South And North Dynasties Funeral Ritual Research

Influenced by metaphysics, Buddhism and the unrest political situation of the time, funeral rituals of South and North dynasties developed some new characters when generating from Han and Jin dynasties, in order to meet the demand of the society. During this time, a lot of morality fighters, who despised ethics and advocate spirit freedom, believed true feeling alone would be enough for the whole ritual, from burying to mourning. Buddhism was introduced at the beginning of East Han. It soon became very popular, which had significant impact on funerals. Moreover, consistent wars pushed the common funerals widely accepted other than luxurious ones of Han and Jin. Funeral rituals of this period have important influences on dynasties of Tang and afterwards. This article collects files as detailed as possible from history literatures on this period and attempt to discourse general funeral rituals in four parts: 1) general introduction of research status on this subject, 2) research on specific funeral rituals, 3) summarizing two main characters of this time.