Interestingly, even if some families are too poor to prepare coffins for the dead, they still have to put something in their mouths, usually copper coins, but they can't take them out, and rice grains will do. Folk call this tongue depressor. Princes and nobles are all kinds of tongue depressors.
For example, in history, the empress dowager cixi's tongue depressor was the night pearl, which was priceless. It is said to be dark, and its green light can be seen hundreds of meters away. There are also rumors that Cixi's body does not rot on it. Unfortunately, after the tomb of Cixi was stolen by Sun Dianying, the night pearl disappeared. In order to get it, Cixi's mouth was cut directly by a knife.
Qianlong's tongue depressor is also famous in history. It is a jade cicada, which is much more artistic than some common things, because it symbolizes the good wishes of the deceased. When the golden cicada comes out of its shell, it means longing for reincarnation.
So why did the ancients keep their mouths shut after death? There are many sayings, and then I'll give you a few.
The first and simplest point is that the ancients were superstitious. They think that after death, with something in their mouth, they will not speak in the underworld to prevent disaster from coming out of their mouths.
Second, this thing can be used as a toll in the underworld. The popular explanation is to buy off the kids on the road.
The third one is also the most reliable. From a scientific point of view, the skin collapses after death, and the deceased looks extremely ferocious. Putting something in your mouth can hold up your face, which is also a decent start.
But you know, the ancients in history didn't think so. Their habit, to put it bluntly, is because of superstition.
The custom of putting things in the mouth of the ancients after death is called "tongue-pressing", which has been a system of containing the dead since the pre-Qin period. Usually, the rice shell placed in the mouth of the deceased is called "rice", while the pearl jade placed is called "containing". Containment is the etiquette enjoyed by emperors and nobles after their death, and ordinary people can only eat it.
Funeral ceremonies are usually held after the deceased is covered, and all the closest relatives will basically be present to "watch the funeral". In ancient times, there were also strict regulations on the system of loading corpses, especially the selection of articles for loading corpses should follow the regulations, because this is a symbol of the identity of the deceased and must not exceed the level.
According to Zhou Li, the system of burying the dead stipulates that after the death of the emperor, there are pearls in his mouth, jade in the mouth of princes, jade in the mouth of doctors and shellfish in the mouth of scholars. The General Code written by Du You in the Tang Dynasty records that the emperor and officials above the third grade all have rice beams containing Bi, officials at the fourth and fifth grades all have rice grains containing Bi, and officials below the sixth grade all have rice beams containing Bei.
In the Song Dynasty, the system of including burial also changed accordingly. According to Sima Guang's "Documents", in Song Dynasty, copper coins were used to replace shellfish, and jade beads were often targeted by thieves, but no amount of copper coins was expensive, so San Qian could only be released. This funeral custom is also popular among the people now.
Why is there a burial system? Why? There are many theories about the reasons for the custom of "tongue-pressing" after the death of the ancients. To sum up, there are two types. One is that there is something in the mouth of the deceased, which can prevent the deceased from starving on the way to the underworld. If he is hungry, it will have an adverse effect on the descendants of the deceased.
There is also a saying that it can prevent the disaster of the tongue of the deceased, and hope that there will be less right and wrong on the way to death, avoid disaster from coming out of the mouth, and reincarnate as soon as possible. Therefore, in the Qing dynasty, when the deceased stuffed something into his mouth, he would use the "tight mouth line", also known as the "mouth line". Precious pearls and jade were usually used as funerary objects of the Qing royal family.
Generally, pearls should be punched, tied with red thread, and then put into the mouth of the deceased. The other end of the red thread is tied on the ribbon knot of the deceased's skirt. The thread on this bottle may be to avoid slipping into the victim's throat. It is usually called "ammunition" among the people, and the poor have no strength to tolerate jade, so they can only use rice balls instead.
In Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, families with slightly better families generally used tea bags. In fact, the custom of gagging with rice balls is the source of the funeral system, which is based on filial piety. It is recorded in the biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram: "The dutiful son is so loyal that he can't bear to reveal his life and death." Which means we can't starve the dead.
