【About the Author】Wei Zhen, School of History, Chinese Min University.
【Abstract】 The phenomenon of tomb brick anti-book appeared in the two Han Dynasties and was popular during the Six Dynasties period. The emergence of this phenomenon was not caused by the negligence of craftsmen, its emergence and popularity were closely related to the concept of life and death at that time. Tomb brick anti-book text, like reverse images, is a simple way of expressing the use of reverse thinking to emphasize the difference between life and death, which is consistent with the ideological connotation of the popular town tomb text in the same period. Its popularity revealed a major turning point in the concept of life and death at that time, reflecting the important role of funerary ideas in the process of tomb construction.
【Keywords】 Tomb brick anti-book; life and death in different ways; concept of life and death
First, the discovery and research of the "anti-book" of tomb bricks
Anti-calligraphy refers to a form of writing that is different from conventional writing, and the effect it presents is mirrored with conventional text. The phenomenon of text anti-writing was more common in the pre-Qin period, and Mr. Qiu Xigui pointed out: "The direction of the glyphs of the Shang Dynasty is quite irregular. General writing can be left or right, this phenomenon can still be seen in the Zhou Dynasty Jinwen, but it has been relatively rare, but it was basically extinct in the Qin and Han dynasties. Some scholars have done a collation of the anti-book Jinwen in the Spring and Autumn Period, believing that "the function of the anti-book in the Spring and Autumn Golden Text without distinction is a continuation of the 'positive and negative' configuration characteristics of the Oracle system." The number and function of the Spring and Autumn Jinwen Anti-Book show that the Spring and Autumn Jinwen script system still has strong pictography. "After the Warring States period, the phenomenon of text anti-book basically disappeared, and from the late Western Han Dynasty, especially after the late Eastern Han Dynasty, some small and medium-sized tombs began to appear and popularize the phenomenon of inscription tomb brick anti-book. At present, the earlier anti-book inscription bricks found by archaeology include the anti-book inscription bricks (Fig. 1) of the Xinmang Tomb of Baima Stone in Ziyang, Shaanxi Province, and the "Jianping Five Years" inscription bricks. In terms of distribution area, anti-book inscription bricks were found in the two Han Dynasties with less but a relatively wide distribution range, from the north to Liaoning and the south to the Liangguang region, and the use of anti-book inscription bricks entered a prosperous period after the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Since anti-book inscription bricks mainly appear in small and medium-sized tombs, excavators often attribute the reason for their appearance to the carelessness of the makers, and have not discussed it too much. But it has also attracted the attention of some scholars, Mr. Lu Xixing paid attention to the situation of the tomb brick anti-book earlier, he believes that the anti-book in the tomb is a folk phenomenon, speculating that it is a text that is used by Taoism, but the specific cause is not explained. Mr. Wu Hong focused on the phenomenon of anti-book carvings in the Imperial Tomb Shinto stone in the Xiaoliang period, and he believed that the positive and negative calligraphy on both sides of the tomb was a kind of "mirror image", which was a kind of virtual visitor and the deceased, which was the result of the world from the perspective of the deceased, a "transparent stone", and a new form of artistic expression at that time. Mr. Yang Pin questioned this interpretation, arguing that the anti-book phenomenon of stone carvings in the tombs of the Southern Dynasty originated from the long tradition of Chinese character writing, which was a manifestation of the fashion trend and showmanship of writing in society at that time. Obviously, focusing solely on the special examples of the Southern Dynasty Imperial Tombs does not completely understand the phenomenon of anti-calligraphy. Mr. Li Meitian and Mr. Li Xue's article "Discussion on the Tombs of the Six Dynasties Anti-Book Brick Inscriptions" for the first time focused their research horizons on the huge and complex Six Dynasties Anti-Book Inscription Bricks, and through the collation of the Anti-Book Inscription Tomb Bricks of the Six Dynasties Period that have been discovered so far, they believe that the emergence and use of the Anti-Book Inscription Bricks should be related to funeral behavior. It is speculated that this stencitled anti-book inscription tomb tile may be intended to present a seal-like effect or a simulation of the seal. Seals are an important instrument in Taoist activities, so the anti-book inscription bricks may be the result of the symbolic seals left by Taoist participation in funeral activities.
