After the founding of New China, the Central Committee held a ceremony to award titles in 1955, and a number of famous generals of the Republic who made outstanding contributions to the party and the country were awarded medals at the ceremony. Among them, the well-known famous general Xu Shiyou was awarded the rank of general.
It was such a well-known general who submitted an application to the party organization after the founding of the country, and this application did not involve the major affairs of the military and the state, but only discussed one issue:
I hope that I can use the burial method of earth burial after I die
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It can be seen that the issue of funerals is a big problem that no one can ignore.
Sima Qian youyun: "Man is inherently dead, or heavier than Mount Tai, or lighter than Hong Mao." ”
The meaning of life is not in the length, but in the process. But even so, in the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, which has been passed down for more than 5,000 years, whether it is birth or death, there is a unique set of traditional rituals and regulations.
All along, burial is china's traditional burial method, "into the soil for safety" is the last wish of the Ancient Chinese people after the end of their lives, not only the royal family will build a huge and gorgeous mausoleum for themselves, even ordinary Li people have their own piece of ancestral grave, after the death of family members, will be buried in this cemetery.
However, in modern China, the way of cremation has gradually become popular, and the use of cremation is not only more neat and hygienic, it will not produce the hidden danger of infectious diseases, but also in today's society, which is a great saving for the family to bury the deceased.
Nowadays, both burial methods are widely used in China, and which way to choose has also caused a lot of debate.
Professor Wu Fei of Peking University strongly recommended the method of burial, believing that this method gave Chinese the final decency, while cremation burned people's remains like garbage.
There is no respect.
So, which of these two burial methods is better or worse?
A long-standing burial tradition
As early as the beginning of the birth of Chinese civilization, the way of burial has already appeared.
At that time, newly intelligent humans were still struggling with nature, and in order to obtain food, people often needed to hunt. This activity is very dangerous, and people are often killed by the claws of ferocious beasts.
In order to keep the corpses of their companions from being eaten by wild beasts and birds, people often simply dig a pit in the ground and bury the corpses of their companions, which is the origin of earth burial.
Later, China entered the feudal society, and in order to reflect the differences in the ranks of different groups, a set of detailed and complex funeral rites was developed.
When burying the deceased, the family often invites a "Mr. Feng Shui" to find a "feng shui treasure land" for the deceased, believing that this will allow the deceased to rest in peace and bring good luck to the descendants of the family.
The scale of burial of the elderly is also linked to the top priority in traditional culture, "filial piety", if the children do not hold a grand funeral for their parents and elders, they will be regarded as "not filial piety enough", and if they do not let the remains of their parents be buried in the ground, they will be pointed out by thousands of husbands and regarded as "deviant".
Later, burials have transcended their original meaning, and royal nobles and large families see burials as a way to travel to the afterlife.
According to their status and their own financial resources, they built many large-scale, solemn and magnificent mausoleums on the land of the Central Plains. In these mausoleums, not only are there a large number of gold and silver jewelry as burials, but the royal family will also let the living be buried, and once the emperor dies, his concubines will also be given death, allowing them to go to the world after death to continue to accompany the emperor.
To this day, there are still ancient tombs discovered by the world from time to time, and the recently discovered Tomb of the Han Dynasty Emperor is an example, these tombs have extremely high archaeological value and are of great significance to our understanding of history and historical figures.
The rise of cremation
Although earth burial is a traditional Chinese burial method, this method also has its own unique drawbacks.
The first is the epidemic of infectious diseases that are easy to cause.
In ancient times, due to the limitations of science and technology, it was naturally impossible for people to understand these tiny pathogenic organisms such as bacteria and viruses.
After death, the remains will breed a large number of germs, and once infected to a living person, it is likely to cause the epidemic of infectious diseases.
A prime example is the famous "Black Death" pandemic in European history, in which the dead were not treated in time, causing people to contract the virus from corpses, which ultimately led to the deaths of tens of millions of people in Europe.
In fact, cremation also appeared very early in history, and records of cremation can be found in ancient texts such as "Mozi" and "Xunzi".
But this method was mostly applied to dealing with soldiers who died in battle after the war, and Buddhists also adopted cremation after their deaths.
The promotion and popularization of cremation began after the founding of New China.
After the founding of New China, in order to break the feudal superstitious thinking, Chairman Mao took the lead in launching an initiative on cremation, he proposed that all party members and cadres should be cremated after death, and take the lead in implementation, under the initiative of the Party Central Committee, cremation was gradually accepted by the Chinese people.
In modern society, land prices are soaring, and buying a cemetery for the deceased is a big expense, and cremation not only does not have the cumbersome burial procedures, but also effectively saves China's already tight land resources. therefore
Cremation has become quite widespread in Chinese society.
Professor Wu Fei proposed to restore the burial
But Peking University professor Wu Fei put forward his own point of view. In Professor Wu's view, the way of handling cremation is disrespectful to the deceased.
The body is sent to an incinerator for cremation, and the whole process is like disposing of garbage.
It does not reflect man's unique status as the spirit of all things.
Wu Fei proposed to restore the burial method of earth burial, which not only has a long historical tradition, reflects the humanistic care for the deceased to "enter the soil for safety", but also allows future generations to have a place to mourn and mourn their relatives. In Chinese characters, the character "grave" has a structure next to the earthen character, which also reflects the special meaning of earth burial from the side.
In his view, the burial does not have to be very solemn, it is important that people can fully express their mourning for the deceased in this process, and the cost is not more expensive than cremation.
brief summary:
From the perspective of the whole world, cremation and burial also occupy a considerable position in human society. In some Western countries, cremation is commonly used, but in France and the United States, burial accounts for a larger proportion.
What kind of burial method should be adopted can not be considered from only one dimension, but should be considered from the aspects of tradition, humanities, science and economy, and everyone will have their own opinion.
So in the eyes of readers and friends, which burial method do you support?