It is a Chinese custom to wash the body after death and put on new clean clothes, that is, to put on a shroud. In Southern Fujian, relatives of the old people have to make a symbolic try on when they dress the dead. After trying it on, use a scale without a scale to weigh it, and say in front of people: "this is bought by descendants with money. 'it means filial piety.
The shroud worn by the dead is usually an odd number, with a difference of two, such as seven under five or nine under seven, with the maximum of eleven and nine under nine, that is, eleven coats and nine trousers (women can wear skirts instead of trousers). People who are young, that is, those who die in their fifties, can only wear three. The older the deceased is, the more he can wear them, which means that he is blessed and has a long life.
Why do old people wear so many clothes when they are dead? This is because in the past, people always put the coffin in the coffin first, and the coffin is often stored at home for some time. In general, the older the deceased, the longer the parking time. Some of them have been left at home for several years because they can't be buried for a while because they haven't chosen a good burial place. There must be a problem. The body inside the coffin will rot over a long period of time, and liquid will flow out, and it may leak out through the coffin. In order to prevent leakage, in addition to putting straw ash and straw paper in coffin village, we also need to wear more clothes to absorb water. The human viscera is in the upper body. When it decays, it has more moisture than the lower body. Therefore, the upper body should be worn more than the lower body. Young people are usually buried in the earth soon after death, so they can wear less clothes. Later generations inherited the custom and kept it.
Nowadays, the so-called shroud was originally the clothes and trousers worn by ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty. Later, because the rulers of the Qing Dynasty did not allow the Han people to wear the clothes of the Ming Dynasty, people had to change their original habits. It is said that some people asked the Qing government to change life into death. That is, when he was born, he wore the clothes of the Qing Dynasty, and when he died, he wore the clothes of the Ming Dynasty. When the Qing government saw the strong demands of the people, they had to agree to it. Therefore, the clothing of the Ming Dynasty became the shroud of the dead. Later, although the Qing government was overthrown, the custom of taking the clothes of the Ming Dynasty as the shroud has been handed down.
Most of them are embroidered with patterns of five bats holding longevity. The color of the shroud is usually blue or brown, and it is red, pink or green onion white for young women. In addition, it is also equipped with bedding, usually covered with yellow and white (meaning covering gold and silver), and the quilt is often embroidered with "Eight Immortals". A small number of villages still use this kind of shroud, but most of the villages and cities change their customs. They usually dress the dead in neat and clean clothes for daily life in funerals, which are still called shroud
Why should people wear shroud after death
The quality and style of the shroud are the clothes that only the rich such as the rich in ancient China could wear. To wear a shroud after death is to hope that the dead will become a blessed person (ghost) in the underworld or reincarnation.
The shroud is cotton padded because it is said that after death, ghosts are ghosts. Ghosts live in the underworld. They live in the underworld. They wear cotton padded clothes for the dead and provide food for them. They hope that the dead can eat and wear warm clothes in the underworld.
The folk custom of Han nationality is to wear shroud, offer incense and sacrifice for the dead, and bury them on the auspicious day. It is said that within 49 days, the soul of the dead will return, and 49 days later, they will drink ecstasy soup and reincarnate.
When a person dies, he should wash his body and put on new clean clothes, that is, a shroud. In Southern Fujian, relatives of the old people have to make a symbolic try on when they dress the dead. After trying it on, use a scale without a scale to weigh it, and say in front of people: "this is bought by descendants with money. 'it means filial piety.
The shroud worn by the dead is usually an odd number, with a difference of two, such as seven under five or nine under seven, with the maximum of eleven and nine under nine, that is, eleven coats and nine trousers (women can wear skirts instead of trousers). People who are young, that is, those who die in their fifties, can only wear three. The older the deceased is, the more he can wear them, which means that he is blessed and has a long life.