勅修百丈清規 3.92

3.92

The treasury official prepares food for the guest and the dual order officials

who are participating in the rite. Next, the guest is escorted on rounds of the

various quarters in due order.

In general, the position of director of the funeral rite must be assigned

to a very distinguished, virtuous practitioner. For instance, Yuanwu Keqin

conducted funeral rites for Zen Master Kaifu Daoning and helped Venera-

ble Dawei Shangao inherit the Dharma transmission from Kaifu Daoning.

Such is the paradigm.

5. Appointment of the Directors

of the Funeral Rite

After the senior practitioner who has been designated director of the funeral rite

completes his rounds through the various quarters, he is accompanied to the

guest house by the dual order officials, the retired officials, and the disciples of

the deceased master. There he is shown the record of the abbot’s personal pos-

sessions, the written wills, and so on left by the deceased. Over tea, he dis-

cusses the practical matters of the funeral rite with the officials and requests

them to take charge of the roles of the secretarial duty, the directors of vari-

ous affairs, guest reception duty, patriarchal office duty, and the various assis-

tant functions. He is in turn deemed to oversee the entire matter of the funeral

proceedings (details given below), except for two ceremonies that he himself

should conduct, namely, leading the three utterances of grief “ai” and con-

ducting the supplementary session to be held before the deceased master.

The funeral garments (types listed below) must be distributed. If there is

no silk or other kind of cloth available, respective amounts of money equiv-

alent to the cost of each garment may be distributed under the circumstances.

By consulting the primary seat official, the director of the funeral rite divides

all the possessions of the deceased into three portions. The first portion is to

be used for the purchase of the funeral garment for the director of the funeral

rite, on sutra chanting, candles, and lighting; the second portion is for the tem-

ple’s expenditure for preparing additional provisions above the regular food

offerings; and the third portion is for practitioners’ ritual services in chanting

sutras, ceremonial acts, and the costs of various signboards. The director of

the funeral rite must be impartial and fair-minded and must not seek personal gain. The accompanying practitioners and attendants cannot interfere in the proceedings once the director takes up his role as required.

Every day, sutra chanting, offerings of monetary gifts, and servings of tea and sweet hot water must take place. One representative of each group of the dual order officials and the retired officials is requested to be in charge of the treasury. In general, frivolous talk should be avoided. The practitioner assistant of the guardian bodhisattva keeps accounts. The director of the funeral rite publicly appoints either the guest master or the tea master to be in charge of his secretariat. For this matter he should consult with the director of practitioners’ affairs. The guest reception official receives the incoming guests for the funeral services, while the director of the funeral rite assigns workers to various tasks by announcing their names and assignments on signboards.

6. Ceremonial Garments for the Funeral Rite

[1] Assistants and disciples of the deceased: hemp-cloth patched garment.

[2] Dual order officials: hemp-cloth patched garment.

[3] Director of the funeral rite and the eldest practitioner of those related in the Dharma lineage: raw silk-cloth patched garment.

[4] Retired officials, subfunctionary secretaries, practitioners from the same native province, relations in Dharma lineage, and representatives of various temples: raw silk waist sash.

[5] Lay patrons: raw silk waist sash.

[6] Abbot’s office attendants: hemp-cloth hood and patched garment.

[7] All other attendants: hemp-cloth hood.

[8] Foremen of workers attached to the abbot’s office: hemp-cloth hood and trousers.

[9] Foremen of the temple estate, undertakers, and workers: hemp-cloth hood.

7. Kinds of Buddhist Funeral Rites

[1] Laying the deceased’s body in the portable shrine at the reception hall.

[2] Moving the place of the shrine at the Dharma hall. (Items 2–9 take place at the Dharma hall.)

[3] Closing the door of the shrine.

[4] Placing the portrait of the deceased in the Dharma hall.

[5] Uttering the word of grief “ai.”

[6] Serving tea and sweet hot water to the deceased.

[7] Conducting a supplementary Dharma session before the deceased spirit.

[8] Serving tea and sweet hot water to the deceased.

[9] Lifting the shrine.

[10] Placing the portrait of the deceased in the portable pavilion at the

temple gate.

[11] Serving tea and sweet hot water to the deceased.

[12] Making fire for cremation.

[13] Collecting and enshrining the remains.

[14] Auctioning the possessions of the deceased.

[15] Lifting the remains.

[16] Depositing the remains.

[17] Enshrining the portrait and tablet in the patriarchal shrine hall.

[18] Depositing the remains or interring the entire body in the tower.

[19] Casting earth.

(If the deceased left many possessions, tea and sweet hot water should

be served every day and the rites of “turning the shrine around backward

toward the rear,” “turning the remains around backward toward the rear,”

and so on should be performed.)

8. Moving the Shrine to the Dharma Hall

After the body has lain in the shrine for three days, it must be covered with

a curtain. An area surrounded by curtains in the upper rear section of the

Dharma hall should be set up, in which a meditation couch, a clothes rack,

and a variety of objects that the deceased master used everyday are arranged

so as to resemble his room as if he were still alive. The portrait and tablet

with his name should be placed on the rostrum seat in the central part of the