Whether it is a folk or a royal aristocrat, there is a custom of mourning. The only difference is their own purpose. Royal aristocrats mainly show off their wealth, hoping to reach heaven after death. The main purpose of the folk is for the better survival of future generations, which not only embodies filial piety, but also does not harm future generations.
For example, the pearls in Cixi's mouth are the embodiment of royal luxury. The jade cicada in Qianlong's mouth is beyond the scope of luxury. It embodies the expectation of reincarnation and is also a manifestation of his belief in Buddhism. While attaching importance to etiquette, the ancients also attached great importance to nature, and the idea that birds of a feather flock together was deeply rooted.
The ancients believed that yin and yang were infinitely circulating and the four seasons alternated. Perhaps modern people can never give an accurate answer to the real reason why the ancients were buried. People's birth, illness, death and illness are also endless cycles, and the system of accommodating the deceased may also include people's nostalgia and blessings for the deceased.
The ancients thought that collecting corpses with jade could prevent them from rotting. "Bao Zi" records: "Gold and jade are in the nine orifices, and the dead do not die."
Some people also learned to point out that the ancient people used mercury cinnabar to soak the body when they were buried, because mercury condensed when it met jade. In order to prevent mercury from entering the body, they filled the nine orifices with jade.
The ancients used jade for nine purposes, referring to eyelids, nasal obstruction, earplugs, jade retort, anal obstruction and vaginal obstruction, and the most important one is jade retort. According to the Book of Rites of the Later Han Dynasty, a great funeral should be "a meal with pearls and jade as a gift." ; "Li Jiming Zheng" said: "The son of heaven eats with pearls, Yu Pei." ; "The History of Ancient Jade" said: "The jade unearthed from Zeng's tomb is mostly in the shape of pigs, sheep, cows and dogs. After the Han Dynasty, a large number of jade cicadas were used as jade articles. The cicada turns into a human being, symbolizing human reincarnation. " .
The main purpose of ancient people buried with jade after death was to preserve the body. Jade is put in the mouth, which is the mouth of one of the nine-hole jade plugs. It is to prevent cinnabar mercury from flowing into the body during antiseptic treatment.
Covering your mouth is a further extension from the initial anti-corrosion treatment to prevent the dead from talking nonsense; Buy road money; Jade cicada can be super-born: cicada slough. The jade cicada in Ganlongkou: not only for super life, but also because he believes in Buddhism, that is, cicada and Zen are homophonic. In fact, most of these explanations depend on superstition. The anti-corrosion treatment of Jiuqiao jade plug is reasonable.
It's not just ancient people who want something in their mouths after death. Until the 1980s and 1990s, when cremation was not fully implemented in many rural areas, old people in rural areas had to have something in their mouths when they died. Of course, it's not just what's in your mouth, but also what's in your hand, what's under your feet, and even something stuffed in your anus.
Today, I will focus on "Why did ancient people have something in their mouths after death?"
After death, there is something in the mouth, which is called "containing rice" in the funeral of the Chinese nation. Rice includes putting grains and shellfish into the mouth of the deceased to beg for food according to the identity of the deceased; Putting pearls and jade in the mouth of the dead is called Han. The things placed vary according to the status of the deceased.
The contents of the mouth of the most famous deceased in modern times are probably the pearl of the night after the death of Empress Dowager Cixi. In fact, the dining in ancient funeral etiquette can be traced back to the Neolithic Age, and then gradually evolved into a complete set of etiquette. People in Shang Dynasty contained shellfish, people in Western Zhou Dynasty often contained jade, and people in Spring and Autumn Period mostly contained pearl jade. After the Warring States period, it was popular that the dead contained cicada-shaped jade. In the Han Dynasty, the jade cicada, the "Eight Roads of Han Dynasty", had a great influence on later jade carvings.
