Yang Wangsun

Yang Wangsun (?—?), a figure in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, advocated naked burial. Wangsun's courtesy name is famous, and he is from Jingzhao. Yang Wangsun studied the skills of Huang Lao. His family had a lot of money and he was good at self-care. When he was sick and about to die, he told his son that after his death, there would be no coffin. Instead, he would put his body in a cloth bag and bury it seven feet underground. Then he would take the bag out from under his feet and let the body be completely submerged in the soil. The son wanted not to listen, but he could not bear to obey his father's orders, so he told Yang Wangsun's friend Qihou. Qihou wrote to Yang Wangsun, saying that if the deceased knew about it, he would see his ancestors naked, which he felt was inappropriate. Yang Wangsun said that modern rituals and rich burials were too generous, and that he was buried naked to correct the world's customs. Rich burials with belongings rotting in the ground, and tomb robbers leaving corpses exposed in the wild. Qi Hou was convinced that Yang Wangsun was indeed buried naked after his death.