In the ancient funerary culture, if you want to say that burial jade is the most famous, the Han Dynasty must be ranked first.
The burial jade culture of the Han Dynasty reached its peak, and even formed a relatively complete burial jade system. In the tombs of han dynasty kings excavated by later generations of archaeology, traces of jade can be seen almost everywhere.
So, why was this burial jade culture so popular in the Han Dynasty? In what form is the burial jade carried out?
First of all, the burial jade culture is mainly influenced by people's spirit and cognition. Ancient people believed that jade crystal clear, long-term prosperity, itself has an antiseptic effect, with jade burial, can protect the body from decay.
In addition to embalming, the Han Dynasty scholars had a very reverent feeling for jade, and even regarded jade as a pure existence and symbol, pinning endless admiration.
The most obvious is the ethical and moral values of "using jade to be dede" embodied in the Confucian scholars and doctors of the Han Dynasty. For example, Dong Zhongshu once recorded in the "Spring and Autumn Dew": "Jade is like a gentleman. Jade is pure and does not hide its evil, there are flaws inside, it will be seen outside, so the gentleman does not hide its shortcomings, does not know it, asks, can not learn, take the jade also. ”
Jade has a variety of beautiful moral qualities, and even to some extent has become a symbol of a gentleman, and it is also a moral model that people worship.
In addition, Jia Yi in the early Han Dynasty once proposed that jade has "six principles", and the New Book of Tao Te Ching explains: "Tao, virtue, sex, god, ming, fate... Write the six principles of virtue, all seen in Yuya. ”
At the same time, Dong Zhongshu of the Han Dynasty deposed the Hundred Schools and respected Confucianism alone, and the respect for Confucianism also made the Han Dynasty people make strict hierarchical norms for the way of Peiyu.
For example, it is recorded in the "Book of Rites and Jade Algae": "Jun zai does not wear jade, the left knot is pei, and the right is pei." ...... Tianzi Pei Bai Yu and Xuan Group Silk, Gonghou Pei Shan Xuan Yu and Zhu Group Silk, Dafu Pei Shui Cang Jade and Pure Group Silk, Shizi Pei Yu Yu Er Qi, Shi Pei Yu Er Qiu Group Silk. It can be seen from this record that at this time, the Han Dynasty had already used jade of different colors to represent the different identities of people of different classes.
The people of the Han Dynasty used jade as a spiritual sustenance, but also as a symbol of dividing social status and class, and even adopted different specifications of burial jade forms and scales, and buried with jade after death to show respect for the deceased.
Since burial jade became popular in the Han Dynasty, what kind of form did it take?
The first is the "jade covering". The face is one of the most important parts of the body, and for the face of the deceased, the ancients also created a way to accompany the burial with jade, that is, "jade covering". In the tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of the Western Han Dynasty, it was found that on Liu He's face, there was a cover made of knitted fabric, and above the cover there were multiple jade bi placed, as if several precious night pearls were placed above the mask.
In addition to covering the face of the deceased with jade, some even make masks to cover the face to achieve the effect and purpose of burial with jade. According to the research of archaeologists, the jade covering excavated from the Tomb of The Han of Shuanglushan Mountain, that is, a jade covering found in the tomb of Liu Kuan, the King of Jibei, can be said to be the most exquisite since it was unearthed, and there is no one.
The second kind of "golden jade coat". Everyone has heard of the golden wisp, and the phrase "persuade the king not to cherish the golden wisp, and advise the king to cherish the youth" suddenly made the reputation of the golden wisp angry. The prestige of the golden robe lies in the fact that the clothes are sewn with silken gold thread, and just one piece is valuable and extremely rare. In the Han Dynasty tomb form, the "golden jade cloth" is also the highest specification in the burial jade system.
In the tomb of Dou Xuan, the wife of Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan in the Han Dynasty, a few pieces of "golden jade cloth" were found. The golden silk coat is very precious, the "golden jade coat" also needs to be on the basis of the golden wisp, and then decorate each detail with the precious jade piece, making such a piece, it will take a lot of manpower and financial resources, and it can also be seen how unusual the status of the deceased who is buried with the "golden jade dress" is.
It is worth mentioning that the golden jade clothes are also divided into three levels, namely: golden jade clothes, silver jade clothes, and silk jade clothes. Generally speaking, only the supreme royal status of the emperor and the princes can use the specifications of the golden jade robe, and the other nobles can only use the other two at the highest.
Because the Han Dynasty burial jade system was developed, the use of jade restrictions was clear, so the general ancient tomb robbers did not dare to easily steal jade, found and only dared to pull out the gold thread inside, which led to today's archaeological discoveries do not have many complete golden jade clothes left, most of them are missing, into a pile of scattered jade pieces.
The third is the "jade coffin". As the name suggests, the jade coffin is a coffin made of jade, according to archaeology, in Hebei Mancheng Han Tomb, Xuzhou Lion Mountain Chu Wang Ling Han Tomb and Jiangsu Province, three jade coffins have been excavated. In particular, this one unearthed at Dayun Mountain is said to be the mausoleum of Liu Fei, the king of Jiangdu, the son of Liu Qi, the Emperor of The Han Dynasty, and the value of this "jade coffin" is much higher than that of the golden robe.
The fourth is the relatively scattered forms of "accompanying jade", the reason why it is called so, that is, there is no fixed form of burial in the mausoleum. For example, the most common jade, jade and jade in the early Western Han Dynasty, because the ancients believed that jade could make the corpse not decay, so according to the specific situation, let the deceased hold the jade in his hand, or contain jade in his mouth, or stuff jade into the body of the deceased to block the circulation of qi in the deceased's body, so as to ensure that the body is not decayed.
All kinds of things are the concrete embodiment of the burial jade culture.
All in all, the Han Dynasty people's understanding and spiritual sustenance of jade largely determined the development and rise and fall of the burial jade system. It is undeniable that Dong Zhongshu's proposal to "depose a hundred families and respect Confucianism alone" has had an indelible and far-reaching impact on people's thinking and behavior.