Where the custom of burning joss paper came from

Qingming, the Cold Clothes Festival, the Ghost Festival, and whenever someone in the family passes away — Chinese people burn joss paper. But where did the habit start?

In the earliest rites the offerings were real valuables: jade, silk, livestock. Later, families began burying real money with the dead — copper coins, gold, silver — so the deceased would have spending power in the next world.

Real money got too expensive for many households, so someone hit on the idea of cutting paper into the shape of coins and burning it for the dead to use as currency. The practice caught on.

Exactly which dynasty saw paper money become widespread is debated. The common view is that it was already common in the Tang. One story says the officials in charge of state sacrifices swapped paper money for real coin, the emperor approved, and ordinary people followed suit.

After that the designs multiplied: some looked like copper cash, some like silver ingots, some came in thick stacks of joss money. Regional customs diverged, too. In some places you have to draw a circle at a crossroads and burn the paper inside it — said to keep wandering ghosts from snatching it.

Whether to burn joss paper is each family's call. Still, on those days you'll see plenty of people standing by the roadside fires, saying a few words to the flames.

(Compiled from accounts that circulate online; the details cannot be checked one by one.)

#Folklore #网络转载 #纸钱 #祭祀