Keywords: Three Gorges area; Funeral custom; hanging coffin
Coffins placed on cliffs have been found in Wuyishan area in the southeast of China, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan areas in the southwest, and the Little Three Gorges in the north of Chongqing. Even recently, a similar cliff burial was found in Shangluo, Shaanxi. Hanging coffins are not only found in China, but also in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Some of these hanging coffins or cliff burials are in cliff holes, some are placed on crossbars, some are close to the water, and some are above the water, far above the ground. When were these hanging coffins or cliff burials? Whose burial custom do they belong to? Because some hanging coffins or cliffs are buried in cliffs or caves 60 to 100 meters above the water, people can't help but ask, how did they get in? These questions have become eternal mysteries.
First, the time when hanging coffins appeared in the Three Gorges Basin
Located in Wushan County, Chongqing, the Little Three Gorges is the most beautiful section of Daning River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. There are also many hanging coffins scattered here. In the early 1980s, archaeologists took down a coffin in the upper reaches of Daning River. Judging from the owner and sacrificial objects of the coffin, this coffin has a history of more than 1800 years. The hanging coffins of Bo people in Matangba and Sumawan in Gongxian County, Sichuan Province, began in Qin and ended in Ming Dynasty. The ancient cliff tomb found in Neijiang, Sichuan can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Second, who left the hanging coffin grave?
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Wuyishan belonged to Fujian and Vietnam and was the activity center of Fujian and Vietnam people. Zhou Li Xiaguan recorded three thousand years ago: "Employees hold a map of the world to hold the land under the world. The people of the country, the people of the country, four yi, eight yi, seven people. " "Seven Senses", scholar Zheng Xuan commented: "Seven is the factor that Zhou served." According to Yizhou Book, the governor-general of the 25th Congress of Zhou Chengwang made great achievements in the east and in all directions: "The sea is straight in the east (clams) and the people are cicadas (snakes)". Dating back to the Shang Dynasty Constitution, it is recorded that Yi Yin was an official of Sifang and managed the tribes of Sifang. In the East, there are "nine barbarians and ten barbarians, such as (h) deep people, with arrows (scissors) ..." Wuyishan can be classified as Lu Yue, which was five hundred years ago. Therefore, it is inferred that the hanging coffins in Wuyishan are relics of Fujian and Vietnam. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the coffin of Longhu Mountain in Guixi, Jiangxi Province was also a relic of the Yue people. Cliff burial in Shangluo, Shaanxi Province is inferred to be a burial custom of Cubans. It is inferred that the hanging coffins of Wushan Three Gorges in Chongqing belong to Cubans. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, there was a custom of hanging coffins in Wuximan at the junction of Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Hubei, which was done by the descendants of the ancient Sanmiao. During the Three Kingdoms period, "Anjia" in Linhai, Zhejiang Province had a burial custom similar to Wuyi. In the Ming Dynasty, the hanging coffins in Gongxian County, Sichuan Province belonged to the Gelao nationality. Some people also associate Bo people with Gu Yue people.
According to the continuity of the custom of hanging coffins or cliff burials, some people think that hanging coffins or cliff burials scattered all over the country, Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands are the work of Guyue people and their descendants. There is some truth in this statement, but the influence of the production and living environment of the people who practice this burial custom should be taken into account.
Many human customs are naturally formed. The earlier humans are, the more restricted they are by the production conditions and living environment at that time, and it is impossible to do things that are inconvenient or difficult for them. Based on this understanding, I think that most of these hanging coffins or cliff burials we found were made by some fishermen in ancient times, at least their work and life were related to ships.
First, from the point of view of hanging coffins or cliff burials that have been found, they are all on the cliffs of streams, mostly in the tributaries and their ends of major rivers, with mountains on both sides, broken ridges and steep cliffs in the middle, and streams flowing. In such an environment, only fishermen can produce and live here. Moreover, these places are far away from agricultural areas, which can rule out the possibility of farmers' actions.
Secondly, there are several boat-shaped coffins in the hanging coffins of Wuyishan in Fujian and Longhushan in Jiangxi. As you can imagine, the owner of the hanging coffin takes the boat as his home, making the deceased live like alive; Or the earliest use of boats as coffins to store corpses has gradually become a custom. Archaeologists once studied a boat-shaped coffin and found that there were turtle-shaped boards and many fish bones in the funerary objects. The owner of the coffin was probably a fisherman.
Third, the standard of burial system is low, except in cliff holes and cliffs, the burial method is simple. There are few or no funerary objects. This kind of burial system conforms to the social structure of mountain stream fishermen. This kind of social organization of mountain stream fishermen is basically based on families, and there is no subordinate relationship between families, so there is no strict pyramid social structure, so it is infinitely rich and extremely poor. Therefore, except for a few cases, the burial system is very dull. This is in line with the production and living conditions of Shanxi fishermen.
Longhu Mountain in Jiangxi is one of the birthplaces of Taoism. Maybe someone linked hanging coffin burial with Taoist culture. However, I think hanging coffin burial has nothing to do with Taoist culture. First, hanging coffin burial appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Today, the earliest discovery was in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and Taoism, as a religion, was not formed until the Eastern Han Dynasty. Secondly, Taoism, as a Taoist thought, has been formed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but its influence is mainly in the Yellow River Basin. Taoist thought is a thin burial without doing anything, which is incompatible with hanging coffin burial; Thirdly, Sanqing Mountain, one of the cradles of Taoist culture and just north of Longhu Mountain, has the same cliff-the west coast, but no hanging coffins or cliff tombs have been found.
