"Where is this?"

When Gao Bin fell into a space, he couldn't help but ask questions.

Immediately afterwards, Huang Yanyan and Xu Yuan also jumped down.

This space is not large, about forty to fifty square meters, dark, damp, and airtight.

Oops, you didn’t fall into the secret room again just after you escaped from the poisonous smoke, right?

"Huh?" Xu Wish's doubtful voice caught Gao Bin's attention.

"What's wrong?"

"Come and see."

I wish to see a mural. A brave warrior is hunting on horseback. Behind him, a woman is sitting in front of a tent preparing food. Two children are playing around butterflies. It seems to be a family of four in the suburbs.

Wild trip?

Gao Bin's mind was agitated:

"Isn't this a tomb?"

Huang Yanyan looked at him immediately:

"You mean, the Zheng family ancestral hall was built on top of the tomb?"

"Besides this possibility, I can't think of any other possibility." Gao Bin rubbed his chin and wandered around the tomb.

"Can you tell what dynasty this is?" Huang Yanyan asked?

Make a wish and shake your head:

"It's okay if you ask me to learn about the past, but I've never done anything like going to the tomb."

Gao Bin returned to the mural and said:

"These tomb murals are not pure works of art, but the product of funerary activities. They use unique artistic language and logic to express care and expectations for the direction of life.

The mural styles of each dynasty are different, from the ethereal and ethereal in the Han Dynasty, to the solemn etiquette of the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties, to the secular joy of the Song and Yuan Dynasties."

After hearing the wish, he followed:

"Then this mural should belong to the category of solemn etiquette?"

Gao Bin nodded:

"It seems so. A family outing in the countryside in the spring, such a comfortable and open time, at least in the Wei and Jin Dynasties."

Human beings are afraid of death and cannot avoid it, so they have various understandings and ways of dealing with it.

Tombs are the connection between life and death, as well as the emotional link between the dead and the living. They are confusing and thought-provoking.

It vividly displays the abstract view of life and death, reflecting people's wandering in the two worlds of life and death.

The differences in different eras, different regions, and different beliefs are also a reflection of social and historical changes.

Funerals in ancient China have an unbreakable principle, that is, "death is the same as life" and "life, death is with etiquette, burial is with etiquette, and sacrifice is with etiquette".

Because of this ideological concept and code of conduct, people call tombs "yin houses".

"Yin Mansion" includes architectural construction, mural carvings, funerary objects, etc. There are creations that are both meticulous and fantastic, giving death a lot of meaning.

If you understand people's views on life and death, you won't feel that the tombs are eerie. Although there is a tragic ending there, it is the beginning of a wonderful story.

The tomb is a "yin house", which is clear from the emergence of the coffin burial method.

There are multiple coffins. In addition to the inner coffin where the bones are placed, each other coffin has a special function and can hold different types of items.

After about the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, bricks and stones began to be used to build tombs, completing the transformation from "coffin tombs" to "chamber tombs", and the appearance of "Yin Zhai" became more clear.

The "chamber tomb" can be dug into the mountain or built with bricks and stones to simulate the scene of a residence in the sun.

For large tombs, each tomb chamber can be designated as a living room, bedroom, kitchen, woodshed, toilet, etc.

People believe that the deceased will continue to enjoy themselves in the gorgeous "hell house". After the limited life ends, the eternal years have just begun.

Based on this judgment, the tomb they are in now must be after the Han Dynasty.

However, when building tombs that attempt to reproduce life in the mortal world, there are limitations in design, materials, and environment, and the complex yearning for death cannot be fully expressed.

Therefore, as a supplementary means, murals were painted, images were carved, and utensils were placed in the tomb.

The mural images make it possible to visualize funeral concepts that are difficult to express with tomb shapes and funerary objects.

Da Jinya has very rich historical knowledge, and Gao Bin constantly searches his memory to determine which dynasty the tomb they are in currently belongs to.

If you can determine the dynasty, you will have a chance to find the exit and escape smoothly!

In the deep and dark underground, the understanding of life and death is expressed through images. It has experienced several major changes from the Han Dynasty to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, reflecting the process of people's continuous thinking.

The images in Han tombs reflect reality, history and imagination. The most prominent ones are the world view of heaven and the immortal world and the moral concept of "Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Virtues".

After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, banquets and ceremonial ceremonies became the mainstream, and efforts were made to express the identity of the tomb owner and show his majesty.

