According to historical investigation, the custom of having something in your mouth when you are buried has existed since the Yin and Shang Dynasties. It's just that at first, my mouth was full of shells and the like. Later, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it began to contain jade and jewels, such as the Night Pearl.

Before burial, the mouth contains jade or a night pearl. First, in order to prevent this person from talking nonsense, the ancients thought that people would go to another world after death, so in that world, you were a stranger when you first went.

No matter how rich you were before your death, when you came to that world, it was a new beginning. Nonsense is easy to cause trouble, so saying that you have jade in your mouth is to make him talk less.

The second is to prevent the corpse from rotting. In order to do this, they are not only speaking Chinese, but this is only part of it. The ancients thought that sealing the nine orifices would ensure that the body would not rot. This is the so-called nine-skill jade, which seals the eyes, nose, ears, mouth, anus and vagina of the deceased.

Third, the ancients believed that after the death of an elder, future generations should try their best to give him the best filial piety. At that time, what kind of world did they think the things in the mouth of the deceased would go to? For example, if you use jade or night pearl, the deceased will go to Elysium or a particularly prosperous world.

Of course, there are not only jade in the mouth, but also rice, because the deceased will walk a long way between death and reincarnation, which is called the ecliptic and Naihe Bridge. They are afraid that the deceased will be hungry on this road and then they will put a mouthful of rice in his mouth.

Therefore, the jade in the mouth or a night pearl is a relative of the deceased, and there is still hope for his blessing.