Sima Qian in Historical Records? Qu Yuan wrote, "Cicada has no filth, except floating dust, it can't get rid of filth in the world". Cicada flies into the sky after the larvae have emerged from the ground, molts and grows into adults, leaving mud without touching. "The drink is clear and the sound is like a sparse tree", which expresses the good wish of the living to hope that the soul of the deceased will ascend to heaven like a cicada. The cicada is small and exquisite, and the beautiful jade is made into a cicada shape, which is convenient to put in the mouth and also entrusts the grief and wishes of the living, which is of great aesthetic and archaeological value.
Later, with the evolution of history and the progress of ancient jade-making technology, it was no longer limited to the son of heaven alone. Of course, the jade contained varies with the identity of the deceased. Such as the Zhou system, "Tianzi rice contains jade, princes rice contains jade, doctors rice contains pearls, Tianzi rice contains shellfish, princes rice contains shellfish." Miliang of the Tang Emperor contains jade, Miliang of officials above level 3 contains jade, Miliang of level 4 or 5 contains emerald, and Miliang below level 6 contains shellfish. In the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that the rice above Grade 5 contained pearls, the rice above Grade 9 contained pearls, and the rice in Shu Ren contained money.
In ancient times, dignitaries, royalty and relatives all contained jade after their death, which was closely related to jade culture in China. Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty explained in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Jade is the beauty of stone. Five virtues: warm and moist, benevolent; From the outside, we can know that the right side is also right; Its sound is soothing, its design is far-listening, and its wisdom is also; Fearless and unyielding, the brave side is also; Ruilian is not awkward, and it is clean. " Li said: "A gentleman is better than jade", that is to say, a gentleman is like the virtue of jade, so a gentleman leaves jade for no reason and wears jade to increase his virtue.
There is a saying in the Biography of Han Yang Wang Sun that "jade is in the mouth, and if you want to melt it, it will turn into dead wax", so there is a saying that jade clothes, jade coffins and jade contain it. Therefore, jade in people's mouth or body does have an antiseptic effect after death. As mentioned above, the custom of burying jade as a martyr, and the "golden jade clothes" in the emperor's mausoleum, that is, jade pieces take gold as the shroud. In addition to anti-corrosion, it can also prevent disasters. Jade is considered as the symbol of Jirui.
After death, people have a long history of oral content, and then gradually formed a kind of etiquette. People believe that people have to cross the heartbroken bridge after death. If there is nothing to bribe the kid watching the bridge, the kid will make things difficult for the dead, which leads to the funeral custom of holding copper coins in his hand and something in his mouth.
"History of Etiquette in the Later Han Dynasty" once said: "Far away from home, there are pearls and jade in the rice as a gift". The deceased's mouth contained something, which was one of the ancient funerals and was called "Mi Yu" and "Yu Yu". Due to the different status levels of the deceased, the content is also different. The rich have gold, jewels and pearls, and the poor have rice and millet.
the Queen
If Gu Mi is used as food, ordinary people call it "rice", and if "shellfish" is used, it is called "retort".
According to historical records, "emperors eat jade, princes eat pearls, doctors eat rice, and scholars eat shellfish." This set the specifications for the dead in the future.
When Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu in the Three Kingdoms period, died in Wuzhangyuan, he told Jiang Wei to put seven ever-burning lamps at his feet, with seven grains of rice in his mouth. It can be seen that Zhuge Liang spent all his money and had no money at all. Originally, as Zhuge Liang, it was not an exaggeration to match the pearls in his mouth, but he took the lead in frugality and was buried as an ordinary people, which showed his noble character and integrity.
But in the Qing Dynasty, Cixi was different. This wicked old witch buried the 800 million-worth pearl in her mouth. Cixi enjoys the splendor of the world and wants to take it to the underworld to continue to possess it.
Sun Dianying
It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven. Cixi died in June 1908+0 1 and was buried in Ding Dong Mausoleum in Putuoling, with 800 million pearls in her mouth. Only after 20 years, that is,1July, 928, her tomb was stolen by Sun Dianying, commander of the 12th Kuomintang Army. Soldiers in Sun Dianying pried open Cixi's mouth and dug up the night pearl. Then the treasure was looted and the bones of Cixi were thrown everywhere.
