But there is also a phenomenon: concubines may commit suicide to be buried with them.
Burying the living is a cruel and barbaric act.
The system of "human sacrifice" and "living sacrifice" in the Yin and Shang Dynasties was the beginning of the human sacrifice system in China.
Some people say that American Indians are descendants of Shang Dynasty, and one of the evidences is that the scale of Indian "living sacrifice" is the rarest in human history.
The Zhou Dynasty overthrew the Shang Dynasty and abandoned the system of human sacrifice. The etiquette culture of the Zhou Dynasty is to replace the living with grass essence (that is, grass people) instead of the dead.
By the time of Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period, people began to use "figurines" instead of grass people for burial. Although the "figurines" are a little better than those buried with the living, they are still much more expensive than the right people, which is a bit too extravagant. And "Terracotta Warriors" are becoming more and more realistic (such as Terracotta Warriors).
Confucius felt deeply when he saw this social phenomenon. He found it unacceptable to see the figurines buried with him, just like being buried with the living.
Although Confucian culture represented by Confucius attaches great importance to thick burial, Confucianism also attaches great importance to "benevolence" and is very opposed to human sacrifice. It's cruel to even oppose burying people with figurines.
"Book of Rites, Talking about the Public" records:
Confucius said, "A wise man knows the mystery, but he doesn't need to prepare things." Alas! The deceased used the tools of the living. Isn't martyrdom dangerous? "It is a wise instrument and a god." Painting cars and cooking spirits have existed since ancient times, and the road to light is also. Confucius said, "Those who are kind to the grass spirit" and "those who are heartless to the figurines" are not dangerous in employing people.
Ziyou asked Confucius, "Since ancient times, burials have painted cars and touched spirits. But there are couples today, which is not conducive to mourning. " Confucius said, "Those who cherish the spirit are good, those who cherish me are not good, and there is no danger in employing people."
As can be seen from the above paragraphs, Confucius thinks that it is a very bad behavior to use the living to be martyred, so bad that even being a doll has to be martyred, which is inhuman. Because Confucius thought porcelain doll was too humanized and inhuman. It is more suitable to bury things tied with straw (straw essence).
This is Confucius' view that "the villain's heart is not right" and "the villain's heart is not right". It can be seen that Confucius can only accept the burial of grass spirits (grass people), not human burial, let alone the living.
Mencius, Hui Liang and Wang Xia: "There is fat, there are fat horses in the stable, there are hungry people, and there are hungry beasts, which leads to the beasts eating each other. Animals eat each other and people hate them. For the sake of people's parents, the administrative department has to lead wild animals to eat people. Evil is being the parents of the people? Zhong Ni said: "The initiator will not have any consequences!" It's also used to make it look like a person. How did it make people starve to death? "
Zhu Zhu's annotation Mencius explains this passage:? Sokcho, an ancient burial man, thought he was submissive to Wei, calling him a lowly spirit, just like a human figure. In the middle ages, it was easy to use figurines, but they were as big as people. So Confucius is evil and heartless, but as far as it is concerned, there will be no hindsight.
"On Xun Gigi Lai" said: "Carving death is attached to ink, carving life is attached to death is confusing, killing life is attached to death is a thief!" It means cutting the funerary objects of the dead and increasing the expenses of the living. This is called "Mozi's way", reducing the expenses of the living and increasing the funerary objects of the dead. This is called chaos, and the murderer is buried with the dead. This is called cruelty!
It can be seen that in Confucian culture, from Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi to Zhu, they all oppose human sacrifice. They not only oppose human sacrifices, but also oppose the use of high-priced sacrifices. They all advocate the use of cheap objects such as grass people for human sacrifices.
But unfortunately, in China, cases of cruel use of the living are still endless:
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the custom of martyrdom in Qin Dynasty was the most popular. When Qin Wugong died, "sixty-six people were martyred at the beginning". After Qin Mugong's death, he "came back to life 177 people".
After the death of Qin Shihuang, his son Qin Ershi officially announced that all the women in the harem were martyred. The number of martyred maids and murdered craftsmen actually reached "tens of thousands". According to "Historical Records", Qin Shihuang "had more than 10,000 harem women, and they were so angry that they rushed to heaven".
After the Han Dynasty, most emperors no longer buried the living with the dead. It is very common for Emperor Xian of Han to leave a will before his death, ordering concubines and maids who have no children to leave the palace instead of ordering maids to commit suicide and bury the emperor.
During the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, the customs of the Han Dynasty were basically followed.
However, in the Beihu regime, the martyrdom system revived and once affected ministers. ?
After the death of Lu Ye, Emperor of Liao Dynasty, Shu killed 100 ministers.
The custom of burying Jurchen nobles in the Jin Dynasty was not to use coffins, but to be buried with them. "The deceased was buried without a coffin, and the noble burned his favorite maid pommel horse to be martyred."
When Genghis Khan died, everyone he met and the place where the coffin passed were "killed" and forty noble ladies were buried.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the system of human sacrifice reached a small peak. When Wu Meng died, he killed 20,000 people along the way (Kyle Poirot).
The Yuan Dynasty even encouraged people to die. ? For example, Volume 34 of Yuan History records: "He Qian's wife, Bai Dussel, died in Daning and other counties and was buried with her." It can be seen that the people were buried alive and the court also awarded prizes.
The Ming Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty followed the bad habit of martyrdom in the Yuan Dynasty.
After Ming Taizu's death, 40 concubines were buried and killed. Except for the two concubines who died before Mao, they were finally buried on the east and west sides of Mao Mausoleum. The remaining 38 concubines committed suicide on the spot and were buried.
After Ming Taizu's death, there were two versions about the number of concubines killed. One is 16 in Daming Hui Dian, and the other is more than 30 in North Korea's A Record of the Li Dynasty.
After the death of Emperor Renzong of Ming Dynasty, five concubines were buried, namely: Guo Guifei, Shu Feiwang, Li Feiwang, Shun Feitan and Chong Feihuang.
After the death of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, seven concubines were buried with him.
It was not until Ming Yingzong (1427- 1464) that the bad habit of human sacrifice was completely abolished. The history of Yingzong was seriously ill. "Mouth heritage, concubine named points. Don't bury them with the funeral. Every four things will be greatly polished. " Since then, the Ming dynasty royal family has eliminated the human sacrifice system.
At the beginning of Qing dynasty, the system of royal martyrdom was very popular. After the death of Taizu Nurhachi, there were big princess Ulan Nala, ordinary princess Geegon and Dayinza. After the death of Huang Taiji, Zhang Jingdun, Dali and Andari were martyred. After the emperor shunzhi died, Fei Lian's wife and bodyguard Fu Dali was martyred. After the death of Prince Dourgen, the maid Urkuni was martyred.
During the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the Han Dynasty asked Zhu Fei to stop his visit. In the 12th year of Kangxi (1673), slaves under the Eight Banners were forbidden to be buried with the Lord, and the system of human sacrifice was ordered to be abolished. Since then, the emperor has never ordered mass martyrdom. Thus ending this cruel custom in the early Qing Dynasty.