the last priest

"Boom... bang..." A firecracker with flaming light flew into the mid-air of Wangzhuang in the early morning when the sky began to get a little dim, and then exploded, and those with good ears woke up immediately. Then lay on the head of the bed until they heard the other two firecrackers, and immediately got up one by one, and rushed out of the courtyard door as fast as possible.

Three blasts of firecrackers, this is the first thing people need to do after dying in the countryside. It generally means that someone has passed away. Please let me know that this is a rule left over for thousands of years. One more ring, less It won't work all at once.The people I met on the road asked each other whose family was sending out a funeral, and whose family was most likely to die.

The old people looked dignified and smoked big cigarettes, thinking which childhood playmate should leave first this time, maybe the next one in the village will be their turn.The women don't need to call, they have to hurry up and get ready to help. If there is a funeral in the countryside, the helper will go to sea.The young and middle-aged people are the representatives of their own families. Naturally, they are ready to contribute. Some of them have to do the lifting, the building of the tomb, and some of them have to do the footwork. things.As for the children, they are kept at home by the older grandmothers, fearing that they will suffer bad luck. In fact, most of the children will not feel sad on this occasion. It's very lively for a big party.

After a while, the family representatives of the whole village basically gathered at the Wang family, and everyone was talking about who died in the Wang family. People with sharp eyes saw that the Taoist priest Cha Wenbin had put on the purple gold Taoist robe and stood in front of him. In the Wang family compound.

The obituary was written by Cha Wenbin himself. He wrote the time of Lao He's death on big red paper, and he also calculated which zodiac signs and horoscopes are for him. This is to tell everyone that you have to avoid some people. You have to be rushed up.

When they learned that it was Mr. He who passed away, the people in the village began to sigh. Although Mr. He was not from Wangzhuang, he was better than the folks here.Mr. He is upright and kind, and he is the most knowledgeable among those who can get relatives and friends here. He is an expert, and those old folks in Wangzhuang who need to go to the provincial capital to do business basically go to him.As long as the folks go, Mr. He will probably stay with them for a meal and then arrange to spend the night at his own home.

"Mr. He is a good man!", everyone in the village said so.

According to the usual practice, Zha Wenbin himself was the mortician first, because he was the only son Chaozi, so the bathing of the old man fell on his nephew and nephew Wang Xin.

When the daughters-in-law in the village put the old man's shroud on, they found that the old man's chest was so thin that only his ribs were left. Tears fell down like beads in pain.

He always walked with his eyes closed, and Chaozi kept kneeling after he left.Wherever Mr. He's body was, he knelt down, refused to get up, and even walked on his knees.

The wooden gate of the Wang family was dismantled and placed in the main room, and two long long benches were taken and placed underneath. He slept on it with a thin quilt covering his body.Mr. He was very peaceful, as if he had fallen asleep. Even when people tidied up his room later, they found that the spittoon under the table had turned red. This old man walked very decently and calmly. .

Cha Wenbin secretly felt in his heart that he must organize this funeral for him, so that his year-end friend can complete the last part of the journey.

The mourning hall is located in the main room, and many people have passed away here, maybe even Mrs. Wang didn't expect her daughter and son-in-law to leave here eventually.

A large black coffin had already been carried in by people tied up with thick hemp ropes "squeak, squeak". It was also padded with two large benches, and it was placed side by side beside He Lao, hanging a pale coffin. Pale funeral curtain.This coffin was originally prepared by Mrs. Wang's wife. Now she is the oldest person in this Wangzhuang. She has lost her father and then her daughter. Now even her son-in-law has come ahead of her. This coffin will be used first for the son-in-law.

Although the old lady of the Wang family was strong, she couldn't stand the blows one after another. She was lying on the bed and weeping. Several grandchildren's daughters-in-law were taking care of her.

The filial sons of the Wang family were all wearing white filial piety, filial piety clothes, and hemp ropes around their waists. They stood on both sides of the mourning hall to receive the guests who came to express their condolences. He Yichao, Wang Xin, the younger generations and their wives, He Yichao and Wang Xin The relatives of the old grandchildren wore mourning clothes, knelt in front of the mourning hall and wailed loudly.There is a saying in the countryside that the more mourners there are, the smoother people will go. He Yichao's eyes were red, paper money was burning paper money after paper money, and he couldn't hold back all of a sudden, sobbing loudly :

"Father, you just closed your eyes and left to find my mother. How could you bear to leave me alone in this world? I haven't even married yet, and you haven't even embraced your grandson yet. ..." The words in his mouth were all about asking Mr. He to take care of his mother after he went down.