Cixi originally wanted to be buried, but the funerary objects were too exciting. Finally, the chickens flew and the dogs jumped, and the bones were uneasy. On the other hand, Zhuge Liang's mausoleum is not stolen for thousands of years, and the bones are preserved forever. This also illustrates an eternal truth: "A good man's life is ordinary"!
Writing/reading Spring and Autumn Annals by candlelight is a very old funeral custom. According to the current archaeological data, this tradition can be traced back to the Neolithic Age. When the ancients died, they put things in their mouths, which is called mouth holding (mouth holding), which is commonly known as holding rice among the people. In tens of thousands of years, the types and situations of oral content have changed significantly.
According to the book Zhou Li, it is said that "the great loss is full of jade, including jade". Xu Shen of the Han Dynasty also mentioned in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Xie, jade is also dying." Therefore, Xun is the jade put in the mouth of the deceased at the funeral, which was used together by the Zhou Dynasty and Xun, as well as "rice". Based on this, it is inferred that in the funeral of Zhou Dynasty, "rice" and "jade" were put in the mouth of the deceased. This is very different from what people usually say about rice today.
The ancients had special feelings for jade. In addition to making ritual vessels with jade, jade ornaments of various shapes will be worn, and jade articles will also be used for burial in early tombs. Jade used for burial is called buried jade. Among the jades buried with the dead, there is a special kind, that is, Kouzan, also known as Yuzan or Yuzan, which is the jade contained in the mouth of the deceased.
The original jade bamboo slips were very different in shape, with significant differences in size and shape. Taking Songze Neolithic Site in Qingpu County, Shanghai as an example, the unearthed jade bamboo slips are mainly in the shape of chicken heart, round cake and ring wall, and the processing technology is relatively primitive, but it has shown a very obvious sense of artificial processing.
In Shang Dynasty, shells were the main currency, so they were also put into the mouth of the deceased, which became the oral form of Xun Yu. Since then, important changes have taken place in two weeks, and jade pendants of various animal images have replaced the previous geometry. Archaeological findings show that jade pendants are dragon-shaped, fish-shaped, silkworm-shaped, cow-shaped, sheep-shaped, pig-shaped, dog-shaped, duck-shaped and fish-shaped, and there are obvious regional differences.
After the unification of Qin and Han dynasties, especially after entering the Han dynasty, the forms of jade slips tend to be unified, mainly becoming cicada-shaped, called jade cicada. Because of the large amount of jade cicada unearthed in Han Dynasty and high artistic level, it became synonymous with jade bamboo slips in Han Dynasty. In fact, the jade cicada did not originate in the Han Dynasty. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 50 kinds of jade cicadas found in prehistoric sites all over the country. In the Taixi site in Gaocheng, Shang Dynasty, the carving level of Yuchan was relatively mature.
Han dynasty is the peak of the development of jade cicada, and it is also the most common period to use buried jade, which has an important influence on later generations. Since then, although the use of jade bamboo slips is less, the custom of putting things in the mouth of the deceased has never been abandoned during burial. The royal family, nobles and other privileged classes naturally use precious jewels and jade, and dignitaries also put precious things in the mouth of the deceased. Although the poor have no stable source of income, they will also use copper coins or meals instead.
Therefore, it is an ancient funeral custom for ancient people to put things in the mouth of the deceased. It has a long cultural tradition and represents the good wishes and expectations of strangers for their deceased relatives.
This event belongs to a long-standing funeral custom with China characteristics, which includes something called hugging the mouth. Until now, many rural areas still retain this tradition. No matter who you are, there must be something in your mouth after death. Different times, different mouths and different meanings.
The rich will get more valuable things, such as jade and pearls, while the poor will get a copper coin.
As far as archaeological discoveries are concerned, most of the things in the mouth before the Sui Dynasty were jade, and the images were mostly jade-carved miniature cows, sheep, dogs, pigs and chickens. This means that the deceased died and had to report to another world. You can't be hungry on the way to the grave. With a mouth, it means there is no shortage of food on the road. Including a copper coin means that you can take the money with you and buy whatever you want.
