Mendoza, In
The 16th Century, Alludes To No Disposal Of The Dead Except By Burial, But
Semedo In The Early Part Of The 17th Says That Bodies Were Occasionally
Burnt, Especially In Sze-Ch'wan.
I am greatly indebted to the kindness of an eminent Chinese scholar, Mr.
W.F. Mayers, of Her Majesty's Legation at Peking, who, in a letter, dated
Peking, 18th September, 1874, sends me the following memorandum on the
subject:
-
"Colonel Yule's Marco Polo, II. 97 [First Edition], Burning of the
Dead.
"On this subject compare the article entitled Huo Tsang, or 'Cremation
Burials,' in Bk. XV of the Jih Che Luh, or 'Daily Jottings,' a great
collection of miscellaneous notes on classical, historical, and
antiquarian subjects, by Ku Yen-wu, a celebrated author of the 17th
century. The article is as follows: -
"'The practice of burning the dead flourished (or flourishes) most
extensively in Kiang-nan, and was in vogue already in the period of the
Sung Dynasty. According to the history of the Sung Dynasty, in the 27th
year of the reign Shao-hing (A.D. 1157), the practice was animadverted
upon by a public official.' Here follows a long extract, in which the
burning of the dead is reprehended, and it is stated that cemeteries were
set apart by Government on behalf of the poorer classes.
"In A.D. 1261, Hwang Chen, governor of the district of Wu, in a memorial
praying that the erection of cremation furnaces might thenceforth be
prohibited, dwelt upon the impropriety of burning the remains of the
deceased, for whose obsequies a multitude of observances were prescribed
by the religious rites. He further exposed the fallacy of the excuse
alleged for the practice, to wit, that burning the dead was a fulfilment
of the precepts of Buddha, and accused the priests of a certain monastery
of converting into a source of illicit gain the practice of cremation."
[As an illustration of the cremation of a Buddhist priest, I note the
following passage from an article published in the North-China Herald,
20th May, 1887, p. 556, on Kwei Hua Ch'eng, Mongolia: "Several Lamas are
on visiting terms with me and they are very friendly. There are seven
large and eight small Lamaseries, in care of from ten to two hundred
Lamas. The principal Lamas at death are cremated. A short time ago, a
friendly Lama took me to see a cremation. The furnace was roughly made of
mud bricks, with four fire-holes at the base, with an opening in which to
place the body. The whole was about 6 feet high, and about 5 feet in
circumference. Greased fuel was arranged within and covered with glazed
foreign calico, on which were written some Tibetan characters. A tent was
erected and mats arranged for the Lamas. About 11:30 A.M. a scarlet
covered bier appeared in sight carried by thirty-two beggars. A box 2 feet
square and 2-1/2 feet high was taken out and placed near the furnace.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 137 of 701
Words from 70784 to 71289
of 370046
