The Kangxi Emperor's evaluation of Zhuge Liang was: "Zhuge Liangyun: "Bow down and exhaust your life, and after death." "As a subject, only Zhuge Liang can hear such an ear."
For the Xinghan Room, he bowed down to death and died, so Zhuge Liang has always been highly respected by posterity, and several kings regarded him as a model of loyalty, and later literature deified it, thus paving the matter of Zhuge Ge's death with a layer of mystery.
According to legend, before Zhuge Liang died, he shouted "Pound Degong save me"! So, who is this Pound Duke? After Zhuge Liang died, his mouth contained seven meters, what was the matter?
After death, it is a sacrifice custom to have rice in his mouth, and Zhuge Liang is to continue his life
According to the Shuowen Shuwen, "The Son of Heaven contains the pearl, the princes take the jade, the doctor takes the seal, the scholar takes the shell, and the shu people take the gu shi." This is the ancient people's account of the funeral rites of the Zhou Dynasty. From this, it is known that the rice was once a very important funeral rite in the funeral system in Chinese history.
In fact, there is a more traditional interpretation of this in the folk, that is, to let the deceased contain something in their mouths, in order not to let the deceased lack money in the mansion, in order to prevent them from living badly. Now there are many old people who will have something in their mouths after they die, which is what the folk call money.
In fact, if you really want to trace this allusion, it is first recorded in ancient Chinese books, after the death of the Son of Heaven, there are beads in the mouth, and the princes are containing jade. Those scholars, on the other hand, were of a lower status than them, and they would have Shells and Seals in their mouths after they died.
According to Zheng Xuan's note in the Zhou Li, there was also a custom of rice containing in the Xia Dynasty, but archaeological excavations do not seem to have found it.
The Shang Dynasty was the most prevalent period of the rice containment custom, and all those who were formally buried were without exception applied rice containment. Taking the Yin Dynasty tombs excavated from the Yin Ruins as an example, whether it is a small tomb, a medium-sized tomb, or a large tomb, the examples of rice contained are widely seen, generally the poor contain sea shells and stone ornaments, while the rich contain jade ornaments, which is basically consistent with the literature.
The custom of rice and inclusion in the Western Zhou Dynasty, from the perspective of tomb data, basically maintained the grand momentum since the Shang Dynasty, and its specific content and form were close to the Shang Dynasty. In addition to the fact that the tomb cases found in archaeology may have the meaning of "not wanting to empty their mouths" and "benefiting the body of the deceased" mentioned in the literature, according to the contents such as jade hammers and bone needles seen in the excavations, it is likely that they still have the actual meaning of warding off evil spirits and protecting the body and guarding the spirit.
However, Zhuge Liang hanmi is not for sacrifice, but for the sake of continuing life, which is related to the Pang Degong he shouts.
Pang Degong and Zhuge Liang had a deep relationship and once performed the art of continuing life
In 234 A.D., in the Wuzhangyuan military camp, the terminally ill Zhuge Liang knew that the limit had arrived, but if he was going to die at that time, Zhuge Liang was extremely unwilling. He thought that as long as he was given another ten years, he could assist Liu Chan and become the co-lord of the world.
However, his body really couldn't hold on, so Zhuge Liang thought of laying down the Seven Star Array, lighting seven oil lamps, and borrowing from the sky for another ten years.
However, just when he was about to succeed, Wei Yan, a stunned qing, rushed in, walking with the wind, and directly extinguished the oil lamp. Spurting out a mouthful of Zhuge Liang's old blood, he also knew that his life would soon be over.
And before Zhuge Liang died, he also shouted a pang de gong to save me! At that time, the people next to him were quite puzzled, who was this Pound Duke?
Pang Degong is a real figure in history, not fiction, and this person has a deep relationship with Zhuge Liang.
Pang Degong was a famous hermit in the Jingzhou area during the Three Kingdoms period, he loved to make friends with elegant scholars and research scholars in his life, and had close contacts with Sima Hui, the water mirror, and Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Sima Hui, Xu Shu and other famous people in Jingxiang, and several of them had great respect for Pang Degong, so Pang Degong's prestige in the Jingzhou cultural circle was very high.
Pang Degong had a nephew, that is, Pang Tong, who was equally famous with Zhuge Liang, and was called "Phoenix Chick" at the time. Pang Degong had a son named Pang Shanmin, and this Pang Shanmin was Zhuge Liang's brother-in-law.
