Once, the world-famous "Harry Potter" series of fantasy stories made countless people linger, especially in the seventh part, the thrilling story around the search for Voldemort's soul hallows made people more associated with life and death, and it seemed that the soul could reappear without dying in the world.
Of course, you and I both know that this is just an ideal world constructed by the author with words, and of course there is no such thing as a soul hallow. Although we do not know whether the author's assumption of this idea also has a source of inspiration for foreign history, at least, in Chinese history, people have long had far-reaching research on similar "soul hallows", and even formed a unique culture.
Harry Potter stills
Especially in the Han Dynasty, from the burial jade that strives to protect the body from decay after death to the birth of the "sacred artifact culture" that can ensure the immortality of the soul, the Harry Potter legend in Chinese history is no less wonderful than the fantasy stories we see today. In fact, the cultural origin of all this also comes from people's exploration and imagination of the afterlife world, just like Qin Shi Huang's vigorous search for elixirs in the east. Of course, the result of all this has always been people's super desire to learn about unknown areas.
Mention jade, can be regarded as Chinese characteristics, still popular with people, jade culture has always been elegant, thick, in fact, the Chinese ancients daily use of jade is far more extensive than we imagine, and the meaning behind the jade is more profound. Therefore, it can be seen from the Han Dynasty burial jade culture like a "soul sacred artifact", and thus, the burial jade culture has also become an indispensable part of the Han Dynasty jade culture.
Therefore, in the complicated jade culture of the Han Dynasty, exploring another way from the burial jade culture can also be regarded as feeling the different wonderful jade culture of the Han Dynasty. Imagine being able to put an imagination like a Harry Potter Soul Hallow into reality, which is absolutely a classic.
Han Dynasty jade mask
First, the long historical origin behind the jade culture of the Han Dynasty
The origin of jade culture, as the name suggests, is also gradually explored after people started using jade. Therefore, the creation of jade began with the stone tools made by prehistoric humans in life for a certain purpose, from discovery to cultural formation, after a very long process.
When the Paleolithic age came, people made more smooth and delicate stone tools, and metal tools gradually replaced stone tools. At this time, jade began to stand out from the stone tools. People regard jade as a mysterious connotation endowed with the essence of mountains and rivers, and since then, jade is no longer an ordinary stone tool, but began to develop gradually as an independent variety. After a long period of incubation and development, jade has almost become an independent category. Since then, China's jade culture has been established, and more people have been given a far-reaching connotation definition.
The famous historian Ge Zhaoguang once proposed: "Tombs, ancestral temples, ancestral halls and sacrifice activities are to achieve kinship, blood cohesion and cultural identity through the remembrance and commemoration of deceased ancestors and relatives." Such an idea requires physical sustenance, and since ancient times, human beings have had mysterious and illusory explanations for many irresistible natural phenomena due to helplessness or fear, so religious beliefs, totems, sacrifices, ritual systems, and so on with worship have emerged.
Therefore, since ancient times, people have used jade as a tool to communicate with the gods and perform witchcraft, and these activities reflect a common mentality: to seek their own wealth, happiness, longevity, peace, or, in real life, a vision that cannot be done in real life, such as eternal life or eternal life of the soul. As a result, the clan magnates and other upper-class people at that time began to bury a large number of exquisite jade products before and after their deaths.
Green jade claw horn cup
In this development, in the Xia Dynasty, jade became a symbol of power, rank, and status; during the Zhou Dynasty, jade became a must for rulers to consolidate their political power and standardize etiquette; during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the exquisitely carved jade style was even more breathtaking.
When the rulers of the Han Dynasty made Han white jade into jade seals, becoming the proof of succession to the unification, the status of jade in people's hearts has become more and more important, and in the three different religions of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, the love for jade is also constantly influencing people's attention to jade. Moreover, in these different thoughts, the pursuit of immortality, immortality, bliss, and so on after death is also expressed through jade.
Therefore, with a mysterious and admiring atmosphere, the han dynasty people's admiration for jade was set off, and as a result, the jade culture of the Han Dynasty became more and more intense.
Han Dynasty Jade Seal
Second, the specific embodiment of the culture of Hanyu carrying the "Soul Sacred Artifact"
Even in the legend of Harry Potter, the Soul Hallow is a magic weapon that prays that the soul will not perish after death and can return to the human world again. Therefore, the culture about the "soul sacred artifact" is generally reflected in the Han Dynasty burial jade culture. After the continuous exploration of many historians, it is learned that the burial jade of the Han Dynasty occupies a particularly important position in the history of Chinese jade culture, whether it is from the completeness of the form to the complexity of the craft, and even the social hierarchy has attracted much attention. The Han people's concept of burial jade and the cultural significance behind the burial jade are reflected in the burial jade culture.
