Chinese people have always been concerned about etiquette, and this is no exception in the area of human death. In ancient times, after the death of a person, the family of the deceased to the side of the wake, when full seven days before you can lift the dead outside the burial, and during this period to cover the face of the deceased with paper. This practice has led to many superstitions, such as preventing the deceased's yin qi from being released and affecting the family; it would prevent the deceased from being reincarnated and so on. But these are all superstitions, and there is some scientific basis for doing so, and there is an allusion to this custom.
Toward the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, King Fu-chai of Wu killed his loyal servant Wu Zixu by a trick of backstabbing and beauty. Before his death, Wu Zixu ordered others to gouge out his eyes and hang them on the city gates after his death, to watch Wu being destroyed by Yue. Nine years later, Yue attacked Wu in one fell swoop and destroyed Wu. At this time, Fu Chai thought he would not have the face to meet Wu Zixu after his death, and before committing suicide, he asked his men to cover his face with a cloth over his body. This custom was then passed down.
First of all, when the blood flow in a person's body stops after death, the face will stiffen rapidly, and inevitably there will be some horrible faces. And in order to maintain the image of the deceased in life, and also to prevent scaring people who come to offer condolences, paper is used to cover the face. And it's easy to see the face of a person, the family members of the deceased loved ones to see the face of the deceased is very easy to mood swings too much, can not control their own emotions. In order to prevent family relatives from being too sad and grief-stricken, covering with paper is really a good way.
In ancient times there was no such advanced medical equipment as we have today to tell if a person was really dead. Many people in ancient times may have gone into shock and entered a state of fake death due to blood loss, overwork, and other reasons. At this time, people's nerve reflexes and brain consciousness were in a very weak state. And cover the paper can determine whether the deceased is really out of breath, if there is still a weak breath, will move the face of the paper, was discovered by the onlookers to prevent the person is still alive to be buried in the ground. Then there is the ancient people to stop the body after death for seven days, known as ? first seven? If the indoor temperature is too high, the dead body is easy to rot inside, and breeding a lot of bacteria, emitting an unpleasant odor. Thus it will leak out from the mouth, nose and eyes of the deceased and infect the people around.