The most representative oral expression in Han Dynasty is Yuchan, which means "breaking the ground to be reborn". After the Tang and Song Dynasties, the mouth became increasingly diversified and rich in things, such as gold, silver, jade and jade. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was mainly valuables, the most famous of which was the pearl of the night in the mouth of Empress Dowager Cixi, which was the first bite since ancient times.
Although the funeral customs preserved in rural areas are oral, they are more traditional, not as funerary objects, and generally use coins, and rarely use valuables.
There is also a superstition that this can prevent the corpse from deteriorating. In Hong Kong zombie movies, once the mouth of a dead person is taken out, it will turn into a zombie and jump around to catch people. We know that the ancients were quite superstitious. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, when Cixi died, people still regarded the funeral as an extremely sacred thing, and made every effort to be meticulous and thoughtful in all the details of the funeral, so as to bury the deceased and bless the prosperity of future generations. Ordinary people are still like this, and the funerals of dignitaries, royal family members and relatives are also extremely luxurious. Cixi was pampered for half a century, but many rare treasures were buried after her death, hoping to continue to enjoy a prosperous life in the underworld.
As a result, everyone knows that Cixi did not enjoy a good life there. In just 20 years, Sun Dianying, a thief from Dongling, led an army to dig tombs.
Regardless of whether all the treasures buried with Cixi were looted, the pearl that Cixi said was worth 800 million RMB was forcibly pried open by Sun Dianying and taken away.
According to Sun Dianying's description, this night pearl is actually divided into two pieces. Strangely, it's boring when we're apart. Together, it will emit green cold light, very bright and very bright. Even at night, you can see your hair within a hundred paces.
The items contained in Cixi's mouth, commonly known as tongue-pressing, are an ancient funeral custom. Not only clansmen and nobles will press an object when they are buried, but even ordinary people will find something to press their tongues.
According to their different status and their own economic situation, the ancients pressed their tongues like jade, jade, pearls, other jewels, coins, copper coins and shells. Some of them contain rice or food. According to archaeological findings, in the ruins of Yin Ruins, some dead people were found to have shellfish in their mouths.
A cicada-shaped jade article with a hole was found in the mouth of the deceased in the tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Zhongzhou Road, Luoyang, Henan. There are jade cicadas in many Han tombs, which shows that jade cicadas have a long history as jade.
So, why did the ancients put such an object in their mouths? Nature has its special meaning. The first and most important thing is to keep your tongue down to prevent the dead from talking too much in another world. After all, disaster comes from the mouth. No matter how rich the deceased was before his death, it was a new beginning of another world. If you don't keep your mouth shut, you will be in trouble.
Secondly, the deceased can be allowed to travel there as a toll, so as not to go hungry there, so the tongue depressor is also called "rice", which means that it can be eaten as a meal.
There is also the antiseptic effect. The ancients thought that these jewels could play the role of anti-corrosion, but in fact, the bodies of the ancients were treated with anti-corrosion before burial, and jewels such as night pearls themselves could not play the role of anti-corrosion.
Another point, the ancients also considered that the skin collapsed after death, and the face of the deceased looked extremely ferocious. Putting something in your mouth can support your face, which is also a decent burial.
Of course, the ancients put these things in their mouths. The key is superstition, and they still hope that the deceased will live there smoothly.
Of course, Wu Zetian is also very powerful in this respect. She tried to keep silent not for herself, but for those who opposed her. After these opponents were executed, Wu Zetian liked to order the deceased to put wood in his mouth, lest they speak ill of her in that world and tell her secrets.
After Wu Zetian's death, she also stuffed something into her mouth and set up a tablet without words, which she did not evaluate herself. This work is left to future generations to judge for themselves.
When people die, there is jade in their mouths, depending on the family's economy. A rich man, with jade in his mouth, is very expensive, and he will be reincarnated in a rich family in his next life. A poor family, with a copper coin, can have plenty of food and clothing in the afterlife. With fine teeth, words are valuable.