Why People Burn Paper on Tomb Sweeping Day
As you make your way around Beijing, you might have encountered locals burning paper on the sidewalk in
impromptu bonfires. Rather than destroying incriminating evidence, or
getting rid of rubbish, locals are actually paying tribute to their
ancestors in a very old, Taoist tradition.
Known colloquially as
烧纸 shāozhǐ, literally "burning paper," this tradition is observed
during a number of Chinese festivals, one of the biggest being
Tomb Sweeping Day, or Qingming Festival (清明节 qīngmíng jié), on the first
day of the fifth solar term. Bundles of coarse "joss" bamboo-based
paper (often printed as ersatz "ghost" or "hell" money) as well as any
number of paper versions of other objects – cars, watches, iPhones,
houses – are burned as an offering to deceased family members so that
they can better enjoy the afterlife.
To prepare, relatives of the
dead will usually draw a chalk circle to designate the living realm
from the afterlife, and burn the money inside of it. They will often
also voice greetings to the deceased while burning the paper, saying
things like “use this money well” or “buy some nice things.” While most
common during Qingming, the tradition is also observed during
anniversaries or for family-related special occasions.
The
tradition is Taoist in origin, and is a longstanding cultural practice
in China. It is said to have originated from the ancient scholar Xin
Xiaotang. When Xin's mother died, he was unable to afford a coffin to
give her a proper burial and decided to keep the corpse inside his home.
When asked why he wasn’t burying his mother, Xin said that the two had
spent decades together and now that she was gone, he couldn’t bear to be
physically separated from her.
Over time, the macabre practice
of keeping family members' corpses inside the house became a tradition,
and the longer you kept your deceased next of kin, the more filial piety
points you could rack up. Eventually, the mother of a country
magistrate passed away, but he wasn't so down with having her stinky
corpse in the house for too long and so he handed her over to a monk at a
nearby temple. Two days later, the body began to decay and the monk
could no longer stand the smell, so he started to burn straw and papers
to cover the stench.
The next morning, the magistrate came to
check on his mother and questioned the monk as to why he was burning
papers. The monk was terrified of what might become of him should the
official find out the truth and so did as all good monks do: lied,
saying that he was doing so as an offering to the magistrate's mother,
adding that the money burnt in this world can be used on the other side.
Regardless
of how the tradition of burning paper really came about, it remains an
important demonstration of filial piety and a means for the living to
pay respects to their ancestors. More importantly, it's a time for
families to come together and enjoy their time in this world.
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Image: xinrenfuyin.org
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