When the others heard him cry, they couldn't help feeling sad, and they all started crying.As he said that, Chaozi rushed towards his father's body like crazy, but was held firmly on the ground by Zhuo Xiong and Hengroulian. Knowing whether it's tears or snot, that's really sad.

Zha Wenbin didn't have to do religious rituals during the day, but he also had other things that Taoist priests wouldn't bother to do on weekdays, but this time he did it himself.

The first one is to write elegiac couplets.

After someone dies in this village, they have to write a pair of elegiac couplets, which are about the same size as Spring Festival couplets, but they have to use white rice paper as the base, write in thick black ink, and paste them on both sides of the gate. People are not allowed to post red couplets during the Spring Festival to show that they have kept their filial piety for three years and they are not allowed to participate in any celebrations.Mr. He's elegiac couplet pasted at the gate was written by Cha Wenbin himself:

Shanglian Road: The crane has disappeared with the shadow of the cloud

The next link: The sound of the cuckoo is still cold with the moonlight

Horizontal batch: Baowu Star Shen

These big characters, each one is square and upright, and the strokes are sonorous and powerful, all written by Cha Wenbin in one go.Some calligraphy-loving old people in Wangzhuang read this elegiac couplet, and they all commented in private that the words written by Taoist Zha are really beautiful and powerful!

The second thing is to write a funeral letter for the sender.

Communication in rural areas was not convenient at that time, and telephones were not yet popular, let alone mobile phones.Earlier, when people reported funerals, they would select people with strong feet in the village and let him kick on the funeral letter. In the past, people who reported funerals were given a pair of new cloth shoes with thousand-ply soles. Later, people now To save trouble, he distributed a pair of Jiefang shoes instead, and asked him to wear them to notify relatives far away to attend the funeral.

This funeral is very particular, and Zha Wenbin told the messengers about the precautions.

First: Try to walk as much as you can, which represents a kind of respect for the deceased. If you really can’t do it, you have to drive, and don’t talk too much with others on the road. You can’t show the things in the envelope to strangers.

Second: If you meet someone with a long way to go and need to stay overnight, you can’t go to the farmer’s house to stay overnight. Make do with one night.

Third: When you arrive at the recipient’s home, you are not allowed to enter the door. You have to call out the owner outside the door to avoid bringing bad luck into the house, and you are not allowed to eat with the recipient on the road. The recipient’s first meal must be here. Wang Zhuang came to eat white tofu, and he could eat some dry food brought from here to satisfy his hunger on the way.

Fourth: After returning to Wangzhuang, you need to take the person to the mourning hall to kowtow and burn incense before returning home.Before entering the door, you need to take off your shoes, enter the door barefoot, then grab a handful of rice mixed with tea and throw it out of the door behind your back, and then you have to take a bath and change clothes immediately, this is also to prevent the person who reported the funeral from getting bad luck.Because it was a mourning letter, some lonely ghosts on the way would follow after seeing it, looking for a chance to reincarnate, and easily brought it into their home.

So sending letters is really hard work, and most of the people who are willing to deliver letters have good friendship with the host.Fortunately, Mr. He and the Wang family are usually highly respected, so there are not many people who can send letters.

The third thing is to write a few celestial master talismans and hang them on the gate. This kind of black talisman paper is for the door god, and the purpose is to prevent those wild ghosts from rushing in to reincarnate.It is also for the sake of keeping the master's family safe during the next seven days.

After doing this, Zha Wenbin guarded the long sleep lamp all day, adding some oil to it from time to time, fiddled with the flame, so that it would burn more vigorously, muttering in his mouth to let He Laolu see clearly , don't fall.At this time, Cha Wenbin really didn't look like a Taoist priest, but like a person who lost an old friend and felt lonely.

The women in the village are busy washing vegetables and dishes; the men are divided into several groups. One group sets up a tent at the door and eats under the open tent. The other group is responsible for killing pigs and sheep and making tofu. Some of the most important things on a white wedding are responsible for moving tables and chairs, while others are responsible for entertaining guests.

In short, all the people in the village perform their duties, and no one is idle. In the materially underdeveloped rural areas, people rely on solidarity and helping each other.

Originally, Mr. He's funeral was handled according to the rules, but no one expected that something unexpected happened to Zha Wenbin Qian and Wan's instructions. . . . . .