First, shut your mouth. The ancients believed that people would go to the underworld after death, and the underworld needed to be interrogated by the underworld. But once you say something that annoys the devil, you are likely to be bitten off by the little devil. Therefore, stuffing things into the dead man's mouth is to suppress his tongue, so that the dead man will not talk nonsense in the hell, nor will he offend the terrifying, and his tongue will be preserved.

Second, as food, the ancients believed that people had past lives, that is, people would enter the next reincarnation after death, so although people died, their souls were still there. Therefore, the ancients worried that people would starve after death in the process of reincarnation. So I will put something in his mouth in advance, so that he can walk on the yellow road and cross the Naihe Bridge without being hungry. This is also a way for relatives to express their grief.

Third, prevent corpse corruption. In ancient times, if a rich family, in order to prevent the corpse from rotting, they would put something in his mouth. Cixi once put a bead in her mouth, but it is not clear whether this thing has the function of preventing corruption. However, only dignitaries will use this method, and ordinary people will not do so.

Fourth, hide some money for the dead. In this case, jade or jewels are usually stuffed in the mouth, which are relatively precious items. Of course, this kind of burial is only available in the royal family. In ancient times, people thought that people would be taken away by imps after death and then taken to the underworld. If they do bad things before their death, they will be punished by eighteen layers of hell. Therefore, if they put some precious things in the mouth of the dead, even if they encounter ghosts, they will have money to dredge them to avoid serious blows. Maybe at that time, there was a saying that money makes the mare go, so when people die, they have to put some money in their mouths to facilitate the deceased to go to the underworld to dredge.