Second, the reason for the emergence of the "anti-book" of tomb bricks
The use of anti-book inscription bricks was not limited to the Six Dynasties period, it gradually became popular from the late Western Han Dynasty onwards, and entered a climax after the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The phenomenon of anti-book appeared in the early days, the number was small, the geographical scope was small, and it could not be excluded that it was caused by the negligence or arbitrariness of the producer. But with the increasing frequency of the phenomenon of tomb brick anti-book, this reason is difficult to explain. For it is understandable that craftsmen have occasional negligence, but it is unlikely that more and more cases will arise. In addition, unlike the pre-Qin period, the shape of the Lishu script has been determined at this time, and the writing system has become more mature. The text of the anti-book is mostly simple fonts, and most of them are partial text anti-books, which obviously cannot achieve the most time-saving and labor-saving effect for craftsmen. Therefore, the phenomenon of text anti-writing that appeared after the late Western Han Dynasty was not the negligence of the producer, but should be intentional. Taoist factors may have their role, but they should not be the root cause of the phenomenon of anti-book. More importantly, similar forms are not only expressed in the tomb brick script, but also in other tomb materials during the Six Dynasties of the Han and Wei Dynasties. Among them, the reverse image in the han dynasty tomb image is similar to the anti-book phenomenon in the production idea. Regarding the reverse image, Mr. Guo Ping has sorted out and studied it, and she mainly follows the idea of "flipping" the funeral space of Mr. Wu Hong, believing that this is the use of "mirror image" to construct the world of the deceased, and believes that the reverse image is a manifestation of the idea of "death as life".
At present, the academic community has not given a satisfactory explanation for the phenomenon of tomb brick anti-book, and in order to promote the solution of this problem: on the one hand, it is necessary to observe it in the context on which it depends; on the other hand, it is also necessary to observe these "reverse" materials in a unified way. As for their use, Mr. Li Umeda and Mr. Li Xue's articles have already mentioned that the explanation of the phenomenon of anti-book inscriptions must be concentrated on the specific environment of funerals. Both the anti-book text and the reverse image are found in the funerary environment of the tomb or the tomb building, so it can be basically determined that the use of the anti-book in the Han and Wei Six Dynasties period was basically limited to specific funerary environments. The use of anti-book inscription bricks is mainly small and medium-sized tombs, which shows that tomb bricks are popular in middle and lower-class society, and did not enter the royal field until the Southern Dynasty period, so this is a folk phenomenon rather than a ceremonial act. In addition, judging from the anti-book inscription bricks, many of the anti-book inscription bricks found in the tomb are only a few of them or a few words in a brick that are reversed, so this anti-book has a symbolic meaning.
Looking at the anti-book inscription bricks and the reverse image, the producers want to emphasize a different form of reverse expression from the convention. This reverse expression, Mr. Wu Hong believes, seems to imply that the realm of death uses a cognitive model that is contrary to the real world. The Taiping Imperial Records quote the Book of Jin as saying: "The book of the dead is different from the living... Like Hu Shu also. The so-called "Book of Hu" is a vague expression meant to emphasize that the "Book of the Dead" is an expression different from conventional writing. Returning to the funeral environment, this reverse expression should be a primitive and simple logical thinking, and this reverse logical expression is universal in the process of funeral rites, and it appears very early. In the funeral rites of the pre-Qin period, it was emphasized that "small and large, the sacrificial clothes do not fall, all are left, and the knots are not knotted." "Dressing left and right in funerals is the opposite of the practice of dressing right and right in real life, thus clarifying the difference between life and death. In ethnological investigations, many similar phenomena have been found, and many things are flipped in the process of funerals, such as the use of "yes" to express "no", the back-wearing of corpse clothes, and so on. "To emphasize the normality and naturalness of the behavior of everyday life through some reversals in the funeral rites, and thus to separate death from the space of the living." It can be inferred from this that the use of anti-books and reverse images in tombs during the Six Dynasties of the Han and Wei Dynasties should be such a simple expression of life and death. Its role is to emphasize the difference between life and death, and it is a more primitive folk creed.
