Recently, Anqing, Anhui Province implemented the funeral reform, requiring that from June 1 day, after the death of urban and rural residents in the city, cremation should be carried out according to regulations.
After the reform policy was announced, the Beijing News reporter found that six elderly people committed suicide. Behind the suicide, the reasons are very complicated. Anqing Foreign Affairs Office said that there was no direct causal relationship between the media reports that "the elderly committed suicide" and the funeral reform in Anqing. However, a survey by the Beijing News reporter found that the "one size fits all" policy of funeral reform made it difficult for the elderly who had had coffins for decades to accept; The implementation of the policy is too fast, resulting in inadequate publicity and education; Forcibly collecting coffins at the grassroots level directly stimulates the elderly; The traditional custom of local reburial also makes the old people feel uneasy.
Yesterday, the Anhui Provincial Department of Civil Affairs responded that it was forbidden to forcibly collect coffins. Experts said that the reform of folk culture should be gradual and should not be rushed.
□ Beijing News reporter Zhang Yongsheng Shen Zhimin Anhui Anqing Report
Recently, some media reported that Anqing City, Anhui Province forced the implementation of funeral reform, forcibly demolished the existing coffins in people's homes, and many elderly people committed suicide before cremation on June 1 day.
Yesterday, the Anhui Provincial Department of Civil Affairs responded to the Beijing News reporter: The Provincial Department of Civil Affairs prohibited compulsory coffin collection; The Anqing Municipal Government responded to the Provincial Civil Affairs Department, saying that Anqing's funeral reform policy also prohibits compulsory coffin collection, and there is no compulsory coffin collection in the implementation process.
However, the Beijing News reporter learned in the interview that before the introduction of this policy, many rural areas in Anqing had forcibly collected villagers' coffins on a large scale; After the introduction of the policy, it was not strictly implemented, and some rural areas continued to forcibly collect coffins.
In Anqing countryside, where there is a strong custom of burial, coffins are the most important "property" for many elderly people for the rest of their lives, and forced collection of coffins has caused them a psychological blow. Within 50 kilometers of Fiona Fang, Tongcheng City, Anqing City, six elderly people committed suicide. Their children all claimed that the old man committed suicide to avoid the cremation policy after June 1 year.
In Yunchong Village, Daguan Town, Tongcheng, 88-year-old Pan Xiuying committed suicide four times this year, but they were all saved. At the pleading of her children, the village Committee agreed not to accept her coffin for the time being. On May 25th, she vaguely admitted to the Beijing News reporter that the coffin was her only hope of being alive at present.
breaking news
Before the funeral reform policy came to the village, there was no publicity about cremation in Anqing rural area.
Wu, aged 9 1, died.
On the morning of May 6, about an hour after learning that the coffin would be confiscated, Wu hanged himself. Wu is one of the oldest old people in Xindian Village, Tongcheng City, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Anqing City. His son, Wu Dawang, has been the principal of a nearby middle school for many years and just retired last year.
At the beginning of April this year, some villagers told Wu that if he died after June 1 day, he would be cremated and his coffin would be lost. King Wu comforted that it was not necessarily true, because he had never heard of anything before.
"This is not a rumor." Zhu (a pseudonym), the head of Xindian Village in Lvting Town, said that in early April, he and other village leaders were called to the village committee for a meeting, and the village director told everyone that Anqing City would implement funeral reform. Zhu, who was unprepared, froze on the spot: "We haven't talked about cremation here for decades."
The Beijing News reporter learned from at least 20 villages in Tongcheng that the news of funeral reform in Anqing basically spread to all villages in early April.
Anqing city began to formulate this policy in mid-March this year, and arrived in the village in early April, but it was only half a month. In addition, Wu Jianqiang, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Tongcheng Municipal Committee, also confirmed to the Beijing News reporter that there was no folk propaganda about cremation in Tongcheng.
Zhu described the news as "sudden".
On May 25th, Yang Wansheng, Party Secretary of Xindian Village, Luting Town, Tongcheng City, said that after April 1, Luting Town Government began to frequently convene village cadres to hold grass-roots meetings on funeral reform, demanding to strengthen the propaganda work on funeral reform. Xindian village has been vigorously promoted since then.
