One thousand and eighty-three chapters long funeral
Chapter 1830: Grand Funeral
"Brother, history books say that Chinese tombs began in the Central Plains. It is indeed true. Just traveling through Henan Province, you can almost see tombs from the Yangshao culture to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. I don't know how many ancient civilizations are buried under this ground...
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A group of three cars drove out of Henan and entered Shaanxi. Zhuang Rui, who was sitting in the front car, was chatting with Dr. Ren. For this field archaeological operation, Zhuang Rui drove out two cars himself, and there were also Peking University Archaeologists.
A van of the institute is used to carry excavation tools and other materials.
A week ago, Zhuang Rui, along with Dr. Ren and three graduate students from Peking University, set out from Beijing and passed through Hebei and entered Henan.
Different from the previous visits to Henan, this time Zhuang Rui and his party hardly entered the city and spent almost all of their time in the wild. Whether it was the historical tombs that had been excavated or the places where the tombs were suspected, they were all left behind.
Zhuang Rui's footprints.
"In fact, many of the antique treasures left behind are themselves burial objects, which are what we call Ming ware (underworld ware). If there is no burial system, it is estimated that many objects will not be manufactured. Zhuang Rui, here is
There are many things in common. It will be of great benefit to you to collect more if you know more about the origins of Chinese tombs..."
When Dr. Ren was studying for his Ph.D., his main research direction was the origin and development of Chinese tombs. He had an extremely good understanding of the existence period of each tomb and the social form at that time.
Almost everywhere he went, Dr. Ren could explain to Zhuang Rui what kind of people lived here many years ago. As far back as thousands of years ago, and as recently as the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was no place that Dr. Ren didn't know about.
This made Zhuang Rui greatly admired, and he was also secretly grateful to his teacher, Professor Meng. He knew that this was specially arranged by the teacher to let his senior brother Wen Qiang remember to assist him in his first excavation activity.
More complete.
The reason why he stayed in Henan for just one week was because Zhuang Rui wanted to systematically understand the origin of Chinese tombs. In practice, Zhuang Rui gained far more than what he could get from a book class. Through the on-site visits to different tombs
After investigation, China's thousands of years of tomb culture has formed a relatively systematic understanding in Zhuang Rui's mind.
China is dominated by the Han people, who were called Huaxia in ancient times. Huaxia originated from the Yanhuang tribes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River more than 5,000 years ago, so we call ourselves the "descendants of Yan and Huang."
The Han people have always practiced burial. This tradition is related to the agricultural geographical conditions and culture. The Han people emerged in the Central Plains, where the land is fertile and they regard the land as the foundation of life. The so-called "Heaven is the father and the earth is the mother."
The saying in the "Book of Changes" that "heaven covers everything and earth contains everything" was understood by the ancients to mean that the land has the function of "fertility". After a person dies, he is buried in the ground so that the deceased can see and rest in peace.
It is a place for the soul to reside, so it is also necessary to preserve the body in the soil to wait for the return of the soul.
The earliest burials in China date back to 18,000 years ago, but this only proves that there were burials at that time, and does not deny whether other burial methods (such as cremation, wild burials, etc.) also existed at the same time, or even which one is more important.
It is important to note that the cave people were not agricultural residents yet.
Entering civilized society, the form of burial can best reflect the social status of the deceased during his lifetime, and can best express people's feelings of "memory" and "filial piety". It also serves as a means of governing people's hearts, so it has been protected by successive dynasties.
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Therefore, in ancient China, not only the Han people practiced burial, but also the Xiongnu, Turks, Uighurs, Miao, etc. all used burial as the main burial method.
Burial in ancient times was also called funeral interment. These are two different forms. Zhuang Rui learned from Dr. Ren’s explanation that as a form of funeral, the ancients always regarded funerals as a type of social activity or even entertainment activities.
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Without exception, they have to perform lively and grand activities during the funeral, such as expressing condolences, witchcraft, jumping on the corpse (entertaining the corpse), singing sacrifices, praying, sending funerals, etc., to express themselves to their heart's content. Later generations developed rice-containing, small
There are many corresponding etiquette regulations in Chinese dynasties regarding coffins, large coffins, mourning clothes, throwing basins and observing rituals.
This method is still preserved in China until now. For example, happiness and mourning are generally divided into Quanfu, Quanshou and Quansu. Quanfu means that the family members were prosperous during their lifetime and formed a big family.
Shou refers to the age of the deceased. Generally, it is eighty or ninety years old, or even exceeds the hundred-year-old mark. The minimum must be more than the age of "ancient seventy" (seventy years old). The older the person is, the more in line with the "happy and mourning" years.
"conditions of.
Full death is easier to understand, also known as "good death", which means a complete and satisfactory end of life. Folks believe that the deceased accumulated good deeds and made many meritorious deeds during his lifetime, and will not be tortured by illness or even "die without illness" at the end of his life. Naturally,
Old age and death. This is regarded as the fundamental condition for "joy and mourning".
Generally, the elderly who meet the above three conditions and die will have to be grandly arranged at home to bury the elderly in a lively manner. You must know that cemeteries are not popular in rural areas. Even after cremation, various procedures will be strictly followed for the elderly to be buried.
Rest in peace.
