When watching film and television works, we often see defeated Japanese soldiers who have the habit of committing suicide by caesarean section, and many times it is a collective martyrdom suicide, you may know that this is the Bushido spirit from Japan. But did you know that this kind of caesarean suicide originated in China and later spread in Japan?
So, can we really find examples of suicide by caesarean section in China? Why has this suicide disappeared in China and become a glorious way of suicide in Japan? Today we will find out.
Japan is a country deeply influenced by Chinese culture, they have copied China's political and cultural system, and of course, they are familiar with China's history. China's Warring States period was an era of assassins, and this assassin culture was imitated by the Japanese, evolving into ninja and Bushido, but the most widespread and cruel imitation was suicide by caesarean section. So, when did the earliest suicide by caesarean section occur in China?
The earliest caesarean section in historical records was Cang Hong of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Cang Hong was a Zhou Shi Doctor, the most knowledgeable astronomer and astrologer at that time. However, he was later framed and exiled to Shudi. In order to show Zhou Tianzi his innocence and loyalty, Canghong committed suicide by caesarean section. Canghong's suicide touched the world, and they put Canghong's blood in full bloom, and three years later, these bloods turned into jasper, which is said to be the embodiment of Canghong's sincere qi, and thus has an idiom "blue blood Danxin".
By the Warring States period, this type of caesarean section was more common in armies and assassins. In "Han Feizi", it is said that "those who fight and make people cut their heads off and have no concern for their hearts are rewarded by the soldiers." This means that when their own armies go to war, they must fight for the country, and even if they lose, they will not hesitate to choose to kill themselves or cut their abdomen.
Nie Zheng is known as one of the four great assassins, according to the "Chronicle of the Assassins", the Korean doctor Yan Zhongzi asked Nie Zheng to assassinate his political enemy, and the South Korean Xiangguo was tired, and Nie Zheng went to Korea alone with a sword to assassinate Himti in order to repay the favor of zhiyu. Nie Zheng's sword technique of white rainbow through the sun directly rushed up the steps to assassinate Xia Tired. Nie Zheng also killed dozens of Xiangguo guards, but in the end he fell into layers of siege, he knew that he could not break out, so he cut his face, cut out his eyeballs, and finally committed suicide by caesarean section.
From the above examples, we can also see that this kind of self-harming suicidal behavior is often the ultimate choice for expressing loyalty. Later, Japanese samurai promoted this behavior more like religious belief. In fact, another source of this suicide method is Chinese Zen Buddhism, and Japanese samurai also worship Chinese Zen Buddhism and worship it as a religion of Bushido.
Why would Zen monks choose this extreme approach?
Originally, before the Tang Dynasty, many senior monks often offered offerings to the Buddha by dissecting the abdomen, cutting off the heart, burning the fingers, burning the arms, and even breaking the arms, or martyrdom in this way. Some Buddhist scriptures have similar records. Later, in China, with the skin of the body, the infection of the Confucian filial piety culture of the parents, and the disappearance of the assassin and other cultures, the act of suicide by caesarean section was rare.
In Japan, with the development of Bushido, there have been many acts of suicide by caesarean section, and even derived the rules and rituals of caesarean section. The cesarean section cuts the cross-shaped viscera directly in the abdomen and bursts out until it loses too much blood and dies. Of course, this is just one of the methods of caesarean section in ancient Japan, known as cross cutting. In addition, there are several ways to cut one word, two words, and three words. If the caesareaner is too painful, an assistant will behead him. In order to maintain decorum, female caesarean section suicides also have their legs tied.
So, when were the first people in Japan to commit suicide by caesarean section?
It is said that in the first year of the Japanese era, that is, in 989 AD, the great thief Fujiwara Yoshi, before being arrested, cut open his abdomen and then used the tip of his knife to pick out the internal organs and throw them at the officers. It is said that this was the earliest person in Japan to commit suicide by caesarean section. Later, caesarean section became popular among Japanese samurai. By the time of World War II, the Japanese had committed suicide by caesarean section. The Japanese, who lost on the battlefield, often chose to commit suicide by mass caesarean section, which became an extreme way for the Japanese to express their loyalty.
Traditional Japanese culture also gives special tolerance and sympathy to suicide, and even encourages martyrdom suicide, which advocates dedication. As a result, the warriors who cut their bellies showed loyalty to their masters, and the kamikaze agents in World War II became so-called national heroes.
So why are the Japanese so obsessed with suicide by caesarean section?
Japan's special island geography, social culture, to a certain extent, has created the Japanese people's cautious, narrow and closed national character. When they fail, or feel they have not fulfilled their responsibilities, they often go to a dead end and choose extreme self-harm. As a Japanese writer put it in The Ugly Japanese, "Responsibility, which is supposed to exist to protect people, has become a torturous thing in Japan."
The editor has a saying: After World War II, the way of suicide by caesarean section gradually disappeared, but suicide is the most common way of unnatural death in Japanese people. Since 1999, more than 30,000 people have committed suicide every year for 14 consecutive years in Japan, the highest suicide rate in the world.