Littell's Living Age/Volume 128/Issue 1657/Chinese Funeral Notices

On the death of a parent, it is customary in China, at any rate with persons above a certain rank in the social scale, to forward to all friends and acquaintances, however slight, a formal notification of the fact, written in mourning ink, and on mourning paper of portentous dimensions. On the present occasion this document (in which, be it observed, the family name of the parties, Shên, is omitted), ran as follows: — “Be it known that the unfilial Pao-chên, who, on account of his manifold and grievous crimes, was worthy of sudden death has not died, and that, instead, the calamity has fallen upon his worthy father, upon whom the reigning emperor of the Ta-ching (lit, great, pure) dynasty has conferred the first order of rank in the civil service, and that in the imperial body-guard, and the governorship of the province of Kiangse. In the twelfth year of the reign, styled Tao-Kuang, at the competition of the literati, he gained the rank of Chii jêu (that is, MA.). The writer’s father, Tan-lin, fell sick on the ninth day of this moon, and lingered in great pain until the twelfth, when he passed away. He was born about two or three in the morning of the ninth moon, of the fifty-second year of the reign styled Chien-Lung, and was therefore somewhat over eighty-four years old. Immediately he expired the family went into mourning, and now, alas! have sorrowfully to communicate with you. We have chosen the 18th, 19th, and 20th for the return presentation of this card [that is, will then receive visits of condolence]. No funeral presents can be received. The writer and his brother are kneeling with forehead in the dust, weeping tears of blood. The sons of the writer and his brother, nine in number, are kneeling with downcast faces, weeping tears of blood. The relatives and descendants, to the number of nine, are on their knees (before the coffin), beating their heads upon the ground. [From] the residence of the writer, named the Ancient Grotto of the Fairies.”