The above is about funerals, and as the evolution of burial forms, the most prominent one is the thick burial, which is reflected in the tomb, the decorations in front of the tomb, and the burial objects. What it tries hard to show is the difference between high and low social classes.
Before the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, "Book of Rites. Tan Gong Shang" said that "the tomb has no tomb", that is, there is no mound on the tomb, and no monument is erected on the tomb, but the custom of burial objects in the tomb has been around for a long time.
By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, mound-style tombs began to appear in general and became more and more spectacular as they were built.
"Mozi. Burial under Festival" describes the rich burials at that time as "the coffin must be heavy, the burial must be thick, the quilt must be many, and the mound must be huge."
In order to demonstrate, show respect, and show their wealth to the world, monarchs and nobles from various countries also showed off and competed on the tombs. "Historical Records. Annotated Anthology of Qin Shihuang's Chronicles" records: Qin Shihuang used 720,000 people to build a tomb for himself. "The tomb is 50 high."
Zhang, Zhou returned more than five miles, and it was named the 'Imperial Tomb', which is still there today. The mausoleum is also a mountain mausoleum, and all the luxurious emperors in later generations followed its example."
In order to limit the unlimited comparison of the size of tombs and to make the "difference between high and low", each dynasty also stipulated it in etiquette and law. For example, the "Han Code" stipulates: "The tombs of lieutenants are four feet high, and the tombs of the princes of Guannei and the common people are all different."
There is a difference." "Kaiyuan Rites" stipulates that the height of the official pit for the first-rank official is one foot and eight feet, for the second-rank official and below, the height is reduced by two feet for every lower rank, and for the sixth-rank official and below, the height is eight feet.
The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties generally followed this rule. At the same time, the tombs of the imperial mausoleums were built like palaces, called "underground palaces", and there were also palace-style buildings on the ground, like imperial palaces.
It is the imperial mausoleum and its palace-style buildings that are relatively well preserved so far.
Since grand funerals and lavish burials require considerable wealth and social status, the royal family, noble relatives, and wealthy businessmen have always been the first to promote grand funerals and lavish funerals in Chinese society.
For example, the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin has only one of the burial tombs unearthed so far. There are nearly 10,000 unearthed burial figurines, including infantry, chariot and cavalry figurines, more than 500 horse figurines, and more than 130 wooden chariots.
Moreover, the soldiers and horses are about the same height and size as real people and real horses. According to some speculations, there should be one such tomb on the front, back, left and right of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum (the excavated position is due east). If it is to be
The Qin Emperor's mausoleum has been completely excavated, but it is still unknown how many burial objects there were.
During the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Meng, a gambler in Luoyang, whose mother died, was mourned by many officials and wealthy people, and there were more than a thousand cars in the funeral, which caused a sensation in Luoyang.
degree of respect.
This tradition of grand funerals and generous burials has been followed through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and even today it has many enthusiasts. Just like the incident that was reported some time ago that a wealthy man from a certain place dispatched hundreds of luxury cars to bury his mother, it is actually related to the drama.
Meng Zianmu's mentality is similar, they are all showing off their abilities and wealth.
Of course, since long funerals and elaborate burials waste manpower and material resources and encourage extravagance and extravagance in society, there have been opponents throughout the ages. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Mozi strongly opposed it and advocated "festival burials" and opposed the theory of ghosts and gods.
At the beginning of each dynasty, the people were frugal, the social economy was in urgent need of recovery, and the court wanted to recuperate. Therefore, the emperors of the founding generations of the dynasties vigorously advocated simple funerals and light burials, and generally they were effective. For example, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
, Gaozong and others all advocated "thin burial".
But as the dynasty entered the middle and later stages, the custom of grand funerals and rich burials grew up along with the extravagance of the entire society. Until the dynasty collapsed, a new dynasty was established, and a new cycle began again.
Therefore, every large tomb with grand funerals and rich burials is almost a microcosm of the society at that time. By studying the burial objects and burial forms in the tombs, we can have an intuitive understanding of the cultural form hundreds or even years ago. This is also
The fascination of Zhuang Rui is deeply attracted by archeology.
But it is a pity that although there are many tombs in Henan, Zhuang Rui has traveled all the way, and most of the tombs have been visited by tomb robbers. Even if Zhuang Rui has special powers and can see through the underground tombs, not a single complete tomb has been found.
, this also shows that money is attractive to people. For thousands of years, countless tomb robbers have made a lot of money from dead people.
"I said Zhuang Rui, that tomb in the northwest of Anyang is most likely Gaoling. Why are you not interested?"
The Gaoling that Dr. Ren mentioned is the tomb of Cao Cao from the Three Kingdoms in history. When I passed Anyang the day before yesterday, the local archaeological department was preparing to excavate this tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty. However, Zhuang Rui was not very interested in Cao Cao's tomb, which made Dr. Ren
Somewhat puzzled.
"Haha, senior brother, Cao Cao has seventy-two tombs. How could they be discovered so easily?"
Zhuang Rui smiled and shook his head. The size of the tomb was not small, but Zhuang Rui had already discovered through his eyes that there were not many burial objects inside. They must have been visited by tomb robbers. Even if they were excavated, they would not be of any significance.
