Yih-jong (義莊) literally means "mansion of righteousness" and originally referred to any charitable organization.
Emulating Fan's model, many prominent families founded yih-jongs between the Song and Qing dynasties to support their clansmen and local communities, offering charitable services such as orphanages, free schools, disaster relief, and mortuaries.
This is because they were the de facto undertakers of dead people whose next of kin could not be found or were too poor to afford funeral services, and provided temporary storage and transport of the coffins and bodies of emigrants who desired burial in their place of origin.
[3] Coffin homes are primarily found in Greater China and places with substantial overseas Chinese populations.
Coffin homes also provide temporary storage for deceased persons who are unable to afford a funeral or whose relatives cannot be located.