After the death of the ancient emperors in China, martyrdom was a common occurrence, but after the Han Dynasty, this bad custom gradually disappeared, and it was very rare in the near-abolished Tang Dynasty. However, it revived in the Ming Dynasty, adding a layer of mystery to this ancient burial custom.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, was criticized by historians for two things in his life. One is the indiscriminate killing by torture, and the other is the restoration of martyrdom. Especially the latter, the most disappointing.
Why did Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang do this? What is the mystery of ancient martyrdom?
Zhu Yuanzhang
Ming Taizu resumed the evil custom of human sacrifice.
"Ming history? According to Mao's records,1May 10, 398, "(Zhu Yuanzhang) collapsed in the West Palace, with one in seventy". After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Yun, the eldest grandson, succeeded to the throne, and was called Wen Jian in history. Zhu Jun's funeral will end in seven days. During this period, one thing is very sad, that is, many beautiful young concubines and maids died.
According to Zhu Jun's testamentary edict, according to the ancient system, all the harem concubines who had never given birth were martyred, and some other maids died. There is no exact record of how many people were killed in history. According to Mao Qiling's Notes on General History, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, "forty-six concubines were buried with Taizu, of which only a dozen were killed".
Mao Qiling's basis is that after Zhu Yuanzhang buried Xiao Ling, Zhu Jun commended and rewarded the families of these sick wives. In July of the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Emperor Wen Jian took Zhang Feng, Heng Li, Zhao Fu, Zhang Bi, Wang Bin, NaHo, Wang Bin, Yang Zhong, Lin Liang, Li Cheng, Sharla Cheung and Liu Zheng. After the Royal Guards tried riding knives, they entered thousands of households, and the officials were all hereditary. It is said that all people mourn the father and brother of the imperial palace in the West Palace, and the world is also called the female household. "
Another strong evidence that Zhu Yuanzhang left the women in the palace to fend for themselves is that Judy ousted Zhu Jun from the throne and became emperor herself. She also dealt with what her nephew did when he was in office, and even canceled his title and replaced it with Zhu Yuanzhang's "Hongwu".
When discussing the dismissal of the official position granted by Zhu Yun when he was in office, some people suggested that it should be thoroughly cleaned up and not keep the "female household in the sky". Judy disagreed, and arranged all these families to take care of Xiaoling Wei until the Ming Dynasty. Judy said at the time, "These families are good jobs. Do not move. Take care of it through Xiaoling. "
Archaeology has not fully confirmed whether so many women are buried in Xiaoling Mausoleum or choose another tomb after martyrdom. But according to academic circles, there are not many women who can really accompany Zhu Yuanzhang to a resting place. Perhaps only women such as Princess Cheng Mugui and Ning will be buried near Xiaoling.
Large-scale archaeological exploration was carried out before and after the application of the Ming Tombs, and three tombs of these concubines and maids were found. One is in the botanical garden on the west side of Xiaoling Mausoleum, the other is in the southwest corner outside the palace wall of Ming Mausoleum, and the third is the area on the right side of Xiaoling Mausoleum-Zhu Yuanzhang asked these harem women to turn around him after their death and serve him in the underworld.
Judy hanged more than 30 imperial secretaries.
Due to the exemplary role of Zhu Yuanzhang, the concept of life and death, which almost disappeared in the imperial tomb system, revived and became popular in China after14th century.
After Judy died, he was also buried alive. It is said that more than 30 harem beauties were strangled. As for the specific process of martyrdom of the living, although the bad habit of martyrdom has been in China for thousands of years, it is unknown, and only the martyrdom of Judy's harem is described in detail.
After Judy's death, the issue of martyrdom of concubines and ladies-in-waiting was put on the agenda, and Injong Zhu Gaochi, the heir to the emperor and Judy's eldest son, drew a list of martyrs. "Emperor collapse, imperial secretary martyrdom more than 30 people. On the day of death, everyone gave it to the court, but they all gave it up and led it to the mourning hall, crying and shaking. Put a small wooden bed in the hall, put it on it, put it in a rope and put it in your head. Then I took off my bed and strangled myself. "
This passage can't be found in China's ancient literature, and it is recorded by Sejong of the Li Dynasty in North Korea. Among the concubines killed by Gaine, there are two beautiful women selected by North Korea, Han and Cui Shi.
