CONCEPTS OF DEAD AMONG ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 21 



They were ranked in the following order: those from heaven, 

 earth, deceased emperors, sun, moon and ancestors. The rites of 

 religion were a function of the state and were performed for the 

 people, not by them. The emperor, son of heaven, was the ec- 

 clesiastical head of the nation and he alone could perform the 

 ceremonies. By contrast, the classes privately venerated their for- 

 bears. The popular faith was practical, the aim being to obtain 

 mundane goods and health in abundance during life. 



In remote times, the Chinese believed that demons, ghosts, 

 vampires and werewolves populated the country as thickly as hu- 

 man inhabitants and that they could do all kinds of harm. The 

 life of man constituted an incessant battle against them; the only 

 means of defense was considered to be the application of magic 

 and the possible enlistment of their gods as allies. 



The existence of the dead was imagined to be a ghostly con- 

 tinuation of earthly life in the midst of the living. It was im- 

 portant to them that the dead be properly interred. Great diffi- 

 culty was often encountered and expense incurred in finding an 

 ideal burial spot. Without this, the spirits might be dissatisfied 

 and responsible for misfortunes in the family. Tombs were, there- 

 fore, built on a scale ranking next to those of the Egyptians in 

 grandeur. The bodies were carried to the grave in a temporary 

 structure and their souls were supposed to go along in a provi- 

 sional slab or streamer. When the interment was over, a permanent 

 tablet was brought out, in which the soul took its place; this was 

 conveyed to its former home and placed on the shelf in the liv- 

 ing room, in the company of other ancestral spirits. All significant 

 family events were announced to it. There is on record the fact 

 that living humans were buried along with their masters; in 

 619 B.C., 170 persons, including three high ministers, followed 

 their superior to his grave. Another such incident was reported 

 as late as A.D. 1398. Thereafter, puppets were substituted. 



Confucius, born in 551 B.C., living in a time of great in- 

 tellectual activity, was in favor of conforming everything to the 

 ancient pattern. He believed that the destiny of states and indi- 

 viduals was ordained by heaven, that filial piety was the cardinal 

 virtue and that man was good at the beginning of life, not neces- 

 sarily so, at the end. He refused to discuss an existence after death 



