Quick Answer: What Happens in Chinese Buddhist Funeral Rites?
Chinese Buddhist funeral and memorial observances may include chanting, offerings and dedication of merit (回向, huíxiàng), in which the benefit of a religious act is directed toward the deceased. The service varies with the community and the family.[1][2][4]
- Recitation: A service may include Amitabha’s name or a sutra.[2]
- Memorial days: The seven sevenths (七七, qīqī) mark a series of seven-day intervals that culminate on the forty-ninth day.[1]
- Different settings: Monasteries had procedures for deceased members. Household observances can combine Buddhist liturgy with local customs.[1][3][4]
The forty-nine days describe one memorial pattern. A particular funeral or memorial gathering may follow a different schedule.
A funeral text can tell you what is recited, a family’s calendar when relatives gather, and a painting what worshippers hoped for. In a Southern Song scroll, a Buddha’s welcoming hand gives a visible form to one of those hopes.
What Chanting and Dedication Express
Dharma Drum Mountain gives the Heart Sutra, praise of Amitabha and a verse dedicating merit as examples for funerals. In such a dedication the benefit of the recitation is directed toward the deceased. Within Pure Land Buddhism, calling Amitabha’s name can express the wish for rebirth in his realm.[2][5]
How the Seven Sevenths Are Counted
The name refers to seven successive seventh days, reaching day forty-nine after a death. In one Buddhist understanding, this interval is a time of transition before rebirth. Memorial acts during the period are understood to benefit the deceased. Historical records show the observances entering family mourning and changing as they were adopted in different settings.[1]
What Monastery Records Add
The Baizhang regulations set out procedures for deceased monastics, including chanting and dedication. They belong to the history of Chinese Buddhist monastic discipline. A study of late Qing records from Haichuang Temple in Guangzhou describes a funeral with recitation and cremation. It also notes an observer’s account that burial was possible there for monks who had expressed that wish. The local account helps explain how actual arrangements could vary from a written rule.[3][4]
Reading an Image of Welcome
In a late thirteenth-century Chinese scroll at the Met, Amitabha stands on two lotuses and holds his right hand in a welcoming gesture. The museum reads the scene as his descent to receive a recently deceased person into the Western Pure Land. His lotus supports and extended hand place the emphasis on welcome. The image gives form to the hoped-for welcome after death.[5]
FAQs About Chinese Buddhist Funeral Rites
Is day forty-nine the funeral date?
It is the last day of the seven-sevenths memorial cycle. The funeral and the sequence of memorial observances can take place on different dates.
Is every Chinese Buddhist funeral the same?
Schedules, recitations and family practices vary. A monastery’s rules for its members and a household’s arrangements describe different settings.
Why might Amitabha be named during the service?
In Pure Land practice, reciting Amitabha’s name can express an aspiration for the deceased to be reborn in the Western Pure Land.
Sources
[1] Peng Meiling. Seven Sevenths in Han Buddhist Funeral
[2] Dharma Drum Mountain. Common Questions: Buddhist Funeral Rites
[3] Shohei Ichimura, translator. The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations
[4] Religions. A Study on the Funerals of the Han Buddhist Monks of Lingnan during the Late Qing Dynasty via the Haichuang Temple in Guangzhou
[5] The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Buddha Amitabha Descending from His Pure Land