"When Han was dying, Gu called Jin Hei and said,' Mom, I'll go! "Mom, I'll go!" Before he finished speaking, an official went to bed, but he died with Cui Shi. "Zhu Gaochi personally presided over the funeral ceremony and said goodbye to them one by one." When Chu Chu died, Injong resigned in person. "Before he died, Han just kept crying. She made a request to Zhu Gaochi, hoping that her elderly mother could be taken care of. "Renzong said:' My mother is old and wants to clean up her country. Renzong Xu Zhi. "
The maid-in-waiting also stayed in the palace for 20 days and was executed.
Of all the concubines who died in the Ming Dynasty, the death of talented woman Ai Guo is the most sad and sympathetic. Ai Guo briefly entered Zhu Zhanji's harem during Xuanzong period of Ming Dynasty. Only 20 days later, Zhu Zhanji died at the age of 38.
Knowing that he was going to be buried, Ai Guo wrote a "suicide note" imitating Chu Ci: "There are several shortcomings, but they are not enough. Life is like a dream and death is like sleep. Sorry, I left my family first and lost my filial piety. If you are worried, you can mourn. "
Ai Guo was elected to the harem from Fengyang, Zhu Zhanji's ancestral home. It was a glorious thing that she was honored as an ancestor. As a result, I still don't know whether Zhu Zhanji was "lucky" to have her, so she was martyred. Shi Ming? Biography of Empresses recorded that Ai Guo spoke highly of her, saying that she was "virtuous and literate".
Ai Guo's "suicide note" had a great influence at that time. Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, the eldest son of Zhu Zhanji, felt very sad to see so many fresh lives die like this. When he died, he left a testament telling him to abolish this evil custom. "I can't bear to be martyred, but this matter is self-contained, and future generations can't repeat it."
Zhu Qizhen was captured by Vala when he was emperor, which became a great shame in the history of ancient emperors in China. But because of his martyrdom, he had a good historical image and was highly praised by history. The final conclusion given to him in the last years of Emperor Yingzong was: "If the imperial concubine is buried, future generations can learn from it."
At that time, historians of the Ming Dynasty greatly appreciated this move. At that time, Wang Shizhen said in the Collection of Penzhou Mountains: "This is a festival of sincere emperors."
Out of sympathy, Zhu Qizhen also commended the imperial secretary who died for Zhu Zhanji, on the grounds that "I am committed to righteousness, and I should honor the emblem with the dragon as the guest and use Zhang Jiexing".
It is worth noting that, except for the martyrdom required in the testamentary edict of the deceased old emperor, other martyrs are generally designated by the successor emperor. Zhu Qizhen is the eldest son and heir of Zhu Zhanji. At that time, Ai Guo had already been killed, and the "murderer" should be Zhu Qizhen. Zhu Qizhen may be the last choice.
Qing Taizu forced his young wife to be buried.
Zhu Qizhen abolished the residence system after the death of the emperor, but this system did not really disappear in the Qing Dynasty.
The famous martyrdom in the Qing Dynasty happened to the Qing emperor Nurhachi. Nurhachi has a favorite princess, Ulan Nala, who is 3 1 year younger than him? Abahai, she was born in the 18th year of Wanli (A.D. 1590), and her father Mantai was the leader of the Ura Department in Haixi. Abahai was only 12 years old when he married Nurhachi, who was 43 years old.
Abahai, a young and beautiful woman with few wives, quickly got Nurhachi's favor and was named big princess (equivalent to the queen) two years later. Abahai successively gave birth to three sons for Nurhachi, namely Prince Aki, the first 12 son of the emperor, Dourgen, the first 14 son of the emperor, and Duoduo, the first 15 son of the emperor.
In the eleventh year of Destiny (AD 1626), 68-year-old Nurhachi died of illness. Considering the possible threat of Dourgen, Duoduo and his young mother to Khan, he asked Abahai to be martyred. "When I die, I will be martyred." The kings headed by Huang Taiji killed Abahai in order to suppress the Dourgen faction.
Abahai dressed up to save his son, only 37 years old. In fact, in addition to Abahai, four maids in Nuerhachi were also buried together.
