The trend of funeral reform

Although there are many difficulties in the reform of the funeral and interment system, the reform practice in these years shows a bright future.

（1） Transition from burial to non burial

Chinese traditional burial is generally completed in the form of burial, so burial is also called burial. After the burial reform, cremation gradually replaced burial, but the cremated ashes were still mostly disposed in the form of tombs. The reform from burial to cremation is a leap, but from the perspective of dependence on soil, the two achieve the same goal in different ways. The difference is that the former is a one-time burial, or a burial with remains, and the latter is a secondary burial, or a burial with remains but without remains. Such funeral reform is incomplete in essence, and still does not meet the requirements of China's national conditions and modernization.

Although China has a vast territory and abundant resources, due to the large population and uneven distribution, the per capita land is very small, especially in the southeast of coastal areas and rivers. All cemeteries need land. Even for the tombs where the ashes are kept, one piece of ashes needs to occupy a piece of land, ranging from one square meter to dozens of square meters. If 2 million corpses are cremated every year, and the current service life of the cemetery is 70 years, we will encounter the problem of "no burial place for future generations" in a few years. For example, according to incomplete statistics from 1984 to 1993 when Shanghai opened cemeteries, the number of bone ash tombs has reached 132000, with an annual growth rate of 30000. With the acceleration of aging in Shanghai, the contradiction of land for graves will become more prominent. At the same time, the graves of Shanghai people are also expanding to the neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, especially Suzhou, which has become the heaven of Shanghai's dead people. It is said that 700000 graves have devoured the precious and leisurely fields and forests in Jiangnan. Every Tomb Sweeping Army forms a unique landscape during the Qingming Festival.

From the current reality, the burial with ashes is still the transitional stage of the burial reform, which conforms to the mentality of the masses of "being buried in peace" and creates a burial style that people in the cremation area are more willing to accept. Taking the data statistics in 1999 as an example, 97016 bodies were cremated in Shanghai that year. Among them, 63441 were buried in cemeteries, accounting for 65.39% of the cremations; 14182 mural burials were deposited, accounting for 14.62% of the cremated ones; 657 littered the sea, accounting for 0.68% of the cremation number; Others (deep burial treatment, etc.) 18796, accounting for 19.37% of the cremation. The above figures indicate that at present, most people still choose to treat and preserve the ashes of the dead in the form of burial. Therefore, we should first consolidate the achievements of the burial reform and do a good job in the construction of cemeteries.

First, we need to build cemeteries in a reasonable and orderly way, oppose the indiscriminate construction of cemeteries, control the number, rational layout and unified planning, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs has issued a special notice to guide this. At present, it is more important to oppose disorderly and vicious competition. In some places, the construction of cemeteries has been used as a means of getting rich, and even there has been a "pyramid selling" craze and "mortgage" of cemeteries, leading to another "white pollution".

Second, we should improve the management of cemeteries. It includes improving the management level of environment, greening, supporting facilities and other hardware, and improving the quality of employees and service quality.

Third, to improve the scientific and technological content of the service, a multimedia visual touch query system can be set up, so that customers can understand various materials and service programs of the cemetery without going out; Realize microcomputer networking and carry out online business.

Fourth, to increase the cultural connotation of cemeteries, we should learn from western countries and combine our country's reality to build green, humanistic and artistic cemeteries. We should change the past situation that cemeteries are linked with simple and uniform, gloomy and horrible, and replace them with green, artistic and humanistic places. For example, Mr. Yu Guangyuan said that his favorite place to go is the cemetery in Europe. The cemetery is covered with flowers, the marble statues and tombstones are like pieces of art, and the words on the cemetery are more interesting, which can let you wander for a long time. Such a cemetery is not a "death" place, but a living and soulful backyard. At present, 40 public cemeteries, one overseas Chinese cemetery and one Muslim cemetery in Shanghai are working towards this direction.

However, the burial of ashes is not the end result of our burial reform after all. It is still incomplete, because it does not conform to the national conditions of our country with limited land resources, especially the low fever in Shanghai. Based on the population base of 1.3 billion and the mortality rate of 7%, the cemetery needs to bury 9.1 million pieces of ashes every year, including green land, roads and service facilities. The burial area of ashes needs to cover 2.75 square meters, so the land demand in the cemetery industrial area is 250000 square kilometers per year, and then the land use life of the cemetery is 70 years, How much land should China devote to burying the ashes of dead people in the coming decades? Because of the above grim reality, burial should not become the trend of burial reform, but affect the development of non burial.