From the late Tang Dynasty to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, people did not want to enter the fairyland with melancholy, nor were they satisfied with the pursuit of etiquette. They hoped that there would be singing and dancing in their homes after death, and they tried to integrate life before death with enjoyment after death.<

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The three major adjustments are the transformation from fantasy to etiquette, and then to reality. The inheritance, abandonment, and innovation during the period are the renewal of thinking about life and death, and the improvement of rationality in the lingering contradictions.

In the memory of Da Jinya, what is striking about the early Western Han Dynasty tombs and tomb murals is that there is a "picture of the four gods and clouds" on the top of the tomb.

That is, green dragons, red birds, white tigers, and monsters are flying in the sky, and the surroundings are outlined with clouds, etc., creating a mysterious atmosphere.

There is also the phrase "ribbon piercing the jade". The round hole of the jade is generally interpreted as the "Heaven Gate", which is a metaphor for the tomb owner to pass through the hole of the jade and ascend to the fairyland.

The idea of ​​immortality was very strong in the Han Dynasty. Many people believed that people could ascend to heaven after death. There are many images that reflect this intention.

The images of Han tombs should not only show real life, but also express people's ideal pursuit after death. For example, if the tomb is mainly someone who has the experience of being an official, then his tomb murals will also include elements such as banquets, production activities, and war pictures.<

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This person is mainly chasing immortals, and there will be myths and auspicious patterns such as strange birds and animals, the sun, moon and stars, the East Prince, the Queen Mother of the West, etc.

The sun, moon and stars shine eternally on the dome, and gods and beasts roam freely in the clouds on the tomb walls. These are some of the assumptions of people at that time about the situation after death, and can be regarded as the main theme of the tomb murals at this time.

Although its meaning has different interpretations, it basically revolves around "fairies", "heaven" and "fairyland".

At the end of the Han Dynasty, wars broke out and the economy was in decline. All forces raised military funds for the war and started robbing tombs.

The consequences of tomb robbing force people to think about whether tombs, as eternal shelters, are safe?

Therefore, after the war subsided, Cao Wei, the supreme ruler of the Western Jin Dynasty, successively issued orders for thin burials.

Compared with the previous thin burial ideas and edicts of the Han Dynasty, which advocated frugality, the new thin burial ideas stem from a new understanding of death and how to deal with it after death.

The purpose is to change customs.

The concepts of "a rich burial that the deceased does not know and the living must not know" and "a rich burial will not benefit the deceased" are accepted by more people.

This led to epoch-making changes in the tombs after the Wei and Jin Dynasties. The stone carvings on the ground were cancelled, the underground multi-chamber tombs transitioned to single-chamber tombs, the burial objects were much simpler, and the mural images also rediscovered the way of communication between the worlds of life and death.
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Perhaps due to the sparse burials, the mural tombs fell silent for a time after the Han Dynasty, and did not flourish again until the Northern Dynasties.

The resurgence of murals is not a return to tradition, but a new look.

The tomb chamber shows the tomb owner and his wife or the male tomb owner sitting on a couch under the curtain, with a screen behind them, tables and tableware in front of the couch, and waiters, pommel horses, and acrobats dancing on both sides.

On both sides of the tomb are pictures of life in the manor on one side, and on the other side pictures of traveling by carriage and horse or hunting in the mountains and forests.

Some tombs also depict doorkeepers or door gods, Fuxi, Nuwa, green dragons, white tigers, etc.

If you look at it this way, it is easy to judge the dynasty of the tomb in front of you. The wife of the owner of the tomb is in front of the curtain and sitting on the couch. There are male and female servants, trees, and pictures of serving food next to her.

The owner of the tomb himself was hunting on horseback, and the walls next to it were also painted with bullock carts, pommel horses, male and female servants, and trees.

"Northern Wei!"

"Northern Wei?"

After hearing Gao Bin's judgment, Xu wish couldn't help but ask:

"How to determine?"

Gao Bin summarized his analysis and then said:

"However, we have no specific basis. If it were really the tomb of an official or general from the Northern Wei Dynasty, it would have been empty by the people of Zhengjia Village!"

After that, he groped along the wall and finally found a clue on the wall opposite the mural.

"Come here."

Gao Bin pressed his hand on a blue brick, which was concave than the blue bricks on other flat surfaces.

"Would you like to click it and give it a try?" He asked the other two people for their opinions.

"Press it, otherwise you will die if you stay here!" Huang Yanyan said decisively.

Make a wish and nod along with it:

"Yes, brother Bin, press it, we will follow you whether you are dead or alive."
To be continued...