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NYTimes - As China's income gap grows, tombs are a target

Ever since Deng Xiaoping signaled in 1978 that it was fine to get rich, much of China has seemed hell-bent on that goal. But some local governments would like those who succeed not to lord it over others, at least when it comes to paying final respects.

As of last month, in the cemeteries of this hilly megalopolis in south-central China, modest burials are in. Fancy tombs are out.

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“Ordinary people who walk by and see these lavish tombs might not be able to keep their emotions in balance,” said Zheng Wenzhong, as he visited the relatively modest resting place of a relative at The Temple of the Lighted Lamp cemetery.

Same as it ever was.

In ancient days, the Mohists criticized the Confucians for wasting too much time and money on elaborate funeral and mourning rites, but the Confucians countered that the funereal impulse is the root of all of our other moral impulses. Mencius 3A.5,

“In dealing with funerals, Mozi took frugality as the Way. …

“Now, in past ages, there were those who did not bury their parents. When their parents died, they took them and abandoned them in a gully. The next day, they passed by them, and foxes were eating them, bugs were sucking on them. Sweat broke out on the survivors’ foreheads. They turned away and did not look. It was not for the sake of others that they sweated. What was inside their hearts broke through to their countenances. So they went home and, returning with baskets and shovels, covered them. If covering them was really right, then the manner in which filial children and benevolent people cover their parents must also be part of the Way.”

So much for Confucian China?… Or at least Confucian government in China.