You may think that the theme of grave robbery is fantastic, but the soul bottle is really a household name. Ma Weidou said that the soul bottle is an important burial custom. So, what's the secret of the soul bottle in the ancient tomb? How did it come into being?
Ma Weidou is a great collector with rich cultural background. Talking about anything, he will not say it casually, but will have relevant cultural relics as evidence. Ma Weidou introduced the "Soul Bottle" in the ancient tomb in detail by combining related legends and unearthed cultural relics. The author first introduces the legend of "Soul Bottle".
The theory of Soul Bottle may have originated from Boyi and Shu Qi in the late Shang Dynasty, which has something to do with the idiom "Don't eat Zhou Su". Boyi and Shu Qi chose not to eat the food of the Zhou Dynasty in order to show their loyalty to the Shang Dynasty, and eventually starved to death in shouyangshan.
People admire the integrity of Boyi and Shu Qi. In order not to starve their souls, they found the bottle and buried the grain in it. Therefore, the soul bottle also has a very vivid nickname, called the grain sac. Ma Weidou said that this is an important funeral custom. This statement is also based on a certain degree.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius paid special attention to putting grains into soul bottles, and questioned Lu Aigong on this important etiquette issue. Therefore, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius believed that it was an important burial custom to put grain bags in funerary objects.
Ma Weidou pointed out that the soul bottle became popular gradually from the Han Dynasty, and the most complicated styles were the Three Kingdoms and the Song Dynasty. The celadon barn jar of the Three Kingdoms period in Zhenjiang Museum and the blue-and-white glazed plastic bottle of the Southern Song Dynasty in Jiangxi Provincial Museum are outstanding representatives.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the development of the soul bottle had a major change. They no longer specially design and manufacture soul bottles, but replace them with bottles in life. Therefore, soul bottles in Ming and Qing dynasties were mostly substitutes, and the most prominent representative was a pair of Yuan blue-and-white plum bottles unearthed from Wang Jing's tomb.
Ma Weidou emphasized that this pair of plum bottles in Wang Jing's tomb have the same style, but different patterns. Wang Yingjing's plum vase is a dragon vase, while Princess Yingjing's is a "four love figure".
What needs to be added here is that the four love figure are mainly based on Zhou Dunyi's Ailian theory, Tao Yuanming's picking chrysanthemums under the hedge, Wang Xizhi's Ailan's loving geese, Lin Hejing's loving Mei's loving cranes, Mi Fei's loving stones and Su Dongpo's loving inkstones.
There is no secret in the soul bottle itself, but it is more mythical by tomb-robbing novels. As Ma Weidou said, this is an important funeral custom. Of course, there is also a certain feudal superstition here.
Apart from feudal superstition, the development of Soul Bottle is basically the epitome of the development of porcelain-making technology in China, and it also shows us the charm of China culture. Therefore, the soul bottles unearthed in different periods are also the testimony of China traditional culture.
References:
[1] Morphological analysis of five-link jar and soul bottle. Tao Tong Archaeology and Cultural Relics, 2004.
[2] This is how the "soul bottle" in the ancient tomb came from. Ma Weidou official account
[3] Wang's Elegy. Explore and discover