Song Dynasty Fengshan Sacrifice (Data Picture)
On October 1st On that day, I went back to my hometown to visit the grave, put a row of offerings in front of the ancestral grave, set off a hang of firecrackers, burned a pile of yellow paper, kowtowed a few times, stood up, put the offerings into the trunk, and drove away.
Originally, the offerings were placed for the sake of enjoyment by our ancestors. I should have buried the offerings in the grave and not taken back. But now the rules are like this. Not only me, but all the people who visit the grave will take the offerings back before leaving, so that they can be reused next time, leaving only those things that cannot be reused, such as wreaths. The ancients did not take the offerings away when they visited the graves, but they would eat the offerings in the graves, and the ancestors buried deep in the ground still couldn't taste them at all.
Confucius' high-level Zengzi I was questioned back then: "After you are sent and wrapped around the rest, are you still wrapped around the rest? After a gentleman eats, will you wrap around the rest?" It means that you bring offerings to worship your ancestors. How come you eat it after you have finished worshiping? Why don’t you finish eating? Didn’t you deliberately make things difficult for your ancestors? Zengzi replied, "Don't my son see the great feast? After the great feast, the three animals are returned to the hotel, and the parents and guests are so sad." Haven't your buddy ever seen the king entertaining a banquet for foreign guests? When the banquet is over, the monarch will definitely deliver the unfinished dishes to the foreign guests' bedside so that they can continue to enjoy them. I pack the offerings and take them away, which is equivalent to treating myself as a foreign guest and my ancestors as a monarch. This shows that the distance between yin and yang is farther than the distance between the two countries, and expressing my condolences with this!
Zeng Zi’s explanation was extremely far-fetched, which means he was a fool. If his teacher Confucius was asked to explain, it would be much more reliable. Confucius can say this: When a person dies, everything is empty. When a dead person dies, he will not eat offerings at all. He only presents offerings to express his longing, while eating and packing the offerings is to avoid waste.
I think the practices of the Song Dynasty are very scientific. People in the Song Dynasty worshipped their ancestors every , Qingming Festival, and the first day of October. The offerings were very rich, including wine, meat and fruit plates. After the memorial service, they ate and drank on the spot. They called it "drinking blessing", which means that eating offerings and drinking wine can bring blessings to the living people.
Before the Song Dynasty, the "heads of the three animals" were used to pay homage to ancestors, namely pig's head, sheep's head and cow's head. These three were all raw. Take them home after the memorial service. If the weather is too hot and the memorial service is too long, it will easily smell bad in the middle. The people of the Song Dynasty made improvements, while offering sacrifices, they also "burn the heads of smoke and beasts": they roasted the pig's head, sheep's head and cow's heads. After the ceremony, they were cut directly and shared with everyone to drink good fortune.
I remember back then, when the Song Dynasty visited the grave on the first day of October, there was an altar in front of the grave, and next to the altar was an carbon oven . The fire was raging, and the "heads of the three animals" were roasted, making the cemetery smell smelled. The scene must be very tempting.