(1) The concept of burial jade culture is formed
In the feudal period, the rise of any concept and culture originated from its ideological rule over stabilizing the country and strengthening the rulers, and the Han Dynasty was no exception, and the ancients' exploration of the afterlife world was far more emotional than that of modern people, so once there was a capital and ideological foundation, it would certainly continue to explore on this basis.
Several rulers in the early Han Dynasty, after Huang Lao's "quiet and inaction" and "wenjing rule", made the Han Dynasty change its face and gradually flourished. The nobles no longer lived the life of the people who had been "naked", on the contrary, under the prosperous economic conditions, the pursuit of pleasure, extravagance and indulgence became the norm, and at this time, they began to expect that they could continue such a happy life after death.
In the "Book of Han and Food Goods", it is recorded that "the clan room has soil, the gongqing doctor is fighting for luxury, and the upper limit of the room car clothes is dead". It was also influenced by the Confucian "guiyu" and the Taoist "shengxian" ideas, and the burial jade flourished.
Excerpt from the Book of Han and The Chronicle of Food and Goods
(2) The main types of burial jade
The types of burial jade have also gradually developed and enriched with this aspect of the cultural system, and have gone through different stages. Although burial jade is still circulating after the Han Dynasty, the height reached by the burial jade culture in the Han Dynasty is a strange peak in the history of ancient jade, which is also beyond doubt.
First of all, in the early Western Han Dynasty, the burial jade was mainly a jade mask and a jade coat set, and the jade plug was only one kind of jade, but in this period, the use level of burial jade must have been initially established, such as archaeological records "in the early tombs with jade masks and jade cloth covers, grips were used, but their shape was obviously different, and the level of the tomb owner using jade dolphins was higher than that of using jade sulphur."
When it developed to the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, jade clothing combinations began to become popular, and the types began to be complete, among them, the jade nine tricks and jade bi used the most, and the jade quality was also the best. There are many types of jade robes, and even the jade pillow used by the deceased has many differences.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty and the early Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty also experienced wars, and the financial resources were not as great as before, but the rulers and princes at this time would use jade clothes for burial, the only difference was that the grades were different, and all the jade clothes were of different jade material quality, which was mainly based on the financial resources of the deceased before death.
Until the stabilization of the Eastern Han Dynasty began, the burial jade completely began to enter the stage of strict use of the hierarchy. In archaeological excavations, most of the princes at that time were copper jade clothes, and the emperor became the only user of the golden jade clothes, and the kings of the princely states could use silver jade clothes according to the system, and the nobles of the Hou or the rank equivalent to the Hou could only use the copper jade clothes or the silk jade clothes, reflecting the strictness of the Eastern Han Dynasty's hierarchical dignity and inferiority, and the use of jade clothes was well observed. Of course, in addition to jade clothes, the Han Dynasty funeral jade also has jade plugs, jade lacquer coffins, jade grips, jade urns and other types.
Silky jade coat
The jade plug is used to fill the eyes, mouth, ears and nose, genitals, and anus of the deceased, and the complete jade plug should have a total of nine pieces. Yu Sai is derived from the Taoist idea that "if the golden jade is in the Nine Tips, then the dead are immortalized." The jade grip is a jade vessel held in the hands of the deceased, most of which are made into a huang shape, a jade pendant shape, a jade pig shape, etc. In the Han Dynasty, people believe that after death, people cannot be empty-handed, they must have the same wealth and power as before they died, and the pig as a symbol of wealth was made into a jade grip.
The reason why the jade cicada is used as the mouth of the jade is to symbolize the cycle of regeneration, in order to ensure that people can be spiritually immortal or revived after death. Therefore, the Han Dynasty believed that the afterlife world that can be reborn or immortalized requires the immortality of the soul, and the greatest function of burial jade lies in this.
Jade cicadas
Third, the burial jade represents the superb Han Dynasty jade achievements
Although burial jade is not seen in the daily life of the Han Dynasty, from the perspective of only the nobles who are eligible to use it, the exquisite degree and craftsmanship height of burial jade can become a representative of the jade culture of the Han Dynasty, and in terms of connotation endowment, burial jade is more worthy of exploration than other jades. Only from the two aspects of styling design and ornamentation is enough to let future generations feel the classic of Han Dynasty jade.
