Huang Guosheng

“I don’t want to put her in a tomb,” Zhou said suddenly. “What?” Everyone looked at Zhou, surprised.

Zhou explained that he did not want to leave his mother like this. He still wanted to see her when he returned home later. So he quietly announced his startling plan, a plan which had been hidden in his heart for a long time. He wanted to put A’shen’s corpse in a glass box and preserve it forever in the hall of the ancestral house.

All those present were shocked. They looked at each other dumbfounded.

The 70-year-old village chief spoke up first. “Doing such a thing is something we have never heard of anyone doing before,” he said. “As village chief, I can’t take responsibility for this. If you go ahead with this plan, you will not be allowed to come back to our village, and your name will be struck off the role of the clan of Zhou. The civil administrative office in Nawu Town won’t permit you to do it either, and you’ll be severely punished.”

Zhou said, “I don’t mind. I just want to see my mother when I come back here.”

The village chief was so angry that he turned and left. Someone else said, “Aren’t you afraid that the body will decay?”

Zhou replied, “The science for this is very advanced now. I’ve researched it. Provided the preservative is properly prepared and sealed, the corpse will be preserved forever, just like a sleeping person.”

“But a corpse lying in the hall is unlucky, and it will threaten others,” said his elder brother.

“On the contrary, our mother will guard her son and daughter,” Zhou replied.

“But no one has ever done this here before,” said one man.

“Then I shall make history. I hope all of you can give me your understanding. Now I will tell you two stories.”

He went on to relate the following:

In the ancient Wei and Jin dynasties (220-420) of China there was a man named Wang Pou from Shandong Province, whose mother feared thunder. After she died and a thunderstorm was coming, Wang Pou hurried to her tomb in the nearby forest, consoling her by saying, “Your son is with you now, so don’t be afraid.”

The other story was called “Carving Wood to Worship a Parent.” A man named Ding Lan from Henan Province in the ancient Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) missed his dead father, so he carved a figure of his father on wood, and used this to pretend that he was still alive and with him. Every day he did not eat until he had worshipped his “father,” and he also reported to the effigy every time he left home. It was said that later on he saw the effigy shed tears.

The people listened, wide-eyed and motionless. They all sighed when he finished, but still none of them would agree to Zhou’s bizarre plan.