In ancient China, there was a unique tradition of burial with jade. Such a tradition dates back at least to the Neolithic period, 6,000-5,000 years ago. Most of the high-ranking deceased are surrounded by jade and jade bi after death, covering their entire body. What was first said to have been circulated when the wind of jade entering the funeral was prevalent is no longer known, but later, most of them were for the sake of incorruptibility.
The most prosperous time when the wind of using jade as a burial object was the Han Dynasty period on the mainland. The most familiar "golden jade clothes" are the burial vessels of the Western Han Dynasty. But few people know that in the Han Dynasty, the same jade burial vessel was buried with the golden jade cloth - the Nine Tricks Plug.
The Nine Tips and the Golden Jade Robe were funerary utensils used only by high-ranking nobles in the Western Han Dynasty. This is explained in Ge Hong's Baopuzi
"The golden jade is in the Nine Tricks, and the dead are immortal",
Therefore, the nine tricks are stuffed in the eyes of the ancients. It is an "artifact" that can keep the corpse immortal. The effect is comparable to that of the Golden Jade Dress.
The nine tricks are probably covered by a pair of jade eyes, blocking the two eyes. A pair of jade earplugs block the second ear. Jade nasal plug a pair, blocking the two nose tips. A white jade carved in the shape of a cicada, gagging the mouth. There is also a jade plug that blocks the place of the five grain reincarnations.
As for this last trick belongs to the genital part, its shape is more special. It is not made of the common jade plug, but a uniform hood. The emperors would use the same round-shaped jade hoods modified by Yu Qun, while the female concubines would use triangular jade hoods modified by Yu Gui.
Both Yu Chun and Yu Gui were jade ceremonial vessels used for sacrifice in ancient China, but one of them was a cylinder and the other was a strip of objects above and below, which also belonged to one of the "six instruments". According to the degree of its symbolic meaning, there is no big difference, but it is not known what the purpose of distinguishing between men and women is not known. Maybe in the future, relevant historical documents will be unearthed to solve this puzzle for us.
In addition to this, among the nine tricks, there is another thing that is more special. That is, the jade in the mouth carved into the shape of a cicada - the jade cicada. In the jade, jade cicadas are generally used. Its history is so long that it can even be traced back to the Neolithic Hongshan culture, Shijiahe culture, and Liangzhu culture, and the cultural relics of jade cicadas can be found.
There are different theories about what the jade is after the burial of the jade cicada, but most of them are with the good wishes of the ancients at that time. The habit of cicadas is to metamorphose, which has the intention of wishing the deceased to be reborn after the cicadas are remorphosed after death. There is also a kind of "cicada high drinking clean" in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, which means to take the high purity of cicadas.
In modern times, the American ancient jade research expert Lovell has given a new statement. In his book "Barr Collects Ancient Jade in China", he said:
"The larvae of the cicada, when they enter the earth and pupate, become cicadas, that is, like the souls of the dead, they break away from the dead corpses and begin their new life, so that the cicadas become symbols of resurrection."
Here, cicadas are transformed into messengers of resurrection and rebirth. However, Taiwan's ancient jade research experts said that the above statements are all reasonable. But another reason should be the formal coincidence, the cicada species after combining all the above advantages, just like the shape of the human tongue.
As for what the real reason is, unless you travel through a thousand years of time and ask yourself about the ancients who were buried with cicadas as burial utensils. Otherwise, this thousand-year-old "cicada culture" is likely to continue to be debated like this.