Zhu Shilin, male, born in August 1947, is a member of the Communist Party of China, a college student, a member of the Shanghai Chongming Literature and History Research Association, and a member of the Shanghai Chongming Writers Association. He has obtained Shanghai Senior Economist Qualification Certificate, Teacher Qualification Certificate and Class 1 (Senior) Commodity Operator Qualification Certificate.
He started his career in August 1968 and retired in August 2007. Before retirement, he was a cadre of Chongming County Supply and Marketing Cooperative. During his work, he has published many papers and articles in publications and magazines such as "Treasury of Chinese Contemporary Thought", "Shanghai Business Economy" and "Shanghai Residence". Dozens of articles and poems written after his retirement have also been published in newspapers and magazines such as Oriental Urban and Rural Daily, China Community Daily, China Newspaper Clippings, Community, Trade Union Expo and Speed Reading. © This article is published with authorization, please contact this official account for reprinting, submission and consultation.
Gossip about two interesting things in the funeral of Chongming people
The author is a native of Chongming, when I was young, I heard my ancestors and my father talk about the relevant matters in the funeral of Chongming people, and when I grew up, I also knew a little about the funeral of Chongming people. I won't talk about anything else today, just talk about two interesting things in the funeral of the Chongming family.
Purpose 1:
Eat vegetarian rice
What does it mean to "eat vegetarian rice"? That is, it refers to the kind of person who is not related to the bereaved family, does not participate in the mourning activities, does not send a funeral gift to the funeral home, and does not do anything for the bereaved family, but waits for the deceased to eat at the table on the day of the funeral. Originally, the author only knew that in the old society, there was a kind of person who specifically inquired about the death of a certain parent, and someone pretended to be a relative of the deceased old man of this family, and went to "eat vegetarian rice" in the name of his relative on the day of the old man's burial. As everyone knows, today, decades after the liberation of New China, this kind of thing has happened, which is really a great interesting thing.
Not long ago, the author went to a friend's house as a guest, and a friend talked about the fact that there is still "rolling vegetarian rice" in society today. It is said that there is a person named Yang Shibao (pseudonym) in a certain township and a village who went to a nearby villager's house to "eat vegetarian rice". One day in a certain month, Yang Shibao learned that an elderly woman (about 60 years old) had died in a peasant family three miles away from his home (the male owner of the farmer's family was surnamed Shen). In order to "eat vegetarian rice," he went to the funeral home the evening before the burial of the deceased, and afterwards he told the family that there were three purposes: first, to find out what relatives the deceased hostess's maiden family had, what her surname was, and where her family lived; second, to familiarize himself with the environment (including the distance of riding and walking), and third, to have a full dinner before the evening of the same day. At about ten o'clock in the morning of the next day (in fact, the day after the deceased's death), the man surnamed Yang took a white bib from his home (issued by the mourners in the past) and put it beside him, and took two spare horse clip bags and rode on a battery car to drive straight to the funeral family surnamed Shen last night. After a little more than ten minutes of riding for a quarter of an hour, I arrived at an open space on the east side of the mourning house, parked the battery car, tied my white waist, and walked to the mourning hall in a decent manner. However, he did not go to the mourning hall, nor did he go to the place where the funeral affairs were recorded, but looked at the table next to him, where four or five people were already sitting for dinner, and when he asked if there was no one else, the seat was vacant; At this time, as a helper of the funeral family, I saw a person with a white waist hurriedly handing over a cigarette and greeting the meal (at that time, the host's family was very busy, who would care about this kind of thing). The surnamed Yang sat at the table to be eaten for a short while, and the host's family wanted to send the deceased person to the funeral home for cremation after the meal, so the meal was opened before eleven o'clock. According to the self-report of the surnamed Yang, during lunch that day, in addition to serving wine and food (including drinks, etc.), the host also distributed two packs of cigarettes on each dining table, and he pretended to be a smoker, and others did not smoke, so the two packs of cigarettes all went into his pocket. After eating lunch, he sang a "mountain song" in his mouth: he said that there was a puppy at home, so he took out the pre-prepared horse clip bag and poured all the remaining vegetables on the table into the horse clip bag, and also filled a box of white and clear rice (together with the dry dishes). After eating, I stayed for a while, and then rode the battery car back to my home. At lunchtime, the host ordered him to continue to have dinner in the evening. After Yang Shibao rested at home for two hours, he stayed until more than four o'clock, and then he rode a battery car to the mourner's house. According to Yang Shibao's own story, during dinner in the evening, he met a familiar person and asked him what kind of relatives he was with the family of the funeral owner? He was unashamed to tell them that he was an old relative of the deceased's grandmother's family. Such a statement, others can't verify it, plus the owner's family is busy, and he doesn't have time to look at the people's accounts, etc., so he has no intention of asking about it, and others have nothing to do with themselves.
