introduction
The emergence of immortal thinking and the intention of worldly people to become immortals is just the product of the concept of immortality of the soul, which has developed to a higher stage. The emergence of the concept of immortality of the soul is closely related to the ancestor worship of primitive society.
The primitive ancestors believed that after death, people would become souls and continue to live in the world, no different from real people. The prosperity of the burial culture promoted by this view was also the premise for the germination of the idea of the immortals. Since the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the ideas of hundreds of schools of thought have been contended, the immortal thinking has been greatly developed, and the unified Qin people also pursue to become immortals. This can also be glimpsed from the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.
First, the construction of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, the principle of "death is like life"
The construction of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is the most labor-intensive project that has been clearly recorded, and it is the highest level of construction project that can be achieved at the national level. The construction of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor shows us the government function, governance efficiency and management level of the Qin Dynasty from all aspects, and it is also a landmark memorial of the Qin Dynasty, as the largest imperial mausoleum with the most complete shape and the richest cultural connotation.
As one of the eight wonders of the world, the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is one of the most abundant imperial tombs. On the surface, the huge underground palace is used by the First Emperor as a place to return to peace after death, but in fact it implies that the First Emperor intends to continue to control the world, and then dig deeper into the first emperor who is actually pursuing immortality and immortality, believing that he will become an immortal after death and continue to live in the world.
Photo|Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
The mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is just a visualization of his desires before his death and continues to survive in the world after death, so as to achieve what he believes to be permanent preservation and facilitate his continued enjoyment after death. Therefore, the entire imperial mausoleum was built as a whole, in line with the principle of "death is like life". The so-called "death is like life" is the bliss of people after death, and the rebirth in the next life is placed in the tomb.
In the burial pit of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, the most and most eye-catching is the Terracotta Army, which can also be said to be a martyrdom figurine. In fact, in the Yin Shang period, the funeral system of living martyrdom was used, and because it was too cruel and Confucian concepts gradually penetrated into the hearts of the people, it gradually changed from living martyrdom to human martyrdom.
The terracotta warriors in the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor are outstanding representatives of this period, each of which relies on real life, is similar in height to a real person, and has a different expression. Thousands of terracotta figurines and pottery horses, each with flesh and blood. On the one hand, it reflects the superb craftsmanship of the Qin Dynasty, and on the other hand, it also reflects Qin Shi Huang's emphasis on funeral maids, which is indispensable and has a great desire to control.
Terracotta Army
"Qin Shi Huang Benji Sixth" recorded: "The first emperor was lucky in the Liangshan Palace, and from the mountain he saw the chancellor riding the chariot, Fu Shanye, the middle person or the prime minister, and the prime minister after the chariot rode." The first emperor said angrily: "When the people in this are leaking their words, when they are, they will kill all those who are around." This matter can also be seen in the first emperor's temperament, not a weak person to be deceived, but very own ideas, others are not allowed to beak.
Therefore, the construction of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was determined by him every drink and peck. Therefore, from the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, his wishes can be found. As for why his wish is to become an immortal after death? There is a record in the "History of the First Emperor of Qin": "Naiying as the palace Weinan, in the forest garden." First as the front hall A Fang... With the elephant Tianji Pavilion Dao Juhan arrived at the camp room. ”
Photo|Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
The earthly palace room is compared to the celestial stars, and Qin Shi Huang's meaning of wanting to become an immortal and ascend to the sky can no longer be clear. In addition, Qin Shi Huang also connected the palace near Xianyang with Fudao and Yong Dao, and covered it with a tent to simulate a "fairyland" suitable for "real people" to live in, all of which showed the first emperor's desire to become an immortal.
Qin Shi Huang's desire to become an immortal after death is not only his personal initiative to germinate ideas, which is very related to the atmosphere of the times at that time, it can be said that the people at that time were pursuing becoming immortals after death, rather than caused by upward and downward effects.
Second, the three modes of becoming immortals, building merit and increasing longevity
Since the primitive society entered the class society, the class differentiation and the gap between the rich and the poor gradually intensified, which also made the rulers gradually separate from the people. The people's thirst for life gradually shifted from the group to themselves, so that the idea of immortals could germinate.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was believed that personal lifespan was related to the gods. By the late Spring and Autumn period, this idea was generally established among all classes. During this period, hundreds of schools of thought contended, and the speed of thought innovation iteration was beyond human imagination. "Zuo Chuan Zhao Gong Twenty Years" recorded: Qi Jinggong, who had been separated less than thirty years later, asked Yanzi: "What is the joy of ancient and no death?" ”。 It can be seen from this that people have changed from resignation to fate, to wanting to get rid of fate, and have achieved a huge leap in thinking.
Figure|Immortals
By the Warring States period, the development of immortal thought had become a climate. After Qin unified the Six Kingdoms, many immortal ideas and implementation methods had appeared. At the beginning, the first emperor chose not the idea of becoming an immortal after death, he also pursued the immortal life of the living into an immortal, and the concept of becoming an immortal in the Qin people at that time was also a hundred flowers.
