When I was a child, I followed the adults to the funeral in the village, especially when it came to the funeral, I would see several strong men of five or three thick, carrying a coffin, shouting slogans, and carefully putting the coffin into the planed pit.
At that time, a "curious but afraid to ask" question appeared in the head, why are the two ends of the coffin one high and one low, one big and one small? What is the special meaning hidden behind this design?
Later, when I grew up, I took the time to read the information, and I really found that the design of the coffin was actually very mysterious. Behind this lies a lot of meticulous thinking and great wisdom of the ancients.
Why is one big and one small, one high and one low?
Legend has it that the coffin was invented by the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan. The book "Yi" once recorded, "The creation of the coffin began with the emperor. ”
However, according to archaeological discoveries in 1952, the coffins unearthed at the Banpo site in Xi'an date back to 4800 BC. In other words, the coffin appeared 2,000 years earlier than Huangdi Xuanyuan.
In primitive times, after people died, the living would dig a large earthen pit in the ground, put the deceased in a coffin, and then bury it in the pit, so as not to be eaten by wild beasts and jackals to gnaw the bones of the dead, and also to prevent the body from deforming due to rain.
It can be seen that the invention of the coffin represents a kind of protection and respect for the deceased by the living. In addition, people often say that "seeing the coffin makes a fortune, it is auspicious", which makes the coffin, an originally obscure thing, have a certain auspicious meaning.
So, what did the coffin look like initially? And why did it evolve into the shape it is today?
In fact, in the primitive society period, human intelligence was not fully civilized, and the ancestor only instinctively broke a few logs from the tree and covered the dead man's body to protect his body from being eaten by wild beasts.
Later, human civilization continued to develop and entered the feudal period. For the shape of the coffin, the choice of material, have paid more attention. For example, wealthy people will use good pine wood and nanmu, and the carved patterns are more exquisite.
However, whether it is a delicate coffin of gold silk nan wood or an earthen coffin made of wooden planks for the poor's family, without exception, they all adhere to the same shape. This design is actually influenced by the Taoist idea of harmonizing yin and yang.
One big and one small, pay attention to the harmony of yin and yang
Taoism has always emphasized the harmony of yin and yang, everything is mutually exclusive, and at the same time they all abide by the way of yin and yang, in order to achieve a complete and long-term state, even the coffin after death must pay attention to the balance of yin and yang.
In each coffin, the big one represents "yang" and the small one means "yin". One big and one small just represent the two poles of yin and yang, and once yin and yang reach balance, they can play a role in dispelling evil charms and conforming to the way of heaven.
The ancients firmly believed that such a balance would allow the deceased to be blessed on the other side of the world, able to continue walking in a dimension of yin and yang harmony, and more smoothly escape into the path of reincarnation.
Perhaps in the eyes of our modern people, such a design is somewhat "superstitious" and even nonsensical. But it is undeniable that yin and yang represent the laws of the ancients to understand the world, but this tiny design has been passed down for thousands of years, and there must be a certain deep belief in life and death behind the Chinese people.
In addition to the design of a large and a small one, the placement and sacrifice of the coffin are also quite exquisite. Just as ancient royal palaces paid attention to sitting north facing south, the "house" where people lived, that is, coffins, should also sit north facing south.
Specifically, the big end faces north and the small end faces south. When kneeling and praying, people must face north, and must not reverse the direction, otherwise they will commit the yin and yang taboo.
Knowing the reason for a large and a small, what is the design of the coffin high and low?
One high and one low to prevent soaking rot
In fact, this point is due to a very simple design. Primitive societies and ancient times followed burial, and if the coffin was designed as a regular quadrangular with a flat top, then a little rain would accumulate on it.
Over time, the coffin is easy to decay and rot, and the body of the deceased in the coffin is also easy to rot and smell, which is naturally disrespectful to the deceased.
The ancients believed that putting soil on the coffin would allow the deceased to rest in peace, and the accumulation of rainwater would disturb the souls of the deceased. In this way, the design of the coffin can easily be changed to a high and low slope design. In this way, even if rain falls, it will slide down with gravity.
From the cultural interpretation of the ancients, rainwater flowing down the slope is like the sun pouring down, which is an auspicious meaning.
In addition, when the coffin is buried deep in the ground, a large amount of water vapor will accumulate. The design of just one high and one low expands the space and allows water vapor to flow out through the inclined gap in the coffin.
This design alone can keep the coffin dry, and I have to say that the ancients really spent a lot of effort in designing the coffin, and they really hid a lot of careful thought!
From anthropomorphological considerations
Such a high, low, and large design is also crooked, which is in line with the consideration of human morphology.
Whether male or female, or old, our human body is generally wider in the upper body and relatively thin in the lower body. Therefore, the coffin designed for the two angles of yin and yang and preservation can just allow the upper body of the deceased to be placed at the end of the larger space, and correspondingly, the lower body is placed at the end of the smaller space.
When the last side of the relatives saying goodbye before the coffin is dropped, the peace of the deceased can also be visually felt, as if he just "slept" peacefully in the coffin. After seeing the last glance, my heart also left a trace of comfort for the living.
From the cultural meaning, if it is a boxy cuboid, if you put people in, it will become a "prisoner", which is interpreted as locking the deceased in a "closed hell", and relatives will never accept it.
There is also a particularly interesting idiom, "three long and two short", which is actually related to the design of the coffin.
"Three long" refers to the three longer wooden boards on the left, right and bottom of the coffin, and "two short" refers to the wooden boards with smaller seals at both ends. Therefore, people often use "if you have any three long and two short, I will not live" to describe misfortune and accidents, in fact, from the structural point of view, it refers to people lying in coffins.
Plus that wooden board above the coffin, why not "four long and two short"?
This is because the board above has not yet been covered, which means that people have to see their relatives for the last time before they die. It can be seen that the ancients not only were ingenious in the design of the coffin, but also matched with the matching idioms, which were really full of wisdom.
After understanding the design behind the coffin in this way, I experienced the beautiful meaning of the ancients' sustenance on the way of yin and yang of the deceased, and it seems that I no longer feel that the coffin is a gloomy thing. After all, people have death and life, and before they are born, they are also in a kind of "nothing" existence, and it is only a very short thing to complete this life through the world.
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