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Yang Wangsun 楊王孫

Jan 24, 2012 © Ulrich Theobald

Yang Wangsun 楊王孫 was a philosopher of the Huang-Lao school 黃老 who lived during the reign of Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE) of the Former Han dynasty 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE). Yang was extremely rich so that he never attempted being appointed to an office. He was nevertheless opposed to the custom of prodigious funerals and ordered his son to bury him naked. A corpse, he said, was to be pure and simple like the matter it would transform to. Any adornment had no advantage for the body.

Source:
Cang Xiuliang 倉修良, ed. (1996). Hanshu cidian 漢書辭典 (Jinan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe), 801.