What is the Mystery of the Hanging Coffin?

Hanging coffin burial is a rather peculiar burial style in ancient times: along the river, you choose a cliff with a wall of thousands of feet, and use a method that we still don’t know to bury the deceased together with his foot coffin. Hanging (placed) high in a suitable position halfway up the cliff. The situation of the burial site is different, and the individual burial methods are also slightly different: either a hole is drilled in the cliff, the rafters are used as piles, and the foot coffin is placed in the space expanded by the cliff piles; or a stone niche is carved into the wall. , place the corpse coffin in a niche; or use the natural rock ditches, rock piers, and caves on the cliff to place the corpse coffin... When a person dies, he must find a home, and find a proper way to place the body that has lost his soul. In this sense, hanging coffin burial is the same as burial burial, cremation, water burial, sky burial and other burial methods. However, I held my breath and thought about it: How could a heavy corpse coffin and a cold corpse "fly" to that high cliff? Who is the owner of the coffin? Our limited wisdom is still difficult to interpret this fable written in silence for thousands of years, and we cannot escape the shadow of the hanging coffin in our nightmares. There is such an ironic story: In 1933, in order to explore the mystery of the Bo people's hanging coffins, a local official named Chen hired two woodcutters to pull down two hanging coffins from the cliff of Doushaguan, and one of them was transported to Zhaotong Provincial No. 2 Middle School is available for inspection and exhibition. Not long after, both woodcutter died tragically unexpectedly. The next year, a disaster relief official named Xiong Tingquan visited the Provincial No. 2 Middle School in his spare time. He saw the hanging coffin and the remains in the coffin, and asked about the story of the tragic death of the woodcutter. He couldn't sit still. The principal repeatedly said: "Wang Wen and his dead bones, why should we play with the remains of ancient people? Please treat them with courtesy." The principal had no choice but to bury the hanging coffin remains. This Mr. Xiong still couldn't feel at ease, and wrote an edict with trembling fear: "The frost is desolate, and the wind and rain are eroding the sun and the moon. Who is the shadow? The bones are strong, and the body will soon decay." I fall in love with this high hill. Evil is rewarded and good deeds are rewarded. My heart is filled with sadness when the coffin is exposed. The mountains are vast and the ground is boundless. I think that all blessings will be hidden here forever. May you live forever. There is no severity and no disaster." Respect ghosts and gods and stay away from them.

In Yunnan, the hanging coffins along the Jinsha River, Baishui River, and Guan River basin in the present-day Zhaotong area are not only unique, but they are definitely the most distributed and concentrated areas. As far as is known, there are no less than 10 places such as Douchuan, Diping, Coffin Rock, and Lingguan Rock in Yanjin County, tile rocks and caves in Weixin County, and Huanghua in Yongshan County; rock piles, rock piers, and rock niches Various forms of hanging coffin burials such as troughs, ravines, and caves are available. In particular, the hanging coffins at Douchuan Pass are the most preserved and the most complete, with the most precipitous terrain. They are called "ancient relics, a miracle in the world" and the "hanging coffin museum" by scholars.

Doushaguan hanging coffin is on the cliff on the south bank of Guanhe River in Shimen Village, Dosha Township, Yanjin County, close to National Highway 213. The Qin Dynasty established the "Five Feet Road", the Han Dynasty built the Nanyi Road, the Sui Dynasty built the Pianliang Bridge Pavilion, and the Tang Dynasty opened the Shimen Road. All of them, without exception, chose Dousha Pass as the gateway to Yunnan. "Guan-Tianjin Hub" and "Southern Yunnan Key" are well-deserved. On the north bank of the Guanhe River, the precious ruins of the "Five Feet Road", the ancient castle of Shimenguan, and the cliff inscribed by Yuan Zi, the imperial censor in the 10th year of Zhenyuan of the Tang Dynasty, were included in the Nanzhao imperial edict, indicating that there was a flourishing humanities here. On the south bank of the Guanhe River, a towering cliff rises to the sky, reaching a height of four to five hundred meters. The hanging coffin is stored in a square rock ridge halfway up the cliff. In the 1930s, more than 40 coffins were investigated. Since then, they either fell into the Guanhe River or were destroyed by curious people or those with ulterior motives. There are still more than 10 coffins left today. Looking from a distance, under the sky that is so light that it is almost transparent, in the shadow of the cliff that is so heavy that it is about to collapse, the piles of corpses hanging in the sky will indeed make people have many indescribable thoughts and conjure up many strange stories about gods and demons. , no wonder Master Xiong has to pray hard, "A hundred blessings will come to you, a hundred auspiciousness will come, and there will be no disaster or disaster for thousands of years."

