Wuhuan Funeral Songs

The Wuhuan, a people of the eastern steppe, wept when one of them died. At the burial they saw the dead off with song and dance.^[1] Two accounts describe their funeral. One is an earlier history of the Wei that Pei Songzhi quotes in his commentary on the Sanguozhi. The other is the Hou Han Shu, which gives the same account in shorter form.^[1] Only the Wei history describes the night of the burial. The mourners sang and wept as the dead man’s dog and horse were led round them, and two men chanted a spell to guide his spirit.^[2]

Death and burial

The Wuhuan honoured death in battle.^[1] They laid the dead in a coffin.^[1] At the death they wept, and at the burial they sent the dead off with song and dance.^[2] The Hou Han Shu sets the two side by side: there was the grief of weeping and wailing, but when the burial came, there was song and dance.^[3]

They fattened a dog and led it on a coloured cord.^[1] They took the horse the dead man had ridden, his clothes and goods, and the ornaments he had worn in life. They burned them all to send them after him.^[2] The dead man was entrusted to the dog, so that it would guard his spirit on its return to the Red Mountain, 赤山.^[1] Both texts place the Red Mountain several thousand li north-west of Liaodong.^[1] Both explain it to Chinese readers by their own belief: the spirits of the Wuhuan went to the Red Mountain as the souls of the Chinese dead went to Mount Tai.^[1]

The night of the burial

The Wei history gives the rite of the burial day.^[2] At night the kin and the old friends of the dead gathered and sat in a circle.^[2] The dog and the horse were led past each of them in turn. Those who sang or wept threw meat to the animals.^[2] Two men chanted a spell.^[2] The spell was to send the spirit of the dead straight on its way, through the dangerous places, so that no stray ghost would stop it, until it reached the Red Mountain.^[2] Then the dog and the horse were killed and burned with the clothes and goods.^[2]

Neither text gives a word of what was sung or chanted, and neither names the singers.^[1] The songs are known as an act, at the death, at the burial and around the dog and the horse. They are not known as words.

Sacrifice

The burning of the dead man’s goods follows the way the Wuhuan sacrificed. They revered the spirits and gods.^[1] They sacrificed to heaven and earth, to the sun, the moon and the stars, to the mountains and rivers, and to former chiefs who had been renowned for their strength.^[1] The oxen and sheep of the sacrifice were burned when the rite was over.^[1] Before eating or drinking they always made an offering.^[2]

The Xianbei

Both histories say that the Xianbei shared the language and the customs of the Wuhuan.^[4] Neither describes a Xianbei funeral.^[4] Of the Xianbei they give the shaving of the head at marriage and the spring assembly by the river.^[4] The dog, the songs and the Red Mountain are recorded for the Wuhuan alone. If they were carried over to the Xianbei, they would rest on the general remark about shared customs and not on a description.