Ancestor veneration in China
[2] Ancestors are believed to be a means of connection to the supreme power of Tian as they are considered embodiments or reproducers of the creative order of Heaven.
[10] In Chinese folk religion, a person is often thought to have multiple souls, categorized as hun and po, commonly associated with yang and yin, respectively.
Generally, the former ascends into heaven and the latter descends into the earth and/or resides within a spirit tablet; however, beliefs concerning the number and nature of souls vary.
From the time of Confucius until the 20th century, a three-year mourning period was often prescribed, mirroring the first three years in a child's life when they are utterly dependent upon and loved unconditionally by their parents.
Some common elements of Chinese funerals include the expression of grief through prolonged, often exaggerated, wailing; the wearing of white mortuary clothes by the family of the deceased; a ritual washing of the corpse, followed by its attiring in grave clothes; the transfer of symbolic goods such as money and food from the living to the dead; the preparation and installation of a spirit tablet or the use of a personator, often symbolic.
Sometimes, ritual specialists such as Taoist priests or Buddhist monks would be hired to perform specific rites, often accompanied by the playing of music or chanting of scripture to drive away evil spirits.
More traditionally, this delay is pre-determined according to social status: the corpse of a king or emperor would be held in abeyance for seven months; magnates, five; other officers, three; commoners, one.
After a period of storage, the contents are then interred in their final resting place in a location selected by an augur to optimize the flow of qi.
For the wealthy and powerful, bronze vessels, oracle bones, and human or animal sacrifices often accompanied the deceased into the grave.
When a family member dies in modern China and Taiwan, they are given various kinds of rewards such as "a toothbrush, money, food, water", "a credit card and[/or] a computer.
