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Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
◙电话:019-7749833(罗南泉(阿宝)师傅), 012-7116833(罗冠宇师傅) ◙地址:45, Jalan 1/5, Taman Fajar 2, 86000 Kluang, Johor. ◙面簿专页:萬豐壇.万丰坛.Wanfengtan ◙承办各类客家式的传统宗教仪式,包括打斋、做功德、拾金捡骨、中元普渡。愿与您缘结善根。

ENGLISH


In Chinese belief, netherworld is the ultimate destination for everyone. Every deceased will reach here, to be judged by its judiciary; and pay for whatever sin he has committed when he is alive, by being punished in hell.

Therefore, for ethical people, it is like the heaven or paradise, because they can happily live here, waiting for the chance of reincarnation; but for bad guy, it will always be a hell, because they will repeatedly suffer in hell until they have the chance of reincarnation. Ultimately, when the chance of reincarnation coming, each of them will drink up the “Meng Po” soup to forget all his memory, and start his new life. This is where the life ends, but also where the life begins. 

When somebody was born, his destiny had been arranged. Within his lifetime, he will experience from different types of joy and sorrow, pay for his karmic debt and owe new karmic debt, gradually decide his fate of afterlife. When he passed away, it is the time for him to go netherworld and report his merits and demerits.

When somebody passes away, his soul will leave his body due to the dysfunction of his body, the deities of netherworld will bring him to cancel his residency in the human world, and to get him the citizenship of netherworld.

Subsequently, he will be sent to the netherworld. On the seventh day after he dies, he will accept the first trial in the netherworld, and subsequently be brought back to human world and visits his family. After that, he will return to netherworld to accept the subsequent nine trials in the netherworld, and accept the punishment in hell if necessary. (Because there are no perfectly ethical people in the world, every people will unavoidably commit some mistake when they are alive. No matter what they have done, they will be punished when they passes away.)

As mentions earlier, for bad guys, they will suffer in hell again and again, until the chance of reincarnation; for ethical or less sinful guys, they can leave hell, enjoy their life and wait for chance of reincarnation for a period of few decades or hundred years. Therefore, his family must pay obeisance to him and provide him some papered things for him so that he can to deal with his daily need in this period.

As time passes, when the chance of reincarnation coming, they have to drink up the “Meng Po” soup to forget all his memories of this life, and start his new life.

Dazhai ritual is the religious ritual which performs under this basic. In the ritual, the master will call back the soul of the deceased, to make him participate in the ritual. Subsequently the master will seek for deities’ mitigation and amnesty for the deceased through the respective ritual, which shorten the time he suffers in the hell, and help him leave from the hell as soon as possible.

At the same time, Dazhai ritual also enshrines the deceased and gives him energy so that he can reach netherworld smoothly and handle his matter well. However, more importantly, Dazhai ritual also console the deceased, making him accept the fact that he is dead and peacefully start his new life in netherworld.

In conclusion, the primary purpose of DaZhai ritual is to improve the quality of life of the deceased for the period from his death to his reborn, and make his soul rest in peace. For the bereaved family, Dazhai ceremony also uses the power of religion to comfort them, and take them out of sorrow. Therefore, a perfect Dazhai ritual should not only make salvation for the deceased, but also provide blessings and consolation to his family, which benefits both the deceased and bereaved family.
[Set up the altar] 
Before starting of the rituals, we will set up and decorate the altar, do all preparation for the subsequent ritual.
[Name list] 
We will also record the information of the bereaved family and the deceased for the ritual usage. It includes the funeral home address, bereaved family member name and the deceased’s name, lunar date of birth and death.
[Announcement]
We will also put up this paper on the bulletin board or wall. it shows the information such as time of funeral procession, time to seal coffin, any ages which may clash with the deceased (Anyone who is at these ages, can still participate the funeral, just that they must turn around when the coffin is moved out, get on and get off the car.) and the deceased’s reincarnation (Heaven, earth, people, Buddha, ghosts, animals). [ It is calculated based on a deceased’s age-related formula, but the outcome is decided by his past life action, other than his this life action (People will move from past life →this life →next life →afterlife, just like the concept of yesterday, today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow). When this life is ended, he will start his next life, but which reincarnation he will go will be decided by his past life action, other than his this-life action. However we must emphasize that each of the reincarnation will have its advantages and disadvantages, we cannot say which of them is best or worst. Just like human, there will be rich or poor, ordinary or intelligent, lucky or unlucky people; for animals such as dogs, there will be pet dogs or strayed dogs; for pigs, there are wild boars or slaughtered pigs. We can only say that whether a reincarnation is good or bad, can only be concluded based on the situation of the deceased after his reborn.]
[Deceased’s censer (white) and ancestral censor (red)] 
We will put two censers in mourning hall, where white censer represents the deceased, red represents the funeral home’s ancestors. Base on the concept that the deceased is the lead of the funeral, his sensor will be put in the middle of the table. However in the ritual, based on the concept of ancestors was generationally bigger than the deceased, we will make the bereaved family member who holds the ancestral censer walk in front, the bereaved family member who holds the deceased’s censer walk behind of him. Besides that, some areas might choose to use red or white censer as the deceased's censer according to the deceased’s age, or directly use the red censer as the deceased’s censer. 

