When Xu Qing arrived at Master Feng's house, he happened to see a few staff members tying four-season paper flowers.
This was something he was quite familiar with. Whenever there was a white event at someone's house, they would take willow branches at the door and attach colorful, alternating yellow and white paper strips. The purpose was to 'announce the death'.
There were many nuances in announcing a death.
Besides the simplest method of attaching paper strips, some families would hang tongtian paper at the door for white events.
What is tongtian paper? It is folding old white flax paper, cutting the ends to form strips three fingers wide and one and a half feet long, linking them into a chain. This is called tongtian paper.
The quantity of tongtian paper is usually cut according to the age of the deceased, one strip for each year, plus one strip each for heaven and earth.
