Chinese always like to burn paper money when worshipping ancestors, and in today's view, the behavior of "burning paper money" is inevitably suspected of "polluting the environment", but where did the custom of using "burning paper money" to worship ancestors come from and where did it come from?
The topic of "burning paper" can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the sister-in-law and brother of Cai Lun, the inventor (improvement) of papermaking. According to legend, Cai Lun's brother Cai Mo followed Cai Lun to learn papermaking, but unfortunately, the art was not refined, and the paper made could not be sold. So Cai Mo and his two sons directed and performed a good play by themselves, so that the neighbors mistakenly thought that burning paper could bribe The King of Yama and redeem the dead relatives from the King of Yama. In this way, the paper made by cai Mo's family was sold, and the custom of burning paper to sacrifice the ancestors slowly spread. Unfortunately, the above is just a legend with almost zero credibility, and it is good to remember it as a story, but don't take it seriously.
Since the legend is not credible, from what historical stage did the custom of "burning paper to worship the ancestors" begin? In fact, the origin of this custom really starts from the Han Dynasty, or even earlier dynasties, their monetary policy at that time. In ancient China, when the means of production were simple and inefficient, and social resources were relatively scarce, the financial system of this society also became very unstable due to untimely policies and occasional wars. Just like the current saying "treasure gold in the chaotic world, hide antiques in the prosperous world", the currency may depreciate at any time in the chaotic world, so it needs to be exchanged for precious metals to preserve value. Therefore, when the ancients indiscriminately issued currency during the war and chaos, resulting in unstable monetary value, they found an item that could preserve the value at that time, which was the raw material for making clothes - silk fabrics, cloth and other things.
Cloth, which everyone uses, is common but not widespread, and is very suitable for "bartering" in some historical stages. During the Three Kingdoms period, the State of Wei even directly stipulated and recognized that cloth could be used as a negotiable currency. According to the Book of Jin and the Chronicle of Food and Goods, Emperor Cao Pi of Wei "dismissed five baht of money in the second year of the Huang Dynasty and made the people's valley a city". For a long time thereafter, cloth was equated with fiat currency. Speaking of which, some people may be asking, talking about paper, so what about cloth? Don't worry, please look at the picture below, how the cloth is stored.
since ancient times, Chinese has had the funerary custom of "dying as if it were life". What kind of character the deceased was before he died, what kind of etiquette he used after death; what kind of treatment he enjoyed before he died, and his funeral goods must also be consistent with or the same as his treatment before he died. They think that their relatives, in fact, have not died, but have just gone to another world, where they also want to live, so the younger generations have to provide them with the materials they need to live. During this period, cloth, as a necessity of life, was naturally also included in the funeral items.
From the Xia Shang funeral of real people and real animals, slowly to the Zhou Dynasty and Qin Dynasty periods to accompany the burial of dummies, fake livestock (pottery products), the times are progressing, and the funerary products are also slowly changing. No, it started with Cai Lun. After Cai Lun's improved papermaking, the price of paper was reduced, and because the storage method of paper at that time was similar to cloth, the appearance was more similar. So slowly people used paper instead of cloth and carried out burials. Hong Xiqing's "Du Shi Dialectic" records the use of paper instead of cloth to worship ghosts and gods: "(Southern Dynasty Qi) Qi Dong waited for the good ghost gods, cut paper into paper, and used it as a substitute for bundles, until the Tang Dynasty prevailed in its affairs."
At this time, people still only use burial, scattering, and hanging for funeral paper, and there is no custom of "burning". The custom of "burning" also originated in the Han Dynasty, but this is a foreign custom, and the final scale is relatively late. At that time, people in India and Central Asia believed that "fire" could be used to pass sacrifices to ghosts and gods, and with the introduction and prevalence of Buddhism, this custom was also known to the ancients, and later gradually recognized.
Later, people did not simply burn paper, but made paper into various shapes of items and then burned. As we all know, the earliest legal paper money in China was the "Jiaozi" during the Song Dynasty, but there is another paper currency that appeared earlier than the "Jiaozi", and this currency is the "Underworld Coin". In the Song Dynasty Tao Yi's "Qing YiLu", there are two kinds of underground coins, the yellow paper is called "Quantai Bao", and the white paper is called "Meditation Yabao". This is engraved, printed, mass-produced.