I think there is no conflict between the saying that the living are the greatest and the saying that the dead are the greatest. The main thing is to analyze the specific situation.
I agree that the living is the greatest. It's like our city is developing and the dead need to make a little "compromise". As the saying goes, "Play in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and die in Quanzhou, Fujian." This means that the funeral and burial in Quanzhou is very developed. During the period when burials were carried out, Taoist priests and monks who engaged in rituals invited "filial men and filial daughters" to mourn and bury the deceased. The shrouds worn at the time are based on social status, the situation of the children and grandchildren, and even the various times chosen by the fortune teller, which are all very complicated. It used to be thought that this was a sign of respect for the deceased. However, due to the scarcity of land and the development of society and humanity, the bad funeral customs have improved a lot. The most typical one is the change from burial to cremation. When it was first implemented, the descendants felt that it would destroy Feng Shui and prevent the reincarnation of their ancestors. However, through scientific education, we have slowly accepted the concepts of "science", "hygiene" and "not wasting resources for future generations". So in this case, in future development, when human resources conflict with the dead, I think the living should be prioritized. Only in this way will we not be imprisoned by bad habits and our society will be more sustainable.
However, "the living is the greatest" is not an absolute authoritative statement. At some point, we still have to respect the dead and firmly believe that the dead are the greatest. In that part of Jiangxi, there is a custom of underworld marriage. There are two types of so-called yin marriages. The big yin marriage is the wedding between the living and the dead, and the small yin marriage is the wedding between the dead and the dead. In order to make a profit, many criminals illegally steal corpses, even kill lone women, and make a living by selling corpses. These people are the most hateful. Maybe they have to support their families. Maybe they are also the pillars and heroes to their relatives. But none of this should be based on insulting the bones or even breaking the law. From another perspective, the reason why this industry was born is because of the families of the deceased. Many family members of the deceased are afraid that their loved ones will be lonely or have bad feng shui. For various reasons, they want to perform shady marriages for the deceased. The deceased was good, but in fact it was entirely out of consideration for his own selfishness. Because I am afraid that I will miss him, I must disturb the deceased who has been laid to rest. They even turned a blind eye to the corpses from some illegal channels and still bought them. The wishes and mood of the living are certainly important, but the dead are the most important and should not do whatever they want.
Another situation is insult. Some people, due to various reasons such as conflicts or conflicts of interest, will arbitrarily insult other people's deceased relatives or speak ill of the deceased. In fact, I think no matter what the cause of death is, the deceased is gone. When a person dies, like a lamp going out, the past should be wiped out. The living can only care about him or be in awe in his heart. It really shouldn't be discussed arbitrarily.
? Human beings are constantly evolving and society is constantly developing. Many things cannot be judged in black and white terms. Because truth is not immutable, any truth is limited by facts and history. Therefore, when we argue about whether the living or the dead are greater, we should not beat them to death with a stick. Instead, we need to correspond them to different facts and make different explanations.