But later, they were all influenced by the first emperor and recognized the idea of becoming an immortal after death. Qin Shi Huang gave up the road of becoming an immortal by living people, in fact, he was forced to do so. Qin Shi Huang still wanted to take this road, but unfortunately, this road would not work.
During the Warring States period, the witch style in Chudi was very prosperous, the masses were good ghosts and gods, and the witch and ghost tradition prevailed. The strong belief in witches and ghosts and the good cultural atmosphere have also created the model of becoming immortals in the primitive religious concept. Later, "becoming an immortal" became the ultimate dream of the ancient Chinese world, and was also inherited by later generations of Taoism.
Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty mentioned in "Holding Puzi Inner Chapter: On Immortals": "The sergeant raised his form and ascended to the void, which is called a heavenly immortal." The sergeant travels in the famous mountain, which is called the land fairy. The corporal dies first and then transforms, which is called the corpse dissolved immortal. "Although the Qin Dynasty did not have clear expressions such as heavenly immortals, earth immortals, and corpse immortals, there were three modes of becoming immortals.
The first mode is to build merit and ascend to immortals, to make major achievements in the world, and after completing the mission given by the heavenly gods, you can ascend to heaven and become an immortal, which is the most ideal model for becoming immortals in people's belief in immortals at that time.
It is recorded in the "Shiji Feng Chanshu": "There is a dragon with a beard to welcome the Yellow Emperor." The Yellow Emperor rode up, more than 70 people from the harem of the courtiers, and Long Nai went up. "This is the record of the Yellow Emperor who made great feats in the world, and finally rode the dragon to ascend to the immortals.
Pictured|Yellow Emperor driving the dragon
There is also a record in the "Shiji Feng Chanshu": "For the next fourteen years, Qin Miao was public and lay ill for five days; He dreamed of God, and God commanded Miu to be fair and chaotic. The House of History and Collection. And the later generations all know that Qin Miao went to heaven. "This records that after Qin Mugong completed his mission to pacify the Jin and Jin chaos, he also soared to become an immortal.
This can see Qin Shi Huang's mentality at the beginning, sparing no effort to create great achievements. On the one hand, it is to develop the country and stabilize society, on the other hand, it is also to prove to heaven that he has also made a lot of merits and can be qualified to soar to immortals.
However, legends are just legends after all, even if Qin Shi Huang has done so many feats, even if Mount Tai consecrated the heavens, he will not be able to ascend to the immortals. Therefore, he also realized that it was not advisable to beg heaven to become an immortal by building meritorious deeds, and everything still had to be achieved by himself. So he retreated to the second place and chose the second immortal model.
The second mode of becoming an immortal is King Mu of Zhou's "traveling to find immortals", which can also be said to increase the life of immortals. Legend has it that King Mu of Zhou traveled to the Heavenly Court in a dream because he was cast a spell, and after waking up, he began to travel west, looking for the immortals he saw in his dreams, and later met and fell in love with the Queen Mother of the West, and finally lived to the age of one hundred and five before dying, and the world marveled at him as an immortal. Later, it gradually evolved into the concept of "seeking immortals and seeking medicine", and the two were interconnected.
Photo|Immortal Mountain
The world has a common idea, if you can find the immortals such as the Queen Mother of the West or An Zhisheng, you can ask for immortal medicine, and after taking it, you can become an immortal. This example of King Mu of Zhou gave great confidence to those who sought to become immortals at that time, and later princes competed to imitate it.
Qin Shi Huang saw that there was almost no hope of becoming an immortal, so he bet on seeking immortals and seeking medicine. Qin Shi Huang spared no effort and material resources to launch many large-scale immortal hunting activities.
The "History" recorded: "There are three sacred mountains in the sea of words, known as Penglai, Fangzhang, Yingzhou, and the immortals dwelling ... So he sent thousands of men and women to the sea to seek immortals. This is the famous "Xu Fu crossing the sea to seek immortal medicine" in history, which also confirms that Qin Shi Huang has been seeking a way to become an immortal.
But after seven or eight years and spending a huge amount of money, Xu Fu still found nothing and did not take the immortal medicine. Even before Qin Shi Huang died, Xu Fu had been looking for excuses and excuses for not finding the immortal medicine. And in the end, until Qin Shi Huang died, he did not get the immortal medicine that Xu Fu requested.
Photo|Qin Shi Huang
As early as when Xu Fu returned from going out and did not ask for the elixir, Qin Shihuang no longer had expectations in his heart, but he still sent Xu Fu to continue searching, but he was afraid that he would miss the slightest possibility. In fact, this famous generation of kings has long been forced to give up the idea of living people becoming immortals. He has already turned to the third mode of becoming an immortal, that is, becoming an immortal after death.
