Recently, we celebrated All Saints 'Day in Lithuania, when we visited the graves of loved ones and remembered those who are not among us. On November 10th in the lecture “Ancestor Worship and Funeral Customs in Chinese Culture” delivered by Balys Astrauskas, a PhD student at Vilnius University, Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, junior assistant, we presented the burial traditions of the Chinese, the importance of ancestral worship in China and the differences between burial customs and Lithuanian traditions.
Chinese religion can be considered as an amalgamation of the three great teachings, namely, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, as well as various local folk religious cults. Ancestor worship constitutes a strong foundation for Chinese religion and bears strong connection with funeral rituals up to this day. In addition to the ancestral spirits, there are two other higher forces in the Chinese religious worldview, the deities and the ghosts (evil spirits).
As for the Chinese religious-cosmological conception, the Chinese culture is dominated by a humanocentric approach - the world is perceived from a human perspective, there is a cosmologization of the socio-political order. Another very important aspect is the egocentric worldview, where religion primarily meets pragmatic personal and collective needs. The universe (nature) as a continuous flow of qi 氣 energy. We Westerners say so in heaven as we do on earth. The Chinese claim the opposite - both on earth and in heaven.
Compared to our culture, the concept of the soul is different, because in Chinese religion there are 2 souls: the heavenly soul hún 魂, which is the mind, self-consciousness, moral attitudes, and the earthly soul pò 魄, responsible for the senses, emotions, physiological functions.
This lecture introduced the phenomenon of worship of Chinese ancestors, which is often considered one of the fundamental axes of Chinese cultural worldview and religious orientation. Archaeological research has shown the importance of ancestral worship since the Neolithic period (around 6000 BC) and since the Bronze Age of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) it has become a key tool in maintaining political legitimacy and public order, not only in its entirety. The pre-modern period of Chinese history, but which has remained an important religious and socio-cultural phenomenon to this day.
The worship of ancestors in Chinese culture manifests itself in respect for a deceased person who has the same surname and a kinship related to the worshipers, although kinship with the worshiped ancestors may not always be actually proven. An ancestor is a deceased person who is allegedly related by agonistic kinship or other commonality with a worshiper and with whom ritual contact is maintained. The most revered ancestors eventually become deities (such as Confucius).
Ancestral worship rituals are usually performed in a temple dedicated to the ancestors of a particular family, or in a specially equipped space in the living place, the main accent of which is an altar with pictures of ancestors, incense and food offerings. Rituals honoring ancestors are an integral part of calendar and family celebrations, weddings, funerals, adulthood rituals, and to this day remain an important means of consolidating communities and consolidating family clan hierarchical structures, with community or kinship establishing mutual communion through self-descent, common (sometimes semi-legendary) ancestors who are expected to provide feedback and assistance in the event of difficulties.
The metaphysics of Chinese funerals is also different: the heavenly (hún) soul separates from the body immediately after death and becomes an ancestor. The ancestor lives as long as there are regular offerings and remembrance. Due to improper funeral rituals, the earthly (pò) soul remains on earth as a ghost. Therefore, a funeral in China is a very important event both as a ritual of the passing of the soul of the deceased, when the spirit of the ancestor becomes, and as an attempt to bury properly in order to protect oneself from disasters.