Why did the ancients put the body on the cliff and hang it there?

The burial custom of burying a person's body in a cliff cave or cliff wall. It is a kind of wind burial, that is, open-air burial. The custom of cliff burial was very popular among some ethnic groups in ancient China, such as Pu, Yue, Ba, Liao and Han. Cliff burial has been recorded in coastal soil and water records. Cliff burial in China is mainly distributed in Xianxia and Wuyishan areas in Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guizhou, mountainous areas in Guangxi, Xijiang River Basin, five major river basins such as You, Chen, Wu, Wu and Yuan at the junction of Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan, the Yangtze River and its tributaries in the southeast of Sichuan, the northern foot of Wumeng Mountain in Sichuan and Yunnan, and the islands in Taiwan Province Province. According to the determination of carbon 14, the earliest coffin was buried on the cliff in Wuyishan, Fujian, about 3840 90 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In modern times, some Zhuang, Buyi, Miao, Yao and Gelao nationalities, as well as some Yamei people of Miao nationality in southwest Guizhou and Gaoshan nationality in Lan Yu, Taiwan Province, have been buried on cliffs.

Cliff burial can be roughly divided into four types: ① cliff burial with burial tools placed in natural cliff caves; (2) Burying tools in the crevices of cliff bedding is called cliff pier burial; (3) The burial tools are placed in the excavated cliff cave, which is called cliff cave burial; (4) Drilling holes in the cliff to nail stakes and laying aside funeral utensils is called hanging coffin burial. The burial system of cliff burial is divided into one burial and two burial. There are many kinds of tombs: wooden coffins, sarcophagi, pottery coffins, cloth bags, etc. are often used to bury bodies; Small boxes, small letters and pottery pots are often used to bury bones or ashes. Some cliff burial places are also equipped with rock paintings, halls or puppets. Cliff burial places, some only have one or two pieces of burial utensils, and some have dozens of pieces of burial utensils. Funerals in the same place, some are buried at the same time after the same clan or Hezhai village, some are buried one after another, and another place is chosen after a cave is filled.

Cliff burial is also practiced in the border areas of Vietnam, Thailand, India and Myanmar, and in the Ryukyu Islands of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Melanesia and Polynesia.