preservation, of the ritual books, and the taboos.Then after that, the end of this part analyses the four main parts of the content of the ritual books, which are revealing the ceremony, highlighting the theme, exhorting the world, praising and worshiping the gods.The third part is an elaboration of the general situation of the funeral rituals. According to the meaning of the rituals, I tend to divide the ritual process into four parts:declaration to the heavens and the earth and inviting the gods;opening the directions and leading the soul of the dead, redemption of the soul, sending the gods, and buy the title deed,each part has more detailed divisions, with detailed description and brief analysis.Finally, the last part is my subsequent reflections on the He’s ritual group that came to me during my research and writing.