Third, the concept of "different ways of life and death" during the Six Dynasties of the Han and Wei Dynasties
The difference between life and death has long been recognized in the process of human development, resulting in the creation of funeral rites and funerary artifacts that belong exclusively to the deceased. Confucius said, "Death leads to death, and it is not merciful and cannot be done." Death gives birth to it, and does not know and cannot do it. It is why bamboo is not used, tiles are not tasteful, wood is not chopped, the piano is open and uneven, the pipe is prepared and not harmonious, there is a bell and no stick. In the process of historical development, this consciousness has always existed, but in different periods it has different connotations and emphases. From the perspective of the spatial relationship between the living and the dead, from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the choice of cemeteries gradually moved from the city to the outside of the city, and the distance between the living and the dead in space became farther and farther. Mr. Huo Hongwei pointed out that the turning point in the separation of the ancient city tombs in Luoyang was the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, and after Luoyang became the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the system of separating the city tombs and placing the tombs outside the city was followed and strengthened. This shows that the awareness of the difference between life and death between the two Han Dynasties is getting stronger and stronger, reflecting that the concept of life and death of people has changed at that time. Some scholars have also observed the changes in funeral thinking over a long period of time, pointing out that there is a very important turning point in the concept of life and death from the Shang Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties. Mr. Zhang Wenjie called this transition from "worshiping God" to "doing things". In this turning point, the ancestral gods gradually stepped down from the altar and entered the ghost system, and the pantheistic worship of the Han Dynasty completely collapsed the ancestral god belief in the pre-Qin period. It can be seen that the time of the two Han Dynasties is an important node in the evolution of the ancient concept of life and death, and the difference between life and death is more and more emphasized, which is also the period when tomb anti-book inscriptions and reverse images began to appear and gradually became popular, so the emergence of the phenomenon of tomb anti-book is closely related to the change of the concept of life and death at this time.
From the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, especially after the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, a very important concept gradually expanded in the concept of life and death of people at that time, that is, "life and death are different paths". This is no longer a simple consciousness of life and death, but a fear and rejection of the dead. This idea is not only reflected in the anti-book inscriptions and reverse images we mentioned, but also in other funerary objects of this period. One of them is the popularity of a large number of town tomb items, the purpose of the town tomb on the one hand is to protect the body and soul of the deceased from being invaded by the "ghost fish", on the other hand, it is to prevent the deceased from worshiping and harming the living. Judging from the existing town tomb texts and other materials, the more important the deterrent function of the deceased is in the later period. For example, the tomb of Guo Donghan, a later soldier in Mixian County, excavated from the town tomb text: "The Yellow Emperor filled the tomb, closed the Tibetan household; the dead people walked in the yin, the living people walked in the yang; each had a separate painting, and could not be re-traffic...". Liaoning Gai County unearthed the Eastern Han Yonghe five-year anti-book inscription brick (figure 2) town tomb text: "Sigh: The soul of the deceased returns to the coffin, no vain flying and worry-free, long live after the reunion." These words emphasize the difference between life and death, and urge the deceased to stick to the tomb and not disturb the living. In the M5 of the Yang tomb group in Tongguan, Shaanxi, the tomb bottle of Zhu Shuzhen was placed in the sealed door brick to ensure that the souls of the dead were safe here, so as not to persecute the living. The expression of "life and death in a different way" basically became a fixed set of town tomb texts in this period. The Eastern Han Guang and the land purchase coupons purchased in the fifth year (182 AD) excavated from the No. 2 Han Tomb in Wangdu, Hebei Province, have: "Life and death are different, and they must not interfere with each other." As some scholars have pointed out, "the ultimate focus of the town tomb text is not on the dead, nor on the soul of the dead, but on the living in the yang, so the dead and their souls must be prohibited from doing anything that may endanger the living." ”
The expression of life and death in many town tomb texts also adopts a reverse thinking, which is consistent with the ideological and logical connotation of anti-book inscriptions and reverse images. For example, the tomb text of the Eastern Han Dynasty Xiping Town excavated in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province: "The living people are on the yang, the dead are returning to the yin, the living people are on the high platform, the dead are deep in hiding, the living are south, the dead are north, and life and death are different paths, and they are anxious as the law." "Up" and "Down", "Yang" and "Yin", "Upper Platform" and "Body Hidden", "South" and "North", these are all inverse expressions to emphasize the different paths of life and death, and the expression of the anti-book is in the same line. It can be seen from this that the emergence and use of anti-book inscriptions during the Six Dynasties of the Han and Wei Dynasties was produced under the influence of the ideological concept of emphasizing the different ways of life and death in the society at that time, and this is only one of the expressions. Why, then, did the idea of life and death flourish so much during this period?