It is said that Fu Lin, the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty, and Huang Taiji, the former Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty before Michelle Ye, were buried alive, just like Nurhachi. Until the Kangxi period, when the suggestion and Zhu Fei wrote:
Killing people's lives is the sum of nature. The invasion ceremony hurt the monarchy. Today's mud letter is quiet and bright, and there is no so-called sadness and injury. The husband scolded the slave with the Lord's command, or he was afraid to disobey, or he was ignorant and could not bear to disobey. Neither can be used as training. However, it is human nature to be good at life and evil at death, and to sacrifice to commit suicide is not suitable for prosperous times.
So Michelle Ye issued a letter in the 12th year of Kangxi (AD 1673) forbidding slaves to be buried with the Lord.
Since then, the martyrdom system after the emperor's death has really withdrawn from the stage of China's history.
After the death of Qin Shihuang, the number of martyrs was the largest.
The system of human martyrdom disappeared in China in the17th century, but a historical question has always existed: why did Zhu Yuanzhang restore it at the end of14th century? From the funeral history of China and the background of that year, we may find some answers.
In fact, the ancient emperor of China had a long history of letting the living die. It is one of the emperor's privileges to let people around him die, just like the woman he likes, but only his successor will do so.
After the death of Ying Zheng, the first emperor in the history of China, the number of martyrs was staggering, probably the highest in history. Zhu Yuanzhang's martyrdom of dozens of people is nothing compared with it. The exact number of people killed in Ying Zheng is still a mystery, but it is not unbelievable to say that there are thousands.
Ying Zheng is a lecherous king. According to historical records, in the process of unifying the six countries, he also "unified" the women in the harem of the six countries and enriched them all to his own harem, that is, the so-called "the first emperor wrote down his own palace every time he broke the vassal, making it possible to imagine the number of women in the harem of Xianyang North Sakan and Lin Wei". These women, they all died.
Historical records? "Qin Shihuang Ji" (Volume 6) records:
Take mercury as a hundred rivers and seas, instill machines, there is astronomy on the top and geography on the bottom. Take mermaid cream as a candle, and it will last for a long time. II said:' It is not appropriate for the late emperor's harem not to take his son out.' They all came back from the dead, and the deceased was very. Now that the burial is over, or the craftsman is a machine, everyone knows that it is heavy and venting. Once the great event is over, those who are hidden, those who are closed to the outside world, and those who are hidden by craftsmen have no possibility of making a comeback.
Judging from this passage, not only the harem woman died, but also the workers who participated in the construction of the mausoleum survived and became "sacrificial objects".
84 sacrificial bones/kloc-0 were unearthed from the tomb of the king of Qin.
However, human martyrdom was not only a phenomenon in feudal society, nor was it an invention of the "first emperor".
Qin's history of martyrdom was very famous in ancient China. Qin Benji (Volume 5) says, "In twenty years, Wu Gong died and was buried in Yongping Yang. At the beginning, 66 people died. " We can know from this passage that 66 people were martyred after Qin Wugong's death.
However, the number of martyrs in Qin Wugong is not the largest, and Qin Mugong is the most famous. According to archaeological data published in recent years, from 1930s, archaeologists in China began to conduct archaeological research on the Qin Gong Ling area in Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province, which lasted for half a century and ended in 1980s.
There are many important discoveries in this archaeology. Among them, the discovery of "Qin Gong No.1" tomb shocked the historians. This tomb is Qin Mugong's. During the excavation, as many as 184 martyrdom bones were unearthed, which is basically close to the martyrdom of Qin Mugong 177 recorded in Historical Records and other books. The number of martyrs is staggering. Why did you come out? Probably killed temporarily at the scene.
Human martyrdom appeared in primitive society.
The mainstream view is that human martyrdom appeared in primitive society.
Martyrdom appeared in China, not against slaves and prisoners of war, but against wives and concubines. This statement is very interesting. Judging from archaeological findings, it is true. For example, in Yijinhuoluo Banner, Yikezhaomeng, Inner Mongolia, which was once considered as the location of Genghis Khan's mausoleum, a huge ancient human cultural site was discovered in Zhukaigou Village, Nalinta Town.
