There was a very puzzling custom among the people in the Qing Dynasty. What does "washing tendons" mean during funerals?

There was a very puzzling folk custom in the Qing Dynasty. This custom was called "washing tendons". Washing tendons was actually a form of funeral, so it was also called "washing bones and burials". This statement is also called inspecting tendons. Regarding the definition of tendons washing, during the Qianlong Dynasty, Zhang Shizai, the envoy of Jiangxi Province, pointed out in his memorial to the saint: "Foolish people in Jiangxi Province are confused by Feng Shui. After their parents are buried, they often take out the bones and wash them with water. Check the color of the bones to be red and black to determine good or bad luck. If they are red, they will be wrapped in rice dumplings and buried in the same place. Otherwise, they will be moved to another place and are commonly known as 'washing tendons'."

The above is the Qing people’s explanation of tendon washing. In short, the Qing people were superstitious. After burying their parents, they would dig out the bones after a year or two, wash them with water, and watch the color of the bones change. Red or black, so to distinguish good and bad luck, if it turns red, it is good, and if it turns black, it is bad.

The ancients were superstitious and believed that the feng shui of tombs could influence the fate of a family. Therefore, after a person died, they would spend a lot of money to hire a feng shui master to select the site for the cemetery. In order to prevent being deceived by the feng shui master, the people came up with this idea. To use such a method to identify, in fact, bone washing and burial are not original to the Qing Dynasty. It was first recorded in the book "Liezi" that "there is a country of Yan people in the east of Chu. When their relatives die, their flesh is rotten and discarded, and then they are buried. Bones become a filial son." This practice should be the earliest way to cleanse the tendons.

This custom of washing tendons is widely distributed across the country. During the Qing Dynasty, this custom was very popular in Anhui and Jiangxi. Guangdong and Guangxi called this funeral custom "burial gold" and "cun". "Gold", "Collect gold", etc.

Natural and Feng Shui factors believed by the ancients. The southern part of our country is relatively humid, and coffins are prone to decay and termite erosion. Therefore, the burial people are afraid that the bones of their loved ones will be eroded by ants, so they pick up the bones from the coffins many years after the burial, wash them with water, and apply them with special preservatives. This is also the process of washing the bones. The earliest prototype. Secondly, most ancient people were superstitious about Feng Shui. It is recorded in the "Burial Sutra": "The Qi of the living condenses and remains in the bones of the corpse. After death, the rotting bones of the corpse remain, and the Qi can still be received in the bones. The ghosts are born from the Qi. The ancients believed that the dead can preserve the living, so how well the bones are preserved directly affects the effect of blessing.

To this day, there is still a situation in rural China where the coffin is not buried. This means that after death, the person is not buried within the prescribed time limit according to the usual etiquette and law, but the coffin is placed in the coffin. Place it in the hall or near the home first, and wait until the family has enough funds or finds a satisfactory cemetery before officially burying it.

For poor families, they can only wait until the bones have decayed, and then pick up the bones and put them into the ground because of insufficient funds. In ancient times, funerals were cumbersome and expensive, so ordinary families did not collect enough. If you don't have enough money, you don't want to bury it in a hurry. It would be disrespectful. You can only wait until you have sufficient funds.