Burial utensils are utensils for holding the remains of the deceased, which are used as coffins for burial. In ancient times, there was no coffin for burial. It is said that the earliest coffins were made of tiles, that is, pottery, and wooden coffins were used only after the Shang Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty system recorded in the Book of Rites, Talking about Bows and Funeral Books stipulates that the coffin of the son of heaven is four-fold, the princes are three-fold, the princes are heavy, the doctors are heavy, and the scholars are not heavy. That is to say, in addition to the close-fitting inner coffin, the emperor also wore a quadruple outer coffin outside, which is always * * * quintuple. Each layer of coffins has a specific name, the outermost layer is called Big Coffins, the second layer is called Belonging Coffins, these two layers are made of catalpa wood, also called Catalpa Coffins or Catalpa Palace, the third layer is called Bi or Bi, made of basswood, and the fourth and fifth layers are leather coffins made of cowhide and rhinoceros skin (it is also possible that there is only one layer of leather coffins and one layer of inner coffins). From the inside out, there is only one big coffin at the Jinshi level, and coffins are not allowed. Not only that, the size of the coffin is thick, and the materials used for interior and exterior decoration also have strict grades: "Jun (this refers to the princes) is eight inches, belonging to six inches and secret four inches. The scholar-bureaucrat coffin is eight inches, which is six inches. " The doctor's coffin is six inches and four inches, and the scholar's coffin is six inches. ""The monarch covered the coffin with lacquer, three times (wooden tenons connecting the coffin cover and the coffin body) and three times (tied with leather heads or silks). The doctor painted it and cooked two packets. "The cover doesn't need to be brushed, so it's two clothes and two bundles." The interior of the coffin is decorated with red and green silk, fixed with gold nails and ivory nails, fixed with black and green silk by doctors, fixed with ox bone nails, and fixed with black silk for doctors. The color and pattern of the paint on the outside of the coffin are also different.
The coffin covers are tightly nested layer by layer. If a layer is added to the coffin, and the gap between the coffins is large, it is called a coffin. "Mourning for the Past" said: "Between coffins, Zhu (shaped like a lacquer bucket, a 2' 4" percussion instrument), the doctor can let the pot, but the taxi can't let the tile (a wine vessel) ". "Jun, Doctor Ginkgo, Miscellaneous Fruit." The space between coffins can be used to place funerary objects.
It is recorded in Xunzi and Li Lun that "the emperor's coffin weighs seven times, the vassal weighs five times, the doctor weighs three times, and the scholar weighs again", which should be five coffins for the emperor, four coffins for the vassal or three coffins for two coffins, and two coffins for the scholar. Archaeological excavations have proved that this coffin system, which can be called Zhou system, was still implemented to a certain extent during the Warring States period.
The wooden coffins used in large tombs during the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties have the nature of symbolizing buildings on the ground. It is not only huge in scale, but also called a coffin room like a grave. It is often shaped like a square well, so it is also called well coffin in the literature. The coffin room is divided into several pieces with wooden walls, namely coffin box, head box, side box, foot box and so on. The coffin was put in the coffin box, and the rest were filled with funerary objects. According to the system of Han dynasty, the rooms around the tombs of emperors and generals should be built with cypress or cypress strips, and the wood is inward and tightly surrounded, which is called the yellow intestine puzzle. The tomb of Liu Dan, the son of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, discovered in Dabaotai, Beijing, used as many as 654.38+0.5 million cypresses to solve the problem of yellow intestines.
After the Han dynasty, the coffin room system was no longer applicable in the world, and there was no difference between an outer coffin and a coffin. Generally speaking, the outer coffin of a coffin is called a coffin. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was stipulated that no stone should be used as a coffin, and no colored paintings should be carved on the coffin. The Ming Dynasty stipulated that "officials' coffins should be painted with cedar, while Shu Ren's coffins should be made of hardwood, followed by cypress, fir and pine". Use black paint and vermilion paint, not cinnabar. "