• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.121-142
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• 2024

What should death be like for a deeply venerated or highly prominent Buddhist monastic? This question itself does not just pertain to death rituals, funerals, or cremations but also to the entire process, as understood within the tradition, of leaving this realm and entering into another. It is in all of these aspects that something exceptional should be highlighted to exemplify accomplishments of the given individual's religious life, and draw attention to the profound spiritual attainment of that figure that devotees believe lies beyond what is achievable by ordinary humans. The recent death of Venerable Hsing Yun, the founder of Fo Guang Shan, led to plentiful discussions in Taiwanese society from people of all walks of life, spanning scholars to media and citizens. This study will reveal the peculiarities of this interesting case, mainly as it relates to the late master's mortuary rites. In doing so, other monastics who passed away in contemporary times will be brought up for comparison. In addition to its notable innovations and creativity, the focal case of the mortuary rites for Hsing Yun manifests the tension between traditional and modern Buddhist ideologies and practices; especially as these tensions unfold within the Humanistic Buddhist context.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.133-147
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• 2004

Korean funeral customs are an important part of the mourning process in Korea. A survey was conducted in the southern part by the Nak-dong river, centered around the city of Busan to examine Korean funeral rites. This study was conducted with survey research. The target population included 234 teachers and experienced the death of a family member within the last three years. Results showed that they presented their condolences 5 to 6 times on average per year. Funeral rites were performed usually at a hospital funeral hall. The preference of burial to cremation was about the same. According to the survey, funeral expenses averaged 9,570,000 won and donations received for funeral expenses, 12,630,000 won. Problems the respondents expressed about the process included large funeral expenses, the decision whether to bury or cremate, and fatigue from staying up all night. When classified according to the demographic characteristics, there were significant differences in the variables. Frequency of attending funerals depended on gender, age, and health status. Condolence style depended on religion. The type of funeral (burial or cremation) depended on family income. The type of reception depended on gender. Funeral expenses depended on the age Second, in the process of preparing for a family member's death, they thought it was important to prepare a funeral ceremony portrait of the deceased and a scroll by themselves, and the preparation

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.416-427
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• 2010

In this study, we attempted to elucidate the cultural characteristics of Korean food based on a traditional understanding on the Korean novel. To achieve this, food characteristics related to 'rites of passage' were analyzed in the representative Korean literary work "Hon-bool", which describes the life of a first-son's wife every three generations in the going to ruin but historic 'Lee's family of Maean district' family and the life of the common 'Geomeong-gul' people who lived with farming on the Lee's land at Namwon of Junbook province in the 1930~1940s, during the Japanese Colonial rule. Every nation possesses rites of passage at important points in life, such as at birth, age of majority, wedding and death. Korean culture, in particular, has several memorial rites relating to birth, death and passage into the afterlife in which special foods are prepared. In this manner, ceremonial foods represent the Korean peoples' traditional vision of the universe and life. The book "Hon-bool" describes these traditions. Especially, the book describes the table-settings related to the main character's childbirth, first birthday, wedding and death. Therefore "Hon-bool" represents a living history of Korean traditional food and the work of storytelling through the traditional understanding is expected that perform an important role in making of cultural contents of Korean foods.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between social change and ritual change and to reveal the differences between Confucian funeral rites and modern rituals based on that relationship. In addition, we attempted to examine the process of change in rituals over time in connection with changes in institutions. The periodization of funeral rites was analyzed by dividing them into the pre-modern 'Confucian funeral rites', the 'modern funeral rites' during the Japanese colonial period, and the 'modern funeral rites' based on ritual capital with the implementation of the Healthy Family Rituals Standards in 1999. In addition, the understanding of the rites of the times must be understood through the process of moving from pre-modern to modern funeral rites and modern funeral rites, escaping the logical contradiction of succession of tradition through division of time. This study is meaningful in considering that Koreans' perception of death continues to reflect the times from the perspective of change and continuation of rituals.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.233-240
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• 1994

