For many years, funerals have been valued by China people. In feudal society, reburial has always been the mainstream of funeral consumption. The basic reasons are as follows:

First of all, in the traditional culture of China, the concept of "filial piety" has a great influence on people. This kind of "filial piety" not only requires people to do their best to observe filial piety when their loved ones are alive, but also requires them to express filial piety as much as possible after the death of their elders.

Sometimes, people even think that "filial piety does not pay attention to filial piety", and "filial piety" is better reflected in death than health preservation. Therefore, funeral expenses are the only important opportunity for the younger generation to express their thoughts and filial piety to their elders for the last time and show them to outsiders.

From the perspective of "the dead angle should not be too thick". They are all "dedication, frugality and filial piety" and cannot be too extravagant.

The second is because people show off their mentality. Funeral consumption is not only the embodiment of filial piety of the younger generation, but also the embodiment of family social status and economic strength. The mass funeral can be said to be vigorous. Although many consumer goods are actually a waste, people still do it one after another. Besides filial piety, it also includes showing off.

Seeing that many families in the Dojo spent a lot of money on funerals, Lu You pointedly pointed out: "He doesn't know who Buddha is and what Buddhism is, but he wants to praise the beauty of his neighbors!" Dai also said that during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, people "sacrificed" and "sold praises to women and children".

Third, under the pressure of society, protect people's face. Funeral luxury consumption may be the most extensive luxury consumption involving classes and strata in China feudal society. It is not only the grand state funeral of the emperor and empress, but also the extravagance and waste of the upper-class landlords and businessmen at all costs. Even the middle-and lower-class landlords with little net worth, even ordinary farmers with poor families, are forced to do their best to hold a luxurious and decent funeral, because no large funeral can express strong social pressure of filial piety.

This is the most famous royal funeral in the Song Dynasty. In a series of royal funeral expenses, the construction of tombs is the most important part. For example, under the guiding ideology of Song Yingzong's "Don't give me the China Medal", the Zhao Yong Mausoleum built for Song Renzong still used 46,700 labors, and spent "2.5 million silk, 2.5 million silver and 502,000 silver to help and reward the mausoleum".

In fact, not only the funeral of the emperor, but also the funeral of the prince and queen is an exciting thing. Song Renzong's youngest son died beside the king. Dig a grave in midsummer and dig through the soil in the deep mountains. Thousands of workers are employed. They spent about half a million pounds. There is even a serious situation that "three departments are forced to bow their heads and try their best to reduce costs". Zhang Guifei's death in Song Renzong was also "the battle of thousands of soldiers, which cost millions of dollars".

After the royal family was buried, the maintenance and sacrifice of the cemetery became an indispensable financial expenditure every year. For example, in October of the sixth year of Yuan You, Song Zhezong sent a letter asking "Jingxi to hand over 200,000 yuan of punishments and ordered collateral". According to Li Xinchuan's records, Zhao Ci and You Yongzhi "sacrificed more than 8,400 yuan and repaired more than 5,000 yuan every year" in the early Southern Song Dynasty.

In addition to the state-sponsored sacrificial ceremonies for emperors and queens, luxurious funerals organized by families are widely distributed in all walks of life. This luxury consumption runs through all aspects of funeral activities. For example, the choice of cemetery, the Song Dynasty is a very popular geographical period of Yin and Yang Feng Shui. "Today's funeral book is about Xiangshan, Shuigang and barking dogs. This is an examination of the past and the future. People think that future generations are divided into rich and poor, and there is a relationship between intelligence and stupidity. "

So people often spend a lot of money to find a good burial place. If assistant minister Liang Qidao invites Yang Jiuxun from Poyang to attend his funeral, he will.

Coffins and funerary objects are also an important part of funeral expenses. Although the government has a clear hierarchy for them, extravagance and lawlessness are very common. If Wang Jide, the county magistrate of Pingjiang County, dies, his family will spend 500,000 yuan to buy a coffin. During the reign of Shao Xi, Monroe "spent 654.38 million yuan on coffins and colorful decorations for Fu Peng". "If the nobles were stronger, the coffins would be painted red."

Many people also "regard Damu as a geographical location, with high service, gorgeous decoration and no access." In addition to cemeteries, coffins and famous vessels, funerals for monks, Taoists, Buddhists and guests are also a big expense. For example, "Fujian Customs attaches great importance to cruel things. They serve the pagoda and receive guests. They try their best to become rich and luxurious, which is filial piety. Otherwise, they will be deeply ashamed of themselves and their village. The greedy traitors, refugees and villains are infinite, often reaching hundreds of thousands. "

If luxury is not controlled, the social atmosphere will be corrupted, thus affecting the foundation of governing the country. Therefore, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty often issued various bans to curb luxury consumption, including funerals, and even banned luxury consumption at weddings, which was the highlight of the ban on luxury consumption in the Song Dynasty.

For example, in April of the first year of Xuanhe, the official said that "because the folk customs are universal, I am still studying, and the funeral is a monk's luxury." But "officials need to protect each other, and the five rites ban only targets walls and houses." Therefore, Song Huizong asked local officials to pay more attention to extravagance and lawlessness in weddings and funerals, and asked the supervisory department to "take care of these local officials according to time and diligence". In September of the second year of Shaoxing, in view of the situation of "extravagance and waste in weddings and funerals, boasting about corrupting customs" in Guangdong and Guangxi, "the the Supreme People's Court Municipal Supervision Commission and the Ministry of Supervision are always on guard against this situation, and if they violate it, they will re-enact the Constitution".

Relatively speaking, funeral expenses have more specific provisions. For example, from the ritual norms in funerals to funerary objects, there are corresponding detailed regulations according to different social classes. For example, in the first month of the seventh year of Taiping and Xingguo, Academician Li Fang redefined the funeral system of ordinary people, and put forward clear and specific requirements for the number of different officials, funeral service personnel and funerary objects needed by Shu Ren.

The Song Dynasty also stipulated that people from all walks of life "should not use stones as coffins or rooms, and their coffins should not be engraved with colored paintings or stones, and gold, jewels and jade articles should not be hidden in coffins". The significance of these laws and regulations is not only to prohibit Vietnamese consumption, but also to prohibit luxury consumption.