The above is the real story of "rolling vegetarian rice" that happened around us and happened in the period of "rolling vegetarian rice" in the new era after the liberation of New China. It tells us: First, it is precisely because of the large-scale funeral work in the rural areas that those who "eat vegetarian rice" have an opportunity to take advantage of and have loopholes to exploit; second, today, when people's living standards have improved and their living conditions have been greatly improved, there are still such greedy and brazen villains, which shows the lack of socialist spiritual civilization building and cultural life, and although the number of people who "eat vegetarian rice" is small, the negative impact is extremely bad; third, our propaganda media should pay attention to it and expand the intensity of propaganda so that those in society can be "cooked" There is no hiding place for the ugly phenomenon of "not being ashamed but being proud". Our cadres at all levels must devote great efforts and painstaking efforts to lead the masses to thoroughly eradicate the bad habits and customs left over from thousands of years, so that our living environment and political environment will be more beautiful, healthy, full of vigor and vitality.
Purpose 2:
Send "auspicious bowl"
In the history of Chongming, where the age of the deceased old man (regardless of male or female) is more than 90 years old (including 90 years old, some people regard the 89-year-old man as 90 years old), then their children on the day of the old man's burial, to the funeral personnel are sent a bowl, this bowl represents the mascot used by the old man before his death, and now the old man has passed away, send a bowl, to express the return to the gift giver, who takes it back to use, just like the old man is healthy and long-lived. According to the author's ancestors, this kind of customs and etiquette on Chongming Island existed as early as the late Qing Dynasty, but in that era, there were very few elderly people over 90 years old. It is said that the bowl that was sent to the mourner by the children of the elderly person after his death was not the bowl used by the deceased old man during his lifetime, but was only a symbol. Some of these bowls are called auspicious bowls, some are called birthday bowls, and some are called health bowls. In short, there is such a meaning, because the elderly used this bowl before their deaths, which can dispel diseases and eliminate disasters, and live a long and healthy life. According to the oral accounts of the ancestors, in the history of Chongming, no one had the practice of sending bowls at the beginning, but it was first proposed by the mourners. It is said that in the late Qing Dynasty, there was a 95-year-old hostess of a family, her husband had long since passed away, and her son and daughter-in-law had also left the world. After her death, her funeral was organized for her by her grandchildren and daughters-in-law. On the day of burial, the relatives of the deceased asked the owner's family for the rice bowl that the deceased had used before his death, meaning that the reason why the deceased lived to such an old age was because of the use of this bowl. Although this is an "idealistic" statement, it is a comfort and sustenance for the elderly. Because of this, it is no wonder that in the process of holding funerals in rural areas, although some of the dead elderly are not yet 90 years old, some people who have given gifts want to take a few pieces of dried tofu from the kitchen room of the funeral family and bring them back, and call these pieces of dried tofu "dried tofu for the elderly", saying that they can be eaten by the elderly in the family to eliminate disasters and prolong life.
