Acoffin home (simplified Chinese:义庄;traditional Chinese:義莊;pinyin:yìzhuāng;Cantonese Yale:yih-jōng;Japanese:gisō (義荘)) is a temporarycoffin depository where the coffins containing thecadavers of recently deceased people are temporarily stored while awaiting transport to the place of burial. The term is also loosely used to refer tobedspace apartments.
Yih-jong (義莊) literally means "mansion of righteousness" and originally referred to anycharitable organization. These charities were typically established by prominent families to promote their standing in the community. The designationyih-jong was first used by Fan's Yih-Jong (范氏義莊), established bySong dynasty imperial chancellorFan Zhongyan in his hometownSuzhou. Emulating Fan's model, many prominent families founded yih-jongs between the Song andQing dynasties to support their clansmen and local communities, offering charitable services such asorphanages, free schools,disaster relief, andmortuaries.[1][2]
The nameyih-jong eventually became a euphemism for "coffin home" or "morgue" by the late 19th century. This is because they were thede factoundertakers of dead people whose next of kin could not be found or were too poor to afford funeral services, and provided temporary storage and transport of the coffins and bodies of emigrants who desired burial in their place of origin. The establishment ofTung Wah Coffin Home in Hong Kong in 1875, named "Tung Wah Yih Jong" (東華義莊) inCantonese Chinese, firmly entrenched this euphemistic use.[3]
Coffin homes are primarily found inGreater China and places with substantialoverseas Chinese populations. Most coffins that pass through the care of a coffin home are those ofmigrant workers who die in their place of work but who desired burial in their home villages. Coffin homes also provide temporary storage for deceased persons who are unable to afford afuneral or whose relatives cannot be located.[3][4]