During the ten years from 1974 to 1984, the Inner Mongolia Cultural Relics and Archaeological Team conducted a comprehensive archaeological excavation of this village. Among them, an adult male and female grave was excavated, which attracted the attention of archaeologists. In the tomb, the woman leans over and faces the man. Experts believe that this woman is a martyr and may be the living spouse of this man.
Archaeology also found that during the Dawenkou culture period from about 4040 BC to 2240 BC, many people were buried together in the early tombs, and many people were buried together for the second time, mostly of the same sex. There were male tombs and female tombs in the early days. After the middle period, men and women were also found buried together in the cemetery. Through gender identification, these male and female graves were all buried at one time, and a man in one of them was buried with a * * *. Archaeologists believe that this should be an abnormal death, and it is impossible to die at the same time under normal circumstances. Presumably, it is the remains of the concubines killed by their parents under slavery.
Most of the emperors who died later were once lucky harem women, which should be the legacy and continuation of this custom of concubines dying in the early ancient times.
Human martyrdom flourished in Shang Dynasty and declined in Western Han Dynasty.
The phenomenon of human martyrdom in ancient China was the most prominent in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, and one of the evidences is the present archaeological discovery. During this period, almost all the royal tombs (Yin Ruins) excavated had different numbers of martyrs. The number of human martyrs is dozens and thousands. At that time, it was a burial system in which slaves were sacrificed. The Qin cemetery mentioned above was also in the period of slave society. After entering a week, the phenomenon of human sacrifice began to weaken.
After the demise of the Qin dynasty, the wind of human sacrifice in the Han dynasty declined. According to the analysis, the cruelty of the king of Qin was hated by the whole world, and the population was greatly reduced because of the long-term war at that time. Liu Bang, the emperor in cloth, who came out from the folk, realized the importance of human heart and manpower, so he stopped offering human sacrifices and encouraged women to have more children. However, not all experts agree with this statement, and whether there are martyrs after Liu Bang's death remains to be verified.
After Liu Bang, it was forbidden to be martyred, but it didn't mean that there was no martyrdom at that time, and in fact it didn't disappear.
During the period of Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty, it can be seen that the phenomenon of martyrdom was widespread at that time. Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu wrote that "salt and iron belong to the people; Go to the handmaiden, except the power of killing. Thin tax, save corvee, in order to broaden the people's strength. Then you can manage it well. "
"Go to the handmaiden, except the right to kill" was a suggestion that the imperial court severely cracked down on the phenomenon of human martyrdom at that time, which was taken seriously by Liu Che and influenced the ruling behavior of emperors in later dynasties. According to historical records, during the reign of Emperor Gaozu in Liu Xun, Xuan Di, Liu Yuanrang 16 handmaids of Zhao Miao died. After the scandal was exposed, the Liu Yuan family was deprived of the title of national seal.
Just like killing prisoners of war at first and becoming slaves later, it is a great progress for mankind. It is also worth writing a book about opposing martyrdom in Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty's opposition to human martyrdom was only the view of Emperor Liu. According to some records, since then, the little emperors and emperors in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties have taken turns to sit in the village like a lantern, and it is not forbidden to be buried. Even in the Tang and Song Dynasties, when martyrdom was officially forbidden, there were rumors of martyrdom.
The martyrdom of ethnic minorities is endless.
At the same time, under the minority regime, the system of martyrdom is still quite popular. Such as the Xiongnu in the north, people die endlessly.
Mongolia entered the era of Temujin (Genghis Khan), and its social form was still in a slave society, which was much behind the feudal society in the Central Plains. 1227 After Genghis Khan died in August, a large number of living people were buried.
Kyle, when? Polo heard that after Genghis Khan's death, "on the way to transport the coffin, the escorts should kill all the people they meet as martyrs and say to them,' Leave this world and go to the underworld to serve your dead master'", "When transporting Meng Khan's body to Altai Mountain, the military and horses escorted killed nearly two thousand people along the way."
In addition to these unfortunate martyrs, there are 40 beautiful women served by Genghis Khan before his death, who were killed and buried alive with the war horse he rode before his death.
After the death of the Yuan emperor, many people were buried alive.
Zhu Yuanzhang resumed human martyrdom, which may be influenced by Mongols. In addition, human martyrdom did not completely disappear among the people in the Central Plains, and Zhu Yuanzhang resurrected human martyrdom, so it is possible. It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang's "retrogression of human nature" has a historical background.