In the old society and the early liberation of more than ten years, the funeral family of the deceased elderly people to the funeral people sent most of the bowls are white with blue circles (about 4.6 inches in diameter), the owner of the funeral family obeyed the instructions of the elders, the white background blue circle side bowls (these large bowls are contained in large bamboo baskets, generally 200 baskets) bought from the market first placed under the altar, put for two hours, and then take out when the account book began to record the human relations and put it in the place where the account is kept, which means that these bowls were used by the deceased during his lifetime. In the author's memory, in the mid-eighties of the twentieth century, there was an elderly woman in the Xinhe area who passed away, and when her family held a funeral in their own home, at first they gave a bowl to the giver (at that time it was also a big bowl with a blue circle on a white background), and then no one took care of this matter, and the helpers present also came to get the big bowl, and the adults and children who ate vegetarian rice also took a big bowl each, and as a result, a basket of bowls was distributed, and another basket was bought, and then a basket was purchased, and the original bowl was later become a bowl grab, 400 more than expected, and the neighbor's family who lived nearby got 5 bowls。 The old man is over 90 years old, which shows that her children are filial and she lives a long life, which is a good thing. So for the family, it doesn't matter if there are hundreds of extra bowls. However, this kind of bowl grabbing phenomenon later became a topic of conversation and laughter in the market.
After reform and opening up, along with the improvement of the people's living standards, certain cadres have made a big deal in handling funerals, which has caused some unhealthy tendencies in society to raise their heads. In the author's memory, after someone on Chongming Island died of an elderly man, he no longer issued the old big bowl with a white background and a blue rim, but instead issued a tea cup with the word "Shou" (also called a tea bowl, a small bowl) and a spoon with a "Shou Xing" (also called a spoon). After a period of time, the original bereaved family did not send towels (two towels each) to relatives and friends who gave gifts, and then increased to 20 yuan or 30 yuan. Nowadays, in some areas, the return gift has increased to 50 yuan, which has prompted the giver to no longer be 100 yuan or 200 yuan, but to 300 yuan and 500 yuan. The dishes in the funeral are more abundant than the dishes of the wedding banquet in some places (there is a business owner's father on the first anniversary of his death, a total of more than 60 tables, costing 300,000 yuan, and the liquor on the table to entertain the guests is about 1,000 yuan of Wuliangye).
On Chongming Island, the phenomenon of some bereaved families making a big deal and extravagance and waste in the funeral is really disgusting and painful, and the broad masses of the people see it in their eyes and hate it in their hearts, and this old custom that has changed its taste is completely contrary to the new trend advocated by today's socialist spiritual civilization, and it is earnestly hoped that the leaders at higher levels and the local government will seriously grasp it and resolutely rectify this unhealthy trend.
Since the reform and opening up to today, the author has sent a rough inventory of all kinds of tea cups (tea bowls) sent to the home with "longevity", a total of more than 30 such bowls, the original intention of the inventory is not to calculate how much money was spent before and after, but to tell people from one side that after the liberation of New China, especially since the reform and opening up, the people on Chongming Island have greatly increased the life expectancy of working people with the improvement of living standards. These more than 30 bowls with the word "longevity" show that the author's deceased old people were more than 90 years old when they died. According to the author's consultation of Chongming County Chronicles and relevant historical materials, the average life expectancy of Chongming people before the liberation was only 35 years old, after the liberation of New China to a few years before the reform and opening up, although the average life expectancy of Chongming people has increased to 65 years old, but it is still relatively low, since the reform and opening up, the average life expectancy of the people of Chongming under the care of the party and the state has reached about 84 years old. In recent years, with the popularization and in-depth development of the construction of Chongming Ecological Island, Chongming Island has become a national-level "hometown of longevity", and the life expectancy of Chongming people will be higher.
The great leader Mao Zedong once taught us in the article "Serving the People": When the people in the village die, a memorial service is held. In this way, we can express our sorrows. Chairman Mao Zedong used "a memorial service" here to mean "simple funeral". The author believes that the old man is an immortal pine, who has paid a lot for the country, for the society, and for the family during his lifetime, and has made contributions. Especially when the elderly over 90 years old have passed away, we send an auspicious bowl with the word "Shou" to relatives and friends who attend the memorial service as an eternal memorial.
The above is the relevant information collected by the author after tea and dinner, and this article is written. Please correct any deficiencies.
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