Chinese culture is profound and all-encompassing, and traditional culture has made many foreign friends praise bibi, such as ancient poetry, Peking opera, Chinese painting and so on.
Among them, Peking Opera, as the national essence of China, makes many foreign students intoxicated and unable to extricate themselves, and many foreign students also said: "Peking Opera has four artistic techniques of singing, reading, doing and playing, and the teachers ticked Guan Gong's face for me, and the red flower face represents loyalty and courage."
It can be said that today's China has gone global, and our traditional culture is also well known to the world.
However, in China's traditional culture, funeral customs have always been highly valued, why is this?
The reason is actually very simple, that is, the funeral represents the end of an individual life, and people pay attention to "going into the soil for safety", that is, to resettle the returning soul.
The concept of "long funeral and thick burial, incense forever" can be traced back to the Yin Shang period. At that time, people believed that "the soul is immortal" and gradually began to pay attention to the things after "death".
In the period of feudal society, many nobles directly used slaves to accompany burials, that is, we often say "buried alive," although the burial items will not be less, but there is still a big gap in the identity of the deceased.
But one thing I don't know if you have found, both men and women, young and old, will change into "shou clothes" after death, is there anything exquisite about this?
The elegance of the shou clothes
Shou yi is the clothes of the burial of the deceased, refers to the clothes worn for the dead, the elderly before they die to make the clothes to be worn after death, the beauty of shou yi, meaning health and longevity.
After the death of a person, relatives should wash their bodies and then put on new clean clothes, that is, shou clothes, and in the southern Fujian area, when wearing shou clothes for the dead, the relatives of the old man should first symbolically try it on. After trying on it, use a scale without a scale hammer to weigh it, and say in front of people: "This is what your descendants bought with money." "It means filial piety to future generations."
The birthday garments worn by dead people are usually odd, with a difference of two up and down, such as seven down five or nine down seven, up to eleven down nine, that is, wearing eleven tops, nine pants (women can use skirts instead of pants).
In addition, the elderly will make a good birthday coat before they die, which is called the birthday coat, which means health and longevity. Especially in the north Chinese New Year's Eve on this day, the old man will wear a birthday coat on his body.
Shouyi is understood in a broad sense, there are countless varieties, and family members can choose various styles and fabrics according to their needs (except for fabrics that are easy to cause pollution), and the more popular types of shouyi are clothes, pants, and skirts. There are long shirts, short jackets, etc., and there are underwear, middle clothes, outerwear, pants and skirts are long, short and various Chinese and Western different styles.
However, it is also very particular about making shou clothes, and in ancient times, from futon shoes and hats to underwear, outerwear, robes, shoes and socks, women had to make their own. In modern times, in addition to making outerwear, underwear, shoes and hats, etc., people buy from shouyi stores, and coats replace robes.
Shou yi, commonly known as "old clothes". After death, the children wear birthday clothes for them, the deceased is male, usually by the son and daughter, and the deceased is female, the daughter and daughter-in-law are taken care of.
Shou clothes are generally not made of fur and satin, for fear of becoming beasts and cutting off children and grandchildren in the next life, mostly made of silk cotton, taking the meaning of "attachment" and "remembrance".
Why should people wear birthday clothes after death?
In ancient times, people would be put into the coffin after death, and the coffin often had to be parked at home for some time, many times the deceased was older, and some could not be buried because they did not choose a good cemetery for a while, so they would be parked at home.
After death, the body will show signs of decay, some liquid will flow out of the coffin, and sometimes it will leak out through the coffin, in order to prevent leakage, people will put grass and wood ash in the coffin to absorb water.
And putting on a shou robe for the dead is also to be able to absorb water, because most of the human organs are in the upper body, and when it decays, the water is more than the lower body, so the upper body is worn more than the lower body. Deceased people are usually buried in the ground soon after death, so they can wear less clothes. Later generations have become accustomed to each other and have been used for a long time.
Source: Xiao Bin speaks of literature and art
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