The harm of lavish burial

Introduction

节葬下, Moderation in Burial III, is the only one of its three to survive, and Mozi's most direct attack on the customs of his day.

The custom was lavish burial and prolonged mourning: coffins in several layers, rich grave goods, many layers of shrouds, a mound like a hill. Then three years of mourning: "weeping without measure until the voice fails, wearing sackcloth, tears streaming, living in a hut, sleeping on straw with a clod for a pillow." For three years no proper food or shelter; the face must grow gaunt, the body weak, until one can only walk with a staff. The Confucians of the time called this filial piety, humaneness and righteousness.

Mozi treats it as a policy and tests it. If a humane person is to plan for the world, he must ask whether lavish burial and long mourning "can enrich the poor, multiply the few, secure the endangered and order the disordered."

Then the three ledgers. First, wealth. "Reckon it up: lavish burial is burying great quantities of wealth." When a ruler dies there must be "an outer coffin and an inner coffin, hides in three layers," and the scale of the funeral is "like a whole household moving away." "This halts the people's work and wastes the people's wealth beyond counting." Second, people. Long mourning leaves people "with sunken faces, darkened complexions, dull ears and eyes, weak hands and feet," unable to work for three years, and "greatly hinders the union of men and women": three years of mourning means three years without children. The population, already small, shrinks further. Third, government. Those above cannot govern for three years, those below cannot produce for three years; "the state must grow poor, the people must grow few, and government must fall into disorder."

Note one more passage. Someone says lavish burial is the way of the sage kings. Mozi answers that Yao, Shun and Yu were buried in "three layers of clothing," coffins "three inches thick," graves dug "deep enough not to reach water, shallow enough not to let out the smell," and "once buried, oxen and horses walked over the ground." That is how the sage kings were buried. Lavish burial is not their way.

At the end comes the line at the heart of the whole moderation series: "Food and clothing are the benefit of the living, and even they are moderated; burial is the benefit of the dead. Why should this alone go without moderation?"

The Community favors simple burial: short rites, moderate cost, and the savings used for the living. This is a recommendation, not a rule. 墨者之法 does not intervene in any family's funeral arrangements.

The three tests

This chapter is a complete demonstration of the three tests, appearing before 非命上 names them. Precedent: the frugal burials of Yao, Shun and Yu. Evidence: everyone can see mourners grow gaunt. Application: lavish burial makes the state poor, the people few and government disordered. It fails all three, so it is rejected.

Notice that Mozi actually uses the third test to explain the first: the sage kings buried simply because simple burial benefits. Which comes first?

For families

• Ask a child: have you been to a funeral? How much did it cost? What could that money do for the living? Parents should judge whether the child is old enough for this.
• Tell the story of the sage kings' three-inch coffins and ask: why were the greatest people buried most simply?
• Talk as a family about what real remembrance is: spending, or remembering.

For chapters

• Reading: the passage "reckon it up: lavish burial is burying great quantities of wealth," and the passage "food and clothing are the benefit of the living."
• Debate: focus on spending for appearances. This week can turn into judging other people's families; the host should confine the discussion to "our own household."
• Three-tests review: this chapter is a full use-case of the three tests. Write the evidence for each test on the board and see which is weakest. Compare in week 17.