The Coffin Bearer

The Coffin Bearer is a long-form supernatural web novel by Chen Baxian, serialized since May 2015 on platforms such as Chuangshi Chinese Network and Hongxiu Tianxiang (later retitled My Master Is Invincible). Told in the first person, it follows Chen Jiu, a young man from rural Hunan. With his mother gravely ill and the family struggling, he leaves school at eighteen and is brought into the coffin-bearing trade by his father through a connection, taking the professional name "Chen Baxian." Within the trade, coffin bearers call themselves "the Eight Immortals" or "the Eight Great Vajras," and refer to the coffin respectfully as the "dragon bier" or "dragon shell." Carrying a coffin is not merely physical labor: one must read the auspicious hour, break malevolent forces, fix the grave site, and seal the coffin, all under strict rules where a single misstep can bring disaster. Over ten years, Chen Jiu travels through Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou, Henan, Sichuan, and beyond, bearing yin coffins, yang coffins, hanging coffins, second-burial coffins, and even the century-rare blunt coffin. The incidents he encounters range from snapping dragon ropes and strange noises inside coffins to living burials, sorcerers, and blood steles—each seemingly accidental, yet seemingly linked to a deeper truth. Through his protagonist, the author states repeatedly that coffin bearers are people too, with their own dignity, and hopes the world will not regard the trade with alien eyes. Written as a portrait of a profession, the book lets long-buried folk funeral taboos and the hardships of craftsmen be seen again.