Cheng fu, assuming mourning dress
The putting on of hemp after the coffin is sealed, graded by the five degrees of kin — a bamboo staff for a father, a paulownia staff for a mother.
Pronunciation chéng fú｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Once the coffin is sealed the family puts on hemp, and this is cheng fu. The dress is graded by the five degrees of mourning — zhan cui, zi cui, da gong, xiao gong, si ma — set by how close the blood tie runs. A son whose father has died carries a bamboo staff; a son whose mother has died carries one of paulownia.
A mourning curtain hangs in front of the hall. Visitors bow before the curtain, the son kneels beside them, and the women of the household wail behind it.
When you see it
After the coffin is sealed and before the merit-making. At the moment of death the family first puts on sackcloth — left arm bare if the father has died, right arm if the mother — but that is temporary. Cheng fu is the mourning dress proper, set by the degrees of kin.
Words easily confused
Cheng fu is the change into mourning dress. Zuo gong de is the calling in of monks or priests to chant; the two come one after the other but are not one affair. Zuo qi, the sacrifice every seventh day after the burial, is a stretch again.
Custom in Chaoshan funerals; this page describes only, and neither endorses superstition nor urges anyone to follow it.
Read next: Funeral custom: from merit-making to the coffin leaving.
See also: Rites of life: the five thresholds side by side.
Same group: the seven-week rites, merit-making, buying water.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026