The purpose of this study is to consider psycological funtions of mourning dresses in Confucianism. By each step of A.V.Gennep's passage rites, the result of this thesis summarised as follow; In the first Seperation rites after calling the death' name three times the relatives for whom mourning is due become dishevelled hair bare feet and bare shoulder etc. In the second Transition rites, bereaved familly has worn 5 class mourning dresses in deep grief. In the third Cooperation rites, gradually the living familly goes through three year stages of changing mourning dresses to ordinary colthes. In Confucian funeral ceremony the deviation of clothing behavior in each mourning step sublimates bereaved person's sorrow into their internal security.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.398-411
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• 2001

Funeral rites relate to the last ceremonies involving the process of human beings moving from this world to the other world, becoming part of a life which remarkably reflects the world after death. They can be said to be the best culture created by the conception of death. The ceremonies of mourning, or ubiquitius folk phenomena of all the ages from the ancient times to modern times, represent the mass belief of each nation in spiritual worlds as well as the feelings of individuals facing death. In so far as their methods are concerned, the ceremonies vary in accordance with ages, nations, regions and culture. The practices of today\`s funeral rites conducted in the West have been formed and changed throughout its long history. Now that the ceremonies are a combination of complicated cultures, they serve as an important tool for inquiring into the spiritual life of the people of an age in question and the pictures of the society concerned. Therefore this paper is designed to look into the culture of shrouds showing respect for the dead in the West. With the view of examining death, and grave clothes for them, but also with the spiritual culture of human beings in relation to death represented in their pictures. I resort to literature and materials related to the shrouds of the dead which appeared in a period from the Medieval Age to the 19th century.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.42-49
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• 2005

To determine which are the culturally specific factors of Korean bereavement, this chapter focuses on the view of death and the traditional mourning process which reflect Korean values and norms. The formation of the Korean view and understanding of death has been strongly influenced by three of its major traditional religions: Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism (Park:1994: Hao:1999) and Christianity more recently. Each religion has a different view of death and the appropriate expression of mourning. Korea accommodates funeral customs and rules strictly as a cultural system and has retained these traditions over a long period; hence, some of the traditional funeral rituals still remain in modern Korean life, although some of the rites have been simplified. We have looked at the various ways in which grief and mourning is displayed and shared in a collective manner over a long period of time. This fits in well within the other Eastern cultures that are collectively organized, and contrary to the Eurocentric models do not hastily seek to detach the living from the dead and recognize that grief is a long process, and different individuals may take different amounts of time to recover from the grief. The view of death and bereavement in Korea has sprung from the roots of three Korean religions, together with the recent addition of Christianity, although they mainly result from the three earlier religions. The beliefs of these religions are still closely linked together in the rituals of Korean bereavement on both conscious and unconscious levels. The influence of these religions is evident in practice through the bereaved family's mourning reactions, funeral rites and customs and its views about death. Korea used to have a period of mourning for three years, following traditional mourning rites; then the chief mourner and the bereaved families could return to their normal life. In spite of this long mourning process for the bereaved family, once the funeral ceremony is finished, people expect the bereaved family not to express their grief in public; even the bereaved family does not like to talk about death. The process for bereaved people is related to mourning processes in terms of detachment from the deceased in order to start a new life. Relatives and the community recommend the performance of the kut ceremony for relieving the grief of the bereaved. When one family member dies in an unlucky way, the bereaved family may have some fear or other psychological reactions of grief such as pain, depression, insomnia and nightmares, hallucinations or other physical reactions. Unlucky deaths give the bereaved a very painful time and these types of reactions are often more serious than reactions to natural death. But through the kut ceremony, the bereaved family can start to make a new relationship with the deceased. The taboo of this type of death and death generally remains a crucial aspect of the isolation that bereaved people might face and the collective nature of mourning(even where it is still present) is unable to address this aspect of the privatization of grief.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.85-95
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• 2022

This study intends to analyze the meaning of symbolism in ancestral memorial rite arrangemen from the view that ancestral worship connecting traditional society with modernity are the transmission of ritual. It appears as a change the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements that became the basis and ideology about the Confucian view of life and death, an understanding of the universe structure, and a change in the four seasons. Ancestral memorial rite arrangements acknowledge the existence of ancestors. And it is understood as a ceremonial instrument which the living and the dead communicate spatially with time through the symbolic system. In addition, the four seasons, spaces of the skyground and underground were symbolized and embodied through the selection and arrangement of ancestral memorial rites. In the modern ancestral memorial rite arrangement, the factors that determine the location require Time-space analysis of the target. This is because the offering is understood not only as a functional role but also as a temporal and spatial symbolism to be expressed through the offering. In this study, it is meaningful to consider it from the perspective of inheritance of ancestral worship culture through discussions about the ideological background and symbolic system that appeared in ancestral memorial rite arrangement

