Understanding the Practices of Mourning

Mourning practices are important traditions for members of that religion. Ancient Chinese traditions during the Han Dynasty had a specific protocol. Mourning was a more systematic process and specific (but not fixed or uniform practices) rituals were performed to achieve some sort of settlement of the mind. 

The protocol begins with "soul-calling" which began as soon as the person stopped breathing. The remaining survivors would attempt to bring back the spirit of whoever died. They would display items of the deceased and call out in such a way as to call the soul to return. For the purpose of searching, they call out and wander about to see if they can locate the soul. For grievances, wailing, sobbing and other gestures were often performed to express their feelings toward the lost soul. It also acted as a precautionary measure. Many were concerned and soul-called just to verify that the soul has permanently left the body and is not only temporarily wandering off. It was thought that if they were able to call the temporarily dislocated soul, than it would return to the body and than alternatively, death could be avoided.

Once the person's soul was confirmed to be permanently gone, the official beginning of mourning began. The closest members of the deceased tend to the body and plug any openings to prevent any vapors from exiting the body The main person in this ritual is the Chief mourner, who would actually receive quite a bit of respect  for being male. It was often accepted for males to grieve and ignore responsibilities dealing with the deceased for the first 3 days. Women would eventually join in with the heavy grieving. This practice involved consoling men more than it was involved with personal grief. Although the three day period was essentially for the mourner to release grief and somewhat make a mess of themselves and be excused for it, it was important for him to keep his health at an acceptable level. 

The final stage was burial and and continuous mourning. Immediate chief mourners would participate in the coffining ceremony while the rest of those close to the deceased would dress up the body and prepare it for burial. Chief mourners could have mourned for up to 3 years. During these years, seclusion was encouraged and sometimes got pushed to extremes. He would abstain from many usual activities and would occasionally become weak and fragile from it. 

Looking more closely at these rituals, we can see that although some of the practices are to help the deceased (such as preparation for burial and soul-calling to possibly avert death), others are mostly for survivors to cope with what has happened. Grieving is very important in this ritual because it is a process that allows the ones affected to show how they feel and more easily move past it, 

We can also see that ancient Chinese cultures are more spiritual based in their narratives and in their way of explaining life in a more general way, So it is fairly obvious that the spirit or soul is valued when the mourners are going through great efforts in order to call out to the recently lost soul.

The social effects in this case are clear because the mourning process eventually leads to seclusion. This act may make things difficult for those around the chief mourner. They are not to hold in their grief and are socially allowed to reach a low in their life and express it. The positive thing about this is that communities were not to be judgmental about these type of grievance rituals.