How many kinds of funeral ceremonies were there in ancient times?

In the old society, the father's loss was called loneliness, the mother's loss was called mourning, and the parents' death was called orphan's loss. In the Song Dynasty, Zhu's Family Miscellaneous Volume IV: The mother's mourning is called the mourning son, and the parents' death is called the orphan's mourning son.

Wake: During the wake, relatives and friends present, especially the younger generation of the deceased, take turns to guard the deceased in the mourning hall and accept condolences from mourners. During the whole funeral, the close relatives of the deceased (called dutiful sons/daughters) have to wear mourning clothes.

Coat: In front of family members, move the deceased into the coffin with a mattress, cover it with a quilt, and nail it to seal the coffin.

Funeral: Send the coffin to the cemetery for burial. The sign of the beginning of the funeral is that the dutiful son will break a clay basin, which is called "throwing the basin". Led by a dutiful son holding a "talisman", a band played and distributed paper money to the cemetery along the way. The burial ceremony was assisted by Feng Shui master.

However, China's ethnic minorities have their own unique burial methods, such as celestial burial:

Tibetans advocate celestial burial, and they think that feeding vultures with "skin" is the noblest charity, which embodies the highest realm of Mahayana Buddhism paramita-laying down one's life. Like burial, water burial and cremation, it is a kind of belief and a way to express condolences to the deceased.

Its essence is a social and cultural phenomenon, and its origin, form, content and the implementation of the ceremony are all influenced by natural geographical environment, lifestyle, culture and other factors. Therefore, in different historical periods, different countries, regions, nationalities and even different social classes have had celestial burial ceremonies.