However, at least 30 villagers in more than 20 villages in Tongcheng confirmed that in their village, after entering April, all kinds of gossip about funeral reform were "flying all over the sky", but the village Committee did not organize any publicity work. The notice was posted in mid-April, and Anqing City will be cremated on June 1 day.
"99% of people support funeral reform." Yang Wansheng has repeatedly stressed that everything he said is responsible.
Both funeral reforms failed.
1994 and 2006, Anqing tried to carry out funeral reform, but failed for various reasons.
Although the villagers were generally surprised by the funeral reform, many civil servants in Anqing said that they were psychologically prepared for the mountain fire incident caused by last year's sacrifice.
According to the Administrative Measures for Funeral in Anhui Province issued by 1994, except Yuexi County, most counties in Anqing City are within the scope of cremation. However, the implementation of cremation in Anqing City has been lagging behind. In 2006, Anqing tried to carry out funeral reform again and respected the mobilization meeting, but it was not implemented in the end. According to the data of May last year, there were about 38,000 deaths in Anqing, and only 3,500 people were cremated, of which half were municipal districts.
As for the reason why Anqing carried out funeral reform this year, an official of Anqing Civil Affairs Bureau mentioned in an interview with the media a few days ago that the funeral reform in Anqing was "dragging its feet" and the government departments were "under great pressure".
Because most local graves are built on hillsides, sacrifices often cause fires. At the end of last year, villagers' sacrifices triggered many mountain fires. Anqing City held more than 20 officials accountable for this, and the director of Forestry Bureau resigned.
The aforementioned officials said that the fire was one of the direct reasons for the implementation of funeral reform in the local area.
On March 16 this year, the Anqing Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government jointly issued the Notice on the Establishment of the Leading Group for Funeral Reform in Anqing City. The leading group is headed by Wei Xiaoming, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and mayor, and its members include the executive deputy director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau and the director of the Civil Affairs Bureau.
On March 25th, Anqing issued a notice to start the funeral reform on April 1 day, and cremation was carried out after the death of urban and rural residents. At the beginning of May, a notice was issued again, saying that the funeral reform was officially implemented on June 1 day.
Anqing Civil Affairs Bureau also proposed that the city's average cremation rate should be raised to 50% by the end of this year, to 70% in 20 15 years and to 80% in 20 16 years.
In this regard, Zhu, who has been a village head for more than 30 years, said that it is impossible to imagine how Anqing can achieve the goal of funeral reform in just two or three years in an area with strong funeral customs.
Coffin cutting tradition
Anqing tradition can not be buried in blood, but in the wild for several years (coffin) before burial. This custom is rare in this country.
Wu's coffin was placed in a corner of the house where he lived. It is made of 12 fir trees, painted with red paint and covered with plastic sheets.
In Yunchong Village, Daguan Town, 20 kilometers away from the Wu family, the coffin of the 88-year-old Pan Xiuying was placed in front of the bed and could be seen in the blink of an eye.
These coffins were made more than ten years ago, and most of them cost two or three thousand yuan in those years.
According to Shi, an 84-year-old villager in Xindian Village, coffins are people's last homes. "People here have worked hard all their lives and want to sleep in an airtight house after death. This is a coffin. " Shi said that "sleeping in a coffin" is the unified wish of the local elderly.
There is also a unique custom in Anqing, which is to put the coffin somewhere and not bury it for the time being.
Shi introduced that since he could remember, in Anqing city, especially Tongcheng, there was a custom of burying a person more than three years after his death.
Xindian village is about 20 kilometers away from Tongcheng, and the fields are oily green. From time to time, under the trees on the hillside, you can see small gray houses built of asbestos or stone, and there is a coffin in each house.
"Burying immediately after death is called blood burial, and only unattended five-guarantee households will do this." Shi said that local people believe that blood burial is not conducive to the prosperity of the younger generation.
On May 5, the Office of the Leading Group for Funeral Reform in Anqing issued the "Notes on the Implementation of Funeral Reform in Anqing City", saying that after the implementation of funeral reform, coffins will be properly disposed of by all localities in principle this year.
"In this era, everyone knows that this is superstition, and the old people also know that cremation benefits the country and the people. But they are used to the old tradition. " Zhu said to:
According to local villagers, after the news of funeral reform came out, many families who were not buried began to respond. "Most of them were buried."
