According to Confucian tradition, life and death are distinct but integral parts of a whole. This experience of two separate but linked worlds is often connected with intense human feelings of sorrow and pain in times of loss and crisis.
As a means to move beyond overwhelming shock and despair, the Confucian school perpetuated complicated and sophisticated rituals to help families contain and process grief. These rites, or enactments, brought people a sense of comfort and relief, and provided the structures needed for transformation.
In Confucian culture, rituals contain specific instructions for how to carefully navigate complex and stressful situations. In this way, they constitute a precise language with which to understand and express grief, thereby transforming the experience of suffering, for some, into an experience of healing.