(1) Flexible and atmospheric Han Dynasty jade shape
Because the han dynasty ruler team is mostly Jingchu people, the Han Dynasty jade culture also integrates the Chu wind elements, and in the production style of jade, it completely absorbs the elegance, freedom and romance of the Chu jade, and the fantastic and flexible pattern composition in the Chu culture also provides a deep and majestic foundation for the Han Dynasty jade.
In addition, the jade picture is vivid, leaving no blank, it seems to be very simple and refined, and it makes people feel full and real. Funeral jade is a model of the combination of immortal thought and human reality, so although the carrier of this romantic and real collision has the air of death, it still has a unique sense of beauty, and it has an extremely important position in the history of art.
Jade Bear Shaped Town
(2) Han Dynasty jade ornaments that show the ultimate idea of mystification
The jade ornaments of the Han Dynasty have always reflected people's strong desire to become immortals and the mentality of praying for all things to be happy, which is closely related to the society at that time advocating Taoism, believing in the idea of immortals, and longing for feathering and ascension to heaven. The main ornaments are divided into dragon patterns, tiger patterns, phoenix patterns and cloud patterns, and the ideal world represented by different ornaments is also different. Among the various types of burial jade excavated from ancient tombs in the Han Dynasty, the identity of the owner of the tomb can be seen from the ornamentation of many jade objects.
For example, the dragon ornament in the han dynasty jade, which means auspicious and noble, is also a kind of auspicious and avoiding evil, which has been loved by the Han people since the Han Dynasty, and because the dragon pattern style at that time was valued by the rulers of the Han Dynasty, the dragon also made the dragon an eternal totem of the Chinese nation. The production of the mantis pattern, in addition to the legend of "one of the nine sons of the dragon" behind it, the Han Dynasty jade oyster inherited the mature and developed hollowing technique of Chu jade in terms of technique, such as the jade sword ornamental crab pattern with two forms of concealment and protrusion, with a hollowing technique, with a lively and flowing charm. The phoenix bird pattern mainly reflects the symbol of the queen, matching with the dragon, the dragon and phoenix chengxiang is the highest realm of the combination of yin and yang, and, in the view of the Chu people, the phoenix can guide people's souls to the kingdom of heaven, so it has also been widely used in the Han Dynasty burial jade. Even the most ordinary cloud pattern represents the beautiful meaning of "high rise, good wishes". These ornaments, combined with exquisite shapes, make the Han Dynasty jade exquisite.
Double dragon pattern jade pendant
Fourth, the influence of the Han Dynasty jade relics such as the legendary Harry Potter of the East on future generations
Once upon a time, Harry Potter, a story based on wizarding legends, was a cult sensation, enough to see people's love for things with legendary colors. Therefore, "Harry Potter" is so sought after, China's long-standing jade culture will certainly win more people's exploration and love after unveiling its mysterious veil, because jade culture is also building a bridge between people in the real and ideal worlds.
Nowadays, jade has long become an important symbol of people's imagination of a better life, and jade has always been given a strong idealistic color. These ideas also began with the Unprecedented Han Dynasty, which built jade culture into an unprecedented peak. It also stems from the continuous breakthrough of han dynasty jade culture from connotation to craftsmanship, which makes future generations willing to use jade to pin beautiful thoughts, so that jade has become one of the classic symbols of today's Chinese civilization.
Therefore, Huaxia jade looks at the Han Dynasty, Han Dynasty jade looks at the burial jade, in the invisible, such a mysterious Han Dynasty jade relics produce the same Oriental Harry Potter legend.
Jade Sword Grid
epilogue
Although, at that time, every tomb owner lying in the jade robe did not get immortality, and the facts also show that jade was only a carrier for people's pursuit of a beautiful spirit, but with such a beautiful connotation, with the beauty of the jade itself, the ancient artifacts lasted for a long time, illusioned new vitality, and also represented the characteristics of Chinese culture, forming a strong Chinese characteristics.
This unforgettable legendary color left by Chinese jade is destined to become the cornerstone of Chinese civilization, and the han dynasty jade culture constitutes the basic pattern of Chinese jade culture, which is also a unique existence. As a characteristic soul hallow of the Han Dynasty, the burial jade is destined to become a classic legendary world that is even more advanced than Harry Potter, in which it is filled with people's prayers for purity, perfection, nobility, beauty and all other good wishes.
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bibliography
· "The Main Characteristics and Cultural Characteristics of Chinese Han Dynasty Jade"
· "Ancient Three Dynasties of Qin Han Jade Culture"
· The Cultural Connotation of Han Dynasty Jade