A one-size-fits-all policy
Regarding whether it can be buried according to age, Tongcheng believes that this is not conducive to funeral reform.
The implementation of funeral reform in villages began with the registration of coffins in villagers' homes.
Zhu said that after the Green Pavilion Town Government called a meeting of village cadres, the village also called a meeting of village heads and villagers' representatives. At the meeting, village leaders were asked to register the existing coffins in villagers' homes door to door and pay subsidies according to the registration form. "What was said at the meeting was not that the villagers were willing to leave coffins, but that if they wanted to leave coffins, they would smash them on the spot, but the village Committee would help them carry them away."
Wu Dawang and other villagers in Xindian Village said that young people and most middle-aged people don't care about cremation or burial, but many old people's coffins have been prepared for twenty or thirty years. "Can the policy be flexible or give the elderly a buffer time?"
On May 25th, Wu Jianqiang, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Tongcheng Municipal Committee, said awkwardly that the current policy was indeed "one size fits all" and whether it could be buried according to age was considered, but it was rejected in the discussion. If divided by age, there are nominal years and real years. In addition, age is easily found to be false. This is not conducive to funeral reform. "
Regarding whether there is a "one size fits all" policy, Anqing Civil Affairs Bureau did not answer the phone, and the city's foreign propaganda department did not respond to this.
April 18 is the day when the coffin was registered in Yunchong Village, Daguan Town. That night, Jiang Xiuhua, an 8 1 year-old woman, hanged herself in the camphor tree garden behind her house.
Jiang's grandson Mei Hair told the Beijing News reporter that she had said that her coffin had been made for 10 years before her death and she wanted to sleep in it.
Liu Shaolian, a 68-year-old matchmaker in Dougang Village, Lvting Town, was cheerful and healthy. On April 25, Liu Shaolian pushed open the manhole cover with a weight of thirty or forty kilograms in the kitchen and committed suicide by jumping into the well.
On May 2, Yan, an 85-year-old from Xindian Village, committed suicide by drinking a bottle of paraquat.
Pan Xiuying of Yunchong Village repeatedly took advantage of her family's unprepared and drank the pesticide water in the spray bucket. He vomited blood on May 3rd and stayed at home for four or five days before he recovered.
On the 24th, Pan Xiuying sat at the door, pale. She told the Beijing News reporter that she had drunk pesticide water at least four times since April 20th.
After Pan Xiuying was saved, her family went to the village cadres, and the village committee agreed to keep the coffin temporarily.
"I'm worried that things will spread now." Zhu said to:
Family members of Pan Xiuying, Liu Shaolian and Jiang Xiuhua confirmed that after the old man committed suicide, no village cadres or people in the town came to ask about it.
Wu Jianqiang, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Tongcheng Municipal Committee, said that abnormal deaths must be filed with the public security department. At present, no one has gone to the public security department to file an abnormal death.
On May 25th, Yang Wansheng, secretary of Xindian Village Branch, said that in the process of promoting the funeral reform, very few elderly people did not understand the policy because of their age, and at the same time thought that they were too old to help the younger generation, which might be a burden, so they chose to commit suicide. "But this is only a case."
Regarding the problem that some elderly people can't think about suicide, Wu Jianqiang said, "We have only heard about it at present, and it hasn't been confirmed. I saw some similar news on the Internet and I can't believe it all. "
Collect coffins
In many places, in the process of execution, coffins are required to be turned over or destroyed, and there is no room for accommodation.
On May 5th, Anqing City issued the "Notes on the Implementation of Funeral Reform in Anqing City", saying that some financial rewards will be given to residents who open their own coffins. At the same time, resolutely put an end to the phenomenon of forced coffin collection.
However, in the process of implementation in many places, this policy has become that coffins must be turned over and there is no room for accommodation.
At 7 o'clock in the morning on May 6, King Wu went to Xindian Village Committee for a meeting. The village director informed me that he would collect the coffin tomorrow.
"It will be very calm, and no one will object to the villagers' representatives. On the contrary, they are very supportive. " On May 25th, Yang Wansheng, the village branch secretary of Xindian, said.
Near morning 10, King Wu returned home. He told the news to his father Wu and comforted him.
At about 10: 40, Wu urged King Wu to go home and cook for himself. 1 1: 35, King Wu came to his father's yard with food and found his father hanging himself on the camphor tree in front of the door.