[Additional censers] 
Sometimes, there will be more censers on the table; they represent those family members who passed away earlier than the deceased. Although we have placed an ancestral censer on the table, which represent any other deceased family member, it might be the deceased’s great grandparent, grandparent or parent, who is somebody we are uncertain. But in order to nominate a particular deceased family member to come, we have to set up a censer for him, and invite him through the evocation ritual.
[The censers placed at the right hand side of the deceased are any family members who are generationally smaller than the deceased (such as children, siblings, wife and etc.), the censors placed at the left hand side of the deceased (near to the ancestral censer) are any family member who generationally larger than the deceased (such as parents, grandparents, husband and etc.)]
[Greet deities] 
Once the chief master finishes greeting deities, all the ritual will be started soon.

[Kicked off] 
However, if the elder of funeral home of (such as the deceased’s brothers and sisters, uncles and etc.) present, we will perform a short kicked off ritual before the praying ritual. It means that the elder allows us to serve the deceased.

[Wearing mourning cloth] 
This is the first ritual, which is telling deities that the deceased’s children have followed the tradition, wearing the mourning cloth, to thank for the deceased’s upbringing.
(Note: If the deceased does not have children, this ritual is not performed.)
After getting the mourning cloth, his children will make obeisance to east, south, west, north and central, showing their respect to deities from different places and also pray for their blessing during the funeral.
If the deceased's parents, wife or husband is still alive, the children of the deceased must kneel down to them, to obtain their consent and blessings.
Different mourning clothes also represents different relationship between the deceased and the bereaved family member, illustration is as follows:
1. For #, left side is Hakka style, right side is Hokkien style.
2. If the deceased is male, the bereaved family should wear the mourning cloth on their left hand; if the deceased is female, they should wear it on their right hand.


Origin of wearing hempen mourning cloth: 
Long time ago, between the Taihang Mountains and Yellow River, there was a widowed lady. She had two sons, who were not filial to her and treated her rudely after they got married. Therefore, she wanted to educate them so she thought for a whole night and ultimately came up with an idea.

The next day, the old lady called her two sons and said: “When I die you don’t need to spend money, just throw my body into the Yellow River, or thrown into the Taihang Mountains. But from today onward, you must watch how the crows and owls live, until I die,” Her sons immediately agreed as they need not to spend money if their mother passed away.

Since the day, her sons started paying attention to the crows and owls. Crows and owls were carefully feeding their children. However, once the birds grew up they treated their parents differently. Little crow was good, when its old mother cannot fly and seek food, little crow let it stay at home and feed it; when the little crow was old, its children would also feed it. Love is nurtured from generation to generation. Meanwhile, the little owl behaved adversely, when the old mother was useless, it ate its mother. Sadly, the little owl was also eaten by its children when it was old, which was an endless tragedy.

The brothers started realize that if they treated their mother badly, their children will also treat them badly in the future. They gradually changed their attitude for their mother.

However, sooner after they changed their behavior, their mother passed away which make them very regret. 

On the day of funeral they imitated the crows and owls, wearing black cloth and hemp cloth, to tell their mother that they would always remember the lesson of the crows and owls.

Since then, the custom of wearing hempen mourning cloth was spread in China, and subsequently became a traditional Chinese funeral culture.

[Invitation]
This ritual is to place a seat in the mourning hall for the deceased. The bereaved family will then enshrine him with food and wine, which means inviting him to attend the funeral home and to accept the salvation and worship.
It is also telling the deceased that he is dead; he has to give up everything in this world, and go to the netherworld peacefully. When he back home and visit family, he must comply with all the conditions, to avoid disturbing his family. (Making an agreement with the deceased)

[Notification]
This ritual is requiring those related deities to lead the deceased and the ancestors to arrive the funeral home. It is also informing the other deities at the nearby area that they should not block the deceased and ancestors if they see them, and they should guide them to come to the funeral home to accept the salvation. 
In the end of the ritual, the master will read and issue a document as reference to those deities. 
(Because some of the uninformed deities might suspect that whether the deceased and ancestors are rightfully coming and staying in our world, they might detain and interrogate them, which delay their arrival to the funeral home and acceptance of salvation. Therefore, there is a must to inform those deities through a formal ritual.)