Third, how to place the hanging coffin?
It is very helpful for us to know why these fishermen put coffins on the cliff and how to put them on it. As fishermen, their unique skills are shipbuilding and netting, but they must lag behind farmers in construction, farm tools manufacturing and hand tools manufacturing. Therefore, fishermen are unlikely to have the technology that contemporary farmers have. Nowadays, the hoisting method advocated by everyone needs technology, materials, manpower and financial resources, which is obviously impossible for fishermen who are mainly family. Moreover, it took a lot of effort to put the coffin in a natural cliff hole or simply put it on two cross bars inserted on the cliff wall. What is it for? Therefore, we can't imagine the production and living conditions of Shanxi fishermen with farming civilization. Perhaps their placement method is extremely simple.
When you come to the Three Gorges, you will be attracted by the scene before you, and you can't help admiring the wonders of nature. Find out how this special landform is formed on the Internet. As a result, the upper rock mass loses its lower or lateral bearing body when the lower or bottom rock mass (block) is eroded or laterally eroded due to the scouring action of external forces such as water flow along the rock fracture. Under the action of gravity, as long as they are triggered, they will collapse along the structural texture or cracks, along the cracks or weak points.
Mountain collapse, a local geological and geomorphological change, gave our ancestors a "safe place"-cliff. There will be some unique scenes when the mountain collapses. Before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, the state spent a lot of manpower and material resources every year to strengthen the mountains on both sides of the Three Gorges area and prevent the mountains from collapsing. Imagine that if a landslide in the Three Gorges collapses, the waterway will be blocked and the discharged water will be blocked. From the collapse to the upstream, the water level will rise, the banks will be flooded, the rivers will widen and lakes will be formed. This enlightens us that mountain collapse will also block rivers and form natural dams. The water level above the dam rises to form a lake, which may completely raise the water level by tens or even hundreds of meters. This of course depends on the location and scale of the mountain collapse. The natural caves on the cliff of Longhu Mountain prove that the water level has reached a height of nearly 100 meters. Because according to geological experts, these caves were formed by water erosion. Once the stream becomes a lake, can it not attract fishermen after years of savings? Such a lake will certainly exist for some time.
The formation of early lakes provided living space for early fishermen, but where will they be buried after their death? Isn't there a natural cave on the cliff? The fisherman lifted the coffin from the boat and put it on it. The ancestors who first came to these places would not use profound thoughts to consider how to bury their dead relatives, which is more in line with the characteristics of their own nation. It should also be noted that the wood they use is also made from local materials. The handle found on the coffin was designed for easy handling, and the rope found was also used to carry the coffin.
However, the dam formed by this early lake is not strong. With the action of water flowing out of the dam, the height of the dam gradually decreases, and the water surface also decreases, until it finally reaches this state. In the process of falling into the water, people will die naturally, and relatives will follow the precedent and put them on the cliff. But the water level has dropped, so it is natural to lower the coffin. This forms the "orderly" arrangement we see now. The cave that was near the water surface earlier now looks higher.
We can imagine that when the mountain collapses, the mountain forms a cliff that goes straight up and down, and the falling debris forms a natural dam in the stream, blocking the water flow, and the water level rises to form a lake where fishermen or boatmen live and work. After their death, they put the coffins on the cliff near the water, and the dam gradually descended, and the coffins were arranged downwards until the dam collapsed. These coffins have become hanging coffins seen by later generations, and some are as high as 100 meters. This kind of burial system of ancestors does not need any whimsy, and it is an extremely simple burial system.
The cliff burial of the Three Gorges in Wushan, Chongqing can be explained. If there is a mountain collapse in the area where Daning River meets the Yangtze River, the water level will be greatly raised from Ganoderma lucidum peak, and Daning River will become a reservoir and a lake. In this way, Daning River has become an ideal place for fishermen to fish. So a group of fishermen have been fishing here for a long time. After their death, they will be buried on the shore, which is now the cliff. As for the ancient plank road, it is also possible that it was built to pull fibers for navigation after the mountain collapsed. Judging from the geographical location of Daning River and the ancient plank road leading directly to Zhenping in Shaanxi and Zhuxi in Hubei, Daning River was a water passage from Guanzhong to Bashu in ancient times, which may have played an important role in military and economy. When the water level of Daning River rises, the relocation path has to be made on the cliff, and after the collapsed debris is washed away, these ancient plank roads naturally stand high above, leaving a landscape and an eternal mystery.
Of course, after the formation of people's concept of burial custom, especially after the development of technology, manpower and material resources to a certain extent, some people may put coffins on high places in some way for some pursuit. But that must be something later.
As for the view that it is lucky to be buried high, it is also the illusion that later generations have when explaining the behavior of their predecessors. In Weixin County, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province, there are several hanging coffins, and there is a slope that can reach the coffins under the cliff, which obviously shows traces of manual excavation. In Gongxian County, Sichuan Province, there are several hanging coffins on the mountain, which people can climb easily, and of course, they can also install a "crown block". But this must be after the custom of hanging coffin burial is formed and certain technical and material conditions are established. In addition, these early fishermen may have landed and become farmers. The original purpose of hanging coffin burial has changed.
References:
1. Hubei Provincial Museum. Archaeological discovery of the Three Gorges in Qianping Warring States tombs. Wuhan: Hubei Science and Technology Press, 1998.
2. Archaeological discovery and research on ancient human burial customs (tombs) in the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River in the third period of Southeast Culture in 2000. Huayang
3. Visit Chongqing Three Gorges Museum
4. Southwest District of chinese national geography
5. Three Gorges Travel Guide