According to legend, many of Zhuge Liang's skills were taught to him by Pang Degong, so he had a great influence on Zhuge Liang in his early years, that is to say, he was Zhuge Liang's master, and Zhuge Liang's seven-star array was also taught by Pound Degong.
According to the wild history of rumors, it is said that Liu Biao of Jingzhou heard that Pang Degong was a wizard of the world, so he invited Pang Degong to come out of the mountain to help with a generous gift, but Pang Degong was not moved, so that Liu Biao killed Pang Degong.
One day, Pound Degong slept in a hermitage, Liu Biao sent people to set fire to it, wanting to burn Pound Degong alive, when Pound Degong lived in seclusion, a raging fire was lit, everyone thought that Pound Degong was dead, but did not expect that after the fire was extinguished, Pound Degong's "corpse" was still lying on the stone bed, and there was no trace of burns, but people did not breathe.
After some time, Pang Degong actually sat up again, and spit out the seven grains of rice in his mouth, looking like nothing happened, and then laughed and left.
Therefore, it is rumored that Zhuge Liang performed the Seven Stars Continuation Technique when he was critically ill, which is also deeply reflected in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but in the process of performing this technique, it was destroyed by others, and the person who destroyed Zhuge Liang's Seven Stars Continuation Technique in the interpretation was Wei Yan, so it was rumored that Zhuge Liang shouted "Pound De Gong is me". As for the mouth containing seven meters, it is also an important process of the Seven Stars Continuation Technique.
Zhuge Liang had rice in his mouth, and in order to confuse Sima Yi
It is said that many important strategists during the Three Kingdoms period used this seven-star life-sustaining technique, in addition to Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi. The ancients believed that the emperor would have a corresponding star in the sky, and after Zhuge Liang's death, his corresponding star would inevitably fall, if it was observed by Sima Yi, then he would lead the army to pursue and kill, so that the Shu army would inevitably be in chaos.
Therefore, the reason why Zhuge Liang has rice in his mouth and lights a lamp under his feet, the main reason is that his "general star" will not fall.
So why seven grains of rice?
The ancients believed that the moon's reincarnation cycle was seven days, and the Big Dipper in the astrolabe was its important symbol. Seven days after the death of a person, his soul will return again, and the ancients have great attention to what is contained in the mouth after death, if the son of heaven contains jade, the princes contain pearls, and the scholars contain rice, so Zhuge Liang contains seven grains of rice in his mouth to hide the fact that he has died.
From this point of view, Zhuge Liang's mouth contained seven grains of rice in order to stabilize the general star, so that Sima Yi was on the astrolabe, and he could not see the signs of his death. Although these are the plots that appear in the rendition, this also reflects Zhuge Liang's intelligence.
In this way, Sima Yi could not see that Zhuge Liang's general star had fallen, which also had a certain threatening effect on him, but it was later confirmed that Zhuge Liang's strategy was successfully implemented, and after Zhuge Liang's death, the Shu army used its scarecrow to scare Sima Yi's army away, and bought time for the Shu army to retreat.
Personal opinion
Zhuge Liang, who knew that he still had no hope of life, finally couldn't help but think of his mentor Pang Degong, perhaps with Pang Degong's unfathomable ability, he could really save Zhuge Liang's life, so Zhuge Liang would shout "Pound Degong save me" before he died! This also shows that Zhuge Liang did not want to die because he still had the unfinished Northern Expedition.
However, regarding the use of the Seven Stars To continue life, after all, it is only the interpretation and the statement in the film and television drama that the rice in the mouth of the deceased is actually the ancient rice-containing burial system. Rice han is a very important funeral rite in Chinese history. It can also be seen from this that the rice in Zhuge Liang's mouth after his death was also completely in line with the burial system at that time, which was also a reproduction of the life of the deceased before his death.
As for why the mouth is seven grains of rice and not other quantities, this is mainly to match Zhuge Liang's seven-star lamp life-sustaining technique and ancient astrology in the interpretation.
All in all, the deep meaning of zhuge liang's mouth containing seven grains of rice after his death is not only in line with the ancient burial system, but also to set off other plots in the interpretation, which can achieve the meaning of killing two birds with one stone. I have to say that the author took care of history while remaining mysterious, which is really a rare thing.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhou Li, Shuoyuan Xiuwen
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