[Evocation]
This ritual is to formally call back the soul of the deceased, to provide him the salvation; and to call back the ancestor to witness the subsequent ritual. And the master will use a divination blocks to conclude whether the deceased and ancestors have arrived. In the ritual, the bereaved family must call the deceased, so that he can hear and follow their sound to reach the funeral home.
Once the deceased and ancestors have arrived, the bereaved family will use a wet towel to wipe their censers, which means cleaning their souls, to participate the subsequent ritual.

[Eliminate sins and pains]

This ritual is to lead the deceased and his family to pay obeisance to those deities of medicine, praying that the sin and pain of the deceased can be eliminated.

It is believed that the pain and sickness are more or less caused by the sins. When the deceased is alive, they can be controlled by medicine, but when he is passed away, it can only eliminated by a formal ritual.

In the ritual, the master will lead the bereaved family to walk around the tree, and the bereaved family will pick the leaves and red packets from the tree, and then throw the leaves, which means throwing away the deceased’s medicine, praying that his sickness and pain can be relieved. Meanwhile, the red packets will be kept, praying that they will have a healthy body, and save the medical expenses. (After the ritual, the coin inside can either be used or kept as a souvenir.)
After finish picking all the leaves and red packets, the bereaved family will use their fingers to moisten some wine, and then put in their mouths, which means drinking up the medicinal liquor, to have a good health.
In the end of the ritual, the bereaved family will sent the spirit tablet and the oil lamp back to the mourning hall, at there, the master will ask them whether there are in front of the mourning hall, and they must answer that they are. And then the master will ask them that they want the money or the lamp. They should answer that they want the both, praying that the bereaved family can have the both the wealth and a lot of children. (Because in Chinese culture, lamp also represents the posterity)

[Blood pool/ Twelve customs]

a. Blood Pool
This ritual is only for female deceased, which requiring her children to thank for her upbringing, and also praying that she will be exempted from the imprisonment in blood pool of hell. The master would sing poetry related to the hardship of pregnancy in the ritual.

(According to legend, the reason for women to have menstruation is because their body is in preparation for their future childbirth; and their menstruation will eventually go into rivers, and mixed with river water. When the others use the water to make tea or wine for praying, they will accidentally use these waters mixed with the blood, resulting offences to the deities.

Another argument is that, in ancient time, women will wash their cloths and bed sheet stained with blood after delivery, and eventually the blood on their cloths and bed sheet will mix with river water. When the others use the water to make tea or wine for praying, they will accidentally use these waters mixed with the blood, this also causes offences to the deities.

Therefore, when a woman passes away, she will be imprisoned in hell of blood pool as punishment; to exempt her from this punishment, her children have to go through this ritual. In the ritual, her children will moisten the red liquid in the bowl and put in mouth, which means eating the blood which their mother flows into river, to expiate the sin of their mother)
In the ritual, each of the biological children of the deceased will get a bowl, which means the upbringing of their mother, and the lives given by their mother.

After the funeral is completed, her children must use the bowl to have their first meal after the funeral, and afterwards it can be used by anyone else, which means the love of the deceased is memorized and enjoyed from generation to generation.

b. Twelve Customs
This ritual is only for male deceased, which bringing him to cross the twelve customs on his journey to the netherworld.

(In the ancient time, men are usually the hunters or butchers, who 
unavoidably kill a lot of lives. Therefore, when a man passed away, there will be a lot of undead harass him during his journey to netherworld as revenge. Therefore, there is a need to console those undead through a ritual, to make the deceased reach the netherworld smoothly.)
In the ritual, the master will ask the bereaved family whether the deceased crosses the custom, and the bereaved family should answer that he does, praying that he can safely and smoothly go to the netherworld.

And then the master will ask whether the bereaved family have money, and the bereaved family must answer that they have, and put a coin into the water, which means paying the travelling expenses for the deceased.


[Ten courts of hell] 

This ritual is bringing the deceased and bereaved family to pay their obeisance to ten Yama Kings who manage the hell and judge all the dead. The purpose is to pray for their lenient sentence on the deceased, and to reduce the punishment for the deceased, which makes him better off in the hell.