Third, becoming an immortal is a dream after all, and the health culture will flourish
Qin Shi Huang himself was unwilling to puncture this lie and still retained a glimmer of hope. However, in action, he had pinned his hopes for becoming an immortal until after his death, which can be seen from his intensification of the construction of the mausoleum.
In 210 BC, Qin Shi Huang heard the rumor that "the ancestral dragon died this year" and ordered Prime Minister Li Siqian to step up the construction of the mausoleum with 720,000 disciples, and personally supervised it.
The "History of the First Emperor of Qin" recorded: "The palace view of hundreds of officials and rare artifacts is full of strange migration." With mercury as a hundred rivers and seas, machine phase instillation, astronomy on the top, geography on the bottom. With mermaid paste as a candle, those who will not die will last for a long time. "It shows us the grandeur of the mausoleum, the various burial pits, and the tall seal soil of the mausoleum, which symbolizes the pursuit of immortals, and also shows the theme of ascending immortals after death.
It can be said that the idea of becoming an immortal after death is nothing more than a kind of self-deception. The so-called becoming an immortal is just a beautiful dream of yellow millet that does not want to wake up. After death, Chengxian is more like a sustenance, pinning on his good wishes to stay in the red dust world forever.
Photo|Xu Fu
In essence, the early development of immortal thought was uneven. Many immortal ideas and their implementation methods have risen and developed in popularity, all within the scope of the six Kanto countries.
Even when Qin Shi Huang completed the great unification, there was no immortal thought of his own in the territory of the Qin Kingdom. Therefore, the early Qin people's concept of ghosts and gods was still in the stage of immortality of the soul, and there was still a certain distance from the emergence of immortal thoughts.
This ideological imbalance made the Qin people still skeptical when they came into contact with ideas such as Chengxian at the beginning. Including Qin Shi Huang, they all had the same attitude. However, as time goes by, when you perceive that your life is getting shorter and shorter, the idea of pursuing immortality or even becoming an immortal will appear in your mind.
In fact, immortal immortals, in addition to the above two ways, there are two other ways are atrial technique and qi guidance. But the effect of the former is not immediate, and the latter is something that the first emperor cannot do, so he retreats to the second place, and has no choice but to become an immortal after death.
Photo|Qin Shi Huang
The emperor's pursuit of immortality and the reuse of fangshi also led to the political clamor of this idea, and this kind of thinking inevitably affected people's funeral concepts, and also played a certain role in enriching and prospering funeral culture.
In this period, the parallel development of immortal immortals and posthumous immortals can also be seen in the intersection and complexity of ideology and culture during the Qin Dynasty, and also reflects the life state and life will of people at that time, as well as the worries and anxieties about life.
But each has its own pursuit, and each has its own ideas. Without exception, since the death of the First Emperor, the masses of the people have realized that becoming an immortal is just a dream and cannot be realized.
The Qin people's expectation and imagination of eternal life are vividly expressed in the various explorations of becoming immortals. In fact, in the general ideological world of the Qin Dynasty, the original content of happiness in life was freedom and transcendence, but it gradually ceased to occupy the main position.
Figure|Immortal Island
The expectation of spiritual freedom and transcendence was embodied by the widespread belief in immortals and evolved into a form of physical freedom and transcendence. And the so-called physical freedom and transcendence, that is, the pursuit of eternal life.
The development of immortal beliefs is positioned in the pursuit of "immortality". People began to explore and pursue immortality, so as to consciously construct a variety of immortal formulas and immortal spells, which further promoted the prosperity of health culture inside, and indirectly led to the vigorous development of science and technology at that time, prompting the belief in immortals to gradually turn to religious development, and finally formed early Taoism.
epilogue
Today, of course, we understand that the so-called becoming an immortal is just a beautiful dream, just existing in the illusion. But the ancients at that time did not even explore the world clearly, let alone understand the current science. The reason why they make this false pursuit is to escape worldly suffering and pursue spiritual and physical liberation.
Of course, people's attitude to life and the prevailing atmosphere in society are actually closely related to the current society, politics and economy. For the Qin people, only this belief in becoming immortals can support them to walk through a dark life and overcome all kinds of hardships in life.
Figure|Qigong
Furthermore, after learning that becoming an immortal was hopeless, people did not give up this pursuit, and still actively sought ways to prolong life, which made the health preservation technique greatly developed. Although health preservation is a product of immortal seeking activities, health preservation and immortal becoming immortals are complementary existences, and it also reflects people's helplessness.
Therefore, the tomb culture formed behind the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in pursuit of becoming an immortal is not only a cultural style and national spirit, but also a rhythmic feature of that era, with extremely high artistic value, aesthetic value and cultural value.
For contemporary times, it is a kind of material cultural remains, which provides us with living materials for studying the history of that time, and has more archaeological value.
bibliography
"History"
"Holding Puzi"
《Zuo Chuan》