First of all, the fear of the soul of the deceased existed in the pre-Qin period, but it was more of a reverence, reverence than fear. In the unearthed Qin Jian Ri book, there are records of the souls of the dead such as "A and B have diseases, parents are revered", "Propylene has diseases, fathers and kings are secret", etc., so that people in the two Han Dynasties have more understanding of "dead people are ghosts, have knowledge, and can harm people". However, before the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, this concept of "life and death and different ways" was not much reflected in the tombs of the Han Dynasty, which was related to the funeral concept of advocating filial piety and "death is like life". Due to the advocacy of the rulers and some pandering of the system, in the entire two Han dynasty funerary ideas, "death is like life" has always dominated, and the result under the guidance of this funerary idea is the production and use of a large number of bionic mingware, as well as the construction of tombs modeled on the homes of the living people. From the late Western Han Dynasty onwards, along with the emergence of phenomenons such as town tomb texts and anti-book inscriptions that emphasized the concept of "different ways of life and death", the funerary idea of "death as life" was affected to a certain extent. With the social turmoil and the epidemic of infectious diseases in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the attitude of the people to the dead has changed greatly, and the realistic panic of the dead has gradually exceeded the reverence for the ancestors, so a large number of funerary products that embody the concept of "different ways of life and death" began to be used in tombs, which continued until the Six Dynasties period. Judging from the time node and development context of the emergence of the tomb brick anti-book, the tomb brick anti-book behavior is difficult to directly link with Taoism, and its use is more with the color of primitive witchcraft. As Mr. Wu Rongzeng pointed out, the early stages of Taoism absorbed many folk ghosts and witches, rather than the products of The direct control of Taoism.
IV. Conclusion
Tomb brick anti-books from the Six Dynasties of the Han and Wei Dynasties, like reverse images, are a way of using reverse thinking to express the difference between life and death, and to embody the "different ways of life and death". Their emergence and development reflect a new change in people's perception of death, which is also reflected in other aspects such as tomb artifacts and documents in the burial town. The concept of "different ways of life and death" has existed since the pre-Qin period, and along with the changes in the world's concept of life and death, its connotation is also constantly evolving. Overall, the distance from the pre-Qin to the two Han people and the dead is becoming more and more distant, both spatially and psychologically. Beginning in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, with the epidemic of disease and social turmoil, the concept of "different ways of life and death" was raised to an unprecedented height, and this situation continued until the Six Dynasties period. At the same time, the concept of "death as life" began to decline, and the most direct manifestation was the disappearance of "homesteaded" multi-chamber tombs and the large reduction of bionic artifacts in the tombs. In previous studies, scholars have mostly attributed this transformation to the transition from the "Han system" to the "Jin system". However, through the discussion in this article, we can also see that the change of the tomb shape system should essentially be a change in funeral thinking and the concept of life and death. It is not sudden, and before the substantive changes take place, new funerary ideas may have sprouted, and with its continuous development, the content of funeral activities has gradually changed. The anti-book behavior of the imperial tomb Shinto stone carving in the Xiaoliang period should have been influenced by the middle and lower classes of society, and was essentially an expression of "life and death", and it was at this time that the tomb anti-book tradition reached its peak and declined.
Editor's note: The article originates from Southern Cultural Relics, No. 2, 2020. The original text and pictures are copyrighted by the author and the original unit. Space limitations, comments from omitted.
Editor: Gao Peng Wu Peng
Editorial Assistant: Zeng Xiaoyan
Reprinted in: "Ethnology and Anthropology" Microelectronics Journal