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.75-85
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• 2001

The system of washing and shrouding a dead body is a series of procedures for encoffining in funeral rites, which are taken after death indentification by using CHOKWANG and praying for the resurrection of a dead body by calling a soul departed from the body. The washing and shrouding a dead body (hereinafter reffered to as "YEOMSEUP") is the broad concept which contains the procedures of washing, clothing and shrouding the body. The clothing includes washing, putting rices into the mouth. and then dressing while the shrouding includes first wrapping, second-wrapping and encoffining. The clothes for YEOMSEUP (all clothes and articles for funeral rites are designated) will be put in the coffin along with a dead body according to the YEOMSEUP procedures. Dasan, a SILHAK scholar in the late Yi Dynasty, pointed out some problems of the funeral rites observed in those days. At the same time, he found that the problems had arisen from the misinterpretation of the original descriptions in Chinese characters. and had tried to correct them. The books written by Dasan basically emphasized his ideology reshaping the whole procedures by trimming and removing meaningless formalities which are too much luxurious and wasteful and making them as a part of the original principles of the funeral rites. His Intents are clearly shown in his wrings on practical ettiquttes, such as SANGRYESAJON and SANGUIJEOLYO. In its attempt, this study aims at reformulating the DASAN\\`s SANGRYESAJON in terms of YEOMSEUP methods. A lot of virtues of the Dasan, like WOOSU, SIMUI, DAEDAE, MO, SORYUMHYO and DAERYUMHYO could also be found accordingly. The merits and characteristic in funeral rites are an obedience in filial duty, the pursuit of frugality. and the efficiency of practical functions. It could be said that the resurvey of DASAN′s theory on YEOMSEUP procedures is a meaningful work today when the original meaning of funeral rites fades out. Furthermore, discussions of refined burial service and encouraging cremation designed to improve land use, which are widely spread among people, could weaken the basic philosophy of YEOMSEUP and more likely propagate the atmosphere of despising the dignity of human beings.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.59
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• pp.93-120
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to explore the source of appealing which Gusadang Kim Nakhaeng's writing for ancestral rites is equipped with. Gusadang was one of the Confucianists in Yeongnam during the 18th century and was praised for his scholarly virtue of jihaenghapil and silcheongunghaeng. Although Gusadang's writing for ancestral rites and his teacher Milam Lee Jaeui's letters were even specially named as 'gujemilchal', there has been almost no research on Gusadang's writing for ancestral rites yet. Therefore, this study selects three pieces of Gusadang's writing for ancestral rites which are especially rich in emotional expression for discussion. Chapter 2 titled as 'the Reconstruction of Memory in a Microscopic Perspective' presents the reason why Gusadang's writing for ancestral rites is recognized even as a piece of work equipped with appealing. Writing for ancestral rites begins from the point that there exists memory that can be shared by both the living and the dead. In reconstructing the anecdote with the dead on the stage of ritual writing in detail, the writer's memory plays an important role. Chapter 3 titled as 'the Rhetorical Reconstruction of Elevated Sensitivity' examines rhetorical devices needed for writing for ancestral rites. Proper rhetoric is needed to upgrade the dignity of the ritual writing and arouse sympathy from the readers. Although writing for ancestral rites is supposed to express sadness in terms of its formal characteristics, it should not end up being a mere outlet of emotion. Chapter 4 looks into 'the Descriptive Reconstruction of Lamenting Sentiment'. There should be a clear focus of description to make the gesture of the living towards the being not existing in the world any longer an appealing story. While maintaining a distinct way of description, Gusadang organizes the noble character of the dead, pitiable death, the precious bond in the past, and the longing of those left for the dead systematically. Writing for ancestral rites is a field to mourn over the death and reproduce the sadness of the living through writing. To make the text written in that way get to work as ritual writing properly, it should be appealing necessarily. This study has found the fact that such appealing that gives life to ritual writing is grounded on authenticity.