Various terrorist means to execute martyrs.
Finally, briefly explain the way to let the martyrs end their lives.
It can be said that human sacrifice is barbaric. But many times, some people are not passive martyrs, but take the initiative to commit suicide. For example, the four maids who died for Nurhachi all died voluntarily, unlike big princess Abahai who was forced to do so.
In the early days, martyrdom for the venerable is a kind of treatment and honor, so the way to end one's life by martyrdom is very simple, that is, suicide; The way passive martyrs end their lives is naturally killing people.
But he didn't kill people in one way. They were all executed in secret.
Now, the method of executing martyrs clearly recorded in ancient books can be found in the method of "hanging" martyrs after Judy's death. This has been written in detail above, so I won't say much here.
One thing is that before hanging, the person in charge will arrange a delicious meal for the martyrs. Those with high status will be sent to their rooms separately, while those with low status will generally get together for a group dinner. This "last supper" is quite rich, but because of the fear of impending death, I am afraid no one has the heart to eat it. In most cases, she burst into tears and cried loudly at the scene, just like Judy's martyr recorded in history books.
In addition to forcing him to hang himself, it is also a common means of "poisoning" martyrs.
How did Zhu Yuanzhang's concubine die? Some people say that eunuchs hanged themselves. However, there are other folk sayings, one of which is to forcibly feed the selected maids with mercury. Mercury is highly toxic and dies immediately after eating.
Why use mercury? It is said that the bodies of martyrs poisoned by mercury have not rotted for a long time and are still vivid for many years. The phenomenon that corpses don't rot has been recorded in unofficial history, a tomb raider in China. For example, Liu Qu, the king of Guang Chuan when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty proclaimed the Emperor, was a robber. On one occasion, I went to dig a cemetery. After opening the tomb, I found that there were more than 100 bodies in the tomb, one next to the other, but strangely, none of them rotted.
It can be speculated that these women are martyrs, and their bodies have not rotted for hundreds of years. Ge Hong, a native of A Jin, recorded this event in Xijing Miscellanies. The appearance of a martyr is quite similar to that of mercury poisoning.
There is also a kind of "buried alive", in which the hands and feet of the martyrs are tied, put into a certain posture (modeling), and then buried quickly.
In order to make martyrs lose their ability to resist, they are sometimes "euthanized" with things like anesthetics. During archaeological excavations, some female martyrs' limbs were found to have traces of being tied by ropes, which should have been forcibly buried at that time.
Some women are buried with their limbs bent sideways and their faces facing men, which is a gesture (or maybe not) that has been fiddled after death, and it is a kind of modeling. People who die of natural causes can't have that kind of "prescribed action". 1987 The tomb No.45 at Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan Province, belongs to an adult man and is about1.84m in height. He was buried on his back with his head facing south and his feet facing north. There are three niches in the east, west and north of the tomb, and each niche has a child's remains in different directions.
Experts believe that these three children were martyred and stereotyped after being beaten alive.
Of course, there are many ways to end a martyr's life. The most direct and convenient way is to "behead" and directly take the martyr to the cemetery to kill him. However, this method was abandoned by later generations because it could not preserve the whole. Later generations pay attention to the whole corpse, and the way of hunting will not be decapitation, but direct bloodletting and stabbing.
Therefore, beheading is often used in early or human sacrifices. In the archaeology of the tombs of slave owners in slave society, it is often found that the heads of martyrs are regularly arranged together, while the bodies are placed in another place, presumably beheaded before death.
There is also a custom that ancient people built tombs with heads as sacrifices. At different stages of grave robbery, human heads were cut down as sacrifices like pig heads and dog heads.
At present, the tomb M 100 1 in Yin Ruins has more than 164 martyrs, and 96 people share the same cave with the tomb owner. There is a large sacrificial pit nearby, which contains a large number of human bones, all of which are incomplete. These martyrs should be beheaded at the end of their lives. There are 34 heads in tomb WKGM 1 regularly. These are the heads of martyrs. They should be cut off and buried.
: Ni's Secrets of the Emperor, Hubei People's Publishing House, published in June 2009, 5438+ 10.