Taoism

Tradition·Founded c. 500 BCE·est. ~12 million formally; far more informally

Taoism → 1 branch

Branch
Rite of Taoism

Breaking open hell.

At a funeral the priest computes the dead person's position in the underworld administration, burns paper money and a paper house, and in the full form smashes the walls of hell with a sword to lead the soul out. It is conducted as a legal action against a bureaucracy, and it is the economic base of the married Zhengyi clergy.

⏱ once — at a death, and again at the anniversaries◌ the family; a Zhengyi priest and his band
What happensThe soul is located, the debts to the underworld computed, paper money and a paper house burned; in the full form the priest breaks open the walls of hell with a sword and leads the soul out through them
What it needsA priest, a paper effigy-maker, and money — funerals are the economic base of the Zhengyi clergy
What it aims atTo get a specific dead person out of a specific administrative situation. It is a legal action as much as a rite
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this rite is held

Taoist funerary ritual treats death as an administrative problem. The soul must be located, its accumulated debts to the underworld bureaucracy computed and settled, and its passage secured — which is done with written documents, spirit money and paper effigies of houses, cars, servants and, in contemporary practice, phones and appliances, all burned so they transfer. In the fullest form, the poduo or breaking of hell, the priest performs a ritual assault on the underworld: the walls, represented by tiles or a paper structure, are smashed with a sword and the soul is led out. This is the economic foundation of the Zhengyi clergy, who are married householders performing services for fees, and it is the single most common Taoist ritual anyone will actually attend. Hong Kong's urban Zhengyi tradition formally distinguishes red rituals for auspicious occasions from yellow ones for funerals, and different priests specialise.

The same ground, other faiths

rites that share this one's ideas
The samskaras — life, marked. Hinduism Go deeper →
Obon — feeding the hungry ghosts. Buddhism Go deeper →
Water thrown the wrong way. Sikhism · story Read it in full →
Ancestor veneration. Confucianism Go deeper →
Muktad — the dead come home. Zoroastrianism Go deeper →

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