King Wu said that after his father's death, no village cadres and township cadres came to visit him and did not give an explanation.
Yang Wansheng, Party Secretary of Xindian Village, said that from May 6th, according to the deployment of the town, Xindian Village began to collect coffins. There are 4,900 people in the village 192 coffins, all of which have been collected, and the government department subsidizes each coffin 1 10,000 yuan. "Just ask, the villagers support it, and some are willing to pay for it."
Regarding whether the coffin was turned over, destroyed or destroyed, Yang Wansheng said that it depends on the individual wishes of the villagers. Some villagers want to keep it as firewood, so they will stay at home after being destroyed; If you don't want to stay, take it away and destroy it centrally.
Wu Jianqiang, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Tongcheng Municipal Committee, said that for the handling of coffins, their requirements are: "If you are willing to stay, you will stay, and you are willing to let the government help you dismantle it without compulsory collection." Anqing city propaganda department said that the city's requirements are not mandatory collection. The Civil Affairs Department of Anhui Province also emphasized the prohibition of compulsory coffin collection.
However, the situation of collecting coffins mentioned by governments at all levels is quite different from that reflected by villagers. Wang and Hu of Xindian Village cried and watched the coffins they had prepared for more than 20 years be carried away.
"My coffin was prepared by selling some grain and buying some money saved from wood." After nearly 20 days, 72-year-old Hu still couldn't help crying.
Nonsense, on May 7th, the village director left with several strong men and the people in the police station, and the old couple were not allowed to say anything. They carried the coffin directly and left them 2000 yuan.
The stone couple in the same village refused to hand over the coffin, but the village director took someone to smash the coffin of the old couple.
On May 25th, forty or fifty coffins were placed in the open air in the corner of Xindian Village. There are also villages that pile broken coffins by the river.
Forcibly collecting coffins violates the Property Law
Lawyers said that it is illegal to infringe on citizens' private property regardless of whether there are relevant provisions on coffin disposal in the funeral reform system.
On May 8, the coffin was collected in Luting Village, Luting Town. The leaders of the village committee sawed off her coffin in front of the 83-year-old Zheng Shifang.
"Nobody asked if you wanted to keep it or be taken away." Hu Hongci, Zheng's son, said that village cadres said it was a national policy to collect coffins. "We dare not violate the policy and watch the coffin be destroyed. The old lady fainted. "
After taking sleeping pills to attempt suicide, Zheng Shifang hanged himself in the utility room at home in the early morning of May 23rd.
A few days ago, an official of Anqing Civil Affairs Bureau said in an interview with the media that they will take scientific measures and will not take extreme measures such as leveling graves, but the timetable for funeral reform will not change.
On 25th, Wu Jianqiang, deputy director of propaganda department of Tongcheng, said that after thorough investigation, there were 46,000 coffins in Tongcheng, of which about 45,000 coffins had been disposed of (destroyed), and the remaining 800 coffins were still left in residents' homes. "Government departments will pay special attention to people who still have coffins at home."
He then stressed that if the township funeral reform is not done in place, the relevant officials will be punished.
On May 27th, Gan Zhen, director of Anqing Foreign Affairs Office, said that as far as they know, there was no direct causal relationship between the "elderly suicide" reported by some media and the funeral reform in Anqing. "China is so big, it is normal for the old man to die."
The Beijing News reporter asked whether the death of the elderly was related to the improper implementation of the funeral reform. Gan Zhen said that he was in a meeting and it was not convenient to communicate.
Li Renqing, an associate researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of China Academy of Social Sciences, believes that cremation is the general trend to some extent. However, before the funeral reform, the relevant government departments should fully investigate and consider the negative hidden dangers brought about by the reform.
Li Renqing said that burial represents the local folk culture, and the reform should be gradual. The reform in just one or two months is obviously too hasty. "It takes 2-5 years to cultivate ideas."
Regarding the forced collection of coffins, Guo, a lawyer of Beijing Juntai Law Firm, said that coffins are the private property of citizens, and it is against the property law to forcibly collect and destroy coffins without the consent of the owner. "No matter whether the funeral reform system has relevant regulations on the disposal of coffins, it is illegal to infringe on citizens' private property. "