The owner of the hanging coffin is generally believed to be the Bo people who lived in the area of ​​southern Sichuan and northeastern Yunnan before the Spring and Autumn Period, so it is called "Bo people hanging coffin". Is it reliable? In 1932, several scholars from Zhaotong inspected the hanging coffins at Doushaguan. According to the inspection text left at that time, the skulls of the corpses in the coffins were larger than those of modern people, and the bones of the hands and feet were also thicker and longer. It is estimated that the height Between 1.8-1.9 meters. The coffin is hollowed out from a whole log and is about 2 meters long, 50 centimeters high and 41 centimeters wide. The coffin lid is about 41 centimeters thick. According to the wood texture, it seems to be fir, and the shape is simple. Zhou Mengyun and others who participated in the inspection believed that "this thing comes from ancient times and is definitely not something hundreds of years ago. Why? It is said in history that after the death of Dayu, three collars of quilt and three inches of tung coffin were found in "Mencius". Mencius Another saying: In the past, there were often people who did not bury their relatives. If their relatives died, they would be left in the grave.

The current inspection of the place where the coffin was placed shows that the river has sunk, which proves that the river must have been high at that time, and there were many houses built with water on both sides of the bank. There is no doubt that it was an ancient ravine." Also around 1932, an American scholar wrote about the prestige of Chang'an. After investigating the hanging coffins, we also came to roughly the same understanding as Zhou Mengyun. In this way, "Bo people hang coffins" should be the conclusion. Otherwise, the famous natural scientist Chen Yide questioned the judgment of Zhou Mengyun and American scholars. : First of all, the Bo people living in the area of ​​present-day southern Sichuan and northeastern Yunnan have either migrated to western Yunnan or merged with the Han and other ethnic groups since the Spring and Autumn Period, thus prematurely ending their existence as a single ethnic group. The era when the Bo people lived was before 250 BC. Secondly, if the hanging coffin at Douchuan was formed by a cliff hundreds of meters high due to the subsidence of the river, I am afraid that this process could not have been completed within thousands of years: Li 2. Three thousand years of eternity: "Any hard wood will turn into powder when exposed to sunlight and water?" "What's more, the bones are complete and the texture of the coffin is clear. I have to admit that Chen Yide's rebuttal is reasonable. In fact, a search of historical records shows that the Bai Liao, Gelao and other ethnic groups who lived in this area nearly a thousand years later than the Bo people There is also the custom of hanging coffins for burials: "The deceased is buried in a coffin, placed in a cave, as high as a thousand feet, or near a large river, without a cover." "Xi Ji Lue" has recorded this. Who can say that the hanging coffin is not the work of Bai Liao and Gelao people?

The reason why the hanging coffin gives people a mysterious and magical feeling has become so-called. The most fundamental reason for the "eternal mystery" is: How is the hanging coffin "suspended"? In a book called "Chao Ye Qian Zai", a hypothesis is put forward: the corpse coffin is first carried to the top of the cliff, Then the hanging ropes and piles were lowered. This theory is difficult to establish based on what we saw at the hanging coffin site. Imagine that most of the hanging coffins are halfway up the cliff, far away from the top, and they are often placed in depressions on the cliff face. How to "put it down"? In another book "Lingbiao Jiman", another idea is put forward: "Build the earth as a platform, transport the coffin into it, unload the earth behind it afterwards, and the coffin is the only mark on the rock edge. . "There is some truth in what he said. Also based on the on-site conditions of the hanging coffin, its inoperability is exposed. There is another theory, that is, the questionable aspects of Zhou Mengyun's argument mentioned above have been raised by Mr. Chen Yide. The "eternal mystery" is a bit confusing, but it is not the same thing as gods and demons.

Why are ancient ancestors so interested in hanging coffins? Is there some mystery? To put it bluntly, it is disappointing. "Yunnan Chronicles" says: "When a person dies, the coffin will be placed on the top of a cliff, and the one who falls first will be lucky."... He will try his best to climb up just to fall down as quickly as possible.