Research On The Changes In Funeral Practices During The Gengxin Plague In The Late Qing Dynast

From 1910 to 1911,there was a serious outbreak of plague in northeast China,which was called Gengxin plague in history.Plague caused a large number of deaths.Therefore,the Qing government took many conventional measures to quickly extinguish the epidemic,such as setting up epidemic prevention agencies at all levels,blocking traffic,zoning control,setting up temporary isolation wards and issuing epidemic prevention notices,but the effect was not significant.Later,under the guidance of modern scientific epidemic prevention concepts and promoted by Wu Liande and other key figures,the Qing government decided to carry out cremation from the source of plague--pestilence corpse,in order to stop the spread of the epidemic.Despite strong opposition from the public at the beginning,under the guidance of the Qing government’s policy of constantly improving cremation facilities,publicizing the advantages of cremation and punishing those who hid corpses,cremation was finally carried out smoothly and the plague was quickly extinguished.This change in burial mode played a positive role in the control of plague,and also promoted the modern development of burial customs in Northeast China to a certain extent.