Ancient people were deeply bound by traditional ideas, and in the process of "birth, old age, illness, and death", they had to follow their own rules. In ancient times, the living were required to observe various rituals, and after death, there was a system of martyrdom. The ancients believed that there would still be another world after death, so it was necessary to bury the dead thickly, and when they encountered the cemetery, people were more in awe. Jia Dao wrote in "Passing mr. Jingsuo's grave": Mr. Jingsuo's three-foot grave, autumn wind desert spit cold clouds. There has always been hatred for the king who weeps more, and who today cries more for the king. In this sentence, the poet expresses his regret and grief for the deceased.
In ancient times, there was a very cruel system called martyrdom. As the name suggests, martyrdom refers to the death of a powerful person (usually an emperor) who needs a group of people to follow him to another world and continue to serve him. Perhaps we all think that martyrdom is just a bad habit that occurred in primitive society, and when Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms and made up the terracotta warriors, it should disappear and become a spring and autumn stroke in the history books. Indeed, after the Qin Dynasty, the Han and Tang Dynasties, the martyrdom was changed to a funeral, and after the normal death of the eunuchs, they would be buried near the imperial tomb, for example, among the heroes of Lingyange, there were many who accompanied the tomb of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, for them, it was a great honor.
Judging from various historical books, the concubines who accompanied the funeral basically had no children, but there were also those kinds of sons who were made the next in office, and the emperor was afraid of blackmailing the son of heaven to order the princes to "go to the mother and leave the son" to indicate martyrdom. Speaking of these concubines, they look bright and beautiful, in fact, in order to win the favor of the emperor, they are jealous of all kinds of winds. But the emperor never considered these concubines, just as the so-called emperor is heaven, he said that if you are buried, you must obey. In modern times, many emperors' tombs have been excavated, but we found very strange places, the bones of these martyred concubines are separated, but after a lot of exploration, we have found the reason. We all know that this system is extremely inhumane. Whether it is first executed and then buried or buried alive, it is very painful. You say there can be a few who are buried voluntarily, but they have no right to resist. Even resistance is useless.
The common methods used by the concubines and palace ladies to be martyred were to drink poisoned wine or commit suicide with white aya, both of which were performed in pain. In addition to these two, there is a more cruel one, that is, buried alive. Why did archaeology find that the legs of the buried concubines and palace ladies seemed to have been broken? This was due to the painful struggle of the martyred concubines and palace ladies before dying. Before the death of the martyr, he was either poisoned by poisoned wine or hanged and suffocated, and either of these two, poisoned wine and suffocation, would make these concubines and palace ladies have to go through painful struggles before they die.
Because they were living people, they were locked in the underground palace, naturally panicked, they began to attack the "stone gate" out of survival, but the stone door of the tomb was extremely thick, and some concubines who did not have the strength to tie the chicken could open, and finally, under the desperate scratching and kicking, extreme exhaustion lost their last strength, and the limbs also had cramps due to several days of excessive fatigue, and finally the body became stiff after death, leaving only the strange posture of teeth dancing claws and legs apart, Let future generations reveal their tragic experiences in life.
The system of burial of living people was slightly improved during the Han and Tang dynasties, and was mentioned again during the ming taizu Zhu Yuanzhang period. According to records, when Zhu Yuanzhang died, a large number of concubines and palace women accompanied him to the funeral. Hearing the news of the funeral, the concubines wept all night in the palace, but no one cared for them, and no one pitied them. This cruel phenomenon was inherited in the Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years, until the ming Yingzong period, he deeply felt the cruelty of the funeral system, and finally ordered the abolition of this system, after which the royal family did not have the act of martyrdom.