In the ritual, the bereaved family will get some coins, and throw them into the basin under the yellow and blue cloths, which means bribing those ghosts under the bridge, entreat them not to be jealous and terrify the deceased, which make him dare not to cross the bridge.
The yellow and blue cloths represent the bridge in the netherworld; therefore, when the master moves the deceased’s spirit tablet along with the cloths, the bereaved family should call the deceased to cross the bridge. Besides that, those bridges are also representing the way that he leaves the hell; leading him to cross those bridges is also praying that he can leave the hell and misery as soon as possible, and enjoy the freedom.
[Hell visiting]

This ritual is bringing the bereaved family to walk around the dragons, which means finding out the deceased’s location in hell, and inviting deities to witness the subsequent rituals.

Formerly the dragons were actually a tortoise and a snake, or even just a bunch of sand, but in order to enhance its artistry and auspiciousness, they are subsequently changed to two dragons.
The four heaps of sand at the front and rear of the dragons represent the eastern, western, northern, and southern castles of hell, and each of them will have a gate and an egg with a drawn face under the gate, which represents the guard of the castles. 

Besides that, on the nose of the dragons there will be an egg written with a Chinese character of “tortoise” and “snake”, which represents the tortoise and snake, as the guards of hell.

Once we finish all the preparation, the ritual will be started soon.
[Letter of amnesty]

This ritual is to pray for the deities’ amnesty, to mitigate the sins of the deceased and shorten the time he suffers in hell, so that we can subsequently break the hell and save him out.

Affected by the dramatic culture of Yuan and Ming dynasty, some of our ritual is also embedded with dramatic features, and this ritual is one of the examples. (It is like performing a drama or opera for deities during the ritual.)

This ritual consists of two parts:

The first part is the story that the abbot of western paradise (who is wearing kasaya robe) summons the officer, provides him a letter of amnesty, sword, official seal, and personnel, which requires him to send the letter of amnesty to the funeral home. Then the abbot of western paradise will chase the officer, which means urging him to perform his task as soon as possible, to help the deceased escape from misery as soon as possible.
The ritual enters into the second part after the bereaved family and the abbot of western paradise chase the officer for three times.

The second part is the story that the officer reaches the funeral home and gives the letter of amnesty to the abbot of funeral home. At here, he will pay his obeisance to the deities at the funeral home, and lead the abbot to the hell to visit the deceased imprisoned in hell. Ultimately, the abbot will read the letter of amnesty to deities and the deceased to pray for deities’ amnesty for the deceased.
In the ritual, the master who dresses a kasaya robe actually represents two roles; the first role is the abbot of western paradise, and another role is the abbot of funeral home. But because there is no pause or substitution in the ritual, many people are unable to identify and distinguish his double role, and they will always ask:”Why initially the letter of amnesty is given to the officer by the abbot, but is subsequently given by the officer to the abbot?”

[Breaking hell]

This ritual is to break the hell and rescue the deceased, praying that he can leave the hell as soon as possible.

In the ritual, the master will hold the deceased's spirit tablet, and jump across the burning wok, praying that he can escape from all kind of misery in hell.

Thereafter, the master will destruct the gate, which means breaking the gate of hell; and then broken the two eggs on the head of dragons, which means defeating the guards of hell, to open a way for the deceased to leave the hell.

In the end of the ritual, master will uncover the pot under the spirit tablet, and put the oil lamp into the pot, praying that the soul of the deceased can be released from the imprisonment.

At last, the bereaved family will find coins in the sand, as to memorize the deceased’s hard work to earn livelihood for them.
[Sanctifying papered things]This ritual is using the red ink to dot on the papered dolls and car driver, so that they will have the spirit and are able to serve the deceased in the netherworld. And the bereaved family should name them so that the deceased and easily instruct them in the netherworld.
[Burning papered things]

This is normally the last ritual, which is to burn the papered things, sending them to the netherworld for the deceased to use.

Burning those papered things will cause some air pollution, but this pollution is still very minor if compared with those industrial pollutions. So that it is quite ridiculous to conclude that this tradition is a major source of pollution or a main cause of greenhouse effect.

If people don’t use electricity and water frugally, reduce, reuse and recycle resources, our planet will still be destroyed by these wasteful behaviors even if there is not such tradition.

Besides that, burning papered things not only represents a tradition of Chinese; it also implies the love of descendants towards their ancestors, therefore we should try to understand it and not simply criticize it as a blind faith.
At the same time of the ritual, we will also farewell deities in the altar, and thank for their coming and blessings.