Motif
Directional ordering of dead and living
directional_ordering_of_dead_and_living
A motif of the Ancestor Rites and Feeding the Dead family. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.
1 occurrences
1 traditions
confucian
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The Li Ki, Books I-X (The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism, Part III; Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 27) BOOK IV. THE YUEH LING / SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION. / Part TL / BOOK V. THE QUESTIONS OF 3ANG-3ZE1; lines 15973-16096 confidence: high
When someone died, people went to the housetop and called the name, saying to come back; then they put uncooked rice in the mouth and set raw-flesh offerings. The spirit is associated with heaven/high, while body and animal soul go downward; the dead face north and living face south.
The dead are placed with heads to the north, while the living look toward the south.
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